5. HUNGRY

Maria would occasionally hear news of the Volturi continuing to wipe out covens with reckless newborn armies in the south. Everyone was on edge, fearful that they would be the Volturi's next target. Almost a full year had gone by before the Volturi finally returned to Italy. The survivors could finally begin to relax again.

Maria's coven entered Mexico City late one night looking for prey. It had been a while since the girls had fed but now they could do so with ease, or so they thought. The trio was walking down a dark alley way when suddenly another coven surrounded them. The girls tensed and hisses escaped their throats.

A dark male approached them and spoke in a deep voice, "This is our city and you are not welcome here. We demand that you leave immediately."

Maria's coven was outnumbered and her mind raced to find a solution. "We only wish to feed, one human for each of us, and then we will be on our way."

The dark male laughed. "If we let you do this then we would have to let everyone do it. The Volturi have come and gone and now we have claimed this city as our own. We can't allow any more vampires to feed here otherwise the humans will get suspicious and the Volturi would return. No one wants that, not even you I'm sure."

Lucy growled. She did not like being treated this way. The city was so large; surely no one would miss three measly humans. Nettie pulled on Lucy's hand, trying to calm her and to keep her from doing anything that would cause conflict.

A female vampire of the opposing coven spoke up from behind them. "Leave our city now and no one gets hurt."

Maria ignored the hunger pains and knew she would have to comply to assure the survival of her coven. "Fine, we're leaving." The three girls went back the way they had come until they were far beyond the borders of the city.

Lucy punched her fist into a tree and splintered the wood. "Aggghhh! Who are they to tell us we can't feed?"

"Calm down," Nettie soothed, "I'm sure we'll find another place. Won't we Maria?"

Maria had already been thinking long and hard. "If we want to be able to feed as they do then we need to repeat history." She looked at the girls in all seriousness. "We need to create a newborn army."

Nettie's eyes widened in horror. "Are you insane? Do you have a death wish? You can't be serious Maria! The Volturi would come back and destroy us!"

"Not if we do it right this time." Maria's mind was racing. "The others were sloppy, we can do it better. We can be more careful in who we choose as newborns and we can give them more training."

"Newborns can't be controlled, they're too wild!" said Lucy.

"I was a newborn and I was quite capable of controlling myself. Look, Aro uses the tactic of finding talented vampires for his guard, why can't we do the same thing? We can look for people who are in control of their emotions. We'll watch them and carefully select candidates to be in our army. We can do this girls, I know we can!" Maria was hopeful that they would support her.

"I don't know…" Nettie pondered the concept.

"Look, we either do this or we starve. The territories have already been claimed. The only way we can get a territory of our own is if we create an army to fight for us. There will be casualties, it's true, but at least the casualties won't be us." Maria waited for their response as the two mulled it over.

Nettie nodded. "Okay Maria. We'll do this with you, but once we claim our territory then that is it. We won't take more than what we need to survive."

"Of course," Maria laughed, "I just don't want our coven to starve to death." Maria tried to believe the lie she just told but she couldn't. She knew that she would always want more, no matter what they had.

Lucy snickered, "We should wipe out that coven back in Mexico City. We'll make them regret the way they treated us."

"Yeah, that couple was awfully smug, weren't they?" Nettie chimed in.

Maria's ears perked. "What couple?"

Nettie looked at Maria, "You know, the male that was the leader and then the female that spoke up just before we left."

"How do you know that they were a couple? They weren't even standing next to each other." Maria wondered how Nettie had come to this conclusion.

"Oh well, I just have an eye for these things. I guess you could call it my 'gift'. I can see the bond between mates." Nettie smiled.

"Yeah, she can even touch a person and see who their mate is in her mind if that mate is alive at the time." Lucy chimed in.

Maria was shocked. "You knew about this? Why have you never told me?"

The two blondes looked down at the ground. Then Nettie said "Well Maria, it just never came up. I mean, you don't really talk to us that often anyway you know?"

Maria bit her lip. She really had neglected the two girls. She just couldn't find herself having much in common with them. "I'm sorry, you're right. I should spend more time talking with the two of you. But this raises another question for me. When Aro spared you, why did he not take you to join his guard? He is always on the lookout for talented vampires, why didn't he want you?"

Nettie smiled. "Well Marcus can see the bonds between everyone; his power can do what I can do and then some. Aro didn't take me because he didn't need me."

