Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Oxymoron

"The prodigal son arrives."

There was no loud burst, kick through the entrance door that Vladimir seemed to expect. I hardly saw the door open before Alec was standing in front of it.

If he were a painting, you might have imagined he was waiting for weeds to grow. I had never seen Alec so unamused, so undistracted, so...numb as he examined the scene he'd entered. His gaze blatantly passed over where I stood, restrained by Travis. I could hardly tell if he recognised Travis, because the expression on his face remained unchanging.

With all of the irrational anger and emotion Alec had shown towards me and all his talk of keeping me safe, I'd expected a little more expression. I thought I'd seen him at his cruelest, at his most base predatory nature. Until this moment, I had no idea how wrong I was.

In all his observations, Alec didn't so much as glance at me.

A delayed spark in my chest informed me of the irrelevant hurt feelings that were a side effect of my humanity. Except Vladimir's smile faded slightly when he noticed Alec's lack of interest as well. He was using me to catch Alec off guard, that was the whole point of these dramatics. Alec knew this, of course, and denied his enemy the opportunity to gain any more of an upper hand than he already had.

With a false respect, Alec finally addressed his enemy. "Vladimir." A taste of the Alec I knew slipped in as he commented dryly, "Where's your uglier half?" Right. I'd forgotten about the other Romanian.

"It is underwhelming that Aro has not taught his brats any manners."

Finally, Alec's eyes scanned over me with discriminate care at an abhorrently leisured pace. Until they found my face, and even with my distance I could tell he'd zeroed in on the cut Vladimir had given me.

I pulled my hand back from Travis, nearly slamming my hand on the side of my eye. While I hadn't felt any more runaway drops of blood, I knew any cut on the face was highly susceptible to excessive bleeding. The more pressure I applied, the more likely I was to stay alive. Or so I convinced myself.

However, Travis reclaimed my wrist, pulling me closer to him. The move shifted my mate's attention to the man behind me.

"Saffiya."

Travis gave me a shake and I reluctantly answered softly, "Alec."

He spoke curtly, straightforward. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." A shadow cast itself over his face and he grimaced, realising that I couldn't answer his question any better than he could himself.

Alec's voice was stone, grey, empty...Commanding. "Release her."

Travis barked out a laugh, "not a chance, witch boy." To antagonise the Volturi member further, he pressed his nose to the back of my hair and breathed in my scent. I flinched but he had me locked in as he murmured in a strained voice, "she's gonna taste so good."

The prized Volturi member didn't dare attack. His powers moved too slowly, which Vladimir had accounted for. He was out of options.

As Travis visibly increased the pressure of his hand on my stomach. It was a reminder that I should be somewhat cautious about the area surrounding my ribs. Mainly, it occurred to me that if I didn't verbally claim any kind of pain, he might actually cause more damaging, albeit coincidental, harm. Even if he didn't particularly care whether he hurt me or not, I had to try.

Vladimir clicked his tongue. He gestured to his partner. "You are familiar with Travis? I promised him your mate, I hope you do not mind."

"I'll take good care of her." Travis' hand moved from my neck and down my side. Alec's once passive face grew less and less so as he could only watch. As much of an innuendo as it was intended to be, his rough nature and recent pettiness made me think he no longer had any intent to play with his food.