Aselia stayed with Xiran the rest of the day and as promised she didn’t let anyone touch him. Yurian visited during noontime and asked her to take a break but she didn’t want to leave him.

"You need to sleep, partner." Yurian was worried about her.

"Not until we help him escape."

"Aselia, go and rest. I will be fine, stop worrying." Xiran gave her a reassuring nod.

"No, I am not budging from this room." She replied in her stubborn way making both men sigh and shake their heads.

"Then sleep here," Yurian took off his jacket and made a makeshift pillow for her in the corner, and asked her to lie down for a bit.

"Alright, wake me up if someone comes Yuri." She instructed before laying down and closing her eyes, soon her snores could be heard and she had a satisfied look on her face.

Before Yurian could sit down and talk to Xiran he received a call from Aldridge who ordered him to meet him in his office. Yurian didn’t want to wake Aselia up as she had just dozed off.

"Aldridge has called me, I will try to be back as soon as possible. Hopefully, no one will come here as she has taken you under her control." Yurian informed Xiran before heading out.

Xiran couldn’t help but stare at the sleeping girl in front of him who had just poured her heart out to him and he knew it must have been the hardest task she had ever accomplished, considering how she never revealed her feelings.

And the way she had kissed him, the taste of her lips still lingered on his and brimmed his being with warmth and desires and he couldn’t wait for the time when he will have her in his arms and will kiss her to his heart’s content.

She slept in a tranquil state, unbeknownst of the effect she had on him, the way her blood had healed him, and the fact that she had not let anyone inject him with power-subduing serums, was revealing its effects. For the power was returning in his robust muscles and he clanged the chains to see how long they will hold him.

Her blood was an elixir and he was becoming an addict, he was sure it not only had healing properties but something else too for every time he drank it, the power surge was stronger than before. He was lost in his train of thought when the door slightly opened and Raven stepped inside.

The man bugged Xiran from the very first moment he set his eyes on him. The amount of lust that men held for Aselia was evident in his lascivious orbs. This was enough to drive Xiran mad.

Raven gave one meaningful look to Xiran and smiled, a crooked smile that held his perverse intentions. He tiptoed toward the peacefully sleeping Aselia, whose short golden locks fell on her face. Her hand was under her head as she slept on her side.

Raven stood on top of her and swiped his tongue on his lower lip while watching her, he bent down to pick up a stray lock of her hair and touch her face.

"Don’t touch her. Keep your filthy hands away, didn’t she tell you before not to do that without her permission." Xiran’s threatening voice resonated from behind him.

This made Raven turn toward him with scrutinized eyes, he observed the white-haired vampire who was watching him with an underlying rage and animosity. The veins in Xiran’s arms had become so taut that they could almost burst. His eyebrows were raised and his nose flared. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"And what are you going to do about it?" Raven asked him with a low growl so as not to wake Aselia up.

"I will break the hands that will dare touch her without consent," Xiran replied in a calm voice that intimidated Raven and he gulped hard before speaking again:

"Don’t think you can do much in the state you are in." Raven then averted his gaze to Aselia and his fingers stroked her cheeks as he lifted her hair to reveal her sleeping face to his lust-filled eyes.

A booming sound resonated and shook the one-way mirror in front of Raven followed by the chunks of wall breaking and falling on the floor with loud thuds. The hinges that held Xiran’s chains in the wall were yanked out with so much force that part of the wall around them had crumbled to the ground. The same feat fell on the chains that held him to the ground and he stood up, finally free of the caged state they had forced him in.

Raven stumbled back at the sight that almost seemed unreal while Aselia woke up with a jerk and tilted her head towards the sound. Her gaze landed on the man she loved whose herculean being filled the entirety of the room, the threatening sounds that escaped his throat rattled the room which seemed tiny in his presence.

Without a warning, Xiran’s half-naked body zoomed toward Raven. The chains rattled behind him as he clasped Raven’s throat, being much faster than normal vampires which Raven was used to hunting, Xiran had him in his grasp within a fraction of a second. A shriek escaped Raven but the room was soundproof and no one would hear him, his eyes bulged out in horror as he clawed at Xiran’s sturdy hands but had zero effect.

"You should have listened to me and kept your crude limbs to yourself and they might have survived. Why you thick-headed hunters do not listen to my warnings?" Xiran fumed at the man who was shivering like a dry leaf in his clasp, gasping for breath, his windpipe about to collapse under the raw force of Xiran’s grip.

"Xiran, let him go. Put him down." Aselia scrambled toward him and tried to help Raven get free from his grip, for she knew Xiran would kill him.

"Step aside, Aselia. Don’t interfere in this." Xiran’s words were a fiery rage and his greyish orbs burnt with revenge which he was about to unleash on these hunters, for they had dared wrong him.

"No, Xiran don’t," Aselia screamed as she watched in horror while Xiran grabbed Raven’s right hand and bent it in the opposite direction.

-Snap-

The bones broke and the small room was filled with anguished cries of Black Raven, his body spasmed under Xiran’s hold, his face contorted in the subtle horror he was experiencing.

-Snap-

Another horror-filled shriek escaped Raven’s burning throat as Xiran broke his other hand as well without a hint of mercy on his handsome face which only possessed a determined look, to seek revenge.

"Stop it, Xiran. Let him go." Aselia pulled at his arm with all her force but he didn’t budge an inch.

"He tried to touch you while you slept, I warned him but he paid no heed and yet you are trying to help him." Xiran spat out, unable to contain his disgust and revulsion, his teeth grinding against each other for he couldn’t contain his emotions when it came down to her.

"Xiran, release him. You already broke his hands for that crime, spare his life. I beg you." She pleaded, her whole body trembling for she had never seen him so furious before. The calm and collected Xiran was a raging monster today and she knew this was just the beginning of what he was about to do to them.

Xiran glared at her with his revenge-driven orbs and finally flung Raven across the room, who landed on the floor with a thud, unconscious. Aselia sighed with relief and her eyes held a certain fear.

The silver-haired vampire then began to break the chains that held him and threw them on the floor, they cluttered and heaped down. Aselia could see his wrists were bruised from where the chains had held him. After he was done he grabbed her hand and asked with vile hatred in his eyes:

"Where is the man who destroyed my hair?" Aselia inhaled sharply, but her lungs seemed to burn as if oxygen couldn’t reach them. Goosebumps rose all over her body for she knew what was about to come.

"Xiran, I gave him the order. Punish me for that crime." She implored with her turquoise globes, her breath hitching in her throat. Her steady hands were quivering today and found it impossible to keep eye contact with him, for he was burning her with shame.

"Of course, I will punish you Aselia. You will watch as I will rip his body apart. Piece by piece." His words held no traces of warmth, this was the cold-blooded Xiran, the one he had always warned her about. She felt he was about to scorch her with his blazing gaze, alone.

"Please...Xiran..." Her voice cracked under his towering demeanour as he held up his hand to show he didn’t want to listen to her pleas today.

"Aselia, either you will tell me and I will think about sparing others or I will step out of this room and kill every hunter my eyes will find. The choice is yours."