Chapter 2:
Dead To Me
Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time: effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. ~ Germaine De Stael
Across the castle and a world away, a cold chill was awakening in the chest of a worried man.
Aro paused and turned to face Caius with an expression of apprehension. "I'll need some time to think. Will I be safe that way?" he thought aloud.
Caius grinned. "There's no way in hell you'll be safe with that secret looming in the shadows. Can you not feel the cold whisper on your spine? You cannot tell the truth but you can't hold the lie for much longer, Aro. You're a disgrace at that."
"If I didn't know better I would think you were threatening me...and that would be a very big mistake."
"Threat? What threat do you speak of; I'm simply giving you the lay of the land." Caius explained.
"I apologize, but I think I know every acre of my land." Aro's voice started sweet but ended like a spit of acid on his tongue.
"You keep her death in a box and try to forget about the key, but still you recall the lock."
"I've tossed it, brother, to a place where I don't even recognize."
"But still, it comes back to you, attached with a red string to that unreconigizable place where your heart used to be. Compassion, brother."
"That declaration of fact will lie hidden. I'll lose everything we've worked for." Aro raced to the young body of the blond and took his hands in his, staring deeply into his eyes. Caius' face turned into a grimace, his lips tightened and barred. Aro's frantic proximity made him uncomfortable. His wide eyes were full and frightened, a first for his master companion. He composed his face to look at the raven haired man in front of him.
The hollow throughout the corridors heaped and screamed at Aro.
"Can you not feel me release my breath of besetment? Can you not hear him shatter whenever he takes his own?" Caius raised himself and detached his hand from Aro's'. His feet seemed nowhere in sight as he ghosted over to the far corridor across from his throne. Aro's eyes were deep and scarlet, but they suddenly didn't signify power or boldness anymore.
"Marcus is strong, he-."
"-He's the only one in the dark, Aro." He turned over his shoulder to eye him. "Shed him a little light."
Aro felt the silence cover him up in black.
There was no hand to take, to pull him up out of the stagnation and deliberating fear that brought him there with nary a lead.
But indeed, he had known what his Brother felt like. He had carried it over his shoulders for decades at a time. Touching his brother's thoughts while they were feeble and cold was just an infarction from the chill's permanence.
Aro dragged his feet over to his thrown and slammed himself in his seat. His hands covered his face in agony at his fault. It was quick and easy.
~)}0{(~
She was there looking over the vineyards through the monstrous arched window in the stone corridor. She looked angelic as the golden light spewed from the outside, spilling throughout the hallway. The illumination solely focused on her and her elevated beauty, capturing her delicate fairness.
She was happy that day.
Her pale complexion had a certain hue to it that made her glow so brightly, the sun couldn't even match it if it hit her. She had the rare and coveted dark hair, pale skin, and brilliant red eyed coloring. Her hair was tousled from a lover's run and she had small dandelion spores decorating her mane.
He remembered coming up behind her, catching the scent of French clay and cherry blossom musk combined with the scent of his own brother Marcus - oakmoss and ambrette. They had been together that evening. He pushed his hands through her hair, discarding some of the weeds and grasped her shoulders tenderly.
"Brother." she murmured, a hint of smile in her voice. If only she knew his affectionate act was only a façade to lead her into something deeper, more savage. He needed to love her one last time as a brother should. This would be his only chance to be true, even if it was only for a genuine minute. Aro buried his nose deep into her hair, resting his head on the tendrils of black hair on her shoulder.
"Ahhh, Didyme." he sighed, hoping to linger in their embrace for a little longer.
"Ahhh, Aro." she sighed dramatically.
She giggled and the reverberations tickled his insides. Her laughter was like a peal of bells to his ears. He suddenly felt himself floating on thin air, she made him so happy. "What are you doing silly man?" she asked, still laughing. He moved her hair to her other shoulder and smiled into her neck.
"Guardando il sole," he whispered setting his cheek against hers. Watching the sun...
"It's beautiful, isn't it? When it's setting." Her voice was soft, all laughter subsided, now solemn. He rubbed her arms slowly. "But it still makes me sad, you know. Saying goodbye to something so beautiful. I can't bare to watch it fade, but yet I'm still here, my gaze still lingering."
"I agree, my pet. Saying goodbye can be so…difficult," he stuttered on his words, catching himself before he tripped.
"Right. But I do something that makes it less painful. It's quite silly, though." She looked down at her fingers as they threaded together.
Aro quirked his eyebrow and nuzzled her neck. "Go ahead my turtledove. Nothing is preposterous from you. You're much too brilliant."
