The next day, I tried to re-establish myself with the castle and my duties (terrible as I was at them). My father was ecstatic to have me taking up such an interest in the castle - that was one thing that I had learnt, I was a princess through and through and I felt a responsibility to the vampires in the world. It was nice to spend so much time with my father, he'd never had much time for me when I was little. He walked me round the castle and told me all that had change in the however many years I had been gone for. He didn't seem angry at me at all, which was interesting, but maybe the happiness of having me back hadn't worn off yet and he would soon become angry at me for directly disobeying him, running away and not keeping in contact with anyone so they could now I was safe.

Once we were done, he then handed me off to Alec (to my horror) to meet the new guard members thus how Alec and I ended up strolling round the gardens at this particular moment.

"So…" I trailed off, wanting to remove the silence but having nothing to say. I glanced up at him to see an amused smile twist at his lips. "Alec Talor, are you almost smiling?"

"No."

The reply was short and abrupt but lacked the usual coldness and disdain that Alec generally spoke to me with. I pressed my lips together.

"You know, I'm trying to create conversation here and you're making it extremely difficult," I softly scolded him and he turned to look at me, his red eyes swimming with an emotion that was not the usual for when he was looking at me, in fact, I didn't even recognise it.

"I apologise, Principessa," he responded formally. "What would you like to discuss?"

"I would prefer you not to call me 'Principessa'," I shot back smiling as we stopped walking.

"And what would you rather I called you?" he asked turning to face me and staring down at me.

"My name," I told him simply, still trying to name that emotion in his eyes that was veiled as Alec's emotions always had been or maybe misted would have been a more apt description given Alec's gift. "Isabella."

"I'm aware your name, Isabella," he said, his voice far softer than he had ever spoken to me before and I bite my lip as my name slipped easily off his tongue in his English accent that I had always thought (and hated that I thought) was so unfairly captivating - it was partly his voice as well, I knew, because Jane had the same accent and I didn't find hers so … distracting. My stomach squirmed and I was suddenly desperate to get away from him.

"Have we met everyone new then?" I asked him, begging him silently to say yes.

"I believe so, Isabella," he said my name again and it just made me want to move closer to him - hence why I needed to get away now, like this instance.

"Great," I smiled up at him, trying not to seem like I was trying to get out of his presence but I sounded significantly uncomfortable nonetheless. "I best go see if my father wants anything else from me - I'll...see you later, Alec."

It took all my energy not to do one of these three things: run away for him as quickly as I could; run back to him for reasons I knew not; or to look back just once at him. Somehow, I managed to make it into the building without doing any and collapsed against the wall. No, no, this boy who detested me and who I barely even liked back could not make me terrified of myself. I could not allow myself to become attracted to him even if he his going to be civil to me from now on.

If I was honest with myself, I would admit that I had always been attracted to Alec (ridiculously so) since the moment my brain developed to a level to understand things like that. He had always been able to make my stomach squirm and my arm tingle with just a single touch. He had always made me concentrate a little bit more on my breathing so it didn't speed up and give me away. His personality and behaviour however had always put me off him, always kept me from feeling anything but dislike and confusion towards him, to forming any attachment towards him - again, honesty, would make me say that I had missed him these far too much over the years I'd been gone to claim no attachment toward him. If he was going to be civil to me, I was going to end up in big trouble.

Knowing Alec could come through the door any minute, I pushed myself off the wall and sent off to search for my father - checking the places he was most likely to be last to afford myself the time to get a grasp on my emotions.

My father had nothing more that he wanted me to do so the rest of the day was my own. Probably a good thing since I'd need to find some pass times within the castle for when I had done my duties.

I saw Alec only once more that day and it was him holding open a door open for me as I passed through to go back out into the gardens. I whispered 'Thank you' and once more attempted to escape his presence as quickly as possible but I could have been certain I heard him sigh heavily as I left.

This went on for a few days - this kind, polite Alec who confused more than anyone ever had, who could make me want to blush with a single courteous act. What had brought about this sudden change? Had something happened while I was gone that caused him to re-evaluate his entire personality? I resolved to ask Jane about it because there was no chance that I was going to ask Alec - I wasn't sure if I liked the new version more (it had more effect on me for sure but caused such confusion) or if I wanted him to revert so I at least knew where I stood with him.

There we go a bit more Alec filled this chapter. It's really hard for me to write an Alec that isn't completely openly in love with Isabella.

Also, just going to mention this here while I remember, I have other Belec stories on my account if you want to look at them. 'Star-Crossed' which is very long but I'm extremely proud of and 'Trapped' which is an AH story which I'm pretty proud of as well.