SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

C I N Q U E

The two of them were standing on the private beach, watching the waves crash and retreat in silence. Cecilia was amazed at the way life had spun a twist at her. From being protected by her family full of vampires for almost all of her life, to visiting yet another foreign country with her soulmate, who also happened to belong to the archenemy coven of her family. It was ironic and she supposed that if there really were gods watching over their lives like some drama theatre as was described in the Homerian books, they would probably laugh their asses off.

"What are you thinking about?" Demetri asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Cecilia chuckled, only then realising how ridiculous her thoughts were. "I was thinking that if there were really gods watching over us, they must find my life thoroughly amusing," she said. She turned her head to observe the vampire next to her, her stomach doing a little flip when she saw his entertained smile. "What about you?"

"I was trying to remember things about my life in Greece, before Amun turned me and took me away," he said. The expression was somewhat nostalgic, with a hint of sadness. "But it's all just a blur, like I'm trying to reach for something that's just too far away."

It was something Cecilia had feared from the moment she had decided that she wanted to turn at her eighteenth birthday as well, and still did. Right before Demetri had turned her, she'd bought her first notebook, the one in which she was going to document the rest of her immortal life.

She went to sit down in the warm sand, pulling Demetri along with her. Sitting wasn't more comfortable than standing, not anymore, but at least it made her feel more normal. She was wearing a dress that would have left her sweating like a pig if she was still human, but now she couldn't even feel the warmth of the sun touching her skin. The thing she could feel was the sand in between her toes, and that made her smile.

Demetri swung his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer still and her smile only grew. They had had a slow start, with Cecilia mostly missing her family and Demetri only behaving in a formal and polite manner, but now they were warming up on each other. She loved the way his skin felt on hers, and it had only increased with her transformation.

"One the way here I was thinking about my gift," Cecilia said, breaking the silence again. Her eyes were on the waves, but she could feel his eyes on the side of her face. "You can't track me, right? Maybe I can hide other people from your gifts as well."

Demetri hummed. "Try to hide your mother."

Cecilia scoffed and turned to look at her soulmate. "How?"

"I don't know," Demetri countered. "My gift is tracking, I tune into the tenor of their minds, but I wouldn't know what the opposite of that would be."

Suddenly, Cecilia wished she had talked to Nikolai about his gift. He was able to hide people. "Is it possible for two vampires to have the same gift?"

"I have never come across that," Demetri said. "It can be very similar, but it's always slightly different. I know the tracker before me simply had a feeling, but he didn't tune in on other people's presence."

"Well, then I don't think I can hide people from your gift," Cecilia said, shrugging.

Demetri raised his eyebrows. "How so?"

Cecilia kept quiet. She could hardly tell Demetri about Nikolai, not without telling him that she'd found him in the dungeons during one of their games of hide and seek. She couldn't lie to him either, knowing very well that he would pierce right through her act, so silence was the only option.

"Maybe you know so because there is a particular vampire, who just happened to be locked up in the dungeons, with whom you've been speaking on several occasions," Demetri said, sounding entertained. Cecilia's head snapped in his direction so fast that the human eye couldn't have caught it, an expression of horror on her face. Demetri shrugged. "It was merely a suggestion."