0. . .oO•.o. A Promise Unknowingly Kept .o.•Oo. . .0

Warning: This story will contain mild content, themes, and language which some may find offensive. If you have questions let me know.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owner, Stephenie Meyer. The original characters and plot are the property of the me - the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Another long chapter! I think I'm getting carried away with writing. Thank you to those who follow/favourite/review this story; here's Chapter Five.

Beta Read by TheGirlWhoReadFiction - thank you!

0. . .oO•.o. A Promise Unknowingly Kept .o.•Oo. . .0

CHAPTER 5 - Curiosity Killed the Cat

•~Annabelle Cullen~•

- 1 year later (Tuscany, Italy, 1797) –

In the weeks before I left Norway, I'd done a lot of spontaneous research in the library in a small church in the main town. I found out, to my surprise, that there were a few legends which spoke of three very old, but royal vampires whom originated from Greece but were currently rumoured to be in Italy. Some of these stories dated back all the way to 1200 B.C – that's ancient. This made me extremely curious indeed.

So, that is the reason why I went to Volterra. This is where the legends mainly spring from. Volterra is a town in Tuscany, Italy. It is supposedly the ancient Italian city which is home to the Volturi coven of vampires. These stories appeared to be oddly detailed, if you knew what you were searching for, even though vampires were supposed to remain hidden and secret.

Walking along the dusty road at human pace towards the city, to look at the town was a very beautiful sight. It is situated on a hill and appears to be built from sienna stone. I could see where the main square was because of the magnificent clock tower it contained.

As I approached the city walls, I sensed that I was indeed being watched. It was then that two men in dark grey cloaks came to suddenly stand in front of me, making me come to a halt.

They seemed intimidating due to their large builds, but I managed to not show its effect it had on me. "Hello gentlemen." I greeted in a formal manner, not wanting to be rude and also wanting to kill the silence.

"Hello, I'm Felix," The larger of the two introduced himself, "And I'm Demetri." The second male stated. "Whom might you be ma'am?" Demetri asked, while gesturing to my person.

"My name is Annabelle, but I prefer Izzy." I answered politely. These vampires had blood-red eyes but appeared to be very civilized and controlled. And my guess was that they were from some higher authority.

"May we ask as to what your purpose is coming to Volterra, ma'am?" Felix questioned. The way that he addressed me made a small smile play on my lips. "Curiosity mainly," I replied casually. They looked slightly confused by my reason but I continued. "I've heard legends about this city which interested me a little. And since I was travelling this direction, I thought I'd come and check the place out to see whether there was any truth in the stories at all." I finished with a smug smile.

They both looked at each other briefly before turning back to face me and sighing, "We are going to have to insist that you follow us." Demetri said softly, but it was still an order, which clearly had shown their higher authority of some sort.

With a single nod I followed them. After a short few minutes we arrived in a brightly lit, unremarkable hallway. The walls where off-white and the floor paved in mid-grey stone tiles. Looking around, there were small beacons of fire which gave the room a warm glow. At the end of the hallway we descended down a grand marble staircase with black cast iron railings with a floral design, which lead us to a refined reception study area. The walls consisted of rectangular slabs of ivory marble, which were bordered with dark pinewood. The floor was covered in deep green marble tiles. There were no windows for any natural light to enter, but large paintings of the Tuscany countryside that are lit up by miniature fire beacons, hung everywhere in their place.

Continuing through the room lead us to a huge double door entirely sheathed in gold that was held open for me in a respectful manner by Felix and Demetri who escorted me through. This made me smile and found it difficult to suppress a slight giggle at the polite and civilized vampires before me, earning me two cute smirks in return. At least I'm in their good books.

Through the door I was met with a brighter, cavernous room – unlike the reception area – perfectly round like a huge castle turret...which was probably exactly what it was. Three to four stories up these turrets, long window slits threw in thin rectangles of beaming sunlight onto the stone floor below. The only furniture in the room was three massive golden thrones that were raised on a slight platform.

The room was not empty when we entered, either. A handful of people were convened in seemingly relaxed conversation. The murmur of low, smooth voice was a gentle hum in the air – going unnoticed if I was still human. The exquisite faces all turned towards us as we entered further into the room. The immortals were dressed in wealthy-looking garments which consisted of short or long, dark robs for the males and for the females, they wore plain, dark dresses, but still looked presentably good. I noticed that their garments seemed to appear identically made but with slight colour variations...perhaps it differs to how important they are within the coven?

The man who spoke first wore one of the longer robes. It was pitch-black and brushed against the floor. For a moment, I almost mistakened his long jet-black hair for being the hood of his clock – almost did.

