The Devil's obsession with the Heiress

[Music recommendation: And The Flowers Were Gray · Evelyn Stein]

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"What’s wrong? Are you still in pain?"

She trailed off when Gavriel raised his head and finally met her eyes. The darkness that had consumed them was gone, allowing the whites to show once again. But that did nothing to make his beautifully terrifying, beast-like red eyes any less intimidating.

The intensity of his stare made her swallow hard.

Trying hard not to be unnerved by his stare, she dragged her hand from his neck toward his cheek. But Gavriel caught her wrist in a grip that was firm without being cruel and broke his silence at last.

"You shouldn’t have done that. What you did down there was extremely dangerous." The silent anger pouring from his voice sent a cold shiver down her spine.

Confused by his fury, she assumed it was her reckless sprint into the cell that had angered him.

"I had to..." she whispered back bravely, raising her free hand to reach for his face, but he caught that wrist too.

She watched his jaw clench before he closed his eyes tightly.

"You don’t know what you did..." he whispered. Aliana could still see his dark powers leaking from him in restless waves and sensed the immense effort it took for him to fight to keep something buried beneath the surface.

Pain lanced through her chest as she pleaded, "I couldn’t just watch you suffering-"

"There is so much you don’t know yet, Aliana! So much you don’t understand!" he snapped, his voice rising as he cut her off, making her flinch.

They stared at each other in the heavy silence that followed, her eyes wide with confusion and hurt while his were filled with quiet regret.

Slowly, Gavriel lowered her hands and released his grip on her wrists.

Without another word, he forced himself to his feet and staggered toward the shower stall.

"Leave," he commanded in a low, gravelly voice. "If you don’t want to bear the consequences of your actions."

Aliana sat frozen, stunned by his sudden dismissal.

She remained kneeling on the cold tile floor as her mind raced as she tried to piece together the sudden turn of events and figure out what she had done to upset him so deeply.

Of course she knew there was more to everything.

Aliana was not naive enough to think that this new supernatural world worked without consequences.

But did that mean she was only supposed to be locked in this room and wait until morning, when God knows how severely her own uncontrolled powers might have wrecked her?

Or was she expected to just sit in front of his cell and watch him suffer while those vicious things continued to feed on him, even if that was his own doing?

She simply couldn’t do that.

Her heart squeezed painfully as she recalled everything she had seen him endure down in the dark.

More than anything, it was the vision she had glimpsed when she fed him her blood that haunted her most.

If she were the kind of woman who could simply stand by and let things happen right before her without taking action, then she wouldn’t be Aliana.

Above all, the need and desire she currently felt to be close to him seemed to have intensified after their kiss. She felt completely torn as she tried to determine the best course of action.

Just then, Gavriel’s voice echoed through the quiet bathroom. "Didn’t you hear me?"

She jumped slightly at the cold edge in his tone.

Yet beneath the harshness, she caught the silent, agonising struggle he was desperately trying to conceal.

Slowly, she picked herself up off the cold tile floor. From behind, she heard the rustle of clothes, followed by the heavy latch of the shower stall opening and the sudden outpour of water.

Turning around, she saw his powerful, naked frame behind the glass. His head hanging low as he stood completely still beneath the water, dark powers continued to pour from him.

Had Aliana not witnessed the truth with her own eyes, she would have walked away after his cold dismissal.

But now, she saw him in a different light.

She understood that this man who was her husband hid his feelings better than anyone else she had ever met. There were far too many layers to him and hidden meanings behind his actions.

And Aliana was done giving him his space.

Something told her that if she walked away now, they would remain at an eternal standstill.

Slowly, he had seeped into her skin and tucked himself so deeply into her heart that walking away was no longer an option.

It was in that moment Aliana understood her true fear. The fear she had felt toward him yesterday stemmed from the painful thought that maybe... she had meant nothing to him after discovering he was a powerful being. She had ran away...afraid to find that true.

And the fear she had suffered for his safety today, the agonising dread of being left alone without him, and the fierce yearning consuming her now were all born from something far deeper than simple attachment.

This was more... far more than she had ever felt for anyone in her life, and more than she would ever feel for another.

Her heart was telling her the truth she had tried to resist until now... she had fallen irrevocably for him... fallen for this devil who was her husband.

So for the very first time, she listened to her heart as it continued to whisper the one truth she had been completely unaware of until today.

Her throat tightened with emotion as her trembling hands reached for the back of her dress and undid the zipper. The fabric pooled at her feet, followed by her undergarments.

Aliana refused to resist this pull a moment longer. She was done running away.

If anything, she wanted to run straight to him, just as she had when he first tried to push her away at the very beginning.

Even if he was trying to push her away once again, she refused to simply give up.

Slowly, she walked towards him until her fingers curled around the handle of the glass door. Sliding it open, she stepped into the cold, cascading water and wrapped her arms around his wet frame from behind.

"Don’t push me away anymore," she whispered softly, pressing her face against his back.

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