How to explain imprinting to the Volturi?
I thought of: 'love at first sight times by 1000' or 'you see someone and suddenly you'd give everything to be their anything'.
I decided they were too soppy.
Then I considered: 'It's like you're a bug hitting the windshield that's someone's life; you might land smack in the middle or way out at the sides where the wipers don't reach, but you can't help going splat....and you don't really want too'.
Yeah. I didn't go with that one either.
I didn't think describing what I felt for Jane as an 'animal instinct' would please Alec very much.
What about: 'There's a force that instantly pulls you to someone. Like a magnet attracting a piece of metal.'?
No. That made me sound like a nerd.
For god's sake Seth. Just say something.
"Errm...Have you ever seen a piece of chocolate cake? Or............ I don't know, smelt someone's blood and felt like, if you could just have it then everything would be good and whole and perfect, you'd be perfect? "
I didn't wait to see if they'd understood, I wasn't sure I wanted them to.
"Well that's how we wolves feel when we imprint on someone. Only, we don't want to eat them, or drink their blood, yuck, gross...no offense."
"None taken" muttered Aro smoothly looking curious.
"When you imprint it's like suddenly you just have to be in that person's life, I mean, you can live without them but...what's the point? So, you turn into whatever they need and, hopefully, eventually, the two of you will fall in love. We're supposed to imprint on girls who'll have the best kids to carry on the wolf pack, but, that's not happened for me because...."
I looked up at the ceiling. Hopeless.
"I may have, perhaps, possibly, definitely imprinted on Jane"
I wondered what they'd think, and worse, what would be said, as, what started as a handful of whispers doubled, then tripled, then swelled to a roar. I wanted to clap my hands over my ears, but I didn't, I just stared upwards (well, what an interesting ceiling? It's a bit dull though. They should paint a mural on it).
"Quiet!" Aro ordered after a rare 30 seconds of speechlessness.
For me, the silence was just as noisy as the roar.
I dared to look around at my audience: Alec looked livid; Felix looked like he found it all rather funny; a woman vampire was staring at me with wide eyes. Her face a mixture of 'what have you done you idiot?' and what I thought was admiration.
Aro put his hand on my shoulder, blinked (well, vampires don't blink but...), and then looked at me for a very long time raising one eyebrow, then the other.
"He's telling the truth" he said eventually. He sounded stumped. I decided this was an achievement.
"Well" Caius got to his feet, I flinched. "Let's get rid of him. Alec would you care to do the honours?"
"Glad to."
"Wait!" called Aro. Caius rolled his eyes, Alec continued to glare.
I recognised the look in Aro's eyes. If he wasn't a vampire he'd have goosebumps, the hairs on his arms would be doing the Mexican wave. He'd just thought of a plan.
"I have a plan." Declared Aro proudly turning around to face the crowd. "How about we set Seth here a -prova di abilità -a challenge?"
My insides twisted uncomfortably, the back of my neck itched (never a good sign), he was making me feel like a clockwork toy. I wondered if this was how it had been for Gianna ('I've got a challenge for you Gianna; let's see if you can have a vampire baby').
"Yes a challenge." Aro pressed his lips together for a second, enjoying himself. "We won't tell Jane about your imprinting and you can begin working as our guard dog. You can stay here. You'll have many opportunities to see Jane." Alec growled. "However" Aro continued, looking at Alec and then back at me. "If you haven't kissed her within ...let's say...three days...then we'll, get rid of you."
I stared ahead feeling hot and cold at the same time. I dug my nails into the palms of my hands, desperate to feel something I could control. I wanted to laugh but could feel the tightness in my throat that came before tears.
Alec's expression matched what I felt.
"But, Aro, I don't want him anywhere near her." He spoke through gritted teeth.
"Peace, Alec. Jane can take care of herself." Aro managed to sound both careless and threatening.
I decided I didn't like him very much. He was the sort of person whose words might be like bullets but you wouldn't know because his voice was like butter. He seemed to have the entire guard in his pocket, like toy soldiers, under his thumb. He gave Alec the sort of smile a jaguar might give the deer it was hunting, a smile that said; 'do you really want to bother fighting me, we all know who'd win?'
Alec opened and closed his mouth a few times like a gold fish, a very angry goldfish that can't do anything for himself because a certain other goldfish named Aro....yeah, you get the picture.
"She's got to want to kiss you back." He muttered eventually. "And if you hurt her, I'll rip your head off your shoulders before you can blink."
Great, I thought, typical future in-law.
Aro began talking to Demetri, but all I could hear was a blur, like when you fast-forward a DVD. My heart thrummed in my ears and threw its weight around in my chest.
It reminded me of the time I almost drowned off La Push beach when I was 9. The dead iciness of the water pressing against my skin. The pain car-chasing its way through my veins as my energy burned out. The screaming in my head and behind it, the instinct, the voice telling me to focus on the light hitting the top of the water.
Only, drowning was a whole lot simpler than this.
So, I had three days to kiss Jane, or else. It was like a Disney film I'd watched with Quil and Claire: The Little Mermaid. Ha, where's a singing lobster named Sebastian when you need one?
