Love & War - Morganville Vampires Fanfiction

CHAPTER TWO - Shane

SHANE'S POV

I flinched at the sharp bang of the front door slamming but kept my face still, like stone. I felt an instant relief as soon as Claire left. I couldn't put up this guard for much longer. How could she?

After everything. After everything we all had been through. After all the promises and 'I love you's'. After years of trust and the strongest bond. It was all for nothing. Her and Michael were just fuck buddies behind both mine and Eve's backs.

"Thank you." Eve whispered from beside me. She was visibly shaking under the blanket I tucked around her. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing. "Thank you for staying."

I managed a smile. A tiny one, for her sake. None of this was Eve's fault. Or mine. We were just pawns in Claire and Michaels sick game. I shook the thought from my head as I felt the anger bubbling again.

"Fuck them." Is all I could say. Eve choked a laugh and turned on her back to face me. She seemed better. Looked a lot better, anyway.

"I need a drink." I pushed myself from the sofa, gentle not to knock Eve. I swung open the kitchen door and walked straight to the fridge to pull out a bottle of beer that me and Michael had stocked up on only days ago. I popped the cap with ease and chugged the whole bottle in seconds. The familiar burn as the liquid dripped down my throat felt like heaven. I tossed the bottle and grabbed another three from the fridge, saving myself a trip later. I couldn't get wasted, not when I had Eve to look after. We had to stick together. But Jesus, I needed this.

I grabbed Eve a bottle of water and made my way back into the living room where Eve was pulling herself up into a more comfortable sitting position on the sofa. She turned to look at me when she heard the bottle in my hand fizz as I opened it.

"So you get a beer and I get a water?" Eve laughed as I passed her the cold bottle and settled my two unopened beers on the coffee table in front of me. "Don't think so Collins."

"What? Now's a better time than any." I scoff, taking a long swig. "I'm not getting wasted, don't worry."

"Not without me you're not. Pass me one." Eve held out her hand towards the alcohol on the table. I stared at her for a few seconds before laughing. She couldn't be serious.

"Not a chance! You've just been drugged up on god knows what at that hospital, you don't need alcohol in your system right now." I don't think either of us did, to be completely honest. But I've never been one to follow the rules.

"Shane." Eve raised her eyebrow at me. "Just pass me a goddam beer. It's been a really long day already."

There was no fighting Eve, she was stubborn. I knew that much. I sighed and leant forward to grab a beer and pass it to her. She popped the bottle with the same ease as I did. That was the thing about us two, we were so similar with our upbringings that at the small age of almost twenty we'd perfected how to open a bottle cap, specifically on beer, expertly.

Eve took a long gulp of beer, closed her eyes and leant her head back against the soft cushions of the sofa. "God, I needed that."

"Ditto." I held out my beer bottle to Eve who clanked it with hers.

Before long, Eve had already finished her bottle and was reaching for the single one on the coffee table. "Mine." She smiled as she started on her second beer.

"Are you sure you're well enough to drink this shit?" I ask, genuinely concerned. She'd just had major surgery, surely it's in the 'How Not To Self-Destruct' handbook to not drink after any hospital procedure. But just like me, who was Eve to follow the rules?

"You're not allowed all the fun, Shane. Like I said, long day. I haven't had a proper drink in years. And you know more than anyone that this shit takes the pain away better than anything else."

She was right. Spot on. Hearing her say that made me finish the beer in my hands in seconds before going back to the kitchen to retrieve the rest of the beers. All sixteen of them, and knowing both mine and Eve's attitude, especially right now, all sixteen of these beers will be devoured very, very soon.