"Are you certain you have absolutely everything you need?" Aro clarified.
"Relax, I'm only going for a few days. If I forget anything, it couldn't have been that important to begin with," I shrugged.
I was standing in the underground car park beside one of many black BMWs the kings owned, Demetri already in the driver's seat while Afton was sprawled across the backseat. Felix placed my small suitcase in the boot, ready to leave for the UK for a few days. The plan was to spend the first day with my parents before they went on another one of their week long work trips and then pack all of my important possessions to leave home permanently. Emotionally, I had absolutely not a clue as to how I was going to make it through this.
"Cara mia, you have a tendency to be rather forgetful at times, I wouldn't want you arriving in the airport and realising you have misplaced anything valuable."
"I'm not forgetful, how dare you," I frowned.
"Yes, you are," Caius raised an eyebrow.
"What- but- I- Marcus, help me out here."
"I have to agree with my brothers here, tesoro. Only a few days ago, you were frantically searching Aro's office for your mobile phone, which you had been sitting on the entire time," Marcus reminded me.
"Yeah, you could've told me before I embarrassed myself like that," I shook my head.
"But when you are embarrassed, you blush, and it is gorgeous, carissima," Caius smiled.
I groaned and wrapped my arms around Caius, breathing in his scent for the last time in a few days. "Ugh, I don't want to leave, I don't want to do this," I whined.
"We will see you again very soon," he held my head to his chest and ran his fingers through my hair.
"As you said so yourself, you will only be gone for a few days," Aro reassured me as he pulled me into his embrace, pressing soft kisses to my hairline.
"I just get the feeling I'm going to end up coming back a crying mess," I tried to laugh off the fact that this was probably true.
"I have complete faith in you, bellissima," Marcus smiled, wrapping his arms around my shoulders with my head tucked under his chin.
I pulled away from him reluctantly, squeezing his hand briefly before climbing in to the passenger seat. Caius closed the door behind me while the window was still down.
"I don't know why I'm making this so dramatic," I laughed and instantly began messing with the radio much to Demetri's disappointment.
"We will miss you," Aro chuckled, all three of them taking a step back as the car began reversing.
I'd finally found a song I liked, 'Glamorous' by Fergie blasting out of the car while Demetri pulled away. "Yes Eli, perfect song choice for a moment like this," Afton snarked behind me.
I sighed. "Remind me why you're coming?"
"Emotional support, you're welcome, milady," he bowed, to which I rolled my eyes.
I turned to the window, sticking my arm out. "Bye!" I called out of the window at my mates as the car sped away out of the car park.
Afton pretended to sob. "I have been witness to many tragic farewells in my time, but none quite like this-"
"Oh, pipe it. At least I don't have to put up with your Kelly Clarkson music. About that, did the new speaker arrive?" I asked him.
"I wish. The shipment got delayed an extra two weeks. Rafael has now been put on dungeon duty for the next month, so there's always a silver lining."
"Dungeon duty?"
"Dealing with all the criminals," Demetri explained, "most have already been sentenced to death and await their execution, while some are still waiting to be trialled. We got through most of them over the past few days, mind you, so it's not like Rafael will have much to do down there."
"Dungeon duty," I repeated to myself with a laugh, "you really couldn't come up with a better name?"
"Like what?" Afton raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know, 'dungeon duty' just sounds like some kind of crappy video game I'd find at a second hand store, surely you could've come up with something else," I shrugged, "so, you excited to spend a few days in the UK?"
"Can't wait," Afton responded deadpan, "I'm considering meeting your mother like Santiago did."
"Crazy, right? He just invited himself in for dinner with one of my parents. Hell, even my mates haven't met them yet, while he was even shown all of my baby photos and assumed to be my new boyfriend," I added exasperatedly.
"The Masters weren't happy about that at all, so I really wouldn't want to make the same mistake as Tina. Although, even if I don't come for dinner, I will steal that baby photo album," he laughed.
"You wouldn't."
"I will, and you know what? I'll even hand it to Master Marcus for safe keeping. I've heard there are some absolute gems in there which I'm sure your mates will appreciate," he smiled mischievously.
"Apparently you were a messy eater when you were a baby," Demetri teased.
"And you weren't a fan of wearing clothes," they both cackled.
I rolled my eyes. "Laugh it off, why don't you? Please don't humiliate me with those photos."
"Oh, but I must," Afton insisted sarcastically, "if I don't bring those photos to the Masters, they'll take the album for themselves in anyway."
"Why is everyone so set on embarrassing me?" I grumbled.
"Because its fun and you are such an easy target," Afton responded simply.
"I am not!" I yelled, which made them both laugh even harder.
Once I got into the airport in London, much to my surprise, I hadn't forgotten a single thing. I even made a mental note; told you Aro, I'm more competent than you give me credit for. Afton had disappeared as the guard always did whenever I was away from Volterra, along with Demetri and whatever other guard had been sent to babysit me.
The rest of the day I had spent with my parents as planned. I tried to act as unsuspicious as possible, ensuring I channelled my inner hormonal teenager during everything we did. As the plane journey had only been two hours, I spent most of the day on a walk through the countryside while my dad talked for hours about the different types of trees and birds he spotted, followed by my mum taking me to some kind of second-hand sale, meaning I left with piles and piles of vintage clothing.
