ADANNA P.O.V (point of view)
The rain had started, light at first, then hard enough to soak us through. It hissed on the asphalt and bounced off the rooftops like gunfire. My hair clung to my face, my coat plastered to my skin, but I barely noticed. My entire focus was on Darian, on his hand wrapped tightly around mine, on his body pressed against mine as we ran through the empty streets.
"Where are we going?" I shouted over the storm.
"To a safe house," he replied, eyes scanning every corner. "We can't stop yet."
Safe house? The words should have calmed me, but they didn't... not entirely. The tracker… Azaan… the vault… everything swirled in my mind like a storm, matching the one above us.
I tried to steady my breathing, tried to push the fear down, but the way Darian's hand felt around mine, warm and unrelenting, made it impossible to focus on anything else. My heart hammered in my chest, not just from running, but from him.
We turned down a narrow alley, the rain creating tiny rivers at our feet. My slippered shoes slipped once, and Darian grabbed my arm instantly, steadying me.
"You okay?" he asked, voice low.
I nodded, my throat tight. "I'm fine."
But the moment I said it, his eyes softened in a way that made my chest ache. He leaned closer, his lips brushing the top of my head.
"You don't have to pretend with me," he murmured which made my stomach twisted. I wanted to tell him everything I was thinking, everything I was feeling, but words tangled in my throat. Instead, I just pressed closer to him. His hand slid to my waist, pulling me even closer.
DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
She pressed into me, and I could feel her trembling slightly, not just from the cold or the rain, but from the fear running wild in her veins, and yet… she wasn't running away from me... not truly.
I wanted to tell her everything. About the tracker, the vault, Azaan, the Syndicate, all of it, but I couldn't yet.... not until we were safe.
"Adanna," I whispered, brushing wet hair from her face. Her eyes met mine, wide, terrified, yet burning with that defiance I loved. "Stay with me.... no matter what."
She swallowed hard, then nodded. Her fingers curled into mine. "I'm not leaving."
That was all I needed..... that was enough.
But the storm wasn't over.....A shadow moved in the distance, too quick, too precise. My instincts screamed danger. I pushed her behind me, scanning the wet streets. Footsteps echoed through the rain soaked alleys, rhythmic, deliberate. They were following.
"Darian…" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rain.
I pressed my lips to her temple. "I know."
Her hand gripped my chest. "Then what do we do?"
I exhaled slowly, trying to stay calm. "We run, fast and we trust no one."
ADANNA P.O.V (point of view)
His words sent a shiver down my spine. Run! Trust no one! And yet… I trusted him, j had to. He had never steered me wrong....never, and still, the thought of the Syndicate closing in, of the unknown, made my stomach twist.
We slipped through alleys, over wet rooftops, through narrow stairwells. Every shadow felt alive. Every sound made me jump but through it all, Darian never let go of my hand.
At one point, we ducked into an abandoned apartment building. Broken windows let in the rain. The wind howled through the empty halls as i pressed myself against him, shivering....not just from the cold.
He wrapped his arms around me fully this time, holding me close. "You're safe," he whispered. "For now."
I lifted my face, searching his eyes. "Darian… I...."
He silenced me with a kiss. Not the desperate, urgent kind from before, but slow, deep, full of something raw. Something tethered to every moment we'd shared, every fear, every danger we'd survived.
His hands slid from my back to my waist, then up to my neck, cradling my face as if I might shatter. I clung to him, my fingers threading through his hair.
The kiss ended too soon, but the tension didn't.
"We can't stop here long," he murmured. His forehead rested against mine. "They'll find us."
I nodded, shivering again.... partly from the rain, partly from him. "Where then?"
He didn't answer immediately. His eyes scanned the shadows outside the broken windows, calculating. Then he whispered, voice low, heavy....
"Up there."
He led me up the stairs, floorboards creaking under our feet. On the roof, the city spread out beneath us, slick and shining under the storm. Lightning flashed, illuminating our tense faces.
I realized then how close we were. He was pressed against me, hand on my hip, another tangled in mine. I could feel his heartbeat.... steady, strong, grounding me.
"I don't want to hide from you," I whispered, voice trembling.
"You don't have to," he said, brushing rain from my cheek. "But you do have to hide from them."
A long silence stretched between us.....dangerous, electric.
Then he leaned down, capturing my lips in another kiss. This one carried fire and fear and longing all at once. My hands slid over his back, gripping him, feeling the tension in his muscles, the heat radiating from him even in the storm.
"I can't lose you," he breathed against my lips.
"You won't," I whispered. "I'm not going anywhere."
DARIAN P.O.V (point of view)
I held her like she was the only thing that kept me tethered to the world, and maybe she was. The storm could rage around us. The Syndicate could be hunting us like predators, but in this moment, nothing else existed.
Not the tracker..... not Azaan, not the vault, not even the threat of death.
Just her.....Just us.
I kissed her again, slower this time, letting the tension between us burn away in the warmth of our connection.
"Promise me," I murmured, voice low, "no matter what happens… you trust me."
She looked at me, eyes wide, glistening with rain and unshed tears. "Always," she whispered.
Lightning flashed, and in that instant, the city below us looked like a battlefield. Danger was coming. We both knew it.
But neither of us moved apart..... not yet, and in that silence, that closeness, we both understood… whatever came next, whatever truths waited to be uncovered, we were bound together.
And that binding… could either save us or destroy everything.
Then, from the distance, a sharp crack split the stormy night air.
My heart jumped.
"Darian…" I whispered, voice trembling.
He stiffened, eyes scanning the streets below. His hand gripped mine tighter.
"They found us," he said, voice low, deadly calm and just like that, the storm wasn't only in the sky. It was coming for us.
To be continued.....