Allure (Caius Volturi)

19

(This is such a long chapter I'm sorry it took so long. -T^T- Author's Note at the end. Sorry in advance.)

Greenhouse

Caius walked me out into the back garden. It was overcast today, but slightly warmer, especially just after noon.

"I want to know your honest thoughts on Lucinda." Caius finally said. I looked up at him in surprise. He's never honestly asked my opinion of, just whether she was bothering me or not.

"I-.. Well, I mean... She's kind of ah... She's nice-... ish." At Caius' dry chuckle, I winced.

"Do not lie to me, Hero. I hate when things are kept from me. Your thoughts on an important human secretary mean more than you think." He spoke as he took me into the maze. I sighed and shook my head.

"I stabbed her hand with a steak knife like thirty minutes ago.." I said blatantly. Caius almost stuttered in his steps. He looked at me as we walked.

"You stabbed her-"

"In the hand."

"-with a steak knife."

"She walked in while I was eating my lunch and kept talking on about how she was just looking out for me and how Jane could just be playing with you for her own amusement. You shouldn't trust them... The guard would never waste their time on a worthless human." I couldn't help but to spill what she'd said to me, not just in this most recent interaction, but others. I felt something come up my throat. "She said you guy's were toying with me. In fact, in pretty much every interaction, she tells me that I'm worthless and a child. And I don't want to react violently, but you can't tell me that even Alice, the saint of the Cullen household wouldn't beat her to a pulp if she'd talked to her about how she was nothing."

Caius kept quiet, he must have sensed that I wasn't done yet.

"This shouldn't mean so much to me, but... It does." I looked up at him to find him staring at me with this look. "What?"

"You're crying, Hero." He said turning to me, my hand losing grip on his arm. He brought a hand up to swipe under my eye and I scrunched my eyes.

"I'm sorry.."

"Don't apologise, Amore mio... You've every right to be unsettled." His hand didn't drop when he'd wiped tears. It stayed, thumb tracing my jaw. I couldn't look away from where our eyes met. "The secretary will be done away with as soon as we find a replacement for her. I promise. We'll screen the next one better." He hummed, that gorgeous shade of maroon in his irises looking at me so closely. Scrutinizing me, not unpleasantly. It almost felt adoring, the way he cupped the side of my neck.

This was definitely a new development...

I cleared my throat and leaned back a bit, my heart thumping loudly. No doubt he could hear it. Stupid vampire hearing... I turned to look at where we'd ended up.

It was a greenhouse. It was big. It almost looked, at least from the outside, like it had several layers. I could see the bright colors of the flowers from the outside, even though the glass was cloudy with condensation.

"I didn't know there was a greenhouse back here..." I said trailing off as Caius' hand tugged at mine, pulling me trough the doors.

"It's off limits to those that don't take care of it." Caius' mumbled, made me think of Felix and Demetri roughhousing on their way in. As soon as I spotted the flowers I imagined them being trampled.