Chapter 277: I’d Feel Bad for You

The clear, sweet voice outside the door pulled Serena Blackwood out of sleep.

For one brief second, she had almost recovered.

Then Elias’s voice reached her, and the fragile calm shattered. Serena felt herself dragged straight back into the night before. Her chest clenched hard, pain spreading through her so fast that the hazy confusion of waking vanished at once.

After the pain came stillness.

Serena froze.

She did not know what she was supposed to do.

Compared to the Elias outside her door, she was the one who felt helpless.

Was she supposed to pour the anger of being deceived onto him?

But that had been the old Elias.

The Elias now knew nothing.

More importantly, if Serena were truly capable of doing that, she would have done it last night. She would have opened his bedroom door, dragged him out of bed, and made him pay for every sweet lie he had wrapped around her throat.

She had not.

Knock, knock.

"Big sister?"

Elias raised his voice a little. The knocking grew louder too.

Outside the door, Elias’s face was full of panic.

He could not have actually made Serena so mad she died, right?

He really was not sure. What if Liora had said something last night that pushed Serena too hard and shattered her on the spot?

Then how was he supposed to retire?

[System Theta: She’s fine.]

Elias let out a breath.

’Good.’

Inside the room, Serena finally pulled herself back from the mess of thought. She sat up stiffly on the bed, her voice hoarse when she spoke.

"Come in."

She had to face Elias sooner or later.

Besides, he was the one who had made the mistake. What did she have to be afraid of?

Elias sounded impatient. "You locked the door. How am I supposed to come in?"

Serena went still.

Had she locked the door last night?

She could not remember.

She sat there for a while, both hands braced against the mattress, then finally stood and walked toward the door.

Just as she reached it, the handle turned.

The door opened.

"Hehe. I lied."

Elias walked in with a bright smile. The moment he saw Serena, he sucked in a loud breath and stared at her with exaggerated shock.

"Big sister, what happened to you? Did a thief break in last night?"

Inside, Elias was perfectly calm.

Pretty much as expected.

She looked almost exactly the way he had imagined Serena would look after a fight with Liora.

Actually, not even that terrible.

[System Theta: ???]

System Theta was buried under question marks.

Serena looked like this, and Elias still did not think she counted as miserable?

It no longer dared to imagine what Elias’s definition of miserable looked like.

Elias ignored whatever the system was thinking.

He was busy enjoying the performance.

There was no helping it. Serena in this damaged state was too tempting. That expensive, composed beauty of hers had been roughed up, her pride bruised worse than her skin. It would be a waste not to tease her.

Elias moved closer in an instant, nearly pressing against her body. His face filled with worry.

"Big sister, what happened? Was it because Eli threw a tantrum last night and made you mad?"

Mad?

He had nearly killed her with a single sentence.

But looking at Elias’s worried face, his eyes already wet like tears might fall at any second, Serena could not say anything blaming him.

Especially when he had come looking for her first thing in the morning after throwing that tantrum last night.

Toward other people, he was arrogant and unreasonable.

Toward her, the arrogance had softened into something spoiled enough to be coaxed.

Faced with a young man like this, what was Serena supposed to be dissatisfied with?

She pressed her lips together and held herself in silence for a long time. At last, her red lips parted.

"I’m fine," she said. "There was a mouse in the house last night. I was careless and got hurt."

The moment she said it, Elias almost lost control and laughed.

It was easy to imagine how desperate Serena must have been to explain the injuries on her body. She had thrown away her pride enough to say something this ridiculous.

Since Serena had gone that far, he had to play along properly.

Elias’s eyes filled with anger at once.

"How could there be a mouse in the house?" he demanded. "How are the staff cleaning this place?"

The angrier he got, the more it resembled last night.

"No. I’m going to ask them right now."

He turned as if to leave.

Serena grabbed his wrist at once. Her tone was stiff.

"It has nothing to do with the staff. I went to the back garden last night and ran into the mouse there."

"Big sister, why were you going to the back garden for no reason?"

Elias looked pure and confused, his eyes bright and clean as polished gems. Innocence sat on his face so naturally that even Serena, who knew how dangerous innocence could be, felt her throat tighten.

"Even if you went, why were you so careless? Do you know that when you get hurt, I feel bad for you?"

As he spoke, real distress seemed to rise in his eyes. He lifted a hand and touched her thigh lightly, his voice lowering.

"Does it hurt?"

Serena’s body trembled.

She clenched her teeth and still said, "It doesn’t hurt."

Elias dropped the act and laughed.

"Then that’s good."

"Big sister, come here."

He changed his grip, taking Serena by the hand and pulling her back to the bed. After guiding her to sit, he reached toward her clothes.

"Let me see if your upper body is hurt too."

The movement came too suddenly.

Serena caught his wrist by instinct and stopped him from going further.

