Eliana stood in front of one of the mirrors in Aro's frankly larger than life bathroom as she tugged on a pair of jeans that Chelsea had brought over for her earlier. She liked the quiet, the easiness and tranquility being alone in his quarters provided — it was a welcome change to the constant business in the building, anyway.
However, it was as she allowed herself to relax and began to fasten her jeans that she saw the door, that she had left ajar assuming no one would bother her, open and slam closed again immediately after. She yelped in shock and hurriedly finished dressing before leaving the bathroom, irritated but more than anything confused.
She didn't say anything. She silently stared at Afton, who slowly backed away from her with his hands out in front of him.
"I didn't see anything, I swear," he insisted, "I looked away, I didn't see anything, and I definitely didn't smell anything on you either, I didn't see anything "
Chelsea rolled her eyes. "I told you there was a reason why she was in the bathroom with the door closed "
"Half-closed !"
"Irrelevant," she replied dismissively. In a small chair located near the door, she had one leg over the other as she twisted her expensive bracelets around her wrists in an almost bored fashion, her attention switching between that and her wedding ring. "Ignore him, Eliana. You have my permission to slap him if you so wish."
Eliana's eyebrows were drawn together. "What did you smell on me? I just took a shower."
Afton didn't reply. Chelsea glanced at him disappointedly and then back at her. "Your arousal. No amount of showering will remove that for the next few hours at least. Our senses are very high-tuned, to say the least, so any kind of physical intimacy is more than obvious to us."
She raised an eyebrow. "So I smell like I just had sex?"
"Not exactly," Chelsea explained. "I'm sure you'd rather I didn't go into details, but there isn't enough of a combination of yours and Master Aro's scents to suggest so. If you are that paranoid about it, I have some perfume you may use, but I assure you that scent is normal. Like I said, ignore my husband. He sometimes acts like he has never so much as made eye contact with a woman in his life." She slapped his hand away before he could so much as attempt to disagree. "I am only here because Aro asked me to accompany you to breakfast." She raised an eyebrow at Afton. "Are you still here?"
"No," he deadpanned as he left. "You're horrible."
Chelsea laughed a little, causing him to stifle a laugh himself. "You love me really," she called after him. Once he was gone, she rolled her eyes light-heartedly and turned back to the remaining bemused human. "After how much he pissed you off last time, Aro wanted to avoid a repeat of that."
"Well, that ship has sailed," Eliana sighed. "Can you replace Afton more often? He's . . . a strong cup of tea."
As she stood up, she laughed under her breath. "Your Britishisms are adorable," she remarked as she reached for her wrist and immediately tugged her towards the door Afton had already left through, "now let's go."
Neither of them said much during the walk to the kitchens, although at least Chelsea had made an effort to ensure she was walking slowly for her sake. Eliana kept her gaze forward, her hands in her pockets.
"I like your style."
Eliana, bewildered, turned to stare at her. "You what my what?"
"I like your style," Chelsea repeated herself. "Much of how your generation dresses gets on my nerves and is just generally unappealing to me, but yours is nice. But why do you have beads on your shoelaces?"
She glanced down at her shoes and then back at her with a shrug. "I got bored doing homework and happened to have some rainbow beads. At least you missed my very short-lived goth era. That was a dark few months."
"You went through a goth era?" she asked.
"I call it my goth era because I have no idea what that counted as," Eliana told her honestly. "Everything was a dark colour, and I wore black nail polish, and obnoxious boots . . . oh, and there was a lot of Panic! At The Disco on my Spotify playlists at the time."
"Well," she sighed, "anything's better than the 5th century. I can't stand fashion from the 5th century. Globally, I'd say style hit a rock bottom, and I should know "
"Well, Chelsea, this makes things easy "
Eliana wasn't given a moment to react. She felt herself suddenly appear behind Chelsea, or maybe Chelsea had moved to stand in front of her. She wasn't sure, and in all honesty she was just a little too disorientated to figure anything out at that moment.
Chelsea's hand remained tightly around her waist, pinning her against her back protectively, as she interrupted him. "Eliana will not be harmed."
"Oh, shit, I'm sorry!"