By the time it got to the late evening, my parents had already left for their work trip to Dubai. It was a difficult goodbye, and I burst into tears just before they left the door, but my parents both assumed it was solely due to the painkillers I'd taken for my headache.
Once they left, I sulked up my staircase and fell backwards onto my bed with a loud thud. The sun had already gone down so that the only source of light in the room was my pathetic desk lamp, which provided a small yellow circle of light. My tears had now mostly dried up and now I was just feeling depressed and in need of a giant tub of ice-cream, but more importantly my mates.
Afton appeared on my windowsill in a similar fashion to Santiago before. He watched on as I stared at my ceiling blankly, barely acknowledging his presence there.
"Sadness," he mocked me and traced his finger down his cheek to symbolise a tear falling.
"Do you mind? I'm having a moment here, thanks," I grumbled.
"Anything I can get you to 'emotionally support' you through this?" he asked, drawing quote marks in the air.
"There's a tub of Ben and Jerry's vegan ice-cream downstairs in the freezer. That and a spoon," I mumbled.
He disappeared momentarily, and I heard a series of bangs and thuds coming from the kitchen before he reappeared beside me, ice-cream tub and spoon in hand. "You're not going to eat that whole thing, are you?"
I sighed. "Try and stop me."
"I'm surprised, El. Most teenagers would be overjoyed to hear that they could finally leave their parents," he mused.
"Well, I'm not like most teenagers," I spoke with a mouthful of ice-cream.
"No shit," he laughed.
I couldn't help but chuckle quietly with him. "My parents have always been like this, you know? They care about me and love me like any good parents, but they weren't always around for me when I needed them. Yeah, yeah, I get they needed to work to keep a roof over our heads, and I appreciated that, but it taught me to be overly independent at a very young age. It got to the point where I would spend more time sleeping over at my creepy aunt's house than here."
"Creepy aunt?"
"Yeah, Bertha was her name. She's dead now, she was my great aunt. She would scold me for literally anything she disapproved of, like how she confiscated my book, i.e. my only source of entertainment in her boring ass house, because I accidentally knocked over a glass of water. It's the little things," I shrugged, "she cared about me though, in her own little twisted way, and she took care of me when my parents weren't there to, so I had to thank her for that."
"Wow, I'm sorry Eli. Bertha though, seriously?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Oi, I didn't name her, my great grandmother did," I held my hands up with my palms facing out, "besides, your name is literally Afton. Afton."
"What's your problem with my name?" he asked, offended.
"It sounds like the kinda sound I would make while spitting out toothpaste, like 'af-ton'," I gestured spitting into a sink.
"Huh, rude," he snapped in an overly-feminine voice.
My phone, which was sat on my desk, buzzed suddenly. I leapt across my bed to it and opened the message, which apparently was a group message from the girl I used to go to school with, Emilie.
Tomorrow at 7pm, I'm having a party at my place. The whole thing is neon themed, bring alcohol, and ask me before bringing any plus ones.
Unless they're super hot, then its fine, but I might steal them from you aha lol.
"Uh-oh," Afton piped in beside me.
"What?"
"You have that face, the kind of one you pull whenever you come up with a dumb, regrettable decision," he accused.
I tried to force the corners of my mouth down. "No I do not, I just got good news."
"Care to share?" he gestured for me to spill.
"Fine, one of my friends is having a big party tomorrow night, I'm thinking of going for the fun of it," I explained.
"No."
"Ye' what?" I cocked my head to the side.
"No, do you have any idea what the Masters will do to me if they found out I let you do something that…reckless?"
I waved my hand dismissively. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"Eli, you are the human mate of the three most powerful vampire figures in the supernatural world. If something were to happen to you, both my world and your human world would crash and fall," he informed me gravely.
"Oh, calm down, I'll be fine," I assured him.
"At least think about this first," he requested, but I was too busy messaging Emilie, "…Eli!"
I quickly snapped my attention back to him. "Sorry, Emilie's bringing a dress for me to borrow tomorrow afternoon. She has this really nice neon dress and she's my size and-"
"This really isn't a good idea," he cut in.
"Do you want to come? You can guard me there, turn invisible if it makes you feel any better," I proposed.
"Parties aren't my scene," he replied simply.
"Suit yourself, Demetri? Whoever else is with him?" I called into the distance.
Demetri and Jane both appeared in my room, which was a really odd scene to get used to. My entire bedroom was still pink and girly from the whole 'fairy princess' phase I was going through when I was nine.
"How may we be of assistance, milady?" Demetri bowed his head.
"Drop the 'milady' act Demetri, I was wondering if either of you wanted to come to the party tomorrow. I assume you already heard the entire conversation."
"You know I'll just inflict pain on all of those weak, drunk, horny teenagers," Jane stated matter-of-factly, spitting each word that came out of her mouth.
"Fine, Demetri?" I turned my head to him.
"Same, but not mental pain, instead just drinking them dry," he shrugged.
"Geez, can't go anywhere with you two. Fine, I'll go by myself," I said.
Afton groaned. "Fine, I'll come, but don't expect me to be any fun."
I giggled and clapped my hands. "Don't be a buzz kill, I need this night."
Author's note: Yes, party Eli. This chapter is pathetically short, but it's not a particularly important one in anyway. Thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback, stay safe, and ily lots!