DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

Summary: Edward is the ultimate vampire. The original. The one from whom the vampire race was born. So powerful that even the Volturi fear his presence. For millenia he has been the true ruler of the vampire race, with the Volturi as the ones carrying out his wishes, no matter what they are. What happens when a visit to the Volturi alerts Edward to their concerns about the Cullens, and he decides to pay a visit to the quiet Olympic coven? Will Edward see them as a threat to the world he's spent millenia molding, or will he leave them and allow them to carry out their lives in peace?

It was pretty much a unanimous decision for me to post this, which I am absolutely thrilled about. I had no idea that people enjoyed my stories that much.

So here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

Edward

Eternity.

That is what I am bound to.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Never changing. Everything the same.

Of course the world around me changes. But I never do.

Mortals dream of immortality, and how "cool" it would be never to age. To stay the same forever. Take it from someone who has been the same forever, it's not all its cracked up to be.

For nearly fifteen millenia I have wandered the vast expanse of this earth, never changing, watching everything everything around me change and alter with regards to the planets needs. Let me tell you something, the planet isn't as big as people like to believe it is.

Everything that has come and gone in this world I have seen.

I have been there for everything.

The emergence and fall of each of the great civilisations: Egypt, the Romans, the Greeks, the Incas, each and every Chinese Dynasty. You name it, I was there. Watching and in my own way manipulating everything that happened.

Ever since that fateful day.

My last day as a lowly human, I have been this. Frozen. Moving marble, as I have been called over the years. And I have cursed the day that it happened. If I had listened to my elders when they told me to stay back, I would have died all those millenia ago. A real mortal death, encased in slumber forever. Not this half-life. If I had listened I wouldn't have ended up slaughtering my whole village and then some.

After that I wasn't alone anymore.

I wasn't the only one of my kind.

Everyone that I'd bitten and drained changed. It was then that I discovered I was venomous, infecting every human that I had bitten. Each and every one of them had became as volatile and tempermental as I was. Even so, they looked to me as their leader. I was in charge. None of them challenged me. In their eyes, I had given them this life and so they were indebted to me.

None of them were around anymore. Over the centuries they had created more and destroyed each other in the process. Even though it wasn't me directly destroying the lives of lowly humans, it was all because of me that they were being changed on a daily basis.

We didn't have a name back then. Not when language was so new. It had only just evolved from the primitive grunts and moans of the animals that we had descended from. They didn't have an appropriate name for us. All they knew was that we were something to be feared. Or more appropriately I was something to be feared. It appeared that no matter where I went, the settlers had heard of me. The blood-drinker that would not die. That could not be killed. Not that they hadn't tried. They sure as hell had. But nothing had worked. Spears, arrows, fire, nothing had worked.

That was one thing that I didn't share with my … descendants, I guess you could call them. They were susceptible to fire. It had no effect on me. Various times in my long existence I had wished that it was. Life, or rather the un-life as it seemed appropriate had become so tedious and repetitve that I'd wished for an escape. I'd even gone looking for it on several occassions. And of course the settlers around were well aware of my existence. It seemed that no matter where one went, there was one name that resounded all around. A name that was said in fear and warning.

Edaar.

That of course was my original name. My name has changed many times over my long existence and there are none alive now, save for myself, that know of my original name.

Not even those that I had massed to take over the day to day ruling of my species. Of course, I was still in the ultimate control. No one dared to question my command. Those who did met a swift end.

In the end I had grown tired of travelling around the world, purely to keep my species under control. It was becoming extremely tedious work. So I had created three to watch over the race in my stead. The still answered to me, as all of my kind did, but essentially they would do what they saw fit to keep my species under control. I had one rule that I wanted kept in place. And one rule only.

Total secrecy.

Not many knew this but it was because of me that they were forced to stay hidden in the shadows. I had seen with my own eyes what happens when we are out in the open, and have the humans know about us. It's not something that I wished to observe again. Most of those that had followed me into this eternal damnation believed that it was because of the brothers and their wishes that they had to keep the secret.

All knew of me of course.

They feared me.

They knew that if they did something that was even above the brothers heads, then I would be there. I would be there in an instant, teaching the offender that they must obey the rule. In the only way that they seem to understand.

Luckily for them, the brothers didn't seem to need me to intercede very often. Some of the time, when they did something that I didn't approve of, then I would take a trip to their home in Italy to pay them a visit, making sure that they realised who was in charge. Who their leader was. It was needed sometimes. They tended to sit too highly on their thrones and believe that they were invincible. Sometimes I felt the need to take a visit and remind them who the truly invincible one of the race was. The only invincible one.

After each and every visit they understood. But it helped to take a return visit once every decade or so. Just to keep track of what they were doing. Of course, I never announced my visits. That gave them time to prepare.

Just turning up was a better way of seeing how well they were really dealing with the ruling of my species.