Eliana peeked around Chelsea's shoulder far enough to see the man's eyes widen in shock and slight horror. His dark blonde eyebrows were raised as his hair brushed against his shoulder, shaved on the right side of his head.
His now considerably less darkened eyes turned to her as Chelsea's grip tightened warily. "Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, my apologies, Eliana."
Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "If you want to feed, tourists very rarely walk this corridor, so you're in the wrong area anyway."
The man simply shrugged, any sign of previous hostility gone. He seemed to carry some level of authority about him, but far more relaxed and casual than her mates.
"I felt like taking a detour. Again," He turned back to her, "I'm so sorry, дорогий "
"No, no, it's fine!" Eliana insisted quickly. "No harm done, I guess."
Before he could reply, Chelsea interjected. "That's enough chit chat. Don't you have places to be, Andrey?"
Andrey didn't seem to be too bothered by the snideness of her comment and simply bowed his head. "Yes, ma'am," he answered somewhat teasingly. He then winked at Eliana. "It was nice to meet you "
"Keep it moving," Chelsea snapped.
The sound of his laughter carried through the corridor as he left. Eliana was finally given space to breathe once Chelsea stepped out of her personal space and removed her death grip on her. She flattened any invisible creases in her jeans and continued to follow Chelsea's lead through the corridor, the opposite direction to which Andrey had left.
"Er, should I know him?" Eliana asked slowly. "You know, that guy back there."
Chelsea sighed. "That was Andrey. He is the leader of the Ukrainian coven, a coven that was formed 89 years ago. Did your mates tell you that they were visiting?"
She shook her head. "All Aro said was that he was busy," she responded. "How long are they visiting for?"
"This should be quite brief, so I'd imagine no longer than 2 days," she replied. "Between you and me, Master Caius can't stand Andrey, so I think them visiting for any longer could cause him to spontaneously combust with annoyance."
"Does Andrey know that?" Eliana questioned.
"Of course he does," Chelsea assured her. "It's just one of those things we don't talk about to prevent too much awkwardness. And Caius has little tolerance for many people. I think you may have observed that by now."
"You don't say," Eliana quipped. "So what's on the agenda for today?"
At the change in topic and absence of any threats, Chelsea visibly untensed as she spoke. "Well, with an extra coven in the guest wing, you can expect areas like this to remain fairly quiet today. Once I've gotten you to breakfast, I've been instructed to either find someone else to guard you for the remainder of the day or leave you in the confines of your room since all non-elite guard members have been forbidden from entering without explicit permission."
Eliana hummed in thought. "It depends who'd be guarding me."
"Considering today's timetable and assignments, Santiago, but "
"You know what? My room sounds great," she cut in with a forced smile. "Yeah, my room. Send me there. I like that plan."
Chelsea smirked a little and nodded in understanding. "As you wish, Eli."
Hours had gone by, and Eliana had made it through by binge watching various films through Netflix on her laptop. Once or twice, Felix had stopped by to bring her any food she requested, but she found that all she really needed to have a comfortable day in was an unlimited supply of things to watch, a bag of MMs, and far more blankets and pillows than a bed really needed in her opinion.
Every once in a while, she made to reach for her phone before reminding herself of exactly in what state it was now. Her hands felt oddly empty, but now she was just waiting on Aro to provide a new one, whenever he'd show up again.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard from any of her three mates all day. She didn't consider herself a particularly needy person, she knew she'd be fine if they were to become fully preoccupied for a few days, yet nonetheless it felt out of character for them.
When she thought about it, she knew that she really had no right having any complaints at all. How many women could say that they had three powerful vampiric beings hopelessly in love with them for the rest of eternity, willing to provide anything remotely desired at the drop of a hat? Honestly, very few.
She folded her legs into herself as the next film of countless films began to play. Her fingers fiddled absently with the various rings she had, most of them courtesy of the funds provided to her all those months ago by Aro.
She stretched her previously injured arm out, more than satisfied to feel it move and twist as before without any kind of aching or clicking. Other than the subtle array of bruises on her side which were now turning a light combination of green and yellow shades, there wasn't so much as a sign of her previous small injury.
"Oh, Caius, hi."
