CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

STEFAN AND VLADIMIR


“Edward,” I said quietly. I knew that it was pointless trying to speak to him in a low voice with Aro and Caius in the same room, but I felt embarrassed that our visit was well in truly turning out to be riddled with moments where I was being kept out of the loop.

“Stefan and Vladimir?” he asked, sounding a little surprised as he continued to stare at Aro, ignoring that I had spoken.

Stefan and Vladimir are two very old vampires from Romania, and they were the law when it came to the vampire world before they were overthrown by the volturi fifteen hundred years ago. They were eager to come to our aid when we were almost killed by the volturi for having Renesmee, mostly because they still have a strong desire to get back at the volturi and re-gain their positions and power in the vampire world.

“What is it!?” I demanded, speaking louder now and to all three of them. I was really starting to get sick of being the last one to know anything here – was it really that hard to slow things down for a split second and verbalise?

“Ah, sorry Bella,” Edward said, reaching his hand out to hold mine. I held it firmly in hopes that he wouldn’t forget to include me again before discussing something.

I turned to face Aro and Caius, “well?” I asked.

“Bella,” Aro started, “killing your witch is only a small part of this, situation; we don’t know her strength, who her connections are or if she even has any. We need to plan our actions carefully as this has the potential to put our entire race at risk!”

This thought scared me a lot, not because of the fact that it could affect all vampires but because it meant that my family was in serious danger. I couldn’t bare to see anyone of them get hurt – and I knew that both Edward and I would want to die if Renesmee was killed.

“I think that you and Edward should go to Romania,” he continued, “and seek Stefan and Vladimir’s advice on this as they should know more than Caius and myself.”

I looked over to Edward to try and see what he thought about this – I knew that it was inevitable that we wouldn’t be able to seek all the help that we needed from the volturi, but I did get my hopes up when Aro had first said that he knew about witches; I naturally wanted a quicker fix.

“Aro suspects that the Romanians have a few secrets about the witches that only they know,” Edward said with a stern tone to his voice – clearly filling in the other thoughts that he felt I should have been aware of that were not voiced by Aro. “Hopefully, because of the fact that they helped us the last time we were in need, they can help us with Desiree as well as any other witches that stand in the way of vampire existence.” 

I knew that Edward was highlighting to me that Aro couldn’t be fully trusted – he always seemed to be able to generate a separate agenda that benefited himself, especially if it concerned any potential threats to his power. The significance that witches play in our world shows how insignificant we really are in the scheme of things – vampires aren’t invincible!

“What kind of secrets?” I asked, a little suspiciously. At first I had directed my question to Edward, but then decided that Aro needed to realise that he couldn’t hide while Edward was here, so he should be answering for himself.

“Well,” he replied, bearing a large and somewhat nervous smile on his face, “I’m not sure exactly what they know, but I do know that they have been particularly close with witches before, more so than any of us.”

“Unfortunately it’s a win-win situation,” Edward said, answering my thoughts. I had no desire what-so-ever to get caught up with vampire politics and seek information that could strengthen Aro’s power status, but we needed to find out how to protect ourselves from the illusive danger that Desiree brought – I just hoped that Stefan and Vladimir would be of help! Its not like we’re potentially declaring war on the volturi again!

*****

After making a few further arrangements with Aro and Caius, Edward and I left the volturi to seek Stefan and Vladimir’s advice in Romania. Aro sent Caius to look for any other witches that could help us in the potential case that we needed one to fight Desiree – he would have sent Marcus and gone himself too, but he didn’t want to risk any other members of the volturi getting suspicious; the fact that we had turned up out of the blue would have already created enough suspicion amongst the group as it was. Edward contacted Carlisle as we drove back to the airport to fill him in on what Aro and Caius had sheared with us, as well as our plans to visit the Romanians. Carlisle would have liked to join us, or at least meet with Caius to search for any other witches, but explained that Desiree seemed to be keeping a close eye on them as she had shown up at Carlisle’s work this morning to see a nurse – he decided to contact Stefan and Vladimir over the phone to forewarn them that we were coming and explain our situation. We had only met them the once when they came to stand up to the volturi with us six years ago, but they had mostly kept to themselves then – Carlisle had the most established relationship which we could only hope was enough for them to be fully open about any secrets that could prevent us from being able to defend ourselves against Desiree if it came to that.

             We arrived in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest, and after hiring a car, drove for around an hour towards the city of Brasov. Stefan and Vladimir lived in the near by mountains and there was only so far that we were able to drive as they lived in an area that was uninhabitable to most humans – Carlisle had arranged for them to meet us at small lookout where we would leave the car and follow them through the mountains to their home. 

            “We’re here,” Edward announced as he pulled over into a small widening to the side of the narrow windy road that I assumed must have been the lookout. I knew it was stupid of me but I couldn’t help thinking that the lookout would have appeared more official or obvious.

            “Are they here?” I asked.

            “Yes,” he replied, “Vladimir is waiting for us.”

            We got out of the car, it was early morning so we still had the cover of night – though it wouldn’t have mattered if it was light as the area appeared that it did not see a lot of people.

            I followed Edward as he jumped the small wire fence on the edge of the lookout in a single, graceful bound – we fell about ten meters before softly landing on the ground below. We were now surrounded by dense bush.

            “Good morning,” a deep whispery voice said from behind us – his tone reminded me a lot of Aro’s.

            I turned around simultaneously with Edward.

            “Vladimir,” Edward said, acknowledging his greeting.

            Vladimir was short and had a slight build. His hair was a light ash-blonde that almost looked grey, and he was wearing similar black clothes from the last time that we had seen him – simple and modern, but with elements of older designs. You could also tell that he was significantly older than many vampires too as his skin had a particular powdery look to it.

            “Follow me,” Vladimir said quickly after a brief moment of eyeing the two of us over.

            He turned slightly and started running down a gully. Edward and I followed closely behind. Seeing Vladimir move fast and gracefully, just like Edward or myself, sparked a moment of realisation – being young, beautiful and invincible for eternity wasn’t all a good thing, or a gift; it was a necessity, natural element that gave us the ability to survive – like a dear with it’s antlers. As time progressed new things would happen, things like Desiree appearing and being a threat to our family. I didn’t know how the volturi had overthrown the Romanian empire fifteen hundred years ago, and I was sure that Edward didn’t either, but what it showed me was that we would always need to be on our guard, fighting to keep our family alive and together!

            We had been running along the floor of the gully for around five minutes when Vladimir took a sharp right and started running up-hill. We soon came away from the dense bush as we gained altitude, and the terrain underfoot became rockier.

            “Not far now,” Edward murmured to me as we continued to climb. The steepness of the slope was slowly starting to level out.

            Vladimir slowed as we reached the peak of the climb. As I looked around I wondered where we could be going. We were high up, and although the surrounding cloud would have diffused any humans, I could clearly see that there were no buildings near-by at all!

            I didn’t want to ask Vladimir how much further as I thought it would make me look stupid; instead, I pushed my shield out to allow Edward into my thoughts.

            A smile instantly swept across Edwards face as he felt my presence in his mind. Discreetly he made a subtle gesture with his head. The gesture was clearly directing towards something ahead of us, but I could not see anything expect empty terrain and forestation below. I thought that he might have been suggesting that it was in the next gully on the other side of the mountain as this was the direction we were heading, but if this were the case I didn’t understand why we had slowed down.

