Chapter 4
Rin fought his hunger all night.
At dawn, the nurse brought an injured rabbit. One hind leg was bent, and its wet fur trembled beneath my hands.
Rin watched its throat.
I watched him.
He carried the rabbit outside and returned with a splint made from two wooden sticks.
"You don't eat rabbits?" I asked.
"I do," Rin admitted.
"Then why is it alive?"
"You looked at me."
He still hid his meals. When his fangs showed, he covered his mouth. When his coat carried a smell I did not want to recognize, he changed before entering my room. He was not becoming human. He was a monster learning restraint for one woman.
I told him I was returning to the base.
"No," Rin said.
"You don't own me."
"Everything else," Rin replied.
He meant I could have anything except freedom.
"You sound like some rich CEO," I told him. "Except you have no money, no company, and possibly no brain. You own one haunted building."
The next morning, a black car appeared outside. Behind it came crates of medicine, canned food, clothes, and a working generator.
Rin also replaced my door with a bank vault door.
"Take it off," I ordered.
He tore the steel door out of the wall.
By the seventh day, he had learned to knock, stand outside while I dressed, and ask before putting his hands on me. He did not always like the answer.
That afternoon, I stood on a chair to reach medicine above the kitchen cabinet. Rin appeared behind me and caught my waist before the chair could wobble.
"I wasn't falling," I told him.
"You might," Rin said.
His hands remained around my waist. My back rested against his chest. Cold lips hovered near the place where my neck met my shoulder.
"You forgot to ask," I said.
Rin loosened his hold, but he did not step away.
"May I keep you here?" he asked.
The question meant his arms. It also meant the nursing home, the horde, and the strange little life he had prepared for me.
I turned within his grip. The counter trapped me behind, and his body closed the space in front. His pale eyes dropped to my mouth.
"For ten seconds," I said.
Rin held me as if I were the first warm thing he had touched in years. His forehead lowered to mine. The scar beside his mouth brushed my cheek. He did not kiss me, though every line of his body said he wanted to.
At ten, his arms opened.
I hated how long the cold shape of his hands remained on my skin.
Later, I carried the rabbit into the courtyard. The bandage at my neck had loosened, revealing one bright spot of blood. Every zombie turned toward me. Their shoulders lifted. Their feet began to scrape over the ground.
Rin stepped behind me and covered the red mark with two fingers. His other arm circled my waist, pulling me against the shelter of his body.
"Down," Rin commanded the horde.
Hundreds of zombies immediately buried their faces in the dirt. Now I understood: they wanted my blood, but they feared disappointing him more.
An engine roared beyond the gate.
The zombies raised their heads again, this time toward the sound. A patrol truck smashed through the rusted fence. Zhao Yong stepped out with a rifle against his shoulder.
"Miss Ye, get away from that thing!" Zhao Yong shouted.
Before I could answer, Zhao Yong aimed at Rin and pulled the trigger.