𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒, Volturi Kings

CHAPTER 21

UNKNOWN POV

I don't know when I decided that I hated the cold. Maybe it was the first licks of frostbite on my fingers, or the sun-kissed snow that fell onto my winter pelt. Either way, I distrust the chilly winds that had become my prison.

It wasn't even the seasonal change that gets me all bothered. The long nights filled with screaming and crying of the other poor souls trapped in here with the savage vampires whose immortality had been tested and proven fallible. One couldn't escape nashing teeth. Bloodlust doesn't die with you, it's here too. Maybe we should have thought twice before slaughtering the newborns, and the haunting echoes of immortal children.

This isn't Hell, it's something else altogether. Hell has order. It's God-ordained punishment for the unworthy. Where we got put is another realm, something ruled more by chaos than anyone or anything.

The people who get put here aren't guilty, but they are evil. Maybe Hell is for the ashamed and this for the inhumane. That may explain why so many vampires live here. And the only ones who seem to be having a good time are the children who were created into vampires before the age of puberty.

Grass was not green here, but a dark grey. Most of us wore grey clothes, the only show of color being the red, or pink of our eyes. Many vampires had starved, or had come here starving. Their souls had been lost by now, and they'd buried themselves deep beneath stagnant soil.

Nevertheless, I had found myself near one of the only water holes in purgatory. Glittering water pleated against my black skirts, tempting me inside the unnaturally tempered lake. It was a most kind temperature, being just the right amount of warm to release steam when my cold skin touched its edge. 

"You know, there's a feast this evening, love, you should come," Athenodora says as she plants her grimy hand on my shoulder. "Even the Children of the Moon are talking about the new humans who have been coming in. Droves of guiltless members of terrorist organizations. I would hope you still find such places your type."

They weren't, but Athenodora wouldn't care. She never did. Since the day I met her over three thousand years ago she's never thought of my opinions as anything more than that, opinions. She could shove them to the back of her mind better than anyone else in this world. I didn't think I would be finding her here so soon. So soon after the turn of the century. Maeve says it was sudden, that they'd been killed by the Queen.

So my Marcus has found a woman worthy of him. After so long.

"I will be honest with you, Athenodora, as I always have: I care not for the feasts of this world. I would rather not take part in such activities. I prefer to take my prey swiftly, from the Nazis or slavers that have found themselves here," I explain. Athenodora shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

"But those ones are old and have been here for so long. Do you seriously have no variety in your diet? You used to love to go hunting with Sulpicia and I."

I hated going hunting with Sulpicia and Athenodora. They would be so cruel. The two of them were no better than the human beings who felt no remorse for the crimes they committed against humanity. Feeding with them was like watching some torture porn movie, disgusting and unsuitable for those of moral taste.

"Old ones are just as suitable to fill my raging hunger as the rest. Most have been captured for the Immortal Children to feed on as well, so finding food no longer is a struggle. We have no need to be cruel anymore, Dora, the world will move on either way. There is no show of power in it for you, sister, and I will not make an attempt at what you do. I never have been quite like you." Standing my ground was always the best option with her, she who could manipulate with a simple sway of her hips.