Bite Me | Volturi Kings

Chapter 15

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The ghosts of the past clawed fruitlessly at the hem of Shoomah's fine dress as she floated through the halls, trailing proudly behind her—the kings. Paintings and tapestries that had been created before her eyes sung of times past. Forcing her to keep a steely gaze in front of her, focused on the figures of her supposed soul mates. 

They were the ones who bore a black mark on their wrists to prove that each of their very beings was twinned with hers. They each had a note that was meant to be harmonious when sung together. 

She supposed it had been naïve of her to believe that such a relationship could just occur. That one just stood still as the tides of love swept you away down the lazy river, when instead it had felt like swimming against rapids with human strength. It had fatigued her and made her feel so incredibly weak. 

In those times, a crack down her face had ensued where a tear should have fallen, and her hands had shaken with the force of suppressed memories trying to squeeze out of the cell they'd been locked in. 

But now was not the time to dwell nor reminisce on a feeling she did not hope for. She was alone in a place where so many had met their doom—humans and vampires alike. It should've sent a crawling sensation up her back but despite all that had happened that trust forged so long ago still remained within her heart. 

She trusted the Volturi kings. She trusted her soul mates. 

That and she trusted in her ability to leave this castle completely unscathed should she so desire to escape. And in the worst possible situation, as one must prepare for every eventuality, the twins would have an awfully fun time reaping their revenge. 

Each hallway was familiar to her, and though she was merely following in the direction that her- the kings wished, she soon grew to recognise where they were heading. Towards their bedroom. 

Shoomah pondered whether or not her old living quarters had changed. In her own castle, Shoomah could not even bring herself to open the door to their rooms, let alone change them. Though she supposed, given the slightly more separated nature of their rooms in Ashaf, it allowed her to keep it as such. But given that their rooms in Volterra were separate rooms that all converged on one central - and as usual, grand - common room, it meant that keeping the door shut to hers was perhaps more difficult for them. 

Perhaps it served as a temptation to them as it had to her all these years. She'd forgone walking by the hallway entirely for a short period of a decade, when everything had become too much for her to handle. The soulmate bond was like a brochure in your pocket, easy to ignore, but the baggage of the emotional wreckage left behind from that relationship was like an entire encyclopaedia of useless information weighing down her pockets. She carried the A to Z of Caius, Marcus, and Aro wherever she went, though sometimes it felt like the A to M. 

Any titbit of information she received about them that contradicted her century-long-formed opinion of them whispered in her ear just how little she knew and how cowardly she'd been in putting an end to possibly gaining the full alphabet. Just as they would never get past her C. 

The common room was as she remembered, down to every last detail. An oval room with a central seating area made up of several camel-back, white and gold sofas as well as a pristine coffee table. A clock hung upon one wall, made to be reminiscent of the ornate clock in her own meeting room, as Marcus had fallen in love with the piece immediately when he first saw it. Many portraits were scattered about the room, from silhouette miniatures to the grand pieces that Caius painted in oil. Not even the art had changed; they were the exact same paintings.