With the sun gone, the little heat it brought to the November air vanished. Eva’s breath left mist in the air and, now that she was no longer actively concentrating on magic, she could feel the cold digging into her bones. Eva shook in a fairly violent shiver as she realized just how light her clothing was.
Despite her desire to sit in one spot and never move again, Eva dragged herself to her feet. “Let’s get back to the dorms, shall we?”
Arachne gave an eager nod, placing her fingers around Eva’s arm to help keep her steady.
Normally, they would have teleported back. They weren’t too far into the Infinite Courtyard, but teleporting was always faster than walking. However, Eva wanted to put as little stress on Arachne’s still injured body as possible. Even though her method of teleporation didn’t seem to affect demons in the same way that it had torn apart Lynn Cross or drained Serena, she still didn’t want to take the chance.
It was one of the main reasons they were actually using the dormitory instead of sleeping in the women’s ward every night.
So walking it was.
Eva leaned against Arachne and Arachne leaned back as they walked with each other. The spider-demon’s carapace wasn’t exactly warm. In fact, it felt even colder than the already freezing air.
Magic had a solution to most problems. Fire magic in particular was especially useful in this situation. Warming spells acted just like a tablet of runes set up to generate heat except they didn’t need all the fussy inscribing. A casual wave of her hand had her magic keeping the night air at bay.
She could have lit her hands on fire. Fire was even warmer than warming spells and she doubted Arachne’s carapace would have minded. But fire was bright. It would ruin their night vision at the same time as it signaled their position to anything that might be in the Infinite Courtyard.
Without Srey along with them this time, Eva didn’t want to take the chance of missing any movement in the moonlit night.
Despite being somewhat tense and wary about the possibility of something jumping out from the dark at them—the doll was still around somewhere, probably, and Eva couldn’t even detect it with her sense of blood—Eva walked with Arachne in a companionable silence. Neither felt an immediate need to talk.
Taking a languid stroll with Arachne was nice on its own. No need to weigh it down with unnecessary conversation. With her warming spells, she didn’t even feel a need to rush.
Though she wasn’t speaking, Eva was relatively certain that Arachne was enjoying herself as well. She could speak up if she was feeling uncomfortable.
So they walked through the Infinite Courtyard.
It didn’t take long to reach the edge of the forest section. They passed by the magizoology classroom and its conjoined zoo. As they did so, they moved from the rough terrain to the paved pathway that led to the school.
The closer one got to the school building, the fewer and farther between the trees were. That combined with the relatively straight path led to something of a rare situation.
Eva actually saw someone before the person entered her range of blood sense.
Arachne tensed the arm that was wrapped around Eva’s shoulder, apparently having noticed as well.
But Eva ignored the spider-demon. The figure leaning against the wall of Brakket Academy looked vaguely familiar. And not in the way that warranted immediate alarm.
Crossing a quarter of the distance to the main building confirmed Eva’s suspicions.
The person leaning against the wall was dead. Very dead. No living blood circulating through her veins. Yet she still shoved off the wall when she spotted Eva and Arachne despite her living-impaired body.
“Serena!” Eva said as she got closer to the vampire. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Eva,” the vampire greeted with a fanged smile. “Good to see you again. Smelling stronger than usual.”
“If I didn’t know you were talking about my blood, I’d be a little offended,” Eva said, placing a hand on her hip and faking a little glare.
Which only had the vampire widening her grin.
Deciding to be a little ornery, Eva split her lips, matching Serena’s wide smile.
Serena blinked, actually taking a step back as her eyes dropped to Eva’s smile. Somehow, using some supernatural ability, Serena managed to turn her step back into a step forward. She got right up in Eva’s personal space.
Something Arachne actually let out a little growl about.
“Eva,” she said, not taking her eyes off Eva’s mouth. “You’re making me a little envious. Am I crazy or did you have normal teeth last time I was around?”
“You’re not crazy. And it’s good that you mentioned my teeth. My mouth,” she started, momentarily hanging her tongue down to her chin before continuing, “is a bit different nowadays and nobody has said a word. I was beginning to wonder if they just couldn’t see it.”
“Well
“So, what are you doing here?”
“Hopefully keeping Zoe and Wayne from getting themselves killed.”
