Midnight Solstice

Chapter 2

    The next couple of weeks were what you would call interesting. As the days crawled by, more and more of the humans that were picked out were brought in by Demetri, and were soon turned by Aro. There was only two of them in the first week. Two identical twin boys names Fred and George Cutler; who take pride in their misbehavior.
    George has the gift of teleportation. He can go anywhere he wishes in a matter of seconds. We are working on trying to get him to bring people along with him but he can barely control it. He'll take you across continents if you stand too close to him while he goes through a fit of rage.
    Fred is very interesting. He can make anything appear out of thin air. Unlike his brother, he has control over his gift. He and his brother do have similar gifts which attracts Aro's attention. They goof off a lot which attracts a lot attention as well. To sum it up they are the ginger versions of Felix.
   In the following week, Aro brought in a young girl named Andi Rodriguez whose gift is very complex. It has to do with manipulating the mind. She can change your memories, add memories, and if she is in someone's head long enough, she can eventually shut off your brain completely. We don't know what happens when that occurs but I do not care to find out. To sum her up, she is kind of like a mental blocker.
   Three days after that comes Fred and George's cousin Brynn Cutler. Her personality is as bright and bold as her bright ginger hair. She is a tracker, like Demetri but she has very keen senses. If someone were trying to run from her, she would be able to trace the precise place that they stepped, or anything they bumped into on their way. Demetri is very interested in her. I mean really interested. I'm not going to get into detail because if I did, I may vomit.
    Next, we have Adeline Miller who has the gift of compulsion. She can compel anyone, human or vampire to do anything she wishes. And yes, she is also a ginger. I don't know why Aro brought so many gingers but he did. I bet if this mission succeeds, he'll add twenty more gingers to the guard and say that their gifts are so strong because they're gingers. Of course that it absolutely not true, but we'll have to live with the theories he imagines anyway.
Now getting back to the newborns. Adeline is very...stuck up. She believes she can get any man she wants and with her gift, she probably could. Adeline has even tried to flirt with me a couple of times. Not that I feed into it. I would rather do anything else but engage in...well you know.
   And finally the last newborn is Caleb Harrison. He can foresee the future. Caleb's visions are far more precise than Alice Cullen's, so Aro was very giddy about that. And he is a blonde. Thank gosh. Not that I have anything against gingers but honestly, when you put four of them together, you are asking for trouble.
    Aro has told Felix and I that we have to retrieve the last newborn. Her name is Katerina and she is already a vampire. We were told she has been a vampire for about three months. Aro has heard that she has an extremely powerful gift. He just doesn't know what it is. Her creator is her uncle Lorne and Aro has made a deal with him. Her uncle was very reluctant to make the deal and we are anticipating that he will try to hide her. But of course, we have no knowledge of what that deal is, so Felix and I leave Aro's study confused.
He and I are running to Lorne's Bar right now. It's a couple of towns over from Volterra but is only about a five minute run for us.
"I wish we weren't here for a mission." Felix said. "It would have been a cool place to hang out or something."
"Focus Felix. We are going in, getting her, then leaving, we won't over stay our welcome got it?" He sighed.
"Sure but I don't think there is a welcome to over stay." He chuckled as I rolled my eyes. We began walking to the door way under a bright blue neon sign that said Lorne's in big capital letters in a fancy script.
When we walked in, no one was there. The blue and purple leather booths were empty, all of the bottles of alcohol were placed perfectly on wooden shelves behind the bar which was painted the same blue and purple colors that were on the booths. Felix and I looked at each other, completely confused by this.
"They must have knew we were coming." I said. He nodded.
"I'm going to go check the back, I'll see if there was an exit or shelter back there." Felix walked away, towards the area behind the bar. I walked forward around the tables and booths to the giant stage that had a blue curtain behind it. A microphone was set up and a stool stood behind it. Maybe it was for tonight's entertainment...
"Alec!" I heard Felix shout. I looked back to the area where we came in. He was standing behind the bar. I rushed over to him. Behind the bar was a black carpet that Felix had pulled back.
"It's a trap door?" I questioned.
"They've got to be in there."
We opened the door and began our descent down the latter. It got darker as we got farther down. My eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly. Once we were on the ground again, I heard a man talking.
"Kat, I know that you're scared but you have to try your best to control it."
"But I can't, what if they kill me because I can't!" A girl's voice cried. For some reason this brought a sharp pinch of sadness in my heart. I began to feel some urge to comfort the girl. What the hell is wrong with me...
"They won't, I talked with Aro, he is going to help you. Your mother trusted him so I will too. I promise that you will be safe." The girl sniffed.
"When are they going to be here?"
