Chapter 366: I Need More
Zhenlan moved before I finished pulling my pants over my hips.
He didn’t grab me or block the closet, which was probably the best decision he had made all morning. Instead, he waited for me to finish dressing before he stepped into my path, blocking me from the bedroom door. His shoulders were squared and his feet were planted like he had already decided I wasn’t getting past him.
I finished pulling my hair into a high ponytail as I waited for him to move.
He didn’t, he just stood there, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watched me.
"Move," I said, because apparently, my face wasn’t giving the normal subtitles that it should have.
His jaw tightened, but he stayed exactly where he was. "No," he replied like it was the most obvious answer.
My fingers flicked the end of my long hair back over my shoulder as I slowly looked up at him. Zhenlan wasn’t joking, he really had no plans to move at all. The worst part was that he wasn’t trying to irritate me into changing my mind. No, that worry on his face was completely real, but apparently so was his sudden death wish.
That made it a fraction of an inch harder to threaten him properly. "You’re standing between me and the door," I pointed out, copying his stance down to my arms in front of me.
"I’m aware," he replied with a shrug. But the worry was being replaced by the smallest of small smiles. Like he liked the way I was looking at him.
"Then why are you still standing here?" I demanded, narrowing my eyes. The smile playing on his lips got just a little bit bigger.
Behind him, Lingyun leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, looking far too entertained for someone who should have been supporting me. Yuche stood near the bed, his eyes moving between Zhenlan and me, but he didn’t interfere.
Because of course he didn’t.
Yuche understood that telling me no was usually a waste of breath unless he planned to physically stop me, and he had enough sense not to try that while I was already annoyed.
But standing in a shadow near the door was Chenghai, still holding the plate of half burnt pancakes.
I didn’t know why that bothered me so much. But it did.
Zhenlan followed my gaze, looked at Chenghai, and dropped the smile on his face before returning his attention back to me. "You and I both know that this is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction."
I laughed once, but there wasn’t much humor in it. I was dangerously close to putting my fist through his face for saying something that stupid. "Why don’t you just tell me to calm down, or that I am over reacting while you are at it," I purred. Because let’s face it, that was basically what he was gearing toward.
"You found out the Devourer is alive less than an hour ago," he started, pinching the bridge of his nose like I was the problem. I’ll give you a hint. I wasn’t.
"And?" I replied, my face turning blank. I really wasn’t in the mood for this conversation. No matter how much my heart fluttered over the idea of him being worried for me.
"And now you’re leaving the mansion after spending literally months telling every last one of us that you had no interest in going outside. It didn’t matter what happened, or who was trying to kill you. You made it clear that you weren’t leaving unless the house was on fire, and probably not even then. So, why are you so willing to leave it now?"
I had to give it to the man, he wasn’t wrong. But at the same time, that didn’t make him right right now either. "Even if the house is on fire, I’d put it out and stay inside," I said at last, a sharp smile on my face even as I nodded my head.
"That isn’t helping your argument," Zhenlan pointed out.
"I wasn’t aware I needed one." Seriously, this guy was going to have to get over it. I wasn’t going to keep beating this dead horse. I was going out even whether they liked it or not. Honestly, they had no say in what I did.
This was me being polite and attempting to treat them as equals.
Hell, even the two men who might have been more in a position to contradict me were keeping silent. Maybe Zhenlan should learn something from them.
Zhenlan’s jaw tightened, and for a second, I thought he was going to give me another lecture about risk, planning, or how people should occasionally think before walking directly into whatever wanted to kill them.
It would’ve been hypocritical coming from him, considering the number of times his plans had dragged us into places filled with zombies and poor decisions.
But when he spoke, his voice was quieter. "You’re spinning out of control and I am terrified of what is going to happen next."
’Terrified.’ That made something inside me go still.
I forced my body to relax. This wasn’t supposed to be a fight, or a challenge. This was something else entirely... something that I wasn’t mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with at this moment or any other. "Why?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet.
"Because you haven’t slept yet. You haven’t eaten a single thing. You just found out that the thing that almost killed you is still alive, and now you’re trying to walk out of the house before you’ve decided what comes after the front door," explained Zhenlan. His voice had also dropped several levels, as he stepped closer to me.
"I..." he started before he quickly stopped himself. "I don’t want to see you hurt like that again."
"But I know what comes after the front door," I replied, a half smile gracing my face.
"What?"
"The driveway."
Lingyun made a choking sound and covered his mouth with one hand, but Zhenlan didn’t even look at him.
That was how I knew I didn’t lighten the mood nearly as much as I was hoping to with that joke.
Normally, when one of us said something like that, he would’ve taken at least three seconds to regret knowing us.
Instead, he stayed exactly where he was, watching me like I might disappear if he blinked. "You know what I mean."
Unfortunately, I did.
Letting out a long sigh, I turned away from the door and toward the bed.
The green cores were all gone, but the rest still covered the sheets in ugly little piles. My baby vine had managed to drag three of them closer to the pillow and was currently chewing on a red one like it had personal issues with the color.
At least someone was having a productive morning.
"I’m not going after the Devourer today," I said, almost defeated. I really thought they would have given me more credit than that, but I guessed not.
Not even I was that stupid.
I knew that I probably wouldn’t survive something like that at this time.