Chapter 1
In a lesser-known Italian art museum, approximately a dozen tourists entered one of the museum wings. Fanning out, they began admiring the obscure paintings on the walls, studying the ornate carvings of rare artifacts displayed in cabinets, and scrutinizing the delicate pieces under glass-covered pedestals that dotted the room. The tourists, a random collection of souls from all parts of the globe, mingled happily, all enjoying their second day of the all expense paid trip won online. Not everyone could remember entering the sweepstakes, but all felt as if this unexpected vacation had come at just the right moment. Fate, many believed, had blessed them.
Their tour guide, an elegantly dressed woman with lustrous, mahogany shoulder-length hair, stood motionless in the middle of the room. Her alluring red velvet dress hugged her body as her long, black gloves covered her arms up over the elbows, accentuating her feminine shape. Her peculiar eyes, dark violet in color, remained fixed on a small smudge on the shiny marble floor. The woman stood motionless in her exquisite high heels—fashionable shoes that would make most women struggle with discomfort within an hour; however, Heidi could stand in any pair of designer shoes indefinitely and never feel a hint of discomfort. In fact, she rarely felt any pain as a vampire—except for that brought on by hunger, which had recently began to overtake her thoughts over the last few days.
Heidi continued to stare at the smudge on the floor since this was only thing that had changed in this museum in months—her vampire brain having memorized every brush stroke laid onto canvas and every groove carved into wood and stone in the entire building. Playing the essential tour guide, she had to remind herself to move about the museum so not to draw unwanted attention. Her internal clock, punctual to the split second, made her turn slowly as she began to account for all her sheep, smiling falsely at all those who greeted her. She then began moving slowly about the room to make certain that her assembled flock of tourist would not begin to stray.
She had carefully vetted these tourist though the internet, hunting each through various social network pages, occasionally infecting their computers with spyware to help uncover their browsing histories, and when need, their emails. Each person met one key requirement: none would be missed if they should happen to disappear from the face of the earth.
The hateful ones in her group may have loud online personas, but only a small number of followers with similar vile attitudes; notwithstanding, these people often had no real human contact. The perverted ones often had a smaller footprint on the internet, and even less natural human contact. And then there were the lonely souls, the ones who seemed to hate the whole human race; people who had already vanished from society by their own fruition.
This special tour guide, with her centuries of experience of hunting in the shadows—well before technology, had adjusted better than expected to the internet age. And despite these people being immune to Heidi's beauty and charm over the internet, this vampire had the gained wisdom of knowing just which buttons to push to entice these humans out of angry message boards and vile chat rooms, out of their soft chairs, and onto planes that would deliver them to her inescapable hands. Once met at the airport, these humans unknowingly became entangled in Heidi's irresistible attraction: helpless prey under the spell of sly and tenacious predator.
The carefree tourist drifted between the art pieces, seemingly enjoying the ancient Italian culture. Much like the humans before, these strangers spoke politely, if not minimally, to one another—unlike their rude and hateful online identities. However, despite the attempts of politeness, some of the tourist had begun to appear bored as they began to avoid others they judged beneath them. Whether tired from their long flights to Italy, or tired of having to be civil to their fellow human beings, their waning mental states were easy for the tour guide to read as she began counting the remaining seconds to her annoying corralling duties.
Though she only had to pretend for one day, the procedure had to run like clockwork. She would meet the people the night before at the airport in order to bind them to her by means of irresistible attraction, her vampire gift that also gave her the power of persuasion, which made the group as a whole easily manageable. She then traveled with them on the tour bus to a special hotel secretly owned and staffed by her coven, the Volturi. The hotel inconspicuously sat in a part of the city free of cell phone reception, one that the tourists were told was also experiencing an "internet disruption". The tourists never complained, nor would they attempt to find other ways to connect to the outside world, for Heidi's special persuasion made them complacent to the isolation. After retiring to bed early—with the help of the celebratory glass of laced Italian wine, the tourist would wake late in the morning to be escorted back onto the tour bus for a slow drive through the countryside to be eventually deposited at the museum—the last stop in their brief vacation to Italy.
