[English isn't my first language, so please be kind!]

[All characters belongs to Stephenie Meyer!]

12

The Kiss

It hadn't been long since Elia had accepted that she would never see her family and the boy she loved again, so she did the only thing she could think of when she returned to the hotel: craft work.

Her room was on one of the top floors, close to Aro's private room and a few floors below the wives' and Elia had been postponing a renovation for months, procrastinating would be the right word. She didn't want to talk to Aro about her feelings when they returned to the hotel, so she just took some cans of paint that were hidden under her bed and started painting.

Aro said nothing, he was happy that his daughter had returned safely, so he left her alone in her little and lonely world and demanded Santiago to take a letter to Elia's family, a warning, that they needed to leave peacefully if they didn't want to suffer the consequences. Then he found Demetri lying on a sofa in the game room, and put him on guard in the hall.

Things could have ended well this time, but Aro didn't want to risk Elia running away again. They didn't return to the hotel until sunrise, and the fact of leaving his daughter exposed made him paranoid. Aro stayed hidden behind the curtains on the first floor balcony for hours to make sure that no humans had followed them.

- It's okay - Carlisle said when she found him still on watch - she's safe now.

- How can you be sure? - Aro asked, only then realizing that he hadn't said anything to Carlisle - Wait, how do you know that?

- I heard your argument with Alec, it was not my intention.

- It's very difficult to create someone.

- I know - Carlisle smiled, his golden eyes were warm - each of my children is different, and Elia must be very special.

- Of course she is - Aro sighed - I chose her.

- Not only for that - said the vampire - she changed you, or was part of your change.

Carlisle patted Aro's shoulder as if he were a dog that still had a lot to learn.

- I like this Aro - Carlisle said - now excuse me, Renesmee is sleeping but Esme must be preparing her breakfast already.

Aro nodded, admiring Carlisle's. He hadn't thought the hybrid child needed to eat food every day, but that mistake would be remedied at the next Cullen visit.

XXX

Elia had just finished painting the furniture in her room when she heard a knock on the door. He didn't really need to hit, but Alec was very polite to do so.

- You may come in.

Alec waited another five seconds to open the door, trying to smile.

- Hey - he said - how are you?

Elia shrugged and Alec couldn't help looking a little scared at what she had done in the bedroom. With the exception of the wooden bed, all the other furniture had been painted black, and Elia was personally very proud to have managed to make the inside of her drawers red.

All thanks to a video on the internet showing 'how to make your room as dark academia as possible'.

- It's just paint - said Elia - if I get tired, I can paint again.

- Or buy new furniture, I'm sure Aro will send someone to do it when he gets here.

They both smiled, but Elia still felt empty.

- Come here - Alec approached her, making her drop the brush - there's red paint at your face.

- Oh - Elia rubbed her face, but from the way Alec smiled, that must have made things worse.

As a vampire, she could paint the entire castle and not feel tired, but Alec made her stop, convincing her to sit down for a while.

- Aro told you?

- A little - said Alec - the rest you can tell me when you're ready, and if you want.

Elia nodded, she was wearing a huge Ozzy Osbourne shirt and blue socks. There was red paint on her fingers too.

- I'm sorry for you having a bad birthday - said Alec - I wish I had given you a gift, but...

- I told you that you didn't need to give me anything, I still have that emerald necklace that you gave me last year.

- They'll last forever, you know - Alec smiled - but I still feel like I should have done something.

- Sometimes you have to learn to forget about it, Alec

She quoted a song from Marina and the Diamonds on purpose so that Alec could stop talking.

Elia laid her head on the pillow and pulled Alec to her side so that he could see the constellations she had painted on the ceiling.

- Do you miss it?

- Of what?

- Being human - Elia sighed - do you miss it?

- All the time - Alec replied without hesitation to her surprise.

- You never told me that before.

- Nobody ever asked me - Alec smiled - Jane is very satisfied with who and what she is, but I don't. I hadn't felt this way in a while, but after spending the day with Renesmee I started to think about those things again.

- The Cullen child - said Elia.

- Yes, I liked her, but I can never have a relationship like this, I can never have a daughter, Jane is all I have left.

Elia was silent. In fact, they could never have anything similar to what the Cullens had. One of the Volturi's last acts in the vampire world, before isolating themselves at the hotel, was to ban the creation of new hybrid children.

