Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Helping Heidi
My reflection laughed at me. The burgundy eyes taunting me with my failure. Three years and I still hadn't killed myself. The sun really did glisten on our skin like diamonds. Falling from the highest tower only dislocated my shoulder for five short seconds and got me a lecture from Heidi. My attempts to expose myself, in hopes that the Volturi would kill me for exposing our secrets, just got more humans killed. The first time I tried it I killed a little girl in my bloodlust. The second time, the Volturi took the family that had seen me in the sun and killed them instead of me. The third time I didn't like to think about.
Aro refused to let me die. I was too powerful to waste he would say. Aro had compiled a list of things for me to learn based on what he saw of my delusions from the asylum that I cannot remember. It was the most random list I think I had ever seen; telekinesis, transfiguration (which is apparently turning one thing into another), and with that the ability to turn into an animal (he had not said what kind), tracking, teleportation, mind reading and protecting, mind control, torture (like Jane), some sort of shield, and the ability to hurt, stun, immobilize, and kill with my mind.
I had been learning for three years and most of it seemed to come naturally to me. Moving things with my mind had become second nature. I could also create a force filed around myself to keep out physical and psychic (like Jane) attacks. Jumping from one place to another via teleportation was easy, but required vast amounts of energy. Most everything other than that I had to aim my hand and force a type of energy, that I could never put a name to, out of it. Most things required extremely precise aim, which was unfortunate considering the only indication that the energy was moving was a distortion in the air, like heat rising from a fire, coming out of my hand toward the intended target.
I could only turn a matchstick into a needle, but that was probably because I worked on transfiguration the least. I also hadn't figured out how to turn into an animal. I didn't even know how to figure out which animal I was supposed to become. I also couldn't figure out how to protect my mind. No matter what, whenever Aro touched me I could never keep him out. I also could never figure out how to torture like Jane did. I guess I just didn't want it enough.
The one thing I worked on everyday, that Aro was never happy with, was my ability to read minds. If I had eye to eye contact with a human or vampire I could pick up surface thoughts and random images from their past. Without it I would have to be within three yard of a person and concentrating with all my power on them, just to pick up the occasional surface thoughts. It had taken me three years to get to this point, but Aro was still unhappy.
But Aro was more than happy with the offensive ability, what I called my 'energy manipulation'. I could only control one person or vampires mind at a time, but once I had their mind I had total control of them. I could make vampire or human stop mid stride, stun them to unconsciousness, or kill them if they were unlucky enough to come into contact with that 'energy wave' as I liked to call it. That was my specialty, killing anything, vampire or human, with a thought and the flexing of my hand. If a vampire was lucky I would be the guard to kill them, with a silent and peaceful death. They didn't even need to burn the bodies when I killed them.
All this came at a price though. Every time I used one of my powers I would need to feed that much sooner. After three years I should have been able to go two weeks without feeding, but my training made it impossible to go more than a day. With every person I killed I hated myself more and more.
I looked forward to the day Aro deemed me 'in control' enough to leave the castle. Whenever I asked he would always say that I was too dangerous to be in the real world for an extended amount of time. I just think that it is his excuse for keeping me on the guard.
It was getting closer to midnight and a new day. The mirror was fogged up, from my latest attempt to clean every speck of blood from my person after my most recent feed, but I could see my burgundy eyes clearly. My reflection showed a man of 19 years, pale as paper, of average height, with hair crow black hanging to just below his shoulders that refused to lie flat. The other guards said that I hadn't changed much from the transformation, just the paler skin and burgundy eyes.
The clock tower struck 12 and it was the beginning of one of the worst days of the year for me. The celebration of St. Marcus was going to be today. With it would bring tons of tourist and a large 'feast' for our coven.
This year I would be going out with Heidi to 'hunt' down our 'food'. I had been begging Aro for a chance to prove that I had control and this was the job he gave me. Most likely he thought I would be too disgusted by the idea to accept, but I would do anything to get out of this place. Even if the idea did make me dry heave if I thought to long about it.
I had been training with Heidi for the last week and believed I was ready to face the humans. I dressed in the black silk button-down collard shit, that I borrowed from Afton, and the black leather pants Renata insisted on buying me. They accentuated my muscular legs and from what the girls said my 'nice ass'. It was all an attempt to make me even more irresistible to the unsuspecting hormonal young women. To complete the look I put in green contacts to hide the monster I had become, turning them into a dark unnatural blue.
Renata had been hinting that she would not mind being mated to me for about two years now. At first I thought it was an attempt by Aro to get me to stay and refused her offer without thinking about it. She had been relentless in her advances. Falling naked out of the bathroom 'accidentally' was not subtle at all. She seemed to be genuine and I had been thinking of giving into her if only to stop the flirting, but I knew I never could when I still intended to kill myself.
I had stood long enough admiring my clothes and contemplating my miserable life, so I made my way to the first floor where I would be meeting Heidi. Her power to draw humans to her like moths to a flame made her an excellent fisher. She dressed in a leather mini-skirt and low cut shirt. Her eyes were violet, indicating that she had put in blue contacts. Her long mahogany hair was let down and swayed with her every movement.
"Are you ready to get this done?" I asked. She nodded her head and we made our way to the public entrance. Heidi greeted the human at the front desk warmly, but all I felt for her was contempt. She was a fool to believe she would be changed after this as there was nothing special about her.
The gothic decorated entrance took us directly to a black bus. She would be driving as I had proved previously that nobody should trust me with a moving vehicle. I had crash three cars in as many months before the other guards realized I was not to be trusted with their cars. It was not my fault that the building appeared out of nowhere or the cliff was a lot taller than I had originally thought. The last one, I will admit, was all my fault. If I couldn't win the race nobody else would.
We made our way to the edge of Livorno to pick up victims as it was the closest place with cloud cover. We had been there an hour and had picked up more females than was normal, when Heidi did a double-take looking me in the eyes. She pulled my behind the bus with her hand firmly clamped on my shoulder.
"Why didn't you put in your second set of contacts yet?"
"What?" Was my intelligent reply.
"I did give you two sets of contacts right?" I nodded showing her that she was right.
"Well put in the second set now. Your first one has already dissolved and your eyes are turning red again." She had not told me about contacts dissolving, but it would make sense if our eyes were lubricated with venom rather than tears. And since she hadn't told me I had left the second pair back at the castle.
"You didn't bring your second set, did you?" she asked as if she had the ability to read my mind. I confirmed what she already knew and she let out a long suffering sigh.
"Well, run home. You're no use to me like this. You'll scare off customers."
It took about ten minutes to run home and into the safe cover of the castle. I refused to greet the receptionist, but the man standing next to her caught my attention. He was obviously a vampire with his scent and pale features. He had bronze hair, was an inch taller than me, and looked to be about 17 or 18. He caught my attention because I knew I had never seen him before and his eyes were topaz rather than burgundy.
I had never seen a vampire with eyes that color and didn't know of any contacts that could achieve that color. Looking into his eyes I saw a deep sadness even if it didn't show itself anywhere else. I could hear thoughts of 'Bella', but nothing concrete and it made me wish I could read minds better. His eyes seemed to widen at that, but I didn't have time to dwell on it as the receptionist was attempting to gain my attention again.
"Hello Harry, I hope the hunting went well," I didn't dignify that with a response. She had been here for a year and knew very well how much I hated 'feeding'. "Well, this is Edward and if you could show him to the meeting room? I believe he would like to speak with Aro."
Turning away from the waste of space I motioned for the odd eyed vampire to follow me. Maybe I would find out why his eyes were such a weird color because anything was better than what I had now.