Victor Madden flung himself into Russell Edgington, and bit down on his arm as the pair of them rolled into the wreckages of the Pyramids of Giza hotel. Eva was on her knees a few metres away from where Lucio howled in pain.
Shaking, she crawled towards him, whispering his name over and over again. He was curled into the foetal position, blood soaking his shirt and smearing his face.
Eva was inches away from Lucio, when Victor came flying into her and Eva was thrown into the dust. She squealed in the pain, her skin still slashed from the glass.
"Don't underestimate me," Victor roared, bounding to his feet again, ignoring Eva crumpled at his feet.
"You are older than me?" The King of Mississippi purred, emerging from the dust clouds. Eva was also curious amidst her angst; she thought Victor was a young vampire.
"You have no idea." He had a gleam in his teeth, and malice in his eyes.
Eva ignored the angry face off, and turned to crawl to Lucio again. He was healing already, but slowly and evidentially, painfully. He writhed in pain and saw Eva edging towards him amongst the chaos. His eyes glistened as he looked at her lovingly, and Eva tried to form something close to a reassuring smile. When she was inches away from him, she collapsed onto his chest, tears abundant.
Victor and Russell jumped at each other, embracing in an angry scuffle mid air. Crashing to the ground, Russell Edgington dove to snap his fangs at Victor, but Victor hurtled out the way, and grabbing Russell's ankle and hurling him into the air. He then, with unimaginable stealth, leapt into the air and grabbed him by the hair, then slammed him to the ground. Before Russell could retaliate, Victor was on him, gnashing his fangs into the little man viciously.
Eva turned away from the superhuman scuffle to Lucio who moaned beneath her.
"You're healing?" she whispered breathlessly.
He nodded, then reaching up to cradle her face with his palm, he pulled her in close.
"Drink," he instructed hoarsely.
"No." She pulled her face away. "You need your blood."
"My blood will replenish itself. Look at you; you look like you're dying."
Eva recognised the pain and anguish her body was suffering, the way it shuddered and shook and bled. She had tried to push the burning ache to the back of her mind, but it was overwhelming. She traced her fingers over the deep set gashes in Lucio's chest and neck, the blood staining her fingers.
"Drink," Lucio urged.
Eva gulped, she was scared. In a moment of insane reasoning, she thought how she didn't want to lose herself. She didn't want to become less Eva. However Lucio was right, she was dying.
She leaned in, tracing his bloody jaw with her fingertips. His lips were stained with blood, and with his fingers still curled round her head, he pulled her in and pressed her lips against his.
For that moment they were still, her warm lips against his cool ones. Her palms were stretched flat against his chest, and his other arm moved up to encircle her waist. Her fingers hovered up and entwined with his that gently held her face close to his.
Victor and Russell we're still vaulting into each other behind them. Russell paused for a moment to watch the two pressed together amongst the blood and madness. Then Victor tore into his arm and the fight began again.
After a long moment, Eva drew out of the kiss slightly, and then used her tongue to trail his lips. She tasted the smallest amount of blood, when a deep rumble echoed and Eva was hurled backwards. Lucio, Victor and Russell disappeared from sight and she was alone in a cloud of smoke.
Everyone's being thrown about, she mentally blabbered, as she lay choking on the debris.
The final bomb had been deployed, quite far from Eva. If it was near to Eva she would certainly be dead by now, but she was simply thrown in the force of the explosion and shrouded in the debris. She had barely had a taste of Lucio's blood; there was no chance of vampire blood sustaining her until she was saved – not with that dosage.
I am probably going to die here, she decided. Her lovely violet dress was ripped to shreds; one of the short flowing sleeves was hanging on a few strands of stitching, and exposed part of her bra. Trying to cover herself, she found her arm was trapped under wreckage. She was physically pinned down, piles of rubble holding down one arm and part of her torso.
Wriggling seemed a little futile, and was too painful to attempt, so she just lay still and wondered what her chances of survival were.
It was a cold night, but she was so worried and flushed she was almost sweating. The cries of others wafted around the ruins of the one great building. Eva marvelled at how it had been brought down within an hour. It was a wondrously horrible feat,
The Fellowship of the Sun are full of hate, Eva thought miserably, they attack these creatures with the exact malicious intent they preach the vamps hold. Her mind began to wander in her painful loneliness. A veil of darkness and ruin hid her from the world. She suddenly regretted not making the blood bond with Lucio back in her hotel room. That was less than twelve hours ago, now there she was. He'd tasted her blood before, and she'd just about tasted his, but it was hardly a substantial amount that could form a bond. He was so young he probably couldn't sense her with the lone portion of her blood he'd consumed.
Then Eric Northman's words haunted her again –"I could hear you sobbing in a corner if I searched hard enough with my mind."
A small spark of hope ignited in her heart, and in a horse sad voice she whispered into the blackness. His age was impressive enough, and Eva sometimes got the impression she only knew half the vampires abilities. I mean, earlier he'd flown her out an elevator shaft. It never said they could fly on Wikipedia.
"Eric….Eric?"
For a few lone minutes she lay sighing on her own. The chilly night allowed her a few shivers. The few minutes felt like an eternity, they stretched out and Eva's spark of hope began to diminish.
Finally the weight from her chest vanished and despite her arm going numb, she felt a cool breeze escaping to her.
"Eric?"
"You wish," snarled a female voice. Natalie dropped into the hole in the wreckages, a determined look plastered on her small features.
"Oh thank god, someone," Eva whispered, relieved.
