Everlasting

Chapter 6

Sorry this is so late everyone! Thank you so much for the comments and votes and follows.
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Eren shifted in place and felt sheets tangle  around his legs. He was warm and snuggled deeper into the warmth. The darkness felt so good...he had been dreaming such an awful dream. There had been vampires...and one of them had bitten him...his name....his name was...
     "Levi..." Eren murmured. His eyes flew open and he sat upright abruptly, receiving a sharp yank on his wrists accompanied by the clattering of chains. His eyes flicked back and forth rapidly as he took in his surroundings. He was in a large bed draped with rich red curtains. Chains were fastened around his wrists and fell off the sides of the bed and out of sight, fastened somewhere below him. As Eren craned his neck to see his chains, he felt a stabbing ache in his neck and one hand flew up to cover the spot. His fingers felt out two small scabs over the deep puncture wounds in his skin. They stung a lot more than he would have initially thought, and Eren pulled his hand away. His shirt was gone and so was all his Hunter's equipment. Eren was so used to carrying a weapon with him that he felt naked without it and his fists clutched the sheets tightly to keep them from trembling.
     The room he was in was dark aside from the hellish glow of dying embers in the fireplace. The red light cast eerie shadows on the walls and turned the two arm chairs by the fire into things resembling hulking beasts. Eren couldn't tell the exact size of the room since the centre of the ceiling was lost in shadow as were the walls to his left, but Eren got the sense that it wasn't particularly large. The air was freezing cold around him, his breath fogging slightly when he exhaled and chill bumps covered Eren's exposed torso. The air tasted stale and dusty, and Eren had the unpleasant thought that he was trapped in his own personal crypt, doomed to spend the remainder of his life in the dark and cold until the vampire who had bitten him came to finish what he had started and drained the last of Eren's blood from his veins, leaving him pale and cold in this desolate room.
     Eren felt his stomach turn over slowly and bile burned the back of his throat as he struggled not to get sick. This wasn't how he'd imagined his career as a Hunter at all. He had thought that he could easily handle fighting off any of the monsters he came across, but in his first real battle he hadn't stood a chance, years of training defeated by dark powers he had never suspected to be real. A shudder ran through Eren and he clasped his hands together.
     "Levi." He growled, "What do you want with me?"
     Leaning forward, Eren hid his face in his hands. His head was spinning and he felt a little woozy as if he had been drugged. A faint groan escaped him and he rubbed his eyes.

     "Tired?" Asked a cheerful voice.
     Eren's head shot up and he looked around the room frantically, trying the find the speaker.
     "It's not surprising really," continued the voice. "You lost a lot of blood when His Highness bit you. You really must taste amazing for him to have drunk so much so fast."
     Eren strained at his chains and tried to stand, looking up towards the dark ceiling, finally locating where the voice was coming from. "Stop hiding and show yourself!"
     There was silence for a moment, then a rustling of clothes and the scraping of feet against stone heralded the approach of the vampire and a dark shape fell to the floor with a thump.
     "Ouch! That was further than I thought it was." A woman's figure was silhouetted against the dying fire as she stood and brushed herself off. Eren caught a glimpse of fangs flashing in the dim light before the vampire went to the fireplace and grabbed a long, lethal looking poker. Brandishing it fiercely, the woman stabbed at the coals, stirring them up until a small tongue of fire flickered to life. She tossed in a log from a basket nearby, the impact sending sparks swirling through the air like orange fireflies. With a whooshing noise, the fire blazed to life. The vampire flinched a little at the bright light but then recovered and walked over to where Eren sat wide eyed.
     "There. Can't have you freezing to death now can we?"
      Eren swallowed hard, "Who are you?"
      "Zoe Hanji, advisor to the vampire prince," Hanji extended her hand to shake and Eren recoiled slightly. Her smile became wry with bitter recognition. "I can't help what I am, Eren."
     "How do you know my name?" Asked Eren suspiciously.
     "That's a story for another time, for now I'm here to make sure that you aren't the worse for wear after your little run in with Levi earlier."
     Eren glared at Hanji and scooted back as far as his chains would allow. He was not eager to let another vampire close to him, particularly not one who was so close to the one who had bitten him and who was obviously keeping secrets. "I'm fine. I just want to be alone."
      "You're not and you don't," Hanji retorted. "If nothing else at least let me clean out those bite marks. I'll bet they're stinging pretty bad with all of that venom still in there."
     "Venom?!" Eren yelped, his hand flying up to cover the bite.
     "Yes, venom," Hanji said calmly. "All vampires have it. It's what causes you to black out or relax when you get bitten. It's perfectly harmless but it feels awful for a couple hours afterwards if you don't clean it out. I learned that the hard way."
     After a moment's hesitation, Eren moved his hand and gestured for Hanji to come closer. A grin spread across the woman's face and she sat down on the bed beside Eren, taking out a damp cloth from a small pouch at her waist and gently cleaning out the twin puncture wounds. Eren watched her from the corner of his eyes and got a good look at her for the first time.
     Her clothes were more casual than what he would have expected from a prince's advisor, black pants and a white shirt covered by a brown jacket. Goggle-like glasses were strapped to her head and her brown eyes shone as she looked at Eren, clearly pleased about something. Her dark auburn hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. Her hands were gentle and warm against Eren's bare skin, and he finally started to relax.

