SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

V E N T I

She was rushing down the spiral staircase, careful not to trip over her own feet. Her hand trailed down the bannister and she had to squint her eyes in order to see anything. She had absolutely no idea where in the castle she was, but she guessed she was somewhere below the ground, since there were no windows or candles providing some much needed light. At least Demetri won't find me here, she thought to herself. 

That was, if he had told her the truth. He had solemnly sworn that he wouldn't use his supernatural hearing to try to locate her, but Cecilia didn't even know if that was possible. If it was true, she wished him good luck finding her in this part of the castle. 

Finally, the staircase came to an end, her feet landing on hard and unpolished cobblestones. There was no torch hanging on the wall and she took a sweet moment both to calm her raging breath and to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. It was only then that she noticed that it was rather cold and that the summer dress she was wearing didn't offer much protection to the damp draught surrounding her. 

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, quietly walking further down the corridor. She'd lost count of the time somewhere in the middle of the staircase, but she was positive that by now Demetri was searching for her. 

The steady dripping of water hitting the floor accompanied the sound of her heels landing on the stones, but as she turned another corner, she heard someone take in a deep breath, causing her head to snap to the right side. She could make out some steel bars and a sick lump behind them. 

"Sweet girl," the voice croaked, sounding more like a mix of a sigh and a hiss than actual words. "Come closer."

"Wait," she muttered softly, her eyes focused on the light of a torch further down the corridor. She hurried toward it, grabbed the flame and moved back to the lump behind the bars. She realised that somehow she must have found her way to the dungeons and she wasn't sure if she quite liked the idea of that. 

"Who are you?" she asked softly, her voice barely more than a whisper. She held the torch a little closer to the man's figure, making sure there was still a good arm-length worth of space between them. He looked up and Cecilia let out a soft gasp. "Nikolai?"

"Cecilia Cullen?" the Russian vampire replied in the same awe. She'd only met him on one occasion, where he'd hidden her from the Volturi with his special gift. He was an odd boy, only two years older than Cecilia when he'd been turned, but extremely antisocial. 

She rushed forward, ignoring his thoroughly black eyes and sickly cracked skin, her hands grabbing the bars of the cell harshly. "How did they get you?" she asked, her voice hushed. "Last time I heard Benjamin made you disappear in a cave."

"So that's the name of that asshole," he muttered quietly. "Thank him next time you see him. I had to let my guard down so that my friend would be able to track me. Let's just say this Volturi tracker did a better job. Since then I've been stuck here, starving."

Cecilia let out a soft scoff, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. "You have friends?"

One moment she was squatted almost comfortably against the bars of the cell, the next Nikolai had managed to grab her arm and pull it through the bars, causing her face to be pressed up against the cold metal uncomfortably. She let out a gasp, her heart fluttering against her chest. 

"Careful now, girl," the vampire said, a smirk on his face. "As I've said before, they've been starving me for over two weeks and right now you smell better than a fat turkey on Thanksgiving."

"Well, if you don't let this fat turkey go right now, I'll make sure your execution will be hurried up," she countered, pulling her arm back. She didn't go as far as moving further away from the vampire, since she didn't think he would actually do something to her, but he was after all an odd person. "That's more like it."