Hey everybody! Here it is, their first meeting. Hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 4: First Meeting

Third person POV

"Where is she now?" The usually silent King asked of his guard.

Hesitating only for a moment due to surprise Demetri answered his King. "In the gardens my king. She usually spends the day there until the sun begins to set. Did you need me to summon her?"

"No, continue as you were. I will make my way over there myself." The King said, "Make sure no one bothers us."

"Yes sir." The tracker said, hiding his burning curiosity with a bow. As his king made his way further down the hallway he lifted his head, still staring after his king. "Definitely talking to her after she gets back to her room" Demetri thought to himself before turning around to let the newest lower members of the guard know to guard the entry hallway to the garden and scatter when either the King or Kenna make their way towards them. Ensuring they knew not to speak of his order to anyone but the Kings themselves.

...

Kenna sat once again in the garden caring for the flowers that just bloomed. Kneeling down before some beautiful pink moutan peonies she began to cut away any dead branches that she came across. Brushing some of her honey blond hair out of her line of sight and behind her ear she began humming a tune as she cared for her garden pruning away any overgrowth or dead leaves and watering where the soil was too dry. As she did this, pleasantly in her own little world, she was completely unaware of the man leaning against the entryway to the garden watching her work.

"There beautiful." The man said, breaking her out of her reverie and making her freeze for a fraction of a second before turning slightly to look at her visitor before freezing once again. His eyes were a deep pitch black, letting her know he needed to feed soon, but there was a deep ache she barely registered before it seemed to disappear, replaced with an uncertainty of someone who doesn't normally start conversation bringing a small smile to her face.

"Thank you, it took some time but I was finally able to get everything to bloom properly." Was her response as she slowly walked over to her guest. "I'm surprised to see someone other than Demetri here. Did you need something from me...I'm sorry, I'm not certain how to address you..." She hesitated.

"No apology is needed, Marcus is just fine." He said with his own slight smile. "I feel I must thank you for bringing life back to this old garden."

Looking slightly surprised Kenna paused slightly before giving a small chuckle. "And here I thought Demetri got away with neglecting everything."

"While there are no secrets from Aro we do like to give our guards some semblance of privacy." Marcus responded smiling slightly after hearing her laugh.

"I see." She said, removing her gardening gloves and setting them on the nearest stone bench. "Were you looking for him? I believe he's training with Felix right now."

"No, I was just in my office and decided a nice change of scenery would be welcomed as I tried to avoid my brothers. They've been particularly overbearing recently and I don't think they would bother me here."

"Well don't let me stop you. This is your castle after all. I'll try not to get in your way." Kenna said as she grabbed her watering pail and began on the other side of the garden she had just finished pruning.

As Kenna walked over to water the rest of the garden she did not notice as Marcus watched her every step. Sitting down on the bench beside her gloves Marcus opened his book to where he last left off barely paying it any attention as he had reread it many times beforehand. He spent most of his time watching Kenna as she made her way around the garden at a human pace, watching as she fixed her hair as the wind brushed some of her hair out from behind her ear and into her face. Glancing down at his book when she began to turn his way.

Just as Kenna was unaware of Marcus' gaze so was he when she would occasionally turn and glance over her pale roses at him. Her gaze was curious and slightly confused but she was not uncomfortable in his presence. In fact she was burning to start another conversation with him. There was something about him that made her want to talk just about anything to listen to him, but she stopped before she could say anything more and put a large part of her focus into tending to her garden. The slight warmth she felt when she would look over at him scared her just enough to stay silent, confused about what the feeling meant but too nervous to think about it too much.

As she finished caring for the last of the garden she made her way back over to her gloves so she could put away the last of her supplies, smiling as Marcus looked up from his book as she approached and gave him a slight nod.

"Have you finished for today?" He asked.

"Yes, but if you don't mind I usually sit here and draw a bit before leaving."

"Not at all, please join me I insist." Was Marcus' response as he moved over to make room for her on the bench.

