In the gloomy depths of Castle Volterra, following behind a diminutive vampire, Victoria had cause to second-think her decision to journey into the very heart of the Volturi lair. She had convinced herself that her lover must be avenged and this was the only way—the half-assed plan James had come up with had never, in her candid opinion, had legs, and who else could she possibly turn to? However, Victoria had the wit to understand that, although she might be at the top of the food chain in the human world, here, in this pit of unmitigated evil, she was a very lowly—and highly vulnerable—individual.
Still, she was here now and the time for backing out was long past. She had requested an audience with the triumvirate of the vampire world, and following an anxious week of waiting and flip-flopping between staying and leaving, she was now being led along dank passages hewn from dark granite untold feet beneath the foreboding castle that loomed over the picturesque city of Volterra like a hobgoblin squatting on a rock, salivating over its next meal.
At last, after a tortuous walk along seemingly endless narrow stone corridors, they reached what she hoped—and dreaded—was their destination. A massive set of dark-stained oak double doors, heavily tooled with black iron hinges and decals, blocked further progress. Victoria stopped behind her escort and waited as he twisted a huge metal handle and pushed open one of the doors. Swallowing back her fear, she stepped past him when he stood back to indicate she should enter first.
Stepping into the cavernous room, she was first struck by how bright it was, the vivid illumination generated by a multitude of chandeliers and wall sconces. She gauged the room to be the size of a basketball court, the door through which she had entered being on one side, while opposite her was a large, raised dais where three ornate gold and red velvet thrones had been placed. Seated on those thrones were three disparate vampires, and had they not scared the life out of her, she would have found the scenario laughably corny. At center stage, an aged vampire, dressed all in black, with white, papery skin and shoulder-length, lank black hair sat on a slightly larger throne than the other two. She guessed correctly that this was Aro. Flanking him to the right was an icily handsome blond man—Caius, she supposed—who had probably been changed in his early 20s. Despite his youthful good looks, there was a cruelty about him, perhaps even a dangerous psychopathy. On the left sat an older vampire who barely seemed to be aware of her entrance. He, too, wore dark clothes but with the addition of a fur-trimmed cloak. His dull brown hair, which fell way below his shoulders, was swept off his face to reveal a high, intelligent forehead and somewhat sagging, desiccated skin. He must be Marcus, she thought.
Tongue-tied, Victoria could manage no more than a quick bob of her head to the assembled vampire royal family. She jumped, however, when the one in the middle stood up and offered her an oily, insincere smile.
"Well, my dear, what business do you have with us? Speak up now." He glanced up at a large, ornate clock set in the far wall. "The dinner hour approaches, and we do not like to be late for our meal."
Victoria shivered, and then, willing her nerves to settle, spoke at last. "Lord Aro, my name is Victoria—"
The blond twirled his hand impatiently in a rolling gesture. "Get on with it, woman; we know your damned name. Why are you here, taking up our precious time?"
If she hadn't been so afraid, Victoria might question what was precious about the time of a reputedly three-thousand-year-old vampire.
"My apologies, sir. I've come to inform you of a vile plot being hatched by a vampire in the United States—"
At this, Aro's eyes bore into her like gimlets. "A plot, you say. By whom?"
"I … uh ..." She paused, desperately trying to control her shaking voice under the scrutiny of this legendary vampire. "His name is Carlisle Cullen—"
"No! You lie!" he screamed—a curiously high-pitched, almost feminine sound—and took a step toward the edge of the dais.
Barely able to remain standing, so severely did she tremble, Victoria held her hands out in supplication and gathered the remains of her courage.
"No, my Lord; I swear it's true. Carlisle Cullen has amassed a coven of eight other vampires to challenge your rule, many of them gifted, although I'm not sure exactly how … I know one of them can throw a vampire across a room without touching them. And … and they killed my mate, James, because he was going to report them … and … and they have somehow bewitched our loyal companion, f-forcing him to, uh, join them …"
Under the white-hot glare of Aro and the contemptuous sneer of Caius, Victoria felt her courage wither, her voice trailing off. Even Marcus had sat a little straighter, his curious gaze falling on her.
Aro beckoned her forward. "Come here, wretched child. I will have your hand and your thoughts."
Hesitantly, Victoria put one faltering step in front of another until she was standing in front of him. Had they been on the same level, she would likely have been the taller of the two, but standing on the dais, he towered over her. Afraid now for her life, she had heard rumors of Aro's ability to read minds but was unsure how it worked or how much he could discern.
