╰─▸ ❝you'll have to forgive me, it's been quite some time since i've walked among the living❞
adeline, a vampire burdened by guilt, instinct and her immortality finds unexpected hope in a relationship with her natural enemy, a shapeshifter. together...
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|The next day had dawned quietly in Volterra, sunlight casting shadows across the stone walls. Though neither of them had slept ⎯ vampires never did ⎯ the hours had passed in a serene haze. Demetri had slipped away for a few hours to tend to his duties, but now he was back, stretched out on the bed beside Adeline.
The room was still, a sharp contrast to the intensity of the night before. They lay facing each other, bodies close as his fingers lazily traced patterns along her arm.
His touch was light, almost absentmindedly, as if he needed to feel her skin under his fingertips just to be sure she was really there. Every now and then, his hand wandered to her hair, twirling a lock between his fingers with a practiced ease.
"So, what have you been up to in the last hundred years?" Demetri asked with a smirk.
She rolled her eyes, though a smile tugged at her lips. "Oh, you know, the usual. Traveling, avoiding old friends who might want me dead, that sort of thing."
He chuckled, gleaming with amusement. "Sounds like a party. And here I thought I was living the exciting life, hunting down rogue vampires."
"Please." Adeline teased, leaning in just enough to brush her lips against his before pulling back slightly. "You love the drama. Keeps you entertained."
He grinned, feigning a wounded expression. "You wound me, Adeline." A sigh left his lips, his dark eyes roaming across her face. "You've changed." He said softly, his voice carrying the faintest hint of wonder. "There's something more to you now."
Her lips curved into a faint smile, her gaze meeting his. "Time does that, even to us." She replied, her voice as smooth as it had always been, though there was a softness to it now, a gentleness that had come with the centuries.
Demetri's hand moved to her hair, his fingers threading through her hair. "I suppose it does."he murmured thoughtfully. "And yet here we are, still as we were."
Her smile widened slightly, a touch of irony in her expression. "Perhaps, but not everything remains the same."
Another soft chuckle broke the quiet, the thumb brushing over a lock of her hair. "No, not everything. You, for instance ⎯ you're as infuriatingly enigmatic as ever."
Adeline's laugh seemed to brighten the room. "And you, Demetri, are still as arrogant."
"Confident," came the correction. "I think that's the word you're looking for."
The amused glint in her gaze was impossible to hide, despite the exaggerated eye roll. "Call it what you like, it hasn't changed." She hummed.
"Nor has your ability to see right through me," was the teasing counter as his lips pressed a kiss to her temple, a gesture both tender and possessive. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."
