FIVE MONTHS EARLIER
Demetri
I hovered on the edge of the lions' camp, always downwind of its inhabitants. I was almost done; in a few minutes I would call Aro and this whole business would be over – this part of it, at least. A grim smile spread across my face as an unknown lion entered my radar.
Done.
This is what I did, what the Volturi recruited me for. I was good at this. 'Cataloguing' we called it – where I would wait, hidden in the shadows, and mentally focus on each creature in my immediate surroundings, tasting their aura and committing it to memory. Each new vampire or coven that crept into Aro's knowledge was soon catalogued by me. Most of the time they had no idea I was even there.
After Leah left with her pack, I waited a few days until I was sure the lions had given up the chase. And then I'd begun. I'd carefully scoured the land for the lions' scents – I had to know how many of them there were before I began to catalogue them – and in less than a day, I'd found all 37. I'd already catalogued most of the lions at the river when they'd surrounded Leah and me, but I still had a few to go. The lion I'd just noted was number 37. I was done. I had them all. Never again would they take another step without my knowledge. I was a tracker, and this is what I did.
I turned around slowly and began the trip back to Victoria Falls. As I walked, small animals scattered from my path. They were smarter than the humans – they knew what was good for them. And that list didn't include me. I sighed in frustration and gave in to the thoughts I'd been fighting back. The last week had been like this – a constant struggle to focus on the things around me. Every time my concentration lapsed, she slipped back into my mind – a ghost from my past threatening to inhabit every corner of my consciousness. Leah. I wondered what Aro would think when he read my thoughts and felt how I loved her. I could easily imagine the amusement that would light his eyes and the slow smile that would spread across his lips.
Suddenly furious with the image that filled my head, I shouted out in anger and punched the nearest tree. Its trunk split straight down its middle, and yet I didn't feel a thing. Slowly, as I took long, deep breaths, I began to calm down. What was the matter with me? I'd never before been this… passionate. The Volturi had taught me to keep my emotions in check, and it was a skill I'd quickly mastered. But now everything was coming undone, and I was powerless to stop it. I shoved the thought of Leah roughly aside – there was no point in letting my mind wander in a land of blissful impossibilities any longer. I had a job to do and the emotions she inspired in me were not making it any easier.
Instead I forced myself to think of a different girl – one who I'd met just once before and who would take Leah's place as the Volturi's reservoir of information. Over the past couple of days, I'd watched in my mind as Nattaya slowly made her way back to Victoria Falls. Even now, as I thought of her, my mind quickly located Nattaya in a location not far from the motel Leah and I had stayed at only a few weeks before. I wondered at her decision to return to the town – it had played right into my hands. Alone and vulnerable, without her tribe to protect her, Nattaya would make the perfect informant.
I was in no hurry to condemn the tribe to Aro's hands. I felt sick at the thought of what I was about to do, but my mind was set; my decision had been made. I tried to tell myself that it was better this way – regardless of what I did or didn't do, the Volturi knew where the lions were and would go after them at all costs. Without my cooperation, they would seek Leah out and use her to aid their cause. This way, at least, Leah was safe. And, with me working for Aro, the lions were in the best possible position they could be given the situation. I was on their side. And having someone on their side working for the enemy might just prove invaluable.
I knew that Aro would read the resistance in my thoughts. But I also knew that he wouldn't act on it. Of all the guard, my mind was the most valuable to him – add that to my fighting ability and the Volturi would be stupid to do anything that might jeopardize my allegiance to them. And what did Aro have to be concerned about in any case? I was doing everything he would ask of me; I might have been resistant, but at least I was cooperating.
And perhaps it was strange that I was so against Aro's plan to recruit one or two of the lions. After all, until I met Leah, I had never once considered leaving the Volturi myself. But this was different. Without the Volturi, I had nothing – nowhere to go and no one to go to. But without the Volturi, the lions had life. Their tribe was better off without our interference.
