Page 21 of These Eternal Bones
“I know you’re there.” She calls out, her eyes dancing around the wood line, right over me.
My lips pull into a smirk as I step from the shadows.
11
Violent Crown of Grass
Molly
My breath huffs from me as I plop down in the dump grass. The sun has banished most of the frost, but I can see it in the places where the rays don’t touch. The sky opens up just in this spot, a few steps out of the front door, and another place in the back, by the garden. The sight of paint on my hands makes a small smile force itself to my lips as I fiddle with the grass. What I don’t expect is my vampire benefactor to lower himself beside me, staring down at my hands, too.
He seems…far too beautiful, too opulent to sit here in the dirt. His trousers and black, buttoned shirt, with all its billowing and adornments, seem lost on this place.
Lost on me.
The bitter thought is quickly wiped away as he plucks long blades of grass, sitting them in a pile on his thigh, his other leg bent toward him.We don’t speak, not for a long while. He collects his grass, weaving them together with deft fingers, and I pick at the paint stuck underneath my nails. I’m lost somewhere in my mind, far away where it’s hot, the ground rough and dry. Where my feelings are quiet and there’s a never ceasing fear under the surface. I stiffen when his hands tug my plated hair behind my shoulder before he lifts a…crown of grass from his lap, settling it gently on my head. It’s a simple thing, one I’ve watched children do hundreds of times back home. So why is my heart flopping around my chest? My breath holds tight there with it as he adjusts the grass crown. This doesn’t feel like a silly game between children when he stares down at me likethat.
I get the sense he has been waiting a very long time for something to pique his interest. I have not yet decided if I feel lucky or not that it was me.
“You are kind, Elric,” I whisper as he leans into me, his fingers trailing down the side of my face, leaving tingles in their wake.
“You are the only one to see me that way.” He huffs, “I am not known for my gentle nature.”
“But that is allIhave seen from you.”
“Do you believe in the devil, Molly?”
My lips part, the odd pivot in conversation drawing me up short. My eyes leave his broad chest, the network of blacked veins decorating his neck as I turn to the creek, watching the water instead. Such an odd, complicated question, but I know my answer immediately. “No.”
“Why not?”
A heavy sigh leaves my throat as I drag my knees to my chest, resting my chin there. “I have met him before. He was just a man.”
“From before you came here?”
I nod, a tightness building in my throat. That shame that grew there from a tiny seed flourishing inside me, nurtured by years of tears, the type you only shed on the inside.
“I suppose you would think me unkind to be grateful.”
My brows furrow as I turn to him, finding his eyes already on me. Studying me with an intensity that makes it hard to breathe, but it seems I don’t quite mind feeling lightheaded. “Whatever for?”
“These series of unfortunate events that led you to the dilapidated cottage owned by the Vampire of Port Clyde.”
My pulse jolts, my cheeks warming as I force my eyes away. “It does seem a rather odd place for a being such as you to lay your roots.”
He laughs at that, my head snapping back to watch him smile. The flash of sharpened canines should be terrifying, but my own lips inch upward. “Port Clyde is cold and gloomy. I am rumored to be both. Perhaps it was the perfect place.”
“Gloomy? I’ve found you quite charming.” I feel the flush creep down my neck at my slip of words.
“A great many would agree before they crumpled, dead at his feet.”
I gasp, the voice barely registering before Elric is up, lording over me, blocking my view of the other person as I spin. A soft growl leaves his throat as I peek past his legs at the man leaning against a tree just outside the small clearing. His chest is bare despite the cold, tanned bronze skin and lithe, corded muscles. He, like Elric, is achingly pretty to look at, making me wish I could shrink into the ground. It’s only then that I notice he’s covered in dirt, like he’d just crawled from the ground.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before you surfaced again.” Elric growls, the tension in the air making me tug my cloak tighter around me as I get to my feet. “You’ve never had enough sense to stay away.”
The man laughs, but it’s a jaded, ignorant sound. I lean to the side, peeking around Elric again, only for those hidden tendrils to burst free from his center, pushing me back behind him. My furrowed brow deepens as I swat them, my eyes landing on the newcomer’s hair. A beautiful, odd shade of deep burnt orange, dipped in black like a…like a fox.
“What an odd way to thank an old friend. I saved the girl, after all.”
