"May I help you with something?" she asked, her glance darting behind me as if she expected to see someone else pop out of the darkness and surprise her.
"I require an audience with Aro" I answered.
Human serving vampires? She was dim-witted. They would only make a meal of her when they grew bored of her services.
"Of course, just let me check. Mr.-?" she raised her eyebrows in an inquiry of my name.
"Cullen. Edward Cullen." I replied curtly. Her eyes were saucers now. She wasn't given time to answer, unbeknownst to her, a door had opened down the hall and in seconds we were going to have company.
I grinned at her, causing her to blush, and then simply turned and walked a few feet to greet the other vampires waiting for me.
Felix and Demetri were standing sentry in the hall, their expressions smug. Neither bothered speaking to me, they silently lead the way through the tunnel, Felix occasionally hunching to fit his large frame under lower parts of the ceiling. His size reminded me of Emmett, causing me to smile to myself. Emmett would love to go head to head with him, just for the sport of it.
At the end of the hall, we came to a large ivory door with gold knockers. After a swift knock, Demetri pushed the door open and allowed me to enter before him. I spared a quick walk through their thoughts and decided that entering first would not cause me any harm or be disrespectful.
Aro was the first person I saw in the large ceremonial room. Although it was my first meeting with him and he wasn't alone, I didn't need an introduction to know who he was. He stood in the dead center of the room, his long black cloak covering him from head to toe.
A smile broke across his face and he lifted his hands out from his sides.
"Welcome, Edward. We've been expecting you." Aro's velvety voice called.
The room was huge, dark and… old. At the center of the room were three thrones one a bit farther than the other two illustrating who the true leader was, and by the looks of it, it was Aro. I had got quite vivid information about all that I needed to know of Volturi to know from Carlisle's stay in Volterra. All in all, the kings were ruthless monsters, and hated us, animal drinkers with a passion.
To the left of Aro sat Marcus looking extremely bored. He also had another expression on his face which I was now well acquainted with, Loss. From Carlisle's stay, I remember him as being the one who had the gift of seeing bonds. He had lost a mate. Losing a mate and being able to see and experience other people's bonds! How painful and unfair it is for him. I now held only a sense of respect for him. To the right of Aro sat Ciaus, having a look of utter disgust but a mischievous twinkle on his sculpted face. Uh oh.
Aro is also a mind reader but not like me. He can hear every thought the person has ever had but only by a touch. When I step forward to shake his hand he sweeps through my memories of Bella. And I am filled with memories of her chocolate brown eyes her beautiful silky brown hair and her radiant smile. I am tortured by the memories of our first meeting, of the hunger, our first conversation, our first kiss, our time in the meadow, Her meeting the family, James, Hospital, her being imprinted on by Jacob, informing the family, receiving a call from Volturi for assistance, excepting the invitation, travelling to Italy…. Every memory flowed like a sad soap opera. I am astounded when the memories of my encounter with the redhead didn't play in his mind. Had I imagined it all? No, of course not. Her face, her scent, her smile, her beauty still lingers in my mind. I am sad and ecstatic at the same time. Sad as I wouldn't have someone assist me in finding out about the fiery redhead beauty and what she is. But then again he is the big, bad vampire what if he thinks she is a danger to our secret and decides to kill her. I don't know why but the thought made me see red and the monster in me was imagining very torturous ways to kill him if he ever thought about even looking at her.
"You have had quite a life, my friend. My condolences for your loss. No one deserves such a painful loss"
Aro's thought bought me back to the present. Hearing Aro's words shocked me to the core. Aren't they supposed to be...Vicious?
"Thank you Aro" I replied in a firm voice. We talked for the next hour or so about my mission in Italy. There have been many disappearances and killings. The victims showed clear signs of a vampire behind it. But some things in it didn't make sense. Like some had claw marks on their skin like huge bear marks, and some had tattoos on them with weird interlaced designs all over them. But each one had one common tattoo on either one of their hand of a diamond shape with a pair of angel wings at the sides. We discussed strategies and possibilities of the killings and vampires being involved in them. Strangely, something about those marks seemed familiar like I had seen them before but couldn't remember where. And oddly enough during our long conversation, Aro didn't mention once about the redhead beauty. From what I heard, Aro was a power-hungry man. And the girl was highly intriguing, which arose even more suspicion as he acted like he didn't even see those past few hours that happened involving the redhead. But I was also relieved that he didn't know about her. At around dusk, I made my departure. With a promise of another meeting to discuss this matter further. I decided to take a walk in the garden and process all that has happened today.
