Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Dark

My name was being chanted on the other end of the phone as I glared up at the man in front of me. His fingertips started to trace back along my collarbone, adventuring down far enough for me to take a swipe at him. He caught my wrist and smiled snidely, flashing the sharpened edges of his teeth.

"Such a tease."

________

I wasn't afraid of my death. I had been prepared for it my entire life. The thing is, I never expected to see it coming.

"Travis."

The foggy air and flashing colours in the depths of the club hadn't done the man justice. The vampire attributes highlighted the classically handsome features of his face. Only now, his eyes were filled with contempt and fuelled by hate.

I tightened my grip around Alec's phone, but my attempt only amused the vampire before me. He pried the device from me and held it in front of my face, shaking it with a 'come and get it' attitude. From the phone, a high-pitched voice repeating my name in a muffled vibration as if from inside a cloud, or deep within a cave — distant and useless.

Travis clicked his tongue, crushing the phone in his bare hand, thus ending the call. Plastics and wiring fell from in-between his fingertips, bouncing once on the carpet before yielding to their fate.

He took his time as his eyes looked me over and I crossed my arms over my chest. "You owe me a kiss," he declared. Travis went to make a move forward and I countered sharply, which only made him smirk.

"He'll try this again."

"He doesn't have to die for us to prevent that."

My features allowed me a slight frown, still cautious, and yet not cautious enough. "I'd rather kiss a toad."

He straightened his shoulders, but chose not to punish me immediately. "You should watch how you talk to me. No witch to do your dirty work this time."

I snapped back, "they would've killed you —" 

The twins were fearsome, with no doubt, hundreds of years of experience torturing and killing vampires. Unfortunately, in that moment, all their experience fell under the vampire category. In that moment, I was the one who knew how to deal with humans — without killing them.

And what did I have to offer? If not the extensive historical, anatomical, and gory fairy tale jargon I had acquired from, disturbingly enough, the nunnery I'd last called home. Or even the extensive scars and marks that littered my body by fault of my condition. Not to mention: an overactive imagination.

I turned my head to stare at the curled up form on the ground. At the silence, he looked up. The quiver of his lip halted as our eyes met.

"— I saved your life." I faltered at the irony of my claim.

"I lost - everything." He roared, advancing on me again as he cut the air with his hand. "You ended my life."

I flinched away as Travis mouthed off once more, testing his boundaries with liquid courage.

"Cuore," Alec murmured in my ear, altogether unbothered by a new round of filth leaving our captive's mouth. "Jane can handle him. You have done well." He placed a hand on the small of my back, as if to console me for not being as sadistic as them.