35. REVELATION
It started raining once we got outside, and we hurried to where our van was parked. I brought Edythe to me and held my jacket over our heads, our feet splashing in the newly-formed puddles on the ground, rainwater soaking our shoes through. When we got back to the car, I held out my hand for Edythe to take and helped her into it before shaking the rain off my windbreaker outside. I sat between Edythe and Jules in the very back seat. Earnest and Jess were sitting in front of us, Royal and Eleanor in front of them. Once everybody was in the back of the van, Eleanor slid the door shut. Carine and Arch were sitting up front, Carine in the driver's seat and Arch riding shotgun.
"That was interesting. I really liked our guide." Arch nodded, looking over the brochures Carine had laid out on top of the dashboard. His eyes lifted to the rearview mirror overhead, catching the glint of Edythe's in it. "But… you didn't like her, did you?"
"It's not a matter of whether I like or dislike her, Arch. I merely thought she was strange."
"In what way?"
"Did any of you notice the way she looked at us? The way she stuck close to the shade on the tour stops; the way she said "be careful out there", like it was some kind of warning; almost as if she knows about us. Something was just off about her." Edythe breathed, her voice lowering as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And don't even get me started on her thoughts."
Arch was quiet for a moment, waiting for Edythe to continue. She took another breath and spoke again. "She isn't a shield... but her thoughts are very well-controlled for a human, almost as if she can sense my gift. She is extremely… how should I put it?... calculating perhaps, for one thing. Every move she makes is careful; deliberate. Like she's watching herself, paranoid for some reason. They are contrivances. It's hard for me to pick out what's real inside her head, if you know what I mean. I just don't trust her." she finished with a delicate shudder, troubled.
"Are you sure you're not just saying that because little Beau over here was making goo-goo eyes at her?" Eleanor laughed out loud. My face flushed three shades with a mixture of shame and guilt - El was really throwing me under the bus over here. Of course I'll only ever have eyes for Edythe, but still.
"No, of course not." Edythe snapped with a little huff. "You would do no such thing. Right, Beau?" My wife made her a voice a honey-sweet sound and jabbed me in the side with her elbow, making me gag from the sudden impact.
"Yes, honey." I nodded real quick and rubbed at the spot. Ouch.
"Good boy." she whispered with a mocking smile and patted my head like I was a dog.
"I'm not getting involved." Arch threw his hands up and snickered. When he was done making fun of us, he took up the address he'd written down earlier in one hand and compared it with the map in the other, conflating the two together in his mind. He typed something into the GPS and had Carine continue on, the van moving forward with a gentle lurch. Soon enough we were on the main road again, cruising along another highway by the water as we started going up, up, up in elevation until the ocean disappeared and transformed into a sea of trees instead. The sky began to dim and the air grew colder, but we just kept on driving. When we edged out past the final city limits (I say "city" but it was really just another small town that came up right before the foot of the mountain range) we were completely shrouded in the looming shade of dark green trees that surrounded us on all sides. The road narrowed considerably now as we headed deeper into the forest and the car rolled to a stop at the entrance to a small hiking trail where the hardened earth beneath our feet was covered in snaking vines and overgrown underbrush, though the outline of the thin, sinuous path before us was still clear in the fading light of the sun. I knew what that meant and I winced involuntarily - we were going to have to go by foot.
"Nuh-uh. I'm not going in there." Jules stopped and looked straight out in front of us, shaking her head and crossing he arms tight over her chest. "It's dark already, shouldn't we just wait 'til tomorrow?"
"You're not afraid of the dark now, are ya Jules? I hear these woods are haunted." Eleanor laughed and made spooky little "ooh" sounds you'd usually hear around a campfire when someone's telling a ghost story in the middle of the night with a flashlight up to their face.
"Of course not." It was too dark to tell, but I was pretty sure Jules was blushing right now. "It's just that I don't know these woods as well as the ones back home."
"That's alright, it's not too far. I'd say some thirty miles up that-a-way, just follow my lead." Arch began, pointing straight ahead.
"Thirty miles?" My mouth popped open. I could barely even hike five miles without killing myself, how'd they expect me to do thirty and at night no less? It just wasn't going to happen. But then I was mad at myself for thinking that, because we were literally here to find answers that could save my wife and our child. If I couldn't even do this much, how was I going to protect them at all? I guess if I were a vampire then this wouldn't have been an issue, but I also had to remember that if I was, I probably wouldn't be here right now with a pregnant wife, either.
