Valkyrie - The Vampire Princess

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 17

The next day, I went to school in a bad mood, all because my arm was still swollen.

Before I entered the classroom, I met Eros in the hall. I tried to turn back and not face him. It was too late. He walked beside me, side by side.

"Are you still angry at me?" he finally asked. His eyes traced over my depressing face.

"No," I answered, looking ahead.

"Why are you avoiding me?" he insisted, standing before me. He perceived I wasn't very well. Something strange had happened to me.

"I'm not avoiding you."

At a faster pace I tried to leave him behind. But he held my wounded arm, obstructing me.

"Ouch!" I screamed out and stared at his face.

"Are you hurt?" He looked down at my right arm. "What's this?"

"This was an unlucky blood test." I looked away awkwardly and bit my lip as Eros remained gazing at my countenance. Maybe he feeling sorry for me or then I was looking like an idiotic girl, trying to hide my alarm.

"Did they collect your blood?" He raised his eyebrows at me as he insisted. I glanced away at some students.

"Yeah." my voice was very weak as I glanced away.

Soon I looked back at Eros's face. His look gave the impression of being so serene and cold. But he looked inquisitive and insisted.

"Are you sick?"

"I've been sleeping too much and my mother is worried about me...she thinks I'm anemic." I tried to give details.

"That's stuff is nonsense..." he said, glancing at me with a slight smile. Soon he became serious.

"Do you think this is nonsense?" "What if I'm really sick?" I asked, disappointed. Eros looked not to believe me in fact.

"That must be a lack of blood," he said, in a serious tone and his look became graver.

"How? Lack of blood?" I asked perplexed at his supposition. That looked like a joke. So I bit my lip again.

"You need red meat," he explained and gazed away.

"I eat red meat every day."

Ingenuously I gave him details of my meals.

"Try to eat only raw meat," he said, staring at my face. He responded those words in grave tone.

"Thank you for this hint!" I said, ironically and rolled my eyes.

Would who eat raw meat? I thought to myself. I imagined Eros was going crazy.

"I'm serious," he said again.

At this moment Eros and I stared at each other in silence. Soon I felt another chill as I stared at him. Then I became confused. He seemed to understand more about my problem than my own doctor.

Hours later I returned to the school library. I was on tiptoe, in several frustrating attempts to pick up a book that was on a shelf. But I didn't get to even touch it.

It was then that I heard a voice that made me stop. That same voice always made me tremble every time I heard it.

"Let me pick it up for you."

Eros didn't need to be on tiptoe to reach the book. He just lifted up his hand and brought the book among his fingers. When he raised his arm, his shirt sleeve went up and I could see a tattoo on his left arm.

"Here it is," he said leaving the book securely in my hand. Our eyes met. But we remained severe.

Then I held the book distractedly, because my thoughts were on the tattoo on his left arm.

"What's this on your arm?"

Curiosity had been more intense than my own silence at that moment. Eros gazed in his own arm.

"This is a 'symbol of Neptune,'" he answered while he lifted up his shirt sleeve and showed me the engraving clearly.

Then I felt a strange sensation as I was gazing at that design. I imagined I had seen it before at some place, but I didn't know precisely where and when. I didn't remember how.

"You surprise me every day. I swore you didn't like these things," I said as I felt a little giddy. If truth be told that symbol was something memorable to me.

"I didn't make it because I wanted it," he gazed into my eyes and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "It emerged on my arm."

I gave a shrug. He perceived it and furrowed again. "You always make use of your mood sense to justify all the wrong things you do."

"Do you think this is wrong, someone having a tattoo?"

I turned my gaze aside and answered him. "I think it is wrong - the manner in which they are used."

He ran to say me. "In my case my tattoo makes part of my survival."

"Are you some Mafioso?" I insisted as I tried to keep my look at his handsome face.

So I faced me in grave and asked me. "Do I look like one?"

"Uuuhh, I don't know... sometimes you are so... mysterious," I answered gazing at his face again.

Eros's forehead moved up. "Does this disturb you?" I was faced by his enigmatical gaze.

I confess I almost broke down in my speech with his look. "It does, a little..." I answered and went out of his way. I wasn't able to continue that conversation, much less gaze into his eyes.

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