I shoved open the relatively heavy feeding room doors and high-fived Santiago as I strolled in. Of course, in true Volturi fashion, none of the electric lights were on, but instead the entire room was candlelit, and not in a romantic kind of way either. More like an ominous, deadly kind of way. Why they never used the overhead fluorescent lights, I had no idea, but the vibe they preferred was way cooler.
The thrones were strangely empty, and instead the three perfect lunatics I was looking for were gathered around a long mahogany table. Aro was sat in one of the wooden chairs with one leg crossed over the other, a massive ancient and fragile-looking book across his lap. Well, there went my plans of sitting on him.
Marcus and Caius were both stood out of their seats, closely studying whatever ancient texts were in front of them. In fact, the entire table was littered with books, scrolls and parchments.
Aro glanced up briefly, his head moving before his eyes, and a soft smile spread across his face. "Il mio amore, how kind of you it is to join us."
"What are you lot doing?" I questioned as I approached the table.
Caius didn't even look up, his nose stuck in his book. "Reading."
"Can I read?" I asked.
"Can you read?" Marcus countered teasingly.
I frowned. "That's not what I meant, cinnamon roll."
Marcus shook his head and playfully tapped me on the top of my head with the book he was holding. "This is in Greek, tesoro."
I scrunched my nose up at him and sat down in the seat beside Aro. "Any of them in English?"
"I am afraid not, but this one is in Italian." Caius, still not glancing up at me, lightly pushed a dark red hardback book across the table to me.
I caught the book and flipped it open lazily. The first page was already full of text, very small text, all written in Italian which I could barely understand as it is. I rested my head against my hand and continued to skim read the book in silence, the only sound in the room being the turning of pages and the faint flickering of the candles.
The book itself was something about Julius Caesar. In my defence, I was trying to be interested, but not only was history not my thing, but I also barely understood parts of what I was reading, which left a lot of random guess work.
"I'm bored," I announced to the room.
"That did not take long," Aro remarked, casually flipping to the next page of his book.
I sighed and held my head in my hands. "Felix, fetch me my colouring book from my office please."
Marcus chuckled and placed his book down on the table. "Colouring book?"
Felix reappeared beside me with my colouring book and a pack of felt tip pens. "How else did you expect me to kill time around here? Thanks Tweedledum."
"Reading a book you actually understand? Taking up a hobby like painting?" Caius suggested.
"This is close enough." I flicked open the book and began colouring in a picture of a turtle with blue felt tip pens while Marcus simply gave me a disapproving chuckle and continued reading.
Caius stood up after a few minutes and walked over to the other side of the room. "What are you doing, blondie?" I asked.
He reappeared from around the corner with a large hardback book tucked under his arm. "Looking for this, carissima."
The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed, which all four of us seemed to notice. A foreign scent was in the air, but too faint for me to identify yet. Aro glanced over at me with some kind of unreadable expression, close to concern but not quite, and turned back around to face the guards at the door.
"Santiago, please see to our guest," he said calmly.
"Yes Master." With a bow of his head, Santiago darted out of the room again.
Several looks were exchanged between my mates, and I really didn't know what to make of it. Caius seemed angry, but no angrier than usual, almost…wary. Marcus seemed disappointed but also slightly agitated, and Aro's calm façade had made a return once more.
I glanced between them confusedly. Still with no reaction, I flung a dark blue pen at Aro's forehead which he caught easily before it reached him and set back down on the table. "Anyone going to explain why we're having an internal panic here?" I questioned.
Caius shook his head in response and flipped over another page on his book. His grip on the paper was so harsh that I almost worried that he would rip the entire sheet out of the probably ancient and priceless text.
Since clearly I wasn't going to get an answer from them, I instead paid my sole attention to the door. I could hear two pairs of footsteps approaching the room, increasing in volume. Santiago was with someone else but, even now that I could detect the scent, I couldn't tell who it was. A female, the scent was definitely feminine. Well, that ruled out half of my suspects.
The doors were pushed open with an eerie creak and Santiago stood to the side, allowing the woman to walk in. My view was blocked by Marcus so I peered around him carefully. I let out a high pitched squeak when I realised who it was. Irina.
I hadn't seen her since my trip to Alaska, which was 4 months ago. Of course, she was unchanged, eternally breathtaking with her golden blonde hair tied up neatly out of her face. It seemed she hadn't noticed me yet, which I wasn't sure whether I should've been pleased about or not.
Demetri, Felix, and Santiago all seemed a little wary, closing in around her. She shuffled her weight between her feet timidly.
Aro glanced up at her from his book. "What a pleasant surprise," he said, though the insincerity of his tone was almost off-putting.
Caius slammed his book down on the table, which made me jog my drawing. I huffed indignantly and silently pointed to the wonky blue line but Marcus simply tossed me a Tipp-Ex from his pocket, which I didn't even realise he'd been carrying around.
"What do you want?" Caius demanded and span on his heel to face her, unimpressed when she didn't provide an answer and her liquid gold eyes stared sheepishly at the ground. "Hm?"
Irina stepped forward confidently, flanked by the guards. "I have to report a crime."
Marcus' expression dropped at her words as he slowly lowered his book to the table.
