Italians Do It Better
I raced into the Tuscan plains, Bella just a shadow in front of me, the wind of her passage whipping her hair back.
She was fast.
I struggled to overtake her as we passed out of Tuscany altogether, and the landscape changed to green, rolling hills and little copses of woodland, just beginning to lose their leaves. Bella laughed and looked over her shoulder at me, still in the lead even as I gained on her.
"Keep up, old man!" she cried teasingly. I drew level with her, and cocked my head, smirking, even while I ran beside her.
"Tell me, Bella, do you plan on leaving Italy altogether or should we stop do you think?" I asked, as I stopped abruptly. Bella shot off, and disappeared into a copse ahead of us. "Bella?"
"You want me to stop, then come and find me, old man!" she called, her tone playful.
Feeling my body stir, I walked into the copse, my every sense primed to find her. I inhaled the scents of wood, dew and the smell of animals, overlaid by a slight odour of human flooding into my brain. I searched amongst them for her scent; that unique trace of her human blood that still clung to her, exotic, enthralling. It was like a lodestone to my senses, as I stood in the copse, my eyes closed. A moment later I smiled predatorily, as I began to walk in the direction she had gone in.
I entered a slight break in the dense woodland, where a rocky tor erupted from the ground, and a clear patch of grass spread out from its base. I moved forward cautiously, listening to the sounds of the night.
Three miles away, a car door was slammed.
Five metres behind me an owl screeched, and a mouse scurried away into the undergrowth.
Suddenly I heard a playful growl, as I turned to find Bella launching herself off the top of the tor, and onto my back. Instantly I flipped her off my back, as she laughed, and threw her to the ground. Lust rushed through me as I pinned her wrists to the ground, achingly aware of her body beneath mine. Our lips were inches from each other as her red eyes glittered.
"Old man, hmm?" I asked her, letting my weight fall on her body.
"Well, aren't you like three thousand years old?" she asked, one fine eyebrow arching.
"More like two thousand seven hundred and nine, actually,"
"Decrepit," she murmured, her eyes darting down to my lips, before rising back to my eyes.
"Oh, really?" I asked in reply, thrusting my pelvis into hers, so she could know exactly how undecrepit I was. She gasped and arched her neck, biting her lip.
"You do know I can just throw you off me, don't you?" she retorted, shifting under me. I growled, digging her wrists into the ground, leaving twin dents in the earth.
"I know, but you won't. I'd wager you're rather comfortable right now," I whispered in her ear, the warmth of her cheek against my own.
"Cocky," she murmured, as I raised my head, smiling down on my Bella. The moonlight fell on her gentle features, beautiful, perfect; her skin glimmering like the moon's rays welled through alabaster.
"Two thousand years of ruling the vampire world does make one rather confident," I muttered, just brushing her lips with mine, teasing her. Need flowered, as the animal within me rose to the surface, leashed for the past month, snarling for her.
It was desperate now.
I held it back for the moment, as her breathing stuttered.
"I want you," she murmured, before she raised her head as far as she could, brushing my lips. I shuddered and kissed her, need rendering every muscle in my body taut. It was almost painful, the desire and the compulsion that flowed from that kiss, so much so, I groaned into her mouth. Her answering moan almost sent me wild, as I left her mouth to taste her skin, lavishing kisses down the length of her throat. Bella arched beneath me, the contact of our bodies sending an electrical current through us both. I released her wrists to explore her luscious body, as Bella's entwined with my hair, pulling it from its smooth style.
Then I heard it. That familiar beat of a human heart, as I paused and raised my head. Bella stilled, her breath stuttering. It was perhaps a mile away, and it reverberated inside my head.
"Bella….." I whispered warningly. As a Volturi, she would drink human blood anyway, but I would rather have her first kill under controlled conditions. In Volterra.
She closed her eyes, visibly fighting to retain control before she opened her eyes into mine.
"Aro," she whispered, before she grabbed me by the neck and kissed me, urgent and hungry. Suddenly she rolled us over, so she lay on top, her hands framing my face. I roamed her curves, her kiss and her touch distracting me from the human nearby. Her soft weight, her skin like satin under my touch, the shudders racking her body. Her lips fell to devouring my neck, and my head cleared a little. Whenever Bella was beneath me, it seemed a haze of desire and passion descended over my mind, hindering any thought process that dared to intrude.
How was she doing it? I could still hear the heartbeat not a mile away now, beneath the engine of a car, the human's scent beginning to saturate the air, flowing on the slight breeze. It was making my mouth water with venom, so what it was doing to her, a newborn only hours old, how was she doing it?
"Bella?" I whispered her name, as she undid the top button of my shirt, her lips gliding over my skin. I tensed, wrapping a hand in her hair, and pulling her head up.
But one look at her bruised lips and tousled hair and I pulled her lips to mine. I had no control around her, whatsoever.
I barely realised that the sounds of the car engine fading into the distance, taking the heartbeat with it. The scent of human blood faded into the undergrowth.
I gently broke from Bella's lips, as she leaned her forehead on mine, exhaling heavily. We both breathed heavily, our lips mere centimetres from each other, our breath mingling.
"Are you alright?" I asked, stroking her hair. She nodded. "How did you do that?"
"What?" she asked, raising her eyes to mine. They were coal-black.