"I'll try not to slow us down." My strides quickened as I pushed forward through the trees taking the lead, even when I didn't have the slightest idea which direction we were really going in. I just knew that I needed to move; to do something, anything.
"Oh, Beau." Edythe chuckled, pulling me right back to her with one tug and turned me round to look at her. "You know you don't ever have to worry about that." She rested a hand on the side of my face and shook her head.
"I can't help it. I feel like I'm just always holding you back."
"Nonsense." She pushed a cool finger up against my lips, her eyes soft. I held her other hand to my face with both of my own and left a kiss on the side of her wrist. It made me feel better when she looked at me like that; like I could really believe in her words.
"Hmm," Edythe let out a sound between a purr and a hum as she pulled away, counting something on her fingers and looking out at the sprawling stretch of forest up ahead, pulling her mouth over to one side of her face in concentration. Her head snapped up a moment later and her eyes were shining bright.
"Hop on." She got down on one knee, her back facing me. I let out a sound of disbelief from the back of my throat, giving her a wild look as I eyed her from head to foot. Was she being serious?
"Nope. Uh-uh. No way."
"But if you travel at our speed, we'll get there in fifteen minutes, easy."
"No." I said it louder this time, shaking my head. "No, Edythe. I am not getting a piggyback ride from my pregnant wife. Are you kidding me?"
"Oh, come on, Beau." She let out a scoff. "You really need to quit doing that."
"Quit doing what? Prioritizing my pregnant wife's safety?"
"Underestimating me."
"But your condition-"
"My condition has no bearing on my capabilities. Now, be a good boy and just hop on already."
I sucked in a hesitating breath through my teeth. "Yeah, I think I'll pass." I pursed my lips and tossed a glance at Jules. "I'll just hitch a ride with Jules, okay? Don't worry about me." I assured her and started towards my best friend who was smirking now.
And then the floor went out from under me, and the next thing I know my feet weren't on the ground anymore but in the air sticking straight out, straddling either side of my wife's hips, her cool hands tight behind the bends of my knees. I nearly fell off backwards from the shock, but Edythe caught my arms and arranged them tight around her neck before moving her hands quick and pushing me up higher onto her back. Realizing what she'd done, my eyes slid shut and I shook my head.
"Oh, no you did not."
"Oh, yes I did." My wife tossed me a bright, dimpled grin from over her shoulder. "You better hold on tight, spider monkey." Her voice got all light and airy when she said that and her eyes glittered as she let out a tiny giggle, tossing her head back so her hair danced in the wind and smacked me right in the face, which I'm pretty sure she did on purpose. She strode forward.
"I'm guessing you're not going to be letting me down anytime soon, are you?" I sighed in resignation.
"Nope. You're all mine now."
"I always have been." I answered her very quietly, but I know she heard me. I tightened my arms around her and we took off running.
…
We sped through the forest at what I'm pretty sure was at least 100 miles per hour, and I don't even think I'm exaggerating. The wind whistled through my ears, and the rustling of papery leaves troubled by the breeze we created as we passed them by echoed out around me. I felt the cool of her body through my light blue windbreaker as I tried to imagine how bad this looked – I mean, all six feet and 160 pounds of me hitching a ride on my pregnant wife's back? You'd think I was the literal, absolute worst kind of guy in the world – no, the universe, actually. A total scumbag. But I guess there was an exception to everything – that is, if your wife was a vampire built like a tank who could get hit by a train going at the speed of light and it's the train you'd have to be worried about, not her. Plus, she insisted she was fine; she and the baby. I guess I just needed to trust that she knew what she could handle. Thinking that, I tried to focus instead on just enjoying the feeling of being with my wife and I inhaled her sweet, intoxicating scent, burying my nose in her hair and closing my eyes. But then there was a lurching sensation that made my heart feel like it was knocked from where it was situated in my chest and plummeted into the deepest pit of my stomach. The gravity of the wind pushed down on me and flattened the hair on the top of my head so I knew that meant we were going up. Up what, though? I cracked one eye open and instantly regretted it when I saw that we were hundreds of feet in the air now, standing in one of the tallest trees so I could see the sea of black forest thickets down below me. My mouth popped open and I felt dizzy, tunnel vision forming. It's officially been confirmed – my wife was literally ipso-facto insane.
