Chapter Nineteen

"Here you are," Demetri said, plopping down a sleek yellow motorcycle in front of me.

Several people were looking his way, likely wondering how on earth he had managed to carry the bulky vehicle all the way down the street and to the small café I was waiting at.

"How did you get this?" I asked, baffled. He'd only been gone ten minutes. I imagined it would have taken at least an hour to find a rental place willing to let a strange, black-robed man with absolutely no money take a vehicle of theirs.

"There are lots of people with motorcycles here."

"You mean you stole this from a stranger?"

He rolled his eyes. "You really do think the worst of me, don't you?"

"What? Do you expect me to believe someone just gave this to you?"

He twirled the silver key ring between his fingers and flashed me a dazzling smile. "Of course someone just gave this to me. Why wouldn't they?"

I was about to protest this further, but—honestly—charming some unsuspecting human into forking over their entire motorcycle seemed exactly the type of thing Demetri would do. I hefted a sigh and rose from the outdoor seating area, heading over towards the motorcycle. My nose wrinkled as I examined the worn leather of the seat and rusty handles. It didn't exactly seem to be the best model out there.

Demetri put the key into the ignition. The motorcycle purred to life. Before he could even hope to sit at the front, I intercepted his path and settled against the leather seat, hands curling around the handles.

"You're driving?" Demetri said incredulously.

"Of course." I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of using any vehicle, but I felt marginally better if I was the one in control.

Demetri was eyeing the backrest with great disappointment. "But I'm the one who got the motorcycle."

"So?"

"Do you even know how to get back to Volterra?"

"Isn't that what you're here for?" A spat of silence followed. He seemed to have run out of arguments. I glanced at him with heavy exasperation. "Are you getting on or not?"

"Well, seeing as I have no other choice…" he muttered dryly, sitting down behind me delicately.

I twisted the grip my hand rested on, and the motorcycle roared forward. In a matter of seconds, we were speeding down a near-empty road, sweeping past neighboring cars, lamplights blurring by. I felt two hands snake around my waist, and I nearly rammed the motorcycle into an upcoming wall in sheer surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"For safety," Demetri responded curtly. His chest was pressed against my back. The exhale that accompanied his words tickled my ear.

"Safety?" I repeated in disbelief, struggling to keep my eyes on the road. "You're a vampire."

"That may be so, but I still don't want to fall off."

"But—"

"You have to take a right here," he said, cutting me off. "After that, you can follow straight for a little while, although I'm not sure if there'll be a road to let us do that. Humans have the worst habit of building roads in the most confusing ways. Especially around here—dozens and dozens of roads leading out of Rome, and arranged in the most baffling manner…"

He rambled on and on. The wind whipped over us, brushing over my cheeks. I delighted in the cool touch, the sweep of the crisp night as it descended. After some time, even Demetri's prattle became a part of the atmosphere—a gentle, almost nonsensical stream of words pouring out of his mouth, washing over my ear.

I was almost disappointed when we arrived back in Volterra.

We parked the motorcycle somewhere in the town, leaving the key on the seat, before beginning the trek back to the castle the Volturi resided in. It was not late enough that people were asleep yet. There were still a few townspeople roaming about, eyeing Demetri as he passed by. When I caught their gaze with my own, they looked away hastily. It wasn't the usual look I had come to expect from people. They usually stared with reckless abandon.

"Have you ever come through the front?" Demetri asked as we entered the grounds.

I looked up at enormous doors at the front of the castle. "No. I thought we weren't allowed through there?"

He bounded toward the stone walkway that led to the front doors. "Not during the day. But it's easy to slip in now."

Once we reached the front entrance, his hands skimmed down the length of the wood before resting on the iron-wrought handle and pulling. The door creaked open slowly.

"After you," he said airily.

I stepped inside. It was far more decorated than any area of the castle I had seen so far. Long tapestries and banners were hung across the walls. It seemed most of the furniture from other rooms had been relocated here. There were various dressers and bookshelves dotted all over the place, although they were all roped off.

"Is this a museum?" I asked, my fingers trailing along one of the ropes.

"Sort of. It's really just for show."

"Isn't everything in a museum technically 'just for show'?"

He snorted.

We turned around a corner and were met by the sight of a large group of people, old and young alike. They were clustered around the foyer, some snapping photos of the grand architecture, others chatting fervently about the beauty of the castle. They were being led by a striking vampire in a velvet dress. I was momentarily stunned by the sight of her. She carried the same sort of energy as Rosalie—alluring, magnetic—although they didn't look even remotely alike. The vampire across from us was much taller, with dark hair that fell down her shoulders in glossy waves and sharp, crimson eyes.

