Troubled Blood

Chapter 3

It seemed like it hadn't been that long since Estela had been taken in by the vampires. She didn't sleep well, didn't eat much, because being in a place where death dwelt made her terrified. The unknown tormented her mind: the Volturi had left her alive for a reason. Every time she thought about it, the image of Aro Volturi appeared before her. She considered various situations that would help her understand the motives of such an extraordinary act, but none of them led to a logical answer. Everything was too confusing.

Mostly they only came to her to leave food or give her medicine. The vampire servants didn't speak to her, but Estela didn't want to have any contact with them. The events that had happened would not let her go for a long time yet. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a ghost: an ugly, thin face with dark circles under her eyes.

The fourth day was no different from the previous three. All day and night she was in deep thought. Estela had expected that she would not be able to live this long. The unhealthy atmosphere and lack of freedom would kill her faster than the disease itself.

It was late at night. Estela was already falling asleep. Unlike her gray and blurred life, she always had colorful dreams. In the dream world, she was happy because she was surrounded by loved ones and she was healthy. Estela often saw her mother running through the vast expanse of the forest, repeating the same words: «They took everything from us. I love you — remember that. No one can take that away.» She had never wondered why a person could have the same dream so many times. Yet she felt the phrases sounded like a true confession, evoking a longing for missed moments. She had always been curious about how life would have turned out if her mother, Yvonne, hadn't disappeared. She rarely indulged in such thoughts because the pondering ended up hurting her to consider that, obviously, her mother was no longer alive. And now only occasionally realistic and colorful dreams gave her a brief but vivid simulation of everything she missed so much in real life.

Tonight, however, the dream appeared in a different story: after a love-filled phrase, Yvonne brought her lips close to her daughter's wrist. The kiss was so painful that it gave her deja vu: the pain was familiar. After a second, her memory replayed the images: Alec, the blood, the bite. The nightmare had woken Estela up in the middle of the night. The pain didn't subside, because someone was really drinking blood from her wrist. She couldn't see her attacker in the pitch darkness, but she could tell from the grip that it was a man.

Aro Volturi was in the palazzo's library at the time. Vampires' senses worked especially well at night. Since Estela's arrival, the sound of her beating heart had filled the building. He had learned its rhythm well, constantly analyzing the pounding. Now Aro's hearing was maximized: it was syncopated, which was very unnatural for a human being, unless he was unconscious. Throwing the manuscript on blood diseases, the vampire was at the door of the chambers with lightning speed. The heavy odor of blood hit his nose with the scent of a vampire he was painfully familiar with. The Volturi was deeply shocked. Overcoming the provoked thirst, he gulped down the poison. He managed to suppress his sudden rage with difficulty.

The door opened abruptly, and Aro saw the scene: a girl trying to stop the bleeding on her wrist and an ancient vampire lying motionless on the floor. The huge walnut-sized eyeballs were protruding, lips frozen in mute shock. Marcus.

They had to give her emergency treatment, which consisted mostly not in stopping the bleeding, but in calming her down.