            We followed as Vladimir lightly jumped off a flat, large boulder that stuck out of the mountain top, landing on a flatter surface a few meters below – we were heading down the other side of the mountain again, and I assumed that we would be resuming the same speed as before.

            Edward grabbed my arm as I landed from the small jump, jerking me back as my body had already prepared itself for running forward. As I turned to face Edward and Vladimir, wondering why we had stopped, I instantly noticed that we were now standing in front of an opening in the side of a mountain – a cave.

            “Welcome,” for a split second I thought that it was Vladimir speaking, but realized quickly that the voice had came from a slightly different position. I could see Stefan walking towards us from the dark cave opening, and I remembered noticing the similarity of their voices when we met in Fork last.

            “Come in,” he added in a more serious tone when he reached the opening of the cave, “Carlisle has filled us in a little on why you are here, we have much to talk about.”

            We followed as Stefan turned around and walked back inside the cave. Although the cave was pitch black, I could see far better than any human would have been able to, and I noticed that it was varying to the right slightly. After walking a few more meters, I noticed that we were heading towards what seemed to be the end of the cave. As my eyes continued to quickly adjust to the pitch-black surrounds, I realised that it wasn’t just a blank dead-end, but a rather an entranceway! The entranceway comprised of a large grand set of double doors made from stone that was covered in subtle, but intricate, carvings of people and elements of forestation.

            “Wow,” I let out quietly as I took a moment to take it in. The attention to detail was exquisite, and I assumed that the images were from the times when Stefan and Vladimir were the leaders of the vampire world – the vines and forestation contrasted with the distinct civil depiction of the flawlessly beautiful figures, which were clearly vampire, made me realise that the doors would have easily been a few thousand years old. I was standing right in front of something great and historical, something that any archaeologist would go nuts over.

            “Its Vladimir’s work,” Edward murmured to me quietly.

            “Its beautiful,” I said, turning to face Vladimir who was standing behind. He smiled slightly and nodded his head a little in acknowledgment of my admiration.

            Stefan moved towards the doors and pulled them open with ease – they were about thirty centimetres thick and made from stone, so would have been practically impossible for even the strongest human to pull open.

            We followed as Stefan lead us down a relatively long corridor that was lined with a dim light every metre or so – the contrast between the ancient stone walls, which were lined with a continuation of Vladimir’s exquisite carving, and the modern dimmed lights intrigued me. It was possibly the greatest example of vampire history – a history that was continually being written as the original owners still lived there. The corridor stopped as it opened up to a large, grand sitting area. To our right was a wall that contained paintings in gold guilt frames, and straight ahead was an archway where the corridor continued and I assumed led to other rooms. To our left was the greater part of the room. The far wall was filled with the largest fireplace I had ever seen. It was about five meters wides and went up the full height of the room, which was about six or seven meters tall. The only carving on the stone walls was decorative design, not of anything in particular like the entranceway, and there was a mix of old and new furnishings. The room was dimly lit by modern, unobtrusive styled lights; as well as the light that came from fireplace. In front of the fire place were two modern, white leather sofas that looked dainty compared to the grand surrounds, which included the odd piece of ancient-furniture, such as side tables and cabinets which were also filled with various historical artefacts.

            Stefan stood in front of us, facing us now, “please, take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the white sofas.

            “So, the volturi have told you the truth about witches?” Vladimir said as we sat down, “our greatest secret.”

            “Carlisle appears to have filled you in on what we already know,” Edward replied, clearly referring to his ability to read their minds; “we’re looking for any other information that you may see as useful in killing a witch if this is necessary.”

            “Well,” Stefan said, “from what we have heard, killing your witch will be necessary – and you will need another witch to help you.”

            “We haven’t seen one for over fifteen hundred years though,” Vladimir added.

             “You can thank the volturi for that!” Stefan’s comment reminded me of how bitter the two Romanians were about being overthrown, and what they were like in Forks six years ago – so eager for a fight to break out with the volturi.

            “How so?” I asked. Whilst I understood why they were bitter towards the volturi, I was under the impression that they would have been somewhat working together when they destroyed the remaining witches, “Aro said that ware wolves were the reason,” I added. 

            Stefan and Vladimir exchanged a look with each another and Stefan chuckled a little at this. “Aro is lying,” he said.

            I looked at Edward; slightly annoyed that he hadn’t mentioned this part to me earlier.

            “Its news to me too,” he said, looking back to Stefan and Vladimir to continue with an explanation.

            “Well he wasn’t lying exactly,” Vladimir explained, “he just wasn’t telling you the truth.”

            “What Aro forgot to mention was that Jewdica’s daughter, Natacha, had survived,” Stefan continued, “Vladimir and I were in charge of the vampire race then but we were ultimately responsible to Jewdica. We were loyal our witches bloodline; we honoured them as our creators, and they protected us as leaders. Natacha was the only witch in our, society, left and she was very weak after the fight. Aro saw this as an opportunity for himself and persuaded other vampire guards to turn on us and kill her. Vladimir was taking care of her at the time he and a group of others broke into her room, she was so weak from the fight that all Aro needed was for Vladimir to be distracted by fighting for a second so that he could plunge a dagger into her heart.”

            I looked over to Edward to see if what Stefan was saying was true or not. The look in his eye when he looked back at me confirmed that Stefan was telling the truth – Aro had clearly locked away this aspect of the story in his thoughts. I didn’t know how I felt about being ruled by witches, my only experience of one was Desiree, and I wouldn’t want to be living under her authority. But I did feel sorry for Stefan and Vladimir as they were both clearly loyal to them – Aro’s rise to power wasn’t fair, he used a weakness for a personal gain.

            “Thank you for shearing this with us,” Edward said, clearly sharing similar thoughts to my own.

            There was a moment of silence before one of them spoke.

            “So,” Stefan said, “to address the reason of your visit; to kill a witch, one as powerful as what Desiree sounds, you need to drain their energy and flow of power. The only way to do this is with another witch.” 

            Another moment of silence passed. “Where were we going to find another witch?” I thought to myself. Desiree was powerful, but Aro and Caius were genuinely shocked to hear about her; and they had made it clear that witches weren’t exactly floating around!

            “Well, thank you anyway,” Edward said, breaking the silence. He had clearly heard in their minds that they could help no further.

            I felt defeated. I really believed that they would have been able to give us more promising advice – and I felt disappointed in Aro too, betrayed even! Not for his dirty way of coming into power, but for giving us false hope – it seemed like he was using us as a way of making sure he would be able to hold onto his power; that the Romanians didn’t know something about witches that they could use to gain their power back.

            Edward stood up and both Stefan and Vladimir followed his lead – to show us out I assumed. I stopped just as I was about to get up to – Edwards cell phone rang.

            “Carlisle,” he said, in a slightly unsure tone.

            Although my hearing gave me the ability to hear every word that Carlisle was saying, as if he were standing in the same room, only one word suck with me, one name – Renesmee.

            Panic struck through my entire body as I realised that she was in danger. Carlisle was explaining the rest but I wasn’t listening anymore – Desiree had kidnapped her!

            “Bella!” Edward said. He was off the phone now and standing in front of me with both hands on my shoulders trying to snap me out of my own thoughts.

 “Bella!” he said again.

I looked at him but couldn’t find any words to say in response as my thoughts were moving to fast for me to process. I didn’t know what to do – I wanted to get back to Seward, to try and find Renesmee despite knowing that we didn’t have a chance if Desiree wanted to kill any of us; but I also couldn’t help feeling like Stefan and Vladimir should have been able to help more. I wanted them to have had some sort of answer that would give Edward and I the ability to kill Desiree. If Aro had been able to block certain thoughts from Edward then maybe he was able to block something else in relation to why he had sent us here –

I pondered on this last thought for a moment, and out of desperation I convinced myself that Aro hadn’t sent us here for nothing. I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts on finding the edges of my mental barricade so that I could share this with Edward. I found the edges of my shield with ease, but as I attempted to push it out towards him I felt that another force was pushing it back. This instantly reminded me of when I had used my shield to stop Desiree from hurting Edward – the power she was exerting over Edward felt the same as what was pushing back on my shield, only, this was far stronger. I continued for a brief moment longer, usuing as much mental force as I could to try and push it out, but it still wouldn’t budge. 

I opened my eyes and stared at Edward who was still trying to snap me out of my trance.

“There’s magic here!” I blurted at him, realising the reality of this as I spoke.

He froze instantly after I spoke.

“I, ah,” I stuttered as I attempted to explain further, “I was trying to communicate with you, but, something was pushing it back, like, like what I’ve felt with Desiree, but much stronger.”

“You can feel it?” Vladimir asked, his voice sounding surprised. From the look on his face I could tell that he was in deep thought about something, questioning something. I watched as he exchanged a look with Stefan who I could tell knew exactly what Vladimir was thinking.

“What’s –” I started, but before I could ask them what was going on, Edward jumped at Vladimir.

“Liar!” he shouted, as he pushed him into the cabinet against the wall behind.

            Stefan had now jumped into action and I watched as he ripped Edward away from Vladimir, throwing him into the adjacent wall where a large painting hung and broke as Edward’s body hit it. I jumped up from my seat and ran to stand between Edward, who was starting to pick himself up, and the two Romanian’s.

            “Stop!” I shouted.

            I looked at Edward to make sure that he was listening, and the anger in his eyes subsided a little.

All chapters are copyright © of Jonathan Cameron 2011

CHAPTER TWENTY

VOLTURI

We sped through the windy back roads of Bear Creek to reach the main highway, which would take us to Anchorage. If I was human the combination of speed with the sharp corners of the narrow road would have violently knocked me around, but I sat perfectly still. My mind was a different story though; I was anxious of what lay ahead and at the same time worried that leaving Renesmee was a mistake. Edwards phone lit up, momentarily interrupting my thoughts.

“Who is it?” I asked as he pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Its just Carlisle,” he replied in a soft, reassuring tone as he briefly looked at the screen. I realised that my voice clearly reeked of the anxiety that penetrated every aspect of my body. We’d left the house almost immediately after Edward and I had fed – Carlisle was to book our flights so that we wouldn’t waste any time, he was simply passing on the booking information. 

I forced myself to sit back into my seat. “Relax,” I told myself. I felt foolish, embarrassed, and weak. I felt like I should have been stronger than I was feeling; I needed to get a better control over my emotions – I was acting to, human.

“Stop,” I said to Edward suddenly and in moment of spontaneity as I was literally speaking as I thought.

He slowed his speed a little, but didn’t stop; “Bella?!” he asked, clearly surprised and confused by what I had said.

“Just stop the car,” I replied, “I want to drive!”

He put his foot on the break again, bringing it to a complete stop this time. I needed to get my mentality out of this sad, unhelpful mood and figured that by taking over the driving I would be able to better concentrate on the actual task at hand. My anxious, worrying thoughts were not helpful, and could even potentially put us in a bad situation if I wasn’t focusing on the right things.

There was a sense of uncertainty between Edward and I as I sat in the drivers seat. It wasn’t like there was a problem with me driving or anything – I was just as competent as he was; pushing the normal limits of things such as the speed and handling of a car wasn’t an issue when you had an indestructible body, and he wasn’t concerned about me being physically fragile any more. The uncertainty between us must have been coming from the fact that I was simply breaking a habit – Edward usually drove, no questions asked; he didn’t insist on it, it was just how it always turned out.

We remained silent as I gripped the steering wheel and floored the accelerator, speeding along the road. As we came into the next corner I didn’t slow down and instead accelerated hard – something that Edward had taught me few years back. I looked to my right, to where he was siting and noticed that he was smiling slightly.

“What?” I asked, in a tone that was half cheeky, but also suggested that I was already slightly offended if he was going to critique my driving. The uncertainty between us from when I’d asked to drive had vanished, and I realised that my whirlwind of anxious thoughts had been pushed much further towards the back of my mind – he must have been smiling because he had realised why I wanted to drive, and could see that it had worked.

“Not bad,” he replied, referring to the corner I had sped around; “break just before this one ahead, then floor it when we reach the peak of the corner,” he added.

I grinned at him in response and gently tapped my foot on the break, slowing a little. As soon as I felt the car start to pull in the opposing direction from the forces of gravity I slammed my foot back onto the accelerator. The car fishtailed slightly, but I kept my foot on the gas, which after a second or two gave the car the ability to gain traction again, speeding towards the next corner that lay ahead.

Edward continued giving me small tips as we winded our way through the back roads and onto the main highway to Anchorage. The distraction I had set up for myself had worked, I was completely focused on getting to Italy and I felt in control again – indestructible too, like a vampire should feel! Edward and I had also been able to enjoy some much-needed fun together - something that I realised had been seriously missing after all that had happened over the last week.

We didn’t have to wait long when we arrived at the airport – we technically should have been catching the late morning flight, given the time that it took most people to drive from Seward to Anchorage; but thanks to my un-humanly mannered driving, with Edward helping as my “co-pilot”, we caught the 1am to Italy. We didn’t talk much on the plane as most of the other passengers were asleep and I knew that if we did the conversation could easily turn to pointless worry – as easy as it would have been, I didn’t fall back into my mental rut of panic and anxiety, I was able to keep that under control.

The last time, my one and only other time that I had been to Volterra was when the town had been riddled with people celebrating Saint Marcus day – yes, the same Marcus from the volturi; it was all part of a plan allowing the volturi to remain living secretly under the town, as well as the cause of many of the major vampire myths seen in fictional material today. The flight to Italy had eaten up most of the day, and by the time we had flown from Rome to Florence and driven form the airport their to Volterra it was almost dark, so we didn’t have to worry about the sun giving us away with any of the human residents around.

Edward, who had driven from the Florence airport, parked down a small side street close to the town’s centre where the narrow passageway that housed the entrance to the volturi was. We hadn’t stolen a car like I had with Alice the last time; instead, we had hired a Mercedes much similar to Carlisle’s. 

“Lets do this,” Edward said softly, his hand already opening the car door. 

A wave of anticipation came over me, though it was filled with the same nerves and anxiety that I had pushed aside earlier when we were first leaving Bear Creek. I suspected that Edward was experiencing his own set of similar feelings. Coming to see the volturi didn’t guarantee us any answers or information in regards to dealing with Desiree and her family, it just seemed like the best place to start looking.

