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CHAPTER TWO yellow eyes
I stared back with stunted confidence at those yellow eyes. Eyes far paler than any vampire I'd seen. Not that many of those that I had met had ever been yellow-eyed. It was an uncommon thing to see such bright eyes in such a human area. Those amber eyes themselves were too human to induce fear. It was almost evident that they'd once been as blue as the clearest of skies. A translucent type of blue that was piercing and... pale was the only descriptor that could come to mind. As if there was a glazed, white film layering over his pupils.
Those eyes narrowed, moving with the tilt of his head, curiosity sending his blond eyebrows further into a smooth forehead. To my side, finally visible to the world again after the stint which had revealed the ability of my tricks, Alice smiled in knowing. The vampire seemed to think nothing of it as his eyes trailed the length of her body, not blinking as a distant smile landed on his lips.
"I thought you were one of the red eyes that've been terrorising the area recently," he said, voice like velvet running smoothly from his lips. Now, with a century of time maturing him, his northern accent almost sounded pleasant with the deep gravel of his intonation. "It's nice to see friendly eyes. I'm-
"Thomas Baxter."
The vampire's swaying stopped into the statue-like stillness that was familiar and finally that unearthly paleness seemed to darken as he stared toward me, the edge of a glare licking at his features. The unease of his figure was easy to read in the sharpness of his shoulders and the slight bend to his knees. It was slowly, starting with a flicker, that recognition took over, dispelling those ominous shadows as quick as they'd arrived.
Still, the unease stayed. Even the yellowness of eyes could not eliminate the nature of a vampire. Even a vampire could fear another vampire. An old friend could fear as well as an enemy.
"Elide..."
Thomas breathed out my name as if he was testing out the truth. I nodded slowly, afraid that the angle of his knees still meant that he would run at any moment. Momentarily, his eyes flicked to Alice, who still stood as if she'd seen this conversation play out the exact same way multiple times. She probably had.
"You were dead."
"So were you," I said, though it was not the same situation.
I'd been thought dead long before it was ever expected I would be. At least in my imagination Thomas's life had gone on in peace with my memory, perhaps with a family, or living out in London, lounging somewhere while painting a partner. But to him, I would have always remained the girl I was in those drawings he did of me. Frozen in time and in death.
"William-"
"Got to me first," I said, finishing before he could even ask the question or solidify my suspicion.
Because it had to have been William. It had to. The pained tension and drawn lips confirmed everything.
It was only then that the reality hit me. It hit so hard that I couldn't speak for a moment. That image I'd had of his perfect life, carrying out his dreams, never came true. Thomas had been stuck with his youthful face for almost as long as I had, all at the hands of his own brother.
