Hello lovely readers! After this update there is about four chapters left (originally I said fourteen but I miscounted) + an epilogue and a Christmas special! There should be another update later today as well.
Spring mornings smelt so sweet. They didn't talk, there wasn't an urge to either which left them in a comfortable silence. She couldn't see anything past the thick fog around them, and that only made her snuggle onto him tighter. Lani leaned her head against her boyfriend's shoulder as they sat on her rooftop. She cozied up in her Lilo and Stitch pajamas with his dark cloak over as well. Aro's arm was wrapped securely around her shoulder.
This was their personal space, the only people that existed were the both of them. It must have been another half hour before the clouds rose up from around them to its original home in the sky, and the sun peeked through the gaps.
The morning mist brushed across her face when they landed to the ground of her backyard, Aro held her in a bridal style. Those beautiful pale colors danced under his skin. Lani reached up to cup his smooth cheek, her thump tracing one of the swirling colors on his upper cheek bone. His amber eyes closed from her touch. She wondered…Does it hurt?
The slight shake of his head made her smile. She continued to trace the colors. Truthfully, there was nothing outside opal gemstone which could compare, maybe the Northern Lights? Not that she'd seen them, but this was close to how she imagined they would probably look.
For a moment, she felt that if anything was worth considering, in terms of becoming a mosquito, was this. She would stand in the sun all day and watch the pinks, yellows, and blues travel across her skin. There was a soft kiss on her forehead, "And I will be standing right with you."
Aro softly told her to close her eyes. The mist hit her in full force now, there was a rush of breeze, violent swishing, her lips would flap uncontrollably unless she clamped them shut, but soon this all stopped, and her heart almost fell out of her chest.
Aro was holding her tightly to him...on a tree branch, which wasn't the scary part. No, that was the large lake directly underneath them.
"Oh god."
"Shhh," he cooed.
Fluidly he sat down, bringing her along with him. Lani winced at the ache of the wood, and with a single peak down again she gritted her teeth together.
"We will not fall over, Kalani."
"Say's the vampire who literally can't die."
"Say's the vampire who would raise the underworld before any harm befell you."
Lani stayed as still as she could, afraid that if in any way this branch decided gravity won, it would most likely be her twitchy fault.
"I believe you possess a gift," Aro said. That was the last thing she expected to hear, like ever.
"If it's not for a fear of heights then I'm afraid that's highly unlikely."
"You're pacifying to any individual you meet."
"You mean approachable?"
"No, pacifying."
"I don't get it."
"When I'm with you the last three thousand years fade away. It nearly seems as if I'm moving forward."
"Like a movie?"
"Yes. Living."
"Hmm."
Without as much hesitancy, Lani looked over the rippling scenery again. Washington was so pretty. Wet. Still pretty.
"You know something I've always wanted to do?"
"What would that be?"
"Drive cross country, or through Canada, or up the West Coast. Just drive a long enough distance where you're stuck with someone else in a car for days on end." He was silent above her. "Aro, let's be stuck in a close space together."
"We already are stuck together."
"I don't mean like now...I mean like," she looked up at him this time, wanting to actually have this conversation now.
"If it's a must that I'm changed into a vampire...there are some things I want to do beforehand. I know about your law, and I'm not trying to delay it." His chin rested on her head. "I want to spend time with you, like this, before all I want to do is rip your head off."
"Your friend was exaggerating, piccola, you will not want to do no such thing."
"If you're so sure," she sighed. "When I became a mosquito, I still want to go to college."
Aro tilted her head upwards, his thumb brushed over her bottom lip, "You may say this now, but just you wait. The library in Volterra possesses more information than you could ever receive at any university."
Mind reader or not, he didn't get it.
"Whether she's vampire Lani or me Lani, her parents would still kill her if she didn't go to college."
Marleen and David Parrish were both teachers that made sure their daughter was aware from a young age, you're going to college.
"While I cannot prevent the inevitable, I can make an attempt to prevent your unhappiness, and if a higher education is what you wish I will do my best to grant it." There was one last thing...besides road trips and college. "Yes, my love?"
"My Mom can't grieve over more family," she whispered. "No heartbreak, okay?"
"I shall try my best."
With her Mom in mind, she thought about how physics played into their freaky suspension on this branch. It was clear his body was perfectly balanced, he proved again to be extraterrestrial. When her body began aching from their prolonged position, he moved them.
