Drake pov:
"Now take me to where you left my uncle's corpse.
she said while wearing the pendant and hiding it under her shirt close to her heart. I could see her fingers shaking a little as she did it, giving me signs of how much she was hurting inside but still trying her best to hid it in.
I looked away with my jaw tighten, feeling heavy with guilt. Now that I know the truth, that this woman named Eva, was Lisa's twin sister, everything felt different. It felt like we were both broken people living in a world that has taken everything from us all our life, we were both haunted by ghosts of the past.
And seeing it on a clearer side now, made me realize we were no different from each other. The both of us had lost everything we ever cared about and with that gone we had nothing to leave for, only fuelled by the hunger for hate and revenge.
I led her into the forest without saying a word. The sound of twigs and dry leaves crushed under our boots as we walked.
Behind us, the burned ruins of my home - our home, mine and Lisa's - disappeared completely from view as we walked through the tall trees. The trees had grown so tall that they acted like shade from the sunlight above.
"So you're not a lycan," Eva said suddenly, breaking the silence between us.
I turned and looked at her as she followed behind me with one hand resting on her dagger, it seemed like a habit of always being ready to fight.
"Come to think of it, that kind of explains why my silver sword didn't burn you and why wolf tocsin had no effect on you." She added, studying me closely as she followed my paste.
"But if you're not a lycan then what kind of a monster are you?"
I stopped walking and turned to face her. "Hey," I said. "I have a name you know. It's Drake. Not 'monster."
She lifted one eyebrow, waiting for a real answer.
I didn't know what to tell her?, should I tell her I am a witch - no, I used to be a witch. or maybe I should tell her I made a deal with death itself after I died? Nah! that would sound too crazy to her. I kept on debating on what to tell her because even I didn't know what I had become.
"Dracula!. yes that's the name death called me.
"I am Dracula. I said to her out loud this time.
"she narrowed her eyes from having to wait too long for my answer. "What the fuck is Dracula, and I thought you just said your name's drake?.
"Not knowing what else to say and wanting to avoid giving her a crazy explanation, I took a deep breath before letting it out. "Look, I don't know, ok. All I know is that when I died… something brought me back. Maybe it was a miracle, because when I woke up I became unbelievably strong.
Deep down I knew it was all a lie, but it was easier than telling her I made a deal with death to allow him to cross into the land of the living.
And surprisingly she didn't push further for more answers, we just kept on walking until we reached the destination. "There. I said. gesturing towards the grave I had dug and buried her uncle when she was still unconscious.
she froze for a moment when she saw it.
"You buried him," she whispered. Her voice shook with disbelief. She walked past me to stand beside the grave while glancing at her silver sword - the one she fought me with before I managed to knock her out - I stuck it at the edge of the grave like a cross showing a sign of respect.
I couldn't bring myself to leave his lifeless body to rot after stripping him naked for his clothes, so I decided to dug up a grave with my bere hands and buried him.
" I am sorry, I said to her quietly. "I wanted her to know I didn't mean to kill her uncle.
but she ignore my apologises and knelt down besides the grave and touched the dirt as if saying her final good byes. she didn't speak for a while, but when she finally did, her voice became hard as steel along with her gaze.
"After we find and kill the alpha lycan who murdered my sister, I will find a way to kill you for what you did to my uncle."
It wasn't a threat. It sounded more like a promise.
with the guilt of what I had done still boiling inside me I nodded my head slightly. "Fair enough."
She stood back up, wiping the dirt from her hands while pulling out her silver sword from the edge of the grave letting its blade make a sang-sound before sliding free from the ground.
I watched as she replaced it with her small dagger, marking the grave before sliding the silver sword into the scabbard strapped to her waste while turning away.
"We need to move. She said without looking back."
"Move to where?. I asked while following behind her.
" My uncle and I had been tracking a dangerous rogue lycan before we met you," She replied, while scanning the ground. "we must find its trail again."
I watched her as she kept on walking silently with confidence. To me she was like the last living piece of Lisa walking besides me.
"Normally over the years, lycans have become too hard to track," she said, crouching beside a tree and touching the claw marks there. "But this one is making it seem too easy. It's leaving too many trails behind." She said while looking towards the dip mountains ahead.
"You think it's a trap?" I asked.
"Maybe," she said. "But it doesn't matter anyways."
with that we followed the trail she found and we also found more footprints and claw marks ahead. Eva moved like she was part of the Forrest, reading every detail with a Hunter's instinct. Her uncle must have trained her well.
From time to time she will stop walking to pay attention to any little details the lycan had left behind and everything she did, kept on reminding me more of Lisa.
Lisa was a woman who hated violence, she had the purest soul you would ever meet, but Eva. She was the opposite - she is tougher , colder and filled with violence, she is what you would call a warrior built from loss and pain.
Which made me wonder, would Lisa have become like this if her uncle had also escaped with her? Would she have learned how to kill too?.
****
The path grew steeper as we climbed into the mountains. The air grew colder and the sun began to set but Eva didn't slow down, and neither did I.
"How long have you been hunting them?" I asked as we climbed.
"Since I was twelve," she said. My uncle started training me three years after we escaped the attack. He said if I wanted to survive in this world, I needed to learn how to fight and kill monsters like the lycans."
"Twelve," I said softly. "That's young."