Chapter 4: The Angel
Loxwood England September 23, 1153
Avremarus was pasing the apothecary where and Lila lived trying to drown out the sound of blood curdling screams and not imagine the awful gore that was going on he and his wife's bedroom. This morning she had gone into labour with their first born child. Suddenly everything went quiet and the midwife peaked around the corning smiling proudly.
"It's over now. Would you like to see the babies?" She gushed. "Babies?" he was very confused.
"Yes she gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy," the midwife said calmly. Avremarus bolted into the room to find Lila holding two little bundles wrapped in a blanket. He sat on the edge of the bed smiling proudly. The girl had hair the colour of sunlight and looked just like Lila, except her hair was pin straight and cheek bones high like his. The boy had light brown hair that would darken with age to look similar to his and ears that stuck out to much. "He looks just like you," Lila noticed him staring at their son. "Except for the eyes," He replied. Both twins had almond shaped eyes that glowed the same unearthly green that Lila's did, just like emeralds in the sun or a cat prowling in the night. They were a telltale sign that one had magic coursing in their veins, just like their mother.
The baby boy noticed his father was staring at him and hid his face in Lila's arm, whiles the baby girl gurgle happily and reached for her father with small arms. "Less than an hour old and already a daddy's girl," He laughed. Avremarus picked her up and set her on his lap supporting her head lovingly. "What should we call them, Avi?" Lila mused.
"Well, my mother's name was Jane. It's not the most original name out there but I think it suits her. It means 'merciful'," he suggested. "Jane Sangnoir. Has a nice ring to it. I like it," Lila cooed at her newborn daughter before smiling at her now sleeping son. "How about Alexander? Since we are naming her after your mother how about we name him after my father."
" 'Great defender', it's perfect," Avremarus kissed his wife and his new family, Jane and Alexander, knowing that this was one of the best moments in his life that was going to end so soon.
Present Day Volterra
Alec smelled the blood. The entire freaking building full of blood thirsty vampires smelled the blood. Tiffany was finally dead. Her heartbeat was replaced by a small, rapid pitter pattering one on the other side of the door. He reached for the door handle, and then pulled it away. Alec didn't know what to do. Would IT be a boy or a girl? Was their one or twins or triplets or octuplets? He didn't even have a name picked out for IT? Did IT have powers, that's all Aro wanted right? "Just open the fucking door! I want to see my niece slash nephew slash whatever," Jane startled him out of his mini panic, reached around him and pushed the door open almost throwing it across the room.
She stomped into the room, ignoring the half naked corpse, and scooped the sleeping baby on the bed in a soft yellow towel. "Congrats, it's a boy," She announced. The thing in the towel lay motionless in her arms and almost looked like a doll, with too perfect blond curls, angel features that matched Alec's almost too perfectly and the fact that the only way you could tell it was alive was that it was breathing and had a pulse. It did not wake up when Jane picked him up. She tried softly stroking his round pale cheeks and then tapping his back. Nothing. He was probably just deeply asleep; she shrugged hoping nothing was wrong.
She carefully handed him over to her younger brother. It still did not stir. "Let's go see if he might be hungry. I'll go get a blood bag from one of the down stairs fridges," Jane suggested hoping that blood would get the baby's attention and wake it up. Alec, holding his new son and completely clueless, walked to his room and sat down on the reading couch. Right when he found a more comfortable position to hold the baby, there was a knock at the door. It wasn't Jane, she rarely knocks. "Come in," he called. It was the entire freaking guard. Felix burst in jovial as ever making teen mom jokes about Alec followed by an excited Santiago who wanted the baby named after him. Demetri was much more composed. Chelsea was squealing how cute he was and demanding to hold him with Afton holding her back…barely. She apparently would have to battle the wives also because they looked like they were about to rip each other's throats out if someone got a turn before them. Marcus even seemed as excited as he possibly could without showing emotion. But the most frightening thing was Aro and Cauis who had greedy piggish eyes already wondering how they could use his son's powers if he had any. He felt himself cradling the baby closer to his chest defensively. Still the baby boy did not react at all to the loud ruckus.
Something snapped. He released his powers silencing the entire room in seconds as he trapped it in a dark mist, suffocating all sensations and paralyzing the most powerful family in the world. If someone was looking at it from the outside you would have thought Alec had frozen time. He left a small path when he heard Jane's footsteps in the hall outside. "Wow families really do go psycho whenever there is a new baby in the house," she laughed nervously as she sat next to him, handing him a warm bottle of A positive.
