'Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to please fasten your seatbelt for landing.'

I opened my eyes and looked at the air steward in tired exasperation. Briefly, I lifted my gaze to the pair of air hostesses that stood behind him, staring at me and giggling like schoolgirls. The tall, dark one – I suppose most would call her pretty – blushed and averted her eyes. Lifting my eyebrows in contempt, I returned my gaze to the steward. Then, pointedly ignoring his request, I pushed my seat back as far as it would go and closed my eyes once more.

'Sir.' His voice was a little firmer this time, although I could make out an uncertain tremble behind his speech.

With my eyes still closed, I sighed quietly and pulled the flimsy pieces of fabric together, fastening the buckle with slow and deliberate execution.

'And your chair, Sir.'

'What about it?' I muttered.

'It must remain in the upright position throughout take-off and landing.'

I opened my eyes and stared at him. Keeping my gaze locked on the steward's, I fingered for the small button on the front of the armrest and pushed it so that my chair snapped back into place. I raised my eyebrows once more. 'Happy?'

The steward gave me a dirty look but didn't reply. With eyes still narrowed, he turned and left to find his next victim. No sooner had he gone when the shorter of the two air hostesses walked up to me.

'Is there anything I can get for you, Sir?'

I stared at the heavily-applied makeup that obscured the girl beneath. 'Like what?' I asked darkly.

'I don't know,' she replied, smiling coyly back at me. 'That depends on what you want.'

I nodded towards an old man three rows behind me. He was desperately trying to attract the attention of one of the flight attendants. 'Something tells me that he's in much greater need of your assistance.'

The girl laughed delicately. 'Well, if you change your mind…'

'I'll know who to call,' I finished for her, completely unamused by the cheeky grin she threw my way as she turned to leave.

It wasn't as if I was usually best friends with the humans; but I wasn't usually this rude either. I had a lot on my mind and I couldn't find time to care for their idyllic ignorance. Besides, what good was a seat-belt to me? Or an over-eager air hostess for that matter? I closed my eyes and resumed my tedious pretence at sleep.

Eighteen minutes, three and a half seconds later, the plane touched down in Italy. I gave a quiet, cynical laugh. It's not like I had anything better to do with my time than count each second as it passed. The gentleman sitting beside me opened his eyes for the first time since take-off and shot me a curious glance. Annoyed for no particular reason, I stared straight back at him until he looked away, outwardly embarrassed at having been caught staring.

The seat-belt lights had been off for less than a second before I was standing at the front of the plane waiting to be let off. I hadn't bothered to collect my bag from the overhead lockers – there was nothing in there that I even remotely needed anymore.

The air steward I'd spoken to earlier was standing at the door, waiting to wave passengers off of the airplane. Moving aside so that I could pass, he said in a flat voice, 'Thank you flying with us today, Sir. We hope you enjoy your stay in Italy.'

With a short nod in his direction, I pushed past the steward and made my way quickly to customs, where I passed through without any hassles. Moments later, I stood outside in the Italian air, staring at the familiar scenery. There was no one there to greet me, of course, but I took a moment to stare at the passersby anyway. To my right stood a young family, reunited after time apart. The man put down his suitcase to lift his young child onto his shoulders, whilst his partner watched with happy tears falling like crystal droplets on her cheeks.

Frowning, I turned away.

Half an hour later, I stood motionless on a familiar cobbled street. Resolve building inside of me, I took a long, deep breath and turned right into the next narrow street. The entrance to the medieval castle in which we based ourselves was fairly nondescript, although it was tasteful enough that Heidi never had any trouble coaxing anyone inside. The wooden doors swung inwards at my slight touch, opening up to a large, empty lobby.

With only a short glance around the room, I made my way to the elevator doors situated at the far end of the lobby. Pressing the 'up' arrow, I waited impatiently for the shiny, silver doors to slide open. The lift took me two floors up to an elegantly decorated reception area, where I stepped out and turned to greet Gianna, the human girl who'd made it her ambition in life to become one of us. I did a slight double take as my eyes rested on an unfamiliar blonde woman sitting behind the desk in Gianna's usual seat. Granted, I'd never been the girl's biggest fan, but Aro seemed to like Gianna well enough – I hadn't expected him to dispose of her that quickly.

'Hi,' the blonde woman said, smiling politely back at me. 'Can I help you?'

I frowned and turned my back on her, ignoring the question completely. This girl still had a lot to learn if she thought that she could, in any way, help a member of the Volturi. I made my way down a wide hall to the left of the elevator doors, walking until I reached a set of doors leading to small, stone antechamber. As I moved through the chamber to the brightly lit turret beyond, I paused briefly and looked around me. The room was fairly empty; only Aro, Marcus, Caius and Chelsea stood waiting for me.