"I didn't realize there was a tour scheduled at this time," Demetri commented with light surprise.

I turned to him. "Tour?" My eyes flickered back to the crowd of humans. "Oh—is this how you cultivate revenue?"

He didn't answer immediately. His eyes dropped down to meet mine. They were darker now, almost indistinguishable from the pitch black of night. There was a small frown playing at his lips.

"What?"

"This—" he glanced back at the tour, "—is how we feed."

My lips clamped shut. An awful feeling crept over me. I looked back at the tourists—dozens of unsuspecting people being lured to their deaths. How would it go? Did the Volturi trap them and pick them off one by one whenever they were feeling famished? Or was it more of an instantaneous frenzy—guardsmen coming down in droves, snapping necks and draining blood without delay? My stomach churned and twisted at the thought of such violence.

"Your coven is highly unusual in its vegetarianism," Demetri said quietly. "What we do here… It's the norm."

But it wasn't right.

I didn't know why I felt so surprised all of a sudden. I had been warned of this. I had known long in advance that the Volturi, and most other vampires, fed on human blood. This was simply how the world was for them. What could I do about it? Tout moral philosophy to a coven of vampires who had probably witnessed the Enlightenment?

"We fly them in," Demetri continued to explain, even though I had not asked, "so they're not local. And we do careful research. None of them will be missed, and—"

"Why are you telling me this?"

He faltered. "You just seemed…alarmed."

I shook my head. "I know most vampires feed on human blood. I know how it works. I just…" My voice trailed off. I didn't know how to finish the thought. I just didn't think I'd see it in action. I just didn't realize there would be so many people. I just forgot you were one of those vampires…

Before Demetri could follow-up on what I was saying, the vampire leading the tour caught sight of us. Her gaze landed on me first before flitting over to Demetri. Her lips spread into a charming smile as she took him in.

"Demetri," she greeted lowly, stepping a little away from the chattering humans.

"Heidi," he responded. The solemnity he carried fell away, replaced by something breezier, more casual. He returned her smile with one of his own. "Dinner looks absolutely delicious."

Her lips curved into a more playful smile. "Is that the only thing that looks delicious?"

"Well, I prefer to be called divine instead of delicious, but if you must…"

She laughed, and the sound was unfairly melodic, like wind chimes twinkling. My initial discomfort about the throng of humans disappeared in an instant. A trickle of irritation seeped into me. I knew Demetri was a flirt, but I hadn't realized he flirted with just about anybody.

"I have to go lead them—" Heidi inclined her head towards the crowd, "—to the atrium before the others get impatient. I suppose I'll see you there later?"

"Naturally."

She nodded and returned to the gaggle of people. They clamored up to her as she approached them. She seemed to have an effect on them that surpassed the usual allure of vampires. The people in the foyer followed her further into the castle without even a second thought. Those who had been in the middle of taking photographs stopped completely just to hear her speak.

As Heidi and the tourists disappeared, I turned to Demetri and said, somewhat gruffly, "I'll get going."

"Going?" he repeated.

"Yeah." I was already walking away. To my further annoyance, Demetri followed behind dutifully. "You have to go feed, don't you?" With Heidi.

"Yes, but not for some time."

"Then I guess you'll be early."

His lighthearted expression crumpled into something more gloomy. "Yes… I'll see you later, then?"

I shrugged. "Maybe."

"Alright," he murmured, and parted from me as we reached a junction.

I traveled up, watching from the corner of my eye as Demetri headed down a different path. I pulled my gaze away only when he disappeared from sight.

I scaled up the tower reserved for my family slowly, grinding my heel into each step, trying to stamp out the sight of the crowd of chattering tourists, of Heidi's sickly sweet smile, of Demetri's lingering eyes. By the time I reached the cluster of rooms we were sequestered in, the moon had reached its peak in the sky. I sighed and reached for the door to Rosalie and Emmett's room, hoping they might have some board game or funny stories to get my mind off of what I had just witnessed.

I swung open the door and found, to my surprise, that it was empty. I moved to the next room—Carlisle and Esme's—but it was empty, too. I strained my ears, searching for any sign of life. The only noise I could make out was the faint rustling of pages in the last room in the corridor, which was Edward's.

I barged in without knocking. Edward, who was spread out on a crimson chaise, heaved a large sigh and let his book, likely another sappy romance novel, fall to his chest.

"Can't you knock?" he demanded.

