Chapter 1

(Sulpicia's POV)

The heels of my shoes clicked against the floor of the castle as I walked outside to our constantly shady garden. My head was swimming in thoughts as I walked thoughts about my love for my husband Aro and thoughts of my thirst and how it will be a few more days until Heidi is back with our food. I reached the sunless garden and sat down on the bench, where Aro and I had shared many a kiss, which was in the center of the garden.

All of the sudden, I hear and see a rustling from behind one of the bushes. Somewhat scared that it's just Jane trying to play a trick on me, I gather courage and walk towards it. I peek behind the bushes at vampire speed, in fear that it is Jane, and see only a human baby. Laughing at myself for getting so worked up about it that it made ME a vampire scared of a human baby! I knelt down and scooped up the child, who seemed strangely comfortable but yet a little hesitant to be in my arms. At human speed, as to not scare the sweet tiny creature, I delicately pulled the infant closer to my chest. I took mental note of the soft pink dress and the small size of the baby, and I realized the precious baby I was holding is a little girl that is about 11 months old.

"You are adorable," I sighed to her. I had always wanted to have children, but the venom took away my ability to give birth to my own children and it would have been too hard to raise a human child here in the Volturi palace, so that old dream of mine never came true. Just looking at the little bambina made me depressed that she wasn't mine and Aro's, she was just so adorable that I wished she was.

While I was lost in thought, she started babbling at me which made me smile. I began rocking her in my arms while she babbled for about 10 minutes before she finally fell asleep for a little nap. There's just something about her that's making me feel very motherly towards her, most likely her cuteness. Soon after she fell asleep, I realized she might get cold from lying in my arms so I took off my deep red velvet cloak and wrapped it around her like a blanket. Once I was sure she was warm, I walked over to the bench and set her down so she could sleep peacefully while I attended to my garden.

I made sure to keep an eye on her while she slept and I watered my roses, tulips and jasmine. While I watered those beautiful flowers, my mind swarmed with thoughts, decisions that I would need to make. After nearly 10 minutes of thinking, which s quite long for us vampires, I had made my decision. I would keep the child and raise her as my own, even if it meant having to leave the reason for my existence, Aro, and my home here in Volterra. After all, she wouldn't have a home otherwise and I've grown to love her too much to give her away. Besides, I don't even know whose child she is to be able to give her back even if I wanted to.

Aro would most likely be difficult to convince at first, but after begging him and maybe even if I start to cry, he would probably give in…

A sly grin crept up on my face with that thought while I moved on from watering the flowers to weeding. For some reason, I did my gardening at a human pace, which is very slow compared to my usual speed. I'm probably moving so slow just in case my bambina woke up while I was still gardening so I wouldn't scare her if she did.

While I was weeding the garden, I thought about what I might want to name my bambina since she would need a new name as there is no way for me to know what her name was before I found her. Knowing Aro, he would definitely have an opinion on the name since her is a very opinionated person. Luckily, I'm having a hard time choosing, so he would get to have a say in the name. So far, I'm thinking his options for our daughter's full name would be Lydia Isabelle Volturi, Anika Summer Volturi, or Emilia Anne Volturi. Though I must say, the latter two options are my favorites.

Just then, my baby girl awoke and started wailing with tears, slight fear and something else in her voice. Worried, I ran over to her as fast as possible to find out what was wrong so I could make everything better. The moment she saw my face she wailing started to quiet down, which made me feel very good about myself because it was like she was wailing because she was missing me, her mother. I picked her up and held her close to my chest in attempt to comfort her and cease her tears all together. She stopped her heavy crying then, but she continued to whimper.

"Shhhh…" I whispered to her in a comforting tone while patting her back, "it's ok my bambina. It's alright."

