Chapter 16 – Gifts of Pain and Darkness

Aro led Alec and I to the library. It was smaller than the main hall, but like everything else I had seen in Volterra it took my breath away with its magnificence. There were shelves filled with books and scrolls, desks covered with more of the same, peculiar artworks on the walls and all kind of statues and other objects on shelves and cabinets and tables. Alec and I looked around with interest.

"I assume you don't read?" Aro said, as I opened one of the books and leafed cautiously through the pages. He sighed and shook his head as he turned the book around in front of me. "This way, sweetling. This way up, and you read from left to right…from here to here," he clarified.

I felt stupid, but I couldn't resist touching the parchment, covered with rows of intricate little marks. The book was bound with leather, and I wondered what it said. Alec leaned over my shoulder, examining it closely.

"You said you might teach us to read it," Alec said timidly to Aro.

I was surprised at the note of longing in his voice, and looked quickly at Aro, waiting for his displeasure. Reading wasn't for such as Alec and I, and I hoped that Aro wouldn't be cross with my brother for daring to think about it. But much to my surprise Aro was smiling at him fondly.

"Of course I will," he said sincerely. "I like to think of the Volturi as a storehouse of the world's knowledge, and what you see here in the library is only a fraction of our collection. I would be delighted if you would like to learn and then avail yourself of all that we have. We will teach you to write too, and there is always work in the library copying over old manuscripts that are beginning to decay."

Alec moved to one of the strange artworks on the wall. "What's this?"

"It's a map. An old one, from the days of the Roman Empire." Aro went over to the picture and touched his finger to it. "This is where we are, Volterra." He saw the confusion on my face and chuckled, but there was no malice in it. He didn't seem to mind explaining. "This map shows an outline of the landforms, as though we were high above it and looking down. You see the coastlines, and the country borders marked in. I took you from your village, which was here…and then we ran to the ocean and sailed across it here. Then we ran through this area until we came to Volterra."

I stared at the map, my mind reeling. All that ocean…I had thought it looked so endless when we were on the boat, but it was a tiny distance, hardly anything at all on the map! And so much land, so many kingdoms and countries… "It's so big," I whispered.

"Bigger than even that. The world is only half discovered sweetling, and there will be so much more than that. I have friends who have travelled well beyond the borders of my Roman map and have brought me tales of all kinds of wonders that the humans here have never even dreamed of," Aro smiled. "Perhaps one day you will see."

I didn't answer. My keen nose had caught the scent of humans, and although I was not thirsty I couldn't help but turn towards it, breathing deeply. A few moments later Caius came through the door, two humans trailing behind him. I frowned as I took them in. They were both fairly young men, bare legged and bearded and wearing short woollen tunics. I realised that only days ago I had been one of them, but compared to the strong, stone beauty of the vampires around me these humans were a completely different species, and a weak and unimpressive species at that.

"You can practise on these," Caius told us, carelessly prodding the two towards us.

I looked uncertainly at Alec. "I don't know what to do. It happened when I was so angry…I'm not sure how to make it happen."

Alec frowned. "The first time I did it I just wanted everything to go away so that it didn't hurt. Then the last time…I sort of felt it in my head? It was like I was pushing it out at you with my mind. Like it was a real thing, a sort of mist."

"Well, try then," Aro encouraged.

Alec furrowed his brow, and a moment later one of the humans suddenly went rigid, his eyes wide with fear.

"Very nice," Aro murmured.

It lasted for a few minutes, and then the human suddenly shook himself and backed away, looking terrified. "Please, no."

"Hush," Aro said impatiently. "Alec, tell us. Did it require much effort to do? To maintain?"

Alec shook his head, looking surprised. "No. It's as easy as moving my hands. It took focus to maintain it, but it wasn't difficult."

"And you?" Aro demanded of the human. "What was it like?"

"Please don't do it again," the man whispered, his eyes wide and fearful. "It was like nothing- I could neither see nor hear nor move."

"Extend it to both of them," Caius ordered.

With no apparent effort Alec soon had both of them standing frozen, eyes wide. Only their rapid breathing and occasional twitch of skin showed them as still alive.

"Imagine how useful this will be, Caius," Aro murmured. "What better way to subdue an unruly group than to simply remove all their senses from them? How much simpler to deal with they would be!"

"I'm more interested in the girl," Caius said, his piercing red eyes on me. "If she can control it and deliver that kind of pain at will, we'll never have trouble getting a confession again. As a means of punishment it would be unparalleled." He smiled coldly.

Alec released his hold over the humans and looked towards me. "Your turn. If it helps, all I did was focus on one and gather my thoughts, then pictured it as a dark mist going out of me. Perhaps it will be something similar for you."

I tried to do what Alec said, but nothing happened. I tried again, feeling my frustration rise. I wasn't used to Alec doing things better than me, but he clearly had a good grasp on his new abilities already, while I was floundering. It wasn't until I started feeling anger curl in my belly that I realised that what I wanted to do was different to what Alec was doing. Hurting people like that wasn't a mist, it wasn't slow and horrifying…it was fast and hard and brutal, and as soon as I felt the power coalesce in my mind I hurled it like a weapon straight at the human in front of me.

His scream was so loud it could have been heard in the wives' tower. He fell to the ground, his mouth open and his back arched, his limbs jerking and kicking in fruitless agony. For a minute I watched, and then I blinked and relaxed and as suddenly as it started it stopped.

Now that I'd done it once consciously, it felt like I'd always been able to deliver that pain. It took barely any effort to give that pain to the other human, and listening to him scream I felt a tiny shiver of satisfaction.

I did that. I can hurt anyone I want to, I can make them scream…they will never hurt me again, or I will make them sorry.