"Oh god, so we're doing trees now?" I cried out over the roaring wind, my voice cracking as I ran out of air.
"Yep." she replied in a buoyant voice, letting out a peal of silvery laughter.
"I'm gonna be sick." I buried my face in the shadow of her neck and shook my head. And then I felt us flying through the air, one of her hands tight under me and the other catching herself on another branch and then swinging onto another after that one too, like they were monkey bars on a playground. My stomach turned at the sensation and tied itself into queasy knots trying to hold in my dinner. "You must really hate me, don't you?"
She laughed at that. "Oh yes, I absolutely despise you." she shot back in a bright, cheery voice. I was still feeling a little light-headed from the elevation and the motion sickness, so maybe that made me bold or something, because I knew exactly how I could respond to that:
"Ouch. Now that's a shame really, because I am so absolutely in love with you, and it's all your fault."
That caught her by surprise. She slowed her pace and we drifted back down to earth again, her little feet touching gracefully onto the mossy forest floor as she landed like a flower on water before answering me, momentarily stunned into silence by my declaration earlier. What a feat.
"Wow. That was… actually almost romantic. And kind of sweet." Her voice, surprised, got all light at the end of her sentence and she shook her head, almost like she was embarrassed… or, maybe even touched.
"Whoa, did I just hear my wife paying me an actual compliment?"
"First and last time if you keep that up." she grumbled, but there was a hint of a grin I'd picked up on in there. "Always so full of surprises." she muttered, throwing another look at me from over her shoulder. She was silent a moment before speaking again. "And just for the record, I really do love you. Never forget that."
I chuckled and pressed myself tighter to her back. We were quiet as we caught up to the rest of the group again. A large, russet wolf came up to our side, and I immediately knew it was Jules. She snorted and from what I could make out in the dark, it almost looked like she was rolling her wolf eyes, so I could tell she heard what me and Edythe had said to each other earlier even from way up in the trees. Judging by the look she gave me, I imagined her in her Jules-voice saying "Barf" and I laughed.
"Yeah. Barf." I answered like she'd really spoken the word out loud and reached a hand out to scratch her head.
…
"How much farther, Arch?" Edythe's voice was a calm, even sound like she was just talking over coffee with someone, making it evident that this whole affair was literally no effort for her at all. Arch didn't answer immediately but stopped us, holding a hand up and turning in our direction.
"Wait. Do you guys hear that?" he whispered. I held my breath, trying to make myself as quiet as possible. Jules was the first to nod and she let out a snarling growl as she circled around the family protectively. I looked out all around me, scanning the darkness from left to right but ultimately came up empty-handed; I couldn't see nor hear anything.
"It's not an animal, I can hear their thoughts." Edythe started in a hushed voice, tightening her grip on me. "And there's more than one."
"Do you mean our kind?" Carine asked. Edythe nodded.
"Ooh, this is exciting!" piped Eleanor in a cheery whisper. She cracked her knuckles and crouched down low in front of us in a fighter's stance. "Do we get to use our fists?"
"Wait…" Arch closed his eyes then opened them again, shaking his head. "I don't think that will be necessary, sis." He touched Eleanor's shoulder and pulled her up off the ground. She scoffed.
"Aw, man. That's seriously a bummer." Disappointment colored her tone of voice and she was pouting now. Arch just laughed.
"It's them, isn't it?" A flash of intuition burned in Jessamine's eyes which glowed a bright yellow-gold in the dark like a lion's. Arch nodded, giving her hand a squeeze. "Yeah. Nice guessing, honey."
"Wait. Did they even know we were coming?" Royal began, his tone sharp; wary.
"Well, that's where it gets a little blurry." Arch moved his head a little from side to side, his voice hesitant and regretful like he didn't think about it until now.
"So, in other words, they don't."
"It's not like I have their phone number, Roy. But I got us here, didn't I? Give me some credit."
"And now they totally want to kill us and honestly, I don't blame them. Oh yeah, that really is brilliant, Arch." Royal sounded kind of mad.
"Boys." Earnest started in a tone meant to shush them.
