Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.
The Romanians
When Anna woke up everything was dark around her. Her head hurt and she groaned with pain. Had someone hit her? She couldn't remember.
She blinked against the darkness trying to figure out where she was.
The first thing she noticed besides the darkness was that it was freezing and that the ground she lay on was damp. A cave maybe?
No. Although the ground was undoubtedly made out of stone it was too even to be a cave. A room then. She took a deep breath and smelled mouldy air, straw and dirt.
Something next to her moved in the darkness and Anna got frightened, instinctively rolling away from whatever it was. Her head hit something hard. A stone wall. "Yes," she thought rubbing her forehead, "Definitely a room." But what room smelled like dirt and straw?
A bunker, maybe a barn. Or a cell.
Groaning she sat up still rubbing her forehead. She could already feel it swelling up. "Ouch!"
"Are you okay?" a female voice asked her worried. Anna stopped rubbing her forehead at once. Her lips parted as if to say something but not a sound came out. The voice, this voice, stirred something deep within her.
Memories of a time long ago. Pictures appeared before her inner eye. Images of happier days. Brighter days. But this couldn't be. It was impossible!
"Anna, are you hurt?" the voice asked again?
Anna blinked trying to adjust her eyes to the blackness around her. Slowly she could make out shapes.
One shape was right in front of her. It was big. Clearly a person. Her sight cleared a bit more and she started to see the face of the person.
A Fringe. Shaggy hair. A slim face. High cheekbones. Big eyes. It was too dark to make it out but Anna was absolutely positive that they were blue. A clear blue with just a hint of grey in them.
"It can't be," she whispered. "It can't. You're dead."
"I feel pretty alive," Cara smiled half-heartedly. "Although, somehow I wish I was dead."
"Oh my god!" she flung her arms around Cara's neck, "You're alive! All this time I thought you were dead." Tears of relief and happiness came to her eyes. "What happened to you?"
"It's complicated," Cara said while hugging her back fiercly. "It's all so weird. I haven't figured it out yet myself." She let go of Anna and looked at her insecure.
"I... I don't want to scare you," she said soundlessly.
Anna looked at her sympathetically. "Believe me Cara, there's not much left that could actually scare me."
"Okay, where should I begin?" she hesitated a bit, "As you know I have been travelling in Europe before I disappeared. So, I was in France and I met this other girl. She seemed really nice and she was travelling too. She told me about the landscapes and the history of East Europe. It sounded so amazing.
However she was scared to travel there alone so I suggested that I skip Sweden and go with her." The words were now flowing from her mouth, "And that's the last thing I really remember. Then everything is kind of... blurry, you know.
One moment we were staying in a hostel in Poland and the next thing I know is waking up in darkness. Not here though. It was much warmer than here.
There were voices too. Two men. And the girl, Julia. They were talking in an foreign language. Polish maybe, I don't know. The I have some black spots. Every time I woke up at different places. Always dark. And always alone." She fell silent for a moment before continuing in a low voice.
"Then they started to 'visit'. They would always come alone. I couldn't see them in the darkness but I felt them.
The air turned ice-cold once they had entered the room. Then they pushed me around until I lost orientation. Sometimes they would hit me. And then they... they..." her voice cracked and sobs shook her fragile body.
"They bit you." Anna finished the sentence for her. "They drank your blood, didn't they?"
Cara nodded, pressing her hands to her mouth. "Yes," she sobbed.
Pity overwhelmed Anna and she took her former best friend into her arms. "I'm sorry." She whispered, "I'm so sorry."
"It hurt so much," Cara cried into her shoulder, "Every time they 'visited' I wished that they would kill me this time but they never did. They always left me lying on the floor, writhing in pain. Bleeding. Close to death but not close enough."
"A walking blood bag," Anna thought frowning. Jane had once told her that having your personal 'blood bag' had been very popular a few decades ago. It was like having a pet of some sort. You fed them, you cared for them - just enough so they didn't die - and you could drink from them whenever you felt like it.
Today it wasn't so easy to have one though. Times had changed a lot and people got suspicious very quickly nowadays. But there were still some vampires who held on to that fashion.
Far away a door slammed. Steps approached.
Cara panicked and skidded closer to Anna holding her tight. "They're coming. They're coming to 'visit'," she whispered frightened to death.
