"I didn’t anticipate that answer from you. I thought you would try to talk me out of this." He kept stroking her hair.

"Unless and until it’s someone innocent, I don’t have a problem. I believe in getting rid of people who only want chaos. This world would be a better place with them gone." She replied too calmly and he just stared at her in awe.

"I like your mindset. Tell me more about yourself." They hardly knew much about each other, she intrigued him and he wanted to know everything that was to know about her. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"What you wanna know?" She was playing with her hair rolling a stray strand around her finger.

"Everything," he replied casually and she arched her eyebrows at him giving a side glance.

"Why don’t we play 10 questions? I ask you 10 questions and you get to ask me 10 in return. How does that sound? And no cheating or lying."

"Sounds good to me." Xiran’s interest spiked.

"You want to go first? Or should I?" She asked.

"Ask your questions, Aselia. I will go next." His hand was caressing her cheek now.

"Do you have wings or did I imagine them when you came to my rescue?" Her first question jolted him a bit, so she had seen them.

"I have wings," he replied calmly keeping eye contact with her.

"How? Vampires don’t have wings." She asked her second question.

"It’s because of my mother, she had them and I inherited them from her." He spoke lovingly about his mother.

"What was she? I have never seen any being with wings before except birds and angels. And later don’t visit our world."

"She wasn’t from our world, she came from far away and it was tragic she got stuck here and died. More tragic that she fell into the hands of my father." He seemed enraged talking about his father. She understood that was a raw nerve for him. She didn’t want to press him further, so she changed her questions.

"What’s your favourite colour?" He seemed relaxed at the question.

"Black and White, depending on my mood."

"Love or lust?" Her next question perplexed him again.

"It has been lust so far but I want to give love a try."

"Ahhh, so you did take my advice. Can’t wait to see whom you chose. It’s better not be Treia because you can do better than her." He stopped smiling at the mention of Treia.

"Treia is gone from my life and so has Maxile. I only have you now. Although once you are healed I would give you the same choice of leaving if you want to. I don’t want to keep anyone for simply blood and lust." He cupped her face in his hands at those words. His actions contradicted his words. In reality, he didn’t want her to ever leave him.

"What if I don’t want to leave?" She asked him quietly.

"Then you can stay with me as long as you want. I thought you would want to go, considering what happened. But the world out there is even more perilous, especially for elves."

"I want to stay until my contract expires. I signed it with my blood, I am not going back on it." She told him with determination.

"Aselia, if it’s only about the contract I can nullify it right now. I don’t want to bind you with me only for blood. I am not going to be drinking your blood anymore." She felt like he had slapped her with his words. If she couldn’t entice him with her blood anymore, she would lose the advantage and fail her mission.

"Why not?" She asked in a serious tone.

"Because you got hurt."

"You didn’t hurt me, why are you punishing yourself?"

"It was my lifestyle which landed you here in the first place. I am responsible for everything that happened to you." He was dead serious in his stance.

"We will see about that once I heal but I am not leaving you." Although he knew he was being utterly selfish right now, he was so relieved at her words. His heart felt an imminent joy at the ’I am not leaving you,’ part.

"Then don’t, call me selfish but I don’t really want to let you go." A small smile had crept back on his perfect lips.

"Next question, how many siblings do you have?"

"Just the one, you had the unfortunate luck of meeting." He replied in a cold voice.

"How old are you?"

"Counting the years, I am 65 years old. But vampires stop growing at a certain age which varies from vampire to vampire. I think I stopped growing somewhere between my late twenties to early thirties."

"You are an old man, I was right about you." She chuckled at him making him smile in the process.

"What’s the one quality you think you lack in yourself?" She asked another question.

"Self-control, I wish I had more of it."

"I think you have an immense amount of self-control. Considering you haven’t eaten God knows since when, and here I am casually laying in your lap and you have made no attempt to suck my blood." His hands tightened around her face just a little bit at those words.

"I care for you more than I care about drinking your blood. Why is this so hard for you to comprehend?" He spoke with intensity.

"The question is, WHY?" She replied lazily, observing him.

"Why what?" He glared at her with those sultry grey orbs.

"Why do you care about me if it’s not for my blood? I thought that is what you wanted most from me. What else makes you care for me?" He understood she was testing him right now. She was too smart and he seemed to have fallen right into her trap.

"Maybe I have begun to like you and test that love thing you keep mentioning on you. Wouldn’t that be nice considering how you want to stick around? I think you want to experience it as well." He tightened his grip around her face so she couldn’t avert her gaze from his, he wanted her to feel the intensity of what he was proposing to her.