Blood & Power [Book One of The City of Eternity Series] [✔]

1.20: Fondness

Before I could leave, a concerned look appeared on Eva's face before her eyes flashed down to the gold watch strapped to her wrist. A second later she'd hurried past me, taking a sharp right and disappearing down the corridor. The little black cat had followed after the girl but took a meandering pace - his big green eyes looking up at everything in its path and soft mews called after her.

The brisk movements and tortured expression had implied that something more important than Nora, and the situation that was unfolding between us was occurring. I had to force myself not to follow after her to discover what that could possibly be. I decided this instinct was out of genuine curiosity, rather than a conceited belief that Nora and I were more important to Eva than anyone, or anything else.

I had known the girls for just under a decade at this point. I could remember the first time I'd come across them when they looked at the world with golden eyes that were an illumination of wonder and pride. I'd been prowling on the surface, the moon in full bloom with a few friends of mine - none of whom I'd consider under that title anymore.

Those men I was with were only interested in finding poor, wandering souls with nowhere to go. Barewood as it was had plenty of those souls to find. We'd just passed a shopping district, and given that it was long past closing hours, I hadn't expected to come across anyone.

That assumption had been quickly proved wrong when one of the men I was with, Mort, dashed off, back through the shopping district at a pace that could only mean one thing - blood had been spilt.

When I'd caught up to this man, in a dim-lit alleyway midway through the district, he'd already done some damage. There was a young man on the ground, his neck was torn into savagely, and Mort was writhing in agony on the alley cobbles.

It wasn't the young man's blood either of us had smelt - the only injury on his body having been caused by Mort himself. The scent of blood was rising from the girl a few feet from Mort, a knife embedded deeply in her stomach. She was definitely dying, her unconscious form slumped against the wall - but there was a heartbeat. That slow, unmistakable beat of a heart that isn't quite ready to give up living.

I didn't have any context for the situation at hand, but given that the others in Mort and I's party had arrived I had limited options. I gathered up the girl in my arms and instructed the others to deal with Mort and his victim. They'd offered some protest, but none of it had stopped me from rushing away with the girl.

I'd considered leaving her at the doors of the nearest hospital, but for some reason, I'd walked straight inside shouting for help. Doctors and nurses had rushed towards me with strides of either concern or determination. I'd offered the simplest form of the truth when questioned, that I'd found the girl stabbed in the alley of a shopping district as I passed, and given the hospital was only a few minutes away, I thought it best to bring her here myself.

I'd waited.

I couldn't explain, even now, why I had decided to wait in the hallway to find out how she was. I didn't know the girl; frankly, I had no attachment to her in any regard. I didn't even cause the damage.