SPELLBOUND

In the dining hall, everyone was seated around a long table. Gavrael sat elegantly at the head of the table, lazily leaning his head on his knuckles as he contentedly watched Evie eat.

Evie, Zanya and the men were all very hungry, so they fixed their attention on the array of scrumptious food that was spread before them. Of course, with the exception of Evie alone, everyone still felt the uncomfortable dark presence that was exuded by the person who was seated at the head of the table. If they were not so hungry, they would have definitely been unable to ignore his presence and able to swallow their food!

All of them somehow enjoyed the delicious food prepared for them but their enjoyment slowly died down as they became more and more conscious of Gavrael's presence now. They could not only feel his incredibly strong and dark presence but his piercing stare too. Was he studying or scrutinizing them? Why? Could it be that he was trying to remember them? Of course not, otherwise, he should not be looking at them with that ice cold and sharp gaze!

It felt as though a razor sharp blade was slicing and stabbing into them, trying to carve their thoughts and pierce the intentions in their hearts. It was discomfiting to say the least. Especially for Zanya, who is the weakest of them all in her powerless state. She particularly felt as though buckets of sweat were pouring down her back.

"Why are you not eating?" At long last, Evie broke the awkward silence that lingered in the hall when she finally looked up from her plate and turned to Gavrael. She then noticed that he had hardly touched anything on his own plate.

Gavrael's gaze returned to her and then he looked down at the food on his plate again.

When he lifted his gaze and opened his mouth to speak, a piece of juicy meat was shoved right before his face, dangling tantalisingly on a silver fork and coated lightly with some sauce.

"This one's delicious, Gav. Come on, have a taste." She urged, smiling as she moved the meat to his lips. Her sparkling eyes were wide and expectant as she waited for him to bite into that piece she had purposely cut for him.

Gavrael furtively took a glance at the men who seemed to be observing their interactions, and all of them quickly averted their gazes in perfect unison. Of course, he had caught their expressions before they looked down to hide their faces.

Suddenly, a soft chuckle escaped from Evie's lips. Somehow, she did not expect him to even look at the men first. If he remembered how he was as Gavriel, she knew he would have definitely smirked happily at her actions and immediately ate the meat she was offering. That would have happened without a doubt, even though she and Gavriel never ate with these men before.

But now, looking at him seemingly embarrassed at what he was about to do made Evie unable to stop herself from chuckling out loud. His reactions could only be described as cute… though she would never say it our aloud as he would definitely scowl hearing her use that word in the same sentence with him. She wondered if this was how she had looked like when Gavriel first fed her the same way, back when she had just arrived at his castle.

"Come on, open your mouth Gav. Here… say, 'aaah'…" She urged again playfully, teasing him. Somehow, she felt warmth blooming inside her chest. She knew there was still something amiss but, it was enough for her that she was here with him, for now.

As she flashed him a sweet and loving smile, Gavrael glanced at everyone again and when he saw that no one was looking, he finally popped the small piece of proffered meat into his mouth, munching slowly on it as he savoured the taste of it. Somehow, it tasted much better coming from her fork than from the one on his plate before him.

"Delicious, isn't it?" Evie asked merrily, her eyes cheerfully twinkling as she enjoyed watching him eat. He really made eating to be a form of art to be admired, with his proper princely bearing and graceful manner of dining.

Gavrael simply nodded as he chewed quietly. "Oh! Come and taste this one too, you loved this dish."

As Evie continued handing him little bits and pieces of food offered on her own fork, the men began to glance sideways to look at each other. 'Good grief, this is going to cause me terrible indigestion.' Levy complained as he made pitiful puppy like eyes. 'I'd like a woman to pamper me like that too.' He made a face as if he were crying without tears.

Samuel, Zolan and Leon's expression did not change but Reed was blushing, while Luc and Elias were visibly trying so hard to keep their faces straight, holding in their laughter that was dangerously on the surface and about to bubble out. Zanya on the other hand, was observing and continuously glancing at Evie and looking quite awed at the princess' behaviour towards him.

Because Zanya was sitting between Leon and Levy, Levy leaned towards Zanya and whispered with a playful smile. "Our princess is amazing, right?" he said and Zanya looked at him. "I don't mind it if you want to try doing that to me," he flirted, winking at her. "I'd more than welcome your tries…"

Zanya blinked at him as he was already opening his mouth, showing that he was expecting her to feed him something from her plate.

But out of the blue, an arm whooshed down before Zanya could even respond and a piece of meat was already roughly shoved inside Levy's mouth. Choking and looking past Zanya, he saw that it was Leon who did that.

Levy glared at Leon. 'You – !!'

'The princess had ordered me not let you bully her. Don't take it personally, I'm just doing my job.' Leon replied expressionless through their telepathy.

'What the hell, man. When did I bully her?' Levy whined and moaned through their telepathic link, pouting at the end.

'She looked uncomfortable.' Was all Leon replied with.

'Ugh!' Levy groaned, feeling frustrated and rolled his eyes at that hulk of a vampire, when Zanya gave out a quiet chuckle.

"Alright, should we change seats?" Zanya asked Levy suggestively.

"Huh? Why?" the man frowned questioningly, unsure what she meant with her question.

"That way, the two of you can feed each other without any barriers. I know I'm in the way." She said mischievously and both men's eyes rounded out in shock. Zolan and Luc started to tremble as they held back desperately, trying very hard not to laugh out loud at what the Light Fae had commented on.

'This is your fault, you dimwit! God dammit!' Levy angrily glared at Leon.

'You started it.' Leon said simply and shrugged his shoulders carelessly. After which, he turned his focus back to his food as though nothing of the sort had just happened, leaving Levy feeling so frustrated and bursting at the seams on his own.

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A/N: Second chap will come later.