Infinite Bliss || Volturi Kings

|3| AN OVERREACTION

If Eliana was being honest, she wasn't entirely sure why she was still running. It had been a few minutes, turning down hall after hall through the endless labyrinth that was the Volturi castle. She was glad that she hadn't bumped into any hungry immortals, but that was the least of her worries.

Finally out of breath completely, her heart thudding against her ribcage, Eliana stopped, leaning back against the nearest blank stone wall and bending her knees so that her back slid down towards the floor.

She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her head between her knees. She could already feel that burning sensation in her eyes that always came before the eventual floods of tears.

Her pocket suddenly vibrated very briefly with a soft buzz. How the hell was she getting service in the middle of rural Italy? Eliana slowly pulled her phone out from beneath her and opened up the text she'd received.

Bells:

i'm really bored and emmett won't stop making cringey jokes about what I'd be like as a vampire. welp.

She wasn't entirely sure if she should be annoyed that her friend was happily enjoying her life without her or humoured by Emmett never once giving her a break. She couldn't help the faint giggle that escaped her lips as she began to type her response, stifling a yawn as she did so.

El:

your problem not mine hahahah

sucks to be you

Bells:

ugh just get back soon so I don't have to deal with this for any longer

She laughed, but that laugh quickly morphed into a sob. She couldn't be homesick, surely . . . no, she was never homesick. If anything, she loved being away from home, the longer the better. Even last year when she'd coincidentally visited when James was hunting both her and Bella down, homesickness had been the last thing on her mind.

So why was she crying now? She could feel the uncontrolled and unexplainable tears running down her face, the salty taste of the droplets on her lips as they dripped all the way to her chin and then fell onto her clothes. She tried to keep her sobs quiet, but it seemed useless. There was so much to cry about, anyway.

With overwhelming amounts of self pity that felt like they were going to swallow her whole, she buried her face in her arms in an attempt to muffle the noise she was making.

"I cannot say I blame you for your reaction."

Warily, she peeked over her crossed arms at the person who'd suddenly and silently appeared beside her. Marcus was sitting just an inch or so away, mirroring her position on the floor against the wall with his legs bent slightly.

"It's just," she sniffled, "it's a lot to process, you know."

He nodded. "I understand. The mating bond can do bizarre things to a person's emotions."

She glanced up briefly. "How so?"

Marcus found himself struggling to resist the insistent urge to wipe her tears away from her cheeks, his hand twitching by his side. "I think you know what I mean," he replied. "My brothers were adamant that they came too, but we thought it wise to send one of us. They can be rather overbearing at times."

She laughed meekly. "I hadn't noticed."

She'd only been in the room with the other two royal immortals for a few minutes and it didn't take a genius to tell that they were exactly that—overbearing. From what she'd gathered so far, Aro didn't quite understand when to stop, and Caius tended to inadvertently make things worse. At least Marcus said little at all, which seemed to be what she needed at that moment.