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Chapter 39: Blood and Power

Vines climbed, clawing and scratching their way into the stone walls of the Volturi fortress. Their winding limbs gave me a strange sense of hope. If these plants could penetrate their defenses, then so could we. I stared up the wall trying to focus. With some difficulty, I pushed all of the mortal voices from my rapidly expanding mind and focused on the hideous beasts that lurked within the walls. The preternatural sounded different than the minds and words of humans. The echo off the walls was different, the vibrancy and detail of thought was so much more than most human minds could create. And on this particular night, the voices were ugly and evil. The darkness of the stone before me seemed to cast a unnaturally bright light on the darkness of the minds that lay within these walls. There was something eerie and sinister about this place, rooted deep in the false sense of power that the Volturi had embodied. The vibrations of Aro's voice rippled into my span of hearing. They whispered into the ear of another, "Let them suffer then," he leered cruelly. "If the Cullens chose to align themselves with darkness, then so be it, they will feel our wrath." Fury swept through me, how dare he threaten my family. A snarl escaped my lips.

David's hand fell on my shoulder. "Yes, I hear them as well, patience, young one. We have to get Marius out of there... The rest will happen in due time, patience," his voice soothed the burning lust for vengeance. Those disgusting creatures would suffer enough eventually. I needed to focus. I noticed that both Carlisle and my father were staring with worried looks upon their faces.

"She can hear Aro," my dad explained to Carlisle, "he seeks to destroy us for our allegiance with the ancient species."

"My friends, I am sorry to have caused your family this ill fortune-" David began.

"Enough," Carlisle said with a dismissing hand gesture, "we are more than capable of choosing our own friends. And at this point, we are more than grateful for your presence and friendship."My grandfather's gaze fell upon me before returning back to David's beautiful face, "Because of you, we may have the opportunity to save our family and for that, we will be eternally in your debt." Carlisle took a gracious bow. David's eyes softened and seemed to melt into kindness, itself. He only nodded with a proud smile.

"There is no debt, only bonds of kinship," David returned.

"We need to hurry," I piped in. My voice was still lowered and very growl-like as images of Aro tumbled through my mind, "We need to get in there." I moved to lift myself up the wall.

"Wait, Ness," my father said quietly, "we can't just charge in there."

"I quite agree with your father," David said calmly. His eyes closed and he rocked gently in his stance. The brilliance of his glowing eyes returned, "I can see the chamber where they are holding Marius, it lies at the eastern most side of the castle, facing the breaking point of dawn. It is surrounded by a series of twisting tunnels and sealed doors, but that will not be a problem. The chamber is in the middle of those three towers," he said pointing above. "They will be watching for intruders, but from what my mind's eye has seen and heard, they are unaware of our presence. The one called Cauis is causing quite a disturbance in the main hall. I believe his is certain of his wife's death at this point..."

My mind automatically honed in on the center of the building, and although I have never been inside, I had no problem locating Cauis through the use of other vampires minds. An image of the Vampire elder formed in my thoughts. His eyes screamed with a violent scarlet as the human sacrifices poured into the blood soaked room. As the doors flew open, he wasted no time and spared no shred of his rage. He abandoned all sense of ceremony and ripped through the throats of human after human, their blood spilling to join the blood of so many before them on the stone floor. The dark substance lapped, rippled and splashed with the panic of the humans frantically trying to escape their horrible fate. They screamed and cried, the surviving clinging together, hopelessly trying to defend themselves. A small child stood in the center of their fragile little circle. Her beautiful tear stained face wailed relentlessly. She sobbed into a small and very tattered stuffed rabbit, begging it to protect her to save her. The poor child cried endlessly for her mother that was now laying slaughtered, horribly disfigured on the other side of the room. Her wet eyes were wide with fear as she watched more and more of her defenders fall into the abyss of the swirling dark waters that were now staining her little white shoes a dark blackish red. Her golden straw hair was tainted with streaks of blood as it clung to her face and neck. Her baby blue dress was splattered with shards of blood of the innocent and gallant dying before her. My heart broke in her wake. Cauis' rage showed no sign of slowing as he tore through flesh, greedily consuming only swallowfuls of the blood before descending on his next victim. His horrible eyes were frightening. The child shook with fear, defenseless and innocent she awaited an untimely death showered with violence and hatred. My mind screamed in protest, the tears pulling angrily through, clouding my eyes and my judgment. Through her frightened shrieks and screams, all I could see were my own children. I could see their tiny bodies fighting for life. I imagined them standing before Cauis' bloody feast. I could not allow this death to occur. I could not witness this endless slaughter of children.

Raw emotion tore through me. The monster and I roared in unison as I catapulted my body to the top of the wall in a single bound. I crouched in a fierce attack stance, my chest heaving with the need to destroy, the need to save. The cries of the others beneath me fell empty on the wind. I was going into the chamber, I was going to tear Caius apart. I wanted to spill his blood making it join all of the humans that had gone before him in his fit of rage. He would suffer for his lack of respect for the innocent. He would suffer for his lack of compassion.

