In the shadows (Caius Volturi)

Drama in Volterra

****Nobody's position****

It was safe to say that the castle in Volterra was not somewhere you wanted to be right now. The Cullen's had noticed that Shado was missing the next morning and immediately they were on high alert. The Volturi guards who were with them combed the entire town and the two close to the one they were staying in but to no avail. Shado was missing.

Then came the dreaded phone call. Needless to say it was a disaster. Caius went up the wall when he heard that his mate was missing, and they had no way of finding her. Her gift of hiding didn't particularly help there either. Within just an hour almost the entire guard was mobilized after nobody could get hold of the young girl who by now was who knows where. The Volturi also called all the coven's in Russia that were good friends with them and told them to look out for said missing human – who was the mate of Caius which made it crucial that she was returned unharmed.

Sadly nobody had only the faintest idea where the hell Shado could be. They knew she was well versed in Russian, so communication wouldn't be a big problem but something else made them even more confused.

There was no scent in her room, meaning she must have left on her own accord. She hadn't expressed any desire to leave anywhere and also after going throw the little leather book she had left in her room they were no wiser. Not only did it take almost three hours to decode it at least a little bit the only real clue was a name 'Valentino' which was marked. But who knew when she had done this.

In short. They had no idea where to fucking start looking. Slade had left a few weeks prior visiting some friends in Mexico and he said he would stay there for at least a year so there was no doubt he also didn't have any idea where Shado was. That and he didn't even have a phone so how would she contact him?

The kings were all around a big table in the throne room, looking at a map of the area in confusion. How come a human could hide so well. There weren't that many places she could have gone and only so far she could get within that span of time, on foot through the snow.

They had run out of ideas when there was a loud knock on the door. A few seconds later the door opened, and two vampires were led in my Heidi.

"My kings. We have some news about a strange creature we ran into just yesterday."

Aro looked more than intrigued and motioned them to talk. "We were out in the forest, near a town in Russia when we noticed a very faint human heartbeat. We followed it and then the person, a young girl, saw us and ran away, blocking her sounds and scent almost completely. I'm afraid she knows about vampires, but she seemed to know about us already. We were not able to track her afterwards due to her not having a scent and all." Caius didn't need a gift to know that they were in fact talking about his beloved mate and that they were lying about how they met her.

Before the two vampires could react Aro grabbed their hand and saw what really happened. When he let go again he signalled for some guards who brought them to the dungeons before the two really knew what was going on.

"Shado was busy, brother. It looks like she skipped town and then killed a human named Valentino there. The vampires were helping them as he promised them more powers. He was a scientist. Shado seemed to know him and probably went there just to end his life. They chased her away when they smelled his blood. She got away but the problem is that she is now somewhere in the Russian landscape, hopefully not out anymore because she wouldn't survive it too long." Aro's voice got very quiet at the end and Caius gave out a furious growl.

After a quick phone call to the guards in Russia they found the building where the body of Valentino still lay, a knife stabbed in his heart. The blood that came out of him mouth was already dry but the terrified look in his eyes was still in tact. It was obvious that the vampires had spent their time looking for Shado, who was hopefully still safe, and didn't bother and try to do anything with the body.

So now they had a body but no idea where Shado went. They found the cave they assumed she hid in as there was a fragment of her clothes and the scent was quite prominent which means she must have been there for a while, otherwise it would have been much more obscure.

By the time the guards arrived at the small town, they had been joined by both Caius and Marcus while Aro stayed in Volterra to make sure the vampire world didn't burn and collapse. Especially since fire was lethal to them.

The town was about twenty miles away from the cave and when they entered it, they got a lot of weird looks. The only place where there seemed to be at least a bit of life was the small pub, so they headed straight to there, where they were greeted with sneers and bad looks. The village people obviously didn't like visitors.

The barkeeper was a grumpy man who looked older than he probably was. Caius sneered when he smelled the air around him. It was a mixture between alcohol, smoke and body odour, not exactly a good combination.

They walked straight to the bar and Demetri pulled out a picture of Shado that they had used in the other cities, showing it to the man. "Ищем эту девушку. Она была здесь?" (We are looking for this girl. Was she here?)

The man stared at the little picture before giving them a curt nod. "Она пришла вчера, потребовала воспользоваться телефоном, и ее подобрали мужчины на шикарных машинах. Опасные люди."(She came yesterday, demanded to use the phone and was picked up by men in fancy cars. Dangerous men.)

"Имена? И куда они ее забрали?"(Names? And where did they take her?)

"Никто не знает"(Nobody knows)

The glaring contest between Demetri and the barkeeper was interrupted by the ring of a cell phone. Caius's cell phone. Contrary to many believes the Volturi did use modern technology and were more or less capable to use it. Marcus was by far the worst and even with hm being a vampire, so basically never forgetting anything, he seemed to fail and tiny things such as unlock the phone or send a text. The number was unknown and when Caius picked it up he had a glare on his face and was ready to shout at whoever dared to call him.

"Caius?" A timid voice said and immediately all his anger vanished.

"Shado where are you? We have been looking for you. We were very worried. I was very worried" He asked in a gentle yet demanding voice. There was quick pause and, in this time, the Volturi all left the smelly pub and stood outside in the cold, not that they really felt it.

"I'm safe don't worry. I'm with a friend" was the only thing she said.