LI. Duty

"Where are my Guards?" Andronikh had thundered back into the crypt, his chest heaving, his face bone-white with rage.

"I was trying to tell you," Marcus said in his usual, lazy drawl. "Your idiot brother went to the maze."

Andronikh's face was a wonder to watch as half a dozen emotions warred on it—if he were human I was certain he'd have turned several shades of purple.

Then just as suddenly, they were gone, his features schooled back into stone. He held out his good hand. "Marcus."

Marcus paused, so briefly I'd have missed it if I hadn't been paying attention. Then he shrugged and rose in one fluid motion, grasping Andronikh's outstretched hand.

The Volturi leader broke contact almost instantly, his gaze flickering to meet mine before returning to Marcus. "Bargain?" He said the word in English, his tone derisive. "Have you learned nothing, Marcus?"

I stared. He looked in my direction once more and my observation was confirmed.

They had the same eyes.

A different shade, a different emotion, but he had the same eyes as Edward. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before.

"Do you still not understand who you are?" he asked, motionless from his position on the stairs. "You do not bargain with us. You command us. By carrying the maker's blood in your veins, it is in your power to shield us from madness. There is no bargain. There is only duty."

A chilly silence followed his words.

Duty?

The bloodthirst, the violence... our instincts take centuries to master. Some never do.

There is darkness within us. I feel the violence in my blood and I fight it every day.

The call of your blood is powerful—I've never felt anything like it.

One sip from you can last me several days. My strength, my speed… I feel better than before.

Your bloodline created the first vampire. Our life force is anchored in your blood.

Queen of the Damned.

Slowly, the pieces were coming together.

He was right.

Of course it was my duty. My ancestors made the monsters. Their blood—my blood—made vampires human-like and warm to the touch. More than that, it quenched the thirst and kept the madness at bay.

You have the power to end them, my child. It is why we protect you so fiercely.

The wolves aren't your enemy.

Maybe that was what the Oracle meant. What the wolves meant. Maybe I was supposed to end the bloodthirst, not the vampires. There was still so much I didn't know but for now, if I could stop the Volturi from killing…

I unslung the bag of vials from my shoulder and held it out. "How much do you need?"

Ariadnh was there in a flash, pushing my hand back down. "You're going to bleed yourself dry, Isabella. It's not your responsibility to feed our coven." She shot Andronikh a look, once again speaking in their ancient tongue. "She's Eumenes' mate. I won't have you sacrifice her for yours."

Andronikh gazed at his sister, an emotion I couldn't read flickering over his face before that, too, was gone. "You do not understand."

"Oh I think I do," Ariadnh said.

"No," Andronikh said. "You don't. Helen is only the first. One day, the madness will claim you too. It will claim Marcus. It will claim all of us."

"You've been saying that for a thousand years. I've never—"

"Seen all the vampires we've had to destroy?" Andronikh hissed. "Open your eyes, sister."

Ariadnh's hand tightened around mine, and for a moment, she seemed unsure of herself.

"Isabella can come with the vials," Marcus piped up in English, strolling over to us. "If we need more, she can provide more with her mate watching. Problem solved, as the youngsters say."

"No," Ariadnh said, pushing me protectively behind her. "I will not put her in danger. Eumenes has waited three thousand years for her, you can't—"

Marcus sighed. "Ariadnh darling, do you really think all of us," he gestured at the three of them, "together with Edward and the Guards can't protect her against one vampire? I'll stay a safe distance away and look after Isabella if it makes you feel better."

I glanced at Marcus. I bet he only volunteered because he was too lazy to get his hands dirty.

By the look on Ariadnh's face, another argument was brewing. And while we were standing here chatting, Helen might be roasting Edward on a spit. I decided to end it once and for all. "Marcus is right," I said. "I'm coming."

Thankfully, no one argued with me. Rubbing it in with 'you can't stop me' would've been a tad childish.

Jane and Alec trailed behind us as we followed Andronikh, so silent I kept forgetting they were there.

The maze didn't go down. Or at least, not entirely. It went down and then sharply up again. Sunlight streamed through golden windows, lighting every corner of the vast room.

It wasn't so much a maze as it was a series of trapdoors opening in many directions, each leading to a huge chamber. I never knew what to expect—some were empty, some were destroyed with clawed paintings, ashes and blackened walls, others were filled with dozens of cushions and silks from every place imaginable. I even saw an ancient lute three or four rooms prior.

The trick was in the stone doors. They were always hard to find, harder to open—a different mechanism each time. The maze was nothing like the grimy underground tunnels I was expecting but it was no doubt a prison.

"It sure is beautiful," Marcus murmured beside me as he ran his fingers on the tiny golden ivies wrought on the window frames, watching the colourful lights of the frosted panes as they danced on his diamond skin.

"Where are we exactly?" I asked.

"I have no idea," he said cheerfully. He nodded his head at Andronikh. "He never takes anyone here. Ever."

And now Edward had taken the whole Guard here. I looked around apprehensively, not knowing if I wanted us to find Edward or not. Andronikh was going to kill my mate if Helen hadn't already.

"Don't you find it rather strange?" Ariadnh whispered as Andronikh pulled a candle, causing a bookcase to swivel and open up to another chamber. "I haven't heard or smelled them at all."

"I wouldn't worry. There are those among the Guard who can conceal scent and sound," Marcus said.

"But why would they need to hide here?"

"Honestly, darling, I'm not sure. Your brother's quite unpredictable."

