Author's Note

I am so glad I'm finally finishing this!  I never thought I could come up with enough material to bring this story to my goal length of 30,000 words, but I'm already at almost 23,000 and there's so much more plot yet that I want to include still!  I just keep coming up with new plot ideas as I'm writing, and the way it's turning out, I will definitely surpass 30,000 words.  Because of that, I'm setting my new word count goal at 50,000 words.  As always, enjoy the chapter!  ;)  

Chapter 9 – Seeing Red

"Uh-okay," I sputter out, still not completely over the surprise of Caius appearing out of nowhere. 

"Follow me," he orders.  My eyes follow him as he whips past me and starts heading in the direction of where I know his room is.  My breathing subconsciously shallows as try and figure out what stupid thing I did to make him angry this time.

"You know..." I start when we stop in front of his door, unable to stand the awkward silence anymore, "A lot of people in this castle would start asking questions if I somehow went missing," I tell him.  Caius looks back at me.  "Alec and Jane would, Chef Lavitto and Felix would, and I'm sure Demetri would.  Even Aro would I'm sure... UNLESS ARO'S IN ON IT!" I say loudly as the realization hits me.

"Unless Aro's in on what?" Asks a voice from behind me.  I spin around to see the guy who looks like one of the elves from Lord of the Rings.  It fits, I mean, his name is "Aro" and the elves from the books/movies do shoot arrows!  Ha!

"You guys found a way to kill me, didn't you?"  I ask, dread sweeping over me.  The whole reason I came here was to be killed so I didn't have to deal with vampires anymore, although now that I've met and gotten to know a group of vampires who actually don't torture humans for the fun of it, and now that I've actually became friends with some of them, I realize that in a weird way, this is the only place I feel like I belong.  After everything I've experienced here, I don't want to leave, and I especially don't want to be killed.

"Kill you?" Aro asks with a chuckle, "I can assure you that I have no idea why Caius brought you here.  Besides, I already made the decision that you will join the guard once we figure out how to make that happen."  He then continues down the hallway, leaving me alone with Caius with a lot more confusion than before.

"So..." I start, the embarrassment from before starting to creep up, I mean, I did just wrongfully accuse him of trying to kill me.

"Just get in," he heavily exhales, pushing the door in for me.  I duck under his arm and step into the room.  It still looks the same as it did from when I was in here before, not that I expected it to change or anything...

"So what do you want to tell me?" I ask, plopping onto one of the couches and making myself comfortable.

"Please, make yourself at home," he says sarcastically.  I quietly but quickly remove my feet from his coffee table and sit back up straight.

"Now," he starts, "I expect that you didn't tell anybody about our first little encounter in here?"  Is that what this is about?

"No," I shake my head, remembering the embarrassment, but also remembering Caius' more modern and unconventional (in regards to the Volturi), style choices.

"Great," he says flatly, "and I can assume that you won't bring it up to anyone in the future?"

"What if I do?" I ask, smirking at how serious he's taking this.  So what if people knew that deep down he is actually cool?  At least style wise.

"If you do, then rest assured, I will make your life here a living hell," he glares, returning my smirk.

"There's nothing you could do to me that's worse than what I've already gone through," I tell him raising my eyebrow.  His smile fades, "at least not without making anyone like Aro or Marcus angry."

"We'll see," he counters.  "You may leave now, I'm through talking to you.  Just don't forget my warning," he says, dismissing me with a wave of his hand.  I hop off of the couch and walk towards the door, secretly checking out the rest of his room that I didn't see before.  Just as I'm about to turn the doorknob, I see an intricate little box on the small table next to the door.  It's a perfect square with a stone exterior and a sprinkle of gems coming together to form abstract shapes and patterns.

"Even for a human you sure are leaving at an awfully slow pace," Caius remarks, his nose in a book.  I look back at him, ready to argue when I notice exactly which book he's reading.  Menaechmi.  One of the same books I found still in my room a few mornings ago.  My brain goes into overdrive.  Was Caius the one in my room?  He was obviously in there for a while assuming that the whole pile of books were his.  I quickly turn the door handle to rush out of there, but the door won't open.

"It's locked," I trail off, forcing myself to look back at him, which is difficult given this new evidence that I can hardly believe.  He smiles again, getting up from his seat and walking towards me.  After nudging me out of the way, he opens the door with ease.  "I thought your door wasn't human-proof?" I ask, barely making a step forward.

"It wasn't," he starts, "but thanks to new circumstances I had to take extra precautions to prevent a repeat of earlier."

"You bought a new door because of me?" I question.  Jeez, it's not like I'd voluntarily come back here!

Caius shakes his head.  "Of course not, I just tightened the hinges so you can't get in," he explains.

"So all of the 'human-proof' doors are nothing more than tightened hinges?" I ask, to which he nods.  "Huh," I mutter, going through the door and out into the hallway.  I turn around to question him more about why I'm being forced to live with my bedroom door open 24/7 when somebody can just loosen a few screws or bolts or whatever, but he slams the door shut before I can say another word.  "How rude," I mutter, imitating Stephanie Tanner's voice from Full House before turning to head towards my room again.  I think I'm going to force myself to do at least 50 sit-ups to make up for all of the Calories I've been taking in these past few days, with that cherry pie literally being the cherry on top of it all. 

When I return to my room, I walk into the bathroom and check myself out in the mirror.  Yup, I've definitely gained at least a few pounds since I've been here, but I can't say that it's a bad thing.  When I got here, I was almost dangerously thin thanks to all of the stress that has just been piling up on my shoulders these past five years.  Because of all the training combined with the nutritious meals I've been eating, my skin actually looks brighter and I feel healthier than ever.  I'm in the middle of flexing my freshly toned biceps in the mirror when I hear a knock on my door.  I hop down from the stool I was standing on to check out who's here.

"Demetri?  I feel like I never see you around here anymore!" I laugh, "What's up?"

"Well, I was talking to Felix earlier and he told me that you mentioned that you were interested in flying planes.  I just came by to ask if you wanted me to teach you how?" he asks.  My eyes widen in shock.

"Are you serious?" I ask, "I would love for you to teach me!"

"Great, if you're not busy we could start now," he recommends.  I smile, nodding my head in agreement.

"I'm completely free for the rest of the morning!" I tell him as I slip on my shoes.

"Perfect!  Follow me," he says grinning. 

"Yes!" I exclaim without hesitation.  I jump up and run out with him the second I finish tying my laces.  Apparently I didn't do such a great job at it because after I skipped out of one of the back doors of the castle that Demetri was holding for me, I trip down the couple of stairs outside.

"Are you okay?!" Demetri asks, rushing down towards me.

"Ugh," I mumble, retying my brand new running shoes that are now scuffed up. 

"Did you buy those shoes from a drug dealer?" Demetri asks.

"What?  Why?" I ask.  A grin forms on his face.  Oh crap, I can just sense one of his smart-ass comments coming.

"You must have, because whatever he laced them with is causing you to trip big time!" he laughs.  I crack a smile, but instantly force myself back into a poker face.

"You know I saw that," he starts, "you totally think I'm charming and hilarious!" he grins.

"Okay," I admit, "maybe it was a little funny."

"You know it!" he exclaims.  "So... what are we going to do about your knee?"  I look down at my knee for the first time, realizing what he meant.  My eyes widen when I see the red liquid dotting my knee.  I reach toward it to try and wipe it off, but when I open my hand, I notice that there's some on my palm too.

"Oh no," I mutter, looking back up at Demetri's dark eyes.