29 | THE SUN AND MOON |

RORY SHOULD HAVE CARED more that she was being stalked by a member of the Volturi. Every other night since her 18th birthday, Alec made an appearance.

But for some reason, she found herself not minding the constant attention. It was a...nice change from the way her fellow interns treated her, kindly but not willing to get past Rory's walls, or the people she had left in Forks, whenever she called them, her friends and family treated her like a piece of glass after the events that had caused her to leave Forks in the first place.

Maybe Alec Volturi was a little sadistic and much too arrogant, but he was also brutally real and present. He didn't have time to play nice and he wasn't babying her.

Fortunately, Alice, Rose, an Emmett were long gone by the time he found her, sitting on the edge of her seat waiting for him to come. He was very annoyed to discover the unknown scent of vampires in her dorm room. He loomed over her, his glower clouding his angelic face, as she crossed her arms and stared at him defiantly.

"Victoria isn't alone. She travels with two other vampires. I don't know their names," Rory had managed to fib as he interrogated her.

Alec narrowed his crimson eyes. "What does she want with you?"

Rory raised her brows. "What do you want with me?"

He didn't have an answer of course.

"Touché."

Her roommate Kimiko was easily convinced to permanently move into another dorm. She didn't want to accidentally cause the Japanese girl's murder.

Alec typically stayed for any range of time he wanted, spanning for just an hour to until just before dawn. Every time, he had a question for her, whether it was about her past or humans in general. Rory quickly gathered Alec was out of the times, so to speak. He barely knew how to use his cellphone! She suspected that was another reason he kept her alive. God knows no one else could stand being in the callous, occasionally sadistic vampire's presence for longer than a second.

"The application is not working, pet, you told me the incorrect directions!" Alec scowled at the rectangular device in his left hand, his right hand clicking the LCD screen randomly as if it would get tired of his persistence and succumb to his will. He sat perfectly in her rolling chair for her desk, one ankle resting on his knee casually.

Rory glanced from the textbook she was studying about the Renaissance with a roll of her eyes. "Goddamn it, do it yourself. You're five hundred years old and you can't use a cellphone? Google it. What are you, an immortal idiot?" Rory snorted as Alec tried to download the youtube song into his music library. Surprisingly, they had similar music tastes. She was introducing him to The Arctic Monkeys.

"I'm closer to eight hundred years!" Alec snarled, his dark clothing adding to his deadly aesthetic, "What are you, a human idiot who cannot preform simple mathematics?" he sneered cruelly.

Her jaw dropped because he was partly right in his accusations. She was not the best at math despite graduating high school with a high GPA. "You don't have to be mean just because you feel inadequate to a damn smart phone." Alec's glower didn't lessen. She sighed deeply and slammed her book shut, setting it aside, and putting her hand out towards him. "Give me the damn thing."

Sometimes it felt like Alec was purposely ruining her day, or at least making it sour. She would come back from an exhausting day of meticulous oil painting or exhibit cleaning to find her dormitory a mess with Alec casually sitting somewhere with no intent of taking care of his own creation.

"Dude, can you at least throw away your used blood bags and not, like, leave them on my desk for me to take care of? I am not your maid." Rory wrinkled her nose in disgust as she lifted the three empty pint-sized blood bags he had left on her desk and tossed it into the stainless steel trashcan.

Since he was spending all his off time from the Volturi stalking her to 'ensure she kept the secret' (as his latest excuse), Alec wasn't hunting as much which meant he had resorted to stealing bags of fresh O-Negative and drinking it to keep his thirst (and foul temper) under control.

"I'm not a dude, I'm a vampire," Alec drawled as he threw sharpened pencils up at the ceiling. He turned his head to her with narrowed eyes. "Be grateful I'm not using you as a blood bag."

She pursed her lips tightly.

"Touché."

Rory left his masterpiece of ceiling art alone. On the nights he didn't appear, which were few and far in between, the figure of a crescent moon provided her some solace from the loneliness. She didn't like to acknowledge that part of her.

"So, are the Volturi more like a cult or the royal family? I know there's a thin line between the two," she joked one time as Alec followed her around the Piazza della Signoria after a night at a gallery.

He wasn't amused by that.

