Chapter 6

My long birthday evening slowly came to an end with Athena and Damien. By the time we returned home from the night our and Athena's crazy antics, I was completely wiped, and Damien had to carry me to my room. I was just barley able to muster the energy to clean off my make up and pull on my pjs before flopping into bed and passing out.

The sound of our doorbell woke me from my deep sleep and grumpily opened my eyes to see it was only three in the morning. I was about to go back to sleep, but hushed voices from the entryway caught my attention. I quietly crawled out of be and then crawled the short distance down the hall to peek around a wall at the entry way. Athena and Damien looked worried as the talked to two men in the entryway. They both work heavy cloaks with hoods pulled down. The first man was very tall with short black hair. Because of his height, I couldn't really see the man standing next to him. But I could tell the second man had short blonde neatly combed in a way that I was pretty sure was out of style for this century. The tall guy shifted a little allowing me glance at the man next to him and my eyes widened. It was the same man from the bus all those years ago. I covered my mouth to muffle my gasp, but he still heard. The man glanced up at me and I quickly hid behind the wall knowing full well everyone knew I was there.

"Chloe," Athena appeared next to me in the next second, "you should be in bed dear."

"So this is the human?" the tall man appeared behind Athena and then Damien appeared in front of us.

"Leave her alone Felix." Damien growled a little making me cower to Athena who held me in her arms. The man named Felix raised an eyebrow at Damien and the look in his eyes made my heart speed up.

"Alright," a sigh came and the man who helped me appeared then looking tired, "that's enough Felix, we didn't come to fight. We are only here to deliver a message."

"Yet they argue with us." Felix snapped clearly unhappy. The blonde sighed and his eyes landed on me. He tilted his head a little looking slightly confused and it was Damien stepping in front of me that made him look away.

"Can't you tell Aro that we already have a set date?" Athena asked quietly.

"Four years from now," Felix rolled his eyes, "Aro may be flexible, but he's not four years flexible. You tell us she is sixteen, she is old enough to be turned." I looked up at Athena with questioning eyes and she sighed.

"The Volturi want you turned by the end of the week." She explained to me and I blinked and looked back at the men. So, these were the Volturi Athena and Damien told me about, the coven that rules the vampire world.

"How about we take this discussion to a more comfortable area?" the blonde asked, and I knew then it was defiantly the man, no the vampire, who helped me all those years ago. His voice is something I would never forget thanks to all his annoying questions that day. Damien finally relaxed and he nodded his head while Athena helped me stand up.

"Come dear," she said leading me down the stairs with Felix and Damien in front and the blonde walking closely behind us. It took all my will power not to turn around and ask him why he helped me. Well I doubt he even remembers me…

"Chole," Athena said once we were all seated in the living room. Me sitting between Athena and Damien on one couch while the other two sat opposite of us on the other couch. "This is Felix and Demetri, they're from the Volturi coven in Italy." So that's what the 'D' stood for in the letter that for some reason I still have in my bag.

"Hello." I muttered and noticed Demetri tilt his head while looking at me.

"Now then," Felix said quickly, clearly wanting to get out of here, "Lets start discussing details we can take back to Aro." I buried my head in Athena's arm and allowed my hair to hid my face from Demetri who kept looking at me every now and then. God I wanted to tell him off like it did on the bus, but the sudden realization of what he is kept my mouth shut. I was surprised he didn't kill me all those years ago.

As the talking went on, my earlier exhaustion came back and I found myself cuddling on Athena's hard lap and falling into a deep sleep. When I woke up the next morning, the two Volturi members were gone and I was giving a list of what to do today.

"I can't believe you have to leave so soon!" Nick complained at lunch that afternoon after I told our boss and him that I would be moving away. I told them that Damien's job requires us to move right away. Nick wasn't happy, but he was also leaving for Paris at the end of the week; so I guess it worked out in the end. After work we both went to dinner at our favorite taco place and sat out on the patio just acting like our usual stupid selves. When Nick started to dig into his food I looked around the mall feeling sad that I wouldn't be able to come here for a while. My eyes suddenly met a pair of red eyes from across the street. Demetri was leaning against a tree watching me and I quickly looked away, catching Nick's attention.

"What is it?" he asked looking over and it did too, but Demetri was gone.

"Nothing." I said and focused on my food.

