Andrea's POV
"Now, what will we be getting you for breakfast?"
Aro and I walked down the dimly lit hall, glued to each other's hips.
"Ah, it doesn't matter…I'm not hungry."
"Come now! I won't have you starving to death. Gianna must have something cooking for herself, let's stop by the kitchen and see if she'll be willing to share."
I heaved an exasperated sigh. "All right, fine." He squeezed me closer as we continued down the corridor. I must say, I was a little bit surprised when he said they had a kitchen in the castle. I was expecting the Volturi to be completely un-technologized, but when we entered the kitchen, my expectations were blown away.
The entire room was plated in marble counters and stainless steel appliances. Gianna stood behind the island counter stirring something that was sizzling on the range.
"Good morning, master." She said in her thin accent.
"Hello Gianna, Andrea is in need of nourishment, would you oblige to helping her attain some?" Aro inquired. I almost laughed aloud at the way that he phrased his request. Gianna nodded frantically up and down.
"Si si, I hope that you like sausages." She looked at me, and stirred once. My stomach growled.
"I love sausages!" I replied enthusiastically. She smiled and looked back down at her food. I approached the island counter to watch her cook. The smell of the meat sent a painful pang of sadness to my heart. "Are you planning to pair them with eggs?" I asked. She looked at me and smiled again.
"No! But that does sound delicious doesn't it?"
I rolled my lips in hunger and looked up at Aro. "Don't they look delicious?"
He wrinkled his nose and turned his head slightly. "Not particularly; I prefer some O positive and hemoglobin myself."
Gianna stifled a laugh with a cough. I, however, found nothing funny about his remark.
Alec entered the kitchen silently, and I was caught off-guard when I saw him standing behind Aro. Alec touched his pointer finger onto Aro's hand. Aro concentrated on something in the distance; his eyes going out of focus. Then he closed his eyes and sighed.
"Very well then, I'll be with them shortly." Alec removed his finger from Aro's hand, and left wordlessly. "I'm very sorry Andrea, but I'm needed in council. I'll be stopping by later to check up on you. Gianna, help her if she requires assistance with anything."
Gianna gave a small noise of compliance. Aro walked around the island to give me a hug and a kiss on the head before departing. I stood in silence after he left, watching the empty door frame for several seconds before I broke my gaze.
"So, you said you wanted eggs, do you like them a certain way?" Gianna asked.
"Hmm? Oh, uh, I'll just do them myself." I scurried over to the enormous silver fridge and pulled it open. For just one human living amongst the vampires, there was an abundance of food in the fridge. I found the eggs quickly, picked them up and placed them on the counter. Gianna removed the sausages from the pan and placed them on a stoneware plate.
"Use this; it's already hot." She wiped the excess grease from the pan with surprising speed, and then motioned for me to use it. I took her place behind the island and cracked the eggs open over the scorching pan. Gianna sat down at the bar, and began cutting up the sausages.
While the eggs were cooking, I was zoning out again and reminiscing of the conversation of the previous night between Aro and myself. My memory was only bringing me half of the conversation, and I was having trouble remembering details, but the few words that rang loud and clear in my memory were the ones, 'I love you."
Maybe I was a little quick to give him that part of me. It was incredibly in-the-moment…
I began to regret uttering those words. Receiving special attention was something that I wasn't used to in the least sense, and it was odd for me to suddenly have so much of it.
My thoughts began to stray to Athenodora, and how welcoming and kind she'd been to me this morning. The thought of Athenodora led to me thinking about the dress she'd put me in.
I'd better get an apron; if I ruined this just after just putting it on, Athenodora would have my skin…
I grumbled to myself as I set down the spatula, pulled an apron from a hook on the wall, and tied it around myself.
"There are plenty left for you if you…" Gianna trailed off when I didn't respond. "Andrea?"
I snapped out of my stupor. "Sorry…"
"Something's obviously got you preoccupied. Care to share?" she put a piece of sausage in her mouth while I removed the eggs and placed them on a plate.
"Just…thinking,"
"About…?"
I leaned against the counter and began to devour my eggs. I swallowed the first mouthful quickly to answer her question. "Just stuff…I'm trying to decide whether I really made the right choice by coming here."
"At least you had a choice."
"Not really," I remembered the circumstances in which I'd made my choice. The noise of Alice's neck cracking flooded my ears, setting my hair on edge. I winced at the memory.
