SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

V E N T O T T O

She was laying on her side, her head rested on her hand, her hair flowing down her nightgown, her eyes gliding over the lines of Cicero. Though she had been offered a chamber closer to where her family was sleeping, she'd chosen to stay in Demetri's room. She'd finally gotten used to the room and the thought alone of having to move all of her clothes to another room gave her a headache. Besides, it was probably the only way for her to spend time with Demetri without her family staring and glaring and interfering.

As soon as she heard the doors to his chambers open, she turned her head around, Cicero vanishing to the back of her head. She smiled as soon as her eyes fell on the vampire, his eyes fiery red. "Hey."

"I feel like I haven't seen you in days," Demetri muttered as he threw his cloak on one of the setteés. She followed his movements carefully, especially as he laid down on the bed, still an appropriate distance between them. She felt her cheeks heat up under his stare. "You look beautiful."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said as she turned her back on him to close the book and put it on the nightstand. She rolled around, both to close at least some of the distance and so she could stare at him. Completely ignoring his compliment, one that made her heart flutter with joy, she continued. "You were only gone for a day and a half and well, by the time I came back to the castle with Nessie, two days were gone."

"Like I said," he said, smirking. "For days."

"Drama queen," Cecilia muttered, rolling her eyes. "How did your mission go?"

Demetri shrugged, staring off in the distance. She knew he'd rather not talk about the excursions the masters sent him and Felix on and yet she couldn't help but be curious about them. She didn't know why specifically he didn't want to talk about it, maybe he was trying to protect her from the evil things outside the castle, or maybe he thought he was trying to protect her from him, but she knew she wasn't scared away easily.

"You can tell me, you know," she said. His eyes found hers and she stared at him, honestly. "I won't judge you."

"I know you won't, it's not that."

"What is it then?"

She stared at him for a long and hard time, observing the way his walls slowly started to crumble until she was able to work her way inside. Feeling particularly bold, she inched a little closer, till the side of her body was against his and laid her head on his chest. She held her breath, only daring to breathe out as soon as his strong arm curled around her back, pulling her closer still. She closed her eyes, enjoying the careless circles his fingers drew on her bare arm.

"I told you about what I felt when I tried to track you, right?" Demetri said. She loved the vibrations of his voice against her cheek and absentmindedly, she hummed. "How soft and innocent and sweet it is."

"You called me a bunny. A bunny with absolute zero awareness of the dangers surrounding it, if I remember correctly," she said. She heard him chuckle, or rather felt it, and she decided that she liked it even more than the vibrations of his voice. If only they could lie like this forever, she would have been the happiest girl in the world

"Yes, but it's not only what I feel when I try to track you," he said. "It's how I feel about you and I don't want to spoil it by telling you about the gruesome things that have to be done, that I have to do."

There it is, she thought, trying to protect me both from the evils of the world and of himself. She hummed again, her fingers playing absentmindedly with one of the buttons of his shirt. "I sentenced a woman to death for touching me," she said softly. "That doesn't sound particularly soft or sweet or innocent."