Not the Right Shade

Studied

The gift would be a marvelous addition to his family. And, after all, she was Alec's mate. Maybe if she wanted to leave, he could use this information to make her stay.

'No, Aro.' He scolded himself. 'She doesn't even know what a mate is, doubtful she'll stay because of that.' He knew it would be unwise to use Chelsea to shift her loyalties. Apparently, Sybil can sense when someone uses a power on her, which results her in disappearing for safety. Regardless, Marcus had told him that Sybil was now close to the twins, as even Aro could see how the siblings were so quick to remove Sybil from the throne room to avoid anymore traumatic experiences.

Aro wasn't expecting his children to be so taken with the strange nomad. Alec, he could understand. The mating pull would certainly draw him to her, but Jane? She had no other reason to want to be close to Sybil than because she wanted to. Maybe it had something to do with Jane wanting a companion, or Jane's need to take care of a weaker being. Whatever the reason, Aro could work it in his favor.

She certainly could be of use on the next mission...---After an hour long bath and a fresh set of clothes (Jane was very insistent on Sybil wearing a long sleeve black dress that had a bell skirt) Sybil was being dragged by the hand by Jane to Alec's room. The blonde twin was meticulous to make Sybil look as presentable as possible, combing her hair pin straight and out of her face with a hair band, and putting on black eyeliner for a "dramatic" effect. (Jane's words not her's). Sybil couldn't remember a time when she looked this nice. She felt excited that Jane was going to parade her in front of Alec, and that she finally got to see more of the castle.

The memory of last night was already fading from Sybil's mind, being pushed back into her subconscious so that it could deal with the messy affair. Her back still had hair-thin cracks, but she knew eventually they'll fade, sticky grey residue in its place.

The underground castle was beautiful. Sybil figures she could wander around for centuries and still discover something new everyday. The ceilings were painted, there were carvings in the wall, statues were around every corner, the place might as well have been an art museum. Sybil faintly remembers visiting museums often. Something about a war...

All too soon, Jane stopped. If not for her vampiric reflexes, Sybil would have ran into her. The door to Alec's room was indiscernible from any other door in the castle, the only indication it was Alec's room was his numbing scent wafting from beneath the door. Jane didn't even knock and help herself in.

---To deal with his flux of emotions, Alec decided to compartmentalize the day's events and deal with them one by one.

1. The trial. Alec was frustrated that, once again, there was an immortal child. Not like the first few weren't a disaster or anything. And yet, the woman still tried to beg for the child's life. It was probably best Sybil reported the crime when she did, because non of the guards or the Volturi's informants had any inkling about the child. And the last ditch effort to take down Sybil really pissed off Alec. People used to die with dignity, now they try to hurt as many others as they can before they die. The shatters of Sybil's skin did not help soothe Alec's rage in the least. The cracks looked too deep and dark on the fair parlor of the strange vampire's skin.

Which brings Alec to-

2. The cracks. They looked unnatural compared to the cracks on a normal vampire. Sybil's cracks were deep, like if you looked in them, you could see the harden grey remains of muscle. And her venom was gray for god's sake! As if she needed another reason to be labeled a pariah. Sybil's body tried to repairs itself so quickly, the venom must have rushed out and not have had enough time to harden. There has never really been any study of the vampiric body, save from that Cullen doctor's research, so Alec is not really sure exactly how the body heals itself.