With the speed of a striking cobra, he reached for her right hand and pulled it against his chest, enclosing it in both of his. Immediately, his head fell back, a sickly smile of almost orgasmic ecstasy spreading across his pallid features as he absorbed her every memory. Victoria closed her eyes, horribly conscious of Aro's insidious mental probing, which made her feel shockingly, sickeningly violated.
As suddenly as he grabbed her hand, he dropped it, almost throwing it from him in disgust and causing her to stumble back.
"You are a liar and a harlot. I knew it!"
From behind, Caius sat forward on his throne, his eyes alight with a malevolent glee. "What did you see, brother? Shall we have us some post-prandial entertainment?"
Aro waved a dismissive hand at the blond, his eyes glued to Victoria, who was now sinking to the floor as her knees gave way. Before she could totally collapse, however, a giant of a man appeared at her side and roughly hauled her back to her feet.
"P-please, L-Lord Aro, I-I'm not ly—"
A vicious backhand across the face from the self-appointed King of the Vampires would have sent her flying across the hall had she not been held firmly in place.
"Be still, jezebel. I saw how you insulted my friend and his family, how you made eyes at another vampire's mate, and how you attacked them. I saw your so-called mate try to abduct young Alice and that he died at the hands of her own true mate."
He paused, leaning toward her, his lips pulled back in an ugly grimace. "I saw you and this James break our only law by attracting the attention of the police and the media by indiscriminately creating newborns who could have run amok in an American city. Do you think we are not aware of what goes on with our kind, that we have no contact with the outside world? If so, you're a fool as well as a liar," he raged, venomous spittle flying from his mouth, forcing her to cringe away as it sprayed her face.
"So, what do you have to say for yourself, eh? You come here tittle-tattling about a personal friend, who had to clear up your mess, and you expect what from us?"
Victoria was distraught, hardly able to speak. She suspected from the beginning that this might be a mistake, but she never dreamed that it could go so catastrophically awry. Carlisle Cullen, a friend of Aro and his brothers? This could hardly be worse. "I'm s-sorry, m-my Lord, I d-didn't know … I sh-shouldn't have—"
"Enough!" Aro spun to look at his companions. "What shall we do with this vile strumpet, gentlemen?"
Caius smiled, but there was nothing pleasant about it. "Let Nekhbet have her, dear brother."
"Hmm, perhaps just for a few minutes, to teach her a lesson."
"Teach her a lesson? Are you going soft, Aro? She broke the law; she must die. If you're feeling merciful, get Felix to take her head off. Otherwise, send her to the dungeon and be done with her."
Whimpering now as Felix kept her upright, Victoria could only gabble and beg for mercy. If it had been possible for a vampire to lose consciousness, she would have fainted dead away when Aro turned back to her with a look of utter distaste.
"Felix, take her down, but just long enough for Nekhbet to have a little taste—has she eaten lately?"
"Two weeks ago, my Lord, a fat and tasty Swiss gentleman who kept her satisfied for several days."
"Well, a vampire won't make much of a meal, but she does enjoy a venom-filled eye, does she not? A bite-sized hors d'oeuvre, if you will." He chortled unpleasantly at his own joke
Felix grinned, easily holding on to a now squirming and terrified Victoria. "Oh, yes, my Lord. Shall I let her have both?"
Aro cackled like an ancient crone. "Well, she won't need them if she's to lose her head, will she? But no, perhaps just one, and then lock her up for a bit to stew while we decide what to do with her."
Felix nodded. "My Lord."
As Aro returned to his throne, Victoria was unceremoniously dragged, kicking and screaming from the chamber. She was strong, but she was no match for her jailer, who must have been nearly seven feet tall and built like a colossus.
"Please … oh, God, who is Nekhbet?" she cried as they descended a narrow stone staircase.
"Ha, she's Lord Caius's pet … an experiment. He wanted to see what would happen if he turned a predator or carrion animal into a vampire, so he changed a cinereous vulture, the largest species of vulture in the world, and she is truly monstrous. She can tear a human limb from limb in seconds and likes to bury her head in their viscera. It can take them days to die." He smiled, his tone conversational, as if talking of a well-trained pet dog. "Oddly, unlike humans who become vampires, Nekhbet isn't a pure blood drinker. She has a particular fondness for human hearts and eyes. As for vampires, she can bury her talons in their faces and loves to peck out their eyes, and then consume their brains through the eye sockets. It seems it's the only part of a vampire that remains soft and vulnerable. Caius loves to watch her do that. It's pretty disgusting, I must admit," he told her, not sounding disgusted at all.