"Would the two of you both just relax? True, they didn't know we were coming, but they've nothing deadly planned for us, so we're not in any mortal danger here. They're just curious." Edythe lowered herself onto her knees and let me off her back, helping me up before lifting her eyes to the tops of the trees to try and find our guests – or were we technically their guests? – up in the branches. Carine took a step forward with Earnest at her side, his arm wrapped tight around her shoulders. Her eyes were laser-focused on something I couldn't see and she began to speak in a calm, amiable tone of voice.
"Please, we mean you no harm." A rustle came from the creaking boughs high above our heads which echoed out all around us like a surround sound home theater set and I tried to follow the noise with my eyes but still came up empty-handed. And then there was a whoosh of air as a pair of feet landed hard on the wet, spongy earth below with a spattering of mud and pebbles, two more pairs following quickly behind after it.
"I don't believe we met." A low, pleasant voice cut through the dark and I traced it back to one of the shapes in the shadows. A sliver of moonbeam filtered in from an interstice between the trees and I could just barely make out a tall figure wearing a dark cloak which gave off the type of vibes that made me think he was the brooding sort, his hair long and brown and wild as it came down over his shoulders and which ended right at the middle of his arms, his pale golden eyes glowing bright. Looking past his shoulder, I saw two more people, one dude with a medium-built body and a shock of mussed ginger hair up top and another guy who had a body that was tall and kind of lanky, sort of like mine, with sandy brown hair styled in an almost-mullet which looked too thick sitting on top of his head. Their eyes were narrowed; sharp and wary and distrusting, and there was this intense air about them - characters most definitely off the beaten path, I'd say. It felt like their stares were drilling a hole right through our heads. The first guy who spoke reached a hand out to the black and silver pendant on Carine's necklace on which the Cullen family crest was inset – I know all the girls in the family had a matching one as well, including Edythe - and Earnest's grip instinctively tightened around Carine's shoulders when the man inspected the pendant before letting it loose and taking a step back with his friends, giving us all some more space.
"You aren't part of the Volturi." he noised, though his voice was filled with relief. Carine shook her head.
"No. You knew our cousins, the Denali clan." she began. The three men all exchanged a pointed look with one another – they most definitely remembered. "My name is Carine Cullen and this is my family." Carine motioned a hand behind her and began introducing us one-by-one, starting with Earnest at her side then moving on to the rest of us. When she got to Jules, I heard the redhead let out a frightened gasp. "A Child of the Moon? Are you mad?" He was genuinely afraid, you could tell. Jules let out a snort which sounded more like a scoff and phased quickly back to her human form again.
"Try shapeshifter, bloodsucker." Jules tilted her head to one side and curled her lip up into a sneer, her voice hard and humorless. The guy snapped his mouth shut and his cheeks buckled as he took a step back.
"She's a friend of ours." Carine answered before introducing Edythe and then myself last.
"Ah. So her mate is human." The first guy nodded thoughtfully, not sounding very surprised in the least – almost as if he'd actually seen a relationship like ours before, which was a first.
"Yes, he is." Carine nodded. "And what may we call you three?"
At her question, the guy with the long hair touched a hand lightly to his chest, motioning to the redhead then the tall guy next. "My name is Silas; this is Ares and that is Alexander."
I thought they were going to shake hands with us, but they kept their distance. I saw them eyeing both me and Edythe and I drew her closer to me on instinct, giving her shoulders a squeeze.
"I must admit, you both smell rather… appetizing." Silas pointed out in a thoughtful, interested voice, narrowing his eyes and touching a hand to his chin. "It is so plainly evident that the child which you carry has sweet blood rushing through its veins. How can you possibly stand it?" My jaw clenched loudly behind my lips when he said that even when his tone wasn't mocking or anything like that but genuinely puzzled. I'm not proud to admit it now but at the time, it kind of pissed me off, actually. For one thing, it was just plain rude of him to say that and for another, I was mad at myself because I didn't even think about that before; how good the baby might smell to Edythe. It couldn't have been easy for her, and there was yet again nothing I could do to make it any better for her.
"I really don't think it was necessary for you to have said that, sir." My voice rose and I noticed there was an icy edge to it now, which he obviously picked up on as well.
"My apologies." Silas brought his hands in front of him and bowed his head, like I was a boss whose meeting he interrupted or something and he really felt bad about it. It caught me off-guard, and I couldn't stay mad at him because of that.
