Chapter Four: Bella

Caius' pace was way too fast for me to catch up with. He wasn't exactly running, but his stride was at least ten times faster than mine and he was just walking. I had to run to catch up. I could almost feel his impatience at my pace and I wondered how long it would be until he snapped.

I tripped twice trying to keep up, and finally the third time I tripped and went sprawling. Caius unexpectedly grabbed me and swung me up bridal style and then sped down the hallways so fast my eyes blurred.

When he stopped I felt like I was going to throw up. Thankfully I didn't. If I had Caius would probably have begun lecturing me on the repulsiveness of my humanity. Vampires can't throw up… Can they?

"Are you going to be standing there all day gaping at me, or are you going inside?"

I was yanked back to earth. Caius was holding open a door and gesturing for me to enter. Blushing furiously I entered. Then I stopped.

His room was... Not what I was expecting. It wasn't that big, but all the walls were filled with overflowing bookcases and scrolls on shelves and it was….. Wow. There were also several filing cabinets at the end of the room, and seven or eight desks lined up in the center of the room. In fact it looked more like a library than room. There was no bed or bathroom or dresser or even wardrobe…. I knew the bathroom and bed were hardly needed, but it didn't seem like a room without them. And wardrobe? Did Caius wear the same black robes and cloak every day?

Ah well, at least it wasn't the black dungeon hole with coffins and severed heads in the corners.

The door slammed shut behind me. "What? Is my room not suited to your tastes?" snapped Caius.

"No, no, it's just… it's amazing… How old are these books?"

Caius stopped, looking as if that wasn't the answer he had been expecting. Finally he replied, "Several hundred years old or more- so don't touch anything."

Then he swept off to one of the desks, yanked out a piece of paper, ink and quill (the irony). And began to write, his hand flying across the paper so quickly it blurred. It was he had forgotten I was in the room. I didn't even exist anymore.

With nothing else to do I plonked down in a corner. Impressed as I was, I couldn't believe that this was where he actually lived. This was a study for goodness sakes- did Caius even have a life? For some odd reason I wondered if he was married. It seemed so lonely in this room with no-one else there… Nothing except the blank life dedicated to duty. Did Caius even do anything for fun? Against my better judgment I began to feel sorry for him. No wonder he was the shriveled up skeleton of a vampire- all bitter inside, always so cruel and vindictive.

Although if I stayed here I had I feeling I would end up the same. Yes my room was boring, and Caius was hardly entertaining, but honesty sitting here in a corner doing nothing was even worse. Had I honestly thought that filing reports for other covens would be interesting? There was definitely something wrong with me.

I was all for getting up and saying- 'Ok…. Next stop… Something fun!' However it seemed wrong to have asked to come here and witness him in his own natural environment, then go- 'This is boring. Let's leave.' In any case, was there anything fun in this place? I didn't know and I knew Caius wouldn't tell me if there was. If he even knew what the word 'fun' meant.

So…. What were my options? No touching anything…. No talking- because that seemed to annoy him- fun as it was, I didn't want to push my luck too far. I had to make some part of my situation bearable after all. Six months of this endless boringness would leave me just as loony as Aro.

I got up and walked over to Caius, seeing his shoulders visibly tense. "Do you need some help?"

He looked up in shock.

"It looks like a long… report." It was true, he was on what looked like the eighteenth sheet of paper, front and back, and his writing was tiny. Each letter was beautifully sculpted and flowed across the page gracefully. It looked like it had been printed from a computer.

"You…. No. I am perfectly capable." Caius dropped his gaze back to the piece of paper, quill zooming over the page. He was on his twentieth piece of paper.

I stood there feeling stupid. "Could I then, um, read a book? I promise I'll be careful and put everything back."

Caius didn't even look up. "Non mi aspetto che tu capisca una parola in metà di questi volumi, però. È già abbastanza brutto la maggior parte delle copie originali sono stati tradotti in lingua inglese."

"Ummmm , I might as well make it clear that I don't speak Italian…." What was with his constant outpouring in Italian? Was it even Italian? It could be Spanish for all I knew.

Caius, still writing infuriatingly another line in Italian then spoke in English, "Do whatever. Merely replace each book in its previous position when you are done." Then he went of muttering another line in Italian- or was it Latin this time?

I muttered a quick "Thank you," before quickly walking over to one of the towering bookcases before he could change his mind.

There were tons of books, a much larger variety of subjects and genres than there were in my room, but most of them looked like they were written in Italian. As I had pointed out to Caius, I didn't speak Italian. My eyes scanned the shelves for something in English. I saw several versions of Shakespeare in what looked to be Greek, Italian, French and Latin. Not English though.

Reaching the bottom of the shelf, I pulled out a small book that was coated in dust. So much for his love of books. None of these had been touched for what looked like decades. Now that I looked around I realized that everything was coated in a coat of inch thick dust. I didn't think these books had been touched in a long, long, long time.

