Three idiots against the world

Chapter 4

Riven
Eva knew. She knew what monsters there were in the world, right next to her. But there wasn't any fear in her eyes. As if she didn't realize either of us could accidentally rip her to bloody ribbons in a heartbeat.
I had somehow ended up on Lukes back, Eva's head resting in my lap. I think I was afraid she would fall off. Or maybe that's just what I told Luke. Maybe I just wanted to be close to her.
I didn't like to admit it, but Lukes back was softer, less bony than I had expected- not that I ever thought I'd be willingly sitting on a wolves back. Before me, Eva slept. She hadn't moved the entire time, and never fell off, almost as if some kind of magic was keeping her up. I scoffed at the ridiculous idea.
Eva's sleeping face was idyllic and peaceful, beautiful. Her blonde hair was mixed with Lukes nougat fur. Something about her often made me wish I could paint, eternalize her beauty. (Is eternalize a word? Oh well.) I wished to touch her face, her sunshine-colored hair, weave my fingers through it and braid it. But my cold skin would wake her. If my piercing glances didn't do so first. Or worse, if I suddenly went into a rampage and woke up with her dead body at my feet. So breakable. So fragile. Why had the night god been cruel enough to pair her with a creature like me?
We were half a days walk away from the camp, and The morning sun was heavily bothering me. Vampires being harmed by sun was a human myth, but it did weaken us. And our eyesight worsened, as our eyes were naturally dark vision focused. I always seemed to get headaches from straining my sight during daytime, I was lucky to have found work in the towns smithy back then.
   The dagger rattled at her side, shaking my thought process. She had used that weapon with skill. The kind of skill you didn't just have on first time luck. And how had she taken it? I could have sworn I was gripping it tightly. Was she really just a human? I decided not to get my hopes up.

The past few hours had been blissfully silent as Luke was unable to speak in his wolf form, and was considerate enough to not bark or howl when someone was sleeping on him. It just annoyed me that this someone was my mate. I often seemed to find Luke looking at her. I had been seven when I first met Eva. She was almost six, and had sunshine- colored hair reaching down to her knees. Ms Bloomsbury had found me in the forest just outside the village, all bloodied up. I had gone on a rampage in a nearby village, and got chased away by a mob of people with sharp objects. Vampires were often classified into three ranks. Bitten, born and pureblood. The bitten vampires' bodies were dead and hardened, making them unable to bleed, born vampires have two vampire parents, but are weak to everything. Practically humans who get physical boosts from drinking blood. I was a pureblood. The type born from generations upon generations of pureblood vampires. We are the high society of vampires, we can turn others- hence making them unable to go against our will, but we're not as physically strong as the bitten ones, though our senses are strengthened.
   That day I was all bloodied up in a mixture of human blood and my own, but they took me into their home. Eva would always scurry around ms. Bloomsbury, so she'd help out as best she could when ms. Bloomsbury was switching up my bandages. She was so cute, her big green eyes were clear and her cheeks were healthily flushed. She didn't speak much, but she would smile at me every time she left the room.
   A few months passed and I got healed up. I stayed with them, already addicted to seeing her face, her smile. Then one day I was reading in my room with the window slightly opened, and I felt a smell. A smell that rocked the earth and the sky- divine. I made my way out, my eyesight so bad I just went on smell, almost walking into a number of trees on my way. When I arrived I could feel her smell, it was different from the others, but there were other people there too. I heard kids laughing and Eva sobbing. My eyesight could barely make them out, but there seemed to be around five kids her age. I was tall already then, so when I said into thin air: "get lost!" It seemed they scurried away. Eva ran up and hugged me, sobbing into my chest. The smell came from her. What happened? I asked. She told me a kid had thrown a rock at her head. That they cut her hair. I brought her back to the house and put her, still crying, on my bed. And I saw her. The smell... was blood falling from a gash to her forehead. My mother had told me the night god would pair me with somebody. Somebody whose blood would smell the most amazing smell. She, she was my mate. And I realized I should never step too close to her, never hurt her or scare her with my bloodied hands. I ran out of the room without a word that day. Ms. Bloomsbury thought I panicked because of the blood, and was just happy I hadn't bitten Eva to death. She told me she had informed Eva that I had a fear of blood, and that was why I left. She said it wasn't actually a lie. So, I stayed at a distance from her, told myself I would watch her from afar for the short time she would be alive. I would make sure she stayed safe, got married and had a family of her own. I told myself it would make me happy too.
   "Let me out..." Eva mumbled. Then louder: "Let me out, Let me out!" Luke stopped, and I hesitated, but let my cold hands touch her as I pulled her into my arms, stroking her hair. Such warmth sipped into me from the spot where my hand touched her arm. Alive, human.