"You resisted the thirst. Bella, you're a newborn. You shouldn't be able to resist it the way you did," I told her, stroking the hair at her nape soothingly, as she trembled.
"Maybe that was because right now, I don't want blood," she whispered, lowering her head again, a different kind of hunger in her eyes.
"What do you want?" I asked her, running one hand down the curve of her thigh. She shivered, as I flipped her onto her back. Her hair splayed over the grass, her lips open, mine to take. She was mine.
I lowered my head to hers.
"I want you," she murmured before our lips met with renewed hunger, urgency overriding everything. Ours lips locked as one, our tongues entwined. I yanked my jacket off, throwing it away impatiently, feeling the material rip, as Bella tore open the buttons of my shirt. My hands went to her sweater, before she abruptly left my kiss and rolled us over again. "Hang on, I don't particularly fancy having to run back to Volterra with no clothes. So hold your horses there, tiger," she muttered, sitting up to pull her sweater off herself. I had to concede she was right; that would be an indignity too far. Apart from the fact Felix would not let me or Bella forget it for decades to come.
But another animalistic part of me told the other to go to hell.
The moonlight bathed Bella's white skin, rendering her akin to a marble statue from a Classical sculptor. She looked like a goddess. I sat up, pulling her lips to mine, kissing her senseless. She pushed off my shirt, our Volturi pendants pressed against each other, a perfect fit to the other. She twined her arms around my neck, pulling herself against my chest, our bare skin touching.
After that, my senses disappeared, sight and hearing unable to make past the haze of desire, the craving I had for her body. No one, not even Sulpicia had made me feel like this.
I had found my true mate and now I had claimed her.
I felt her soft skin, like satin beneath my fingertips, her nubile limbs entwined with my own.
I tasted the sweet cavern of her mouth, as I took it voraciously, giving as well as taking.
She was mine, forever.
- Hours later, as the sun began to rise, we stopped. I could have gladly remained with her there all day, and the following night. And the next day and night….
"Does it ever let up?" Bella asked me, her sweet voice puncturing my thoughts, bringing me back to reality. She lay on top of me, our legs entwined, her slender fingers tracing my Volturi crest.
"Does what ever let up?" I asked, frowning. All these newfangled phrases, which were anything but helpful. But then again, leave it to teenagers to be deliberately vague. I tilted her head up to mine, looking into her eyes. She looked…bashful, sheepish. If she'd been human, she'd be blushing.
"You know…this desire. This craving for each other. How do we…?" she gestured helplessly, flicking her tousled hair over her shoulder. I chuckled.
"It becomes easier to handle, dearest Bella. After a few decades," I added, smirking at the look on her face. But I knew, with her incredible self-control, that it would only take three words to focus her mind onto one subject. Alicia and Charlie.
I was sure she'd already thought about them, but was dealing with her yearning for them, and the craving she felt. I remembered all too well how disorientating the extra space in ours mind could be, at first.
Bella's eyes widened, so much, I couldn't help but start laughing.
"Quit laughing, it isn't that funny!" she growled, frowning at me. If she'd possessed Jane's power, I'd have been done for. I couldn't help it, I just laughed at her. She was truly endearing when she wasn't seriously angry.
All of a sudden Bella appeared above me, pushing me back onto the grass, glaring down at me. I stilled, my gaze already falling to her lips, my need stirring.
"No, it isn't funny at all," I agreed, as I pulled her lips to mine. She moaned and arched in my arms, as I tumbled her over onto her back, putting all my weight onto her, her hands sliding into my hair.
I had a sneaking suspicion it would take considerably more than a few decades before this need for Bella would ever so much as ease enough for me to function without wanting her constantly.
It was early morning before Bella and I arrived back in Volterra, me sans jacket. In our destructive passion, the jacket had been one of many casualties, the others including the rock face of the tor, several trees and the ground of the clearing. To put it politely, it looked like it had been ploughed in the very centre, foliage and grass completely crushed.
Our journey back to Volterra had been much slower, as we'd had to hide in the shadows from the sun. Thankfully there had been some cloud cover, so we could run freely at intervals.
As we jumped into the training hall we'd left the previous night, I noticed our welcoming committee. And the half-hidden smirks on Demetri's, Felix's and Alec's faces. And the half-smile on Marcus's apathetic face.
The scowl on Caius's brow.
That alone might make the torture I was going to endure from Felix and the others for the day a little bit more bearable.
Bella soared through the air, her strength and speed breathtaking to watch. It made me want her all over again.
"Brother, you are returned," Marcus stepped forward, as Bella fell in beside me. Just outside, the sun came out once more, flooding the Tuscan plains with sunlight. To my surprise, and to the surprise of nearly everyone in the hall, Marcus stepped up to Bella and took her hand, brushing a kiss over it. "Sister, I am glad to see you so recovered from your ordeal,"
"Thanks, Marcus," Bella smiled a little shyly.
"Brother, we have business to attend to," Caius butted in, impatiently. I smiled indulgently.
"Of course. Bella, I shall be along in a little while," I ushered my mate out of the room, knowing she was desperate to see her children once more. Heidi and Renata immediately followed her, already following her like the leader she would become in time. I sighed wearily, as I made to follow Caius and Marcus from the hall. I passed Demetri and Felix, and saw their smirks.
"Not a word," I growled warningly, as they followed us from the hall.