To the rescue

I nervously squeezed the stranger's phone while listening to the waiting signal. Finally, someone took the call.

"Master?! Where are you?! Everyone's looking for your highness!" The man's voice feverishly shouted over the phone.

"Um… h-hello?" I muttered hesitantly.

"Who is this?" The person on the other side of the phone changed his tone, "How did you get Master's phone?" he asked harshly.

"Am I talking to… Leo?" I waited for the reply, but the silence made me realize it was a dumb question, "Your… friend, master or… whatever, had a car accident. I found him. He told me not to call an ambulance, and call you instead…" I explained nervously.

Leo became quiet for some time. I even checked if he didn't hang up the phone.

"H-hello?" I mumbled, impatient for any kind of response.

"I tracked the phone. Wait there. We will be there in 20 minutes tops," he stated coldly and ended the call.

I wanted to say something, but I merely opened my mouth and gasped when I heard the clicking sound of the phone hanging up.

"Seriously?! How about "please wait" or "thank you for calling me"?! Who does he think he is?!" I muttered, annoyed.

Then I looked at the car and an unconscious silver-haired guy. I sighed, then clenched my teeth. I found calling some "Leo" instead of getting an ambulance here completely insane. Besides, that guy in the car looked like he was already dead.

"What if this Leo gets here and blames me for his "master's" death?!" I wondered frantically.

In an instinctual reaction, I decided to at least get him out of the car and try performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. No matter how the silver-haired opposed bringing him to the hospital, leaving him without not even trying to rescue him seemed inhuman.

I walked back towards the car and opened the door on the driver's side wide. Then I grabbed his arms and bit by bit tried to move him out of the car. I kept looking for any signs of a major injury, but his bleeding occurred solely around his nose and mouth. Then I also noticed blood under his fingernails.

"What the hell?! Is he sick or something?!" I wondered frantically while pulling out his unconscious body.

Finally, I managed to get him out of the car and lay him down on the ground on the side of the road. I took a closer look at his face. He was amazingly handsome. He truly looked like an angel. He wore a black, fitted suit and a dark grey shirt, which additionally made him irresistible. I couldn't understand myself, but somehow I found every detail about him amazingly alluring…

"Should I check if he doesn't have any injuries under that shirt…?" I wondered hesitantly while taking another deep breath.

Certainly, I slapped my own face for having weird thoughts towards an innocent victim of an accident. Then I clenched my fists, trying to tell myself to focus on switching my brain to rationality.

"I should definitely check his pulse again, and then perform CPR," I decided.

I reached out my trembling hand towards his neck. I didn't even know why I was nervous so much. Perhaps, it was because his aura was overwhelming even though he was lying on the ground unconscious. I touched the side of his neck, pressing the carotid artery. His skin was cold as if his body temperature was way below 36.6°C. Then I felt his pulse, but it was strange… It was unnaturally slow. As I counted, it was less than twenty beats per minute.

My mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts, "I shouldn't perform CPR merely because his heartbeat is slow, right? Even if his heart beats weakly, it is still a beating heart, right? What if he is hibernating or something? Should I warm him up, or is it his normal temperature? What the hell is he?!"

Suddenly, I saw some weird blue lines painting themselves across his veins and arteries on his neck. I followed my unrestrainable curiosity and unbuttoned his shirt. The blue lines were more visible on his chest, making every one of his blood vessels clearly visible. His condition obviously wasn't caused by an accident. It looked like some kind of disease. I only hoped that this Leo would be really able to help him…

I had no idea about his condition. His state could be contagious, but even though I felt illogically drawn towards him. I gently touched the skin on his perfectly muscled chest and ran my fingers across the blue line on his jugular towards his heart. I did it unconsciously. When I realized I was touching him, I quickly moved my hand away, giving myself a mental slap.

"Lilith, you really are a horny pervert!" I rebuked myself, unable to understand my own actions.

I buttoned up his shirt again and additionally covered his chest with his jacket. I did it solely to prevent myself from doing something awkward again, but inside my mind, I used the excuse that I was doing it to keep the patient warm…

Suddenly, I saw some cars heading in our direction. One of them looked like a limousine, the other one was a larger van, and the third one looked like a car transporter. They were all black, and the car lights almost blinded me. The limousine stopped right beside the unconscious guy and me. Two other cars parked right behind it. Some men started walking out of those cars. They were all wearing black suits which made them resemble government security agents. It was hard to see their faces because of the cars' headlights. They moved in silence, completely ignoring my presence. A few of them immediately rushed towards the silver-haired man. The rest surrounded the whole street, securing the area around the accident. Those who went towards the silver-haired carried armored, aluminum briefcases. I wanted to see what they were about to do, but one of those men hurriedly walked towards me and blocked my view.