I got out of the car too, and walked towards Edward who was now standing a little way from it waiting for me – I realised that I must have been stalling a bit, letting my feelings get the better of me. “Vampire not human,” I said in my head – a last minute plea with my brain to focus on the more important task at hand, seeking some helpful information!

I moved to where Edward was waiting. Unexpectedly, he grabbed my hand, pulling my body into his. He smoothly moved his free hand up towards the back of my head and pulled me in to kiss him. His kiss was hard, and somewhat forceful – it emanated a certain passion that instantly gave me the control I had just lost. The kiss had worked like a strong drug and I felt like the invincible vampire I was again. I kissed him back with this re-found confidence, trying to express to him just how positively his affect was on me; he was my rock.

Edward was the first to pull away and we stared at each other for a brief moment. I noticed that he had a similar look of confidence in his eyes to how I felt that I was feeling. Without speaking to one another, as we didn’t need words to express ourselves, we walked with our re-found confidence to the dark, narrow passageway just off from the town centre where the volturi would be – its emptiness highlighted the fact that I had Edward with me this time, as the last time my fate, loosing him, was in my hands only.

*****

The lift in the passageway had been strategically placed away from any of the limited fluorescent lights, making it hard for most humans to even notice that it existed. When the doors finally opened I was surprised to see that it was empty; I had expected that someone like Jane or Felix would be waiting to greet us, to figure out what we were doing here before disturbing Aro – I was sure that they knew we were here though.

Edward and I walked together down the short passageway, which opened up to the main reception area – the “front” for the volturi, which simply looked like any other flash businesses entrance.

“How can I help you?” someone asked in a slightly suspicious tone as we walked into the room. I looked ahead to where the person had spoken from, a young man, who looked like he was in his mid twenties, sat behind the expensive mahogany desk eyeing us over. I was a little surprised to see that the receptionist had changed from the last time I was in this room – though in hindsight this should have been expected; and they were probably not the first replacement after the one I’d met last time either. He most likely had the same desire as other receptionists employed by the volturi - to be turned.

“We’re here to see Aro,” Edward replied. The expression on the man’s face changed, becoming slightly confused. I guessed that he had been trying to figure us out; because of our honey coloured eyes we look nothing like your average vampire but definitely more than human.

“Ah, well,” he was clearly nervous as he spoke, not quite sure what to make of us, “ah, why don’t you take a seat and I will let him know your h– “

He stopped what he was saying suddenly and clutched his head. He was clearly suffering from some form of intense pain.

“Well well, what’s this?” a high-pitched, young girls voice cut in – I didn’t even have to look at her to know that the voice, and the cause of the receptionists pain, belonged to Jane. Her voice always seemed to catch me off guard. It sounded as though she was a young and innocent child, but at the same time, carried an unusual tone of confidence and arrogance – something that could only come with age and life experience. “We haven’t seen you two in a while,” she added.

“We need to speak with Aro,” Edward replied, his tone sounding to-the-point and somewhat cold – he didn’t have much respect for her.

“He’s, entertaining some guests at the moment, but he shouldn’t be too long,” she put emphasis on the words entertaining and guests, and given the playful smirk she was bearing I could only assume that he was feeding. Whilst I had never tasted human blood before, and had no desire to, the temptation and constant burning in the back of my throat was still always there and would never go away – this feeling almost vanished when I thought about the volturi’s eating habits however; they didn’t kill a random person in the wrong place at the wrong time, but large groups of people all at once. 

“Follow me,” she added after the short pause.

We left the reception area following Jane down the large passageway that lead to the same, formally styled meeting hall where I had first met Aro and the other two volturi leaders, Marcus and Caius. When we reached the centre of the room Jane stopped and turned to face Edward and I.

“Wait here,” she said in a cold, professional manner, “Aro won’t be a mo–” she paused for a split second, and I could hear that someone was about to walk into the room; Aro I guessed. “A moment,” she continued quickly with a slight smirk on her face that showed her clear adoration for him, then turned away from us and began to leave the room. When she was about a meter away from her exit we saw him.

“Well hello,” Aro said loudly. He sounded somewhat excited to see us, but at the same time a little unsure or hesitant – this was most likely due to the fact that the last time we had seen each other he had been planning on killing us!

“What brings us the pleasure of your company,” he continued.

I glanced at Edward as I assumed that he would be the one to answer, being a little more familiar with him than I.

“Well,” he started, “firstly its not what your thinking.” I assumed that Aro was thinking something along the lines of seeking revenge – which would of course been completely justifiable from our perspective. “We’ve came to seek any information you may have on witches,” he added.

Aro’s reaction was one that I hadn’t expected as he appeared to be speechless!

“We sort of have one as our neighbour in Seaward,” I said, trying to prompt him out of the somewhat stunned moment he was having.

“I, ah –” he said, still sounding confused, “this is unexpected! I haven’t seen one in over, two thousand years! Are you sure – ah, may I?” He was now gesturing to Edwards’s hand. Aro had a similar gift to Edward, in that he could read minds, however, only one at a time and only through physical touch.

Edward reached out his hand for Aro to embrace and I watched as he placed both of his onto Edward’s, closing his eyes to concentrate on the images that he would no-doubt be getting. I noticed that I was holding my breath in anticipation like I had the last time I was here, when I was still human.

“Fascinating,” Aro said after a short moment, seeming somewhat bewildered; “she’s very cunning!”

“Who is?” A sharp, authoritative voice cut in; when I looked to where it had came from, the same doorway that Aro had appeared in, I saw that it was Caius.

“Caius,” Aro said, “Edward and Bella have come to seek our advice about a witch, and from what Edward has just shown me she seems rather talented.” His voice contained his usual playful element, though he still seemed bewildered by the news we brought – I always found that Aro was hard to read unless Edward was giving a running commentary, constantly playing the poker face.

Caius’s expression turned from stern and serious, to annoyed and a little frustrated. He looked directly at Edward and I now, addressing us for the first time since he had walked into the room; “like the real ware wolves,” he said, emphasising the fact that we had almost crossed the boundaries of the vampire law that they enforced without exception; “we got rid of most of the witches a few thousand years ago; and haven’t came across one since.”

“Are they immortal?” I asked. I knew that my question wasn’t exactly the most important one to be asking first off, but when he mentioned the word thousand I couldn’t help but immediately think of Desiree – I knew that we were underestimating her abilities.

“No, but they do live a lot longer than humans,” he replied, “we destroyed the main bloodlines.”

“So how do we kill her?” Edward asked.

“Well that can be tricky,” Aro answered, looking over to Caius, “considering she’s been creating other creatures.” Caius was one of the stricter leaders of the Volturi, and quite ruthless when it came to other species that could threaten the vampire race – like the real moon-turning wolves and vampire babies that had almost been the cause of Renesmee and the rest of us being killed.

“Yes,” Caius said. Something in his voice had changed, and though it was highly unlikely, I couldn’t help but think it might have been a hint of fear coming through. “Perhaps we should continue this elsewhere,” he added, speaking directly to Aro.

I looked at Edward, knowing that he would already know exactly what Caius was not saying – his face was reassuring when he looked back, but I was still left as the only one not knowing, which made me a little more anxious.