"So many dusk and dawns upon this Earth, yet I still have only seen a fraction of it."
If anyone should know the place better than anyone, It should be him.
"What haven't you seen?"
"Oh, you would be surprised! Oceania. The Southern Pole," he caressed her cheek. "I wish to swim around the Arctic."
"You'd freeze!"
"I'm already frozen."
"You're crazy. A polar bear would think you're food and try to eat you."
"No bear is a match for me. Either it would run away from fright...or I would simply eat the bear."
Lani giggled at the image of a dripping wet Aro wrestling with an angry bear twice his size.
"Polar bears are endangered so slow your horses."
He was carrying her up the active river, jumping from one giant stone to the next without seemingly any effort. The sprinkles of water would occasionally mist over her face, dampening her eyelashes.
"You stole me out of my bed, and now you're carrying me across the forest. Is this how people started dating in the Stone Age?"
She yelped when Aro sat her upright on his shoulder, he walked them beside the forest at a human pace. Absentmindedly she played with his hair while ducking accasioanlly to avoid any oncoming tree branches.
"I was not a caveman."
"No. You're my caveman—Oh!"
He laid them down in a bedding of soft grass, holding himself up over her with his hands beside her shoulders. The sun rays escaped past the treetops, reacting beautifully with his ivory skin.
"Oh, Aro—"
"If I met you while I was human, as a young man, I would have won a duel to pursue your affections. You would be draped in bright lilies and silks, then I would have wrapped you in a peerless dance, cradled you tenderly, as we strode together in a testimony honoring the goddess Hera and our devotedness." An anchor pulled down her heartstrings with each word. "Our entire community would recognize you as mine, and I as yours." He beamed, "That was how people started dating in my time."
His words were so sweet, it made her wish for the possibility of both of them actually meeting in the ancient world. Streams of tears ran down the sides of her face while she looked up, smiling sadly, then bit her lip.
"I upset you," he concluded.
He hadn't, what he told her was incredibly vivid and beautiful.
She shook her head, "It doesn't matter if we're in prehistoric times or the meme age, whether you're twenty-three or three thousand, whether your heart makes music or sits motionless, I'll still be in love with you, Aro. I've loved you since I gave you CPR, and you called it freaking breath kissing."
They shook with laughter against each other.
She asked him how to say I love you in his native language. He tried demonstrating by moving his lips open and closed in both large and small oh shapes. When she tried to repeat it back to him, it came out more as if she were saying cows than his fluid pronunciation.
"I'll stick to te amo."
Aro lowered his face and smiled into the crook of her neck, "Te amo works just fine, amore."
This was the best part of dating a vampire, the dead could somehow show how alive the world really was.
"I want you to have this."
Aro reached behind his neck to unclasp his pendant before swiftly securing it around hers. It felt heavy, not just from the physical weight, but also the symbolic one.
"So does this mean I'll be a guard member," she jokingly asked while touching his crest.
"No," his cool lips brushed against her upper cheek. "This means you will be my wife."
Lani threw her head back into the grass, laughing while her boyfriend narrowed his eyes at her. "¿Qué?" She tried to calm down while he frowned at her. "Don't give that face...it's just funny because your Stone Age is showing."
"Kalani…" he warned.
"I mean I get it...cavewoman probably liked to get snatched out of their caves for marriage proposals but—" she wheezed, his irritated expression only making it worse. "Today, we usually ask!" Lani was in tears. Aro visible annoyance faded the more her shoulders shook, soon he took her in his arms, laughing lightly along with her.
"Mi hai cambiato la vita."
When he spoke in Italian she relied heavily on cognates to figure out what he was saying. In this case—if she figured it out right—Lani agreed with what he said.
Aro had changed her life, and she was in love with him for it.
The sun rose higher in the sky as they kissed sweetly.
"I'm beginning to feel as if utilizing my academic knowledge is the foundation of our relationship."
Lani gave her boyfriend the stink eye, "Not even—totally true."
"Do watch the film, piccola. It was your idea to join your friends here after all."
A giant screen hung many meters outside the windshield, despite the entertainment playing above her mind would wander easily all over the place. "Did you use to wear those wigs back in the day?"
Aro, who was staring blindly outside the window, immediately turned to her with his brow raised. "Darling, do you not see this beautiful mane on top of my head?" Lani put a fist in her mouth when he made a show of gracefully flicking one side of his luxurious hair over his shoulder. He made it look like he was practically in the wind, all that came to mind was Scar from the Lion King.
