"Here, have a drink," Lucifer said, his tone casual as he handed the orange juice to Kyra.
Kyra took it from his hand, her fingers trembling slightly as she uncomfortably twisted her other hand against the fabric of the sofa.
"Thank you," she murmured, giving a soft smile to him.
She didn't drink it. Instead she set the glass on the table.
Lucifer's eyes narrowed as he looked at Kyra, who sat as if on needles.
He lowered his eyes to hide the disgusting affection and said, his voice was soft, laced with a cloying sweetness that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Babe, drink it. It's been a long ride. I'll go get the gift I prepared, and then we can go out for a stroll."
The mention of leaving the apartment made Kyra's heart finally settle.
'See? You're being silly,'. She scolded herself, watching his retreating back.
'He just wants you to see his home and you're over here panicking... fool!'
A small, relieved smile touched her lips. She picked up the glass and drank. The juice was icy, a sweet & tangy flavor that felt thick in her throat.
She drank it all and put the glass down, reaching for her phone placed on table.
Lucifer returned, sitting close to her as he handed the package.
"Here's your gift, babe. Open it. Take a look."
Kyra took the box, momentarily distracted by the exquisite packaging.
But as the ribbons fell away, a sudden, violent wave of dizziness hit her.
The box slipped from her numb fingers, thudding onto the floor as she grabbed her head.
The modern, blue-walled apartment began to warp and a thick, artificial heat radiated from her core, turning her bones to liquid.
Kyra tried to push herself off the sofa, but her limbs felt disconnected from her brain.
"Lucifer... I don't feel right," she whispered, her voice slurring into a terrifying softness.
Lucifer looked at Kyra, who had started to feel unwell. His eyes darkened, and a slow smile spread across his face — the look of a man who had finally caught the bird he'd been chasing.
He stood up and gripped her upper arms, hauling her upright with a strength that felt predatory.
"You're just overwhelmed, love," he murmured, his breath hot and smelling of mint and malice.
"Let's get you to the bedroom. You need to lie down."
Instinctly, Kyra felt a strange unease,sharp and cold as an icicle, pierced through the drug-induced haze.
Bedroom...
The word acted like a bucket of ice water.
As he began to drag her toward the hallway,Kyra looked at him with shock.
She found a sudden spark of strength in her panic.She shoved against his chest.
"No! Let go of me!"
As Lucifer stumbled his face transformed. The "gentleman" was gone, replaced by a jagged, ugly rage.
He lunged, catching her by the waist and slamming her down onto the hardwood floor.
The impact knocked the wind from her lungs, leaving her gasping.
"Don't be difficult, Kyra!" he snarled, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand.
"I've spent months on you. I've fed you, complimented you, waited for you. You are mine."
He gripped the collar of her cream-colored sweater and yanked. The sound of tearing wool screamed in the quiet room.
Kyra felt the cold air hit her skin as the fabric gave way, exposing the delicate curve of her shoulder.
Lucifer leaned down, his mouth brushing her neck as he whispered something incoherent and frantic.
Tears of pure terror blurred her vision, she seems to feel the world totally collapse.
As the last harbour she had thought was her heaven finally betrayed her.
She stopped struggling for a moment as if a puppet but her inner self seems to screaming at her.
'No, You can't give up, Kyra. Even in the darkness there will always be a light. Your life is not alone yours. Wake up.'
Kyra snapped out if her daze as she looked at Lucifer who was trying to took off her jeans.
She started to struggle again as she kicked him and her hand flailed blindly, searching the floor.
Until her fingers brushed against the heavy ceramic base of a decorative vase on the side table.
With a guttural scream of defiance, she swung.
'CRACK!!'
The vase shattered against the side of Lucifer's head.
He groaned, his grip loosening as he slumped to the side, blood beginning to bloom through his hair.
Kyra didn't stop but her hand trembled as she looked at Lucifer head as his head started to bleed but before she could fully master the panic.