Aro nodded at Caius in agreement, then turned to face Edward and I; “after you,” he said politely, gesturing for us to follow Caius who was already leaving the room. I hadn’t been to any other parts of the volturi property apart from the reception area and the large meeting room we were in, but I assumed that it was far larger considering the amount of vampires that were a direct part of the ruling coven. The hallway was a lot narrower than the one between the entranceway and the meeting hall, but had the same stone walls. We followed Caius down a flight of stairs and then to the end of another rather long hallway. The room appeared to be someone’s office or study. It was a large room, with grand, highly lacquered dark-brown furniture. The room was lit by a large chandelier – although it had been clearly dimmed creating a more comforting atmosphere. In front of a wall completely lined with books were a couple of sofas, which we moved towards.

“Have you ever wondered where vampires originated from Bella?” Caius asked after brief moment once we had sat down – due to Edwards’s abilities I was the only one who needed verbal filling in here.

“Ah, no,” I replied feeling surprised with myself that this notion hadn’t occurred before. I had thought about it when I was human, as had most others considering the amount of varying answers there were on offer. But where vampires had originated from hadn’t even crossed my mind once; I was just happy knowing that I would be able to love Edward and Renesmee forever.

“Most vampires believe that we began as a result of a disease that affected the genetic make-up of the body,” Caius explained, “and they are right; but what they don’t know is that a witch was behind it!”

I wanted to look at Edward, and to try read any possible feelings he had about this, but changed my mind as I quickly remembered that he would have already processed any surprise. In that brief moment that I continued to look at Caius, waiting for him to continue, it all hit me at once. Desiree had created Savannah and Eric, the venevores, just like another witch had created the first vampire. It also confirmed that she would clearly be stronger than us, which sent lightening bolts of defeat through my body.

“Just over two thousand years ago we killed the last of the known witch bloodlines that were around with the help of a witch named Jewdica. The most effective way to kill a witch is for another witch to drain enough of their power so that a vampire can successfully wrench a dagger through their heart, which is the source of their magic. The heart is the only way to go about killing a witch, but only when their magic is weakened enough as the power that the heart possesses is greater than a thousand vampires,” he continued in detail. “It was Jewdica’s ancestor, his bloodline, who had created the first vampire. The last few generations of his family had been slowly killing off other witches in order to protect the growing vampire race and essentially gain total control and dominance over all three races, human, witch and vampire.” 

What Caius had said was a lot to take in all at once and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fully accept this for at least a few more hours. My predominant thought was with the reason that Edward and I had came to the volturi in the first place – to ensure the protection of our family. “So, where is Jewdica?” I asked Caius, hoping that he or someone else from his bloodline would be able to help us deal with Desiree. I assumed that as we had moved to a more private room that the reality of witches in our world was a well-kept secret, and one known only by leaders such as the Caius, Aro and Marcus, possibly the Romanians too.

“Jewdica reached the point where he had almost gained total control, with only one other bloodline left to kill. This particular bloodline however had created an unexpected weapon – ware wolves!” Caius explained, his clear hate towards ware wolves showing in his voice, “as we took the hearts of the last bloodline two wolves came from nowhere and attacked Jewdica and the other members from his bloodline, who were all vulnerable and wakened themselves from fighting. This resulted in the end of both bloodlines. We managed to gather ourselves and take down the two wolves, but they weren’t the only ones of their kind – the ware wolves had spread fast but we have since been able to hunt most of them.”

The feeling of defeat that was running through my body before had subsided a little, making way for one of numbness and insignificance. I felt small and weak all of a sudden – I was still a new vampire, so was Edward in comparison too, and he had ninety years on me! I thought about what Caius had said, trying to process what I could. I wondered whether his hate towards ware wolves, his near death experience, had started from this battle.

“So how should we deal with Desiree?” Edward asked, speaking for the first time and bringing my busy thoughts to a head. “She needs be killed! She could destroy all vampires.”

“We need another witch!” I exclaimed, stating the obvious as I came to the realisation that she could very well be the only one!

“What we need is a way of killing her without having a witch by our side!” Aro said after a moment of silence, his voice sounding oddly enthused. He was looking at Caius, clearly referring to another secretive aspect of the whole situation. I looked over to Edward as I remembered that he would have known exactly what Aro was thinking - the look on his face as he stared at him was a mixture of bewilderment, surprise and hope.




Copyright © to Jonathan Cameron 2011

CHAPTER NINETEEN

WELCOME TO THE SUPERNATURAL

The concept of witchcraft seemed so fictional to me – which of course was contradictory considering my permanent status in this world!

“So what happened at the airport?” I asked Jacob as we were driving home. I knew the basic facts, that Desiree used magic to capture him; but I wanted to know what is was like, what it felt like – magic was a foreign concept to me, all new aspects of being a vampire were more, physical feeling, beyond super-athlete! Magic seemed so mysterious.

“Ahh, well,” he started, sounding a little confused, “I’m not really to sure! I was walking down the last corridor towards the metal detector, and as I stepped through it I found myself in a locked room at Savanna’s house.”

  “And when I say locked,” he added, “I mean like with magic, or, some kinda force! I tried to break the flimsy looking door down, but couldn’t even leave a mark!”

I longed to be able to laugh at this – the thought of Jacob being too weak to knock a door down would have been funny about a week ago, when were still in Forks. But it wasn’t funny – given the circumstances. The concept of dealing with the reality of one new beyond-real being, a venevore, was more than overwhelming, but two!? It turned our world upside-down! Desiree wasn’t being subtle in expressing to us what she was either, and that she is more powerful than she looked. Somehow she knew that we were vampires, that Jacob was a warewolf, and Renesmee, half vampire and half, human – something that was meant to have been completely unique.  

I didn’t know what to say! I was a vampire who had the ability to process twenty things in a matter of seconds and I was speechless – I felt weak, human again. I was an easy target before Edward turned me, fragile and weak; but where did I stand now when I had reached invincible? Where did any of us stand against these new beings!?

“Bella,” Edward’s voice was clam as it broke my full-powered train of thought, “we will figure this out! Stop worrying so, hard,” he continued somewhat thoughtfully.

I turned to look at him. He was looking back at me, his face serious, his eyes intent. He looked worried and concerned, but strong at the same time – there was hope inside of him; something that I seemed to be neglecting. I realised that my neurotic instincts, which were kicking in from the potential threat that Desiree and her family brought, were clearly much stronger than when I was human – I guess this helped to explain why I was feeling so weak, so un-vampire!

The car came to a stop, we were home. As I momentarily continued to stare blankly at Edward I wondered whether Alice had seen anything, had she seen Jacob vanish? Had she seen Edward and I become consumed with bloodlust? I couldn’t hear that she was home yet, they would all still be in the last class of the day no doubt.

I flinched a little as Edward stroked his hand against my cheek – I wasn’t flinching out of discomfort, but the complete opposite. His touch was like an ice-pack to a fiery burn – not cold like when I was human, but soothing. I forced a slight smile in appreciation of the comfort he was giving me, then turned to get out of the car.

“Jacob!” I heard Nessie exclaim as she raced out the front door to meet us - I hadn’t even shut the door of the car yet; she would have heard us coming from the beginning of the long driveway.

“Are you okay?” she asked, the concern in her voice pained me, “what happened? You just, vanished!?”

