Alicia laid there as silence reigned in the dim room. Her eyes were staring at his back, at his shiny, raven-black hair.

Questions filled her head, but she could only shut her lips tight. He did not even reply to her earlier question yet and she had feeling that he would ignore it and not say anything.

Still, she waited for a little longer, unwilling to fill the silence between them. She wanted to see how long was it that he could keep silent.

A sudden strong urge to know everything about him bloomed within her heart right at that moment. She badly wanted to know the answer to her question. But it was not just that… she wanted to discover more about this ever so enigmatic man. Even from before, she had always been curious about him and his poker face that never seemed to be able to be broken.

She wanted to tear all his walls down and see what really lies deep within him.

But she could even go as far as to say that it most probably be close to impossible for that to happen. Perhaps, no one in this world might ever bring those impenetrable walls down.

He rose. For a while, the calmness around him seemed to have been disrupted. He pulled slightly irritably at his black tie and hurled it to the side table when something vibrated. A phone inside is pocket was the source of that disturbance.

When he answered it, Alicia pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"What is it." he asked in an emotionless tone.

Alicia could not hear what the other person on the other side of the phone was saying because Ezekiel had used a Bluetooth earpiece to speak to the caller. However, she could tell that whatever that was reported to him must have been some kind of bad news just judging by the air that had changed around him. The temperature inside the room seemed to plummet into the negatives. Even she shivered at the sudden drop.

His grip on her tightened a little. Then without a word, he pressed the red button and ended the call.

No word came out from his lips anymore even as he pulled Alicia up from the bed. Alicia could not speak now as she felt that disconcerting dark power began to seep out from his body. He bit on the tip of his gloved finger and pulled his black glove off.

The black glove fell to the floor as he stretched out his bare hand forward. She watched as a wisp of dark smoke appeared inches away from his palm, swirling and turning as it grew bigger until a vortex appeared before them.

No words were needed for Alicia to tell that something serious had just happened. The fact that this man was using his demonic magic to teleport was enough to say a lot without telling her a thing. Because she knew Ezekiel had never used this means of teleportation for hundreds of years now. He had been hiding his demonic powers and acting like a pure blooded vampire all these times. At least until now.

Thus, whatever prompted this man to use this power of his at this moment… Alicia could not help but feel a strong unease filling her.

"Cling to me." His tone sounded like an order.

"What?"

"If you don't, you will feel like you are being thrown into a furnace." He warned her.

Alicia swallowed and threw him a look that was a little skeptical. Her short pause seemed to be enough to wear his patience thin and he pulled her against him immediately without waiting for her permission.

"You –" Alicia could not even finish her retort and the vortex had already swallowed them both.

It was like she was suddenly inside a bottomless pit of darkness, then she yelped due to a sudden pain. She felt like there was fire on her feet, about to burn her to death!

"Ezekiel!" she screamed in panic as she desperately clung onto something solid and cold.

She was about to spit out a spell when the darkness seemed to have suddenly dissolved. The fire was suddenly gone, and they appeared inside a room.

Alicia panted from the threat of being burned by fire, beads of sweat clinging to her forehead as she looked up at him.

"Goodness! What was that?!" she blurted out, wide-eyed. "Did we just pass over the lake of fire in hell or something?"

"No, we only teleported." He answered, his speech faster than usual. Then he moved with haste and grabbed at a cloak. "Also, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but you need to get off me and wear this. There's an important matter I need to deal with this instant." It was the first time Alicia saw him behave this way. He was speaking to her without looking at her and doing other things on the side.

Belatedly, Alicia realized that she was clinging onto him like a koala. Her legs were wrapped tightly around his waist and…

Her cheeks flared and she jumped off him in an instant.

Before she could even open her mouth to speak and blurt out an excuse, he had already draped the cloak he had grabbed earlier over her. His other bare hand then moved to the nape of her neck, jolting Alicia's nerves, before letting go of her wrist.

"Make haste, Alicia." He urged her uncharacteristically and she could only do as he says, wanting him to take his burning hand off her nape. That was an exceptionally sensitive area for her, and she kept feeling goosebumps spreading over her skin.

The moment she was done, he pulled her hood down, grabbed her wrist again and pulled her out from the room.

Alicia did not even have a moment to mull over the way he was handling her because she suddenly realized that she was now in the Reigns castle.. They had teleported all the way here! What could be the problem? Did someone attack the vampire's kingdom? But who would dare do that? Or could it be family matters? All these thoughts rushed through her mind as she was dragged by Ezekiel by her wrist.