"Oi, that's not fair!" Cecilia yelled as she watched Emmett move his ball closer to the white ball. They were playing a game of jeu de boule, or well, she, Emmett, Nessie and Edward were playing, while Bella and Rose watched from the sidelines. Emmett looked up, a sheepish smile on his face. "Emmett, you're disqualified!"
"No that's not fair," the bulky vampire protested. Immediately, he looked at his wife for help. "Come on, Rose, tell her she's not being fair."
"Well, you cheated, that means you're out," Rose said, smirking as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"You always give in to Cecilia," Emmett said, shaking his head. With a pout he took a seat next to Rose, sliding a smooth arm across her shoulders.
"Alright, everyone, now watch me make the winning shot," Nessie said, as she threw her ball. Much to her displeasure, but to the amusement of everybody else, her ball ended up the farthest away from the centre.
"Wow, that's close," Cecilia said teasingly. That earned herself a nudge from Nessie, who looked slightly annoyed. That only made the girl laugh harder. If there was one thing she could enjoy endlessly, it was the defeated look on Nessie's face, who was quite a sore loser. Grabbing a green ball herself, Cecilia blew on it for good luck before throwing it, watching with a growing smile as it landed closest to the white ball out of all the others surrounding it. "Ha, I win!"
"Nicely done," Edward said, giving her a pat on the back.
Jeu de boule was one of the only games Cecilia was able of winning, mostly because it took a minute for the vampires to get used to the weight of the balls, which was nothing in their hands, resulting in them throwing the balls way too far.
"I was only letting you win," Emmett said, smirking. He wasn't a real sore loser, but sometimes he could still act like it. If only it was to tease her.
Cecilia rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"I think there's someone who wants to talk to you," Rose said all of a sudden, a hint of disgust on her face. Feeling a pang in her chest at her facial expression, she turned around, only to see Demetri walking in their direction. Almost automatically, a smile came to her lips, lighting her whole face up.
Forgetting about Rose comment's, which once again reminded her of the complicated situation she'd found herself in, she turned to her family. "Alright, I'll see you guys in an hour for dinner."
And away she was, almost skipping in the direction of her soulmate. She watched the gentle smile coming to his mouth and her heart skipped a beat. "Hey there," she greeted him, slipping her hand in his and pulling him in the direction opposite of her family.
"Hey," he answered, looking slightly hesitant for a moment. "I don't want you to steal from your family, you should spend the time you've got with them."
"I've seen Emmett for too many hours today already," Cecilia said, waving his concern away. She loved spending time with her family, but they all had each other to keep company. "Besides, in an hour we're going to a restaurant together and then I've got to say goodbye already."
It was also a moment of realisation for her, realisation that tomorrow the rest of her family would arrive and that three days from that day, Demetri was going to be turned. "My last four days as a mortal," she said, softly testing the words on her lips. She noticed that she liked it.
"Better enjoy the human food while you can," he said, giving her hand a soft squeeze. He looked at her, a loving look in his eyes, one she entirely missed as she was focused on a cherry blossom tree. "It's going to taste like shit once you're a vampire."
"Maybe I'm special," she said, grinning. She shifted her eyes from the tree to Demetri. "Maybe I will be the first vampire to think human food is just as good as blood."
Demetri scoffed, rolling his eyes as he shook his head.
"You're doubting me?" she asked, her eyebrows raised daringly. She stopped walking and held onto his hand, until he was forced to stop walking as well. Smiling innocently, she pulled him closer. "How dare you doubt me, Demetri... what actually is your surname?"
"We didn't do surnames, back in the good old days," he said. He went to sit on one of the benches, pulling her next to him. Though Cecilia wouldn't dare to hold his hand in the company of other people, absolutely hating the PDA Rose and Emmett had, she didn't mind the way his arm landed on her shoulders and tugged her closer still when it was just the two of them. In fact, she enjoyed it, laying her head on his shoulder, while her eyes watched the movement of the tree in front of them "But we did have patronymics. Mine is Georgiou, son of Georgious."
She turned to look at him, a teasing expression on her face. "Well, Demetri, son of Georgious, are you doubting me?"
"Never," he breathed out. He brushed a loose strand behind her ear, his hand cradling her cheek carefully.
