Here's the next chapter! I still only own Michael, Henry, Isaac, Erica, and Annabelle.

Sorry, but this chapter is going to be fairly (or even really) short, because the way I want to end this particular chapter is going to have to happen pretty soon. At least you got an update in a decent amount of time.


The Volturi weren't sure what to do. Yes, they could see through the dense fogginess better than the witches, but their vision wasn't one hundred percent, either. Besides, there was one other complication.

Like the vampires, the witches had spread rumors to take human scrutiny off of themselves. Rumors that skewed the ideas of what was in their basic natures. The widespread stories they had started were full of witches whose magic was full of sparks, loud noises, and somehow involved wands and broomsticks. In truth, they didn't need wands and, other than the words spoken to release it, the magic was silent, invisible, totally unobservable. And in this case, deadly.

Not all of the witches released killing spells, fortunately for the Volturi. Chelsea was thrown up against the wall on the other side of the room, shaking the tower so hard it sounded as if it might fall down. The other four managed to avoid being hit at all, although that was merely luck based in the fact that the witches couldn't see anything.

Moving quickly about, they used movement as their defense, figuring that staying behind a screen of smoke, while moving would make it harder for them to be hit. If they attacked, they reasoned, either the witches or the Cullens would see them and attack them before they had a chance.

However, because they could not see the Volturi, the Witches' Council was merely firing spells off as quick as they possibly could, so aim wasn't involved. Meaning there wasn't one specific target. Which, in turn, meant that eventually someone was going to walk into the path of one of the spells at just the wrong moment.

It was Marcus, and it was the wrong spell to get hit by. It was Michael's hatred. Death, wrapped in a small ball of unseen force. Before he died, however, he managed to whisper, "Aro. They are going to win. Save your life. Perhaps at another time you will be able to seize power back from them. Quit now. This fight will only end our empire forever, not preserve it. If you surrender there is a possibility that we will be able to rise again in a few millennia."

"No!" Aro howled. "I will never surrender."

Then two killing spells collided in midair.

And there was an explosion so powerful, so intense, that it momentarily lit up all of Volterra. It was so powerful, so dangerous, so deadly, that it destroyed the Volturi's castle in a shower of heavy stones.