Some time ago…

Since the moment Zeres left, Iryz began to moan in her sleep. She started having a nightmare the instant Zeres had put her to sleep with his spell.

For a long while, she continued tossing and turning about on her bed, moaning out some gibberish and sweating hard. After a few minutes of what seemed like an extreme and horrible nightmare, something like reddish smoke appeared all over her, enveloping her body. Then her nightmare somehow was stopped.

She then suddenly rose from her bed as if being jolted awake. Her eyes were opened, but they were fixed on a single spot, right in front of her. She climbed off the bed and started walking decisively, leaving her room and headed to a particular destination. Her eyeballs never moving from left to right at all and yet her feet did not stumble even as she walked down the stairs.

When she was out of the main door, Iryz halted for a while before her feet moved again, seemingly knowing where it should be taking her to. She walked straight ahead of the empty street as though she was following something or someone that was calling out for her.

Time ticked by and her small back could no longer be seen from the bookstore's main door. Zeres arrived after a few more minutes and searched for her quickly inside the house.

"Iryz?!" his voice echoed once again as he rushed outside the house and looked around, calling out to see if perhaps she was around.

He gritted his teeth as worry and anger flashed across his silver orbs. He could not help but think that someone might have taken her away and his blood boiled within his veins just by the thought of it. No! Over his dead body! That girl was his only hope in saving Alicia right now! She was the only lead he has in obtaining the spell to resurrecting Alicia! He would kill anyone who tries to take her away!

Not caring if someone sees him, Zeres uttered a spell to trace her scent. Unlike vampires who could trace someone's scent by smelling them, Zeres could trace someone just by using his eyes because he had the unique ability of being able to see someone's scent.

As soon as magic glowed in his eyes, he began to see remnants of something red lingering in the air. This meant that it had not been long since Iryz was gone!

Without wasting a second longer, Zeres followed the trail of the reddish thin wisp of smoke. He knew that this was definitely from Iryz. He moved as fast as he could, and to his relief, he managed to catch up to the girl faster than he had expected.

He saw her walking along the sidewalk, and he gritted his teeth in anger as he approached her, intending to give her a scolding for simply walking off without informing him or others about it. But he stopped three steps away from her at the realization that the way she walked was a little strange. It seemed as though she was not walking with consciousness.

Zeres narrowed his eyes. Suspicion overpowered the anger that rose within him, so he decided to follow after her in silence and to wait and see what she was up to. He was curious as to where she was headed at these wee hours of the morning.

Now he thought that she was confirming his suspicion right now, that she really was not a mere human. Otherwise, why would she be here, walking all alone along an empty street at 3 in the morning? It was not just that, but Zeres was also intrigued about that reddish glow she was exuding all around her body. This was not the usual scent he had associated with her. Her scent was usually transparent and bluish in colour.

And the strangest thing was that he just could not figure out what kind of spell was it that made this reddish wisp of smoke suddenly appear around her. Was this a spell he knows nothing about? But that was impossible. How could there be a spell existing in this world that he did not know?

His brows furrowed deeper, and he slowed down his pace, letting himself fall a few more steps behind her. He wanted to know what this girl was hiding from him. Whatever she is, he will be sure to find out tonight if that was the last thing he did.

Just as he thought about that, she crossed the road. Zeres' eyes widened as he saw a car fast approaching. He was about to jump forward to pull her back, but he restrained himself, thinking that if there was a possibility that she was a witch, she would definitely vanish from the spot to avoid getting hit.

But she did not do that. The car's tire screeched and at the very last millisecond, Zeres teleported and grabbed onto her. He materialized a bit farther from the scene to create an illusion that the driver had just seen a ghost passing across the street.

"Ze-Zeres?" her voice echoed out in a daze as Zeres looked back if the car had stopped. It did not, which was a relief.

He looked down at the little girl who was still lying in his arms and only saw utter confusion and questions in her eyes.

"What… is going on?" she looked around and her large eyes widened even more the moment she realized where they were. "Wait… am I dreaming?" It seemed as though she did not know that she had walked herself out this far from her home.

Zeres was speechless for a moment as he stared at her, scrutinizing her as though trying to decide if she was acting or it was real.

"You had sleep-walked and ended up here." he eventually said as way of explanation, and she gasped at him in shock?

"What?! R-really? All the way here? You're kidding right?!" though she said that, she could see from his face that he was not joking with her.

He put her down and when she winced in pain, they both looked at her feet. "Oh, I cut my feet." She muttered as she lifted her left feet and saw a small cut on her big toe.

Zeres' brows knitted.. It seemed that he was too busy being suspicious of her that he did not notice she had been walking the streets barefooted the whole time.