A slight feeling of guilt rushed over me at Nessies concern for Jacob – I had brought her into this world, a world that wasn’t safe!

“I’m fine,” Jacob replied, pulling a slight grin as he spoke.

“Show-off,” I thought to myself. Jacob being his usual, witty self, was instantly beginning to mask the sombre, negative thoughts that I seemed to be generating at high-speeds.

Nessie’s face relaxed a little too, and she gave him a hug.

“Come on, lets go inside,” Edward said to me, “Carlisle’s almost here and schools finishing in a few minutes; there’s something I want to run past you first, before everyone comes home.”

I followed Edward into the house and up the stars to our room. I had no idea what he waned to talk to me about.

“Bella,” he said softy as he closed the door behind him.

“What is it? I asked.

“We don’t know how much of a threat Desiree and Savanna really are, and we don’t know anything about what they are;” I nodded for him to go on, I knew this already so wasn’t quite sure where he was going, “the point is, we need information – and we nee it quickly,” he added, “we need to know what we are dealing with because it doesn’t just effect us.”

I thought about this for a moment, “just us? Who else was there?” Then I realised – vampire life didn’t involve just “us,” we were part of an elite world, a secret world, with its own set of rules–

“The volturi!” I exclaimed, as I made the connection. He nodded slightly but continued to let me process things. He wasn’t referring to the volturi specifically, but I knew that if Desiree and her family were a threat to our existence, which we weren’t entirely sure of yet, then they would also be a threat to all vampires - and if this were the case then the volturi would no doubt be the first on the scene. “Has Alice seen something?” I asked, thinking that she may have had a vision that they were deciding to visit due to some sort of future commotion that Desiree and her family were going to cause. The idea of the volturi visiting made me nervous, we didn’t exactly sit in the best of places with them; the last time we saw them, around six years ago, they left feeling somewhat humiliated, and defeated in regards to the power that they held over us – the friendship that Aro had with Carlisle was somewhat broken, and Edward knew that our large family threatened them. 

“No,” Edward replied, “she hasn’t. But I’m thinking that we should visit.”

I clenched my teeth as I realised what he had said – despite the fact that I knew I could protect us all with my shield, I still felt nervous at the thought of seeing them; probably more out of habit than anything.

“We, as in all of us?” I asked, knowing that he probably meant himself and Carlilse, maybe Alice too. I didn’t want to think about being separated from him. 

“Just you and I,” he replied, “Carlisle needs to stay here, people will notice his absence as he’s proving pretty popular at the medical centre – and we can’t all take time off school either, we have to look normal, blend in as much as we can still.” 

“So why you and, me?” I asked, em phasing the word me – Edward had almost one hundred years over me, I was still a new vampire really; “wouldn’t Alice be more helpful?”

“Well Bella, like I said before,” he replied, “we want to blend in; if we go away then it will just look like we’ve just taken a holiday or something – and in Desiree and her families eyes, a holiday for us should be more understanding considering what Desiree has just put us through.”

He did have a point, if a few of us were to leave then Desiree and her family would get suspicious; but if Edward and I left, we would have a better chance of them buying whatever story we decided to throw their way – Desiree especially as she seemed so confident that she had power over all of us, her arrogance would hopefully get the better of her in this case.

“Plus,” Edward said, with a slight grin on his face, “your more useful to me than Alice. You can protect us from any of their gifts. If they decide to do anything that would put us in danger, I will be able to hear it in their thoughts; and if its something that they haven’t thought of yet, then Alice will be able to contact us on the cell phone – she’s already watching them closely here.”

I thought about this for a moment – I liked the idea that I was more useful to this venture than Alice, not because I was jealous of her or anything, but because this was the first time that my gift was being relied on with more certainty about the extent that I was able to push it. I had simple surprised everyone six years ago when the volturi came to kill us. 

“So your with me?” Edward asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be with –“ I stopped as I realised what he meant. “Renesmee,” I said quietly. Leaving with Edward to go to volturi would mean leaving her behind. I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her, especially if I wasn’t there, and both Desiree and Eric had taken a particular interest in her.

“No – “ I started, but stoped as Edward put his hands on my shoulders.

“Bella,” he said, looking directly into my eyes, “I don’t want to leave her anymore than you do, but I have a plan! We will only be gone a couple of days and the others will be with her the entire time, so they won’t touch anyone. You can protect us in the forest tonight so that we can all hunt, that way we can ensure that everyone will be together while we’re gone – and whilst Alice can’t see Desiree and her family in her visions, she will see if Renesmee’s future disappears, then we will come straight back.”

*****

I agreed to Edwards plan after a little more convincing. Though still I hated the fact that we were leaving Renesmee behind, I knew that it was more important to find out about witches and venevores, considering we were now living with some; and how to protect ourselves from them! When everyone had arrived home Edward and I filled them in on what had happened with Desiree this afternoon - including Alice who couldn’t get a vision of us - and discussed our plans to see the volturi immediately. They all seemed to agree; none of them liked the idea of a visit from them any time soon, as they would most likely blame any disruption on us – any excuse to get rid of such a large, and potentially threatening clan. Carlisle also made the point that if anyone knew anything about these other supernatural’s that they would be likely candidates – given their age.

I stood at the edge of the forest a few hours after dark, with Edward by my side. Everyone except Edward and I was going to hunt while I protected them, we would go together once they had fed. I closed my eyes, concentrating on letting my shield flow from me in multiple directions as they each went their separate ways to catch their prey.

Edward and I were to leave in about an hour to catch a flight to Italy from the international airport in Anchorage. The flight left in the early hours of the morning, but we had to drive to Anchorage first, which was around one hundred miles away, as the Seward airport had no flights there until tomorrow. Once we were in Italy we would then meet with the volturi in hopes of discovering some useful information on this new element to our supernatural world that we all faced.

Copyright © to Jonathan Cameron 2011

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ANSWERS

Edwards grip around my waist tightened slightly as the first glint of the mornings sunrise began to form in the horizon over the large mass of forestation the filled our bathroom window. From around 2am we had stopped talking to each other, waiting, still and silent as marble statues for Monday to come around. The rest of the weekend had been a bit of a waiting game too. Carlisle, Edward and Jasper, had been spending as much time as they could at the library, but had found little information on exactly what a venevore really was and where they came from – we were hoping that today would bring some real answers. I was anxious to see that Savanna was going to show-up at school, that she would honour her promise to answer some of our questions.

            

I leaned back slightly in Edward’s embrace, lifting my arm and finding his smooth face with my hand. I gently ran a couple of my fingers down his jaw line – lifting the barriers of my mind I said the words, “I love you,” as loud and clearly as I could, without making an actual sound from my mouth. He answered with another slight squeeze of his arms around my waist, and continued watching the sunrise in anticipation for the day to come.

Renesmee had came better by Sunday, but we still made her take things easy – the headache had gone, but her strength wasn’t yet as strong as usual. She was looking forward to seeing Jacob again after his first weekend back in Forks visiting Billy, this week had felt like an entire lifetime, and we all had noticed his absence; he was meant to have come back Sunday evening, but we received a call a few hours beforehand from Billy, who said that his flight had been delayed due to a bad storm and was rescheduled for today. We weren’t surprised by the call though, as Alice, who was now able to see visions of Jacob as she had became use to his presence, had been keeping an eye on him and saw the freak storm and the delay coming well before meteorologists. Esme and Nessie were picking him up from the airport early this afternoon.

