The second pursuit mobilized three of the Volturi's core guards, a force so overwhelming that it bordered on absurdity.
The three of them strode out of the palace shoulder to shoulder, their black cloaks billowing behind them. Around each neck hung a golden chain bearing the emblem of the Volturi's authority, swaying gently with every step and scattering fleeting flashes of gold beneath the dim light.
The guards stationed at the entrance watched their departing figures in stunned silence. One of them even counted twice, then a third time, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things. The sheer number of core guards being dispatched left them speechless. Quietly clicking their tongues, they couldn't help pitying whoever had become the target of this mission.
Ordinarily, suppressing a small vampire coven required no more than one or two core guards. Seeing three leave together was extraordinarily rare, and whenever that happened, it almost always meant Aro was making another significant move. Of course, such matters were well beyond the place of ordinary guards to speculate upon. None of them wore the golden family crest that symbolized true authority within the Volturi. If they offended even a single core guard, the torches that would reduce them to ash were never far away.
Life as an outer guard was only marginally better than wandering as a rogue vampire. They received a regular supply of blood, even if the refrigerated blood bags tasted mediocre. At least there was never any shortage.
Meanwhile, the "poor soul" they had been secretly discussing was desperately fleeing for her life.
Her broken arms knitted themselves back together even as she ran. Venom flowed through her body, rapidly repairing every shattered bone and torn muscle. Having escaped death twice in succession, she no longer had the luxury of wondering whether fate favored her or despised her.
A newly transformed vampire stood at the absolute peak of physical capability. Though Sophie knew nothing of vampire physiology, one day she would surely look back and thank this miraculous body for carrying her through the most desperate days of her existence.
Unfortunately, because the healing had occurred while she was sprinting without pause, the bones in her arms had fused at awkward angles. Every movement felt wrong, as though some mountain spirit had attempted to imitate a human form using a faulty reference. Even so, she never slowed down.
After escaping, she headed relentlessly north. Whenever possible, she submerged herself beneath rivers and streams, following the waterways rather than traveling overland. She had no idea who was pursuing her, no way of knowing whether her pursuer had already given up, and certainly no clue that the number of hunters on her trail had quietly increased from one to three.
She had once believed that dying would free her from the fear of death. She had even searched for a peaceful resting place after her first death. Yet when death itself reached out once more and sank its claws into her soul, every instinct within her erupted violently. Her desire to survive overwhelmed every other thought, driving her forward with reckless determination.
The final moment of her human life had been left unfinished, filled with vast stretches of blankness waiting to be colored. That desperate longing to keep living had become forever frozen alongside the moment her humanity ended.
She ran with every ounce of strength she possessed, refusing to surrender.
Unfortunately for the three hunters behind her, the speed of a newborn vampire pushing herself to the absolute limit proved astonishingly troublesome.
Before setting out, neither Demetri, Jane, nor Alec had expected this "cleanup assignment" to drag on for so long. Two full days and two nights slipped away before any of them realized it.
Alec had misjudged the duration based on his previous attempt to capture her. Jane and Demetri, meanwhile, had placed too much faith in Demetri's tracking gift while vastly underestimating the determination of the fugitive herself. Had this merely been another casual hunting game, they likely would have lost interest somewhere near Milan. But this was now an assignment personally given by Aro. Even if they had to chase her to the ends of the earth, they would bring her back.
The reckless newborn occasionally emerged from the rivers, perhaps driven by instinct to hunt. Unfortunately, luck never favored her. Every time she wandered into another vampire's territory, she was ruthlessly driven away before she could feed.
The Volturi guards, however, received precisely the opposite reception.
Throughout Europe, nearly every vampire coven acknowledged the Volturi as the royal family. The moment the three revealed their identities, no one dared challenge them. Rather than driving them away, the local vampires became as obedient as frightened quail. Some even eagerly volunteered to point them in the right direction, though Demetri hardly needed the assistance.
Those conveniences steadily shortened the distance between hunter and prey. Before long, they found themselves approaching the national border. The rivers they followed gradually narrowed, and when they looked toward the horizon, the snow lines of the Alps appeared faintly beneath the drifting clouds.
Early May brought brilliant sunshine to Volterra. By midday, tourists wandered the streets wearing short sleeves and sunglasses beneath the warm Italian sun.
Yet during that very same season, the Alps remained buried beneath deep snow. Many of the mountain routes would stay closed for at least another half month before hikers were permitted to climb them.
Jane's patience had nearly reached its breaking point. Yet the instant the snow-covered peaks entered her sight, the corners of her lips almost curled into a smile. Years of relentless combat had sharpened her instincts, allowing her to sense that this endless pursuit was finally approaching its conclusion.
The freezing temperatures atop the mountains made survival difficult for nearly every other living creature. While humans were prohibited from entering, the snowfields became one of the few places where vampires could move freely without concealing their existence. Above the snowline, visibility stretched for miles in every direction. Every river had frozen solid. There would be nowhere left for a fleeing vampire to hide.
"Our battlefield has finally arrived," Jane said, encouraging the two beside her. "Don't let this opportunity slip away."
If the fugitive crossed the mountain range and reached the plains beyond, they would be forced to repeat another endless chase through forests and river valleys. Worse still, the Alps fed into both the Rhine and the Danube. Once she reached those waterways, tracking her would become infinitely more troublesome.
Carrying the greatest burden among the three, Demetri immediately accelerated. As the fastest of them, he abandoned the twins without hesitation and shot ahead after their target, leaving Alec and Jane to follow the trail he carved through the snow.
Fresh human footprints marked the untouched blanket of white, but each impression disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, buried beneath freshly falling snow until only faint depressions remained.
Jane and Alec pressed forward behind Demetri. Endless fields of white reduced visibility to almost nothing. Judging from the steepness of the climb and the thinning air, Alec estimated they had already ascended well above three thousand meters.
"Jane, something isn't right. Why is Demetri heading toward Mont Blanc?"
The lowest crossing through the Alps sat around 1,350 meters along the French-Spanish border. They had already passed several mountain routes below three thousand meters where crossing would have been far easier.
Yet the pursuit never stopped.
Instead of descending toward the plains beyond, their quarry continued climbing higher and higher, aiming directly for the tallest summit in the entire range.
"Because Demetri's chasing an idiot!" Jane shouted over the howling wind as snow and ice lashed against their black cloaks, which had already become dusted white. "Maybe she failed to reach the summit as a human and decided to fulfill the dream after becoming a vampire. Who knows what goes on inside that girl's head?"
Alec laughed despite himself. "Wouldn't surprise me. Maybe she's trying to cross 'climb Mont Blanc' off her bucket list."
By then, the distance between the three of them had narrowed considerably. Demetri deliberately slowed his pace, waiting for the twins to catch up.
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