"Good morning, cara mia"
My eyes fluttered open to I realise I was laying on my front with my face pressed up against something cold, my legs either side of me. I lifted my head wearily and my eyes locked on a pair of crimson ones, making me jump out of my skin and duck my head. Aro chuckled, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist holding me down against him while the duvet was draped over us.
"How long was I asleep for?" I murmured into his shirt. That night, I'd had a combination of really weird ass dreams involving the Teletubbies and Spongebob Squarepants, which Aro was sure to have seen.
"You fell asleep at around seven last night, so about thirteen hours" he answered. Thirteen hours?
I went to get up, stretching my shoulders back, but Aro kept a firm grip around my waist, holding me down to him.
"May I ask, what on earth was that I witnessed in your dream last night?" he asked with a hint of amusement.
"Um… the Teletubbies?" I shrugged. In my dream, the Teletubbies had been part of some kind of demonic satanic cult that aimed to turn the world into spaghetti. God, I need help.
"And the yellow sponge?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, Spongebob, yeah, he was trying to defeat the satanic Teletubbies" I explained, hearing how mentally unstable I must've seemed to him.
"I remain just as confused as I was last night" he rolled his eyes and laughed.
"Oi, that was quality viewing and you know it. If anything, you should be thanking me" I laughed, rolling off of him onto my back.
Just as I went to push the duvet away from me, I realised that I was still only wearing a t-shirt and underwear after what happened last night. I jumped out of bed and pulled my t-shirt down to cover myself, but fortunately it was oversized in anyway, so it wasn't a massive issue. Noticing the sunshine beaming through the window, I picked up a denim skirt, underwear, and a baby pink tank top from a pile of clothes I'd left in the corner before walking over to the bathroom to shower.
"Do you need assistance in showering by any chance?" Aro asked cheekily from across the room, still lying on my bed with his hands behind his head.
"Oh Aro" I tutted, rolling my eyes and walking into the bathroom.
"Eliana that did not answer my question" he called after me, while I locked the bathroom door behind me in response. The nerve of some vampires.
Running the hot water, I stepped into the shower and attempted to wash out what looked like mud or twigs or something out of my hair. This last week had been…weird to say the least. Hell, I'd only known these people for a few days, and now I'd just woken up after making out with Aro Volturi, Aro fucking Volturi. I didn't know what came over me because, in any other scenario like that, I would never have kissed him back, let alone fallen asleep straddled on top of him. Damn, I was falling for these people way faster than I would ever usually be comfortable with…but was that necessarily a bad thing? I mean, Marcus did say that they are my 'true mates' i.e. my 'destiny' lies with them, blah blah blah, so surely I would've ended up with them in anyway. Dear god, mates are confusing.
I stepped out and looked at myself in the mirror. I'd never exactly been ashamed of my body, but I wasn't really one to expose much skin. That was one of the reasons I hated the beach; swimsuits. Last summer, Alice had tried to get me to go shopping with her to buy me a new swimsuit and, to give her credit, the ones she chose out were gorgeous, but I just hated myself in them, hated seeing my body in them. In the end, we left without any swimsuits, but she had gotten excited over a bunch of sundresses, so we didn't exactly arrive back empty-handed.
Hastily tossing on my underwear, skirt and top before fastening the same star necklace I'd worn a few days before around my neck, I wrapped my hair in a towel to dry it and walked back into my room. To my surprise, Aro was no longer there, but instead Afton was sat in the same armchair as usual, nosing around on my iPod.
"Hey Eli, how was your fight, I mean night?" Jesus, how quickly does word spread around here?
"My 'night' was fine, thanks" I answered, unimpressed, while I strolled over and dumped the pile of clothes I'd been carrying into my laundry basket by the door.
"Is that really it? Come on, tell me something juicy" he seemed so damn excited, wow.
"Juicy?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, 'spill the tea sis'" he added, sounding like a twelve year old girl.
"Fine, as long as you promise to never use that phrase again. It's just embarrassing"
I proceeded to tell him a watered-down version of pretty much everything that happened, and he seemed genuinely excited that I'd had my first kiss.
"Yes Eli! Oh my god, you guys make such a good couple, I knew it!"
"Jesus Afton, you sound like Chelsea" I remarked, to which he simply shrugged his shoulders. Who was I to judge? That man baby was living his best life, and that's fine by me.
"So, what're you doing today?" he asked, turning on 'SexyBack' by Justin Timberlake.
"I don't know, I was thinking to wander around for a while and see if I can actually learn to navigate this castle by myself" I responded, now twerking to the music like some kind of retarded chicken.
'I'm your slave,
I'll let you whip me if I misbehave,'
"Talk about embarrassing" he mumbled into his hand as he facepalmed in the corner.
"You're just jealous that your dancing doesn't come close to mine" I snarked, doing an over-the-top slut-drop perfectly on beat.
