Loving The Devil I Should Fear

📖 Chapter 1: The Night I Saved the Devil I was late. Again. The streetlights flickered above me as I hurried down the nearly empty road, my bag bouncing against my shoulder. My lecturer’s voice still echoed in my head, reminding me of the assignment due tomorrow morning. Just perfect. If my grades dropped again, I was done for. “Focus, Liana,” I muttered under my breath, tightening my grip on my bag. “Just get home.” The night was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made your skin crawl. I had taken this shortcut a hundred times before—through the narrow alley behind the old buildings—but tonight felt… different. Wrong. Then I saw it. A dark stain on the ground. At first, I thought it was water. Until I stepped closer. My breath caught. Blood. Fresh. Thick. And leading deeper into the alley. “No…” I whispered, already shaking my head. “No, no, no. Not my problem.” I turned to leave. I really did. But then— A low groan cut through the silence. I froze. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to pretend I heard nothing. I was just a student trying to survive exams, not… whatever this was. But my feet wouldn’t move. Slowly, like I was being pulled by something I didn’t understand, I followed the trail. And that’s when I saw him. A man slumped against the wall, his white shirt soaked in blood, his head tilted slightly to the side. For a second, I couldn’t breathe. He didn’t belong here. Even like this—injured, barely conscious—there was something about him that felt… powerful. Dangerous. Like the kind of man people warned you about. “Hey…” My voice came out small, unsure. No response. I stepped closer, my heart racing. “Can you hear me?” His eyes snapped open. I gasped. Dark. Sharp. Alive. Too alive. His gaze locked onto mine, cold and calculating, like he was already deciding something about me. “Don’t…” His voice was rough, strained. “Come closer.” I should have listened. Instead, I crouched beside him. “You’re bleeding,” I said, my hands trembling slightly. “You need help.” A faint smirk touched his lips, like he found that amusing. “Help?” he repeated quietly. “You should run.” “I’m not leaving you here,” I said, surprising even myself. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Stupid girl,” he muttered. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” He was right. I didn’t. But I couldn’t just walk away. “Can you stand?” I asked, ignoring the fear creeping into my chest. For a moment, he just stared at me. Then he asked, “Why?” The question caught me off guard. “Why help me?” I hesitated. “I don’t know… I just can’t leave you to die.” Something flickered in his eyes—gone before I could understand it. “Fine,” he said after a pause. “But whatever happens next… that’s on you.” A chill ran down my spine. Still, I slipped my arm around him, helping him up. He was heavy, his weight pressing against me as he struggled to stand. “Where do you live?” he asked quietly. “Not far,” I replied. “I’m a student—I stay off campus.” Bad idea. Terrible idea. But it was already too late. Step by step, I helped him out of the alley, my heart pounding louder with each second. I didn’t know his name. I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know why he was covered in blood. All I knew was that I had just brought a stranger into my life. And somehow… Deep down… I had a feeling he wasn’t just any man. He was something worse. Something dangerous. Something I should have feared. But instead— I saved him.