Renesmee could be peaceful and the other of her kind around the world could live in hiding, but no one could guarantee that they would stay that way forever, so all the clans seemed to accept that decision without questioning.

- We have each other too, Alec - Elia said.

- I know - Alec smiled, letting the melancholy that had invaded him go away at once.

XXX

There was something going on in Elia's room, Demetri was sure, but Aro said nothing. Before leaving, he left him on guard in the hall and asked to be informed if Elia tried to left again. Demetri knocked on the door a few times, forty times actually, but Elia didn't answer. But when it was Alec's turn, she allowed him to enter her room in a single attempt.

This made Demetri even more angry and anxious, what were they doing alone? Why did she always answer him?

Demetri had already walked in a circle so many times that the carpet under his feet had already tangled up.

He tried to calm down a little. That Cullen girl, Rosalie, she said he needed to be more patient, that he didn't know women.

- She's right - Demetri sighed - after so many years I am still an idiot.

He leaned against the wall and sat on the floor. Demetri was exhausted, not physically, but he was feeling so many things at the same time that he felt his heart would explode at any moment.

- You are not an idiot.

He heard a female voice, and it wasn't just anybody. Demetri knew that voice very well.

- I don't have time for you now, Heidi - Demetri got back on his feet before Heidi's heels kept him on the ground - and what are you doing here?

Heidi was smiling, she wasn't wearing her maid's clothes, on the contrary, she had put on a red dress that she only used to fish humans, but Demetri didn't remember Aro giving any such order to her.

- I came to see you - she said, using the most seductive tone she knew - I just didn't expect to find you so sad.

- And how did you expect to find me? Everyone should know already that I'm heartbroken.

Heidi bit her lip, that was exactly why she had come. She heard Felix talking to a guest named Emmett about Demetri's bad luck with Aro's girl, so she decided to pay him a visit.

Demetri used to flirt back before, but after Elia's arrival, he ignored Heidi in every way possible. This was her biggest opportunity in months and she wouldn't waste it.

Heidi grabbed Demetri's wrists and threw him against the wall, and before the vampire could say anything or push her, she kissed him.

Heidi's touch loosened for a second, enough for Demetri to push her lips away, but he didn't. He let the kiss go on, as he was so sad and alone that even that feeling was welcome.

But he soon regretted giving in, as they heard a door open, and soon Elia and Alec were in the hall.

- Well, well, well… - Alec said like a poisonous witch while Demetri pushed Heidi away and wiped his face.

Jane's twin was smiling, which made Demetri wonder if he hadn't screwed him up on purposely, if he hadn't called Heidi and convinced her into kissing him by force. But he would have to settle with Alec later, because Elia had also witnessed the kiss, and Demetri couldn't tell whether if her expression was full of pain, betrayal, disappointment, or everything at the same time.

- Elia ... - Demetri took a step forward, not knowing exactly what to say.

He had declared his feelings to her, said that he suffered for her, that he would love her for eternity and that he wanted her to do the same for him while she suffered for a human love, and one day later he appeared kissing another. If the situation were the other way around, he wouldn't be able to hold his own fury.

- But what's going on here? - Caius was the first to react, not Elia. The leader of the Volturi had appeared just when Heidi threw Demetri against the wall - What do you think you are doing? This floor is private, but it was not made for that kind of shameful acts!

Alec couldn't help but smile, he was enjoying that.

- Go back to your duties - he said to Heidi, who lowered her head and ran, then he looked at Demetri - you are on my black list.

Caius looked young, but he was grumpy like an old man, and Demetri couldn't blame Heidi for running. As soon as he looked at Alec, the vampire stopped smiling.

- I'm sorry about that, master Caius - Elia finally spoke. She had changed clothes so she could leave the room.

Caius turned his face away, Elia still didn't dare call him uncle.

The three waited until Caius left.

- Elia...

- I'm going back to the reception - she said, avoiding looking at Demetri.

Elia took the nearest elevator with Alec, who discreetly showed Demetri his middle finger before the doors closed.

Oh my God, I had so much fun writing this chapter! I love writing about Alec, to show a new side of Aro. Unfortunately we aren't going to see Elia's family again in this fanfic (they show up in another one, in a totally different context but it's in portuguese). I feel we are close to the end, but I still have things I want to write about the Volturi in this hotel, anyway, thank you so much for reading until here!