"With all due respect, Silas, I feel you and your brothers here should understand it better than anyone else, because I know that you are like us – you do not hunt humans." Edythe was looking right at him now, her velvety voice a calm sound as it left her lips. Silas looked hard at Edythe's crimson eyes and narrowed his own golden ones suspiciously, but I guess reading his thoughts, Edythe motioned to Carine and spoke again. "My mother is a doctor. We have our ways." At that, a flash of intuition sparked across Silas' face and he didn't question it, choosing to answer her instead.
"You are right in that miss, but it was not quite a choice on our part as it was for you all." Silas sighed and shook his head.
"Meaning?" Edythe asked almost impatiently. Silas turned around, looking off into the immediate area surrounding us before lifting his head and carefully scanning the trees. I don't think anyone saw anything, but still evidently unsatisfied Silas inhaled a sharp breath and looked to us again.
"Perhaps we may speak on the matter somewhere a little more private." With that, he turned on his heel, his coven members doing the same thing just expecting us to follow after them, which we did, since that was what Arch saw. We were going to get answers from them. "I do know why you're here." Silas was walking and talking. "I haven't forgotten those brothers." The three men led us through a canopy of dark, sweeping shadows, ducking out of the path of the branches which stuck out from low-hanging trees. Swirling white mist hovered around our feet, making an icy, directionless haze appear like chains around them. Edythe's hand was pressed tight to my own as she led me behind her, making the path clear for me the whole time and warning me if there were any roots or vines that could trip me up and send me flying or if there were any nearby rocks to bang my face up on, things I can easily picture happening to someone like me, what with my incoordination being my arch-nemesis and all.
Finally, we came upon a clearing at the top of the mountain on which a mound of green earth was erected. On it stood a small, cylindrical stone building that looked like a fragment of an ancient castle with a staircase that began at the bottom door of the mini palace and spiraled into another doorway which led into the second story, the whole affair set against the backdrop of a dark-blue sky filled with stars, soft tendrils of tall grass coming up on every side of the strange building that was modest yet magisterial all at once. The three men had us follow them into the entrance on the ground floor, opening the small gray door for everyone to enter and slamming it shut behind us right after. For a moment, we were enveloped in complete darkness but immediately in the next, a bright fire burned in what I assumed to be the hearth and I looked around, taking in the interior of the building as my eyes adjusted to the newfound glow of the fire. The space was ginormous compared to how it looked on the outside, complete with doors which led into many different rooms, furniture, decorations, a small indoor staircase, and everything else you could think to have in any normal old house. In front of the fireplace sat a long marble table, slate gray, surrounded by red upholstered chairs set in fancy golden frames strangely enough for us all; an entire dining room set. I wondered what real use they had for something like that, but I couldn't help admiring how nice it looked in the place, so maybe they were just really into interior decorating or something.
"Welcome to our home. Please, sit." Silas motioned to the chairs, taking a seat at the head of the marble table with his two coven mates on either side of him. We lowered ourselves into the chairs like we were preparing for a dinner feast. "How may we be of service to you?" We all looked at the brothers again when Silas asked that and were silent a moment, but then Edythe started to speak, leaning forward on the table a little with her hands folded gracefully in front of her.
"We were hoping you can tell us about something – a few things, actually." she started in a business-woman tone of voice.
"And what is it that you wish to know?" Ares began carefully, looking directly at my wife. Edythe took a breath and cocked her head gently to the side, her bronze hair coming down in loose waves over her left shoulder and shining in the dancing light of the flames. I held my breath, admiring her beauty.
"When you had first come upon us, you instantly feared we were a part of the Volturi. But our cousins had informed us that you all were once a part of the Volturi guard yourselves, correct?" she asked.
"It's true that we had been a part of the Volturi before, but we weren't very high-ranking at all in the least, not even by a stretch. We were simply servants." replied Silas.
"But you weren't just any servants, were you? You three were Aro's servants, which of course extended to Sulpicia, Athenodora, Caius, Didyme, and Marcus as well."
"How do you know all this? That information has never been disclosed to anyone, least of all those brothers; the ones whom you call your cousins." It was Alexander's turn to speak now, his voice fearful.
"There was no need to." Edythe shook her head. "I can see it in your thoughts." The redhead brother looked like he was about to say something, but Edythe interrupted him, already knowing the words he hadn't spoken out loud before he had the chance to vocalize them. "I can read minds. It's my gift." she answered him calmly as if it were the most normal thing in the world to do.
