— 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟒 —
𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤

     "So, Alice..." Cassandra tilted her head at the two vampires sitting in the booth across from her, the fae taking a massive bite of her pizza as she spoke.

Rosalie's nose scrunched in disgust, as much as she wished she was still able to eat human food, that did not mean she currently found it delectable in the slightest.

"What brings you to New York City? In a pizzeria at that?" The fae finished her sentence mid-chew, eyes watching both beautiful vampires sharply.

She may recognize that they were good — Rosalie bitter and traumatized, but still good nonetheless — but that did not mean that she would let her guard down. Good people do bad things all the time, this was a lesson that Sandy learned very early on in her life.

They all knew what she was really asking. Why the fuck are two VAMPIRES in a little human food shop?

The owner had long since lost interest in the three gorgeous women, the half-deaf man leaning against the counter in his kitchen doing a crossword puzzle. He had put on his tunes in the background: some old song that Sandy recognized from the 60s playing.

It was Elvis Presley singing about hound dogs, to be exact.

"Why, you brought us here, of course..." Alice trailed off, her tone holding the slightest bit of a Southern twang.

Cassandra recognized that it did not sound like the Southern accent from Texas or even Tennessee, but rather a less popular state like Arkansas or even Mississippi.

A small feeling fluttered in Sandy's gut — her subconscious screamed that Alice was from Mississippi.

It took a second before she recognized that Alice was trailing off asking for her name.

"They know me as Lily in the production, but my friends call me, Sandy..." she finally answered and Alice just about lit up like a Christmas light.

"It's so great to meet you, Sandy, we're gonna be great friends!"

Sandy smiled back almost excitedly.

It was hard. Because yes, while she was cautious of these two: she was still naturally curious. Her fae nature made her easily excitable, and what was more exciting than the thought of a friend who would not age and die within a few decades?

Then again: it was also a friend whose nature made her kill people in order to sustain herself.

Although, Alice and her friend's golden eyes were offputting — she'd never heard of vampires having golden eyes.

A vampire's eye color was usually red but the color turned black if they were either hungry or... aroused...

Sandy shivered at the last thought hoping that she would never need to deal with a horny vampire.

Her three mates briefly found their way to the forefront of her mind.

Marcus's gentle touch, Caius's sharp teeth upon her, and Aro's lips feasting upon her own.

Those thoughts were quickly shut down and banished.

"And you know this how?" She asked Alice while reaching for her large Dr. Pepper (kill her, Dr. Pepper was a love of hers) and bringing it to her lips.

Soda, candy, and anything sweet really was her weakness.

Again, it was a fairy thing. Or at least that's what Sandy liked to say as an excuse... it was probably just a her thing.

Alice smiled almost shyly, "Just a feeling..."

Cassandra tilted her head — she had feelings too, and right now she had a knack that Alice got far more "feelings" than she did.

Some vampires had special abilities.

Apart from the standard strength, speed, heightened senses, and beauty: there were some vampires who have gifts beyond that. Gifts are rare—one in fifty, maybe—but everyone is different. There's a huge range of gifts out there, and some of them are more powerful than others.

These extra abilities are due to psychic gifts in the original human that are intensified in the resulting vampire. For example, a human who is very sensitive to other people's moods might develop the vampire ability to read thoughts or influence emotions.

If a human already possesses a certain supernatural gift, this talent will be largely amplified after he is transformed into a vampire. That made these types of vampires especially dangerous.

It was the reason why Lithiovai had been so dangerous—why the Volturi were so dangerous.

Thankfully, Sandy had only ever had to fight a handful of vampires since escaping her deranged father.

And those vampires either had no psychic gifts or incredibly weak gifts that did nothing to help them in a fight.

Each time she came out on top — and admittedly — they were the only creatures that she had killed. And she was okay with that seeing as they were dead anyway.

She only ever fought them when they had either mistook her for a human and attempted to attack or on the off chance she wandered upon a vampire hunting a person. In that case, she always stepped in and protected said human with her life.

The proportion of supernaturally talented vampires to "normal" vampires is greater than the proportion of psychically gifted humans to "normal" humans. This is due to the same factor of temperament that results in more beautiful humans being selected to become vampires. Vampires are also drawn to gifted humans when they look to create companions. Some vampires actively seek out the gifted in the hope of utilizing that extra ability in their coven.

