*** This story contains some mild language, suspense, romance, and some frightening images and situations—13 and older, please.

In the Grip of Twilight

By:

Olivia Tannis Moore

Chapter Thirty Nine:

Week One, Day One

Chamber of Knowledge

Demetri came by my room a half an hour early.

When I opened the door, he swept past me in his typical blur. He wore a long cloak the color of gunmetal over his dark clothing, making him seem even taller and more imposing than usual. His dark hair was pulled back and tied into a short ponytail.

I stared at the rich sheen of the cloak, so different from the wool cloak I'd first seen him in. But what really captured my attention were the three silver skull clasps that fastened the cloak against his upper chest. Dark red gems glared from the skulls' eye sockets, and the mouths pealed back in a tight grimace; they seem to look down on me in anticipation and did nothing to ease my nervousness about the whole ordeal. I had to remind myself that it was only Demetri underneath, and that the skulls were just symbols.

"You look a little intimidating," I told him, worry creeping into my voice. "A little too…Halloween—for what we're about to be doing."

He leaned in and growled, "I am intimidating," but then he smiled and ruined the fearsome tone of his words. "You mean this," he said, hooking his thumb beneath the skull clasps.

I nodded.

"Sorry. We're going into the underground keep; it's customary for Volturi to wear our ceremonial cloak or uniform down there. " He rubbed his palms together and grinned. "But I came a little early to take you someplace special."

"Oh…?" I said warily.

"I think you'll find it interesting."

I reached up and lightly thumped one of the skulls, "Like this interesting? No thanks." My voice was quivering now, telegraphing my fear.

He was quick, just a ripple of the cloak and he'd captured my hand in his own icy one. "I'll take it off then. Just try to relax." And then he let my hand go and unclasped the cloak.

He was right of course. I was jumpy and it wasn't just the skulls. I'd kept myself going by not thinking about today and the change I'd be going through. I'd preoccupied my thoughts with Edward and the virus, and with getting him home safely. And now that he was on a plane half way across the Atlantic, and away from the Volturi, I was suddenly left alone with myself and this huge thing I was about to do… I thought I'd left home in Forks, but home left me when Edward boarded that plane. I'd never felt so alone as when I'd looked at my watch and knew by that time he was gone. The words in his letter echoing in my head, I love you, Bella Swan. I'll see you in six weeks, or as fast as you can get home.

I had to get home.

"Bella?"

When I looked up, his face was creased with worry.

I took a deep breath. "I'm okay, just a last minute panic attack." I looked from the bed to the fireplace, to the blue-cushioned chairs in front of the windows. "This is the last time I leave this room as a human…"

"As only a human, yes. Surely you see how lucky you are to remain human while gaining the vampire. So very few get to be both." He sighed. "If I'd been given that choice…well, there would be no choice. To us, you're beyond lucky; it's why you get mobbed in ballrooms and the younger vampires draw lottery numbers just to deliver shoes to your door for a glimpse of you."

"Then someone please take it, because it's given me nothing but heartache. I'd be home right now if it weren't for this luck." I laughed bitterly, the irony hitting me full in the face. "If I were only a vampire, I wouldn't be locked up in this room, and indentured to Aro. So please, don't mention something so hideous as my luck these days."

Demetri rolled the cloak up and placed it under his arm. "Come on, you need to see this."

I rolled my eyes as I followed him out into the hall.

***

We took the same narrow and decrepit staircase as when Edward and I had arrived, traveling down past the drainage tunnels until we came to another iron gate. Demetri unlocked the gate and ushered me through to a small room that was nearly bare except for a couple of primitive wooden chairs. A few woolen cloaks hung on hooks on the stone-hewn walls. We walked through this room and into a massive chamber; the same grey stone walls as the staircase and the room we'd just exited. In the center was a circular iron rail. And when I was closer, I saw that it was an iron staircase that spiraled down into a deeper chamber.

"Where are we?" my voice echoed.

"You'll see," he said, taking my hand and leading me down the stairs.

Once we were midway down the staircase, I stopped suddenly. I let Demetri's hand slip from my grasp and gripped the handrail, my eyes wide and disbelieving. This chamber was even larger than the one above, and although the walls were still the same dingy grey stone as just about everywhere else, most of it was covered with tapestries and glass-enclosed bookcases. But nothing in this chamber was more breath-taking than the marbled floor. Here, in a mosaic work of art, an angel in the form of a man unfolded his long golden wings in flight; they sparkled with thousands of diamond facets, reminding me of the vampire's skin in sunlight. The profile of his face was fierce and beautiful as he stared ahead and pointed a long sword at an unseen enemy.

