Chapter 1
Stefan and Vladimir somehow smelled more like death and decay than any other vampires Seth had ever encountered. But maybe that was just because he was one wrong look away from phasing and tearing their stupid, undead heads off.
"But you hate the Volturi, you were plenty eager to help us stand against them last time!" the volatile werewolf fumed as his body began to tremble.
"Yes, and look where that got us! Your coven and 'pack' were decimated, and Vladimir and I barely escaped with our lives! We have no desire to take part in any other futile attempts at taking down the Volturi."
"Ness and I can do it. I told you, they did a number on her in that government lab. She was barely coherent when I got her out, but she's lethal now. If you'd seen the way she took out all those white coats and mutants, you'd be chomping at the bit to help us."
"And yet we are not wild horses willing to throw ourselves into danger without forethought. However," Vladimir continued, holding up a papery hand that Seth really just wanted to chew off with his rapidly elongating teeth. "We have spent the last decade acquiring some… assets, which might interest you."
Once upon a time, the young werewolf would have balked at the sinister edge to the ancient vampire's smile, but now… Now it had him interested.
He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The long-deposed vampire ruler gestured to his companion, one of many loaded signals the two millennia-old vampires had developed in their centuries upon centuries together. Stefan's lip twisted in what Seth supposed might have been intended as a smirk, but the vampire's face was so papery and wrinkled it looked more like a grimace.
"In the decade since the Cullens were destroyed, we have devoted what resources we can to seeking out and ah… recruiting the more… aggressive vampires the Italian scum would have liked to eliminate," Stefan explained as he pulled several manila folders from a desk across the room that looked like it was either rotting or infested with termites. Or both. Seth had to grit his teeth not to snarl when the ancient vampire whizzed across the room to stand suddenly before him and present him with six files, each emblazoned with the ornate V crest of the coven Seth so hoped to destroy.
"Volturi files?" Seth asked incredulously as he flicked through a few stapled pages.
"Yes," Vladimir practically purred at the excited gleam in the young werewolf's eye. "Come, boy, you'll find words hardly do our little monsters justice." Vladimir grinned, showing his cracked and ground-down teeth, and motioned Seth to follow them to a staircase off the empty and dilapidated throne room. He stalked behind them after a moment's consideration.
Stefan's voice boomed against the stone walls as he spoke, following his partner down, down, down into the catacombs of the ruined castle. "Only the most vicious and bloodthirsty savages the Volturi would have completely wiped out… had we not ah, acquired them beforehand." As the old bastard smiled, Seth was close enough to see that blood had settled so thoroughly in the crevices between his teeth that they were turning a nauseating yellow-brown color.
"Kidnapped and unjustly imprisoned, you mean," drawled a bored voice from below. Seth could feel the cold of the ancient stone floor seeping into his shoes as he crossed to the cell. Peering past the bars, he saw a beautiful, half-starved vampire girl staring back at him with pitch-black eyes as she looked up from picking at her long, bright pink fingernails.
She was at the bars so fast he barely jerked back in time before she snapped her teeth at him.
Now it was Seth's turn to smile.
Out of the shadows, more creatures of the dark began stirring in their cells as voices that weren't their own reached their ears but retracted slightly at the sound of Vladimir and Stefan.
"We have the worst of the worst," Vladimir announced, walking through the rows of cells and tapping on the bars to announce to the inhabitants that a guest had arrived. "Of course you've met Miss Allison Callanan, self-proclaimed queen of this group. Just to warn you, she bites."
Seth eyed the ex-cheerleaders' dossiers:
Name: Callanan, Allison
Alias: Allie
Status: Vampire
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Irish, Mexican
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: approx. 112lb.
Eye color: Red/black
Hair color: Dark brown
Born: 1998 A.D.
Turned: 2015 A.D.
Diet: Human blood
Relations/Bloodline: daughter of Helen and Oliver Callanan, older sister of Jason Callanan; ringleader of a group of four former high school cheerleaders all created by Joshua Salvatore, who mistakenly assumed teenage girls would be easy to control after turning.
Abilities: Mind possession.
Crime(s): Aggravated assault; murder in the second degree of Alex Nova and creator Joshua Salvatore; arson.
Sentence: Life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2100.
...
Name: Weinstein, Eleanor
Alias: Ellie
Status: Vampire
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: approx. 110lb
Eye color: Red/black
Hair color: Dark brown
Born: 1997 A.D.
Turned: 2015 A.D.
Diet: Human blood
Relations/Bloodline: daughter of Elliot and Maria Weinstein; created by Joshua Salvatore.
Abilities: Compulsion.
Crime(s): Aggravated assault; arson; murder in the third degree of Joshua Salvatore and human ex-boyfriend Alex Novoa (Hell hath no wrath like a vampire cheerleader scorned).
