[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 557 - The Child Won't Mutate, Right?

The temperature inside the Infirmary seemed to rise.

Ashley's breathing turned rapid. An abnormal flush spread across her cheeks. She gripped the hem of Leon's shirt with both hands.

"Leon..."

She murmured his name, barely coherent.

The consciousness in her mind was shifting in ways she couldn't explain. The willful girl — the one with her little flares of temper, her sharp tongue, her stubborn pride — was fading away, cell by cell. What replaced it was something deeper and harder to name. A bone-deep dependency on the man in front of her.

Leon looked into her unfocused eyes.

Deep in her pupils, a faint dark-gold glimmer flashed — nearly identical to his own.

The mark of a successful conversion.

"How do you feel?"

His thumb traced slowly across her.

Ashley gasped. Her chest heaved. The way she looked at him had completely changed. The love was still there, but layered beneath it now was a dependency that could never be erased.

"I feel..."

She leaned in and nuzzled the side of his neck, slow and deliberate.

Like a cat that had finally found its owner.

"I feel like my whole body is full of strength." She lifted her head. Her eyes were brimming with something close to infatuation. "And I want more."

The corner of Leon's mouth curved slightly.

After the conversion, this girl had gotten considerably bolder.

"This is a hospital," he said.

Outside, Candice could push open the door for rounds at any moment.

"I don't care."

Ashley hooked both hands around his neck and swung herself directly onto his lap. The wide collar of the patient gown slipped. A wide expanse of fair, smooth skin came into view. Under the dual reshaping of the T-Virus and Solar Stairway, the dullness she'd carried before was gone entirely, her skin was flawless, not a single blemish, carrying a healthy rosy-white glow.

"Didn't you just say you'd satisfy my requests?"

She pressed close to his ear, her tone carrying zero effort to hide what it was.

"You're my master now." A beat. "Shouldn't a master satisfy the wishes of those who belong to him?"

Those words were absolutely lethal.

Leon grabbed the back of her head and kissed her again.

The conversion was complete. Every reservation he'd been holding onto had just become meaningless noise.

The single iron-frame bed let out a teeth-grinding creak. Sunlight filtered through the blinds and fell across the floor in broken, scattered patches. They swayed steadily with every movement from the bed.

Ashley abandoned every last shred of restraint.

She gave herself to Leon without holding anything back, and this wasn't merely physical. It was the complete submission of her soul, her will, the entirety of what she was.

She could feel the emotional fluctuations he transmitted directly to her. That strange resonance, connected neuron to neuron, nearly stripped her of all rational thought.

"Leon..."

Her reinforced fingernails carved several red lines down his back. She tilted her head, golden hair spreading loose across the white sheets, fine beads of sweat across her forehead.

Leon showed no restraint.

He didn't need to. Ashley's physical constitution was now far beyond anything human. She could endure every relentless demand he made of her, and in the brief pauses for breath, she gave it back just as fiercely.

This was a frenzy where viral evolution and raw instinct had fused into something singular. The mutant factors in their blood boiled through every exchange. The Solar Stairway virus inside Ashley was completely suppressed, completely assimilated. Leon's mark was carved into every one of her cells.

Time lost all meaning in that cramped room.

Until the last trace of evening light was swallowed by the horizon.

The sounds from the iron-frame bed finally went still.

Ashley collapsed onto his chest, completely boneless. She had nothing left, no strength to move a single finger. The patient gown had long since been kicked into a corner on the floor. She drew in slow, heavy breaths, physiological tears caught at the corners of her eyes, a curve of pure satisfaction at her mouth.

"Not afraid of my orders anymore?"

Leon leaned back against the headboard. He reached over and pulled the blanket across them both, then let his fingers glide slowly along her spine.

"Not afraid."

Ashley lay with her eyes closed, cheek resting against his chest, listening to the steady, strong rhythm of his heartbeat.

Leon pinched her nose.

"Your job right now is to rest. Once William has the next enhancement serum ready, you'll need a second round."

Ashley opened her eyes. Leon's face reflected back in her golden irises.

"What about the child?"

She still hadn't forgotten.

"There will be one." He pulled her a little closer. "Reproduction rates between mutant variants should be pretty low. But try enough times, and we'll hit it eventually."

Ashley's face went completely red. Her eyes were full of anticipation.

Voices drifted in from the corridor, Candice and Lee Mi-joo talking. Footsteps slowed and stopped just outside the door. A metal handle turned. Finding it locked from the inside, Candice knocked.

"Leon? You still in there?"

Leon watched Ashley scramble to grab her clothes and wrestle them back on, and he unhurriedly reached for his jacket on the headboard.

"Test her tomorrow," he called through the door. "She needs absolute quiet right now."

A thought occurred to him.

If Ashley really did have a child, would that child also inherit the ability to control Walkers? Murphy could do it. So in theory, so could his.

He pictured his future children, each one personally commanding ten Tyrants.

Hiss.

That image was too good. Almost too good to sit with.

Maybe having more children was actually a viable strategy.

➤ Next: Rebekah's Brilliant Idea