Chapter 3-The Trinity

Bianca's POV

We ran down the midnight black streets silently, dreading the visit to our "rulers". As we ran down one street the sound of laughter, music and bad singing caught my ears. Instinctively, we all slowed to a humans strolling pace. I shielded Mel from my emotions as we passed the bar with the 'Open Mike Night' posters covering the front windows. It took all my strength to keep to the path I was on and not turn into the bar.

Perhaps I should explain, I am a singer, or rather I was before we were changed. Music was my life. I lived through my songs, everything I felt I wrote, everything I experienced I sang. Now thanks to vampiric nature the only time I can sing is when I'm alone and away from human ears. Our musical voices mimic that of a siren's. To the humans it is the most beautiful thing they have ever heard. With the talent we have inherited from TOM we are guaranteed to get a record label. And being famous could raise people's suspicions about the fact that we aren't aging or changing in any way. I mean, plastic surgery can only help humans so much.

Once we were in the clear from the possibility of being spotted by the humans we began to sprint again, though mine was slower and more forced than before. Claire and Mel dropped back to talk to me.

"Honey?" Mel's voice pulled me back into my physical shield, the one I wasn't gifted with but I had built over time. I hate burdening my family with my suffering; it makes me feel selfish and weak.

"Yes?" the word was forced, but didn't sound strained.

"I know you're strong but you can't bear this own your own." Her voice was both sympathetic and understanding. "Please drop your shield. Let me help you, I want to help."

I love you Mel.

"I... ah... ok." Confident that I had my emotions under control, I let my shield retract back into me, but allowed only Mel to get past it. I was wrong. Instantly Mel dropped to the ground in tears. I replaced my shield and began to apologise.

"I'm so, so sorry Mel. I…"

"No… don't… worry… I… asked you… to."

"Are you three coming or what?" Nick's irritating voice came from around the next corner. I could tell he was agitated. He hated to be held up. Out of all of us Nick was the eldest. Not to mention the most mysterious; he never told us anything about his past. We didn't know anything about him, not who turned him or even where he was turned. I asked him once but he just said, "That was a long time before you were even born humanly, you don't need to worry about the past just your future." If I pressed on for more, Mon would tell me to mind my manners. I don't see how we need to worry about our future when we have our very own fortune teller right here in the family.

"What's wrong old man? You're ahead, enjoy it while you can. Mel will catch up sooner or later and then you will be left in the dust, or turn into dust judging by your age." Claire's uncontrollable giggling sang through the streets and brought the sport of running back into our hearts.

With a long meaning full glance at me, Mel took off leaving Claire and I laughing at Nick's astonished face.

"You really shouldn't be surprised Nick, we all get more and more powerful and skilled everyday."

"Yeah old man," I laughed as we passed him, and both ducked under Mon's swipe at our ears.

The town around the Volturi castle was swamped with people so we decided to take the train instead of walking the rest of the way. I sat starring out the window as the town rushed by. The people were all just a blur as I watched the rain run down the cold window in streaks.

The steaming water ran straight down my body from the shower head attached to the wall. I smiled to myself as I scrubbed at the small drawings on my legs. There really was no comparison between them, you could easily tell which one I had hopelessly doodled and which artistic master piece was Mel's.

As I shut off the water, I began to hum the tune to the new song I had just written. The sound of a door slamming cut me off. I stopped and listened for a moment but thought nothing of it when I didn't hear anything else. It was probably just Claire chucking a tantrum AGAIN, so began to hum to myself again. Then I heard it.

Both a muffled yell that cut off half way and my mothers screaming filled my ears and made my heart pause. In an instant I had a towel in my hands, the door open and I was running, leaving a river of water behind me but I was running.

My three sisters were already at our parent's bedroom door bashing at it furiously and yelling out for our mother and father, begging for them to open the door.

"…MUM…"

"…MUM! DAD! OPEN THE DOOR…"

"…DAD! WHAT'S WRONG MUM? PLEASE…"

I joined in with their hopeless pleading.

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING MUM? IS DAD OK? DAD?"

All we could hear from the other side of the evil wooden plank was mum screaming our father's name over and over again.

"NO! BRYCE! NO! AHHHHHHH…"

Everything went quiet. Mum's screams had cut off just like dad's yell had before.

My whole body seized, my lungs felt as though the air in them was made of concrete not gas, and my heart stopped beating.

Only seconds had gone by but it felt like eternity. The door swung open slowly and I wanted to bolt straight in and see my parents to make sure they were ok, that I had been imagining the past 30 seconds. But I could not, and I had not imagined it. Standing there in my parent's bedroom was a strange dark haired man, strange because of his features. He was attractive, immensely so, but he had a very eerie feeling about him. His eyes were crimson red and glowed as if they had just received a power boost and on the ground around his feet were the distorted bodies of my parents, empty and lifeless.

Mon ran for our parents first, but the strange red eyed man grabbed her and flung her, one handed into the wall. She hit the ground with a thud. I took my gaze off my now unconscious sister and looked back at the monster who was now smiling intently at us, as if he had been waiting for us for a long time.

"Run," I breathed to Mel, as I grabbed Claire's arm to stop her from running to Mon's side.

We ran down the hallway towards the front door. A weird breeze, weird because we were inside, rushed passed us and sent my towel flying off, but I didn't care I just kept running, pulling my sister behind me.

He was there already, at the front door. He made a grab for Mel, but Claire knocked her out of his reach and he got her instead.

"Claire!" Mel and I both screamed as he bit her on the left collar bone and let her body drop. Claire squirmed on the ground and began screaming about a fire burning inside her.

We turned and sprinted for the back door. Mel, being faster than me naturally beat me, but he had beaten her. As she turned the last corner he grabbed her, twisted her arm around and bit her on the wrist. I froze in place as I watched my oldest triplet writhe in pain and scream about her burning arm.

I had no where to run, he was too fast for me. I had never seen anyone out run Mel, EVER and he had done it twice in a row, without us ever seeing him pass. He moved as fast as lightning!

"Don't run from me Bianca," the man's musical voice brought my attention back to him.

"H… how… do… do you n… know my name?" I stuttered exhausted from shouting and running.

"Shhh, I will show the three of you a world you have never imagined. One we can all rule, as gods, together," he whispered, as he grabbed my shoulder and tilted my head back. His hands were as cold as ice, no, they were colder. Colder than anything I had ever felt before. There was a sharp pain in my neck and then I felt the fire.

"Bianca, honey?" Mon's sweet voice brought me back from my painful memory and back to present time. Mon couldn't remember Tom, she was knocked out before she saw his face, but I did. I remembered everything about that night with perfect clarity. It was one of the curses about vampirism that I hated.

"Yeah?"

"We're here, at our stop. Come on, the others are waiting"

I stood up and walked off the train with Mon to where the others were standing. They all looked concerned.

"I'm fine guys, really. Mel, honey, stop looking at me like that. I just got distracted is all." It was a good enough lie. I was always getting distracted, by my favourite song on the radio or a cute boy walking down the street. Yep, just about anything would do it.

We walked the short distance to our destination, blending in with the crowd as much as possible. However, blending in isn't exactly what you would most likely think we were doing considering we looked like run-way models compared to the regular towns people. Claire and I often sought entertainment through embarrassing Mel by pointing out every guy that looked at her.

"I called Jane to tell her we were on our way about two hours ago, so she will meet us out the front," Claire reported, as we rounded the last corner to get to the Volturi. When we got to the castle though, it seemed almost deserted.

"That's odd," Nick said, once again saying what we were all thinking. He knew it to, that's what annoyed us so much, of course, he also knew that as well.

"Very odd," agreed Mon, completely oblivious or just ignoring the looks Nick had received from both Claire and I. "Let's go on in and find out what's going on."

Inside was exactly the same as it was outside, not only old and slightly depressing, but also deserted. We followed the familiar path down to where Aro's human receptionist was seated at her desk.

"Oh hello, I'll just inform them of your arrival shall I?" Without waiting for our answer she pressed a small button on her desk and spoke again, though this time not to us. "Master, your other visitors are here." Other visitors?

"Ahh, send them in," Aro's light voice responded. We began to walk through, seeing as how we could hear a lot better than any human could and so by no mistake had heard the instruction. However, the receptionist seemed to think we were hard of hearing and began to yell.

"You can go right through, THEY'RE EXPECTING YOU," she smiled. I really hated her at that moment, especially after the lovingly devoted way she had said the word master, it made me sick.

