Chapter 4: Mouse Trap
"Predictable." Ezyl murmured under his breath. "But how did you know?"
"Liars always sound too innocent." Eva scowled, almost as evilly as him. Apparently, upon seeing Daeren bleeding, it angered her. "Why is the state after me?"
"Why else? You're going around disguising yourself, making it harder to catch you, burning alchemy books that don't belong to you and even rare and life-long work with it." he said calmly, underestimating Eva. "I don't know if you've intentionally been avoiding being caught or just damn lucky, but you don't know what you're doing."
"I know damn well." Eva took a step closer, touching the tip of her katana to Ezyl's throat.
"At first I was surprised, when I found out who you were. I suppose I can understand a little... especially after what happened to your father-"
"Don't you dare speak of my parents!" Eva made a small cut across his throat, though not deep enough to be fatal, and swung it towards his neck. He ducked. She swung at him again but he jumped back. He suddenly threw himself out of the window next to him.
Eva, growling, swore and ran to the broken window. Ezyl was nowhere to be seen. She turned to help Daeren, who was lying on the wooden floor. She dragged him back into their room, ripped a strip off the bed sheet and wrapped it around his abdomen.
She panicked a little, not really knowing what else she could do. She poked him to see if he was awake... she couldn't tell because of his sunglasses. She reached up to take them off. Daeren suddenly grabbed her wrist.
"Don't." he said. Relieved he was alive, she let him rest and began cleaning up the room and packing.
Daeren was awakened by random rustling of noises. He opened his heavy eyelids and stared up at the ceiling. After a moment, he sat up, or attempted. About halfway up he stopped as a sharp pain jolted into his abdomen.
That's right, he thought. I was stabbed... He peered around the room with one eye.
"You know, I'll have you arrested for assault on an officer and for helping a wanted criminal." his voice...
In shock, he stared at Ezyl who was on the side of his bed with a knife to his throat. That mocking sneer molded onto his face.
"Can't take a little pain?" he chuckled. "Then I'll have you executed!" he moved back his arm and swung it back, right into Daeren's throat-
He choked. Pain. Not in his throat but his abdomen. Worse than when he attempted to get up.
"Daeren!" Eva's voice. He could hear her right next to him. "Drink some water, stop moving around to much!"
He opened his eyes to see Eva sitting on the edge of the bed with a glass of water. She looked concerned. His breathing was heavy from choking. His throat burned and his whole waist jabbing with pain.
"Where's Ezyl?..." he whispered, his throat itchy.
"What? He got away this morning, remember?..." Eva looked a bit puzzled. "Are you okay?"
A dream. Of course he was fine, so he nodded. He peeked at his watch. One-thirty... a.m. He was stabbed over twelve hours ago.
"Let me change your bandages while you're awake." Eva said, setting the glass of water on the table and untying his bandages. She had kept his skintight shirt rolled so she could easily change bandages. It had stopped bleeding at that point.
"Here's my plan..." she started as she began bandaging his waist again. "These are long-term bandages, so in the morning we can just leave... If, that is, you're coming with me." she paused. He nodded. "If that's the case, we'll head to the next town Northwest... as I originally planned."
Daeren didn't say anything.
"There, all done." she pinned the end down. "Try not to move around too much."
He lied back down.
Eva left his side and went to do something. He heard rustlings again, which slowly made him drowsy and drift off to sleep.
Early in the morning, the time when everyone was still asleep, Eva and Daeren left quickly after paying. When the town was almost out of sight, Daeren decided to share his thoughts.
"Eva," he said after clearing his throat. "I've been thinking about this for a while... uhm, aren't you worried about Ezyl... or the state?"
Eva stopped and turned, jerking her head slightly to brush her purple wig hair from her face. Her natural golden eyes stared up at him seriously, making an odd look.
"You're just paranoid." Eva grinned. "We'll be fine. Don't worry about it too much." she turned and continued to walk along the dry, desert area. Daeren knew it was bothering her, but he couldn't understand why she didn't tell him.
"I... think we should go to a different town." he said after a long silence.
"We'll be in the next town soon." she didn't stop this time. "I still think you're being really paranoid."
"Can never be too careful." Daeren said under his breath, unaware if she heard or not.
They arrived to the next town, which was smaller than the last town. Eva checked into an inn, dropped off her belongings and began her usual work. Daeren followed and examined closely.
She first went around town, seeing who used alchemy and wrote down their addresses in a little red book. There was only one man who used alchemy in the town. He was quite young with little books. Though it seemed unnecessary, he seemed to be more of an artist, his books had to be burned.
She then took some time to think about how to get in, but not too much time because it usually wasn't hard for her if they weren't rich and fancy with security, which most of them weren't. Then that night or the next day/night, she got to work. Tonight, she decided, because it's sometimes important to leave as soon as possible.
"His books are in the basement... so piece of cake." she said suddenly in the middle of their lunch meal. Daeren stared at her blankly because they both had been relatively silent up upon arriving, except when she explained her work. This just proves how she can be so absent minded, but think so deeply about other things.
That late evening, after buying traveling food and take out dinner, they headed back to the inn to prepare for the night. While eating, Eva explained what her plans were... which were quite simple. Break in... get out.
While Eva was thinking of the mission during the day, Daeren was thinking of how to avoid, or escape, a trap one was set. While Eva's thoughts were successful, his where not. He didn't have much of a plan.
That night, Eva decided to wear a medium length blue wig, which was tied into a short high ponytail. She looked like a young teenage girl. She popped in violet contacts. Though it was quite dangerous, Daeren never disguised himself. He was always wearing those shades...
