Elena stepped into the room and let the door close behind her.
"Elena," Liam said, genuinely surprised.
She stopped just inside the doorway, her eyes imdiately going to him — taking in the IV line in his arm, the hospital gown, the way he was propped up against the pillows like sitting up straight took effort.
Her expression shifted. Sothing tight crossed her face before she smoothed it away.
"Hi, Liam," she said, her voice coming out softer than usual.
She didn’t wait for him to respond.
She walked over to the bed — not the chair beside it, but directly to him.
She reached out, her hand moving to his face.
Her fingers were cool against his skin as they traced along his jaw, then down to his shoulder where she could see bruising peeking out from under the gown.
Her touch was gentle, careful, like she was checking to make sure he was real. Like she needed to feel for herself that he was still there.
"What happened to you?" she asked quietly, her eyes following the path her fingers traced.
"I got attacked," Liam said.
Elena’s hand stopped moving. Her eyes snapped to his, sharp and suddenly focused. "By who?"
"So guy." Liam shifted slightly against the pillows. "Ca out of nowhere."
Her jaw tightened.
She pulled her hand back slowly and straightened, her whole posture changing — like sothing soft in her had closed itself off.
She walked over to the chair and pulled it closer to the bed with a soft scraping sound before sitting down.
She leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees, hands clasped together, her eyes still on him.
"How did you even find ?" Liam asked, watching her settle into the chair.
Elena didn’t hesitate. "I was trying to reach you all morning." She tilted her head slightly. "When you didn’t answer, I tracked your phone."
Liam raised an eyebrow. "You tracked my phone?"
"Yes." She said it matter-of-factly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. No apology in her voice. No trace of guilt either. "And imagine my surprise when I found out you were in a hospital."
"That’s invasive, Elena."
"That’s caring," she corrected, leaning back slightly in the chair and crossing her arms. Her eyes stayed locked on his. "I care about you, Liam. When you disappear for hours and don’t answer your phone, what am I supposed to think?"
Liam opened his mouth, then closed it. He couldn’t really argue with that.
Elena’s expression softened just a fraction.
She uncrossed her arms and leaned forward again, her voice dropping slightly. "So tell . Who did this to you?"
’Damn, she’s still not letting this go,’ Liam thought, a slow, quiet sigh escaping him.
"So guy," Liam said. He looked up at the ceiling for a mont, trying to recall the details, the images coming back in fragnts. "Mid-twenties. Dark hair and pale skin."
"That’s not much to go on." Elena’s fingers drumd lightly against her knee — a small tell that she was already thinking through possibilities, already running through nas and faces in her head.
"I know."
Elena studied him for a mont, her eyes moving across his face like she was trying to read sothing there. "I can send people. Give more details." She gestured with one hand. "Where did this happen? What was he wearing? Anything distinctive about him?"
"Elena." Liam’s voice was firr now, enough to make her stop. "I wouldn’t advise that."
She raised an eyebrow, her head tilting slightly. "Why not?"
"Because I don’t want to put you in danger."
"Liam—" She started to protest, sitting up straighter.
"I know your family is powerful," he continued, cutting her off gently but firmly. "I know you have resources and people who can handle things.
But this guy..." He paused, his jaw tightening as he rembered the way he’d been thrown into the wall — the impact, the way the air had left his body, the mont he’d understood that whatever he was dealing with wasn’t sothing he could fight his way out of. "He’s on another level. Sending people after him would just get them killed. It was a miracle I even survived."
Elena went very still.
Her whole body seed to freeze in place.
The subtle movent she always had — the small adjustnts, the slight shifts — all of it stopped.
Her eyes were locked on his face now, searching, like she was waiting for the part that made sense.
"What do you an, another level?" she asked, her voice quieter now.
Liam was quiet for a mont.
He looked away from her, staring at the IV line in his arm while he thought about how to say it. How to explain what he’d seen without sounding completely insane. How to describe sothing that had no reasonable explanation.
’Would she even believe ?’
But when he looked back at her — at the way she was watching him, waiting with that focused, unblinking intensity — he decided to just say it.
"The guy had abilities," Liam said carefully, watching her face as he spoke. "Like... he wasn’t human." He paused, searching for the right words. "It’s really hard to explain."