The fear swapped over to Anna but she did her best to control it. "You can handle Caius. You can handle this too." she thought grimly. "Cara needs me now. Be strong, Anna."
"It's gonna be okay C. They won't hurt you, I promise." she tried to comfort Cara who was trembling with fear. "They are not here for you anyway."
This was the very reason Caius didn't like her walking around all alone. He wasn't called ruthless for nothing. And there were people in this world who were all too eager to make him pay for whatever he had done to them.
And for them Anna was a target. An easy target at that. She was still mortal. Vulnerable. Hurting her would hurt Caius more than anything else.
Caius had known that. And deep inside her Anna had known it too. But she had still refused to walk around with a bodyguard all the time. No matter how often he had begged her to do so.
Right now, she wished she would have had listened to him.
But then again she wouldn't have found Cara. "Caius will find me. He will find me and then we'll both get out of here."
The door opened and the room was illuminated by the flickering light of a lantern.
"Now, now, look who is awake at last." a voice with a thick Romanian accent said. "It is about time."
Anna shoved the still trembling Cara behind her and stumbled to her feet. She wouldn't face her kidnappers crouching on the floor in front of them.
The fast movement made her head whirl and she saw colourful sparks for a moment. When her view cleared up again a blond vampire stood in front of her.
His hair was even whiter than Caius' and his eyes just as red. Even the evil grin he flashed her rivalled her mate's.
She remembered him. He had been there on the clearing last winter when the Volturi had confronted the Cullens.
"Who are you?" Anna asked the first question that popped into her mind.
"Oh, don't tell me your precious Caius failed to mention us. I am Vladimir and this," he motioned to the man standing behind him, "is Stefan. Certainly he has spoken about us at some point."
The other man laughed, "He has. Just look at her face."
Anna looked at him. She recognised him too. Brown hair, hook-nose, red eyes. He had attended the confrontation as well.
"The Romanians. Oh, aren't I a lucky beggar."
"And what do you want from me?"
Vladimir's grin dropped and he grabbed her by her throat and slammed her into the wall so hard it took her breath away. "We want to see Caius suffer."
He lifted her up a little more. Her feet lost contact with the ground. Choking she tried to loosen his grip around her throat. Her nails scratched over his stone hard skin and her feet kicked out trying to hit him where it hurt.
It was useless.
"But since we can't get our hands on him we take the second best." Vladimir continued to explain without paying any attention to her effort.
Her face turned slowly red.
"Careful there, brother. We don't want to kill her yet." Stefan interfered.
"True that," Vladimir mused and let go of Anna. She fell to the ground coughing. The blond Romanian crouched down next to her and slowly drew his fingernail across her cheek.
She felt warm blood run over her face where his nail had slit the skin.
"Now, let's see how much you can take, shall we?"
"Get away from her," Cara tried to help her but she was held back by Stefan.
Angrily Anna pushed Vladimir's hand, which was now smearing the blood over her cheek, away. "Leave her out of this!"
She got to her feet only be thrown across the room by Vladimir. "Feisty, aren't we?"
He flitted over to her and kicked her in the side.
She flew back. Her head hit the wall causing her blood to whoosh in her ears. Cara screamed her name. It sounded muffled as if she was under water.
Vladimir came over to her. "Get up, mortal. We are not done yet," he snarled yanking at her hair until she got to her feet. "We are only getting started."
He held her in a tight grip while his nails scratched over her temple. Blood dropped from the wounds he left there, running slowly down her face.
Anna bit her tongue not to scream.
He looked down at her apparently disgruntled about her silence and slapped her across the face. "Scream, you damn mortal!" he yelled at her.
The blow brought tears to her eyes again but she refused to make a sound and let him know her pain.
"So much like him," The vampire in front of her pondered. He held up two fingers marvelling at them. They were smeared with Anna's blood.
Slowly he licked the blood from his index finger, Anna watching in horror.
"Delicious," the evil grin returned, "How about a bit more?"
Fast like a striking snake he dove for her neck. His teeth sunk deep into her skin as if she was made of butter.
And finally Anna screamed.
"I can't wait for Caius to get me out of here. I have to find a way myself," was the last thing she thought before everything went black again.
