Chapter One: Still Hands

The entire Volturi guard were holding their breath. They waited for Aro, Caius, and Marcus to do…something. Well at least an outburst from Caius. It was the first time that they had lost a battle in several centuries. Caius had spent that last month pouting on his throne or complaining about every little thing to Anthenodora. Everything BUT what happened with the Olympic Coven. Most of the guards silently spent their time in their rooms or in the library waiting any minute to be called to be talked to by the three leaders until after week or two when people started to whisper cautiously, seeing if a lightning bolt would electrocute them or just something. The worst part was Aro.

He spent the time staring out at nothing, unmoving. His brow was furrowed; eyes flicked back and forth signaling that he was deep in thought. More like deep in plot. This was worse than just having him call you to the throne room saying that you were now worthless and were to be executed. Aro's plots often seemed like an amazing idea at first but often ended in disaster.He had the idea once to bite a cat and give it to Sulpicia as an immortal pet. Needless to say that along with razor sharp vampiric teeth, it had claws and accidently turned about twenty mice just by playing with them. At least there was no litter box.

Most of the guards were lounging in the room dubbed "The TV room" due to its giant plasma screen, amazing cable, XBOX, and couches everywhere. It had no windows, so it was a popular place during the many sunny days of Italy. "What do you think has Aro's knickers in a twist, besides you-know-what?" Felix whispered to Demetri on day 38 of this brooding gloom.Demetri just sighed and shrugged. "Maybe some plan to kidnap some of the Cullens, or maybe some of their friends?" He replied. It made sense except they had Bella's shield so now not even Chelsea's power would work. There had to be some plan or strategy or battle formation. There was no way that this would be forgiven of the Cullens. Demetri started quietly thinking of ways they could improve next time they faced them. And this time they would win.

"Well that new half-breed might have gotten Aro's attention, and I know that Sulpicia always wished she could have a kid," Alec suggested as he looked up from one of the many books he was reading. This surprised most of the guards, partly because Jane generally spoke for her brother and that Sulpicia could ever be a maternal figure. She lost Fluffy the Vampire Cat in less than an hour and only cared about herself, shopping, fashion, herself, shoes, Aro, oh and herself.

"That shallow bitch would kill a pet rock just by forgetting to feed it," Jane snorted. Jane secretly hoped that Aro was not planning on creating a half-breed. It was bad enough that all Aro thought about was Bella, Bella, Bella. She wasn't that great and now thanks to her, Jane and her brother were completely useless. They went from being the top of the guard for centuries to failures in one afternoon. Plus the only screaming and crying Jane could take was from the victims she tortured. Well SIDS was still common in this era so it could make anything look like an accident. Jane smiled to herself.

"What are you smirking about, twit?" sneered Chelsea, as she sat upon her royal, be-jeweled thrown, Afton's lap. Jane rolled her eyes like the eternal teenager that she was. Chelsea hated when Jane did that. The little brat might have been special once, but now since Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Idiot screwed up they were worthless. If they had actually done anything useful, none of this would have ever happe-…She soon lost her train of thought looking at her nails that were now gold. She had seen a tourist wearing a cute sweater that would go nicely with them. Maybe she would ask Heidi if she wanted to go hunting later.

"Dead babies," Jane said in the most sarcastic, innocent, puppy-eyed tone she could without wishing she still had the ability to puke. Felix burst out laughing so loudly the deep bass echoed off the walls and mildly hurt everyone's super hearing. At least it wasn't Anthenodora's cold shrill giggle. Speaking of the devil.

"SILENCE! I will not tolerate this disruption! Felix, what have I told you about laughter?" Caius screamed from somewhere in the building. Anthenodora's witch like, high pitch cackle followed as she mocked her mate. Those two most of the time complained about, yelled at, threatened to kill, and could not stand each other. Yet, they were as thick as thieves. Given the direction the sound was coming from they were in their bedroom. A shudder went down everyone's spine thinking of what was going on in there before Felix's laugh interrupted.

Felix had to be the loudest member of the guard, save Caius when he was in a bitchy mood, Sulpicia singing opera(or worse Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift)in the shower, or Santiago watching futebol given his vulgar humor, bass voice, impulsive speaking, and the there was no nice way to express how much of a man whore he could be. If he wasn't sparing with Santiago, the other brawns in the guard, commenting on every war movie with Demetri, or playing video games with random strangers on XBOX live, he was flirting with tourists with his cat calls, wolf whistles, and other animalistic sounds that made even the marble bust of a person Marcus roll his eyes and sigh in embarrassment that he was even associated with him.

Demetri often did flirt, but he was much slyer about it. His quiet humor, rare smile, subtle compliments, and the fact that he was probably the brightest and well-read of the guard charmed many. The only one who could best him at chess or has read as many books as him was probably Alec, followed by Marcus on a good day and Santiago if a game wasn't on.T he one and only person that he wished his charm influenced was Heidi. Every time he tried to smile or compliment her she would divert her eyes, get really quiet, and worse of all pretend he did not exist.

The guards sat in silence for several hours again, partly out of habit and partly out of lack of good conversations. The room was so quiet you could hear the residents of Volterra milling about the square, the splash of the fountain, and the clicking of the gears of the ancient clock tower.

"Okay. That's it. I can't take the silence anymore! I am going to see if I can get Aro to spill what he has been brooding over all month," Jane hoped of the couch from her spot next to a reading Alec as everyone stared at her as if she was a dead man walking towards an electric chair. "Good luck with that, Pandora," Chelsea sneered to herself. In truth, everybody had been wondering what Aro was thinking. But no was impulsive, brave, or even stupid enough to ask.

A few minutes the guards heard Jane scream, "WWWHHAATTT? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?A lec's only fifteen. Why him, too?" followed but hushed whispering that they could not make out. A few seconds later Jane appeared at the door way looking as if she had seen a ghost. She stiffly walked back to her seat, eyes staring forward lost in some phantom fear. Whatever Aro had just thought of was so bad it had scared the most fearless of the entire guard. Some of the guards were almost missing Cat Dracula.

"What did Aro want?" Felix's voice wavered.

"Aro wants to see Alec, Demetri, Santiago, Afton and Felix in the throne room in five minutes. He will explain everything there," Jane whispered frightened out of her mind.

Now everyone was very intrigued. If this was about the battle with the Cullens, why were Felix and Santiago being called? They just served as fighters. If it was about Jane and Alec being useless they would have been called together. Demetri's job was just to find anyone who tried to escape or worked as a backup fighter and was not needed in the fight. Afton did jack shit and everyone knew it. He was only in the guard because he was Chelsea's mate and she got whatever she wanted from Aro since she had the most useful gift. Why did Aro want those five?

Fork,Wa

It had been about a month since the Volturi had left in defeat. Many of the Cullens were worried that they would return for vengeance. No one was expecting victory. Just as a precaution, Alice was still searching the futures of the guards and Aro. So far everything seemed normal, vampires from around the world would still come and report violations of laws. Things would return to normal. But slowly Aro seemed to get more and more blurry. She had to concentrate really hard to see him and his future seemed to change everyday. It was quite dizzying. But Alice could still see the guards clear as day. Then, suddenly one day she couldn't see them. Not a single guard. She tried harder, but something was wrong. The psychic concentrated only on them, blocking out everything but the Volturi until her head felt like it had spilt open.

"Alice?" Edward asked concerned as he read her thoughts.

"The Volturi. They're just gone. I can't see them anymore," Alice whispered.