She was sitting in the library on her own. It was deep in the night already and her only source of light was the three candles on the candelabra in front of her. Her eyes were gliding over the ancient Latin words of Cicero. It was his debut, Pro Roscio Amerino, in which Cicero was left to the task of defending a simple bumpkin on the charge of patricide against the most influential of Rome. The texts were far from easy, but if Cecilia truly wanted to learn the art of spinning words and making points come across, she knew Cicero was a great start.
A chill crawled down her spine as she felt the cold night draught move over the bare skin of her neck and she pulled the hoodie of her sweater over the bun on top of her head. She grabbed one of her pencils, scribbling down a note on a tricolon in her notebook.
Cecilia rubbed her eyes, a yawn escaping her mouth. She knew however, as soon as she was lying in Demetri's bed, her thoughts would return to the events of two days ago. She could still see Aurelia's twisted facial expression, the hissing sound of her body burning in the middle of the throne room.
"What are you doing down here?" she suddenly heard a voice ask.
Grabbing with her hand to her chest, she turned around, only to let out a sigh in relief at the sight of Demetri. He was standing behind the chair she was sitting on, an amused expression on his face. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, giving him a half-hearted push before turning back on the book in front of her.
"I'm reading," she muttered softly. She let her head fall onto her hands, her fingers moving roughly through her hair. Cicero was very interesting, but his words made her eyes burn from tiredness and Demetri's presence did exactly nothing to increase her focus. "Can't you see?"
"I can see very well," Demetri replied. She noticed that his voice sounded particularly deep and she looked up, watching carefully as he took a seat on the chair opposite of her. The light of the candles illuminated his face in a way that made his features look even sharper and a pleasant shiver crawled down her spine. "Why are you reading right now?"
"Why wouldn't I be reading right now?" she countered, barely being able to suppress a yawn from escaping again. The vampire in front of her raised an eyebrow, as if to say she'd just proven his point. Cecilia only shrugged. "I enjoy reading."
"You can read at every time during the day. It's two AM right now," he said. He leaned his arms on the table, moving his face a little closer to hers. As if she was mesmerized, she stared into his dark eyes. She wondered what those eyes had seen, the wonders of days long past. "You need to sleep, Cecilia. I know you spent last night at the library as well."
"One more chapter," she said. Not waiting for his reply, she focused her eyes on the pages in front of her again. She had to resist the urge to tell Demetri that he wasn't her mother and that he couldn't tell her what she had to do, but she knew he was looking out for her. Besides, he was kind of right, she needed sleep. Not that she would admit that, of course.
Demetri scoffed. "Well, what are you reading?"
"Pro Roscio Amerino," she answered absentmindedly, already jotting a new thing down.
When she looked up from her notebook, Cicero's book had been closed and Demetri's hand laid on top of it. Her eyes trailed along the length of his hand and arm, until they reached his face. She raised one eyebrow and watched with a slight smile as he did the same. He was already standing next to the table, ever so slightly bent in her direction, a smirk on his face. "A chapter of Cicero is worth at least ten chapters of every other book. You'll be sitting here till the sun rises."
The longer she looked at Demetri, the more she felt the steady beating of her heart increase, her breath caught in her throat. The flickering of the candles made his eyes appear even darker, his face even more handsome. She watched his eyes move from her eyes to her lips and back, making her stomach feel like a bunch of butterflies had just been let loose.
"Are you really doubting my reading speed right-"
He broke her of rudely, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her up from the chair and against his hard and lean body. She was able to stare at his face for just a split second, their noses almost touching, and then his lips were on hers, without any sign of mercy.
She closed her eyes and held her breath, enjoying the fireworks that seemed to go off in her entire body, numbing her and making her forget all her earlier worries. His presence seemed to intoxicate her and she grabbed the fabric of his shirt tightly, almost holding on for dear life. She was acutely aware of his cold hands, one resting on the small of her waist, the other caressing her heated cheeks.
After a sweet minute, she pulled away, drawing a long breath and looking in Demetri's eyes with a mixture of awe and insecurity. His eyes were still dark, perhaps even darker than they had been before their kiss.
"I've been wanting to do that for days now," Demetri said, his voice sounding husk. His eyes travelled all over her face, as if he was doing his best to remember every square inch of it.
She smiled. "Now that isn't a very gentleman thing of you to say so," she teased, giving him the slightest nudge. "I bet that wouldn't have been very acceptable a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years ago we would have been married and living together already," Demetri replied. His hand moved from her cheek to the small of her waist, pulling her ever so closer against his body. "We would have had a luxurious home in the countryside, near the sea. It would have been very different, but surely a lot easier."
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine it, living in the world of centuries ago, with a normal family and no Volturi to think about. "I suppose so," she replied absentmindedly. She rested her head against his shoulder, once again wondering how the beat of his heart would have sounded, and enjoying his embrace. As her thoughts wandered to the moment only moments before, an involuntary smile crawled on her lips. It had been her first kiss and she couldn't have wished for more.
Her smile grew wider as she felt him place a soft kiss on the top of her head. She moved her head and looked him dead in the eye. "You know, for someone being born a thousand years ago, you're quite tall," she said. "You must have been somewhat of a giant in comparison to the rest of your company."
He stared at her incredulously, his expression of awe slowly turning into one of surprise. She shrugged her shoulders, not breaking the eye contact. "Well, it's true, isn't it?"
"Oh heavens, woman, why are you thinking about that right now?" he asked, his eyes still big and round with disbelief.
She shrugged again, smiling innocently. "It just crossed my mind."
"You have a very curious mind."
"You're not the first to say so."
Breaking their embrace, she moved to the table and grabbed the candelabra. Holding it close to her face, she stared at Demetri with what was supposed to be a scary expression on her face. He only smiled, grabbing the candelabra from her hands and holding it out in front of them. "You should really try to get some sleep now."
"If you say so, mama," she countered, smirking. With a satisfied expression on her face, she watched the ancient vampire in front of her roll his eyes and walk in front of her to lead her back to his room.
She followed him closely, finding the castle a lot scarier at night than during the day, when light flooded the now grim and dark corridors. Aside from some torches every couple of yards, the candles were the only light provided to them and once again she was painfully reminded of her human capabilities. She was sure that Demetri would navigate his way around the castle just as easy without any sort of light as with it. Still, the reminder that soon she would be just like him gave Cecilia some relief.
When they finally had gotten to the bedroom, she had to struggle to keep her eyes open and immediately she grabbed her nightgown and moved to the bathroom. She only just managed to collect enough care to wash her face and pin her hair up before walking out of the bathroom again and crashing on the bed, wrapping her body in the sheets in the process.
She completely ignored Demetri, who'd put the candelabra on the nightstand, and was now following her every move with wonder in his eyes. Cecilia turned her back to him, her eyes already closed before her head hit the pillow. "Good night, Demetri."
"Good night, Cecilia," she heard the vampire reply, followed by his retreating footsteps and the doors to his room closing.
Not being able to help herself, she smiled and put the tips of her fingers to her lips. Her first kiss. Instead of Aurelia's burning body, she now saw Demetri's face. The sharp edges of his jawline and his cheekbones, the way his lips curled up in a smirk, his dark eyes. Everything about him made her stomach do a flip and her heart beat louder. And the best thing was that he was her soulmate.
She turned to lie on her other side, hugging one of the pillows close to her body. With Demetri's face on her mind, she fell asleep, smiling the entire night through.
a/n: because I haven't posted as much lately, an extra chapter (: thank you all for the comments, the votes and the reads, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter