I'd spent most of the last evening chatting with Afton, Demetri and Jane. I was still feeling a little sour about leaving but, in their weird way, they did make the whole situation a little easier on me. Maybe it was true; maybe they were like a bunch of annoying siblings. Strangely enough, I supposed the Volturi were as good as my family at this point.
My eyes gradually fluttered open, the pink hues from the sunrise beaming into my room. Fernando had been sleeping on top of me but was now gone, probably due to my constant tossing and turning during the night. The window was still wide open but I ignored it and began to sit up straight.
"Good morning, tesoro-"
I almost screamed just as a cold hand was placed over my mouth. Still attempting to regain my breath, I looked up to be met with Caius' soft yet stern gaze as he shushed me gently.
"Carissima, it is okay, it is just us, there is no need to scream," he reassured, pulling me into his embrace while he laid down to my left beside me on top of my covers.
As soon as he removed his hand from my mouth, I started talking. "Goddamn it, you just can't help it, can you? For someone who worries about my fragility, you're literally going out of your way to give me a heart attack."
Aro flitted over to my other side. "We would never, cara mia, we only came to surprise you," he cuddled me from behind, wrapping his arms around my waist and pressing gentle kisses to my neck.
Marcus at first seemed a little disappointed that there was little room for him to snuggle up with me, but instead he half draped himself over me like a cold blanket, his head rested on my hip.
"How long were you standing there for?" I drew my eyebrows together and moved my arm so I could run my fingers through Marcus' hair, which earned a subtle contented purr that vibrated through my body.
"Ah yes, we arrived only an hour after you fell asleep, Afton informed us," Aro responded, "we had to remove your feline friend from your room as he began meowing at us, and even attempted to attack Caius."
I gasped. "Oh my God, is Fernando okay?"
"Sure, do not worry about poor Caius, but as long as the filthy vermin is alive and well, everything is great," Caius snapped from beside me.
Marcus chuckled. "Fernando is fine, tesoro, I saw him out of your window happily chasing a mouse less than an hour ago. If you were wondering, Caius is also fine."
"I can speak for myself, thank you brother," Caius narrowed his eyes at him, "your precious Fernando ripped part of my cloak and caused a thin crack to form across my leg."
"Oh geez, I'm so sorry Caius, he's never usually like that. Usually, he's just so…placid," I shrugged, pushing a strand of his snowy blonde hair out of his face.
"Yes, I had to pry him off Caius here," Aro humoured, "I was so worried he would wake you up."
"What are you three doing here then?" I asked them.
"We missed you and wanted to keep you company," he answered, pulling me back as close to him as possible, "we also felt the mating pulls last night after you said goodbye to your parents."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I blushed and hid my face.
"Do not apologise, mating pulls often occur during times of extreme emotion, but will always affect us worst. Not only because we are immortal, but because…" Marcus trailed off.
I gestured for him to continue. "Because…?"
"Please do not take offence by this, but we three are the most dominant in your relationship," he winced slightly at the sentence.
I stared at him blankly. "That's it? Hell, I'm already aware of that, don't worry about offending me," I giggled, "but does that mean you feel mating pulls worse than me?"
"Yes, yesterday it was only a slight tug fortunately, but it did confuse our emotions," Marcus replied.
"Aro seemed like he was on the brink of tears," Caius laughed along with Marcus.
"I did no such thing," Aro defended with a frown, "To change the subject, when were you planning to inform us about this party you'd like to attend tonight?"
Caius' face instantly became sterner. "What party? Who invited you? Will there be males there? I do not trust them to go anywhere near what is mine-"
"One of my friends invited me, you won't know her. And it's fine, I know most of the people who are going, and my friend is coming later to drop of a dress for me to borrow."
"You will not go to this party," Caius snapped.
"Yes, I will," I seethed.
"No, you will not, Eliana."
"And why the hell not? Afton offered to come with me to guard me, and Demetri and Jane will surround the house, so there's nothing to panic about," I argued.
Marcus glanced up at me. "Afton is going with you?"
"Well…yeah, he said it would be dumb if I went by myself, and both Demetri and Jane refused."
"Didn't you think of asking us to come with you?"
"In my defence, I wasn't expecting you to come here at all. But, now that you're here, do you want to come to Emilie's neon themed house party with me?" I asked them.
"Ah, we would love to," Aro exclaimed, "I have always wanted to meet your fellow students. Your generation are absolutely fascinating."
"No Aro, they are stupid," Caius snarled.
"Babe, if you don't want to come, we can just leave you behind-"
"Oh no, there is no way I will let you go to this so-called party without me beside you to destroy any piece of scum who dares lay a finger on my little mate," he growled.
"There you go then, easy. It starts at 7:00, but we should probably be fashionably late."
I began to get up but none of them were willing to let me go, Aro keeping a firm grip around my waist. "Cara mia, why so desperate to leave us?"
"I have a lot of packing to do, better to get it over and done with," I shrugged, wriggling out of their hold and heading to the bathroom to change.
Once I came back out of the bathroom and had finished having breakfast and changing into more comfortable clothes, I sat at my desk and took out a piece of paper and pen, ready to write some form of note to my parents. Marcus and Aro were sat either side of me while Caius was reclined back on my bed with his hands behind his head.
I banged my head on the table, muffling my voice. "How do I even start something like this?"
"Write from the heart, how you truly feel," Marcus clasped my hand in his.
"But leave out anything to do with immortality, or we will have no choice but to execute them," Caius called over casually.
After an hour of painful writing and scraps of paper being tossed into the bin, I managed to finally come up with something mildly acceptable.
