Point of view of Demetri Volturi

“I have leukemia. Not just her. The bitch that can't be cured because only 3% of people worldwide get it and unfortunately it's genetic. My mother gave it to me during pregnancy because she didn't know she had it. They wanted to do clinical trials on me to try to cure me but I refused. My mother was lucky to die in her sleep. Me with my epilepsy and more, I wonder how I can still be alive. Overnight I could have an accident and cause internal bleeding or a stroke.”

She sighed. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. I stared at her when she was sad. Not sure of what her reaction would be, I put my hand on hers.

 “When I had my concussion and was in a coma on a oxygen machine my heart was beating so slowly that they almost unplugged the machine and let me go but I woke up. I don't have a mother, my father is an asshole. I'm lost in Italy and I'm going to die soon. What a beautiful life. Life is a bitch.”

“I can heal you. " I told her quietly.

“Please don't give me false hope. The doctors said it's incurable.” She said.

I smiled at her.

“That's not the case and the doctors don't know about this method. Would you do anything to live disease-free and young forever? What I have to offer you is not known to current medicine.”

She stared at me and she seemed a bit puzzled.

“Keep on going.”

“I myself have used this method and I can assure you that you will never be sick again. I'm not twenty-one. I am one thousand thirty-seven years old.”

She started laughing.

“No it's impossible ! That would mean that you were born..."

 “I was born in nine hundred and eighty five. I'm not lying to you, I have no reason to lie to you. I can give you this gift of immortality, but it comes at a price.”

She stared at me without saying anything.

 “You will no longer be human. You can no longer live here among humans, you will have to live with us forever.” I continued.

“Free? Housed and feed for free?"she asked, smiling.

I smiled at her enthusiasm even though she still didn't understand what I was talking about.

“Sort of. We don't pay anything. We are numerous. You could make friends too, because there are many like me.”

 "How does it work ? If I'm not human anymore, what would I be?” She asked me quietly.

I stared at her. Should I tell her?

“If I tell you and you refuse this method, I could not let you live because this secret must remain a secret for our safety.”

She was staring at me and her heartbeat remained very calm.

 “It's not like I'm losing much, for now I want to die every day of my life. If you are sure you have a solution that can cure me, please tell me. I want to know it.”

I approached her.

“You would become a vampire, like me.”

Her eyes widened. She stared into space for a moment.

“It's strange. It seems unreal but I want to believe you. How can I be sure of what you tell me? You don't look like the vampires in the legends.”

I smiled and moved my hand to my right eye and removed my contact lens. I stared at her and she stared at my red eye and then she stared at my contact lens.

 “I have to hide when I'm around humans. We wear special lenses that restore the color our eyes once had.”

She smiled and looked at my iris.

“I love your eye color. Red has always been one of my favorite colors.” She said.

I put the lens back in my eye and stared at it again. She was playing with her hands. She grabbed cubes of cheese and ate them.

 “Earlier, you didn't want to sit at that table in the sun. Does your condition prevent you from going out in the sun?” she asked.

“No, I don't have to hide myself in the sun. I can’t go out in the sun in the presence of humans. I have to stay in the shade so that humans don't know of our existence.”

Hayley looked at me and her eyes widened.

“So you stayed with me all night knowing you'd be stuck in this hospital all day and couldn't get out before sunset?"

 “Indeed, I could not leave you.”

I heard her sigh.

"And why didn't you just leave with your brother?" She asked me.

“Alec is not my brother; he is just a friend. When I saw you, I felt that connection for the first time. Members of our species all have a kindred spirit who will make our days better. This is going to sound crazy, but you are mine. During your crisis, I felt your pain deep inside me. Once I saw you and our gazes never left each other, I was connected to you forever. I don't usually never offer immortality to a human but I don't want to let you die.”

She opened her mouth.

 "So that's why I trust you so much! Usually I don't trust anyone but something deep inside me allows me to open up to you without feeling like I'm being judged. I remember as soon as I saw you in the store, I looked at you and I felt something like a desire to know you... When you spoke Italian, I was a little jaded. I don't understand that damn language but I have to tell you that I'm glad you don't just speak that language!” 

I smiled at her.

“I don't think we would have any trouble communicating. I am fluent in fourteen languages ​​and some that are not even languages ​​used today.”

She opened her mouth.

“Fourteen ! wow! Tell me about you ! What are your special abilities that are unique to people like you?” she asked.

“Do you want to know everything?”

“Yes. Do you burn in the sun?” She asked.

“Not at all." I say laughing. “It's more complex, but for example all my senses are heightened tenfold. If I can give you an idea." I stared to the left where we had Hayley’s lunch where the cook was. “The cook just sneezed.”

She turned.

"You can't even see the kitchen from here!" She practically yelled.

I smiled.

“That is what I am saying. I hear very far, I see and I can also smell things that you cannot intercept. I am also much stronger than you think.”

She seemed intrigued. I grabbed her metal spoon and placed it between two fingers and bent it in a second. She took the spoon in her hands completely shocked. She tried to reshape it without success. I took it back and replaced it as it was.

“Unbelievable.”

“That's not all. I run very fast. Let's say the place you want to go is an hour away by car, just by running I can get there in ten or fifteen minutes.”

 "It must be pretty easy to stay in shape.” She said, sounding a bit shocked.

I started laughing.

“What ? Sure you're all slim then if you can run that fast.” She says.

"Hayley, following our transformation we keep the appearance that we had at the time of being changed. We don't need to breathe, we don't sleep, we don't smell any more. When I say that we are no longer human, it is in every sense therefore more health problems, varying weights, old age or even wounds that bleed. Your body becomes as solid as rock and it no longer changes in appearance." I said.

“What? I don't want to be changed then! I don't look like anything! I don't even have a stomach, I look like a skeleton and my hair isn't even in good shape.”

I put my hand on hers to stop her rambling.

"Hey, don't worry about details like that. Your physical form is quite perfect. We have members who were transformed at thirteen years old and they are mentally much older than me and we don't care about their height or physical form. You are perfect as you are. Your hair is fine, it will become more beautiful and resistant with the transformations and it should color slightly." I said.

“If you say so.” She replied.

“Also, some of us develop gifts after the transformation. I will tell you more about it next time but you will see that being like us is much better than being human.”

“It's great, but I guess there are downsides as well.”

I sighed.

"Indeed.  I'm not going to lie to you. If you become like me... The first months of your life you'll be kind of wild. A need to drink blood more regularly than us and a desire to kill that will diminish over time. That's the only negative point... There's also the sun. It doesn't actually burn us like many people think, but I'll let you discover that later... We prefer to go out at night to avoid this inconvenience.”

She was staring at me.

 “I honestly already suspected that. I understood why you didn't take anything to eat, you don't eat like us. Only one thing interests you.”

I was smiling. I found that in certain respects she resembled me. She had tact like me, and I appreciated that.

 “Tell me now. Could this life please you? I will always be by your side and I will help you adapt to it.”

She stared into space and gently looked at me.

“A life of health, of immortality... No longer being alone, having marvelous powers... I recognize that there are sacrifices to be made, but I find that everything you have told me about your abilities is so awesome.”

“Indeed.”

Her heart was beating softly and I could hear the air going in and out of her lungs. I stared where her blue gaze did, and noticed she was looking towards the window. She eventually slid her gaze to mine. She extended her hand in my direction.

“I'm Hayley Mitchell, nice to meet you.”

I smiled. For me, it was an official presentation and she was going to stay with me. I reached out my hand to grab hers and both of us shivered. We stared into each other's eyes.

“My name is Demetri Volturi. I'm glad I found you.”