Chapter 3
They landed in Europe's main European airport six hours later and on time to catch the final flight to Italy and from there, her new home with a new life to adjust to. She wearily trudged along with her two luggage in tow behind Felix and Marcus, who were a deep discussion that she could not hear over the crowded noises of the other passengers as they maneuvered in and out of the terminals. Caius kept a few feet behind her as she looked around with tired eyes. He had been rather nice to her if not somewhat arrogant once she had awakened the next morning, blushing furiously like a new bride on her wedding night.
Aro later warned her while they were boarding their plane, tactful of course, to not do anything foolish as they neared closer and closer to home. "The last thing we would need is, Caius to lose his temper over someone's carelessness of words and then be forced to deal with his temper all the way back with you in his keeping." He had said with a shake of his head as they sat down in their seats. Now, one flight left till they reached Italy, she was having a hard time with her emotions inside. Caius was confusing in his temperament with everyone around him. One moment he was silent, but somewhat nice to his family, but the next, he was quick to get annoyed or angry even, at Felix or Demetri if they happen to say something that did not agree with him. With his brothers, he was cordial and nice. With her, it was up and down like a roller coaster ride that did not stop, but rather kept on going in big circles and around and around.
"Tell me about yourself."
Electra did not have to turned around to see who it was that spoke to her. Caius's unique scent was all she needed to identify who was who. Sighing softly as they walked to the seating area while her new coven waited for the plane to pull up on the tar mat and refuel, she sat down next to him and tossed her feet onto the chair in front of her. 'What do you want to learn about me?"
He shrugged his slender shoulders elegantly as he stared off in the distance at his brothers back's at the ticket counter. "Anything you wish for me to know." He replied in a cool tone. Jane came over and handed her a comb and brush before walking over to her brother near the check stand where he was talking on his cell phone. It weirder that everyone in this coven was modernized with the world of today's technology , but still had their personalities and likes and dislikes of the past, but at least they knew what she needed and kept on making sure she was well fed and properly supplied with her basic necessities. Not looking into his questionable gaze when she did not immediately respond, Electra ran the comb through her hair as she absently stared down at her white tennis shoes.
"I was an only child to Greek immigrants from Athens, who came to America for a better life and live the American dream." She began. "My mother worked as a veterinarian at the local animal shelter while my father was a construction worker for a big company that helped build schools for poor communities. They did not have any money really when I was born, but mama and papa kept on working hard and giving me the best when they could. I learned some of their language being a bilingual family and went to public school with high grades. I was an avid player in basketball and softball and enjoyed many things that dealt with the history of mankind and our world."
She wiped a tear that sprang in her eye with a hard hand and bit her lip. "Then less than a year ago, my life was drastically changed in many ways that I would never think would happen to me. We were going to my aunt's house to celebrate my birthday one day when daddy hit an oncoming big rig that was traveling on the same lane that we were in. My aunt and her husband were in the same van that we had been traveling in and were killed instantly when they were hit from the side. My mother was in the front passenger side and my father was dying in the driver's seat from head wounds and the steering wheel jammed into his body like a spear. I was unhurt somehow with only a bruise on my arm and still strapped in my seat in the back while smoke began to pile into our wreak van. I remember vividly my mother despite bleeding in the chest from large pieces of glass embedded in her ribs, managed to unbuckle her seatbelt and grabbed our emergency knife in the compartment. She had climbed into the back on her hands and knees, bleeding so bad that it coated my hands once she got over to cut at my belt that had become stuck fast in its lock. My side door was not damaged, but it still took all my strength to pull it open. Mama only managed to give me her necklace and rings and pushed me out of the car onto the ground and begging me to run away as fast as I could before the car blew up. I had screamed for her to come with me and had even tried to go back when the car exploded like a big bomb right before my very eyes."
Electra felt something cold wipe away her tears from her cheeks. She looked up and saw Caius staring at her with a sad look within his expression as he wiped away her tears with his fingers. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Electra. It's very hard to see your own family be ripped away so suddenly like that and being forced to live on your own with that pain."
