S U N S H I N E - Demetri Volturi

Chapter 13

1991 / Volterra

Demetri sighs annoyed as he finally crosses Volterra's borders. He is finally back after having to track down a certain vampire with the gift of hiding; to say he was exhausted, annoyed and totally furious would be an understatement. The vampire, Nelson, made Demetri run half around the earth, popping up and disappearing in a matter of seconds; only giving Demetri a slight idea of where he is. But after three weeks and 14 countries, Demetri finally managed to rumble his strategy and suggested in catching him another three days later.

The Volturi guard slows his pace as he strolls through the dark alleys; not paying attention to anything happening around him until his ears pick up the sound of crying. And while it usually wouldn't bother him, something about this sounds puts him on edge and makes his inner beast scream at him to follow the sound. It's confusing him; it's nothing he's ever felt before; but it feels good, he believes.

Following the sound, he frowns as he sees the silhouette of a little girl crouched in the corner of a dark path. She looks young, maybe five years old. Her ginger hair is filled with dirt and a bit recoiled small stones from the wall behind her and tears purr down her freckled cheeks. The sight breaks his dead heart and he silently wonders when he started to care; he doesn't even know her.

Walking towards her, he nearly flinches back as she crawls back and hides herself further in the corner; she isn't supposed to be afraid of him. Not she.

Stopping his movements, he hold his hands up showing her he doesn't mean any harm before taking small steps in her direction. The little girl looks over her knees and watches his steps carefully; still crying silently while doing so. As Demetri finally reaches her, he crouches down before her and gives her his best smile; he isn't used to smiling. Especially, not like this, encouraging.

"Hey."
he means the only words he can think of. How is he supposed to react in a situation like this?

Demetri never thought he would meet her like this; in a dark alley while she's crying to herself. But he also didn't expect her to be so... young; so innocent.

"I'm Demetri."
he continues introducing himself and smiles to himself as she stops trembling and leaning away as far as possible.

"Kyra."
she mumbles under her breath and, if it wasn't for his vampire-hearing, he wouldn't have heard her.

"That's a beautiful name."
Demetri compliments honestly. He has heard the name before; but he could count the times he actually knew someone with this name on one hand.

The little girl shrugs in response and the vampire sighs to himself as he sits down completely; crossing his legs in the process.

"How old are you?"
he asks her.

Holding her hand up, she looks at it for a moment before putting a finger down.

"Four."
she answers with a frown as she lets her legs relax a tad; showing him her dirty outfit. It's cute; but it doesn't really work together. She's wearing a purple shirt with blue prints on hit paired with a green Shorts and bright orange shoes.

"That's young."
Demetri states.

"How old are you?"
Kyra questions and the vampire smiles as he notices the slight American accent that shines through. Maybe that's why she had to think about her age; because she had to translate it first.

"I'm older than you could imagine."
he means in response.

"Forty?"
she asks adorably.