Hellbound Heart

"No!!!" Elle's scream rang in the darkness as she watched Sebastian get stabbed in the neck with the syringe.

And before she knew it, she was rushing towards her husband, totally forgetting about the threat to her safety. Her mind had completely disregarded her own life, only wanting to get to Sebastian as fast as she could. She pushed the stranger out of her way. Her strength did not do much, but the man had his eyes widening at her fearless action.

"Sebastian!" Elle caught Sebastian as his body became limp. "Sebastian!" She slowly slid down to the ground as her smaller body could not handle his large and heavy one.

Kneeling on the ground, Elle held him protectively against her as her arms wrapped around him. He was panting and groaning even as he rested his head on her shoulder. And she could feel him suddenly burning up. The heat coming from him was so extreme that she could even feel it radiating through his clothes.

Her heartbeat raced so hard with worry. She had heard it was a potent sleeping pill. So why did Sebastian seem as though he was in pain and burning instead of just getting drowsy?

She glanced up at the stranger now looking down at them. Her eyes were filled with spite.

"What did you do my husband?!" she hissed at him angrily, unable to control her emotions at all anymore.

"Whoah! Princess... easy there. Don't look at me like I've beaten up the prince to death. I only injected something into him, okay?" the stranger said, holding both hands up to her in surrender.

Her jaws clenched, her eyes sharpening as she gave him the look that could only be described as the one that means, 'if looks could kill'.

"It's just a sleeping pill, Princess. Don't worry and just chill out. But of course, it would be very hard to take the prince down with just a pure sleeping pill so there's some additional stuff in there to immediately immobilize a man like him. But again, worry not princess, that's never enough to even endanger his life a little. Believe me." The stranger continued explaining rather nonchalantly.

Elle was a little relieved hearing what the man said, but she knew better than to just trust anyone's word right now. Especially this man who had just stabbed her husband right in the neck.

"He's telling the truth." A familiar voice echoed. A dark and beautiful voice that had her gooseflesh crawling over her skin.

Whipping her head towards the source of the voice, she saw him standing there ever so leisurely, one hand still shoved into his pocket. Elijah! What was he even doing here?!

She still could not quite see his face as the light coming from their wrecked car was behind him. But she could never mistake this man's voice and that presence.

"Hello, Sunshine." He greeted in a sultry and relaxed voice.

Elle gritted her teeth, not happy to see him in the least despite him being Sebastian's brother.

"So, it's you again." She did not hide the hatred in her voice. "Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to your own brother?!" her tone grew even more aggressive and furious as she spoke.

He seemed to take a deep sigh before he approached closer. And as he did, Elle held Sebastian tighter against her, wrapping her arms around him like she was terrified that Elijah would snatch Sebastian away from her.

"Wow..." Elijah sounded amused and amazed. "What a protective princess you are. As expected of you, Sunshine." He sounded as though his praise was genuine. But Elle would never believe anything from this man ever again. "I wonder though... if you'd still be this protective of Sebastian once you learn what kind of being he truly is... what kind of insanity had he committed... and what kind of secrets he's been hiding. I honestly can't wait to find out..."

"You didn't answer any of my questions." Elle bravely retorted, as though she did not hear a single word of what Elijah had just said. Her eyes were gleaming with so much intensity in the dark as she trained her hostile gaze on Elijah. Sebastian had stopped groaning. He was only panting now and she knew that he was starting to lose consciousness. "Answer me, Prince Elijah –"

"First things first..." Elijah cut her off, squatting down right before her and then stretching his hand towards her. A white handkerchief was offered, dangling from his fingers. "Wipe off that blood on your neck. I don't drink directly from non-vampires but I might end up breaking my own rules and taste that intoxicating blood of yours..." his eyes were intently looking at her bloodied neck as though he wanted to lick it.

He trailed off when Elle snatched the handkerchief from his hand and immediately and harshly wiped the blood off her neck.

"It seems that Sebastian has already told you something about your blood." He said as he stretched his hand at her again, this time palms facing towards as he silently asked for the handkerchief.

Elle reluctantly gave it back to him and then she watched him set the handkerchief on fire. "We need to get rid of your tempting scent, or my men might lose their wits and launch themselves at you. They are trained, but it is your one-of-a-kind blood we're talking about here."

He threw the burning handkerchief away behind him and Elle returned her gaze to him. She was not able to see his face clearly again as her eyes were focused on the handkerchief when he lit his lighter up.

"Speaking about your blood..." he continued. "Did you know that there's a very interesting reason why Sebastian is refusing to drink your blood, Sunshine? And no, it's not because he's afraid to endanger your life or anything like that. There's a completely different reason why and I know he'd never told you about it. Do you want to know what is it, hmm? Princess Elle?"