If Eliana was being honest, she wasn't entirely sure why she was still running. It had been a few minutes, turning down hall after hall through the endless labyrinth that was the Volturi castle. She was glad that she hadn't bumped into any hungry immortals, but that was the least of her worries.

Finally out of breath completely, her heart thudding against her ribcage, Eliana stopped, leaning back against the nearest blank stone wall and bending her knees so that her back slid down towards the floor.

She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her head between her knees. She could already feel that burning sensation in her eyes that always came before the eventual floods of tears.

Her pocket suddenly vibrated very briefly with a soft buzz. How the hell was she getting service in the middle of rural Italy? Eliana slowly pulled her phone out from beneath her and opened up the text she'd received.

Bells:

i'm really bored and emmett won't stop making cringey jokes about what I'd be like as a vampire. welp.

She wasn't entirely sure if she should be annoyed that her friend was happily enjoying her life without her or humoured by Emmett never once giving her a break. She couldn't help the faint giggle that escaped her lips as she began to type her response, stifling a yawn as she did so.

El:

your problem not mine hahahah
sucks to be you

Bells:

ugh just get back soon so I don't have to deal with this for any longer

She laughed, but that laugh quickly morphed into a sob. She couldn't be homesick, surely . . . no, she was never homesick. If anything, she loved being away from home, the longer the better. Even last year when she'd coincidentally visited when James was hunting both her and Bella down, homesickness had been the last thing on her mind.

So why was she crying now? She could feel the uncontrolled and unexplainable tears running down her face, the salty taste of the droplets on her lips as they dripped all the way to her chin and then fell onto her clothes. She tried to keep her sobs quiet, but it seemed useless. There was so much to cry about, anyway.

With overwhelming amounts of self pity that felt like they were going to swallow her whole, she buried her face in her arms in an attempt to muffle the noise she was making.

"I cannot say I blame you for your reaction."

Warily, she peeked over her crossed arms at the person who'd suddenly and silently appeared beside her. Marcus was sitting just an inch or so away, mirroring her position on the floor against the wall with his legs bent slightly.

"It's just," she sniffled, "it's a lot to process, you know."

He nodded. "I understand. The mating bond can do bizarre things to a person's emotions."

She glanced up briefly. "How so?"

Marcus found himself struggling to resist the insistent urge to wipe her tears away from her cheeks, his hand twitching by his side. "I think you know what I mean," he replied. "My brothers were adamant that they came too, but we thought it wise to send one of us. They can be rather overbearing at times."

She laughed meekly. "I hadn't noticed."

She'd only been in the room with the other two royal immortals for a few minutes and it didn't take a genius to tell that they were exactly that—overbearing. From what she'd gathered so far, Aro didn't quite understand when to stop, and Caius tended to inadvertently make things worse. At least Marcus said little at all, which seemed to be what she needed at that moment.

"I still don't understand," she began, "how any of this can be possible. Why me?"

"On the contrary, why not you?" he countered. "Mating between immortals has little understanding around it as it is. True mating, however, is even more widely speculated. Most are led to believe the phenomenon never existed in the first place. The chance of a true mate being alive at the same time as their destined mate is so rare, you see. Is that a sufficient answer to your question?"

With another sniffle and a wipe of her nose against her sleeve, she nodded.

"I do hope we have a chance to meet again tomorrow," he continued. "From my understanding, the bond will become easier to deal with as time goes on."

"I'm," she sighed through her nose, "I'm sorry for the way I reacted. I don't know why the hell that happened back there, or what came over me, or why-"

"There is no need to get yourself worked up again, tesoro," he reassured her, "nor is there any need for apologies when you are not at fault. If anyone is to apologise, it should be us for carelessly placing you in such an uncomfortable position."

Marcus gently took her hands to help her to her feet, taking longer than actually necessary as he momentarily admired how warm and soft even her hands were. Strange humans, he mused to himself silently, before hesitantly wiping a stray tear from her cheek.

"I will have Felix escort you to your living quarters," he told her. "He will see to your needs."

Before Eliana could say anything, or even thank him for being so nice, he disappeared in a confusing blur. Within a blink of her eye, the tall guy from before had taken his place, startling her so much that she physically jumped back. He didn't even seem apologetic about it.

"You'll be pleased to hear that, in the course of your brief jog of the castle, you've already covered half of the distance back to your quarters, ma'am," Felix remarked.

She rolled her eyes and began to follow his lead further down the dim halls, suddenly feeling much safer with a ridiculously tall bodyguard in tow. "Just call me Eli."

"Eli?" he repeated. "What kind of name is that?"

She blinked. "My name."

He chuckled to himself. "You're feisty for such a tiny human, you know that?"

"I live to please," she sighed.

The walk was enjoyably quiet. Although Felix seemed to already enjoy teasing her, she was glad to see that he was willing to shut up so that she could have a proper chance to compose herself after . . . all that.

The silence, however, didn't last long. Sudden movement flashed before her eyes, causing her to lose her basic balance and fall backwards onto her arse.

"My sincerest apologies, ma'am."

Eliana tilted her head back to glance up at the person who'd caused her to trip over her own two feet. He seemed to be familiar, indicating that they'd probably already met before the previous incident, if only briefly.

Her eyebrows drew together. "Hello?"

The man, just slightly shorter than Felix but by no means weaker, seemed humoured, offering her a hand to help her up which she took. "Demetri, ma'am," he introduced himself.

"Not ma'am, Eli," Felix corrected with a taunting edge aimed towards her.

"I'm not deaf," Demetri countered, indicating that he'd already heard their entire conversation despite being on the other side of the castle from them, "just . . . keeping up with formalities, that's all."

Eliana shrugged. "I literally couldn't care less about formalities. Eli works fine."

"Okay then, Eli, I've just been made aware that you haven't eaten all day and have been instructed to ensure you are well-fed," he told her. "Any preferences on meal choices?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Surprise me. As long as it's vegetarian, I couldn't care less."

With an affirmative nod, Demetri disappeared in another blur, causing her to take a few seconds to gather herself together again. Felix simply rolled his eyes and continued to lead her back towards her quarters for the evening.


Felix left literally the moment she set foot in that room again. With a tired sigh, she closed the bedroom door and flicked on the light switch on the side of the wall, which filled the room with a pale yellow glow from a small light bulb attached to the ceiling.

To say she was having a weird day would be an understatement. Not only had she just been told that effectively her soulmates are 3000 year old vampire overlords, but also she'd had a mental breakdown in front of them and forgotten to wear shoes. Actually, the shoes part of that seemed believable for her, but the rest felt like a twisted fever dream.

The moment she finally sat down on the edge of the soft mattress of the bed she'd been provided, the door burst open. She quietly yelped and jumped back onto the bed as two more vampires walked into the room without even bothering to knock.

Again, she felt an odd sense of déjà vu as she looked at their faces. They were both the same age and, at closer inspection, twins, maybe 13 or 14 physical years old. The girl had blonde hair which was pulled back into a sleek bun at the back of her head, while the boy had dark brown hair which lay messy over his forehead. Other than that, they were entirely identical.

The girl placed a tray on her bedside table. "Food, human."

"Hadn't noticed," Eliana responded.

She gave her an odd look before continuing. "I am Jane, and this is my brother Alec." She motioned to the boy behind her. "Is there anything else we can get you?"

"Oh, there is actually," Eliana began, earning an instant sigh. "Can you please open the window? You're all inhumanly strong and I'm, well . . . not."

With more sass than she'd ever seen at one given time, Jane strutted over to the window, pushed it open with ease, motioned to it exasperatedly, and stormed straight back out again. Eliana blinked in confusion as to why she was so short-tempered at her until Alec interrupted her thoughts, still in the room with her.

"She's like that with everyone," Alec explained. "Don't take it personally. If you think that's scary, her being nice is so much worse." He sniggered to himself. "If you need anything else, just say so, Eliana."

"Oh, it's Eli-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the door was closed again. Eliana sighed and glanced over at the bowl on the tray that had been given to her. She'd been provided with some kind of tomato pasta, apparently, and quite a large portion too. With it was also a glass of water and what looked like some biscotti.

However, rather than touch her food, she lay back on the bed and pulled out her phone. With all of the hectic events of the day thus far, she hadn't even taken a moment to think about where the Cullens could've possibly gotten to.

El:

mind explaining where tf are you?

Bells:

El:

?

Bells:

we're back in forks
i wanted to bring you too but apparently you're too sick to fly
probably bs, but it's better that than you throwing up all over the plane

El:

but i came to forks to see u, not italy

Bells:

italy's nice though
and they have nice pasta

El:

sure, vampires and pasta, love italy
landscape, food, vampires: visit italy
istg i'd buy that on a t-shirt
how's everything now that you have your precious snowflake lover back?

Bells:

don't make fun of me, things were hard for me, okay?