Because after all it was my species.

I was the patriarch, as it were. All of these creatures were descended from me, in a way, therefore I was the undisputed leader. No one fought back, even though sometimes I wished that they would. It would make life so much more interesting. Having some that fought back, rather than just sitting there cowering in my prescense.

Over the years we had been called many things. The Cold Ones. Nosferatu. Names similar to those, but never sticking around for very long. I myself have even been granted the name Apotamkin for some reason, by the Native Americans. From what I've heard, I've been dubbed as a bogeyman type of character. Oh well, if it stops people from becoming intrigued enough to actually search me out then I don't really care. The most recent name, probably spanning back a couple of centuries, I don't know, to me time is insignificant, happens to be the favourite amongst humans.

Vampire.

Personally, I prefer it to the other names that we've been given. It has a certain ring to it.

Thankfully, humans no longer believe in my species as largely as they used to. Of course there are still a few that like to pretend that they know vampires or that they know a lot about us. But most of the time they are so far from the mark it actually becomes amusing.

All this leads to me, right here, right now.

At the moment, I am speeding through Austria on the way to Italy to check up on those dear brothers that I created all those years ago. Just to make sure that they are doing their jobs properly. This is just a routine trip that I make every decade or so, unannounced as always. Where's the fun in telling them when I'm going to turn up. I'm fifteen thousand years old for heaven's sake. I've got to get some amusement from somewhere.

I'm heading towards the city of Volterra, where the brothers have settled. The Volturi they call themselves. Of course now there are more than just three of them. They have a whole guard and wives that help them to do their, well technically, my bidding. I don't care how they do it, or how many they have helping them to do it. As long as they keep the vampire world hidden from the human world, that's all I care about.

I don't want another war to break out. I've already had enough of those. Humans trying to hunt down vampires to try to rid the world of them. The human mind amazes me. It doesn't matter how many of them I hear there are few that take me by surprise, but every so often, every couple of centuries or so, there is one that is more bold than others. One that intrigues me for a short period of time, until, like all the others it gets boring and I grow tired of it.

That's one thing I have yet to explain about myself. My gifts.

Yes, gifts.

There are a few of my kind that enter into vampirism bringing an extra gift with them. There have been mind-readers, psychics, nature wielders, empaths, trackers, you name it, there has been a vampire with it. There haven't been any that have been able to fly yet though. That would be amusing to see.

How do I know what gifts there have been?

One reason: I have them all.

Whenever a new vampire with a gift is created, the gift itself manifests itself in me. It doesn't matter when or where the vampire is created, how old the vampire is or whatever, the gift that they bring over into vamprism is one more that I possess. This means that I know exactly how many gifted vampires there are in the world. One of the prices, I have to pay, for creating and entire species I guess.

Not that I'm complaining mind you. It helps to instill fear into the species. If they all knew about my gifts then there was less of a chance that they would oppose me in any way. I also knew that a great many of these gifted vampires resided in Volterra. Not under their own free will mind you. This was something I continuously needed to bring up with the brothers. They had one vampire, I didn't know her name, nor did I feel the need to, however I knew that she had the ability to strengthen or sever a bond between individuals and groups. I needed to remind the brothers to remove this vampire from their guard or I would dispose of her. To me, free will was one of the only things that mattered.

I could see the wretched city now. The one where the three brothers, the three "leaders" of the Volturi resided, in the large castle. I snorted at the thought of how my species thought that they were the ones in charge. Not realising that the Volturi themselves took orders from someone more powerful than them. The whole place wreaked of death and despair. It looked more like a prison than somewhere that royalty should have lived, had we not given them reason to never return to Volterra.

The three brothers that sometimes I wished I hadn't created lived within these walls.

Aro, Marcus and Caius.

Aro got on my nerves. He thought that because he could read minds that he was of more use than anyone else. Newsflash, Aro! Not that important. Reading minds can be a very useful tool, but at times it can be more of a hinderance than a help. Of course it was a great help when it came to these visits.

Unlike Aro, I was not limited to touching someone to read their mind. I could hear whatever thought was passing through a mind, human or vampire, at a particular point in time. Aro was only able to obtain thoughts by touch. One reason I never shook his hand. Even though I could shield my mind, I didn't like the thought of touching him or any of the brothers.

Marcus didn't bother me so much. He was just a bit depressing and boring really. I wish that guy would get some personality. He really could use it. Yeah, I sympathise with the guy. He had lost his wife, but that happened lord knows how long ago. Well, actually I knew how long ago, but that's beside the point.

His gift was an interesting one, if I do say so myself. Being able to see the relationship between others was something that was highly invaluable. Especially in what he does. Politically, it has been found very useful. Not that I use it on a regular basis, but it has helped out in the past.