She looked down, smiling. Her finger caressed the dew drop yellow diamond on her ring finger. He followed her eyes to stop at it as well. "That's what Marcus says." she smiled, laying her head on his.
Aro then quickly focused on sunset once more. That was the last person he wanted to think about.
"Just before it goes down completely," she paused, savoring his anticipation. "I shut my eyes."
He lifted his head slightly to look at her. "Why, that's not ridiculous at all. As for it being silly; now that's preposterous!" he bellowed. She laughed along with him, grabbing his hand and stroking it softly. She always made things hard to do; now she was going to be hard to let go.
"It's something I don't want to see. I choose not to see it, for I know I will keep it in my memory forever."
"Your philosophy has always intrigued me. It never ceases to amaze my own outlook."
The silence between them hung like apples on a tree, high and inviting - but still, that one apple could be poisoned. Aro took her long dark hair into his hands and stroked it gently. "I will miss you terribly when you leave," he expressed in a soft voice. He felt her head bow down.
"We won't be gone for long. I just want the perfect honeymoon."
Liar.
He knew she was lying. He knew of their plan on running away. His hands reached for her shoulders, massaging them lightly. "And if I were gone?"
"Why, I'd cry in my pillow every night.." she mock sobbed. Her smile was back in a blink. "We'll be back so fast, you won't even have time to miss me." He gently raised his fingers forward to trace her neck.
"I won't have time, will I?"
"Mmm-mm." She mumbled her 'no' to clarify with a shake of her head. He tightened his hold on her neck.
"To miss you?"
"Aro," she whispered quickly, grabbing onto his choke-hold on her neck with her own nimble fingers.
She turned her face to his. "Brother, stop you're-you're hurting me," she cried and she thrashed hard, pushing him backwards. He tightened his grip on her and grabbed her arms. "Brother please…" she whispered, choking on her own venom.
Aro grunted as he fought for her death, hitting walls and smashing objects. She fought against him, tossing her legs and arm wildly, trying to break free from the hands of death.
"Brother, I love you please...Please." she whimpered. The emotion he felt taunted him; letting go was his initial instinct, but he needed power. Didyme pushed and shoved against him, and Aro then found them both in front of the window where they once shared a sibling embrace.
The sun was just at it's peak to disappear beneath the Tuscan hills. Didyme screamed and gasped incoherent words and whimpers. Her red eyes wide and frightened, her mouth gaping and closing like a fish out of water. Her disheveled and wild hair with dandelion spores nestled throughout her dark locks were more innocent then ever.
"Close your eyes, darling," he cooed.
She only fought harder, and he grunted fiercely, locking his hold as tight as it could be. He heard the small cracks forcing their way up her swanlike neck. He saw them splicing up from his hands to her collarbone to her cheeks.
"Brother," she whimpered again and locked her hand to his arm.
Just the tip of the sun remained. Didyme's eyes closed slowly. Her quick rasps of breath shuddered through him, and then intensified to her soft scream. Aro looked once more at her breaking face, then pushing every ounce of strength to his hands, he closed his eyes as well.
~)}0{(~
Aro snapped back into reality from that fateful memory that haunted him on the late hours of the night to the early hours of the day. He had never been able to look at a sunset since. The castle had always seemed like a dark place. He guiltily contributed to the darkness by having every window covered by a cloak. He didn't want any sunlight to come through. He couldn't stand it. It hurt. Centuries have passed without sun to shine on his face. No one ever questioned him and his antics; they wouldn't have the audacity.
But he had a sudden pull in his gut at that very moment. A pull that urged him to open the one window at the far wall in the room. It was the biggest window in the whole castle. He had an urge this time, and he would follow it.
He lifted himself up lazily and slowly lumbered to the velvet rope that hung from the ceiling. Aro yanked on it until the first beams of sun ruled the room. It was truly beautiful. He stared at it longingly, hoping that anything that he did was justifiable. It was reckless and inexcusable. Aro turned around and struck a small cabinet. It stilled and broke into pieces.
A small nile of black ink cruised towards the center of the room. Paper and quills wafted around the room in the small explosion of anger. He forgot that Heidi had stocked the room with stationary when he wrote to the Cullens only a few days ago.
His face softened as he bent over to pick up the almost empty jar and grabbed a thick piece of parchment with a peacock quill. Aro studied the pen for a moment; it was Didyme's. She loved peacocks. He remembered getting her one for her birthday. But she let it out to the wild only a week later because she believed animals shouldn't be trapped or confined in places they weren't born into. She was wonderful like that.