"Are you the one I talked to on the phone?" he asked coldly.

"I-I guess… You are Leo, right?" I smiled nervously.

The man stepped closer. His demeanor resembled a kind of ancient noble posture and gestures. His fair skin and perfectly combed dark-brown hair made him look even more sophisticated, yet his overpowering expression made me feel uncomfortable.

"My name is Leonard Gotha. I would appreciate it if you called me respectably," he hissed. "Do you mind introducing yourself, Miss?"

His arrogance made my temple vein twitch. I forcefully stretched my grimace into an awkward smile while doing my best to hold back my annoyance.

"My name is Lilith Fleming… Mr. Gotha," I squeezed out.

"Fleming… like Alexander Fleming?" he chuckled mockingly.

"Yes. Is there something wrong with my name?" I grunted.

"Not at all, Ms. … Fleming," he smirked, looking me up and down.

I became slightly flustered. No one had ever questioned any of my numerous identities and last names I made up over the years. How did he know that it was a fake name right away?! I figured that I should change the subject as soon as possible…

"Is… is he going to be ok?" I pointed at the silver-haired while leaning out from his right shoulder.

He hurriedly stepped to the right, blocking my view again.

"Master's condition will improve as soon as he gets his medicine," he claimed, clearly annoyed by my curiosity.

"What kind of medicine that would be?" I smirked, intentionally getting on his nerves.

"This is none of your concern, Ms. Fleming," he hissed.

"Well… it kind of is," I smirked, looking straight into his eyes. "His state wasn't caused by an accident, which means he is sick. If his state is caused by a contagious disease, then don't you think it would be best if I knew about it as well?"

"Oh, I assure you that Master's state is not easily transmittable," he chuckled.

"Really? Then what is it?" I had no intention of backing off.

Mr. Gotha sighed, "He was poisoned. Moreover, his phone was off. Thanks to you, we got here in time to save him," he stated dryly.

"That was the worst "thank you" I've ever heard," I muttered softly, irked.

"Don't worry. I'm certain that my Master would like to award you once he regains his consciousness. I'm sure that the money check will be more than satisfactory," he replied, obviously hearing my complaints.

"No need," I glared at him, "your master saved my life once. He may think of it as returning a favor."

"H-how did you meet Master before?!" he burst out fearfully, looking me up and down.

His sudden reaction made me flinch and step back, but then I saw him staring into my eyes, impatient to hear my answer. I took a deep breath.

"He came to the café that I worked, and then he showed up when I was in trouble and saved me from… my problem," I shrugged.

I noticed Mr. Gotha started glancing at the sides of my neck. His peculiar, spiteful stare made me feel as if he suspected me of doing something dirty, but I couldn't comprehend his reasons. Nonetheless, it made me uncontrollably cover my neck with my hands. When I did, he clicked his tongue.

"Anyway… we will take care of everything, so you may go your way, Ms. Fleming," he tossed nonchalantly, turned around, and walked towards the rest of the men gathered around the silver-haired guy.

The level of his insolence made me speechless. If my brain worked faster enough to react, I would have surely punched that smug face of his. I watched him go while angrily clenching my teeth. The men in the suits took the silver-haired guy's unconscious body to the back of the black van. They also carefully packed all the aluminum briefcases and brought them back to their cars. In the meantime, the crashed car was already loaded on the car transporter. I didn't even notice when it all had happened. It resembled some kind of top-secret mission. Realizing that brought chills to my spine. I just hoped that none of them would decide to get rid of the only living witness…

Yet, the reality was quite the opposite of what I expected. Everyone abruptly went back to their cars, ignoring me just as before. Mr. Gotha turned around briefly to nod his head, which I was probably supposed to read as "goodbye", and then they drove away leaving me in the middle of the dark and empty road!

It took me a while to realize my poor situation. Only when I was left alone, hearing nothing but the sound of crickets and owls calling from the nearby woods, my mind restarted, and my blood began to boil.

"Seriously?! You didn't even ask me if I wanted a ride home?!" I shouted angrily.

I wanted to kick something to release my rage. On the side of the road, I saw a piece of plastic left by them. The fact that they even left some trash behind them made me even more mad. I swung my foot, making the plastic fly. Only then did I notice it was a plastic bag. As I kicked it, some leftover drops of fluid fell out, staining my white sports shoe.

"Really?! This day couldn't be more unlucky!" I fumed, taking out a tissue from my pocket and wiping the shoe.

I couldn't see the stains clearly, so I pulled out my phone and turned on a flashlight. The tissue that I wiped the shoe with was all colored in red.

"Is this… blood?" I gulped.