A/N – Thanks to Mer for her masterful Beta skills, and awesome packages sent in the mail. Thanks to JaspersBrand / Amanda for reading and reviewing amidst moving and caring for a sick baby boy. She has started posting her story Wonderwall here on FF. Here is the link; .net/s/5385692/1/ Click it. Read it. Review it!
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BPOV
Rumbling cannonades of thunder throttled against the windowpanes, the Romanians became very excited as they realized I had wielded the power of the heavens to punctuate my threat on the Volturi. Their eyebrows shot up simultaneously into their widow peaked foreheads, sly, smug smiles tugged their razor thin lips into eery marble grins, Stefane murmured in awe,
"The Prophecy Vladimir! With power such as that, she is without a doubt..."
".. of the Three that become One," finished Vladimir.
They looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between their eyes. Vladimir tapped the pads of his fingers together within steepled hands while Stefane wrung his hands in excitement. I was uneasy, gleaning that they were hiding something; perhaps they had ulterior motives in coming here to meet me? Edward was taking careful note of the Romanian's body language, honeyed brown eyes narrowed in frustration. He wore this look when any of his family members were successfully masking their thoughts from him. The Romanians appeared to have learned this handy trick as well.
Preternatural pissing matches. I had no patience for this. I wanted answers from these creatures. I would have them.
"What do you know of The Prophecy? The Three that become One?" I demanded curtly. Edward curled his cold fingers around mine and squeezed gently. A warning to tread carefully.
Stefane's brilliant scarlet eyes snatched upon my own, like a crow catching the glint from a shiny object. Tilting his head in askance as if sizing me up for the first time since I made their acquaintance, he suspended his reaction to my clipped demand like the sword of Damocles above my head. Vladimir cut the chord and let it fall.
"You know of the the Three that become One? Of the Prophecy?"
What kind of fuckery is this? I was being tested? Pompous asses! They wanted to see how much I would reveal of what I know before they revealed anything themselves?
Christ. I sighed deeply as Edward rubbed small soothing circles between my shoulder blades to ease my tension.
So be it. I had nothing to hide and I needed their information.
"I only know what little I read in my book last night with Edward." I only had to look at my love briefly and he knew what I desired, in a blink he was gone, returning to me, book in hand. "And, what my great grandmother has told me in dreams and visions. She told me I was the Three that become One. That I was the strongest witch of the Striga line." The authority in my voice caught me by surprise. Edward and Carlisle smiled at me, pride stretching across their faces.
"Please forgive my impatience gentlemen, you must understand, this whole...history, along with the power I've inherited, has only just come to the forefront of my life in the past 3 days."
Vladimir and Stefane's face revealed surprise and then pity. They clucked their tongues at me,
"Poor dear, we understand copil, I'm sure this must all be very overwhelming for you. Would you show us your book?" Their excitement barely contained, they sidled up, each taking post on either side of me. As I opened the book to the first page, a ghost of a sigh escaped their lips as alabaster fingers shot out to stroke the strange ankh shaped symbol...
"We were Kings once..."
"We were Gods."
"It was a sign of our power that everything came to us."
"Prey, Diplomats, those seeking our favor."
"Your people, The Striga witches, came to us. Offering protection from the Italian scourge that was threatening us." Vladimir looked into my eyes and held my gaze.
"As did the shapeshifting wolves, the Pricolici.." breathed Stefane.
Before the words had time to fall from his lips, I was hit with the tsunami of realization of the ironic, intricately woven bond between mine and Jacob's ancestors. Pricolici! Of course! I had been so wrapped up in Leda's suffering and vengeance and how it paralleled my own that I failed to see what was right before my face within the first entry of the book. That is why the Volturi are after the werewolves as well as my own ancestors. We were both protectors of the Romanian Kingdom. We had both eluded their grasp!
Shock shoved words out of my mouth.
"Are the La Push Pack descendants of the Pricolici that guarded you?"
The gruesome twosome flashed a look between each other and answered simultaneously;
"Yes."
"We have been looking for them for a long time...but the Volturi found them first," Vladimir admitted quietly. "We have a man on the inside that debriefs us regularly on the Volturi's..."
"...progress, in hunting for the Pricolici and the Striga. Your descendants, the Twins Aesa and Adrastea sacrificed much to make a stand against the Volturi when they attacked. Taha Aki, of the Pricolici was our ally. Our friend.