Sentence: Death.
…
Name: Lowe, Charlotte
Alias: Charlie
Status: Vampire
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: approx. 120 lb
Eye color: Red/black
Hair color: Dark brown
Born: 1997 A.D.
Turned: 2015 A.D.
Diet: Human blood
Relations/Bloodline: daughter of Luke and Daisy Lowe, older sister of Rebecca Lowe.
Abilities: Reality warping.
Crime(s): Murder in the third degree of Alex Nova.
Sentence: Death.
Allison's hiss at the biting comment drew Seth's focus up from the pages and back to one of girls they described. The lovely blue-grey eyes she'd had as a mostly-innocent human in her file photo were now black and narrowed as she glared at Vladimir. "If I wasn't in this damn cage and I didn't love you, I'd rip your crusty old head off and use your skull as a mug."
A sly smile came onto Vladimir's lips as he moved onto introducing the other members of the "cheerleaders from hell," one of whom was separated from the others due to her abilities and the fact that her sister was almost always screaming her name.
"This next one might just pique your curiosity," Vladimir continued, stopping at the largest but by far the darkest cell in the dungeon. "She's the oldest thing in this room – perhaps even older than us; the infamous Enchantress."
Seth was speechless for the first time in what seemed like forever, completely transfixed by Saskia – the host Enchantress chose to inhabit – and how she was actually real. "I thought she was just a myth."
"So did most people, but we got her just in time."
Saskia glared at the three of them, imagining Enchantress tearing all of them to pieces. I like your thinking, child, but our opportunity for revenge will come soon; we just need to wait for the right time. Enchantress's voice used to scare her but now it brought her nothing but comfort, and focused on nothing but her voice – like she usually did while she was in her prison cell.
Seth finally managed to tear his eyes away from the alluring vampire-witch-demon and skim her file:
Name: Gibbs, Saskia
Alias: The Enchantress
Status: Vampire/Spirit
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Mexican
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: approx. 123 lb
Eye color: Dark brown
Hair color: Dark brown
Born: 1993 A.D.
Turned: 2012 A.D.
Diet: Human food/human blood
Relations/Bloodline: daughter of Georgiana and Robert Gibbs; possibly descended from the Enchantress' own line
Abilities: Possessed by a 3,000 year old demon – extent of power is unknown.
Crime(s): Murder in the second degree of an unknown amount of men – reported to be in the hundreds.
Sentence: Death.
"And here is Little Miss Sunshine herself - the vampire who despises vampires." Vladimir swept his hand to a hunched figure kneeling in the far corner of the smallest cell. The figure didn't react.
Seth finally dragged his attention from the alluring Enchantress to skim the other vampire's file.
Name: O'Neill, Elizabeth
Alias: Sunny
Status: Vampire
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, distantly Seminole
Height: approx. 5' 4"
Weight: approx. 110 lb.
Eye color: gold/red/black
Hair color: dark blond
Born: 1991 A.D.
Turned: 2010 A.D.
Diet: animal blood/vampire blood
Relations/Bloodline: Maternal half-sister of Isabella Cullen. Turned at age 19 by Charlotte, criminal in Maria's Southern newborn army which also boasted the God of War, Jasper Whitlock. Killed her sire upon awakening, earning her the ire of Whitlock, whose efforts to kill her were thwarted by the Cullen coven.
Abilities: minor precognition; defensive ability, enabling her to foresee the outcomes of altercations with her potential victims and any moves they make to defend themselves against her. Presumably unbeatable in a fight because she sees every move you make before you even consciously think it.
Crime(s): Unauthorized and reckless dispenser of vigilante "justice." The subject despises all vampires because of her fanatic devotion to a human morality system that claims we are all "doomed to hell." She keeps a tally of all the vampires she has dispatched by burning a small mark into her ankle for every kill. In 2014, a witness reported counting forty-seven tally marks when she rolled up her pant leg before she drew a vampire bone dagger from her sock and hurled it at his head, at which point he stopped counting and fled.
Sentence: Death.
"HEY! SUNSHINE!" hollered Allison at the top of her immortal lungs, making Seth flick his gaze around the ancient stone walls nervously. Surely one vampire bitch yelling wouldn't cause a cave-in? "Show my favorite four-thousand-year-old fucktoy some respect when he talks to you." Allison grinned triumphantly, knowing the other girl hated the fact that she'd slept with their captor almost as much as she hated being called Sunny.
"My name," the figure hissed as she slowly twisted to face the newcomers," is Elizabeth, you vile whore."
"Oh, right, sorry. Sometimes I just forget, what with your sunny disposition and all," snickered Allison as Eleanor and Charlie giggled.
