They were walking in the gardens, an appropriate distance between them. This late in the afternoon, the castle blocked most of the sun, leaving the gardens to the shadows. Cecilia didn't want to admit it, but she was slowly falling in love with the castle and the ground surrounding it. Especially the gardens were beautiful, nothing you would expect from vampires who had to spend most of the time inside due to the sunlight anyway.
"When were you changed?" Cecilia asked curiously. So far, Demetri had shown her the castle, sharing interesting facts about everything inside and out, but he was yet to talk about himself.
"Somewhere around the year 1000," Demetri said. He offered her a smile that looked somewhat apologetic. "I didn't really keep track of the calendar during those days."
"I can only imagine," Cecilia answered, a soft sigh escaping her lips. She wondered what it was like to roam the earth for eleven centuries, to see kingdoms rise and fall, the people come and go. She wondered if she could last for a thousand years when she got turned, or if she would cross somebody and be killed earlier.
All of those thoughts dissolved as snow for the sun when she dared to turn her head to take a quick glance at the vampire walking beside her. His body was lean and he towered at least a couple of inches over her. It was the way he walked that fascinated her the most. Her family had been among humans for such a long time that they slumped ever so slightly and moved their shoulders up and down even when it wasn't necessary, but Demetri had never had a reason to hide his true nature. He walked like a royal, his spine straight and his head held high. His hands he'd folded behind his back and his steps were confident and sure.
Nobody had taken the effort to elaborate on the so-called bond Aro had mentioned during their meeting, not even her father. She knew this bond had saved her from being executed, but she had no idea what it meant. All she knew was it had something to do with Demetri.
"You're staring," Demetri stated after a short moment of silence. He turned to look at her as well, their eyes once again meeting. She immediately noticed his eyes were bright red, brighter than they'd been yesterday, and a chill crept over her spine.
She felt her heartbeat quicken and focused her eyes on the gravel in front of her. She hated the feeling of her cheeks heating up. "Sorry."
"No apologies needed," Demetri said. As soon as she realised he sounded somewhat smug, she wanted to tell him that he was staring at her all the time, but in the end, she decided to let it go. "So what about your life, living with the mighty Cullens?"
She decided that she would let the slightly mocking tone slip as well. "It's normal, I suppose," she said, shrugging. She focused her eyes on the fountain not too far away from them. "I mean, as normal as it gets with a bunch of vampires as your family. I'm homeschooled by my mother and well, with so many people around there's always something fun to do."
"So you never went to school?" Demetri asked, a curious tone in his voice.
"I don't see the point in it," she replied. A slight breeze blew a strand in her face and she pushed it back stubbornly. "My mom's a great teacher and after I get turned it will be my family and I, not some mortal friend and I."
Demetri only nodded, looking at her the way Jasper looked at her when he was trying to figure out her emotions. "When would you according to your original plan be changed?"
"On my eighteenth birthday," she said softly. She still didn't know what she was supposed to think about Demetri being the one to turn her. She'd always imagined her dad being the one to do it, as he had with the rest of their family. "Which is in exactly 360 days."
"A late happy birthday then."
She couldn't help the way the corners of her mouth curled in a smile. "Thank you."
➻
She was seated at Demetri's desk, the ink pen she'd lent from her flowing over the paper smoothly. After their stroll in the gardens, he'd been summoned to the throne room by the Old Ones, leaving her on her own in his room. Not wanting to start unpacking just yet, she always procrastinated packing and unpacking to the very last possible moment, she'd decided to write a letter to her family.
Dear family,
I hope all is well in Alaska and that you aren't too concerned about my safety. Everything is surprisingly nice here in Volterra. The eighteen-hour flight was a pain in the ass, as well as the jetlag I'm suffering from right now, but other than that, I'm good.
She didn't bother to tell that Demetri had basically forgotten she was supposed to eat at least a couple of meals a day and that she was seriously craving some food right now, or that Alec had scared the living bricks out of her on the plane.
The castle is absolutely beautiful from what Demetri has shown me so far. You were right, dad, they do keep the most fascinating collection of art here. If only the people knew that about ninety percent of the missing world art is stored here, in this ancient castle. This place is worth more than a goldmine. There's supposed to be a huge library as well, but I'm yet to visit it. I suppose they're not showing it to me on purpose, since all of the books would disappear in my suitcase.
