3:47 PM
Nana stared at her phone, frustration building in her chest.
Xaviee, where are you? I'm at your apartment but you're not here...
Sent 2 hours ago. Read 2 hours ago. No response.
She tried calling again. It rang and rang, then went to voicemail.
"Xavier, this isn't funny. You always answer. Please call me back."
She hung up and tried Rafayel instead.
Straight to voicemail.
What was going on? Both of them ignoring her at the same time felt wrong. Especially Xavier—he always answered. Even if he was sleeping, even if he was busy, he always picked up for her.
Unless something was wrong.She felt cold fear creep into her stomach. Xavier's apartment was empty. His bedroom looked untouched. No signs of a struggle, no notes, nothing.
Just... empty.
She pulled out her phone and tried texting Jihoon, Xavier's cousin:
Hi! Do you know where Xavier is? He's not answering and I'm getting worried...
The message showed as delivered but not read.
Nana sat on Xavier's couch, hugging her knees, trying not to panic.
Where are you, Xaviee?
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Five stories beneath his apartment building, in a reinforced concrete room that officially didn't exist, Xavier sat across from Rafayel.
Between them was a conference table.
Behind Xavier stood Jihoon and fifteen armed operatives. Behind Rafayel stood twenty of his own men, weapons visible, tensions high.
This was supposed to be a negotiation.
Both of them knew it was a prelude to war.
"Let me be clear," Xavier said, his voice cold and controlled. "I'm giving you one chance. Walk away. Leave the city. Forget about her."
Rafayel laughed—bitter and sharp. "You think I'm just going to leave? After everything?"
"It's that or die. Choose."
"Bold words from someone outnumbered." Rafayel leaned back in his chair, perfectly relaxed despite the arsenal pointed at him.
"I counted fifteen of your men. I have twenty. And that's just who I brought to this meeting."
"Numbers don't mean anything if you're the first one dead."
Rafayel's smile sharpened. "Is that a threat, Shen devil's?"
"It's a promise."
They stared at each other across the table, two apex predators with no room to coexist.
"I've been watching her for eight months," Rafayel said quietly. "Every smile. Every laugh. The way she bites her lip when she's concentrating. The way she talks in her sleep about butterflies and painting and—" His eyes locked on Xavier's, "—you."
Xavier's jaw clenched.
"She dreams about you," Rafayel continued, each word deliberate. "Calls your name in her sleep. I've heard it through the surveillance. 'Xaviee,' she says, so sweet, so trusting. It drives me insane."
"Then you should understand why I'm not letting you near her."
"But here's what you don't understand." Rafayel leaned forward, his dual-colored eyes glinting dangerously. "I don't need your permission. I want her. I will have her. And you—" His smile was poisonous, "—you'll be dead, so you won't be able to stop me."
Xavier's hand moved.
In one fluid motion, he pulled a combat knife from his jacket and threw it.
The blade whistled through the air, spinning perfectly, and embedded itself in the table—exactly one inch from Rafayel's hand.
Rafayel didn't flinch. Instead, he pulled the knife free, testing its weight, examining it with professional appreciation.
"Impressive throw." He looked up, smiling. "But you missed."
"Did I?" Xavier's expression was ice. "That was a warning. Next time, I won't miss."
"Next time," Rafayel said, standing slowly, "neither will I."
For a moment, the room was silent. Twenty-five weapons were raised, safeties clicked off, every man waiting for the signal to fire.
Xavier and Rafayel stared at each other across the table.
Then Rafayel moved.
He was fast—trained assassin fast—lunging across the table with Xavier's own knife aimed at his throat.
Xavier teleported.
One moment he was sitting. The next, he appeared behind Rafayel, gun drawn and pressed to the back of his head."You good," Xavier said quietly. "But not good enough."
Rafayel spun, impossibly fast, knocking the gun aside with one hand while slashing with the knife in the other.
Xavier blocked, grabbing Rafayel's wrist, and suddenly they were grappling—two trained killers in close combat, neither giving an inch.
And then all hell broke loose.
Someone fired. Xavier didn't know who—didn't care who. The gunshot was the signal everyone had been waiting for.
Rafayel's men opened fire. Xavier's men returned it. The conference room became a war zone.
