Corinna II (twilight saga)

15 ᴥ Butterflies

When you find that person, don't let them get away.

--

The air outside was thick, warm. Like putting on your favorite jacket. It wasn't hot and it wasn't humid. It was just sitting, stagnent.

Kind of like me right now.

I felt stuck in place, not sure which road to take and which one would get me out of this hole I was in right now. Don't get me wrong, I truly felt like I had found my people. I had a place with my new family and it was so, so, so wonderful. I had found my place, but what was I going to do with it? Who was I going to be?

The path I was currently on was one I had told myself I wouldn't take. Well, technically I said I would love to visit Italy again, just not in the vampire capital part of the country. Yet here I was.

The plaza was much more peaceful than the last time I was here....a couple weeks ago. It was quiet, the air was still. There wasn't a single human - thanks to the decades of fear driven into them about the creatures that lurked at night. But there weren't any of those scary night creatures either. Just me, alone.

At least that's what it was for a while until I heard footsteps approaching from behind me. I listened to them, immediately knowing it was another vampire by the way they deliberately tried to make their steps heard. It was thoughtful, really. It meant they weren't here as a threat.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

I smiled, looking down at the ground as they came to sit next to me on the fountain.

"It's lovely," I agreed.

Velio wasn't dressed in the Volturi's typical long, dark cloaks. He had on a dark blue button up, the top left undone and the sleeves pushed up casually. Instead of the unknown shape hidden beneath his cloak, I could make out the defined shapes beneath shirt and up his arms. I hadn't worked up the courage to look at his face yet.

"Have you come all this way to see the city?" He asked, a touch of humor in his voice.

"Oh, no. I was told I had to come and visit so," I gestured around/

I saw him smile out the corner of my eye while he laughed.

"You were given free will, Miss Beneventi."

I loved the way my name rolled off his tongue, effortlessly, traces of an accent as he pronounced each letter.

"You could have made me," I pointed out.

"I've never met someone who could shut me out and still willingly gave me the option to compel them." He sounded like he was genuinely puzzled by my actions.

"Does it take the fun out of it?" I asked.

"Quite the opposite, actually. I find it very...." He trailed off trying to find the word. "Inviting."

"I have no reason to let you into my head when I have a gift designed to keep you out." I wasn't sure if I was talking to him or talking out loud.

"And I have no reason to trust you to do what I ask when I have a perfectly good gift to make you." He was doing the same thing I was.

"I don't even know you," I laughed quietly.

"I want to know you." He said. For the first time, his words weren't careful, thought-out, and confident. They were rushed out and unsure and honest.

"I have a terrible feeling you're using me for information," I blurted out.

It was quiet for a long time after that, and I feared that my anxious feeling was true. I sat, staring at my hands and listening to the water right behind my back. I took a breath before turning to look at him since he sat down, taking time to look over his soft and angular features like I had done the first time I saw them. His curly hair was messy, falling in front of his face as he stared at his hands, too.

"My mother called me Vee." He said after a while. "I saw the way you reacted when Aro called you Corrie. I know that feeling."

I stared at him, wondering why he was telling me this.

"You killed your brother from the thirst...you couldn't control that. I killed my mother out of anger. Anger because of what I had become." His voice shook slightly. "I made that decision, and I regret it every single day."

I reached out a hand to touch his shoulder gently out of comfort, but I dropped it afraid that I was overstepping bounds. As I dropped it, however, his hand shot out - lightning fast - and grabbed it, pressing my hand to his cheek. He sunk into the touch and I wondered how long it had been since he had spoken to someone like this.

"Vee," I whispered the nickname. "It's a lot more modern."

I felt him smile as his thumb rubbed the back of my hand.

"You know, you're right about that feeling. It just shuts me down to hear people say it. James said it all the time and...it was okay. It was a nice reminder, I guess. But then he died, too, and it fell apart again."

I hesitated before getting to why I was telling him this.

"But you said it just now and the only thing I felt was-"

"Butterflies?" He cut me off. "That's what it felt like when you said Vee just now."

I smiled. For the first time in so long it felt like I was talking to an actual teenager my age. Not just talking...Alice and Rose and the others, that was normal, too. But talking about something as silly as nicknames and butterflies, this was new to me. I tried to think of a time it was like that with Edward, but I couldn't.

I guessed Velio took my silence the wrong way because he let go of my hand and perked his head up, looking straight at me since he sat down.

"Maybe that's a little cliche?" He smiled.

My breath caught as he looked into my eyes, his darkened red ones locking into my own golden ones. I watched his smile fade as we stared at eachother, neither of us saying a word. I watched his eyes wander all over my face, flicking down to my mouth and back to my eyes.

"I don't...I don't think it's cliche at all." I answered, my voice barely above a whisper.

I watched his close his eyes, making himself look away as he let out a breath he had been holding.

"You. Are. Incredible." He laughed, running his hands over his face. "Corinna, Corinna, Corinna."

I found myself smiling wide at his flustered state.

"Marcus thought our connection was intriguing," I said, wondering if he noticed that exchange.

"Intriguing, unexpected, wonderful. And entirely new to me," he was still covering his face.

"Well, I wonder what will come out of it," I smiled as I stood up.

His head perked up immediately and he stood up with me. I smiled at him playfully as I turned, meaning to speed off and leave him thinking about what had happened, but I barely turned around before he was in front of me again.

"Tell me you'll visit again?" He asked, no trace of compulsion in his words.

"Come find me next time," I answered.

As I ran off, I stopped just at the gates and turned back around to find him still standing at the fountain, staring after me. He had a big grin plastered on his face. 

"Believe me, I will." He called out, knowing I could hear him from here.

As I flashed him one last smile, I ran off on my new path, leaving him staring up at the sky, watching the last traces of a New Moon.