Disclaimer: I don't own these characters...except Alyria and her coven, oh, and Virat.

A/N: Okies…things seem to be flowing now and I def know how things are going to play out. Here are some answers for you all. Enjoy and thanks for reading and commenting!

Chapter 14 Broken Treaty

(BPOV)

The woman that held me captive was beyond exquisite. Her chin length dark hair flattered her upturned scarlet eyes and her purple tattoo winding around her neck. "Shhh," she pulled me into an embrace, her lips against my ear as she whispered softly. "I am a friend of your Demetri. We are being watched-act naturally, as though I am a friend of old," she commanded gently. I nodded my head in agreement. I'm not sure why I trusted her, but I did. The emotions coming off of her were in sync with her guarded words. "Good. I am Kattra. Introduce me to your little friends, they seem concerned."

I pulled away, my soaked clothes leaving water stains against her otherwise immaculate ones, and led her to Jacob and Seth who stood back warily, water dripping from them. "Hey," I beckoned. "This is Kattra." I looked back at Kattra, a pleasant smile plastered on my face and continued with the introductions. "Kattra, that's Jacob," I said as I pointed him out. He moved forward cautiously and took her outstretched hand. "And that's Seth-my soon to be step brother," I added smiling kindly at him. I didn't need to fake that smile, I truly loved the thought of having him as my younger brother.

He looked at me inquisitively, a sly smile pulling at his lips. "You guys just keep multiplying!" He shook his head sending beads of water splattering on all of us.

I wiped the water away dramatically, letting him know what a burden it was. "She's just passing through," I supplied.

"Good, we're practically out of people who'd have the ability to change." He shot me a look. "I thought you guys were going to New Hampshire."

"So ready to be rid of us, Seth. I'm shocked. I'd expect it from Leah, but not you," I joked as I slapped him in the arm. Kattra's grip on my wrist tightened slightly. "Sorry, I have to bail on you guys, but since she's only here for a little while I want to spend some time with her."

Jacob stared at my face intently, his eyes flickering between my wrist and eyes. "When would you two have met?" He asked, disbelief apparent in his gaze.

I glanced quickly at her before whispering so quickly that they'd never be able to decipher my words. "We can trust them. He knows something's up and will just make a royal pain of himself until he figures it all out."

"Not here. Invite them back to the hotel." She motioned with her head to the cliffs opposite from the one we jumped off. "We're not alone."

"Want to come with us?" I offered quickly, trying not to glance up at the still form above us.

"Sure," Seth replied as he sprinted to my side. Jacob nodded and grunted, but half way up the path he stopped.

"Bella?" I turned and faced him. "I need to stop by Meghan's and Seth needs to tell Sue where he'll be."

Kattra answered. "Peninsula Suites. Room 808." With that she spun on her heel and led me away.

I was perched on a royal blue sofa with Demetri by my side, his hand intertwined with mine as they filled me in briefly on the events that had taken place last night. We were now waiting for the Cullens to arrive and Jacob and Seth, as well.

"When we left the club last night I caught the tenor of someone familiar to me, one of the Volturi guards."

My eyebrows rose in surprise. "We have a deal with them," I shrieked, outraged that they would break treaty with us already. It had only been a matter of months since our battle ended with the agreement that freed us of the Volturi's control and laws..

"Apparently they are having some difficulty abiding by it," he smiled looking amused at my indignation.

"So, who's here keeping an eye on us?"

"Virat." He replied as he squeezed my hand comfortingly. I know that it was terrible, but I was actually happy that something had thrown us back together, even if it was the Volturi.

"And, what does he do?" Clearly they wouldn't send him here if he didn't have some awesome power.

He sighed softly. "He actually has two talents. Virat was a priest. He spent much of his time meditating and now has the uncanny ability to keep his mind utterly blank, thus one like you or Alice would never be able to know his future and Edward would never be able to know his thoughts. His other power is similar to Jasper's, but much more subtle and it's geared more to negative emotions. I believe that Jasper can only cause one emotion at a time. Say that three people were in the room. Jasper wouldn't be able to make one feel happy, one sad, and the other scared. Virat, on the other hand, can control a great many emotions at one time without anyone realizing that they were being influenced. When Jasper uses his power we are all very much aware of it."

"What are you saying, Demetri?"

"That perhaps your loss of control was part of a plot by the Volturi to create chaos and fracture your family. Perhaps, it has even been going on longer than that. We have all been acting out of character these last few days." He paused considering. "Perhaps Chelsea is with him, as well."

"And she would be?" I prompted.

"One of the guards whose power is over emotional ties between people. The Volturi use her to make prospective candidates feel bonded to the Volturi." He released my hand as he leaned forward on the couch. "What a plan," he breathed excitedly. "Virat causes discontent amongst us, and when they've made you feel utterly alone, she would swoop in, work her magic, and then you'd go willingly to the Volturi."

"Not exactly. Her power might not affect me."

"Is it really a chance you are willing to take?" He chuckled softly as he leaned back against the couch. "After all, Virat's power seemed to work beautifully on you, so much so that you lost control of your thirst."

"You're telling me that the Volturi might be responsible for making me attack a human?" Oh, I was beyond pissed. I had, in good faith, healed Marcus for Aro because he had offered me anything to do so. I'd always thought of Aro and Marcus as honorable, don't ask me why. You'd think being kidnapped and under their power would have clued me into the kind of vampires they were, but Carlisle regarded them so highly and they were so gentlemanly that it was easy to be convinced of such a stupid idea.

He nodded, his eyes guarded.

"But if he's used this power on me, then I should have collected it, right?"