He put the bottle to his son's lips and waited. Still nothing. Seconds turned into minutes and before you knew it an hour. The twins waited all night, with the guards still frozen in the room. Something was definitely not right. Taking a deep unneeded breath Alec tried thinking what could possibly be wrong. Jane had an idea and reached over to grab the baby. Telling herself that it was for the baby's own good she tried using her power on him, waiting for a high pitched scream of agony, for him to kick and fight. It was useless and he still lay motionless, dead as a doornail. She then tried forcing the baby's eyes open. They were a dull lifeless gray with as much light as the bottom of the ocean. Glancing between his eyes and the eyes of the trapped guards she realized they were similar.
"Alec, you know how the Cullen's half breed thing has the reverse of both her parents' powers? What is this is the reverse of your power? He hasn't reacted to sound obviously, he didn't react when we opened his eyes so he's blind probably, taste and smell are useless since he didn't do anything when we tried feeding him blood, and he didn't wake up when he was being moved or touched. He hasn't moved a single muscle, not even a twitch. Plus when humans sleep don't their eyes move behind their lids", Jane almost started crying in hysterics when she realized this kid was probably going to never wake up and die. Alec must have reached the same conclusion because he wrapped his arm around her in a tight hug, and started crying too. There were no tears or misty eyes or dripping snot, just aching sobs and disjointed breathing.
He soon let his concentration slip and the dark mist disappeared leaving the still arguing guards to find the twins embracing and crying not realizing what was going on or that they had been in Alec's room for over a day and a half. The room went quiet again and Aro walked over to figure out why the most powerful of his guards were sobbing like stupid children who were crying over a broken toy. He placed his hand on the back of Alec's neck, reading his thoughts.
Aro's expression darken as he let out a low growl, "This THING is a failure! Go ahead and put it out its pathetic misery and try again! This time we will hopefully get one that actually functions!" Alec sat there stunned, jaw slowly clenching and Jane looked like she wanted to tackle Aro and slit his throat at the same time. Caius sympathetically as ever made it worse, "I cannot fathom why you two give a shit and are blubbering over a brain dead door stop! This is nothing more than an experiment, not a time to play house and dress up like a bunch of kindergarteners!" Felix, Demerti, Heidi, and Santiago had left the room realizing that whatever was going to happen next was going to be ugly. Afton stayed with his arm around Chelsea's waist, she enjoyed watching the twins get chastised like the silly twitish children they are. Plus she had a feeling she knew what Aro was going to ask next.
On queue Aro looked at her, signaling what he wanted: the twins to be completely and absolutely loyal to him and his cause and to not care about the soon to be dead baby. It was heartless, but necessary. She focused on both of them and Aro, mentally willing them to be complacent and submissive while severing all ties between the stupid infant. Both slowly relaxed and looked almost dazed. Marcus stood watching and also physically feeling Chelsea manipulating the ties between her victims, a spider spinning its web around flies. It was twisted and sick. Already the innocent child's heartbeat was slowly and vitals edging towards oblivion. And now the only two people who cared for it were forced to leave it for dead. It was a reminder that on the surface everyone looked like a unified family, but deep down it was a chess game with no real winners.
Aro then ordered Jane back to her room and told her to wait there until he called for her, nodding like a puppet she left like a ghost. He then asked Alec to go and try again, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Aro and Caius left together grumbling to each other about the laziness of their guards and how when Caius was human, in the golden days of Sparta, if an infant showed any weakness or flaw they were left for dead and how important it is to remember customs of the ancients.
Felix and Demetri retreated back to the television room talking about how there was a documentary on the Trojan war that they didn't want to miss. Really they just wanted to not think about what happened today because they realized that if slash when Aro asked them to create a hybrid, their leaders would not hesitate to put it down like a rabid dog if it wasn't what they wanted. Weakness was not a luxury among the Volturi. Santiago strayed from the pair saying that he was going to walk around the plaza once the sun went down. Upon hearing this Chelsea and Afton discussed going out on a date together to explore the city they had been trapped in the last millennia.
This Marcus waiting alone with the child mind and conscious reeling. The rational, vampire part of his brain cringed at this brain dead Thing. It was a useless thing that served no purpose and nothing more than a hopeless cause. But a small buried part of him thought that at least he could burry this thing once it died. Maybe even give in a name on a headstone so everyone would not be restricted to calling IT or THING. This small compassionate sliver had only ever been seen by one person, and that was Didyme. When she was alive anything felt possible, even possibly having a child together.
Marcus decided to name the boy Jonathan Sangnoir. Originally it had been John Doe but he thought it could be a little more sophisticated and original. So he chose Jonathan because it wasn't too far of a stretch and Sangnoir had been Alec's last name as a human. Jonathan would never be a Volturi. Since Marcus was not needed for anything, he decided he could at least wait with Jonathan until he died of hunger, thirst or whatever else was wrong with him. He walked to his chambers and waited.