The sun was almost in full view over the horizon line. I watched it closely, my anticipation growing. I could see the sun moving inch-by-inch, higher into the sky. As soon as it came into full view our day would begin.

“Bella,” Edward murmured, a little awkwardly, unexpectedly breaking the silence of the last few hours. I turned slightly to look at his face. “Your elbow,” he added in the same awkward manner.

I concentrated on my elbows, quickly realising that I was digging one into his chest a little to hard – my whole body was on edge today. “Opps,” I said, quickly relaxing it. I still had moments with Edward where I forgot that in terms of fragility we were equal.

Edward kissed my shoulder as I began to let my body gently sit against his again.

“Perhaps we should just start getting ready,” he said about a minute later, “the others are anxious to start doing something now too.”

I liked this idea a lot. Time was moving excruciatingly slow, watching the sun rise every inch. I was out of the bath and drying myself before I had the chance to answer him, “I think that’s a great idea,” I said as I ran the towel through the wet ends of my hair; my voice sounded like it had more of a ring to it than usual.  

*****

Getting up earlier didn’t help at all; it just made the morning seem that much longer! We hadn’t seen Savanna at school yet, but Edward reassured us that she was here. Our first three classes of the day, English, History and Science were extremely slow. Why did Math have to be in the afternoon! The one day that it wasn’t in the morning!

We were the first to be waiting at our usual lunch table, along with Alice. Nessie was coming towards us now.

“Eric doesn’t seem to know anything about our arrangement with Savanna,” Edward said, monotonously shearing Nessie’s thoughts before she had reached the table to shear them herself; “he’s keeping his distance though – probably a little confused from us intervening with his plans at the party on Friday,” he added.

Nessie sat down, and Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper joined us a few minutes later. After lunch Nessie was to be picked up by Esme, so that they could get Jacob from the airport together. She was excited to see him – this weekend must have seemed a lot longer for her being stuck in bed for the large majority; Jacob had no idea what had happened at the party and she was probably dying to tell him all about it.

I remembered my fears about Jacob and Nessie falling in love so soon, as she was only a few months off becoming fully grown; but I wasn’t as worried now. Jacob and Nessie had become a lot closer over the last few weeks, but it wasn’t the type of love that I had feared; they were best friends, companions – maybe the romance would come in a few more decades, after all, we’re living forever!

For the rest of the lunch break we all seemed to be consumed in our own thoughts, making the odd bit of small talk – moments like this were never awkward for us, we were all so used to one another.

“And three, two, one,” Jasper muttered. On one, the bell indicating that it was time for classes to resume rang – he had clearly been counting down out of anticipation for meeting with Savanna.

“Esme’s here,” Edward said to Nessie.

“Great!” she replied enthusiastically. Her anxiousness was concentrated on Jacob as oppose to the slightly more frightening thought of finally getting some answers out of Savanna in regards to what exactly the deal was with her and her family – something we were looking forward to, but was frightening never-the-less.

“Have fun,” Alice said, as she started getting up from her seat. Edward and I were meeting with Savanna alone. We were hoping to organise a time with her during math class, or to even skip math and talk to her elsewhere.

I smiled slightly at her, “keep watch,” I replied.

She winked at me as she turned to head to her class. The rest of us got up too, making our way out of the cafeteria. “See you at home,” I said quietly to Nessie, as she was about to part from Edward and I to sign out of school for the day at the main office.

“Bye,” she replied quietly.

Edward took my hand, squeezing it slightly as we continued down the corridor to our math class; we were a matter of minutes, seconds from finally seeing Savanna since my outburst on Saturday. I could sense that Edward felt the same climax to our waiting as me.

Savanna was standing opposite our math class, looking more nervous and awkward than usual – she was constantly moving slightly, shifting her bodyweight from leg to leg. “Hey,” she said quietly, her voice quivering a little; “ahh, meet me in the car park.”

She didn’t give Edward or I a chance to respond, walking past us immediately towards the office – possibly to sign out?

“Lets go through the cafeteria,” Edward murmured to me, “we don’t want to make too much of a scene with all of us leaving.”    

I followed Edward, back though the cafeteria to take the different rout to reach the car park. We kept our pace slow, human and casual, as we didn’t want to bring any attention to ourselves – we were still susceptible to being noticed as straying students in the teachers eyes!

When we reached the student parking lot Savanna was waiting for us near our Volvo. “I guess we’re skipping class,” I said to Edward under my breath.

“So, where are we doing this?” Edward asked Savanna, when we were a few metres away from her.

“Desiree knows,” she said, “we’re going to see her”. I wasn’t quite sure whether that was a direct reply to Edwards question, or more of a sperate statement, a demand even.

“I’ll drive,” Edward said, his voice sounding a little confused – Savanna must have had the usual guard up for protecting her thoughts.

I sat next to Edward in the passengers seat; Savanna was in the back. We didn’t talk as Edward drove to her house. The silence seemed rather awkward to me. Though I had the feeling that I already knew that answer, I wanted to ask whether this change in plan was a bad thing. Desiree seemed to play the lead figure in the family, introducing us to her family, and coming across so confident – I wanted to know Savanna’s thoughts on that, before we met with Desiree. I was confident that she was in some kind of trouble over this.

I refrained from speaking however – she seemed nervous and on edge. Instead, I pushed the natural barrier that constantly surrounded my form out towards Edward so that he could read my thoughts – he always knew instantaneously when I was allowing him into my mind, to read my thoughts, as he always seemed to show it on his face; even when it was fixed like a statue I was able to make him twitch ever-so-slightly. I knew that he wasn’t able to respond with Savanna in the backseat, but was happy that I was able to express my thoughts knowing that he was listening.

The car slowed and Edward turned the indicator on as we pulled into Savanna’s driveway. We parked outside the entrance, and Savanna was quick to open the door. I started to do the same, remembering to be slow as Desiree was probably watching us from the house – I hadn’t looked. We’d not said that we were vampires, though it was obvious that Savanna and her family could tell that we were more than human. As I began to pull the handle of the car door with my left hand, I felt Edwards smooth touch as he grabbed my right. I turned to look at him.

“Remember your gift,” he murmured. Then he let go to get out of the car himself.

Despite the fact that I had just used it to communicate with Edward, I had forgotten about using it to protect in case anything went wrong in this situation – was I going to have to enter a series of potentially dangerous positions with various supernatural beings to remember that my gift can be used to protect? Remember that it was a weapon of sorts, rather than just a means of being able to communicate with, Edward!?

I put that thought to one side as I stepped out of the car, following Savanna and Edward inside.

“Edward, Bella,” Desiree said, in the same welcoming tone from when we had first met her as we walked into the living room. She was sitting in a red armchair, which I hadn’t seen when we last here – it must have been moved out of the way, in a corner or something. It wasn’t as worn as the other furniture in the room, but definitely looked as though it was from the same period. She looked like a Queen sitting in her throne – her long black hair was luscious and sleek, with a gentle wave and blended with her matching black dress. She wore dark lipstick, and a little black eye liner, which accentuated her white skin. If I was still human I would have seen her as flawlessly beautiful – but I could see normal human flaws in her skin, so I knew that she definitely wasn’t a vampire, or at least didn’t have that same trait of everything being enhanced when turned! Not that this observation actually meant anything; after all that had happened over the last couple of days.