After putting away the last of her gardening supplies she made her way back to the stone bench beside Marcus with a sketchbook and some pencils. Sitting down she turned to the first clean page and began to sketch some of the freshly bloomed flowers at a human pace. After sitting in silence for an hour Marcus finally spoke.

"Is there a particular reason you chose to draw at that pace?"

Freezing for a moment in slight surprise Kenna responded. "I find it somewhat soothing to go at this pace and I make less mistakes this way." She said. "But mostly I forget my surroundings as I draw and I find if I only draw like this I won't forget my surroundings and make a scene when I'm around humans."

"I see." He said and turned back to his book, rereading it for the 3rd time today.

"You must really really enjoy that book. What is this the fifth time you started over." Kenna lightly teased.

"Not quite, it's one of my favorites. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman...it's one of my favorites." He added with a small smile.

"Hmm. I'll have to read it some time then...if you'll let me borrow it?" Kenna asked, looking up from her drawing and over to Marcus.

"Of course. When I'm not attending to matters in the throne room I spend most of my time in my study, just ask Demetri and he'll lead you there if you can't find me."

"Thank you." She said and then they both went back to what they were doing. Kenna, finishing up her drawing and Marcus, lightly skimming while stealing small looks at his company, smiling softly when she would scrunch up her face after making a slight mistake before correcting it.

They continued this way in silence until the sun began to set. As the natural light began to fade, Kenna stopped drawing and watched the sunset for a few moments before closing her book and standing to say goodbye.

"Thank you for keeping me company Marcus. I'll be seeing you around the castle." She said nodding her head.

"Until then, and please the pleasure was all mine. Enjoy your night Kenna." He said with a slight smile and watched as she left his smile turning bittersweet as she left hopeful he'd see her again soon.

Looking out to the sunset Marcus stayed there until the sun completely set, turning back to the entryway to the garden as he heard the familiar steps of his brothers approaching.

"Hello brother." Aro said with his usual smile, Caius watching on in silence.

"Aro, Caius." Marcus responded, turning back to the view. Not noticing as his brothers shared a brief glance.

"How did your...meeting go?" His, still too nosy for his own good, brother asked.

"Sigh...it was pleasant." Was all he said refusing to say more but not holding out his hand as if he couldn't bother to speak, a good sign to his brother.

"Brother, Aro and I were just headed back to the feeding room. Would you like to join us?" Caius asked.

Both Aro and Caius waited cautiously for a response. As their brother stood he nodded his assent and walked passed his brothers back into the castle. Both Kings looked deeply relieved and hopeful that things would turn around for their lonely brother, silently promising to each other that they would protect Marcus' soon to be mate.

...

Kenna gently closed her door and sat on her bed, feeling more refreshed than she ever had since coming to the castle. She truly did enjoy her time with Marcus though they spoke very little. For a brief moment she was able to forget about him, but now that she was alone once again she felt nothing but that deep ache left behind by the loss of her mate. Turning to look at her bedside table her eyes slowly began to sting with venom as she looked at his urn. Unable to look at it any more she stood up to place her now full sketchbook on her bookshelf with all the others and left her room once again in search of Demetri.

"He should be able to distract me." She thought as she did her best to shake off the wave of sadness and heartache that overcame her for a moment.

Making her way to Demetri's room she lightly knocked and waited somewhat impatiently as Demetri made his way to the door.

"Hey sweetheart to what do I owe this visi-" Demetri stopped after seeing Kenna's face and stepped aside for her to enter his room. "Come on in!" He said excitedly. "Felix is in and I think you'll just love how he explains how badly he got his ass kicked in training today."

Kenna entered his room and smiled a little, clearing the small lump in her throat and chuckling as she heard Felix's response.

"You and I both got our asses kicked! The only way anyone could take one Jane and when is if she stops cheating with her gift every time she's about to lose." Felix yelled.

"Please tell me he screamed like a little girl and someone got that on video Felix."

"Hey! Watch it. If anyone screamed like a little girl it was Santiago." Demetri said.

