3. Judgement

Elizabeth walked back up the steps and came out into a stone hallway. She walked along it until she came out at the reception room. Valentina, the receptionist who she had spoken with the other day was sitting at the desk. She looked up when Elizabeth came in and smiled. It was a rather forced smile though.

"Have you had anything to eat?" she asked.

"No," Elizabeth said, realising her hunger, "I don't suppose you have anything."

"Yes," Valentina said unlocking a door just behind her desk, "Let me see what I can get you. Vampires forget that mortals like us need to eat." She went through the door, calling back: "Take a seat; I'll be a few minutes."

Elizabeth sat down on one of the sofas and closed her eyes. She tried to get her thoughts in order but failed. They were monsters, she reminded herself. Then why did she feel such pity for them, such emotion. Not for Aro - he was too far gone, obsessed with power like so many mortals were.

But Marcus was a different matter. He lived off human blood and was a monster as much as Aro was but his life was a living hell. He had loved and lost that love. And then lived on for three millennia without her. How could anyone carry on like that?! It was beyond understanding.

Elizabeth sighed and felt her breath quicken as she thought of the third vampire. Caius. Surely he was the worst? He was angry, though, she thought to herself, that was all. Three thousand years he had lived and what joy had he had; barely any. His relationship with his wife had fizzled to nothing through the ages whilst his quest for power had left him as only second best. Aro wielded the real power. She frowned: this still didn't explain why she was drawn to Caius. Perhaps she sensed that there was something more to him, something else.

She opened her eyes and almost jumped out of her skin. Caius was standing in front of her, looking at her.

"How long have you been there?" She asked, sitting up.

"Not long," he answered, "Were you asleep?"

"No – just thinking."

"About what?" He asked then said, "Whether you want to join us?"

"No," she replied, "There was never a choice there."

"You should know," he said, "We don't do this often."

"What?"

"Offer random humans the chance to be immortal," he replied, "Even the ones who work for us – it's rare if they're even considered." At that moment Valentina came back into the room carrying a plate of bread and Italian ham. From her pale face, Elizabeth knew she had heard his last words, but she made no comment on it.

"There you go," she said and placed the tray down on the table near Elizabeth. She was about to turn to go when Elizabeth asked:

"Valentina, do you really want to be immortal?" Valentina stopped, her back towards them. Then she slowly turned around.

"Ever since I found out about vampires," she said, "It's all I've wanted." She gave a half glance to Caius who showed no reaction then hurried back to her desk. Elizabeth dug into the food she had brought her. Caius watched, looking half amused half disgusted.

"What," Elizabeth asked, between mouthfuls.

"I haven't eaten food in three millennia," he said, "And you eat it so quickly it's..." he trailed off.

"Well unlike you," Elizabeth said, "I need food to survive." She swallowed then put the piece of bread she had been about to eat back on the plate.

"What?" Caius asked, "Carry on. I don't find it offensive or anything."

"As if I care if I offend you," Elizabeth said, sharply, "You're a murderer. It's a choice you make: surely there's a way for you to survive without killing others?" She watched his face, it darkened.

"There are vampires who live off animals," he said, hardly hiding his disgust, "They debase themselves by it."

"So there is another way," Elizabeth said, "But you'd rather be a murderer." Caius's eyes flashed in anger.

"You know nothing about this," he said, his voice dark, "And you're ignorance will lead to us killing you. You don't even realise the opportunity you have." Without another word he disappeared, leaving the room so quickly that it was hard even to see which door he had exited through.

"Why do you anger them?" Valentina asked, "When you have such an opportunity to become like them?" Elizabeth turned to her.

"I don't want to lose who I am in the pursuit of immortality, of power," she paused, "I value other things above life." Valentina didn't look convinced or even understanding. She shook her head and turned back to her work.

Elizabeth stood up and walked out of the room, going down a passage she hadn't been down before. She walked along it for awhile before she came to a door leading out into a courtyard. She went into the courtyard and took a deep breath. It smelt wonderful, bursting full of flowers and growth and life. She wandered amongst the tall bushes for awhile, reeling from Caius's angry outburst. He had seemed more like the angry vampire she had first seen and less like... Well she wasn't sure what he had been like when they were in the library. Just different, she supposed.

She stopped by a rose bush. The red roses were in full bloom and smelt euphoric. Suddenly she noticed at the bottom of the bush, partially hidden behind the stems, a rose flower which had fallen off. It wasn't as red as the ones still on the bush and seemed smaller, shrunken somehow. She picked it up and cupped it in her hands.

It was still beautiful with curling petals of red. But some of the outer petals were dead; they were a browner colour and crumpled. It didn't take away from the beauty of the inner petals though. She tore off the dead petals and admired the rose. Now it was smaller but all of it was red and perfect. Yet somehow she thought it had been prettier with the dead petals, prettier even than the whole flowers still on the bush.