She seemed to guess what I was thinking. "Aro can be pretty pressing when he wants to be. But he's not nearly as manipulative as Sulpicia or Jane."
I looked up from my plate to look at her bronze face. "How did you-?"
"I didn't exactly choose to live with the Volturi either." She intertwined her hands, and leaned onto the counter. "I witnessed Demetri and Felix killing a human while I was in the forest outside of the city. I should've been killed on the spot, but Aro intervened and took pity on me." I just about spluttered my eggs across the counter. She continued.
"He took interest in me; I think it might've been my looks, but he said that he would spare my life if I would give myself to him once."
Give-?
I exhaled through pursed lips. "As in…like…?" I motioned with my hands. I wasn't really keen on broaching on the awkward subject of sex. She nodded.
"So, I did. And let me just say; it was spectacular. I've never met a man who could make love like he could." she said smugly. I blushed at the very concept of Aro 'making love.'
"What did Sulpicia-?" Gianna shushed me suddenly and looked around the kitchen.
"She doesn't know," she leaned across the counter and whispered. My eyes widened.
"So why didn't Aro dump Sulpicia for you?" she pulled back and mouthed the word 'dump' to herself in confusion. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and rephrased my question. "Why is Sulpicia still with Aro if you…uh…"
Her lips pulled into a small smile. "Even if he thought I was beautiful, I knew his heart still belonged to her. His fancy for me waned after that, but he still didn't want me killed. He made me the secretary of the Volturi, and I'm hoping that one day, he'll just change me so that I can be like him." My eyes flicked back and forth between my plate and her face.
"So…" I drew out the word, "You and Aro slept with each other?" She smirked and nodded. "And Sulpicia doesn't know?" she nodded again.
"I guess he was just lonely,"
How do I know that he won't do the same thing to me? Am I just an object to be used and possessed? But there's no more room for secretaries…he'll just kill me and enjoy drinking my blood while he laughs about how I fell for his ploy…
Confusion welled up inside of me.
How could Sulpicia be any more manipulative than he has been?
I couldn't take being in the room with Gianna anymore. "Excuse me," I said sharply before I swept myself out of the room, leaving my unfinished eggs on the counter.
I lifted my skirt and ran down the hall; my shoes clacking loudly with every step.
I just need to be alone…somewhere where I don't have anything to remind me of Aro.
I kept running, having no idea where I was running to. Corner after corner, and I was getting more and more lost in the monstrous fortress of Volterra.
I slowed my pace to a jog, huffing and puffing from the sprint. I dropped my head and kept jogging, turning another corner. My momentum was cut short when I ran directly into a brick wall. I screamed in surprise, and fell onto my back in a heap.
I groaned and lifted my head. To my horror, I realized that I hadn't run into a brick wall at all, but rather, directly into Sulpicia. She stared at me with furious eyes; red around the edges but deep and black in the center. I gasped and scrambled onto my hands and knees. I began to stand up, but she kicked me in the side with her stone foot. I cried out in pain, and collapsed onto my stomach.
"Don't bother getting up. If it was up to me, I'd kill you right now." She fumed. My heart began pounding. I considered fighting her, but I knew it would be futile. Maybe this is how it all ends…I closed my eyes and braced, waiting for the attack. The anticipating silence was unnerving. I jumped when she clicked her tongue three times.
"So small and weak…pitiful." she rolled me over onto my back with her indestructible foot. I opened my eyes to see her face inches from mine. I felt no breath on my face; she was probably holding her breath as to not be tempted to drink my blood.
"I don't think Aro would be very happy with me killing you…but you're just so, delicious smelling…" she took a sharp inhale and rolled her eyes as she exhaled. "I think he'll find another harlot…"
I wonder if she knows about Gianna. Is she insinuating that there were others?
Her throat emitted a terrible growl as she leaned up to stand on her feet. She raised her hand slowly, looking like she was about to give some oath, and I watched with horrified eyes as all of the muscles in her powerful arms seized.
Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa…here I come. I thought in vain.
"Sulpicia!" a high voice screeched from the end of the hall. Sulpicia lurched forward and stopped in mid-swipe. Athenodora rushed to stand above me. Sulpicia gave Athenodora a smug look; I flinched as her hand flew towards my face. When I opened my eyes, her hand was completely still; hovering above me.
"Don't be so worried Dora…I was just helping her up from a nasty fall…"
I took her vocal clue and grasped Sulpicia's freezing hand reluctantly. She hoisted me to my feet roughly and then shoved me away from her quickly. My shoulder blade seared with acute pain from her powerful yank.