AKA — Sandy's mates — the Volturi leaders. Aro, Marcus, and Caius.

Namely Aro who was known to be quite the collector of vampires with gifts. His thought process, his ideas, and his strategizing was the main reason behind why the Volturi were so successful in becoming the "world power" of all vampires.

Then again, Aro was quite gifted himself with being able to invade someone's mind with a simple touch.

Even Sandy doubted that any magic of hers would be powerful enough to keep Aro out should he ever touch her.

Cassandra stared at Alice for a long second before it became apparent. Alice was psychically gifted!

"You're a seer!" She finally chirped, figuring it out on her own.

Alice gave a bright smile back, "I knew you'd figure it out!"

"So that's why you approached me, you foresaw me in your future?"

Alice shrugged at Sandy's words, "Well, that's part of the reason—" she was cut off by the beautiful blonde next to her.

The young woman scoffed — her golden eyes hard. "Oh please, that is the entire reason you approached her and dragged me with you..."

Alice glared at the other vampire, "That and the fact that you were absolutely wonderful in The Phantom of the Opera! I've never seen it before, but I believe you might just have the best voice I've ever heard! I absolutely loved it!" The short vampire turned back to Sandy enthusiastically.

Before the bashful fae could even hope to thank Alice for her kind words, the other vampire female was butting in.

The blonde turned away with a scowl, "She was alright..."

"Rosalie!" Alice turned to her sister sharply.

Sandy watched the exchange with raised brows — at least she now knew the blonde's name. Rosalie.

Cassandra had no clue what happened in her past, but she sensed that Rosalie turning into a vampire had not been pleasant nor had it been by choice.

Sandy was able to sense that there was a lot of hurt surrounding Rosalie's final moments as a human: fear, pain, betrayal, sorrow.

Sandy had never had the best filter either.

"You were hurt in your final moments as a human..." she said sadly, "you were hurt and betrayed..."

Rosalie's eyes widened slightly. "How could you possibly know that?" She spat, immediately on the defense.

Alice placed a gentle hand on her adoptive sister's shoulder making her relax just a bit. However, even Alice was curious about this.

They had long since guessed that Sandy was no normal mortal. For she did not smell like one, or rather they should say she did not smell like food. Most humans smelled of nothing more than sweet ambrosia — a scent that was absolutely mouthwatering.

Not Cassandra though: rather, they smelled her blood and heard her strong heartbeat, but that was all. There was no want to bite her and drain her.

Maybe if they were extremely hungry or looking for a meal, but she certainly would not be a top choice seeing as she seemed hardly appetizing.

That and it was obvious that she knew of them being vampires. Her last words to Rosalie only proved that.

When Sandy did not answer her and only continued to stare at her sadly: Rosalie got angry.

"What are you then? A witch?"

The witch population was between common and uncommon — there were far more psychic humans in existence than actual witches.

The population of witches had been slowly on the decrease for the past thousand years.

Alice and Rosalie had run into a handful of witches during their time, but most of these people did not even recognize themselves as witches and did not practice magic. Not to mention, witches were not resistant to vampire venom — if a vampire bit a witch they could be turned.

However, when a witch was turned, they lost their connection to their magic. But more often than not it would lead to them being turned into a rather gifted vampire.

Jane and Alec of the Volturi were prime examples of this.

Nevertheless, most witches in these modern times did not even realize they were.

Rosalie and Alice would not be surprised if Cassandra was one of the rare witches still practicing magic. But the girl's next words threw them.

"Uhm, no — that's more my sister's thing... I'm actually a fae!"

The only dangerous part about telling people — vampires in specific — what she was is the off chance that they were in bed with Lithiovai.

But she knew this was not the case with these two.

Alice's eyes glimmered excitedly, the vampire immediately believing her. Rosalie, on the other hand, was not so easily swayed. She raised a perfect unimpressed brow.

"Fae?" Rosalie said boredly, though there was a hint of disbelief in her tone.

"Yes, fae — you know: fairy, pixie, elf in some cases?" Sandy leaned back against her seat, not at all worried that she would be overheard.

They were the only ones in the establishment other than the owner who was too focused on his crossword to pay any mind to them. Not to mention, he was hard of hearing and he was blasting music back there.

Sandy would have been able to yell his name and he would not have heard her.

Rosalie scoffed, "Please, Alice let's go, I'm tired of wasting our time..."

Alice looked at Rosalie in an upset manner. "Rose, please..." she hissed.

