Caius studied me as I sat across from him on the sofa. He hadn't said anything since Aro left. He hadn't even moved. He just sat there, his eyes never leaving my form. When he did eventually stand, my toes curled in anticipation as I awaited what he was going to do.

He nearly glided over to Aro's desk and searched about it until he found what he was looking for, a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. Picking them up, he came back over to me and brought the side table nearby with him. He seated himself where Aro had been sitting last, and my instincts were to move away, but I stayed still. Something told me the result wouldn't have been in my favor if I had.

"It has been a few days. Aro has kept you well?" Caius remarked, placing the pencil and paper down on the side table in front of me. I nodded, but it wasn't what he wanted. He growled in response. "Use your voice."

It reminded me of the first time, or second time rather, that we met, and I swallowed. "Yes."

"That is good to hear." Caius gestured then to the pencil and paper. "Draw me something."

What he requested took me aback. That was not what I was expecting when he brought that stuff over to where I was. If anything, I expected sentences written in my own blood like Umbridge had done to Harry. I had never taken an art class in my life. "I can't draw."

"Anyone can draw, though there are some that are more skilled at it than others. A few lessons are all you need." Caius picked up the pencil as he continued and held it out to me. I took it from his hand. "You enjoy the sciences, and art and science are more similar than what many realize. They both require creativity and a new way of thinking. Masterworks of art are created by artists who are willing to take risks and beg the question of what if. Even the stroke of a brush comes from an instrument of precision.

"Science is the same. One hypothesizes, makes a guess, takes a risk. Creativity and thinking outside of the norm lead to discovery and an understanding of the world around us. When you create art, you do much of the same. Remember, DaVinci may have been an artist, but he was also a brilliant scientific inventor."

Caius put his hand over mine and held it over the piece of paper. Carefully, he guided my hand to create a few lines before releasing me. "Now, continue."

I bit my lip. Caius's logic of art and science didn't really make any sense to me, but I played along with it anyway. What else could I do? I connected the three lines he had drawn, and not having any sort of imagination, I drew a curved line across the top of the piece of paper then a straight line down from it. I connected it to the three-line rectangle by making an acute angle, or an upside-down triangle.

I wasn't sure what I was doing, but the image kind of looked like the head of a bird, so I drew a circle for an eye, then a few more curved lines aiming downward to create a sort of body. I added feet and a couple of flipper wings, and another curved line to create a separation of what could be two different colored furs. In a way, it appeared to be a penguin with a strangely shaped beak. I put the pencil down and examined it. It wasn't awful, but it certainly looked to be drawn by a child.

Caius picked up the paper and glanced it over. "It's not the worst for your first try." He stood, taking the paper with him, and placed it on the center of Aro's desk. "A bit of amusement once my brother returns."

That wasn't my idea of amusement, Aro seeing my pitiful drawing, but I wasn't going to argue with a vampire, either. Instead, my mind fell to Eleazar and what Aro had mentioned before he left. There was no way I was gifted because if I was, wouldn't Aro have realized it before now? After all, he could read my mind. He would have seen it, right?

"Who's Eleazar?" I suddenly asked. The words sort of just left my mouth before I could filter them, but thankfully Caius didn't seem to mind.

"He has the ability to see gifts in others. He used to be a member of the permanent guard, but for some reason that I cannot fathom, Aro allowed him to leave to be with his mate and take part in the same despicable diet as the Cullen's."

The way Caius spoke, and the words used, it was more than just a distastefulness. He spat out the name 'Cullen,' and I had learned that it was the name Carlisle and his coven used, though Carlisle apparently referred to them as his family. Aro had never spoken about Carlisle's diet, but the one thing I did remember was the color of the eyes. Carlisle's had been this sort of golden hue, while all the vampires I had met since had a red as deep as the blood they drank.

"Carlisle has a different diet?"

"As if animal blood could sustain in the long term. It's unnatural for a vampire to not feed off of the blood of humans." I followed Caius's movements with my eyes, and he finally sat back down next to me on the sofa as he was speaking. "It has changed him in ways that I will never grasp. He is not true to his nature. Not like us."

Caius had said the last part directly to me, and I glanced down at my knees, which I had pulled back up into my chest. "Well, he's a doctor, so it makes sense that he wouldn't want to kill anyone."

"Don't defend the behavior." I felt him move closer to me until his body was practically touching mine, and his breath whispered by my ear. "We are not meant to save humans. We are monsters, designed to take what we want and kill."

I remembered back, only a few days ago, when I had been in Caius's office, the man that I had sliced into over and over again. The man that I may have been the one to actually kill. I remembered Caius removing his organs, placing them in bowls, and then helping him store them in his miniature science laboratory. Is that what Caius had meant by 'not like us'? I had my own monster inside of me, screaming to come out.

His teeth so close to my throat had my nerves spiking and my heart racing, though I did my best to not show it. Of course, he was a vampire, and vampires happened to have perfect hearing, so Caius could easily tell how on edge he was putting me. He seemed to relish in it, however. "So, you dislike Carlisle? And Eleazar?"

He leaned back onto the sofa, giving me some air again, which I was thankful for. "Dislike is a strong word. I do not dislike Carlisle, but I abhor his actions, just as I abhor Eleazar's. He never should have been let to leave."

