Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Allocutus

I wanted nothing more than to sleep. For days, ideally. Demetri and Felix, however, had other ideas.

Since Jane had left, I'd been unable to fall asleep. The day's events had been overstimulating my brain as I struggled to find a suitable distraction. Which is why I was glad when Felix and Demetri barged into the room. They never stayed on any one topic for too long and their bickering made for excellent entertainment. And after bribing me with popcorn, they'd talked me into having a movie night.

"Pick something." I looked up from my book and raised my eyebrows at Demetri. "Seriously. Before Felix returns or we'll end up watching three hours of lasers in space."

I convinced Demetri to let me finish my chapter until Felix got back. It was only fair, seeing as they'd been the ones to interrupt me. But, I decided that satisfying his question would allow for that. "What film do you want to watch, then?"

His answer was immediate. "Something with cars."

"Great, any movies about cars?"

"A few come to mind," he said casually, his grin growing.

"Then I pick those movies."

"Which one?"

I shrugged. How many could there be? I looked back down to my book and not a second later, Demetri sighed dramatically on my right.

"I'm almost done. I promise."

He lifted the book up in my hands so he could see the cover. "I thought you finished this one weeks ago?"

"I read it a lot," I said, shrugging. "Wait, how did you know that?"

He copied my shrug. "Alec mentioned it. The guy wouldn't shut up about you for the last two missions. Seriously, the whole time." He threw one hand behind his head and leaned back on the couch, mumbling to himself, "kid needs a muzzle." I looked down at the book in my hands, my fingers tracing the text printed inside it. Demetri froze, realising his use of the boy's name broke the code of silence on the elephant in the room. He gave a guilty chuckle, "my bad..." I was surprised to hear that Alec talked about me at all, even more so because it wasn't Jane telling me this.

"It's okay. A muzzle's a good idea." Demetri grinned when he heard my joke, probably pleased I hadn't yelled at him instead. And Demetri, being far more emotionally intuitive than our dear friend, Felix, used the moment to breach the topic of the boy.

"You wanna talk about it?" I cringed at the suggestion, though I gave him a reluctant smile, appreciative of the gesture.

I closed the book in my lap with a snap. "Not even a little."

"Can I just say one thing?" I sighed, willingly giving him my attention. I felt so lost that it couldn't hurt to have a few outside perspectives. "If Alec kept the—" I tensed, expecting him to use the word I'd been trying to avoid thinking about and he noticed this. "Thing... from you for this long, he definitely has his reasons."

"Demetri—"

"I'm not saying let him off the hook, but maybe just hear him out?"

My tone was bitter with the history between Alec and me. "Would you?" He appeared thoughtful about it, but didn't get the chance to answer as the double doors of the library disturbed the peace.

Felix barged into the room, along with a strong smell that wafted through the library like cigarette smoke. He turned the corner into the alcove, holding a bowl of popcorn at arm's length.

I pouted, "you burnt it."

The large man rolled his eyes at me, holding the bowl above my head and out of my reach. "Thank you Felix, my favourite-st and the hottest vampire to ever exist, how thoughtful of you." I pouted and his eyes checked out the ceiling once more before he gave in.