Hellbound Heart

Later, while Elle was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, she could not stop thinking about what just happened between Sebastian and herself. Everything that he did, his attentiveness, his gentleness, and his every action the entire time he was feeding her. Each of them just felt so surreal.

Elle never imagined a time when the two of them would ever have such a heart-melting experience. It was so dreamy that she was having a hard time believing that it was not a dream. And that Sebastian who was with her at this moment was the real one.

Unconsciously, a wide smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she pictured his face while he was feeding her earlier.

But when she caught how happy and touched she looked through the mirror, Elle's smile slowly faded. A negative emotion started to creep within her, warning her that she should not be too happy.

Elle stared at herself for a long while and she decided to listen to that pessimistic side of her. The fear that something bad would happen if she becomes too happy quickly got the better of her. What happened lately after her happiest moments all throughout that festival and the things that had happened next made her feel afraid to allow herself to be happy again.

A soft knock echoed, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Izabelle? I'm coming in..." Sebastian's voice echoed, causing her to widen her eyes. She was still not done brushing her teeth! But she would rather not be seen by him having a mouthful of white foam and embarrassing herself. Thus, she immediately proceeded to spit out the foam and gargle her mouth with water to clear out the residual foam from the toothpaste. However, her human self apparently was not quick enough compared to his vampire self.

By the time she turned around, he was already inside.

Leaning against the door, he asked, "Are you going to take a bath? I will assist you."

Elle's eyes stretched a little wide. She opened her mouth to decline but he was suddenly before her. His thumb was already over her lips. Lord... he was displaying all his vampiric ability right before her now without any reservation!

"It seems that I really need to stick with you every single second because you're terrible at abiding by rules, Izabelle." He said and Elle wished that he would stop pitching his voice so low like that. It made her feel like he was trying to seduce her every time!

His thumb brushed at the corners of her lips as if to remove something on it. He had already done this a few times while he was feeding her a while ago and every time, she caught herself staring back at his lips. She just could not help it. Him, touching her lips so sensually like that was really tempting her. His touches were making her imagine how it would feel if it was not his thumb that was touching her, but his... lips.

She forced herself to look away, afraid that she would end up stealing a kiss from him. She really needed to tell him to stop touching her lips like this.

"Iza... are you listening to me?" his sinuous voice echoed. "What are you thinking about? No... don't answer that." He sighed, smiling a little. "The doctor said you need to have a walk under the morning sun as it will be good for you and aid in your healing. So, since you're already dressed, I'm bringing you out now while the sun is still not too warm."

Bending over, he looked up first and spoke. "Don't protest. I will put you down once we're in the garden." And then he proceeded to scoop her up, ignoring her parted lips as she wanted to say something.

In no time at all, they reached the garden and Sebastian kept to his word and put her down. They then began to walk quietly. Sebastian seemed to deliberately keep himself a step back behind her as they moved forward along the quiet, lovely garden. The sun was bright enough and only cast a light warmth over them as it was still morning time. Now Elle understood why there was almost no one around in the garden during daylight. They do have morning teas out here, but it was always arranged under the gazebo where there was shade.

Elle had wondered before why the tea table had not been located in a place where the nice morning sun could touch. Now she finally understood. Because the people in this castle were... all vampires.

The thought of that fact had Elle smiling slightly in disbelief. It all still felt surreal despite everything that she had already seen and experienced. And then she started to wonder what would happen if the world ended up finding out about this unbelievable secret. What will happen to the vampires? To this country? How will the entire world react once they find out that vampires really existed in this world?

Elle suddenly shivered as she hypothesized some possible answers to those questions.

Her hand was grabbed by a warmer and larger one, causing her to turn around.

"Are you alright?" he asked and the first thing Elle noticed was the sweat that was covering his temple. She had seen him wandering about during daylight but now that she thought about it, she realized that he had always been walking under some shade most of the time, hardly ever being exposed to the direct sun. "Your skin... it looked like you're cold, Iza." He continued.

Elle looked at her arm and saw that she was indeed having goosebumps. He had noticed that...?

She shook her head and smiled at him to tell him that she was alright. And then she reached out with her handkerchief and gently dabbed at his sweat while he turned very still, just staring at her face.

When their eyes met, Elle froze as well.

He lifted his hand and tucked a stray lock of her red hair behind her ear. "I had... prepared myself to be hated by you once you woke up... but here you are..." his throat worked a little before he gave a small quick smile, "...still treating me like I did nothing wrong at all."

Suddenly, he pulled her against him and buried his face into her hair. "I am relieved that you don't seem to hate me... yet. But... at least... get mad at me, Izabelle. Blame me... hurt me back... be mean to me, baby..."