She felt a pang in her stomach: were the roses somehow a metaphor? She shook her head and allowed the fallen rose to drop back onto the ground. They were only flowers.

"The bushes need pruning."Elizabeth turned around to see Aro walking towards her. "Valentina is supposed to do it but she seems to have forgotten." He walked up to her and took her hand.

"Must you..." Elizabeth trailed off as she felt all her thoughts and feelings dragged one by one to the front of her mind in quick succession. She watched Aro's face. His mouth went into a wide grin before he dropped her hand.

"What is it?" She asked, "I haven't changed my mind – if anything it's all the more clearer."

"We'll see," he replied and bent down to pick up the rose she had dropped, "It's such a pretty thing, wouldn't you agree my dear?"

"It's just a flower," Elizabeth said, knowing full well that he knew it represented more.

"If you say so," Aro said, and scrunched it up in his hand, allowing the broken petals to fall to the ground.

Elizabeth watched them fall, feeling weirdly satisfied: it was just a flower after all. She looked to see Aro smiling at her triumphantly. She leant forward and took his hand, pushing her thoughts of the insignificance of the flower to the front of her mind. But Aro's smile didn't falter.

"You will become one of us," he said.

"So you can see the future now?" Elizabeth asked, sarcastically, "You're monsters. You most of all, and I will never join you – even if you transform me into a vampire. I won't join your power mad vampire cult. You can't make me."

"You're right of course my dear," Aro said softly, "I can't." And with that he turned and left. Elizabeth felt uncomfortable. She knew exactly what he meant by the phrase 'I can't'. He might not be able to get her to join the Volturi but there was someone else who could, someone who was figuring in her thoughts too much. Caius.

Elizabeth snapped a rose off the rose bush. Caius who was all anger and bitterness. Yet she had thought she had seen something more in him, she wasn't sure what, just something better. Aro clearly didn't think so and he had known Caius for over three millennia, so she must be wrong.

But she had such a strong feeling about this, so strong that she had begun to feel things for Caius which logically she shouldn't, because logically he was a murderous, sadistic vampire. And these feelings could mean that Caius could get her to join the Volturi. Caius could get her to join when Aro could not.

At this uncomfortable realisation, Elizabeth dropped the second rose to the ground and turned to leave the courtyard.

"Elizabeth." She turned at her name.

It was Caius, standing by the rose bush she had so hastily walked away from. There wasn't any of that usual anger on his face anymore, instead he looked like he had earlier that day, on their walk down to the library and in the library.

"Caius," she said, and gave him a nod before turning to go back inside.

"Wait," he said, and was beside her, "I want to talk to you."

"Why," Elizabeth asked and raised an eyebrow; "Because we agree on so many important things? Like the value of human life?" She turned to face him, staring him straight in the eye.

"I've lived like this for over three thousand years," Caius said, "You've got to realise these are deeply set opinions – and they can't be changed overnight." He hesitated for a moment, "As much as I might want them to."

Elizabeth hesitated. He wanted to change, then, this angry sadistic vampire. She swallowed. And surely there was truth to what he was saying: it's known that older people find it harder to adapt to change, are more set in their views. A three thousand vampire would of course have difficulty in getting over the fact that he had lived for three thousand years in a bad way. But it was more than just a bad way.

"How many people have you killed?" Elizabeth asked. Caius looked down, a frown creasing his forehead.

"I don't know," he said, quietly, "I've never bothered to count." She nodded, of course.

"What's changed your mind," Elizabeth asked, "Why do you want to change?" He raised his head, an incredulous look on his face.

"You," he breathed, the word barely audible, "You came yesterday, trespassing may I add," he smiled a little, "But when you realised, all by yourself, what we were, you didn't try to run."

"Because you would've caught me so easily," she replied, her words a whisper as she stared intently at him, her heart beginning to pound more quickly.

"No," he said softly, and took her hands in his own, "Because you're brave. And so... so good."

She pulled away slightly, still thinking about what Aro had said to her, what he had implied. It was just attraction, she thought to herself. She was just attracted to him because he was a vampire, and apparently vampire somehow now meant beautiful and sexy.

"I..." she trailed off. He gently touched the side of her face, tenderly tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

"Say you feel it to," he said, "It's mad, I know: we barely know one another. But say you feel it too."

She moved away from him, removing his hand from her face and reaching for the door.

"I need to go," Elizabeth said, "I just need to go."

And with that, she left, leaving Caius standing alone in the courtyard looking after her.

A/N: Well there's chapter 3! It's getting interesting between Caius and Elizabeth... I hope! ;) There's something very attractive about the Volturi. Maybe the dark power they have or just the whole royal vampires thang.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it and feel free to review - even if it's just pointing out grammatical errors or spelling errors or the like. It's better pointed out than just left...

:D