You are very lucky, my young readers (except most of you are probably older than I am). There were two chapters lined up for me to write before this one, but - alas! - I could not find my copy of New Moon, and sadly could not write them. So, you get this much earlier than planned. I think you'll like it. I certainly do. Things are certainly heating up! This is from Caius' point of view. *shock* *gasp*
A knock came at the door. I broke away from Athenodora. "What is it?" I snapped, irritated at the interruption.
Georg, some lesser member of the guard, pushed open the door and slid into the room.
"Master, Aro calls council," he announced softly, eyes respectfully downcast.
I ignored him, turned to my wife. "Dora, stay," I whispered. "I'll be back soon." She agreed, of course.
It was the middle of the night. We had decided long ago that nights would be completely private, except of course for supreme emergencies.
I was not terribly irritated; Athenodora would be waiting and ready for me when I finished with Aro's meeting. As I left, I gestured Georg, and he left just as quietly as he'd come in my wake.
I reached the main chamber, lit just as brightly as it was in the middle of the day, to find Marcus – of course – sitting on his throne waiting. He rarely left it, calling for servants or guard members to bring him books or paper or simply slouching silently for hours or even days. He graced his personal rooms so infrequently that newer servants didn't even know where they were. After Didyme, he'd decreed that no one was ever to enter his bedroom again, and so it had lain deserted for a thousand years.
Aro perched on the second throne, Sulpicia standing behind him.
"Aro, what's this?" I asked. "Georg informed me you called council, not a mere meeting – although both of which I'm sure could wait for the morning."
"Don't anger so quickly! I was merely waiting for you to arrive, Caius!" He gestured to Sulpicia, and she quickly retired.
The chamber was now completely deserted, except for Renata standing unobtrusively in a corner. Aro's ridiculous order that she remain near him at all times meant that she often overheard words no one else was privy to. It gave her much power with very little holding her to Aro. If she wished, she could inflict much damage on us. It would be difficult, of course, what with Aro's mindreading – I knew he put it good use combing her thoughts every evening to ensure her loyalty – but I thought it was far too great a risk to take just to satisfy Aro's paranoia. It wasn't entirely unwarranted, I supposed – the thought had crossed my mind more than once that without Aro's silly yet shrewd ways and all of his ulterior motives, the coven would be better off.
Of course, it was thoughts like that that only secured his conviction that he needed Renata, but it was his insistence about Renata that led me to thoughts like that.
The problem was that with Renata, Aro put Marcus and me at a disadvantage by forcing us to trust him while he had a bodyguard to protect him from us. Although Marcus probably didn't care as much as I did - he rarely did anything anymore. Arranging a murder would make him far more involved that he wished to be.
What it boiled down to was that the ties binding us together were not so solid as others probably thought. My indifference towards Aro bordered on dislike, and I was sure he felt the same towards me. Marcus had long ago stopped having much weight in our trio, ever since Didyme – which I was sure Aro had planned on.
I knew that Aro would have done something equally as crippling to me as he'd done to Marcus – it would make him the virtual dictator of the vampire world with two leaders who simply didn't care anymore - but I had nothing that would scar me eternally and render me as lonely and impassive as my brother. The loss of Athenodora would be sad, perhaps even devastating to me, but only because of how long she'd been at my side, silent, obedient, and beautiful. Our relationship was not one tenth of what Marcus' had been.
If Aro had wanted to kill Athenodora, he would gain nothing from it but suspicion from the guard. He'd been able to pass off Didyme's death as an accident, but if he tried to pull that trick again, at least a few of the guard would draw their own conclusions, and their loyalty would begin to waver.
At least, that was what I had gambled on.
"So what is it?" I demanded finally, after a few seconds silence. We were gathered as he'd requested. Making us – or rather me, as Marcus would sit here in silence for a hundred years before he asked anything – ask him why he called his own meeting was just another of his silly tricks that I was starting to tire of.
" What's so important that you called council in the middle of the night?" I said again, after he waited another second or two.
"I have been thinking of the Cullens," he began calmly, ignoring my irritation.
I rolled my eyes, my temper firing up from simple frustration to real anger. "Yes, Aro, that is certainly urgent from where I stand, but as you do not agree with me and are determined to do things your own way, and insist on frittering away our time deliberating, it will soon cease to become urgent at all."
Aro merely calmly responded,"As I have told you many times before, acting in the way you advise will only create sparks that may land on hay and cause a fire. The vampire world accepts our rule only because we have provided fair and just judgment for two thousand years. The mindless slaughter of eight vampires – coincidentally the largest coven besides our own – will be a significant event that may not come out in our favor. To our friends, it may cause their loyalty to waver – which is dangerous but manageable, so long as no organized revolution comes of it. Far more dangerous is how it will appear to our enemies – as though we believe that the Cullens held a serious threat to our power. That may convince them to try something on their own, or – the most dangerous of all, they'll try and connect with others, both enemies and those who were once loyal alike. Killing the Cullens needlessly will cause nothing but trouble." He sounded as if he was explaining something very simple to a small child. I bristled.