"My dear ones, you're doing splendidly!" Aro said happily. "Philippe will be so pleased. He was the one who found you, you know…he can see when humans have that little extra something that may manifest as a talent in a vampire. He found you two years ago and we've been watching all this while. I was so curious as to how you would turn out, but this is more than I dared hope for!"

"I can't do it to both of them," I said with a frown, trying once again to share the pain between them. "I hurt everyone before, but when I'm doing it on purpose it only ever goes to one." One of the humans was howling, but beside him the other one only huddled into himself and shook.

Alec watched. "Perhaps it will happen with practice?" he suggested.

My tongue caught between my teeth in concentration, I tried again. This time I concentrated on what it felt like to me, and I realised that this talent was not that of a fist, hitting hard and broad. It was as sharp as steel, driving a narrow pinpoint of pain deep into their mind.

"I'm not really hurting them," I said in surprise, turning to Aro and Caius.

"I would have to disagree," Caius said with a sardonic smile.

"No, I'm not. Not physically…it's hard to explain. Somehow I just make them think they're feeling all that pain. And it's such a narrow focus that I can only do it to one at a time." I rubbed my face a little wearily. "It was different when it was happening accidentally."

"It's marvellous either way," Aro said cheerfully. "Now, perhaps you'd like to stop? I have matters that need my attention, and you two would be welcome to explore our castle. It's very extensive, much more so than it would appear from the town. We have built quite far down."

"Those humans," Caius said, looking at them in distaste. "Do you want them? Otherwise I'll take them back."

The mental effort of what we'd been doing had left me ravenous. Alec clearly felt the same. "Yes!" we said in unison.

"Well, they're all yours," Aro said benevolently. "NOT in the library!" he shrieked, horrified, as we both moved towards the humans who were cowering against the wall.

"Only in the main hall," Caius said sternly. "That is the only place within the castle you are permitted to feed. We may be vampires, but we are certainly not savages. Feeding takes place in the main hall and you dispose of the remains there."

"I'll remember." The humans didn't want a thing to do with Alec and I, but there was nowhere for them to run. The first one was resigned to whatever fate we had in store for him and numbly followed Alec out of the library, but the second one was less compliant. Irritably I grabbed his arm, only to hear the bone snap and the man scream again.

"Oh sweetling, soft hands!" Aro chided gently. "Remember how strong you are!"

"But I'm going to eat him," I pointed out reasonably, ignoring the man's terrified whimpers.

"So you are. However, there is no need for excessive cruelty," Aro said solemnly. Caius snorted, and Aro flashed him a brief look of annoyance. "Besides, you must learn to control your strength. I have many precious antiquities and curios here in my castle, and I'll be most upset if your carelessness leads to breakages! So remember, keep your touch light at all times."

I led my helpless captive back into the main hall. He saw what Alec was doing to his companion, but before full understanding could dawn I pulled him down to his knees and went for his throat.

"What do we do with them?" Alec asked me when he was done. He pushed the corpse a little away from him and sat, leaning back on his hands and watching me as I finished.

Wiping my mouth I shrugged. "I don't know. We'll have to ask."

"Throw them down there."

It was Felix, strolling across the hall, who pointed to a heavy grate in the floor. I looked at him suspiciously, and he gave me a disarming smile.

"We have a furnace for burning the bodies. Aro has been experimenting with chemicals to find a less obvious way of getting rid of the bodies, but he hasn't found anything to work yet." He lifted the grate as though it was made of matchsticks. "Go on, get rid of them."

I kicked the body towards the hole, listening to the long silence before I finally heard the thud of it landing. "Why are you being nice to me?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well, I'd rather be on your side than against you!" he admitted cheerfully. "Truce?"

Alec laughed and elbowed me affectionately. "I don't think anyone wants to go against you now!" The body of the human he'd just drained slid out of sight and Felix replaced the grate.

"I'm not the only one who can do horrible things," I said to Alec, although I was secretly pleased at the idea that I commanded respect here.

"What can you do?" Felix asked my brother curiously.

Alec hesitated. "I could show you. It doesn't hurt."

Felix grimaced. "Okay then….Holy hell, you two are frightening!" He shuddered as Alec released him from the hell he had caught him in and shook his head. "As I said, better to be with you than against you. Truce?"

I considered for a moment and then nodded. It made no sense to have enemies within the group. Aro had spoken of harmony, and I didn't want to disappoint him.

"Can the other vampires do things like that?" Alec asked.

"Philippe can somehow see humans that might make good vampires, like you two. He told Aro about finding you years ago. Corin makes you happy when you're around her. Willamar is a tracker- he has some kind of extra sense that makes him better than anyone else at tracking prey or other vampires. And Chelsea does something like Corin I think, but that's all a bit vague." Felix shrugged. "And Lord Aro of course, who can see everything."

And now me and Alec, I thought silently, with our gifts of pain and darkness to add to the Volturi arsenal. We would be part of the special few, we would be important and our place here would be assured.

I've made the other vampires unaware of Chelsea's gift of making them loyal to Aro. I think that knowing they were being manipulated wouldn't be a good thing for group harmony, even if they couldn't go against the supernatural bond. I liked the idea that Aro has a lot of schemes and machinations going on behind the scenes! Even Jane and Alec are one of his schemes- Marcus and Caius were aware of the children they were watching, and Philippe too of course, but no one else knew about it.

I'm sorry for the long gap in updates too…I know it's really NOT like me at all! But I'm finding this one kind of hard to write. Jane's not really a comfortable character to have living in my head while I write! So, I don't know…does it suck? Am I finding it hard to write because I don't like the character, because I'd rather be writing something else, or because this is just a sad pile of crap? I'd love some feedback here, if anyone has a moment!