"YOU CAN JOIN IF YOU'D LIKE." Caius said to Aro as he turned them around to face him. Marcus stood next to him with a barely noticeable smile on his face.

    "Nobody is joining anything." Astra said as she wiggled against Caius' hold. Her mind was desperate to get away from him, but her heart and body was craving his touch.

"Masters." The same vampire Astra had seen when she had first woke up suddenly appeared next to Aro. "You're needed in the throne room." The girl said, she kept an impassive look on her face the whole time, and didn't even glance in Astra's direction.

    Caius finally let go of Astra and hesitantly walked over to his brothers. "We'll continue this later." he promised as he looked back at the blonde. He gave her a one last longing look before turning and heading towards the throne room.

    "I'll see you later, mi amore." Aro said with a happy tone in his voice. He seemed to be happy about a situation that Astra didn't know about. Finally, Aro left, leaving only Marcus and Astra.

    "Aren't you going to go with them?" Astra asked Marcus as she watched him warily, she didn't want to end up being stuck in his arms like she was with Caius. She also didn't want to become food for the vampire, although she doubted it would come to that.

    "I'll join them in a moment." He replied as he walked closer to the blonde. "Why do you reject us?" He asked as he grabbed one of her hands, the sad tone in his voice made Astra's heart ache.

     "I just don't want to be forced to love people because of some mystical bond. I want to choose who I'm going to love. It's not that you guys aren't attractive, or that I couldn't like you guys at all, it's just that . . . I don't want something if it's not real. I want to experience true love, not something that's handed to me on a silver platter that claims to be true love. Besides, you're all vampires." Astra rambled, she wasn't even sure if she was making sense, but there was just something comforting about Marcus. It was like she wanted to spill all of her secrets to him and let him comfort her.

    "We would never hurt you, Astra." He said as he brought her hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on it. "If you truly want to leave us," he hesitated, "then we will let you. We won't hold you captive here. All I ask, is that you give us a chance and have dinner with us tonight."

    She examined the way he kissed her hand with fascination. He was so gentle with her, as if he made one wrong move then she would break. She could feel her heart start to soften as she heard his words, this man was being so kind to her and all she had done was reject them. She thought it over for a moment, ignoring his gaze, before finally nodding. "Deal. But you guys aren't allowed to follow me when I leave."

    A huge smile grew on Marcus' face, and Astra found herself enraptured at the expression. "You look good happy." She muttered with a soft smile, once her brain finally caught up with her mouth, a bright blush grew on her face.

"And you look good embarrassed." Marcus teased as he softly brushed the pad of his thumb across her cheek, causing them to turn an even brighter shade of red.

"Master Marcus. You're needed in the throne room." Jane said as she, once again, suddenly appeared.

"Yes, of course." Marcus replied, his smile disappearing as he slowly retracted his hands. "Jane, please escort Astra to the kitchen."

Jane nodded as his words and soon after he disappeared down the hall. Jane motioned in the opposite direction, "It's this way." She began walking away without even looking towards the human.

    Astra hesitated in following her, she was much more curious to see what was going on in the throne room. Finally, she decided it would be smart if she just ate food and then left. She was sure that Conner and Hector were worried about her, and she still needed to talk things over with Scarlett.

    Astra and Jane walked for what felt like forever before they finally reached a huge kitchen. She instantly went over to the fridge and started searching for something to eat. Finally, she decided on a bowl of fruit and some yogurt.

"That looks disgusting." Jane commented as she sat across from the girl.

"It's really not." Astra said as she popped a blueberry in her mouth. She hadn't eaten since the morning before, so she was very thankful to get some food inside of her. "So tell me about yourself Jane. How did you become a vampire?"

    "My village accused my twin brother and I of being witches. They burned us at the stake and would've succeeded in executing us if Aro hadn't shown up and turned us. He saved us." Jane replied. It was a quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "You should give them all a chance. A vampires soulmate bond is one of the rarest thing in the world. Most people never find their soulmate. Now that they've met you, they'll die without you."

