Chapter 266 Steps on ice

Vincent flew Eve back to the forest ground, letting her get her footing before uncurling his arms around her body. She let go of his arms, opening her eyes and sending a slight glare. She accused him,

“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

“We both knew the surface of the lake was eventually going to break. It was only a matter of time it would break,” Vincent’s eyes shined in mirth, and Eve shook her head. “It is good to have you in my arms, jumping like a cat for protection. Though you should learn to keep yourself afloat without me too.”

Eve’s eyebrows furrowed in question, “By sinking?”

Vincent shrugged his shoulders, “If that is how you would like to do it,” a chuckle escaped his sinful lips. He then said, “You have the ability to control water. What you have explored so far is probably a percent of your abilities. Aren’t you curious about what more you can do?”

“You know more about the sea creatures than I do. What do you think I can do?” Eve questioned him, her blue eyes holding curiosity while Vincent noticed the excitement in there that widened the smile on his lips.

“Unlike the creatures on the land, the sea creatures are known to have various abilities. Not everyone possesses every gift in the book that we know of. It is said that sea creatures have abilities depending on the kinds or categories they belong to. Just like the ordinary vampires and pureblooded vampires,” Vincent explained to her and said, “Remove your coat. It will increase the window of time to be on the icy surface than below it.”

Even with the coat that Eve wore, it was still freezing because her body was still adjusting to the early Winter she had experienced. Seeing him tilt his head to the side, she pulled the straps around her waist and removed the coat, handing it to him.

Vincent continued explaining to her, “Over the years, there have been records about the sea creatures manipulation. The most basic being water manipulation, while the rarest to have people submit to their command. Like getting into people’s heads. You have healers like yourself. There are some more talents which many have come to believe is a myth as the sea creatures have fallen in the path of death time and time again with the hands of the people on the land or the water creatures themselves.”

Eve could feel the bite of the wind on her skin, when a breeze swept across the place where they stood. She asked him, “What now?”

“Go back to where we were.”

She stared back into his coppery-red eyes, trusting Vincent knew what he was doing.

“I have faith in you. Go on,” Vincent offered her an encouraging smile. Eve’s hands turned into fists before she finally started to walk back to the slightly frozen lake. She heard him say, “Careful with your steps, keep your ears and eyes alert. We have already walked on some parts of it, which has weakened the surface.”

“That sounds assuring,” Eve muttered, and when she heard something crack beneath her feet, her heart jumped to her throat. She asked him, “Have you always had wings since you were born?” She wondered if Marceline and Allie had it too. After all, they were his siblings.

“After I was thirteen. It was a self discovery,” replied Vincent, and Eve turned to look at him. “Sometimes you don’t know the abilities you possess, until you are pushed to a limit.”

Eve wondered if Vincent had jumped off the roof of his mansion or a cliff to know about it. As expected, it was colder here, and without the coat, she was sure she was going to freeze.

Vincent walked toward one of the trees before leaning his back while he curiously watched Eve. With no one around, this was the perfect place to learn and explore what she could do.

For a few seconds, Eve stood in the same place, staring at the icy surface before her eyes shifted to look at Vincent, who was now watching her. She would need to strengthen the surface and fill the gaps in the lake, preventing it from being cracked.

Concentrating, she noticed water drops moving up in the air from the earlier broken surface. She shouted from where she stood, “Isn’t it easier for me to do this when I am standing on the land?” She would still be accessing the water.

“That wouldn’t put your body on alert, would it? It would take a lot longer than usual if we did this on the land. Consider this to be the quickest way to catch up,” came the nonchalant words from Vincent, unlike Eve, who was worried about taking a dip in the cold water. It was as if the pureblooded vampire wanted her to drown. Vincent Moriarty wasn’t one to show affection and attachment to anyone; when he did, it came in unnerving and dangerous ways. “Try crystallising the ones that have your attention and turn them to snowflakes.”

Taking a deep breath, Eve stared at the water droplets that took a minute before they turned into balls of little ice and dropped onto the icy ground.

Eve tried to raise the little balls that had fallen around her, not realising in the process it had added to the weight on the surface of the ice. Vincent stated, “Add a few more, and it might be perfect to break through the ice,” making her realise what she had done. “You have been using only a little amount of water until now. It is time to expand your ability.”

She raised her hands forward, which shook the pebble-like ice on the lake’s surface, before it started to float in the air. Soon the ice balls turned into water drops and they turned into a dome around her. Suddenly, a piece of wood was thrown at her, and her eyes widened.

“What are you doing?!” Eve asked Vincent, who held another piece of wood in his hand.

“Playing. Protect yourself,” Vincent deadpanned, his lips curling in the corners.

She increased the pressure on the layer of ice that tried to lower the pressure of the wood that Vincent threw at her.

Vincent said to her, “Did you know that a few mermaids and mermen of the past were feared by the creatures of the land, that they would come to take over these lands that we now walk on. They were instantly killed.”

“So there is more than one reason why my kind has been killed. Are you telling me not to use my abilities in front of others?” Eve asked him, staring at him through the glass-like wall.

“When did I ever say that?” Vincent raised his eyebrows, “If you are going to use your powers, might as well use all of them. If you ask me, kill them. Erasing evidence is the perfect right thing to do.”

“What other abilities do you have?” Eve questioned him and watched him smile.

“I would like to show you, more than tell you. But we do not have sacrificial sheeps here. Maybe next time,” Vincent looked at her with pure mischief as if excited to show her while also not telling what it was. It made Eve wonder why he needed people unless he was planning to kill them.

“Show me,” Eve demanded, and Vincent stared at her before pushing his foot that was resting flat on the tree’s bark.

“Are you sure about it? I wouldn’t want to use it on you,” Vincent asked her with a trickster’s smile. This only made her that much more curious. He said, “Why don’t you turn your cute dome into snowflakes, and I will think about it.”

The last time the dome had blown up in one of the bathrooms of the Moriarty mansion, it had turned into sharp stakes.

Eve tried to imagine the first snow she always experienced every year, how they fell from the sky. Light as a feather, as they drifted in the air. The longer she took, the stronger the dome turned out to be.

She closed her blue eyes, and when she opened them the next moment, she snapped her two fingers, hearing the crack of the dome, and soon it broke away from each other, turning them into snowflakes.

“Not bad,” Vincent praised her, and a smile appeared on Eve’s lips. He said, “Now to close the gaps.”

Eve had grown up surrounded by humans, who held no such ability, and knowing she had something much more than what people had thought her to have, by focusing on her beauty, this knowledge raised her spirits.

She murmured, “I did it.” There was no snowflakes everywhere, drifting in the direction of the wind.

One of the snowflakes fell on the palm of her hand, and she stared at it.

But while she had snapped her fingers to break the dome, it had also pressured the surface of the ice she stood on, and the next moment, her body was pulled under the cold water, as if someone dragged her.

The cold water quickly started to freeze Eve’s body, making it hard for her to get back to the surface as her body drifted away from where she had fallen. The lower half of her body turned into her mermaid self and she heard Vincent calling her name, but at the same moment, she noticed a sea creature swimming towards her.

It was a woman with a body similar to Eve’s. At first, it seemed like the creature had come to help her. But when the sea creature came near her, it opened its mouth, showing its jagged teeth, ready to hurt her.

Before the creature could get its hand on her, which was as sharp as the claws, Eve was pulled out.

On seeing Eve slip beneath the lake’s surface and not attempt to come out, Vincent quickly dived into the water to pull her out. She said, “There’s… someone in there.”