"Killing them may be dangerous, but leaving them alone will almost certainly be more so!" I spat, remembering the angry Edward Cullen who'd come before us half a year before. He had been furious instead of grateful towards us for saving his human mate's life, a very generous act of mercy that still left me shivering with fury. He had viewed us as an enemy.
"Don't be so sure," Aro said, putting his hand over mine in what wasn't a gesture of comfort. I yanked my hand away, but of course it was too late.
After a moment, he continued, "Edward doesn't represent the whole coven, Caius. Carlisle is the leader, remember, and I am sure of Carlisle's allegiance, if only because he doesn't want a violent confrontation. They won't try to rebel against us on their own, even if they felt that was best, because they simply wouldn't be able to win, even with the extraordinary power their human will undoubtedly give them. Remember that they don't hold great weight in the world – they're viewed as odd, eccentric, and they're all very young – excepting Carlisle, of course. They'll have problems organizing anything, and because of that, if they try, we'll catch wind of it."
"They have no great love for us," I insisted.
Marcus interrupted us both. "No vampires do." He spoke so rarely that Aro and I both listened to him far more than we listened to each other.
"Marcus is right," Aro continued after a momentary pause. "The Cullens are dangerous only because they have such large numbers, not by their thoughts."
"Their numbers are great enough cause for worry," I insisted. "We wouldn't have to kill them needlessly. If their human was still alive, that would be reason enough. Even you couldn't insist that just the girl's life was forfeited – we gave them a chance, they made a vow, and we would be punishing their lie.
"Which is why we must leave now," I concluded trimuphanttly. They won't wait forever to change her, Aro! She was still alive when Jane visited them six months ago – she may still be alive now. However, she won't be alive forever – if we want a ready-made reason for exterminating them, we must act quickly."
Aro didn't answer. I glanced at his ancient face, and saw right away the reason he was hesitating.
"Damn it, Aro! Your obsession with Alice Cullen will be the death of the Volturi!"
"Think of what she could offer to us, Caius!" Aro breathed, staring at me with such intensity that I looked away. "If we could only convince her to join us, we truly would be invincible. And better yet, the Cullens would be split. You know her mate would never let her leave him – we could offer him a position as a servant, or possibly a member of the guard – he could be useful as a survivor of the Southern Wars. There would even be a chance that Edward or his human would decide to join us as well – both excellent additions. Think of all we could do, if only we convinced her!"
"She would be invaluable," I admitted, "but that is irrelevant. There is no way that she would join us, unless we had some leverage – took hostage her mate, for example."
"My violent friend," Aro said, "I'm sure there's a way we could voluntarily convince her – which is the reason that I called council."
"There is no way! You've become obsessed – I am sure you have been thinking of little else since you first met her and saw what she could do. If there was a way without coercing her, you would have thought of it, Aro. We must kill the Cullens. Alice and Edward – even his human – are collateral damage that is regrettable to lose but necessary. Better to secure our role for another thousand years than risk it over one vampire."
"But Caius – if we were able to secure Alice, our rule would be safe for who knew how many more millennia."
"And if we were to destroy every single vampire in the world except for ourselves, and blockaded ourselves into this room and forbade anyone to leave, our rule would be safe for quite literally forever. But that does not mean that is a move we should consider." I pointed out.
"Don't be tedious," Aro snapped impatiently. "The procuring of Alice is far simpler and realistic than that."
"Is it? Tell me more," I said sarcastically. I knew that he had no real plan, because he would have told me about it already if that was the case.
Aro smirked. "This is why I called the council, Caius. To think up a way to convince Alice to join us."
"That's hardly urgent," I pointed out. "If anything, she would be easier to convince five hundred years from now."
"Of course it's urgent," Aro said impatiently, "because, if morning breaks and we haven't thought up a solution, we will go forward and exterminate the Cullens while we still may have an easy excuse to do so. I will cast my vote the way you wish me to, and - assuming Marcus has no objections of course -" he glanced at Marcus, who didn't give any indication of whether he agreed or disagreed. This was typical, so Aro accepted it as a yes. "Then will we proceed with your plan.
I stared at him. He was willing to concede so easily – to give up the jewel he wanted so badly? There had to be something else. Perhaps he thought he could use this decision as leverage when some over matter came up that were equally pitted against each other about? Or perhaps his plan was to pretend to go along with our decision until we reached the Cullens, and then try and convince Alice with some idea he was sure he'd think up on the way. He might already have an idea that he didn't want to share it with me – because he knew I would disagree?
Maybe, and the most probable idea that he had was that he'd threaten to kill them all – unless she agreed to join the guard.
I touched his arm, and almost immediately he heard what I wanted him to. He glared at me. "Of course that's not what I was thinking." He was an excellent liar – one of the reasons he had been able to get away with Didyme's murder – but usually I could tell when he was, just because I'd known him for so long. One of the reasons I hadn't been fooled by the story he'd fed everyone else.
