Eyes Like Ice

Much to my surprise, I got the day off after explaining everything to Miss Lumberton. I didn't think she was being sympathetic so much as she simply didn't have anything for me to do.

I walked out of the house at about ten o'clock in the morning with a sigh, having realized that I couldn't get myself to sit down and rest or anything. I needed to go out and do something. But...what was there to do?

The answer came to me in the form of a call of, "Raven!"

I looked away from the ground to find Riley waving at me from outside the gate at the front of the mansion, grinning happily.

"What are you doing here, Riley?" I asked as I opened the gate and walked out, closing it behind me.

"I just came to make sure you were okay. Besides..." The blond's smile transformed into a frown, his gaze dropping to the ground. "Dad's drinking again. I don't like being around him when he's drunk. Mom left because he's an alcoholic, but he just won't stop..."

My own lips mimicked his, surprising me. What...what is this? What's wrong with me? Why does he have the ability to make me feel so...sad?

I forced my stoic expression back into place when he looked up at me, smiling once again as he said, "I also wanted to ask you if you...uh..." He turned away once again, his cheeks reddening. "W-wanted to go get some breakfast with me..."

"Riley..." I said softly, trailing off and slowly cocking my head.

He looked at me once again, suddenly alarmed. "You do eat real food, too, right? Not just...um..."

"Blood?" I finished for him. He nodded, and I said, "Yes. Levellua eat real food. We don't necessarily need it, seeing as it does nothing for our bodies, but most of us do enjoy the occasional real meal."

"Does that mean you'll go get breakfast with me?!" Riley questioned excitedly.

I thought for a moment, only to end up nodding. "Yes."

The human grinned once again as he quickly took my hand and began to drag me up the street. "Good! Denny's has some really good French toast! You like Denny's, don't you?"

"I've never been there."

"Oh...Well, you should like it! They have great food!"

And so, we made our way to Denny's, where the greatest French toast in the world resides...according to one adorable little blond boy in Ohio.

"What?" I asked emotionlessly as I poured the contents of another five sugar packets into my iced tea, feeling Riley's dark eyes on me. We had been seated in a booth in the corner and were now awaiting our French toast, which the blond boy had pretty much forced me to order so I could try some.

"You're using an awful lot of sugar," was all he said, watching me pick up three more sugar packets and tear them open.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, being careful not to spill the grainy white substance as I poured some more of it into my tea. "I just..." I couldn't find a way to really explain it to him, so I put the empty packets down on the table and said simply, "Sugar makes me...kinda...feel good."

He took a sip of his Coke and cocked his head at me, confused. "It makes you feel good?"

I nodded slowly, now carefully putting the thirteen empty paper objects in a neat little pile just so I wouldn't have to look at Riley as I tried to explain my love of sugar better. "It makes me think of my mother," I told him softly. "When I was younger, before I had to leave, she always used to drink a cup of heavily sugared coffee every morning, even though it made her throw up afterward." I finished arranging the empty packets and turned my attention to the pile of sugar sitting on the bottom of my glass. "Our stomachs don't handle real food well. We can take the occasional drink or meal, but to consume anything but blood every single day simply isn't something we can take. That's why I never understood it. Drinking coffee only to throw it up later? It's absurd. Pointless." A single stir with my straw sent the ice in my glass clinking, the sugar rising in the liquid, only to fall back to the bottom when I stopped. "But when I asked her why she did it, she had an actual answer. 'It helps me forget about the pain,' she told me. 'It helps me stop thinking about the future, the past...your father. The sugar is incredibly soothing for some reason. Remember that.' It's only soothing for me because of her, so I don't really know why it had such an effect on her."

My eyes remained on my drink as silence fell over us.

"Why did she need to forget about your father?" Riley finally asked after a few minutes had passed.

"She killed him to protect me when I was about two years old," I answered simply.

"She...killed him? Why did she need to protect you?"

"He didn't like the way I was, and he wanted my existence to end." My voice had yet to gain any emotion, and I was hoping it would stay that way.

"The way you were?"

"I've always been like this, Riley," I stated, bringing my eyes up to meet his, glad I had my contacts in now. When he didn't seem to understand, I said, "Emotionless. I've never been able to feel as much as I should. It got worse after I was taken away, but it's always been bad. My father was a happy man, and I guess he just didn't want a child that he couldn't have fun with."

"Taken away?"

"The children of my kind are always taken away from their families at a relatively young age so they can be trained and, if necessary, given a master. Some are lucky enough to come from Levellua families with a specific human family they and all their offspring are bound to serve until one of the families ends while others are not. I was one of the unlucky ones in more ways than just that, honestly. My mother could barely look at me after what she had done, so she allowed me to be sent off to a special trainer early on. I was left on my own at the age of five while most other children aren't seperated from their families until they're at least ten years old." My eyes went back to the sugar in my glass as I finished, "I haven't seen my mother since the day I left, my fifth birthday."

