I'm totally sorry, it took so long.
I'll try to be faster next time, but now enjoy the chapter...;)
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Chapter 2 (Teatro Romano)
The next two days I stayed in my hotel room spending time to bring back my old self. What it had been before it cut out due to one single scent.
In front of the door the 'DO NOT DISTURB' - sign was hanging and still some room maids came in, pretending to overlook it. The truth was, that the female receptionist has schmoozed eagerly and teased her colleagues.
Every time when somebody came in 'by accident' - and was anything but disappointed - I had a hard time bundling them out politely. They just didn't want to leave the room and remained much too long on the very spot with total amazement.
After those said two days of continuous staff visits I resolved to leave the room and visited the town. The odds were fifty to fifty, that I would meet again the girl of those days and attack her, or to lunge at somebody of the hotel staff due to complete testiness.
I decided to at first leave Volterra and seek the nearest forest. I needed to prepare myself at the best possible rate. Just in case.
Who knew whether there were other ones in Italy, whose blood affected me like hers. Otherwise Bella didn't seem to be Italian. Her skin was too pale - even paler than normal - and not that dark like the Mediterranean type. And she spoke English. Based on her accent she had to be American.
All things considered not really unusual. After all she was part of a tour group.
Maybe she wasn't even in the country anymore, but already on her return flight to the States.
Damn.
I was still poring over that girl. Actually she should be all the same to me. She was only a human. One I had to stay away from.
I grumbled and gained some curious glances of people running past me, when I crossed the massive gateway on the way back to the town.
Not faraway I had found a place I could hunt and appease hunger. It had lasted a whole five hours although it wasn't difficult to find enough animals at one go. Finally I had drunken twice as much as normal. Therefore it couldn't happen something.
Fortunately the weather was merciful. I could go back unhampered - without puzzled staring. A thick cloud layer was obliterating the sun and a breeze was blowing.
I took a chance to wander around a little, so I hadn't to go back to the hotel. The biggest part of people who were on the streets right now, were lots of excited tourists who complained about the grey sky.
Was a drastic boost of those ones actually possible within only some days?
I walked through almost deserted, narrow alleys to avoid curious glances. Between the marveled looks there were some mad ones, too. Most of them were husbands whose wives treated them as if they weren't there all of a sudden.
The buildings became smaller and lighter now until a ruin appeared in front of me. It was inset in an enclosed hollow ahead of the city wall. The steep brink was overrun with grass. There were half-height stonewalls in patches - partly littered with green tendrils - who concealed some parts of the place.
Behind it there was some kind of a tribune in a half-arc whose last line closed with a small wall. Probably an old hallway was situated behind it, which was used back in the days.
I concluded it to be an old theatre, and to judge by the few thoughts of the small tour group, who just run past me it was called Teatro Romano.
The collapsed sight of the whole had something nostalgic. Even now one could sense the act in the middle and hear the rapturous cheers of the spectators of bygone days.
The group already went over the ruin and I was glad about the people leaving the place. With that I had some time all to myself.
I just walked along the slender stairway to the theatre when I noticed her scent. Abruptly I stood still and looked around. I had proceeded on the assumption that no one else was here by now. But then I remembered her closed thoughts. They didn't speak to me like all the others always did.
She was standing at the edge of a rise of mural, which sprawled next to one of the other walls. Her eyes were closed and her face peaceful, as if she was savoring the silence.
Why of all people I had to meet her again?
My precautionary measures helped better than expected. Indeed the monster within me came up again and tried to stave off hunger, which spread in my gorge, but it was easier to stifle this time.
The venom my glands were secreting I slugged down and the pulling in my throat I ignored. It was the same feeling when a human came too close to me just before my next hunting. The thirst almost forged ahead, though I was still in control of myself.
I was able to take it.
However I had to take no risks. I didn't wanted to overwork my self-command. I turned to go.
Damn. Where's that girl again? Did she always have to do her extra tour? Because of her we'll get into trouble with that strange trip chick. I wonder why that woman - with that appearance - works at such a small company anyways. Totally moronic.
My head turned in the direction the thoughts came from. So the girl called Bella wasn't alone.
I recognized the character. It had to be her blonde friend who was now looking for her in the ancient hallway behind the tribune. Bella herself was realizing nothing of that. She was still standing motionless and dreamy. The breeze were blowing through her hair.
"BELLA?" the blonde screamed and her voice resounded through the hallway and then over the whole place, followed by the echo.
