The Carmen Chronicles: Rebirth

Chapter 16: The Forgotten Memory

Six years with Victoria passed as though they were days. Finally convinced my attempts at blending in with the humans was in vain, we left England and never looked back. Within a year, we became expert in the geography of France and I learned how to read a simple map. In another twelve months, we had journeyed through Lithuania and crossed into Russia. The immortals Victoria met fifty years ago had long since departed, we searched for them for months as Victoria told me the stories of the Romanian immortals and their thirst to reclaim the power stolen from them by the Italians. By the end of our third year together, I could now read and write perfectly, and I began writing down my adventures on parchment, never wanting to forget the incredible sights I had seen in so many countries I never thought I would visit. Victoria educated me about our kind, she was the mentor I always needed in my newborn years, but never had. After telling her about my encounter with the members of the Volturi, Victoria was shocked I escaped with my life. At the time, I had no knowledge of their bloody history or Aro's obsession with power, I had no idea an all out war had taken place centuries ago between the Italians and the Romanians. I now knew enough to know that the Volturi were certainly not to be taken lightly, if any of us were to fall out of favour with even one of them, it would mean an instant execution. When Victoria taught me about the special abilities some immortals possess upon the completion of their transformation, I realised I had already met one of these gifted vampires: Jane. Recalling the incredible pain I experienced during my first meeting with the Volturi, Victoria wasted no time in telling me about the tiny immortal and her ability to torture anyone she likes. By the end of our sixth year, Victoria and I had traveled through France, Lithuania, Russia, Persia and the entirety of the Ottoman Empire before finally making our way through Bavaria and back to England. As I entered this country for the second time in my life, I could not help but notice just how much had changed in my absence. The villages had seemed to double in size. Now in my thirty-eighth year of existence, I finally felt I had found my place in the world. My new immortal friend had taught me of my power, and after a lifetime of believing I amounted to nothing, I now believed I was finally at the head and not the tail. In my first few years as an immortal, I was desperate to blend in with humankind, desperate to fit in with a species I no longer belonged to. I had never even stretched the limits of my own new abilities, out of fear of being discovered. What ever would the humans think if they saw exactly what I could do? I suppressed my true nature, for them. What a fool I had been. I realised now I had never belonged in that world, humans were not above me. In fact, for most of my life, I had suffered terribly at their hands. Now, they served as my prey, and not the other way around. Victoria had shown me that. We were Queens, entirely in control of our lives, suppressed by no man, free to embrace our true nature and with Victoria's gift of escapism, we never found ourselves in a situation we could not successfully escape. And so as we arrived in England in the year 1714, I was fully aware the country was greeting an entirely new Carmen Alvarez. The rain drizzled lightly as we emerged through the woods on a moonless night, walking toward the village that once housed the family I wished to join. My mind strayed to Emily, she would be sixteen years old by now...

"Some things never change" Victoria said beside me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I turned my head to her, an enquiring look on my face. Victoria smiled and nodded toward the village.

"Their scent" she said.

"Oh" I replied.

I had not taken a breath in several hours, we had spent much of our time underwater during the last few hundred miles to England. I inhaled slightly, and was immediately taken aback, I had not smelt blood this sweet in months. What was it about this village that gave its people such desirable blood? I let out a loud sigh of appreciation, Victoria laughed at my exaggeration before quickly turning her mind to a hunt. I had grown to appreciate this about Victoria, she was a brilliant huntress.