The shadow no longer approached the hover car to Aisha’s surprise. She looked out of the window, almost pressing her face against it as she cautiously looked around. But Nykos was not there at all.
Had he given up? She thought. With how high they were from the ground and the minutes that had passed since they started to fly in circles to avoid him, the amount of psychic energy and whatever bloodline power that Nykos was hiding, it would be reasonable to say that he had exhausted it.
But before she could feel relieved at the thought of getting rid of a persistent suitor, something moved in front of her.
No—it wasn’t in front. She initially thought it was in front of her because she was looking at the window, but it was actually the reflection in the glass that she was staring at.
The wisps of shadows moved from behind her!
"Aww... Miss me?" A low voice fell into her ears from behind as she felt warmth pass through the fabric of her dress.
"Aisha!"
From the reflection in the glass, she saw Zeke stand up as though he was about to pounce on their intruder. But he fell to his knees with a groan while grasping his chest.
Aisha worriedly glanced at the Admiral.
"I’ve only been gone for several days, yet you’ve found someone to replace me?" Nykos pressed even closer against her, making it impossible for her to even look at the reflection to see how Zeke was doing. "Have my absence made you forget about me, little bird?"
There it was again.
"Why do you call me that?" Aisha didn’t think Nykos would have no idea what her name was.
"Hm?" A low rumble came from his chest, resonating against her back. "Well, when we first met, you seemed like a bird to me."
"I don’t have wings."
Her tone came off as matter-of-fact while frowning.
"Of course you don’t," Nykos said while grabbing a strand of her hair, gently twirling it between his fingers. "You looked like you were trapped in a cage while looking up at the sky as if you wanted to fly far."
Her heart skipped a beat. At the hospital, she had been wondering many times about how she could leave this world even after resigning herself to staying. For someone who had lived a long time in another world, how could it be so easy for her to say, ’I’ll live as I want in a new world’? Especially when everything around her just moved against her, and from time to time she’d be reminded of how different her current and past life turned out to be?
But someone whom she had met briefly had caught on to her deepest thoughts. Just how did he see through her?
"Nykos, stay away from her." Zeke, who had recovered slightly, spoke with a raspy voice. He glared at the silver-haired man, who tossed him a triumphant grin instead of backing away.
"You look worse than earlier. Did I strike you too hard, or have you gotten weaker now, Zeke?" Nykos furrowed his brows in genuine surprise and slight concern.
Frankly speaking, he had never seen Zeke in a similar state like this. Perhaps there were times when they both showed a bit of exhaustion and weakness, but that was right after they used up their psychic energy and destroyed half of a contamination zone just by fighting each other.
But Nykos could’ve sworn that neither of them was serious in their battle earlier. At most, the imperial guards bore the brunt of his attack, while Zeke only used his own power to attack him while also protecting the other guards who didn’t so much as step forward out of fear of a high-ranked Sentinel.
Though he might have exerted himself doing that... Nykos didn’t think Zeke would be in such poor state.
He turned to the only person who was with Zeke and thoughtlessly asked, "Did you perhaps beat him before I arrived?"
Nykos remembered how she was able to fight against him in the alleyway. At that time, he suspected Aisha must have been trained properly to fight and was filled with satisfaction the entire night while singing his praises for her to Amar and Vince. Though Amar looked at him with his usual ’You’re crazy’ stare, Vince was a much more welcome listener as he nodded along and also praised Aisha’s valiant action.
Upon hearing his words, Aisha couldn’t stop herself from freezing.
Her eyebrows drew tight as she honestly thought about elbowing the man behind her. But since they were in a small space, fighting him was out of the question. Any way she looked at it, it wouldn’t be good to overreact. Still, since when had she made an impression of beating someone casually?
"Tsk, tsk." She heard him click his tongue. "Why would you do that, little bird? You could’ve just called me, and I’ll let you ruin me with your hands." His hand found its way to hers, interlocking their fingers like they were lovers. "No need to dirty your hands on other people."
She stood still, letting him touch her, which drew his curiosity about how docile she was right now. He felt the lack of her reaction strange, so he shifted his gaze upward to see her smiling at him sweetly and harmlessly before he felt his arm being pulled as she placed his hand between her lips and bit down on the spot that didn’t meet.
Wincing at the sudden pain coming from his hand, Nykos almost lost his mind at what just happened. In the process of feeling her teeth bury into his skin, he instinctively relaxed.
But that was his mistake.
The euphoric moment vanished before he could bathe in its glory as she immediately sidestepped and squeezed into the space that he hadn’t blocked, letting her slip from the cage of his arms.
Aisha took several steps to distance herself from him, ending up standing in the opposite direction from the two males inside the shuttle. But because there was too little space inside, it wasn’t enough to actually stay away from them. So, she could only raise her arms in front of her in a guarded position.
This time, however, she couldn’t help but feel surprised. She’d expected him to grab her more tightly and deal with her. Yet Nykos released her more easily than she thought.
Was it because she bit him?
It was unexpected. But she began to understand it a little. After all, she’d also dislike it if someone bit her and had their saliva smear on her skin. There was one time when she fought against a 120kg man who had tried to steal from her during her stop in an evacuation center. He prattled on about how he couldn’t live without food and that since she was so thin and small, she should surrender her own food to him. And when she didn’t, he spat on her and tackled her.
Fortunately, at that time, only a tiny drop of his spit landed on her shirt. But that didn’t stop her from beating the man until he was half dead and burning her shirt. Although it didn’t touch her skin, she still ended up rubbing herself with a wet towel until it turned red. Had someone not stopped her there, she might’ve just peeled her skin off just to remove the filthy feeling.
So, Nykos’ adverse reaction to her bite might have been understandable.
However... why was he staring at her like that?
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