"Whenever the hell they show up. They have a reputation for not being on time around here. I honestly hope they just don't bother to show up, I don't want you to go."
"I don't want to leave either..." Felix hit me on the shoulder.
"Let's go in." He said. I nodded and we slowly walked into the dimly lit room.
The man's attention snapped toward us. He must be Lorne. He was sitting on the concrete floor hugging a girl to his chest. He was fairly good looking; dark red eyes and pitch black hair that stuck out in all directions. He looked to be in his mid-twenties.
The girl soon looked up and her attention was directly towards me. If my heart were beating, it would have skipped a beat in that moment. She was absolutely beautiful. Her wavy burgundy colored hair framed her angelic face perfectly and big red eyes stared back at me in curiosity and wonder with a touch of fear. Her small body was cradled in her uncle's arms. That must be Katerina. And boy, was she breath taking.
"Are you the Volturi?" She asked me, her voice was barely above a whisper. I nodded slowly as my eyes widened. Her voice sounded like an angel's. This was insane. How could I let this girl I've never met until this moment perplex me so much. I felt Felix elbow me in the ribs.
"You must be Katerina." I said. No shit Sherlock, good going Alec!
"Yeah, that would be me."
"Would now be a bad time to withdrawal that deal we made?" Lorne asked, chuckling lightly as he tried to hide his fear.
"It's too late. She is coming with us." Felix told us. Lorne shook his head.
"No...you can't..."
"You're the one who made the deal."
"Only to stop Aro from breathing down our backs which is what he has done for two years every since she was sixteen!" At this point he stood up in front of Katerina who followed his lead.
"Lorne, this is for her own good. Aro agreed to let you see her once a month until we finish training her. Just let her go."
"What are you going to do if I don't?" He asked as he approached us.
"Back off little man!" Felix said as he took a couple of steps closer.
Suddenly, Felix was thrown across the room and hit a wall, leaving large cracks in it. Then he was dragged across the floor right in front of Katerina. He continued to fight against whatever force was holding him. I looked up at Katerina. Underneath her eyes, the veins stuck out all around and darkened as her eyes turned a bright shade of blue. Her fangs were exposed and her body was shaking in anger. We just messed with the wrong girl...
  Lorne ran over to Katerina. He stood in front of her to hide her view. He put both hands on her shoulders.
"Remember who you are Kat, you don't want to do this. If you don't let him go, you will kill him and then Aro will want to kill you. Stay with me Kat, you do NOT want to do this okay? They aren't going to hurt us as long as you calm down." He spoke frantically.
Her eyes turned back to normal and her body collapsed into his. Felix exhaled loudly and stood up quick. A small crack on his face slowly started to heal. Katerina began to cry. It was a sound that I never wanted to hear again. It was as if I could feel how sad she was from across the room. I sorrow I felt for this girl felt were familiar to me, and I know that I never want to hear the sound of her crying again.
Wait a minute...what the hell is wrong with me...I've never met this girl before...what the hell am I thinking. What is she doing to me?
"Hey...it's okay, you didn't kill him Kat, you stopped before you could. This is why you need to go with them. Your mother told me that Aro helped her, and that they can help you." Lorne spoke soothingly. She looked over at Felix.
"I'm sorry." She sniffed. "I can't help it sometimes, but if you ever try to hurt him again, I won't be so nice." She said softly as the veins popped out again, then faded away.
"It's cool Katerina, your gift will be fun to play around with once you get the hang of it." Felix told her smiling as if nothing ever happened. She gave him a small smile.
"Look, before you take her away, there are a couple things Aro hasn't told you yet about her." Lorne began. "Kat is a lot different than the average vampire...who am I kidding, she isn't really a vampire at all. She can cry, she can sleep, and she needs a lot more blood than you. She'll need to hunt more than you would anticipate. And when she has...mental break downs like that, it tires her out rather quickly so if she sleeps for more than twelve hours, it is fine and..."
"Uncle Lorne, I think we are good." Katerina assured him. She turned to us.
"Can I grab a few things before we go?"
"Of course." I told her. She walked past us and climbed up the latter. Her scent blew past me and it was intoxicating. Her scent was like raspberries and vanilla mixed with the sweetest candy imaginable.
A few minutes later she returned with a full duffel bag. She said her goodbyes to her uncle and followed us out. We walked towards the wooded area behind the building. We ran at top speed back to the castle. We had to stop a few times when Katerina got in front of us. She was extremely fast, maybe even faster than Demetri. We stopped at the front steps of the castle. She looked up at it in bewilderment. She looked back at me with a nervous look in her eye, as if all of this was a dream she was about to wake up from. I gave her a small smile.
"Welcome home..." I told her.