Hellbound Heart

"Daddy!!!" Alice jumped into her father's arms as soon as Alexander walked through the door. "How is Azy? Is he alright now?"

Alexander patted his daughter's head gently before smiling and answering her. "Yes, he's doing good now."

Elle breathed out in relief when the door was pushed open again. Seeing Sebastian, Elle moved to approach him. He looked a little disheveled. Though his expression was still stony, Elle could somehow feel that the entire night had been really rough on him, mostly perhaps, mentally.

"Your mom has to stay back with them so she won't be back here yet." Alexander explained to his kids. And like last night, the kids simply nodded in understanding. Elle was still amazed at how mature and understanding the twins were about everything that was going on. It was as though this was no longer new to them.

Elle's heart ached for the poor boy at the realization that Azy must be going through that more often than she had imagined.

After their breakfast, Elle and Sebastian were left alone together in the kitchen.

"Sorry. But I think we need to extend our stay here, Izabelle." Sebastian told her.

Elle immediately nodded, understanding that even though Alexander said Azy was fine now, she realized that the situation was still tense. There must be something that still was not quite resolved. For the fact that Abi was still over there, Elle could have guessed things had not quite settled just yet with Azy.

"I understand," Elle replied, her gaze studying Sebastian's face the entire time. "Are you... okay?"

He stared back at her and their gazes held for a moment. "I'm fine. It's Azy and Ali..." he shut his eyes and his expression hardened. "They're not really fine yet... I never thought that their situation had become this bad."

,m Elle looked at his clenched fists and protruding veins on it. She could see how much he was affected by what he had seen over there and was trying hard to hold back his emotions. Slowly, Elle reached out, placing her hand comfortingly over his before giving it a gentle squeeze, letting him know without words that she would be there for him and would support him. He stilled and took a sharp breath as his eyes dropped to her hand that was placed over his. Maybe because they were now alone, but Sebastian's stony mask had melted a little. And when he lifted his eyes to hers, she saw raw worry and anger and guilt flashing in his eyes.

"I'm going to go back there in a little while..." he continued. "...but sorry that I have to leave you to stay back here with the kids. It's dangerous for you to be there." Sebastian explained patiently to her.

Looking at him with understanding gaze, Elle quietly nodded.

...

"I hope you explained things clearly to your wife, Sebastian." Alexander told Sebastian as the two of them stepped out of the house. "Did you tell her about Azy and Alicia's situation?"

"I told her they're not fine yet."

"That's all?" Alexander creased his brows.

"You're not going to tell me to tell her everything that's going on right now are you, Alexander? She just found out that she was married to a vampire and living with vampires right now. I can't bombard her with all this information at one go." Sebastian sounded a little agitated as he replied to Alex.

Alexander stared at him before eventually sighing. "Well, if that's your decision..." he gave in and Sebastian finally left for the Black Forest. Alex could only shake his head as he watched Sebastian's figure sped off until it was out of sight.

Going back inside the house, Alex saw that Elle and Alice had gone into the backyard, taking up the chore of watering the garden together. Alex had refrained from sticking his nose too much into the relationship between Sebastian and Izabelle. Abi had spoken to him in quiet whispers last night about the two and the possible issues that they might be having. She had urged him to speak to Sebastian and tell him to sort things out with his wife quickly before more damage is dealt to their relationship. But Alex personally did not think that it was good for him or anyone else to keep doing something for Sebastian to realize something. He wanted Sebastian to work on his own relationship with his wife himself. Though he knew the guy needed some help and a little prodding at times, Alex understood his circumstances and he still believed that it was better not to do anything sometimes.

"Izabelle." Alex approached them. "If you want to go out and do something, you can tell me. I'll arrange a security personnel for you. I know it will be tedious for you to just stay cooped up in the house like this. Ah, I think you might be interested in visiting the town's library. I personally know the librarian there, so I can ask her to give you some restricted books if you want to learn and know more about us and this entire country." Alex generously offered her.

Elle's eyes immediately shone with interest. So even when Alex saw hesitation in her eyes, he knew she was dying to go.

"It's fine. You don't need to be guilty or anything. Azy and Alicia are doing much better than last night." Alex assured her. "Now if you desire to go, I'm headed into town for some errands. I can drop you there as it is on the way."

"I'll go." She finally answered and soon, the two of them stepped out of the house.

"Ah, by the way. I'm assigning a guard to be with you at all times. I hope you understand –"

"No, no, don't worry. I'm totally fine with it, Alexander."

Alex nodded, pleased at how efficiently adaptive Izabelle was with everything so far.

As the two headed into a car, someone came out of the driver's seat and went to open the passenger's side.

Elle blinked at the sight of that... gold hair...

"This is Caelian, Izabelle. He's going to be your guard." Alexander introduced.