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Whenever Liza speaks, no matter when, no matter to whom, the other person hears her words in their mother tongue. She had found herself in all kinds of funny situations where people were utterly surprised by her knowing their language. By now, Liza had had enough time, a couple hundred years to be more specific, to learn all those foreign languages. Always focusing on the “hearing” part of the studying process, she can now understand quite a lot.
Howsoever, there is one language that had stroke her attention. A language almost forgotten, that no one speaks anymore. Except for some medics and wannabes who were forced to take it in school. Latin.
Some decades ago, Liza had been found by Aro. And where Aro is, there are the Volturi. They had taken her into their family, shown her around and integrated her into their community. Though some of the other vampires hadn’t been quite fond of her bursting into their collective without warning and obviously no respect. They all had been intrigued by her gifted tongue while Aro seemed fearlessly amazed. Amongst all the vampires, there had been one of them who just hadn’t been able to turn his attention from her.
Felix and Liza, a relationship that had evolved the most stereotypical way possible. She was the new, rebellious girl that no one seemed ready to accept. He was on the opposite site. Felix wasn’t actually forbidden to interact with her, yet it wasn’t welcomed. So, he tried, putting all his strength in avoiding her – with no success. Liz had teased and annoyed him ever since she knew she had his attention and one night he snapped.
Just like that Liza had found herself involved with probably the strongest vampire ever known. Tall, dark-haired, mean looking – and an absolute teddy-bear when it comes to her.
A hand grabbing her by the wrist pulls Liz out of her thoughts. She turns her head to the right, only to spot Felix, his eyes trained on one of the cashiers. Liz wrinkles her nose at the intense smell of grease and the look of mortals stuffing themselves with fast food. The place they find themselves in is nothing special. A small, overcrowded Starbucks™ in the middle of Rome.
When she had asked Felix why they were here, he had only ever answered, “Just wait. I need you to meet someone.” It’s been hours and people came and went when Felix suddenly gets up. He pulls her with him and waits in the line to order.
Liza frowns. We spent hours at this place why is he only ordering now and why is he ordering at all? But Felix’ plan is not to order something off the menu. When they reach the desk, Liza locks eyes with the cashier and instantly knows. He is one of them. This Starbucks™ cashier is a vampire.
She flashes him a toothy grin as Felix speaks up, “Demetri, long time no see, old friend.” He waits for a response but continues when the cashier doesn’t answer, “this is Liz, I want you to meet her.”
“Hi, nice to meet you Demetri. How is the scouting going?”
The cashier’s eyes snap to Liza and widen – not in surprise but in terror. He looks back to Felix, looking paler than usual for a vampire. “What- Nobody’s spoken that language in thousands of years.”
Demetri’s voice is nothing more than a whisper, enough to shut out mortal human beings, yet nowhere near quiet enough to shut out vampires. Felix smiles at Demetri, “Incredible, right?” And bending his head down to Liz he adds, “Latin, just like me.”
Liza smiles at him, then looks back at Demetri and asks, “Can I get an Iced Coffee, though?”