We entered into the normal chamber that we usually went to whilst visiting and 'checking in'. Caius and Marcus were sitting where they usually did. In gold plated thrones, covered in intricate patterns dating back over five centuries. Aro, however, was standing away from his partners in the middle of a group of vampires I recognised as his guard. I immediately tensed and went on the alert, ready for an attack when I noticed vampires I had never seen before standing amongst Aro and his guard. Nobody had noticed the sudden change in my stance, but they had noticed the new group. There were five of them just like in my family. There were four males and one woman who was clearly partnered to one of the men. The woman looked as though she had been turned in her early-to-mid twenties. She was tall and slim with light-oak brown hair. Her mate was also tall, though not as tall as her, and looked as if he had been changed around the same age. The three boys all looked similar to the women and to be all of around the same age, with maybe one or two years difference between them. The youngest looking boy seemed to have been bitten when he was about sixteen or seventeen. With the two older looking boys it was hard to tell who was the elder. They both seemed to be around eighteen when they were changed and had very similar features that definately pinned them as brothers. One of the brothers was staring at me and the tension in my body was increasing as time went on. If somebody didn't explain soon there was going to be a fight, and I always came out on top in a fight.

Finally Nick broke the silence that had fallen upon the chamber when we had entered, "I'm sorry Aro. We we're unaware you had other visitors, we can come back at another time if you wish it."

"Nicholas my dear friend, it has been far too long since your last visit. How are you?" Aro replied in a smooth voice.

"I am well thank-you, as is the rest of my family. We just stopped in to..." Nick stopped speaking and looked at the strangers. He didn't know who they were or how much they knew about our family and Aro's interest in us. "Shall we go somewhere more private to talk?"

"It is alright to speak here Nicholas, in fact I was just telling our new friends about you. I was hoping your girls could teach them a thing or two, Bianca in particular. You see they are relatively new to our laws and beliefs and have unique skills that can be very useful once mastered." Aro smile at me and I was just about to tell him where he could put his new clan when Mon spoke.

"We would be delighted," turning to us she continued "wouldn't we girls?" Claire, Mel and I all bowed our heads in agreement, although it felt more like surrender to me.

"Excellent! Now what is happening with your talents?" Aro made his way back to his throne and sat down ready for a report. Nick filled him in on everything we had learnt and all of our powers we had mastered. By the time he was finished Aro was so pleased with our work that he decided to throw a ball in our honour, which in my opinion was just an excuse for him to force my sisters and me to sing for him again.

We were shown to our rooms by a familiar face at the castle, Jane, Aro's favourite little pet. As we walked I could feel the slight knocks on my shield that indicated someone trying to use their powers on me. It felt like a slight tapping at an invisible wall. "Keep trying Jane, you will never get past me." I often found delight in torturing Jane with the fact that my power rendered hers useless at my will. I found it ironic considering her speciality was in fact the physical torture of her enemies. She didn't disappoint me with her reaction this time either. The moment the words left my lips Jane's attempt intensified ten-fold and the tapping became a distinctive knocking. I simply smiled at her and kept walking pleased that I had once again unnerved her. Growling and hissing in furry Jane leapt at me trying to knock me down, but I was too fast for her and it was her who ended up lying on her back in the middle of the stone hall way, my hand to her throat pinning her. She struggled at first, unwilling to surrender to me but finely gave in and stopped moving. I rose and offered my hand to pull her up but unsurprisingly she refused my help.

When we entered our room we all went to our bedrooms to see the dresses that Sulpicia and Athenodora had bought for us to wear to the ball tonight. At the sight of my dress I sighed. I had to admit they knew me. This dress was exactly to my taste and that scared me. It was a crimson red, backless halter neck with three diamond encrusted chain straps extending from the back of the neck, right down to the top of the back of the dress that started just under the small of my back and continued right down to the floor. It was absolutely magnificent.

Claire came into my room beaming. She was so delighted with her dress and why shouldn't she be? It suited her perfectly. It was a sleeveless black pixie style dress with a skirt that pushed out from the body and did amazing things for her figure. I smiled back at her to show that I wasn't upset and she sat down on one of the many seats in the room.

"Isn't it just divine?" she asked stroking her hands down the silk bodice.

"Yes, but it is still a little unnerving that they know us so well, aren't you a little weirded out?"

