Her cold emotionless words hurt him more than he could have imagined. The hurt was evident in his beautiful features as he peered into her eyes for any flicker of emotions she held for him, but he found none.

"I will not give away any information which will jeopardize your life. You can torture me all you want if that’s what pleases you." His reply was calm yet one could feel the underlying sentiments he held for her.

Her grip tightened on his chin as she clenched her jaw to show her annoyance. Her hand was quivering, she was putting up a bold front but he could feel it tremble.

"And why do you care for her life so much? You didn’t seem to care about the life of Agent 35, whom you mercilessly tortured and whose severed head you sent us." The man behind her spoke for the first time and stepped up. They knew about his identity now, they knew who he was. Aselia knew it too. He knew she was smart but he had surely underestimated her.

Xiran diverted his attention from her to him and realized it was Alderidge. His blue eyes held the same kind of animosity as Xiran’s father did and Xiran had crossed him by killing his agent and threatening him with the consequences of further action. The man appeared intelligent almost wise but Xiran held only contempt for him, he had used Aselia to do his dirty work. He detested the man.

"Your men put the lives of innocent people at stake by openly attacking my father. My streets are deemed safe and yet you disrupted that with your outrageous actions. I gave you a warning and you still didn’t listen to me. Fritez city is like my child and I will not take it lightly if someone will hurt my child." Xiran’s tone was utterly cold to him as compared to how he spoke with Aselia.

"Your rant didn’t answer my question though. Why do you care about her?" Aldridge replied calmly. A flash of warmth appeared and disappeared in Xiran’s eyes, at the mention of her before he spoke:

"That’s between me and her," Aldridge observed him for a while before speaking to Aselia:

"White Falcon give us the room. I would like to talk to him alone. No one is to come inside." Xiran could see the reluctance in her eyes but she let go of his face and getting up she hastily walked out. The thumping of her heartbeat faded and he knew she was gone.

"You think just because she spent some time with you and seduced you to extract information, she became your lover. I have known her for the past 15 years. I have personally trained and raised her. She despises your kind beyond anything you can imagine. Your father killed her parents right before her eyes, how delusional are you to believe she can have feelings for the son of her parent’s killer?"

Xiran might have believed Aldridge and everything he said but he knew Aselia was not a seducer, she never tried that approach to acquire information. If she had tried that, it might not have worked and he would have taken her as a regular girl, and never fallen for her as he did.

"I have no role in the genocide my father started, I don’t kill for pleasure as he does. I loathe my father more than you do. You can ask her, I never harmed her, and never will. My father will seek her out, so it’s for the best that she never faces him. He won’t show her or any of you a flicker of mercy." Xiran told his truth, hoping Aldridge will understand the gravity of it.

"If you detest your father so much, why not join hands with us?" Aldridge inquired while taking a step closer to Xiran.

"I don’t want Aselia to face him, ever," Xiran confessed, He kept direct eye contact with the man, showing him he was by no means intimidated by him or feared him.

"You think she is afraid of him? Just ask her how many vampires she has obliterated. I think you will be shocked to learn the number. Besides this organization and its people have dedicated their lives to hunting him down. We have a foolproof plan for it."

"I see, just like you did in my city and got your whole team annihilated," Xiran replied with a smirk, he believed them to be highly incapable of carrying out a mission against his father and he didn’t want Aselia to ever face him.

Xiran’s words enraged Aldridge and he understood that it won’t be easy to get the information he withheld from them.

"Then I guess we will have to do it the hard way." Aldridge had a threatening tone to his voice now, his face was grim almost cruel now as he approached a metallic table in the corner which had numerous tools and vials lined neatly on it.

"Knock yourself out." Xiran scoffed at him, showing he was not afraid of their torture. He had been tortured enough in his life, he feared nothing except losing her.

There was a one-way mirror in front of him, just as he had anticipated. Yurian sat in the joining room and observed the events that were transpiring. Aldridge was wearing a communication device that was linked to the speaker and mic in the adjoining room.

"Send Markius," Aldridge’s voice boomed through the speaker and Yurian felt a tinge of pity for Xiran. Markius specialized in torturing vampires and he was always inventing and testing new devices and serums on the vampires they captured. He was ruthless with them, there was not a shard of mercy in that man’s heart.

"On it," Yurian replied and went out to fetch Markius, who lived on the ground floor. That’s where his lab was, where he tested and tortured vampires.

There were five floors of their headquarters. The top floor was reserved for Aldridge, his room, study, and conference room which was used for business meetings along with some other special guest rooms were located on the top floor.

The second and third floors were residential areas to house agents and hunters. These floors also had well-equipped training areas, gyms, bathrooms a swimming pool, a dining area/canteen and a common room.

The first floor had all kinds of communication rooms and camera rooms from where communication was carried out and every situation was monitored. The ground floor had labs, medical rooms, store rooms and torture rooms where vials, serums, and weapons were mass-produced and stored. Medical rooms were to treat the injured.

There was a hidden floor as well but only Aldridge and a few chosen ones had access to it and no one knew what was held there or what transpired. There was also a mini airport, consisting of a hangar, runway and parking area for cars and trucks. The whole facility had been built underground, away from the world to keep it safe.

A day had passed since their return to headquarters, and Aselia had thought she would find solace on her return here. But her heart was agitated, the thought that Xiran might have been involved in killing her parents and most probably had wiped her memories of the day was gnawing at her soul. She was constantly feeling sick to her stomach.

She had told Alderidge everything she had learned about him. Except for the part about his mother and his abusive childhood. She couldn’t bring herself to tell his darkest secrets to anyone. And her secret that she might have bonded with him.

Tonight she was requested to visit the medical room for a complete check-up. So when Aldridge asked her to leave the soundproof torture room, she went straight to her room on the third floor and lay down on her bed.

She knew he wouldn’t spill the information and will be tortured, the thought made her nauseous. Why couldn’t he just talk instead of escalating the situation? Her mind was constantly preoccupied with his thoughts and she wanted it to stop, wanted to forget his existence. That was the only way she would ever be rid of him because otherwise, he wouldn’t leave her alone.

Unconsciously her hand went to the pendant he had given her and she began to twirl it in her hands. On realizing what she was doing, she yanked it but the chain didn’t break, staying wrapped around her neck. She sighed and gave up, letting it fall on her skin. Although she could have taken it off by opening the lock.

She began to think about the day of her parent’s death, if only she could remember a fraction of seeing him there, but her mind was blank.

Why was he hiding that information from her? What was he supposed to gain? Could it be that she saw something heinous happening to her parents and he wiped her memories to protect her from carrying that torturous memory?

There she was trying to defend him again by making assumptions. How much hold did he have on her? If only he would tell her the truth she sought.