Chapter 116: D-Do you really mean that
Aadav, despite his bouts of bitter jealousy and slightly immature antics, was an undeniably skilled wheelman.
He handled the heavy yellow bus with impressive finesse, navigating around debris, neatly threading past clustered vehicle wrecks, and occasionally flattening a lone, wandering zombie with a dull, satisfying crunch beneath the massive front tires. They were making steady progress back toward the grocery storage facility.
Jenny’s motorcycle had been topped off with siphoned fuel and firmly strapped to the bus’s reinforced roof rack for emergency use, while the silver Camry was abandoned back at Oxford High. In the post-apocalyptic ruins, operational sedans were practically a dime a dozen.
Stowing the bike was simply practical—it offered extreme mobility and an easy solo getaway if the road ahead ever turned entirely impassable.
Some might have argued that keeping the Camry to trail behind the bus was a safer redundancy, but Fredrinn deliberately chose against it.
He had no intention of physically alienating himself from the bulk of the survivors. Isolating himself in a luxury convoy would make him look like an arrogant, self-important dictator who couldn’t care less about the collective herd.
While absolute personal power was the only true currency that mattered, public perception and smooth group dynamics still held undeniable strategic value.
Back in the spacious rear of the bus, Fredrinn sat comfortably on a wide, three-person vinyl bench.
Rose clung possessively to his right side like a piece of living silk, resting her cheek against his bicep. Jenny was seated to his left, her arms folded tightly beneath her chest in a state of perpetual, stubborn pouting.
Every few minutes, she let out a sharp, dismissive huff—a pointed little noise calculated solely to draw his attention and remind him that she was deeply displeased with his blatant audacity.
Like the shameless rogue he was, Fredrinn casually bypassed her obvious passive-aggression.
Sliding his arm over her shoulders, he pulled her in slightly. "This outside trip had surely turned out to be a lot different than expected, huh?"
He glanced down affectionately at Rose, who looked up with a serene, devoted smile. "I didn’t even know literal demons existed on Earth, let alone finding myself tangled up with one."
"You mean sleeping with one," Jenny corrected through gritted teeth.
She reached up, wrapping both hands around his forearm in an attempt to pry his grip off her shoulder, but she couldn’t budge his wrist an inch.
Why the hell was this guy so terrifyingly strong?!
"I mean... yeah, that’s fair," Fredrinn chuckled smoothly.
Instead of releasing her, he slid his hand lower, letting his broad palm rest firmly along the inward curve of her slender waist. Jenny offered a half-hearted squirm before collapsing into a defeated, flustered pout against his flank.
"You really are an irritating bastard," she grumbled under her breath.
From the other side, Rose’s crimson eyes flared with a subtle, razor-sharp edge, but Jenny deliberately refused to back down.
If she wanted to establish her standing in his circle and avoid being treated like an expendable piece of luggage, she had to show some backbone.
The lines were already crossed anyway. She had compromised her pride, kissed him, and gone remarkably far in the back of that sedan while fully aware of his relationship.
Pretending to be an innocent, detached bystander was entirely pointless now.
"You took my first... uhm..." Jenny’s cheeks burned a furious scarlet, her voice dropping to an urgent, mortified whisper. "You took my first oral experience, had your hands all over me down there, and then you were casually having sex with a demon right after in the front seat? Do you have any shred of shame in that body of yours?"
Her words were hushed, but in the enclosed bus cabin, the raw tension carried. A couple of teenage students sitting two rows ahead instinctively twisted their necks to look back.
Catching their curious eyes, Jenny felt like ripping open the floorboards and diving out onto the pavement just to die of embarrassment.
"Well," Fredrinn began with a quiet sigh.
His hand instinctively stroked the soft dip of Jenny’s waist, while his other hand remained casually draped around Rose’s hips, offering rhythmic, calming pats to keep the demon’s possessive impulses pacified.
Even in the middle of this high-stakes romantic confrontation, his senses couldn’t help but register the tactile contrast. Jenny was remarkably toned, with a tight, slender waist that fit into his palm like a custom glove, whereas Rose felt lush, soft, and unnaturally smooth.
He knew that while Rose had theoretically accepted the reality of his expanding harem to fuel his progression, her demonic pride would take time to fully adjust to sharing him.
"Stop fondling my waist and actually answer the question, Fredrinn," Jenny cut in icily, breaking through his momentary distraction.
Fredrinn gave a dry cough, quickly snapping his focus back into place.
"Right. What I was going to say is that you’re entirely right," he said, looking straight into her amber eyes. The ambient, hypnotic aura of his legendary Greater Incubus’s Body trait subtly bled into his gaze, softening the edges of his words. "I probably am an arrogant scumbag by your standards. But I promise you this, Jenny: I take care of what belongs to me. I will keep you alive, and I will treat you well. I will love you equally as my other partners."
The moment his steady, magnetic gaze locked onto hers, Jenny felt her pulse leap into a frantic, chaotic sprint. A dizzying wave of warmth rushed from her chest straight down to her knees.
’Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ she screamed internally, her rational mind violently rebelling against the flutter in her chest. ’What the absolute hell is wrong with me?! Why am I melting over a few sweet words from this guy?! He’s a total liar! A manipulative cheater! A playboy! A shameless, apocalyptic manwhore!’
Yet, for every furious insult her brain hurled at him, her body completely betrayed her. The chaotic swarm of butterflies fluttering in her stomach refused to settle. Her lips trembled as she fought to maintain her icy glare, but the defenses she had spent years building around her heart were crumbling under his touch.
She opened her mouth, fully intending to scorch him with another sharp, cutting remark to salvage her pride.
Instead, a fragile, desperate whisper slipped through her teeth:
"D-Do you really mean that...? You’ll actually love me?"