"It got a little better afterwards. I was treated and released to a family friend who was very kind enough to take me into her own home while I finished school and find a job. I still had to deal with the burial of my family and go to consoling for my nightmares, but I found solace in my school work and graduated high school with a five point one on my GPA score. I found a job at the local café and got my own place, thanks to my family friend who offered to pay for it so I could move in and was fine."
"How did you come to have your son?" He asked quietly. She stopped brushing out her hair as a lump formed in her throat.
"I was seeing my ex during my last year as a senior in high school and we went out and had sex one night in his parent's home while they were away for a weekend. He was the high school jock that every girl in the school wanted to date or make out with. I was just lucky to meet him over at a girl friend's party bash and the next thing I knew, we were going out. It was great and all in the beginning, with movie dates, going to the park and such, but once I became pregnant with his baby and decided to keep our child, he became abusive towards me. He would hit me for no apparent reason and tell me that he wished that I would just die when I refused to have sex with him. I recall telling his parents about what he was doing to me and they tried a restraining order against him. But he kept coming back and telling me that he had changed and would not do it again." She laughed shortly. "I took him back and then it got worse as I grew with child till finally, I was sick of his ways and moved out to a different area that he know nothing of and stayed away till my son was born last month. He was the only thing that I loved so close to my parents." She cried tearfully as Caius listened on in silence. "But now he's gone to my family in heaven and I am alone now."
Caius held her hand in his own and wondered what he would have done if he was in her position.
Most likely kill that bitch for hurting her the way he did with my bare hands. He thought grimly.
"You have a new life to live and need to move on. I don't say forget your past or your loved ones, but rather move on knowing they are watching over you and wanting the best for you." He said quietly. Electra sniffled a few times before wiping her eyes with an offered handkerchief from him. Aro came up and looked at Caius with a raised eyebrow, but did not ask questions when he touched his hand with his free one to silently explain. Aro coughed slightly, a habit he was beginning to do around her a lot. He shook his head. "Something that is most unfortunate in her situation, my brother." He said very softly. "But we have a plane to catch." He said out loud with a nod to Felix who came over and picked up her luggage in each arm while carrying his own.
"Damn, why am I, the one who always have to luge everyone's shit while dealing with my own." He complained with a slight wink at her. She hid a smile behind a cough as she stood up. Caius rolled his eyes upward and muttered to himself as they began to walk toward the checkout corridor. "Get your ass moving, Felix." He said out loud. The big bodyguard laughed and followed a few paces behind Electra with a wide grin. "Looks like you are better." He said brightly as they showed their passports to the stewardess before walking onto the plane.
Electra followed Caius to seats in the middle row and sat down next to him. Felix struggled to put his own luggage with her own in the overhead compartments. "These damn…stupid...oh shit, nearly dropped that one…"He smiled charmingly at a young blond woman that was trying to get by his big bulk as he shoved them and slammed the door shut with a sigh. "Hi, I was just having a bit of a tough one there." He explained politely, indicating the compartment. The woman smiled and walked by to a seat near the first class area. "Figures, all the best ones are the first class people who look hot like that one there." He muttered as he plopped himself in the seat across from Electra. Felix frowned and rolled his eyes as Demetri came up and sat down next to him with a grunt. "Why do you have to be with me all the time?" Felix growled at his fellow bodyguard. Demetri sniffed slightly as if offended and turned his head away with his nose up in the air.
"Well, if you do not like me being your seatmate for the next. Oh, five hours, then shut the hell up and shove it." He replied in a highly offended tone. Electra giggled softly at the look of sheer horror on the bigger of the two's face as he looked down at his watch and then back up at Demetri, who was studying his finger nails.
"Will you two please shut the hell up for the rest of the ride?" Caius hissed at them with a scowl.
"Sorry master." They apologized at the same time. Electra sighed softly to herself and pulled out her ipod from her jean pocket. Better to play some music while on a plane for another five hours or so. She shuffled absently through her files till she came up with some hard rock music to help sooth her, already frazzled state of nerves. Putting in her sound proof headphones, she rocked her favorite punk band and closed her eyes. Caius was reading a book when his keen hearing picked up the hard beats of the music playing beside him as the plane began to take off. Her heartbeat too, was following the steady rhythms of the song while her breathing became deeper as she drifted off to sleep. He envied her right now, sleeping away her cares as he, frozen in his everlasting immortal body of a twenty five year old Roman man, was unable to fall asleep at all.
