Cold.
Her body felt cold. Like she was facing an icy wind, her skin tightening, goose bumps forming.
The possibility that she was dead crossed her mind but she soon let go of that likelihood. Having a somewhat rational discussion with oneself inside ones head was a sure indication there was some brain activity still going on. But it was this feeling of utter coldness that cemented the undeniable truth that life was clinging to her. Dead bodies couldn't feel nor could they consciously acknowledge that they were feeling. But dead bodies turn cold, don't they? Was her heart even beating? Was she still breathing? Doubt crawled under her skin it was making her shake, or maybe it was fear and confusion, or perhaps it was that still ever present cold feeling that wasn't even logical given the warm, humid Moroccan nights.
Ah, there it is.
A memory.
I'm definitely alive.
Alive but not quite right perhaps. She could not shake the feeling that there was something inherently wrong with her body. Like all her energy had been drained yet there was still something surging inside her, something awakening inside her like a new energy had taken place of an old one. Her body continued to shudder to the point that she became aware of the hard ground beneath her.
She opened her eyes for the first time. Her eyelids felt heavy, it hurt, like they had turned to sand paper. Wincing slightly she was faced with a black night sky and a faint yellow glow from the bottom of her peripheral vision that was probably coming from some shop or streetlight she deduced.
She was definitely conscious, although possibly injured in some way, she was definitely lying down on the ground and it was definitely nighttime.
Closing her eyes again she attempted to remember what events had led up to her strange predicament.
Dinner. Yes she definitely remembered dinner. Then did she go for a walk? No. There was music. Yes! A walk to get to the music. Yasmine was performing and then… then...?
She made an exasperated scoff angry with herself for not being able to remember however pleased that she had discovered use of her vocal cords remained in tact.
Concentrating hard again she repeated dinner, walk, Yasmine.
Dinner, walk, Yasmine, dinner, walk, Yasmine… Fadal! Off course Fadal had been with her. They had watched Yasmine performed then sat enjoying the warm night on the bench opposite the bar. They had kissed. She remembered now. At the thought of him that strange energy surging through her swelled, the cold subsided, it was as if her lungs had once again returned to full capacity. She opened her eyes but this time did not care at the pain.
She felt alive.
"Its some kind of ridiculous irony surely,' Adam said quietly as he followed Eve back to her house after their feast.
"What is my darling?" Eve replied.
"That I'm struggling to walk on my full stomach just as much as I struggled on my empty one, it's almost poetic," Adam answered in his usual philosophical, deep voice.
Eve laughed quietly.
"Perhaps. Although I'd probably go with pathetic rather than poetic," she said still smiling.
"Come on now you really are walking incredibly slow, at this speed the sun will be up before we reach home," Eve said extending her arm behind her.
Adam reached out and grabbed her hand.
"You're always one step ahead of me,"
Eve didn't reply.
Quickening the pace slightly they continued their way home. Eve aught to have been kinder to Adam as it truly was difficult to walk. To gorge themselves like that in minutes after decades of savouring small sips from shot glasses meant their bodies were in shock with this sudden over abundance of sustenance.
Finally reaching their home, Eve supposed she should refer to it as theirs now rather than hers, they both collapsed on the large mattress Eve kept in the main bedroom. She preferred it on the floor rather than elevated on a bed although it appeared quite high due to the copious amounts of blankets she liked to get lost under which were piled up. They found their usual comfortable position of intertwined legs and arms and rested silently for a few moments.
"We're going to regret it," Adam said suddenly.
Eve didn't have to ask what. She knew what he was talking about. Creating two new vampires in one go in one city was dangerous. It was an advantage that her and Adam were here to keep and eye on them but also a disadvantage, as there were now two more bloodthirsty mouths to feed.
"You realise why we couldn't kill them though," Eve responded.
"Ethics," Adam said.
Eve laughed for the second time that night.
"I realise, of course," Adam continued.
"It was like looking in a damn mirror,"
They were both silent again, thinking. Adam and Eve had been passionate lovers for many centuries now. In that moment of starvation where death was surely coming the thought of dying together was a comforting one. But then they saw the two, young, vulnerable lovers opposite them consuming each other in a desperate passion Adam and Eve knew all to well. The parallels to their own love was not lost on either of them. Like looking in a damn mirror as Adam had so eloquently said. Sentiment had got the better of them.
"Perhaps we were supposed to die, " Adam thought out loud.
"Maybe they were the perfect lovers to replace us in this otherwise cold and loveless world."
"Or perhaps," Eve counteracted.
"It was meant to be like this, maybe there are meant to be two pairs of lovers condemned suffer the perfect agony of each other for centuries more,"
"Love is agony," Adam agreed.
"The best kind," Eve replied.