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Athanasia POV

The past two weeks since the ball had brought with them the first days of spring. No longer did I awaken to heavy mist over the hills and frosted dew on the grass. That had all been replaced by piercing rays of sun which had no business shining this bright in March. Of course, the dew still sat upon the hills for miles around, but instead of limply weighing down deadened meagre strands of hay, it showered the growing buds of thousands of flowers, tempting the birds and the bees.

Opening my eyes to the sound of this birdsong, I yawned a few times, trying to shake off the temptation of going back to sleep. My warrior, Oktai, smiled at me from behind his book as I unceremoniously trudged out of bed and towards the mirror to brush out my bed head. It was worse than usual today, meaning that I'd slept quite rough. Untangling a particularly large knot, I turned to Oktai, smiling childishly.

"You're looking effervescent as ever, fy anwylyd," I said. My warrior snorted with laughter, understanding my reference.

As of late, Oktai and I had taken to reading vampire stories as they were quite funny to say the least. The rumours that dad and co had been responsible for spreading for so many years had all but totally eclipsed the true horrors of our actual state of being. So much so, the latest we were on was a recent bestseller called Dusk; a cheesy romance story between a self-hating vampiress named Eleanora, a clumsy unsuspecting human man called Benny and a werewolf named Jaimee. You couldn't make stuff like that up - absolute comedy gold! I wondered if it was too late to try and convince Pandora and the others that they'd die if they ate garlic…

Sadly, there wasn't any time today for playing pranks. I had to take my goodie-two-shoes half-sister and Theodotis to the matinée performance of Swan Lake in Milano. They'd both loved The Nutcracker so much last week that they'd begged to go back again for more.

"What's the time? Looks really early," I said.

Looking over the volume once more, Oktai sighed. "It's only just past sunrise."

"Really? Feels like I've been sleeping for years."

"You had another disturbed night, khairaa," he replied, confirming my suspicions.

"Ugh, I hope this all stops when we're done here, I can't keep this act up anymore around everyone."

"I hope so, too, Athy. What time do you have to set off to Milano?"

"Ten, I think, it'll give us enough time to get in before the humans. Petrucci doesn't want to risk so many of us being seen together."

In the extra hours of preparation my early start had offered me, I took an extra-long shower and ate a whole raw chicken from the kitchens (never understood why humans bothered cooking them in the first place).

As 10am approached, our guards Petrucci and Mohen convened in the lobby, Theodotis already in tow. Pandora better not have bailed, considering she was the one who'd pestered the life out of me about it in the first place, uncharacteristically threatening to alter my memory if I refused to let her go and see the ballet again.

With one minute left before we were due to leave, I heard the crescendo of footsteps coming from the corridor which led to my half-sister's room. When she finally reached us, I saw that her face was slightly paler than usual and she didn't seem as enthusiastic as she'd led me to believe she had been.

"What's wrong, Pandora? Don't like early mornings?" I teased, but she made no acknowledgement of hearing me. Assuming I must have been correct, we all set off, heading due north to avoid travelling through any heavily built-up areas.

Leaving the confines of the citadel, we began picking up speed, using the momentum to scale the large hills in a matter of milliseconds.

But something wasn't right.

"Halt!" Petrucci ordered, bringing us all to a swift stop. I had been slightly late to notice exactly what he had picked up on, but now that my attention had been directed from my daydreaming, I realised that the northside of the town had been surrounded.

Quickly awakening my hunting instincts, about a thousand metres north of us, I counted at least thirty enemies. I recognised none of their scents, but they were all vampires. And here we were, just two vampires and three measly hybrids - two of which were barely anywhere close to being full-grown.

"Athanasia, take the children back to Volterra immediately and alert the entire guard, we may well have been completely surrounded judging by their formation. They're too far out to be detected from the castle, but they seem to have formed an arc around the entire northwest to northeast at least!" Mohen shouted.