A soft snore alerted him she had fallen into a deep slumber. He looked beside him and found her head tilted towards his shoulder as she continued to snore softly away. Glancing to see if she would stir, he took her ipod out of her slack hand and looked through to see what she had stored on her play list. Her head fell on his shoulder, her long locks covering up her face in a soft veil of blond wavy tresses. The ipod was a thirty six mg, so she had tons of music stored on it. Punk rock, soft jazz, Korean pop, some songs that he suspected were for her son, like little rhyming songs and sleep time. Others were more hard rock by Linkin Park, Evanescence, Within Temptation, Metalica, and so forth. He also found pictures of her and her son in the picture menu. One of her hold him in a hospital room, maybe a day or so after giving birth, others of him in a bathtub, sleeping in his crib, them together at a local park under a shady tree and so many more that made him feel really sad, deep down. Caius put the ipod back into her hand, lest she suspect him of snooping around in her private business and sat back in his seat. It was highly disturbing to him that such a simple event in a matter of a few seconds, had made him wonder about life's greatest wonders on life itself.
Was there more to it than just existing as he was, filled only with hate for those who wronged him and feeling the sense of justice only when hurting others? Caius snorted softly to himself. For well over three millennia's, he had been ruling beside his brothers with the reputation that others feared highly when coming into contact with his "wrathful" state of mind, doing his key part to ensure the secrecy of his kind and sentencing those who threated to expose them to the world. When he fed, it was to keep his body going. He did not really care that each life he took, was a life that had loved ones who cared for him or her. But deep down, he knew that, and sometime wished it was not so, but he was a vampire and vampires needed blood in order to survive.
Simple as that, or at least it was, till a certain human interfered and messed everything I believed in. Caius looked down at Electra and wondered absently what she had told him as they were waiting for their final flight to Italy. Such a waste of life to bring back, and yet, he agreed to take her in as his duty to protect and perhaps, one day make a wife to replace Atheodora's memory. Electra frowned slightly in her sleep and moaned softly, turning into his shoulder for warmth. Her sweet breath fell over his cold neck as she buried her face against his shirt and threw her arm over his waist. Caius tensed as he picked up her lingering scent of blood running so close to his mouth as he listened to the wet pitter patter of her heart. Her soft neck was exposed to his teeth and he could easily see the pulse of where he nipped her from yesterday in the dim cabin light above their heads. Caius's hands clinched tightly into fists as he held his breath occasionally as the hour passed so slowly on. Normally, he would not even be concern with how long it took for them to travel by plane, but now with a human girl in tow, who had the sweetest taste and smell, he could not afford to lose control right in front of the humans and vampire alike.
Later on, she woke up to use the bathroom and came back with a small frown. "What did you do to me?" She whispered as she buckled her seatbelt back in place.
"What the hell are you talking about, woman?" Caius said with an irate edge in his smooth voice. Electra showed him her shoulder after casting a glance around the coven that was closest to them.
"I have a hicky on my shoulder." She accused him softly with a flash of indignant green eyes. Caius frowned as he stared down his nose at the purple mark on her slender shoulder. He shrugged. "Better for me to mark you like that then the traditional way, which would end up with you being changed way sooner than expected." He said casually as if talking about the weather to her then about a rose mark on her skin. Electra fumed silently as she shoved her shirt back in place and crossed her arms over her chest with a short humph!
"I would stop acting like that around me, if I were you." He said softly in her ear in a stern voice. "I will tell you here and now, that I don't put up with those who question my actions lightly and then expect to get away without a word from me. Either you do as you are told without questioning my authority or my brothers, or," He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. "You will be punished accordingly. You may be protected by some who already like you, but with me…you are at my mercy, mortal girl."
