So he'd finally decided to tell her. In that split instant when she'd just about figured it out he told her. How could he not watch her. She was so strong and so determined. Was he insane to take her into his fear landscape? Maybe. But he'd been alone for so long and she was just like him. Just like him besides the crazy father bit. He'd been mad when he'd seen his father go after Tris. The strength of the sudden anger overshadowed all fear. It'd been the first time where he hadn't had to grit his teeth and tell himself that is was only a simulation. It didn't matter whether or not it was a simulation because he wasn't going to let him touch a hair on her head. He wasn't going to let anyone, not ever. The power of his emotions for her didn't scare him. He'd known, when she'd looked him in the eye and said no one pushed her to take that first leap. He'd known when she didn't flinch at all as he threw knife after knife at her. And he'd finally allowed himself to see the depths of his emotions when he saw the three attackers trying to throw her into the chasm. He'd lost all sense then and he'd almost killed that boy Drew. He was still waiting to exact his revenge on Peter.
She wasn't expecting his confession. He saw and felt her surprise and he'd taken full advantage of it. He moved his mouth over hers and her small frame was in his arms. She smelled like the dauntless soap with a hint of laundry detergent, the type used in Abnegation.
He slammed the glass serum against the desk, the glass shards piercing his palm. Peter was in his room explaining what happened last night. What happened that put Drew in the hospital. The sniveling weak initiate came in to report abuse at the hands of Four. Of all people Four, abuse him and his little friends. It was the most unbelievable crap he'd ever heard. But the proof was right in front of him. He'd gone to the control room and watched the feed. Oh but Peter had left out an important detail about that night. He didn't say that he and his friends had taken the Stiff and were going to toss her into the Chasm. That changed things. Three against one was not honorable odds, not that he cared, but he did care about being mislead and lied to. Peter had implied that Four had attacked him and his friend Drew without reason.
He had Zeke rewind the scene over again. Tris was dangling over the chasm, her screams came through the speakers. Eric gripped the glass pieces harder. The pain helped him keep the natural stern look of his expression. The little jerk had taken Tris in a dark corner and he hadn't even been brave enough to do it alone.
"Enough!"
Zeke stopped the video playback as Eric stormed out the door. Eric didn't need to watch the rest. He knew that once Four entered the scene that Four would destroy the other initiates. They would be no match against him even at three against one. But it angered him that for some inexplicable reason he was angry at Four for being there and glad at the same time that someone was there to save her. She'd been so weak, needing saving the first place! He would've done the same thing had it been him and not Four that witnessed that scene, but he doubted he would've acted in that way if the initiate they were holding over the chasm was Molly, Christina, or any of the other recruits this year. It amazing that he could be so infatuated with an Abnegation girl. He'd been an Erudite and now he was a Erudite dauntless. In all his years at the Dauntlass compound, he'd never been interested in any of the females. He embraced his Erudite side and none of the girls were smart enough or dauntless enough to tempt him. Yet this initiate who was neither smart nor dauntless and she was the one whom he couldn't get out of his mind. It wasn't going to matter soon anyways because she was going to be injected with the serum and whatever feelings he'd had for her would evaporate like her free will.