I didn't have to think twice. One or two or even ten would be fine to take on with Petrucci and Mohen with us, but the prospect of there maybe being even more than thirty was not worth risking being brave. Great, barely two weeks before we were planning on leaving and the whole coven gets ambushed for the first time in bloody forever! Just our luck.

Grabbing the children's hands, I practically flew back towards our home; Theodotis stopped briefly to transfer our memories of the threat and the need for backup to every member of the guard we encountered as this was much quicker than telling them.

Reaching Oktai, I begged him with my eyes not to go out to pursue our invaders, but upon receiving the full extent of the problem, he took off in the opposite direction with Santiago regardless.

I had to find mum and dad as soon as possible. Dad would be in the throne room as per usual, but I couldn't find a fresh trail to mum at all. My heart sunk as I realised that she must have gone out to hunt, masking her scent using her gift so no one stopped her. I just hoped she'd not been unfortunate enough to encounter our unwelcome visitors…

Aro POV

Quite the commotion had befallen the castle. What had appeared like a spring morning just as any other seemed to have become a first in the history of the Volturi.

I had been sitting deep in thought upon my throne, pondering something troubling that I'd seen in Carlisle's memories at the ball when Europa, from the northernmost guardpost, burst into the hall. Usually, such disregard for etiquette and abandoning her post would not go unpunished, but the news she was here to bring was worthy of such a disruption.

"Master, multiple enemies, at least thirty, spotted to the north of the town," she stated loudly. The entire hall, which had moments before been in high spirits thanks to Oharu's success in moving the entire reception desk telepathically without any papers flying out of place, dissolved into panicked whispers. This was extremely troubling if it was true. My children had minutes before set off in that very direction.

"Silence!" I commanded, appearing at Europa's side in an instant, grasping her hand. Witnessing her memories of the past two minutes was all I needed to see.

So it was them who called in the disturbance. I was thankful at least to see that Theodotis and Pandora were safe inside the castle grounds now.

How had they managed to get so close to the town, so many of them too… Although my son's thoughts in Europa's mind were unable to identify some of those present, I recognised some of their scents. Erzsébet Báthory. Zihao. Calypso. Rhiannon. Nandor. Zafrina and Senna. Siobhan and Liam. Even Benjamin and Tia.

This stunk of Stefan and Vladimir. They were on amicable terms with all of these vampires. Racking my brain for my interactions with both Florin and Amun at the ball, I tried to look for anything that hinted at such a large-scale attack. But nothing obvious came to mind. Could they have truly mobilised in less than two weeks? It would certainly explain why there had been such a poor turnout to the ball if they were hiding the plan from me.

If they truly had the illusionist Zafrina on their side, this could all be a ploy to lure our more powerful members away. I looked around the hall at those present. My prized possessions were almost all in my presence, where I could keep an eye on them all. Jane, Alec, Felix, Oharu, Jolasun and Nwaekerendu. Every one of my treasures except my children, Demetri and Luíseach. At least I had the leverage to keep Caius loyal for now.

Though, it was concerning that they had decided to carry out this plan when Demetri was away on coven business. I feared that they had inside help - there were certainly many here who wanted my head. But apart from Athanasia's irrational anger and absurd hope that she could turn my own daughter Pandora against me, there was nothing in any of their thoughts that suggested they'd even be competent enough to arrange this, let alone feed them the correct information without my knowledge. Nay, if this operation was as thorough as I was being led to believe, they would have surely had a scout relay that Demetri was out of town. Touché.

"Have you engaged in battle yet?" I asked, in order to provide everyone present with a chance to hear what I'd just seen in her thoughts.

"Most likely, Master, I was the first Theodotis and the others informed, but I saw many others heading north as I was on my way to tell you, Master," Europa answered.

"Was Athanasia with Theodotis?" Caius barked.

"Yes, Master. Theodotis was accompanied by Athanasia and Pandora."