"Tell it like it is, pretty boy," Lani choked, trying to stay quiet. "My boyfriend has prettier hair than me."
Aro sighed dramatically, "I know."
"Shush you." Lani playfully jerked away from his hand when he poked her nose. "I don't think I've ever grown my hair that long, I'd probably end up looking like a mushroom."
"I love your hair, It's so curly and soft. You look beautiful regardless of where your hair lies. Then there is the quick accessibility of your neck," he purred. That's like totally not creepy at all. "No one else can compare to your loveliness." A quick peck on the side of her neck made her shiver from touch. "However, to answer your question. I will not deny that at times, there were circumstances which demanded their utilization...though they were terribly itchy."
"I bet you looked like a puff ball."
"The fairest puff ball in the land, my dear."
"If only pictures existed back then…"
"You just might be in luck," he smiled.
They were completely ignoring the movie by now, thankfully there was no one to complain about their talking as everyone else was also in their cars. "Yeah right. You were snapping photoshoots in the eighteen century?"
"Oh no, oh no. That I wish," he laughed. "Portraits. I own several of myself and my family from that time."
A mischievous smile, sharp jawline, golden trimmings of floral designs, throw in a dark frock coat over mahogany, an ancient looking cloak and a giant goth necklace ot two. Lani could practically see it...not so much the powdered wig though.
"Can't wait to see them," she giggled. "Your family too. I can't wait to meet them."
Even though it terrified the skeletons out of her.
The smooth skin around his eyes and cheeks pulled upwards, she felt hers do the same. Lani closed her eyes when he began twirling a short curl beside her ear, something she only let him do because it felt less like a weird fascination, and more like a genuine appreciation. Aro pulled her into his lap. Beside them, Tyler flipped them off when she accidentally pressed on the horn, interrupting Pirates of the Caribbean.
"Are you hurt?" He asked after she suddenly winced.
"No, I'm just sore from the other day."
"My apologies, oh amore, I should have been more careful."
"Don't ever apologize for fucking the shit out of me," she whispered, and she meant it.
"Such a filthy mouth."
"But you love her."
"Oh I do."
If only they could stay like this. Lost in a tight spot at the drive-in without some pesky doomsday clock over their head. Instead of listening to the clock, they should ignore it. Imagine how convenient it would be if he renounced whatever Justinian obligation he had and said: Screw it, I want that small town life with my girl.
When Aro's arms tightened around her, she cursed and apologized.
Filtering her thoughts is a lot harder than actual words. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to know exactly what everyone is thinking. It must drive him crazy! Aro was such an affectionate and touchy person, tactical telepathy would be the last thing she would guess about him because who would have the mental capacity to carry the shame and pain of everyone else.
"You should not pity me. I view my talent as a blessing, my gift is all that I know."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I mean it," he spoke with conviction. "If I were...normal," there was a ghost of a smile, "That is what would drive me into insanity. While a mortal I was a very curious man, who loved to learn, which has not changed between then and now." So smart. "Think of it this way, imagine your eye sight was lost to you, you became blind and the mundane activities you unknowingly took for granted were now impossible."
"That would stink."
"Yes, it would. That is my sentiment towards my gifted enhancements."
"Okay."
"And never feel ashamed about expressing your thoughts to anyone, but especially me. Your thoughts are one my favorite to hear," Aro finalized.
Lani absentmindedly traced the fabric of his cable-knit sweater. "Are you serious? I guarantee they're pure garbage."
"Pure treasure is more like it," he tilted her chin up, "If a day comes where they are lost to me, I will forever lose myself," he said.
"In relief."
"You should instead place your pity in young Edward. The mysteries of his mate's mind drives him to insanity, it's grueling quite frankly."
"Bella feels the opposite, and I kinda see where she's coming from…"
"I on the other hand am grateful to know what you're thinking, what you require of me unconsciously. This way I will always do right by you."
"In school we call that a cheat sheet," she laughed.
Aro raised a brow, "Weather I'm cheating or not, so long as you're happy, that is all that matters—" He snapped his hard gaze up to the rear view mirror then proceeded to place her back into the passenger seat and leave the car. Lani followed after him through the line of cars parked in the grass, even at a human pace she jogged a bit to match his long legs. Once realizing she was behind him, he instructed her to get back in the car but refused to say why.
"Why did you randomly walk out into the woods? We were just about to meet Barbossa."