Bullets flew like shooting stars, ricocheting off concrete, shattering the conference table. Men dropped on both sides, screaming, bleeding, dying.
But Xavier only had eyes for Rafayel.
They fought like wild animals—trading blows, both too fast and too skilled for either to gain advantage. Xavier's knife found Rafayel's shoulder. Rafayel's blade cut across Xavier's ribs.
They crashed into the wall, then the floor, then up again, a blur of violence and rage.
"She'll never be yours!" Rafayel snarled, his blade going for Xavier's throat.
Xavier caught his wrist, twisted, heard bones crack. "She already is!"
They hit the ground hard, Xavier on top, his knife at Rafayel's throat—
Then Rafayel's knee came up, catching Xavier in the ribs where he'd been cut.
Xavier's grip loosened for just a second, and Rafayel reversed their positions, slamming Xavier's head against the concrete.
Stars exploded in Xavier's vision.
"I should thank you," Rafayel panted, blood dripping from multiple wounds. "When you're dead, she'll have no one. She'll be vulnerable. Sad. And I'll be there to comfort her."
Xavier's hand shot up, grabbing Rafayel's throat. "You'll never—get the chance—"
They rolled again, trading positions, both bleeding, both exhausted, neither willing to yield.
Around them, the firefight continued. Bodies on both sides. Xavier could hear Jihoon shouting orders, could hear the controlled chaos of urban warfare.
But his focus was entirely on Rafayel.
This ended today. One way or another.
Xavier teleported again—appeared above Rafayel—came down with his knife aimed at the other man's heart—
Rafayel moved at the last second. The blade buried itself in his shoulder instead of his chest.
Rafayel screamed, but he was laughing too. Insane. Manic.
"Is that all you've got, Shen devil's?"
Xavier twisted the knife, and Rafayel's laugh turned into a grunt of pain.
"Tell me," Xavier said quietly, deadly. "Was she worth dying for?"
"Yes."
The answer was immediate. Absolute. And in Rafayel's eyes, Xavier saw the same desperate obsession he felt every time he looked at Nana.
They were the same. Both monsters. Both willing to burn the world for a girl who didn't know what they really were.
The only difference was Xavier had her first.
Xavier pulled out the knife, raising it for a killing blow—
"BOSS! INCOMING!"
Jihoon voice cracked with urgency.
Xavier's head snapped up just in time to see reinforcements flooding into the room.
But not his reinforcements.
Rafayel's.
Twenty more men. Thirty. All heavily armed. All pouring in from multiple entrances that Xavier didn't know existed.
Fuck.
"Did you really think," Rafayel gasped, still pinned beneath Xavier but smiling through the blood, "that I'd come to your territory without backup?"
Xavier's eyes widened as he did the math. He'd brought fifteen men to this meeting. Lost at least five in the firefight. That left ten against Rafayel's original twenty, plus these new reinforcements.
They were catastrophically outnumbered.
"WE NEED TO GO!" Jihoon was at his side, pulling at his arm. "NOW!"
Xavier looked down at Rafayel—dying, bleeding, but still smiling that poisonous smile.
"This isn't over," Xavier snarled.
"No," Rafayel agreed, coughing blood.
"It's not. Next time... next time I'll take everything from you. Starting with her."
Xavier wanted to finish it. Wanted to bury the knife in Rafayel's heart and end this threat forever.
But more men were coming. Too many. And if Xavier died here, Nana would have no protection.
He made the only choice he could.
Xavier drove his knife one more time into Rafayel's shoulder—making sure the wound was deep, painful, but not fatal—then teleported.
Some moment he was in the underground facility.
The next, he materialized in the safe house two miles away, Jihoon appearing beside him a second later with three other survivors.
They were bleeding, exhausted, and they'd lost.
Not completely. Not yet. But they'd lost this battle.
"How many?" Xavier demanded, pressing a hand to the cut on his ribs.
"Out of fifteen," Jihoon said grimly, "we got five out. Maybe two others escaped on their own, but... Boss, we lost at least eight men."
Eight dead. Because of his war with Rafayel. Because of his obsession with keeping Nana.
Xavier's hands were shaking—from adrenaline, from blood loss, from rage.