And then I gasped. I closed my eyes and opened them again, but I wasn't hallucinating. Even from my vantage point high above the marbled floor, the angel's eyes burned intensely with the color of golden topaz.

I was speechless. I opened my mouth to speak, to ask one of the countless questions swirling through my head, but couldn't find my voice.

Demetri encircled my waist and lifted me from the stairs, and then as if we had gone down a long slide, we were suddenly standing at the edges of the angel's image.

"We're in what the Volturi call, 'The Chamber of Knowledge'," Demetri told me. "Pretty exclusive; you have to be invited in by a member.

I took a deep breath. "The eyes…" was all I could manage to say.

Demetri nodded slowly. "We have our own folklore, too."

I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. "The vampires…they're fallen angels?" I asked.

"Not in the beginning, if the legends are right. Supposedly, we fell when we tasted the blood of men." He bent down and traced the angel's sword with his long fingers. His voice was low and remorseful, "It's hard to believe that we were once the protectors of men…and maybe I don't believe it."

"I think you do," I whispered.

He stood, and as if he hadn't heard me said, "I don't know why Aro had it commissioned and brought here. All it does is create confusion among us."

"Maybe he wishes things could be different," I said hopefully.

Demetri looked at me for a long second. "Maybe, maybe not. I don't pretend to know his mind." Then he turned and motioned for me to follow him to a long stretch of glass bookcases.

He stopped in front of a particular one and his hand reached for one of the leather-bound volumes. He handed it to me. "These are the writings of Thaddeus, the last reformer. This is the first volume where he writes of the process of the change. Sorry, it's in Latin, but I can translate it for you."

I opened the heavy book to an illustration showing a young man on a cot with a dark figure draped over him. Only the young man's face and legs were visible beneath the vampire's grasp. His face, peering over the dark shoulder of his master, told of immense pleasure.

"It appears he didn't think it was painful," I said, studying the face with its open-mouthed grin and eyes that were almost closed.

"At first it is pleasurable. Thaddeus described it as euphoric. He said the body goes into shock from the invasion, but then soon after it begins to fight the venom. That's why it's a slow process. The amount of venom must be small enough so as not to conquer your blood, but merge with it. Eventually your blood and the venom will co-exist and work together."

I nodded, "Aro said as much." I closed the book and gave it back to Demetri. "How painful did Thaddeus say it was?" I asked.

"I'm sure everyone is different," he said, evading the question. "It won't be the typical hell of total change because your body isn't dying."

I held my palm up for him to see, the white half-moon scars standing out against my flesh. "Will it be this painful?"

He frowned, touching the scars lightly with his fingertips. "Who did this?"

"A tracker by the name of James."

He nodded and there was an undertone of anger in his voice when he said, "I know of him. I had no opinion of him…until now." He pressed his fingers against the scars and closed his eyes briefly. "No," he said, his voice murderously low. "It shouldn't be as painful as this—you were very close to dying."

"Yes, I was," I agreed. Then I thought it better to change the subject, and I tugged my hand away from him. "Is this the only volume Thaddeus wrote?"

"Oh no, he wrote of his experiences throughout his life." Demetri turned and pointed to an odd-looking bookcase. I stared; it looked like a cage rather than a bookcase. A padlock hung from a thick chain entwined through the iron bars.

"Do we have time to look through them?" I asked.

Demetri slid Thaddeus' first volume back on the shelf and closed the glass door of the case. "I wish we could… No one is allowed to touch those volumes. Aro is the only one with a key."

My mouth fell open. I looked back at the mosaic, the angelic image of what They were supposed to be. It was in the open for every vampire to view and consider their origin—yet the writings of a reformer were off-limits?

A cold dread spread through my stomach. What did Aro not want anyone to read?

I looked up at Demetri. "I have to know what's in those volumes."

***

(Note: I was surprised when I pulled out my storymap and realized I still had this scene to write. It's an important scene since it ties everything together later on. So…the next chapter, the transformation, will be another long one. Expect it on Thursday. Thanks for reading! OTM)