She glared at him. "Then why are you being nice one second, but a total shit head the next?" She spat in anger at him. Felix and Demetri both coughed loudly as Caius glared at her with his iciest stare.
"I will pretend that I did not hear those words from your mouth. If you had been living in the days of where women watched what they said to their men, I would have you whipped for being with independent mind of words." He growled darkly as he looked around them at the people who were beginning stare at their direction. Some looked hastily away as he shot them an icy look with a scowl.
"Don't let him get to you." Felix advised softly as he leaned across the aisle at her as far as his seatbelt allowed. Electra shook her head and remained quiet for the rest of the flight. It was well after midnight that they finally landed in Italy. Aro, apparently, had call ahead to make arrangement on cars, because when they all left the terminal bay, there were six black Bentley cars with tinted windows sitting on the curb as they came up. Caius directed Electra to get into the front car of the line with a curt order for Felix to hurry up behind them. She bit her lip as he opened the back passenger door for her and waited for her to get in. "Hurry the hell up, woman. We don't have all night." Electra glared at him but got in without a word as Caius followed in and sat beside her. Felix took the front seat as the driver, a red head woman dressed in tight leather jeans and t-shirt, frowned as she smelled the human occupant behind her. Caius said something under his breath and she immediately started the engine and drove slowly out of the airport. Electra felt small and foreign as she stared out the window at the new country she had to call home.
The city was bustling with nightlife as tourist and citizen alike went around like one did not have a care in the world. The main city turned into country as they went deeper into the heart of Italy and into Tuscany where the coven resided in the vast ancient city of Volturia. She saw farms here and there and local villages that were asleep as they passed by. Then, after they made several turns on the road, she saw the walls of Volturia rising like a mountain in the night with its high walls and red colored roof tops. It was very large and open as they passed by the first quarter of the city, but as they got closer and closer to, what looked like a huge castle on a hill with a high clock tower, the walls became larger and ten times higher till it all but shut out the moon light from above in the clear sky. Never in her life, would she had feared the walls as she looked out her window in awe and nervousness. Caius watched her every reaction as they came to a stop before the tall gates of the castle. Felix called out the window to someone and rolled it back up as the gated slowly opened to admit the long line of cars. He turned to glance back at the pale girl and smiled at her. "Welcome to your new home, Electra."
She trembled so badly when the car came to a stop in a large garage off to the side of the castle, Caius had to pick her up into his arms once she fell to her knees on the ground from shock and fear. The others looked at her with sympathy as they passed them by like wraths in the night. She closed her eyes tightly and buried her face in his cold neck as they walked into a bright modern style lobby. Caius chuckled softly but said nothing as he quickly walked toward his quarter of the vast castle with Felix and Jane following behind them. His own wing was further off to the south side where it over looked the vast rose garden that Marcus and several others kept. He had three levels that were to himself and Athodora for their own private uses plus a separate area that had an Olympic sized pool and Jacuzzi. Rarely did they use the pool, but perhaps Electra would find uses for it from time to time as the days passed. Caius opened a door to a large chamber on the third floor at the end of a long corridor and flickered in, mush to the complete surprise of the human in his arms. The other two vampires left their master's things by the doorway and left quickly, closing the oak door without a sound as they left.
"You can open your eyes now." He growled.
Heart pounding like a hammer, she slowly opened her eyes and looked around in wonder at a vast room that was well furnished with French style furniture here and there. There was a high balcony outside a pair of French doors that overlooked a garden below, a king sixed bed with plush crimson satin bedclothes and pillows off to the right of the room and an connected bathroom that was open and just a large with a huge ground level tub that looked like a pool to her, standing shower stall that could fit four people at once, large counter space and mirror with three sinks and a toilet room with a door, thank God, to give privacy. Like Caius needed it at all being a vampire. The bedroom floor had wall to wall dark wood flooring with large soft Persian rugs by the bed, the fireplace, which was burning away, giving the room a soft homely feeling to it and underneath a large desk set near the balcony area. She noticed he also had a walk- in closet and dresser set which help her greatly once she started to buy clothes and things for herself in the coming weeks and months. Caius set her down gently on top the bed and looked around the room with a distant look in his eyes.