We'd been moving for what felt like hours through at least thirty chambers, going left and right, climbing up, down and even diagonally when distant screams echoed through the walls. We stopped. The sound seemed to come several floors above. I heard glass smashing, a loud crash, and then more wailing—a high, grief-stricken sound that made my chest hurt.

Helen. We'd found her. But where was Edward? Where was the Guard?

Three pairs of eyes found Andronikh but he gave nothing away.

"They're not here," he only said, his calm eerie.

I looked at him, stunned.

If they weren't here, where were they?

"Perhaps they're somewhere below?" Marcus asked.

There was another loud scream from above—this time of terror—and Andronikh cracked. "You think I don't have every inch of this place memorised, Marcus?" he snarled. "They're not here."

"But he took the Guard," Ariadnh said in disbelief. "His mate is here. Where else would he be?"

Her question hung in the air, surreal. I had no answer myself and Andronikh looked downright homicidal.

Finally, Marcus broke the silence.

"Most likely hunting someone down," he murmured. "The Reaper. I thought he wanted to leave that name behind." He sighed. "Old habits die hard."

I couldn't believe my ears.

Edward took off and left me here alone?

I don't want to wait for Victoria to find us. I want to hunt her down. But if I do that, I'll have to leave you with someone. I have some options in mind, but things could get complicated...

But that was before he knew Victoria's true identity. He couldn't have gone after her, could he? And without saying a word of goodbye?

"Don't worry," Ariadnh said, looking at me and then Andronikh. "He'll be back. He always comes back. He has to come back for Isabella…"

"He left us here almost entirely unprotected," Marcus said, glancing back and Jane and Alec.

"Of all the reckless, thoughtless—" Andronikh snarled with rage and slammed his fist into the bookcase, splintering it in half and causing the entire thing to fall, scattering books everywhere.

I was still too shocked to speak.

Edward left. He left.

"There's nothing to do but wait," Marcus said.

Ariadnh exhaled, shaking her head. "Oh, that foolish, foolish boy… He'd better come back soon. He's usually quick."

They had no idea.

"No." I finally found my tongue. "He's hunting… he's hunting Helen's sister."

There was a split second of silence where the distant screaming was the only sound to be heard.

"She's dead," Andronikh said, but something in his eyes told me that he didn't believe himself.

"She's not," I said. "She nearly killed us in Vienna. Red hair, tall, very…" I remembered how she'd distracted Edward with the other Old Ones and then the newborns before taking me hostage, "very strategic. She broke Edward's arms. If it hadn't been for Philippe—" I swallowed, looking at them.

Ariadnh had frozen and even Marcus looked uneasy as he said, "There are plenty of vampires with red hair."

"She overpowered Eumenes," Ariadnh said. "No one has ever..."

Our conversation was cut short as a blast of fire punctured the ceiling and caused it to cave, sending an enormous cloud of dust into the air. Marcus had pulled me back into the previous room, his ancient handkerchief pressed over my mouth and nose.

It smelled like blood and mould.

I pushed his hands away and regretted it instantly as I inhaled a lungful of dust.

I pressed my sleeve over my nose and looked up just in time to see an eerie figure in the middle of the destruction, her back to us. Dark hair spilt wildly down her waist, and her white dress was smudged with dirt.

She looked like a ghost.

Her neck twisted towards us in a sudden, frightening motion and I screamed.

Marcus clamped a hand over my mouth, drawing me backwards so swiftly that my surroundings blurred.

The figure took a step towards us, and the sunlight washed over her pale features.

Helen.

For a split second, I saw her dark eyes—and the demented look in them—before she turned away. She was disconcertingly beautiful, even with bedraggled hair and kohl running down her face.

She staggered towards Andronikh, the stone hissing and smoking beneath her feet with every step.

"You're not real," she said, her voice trembling. He stood immobile as she raised fiery fingers, reaching up to touch his face—

"Jane, Alec!" Ariadnh cried from somewhere to our left.

There was a blur, a loud crash and we were three chambers away, three pairs of stone doors shutting one after the other by Jane while Alec and Ariadnh looked as though they'd tackled Andronikh away from his mate. Marcus had a hand on my shoulder as I retched, my head spinning from being jerked around.

The screaming started once more, and this time she was crying his name—again and again, and every muscle in Andronikh's body was strung tight, the sound seeming to tear through him. His eyes were wild.

Shit. He was going to go to her.

Ariadnh realised it too because she reached out to grab him. "Brother, no!"

He'd ripped through the door before the word was out of her mouth and she was left holding a torn piece of his cloak.

Marcus held her fast as Jane and Alec barricaded the door. He didn't need to. Ariadnh was limp, entirely overcome with shock. "He didn't even take the vials with him. Marcus, we have to—"

"Shh. Listen," Marcus said.

I could only hear the incessant screaming but Ariadnh seemed relieved.

Suddenly, the trapdoor below flew open and—

"Edward!" I said, shocked.

"Bella?" He seemed equally bewildered to see me. His hair was sticking up in all directions and he was breathless. "What are you— why are you—" He spotted Marcus, Ariadnh, Jane and Alec, and blinked. "I thought you were washing your hands of us."

Ariadnh looked like she'd blush if she could. She huffed. "Well, this is the last time I'm helping."

Edward fought back a smirk. "Okay."

"Where were you?" Marcus asked. "What's that?"

I only just noticed the bright red device in his hand.

Edward rubbed his neck. "Well, it's a bit silly really, but I couldn't think of anything else."

I stared in disbelief as several dozen Guards climbed up after him, each carrying one or two of them.

"Edward, how many fire extinguishers did you buy?"