Twilight: Darling of Volturi (YURI/GL)

The training of the newborns was progressing smoothly. From another perspective, however, it was becoming unbearably dull.

After three days, Jane's patience had begun to wear thin.

None of the newborns displayed particularly promising potential. Once they survived the newborn stage, most would simply be assigned to bolster the ranks of the Volturi's outer guard. A select few who proved incapable of developing any real sense of loyalty would instead be dispatched as informants to the Volturi's various regional factions.

Some possessed especially savage instincts and remained incapable of suppressing their thirst for blood. During their confinement in the Black Room and throughout the three days of training, they suffered endlessly beneath Jane's gift. 

Whenever she happened to be in a particularly foul mood, she would burn them until they collapsed writhing across the ground, after which any nearby guard could casually tear off their heads and toss them into the flames.

As Jane's twin brother, Alec naturally preferred remaining at her side. Watching his sister calmly snap the heads off five or six newborn vampires in succession, he silently confirmed what he had already suspected.

Jane's mood had been unusually terrible these past few days.

If she failed to improve, he decided he might as well bring up a few more newborns from the Black Room.

At least then...

She would have something new to kill.

"Master, there appears to have been a vampire hunt nearby."

A guard approached respectfully, carrying a silver tray with both hands. Resting atop it was a police report obtained from the local authorities.

Alec picked up the documents and, using a vampire's extraordinary reading speed, finished scanning every page almost instantly.

The report itself was concise.

A passing motorist had discovered a male corpse. According to his statement, he had been driving out of the city when he passed the stretch of road where the bus accident had occurred several days earlier. He noticed a vehicle parked beside the road. While it wasn't completely blocking traffic, it was enough to raise suspicion, so he stopped to look for the driver. Instead, he found the man's body collapsed on the ground and immediately contacted the police in terror.

The medical examiner's report concluded that the victim's cervical vertebrae had been completely shattered.

Almost every drop of blood had been drained from his body.

One glance was enough for Alec to recognize the unmistakable work of a vampire.

Several possibilities crossed his mind. Someone deliberately challenging Volturi law seemed highly unlikely. The method was simply too crude, too obvious. Whoever had done this hadn't even attempted to hide the evidence. A far more plausible explanation was that an inexperienced newborn vampire had escaped into the area and hunted nearby for some unknown reason, perhaps manipulated or lured there by someone else.

The remote outskirts fell into something of a gray area, lying dangerously close to the Volturi's protected no-hunting zone. What truly caught Alec's attention, however, was the location itself.

It was exactly where Jane's subordinates had disposed of the banquet victims only a few days ago.

The moment the matter involved Jane, Alec refused to be careless.

Leaving the investigation to ordinary guards invited unnecessary mistakes. He decided to handle the situation personally.

He lowered his voice and said, "Jane, I need to go out for a while. I'll take Demetri with me. We'll be back soon."

Hearing that, Jane abandoned the newborns who were still crawling across the ground in agony, searching for their severed limbs. In an instant, she appeared beside her brother. Alec stood noticeably taller than she did, forcing her to tilt her head slightly whenever they stood this close.

Resting a hand gently against his arm, she asked, "What mission?"

Alec handed her the police report and autopsy findings before reassuring her, "It's only a small problem. Don't worry."

Jane finished reading with astonishing speed. Her conclusion differed little from Alec's own. Instead of commenting further, she gently caressed his cheek and quietly reminded him to return soon.

Alec nodded obediently before turning toward the training grounds' exit. Passing the guards stationed in the shadows, he ordered, "Where's Demetri? Tell him to meet me at the western watchtower."

Even as he walked away, Alec could still feel Jane's gaze resting upon his back. Smiling, he called over his shoulder, "Jane, you should try using actual combat techniques once in a while. Your gift is too overwhelming. Training must be terribly boring."

The western watchtower connected directly to the castle and received the least sunlight during the day. Whenever the guards needed to leave during daylight hours, they almost always chose it as their departure point.

Information spread quickly throughout the Volturi.

The moment Alec stepped onto the tower, Demetri landed beside him almost simultaneously.

"You know," Demetri chuckled, "next time you can just tell me where to meet. It's not like I wouldn't know your location anyway."

Alec couldn't be bothered explaining.

"We've got actual work today. Don't waste your gift tracking me."

The two vampires donned their hooded cloaks simultaneously, ensuring not even the faintest ray of sunlight could touch their skin.

Their partnership had endured for over a thousand years.

Neither questioned the other's supernatural gift.

Truthfully, whenever any two gifted Volturi guards worked together, success was almost guaranteed.

A mischievous smile tugged at Alec's lips.

"If we're still outside after sunset, Jane will definitely blame you. She'll even throw in a complimentary burning spell."

"You twins really do enjoy ganging up on people!" Demetri muttered under his breath. "Caius specifically banned supernatural gifts inside the training grounds. How many times have the two of you broken that rule already?"

Despite complaining, his body reacted much faster than his mouth.

He had already taken off before Alec.

"You can always use them outside the training grounds."

Alec followed immediately behind him. His speed couldn't rival Demetri's tracking gift, and only because Demetri deliberately slowed down did the two manage to travel side by side.

