True Mate Saga Book One: Demetri
Chapter Six
"I never want to settle in a single place for long. There's so much to see and I have little time to see these things in."
Demetri was sure to roll the window of his rental vehicle down a bit to allow some of the alluring scent of his mate to float freely from the enclosed space. He was thirsty from his rage at the men he had willingly allowed to live based only on his mates' pleading generosity. He felt that he should have drained them without hesitation, if only to rid the world of their pestilence, though he realized that this night would have gone much differently had he exposed himself to Delphia. Especially in such a volatile manner.
It was clear that Delphia's nerves were rather frazzled as she sat quietly on the passenger side of the vehicle. She had questioned whether he had followed her or not and he replied honestly, wishing not to lie to his mate, for she would find out the truth soon enough and he wished to keep her anger with him when that time came to a minimal. There was no rule book, no How to Court Your True Mate for Dummies 101 that he could consult that would give him the appropriate guidelines for how to go about his situation.
In truth, Demetri was terrified she would run off again knowing that he had followed her. He would, of course, follow her every time she left. How could he not? The only way he would refrain from doing so would be if she told him not to, and even then he might be forced to go against her wishes. He feared the bitter sting of a mate's rejection, if she were request he not follow her, and how that would affect him.
Demetri pulled into a McDonald's at his mate's request, although even he knew that the food was poisonous, and asked Delphia what she would like to eat. Instead of telling him, she unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over his body so that she could order clearly into the speaker. Half of his brain comprehended that she'd ordered two double cheeseburgers with mac sauce only, a large fry, and a large sweet tea and wondered where she could possibly fit all of that in her petite body. The other half of his brain was stuck on the fact that the side of her left breast was brushing his chest in what he felt was an erotic manner. Clearly, Delphia had simply been attempting to order without having to go through a third party, as her specifications for her burgers seemed to be out of the norm, and so Demetri attempted to will the unwanted tightness in his trousers away.
"Sorry," she said as she moved back to her seat and replaced her seatbelt, "it's just easier to tell them myself. Thank you for taking me through the drive thru, though." She pulled some American currency from her bag and handing it to him.
Demetri shook his head at the flimsy green bills and reached for his wallet that was stashed in the center counsel of the vehicle but Delphia placed her hand over his. Her eyes narrowed as she no doubt felt how cold his skin was but nevertheless looked up at him, "I'd feel better if you let me pay for it. You're probably the only reason I'm not in the hospital right now, I think that mandates paying my own way here. Besides, It's only like six bucks."
Against his better judgment, and his internal need to provide for his mate, he took the bill from her hand and paid the clerk. Once he'd been handed the bag of vile smelling genetically manufactured human sustenance and passed it to Della, Demetri pulled out of the drive and towards the motel he knew his mate to be staying at. He himself had paid for a room near hers in the same motel, as revolting as the place was.
Gripping the steering wheel almost too tightly for it to accommodate, Demetri thanked the gods that they had seen fit to allow storms to cover his journey. Every time Delphia had pulled off the highway, he was able to do so as well and refill his waning fuel tank at a gas station across from the one she was using. He kept an eye on her from at least a half mile back, she would have had no idea she was being tailed. Thankfully, he'd been able to catch up with Della at her motel just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee that morning and had rented a room just so he would have a place to park his rental.
Demetri was grateful for having caught up with Della, for had he not he wouldn't have seen such small kind acts she was prone to at every stop she made. For instance, at the diner she stopped in for lunch she took up a seat next to a young mother and her child, asking all sorts of questions and in the end had paid for their meals. At the gas station there was an incredibly short elderly woman, shorter than Delphia if that were possible, who was attempting to clean something off the windshield of her vehicle. Delphia walked right up to her with a smile on her face and offered to help, then pumped the woman's gas for her while she sat in the car after complaining of being chilly in the overcast weather.
When she had reached New Orleans, Demetri had expected her to be exhausted from the trip and remain in her room for the night. He was surprised when he heard her immerge from the room at half past nine and witnessed her walking into the night. He kept to the top of the buildings when following her, Demetri had no intentions of revealing himself that night. In fact, he had no idea how he would reveal himself to her. His mind had conjured several different scenarios where he could casually bump into her by design.
