A/N: GAH!! I'm SO sorry that it's taken me so long to update!! College life has been extremely busy, leaving me with little writing time. I could have cut this chapter shorter so you wouldn't have to wait so long, but this is a major chapter, and I think you deserve to know everything that it holds. Thanks to Master of the Boot, Freakk66, Rowan Rosethorne, and whoever the random person was who left the anonymous review, for the reviews and favorites! You are what keep me going! Now, without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for: chapter 7!


Once we were all settled, Marius said, "Since my meeting with you almost 400 years ago, Carlisle, I have learned many things. I have kept it all secret for quite some time. But now, a force has begun to grow with the intent to completely turn the world as we know it on its head. The time has come for us to act, and the secrets that I have been holding must be made known to you. Hold on to your hats; you are in for a night of surprises."

Vampire Legions

Chapter 7—History

No-One-In-Particular's POV

Marius began:

"Centuries ago, when I was first made into a blood drinker, I was charged with keeping and caring for the very first of our kind, Akasha and Enkil. They had been King and Queen of ancient Egypt, selfish and empty rulers with no compassion for human life. Akasha was the driving force of the regime, always searching for the means to her own shallow ends. One of these means was through the supernatural. Now, I am sure you know that there are other supernatural forces in this world besides us. Witches, psychics, shape-shifters—yes, I know about your wolf friends. They are a very interesting species. What Akasha was interested in was spirits. She found two witch sisters who could commune with spirits, and had them forcibly brought to her feet. She used them to pose her shallow and self-serving questions to the spirits, but it did not go over very well at all. In fact, one spirit in particular, the vicious and bloodthirsty Amel, harassed the King and Queen even after the witch sisters were sent away. Amel finally got what he wanted when one night, a group of dissenters assassinated Akasha and Enkil. As Akasha's soul was rising from her body, Amel fused with it and entered her body through her wounds. His bloodthirsty characteristics were transferred to her, and she became the first vampire. Within seconds she turned to her dying husband, drank almost all of his blood, and had him drink her blood, causing him to become the second vampire. That was circa 4000 BC. About a thousand years later, they sank into a trance, practically becoming statues, and they stayed that way until 1985, when Lestat here caused Akasha to awaken, kill Enkil, and seek to create a new world order. She killed many of our kind and almost destroyed society. She was killed, however, by Maharet and Mekare, the witch sisters. Mekare ingested Akasha's heart and brain, and became the new Queen of the vampires.

"That is our history, mine and Lestat's. That is the history which Lestat published, the history which describes what we are and how we came into being. That was the only history that I believed there to be about vampires, until the fateful night in 1720 when I met you, Carlisle. I was preparing to move Akasha and Enkil to an island fortress in the Aegean Sea, and I decided to make one last visit to my homeland, Rome. It was a period of my life when I was completely alone, completely unattached to everything but Those Who Must Be Kept, so I flew across Europe at a leisurely pace, taking in a birds-eye view of the continent. I was traveling south along Italy towards Rome, when I looked down at the city below me and beheld a massive festival, what I now know was the St. Marcus festival. My curiosity got the better of me, and I inconspicuously flew down to ground level and began walking the streets. I then quite literally bumped into you, Carlisle, and, well, you know what happened the rest of that night. What you don't know is that, after our meeting, I began a quest to learn the history of your kind. I dazzled and smooth-talked my way through the ranks, learning more and more from each person, until, just recently, I put together the last piece of the puzzle. This is one of the reasons why, when I found your family here, I sent a silent message to Lestat to come here, so that you all may know. I now present to you, the history of your species.

"In the early years of Akasha and Enkil's reign, Akasha became pregnant. The kingdom rejoiced, hoping for a male heir to the throne. However, it soon became apparent to both the King and the Queen that the child growing in Akasha's womb was not the seed of Enkil. It is not known who the father was, because Akasha admitted to Enkil of having slept with countless guards and servants in the palace. She claimed to have been put under a spell, and he accepted her story; yet deep down, he knew that she was at fault, that she flaunted her beauty in front of other men to satiate her selfish needs. He became extremely jealous, and demanded that when the baby was born, it would be hidden away for eternity. The world at large was told that the child had been a stillborn, and that it had caused Akasha to never be able to have children again. To make sure that she could never have another affair, Enkil had their private physician mutilate Akasha's nether region. His jealousy and her animosity towards him stayed with them until their death, but they kept the outward appearance of a loving King and Queen for the sake of their kingdom.

