CEO loves me with all his soul. - Chapter 147

Chapter 147: 147. Line in the Ashes
The city skyline shimmered beneath a chemical haze. Sirens echoed in the distance, far and near, like dying birds caught in a storm. Helicopters cut low through the clouds as evacuation orders bled across emergency broadcasts. The scent of ozone and iron clung to everything.

Inside the bio-sanitized mobile command station—converted from an armored convoy—Adrian bent over a tray of syringes, sweat clinging to the nape of his neck.

His gloves trembled slightly.

“Second vial of the reactive stabilizer,” he said. “Inject it now, or the antibodies will destabilize in under five minutes.”

“Done,” Lucas answered beside him, his fingers just as steady.

Dr. Zara—tall, composed, her hair tied back in a tight braid—watched over them both. The aunt of Adrian and Isaac had a presence like a steel bridge—elegant, cold, and impossibly strong.

“You have ten minutes,” she said. “That’s when the wind will change and the particles from Naehr’s last dispersal test will hit this sector. If we don’t neutralize the airborne genome before that…”

Adrian didn’t look up. “Then it’ll be too late.”

Lucas injected the final serum into the main chamber.

Adrian activated the fusion valve.

The vaccine was ready.

Outside – The Ruins of District 6

Ethan grunted as he swung his rifle into place, his black combat gear clinging to him like skin. The air shimmered with fine dust. Isaac stood beside him, twin pistols strapped to his sides, black hair slicked back with blood and sweat.

They were protecting the mobile station.

No backup. No reinforcements.

Only two men holding the final line between science and destruction.

“Adrian’s got ten minutes,” Ethan growled, scanning the rubble for movement.

“We’ll buy him fifteen,” Isaac said, voice like ice.

“Is that your way of saying you’re not scared?”

“It’s my way of saying I’ll kill anyone who comes close to him.”

They shared a grim glance.

Isaac added softly, “You love him like I love Lucas. I get it now.”

Ethan’s jaw flexed. “You’d die for Lucas?”

“Without a blink.”

“Then we fight the same.”

Then came the shriek—metal grinding, gunfire crackling in the distance.

Three drones descended. Modified by Naehr’s cultists, their engines were chemical-fed, wings blistered with toxin cannons.

Ethan ran forward without hesitation, taking the brunt of the first cannon’s blast. His coat sizzled, shielding the mobile base behind him.

“GO!” he shouted. “I’ve got the sky!”

Isaac dove low and fired—precise, controlled. One drone crashed in flames.

Another locked on him.

A shadow moved from the east.

More were coming.

Inside – Countdown: 9 Minutes

Adrian glanced at the clock.

They had finished stabilizing the serum, but deployment was still impossible without the high-pressure dispersal turbine mounted on the mobile station’s roof.

“We’ll never get it up there in time,” Lucas muttered.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Adrian said. “We’ll carry it together.”

Lucas hesitated. “You’re barely standing—”

“I’m fine.”

Zara looked at them both. “You’ll both go. I’ll remain here to begin ground inoculations if needed.”

Adrian’s voice cracked, “If it fails, the city—”

“It won’t,” Zara said. “Not if you do your part.”

Lucas opened the storage unit.

Together, they lifted the sealed canister between them and made for the hatch.

Outside – Countdown: 7 Minutes

Isaac had taken a cut across his temple, and his arm hung at a slightly wrong angle.

Ethan’s rifle had overheated.

They were running out of options.

Then—

The hatch opened.

Adrian and Lucas emerged, carrying the silvery cylinder between them.

Ethan’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

Adrian called out, “We have to deploy it ourselves!”

“Stay back!” Isaac shouted. “There’s snipers in the upper sectors—”

A bullet pinged the turbine three inches above Adrian’s head.

“Cover them!” Ethan roared.

Adrian didn’t flinch. Lucas’s knees buckled slightly under the weight, but he held firm.

They reached the base of the dispersal turret.

Ethan climbed the ladder halfway, then reached down. “Give it to me!”

“No—” Adrian began.

“NOW!”

Adrian relented.

Ethan lifted the canister and locked it into the turbine. The lights turned green. The dispersal sequence began.

Wind pressure adjusted. The filters rotated.

The vaccine would be atomized and pushed out into the oncoming chemical wind.

Countdown: 3 Minutes

Suddenly, the turret began sparking.

“No—NO—” Adrian shouted. “Something’s wrong. The stabilizer’s off-balance!”

Lucas screamed, “Pull back—”

A small explosion shook the base. Adrian was flung backward into the wall of the mobile station.

Blood streaked down his forehead. He didn’t move.

“Adrian!” Ethan yelled.

Isaac pulled his gun and shot down the remaining drone before racing toward his brother.

Lucas collapsed beside Adrian, pressing his fingers to his neck.

“He’s alive! Just unconscious!”

Ethan slid down the ladder and dropped beside them. He cradled Adrian in his arms, pressing his forehead to his.

“I told you not to overdo it,” Ethan whispered, voice cracking.

Lucas, teeth gritted, said, “We need to reboot the turbine now, or it won’t deploy.”

Isaac leapt forward, climbed the turbine, and ripped off the back panel.

He saw the fault instantly—fuse disruption, probably from the blast.

Isaac pulled his last stabilizer vial from his coat and injected it straight into the heat pump.

“Don’t die on me,” he muttered.

The lights turned back to green.

A hiss.

A pulse.

The air changed.

Across the city, the storm wind shifted. The clouds glowed a soft blue as particles of the vaccine mingled with Naehr’s chemical threat.

