EvO (Darverius, House of DaR #16)

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

QWIN

Before the next thought can cross my mind. We are both thrown forward so hard that we are tossed out of the bed and onto the hard floor. Instantly , the room is so dark I can’t see my hand in front of my face. Wrapped in the blankets, I have to fight my way out of them as they are tangled all around me. The intensity of the cold suddenly surrounding me without EvO’s heat against me has my teeth chattering. “ EvO , what’s going on?”

When he doesn’t answer me immediately, I panic. “ EvO ! Please , God , answer me before I freak the hell out.”

A faint moan to my left has me crawling across the floor on my hands and knees as I reach out in front of me blindly trying to find him. Thankfully , he is only a few feet away. “ EvO , are you alright?” When he doesn’t answer me right away I shake him gently. The room is getting so cold that I’m trembling almost uncontrollably. “ EvO , we have to get up off the floor, we will freeze to death down here if we don’t.”

Crawling closer, I gently pull myself up his body, careful not to put any pressure on his legs, which were still healing. Once I reach his face, I can feel something wet, but I can’t see what it is. Leaning in close, I’m thankful to feel his warm breath against my freezing skin. Whatever has happened, it’s like someone hit the brakes and we stopped dead in our tracks. The ship is eerily silent.

Since I can’t see anything, I cannot tell if he has hit his head, or if something hit him in the fall. Either way, we can’t stay like this for long. Feeling around, I find the mattresses on the floor beside us, and most of the blankets are still gathered around my feet. My mind quickly goes through what I need to do next. If I can manage to get him onto one of the mattresses, then at least. I can get both of us back under the covers. Thankfully , the moment I start pulling on him with no success, he comes to.

“ Qwin ?”

I feel him reach out for me. “ I’m right here, EvO . We need to get up off the floor, can you help me?”

“ What happened?”

“ Not sure. One minute we were all snugged up talking. The next, whoever is driving this rig locked the brakes up, throwing us both onto the floor.” When he gets quiet again, I shove him hard. “ EvO , I can’t move you by myself.”

“ Yeah , it’s too cold, we need to move,” he slurs out.

When he sits up, I feel him start to shake all over. My own teeth are chattering, but I’m doing my best to ignore it. “ The mattress is right here; can you move over to it by yourself?” Running my hand down his arm I place his hand on the mattress.

It takes him a couple of times, but he finally manages to get on top of it. Seconds later I am crawling up next to him, bringing all the blankets over us, grateful the second we are off that freezing floor. It takes me a moment to get him covered up all the way, but unlike before, the cold is seeping through everywhere. “ EvO , do you remember what you did with those heaters? We are in desperate need of them right now.” He is shaking even harder now. “ EvO ! Where are the heaters, answer me?”

I can feel my own tears freezing to my face. Surely we haven’t made it this far to fail now. Did the ship run out of fuel? Did we hit something ? God , please give me strength, I pray. My hands run all around us looking for the packages that I could have sworn EvO laid on the bed. He must be hurt pretty badly for him not to be responding and the fact that I can’t see isn’t helping anything.

Finally , I catch the edge of a package. Although I’ve found one of the heaters, I still don’t know how it works. Crawling up over EvO , I take his head in my hands, fighting off the horror of finding him covered in a damp hot substance that I know must be blood.

Smoothing my hands over his face. “ EvO , my darling purple alien, sweetie … we are going to freeze to death if you don’t help me. I need you to tell me how to activate this heater.”

I barely hear him when he whispers, “ Out of bag … scrunch up.”

My hands are shaking so hard that it takes me a few times to even get the bag open. I’m so weak I almost can’t crumble the large sheet up. That is, until it starts to heat up quickly in my hands. The second my skin feels its warmth, I work frantically to get the entire piece activated. Once it’s all done it puts off a slight glow that allows me to see the other one lying on the edge of the bed. Holding it up above EvO , it’s easy to spot why he isn’t responding. He has a huge gash across his forehead that is still bleeding freely down his face onto the mattress beneath us.

Wiggling out of one of the many shirts I have on. I straddle his chest so that I can lean over and pull his head up gently. I tie the arms as tight as I can around his head, hoping this will stop or at least slow down the bleeding.

Helpless to do anything else for him. I activate the other heater, spreading them along our sides so that their warmth is shared between us. Laying down on top of EvO , trying to share my own heat with him while the heaters try to warm this little shelter up I’ve made over us. After a few minutes, EvO seems to relax and I feel his shivering lessen, even though my hands can feel the extreme cold seeping through the mattress beneath him where it’s now on the floor.

With nothing else to do. I lay my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Chuckling quietly, “ I believe this adds a completely different significance to a purple mattress, EvO .”

The fatigue plaguing my body no longer allows me to fight it, and I can feel myself drifting off. It hadn’t occurred to me that the room is rapidly getting colder, or that the air is now thinner. Only that I was glad I was not alone in this profound darkness, even though EvO is hurt, at least we are together.