"And their whereabouts?" Caius continued.

"They were heading back towards the castle to inform as many others as possible, Master."

"Jane, Felix, go and find Luíseach and Athanasia at once, I want them brought here without a scratch on them!" Caius ordered.

"Caius, think about this for a moment, brother," I demanded.

"Brother, there is no time to think, I wish to ensure the safety of my mate and daughter!"

"Caius, you have nothing to worry about, we must simply wait for our unwelcome guests to make their next move before we make ours. It's only fair we give them some advantage considering we are on home turf." I gestured around at the most competent members of my guard, showing him there was nothing to worry about.

Luíseach would be able to flee if there was any trouble. But my children, I was concerned about.

The great doors parted once more and the southern guard Anxhelo ran forth, followed by Anathi from the east and Vivienne from the west. They all conveyed the same message as Europa had, but from the opposite ends of the city. As much as I hated to believe what I was seeing, it seemed as though we were indeed surrounded.

Not a moment later, three more vampires entered the hall. This time, it was the rat himself. Florin was being dragged in by Oktai and Santiago.

"Master, we found him trying to sneak into the city from the west gate while everyone was distracted by the ambush," Santiago spoke.

"Is that so?" I smiled, taking a step towards them all. "Fantastic work you two, keep hold of him."

Florin struggled against the grip of his captors, cursing everyone in the room in his every breath. He was placed on his knees in front of me and I approached him, a gleam of anticipation in my eye.

"My, my, what have your masters been planning, Florin? I'm sure you're not intelligent enough to orchestrate something like this, for you were stupid enough to get caught!" I jested, causing a chorus of laughter to erupt around me.

"You're going to die today Aro," he spat.

"Am I? I'm not the one sitting helplessly on my knees."

"Your whole town is surrounded and we all want your head."

"How charming of you. Let me see what little plan you've been cooking up," I said, placing my hands on either side of his face, ready to kill him should I need to.

This was no illusion. This was real. Stefan and Vladimir had been working behind our backs all year to set this up. They'd only recently told Florin. But alas, even they knew that he was too dim-witted to trust with something this important. He barely knew any of the important details. They wanted to corner me into surrender. But we'd defeated them before and I wasn't afraid of doing so again. This would be easy with the gifts at my disposal. I did fear how many others had managed to sneak in undiscovered though. If this was both a siege and an invasion, we would have to make sure we were not infiltrated. And now Florin wanted pardon if he could dismiss the army.

"Florin, you really are in no place to negotiate. I'm afraid that you really are just going to die being no more than a tool to two hasbeens."

I had to play my cards right, I could send out the guard to take care of everyone, but that might have been what they wanted. If they had Isabella with them, we'd be unable to fight at all without sustaining heavy losses. Maintaining my focus on his memories, I tried searching for Isabella's presence in particular, but it seemed as though none of the Cullens were here at all. In that case, this would be easy. My mind was made up, this was not the time to hold back. The vampire world was starting to get a little too overpopulated anyway.

"Jane, Felix, you go to the north and help those already there get rid of every enemy from the northeast to the northwest with as much force as necessary. Alec, you take the entire area from the east to the south, that is where we have the least firepower. Oharu, go with Grzegorz and finish off everyone in the west."

"Yes Master!" they all replied, vacating the hall at once.

"Now what shall we do with you?" I chuckled darkly, turning my attention back to Florin. Fear appeared in his eyes for the first time, replacing his hatred at last.

I tightened my grip on his cheeks, beginning to pull and twist. The smallest cracks began to sprout from the areas I was applying the most pressure. But a familiar noise from beyond the hall's walls stopped me before I removed his head. It was three fluttering heartbeats. My children were safe. Athanasia too.

"Father, stop!" Pandora cried as she kicked the doors open.

The stage has been set for the finale, but who are the actors in this political theatre? Stay tuned for more next weekend as usual. Feel free to leave a review to let me know what you thought.