Alyria tilted her head to one side as she appraised me. "Perhaps you have. Have you tried to use it over the last few days?"

It was difficult having a coherent conversation with her. Even though she wasn't actively using her power against me, I was distracted by her beauty-the way her blood red lips moved sensually, the naughty glint in her crimson eyes, the way her hand traced circles over her bare thigh. I blinked once really slowly, trying to collect my thoughts. I'd felt the emotions of those around me, but I couldn't remember actually using my power against someone. I shook my head, as my voice didn't seem to work well around her.

Her lips curved into a wicked smile. Surely she could feel my lust for her. I wasn't exactly comfortable feeling that way about another female, but try as I might, I could not stop it. "Why don't you try to make me feel lethargic and Demetri feel…excited?"

"I don't know," I hedged. "I think he looks pretty excited already." Not in the sexual manner, but the prospect of a fight seemed to breathe a little bit of life into him.

"Depressed, then?" She suggested softly.

I let both emotions flow over me and directed the different threads towards the waiting vampires. Alyria's eyes began to glaze over, her face slackened as she leaned her head against the back of the deep green recliner. Demetri looked haggard. His eyes were dead and he stared desolately back at me. I quickly turned it off and both sat up smiles breaking over their surprised and pleased faces.

"Impressive," Christian commented from the chair across from me. Kattra, who was sprawled across his magnificent form, nodded and winked at me.

I leaned my head against Demetri's chest soaking up the bad news. "If you know where Virat is, why not just destroy him?"

Demetri ran his fingers through my hair as he said, "I doubt that he is alone. I have not detected any others' scent, but I also did not go searching for them either. I immediately went back to the Cullens' house." He smiled at me apologetically. "Edward wanted to come…he thought that perhaps you would prefer it if someone else were to bring you back here, so I sent Kattra." I nodded, my chest tightening at the thought of my Edward sitting back at the house thinking that I'd prefer a stranger to him.

"Do you suppose that…my arguments with Edward…his anger and jealously was brought on my this Virat?" I asked hesitantly, yet, hopefully; anything to erase the vile words that he'd spat at me last night.

"More than likely," Demetri conceded. "He feels terrible about last night, Bella. Please don't hold his harsh words against him. I do not think any of us have been in our right mind lately."

Three humans sauntered out of the opposite bedroom interrupting our conversation. I'd noticed their heartbeats and scents earlier, but had been too distracted by Demetri's tale to think much of it.

All three pair of eyes were focused on me as they sat on the floor in front of Alyria, her hand reaching down to stroke the man's face lovingly.

The man wore only a pair of black slacks that were slung low on his narrow hips. My eyes worked their way up his chiseled chest noting the circular brand near his heart, before working my way up to his handsome face. He had short red hair that seemed to have a mind of its own and odd silver eyes. Though his skin was vampire pale, he was most certainly alive. The sound of his steady heartbeat was like music to my ears, his scent appetizing, but easily resisted. Nothing near as glorious as Tyler's had been.

"These are our blood donors," Alyria stated simply.

My eyes widened in shock. "Blood donors?"

She smiled proudly as her hand now danced over one of the females. She had the most beautiful mocha skin with straight black hair that fell past her back. She was clad in a simple satin chemise that barely covered any thing below the waist as she sat curled on the floor, her lovely face lying on Alyria's leg.

"Yes," she replied matter-of-factly. None of us," she motioned between herself, Kattra, and Christian, "Has killed a human in fifty years." Seeing the puzzlement on my face, she continued. "We simply cut their wrists and drink their blood, but we never bite them, thus they are never contaminated by our foul venom."

"If vampires can all live like this, then why is this the first time I've heard of it?" Not that I was excited by the possibility, just intrigued. I, for the most part, abhorred the thought of drinking human blood -Tyler had definitely been an exception.

"It takes an exceptionally controlled vampire to simply take enough for a feeding and not drain the human dry. I am 4,956 years old and have had many years to gain such control."

"And them?" I motioned toward Christian and Kattra who just kept smiling at me like I was some adorable child.

"Christian is 722 and Kattra is 306."

"So, you are older than Aro and Marcus?"

"You seem surprised, Bella. They were not the first vampires; they were simply strong enough to take control of everything in Europe. We wish for no such thing, we only care about our music and our pets," she bent down and kissed the girl closest to her gently before fixing her gaze on mine. "Our pets mean the world to us. This is our second set of blood donors."

A chill crept over my body at her words. "What happened to the first group?"

She smiled comfortingly. "When they reached the age of thirty five we gave them the option of becoming a vampire or living out the rest of their existence with us. Two chose to become vampires. They had fallen in love and decided to go off on their own. The other," she frowned slightly, her eyes taking on a far away look, "he died ten years ago," she whispered softly. Kattra and Christian had all emotion wiped from their flawless faces and were staring at the floor.

"Anyways," the light returned to her face as she took in the people in front of her, "Viktor, Melody, and Anna have been with us for the last ten years," she said as she pointed each one out in turn. Anna was the epitome of beauty. Though Rosalie was considered one of the most beautiful vampires, Anna would rival her if she was ever transformed. Her wavy blonde hair kissed her bronzed shoulders. She was tall and curvy, but in a skinny way. All that paled in comparison to her deep sapphire eyes that decorated her face.

I didn't need a knock on the door to tell me that Jacob and Seth had finally arrived; their smell seeped under the door causing all the vampires to wrinkle their nose in distaste. It was the third scent that had floored me. Leah had come. Leah-the one who hated vampires with a passion and me beyond measure-had come to a hotel room that had five vamps and three blood donors. Oh, this was just going to go swimmingly.