A/N – We're finally in Volterra, and about to meet the rest of the Volturi! I just wanted to say that visually I've gone with movie!Volturi rather than the description given in the Guide. Mostly, I must admit, because Michael Sheen's Aro was so utterly, gloriously perfect! I also just couldn't get it into my head that Caius was meant to be so much older, and I really liked Dakota Fanning's look for Jane.

Chapter 12 – The Volturi Coven

Every building I had ever seen in my life paled away to insignificance in the face of the main hall of the Volturi. It opened up from the arched doorway that ended the tunnel, ceilings soaring a hundred feet high, the floor a perfectly laid stone mosaic swirling out from the centre of the room, walls hung with richly ornate tapestries. Three enormous, gilded thrones were the only furniture in the room.

Alec was equally spellbound. Neither of us moved more than a step from the tunnel's end as we gazed around us in wonder. How could anything so imposing have ever been built? This made the lord's manor home of our village look like it was fit for nothing but pigs!

Our reaction must have pleased Aro, because he was smiling as he watched us. "Home," he said in satisfaction. "I rarely leave. You should feel honoured that I made an exception for the pair of you. Now come, there are others you must meet. Marcus, Caius!"

He barely raised his voice, but a moment later two new vampires appeared silently in front of us. They were very dissimilar, one with brown hair and a face that bore lines of age and grief and one much younger, with the same flaxen hair of Alec and I. Both of them wore identical looks of incredulity as they stared at us with their blood red eyes.

"Marcus, Caius, my dear companions! I'd like to introduce you to our newest friends, Jane and Alec," Aro declared.

"Aro…what have you done?" The older vampire shook his head. "They are very, very young."

"Too young," the blond snapped. "Far too young! You said you did not intend to change them yet, that you went with Philippe only in order to investigate."

"So I did," Aro said calmly, walking further into the room. "However the situation was more dire than expected and immediate action was necessary. Philippe and I were only just in time to rescue them from the pyre- you know how hasty these humans can be when they get a notion into their heads! They thought the two of them were little witches. Of course, if it is as I hope then perhaps they will…"

"They will nothing!" The younger vampire looked furious. "After all the work we've done with strengthening our position and vanquishing the immortal children you bring us these…"

"Silence!" Aro whirled to face us all, his eyes blazing. "I will not hear it Caius, you will not speak the name of those abominations in connection with these two of mine! They are not children. Do you understand?"

Caius sounded more subdued when he spoke again, but he stood his ground. "They are young, and people will talk. Can we take that risk, Aro? Can the Volturi be seen to condone the creation of…them…in any form?"

"It matters not what people say." Aro lifted his head arrogantly. "They are what I say they are."

"But should it get out, should someone object…" Caius persisted. "Aro, it's sheer insanity to take the chance! We must rid ourselves of them now, before this goes any further."

"Do you object Caius?" Aro said, and his soft voice was so menacing that I instinctively took a step back. "Are you questioning my decision here? You know what Philippe has seen, and what it might mean. Indeed, almost immediately after they were changed there was a moment…" His eyes slid across to me for a moment, and he went silent.

"I say we should be very, very wary. Our position is strong, but there are still those who would look for an excuse to defy us," Caius said shortly. "I don't feel it's wise to hand them that excuse as a gift."

Aro shook his head irritably. "Nonsense Caius. You are seeing what isn't there. Yes, they're small, but they are not as young as they may appear. You know that humans don't grow when they have insufficient food, and these two were living no better than animals. They'll be quite different once the dirt has been scraped away and the vermin removed from that disgusting nest of hair and they've been dressed appropriately."

I glared at him. We hadn't exactly been living in conditions anything like that castle of course, but we had done what we could! "We took care of ourselves perfectly well!" I snapped.

The three vampires looked at me, as though they were surprised to see me there listening to their arguments and even more astonished that I had dared to speak.

"And I'm not a child," I added, made braver by the fact that none of them had made any move to hit me for speaking out of turn. "We're thirteen."

