Jane

My arms folded over the marble edge of the second floor as I gazed down into the open great hall where the other vampires sat at the large table below in its center. A male youth laid shirtless and bloodied along the table's glossy, black surface. Several bite marks were torn into his exposed flesh.

Alec appeared close to my left side in one swift motion from out of nowhere shortly afterwards, and he leaned on the bannister as well. "Do not worry, sis. One day a young vampire may come your way yet." he said.

I slowly turned my head to study his profile. "You really thought that is what this was about?" I asked him, a mixture of skepticism and humbleness leaking into my tone at once. "That I was staring at our Elders out of envy?"

"You're not envious?" he added, saying these words as if he was believing otherwise. I could practically feel his knowing smirk being aimed in my direction. "And I suppose you were not envious of Isabella Swan for all that time either?"

I rolled my eyes. "That ship has completely sailed. She's Cullen-spawn now—she'd never take my place here—even if a part of Aro still pines for her Edward and Alice to join us."

My brother's eyes however remained on our coven members, who were all enjoying playing around with their mates and a few other vampiric female guests they had over for the day. Amid all the laughing, biting, and feeding, none of them quite noticed we were nearby watching them yet.

"Still...you never imagine yourself stubbing across a mate of your own, Janie? You're other half may be out there waiting."

I honestly had no idea where this was coming from. This time I couldn't tell if he was teasing me or not, which was rare in itself. I sighed. Some days, his worry for me reemerged at the most unnecessary hour.

"But, Alec, you're my other half," I told him evenly, as I looked down to Aro's company again, "and you know it. They have nothing now that I haven't had already my whole life."

My hand moved sideways then, colliding with his and our cold fingers loosely hooked together. "You're the only 'soulmate' I'll ever need."

And Alec hadn't really reacted any further to my reply; either showing he was pleased to hear this again, or he was not so convinced that I had enough going for me in this life. Though whichever feeling it actually was, I gently removed my hand from his and walked away once Aro and Marcus had finally started to call me down to share a drink with everyone.