Blood Shadow's Favor.

The Wounded Stranger

As Sarah awkwardly half-carried, half-supported the man into the elevator, she couldn’t quite grasp why she had acted on impulse and brought him home. Exhausted, she leaned against the elevator walls, gasping for breath. The thought of her earlier slip about the man being her “boyfriend” gnawed at her with regret.

The building was silent at this late hour, and the elevator moved swiftly. By the time it reached the seventh floor, Sarah had recovered a bit of her strength. She struggled to lift the man’s weight and, as soon as the door opened, she practically dropped him onto the couch.

Leaning against the coffee table, Sarah collapsed onto the carpet, her face flushed and her legs trembling. Only then did she have a moment to truly observe the man she had dragged home. Her breath caught in her throat as she took in his features.

His short hair barely concealed his brows, his chiseled features sculpted to near-perfection. Rain-drenched lashes framed eyes that seemed to glimmer with a captivating allure. A high, straight nose and thin lips completed a face of almost ethereal beauty. His broad shoulders and lean waist made him strikingly handsome, verging on the otherworldly.

“He’s so beautiful…” Sarah murmured to herself.

However, the sight of his pale skin and the bruised wound on his forehead made her feel uneasy. Gathering her composure, she retrieved the medical kit from under the coffee table and carefully began to tend to his injuries.

Just as she was about to put away the kit, she noticed a faint red stain on the white couch. Leaning in, she detected a metallic scent—blood. The man’s black shirt had concealed the extent of his injuries, but now, mixed with rainwater, the blood had seeped onto the couch cover.

With trembling hands, Sarah lifted the edge of his shirt to reveal a gaping wound about seven or eight centimeters long across his abdomen. The flesh around it was slightly opened, whitened from being soaked in rainwater.

Her eyes widened in shock. She fumbled for her phone, intending to call an ambulance. It was clear now that she would need to visit both the hospital and the police station.

Just as she was about to dial, a white blur darted across her vision, and suddenly her phone was gone. She saw a flash of pale, slender fingers. Looking up, she realized the man had regained consciousness and was now staring at her with chilling eyes.

“What are you doing?” His voice was cold and demanding.

“Calling an ambulance,” Sarah replied, stunned by his sudden wakefulness. She fought to maintain her composure, sensing the danger he posed.

“Where is this?”

“My home.”

The man seemed to relax slightly, his tense posture easing as he processed the information. “Don’t go to the hospital. Come here.” His fingers deftly deleted the emergency number from her phone screen and handed it back to her.

Sarah took the phone reluctantly. “Your injury is severe. I only know how to handle basic first aid.”

“That’s enough.” He touched the bandaged wound on his forehead with a resigned gesture.

“It’s different. We need to go to the hospital…” Sarah began to argue.

“It’s all the same to me.”

They locked eyes in silence. Sarah, feeling she had done all she could, decided to comply with his wishes. If he wouldn’t go to the hospital, there was nothing more she could do.

While applying the alcohol for disinfection, she tried to be gentle, but the lengthy wound was painful to look at. Meanwhile, the man seemed impervious to pain, his eyes remaining shut, his expression passive as if he were resigned to his fate.

After treating the wound, Sarah needed him to sit up to wrap the bandages. She instructed him to do so, and as he complied, his cool body pressed against her as she worked.

The process took over an hour, and Sarah was drenched in sweat from the tension. Glancing at the man resting on the couch, she saw him still wet and the couch stained with blood.

She retrieved a blanket and a new couch cover from the bedroom. “Get up,” she said, holding out the fresh blanket.

Aungel, the man, observed Sarah’s busy movements, the faint, sweet scent of her lingering whenever she approached. It was the same clean, sweet smell he had noticed before losing consciousness.

“Tonight, you’ll stay here. The blanket is new.” Sarah adjusted the air conditioning to 26°C, then turned to head to her bedroom.

The journey home had been exhausting, and her half-drenched clothes clung uncomfortably to her. She longed for a hot shower to ease her discomfort.

As she closed the bedroom door, she glanced back. “You can take off your clothes and leave them here. There’s nothing for you to wear, and the lights are off.”

With a click, the room was enveloped in darkness. After hearing the door close and the faint sound of it locking, Aungel began to undress, tossing his shirt onto the floor. He slipped under the new blanket, his movements smooth and confident, showing that the darkness did not hinder his vision.

He had come out secretly to handle business for the Shengshi Group. On his way back, he had been careless, allowing his adversary to strike. When he was stabbed with a silver dagger and collapsed from blood loss, he had almost resigned himself to death.

Yet, when he saw a blurred figure approaching, he instinctively reached out for salvation, as if desperate for redemption from hell.

Even after being easily dragged to the ground and the rain pounding his face, he only fully regained his senses when his strength had waned and the footsteps had faded. He had to admit he felt a grudging sense of relief when the girl from the alley returned and took him home.

In the familiar darkness, wrapped in the faint scent of the blanket, his nerves finally relaxed. His gaze fell on the softly glowing numbers of the air conditioner’s display, and he gave a quiet, derisive laugh.

A vampire should never fear the cold.