🖤 Bound to the Devil’s Heir

🖤 Bound to the Devil’s Heir, EPISODE 4

Episode 4: Blood Under the Mansion

The first gunshot didn’t feel real.

Aria froze where she stood, her entire body locking like the world had been pulled out from under her.

Then came the second.

And the third.

Downstairs, the mansion that looked like silence and luxury only moments ago… had turned into a battlefield.

Her breath turned sharp.

“No… no, no, no,” she whispered, backing away from the locked door.

Damian told her to stay.

But staying now felt like waiting to die.

Another explosion of sound—glass shattering somewhere below.

Aria’s heart hammered violently.

Then—

Footsteps outside the study.

Heavy. Fast. Unfamiliar.

She backed away from the door instinctively, pressing herself against the desk.

The handle turned.

Locked.

Silence.

Then, a voice.

“Check upstairs. The girl is here.”

Her blood ran cold.

They were coming for her.

Aria looked around desperately—no windows, no escape.

Only the second door.

The one leading deeper into the mansion.

Without thinking, she rushed into it.

The corridor she entered was darker than the rest of the house.

No paintings.

No lights.

Just long shadows stretching along the walls.

Her bare feet moved silently across the cold floor as she ran, her breath uneven.

Behind her—

A loud bang.

The study door is being forced open.

“They’re here!” a voice shouted.

Aria ran faster.

Her lungs burned.

Her mind screamed.

She didn’t even know where she was going—just away.

Then suddenly—

She heard it.

Footsteps behind her.

Closer.

Faster.

She turned sharply—

And collided into something solid.

A hand grabbed her arm instantly.

Hard.

“Aria.”

Damian.

She gasped, relief and fear crashing into her at the same time. “They’re inside the house!”

“I know,” he said coldly.

His eyes were different now.

No calm.

No distance.

Just control… and rage held tightly under the surface.

A streak of blood ran along his jaw.

Aria stared at it. “You’re hurt—”

“I said stay in the room,” he snapped.

“I was going to die in there!” she fired back.

For a second, silence.

Then—

Another explosion echoed downstairs.

Damian didn’t hesitate anymore.

He pulled her behind him.

“Stay close,” he ordered.

“I’m not your—”

“Stay. Close.”

His voice wasn’t loud.

But it was final.

And something in it made her obey.

They moved through the hallway quickly.

Gunshots echoed below, but now Aria could hear something else too—

Men shouting.

Orders being given.

Damian’s men were fighting back.

“Who are they?” Aria asked breathlessly.

“People your father betrayed,” Damian replied.

That word again.

Betrayed.

Her chest tightened. “You keep blaming him—”

“Because it’s true!” he snapped suddenly, stopping in his tracks.

The intensity in his voice made her flinch.

He turned slightly toward her.

For the first time, she saw it clearly.

Not just anger.

Hate.

And something deeper underneath it.

Pain.

“They didn’t come for you,” he said lowly. “They came for what you are connected to.”

Aria swallowed. “I don’t even know what that is.”

Damian stepped closer.

Too close.

His voice dropped.

“Then you’re more dangerous than I thought.”

A loud crash echoed somewhere below them.

The mansion shook slightly.

Damian’s expression changed instantly.

“Move,” he ordered.

They ran again.

They reached a hidden stairwell leading downward.

The moment Damian pushed the door open—

A gunshot rang out.

He reacted instantly.

Pulling Aria down behind him as bullets hit the wall above.

Her scream got trapped in her throat.

Damian raised his weapon and fired back without hesitation.

Everything happened too fast.

Too violent.

Too real.

Aria had never seen anything like it.

Not in books.

Not in dreams.

This was survival.

This was war.

When the shooting paused for a second, Damian grabbed her again.

“Listen to me,” he said sharply.

Aria looked up at him, shaking.

“They’re not leaving until they find you,” he said. “So you have two choices.”

Her breath trembled. “What choices?”

“Stay here and die…”

He paused slightly.

“…or trust me.”

Silence.

Aria stared at him.

At the man who terrified her.

The man who controlled her life.

The man who also, somehow… hadn’t let her die.

Another gunshot echoed.

Closer this time.

Her decision didn’t feel like a choice at all.

She nodded.

“Good,” Damian said.

He tightened his grip on her hand.

And for the first time—

He pulled her deeper into the hidden part of the mansion.

Where even he didn’t look fully calm anymore.

And behind them…

The enemies finally broke through the lower doors.

🔥 END OF EPISODE 4 (CLIFFHANGER)