I looked into her big eyes and saw the hunger in her expression. She must want something to eat! In one fluid motion, I unwrapped her from my cloak and fastened it back around my neck. I clutched my baby to my chest, hiding her under my cloak with the rest of my body as to hide her in case we ran into members of the Volturi guard or Marcus, or Caius, or Aro, or Athenodora. If Aro met her while she was crying and hungry, he wouldn't give her a chance because he would think that she is always whiny without even trying to hold her which would show him that she's only crying out of hunger. As for the others, they might try to eat her or Caius might say, like he always does when a vampire has showed off in front of a human (like I had with my sped to get to her when she woke up crying), 'She's a liability, she knows too much'. Then he would probably try to kill her and if he laid one hand on my daughter to try to harm her, I would murder him. So, for Athenodora's sake, I want to stay clear of her husband Caius so he won't try to hurt my baby so I wouldn't have to kill him.

I ran through the halls of the castle, at my usual speed to keep from alarming or worrying anyone if I ran into any members of the guard, any of the 3 rulers (which include my Aro, who is more like the king or leader of the Volturi which makes me the queen), or my dear sister Athenodora. I smelt the air as I ran through the castle looking for our human receptionist, Gianna. She is the one person in the castle that I would think would have some milk that I could feed to my bambina. If Gianna didn't have any, I could always send her to a store in Volterra to get some milk since she's human she can go out in the sun.

I wound up finding Gianna sitting on the couch in the lobby, relaxing on her break…

"Gianna, do happen to have some milk I could use?" I asked in a somewhat hurried, or maybe it sounded more panicked and worried, tone of voice.

"Yes, Lady Sulpicia," she said as she got up to get the milk, "but, if you don't mind me asking, why do you need it? You don't need, or like when you have to, to eat human foods or drinks. So I'm curious as to why you would need it…" She asked as she pulled the object I requested for from the mini fridge under her desk and handed it to me.

"I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone, not even my forever curious Aro, until I say you may," I answered. Gianna nodded her head quickly with curiosity to reply to my request. I then pulled my bambina out from under my cloak and showed her to Gianna. Her reaction at first was hilarious in my opinion. Her eyes widened when she saw that I held a baby in my arms, and she just stared in awe at the little one in my arms. Then, once she got over her initial reaction, she fished through her purse for a moment before withdrawing a baby bottle.

"Here," she said in a hushed tone, taking the milk back, pouring some in the baby bottle and warming it in the microwave under her desk then handing the baby bottle to me. "You'll need that as well. I had the bottle in my purse from when I was visiting my sister, her husband and their baby last weekend. One of my niece's bottles got into my purse somehow and I was going to bring it back, but clearly you need it more!"

"Thanks," I said to her taking the baby bottle and I started to feed my bambina, who drank from the bottle eagerly. While I was feeding my baby, I told Gianna the whole story of how I found the baby and that I want to adopt this little sweetheart.

"Wow. I hope you tell Master Aro about her soon," Gianna said to me.

"I'm thinking of telling him sometime today," I reassured her.

"Good. So what will you name her?" Gianna asked.

"I'm in between two options: Anika Summer Volturi or Emilia Anne Volturi. But knowing how opinionated Aro is, I know he will want a say in the name so I won't just pick my favorite of the two names. Until her name is decided, I'm calling her my little bambina ((A/N: Bambina is Latin for baby girl))," I told Gianna.

"That's cute! I like that nick-name for her," Gianna said, smiling.

"Thank you, Gianna," I said, returning the smile.

Soon, my bambina had finished eating and Gianna put a towel over my shoulder for me to burp my bambina without getting spit up on my velvet cloak or my beautiful dress.

"Thanks Gianna," I said with a smile on my face.

"You're welcome, Lady Sulpicia," Gianna replied with a smile.

After burping my bambina, I smiled down at her. My little angel made an adorable face and babbled up at me. Then I heard Gianna sigh at my baby's extreme cuteness.

"I'm going to go find Aro," I told Gianna as I handed her back the towel she had put over my shoulder and the bottle I had used to feed my baby.

"Ok, good luck! Oh! And Lady Sulpicia, if Master Aro approves of your adoption of the baby, I'd be glad to help you take care of her," Gianna said to me.

"Thank you, Gianna," I thanked her, with a smile on my face. Then, I held my bambina close to my chest under my cloak (for her safety) once again and I walked off to find my husband.