"Then you are not unlike our previous master in that way." Silas let out a strange, cynical laugh. "He was a volatile man."
"How well did you know his wife, Sulpicia?" asked Edythe.
"I knew her well enough. We had served her several hundred years before she had us all exiled. I suppose it was a mercy in some ways, but a torture in others."
"Exiled?" Edythe's eyes flew open. She obviously didn't see that in his thoughts. Silas nodded solemnly.
"Yes. We had been exiled to these very mountains for a tenure of 355 years and we are hard-pressed to find many humans to feed upon up here, save for an occasional lost hiker or two in the warmer months. Then we have ourselves a special little feast." His sharp teeth glinted in the light of the fire as a chilling smile spread slowly across his lips which kind of freaked me out a little with the way he looked at me now, like I was something to eat. I guess noticing the wild, panicked look on my face Silas let out a sardonic laugh.
"Don't worry Beau, he's not going to hurt you. He's not hungry." Edythe tried reassuring me but it didn't really work, because that meant if he were hungry then I'd probably be a goner by now, and was that really any more comforting to think about?
"Most times, we do not hunt humans simply because it is easier to sustain ourselves on animal blood as wild beasts are plentiful in these parts." he added matter-of-factly, motioning to the window behind him. Edythe put a thoughtful finger to her chin.
"I'd like to know – how much longer do you have to serve your sentence?"
"In a little under a year, we shall be free to live as we were truly meant to." Alexander's eyes gleaned a silvery gold.
"And, if you're comfortable with it, can you tell us exactly why you were exiled in the first place?"
The brothers all looked at each other, deliberating. Edythe's eyes narrowed in concentration, laser-focused on picking apart the thoughts flashing through their minds. I think she found something, because her lips parted and her eyebrows flicked up. Still, she waited for them to respond for the rest of us.
"It's been years since we've come across any individuals affiliated with the Volturi, there can't be any harm in it now." Silas sighed, looking down and then up. He turned his gaze on Edythe like he could sense what she saw, a defeated expression on his face alluding to him realizing the inevitability of the phrase you can run, but you can't hide.
"Do you know why our previous master was executed?" Silas turned the questioning on Edythe now, but Carine's the one who had the answer to that.
"Yes. He was tried and executed for the murder of his sister Didyme."
"It is part of the story, yes. But it is not the whole story, not by a stretch." Silas responded with a shake of his head. "You see, Marcus and Didyme were not the only ones planning to leave the Volturi that night."
"Who else?" Carine breathed, leaning forward.
"Sulpicia had a younger sister." He inhaled a sharp breath. "And… she also had an infant niece."
Dead. Silence. We all looked at each other, eyes wide.
"I don't understand." Carine held out a hand, fingers spread, and moved it up and down twice in a motion as if she were asking them to slow down, her eyebrows raising then knitting together. "Sulpicia was an orphan. She never mentioned having any living family."
"And that is true. Sulpicia was orphaned as a young child, but as was her sister who was barely older than an infant at the time, a lovely creature who went by the name Amaranta. All they had in this bleak world were each other and for that, they were very closely bonded in sisterhood. When the siblings had come of age, Aro had found them both and soon began courting the then-human Sulpicia. Just before the wedding took place, Aro changed her. After the pair married, Sulpicia had but one request – that is, to grant Amaranta immortality and allow her to become one of us so they may be together always, and that she be the one to do it in five years' time, the number of years which separated them both. Aro, eager to please his new bride, gladly granted her wish and welcomed Amaranta into their coven with open arms when the time came and even went so far as to let her rule alongside them all. She became a great asset to the Volturi for many years and had a way with people; both vampires and humans alike were rather drawn to her. Like Didyme, she had many admirers." His eyes gleamed a little when he said that last part, so I was pretty sure he was one of them but then the light in his eyes faded away just as quick, so I guess it didn't work out too well between them. "There was only one man who had caught her eye, though – a mortal by the name of Claudius, a self-proclaimed poet and scholar. Handsome and well-read, Amaranta fell deeply in love with him.