“Please, sit down,” she added, gesturing to the three-seater couch across from her, “Savanna tells me you have some questions?”

I followed Edward, who was heading to the couch to take a seat. “Yes, we do,” he answered, a little coldly, “I’m sure your aware with all that has happened over the last few days, otherwise we wouldn’t be meeting with you; so lets cut to the point, what exactly is a venevore?”

Desiree’s face seemed thoughtful as she spoke; “Well its rather self explanatory,” a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice, “a venevore is a creature, a being, who lives on a diet of, venom.”

“Using their claws to infect another’s blood stream to create a source of food, we’ve got that,” Edward said, a little impatiently, “how many of you exist? Where do you come from? What does Eric want with Renesmee!?”

“Savanna,” Desiree said, maintaining a certain level of grace and elegance in her voice, “would you get us all something to drink?”

“Ahh, sure,” Savanna said, quietly, her voice still trembling slightly with nerves like she did in 

the school car park.

Desiree looked back at Edward, who hadn’t seemed to had taken his eyes off of her whilst she spoke to Savanna. “Two,” she said matter-of-factly, answering him, “I come from Salem, Massachusetts; and as for Eric, well, he is a venevore like Savanna, isn’t it rather clear what his intentions were?”

Edward let out a low growl that I was sure only I could hear – she was over-confident, and looking down on him, which he didn’t like! Reflective of his age perhaps. I was processing what Desiree had just said, only two venevores! If Savanna and Eric were the only two, then what was Desiree, she had to be something more than human, she held too much control over Savanna.

“What are yo –“ I was cut short as all of a sudden the sweetest smell entered my nose. It was a familiar smell, but in a form that was a lot more concentrated than what I was use to. It was blood, fresh human blood outside of a body! The burning in my throat was increasing by the second, and I clutched it as I looked over at Edward to see if he was having the same reaction. He seemed to be composing himself better than I was, but it was clear that he was struggling too.

“Bloody-Mary anyone?” Desiree asked, her voice now clearly lined with amusement. Savanna immediately came back into the room, with three glasses of dark red liquid, fresh, warm blood, each with an authenticating green stick of celery. She placed the tray on the small coffee table between Desiree, Edward and I. The drink was clearly not the tradition tomato juice and vodka mix, but simple pure human blood. 

I focused on trying to paralyse my body, the smell was so strong now, sitting right in front of me. I was afraid that if I moved even half a millimetre I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and if I drank it then it would almost be impossible to drink from animals again. I remembered what Edward had said before we came inside, to use my gift! Now would have been the perfect time, except I couldn’t shield the smell of blood – if it even were possible for me to do so then it would be something that would take years, even centuries to perfect. Blood was something so engrained into me, into all vampires. The constant thirst was the price I’d paid to be with Edward for eternity –

Desiree chuckled, and the smell instantly went away. The burning in my throat didn’t subside as quickly, however, I was in full control of myself again and could risk moving. I looked over at Edward, he appeared to be feeling the same way as me. 

“You’re a witch!?” he said, gasping slightly. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at Desiree as he spoke this time, but rather the three drinks on the table; they were now a light and more tomato-red colour, no longer the deeper red of the real blood, they looked and smelt the way they were suppose to – to any human that is.

“And you’re a vampire,” she replied, with an element of humour and sarcasm in her voice, “and clearly vegetarian? Which type of animal do you prefer to drink?” It was evident that was mocking us now.

Edward glared at her. I was rather overwhelmed by the whole situation; this really was not going as we had planned. I starred at Edward, waiting to see what he was going to say next, what he was going to do – I was waiting for him to jump from his seat and push her to the wall, demanding that she take us seriously or something, but he remained perfectly still. He calmed his face, but just as he was about to speak his cell phone rang. He answered it immediately. My sharp hearing allowed me to hear every word of the person calling – it was Esme. I wondered why she calling; I glanced over at the clock on the wall, Jacob’s flight should have landed about ten minutes ago.

“Edward! Edward!” I heard Esme exclaim when he put the phone to his ear, “something’s happened to Jacob! We saw him coming off the plane, down the hall to meet us, he was even waving at us, but as soon as he came through the metal detector he vanished!”

Edward immediately looked at Desiree, glaring at her, and bearing his teeth slightly. “Don’t panic,” he said through his clenched teeth, “I think I know what’s happened, just go home.”

I watched the phone crush in his hand as he slowly re-closed it. He kept his eyes locked on Desiree. She stared back, looking smug and content. “Where is he?” Edward asked. I could tell that he wanted to hurt her badly, but guessed he was restraining himself as she was clearly unpredictable.

“Upstairs,” she replied, “you can have him back shortly, don’t worry.”

Her face then turned cold and serious, “I just thought that I’d make the most of this, opportunity, to let you and the rest of your family know that this is my town.” She held her stare of a moment longer after she had spoken, then relaxed he face slightly again, “I think its time you both left,” she said abruptly.

“Savanna! Get the dog would you.”

She was clearly more powerful than she looked. How had she known that we were vampires and Jacob was a wolf – did she know that Nessie was half human too?

Edward was the first to move, getting up from his seat. I followed him as we left the living room. Jacob was waiting with Savanna by the front door, his face looking a little sheepish. Edward went through the door first, I stopped to let Jacob go before me, he smiled slightly – he must have been glad to see Edward and I, he sure had a lot of catching up to do!

As I was about to step onto the porch outside of the front door Desiree spoke, making me freeze, “Renesmee is a fascinating creature,” she said, slightly playfully. I knew that she was playing a game here, being tactful about something – what was prompting her to bring Renesmee up? Then I remembered that Eric wanted to kill her, to turn her blood to venom to drink. 

I was about to turn around, to face her – I wanted to run at her, threaten her. But Edward beat me to it! His body flashed past mine, and I turned instantly to help, to watch his back if he attacked, but he stopped suddenly when he was about half a metre away from her – his muscles were tense, his back arched and he groaned slightly. He was in pain! I realised that I had seen him like this before. Jane from the Volturi had had the same effect with her gift!

“Gift!” I thought, suddenly remembering what Edward had said earlier again. Closing my eyes I focused on my shield, pushing it out towards Edward, I could feel the strength of the hold that Desiree had over him, but was able to move past this completely surrounding him. I opened my eyes, and Edward looked like he was in control of his body again. I couldn’t see his face but I could tell that he was glaring at her; Desiree was ignoring him, fully focused on me – I stared back at her. She looked a little stunned, which I took some pleasure in; Desiree had clearly not expected me to be able to stop her.

“Lets go,” Edward said, breaking the silence. He turned around and started coming towards me. I did the same, leaving the house. I had a good control of my shield, and I didn’t need to see Edward who was behind me, to continue to cover him with it.

I kept my shield expanded around the three of us as we drove away from their house. Our meeting with Savanna had not gone to plan at all, and we were left with even more questions due to being taken by surprise with Desiree – but, on the other hand, we had learnt enough to give us a better grounding for finding more answers ourselves. 




© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2011