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Chapter Six

No one moved. A slight breeze travelled through the air, ruffling their silky locks of hair like some creepy shampoo ad, yet they seemed frozen in time, no more alive than a statue.

"What the fuck..." I whispered under my breath, eyeing them critically. And all of a sudden, they were moving again, inching closer towards me. The dark haired man, Aro, lowered himself to the floor in a crouch, as if approaching a startled animal.

I watched him warily, my gaze switching between the three of them. The other two men were tensed but stood back, seemingly in an attempt to appear less of a threat.

"Oh, cara mia. We would never..." Aro trailed off, his voice taut with anguish. "We could never harm you." He dropped fully to his knees, mere inches in front of me. I stayed stiff, pressed against the stone wall as I stared him down in defiance.

"Yeah, well, forgive me if that doesn't inspire much confidence, considering events that occurred literally less than a minute ago." I bit out harshly, narrowed eyes locked onto the man's deep red iris'. "Who are you? Where am I? Please, just let me go."

"My name is Aro, tesoro." He said gently, noticing as my eyes flickered over to the two men behind him. "This is Caius and Marcus, I promise you, they will do you no harm. Would it be alright with you if they came a little closer?"

My jaw clenched and I nodded warily in agreement, I mean, it's not as if I'm not already screwed. They lowered themselves to their knees, dropping next to Aro, a little too close for comfort but not quite invading my personal space.

An image of Felix, effortlessly ripping my attacker's head from his shoulders as if it were nothing, flashed through my memory. I stared at the men as my brain ran through all possible scenarios and explanations. Somehow, it seemed highly unlikely that I'd stumbled upon some twisted X-men mutant kinda bullshit.

They straightened slightly as I cleared my sore throat, their posture's sharp and attentive.

"What are you?" My voice sounded rough and irritatingly emotional. It was my 'I'm definitely about to get screwed over by my anxiety but first, I need answers' voice.

It seemed they had both expected and dreaded this question, as they exchanged a look full of meaning. Yet no one spoke.

A small sob broke from my throat, despite my desperate attempts to hold it in, and I buried my face in my knees, my arms wrapped around my legs despite the overwhelming pain the movement caused me. "Please," I struggled to stop crying, "I don't- I don't understand." A gentle brush of a hand against my leg, caused my tear stained face to reappear from its hiding place amongst my knees. The hand belonged to the tall, dark haired man, Marcus. His brow furrowed as he realised what he did, and he withdrew his pale hand with a murmured apology.

I eyed him as he glanced at Aro and Caius, before he sighed heavily, running his hand through his long hair.

"Piccola... What- What do you know of the supernatural?"

I let out a hysterical laugh, "That it's fictional?"

"Not so, I'm afraid. My brothers and I are living proof of it." Marcus paused at my teary expression of disbelief. "We are vampires, sweet one."

Vampires.

That one word elicited another terrified sob from my throat, and my chest tightened. Everything around me was unfocused, blurring into one very abstract image, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. My uninjured hand flew up to grasp at my chest. I could feel my heartbeat speeding relentlessly and beating out a harsh rhythm in my chest as I bit down another panicky sob. Worried voices spun in circles around me, bright splotches appearing in my vision.

I wasn't sure whether I was relieved or annoyed when my vision darkened and my eyes rolled up into my head, my body dropping into a dead faint. The last thing that my conscious body felt was the worried touch of ice cold hands catching me into a gentle hold.

A sharp, pungent aroma roused me from my dreamless rest, soft murmurs lulling me back to consciousness. My fuzzy mind briefly picked out the words, 'smelling salts', 'in shock', and 'overwhelmed'. I blinked away the blurriness from my eyes, my vision steadily sharpening with each waking moment.

"There we go, come on, up you get." A woman's voice comforted me, sitting me up and gently rubbing my back. A drink of water was raised to my lips and I struggled to swallow without tearing up from the pain.

"Grazie, Gianna. That will be all."

And the comforting presence was gone. At least she'd left the water, though at this point I felt like some hard whiskey might be more effective. I rubbed at my temples with a shaky sigh, taking another sip of the drink. It only occurred to me after I'd drunk the whole glass that I could have just been drugged. My eyes snapped open with a vengeance, glaring furiously at the three men who still surrounded me. Creeps. Then my glare faltered as my brain caught up with me and lit up one word in full neon lights like the Vegas strip.

Vampires. I paled as I bit my lip to muffle any gasp, whimper, or swear word that might have tried breaking free.

They must have realised what I was thinking, as they backed away, giving me some breathing space.

I took some deep breaths, breathing in, counting to ten, and then breathing out to the same count. My fingers shook a little as I did my best to calm my breathing down.

"This is so fucked up." I mumbled under my breath as I massaged my temples with shaky fingers. "Y-you realise how ridiculously insane this all sounds? Then again, I did just witness that huge dude quite-fuckin-literally rip another dude's head off like he was cracking open a cold one, so hey, what the hell do I know, right?" I groaned into my hands.

"Aight," I looked up and eyed the three men as bravely as possible. They returned my look, all of their faces flickering between amused and apprehensive. Aro smiled and nodded at me in what I assumed was supposed to be encouragement, though only made me nervous (and a little horny, but in that scared as fuck sort of way where you know a person is dangerous as hell but like - damn.)

"Three things. One, I'mma need a little more proof of what y'all are saying. Two, I'll be needing some info and context to back up the proof, which better be concrete as fuck. And three, why are you telling me this? I'm assuming that your answer to number three will undoubtably provide an explanation as to why I've not yet become a blood bag. That's if this whole vampire bullshit isn't just you lot fucking with the dumb American tourist." My chest wheezed a little as I practically word vomited a monologue at the men, barely pausing for breath.

There was a slight awkward silence as they seemed to digest my words, but after a moment or two, Aro broke out in peals of laughter.

"Oh, you are brilliant, tesoro. Truly magnificent." He sighed in delight, he red eyes bright. "Such fire, such bravery, even in the face of the unknown."

"Uh huh, right." I eyed him warily.

The grumpy looking blond man, Caius, smirked at me.

"Just what sort of proof would be satisfactory, cara mia?" Caius' deep voice rumbled in a curious (and frustratingly sexy) manner. Dick.

"I mean, as long as heads remain attached, wait - no, as long as all body parts and limbs remain attached - then I guess in the most convincing way you can provide?"

Which apparently to Caius meant punching a literal crater into the beautiful stone flooring with his bare hand, and zooming around the large throne-like room acting like a poor man's Barry Allen.

He blurred back to his position crouched in front of me, barely a silky strand of icy blond hair out of place. Aro and Marcus glared at him in annoyance as they eyed the fist-shaped crater in their previously undamaged stone floor.

"Truly? Of all the options at your disposal, you decided demolition was the best way forward." Marcus remarked dryly. Caius shot a mocking glare back at the taller man, mumbling something under his breath that I couldn't catch.

"Well, er, it was definitely convincing if that helps." I commented a little breathlessly, as my fingers gently examined the hole. I realised the stone had been practically pulverised by Caius' fist, when the grains of stone slipped through my fingers. "This is... Holy cow. Vampires are real? Shit! Vampires are real!"