the trickster // caius volturi

✵TWENTY-TWO✵

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

~~2005~~

Imani scowled as she stormed down teh hallways. But then she bumped into a familiar walking corpse. Alec frowned and looked at his mate.

"What's wrong?" She grumbled, then sighed. "Loki didn't show up for lessons today!" Alec sighed. "Imani, I'm sure--" She held her hand up and shushed him.

"Zip it! She can't just...abandon me!" Alec had to stop himself from smiling. The newborn was so used to her attention that she didn't know what to do without it.

He would never say it out loud, but she was being a bit dramatic.

"Imani, hey, Imani." He caught her frustrated eyes. "She's probably in her room. Let's go look, yes?" She grumbled but nodded. They walked to her room, and Imani was about to knock, when Alec smelled something, and held her back.

She took her arm out of his grasp, but he put an arm across her chest.

"Alec!" She whined and struggled. "Shh, Imani. She's not alone," He whispered. 

"What are you--" And it hit her, as she lowered her voice. "Oh."

He nodded. "Let's go, tesoro." They walked away, with Imani in disbelief.

Inside the room, however, was something different. Loki was sitting up on the bed with Caius' head in her lap. She was playing with his hair, braiding it a thousand different ways all night as they talked.

"I missed Imani's lesson," She commented quietly. He shifted, which was the first movement he had made in hours. He stayed perfectly still, not wanting to break the bubble.

"I'm sure she'll forgive you. She's very kind. A promising young vampire. Surprising she was turned by you." Loki raised a brow, not that he could see it, and pulled a strand of his hair.

He sucked in a breath. "Not my hair, amore mio." She let go. "So you don't want me to braid it? Understood. I'll just stay far away from your ha--" He looked up at her from where he was in her criss-crossed lap.

"Never stop, amore mio, please." She smiled from above him, and the sight was perfection.

there was a knock on the door.

"Go away." "Come in." 

Caius glared at nothing in particular.

"Caius, it could be important. You didn't go to trial all night," Loki said, chuckling. He shook his head. "I don't care, I'm not leaving."

"Come in," Loki said louder. The door creaked open, and Felix entered.

"Apologies, My Queen, but Master Caius is needed in trial." Caius didn't even look at Felix, he just stared upwards at the goddess, who smiled softly at the guard.

"He'll be right out. Oh, Felix? I'll be going out today, would you like to come? It's raining." He nodded. "Of course, My Queen. I shall begin preparations." And he sped out of the room, swiftly closing the door behind him.

"Be careful in the city, per favore, amore mio." She sighed and put her hands on the sides of his head. He just stared into her eyes, then shifted his head and kissed her palm.

"I'll be fine. In the meantime, you need to get up and get going. All three kings are necessary to enforce the rules." She lifted his head, then scooted off the bed. She looked in the mirror and sighed.

She waved her hands over her eyes, and they turned back to icy blue. She went into the closet and changed into a red ribbed turtleneck dress that had sleeves reaching her wrists and a skirt that almost reached her knees.