A purely wondrous soul who deserved the world but instead got punished, all because of his insane hunger for power.
He settled everything on the sill and looked out again. His thoughts prompted him to wonder that if under this cloak, he could reprise what his heart concealed - the real feel of loss until now, untold to the mind of his first friend.
He touched secrets with probing fingers enough for today but the memory lingered on for him to grab and toss between the truths with him as he and Didyme last joined together once more. That day, she was unseen for hours; no one should have known and they didn't. He wondered if his existence evaded her detection then. He was certain that it did…
Unseen for all those frightening hours, Marcus couldn't know. He was prompted to think of her and how he felt. His memories melted, flowing onto the page as he engaged in his feelings. A letter was written of his smitten past, and at last he came clean.
His words came fast and spilled themselves greedily on to the clean paper. He couldn't stop the fleeting emotion from escaping. He never paused to look up and think of what to write next. Every word he wanted to utter didn't even stutter on themselves. Everything was in perfect alignment, perfectly spaced, perfectly written from someone who was so flawed and ugly. He knew what to write from the day he committed his fateful act.
He closed his eyes and sealed the letter with a red wax crest.
"Jane, my dear," he called into the empty room.
Soft footsteps were heard through the open door. In walked a petite girl with golden blond hair and red menacing eyes. Her eyes switched as she took in the scene, papers and parchment sprawled along the floor, and different colored inks keeping it company. But what really stunned her into silence was the golden light that flowed throughout the room, illuminating everything it touched. Jane walked close enough to Aro to see a light layer of glitter on his skin.
"Yes, Master." She bowed slowly, her eyes interested in the paper.
"Jane, my darling, I need a favor."
"Anything, Master." She smiled.
"It is time to feed this to something desperate for an answer," he whispered, touching the edge of the envelope to her fingers.
His eyes were dark with a glint of something; only she knew what it meant.
"Are you positive?" she whispered.
"I make no mistakes, my dear. You know what to do."
It was smooth to her touch but heavy with emotion. Aro wondered for just a moment if it was able to withstand the words and not combust from the pressure. Jane nodded silently, just turning to see Aro face the window once more with only his hands to comfort himself.
The corridors were quiet as she walked; the only sounds were her footsteps. With a look over her shoulder, she blindly flicked open the slip, walked forward, and read.
My most trusted friend and companion Marcus,
I apologize, my dearest friend, for I have committed the ultimate betrayal of brotherhood. Though your proximity was near, I chose to let fear dictate, sealing your fate. Never a clue did I expose. I chose to fade, finding comfort in invisibility. Indignantly I would proclaim, "What purpose would this knowledge serve?" just to keep my lips sealed. I have held my nerve and my secret this long. It can't be wrong to release your burden and breathe again, my brother.
Alas I have not been truthful with my words. I have yet to confess that I have committed the ultimate betrayal in my blood as well. My dearest sister Didyme, whom you've come to cherish and fall in love with just as I, had a sudden death that has changed the world for all. Without her I see you, your eyes hollow and your face aged with each day of her absence.
And I regret to inform you that my hands were the ones that spilled her blood. Your anger is something I never want to face. The depth is too steep. I've never wanted to hurt you, my dearest brother. You were both in love and to be married! Didyme was a dreamer with an aura of faith that could never be reigned in. I knew of your plan, to run away and live happily ever after. That was all I wanted for my sweet Didyme, but the power that would be lost would be too great of a loss.
I was trying to protect you, Marcus. I never wanted to murder her. I feel horrible each day as I walk with my dear Sulpicia to our chamber, and as the mates pair off, I see you alone. That same look in your eye - I know it will never be filled. I did this for us, and our power. It's the law. But yet I've broken the law of the sacred mate bond. For that I sincerely regret and apologize for my actions. However how many apologies I may utter, nothing will fill the void of the decades without her. Some still may ask, why should I feel sorrow when I'm the one who killed her? I tell you that I was masked by the illusion of power. I was blind to reality. But that explanation does not leave any justification; it was inexcusable. I expect your hatred, wrath, and loathing. I cannot expect you to forgive me when I haven't even forgiven myself.
Cerco la pace da tutti i lati, l'ho trovato da nessuna parte se non nella verità. Spero che sarete in grado di aver perso nulla, ma un trader. Non vi è alcun pagamento che può essere garantita. Non c'è fede a sinistra per bond, fratello.
