Hellbound Heart

Being stopped in his tracks at her unexpected action, Sebastian turned around. Izabelle was not looking at him. She was staring down at her lap as she gripped two of his fingers.

Thinking that she was just probably a little scared of being left behind, Sebastian bent and cradled her face with his large palm. His action pulled her face up to look at him.

"I'll have Lucas be on standby by the door. I'll be back in a couple of minutes." He told her with assurance. Her grip on his fingers loosened and her hand dropped to her lap. But she did not look at him again.

Sebastian's brows creased slightly at her reaction. However, he really needed to feed now. He could not be with her when he was starving like this. Warning bells had already been ringing since he was sniffing her a while ago. So, he had better go first and deal with his needs.

Staring at her for a moment, he kissed the crown of her head and then strode towards the door.

He turned to look over his shoulder as he grabbed the door knob, expecting her to already be looking at him. But she remained in her earlier pose, head bent down as though dejected, and... his eyes narrowed as he saw how hard she was gripping the blanket that had draped over her side.

His superior vision did not miss even the pale paper-white color of her clenching knuckles. That sight was enough to make him let go of the door knob and turn around. He quickly made his way back into the room.

Grabbing the notebook and pen that had been thrown on the couch, Sebastian then returned to her side. He squatted before her as he placed the notebook on her lap.

"What is it?" he asked. His voice remained calm but there was a tinge of worry in his eyes. "Iza... look at me. Are you feeling uncomfortable? Or is there something wrong?"

Her eyes wandered, still refusing to look directly at him.

"Izabelle..." he uttered her name again. "Look at me and tell me what's wrong or I'll call the doctor back here this instant."

Finally, she looked at him as her mouth flew open. But before any words could come out, she quickly looked down again and gripped the pen. She remembered his warning of not wanting her to use her voice.

While she was writing, Sebastian remained staring at her face. What did he just see? That look in her eyes...

She lifted the notebook right before his face. Her expression was hard, but her eyes were gleaming with intense emotions that were almost overflowing from her not being able to voice them all out.. 'Are you going to go and drink from her?'

He parted his lips to answer but shut it close again. Something was stopping him from just carelessly spouting his answer. He had decided to try giving her answers, to explain anything she wanted to know. But this one question... he did not know why, but he suddenly felt like he needed to be extra careful before saying anything to her. It was a strange but insistent feeling that was getting stronger within him. But he wondered if it was because of the look that he did not expect to be seeing in her eyes right now. She looked... hurt?

"Izabelle..." he uttered, trying his best to observe her every expression, his eyes never leaving her face. The last thing he had wanted at this moment was to do or spout anything that would upset or worse, hurt her even more than she had already been hurt. He had been trying his best to avoid that as he knew he always somehow could not do or say anything right whenever he was with her.

And it seemed that it was happening again. It looks like he had somehow said or done something that was making her show that distressed and wounded look on her face again.

"You... Earlier, you had said most don't find it morally acceptable for a vampire to drink from another of the opposite sex if they're already married..." She whispered.

A long heavy silence reigned between them until Sebastian spoke. "You're not a vampire, Iza... So even if you're my wife, I can't just bite you and drink your blood." He shook his head slowly as he said that. "Vampires can replenish their lost blood quite easily by feeding themselves immediately as well. Non-vampires can't do that... and that's why it is always more dangerous to drink from them." He tried to explain as gently to her as possible, wanting her to understand where he was coming from.

"So, because your wife is not a vampire, it's morally acceptable for you to... drink from another female?" her whisper was so broken and she clenched her fist tightly, before looking away from him again. And he could somehow tell she was looking away like this to hide the look in her eyes.

But Sebastian had already seen her eyes sparkling with unshed tears before she had turned away, the subtle trembling movement of her lips as she nibbled on the inside of her lip, and heard the sound of her racing heartbeat... everything. He knew things were going down south again.

He helplessly ran his fingers through his hair slowly. He was so afraid to f**k up even more now that he could not find any comforting words to say to her. The feeling that whatever he will say would only make things worse was getting the better of him. Now he did not know what to do, what to say at all.

It was Elle who broke the silence this time. A bitter smile tugging up at the corner of her lips as she spoke, her tone held a trace of a sneer. "I guess it would be morally acceptable if I go and put my mouth on another man's neck too, right, Sebastian?"