Chapter 17 Claim
\[Lilia\]
The full blast of air met us just as I felt Kael step onto a flat surface.
The sound of the whooping blade reminds me of a helicopter. There was frantic shouting all around us, but I couldn't make out what they said.
The rapid-fire of gunshots reverberated below the building, but it grew louder and louder the longer it lasted.
As I felt Kael lift me and place me on a cushioned surface, I heard him yell over something in the distance. Then he came up behind me and cradled me in both of his arms.
“Go!” I heard him shout, instructing someone to lift the aircraft.
A barrage of bullets whizzes past, pinging against the helicopter's side. As we rose higher in the sky, Kael wrapped his arms around me and covered me with his body.
I don't know how long the time passed, or whether or not we made it back to the mansion. The last thing I remembered was Kael settling my body on his lap, turning it into a comfortable position. With the exhaustion and panic that I went through, I didn't notice that I had already fallen asleep.
The next day, I woke up with the scent of lavender wafting through my nose, not the sterile smell, unlike from the hospital. This time, I tried again, mustering the strength that my body had recuperated. I managed to flutter my eyes open.
My vision blurred, at first sight, greeting me with a familiar red-painted ceiling. Upon seeing it, I already knew where I was:
Back in my prison. In the mansion.
“She's awake.” The sound of a feminine voice hits my ears.
Three dark blobs float on the corner of my vision as I shift my head to the side. I squinted my eyes and focused on them.
Aya’s worried face came into view. Behind her stood Kael, his face washed with relief, and next to him was Val, an arm sling across his shoulders. There were also patches of bandages wrapped around his head and on the right side of his leg.
“How are you feeling, Lilia?” Aya inquired, her face leaning closer to mine.
Just then, I was able to look at her features more closely. She had a purplish bruise shadowing the corner of her mouth, and the lower portion of her lips were swelling as well, as if she had been struck by something heavy.
“What happened to your face?” I croaked out. My throat felt scratchy from not talking for too long.
She avoided my gaze and looked down, her face contorted into something I couldn’t quite put my fingers on.
“Uhmm, it was nothing,” she said, smiling. “How are you feeling?”
She took a seat next to me on the bed, gently brushing my hair away from my face.
“I'm thirsty,” I said, forcing my voice louder so she could hear me.
My attention swept over to the two men who stood quietly to the corner, their burning gaze drilling holes into my head.
Most especially the one who had bright mossy green eyes.
“What happened? How long was I out?” I inquired, looking around my flaming red room. The brilliant color makes my head spin, and the sharpness is too much for my eyes to handle.
“Three days,” Aya answered my inquiry, holding out her hand to clasp with mine. “I'm sorry,” she went on, apologising for the things that weren't her fault.
“It wasn't your fault Aya,” I said, assuring her that it was all okay, when in fact, it is not.
It was Kael that drove me to run away. I was out for three days. The last time I remember being conscious was when I was in the hospital. I couldn't move at that time, and my feet where I had been bitten were killing me.
Also, there were gunshots. We were caught amid a crossfire. I thought I was going to die in there, yet Kael saved me again.
However, one thing that bothered me was the strange man who came and visited me before the gunfire broke out.
He was telling me about owning me. That if it wasn't for Aslanov, I would be his.
“Lilia?”
What does it have anything to do with me?
“Lilia?”
“Hey, Lilia. Can you hear me?” A loud voice reaches into my hearing, followed by violent shaking, taking me out from my reverie.
“Yes, what happened?” I turn my attention back to Aya. I hadn't realised that I was staring blankly at Kael as my thoughts consumed my awareness of the surroundings.
“You're spacing out,” Aya informed me, her face looking concerned.
I just nodded at her and went back my gaze to Kael, voicing out my curiosity about whom the stranger was talking of.
“Are you Aslanov?” Kael didn't seem fazed when I asked him the name. Val, on the other hand, got his eyes widened in surprise.
I don't know who that is, but one thing that I am sure of: that Aslanov is one of the main reasons why we were ambushed.
“Why would you ask?” Kael inquisitively responded to my question with his own.
“Nothing.” I tore my attention away from him down to my fingers, shrugging my shoulders as if it was nothing but just a passing name in my memory.
Though curiosity is killing me on the inside.
“Aya, go take something for her to eat.” Val suddenly spoke, interjecting the brief silence between us.
“Yes, sir,” Aya responded, sliding off the edge of my bed and walking out of my room.
“Boss, I think the both of you need to talk about something.” Val then went on before he tapped Kael on the shoulder with his one able hand before following Aya out of the room.
“Why did you do that?” I interrogated, narrowing my gaze on him with much hatred and fury.
“Does your feet hurt?” He redirected the subject, moving his eyes to my exposed, bandage-wrapped legs.
“You don't care about my feet.” I seethed, flipping the duvet covers of my beddings, covering my feet from the view and glared at him.
“I'm just a mere toy to you, aren't I?” I added, gritting my teeth with mad fury.
I still couldn't get over what he did to me.
“I wouldn't have come and saved you if you were,” he shot back coolly, squaring his shoulders as if to impose his authority inside the room.
“Why?” I whispered, tears brimming at the corner of my eyes, yet I refused to let them fall.
“You don't need to know.”
“Why?” I ask again, this time raising my voice with my head snapped in his direction.
However, what I did seems to make him tick off with anger. Huge veins poke at the side of his head in constraint. His fury is only being held together by a thin thread that is slowly snapping out of control.
In one long stride, he closes the distance between us, bending down to my face with his one hand shot forward, squeezing my jaw, forcing me to look him in the eyes.
“Listen now, little кукла (kukla). It wasn't your place to question my actions towards you. Remember that I own your life. I get to decide when you live or die,” He growled, his minty breath blowing on my face. “You understand that?”
Kael didn't wait for me to respond. He let go of his grip on me and raced out of my room, leaving me behind astounded.
I have been close to him many times already. Yet, every time he touched me, I felt something incomprehensible coiling on the bottom of my stomach and my heart beating furiously inside my chest.
I have no idea what it is, but one thing I am certain of is that he terrifies me.