"Be cautious of how loud your words carry, Aurora, if this alley wasn't empty of people, I would've killed you," Alec bared his teeth at her. Somehow he had obtained a pair of blue contacts to mask his crimson eyes from the public; which only gained him even more attention as his now violet eyes topped with his physical perfection.

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot, clearly I saw no one would overhear. And you didn't answer the question." She shook her head. She bet the Volturi was more like the latter. The British royal family were definitely just as sus as the fearsome Volturi. Her mood lifted as she glanced elsewhere, "Oh, the Florence Cathedral looks so pretty from here!"

Alec merely glanced at the view she pointed at. He shrugged and continued following her mini-adventure.

Something about Alec Volturi that was intriguing. He was like the sun, in the way he was unavoidable and irritating at times and she had no protection against him. He was unrelentingly aggressive at times as well. Looking straight at him hurt; he was frustrating to no end and bound to cause long-term damage. But it was in brief glimpses where she found the rarely seen magnificence.

It was nearing the month mark since she had met, or rather been hunted by, Alec Volturi. It also meant she was supposed to be leaving for Forks soon. She wasn't sure when it would be the appropriate time to bring up her leaving with the possessive vampire who ate people.

"So, uh, is there a reason why you're still checking in on me so often? I mean, clearly, I know to keep the secret a secret," Rory sipped her green tea nonchalantly.

A smirk formed on his dusky rose lips. "Why search for this Victoria when I have the perfect bait before me?"

Her jaw dropped as it all made sense then with the curve of his wicked smile. How could she have missed it? "This is why I'm still alive? You're keeping me as bait?"

"Vampires are largely territorial, little one. Even of their pets," Alec snickered at her expression, her eyes were the size of the full moon with shock. It was kind of endearing.

"You are an evil genius."

Alec chuckled darkly. "What? Did you think I was keeping you around to develop a long-lasting friendship?"

Rory frowned at his mocking words. "I'm strangely offended." She stared at him scrutinizingly. "You're low key my best friend, Alec."

"Low key?"

"Like on the down low, or just not blatantly," Rory was used to explaining modern slang terms to the ancient vampire by now.

He hummed lightly, taking a second to absorb her description. "Well, you are the only other person I tolerate in this world below my sister and masters." Alec arched an eyebrow, "So I suppose you are my 'best friend' as well."

Rory felt herself smile widely. "We should get t-shirts. Double-A? Aurora and Alec. Hashtag Alory? LMAO—oh wait you wouldn't get that," she snickered at the look of puzzlement on his face. The grin didn't disappear for hours.

"Where in America do you hail from, pet?" Alec asked out of pure boredom as he shot pencils at the ceiling again, exerting the perfect amount of strength to make them stick. He appeared to be adding constellations by the pattern of the impaled pencils, the exact ones above the city as well.

"Where do I hail from?" She held in an obnoxious snicker. The way Alec spoke sometimes made her laugh. "I'm from San Antonio, Texas." She jokingly saluted him with two fingers.

Alec nodded thoughtfully. "Mmm, once a site of brutal vampire wars—you humans would call it the American Civil War."

"I had no idea," she said lightly with just enough sarcasm Alec wouldn't detect.

It's not as if her ex vampire boyfriend was a literal Major in the confederate army at the end of his human life and the second in command of his ex girlfriend's newborn army in the beginning of his immortal life.

Alec smiled at her widely. "Humans are stupid."

"Yup." Rory pointed to her desk, his eyes following the slender, tanned limb. "Hey, pass me that box of fruit snacks, will you? I'm starving."

"Me too," he sighed deeply, his eyes darkening in agreement.

She was no longer scared of him and his empty threats. Now that they were well acquainted, whenever she did push his temper too far, all Alec did was take away one of her senses, usually her sense of touch because he found her freaked out expression amusing. When he made her mad, Rory forced him to follow her out in the public Florence night life or watch sappy, romantic movies he had no interest in.

"The prince is never going to come in time," Alec scoffed as the movie played, an Italian twist on the tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Lucky for Rory, there were english subtitles for her to understand the film. Despite living in Florence for almost four months, she was not a master of the language, at least not like Alec was, as he obnoxiously pointed out the incorrect translations and corrected them for her viewing pleasure. Rory's mother had sent the movie to her as a gag gift for her eighteenth birthday and it was the first time Rory had a chance to watch the strange movie.

