The snow was falling, and all of the vampires plus Jake had set up camp in the woods. I sat with Nik and Katherine as Jake dropped more wood onto the ground. Ben smiled at the wolf and used his power to produce fire from his fingertips and then threw it into the wood to create the fire.

"That's what I'm talkin' about. A little pre-battle bonfire. Telling war stories." Jake grinned, sitting next to Ben.

His cheerful expression faded away as nobody moved.

"Or just standing there like fricken statues."

Garrett suddenly zoomed in and sat next to Katherine. "Name any American battle. I was there."

I watched as the wolf thought for a moment before he spoke. "Little Bighorn."

"I came this close to biting Custer. But the Indians got him first."

I chuckled at the look of frustration on Garrett's face. I wonder how long he spent being angry about that.

Another flash came, and Kate was suddenly sitting on Garrett's lap. "Try Oleg's assault on Constantinople. He didn't win that one on his own."

As we started to talk battles and wars, more Cold Ones decided to chime in.

"If you're talking battles, you're talking the Eleven Years' war. No one does rebellion like the Irish."

"You lost the Eleven Years' War." Nik said a matter-of-factly.

The Irish man grinned at him. "Aye. But it was one hell of a rebellion."

More and more Cold-Ones came to tell their own stories of War and destruction. I was most interested to hear the story of Vladimir and Stefan.

"When we ruled, everything came to us. Prey, diplomats, favor seekers. Such was our power. But we never put on white hats and called ourselves saints." The former started.

"We were honest about what we were." Stefan confessed.

"We sat still for a very long time. We didn't notice we were beginning to petrify."

"Perhaps the Volturi did us a favor when they burned our castles."

"We've been waiting 1,500 years to return that favor. We have been ready to battle for ages."

I felt anger rush through my veins at their story. The Volturi had taken everything from them.

Nik and Kol shared a devious look before they began to speak.

"I think we should tell them how the Volturi came to be, don't you older brother?"

Nik smirked. "Why, yes. I think we shall."

Elijah, Finn and Rebekah all shook their heads at the two siblings, while the remaining Traditionals all decided to pay attention.

"Well, it all started when our dear mother decided to make the spell to turn us into Vampires. In our world, there has to be a balance. We were too powerful, so Ayana created a spell of her own. She made sure to make a superior race of Vampires that could take down the Traditionals.

"However, much like what happened with our Mother's spell, Ayanna's backfired. They were not more powerful than us, we were more powerful than them. Where they break, we bleed. Where they sparkle, we burn. They had gifts, but we had compulsion. We were the superior race.

"The spell was born into the air. It was like a disease. It caught on to a brute of a man, long black hair and eyes so dark they were almost black, Aro was his name."

Nik took an unneeded breath before ELijah continued the story, finding it very amusing at the shocked glances of the Cold Ones.

"He thought he could do anything, so he came from the woods, and latched his sights onto the smaller, less powerful boy he frequently abused. His blonde hair had been matted with blood, and his blue eyes stared up at Aro in fear, but it would not be the last thing he saw. Aro changed him, made him his equal. Caius never forgave Aro for not letting him die."

I was learning so much about the Volturi from the Mikaelsons, things I never expected to know.

"Marcus was the one other person this plague attached itself to, cursing the man to a life of pain and misery. He found Aro and Sulpicia not long after the latter had been turned, and found his mate in Aro's sister, Didyme. The three later found Caius and Athenodora and together they formed the Volturi." Finn said.

The heartless bastards were capable of love? Even that shocked me.

"They went around the world for years, gathering as many powerful Vampires as they could to build up their Dictatorship. The most powerful ones that they found were Jane and Alec. The Witch Twins. Hated by their village, burned at the stake. The three leaders heard about the two and immediately went to find them, and slaughtered the whole town, before they transformed Jane and Alec, giving the two the things they swore to do. Jane, wanted everybody to feel her pain as her flesh burt, and Alec, he just wanted to take away his sisters pain."

Rebekah had many emotions flashing in her eyes as she told the story of the Witch Twins. I almost wanted to say, that it felt like she was there when it happened.

"They continued to build up their power, inducing fear in each and every Cold One while trying to figure out a way to destroy the Traditionals. But the part in their story that they always forget, is that they were created because of us, and they will always be second best."

Kol finished the story, a mischievous glint in his chocolate eyes.

The truth of the Volturi had been told. Tomorrow we go to face the most ruthless of the Cold Ones, all of us hoping to come out alive.

But for now, we have our loved ones. I looked up at Nik and leaned into his side.

The blue eyed man looked down and sent me a smile.

There was nowhere else I'd rather be.