Chapter 400 The Mark on His Neck
Raising her rates was perfectly natural.
After all, these celebrities earned tens of millions of dollars per project. Charging them ten million each for protection was hardly unreasonable.
Adolph and Bruno knew exactly what Zara meant.
Adolph stepped forward. "Considering our relationship, you're still going to charge me ten million dollars?"
Zara stared at him in utter disbelief. "What relationship? Don't say things like that. What if people misunderstand and think my standards are that low?"
Adolph fell silent.
Unfortunately, his manager had just come downstairs and heard every word. He looked at Adolph, who appeared to have suffered a devastating blow.
The manager fell silent too.
How tragic.
Adolph could have had his pick of women, yet he insisted on repeatedly humiliating himself over this one.
After Zara and Vivian left, the manager walked over and patted Adolph on the shoulder. "This isn't a romance novel. Not every woman is destined to fall at your feet, Adolph. Face reality. She's simply different from everyone else."
Adolph immediately shrugged off his hand. "That's exactly what I like about her. She's different. She's nothing like all those shallow, seductive women out there!"
Bruno fell silent.
So did the manager.
"Have you completely lost it?"
Then again, nothing looked quite the same when your brain wasn't working right.
Adolph was clearly becoming obsessed. He might not truly have feelings for Zara, but by this point, he seemed determined to convince everyone that he did.
******
That night, while Zara was getting ready for bed, Lucian unexpectedly called her on video.
Video calls from him were rare. They were also in different time zones. It was nighttime where Zara was, though she had no idea what time it was for Lucian.
She answered while preparing to wash her face.
"Why are you video-calling me this late?"
Lucian's handsome, serious face appeared on the screen. He skipped the small talk and got straight to the point.
"I need to show you something."
He reached up and began unbuttoning his collar. His shirt had been fastened all the way to his neck, and the moment he opened it, Zara's eyes widened.
"You're seriously doing this in the middle of the night? Lucian, I refuse to have a naked video call with you! I'm not that kind of woman."
Lucian stared at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He cursed under his breath and undid only two buttons. Then he turned sideways, showing Zara the left side of the back of his neck.
The skin there had always been completely unmarked.
Now, however, a small wing-shaped mark had appeared near the base of his neck.
It was black, and against his naturally pale skin, it stood out sharply.
Then again, Lucian could probably tattoo a turtle on himself and still look better than anyone else with a dragon.
The mark would likely be visible whenever he wore anything with a normal neckline.
Zara stared in shock. "Isn't it a little late for you to start going through a rebellious phase and getting tattoos?"
Lucian frowned. "I didn't get a tattoo. It appeared overnight. It looks like the wing inside my body, except the color is different."
The mark was also shaped like half a wing.
But the wing hidden inside him was not black.
Zara immediately leaned closer to the screen for a better look, then realized that moving her own face closer accomplished nothing.
"Point the camera at it. Bring it closer so I can see."
Lucian did as she asked, moving his phone toward the mark.
"Can you tell what it is?"
Now that Lucian had moved the camera closer, Zara could see that the wing-shaped mark was not an ordinary tattoo after all.
Although it was completely black, faint streams of light shimmered along the feathered patterns. They were almost impossible to notice unless one looked closely.
The subtle glow gave the mark an air of nobility, yet there was also something strangely seductive and unsettling about it.
Zara paused. "But I remember your chicken wing being almost white."
The wing inside him had glowed with something close to a gilded light, which was nothing like this black mark.
Why had it turned black when it appeared on his skin?
Lucian pulled his collar back together and replied irritably, "I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't be asking you."
The mark's sudden appearance had worried him at first. Once he confirmed that it did not seem to be causing any problems, he relaxed slightly.
Still, he had wanted Zara's opinion.
Unfortunately, it was now obvious that she knew no more than he did.
Zara clicked her tongue. "Don't panic, Lucian. I don't think it's anything serious. Just think of it as a stylish new tattoo."
Lucian fell silent.
With that thing visible during meetings, wouldn't he look like some kind of mob boss?
Since Zara had no idea what it was, Lucian did not bother pressing the matter. Instead, he asked, "How long are you staying there?"
Zara thought about it. "The shoot lasts a month, doesn't it? I can still come back in between, as long as nothing comes up."
Lucian paused as though he wanted to say something, but ultimately held back.
He merely pressed his lips together and said calmly, "Forget it. We'll talk if anything comes up. I'm hanging up."
"Go ahead."
******
Zara slept soundly that night.
The presence she had sensed during the day did not return, as though nothing had ever happened.
The production team would remain in the small city for about a week.
The show only had a few destinations planned, and this was their first stop. The footage from this location would be divided into two episodes. At that pace, they would finish filming the entire season in a little over a month.
Most of the time, the celebrities were left to move around on their own, so Zara was rarely needed.
For the first two days, she simply followed the production crew around or went shopping with Cathy. Since Zara was not required to help with much, Cathy only had to manage Vivian's calls and other work-related arrangements.
Adolph, however, seized several opportunities to strike up conversations with Zara.
Before long, practically everyone on the crew knew he was pursuing her.
Unfortunately for him, his feelings were entirely one-sided. Zara rejected him without the slightest mercy.
The fact that one of the hottest young stars in the industry kept getting shot down, yet continued coming back for more, left the entire crew wondering what made Zara so irresistible.
During those first two days, Zara had mostly kept to herself. Aside from occasionally tagging along with the crew, she rarely hovered around Vivian or acted like a typical assistant.
Cathy never explained who she really was either, so everyone knew almost nothing about her.
The first two days passed peacefully.
On the third day, however, whatever had been hiding in the shadows finally seemed to lose patience.
The production team happened to arrange for Enoch and one of the senior cast members to go out alone and buy ingredients. Only a few camera operators accompanied them.
Their destination was some distance away.
Zara was sitting in a coffee shop when she suddenly sensed a surge of energy from the eastern side of the city.
Her expression instantly turned cold.
She looked up in that direction, then remembered that the supermarket Enoch had gone to was also located in the east.
Her brow lifted.
A moment later, she was already hurrying toward them.