Detective Ryan took a small breath and forced a polite smile. "Sorry for disturbing you," he said, giving a slight nod to Lilith and Liam.
But just as he was about to turn, Lilith’s voice rang out, calm yet sharp.
"Detective, aren’t you going to check his thigh? That’s why you’re here, right?"
Ryan turned slowly, caught off guard. He raised a brow. Just monts ago this woman practically froze him in place with nothing but her eyes. Now she was inviting him to verify the very reason they ca? It didn’t make sense.
He glanced at Josh briefly. "I an... I don’t want to overstep. You just said we’d need a warrant."
Lilith leaned her head against Liam’s shoulder and gave a lazy, amused smile. "Well, go on. Check it."
Ryan swallowed, then nodded stiffly. "If we can see Liam’s right thigh, it would really help clear up the matter. It might let us move on and focus on other leads before things get worse."
Liam said nothing. He simply lifted the hem of his shorts, revealing smooth, flawless skin.
Josh and Ryan imdiately leaned in to look.
No scar. No mark. No sign that a bullet had ever touched him.
Just perfect, healthy skin.
Ryan blinked. Josh exhaled. "You see? I told you, man," he muttered. "I’ve been down this road before. I arrested this guy once for murder. Ended up making a fool of myself."
Ryan didn’t reply. His thoughts were elsewhere. He nodded slowly and turned away. "Apologies again."
The two n left. The door clicked shut behind them.
As the elevator descended, Josh kept talking.
"He’s clean, Ryan. You saw it yourself. No wound. The Nightcrawler got shot in the thigh. Liam doesn’t even have a bruise."
Ryan barely heard him. His mind was racing. Not because of what he saw—but because of what he didn’t.
He ran the events back through his head.
The way the Nightcrawler moved.
The precision of the attacks.
The way he toyed with them.
The pattern of the victims. Revenge killings. Sam. Daryl. Kyle. And now Jack, who was still in hiding.
It all pointed to a personal motive. Not a random killer. Not a psycho.
But there was sothing else... sothing he wasn’t seeing.
Back inside Lilith’s penthouse, silence settled over the room again.
Lilith’s head still rested on Liam’s chest as they lounged lazily on the couch. But the tension between them hadn’t faded.
Without warning, she shifted, and her back elbowed him sharply in the thigh.
Liam grunted. "Ow! Shit..."
A thin layer of frost spread across his leg.
He shot her a glare. "What the hell was that for?"
Lilith slowly turned her head, her expression cold and unimpressed.
"Why didn’t you tell you got shot?"
Liam blinked. He opened his mouth, then shut it. She had literally just woken up minutes before Josh and Ryan showed up. When was he supposed to tell her? Drag her out of bed in the middle of the night?
He sighed instead, brushing a hand through her hair gently. "It healed already. I didn’t want to worry you."
Lilith’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t speak. But Liam felt it again—a chill crawling up his leg.
"Okay, okay," he said quickly. "Look, we don’t even know the full extent of these powers yet. You really have to stop using them until we know they’re safe."
She smirked.
"ss with and find out."
Liam let out a laugh. "Empty threat."
She raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"
He shook his head and pulled her closer, letting the mont dissolve into sothing warr.
---
The late afternoon sun cast a warm glow across the city as Liam stood on the rooftop of a quiet Black Lotus safehouse. A soft breeze tugged at the edges of his dark shirt while he gave precise instructions to two of the gang’s trusted mbers. "You both know the location, right?"
The taller one, a lean man with braided hair and a cold gaze, nodded once. "Yes, boss. We’ll move low and quiet. You want answers about Ann, you’ll get them."
"Good," Liam said, eyes sharp. "I need to know what the hell is going on where she is. If sothing’s off, I want to know everything about it. Don’t engage unless it’s necessary. Just get intel."
The second man, stockier and with a scar tracing down his left eye, gave a short salute. "Understood."
With that, the two disappeared down the fire escape, lting into the city like ghosts. Liam exhaled and stepped back inside.
Now all he could do was wait.
But Liam wasn’t just waiting around aimlessly. His next target was Jack—the last of the four clowns. Sam, Daryl, and Kyle had all fallen, each one slightly tough than the last, but Jack... Jack was different. Jack was the only one smart enough to hide.
Fortunately for Liam, he had Lilith.
She didn’t need to chase information. It ca to her. Her connections ran deeper than any governnt wiretap or criminal network. Her sources didn’t talk; they whispered secrets directly into her ear. It was pure, untainted intel—clean and trustworthy. And now that she was helping him, all he had to do was sit tight.
But sitting tight wasn’t in Liam’s nature. The longer he stayed inside Lilith’s penthouse, the more caged he felt. So he decided to leave.
He had his house repairs ongoing. He called the workers, gave them access, and made sure they had no idea who he really was. After that, he did sothing rare—he wandered.
He walked through the streets of the city, breathing in the urban air, past vendors and pedestrians, soaking in the noise of engines and voices. For the first ti in weeks, he wasn’t rushing to kill or running from a fight. He just... walked.
But peace had a price. People noticed him.
Eyes followed him. So whispered. Others just stared openly. He could hear the soft clicks of phones being pulled out to snap photos. He sighed. Being known had its downsides.
He muttered under his breath, "How the hell do celebrities live like this?"
Lana flashed in his mind for a second—her smile, her hair, that dangerous, magnetic charm. He quickly shook it off. He wasn’t in the mood to drown in thoughts of her right now. He wanted sothing simple. Sothing human.
So he ducked into a small restaurant—a place that looked rundown on the outside but served so of the best food he’d ever had. Inside, nobody cared who you were. People were too busy eating. That’s what he loved about it.
He sat at his usual booth near the window and ordered what he always did—fried rice with shredded beef and spicy sauce. When the plate arrived, he tucked in, enjoying the quiet mont of flavor and heat.
Then it happened.
A curvy woman walked up to his table with the confidence of a lioness. Thick hips, sculpted waist, and breasts that sat high and proud, clearly. Her beauty was intense, but to Liam’s trained eyes, there was sothing about her that was familiar.. He chewed his food and studied her as she sat down across from him without asking.
Her voice was honey-slicked. "Hey, stranger."
Liam blinked, set his fork down, and leaned back slightly. His eyes narrowed, not in threat but in recognition. Her face... those eyes, those cheekbones. He had seen her before. Sowhere.
She picked at a green bean on her plate with delicate fingers and smiled. "Na’s Kelly."
Then it clicked.
He leaned forward slightly, brows furrowed, eyes scanning her. His tone was calm but pointed. "I know you."
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