Have A Little Faith

Chapter Six: Thick as Thieves

The city of Volterra was beautiful. There was no question of that. It was especially beautiful under the bright morning sun that filled the sky and lit up the Main Plaza, the forests, the rivers, and every other geographical and man made sight that the Volturi's headquarters had to offer.

It had been a week since Addison had joined their mission officially. She had come to find that life here was, well... rather dull. However, this did leave her with a lot of free time. She was able to do what she pleased the majority of the time. Most of the time, she kept to herself. She sat in the trees and stared at life below her. Sometimes she brought her sketchbook (she had been particualarly artistic in her human years and, in light of the freedom here, she was inspired to take up this hobby once more), and other times she'd bring along a novel.

She'd met the entire guard. Felix was a generally carefree vampire, and he was able to laugh off nearly killing her or how she had made Santiago dive at him and nearly injure him like it was no big thing, and like this sort of thing happened all the time, like some trite occupational hazzard. To be perfectly honest, he sort of frightened her. Despite the fact that Jane was a beautiful child in appearance, she was pretty creepy, too, when she thought on it, especially with what she could do to her victims. Alec was the friendlier of the twins, definetely. Much more likable. Addison kept her distance from him especially, however, because of the incident with Adriano.

It was difficult; trying to decipher her feelings. She couldn't deny her growing attraction to Demetri, but at the end of the day, she had loved Adriano, no matter how weak their bond proved to be in the end. Adriano would despise her, anyway, if he were still alive. Even if she didn't become ever closer to Demetri, she was a part of the Volturi Guard now, and Adriano's hatrid of them would include her too, she was certain.

She didn't spend all of her time alone, despite the fact that she avoided the others. Demetri always came to find her at some point. At night, they'd race along the rivers together like they had upon their journey across America just to arrive here. They remained unseen and unheard by Volterra's citizens as they ran, practiced fighting, or climbed the trees. They were just two seperate worlds that happened to cross at the same place, but at different times of the day.

Addison enjoyed being out in the sunlight, too, though she couldn't risk wandering out of the shadows because that would lead to her exposure to the oblivious humans here. Sometimes, though, when she sat in a tree, far above the ground, a ray of light would fall upon her flesh. The feel of it, as her skin lit up and sparkled dazzlingly, was nice and comforting. Like a hug when you just broke up with your boyfriend, or when someone makes you laugh on after a terrible day in which you just wanted to go home and curl up in a little ball and cry yourself to sleep. She couldn't linger with her skin exposed, but sometimes she wanted to just sit there and drink in that feeling that it gave her, not only on the outside but within her heart, that had not showed any sign of life, not one stutter of a beat, in over sixteen years.

Addison sighed, turning her head to gaze at the bird who was just now flying home to her young babies.

Volterra was a relatively friendly place, that was undeniable. It was so easy to call it home. It was inviting, it was beautiful and alluring. Through the eyes of a vampire, with their sharpened senses, it was that and more so.

Somehow, though, there was a strange feeling around here. This feeling that whispered about things unseen to even Addison, who was a part of this world. Oh, there was something off here. She could feel that, but she paid it no mind. Aro was kind. He wanted peace for all vampires.

But still... somehow, she felt there was something else here with her, brewing under the surface...

Addison shook her head to clear these thoughts from her mind.

Impossible, she thought to herself.

Then she turned her head back to her sketchbook and resumed her work.

.oOo.

It was not yet nightfall when Addison abbandoned her sanctuary amongst the trees and made her way, in the shelter of the surrounding shadows, back to the Main Plaza. She ran in silence through the thicket. When she arrived, she slipped through the throngs of tourists, but not as many as there would have been on a holiday, never once leaving her place in the shadows, pulling the cloak around her, and as she did so, it resembled something like a gateway to invisibility. She went unnoticed through the Main Plaza. She made her way to the tunnel, only to be stopped by a familiar someone reaching out his arm to grab her.

"Addison," Demetri said in greeting.

"Demetri," she replied.

"I was just coming to look for you."

Addison smiled up at him as the two made their way into the Volturi's secret walls beneath their beloved city.

"Demetri, Addison!" Aro called in greeting, waving the two forward eagerly.

