Vanhi stood her ground. "I apologize for underestimating you, Vladimir. But the fact remains that Emmett, Carlisle's son, is missing. You and I have no personal history, and I'm not asking for myself. Will you help him?"

Stefan appeared beside Vladimir. He was the negative image of his friend, his hair and eyebrows as dark as the other's were light. His lip curled in a sneer. Ignoring Vanhi, he spoke to Vladimir with the same heavy accent, nearly the same voice. "What shall we do with her, brother? Perhaps if we find this Emmett we can arrange a trade. I wonder how Marcus would like to see his little bird in a silver cage without her feathers."

Vanhi's head snapped up. "I never said he was naked, Stefan. And I don't have time for games. What do you know?"

Stefan smirked. "One hears rumors, you know. People with a lot of money can buy anything they want - palaces, silver cages, even a vampire to keep on display. And what do I care? As long as the vampire is not me!"

"Please - do you know where this palace is? We need to hurry."

"Maybe. But we do not talk to Volturi. Maybe when my friend Carlisle gets here we will help him. But you…" Stefan looked at her with contempt and slammed the heavy oak door in her face. She put her fist through it before she sped off, but it gave her little satisfaction.

Stefan had actually helped her, however unintentionally. How many "palaces" could there be in this area? All the houses she had seen were modest, so how hard could it be to find a mansion among them? After three hours of searching in an ever-widening circle, Vanhi was beginning to realize how difficult it could be. And then she spotted it, high on a hill. It was a palatial estate, surrounded by manicured lawns. As she drew closer, she could see that there were two very expensive Italian cars in the driveway.

The twelve-foot wall was a cinch. As soon as she cleared it, she heard the alarm. There was a scuffling noise inside that reminded her of rats in a cage, then the slam of a heavy door. The picture window was at least eight feet long, and the glass appeared to be bullet proof. Fortunately, it was not vampire proof. With a running start, Vanhi punched through it, the glass falling behind her like a fountain. "Emmett!" No response.

She quickly ran through the rooms on the first floor, second floor, then the basement. No vampire. The sirens were closing in when she realized she must have the wrong mansion. She left the way she had come, leaped over the wall, and disappeared into the thick forest behind the house. She figured the occupants had been fortunate after all. Their luck could have been much worse if she had found them. That was when it hit her. She'd never found the secret door that she'd heard slamming when she first breached the wall.

Vanhi doubled back carefully. The police were still there, poking around the huge walled garden. Good. They were in uniform, a large beefy man and a tall, slender woman. While the alarm was disabled, Vanhi leaped over the wall again and found a snug hiding place in the branches of a leafy oak tree. She could be very patient. Before nightfall, the large window had been boarded up and the house lights began to come on one by one. "Fool me once, shame on you," she chanted in her head. "Fool me twice, shame on me!"

This time she was ready. Between the time she kicked in the front door and the alarm began to wail, she was inside, moving too quickly to be seen by the naked human eye. The family, apparently well rehearsed, hurried to the basement and activated a rolling door camouflaged in the paneling, then slipped inside. It had only taken 95 seconds, and the door slid closed.

The room was cavernous, with enough food and water stored in cardboard cartons to last the family for months. In the center was the cage, and inside a naked vampire paced angrily. He stopped suddenly and stared in the direction of the stacked boxes. He rubbed his eyes. A slender woman dressed in a sari stepped out from between the rows. She was middle aged and attractive, and she looked somehow familiar.

"You people wanted to see a vampire in action?" Vanhi asked in English. She growled and exposed her fangs, and then she was on the man. He was slow and over-fed, but it wouldn't have mattered. He screamed, a high-pitched squeal, as she sank her fangs into his throat. As Vanhi drank her fill, the woman - obviously his wife - fell to her knees. The son was riveted to the spot, a dark stain quickly spreading down the leg of his jeans as his bladder let go.

Vanhi turned to the boy, her teeth stained with bright red blood. She motioned to the top of the cage, where the trap door was securely fastened. He didn't move until she took a step toward his mother, and then he scrambled up and clambered over to the hatch. She growled, and he swung open the door. Emmett wasted no time. With one graceful leap, he was out of the cage and standing next to Vanhi. "I don't know who you are," he whispered, "but thank you!"

They heard the sound of a doorbell, and all eyes turned to a TV monitor high on the wall. It clearly showed the front of the house, the door hanging on one hinge, as the same two police officers were entering cautiously, guns drawn. Vanhi looked at Emmett and winced. The boy stared longingly at the door, but he knew better than to leave his relative safety atop the silver cage.

Sounds of a scuffle turned everyone's attention back to the monitor. The two officers were down, and one discharged his gun wildly, disabling a crystal chandelier, as the dark haired vampire on top of him penetrated his jugular vein with venomous fangs. Another vampire leaped on the female officer - and Vanhi immediately recognized the pale blonde as Vladimir. Unable to contain a smirk, she turned back to Emmett. "The cavalry has arrived. What do you want to do with these two?"

Emmett looked around the room until he spied what he was looking for - the expensive Persian rug would serve his purpose. He tossed it effortlessly onto the top of the cage and leaped up before looking back down at her and grinning wickedly. "Lunch."

It took them a while to find the switch, but the inside latch was not as well hidden. As the door slid open, they found the two vampires sitting on the floor outside. "It looks like you found your vampire, Mrs. Volturi," Vladimir quipped in his broken English. "Did you not have a plan for getting out?" They both smirked in unison.

Vanhi sighed. "I was making it up as I went along. Come on, Emmett. Let's find you something to wear and get the hell out of here before somebody comes to check on the officers." She turned to thank the Romanians, but they had already disappeared.