In the shadows (Caius Volturi)

He who died

***Nobody's position***

Shado walked out and then shouted.

"Come on, you're losing you're touch. If you want to kill me, you are doing an exceptionally bad job".

A second later someone jumped down from a tree nearby and walked towards her.

"You're bigger" the man said. His face was hidden behind a hood. Even with his jacket on you could see his huge muscles that equalled Emmett's.

"Smaller would be weird" Shado said with a shrug. It had been so long. She didn't know if she wanted to kill him or hug him and never let go.

"True" he spoke with a rough voice. The others came out of the house with confused expressions. The man hadn't tried to attack her yet, but he didn't look very trustworthy.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Caius asked with a growl. He was tense and looked ready to attack at any time.

"How are you?" The strange man said completely ignoring the fuming blonde king.

"Why do you care?" Shado asked. The man, even though you couldn't really see his face, looked sad and taken aback. Suddenly Shado jumped forwards and attacked the strange man. Before anyone could react, she had kicked it in the balls.

The man groaned and was kicked in the side just after that. With a crack his nose broke when Shado rammed her elbow against it. She was about to kick him again when he caught her leg, holding it in a firm grip. Shado flipped around throwing in on the floor. Within seconds she was straddling him and pressing a dagger against his neck.

"Really? Killing me with my own knife? I got to say though, you're not rusty."

"SHADO" Esme screeched in shock. She had not expected the young girl to attack the man suddenly. They were having a normal conversation just seconds before.

Shado ignored Esme. Her eyes never leaving the man. "Well apparently you are immortal and impossible to hurt" she hissed. The man stood up with an inhumanly speed and held her by her neck against a tree. He let her go and pulled his hood down.

"Yes, everything healed...except for this" he said pointing to his right eye, which was hidden beneath an eye-patch.

"I'm sorry" she said quietly.

"No, you are not supposed to be sorry. Why did you aim for my eye? You should have tried the heart or my vital organs". To say the vampires were confused would be an understatement. They were confused and a little bit mortified. Shado had somehow cost that guy his eye. He said she should have killed them A second ago they were fighting and now they were talking just like they had been before the fight. Plus, nobody even knew the man's name, so they really didn't know what the hell was going on. "I almost killed you" the man said. His voice was loud, but it sounded pained. "I could have killed you."

"I missed" she said.

"Bullshit" a second later the man punched past the face and against the tree. There was a big cracking sound and the tree fell over with a huge thump.

"What the hell?!" Emmett whispered. The tree was fully grown and just snapped in the middle like a mere twig. Even for a vampire that would take a real punch.

"You missed?" The man shouted, almost with some humour in his voice. "You. Don't. Miss. NEVER"

"Well, I was dying and losing an alarming amount of blood if you hadn't noticed" now she was also shouting. Her eyes looked deadly as she glared at him. "Where were you? You promised and you broke you promise. I waited for you to help me.... for you to come back but you didn't. I thought you were dead. That I had killed you. I couldn't even look at myself for so long. You told me you wouldn't leave me, but you did. I was fourteen." She screamed at him.

Her face was starting to turn red in anger. "So do tell Slade, where were you all those years? When I really needed you"

Slade didn't answer. He just stared at her. "There is no easy answer that will take away your pain." He said quietly. As if he didn't want to say it but had no choice. His face wasn't stoic anymore. It was laced with emotions. Pain, regret and self-hatred. "I never meant to break my promise" the last sentence was only in a low whisper. So quiet that the vampires on the other side of the clearing almost didn't hear.

"Why did you come back? Why now?"

"Fuck, I don't know. I wanted to see if you were okay and then suddenly you were drowning and I couldn't just let you die, so I pulled you out. What ever you want to hear I can't tell you because I don't know either" Slade combed through his hair with his hand.

It was silent for a while. You couldn't even hear a bird sing. It was like the whole world was waiting for something to happen.

"You promised to take me for ice-cream" Shado suddenly said. Slade smiled widely and nodded. He pulled out a little book. It looked very worn down and like it was a few centuries old.

"I remember. After I woke up, I made sure to write down the list again so I wouldn't forget anything."

Finally, Carlisle spoke up. "I'm sorry, but we haven't been introduced to each other. My name is Carlisle, and this is my family" he said pointing to the other Cullen's who were standing beside him. The Volturi stood in their own little group.

"Slade Wilson" It was slightly awkward. Nobody said anything after that. "they belong to you too?" he asked, gesturing to the Volturi who were of course wearing their black cloaks and had red eyes.

"These are the Volturi. The royal family of our kind" If Slade had been watching them, no doubt he knew about vampires. Besides, there was no chance he was human either. No human had the seed or strength that he had demonstrated only minutes earlier.

Slade was about to reply when there was a loud crash in the woods behind them...