[Twilight] Bright sunshine

Caius's speed was very slow, compared to his running with me in his arms, his footsteps walking in the silent and dark tunnel were abnormally leisurely and slow.Except in front of people outside, I rarely see him so patiently accommodating my pace.

The tunnel gradually widened, and the marble floor was illuminated by the bonfire, and there were fragmented lines struggling in the stone.

If Volterra can open a safe three-day tour of Volturi Castle, the tourist book in Tuscany will be able to shout directly, the ninth largest architectural wonder in the world, don’t miss it when you pass by.

The architectural style here is very strange, and you can't tell which specific age it is that the complicated piles are made of.Curved arcs connect every passage here, and vaulted ceilings and stone pillars abound.There are continuous murals, bronze and gold decorations in any place, delicately placed in every corner and no one cares about them.

I have been here for so many days and I haven’t really visited a few places. Except for the reception hall with a strong Tuscan style, the only one I am familiar with is Caius’s stone house with air leaks on all sides, and the shocking scene outside the house. Statue of Athena.

Various lifelike statues drilled out of the stone walls, and I was led away by Caius, as if walking into a time-space tunnel connecting ancient times.He didn't squint, and I looked around cautiously and curiously.

Then I noticed that there were more and more people, some of them were holding masks in their hands, and some were wearing masks on their faces. The masks looked like a carnival in Venice.Gorgeous oval velvet masks, half-face masks with gauze feathers, and someone wearing a white mask without any decorations, passing us by wearing a black cloak like a ghost.

This scene made me feel weird and uneasy. Caius was used to these people coming and going. People wearing masks or holding masks stopped and nodded to him when they saw him.

Some people took off the gorgeous masks on their faces, and under the blooming firelight, their pale faces possessed a delicate and exquisite beauty.

"Long time no see, Caius."

They greeted me softly and politely, some people noticed me behind Caius, their peaceful eyes rolled into crimson greed, and their red lips curved horribly to reveal their white teeth. I immediately knew what they were.

Vampires, everyone who has passed this way is a vampire.

Where the flames are strongest, the vampires take off their black cloaks and wear baroque costumes.The high-grade silk dress on the woman's body floated lightly with her graceful steps.I saw the pink mosque brocade material, dotted with various golden ribbons and laces layer by layer, like flowers blooming in the deepest part, withering luxuriously and expensively on their bodies.

The clothes worn by men are much more subdued than those worn by women, gorgeous European-style aristocrats with lace-trimmed velvet dresses, and normal suits without ties.In addition to wearing a mask, some also wear a flaxen cowboy hat on their head, paired with that kind of lace-trimmed clothes, with unique taste.

I mixed in, like an ugly chestnut who accidentally ran into a flock of swans, rolling around and dragging the aesthetic average.

Caius didn't change his clothes, he just wore his usual black suit for work.His designer likes simple design very much, so his black work clothes are called suits, but in fact, all ties and folded collars are uniformly buttoned, very similar to Japanese boys' school uniforms.

With his exquisite appearance that can stand out from the crowd, even if he wears a sack to attend the king's banquet, some people will regard him as His Royal Highness.

At first, I thought it was weird for Jaina to let me wear a one-shoulder Greek dress, but when I got here, I realized that I was actually pitifully reserved.

Moreover, these non-human beings who came and went were very surprised by my appearance. They didn't come up to watch, but just looked at it suspiciously.But because of the existence of Caius, no one expressed this curiosity directly into words.

I found that there was no sense of security around these guys, because there were too many vampires at the same time, and the body would become very sluggish, but it was not as obvious as the reflex of fear when being with a vampire.

I was groggy, like walking into a nightmare, and I was stepping on clouds, and I would fall to the ground at any moment.

The only thing that made me feel substantial was Caius' cold hand. I held his hand instead like I was grabbing a drowning driftwood.

Caius didn't like so many vampires appearing at the same time. His indifferent expression was more deterrent than those gorgeous and grotesque masks.

Others politely greet him as air, sometimes I feel that he is in a very vigilant and terrible state, whoever comes closer, he can't wait to break the neck of the guy who passed by him .

A food-protecting beast——I shouldn't think so, that kind of image really lowered Caius' grade.

"Does Aro have to be so exaggerated every time? Let so many outsiders with ulterior motives mix in the castle, just for an inexplicable banquet." Caius dragged me past a fountain, and I found that the groundwater here Really full.

