With One Look

Chapter 7

Caius P.O.V.

As I walked through the corridors of the castle heading for Aro's office I couldn't help but relive the past few hours I spent with Isabella. Her soft warm skin up against my own gave a sense of being human once again, or at least what a human would be feeling at the moment; it had been a very long time since I was one after all. I could still smell her scent as I'm sure it still clung to my body, which made me smile knowing all who would come in contact with me would smell her sweet scent wafting off of me.

She was becoming a part of me in every sense of the word and I knew that I would never ever be apart from her during our existence in this life, or at least until my true mate makes herself known, in which case Aro was right. I may never meet her, and if I do it won't be for some time. Hopefully for hundreds of years. The thought of finding her and hurting the beautiful woman that I just left made me shiver. I truly did not want to hurt her and wanted her in my life for eternity.

I approached Aro's door and once again he spoke before I knocked, telling me to enter. I opened the door and glared at him for taking me away from the glorious creature known as Isabella Swan. Aro smirked, probably still reveling in the idea of what Isabella might be becoming.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your time with your mate, Caius, but I have contacted Eleazer and he is on his way back at my insistence. He should be here in the next couple of days."

"And you thought this couldn't have waited until later, after I have left Isabella, to give me this news?" I asked, feeling irritated at his intrusion.

"Oh come now, Caius. We do have our duties to perform today as we do every day. You'd have to pry yourself from her at some point. I just thought I'd let you in on what is at hand before we perform our duties today. No harm done," Aro said nonchalantly as he rose from his seat and led us out of his office to perform said duties.

I grumbled, knowing he was right but hating the thought of leaving my angel nonetheless.

xXx

Isabella's P.O.V.

After Caius had left I pouted for a few minutes at his loss before climbing out of the bed and walking over to the bowl and pitcher, pouring the water into the bowl. I cleansed myself from head to toe and dried off accordingly before once again dressing in the man's clothing provided in the closet. Then I sat waiting for Demetri to join me to restart my lessons in learning my gifts. To tell the truth, I hated the thought, for I didn't want to hurt him any more than I had already. I made up my mind to at least try and keep some sense of control while training in hopes I wouldn't cause him more harm. It wasn't like I had any choice in the matter, especially if I wanted to control the gifts that I had - and I definitely didn't want to hurt anyone else.

After a few minutes a knock came to my door. Instead of moving I commanded for Demetri to enter. The door opened slightly as Demetri stuck his head in and looked around, probably making sure Caius wasn't present. He smiled and opened the door more fully and entered my room.

"Good morning, Isabella. Are you ready to continue your lessons?" He asked as he walked across the room and took a seat in one of the padded chairs across from me. I smiled and nodded.

"Good morning, Demetri, and yes I am ready, I just hope I don't cause you any more harm than I have already," I said with my head lowered looking towards my hands I was fiddling with in my embarrassment.

"Come now, Isabella, none of that now. You cannot take blame for something you did not know existed within you. Besides, no harm done. I am more durable than you might think," he said. Making me smile, his comment made me feel more at ease.

We trained for an hour or so before he left, reminding me to go to the training room to meet with Felix for my fight training. I didn't know this Felix person, but when I arrived and he introduced himself I gulped at seeing this hulk of a man...or vampire, I guess I should say. He was huge. How in the world was I expected to stand up to this gargantuan vampire? Just the size of him scared the living bejeezus out of me.

"Do you remember all of what Master Caius explained and showed you yesterday?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Yes, but I can't hold my own with you; you're huge. You could smash me into little pieces, probably without even trying," I said with a shudder. He laughed loudly, and his laugh echoed, vibrating off the walls around us.

"I won't hurt you, little one. Besides, size doesn't matter if you're skilled with the right training, and Master Caius would beat me into little pebbles if I attempted to harm you. Come, I will teach you how to take down someone even my size with no trouble at all," he said as he took up his fighting stance.

After another hour of training in the art of fighting, and without getting harmed too much, Felix had me pinned to the floor growling into my face, which scared me half to death. Without my permission, my bubble made another appearance, shoving him off me and throwing him across the room. I gasped, sitting up and placing my hand over my mouth in disbelief as this beast of a vampire pulled himself off the floor and bellowed a laugh once again.

"Do not stress yourself, little one. I am fine and am happy that you are able to defend yourself even against someone my size," he said as he walked back to me and put out his hand to help me to my feet. We heard someone clapping, drawing our attention to the door where Aro stood with a huge smile his face.

