Welcome to Chapter Two! I hope you all enjoy it!
Disclaimer - I do not own, or presume to own, any recognisable or published material. I only own the original characters and storyline.
CHAPTER TWO
"As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen."
- Winnie the Pooh
A soft tap on her shoulder drew Adalina from her thoughts as she looked over at Cristian. She had been staring at her tightly clasped hands with a seemingly cool exterior, while the inside her head was a jumbled mess of all the different paths tonight could take.
"Are you okay? We've been sitting here for almost ten minutes," her confidant asked carefully. He knew how she could get at things like these and didn't want to make her feel more pressure than she already was.
Looking up, Adalina noted that the car had actually come to a stop while she was lost in her head, and they were now parked in a long row of shining, expensive cars. She looked into her parents' car, which they had parked next to, and noticed that it was empty; they must have already ventured inside.
"I'm just nervous, that's all," she tried to smile convincingly. "I'll be fine once we get inside."
Despite not looking convinced, Cristian got out of the car and sped around to open Adalina's door, offering her a hand to get out of the car. Threading her arm through one of his, she held on tightly as they made their way towards the castle.
Even in the darkening night sky, the Volturi Castle was a sight to behold; the light stone walls towered high above them, curving into a delicate archway that housed the public entrance, and dark green spirals of ivy could be seen wrapped around the pillars. Walking into the courtyard, she could see the entirety of the castle as it lay nestled seamlessly into the hillside it occupied, almost as if it had grown there alongside the plush vegetation. The castle was certainly a befitting home for royalty, with grand spiral towers and curved terraces spread throughout. It all combined to create a stunning, yet seemingly impenetrable fortress.
Walking inside, Adalina was surprised to find that it was even more beautiful than the exterior. Shining marble floors paved their way towards the reception area, revealing ornate golden fixtures that lined the walls. The reception desk itself was a work of art; composed of the same marble as the floor, it was adorned with a complex, twisting pattern accentuated with sparkling gold filigree.
"Benvenuto! Are you here for the ball?" the smiling receptionist greeted warmly. Adalina noted the way her eyes didn't seem to skip over Cristian twice, as other humans usually did. Was she in on the secret?
"Ciao, here are our invitations for the ball," Adalina smiled in return while handing over her and Cristian's golden envelopes.
After that, they continued walking deeper into the castle as instructed by the kind receptionist. As they walked further, she began to hear sounds from the ball drifting down the corridor, causing her palms to sweat slightly – it sounded like there was a lot of people in there. Upon reaching the end of the corridor, they were met with a set of huge wooden doors and two vampires stationed outside of them. They simply nodded their heads before opening the door for Adalina and Cristian. Taking a deep breath, she looked into her best friend's eyes for reassurance before walking into the ballroom.
While she did not possess the grace of a vampire, Adalina walked easily in her heels and timed her breath to their sharp 'click, click, click'. She had plenty of practice in walking with heels as she often wore them during her court appearances, so that was one thing that she didn't need to worry about. As the doors clicked shut behind them, she took the time to process the scene in front of her.
Just as she had suspected, there were a lot of people gathered in the room and each of them looked more beautiful than the last. As far as she could tell, Adalina was the only human in the room that was not a server. With her heart racing wildly in her chest, she looked around the room for any familiar faces. Thankfully, there were a few people that she recognised, although they mostly belonged to the same coven – the Cullen's. Due to their similar roles in the vampire world, her father and Carlisle were both close friends and the two covens often ran into each other in their travels.
Against the back wall, a string quartet performed on a golden platform. It was the typical boring, classical music that you would expect of a ball, but it helped her to relax, nonetheless.
Adalina plastered a smile on her face before grabbing a champagne flute off of a passing server. Despite vampires not actually being able to consume the alcohol, there was plenty of it to go around. There were also wine glasses filled with blood being served, but that didn't stop a large number of the guests from nursing a flute of champagne. While she would like to believe it was for appearance's sake in front of the servers, she knew that it was really down to a brash sense of splendour and opulence.
From his place beside her, Cristian was surveying the room with an air of distaste – he hated these events even more than she did. Despite their advanced memory, and the vast amount of time they had on their hands, a lot of vampires did not know sign language. The vampire population was mostly made up of people from older time periods who were, more often than not, completely resistant to learning anything new. Unfortunately, this made it very difficult for Cristian to communicate with people outside of their coven. It, understandably, frustrated him to no end.
"We'll get through it," she signed around the champagne flute in her hands. He tossed her a grateful smile before they made their way into the crowd to start mingling.
