(Warning: This Chapter contains violence which might be disturbing for some readers. Although this Chapter will show two different sides of Xiran.) 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"What type of question is that?" She asked him nervously.

"The type I want an answer to." His eyes bore into her with a passion, ready to consume that aquamarine ocean into his greyish pit.

"I don’t know." She blurted out.

"You don’t know or you don’t want to tell?" He wasn’t going to let this go so easily.

"I haven’t thought about it, it’s not on my agenda of now." She tried to escape his gaze which was making her utterly nervous but his both hands had jailed her face, making it an impossible task.

"Can you make it your agenda for a few seconds and answer me?" His voice had an edge of pleading in it.

What was love exactly? Care? Deep affections for someone? Heightened feelings? Elevated heart rates? Attachments? Jealousy? There were millions of definitions of love. What kind of love he wanted? She didn’t think she was the right person to give him what he desired. And, did he really desire her? Or was he just infatuated with her? Maybe he only wanted to tease her.

"I don’t think I can provide you with what you truly want from me." She finally replied.

"Hmm, and what do you think it is that I want from you? Keeping in mind that was not the question I asked." He watched her closely.

"Umm, intimacy." She didn’t want to use the ’S’ word.

"Right now I am not asking you for anything. I am just asking if you can fall in love with a cold-hearted vampire like me." Cold-hearted? She was more cold-hearted than he was. And yet he thought he was worst between the two?

"I am not sure." Her heart was so conflicted right now. She wanted to say no but at the same time, she didn’t want to see his solemn face. No matter how much her mind despised it, she liked it when he smiled. She had put him under a lot of stress lately and she didn’t want to displease him any further, at least not today.

"Aselia..." He wanted to say something...

"I am tired, let me sleep now." She pleaded. The light in his eyes dimmed and she knew he was utterly disappointed.

"Ok, but I won’t let this go. You will have to answer me one day." With these words he gently scooped her in his arms and laid her comfortably on the pillow, covering her body with the blanket, he gave her a light kiss on the forehead.

"Good night," she whispered before closing her eyes.

"Good night, Aselia." She felt his body closer to her but he didn’t touch her so she could sleep in peace. Soon both of them drifted off to sleep.

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In the next few days, Xiran and Rivan discovered the true identity of Agent 35. They had thoroughly checked all the people staying at the hotel since the party and only Agent 35 was the one still staying over. They were suspicious as they had seen him leave at the time of the attack on the Phantom Vampire and return an hour later.

They ran his background check and found some discrepancies in his data. So they decided to capture and interrogate him.

On the other hand, Agent 35 knew he had to safeguard Aselia at all costs. So after the last communication with her in which he had told her, there won’t be any further contact for a while. He destroyed the devices he used to contact her. Only keeping one device with him to contact the headquarters and his fake IDs.

It was nighttime when Carios and two more vampires barged into his room. He tried to fight them and brought one of them down but Carios was too fast for him. He was soon bound by ropes and taken to the secret torture room, specially designed by Xiran to deal with his enemies. They seated him on a chair, his eyes held hate and disgust for his captors instead of fear.

The door opened, and Xiran and Rivan walked in. Xiran stared at him for a while and then inquired from Carios: "What did you find?"

"We found a communication device and a lot of fake IDs. I think he has been using the device to contact his headquarters. IDs are all fake, so we don’t know his exact identity. He is not in the system." Carios explained.

"Hunters never are, their organisation keeps their identity a secret," Xiran replied stepping closer to Agent 35 and yanking his head up by grabbing his hair. He winced as his eyes connected with dangerous grey ones. Xiran opened his sleeve buttons and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms, as he spoke:

"I told your Head to keep the filth like you away from my city. It infuriates me when people can’t listen to my friendly advice. Because it leads to bloodshed and I don’t like bloodshed. Why are you in my city?" Xiran’s cold and expressionless voice sent shivers down his spine but he wasn’t going to be intimidated by him. No matter what they did to him, he would never give up on Aselia. She was their last hope.

"Sightseeing," Xiran’s nails dug into his left cheek at the answer as he grabbed his face, blood began to trickle down which Xiran licked with his tongue. This baffled Agent 35.

"Hmm, and they sent someone with a disgusting taste of blood for sightseeing." Xiran spat his blood out and slapped him hard across the face. The force sent him flying with the chair he was bound on and banged against the wall.

"Pick him up," Xiran growled and Carios quickly picked him up and steadied him.

The impact had knocked the air out of him, he looked at Xiran with bewilderment and tried to breathe. His head was bleeding and his face was swollen from the impact.

"Another wrong answer and much worse than this will follow. So let me ask you again, what are you doing in my city?" Xiran asked him casually crossing his arms against his chest. Agent 35 didn’t answer.

"Maybe he can’t hear you Xiran? Why don’t you do something about his ear?" Rivan lazily called over from behind as he watched the show with his back against the wall and hands in his pants pockets.

"Gladly," Xiran slowly grabbed Agents’ ear as he anticipated in horror and with one swift move yanked it off and threw it in his lap. Agent 35 let out a blood-curdling scream as a fountain of blood sprouted from his temple where his ear used to be.

Xiran dabbed his fingers in the gushing blood and traced them all over Agent 35’s face, leaving it streaked with blood. Agent 35 knew he was dealing with a complete maniac who would show him no mercy.

"You know there are 206 bones in a human body and I precisely know how to break all of them, starting with your hand. I will let you heal and then do it all over. I don’t have a shred of sympathy or pity in my heart." Agent 35’s eyes widened at his words. He was not only a maniac, but he was also a full-blown sociopath with a sadistic approach. How was Aselia even alive? Was he torturing her too to fulfil his sadistic desires?

"Snap..." another loud shriek from Agent 35 resonated in the room, where three vampires stood around him with blank faces. Xiran had broken his thumb.

Another loud snap followed by another wild scream. One by one Xiran broke all the fingers in his left hand and left him reeling for air. He was trained to bear torture but he understood this vampire will not stop at any length until he get some information. Agent 35 wasn’t sure how much pain he could bear because if it went on for days he might break. So it was better to give him some information which wasn’t that relevant to safeguard Aselia’s secret.

Xiran took his other hand and was about to break his thumb when he shouted: "Wait, wait."