I'd barely taken a step towards him when Aro clapped his hands together in delight and adorned me with a welcoming smile. 'Demetri!' he remarked cheerfully, as if surprised to see me. 'How wonderful it is that you have joined us again at last!'

'Master,' I responded curtly, nodding in Aro's direction. 'Marcus, Caius.' I didn't acknowledge Chelsea other than to throw a polite smile in her direction.

Aro's smile grew. 'Well, what are you standing there for, Demetri? Let us embrace in greeting!'

My lips pressed together in a tight line as I walked stiffly forwards. I was only a few feet away when Aro reached out and grasped my left hand in both of his. I watched him carefully, analyzing his reaction. I knew him well enough to register the surprise that momentarily flickered across his features, before being replaced by an expression of pure glee.

Aro let out a low chuckle as he dropped my hand. 'How wonderful it is that you have joined us, indeed,' he murmured quietly. Then, looking around at the rest of the vampires, he exclaimed in a louder voice, 'It seems that our friend, Demetri, has enjoyed his task in Africa even more than we could have ever hoped!'

Marcus stared back at me with the same bored expression he'd worn since I first met him. Caius, on the other hand, looked from Aro to me with his head cocked to the side and eyes narrowed. Appearing as if he was about to burst from excitement, Aro turned to Chelsea. 'Do you feel that, my dear?' he asked. 'Our old friend appears to have formed some new bonds on his latest journey.'

I felt a strange tingling sensation sweep quickly through my mind. As it moved across my consciousness, I felt almost … indifferent… towards everything that had happened in the past few weeks. But the moment passed before panic could set in. At the same time, Chelsea frowned and reached out to touch Aro's hand. A sense of relief flooded through me as I realized what he was seeing. Chelsea's gift couldn't touch me. My ties to Leah were too strong.

'Huh!' Aro said softly as his eyes widened and his brows rose slightly. He cocked his head and looked at me curiously. 'I wonder… does the girl feel the same way about you?'

Understanding the meaning behind his words at once, I pulled my fist back threatening and took a step towards Aro. Even if she did love me back, I would never use my relationship with Leah to convince her to join us.

'Careful, Demetri,' Aro said darkly. 'Or somebody might get the wrong impression.' I dropped my fist. 'Still,' Aro continued, suddenly cheerful again. 'Having her become one of us wouldn't be such a bad idea, all things considered. You want her around. And even if she doesn't love you back, Chelsea could work her magic and perhaps trick the wolf into believing that she does. Voila! Everyone's happy!'

Aro's speech was almost enough to spark a flash of interest in Marcus's expressionless eyes. But Caius beat him to the question. 'What?' he exclaimed. 'Demetri's in love with the wolf?' He ran his fingers through his hair in annoyance. 'As if we don't have enough problems already!'

I straightened. 'Problems?' I asked evenly.

Aro laughed dramatically. 'And so he does still care!' he cried. 'Here I was thinking that you'd forgotten all about your poor, troubled family here in Italy! Luckily for you, the problems to which Caius was referring allude only to his unfounded belief that perhaps the shape-shifters will not be such a welcome new addition to our coven.'

I studied Caius. His white hair fell in his eyes as he glared back at me. At least we shared some sentiments, I thought to myself, though I knew his solution to the problem differed greatly from mine.

'Speaking of which,' Aro remarked suddenly, 'I must introduce you to our newest member of the family, Demetri.' Tugging on my arm eagerly, he led me back through the large, ornate hallway to the reception area. Gesturing grandly to the blonde woman behind the mahogany desk, he said with the flourish of a salesman, 'This lovely, young lady goes by the name of Leah.' He turned to me and said quietly with a slight shrug, 'Sorry, I know you're into more of the dark, emotionally-damaged kind, but she's the best I could do on short notice.'

I swallowed and clenched my jaw.

'Oh, I didn't know when I hired this Leah that you actually loved the other one,' Aro said lightly, reading the question in my eyes. 'But you wouldn't have allowed the Clearwater girl to return home if you hadn't had at least some sort of a hidden agenda. Besides, if I can't have that one, then why not have this one?' Aro smiled suggestively and turned to the woman. 'Leah,' he said. 'May I introduce you to Demetri?'

I spun on my heels and stormed from the room, seething as I heard Aro's quiet chuckle behind me.

(* * *)

'Demetri?'

I didn't turn at the sound of Chelsea's soft voice. 'What is it?' I asked gruffly. I was standing in one of the castle's smaller, more hidden rooms, staring out of a dingy window at the city beyond.

'I'm… confused,' she said slowly.