"As if you didn't hear me approach the door," I scoffed, walking inside and settling by the window. "Where is everyone?"

"They went out," he grumbled, picking his book back up. "Alice is shopping with Jasper. Esme and Carlisle wanted some alone time. Rose and Emmett went into the town for a date, I think. They were searching for you a bit before they left, though." He eyed me over the edge of his novel. "You'd better have an excuse ready by the time they get back."

I shrugged. "I went sightseeing."

He snorted. "Yeah, feed that excuse to Rose and see what happens."

"I really was!"

"Sure."

"What else could I have been doing?"

"Antagonizing guardsmen?" he guessed dryly. "I might not be able to hear your thoughts, Tess, but I can hear everyone else's."

My mouth fell slack. "What's that supposed to mean?" I said, voice a tad higher than I expected it to be. "Sometimes I just bump into guards on the grounds. They're scattered all over the place."

"Right. If only there were some way to avoid all those guards," Edward said sarcastically, "like—oh, I don't know—turning invisible or something."

I pursed my lips. "I don't like being invisible all the time, you know."

"Sure you don't," he said indulgently, and returned his gaze to his book.

I stared at him, my stomach in knots. I didn't think it mattered very much if I were chatting with members of the Volturi—namely Demetri. I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't revealing secrets about myself or my family. I certainly wasn't being swayed over to the dark side. But if Rosalie and Emmett found out, they'd think I was, and I simply didn't want to waste time and energy defending myself.

After the silence dragged on for much longer than expected, Edward looked up at me and sighed again. "You don't need to look so worried. I wasn't going to tell them anything."

I raised a brow. That was a first. "Why not?" I asked, somewhat suspicious.

He shrugged, gaze flickering back down to his book. "What goes around comes around," he muttered under his breath.

I decided not to waste time unraveling Edward's idiosyncrasies. "Alright," I agreed blindly. "But, just so you know, I really was sightseeing."

Edward groaned. "You do realize I'm trying to concentrate, right?" He waved his book in the air. "Why don't you go sightsee some more? Preferably somewhere far away from me?"

I pursed my lips and hefted myself off the window sill. "Fine," I bit, flouncing towards the door. "Enjoy your erotica, Edward."

"They're classics—!"

I slipped out the door before I could hear any more of his grumbling. I trailed back down the steps, wondering where on earth Rosalie and Emmett had gone and when they would be back. Once I reached the ground floor, I wandered up and down the east section of the castle before crossing over into the west. I rounded past the foyer Heidi had brought the tourists through. There was no one there now. Guests and vampires alike were long gone.

I turned back around, intending to head outside for a stroll when I heard a scream—high and shrill and distinctly human. It was a faint thing, muted and muffled through layers of stone and wall, coming from further down, where the atrium was located. More cried joined in, filtering through the air, bleeding from the walls. I realized with a jolt that the tour had ended and the feeding had begun.

I was so focused on the distant shrieks and shouts that I completely failed to hear the footsteps approaching me.

"You're wanted in the throne room."

I whirled around in surprise. Just a few steps away from me was a rigid, round-faced vampire. She stood about a head short than me, hair arranged in perfect copper ringlets. I remembered her from the first day I arrived in Volterra. She had been amongst the cluster of Volturi guards that surrounded Aro, Caius, and Marcus. But I couldn't remember her name, if she had even been introduced.

"Are you talking to me?" I asked hesitantly.

She raised one brow loftily. "Who else?"

She certainly had me there. There wasn't anyone else on the floor—save for the feasting vampires and dying humans down in the atrium.

"Who wants me, exactly?" It couldn't be that Aro was calling on me, not when the rest of my family were out and about. Or...perhaps this was exactly the opportunity he had been waiting for: a moment when Carlisle wasn't nearby.

"I don't know the details," the vampire said dismissively. "Aro simply informed me to fetch you. The request was made hours ago, but I couldn't find you until now."

My stomach sunk with the weight of dread. What could Aro want from me? If he had asked for me hours ago and I only just appeared now, how irritated would he be?

"Oh, alright," I managed after a moment.

The vampire gave me a short, stiff nod and headed on her way, striding down the length of the corridor before ducking right towards the atrium. I swallowed down my panic and tried to approach the situation with a clear head. It wasn't normal for Aro to call on me out of the blue; usually, Carlisle was the one who informed me if my presence was needed.

My eyes lingered on the path the unnamed vampire had vanished down. Rosalie's voice flashed in my head: Don't trust the Volturi.

Could this be a trick?