That knowledge, though, was not enough to change my mind. It was why I had catalogued the lions, and why I would take Aro to meet Nattaya. He would read her thoughts and find out everything there was to know about each member of the tribe. In the same way that he'd known to target Leah, he'd know exactly which lions to approach. And as hard as it was to believe that any lion would accept an offer to join forces with the Volturi, I'd seen enough of Aro's work to know that he could be very convincing when he wanted something.
And he wanted them. Even more than he wanted Alice Cullen. I remembered how Caius had suggested killing the whole tribe once Leah and I found them – Aro had almost banned Caius from playing any further part in the discussions. Aro would stop at nothing to add a couple of shape-shifters to the Volturi's repertoire of supernatural abilities, and I was kidding myself if I thought that anything I did would thwart his plans.
On the flip side of the coin, I could use my tracking ability to ensure that Aro's plan went as smoothly as possible. Once he decided which lions to target, I could make sure they were alone before we approached them. I could stand by Aro as he persuaded them to join us, and maybe even use my friendship with Leah to convince the lions that we weren't the enemy. Yes, I could do all of this, and I would. Because helping Aro was the best way to ensure that things didn't get messy. If all went as planned, there would be no fighting, and none of the lions would end up hurt. Aided by Chelsea's talents, a small number of them would accompany us back to Italy, and perhaps then I could figure out a way to return them to where they belonged. But until that time, my hands were tied. Until then, I would act every bit the cold-hearted creature that I was created to be.
With renewed determination, I began to run. An hour later, I stopped just short of Victoria Falls and pulled out my mobile phone. I keyed in a hasty string of numbers and lifted the phone to my ear. It didn't even ring twice before Aro answered.
'Ah, Demetri, I was wondering when it was that I would hear from you next. I was beginning to wonder if you hadn't simply lost interest in your task.'
'No Master,' I said evenly. 'Everything is ready for you.'
'Then the girl is no longer with the tribe?'
I stiffened at his reference to Leah. 'No, Master.'
The smile in Aro's voice was almost audible. 'She is with you?'
I took a deep breath. 'No.'
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line before a dark, threatening chuckle echoed in my ear. 'Forgive me, Demetri,' Aro said. 'It's just that I almost thought I heard you say 'no'. But, since the only task I set you was to take the girl to the Africa and then bring her to me, I fear that I must be mistaken.'
I clenched my teeth together. 'You are not mistaken, Master. Her pack followed her to Africa, and things got a little heated when they arrived. She has returned now to La Push.'
I heard something crash in the background, and then Aro was in my ear once more. He sighed flamboyantly before speaking. 'Demetri, Demetri, Demetri… Of all the –'
'I have someone better.'
I could picture Aro's eyes narrowing. 'Go on,' he prompted darkly.
'Her name's Nattaya,' I told him slowly. 'She's been living with the tribe until recently.'
'And where is this Nattaya now?'
'She's here in Victoria Falls.'
I could hear Aro's eagerness being reignited. 'And will she accompany you to Italy?'
I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the part I was playing in the lions' fate. 'With all due respect, Master, I think that taking her to Italy will only arouse suspicion. I would suggest that you meet with her here, in Africa.'
Aro's tone was suddenly brisk. 'Very well, Demetri. I want you on the next flight home. From there we shall discuss our options.'
By 'discuss our options', I knew that Aro meant he'd read my mind. He would never agree to my suggestion without touching me first, and there was no way he'd leave Volterra for a task so bland as that – despite the likelihood of me arriving in Italy only to have to turn back around and return to Africa with the rest of the guard.
I ended the call and shoved the phone roughly into my pocket. Pulling my grey cloak from my bag, I threw it over my shoulders and draped the hood over my head. Time to play human. I made my way towards a quiet road that I remembered from mine and Leah's travels. From there, I planned walk into town and then catch a taxi to the airport. I paused momentarily as I passed the point where Leah had challenged me to a race. The moment seemed so far away and yet so near. It had been during that race that I'd retrieved her compass from her bag and tinkered with it so that 'East' and 'West' were swapped around, amongst other things. That way, Leah could never be 100% sure where exactly we were. If she accidentally slipped and phased, her brothers would only get a rough idea as to where we actually were. I did it incase. To buy us time. But all the time in the world hadn't been enough to stop Leah from leaving.
