Meanwhile, Alicia who had been too deep into her mind for hours on end finally opened her eyes. She could not find anything else that was new about Ezekiel, but she had found some interesting and helpful things that she could convey to Lilith that might be useful one day.

Her eyes immediately fell onto the bed and the moment she saw that it was empty, her eyes widened in panic. Damn it! She quickly looked at the floor to ceiling window which was covered with thick dark curtains and saw that it was still dawn.

As though the house was on fire, Alicia hastily searched the whole house for him. How could he wake up so early?! Did he not even need sleep?

To her relief, she found him in the living room. He was already dressed in that signature outfit of his. All black and regal and menacing. However, she could not even deny that the whole look worked for him, as if the clothes were just made to be worn by him.

Lucas and another man were already standing alongside him as well.

"Is Kyle ready?" Ezekiel’s voice echoed. That was the first sentence that Alicia had heard him speak in a long time that she had almost forgotten how he sounded like.

"Yes, boss. Everything’s ready."

"Alright, let’s go."

Alicia of course followed after them, making sure to stick a bit closer to the prince of all statues which was Ezekiel. She knew she could not afford to take her eyes off him, knowing how just how unfathomable he was. She would lose him the moment she got even the slightest bit distracted.

They all went to the building’s rooftop where a helicopter was ready and waiting. Alicia nonchalantly climbed into the passenger seats with them. She was expecting and waiting for them to talk to glean more information, but all throughout the trip, no one spoke at all.

Their next destination was an airport.

There, Alicia saw Kyle again and she just smiled at the sight of him. She was pleasantly surprised because from the first time she had seen him, the young man was so different now. It was like he had grown so much in a short period of time.

But in all honestly, Alicia was a bit sad to see that the innocence in Kyle’s eyes seemed to be all gone now. She understood that was something inevitable. He was a man that might rule the vampires one day and everyone knew that Ezekiel was obviously grooming him to become the future possible perfect next ruler of the vampires. It was quite clearly seen as he was bringing Kyle along with him on many of his missions now.

It still mystified Alicia though, that it seemed that Ezekiel did not have any plans to declare himself as king of the vampires at all. With his age and power, he could be crowned king already since long time ago. However, now it seems as though that he is grooming Kyle to take over the throne one day instead.

She was also curious about the other two vampire princes. So far Ezekiel’s attention was only focused on the youngest prince which was Kyle. What about those other two princes? Where were they in the first place? Why had Ezekiel not bothered to groom them as the successor as their ages were more suitable compared to Kyle who was the youngest? Were they not qualified to take over?

When Alicia was in the Vampire Kingdom, and even in their palace, she had never seen nor felt the presence of the other princes as well. If she did not know better and was informed that there were the other two royal princes, it was as though they never had existed. She had seen the other princes before. But that was only through the previous queen witches’ memories but there was one prince who seemed to be missing. It was strange because she had never seen even a glimpse of that one missing prince’s face in any of the memories at all. It even felt as though he did not exist, or the vampires were not even bothered about this missing prince at all.

Alicia thought that way because since she was young, she had been among one of those who were assigned to spy about the vampires. When she was still spying back then, none of the citizens of the Vampire Kingdom, both vampires and humans, ever talked about this one missing Prince. Alicia also had realized that none of them might have ever seen him in person at all as well. And that was absolutely strange.

Back then, she had found out that the other prince who was the second to the youngest was in another country and schooling there. Was that missing prince been sent off for schooling somewhere else as well? For some reason, Alicia doubt that that was the case.

"Did you look over the rules I gave to you to review?" she heard Ezekiel ask Kyle as they entered into a private jet.

"Yes." Kyle replied shortly. The young man’s face had even matured a lot more now as well, since the last time she had seen him. He did not look like that soft young boy he was anymore. Gone were the sparkly eyes and cute smiles. But in its place, stood a tough, and cold guy as well. To be honest, Alicia was not pleased at all with his changes. Because it was as though Kyle was being slowly infected by Ezekiel’s coldness and heartlessness. She did not want him to be statue version no.2 after Ezekiel.

"Damn you Ezekiel, what did you do to my sweet little Kyle? Must you infect him with your coldness like this? Look at him, he’s slowly becoming just like you!" Alicia mumbled agitatedly as she stood behind Ezekiel. "He doesn’t even smile anymore! Are you really trying to turn him into another prince of statues like you?"

Since Alicia was right behind him, she did not get to see how Ezekiel’s enigmatic expression changed for one brief moment as if he heard what she had said.