My Abject Apologies,
Aro
Something hungry? Well she knew something that was starving. Jane quickly turned to her left and the light warmed her cheeks.
She fed it to the fire. The flames licked and sucked at the deliciously sincere words until they no longer meant anything. The thick ivory paper soon became burnt and thinned with every embrace from the wild fire's blaze.
That look he gave her - she knew it all too well - it was the false honor and mischief of a frightened man. He gave her that look as a silent command, but no one else knew about it. The fire was the only thing that would ever know the real truth.
With a snap, she widened her eyes and went down on her knees.
Jane whipped her hand from her side to the burning depths of the fire to idly capture the corner of the parchment.
"Ssssssss." She hissed and dropped it next her feet.
The burning sensation of heat swept over her hand. She held it to herself and picked up the paper to examine the damage, it was very thinned and the nearly black page was almost unrecognizable. Most of the words were decipherable, but others at the corners and ends of lines seemed to have lost their endings. It still held meaning, but more importantly it held truth.
Jane looked up to peer around her, a quick glance revealed a room really the size of a rather large closet furnished with a small writing desk, one solitary bookshelf, a cushioned armchair, and a reading gas lamp. The lamp was unlit but light poured in through a passageway from the adjoining room. Jane gathered this was the antechamber to the study or library.
Jane's breathing was shallow as she slowly walked out of the room. With a mighty thrust, she grasped a velvet rope and the sun came in all around and behind her.
"You never deserved this, Didyme." She lightly traced the burned words with a gentle hand. A stray strand of her yellow hair slipped from her intricate braid to the middle of her face.
"I'll never know what happened but…I do know that you deserve something. It'll be of better use to you then what it was intended for. I'm sorry to say, but…" she whispered.
Jane held it to the descending sun. It seemed to almost brighten with pleasure and ease at her words, beckoning her. Jane held it out the window, and she felt the breeze whisk it away from her fingertips.
Jane bowed her head from the coruscating light and sighed defiantly.
"A leopard never really did change its spots."
~)}0{(~
From the warmth of their blossom bed he looked at the cold night sky.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Was the moon ever this bright before we met?" he murmured. Didyme turned her face to glance at the object that raised his question
"We never really notice things that pass us by in a haze."
"Hmm." he hummed.
"It was always blurry, non existent. My life was always moving at a fast pace. But now I see. You're my non-moving thing holding me still. It's beautiful."
"So beautiful." he whispered, capturing her lips with his.
He moaned appreciatively as her tongue nipped at his. The heat of the moment encouraged fumbling hands to tear each other's clothes off. Marcus slid his hands over her chest to lightly trace over her nipple through her corset. Their lips found each other again as they kissed hungrily. She whimpered slightly as he pushed away from her to look at the sky.
"What's wrong?" she gasped.
"The sky." he mumbled.
Didyme looked up as well in the state of her undress and spotted a slick raindrop gliding from his hairline down his cheek. She swiped it with her thumb and brought it to her lips.
"It's going to rain, I can smell it. Come, we're going to get wet." He started to get up, but Didyme's hands quickly grasped onto his shirt and pulled him down again desperately.
"No, Marcus. I don't care if we'll get wet. Stay." Her eyes begged for mercy. The sky caught a murky color that rolled in from all angles. Thunder clapped at its arrival, and small specks of lightning sparked the sky. The light patter of rain showered everything under it. "Please."
That voice strummed the strings in his spine; made his body tingle with delight. Marcus cupped her wet cheek and stroked it softly.
"I love kissing you in the rain," he whispered.
They shared a fleeting glance, then held each other in the dark so close, he trembled and thought his breath would cease.
Feeling her warm fragrant breath in his damp hair raged his desire more and more. and he knew what she wanted…
"Tell me what you want. Say it. I want to hear it," Marcus commanded softy, pulling her into his arms.
"I want…us to be forever, darling. Can't we be forever?" she asked, tangling her body with his. Her hands slithered over his chest and he heard a tear as her finger glided across the seam of the front of his shirt.. His chest was bare for her taste.
The tiger was released from her cage.
She looked up slowly from her trance, her long eyelashes covering the deception she held in her bright eyes.
His fingertips ran down her skin, his lips dragged across her throat. Feelings stirred deep within her. If he had stood right up, untangled himself from her limbs and walked away, she would be left a quivering wreck. She wanted to hold him close, his skin pressed against hers tightly.
"Lie still, and close your eyes, my darling Marcus." Her words mimicked her very thoughts. His body called to her; it's voice was so lovely - it felt so right.
