Chapter 20 - Justice

"I believe that would be me."

A small, round man with gleaming red eyes and a bushy red beard appeared from behind a pillar. He wore only a breechclout and his body looked red with the blood that covered it. "And who might you be?"

"We are from the Volturi," Caius proclaimed. "We have come to pass sentence and deal out justice for your actions, which go against all of our laws. These outrageously obvious bloody massacres…are you seeking discovery?"

The blood soaked vampire actually yawned. "Oh yes, he told me about you. The one who made me. I assumed he was exaggerating…have you really come here to scold me?"

"We are here to do more than scold you," Caius said softly. "So much more."

"Do your worst," the vampire said with a shrug. "You are nothing to me, holed up in your tower and calling yourselves lords. I am my own master and…"

He said no more. I was incensed by his lack of respect and without waiting for Caius I had doled out my own form of judgement, the simple beauty of pure pain. He screamed, like they all did, a sound that echoed through the palace we were in, and his eyes went wide with horror.

"Thank you Jane, that's enough now," Caius said politely, and after an infinitesimal pause I let my power drop.

"You will see that we do not consider that you are your own master," Caius said, his voice as sharp as a whip. "Even for vampires, there are rules and we will not have any of our kind behaving as you have been. You risk exposing us all and that is intolerable." He glanced across at me and gave me a slight nod before he turned back to the vampire and demanded to know who had created him and let him loose.

I hurt him again. Only briefly, but the pain was white hot and when I released my grasp on his mind he freely told us his story.

His name was Hamid, and his creator had been a vampire named Beles. Beles had been hoping for a companion when he changed him, but had got a lot more than he bargained for. Hamid had awoken, slaughtered a village, listened to Beles instruct him in the rudiments of vampirism, and then torn him apart.

"I had no desire to be anyone's toy," he said flatly. "I'll bend my knee to no one, and that includes you Volturi."

"I don't suppose you will bend your knee," Caius said musingly. "But you could be made to. Felix? Appius?"

They struck like lightning. Hamid screamed, almost as loudly as he had when I hurt him, and when Felix and Appius stepped back and I could see him again, I gasped. They had torn his legs right off, each of them holding a limb triumphantly aloft.

Hamid was sprawled across the bloody floor and his eyes were bulging out of his head with shock.

"The Volturi does not take kindly to defiance," Caius said coldly. "Unfortunately for you, we also don't give second chances."

Felix and Appius struck again, and Hamid's shriek was cut short as his head was forcibly detached from his neck. It rolled across the floor towards me and I stepped hastily away from it.

Caius laughed mockingly. "It can't hurt you."

"Lord Aro said that we can be put back together."

Caius waved a hand dismissively. "Of course it can be done. Heads are difficult though. But that will be no issue here, because we of the Volturi believe in cleaning up after ourselves and the remains will be destroyed."

"My lord?" Felix lifted the head by the hair. "Shall we burn the human remains too?"

Caius looked distastefully at the mess of bodies. "In this stone building they won't burn, and we've spent enough time here as it is. Get rid of him and then we can leave."

Felix grinned, and he and Appius laughed as they struck a flint and watched the spark catch on Hamid's hair. The flames burst into life, and a thick, purple tinged smoke almost obscured my view of the flaming body of the vampire.

It didn't matter. The flame, the smoke…it all brought back the memory of my human death and I was frozen by a kind of terror that went bone deep.

"Jane? Jane…" It was Matilda, standing between Caius and I so that he could not see my face, bending close and speaking quietly. "Little one, are you upset? You know that we at the Volturi deal out justice for our own kind. This vampire…"

"It's not that," I interrupted with a gasp. "I don't care…he deserved it. But the fire…they burned me…"

Understanding dawned in Matilda's eyes. "Your human death?"

I nodded, and she gave me a quick and slightly awkward embrace. "I see. Caius?" She raised her voice a little and turned towards him. "Jane and I are thirsty. We'll meet you by the east gate before dawn."

Without waiting for an answer Matilda turned and flew from the palace, my hand in hers.

"Does Caius know that that is how you died?" she asked, as we slowed to a walk.

I shrugged. Outside the palace, with a star-studded sky arching overhead and the sweet smell of human blood drifting on the breeze, I was able to take a hole of myself. "He knows. I doubt he cares."

I knew Caius didn't care, and for a moment I was enraged with myself for letting him see that I still cared, very much.

"Willamar changed me," Matilda said absently, her walk turning into a prowl as she scented someone promising. "He was a lord when he was changed, and disappeared for years before he returned. Then strange things began happening, disappearances and deaths, and people who went to his castle and never returned. Such terror!" She laughed lightly. "They thought he could be appeased by a virgin sacrifice."

"That was you? The sacrifice?" I breathed, moving silently in her shadow. I had heard very few tales of how people came to be changed, and I was fascinated.

"Yes. All dressed up and bedecked with ribbons and flowers and laid out as a gift to his evil appetites." Matilda laughed merrily. "Fools! Indeed, he took their sacrifice, but he took a fancy to me at the same time and gave me the dark gift."

