Disclaimer- All recognizable characters belong to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer, whereas all new characters belong to me.

Chapter 20- Volterra

I gripped my seat as the plane lurched forward. I knew there was a reason I hated flying. Stupid turbulence. " It's at times like these I really wish I could run on water." I muttered. Yuzria was fast asleep beside me; Ash was taunting me on the other.

" Big bad Noleen is scared of heights? Poor baby." She mocked. I growled low enough so no human would hear it and looked at her.

" If the plane crashes, I'm using you to break my fall." She laughed and waved her hand nonchalantly.

" You know I'm just playing. But, as I was saying, we're going to need a lot more soldiers. I mean, Mitchell is bound to have a huge army. He is trying to take over Volterra after all. He's only coming after you because-"

" Because I'm the biggest obstacle in his way." I finished for her. She nodded her head and took a bottle of blood out of her purse. " How did you sneak that on?" I questioned her in disbelief. She smiled and wiggled her fingers.

" Magic." She replied, a smile on her face. She took a swig and turned her attention back to me. " But, anyways. . .What were we talking about?" I smirked, she never failed to amaze me.

" How we need a bigger army."

" Oh right. Well, I think Aro would arrange that for you. So, that should really be no problem. And he would most likely get you some damn good warriors. Noleen, do you know all the information about this war?"

" What do you mean?"

" I mean, you may have stepped smack dab into a frigging prophecy for all we know. The Volturi have been around for a while, I'm sure it's been written that someday someone would challenge them."

" Well, in that case, we better hope we're on the winning team."

" Well, the way destiny works I'd say we are. I mean, you're a guardian. Everything had to happen for a reason." I studied her, her face was serious. She shrugged her shoulders and took another sip of her blood. " It's the truth Nol." She whispered. " You could've been damned from the start. Maybe. . . Maybe all of us were." I never thought of it that way. I wasn't one to buy into all the fate and destiny mumbo jumbo. I lived with the motto that everybody made their own choices. Some were smart, some weren't. I took her bottle and downed some of it. She frowned slightly, but didn't say anything.

" What do you think Aro is going to ask of me in exchange for everything?" I asked her, deciding a topic change was needed.

" Probably your. . .Assistance." She responded easily. " Nothing I would be truly worried about."

" Yeah, you're probably right." I groaned as the plane hit another bump. " Can't this damn pilot drive this thing?" I mumbled. Ash chuckled and flicked the empty bottle down the aisle. She elbowed me and pointed to it.

" Hey, maybe someone will trip on it!" She giggled. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Just like that Ash's wisdom was gone and the little girl in her took over. I leaned against the seat and closed my eyes. I bit my lip as another bump rattled my seat. It's not that I was afraid of flying. . . I just liked feeling the ground beneath my feet.

Volterra loomed in the shadows. Well, not really, but it should have been. It was really quite a nice day in Italy. All the townsfolk were out and smelling delicious (quite like pasta and other Italian deliquesces), which meant we had to have our lovely cloaks on. Wouldn't want to sparkle. We all poked around, trying to find the entrance. I stomped down and fell right through the sewer grate that led to the inside of Volterra. I landed on one foot, then stood up and wiped myself off. " Down here!" I shouted and looked around. Lively tunnel. Everyone dropped down behind me and shook themselves off.

" Dusty." Emmett stated. Rosalie whispered something to him, I couldn't make it out. Probably telling him not to make a fool of himself by stating the obvious. At least, that's what I would've said. The tunnel was long and dark. We must have walked for at least fifteen minutes, at vampire speed of course, before coming to the big wooden door that for some reason reminded me of a drawbridge. Maybe I was just bored and seeing things too. I opened the door and stepped inside. The bright lights surprised me, what surprised me even more was the fact that I was standing in the middle of a waiting room. I arched my eyebrow and walked over to the front desk. The woman, clearly human, looked up and smiled. " Do you have an appointment" I held back my laugh. Appointment? They actually scheduled appointments?

" No, just tell Aro that Isabella is here to speak with him. Along with some friends." She looked at the long line of vampires behind me. " I have a lot of friends." I said sweetly.

