Shadows at Her Heels

Elaina didn’t know why her skin prickled with unease as she stepped out of the hospital’s rear exit.

It had been a long day—patients, meetings, and Daisy ranting about how she needed a proper date night. The sun had dipped below the skyline, and the world was bathed in dusk’s golden gloom.

But something felt… off.

She clutched her coat tighter around herself, her heels clicking faster on the pavement as she made her way toward the spot where her car was parked. The air felt too still. The quiet, too unnatural.

The rose was the first sign.

Single. Crimson. Fresh.

Resting on the hood of her car.

Elaina frowned, the hospital’s rear lot deserted under the bleeding colors of twilight. She hadn’t told anyone she’d parked here. She hadn’t told anyone she was working late. And she definitely hadn’t told anyone she hated clichés this much.

She picked up the rose slowly, the stem still dewy.

A note was tucked beneath it.

Just one word.

“Lovely.”

Her stomach tightened.

Not in a swoony, rom-com kind of way.

In the “turn around and sprint for your damn life” kind of way.

Something in the air had shifted. Not just the usual city unease. This was heavier. Like being watched with a hunger that had nothing to do with admiration.

Her heels clicked faster as she backed away, scanning the shadows between the parked cars, heart picking up tempo.

Then came the sound.

Footsteps.

Following.

Measured. Soft. Too soft for a human.

She spun around—nothing.

She reached into her purse, gripping the pepper spray she’d always carried and never used.

“Nice flower,” a voice drawled from the shadows. “Heard it’s your color.”

Elaina jumped, nearly dropping the spray.

A man stepped out from the alley’s edge, tall, sharp-suited, and completely wrong. His smile was too smooth. His eyes—no, those weren’t eyes. Not really. They glowed faintly red, like dying coals.

Elaina froze.

She took a step back.

Her instincts screamed.

She pivoted on her heel, heart racing, intending to walk right back into the hospital.

But the man was no longer behind her.

He was in front of her now.

“How—” she gasped, stumbling back.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she said, surprising herself with how steady she sounded.

He chuckled. “Funny. That’s exactly what they said about you.”

Then, without moving, he was suddenly closer.

“What—how—” she gasped, heart slamming against her ribs.

“Relax,” he murmured. “This isn’t a kidnapping. Yet.I just wanted to say,” he drawled, “you’re far more interesting than your file suggested.”

She tried to back away, but the alley had narrowed around her like a trap.

Then the air shifted.

Thicker.

Heavier.

And from the shadows behind her, a voice cut through the tension like thunder.

“Touch her, and I’ll rip your heart out.”

The man froze.

Elaina turned.

Lucien stood at the alley’s entrance, dressed in a long black coat, rain hitting his shoulders like knives, golden eyes glowing like a wolf beneath the storm.He didn’t look like a man. He looked like vengeance.

His voice was death itself.

“Leave.”

The red-eyed man tensed. “You always were dramatic, Mr.Blackthorn.”

“I gave you one chance,” he said coldly. “And you wasted it.”

The man shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for being curious. She’s quite the mystery.”

Lucien moved so fast Elaina barely saw it—one moment, he was beside her; the next, the other man was pinned to the wall, a growl in Lucien’s throat that didn’t sound even remotely human.

“Disappear,” Lucien growled. “Before I make it permanent.”

The red-eyed man vanished into thin air with a hiss of smoke and a muttered curse in some language Elaina had definitely never heard in med school.

She stood frozen.

Lucien’s gaze didn’t leave the space where the man disappeared until he was sure they were alone.

Then he turned to her.

“Elaina,” he breathed, moving closer. “Are you hurt?”

“I think I almost got compliment-kidnapped by a demon,” she said, voice shaking. “So no. Not okay.”

He stepped closer, eyes scanning her for injuries. “Did he touch you?”

“No. Just freaked me out and insulted my flower preferences.”

Lucien didn’t smile.

“I should’ve known they’d come for you,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have let you walk alone.”

She shook her head, adrenaline making her fingers tremble. “Who the hell was that?”

Lucien hesitated for a moment. Then, quietly, “A mistake from my past.”

Her heart still thudded painfully. “Why was he following me?”

Lucien stared at her for a long time before answering. “Because you matter to me more than you should.”

Elaina blinked. “Lucien…”

But he stepped back. “This is why you should stay away from me.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“You should be.”

She moved toward him, defiantly. “And yet, I’m not. You keep warning me, pushing me away, locking your doors—but when I need you… you show up.”

He clenched his jaw, shaking his head as if fighting demons. “I told you, Elaina—”

“No,” she cut in. “You didn’t tell me anything.You rejected me without even letting me understand why.”

His silence was deafening.

The rain fell harder.

“I love you,” she whispered. “And I don’t care if you have secrets. Or scary glowing enemies. Or a tragic backstory with a leather jacket phase.”

Lucien’s expression cracked, just for a second.

But then he stepped back again, colder now. “Don’t follow me, Elaina. You don’t belong in my world.You should run far from me,” he said.

“And yet, here I am,” she echoed.

He looked like he might say something more.

But then he stepped back into the shadows.

“You need to go home .Now.Lock everything.Trust no one.”

And he was gone.

Leaving her with a rose in her hand, glass in her throat, and a new, terrifying truth—

She wasn’t a civilian anymore.

She was the center of something ancient, bloody, and breathing.

And whatever Lucien was trying to protect her from?

It had already found her.