Chapter 40
"It was my oversight."
Medises sniffed for only a few seconds before the tall man stood up, straightened Su Lin's collar, and spoke calmly.
"Huh?"
"The nutrient solution you drink is meant to reproduce the Dew Nest's scent as closely as possible," Medises explained, seeing the bewilderment on Su Lin's face. "But I forgot that this scent is highly enticing to Blood Wings."
And Blood Wings made up the largest share of the Security Committee's members.
Medises concealed the darkness in his eyes.
He had never expected that, even as a larva and even wearing his personal marker, the strange scent of the Dew Nest on Su Lin could still stir those lower-ranking Blood Wings into such agitation.
This was bad.
Medises could feel a bloodthirsty urge surging within him, almost impossible to suppress: he wanted to rush back to the corridor and tear every one of those damned Zerg sneaking peeks at Su Lin to pieces.
The urge was so strong that he could barely maintain his perfect human mimicry.
"Th-then what do we do?"
Fortunately, Su Lin's voice instantly brought the silver-haired Zerg's faltering reason back from the brink.
As an unlucky straight man who couldn't even truss a chicken and was pathetically weak even after becoming a Zerg, Su Lin freaked the hell out when he heard that his scent could fucking attract other Zerg.
Medises took a deep breath without letting it show.
"Don't worry, it's only a minor problem," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "I'll inject you with some pheromone fluid-I assume you already know what that does, don't you?"
Injecting one Zerg with the pheromone fluid of a stronger male would cover the former in the latter's scent.
By that principle, once Medises injected Su Lin with his pheromone fluid, the other Blood Wings would naturally mistake Su Lin for a honey Zerg-one that had already been chosen and had a powerful master.
"Once you're covered in my scent, the Dew Nest's scent on you won't be so noticeable."
"Huh?"
Su Lin naturally understood what Medises meant. He had actually done something similar once before, and it should have been no big deal. But Medises's bite in the examination room had hurt so much that Su Lin still trembled a little whenever he thought about it.
"Th-then, se... Master, could you be gentle?"
Su Lin looked up and spoke cautiously.
Medises gave him a long look and nodded. "Pull your collar aside and hold it there."
Su Lin hadn't noticed one of Medises's little quirks-the silver-haired Zerg hadn't been nearly so lazy when sniffing his scent earlier.
At this moment, his mind was filled with nothing but feeble self-comfort: he had to take this bite one way or another, so the sooner it was over, the better.
A real straight man wasn't afraid of a nibble.
"Go ahead, Master."
Su Lin tilted his head, shut his eyes, and blurted it out as he tugged at his collar.
After his last experience, he was ready for excruciating pain, but...
The lips that touched Su Lin's neck were cool and soft.
Unlike Carlos's pheromone injection, Medises's mouthparts for injecting pheromone fluid were exceptionally sharp and hard. Su Lin had barely felt anything when Carlos injected pheromone fluid into him, but Medises's injection made itself intensely felt.
Su Lin could feel the needle-like mouthpart piercing his skin bit by bit, and he could feel the slightly warm pheromone fluid entering his blood in streams. The sensations were so intense that they made him dizzy, but... it didn't hurt.
Medises had heeded Su Lin's plea. This time, he really was very gentle-almost a little too gentle.
The overly slow injection allowed the pheromone fluid to permeate every inch of Su Lin's flesh, and a tingling numbness spread from the puncture in his neck. For some reason, Su Lin thought of how certain insects in the human world seemed to inject neurotoxins into their prey to immobilize them. Under the toxin's effects, the poor prey would then gradually melt into soft meat juices, until the predator happily sucked them dry.
For one extremely brief moment, Su Lin felt as though he were just such a pitiful little bug, about to turn into meat juice.
He felt as if he were about to melt.
The weakness forced Su Lin to clutch Medises's collar tightly, using it to steady himself.
It was then that he realized he could smell Medises too.
It wasn't an ordinary scent, but... one that only a Zerg should have been able to perceive.
It smelled like wine, some kind of strongly fragrant flower, and a little blood.
For some reason, the scent left Su Lin flustered. Strange, scorching ripples spread continuously through his body, centered on the wound where the mouthpart had pierced his neck.
Along with them came that familiar, tipsy sensation and pleasure caused by the pheromones' hunting effect.
Su Lin was so dizzy that he could barely tell when Medises withdrew his mouthpart and moved away from him.
Fortunately, the dizziness didn't last very long this time. He rested for a little while in Medises's arms and gradually came to his senses.
Now even he could tell that he seemed to have acquired a new scent.
Yes, it was that same deep, distinctive scent he had smelled on Medises before.
Su Lin instinctively touched his neck.
The sensation of Medises biting him had been so intense that he had thought the wound would be deep, but the puncture left by the mouthpart was actually not as bad as he had imagined.
It still felt numb to the touch, though.