"We could not believe our luck when we discovered that not only was the lost tribe of Taha Aki here in the New World, but possibly the Striga line as well when we received your fax of the Royal Seal in your book. the co-incidence was..."
Stefan's words faded into a low hum, morphing into the chant my grandmothers said over me as I was being exorcised from The Blackness, Harry's throat singing drifting eerily in the background;
"Turn the pages to find the key, Striga, Moroi, Pricolici.."
In a tiny voice, that I'm sure only vampires could hear, I asked cautiously, my mouth feeling as if it was full of sand;
"Who are the Moroi?"
Their answer came to me hushed and wary...as if they did not understand why I asked them,
"Why that is us dear child. In Romania, vampires are known as Moroi."
I turned to the passage I had read only hours before, where I had first seen those strange names in my grandmother's beautiful scrawling penmanship. I gulped back the surge of air rushing from my lungs that urged to be shaped into a moan of despair to a long forgotten deity. The Romanian's looked at me guardedly, taking in the sudden animation of the loose items in our radius. Dishes clattered in the cupboards, wind hammered an erratic heartbeat against the windows, pushing and sucking against the glass. Tremulously I read Leda's first entry,
"My husband was a great and powerful shaman. A shapeshifter. Though I only saw him as a swan, his true form was that of a wolf. I was amazed that the Pricolici from the Old Country existed on this side of the Ocean. The Pricolici were brothers in arms with the Striga in the protection of our lost kingdom. How Fate loves Irony! Pushing me with death snapping at my heels to the other side of the world to find my soulmate, one who came from a heritage steeped in magic and legend as far back as my own. Arriving on this strange continent, bereft, enslaved, frightened and scarred from the horrors of having my family stolen and murdered before my eyes, he stoked the fires of love within the cold embers of my heart. Uriah taught me his magics as I taught him mine, our love bound to the earth itself and wrapped within it's gravity."
Wonder wove itself along Vladimir's musing,
"What are the odds that they would travel across continents..."
"...to find each other on the other side of the world over a thousand years later and mate," his brother whispered, completing as always, his thought.
Their words settled like dry, dessicated dust about my ears as I mentally thrashed about in a Hell's eddy of irony. Pricolici , Striga and now, Moroi; Wolf, Witch and Vampire. Allies. Lovers. Family. Uriah and Leda. Jacob, Edward and I. All of us bound, tethered together in Fate's merciless comedy of broken hearts and promises.
All of us hunted by the Volturi.
NO! They will not have what is MINE!
One by one, in a wave of movement, the kitchen cupboard doors clicked open like a wooden kick line as Esme's props, beautiful delicate china plates, cups and crystal wine glasses tumbled, crashing then shattering against the smooth tiled floors. Chaotic chamber music for my crumbling mind.
The missing members of the Cullens appeared quickly upon hearing the cacophony in the kitchen, concern carved into their beautiful faces as they took in the shocking scene before them. Rose gripped Alice tightly who was overcome with emotion for me.
I must hold it together.
I can't control it!
I must have said this aloud as Vladimir and Stefane were now cooing soft encouragement in my ear;
"There there..draga mea, you've had barely time to process, it's too much information at once, yes?
"..and there is more to be revealed yet." Stefane glanced around furtively at the demonstration of my lack of control on my abilities. "Do not worry. We will help you gain control of this power.."
".. and then the Volturi scum will perish...as it was meant to be. As we have been waiting over a millennium for."
"Vladimir, we must bring him here to help her..."
"...yes, it is the only way...but how?"
Their voices faded into the distance as Edward's plunged through the violent vortex of my muddled mind,
"Bella? Love? Are you all right?" I clung to the buoy of his voice, his cool body standing beside mine. Regaining my composure, my ire embedded to make the Volturi pay.
I looked to Edward in momentary alarm, reminded of my dream and the Volturi's wicked designs on wiping out his family along with the wolves.
They would not be taken from me! I have lost enough!
"Whatever, whoever it is you need to bring here to help me, do it. Now. The Volturi must be stopped before they destroy everything I've ever loved." Silence reigned once more as I took a deep cleansing breath and steadied myself, the only one breathing in a room full of bodies.
"Now, speaking of the Volturi, I need to tell you all about my dream."
E/N – Please review! Now that this site is all caught up, the updates will be roughly two weeks apart as I am writing them as I go from here to the finish. I'm hoping to have chapter 22 up by next week.