Ep--3
Raian's question still echoed inside Aria's chest:
"What scares you more? The darkness you see in me… or the darkness you've yet to see in yourself?"
She didn't know the answer. And the car was already speeding through narrow Kolkata streets, rain hammering the windows like desperate fingers.
---
They crossed the Howrah Bridge, city lights bleeding into rivers of neon below. Raian leaned his head back, pain tightening the hard lines of his jaw.
"You're still bleeding," Aria whispered, voice shaking.
Raian's eyes opened, grey and sharp even in exhaustion. "And you're still here."
"I should call the police," she said, more to herself than him.
His gaze turned colder than the rain. "And paint a target on your back? You don't know these men, Aria. They don't stop."
She looked down at her trembling hands, the reality sinking in like poison: by saving him, she had stepped into a war she couldn't see.
---
The car finally turned off the main road, tires splashing through puddles, and stopped before an old, windowless warehouse on the Hooghly riverfront.
One of Raian's men opened the door. "Boss, inside. It's safer here."
Raian moved to get out, but stumbled, breath hissing through clenched teeth.
Without thinking, Aria caught his arm — heat and tension shot through her at the contact.
"Careful," she murmured.
Their eyes met in the wet darkness. For a single heartbeat, the world shrank to nothing but his labored breath and her racing pulse.
---
Inside, the warehouse was a fortress: crates stacked high, dim lamps throwing long, twitching shadows.
Raian collapsed onto a metal chair, blood seeping through the stitches Aria had placed only an hour ago.
"Doctor," he rasped, sweat beading on his brow, "finish what you started."
Aria swallowed hard, fighting the panic clawing at her chest. "You need real care, Raian. You'll go into shock."
He shook his head, the smirk fading, replaced by raw exhaustion. "No hospitals. Not tonight."
---
Before she could reply, the warehouse door slammed open.
Two men stepped in — wet from the rain, eyes sharp with malice.
"Raian," one drawled, gun glinting under the lamp, "running to your pretty doctor now?"
Raian's entire body stiffened. The softness vanished; his voice turned to iron.
"Touch her," he warned, voice low and lethal, "and I'll paint these walls with your blood."
Aria's breath caught. The violence in his words wasn't just threat — it was a promise born of shadows.
---
The taller man stepped closer. "Orders changed, boss. You're worth more alive. And maybe she is too."
Lightning flickered through the broken skylight.
Aria felt her heart thunder — she was a doctor, not someone built for this.
Yet when the man lunged toward her, she didn't step back.
---
Chaos exploded.
One of Raian's men crashed into the intruders; metal clanged, a fist slammed into flesh.
Raian tried to stand, agony twisting his face.
"Aria, run!" he shouted, voice hoarse.
But she didn't run.
Instead, hands shaking, she grabbed a length of cloth from a crate, pressed it hard against his bleeding side.
"I'm not leaving you," she hissed through clenched teeth.
His eyes burned into hers — something like surprise, anger, and something softer, far more dangerous.
---
A gun slid across the floor, metal skittering.
The taller attacker reached for it — and before thinking, Aria kicked it away.
Her pulse roared in her ears; she'd never felt this kind of fear — or this strange, defiant courage.
---
In the end, Raian's men forced the intruders back, slamming the heavy door shut behind them.
Rain and silence settled once more.
Raian, breathing raggedly, caught Aria's wrist in his blood-slicked hand.
"Why didn't you run?" he rasped.
She met his gaze, voice barely above the rain on the roof. "Because you're my patient. And because…"
She stopped, the rest unsaid.
Because in that terrifying moment, his danger felt safer than the unknown beyond those doors.
---
Outside, thunder rolled over Kolkata.
Inside, a bond darker and deeper than either of them dared admit had begun to take root — bound by blood, tied by heart.
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