Chapter 11 – Towards Volterra

The blood flooded my mouth and I gulped it down, desperate not to waste a drop. The human I had clamped to my mouth kicked feebly, her hands feeling like nothing more than the tickle of a summer breeze as she clawed ineffectually at me.

She didn't struggle for long. So much smaller and weaker than the lord I had first feasted on back in our village, her blood stopped flowing far too soon and I sat back with a scowl.

"I'm still thirsty."

No one paid me any mind. Philippe and Alec were still feeding, both of them clasping men-at-arms that we had found guarding the small castle. Neither of them could think of anything but the blood that was sating their thirst. Aro was ransacking a sturdy looking wooden chest and, ignoring the body of the serving girl I had drained, I rose to my feet and walked over to see what he was looking for.

The chest was full of clothes. Suddenly aware of the burned and scorched remains of my tunic, I leaned over beside Aro and plucked out a fine wool tunic.

"I could wear this," I said hopefully. "My old one is half burned up."

Aro barely glanced at it. "No need. We'll be back at Volterra soon enough, and Sulpicia will find you something suitable. I was hoping to find cloaks so we can travel the rest of the way by day." He lifted out two long cloaks, made of a coarse, undyed woollen weave. "These will do. Put it on."

I took the cloak that he handed me and slung it over my shoulders, fastening the brass clasp that held it together. It was so long that it dragged along the ground, and when Aro tugged the hood up it slipped down and covered my face to my chin.

I could hear Alec laugh, and I angrily shoved back the hood so I could see. "It's too big."

"All the better," Aro said. "It will shield you very well from the sun, sweetling. Take the leggings off that serving girl and put them on too; we do not want to be seen and your tunic has burned away to show far too much skin."

Grudgingly I wrestled the leggings off the limp legs of the girl. For a moment I paused, looking at her still face and sightless eyes, and realised that I knew nothing of her. I had spoken not a word to her, simply snatching her up as we burst into the keep's hall and then tearing into the soft skin of her throat to get at the enticing pulse beat. Now she was dead. Shrugging a little helplessly I turned away.

"Do you steal everything?" Alec asked Aro curiously.

Aro looked affronted. "Stealing? Of course not. The vaults in Volterra are piled with more treasure and wealth than anywhere else in the world. I can more than afford to purchase whatever I wish! However there are times when it's better not to be seen in a particular location. And it's not as though they are in need of these items any longer, since the dead hardly require cloaks."

Alec wrapped the other cloak around himself. It fit no better than the one I wore did, and his face disappeared into the deep shadow of the hood as he followed Aro towards the door. I yanked the leggings on and tied them before I followed hurriedly.

I wished I knew where we were, as we ran onwards. The sunlight showed up the brilliant colours of everything around me, and I wished we could slow down and I could explore this new land that seemed very different to my forest of home. But Aro chided me gently every time I slowed, and I was uncertain enough of what he might do that I didn't refuse to follow his lead.

I heard the sound of stonemasons at work long before the trees cleared enough for us to see them. As Aro and Philippe slowed to a human pace, I pushed my hood back to get a better look at what was happening ahead of us, but Aro's hand locked around my wrist.

"Keep yourself covered sweetling. We are nearly home," he said quietly. "Although our castle is in the city of Volterra, we feel it is…prudent…to have several entrances and exits." He nodded towards the almost completed stone church swarming with workers, which we could see from the shade of the tree we stood below.

I stepped hastily back when I saw the stone cross they were raising to the point of the roof. "We don't go into the church of the Christian god," I said defensively. "You didn't say anything about you being Christ worshippers!"

Aro let out a peal of genuine laughter. "Oh sweetling, no! This church building will never be consecrated and never used for service. We of the Volturi own the land, and have ordered the church to be built so that we can conceal the secret entrance to our castle that lies in the cellar."

"But if the builders know about it then the entrance is hardly secret," Alec objected.

Aro smiled coldly. "They were informed that the tunnel is unsafe and have been provided with incentive enough to keep their mouths closed for now. Later…well, terrible accidents do happen on building sites. People sometimes meet with rather unfortunate fates." He sighed.

"Looks like they'll be finished in a week or so," Philippe observed, ignoring Aro's overt threats.

"You must be sure to inform Caius of their progress. He'll be happy to take care of them once their work is done," Aro murmured. "It will be pleasant to have this entrance freely available again, instead of only during the hours of night when there is no work being done," he added, looking impatiently up at the sky.

While we waited for the sun to drop and the builders and workers to return to their homes, Alec and I investigated the small, treed hill we were on. The air smelled differently to home, and the trees were completely unfamiliar to me.

"What is it?" I asked curiously, running my fingers along one of the branches and plucking off one of the hard seed pods and sniffing it. "Can you eat it?"

"Cupressus sempervirens," Aro answered. "A cypress. Native to this area and no, you certainly do not eat it."

"I didn't mean me," I said, waving my hand vaguely in the direction of the humans at the church. "I meant them."

