4. Kiss

Elizabeth strode down the hallways, her mind wheeling and turning. Say you feel it too. It was madness, it wasn't possible. It had been one day and yet overnight Caius had seemed to change. Before he had been anger and hate, but when they had spoken this morning he had been civil and nice even. She couldn't understand it. Had she changed? Surely not – she would realise if she had, wouldn't she?

Say you feel it too.

Feel it? Of course she felt it! It was terrifying her: these growing feelings she had for the vampire. A vampire! How was this even happening? It had only been yesterday morning when she hadn't even known of their existence. She had just been curious about this old castle. And now: was she falling in love with a murderous vampire, one who didn't even know the number of people he had killed? But he was changing. Say you feel it too. He had been as confused as she was, that at least had been clear.

It's mad, I know: we barely know one another. But say you feel it too

Say you feel it too.

His words kept repeating in her mind and she kept seeing his face when he said it. He had looked so vulnerable and she kept remembering the feel of his fingers on her face, tucking her hair behind her ear. They were so cold but so gentle. Without thinking she raised her hand to her face, to feel where his fingers had been. It felt the same as any part of her skin. What had she thought – that there would be a mark where his fingertips had been? Like the mark he was making on her...

Suddenly she stopped and looked about her. She hadn't been looking where she was going and now she had come to a dead end. The stone hallway suddenly came to an end and she didn't have a clue where she was.

There was a door in the wall but when she went to open it, it was locked. She would have to go back the way she had come. She turned around and stopped dead.

Jane was standing in the middle of the hallway, her face impassive.

"Good afternoon Elizabeth," she said, her voice as angelic as it was before.

"Is it afternoon already," Elizabeth said, glancing down at her watch: it was almost two o'clock, "I completely lost track of time." She tried to keep her voice calm but there was something about the look on Jane's face which unnerved her

"You've been wandering alone for hours," she told her and then smirked, "I'd know: I've been following you."

"I'm not trying to escape," Elizabeth said, "I'm just exploring."

"I don't care," Jane said, "We rarely come down here. It's just you and me right now." She took a step towards Elizabeth. There was a moment, a fraction of a second, in which Elizabeth realised what Jane was going to do before she did it.

Then she dropped to the floor in agony as Jane stood above her, looking down on her with an angelic smile on her face.

The pain seemed to go on forever. It was excruciating. Every single atom of her body seemed to be on fire, burning with a terrible pain. She was screaming, her body flailing around on the cold stone floor. Then it stopped.

Elizabeth pushed herself onto her knees. Her body felt tender and weak, as if she had suffered a terrible fever. She looked up at Jane, glaring at her in anger.

"You've been waiting for this ever since you realised I might have some sort of power," she almost spat the words out, "Scared that your master might find a better pet, is that it?" Her last few words were cut off as the pain started again and she was screaming.

"Aro is intrigued with you," Jane said, her voice full of bitterness and envy, "Otherwise you'd be dead." Even though she was screaming and in agony, Elizabeth could still make out every word she was saying; "But you don't belong here. You are nothing like us. You are weak and scared and by killing you I'll be doing us all a favour."

The pain stopped but this time Elizabeth didn't bother to sit up. Instead she lay where she was, panting for breath, feeling weaker than a newborn baby and more vulnerable than a deer in the headlights. So Jane was going to kill her. Probably for the best, she thought, I've never wanted immortality and mortality means you have to die at some point. Better now than never.

She closed her eyes and waited for Jane to kill her, hoping that it might not be overly painful. But this was Jane. She screamed again as the pain surged through her, more intense than the other times. Then it stopped but Jane didn't kill her.

Elizabeth looked up to see Jane staring at something just beyond where Elizabeth lay, where the door was. She turned her head.

It was Caius.

He stood in the open doorway, a look of cold anger on his face. Jane didn't flinch, however, meeting his gaze with her own.

"Go," he said to her, his voice low and dangerous.

"She's going to die anyway," Jane said, her voice emotionless once more, "Better sooner rather than later."

"That will be up to Aro, Marcus and I," Caius said his voice almost silent due to how low it was, "It's not for you to make such decisions Jane." Jane looked from Caius to Elizabeth and then back.

"Perhaps," she replied, "But in the end you won't be able to save her. She's made up her mind."

"Go," he said again, "Show Aro what you've tried to do here, see what he says."

"I will," Jane answered, before glancing to the door he had appeared in, "So that's where you were: trying to explain to your wife." Caius took an angry step towards her.

"You go too far Jane," he said, "You will show me the respect that is due."

"You lost my respect," Jane replied, "When you fell for a weak mortal. When you debased yourself and the three millennia worth of principle you abandoned. When you made that decision." She didn't stop to hear any reply, instead turning and disappearing quickly behind a bend in the hallway.

Caius stood frozen for a long time, staring out into space. Elizabeth slowly got to her feet, feeling very unsure of herself and of what had just happened. It was like watching a teacher's pet spit in the face of a teacher who had used to be their favourite until that teacher had forgotten to give out homework or given them a bad grade.

Caius turned to her and began to reach out an arm to her but then stopped himself, moving his arm back to his side.

"Thank you," she said, quietly. He looked away from her. She looked at the open doorway: for some reason she got an overwhelming sense of sadness, of depression, of lack of emotion, coming from that direction.

"Do you want to meet them?" Caius asked, seeing where she was looking.

"Who?" Elizabeth asked, and then slowly realised, "Is that where your wife is?"

"Yes," Caius replied, "And Aro's wife, Sulpicia. They have four guards who are always with them."

"But Jane said no one comes here often?"

