𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 ; volturi kings

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XX

Ingrid Grieson stepped out onto the newly-built patio, breathing in deeply as she observed the night sky above.

The inaudible joking of her closest friends carried through the large house behind her, whilst the summer breeze bit at her cheeks.

A quiet crackling sound emerged from the bushes to her left, and she slowly turned to face the disruption. Drunkenly stumbling towards the flock of greenery, she released a quiet scream as a hand reached around and covered her mouth.

Practically jumping out of her skin, Jasmine Swan let out a shriek as she jerked closer to Chelsea, who then cried out with surprise.

Rolling her eyes at the overdramatic screams emerging from within the TV, Heidi snarked, "if it scares you so much, why do you even watch this?"

"Um... cause it's exciting?" Jas replied, adjusting the volume as the Criminal Minds theme tune played.

"Plus, Thomas Gibson is super hot," Chelsea added.

"Preach."

"Can't argue with that logic," Heidi shrugged, then suddenly snapped her head down as the alarm on her watch bleeped.

"Lunch time?" The newest member of the coven asked with a small smile.

"You know it." Heidi grinned back at her, promptly exiting the room to get ready to meet the newest group of unfortunate tourists.

Heidi was... unsure of what to make of the kings' soulmate. She was sweet, but also had a bold edge to her- much unlike Athenadora's indifference and coldness, Sulpicia's spoilt, sour temper, or the irresistible, fabricated happiness that exuded from Didyme.

But, hundreds of years with the Volturi coven could do that to a person and, somewhere deep inside, Heidi hoped that Jas' unsure optimism wouldn't be chipped away by her mates' bloodthirst and lavishes.

As she walked to her room, she was swiftly passed by a small blonde figure heading towards Jas' quarters; Heidi shot Jane a teasing smile, to which a moody glare was returned.

The small guard knocked on the door, but struggled to be heard above the squeals from inside the room- when she impatiently entered, Jas' girlish laugh ceased, "hey."

Jane's instructions were straight to the point, "since he doesn't want you to get bored, master Aro suggested that you could start on ability training."

"Do I have to?"

Jane began to (internally) raise an eyebrow, before she identified the underlying joke in the new queen's tone.

"There's only ten or so minutes left," Chelsea stated, now as equally as devoted to Jas' favourite TV show.

"Alright, we'll finish this first, and then I'll kick all of your asses." As Jasmine picked up the remote, she raised an eyebrow at the guard still lingering by the door, "are you just gonna stand there or..."

"Or?" Jane prompted with confusion seeping into her voice.

Jas patted the seat next to her gently, "come sit down."

Jane didn't reply, but robotically followed her instructions; the two other girls gave her an amused look as the episode began to play again.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

Ten minutes or so- in reality, three whole episodes- later, the three vampires entered the so-called 'training room'.

It wasn't so much for physical training, as vampires play fighting could decimate entire forests, but more for practising with gifts and abilities, particularly stronger ones, as evident by the large piles of rubble.

Jasmine's scarlet eyes surveyed the large, stone room, suddenly noticing-

"Demetri?"

The taller, blonde man-child turned around and grinned at her, "how have you been, your majesty?" The playfully mocking edge in his tone was clear.

She feigned thought for a moment, a small smile on her face, "I've been worse."

"Oh yes, I've hear-"

Interrupting the reunion, Jane scowled at the other guard, "what are you doing here?"

"Sorella, he is just here to observe- after all, he was also part of the attempted apprehending of the new queen," Alec suddenly appeared, speeding into the room without disturbing a single dark hair on his head.

"As long as he's quiet, he can stay." Jane turned to Jasmine, "are you ready?"

"Sure," Jas shrugged, "who's first?"

"Tua mad-"

"Me." Jane, with false enthusiasm, interrupted Demetri's comment- Jas couldn't exactly understand what he had been saying, but it was certainly something sarcastic.

Grabbing onto the other girl's hand, the small blonde guard turned around to the man leaning against the wall, "Demetri," she gave him a small smirk, "if you would be so kind as to be the dear queen's target."

Jas' attempt at holding in a snicker was adjourned as a familiar feeling settled, this time in the foremost part of her head- a dull pressure occupying the space just above her eyebrows.

Directing her gaze at Demetri, she whispered an unapologetic, "sorry," as she forced the pressure into the space in front of her, the burning agony creeping into every crevice of his undead muscles.

She took a second longer than necessary to withdraw the invisible force, due to both Jane's satisfactory smile and her own sense of karma.

"You were certainly a lot quicker this time than you were in Siena," Alec commented, as Chelsea mutely clapped her hands together a few times.

"Well, now I know what I'm doing," Jas replied.

The over-dramatic groaning that emerged from the corner of the room caused Jas to snap her head around, "oh, shush."

As Jane looked on with a leer, she suddenly felt a pulling force subside within her, one that she hadn't even known was there.

"When you were holding my hand..." Jane said to Jas with a confused look, "it felt like you were pulling at my insides- it wasn't painful or anything, just weird..."

"I didn't feel anything like that before," Alec added, "her powers didn't really feel like anything."

Jasmine thought for a moment, until the memory of leather-bound parchment caused realisation to flow through her.

There was a servant in the coven who used to have a similar gift, and over time she trained herself to be able to take an ability from one vampire and transfer it to another.

"Let's try it again."

Demetri whined from in the corner as Jas chuckled at him, "awh- come on, amica- give a guy a break."