Fools Game (The Volturi)

22

Nessie watched as Carlisle's face fell into a focused mask of concern and she felt her heart beat impossibly faster.

~V~

Elizabeth's hands were shaking as she braced herself against the marble edge of the sink. The cold tap was running, and her hands were damp with water after she had splashed her face, an attempt to ground herself as the world started to shift and spin around her. It had happened so much quicker than last time. No precursory headache to indicate its arrival, one minute she had been reading and the next words were smeared across the page and her skin became clammy with sweat.

She needed blood. Human blood. If only she had taken Aro's teasing, and oh-so-tempting offers the other night to drink whatever human blood he had sourced for their dinner. She hadn't trusted him though, the last thing she wanted to do was ruin Carlisle's reputation here, and although the carafe of blood she had consumed had been cattle's, she couldn't imagine any of the guard she had meet so far stealing blood from a hospital when they had a steady supply right here in the castle.

Elizabeth felt weak, a dizzying blur clouding the edge of her vision and her fingers tingled with numbness as she succumbed to the need to find help. She pushed away from the support of the sink and stumbled from her room to the hallway, her swimming vision deteriorating rapidly.

"Raphael? Juli..ette...fuck..." Elizabeth places both hands against a wall and desperately tries to hold back the wave of nausea that wracks through her, making her body convulse. Stale, acrid blood pools in her throat and despite her best effort a small splutter of droplets leak from her lips over the slate flooring.

"Elizabeth?" a voice cut through her dazed thoughts, a hand grasped her shoulder and then an arm caught her waist as her knees collapsed. "What is wrong with you?"

"I need...blood...please." Elizabeth breathed. The person twisted her around in their arms and she gazed up to see a slash of white hair and dark red eyes. "Human blood...Caius, I need it now."

Elizabeth didn't really register the rapid movements until Caius was placing her in a chair and the warm unfamiliar pressure of human flesh against her mouth assaulted her confused senses.

"No...no," Elizabeth attempted to twist her mouth away, but Caius gripped the back of her head forcing her to stay put.

"Don't be stupid, this is not a request. Drink." He growls.

Elizabeth clenched her teeth shut and after a pathetic few seconds of struggling Caius released her head and the arm momentarily disappeared from her lips. There was a clatter of what sounded like falling pens and a scream of fear? Pain?

The hand returned to the back of her head, his fingers gripping her hair forcefully and then an onslaught of hot liquid gushed into her mouth. Caius pressed the wounded flesh firmly against Elizabeth's mouth, the shock of the blood had made her unclench her teeth and it poured almost freely onto her tongue. The taste was too hard to resist, and Elizabeth's hands replaced Caius' holding the arm, pressing the flesh against her own mouth and biting down.

It was euphoric. Warm. Fresh. She'd never tasted anything so wonderful. It was an elixir, healing whatever had been wrong and revitalising every atom of her being. She dragged on the limb, every gulp increasing as she sucked harder, forcing more blood into her mouth.

Elizabeth peeled her eyes open, searching for Caius but finding the owner of her meal still very much alive and attached to the arm she was holding hostage with her teeth.

Elizabeth released the woman immediately, the poor girl stumbling back at the shift in weight and clutching her bleeding limb to her chest as the desk behind her kept her from falling. The desk was the one in outside the main hall, always occupied by an ever-changing young secretary, the wooden surface was splatted with claret and a pair of scissors were stained with crimson.

Elizabeth stood up and wiped frantically at her mouth. "What did you do?" her anger was directed at Caius, who she had located, he stood off to one side observing her with dark eyes.

"You asked for human blood...this was the closest I could find."

Elizabeth continues to try and wipe blood off of herself, her hands were stained and the more she tried to wipe it away the worse it seemed to become. She looked at the secretary, her arm was still bleeding profusely, and she was attempting to stem the flow with the corner of her shirt. "Shit." Elizabeth looks at the desk for something better but doesn't spot anything. "Give me your cravat." She holds a hand out to Caius who merely raises a brow in response to her demand. "Oh for real." Elizabeth huffs and then pulls her own t-shirt over her head and rips the fabric into two long strips.

It took several polite asks in both English and Italian for the secretary to extend her arm far enough away from her own body to allow Elizabeth to apply her make-shift bandage, however, once she was done the woman seemed less fearful and the blood was no longer running in rivulets.

"Why did you need it? What had happened?" Caius was still stood off to the side, a mildly concerned look starting to creep across his face.

"It...I, um...if I don't have human blood in a while, I get...um, well, you saw," Elizabeth was starting to become very aware she was no longer wearing a t-shirt and moved to cover more of her bare abdomen with her arms but just smeared residual blood across even more of her skin.

"Not drinking human blood makes you ill?"

"I used to be able to go longer...it never used to be this...bad, either. I'm sorry..."

"You don't need to be sorry; I am just rather confused as to why you make yourself ill? Has it ever occurred to you to just drink human blood?"

Before Elizabeth had time to answer Aro appeared in a flurry of concerned questions. Demetri and Juliette were in tow, the whole scene obviously a shock because both their faces were a picture of surprise and confusion. After Aro had decerned Elizabeth was well he insisted she go and shower before reconvening in his office to discuss everything that had happened.

"Can she go to a hospital?" Elizabeth asks as Juliette drapes her cardigan over Elizabeth's shoulders.

Aro turns and looks at the secretary, eyeing the blood-soaked remnants of the t-shirt.

"She isn't having a reaction to your venom?"

"Oh..." Elizabeth breathes, staring at the poor woman who had slunk as to the very far end of the large desk, arm cradled and tears now leaking from her eyes. She knew her fate.

"Caius, deal with Marcella," Aro says and places a hand on Elizabeth's back to guide her away, despite her vocal defiance.