Sandy only frowned, her hands banging on the table to showcase her frustration. "But it's true!" She scowled, but it looked more like a pout than anything with her features.

For obvious reasons, Sandy did not tell many people what she was. She did not tend to befriend those of the supernatural, and for her to tell a mortal meant that said mortal had to be a rather special individual.

It was not like she had never told anyone, but for her own safety, she liked to keep her true nature to herself.

But with Alice and even Rosalie, she just simply felt like she could trust them. As though she was supposed to tell them now... like it was leading her down the correct path.

Where this path led was still a mystery.

"You're a fairy?" Rosalie scoffed, picking at her nails while shaking her head.

Sandy narrowed her eyes at the blonde, the girl momentarily forgetting the previous suffering she had sensed from the vampire.

"Yes, I am," Sandy said sassily, "And the term is actually fae, thank you very much..."

Rosalie threw her hands in the air, her face incredulous. "Fairies don't exist! I would know, I've been around for a little while now as you can probably guess! Do you take me for being stupid?!"

The truth of the matter was that her people had pretty much gone extinct. At this point, Sandy could only hope that she was not truly the only one left — but she was also just over two-hundred years old and had never met another fae in her life.

Well, not since Lithiovai destroyed her parents and the clan of fae she was born into.

But the fae had been on the decrease even longer than witches, for thousands of years at this point. Only the older vampires would know that the fae were, in fact real. Although many of them probably believed them to be an extinct species.

If Rosalie had only been a vampire for a few decades as Sandy suspected, the same with Alice, then they definitely would not know of the fae.

"No, I am sure that you are brilliant. Simply uneducated on who my people once were, but I can't blame you seeing as vampires were part of the reason we're basically extinct in the first place..." she muttered the last part sourly and Rosalie scowled at being called uneducated.

Rosalie Hale had about 4 different PHDs and she was a certified nurse — trained by Carlisle Cullen (the best damn doctor in the world).

She was definitely not uneducated. Sandy was wrong to claim that.

Before Rosalie could mouth her anger at being called such a term, Sandy continued, although she did not have much else to say.

"But I can definitely assure you both, I am, in fact, a fae. Possibly the last of the fae on this Earth..." and as she said the last part darkly, her jade eyes glowed a bright green.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, allowing the illusion over her ears to drop and for the full inhuman point to be revealed.

Naturally, Sandy's ears were pointed at the tips. As legend suggested, that was the physiology of a fae's ears and it tended to catch attention.

Cassandra learned the hard way when she first escaped and people noticed her ears when her hair was not covering them. Of course, seeing as this was the 1700s and 1800s, people reacted in rather alarming ways.

AKA sending mobs after her.

So, Cassandra evolved, she learned how to hide her ears with magic. An easy illusion that affected all creatures, only those with especially strong shields and other magics could see through her illusion.

It was not that big of a deal though as Sandy usually adorned her hair down so her ears — even under the illusion — were covered anyway.

Alice gaped and Rosalie sat there with huge eyes.

In the next second, her illusion was back over her ears and her eyes were no longer glowing.

The three young-looking women sat staring at each other for a good five minutes before it was Alice who started spewing questions at a mile a minute.

"Perhaps," Cassandra cut her off with a kind smile, "this is a conversation better suited in the privacy of my condo? It's just down the block, but it is quite a long story, so I am not sure if you have the time..." she trailed off unsurely at the end.

Rosalie was the first to stand, her golden eyes gleaming.

"Trust me, we have plenty of time on our hands," she spoke earnestly.

Alice smirked slightly, "I thought you claimed she was wasting our time, Rose?" She said knowingly.

The corner of Rosalie's lips only quirked upward in amusement. "To learn about a creature that I thought was mere mythology until five minutes ago? Trust me, I have all the time in the world..."

"Alright, let's go then!" Sandy clapped her hands as she stood, leading the two women out of the pizzeria, waving to the owner as they left.

"I'll see you next time, Al!"

————————

The year was 1673 — hidden deep in the high mountains and woodland of Scotland was one of the last fae clans in existence. The Roseanine Clan.

They had long remained unseen and isolated from mortals and other supernatural creatures alike with their magic. Powerful enough that it would turn those around who got close to their small village.

The fae had been on the decline for over two thousand years now: the reason being that magic was disappearing from the Earth. No longer did unicorns run rampant nor did dragons rule over the skies.