"Akasha's child was a girl, a daughter that Enkil named Nisfeta. Quite an ingenious name, if you ask me. 'Isfet' was the ancient Egyptian word for 'sin,' so Enkil hid the word within the child's name to represent the hidden sin that she was produced from. He also hid Nisfeta away from the world, keeping her in an underground, heavily-guarded dungeon. She was fed only enough to keep her alive, and was completely cut off from everything. She was ten years old when Akasha and Enkil became vampires. Shortly afterward, Enkil visited Nisfeta in her dungeon and made her a vampire, so that she may suffer as much as he. Other than that, nothing changed for Nisfeta. The King and Queen still kept their daughter prisoner underground. They still posted numerous guards at the only exit—except now the guards were vampires as well. They still kept Nisfeta on the verge of starvation, bringing her very few humans to drink blood from. For a century, Nisfeta stayed in her underground dungeon, completely alone.

"Or, at least, Akasha, Enkil, and the guards thought she was completely alone. But Nisfeta had a secret companion who no one else knew about. You see, Nisfeta had the same abilities as Maharet and Mekare—she could see and talk to spirits. One spirit in particular, a spirit named Howeth, was immediately drawn to her and became her only friend. Ultimately, it was Howeth's company that kept Nisfeta alive.

"Howeth was a unique spirit, because, unlike the other ethereal spirits, he appeared to be made of matter. Crystal, as a matter of fact. His skin was cold, white, and hard, and it reflected rainbows in the sunlight. His body was filled with venom that ran through him like blood, nourishing him. He was unable to sleep, and his eyes were bright red.

"The spirit world has been described as having only two kinds of spirits: good and evil. Yet, in the beginning, Howeth was neither good nor evil; he simply existed by Nisfeta's side. But as the years and decades passed, he became more and more frustrated by Nisfeta's situation. The sparse conditions made him more and more greedy and power-hungry. He wanted to get Nisfeta out of her underground cage; at first because he loved her, but soon he became so twisted and corrupt that he only wanted to break Nisfeta free so that he could use her to gain power and wealth.

"Akasha and Enkil went into their motionless trance circa 3000 BC, about a century after Nisfeta was made. One day shortly afterward, when the guards and Nisfeta were sleeping, Howeth bit into Nisfeta's skin, allowing his venom to flow into her bloodstream and infect her DNA. Just as Amel changed Akasha into a new species of being, Howeth changed Nisfeta into a new species. His spirit qualities fused with her vampire qualities. She still needed blood to survive, but it became nourishment for the venom that flowed through her veins. Her skin took on his crystalline qualities, sparkling in the sunlight rather than burning, and her eyes turned crimson. His inability to sleep also transferred over to her, since she no longer needed to escape the sun's rays.

"Howeth's venom changed her in unexpected ways as well. Since venom replaced the blood in her veins, she was no longer part of the vampire bloodline; if Akasha and Enkil were killed, she would not perish. This worked the other way, too: if she were to die, those who she made would live on, because they are no longer connected by the exchange of blood. The venom also overrode Nisfeta's mental connection to both vampires and humans, completely erasing her Mind Gift and rendering her invisible to the Mind Gifts of other vampires, including her parents.

"But although she lost her Mind Gift and the other vampiric gifts she would have in time, she gained a different kind of gift. As both a human and a vampire, Nisfeta's most dominant quality was her ability to persuade those around her. She could persuade the guards to bring her an extra meal, she could persuade Howeth to entertain her in a certain way. Of course, she could never sway Akasha and Enkil, but no one could do that. Her ability to persuade was Howeth's favorite part of her personality; it was what drew him to her in the first place. Somehow, his love for her most dominant quality became part of his venom, so that when it infected her, it captured the essence of that dominant quality and strengthened it. It manifested itself as an extrasensory ability: as a new vampire, she could get someone to do her bidding by placing thoughts, memories, motivations, and emotions in that person's mind, giving them the illusion that it was what they wanted. She could influence the most selfish person to give all their money to the poor just by placing the proper ideas and motivations in his or her head, making that person believe that he or she wants to help the poor. It's quite an extraordinary gift, really, but can very easily be used for evil.

"But, I digress. The last thing that Howeth's venom did to Nisfeta was to infect her with his hunger for power. As soon as her transformation into a new species of vampire was finished, she plotted with Howeth, relishing in the fact that her parents were completely deaf to her now, completely deaf to everything she now wanted and planned on getting. Around midday, while all the guards were still asleep, Nisfeta and Howeth broke free from the underground prison and, as quickly as possible, made their way away from Egypt. Of course, once the guards woke up and alerted the King and Queen to their runaway daughter, they called on every vampire to search for her. But since Nisfeta had the advantage of traveling both day and night, they were never found. Faced with absolutely no evidence as to their daughter's whereabouts, Akasha and Enkil soon called off the search, believing Nisfeta to have gone into the sun and perished.