"The Cullens," she continued. Aro's face immediately gained interest, "they've done something terrible."
My unbeating heart sunk to the bottom of my chest. Was this why they were icing me out? They'd become some kind of mafia boss criminals that Irina now needed to eradicate? I never realised the life of crime would be Carlisle's kind of thing.
In one swift movement, Aro closed his book and dashed over beside Irina. Marcus paced around the table to get a better view and I came to join him, anxiously looping my arm around his. He patted my hand reassuringly and averted his attention back to Irina.
"Allow me, my dear." Aro reached for her hand and encased it in his own. Maybe it was just a mating bond thing, but watching him hold another woman's hand made me feel weirdly uncomfortable, and I found myself occasionally glancing away.
His crimson eyes glazed over as usual as he processed her thoughts for a few moments. Marcus, sensing my nervousness, purred against my hairline which was when I realised I'd been holding my breath in that whole time.
Aro suddenly let go of her hand and slowly lowered his own expressionlessly. "Oh my. An immortal child."
I didn't even want to think about whatever dark expression spread across my face. Confusion, anger, betrayal all hit me at once like a truck on the highway. My grasp on Marcus' arm tightened, probably painfully, but he seemed indifferent nonetheless.
Irina's topaz gaze finally landed on me. "Eli, I-"
"You will not address her," Caius snarled which made her jolt slightly.
I took a deep, shuddered breath. "It-it's fine, Caius."
I led the way out of the room, beckoning Irina to follow with a single finger. Even though everyone would be able to hear our conversation in anyway, at least some attempt at privacy would've been nice. She followed obediently, very wisely keeping her distance.
Once we were out, Santiago closed the doors and stood in the corner. He would've used the excuse that he was simply guarding, which he was being paid to do, but I knew he just wanted gossip.
"Santiago, off you pop," I said, my tone warning despite the light nature of my wording.
He sighed and walked off down the corridor, his shoulders slumped. When his footsteps had finally receded, I turned my attention to Irina.
She inhaled slowly. "Eli, I-"
"You what?" I snapped.
She seemed a little taken aback but didn't comment on my short-temperedness. "You know I had to do this-"
"Did you? Did you though? Irina, they're our family, and then you come strolling in here on your little high horse throwing around all these immortal child accusations for fuck sake. Tell me, did you meet the child?"
"N-no, but-"
"Then what knowledge are you actually basing this off of, huh? Oh, I know what this is about." I let out a manic yet humourless laugh. "This is about the wolves again, isn't it? Let me guess, something to do with the Cullens defending them, and you suddenly needing this ridiculous revenge. Are you being serious right now?!"
"Eli, I saw the child. It wasn't human, it jumped much higher than a human child can, and it was with one of those…mutts."
"Pray tell, did you even think to maybe go up to them and ask what the hell is happening rather than running in here like a headless chicken? Irina, this is a fucking serious crime we're talking about here, one that is going to get my family, your extended family, killed. You have single-handedly ruined everything for everyone, and just when my life was almost getting back to normal."
She seemed to only just clock in my not-so-humanness. "Your eyes are-"
"Yes, I know they're red, Irina. I'm a vampire, not colour-blind. By now, they're probably black from how hard I'm trying to resist pulling your head off. Do you have any idea of what kind of deep shit you've gotten everyone into? No, you do, you've been through something like this before, but you just don't seem to care. Now, as queen, I have to go off and execute my entire family because you seem to put the law over the people you care about. And no, it's not even like you actually know what's happening, is it? No, you made some crazy assumption, not even bothering to actually ask them why the fuck they made an immortal child. Who knows? Maybe it's not an immortal child, you didn't ask Irina!"
I took another deep breath and resisted the venom tears that threatened to well in my eyes.
"Eli, I know what I saw."
"Did you have to come here and tell us about it though? Do you honestly believe someone like Carlisle would do such a moronic thing and create this immortal child because he felt like shifting his career from medical science to crime? If you really gave two flying fucks about the Cullens, you wouldn't be here right now, and I wouldn't be planning my family's execution."
She glanced down at the ground. "I'm sorry, I had to do this."
"Just stay out of my way. Santiago, take Irina to one of the guest rooms," I murmured and spun around on my heel to re-enter the throne room and slam the door behind me.
Wordlessly, I stomped back over to the table and aggressively sat down to continue colouring. Marcus came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders with his cheek resting against the top of my head, but I wasn't in the mood to be cuddled.
We had the Cullens' trial and execution to plan.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Irina is back and more of a clown than ever, yay. What kind of writer would I be if I made life easy for my character, huh? Basically, Eli is completely unconvinced that this is true and that the Cullens would do something so moronic, which turns out to be true in the end. I assume Irina stayed in Volterra until the confrontation (right?)
But also, can someone real quick explain to me how the Volturi managed to get, like, 100 people across the Atlantic Ocean in those iconic billowy cloaks without raising suspicion? Just saying, that's kinda crazy. Like, do they take a plane in economy class (imagine though) or do they walk on water like Jesus? Surely, with their speed, they can run across the ocean…I think.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because your comments honestly make my day and I love to read them, stay safe, and ily lots!