Adalina's first port of call was to check in with her parents, who were wrapped up in polite small talk with the leading coven of Germany. It was a brief conversation, mostly just assuring them that she and Cristian had made it there with no troubles.
After that, she made her way over to where most of the Cullen's were gathered. They often stuck together at these events, preferring to stay away from the prying eyes that followed them due to their choice of diet.
"Carlisle, Esme! It's lovely to see you again," Adalina smiled warmly at the couple.
The golden-haired patriarch smiled politely while shaking her hand. "Always a pleasure, Adalina. How are your parents doing?"
"Busy, as always! I'm sure they'll make their way over soon to see you," she promised before looking over the rest of the coven.
Emmett and Rosalie were dressed impeccably, as always, with the statuesque beauty giving Adalina a polite nod in greeting, and Emmett grinning widely. Alice and Jasper were across the room, speaking to some vampires she had never seen before. Edward looked as boyishly handsome as ever, and he was accompanied by a woman that she had never met.
"Nice to see you, Adalina," Edward spoke up, following her gaze to his companion. "This is my wife, Isabella Cullen."
"Just Bella is fine," the new Cullen spoke quietly, looking as though she would blush if she could. She was certainly pretty, with a quiet charm that radiated around her.
"I'm Adalina Silentas," she introduced with a warm smile. "It's lovely to meet you, Bella. Congratulations as well, it is nice to finally see Edward with some company."
Bella's golden eyes flicked over her form with obvious curiosity. "Silentas? Your family are one of the other leading covens, aren't they?"
"Indeed, so I am sure we'll be seeing a lot more of each other in the future," Adalina said before politely excusing herself from the conversation. There were far too many people that she had to speak to before the night was over.
It only took an hour for Adalina to become tired of the small talk and the stares. She understood that it was strange for a human to be in the midst of so many vampires, but did that really mean that they all had to stare at her like a walking blood-bag. Honestly, some of them even had the audacity to look surprised when she opened her mouth to speak with a semblance of intelligence, as if being a human automatically made her stupid.
Needless to say, she was completely fed up with the entire affair, and had resolved to spend the rest of the evening sipping champagne from a quiet corner of the room.
Aro was greeting all of the arrivals when he noticed the quiet presence of a human in the corner of the room. He focused on the young woman standing apart from the rest of the vampires and, as his eyes drank her in, he began to feel a gentle tugging in his chest that was drawing him towards her. Slowly, he walked past the gathered vampires and made his way over to her. Once he was standing in front of her, his eyes widened and he couldn't help but to stare at her in awe.
Her face looked like it had been crafted by the angels themselves; her nose was gently sloped to compliment her softly curved cheeks and her lips were plump with a rounded cupid's bow at the top. Her hair was the most entrancing shade of rich bronze, falling in soft waves and ringlets around her face. Aro looked into her eyes and found himself become utterly entranced by them, he could see the kindness that was dancing in the glittering pools of blue and green. As he stood there, with his mouth parted in astonishment and awe, there was no doubt within his heart – this beautiful, angelic human was his soulmate.
A small, delicate cough snapped Aro back to earth and he realised that he had just spent what must have been minutes, gaping at his gorgeous mate. Oh, gods, what must she think of him, he worried. He hadn't even introduced himself to her yet.
"Good evening, dolcezza," Aro began softly. "May you do me the great honour of telling me your name?"
"My name is Adalina, Adalina Silentas," she answered with a graceful smile. "It's nice to meet you."
Gods, even her voice entranced him. And her smile! Never before had he seen someone so achingly beautiful before in all of his years.
"My name is Aro," he suddenly blurted out, almost breathlessly.
"I know, this is your castle after all," she pointed out with a low chuckle and sparkling eyes.
"Yes, of course, how forgetful of me," Aro stumbled over his words. He wanted the marble floor to crack open and swallow him whole, he had never felt so embarrassed in his life. In a way, it was quite humbling that a human girl had reduced him to a bumbling mess with little more than a smile. He took a quick moment to gather his thoughts before speaking again.
"Let me try this again," he flashed a charming smile. "My name is Aro and it is an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Silentas."
Marina and Sebastian watched from the other side of the room as Aro turned up the charm on their daughter. The couldn't help but smile at his earlier blunders, they had never seen the vampire leader so flustered, especially over a woman. The fact that it was their daughter just made them smile even more.