I stepped in the direction of the throne room. The moment my foot hit the stone, I vanished from sight. It would be best to check and see if Aro really was waiting for me in there before running back up the tower and disturbing Edward again.

I slunk down the intricate channel of corridors and hallways before finding my way back to that marble room I had been escorted to when I first arrived. The guards who were usually stationed by the double doors were gone; they were likely with the others down in the atrium. I stepped past the open doors easily and made my way inside. It was empty save for the lone, slouched vampire in the rightmost black throne. Tall and unmoving, he was slumped into his seat, eyes staring vacantly into the distance.

It was Marcus.

My brows furrowed. Was this some trap the copper-haired vampire had expected me to fall into? If so—what was the purpose? Or had she been telling the truth? Had Aro truly been expecting me hours ago and got so fed up with waiting that he left? Either way, I was almost certain I wasn't supposed to be here. I stalled near the dais for a moment longer, mind spinning with possibility, before turning away, intending to leave and tell my family of the strange encounter the moment they came back.

"It's you," Marcus spoke as I took my first step forward. I froze in my tracks. "The unseen Cullen."

I whipped around in shock. How on earth had he been able to tell? I could feel my power cloaking me, hiding ever facet of me—sight and sound and scent. There wasn't anything that could have pointed to my existence.

"Reveal yourself," he commanded.

And although he was old enough to crumble into dust, although his eyes did not contain even a shred of life, although he didn't even seem particularly invested in the moment—there was still a sliver of something in that voice of his. Lurking underneath that swift current of sadness, there was the spark of a king long gone.

My invisibility dropped, and I turned to Marcus with something like sheepish regret. "My apologies," I said, mimicking the way Carlisle spoke to the Volturi—the quiet murmur, the excessive verbiage. "Someone said I was needed here, but…"

"But you were mistaken," Marcus acknowledged. He lifted his head from the hilt of his palm and turned to me slowly. His red eyes, clouded and soft from many centuries of dust and decay, searched me. "Interesting… I could not detect you that first day you arrived. But now, alone, I can see it clearly: a multitude of bonds, stretching out in various directions and to various people, but from nowhere. That," he said, answering my unspoken question, "is what gave you away."

I stared at him helplessly, unsure of what to say. I knew next to nothing about Marcus. Carlisle and the others had always said he did not matter very much, not next to Caius and Aro. As a result, I had paid little to no attention to the aged vampire whenever I was called to the throne room.

I shifted in my spot, wondering if I ought to offer up another apology. Marcus had neither accepted nor rejected the one I offered initially. I wasn't sure if this meant he didn't care or if he was simply waiting for something better.

As I hemmed and hawed, Marcus parted his paper-thin lips and spoke once more. "You have nothing to fear," he said, almost dismissive. "Aro and Caius have gone to their wives."

The question came spilling out of my mouth before I could stop it: "They have wives?" Conniving, scheming Aro and brutal, gory Caius each had a wife? Who on this planet had been willing to join hands with those two?

The first sign of life bled into Marcus. His face morphed from one of indifference into something faintly amused. A laugh escaped him, although it was more a wheeze, a forced exhale of air, than true laughter.

"Oh, yes," he said, "we have wives."

I relaxed. He was not temperamental like Caius, and didn't seem to have anything up his sleeve like Aro.

"Shouldn't you be getting on to your wife, then?" I asked casually. Perhaps if I formed some sort of rapport with Marcus, he could convince Aro and Caius that I wasn't a threat and let my family leave.

Unfortunately for me, that hope shattered the moment I dreamed it up. The subdued, relaxed smile dropped from Marcus's face in an instant.

"Yes," he murmured. "I should be…but she is so very far away."

A sinking feeling enveloped me. Something wasn't quite right, but I didn't know what. "Oh. Where is she?"

He didn't answer immediately, choosing, instead, to stare at me—or rather, through me. His eyes searched beyond me, as though another invisible person had wandered into the throne room. The silence stretched on between us. I had waited through long nights of quiet before. It was so easy, as a vampire, to simply lose hold of the moment. You could sit still for days, unblinking and unbreathing, nothing more than an embalmed corpse, without feeling the least bit bored. Time could tame even the most impatient of vampires, and I was no exception.

But this silence was different. It was not calm or relaxed. It was deeply uncomfortable. Although the throne room was wide and open, I felt stifled and choked.

