Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 408. No, it’s not.

I reached for the kids’ untouched hot chocolate and gave it to Henry before taking my own.

Ethan cleared his throat.

"I will take a few men and prepare the Center." He looked at my grandmother, who nodded, although teeth-clenchingly.

"And regarding the Lawrence family..." He looked at Henry.

"I wore a mask and acted quickly. The chances that they were able to discern the nature of my power are equal to zero," Henry said after taking a sip of the sweet drink.

His expression told me he liked the hot chocolate.

Kitty, meanwhile, still licked the spot on the floor where the fish had landed, apparently absolutely crazy about thirteen-year-old fish.

"Mhm..." Ethan hummed worriedly, exchanging another glance with my grandmother.

"Should we go there and get the tapes or something?" I asked him, and my grandmother slammed the table.

"You will NEITHER trespass into other homes NOR destroy anyone’s property!" She pointed at the hole in the wall.

"Yeah, but what about the t-a-p-e?" I spelled the last word out for her to understand.

"Ask your friend! HE DISAPPEARED AT NIGHT TO KILL THE HEAD OF AN INFLUENTIAL FAMILY!"

"They took Kenny’s blood," Henry snarled.

A vein on her forehead popped as she jumped up and pointed at him.

"THEN GO KILL THEM ALL! BE SO KIND AND LEAVE A SIGNED CONFESSION LETTER BEHIND THIS TIME!"

"Maybe I will." He replied nonchalantly.

I nearly burst out laughing at the way he showed not an ounce of respect when talking to the elderly.

"OUT. OF. MY. HOUSE!" My grandmother bellowed.

"If I go, I will take Kenny with me."

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM WITH YOU!"

"I will." Henry suddenly smiled politely and assuringly, just stating facts, and that was it for me—I finally burst into a fit of laughter.

"ETHAN! DO YOU SEE THIS???" The old dragon pointed at us in frustration and anger.

"Mrs. Howard, I think we should contact Dr. Lawrence regarding this matter." Ethan looked at me.

"She was in favor of you too, wasn’t she?"

My grandmother fell back into her chair.

"If someone goes and convinces her, he will go alone." She motioned to Henry before she turned to me.

"You still have lessons with me."

"I’ll go with him." I looked at Henry, who shook his head in disagreement, while simultaneously my grandmother sprang up again and exploded.

But Ethan’s phone rang, diffusing the situation.

After taking a look at it, he said that it was Omar who was calling.

"Hand it over," I motioned for the phone, and Ethan gave it to me.

"Omar?" I asked, hearing absolute silence on the other end.

"Yeah, hell is loose here," he eventually answered after I checked if the call was still connected.

"How are you? Is anyone alright?"

"Everyone is freaking out." He didn’t sound alright at all.

"How are you?" I asked again.

"...I am fine; my parents hadn’t been at the main mansion and came together with me. There was apparently a rat attack, but why do I think your friend has something to do with this?"

"That was all they said? Rat attack?" I asked him with raised eyebrows.

"Yes. They are all on edge; I couldn’t even make a call in between meals and discussions on how to proceed and who would take over now that my grandfather is in a coma."

"Mhm... coma?" I looked at Henry, who easily heard the voice on the other side and looked at me with furrowed eyebrows.

"Yes. I just visited him; he doesn’t look good, although he had turned even younger than your grandmother. The doctors said that he will survive."

"Your grandfather’s name is Eugene Lawrence Junior, right?" I made sure.

"Mhm, Kenny, what’s going on?"

"We’ll talk in person; phones make me paranoid. Look after yourself; I’ll message you my number later." I said, and after a short goodbye, we hung up.

The room was silent for some time until Henry suddenly spoke.

"Did I tell you that Eugene Junior now looks to be in his forties? Nevertheless, he had his legs in a cast and a catheter. I did wonder why he hadn’t healed by himself if he clearly had already leveled up."

"So he did upgrade or merge. You acidified him as a whole?" I asked and saw Henry nod.

I thought for a moment.

"...So... instead of constant self-healing, he has somehow a few additional lives now?"

"Mhm. It has to be something like this." Henry nodded slowly.

"So no murder was committed; instead, we have a witness to the attack itself," Ethan commented VERY unhappily.

I think I’ve never heard him this displeased before.

"Not really. He only witnessed me making the shield and shooting him in the shoulder. I didn’t use my other power in front of him."

"Which gun did you use? Did you leave the bullets behind?" Ethan looked ready to wring a tissue like a frustrated concubine.