    Astra stopped mid-chew and gave her an incredulous look, "Die? How will they die? They're vampires, something like this shouldn't kill them."

    "Being away from one's soulmate is painful for a vampire, but having them reject them causes their body to start to whither away. Eventually, the sadness and pain would cause them to burst to dust." Jane answered, with a shrug of her shoulders.

    "Burst into dust?" Astra asked in disbelief.

    Jane nodded her head, "They would slowly wither away to the state that the should be in, dust."

    Astra didn't ask anymore questions and decided to just quickly finish her food. She ate the strawberries, blueberries, watermelon and yogurt and put her dish in the sink. She turned to face Jane as she spoke, "Could you show me to the front door? I'm ready to go back to where I'm staying."

    Jane nodded and started walking out of the kitchen, she then headed in the direction of the front door. "Will you tell Marcus that I'll be back tonight? I don't want him to think I ran away."

    "He already knows. I wouldn't be letting you leave if you were going to run." Jane replied. They finally reached the front door and the blonde vampire stopped. "Do you need someone to walk you there?"

    "No, I should be fine." She smoothed out the dress she had worn the night before and gave her a small smile. "I'll see you later, Jane."

     ASTRA HAD UNDERESTIMATED JUST HOW FAR AWAY FROM THE HOTEL THE 'CASTLE' HAD BEEN. Her legs and feet ached once she finally reached the door. She knocked and waited for somebody to answer.

    "Coming!" She heard Conner call out.

    A few seconds later, the door opened and Conner gave her a small frown, "Well, look who decided to show up after their late night rendezvous." He said as he leaned against the doorpost.

"Hey Conner, are you going to let me in?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. Her body was aching, and the attitude he was giving her was causing her to get aggravated.

Conner shook his head, "Nah, I think you should probably go back to that man you stayed with last night." He snapped, "You know, I thought we had something going! But it turns out you're just a whore like the rest."

Astra gaped at his words, she had never heard him speak like that, and had definitely never been called such a nasty name. "What did you just call me?" She fumed. Her fists clenched at her side as she glared at the one she had once called friend.

"I said, you're just a little who—" Conner didn't get to finish his sentence as Astra reeled back and sent her fist flying at his face. He grabbed his nose as blood spurted from it.

"You bitch!" He snarled was he stumbled backwards in pain. Astra shook her hand as a sharp feeling shot all the way from her knuckles to her shoulder.

"The next time you want to call somebody a whore, make sure they're not trained to fight. Now, where's my brother? Or would you rather I get a gun and shoot your leg so I can get some answers." Astra hissed. Her body was shaking from all the anger that was coursing through her. After everything she had been through the night before, her emotions were going haywire. If Conner was to say the wrong thing, Astra was sure she would end up killing him.

She stormed into the hotel searching for her brother, and found a gun laying on the nightstand. She checked it for bullets and turned the safety off. She pointed it at Conner, who was watching her in fear. "Are you going to answer me?"

Conner scrambled to his feet and backed up. "He took Scarlett out. He said he wanted to go on a nice date with her before he picked out a house."

Astra nodded her head and lowered her gun. "Alright, tell time I stopped by and that I'll be back tomorrow. You can also tell him why your nose is broken."

Conner quickly nodded his head and moved inside the hotel and backed towards the window as Astra walked towards the door. "Oh, and Conner," she said in a fake sweet voice, "The next time you call me a whore, I'm going to put a bullet through your brain. I'm a Leonato, show a little respect."

She walked out of the hotel and started closing the door. She heard Conner mumble, "Crazy bitch." right before the door shut. She was tempted to go back in there and argue with him, but she knew if she did that it would end with blood on her hands. She sighed deeply and looked back out towards the road. It was time for her to head back to the Volturi.

don't forget to vote and comment