Ten

Chapter Ten

Time passed by with little meaning as the others chatted happily through our ‘visit’, only Rosalie seemed to share the same understanding with me as was evident by her bored sighs.  The hope I had once held for answers was dimming by the second and I was aggravated to no end to be still sitting here uncomfortably discussing the weather in Paris and summer homes in Rio.  Familiar as I was with the mindless, gossiping conversations of women, being raised by my mother had sealed my fate when it came to that long ago, but where I was once relieved by my family inviting themselves to this… well what I could only sum up as the vampire equivalent to afternoon tea, now I all I wanted was for them to leave.  

As the day wound to a close the room was filled with the early dusking light dancing off every surface in a dazzling display of orange and muted pink.  I tried to keep myself from staring at prism of rainbow that danced off the skin of my vampire counterparts which I knew failed when I heard Alice snicker under her breath.  

All but ready to leave I stood and made to thank my host but was halted when a soft rapping knock sounded on the large ornate door.  Athenodora’s eyes shifted to the door and a smile I could only deem as devilish tugged at the corners of her mouth.  With a soft “Enter” the door soundless opened and a young woman in her mid twenties gracefully stepped through the entryway carrying a gold gilded tray of assorted meats, bread, cheeses and fruit.  Her midnight tresses swaying against her flawless olive skin as she made her way towards her mistress.  A second woman entered, frighteningly similar looking to the first woman, she brandished a bottle of wine which of I was sure cost more than my childhood home.  

Sulpicia dismissed her quickly thanking her quietly for her service and then they retreated from what ever hole they had climbed out of in the first place.  It was still surreal for me to see such loyalty from someone who for lack of a better word was a glorified and willing slave.  I had been informed long before I had set foot on Italian soil that their had been and still are some mortals that earn their immortality through the service of the Volturi, but it made it no less sickening in my mind.  Willing or not I still had a hard time dealing with the fact that they were indeed bound by servitude.  

A light clearing of a throat alerted me that I was indeed still in the company of others and by the looks on their faces I concluded that I was busted scowling.  “They are treated quiet well.”  Sulpicia stated as her eyes darted for the door the girls had just departed from.  “It was my husband that started bringing mortal men and woman to the castle.”  At my astonished look she continued.  “I know what you must be thinking, but you are wrong.  Those two girls have lived here since childhood, forgotten by their parents in a damp alley-way used for the whores and vagrants of the city.  One of our other human aids found them and brought them to Aro.”  She held a black glove to her mouth in hopes to stifle her giggle but failed miserably.  “Caius was so angry, he detests most humans, which is why it was so hard to believe when he showed up here the other day positively reeking of you.”

She took a moment to gather her thoughts, or possibly letting most of what she said soak into my brain.  “Aro has turned many mortals over the years, most of what make up our guard now or at least the ones of lower rank.  Most of them have never had any other home but here, no family and doomed to wallow in the pit of filth and stench they were born in to.”  As her words digested I couldn’t help the small pang of shame that flitted through me.  I had learned not long ago that jumping to conclusions was never a good thing and this just proved that fact further.  I had been wrong to judge the Volturi and the girls that had so willing signed over their life before knowing the reasons behind them.  If I were honest with myself, I wasn’t so different.  No, I had not spent my life as the personal go-for for vampire royalty but I had willing signed my life away when I knowingly got involved with the supernatural; knowing the consequences to come.  That was the only thing I could give Edward credit for, he had after all, warned me that being around him and his kind would be dangerous but at the time my naïve young mind couldn’t possibly fathomed what dangers would entail.  

“Isabella,”  Athenodora called, abruptly calling me from my darker thoughts.  “Would you consider staying a while longer.  We still have much to talk about and it is something Sulpicia and I would rather do in private.”  When Rosalie scoffed loudly Sulpicia jumped understanding right away that she had offended my blond sister.  

“Rosalie, I have no doubt that Bella will tell you most of this conversation at one point or another but I still would like to speak with her in private.  And I hope you understand that most of what will be said here tonight is to stay between us, most here in the castle know of what I speak but there are still some I do not wish to gain this information.”  

My mouth dropped open in awe as I saw Rosalie nod in agreement and stand along with Esme and Alice.  After Alice and Esme exchanged their goodbyes in a flurry of thanks and kisses while Rosalie stood on at the front door and scowled, Esme rushed to me whispering to me to keep an open mind.  I should have known that Esme would already have what ever information I was about to receive.  After all she had been living with Carlisle for nearly a hundred years and Carlisle did live as an acting member of the Volturi for almost a decade, surly he already knew.  Alice followed suit kissing my forehead and breezing from the room dragging a huffing Rosalie behind her.  