El:

so hard you jumped off a cliff
without context this conversation topic is kinda dirty though-

Bells:

ew stop jesus eli
anyway, forks is great
alice says enjoy the pasta(?)
she's being weird, but she's always like that whenever she has a new vision

El:

what's the vision?

Bells:

no idea, probably something fun though
oh and I have news
so you know how the Volturi are gonna keep bothering me until I become a vampire?
we had a vote

El:

shit

Bells:

language
anyways, guess who's becoming a immortal after graduation?

El:

ur pet chinchilla

Bells:

funny.
only edward and rosalie voted against it, fortunately
edward because he's just overprotective and all that, rosalie because she thinks I'm wasting my humanity

El:

u kinda are though

Bells:

whose side are you on?

El:

yours, sure, but are you sure you wanna do this?
u can't just change your mind and be like: I'm bored of this shit, imma be human again

Bells:

i've always been sure
it sounds cringey, but this is how it's supposed to be
i'm supposed to be one of them
i wouldn't expect you to get it, but being a vampire just feels . . . right, you know?

El:

no, but i do kinda get it, actually
I'll probably have to join you sooner or later anyway

Bells:

oh I forgot you're still with them
haha rip
now it's my turn to laugh at you

El:

shut up


Eliana ended up falling asleep with her phone beside her, still fully clothed, at around 1 in the morning. Once she was definitely sound asleep and couldn't be disturbed, she was completely oblivious to the door opening and the few people that entered the room.

Aro hummed a chuckle and picked up the empty tray of food. "Afton, take this to the kitchens."

The dark haired guard took the tray, trying not to laugh at the messily sleeping human, and vanished again. Curiously, Caius approached the bed and attempted to unlock her phone, only to realise that it needed either her fingerprint or a password. With a sigh, he lifted up the small device and placed it under her thumb, unlocking it instantly. Fortunately, she didn't react at all.

"And you wouldn't consider that an invasion of her privacy, brother?" Marcus asked sarcastically, disappointed yet not surprised at the blond's behaviour.

Caius scoffed quietly. "It would be if I did not have only her best interests at heart."

Aro crossed his arms over his chest. "And you are opening Snapchat because . . ." he questioned, well knowing the kind of photos she stored in her My Eyes Only. They were not nudes per say, but the clothing she wore was minimal to say the least. Regardless, he tried not to dwell too much on the mental images he'd witnessed for her own sake.

Unsurprisingly, Caius swiped over to her My Eyes Only and grumbled about there being another passcode. He glanced up briefly, his thumb hovering over the numbers on the screen. "On what day is her birthday, Aro?"

Marcus rolled his eyes, an action that even surprised himself, and snatched the phone from Caius, placing it down on her bedside table. "That is quite enough of that, Caius. If Eliana wanted to show you whatever photos she stores there, she would, but until then, respect her privacy."

"Are you insinuating that I do not, brother?" Caius hissed.

"As the Americans like to say, if the shoe fits," Marcus retorted.

If Caius was to be honest, he much preferred it when Marcus said nothing at all. "Well, if you're going to be such a kiss ass to the Cullens, why don't you-"

"Mind your language, brother," Aro chided.

The increase in noise caused Eliana to stir slightly. She made a quiet groaning sound and began to uncurl from the little ball she'd tucked herself into.

Before she could awaken any further, Marcus quickly knelt down beside the bed and pressed his lips gently to her hairline, not with necessarily the intention of kissing her but allowing the sound of his deep purring to lull her to sleep. Sure enough, she instantly settled back down again and subconsciously curled up closer to him.

Caius raised an eyebrow at him. "You purr now, brother?"

"I was only made aware of it briefly this afternoon," Marcus replied, carefully scooping her up into his arms and placing her back down underneath the covers. "I'd imagine you could do the same."

Aro sighed dreamily with a hand over his heart. "By the grace of the gods-"

"Here he goes again," Caius muttered, spinning on his heel and leaving the room.

"For heaven's sake brother, do you truly have an issue . . ." As Aro followed Caius out of the room, the sound of their bickering carried through the echoing halls of the castle.

With yet another roll of his eyes, Marcus was the last one to leave. "Sleep well, tesoro," he whispered before closing the door behind him.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: I feel like this chapter might've just turned out a little shorter than I expected, but I'll probably make up for it next chapter. Also, since I'm basing this fic in 2017, enjoy Gen Z Bella and Eliana texting dumb shit to each other. You're so welcome.

This fic is taking a little longer to write than I expected, so I'm sorry in advance if you don't get another update in a week or so, but just be patient please and ty.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!