"I hope that you aren't lying, because – as I'm sure you've already realized but may have chose to disregard in your obsession – that would hardly seem just to the mob of almost-revolutionaries that you seem so convinced are just waiting for the slight tip of a scale to begin a full-fledged rebellion."
"Since your plan was not my intention, I hadn't thought of the consequences," Aro commented, but this time I knew he was lying, simply because it was an obvious solution and one of the first that came to mind when taking into regard what I wanted - killing the Cullens as soon as possible, and what he wanted - Alice.
"I will tell you of the consequences, then. If we told the Cullens they were to receive a death sentence unless one specific member joined the Volturi, one who – what a coincidence! – is extraordinarily gifted –"
"Ah,, but that happens all the time in the human world," Aro said patiently. "Is not a criminal allowed to go free in exchange for information? This is only slightly different."
"It would not settle well with other vampires who look to us for just and fair rule," I insisted.
"Then it is a good thing that your plan was never mine and it is only still of any importance because you insist we keep pointing out its flaws," Aro snapped coolly.
Since I was suitably cowed enough for him, he lapsed into silence. I did the same, deciding to humor him and pretend to think of ideas for the rest of the night if it meant getting what I wanted in the morning.
In the morning, much to my satisfaction and not to my surprise, Aro had not been able to think of a way to acquire Alice.
"Shall I call in the guard and inform them of our plan?" I said. "Who shall come?" I reveled in the picture of Edward Cullen and the others standing blind and deaf as we killed them, one by one.
I felt a slight twinge of regret at killing Carlisle – he had, after all, lived with us for several years. He reminded me of an eccentric, slightly mad cousin who you felt almost obligated to look after because they couldn't look out for themselves. Almost like Marcus – I'd felt oddly protective of Carlisle when he'd stayed here. But of course, he'd made his choice to stay with his coven, and to allow them to break the law. I knew, unlike Aro, that the law had no exceptions.
Before Aro could answer my triumphant question, Marcus broke in. "What will you do, Caius, if you find that the human girl has become a vampire? Will you make up a complaint against them just to satisfy your bloodthirsty hatred? You call Aro obsessed with Alice, but are you not just as obsessed with killing them? What fuels your hatred?"
I thought of Edward – shooting daggers with his eyes at us when he'd come. How empty he'd seemed, like Marcus – except Marcus had the strength to go on, to keep living even after a thousand years of torment. Chelsea's power was not so strong that he wouldn't be able to kill himself if he truly wished it. That made Edward weak, a character flaw I hated above all. How arrogant he'd been after he'd been reunited with his human!- another reason for my loathing. He seemed to forget that just because he tried to act like a human did not make him one. He lived worlds away from the way the humans did, and he had to answer to a whole different set of rules and guidelines – one that forbade him from falling in love with a human and then telling her what he was. Falling in love, or even getting to know one, was, quite frankly, irresponsible and weak-minded.
It was mostly that arrogant boy that set my temper flaring, but the whole coven was just too odd. Their choice to call themselves a "family", to drink the blood of animals when it so clearly went against the natural order of things – their oddness seemed almost dangerous, like a call to a higher moral standard that the rest of us should follow. Like a monastery of overbearing monks, with a holier-than-thou attitude.
"They're a threat," I finally said to Marcus. "They're large, and completely different from us – from the natural way things should be. They represent a danger, and that danger must be eliminated. And if the human has already been turned, we will simply say that we are following up on Jane's visit – when she hadn't been changed, although we had ordered she be immediately. Besides, if we scan the vicinity and make sure no other vampires are there, there's nothing stopping us from saying that she had still been a human."
"There's their liaison with the other coven, remember," Aro said. "We'll tell the truth, but hopefully it won't be necessary to fall on Caius' excuse."
Marcus sank back into impassivity.
"Renata!" I snapped, tired of the deliberation. "Fetch a servant to call the guard."
She nodded, and dropped her eyes, opening a side door to where the servants' quarters were. A second later, one of them went scurrying out of the hall.
"We will take Alec, of course," I said. "And Felix. Demetri must come, for when Alice sees our plan. They may try to run."
"Santiago, for another body to assist Felix," Aro put in. "I think that should be enough, when you consider us."
"Jane will be upset at being left behind," I said. "You know she has a vendetta against them because of that girl."
"Jane, too, then," Aro acquiesced easily.
The guard filed in, then, silently, and waited for us to begin speaking.
"We are to go on a mission," Aro said. "We are going to exterminate the Cullens. Felix, Demetri, Alec, Jane, and Santiago, you are to come with us. The rest will stay here. We will depart in two days' time."
So...*taps foot impatiently*...That was different, wasn't it? Please review and let me know what you thought.
And - just to let any of you who might be following Suicide as well - never fear, I have found my New Moon book and am halfway through a chapter as we speak.