And they had not for many millennia.

Whilst creatures of life magic and nature began to disappear: creatures of the undead and the moon thrived. Well, the creatures of the moon had thrived until the undead creatures began to kill them off.

Now, the creatures of the moon were very near extinct as well.

Once upon a time: the fae assisted the changing of seasons to keep balance to nature. Now, as magic continued to disappear, the fae were no longer needed to keep such balance.

It is why those who were left remained hidden away.

Eilian and Eirwyn — the leaders of the Roseanine Clan had been blessed with a child.

Over the years, it became harder for the fae to procreate, it was now very difficult for a female fae to be with child.

It is why when a fae was with a child it was cause for great celebration. And for the Queen of one of the last known fae clans to be with child was perhaps the greatest deal of all.

Cassandra Lillith of Roseanine was brought into the world on a cheerful day in the midst of Spring.

The first fae child for many years.

She grew up dancing in fields of daisies and drowned in the sunlight of freedom. Her parents loved her very much, as did the other fae of her clan.

Their clan prospered for a few years after she was born.

Fae take twice the amount of time to age as humans before they inevitably stop aging at some point in their young to mid adult years.

Some fae age until their mid-thirties, even forties, while others might stop as soon as they hit as young as twenty in appearance.

Cassandra's parents, Eilian and Eirwyn stopped aging sometime when they physically appeared in their late twenties.

After the birth of Cassandra — the fae clan of Roseanine remained hidden in harmony for about ten years. Cassandra was ten, but she was still young for a fae and her physical appearance was no more than that of a five-year-old when Lithiovai came.

Lithiovai — the oldest vampire in current existence — aged well over 5,000 years old at the time.

His ability was a complicated one, but it allowed him to find the Clan of Roseanine and annihilate them. He led a small army of vampires: small enough to not draw the attention of the Volturi but large enough to decimate the unsuspecting fae.

Fae who had little to no knowledge of battle seeing as they had lived in peace in their small corner of the world for centuries. This was not to say they were not powerful in their own right — but it mattered not how powerful they were when they were peaceful creatures not ready for battle.

Although they put up a good fight and the battle lasted days: it ultimately ended with the entire slaughter of the clan.

Except for one.

See, Lithiovai had been alive for a long time — and in the beginning, he along with a few other vampires ruled over the vampire world.

In ancient times, a group of ambitious vampires (Lithiovai among them) called a truce to the usual squabbling between small covens and joined forces to gain power. Their ambition allowed them to overcome their competitive drive and cooperate. Eventually, they became known as the Romanian coven and became the largest ruling coven of the vampire world.

The coven consisted of the leaders, guards, and subordinates; the majority of the coven though concentrated on physical strength with most of its members being physically imposing vampires.

Lithiovai was one of the main rulers along with four others. Stefan, Vladimir, Morgana, and Lucian. Vladimir and Morgana were mates.

During their rule, the coven, as with most vampires at the time, did not bother keeping their existence a secret. They willingly let the people of Romania know they were vampires, on par with the Egyptian Coven.

Humans were delivered to them, and if they were pleased enough, the Romanians would choose to change them.

But when the Volturi came to power, the Romanians were usurped after almost a century of warring against each other.

Their downfall originated from their underestimating the advantage of supernatural abilities that existed in some vampires, which the Volturi had collected. Aro was a very intelligent man: he along with Caius, Marcus, Didyme, and Athenodora's use of strategy was unmatched.

Only four of the five Romanian leaders: Lithiovai, Stefan, Vladimir, and Morgana, escaped execution when their castle was destroyed. Everyone else of the Romanian Coven, including their other leader, Lucian, was wiped out.

Ever since then, Lithiovai and the other survivors harbored resentment towards the Volturi and would do anything to overthrow them.

After their downfall, the remaining members attempted to destroy the Volturi and take back their power by gathering over 100 recruits, thinking that their number would overcome the Volturi's talented members.

It was then that Aro displayed Alec and Jane's destructive powers for the first time in battle and massacred the entire army, Morgana included.

Stefan, Vladimir, and Lithiovai only survived because they were waiting at the escape route where they planned a trap for the expected Volturi retreat. Vladimir became an even bigger monster at the loss of his dear mate, Morgana.

Stefan and Lithiovai were distraught and angry at the loss of their coven mate — their sister.

