Albrecht wrapped one arm around my shoulders in a kind gesture. Just like what Carlo would have done, had he been there.
Oh God, I thought, Carlo… I did this to him, it's all my fault…
"Stop it, Alice," Albrecht said. "I don't have to be a mind-reader to know that you're torturing yourself over this. It's not your fault. The Volturi might have rejected him, but it doesn't mean that he wasn't good at what he did. In fact, I was surprised that you both weren't killed." I looked at him in consternation and began to open my mouth to retort. "I'm not trying to tell you you're a bad fighter, you silly girl."
"So, Albrecht – what do we do now? I have nowhere to hide. And I'm afraid," I whined. "People come here, and if they do, I can't control myself! I just can't. I don't want to kill."
"Don't you worry. Aro will be here soon, and we'll be going back to Volterra. Until then… I hate to do this, but we'll have to use Carlo's house as a hideout. We can't go back to the asylum, not without making people ask questions."
My eyebrows rose in alarm. "But, Albrecht – what about Delilah?"
"Delilah? Who's that?"
"Carlo's housekeeper. She should be back by now, or back soon. When Carlo and I left, he told her she had a week off with pay."
"Hm. Well – I guess we just find a way to keep her out." He walked me toward Carlo's car. "Let's get in. Don't breathe until we get there and are inside."
We made our way back to Carlo's house. I stayed in the back, curled up, my hands over my ears. I didn't want to breathe, and I didn't want to even hear the normal human sounds. I kept the thirst at bay as best as I could.
We walked in to the house, and I finally took a mouthful of air after we shut the door. Albrecht and I confirmed that Delilah was still not there, and we began to explore the house. Albrecht finally found a large ring of keys, and I'd found an almost-hidden door on the bottom floor. It was locked, and we fiddled with the keys until we found the right one.
Carlo had been smart; he'd prepared a large room underneath the house. It had no windows, and the only humans that could be heard were any that might be trespassing above. The walls were lined with bookcases, and the shelves were packed untidily. A table rested in the middle, and a comfortable-looking chaise longue lay against the wall. Open books littered the table, and little drips of cooled wax lay pooled under the extinguished candelabra.
Albrecht locked the door behind us. "Perfect," he said happily. "It shouldn't take too much more time for everybody to come here. I've already let them know where we are."
I frowned. "Everyone? Who is everyone?"
Albrecht chuckled. "Not as many people as James was led to believe. God, 'we're coming en masse'… Aro can be so dramatic at times." He smiled wryly. "Aro is not even coming himself. There's no need. He's sending Jane, Alec, Demitri, and Chelsea. Hardly 'en masse'," Albrecht said, grinning.
"Okay – so, who are they?"
"Jane and Alec are twins. Jane has a gift for giving pain..." Albrecht looked at my expression and laughed. "No, she's not going to hurt you. She was there in case James didn't buy Aro's whole 'We're coming, all of us, we swear!' thing." He wiggled his fingers and said that in a spooky voice, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Alec's interesting. He can completely immobilize someone. He works almost as an anesthetic. Demitri is the tracker, and he's there in case James decided to try and hurt you, too. Damn good fighter, the best," he mused. "Chelsea…" He opened his mouth and closed it several times, unsure of what to say. "Chelsea is something of a calming agent, if you will. I'm not really at liberty to speak about what her gift really is. Calming agent will work just fine for now."
"Are they nice?" I said, timidly.
Albrecht laughed. "I wouldn't call Jane 'nice', really. Just try and stay on her good side. And Alec is pretty much like his gift. He looks eternally apathetic, like he's been anesthetized himself. Demitri's a decent enough man, but do NOT bother him when he's working." He sighed. "And yes, I think you'll find Chelsea nice."
We sat in silence after that. I hugged my knees on the chaise and wondered what would happen to me. "Albrecht?"
"Yes?"
"What do we do about food? I'm still very thirsty," I said in a small voice.
Albrecht pursed his lips and thought for a little while. "Let's wait until well after nightfall. I can probably sneak up on the asylum and bring a few people here."
We settled into a routine. I perused Carlo's many books, marveling over the pictures, and running my fingers over the unfamiliar letters. Albrecht took a few and translated them from Italian for me, and I would happily sit next to him, my head on his shoulder. He'd read them to me – Carlo's beloved tales of swords, of knights, of ladies fair. Other books were on medicine, or were very old books on vampire legends.
At night, Albrecht would sneak off and bring a pair of asylum patients with him. They were usually dirty and glassy-eyed; they were awake, but completely pliant. Their faces never registered surprise or pain as we bit into their tender skin. Albrecht would remove the bodies afterward. He weighted them and threw them in a nearby creek.
Delilah did come back, but left again. On the first day, Albrecht faked a letter from Carlo, telling Delilah that her services were no longer needed, and that she was to leave the premises immediately. Albrecht didn't seem to have the same ideas about food that Carlo had had; he thought Delilah would make an easy meal, but I begged him not to. I couldn't ever forgive myself, I told him, if the woman who had been so kind to me became my victim. Exasperated with my begging, he finally gave in and left her the letter and all the cash he could find in the house. Delilah took the cash, muttered something ending in "bastard", and left for good.
After an unknown length of time, there was finally a knock at the basement door. I sprang up, my muscles on alert, ready for a fight. Albrecht laughed and pushed me back down onto the chaise. "No fight today, little one. That's the Volturi."
He unlocked the door, and the four people came in. "Let's go already," Jane said sourly. Alec looked on passively.