"Here - this corridor - they don't," Caius replied, "Neither me or Aro see them that often and no one else but their constant guard are ever in that tower."

"It's a tower."

"Come," he said, offering her his hand, "You can meet them if you want." Elizabeth nodded, though she still didn't feel too sure. She reached out and took his hand.

They went through the door and up a set of spiral stairs, so narrow that they had to go in single file. Caius let her go first, and she could feel him, just behind her. At the top was a circular landing with the stairs in the centre. There were several doors leading off it but Caius knocked on a set of double doors which then opened from the inside.

They went in. Two hooded vampires had opened the doors for them whilst two more stood at the opposite corners of the room. These must be the guard, Elizabeth realised.

The room itself was large and well furnished with two fireplaces, both lit, and a harp in one corner. There were sofas and armchairs round the fireplaces and several tapestries hanging on the walls. There were two largish windows looking out over the town but both were closed and looked to be bolted.

The two wives were sitting in the centre of the room, one sitting at a loom, the other just sitting. One had dark hair whilst the other had hair only slightly darker than Caius's own white-blond hair. It was the one with dark hair who was sitting at the loom, her fingers moving so quickly that Elizabeth felt dizzy just watching her. She looked up when Caius entered the room with Elizabeth.

"Back so soon," she said, her voice even and quiet, "And is this the human you mentioned before; the girl who you have fallen for."

"Yes," Caius said, before turning to Elizabeth, "This is Sulpicia, Aro's wife. She made all the tapestries in our castle."

"And many more," she added, no humour in her voice, "It comes off having so much time on your hands and an absent husband so no one to share it with." She sounded slightly bitter, "At least I keep busy." She glanced to her blonde companion who had made no reaction to show that she acknowledged their presence.

"Athenodora," Caius said, in a quieter, more gentle voice, "This is Elizabeth." The woman didn't seem to have heard him. The way she was reminded Elizabeth of Marcus a little, though Athenodora wasn't sad so much as depressed. She could sense discontentment which had turned to emotionless coming off Athenodora whilst Marcus was grief to emotionless.

Elizabeth turned to look at Caius. Had he really neglected her so in the past three millennia? Another of his cruelties, yet he seemed more concerned now. He walked over to her and knelt down beside her, taking her hand in his. She looked at him, nothing in her eyes. Perhaps it had been neglect on both sides, Elizabeth wondered.

"Please," Athenodora said to him, "Mercy, I beg." There was no emotion in her voice, just a plea.

"What does she want?" Elizabeth asked, hesitantly. Sulpicia looked up at her sharply.

"She wants to die," she said, "She's weak and has had enough. But Caius has never given her what she wants: he thinks it is a weakness, wanting death."

"Of course he does," Elizabeth said quietly to herself, forgetting that the vampires could still hear her. Sulpicia smirked at her words whilst Caius turned to look at her, hurt. How could he look hurt? Had he really changed so much? Elizabeth looked at him for a second before turning away.

Caius stood up, looking down at Athenodora sadly. He looked over to Elizabeth.

"Shall we go?" He asked. She nodded in reply, finding her voice hard to find. They left the room, the guard closing the door behind them. As they walked down the stairs, Elizabeth found her voice.

"She wants to die," she said, "How long has she wanted to end it?"

"I'm not sure," Caius replied, "But she began being vocal about it about fifteen hundred years ago. I was very short with her on it, and forbade anyone else from destroying her."

"How do you kill a vampire anyway?" Elizabeth asked, inquisitively.

"You tear their head and limbs off, then burn them."

"Nice," Elizabeth said, "So you couldn't do it then? Because it was so... so brutal?" She was being hopeful – that he wasn't a total monster, or at least, hadn't been...

"No," Caius said, giving a dry chuckle, "That's not the reason."

"So what's the reason?"

"Wanting death like that," he said as they reached the bottom of the stairs, "It disgusts me..." He trailed off and then turned to her, "Or at least, it did."

Elizabeth swallowed. She knew what he meant by that. They were standing quite close to one another, she was only slightly shorter than him, and for some reason she couldn't stop looking at him. They were staring straight into one another's eyes.

"I'm sorry about Jane," he said.

"Don't be," Elizabeth replied, "She's right: you're going to have to kill me at some point. I don't want immortality and I'd rather die young than not at all." She saw his jaw tighten at this, his gaze becoming more intense.

Then he leant in and kissed her fiercely on the lips. She hesitated for just a moment before kissing him back with just as much passion. His lips were as cold as the rest of him but somehow they seemed to warm her up from the inside; a burning heat rising inside her as they kissed.

His hands were wrapped around her waist, pulling her into him, whilst hers were on his chest then in his pale blond hair. It was fervent and passionate to begin with but slowly tempered down, becoming slower and gentle, more tender and true.

Elizabeth pulled away to breathe. She took deep breaths and stared at him. He was staring at her with such intensity but slowly his features flickered to something else, to something like despair.

Then she took a step back and turned and ran.

A/N: Elizabeth hasn't got a surname yet. She can't just be 'Elizabeth' so does anyone have any ideas for a surname? Elizabeth is a bit of a stock name (but I really like it cos Elizabeth I was a boss-ass-Queen) so perhaps something more exotic or weird. PM me or leave an idea in the reviews if you've got a good suggestion. :D

Anyway, they finally kissed! ...And then she ran away... Is he really that bad a kisser? ;) Bit awks really - two people finally kiss then one of them runs away! Tch, that's gonna be an awkward conversation... Actually it's quite an entertaining one... at least to write! ;)

Thank you for following and favouriting and reading. You're all really good sports and all that eh what! Ok... time to finish the A/N part...

:D :D :D :D