"She fretted day and night over it wishing it was not so, and grew despondent with the fact that she could not be near him without craving his blood and so she loved him from afar but ultimately could not keep away from him. Against her sister's protestations, Amaranta began feeding solely on animal blood for a time in hopes of gaining enough self-control to be near him. Believing this to be working, she pursued a relationship with him for over a decade and they became lovers of a sort. I remember I used to run letters for them during their courtship." He sighed and shook his head. "Soon after, Claudius proposed marriage to Amaranta still not knowing that she was an immortal and, inviting him into her chambers, she had me facilitate a rendezvous for them and asked me to stand watch outside her door, aiming to reveal her true nature to him and fully expecting him to leave her but having no intention of turning him herself, though such was the rule in the Volturi regarding outsiders who knew about us. But to Claudius, it didn't matter. They affirmed their love with secret trysts during the midnight hours as I stood watch outside her room, all of which I endured for her sake; for our friendship. Everything changed on the seventh night, however, as Amaranta very nearly killed Claudius after one such encounter – it is almost impossible for our kind to be so near to a human in such a manner without it ending otherwise - and begged me to change him in order to save his life, and I did it; I did it for her, though I could have drained him of every last ounce of his life force if I hadn't known that he was her true mate; if I had not known that she would not forgive me nor herself for killing him." His voice fell to a solemn pitch, a grave expression on his face now made very dark in the flickering light of the flames. "But by then it had already been done; that which had never been done before - Amaranta had conceived a child with a human mortal."
"What do you know of this child?" There was an edge in Edythe's voice now; a pang of desperation. Silas nodded once before continuing, like he was telling my wife to just be patient.
"Of course, Amaranta didn't know it yet, not immediately. They hadn't believed it was even possible. She and Claudius received Aro's and Sulpicia's blessing and the pair wed soon after when Claudius was still a newborn. However, Amaranta grew violently ill during the early months of their marriage and it was very clear that something wasn't quite right. It troubled us all immensely, especially Sulpicia, as we hadn't the slightest idea what it could be until the fateful day on which we first heard the thrumming of its strange heartbeat. By some sheer miracle, Amaranta was with child; a child conceived while her mate was still human. Aro ordered my brothers and I to keep a careful eye on not only them but Marcus and Didyme as well, whom he suspected were already planning to leave him because he could not bear to lose Marcus' powerful gift, and antagonized his beloved sister for it in his twisted mind. What else were we to do? Through us who were his eyes and ears, Aro got what he wanted.
"I was there when Amaranta delivered." He shuddered once, and I had to wonder why. Was it that bad for her? Would it be that bad for Edythe when the time came? "After a tumultuous birth, she welcomed a beautiful little girl named Adelaide into the world, a half-mortal and half-immortal child. Aro feigned delight at this turn of events but all the while he was only interested in what a child such as that could do for him, as there was nothing like her before in all our history. Aro wanted us to get rid of Amaranta and her husband somehow so he could take the girl for himself and do with her as he pleased; to render her into an extraordinary tool for power to achieve his goals." Silas shivered. "But we could never allow him to do such a thing, and my brothers and I finally informed them all of Aro's true intentions. Amaranta and Claudius had made plans with Marcus and Didyme - Sulpicia did not know of any of this for Amaranta, as desperately as she wanted Sulpicia to come with them, was afraid Aro would know too much if he showed Sulpicia any form, no matter how slight, of physical affection as was befitting a husband - to desert the Volturi with their child in tow but on the very night I revealed Aro's plans to them, the man summoned me to the throne room and, thinking to buy them some time, I went.
"Aro ordered me to give him my hand and saw in my thoughts that my brothers and I had betrayed him. Quickly, he went with Caius to Marcus and Didyme's quarters where our fleeing masters were to be congregated, though Marcus was not there at the moment. He locked all the doors and windows and instructed me to first eliminate Didyme as he could not bring himself to do it on his own. We refused. Aro, with a perfectly-composed smile suddenly spreading across his face like that of a madman's, seized and murdered Claudius, burning his body to ashes right before Amaranta's eyes and, taking advantage of her agonized state, seized the child from her whom I had tried in vain to take back from him. A fight then ensued. It was my brother Alexander however, who finally managed to take the child from him and he ran her to safety. Caius lunged for him, but Alexander was too quick and so, Caius set his sights on Amaranta now and sought to detain her.