"Oh, always so grumpy," the woman on the far end laughed. "Alice, dear, I'm Chelsea. I'm very glad to meet you, and Aro sends his relief that we are finding you well. This is Demitri," she said, pointing toward the towering man beside her, who smiled and nodded. "That's Jane and Alec." Jane rolled her eyes, and Alec stared impassively.
It was the oddest thing. Jane had the warmth of a glacier, and her brother Alec was only very slightly better – but still like a lukewarm puddle of water. The kind that you stepped in by surprise and then spent the next five minutes going "eww" over. Demitri hadn't yet spoken and seemed a bit antsy.
Yet, somehow, I felt drawn to all of them. I really, really wanted to be a part of this little group, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. I shook my head to clear it, and the feeling still stayed. Albrecht looked at me, looked at Chelsea, and rolled his eyes.
Jane snapped her fingers. "Come on, people, we have a train and a boat to catch."
Albrecht frowned. "Is that really a good idea?"
"Just because I can run across continents doesn't mean I want to. Do you know how much of a pain it is to get here from Volterra quickly? We're taking our time getting back. And on boats and trains, we can lock newborn here in the room and not cause a panic. I refuse to run across America AND Europe holding back some newborn with a control problem. This time, we go in comfort."
Albrech sighed heavily. "Whatever you want, Jane."
We were lucky it was past midnight; no humans were out – well, none of the sober and clean variety, anyway. We took two cars to a railway station, and we were all bundled into a beautiful first-class car, which we had to ourselves. I heard Jane imperiously tell a staffer that we were not to be disturbed unless we rang for something.
The trip to New York was really rather tortuous for me. I had no choice on food; I would have much rather stuck with Carlo's ideas, that I was only to take life when the life was no longer worth living. Unfortunately, on this voyage, that was not to be.
We had human food delivered, so that nobody would suspect anything. They did, of course, by the end of the weeklong trip. We'd killed either passengers or serving staff at every new stop, and tossed their bodies onto the railroad tracks once the train got up to speed. I spent the trip wishing that I could cry, and praying for forgiveness from the poor souls that we'd killed. Nobody seemed to care but Albrecht.
I found myself hating the idea of the ocean voyage that we had a first-class cabin on, because I knew it would be more of the same. I was on the RMS Olympic, sister to the infamous Titanic, and I should have been happy. I should have been awestruck by the beauty of the ship, by the swells of the ocean, by the beautiful people walking underneath our window. I couldn't be, though. Not when Jane dressed as an upper-class lady and lured the belowdecks passengers upstairs. She promised free food, or entrance to an expensive party – free drinks for all! – and they came. They came by the dozen sometimes. And in each instance, they died.
The lowest-class passengers were starting to revolt by the time the ship berthed at Southampton. I'd seen this, and warned the group; the bodies were sneaked onto different spots on the ship, and the ship's physicians either ruled the deaths as accidents or alcohol-related. Nobody on the ship was about to put a full investigation into the deaths of the ship's poorest denizens.
We traveled by trains and cars through lands that I didn't even know the names of. I heard beautiful, exotic accents, with soft, flowing sounds. Albrecht became very excited as we passed through Germany, and he spent long hours telling me about what it was like in his homeland when he was human. He wasn't very old, for a vampire, but knew his beloved country's history by heart and was more than happy to share it.
After what seemed like forever, we finally reached our destination. A group of people in long, hooded cloaks met us, and asked us to garb ourselves in the same. We were led through narrow, lamp-lit streets, buildings, and down many flights of stairs, and into a subterranean wonder. I was led through cave-like halls, and into the presence of Aro and two men who I didn't know – but who looked equally as ancient.
"Ah, Alice!" Aro said happiliy, embracing me. "I'm so glad to see you safe and sound. I trust your journey was a good one?"
I looked down, and Jane cut in "She's got some food issues."
"Not surprising," he said, still smiling. "She learned everything she knew under Carlo. He didn't like taking what he saw was unnecessary life." He patted my shoulder. "You will get over it in time." He turned to his cohorts. "Alice, this is Caius," he said motioning to one. Caius nodded in greeting. "And this is Marcus." Marcus simply looked at me. "Alice, consider this your home now, this family your family."
I wasn't paying very much attention, and was still stuck on Aro's claim that I'd "get over it in time". Why? Why would I have to if I didn't want to?
"But I don't want to get over it," I protested quietly. The room fell silent.
"I'm sorry?"
"I don't want to kill. I don't want to be a monster."
Aro laughed as if I was a toddler who had done something cute. "Oh, don't you worry, my dear," he said patronizingly. "You will come to understand. Humans are our food source; they are our beasts of burden. We are better, are we not? Stronger, faster..."
"Better looking," put someone in the dark recesses of the room, to general laughter.
"We're better predators, dear. It's survival of the fittest, and we are the fittest." He smiled. "Now, we're not gluttons, not by any stretch of the imagination. We protect the people above us, and in return, we reduce their numbers by a bit every now and then. It's not so much of the villagers, really. We get tourists, mostly. People who just aren't smart enough to see that the villagers here don't really believe that there is an underground shrine here sacred to St. Marcus." He smiled again. "Now that you're a part of our family, I promise you, you will get used to it in no time at all."
Aro gave Chelsea a pointed look, and she came over and took my hand.
I fought against the warm feelings that I somehow knew weren't right. "But, Aro – what if I don't want to be part of your family? What will you do to me?"
"Why, nothing, child," he said in a fatherly voice. "Everyone who is here chooses to be here."
I smelled the humans coming down the hall a split second before I heard them, and the blood lust took over.
"Ah!" Aro said, clapping his hands together. "Dinner has arrived."