On the far side of the museum wing, a heavy wooden door slowly opened on creaky hinges, revealing a tall, muscular man as he stepped out of the shadows from a dimly lit stairwell below. Wearing a charcoal gray robe, the man pulled back the attached hood to reveal short black hair that glistened under the museum lights. Holding the door open, the large man nodded to Heidi.
The quasi tour guide's false smile became genuine as she mumbled softly in her ancient native tongue, "Finally." With an enthusiastically solitary clap, Heidi drew the attention of tourists as she announced, "It's time we proceed with the next step of our tour. Would you kindly...follow me through this door and down some stone steps. We have something special planned for all of you, something rarely seen by the general public."
The flock of tourist enthusiastically began to follow Heidi as she first passed through the door. The group began to bunch around the large man holding the door open, each eager to descend into the darkness.
"Mind the steps," called back Heidi from below. "They are quite old and smooth. We don't want any of you to hurt yourselves on your first day to Italia."
The collection of people amiably followed one another down the dimly lit stairs as the large man in the charcoal rob continued to hold the door. The procession of tourist dwindled down quickly to the last person, a man in his late twenties who paused at the door. The large man gestured for the last tourist to pass through, only to be rebuffed by the man with a shake of the head.
When the large man's brow pinched together with a mix of annoyance and confusion, the tourist glanced briefly into the shadows, turning back to the man holding the door to announce, "I think that I'm going to skip the rest of the tour. I saw an interesting plaza during the bus ride over that I want to explore. Please tell the tour guide that I will find my own way back to the hotel. I'll rejoin the group tomorrow."
With a look of utter bewilderment, the large man stared at the tourist for a long moment before gesturing once again for him to pass through.
"Do you speak English?" asked the man, an American. "I apologize; I don't speak Italian."
"Ahhh," the robed man quickly began to say, trying to remember his rarely used English vocabulary. "You must...you...should stick with the group. You'll miss the..."
Hearing the large man's uncouth English, the tourist stepped back from the door and said, "Thank you again, but please let the tour guide know that I'm heading back on my own. My name is Steven Nash"
As the tourist turned away, the large man reached out to take hold of the tourist's collar when a pair of exuberant children burst into the room, their parents in close pursuit as they shushed them. The large man withdrew his outstretched hand as his target stepped out of reach. His facial features betraying his concern, the man called down into the shadows, "Heidi!"
The woman's high heels echoed loudly as she stepped lively up the stone steps. Appearing in the door, she glared at the much larger man in the charcoal robe. "What is it, Felix?"
The large Volturi guard gestured to the tourist exiting museum wing, weaving between the active children and their parents.
Heidi's eyes widen as the tourist disappeared from sight into the adjoining main room of the museum. "Wait here, Felix." The woman moved quickly across the room, increasing her pace when she found the man approaching the nearest exit that lead outside. "Sir, wait!"
The man turned and smiled politely at the approaching tour guide. "Oh, hi. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to do some exploring on my own."
"What? Wa...wait. You're going to miss the best part of the museum if you leave now." Heidi stared into the man's eyes, recalling his name. "Steven? Right?"
"Yes. Please don't mind me. I'm not into historic paintings as much. I prefer to study architecture."
"No, no, don't go. This museum has much more than painting and artifacts. You should see the amazing tunnels below us. Some are hundreds of years old." The woman calmly reached for the man's hand, gently patting the dorsal side.
Eyeing the woman with a hint of suspicion, Steven pulled his hand away. "Um, no thank you. I want to study the exterior frescos at the large plaza the bus passed nearby before the sun goes down."
The man again turned to leave only to collide into a hooded teenage girl who stumbled backwards as she somehow remained on her feet. Startled by the collision, Steven reached out to help steady the girl. "So sorry. I didn't see you there."
Appearing equally surprised by the accident, the girl pulled back her charcoal colored hood as she smiled up at the young man to show no harm. Sliding her hands into robe pockets, she said, "Scusami."
With glowing cheeks, the abashed man proceeded towards the exit.