"My dear Isabella. I was told of your gifts and am glad to finally see one of them with my own eyes. It is spectacular, child, you are a wonder to these old eyes and I long to see what other gifts you pick up along the way," Aro said. As he said this I still was holding Felix's hand and all of a sudden images flashed before my eyes. It was Felix, and I began seeing his life (or what I assumed was his life) flash before my eyes. Him as a child, growing into a man, and fighting in an army. His dress was what I thought the Romans of old would wear, and his strength was admirable taking down many as he made his way across a battlefield. It then turned to him in a pub of sorts and him leaving said pub and walking down an alleyway and running in a vampire who turned him. After his turn he found his way to the Volturi and that is where he stayed. Many things flashed before me before I gasped and pulled away from him and stared up at the huge vampire in shock.

"What was that?" I asked after staring at him for a few seconds.

"What was what?" He asked, frightened for me after seeing the fear in my eyes, but he was interrupted by Aro who butted in.

"What happened, Isabella?" Aro asked, walking over and standing in front of me. I looked at Aro and shook my head.

"I don't know, I think I just saw Felix's life flash before my eyes," I told him, looking back at Felix whose eyebrows arched up on his forehead. Aro clapped his hands together and laughed heartily before speaking.

"Oh child, you have absorbed my gift...how wonderful. Soon you will absorb all the gifts in the castle, how marvelous that will be," he said while still laughing. I gasped at hearing this and shook my head, not wanting to go through this, and if I could cry I would have had tears streaming down my face. My eyes filled with venom as I lowered my head and wrapped my arms across my chest trying to hold myself together. Why was this happening to me I thought, wanting to run away and hide within my room. But without being dismissed I could only stand there in sadness.

We hadn't stood there long before I heard his voice. "Aro, leave her alone. Can't you see she is distressed?"

xXx

Caius P.O.V.

I was walking down the corridor going to the training room to meet with Isabella when I heard Aro's voice telling her that she had just absorbed his gift and making a big deal out of it. I knew with the way Isabella handled the last gift she received that this too would distress her and hurried to my destination. When I walked through the door I could see her holding herself together with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and she had her head lowered. I was sure she would have run away if she wasn't in the presence of my brother and only stood in her place out of respect for him. I shook my head. I knew this would happen. This is why I told her to come to me with anything she didn't understand or if Aro starts, which is what he was doing now to some extent.

"Aro, leave her alone. Can't you see she is distressed?" I said, as I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her pulling her to my chest. I could feel her relax with my touch which made me smile and kiss the top of her head.

"My excitement wasn't meant to cause her stress, Caius. I was only excited for her. This is wonderful, Caius," he said.

"Exciting for you, Aro, not for her. This is new to her and frightening. She may not be a newborn, but she was alone for some time and all this is new to her, frightening to her. Let her absorb all of this before we jump at her with our own excitement, shall we?" I demanded. I may not demand much, but she is my mate and what happens to her is my responsibility, not his, and I will see it so.

Aro looked abashed and then sighed. "I am sorry Isabella, I was so lost in my excitement I didn't think of what this was doing to you, please forgive me. Once you have gotten used to the idea of your gifts we will talk again," Aro said.

"No, Aro. Isabella is my mate and if you have something to say to her I will be at her side or you will talk directly to me," I told him. This was our way and he knew it.

Any mated female was not to meet with any other male vampire if mated, without said mate at her side, and that includes the three of us. Oh sure, there were times when we allowed the female to talk to other males, but only if they were friends or had been friends for many years, but as far as the three of us, we are not above the law, although Aro thought differently. Many times we just let it slide, but he would be put in his place when it came to many of the mated females by their mates. What could he say, he was excluded from the laws? I think not.

oooOooo

It had been many years since Isabella joined the Volturi. She had absorbed every single gift that the vampires had that lived here in the castle, or those she came into contact with since, and we have had many come through our gates. She is somewhat at ease with them now and Aro has tried many times to get her to join his elite guard. As promised, she has come to me for assistance, and I always nipped it in the bud immediately.

She and I have grown closer, and our sex life is spectacular. I long to be with her when days seemed long, and even when they are not. She eases me when I am upset about something or when I've had a long day she meets me with her bubbly presence, and we've grown to love one another. She has grown close to most of the vampires in the castle. Oh sure, there are a few jealous females that dislike her, but she lets it slide off her like water off goose feathers. She is a magnificent vampire and seems born to be one.

Isabella and I were walking back to our room after leaving the training room when we heard a voice call for her from behind us. We both turned to face a male vampire. She drew my attention to her when she gasped out after seeing this male.

"You...you're a vampire?" she said in a shocked voice.

"I'm afraid so. After drawing the attention of our attacker he bit me and heard a noise and took off. It seems he had bitten you as well. I wish I had known or I would have stayed behind and we could have figured things out together. I'm sorry, Isabella, that this has happened to you," he said.

