You can't be dead if you're alive

Vampires believe themselves to be dead. One mate will try to change their view.

Aro del Volturi x First Person POV

oooooooooooooooooooo

I am a human who lives in the Volturi castle. When I was found just outside the garden walls, sick and in need of help, a Volturi guard picked me up and carried me inside. His name was Felix. He was huge and strong, yet gentle as a lamb with me. I was cared for by a woman named Chelsea in a room she said was mine. It was beautifully appointed, and I spent time there, recovering. When I was almost well, a man visited me, a face I didn't know. He was not as tall as Felix, but had pale skin, shiny black hair that hung below his shoulders, and red eyes. He was dressed in an expensive-looking black suit and said his name was Aro, and that he was in charge around here.

I never questioned Felix's nor Chelsea's red eyes. I was afraid to. But they were kind to me, so what did it matter.

Aro sat on the side of the bed to my left while I sat up against the headboard.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" he asked.

"Much better, thanks to you and your family."

He smiled when I said that. Then he began to ask me about myself. Where was I from? Were my family still alive, and would anyone miss me if I never returned home. That question I found odd.

While I regaled Aro with my life history, I found myself unable to take my eyes away from his. They were mesmerizing, beautiful, and seemed to look into my very soul. When Felix brought in my supper on literally a silver tray, he looked to Aro who gave him a very slight nod and rose from the bed. He took my hand and kissed the inner wrist.

"Enjoy your meal, my dear. We will talk again." With that, he left me alone with Felix, who set up the tray and allowed me a glance at it. "Is there anything else you need?" he asked me. I looked over the tray, seeing beef tips in a rich gravy next to a mound of buttery mashed potatoes. Sauteed string beans completed the supper. There was a small green salad and what looked like a pudding parfait in a tall glass. At the upper right of the tray sat a glass of red wine.

"No, Felix, this is plenty. Please thank the chef for me."

"I will. Enjoy your meal." He started to leave when he stopped and turned around. "I think Master Aro likes you, miss." He gave me a smile and left.

I dug into the salad when I really wanted to start off with the parfait first. Everything was so delicious. I had fainted outside the castle walls, but not from hunger. Chelsea had told me a doctor had been sent for and that he said my vitals were fine. He advised them to keep an eye on me, which they were, in spades. I was barely ever left alone. But when Aro came to see me the first time, I found I wanted more visits from him. He had me completely entranced. When he smiled at me, it went to those red eyes of his and I melted inside. And then Felix tells me Aro likes me? Likes in what way.

I set the tray at the bottom of the bed, then sat back against the headboard. How long was I supposed to remain here. No one seemed in a hurry to see me gone, yet I didn't want to impose on them for long. I had to get back home in any case.

I guess the Volturi had other ideas about this.

Over the next few days, Aro would visit me often, when he was free. We would talk in my bedroom about everything under the sun, until one day, I felt well enough to venture outside. He took me to a garden where a gazebo stood. We went inside and sat on the marble benches.

"It's lovely here, and smells so good," I said, looking at all the flowers. When I glanced over at Aro, he was staring at me. I felt my cheeks go hot, but I stared back. "What's wrong?"

"I want you to stay here, with me, in Volterra."

Well, that was to the point. "Stay here? With you? In what capacity?"

Aro let out a laugh, an odd laugh. He took my hands in his, cold as they were. Red eyes, cold hands. My mind had begun questioning a few days into my stay here, but I hadn't asked them aloud to anyone. Now I had no choice.

"Aro, tell me first. What are you?"

He looked at me, as if conflicted. Then he said it.

"I'm a vampire. One who loves you.'

I heard his answer, but my mind chose to focus on 'One who loves you'.

"You...love me?"

"Yes, I do, and I want you to remain here in Volterra, forever, as my mate."

Forever. Now I understood. He was a vampire who wanted a vampire mate. Meaning I would have to allow him to turn me into one. I wanted to say no never, I need time to think about it, maybe. Instead, I said yes. He stood and picked me up in his arms, easily swinging me around. When he leaned in to kiss me, I accepted it with pleasure and more.