With this final, appalling statement, Felix came to a halt in front of a door guarded by a squat little vampire who was as wide as he was tall.
"A snack for our pet, Felix?"
"Yes, but just a few pecks. Lord Aro wants her left in a cell for a day or two before she's brought back up to him for sentencing."
"Well, she's not too hungry at the moment, so the wench shouldn't lose too much of her pretty face," the troll laughed.
Throughout this exchange, Victoria had wilted, tearless sobs shaking her body as she fought a nausea she had no idea it was possible for a vampire to experience. "Please don't do this, I beg of you," she entreated in a tremulous whisper.
Ignoring her, Felix spoke again to the warder. "Do you have the chains, Rasmus?"
"Yes, I had new ones made after the last vampire sacrifice. They should hold her long enough for Betty to get a grip. Then, when she's feasted on an eye, we can yank the girl out and put her in the lower dungeon. Her face will heal, of course, but her eye won't grow back. She better pray we get her out before Betty gets her beak into her frontal lobe." He laughed and shot Felix a wink.
"Here we go," he said, extracting a long chain from an ancient iron chest by the door to the raptor's enclosure. It had a large ring at one end, splitting into two extensions at the other end, with manacles attached. "Tungsten and chromium—even a vampire would take time to break these."
Felix roughly turned Victoria around so that the other man could trap her hands inside the manacles behind her back. She immediately attempted to pull against them, but barely a few seconds later, the door was pulled open and she was thrust forward into a foul-smelling enclosure.
The space was vast, at least as big as the chamber above from whence they had come. But the ceiling was much higher, perhaps twenty feet. The floor was covered in filthy straw and littered with bones as well as other unidentifiable substances she simply had neither the inclination nor the time to examine more closely. As she took a panicky look around, she heard a high-pitched screech and looked up to see an enormous bird on a wide oak perch about twelve feet up at the far end. As she looked in horror, the bird seemed to shake its scrawny neck, and then spread its wings—they must have been at least ten feet across.
Again, Victoria flexed against her chains, but then screamed as the huge vulture left its perch and soared across the space at vampire speed. Instead of landing, it thrust its giant talons forward, aiming for her face, and in a flash, it was upon her.
~o0o~
"Aro, Aro, what are you saying? Surely, you don't believe that witless child. You saw her memories."
Marcus leaned toward his brother, a pained expression on his face. He spoke so infrequently these days that it was almost as if the action exhausted him. Indeed, it was so long since he'd consumed any blood, it felt as though a deep fatigue had settled into his very bones.
Aro shook his head as he sat down again. "Yes, but you know how vexed I have been of late about Carlisle. His coven grows too large—now it seems there are nine of them. Nine! It is too much, Marcus."
From his other side, Caius stood and paced across the dais. "Aro is right, Marcus. Your indolence has blinded you to what is going on. Carlisle is an anomaly, and that makes him dangerous. The fact that he now has eight other vampires in his thrall makes him a very real threat."
Aro smirked at Caius's confirmation of his manufactured theory.
Marcus, though, waved a weary hand in dismissal. "Aro, you know Carlisle would never betray you. He has never troubled us, never done anything to make us think he might be plotting against us. Indeed, he goes out of his way to avoid suspicion or exposure. You are allowing your imagination and paranoia to run away with you."
Aro turned on his brother, his face a mask of fury. "Paranoia! You forget yourself, dear brother. Was it not I who put down the Southern Wars of America when you said it would run its course, and it nearly exposed us all? If I hadn't sent a contingent of the Guard to Texas to destroy Maria, her lust for power would have spread throughout the southern states and beyond. All while you sat there oblivious to the danger. And who was it who sent assassins to put down Caligula when he ran amok in 41 A.D? I did that, Marcus. He would have taken down the whole of Europe if I hadn't stepped in.
"So, I'm telling you now, Carlisle is a threat. He has the seer, Alice, and the empath. He has built an alliance with the traitor, Eleazar, who has his trio of succubae, one of whom I'm told can channel electricity. And now it seems the harlot's friend has joined them. He doesn't seem to be gifted in any way, from what I gleaned from the girl, but there are two others, a mated couple, who are a completely unknown quantity, although it would appear the female has some kind of gift."