They moved towards him swiftly and quietly in their dark cloaks that swept to the floor.

The Volturi and its entire Guard, minus Heidi, stood waiting in the stone antechamber. Not long after Addison had come to this room, she heard voices. Stepping off the elevator and now entering the wide, ornate hallway and moving towards this room. She heard their loud footsteps, she could smell them through the open door. But mostly, she listened. Their loud heartbeats ringing in her ears, and the blood that pumped through their veins. They were so vital, so warm, and so impossibly meek in comparison to these immortals; with their great strength and inhuman quickness, even if they were famished...

"Welcome guests!" Aro called out to them. "Welcome to Volterra!"

Those words of warmth and welcome and the resounding echo of Heidi shutting the heavy door behind them with such finality was to be just about the last thing they would ever hear. Upon them were powerful immortals and their death sentence. They would never again hear laughter, never smell the Earth's many gifts of flowers nor trees. They would never taste the refreshment that water gave them, nor the sweetness of wine. They were never going to feel a lover's gentle touch in the early hours of the morning, for this was their last day, and their very last heartbeat, and their very last breath was drawing down to numbers that they could count on their hands...

The Volturi snatched up these humans, who had now started screaming upon the realization of their impending, unalterable doom, and began to feed, ignoring their victim's pleas for life. Addison fed, but there was something new inside of her as she listened to these cries, felt their fear and longing to see just one more day. What was this feeling at the pit of her stomach? What was this powerful emotion that tugged on her heart, long neglected, as she drank from this warm source of life.

When she was done, she stepped back, her thoughts and emotions befuddled, trying to make sense of what she was feeling just now, while another pull brought out her loyalty to the Volturi once more...

Addison glanced up to see all the humans dead before her. The empty vessels were being tossed into a fire where they would be reduced to meer ash, forgotten now. The ancients were making their way back to the throne room, with the guard following after them, Addison among them as she watched the innocent bodies of the people who had served to sustain them. Some of the guard stayed with the ancients. Others, like Jane or Alec or Addison, were heading off in their own direction. Jane and Alec led the way to the elevator, just as Demetri caught up with them. He smiled at her, his hand on her back, as the elevator carried them to the hallway that led to the Guard's rooms, and then they were taken upwards to where Addison and Demetri were headed, though Demetri was simply headed in whatever direction Addison was going.

Upon reaching the surface, the two walked at leisure through the vacant Main Plaza, as night had fallen while they fed, and ran through the night to go stand beside the river where no houses nor humans were near. The same place Demetri had been teaching Addison how to improve her fighting skills past instinct and the basics she had learned from Adriano and the Russian Twins, just in case.

But tonight they didn't practice, they just walked alongside the river for a while, until Demetri turned in front of her.

"Something's bothering you," he said simply.

Addison didn't deny it, she just sighed.

"I suppose there is something..." She said, but she shook her head before she could tell Demetri of the... remorse she felt. She just wasn't used to people screaming, that was it. Usually she cast an illusion upon her victims so that they're eyes and minds went out of focus as they stumbled along an alley until she got around to stealing their life essence to keep herself pain free. Or could it be that usually her victims weren't innocent; not at all. They were gangs of drunken men who followed her into dark alleys or muggers that were hoping she had more then just spare change in her pockets or sometimes they were suicidal, and they really didn't want to live any longer, anyway, so that she could console her entire being with the thought that she was doing them a favor in ending their days because she was also ending their suffering.

"But it doesn't matter," Addison said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, quite," she said quietly, glancing down at her feet, then over at the river, and then back to Demetri as he leaned down towards her.

"Good," he said softly, just as his lips met hers.

A/N: Sorry this chapter is a tad bit shorter then the others; I just liked this ending for the chapter so I decided to stop here for the day. And sorry if this takes a while to get up. As of right now, Fan Fiction won't let me upload it and I've tried a couple of times, so hopefully I'll get it up tomorrow (as in Saturday, the 5th). But, that might not work out either. :(.

Anywho, thank you for all of you who have read this story and thanks to you who have... erm... subscribed? And thanks for those who have reviewed. I really appreciate it. :)