When he returns, she's still asleep. As he promised her, he doesn't wake her up. He sits down on the chair while watching her. Is he making things worse for her?
He picks his phone and calls his lawyer friend. He can't get that name out of his head.
[I was waiting.]
"Did you find the murderer?"
[I found the pieces of his body. Should I send them to you? How long has it been since you ate human meat?]
"I don't eat it anymore."
[Sure, what do you eat then?]
"Maybe dwarves," Eli replies with a straightforward voice. "I have been craving a fat dwarf's meat."
[...Don't scare me.] The dwarf sounds a little afraid.
"I won't scare you if you talk sense." Eli sighs.
[You are in a bad mood.]
"I don't want anything to stress her out." Eli glances at her. "She had suffered enough."
[Being married to you should be stressful enough.] The dwarf chuckles. [I saw the post. Didn't you rush it? Love can't be forced. You can't change your nature.]
Eli doesn't reply. It's true that he rushed it. However, things might work between them. She might come to love him. He won't give up.
[What was in the pouch?]
Nell rolls to her side, mumbling something about wanting to beat someone up in her sleep. Eli smiles. What is she dreaming about? Is he in her dream?
"A concubine bracelet."
[Are you sure?]
"It had her name on it."
If she had touched it, she would have gone to the fae realm on her own to become someone's woman.
[Eli, if she owes a Fae, there's nothing you and I do. Is there any mark on her body?]
"She doesn't have anyone's mark." Except his. "I don't think that she made any deal with them in the past."
[Is she a firstborn? Maybe someone else in her family made a deal with them. It could be her father or mother. However, they don't wait this long. Most often, firstborns are taken away before they turn 13.]
That's why he's suspicious. Something doesn't add up. If she owed anyone, they would have come to get her. Why did they send a hexed bracelet in a leprechaun's hand?
"Baek Joon-Woo… Did you hear that name when you were looking into her background?"
[That name did appear in the council's report. He visited her in the hospital before he killed himself.]
"You are mentioning this to me now?" Eli asks him with a quiet voice.
[Don't blame me. I was scared of telling more. You are not famous for your temper.]
Eli leans back and sighs. "Can you look into him? I want to know if he was connected to the incident."
[I will put the leprechaun on the work then.] The dwarf laughs. [Though the murderer is dead, there is enough evidence left. Whoever killed the murderer wanted your wife to end up in prison, but that person didn't do a good job of erasing evidence.]
They probably didn't think that Benny would be handling the case. Someone took advantage of the coincidence to drive her to the corner. But who killed the cat and compelled Mr Emerson to kill himself?
"How did Baek Joon-Woo die?"
[He hanged himself in his classroom. He left her a letter though. The content of the letter wasn't mentioned in the report.]
Mr Emerson also hanged himself in the bookstore.
"A letter…" He wonders if she still has it. "Call me if you find something about Baek Joon-Woo."
[All right.]
He puts down the phone, still staring at her sleeping figure with pensive eyes. If that incident was an accident, why would they come for her after such a long time? That bracelet too… Satyrs won't send it. Baek Joon-Woo is already dead. Who wants to claim her from the Fae realm? If he had never found her, would she be already a part of the Fae realm or already dead?
Eli goes to her. He sits beside her and brushes the hair away from her ear. A ghoul's scent and mark should be enough to ward off other creatures if it's a simple matter of admiration. However, the matter isn't that simple.
"Hmm." He touches her ear. The marks are already gone. Life treasure is working well with her body. Sighing, Eli bends down and lightly bites her earlobe. Her sweet scent infiltrates his senses, overwhelming him. He closes his eyes and inhales, not letting go of her. It's only for a moment.
He feels her fingers in his hair. She's awake. He parts his mouth, letting go with reluctance. Before he could move away, Nell raises her head and bites his ear hard.
"Ow!" What's she doing? It's not a lover's bite! She's trying to chomp his ear off. "Wife, Wife, don't do it that way."
Blood trickles down his neck, soaking the collar of his shirt. His eyes fill with tears. Nell glides her tongue over his ear, sucking it once before she pulls away and stares at him with a dead expression. Her lips are red with his blood. Eli touches his mauled ear and looks at her with widened eyes, quite shaken by the turn of events.
"I told you not to wake me up." She glowers at him darkly. "We might be married, but I hate people who disturb me when I am asleep."
"I-I won't do it again." Never again. Eli blinks his eyes when she wipes the trail of his blood on her chin with her thumb and licks it. She just drank a ghoul's blood.
She notices the baffled look on his face. "Doctor Sanguine, I told you that I am a crazy person. This isn't the first time when I bit a human being like a mad dog."
He's not a human though; nevertheless, he's scared of her. "You did it before?"
"Yeah, I bit a girl when she was trying to bully me during junior high school." She licks her lips. "Your blood tastes strange. It's… how should I explain? Spicy? Doctor Sanguine, you should get a physical check-up. Blood usually tastes like iron."
He gawks at her. His heart is thumping hard. Something about her is just… His wife is hot.