There was a moment of dead silence in the room as Sulpicia uncorked the bottle of wine and pouring a single glass meant for me.  The only noise in the room was the crackling of charred wood in the fireplace as umbers danced up the chimney and my stomach was fluttering with nervous butterflies as my nerves returned in full force.  

“Isabella,”  Athenodora voice pierced the dead air, startling me to jump.  “I take it by what Demetri observed last night that you have seen my brothers scars?”  She questioned and I nodded.  “All off them?  She questioned further with a cock of her brow.    

I swallowed hard, suddenly finding my throat tight and very dry.  I picked up my glass downing the hearty dark red liquid.    It was a pleasant full bodied taste, obviously very old, but soon after a roar of heat coursed through my body as the wine took its affects.  With shaking fingers I replaced the glass as I answered hoping not to squeak out my answer.  “I’ve seen the scars on the upper half of his body, yes.”  

She sighed.  “Then my dear, you have not seen them all.”

“What happened to him?”  I asked quickly before I lost my nerve.

After nodding Sulpicia once again filled my glass, this time almost to the brim.  “I do not remember much of Caius from when I was a child as he was so much older than I, twelve years older to be exact but from what I can remember he was a very handsome but cruel man.  Believe it or not he was born with hair as pitch as night.  It wasn’t until after his change did we gain the same hair color or close as it is now.  He was always away on some journey or another and then our father died and he was made Lord of our lands, in line for the crown of France.”  She paused only slightly encouraging me to drink some more.  

“In the year Nine hundred and Eighty six I came to live with my brother at his manor after our mother had fallen ill with the same infliction that had taken our father.  It was a hard winter and hunting was scarce.  With the castle starving my brother led a hunt of few men out into the woods after dark, it was a full moon.  I remember waiting for two days before we had any word.  And that word came by a lone man, he was mauled and covered in blood and told us the tale of the giant wolves who my brother fought off to save the rest of the men.”  

My heart was racing and my mind was a jumbled mess.  986 my mind chanted over and over and as I quickly did the math I gasped.  Caius was over a thousand years old.

“It was Aro that found Caius in the woods that night.  He too had been hunting but not for meat as you have probably guessed.  I was still a young vampire myself only six years into this life but I still begged to come, Aro was assured we had more than enough men to keep me safe so I was allowed to follow.  We stalked them for days waiting for the right moment to strike.  On our last week in country we picked up the scent of blood and it was strong.  We tracked it to a clearing covered in snow and in that snow lay a man horribly mauled and dieing… or so we thought.  He had been bitten and as it was a full moon he would have changed.  With his last breathes he begged Aro to kill him he told us he had seen another man change and he didn’t want to become one of their kind.  Caius burned for ten days after my husband bit him and no one including me expected him to survive the change.”

“He was bitten by a Werewolf?”  I said more to myself than anyone else.  “Wait… does that mean that he is…?”

“No.”  Athenodora answered quickly.  “No the venom of Aro’s bite was enough to stop the change and allow the vampire gene to take over but the lasting effects of the wolves bites will forever scar him.”  

“And his… teeth?”  I asked not really knowing how to word that particular question.  Should I call them fangs?  

“Unfortunately, even though Aro’s venom was enough to stop my brother’s full transformation some the residual werewolf gene stuck and the mixed strain of his venom caused the difference in appearance that you might have noticed.”  

I felt myself tear up at all that Caius had suffered through, more than I could have ever expected myself too, but to hear how he had atoned himself over the years was more than enough for my heart to go out to him.  

It was well after midnight when I concluded my talk with Sulpicia and Athenodora and what a conversation it was.  My mind was reeling, a jumbled mess of thoughts and theories as I blindly followed my silent, vampire escort back to my room, or Caius’s room as I was so told.  

That night lying in the bed of satin and fur I thought about all that I had been told, true enough Caius was a bastard in his human life but he was a different man now.  He may still hate the human population but perhaps it was because he was so disconnected from them.  All he had ever known about the human race was their cruelty and greed and it undoubtedly affected his judgment now and that I could work with.  With myself resigned I let the thoughts of the evening wash away hopeful for the new day and my hopes of Caius’s return.  After all I had a new demon to face in the morning.  My mortality.