Caius narrowed his eyes at me, and the other one, Marcus I supposed, gave a faint smile.

"The girl is bold enough Aro, I'll grant her that."

"Quite the little wildcat," Aro said happily. "I'm very, very sure she's going to be an asset Marcus. Now, since we're all agreed…"

"I've agreed to nothing!" Caius hissed. "I insist we discuss this further!"

"Caius, my dear friend," Aro began conciliatorily. "Of course you have concerns, and you know how much I value your opinions and your determination to keep us strong! But these two are not the threat you perceive them to be. In fact, quite the opposite…if Philippe's instinct proves true, they may become extremely valuable."

I glanced across at Alec. What were they going on about? What were we doing here? It was grand and beautiful and Aro had made promises, but we had always taken care of ourselves perfectly well. At least, we had until the end, when the villagers had come with their weapons and their fire…but it was different now. We were vampires, with unparalleled strength and power. We didn't need them.

I swept my cloak around me, as haughtily as I could manage, although it wasn't very successful given the ridiculous length of it. "It doesn't matter what any of you say anyway," I said. "Alec and I are going. We've changed out minds…we don't need you."

Aro looked flabbergasted. "Excuse me?"

"We're going. I didn't come here to be insulted and threatened." I took Alec's hand and turned to the tunnel entrance.

"See, you don't even have control over them!" Caius was incensed. "Where is the respect and obedience that we of the Volturi require?"

"They simply don't understand the honour and privilege of their new place," Aro snapped. "Once they meet Chelsea the adjustment will be easier. Perhaps instead of all this endless arguing you could do something useful and fetch her? Jane and Alec, stop this nonsense at once. Of course you're not leaving."

I glared at him over my shoulder. "You said we could leave if we didn't like it here. I don't like it here."

"You'll not be leaving," Caius said flatly, meeting my eyes for the first time, the loathing clear. "You either remain with us, as Aro wishes, or we make an end to you. You've already experienced one pyre…perhaps you'd like another one."

"No!" Alec gripped my hand convulsively, and I felt the fear and anger stir.

"Don't worry," I whispered to him. "They won't hurt us…we'll run, and this time no one will catch us."

Foolish optimism! I would learn in time that things nearly always went Aro's way, and right then he wanted us to stay in Volterra. Only two steps away from the tunnel entrance I had barely reached it when I crashed against the broad stone chest of Philippe, who had come through the tunnel behind us. He caught me in his strong arms, and grinned down at me.

"Where are you going in such a hurry, wildcat?"

"Let me go!"

Laughing, Philippe dropped his arms, but even then I couldn't run. Because behind me Aro had Alec in his grip, his arm tight across my brother's neck, and I could never leave him.

"Jane. You will stop and do as you're told, or I will tear his head from his neck," Aro said dispassionately.

For a moment I froze but, just as it had back in the village manor house, my anger and hatred rose up in a white-hot flame of power that seemed to explode outward from my head, sending me reeling. Even as I staggered back I heard the screaming, Aro, Caius, Philippe, Marcus, even Alec…oh my brother, I'm sorry!

There was no time to mend matters, not then. Because right then I felt something creeping up on me, a darkness that stole the voice from my throat and the sight from eyes and all feeling from my body. A darkness that left me nothing but terror, a horrifying blankness, a nothingness that could only mean death…

Alec!

I don't know if I screamed his name aloud. I don't know if he heard it even if I did. But the nothingness vanished as quickly as it had come, and I was back in the great hall of Volterra, staring with terrified eyes at five other vampires who all seemed as uncertain and afraid as I was.

Behind me, Philippe cuffed the back of my head. "It's you doing that, isn't it wildcat?" He smiled at Aro triumphantly. "I saw it true this time my Lord, did I not?"

"She did that?" Caius' gaze seemed to pierce right through me. "You caused that pain? That nothingness?"

I shook my head, still half frightened. "I…not the nothingness. I felt that." I shuddered. "The other though…I don't know." I looked at Alec helplessly.