" I'm sorry, but I can't let you in without an appointment." Okay this was getting a tad ridiculous. I leaned towards her and pointed to the phone.

" Pick it up and call him or I will rip out your throat and call him myself." I snarled. Threats always worked, every time. She stood up straight, her brown eyes staring into mine.

" You will do no such thing." She replied strongly. I looked at her in surprise, wanting to push her into the wall, when I remembered I was still wearing contacts. Had to when flying publicly, wouldn't want to scare the humans. I slowly took them out and threw them to the ground, everyone else did the same. Well, everyone but Yuzria and the Cullens. I leaned towards her again, a flicker of fear ran through her eyes now that she saw the crimson in mine. ' That's right honey, feel the fear.' I thought, a small smirk on my face. Humans were oh so gullible at times.

" You were saying?" I said to her. She gulped and picked up the phone.

" It'll just be a moment." She replied softly, her hands trembling slightly. I smiled and backed away. Ash gave me a high five, a grin on her face that was so big it made me laugh.

" You are so good at being bad." Travis laughed and slapped my back.

" I won't argue with that." I replied. We were all laughing about how I'd scared the piss out of the receptionist, when all of a sudden Edward came to me and pulled me to the side with him. I knew this wasn't going to be good. Not one bit. And I wasn't really in the mood for a lecture.

" Was that really necessary?" He asked, his voice low. " You really scared her."

" Yeah and it got her to listen did it not?"

" You could've gotten her to listen some other way." I scoffed and put my hands on my hips.

" She willingly works for master vampires, she knows they're vampires I'm sure. And you're worried about her?"

" She's still an innocent-" I held up my hand and laughed.

" Innocent? Oh please! Every human that works for the Volturi is only doing it in hopes they'll change them. She wants to be one of us, a blood drinker. She's only frightened of me because she knows I wouldn't change her. The one before her was just like that." His eyebrows arched in confusion.

" You've been here before?"

" Umm yeah, I'm an assassin, and a damn good one at that. Well, I was before all this happened. I've done runs for them before."

" You've killed for them?" I nodded my head and walked away, I was sick of the conversation. I swear, the man was like a walking contradiction. Sometimes he was happy with who I was, other times he wanted to change me. Well, actually most of the times he wanted to change me. I was about to talk to Lanina when the door beside the woman's desk opened and someone walked in. A guard. If I remembered correctly it was-

" Noleen, nice to see you again." He said gruffly. I chuckled and stepped forward.

" Alex, what's up bud?" I gave him a half hug and mussed up his hair. He growled and gave me a slight frown, then winked. " You were a newbie the last time I saw you, look at you, you're growing up!" He chuckled and nodded his head.

" And you are still beautiful."

" Aw, you always know how to make me feel better. Will Aro see us?"

" Yes, follow me." He turned back and started walking the way he came. The inside of Volterra always amazed me. The lush red carpets, the paintings hanging on almost every tan painted wall, the candles and just the plain elegance of it. It was suited for royalty. The doors to every other room besides the library were closed. Volterra had at least one hundred rooms in all. The library was on the lower half of it. There was another one in the upper half. I hadn't been in it, but I knew it was there. Aro had told me all the details about Volterra the last time I was here. I walked into the library and instantly saw the Volturi standing around the room. Aro came up to me, his arms open for a hug.

" Isabella, you don't know how lovely it is to see you." He smiled and kissed both of my cheeks. " Come, dine with us. All of you." I nodded my head and followed them into their dining room, their huge dining room. Time to learn just what I'd have to give them for their help. And maybe they could give me a little more information about this war.

A/N: A little short, I know. But next chapter should be much longer. Thank you to all of you for reviewing and adding me or my story on your favorites list or alerts. Just, all my readers, I just want to give you a HUGE cyber hug because you all ROCK! I swear, seeing how you react to the chapters and everything is just so awesome. I love hearing what you think about it. I hope you liked this chapter and please review! Again, thank you so much for reading, mwah to you all.

Until next time,

Faith