Compassion. The word struck me like bullet, tearing through my flesh. Was I not wanting to do the exact thing that Caius was doing himself at this very moment? He had lost his wife and he was tearing through throats and spilling blood to sustain his anger, to further the destruction, to make the loss not his own. I seethed with a rage that was no different than his. My chest heaved, the blood burned within me. The veil of red obscuring my vision lightened its ugly grip. Now the red that I saw was from tears, my own tears as they dropped like tiny rubies shattering on the wall beneath me.

The muffled sound of stone crumbling drew my attention, my senses snapped back into full awareness. My head spun around in haste, worrying that I had been discovered. I took a sharp breath, a dark fear pounded in my ears, my family. I had abandoned them. Guilt blackened the red in my mind. My rationale returned. With great pain, I shook away the image of the little sobbing angel in the baby blue dress.

The others had climbed to meet me on my perch. Their presence soothed me as they pulled in closer around me. "I saw it, too. It is too late for them, child," David said in a low whisper, draping his arm over my shoulder. Although he could not possibly know the exact emotions stabbing me, he did understand. His kind eyes held sympathy for the weak, they held value for human life. I stared blankly out into the night. The crescent moon hung above us, casting a sliver of light over the rocky structure that we sought to impale. I thought of my children, of Jake and my family. If I was going to save them, I needed to pull myself together. I wiped the tears from my cheek.

"How are we going to get inside?" I whispered. The silence held fast as the four of us sat motionless, waiting for some sort of answer to form.

"The skylight," Carlisle said. I saw the picture of what he imagined, pulling it from mine and Alice's shared visions. "The skylight, Marius is under a piece of the roof that pulls back in order for the sun to come through," he continued.

I turned to David, wishing I could read his thoughts, his eyes scanned the darkness of the compound. His finger extended, etching its away to a point on the eastern side of the castle, "It should be somewhere over there."

"Let's get over there," my father whispered, "But be careful, we can't be seen or they will surely attack, and I don't know that the four of us could fight all of them." His eyes fell on me as worry struck his expression. His mind yielded an image of me as a frightened little girl with white shoes and a baby blue dress clutching a stuffed animal. I smiled at his protective nature.

"Daddy, don't worry about me," I said kindly.

"She's quite right, Edward," David's voice broke in, "although she may not know it..." his voice trailed off, "she has a great gift and I am fairly certain that she has the power to destroy them all."

I stared at David, trying to pull any image from him, anything at all that would tell me of his meaning, but of coarse I hit the blood-given wall, smacking right into it for the hundredth time. A light flickered in the tower nearest us, we froze. I listened as I heard the rapt of footsteps, non-human footsteps clicking through the room. "Quick," Carlisle darted swiftly around to the other side of the tower, out of sight of the window. We all followed him, pressing our bodies into the stone surface and out of immediate view. I head a voice carry from inside, "Nothing, my lord," A stoic vampire said, void of emotion.

"Well see that it stays that way," Aro's sharp voice demanded.

"Yes, my lord," the sentinel replied respectfully, although I sensed a lack of allegiance in his thoughts. I smiled at this, even his own minions do not truly respect him. And then something horrible happened. Suddenly the immortals inside this ugly castle had faces, had souls and lives that may be worth preserving. The nameless enemy had just accomplished a great advantage. We could not allow the entire population to be destroyed-- some may be worth saving. I tried to shake the feeling from my mind, as if we didn't have enough to worry about. One thing at a time, I told myself. I filed the nameless sentinel into the same compartment of my mind as the blue dress little girl and her stuffed rabbit. There was no time, I needed to focus.

We crept along the edge of the castle, nearing the eastern side. I searched the wall for a crack or an opening, anything that may be a clue to how we could reach Marius. "Do you see anything, David?" my father asked.

We descended upon a flattened portion of the roof, "This has to be it," he said quietly, deep in thought, "But I don't see a seam." His shoes clicked lightly on the floor beneath him and the roof above Marius. Suddenly I heard the sound from another point of view.

"Nessie," the voice in my mind was weak, "you are here, and you have David with you." Relief and fear mixed in my thoughts.

"Marius!" I exclaimed, "I can hear him!"

"Oh thank heaven," David said with a heavy breath. "He's not responding to my call, I was beginning to fear the worst."
"I could not contact David in this state," Marius's voice whispered in my thoughts, "the others would hear me through him and surely attack. We have little time, they are going to let me out into the sun again. I don't know... I don't know if I can make it through another day." I could feel the pain sparking in his body. "I am badly burned from yesterday, I need blood."

"We have to hurry," I relayed to the others, "he needs blood."

David nodded, "Nessie, ask him if he knows how the chamber opens."

Before I could, Marius responded to David through me, "There is a lever just outside the chamber door," I said quickly. "But the hatch closes completely and is also latched from the inside."

"So we must enter the hornets nest then," Carlisle said reluctantly.

"Not necessarily," David interjected. "Nessie is fresh with blood for the Queen, this should be of little difficulty to her." His attention turned to me. His handsome face was glowing with the light of the moon as his eyes pierced mine. "Now listen my dear, you have the gift of your mind, you should be able to open the latch and pull the lever through the use of your gifts. It is much easier if you have seen how the mechanism operates before you attempt such a feat, but it is not impossible to do with out seeing them.

