Bite Me | Volturi Kings

Chapter 10

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"I wasn't expecting you so soon, Queen Shoomah; your letter said you wouldn't be back for some hours yet." For the first time since he was very young, Caius had a soft smile on his face at the prospect of the woman in front of him. He could've been staring eternity in the eyes right then, in her beautiful ruby-red eyes, so familiar and yet so different from any others he had seen before.

"Shoomah, please, and is that such a bad thing?" Her head tipped to the side slightly, a mirroring smile gracing her features. Shoomah doubted she'd ever seen a man so entrancing as the one before her, and it was Caius Volturi, the infamously hot-headed and ruthless king of vampires. A vampire here for diplomatic purposes, not pleasure. Though she hoped he could be persuaded otherwise. 

He grinned wider, if that were even possible. Eyes sparkling in delight, his heart felt giddy; had it still been alive, it would've surely escaped from his chest by that point. In fact, his reply was rather breathless: "Not at all." 

"May I come in?" 

Caius felt a warmth on his face at the realisation of his rudeness, keeping a queen waiting, and all because of a pretty face. He stepped back to allow her through, his breath hitching as their hands brushed against each other's when she passed by him. God, it was like he was a teenager again. A silly crush and the inability to do anything about it for fear of messing up. 

Almost naturally, they sat beside one another on the sofa. At a proper distance, that would've been expected of him back in Italy, though he wasn't sure why he did so as nothing about this was proper. Not another person in sight, not another official. He had had no idea when he'd been made to travel to Ashaf that their culture was so entirely polar. 

For one, the queen's outfit herself was unlike anything he had seen any royalty wear. Whereas he and his brothers did their utmost to cover every inch of their skin in blacks and reds to match the morose theme of their castle, she looked resplendent in white. The dress she wore would've caused a scandal back in his home country, but she seemed carefree and at ease, even with how revealing and form-fitting the gown was. Though he supposed some of that might've been due to the rather large had that she'd just hung up on the hat stand, it would've done the job of blocking sunlight from hitting one's skin. 

This was primarily what he was here to find out. Aro had sent him on a mission to see how the vampires of Ashaf conducted themselves and if they followed the laws. Caius highly doubted, however, the Aro would be too mad if he got a little side-tracked on this very important diplomatic visit. 

"I do hope your trip was pleasant." Formalities—in that moment, Shoomah detested them far more than ever. It was a gruelling ritual that she had to complete, a barrier to truly getting to know him, her soulmate. To seeing if he indeed was her eternity. 

"Quite so, although nothing could've prepared me for the current taste in clothing your country has." He gave her a wry grin, showing that he was not truly offended by the sight. 

"Ah, yes, I feared as much. Some genius a decade ago thought to dress for the weather and not the fad; then, ironically, it too became a fad. This is the most formal and, at the same time, fashionable gown that I own currently. I thought it best not to give you a heart attack upon our first meeting with the normal apparel." 

His eyes flickered down to appraise her form once again, keeping a wicked grin on his face as he once again resumed staring into her eyes. "You might still do that yet." 

If she could've, Shoomah strongly believed that her face would've been on fire at his comment. The idea that he was looking at her in that same way made her so joyous, and so... everything it was frankly ridiculous for a queen. 

To avoid the butterflies in her stomach, Shoomah was quick to change topics. "We still have a while before there is anything we must do; therefore, I am completely at your mercy for what we should do next." 

"I am quite content with just your company for now." 

They shared a small smile and continued on, idly chatting until the next morning's engagement stole them away from their small bubble of heaven. 

Shoomah had never found conversation to flow so easily, to feel complacent with someone who was a stranger, not moments before. She made sure to extract every small detail about the vampire before her, and he was all too willing to boast about himself and the Volturi. But more than the valour of battle and the power of ruling, he had other characteristics that she quickly found to be endearing. Caius was a painter, and over his thousands of years of existence, he had refined his craft to nearly perfection. It brought him peace as the paint forced him to take his time and go at a human pace in a world where everything could be done in the blink of an eye. He admitted to being rather out of touch with his emotions and expressing them to others. At her concerned look, he assured her that the canvas provided outlet enough for his feelings, and the paint told stories where his words could not. 

While he wouldn't admit it, Shoomah could see that wicked part of his personality that he tried to hide from her with flowery words. The sadistic part that she'd let him tell her about in his own time. Surely he hadn't thought that she'd be ignorant of the tales of his cannon-like nature. Though she held little substance in rumours, the glint in his eyes whenever they brushed on a violent topic confirmed it. Though it was quite adorable the way he perked up around gore, like a child on their birthday. 

For Caius's part, he had never been happier than in those hours with Shoomah. She genuinely listened to him and cared about what he had to say, not out of fear but out of interest. Unfortunately, she was quite reserved in what she said about herself, but he found that he treasured every small morsel of information that she gave out. Like a parched man at a dripping tap, he craved every drop. Her favourite weapon was a spear for it's versatility, and oh, if he wasn't ecstatic that she too shared in his inclination for inflicting pain. Perhaps not as much as him, which is why he feared scaring her off. She seemed to be a spark to his flame, and he didn't want to engulf her just yet. 

The lack of information provided did not mean he didn't learn a lot. On the contrary, because of it, he paid attention to all the little details. The habits that were unnecessary for a vampire that she still retained from her human years. Like how she pressed her tongue against her sharp, upper canine when trying to think for a moment. How she covered her mouth when she found something mildly amusing but completely forgot to do so when laughter overcame her to the point of a boisterous laugh that he found he would never get tired of hearing. That little smirk she gained on her features when she had stopped paying attention to what he was saying in favour of simply staring at his features. Caius never let her know that he knew she got distracted by him, but every time it happened, his heart swelled, and he forgave her momentary distraction as it gave him much to preen about. Glad that he too affected her in the same way that her beauty completely enthralled him. 

Their conversations ranged from the hobbies that they had participated in over the years to the current political climate around them to the latest fashion (of which Caius knew much more than he let on) to the funniest things that the seemingly stiff Volturi guards had done as of late. Shoomah found she did not mind the topic of conversation so long as she was talking with him; she even endured his talk of the swiftly popularising baroque music, which she found quite tedious, merely for the jovial smile he had upon his features when the topic came up. She was more than happy to let him ramble away, and even happier to agree to dance to a piece of the music some time soon with him. Though he did earn a few concealed chuckles from her at the thought of him dancing, it was not something she thought of him doing often, if at all. 

As they parted ways for him to get an official tour of the country and for her to tend to a meeting with the caterer for the week-long ball coming up in a few days, starting on the 12th of Tetrune, she found herself no longer mourning the thought of soulmates for the first time since the pull came to be. She found she did not abhor the choice that the soulmate bond had made for her; actually, she was elated over it. Elated over Caius and their future. However, the lessened pull still existed in her heart, straining her to cross the waters, letting her know this was not the end of it. 

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