Clearly, the gods had another plan.
He watched in silent horror as she stepped into an alleyway to defend a woman that she did not know. He was both indescribably proud to know of her sense of justice, acknowledging the fact that she would be a spectacular addition to the Volturi when she was ready, and to watch her spray chemicals into the eyes of one of the attackers. Unfortunately, the woman she was defending took the first moment she could and ran like a coward. Demetri let the woman leave, much to concerned with the safety of Delphia than with the woman who left his mate to defend herself alone.
Demetri was awestruck with the resilience and confidence that Delphia had shown in standing her ground against the men and when the man made to attack her. So wrapped up in her determination to avoid being a punching bag, Demetri nearly did not step in to help. Gods knew she didn't look as if she actually needed his intervention.
She was a fierce little human, and he was an indescribably proud vampire.
Demetri pulled into the parking lot of the rundown motel that she had chosen to suit her needs. He couldn't help but run over scenarios in his mind that would end with her agreeing for him to move her to a suite in one of them more… established inns in New Orleans. For him, money was not an issue. Unfortunately, he couldn't see himself coming out on top of an argument for Delphia to cave to his wishes, not yet anyways.
"So, you know where I'm staying, too?" Delphia questioned, her eyebrow raised and eyes glaring accusingly at him, it was a look he would not soon be forgetting.
He nodded slightly, before responding, "I witnessed your vehicle in this particular parking lot and I too procured a room for myself."
Delphia sucked her bottom lip under her teeth and bit lightly. The movement triggered Demetri's memory of the drive thru incident.
That line of thought was thoroughly inappropriate at this time.
"What is the saying…" Demetri pondered, no longer able to take the silence, "Penny for your thoughts?"
Delphia granted him a small smile, "I'm torn."
"What is it that has you in such a state?" Demetri inquired, turning his body as much as he could to look at her while they remained in the vehicle.
Delphia, at first, looked as though she might not answer, but she did. There was a hard edge to her voice, a certain finality that made Demetri contemplate that he'd possibly blown his chance regardless of his stepping in when he was needed. "I feel like I shouldn't trust you. You came out of nowhere and we had an awesome conversation in a bar in Detroit. You followed be across the country, not across the street or even across town, across the country. That's the kind of behavior that gets people locked up. You helped me when I needed someone to help, which leads me to believe you were stalking me as I walked down the street. Not that I'm not grateful for your assistance. I might be in the hospital if it weren't for that, but the fact remains."
She was silent for a moment. He wondered if she was going to tell him to leave, that she was frightened by him and his sudden appearance. But when she looked up from her lap and met his eyes, there was a look of resolution in them he hadn't witnessed in a human in many centuries, "But- there's a large part of me that thinks our paths were meant to cross, and had they not done so the other day then it would have happened in the next few years. Like I said before, I always wanted to go to Italy and travel there. I think we were meant to know each other at some point, but I don't trust easily. My mind is telling me that I should tell you to hit the road, or that I shouldn't have gotten in the car, or I should have told the Police that you stalked me here. But for some crazy fucking reason, and I have no idea what that reason is, I haven't done any of that."
If only she knew the truth, Demetri thought. They were meant to cross paths; they were meant to know each other. They were quite literally destined to each other, two halves of the same whole. The only reason she did not feel the strong connection that he felt was because she wasn't on the same level of existence as he was, but she would be soon. She wasn't running away screaming because a part of her knew that he would never harm her, the instinctual part of her was telling her that he was hers, for eternity. The issue was whether she chose to listen to that part, or the part of logic and reason that she was desperately clinging too. He couldn't fault her for that.
"I can only hope that you do not begrudge me for my behavior. I followed you, yes. I swear to you that I mean you no harm. If you tell me to go, I shall leave." Demetri offered, giving his Delphia the choice. He laid all of the cards in her hands and awaited her answer.
Della nodded and heaved a great sigh, "Come inside, I want to eat. Are you sure you're not hungry? I can share if you want."
