Beyond the Dawn (Life and Death, Book II)

24. FORGERY

Two more days passed with no sign of the Volturi. Several of our friends had taken the nomads on a vegetarian hunt. They agreed just as Benji and Tiago had, promising to try it at least once.

Today, a few of us sat discussing strategies of what we should say to present our case to the Volturi. It reminded me of how a defense team prepared arguments for a court case. Much to Eleanor's discontent, Edythe always argued that we weren't making any sort of battle plan. She likened the situation to a game of chess, where we had to make moves of wits and strategy and analyze the situation like a chess board, rather than a battlefield.

I was so caught up in the conversation, I almost didn't notice the low commotion starting in the front yard. Edythe was the first to jump to her feet as usual, and I could hear Carine outside speaking in a surprised tone.

"Who sent you here?" Carine asked someone.

"We sent ourselves," said a woman's strange, wispy voice. She had a foreign accent that I didn't recognize.

"Word travels quickly," another woman said in a voice so similar that I almost didn't notice it was a second person.

I could see the two women now; they were both really short and petite, and both had the same ashy blonde hair that almost looked gray. They had an odd, powdery look to their skin that set them apart from the rest of us. It was if they were soft and fragile, rather than hard as stone. But I knew otherwise.

When I saw their faces, though, I realized why they had sounded so similar. They were biological twins. They looked like exactly the same person, only in different clothes.

The second woman spoke again. "A little birdy told us the Volturi were moving against you, and that you planned to challenge them. It appears the rumors are true," she said as her eyes darted around to all of our company.

"No, no, no. There must be some misunderstanding. We are not planning any sort of attack," Carine answered in a strained tone. "What you see here are witnesses. You see, there has been a tremendous accusation against my family, but we haven't actually done—"

"We do not care what you did, Carine," the first voice interrupted. "Whether you broke the law or not, we are eager to see the Italian scum be challenged. We've waited fifteen hundred years for someone to make such an attempt."

"This isn't what you think, Stefani," Carine said. "It is definitely not our intention to challenge the Volturi."

"Then what exactly are your intentions, Carine? Surely you do not expect the Volturi to take this peacefully," the other woman said.

"If you would allow me to explain, Vladimira..."

Carine told the whole story for what seemed like the hundredth time. It didn't make it any easier knowing that this had become sort of routine. I slowly pulled the pieces together over the course of the conversation to realize these were the two surviving members of the Romanian coven, the Dacia.

They took everything in stride, as they were focused on their resentment for what the Volturi had done to them so long ago. They were even more delighted to know about our alliance with the werewolves. Most vampires didn't know they existed.

They were fascinated by the special talents they observed here.

First, they noticed Edythe answering unspoken questions, and their eyes lit up. They were especially thrilled when Kirill showed what he could do. But most of all, they were downright astonished when they witnessed my immunity to both these skills.

Their faces were wide with a burning hope that the Volturi might actually be thwarted for once. We didn't hope for exactly the same things, but at least there was that. At least someone was rooting for us. We could all have some small margin of hope after all.