Hellbound With You (WN)

The taxi arrived at a building that was still under construction right in the heart of the city. The road was barricaded and there was a huge notice indicating that the construction was suspended for the next five days.

Once the taxi driver ensured that Alicia got off fine and confirmed the destination was the correct one, he drove off, leaving Alicia to stare at the dark and eerie place ahead of her. The place looked desolate and was deafeningly quiet.

Using the remaining bit of power left in her, Alicia did not waste a single moment and made herself disappear from the dark roadside. When she materialized again, she was already inside the building she was just looking up at a moment ago. She did just as what Ezekiel had instructed her to do, and it appeared that the vampire prince was right – as usual – that the undead vampires were all at the entrance preparing to attack any vampire that arrives at their doorstep.

Their defenses were solely made specifically to go against vampires, thus Alicia found that she easily entered their headquarters without having anyone notice her presence.

The inside of the place was even quieter. Just like what Ezekiel said, the undead vampires were indeed like puppets who remained still as statues, just waiting for orders. They will not make any move, nor noises without any command, as if they were programmed. The only way they would move on their own was if the situation developed according to an instruction given earlier to them.

Since Zeres never was in the habit of using crystal balls, it was not possible for him to see her. And Ezekiel said that the other witches were too busy creating more undead vampires, so it was unlikely for anyone to have anticipated or already seen her arrival.

Quietly, Alicia looked around the lightless building as fast as she could. She needed to find where Zeres was before any witches notice her. Where was he?

Because Alicia had already lost too much power, she could not even sense Zeres ’ or any witches ’ presence around. So, all she could do was wander and check all places, hoping she could find Zeres. She thought that maybe, he would be found inside a room, alone, somewhere in this place. Her guts told her that he was probably at the highest floor, so she planned to materialize there. But her power was too weak to bring her up there and it only managed to transport her three floors below where she had aimed.