SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

V E N T I T R E

She was sitting in the library on her own. It was deep in the night already and her only source of light was the three candles on the candelabra in front of her. Her eyes were gliding over the ancient Latin words of Cicero. It was his debut, Pro Roscio Amerino, in which Cicero was left to the task of defending a simple bumpkin on the charge of patricide against the most influential of Rome. The texts were far from easy, but if Cecilia truly wanted to learn the art of spinning words and making points come across, she knew Cicero was a great start. 

A chill crawled down her spine as she felt the cold night draught move over the bare skin of her neck and she pulled the hoodie of her sweater over the bun on top of her head. She grabbed one of her pencils, scribbling down a note on a tricolon in her notebook.

Cecilia rubbed her eyes, a yawn escaping her mouth. She knew however, as soon as she was lying in Demetri's bed, her thoughts would return to the events of two days ago. She could still see Aurelia's twisted facial expression, the hissing sound of her body burning in the middle of the throne room. 

"What are you doing down here?" she suddenly heard a voice ask. 

Grabbing with her hand to her chest, she turned around, only to let out a sigh in relief at the sight of Demetri. He was standing behind the chair she was sitting on, an amused expression on his face. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, giving him a half-hearted push before turning back on the book in front of her. 

"I'm reading," she muttered softly. She let her head fall onto her hands, her fingers moving roughly through her hair. Cicero was very interesting, but his words made her eyes burn from tiredness and Demetri's presence did exactly nothing to increase her focus. "Can't you see?"

"I can see very well," Demetri replied. She noticed that his voice sounded particularly deep and she looked up, watching carefully as he took a seat on the chair opposite of her. The light of the candles illuminated his face in a way that made his features look even sharper and a pleasant shiver crawled down her spine. "Why are you reading right now?"

"Why wouldn't I be reading right now?" she countered, barely being able to suppress a yawn from escaping again. The vampire in front of her raised an eyebrow, as if to say she'd just proven his point. Cecilia only shrugged. "I enjoy reading."

"You can read at every time during the day. It's two AM right now," he said. He leaned his arms on the table, moving his face a little closer to hers. As if she was mesmerized, she stared into his dark eyes. She wondered what those eyes had seen, the wonders of days long past. "You need to sleep, Cecilia. I know you spent last night at the library as well."

"One more chapter," she said. Not waiting for his reply, she focused her eyes on the pages in front of her again. She had to resist the urge to tell Demetri that he wasn't her mother and that he couldn't tell her what she had to do, but she knew he was looking out for her. Besides, he was kind of right, she needed sleep. Not that she would admit that, of course.

Demetri scoffed. "Well, what are you reading?"

"Pro Roscio Amerino," she answered absentmindedly, already jotting a new thing down. 

When she looked up from her notebook, Cicero's book had been closed and Demetri's hand laid on top of it. Her eyes trailed along the length of his hand and arm, until they reached his face. She raised one eyebrow and watched with a slight smile as he did the same. He was already standing next to the table, ever so slightly bent in her direction, a smirk on his face. "A chapter of Cicero is worth at least ten chapters of every other book. You'll be sitting here till the sun rises."

The longer she looked at Demetri, the more she felt the steady beating of her heart increase, her breath caught in her throat. The flickering of the candles made his eyes appear even darker, his face even more handsome. She watched his eyes move from her eyes to her lips and back, making her stomach feel like a bunch of butterflies had just been let loose.