"No not really, I mean they've been around for centuries right? So no wonder they know what girls like. Besides it's hard to feel weird when you have a dress this wonderful."

"You are so easy to please you know that?" I said but I couldn't help smile, she was right after all, the dresses really were wonderful. Just then Mel walked in smiling. At first I thought it was just because she was so pleased with her dress. It was a off the shoulder smokey gray gown, the front bodice folded inwards towards the middle creating a ripple effect and the skirt had a lace finish over the top. But then Claire gasped, putting a hand to her mouth and looked from me to Mel who promptly told her to stop it, then turned to me.

"Bianca there's umm, someone at the door for you."

I raised my eyebrows at her and Claire who seemed to be having a conversation with their eyes. "For me? Who is it?"

"Just come and see," she said, winking at Claire, turning and leavingthe room. Claire burst out with giggles, turning to see my expectant look.

"What's going on, what did you see?"

"Nothing, now come here so I can attach the straps on your back." I turned around and waited for her to do the straps up, but when she was finished she started to put my hair up too.

"That's it. What is going on?"

"I told you nothing! Now hurry up, he's waiting."

At the last second she realized what she said and covered her mouth, turning to walk out the door. I followed her out and grabbed her by the shoulders to turn her when I saw that the main room of the suite now housed a small crowd.

Mel came over to stand with me and Claire, or so I thought. They both pushed me towards Mon and Nick, who were standing talking to someone I couldn't see. Then Mon turned to smile at me approvingly, and I saw who they were talking to. It was a member of the new clan we had seen down stairs, the one that kept staring at me. When I'd approached he had stopped speaking. Now he was just looking at me, as if I was a puzzle he couldn't quite figure out.

"What's going on?" I asked again, hoping that this time I might actually get a reasonable answer. Instead Mon asked Nick, Claire and Mel to accompany her to her bedroom; apparently she needed all three of them to help her decide how to wear her hair.

That left me alone with this guy. I looked at him, actually taking note of what he looked like for the first time. He was tall, around 6'2" with sandy coloured hair and was athletically built. His eyes were that all too familiar crimson red; in fact they matched my dress. Right now, he was staring at me again. And I'd had enough, time to find out what the hell is going on. I opened my mouth to speak but apparently the silent show down was too much for him as well.

"My name is Adrian, Aro thought you might need an escort to the ball tonight and asked me to accompany you." It was weird, he almost looked nervous standing there, waiting for my reply. He had even stopped staring at me, but now he was looking at my dress. I knew it showed a fair bit of skin and became self-conscious.

"Oh, umm well you see the thing is..." I began to decline when Claire stuck her head out one of the doors and yelled, "Of course she will go with you, won't you B?" That last part wasn't a question she was threatening me. Right, if that's how you want to play it, so be it.

"But you don't have anyone to go with Claire, sweetie. I'd hate to leave you and Mel all alone. It wouldn't be fair." Claire was about to say something else when Adrian spoke again.

"Actually, my brothers were also asked to escort your sisters, Aro has decided that a date is compulsory for tonight." Claire looked as though she was going to object. but then her eyes glazed over and she stared into the distance for a few seconds. Coming back to present time, she just smiled at us and said, "It's settled then. Come back in five minutes with the rest of your family. We should be ready by then." Then she pulled her head back in the door and closed it behind her.

Soon after that Adrian left and I ran as fast as I could into Monique and Nick's bedroom demanding to know what the hell all that was about. Once again no one would give me a straight answer saying that Aro had sent him to escort me. But while we finished getting ready Mon constantly commented on how dashing Adrian looked and what a nice young man he was, escorting me when I didn't have anyone. It was all making me really suspicious and no matter how many times I argued that I had my family, she always said, "That won't always be enough," and that was it.

Almost exactly five minutes later there, was a knock at the door to our suite. We were all sitting in the lounge area, and Nick went to open it. Stepping back he allowed Adrian, his two brothers and the partnered couple from his clan to enter the room. Mon was the first to speak this time, clearly wanting to make a good impression.

"Hello again, Adrian. This must be the rest of your clan." She smiled at all of them warmly.

"Yes, this is my sister Jazmyn and her mate Kobi," he replied gesturing towards the partnered couple then his hand moved towards the other two guys standing in the room. "And these are my brother's."