"You may want to go through Atheodora's things, so feel free to do so when you have time." He said as he moved gracefully to the large closet. Electra watched with burning cheeks as he turned his back to her while he took off his sweater and shirt in one smooth movement. His pale white back was flawless and rippled with well-formed muscles underneath as he moved around for a shirt. She turned her eyes away as she watched a hand stray toward his belt and focused on the dark sky out the large window. The sky was sprinkled with thousands of tiny glowing stars that twinkled softly. This was her new home and she was frightened by what was going to become of her once she turned twenty one six years from now.
"You should take a hot shower before you go to bed." Caius's voice pulled her sharply back to reality. She turned away her eyes away from the window and looked to find him holding out a white shirt towards her. She took it from his hand and found that it was a large eighteenth century shirt with an open front where she could lace up. Electra moved off the bed silently and thanked him softly as she walked towards the bathroom. She found her toiletries already stashed in the large black marble shelves in the shower stall as she started the water.
"I'll just close the door and give you some privacy. Mind you, I won't be leaving the room tonight." Caius said as he watched her at the entranceway with a small smile on his lips as she turned to regard him. He reached over to a panel on the wall beside him and pressed a black button with a slender finger.
Two silver doors slid together from either side of the wall and closed shut, leaving her to her shower away from his intent gaze. Electra slowly undress as the bathroom began to fog up from the steamy water, tossing her clothes on the marble floor, she stepped under the soft spray and shut the door behind her. It felt really good after forty eight hours of near constant traveling to Italy and the water helped relax her tense muscles as she found a sea sponge on a ledge and began to wash off the grim on her body. She shaved her legs and washed her hair out with the shampoo and conditioner Jane had gotten for her while they were at the airport back in Europe at a Body and Baths store. Electra glanced occasionally at out the clear shower door to see if Caius was leering from the doorway but did not see him, much to her relief.
Her body still responded with an ach of his touch when he pleasured her to unimaginable heights with his hands alone. Her nipples became hard points as she trailed a hand over her breasts and down to her aching clit where she moaned softly as she touched it with soapy fingertips. It felt so good but not enough as her body flushed with need to the point of pain. Electra finished rinsing off and turned off the water with a sigh. It was her first night in his bed and she doubted she could sleep tonight with such desires running though her body. Getting out and drying off her body and hair, she slipped into the shirt he gave her. It only came down half way past her thighs. She left the lace untied in front of her small, round breasts and went to the door. She found a button by the panel door and pressed it. They opened up swiftly for her. Caius looked up from his seat by the burning fire at the slender girl dressed in one of his past nineteenth century shirts. Her long hair was damp and came down her back in soft waves as she tossed her clothes in hamper basket near the front door. Her long legs peep from underneath as he watched her with a heavy cock walked over to the bed and climb in as she found he had already pulled back the covers for her. She stared at him with those green eyes and blinked. "I can't sleep." She said softly. "Can you stay with me for a while?"
Caius snorted as he stood up from his seat. "Why? Afraid that someone might kill you while you are sleep?" He smirked without any humor in his eyes. She shivered slightly and looked away from his hastily toward the windows so he would not see the hidden fear in them. She was afraid, but of his own doing, not others who may find her…edible.
"You don't have to do this, Caius." She whispered. A cold breeze fell on the side of her cheek. Caius forced her to look up into his crimson eyes as elusive emotions ran through him like wildfire. "And disobey Aro's wishes for you to live and dishonor my image?" He breathed over her face. Electra braced herself, her hands clinching the blankets as she watched his eyes turn almost black as a slow smile spread across his face. "You are mine now, and there is nothing that you can say or do that will stop it." He growled in a very dark voice that almost scared her.
He flickered out of the room slamming the door behind him as he went, locking it firmly. She heard his footsteps recede into the distance and burst into tears. He still deep down, did not like her save for the physical uses that a warm body could bring to his bed. Electra sank into the pillows still weeping, and eventually fell into a deep dreamless sleep, finally exhausted from her sudden change of life.