Infinite Bliss || Volturi Kings [1]

chapter 11

Marcus held a large, fragile hardback book in his hand as he read the gentle words out loud in Italian. I curled myself into left Caius' side, hugging his arm as my head rested on his shoulder, while Marcus had his right arm wrapped around my waist. The warmth the fireplace provided almost caused me to dose off, the daylight visible through the window now covered by a thick layer of grey storm clouds.

"Carissima," my muffled brain heard Caius whisper.

I sat up straight quickly, brushing my hair out of my face with my hand. "Hmm?"

"You were falling asleep," he murmured lightly.

"Why? What time is it?" The weather really threw off my awareness of the time, the sky darkening by the minute.

"It is only one o'clock in the afternoon, il mio amore," Marcus replied after glancing over at a small clock sat on one of the bookshelves in the corner of the room.

"Oh, really? Are you sure it isn't the evening?" I drew my eyebrows together and turned my head to gaze out of the window. Clearly Italy just didn't think I deserved warm weather.

"Are you questioning our time-keeping abilities?" Caius tilted his head down and raised an eyebrow at me.

"No, not at all," I laughed awkwardly, attempting to sit up straight but falling straight back into Caius' side.

"Are you hungry, tesoro?" Marcus asked, gently pulling my arms to help me sit up straight.

"Um, I guess I could eat" I smiled.

Before anyone had even had the chance to request any food, Jane was stood in front of us, quickly bowing to Caius and Marcus. Had she been listening to our whole conversation?

"Jane, please bring Eliana some lunch from the kitchens, my dear," Marcus ordered, before Jane nodded her head and left as quickly as she had come.

"How many languages do you speak?" I asked, staring at the complex-looking Italian book in awe.

"English, Italian, Greek, Spanish, French, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and many more," Caius stated simply.

"Well then, you've got to help me with my Chinese at some point. I have my final exam in a few months, and I'm failing epically," I laughed.

"You speak Mandarin Chinese?" he asked.

"Yes, well, no, well, not well," I stuttered.

"Oh..."

I didn't catch the rest of his sentence as he was speaking quick fluent Chinese. What's yes in Chinese? Can I just say that? Wow, I need to listen more in class. Caius turned to look at my blank, expressionless face and sighed.

"I am going to assume you did not understand a word of what I just said," he rested his head in his right hand.

"What did I tell you? I don't speak Chinese well at all," I answered.

"Try to say anything, tesoro, any sentence," Marcus gave me an encouraging nudge.

"Okay then, um, 每天 我吃炒面," I hesitated all the way through.

Both of them gave me the same bemused expression, making my face turn bright red. My teacher had always reminded me of my 'appalling pronunciation', and now I saw why.

"You eat fried noodles every day?" Caius asked. At least he was able to hear and translate that.

"You did tell me to say 'any sentence', so I did," I defended. Food was the last topic we had covered in class before spring break, so it was currently all I could remember.