Another dress was tossed down onto her bed as the German vampire flung her red nailed hands up in the air. "Nothing!" She exclaimed while Olivia sat, most unimpressed, on the loveseat beside her fireplace, the flames crackling and spitting at a safe distance behind her. Olivia scowled. "I had a dress picked out, Heidi," she countered, the red eyed enchantress across from her giving her a venomous glare, literally. "It was white, Olivia!" She countered back as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, eyeing the smaller, blonde vampire with barely concealed irritation. "Everyone is wearing proper evening attire, according to their ranking. It is a formal ball, unlike some others, so for you, we need a black dress, or at least something with some black in it."
Olivia scowled darker. Her hair was all washed and combed and ready to be twisted upright into a surely magnificent hairdo, but it would never happen at the rate they were going. The auburn haired vampire across the room gave a sudden exclamation. "Aha! I knew this was somewhere."
Red eyes framed by thick lashes looked across to the other woman, and she raised a brow. "That? Won't that draw attention to me?" She asked with a slight speck of worry and the German vampire flashed her a wide, victorious smile, one that was cunning of all sorts. "Absolutely, and the best kind."
Four hours and fifty one minutes later, and twenty two seconds, red eyed gazed at the vision that reflected into them from the elegant floor length mirror that was in the corner of the room. A porcelain white hand touched the equally cream coloured skin of her face, trying to see if they were one and the same.
They were indeed.
Her dress was beautiful, if not a little too attention grabbing for her taste. The bodice was all gold, sequins expertly sown on to make it look like a sheen of gold covered her chest, back, shoulders and all of her arms, concealing the horrific scarring bite marks from view, something she wholly appreciated. It was a high necked dress too, gold covered all of her throat, concealing the scars there too. It was beautiful, the skirt a dark colour, almost black, the hem the same gold as her upper body. Her hair was twisted beautifully too. Swirls of her dirty blonde adorned her head, held into place with hairspray and bobby pins. It looked amazing.
Olivia chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. Her father would have called her a whore for looking like she did, for looking so openly beautiful. It was troubling. She didn't look like a whore, but there was that niggling voice in the back of her head that maybe wearing black like this with another bold colour was too much of a statement.
A thudding knock came to the door, pulling her from her troublesome thoughts. Heels clicking softly against her wooden floorboards, she strode over, her normally four foot and nine inches frame coming just short of five foot as she opened the door, coming face to face with Alec, his dark grey, almost black one she'd seen him wear in battle.
His eyes travelled down her dress before back to her face. "You clean up nice," he mused with a smirk and she scowled, her face twisting. "I clean up nice all the time, thank you very much," she snapped, taking the arm he offered, albeit reluctantly, before closing the door behind her, allowing him to lead her down the hallways towards the endless classical music that was playing amidst chattering vampires from all the different invited covens.
Olivia grimaced as they drew nearer. Alec noticed, his red eyes drifting to her worried ones. He slowed the speed of their walking. "No one knows what you've been through," he murmured, her ruby red eyes softening from their harshness a little. "No one but the masters and those who came to rescue us in the dungeons know. Your secret is safe until you feel safe to reveal it yourself," he added.
Her ruby red eyes were vulnerable as she looked at him, the first time in almost four decades he'd seen them as such. A twitch of her mouth was probably the closest she'd came to a smile in a long time. "Thank you," she murmured back quietly just as they came to the double golden doors, two of the lower guard pushing them open for them -they both ignored them, walking in with their heads held high as numerous red eyes swivelled to look at them as they entered.
Two hours later, the skies around Volterra were significantly darkened, but the golden lights of the ballroom shone clear, reflecting off the wine glasses of blood that almost everyone clutched in their pale white hands. Orchestral, classical music sounded throughout the room, and it was beginning to hurt her ears, despite how ridiculous that sounded.
She was on her second glass of blood, sipping it silently as she listened to the French Coven, Henri and his mate, Yvette, talk to Corin, the woman with the platinum blonde hair being given a rare night off considering the wives were in attendance also here, having been allowed a rare night out from the tower where they were confined for their own protection. She could see the Lady Ceres dancing with her husband as the Lady Lysandra danced with her own, something akin to as close to a smile as you could get on Caius's face as he danced with his wife of over three thousand years, Aro not far away with Ceres, the woman whom she'd only ever seen once with the ringlets of dark brown hair looking cheery and content as she too danced with her own husband, her golden gown with embraided golden thread floating around her ankles as they spun around smoothly.
Yvette sent a cheery smile towards her, the cascade of chocolate coloured ringlets partially obscuring her face. "So, Olivia, what is your gift? You must be a high ranking guard to be wearing black this evening." She commented breezily, her accent thick, and the blonde sent a dazzling, false smile back. "Oh I couldn't possibly tell you without permission, and permission hasn't been granted for anyone outside of the elite guard to know what my particular gift is," she replied, her voice sickly sweet as she did so. The platinum blonde beside her hid her smirk behind her own wine glass effortlessly.
Henri raised a dark brow before humming under his breath. "I wonder if newest secret weapon of the Volturi is in attendance tonight," he mused and Corin shook her head with a pleasant smile. "I'm afraid not. Master didn't think it was time yet for her to be introduced, without her obscurity, to the rest of our kind not yet. He does like a good surprise." She tittered, her red eyes shining mirthfully.
He hummed once more but didn't press the issue, much to her relief.
That relief didn't last long. A certain tracker appeared beside them, a smirk on his face. Corin snorted. "No chance," she stated firmly, taking a drink of the blood in her wine glass. She moved her eyes down to Olivia. "Perhaps take Olivia out for a dance. I know she's getting rather bored by our small conversation. Perhaps some dancing would do her good." She suggested, taking the wine glass from the teenager with a pointed look, knowing that the prying about who the mysterious new weapon was would start up again soon if Henri had his own way once more.