"Watch yourself, because I'll be watching your every step." She scoffed, turned on her heel, and disappeared. I clutched my arm to immobilize my shoulder. Athenodora placed her cold hand on my back, and led me from the corridor.
"I'm really sorry…Sulpicia's very…moody and possessive."
"She has a right to be. She's Aro's mate." I spat.
Athenodora hesitated. "Well…they're not technically bound by any law-marriage that is-but yes, it is assumed that they are mates. But their love for each other has been sadly diminishing."
"Hmph," I responded shortly, trying to end the conversation.
"I wanna take a look at your shoulder."
"It's fine!" I yelled a little too loudly.
"Andrea…" she growled warningly.
"Just-just leave me! I wanna get away! Can't you understand that?" I screamed in anguish. Athenodora halted as I continued stomping down the hall. I turned the next corner, and broke into a run again. My shoulder screamed in protest, but I didn't care.
A door ended the path of the long and twisted hallway. I wrenched open the door and sprinted up the newly-revealed spiral stairs. Curtain billowed back and forth ominously at the top of the long spiral stairs. I stopped just in front of them, testing them with my hands first to make sure that there wasn't a brick wall behind them like in my quarters. I pushed with my good arm, and felt no barrier.
I pulled them aside impatiently, and burst onto a balcony on the outside of the fortress. I stopped in my tracks, and shielded my eyes with my hand at the harsh light of the sun. I inhaled deeply, smelling the sweet morning air. I walked farther out onto the balcony, lowering my hand as I adapted to the much-needed sunlight, and taking in the beauty of the rolling green hills that lay on the horizon.
I walked over to the edge of the balcony, putting my hands on the cold stones, and gazing down around the square filling quickly with people going about their business. The air was clear and tinted with the scent of exotic spices, and the sound of chattering people slowly filled my ears. At that moment, my troubles melted away. I looked around the square, admiring the fountain standing at its center, watching the water glisten as it poured from the top of the angel holding a bowl above her head.
As suddenly as they had disappeared, my troubles came right back to worry me. I placed my head in my hands, leaning on the wall, feeling the rough stone dig into my elbows. I sat in that position for a long time as I thought about my eventful morning.
Am I just another piece of entertainment for Aro? Is that just what he does? Go around to rural areas, finding secluded and lonely young women, and dazzle them into bed with him?
No, no I believe that he loves me.
So? The rest of the women he slept with probably thought so too.
What others? Gianna is the only one I know about, she never said that there were others.
Hello? It's called reading between the lines! Listening between the-oh, whatever!
Besides being seductive, he's also very capable of killing you at any moment. Why would he keep you alive if you're so appetizing?
Because of his lust for power; it's my talent that is keeping me alive…
"Stop!" I screamed to no one. I lifted my head from my hands, and rubbed my raw elbows. The pain in my shoulder was dying down, and I was able to use both arms freely now.
"You are killing me!" I recognized Athenodora's voice, and turned to see her standing in the shadows of the curtains. "Come in here at once and tell me what is wrong!"
I put my hands on my hips and stared at her.
"Please! Don't make me come out there." She said sternly. I rolled my eyes and walked towards her irritably. I snaked around her in the doorway, and began to run down the stairs two at a time. She jumped ahead of me and grabbed my hand. "Come with me."
She led me back down the same hallway, but turned in the opposite direction I'd come from, and down another dimly lit passage. She stopped in front of two very large doors.
"What's in there?" I asked. She pulled the doors open effortlessly, and gestured for me to enter. The room was black as pitch, and I could hear every footstep echo off around the room.
"What is this?" the room was suddenly flooded with light from a chandelier high above the floor. The room was an enormous ballroom, lined with flowers in vases, candelabras and mirrors on all sides. I took another step forward onto the massive floor.
"This is one of my favorite rooms. The St. Marcus Day ball is in here every year." Athenodora informed me.
"It's beautiful," I strode over to the nearest vase and stroked a beautiful red rose sticking out of the top.
"Okay," she took a deep and steadying breath. "Tell me what's tormenting you."
"Oh, Athenodora-"
"Dora." She corrected.
"…Dora, there's just too much…"
"I've got all the time in the world." She pulled a small velvet cushioned chair, and sat down. I began pacing back and forth on the marble floor, and poured out my heart to the only friend I had in all of Italy.
This just keeps getting worse and worse for her, doesn't it? R&R please!