THERE HAD BEEN FEW UPDATES SINCE MOST OF THE GUARDS WENT ON THEIR SECOND ROTATION. I was incredibly lucky in that matter. Less for me to drown in. Now that Rosalie and Emmett were here, there were fewer vampire friends that I had to be worried about. The last two holdouts were Carlisle and Esme, but I've started to lose some faith in them. How many things need to happen before they realize their coven has fallen apart?

Now that my phone was allowing me to see the guard messages, I've watched shifts change and jokes exchanged. The Italian group were the most jovial. Seems like many of them were making jokes about the last time they had to go to war.

So many messages were coming through. I was much more focused on the non-Italians for obvious reasons. The group guarding the Romanian border were the most vigilant, always on time with their observations and requests for orders. The area was much harder to guard partially due to the Romanian government itself and partially because Stefan and Vladimir were not on speaking terms with the Volturi. Mostly Caius. Let's be fair, it's because they hate Caius.

We're already in one war, we don't need a new border dispute.

Lone vampires are getting mad about the war. The loners who chum up with Stefan, those who never liked the ideas around who should be eaten and who should be turned. They've apparently been on the Volturi's radar for a few centuries. Some were turned on accident and now want to be alone, doing whatever they want. Periodically people already go checking around in that area to make sure nobody has been breaking laws... but it gets difficult. It's hard to not push people away.

You can only win so many people, right?

Nevertheless, I thought things were going very well. I hadn't gotten a call in over a day. People only call whenever something really big happens or if they need my opinion on a topic or choice. Thankfully, most of those choices go through Caius, so I'm left in my office or outside doing fairly normal things.

I should have known that we couldn't get too comfortable.

My ringer was a horrible sound in my office. When I heard the noise, I immediately checked to see who it could be. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been one of the twins, who are so very thorough. This time it was Afton, one of the last people I expected to call me.

"What is it, Afton?" I asked while keeping the phone on speaker so I could continue reading more financial documents. They never end. I'll be doing this the rest of my life.

"You really need to come down to the alley near the fountain and the church," Afton said with a small jitter in his voice, "There's a drained body down here. She's not been found by the rest of the locals but the priest knew her."

Shit. I shut my laptop and threw the papers into one of my drawers.

"How mad is the father?" Now I was, as quickly as I could, grabbing my cloak and pendent. "Is Julio with him or with you?"

"I'm with the body and Julio is with father Marco. I called Aro first and he wants you down here in case this is a diversion," Afton further explained.

Already out the door with Renata in tow, I gave a hum of acknowledgement before hanging up. Julio spoke Italian, but he is a guard, not a strategist. Aro was with a group in Augusta guarding the Ionian ad Mediterranean seas. Caius was all of the way in Stockholm to protect the Baltic sea and to organize a search for an unfortunately very alive Athenodora. Turns out she's been working with Andrei. So it goes.

It just sucks when you see your enemies work together.

Thankfully there weren't too many people in the streets this early in the morning. Most were either still asleep or making breakfast. Nobody would be seeing that body beyond us and the father. Hopefully the local police would not be called.

They'd had a truce, a deal within Volterra, for so long. Clearly stated within their old documents where rules around protection and feeding, detailing that the Volturi would protect the locals from other vampires and they would not feed on anyone 'born and raised' in the city. This was not one of us. Everyone in the city had just fed.

Clearly, this was an attempt to push us from our home.

It isn't going to work.

When I reached the alley, I let out a sign. Whoever had gone about doing this at least made it fast. Afton was taking pictures for the new file either Marcus or I will have to create after I'm done here. Not a newborn, so we need to find out where the hole in our defense is.

"You should speak with the father now," Afton pushed, "It's better to get this over with."

Agreed. I checked before I snuck up the stairs of the church, entering without a sound. Inside, there were hushed arguments. I clearly heard mentions of my boyfriends' names. Half of the conversation was in English, the other in Italian.

"Who are you?" The father looked towards me and asked, "Are you one of them? Where are your Masters? A woman has been killed!"

"We are searching for the vampire who did this," I said, trying to stay calm amidst his questions. "I am River Acastia and yes, I am one of them. Julio, go out and join the search."

"Yes, your grace."

The priest was silent, rage written in his furrowed brows. Unhappy with whatever answers I could give, the local priest glared at me. This was a man that believes in demons, likely believes that I am one. I can't blame him, he probably only learned about what he was getting into after he agreed to the post.

Now us, the vampires, had gone back on our promise of keeping them safe.

Not that we meant to at all. This is exactly what we don't want happening. The exposure risk that comes with this worries me. If the press comes in over this death... we are well and truly fucked.

"There is a war going on, Father Marco. Our local guards are working with temporary reinforcements in order to guard the city," I tried to explain at least a bit of our situation. "The Volturi's goal is to protect the human population, always. This was not one of our people, we feed the way we always have."

Keeping trust was the most important thing for vampires, I'd learned when looking over so many court documents about the rise and fall of certain Covens. If you lied, you would be ostracized and vampires, oh, they live forever. So many grudges in some of the files. Thinly veiled disdain lurked between the lines of many transcripts. Vampires cared about what their word meant too. The Volturi's word was absolute. If we said something would happen, it did, and nobody had ever questioned that before Andrei. There was no need to.

"Why must we be the fallout?" Father Marco poised, pointing a finger at me, "Why must the vampires come here now of all times?"

"There is a very evil man out there, Father Marco," I felt my hands shake as I tried to explain the best way I could without freaking out the older man, "who abuses human girls and tries to get them pregnant. He didn't like that the last three got away."

Father Marco stood there for an undefined amount of time, thinking about what he would say next. His face was unreadable and I didn't know if he even believed me or not. I wasn't the ruler he thought he was getting and he didn't seem to take me seriously. Not that I cared much. No, I had much worse things I'd have to deal with.

Her body. She was beautiful, young, had dreams and ambitions just like everyone else. Couldn't have been much younger than me. I could never forget it now.

He fucking knew that. He knew I'd never be able to forget. This whole thing was designed to harm not only our stakes in Volterra, but me. My mind.

"A vampire?" Father Marco finally asked. "A vampire who takes girls and tries to get them pregnant?"

"Yes, Father, a vampire," I spoke only loud enough for him to hear.

Father Marco stepped forward, causing me to flinch. Even with Renata behind me, this was a lot to handle.

"Have you ever met this man?"

"I was one of those girls, Father."

There was another deep wave of silence in the old church. He knew that girl outside, probably knew her since she was born. People don't leave the city. They're happy here, content with all of the community support that the Volturi fund. Yet the Volturi had failed her. She was dead and being buried in an unmarked grave until the authorities could be given a proper story. Her obituary wouldn't tell the truth of her death. There wouldn't be any mention of how scared she was. No doubt she had family who would go looking for her. Who loved her.

Another fucking ruined life. Given no decency even as she died. Just laid out there for anyone to find.

I could handle being treated poorly by Andrei until it was too close to death for me. I could put it all behind me because it was just us. Then there was Wren. She was beautiful, shared an eerily similar face to me. I could look right through her and see something alive, unable to be broken even when her memories were gone.

She was immortal. Broken but pieced back together by venom and companionship.

Humans didn't get that luxury. They never did. They were so fragile and effortlessly graceful in their ability to trust and love and let things go.

I can't let it go anymore.