CHAPTER 2 — THE DEVIL’S WARNING
1375 Words
The school principal tried to calm the chaos, but panic sat heavy in the halls. Students were moved to the auditorium, police cars lined the gates, and whispers flew like wildfire.
But Kayden didn’t care about any of that.
All he cared about was the way Malia’s hands trembled as she sat beside him on the stairs behind the gym—hidden, isolated, away from the noise.
“You’re shaking,” he said softly.
“I’m fine,” she whispered.
“You’re lying.”
She looked away, pulling her knees to her chest. “I didn’t ask you to help me.”
Kayden dropped beside her. “You didn’t need to. That bullet wasn’t random.”
She stiffened.
He noticed.
“Tell me who you’re running from,” he said quietly. “Or I can’t protect you.”
“I don’t need protection.”
“Everyone needs protection,” Kayden replied. “Even the strongest people break.”
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she pulled a chain hidden under her shirt — a locket.
Inside was a picture of her mother…smiling, but something in her eyes felt wrong.
“She died last year,” Malia whispered. “They said it was a car crash.”
Kayden’s jaw tightened. “They said?”
She nodded. “But two days before she died…she told me she was scared.”
“Of your stepfather?”
Malia’s silence stretched, thick and heavy.
She swallowed hard. “He wasn’t always like this. But after they married, something changed. He had…people around him. Men with scars, guns, strange tattoos. And he watched me like I was…useful.”
Kayden’s eyes narrowed. “Useful how?”
Another silence.
“Malia,” he said gently, “I can’t help you if you don’t trust me.”
Her eyes glistened. “That blueprint you saw—” she hesitated “—it wasn’t for stealing anything. It was to find a way out. Someone locked the gates yesterday. My stepfather’s driver told me not to come to school today. I didn’t listen.”
“And they tried to shoot you for it,” Kayden said.
She nodded slowly.
“You’re being hunted.”
She let out a shaky breath. “You should stay away. Anyone near me gets hurt.”
He gave a dark laugh. “Trust me. I’m not anyone.”
He meant it.
Because Kayden had secrets too—ones darker than the rumors whispered about him.
---
The moment the police officers left the campus, Kayden slipped out the back gate. His bike purred beneath him as he sped through the city until he reached the slums—the place where the law went to die.
He parked beside a rusted warehouse.
Inside, a group of men in leather jackets looked up. Tattoos. Scars. Guns.
A criminal hideout.
And they bowed their heads when Kayden walked in.
He wasn’t just a student.
He wasn’t just a badboy.
He wasn’t just a rumor.
He was their commander.
The Shadow Wolves — a covert vigilante gang targeting corrupt politicians, criminals disguised as saints, and men who thought power made them untouchable.
“Boss?” one of the men asked. “Why are you here? You skipped the meeting yesterday.”
Kayden pulled off his gloves, expression cold. “Someone fired a bullet at a girl in my school.”
“That’s…not unusual for this city,” the man said carefully.
Kayden shot him a glare. “But this one came from a black SUV. Same model used by Adebayo’s men.”
The warehouse fell silent.
Adebayo.
The billionaire politician who pretended to be clean while funding half the crimes in the region.
“You sure?” another man asked.
Kayden nodded. “Positive.”
“And the girl? Who is she to Adebayo?”
Kayden’s jaw worked. “His stepdaughter.”
The room exploded.
“So he’s after her?”
“He finally snapped?”
“Why would he go after his own family?”
Kayden’s voice was quiet but lethal. “Because she knows something.”
---
Back at the school, classes were cancelled, but Malia stayed behind in the library, pretending to read while her mind spiraled.
What if he followed her?
What if he found her?
What if Kayden got dragged into her nightmare?
She didn’t want that.
He didn’t deserve that.
But when she heard the library door open, her heart clenched.
Kayden walked in, cold and silent, his jacket still smelling faintly of smoke.
“K-Kayden?” she whispered.
He didn’t speak.
Instead, he took her wrist gently and pulled her out of the library, down the hall, through a side exit, and into the empty greenhouse behind the science block. Plants towered around them, sunlight filtering through green shadows.
He finally let go.
“You should have told me everything,” he said.
“You left suddenly,” she whispered.
“Because I needed answers,” he replied. “And I got them.”
Malia’s breath hitched. “What…what did you find out?”
Kayden stepped closer.
“You’re not just being watched. You’re being hunted.”
Her heart dropped.
“I know.”
He shook his head. “No. You don’t understand. This isn’t just about controlling you. It’s about silencing you.”
“Silencing me?” she whispered. “Why?”
“Because your stepfather isn’t who you think he is.”
Malia swallowed. “Kayden…who are you?”
He didn’t want to answer. But he saw the fear in her eyes.
The trust.
The plea.
And for the first time in years, he felt the urge to let someone in.
“I’m someone who knows exactly how men like your stepfather think,” he said. “Someone who’s been fighting men like him my entire life.”
“Fighting?” she whispered.
“More like hunting,” he muttered.
Malia stepped closer. “Why help me?”
He looked away. “Because I don’t want you to die.”
Their eyes met.
A spark.
A pull.
A dangerous, mutual crush neither could deny.
But then her expression shifted.
“I saw something,” Malia said quietly. “A file. On my mother’s laptop. It was her diary. She wrote that she discovered something about my stepfather…something illegal. Something big.”
Kayden’s pulse quickened. “Did you read it?”
She nodded. “He’s not just a politician. He’s running an underground ring. Drugs, weapons, hacking contracts…everything. My mom tried to expose him. And the next day, she died.”
Kayden clenched his fists.
So her mother was killed.
And now Malia was next.
“You need protection,” he said firmly. “I’ll keep you safe. But we need to move carefully.”
“But I don’t want you getting hurt for me.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
“Malia, I’ve been hurt long before you came. Let me protect you.”
Her breath trembled. “Why do you care so much?”
Kayden hesitated.
Then he said the truth—
“Because the moment I saw you…I stopped feeling dead.”
Malia’s lips parted.
Her heartbeat stuttered.
Before either of them could say another word, the greenhouse door burst open.
A tall man in a dark suit stood there.
Cold eyes.
Stiff posture.
A gun holstered beneath his jacket.
“Malia,” he said flatly, “your stepfather requests your presence. Now.”
Kayden stepped in front of her instantly, blocking the man’s view.
“No,” Kayden said. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
The man’s hand drifted toward his gun.
“And who are you to stop me?” he asked.
Kayden’s eyes flashed — that same frightening fire people whispered about.
“Someone you don’t want to meet at night.”
The man reached for his gun.
Kayden moved first.
One swift kick — fast, deadly, precise — knocked the gun flying across the greenhouse. The man crashed against the glass, stunned.
Malia gasped.
Kayden grabbed her hand.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
And together they ran — into danger, into the unknown, into a future neither of them could predict.
But one thing was clear:
The legend of the Child of the Devil
was just beginning.
- Writer
