Careless Encounters

Chapter 18-

Eve laid in her bed, a hot ball of iron in the pit of her stomach knowing full well that Eli was in his bedroom with her. She felt tears sting her eyes, but refused to let them fall. She remembered the first time she'd met Eli.

She used to follow Ethan around everywhere, but Ethan never really spoke to her, she'd thought older guys were meant to be nicer. She'd heard rumors of the younger son, Eli, but he never came out to play. She'd never even seen him and assumed he was boring. Ethan was always out playing with his friends from school, he was popular among the humans. She was homeschooled and didn't really know many people, she was waiting for middle school. Her mum promised to send her to France to study abroad at an all girls' school.

Once she'd went over to Ethan's house, but Ethan had gone out so she sat in the front for hours waiting for him. She quickly got bored and decided to play outside in the labyrinth made of hedges, she was only allowed to play there when Ethan was told to watch her. She was in a beautiful red dress her mother had gotten custom made for her and she'd wanted to show it to Ethan.

It didn't take long for her to realize she was lost, Ethan would always guide her back home. It was getting dark, the wind was making the hedges move and the branches crack making her jump at the sounds and movements. A loud crack scared her enough to make her scream and run as fast as she could. Tripping right into wet soil and turning to find a deadly looking snake, it rose up to look at her with two red eyes. It opened up like a leaf, she was sure this snake could kill her. It swayed side to side, and when she tried to move away it bit her leg angrily making her cry out in pain.

"Why are you crying?" Demanded a small boy as he walked out from around the corner. She looked up to see black hair perfectly combed over to the right and two piercing green eyes glaring at her with distaste. Eve didn't say a thing, she simply continued to sob as blood dripped out of the two bite marks. "Stupid, you scared her."

The boy kneeled down and his forest green eyes began to glow like emeralds and the snake's hood dropped and it slithered over his arm twisting around it and staring into his eyes.

"Go home," he told it and it quickly leapt off his arm and into the hedges. "You shouldn't come into someone's home unannounced and stomping around like you own the place."

"I came to see Ethan," she whimpered.

"I meant coming into the hedges and stomping around the snake's home," he corrected. "You shouldn't even be allowed in here, that's a cobra, it's bite will kill you."

"I'm going to die?" Her tears streamed down her face, her small flat chest heaving with every breath.

"No, stupid," he muttered as he placed both hands around the bite marks and his eyes began to glow again this time nasty yellow green thick liquid poured out the little holes in her leg. He kept his hands on it until nothing, but blood came out. Most of the pain went away and the skin around the wounds was dark and bruised.

"How'd you do that?" Eve asked.

"I like to play around," he told her, his voice stern and his face serious. It made her nervous, she'd never met anyone from their kind that could do what he just did. Healing and controlling animals seemed strange. "Let's get you home, it's cold out here and my parents are going to be upset you got bitten."

He pulled her up, placing an arm around her waist and her arm swung over his shoulders as they walked together, she stayed off the leg that was bitten.

When they got to the house her parents were there, obviously worried about her whereabouts. Her father scooped her up and she wailed into his neck, Eli's parents apologized several times and Eli was grounded. He didn't bother correcting his parents about what happened in the hedges and their parents assumed she'd been bitten by a non poisonous snake.