She grabbed his hand from her cheek, intertwining their fingers and laying them on her knee. "Good for you," she said wittily. "Else I would move to the North pole without you."
"Oh, dear me," Demetri said dramatically, causing her to chuckle softly. "How could I ever stand being so far apart from my very own soulmate."
"You sound like Shakespeare."
"No, then I would have to speak in iambic pentameter."
"Alright then, you sound like a know-it-all."
"Well, it's the truth."
"That doesn't mean you need to show off that you know the truth."
"Am I supposed to lie then?"
"No, but you could just say 'hmm, maybe you're right'."
"Sounds like you just want to hear that you're right, which would be lying in this case."
"Gosh, Demetri," she said, pulling her hand from his embrace and giving him a playful shove. As soon as she saw the smug smirk on his face, she rolled her eyes. "You're unrelenting."
"Now, that's a truth."
She rolled her eyes, laying her head on top of his shoulder again. Her thoughts drifted to thirty days ago, when she'd first locked eyes with Demetri. Yes, she'd thought he was handsome and sure, she had felt some kind of pull, even if she hadn't known at that moment, but she hadn't imagined it possible for them to grow so close within a month of each others company. Then again, she did have to give Shakespear one point, faith was fickle. Where she had been standing across from a stranger in the biting snow, she now was seated next to him under a ray of sunlight, in love. How the tables turned.
"Are you afraid?" he asked all of a sudden, breaking the comfortable silence. "For when I'm going to turn you?"
"No," she replied, not doubting her answer for a second. "Why would I be afraid?"
"What if I lose control and I can't stop?" he asked.
"Well, that would be a stupid thing to do," she snorted. She couldn't help but wonder if he was really concerned, and if so, where it came from. He'd been a vampire for ages now, with more control than anybody she knew, except for maybe her father. "You would have to spend the rest of your days sulking, depressed and alone. Not that those days would be long, of course, as my family would turn your neck like a turkey's neck on Thanksgiving."
"That sure is a prospect of comfort," Demetri muttered, letting out a soft sigh.
"No, but seriously, though, I'm not worried and neither should you," she said. She gave his hand a resolute squeeze, determined to keep his worries away. "Or did you forget you treated my hand a couple of days ago? The wound was still open and you didn't lose control then either."
She felt him hum and she opened her hand, looking at gash in her palm. She'd taken off the bandaid in the morning, so that it could dry out in the open air, the best medicine according to her father. When Rose had first seen it, she had been ready to pull Demetri's head off at the first given opportunity, even though it obviously wasn't a bite wound, but when Cecilia had pointed to her notebook, the penny had dropped and she had calmed down.
Aside from Edward, nobody knew about Aurelia and though she didn't really need to inform them about the incident, she knew she had to talk to her parents about it. For someone growing up in a loving family, protected from every evil at every cost, speaking out a sentence of death was a heavy thing to carry around. All she could hope for was that her parents could forgive her, or at least understand the circumstances she'd been forced in.
Then there was the case of Nikolai, of course. With her family being here the castle was flooded with lower rang guards Cecilia had never seen before, all of them on edge and sharp alert. There was no way she could drain some blood in a cup and sneak it down the dungeons without being caught at least three times. And though the Guard might have a lot of control over their thirst, the lower tier certainly did not. Not if she was to believe Demetri's stories. It was another thing she had to talk about with her dad.
"What are you thinking about?" Demetri asked softly.
"My gift," she said. She wondered if her heart skipped a beat and if he caught it. If so, he didn't comment on it. "Whether I really have one. You?"
"The masters," he replied. "Whether they would let me go with you."
Instantly, she sat up straight, pushing her hand against his mouth and shaking her head. Her father had told her a story or two about Marcus and his soulmate, Aro's own sister, and their plans of running away from the Volturi. Though never officially confirmed, of course, one might wonder who was behind the death of Marcus' soulmate, leaving him in the state he was still in. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, the tone in her voice light and giddy though her facial expression was anything but. "We're staying here, in Volterra."
She pulled her hand from his mouth, leaning back against the bench. "You either learn to hide those thoughts from Aro or you stop thinking them altogether," she said, her voice so low that only he could pick it up. "He would kill you before he'd let you go with me."
"Alright," Demetri said, nodding to himself quietly. "No more discussions on that."