      "There!" Hanji said, sounding satisfied as she taped a wad of gauze over the cleaned bite. "That should feel much better now."
     Eren shifted to a more comfortable position as Hanji moved to push an arm chair close enough so they could talk properly. She sank into it with a satisfied sigh that morphed into a yawn.
      "I'm going to need some sleep after I'm done talking with you," she muttered. "It's almost dawn already!"
      Not too concerned with Hanji's energy levels, Eren asked seriously: "Hanji, why am I here?"
     Hanji frowned a little and pushed up her glasses, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Well...it's hard to explain exactly."
     "Try."
      "Alright...vampires drink blood, you and I both know that, but what I've learned over my centuries as a vampire is that each human tastes different. Some taste better than others, but it really depends on the vampire. It's the same way humans have favorite foods I suppose. So vampires try and find their favorite human and they bond with them through a certain chemical release in their fangs. The chemical is injected soon after the first bite and proceeds to intermingle with every fiber of your body down to your very DNA. It changes the amount of blood your body produces and how much you make as well as marking you as belonging solely to the vampire who bit you."
     Eren felt sick at the thought of the foreign substance altering the genetic makeup of his body even as they spoke. "What'll happen to me? Will I become a vampire?"
     Hanji grimaced slightly then smiled, "No. That only happens when a vampire completely drains you of all your blood which happens very rarely. You're life will be extended to keep you alive the same length of time as the Prince, but other than that you should be fine."
     Eren's hands fiddled with the chains on his wrists. He didn't like this at all. It was a nightmare. The worst thing he could think of. Being tied to one of the beasts that was responsible for the death of his mother. Hatred bubbled up in Eren's stomach and he stared blankly down at his lap.
     "Eren," Hanji said gently. "I understand what you're struggling with, I really do but-"
     "Shut up." Eren said coldly. "You have no idea what I'm thinking or feeling right now! You can never understand! You're a vampire. You're just like Levi."
     Hanji was silent for a long moment, then she stood. "I'll leave you then. Until tomorrow, Eren."
     Her voice was frigid and she moved to the door, passing through it as if it wasn't even there. Eren watched her go and stared at the solid looking door for a long moment. Then he clenched a hand into a fist and punched the wall hard, splitting his knuckles on the rough stone.
     "Idiot," said a cold voice from behind him. "Don't waste my food like that."
     Eren turned in alarm, searching the shadows at the edge of the room. Two glowing red eyes met his and the vampire prince fully materialized from the shadows shrouding him from view.
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I seriously love Hanji in this fic. Hope you all liked this chapter!