Lorelei entered the audience room. She was surprised she was being called here. The few days since she’s arrived they’ve mostly left her alone in her new room. The occasional visitor coming in as food or a news deliverer. In fact, Lorelei’s spent the majority of the time reading. There was so much to learn about the world outside of the woods she grew up in.
Her attention turning to Aro. She had never seen him alone. Well, as alone as he could be with the silent statues standing against the wall. As always, he was smiling. Desires and wants mixing around him like a neon pop up sign. “I hear you have discovered where your gift starts.” Lorelei remained silent. Aro moving closer to her as he continued speaking. “But you have yet to figure out where you will start. What sort of wants and desires you have.” She shook her head no. “I’ve never been very clear about those things.” His hand’s wrapped around hers. The same prickling sensation running its course through her body. “There seems to be one odd thing you want.” Aro withdrew his hands. He was looking for an answer. “You mean Alec?” Aro took a step back from her. A different smile now on his face. Now, she could feel the analysis. As if she was a glass slide beneath a microscope. “Indeed. A consequence of being turned so young has left him without a mate to share his life with.” Confusion flickered in her eyes. A mate? Surely, that was an old-fashioned term. Wonder about how old exactly Aro was beginning to grow in her. “Are you propositioning your son?” Laughter escaping his lips. “No, child. Come play a game of chess with me. It can be dull around her.”
Lorelei found a seat across in a corner of the room. Aro sitting across from her. Intrigue, wonder, curiosity all blanketing that same core feeling of desire. He was an interesting one. True, and yet the same time completely and utterly false. In a way that just didn’t exist anymore. “I’m afraid I’m not very good at chess. It’s not the sort of game we have growing up.” He smiled as he looked down at the pieces. They were a beautiful set of onyx and marble carved pieces. A soft smile appearing on her. For some reason, she had expected delicate carved wood. “Don’t worry, child. I shall teach you.”
The first half of the game resulting in silence. The sounds in the room only coming from the placement of stone on painted wood. It was a new soft echo Lorelei had never heard. A sort of rhythmic tempo that could calm down the heart. Aro’s voice suddenly filling the room. “You seem to be distracted. Are your thoughts on Alec impeding our game?” Lorelei moved another pawn forward. “I’ve always had a hyper mind. I guess things do not change that much.” Aro saying nothing as his bishop moved forward. Lorelei feeling his urge for her to continue speaking. “But. I do not understand why you want me to talk to him. Alec is…He’s important to you. You feel protective over him. As if you are both father and son.” Aro’s bishop taking my pawn. “Your comparisons seem to be quite amusing. Perhaps, the result of your time. Would it be so wrong then for a father to want his son to be happy? To find a partner.”
Lorelei felt like if her face should have scrunched up like it normally would have. The game in front of her was in shambles. A part of her, the part that had gained more focus, already knew she was doomed. Her pieces had no strength or advantages on the board. So, she tried to speak honestly. It was not like Lorelei had anything to lose at this point. “I thought you were the type to prefer gain over sentimentality.” One of her knights finally moving forward. Aro’s queen sliding out for the first time in the game. “Your impression of me seems off for someone who recently said she would bind her life to ours.” Lorelei moved her other knight forward. She had no idea what to do at this point besides move pieces. “I don’t think gain is a bad thing. It brings progress and evolution. Change itself may just be another form of gain.” Aro chuckling. “You may have some understanding of your own wants.” She looked down at the board in dismay. “Maybe some. I just don’t understand Alec. I would have never wanted him. Why would I be given him? I am curiosity.”