"Please stop" he sounded exasperated, rolling his head back and staring at the ceiling.
"Fine, fine, you buzz-kill"
I finished towel-drying my hair, chose out a pair of white Dr Martens boots and strolled out, leaving Afton sitting there with the music still blaring out through the hallways.
'I'm bringin' sexy back,
Them other fuckers don't know how to act,'
"Eli, where are you going?" he called after me.
"I literally just said I'm wandering around the castle!" I yelled down the corridor while walking backwards.
"Wait up at least!" he turned off the music and zoomed up to materialise beside me, "do you even know where you're going?"
"No, that's the whole point, were you even listening Afton?" I scoffed, before turning down a darkened corridor, "where does this lead-"
"That's the dungeons, I'm sure the Masters wouldn't be pleased about you being down there with all of the rogue vampires" he grabbed my arm, steering me away and down the opposite corridor.
"Alright then, where does this lead?" Afton had let go of my arm and was now trailing behind me, allowing me to go where I pleased.
"These are all offices," he gestured to a few doors on the left, "there's a small library over there," he pointed to a room on the right, "the rest of them are guest rooms," he swept his hand across the rest of the rooms, "and up the stairs on the right is Master Marcus' quarters. Master Aro's is up the stairs on the left and Master Caius' is down this corridor" he pointed down a corridor between two meeting rooms with a window at the end. No wonder that corridor felt so familiar.
"How many guest bedrooms can anyone possibly need?" I asked in bewilderment at the fifteen or so bedrooms lined up along the right side.
"We occasionally have large parties of guests who stay between a few days and a few months, depending on the purpose of their visit" he explained, leading me up a spiral staircase near the library.
"So…but my room isn't with the rest of the guest rooms" I noticed.
"Well, yours isn't a guest room. Did your mates not say?" he chuckled.
"It's not?"
"No. Once they had confirmed that you were who they thought you were, they had a room set up for you with a wardrobe and everything. Why do you think there are clothes in your size in your wardrobe? And make up in your shade on your dresser?"
"I don't know, I just assumed I was borrowing clothes and make up or something"
"Eli, those are yours" he shook his head and laughed as we arrived at the landing of another damn floor.
"What do you mean, those are mine? How are they in my size? And shade?" I was beyond confused at this point.
"What did you just fight about with Master Aro last night?" he reminded me.
Fuck I'm slow.
"Oh!" I exclaimed slowly, earning another laugh from Afton.
"These rooms all serve different purposes: cinema, kitchen," he opened each door one at a time before closing it again, "another kitchen for some reason, Felix insisted on there being a party room and Heidi really pulled through," he opened the door to a room with loads of coloured LED lights and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, "a bunch of houseplants but I really don't know why so don't bother asking me, studying room, swimming pool, hot tub, and finally, dance studio"
"Dance studio?" I really missed going to dance, and I probably would've gone in and started dancing if it wasn't for my outfit.
"Yeah, Chelsea used to dance in here all the time with Corin" he peered in and shrugged before closing the door.
"Hmm, I've got to drag them in with me at some point" I mused, following Afton back down the staircase we came from and down a different corridor.
"I think you've been down here a few times, nothing special. There's a few private offices including Master Aro's, the game room which you've seen, and the guard's quarters are all up there. The main kitchen used is down there," he pointed to the kitchen I'd used two days before, "just down there is the throne room, the same area but down the opposite corridor is the feeding room which also happens to have thrones in it, and the main entrance doors are upstairs, but you can get to it using the annoying lift that plays opera music"
"Yeah, why is that?" I asked.
"Who the hell knows at this point? It was probably Alec's idea to piss off Jane, he seems to love getting in that elevator with her just to laugh at how irritated she gets"
"Hmm, makes sense," I agreed, "What music does Jane listen to?"
"I walked in to her quarters once to find her lying on her stomach on her couch listening to Taylor Swift, but she just gave me pain, literally, and closed the door"
"Geez, that's harsh, but quite funny though. Who would've ever guessed?" I chuckled as we wandered towards the gardens.
Santiago instantly materialized a few feet in front of me, making me fall back and hit the hard ground on my ass in fright.
"What the fu- SANTIAGO!"
He burst out laughing and high-fived Afton, "Loosen up dude, there's no need to be so on-edge"
I scowled at him as took my wrists to help me stand to my feet, giving me a quick once-over just to check that he hadn't injured me or anything, as that could mean certain death for him.
"They need you in the training room, Afton. Something about your ability that they want to test out" he spoke, his arms by his sides. Why did that guy always have such an angry demeanour?
"You know the way back Eli. If you get lost, just yell and someone will show you to your room" he called as he began back down the corridor with Santiago in tow.
"What do I yell?"
