The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Thirty-Nine

Demetri pulled the grand piano through the doorway to the great hall. I sat on top of it. It bumped on every stone. 

I could have asked for anything, and he would have given it to me. Because he still felt bad. But all I wanted was a piano. So he got me the grandest. It was gold, slightly browning with age, with angels and cherub statues around the legs and edges. All full of dust. I wiped most of the dust off the top with the skirt of my dress, which now was clumpy and grimy.

"How many songs do you know how to play?" I asked.

 "Uh," he paused, "I've never counted."

"Over a hundred?" I asked.

"Definitely," he grinned, and swung the piano around so that it was in the middle of the hall. I slid an inch across the smooth top from the momentum.

"Over a thousand?"

"Perhaps."

"A million billion?"

He scrunched his eyebrows together in thought, blowing out air air as he declared, "I believe I know a million billion and one piano songs, but not one song more."

He lifted the cover off the keyboard, and  pressed a key. The sound was alien, otherworldly. It filled the great hall with a ghostly howl, echoing off of the tall ceiling and walls. The shadows moved around, picking up their feet, and shuffling around tentatively, figuring out how to dance.

 Then Demetri began to  play an upbeat tune. "This one is called 'Do you ears hang low?' An american classic."

I perked up at the familiar melody. "I know this one. The ice cream trucks played it all the time." The notes all sounded a little bit off, the keys weren't singing the right tunes, but he continued to play anyways. I could feel the music  under my hands, and vibrating my bones, and deep in my stomach and in the new scars that his teeth had left all over my body now.

I looked down at my arm, thinking about the one he gave me just this morning right next to the second scar he ever gave me. It was hard to explain how it had started, this agreement of ours. I really had been terrified that first night he bit my neck, and I should have been. He was starving then, he wasn't in the right mindset. But it was different now.

It began the day I found him kissing Chelsea and I told him I missed him. I had a felt an intense jealousy, and I knew if I let him drink my blood, I could make him forget about anyone else. He'd be mine, and only mine. I hadn't waited to ask, I took the initiative and walked up close to him, then I bit down on my wrist until I drew blood.

"Stormy," he warned, putting his hand against my arm to stop me.

"Let me," I said. "You trust me. And I want you to know I trust you too." His lips parted as he smelled the blood, his eyes dilated. And I lifted my arm up to his mouth. For a second I thought he'd reject me, but then he grabbed it and sank his teeth in, and I gritted my teeth at the pain as he pierced my skin further. But I had been right. He drank a little, and then he withdrew his fangs and made himself stop, breathing heavy, his eyes slightly brighter.

I reached up and brushed the blood from his lips. Ever since then, things had been a lot better between us.

But I was interrupted from my memory when I heard someone walk into the room. I turned around to look, and found Aro. My smile faltered. We hadn't asked him if it was okay to bring a piano in here or if it was okay to play music. I had never witnessed music inside these walls ever before now.

He smiled wide with his teeth. His eyes were as old and dusty as usual. And casually he said, "My my, how long has it been since this grand piano has played. A decade? It needs to be tuned."

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"With this," Jane said, running gracefully behind Aro into the room to lean against the piano, holding up a strange looking wrench. She smiled at me sweetly. It seemed she had forgiven me, at least momentarily. "A piano lever."

"Come off there, Stormy," Demetri said, reaching his hand out for mine. He smiled brightly, and my heart skipped a beat, thinking it couldn't get better than this.

Everyone was smiling. And more people kept popping their heads in the room to see what was going on, following the music, that weird sound that hasn't played in this castle in over a decade. And suddenly I remembered what it was like here before I ran away, when I was still little, and they all liked me. How under all the politics, and disciplined stone faces, and resentment, we were still a family. Messy and problematic and broken. The best of the best vampires in the world, feared by everyone else. We had an unbreakable bond.

I took hold of Demetri's open hand, and he helped me down from the piano. He held onto my hand, and spun me around like we were dancing. Suddenly the room was bright, and sparkling with lights. When I shook the dizziness from my eyes, it was as if I saw the room for the first time.

Aro had torn down the curtains. It had always been so dark in the room that I didn't even know there were curtains. And it was sunny outside, and there were giant windows all the way up to the ceiling.  And up above was a dusty chandelier, sparkling diamonds.

I looked down at my hands to see my shimmering skin. And Demetri's hand in mine. It sparkled much more brightly. I looked up at his face. He looked funny with his sparkling skin. His dark eyebrows, and serious features were obscured by the rainbow of colors. His red eyes were lit up like rubies.

Looking at him now, it was hard to believe that he almost killed me once. A little bit of music, and bright sunshine, and these monsters looked like an actual family. Almost like the Cullen's. Soft laughter and wide eyes, reminiscing of old times. I took Demetri's other hand, and stepped up close to him.

"May I have this dance?" I asked.

Being close to him felt right. It was strange, but I think the more he bit me, the more my body yearned for his.

"Of course," he said, squeezing my hands lightly. I rested my cheek on his chest as I looked up at his sparkling face. He intertwined his fingers with mine.

"I used to feel alive," Aro said almost dreamily. "So many years ago, when we had ball's. They would last for days, but they went by in the blink of an eye." He turned around slowly to look at all the faces that were eagerly awaiting to hear his insanity. "We shall have a ball," Aro announced. "It has been too long. It'll be a great event for diplomacy. Chelsea, make a guest list, call the blood bank. Jane you're fixing the piano? Call the orchestra. Where's Alec? Someone find him."

"Are you sure?" Chelsea questioned. I hadn't realized she was there. I had defintely been avoiding her since I caught her kissing Demetri, but I think she understood that I didn't want to share him. "It's just not a good idea," she went on. "Have you forgotten how chaotic and destructive a party of vampires can become? Have you forgotten that you banned ball's in the early 1930's? They never end well."

"Almost a hundred years ago," Aro whispered in surprise. "Yes! It is imperative that we have a ball. Time is of the essence. We are not getting any younger." And then he barked with laughter. It was quite scary to see him like that actually. 

Chelsea shook her head, but walked away quickly to appease him by planning his impromptu ball.

Aro cut in for a dance, pulling me away from Demetri. And he spun me around on my feet to face him. He held my face between his hands. The light sparkled off his grinning cheeks. "You, my darling, are a miracle. Thank you." He kissed both of my cheeks, and pulled me into a hug, and then we were spinning around. I wrapped my arms around him and laughed. Life couldn't get better than this.

A/N

Dude, do you know how long I have been building up to this goddamn ball? I almost was going to put it in this chapter but then it would be doubly maybe even triply long. But oh my goodness I have so much hype for this. 

I'm actually surprised I still have a base readership of like twenty people, please comment, talk to me. I love you guys. You the bomb.