Aro’s hands moved over hers again. “You expect to die by our hands. Sooner rather than later.” When he let go, Lorelei moved her last remaining rook forward to take his bishop. A trap none the less, but unavoidable. “It seems natural.” He leaned back from the board for the first time they started the game. His hands weaving through each other as an undecided feeling washed out from him. “Curiosity exists solely in what your gift could become. It is unusual. So subtle in its nuances that it may become something else entirely.” His queen advancing forward one again across the board. Lorelei sighing. An act she found funny in the back of her mind. She didn’t know weariness was possible. “I don’t understand why you’d want me. Everywhere I look there is remarkable atrocities.” Once again, another pawn moving forward to be slaughtered. Aro taking it away from the board without a second thought. “Is it understandable to your young mind for a man to want something potentially special.” Lorelei’s hand froze on the piece she was about to move. Her focus on the board. Eyes away from everything, but the piece. A low voice escaping her lips. “Am I special…” Annoyance hitting her like a slap in the face. “Your self-loathing is beginning to get tiresome.” Lorelei bows her head deeper. “My apologies, master.” A sigh breaking out from the irritation. “Improve on keeping it in check for the future.” She looked up from the board and nodded. “I will try my hardest.” Aro moving the last piece of the game. A simple knight finishing it. “Check mate.” Lorelei nodding her head. “I really am not very good at this game.” He nodded his head. “No, you are not.”
Aro stood up from the chair. “You will have time to learn.” Lorelei nodded her head. “I suppose time is on my side.” Aro’s smile returning. “In more ways than one, child.” His attention turning to the door opening from across the room. “It isn’t entirely implausible that you two may end up compatible with that time spent together.” Lorelei turning her head to see who entered. The sight of Alec almost consuming her. He was young like her. Except, unlike her, he had the most angelic of features. As if he was innocence himself and at the same time the harbinger of the destruction of innocence. “You called for me, master.” Aro smiled at the boy. “Alec, would you take this child out with you. Let her learn something about herself. About us.” He nodded head. Lorelei standing up and walking over to him. A slight wave from Aro sending them off as the two walked out of the room. Alec’s sighing lingering in the chamber.
Aro turned back to the chess pieces. Her entire game had been a dismal display of understanding the events unfolding before her. Except those few moves, when he saw her see a trap arriving, but notice she had no way to avoid it. Instead, her approach was to simply walk into it. Even knowing the results. An unusual outlook for a child of this era. “I do wonder what you will become…”
…
Dimitri picked up the pace in front of them. His head suddenly turning to the right. “They’ve stopped moving.” Lorelei turning her attention to the building. It was a dressed-up bar house. It had all the right fancy columns and crowded beggars trying to get in. I suppose it fit the stereotype she had in her head. Monaco a land of gambling, drinking, thieves and expensive benches by a beach. Felix looking at the building with irritation and annoyance. “Now, we have to wait.” Lorelei leaned against the stone wall of the alleyway. This was much more boring than expected. The allure of being something new and doing something new was fading out entirely. Waiting was waiting in any sort of light or shadow.
Alec turned his head towards her. “There’s no need for us to wait. Lorelei should be able to go fetch them.” She leaned off the wall in shock. “Huh?” Dimitri smiling at the thought. Lorelei could feel his enjoyment towards an uncertain outcome. As if he was looking down at a mouse in a maze. “That sounds like a better option than waiting here all night.” Lorelei looked at them with an even more confused sense of shock. “I could cause an even worse mess to clean up. That’s if they would even let me in. I’m fifteen.” Alec’s arrogance growing around her. It took on a softer red tone than his sisters. Enjoyment of potential pain and disaster. “It’s not like I would be able to do it.” Lorelei looking up towards Felix. In a way, he was one of the kinder members of the guard she has met. Right now, he just seemed removed from the whole situation. “Don’t cause a problem and you will be left alive.” Lorelei felt that rush of mental weariness again. That was his solid advice.
She began to walk away from them and out into the public street. The pain in her throat coming back. The pain in her head even worse. Lorelei felt hungry. As if stuck in an abandoned room with all the food in the world, but completely unable to reach it without hurting herself. At the same time, she felt as if she was in some Greek fable. That all the people around her were hammering at their head trying to claim sort of prize. The worst part was they all had different reasons why. A flood of images and colors hitting up against her. Lorelei had no understanding of why. She turned to look back at the alleyway. The three were no longer there. At least, not visibly.