She had dodged the statement, but she had also invited him inside the room. He took this to mean she wouldn't resent his stalking of her, as she so put it. Demetri nodded at her question and stepped out of the car. He would have offered to open the door for her but she'd had it opened faster than he could have gotten there at a human pace. They walked into the room where she had the air conditioning set to its highest setting, casting an almost over powering scent of mildew over the room.
Della sat the McDonalds bag and beverage on the small table and walked over to the sink to wash her hands. "Pop a squat, Dem, I'll be there in a sec."
Demetri did as he was bid, though he registered the shortening of his name, "Dem?"
She turned around after drying her hands and, throwing the towel nonchalantly behind her so it landed on the bathroom counter, she grinned. All trace of her former melancholy had vanished from her face in a mere minute. "Yeah," she began as she walked to the table, "Demetri, Dem, nicknames are fun. Plus, Demetri is a bit of a mouthful."
Her eyes lit in mirth and Demetri questioned her sanity as she said under her breath, 'that's what she said.' Another smile found its way to Demetri's lips as he shook his head, the prospect of this twenty-one-year-old human giving him a nickname when no one else had ever dared amused him greatly.
"Has no one ever given you a nickname before?" She questioned as she bit almost furiously into her burger. Her eating habits leaving much to be desired, he watched almost in horror as the burger was devoured in under a minute and she was already unwrapping the second burger.
She looked up from the food before her and met his eyes, her ears and cheeks erupting in a ghastly shade of red that clashed with her hair almost comically as the blood flowed beneath the flesh of her face. He saw every bit of it, and it was completely enthralling as the song that the blood sang to him called alluringly from beneath her cheeks. He gazed almost dotingly at her pulse, so much so that he nearly forgot why she was embarrassed, not to mention the reason he did not wish to turn her just yet, in the first place.
"Oh my God, did I just devour that in front of you? I am so sorry you saw that, sometimes when I'm ravenous I rip into my food like a wolf that's been starved for days." She explained rapidly.
Demetri laughed, loudly. A sound that he'd not heard from himself in centuries. He was sure Felix would pay to see this moment, not for Delphia's embarrassment but for his friend's subsequent mirth. "That was an absolutely disgusting display of human consumption, though it was impressive." Demetri winked as his laughter died but he caught Delphia smiling at him and continued with an answering smirk, "to answer your question, Demetri is actually a diminutive version of my original, one that I took for myself when I realized that Demetrius was much too long and outdated. I have had this name for many years."
"Hm." Delphia pondered, "So how old are you, anyways?"
"Older than the dirt beneath our feet." Demetri grinned at his own sparkling wit.
Della snorted, "And yet you don't look a day over twenty-five!"
"Well," Demetri began, ignoring her sarcasm. "I would have to say I am perhaps closer to thirty. I haven't kept track of my age in quite some time."
He was doing his best not to lie to his mate. He clearly wasn't being completely forthcoming, if he did she would run off again and he would have to track her down. He would rather not be inconvenienced in such a way, but he would follow her until he had the ability to reason with her. At the moment he was attempting to establish trust with his Delphia so that she would allow him to accompany her if she were to pack up and take off.
If she did leave once more then he would have no choice but to tell her what he is and why they were drawn together, because he'd only been given two months' leave from the Volturi, and he had already torn through ten days of that time. Demetri doubted that Aro would be so generous as to grant an extension. In fact, Aro more than likely would have preferred Demetri turned Della the night he found her and haul her body back to Volterra during her transitional stage.
"You don't know when your birthday is?" She questioned, the second half of her second burger abandoned as she munched on several fries at once. She looked saddened by the idea that he didn't know his own birthday, when in truth most vampires from only a couple centuries previous and further didn't recall the time of their birth, nor the season they may have been born in. Birthdays for the common folk were a fairly new celebration.
It was in that moment that Demetri felt his dead heart twitch and he realized how human his mate was. That something never even thought of in a vampire's lifetime could trigger sympathy and emotion. He wondered briefly if all humans were compassionate to a fault or if it was simply a characteristic of his Della.
"No, I do not. Do you mind if I tell you my life story another time, Della? I would much like to hear about you." He asked, trying to put his mind at ease for the time being. His growing hunger was beginning to get the best of him and he couldn't allow that to happen in the presence of his very human and delectable mate.