Thinking of the men, and of what I now ate instead of tree nuts, I felt the venom run in my mouth and my throat begin to burn. "I'm thirsty."

"You must wait," Aro said lightly. "It is hard in the beginning, but despite all your power you will need to learn restraint too."

"But they're just there…" I whined, bouncing agitatedly on my toes. The more I thought about it, the thirstier I became, and the further away any thoughts from my conscience were.

"And what would happen if you simply appeared and tore into one of their throats?" Aro inquired sweetly.

"They can't hurt me," I muttered.

"But tales and rumours may," Aro answered. "Look at your own human life, sweetling…it was tales and rumours that took you to the stake. Would you invite a similar fate again?"

"It's different now though," Alec said, drifting to my side. "You said we're immortal, that we can't die."

"And you cannot simply die," Aro agreed. "But you can be destroyed. Other vampires can be a very real threat, and for the sake of all in our world we believe it best to maintain a certain distance from the humans too. They do not need to know about what lives amongst them, and you will do well to never let on to any human what you are, unless you intend to kill them immediately. It is necessary that you learn to be discreet about your activities."

I didn't care about discretion. All I cared about my sating my ever growing thirst. But Aro's voice had been firm and his eyes were as hard as flint as he looked at me, so I scowled and began to scale the tree we were sheltering beneath. From high in the branches I watched the builders and stonemasons begin to pack away their tools as the sun fell, and then in small groups they began trudging away.

"There's one man left," I said urgently, dropping from the top of the tree to land silently beside Aro. "I want him. I'm so thirsty…" I couldn't stop the low growl.

Aro frowned at me, and Philippe chuckled and vanished, only to return a second later. "The apprentice stonemason," he reported. "He's finishing off the last stone angel."

Alec was thirsty too. I could feel how tense he was, standing beside me, and I wondered if the two of us together were strong enough to resist Aro. All we'd have to do was get past him, I mused, then we'd reach the human and once he was dead it wouldn't matter, we may as well drain him dry then…

However it didn't come to that. Aro simply shook his head at Philippe and sighed. "I suppose they are mere babies, and the thirst knows no patience. I want my angel completed though! Leave the human alone until he's done working."

Philippe looked at Alec and I a little uneasily. "There's only the one though. Newborns sharing…it may not go well, my Lord."

"They can be put back together if needs be," Aro said dismissively.

I didn't really know what they meant, but I couldn't give it another thought. Not with the scent of the human growing stronger as I crept closer, and his heartbeat sounding steadily into the early evening. Barely had his tools left his hands than Alec and I leaped, seizing him between us and savagely tearing into opposite sides of his neck. I moaned and felt my brother shudder as we shared our feast, the thirst disappearing under the delicious, soothing flow of blood.

Alec and I sat back at the same time, and he reached across and swiped a smear of blood from my cheek. "You still eat like a pig," he said teasingly, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You should see yourself!"

We scrambled to our feet as Aro and Philippe approached.

"You've spattered blood on my angel," Aro said, lifting the stone sculpture as though it weighed nothing and inspecting it from every angle. "It looks rather fetching. Now Philippe, you must dispose of that human, and I shall take the children to the castle. Marcus and Caius will be so interested to see what we've brought them!"

Philippe grinned at Alec and I. "See you soon, friends," he said cheerfully, picking up the drained human body and vanishing back towards the trees.

Alec and I followed Aro into the church. It wasn't consecrated ground, but I still felt a deep sense of unease at the stone walls rising around me and the heavy wooden cross that hung on the far wall. Aro paid it all no mind though, lifting one of the large stones from the floor by the altar and gesturing Alec and I towards the dark hole it revealed. "Down there."

It was very dark, but my vampire eyes were sharp and with the thin light filtering through the entrance I could see that we were in a shallow cellar. It had no floor or walls, just heavy wooden beams supporting the church above. Alec and I could only just upright and Aro, when he dropped down behind us, had to walk deeply hunched over.

He lit a rush light and handed it to Alec before he moved the heavy stone back into place. "The tunnel begins over here," he told us happily, taking back the light and leading us to the far end. "It has always ended in a cave on the hillside, but we felt that some place more concealed would serve us better. There has been the occasional…incident. We've had the church constructed to prevent that in the future." Aro stepped behind several wooden beams and a stone tunnel seemed to open up out of nowhere. It was narrow, but tall enough at least that Aro could walk upright. "The tunnel leads directly to the main hall of the Volturi, where we entertain our guests and dispense justice when necessary. Oh…you have so much to learn, my little ones!" He turned his head to smile at us, and his red eyes glowed like fire as they reflected the light from the torch he held. "So very much to learn!"

I waited until Aro's back was to us again before I looked sideways at Alec. My brother raised an eyebrow at me, but all I could do was shrug. We were here to learn, and should it prove too much we would simply walk away. It had occurred to me, listening to Aro on the journey here, that there didn't seem to be as much to know as he had implied at the beginning and perhaps he had other motives for bringing us here. We would have to be on alert.

Straightening my back, I moved forward through the stone tunnel to meet the rest of the Volturi.