When Jonathan was three days old, his heart went silent and finally everything went still. Marcus didn't know if he should cry or be relieved and happy. Instead he sighed without emotion. With the baby still wrapped in the fluffy yellow towel, he walked down to the garden in the courtyard behind the palace. It was full of over grown olive, pomegranate, and pear trees, grape and ivy vines clawed its way anywhere it could. Even a small fresh water spring bubbled and flowed like fresh someone had blown it out of glass. In the very back of the garden, one lone apple tree with fruits whose skin was almost as dark as onyx perched in the moon light. This was where Marcus and Didyme shared their first kiss exactly three thousand, three hundred twenty four years, ten months and six days ago. It was also where he put her ashes, hugging the tree's trunk, after he found in a smoldering piles after she was murdered by an unknown killer. Here was the perfect place.
In a matter of seconds he dug a hole about four feet deep, and two feet by three feet wide. Completely shrouded in rubber ducky yellow, Jonathan was laid down and covered in dirt like a child getting tucked in for the night. Taking a small boulder from the spring, he carved 'Jonathan Sagnoir, The Angel'.
Later that night a young woman found herself sliding her shoes off and dangling her feet in the water of the fountain. The streets were quiet and alone. It was her favourite time because she could finally think without her loud obnoxious, psychotically religious family. Palming her grandmother's rosary beads, she cracked the pocket sized bible that had the name 'Katherine Argento'. She had gotten it as a gift from her sister when she as an early graduation present. She had lived here for the last four years with her older sister Elizabeth, brother-in-law Tommy DeLeale and screeching seven year old nephew Lorenzo living with her fantic and overly obsessive parents was too much. Every day was a threat of enteral damnation and purging ones soul and how to become the next saint. Shaking her head she hoped to rattle the dark thoughts of her mind as she took her long hair out of its confining, chaste bun. Looking at her reflection she saw her normal stark white face, black almost navy hair, tear blue eyes hugged by mile long lashes. Katherine wore a grey hand knitted sweater and ankle length black loose skirt that she hiked up to avoid getting it wet. People at school joked that she was most likely to become a nun.
Flipping to where her winking Jesus bookmark was she began reading where she left off in her favourite book of the bible, The Book of Revelations. It was the closest thing she had to a teen fantasy novel. Being only somewhat immersed in the book, she felt a paranoid sense of someone watching her. Glancing over her shoulder, all she saw was an old woman collecting laundry from her balcony. She stared at the woman go back into her house, palming the beads in her hand to calm her nerves and tell herself that she is just being silly.
Making eye contact with herself in the water, she waited for her pulse to slow. Something caught her eye. There was a small cloud of black mist dancing at the end of the alley way behind her. Curious and almost in a trance, she tucked the bible into her sweater pocket after marking the place with winky Jesus. Rosary beads in hand, she slowly walked to alley way and peaked around the corner. There waited a person in a black cloak with an unseen face and oblivion as everything turned black, she tried to scream but she could feel herself move a muscle or hear anything. Was she dead?
Katherine opened her eyes to a pain below her stomach and body covered in odd bruises. She didn't know where she was. The room was had no light, but she felt pressure on her back, which told her she was laying down. It was bouncy-ish so maybe a bed. Her hands were tied to something, possibly the bed posts. Panicing she started yelling, "Hello? What have you done to me? Where am I? Why am I here?". Her questions went unanswered.
Forks, Washington
After many days of migranes and constant focus with no outcome Alice finally saw something. She hated thinking about it, but ever since Renesmee was born and they had been associated with the wolves she was next to useless. And now it was impossible to see what the Volturi were planning for whatever reason. This new issue made it so that she was now blind to any plans for revenge or danger. It had been weeks if not months since she had a day without a head ache. She adored her niece to no end, but sometimes she resented her.
This took her by surprise. One minute she was watching America's Next Top Model, the next it felt like someone had taken a molten ax to the back of her head. The pain made her feel like she was being ripped in half by a rusty chainsaw. Now she saw just a quick flicker of an image for just a couple seconds.
She saw Caius and Aro alone in a room together. It was echoic and spacious, perhaps the throne room. Caius was clenching his jaw, furious about something. "Well that was a complete fail," he hissed with venom. "For our first experiment, it could have gone many ways. Subject one will be terminated soon and we will try again. Hopefully the next one will be better. Remember, this is just an experiment and not all results will be pleasant," Aro sighed trying to calm him down. "Hopefully Subject two will be the perfect weapon we are looking for." Then it ended.
Alice sat dazed and confused. The soreness in her head was gone and she felt numb almost. "Alice?" it was Edward. He had already seen the same scene she had witnessed. Maybe he wanted to know if she was okay or maybe he wanted to know what it all meant. What were subject one or two? This couldn't be good, whatever the Volturi were planning.