(Demetri's POV)

It was indeed a boring mission. Just having to send a message to Athena and Damien about their human companion, I didn't understand why two elite guards had to be sent out to do this. Damien did put up a lot of arguing when we came to the home while Athena begged us to allow them to keep to their scheduled date for turning the girl. I personally didn't care when they turned her, but Aro has other opinions. The mission suddenly took a turn for the not so boring when a gasp caught my attention and my eyes briefly met the human's blue ones before she hid behind the wall. I tilted my head a little watching everyone run upstairs while I tracked this girl's essence with my gift. There was something familiar about it. It was then I decided to go upstairs and cool down the growing tempers, mostly Felix's temper. When I reached the group and spoke to Felix, I took the moment to look at the girl. Yes, her essence was very familiar along with her features; but before I could pinpoint why that was, the overprotective Damien stepped in front of her.

After another minute of bickering from Felix, I decided it was time to take the conversation to their sitting room. More for selfish reasons, going down there would allow me more time to observer the human girl. And as we sat downstairs, I started to remember. What really helped it click in my head was when she briefly spoke to say 'hello' then hid her face from me like on the bus. How interesting that the thirteen-year-old I met all those years ago would had grown to be such a beautiful woman, and alive none the less. I half expect she wouldn't have made it even after everything I got here. Yet here she was with a strongly beating heart, for now. Oh, and I see she took my advice about changing her appearance. Blonde was a good color on the child. Eventually, she fell asleep and Felix and I decided to leave once we had all our information.

"Alright let's go home," Felix grumbled as we walked way.

"You go," I said making him stop, "I need to hunt then I wish to spend some time here." Felix simply shrugged then took off into the night. I wondered the city after finding a decent meal. I enjoyed visiting all the areas from my human life, even if the were such a distant memory. It amazed me how well the human have taken care of the temples and ancient artifacts over the years. The day went by in a blur and when the sun set I decided it was time to leave, but not before I saw that girl, Chloe, one last time. I easily tracked her to a mall and there she was with a man sitting at a restaurant patio. I watched her joke with the boy and laugh. I leaned against a tree as I watched her. She was so different from when I saw her years ago. She seemed happy, more relaxed. It was then her eyes met mine and she quickly looked away. I took that as my cue to leave; so I turned on my heal and headed home.

Even to this day I still don't know what led me to help the child. It wasn't pity or some deep caring instinct. Lord knows I'm a ruthless killer like almost all vampires and that girl was my chosen meal that day. But there was something about her that compelled me to help and I just don't know why. I had taken money out of my own private account from before I joined the Volturi and paid for the hotel with the same account. Although I could've used my Volturi account seeing as I have more than enough money there as well. The very few elite guard members have access to the huge amount of money the Volturi have. Many spend a decent amount of their allowance, but I rarely tap into to the account. Buying things was never an interest to me and neither was money, a trait I carried on from my human life. I did, every three or so years, update my Lamborghini to the latest model; but that was about all for me. Yet for some reason I took out two-hundred thousand from my personal account for a human girl.

I never told anyone about that girl on the bus when I returned from my mission. I didn't even tell Felix or Heidi, my two best friends. Aro, of course, saw what happened when I reported to him and he read my thoughts. He never said anything, but his curious look didn't escape my notice when he moved away. Perhaps he saw that I didn't understand why I helped her. Whatever the his reasonings were, Aro never spoke of it to me or anyone and neither did I. And that was the end of it, I never really gave that child much thought after that. I think in the first year, I did occasionally track her essence to see if she was still alive but that was it. As the years went on, she became a distant memory like all things in this world.

"Ah welcome home Demetri," Aro smiled as I entered his office. I handed him my hand to give my report of the mission already knowing Felix did the same when he returned.

"Interested," Aro said while releasing my hand and returning to his desk. He wasn't referring to the mission, I knew he was referring to the girl.

"Well thank you for your report," he said and waved me off. I bowed and returned to my room only to be hit with that strong cinnamon scent.

"I need your help Demetri," Heidi sighed as she flopped back onto my bed, "I'm just so bored and no one will entertain me. Alec is such a hug stick in the mud you know?"

"Or perhaps the thought of you just doesn't satisfy him," I teased as I crawled up on her and she puffed her cheeks up in annoyance. She yanked my lips down to hers and I gave her what she wanted. Yes, Heidi was a beauty that many men in our would have yearned to get into bed. But I never saw her that way, to me she is a good friend who helps keep away boredom on occasion. Images of that Chloe girl flashed in my head for a brief second and I found myself thinking that the young girl would make a beautiful vampire.