He held her close, his face bowing to her breast, directing him to her heart. A soft breath, maybe the beating of their dead hearts were finally heard as he whispered in her ear that he wanted to tear her apart. Oh, she wanted it too. Nothing but that.
The look of pure lust in his eyes entranced her. The desire to become one was undeniable. The only thing that seemed possible was to give in to temptation.
"What do you suppose love is?" he questioned, tweaking a nipple between his fingertips. Didyme gasped for needed breath at the tightening sensation in her abdomen.
"Love is an angel disguised as lust at the moment," she whispered against his neck as his fingers ran along her thigh. Didyme bit her lip to keep from screaming as his fingers took their fill in her, his fingers ran up and down her body, as he laid open-mouthed kisses on her neck.
The rain came. It sounded like hundreds of tiny feet, dancing until they were exhausted, or something to that effect.
"The sweet scent of your hair intoxicates me to the point of a lustful insanity," he murmured, skimming his nose along her hairline. His hands floated down to her skirts and he pushed it up from her legs. They were smooth to his touch, making him purr deeply. Spatters of rain fell gently against her skin, creating tiny ornaments of crystal.
"My heart burns for you like a thousand suns," he gasped, taking a nipple into his mouth.
"Aughh!" she gasped, grasping his hair. "Oh, Marcus." she whimpered, hitching her legs tighter. "Please," she begged.
As she lay there in the flower bed looking just so beautiful, he gently parted her sweet thighs, and let his tongue explore at will. She was lost in complete surrender, and he held her on the pinnacle's edge in tortured, wanton pleasure.
The strain in his trousers had withheld for long enough. He quickly sat up and unbuckled his pants, briskly sliding them off with the rest of his clothes and throwing them to the side. She was laid out for him to admire. Her perky breasts were pale and her nipples were a tinted pink and pebbled. Her curvy body had a layer of rain coating it, and she glistened in the light. His arousal grew harder. Her hair was fanned out across the flower bed and her eyes were dark and smoldering with desire. He took her swollen pink lips in his and kissed her like he needed life.
He admired the water gliding down her skin, pausing to catch her essence of innocence before they sinned.
"Please," she whispered again. Marcus towered over her and caressed her cheek with a loving gaze. His long dark hair hung around his face. Didyme grabbed his hand and trailed her fingers up his arm to catch a lock and twirl it between her fingers. He positioned himself and pushed through her tight femininity, and she let go to grab a fistful instead. Their passionate moans and groans of sensual ecstasy sky-rocketed him in to a frantic, fast paced rhythm. She clawed his back, digging her nails deeper and deeper. She wrapped her legs around him and it helped to drive himself into her warmest nook.
The rain was beating down harder and harder as they both were reaching new heights of orgasmic bliss. He felt their souls bending to meld to one another's as their eyes widened more and more from the sensations of their joining.
He wanted to get her there. So badly, he wanted her release to come so she would experience a pleasure so intense, he would need wings to catch her. Not even Mother Nature's fierce winters, sweltering summers, whipping autumns, or feisty springs could stop him. Zeus could send down his most powerful lightening bolts. Satan could've uplifted the darkest souls of hell. God could've sent down His mightiest angels to earth. But nothing and no one could've stopped Marcus from reaching his destination.
"Didyme."
"Marcus."
As both their names faltered from each others lips, they were seeing the stars in the galaxy and going up higher until the golden sky electrified their souls to a whole new level of pleasure.
She bit down on his shoulder, holding back a scream that he held back with a grunt. Marcus looked down at her withering frame and collapsed on her body, shaking from the small spasms of ecstasy.
The rain was a light mist now, calming the lovers from their intimate dance.
The dew from his skin dripped onto her chest. The wind carried the scent of his replenished skin into the nose of the beautiful woman laying peacefully underneath him. He admired her as the moonlight caught her hair and turned her usual dark locks into strands of silver.
As he lay her down with raindrops splashing against his spine, the thought of making love in the rain just seemed celestial.
The rain was the poetry of the nature that surrounded them, and the sound of the rain was the inner music of that poetry. It was late into the night when there were no other sounds – only them and stars. They listened quietly to their own synchronized breathing and the rest of the universe, without a care in their hearts.
The delightful splendor and crystal tendrils shone forth into the night, but her beauty was never outshone by their radiant glow.
He felt her breath at his ear. "I..." her hand caressed his cheek, bringing their faces closer together.
"...love..."
Rain continued its unrelenting rhapsody, but they paid it no heed, lost as they were in that first sensual moment.
"...you."
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