Bound To You: Marcus Volturi

Chapter 64: Ice Skating

"Dad, I'm not sure about this." I mumble as he pulls me through into the open reception of the ice rink. "Hush now, child. Father will teach you to skate." He rushes to the box and pays for skates, shoving them on his feet before sitting me down on the floor.

"Dad, this is isn't a good idea-"
"Hush, Lee, be still." He pushes the skates onto my feet and pulls me up gently. I wobble unsteadily, grabbing onto the side rails for support. It reminds me of being drunk the night of Liam's party.

Caius smirks at my clumsiness and deftly walks to the entrance of the rink without any trouble at all. I slowly work my way up across the wall, gripping the rail, carefully tiptoeing my way over to Caius who stands there with absolutely no intention of helping.

"Thanks for the helping hand, Dad." I snark. He flips me off before wrapping his arm around me and leading me onto the ice rink.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." I mutter under my breath. I turn to him. "Today was supposed to be a day of shopping for university." I groan.

"Well, change of plan, it's time for ice skating." He decides. "Dad, I really don't think we should ARGGHH!" I'm cut off as we slide out onto the ice. Caius steps out in a long slide across, pirouetting and twirling expertly along, arms outstretched.

My cries are stopped as I watch Caius's skills on the rink, the beauty of his positioning. I kneel there open mouthed, legs growing cold from the ice, but I'm too mezmerised to stand.
Caius stops skating for a second to glance back at me curiously.

His head tilts to the side. "Why are you staring at me? He asks. "I know I'm beautiful but try to control your raging hormones." He advises. The sarcastic comment makes my frustration flare up and I suddenly have the urge to stand, whether I can on the ice or not.

"Grow up." I mutter, hauling myself up by the rail before skidding, so my legs slide open and I stand there looking like a ready to work prostitute.

So basically, the effect of my snarky comment has faded away because of my fail in skating. Caius smirks, the dickhead.
"Skillful, handsome, talented, smug...ugh...I hate you." I mumble as his arms envelope me, pulling me to stand straight. "Come here you useless thing." He murmurs affectionately.

"I wish your mother was here to see this. We could have laughed at you." He says dreamily. "Whatevs, bruv." I shove him off but wobble, dangerously close to falling again. "I've got you." He mumbles.

"Thanks Dad." I hook my arms around his waist, clinging to him like a magnet. "Now, let's teach you some basic positions."

For the next hour, I slide, I swear, fall, scrape my knees, slam onto ice, bruise my eye and land on top of Caius to his disapproval. "Must you throw yourself onto me?" He rubs himself down, removing 'Lee Germs' from his pristine clothes.

"Shall we continue with our shopping?" His arm hooks through mine and he leads me carefully and slowly through to the exit. Once through to the benches, I haul the skates off my feet and gladly shove on my familiar trainers, putting the used and smelly skates back onto the shelf.

"Let's get back." Caius says and he pulls me along the walkway, dodging people who stand in his way.

On our way out, we pass a pretty middle aged woman with a bunch of children all different shapes and sizes. "Now kids, hush now! We're all going to have a lovely day out!"

I freeze. Blood turning cold. I grip Caius's arm as tight as my hands can manage and he stares at me. "Lee? What's wro-"
I cut him off by holding up my hand and he frowns, because now the middle aged woman has turned around and is staring at us.

"Lee?" I freeze again. I know that voice. That familiar, caring voice. She stares at me and I stare at her. Caius stands between us, wondering what could be taking place.
The woman steps forward, face crumpling. "Lee?" She checks again and Caius stares at her.

"Leave my daughter alone." He grabs my arm and pulls me away quickly but the woman follows, along with the ten children.
"There were twelve children once." I tell Caius. "Now there are only ten, because, I left and Liam left." I summarise and his face blanks out with shock.

"Those are the children from the foster home you lived in?" He realises. His eyes widen. "They've seen us! We've got to get out!" He pulls me up quickly, and the woman- Jeanie- rushes over desperately. "Lee? Where have you been? Please stop!"

Caius uses high speed and races us out of the shopping centre. I'm beside the car before I can blink. I look around, amazed by his gifts, but Caius shoves me in the car impaitently. "Quickly!" He panics.

He's backing out of the parking space frantically, before driving out of the multi storey carpark as fast as the car will take him. "Dad? It's ok, it'll be alright. I don't think they can run as fast as you can. We'll be home before you know it." I try to reassure him but his eyes are fixed on the road.

Driving past cars and getting in the way of them as they honk their horns angrily. Caius shouts a stream of abusive Italian words in response and turns into the garage of the castle in less than five minutes. Safe.

He pulls me out by my arms. "Come on, hurry!" I try pulling out of his grip but he seems made of stone. It's almost impossible to escape him. "It's fine, they're not going to know!" I yell above his mutters of frustration.

We pass Felix, who stares at us in an expression of curiosity. "Find Demetri, get him to come to the throne room immediately." Caius barks at him. Felix rushes off straight away.

Caius throws open the throne room doors and a number of people stare blatantly at the sight of Caius dragging me along, with me giving up on pushing him off.  I scrape along the floor, picking up dust and dirt, Aro gaping at us while Caius pulls me over to Sulpicia who looks horrified.

"Caius, what's happening? Why are you dragging Lee? What has she done?" She narrows her eyes at me. "I've done nothing wrong!" I protest, but start coughing, choking on dust particles from the floor. Sulpicia sighs. "Don't exaggerate."

Caius sits down opposite her and she waits paitently for him to speak. "They found us. Jeanie, the careworker, the children. They saw us at the shopping centre."
Sulpicia's mouth opens and closes again. "What? How?"

Before Caius can answer, Felix comes barging through the door. "Master, master! The woman, the children, they're here! They've found us."

Caius's eyes narrow. "Impossible." He grunts, followed by the sound of Jeanie's voice demanding for us to open the door. "Hide her." He shoves me to Sulpicia who takes me by the arm. "Dad, don't leave me!" I scream.

"I'll come back for you, Lee. You'll be safe!" Then I'm shoved through a hole and everything goes black as I plummet into the darkness below.