"Banquet?" I repeated his words strangely.

"Birthday party, he thinks it will make the Volturi alive. Let vampires from all over the world enter the castle, bringing a kind of friendly and warm communication effect to this place." Caius couldn't feel it at all. He was extremely irritable at the joy of other people's birthday parties, and obviously he didn't have any good feelings for those who came to the birthday party. "So some guys, even I can't prevent him from entering here. Even if I have explicitly prohibited him from entering Volterra, he still has the ability to get the invitation letter from Aro, and come here with a purpose."

I hope that the hypocritical guy with a purpose in his mouth is not Carlisle. I don't want my friend to get such a bad evaluation.

We finally see the door, and the melody of violin and double bass floats beautifully above the vaulted ceiling.Entering the bronze carved gate, you come to the magnificent reception room.

This is different from the hall I first came to. I am in the dark underground of the castle, and no sunlight can reach here.There were huge candles and oil lamps hanging from above, and burning torches on the walls.

Illuminated by bright flames, the resplendent ballroom presents the most intuitive and shocking visual enjoyment to the entrants.

A mixed and improved version of Baroque and Rococo, I am about to be dazzled by this exaggerated architectural style.

There were too many vampires coming, and almost everyone had masks on their faces, giving me the illusion that next year's Venice Carnival was ahead of schedule.

A woman in a black V-neck tutu dress came over, her actions always carried a secret allure, and the purple lipstick brought a morbid laziness to her beautiful face.

I thought she looked very familiar, and I finally remembered that she was the Heidi who flew the plane.

"Caius." Heidi walked over with a bright smile and greeted him. It seemed that she could handle this kind of banquet with ease.

"Ah Luo, when is he going to end this boring activity?" Caius showed no respect at other people's birthday parties. He looked at the vampires gathered in the hall, too many people obviously made him a little bit nausea.

"He is reminiscing with old friends. Every time on his birthday, all kinds of people who are unforgettable to him will gather around him. This is his happiest time." Heidi bit herself naturally Purple nails, she raised her eyebrows and said charmingly.

"He doesn't know that it's dangerous to do this? Anyone can let it in. I can't guarantee that the security measures here will be allowed to be ruined by him." Caius angrily condemned in a low voice, "Even if Renate stays here all the time Around him, there is no guarantee that some insidious guys will sneak in."

"He needs the excitement, Caius. And he trusts our guards to protect it, and trusts that no one is foolish enough to make trouble in the Volturi at a time like this."

"Whoever makes trouble will die." Caius was so cruel that there was no room for change, and he was not blinded by this kind of gorgeous banquet.He said to Heidi: "This is not a good time to talk. If that guy wants to see Claire, let him make another appointment."

After speaking, Caius gloated and gritted his teeth.

With such a contradictory expression, I don't know how entangled his inner emotions are.I always felt that if I let "that guy" make another appointment, Carlisle might never see me again for the rest of his life.

Heidi doesn't care about Caius' convulsions, her public relations courses are always the best in Volturi, and soon she pulled out a few masks and greeted me.

"Hi, Claire, Ah Luo also invited you, let's go in and have fun." After she finished speaking, she stuffed me with a gorgeous mask that half covered my face, revealing the mouth and chin.

I received it in a hurry, and looked up to see Caius glaring at me, as if I had taken some hot potato.

The strength of his grip on my hand was a clear warning to throw that damn mask away.

I endured it, holding on to the mask in my hand and not letting go.I'm sure if I miss my meeting with Carlisle this time, I won't get another chance at all.

Although there are so many vampires here, my whole body is tense, and I don't know who to be afraid of, but compared to seeing Carlisle, I have to endure this feeling of fear.

Caius couldn't bear it anymore, he snatched the mask from my hand, and said viciously: "Idiot, I don't know how to live or die." After speaking, he was about to throw the mask away.

My body was moving faster than my brain, and before I knew it, I jumped over and grabbed his arm, dangling on Caius, trying to reach for the mask.

When my brain reacted and saw that I was almost hugging him, I was completely dumbfounded.At least one sentence is correct, I really don't know how to live or die, I snatched something from him, and I can predict my tragic end.

Caius let me cling to him like a wombat, glaring at me, debating whether to strangle me first or crush the mask.

Heidi looked at us curiously, as if our weird interaction was entertaining, and she bit her purple lips, on the verge of bursting out laughing.