"What if Sleeping Beauty's already dead?" Alec sneered at the screen as the prince attempted to search for the princess's whereabouts.

"You don't believe true love's kiss will break the curse?" Rory pretended to be shocked by Alec's cynicism. She tossed more pieces of buttery popcorn in her mouth.

Alec glanced at her in slight disgust at the careless way she chewed the snack with an open mouth. She was being purposely obnoxious. He raised a brow, "Or perhaps the princess will fall for the devil figure instead, he has the power to break the curse." He gestured to the tall, dark clothed villain on screen with horns like the devil.

"Maybe Sleeping Beauty rises as a Queen who will conquer the world by storm." Rory found herself growing heated at the conversation. She crossed her arms. "Sleeping Beauty is independent, she don't need no man."

Alec raised a brow at her poor grammar, but made no comment as he assumed it was another obscure millennial reference. "I thought true love's kiss is supposed to break the spell?"

"Maybe they meant a kiss from her mother who truly loves her and only sent her away because she knew Sleeping Beauty would be safer that way," Rory said bitingly.

Alec rolled his eyes and pointed at the television. "The plot is obviously pointing at either of the male main characters to free Sleeping Beauty from the spell," he said matter-of-factly. "It's been a hundred years. Everyone she knows is dead or clearly didn't care enough about her to find a way to break it themselves when they were alive."

Rory let out a dramatic huff. "Either way, this isn't a fairytale." She glared at the movie, "I'm not a princess and I'm not waiting to be rescued by any princes or devils alike."

There was a silence that spanned for a long moment. Then, Alec snickered loudly, "Were you talking about yourself? I was obviously discussing the movie," his lips curved into a knowing smirk at her aggravated expression.

"Right."

Alec surprised her at times, whether it was his thoughtful observations, his pretty smile, or the way he made her feel seen for once. The time stopping, breathless moments like the sunrise over the Mediterranean sea were rare and few in between, but they still existed to no avail. She tried to avoid noticing anything that would make her feel anything more than tolerable of his presence in her life.

Rory had always been a night person anyways.

"You're an artist."

"Yeah." She gave him a curious look, placing her drawing pencil down on her bedcover. Alec had taken over the desk as his space leaving her to use her own bed to work on her art.

Alec had arrived early, a few hours after noon, but it was an unusually cloudy day in Florence. She hadn't seen him in two days and as her time to leave Italy approached quickly, she was basking in the rest of the time they had for him to "catch Victoria."

"Paint me."

Her forehead creased as she gestured to the dull room they sat in. "Here?"

Alec grimaced as he looked around the slightly messy room. "Hm, you're right, this is a hideous background." He was a man of refined tastes, he wouldn't let the first portrait of himself be done in a drab human dormitory.

"Well, come on, pack your things, Aurora," Alec stood to his full height and waved her to follow him.

Rory sighed and grabbed her backpack that was meant for painting on-the-go, filled with just enough supplies for traveling to different locations. "Where are we going?"

Alec shot her his rare, bright smile as he lifted her up as easily as picking up a feather. "Close your eyes. It'll be a surprise." He arched a brow at her dubious stare. "Don't you trust me, Aurora?"

She felt the side of her mouth lift as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Unfortunately, I do." She squeezed her eyes shut.

Rory felt the rush of speed that followed as Alec ran faster than any vampire she knew. She trusted Alec wasn't tricking her and taking her to face trial before the Volturi or something as evil as that. She hoped he wouldn't at least.

She felt them come to a stop. The air felt colder and purer at the same time. They were outside somewhere high, she could tell the altitude was different than being on the ground, similar to the feeling she had when she was at the top of one of the pine trees in the Olympic forests around Forks.

"You can open your eyes now," Alec said quietly as he set her down on a flat, solid surface.

She slowly opened her eyes. "Jesus, it feels really fucking high—SHIT, I mean, crap!" Rory grabbed onto the nearest solid object, which just happened to be Alec's bicep, as her eyes went wide in shock at the sight in front of her, well below her. "My abuela would smack me if she knew I just cursed on the top of the Florence Cathedral!"

They were standing in an alcove right below the gold steeple of the church. It wasn't meant for the public by the lack of safety rails and other people. They were too high up for anyone to take notice of them.