From their side, Cristian hid a small grin. He was incredibly happy for his sister, even if she didn't know what had just happened, yet. There was no doubt, from seeing just how enraptured Aro was with Adalina, that she would be treated like to Queen that she is. Still, a small part of him couldn't help but worry about how this would affect her in the long run.
"What about you, my dear? Do you have any passions or interests?"
Adalina and Aro had spent the past hour talking, with the King relishing the opportunity to get to know his mate. They had started off with simple small talk, before venturing off into the many hobbies and interests that Aro had pursued during his immortal life.
"I actually just finished my studies at university a couple of weeks ago," she smiled gently. "So, this trip is also part of my parents' graduation gift to me."
"Ah, a scholar," Aro mused softly. "May I ask what you studied?"
"Human Rights and Humanitarian Law," Adalina answered hesitantly. It often came as quite the shock when she told people what she studied at school, her age and appearance were rather deceptive apparently. She was used to people thinking that her answer was a joke or embellishment.
However, Aro beamed with something akin to pride at her words. "Magnifico! So incredibly smart for someone of your age. I hear that law degrees are of exceptional difficulty in human schools."
"It wasn't too bad, it is just a lot of time and effort to put in," Adalina blushed modestly. "Thankfully, I managed to start my undergraduate degree when I was around sixteen, so it's been almost seven years now."
"My dear, this is something to be celebrated," the raven-haired king laughed. "You are much too modest of your achievements."
"That's what we always tell her, Aro, but she won't hear any word of it," her father laughed as he joined them. Adalina could see her mother socialising with some members of the Spanish coven across the room, and she flashed a quick smile after catching her eye.
Both Aro and her father were sharing some strange glances, seemingly conversing through their eyes. Adalina grew even more suspicious when her father suddenly shook the King's hand, keeping a firm grasp on it while speaking, "Congratulations, old friend. Marina and I wish you all of the happiness in the world."
"Thank you, Sebastian," Aro returned genuinely. "I will see to it that I live up to your expectations."
How strange, she mused, but Adalina was never one to pry so she merely glanced around the room and pretended to not have heard a single word. Perhaps her father would explain later once they were in private.
She could see Cristian hovering near the entrance of the room. His shoulders seemed tense, and his hands were clasped firmly together in front of his chest. She tried to catch his eye, but he was staring resolutely at the floor.
"My apologies, but I think it is about time that I leave," she cut in to her father and Aro's silent conversation with a polite smile.
Her father followed her gaze across the room and seemed to note Cristian's tense demeanor. "Ah, I see. Do you want your mother and I to come with you, querida?"
"No, no, it's fine," she reassured, placing a kiss on his cheek before turning to face Aro. "It was lovely to meet and speak with you, Aro. You were wonderful company."
He almost looked crestfallen at her departure, but quickly flashed her a brilliant smile. "It was my pleasure, dearest. Hopefully we shall see each other again soon, hm?"
Adalina blushed lightly at his eager expression and hopeful words. "Yes, I mean, that would be nice. To see you again, that is. Um, right, goodbye."
She quickly made her way over to Cristian, looking at Aro over her shoulder briefly, before signalling that they could leave now. As they walked out of the room, she couldn't resist glancing back one last time. Her father was chuckling fondly at her antics, but Aro was looking directly at her with dark, intense eyes. She threw a parting smile his way before allowing Cristian to guide her through the doors.
Back in the car, Adalina made sure to turn the air conditioning on full blast to try and cool the ferocious blush still burning her cheeks. Cristian glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but made no move to question her flustered state. Although, she thought that she could see a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Only the stars and the faint glow from Volterra lit the road back to the villa, as the night sky was completely pitch black. Unbidden, her thoughts trailed back to a certain King with hair as dark as night. He was certainly a handsome man, she thought abashedly. There was a roguish charm about Aro; perhaps from the smirks that tugged his soft lips, the dark sophistication of his tailored suit, or maybe the mischievous glint that sparked within his red eyes. Whatever it was, Adalina was captivated by him.
Meeting Aro, and speaking to him, had completely changed the direction the night had been taking. She had no longer felt annoyed by the constant stares, or the disparaging whispers – she didn't even notice them. All that she could think about was him; his charm and intellect, the interest he showed in her, and, most of all, the way he spoke to her as an equal. For the first time, she felt like more than a human.
When looking into his eyes, she had felt this strange, indescribable feeling. An inexplicable sense that she was about to embark upon a great adventure.
Thank you for reading! And thank you to 'Anon', and zigra1825 for your reviews! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, especially Aro and Adalina's first meeting. Please feel free to leave a review telling me your thoughts!