After Midnight

Chapter Nine

Frank and Joe followed Jane through a long corridor, deeper underground. They arrived in what looked like a conference room. Sitting at a long, polished table were five people. The brothers stared.

All five of them were deathly pale; their skin was translucent. Their eyes varied in color—most had dark crimson, some had black, and the one sitting at the head of the table had blood red eyes.

There were four men and one woman. The woman—no, surely she was something else; she couldn't be human—was so breathtakingly beautiful that for a moment neither boy could look away from her. She sat next to the man, the leader, that occupied the seat at the head of the table, his silver hair nearly as white as his face.

"Hello."

The boys stared at these magnificent beings; all perfect in their own right, just like little Jane, who had removed her cloak to reveal yet another pale, but painfully beautiful face. The man who had spoken stood up, looking at the boys as if wondering if they were mentally competent.

Finally Joe found his voice. "Hi."

"I am Aro," the man said, sweeping toward them, his black cloak billowing silently behind him. "I am the leader of the Volturi. And this—" he motioned fluidly at the two men beside him, "is Marcus and Caius." He pointed out the small boy, about the same size as Jane. Actually, they could very well be related from their facial features and hair color, Frank noted. "This is Alec, and—" he smiled at the stunning woman who occupied the seat behind him, "this is Chelsea."

"Chelsea," Joe repeated, smiling his most winning smile. Chelsea didn't smile back. On the contrary, her top lip pulled back as she glared at Joe, teeth bared like she was a cat about to pounce.

"It's a good thing we have Jasper," Seth said appreciatively as he and his family lay waiting in the shadows for their chance to get in and grab the boys before it was too late. The people around them were getting frightened, they glanced over their shoulder, paranoid. It was working.

Alice stood with her family, eyes closed. "Not yet," she muttered. "Not yet—" Her eyes snapped open. "No!" she spat, her voice desperate and angry. "We have to move—now! Before it's too late!"

As Jasper closed his eyes and Seth, Jacob and Leah moved swiftly through the crowd, muttering terrifying thoughts of dark, thirsty killers coming near, the people in the crowd began to scream and run. One yelled, "VAMPIRE!"

Jacob smiled grimly as he nodded at the Cullen family. Time to make their escape. As several cloaked figures darted into the streets and the Cullen family eased into the Volturi's lair, Jacob, Seth, and Leah cleared the city of Venice's borders with ease. A few minutes later, the sound of a wolf's howl could barely be heard with the chaos erupting within the city of Venice, Italy.

Meanwhile, fifteen minutes earlier…

Frank couldn't be sure what had happened. One minute, Joe was standing, cocky and smiling, flirting with the electrifying Chelsea. The next minute, he was writhing on the floor in agony, struggling not to scream as he twisted in pain.

"No!" Frank hissed.

The girl named Jane was staring at him, smiling. Then her smile turned into a frown as Joe managed to stand up shakily, and even though still in pain, glare defiantly at the whole group of them, unsure what had happened.

Even though Joe was in the worst pain he had ever experienced, he managed to force himself shakily to his feet, glaring at the lot of them. Jane was glaring at him with a ferocity that made an old cliché pop unexpectedly into Joe's pain filled mind.

If looks could kill.

"Stop!" Aro said firmly. "Jane, do not inflict your unusual talent on the poor boy," he said. "He is only human. I suppose we can't blame him for having an eye for Chelsea. She is, I am sure, a goddess in his eyes." Chelsea hissed but otherwise remained silent, glowering at the boys. "Or maybe, he is a bit more…" He paused, taking a step closer to Joe. "You couldn't block it, but you did fight it. There has only been one other person to block our advances, but I've never seen anyone fight so strongly before…perhaps, with training and practice, we could…" Aro was almost talking to himself now.

"Aro…" The man named Marcus had spoken. "What are we to do?"

Aro turned his blood-red eyes on Joe, smiling. Then his gaze flickered to Frank. "We are all gentlemen," he said finally. "Lies do not become us. Let us speak freely; for I know your intent is not what you say."

Frank opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, Aro said pleasantly, "Wrong answer." He nodded at Jane, who turned her black gaze onto the eldest Hardy brother.

A hundredth of a second later, Frank Hardy was on the cold ground, screaming and writhing in sheer and undiluted agony.

~Emachinescat ^..^