His Stoic Mask, Her Bleeding Heart

Chapter 14: Unseemly

I turned my eyes from the book spread open upon my lap at the sound of a low groan from Elyria. The girl stirred on the couch, twisting her way awkwardly onto her side as a hand went to the side of her head, conveniently right where I'd hit her.

"What did you do?" she asked in another soft groan, her eyes opening for only a moment before she squeezed them shut again, cringing.

"How do you know I did anything?" I asked innocently, flipping the book shut with a soft thump. Twilight, the cover read, and I certainly wasn't proud of it.

"Because I vaguely remember talking to you," she answered as she slowly sat up, eyes open, though she still massaged her head. "Maybe. I think."

"Oh, so out of everything that happens when you change, all you can ever remember is the bad things I do?" My tone was empty, emotionless, but the words were bitter enough to get the point across. "How convenient for you."

She scowled. "Have you ever stopped to consider that I might remember all of the bad things you do because you do a lot of bad things? Or maybe even that I remember the bad things you do because I can only remember you in general?" She let her elbows rest on her knees, hanging her head and gently rubbing her temples. "You should be flattered, really."

I shook my head but decided not to pursue the subject. "Is your head really hurting that badly?"

"Yes," she answered in an aggravated sigh, "but I don't think it's just from your medicinal punch to the skull."

"I didn't punch you," I said, tossing that piece-of-shit book onto the table as I rose to my feet. "I...well..." Yeah, I'd punched her. "What I actually did doesn't really matter, does it? It worked. You're all right now." I lowered myself onto the couch cushion beside her, moving gingerly so as not to upset her own seat. I studied her for a moment, and a grimace seeped through my empty mask to curl my lips as I hesitantly asked, "You are all right, aren't you?"

"What's happening to me, Eli?" she asked in lieu of answering my question. She raised her head from her hands and looked at me with amethyst eyes full of pain and fear. "Why do I keep changing?"

"Part of the Shadow is still there," I murmured, sliding my arm around her shoulders and gently pulling her to me. Her body tipped over, her head falling to rest on my chest, and she didn't fight it. "You're not a normal necromancer anymore."

"Do you think we can get it out?" she asked, though the hopelessness in her tone was the answer to her own question. "Maybe with the same spell you and Kyrianna tried the first time?"

My eyes fell on the black screen of the television, empty and unfocused, and I lay my head gingerly atop her own. "If it didn't work the first time, why would it work the second?"

"Maybe it just wasn't strong enough to remove the entire thing. Maybe it could finish the job now that there's only a fraction of it left." But I could see her reflection in the black screen across from us, and I could tell from her expression that even she didn't believe those words.

"Maybe," I whispered, but said nothing more.

She paused for a moment, and I swore I could hear the beating of her heart in the silence – the steady thumping as it pumped blood through her veins. Warm, sticky, delicious blood...

I felt saliva begin to pool in my mouth, and I swallowed, hoping she hadn't noticed.

"Where's Kyrianna?" she asked, and I felt that my hopes had been achieved. "And what time is it?"

"She's asleep in the bedroom," I answered. "I don't think she even noticed that we were gone. And it's almost six in the morning."

"That early already?" she asked, turning her face toward mine, her chin now resting on my shoulder. My fingertips traced a small figure-eight pattern on her bare upper arm, and I did everything in my power to keep my eyes on her face and not on her neck. Thump-thump – I swore I heard it – Thump-thump. My pattern ceased, and my fingers began to tap the slow rhythm against her skin. "Eli?" she prompted, and I realized that my eyes had become distant, on her eyes but nowhere near them. I stilled my fingers.