The next words out of my mouth were dangerous, but for some reason, I didn't care. Whatever I said wouldn't stop Caius from doing whatever he wanted with me, if he had planned on doing anything to start. "What about Yevgeni?"

Instead of growling, which I had actually expected, Caius merely scoffed. "What about him? He's a spoiled nuisance. I wouldn't be surprised if it were true that he had created those newborns."

"You don't like him."

It wasn't a question, and Caius smirked. "I would take care of him myself if I could. His behavior from the past already claims him. He has a little gift of his own, not quite as useful as Alec's, but it is an annoyance."

"What can he do?" Curiosity seemed to have gotten the better of me, and I wondered when Caius would put a stop to it. He had to be getting tired of my questions.

"Sedation." Caius paused, thinking for a moment before a sly smile formed on his face, and his eyes looked at me in a way that made my skin crawl. "Though it would be useful for certain things."

I instantly knew what he was referring to by the look he gave me and the way he spoke. It reminded me of the past, and I did scoot further away from him then. "Only a joke," he added before crossing his legs and resting his eyes, his head laid back against the top back of the sofa.

That wasn't a thing to joke about, but Caius was different. First, he wasn't human. Secondly, I wasn't sure he honestly had any humanity left in him after he had been turned into a vampire. At least Aro and the others had some boundaries. I wasn't sure if Caius knew any besides the one Aro must have given him about my blood. I watched him a while longer, and when he hadn't said anything else, I stood and went into the bedroom. I left the door open, but I needed a second to breathe.

I curled up on the bed. There was never much to do in here if Chelsea or Demetri weren't around as Aro would tend to be at his desk writing about something. Aro also hadn't been focusing much on my lessons the past few days. There was at least the laptop. I was surprised he had even left me with it, but considering I had nowhere to go, and he could read my mind, it wasn't much of an issue to be unsupervised. Besides, Chelsea had set up some weird child lock on it that required permission for specific sites, all email providers and social media sites being blocked, and it gave a breakdown of everything I did.

Opening up the browser, I navigated to a site that we sometimes used at school for supplementary learning. Math had always been calming for me, something about numbers not being able to shift like the letters did. Plus, numbers were logical. They always made sense, whereas words could have so many different meanings, be pronounced in various ways, and even sometimes had numerous spellings. I pulled up a lesson, basic algebra, and began to watch.

A shadow loomed over me only seconds after the video had started playing, and I realized Caius had entered the bedroom now as well. I half-expected him to take a seat on the bed next to me like Aro often did, but instead, Caius pulled up the armchair to the bed and sat down in it. "How entertaining."

"Watching me watch a video about algebra is entertaining?"

"Why do you not wish to leave? You don't fight. You behave unnaturally for a human."

We were back to that apparently and how a vampire should act. He had included me in that dialogue. I knew it from the way he said the word 'us.' I had concluded that I was my own kind of monster, though I was still very much human. He had mentioned before that I was different from the others. Why was he so hung up on that?

"I don't know why I'm different, or why I act the way I do. I just do."

"Have you given up then?"

"Of course not, but even if I am stupid about most things, one thing I'm not stupid about is that when Aro wants to kill me, he will. Like I told you, I'm tired of playing his game, but I can't stop playing it either." I met Caius's eyes then. Aro wouldn't answer me, and I was frustrated with not knowing. Maybe Caius would continue giving me something. He had been the one to turn me onto Aro's plan for me before. "What does he want with me? I'm obviously some sort of test subject for the two of you."

Caius chuckled darkly before reaching out and running a finger down my bare arm. "I genuinely await the day when you do find out. I wonder then how you will react. Will you behave the same, or will you finally fight? The many possibilities…"

The door to Aro's study opened, and I knew then that Aro had returned. Caius met him at the bedroom door, shared with Aro his thoughts from the quick touch of a hand, then departed. Aro came to me, sat the laptop down on the bed, and then sat down himself on the other side before pulling me carefully into his chest. "Eleazar will arrive in a couple of days."

I had nothing to say, so I just nodded. Aro had begun to stroke my hair, and as tense as I had become, I tried to allow myself to relax. "Caius told me about him."

"Yes, I saw that. I do think you will like him. Eleazar has quite a gentle persona, much like my old friend, Carlisle. He was the one who introduced Eleazar to his peculiar lifestyle. I admire them for it, their control. I was certain the diet would have weakened Carlisle, but, for once, I was delighted to find out that I had been wrong."

"I guess you don't need to drink animal blood, do you?"

I felt Aro sigh behind me. "With my particular abilities, no, but Caius is right. It is in our very nature to kill. We are designed for such, to take the life force of others so that we may live. There's a thrill in doing so, but I do not like to be wasteful. Even human life sometimes has its value."

Slowly, I turned around to meet Aro's eyes with mine. A soft smile was on his face, and I bit my lip in anticipation of what to say. However, Aro didn't give me the chance to say anything. Instead, he took my chin in his hand and pulled me close, so our faces were only inches apart. "Do not worry anymore about my plans for you, little one. I can promise you that when the time comes, there will be no fight left in you at all."

A/N: Thank you for reading! Be sure to leave a review!