"Oh, spare me!" Demetri cried dramatically. "I guarantee you'll make it back before sunset. Then you'll go right back to your sister and kiss her on the cheek."

The crime scene wasn't particularly far from Volterra in a straight line. The winding mountain roads, however, forced humans to spend considerable time driving there.

For vampires...

Those mountains might as well have been flat ground.

Without exaggeration, even a rescue helicopter would have looked like an old woman crossing the street compared to their speed.

The original crime scene had already been restored almost completely. Even the guardrail destroyed during the accident a few days earlier had been repaired with astonishing efficiency.

At least...

By Italian standards.

"Brother, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill."

The moment Demetri landed, he caught the overwhelming scent of another vampire. Combined with his gift, he could practically reconstruct every movement the vampire had made.

"Want me to draw you a portrait?" he joked. "You can carry it around town and compare faces until you find the guy."

His teasing only became more excessive.

Landing beside him, Alec immediately realized the situation differed from what he had expected.

The scent had been left completely exposed.

Footprints remained across the roadside.

Farther below lingered traces of human blood.

There was so much evidence that even without Demetri's tracking gift, Alec's centuries of experience and heightened senses were enough to reconstruct what had happened.

"Looks like you won't be needed here after all."

Alec patted Demetri's shoulder.

"I'll handle the vampire. Go find Fabio and tell him to clean up the human side of things. We'll meet back at the castle."

Then he asked, "You still remember Fabio?"

"Jane's subordinate. The vampire who manipulates memories."

As he answered, Demetri had already pinpointed Fabio's location.

"I've met him."

Anyone Demetri had ever encountered, directly or indirectly, left an unmistakable imprint inside his mind.

To him, every human and every vampire on Earth appeared as clearly as teammates marked on a game map.

As a human...

Demetri must have been unbeatable at hide-and-seek.

"Exactly." Alec chuckled. "Should I compliment your excellent memory?"

"No need. But seriously," Demetri sighed, "did you drag me all the way out here just for a sightseeing trip? If it's only a newborn, do you want me to snap off its arms and legs first?"

Alec laughed.

"Did you forget? I once wiped out an entire army of one hundred newborn vampires by myself."

He waved Demetri away.

"After you find Fabio, head straight back to the castle. The next time Jane decides to 'burn' you, I'll release my mist and cut off your sense of touch."

With that, Alec leaped from the cliff, following the increasingly concentrated scent below.

Demetri's voice drifted down from above.

"Your mist? The same mist that wiped out a hundred newborn vampires? Somehow that doesn't sound very reassuring!"

Alec landed gracefully at the bottom of the cliff, taking care to disturb the surrounding terrain as little as possible.

Even during his descent, he noticed several obvious fractures scattered across the cliff face.

Every one of them had been left behind by a newborn vampire.

One blessed with overwhelming strength...

And absolutely no control.

At the shaded base of the cliff rested a massive boulder carpeted with moss. Dark, dried human blood had seeped deep into the greenery, staining it nearly black.

Alec found it immediately.

The damp scent of moss and earth partially obscured the victim's lingering smell, but the human had remained there long enough that traces still remained.

Scooping up a handful of moss, Alec raised it to his nose and inhaled lightly.

In an instant, the entire sequence unfolded inside his mind.

A fall from the cliff.

Crippling injuries.

Massive blood loss.

A chance encounter with a vampire.

Transformation.

Not long after awakening, the newborn encountered an unfortunate human, drained every last drop of blood, and fled into the depths of the forest.

Fortunately...

It had run.

Had it remained beside the road feasting upon passing humans like an open buffet, leaving corpses strewn everywhere, public outrage would have spiraled completely out of control. The Volturi would have been forced to dispatch far more guards to clean up the mess.

Alec almost wanted to commend the newborn for possessing at least a shred of common sense.

I'll make your death quick.

You won't suffer much.

Casually tossing the moss aside, he silently declared the hunt had begun.

"The game of escape..." A faint smile crossed his lips. "...starts now."

A hunt that awakened a vampire's instincts could only end one way.

With someone's death.

Yet Alec harbored another motive he couldn't share with anyone else, which was precisely why he had deliberately sent Demetri away.

The vampire responsible for the accident...

The one responsible for creating the newborn was Fabio.

Jane's subordinate.

Alec couldn't determine why Fabio had acted as he had. Whether everything had been entirely his own decision remained unclear.

From beginning to end, Fabio had never reported a single word.

Accidentally transforming a newborn vampire wasn't an unforgivable mistake.

So why conceal it?

Trying to hide it only made one possibility increasingly obvious.

Disloyalty.

The unwavering loyalty of the Volturi Guard was one of the foundations upon which the Volturi's power rested.

After eliminating the external threat, Alec intended to return and settle accounts with Fabio personally. If he discovered even the slightest trace of betrayal, he would tear off Fabio's head with his own hands and cast it into the flames.

Afterward, he would report everything honestly to Master Aro.

His master would surely understand.

Until then, however, no one else could be allowed to learn the truth.

No matter what happened, Alec would never allow anyone to threaten Jane.

Which was why the newborn born from this accident has to die.

No trial.

No exceptions.

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