Caius now stepped in front of Aro. "Brother, you must send the Guard … send Jane and Alec with Felix. We must know what they are planning, what kind of gifts they have."
"No, I won't send anyone, and certainly not our best people. I don't like it when the twins are far from me."
"Then who, Aro? You must send someone."
Aro looked up at the agitated blond. "Must I, Caius?"
"Of course you must—"
Aro stood, his anger bubbling up. "No, Caius, I will send no one. I will write to Carlisle and tell him he must come here."
"What! And if he won't?"
"Then I will tell him I will travel with the entire Volturi Guard to America. He will be on the next flight to Florence."
Aro smirked in triumph at his brilliant plan. Initially shocked, Caius began to smile, nodding sagely.
Beside them, Marcus slumped back in his velvet and gold throne but said nothing.
~o0o~
Some thirty feet below them, Victoria sat on the hard, cold floor of a windowless cell constructed of nine-foot-thick granite. Venom continued to ooze from the deep abrasions in her face, even though they were already starting to regenerate. Not so her left eye, which was long gone, just a few remnants of her optic nerve and suspensory ligaments remaining. She cursed the monstrous raptor that had wreaked such permanent damage. She had been hauled out of the vulture's enclosure, even as it clung to her trying to get to her brain as she screamed and squirmed, her gift for escape utterly stymied. With a jab of some kind of superpowered cattle prod, the animal's keeper had made it release its prey, allowing him to drag Victoria out and slam the heavy steel door shut.
Too traumatized to fight anymore, she fell to her knees while Felix removed the shackles, and then picked her up and threw her into the cell she now occupied. She knew that it would be entirely possible to smash her way through the walls … eventually. But to what end? Felix had told her that there were other cells adjoining this one on three sides and additional guards would quickly be alerted to her escape bid. No, it was pointless. And, for some reason she couldn't yet fathom, Aro was keeping her alive, at least for the moment.
And as the old human adage went: while there's life—even undead life—there's hope.
~o0o~
In Wisconsin, an unseasonably mild breeze ruffled the evergreens at the rear of the Cullen estate.
Inside the big house, the residents laughed and played in the aftermath of Christmas. It was only the second that both Edward and Bella had celebrated as vampires, and it was an altogether joyous occasion. There were so many gifts, both expensive and thoughtful, fun and silly. Plans were being made for the fast-approaching year end, with "the kids" deciding on a night out clubbing in the city before returning to see the new year in with Carlisle and Esme.
Laurent had departed on Christmas Eve, heading north. Carlisle had offered him the use of a car, but having been born in the early 1700s and spent the entirety of his vampiric life as a nomad, he had never learned to drive and was content to make his way on foot, arriving after Christmas so as not to interrupt the Denalis' festivities. Carlisle had offered him money to fly or take a train, but, again, he had refused, saying he was already too far in his debt. Additionally, he'd had to concede that he wasn't sure he would yet be entirely comfortable being in such confined spaces with so many humans. He had already made tentative steps into a "vegetarian" lifestyle, but felt he needed more time before he braved such enclosed forms of transport. So, with words of gratitude and promises to keep in touch, he left the sanctuary of the Cullens' largesse with their good wishes ringing in his ears.
Now, as six vampires prepared to spend a night dancing, and Carlisle and Esme looked forward to a highly coveted evening in alone together, none of them could have guessed at the chaos that was about to rain down upon them.
That was until a cry of abject dismay rang out from the rooms Alice shared with her husband. Half a second later, Edward and Bella came tearing into the house just as Jasper met a very distressed Alice at the bottom of the stairs.
Edward was the first to speak. "Alice, what does it mean?"
Her response was barely more than a broken whisper as she fixed her gaze on their patriarch. "Carlisle, you mustn't go."
Approaching her slowly, he cupped her cheek tenderly. "Go where, my child?"
"To your doom."
A/N: Thank you so much for all your great comments. I can only apologise for not getting around to review responses over the last week - I have no idea where the time goes. I know it's become a litany amongst fanfic authors, but it's no less true when I say that I really appreciate it when readers take the time to review. I hope you enjoyed this latest offering, and although "enjoy" is possibly not the right word to describe your reaction to Caius's pet, I do look forward to hearing about it ... I think! Have a great week and I'll see you next Saturday.