And Boss—" Jihoon's expression was grave. "Before we evacuated, I saw someone else arrive."
"Who?"
"The Serpent Guild leader himself."
Xavier's blood ran cold.
Rafayel's father. The head of the organization. If he was here, if he was personally involved...
This had just become a full-scale war.
Xavier pulled out his phone with shaking, bloody hands. Seventeen missed calls from Nana,and text.
Xaviee where are you?
Please answer
I'm worried
Xaviee please
Are you okay?I'm scared
The last message was from ten minutes ago:
I love you. Please be safe. Please come back.
Xavier stared at those three words—I love you—and felt something crack in his chest.
She loved him.
And he'd just started a war that could get her killed.
"Boss?" Jihoon's voice was careful.
"What are your orders?"
Xavier looked at his remaining men—injured, traumatized, loyal. Looked at Jihoon, who'd followed him through hell and back.
"Get everyone medical attention. Secure all safe houses. I want every property we own locked down and guarded."
"And you?"
Xavier started toward the door, still bleeding, still covered in blood that was both his and Rafayel's.
"I'm going to Nana."
"Boss, you can't. Look at yourself. She'll see—"
"I know." Xavier's voice was flat. "But Rafayel knows about her. His father knows. The Serpent Guild knows. And after today, they're going to come for her to hurt me."
"So what do we do?"
Xavier looked back at Jihoon, and his expression was colder than Jihoon had ever seen.
"We tell her the truth."
"What?"
"Not all of it. But enough. Enough that she knows to be careful. Enough that she knows she's in danger."
"She'll ask questions—"
"Let her ask." Xavier's jaw was set. "Better she asks questions than ends up like—"
Xavier couldn't finish. Couldn't say like her mother. Couldn't voice the nightmare that haunted him.
"Understood," Jihoon said quietly. "I'll arrange increased security around the Anderson estate."
"And Jihoon?"
"Yeah?"
"If anything happens to me—if Rafayel wins—you get her out of the city. You keep her safe. Promise me."
Jihoon studied his boss—his friend—and saw genuine fear for the first time in years.
"I promise, Boss. But you're not dying. We're going to win this."
"Are we?" Xavier looked at his bloody hands. "Because I'm not so sure anymore."
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Rafayel lay on the floor of the destroyed conference room, laughing.
It hurt. God, it hurt. Xavier's knife had found him multiple times. His shoulder was destroyed. Several ribs were broken. He was pretty sure he was bleeding internally.
But he was alive.
And Xavier had run.
"Sir!" One of his men rushed over. "We need to get you medical attention!"
"No," Rafayel said, still laughing. "Not yet. Did you... did you get it?"
"Sir?"
"The tracker. Did you plant the tracker on Xavier?"
The operative's expression shifted to satisfaction. "Yes, sir. On his jacket. During the fight, just like you ordered."
Rafayel's smile was bloody and triumphant. "Good. Then we can find all his safe houses. All his properties. Everything."
Footsteps approached—heavy, commanding. Rafayel looked up to see his father, the Serpent Guild leader, standing over him.
"You look terrible," his father observed.
"You should see the other guy," Rafayel wheezed.
"He escaped."
"Temporarily. We have him tracked now. And father ?" Rafayel's smile sharpened.
"He's scared. Xavier's actually scared. I saw it in his eyes."
"Good. Fear makes people sloppy."
"When do we move on the girl?"
His father considered. "Give Xavier twenty-four hours to realize how badly he lost today. Let him panic. Let him try to fortify his defenses." A cold smile.
"Then we take everything."
Rafayel nodded, then coughed blood.
"Get him to medical," the Serpent Guild leader ordered his men. "I need him alive for what comes next."
As they lifted Rafayel, he pulled out his phone and looked at Nana's last message to him:
Rafayel? Are you okay? You're not answering either. Is something wrong? Please text me back when you can.
So innocent. So trusting.
So completely unaware that the two men she cared about had just tried to kill each other over her.
Rafayel typed with shaking fingers:
Sorry! Phone died and I was at an important gallery meeting. All good now! 😊
He hit send, then let the darkness take him.
When he woke up, the war would continue.
And this time, he'd make sure Xavier didn't walk away.
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To be continued.