Caius on the other hand. I found that guy to be as irritating as hell. He was always for confrontation. I often wondered why I kept him around. Oh yeah, because I couldn't be arsed to get rid of him. It was more effort than it was worth.

Maybe it was because he didn't have any special abilities. Maybe he felt inadequate. Whatever it was it didn't really matter to me. All I cared about was that he stayed out of my way. If he didn't then he would be finding himself without a head very soon.

Driving through the city I parked my car and tossed the keys to a valet, who was admiring it. Sticking to the shadows I made my way into the castle, walking straight past the guards that just stared after me in awe.

Imbeciles, I thought irritated. They obviously knew who I was and that is why they made no attempt at stopping me. Silently, I wished that there would be some resistance. Maybe just a little bit. It would make coming here so much easier. I knew that they didn't know I was coming. There was no psychic here. As far as I was aware there was only one psychic in the world and she was in the States somewhere. No bother to me.

I walked straight through the tunnels that led to the Great Hall in this place. Why they chose to live in these dank and dark tunnels was beyond me. It's not like anyone could see you when you were in the castle. So you can walk around, sparkles and all.

That was one thing I hated about what I was. The fact that because our skin was said to be like liquid marble, when the sunlight struck it, it appeared to turn into millions of tiny diamonds. That wasn't something that I had gotten out of unfornately. And it sucked.

Unbelievable, I scolded myself. I really need to stop driving through large cities for a while. The language used there is seriously affecting my vocabulary.

I walked up to the doors of the Great Hall and walked straight in, to the surprise of a few members of the guard. New members obviously. They obviously hadn't been well educated in who I was, because they turned and crouched into an offensive pose when I entered the room.

"Enough!" Aro cried, launching himself out of his throne in an action that looked to fast for his frail looking frame. The others must have noted how full of fear his voice was so they immediately relaxed, keeping their eyes on me the whole time. "To what do we owe the pleasure, Edward!"

I heard a collective gasp from around the room as Aro announced my name. I heard a few disbelieving thoughts that didn't bother me. Then one outright dismissed it in his mind and I turned to face the offender.

"What was that?" I asked quietly, walking up to him slowly, menacingly.

"I didn't say anything." He was trying to keep control of his voice, to remain calm and in control, but unfortunately for him, it wasn't working.

"You didn't have to." I stopped in front of him, my face a blank canvas. After fifteen millenia, it kind of becomes second nature to keep your face blank.

Before he had the chance to respond my hand was around his throat. He was a relative newborn, so he was still fairly strong. It didn't matter how old a vampire was when it came to me though. I would always be the strongest. I forced the young vampire down to his knees and slowly began tilting his head away from me. His body stayed frozen in its place, thanks to another little power of mine and I felt the skin underneath my grip begin to give way. There was a tearing sound and I saw a large gash appear in his throat. I wasn't going to rip his head off. Today at least. He just needed to know who was in charge.

I released his head and it snapped back into place, the flesh starting to mould back together as soon as it connected.

"You should learn to show your superiors some respect." I hissed at him, as he stared at me, fear written in his very posture. "And they don't get much more superior than me." I gave him one more look over before turning my back on him.

The rest of the vampires in the room cowered away from me, instinctively. They had either known me from a previous visit or they had been warned about me, and therefore stayed away out of respect.

Before any of them could process what had happened I was sitting in Aro's throne, legs hanging over the side casually. I knew that none of them would oppose me. None of them ever did.

"Do you wish to tell me of your recent failures, Aro, or do I have to pick your brain?" I gazed over at him lazily and he stood there rigid. There was obviously something going on that he didn't want me to know about.

I swung my legs over the throne, and placed my feet on the floor, still watching Aro for any untoward movement. I could tell that the other vampires around were not used to Aro behaving in such a way. I didn't recognise any of the scents of these vampires, and from what I gathered from their minds they were all fairly new. It seemed that the Volturi were attempting to boost their brute force for some reason.

I let down the shield that I usually held in place and let myself invade Aro's thoughts. Normally, the thoughts of the three brothers were coherent and scheduled, running in perfect sequence when I came to visit as they all knew the drill. They knew what I wanted when I came to visit.

This time though, something was wrong. There must have been something really getting them all going because Aro's thoughts were in complete disarray. Never had they been like this before.

There was one thing that kept flashing through his mind though. The only continuous thing.

A name.

A familiar name.

Cullen.

Carlisle Cullen.

I remembered him from numerous visits to the castle. He had resided here for a number of decades. He was always easy to talk to, no matter what the subject. He had always intruiged me. He had never tasted human blood. Or at least when I had known him that was true. From the images flashing through Aro's mind at the moment that may not be the case anymore.

"Why does your mind keep coming back to Carlisle Cullen?" I challenged Aro and I watched as his features became drawn and cautious. "Aro, you for one know how I do not like my patience to be tried. Answer the question."