I let go of my hand embarrassingly, unable to comment on my overreaching.After you do this kind of stupid thing, you will find that your IQ has dropped very sharply. I may be locked up here.

Fortunately, Caius didn't explode his temper. He frowned and pondered for a while, then suddenly stretched out his hand and dragged me over, putting the mask on my face.

"You must obey me." He said to me as an order, and then took another white mask from Heidi's hand that could only cover the upper half of his face, and put it on his own face, revealing his delicate chin and red lips.

"Don't make up your own mind next time, Heidi." When Caius led me over, he lowered his voice and warned her coldly.

Heidi put away her smiling face, straightened her back, lowered her eyebrows and responded solemnly: "Yes, Caius."

I don't know how late we have been, the music in the hall is at its climax, and many people are dancing to the melody of the symphony.

Is this a gathering of inhumans?Everyone is wearing a mask and smiling happily.

It might just be their show, like all banquets, not just dancing.

Caius dragged me directly among them, following the rhythm of the group of dancers, he naturally found the dance steps and the rhythm of the music.

There is a second-floor terrace above the hall, and behind the marble columns is a small symphony orchestra.There are pianos, violins and various orchestral instruments.

"They are human beings." I felt strange and asked softly.

Caius looked up indifferently, and an indifferent smile flashed across his mouth. "There's only one human here."

I froze for a moment, he had already turned around and dragged me forward.

I have only seen this kind of dance in serial dramas. The ladies in gorgeous and luxurious long dresses dance gracefully and familiarly, like butterflies flying among flowers.

What surprised me was that when Caius put on the mask, even in a simple black suit, and danced to the music without any pressure, his movements were as smooth and gorgeous as anyone else.

I thought this guy was always on top, and the only way to have fun was to punish the prisoner with a cold face.

He can dance, why is this fact so inconsistent.

"Claire, where's your sense of rhythm?" Caius finally couldn't stand my clumsiness, he dragged me into his arms, so that he could get rid of the tragedy of me stepping on his feet countless times.

"I never had that thing, I can't dance." I muttered awkwardly, if it's okay for me to listen to the music and beat the beat, but it's difficult for me to follow the rhythm into dance steps.

"It can be seen that you can't see such a simple dance step." What Caius was concerned about was not that I couldn't dance, but why I couldn't learn it by watching others dance.

I think this kind of problem must be caused by the generation gap generated by our IQ.

And it's definitely not an illusion. Although everyone around is dancing, everyone's eyes are on me and Caius.

Fortunately, there is still a mask, which can bring me a little cheeky courage, and I am under great pressure to allow Caius to despise me.

Soon Caius let go of my hand, and he planned to teach me this European-style court dance himself.Looks like he's just dragging me here to dance, and he's not going to find Arlo and Carlisle.

He quickly followed the music behind me, put his hands on my waist, lowered his head and said in my ear: "This is a ballroom dance, and there will be no physical contact between the dancers except for their hands. Women use it to show off their finery, and men to show off their gentility."

You're not a gentleman at all right now, I really want to rip his fingers off my waist.

"You can extend your hand to invite me, and I will respond to you, Your Royal Highness." Caius blew lightly next to my ear, and his silky voice was full of strange and dark temptations.

My hair stands on end, is he stunned?

After Caius finished speaking, he let me go, and appeared in front of me like a phantom, waiting for me to reach out.

I was dry, and stretched out my hand hesitantly, my ears were still itching like hell, and I was afraid that my hand would be chewed by someone when I stretched out my hand.

"Very well, then you should go around and show off your clothes." Caius said coldly, without the alluring softness just now.

He looked normal like this, I turned around with a sigh of relief, the skirt was fluffy and there was no feeling of showing off, only the illusion that it was going to be naked.Caius dragged me into his arms again, his body was cold and hard.

Didn't it mean only hand contact?When others dance, they obviously only raise their hands and hold hands, why do we have to hug and hug non-stop.

"Next time you wear pants, don't spin around anymore." Caius wouldn't let me move, the expression on his face was mostly covered by the mask, only his over-tight jaw showed his irritation.

Am I going to dance hip-hop or hip-hop in pants?

Actually, you don't have to drag me here to dance, let me meet Carlisle.It's a pity that I didn't dare to say such words, so I had to continue to raise my hands, holding up my skirt and slowly moving my feet like others.Others were circling like a flower, so I stopped to watch them circling. Caius looked at me like a terrible cell boss, not letting me out of his sight for a second.