Della shrugged, "There's not really much to know about me, I'm just Delphia from Detroit."
"I highly doubt that 'just Delphia from Detroit' is all that you are."
"Fine, have it your way then," she teased, "I was born to a Miss Evelyn Payne and an unknown father on June 6th of 1994. The first memories I have are of my mom and I on the road and traveling. We'd been practically everywhere in the continental U.S. and even in some parts of Canada when all you needed was a U.S. ID to get in. In 2008, Mom was diagnosed with Lupus and she died in 2010 when I was a sophomore in high school. I haven't done all that much since, really. I've been taking classes at the local college. I'm still doing my coursework online and when this semester is done I'll be taking a break for a while."
"I am sorry to hear about your Mother." Demetri stated sincerely, and then after a pause he persisted, "Do you wish to continue your education?"
"In all honesty, I never wanted to go to college in the first place. I wanted to get back out on the road and travel like I had when I was younger but I couldn't leave my Gramps at the time. He's gone too now so I decided that it would be best to leave everything behind and pursue my actual dreams." She admitted, throwing the empty food wrappers in their bag and tossing them into the trashcan nearest her.
"What are your dreams, diletto?"
"I want to travel, for as long as I live." A burning passion lit her expression, causing Demetri to become riveted by her next words. "I never want to settle in a single place for long. There's so much to see and I have little time to see these things in. I don't want a career to hold me back. I don't want to drag children around with me when I know there's a good chance they wouldn't want a life with very little stability. Someday, when I am old and can no longer sustain the life that I have lived, I would like to rent a boat and get lost at sea. But before that, I'd like to write a book at the end of my lifetime, detailing my adventures. Because that's what my life will inevitably be if I live the way I've planned, one giant adventure."
Demetri could not stop the next words from escaping his lips, even though he realized that it could have given him away had Delphia already begun to put certain aspects of him together with whatever it was she knew of modern horror stories and myths, "And what if you were to become immortal?"
Thankfully, Della took this as a scenario and not a probability as she pondered her response. She was quiet for a minute as she thought about it and chewed her bottom lip while her eyes glanced over his face.
"To be completely honest, if such a thing as immortality were to exist I would think that it would be an indescribably lonely and bitter existence, I call it and existence because that's all that it would be. Those with this ability would not be living, they would be going through the motions. Life would become stale, and boring. I have a maximum of a hundred years to spend wandering the earth, which I believe allows me to see that the world is beautiful, and life is eternal even without a single body remaining on the planet for millennia." She paused suddenly and pursed her lips, "But to answer your question, if I were to become an immortal then I would more than likely never stop in one place for more than a year or two. Time would forever be passing me by and I would want to witness as much history as it happened. Until nuclear war clears the earth, that is, like I'm sure it eventually will."
Delphia stopped for a moment and picked up her beverage, taking a long drink from the sweet smelling liquid. When she released the straw she smiled over at Demetri as he sat pondering what she had stated, "What about you?"
Demetri had to stop himself from laughing outright.
"I must say that I agree with you, Delphia. Immortality would be both a gift and a curse. One would be capable of watching regimes rise and fall, witnessing the changes to the world in mere decades as if they were only days passing one by. Though with all of the fantastic happenings, a dozen lifetimes would grow bitter and lonely, as you stated. Until, of course, a mate was found, and then the happiness would slowly seep back into the life of the immortal. Colors would once again have meaning, days would no longer pass in a blur of time."
Della looked puzzled, "Mate?"
Demetri smiled adoringly at her, even though he wanted to keep most of the information about himself from spilling over he couldn't help but provide her with hints that would aid her in understanding him before he was forced to tell her the truth about himself. He thought that, perhaps, if she was to being to understand before she was told then it would be easier for her to comprehend.
"Of course, do you think the gods would allow an immortal being to walk the earth alone for eternity without company?"
"Mates though, like with animals?" she questioned, her voice sounding a bit off.