There were a couple of confused looks at my obvious disrespect towards Aro, but then again, I'm the one who made him. Hell, all of them, every vampire on the planet could be traced back to me, so I figure I can be a bit obnoxious when I feel like it.]

"We feel that his coven is growing abnormally large." Aro explained his voice shuddering with fear slightly. This was obviously something that the vampires who served under him were not used to, judging from the thoughts running through their heads. "We feel-"

"How many?" I cut him off holding up a hand.

"I'm sorry?"

"How. Many?" I hissed through gritted teeth. I was growing impatient. For a vampire that was a few thousand years old you would have thought that his thought processes would be a bit faster. I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of an anger problem, but after fifteen thousand years of walking this planet, who wouldn't?

"Seven." He answered quickly, obviously not wanting to aggravate me any further.

I sat back in his throne and thought for a moment. No one spoke, or even moved. They all knew better.

Seven was abnormally large for a coven. The Volturi's main worry was that Carlisle was trying to amass a group large enough to take them on. I knew Carlisle well enough to know that that was not the case. Carlisle wouldn't try anything like that. He was too passive for anything like that. He believed in preserving life, not taking it. That's what intrigued me about him so much when he was here. He refused to take a human life. Only animals.

"What were you planning to do about it?" I asked casually, not breaking my train of thought.

"We were planning on wiping them out as soon as possible." He sounded confident that I would like this plan. Unfortunately for him, I did not. I may agree with disposing of vampires where needs be, such as the wars that were happening in the south of the continent now called America, but recklessly disposing of a coven for no reason was something I did not approve of.

"Have they done anything to warrant such an attack?" I asked cooly, my gaze meeting his, knowing what the answer was before I even asked the question.

"Not as of yet, but we believe that it is just a matter of time." He answered me, still acting confidently of his assumptions. I hated that about Aro. About all three of the brothers actually. They were too cocky and confident. As if I hadn't threatened them enough. The knew not to let their places of power get to their heads, because I could rip it away from them as quickly as I gave it to them.

"No." I stated simply. "You will not attack the coven. Instead, I, will be taking a trip there."

"My lord?" Aro sounded worried now. Why he sounded worried I had no idea. Technically speaking I was the only indestructible one of us on the planet. "You will be visiting Carlisle and his coven?"

"Yes, Aro I will." I let my impatience and intolerance of his idiocy become clear in the growl that erupted from my throat, causing some of the younger vampires to recoil in fear. It was clear who I was by now and none of them wanted to risk being torn limb from limb, as I had been prone to doing over my many years. "I haven't seen Carlisle in many years, and it would be interesting to catch up with my old friend."

I stood up, whilst picking through Aro's brain, discovering where Carlisle and his family were sitauted.

"No one is to approach Carlisle and his coven unless I give the say so." I growled walking past Aro and stopping just behind him. "Is that clear?"

"Yes, my lord." He answered, not moving an inch. I knew he hated me. And I didn't care. He could hate me all he wanted. It didn't change my seat of power. He knew that there was no vampire alive, or dead, as it were that could have even a hope of lasting more than a second against me. Trust me, vampires have tried and failed to best me. None have survived.

I walked out of the Great Hall, knowing that I was being watched by all the disbelieving eyes of the vampires behind me. Many of them were still in shock over who it was that had just walked out of the room. Many of them were still in shock over how I had spoken to and treated Aro. To them, the brothers were the highest authority. Well, at least they were.

I walked out of the castle and over to where the valet had parked my car. I didn't need to keep to the shadows seeing as the sun had set by now, something I was glad for. Even after fifteen millenia, I still hated having to hide in the shadows.

Exiting the city as fast as possible I was glad to be out of that place as I made my way to the nearest airport, which appeared to be Venice. Being in Volterra made me feel older than I really was, and that was a hard feat to achieve. I had the cash to catch a direct plane to the States. I would use one of the jets that I owned but I didn't have one present in Italy at the moment and it would take to long for it to get here.

Yes, I'm impatient. It's a fault of mine.

It seemed as though I was taking a trip to Forks, Washington USA.

And from what I had gathered from Aro's mind, it wasn't the most interesting place on the planet. But then again, not a lot interested me anymore.

But I would find out what worried the Volturi about Carlisle's coven. Whether the fears were well grounded or whether they were completely irrational, which wouldn't surprise me when it came to the brothers. Paranoid gits! I thought. The only one they had to worry about destroying them is me, and if they kept their fears to the rational level, that wouldn't happen any time soon.

Oh well. Back to the States I go.

Let's hope this time will be more productive than the last.

That's the first installment.
This is all I'm going to post for tonight, and I'm going to wait to see what the response is to it tomorrow.
If you guys like it enough then I'll post more.
If not, then I won't bother.
It's all up to you guys.
Will be updating Alive Again and Protecting Him tomorrow as well.
Please lemme know what you think.
xx