SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

V E N T I Q U A T T R O

"Next time, make sure it's more," Nikolai said, smirking at her. His eyes had returned somewhat to their red colour, but they were still dark enough to show his thirst. Even his skin looked a little better.

She raised her eyebrow daringly. "Next time you'll get an old shoe to chew on."

Not bothering to waste another second on the ungrateful vampire, she clenched the mug in her hand and made her way toward the stairs that would lead to the upper floors.

"Cecilia," she heard Nikolai call out from behind her. Not expecting much, she turned around. "Thank you."

She only nodded, before continuing her way to the upper floors. She didn't know why she was possibly risking her life for Nikolai, because she was positive that if the masters found out she'd been helping one of their prisoners, heavy consequences would follow. She supposed it was because he'd helped her once before and he was a friend of their family, or well, maybe not a friend, but... something. Besides, it had been due to Benjamin that he ended up being caught by the Volturi and Benjamin had been on his way to her birthday, which made it somewhat of her responsibility too.

When she got to the kitchen again, this time managing to do it within a quarter of an hour, she washed the mug and the bloodied knife first. The apple was still laying on the counter, cut in eight perfect slices.

"Did you have an accident?" she all of a sudden heard a voice ask.

Letting out a loud shriek, she grabbed for her heart and turned around, only to be greeted with Alec's smirking face. Quickly, her expression of horror turned into one of annoyance and she flipped him her middle finger. "You scared me half to death," she said, her heart still hammering against her chest. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be on one of your little group excursions?"

"We finished rather early," Alec said, still smirking. "Now, did you have an accident?"

"Yes, obviously," she countered, motioning her head to the knife still dripping with water. "Grabbed it by the blade instead of it's hold."

Alec chuckled and shook his head. "Humans are just so dumb."

"You're barely twelve years old, look who's talking," Cecilia countered. She wasn't sure what it was, but Alec had a knack for irritating the living hell out of her, simply by being himself. At least she wasn't afraid of him anymore. She supposed that counted as progress as well.

"What's going on here?" Demetri suddenly joined in. He walked in the kitchen and as soon as his eyes fell on Cecilia's frame and her hand bound in a towel, he was next to her side in a split second. Carefully he removed the towel, observing the wound in the palm of her hand. "What happened?"

Cecilia, still glaring daggers at Alec barely noticed the worried expression on Demetri's face or the way his fingers carefully caressed her hand. "He scared me half to death, that moron. He knows I can't hear him and still he enjoys sneaking up on me."

"You're just having a bad conscience, that's why you're so jumpy."

"Lies."

"Alec, go torture someone else," Demetri muttered, his eyes still focused on the slash.

Alec let out a loud scoff, staring at Demetri with a hint of betrayal on his face. "Are you choosing her over me?"

"Yes, of course he is," Cecilia said childishly, sticking out her tongue. "Now get away."

"I'm not choosing anybody over the other, but I need to take Cecilia to the hospital. This needs to be stitched."

Looking at Demetri with furrowed eyebrows, she pulled her hand back. "Don't be ridiculous, it's nearly healed already," she said. Looking from the palm of her hand she had to admit that the fiery red slash was in fact very far from being healed, to Demetri, who was looking at her sarcastically, she shrugged. "Well, it's stopped bleeding. The only thing the doctor is going to do is clean it with some alcohol, slap a bandaid on it and write out a bill. I can do that myself as well."

Demetri let out a loud sigh, massaging his temples roughly with the tips of his fingers. "You're incredible."

She smiled innocently, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "Oh, don't I know it."

That only earned her another sigh, which she diplomatically ignored. Looking outside the tiny kitchen window, she smiled at the sun raining down on the gardens. Her eyes wandered to Demetri, who was still staring at her with a mixture of horror and awe in his eyes and not knowing where her courage came from, she grabbed his hand with her good one. "Let's take a walk in the gardens."

"Let's find some alcohol and a bandaid first," Demetri countered. He led her to one of the chairs in the kitchen, pushing her down on it gently. Then he turned his back on her and started rummaging through all of the cabinets. "Both should be somewhere around here... ah, found it!"

With careful eyes, she watched him take a seat in the chair next to her and not knowing whether she trusted Demetri enough with treating her wound, but deciding to take a chance nevertheless, she put her hand with her palm up on the table.

"Alright, I think this part is going to hurt a bit," he said as he poured some alcohol on the towel.

She observed the way his face was scrunched up in concentration, a smile almost coming to her lips automatically. As soon as he dabbed the wet cloth on her wound, that smile made place for a grimace and she let out a loud hiss. "That hurts indeed."

He looked at her, Bordeaux red meeting stormy blue. "Well, that's what you get for not looking good enough."

"Noted," she muttered, her eyes wandering to her hand again. She followed his moves, the way he gently cleaned the wound, how he carefully cut a bandaid and even more tenderly put it on her hand. She looked up at him, a soft smile covering her face.

"Now, that will be a thousand dollars please," he said, effectively breaking the spell between them. He smirked. "That's the way it works in America, right?"

Cecilia looked at him like she'd just been insulted and gave him a harsh shove with her good hand. "You're a jerk, Demetri."