AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hm?”
“It’s poking me.”
“I know.”
Eden rolled her eyes. He was obviously doing this on purpose and having fun. She liked it better when he couldn’t do stuff like this because of his headache... She decided not to insist, though. It would be too easy for him to keep annoying her. Instead, she smiled and discreetly turned the tap to cold water...
“Ah!”
He stepped back and Eden chuckled, finally turning around and washing the conditioner out of her hair. Dante was now standing away from the cold water with a sullen expression.
“What is it?” she smiled. “Mr. Rich Tiger isn’t used to cold showers...?”
“We could have had some fun.”
“We had enough, and I just finished washing. So keep the tiger in check. We need to talk too.”
The smile disappeared from his lips. Dante sighed and sat back on the edge of the bathtub, staring at her under the cold stream. They both knew what Eden was talking about, he just didn’t look in a hurry to get there.
“It’s nothing interesting.”
“I’m your bodyguard,” she retorted. “I need to know what I need to know.”
Dante raised an eyebrow. When Eden was finally admitting she was his bodyguard, it was only to have the upper hand. He grabbed the shampoo to start washing his own hair, and Eden slowly turned the hot water back on. Oh, it was even better after a cold one... She slowly raised the temperature, to the point where her skin got all red, and it was one degree away from unbearable. Next time, she’d definitely take a proper bath in here...
“Your eyes were black too,” she said.
That was one thing she was the most surprised about. Eden knew there were many different kinds of Parts available, some made of actual human bodies but genetically modified to have some extra properties. Those were the rarest and most expensive, of course... accessible only to the very wealthy.
“You didn’t think they were naturally gold, did you?” he said with a smirk.
Eden frowned. Of course not... Dante sighed, and put his hand between his eyes. For a few seconds, she couldn’t see what he was doing. He seemed to be moving his fingers and wriggling something around... until his skin came off. Not just a thin layer, but a large chunk. It began halfway up his nose, spanning the area between his eyebrows, and ending a bit higher on his forehead. Eden gasped.
Underneath that area, a large, blood-red scar was now exposed. It was one ugly scar, but what struck Eden the most was the visible hole in the middle. It was an obvious gunshot wound.
“...Who?”
“Enemies of my father,” said Dante. “I was kidnapped, and they asked my father to pay ransom while I was being tortured to make him comply. He didn’t give the money. He only sent Rolf to retrieve my body... Only to find out that I was still alive. So he sent me to surgery. In my father’s book, surviving a gunshot wound was more worth his while than letting me be kidnapped. I woke up with new eyes to replace those that had been burned by the blast, the crushed bones replaced by Parts, and a synthetic skin to cover it, as a Zodiac shall never show his weaknesses...”
Eden believed that easily. Actually, she never would have found out about that horrible scar if it wasn’t for his headache, and Dante removing the synthetic skin covering it.
However, now that she could see this apparent gunshot wound on his head, there was serious doubt hovering in her mind. It couldn’t be... right? The very precise spot of his gunshot wound was disturbing her. No, maybe it was merely a coincidence. It had to be. The Tiger and many of the other mafiosos always shot someone right in the head when they meant it to be a clear, clean execution. Moreover, Dante was of half-Asian descent. He had black hair and was tall... A chill went down Eden’s spine.
“...How... How old were you? I mean, when you were shot?”
“Nineteen.”
She let out a very faint sigh of relief. The timing didn’t match. Adam had been shot when he was fifteen or sixteen, about ten years before. He would have been twenty-five today. Dante was shot at nineteen years old. Eden didn’t know how old the Zodiac was, but it didn’t match. For a few seconds, she felt stupid.
“...What is it?”
Eden blushed, realizing Dante had noticed her trouble.
“It’s just... My brother Adam was shot in the same place.”
Dante slowly nodded, putting back his fake skin. It was impressive how easily it got back into its spot and how unnoticeable it was once it was there...
“It was my father’s favorite... spot to shoot at. Apparently there’s an extremely slim chance of surviving this with the current weapons if the bullet hits right on the bone. Sometimes I wonder if he didn’t shoot me himself.”