A hand took her own before she could protest, and in a blur that went just under fast enough for her not to see, she found herself on the dancefloor, the tracker in front of her. He twirled her around effortlessly. "A fruitful ally, he is, but a nosy one," he mused quietly just enough for her to hear as he pulled her back again.
She sighed. "I don't know, I had a feeling he knew by the shade of my gown. How many high, high ranking member have been added in the last few decades?" She asked and he hummed. "Not many, I see your point. Just be careful. Master was most displeased when he heard the route the conversation was taking. Sent me over to whisk you off before something could be said."
Her ruby red eyes found the said Master in question, finding he was watching them closely. She quickly averted her eyes and hummed. "Yes, he doesn't like most pleased." She mused and the tracker nodded before an amused grin crossed his face. "I believe someone is requesting that one dance you promised him." He tittered, as if he knew a joke she didn't, and then spun her around quickly before she would've been able to blink had she still been human.
She spun, and then landed roughly against someone, and she swallowed back the pooling venom, preparing herself to apologise when she realised who it was. Her ruby red eyes narrowed a little as a perfectly manicured brow arched. "Now, you wouldn't be planning something and have included Demetri in it, would you? Or Felix for that matter? I can see them whispering to each other like little girls in the corner over there." She pointed out, the said giant of a vampire breaking out a booming laugh when he heard that, his ruby red eyes on both her and Alec as the latter spun them around expertly.
Alec flashed her an easy grin. "What would make you assume that? I'm collecting that dance you owe me, remember?" He answered smoothly and she hummed. "And you lie worse than the devil does. What was the whole point of this? If you wanted to dance, I would have danced with you! You didn't need to go through this whole elaborate affair of asking me to accompany you and then enlisting those two troublemakers in acquiring a dance. I would have done so without a fuss you know." She demanded.
He was silent for a moment before he hummed quietly. "Can we talk, in private, elsewhere?" He asked and after a moment, she nodded. He pulled back from her, gently taking her wrist before leading her through the crowd of mingling immortals, back out of the double golden doors, and towards another set of double doors at the end of the extremely long hallway, this one the longest she'd ever seen. She hadn't been in this part of the castle more than twice before, and although she knew it like the back of her hand due to her vampire memory, she hadn't been through those particular doors.
The doors were pushed open, and the overpowering, sickly sweet stench of roses flooded her senses. She grimaced a little but continued to allow him to pull her into the never-ending hedge maze up ahead, no doubt used to trap unsuspecting humans if they ventured too far to the castle or if they somehow, although impossible, managed to escape it.
The middle of the maze was beautiful. A polished stone fountain made of marble sat in the middle, a raised edge keeping the water in from the fountain and giving them somewhere to sit. He pulled her to the edge and motioned for her to sit down, something she did slowly, almost unsurely, but she did so anyways, tucking her long black skirts behind her legs.
Alec took a seat beside her, and she furrowed her brows as she looked at him. "What is this about?" She asked quietly, folding her hands loosely on her lap.
He was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "I asked you here tonight not because someone else was going to ask you," he began, and rose petal coloured eyes flashed to his, full of accusations, but as she went to speak, he shook his head. "I wanted to ask you, me, not because Lawrence, for example was going to ask you. He wasn't even going to ask you. I wanted to ask you, because I wanted you to go with me, and only me." He continued.
Olivia frowned. "But why would you want to go with me..." She trailed off, realisation flashing in her eyes before she shot to her feet. "Are you serious? Please tell me you don't! Please tell me you don't hold affections for me!" She pleaded, demanded. It couldn't be true. They hated each other. They'd always hated each other, so when had that changed?
He stood, but remained silent, confirming her worst fears. Her eyes grew wide and became glassy with unshed tears. "How on earth could you hold affections for me? You hate me! You and your sister! We both made each other lives a living hell when I first joined the Volturi!" She cried out, her chest tightening with ghost painlike symptoms and he shook his head. "I don't know, I really don't, but I don't know how to explain them. I've never had feelings like these before, never. I don't know how to explain them."
Her head shook wildly, hair falling from its hairstyle around her face, a few loose ringlets dropping down the side of her face. Her fingers pushed through it, clenching it enough to hurt. "No," she cried, desperation overtaking her voice. "No, no, no, no," she wept. Her head shook ferociously. "You can't feel like that for me! I'm damaged goods, I'm disgusting! Look at me! I can't even wear short sleeves because my arms are scarred so badly from being bitten so many times! I'll never be able to the normal things other mated couples do because I can't get what they did to me out of my head!" She cried desperately.
Alec shook his head, eyes full of hot anger. "You are not damaged goods!" He hissed angrily before his eyes softened. "You aren't disgusting, Olivia. If you were disgusting, I wouldn't want you. If I thought you were damaged goods, I wouldn't want you. You aren't either of those things, and by saying you are, you let them win. So what if you can't do the normal things other mated couples do? Things take time, and I'm willing to wait until you're ready."
Olivia shook her head ferociously and picked up a handful of her skirts, preparing to flee, but before she could, he rushed forward. His stone white hand closed around hers and gently pulled her to him, his other hand cupping her face before he pushed his lips up against her lips.
Authors note: I recently published the Caius pairing that intertwines with this fiction universe, both on Quotev and Fanfiction. That particular pairing was mentioned in this chapter.
Caius x OC - Red and Black ||Caius Volturi||
Blurb: Wolves ravaged her home, her parents, her life, and it didn't stop her from wanting to help others -if anything, it made her want to even more. When Lysandra finds a man, more handsome than she had ever laid eyes on, with pale blonde hair and devilish red eyes, ravaged by those same wolves, little does she know that a mere act of kindness will change her future forever.
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