"No, I'm sorry. If I hadn't followed you I wouldn't have been attacked and maybe you could have fought off your attacker. I'm sorry, but I'm at a disadvantage, I gave you my name before I had a chance to ask you yours," she said as I listened to them discuss their meeting from long ago. I realized from their discussion that this must be the man (or vampire I guess now) who tried to save her life when she was changed. I remember when he came to us a few days ago not realizing there was a ruling government kept in place over the vampire race. I didn't put two and two together at the time because unfortunately there are many vampires out there that do not make sure their food is disposed of properly, hence the reason so many of our lesser guards are sent out to take care of rogue vampires that are exposing our race to the human world. This male was one of those, but like Isabella he had good reflexes when it came to hiding himself. His only difference was his choice of diet; he fed off animal blood not wanting to kill humans. It sounded disgusting to us, but to each his own.

"That's right. Well let me remedy that. Carlisle Cullen at your service ma'am," he said with a bow of his head. Isabella giggled. She giggled! "What the hell?" I thought with disdain. I glared at the vampire before us and pulled Isabella tighter to my side and let out a low growl. Isabella patted my chest as if to say it was alright, as she explained how she knew this vampire. Of course I had figured that out, but that didn't give her a right to giggle for this male vampire.

"Forgive me, your highness, it's just that I haven't seen Isabella since our transition and often wondered what had happened to her. I was afraid to enter the town to find out if she lived and left the area immediately. You see my human father hunted demons and I was afraid he would find me and dispose of me. I am just so glad that she is okay," he explained.

"I'm glad you are okay as well, Carlisle. Will you be staying with us for long?" Isabella asked. I rolled my eyes with this comment, hoping he wouldn't stay long, but Aro had taken a liking to this vampire and asked him to stay as long as he liked, seeing that he had been alone for so long.

"I will be here for a while, I'm not sure for how long, but seeing you is a blessing. We should get together soon and talk, I mean with Master Caius's permission of course," he said as he looked back at me. I presumed he was asking for my permission to stalk my mate. I sighed and then answered.

"That would be my mate's decision," I said. If I knew anything about Isabella its how stubborn she could be about me making her decisions for her. Some more important decisions I downright insisted she abide by, but things such as this, meeting others or hunting with a female friend I let her decide. I knew if I put my foot down about meeting with this visitor she would make my life miserable and wind up hating me, so I had to trust that her love for me outweighed the jealousy I felt for in this male.

"Good, well, I guess I will see you soon," She said with a huge smile. I turned us quickly and took off for our room. I must have been pouting when I sat in one of the armchairs contemplating our meeting with our visitor, this Carlisle Cullen. The next thing I knew Isabella was on my lap and staring down at me. I looked up at her and gave her a small smile.

"What's come over you, Caius? We've been back in our rooms for some time now, and you've been sitting here with a book in you hands and have not looked at it once. What's got you so sidetracked?" she asked. I just stared at her for a few seconds before I grabbed the back of her neck and pressed my lips to hers and before she knew what was happening I had her in our bed completely naked and was making love to her like I had never done before. I wanted her to know that she was mine and no one else's. Afterwards she lay in my arms with her head resting on my chest as we regained our senses. She looked up at me resting her chin on my chest and spoke.

"This is about Carlisle, isn't it?" She asked quietly, knowing that it was. I knew she could read my mind as we touched. I only sighed, knowing I couldn't hide this from her.

"You talked to this male as if you've known him forever. Hell, you've only met him once and even then only a few words passed between you before you were attacked, but you still wish to talk to him as if you have so much to catch up on, and to top it all off you giggled, Isabella...giggled," I told her. I knew I sounded childish, but she was mine, my mate. Why did she have to go meet with this male vampire?

"Oh Caius, you silly goose. I love you and no one else could ever compare to you or what I feel for you, no one could ever take your place, and in a way Carlisle and I do need to catch up on things. Things that happened at the time and things that have happened since, and to be honest with you I'm kind of curious at what he's been doing since our change. My giggle was in relief, because I worried so much for this man at the time who rescued me from the clutches of that vampire; he could have killed me, Caius," she said. I looked down at her with a scowl, hating the fact that she could have died at a vampire's hand leaving me without her in my life, leaving me to my loneliness and despair. I shook off the thought and looked back at her.

"Curious, huh? Well, as long as that's all it is I see no need to worry," I said, not telling her my thoughts about what I'd be facing if she wasn't in my life. I guess I do owe this vampire for saving her, but she didn't need to know that. "Just remember, my love, you are mine. I will not release you to any other. I love you so very much, I couldn't stand to be parted from you...ever. I will kill any vampire that tries to take you from me.

"Then there's no need to worry, is there?" She said. I smiled and pulled her up until we were face to face and kissed her as if my life depended on it, and it had better not I thought as I continued to kiss her passionately.

A/N: So Carlisle is finally back in the picture. Don't worry no one will come between her and Caius, not yet at least…(Evil laugh). Thanks for reading, please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts...thanks, huggs.