Midnight Solstice

Chapter 3

The walk to the throne room consisted of Felix constantly grabbing Katerina's arm and dragging her along. She was very fascinated with all of the art work and architecture within the castle walls. But during the walk she never spoke a word.
"Alright, now once we turn this corner, we will be right at the entrance to the throne room." Felix told her. "One of the most important things to remember is do not speak unless spoken to, Caius gets very mad when that happens and trust me, what happens after is not pretty." Her eyes widened in fear.
"Nothing is going to happen to you Katerina. Just do as the masters say." I assured her. Felix gave me a confused look. I mouthed "what" to him. He winked at me. A low growl arose from me. He just chuckled.
"You know, I'm right in the middle of you two, don't ya think that I can see what you're doing?" Katerina asked.
"Sorry Kit Kat, Alec's not normally this friendly, especially when it comes to newborns."
"Kit Kat?" She raised an eyebrow at Felix.
"Katerina's a really long name to say in a hurry."
"You can call me Kat; that's even shorter."
"Yes, but then it sounds like you are an animal." I said before I could tell myself not to.
"That's why you spell it with a K."
"Touché, but even then it's still a pet name."
"Not unless you make it one."
"Then perhaps I should start calling you pet then?" I teased. We reached the throne room door.
"Alright you two quit flirting, we're here." Felix told us in a quiet voice as he pushed open the doors. Katerina and I filed in behind Felix. Aro, Caius and Marcus sat at their thrones. Aro saw us and he jumped up delightedly.
"I see you two were successful in your mission!" Aro exclaimed. His eyes wandered to Katerina as her eyes wandered to the stone floor. "You must be Katerina!" She looked up for a quick second and nodded, then looked back down, biting her lip. I could feel her fear radiating off of her.
"My dear, you have nothing to be afraid of...oh, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aro. I've been interested in your abilities for quite some time now. Would you do me the honor?" He held out his hand. She put her hand in his and he clasped it in a way that confused her. It took her a second to understand what he was doing. He held her hand for longer than usual before he finally let go. He smiled at her.
"What exactly are you, Katerina?" He asked. She sighed.
"It's kind of a long story...but I don't really know..."
"Why don't you explain to us what your abilities are and we can try to help you figure out your...predicament."
"Well, first off I can manipulate gravity, I can change the amount of gravity something has."
"How?" Caius asked in his usual loud and demanding manner. She flinched when he spoke.
"Well if someone were attacking me, I could add more gravity to them so that it crushes them. Or I could take gravity away and they would float, but I'm still working out how to do that when I want to."
"What do you mean when you want to?" Caius demanded.
"It's a hard gift to control. If my emotions change drastically it's even worse. So if I'm happy about something, and then something really makes me mad, I can't really control what happens."
"And what about your other gift?" Aro asked curiously. Wait a minute. She has two gifts...
"I wouldn't call it a gift. It complicated...I...uh..."
"You can control when you have human traits and when you have vampire traits, no?" Aro asked.
"Yeah that's it. If I need to blend into the human world, I can make myself look like a human. My eyes change color, I can eat human food, and I can sleep. I prefer to keep my vampire traits but after a couple of days I have to change into a human so I can sleep." Her face contorted in confusion, as if she thought he was going to say something else. I made a mental note of that.
I don't know what to think. This girl is incredible, yet extremely odd. But she's a flight risk, that's for sure. We saw what happened to Felix so who knows what could happen if she got mad enough.
"Aro, she could risk exposing us all!" Caius shouted.
"That is true..." Aro trailed off.
"We should get rid of her while we have the chance." Caius signaled two of the lower guard members to come forward. They shared a small look of fear as they ran towards her. They knew what could happen to them if she went off. The look of fear in Katerina's eyes said enough. She knew she was about to die.
I'm not one for getting in the way of orders but I couldn't stop myself. I ran in front of her and let my mist run free. The two stopped dead in their tracks as the mist crawled towards them and engulfed them in a black cocoon, taking every single sense away. I looked back at her. Her big red eyes stared back at me in curiosity. I was caught in her eyes so deeply that I almost didn't hear Caius yelling for me to stop. My glance went to him.
"I will train her." I said. "She can attend the normal training sessions for the other newborns as well as attend extra sessions with me. When the year is up you can evaluate her to see if she is in control of her gift."