'Yeah, well good luck with that,' I muttered, turning from the window and making my way to the door. As Chelsea stuck out an arm to stop me, I regarded her shrewdly. Sighing in frustration, I gave in to what she wanted. 'Why Chelsea? Why are you confused?' I asked, allowing a patronizing tone to inject itself into my voice.

She bit her bottom lip before continuing. 'Before you left… you were one of the easier vampires to keep bonded to the Volturi. How can that change in so short a time?'

My eyes followed Chelsea's mousy brown hair to where it fell across her shoulders. I'd never really had much to do with her. Sure, we were polite enough when we dealt with one another, but I didn't remember ever having had an actual conversation with her. 'Where is everyone else?' I asked. 'Felix and everybody?'

Chelsea frowned. She didn't like that I was changing the subject, but she answered me anyway. 'Alec, Jane and Felix are in South America – they're running an errand for Aro.' Eyeing me through narrowed eyelids, she paused and then said, 'But you already knew that.'

My mind automatically located the three vampires in Chile. Of course they were in South America. Whilst I was in Africa chasing lions, the three of them had been sent to find out about the half-vampire children that Aro was so curious about. I gave Chelsea a lopsided grin. 'That's right,' I said, as if I'd only just remembered their whereabouts. 'Aro's all about diverse culture these days, isn't he? Next thing you know we'll be recruiting wizards.'

Chelsea gave a small giggle and I laughed in spite of myself. Maybe she wasn't so bad. Then, as a curious thought struck me, I frowned. 'You keep everyone else bonded to the Volturi,' I said. 'But who keeps you here, Chelsea? What makes you stay?'

She stopped smiling and shrugged. 'You'd stay… even if I wasn't around to make you.'

'Maybe,' I murmured, though I knew that she was right. The Volturi were the only home I'd known in this life. They had taken me in and taught me to fight. They'd even honed my tracking skills to make them what they were today. Even if I'd rather be somewhere else, this is where I knew that I belonged.

'So,' Chelsea prompted abruptly, 'are you going to answer my question or not?'

Once more I changed the subject. 'When are they returning?' I asked.

Chelsea looked at me quizzingly. 'Aro spoke to Jane yesterday. He's asked them to return as soon as possible… Whatever they've found in South America, he wants your lions more.'

I ran my hand across the back of my neck, agitated. 'And, in answer to your question, I don't know. But if you find out the answer, let me know.'

Chelsea's voice turned suddenly cold. 'Don't be stupid about this, Demetri. Aro is a dangerous enemy.'

'I'll keep that in mind,' I replied, just as coldly, before walking away and leaving her standing there alone.

As I moved through the castle, on my way to nowhere in particular, I reflected on the conversation I'd just had with Chelsea. If I was honest with myself, I would admit that it had been nice to finally have a conversation with somebody else – regardless of the subject matter. I had been living on my own for a while now and I had somewhat enjoyed the company she'd provided. That said, I was looking forward to Felix's return. If there was anyone I could trust to keep me distracted – without the difficult questions – it was Felix.

(* * *)

He returned from Chile with Jane and Alec a week later.

After a sleepless night spent wandering the Italian streets, I walked into the castle turret. I hadn't been focusing on any members of the Volturi in the last couple of hours, and so I was slightly surprised to hear the soft babble of voices that greeted my arrival. Felix was there, along with most of the guard.

'Hey, man!' he said, bounding up to me and slapping my back in greeting. He took a step back and winked at me mischievously. 'Word is someone got a little action on their trip to Africa.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Nice to see you too, Felix.'

Felix gasped in mock horror. 'What, no comeback? Caius wasn't lying then – you actually do have a thing for the wolf!' He grinned, 'Dude that's sick!'

I raised my eyebrows and threw him an overly-smug smile. 'Word is you didn't find anything in South America.'

Felix's smile faded, though his eyes still sparkled playfully. 'Says who?'

'Says all the facts that point to it. One, you're home. Two, Aro never would have brought you back if you'd had anything concrete to go by… And three,' I shrugged, 'since when has the Volturi ever managed to find anyone without me?'

Felix barked in laughter and punched me lightly on the arm. 'Nice to see you too, you arrogant son of a –'

'Children!' Aro's voice sounded loudly from the doorway. As one, we all turned to look at him. 'As fascinating as your conversations all are,' he continued smoothly, 'we have a plane to catch… Demetri has a few friends he'd like us to meet.' With a delighted grin, Aro held up a wad of airplane tickets to Zimbabwe.

Felix whooped in excitement. One by one, the members of the Volturi guard filed past Aro, donning their grey cloaks in preparation for our journey. Finally, just Aro and I were left in the room.

'You'll take me to Nattaya,' Aro said, 'and from there, we'll decide our next move.'

I wiped my face clear of any emotion and nodded. 'Yes, Master.'


'Red Eyes' by Switchfoot