Alicia felt her heartbeat thudding harder in her chest after she heard what he said.

She just fell silent, staring at him with so many different emotions flickering in her eyes. This should make her react positively. In fact, this should be enough to make her heart jump in joy or melt into a complete puddle because… because Ezekiel has never revealed his plans to anyone. Never! Not even once nor to his closest partners. He had always had the policy of only revealing everything once he had reached his goal. The fact that he was even willing to tell her about his plan spoke a whole lot. He was opening up and trusting her completely now.

And yet, a part of her felt some kind of fear instead. Fear that she would not like hearing whatever this plan of his was. No. 'Like' was an understatement. She felt as though she would not be able to accept it.

But she quickly talked herself out of her fear, reminding herself to calm down as Ezekiel was a master planner who always had the best plans laid out. Telling herself that this must be about him, leaving. She should not be feeling scared of that right? Because she already knew that will come. She had already told him that she did not want him to sacrifice anything up for her. So she had already accepted that he would still be leaving after all these, and that was why she had asked him to let her love him even for two days.

Right, there was supposed to be nothing that could scare her anymore…

"Alicia... I'm… I'm going to…" he trailed off when he saw her shaking her head.

"Shh… Ezekiel." Her forefinger pressed lightly on his lips. Then she kissed him softly before hugging him tight as she whispered in his ears. "Don't say it. You don't need to. I will always trust you, Ezekiel. And whatever your plan is… I will not go against it. I will support you a hundred percent regardless. I promise. So please believe me when I say you don't need to tell me anything about it."

There were still seven days left for them. And that was still quite some time for everyone to make a move.

Apart from her own feelings about this, Alicia thought that it was a bad idea for him to tell her everything. She was afraid that if he exposed all of his plans to her, one way or another, someone might find out about it. That was much scarier to her.

If something happens and his plans get ruined, she would not be able to forgive herself for being the cause of it failing. Ezekiel had… he had already waited and planned for seven hundred years for this. And she refused to risk anything.

"And you never know if someone is actually listening. Or if someone catches us again and they have a witch with them that could either pull out memories or read my mind. I am a vampire now, remember? And not to mention that there is also the vampire prophetess. So don't do it, Ezekiel. Please…?" She continued shaking her head slowly as she cupped his face and smiled at him. "Don't say it. Don't worry, whatever you do, I will always understand where you are coming from. You know that right?"

He slowly shut his eyes, revelling in the comfort that her palms gave him. The slightly cool and smooth skin rubbed gently over his cheeks as she caressed him, giving him that much needed reassurance that he did not know he wanted… no, needed from her.

"Also…" she continued, staring at him with glitters in her hazel eyes. It was a sight that Ezekiel could not get enough of, looking at her staring back at him. "I am saying out how I felt for you not because I am trying to gauge for a verbal response from you. I just… I just wanted to say it out aloud for once at least. I just want to let you hear it with your own ears. I wanted you to know for sure that I love you. So… I hope that it is okay with you if I say that again for many times more from here on out, as long as we still are together." Alicia told him all these sweetly.

He ended up pulling her into a tight embrace after listening to her speak. She could hear his heartbeat beating ever so loud as her ears rested on his firm chest. Lying there in his arms that were surrounding her, she could feel his intense emotions as they rise and dip, as he made a rumbling sound all the while uttering nothing else but her name like a prayer.

"Is that a yes? Can I assume it is since there was no denial??" she said after a while. "Are you allowing me to express my love for you whenever I want, hmm, Ezekiel?"

"Yes. Tell those words to me however and whenever you want to, Alicia." Ezekiel verbally gave his assent with and an indulgent smile lingering on his lips.

She smiled and tightened her embrace around him. "Thank you." And she kissed his throat as she said that. However, that move was perhaps a bad idea at that time.

Because his delicious scent suddenly assaulted her nose. Now she could not help but inhale his wondrous scent, causing her mouth to water in anticipation.

She licked his throat as a wild hunger for his blood took over her. "What was that other way you were telling me about again?" she asked remembering what he had said a while ago.

"Through more sex." He answered her seriously. "I'll just need to make you to use more of that excess energy that is in your reserves and that will cause your thirst to escalate to the point that you can't take it anymore and would just bite me while we're in the middle of doing it. You won't even realize you have done it until you begin to feel sated." Came Ezekiel's calm and rational sounding explanation.