Infinite Bliss || Volturi Kings

|4| ARO

Eliana awoke very slowly the next morning. It still shocked her, just as before, when she woke up in that same room she'd fallen asleep in. It was as if a small part of her brain continued to believe the entire situation all to be a dream. But it wasn't. She knew first hand that it wasn't. No amount of wishing and hoping she could do would send her back to a time when she'd never shown up in Italy in the first place.

Rather than delaying her start, she wearily climbed out of the bed she could've sworn she'd fallen asleep on top of rather than in. Shuddering at the thought of someone entering her room during the night, which she managed to convince herself wasn't possible, she got herself dressed stupidly fast for fear of having a repeat of the previous evening where those two vampire kids invited themselves in.

Her hair, she noticed while brushing her teeth in the mirror, surprisingly wasn't looking in too much of a state. It was knotted, yes, but she knew brushing it would only make it look like she'd been dragged through a bush backwards, so instead she opted to leave it as it was.

As soon as she left the bathroom, the same two kids as before opened the door without any warning whatsoever. Jane sat down on the edge of her bed, attempting to hack into her phone which she'd left on top of the bedsheets, while Alec stood by the door.

"The Masters sent us to fetch you," Alec told her. "They're waiting downstairs."

Her heart was already racing in her chest. Even the mere thought of them seemed to make her feel a strange giddy combination of anxiety and excitement. She couldn't remember a time when her thought processes had ever been more pathetic and boy-obsessed—correction, vampire-obsessed.

"You know you can knock, right?" Eliana snarked as she sat down on the floor in front of a full-length mirror and switched out her small hoop earrings for a different pair of silver ones she'd found. "I would've let you straight in, but at least then you wouldn't end up scaring me half to death."

"Don't be dramatic. One of us would just turn you on the off chance that it was to happen," Jane countered, apparently successful in her attempts in getting into her phone. "Got any games on here by the way? I'm waiting for my new phone to arrive—stupid, unreliable human postage system—and no one will let me use theirs except Demetri, but there's nothing on his. Oh, Instagram-"

"That's enough." Eliana snatched her phone back and placed it in the back pocket of her skirt. She motioned towards the door. "Lead the way, I guess?"

"Would you rather wear shoes this time?" Alec asked, glancing pointedly at her feet.

Eliana groaned and sat down on the floor, reaching for a pair of converse shoes. While she did the laces on her left foot, Alec crouched down and tied them on her right.

"Who told you?" she asked.

"Felix," Jane laughed openly. "The human's already embarrassed herself, how priceless. Granted, I thought it would happen sooner, especially with this one, but-"

"Jane," Alec warned so quietly that Eliana didn't even have a chance of hearing it. He knew that if Aro was to catch either of them remotely making life difficult for his new mate, that couldn't possibly end too well for them, even if they were his favourites.

Eliana glanced between the two. "But what?" she asked, confused why Jane had cut her sentence short so suddenly.

Jane shrugged and walked straight out at a considerably fast human speed. "Nothing. Let us leave."

"The hell was that?" Eliana asked quietly as Alec helped her up to her feet and led the way out of the room.

"Oh, that's just how Jane is," Alec excused as they wandered down the dark and echoing maze of stone corridors. "If she makes any more comments like that—wait, she didn't offend you, did she?" Eliana shook her head, and he sighed in relief. "Good, no, she's like that with everyone. If it makes you feel any better, this is the best I've seen her treat a human for centuries."