Thirst for Blood

"I need to step up my game." He whispered as the sound of running water from the sink cleared his mind.

Alexander cleaned his hands with soap and gurgled his mouth with mouthwash to remove the blood taste. After rinsing and drying his fingers carefully, he sniffed his hands again to make sure no traces of the iron stench were left behind. Satisfied with the strawberry fragrance soap, he exited the bathroom to find an unexpected guest holding on the fur ball.

He frowned seeing the elder man with bones as thin as a stick figure standing there like a living skeleton. His dirty, rotten fingers were curiously rolling the fur ball in his palms with great interest. Hearing the door creak open, he shifted his attention on Alexander.

"This belongs to that girl?" His voice was low but still loud enough for him to hear.

"Why did you come into my room again? Was it not enough to cause havoc once that you want to do it a second time?" Alexander avoided the man's question and walked casually to retrieve the fur ball.

Before he could grab a hold of the fur ball, the old man's stinky fingers gripped on it tightly; he did not plan on letting go.

"Let go." Alexander warned as his narrowed, sharp gaze filled with annoyance struck the old man's calmness.

"You've never dared to disobey my words. Have you forgotten who saved you? How dare you act in such ungrateful behavior to an elderly? Have I not taught you manners?" The man's crimson veins almost burst as his eyes widened in shock. He had no expect Alexander to reveal such murderous stares at him.

Smiling calmly, Alexander fixed his sleeves, "I may have been weak and lowered my guard when you slapped me earlier. If I didn't, then it would be less believable to others' eyes that I was vulnerable in front of you. Did you really think an old hag like you did anything for me? Perhaps you ordered grandpa to hold Qian Ling as hostage just to find a cure for me, but you weren't the one who saved me. It was Qian Ling. Therefore, stop discrediting others and sucking up more credits than you could receive."

Seeing the elder man gnash his teeth, Alexander paid no attention as his hand already twisted the angular wrist bone that holds the fur ball and forced his fingers to spread. "Besides, what kind of manners was I taught? I was raised to kill and repay your so-called kindness. If I wasn't wounded earlier, would you think you could lay even a finger on me? Right, only my grandpa could demand from me. As for you?"

He paused and lifted his middle finger after retrieving the fur ball. He mouthed, "F*ck you and your blood fetish. That's exactly how you get such loose skin."

"You..You! I'll go to your grandfather and ask how he raised such an irresponsible, discourteous grandson! Very well. You can call him grandfather, but can't call me great grandfather? Don't forget your roots. You're a Shi. I originally planned to speak to you about some matters, but now? I've decided to not want any other corpse blood."

"As for saving you, heh...Did you naively think that Qian Ling would obediently stay here? If it weren't for me, who came up with the perfect plan to force that pill down her system, you would have died already! So, your next task is to kill that girl you favor. If you don't then my men won't hesitate to." The smile on the man's face curled to an ignorant bastard looking smirk that anyone would punch.

He licked his chapped, wrinkly lips that is barely visible from the drooping skin on his face. "I will take that girl's blood and kill her in front of you. I'll make you watch as every drop of her blood drips into my bath tub. I won't let my prey off."

"Sure. Do it. Let's see you try. Since you guys are pushing it past my bottom line, then I should return the favor and burn down this whole place. I'll have your research and all these laboratory work go down the drain. Ah, and I'll make sure to kill you off first as compensation for her life. Old man." Alexander rolled his eyes and went back to the bathroom to give the furball a bath.

Hearing the threat from Alexander's firm tone as if he could literally kill him on the spot, the elderly man stepped back a few steps. Being struck at his worst fear, his boney hands formed a hard fist.

Alexander always minded his own business since young. He knew how his life was saved by Qian Ling, but never knew she had suffered this much under their threat. Finding out the truth behind her stay, he clenched his fist roughly as he cleansed the fur ball. 'A pill? We'll see about that.'

If saving Ariana from their blood-stained hands was the first thing he planned to do, then looking for a cure to whatever pill Qian Ling was forcibly fed would be the final mission of his. Except, in this case, looking into the pill would be his priority since Ariana is still far from this underground place.

Looking down at the wet, soapy ball in his hand, his eyes softened. His fingers rubbed it gently until it was as clean as it were before that man had touched it. He blow dried the fur and smiled when it was as good as new in his palms.

"Now that you are clean...It's time for me to visit the labs." He felt the soft fur once more before putting it back in his secret drawer.

Meanwhile, Lin Que, Chen Nan and Chen Mu stared at the white pill with crossed arms. They leaned on the counter and observed the pill to make sure nothing was missed. After repeatedly conducting the same pill for the nth time with the same results slapped to their bruised cheeks, they started to question their doctors license.

Three famous doctors from both the underground side and legal side were scratching their heads on this one unidentifiable pill. Chen Mu mumbled, "What if this isn't actually a pill and that's why we can't detect anything from it?"

Two pairs of eyes landed on this gentleman's remark. Chen Nan picked up the pill and squinted, "That's not impossible, but the thing is that we only have one pill. If we use it in the lab using acids and other chemicals, we might lose our last evidence to save Qian Ling."

Lin Que nodded, "Yes, I agree. But if this is not a pill, then what could it be? I've never seen anything like this before even though I've practically read the entire university collection on medical books."

Chen Mu held out his palm and said, "Let me see that again?" This time, he took a magnifying glass to see if anything was overlooked by them. Unfortunately, nothing special was found even under the magnifying glass.