Elias looked at her, confusion in his eyes.

For a moment, Serena thought he would let it go.

Then Elias seemed to understand something. He laughed softly.

"I get it."

Serena grew even more lost.

What did he get?

Elias leaned closer with a gentle, obedient expression. Then he lowered his head, caught the zipper of her jacket lightly between his teeth, and crouched in front of her.

The difference in height forced the movement into something intimate. He pulled the zipper down slowly with that small bite, and during the motion, he lifted his eyes to look at her.

From below, their gazes met.

The worst part was that Elias looked as if he had no idea what the posture meant.

His eyes were clear, almost too clear, giving off the confused innocence of a small animal that did not know why a predator had stopped breathing. It invited danger without appearing to understand danger at all.

The jacket opened.

Elias did not stand up.

His gaze dropped to Serena’s thigh.

There, just above the hem of her sleep shorts, was a clear red swelling. The skin around it had darkened from the impact, and faint traces of dried blood clung to one side. Liora’s kick had left an ugly mark on a body Serena had always kept immaculate.

Elias did not hesitate.

He lowered his head with an almost devout seriousness, as if a believer had seen the altar of his god, and pressed a kiss to the injury.

The touch landed on the broken skin.

Before Serena could process what he was doing, warmth brushed over the wound.

Brief.

Wet.

Soft enough to be unbearable.

The signal shot from her thigh to her brain. In the next instant, an image flashed through her mind with vicious clarity. A small, flexible tongue moving across the hurt, light as a secret and just as dangerous.

Serena’s body jolted.

"What are you doing?" she blurted.

Elias left her thigh for the moment.

He stayed crouched there, leaning against her leg without fully lifting his head. Only his eyes tilted upward, wet and pitiful, looking at her from below.

"I’m healing you, big sister."

Serena’s breathing went uneven.

"Is that how healing works?"

Elias finally lifted his head and looked at her fully.

A sweet smile appeared on his face.

Then he suddenly stuck out his tongue and pointed to it with one finger, speaking a little unclearly on purpose.

"Cat saliva helps with pain... You told me that, big sister. Did you forget?"

Serena’s mind went blank for half a beat.

The sentence should have been absurd.

It should have been childish nonsense from a spoiled boy trying to coax his way out of trouble. If it had come from anyone else, she could have laughed, scolded him, corrected him, or ordered him to stop.

But from Elias, crouched between her knees, lips still faintly damp, eyes bright under the morning light, it did not sound innocent.

It sounded like punishment wearing the face of care.

Serena’s fingers tightened around the bedsheet.

The warning from Yvonne Quinn returned again, clean and professional, the way a doctor’s voice always sounded more reasonable while giving someone permission to be dangerous.

Avoid overstimulation.

Avoid intense triggers.

Give the hypnosis time to stabilize.

Serena had followed the instruction as well as she could. She had swallowed anger. She had stepped around the old Elias and held the new one gently. She had let him cry, let him pout, let him push her, let him accuse her of having "another cat" while her palms bled from keeping herself still.

And now this.

Elias tilted his head.

"Big sister?"

He sounded unsure, almost hurt by her silence.

Serena forced herself to breathe.

The room around them was painfully ordinary in the morning light. The torn stockings from last night still lay on the floor. Her shoes were abandoned near the bed. The mirror across the room reflected a woman with bruises hidden poorly by sleep and pride.

And in front of her was Elias.

The liar.

The weapon.

The boy who knew nothing.

The man who knew far too much.

Serena reached down and touched the side of his face. Her fingers were light, almost cautious, as if she feared he would break or that she would.

"I didn’t forget," she said.

Her voice was low.

Elias smiled immediately, bright and satisfied, then lowered his gaze back to the injury like he had received permission.

Serena watched him.

She should stop him.

She knew she should stop him.

But Elias was the one kneeling there with that innocent face, and Serena was the one with both hands gripping the sheet like it was the only thing keeping her from falling.

Outside the bedroom, the Blackwood residence had already begun its morning. Staff moved softly in distant halls. No one approached this door. No one would, unless called. The house had always been good at giving Serena privacy.

Today, that privacy felt less like privilege and more like a locked room.

Elias lifted his eyes again.

"Does it hurt less now?"

Serena’s mouth moved.

For one second, she almost told the truth.

That nothing hurt less.

That her body hurt, her head hurt, her pride hurt, and her heart, the part she still refused to name properly, had been cut open and left awake all night.

Instead, she looked at Elias and gave him the answer he wanted.

"A little."

Elias beamed.

"See? I told you."

Then he leaned his cheek against her thigh, gentle as a cat settling beside its owner, and murmured with complete confidence, "Eli will take care of you."

Serena closed her eyes.

There was no blood on his hands.

That was what made it worse.