Elena didn’t move.
She didn’t blink. Didn’t shift in her seat. Didn’t react at all for a long mont.
Just stared at him.
Liam noticed.
’That’s not the reaction of soone hearing this for the first ti.’
"Yeah," Liam continued, watching her face carefully now. "So I don’t want you putting anyone in danger for my sake. This isn’t sothing normal people can handle."
Elena’s expression was completely unreadable. She sat back in the chair slowly, the movent deliberate and controlled, like every part of her was carefully asured. .
She crossed one leg over the other, her hands resting in her lap with fingers laced together. Still. Composed. A little too composed.
Then she spoke, her voice lower now. Quieter. More careful.
"How did you survive?"
The question hung in the air between them.
Liam paused.
He could feel the weight of it. The way it had co out — not with the warmth of relief, not with the breathless gratitude soone who’d just found out their person was nearly killed might have. Just those four words, low and deliberate and asured.
The way she was looking at him — not with concern or relief, but with sothing else entirely. Like she was trying to piece sothing together in her head. Like she was calculating.
"I got lucky," he said finally, keeping his voice steady. "The cops showed up before he could finish off. Sirens spooked him and he ran."
Elena stared at him for another mont. Her eyes didn’t leave his face. She held the silence just a beat too long before she nodded slowly, just once. "I’m glad you did."
The room went quiet except for the monitor beeping steadily beside the bed.
Elena stood up without warning.
The chair scraped slightly against the floor as she rose. She smoothed down her dress with both hands, pulling it back into place, her movents unhurried and precise.
"I have to go," she said.
Liam blinked, caught off guard. "Already? You just got here."
"I know." She picked up her purse from where she’d set it on the chair, hooking it over her shoulder in one smooth motion. "But I have sowhere I need to be."
"Elena—"
She leaned down and kissed him before he could finish.
It wasn’t soft this ti. It was urgent, almost desperate. Her hand cupped the side of his face, her fingers pressing into his skin, and she kissed him like she was trying to say sothing she couldn’t put into words.
Her lips pressed hard against his, lingering for a mont longer than necessary — longer than a goodbye kiss had any reason to be.
When she pulled back, her eyes lingered on his for just a second. Sothing flickered there — concern, maybe, or worry — but it was gone before he could na it, shuttered away behind whatever composure she’d decided to keep.
Then she turned and walked straight to the door.
No hesitation. No looking back.
Her heels clicked against the floor — sharp, quick sounds that echoed in the quiet room. Each step purposeful and fast, like she already knew exactly where she was going.
She pulled the door open, the handle turning with a soft click.
"See you later, Liam," she said without turning around, her voice steady and even.
And then she was gone.
The door swung shut behind her with a soft thud.
Liam stared at the empty doorway for a mont, the silence settling back into the room like it had never been disturbed.
He let his head fall back against the pillow, the movent slow.
’My hunch was right. And I really didn’t want it to be.’
He thought about the way she’d gone completely still when he ntioned the abilities. Not shocked. Not surprised or even skeptical in the way most people would be.
And then that question.
How did you survive?
It was ant to be one of those thank God you’re safe monts. The kind where soone grabs your hand and exhales and tells you they were scared out of their mind. Where relief does most of the talking.
Instead it was a question of how he survived. Like she already understood that surviving soone like that wasn’t a given. Like she knew exactly what kind of threat he was describing — what it ant, what it looked like, what it was capable of.
’She knows sothing. She definitely knows sothing about this.’
The realization settled in his chest, heavy and uncomfortable, pressing down in a way he couldn’t shake off.
He cared about Elena. That wasn’t the question. They had sothing real between them, even if neither of them had ever put a na to it, never sat down and decided what to call what they were to each other.
But now...
He paused, staring up at the ceiling.
Because the next question — the one he didn’t want to ask, the one that had been sitting at the edge of his thoughts since the mont she’d gone still — was right there waiting for him.
’Does she have sothing to do with it?’
The monitor beeped steadily. The morning light pushed through the curtains, washing everything in pale gold and making the room feel quieter than it was.
Liam closed his eyes.
’Nah. Elena has nothing to do with this. I just need to talk to her.’
But he was going to find out.
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