"Did you go to the village and kill them all?" I asked. "That's what I would have done…they'd as good as killed you themselves!"

Matilda looked at me speculatively for a moment, turning away from her hunt. "I killed some of them," she said quietly. "I killed those responsible, but I let the innocent live…I didn't kill the children. Children are different."

I didn't answer her. A particularly delicious scent had drifted past me and my attention had returned to hunting. Matilda said nothing more, but slipped silently beside me as we entered a dwelling, listening closely to the two heartbeats we could hear within.

Sated, we left for the east gate and were waiting there when the men returned. Willamar greeted Matilda with a kiss, and I tried to see him as the human lord he had once been. Once again I had the uneasy feeling that there was something that I was missing, as I thought about how he had changed her because he had wanted to be with her, and that they'd stayed together ever since. Still thinking, I turned my face towards Volterra and began to run.

We stopped at a slave market along the way home. It was daylight when the market was held, dangerously bright, and I made sure to keep my face well shadowed with my hood. Caius negotiated with the slavers and I saw the look of fear on their faces at the inescapable air of menace he exuded.

It was a heady experience for me, to be surrounded by so many humans penned into such a small space. The scent of blood and fear, the sound of thudding heartbeats made hasty with apprehension and misery, it all swirled around me hypnotically. Even though I had fed earlier, I felt the venom begin to run.

"Be careful little girl." Felix bent low and peered under my hood. "I can see that you're getting excited, but you'd best behave yourself."

"But it smells so good!" I was breathing in deeply and couldn't even be bothered to react to his patronising tone. "Imagine the havoc we could wreak here!"

Felix laughed wickedly. "I know...but patience Jane, patience! Cauis will buy extra for your outrageous appetite. You might be the smallest vampire in Volterra but you damn sure eat a lot!"

I couldn't help laughing, and I had to pull my sleeves more securely down over my hands. "I can wait then, but I hope it doesn't take too long."

"Caius isn't one to waste time," Felix assured me.

He was right. Whether because he offered a fair deal or because they were too frightened of him to attempt to haggle, Caius' negotiations were over almost as soon as they had begun, and he was then in possession of a large number of slaves, all chained or roped together.

The slavers used whips to move their slaves around, and were doubtful when Caius dismissed it as unnecessary. But he was right that whips and chains were unnecessary, not when there were vampires who never slept and had all the speed and strength in the world at their fingertips. Whips had nothing on the pain I was able to inflict without a word, and after one or two demonstrations the wretched humans simply followed us without a hint of resistance.

I was glad to get back to Volterra by the time we reached the church. Glad to be back home, as the dim tunnel opened to the splendour of the main hall. Our pace had been so much slower once we'd taken the human captives, and I had been longing to get back to the beauty and grace of Volterra. I didn't like being out there with the humans, with their endless tears and smells and screaming, and the unsettling memories of my own human life that they raised in me.

Once we reached the castle I left Caius organising the slaves and ran in search of Alec, finding him just around the first corner where he was already coming to greet me. A wide smile split his face, and for a moment the two of us grasped hands tightly and beamed at each other.

"Janey! I'm so glad you're back…I missed you!"

"Oh, me too! I wish you had been able to come with us and see all those marvels! It's not just here in Volterra you know, these castles and palaces that humans have built are in other places too and it's all so extraordinary. But the slaves they bought come from all kinds of places too, they're all colours and look so different and you can see them…"

"Good- I'm so thirsty!" Alec made a face. "We knew you would be back soon, so we've been waiting. Come along to the hall with me. Tell me about the vampire you found?" he added as we walked towards the main hall.

"He'd just been killing," I told him. "Not for drinking, just for…well, fun I suppose. We found him in a palace of prayer for their foreign gods, and the floor was a lake of blood because he didn't even drink them. He just took a swallow and then wasted the rest." The memory of all the spilled blood made my throat burn.

"What did they do to him?" Alec wanted to know.

"They destroyed him. He wasn't willing to accept Volturi laws, and he wasn't the least bit remorseful. Felix and Appius did it…I suppose that was why they came along really," I said, realising that it must have been why the big, brawny vampires had accompanied us. "Tore him apart and then set fire to him so he couldn't come back."

"Oh Janey…was that so hard to watch?"

I pulled away from the look of concern on his face, scowling in frustration. "Of course it wasn't! I'm fine! I don't care about him at all! Lord Aro knows what's best for the Volturi, and it's only to be expected that if you break the rules you will be punished. It was only that…only that I didn't like the fire." My voice faltered.

Alec laid an arm across my shoulder and squeezed lightly. "I wouldn't have liked it either," he admitted. "I don't like fire…even in the bathhouse or the tower of the lady wives, I don't like when they have a fire."

I looked at him, surprised that he was so freely admitting to this weakness that matched my own. If there was one thing I knew about life at Volterra it was that it did not do to show weakness if you could possibly help it.

"Maybe we'll talk about it later," he said, as we began to hear the noise of voices and the beat of many human hearts coming from the main hall. "Right now I'm thirsty, and I believe you've brought us back a feast." His eyes sparkled, and the two of us laughed as we raced each other back to the main hall.