S U N S H I N E - Demetri Volturi

Chapter 20

Kyra frowns as she walks alongside Aro through the castle that evening. She feels uncomfortable; for one, she's freaking hungry and for another, there's something inside of her telling her that something is about to happen. It's like the nervousness you get before riding a roller coaster, the adrenaline pumping through your veins during the ride and the sickness you feel afterwards are all mixed together.

Aro notices her unease but he doesn't comment; many newborn vampires have a phase, where they feel like this. It's either the bloodlust that gets too much to handle or the gift manifesting itself and fighting to be let out.

"Where are we going?"
she asks him trying to distract herself.

"Library."
he replies.

Of course, she noticed they went in that direction but Kyra is the type of girl, who needs to hear where they are going or actually stand in front of the destination to believe it. Does that even make sense?

"And what are we going to do there?"
Kyra keeps asking.

"We'll talk."
Aro answers equally as short as the first time.

"Bu..."
she wants to try again but he shuts her up with a pointed glare.

Seems like her change strengthens her impatience.

The ginger sighs in relief as they finally arrive; the master leaving her to the section about vampire history and law. Pointing for her to sit down on the vintage Couch, he walks straight to the back row to get a rather thin and really old book out of it with the word: legis written on it. And while Kyra isn't the best at Latin, she knows the meaning: laws.

Sitting down next to her, he hands the book over to her with a warning to be careful.

"We don't have much rules, as you may know. But in this book every rule unspoken or written down is recorded in here. And as your coven leader, it's in my hand to inform you about them."
Aro starts as he opens the first few pages for her.

Kyra's new reflexes and the enhanced sight, allows her to read a few words as he skips to a page at the middle of the book. She was right, this book is old; as old as the Volturi. There are a few laws written down with the dates of a thousand years ago some of them even older than that.

"Hunts must be inconspicuous, with victims unlikely to be missed; their remains must be disposed of and territory must be changed often."
the ginger reads the first one as Aro stops at what seems to be an important page.

She has a little difficult reading it since it's written in an old Italian language and really, really twirly.

"I think you already know this one. It's one of the few rules making sure to keep our existence hidden."
the king comments earning a small nod from the newborn.

"Hunting is forbidden in Volterra, the town of the residence of the Volturi; their food is brought from the outside, sometimes from quite far away."
Kyra reads with a stutter in her words as she's not quite sure whether she's reading the right letters or not.

"You noticed that as well. The groups of Tourists or the classes here for a school trip. It's a cover story for us and with them believing that Marcus managed to make the humans believe he dislodged us, it was our perfect opportunity to stay hidden right beneath their eyes."
Aro tells her.

"What about this one?"
the ginger lets her eyes scan the page to stop at one rule.

"False witness, regardless of intent, is punishable by death."
she reads out loud.

"Wouldn't you be able to see what they see and therefor tell the difference between a right and a false witness?"
Kyra adds with a furrow of her brows. This doesn't seem fair; punishing someone with a good intent.

"Sometimes even I can't tell wrong from right, my dear. My gift allows me to see and feel everything the person I touched has seen and felt before, yes. But that doesn't mean it can't be tricked. There are things that seem unimportant, so I skip them or things I just simply don't want to see; if someone were to know that, they could use it to their advantage."
Aro replies but ignores the part of the witness.

Shrugging it off, Kyra skips to the next page; her eyes widening at the last rule.

"Vampires' interaction with humans must not draw wide attention. If a human becomes aware of them, the vampire at fault would be responsible for silencing that human. This mostly leads to two options: make the human join the immortals or silence that human permanently. As long as attention isn't drawn widely so that prompts the Volturi's involvement, they may never find out."
she mumbles to herself; her mind not being held as it drifts back to Isabella. So, that's why Edward is supposed to take care of her.

"Children of the moon?"
Kyra questions as she skips over the last two rules.

"Like werewolves?"
she adds.

The king nods in response as he skips to a latter page showing a drawing picture of a wolf like figure with what seem to be glowing eyes.

"Uncontrolled humans turning into mindless beast once the moon reaches its fullest shape. They didn't have any conscious and neither were they able to stop themselves from killing. Caius didn't like it and grew more angry with them as days went by. He sent two guards to the north of Scotland, where a couple was spotted. They looked and acted like children of the moon and in the end they were. One of the guards decided to betray us and tried to turn the woman rather than kill her. We think he was curious about the strange the newborn would uphold in combination with her wolf strength."
Aro tells her.

"What happened?"
Kyra questions curiously.

"She didn't turn. She didn't even flinch as he bit her. Turns out they are immune against to the venom running through our veins. The man ended up killing the guard member, which led to his companion running back to us but during his escape, he got bid."
the master continues.

"He died rather painful. Marcus wanted to end his suffering but the guard member, Aleksander, refused. He wanted us to know what will happen, if either one of us was to get bid. He wanted us to see the whole process and so we did."
Aro ends and according to his expression, it isn't a very pleasant memory.

"So, what did you do?"
the newborn asks while putting the book down carefully.

"Caius put everything he had in training the guard and new recruits. He wanted them to become faster, stronger and smarter during the fight. He taught them things he read about in old letters or deliverances; things that haven't been seen in centuries. He trained them for a whole year, six days a week, fourteen hours a day but in the end it was worth it."
Aro informs her.

"We parted the guard in two. One part travelling through Europe, the other one through Asia as they hunted down the wolves."
he adds with a small smile.

"Caius went with them; he never told anyone why it was that important to him to rot them out but after a few decades nobody dared to talk about it anymore."
the master ends his little story.

"Do you think he'd answer?"
Kyra questions him after a minute of silence.

"I wouldn't risk it. It's a... soft spot of his."
Aro advices with a pointed brow raised in her direction.

Squeezing her eyes shut, the ginger glares at him but shrugs anyway.

"Okay, I guess."
she comments.