Delphia's eyes were drooping when he looked into them. She was obviously tired, and it was nearly one in the morning. He supposed that after her travel her human body required rest. He smiled devilishly at her and stood from the chair he'd been in. "I can see that you grow tired. Please, get some rest, I am three doors to the right of you if you need me." Demetri wrote his number on one of the napkins that were in her bag from the restaurant and then stood, walking over to her and lifting her hand he placed a gentle kiss to her knuckles, "Do not hesitate to contact me at any time."
"Okay. Thanks for saving me from getting my face punched in. I really need to stop getting into fights." She said sleepily as he opened the door and walked through.
"I would be most grateful if you would refrain from brawling, myself." Demetri stated, "Goodnight, diletto. Vi prego di non lasciare di nuovo."
~.~.~.~
A few hours after he'd left Della to sleep Demetri stood on the top of the largest building in New Orleans, looking out into the darkness of the night illuminated only by the ever glowing business of the city. It was troubling that in recent times it seemed that humans almost refused to live without their modern electricity. Even out in the wilderness it seemed that someone had a light on in their home. Demetri longed for the days when the night was dark until the sun rose over the horizon. Back when the air was cleaner and the humans were far filthier.
Then again, modern plumbing and motor vehicles. He supposed filthy oxygen was a good tradeoff for cleaner bodies, running water, and fast transportation. At least the acrid smell of fecal matter no longer covered the bodies of his meals.
It had been quite some time since the Volturi had inspected the covens of the Southern United States, the territory that covered the expanse of Alabama through Arizona, going north as far as the top of Oklahoma. The word that had reached Italy was that the covens had finally established a treaty in the mid-1900s and were living within the territories that they had conquered. Now that the humans had the technology that they had created, the southern vampire armies had quelled their fury and power grabs for the time being. That, and they hoped not to draw Volturi involvement after their last battle with the vampire Kings. Regardless of how formidable their armies had been against the Volturi, nothing short of divine intervention could save these covens if they were to break the law and garner the wrath of the Volturi, again.
His Volturi necklace hung on full display around his neck with the pendant resting comfortably on his chest, it was a symbol of who he was; worn as a reminder to the local vampires. Demetri was not standing at the top of the building for the sights, but so he would not offend the residing coven by not revealing himself on his personal visit. Such behavior would shame the Volturi.
Vampire etiquette, such a tedious affair. Demetri thought as he noted the presence of another vampire land on the roof.
"What business does the Volturi's best hunting dog have here?" A woman's voice asked sharply from behind him.
Demetri turned and looked at the vampire almost condescendingly, asserting his rank and prestige in one look mirrored by one sentence. "You would do well to remember to whom you speak, Madame Laveau."
She hadn't changed much since his last visit to the city, she looked just like what a portrait of Madame Marie Catherine Laveau looked like back in 1800s New Orleans. Clearly, the Madame refused to stay up to date with modern dress. Demetri wondered briefly if she even walked in her own city any more, of if she simply remained indoors and let her coven do the monitoring for her since the treaty had stopped the vampire wars and the city had become a major tourist attraction.
Truly, Madame Laveau hated the Volturi more so than most others did, not that she was forthcoming with her opinion. She had been turned by Aro after Jane had witnessed Laveau preforming what the locals called a 'Voodoo ritual' during one of the Volturi's visits. Aro, thinking that some of this unknown power would transfer into her life as a vampire, turned her a few nights later and dragged her back to Italy by boat. When it became apparent that Laveau would not retain her human abilities as a vampire, she was allowed to leave the Volturi, and so she set out to travel back to her homeland.
Unfortunately for Aro, and the Volturi, once Marie was back on her home grounds she seemed to easily regain a semblance of her lost power. Demetri had been the first Aro sent to Africa, Marie's ethnic homeland, to gather information on this peculiar magic. He quickly learnt that this form of magic required assistance from a spiritual plane, and thus Marie's power had to do with her own ancestral and concentrated grounds. In order to truly utilize her gift, she was forced to remain in New Orleans for her to have any real effect. To say Aro was displeased was the understatement of that particular decade, as he'd wanted her powers for his arsenal.
It was Laveau's power that had been the catalyst for the rest of the warring Covens leaving the New Orleans coven to themselves, even before the treaty was written. Marie Laveau was a formidable fighter on her own soil, with her ancestors to aid her, and thus she was able to flourish and build for herself an empire, and defend her home territory.