It's odd being separated from you and it's only been two days. I'm not worried, though, I'm sure Alice keeps a close tab on my future. At least the weather is better here than in Alaska. Maybe we need to move to a warmer country when the time's there. I recommend Greece, or maybe Spain. And we could live in a castle as well.
Never mind the fact that we can barely go outside then, she thought to herself, before continuing her letter.
Anyway, since Alice isn't here right now and I've got nothing more to procrastinate, I'm going to start unpacking as soon as I've finished this letter. That's not very useful information, especially not considering it will be a couple of days before this letter actually finds your hands, but I wanted to share it anyway.
So, all my best wishes to you all and I hope to hear from you soon.
Lots of love,
Cecilia
She folded the letter, before digging through Demetri's drawers in the hope of finding an envelope. She didn't know whether she was supposed to be surprised or not at the big stack of them in the second drawer, but she took one gladly. After she'd closed it and wrote the address on the front, she turned to her suitcase and bags, her smile turning into a frown.
She opened the door to Demetri's walk-in closet, letting out a loud sigh as she saw that none of his clothing was organised in the slightest. His cloaks hanged in between his trousers and he had some modern-day hoodies mixed with his old dressing shirts. She moved all of the cloaks to the far right end first, hanging them in order from grey to black. His pants and dressing shirts followed, also colour sorted, and she ended with his hoodies. After that, she had over two-thirds of space for her own clothes left.
She tried to do it as quickly as possible, first her dresses, colour- and length-coded, followed by her skirts, shirts and jeans. It took her longer than she'd liked, but when she was done, she felt content about the results. Her colourful clothes formed a sharp contrast with Demetri's grey and black one's and a soft chuckle escaped her lips.
She walked back into the room, taking a seat on one of the settees, wondering what she could do next. Looking out the window above the desk, she admired the way the sky had turned a fiery red, as though there was a war going on above the horizon and like most of the things here in Italy, it was breathtaking. It also reminded her that it was really starting to become time to eat something.
She didn't know if there was a mindreader in the Volturi, but not a second later Demetri barged into the room, a disgruntled expression on his face and a huge plate of spaghetti in his hands. And when she said huge, she meant absolutely huge. She guessed it was enough to feed three people.
"Why didn't you ask for something to eat?" he asked as soon as he put down the plate on the desk. He looked at her expectantly, as if he was somehow disappointed.
"It's rude to ask for food as a guest, isn't it?" she said, a teasing tone audible in her voice. Amused, she watched the scowl disappear from his face. She clapped her hands together and exchanged the settee for the chair near the desk, gratefully grabbing the fork and knife. "You do know this is an awful lot, right?"
"I did not make it," he said, shrugging.
Cecilia rolled with her eyes, looking over her shoulder with the hint of a smile. "I suppose that's a good thing."
Demetri feigned insult. "Are you suggesting my cooking would be bad?"
"No, I'm not suggesting. I simply know it," she said, putting a fork full of spaghetti in her mouth. She didn't know who'd made it, but it was seriously good. Or maybe that was only because she hadn't eaten anything at all this day. "So, who did make this?"
"Gianna, she's a human as well," Demetri replied. "She was cooking this awful smelling dish for herself, but she didn't mind giving it up."
Cecilia's head snapped in Demetri's direction so fast she was sure she'd given herself a whiplash. She put the fork and knife down, looking at the vampire incredulously. "You mean she doesn't have dinner right now?"
"She'll get over it," he replied, shrugging once again.
"No, that's just absolutely plain rude, Demetri," she said. She grabbed the plate, standing up from the chair in a resolute manner. "This is probably enough for me, her and another person. Take me to her."
"No," he said, his voice sounding even more stubborn. He showed no intention of showing her where Gianna was, worsening her expression of disbelief. In fact, he even went as far as forcing the plate out of her hands and back to its original place on the desk, his cold hand touching her bare shoulder as he gently pushed her back on the chair. Her entire skin breaking out in goosebumps. "You should have dinner first."
"Well, Buon Appetito, to you too" she muttered, still not quite believing that Demetri had stolen someone's dinner.