"Wow...My life doesn't seem so bad now," Riley said, staring at me with wide brown eyes.

"No. Your life is worse. You can feel the pain. I cannot."

"None of it? Not even a little bit of hurt or anything?"

I shook my head slowly. "I only feel things with you, Dominick, and Spike now. I don't know why, but I only feel when it comes to the three of you." A plate of French toast was placed in front of me at that moment, saving me from having to explain more. "Good. Let's eat."

Several moments of silent eating passed before I decided to say, "This French toast is very good. Thank you for introducing me to it."

"Yeah...No problem," Riley replied, seeming distracted.

I looked up at that point, finding that he wasn't eating any of his own French toast. "You want to know more, don't you?"

Riley glanced away from his food, wide-eyed. "Would you be willing to tell me more?"

"Of course," I answered with a small nod. "What is it you wish to know about?"

"Your training."

"What about my training?"

"For how long did you have to train? What did you learn to do? Do you think you could teach me anything you learned?"

I eyed the boy for a few seconds, then answered, "Seven years, until I turned twelve, kill, and yes. I could teach you, but I won't."

"Why?" Riley whined, pouting.

"Because a human does not need to know how to kill."

"I do need to know how to fight, though."

"You already know how to fight. It's instinctive. You don't need all the fancy techniques and whatnot that go along with it."

Riley's pout turned into a challenging glare. "Prove it."

Now I was slightly confused... "How?"

"Fight me. If I lose, I obviously need those 'fancy techniques and whatnot,' but if I win, then I know I don't need any training."

I sighed, a little bit angry now. "A fight against me wouldn't prove anything. You fight humans, not Levellua."

"But a bit more training just in case I ever have to fight your kind can't hurt, can it?"

My eyes narrowed in understanding. "Dominick. You want to try to take Dominick on." His eyes widened, telling me I was right. "Why?"

"Because..."

"Why?"

"Because he threw me into a nightstand."

"Why?!" Everyone in the restaurant turned toward us at my enraged shout, but my slight glare remained on Riley.

"Because I think he might try to do something to you!"

My anger gave way to surprise, and I asked, "What?"

"He...You...I...I have to go." He got to his feet quickly, heading out the door and leaving me, a bit dumbstruck, to pay for the meal.

"Son of a bitch," I snarled under my breath while digging in my jeans pocket for whatever money I had managed to steal from Miss Lumberton today. She knew I stole from her, but she never said anything about it. I needed to buy things, too, and she knew that. Besides, she was a rich old widow. Would she really miss the occasional fifty?

I found a twenty dollar bill and used it to pay for my and Riley's food, then I strode out the door. I sniffed the air once, twice, three times, closing my eyes once I caught Riley's scent. My blue eyes snapped open and I immediately began sprinting in the direction of the smell.

I found Riley walking past an alley, almost to his house.

Perfect. I grabbed the blond's arm from behind and spun him around before dragging him back into that alley he was so conveniently close to.

"R-Raven," he stammered, wide-eyed once more, wincing when I shoved him back into the brick wall of the little store that made up one side of the alleyway. One of my hands was still tightly gripping his arm while the other was pressed against his chest, keeping him against that wall.

"What do you think he's going to do to me?" I asked, forcing my voice and expression to remain as emotionless as possible.

"N-noth-"

My hand pressed against his chest even harder, causing him to grimace again. "What do you think he's going to do to me?" I repeated, speaking slowly now.

Riley simply stared at me for a moment, then he dropped his gaze and said, "He wants you a lot, but you don't want him."

My hand slid down his chest slightly, no longer pressing against him, when I began to understand what he meant. "You think he might-"

"Rape you? Yeah..."

My hand moved back up, becoming forceful once more. "And you think I'm too weak to fight him off myself?"

"No!" Riley told me hurriedly, his brown eyes darting back to mine. "I just...I want to be able to do something if he ever tries to do anything to you!"

"Why?" I allowed the pressure I was putting on the boy's chest to lessen.

"I just do," Riley answered, shrugging and looking down at the ground.

I simply studied Riley's face for a moment, just staring at him, taking him in...Then, I leaned forward slowly, hestitating halfway to him, only to go ahead with the motion after a moment. My lips met his gently, shocking both of us quite a bit.

I pulled away after no more than five seconds, moving just as slowly as I had when I had first leaned in.

I gently ran a hand through the sweet human's messy blond hair as I put my mouth close to his ear and whispered, "Thank you for wanting to help, but don't worry about it." I turned and walked out of the alley casually, leaving Riley dumbstruck but oddly happy.

As I rounded the corner and began walking up the street, I put a hand over my heart and wondered, What is this? What is that human making me feel now?