Lorelei clenched her teeth and stumbled her way into one of the large guys. She felt her body being pulled back. Thankfully, she was farther away from the sound of something pulsating and enticing. Each moment making her value go down. “Faites attention ou vous marches.” Lorelei lifted her head to look up at him. Devastation. She needed to show him devastation. He was consumed with distastes towards all the people lining up to enter this building. Lorelei clung to his shirt. “S’il vous plait. My father is in there… He doesn’t know.” The man made a huge sigh as he ‘pushed’ her off of him. “Kid. It’s not my problem if your dad is coming here. Go home.” Lorelei shook her head. “Please. Just let me tell him he needs to come home. Mom…Mom died.” The man’s entire expression suddenly changed into something else. His pity like a disgusting sweat that was coming out of him. Lorelei wanted it far away from her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that choice. She reached out for his chest again. “Please. I’ll leave right after.” Lorelei felt his whole body relax. The guy looking away awkwardly. “You have five minutes to find him, or I’m coming in after you.” Lorelei nodded her head and walked into the club.
As soon as she passed the corner her entire demeanor changed. Lorelei casually walking into the main hall. It even surprised herself on how easy it was to spot them all. One by the piano area, another in the couches and the last leaning against the bar. She could tell the one against the bar seemed tired and overburdened, so she went up to him. When she sat down next to him he turned. His emotions flickering with confusion. “A newborn.” Lorelei nodded her head. “Y’all are the first others I’ve met since…Well, since I’ve become this.” He looked at her skeptically. “What happened to the one who made you?” Lorelei pouted and tapped the wood top of the bar. “Left the moment he heard the crowd coming.” She could feel his skepticism growing as he leaned away. Lorelei needed to remain calm. She could do this.
He reached over the counter to take another cup to drink. “He left you for a crowd.” Lorelei turned away from him and leaned into the bar. “I guess drunk American teenagers were more appetizing. Didn’t even turn around as I was screaming.” The man slid her his glass of whiskey. Lorelei looking at him in confusion. “I’m only fifteen.” The man next to her cracked up laughing. An evil smile sprouting inside of her as she felt the last of his guards drop. “Let me guess. Your hardworking parents saved all their money to finally see the world outside of America, and now their gone, so you don’t know what to do. But the thought of drinking your problems away hasn’t even hit you yet.”
Truly, his analysis was impressive. Lorelei blinked her eyes startled, trying her best to seem like a doe caught in a pair of headlights. “How’d you know?” The guy hit her shoulder. Disgusting. “It’s the accent.” Lorelei nodded her head and turned around to look at the place. “I don’t know how y’all sit here. Just being here for a few minutes has me feeling sick.” He turned away to look out at the club besides her. “It gets easier. Especially, when you learn how to hunt properly?” She faked a huge smile. “I knew you were the proper sorts. Would you be willing to teach me?” The guy stood up slowly and stretched. “Why not. It’s our job to educate the little ones. Charles. Javier.”
She turned to see the two others stand up with a group of girls on each of their arm’s. Disgusting. The guy turned back to her, so she smiled. “Are we going somewhere?” The man laughed and grabbed her arm. PIG. He was pulling her out through the front exit. Lorelei looked at the guy from before on the way out. He must of gotten a wonderful cover story on their way out. Girl finds abusive dead-beat father drinking away their money with other men and women. “To the alleyway. Over there.” Lorelei allowing herself to be pulled along by him into the alleyway. The others immediately digging in. While, he, turned to look at her. “Which one do you want?”
She pulled her arm free from him and smiled. “I don’t want one right now. You don’t really either. You just want to hurry and finish all of this up. So you can rest for a moment.” He looks at her confused for a moment, but turns to grab a nearby girl and begins to drain her quickly. Lorelei taking a big step back. “Alec.” The guy before her looks up at her confused. His whole expression changing when he sees Alec walking into the alleyway behind her. The famous haze creeping out from him as he approached. He turned around to see what was happening with his guys when he saw them staring blankly at Felix and Dimitri. Dimitri looking down at the three vampires. “You sure took your time with it.”