Her legs gave way as she kneeled and felt weakness, she knew the drug was winning—her eyelids were drooping, the room spinning faster.
She took a sharp triangular shard of broken vase and slashed it on her left hand, so feel that the inner flesh was turned out.
The pain jolted her awake as she scrambled to her feet, clutching her torn sweater together.
She bolted for the door, leaving a trail of small blood droplets on the pristine floor.
Kyra didn't know how far she ran, or how many times she stumbled over stairs and floors.
She only knew she has to escape.
As she finally reached outside Lucifer's building, her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the cold asphalt.
The afternoon air burned her lungs as she gasped, clutching her torn sweater together with shaking hands.
Her palm was slick — she didn't want to look.
The world tilted. Headlights blurred past like distant stars.
I'm outside, she told herself desperately. I got out.
The thought was thin, fragile — but it was enough to keep her conscious as darkness crept in from the edges of her vision.
The car slowed to a halt but his hands just paused as he resumed his work.
"Sir," the driver, Marcus, spoke with hushed gravity. "There is a girl... she just collapsed in the road."
In the back seat, Xavier Thorne sat ensconced in shadows.
He was the shadow-ruler of the corporate world, a man whose reputation was built on steel and silence.
His features were carved from granite: a sharp, aristocratic jawline, eyes the color of a winter sea, and hair as dark as the midnight sky.
Xavier finally turned his head. Through the tinted glass, he saw a heap of cream-colored wool on the gray road.
'She looked impossibly small — a lost kitten'
he thought, a strange, unwelcome pang of recognition stirring in his chest.
A discarded thing in a world that eats the weak.
"Get her in the car," Xavier commanded, his voice a low, resonant rumble. "Find the nearest private hospital. Cancel the Board."
As Marcus lifted her into the cabin, Xavier found himself watching her intensely as he mused, leaning back into the seat.
Looking at her bleeding hand, He paused as he took out a first aid box from a secret drawer and reached for her hand.
Kyra's eyes snapped open as she felt the tinging sensation from her hand.
The first thing she felt was the scent of expensive leather and sandalwood. The second thing she felt was the fire in her veins and someone holding her hand.
She bolted upright, her mind screaming, LUCIFER!!
Before she could think, she swung her fist at the silhouette beside her.
A large, cool hand caught her wrist mid-air.
The grip was firm—immovable—but not cruel.
"Easy," a voice vibrated through the air. It was a voice of pure authority, deep and calm.
Kyra blinked, her vision finally clearing.
She was in a cabin that felt like a private jet and sitting across from her was a man who looked like he had been sculpted by a dark god.
"I'm taking you to a hospital," Xavier said, his eyes tracking the way her chest heaved and the flush on her neck as he tied the knot on her hand.
"Thank you," Kyra calmed her emotions , looked at her banded hands and whispered, her voice a mere thread.
She pulled her wrist back, tucking her hands between her knees feeling the weakness and heat waves.
Her body was shaking—not just from fear, but from the heat clawing at her insides as an unfamiliar heat coiled restlessly inside her, making it hard to think.
Every time she looked at him, her heart skipped. The drug, she reminded herself. It's just the drug.
Looking at Xavier, who was seriously doing his work.
"My phone..." Kyra hesitated but asked her voice soft and filled with a allure she was unaware of. "Did you... did you take it?"
He looked at her, his gaze intense enough to make her breath catch as he shifted his gaze and glanced at Marcus,his driver.
"It is in the center console drawer, Miss," the driver provided. "We retrieved it from the road."
Kyra tried to take it but her hands seems to lose all her strength.
While Xavier looked at her, felt she looked just like a little kitten trying to take her fish.
Feeling amused, he reached forward and handed her the mobile, his fingers brushing hers as he handed her the mobile phone Marcus had retrieved.
He felt the tremor in her hands—not just the shake of fear, but the frantic, rhythmic pulse of the drugs he knew all too well.