Dusting off the cover to the little book, I realized it was a notebook, not a proper printed version, more like a diary. Caius had a diary? I flipped it open, knowing it was rude, but unable to rein in my curiosity. The thing I noticed first was that the writing was not his. His had been long and stretched, flowing with each letter linked to the next. This script was just as old, but the style was undoubtedly female. The letters had more space in-between them, and were a lot spikier, unlike Caius's. Intrigued, I flipped over a page.

Ciao, io possa avere qualcosa da mangiare? Vorrei partire, Grazie,

I have been here-

English! The owner of this notebook had spoken English! I continued reading greedily.

I have been here for a month and yet the only phrases I understand are above. I grow restless of this constant ignorance. In England I was ranked as a lady. Here I have a position of much more power, yet it is futile without knowing the language of my subjects or associates. Perhaps it is time for me to learn to speak this foreign language.

There had been a woman here like me? I flipped restlessly through the rest of the book, trying in my hurry to be gentle with the paper thin pages, but merely found notes in both English and Italian. It seemed the mystery writer had been teaching herself Italian. Disappointed that I couldn't read more about the woman, I was about to place the book back on the shelf, until I realized that the notes in itself was a gift. I could- using her notes, teach myself Italian!

I grabbed a copy of what looked like Romeo and Juliet in Italian and settled myself down in the corner.

It was a lot easier than I expected. I had read the book Romeo and Juliet so many times it was easy to match the Italian to the English.

Apart from the detailed notes, there were often some entries in the margin or along the edge of the book that looked like Caius's handwriting. They were all in Italian.

Quindi questo è ciò che Athena scarabocchia in giorno dopo giorno ...

I managed to translate the beginning- Quindi questo è ciò che Athena scarabocchia- So this is what Athena scribbles-

I assumed Athena was the woman.

I wondered who exactly she was, why she had come to Italy to live with vampires. Maybe she had wanted to, maybe she was a prisoner or maybe she was like me, human, and hiding with monsters away from demons.

I shook my head, clearing it, then bent my head back down to my task of translating the first page. I muttered several sentences aloud trying to get the ring of it. I had to admit, my accent was terrible. I couldn't even pronounce the first two lines. Due famiglie, sia allo stesso modo in dignità, Nella bella Verona, dove abbiamo la nostra scena,

Ended sounded like- Doe famile, sa lo stresso modoo in dignata, Nellar bella Verona, dove (long 'e')abimmo la nostra secenea. I guess when I got a job I would definitely not put- 'speaks Italian' in my CV.

I mumbled my way through several lines of Shakespeare, wondering now and again whether Caius used to read these. It was obvious the books hadn't been touched in a while, but I could tell by the spine of the book that someone had read this book many times over.

"…our toil will strive to end," I was trying to pronounce the word strive (sforzarsi) and saying it- see-for-zar-sie when I realized Caius had stopped writing. The report looked like it was at least fifty pages long, stacked beside him and he was sitting stone still, staring out the window.

Hmm, Caius didn't seem the 'staring out of the window' type. More like the 'stalking around ordering for execution' type.

Just then there was a knock on the door and it flew open, Felix crashing inside. He gave a hasty bow, which I though looked ridiculous in his black robes and cloak, before hurriedly explaining himself, "Masters Aro and Marcus are requesting your presence in the throne room Master." The words blurred together by the speed of his speech and I wondered what was so urgent.

Caius gave Felix a cold nod, clearly dismissing him, then glanced at me. "Follow me." Then swept out of the room. I quickly put down both novel and notebook and followed, wondering if there would be a repeat of before, where he would set off at vampire speed, me running and tripping over….

The breath was knocked out of me as Caius slung me over his shoulder and flew at vampire speed down to the throne room.

He unceremoniously dumped me on the floor as we reached the side passageway that would lead us to the hall.

I slumped to the ground, head between my knees, trying to take deep even breaths. Breathe in…. Breathe out…. Breathe in…. Breathe out… Breathe in….

Caius was standing over me. "Are you quite done Isabella?"

I raised my head feeling sure that my face was green. "Maybe if you warned me before you spirited me away! I am not a sack of potatoes if you haven't noticed! I get nausea, motion sickness! And if you do it for much more then I will throw up on you!"

Caius ignored that, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. "When we enter the hall, you will be silent and not speak until spoken to do you understand?" He hissed at me, his grip on my arm becoming painfully tight.

I tried saluting with my free arm. "Sir yes Sir!" I yelled, puffing out my chest.

Caius gave me a look of absolute disgust and released me, walking through the door and into the hall. I trailed behind him, rubbing my arm. I was going to have bruises.

The moment we entered the hall, I saw Caius tense and a look of intense hatred- beyond anything I had ever seen before came across his face. It even paled the look of detest he had been giving me most of the day. His teeth clenched together and I heard him spit out one word.

"Werewolf."