"Don't thank your lucky stars just yet," Natalie hissed, grabbing her free arm and yanking her out of her entrapments roughly. Eva yowled as her injuries were scratched and dragged in the dust. "Where's Victor?"
"I…I don't know…" she stammered truthfully.
"Tell me!" Natalie shrieked. She looked genuinely aggrieved at losing her lover and maker.
"I really don't know, he was fighting Russell Edgington, then there was a blast and they were lost…"
Natalie slapped her violently, but the sting of it blended amongst the rest of the agony Eva was suffering.
"WHY? Why was he fighting Russell Edgington?"
"Because he attacked Lucio," Eva murmured, her head spinning in and out of consciousness.
Natalie was quiet for a moment, long streams of blood ran down her face. If Vampires breathed, she'd be hyperventilating.
"Because Lucio is his vampire child…ward…"
"You're brother somewhat…" Eva added deliriously.
Natalie dropped her back in the dust, and standing up gave her a violent kick. She gazed of into the distance for a while, and the blood she cried shed one or two drops on Eva's cheek.
"Lucio was here, with you. Lucio came to save you right. Victor attacked Russell Edgington to save Lucio, because Lucio attacked him to save you…" she slowly explained to herself.
Eva lay in quiet denial.
"Now they could be DEAD because of you!" Natalie wailed, delivering another blow into Eva's side with her red kitten heels. "You evil bitch, because of you my Victor is likely to be dead to the world. Fangbanging whore!"
As she threw insults at Eva, she brutally dug her heel into her. Eva's yelps of pain was fading as she was losing her breath.
"Bitch." She bore her fangs and leaned close to Eva in a position that would make humans lose their balance and toppled over. "Should I end your misery?"
Yes please, Eva thought out the blue. She quickly shook the thought and made her face blank, hard and staring. Natalie's aggressive threats we're marked by the glistening red tears and show of emotion. Somehow, the emotion made it all the more terrifying. She was driven by something more than thirst, which is why she didn't simply drain Eva on the spot.
"I want you to suffer," she hissed, still bent over Eva, taking her arms and digging her claw like nails into Eva's bloody glass wounds. Eva hadn't the voice left to cry in pain, and simply gasped breathlessly, scrunching her face up as she failed to show strength any longer.
"Expecting me?" chanted a familiar voice, suddenly behind them. Eva's heart leapt and before Natalie could turn round she was smacked so sharply she hit the ground with a resounding thud.
Eric appeared close to her face, a cocky smile spread across his face. Eva was sure she recognised a glimmer of relief though.
"Oh shut up and save my life," she whispered. He smiled wider as he smelled the sweet scent of her blood. It took all of his restraint not to ravage her on the spot.
Natalie stood up, but knew better than to attack Eric. His age was unknown to her, but she was more than sure it would surpass hers impressively.
"What do you want silly vampire child?" Eric asked, bored of her before she'd addressed him.
"I want my Father back." This sounded a bit perverted to Eva but whatever.
Eric shrugged, not bothering to look at her.
"I don't know who your maker is, or who you are for that matter, but all Vampires caught in the last blast have been moved to a warehouse slightly north of here," he informed her, looking at Eva with an intense look in his eye. Eva was ignoring him and looking at Natalie. Despite the fact she'd just tried to torture her, Eva sympathised with her a bit. She was a young female vampire, with not much place in the Nevada hierarchy. Felipe and co didn't register her enough to look for her, the only one caring for her truly being Victor. Maybe Lucio would have spared her a thought if he hadn't been preoccupied.
When Natalie registered the news, she disappeared between Eva blinking. She turned back to look at Eric gratefully. He was leaned in close as Natalie was before, but not menacingly.
"You have very little hope of surviving being moved…unless…"
Eva sighed, but the pain pulsating through her body agreed with his words.
"I have a feeling a know whats coming…."
Eric bit disgustingly into his wrist, and if Eva wasn't paralysed by pain she would have winced. The blood sloshed out and as he held it to her lips it ran into her mouth almost to the consistency of wine being poured from the bottle.
It took all of Eva's strength to swallow. She felt vile drinking blood, she felt like a wild animal – and not in the exciting way. Then as she consumed a bit, then some more, she found herself drinking desperately. She found her self responding to it, the flippent phrase for the situation being - tucking in. The sense of desperation for this age old blood began to consume her. The wound in Eric's wris was healing as she lapped at it, and Eric had to eventually pull his arm away.
"You are drinking too much, for someone so hell bent on never engaging in this kind of activity, your sure getting into it."
Eva scoffed at him, looking like she'd been bathing in blood. Her own was drying on the skin of her body, and Eric's was smeared on her face like morbid tribal paint.
"You're not driven mad by the scent of mine?" She asked louder than before. The pain was already beginning to numb slightly and then diminish.
"Yes, but I can control myself for so long."
"Hmm, you've succeeded in surprising me," she teased. Eric crawled down to her side and settled next to her as if they were sat in bed, rather that a bomb site.
"I am full of surprises. Though, like I said, I can control myself for so long and so long only," he forewarned.
"Then get me out of here," Eva demanded, a hint of panic in her voice. Eric nodded, and wrapping his arms around her, he hoisted her into his arms. Dust and debris fell from her as she was shifted from her landing spot. Eric paused for a moment, and took a quiet moment to control his urges once Eva was in his arms and so close to him, and his fangs, which were fully extended a looming threateningly inches from Eva's face.
"I knew someone would save me eventually," she murmured, strengthened but still slighting delirious as Eric flew her away from the wreckage into the night.