"In the next instant, Aro flew in like a hawk and dashed Didyme's shoulders into a circle like a vise made by his two arms and looked on at the sight with empty eyes before at last posing an ultimatum to me: If I killed Didyme for him, then he would spare Amaranta. The painful choice was made so agonizingly clear to me – I would do anything to save Amaranta's life. Begging for Didyme's forgiveness, I raised my fist high in the air and shutting my eyes tight, I brought it hurtling down on Didyme. However, right before I had touched the skin on her white neck, there was a squeal; like glass shattering on the floor. And then I saw Amaranta's body, lifeless, falling at my feet. Before I could do Aro's bidding, Caius had already murdered the woman I loved." Silas' already-low voice quivered into silence and he let out a shaking, stuttered breath like he was running out of air, looking everywhere else but at us, his golden eyes glistening like glass on ice at what I was sure was an excruciatingly painful memory for him. Edythe squeezed my hand tight in hers and even Jules let out a quiet exclamation of shock at the story Silas was telling us, an aching twinge of pity lancing right through my own chest and making it feel tight.
"I had no reason to kill for Aro anymore. He knew that. In a movement as quick as lightning, he twisted his own sister's head between his hands and separated it from her neck. He burned her body to ash, letting out a deep, agonized sound before breaking into a strange and ferocious laughter. The doors flew open with a clatter and in ran Marcus and Sulpicia, both of whom fell down onto their knees sobbing. "What have you done?" were the only words uttered in that dark room, and I didn't immediately know to whom that voice belonged. My brother Ares helped me to my feet and soon after, him, Alexander, and myself canted our testimonies. Sulpicia, with Marcus' consent, sentenced Aro to death. Before carrying out the punishment, Sulpicia had Mele transport Aro's power into her and soon saw that Caius was the one to have murdered her sister, and she executed him herself that very night. However, with this gift Sulpicia also saw how Aro had recruited us to spy on them; how I had very nearly struck Didyme with the intent of killing her and so, while we were not put to death for our role in the painful affairs of that harrowing day, we were exiled for them instead, serving a sentence of 355 years in these mountains. We have been here ever since." And just like that, we were transported right back to that small stone palace; a prison cell of sorts, surrounded by nothing but the hum of nighttime creatures big and small crying out in the stillness of the night which filtered in through the cracks in the windows and the small interstice between the door and the cool floor.
"What became of Amaranta's child?" Edythe started in a plodding whisper, devastated on someone else's behalf, unsure if this was the right time to bring it up at all.
"Sulpicia raised the little girl as her own, and I was led to believe that she truly loved her. However, I'm afraid that that child is dead and gone now, too. I had failed them." Silas' fists clenched then unclenched on top of the table, helpless, and his eyes slid shut.
The revelation took a minute to strike us and then that tiny flicker of hope slowly extinguished like a smothered flame as his words sunk in.
"What happened?" My mouth fell open at his words which felt like a punch to the gut.
A bitter smile played up at the curves of Silas' lips. "I'm afraid I do not have the answer for you, boy. However, from what I've heard from nomads who take no side - old acquaintances of mine exiled from the Volturi by choice or otherwise - the girl was executed in her 28th year of existence by her own aunt."
"Sulpicia had her own niece executed?" Carine began in an incredulous voice.
"That is what they say, and I believe it. You must understand that those who knew of Amaranta, Claudius, and that child have been forbidden from ever speaking their names again – as we were ourselves – and run a great risk even disclosing such information to any outsider. To waste such breath with a lie would be foolish unless they had a death wish. It truly is a tragedy. They are nothing but ghosts now and I daresay it must stay that way in order to give their souls any modicum of peace, and that is all I wish to say on the matter." Silas finished, slamming the palms of his hands into the table with a hollow thud so it shook as he rose to his feet.
"I must ask your forgiveness once again." He scrubbed a hand over his face which looked oddly tired when I saw it better; forlorn, somehow. I guess reliving that loss must have been too much for him to bear.
"I don't think there is anything more we can do to assist you, and I truly do apologize." Silas showed us to the door, Ares and Alexander following silently behind him. He turned to look at us again. "But please allow me to say this much - you must fight for the way you want to live. Don't let them take your family from you. I truly wish you and yours the best."
"Thank you so much for everything, and may you find peace after all these years." Carine took Silas' hand and squeezed it. Once we stepped foot outside and out of range of the brothers' warm fireplace, we felt the freezing wind which had since picked up slamming into us from all sides and I pulled Edythe to my chest, draping my coat over her, trying to keep her and the baby warm with my body heat and recruiting Jules in the effort as well. The brothers stayed watching us as we disappeared into the night.