The taller of the two young men stepped forward looking at Claire, "Hey I'm Zac, but you can call me your mate, uh, I mean date."

"Zacharie-" Jazmyn begun but before she could finish Claire jumped up from her seat, ran over to him and jumped into his arms, almost knocking him over.

"Hi, I'm Claire, but you can call me your future wife or Claire, whatever suits you." She turned and smiled at Mel and I on the couch, but we just rolled our eyes at her.

"You would never catch me acting like that," Mel whispered to me. But then the oldest of the brothers stepped forward and introduced himself.

"You must be Melissa. My name is Spencer and it's a pleasure to meet you." He bent down picked up Mel's hand, bringing it to his lips and kissed it. Mel was speechless.

"I-I ah." She swallowed and I could see in her eyes that she had completely fallen for Mr Smooth. "Nice to meet you to," she said when she finally recovered.

We stuck around in the room for a while chatting but the noise was starting to get to me. I got up and went out onto the balcony off of our room. I was only there for a few seconds before the door opened again and someone else came out to join me. It was Adrian.

"I hope you don't mind too much about me taking you to the ball," he said apologetically.

"No, I don't mind. I just hate being told what to do, that's all."

Adrian was standing next to me now and in the cool, night air I felt totally at ease with him, even though he was staring at me again.

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Starring at me, every time I've seen you today you've been starring at me. It's kind of creepy."

"Oh sorry, it's just I can't read you."

"Read me? What do you mean read me?"

"It's kind of this thing I do. See, when I was human I was really good at reading people in the sense that I got a feel about their character. I could tell what kind of person they were and all that sort of stuff. But now that I'm a vampire, and I'm still coming to terms with the fact that they exist, I can actually read people's souls. Humans, vampires, everyone! They're all like an open book to me. I can see all their hidden motives, all their true feelings and what kind of person they really are."

"But you can't read me?"

"No, not you." He turned following my gaze and looked out over the sleeping city. I smiled.

"I know why you can't read me. It's because of my shield."

"Shield? What shield?"

"It's my ability."

"Ability? Ok, I think it's your turn to explain."

"Well every vampire has heightened senses and most specialise in certain areas, like running, hunting, jumping and fighting. But some of us are created with extra abilities. You're able to 'read' people, and I can block any physical and mental attack through my ability. That's why Jane has no affect on me. It's not just me either, I can shield others as well as or instead of myself."

"Really?" he asked, seeming genuinely impressed.

"Your maker didn't explain much did they?"

"My maker?"

"The vampire who turned you, do you even know who they are?"

"Oh, yeah it was Kobi. He turned us all. He was in love with Jazmyn but she was dying. He turned her but she didn't want to leave us so she begged him to turn us as well. He was only relatively new to the world of vampires himself, so he didn't know much. He told us everything we needed to know and then when we got our hunger under control, he brought us here to learn everything else."

"He doesn't have a special ability does he?"

"No, at least I don't think he does. Why did you ask?"

"Because that would explain why he hadn't taught you about them, and why your power is so untamed. I can feel it radiating off you and pushing on my shield."

"Sorry, I didn't even know I had any special powers. How am I supposed to control it?"

"By training. My sisters and I have already been signed up to train you anyway; we may as well help you mentally as well as physically."

"You don't have to do that you know, we can figure it out on our own."

"It's ok, it might even be fun."

I turned towards Adrian and smiled. He was actually quite cute. He smiled back and turned so his body was facing mine. Tilting his head he slowly lent down towards me. Our lips were only millimetres away when the door opened and Claire came through the door smiling wildly. "Time to go," was all she said before turning and going back inside. Adrian offered me his hand, which I took. Linking our arms we walked back inside, through the sitting area, where everyone was looking at us, and out the front door. Everyone else followed in their pairs and we all set off towards the ball room.

When we got to the ball room Aro and Sulpicia, Caius and Athenodora and Marcus, who was being accompanied by Chelsea, were standing in the foyer greeting everyone as they entered. We went past, greeting them in a line. Jazmyn and Kobi were first, followed by Mon and Nick, then came Adrian and I, followed by Claire and Zac,who were in front of Spencer and Mel. Adrian was talking to Aro and I was thanking Sulpicia for my beautiful dress when Nick was pulled to the floor, yelling out for help. Mon had collapsed.