✓ | 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒, Volturi Kings

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ⁵

For the last three hours, I had been spending time in the guards' main hangout area. Most of the guards had stayed away from me, even when I had told them that I was friendly and joked that they had a worse bite than me. Even if it was slightly unnerving just how quickly they moved around the room, they did not seem as cruel or fierce as the Cullens had made them out to be.

From what I had been told of the Volturi, they were human-hating monsters. Now, I knew that this idea of them was just plain false. They did not hate me because I was human. Not one of the guards had made a comment about my humanity. Sometimes they would ask questions about being a human, but they did not act like they hated humans in general. Vampires were just higher up on the food chain. Humans are what they eat and it would be foolish to blindly hate your food without getting to know them.

"Queen Annalise, is it true that humans have to learn in the span of a 6 hour school day? Is that how it works all over the world, or is that just how it works in the Americas?" I laughed at Alec's question. Oh lord, he looks like a kid who would go to school. Maybe like 15 at the oldest. He would be in Freshman year or would still be in middle school.

"Yes, Alec, we are forced into classrooms for 6 to 7 hours every day of the workweek. We have about 1 hour per class and must do work for that class. We have different teachers in middle and high school in America. Honestly, I hated the place. Most kids hate it. We have so much unnecessary work that we have to do after the school day is over. You would think that we would only have work during school, but we have homework. It's the bane of every child's existence," I explain. Alec and Jane look shocked, probably curious about how I survived such a hell.

"Come on, Alec, did you seriously not know about school? Most vampires know about school!" Afton remarks. Alec frowns at the man and sticks out his tongue. "Oh, really mature. Who would know that a member of the elite guard would be so immature."

"Play nicely, Afton," a blonde woman says.

"Chels, you know that I have no capacity to play nicely with dear Alec. He's too easy to rile up," Afton smirks. Oh, so this is his true mate. The one who giggles at him like I giggle at Caius and Aro. I bet I'm going to end up giggling at Marcus and freak him out just like Chelsea freaks out Afton.

"Why do you have to rile up an elite guard member, Afton? Not only is Alec an elite guard member, but Jane scares the shit out of everyone she sees. Yeah, Jane, you're a scary bitch. One scary ass bitch," Santiago turns to Jane who was giving a rare smile. Santiago looked back and just whispered, "Please, for the love that is holy, never make me see that woman smile again. It's almost as scary as Caius'. Sadistic people have the same smiles."

"He never learns. Sister, don't scare poor Santiago, he has yet to do anything to warrant such a smile from you," Alec tries to diffuse his twin, who would often give off a scary vibe. I can't tell if powerful vampires give off a bad vibe or just use their power to scare the shit out of people. Either way, I would rather not find myself on Jane's bad side. I saw that torture power, it looks painful as hell.

"Fine, brother," Jane turns and runs out of the room, running off to somewhere else in the castle.

"Is she always this terrifying?" I ask the guards in the room. Every single one of them turns to me and nods. Most of them even let off a small shudder at the thought of Jane and her powers of torture.

A tall and slender woman walks through the door. Enclosed in one of her gloved hands was a letter. "I have a letter for the Queen," she simply stated, coming over to my side and handing me the letter. Hell, I never get mail. I have no goddamn family. The only friends that I had were the- I looked to who had written the letter. Bella, Alice, Edward, Rose, and Carlisle. This thing is heavier than a normal letter. Maybe they all wrote separate letters? I'll check the handwriting.