Chapter 7. Destiny.
POV: William
I am tempted to walk closer to where Madame is sitting, but I am afraid of Alton recovering and attempting to attack once again. Honestly, I am going crazy, I should be doing the same thing he just did, but I can´t find it within me to attack them. What has gotten into me? I don´t know.
"Both of you have an interesting future ahead of you." Madame's voice is serious; she is looking at Ivan and then towards me.
"Madame, we both know the future is not set on stone," Ivan rudely cuts her off.
"I know that, Ivan, I am living, breathing proof of that, but the possibility is high according to the scale. You don´t get a perfect balance easily." She turns her head towards me.
A thousand questions start running through my mind.
"How exactly does the scale works, Madame? Does it behave the same for anybody that asks questions?" I am curious to hear her information; she smiles at this. Ivan growls at my question; he has always been so impatient and, as usual, wants to jump to the conclusion.
"I wish I had more time, William, to explain to you how the scale works, so I´ll try to summarize it as best as I can," she sighs, "When I was human, I was a fortuneteller. I could look at somebody and know the possible futures that she or he had. The one that transformed me thought that my ability would enhance once I was changed, like a vampire.
"To his great disappointment, things don´t work like that for our kind. However, I didn´t lose my ability completely, but I depend on other items to be able to know the future now. At first the Tarot cards where clear enough, but after…" She runs her finger down her closed eyelids "…they no longer speak to me, since I can´t see them. However, the scale has been helpful; the trick of it is asking the right questions and understanding those small changes. To answer your second question, no, it seems that it only answer my questions, plus it has taken me a few years to interpret it. Not all questions have a yes or no answer."
"So, Madame, what was the question that created the perfect balance?" Ivan says. I look at him in a not very amicable way.
"I believe it's more important to understand what a perfect balance means," I snap at him. Madame chuckles, hearing our interaction.
"A perfect balance is a strange and a complicated situation, William, it means a major event." Her head turns from me to Ivan. "The first time that Ivan was presented to me, the scale indicated that he will have an important role in the werewolf destiny."
I look at Ivan and see he has a smug smile in his lips.
"But it looks like you will also; it never occurred to me to ask that question when I made your first reading. I assumed that you would be protected where I sent you." Her forehead furrows and there is a frown on her face.
"You specifically asked me to stay there and I didn´t, so it's not your fault." I can´t stop myself from telling her this. There are two mistakes that I regret; the first is not following Mother to wherever she went. Father ordered to not let her wander alone, I did not obey and she end up dead. The second time was because I didn´t follow Madame´s orders and I ended up becoming a vampire.
Two times I´ve not followed a rule or an order, look where it has gotten me. It seems that this is going to be the third time, considering that I did not kill the Children of the Moon, instead I saved them from Alton. I hate to think the repercussions this is going to have.
"We can´t keep blaming ourselves for the past. What is done is done, the only option we have is to keep on living and learn from our mistakes." My voice is full of sadness.
"William?" Madame is full of concern, but I am not looking at her anymore; I am looking at Alton's back.
"Never mind, Madame, it won´t happen again, as long as I follow the rules, right?" I finally look up to Madame, but she is shaking her head.
"Rules are there to try to make a society work—that doesn´t mean that they are right—as well as orders. It's not a bad thing to question them once in a while." I hear Ivan laughing at this and then disguising it as a cough. "That doesn´t means you need to disregard every single one of them, right, Ivan?" She turns her head towards him; one of her eyebrows shoots upwards, making Ivan shut up.
"I am sorry that we don´t agree on that, Madame, fate has taught me a thing or two regarding that." I give her a small smile.
"Fate will show you otherwise, William," Madame answers back. This time Ivan doesn´t even bother in disguising the laughter as a cough. "And you, too, Ivan." This certainly makes him quiet.
"What do you mean, Madame?" Ivan starts coming closer to Madame; she starts smiling, knowing that she hit a sour point in Ivan.
"You might at some point have looked identical, but you have always been quite the opposite in character. You, Ivan, have always been a little rebel—impatient, vain, impulsive, never thinking about the tomorrow or even the consequences," I bite my lip at hearing Madame´s spot on description of Ivan, "and you, William—always a little soldier, overthinking everything, following rules and orders, never questioning them." This time Ivan is the one chuckling.
"Ivan needs to learn to follow them and William needs to learn to ignore one or two every now and then, in order to achieve the perfect balance," Madame continues ignoring Ivan, "until then, no major changes in both our worlds will take place."
"So you are saying that the destiny of our species is going to depend on both of us? Seems to me that we are all doomed then." There is a sarcastic tone in Ivan and I can´t help at laughing a little at this.
"Don´t be a fool, Ivan!" Madame is not happy about the remark. "Of course not! You are just a mere pawn in the whole destiny."
"If this was a chess game, Madame, I believe we should at least be upgraded to a tower or a bishop, considering the seriousness of the situation." Oh, Ivan! Not a smart thing to say.
Madame moves fast, and before Ivan can stop his rambling she is in front of him, holding him by his chin and making him look down to where she is.
"Life is not a game, Ivan. It seems that we still have a long way to go with you before we can achieve that perfect balance." Her face is not happy at all; it seems that Ivan still has his magic touch to find a way to make enemies.
She quickly releases her hold on him and returns to her seat. "We are lucky your brother is half way there."
I am about to interrupt Madame and disagree with her perfect balance theory, but the small silhouette standing in the door interrupts us.