A detailed image of the latch holding the roof shut floated up and into my mind. "Thank you, Marius," I whispered. I called upon the blood within me, and like before, with the cloud gift, I felt that I was asking Maharet to do this for me. Could I really move things with my mind? It seemed absurd.

"Nessie," my father's hand rested like the touch of soft cotton on my shoulder, "Don't doubt yourself. I know you can do this." His smile was warm and accepting. Again, I felt the equality, the respect that we had for one another transcending the level of parent and child.

"I have not mastered this skill," David said somberly, "Although I have done it a few times, it has always been with fresh blood of the elders within me. It has been some time since I have drank from another and my gifts lie more in the metaphysical realm. You must concentrate Nessie, think of the latch, and of nothing else. Visualize the mechanics that it would require to assemble it, think of how it operates and of the force that would be required to open it."

I nodded, shaking the doubt from my head. I thought of Maharet's blood and the strength that the Goddess herself had bestowed upon me.

"The elders can do this easily," David said reassuringly, "once you understand how to use the gift, you shouldn't have much trouble with it as long as you continue to practice." I sensed a hint of regret in his voice, "I had turned away from doing these kinds of tasks because I resented how inhuman they made me feel," he admitted to himself as much as to the rest of us.

"Don't worry, David." I closed my eyes and centered all of my mind's power into the vision of the latch that Marius' mind had provided. It was a simple mechanism. The hinges were bolted to both sides of the panel that lifted free from the wall. Two large hooks extended over the break and locked into place on the other side. One only had to free the two hooks by lifting them out of the metal rings that held them. I doubled my focus and imagined the hook lifting from the ring. In my effort, I heard the tiny sound beneath my feet of the latch quaking under my power. I smiled in delight.

"That's it, Ness," my Dad said, cheerfully, "I can hear you moving it!"

"That's the right idea," Marius' weak voice sounded in my head, "You just need to be more sure of yourself. You managed to move it, but the hooks are still in the rings, try again."

I had to refocus and see the latch again. This time, I knew I could move it, I knew that it was possible for my mind to control it. I took a deep breath and saw the hooks lifting free, one at a time from the rings. I heard the unmistakable sound of the latch being opened. The slab of stone beneath us seemed to sigh in the release.

"Very good, young one," David said proudly. "Now, the latch, hurry." His voice was anxious and tense. His eyes fluttered around the grounds of the castle nervously, "I fear that we won't be undiscovered for much longer."

"How do I do it if I don't know what it looks like?" I said, feeling a bit discouraged.

"Guess," Marius' voice cracked again in my thoughts, "Imagine each type of lever it could be until you strike the right one." When I was stronger, I could see Aro's arm pulling the lever, he moved in a downward motion. It won't be too difficult for you. I can feel your strength."

Marius' words were reassuring. I focused my energy imagining a lever, just a plain long arm of steel jutting out from the wall. I applied my mind's pressure upon the metal arm. Nothing happened. "Shit, let me try again."

"Marius, use your strength to help her," David whispered.

Marius' voice sounded in my head, "I will try young one, but I fear that I have very precious little strength left. I would have done it for you if I still had to the power to. The sun has left me weak. Come on, together now, maybe I can help you to channel your power."

I took a breath in and pushed down with mental force on the imaginary lever. I felt a hand of guidance, like wind sweeping me forward, pushing me in the right direction, forcing my energy into a more specific point. The ground beneath us rumbled as it began to slide mechanically back. The four of us leaped into the dark chamber beneath us as the remainder of the roof disappeared giving way to the knowing eyes of the stars.

"Hurry, they will have heard that," Carlisle said swiftly.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that fell upon my eyes. The glorious form of Marius had been reduced to a shriveled mass of ugly, black, burnt flesh that smelled like a decrepit version of the way sunlight smelt upon humans. His skin was pulled painfully tight over his skull, his bright, blue eyes bulged grotesquely from their sockets. The blackened flesh made his eyes beam even more than usual due to the contrast. His once lustrous hair was a mere shadow of its former self-- white and wispy, clinging haggardly to his mostly exposed skull. I fought not to turn away in horror. He looked dead, burnt to death by a horrible, raging fire that had greedily consumed his flesh but left him in the last stages of life to suffer. It was terrifying.

"I know my child," Marius said through my mind, his lips looked too burnt to allow actual speech, "I know it must be terrible to look upon, believe me it feels much worse." I cringed at how his eyes saddened with pain and disgust with himself. I walked steadily toward the crumbled figure that was held tight by steel confinements of chain and belts of cruel metal. David moved swiftly ripping the steal away like it was paper. His eyes were clouded with bloody tears. Marius' bright blue stare remained on me. I stepped closer, unable to look away. A wonderful calm fell over me as I approached his broken form. Carlisle moved to his side, and into doctor mode as he begun examining the burn marks on his arms. I could feel my father behind me, but it didn't matter. All I could see was Marius, a shell of his former self, in pain and suffering before me. I could ease that suffering. I knew that I had the power to end it.