the trickster // caius volturi

✵TWENTY✵

~~~Volturi Palace, Volterra, Italy~~~

~~2005~~

It's been a week since the awkwardness that was the date in the field of flowers. Loki has been avoiding Caius like the plague. She took advantage of Imani's being a newborn and has spent almost all of her time with the newborn and Jane.

In the week that they had been avoiding each other, Carlisle began calling Loki multiple times a day. Of course, Loki treasured her friend, but she also thought that he was being slightly...

Overbearing. 

On Saturday, Loki walked into the library. She was wearing something Imani picked out for her. A red sleeveless turtleneck with a buttoned black cardigan, black jeans, and woven sandals that were an inch above the ground.

As she entered, she noticed that Imani was joined by two others. She frowned as she walked over and saw Imani, Marcus, and Alec.

"Ah, piccolo imbroglione," Marcus greeted, respectfully nodding toward her. She nodded back as she thought carefully about her choice of words.

"Can I...help you?" Imani smiled. "Master Marcus asked if he could come as well, and it's Alec's day off." I nodded. The guardsman smiled. "May I join, My Queen? Imani always speaks highly of your...lessons."

"More lectures, but yes," Imani murmured. She was sitting at the end of the table, Alec was in the middle, and Marcus was beside him. 

"Loki's been talking about her pilgrimage in the 1600s." Marcus raised a brow. "What is it you said some time ago? 'I do not travel like a human' Or am I mistaken?" Loki rolled her eyes.

"Planes are detestable. On my pilgrimage, I went by the sea, and by horse. I had a favorite horse—Contessa. Beautiful animal." Alec frowned. "Why travel on horse when you can just run?"

"In broad daylight? My not sparkling is a mirage, but I can't exactly hide running as fast as the speed of sound, dear Alec. Besides, I wanted to be like a human for a short time. It was fun. I met Carlisle in Britain then."

Imani grinned. "Did you meet Shakespeare?" 

"Started the pilgrimage after he died. Think, monkey," She teased. 

"I shouldn't have taught you that," The newborn grumbled. For the next hour or so, instead of Loki lecturing, the three senior vampires shared war stories of their own travels.

Alec had once gone to Australia and went to the Great Barrier Reef with Felix to play Hide-And-Seek. Loki had taken a canoe down the Nile once. And Marcus had once started a rumor about a vampire named Dracula, and it still lives on.

"No, that was you?!" Imani gasped. Marcus nodded. "It was increasingly boring at the time, so I decided to throw my brothers a loop. Aro was furious. I based this Dracula character off of him." Loki laughed, finding the explanation ridiculous.

"What of you, our piccolo imbroglione? How did you find our dear Miss Imani?" Loki didn't even hesitate. When Imani had just been turned and still kind of remembered her human life, they thought of a lie.

"I found her when I was in Forks, and I had her moved here after I turned her. She was injured, fatally, so I saved her."

Alec hadn't heard this story yet, and his eyes widened.

He immediately got off of his chair and kneeled down. He bowed his head as he bent the knee.

"I am in your service forever, until the day comes when I have repaid the life debt." 

Across the castle, Aro heard the words. He hadn't heard anything else but had tuned in just in time to hear one of his most prized guards pledge his life and servitude to the goddess.

He snapped a quill in his hand. Caius sat across from him at the table and raised a brow.

"What?" He locked eyes with the blonde king but kept his mouth shut.

"Nothing."

Around noon, Loki decided to leave early and retire to her bedroom. When she walked in, she sighed and fell backward on the bed.

"Oh, Caius," She murmured, remembering the feel of his lips on hers. She could remember the softness of his lips, and she could remember the smell of him, like vanilla. It was...incredible.

She didn't regret it. She just...didn't know how to react. She wasn't innocent, of course, but she had never been kissed like that. And, he was her soulmate. It was...different. More intense.

But she couldn't tell Caius that she loved it, because then what? She would stay here with him for eternity? She couldn't do that. She had a duty, and she had to fulfill it. He would be torn apart if she had to leave all the time.

She closed her eyes and let herself calm down. She wasn't asleep, just relaxing.

There was a knock on the door an hour later.

"Yes?" The door opened, but she didn't sit up or even open her eyes.

"Apologies, My Queen, but you have a call from Carlisle Cullen." Loki sighed. "Tell him I'm busy. When he calls, don't patch him through. I don't want to talk right now."

"Yes, My Queen." But she didn't leave.

"Um, My Queen—"

"I'm busy! What could be so important that you have to interrupt me?" The woman sputtered, then just walked away without closing the door.

"Can't even close a d—" She sat up and her eyes opened, then widened at the sight in front of her. There was a large vase full of lilies of the valley.

And by large, she meant that there must have been a dozen of them all in a black vase. She hopped off of the bed and kneeled, looking at the bouquet.

The Lily of the Valley is typically used as an apology flower. She learned that in a botany class in the 1800s in England.

She picked the vase up and stood, and that's when she noticed a note.

"Amore Mio,

Please accept my apology. I should not have pushed your boundaries.

—Caius"

"Oh, Caius," She muttered softly and placed the vase on the dresser. She was surprised the dresser didn't collapse from the sheer weight of the vase. She smelled the flowers and detected pollen.

He had picked flowers for her.

Again.

From across the castle, Caius was drawing. He didn't know what he was drawing, but when he finished, it just looked like her. Everything looked like her. He was almost upset.

Since he'd fallen in love, all of his drawings ended up being her.