BEGINNING: CASTLE
the story switches between two character POV.
Leah's : LPOV
and
Rohan's : RPOV
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LPOV
A growl ripped through my throat and startled the intruding vampire. He took three steps backwards. While he goggled at my freakish appearance, I took him in; he had all the typical traits of his kind; pale, sweet-smelling and unnaturally beautiful. I glared up at him from my defensive crouch.
He held up an envelope and motioned that he was just delivering it to the man of the house, Lord Aro. Almost at the thought of my master's name he appeared, silently at the bottom of the dusting grand stairs, not leaving a single impression or footprint in the dust behind. The dust didn't even cloud as he moved over it.
The tall vampire hurried over to Aro's side and handed him the letter, which turned out to be written on fine paper, in tiny indecipherable writing and many pages thick.
The messenger waited for Lord Aro to read it, as he did he shot surreptitious glances at me. While I waited for him to say something, I examined him closer. His hair was long, past his shoulders, which was odd of a volunteer to the Cullen clan. They tended to have crew-cuts. Long hair was a more nomadic hair-style. My lips twitched at the new word for the vampire's the Cullen's took in. There's was little voluntary about working for the Cullen's. Even so, I hated this 'volunteer' on principal. My gaze flicked up to his eyes, which as I expected, were golden-brown. He wore a black over-coat and pants, with no shoes.
He finally asked me;
"Who are you? My name is Rohan."
I raised an eyebrow at him slowly, patronising him.
"Or rather, what am I?" I replied in my deep growling voice.
He nodded.
I took a deliberate, slow step forward, my out-stretched claws closing the distance between us.
I lowered my head to the ground; ears pinned back and my tail erect. I bared my teeth slightly and growled;
"The one who will kill you if you are still in my castle by th-"
Aro interrupted me with a click of the fingers; he pointed at Rohan "Messenger, at what time will this… meeting of sorts be at?"
I cringed inwardly at Lord Aro's blatant undermining of me in front of this stranger.
Rohan tore his gaze from me and replied "A-a month, they thought it would leave enough time for you to… loosen any ends and travel, as I'm sure the notes suggests, by less public means."
Lord Aro nodded.
"You're leaving?" I demanded
"We have been invited to the Cullen's for a… assembly."
"Cullens!?" I barked. This was terrible I couldn't go, I wasn't… ready.
"Yes, the Cullen's, we will be there in a month. Our visitor would most appreciate the guestrooms in the Western Wing, I believe."
I nodded vaguely, still shocked by the news.
Lord Aro turned, rereading the note, still not disturbing the dusty manor in the slightest.
I gathered my senses and turned to Rohan, "Bags?" I asked rudely.
He turned to the front door where a small suitcase lay. I trotted over and picked it up.
"Follow" I commanded the messenger and walked up to the guestrooms.
When we reached the large oak doors I left the bag and unlocked the double doors. "We will be feasting tomorrow afternoon. Til then, you may use the research centre to the left. Try not to stray around the castle."
I left.
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RPOV
I was still figuring what she was when I heard a knock at my door. "Who is it?" I called out.
"Well, it's not Lord Aro" came the exasperated and surprisingly deep voiced reply.
I opened the door; again, her appearance stunned me for a moment.
She was definitely human, or partly so. Her eyes and hips and fingers were blatantly human, feminine too. But she was also overwhelmingly wolf. The grey fur, tail, ears and un-shoed feet were all wolf.
Strangest of all were where the two elements met. Like on her wrists and hands, which were clawed and furry and, I was sure, unable to rotate completely, but there were defined fingers as well.
Her mouth (or muzzle?) was almost grotesque. The skin around her lips was slightly sagged, like a wolf's, but tinted pink, like a girls.
She was the strangest combination of prettiness and misshape, it wouldn't be an unfair evaluation to call her ugly, but still, I was mesmerised by her, especially by her eyes, which weren't red, like a true vampire's, or gold, like a vegetarians, or even brown, blue or green like a humans, they were… orange.
Which, at this moment, were glaring at me.
She turned abruptly and called behind her "It's time to eat, feast drink, whatever you wish to call it."
Her walk was proud and eloquent, and combined with her accent, I realised that she once must have lived in a different environment, surely a better place then this old Ex-Voultori's dusting lair.
I followed her to the doors of a large, long dining room. There was a single table that ranged the entire length of the room, with places set out for two. At one end of the table was Lord Aro, who was conversing with a young boy on a large horse. He seemed amused by what the boy was saying.
When she entered the room and saw that there were only two places she froze, after a moment she went up to the seat opposite Lord Aro, which was closest, and scooped up the armchair that was there. She took it out into a concealed side door, returning with a straight backed chair, which she set at the end of the table. She turned and left, not looking at me.
I realised with a start, that the armchair was for her normally, and that due to my presence she would not be feasting, here at least.
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LPOV
I closed the door behind me and stood outside the door, frozen, for a full minute before a small sound, a mix of a yelp and a sob escaped from my mouth.
I straightened up, and balled my fists furiously; I shook my head a little and started to jog down the corridor towards the garden.
I could feel the anger and indignation building up inside me.
My jog turned into a sprint and suddenly I was outside, I turned and saw a large oak tree I lunged at it and ripped at the branches, punched at the trunk and tore the tree to shreds.
I tried not to think about the way Aro was treating me, I tried not to dread the thought of visiting the Cullen's, and I tried not to hate this new vampire.
I just destroyed, and vent out my anger.
Minutes later the tree was bare and leaves and branches as thick as my torso lay scattered around the base. The trunk had a fist sized hole straight through it. I took a deep shuddering breathe, and turned back inside.