THE DEVIL YOU NEED. by flora

Chapter Eight: Collateral

Ivy

The voicemail came while I was in the elevator.

Blocked number. No name. But the voice made my blood run cold.

“You think he can protect you, Ivy? You think you’re safe? You’re not.

I didn’t breathe until the doors opened.

By lunch, I was unraveling. I pushed salad around my plate in the staff lounge, nerves tight. I could feel him watching, even before I turned.

Lucian stood in the doorway, silent and still.

“You’re distracted,” he said.

“It’s nothing.

“Nothing doesn’t make you put that look

I sighed. “It’s personal.”

“Then make it impersonal. If something touches you, it touches me. And I don’t allow threats in my space.”

“You’re saying I’m your space now?”

He stepped closer, eyes calm but intense.

“I’m saying you work for me. And if someone’s trying to hurt what’s mine, I will respond.”

My heart thudded. That should’ve terrified me.

But it didn’t.

It made me feel... seen.

Why do I feel safer in the hands of the man everyone else fears?

Because maybe monsters protect their own, too.

And I was already becoming one of them a monster I couldn't fight.

I wanted to be the monster for him.