The guy in front of her bent his head down and started to grovel to Alec. “Please. We didn’t know she was trouble. We were only trying to teach a newborn how to feed properly.” The evil smile that was in her head finally surfacing onto her face. “Pigs were never that smart when it came to their slaughter.” Lorelei looked down at him shivering. “They’re here for you.” He spotted the haze getting closer to him and started screaming. “Please. Please. I don’t know what rule we broke, but we won’t do it again. Please, tell Aro-” His words cut off when the haze washed over him. Lorelei closing her eyes. It was like one of the main speakers, just broke in a rock concert and she was finally closer to silence.
She couldn’t help, but smile at Alec when he reached her. The two turning to see Felix and Dimitri kill the two by them. “You didn’t finish the task.” Alec said. Lorelei didn’t even turn to see his expression. She bent down towards the guy, as Alec’s haze began retreating. She waited until he was fully back before speaking. “It’s not polite to touch a little girl.” Her arm wrapping around his neck and pulling his head off just the moment his strength started to return. Lorelei throwing the head towards the fire Felix had just made of the other two. Lorelei taking a step back, so he could light this one on fire.
She was surprised to feel herself bump into something. Turning around she saw it was Alec. “You seem to have the hang of it.” Lorelei looked at him in confusion. The problem with Alec was that, sometimes, his self-assurance masked over everything else, making it hard to understand what he was actually feeling. “Death comes for us all. Why have an aversion to it?” Alec seemed to be becoming more confused. Lorelei had thought this was the natural answer. “I thought you would not want to die.” Now, she felt like she was becoming the confused one. “Why would it matter what I want? It is up to Aro.” He took a step back from her. His confusion melting away from him. The numbing effect of his self-assurance like a cool mint breeze against her. “If I was interested in a thirteen-year-old boy, I suppose I would look at the world the same way.” Lorelei looked at him in confusion. “You aren’t thirteen?” A smug smile appearing on his face. “I’m not sure I said myself.” He took a step back towards her. “Did you develop this fetish before or after you became immortal.”
Lorelei looked up at him shocked. He was worse than his sister. She turned around to see Dimitri and Felix standing their watching them. Lorelei turned back around to face Alec. “I don’t have a fetish. And even if I did you certainly wouldn’t be it.” He walked right past her towards Felix and Dimitri. Dimitri turning to look at Lorelei. “If you are done courting now, it’s time to return home.” She nodded her head silently and moved to stand next to Felix. Away from Alec.
…
Aro looked down at Alec. “How was your trip?” Alec stuck his hand out for his master. Aro eagerly taking it in his hands. When he was done he turned to Lorelei. “I see you have learned the fundamentals. How nice.” He let go of Alec’s hands and turns to Felix. “Felix. Take Lorelei with you.” He nods and heads to the door. Lorelei and Dimitri leaving behind him.
He turned back to Alec. “You don’t normally have such detailed personal opinions, Alec.” He bowed his head. “I was trying to understand about the previous matter.” Aro leaned back into his chair. “Yes. For your own la tua cantante to arrive as the way it did was intriguing.” Alec said nothing. Aro tapping the side of his chair. “It is intriguing. For you to still feel a pull towards the child.” Alec bowed his head. “My sister and I exist to protect the Volturi.” He stood up from his chair. Aro’s hands tapping the boys shoulder. “Calm yourself, dear one. I was merely thinking on what would make you happy.” Alec looked straight into his master’s eyes. “Serving the Volturi.” Aro smiled at him. “It may be my fault. Having turned you two so young. Denying you of certain pleasures.” He turned away from the boy and looked at his throne. “Jane and you are my precious children.” Alec felt himself growing unnerved. “Master, my sister and I exist to protect you.”
Aro pat his shoulder lightly and returned to his throne. He looked down at Alec. “I have come to learn that all gifts can become more useful than originally thought. Lorelei is a gifted young newborn. Her loyalty is with the Volturi.” He narrowed his eyes at Alec. “I do not expect you to force yourself to become a bounding agent for the child, but if you chose to continue your interest you are free to do so.” Alec looked at him confused. “Go on. Find out what your temptress is singing.” He nodded his head and walked out of the room.