"I'm sure you understand why I could not see them die," Aro interjected. "Philippe saw the potential, and now we are beginning to see it realised." His eyes gleamed brilliantly as he smiled at me. "I believed you would be special, sweetling. Both of you." With Alec's neck still held in his death-grip, he stroked his face with his other hand. "That nothingness as a counterpoint to the pain…it's more perfect than I could have imagined! Such a marvellous, wondrous gift! And that's why you can't leave, not just yet…you must let us help you discover your powers and learn to control them."

I hesitated. I didn't want to stay, but feeling that hideous sense of nothing, of being anchored nowhere and hardly existing at all…my brother had done that?

"You did that to me?" I whispered to Alec, ignoring the other red eyes that watched us so curiously. I stepped closer to him, reaching out to touch his hand. "You made it so dark?"

"I don't know," Alec blinked fast. "It all hurt so terribly, and everyone was arguing so much that I couldn't think, and I wanted it all to just go away."

I thought about how it had been for me, about feeling all that rage and hatred and wanting to avenge myself on those who had made me feel it, and that energy like fire flowing through my veins. And then it had been flung out of me and they had all screamed…

"I made you hurt," I said slowly. "I made you all hurt."

"Dreadfully!" Aro said with a beaming smile. "Absolutely excruciating, sweetling! And you did it deliberately? You felt it?"

"I felt it happen," I said, half unwillingly. "But I don't know how I did it."

"You say that like it's a good thing?" Caius questioned Aro, although he spoke softly and didn't look at me. "You think what she can do is marvellous? You do realise the threat this poses?"

"Indeed I do." Aro clapped his hands. "Imagine how our enemies will cower. It's a delightful thought, is it not? Marcus?"

Marcus shrugged. "I see where it might be useful. The lack of control concerns me though. And the girl, at least, is not so tractable."

Aro waved his free hand dismissively. "Details, details. All will be worked out in due course! I'm sure once dear Jane makes friends with our Chelsea she will feel quite differently about spending some time here in Volterra with us! And of course one would expect some initial difficulties with managing such incredible talents, but I have no doubts that all things may be solved in time." He looked at Caius. "You must agree with Marcus and I…surely you can see the potential for us all? We are building something extraordinary here and these two, with their gifts, must be part of it."

After a long beat of silence, Caius nodded.

"Splendid! I knew you would see it the way I do. First things first though. We cannot possibly begin our work together whilst they are so appallingly filthy. Really Caius, you cannot even begin to imagine the hovel that passed for a manor house that I was forced to spend the last few days in!" Aro shook his head and sniffed distastefully at Alec's hair, which was just below his chin as he held my brother against him. "They both must be bathed and given some appropriate clothing. Philippe, you can show this young man to the bathhouse and see to his needs, and I shall take my sweetling upstairs to the tower."

"We'll go together," I said quickly. I didn't want to lose my brother in this castle. I had no idea how big it was, and how I would go about finding him.

Aro laughed. "Oh no, my dear, that wouldn't do at all! Alec will go with Philippe, and you will be assisted by my lovely wife Sulpicia. She'll be delighted to meet you, and I'm sure she'll find you a gown and do something with your…hair."

He stroked his own, flawlessly smooth hair and I scowled. So my hair was a little big tangled. Maybe even choked with mats and little bits of sticks and leaves and maybe some fleas, but I'd like to see him do better if he didn't even have a comb.

"You can both enjoy your baths," Aro continued blithely. "And then once that's done we will be able to show you around Volterra and introduce you. There is so much to see here! You will enjoy it all, but first, do as you're asked."

Almost without me noticing, Alec had been transferred from Aro's grip to Philippe's arms. Being bigger than Aro, all Philippe had to do was wrap a huge hand around the back of his neck and squeeze a little for me to understand the implicit threat. That was why we were being separated. As long as we each behaved, we would see each other again. If not…

I nodded to Aro. "A bath. Fine."

"Follow me then, sweetling." Over his shoulder, as we walked away, he called out to Marcus and Caius, "Find Chelsea. Have her sent upstairs immediately."