'I wonder what was going through that vampires head,' Jane said as we wondered through the castle a few days later. 'Everyone knows you don't hunt in Volturi.'

'He was young,' I disagreed, pausing to gaze up at a picture of my mother, 'he may not have known.'

It was silent for a while as I continued looking up at the portrait, I could feel Jane hovering behind me but I had the feeling that she was looking up at her last mistress instead of boring her eyes into my head.

The portrait had been painted when my mother was human, of course all the pictures of her were since she died before my father could change her into a vampire, so her eyes were a pretty green and her skin a pale, creamy colour despite the fact the she had lived in Italy for the majority of her life. The portrait was smiling faintly down at us from its large frame. Looking at her always seemed to send a wave of calmness over me.

'You've done her proud, Iz, never doubt that,' Jane spoke a few seconds later, taking my hand

I smiled at her turning away from one of the few pictures of my mother and continued walking down the corridor, swinging our hands between us.

'What are we going to do about the Romanians?' she asked. 'Do you think they're coming to fight us?'

'If they are they're suicidal,' I rolled my eyes: I was very confident in the guards' ability to protect the castle and my family's position in the vampire world. 'However, Father's got some of the guard keeping an extremely close eye on their movements.'

'So that's where Phoebe, George and Danten have disappeared of to,' Jane smiled as I nodded.

Phoebe and George were two guards which were rather new in the Volturi but had gained a reasonably high status within it already due to their gifts: Phoebe had a planning power which allowed her plans to nearly always work while George had a repulsive magnetism that caused people to naturally gravitate away from him and not look at him, or any one near him, very clear – his blood younger sister, Harriet who was also part of the guard, had the opposite: an appealing magnetism.

Danten, however, was rather well know and had been in the guard centuries, although he came and went as he pleased. He had the special ability of power augmentation which allowed him to weaken or strength a power for as long as he focused on that one target. It was an interesting one but a scary one that allowed him to hold his high place in the guard.

'I was rather surprised Phoebe went with them, actually,' I admitted to Jane. 'You know the procedure is usually a sit down with her before leaving.'

'It is odd,' Jane agreed, 'but I suppose they might be more planning needed as they find out more information.'

'That's my theory too,' I nodded as Jane paused at a window to look at.

'They're at it again,' she said and even with her back to me I knew she was rolling her eyes.

Picking up my long, delicate skirt, I stepped onto the little stone step by the window to peer down into the large, walled courtyard where, unsurprisingly, I saw my fiancée and his best mate, Demetri, fighting once again.

'It's like they don't like each other,' I chuckled, watching as Alec dodged his friend at the last minute before attacking himself from behind. The actions of these two friends causing me to shake my head.

'Idiots,' Jane laughed, as the two boys straightened up and looked towards us as though sensing or presence since we knew they wouldn't be able to hear us at the distance.

Demetri saw us first and nudged Alec before pointing him to us. Alec grinned up at us and they both waved slightly. Jane returned it with one of her own cheerful ones while I blew Alec a kiss and waved before we stepped away from the window to continue our slow meander around the castles wide halls.

'What about Victoria?' Jane hissed the name in hatred after a few minutes. 'I remember her from trying to destroy her coven, she's good at escaping.'

'Nothing more has been decided,' I sighed agitatedly, Jane knew how frustrated I was at being followed constantly: only she, Alec and Demetri – he was so close to Alec that, when we became engaged, he was welcomed to the main family as much as Alec and Jane were - walked beside me so they tried to make sure that, as often as possible, it was them watching me instead of other members of the guard who guarding gave me the creepy feeling of being watch and followed … which was practically what they were doing except I knew they were there.

'What are we waiting for?' Jane sighed heavily, with a worried and annoyed frowning marring her beautiful face. 'She's a threat to you, I thought your father would have her killed on the spot.'

I laughed slightly knowing that my father would happily remove anything that was of the slightest danger to me, 'it went through his head I'm sure. However … she has this power, that's like enhanced self-preservation – Heidi was saying about it before you came in - we need to wait until she chooses to attack rather than make the decision ourselves. It's the easiest and safest way.'

'I heard Heidi; which is why I went and asked her more about Victoria's power and her past,' Jane beamed at me, looking like a little girl looking for praise from her parents. 'Heidi was a bit reluctant about betraying her trust but she's far more loyal to you than Victoria.'

'Jane, you're amazing!' I grinned back her taking the papers she was holding out to me and quickly scanned the first page which was about Victoria's power.

'Her ability works by sensing when her life was in danger, how to evade an enemy's approach and where to run in order to get away,' Jane recited as I read through some of the other sheets of paper which were covered in Jane's quick handwriting.

'Have you shown this to my father?' I asked, nodding along to what she said. 'If we know how her power works then we can remove this problem quicker and focus all our efforts on the Romanians.'

I was almost giddy at the thought of not being followed and of freeing myself from Victoria once and for all. It was also the fact that I just knew the Romanians were planning something big, something that may cause disaster in my home and for my family.

Before Jane could say anything in reply to my words Leanne, a low member of the guard skidded to a stop in front of us, her long wavy dark brown hair flying crazily around her before settling on her shoulders.

'Leanne!' I yelped in surprise at her sudden appearance as Jane's eyebrows rose in shock.

Although, Leanne didn't have what would be descried as a special ability, she was the fastest vampire in the castle and never made a single noise, making her perfect for tracking because no vampire or human could ever hear her.

'Sorry, Principessa, Jane' Leanne smiled gently over at me and my sister-in-law-to-be. 'I have urgent news. I was following Victoria -'

'What?' I interrupted sharply. 'Why?'

'Because your Uncle Marcus asked me to,' Leanne said unsurprised I knew nothing about this. 'He didn't want anyone else to know but now he's told me to inform you of this information.'

'What information?' Jane questioned.

'It seems Victoria is in league with the Romanians,' she informed us softly, glancing around. 'I saw her talking with Vladimir and Stefan, planning it seemed. I heard the word "Volturi". You're right, Principessa, they're coming for us.'

'I think Victoria just became a larger threat,' Jane said darkly but I ignored her.

'Keep following her,' I ordered Leanne, 'try find out what they're planning and tell Demetri to track her as well, work together: we don't want to let her escape.'

'Should we bring her in, your majesty?'

'No, we can't let her or the Romanians know we know of their involvement or even that they're planning something,' I spoke with authority, knowing without a doubt that my father and uncles would give the same orders to the guard on the matter. 'Keep everything as low as possible, don't even let all the guards know.'

Leanne nodded in understanding before speeding off, no doubt to inform Demetri.

'We better go tell the masters,' Jane rolled her eyes, pulling none too gently down the corridor with our, still linked, hands.

Argh, my chapters seem to be getting shorter but I think this chapters is actually finished. I hope you like it, please review x