Henry glanced at him coldly.

"The bullet disappeared with the corpse; it didn’t exit his body. And I used one of the guns from the attic—one without a serial number."

"You didn’t take off the mask once? He couldn’t have seen you?" Ethan clearly wanted to make sure.

"Never. And the camera was down before I even acidified the guards. It was instantly over." Henry snapped his long, handsome fingers.

"But many saw the shield..." Ethan still didn’t let it go.

"Yes," the accused finally nodded and turned to finish his hot chocolate.

If Eugene Jr. was somehow alive and hadn’t seen Henry use his shadowy power, then there was not much the Lawrence family could do anyway.

Regarding Serena, the poor kid’s mother, they didn’t seem to care enough to be interested in her, and before Henry masked his power with the teargas and got rid of her corpse, someone from the bystanders or security should have noticed that she had already died by nothing other than the worms from their laboratory.

Nobody killed her other than the Lawrence family themselves.

"The only people who have witnessed what a shield looks like are the survivors from the crystalline world, because my counterpart made one, but it is impossible for them to know how and why that shield had appeared at that time. Nobody else will recognize even what it is." The gang people from the rathole 2.0 had all died, at least the one getting a look at Henry’s shield.

And regarding the shield inside the crystalline world, it really wasn’t me; it was solely my crystalline counterpart who had acted at that time.

"THEY CAN ASSOCIATE THE SHIELD WITH YOU?" My grandmother hollered at me, looking beside her stool for her walking stick to beat Henry; luckily, there was nothing, but she was only short on lunging over the table anyway.

"DID YOU JUST IMPLICATE MY GRANDSON AGAIN???"

Henry’s face fell, but this time he didn’t talk back; instead, he looked at me as color drained from his face, shell-shocked.

Like a fucking drenched puppy, absolutely pitiful.

"CAN YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO ME??" I addressed my grandmother.

"I said no one could have even thought of that. And if they have the Lawrence family tape with Henry on it shortly before he destroyed the camera, they can clearly see that my height doesn’t match the perpetrator’s height either way. If they insist on pressing charges against me, it would be easier to find something else."

I looked at Henry.

"It’s alright. Calm down." I shoved my hot chocolate into Henry’s hand and took his empty cup instead to place it on the table.

"Everything is alright; everyone calms down now," I decided.

"Henry and I will take care of the rats. Is tomorrow alright?" I asked Ethan.

"I can make the arrangements today, so it would be alright. Do you two really want to do this operation alone?"

"Yeah. Can you ask the doctor for vitamin shots for Henry and some blood-nurturing stuff for me?"

"I will speak to him."

"Then can we go eat?" I asked impatiently, already exhausted from the talk we had and the old woman’s screaming that nearly gave me tinnitus.

My grandma snorted and stormed out of the room before coming back and yelling for Kitty.

Said cat looked at me pitifully, while I just shrugged.

That tiger had already gotten fish from me; now he wants to be saved from a dragon—that’s too much to expect just for serving as a pillow.

Sad red eyes looked from me to the door as he went after the demon queen, with Ethan leaving the room as well.

When we were alone, I looked at Henry.

"Are you okay? Ready for tomorrow, or do you need more time to rest? You overused your powers already the last few days."

"Mhm. I am," he said, but didn’t drink the hot chocolate.

"Henry. It’s alright."

"No, it’s not. I have done it again." His eyes glowed at me in a silver-blue.

"You have to calm down now; your eyes are turning silver, and I don’t think that means anything good." I stood up and cupped his face.

"Really?" He asked.

"Mhm, calm down. Come here and give me a kiss." I pulled him down and pressed my lips on his while watching out for his state of mind.

He responded hesitantly at first but soon engulfed me in an embrace while hungrily acting on the same instincts that had also taken over my rational thinking.

Though I was still able to listen to everything around us to avoid getting into an embarrassing and mortifying situation again, and I also noted that Henry was getting a bit overexcited.

Well, everything was better than the vexing look of self-hatred he had displayed earlier.

And getting chewed at, sucked, and nibbled wasn’t that bad of a feeling either.

When his breathing turned too erratic, I pulled away and looked into his dreamy bright blue eyes.

"Are you alright again?"

"No," Henry whispered.

"More..." He growled before smashing his lips against mine once again.

And he only let go after I pulled him away by his hair—to see him audaciously and dazedly licking his lips while trying to overcome the distance to me and my mouth... just like Kitty had hypnotically tried to close in on the fish.