Chapter 5: Ciao Bella
It was late, the sun had gone down hours ago and I still wasn't ready to leave. I loved the library at the University of Pisa, it was perfect. It had that old book smell that I love so much, thousands of them lined up on shelves, each filling the room with their perfume, just waiting for me to read them. All of them unique and beautiful in their own way, millions of words just waiting to be absorbed.
'Nerd.' I chastised myself.
It wasn't unusual for me to stay late, most of the cleaning staff was used to me being here by now, but tonight was later than ever, I didn't want to leave.
Today was the last day of the semester, and there would be no more classes being held for two weeks, and that's only if you signed up for extra credits. Most of the student body wouldn't be back for months. So, I had two weeks to find something else to do with my time, all 336 hours to fill, with what I had no idea.
I heard the night guard and the janitor discussing me before he finally made his way into the library, so with a dejected sigh I started to pack up my things as he entered the door.
"Perdono singorina?"
"Si?" I said to him while stuffing books and papers into my bag.
"Io dovere chiedere lei finire la sculoa per favore." He seemed a little abashed that he had to ask me to go, so I apologized and hurriedly went to leave. "Si, certo! Scusa!"
"Ma certamente! Grazie della sua comprensione"
"Addio" I said to him as I passed through the door of the library.
"Ciao Bella!"
The door to the courtyard was only a little way from the library, so I turned to wave at the two men who were staring after me, before disappearing outside.
Once out of sight I began to move more quickly, and before too long I was outside the city limits and at my small house that was located near the Tuscan countryside.
"Hey B!" Felix greeted me as I walked in.
"Hi Lex" I responded while flipping on the lights. I know that it's completely unnecessary but I'll never understand why vampires don't use lights when humans aren't around.
"Taking more classes?" He asked me while fingering my pile of forms and papers required for the next year. I was immediately glad I'd already turned in all my summer forms, the pile would have been double, and so would have been the teasing.
"I already told you that last time you were here." I tossed my bag on the chair and went over to grab the pile from him
"I know." he smiled at me; his big goofy brute grin, dropped the stack of papers just as I was getting ready to grab it and threw his arms around me, trapping me in a big bear hug. "But I can still hope!" he said to me before bouncing me around the room.
"Felix! Don't break me!" I was finally able to get out after forcing air back into my lungs.
"Right B, like that's even possible" he grinned at me again before giving me a quick peck on the cheek and letting me go. "You could have gotten away if you really wanted too" He said with a final wink.
"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked.
"Why! Isabella Marie Swan, I am shocked! Is that anyway to speak to a guest in your home?" He taunted me with fake dismay.
"You're hardly a guest Felix. More like a nuisance, or a pest..." he threw a pillow at me before I could finish.
Of course, he knew I was only teasing him, the same way he always teases me. Felix is the best. After my change it took most of them several months to warm up to me -some of them still thawing, but not Felix, he and I immediately clicked. At first, I was afraid that he might like me too much, but I soon realized that that just wasn't the case, we've been close ever since.
He's always reminded me of someone though, like an older brother, but I could never put my finger on it. That probably has more to do with the fact that I don't remember anything from my human life, and less about me forgetting a specific person, than anything else. Since of course there were no specific people to remember, maybe he does remind me of my older brother?
Regardless, even if there are people out there from my human life, they could never be a part of my existence now, so it doesn't matter. All I really know about my life before this one is my name, my human age and why I was changed. Anything else doesn't seem to matter much, I'm happy, so much so I can't imagine anything before this life that would have been worth looking for. So, I haven't. Well, and I can't, it's one of the laws, but I don't want to anyway so it doesn't bother me.
"Did you need another break from the Ice Princess?" I laughed at him while he was making faces over my summer class schedule.
"Always." he said with mock shivers, running his hands up and down his arms as if to warm himself up.
Jane has that effect on people, not me, but other people definitely. She's never been able to get to me with her power, even when I mastered the ability to completely pull back my shield, she's never been able to really use her ability on me. I've let her -once, and that was enough, and I only allowed it to happen for a fraction of a second before my instincts took over and shut her out. It's not even a choice really, my ability reacts to the attack and protects me.
