Chapter 7: Here's The Plan

Marcus' POV

I was engulfed in depression. It was worse than when Didyme died, 1000 times so. We were on a large boat heading back to Italy. The dreary sea was my only companion since I hissed at anyone who came near me. There was nothing to be done in these sort of situations and that made the matter all the more worse. I'm not used to being helpless. It was a feeling I hope to never have again.

We were going to land soon. I could smell the scent of land in the air. Luckily the night had a thin, waning moon so mortal eyes would not be able to easily spot us. We ported in silence and were quickly unpacked and on the move again.

As we approached Volterra on the second day of running I could tell something was wrong. We picked up our pace and there was a thin line of smoke rising from somewhere in the city. The scent of dead bodies was thick in the air, but we paid no mind to the corpses that littered the city, our thoughts focused on the castle. Just from the smell of the corpses I could tell they had been dead a little under a week. The whole city was silent save for the squawking of scavengers and buzzing of flies.

Aro was the first one to burst through the doors of the castle, taking deep breathes trying to find his mate. The guards spread out. There were piles of purple ash everywhere, but none of them smelled like Sulpicia and Athenodora. I found Aro in the throne room hunched over, a piece of paper in hand. Caius quickly grabbed it out of his hand.

Dear Usurpers,

The time has come for us to take back what is ours. I hope you enjoyed ruling when you did. You should be glad to know that your two false queens are still alive, though dismembered. Whether they meet their ends in the fire or fall back into your arms is up to you all. We shall send a representative once you all come back from your vacation.

-Vladimir and Stefan


BPOV

"What trouble have you gotten into now, Stefan, that you need me to get you out of? You know I don't like playing your game of world domination. I agree with the Volturi's opinion on keeping our existence secret." It was a fundamental point we always disagreed on.

"We are far from being in trouble. This time we have the upper hand!" Vladimir said, his enthusiasm obvious. I raised one of my eyebrows in suspicion and disbelief.

"Last time you thought that your coven was destroyed." I reminded them. They completely disregarded my comment. "Your numbers?"

"Just under 40 excluding us and yours." Stefan said proudly.

"You'll need to double that before making a proper assault against them. We just ran into some of them in the Americas not long ago. Don't worry I didn't lead them here." Vladimir nodded, thinking about my advice. "Your traps are still too obvious. Sonya is good, but we still detected her. Are you going to be offensive or defensive?"

"We are going to start changing humans tonight. Can you put a shield around the two faux-queens? I heard that the Volturi have good trackers and I don't want to take a chance."

"So you hide in the most obvious place?" I asked incredulously. Stefan laughed.

"It will be the last place they look. Those fools are too arrogant." Stefan said through his laughs.

"Perhaps you two are the arrogant ones, hiding in plain sight, kidnapping their mates while still having inadequate numbers. Had I not showed up it would have surely meant the end of you both." I scuffed up Stefan's hair and he swatted my hand away.

"There was no better opportunity. Most of the guards were abroad. It was too good of an opportunity to let pass by." Vladimir tried to explain to me.

"Regardless, show me to these women so I can cover them with my shield."

"Are you sure these three can be trusted?" Vladimir asked, not caring that Jasper, Charlotte, and Peter could hear him.

"Yes, I changed two of them myself and the other one has had plenty of opportunities to betray me." I didn't need to say anymore on the subject for them to accept my coven. Deep in the dungeons there were four pots with random parts of the two women filling them. I could smell their venom melting the clay of the pots away. I focused on them, creating an invisible bubble that would make it so that no one could get in or out as well as made it so that no gifts would work on them. I smiled to myself, pleased with my work. "Now what else do you need me to do?" Stefan hesitated so I trained my eyes on Vladimir. His eyes were trained on the wall. "Speak lest I lose my patience." Vladimir's eyes flicked back to mine, his red irises darkening.

In the early days, before I had Stefan changed it had just been Vladimir, me, and my maker. My maker had been cruel to me, but worse to Vladimir. Whenever we disobeyed he would give us one warning: 'The loss of my patience will be the loss of your life'.

Stefan didn't notice our slight exchange of glares, but I'm sure Jasper did.

"We need you to act as our envoy to the Volturi."Stefan said, drawing my attention from Vladimir. Jasper snaked his arm around my waist, probably in defense from whatever emotions Vladimir was emitting. "You have the perfect ability to make them listen to you while still being out of their reach."

"This is true." I stated indifferently. I was processing the idea. The variable that kept nudging me away from the prospect was the chance that they had a member that could negate my power. "That is a role I could fulfill, but why should I risk my immortality just for your little game. Can you not just send them some sort of letter?"

"We already left them a letter telling them we would send someone. The only way we can be sure they fulfill their end of the bargain is if we have eyes there." Vladimir added in. Jasper's grip tightened around me and I patted his arm subtly. "We just received word a bit before you got here saying that the Volturi where heading back to their castle."

"That does not answer the question of why I should put my life at jeopardy just for this." I motioned to the castle all around me. There was a long pause as they thought.

"There is no logical reason for you to go, only emotional." Stefan started saying. He was staring at me with a pleading look. "I'm your brother and I've had this dream, this memory and vision of how the word should be. How it should be ruled by us, never having to live in fear of other vampires or of the humans. It's my dream Bella, and you are key to fulfilling it." Jasper squeezed me once without my prompting; covertly telling me that Stefan's emotions matched his words.

I glanced to Peter to see if his intuition was telling him not to go.

"My gift is actually telling me that you should go." Peter's voice surprised and Jasper squeezed me once. Vladimir glared at Peter, probably thinking that he should have no say in the matter even though he was prompting me to go.

"This is quite the decision to make on a nearly empty stomach." I was stalling and everyone knew it. Stefan nodded to Sonya and she ran off to fetch me a human. It was only a few more minutes before she was back with a knocked out man almost twice my size. I quickly drained him. "Fine Stefan, Vladimir. I'll do it. What terms do you want of them for their mates back?" Vladimir smiled viciously and Stefan hugged me tightly.

"Their two witch twins Alec and Jane must be burned along with one third of their guard of their choosing." I nodded.

"I assume your ultimate goal is to kill all of the Volturi?" My voice and mood was grey.

"Of course."Vladimir started to lead us out of the lower half of the castle.

"If Bella is going I have to go as well." I wasn't surprised by Jasper's demand. Vladimir hissed at him, but Jasper didn't even flinch, completely resolved.

"This has nothing to do with you, child. You should just be glad that we allow you to live." Part of me forgot how much I enjoyed seeing Vladimir angry.

"Calm dear Vladimir." I said in my best condescending voice. "He will come with me. I can shield him as easily as I do myself. Also his gift will be an asset. He will be able to read the emotions of the room."

Stefan looked at Jasper incredulously, wondering if I was lying or not. I smiled at him, teeth bared. He was right not to trust me, just not on this issue.

"Have it your way, Bella. When do you want to set off?" I was looking around at the castle. They had refurnished it splendidly.

"Tomorrow, when the sun is at its highest point. Until then I think we should celebrate our reunion as well as make plans for the future."

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