Chapter 111
Alice
Aro got bored eventually trying to outwit me, he was certain I had a powerful gift but all he ever saw when he touched me was what I wanted him to see. Knowing when he would try was half the battle and having hidden things from Edward was the rest. I was able to hide my true thoughts behind a false vision of the past which faded as it went further back until there was nothing before I became a vampire. As Aro was certain no one could hide anything from him he accepted what he saw which showed only vague half formed visions that more often than not told him little or the wrong outcome. I had seen what he would do, not wanting me in the citadel if I was of no help, yet unwilling to allow me my freedom he sent me back to the villa to be watched over by two of the guard. They swapped every week so no one became too close to me and, as a result, I spent a lot of time alone. I didn't mind this too much as I was busy concentrating on what was happening to my family and friends.
To see Charlotte and the Captain as mates was quite a shock but not as much as seeing Bella and The Major as mates! Well, she was alive and well and it was all down to him. I knew they would be OK in the end although I couldn't see their path. I did understand enough not to interfere by telling anyone, this was one situation best left to develop on its own. I watched constantly for danger but everything seemed to be going along well and then another visitor arrived at the villa. He was a fairly new member of our race although not a newborn, young, good looking and friendly. At first I thought he might be a plant but nothing came to me in a vision, no alarm bells rang and I began to spend more time talking to him, weeding out his story a little at a time.
Graeson was from Alabama, the son of a preacher who was unlucky enough to establish his church on a nomad route. For several years, he built up his congregation although some of the old timers begged him to move away from the area he had chosen to build the wooden structure he called home. The preacher ignored them saying their fears were the result of old tales from the times the Native Americans passed through with the horses they took to be sold and spirited away the odd settler too.
They warned him it still happened from time to time, but he said The Lord would protect him. Well maybe The Lord did but instead the nomad pair took Graeson, turned him and left him to wake alone and confused. Luckily for him another lone nomad passed through and took him in hand teaching him how to survive. Graeson stayed with Ambrose for five years, but he found the man he saw as a father become more childlike, almost as if he were becoming senile, something that never happened to vampires.
Eventually, Ambrose began to take stupid chances, to do things that would bring them to the attention of the Volturi. Graeson thought about leaving but felt guilty at the idea of abandoning his only friend. Then one day while he was out hunting, Ambrose could no longer remember how to hunt, he came across another vampire, one who could read gifts, a certain Eleazar who was on a scouting mission for the very people he was trying to avoid, the Volturi.
Luckily Eleazar was working alone and he explained to Graeson that he had a gift, a very dangerous one. Graeson could cause mental breakdowns, a kind of dementia in vampires and when he told Eleazer about Ambrose Eleazar told Graeson he must learn to control his gift and not allow it to just leak out and cause havoc. Eleazar also told him to be extremely careful to keep this gift a secret from the Volturi or he would be captured and put in the guard, kept loyal to the Volturi by Chelsea and Corin.
He went back to Ambrose and tried to explain what was happening but, of course, it was too late, Eleazar had warned him that once dementia had taken a hold of someone the damage was irreversible. So Graeson put Ambrose out of his misery and traveled alone after that afraid to make friends in case he destroyed another mind. Eventually after about six years he met a woman who seemed interested in him and decided to take a chance. Luckily for him he was able to control his gift by now because he found himself in one of the sweeps the Volturi sometimes ordered to check on new vampires and watch out for interesting gifts. Of course Heidi had no trouble in persuading Graeson to go with her and he found himself here, waiting to be interviewed by Aro himself. This time, they had brought in a number of new vampires and as Aro was busy with problems in Romania he didn't have time to be bothered checking out the latest haul just yet.
I explained to Graeson that he was in serious danger, he didn't know Aro could read minds and understood as soon as he was touched he would be discovered and forced to pledge his allegiance to the guard. He was curious about why I was here and much as I wanted to tell him the truth I was wary, he could be a plant although nothing about him told me he was. Instead, I stuck to the story I had given the Volturi. We spent most of our time together and as the weeks passed and I kept in contact with Esme and the others I grew to believe he could be trusted and decided to ask him to help me escape, promising to take him with me. With his gift we could disable the guards here at the villa although because they changed out every couple of weeks that might be a little difficult but Graeson started to practice while I was taken to hunt, he was scared I might become caught up in his gift so he refused to use it while I was around.
When I got back the third time he was smiling. And once we were alone in the courtyard sitting by the fountain and the guards were busy changing over he explained he thought he could use his gift in a single blast that would quite literally fry the guards brains straight away. He couldn't test it out but as I thought about it more and more I started to get visions again.
Convinced he was right although I still didn't tell him I could see I encouraged him and we decided to try to escape. Talking without the guards overhearing was very difficult and we used a code mainly or scribbled things down and passed them between us ensuring to take the notes out when we hunted and dispose of them that way. It was actually quite exciting, we were like two naughty children swapping notes in class although if we had been discovered the consequences would have been much more severe for both of us.
The day I had the vision about the Volturi sending assassins to kill Bella and force The Major back I was, fortunately, alone and when I saw the boy with his goats I was able to toss a note wrapped around a stone, down the hill towards him knowing he would contact Esme and warn her. I couldn't see the outcome of the plan because there were no ready-made decisions, all I could do was pray she got the message in time to warn them. It was timed like this I wished fervently I was free and it was this threat that decided me on using our plan to escape. As a result, I was pacing the room agitatedly when Graeson came back and he knew immediately something terrible had happened to make up my mind to escape as soon as possible.