"Sir!" called out Heidi before bursting forward. She hastily peeled off one of her long black gloves and proceeded to grab the man by an exposed arm, her fingernails pressing lightly into his skin. She stared at him, waiting for his puzzled gaze to meet her own. When their eyes met, she said with clear resolution, "Please, Steven, would you kindly come down stairs with me."
The man turned his attention down to his arm. "Your hand is freezing."
"What?"
"Your hand is freezing."
"It's my metabolism; I'm always cold."
When Steven tried to pull his hand away, he felt the woman's grip tighten. He looked into her face once more, finding her eyes narrowing as her grip further tightened after he again tried to pull away. "Excuse me," he said in a heightening tone.
Heidi slid up next to the man and spoke in a hushed voice. "Maybe you didn't hear—"
"Heidi," interrupted the teenage girl, her voice sounding more mature for someone appearing so young, "let him go."
Retaining her grip on the man, Heidi looked back over her shoulder. "But he—"
"Heidi," repeated the teenage girl with a glowered look.
The perturbed tour guide released the man, which in turn, caused him to stagger backward against the door. Heidi calmly straightened her posture as she clasped her hands before her waist and softly said, "Yes, Jane."
Steven slowly reached for the door's touch bar as his gaze drifted between the flustered appearing tour guide and the sullen teenage girl. When the girl's gaze turned from guide to him, an ominous feeling unexpectedly surged through him. Without parting words, the man pushed against the door's touch bar handle and stepped into the sunlight.
Heidi and Jane promptly stepped to the side, avoiding the brief exposure of sunlight that flashed across a narrow section of marble floor.
Once the door closed with a loud click, Heidi moved swiftly to Jane's side, speaking curtly in Italian, "Why did you let him go?"
"You were making a scene, like you are now." Jane gestured for them to walk. "You almost exposed yourself to the sunlight in your haste."
"That man didn't do what I say. No one has ever resisted me before. Never." Heidi frantically began donning the long sleeve glove she had removed in the hope of coercing the young man through skin contact.
"Shocking; I know." Jane looked up at her friend with a subtle smirk. "Are you going to be okay?"
Heidi sneered at her friend. "I'm not upset about that. I'm sure there was an explanation, but we have a lost...sheep. We don't know what's going to happen."
"We'll deal with this. We always do."
"But, Jane...," began Heidi, her gaze returning briefly to the exit door. "What if he returns to the hotel before us?"
"Don't worry about him," repeated Jane.
"What if he runs?"
Jane's confident smirk returned as she slowly removed an American passport from her charcoal gray robe. "He cannot run far. We'll take care of him tonight."
"What if he runs to the police?"
"I didn't steal his wallet. That will make him think he simply misplaced his passport. He'll spend hours searching before he contacts the authorities."
"We can't be certain."
Jane's gaze narrowed with displeasure as Heidi bit her lip out of frustration.
Though unrelated by birth, these two women were still bound by blood. Jane preferred not to be close to anyone except for her twin brother, Alec—the twins turned at the same time 1200 years ago. Jane enjoyed her solitude; however, she thought of Heidi as more than just Volturi; during Heidi's 400 plus years, she had become Jane's sole confidant outside her brother—a rare friend.
Jane placed a comforting hand over her friend's arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We'll deal with it; I promise. There is no need to panic." Unexpectedly, Jane's vampire senses took hold, causing her to inhale deeply as her eyes fluttered. "Do you smell that?"
Never to ignore Jane's alertness, Heidi inhaled long and slow. She looked towards the adjoining hall that gave entrance to the tunnels below. "The fear?"
"Yes," replied Jane. "They have begun without us."
"How rude."
Jane nodded. "We both need to feed so that we're clear headed tonight. As soon as twilight comes, we'll track down our lost sheep." Moving quickly, Jane proceeded towards the dimly lit stairwell where their fellow Volturi guard, Felix, awaited them.
Heidi paused before the stairwell to look back towards the museum entrance. The man's escape had done something to her, something not experienced in decades: Heidi had become unraveled. Despite this great mischance, her inescapable hunger took precedence. She momentarily forget the tourist that had slipped away and proceeded to descend into the darkness.
Author's note: This story consists of 29 chapters.