Chapter 258: Sucking a Finger
She was just too busy every day. Too much to do, too many people looking for her.
Ash O’Malley nodded and kept munching on his apple. He looked so well-behaved, with his gaze lowered meekly. Lily Hart rested her chin on her hand and watched him.
After a while, he had eaten the apple down to the core. Holding it, he looked a bit lost. ’Is there no trash can here?’
He looked up and met Lily Hart’s focused gaze, freezing for a moment. "Boss Hart, where do I throw this?"
"Oh, wherever," Lily Hart said, her lips barely parting.
"Huh?" Ash O’Malley was momentarily speechless. ’Looks like the rumors about Boss Hart are true.’
’She has a thing for handsome men...’
’No resistance to good-looking people.’
"Bro!" Frank O’Malley’s blood-curdling shout came from outside.
Hearing that, Ash O’Malley thought his brother was in some kind of danger and scrambled to his feet.
But then he saw Frank’s excited expression as he slid all the way down the rabbit doll’s left arm as if it were a playground slide.
"Bro, what’d you do? How’d you get in?" Frank O’Malley asked gleefully, looking hopefully at Lily Hart.
"...Come on in," Lily Hart said.
’In for a penny, in for a pound.’
Frank O’Malley bounded up gleefully. Seeing the apple core clutched in his brother’s hand, he immediately asked, "Where’d you get that, Bro?"
Ash O’Malley glanced at the table, and Frank O’Malley’s eyes followed. "Ooh, Boss Hart, can I have one?"
Lily Hart: "Sure." ’He clearly wanted one, but he still had the manners to ask. Not bad. An obedient kid.’
"Heh~" Frank O’Malley chuckled, reaching for a big apple with a goofy grin plastered on his face.
The three of them sat down, the silence now broken by Frank O’Malley’s incessant chattering.
"Hey, Boss Hart? Does this rabbit doll belong to me now? Can I take her with me?"
Frank O’Malley asked, holding up the palm-sized rabbit doll. He blinked his eyes, still chewing on his apple.
"You won it, so it’s yours," Lily Hart said with a light chuckle.
"Yes!" Frank O’Malley exclaimed excitedly. He tried to stuff the rabbit doll into his pocket, but it was too small.
He thought he heard the rabbit’s angry voice in his head. "Don’t you dare put me in such a tiny space! It stinks!"
So, Frank O’Malley had no choice but to cradle her in one hand while munching on his apple with the other, managing both just fine.
"Give me a bite," the rabbit doll’s crisp voice exploded in his mind.
He quickly pushed the apple in his hand toward it. Halfway there, he suddenly remembered. ’Wait, I’ve already taken a bite out of this one, haven’t I?’
Sure enough, the rabbit doll’s voice raged in his head: "You... you...! How dare you try to shove your half-eaten food in my mouth! The nerve!"
Hearing this, Frank O’Malley quickly shoved the apple back into his own mouth, clamping down on it to make sure it didn’t fall.
He then grabbed a fresh, untouched apple from the table and offered it to the doll. The instant the apple touched it, it vanished.
The crisp sound of crunching echoed in his mind. CRUNCH, CRUNCH. For some reason, Frank O’Malley felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
’Is this... like raising a daughter?’
Lily Hart watched in amazement. ’This thing... eats apples?’ She picked one up and offered it to the doll, but there was no reaction.
The apple remained in her hand. She said with an amused laugh, "Is this rabbit shy around strangers? It only eats what you give it."
The moment she turned her head, a sharp pain shot through her index finger. When she looked back, she saw the rabbit doll had opened its mouth and clamped down on her fingertip.
It was wedged right where the doll’s stitched mouth crossed. She could feel her finger being sucked on. "You...?"
Ash O’Malley’s face went pale. He rushed forward, trying to pull the rabbit doll away, but it was clamped on so tightly he couldn’t pry it loose.
He was afraid of hurting Lily Hart if he pulled too hard. Frank O’Malley noticed something was wrong too and started frantically patting the rabbit doll’s head. "You! You! Let go right now!"
Inside the bathhouse, Owen Warren, who was sitting at the front desk, twitched his nose. He seemed to have caught an extremely rich, fragrant scent. He sniffed the air again, more deliberately this time.
’That’s it. That’s Lily Hart. The smell of her blood.’
Owen Warren shot to his feet and bolted out the door, ignoring a customer who was in the middle of signing up for a package deal.
Meanwhile, Frank O’Malley had managed to wrestle the rabbit doll under control, finally forcing it to let go of Lily Hart’s hand.
Lily Hart brought her finger closer to inspect it. She found two sharp teeth marks on the pad of her finger. The bite was quite deep, and blood was seeping from the puncture wounds.
Frank O’Malley’s heart pounded in his chest. ’Boss Hart isn’t going to get angry and... execute me and my brother on the spot, is she?’
Lily Hart was about to grab a bandage, mostly for show. It was such a small wound that it would heal on its own if she didn’t wrap it up soon.
She had just gotten up when a figure flashed in her peripheral vision. Before she could even see who it was, her injured hand was lifted, and her index finger, teeth marks and all, was drawn into his mouth.
...?
Wet and cool.
That was Lily Hart’s first reaction.
Her second was... ’Get it out.’
"Owen Warren, are you going crazy again?" Lily Hart glared at him, but Owen Warren was unfazed.
He held her wrist tightly, her index finger still in his mouth. He carefully sucked a few drops of blood, not daring to take too much.
Watching her expression, he reluctantly let go after three seconds.
How could he describe it? Lily Hart’s blood was ten thousand times more delicious than her fingernails or hair! It was rich, savory, like the most expensive wine from the age of civilization.
At the same time, the energy inside him began to churn violently as it desperately absorbed the power from her blood. It was just... too wonderful, too powerful!
He couldn’t imagine what would happen to her if the other zombies found out.
All the zombies in Cathaya would probably join forces to hunt her down. No, then again, maybe she’d just tame them all.
He believed she had that kind of power.
Lily Hart snatched her hand back irritably, only to find the wound was already closing. She knew this was a side effect of The Zombie King’s saliva, but it was still kind of disgusting!
Besides, she knew full well that Owen Warren was only after her blood; he hadn’t done it to heal her. ’That bastard!’
Owen Warren didn’t say anything more and left quickly. The tumultuous energy inside him was becoming impossible to suppress. He had a feeling that this time, he could reach the Tenth Rank.
He didn’t return to the bathhouse. The energy fluctuations from leveling up would be too massive, and he was afraid of attracting unwanted attention. He didn’t want to bring trouble to Boss Hart, either.
Lily Hart watched him go and couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
She turned to face Frank and Ash O’Malley’s worried gazes. They both looked extremely cautious.
Frank O’Malley pressed his palms together. "Boss Hart, please don’t be angry. I’ve already taught this little rascal a lesson! Please, don’t be mad."
Ash O’Malley chimed in, "Yeah, don’t be angry. It’s bad for your health. Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?"
"...I’m fine." Lily Hart was feeling a bit weary.
With that, she held her finger out for them to see. "Look, it’s healed."
Ash O’Malley stared, lost in thought. The man from before had come and gone in a flash. While Ash’s attention had been entirely on Lily Hart, he had still noticed a few things.
’That man... he didn’t seem human, did he? Why would he suck Lily Hart’s finger? And why did it heal so quickly afterward? Judging by his aura, he was a zombie.’
’But Lily Hart wasn’t panicked or surprised in the slightest. Her only reaction to him suddenly sucking her finger was a hint of impatience, nothing more.’