At the time, I'd been so sure that I knew what I was doing. But there were times like now when I wished I'd tried a little harder to convince her to stay with me. The only thing that had stopped me was the knowledge that Leah could never love something like me. Leah made herself very clear – she didn't share my feelings. And now she was there and I was here, a hollow mess with an empty purpose. How she'd got under my skin in such a short period of time, I would never know. If I was smart, I'd wish that Aro had never sent me on this journey in the first place. But I couldn't bring myself to regret meeting Leah. She was –.
My head snapped up as I smelt it. I was running before I even knew which direction the scent was coming from. As I saw the man lying on the road, bathed in a pool of blood, I came to an abrupt halt. I scanned the area twice quickly and then approached him cautiously. Eyes wild with thirst, I forced myself to stop and listen. Thud… thud… thud… The man's heart was still beating, but only just. I was vaguely aware of the fact that there were no cars about, signifying a probable hit and run.
I held back for a moment longer than I normally would have. I usually had better control than this, but I hadn't tasted human blood for a good few weeks now. I hadn't even fed off of animals since Leah left. It was the thought of her that pushed me over the edge. She was the one thing that could make me consider walking away, and I recognized the danger in such thoughts at once. I had to forget about her. Maybe I would have been strong enough on my own to resist feeding from the human. But in a moment of heated anger – at myself and at the situation – I lunged towards the dying man. Leah was gone. There was no point in denying it any longer. I gave in to my instincts because it was easier. Because I needed to prove to myself that I didn't care as much as I knew I did.
Even as I sunk my teeth into the man's throat, I hated myself for what I was. I felt sick at the pleasure that swept through my body as I relieved it of its thirst. It was my father all over again. I despised everything inside of me that made me drain the remaining life from the defenseless human being. I pulled away in disgust as his blood ran dry, shoving his body away from me with such unexpected force that it threw the man against one of the thick baobab trees that lined the road. His body fell, crumpled and broken, to the ground.
I waited – a guardian over the dead – until someone arrived at the scene. It was a dusty red pickup truck that eventually came down the road. I heard it long before it came into view, and I was concealed within the branches of a nearby tree in under five seconds. I didn't know why I stayed – why I watched as the young female driver pulled over and, walking over to the man, suddenly covered her mouth with her hands in shock. I wanted to look away as she pulled out her phone and dialed for an ambulance, but I forced myself to witness the horrors of my crime.
As the guilt flooded through me, I reminded myself that I deserved this. I deserved to see what I had done – to see myself for who and what I was. As I tried to look at anything other than the disfigured corpse on the side of the road, my eyes fell on the reflection in the truck's side mirror. A familiar pair of eyes stared back at me from the glass; even as I watched, they changed colour from the golden hue of innocence to a dark, muddy brown – not quite the shade of scarlet that they once were.
I turned my head away, repulsed, and leapt lightly from the tree where I hid. I was quick enough and quiet enough to escape without the woman's notice. Walking too fast for a human, I soon reached the town. I hailed a cab and after muttering a few directions to the driver, sank down into the back seat, breathing fast. Why now? Why all of a sudden? It wasn't that Leah had changed my views about hunting humans. Rather, she had forced me to confront a part of me that, until now, I'd managed to avoid thinking about. I closed my eyes and willed the taxi to move faster.
Twenty minutes later, I stood in a line waiting to buy tickets for the next plane out of Africa. The flight I would book myself onto was still over a day away. If I was a human, I could sleep the time away. But I wasn't human and I couldn't sleep away the next twenty-four hours. Unlike my human counterparts, my nightmares would come as I lay awake.
Chapter inspired by 'This Heart of Ice' by Nomy (I can't get over how perfect this song is for Demetri)
Thanks for all your continuing support everyone xoxo