His footsteps are very slow to match my jerky movements, and the rhythm of the others is obviously faster than ours by several beats, and the movements are neat and beautiful.

We became two small fishes in the clean and clear water that couldn't keep up with others.He waited for me to reach out, hold my hand, and then guide me to the next move.Then someone started laughing accidentally, and I looked down in shame, the mask is such a good thing, you can't see who is laughing at you.

Anyway, Caius wouldn't laugh out loud, he'd just find me irritatingly stupid and unteachable.

"Come on, Claire." Caius stood two steps in front of me, his voice was somewhat urging, but his body movements were surprisingly patient.On the white mask, his red eyes were purely translucent under the shadows, darkness and brightness appeared in his eyes at the same time.

These are a pair of magical eyes, reminding me of those vampire movies, where bats appear in the dark and become handsome men.Their expressions are similar in purpose, the bloody coldness and the long-settled affection appear miraculously on the same person.

For a moment, I felt that I was bewitched, unable to distinguish reality from dreams.I don't know if I was afraid of being hurt or deceived, I took a step back and my hand slipped from Caius' palm.Our dance steps were immediately staggered, and a couple of dancers just got in between me and him. I was pushed away by this tide-like force, and I naturally left the dance circle and came to the edge of the hall.

Here and there were great clumps of beautiful flowers, and long tables with bone china cutlery, and I saw many empty tall glasses, towering up on white tablecloths.

No food, only cutlery.

A rose fell into the glass, as if falling into a transparent abyss, and it was so bright.

I found that Caius didn't come to me in time, and I don't know who caught his fast steps.Standing at the table, I finally saw him in the dancing crowd after a while, and found that the irascible guy couldn't wait to get out, and was about to fight someone.He grabbed a blond-haired man by the collar and smiled sinisterly.

I'm not short-sighted, but I suddenly realized that the person he was pulling, don't look at the fancy aristocratic costumes and masks, very similar to Carlyle.

This is an illusion. Caius wouldn't plan to murder Carlisle in full view. His IQ couldn't be that low.

Most of the dancers have good genes and standard height, and I was quickly blocked by this group of people.With both hands holding the long skirt that was in the way, she stood on tiptoe trying to see what was going on inside.

"Do you need help?"

A sweet and childish voice sounded, and I felt a chill all over, and a huge thrust came from my back, and my body fell forward involuntarily under the push of this gravity.Reflexively, I reached out to support the table, but I didn't have the strength to support myself. I fell onto the table, and all the tableware and flowers, including the glasses, fell down.

It was Jane, and I remembered her voice strangely and clearly, but couldn't figure out why she was pushing me.

Lying in a pile of rotten porcelain and glass slag, the pain swept over my senses, and I gasped heavily due to lack of oxygen, especially on my arms. The flowers are still strong, gushing out with pain.

I looked up and faced the second-floor terrace. Aro was not wearing a mask. He was standing there in a black robe and looking at me.There was the excitement of getting what he wanted on his cold, pale face, the madness distorting his facial expression.

The hall became silent within a few seconds, as if waking up from a dream, the illusion of the day was defeated by the reality of darkness, and when you opened your eyes, everything was silent, deep and dangerous.

There is only one human here.

And the rest are vampires.

I still looked at those masked guys in a daze, and fell into a pool of blood, and those broken glasses were stained with my blood.

Greed became a kind of rabies, infecting everyone as violently as a hurricane in the shortest possible time.Even the mask couldn't hide the ferocious roar, and several black shadows rushed towards me like mad dogs.

"Claire."

Caius' voice was almost screaming, his pitch was high, but I've hardly ever heard him sound so close to panic.

I had to run away, and I tried to stand up desperately holding on to the glass shards all over the floor, but someone had already pounced heavily on me, touching the blood on my body.Another black figure flashed through the air, kicking the one who jumped on me away.Then I turned around and twisted off another vampire flying over. Everyone went crazy, and the empty tableware was just right for my blood.

I became the only sacrifice, and no one knows how the conspiracy came about.

Caius moved so fast that all he could hear was the howling of the air in his movements.

Seeing him rushing out, Ah Luo slammed the balcony's column railing heavily, and shouted something to his side.

I was dazed, the darkness enveloped me, I clutched my bloody arm, and saw Caius turned his back to me, facing all the greedy vampires in the hall.

"Violent | Rebellion, death penalty."

He ordered sharply and frantically, "Anyone who dares to touch her will die to me."