The girl with the brown hair and the sweet scent swung around winced. In a fraction of a second she got a glimpse of me before she looked to the entry behind her.
However she had no time to wait for that person who had just called for her.
The brink on which she was standing crumbled and she lost stability. Her arms paddled in the air, right before her feet fully slipped off.
No. Not her!
Like lightening and with a speed no human could ever caught with the eye I ran to her.
I was already standing at the point where she would land before she reached the ground. My spread arms sank in time with the fall, so that her descent wasn't too hard. Because our body was like granite for humans.
Her arms clung to my neck and the cold let her tremble a little. My chin almost touched the bend of her neck and I even felt the up and down of her main artery while her warm blood was rushing quicker and quicker.
And this smell! It was overwhelming. Only now I realized the danger I had put her in.
Too close. She's much too close!
The shock was still to feel at her whole body. The adrenaline downright flooded it. Her heart - near my silent one - beated heavier and faster than I had ever noticed it on other humans. Not even on the criminals I had killed during my rebellious time, or on the girls who had run past me and enjoyed vampire pheromones.
The blood rushed through her veins as if it positively wanted to solicit me. It warmed her body up and even though I couldn't see it I knew that her cheeks were blushed. Every breath was difficult for her. The tangency let her shiver when the tip of my nose carefully cruised along her neck to inhale her odor.
The monster within me competed for control and again I tasted the venom in my mouth. Slowly my hand which was holding her back, went upwards to stroke her hair aside. My tongue skimmed over my sharp teeth and when my lips softly touched her skin, her breathing completely abandoned.
That's how it is. She could have told me. Then I wouldn't be keeping after her…
My head flipped to the top. There, at the edge of the rise from where Bella just had fallen, her friend was standing, arms akimbo and a shifty grin on her face.
When our glances met, the blood beneath her skin let her cheeks darken.
She gasped for air for a short moment.
Oh my God… He's gorgeous… There she made a scoop! I never thought that someone like him would even look at her…
Her eyes narrowed and she grinned wider.
But nothing's for eternity, right?
Bella's breathing restarted.
"What… do you do?" she whispered when she leaned backwards to look into my eyes. Again she tried to draw breath and couldn't avert my gaze. Her eyes flickered. She was on the verge of fainting.
I hold my breath. I had to go. Now!
Maybe a little to fast I set her down on the cold stone ground, shortly looked into her surprised face and mumbled "I'm sorry" with the last, remaining breath, before I ran away - but not too fast to not attract attention.
What's the point of that now? I heard the other one in my head, then I vanished behind the wall at the top of the stairway and admitted my full speed.
Now and then I had to slow down my steps when I heard someone at the next corner.
It only took some minutes until I finally arrived at the hotel. In the lobby was a frenzy of activity. Not uncommon. Most of the vacationers traveled afternoons, but I merely noticed them. Even so the female receptionist didn't act the same way I did. She immediately noticed me and didn't attach value to the woman right in front of her anymore.
"Welcome back, Mr. Cullen. May I help you?" She smiled her widest smile, but I only shook my head and went at full pace to the stairs.
Her thoughts told me that Carlisle was already back.
I was really glad about it. It meant that we could back home at last. How big was the chance to meet that girl again in a country with an area of almost ten million square meters?
It was unbelievable that I had been on the point of drinking her blood. Killing her. The second time that I almost lost control. Only the fact that I was hunting just a few hours ago let her friend interrupt me.
Just because I got too close to her, she almost lost her life. Possible that I could train my willpower with slow approaches - always with the backdoor to remove at any time as fast as possible.
But even if the mystery of her thoughts were in favor of it - and that she was different to all the others in a strange way - I couldn't expose her to such a danger.
When she had been lying in my arms, there was also another feeling that mixed with the desire. One that didn't crave for the taste of her blood. I didn't know what it was, whether good or bad. I wasn't acquainted with it. And it would be better to not find out. I could only do that by meeting her again, but that would never ever happen.
Even before I entered my room I heard Carlisle's musing thoughts. Aro must have said something that ruffled him.
"Hello, Edward" he welcomed me.
Aro wants to see you implicitly. Did you get up to something?
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So what do you think? Do you like it? Or not? Tell me...;)
Any misspelling? If you find something, tell me that, too. English is not my native language...
This story is almost completed in german. So be sure I will continue. It contains 11 chapters and an epilogue.