Chapter 19 - Into the night

AMBROSE

I rolled my eyes at Covyn and chased after Eva, hearing her giggling outside. When I opened the door I heard her above me, but before I could be worried she leapt off the awning onto me. She had angled her fall to purposefully pull me over and we rolled down the hill in the grass with her giggling at me, as it tried to cage her from my weight.

We didn’t roll far, and she sat up straightening her hair and laughing with bright pink cheeks. “How many did you have?”

Her glossy eyes met mine. “More when you weren’t looking,” she teased and stood up.

I swear I could see her mischievous smile as she ran back toward the others. Neither me nor Daley were fast enough to growl as she reached into Ellion’s coat pocket and retrieved his pack of smokes. She smacked the pack against her hand and pulled two, lighting them both in her mouth before returning the lighter into the pack and tossing it in the direction of Ellion. On the other side was Covyn and she walked over with the cigarettes in her hand. She spun one around with her thumb to face him and waited.

I was already coming up behind her as she gestured again for him to take it. “I think you need this,” she smiled kindly, and I wrapped my arms around her stomach.

She leaned her head gently against mine, and I could feel her relax into my touch. Covyn looked more surprised than I understood but took the smoke and walked passed us to sit on the hill.

“How did you know I smoke?” He asked after a minute.

Her head picked up from mine and she pulled me to sit beside her on the same hill. “It’s more a series of thoughts. I think your want drove me to finding them.”

“So… the olympics?” I chuckled and her smile returned as she nodded. “I think I would have recalled seeing someone as gorgeous as you competing.”

She giggled. “I didn’t say it was a recent gold.”

The others were already on their phones looking for it, whether to prove she was lying or out of curiosity was unclear. I could hear the pads of Daley’s fingers on her phone screen, Ellion beside her doing the same. Covyn, laying down in the grass, scrolled through his phone more casually.

“How far back was this?!” Daley demanded, getting frustrated.

Evadiene shrugged. “I don’t know. A while I guess.”

“Our country hasn’t won a gold on the balance beam in forever,” Covyn mused, still looking.

“I never said it was for this country,” she countered and then gestured her hand out toward him in a ‘gimme’ motion. He handed his phone over and she scrolled for a few minutes before handing it back. “There, Trishka whateverthefuckIcalledmyself.”

He laughed grandly and I leant over to get his phone myself.

“What’s with the hair cut?” Covyn boomed, laughing so hard tears ran down his face.

She shrugged lightly, letting it roll off her back. “It was required. I didn’t even really want to enter. I try to stay out of the spotlight. Someone had asked me to fill in and I… I just couldn’t say no.”

I looked at the photo of her, short-short black hair and a straight face. No one around her smiled either, it wasn’t a particularly colourful image, in appearance or actual colour being in black and white.

“This was over a century ago!” Ellion gasped.

Evadiene shushed him quickly. “I’d thank you to not broadcast anything about me,” she muttered, looking around to check for anyone nearby but I didn’t see anyone.

“Why is that?” Daley sounded more suspicious and I shot her a glare.

“Because even that short cropped mess of a hairdo would be a prize on some hunters wall,” she whispered so softly I know we all barely heard her.

Covyn growled his answer just as softly. “I would not allow hunters on my land.”

“People do not brag about hobbies technically frowned upon. You’d be surprised how many I’ve come across. Nothing is quite as horrifying as trusting someone and…” she drifted off. “Never mind.”

I pulled her closer against my side, wrapping my arm behind her to grip her hip. Daley was the only one here lucky enough to not have to see the ‘trophies’ of supernatural sport hunters. I had seen my fair share of wolven pelts on the wall and I knew Covyn had burned down more than a few hunter’s homes with them.

She laid down in the grass and groaned. “Ugh, now I remember why I really don’t drink beer..”

“What do you mean Angel?” I asked softly, glad it was her to change the subject.

“Everything is so loud. Beer is only strong enough to make it hard to block it out,,” she returned, closing her eyes. “I can feel it like the humm of a refrigerator in the corner.”

“What exactly is so loud?” Ellion asked questionably.

“Everything,” Her words didn’t give the answer he desired and he huffed.

“Then what do you mean by that? What do you feel?” He asked instead.

She reached to where he sat on the hill, beside me, and grabbed his wrist. “It feels like this.”

Ellion flinched and pulled his arm away, making Daley growl at her.

“I wouldn’t call that a fridge humming, that’s like sitting on a paint mixer,” he accused.

“I’m sorry,” she returned. “I didn’t know that’s how you would feel it. I don’t think a wolven has ever asked that question before.”

“Can I feel what that feels like?” Covyn asked and, though she looked at him with unease, she reached over to meet his hand and touch his wrist.

He immediately looked saddened but didn’t pull away. After a moment of him enduring it, I placed my hand over hers and too felt the feeling inside my body of being shook. She let go and I pulled her hand against my chest, resting it over my heart.Her eyes closed as she felt the gentle thrum of my pulse and Sequoia moved to sit on her lap and purr at the same time.

“Do you feel that often?” Covyn asked, returning to his cigarette.

She nodded. “Everything with energy hums, just like the appliances inside, and they’re all a little different. It takes practise to single one out or focus on anything. Beer makes that hard, they all come through at once.”

There was silence again, but we all sat with the knowledge that Evadiene could basically hear the air.

As the night took hold, I could hear the screech of bats flying overhead to eat the mosquitoes. I heard Daley smacking her arms a couple of times. The women usually had more problems with the bugs, but whatever Evadiene was they didn’t seem to bother her. She warmed up into my side as I felt a chill run up her spine and looked over to see Ellion and Daley staring at her.

“What?!” I barked.

“Nothing!” He barked back just as quickly but then sighed, “she just looks so human…”

Evadiene sighed more sadly and I felt her chest clench. “I wish I was.” She moved to stand but I held her hand down.

“Eva, ignore him, please. I’m so happy that you’re you.”

She paused, cupping my face in her hand and rubbing my cheek with her thumb. Her mouth moved like she wanted to speak and couldn’t. Instead she managed a small smileand wrapped her arm around mine, moving to lean back on my shoulder.

“Why did you climb to the rafters to see the sky?” I asked, following her eyes to where she looked to the horizon. “You were nearly outside by the time you got down here.”

“I miss feeling close to the sky. The gym was the highest point I could get to.”

“How close to the sky are you use to?” Covyn offered, “I have that penthouse Spencer, on thebetterend of town,-“ he smirked over at us, “- no humans in the building and none of them would sell out one of our own to humans, even a local mob. You’re welcome to it if you ever need to get away.”

“You’ve never offered me that,” Ellion complained, looking at him suspiciously.

Covyn shrugged. “You never asked.”

Evadiene turned toward him, and whatever face she gave him made him smile more. “That’s very kind Covyn,” she returned softly, but it didn’t seem to be what she wanted to say.

“Would that be close to what you were used to?”

She squeezed my arm as she replied to him. “No, not exactly.”

“Can you fly Evadiene?” Daley asked.

“Not anymore,” she whispered, but her voice sounded pained beside my chest. “I’m…”

I held her tighter against me as she made a soft exhausted sound before she went limp in my arms and I looked over to see her passed out. “Eva? Angel…?”