'Oh! So she is really drugged.' Xavier thought with a flicker of genuine curiosity.
'Running to safety while her blood is turning to fire. Interesting.'
"Thank you, Sir," Kyra whispered. Even through the haze, she felt a strange, magnetic pull toward the man in front of her.
She bit her lip, trying to control the heat waves as she dialed Ashley's number.
"Hello.." Ashley voice came through the phone filled sweetness.
As soon as Kyra listened to Ashley voice, her heart seems to finally found her harbour.
"Ash? Ash, listen to me," Kyra choked out, her voice filled with choking sobs.
"I'm in the neighboring city... I'm going to St. Jude's Private Hospital. Please... just come. Don't tell anyone. Just come."
Ashley listened to Kyra tearful voice and sobbing and put down her game remote.
"Kyra?! What happened?!" Her voice was a frantic shriek, filled with concern and worry.
"Nothing,I'm safe for now," Kyra said, looking up at Xavier, who was once again staring out the window. "Just hurry."
As she hung up, she rolled down the window, letting the freezing wind hit her flushed skin.
He watched her, his expression still cold and stern as she was just air infront of him.
But internally, the gears of his mind were grinding.
She's fighting it, he thought, his eyes tracking the way she bit her lip until it nearly bled.
Most would have collapsed or started begging by now.
But this one... she's still trying to command herself.
There was a strange, irritating pull in his chest. He lived in a world of predators, and he was the apex of them all.
Usually, he looked at "victims" with nothing but cold indifference.
But as Kyra looked up at him, her voice a soft, accidental lure as she thanked him, he felt a flicker of something he hadn't felt in years: curiosity.
When she opened the window, letting the freezing night air hit her flushed skin.
Xavier didn't stop her. He simply watched the wind whip her hair, as he felt increasly curious about her.
The car fell silent along the way, only Kyra's rapid breathing was heard.
Kyra felt the cold and oppressive atmosphere while controlling herself for doing anything rash.
As the car reached the bay of hospital, Kyra opened the door and stumbled outside.
Xavier watched her in silence, his eyebrows slightly arched.
'Really vigilant'
Xavier thought as he walked out of car and said to her as Kyra avoided his hand but leaned against wall and slowly walking towards the hospital gate.
Feeling amused as Kyra avoided him like some beast, he said, "At least,be grateful to your saviour, little thing."
Xavier signaled his driver to get a nurse as he handed her a small, black card with embossed gold lettering. "If some problem occurs before your friend comes, call the number on the back."
The driver was already astonished from the car to here as he watched his devil boss trying to be gentle and patient and hurriedly went to emergency centre.
"Thankyou for the help along the way." Kyra broke the silence as she looked at the name in the card, her voice already trembling.
'XAVIER THRONE'
"Well, take care," 'Little kitten'.
Xavier said as he mumbled the last words in his mind.
And looked at Kyra,whose eyes has turned bloodshot and her lips which from her biting were as red as cherry.
Xavier looked away, jaw tightening as he forced his attention elsewhere and tried to shift the topic asking, "So, at least tell me your name, Little thing."
Listening to his low magnetic voice,like aged wine. Kyra blushed more fiercely as her body felt increasly hot.
"Kyra, My name is Kyra." Kyra said, digging her nails in her wound as she raised her head and looked at him.
Looking at her golden watery eyes which were like clear pool and the reflection of him.
Xavier felt an unfamiliar irritation — the kind that came when something disrupted his control.
He was shocked at his thoughts as he tried to shook it off.
He felt the danger from her that if he stays here,he will probably will never be able to go back.
"Sir, they are here." The driver said as he came panting.
Xavier looked at him and then Kyra as he turned and said, "Let's go."
He walked away calmly — though anyone watching closely might notice the slight disruption in his pace.
As the nurses came and wheeled her away, Kyra looked back, watching the ghost of a car disappear into the night and then looked down on card, tightening her fingers around it.