The danger was neutralized.

Aftermath – 1 Hour Later

Mobile medical teams had arrived. The drone network was destroyed. The remaining cultists either fled or surrendered.

Lucas held Adrian’s hand in the medical tent, waiting for him to wake up.

Across the field, Ethan and Isaac stood silently side by side.

“You good?” Isaac asked.

Ethan didn’t answer.

“Ethan?”

He looked at him. “I can’t believe everything is over, i don’t trust him.”

He meant Naehr. A mad man can’t just so easily…ruin everything he worked hard for, Can he?

“You don’t need to trust a madman.”

“I almost did.”

Isaac touched his shoulder. “Almost doesn’t count.”

Lucas poked his head out. “He’s waking.”

Inside the Tent

Adrian’s silver eyes fluttered open.

“…Where—” he began.

Ethan bent over him instantly. “You’re safe.”

“You… got the serum out?”

“We did.”

“Good…” Adrian smiled faintly, wincing. “Then I didn’t fail.”

Lucas smiled gently from behind. “You never fail. You’re the most stubborn person I know.”

Adrian blinked. “Lucas. You’re not dead?”

“Not anymore.”

Then he looked at Ethan.

“Did we win?”

Ethan kissed his brow, and for the first time in hours, tears fell freely.

“No,” he whispered. “But we survived.”

And Adrian smiled.

Not because it was over.

But because they would fight again. Together.

.

In the heart of the crisis center, where the last samples were sealed and transmissions confirmed, Adrian stood motionless, staring at the blinking monitor. The screen declared it in bold green letters: Virus Neutralized.

He didn’t breathe.

He didn’t blink.

Not until arms wrapped tightly around him from behind, solid and familiar.

“Adrian,” Ethan murmured, his voice hoarse with exhaustion and raw with emotion.

Adrian let out a trembling breath and leaned back into his husband’s chest. His limbs felt like water. His heart still beat like a war drum in his chest, but this time… from relief.

“It’s over,” he whispered.

Ethan turned him gently in his arms, searching his silver eyes. “You did it.”

“We did it,” Adrian corrected softly.

There was blood on their sleeves, sweat on their brows, but between them hung something more powerful than any cure — the unshakable connection that had carried them through this nightmare.

Ethan cupped Adrian’s cheek and kissed him.

It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t desperate.

It was quiet — reverent — a press of lips that said I love you, we survived, we’re still here.

Adrian melted into it, the tension of a hundred sleepless hours unraveling all at once. He tasted salt — his tears, Ethan’s, or both. His hand clenched in Ethan’s coat, grounding himself to the man who had stood beside him through fire and storm.

When they broke apart, Ethan leaned his forehead against Adrian’s.

“I would’ve followed you into hell,” Ethan said, “but I’m glad we’re both walking back out.”

Adrian smiled faintly. “Together.”

Outside, sirens were replaced with distant cheers.

But in that moment, there was only the echo of their kiss — the silence between heartbeats — and the promise that whatever came next, they’d face it side by side.

Always.

In the heart of the crisis center, where the last samples were sealed and transmissions confirmed, Adrian stood motionless, staring at the blinking monitor. The screen declared it in bold green letters: Virus Neutralized.

He didn’t breathe.

He didn’t blink.

Not until arms wrapped tightly around him from behind, solid and familiar.

“Adrian,” Ethan murmured, his voice hoarse with exhaustion and raw with emotion.

Adrian let out a trembling breath and leaned back into his husband’s chest. His limbs felt like water. His heart still beat like a war drum in his chest, but this time… from relief.

“It’s over,” he whispered.

Ethan turned him gently in his arms, searching his silver eyes. “You did it.”

“We did it,” Adrian corrected softly.

There was blood on their sleeves, sweat on their brows, but between them hung something more powerful than any cure — the unshakable connection that had carried them through this nightmare.

Ethan cupped Adrian’s cheek and kissed him.

It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t desperate.

It was quiet — reverent — a press of lips that said I love you, we survived, we’re still here.

Adrian melted into it, the tension of a hundred sleepless hours unraveling all at once. He tasted salt — his tears, Ethan’s, or both. His hand clenched in Ethan’s coat, grounding himself to the man who had stood beside him through fire and storm.

When they broke apart, Ethan leaned his forehead against Adrian’s.

“I would’ve followed you into hell,” Ethan said, “but I’m glad we’re both walking back out.”

Adrian smiled faintly. “Together.”

Outside, sirens were replaced with distant cheers.

But in that moment, there was only the echo of their kiss — the silence between heartbeats — and the promise that whatever came next, they’d face it side by side.

Always.

.

The storm had passed.

The skies, now clear and cold, reflected not peace—but silence. That kind of quiet that follows something too big to name. The kind of stillness that comes after betrayal.

Inside Levistis Manor’s great hall, Cain stood at the fireplace, one hand tucked behind his back. Jesper sat in one of the high-backed chairs, his silver eyes clouded. Augustin and Leclair whispered quietly across the room, while Isaac leaned against the window frame with his arms crossed.

Adrian was still recovering in the medical wing, with Ethan and the twins beside him. And in that vacuum of waiting, a new storm was building.

The door creaked open.

Diana stepped in, flanked by two unfamiliar figures in military-grade coats.

“Clearance Alpha,” she said coldly. “They’re from the Internal Security Bureau.”

Everyone went quiet.

Cain turned around slowly, his voice dangerous and low. “Took you long enough.”