"Oh you can bet I will be telling him you said that the next time you two spar together." Felix said with and evil smirk.

"Hey now, we're all friends here aren't we? There's no need for that, right buddy?" Demetri asked worried for his safety the next time Santiago was around the training room.

"I have to come to the next training session." Kenna said with an evil smirk of her own. "If only to see Demetri twitch on the ground."

"Ha ha very funny. Can we move on now." Demetri groaned.

"But I want to hear about you getting your ass kicked." Kenna said with the sweetest of smiles.

"Please, there is much more interesting gossip to talk about." The tracker shot back with a smirk.

"Oh? Do tell." Felix said, more interested in new gossip.

"I swear you two are a bunch of old gossiping ladies."

"Says the one leaning in to hear what I have to say better."

"Enough bickering and say what you have to say you old ass diva queen!" Felix yelled.

"One, rude. The both of you are very rude." Demetri said, pointing between his two friends and ignoring their eye roles. "It's not so much gossip as it is a video. BUT before I share anything you two have to swear never to speak of it again."

"Why?" Kenna and Felix said together.

"It's a video of...Jane." The tracker finished off in a whisper and both of his friend's eyes grew and they both stared at each other briefly before nodding and turning back to Demetri.

"Deal."

Grabbing his phone he opened up his gallery and pulled up the video, but before playing it he cut on the TV to a normal volume in case anyone was snooping and then turned down the volume one his phone almost all the way before playing it. The camera was held with a stillness only a vampire could accomplish while moving on a roof, the chuckle in the background clearly gave away their identity. Demetri paused it really quick to ask something.

"You remember when I asked you to scout out an alleyway a rogue went through to see if he left any bodies behind since he sat there so long?" Demetri asked Felix.

"You mean when Jane told me the Kings had something to discuss and went for me?"

"Yep. Didn't you wonder why we never say Jane the rest of the day?" The tracker asked, when Felix shook his head no he continued. "Well I had already caught the rogue and removed his head. Since I had some time I set up a little...prank."

"No!" Kenna whisper-yelled.

"Oh yes. The street was pretty busy so to go into and move around the alley you had to maintain a human's speed to be on the safe side. I had set up a small trap. A human had left a disgusting bucket on their fire escape and I mean fowl. I'm pretty sure they just left an empty buck and it filled up with rain water and bird waste. Anyway I precariously balanced it on the edge of the escape and tied a string to it making it run along the side of the wall and to a board on the ground over a hole in the ground."

"She'll kill you if she finds out." Felix whispered.

"Not unless you say anything. She believes the rouge set it up since I made sure to wear his jacket and gloves to set this up. Now did you want to see the video or not?"

"I want to be mad since this was supposed to be me but I want to see this more. Play it."

Demetri placed play and you can see the moment he realized he may die for this as the camera began to shake a little as his hands trembled. Jane made her way down the center of the alley looking for any bodies that may be there. Making her way to a pile of trash bags she ignored the board on the ground and stepped on it, stumbling for a second as it sunk into a hole below it. You could see when she heard the bucket tip over above her and she looked up getting a face full of putrid water. Just watching the video made the three around it tremble in fear of what would happen next. Ever so slightly you could see Jane trembling in rage before screaming in outrage and walking at, what for her was probably for her, a painfully slow pace towards the end of the alleyway and out to the other street, looking both ways before disappearing, too quick for the camera to pick it up. After about 30 seconds of silence you could hear a prayer spoken in Italian before the video ends.

"Dude you are so fucking lucky she didn't catch you." Kenna whispered too scared someone may overhear.

"I know. I still tremble a little bit when she walks past me sometimes."

"Wait a minute, was that why she came to me saying I ruined her favorite cloak?! You bastard! If the kings weren't there when she stormed in she would have destroyed me."

"You turned out fine though, and you got to watch Jane get pranked. Doesn't that make us even?" Demetri asked.

"You owe me for the dry cleaning fee." Felix said and Demetri relaxed, knowing that meant this secret was safe.

Whelp here you go, there first meeting. Let me know what you think!