"Didyme and I were going to leave," Marcus said at last, still looking at something I could not see. "We had been planning to for a very long time. She wanted to see the world. I was more than happy to let her drag me along. Aro gave us his blessings. The night before we were to leave, she went for a stroll through the gardens. We had already begun to curry power. Nomads were not fond of the idea of a monarchy. They attacked her…" His voice was deeply pained. I could feel the heartbreak rolling off him. My own heart felt swollen with sympathy. "As for where she is now… I scattered her ashes over the gardens centuries ago. Perhaps some of her has been carried by the wind, flown off to the far reaches of the world, places she has always wanted to see…"

"I—I'm sorry," I said softly. "I'm really sorry."

He didn't acknowledge my condolences, didn't even seem to hear them. His heavy gaze remained focused on the white of the walls. He stared forward with such intent and focus, I almost thought Didyme might step through the marble.

"With her, eternity didn't seem to be enough," he said, voice quieter than a shadow, deeper than a grave. "Without her, it drags on and on—and I with it."

Silence settled once more. Panic spiked in the pit of my stomach. Marcus was deeply upset, and it wasn't something I had intended in the slightest. What was the punishment, I could not help but wonder, for forcing a Volturi king to relive his most painful memory?

I didn't want to find out.

"What was she like? Didyme?" I asked hesitantly, hoping beyond hope that he might return to that faintly amused self of his if he recalled some happier memories of his wife.

His eyes refocused on me. A scrap of surprise bled into his features. "She was…" He searched for a word. There didn't seem to be one that encapsulated Didyme, so he scrapped the sentence completely and settled on saying, "She radiated delight. Just being near her was enough to make you happy. She once took me all through the garden and pointed out each and every flower she had planted. She had given them all names…"

Marcus burrowed deeper into his memories. Some semblance of life returned to him: his voice regained inflection, a shred of bright warmth entered his eyes, and there was a ghost of a smile lurking under his lips. He radiated such honest love that I found my initial discomfort fading away. I was pulled into the spell of his story. The way he talked of Didyme, with such tender care, with such wist and want, made her almost seem alive. I could imagine that happy, delightful vampire, almost expected her to come into the throne room and laugh at Marcus for spreading such stories about her.

"I knew the instant I saw her," he recalled in a daze, like he was back in that moment again, meeting her for the very first time. "When she told me her name, when she held my eyes in her own—I knew I would never love another."

It had been like that for Rosalie and Emmett, too. She had seen something in Emmett the moment she found him, something that reminded her of the life she could have had, something that pulled her to him. She took him in his arms, and although he had been bleeding profusely, she carried him over miles and miles of land to have him changed. After that, they had never spent a single moment apart.

"Is it always like that?" I found myself saying. I had never seen someone and simply known we were meant for each other, not like how Rosalie had known about Emmett the instant she saw him, not like how Alice had known about Jasper far before she had even met him. I wondered what that moment might feel like—a hammer hitting you across the head, an arrow sinking deep into your heart? Perhaps it wasn't even noticeable. Perhaps it happened so softly and subtly that you wouldn't notice until the other was gone. "Do you always know at first sight?"

Marcus blinked back to the moment. "For some, it is at first sight. Others, first scent. No matter how, you will know. It may be longer for some than others. But you will always know."

A/N : Hey everyone! Hope you're all safe and healthy during these trying times! I hope this chapter brought you a little entertainment :) Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. Keep letting me know what you think! It's very encouraging!

Just a note about Marcus: Of course, Didyme didn't actually die at the hands of some ticked-off nomads, but that's the story Aro's given him (I don't know if there's a canon story Aro's fed Marcus; I couldn't find anything on the wiki, so I made this one up).

I-am-sarah123 : I really have to thank you for getting me back into this story! Something about your last review (specifically "Or are Vampires only able to sense their Mate if they can smell their scent?") really jumpstarted my brain (because that question, when it comes to Tess and Demetri, is *literally* the title of this story—you'll see) and got me to love this story again. There are mates in the Twilight Universe, but I'm not sure how much of it is like a "love at first sight" sort of thing, you know? As far as I can tell, a vampire can fall in love with someone (not necessarily instantaneously but I think there are some instantaneous examples, like with Rosalie and Emmett) and once they do, it's like a done deal, you know? There'll never be someone else for them. But I do think that the "falling in love" process is much faster and deeper than it would be for humans, and perhaps aided/bolstered by scent (like a compatible or familiar scent) or sight. Not really sure. If anyone has any insight, please share!

renjutori : lmao at "Demetri thinks he's being so smooth sugesting a motorcycle so that Tess has to hold onto him"! I swear I wasn't thinking of that at all when writing it, but now that you've said it that is 100% what Demetri was thinking—until Tess decided to take the lead and he was like welp, I can still hold onto you