"I don't know, 'I'm lost'? Whatever you want, no one cares, you do you!"
With that, they both disappeared, leaving me standing there awkwardly. In the end I decided to continue to the garden by myself, hoping that I wouldn't have to call out for help like some kind of ridiculous damsel in distress. I pushed open the familiar door into the open and took in a deep breath of fresh air. Being cooped up inside was not fun, I can tell you that much.
It didn't seem like anyone was around, leaving me to absent-mindedly wander around the grounds like a daydreaming child. This whole area was like something out of a fairytale, and I'd never seen a garden this well kept before in my life. I accidentally got splashed slightly by one of the sprinklers but, thanks to the sunny weather, I dried off quickly. There was even a little garden with loads of fresh fruit growing. Grabbing a handful of raspberries and shoving them in my mouth before wiping my hands on my skirt, I spun around to head back inside, colliding with something tall and cold.
"I see you found the raspberry bush" he laughed, as I backed up to notice that I'd just quite literally walked straight into Marcus.
"Oh, hey Marcus" I smiled timidly, wiping the excess raspberry juice from around my mouth. Eli, why are you like this?
"How has your morning been, il mio amore?" he asked, taking my hand and walking alongside me.
"It's been okay, Afton showed me around the whole castle thing you've got going on here" I wildly gestured to the looming building in front of us, earning a chuckle from Marcus.
"I do hope it is up to your standard"
"You know," I began, "my room on its own is about the same size of the downstairs of my house back at home" I laughed, and I wasn't even exaggerating. The room I'd been given was massive, with way too much space for one person.
"Only for you," he smiled, leading me back over to the tree we'd been at the day before, "Are you and Aro on better terms then?"
"You heard, huh?" I stared at the ground, still annoyed at myself.
He hummed a response, his arm encircling my waist.
"I just couldn't stay mad at him, you know?" I giggled, thinking back to how quickly I caved in to him.
"No one can," he chuckled in agreement, sitting me beside him under the shade of the tree, before pausing for a few seconds, "Aro was your first kiss?"
"Oh yeah, that, he kinda just… sweet-talked his way into it" I replied with an awkward laugh. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel bad. Trying to divide your time and love equally between three mates is way harder than you'd think.
"In that case, may I say you look absolutely stunning today, tesoro" he murmured, leaning close to me, a playful smile on his lips. He knew exactly what he was going for here.
"Mhm," I crossed my arms over my chest, jokingly narrowing my eyes at him, "tesoro?"
"It means treasure in Italian, or it is also used as a general term of endearment" he answered simply.
"I should really keep a dictionary of all of these flirty Italian terms you use" I joked.
"Would you prefer it if we solely used your full name when referring to you?"
"Oh no, I love it. It's like I'm living in some kind of romance film" I remarked.
"Anything for you, bellissima"
"You're lucky I'm falling for you this quickly"
With that, I spontaneously pulled him down to my height and leant into him, pressing my lips against his with my arms wrapped around his neck. I didn't know what came over me to make such a rash decision like that, and I was about to pull away and apologise, but he kissed me back with earnest, his cold lips moving gently against mine. His fingers delicately ran through my hair as the kiss became deeper, more passionate. The taste of him was addictive, and I wanted to never pull away, to stay in this moment forever. Stopping to catch my breath, he continued to trail soft kisses down my jaw and onto my neck before his lips met back with mine while he carefully pulled me onto his lap.
"I keep forgetting that today's my last day" I mumbled while fiddling with his tie, my legs extended out with my ankles crossed over each other.
"Of course, how long will you be in Forks for?" he murmured into my hair, his hand gently rested on my thigh.
"A week. I'll be going back to Forks again later for Bella and the rest of the Cullens' graduation," I explained, before pausing for a moment, "Just to clarify, you don't have any slightly invasive abilities like Aro's that you're keeping secret from me, right?"
"None, my only ability is my bond sight, il mio amore" he reassured light-heartedly.
"And Caius?"
"Caius doesn't have an ability, Eliana. To his credit, he is an excellent fighter" he replied.
"Oh…you learn something new every day" I shrugged. Considering the Volturi were mostly known for collecting vampires with abilities to join the guard and all that jazz, Caius not having one seemed a little bizarre to me.
"I'm going to miss being around here with you crazy people" I sighed.
"And I will miss you too," he laughed at my comment, hugging me tighter to him, "but we will call every day"
"You'd better" I humoured, resting my forehead against his cool chest and breathing in his calming scent.
Author's note: My friends made me get the houseparty app on my phone but I'm refusing to open it because I'm too antisocial and talking to them seems like too much effort. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, her time in Volterra is coming to a closeeee but don't worry because she'll be back soon enough ;) I hope you enjoyed reading this, be sure to leave a review/comment/whatever and I'll probably be back with another chapter tomorrow knowing me haha. Ily!