"Felix! Demetri! You've returned...but who is this beauty you have brought with you?" he cried in evident delight. His voice became softer after his eyes landed on me. He drifted forward and the movement flowed with such surreal grace. As he floated closer, I got a better look at the face of this vampire; it was not like the unnaturally attractive faces that surrounded him – for he did not approach me alone; the entire group converged around him, some following and some walking ahead of him with the alert manner of them screaming 'bodyguards' at me. He must be important; I thought to myself and bit back a smirk.

His features were somewhat perfect. But he was different from the vampires beside him; his skin was translucently white, like onion skin, and looked just as delicate. It stood in shocking contrast to the long black hair that framed his face. His eyes were red, the same as everyone else around him, but the colour was clouded, milky even.

It was Demetri who spoke, "Aro, this is Miss. Annabelle." He announced in a pleasant and formal manner.

The black-haired man that Demetri called 'Aro' turned his misty eyes towards me, and a smile formed on his lips. "Miss. Annabelle, it is a pleasure to meet you," he said while bowing his head slightly to me, his Italian accent thick in his greeting.

Smiling, I decided to reply in his tongue, "L'onore è tutto mio, signor Aro." ("The honour is all mine, Mr. Aro.") I did a small curtsey in return of his bow.

Aro let a little chuckle, "Tu parli la lingua Italiana bellissima, che meraviglia mia cara," ("You speak the beautiful language of Italian, how wonderful my dear.") he praised while extending his hand to me.

"Grazie gentile signore. Sono d'accordo, è un linguaggio glorioso per essere in grado di parlare," ("Thank you kind sir. I agree, it is a glorious language to be able to speak.") I replied, stepping forward slightly, raising my hand to meet his. His eyes seemed to light up when I offered my hand in return but they quickly became concentrated and then disappointed when we came into contact, as if he expected something to happen. That made me curious but I didn't let it show, and just smiled at him to show my gratefulness towards his mannerism.

"So very interesting," he said, reverting back to English, as he released my hand and drifted back slightly. He appeared to have gone into deep thought.

"Pardon me for asking, but what do you find so interesting?" I asked in hope of him not being offended by my direct question, but I wanted an explanation for his peculiar reaction.

"Oh how brusque of me. Where is my propriety?" He questioned himself, sounding ashamed of being somewhat forgetful in the current situation. "You see, I have a gift called tactile telepathy; it allows me to see every thought that has ever crossed one's mind, but only through physical contact, young one."

Now that explains things, I thought as I raised an eyebrow softly. "Ah, so that's what it was." At Aro's questioning look, I explained what I meant. "When you took my hand I felt a light prodding several times in different places all over my mind shield."

When I mentioned those last two words Aro's face lit up with surprise. "A mental shield! This is fascinating, how powerful is it, may I ask?"

His reaction made me grin in amusement – "I would be delighted to tell you, Aro. My shield begun with just subconsciously cloaking my mind to peoples' manipulations when I was human..."

"You knew of your shield when you where human?"Aro interrupted in much surprise."How is that possible?"

"Yes I knew of it, but only because I knew a talented human woman who happened to be gifted with mind-reading abilities. Before she died she told me that my mind was heavily protected, something she has never come across in her lifetime, as she could not gain any access to my mind." A few vampires raised their eyebrows at this, which was a very human gesture, might I add. "As time went on, as I can be known for my rather ambitious but completely random ideas, I thought about trying to see whether or not I could project my shield to protect others if I so wanted to...and that's just what I did. It took a few weeks to get some results but I managed to push it out and expand it from myself." I smiled as I remembered my frustrating but determined workout sessions.

Looking around I saw faces of awe as they hung onto my every word. Obviously Aro spoke up after a moment with an expression as if he had struck gold. "How strong is it? What's the furthest you've pushed it out and how long for? Is that all you can do with it, protect people I mean?" Aro happily enquired of me.

Laughter came to me before I could contain it. "First question, fairly strong I would say. Perhaps indestructible as I create multiple layers within the shield in case someone comes along with the ability to break down one or two layers, so they are replaced easily and quickly enough." That pretty much got them hooked on my response. "Second question, how far can I push it out? That would be ten miles..." Their eye went wide, "...and I held that up for a week before I began to feel slightly tired of holding it up so far out." With that said, the graceful vampires before me had their jaws gaped open in a mix of shock and ecstatic expressions, but I still continued on with Aro's final question for me.

"Final question, for whether I can or cannot do anything else besides protect people, well the answer to that would be that I can do others things besides provide protection." Aro actually began to bounce up and down with joy like a little child at this – he just couldn't believe his luck.

"Please, my dear Annabelle, what else can you do?" Aro asked with a grin so big it would put a Cheshire cat to shame.

"Well..."

A/N:

What did you like about this chapter?

So Annabelle has met the Volturi. Is she stupid or just plain crazy?

If you had a superpower, what would it be? Let me know.

Comments to Reviews from Chapter 4:

- Catherine gest Lauros - I'm very much so planning on much more drama to occur before a reunion comes along.