Chapter 1

Aro walked alongside Marcus, neither one saying a word as they strolled the halls after feeding. Within the palace, they were perfectly content in the knowledge that nothing out of the ordinary would happen so neither one of them were overly focused on their surroundings. That is, until fifty feet up the hall from them part of the wall was pushed open.

They paused, confused at first since neither one knew there was a passageway there. The two stared in shock when a female crawled out and turned, slamming the panel shut and leaning back against it as she panted for breath. Their shock, however, wasn't just the appearance.

Marcus tilted his head to the side, lip curling in the corner before he lowered his voice and spoke to Aro. "Do you see what I see?"

Aro opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off from doing so when there was a hard bang against the panel, making the girl against it scream and scramble back from it, the name of their tracker bouncing off the walls at a pitch that hurt their ears.

The two kings slid back into the shadows as the female tripped all over herself to get to her feet before darting down the hall in the direction of the Elite wing of the palace. They waited a moment to see what, if anything, would follow the girl out and were not disappointed when the panel was once again opened revealing two grown men.

Both Aro and Marcus stayed still and silent, watching as the two men got to their feet and began looking around themselves. After a moment, the shorter of the two looked at his partner. "Which way did she go?"

The other man, looking at an electrical device, pointed in the direction the girl ran. "That way; it's the most direct route to the little bastard's room."

The first one that spoke nodded, speaking again as he turned that direction. "Then let's go. We have to get to her before she gets to him."

The second man tucked the device away and then pulled out a gun, cocking it to load the chamber. He then looked at his comrade. "I don't rightly give a fuck if she does or not. If the prince gets in the way, I'll put a bullet in his head."

With that, the second man took off down the hall leaving the first one to stare after him and shake his head before he too started running. "Yeah, 'cause killing the prince a stellar idea."

Aro and Marcus stepped out of the shadows once the two men were around the corner and just stood there for a moment before Marcus turned to Aro. "Are you as confused as I?"

Aro's lip was curled in the corner when he glanced at Marcus. "About what? A vampire we know to have been killed nearly twenty years ago crawled out of a hole in the wall we didn't know was there as a human teenager followed by two men that for some reason think Demetri is a prince and can be killed by a bullet. What could possibly be confusing about that?"

Marcus could only narrow his eyes before Aro started after the men. His curiosity over this was more than he could bare and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

They both knew the way to Demetri's rooms, but instead of going straight there, they followed their noses, taking the same path as the female they hadn't seen in eighteen years. Her path took them through more passageways that they had no idea existed and actually cut the trip to the fourth floor of the palace nearly in half.

When they emerged from the last one, they found themselves just around the corner from the double doors that blocked off the Elite's wing. They also stepped out right in front of Jane and Alec as they were on their way to their rooms.

Not expecting that, the twins both jumped back slightly in shock. The question of 'where the fuck did you come from' on the tips of their tongues, both were stilled when the familiar but lost scent gripped their noses. Pure confusion colored their faces as they looked at their masters, Jane being the one to get the question out. "How? She's dead."

Before the kings could say a word, there was a blood curdling scream and a gunshot, spurring all four into moving. When they rounded the corner, they saw who the kings recognized as the men from before feet from them and the human version of the dead vampiress curled into a ball in front of the doors that stood between her and the one the other vampires knew she was trying to reach.

Jane and Alec, not really thinking about what they were doing, pounced on the two men as the kings watched the human scramble to the wall, pull her foot back and kick it out, knocking out a chunk of the wall and crawling inside. A moment later there was a deep growl that had Jane diving for the doors, Alec taking over the restraint of her captive. Punching in the code that unlocked the doors, Jane shoved the door open, nearly expecting to see a very bloody mess when she did so. Instead, the four vampires in the hall saw a shell shocked tracker that looked like he was staring at a ghost standing in the halls and the half-conscious human on the floor at his feet.

Demetri, who was pulled out his room by the noise going on outside, stared at the human that had just slammed into him and knocking herself for a loop, his jaw lax and eyes slightly wide. It couldn't be. It was impossible.

But... it HAD to be.

Human or not, he could never mistake that scent. He moved to her side, crouching down next to her and, reaching a hand out towards her so slowly it was like he wasn't moving at all, he brushed her hair from her face. He then turned her head, his unneeded breath catching in his throat. He swallowed hard, speaking so softly it was as if he thought that any louder and she would vanish beneath his touch.

"Aria."