"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you without those shades on." Eva said, changing her clothes. A quiet "zip" could be heard as she zipped up her shirt. "Hate to sound like Ezyl, but hiding anything?"
"No." he knew she knew he was lying but she dropped it.
Eva wrapped on her hoodie poncho and threw on an empty backpack.
"I already said I can do this by myself." she looked over her shoulder at him. "This guy doesn't have a lot."
"I don't care." he sat on the edge of his bed, waiting for her.
"You're wounded." she turned around.
"I don't care." he stood up.
"You'd be wasting time, and risking opening your wound." she looked as if she was almost scowling.
"I don't care." he took a step towards the door.
"Fine." she frowned and walked out the door. "See if I care."
Daeren followed her silently as they headed into the night towards the targeted house. Being a small town, it wasn't very far. Luckily the guy had went to bed by then, so they didn't have to wait.
They climbed over the back fence, which was four feet from the back door. Inks unlocked the door silently. The basement door was located on the other side of the house, and fortunately it was a small house. There was no lock to the basement, which wasn't a small basement at all. It was just one large room with a few bookshelves and paintings.
Eva spotted the one shelf with alchemy books and headed over there while sliding the pack off her back. She began packing, though rather slow, Daeren thought. Although it was going okay so far, he kept a lookout, just in case.
"All right, I got the books packed." Eva said, lifting the backpack onto her shoulders again. "Let's get ou-" she saw Daeren suddenly step in front of her. A splatter of red arose from in front of him and fell over both of them. Eva's eyes widened as she stared at her blood soaked self.
"Daeren!" she almost screamed as he stood frozen in front of her.
"I'm fine." he said, looking over his shoulder. "I told you there'd be a trap."
"And there was. In front of Daeren was Ezyl in a state military's uniform, holding a gun. His usual evil grin stretched across his face. Two other officers were at his side, pointing guns as well. She was pretty sure Ezyl had shot him, but Daeren was only bleeding from his arm, which he used to block his skull and torso area.
"Why am I not surprised?" Ezyl chuckled. "We set out 10 different traps for you in the towns nearby... and you fell right into the one that was marked on your map. You really are a silly girl, I learned." he laughed harder and put his gun back into it's belt loop.
"You're right."
"Ah?" he suddenly stopped.
"I am quite silly, especially when I knew there was a chance this would happen." she glared at him. "But not so silly as to not be prepared!" she threw something at the ground from her hand and suddenly the room was fogged into a thick bluish black smoke.
"Come on!" Daeren heard Eva and felt a tug at his wrist. He followed the tug towards the door.
"Don't let them escape!" Ezyl's voice could be hears, followed by gunshots.
Daeren suddenly felt a sharp pain stab into his calf. He growled, but kept going through the endless smoke. He knew he was shot, and wanted to make sure Eva didn't get shot, but he could barely make anything out in this smoke-
A short screech.
"Eva!" he yelled.
"I ran into something, hold on." she said. He got closer and saw her looking around. "This way." she pointed.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah." she said without looking back at him. He noticed she was limping a little.
"Eva." he resisted her tugging for a moment.
"What?" she scowled, and suddenly she was lifted up into Daeren's arms.
"Hey! What the hell-"
"You're slow." he said calmly. He managed to carry her upstairs, but as soon as he got outside, more officers showed up. They started firing. Daeren was hit on his shoulder.
Eva could only watch in horror as her shield was shot again and again. Most bullets only grazed him, but he was hit on the arms so many times it looked like his arm had been skinned. Soon he ran out of firing range, but continued into town. She soon came to realize he was running to the inn.
They arrived quickly and he continued to run to the room, except slower. He stopped to have her unlock the door, still in his arms. They silently walked in and Daeren set her down on her bed. He then backed up and slumped onto the floor, his back against the bed.
Eva was tired herself, too, and felt like collapsing but she couldn't. Not at that moment with Daeren bleeding on the floor. She was bleeding herself, but not a lot. She had tripped over something and twisted her the bleeding ankle too. She ignored it, especially after Daeren carried her safely back to the room.
She grabbed a towel from the bathroom, wet it, and began cleaning his arms. They didn't seem too bad... she didn't quite know what to do with his shoulder that was shot.
Daeren seemed to open his eyes for a brief moment, then close them again, looking pretty exhausted. She dabbed his skin so gently as not to make it hurt more than it already did. She then began bandaging them carefully and lightly. She had finished his arms when a thought struck her-- was he dying?
He could have been hit in a fatal spot and she didn't know it at the moment or-or-or... was he still alive now?
She checked. He was still breathing. Was he conscious? She poked him. He didn't seem to be... he could have just been sleeping...
She suddenly found herself reaching for his shades. Why? She didn't know. She did have to take them off to clean his forehead... which was bleeding as well. As she slipped them off, he didn't stop her...
Eyelids. Normal eyelids, she thought. No scars or signs of inhumanness. She wiped his forehead and cheek, which was smeared with blood. After applying a bandage, she poked him.
It seemed for a brief moment that he would open both eyes, but he opened one. His left one. It was a perfect color of sky blue. Even in the dim lit room she could see it.
"Now what's wrong with your eyes?" she made a smug look. He snatched back his sunglasses and put them back on.
"Nothing." he tried to get up but he winced and fell back. He sighed.
"I told you to stay back." she frowned. "Let me see your ankle."
He straitened the leg that was shot. "But you care." he said.
"Huh?" she rolled up his jeans leg.
"You said 'see if I care'." he said. "You care, right?"
Eva looked puzzled. Daeren gave her a joking look, smiling. He rarely smiled. She laughed.
-End-