Maria nodded and tried to keep the resentment from showing up on her face. She wished so badly that she had a talent that would make Aro want her. Even if he had no need for Nettie, Maria was insanely jealous that Nettie could even be considered before Maria. It just reaffirmed Maria's will and desire to use her wits to get her what she wanted. Power.

The cities in Mexico were already swarming with vampires again and they were all very protective of their territories. So the girls went further north into Texas. The American Civil War had recently broken out so things in the north were more disorganized and a frenzy. It was easier for the girls to sneak about undetected.

They only looked for male candidates. They would be stronger and Maria could manipulate them into doing her bidding. She hadn't forgotten the lesson her father taught her on 'rewarding' soldiers. Instead of turning a candidate right away, Maria held off. She knew that it could be months before she found another candidate and by the time she would turn them the original newborns strength would begin to wane. The girls decided that 12 newborns was the maximum number they could handle and train. That would give each of the girls four soldiers to look after.

When they finally had their 12 candidates picked out, Maria decided it was time. Three of their candidates worked together at a logging company. The men were all very strong but these three in particular seemed well tempered. The girls approached the men while they were at work and flirted with them.

"Hey there handsome," Nettie tempted with her sweet voice, "would you mind escorting a girl for walk in the woods?"

The man quickly complied as he was struck by her beauty. The same pattern followed with the other two girls. All three had their soldiers and lured them into the privacy of the woods, each couple completely alone with each other.

Maria paused on her walk and pulled the man's face close to hers. She had been watching him a long time. She hoped he would not disappoint her. He smiled at her because he thought she was going to kiss him. Instead Maria put her lips to his throat and began to drink his blood. She ran her hands through his dark curly hair and held him in place. He cried out but that only made her suck the blood harder. Finally his cries were stifled and Maria struggled to find the will to stop. She knew that if she drank any more, it would be the end of him. Finally, she was able to rip her lips from his throat. She tossed him to the ground and listened to his heart beat. She hugged her knees tightly to her chest, fighting the urge to finish what she started.

Evening came and he was still writhing in agony. She would not leave him though. She had to make sure that his change was a success. As the night rolled in she thought she heard laughter. Moments later, Lucy and Nettie were walking in the darkness towards Maria.

"What are you doing?" Maria asked. "You're supposed to be watching your soldiers!"

The two blonds burst out in laughter. Maria had no idea what could be so funny.

"I'm sorry Maria!" Lucy laughed as she tried to find her breath to speak. "Nettie and I just ran into each other when we discovered that we both accidentally killed our candidates!" The girls broke into another chorus of laughter.

Maria's jaw clenched and her hands balled into fists. "You stupid girls!" She shouted through gritted teeth. "This isn't funny! We needed those men; our whole plan depends on them! What were you thinking?"

The laughter and smiles were wiped clean from their faces. "I'm sorry Maria, it was an accident." Nettie said remorsefully.

"We don't have time for accidents!" Maria shouted. She closed her eyes and tried to think. She had already begun the change of her soldier and knew that the plan needed to continue. "We'll move forward but instead of 12, we'll have 10. I'll take four and you two will have three each. And I'll do the changing from now on. Now leave us alone."

Lucy licked her lips. Maria's soldier smelled delicious. She fought her urges and left with Nettie. Maria sat alone. She never thought that while having a coven she could feel so lonely. Even when they were with her, she felt alone. She longed for someone to understand her and share her ambitions.

When the period of change finally ended, her soldier stood upright. He was tall and muscular. Maria explained to him who he was, what he was, and what his mission was. She let him know that if he did well in his tasks, Maria would reward him. The girls kept a small cabin on a mountain and took Harold there, that was the soldier's name. They made him wait there as they went to acquire the other candidates.

Maria changed three more of the candidates. She also gave Nettie and Lucy a second chance and let them change one candidate each under her supervision. This time they were successful with Maria nearby to stop them from going too far. All of the newborns were sent back to the cabin. They now had a total of six.

It was night when they were on their way to Galveston to change the next potential soldier. The moon was only half full and the path was dimly lit. They were about a mile outside of the city when Maria spotted a tall handsome man riding a horse in their direction. She could tell he was a soldier because he wore a uniform. His tousled blond hair reflected the pale moon light. Maria paused and forgot to breathe. He was so beautiful and there was just something about him and in this moment, Maria wanted nothing more than to be with him and only him.