Sunny was at her bars in a millisecond, snarling at the girls in the cell across from hers, sickly-yellow eyes darkening in fury. "You will all burn in the eternal fires of hell for your sins. Filthy, fornicating killers, all of you-"
"Oh my god, Saskia, could you kindly ask Enchantress to shut her the hell-"
"Allie, Allie, Allie," murmured Eleanor, running calming fingers through her best friend's hair. "Ignore her. We don't want Enchantress going crazy on all of us. She's as harmless as Rebecca."
"Ah, yes," continued Vladimir, electing to ignore the squabbling prisoners, "finally, we have our little babydoll; Rebecca Lowe."
Rebecca looked up from her concentration on the floor and immediately locked eyes with Seth, ignoring the comment about being a babydoll. She slowly drifted towards the bars, her dirty fingers curling around them before her angelic voice spoke for the first time since she arrived all those months ago. "Are you the devil?"
The corner of his lip quirked up. "Maybe."
The so-called babydoll smiled sweetly before baring her sharp teeth and snapping them at him. "Puppy?" she asked hopefully when she scented him, her fingers stretching through the bars toward his face like she wanted to pet his dark hair - or crush his skull between her delicate little fingers, Seth didn't know.
Name: Lowe, Rebecca
Alias: Becky
Status: Vampire
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: approx. 110 lb
Eye color: Red/Black
Hair color: Dark brown
Born: 2000 A.D.
Turned: 2015 A.D.
Diet: Human blood
Relations/Bloodline: daughter of Luke and Daisy Lowe, younger sister of Charlotte Lowe.
Abilities: Telekinesis.
Crime(s): Murder in the first degree of Alex Nova.
Sentence: 25 years to life in prison, possibility of parole in 2030.
The young werewolf suppressed a thrilled grin as his appraising eyes swept over his fellow fiends and fanatics. "Alright, ladies." His voice resounded on the dank limestone walls of the rotting dungeon. "Who wants to help me topple the vampire patriarchy?"
He was answered only by the sounds of dripping pipes and scurrying rats.
Allison clicked her tongue. Loudly. "I mean, that sounds fun and all, but that's the kinda thing I'd like to do in style, you know? So I'd be up for joining your little vampicide squad, but only if we go to the mall first."
The Volturi kept tabs on all supernaturals everywhere, so naturally their filing room rivaled the Library of Alexandria in vastness. The two files of concern to Aro Volturi at the moment, however, were those of one Seth Clearwater and one Renesmee Cullen.
An informant had reported seeing Clearwater boarding a train in Romania, a country whose supernatural comings and goings were closely monitored by the vampire mafia for obvious reasons. This event alone would not have been particularly interesting had reports not reached the Italian coven two weeks prior that the one surviving Cullen aided by an unidentified werewolf had escaped the secure facility in which she had been monitored for the last ten years.
Name: Clearwater, Seth
Status: Wolf shapeshifter
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Native American/Quileute
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: approx. 150 lb.
Eye color: dark brown/black
Hair color: dark brown/black
Born: 1996 A.D.
Diet: human food
Relations/Bloodline: Sole surviving member of the Quileute Werewolf Pack of La Push, Washington, destroyed by the Volturi during the Cullen confrontation of 2006.
Crime(s): Existence.
Sentence: Death.
...
Name: Cullen, Renesmee
Alias: Nessie
Status: Vampire-human hybrid
Nationality: American
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 130 lb.
Eye color: brown
Hair color: red/bronze
Born: 2006 A.D.
Diet: human blood or Malteasers (the only human food she will consume)
Relations/Bloodline: Hybrid daughter of Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen
Abilities: tactile thought-transmission; shield resistance
Crime(s): Existence.
Sentence: After evading the fate of death justly determined by our coven, the subject was apprehended with her werewolf companion by agents of the American human government when the two stumbled onto a military testing site in Area 51 as they fled south from the confrontation in Washington, USA. The human agents gunned down the dog on sight, thinking they were rescuing an innocent human girl from a wild animal's clutches. Upon the death of her imprinted wolf, the subject became distressed and began feasting on the blood of the humans in retaliation until she was neutralized. Human scientists have studied the subject in a secure facility since this time. The Volturi saw no reason to intervene, as removing the hybrid would arouse more human suspicion than allowing them to keep it. Sentenced to remain in human custody indefinitely. Escaped 9/17/2016. Highly dangerous due to human experimentation; kill on sight.
Yes, this could prove very interesting indeed, the ancient vampire king mused.
A/N: Lorna of SuspianFeels and Hannah of Nahannah are the sqwad writing this fic. We're dragging in OCs from our other twifics to create our personal vampire suicide squad capable of bringing the Volturi to its knees. *rubs hands together maniacally* Oh, this is gonna be fun...
Review and maybe our darlings won't come after you :*