Cauis walking towards Aro from behind the thrones. Both a thick book and a thin wineglass in hand. “I do not see what you see in her.” Aro turns to see his brother casually return to his throne. “Potential.” Cauis’ lifted the wine glass to his lips. Twirling the thin stem in his hand he sighed, “The Cullens have more.” Aro nodded his head. “Patience, brother. In time more can always be acquired.” Cauis opened the book on his lap. A smirk appearing on his face. “And that soft spot you have for Cullens can harden.” Aro looks away from him towards one of the walls. An older painting towards the back was still hung. A fleeting moment of sadness washing over him. “Indeed.”
…
Lorelei dodged Felix’s punch…barely. The man was a monster. A part of her thankful, that she at very least knew something about defending herself while she was still human. Because, if this was the fundamentals course, then without it she probably wouldn’t have even survived the bunny petting course. The hardest part of the fight was staying focused. As the days go on, the feelings from everyone around her were growing into a louder and stronger noise in her head. Feeling the sharp pokes from Jane alone was a reason to not be able to focus.
The door to the room opened. Alec walking into the room towards Jane. She smiled when she saw him. “I was beginning to worry about you, brother.” He smiled at her. “Where you that lonely, sister?” She shook her head no and turned towards Felix and Lorelei. “Your pet was going to start crying soon.” Alec turned to look at Lorelei. She was currently being thrown across the room by Felix. “I don’t think she’s my pet yet.” Jane glances over at Felix. “Perhaps, she will be Felix’s.” Alec turns to glance at Lorelei. She is smiling and enjoying herself. Even though she is losing. How many fetishes does this girl have he wondered.
Felix lifted Lorelei up and pinned her against the broken ground. “You shouldn’t be enjoying this.” Lorelei smiled. “I’m sorry. I’m trying, but this is wonderful.” Lorelei wrapping her legs around his neck and pulling him down to the ground with her. “To be able to move however you want.” Felix forced his way out of the hold, and she went flying again. Dimitri being the one to appear besides her. “You should have been able to move like this before. Slower.”
Lorelei stood up. “No. My body wouldn’t have moved like this.” Santiago, a man she had just met moments before, spoke up. “Now, it can.” She nodded her head. Jane losing her smile. “How marvelous for you.” Alec seeming as irritated as his sister. “A newborn learning to walk.” Lorelei ignoring Jane’s comment looked at Alec. A small smile on her face. “Not all of us can move as well as you.” Felix, Dimitri, Santiago and the others in the room all turning to look at Alec. His hand was up in front of Jane’s body. A smile on his face as he started walking towards her. “Let’s see if you really are just a child.”
Lorelei was surprised at the vast difference of skill between Alec and Felix. She was so on edge, because of Felix she was over cautious for Alec. He was slower and weaker than Felix. Lorelei would have expected him to have better skills. As she was able to pin him into a hold. “Lorelei.” Said Felix. She released Alec and stood up. He was looking at her with shock. The tiny smile on her face disappearing when she felt herself falling forward in pain. Her eyes moving towards Jane. Lorelei’s nails dug into the stone floor as she kept reminding herself to endure. The pain stopping when Alec’s hand appeared in front of her. She stood up on her own.
Dimitri chuckling. “It seems the courting period is over.” Alec turned to look at Dimitri. His smile disappeared form his face and he took a step back. Lorelei had already walked away from Alec and towards Felix. “Shall we continue?” He looked at her confused, but nodded his head.
Alec appearing by his sister’s side. “What pet will listen to its master if someone else does the punishing.” Her eyes flicked to Felix. “She may not be your pet.” He looks away from his sister and towards the two sparing. Perhaps, she did not win, because of just newborn strength. “Aro has asked me to indulge her, sister.” Jane immediately turned to face him. Alec continued. “He is worried about our happiness. In taking away options from us.” She looked at her brother confused. “Master has never worried about this before.” Alec nodded his head. “The Cullens have done their damage.” Jane’s eyes moved over to Lorelei. “Pets are disposable options.” He nodded his head. “They will not do anymore damage.”
Bullet With Butterfly Wings – The Smashing Pumpkins
Previous Page / TOC / Next Page