Annalise Monroe has lived alone most of her life, travelling between foster homes since the age of six, and she is willing to do what it takes to keep it that way. When she moves to Forks after she is emancipated at the age of 17, she truly doesn't...
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The memory dawned on me when I came into the bedroom of Marcus. Volterra wasn't just meant to be a city of under the table vampire misgivings. It couldn't be what Alice and Edward told me. The drama, the court proceedings mixed with personal opinions and history. This bedroom was the room of a man. One man, and a king at that. Volterra was a place of life and people, vampires, chose to live here above all else to conduct their business.
I'd also lost friends today. When my hand hit the silken sheets I felt the loss deeply. I'd gotten so used to being abandoned, blamed, and told off that when I hadn't experienced such events in a year I thought they were over. My shield had come down and now there were no walls between my heart and my feelings of betrayal. The people who said they would be there for me no matter what gave me an ultimatum. A chance at eternal happiness or... what? Nobody told me what the second option even was!
"You are allowed to sit down anywhere you'd like. I suppose you may be tired after all that drama," the latter part of Demetri's words were lilted with a chuckle.
"It's nothing more than drama in the grand scheme of things, really," I said with an air of sorrow and bitterness. "I'll mean nothing to them in a hundred years. I can't be the first person they've left. It's not about... me, really."
"No. No, of course not."
"They told me some God awful things about you all." I laughed before taking a few steps, reaching a stained oak desk. Papers were scattered, much like the books supposed to line the shelves of Edward's room back in Forks. He never kept his promise to clean them up. "Edward and Alice are convinced you're about as bad as some of history's worst dictators. Not Stalin level, but perhaps Ho Chi Minh or an ancient force of evil."
Demetri made a noise of interest before a knock came to the door. It caught me off guard for a second, my hand flinching and accidentally crumpling a few top pieces of parchment and printer paper.
My guard opened the door and began talking to someone on the outside. I could only hear his side of the conversation.
"Now really isn't the time. Yes, there is a human in here. No, you don't need to meet her yet. Of course she's joining us." There was a pause and Demetri let out a visible groan of annoyance. "Aro has approved her stay. He's actually called a meeting for everyone except Felix and I. Well, someone who saw the trial has to stay and guard her. Three newborns were made in the last six months and the Throne Room is too close to King Marcus' chambers to– I'm not discussing this with you right now, Sulpicia. Aro wants the Volturi in the Throne Room, he'll be upset if you aren't there."
The tension in the air stuck to my palms as they filled with nervous sweat. A woman's name who I'd heard only once before spoken by Carlisle when he'd showed me a painting of the Volterran Clocktower. My foster father said to me months ago, before he left, that two women stayed up in towers and were not allowed to leave for undisclosed reasons. Their names were Sulpicia and Athenodora.