"In the centuries and millennia to follow, Nisfeta and Howeth concentrated on creating more Vampirus venomus, the name that has been given to this new species of vampire. Their only goal in doing this was to gain more and more power and wealth. They created armies of vampires who, once they were under Nisfeta's persuasive power, would do anything that Nisfeta and Howeth wanted of them. The duo's dream, of course, was to kill Akasha and Enkil, thereby killing every other Vampirus nocturnus (the original species of vampire) in existence, and rule the world over the inferior humans. But they knew that they had to wait for the perfect moment to strike, so for decades and centuries they would bide their time, sending their armies out on little missions to bring more wealth or more potential vampires. Every once in a while, Nisfeta and Howeth would try their luck at destroying a few powerful vampires or a large coven. One of those targets was actually me; when I was living in Venice in 1499, a satanic coven led by Santino set fire to my home and tried to destroy me. I only recently discovered that Nisfeta was behind this attack, that she had planted the seed of Satan worship in Santino's mind, that she had given him the proper emotions and motivations to want to order his coven to rise against me. Luckily, they failed. But numerous other vampires, and humans as well, have been slaughtered under Nisfeta's command.

"For 2,000 years, Nisfeta and Howeth made vampires, killed vampires (both Nocturnals and Venoms), killed humans, and grew richer, waiting for the perfect army and the perfect age to launch their full-scale attack on the Nocturnals. Sometime circa 1000 BC (it is not exactly known when), Nisfeta and Howeth came across three men, three senators in the city of Volterra, Italy. These men were in no way related, nor were they even friends; but Nisfeta knew that they were like brothers in many different ways. They all shared the same lust for power and wealth, the same knowledge of how to manipulate society and the governmental system, and the same yearning to be something more than human, something far superior to anyone else. As soon as Nisfeta laid eyes on Aro, Caius, and Marcus, she knew that they were the beginning of the end; with them under her power, she could finally rise up against Akasha, Enkil, and every other Nocturnal vampire. She could finally be superior to everyone and everything; she could be a goddess.

"She knew all this because she knew that the regime under Aro, Caius, and Marcus would be fairly democratic (by her standards, anyway) and based on governmental rule and reasoning. This was the one path she had never gone down. In all of her failed regimes, the power came from emotion, be it through religion, suppression and fear, or instant gratification. This time around, everything would be different. And it was the perfect time for change; the age was one of reason, the men wanted power through control and order, the fledglings they would create would be all too willing to serve a higher goal of peace-keeping and reasoning. With all this in mind, she plotted with Howeth on how to create what they needed to become the most powerful beings in existence.

"Nisfeta began by using her power on the three senators, convincing them to become friends, to see each other as brothers. Once their relationships were at the perfect dynamic, she snuck into their bedchambers late one night and changed them. Once they had all been changed, she revealed herself to them, telling them about what they were, what they wanted, and what they could have. She planted the right seeds in their minds, and then gave them full authority to carry out her plans. She planned it just right so that she would have to do as little work as possible; she made sure right off the bat that the Volturi brothers, as she named them, would be able to execute everything she wanted them to. Nisfeta and Howeth sat back for the next couple millennia, watching as their grand scheme grew. The Volturi created wives for themselves, they created followers, they created rules and conventions and hierarchies. When they came across something or someone who could possibly ruin the power and order they had built for themselves, they dealt with it as was convenient. Sometimes, Nisfeta would have to step in. For example, there were times when certain vampires who held a power that Nisfeta wanted were about to do something that would threaten the Volturi. Instead of letting the Volturi annihilate them, Nisfeta would use her power to change the rebels' thoughts and motivations. Mostly, however, things ran smoothly for Nisfeta and Howeth; they had made plenty sure that the Volturi wanted everything that they themselves wanted. They simply had to wait for the opportune moment to strike their unsuspecting relatives.

"This is where I bring the story back to the present, friends, for it is in the here and now where the true danger and urgency lies. You now know how you came into being, and the cause behind all the similarities and differences between you, the Venoms, and us, the Nocturnals. You now have every tool in your arsenal that I am able to give you. I now ask you to make a choice, a choice that means life or death. The time has come for Nisfeta and Howeth to make their move, to eliminate me, Lestat, and our other Nocturnal brethren, and to subliminally control the world. I come to you, not as a member of a different species, but as your ideological brother. Will you allow Nisfeta, the Volturi, and their pawns to subjugate the entire world? Or will you stand with us against this threat to our lives, to our freedom, to the world as we know it? Will you become my brethren, Lestat's brethren, and stand up for liberty and humanity?"

He took a deep breath, looked each Cullen in the eye, and waited patiently for an answer.