From then on, I was treated like anyone else in the coven, a word I found out they used to describe themselves as a group. Aro moved me to his chambers, and would eventually change me, so he said.

One afternoon, I was alone and bored. Marcus was in the garden, gardening alone as he preferred. Caius was upstairs with Athenodora. The guards were goofing off in the training room. I went in search of Aro and found him in his office, working on some papers. He looked up at me and smiled.

"My dear, what are you doing here?" He swept a hand toward the sofa, so I went to it and sat down.

"Everyone is busy, Aro, and I have to admit, I'm bored. When will you be done, my love?" I crossed my legs to try and get his attention. He favoured my legs, he'd told me once. He glanced over at me, smiled and went back to work. "Five minutes, my dear, and I will be all yours."

I had wanted to watch a TV show I used to watch in the states. The Walking Dead. The longer I remained here with these so-not-like-Dracula vampires, the more I found out about them. I was shocked to find out they believed themselves dead. Dead and soulless. I was going to get Aro to watch an episode with me to show him the difference between dead people who still "live", and their kind.

Finally, true to his word, Aro slipped everything into the top drawer of his desk and stood, taking my hand and leading me from the office. "Now, my dear, what have you in mind for us this afternoon?"

"I have a show I'd like to watch with you. If that's alright. I've seen it in America, but I'd like to share it with you." Aro wasn't one for watching TV, but he would acquiesce for me on occasion.

Once we were in our bedroom, I turned on the channel I knew The Walking Dead was being shown. It would be in Italian, but I knew the general plot line and had learned some Italian too.

We lay back on the bed, comfortable with each other. Once the show started, Aro tried to distract me by pulling my shirt sleeve down and kissing my shoulder. Then he headed for my neck, his favourite place to nuzzle me since it was my favourite place to be nuzzled. I was not ready to give in yet.

"Aro, now watch this scene. These dead people are called Walkers. See how they pretty much stumble around like they don't know what they're doing. It's just instinct. You, however, are so graceful. It's like you float on air when you walk." My mate didn't stop caressing me as I tried to explain further. "Aro, I have never seen one scene in this show where a zombie was able to do what you're doing now. They can't feel love. They can't feel desire. Hell, they can't even get it up, while you have no problem with that."

Aro laughed. "I suppose you are right, my love. But our hearts do not beat. Justify that if you will."

I had no idea what to say to that. But did a beating heart mean someone was alive. Machines could keep medical patients alive, but once removed from the machine, the body would die. So was it correct to say a body with a heart that beat only when hooked up to a machine was still alive? Aro was now the one who had nothing to say.

"What if this venom you talked about was more like a virus that infects the human body when bitten, transforming it into something different, something superior to humans. A new lifeform."

He seemed to consider my words, before going back to nuzzling my neck. I could hear him inhaling my scent, something we both enjoyed. Aro had a scent that was spicy and herbal and all too delicious to my nose. I could assume the Walkers from the show did not smell nice at all, while Aro, Marcus, Caius and the guards each had their own unique physical scent that was both pleasant and an attractant. "Aro, Walkers stink like rotting flesh. None of you do. You all smell so..." He was making it difficult for me to think straight. "The dead can't learn, and you all are very into...oh god, Aro...um...continual education." I was about to stop talking and let him take me.

"Yes, my dear," he said knowingly, his hands now touching me in the way that blinds me to anything around us. All I wanted was his hands on me, and his cock inside me. That cock that had no problem making itself known.

"Walkers are truly dead. You are not," I managed to say, before he silenced me with his cold but loving lips. I think he finally was able to agree with me. My mate was beautiful and intelligent, loved art and the sciences, and was capable of turning me into a mass of pleasured nerves.

"Dear one, I am convinced. I can't wait for you to see how right you are. Please, name the day."

I pushed Aro onto his back and straddled him. Now it was my turn to distract him. I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, ready to prove to my mate just how similar to his old human life he still was. I said, "Our next discussion, you're not a soulless monster.", then kissed him until he wrapped me in his arms and shut me up for good.