The door closed with a surprisingly calm click as Caius entered. He looked oddly tired, or maybe it wasn't tiredness but simply exasperation. She couldn't say she was an expert on vampire emotions.
The blond sauntered over to the bed, his eyes briefly flickering to the glowing screen. "Should I ask?"
"It's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Come sit." She reached for his hand and tugged him towards her. "I need company."
"You're such a child," Caius muttered as he relented, sitting on the edge of the bed. She immediately leaned into his side, the coolness of his body feeling . . . bizarrely warm and comfortable. "And a clingy one at that."
"What can I say? I like you," she replied.
He raised an eyebrow. "You 'like' me?"
As she nodded, she moved her head into his lap as she continued to watch the film. "You're just about tolerable when you're not busy being a dick."
"I'm the dick, while you're the one who can't seem to go 5 minutes into a conversation with me without adding some form of insult?" he clarified.
"Yeah," she responded, "pretty much." In the silence from him that followed, she rolled over in his lap so that she was looking up at him, only to find that he was already making direct eye contact with her. "You're not saying much. It's weird. Did something happen today?"
He rolled his eyes. "Andrey and his coven happened. If not for the fact that he gets along with Aro so well, I'd have sent the son of a bitch off on his way hours ago. Thank the heavens he's leaving now, the stupid man . . . What?"
She suppressed a laugh by biting down on the inside of her lip and reached for one of his hands to hold it between hers. "I just find it a little ironic that you're the one complaining about other sons of bitches."
He sniffed a half-humoured laugh. "Very funny, Eliana. You know, if you wanted to watch something, you could easily have used an actual TV for that."
A small knowing smirk graced her lips. "Are you only suggesting that so that I'd use your TV?"
"Can I be blamed for wanting you in my quarters for as long as possible?" he countered. She simply shrugged and turned back over to continue watching her laptop, his hand still clasped in hers. "Aro tells me he destroyed your phone."
She scoffed. "Obliterated it."
"I'll have a replacement for you tomorrow, in that case. He and Marcus also tell me that you'd like to live here permanently." He felt her stiffen a little and lightly squeezed her hand in a calming gesture. "Is that true?"
After a moment, she nodded her head. "I like it here. I know, it's dumb –"
"It's an insult to insinuate that I am true mated to someone mentally deficient," he sneered.
Eliana didn't even feel like arguing with him. She settled more comfortably against his thighs and continued. "But, like I said, I just don't want to seem like I'm rushing things. I don't want to do it too early and regret it, you know?"
"Do you want to?"
"What –?"
"Just answer the question," he snapped. "Would you be happy living here with us?"
She didn't move as she processed the question put before her. Meanwhile, Caius briefly leaned over to lower the volume on her laptop, a hand raking through her blonde hair.
"I would," she said quietly. "I really would."
"Then do it," Caius concluded. "What more convincing could you need than what you want?"
"Yeah, but . . . it's not so much if I want to, but more so when. What difference would it make if I said yes now or later?"
"You want more reasons? For one, you'll no longer suffer any kind of pain due to mating pulls," he began. His fingertips traced the smooth contours of her face. "We have more than enough space to accommodate you. If you wanted to continue your degree, it would be more than simple for me to arrange a transfer to Pisa University. Have I missed anything?"
"Don't forget the unlimited attention and cuddles," she added.
She didn't need to look up to know that Caius had just rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say. Is that all enough to convince you that this is a good idea now?"
"But when would I move?" she asked.
"Any time you wish," he answered. "The other two suggested Sunday."
Her eyebrows drew together. "This Sunday?!"
"Or some other time," he reassured her. "This isn't about what we want. It's about what you want."
She sighed. "What day is it today?"
"Thursday."
"Okay then." She exhaled a slightly nervous breath. "Sunday it is. I want to do Sunday."
"Are you 100% certain, carina?" he confirmed.
She nodded her head with a content smile. "150%."
Caius clicked his tongue. "I thought you were meant to be a maths student."
"Hey!"
{. .}
Author's note: Happy new year! I randomly woke up this morning and thought 'hey, you know what I'm gonna do? Update Infinite Bliss'. That weird burst of motivation might never return.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!
