Hellbound With You

Heavy rain suddenly poured down as soon as midnight struck. Lightning flashing, thunder that continuously boomed and violent winds came as though the god of storm himself was visiting the castle, just without warning. It all came so suddenly that even a passerby would know that this violent thunderstorm was no normal occurrence of nature. It was clear that there was something more to it. Something supernatural.

The now empty castle looked extremely eerie as it stood there in the midst of a violent storm. Wisps of something dark also could be seen lingering all over the structure, very similar to snakes slithering around, in search of something.

In the dungeon, the atmosphere had already become suffocating. The air itself was pulsing with dark energy. It was normally dry and cool down in the dungeon, but now, everyone could feel that it was dense and laced with a smoky quality that irritated their noses.

An inky dark smoke swirled around the edge of the circle where Zeke and Alicia stood in, creating a wall of smoke that seemed to have a life of their own.

In the other circle created by Zeres, silver lights had also swirled around the lines. It was a seemingly perfect show of light and darkness. But tonight, the darkness seemed to be by far, stronger and more powerful than the light. The darkness was so deep and impenetrable that the light was threatened to be swallowed up by it. It was definitely more dominant. And violent beyond compare.

The darkness was getting more and more intense, the longer the ritual continued. Waves of darkness kept swirling, shifting, and thickening, especially within the confines of the dungeon where it seemed to be the source of it. The men outside the circle, including Zeres who was within the circle of light, could not even see the through the circle of darkness anymore.

Whatever that was happening on the inside, they no longer know. They were only capable of standing there, rooted to the spot and holding onto their breaths as every one of them desperately hoped that the couple was doing alright.

They shifted their gazes to Zeres who was still visible in his circle of light and saw him slice his palm, allowing his blood to drip in the center of his circle. Then the silver lights brightened until it became blinding.

Within the dark circle, there was also something that was happening. Alicia's body began to glow with a silvery shimmer. Even though it was only a small glimmer compared to the deep darkness that surrounded them, it was still enough to cast light and return sight to the two people who were within that dark circle.

But she could not be bothered about that right now. In fact, she hardly even noticed it.

All her attention was on her husband who was now kneeling on the ground right before her. She could feel his strength dwindling rapidly, like someone was forcefully pulling it all out of him. She did not even need their connection to tell that this loss of power was too rapid and too abnormal.

"Ezekiel!!!" she could no longer help but cry out, her voice trembling as she tried to hold back her emotions from overwhelming her. Fear and worry had been strangling her since he had collapsed to his knees a few minutes ago. "Please… what's happening?"

She wanted to hug and hold him in her arms, but Zeke was tightly holding onto both her hands, not allowing her to do anything rash. He was holding her hands as though he was holding onto his lifeline and that made Alicia scared to pull her hands out of his.

"Ezekiel! Can you hear me? Please, say something!" she cried. He finally opened his eyes at the panicked tone in her voice. His other eye was completely black now. Not even the whites are showing.

"Ezekiel!" Alicia panted when he suddenly flashed her a devastating smile, causing Alicia to be unable to decide whether to cry or yell at him. She was glad that he could still respond to her calls. But looking at the state he was in, and his eye color only brought on more trepidation to her.

"I'm fine, Alicia." Zeke tried to reassure her.

"You're scaring me." Alicia whispered out shakily. She did not want to worry him more when he already had so much to deal with. But she could not help but express herself to him.

"I know… and I'm sorry for that. But this must happen. I need to weaken to this degree… More actually." He reached out and gently caressed her face. His thumb rubbing little circles into her cheek so gently. "It's time for you to complete the ritual Zeres had started, Alicia. You need to bite me and take in as much blood from me as possible. Remember, don't stop until my other eye turns completely black too."

Alicia wanted to protest. She did not know she needed to draw blood from her husband. She did not want to. Not when he was already so weak like this! If she further drained his blood, would he not then be weakened to the point of being unable to fight back if anything went wrong?

But she also immediately understood that this might be the sacrifice needed to fully bring her back to life. Though Zeres and Ezekiel never told her any details of the spell that Zeres had found in that book, Alicia already knew there would need to be something precious they had to offer up as sacrifice. That was the way the spell would work. She understood this better than others. How could she not? As the previous witch queen, she dealt with so many spells before. Thus, could it be Ezekiel's…

Her breath hitched as her eyes reflected their anxiety and worry.

"It's alright, Alicia." Ezekiel muttered lowly. His voice was soothing as he flashed her another reassuring smile. "Don't worry… because I needed this too. In fact, I believe this is meant to happen because I would need someone to draw blood from me right now. I had initially planned to have Alex do it for me or if he refused, I would just make myself bleed. But now the plan has changed, so I need you to do it. For yourself and for me, Alicia."

Again, Alicia could do nothing but to obediently follow his instructions. She could feel him begging her to just cooperate. She could feel the urgency in his eyes even when he explained it to her so patiently. She could feel he was chasing time and that he was dying for her to just do it and to just trust in him.

Her entire being was reluctant even as she moved closer and opened her mouth to expose her fangs. And when she did bite down, her tears quietly fell without her even knowing.