Hellbound Heart

Elle kept on walking forward after that one short pause, while Caelian had let her go on alone with his coat.

And the instant she was within Sebastian's reach, he grabbed her and pulled her towards him, before snatching Caelian's coat off her.

"You're back?" Elle made a comment as she looked up at him, ignoring the heavy air around him and the unfriendly and warning glare that he was throwing at Caelian.

"Good evening, Your Highness." Caelian greeted. But Sebastian snubbed him, causing Elle to fall speechless. Lord... he was in such a bad mood...

Elle looked back, planning to give Caelian an apologetic gaze, but to her surprise, the man looked completely unbothered and unperturbed with the heavy pressure that Sebastian was throwing out. Caelian simply stood there like he had not noticed a single thing.

"Get inside, it's cold." Sebastian's grumpy voice echoed.

"Okay, let's go inside then :"

"No. I'm heading back over there once Alexander arrives. He's about to reach." Sebastian glanced down at his watch as he said that.

"Oh... I see..." Elle nodded in understanding and after sending her regards for the speedy recovery of Azy and Alicia, she proceeded to enter the door, leaving the two men outside.

Alexander appeared the moment the door was closed behind Elle.

"Did the Princess enjoy her day in the library?" Alex asked Caelian.

"I think so. I never saw anyone who could focus and read a book so intensely that she completely forgot about the time and everything else." Caelian reported to Alex, his tone rather fond as he chuckled in memory of how Elle had been poring over the books and had not once looked up to notice her surroundings.

Alex laughed. "That just sounds like what the diligent princess would do." He then patted Caelian shoulder in an aggressively playful manner. "You may head home for tonight, Cael."

Caelian nodded and then turned to face Sebastian, his eyes falling to his coat that was in the tight grip of the prince's hand.

"I'll pay for this coat. You can't have it back anymore." Sebastian replied in an emotionless tone. He did not care if he was being rude to Alexander's bodyguard.

The god of silence seemed to have passed by above the three of them for a moment. Caelian could barely stop himself from shaking his head. Damn... he should have known that this prince was fatally possessive of the princess! He had personally seen how dangerous he had become at the bar! Wait... did the prince actually recognize him from before? But he made sure to disappear from the princess' side as soon as he had spotted Prince Sebastian!

"Oh, you don't need to pay for it anymore, Your Highness. You can have the coat. Well then, I'll be off." Caelian immediately excused himself. He was aware that this prince was dangerous and... cruel. He had heard a lot about him, most especially five years ago and he knew what he heard were not exaggerated rumors. Because he had once seen it himself. His ruthlessness.

To Caelian, Prince Sebastian was much more dangerous compared to his older brother. Simply because this man right here did not care much about any consequence of his barbaric actions. Well, that was five years ago and so far, he had not heard any other news about him and his cruel antics the past five years now. Still, he was not interested in becoming a target of this dangerous and unpredictable prince's jealousy. He was quite surprised though. It was shocking because it seemed that this ice-hearted prince has a heart after all.

...

"I want you to assign another guard for my wife. I want a woman." Sebastian told Alex as soon as Caelian was gone.

Sighing, Alex raised a brow at him. "Caelian knows his place, Sebastian. He would never do anything stupid. That I can assure you. And there are no female guards who are as capable as him or even close to him in this town. And you know that."

"Then hire two female guards. Make it three if necessary." Sebastian grumbled, not wanting to give in.

"Fine." Alex gave in, sighing again. He knew that Sebastian would not give up until he got what he wanted. "Wait, you're leaving already?!"

"I already told her I'm going."

Alex facepalmed. "And? She didn't say anything? Like asked you to stay for the night or to stay for a while longer at least?"

Sebastian creased his brows, looking at Alexander like he did not understand what he was even talking about. "Iza understands the situation very well, Alexander." The way he said it even sounded a little proud as he thought that his wife was so understanding and accommodating to his matters.

Somehow, Alex wanted to scold and wring the hopeless neck of this infuriating and grumpy prince but he held back. Because Alex believes that with a man like Sebastian, it was better for him to learn his lesson the hard way before he could fully grasp and understand how things really were.

"Well, if you say so." Alex's gaze shifted to Caelian's coat that was still in his hand. "And what you're going to do with that coat? You are gripping at it like it committed some unforgivable crime against you."

"I'm going to burn this in the forest." Was all Sebastian said. However, Alex noted that his tone was extremely unpleasant when he said that. After saying that, then he was gone.

"Ah... that idiot." Alex sighed out heavily before shaking his head.

The next day, Alexander introduced two female guards to Elle.

Elle was surprised and was curious at why Caelian was replaced. But she did not bother to ask Alexander about it anymore.

She spent another fulfilling day in the library and then the next as well. She had learned a lot but she still felt like she was starving for more knowledge. Finding out that the vampires can actually talk to each other without saying a word as long as they were having eye contact, shocked and fascinated her. But the latest thing that had her mouth gaping was the fact that the vampires had existed as long as humans had. How was it possible that the world never found out about them, even with all these modern technologies?