"Time for us to leave." Althea walks over to where I am and returns the map to my hands safely. "I believe you will find my drawing very similar to yours." She motions for me to open it; I do as she asks and I can´t tell the difference of what part she marked.
"What did you do to it?" Her face breaks into a smile; she is about to pinpoint but stops. "It's better for you not to know."
I look confused at her and then look at Ivan, but he shakes his head.
"One last thing, William," Madame says. I turn to look at her. "When you meet the right girl, you will start questioning the rules."
My hopes go up; it seems there is something to look forward in life, considering the mess that I currently am.
"So I assume Heidi is not the right girl?" Ivan speaks up. How does he knows about her? I could swear that Alton laughs beneath me.
Madame ignores Ivan.
"And seems the girl that you are going to end up with…" Madame says, her head turning towards Ivan, a wicked smile on her face, "is going to like to follow rules, might even manage to put a leash on you."
Ivan laughs at this.
"Not only is she going to be the only female of her species, she is going to make me follow rules. I don´t think Althea will be capable of that." Ivan looks at Althea and winks at her. Althea's posture gets rigid.
"I am not the only female of my species, you moron! How many times do I have to tell you that?" She sounds angry.
"He has a thick skull; I am not certain it is ever going to go through it." I can´t help myself from telling this to Althea; her mad face breaks into an amused one. Madame actually laughs aloud at this.
"Thanks a lot, little brother." Ivan´s voice is now annoyed.
"I like you, William, and that is a long shot considering you are a vampire." Althea looks at me. "Why didn´t you become the werewolf and him the leech?" She points her thumb towards Ivan.
"Because fate has a sour sense of humor." I turn towards the voice and see that Roland is the one speaking. I didn´t hear him come in; there is also an amused expression on his face. "It is time, Madame."
Madame sighs and nods.
"William, in order to protect you and us, Althea will have to block the memory of us ever meeting." She approaches me. "You won´t be able to remember anything from the last twenty-four hours."
"What exactly are you going to do to me?" I look from Althea to Madame. As far as I understand, they are not planning on killing us, but blocking a memory… How does that even work?
"One of Althea´s ability is that. It has helped us in the past and she is the reason there are a few of us that remain unnoticed. She is responsible that we are not an extinct species." Madame´s face is turning towards Althea; she gives her a brief nod, kind of like thanking her for the help.
"I don´t think it's going to work. How am I going to explain to myself one missing day?" Althea might have tampered with the map, but there is no way she can tamper with the natural way of things, like skipping one day or eliminating one night from the moon cycle.
"She has her own way of making you not question yourself that much. Besides, we are confident that it will work; you are not the first Volturi guard that have undergone the treatment and I am afraid that you won´t be the last." Madame´s voice is sad.
"I am sorry to interrupt but there isn´t any time left. We need to get you both on the move," Althea says while bending down and placing her hand at each side of Alton´s temple. She closes her eyes and her face becomes troubled. "Such a terrible leech you are," her teeth are clenched and her lip is quivering, "It's a pity we don´t get to kill you."
She removes her hands and Alton's body becomes completely relaxed, as if he was sleeping.
"I agree with you; my only comfort is that Alton is an important milestone for William´s future," Madame says. I look at her, hoping for an explanation to her last comment, but she is not looking at me; instead, she is facing the wall.
"So he gets to kill him? " Ivan says, his voice whining.
Madame remains quiet, but there is a faint smile on her lips.
"Now it's your turn" Althea steps closer and puts her hands at each side of my face, her touch is warm, but cooler than a human.
"Wait!" Ivan comes closer.
"Ivan!" Althea snaps at him. "We need to get on the move, otherwise I can´t guarantee their safety with so many werewolves around. We need to put some distance between us."
"Can I say goodbye to him?" Ivan´s voice is soft, which manages to change Althea´s annoyed expression.
"Agghh, fine go ahead, but make it short." She moves to one side. Ivan is now in front of me.
"Until we meet again, little brother." He gives me a wicked smile. "Looking forward to seeing you again and challenging you to another round." I sigh and roll my eyes at him. "Find that girl that is going to make you question the rules and orders, and maybe, just maybe, I might follow a rule or two." I shake my head at him, but find amusement in what he is telling me.
He stands up and backs away. "And make sure she is something special and unique; we don´t settle down easily."
"That is because no one will take you, Ivan," Althea says under her breath. I can´t help from chuckling at this. Ivan ignores her.
"Keep yourself out of trouble, and even if you are a leech, I don´t hate you that much." This is the closest thing that I am going to get him to say that he misses me.
"You too, Ivan. Until we meet again." I smile at him; he gives me a brief nod. "Don´t give Madame too much trouble, a rule or two won´t kill you."
"Trouble is my middle name."
"I believe your middle name is Charles." Ivan has a grin on his face the moment I correct him.
"And correction was your middle name." I roll my eyes at him.
"It was Thomas." I can´t help but feel amused briefly, remembering the way we used to interact.
"Enough, you two." Althea comes and blocks my view; she has a severe tone to cut off Ivan, but I can see her smiling at me. She removes the cloak from around her. I am not able to smell the stench from Ivan; if anything, it has fruity lingering smell. "If you want to see him later on in life, I need to get him out and block his memory." She puts her hands at each side of my temple. "Close your eyes."
I do as she asks me.
"I will block your memory, but not as profoundly as I did to the other one. You´ll be able to remember us once you smell us and hear us," and then nothing.