She's definitely one who's still thawing out to me. I can only guess that it's because she doesn't have the same power over me, she holds over everyone else in the guard, and Felix agrees with me on that, but he thinks it's something more. He thinks Aro's fondness of me has a lot more to do with it than anything else.
Aro; although he never forces people to stay with him, has also never before let a member of his guard be 'on call' either. I'm the first. After the first couple of years with them I started to get bored. My presence isn't required full time like Jane or even Felix is, that's when I started to search for something to occupy my time.
I couldn't really do much in the human world, I'd thought about a job but I'd be limited to what I could do, and that seemed just as boring as sitting around the castle all day, so that's when I decided on school. I'd already read through the library in the castle, and had taken a few online courses when I finally found myself looking into the University of Pisa.
Surprisingly it didn't take much convincing for Aro, Caius and Marcus to agree (so maybe there is a little something to Felix's theory) and soon I was off taking classes, getting called back for visits every couple of months and more often if my duty required it.
"You know it's just because she likes you so much more than anyone else Lex, that's why she treats you so differently." I continued to tease him; he hates it when I put them together in an imaginary coupling.
"Hilarious." he sneered while giving me his death glare "Maybe when we get back to the castle the four of us could all get together, Jane, me, you and Demitri, we could double date."
"Ouch." I flinched internally at the thought. Jane is to Felix as Demitri is to me, but not, at the same time. He always makes me incredibly nervous and uncomfortable, something else I couldn't put my finger on.
"Actually B, Aro wants you to come home for a while." he said stretching out on the couch, obviously it wasn't an emergency "he 'requires your assistance' '' he finished with air quotes.
"Why didn't you just call? I could have been there hours ago?"
"Break from the Ice Princess remember? Jeez Bella, try and keep up!" I threw the pillow back at him.
"Well, we should go then" I stood up from where I was sitting "I can see you had a snack before coming here, but I'll need to hunt." I chided him while pointedly looking in his glowing eyes.
I had become used to their eating habits, and tried to be as light about it as I possibly could, but it was still hard, mostly I just tried not to think about it now.
"Hey, I tried it your way Bella." He jumped up from the couch, unaffected by my jab.
"You could have tried it longer, maybe you'd even like it by now"
"Ditto." he chaffed as I cringed.
In the beginning I didn't know there was another way and it is true; I killed and drank from humans my first years as a vampire. I hated it. I hated it so much, that after my newborn thirst began to wane and I could more easily control it and the need to consume, I began to starve myself. I would go weeks upon weeks without so much as a drop of blood until the need completely took me over and I gave in to the thirst.
It was just over my second year with the guard when I meet someone who lived another way. Her name was Irina, she had to come to the Volturi to report to them, something I wasn't allowed in on.
I was still new to the guard and wasn't included in all of their business dealings, but afterward had been introduced to her. She had the strangest color of eyes I had ever seen, nothing close to what I had become used to as a vampire, and so I questioned her about it.
That's when she told me about her family, how they all lived, only drinking from animals in the forests. She said that her family lived among humans, interacted with them on a daily basis. At first, I thought she was ridiculous, but she told me of another family that lived like hers did. I was so intrigued by the idea, and disgusted with my own eating habits that I asked her to take me hunting.
It was disgusting. But I found that it didn't make me feel sick and there was absolutely no guilt tied to it whatsoever. So, I continued on, and soon my eyes were the same weird golden color of topaz that hers had been when we meet. And I've never looked back, it freed me, that was really the moment I had realized my bliss. Before I was happy with my vampire life, but not completely, and after meeting Irina everything changed. I was truly happy, and with my new eyes and diet, I found myself able to interact with humans like she had said, and now I do.
"Are you coming or not? I am more than capable of going by myself."
"Oh, I know Bella, but yes, I would love to join you for dinner. Thank you for inviting me." He teased.
I rolled my eyes as we headed into the wilderness and back to Volterra.
(12/13/10)