"Kalani," he was strained, "Return back."
"Sure, after you tell me why we're out here because I know you don't need to take a piss. Holy shit." She noticed they weren't hiding out alone anymore. Without a sound, two strangers dressed with presitigue just like her boyfriend, glided out from between the trees. Their formal attire made her shirt and pants look like a knapsack. Lani jerked from the onslaught of their burgundy eyes, her mouth fell open when the two males eyed her, one with mild curiosity and the other with pure disdain.
"Do you know who these people are," Lani whispered. In response the pissed looking one scoffed, something felt off. They were talking underneath their breaths, paper thin whispers her mere mortal ears couldn't pick up.
"You've been busy, Aro," observed the dark-haired vampire on the right.
"Marcus, Caius—what a wonderful surprise! Hello," Aro greeted obnoxiously cheerful.
Holy shit! Her eyes widened, These were his brothers! Wow, they were also really pretty.
"To think I believed you lost your touch in Seattle, but instead you've found yourself distracted with a new little plaything." Caius had a very thin voice, it was slightly on edge—hold on. Plaything?
Was he implying she was some sort of toy? That's not correct. Obviously Aro would correct him that she was his mate not his...plaything.
"Hi, I'm L—"
"What can I say, I'm savoring how warm she keeps me at night," Aro chimed while pulling her into him by the waist. Something really felt off.
"Um, are you not—"
"That is their only other purpose, is it not? Sometimes, I nearly miss that feeling, the warmth," Caius' scornful eyes studied her for a quick moment, "Then once I look too hard at their faces...hear the disgusting bowel movements inside them...that momentary desire is uprooted. Such hideous creatures."
"Excuse me?" Lani recoiled, "Did you just—"
"It talks too much." Caius only acknowledged Aro.
Marcus looked between Lani and Aro curiously, but didn't say a word. She wasn't sure if he was even paying attention to the conversation, he seemed more interested in the orange blanketing the sky.
"Liveliness makes a superior lover, dear Caius. The timid ones are no fun, really."
"I disagree once more, brother. Timid is the most fun because your ears won't bleed," He cut his eyes. "The last warm courtesan I owned was a complete chatterbox. She didn't last very long," he smiled.
"Oh yes! I remember sweet Sybil! Such a lovely girl."
"Up until she was disposed of."
"Aro? What does he mean—" She almost threw a fit when Caius cut her off again. They were talking around her like she wasn't there. Aro's responses were calm and giddy...and borderline hurtful. He hadn't even bothered to introduce her to his family yet. If anything he made it seem like she was nothing more than a 'warm concubine, which she realized was code word for human slut.
"Can this conversation not wait until later?" Aro sighed. "I want to relish in her warmth before her purpose is served."
Was he ashamed of her? She didn't want to stand beside him anymore, but his grip was too tight.
"It's not wise to keep these warm distractions. They are terribly breakable," Caius sneered.
Lani was tired of this. The next time she attempted to walk from his grip, he let her go, but still wouldn't look at her. No one looked at her when she excused herself back to the parked cars and no one went after her when she took a detour and left the entire lot.
Kicking rocks across the sidewalk, Lani cursed once realizing Aro drove. She fought down tears of humiliation and dialed the first person that came to mind.
"Please leave your message after the tone. Beep."
"Hey, Bella would you," she sniffed, "Can you please pick me up? I'm at the drive-in right now and...I just really need a ride home, please." The call ended and she bit her lip.
Any more time out here and she might catch a cold, but going back wasn't an option. Apparently, being Aro's distraction was her purpose. Screw the eternity and love of his life charade. Tyler never let her meet his parents, and the one time they came close he called her his friend...friend. After five months of them dating. That feeling, the gut wrenching one of not being good enough was frustratingly painful.
This was the first time Aro made her feel this way. Either he had a lot of explaining to do or she missed the memo.
Less than ten minutes had passed with her huddled in front of the road, the grass blades touching above her ankle. There was a quick rumble of thunder overhead, no actually, a rumble of an engine which stopped directly in front of her.
Lani raised a brow at the lack of rust in replacement of sheen, a newer sedan instead of an old truck, a red head instead of a brunette. She gawked.
Edward Cullen sat patiently in his car, his cold amber eyes seemed to be asking her, well are you gonna get in or not?
Lani did just that without turning back, and once she bucked her seatbelt, the Volvo took off down the road.
