I bowed at my new three masters. Ugh, even the thought of that made me want to gag. Masters! Heck, wasn't the whole point of being a vampire the absolute freedom? Well it was the best deal I was going to get. I didn't want to go back living in caves and stealing clothes. Plus I would get to learn many new things regarding my kind. I tried to avoid any eye contact with Alec. I didn't want to give him any hopes. It was already bad enough that he would almost make me feel naked around him, with the way he stared. Aro descended from his throne with a bright smile on his lips.
"You may get up my dear." Aro said and I did what he told me. "Is what Alec told me true, you will accept our invitation to join our coven?" he asked me. He looked happy, that is, as happy as a vampire his age could be.
"Yes, I would like to stay if you are kind enough to extend your hospitality." I said in a small voice. Aro wasn't that bad but I was scared as shit of Caius.
"Well, then we truly have something to rejoice about. You gift showed to be extremely powerful. Everything you predicted was true. Now our guard is complete." he said. I nodded as gracefully and politely as I could. "And we still have so much to learn about your gift. Tell me, we now that your gift applies to the future and to the past but does it apply to the present?" he asked me.
"I really have no idea. I can't even control it properly. The fact that I faint doesn't help during a fight. It's like it masters me not the other way round." I said.
"Well, then we should start working on taming your gift from today. I'm sure Alec wouldn't mind teaching you how to fight. He can show you how we live around here. You will do that, won't you Alec?" Aro ordered him. Well, wasn't that just super. The situation practically forced me to be around Alec all the time. Exactly the opposite of what I was planning.
"Of course, master." Alec said with a respectful nod. Then he looked at me but I looked down at my feet.
"Alec, give Samantha everything she needs to settle. I reckon you don't have any possessions of your own."
"That's right." I said trying to hide the icy edge of my voice. I hated feeling like a beggar in front of the prince. I had never liked my vulnerabilities to be made public and stuff was certainly a constant issue in my life.
"Well then, Maryann, get the tailor." Aro ordered and a red headed vampire nodded from the shadows and left.
We walked down a narrow corridor and Alec opened a secret door. As I walked inside I gasped. The room looked like a museum filled with ancient things that must have cost more than ten cruise liners put together. As I absorbed all the details I felt a hand on my neck. I turned around swiftly to find out that it was Alec. The boy needed to know his limits. I tried to twist his arm but of course he's not a fool. He dogged me without the slightest of difficulty. He was behind me again and I heard him laughing softly behind me.
"I just wanted to give you this. He said as he put on a necklace around my neck. I looked at the pendant which looked like a big V for Volturi. It had rubies encrusted on its surface and some sort of coat of arms. Alec tied the necklace around my neck. He started caressing my hair but it wasn't just a pat or two. He continued going on and on and I could feel inhaling more of my scent. It was just getting past awkward so I decided to brake the silence.
"So, what do I smell like?" I asked softly.
He inhaled more of my scent. "It's difficult to explain. You smell a little bit like magnolia. It's sweet but at the same time you're bitter. I can tell that you've suffered." he said. He was right but now my suffering was something belonging to the past. It wasn't clear in my mind. I tried to forget my fucked up human life and I didn't want to recall any memories. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and put away all the images that I had suppressed from my brain since I was turned into a vampire. I opened my eyes slowly and I found Alec in front of me, only inches away from my face.
"And what do I smell like?" he asked.
"You smell like honey and lemon. A bittersweet scent." I said in a dreamy voice. "So, I am in desperate need of clothes. And by the way what is this?" I changed the subject to avoid any further embarrassment.
"Oh, that's a necklace given to all Volturi members. It shows your rank in the guard. Yours is just like mine. Don't worry about clothes, the tailor will come shortly. Mostly you'll be waring black."
"Black?" I said in dismay.
"I'm afraid, those are the rules." he said.
"Well, alright but doesn't it get boring. Black all the time and well how exactly am I going to spend some of my eternity here."
"We spend all of our time embracing the arts and languages. We are walking among history here. And I'm not just talking about the clock tower. The art that belongs to our masters is hundreds of years old. Here we learn the languages and cultures. Believe me it's never boring." he said intensely.
"Oh, I love history. I used to take advanced history back when I used to go to school. I love French too but I'm probably a little rusty by now. I haven't used it in over a year now." I informed him.
"So, how did you learn to speak in Italian?" he asked me.
"Television. I used to watch a lot of television when I was ten and I learned it. Now you tell me, how many languages can you speak?" I asked him excitedly.
"I'm not sure I've never really counted them. There are some languages that people in his world have forgotten." he said quite matter-of-factly.
"Can you teach me to speak in Latin?" I squealed at him.
"Of course. I feel that we're going to get along swimmingly." he said. We got out of the room and I was grinning broadly. I tried to convince myself that I was excited about learning Latin and not the fact that Alec was teaching me Latin. Sure, I could do that, couldn't I?