Demetri had no idea how much stronger she may have become in the past century since they had last crossed paths, but he knew Laveau would take no action against the Volturi, despite how she felt about them. She more than most knew of the consequences of such actions. In fact, she was quite the magistrate in her own territory and held good standing with Aro for her protective measures, even if the relation was somewhat strained. If the Vampire world were to have a regional sheriff, Marie Laveau would have easily earned that title.
Laveau bowed her head just slightly in a show of submission to the higher vampire before raising it once again, "Forgive me, at times I forget my manners. What can we do for you, Demetri?"
"I am merely here for a time, on a short respite from my duties. I doubt my presence will be much noticed, Madame." Demetri assured, turning back around to face the night sky.
Madame Laveau came to stand beside him, looking down over the city itself. "I trust everything is well in Volterra?"
Demetri internally sighed at the formal question. What the Madame was actually asking was 'They haven't found a replacement for you, have they?'. "Business as usual," he responded casually. It was known fact that Demetri never took break of his duties. The fact that he was doing so now would draw attention. Attention that he did not want, especially not while Delphia was still human and easily killed.
The last thing Demetri needed was a coven of vampires finding out about and then becoming hell bent on killing his mate. He wished to himself that Della hadn't chosen this particular city. Or any large Southern City. Or the South, period. His prestige may, for once in his atrociously long lifetime, become a hindrance to him if there was a coven with the audacity enough to oppose him.
A vampire could not survive after having known their mate. The only known survivor of a lost true mate had been Marcus, and Aro had gone to great lengths to keep him alive, though the king himself was barely a shell of what the eldest of their kind can remember him to be. Demetri could name at least five vampires who would come far and wide for a chance to end the existence of Demetri Volturi if it were possible, since a staple of the Volturi has always been that they cannot be evaded for long. The loss of Demetri would signify a massive weakness for the Volturi should they not find an adequate replacement in time.
Quite a bit rested on the fact that secrecy, along with the safety of Delphia, was an utmost priority not only to Demetri, but to the Volturi coven. Though Demetri himself was a formidable fighter and held no worry for his own abilities, he knew better than to allow his ego to overshadow his foresight. Any vampire willing to attempt the murder of a Volturi's human mate would suffer the wrath of not only that particular Volturi, but of the entire organization, and that might be enough to stave off the curiosity of the most audacious of vampires.
Still, Demetri worried if word got to the Romanians, and vowed to keep an eye on their whereabouts just to be sure.
"I am sure that I do not need to caution you, of all vampires, but I must ask that you only feed from the homeless while you are here, and please dump the corpses deep within the bayou for the alligators. We are trying to keep suspicion down for now. A duo of nomads came through recently that stirred up trouble with the local authorities, we've done away with them, of course, so there is no cause for alarm." Laveau stated, breaking the silence just the subtle lightness of dawn was beginning to show over the horizon.
Demetri nodded slightly, "I will maintain utmost caution in your territory."
"Oh, and before I forget, please do not feed from the locals. We are still recovering from the hurricane that decimated this area a decade ago, since then we have not tasted blood from any New Orleans native."
"You have my word." Demetri responded, before jumping from the building and making way back to Delphia.
Author's Message.
At first I spelled Author 'autoirers'. I have no idea. Don't ask. As always, a big thanks to everyone who favored, reviewed, and alerted TMS!
We should all be thanking the lovely Nickaroos for once again making a comment that gave me an idea and then discussed it with me until it really started coming together and will inevitably extend Book One an extra several chapters. In fact, it altered quite a bit of the plot line of Book 1 and a bit of Book 4. This story wouldn't be half as good as it's starting to be without her insight.
If any of you all have finals – good luck to you!
If any of you have finished finals - woooo!
Translation Corner: Be advised- I don't speak Italian so anything wrong you can blame on Google. If readers from Italy feel like correcting me so I can fix any errors, feel free to do so. I'd love you forever!
Diletto – Beloved.
Vi prego di non lasciare di nuovo – I beg you do not leave again.
The beast said screw it, she's taking the kids and they're going to binge watch Twilight. The children request Popcorn!
Feed the Beast
