Time paused for an excruciatingly long moment that it made Eiko belatedly conscious about her choice of words.
Eyes drowned in perplexity stared back at her at the absurd order, Riki's expression twisted in the presence of blasphemy.
The television had been paused and that's why there was a buzzing ringing present in the depths of her ears.
She had confirmed that the others were looking at her as well after she tentatively looked up to check if the feeling of their gazes was simply an illusion of her mind.
"What? Why?"
"I need to confirm if I'm right about something. I'll get used to the feeling eventually," she explained, making a point in case he was worried.
"Ei..." Riki mumbled quietly.
There he went with the nickname again, Eiko felt the strength in her to hold her arm up atrophy and it dropped to her side as if it went limp.
"Feeding isn't what you think it is," he added, drawing her curiosity in.
"What do you mean by that?" Eiko questioned. If there was something she didn't know she wanted to know it immediately. It's to better grasp the situation, help her make decisions, to sate her interest.
He sighed and looked away like he was searching for confirmation from the others. It took him a while to get the courage to look at Eiko again.
Just as he did, the other three jumped into conversation as if the entire interaction was scripted. (It was really just Jake talking about anything he could possibly land his mind on obnoxiously loud while Jay and Sunghoon listened to him.)
"Consensual feeding means something different to us. It's not just about helping people out."
Though because he didn't get straight to the point it didn't aid Eiko in guiding her thoughts to what he could be implying. "So what is it about?"
"Uh...it's a dating thing. It shows the status of your relationship, something like that," Riki simply answered but he spoke nervously like his voice was forced out of its threshold.
Eiko could feel her heart jolt though she wasn't notably shocked. It made sense why he was halting the first time since she understood why. But it made Eiko feel a little flustered as she wondered if that's how Riki took it as when he fed from her.
The meaning behind it didn't bother her. She wasn't dating Riki, but now that she knew about it she was even more sure that she wanted to do this.
"Okay." She gazed at her arm again to see if the wound could sustain another bite. It would hurt since it's recent but she can handle it.
Eiko held her arm out again and saw Riki's eyes widen since he wasn't expecting it. "You can do it."
Riki hastily pushed her arm away. "Wait-What is it that you need to confirm?"
The question subsided her slight disappointment from the subtle rejection, assuming that he didn't do it because he wanted the context first.
"That they're avoiding me because of you. Your bite must've done something to make all of those vampires avoid me."
"Then isn't it better for us to see after it dies down if possible? We won't know if it's the cause if you try it out while it's already going on," Riki reasoned.
Eiko instantly nodded. That was the smarter option anyway
"It's late. Maybe we should try to go to sleep, a lot has happened today anyway," he suggested, carefully caressing the area around the puncture injuries.
She agreed as if her body had just now caught up with the fact that she was tired.
"You guys can stay over," he said but it was more directed to Jake and Jay. Throughout the entire time here Sunghoon and Riki hadn't spoken to each other since the one line Sunghoon had said earlier. "I don't mind, there's enough rooms for each of you."
"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Jay jokingly remarked and Riki shrugged complacently.
"I'm going to take a shower." Riki stood from the couch stretching as he did so. "Don't make a mess of my house."
"Why are you looking at me?" Came a defensive voice and Eiko huffed a little laugh through her nose.
After that she decided to go to sleep and leave the responsibility of keeping the house clean to the trio on the couch suddenly bickering on who Riki's gaze was actually directed to.
===
For some reason Eiko was a bit anxious as she slipped her shoes on to go outside. Riki was with her as what Eiko declared to be her 'personal shield' to make sure nothing major happened to her that would cause Eiko any harm.
"Yeah. I'm ready," she answered to his almost long forgotten question.
He stood beside her, easing her qualm with his assuring presence. A distance in her thoughts was the idea that she was glad Riki could make her have a sense of comfort at times like this.
"We're just going to check. We're not going to be out long."
Eiko used that statement to ground herself, then finally accepted it and left the house with Riki protectively beside her.
The neighborhood's relation to Cheonan caused it to be active these past few days. Making it seem odd that they were the only few inside a house when everyone else was outside roaming around the area.
"I've never seen so much blood before." Eiko grimaced at how normal it was to see blood on peoples hands and lips.
"It's a bit like this during blood gatherings," Riki commented while looking around.
"Geez."
Riki's presence did as much as it could to reassure her, but it got weak as Eiko faced heinous eyes once she got noticed.
That meant it must have gone down overnight.
"They're looking."
"You fucking girl."
Riki tenaciously grappled Eiko's uninjured arm, pulling her a bit behind him.
"Your little protector isn't going to scare me. You did this to our neighborhood. We do everything to keep humans like you out of here but you bastards keep finding your way inside."
"I'll kill you," was Riki's acerbic response to the stranger's words.
Eiko tugged him to get Riki out of the conversation and not get frustrated by it. That's what the guy wants.
"You're just a low rank. I can tell you are. How're you going to take care of this little girl if your little fangs can barely form a scratch," the guy provoked.
Riki averted his attention and lightly tugged Eiko to follow him when he turned around.
Prohibiting movement is one of the basic things that any vampire could do. It was a simple trick so Riki wasn't surprised or enthralled when he couldn't move. Though Eiko felt the panic spike because there was nothing she could do to defend herself. She was always at a loss against them.
"Give me the girl and we can have this settled, unless you want to add your body to this count too," the man snarled, his face wicked paired with a wild perilous glint in his eyes.
Eiko took every word of his at face value. Pessimism had pierced right through her at this point.
A shrill and pained scream came from the man in front of them. He suddenly fell to the ground below with his hands cupping his ears.
He sighed looking up at them as if his head was the heaviest thing to lift. There were waterfalls of blood cascading down both of his nostrils in a disgusting sight.
(She tried to make light out of it by thinking she saw a sight like this in one of the dramas she had watched.)
It took a while for Eiko to realize his ears were bleeding heavily too. His hands weren't keeping the blood from going anywhere because the streams ran through the gaps of his fingers and down the sides of his face.
"You fucker what did you do," he said in a terribly strangled voice.
From how bad his ears were leaking Eiko didn't think he could hear anything, if he could then only the rush of blood. He was surely going to lose his hearing from this.
If he got an answer from Riki he wouldn't hear it.
Riki turned to Eiko, ignoring the crowd and walking with her. "Let's just go back home. We have our answer now."
And in a way Riki seemed so cool. His eyes when he looked at her gleaming bright but not the red that the stories tell they are.
To Eiko they were beautiful.