Dear Mum and Dad,
I'm sorry I'm doing this to you, I just wish it didn't have to be like this. I've left home permanently, left the country even. I'm ready to start a new life on my own and experience the world for myself. I won't say where I'm going, so please don't try and look for me, but I promise I'm safe, and happy, and being taken care of.
Thank you for everything you've done for me over the years, I appreciate everything you do, but now I'm starting a new chapter in my life. I have already taken my legal documents with me, but I'm leaving Fernando for you to deal with (you're welcome).
I love you millions, and I promise I'll stay safe and never forget all you've done for me. Thank you.
Eliana xx
Caius was the last one to read it over. "Short, sweet, to the point. Took longer than necessary to write it, but we got there in the end," he handed the paper back to me.
"Boom, done, now to pack," I placed the letter back down on my desk and bustled over to my wardrobe where all of my belongings were stored.
"What are you packing?" Aro asked curiously.
"Just a few keepsakes, like this," I pulled out my diary from when I was eight.
Marcus appeared in front of me. "May I read it?"
"Psh, no, this stuff is beyond embarrassing," I shook my head.
He attempted to reach for it but I held it behind my back. Within an instant, he somehow already had it in his hand and was flicking through the pink scribbled pages.
"Marcus, give it back," I whined, jumping up for it.
He continued to wave it high above his head tauntingly. After a few failed jumps, I wrapped my arms around his neck so that my feet were off the ground while reaching up for it with my left arm. He simply chuckled at this, placing a kiss on my nose with an arm around my waist.
"I will not return this until I have read it through fully, bellissima. I have already skimmed a few pages, and there are certainly some interesting entries in here," he grinned.
"Ugh, you're so mean," I pouted and landed back down on my feet with a thud.
"Maybe I am," he added teasingly.
The doorbell suddenly rang, followed by a few impatient knocks on the door. I bolted down the stairs as fast as I could and leapt for the front door, opening it to be met with Emilie, a carrier bag in her hand.
"Your dress," she hastily thrusted the bag to me, "I don't have long, return it tomorrow at any time, see you tonight!" she called and ran for her car.
"Can't wait!" I waved out of the door at her and closed it gently behind me.
"Let us see this dress then," Caius crossed his arms over his chest with a smirk.
"You'll see it later," I laughed, running back up the stairs closely followed by the three of them.
"I don't know how I feel about this," I called from inside the bathroom.
"I am sure you look gorgeous as always, il mio amore," Aro's muffled voice reassured me.
Oh no, gorgeous was not the issue here. The dress was a neon orange coloured vinyl mini dress with spaghetti straps, which made my hips look wider and my boobs look bigger. Sure, I looked great, but the dress itself was short, and when I say short, I mean short. I wasn't usually the kind of girl to walk around in miniskirts and all that jazz, evident by my awkwardness in the outfit I was wearing.
Timidly, I unlocked the door to the bathroom and walked into my bedroom before smoothing out any painfully obvious creases in the dress. Now looking in my full-length mirror, I saw just how ridiculously revealing the whole thing was.
I rotated around to check the back. "I don't know if I like it."
"You look breathtaking," Aro murmured huskily after suddenly appearing beside my shoulder, his cold breath against my neck sending shivers through me.
Looking over at my bed, while Caius growled deeply, Marcus just seemed to me absolutely lost for words. Nonetheless, all three of their irises had become completely pitch black, and it felt like they were undressing me with my eyes.
"Oh, I also need shoes," I hurried over to my wardrobe and pulled out a pair of white vinyl heeled boots along with a neon green puffer jacket I'd bought with the gift card I'd been given for Christmas.
"Are you certain you want to attend this party? We could always stay here, it would be much more entertaining," Caius whispered suggestively into my ear as I pulled on my boots beside him.
"I'm not going to dress up like this just to stay at home," I kissed his jaw briefly and stood back up on my feet, realising that the heels meant I was just an inch off of Aro's height, "oh, and you need to follow the dress code at least a little."
Marcus' eyes went wide in panic. "I am not wearing neon, Eliana."
Far from it in truth, all three of them were dressed in their usual dark clothing. While Aro wore a black button up shirt and dress pants with a maroon velvet waistcoat, Caius wore a burgundy shirt with black dress pants and a black suit jacket that he had rolled up past his elbows, and Marcus wore his usual pristine black suit with a grey scarf loosely wrapped around his neck. Of course, all three of them had their Volturi crests around their neck as always.
"Not at all what I was suggesting, but I like your thinking," I giggled and handed them each a glow band, "just put one of these on your wrist, they glow in the dark."
Caius snapped his one and put it on, turning to me with a scowl. "Pink?"
"Not a pink kinda guy? Fine, here's yellow," I tossed him another band which he caught easily.
"And I presume these are safe?" Aro examined his bright blue glow band.
"Yeah, probably, just don't break open the plastic because I doubt the chemicals inside are good for you," I responded.
"Is this truly necessary, tesoro?" Marcus asked, glancing at his green glow band.
"Hey, I'm already technically not supposed to bring any plus ones, and now I have three. I'm sure it'll be fine though, Emilie said in her message that it's fine if they're hot."
"We are hot?" Aro smiled smugly.
"You should see the other boys my age, absolutely atrocious bunch of chavs, and they expect us to want to sleep with them in anyway," I pointed a finger in my mouth and pretended to gag, "leggo!"
Author's note: Yass party Eli! I don't know why I laughed so hard at the thought of the Volturi at a neon disco party with glow bands, but I just knew I had to include it in here somewhere. The next chapter is going to be so much fun haha, I can't wait for you to read it.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love hearing your views, stay safe, and ily lots!