"It could work Aro, this girl has great power, we can't let a good thing go to waste." Marcus spoke for the first time since we got here.
He held out his hand. Aro rushed over and took it, reading his thoughts. When he was done he looked from me to Katerina with a huge grin on his face. That could only mean one thing. Marcus sensed a bond. And that bond was between her and I. Aw shit...
"Alright Alec, you have a deal. But if there is any incidents with this one, it's on your head." Aro told me. I nodded as I let my mist retreat from the two lower guard members.
"Alec, why don't you show Katerina to her room? I'm sure she's tired after her trip here." Marcus told me.
"Follow me." I told her quietly as we walked out of the throne room. Once we were out I let out a sigh of relief.
"Why did you do that?" She asked.
"Do what?"
"Protect me like that?"
"Would you rather of had Caius rip your head off?"
"No but..."
"Alright then."
"Ok...thanks." It was quiet for a few minutes as we continued to walk down the hall to the elevators.
"How long have you been here for?" She asked.
"Longer than your lifetime so far."
"Which is..."
"Well, it's 2016 so it would be...1,215 years." Her jaw dropped.
"Well you look very good for someone who's over a millennium old." We got to the elevator. I pressed the up button.
"Thanks...I think." I said.
"You're welcome I think." I chuckled.
     The doors opened and we walked in the elevator. I pressed the button to the sixth floor as the doors shut and the elevator music began. It was some opera song that I've heard a thousand times before, it makes the ride even more awkward than it already is. She glanced over at me and then started laughing. Her laughter was contagious and I found myself laughing as well. The elevator doors opened and we walked out.
The newborns had their own lounge room that the elevator opened up to. All of the newborns were sitting on the velvet sofas and chairs. Their heads snapped in our direction, causing Katerina to fall behind for a moment. I continued walking towards them and Katerina followed. Fred and George ran at full speed towards us. They stopped as quick as they ran.
"And who's this beautiful ray of sunshine lightening up Alec's day?" Fred asked. I gave him the death glare. He raised his arms up. "What are you glaring at me for, mate? No one here has made you smile other than her since I got here."
"Is your hair naturally that color?" George asked Katerina. His British accent, like his brother came out thick.
"Uh yeah...do you think I would dye my hair this awful color?" She asked jokingly.
"I happen to like it." Fred told her with a wink. I had to stifle a growl. Fred noticed this of course and laughed. "I get it, she's yours got it." Katerina looked back at me with a confused look.
"Just ignore them Katerina, that's what I do." Caleb said as he approached us. His blonde hair caught the light in a way that made it look nearly as pale as his skin.
"How do you..."
"Know your name? I see the future. I knew we were all were coming here a month ago, of course that's the only vision I had when I was human, but I figure it still counts for something."
"And you couldn't have warned us that we were going to get drafted into the vampire super army?" Andi asked and her long brown locks swayed as she came up next to Katerina. She held her hand out and shook Katerina's.
"My name is Andi..."
"Andrea." George coughed. She growled at him.
"Call me that and I'll rip your head right off your shoulders." Katerina looked a little shocked. "I'm kidding."
    "Not really..." The twins muttered.
"Alec!" Demetri yelled as he appeared in front of us. "You are needed in Marcus' study." I sighed. I knew what this was about. He turned his attention to Katerina and he as well shook her hand.
"My name's Demetri, we've all heard a lot about you Katerina. It appears you've already got a fan club." He teased. She laughed quietly.
"I guess so." She spoke.
"I have to go so, Caleb and Andi, introduce her to everyone else and then show her to her room. Caleb, I trust you already know where that is?" He nodded in conformation. I looked down at Katerina, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shake his head to Fred and George. I felt too stressed to try and resolve that.
"I will be back to check on you once I'm done. In the meantime make yourself at home." I told her. I turned on my heel and started to walk to Marcus' study.
As I left I heard Andi tell Katerina "Looks like somebody has a crush on you." I had to bit my lip to keep myself from going back there and throwing heads. Again, I feel too stressed to try to resolve any infantile thing like that today.
I don't have a crush on her! I just met her. How could I like someone I barely know?! Maybe Marcus will know. But I can nearly guarantee that he won't tell me anything helpful. That would be too easy.