"I've always admired il Duomo di Firenze," Alec murmured as he ran his gaze across the horizon of Florence and the Tuscany mountains. He glanced to his side where Rory was astonished in place.

She pressed her hands to her open mouth as she blinked back tears of wonder. "This is...gorgeous, I've been inside so many times since I came here, but...just wow. This view...I can see the whole city. I-It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Thank you, Alec, really."

He shrugged as if it were nothing. "This view is the best in Florence." He gave her a small smirk. "I will push you off if you fail to impress me, Aurora," he threatened half-heartedly as he sat on the edge of the alcove, his long legs dangling off.

Rory copied his movements, except making sure to be as far from the edge as possible. She placed her backpack beside her and pulled out the necessary things.

"Then don't move."

And for hours they remained; him sitting perfectly still against the white pillar, his crimson eyes trained on her painting his likeness on a canvas sketchbook balanced on her lap, her travel paint colors pushed against the wall of the alcove to ensure they wouldn't fall hundreds of feet down. The cloudy sky darkened into a beautiful sunset until only the full moon above lighted her way. She avoided his sharp gaze, feeling something change in his stare yet it was sickeningly familiar all the same.

She didn't like it.

Rory was adding one last finishing touch to the background, a beautiful setting sun with lavenders and deep blues, when she felt his cold body shift beside her. His cool breath hitting her bare should sent electric chills down her spine.

She didn't move.

His ice-like lips brushed against her ear. "You missed a spot."

She felt her inner perfectionist panic. Her eyes ran over the drying painting. "Where?"

"Here."

In a flash of movement, the painting was placed elsewhere and Alec's face was right there.

He bent his head forward, his mouth just a hairsbreadth away from hers.

For a moment, she allowed her lips to barely brush against his cold yet soft ones.

Then, she turned her head, pushing his chest back. "I'm sorry...I can't, Alec." She got up from her crisscrossed position, making sure to stay away from the edge of the alcove. He followed her, grabbing her forearm to keep her from accidentally slipping.

He bared his razor sharp teeth, his red eyes darkening in jealousy. "Do you belong to another? I'll rip his heart out."

She felt herself trembling from emotions she had long buried. She had wanted to be numb at the risk of implosion. "I belong to no one. But you hate me, remember, I'm nothing to you. I'm nothing to everyone—I-I don't deserve to be loved, not with the ugliness of my past."

"I never understood until I met you."

His voice was soft again, full of that same hint of confusion she had detected the night they first met. Alec realized what he had seen in her that night. A glimpse at a girl of the moon. A mystery he was denied of, he would never reach her, no matter how much he desired. She was lonely, too, full of imperfections, but in the darkness she shined brighter than the stars.

She was the bright light of his darkest night.

"Understood what?"

"Sei bellissima," His finger ran down her cheek softly. "You are beautiful because you are human. Your imperfections, your short years, your kind little heart—even as you believe it to be broken. All that seems suddenly more precious than anything I've ever known."

"I'm not as precious as you think," Rory said bitterly. "I am between worlds, stuck between my past and my future, my own twilight zone. My past eclipses over my future. I thought I let go, moved on, but I was wrong."

Alec stared at her with his brows furrowed. "You are an angel compared to me," he murmured. "It's as if I was the one without senses this entire time. I have been in the dark, an eternity of new moons, for far too long. And you are my breaking dawn, my Aurora."

And so, she squeezed her eyes shut to feel every emotion she had been numb to for months. All her agony, sadness, frustration, and everything long buried flowed out in the open. She almost drowned under it all, but she felt like she could finally breath for once.

When she opened her eyes once more, Aurora found herself alone in her dorm room. She hadn't noticed Alec had brought her back while he disappeared with a note scrawled on the same canvas sketchbook she had painted Alec in, the painting ripped out and gone with the vampire.

When I am lost, I will have your light to guide me

AV

Like the sun, she realized she missed him when he went away.

➖

A.N. ummmm are yall reallly surprised alec caught feelings for rory??? can u blame him tho?? and this whole sun/moon thing in this chapter was so beautiful to me even if it was hella cliche idc wow

* picture is the Florence Cathedral dome where Alec took Rory and the circled part is the alcove i was attempting to describe yikes

JAORY OR ALORA???

#TEAMJASPER or #TEAMALEC

i wanna read some discourse in the comments 😤😈😈