They had been cold before, but the loss of everything in their long existence had hardened them.

After this, the Romanians made no further attempt to create more vampires for their coven. Well, Stefan and Vladimir did not. The two decided to disappear until the Volturi weakened or another power presented itself to ally themselves with.

Lithiovai, on the other hand, disappeared altogether. He had learned his lesson from their failed attack: and he was more power-hungry and bloodthirsty than ever.

He personally wanted to be the one to tear Aro's head from his shoulders and burn his coven to the ground.

Lithiovai took a note from Aro's book, and he knew he had to be smart about his plan. The Volturi had eyes everywhere, and if he was found they would not hesitate to destroy him.

They believed him to be dead. They had torn his body to pieces, but before he could be burned along with the rest of the recruits, his body reattached itself and he escaped.

Even Vladimir and Stefan did not know of his survival. Lithiovai could not tell his coven mates — not when every few decades, Aro would send his tracker, Demetri, to seek the two out and see what they were doing.

Of course, as it was only the two of them and they posed little to no threat, the Volturi left them on their way. That would change if Aro knew of Lithiovai's survival and his managing to evade the Volturi for centuries.

But Lithiovai had a plan — his objective was clear. He would take what the Volturi did to overthrow them and improve it.

Recruiting talented vampires was risky as most vampire kind was too scared to go against the Volturi. And surely, Aro would be aware of Lithiovai recruiting vampires to fight against them and he would be stopped.

No, Lithiovai could not risk that.

Not when there were so many other creatures in the world. So many other creatures with amazing talents and power.

And what was the best way to ensure power and loyalty? Taking them when they were young and raising them with a single purpose.

Destroy the Volturi—stay faithful to Lithiovai, their creator, their father.

Lithiovai would take eight children, he decided. Eight different supernatural creatures. He chose the creatures carefully, taking only the ones who he knew would grow to be the most powerful, and under his guidance, they surely would.

He wanted them to be just like him: powerful, cruel, ruthless. For that was the only way to take the Volturi down.

Some of his children he handpicked, and others he found.

Abigail was his oldest: a very powerful witch from a very powerful bloodline. He saved her, the girl's mother had been burned at the stake and they were after Abigail. Lithiovai stepped in.

His next child was handpicked: Cassius was taken when he was just a baby. Lithiovai killed his parents and kidnapped him, raising him as his own. Cassius was a djinn, a powerful wielder of magic.

Unlike the legends claim: djinn could not do just anything. They were powerful; yes, but even their magic had a cap just as all creature's abilities did.

Thespian was an accident — not handpicked — but rather, Lithiovai had been drawn to the blood of his mother. His mother was a human who had died giving birth to a baby: half vampire and half human.

Lithiovai arrived only hours after the birth to a screaming baby Thespian.

Lithiovai had been charmed by the idea: and raised him more out of curiosity. He planned to kill Thespian when he reached maturity as he assumed he'd have no need for the child. After all, there was no way a hybrid of a vampire and human was at all more powerful than a full vampire.

He was proven wrong at Thespian's ability.

Lithiovai named Thespian's ability as 'Vorpal Blades'. The human-vampire hybrid was able to create and manipulate razor-sharp, energy-infused blades at will. The only blades on Earth that were able to cut through vampire skin.

Thespian was able to cut through almost anything with ease. Lithiovai trained him harshly to be able to summon these blades at any time: he trained him to be one of the best swordsmen in the world.

Adam was born to a vampire father and a werewolf mother: the only hybrid in existence.

Adam was not handpicked either as Lithiovai happened upon him and destroyed Adam's parents when he was seven before kidnapping Adam and raising him with the others. Adam was able to shift at will and his strength, speed, and senses far outmatched that of any normal vampire.

It was why Lithiovai had to take extra care in raising Adam in fear and to be loyal to only him.

Zulon came from Japan along with his best friend, Noelle.

Zulon was an Oni, or at least, half of him was. His mother was raped by an Oni demon which led to him, his mother died in childbirth leaving Zulon on the streets of Japan. Noelle was a kitsune, they found each other at a young age before Lithiovai found them when they were seven in an orphanage.

While they were not handpicked, Lithiovai had gone to Japan with the intention of finding powerful children. His search was successful.

He took them with him forcefully.

The two were unable to remember their original names for Lithiovai renamed them: Zulon and Noelle.

Lithiovai handpicked Nicholas

He was a warlock and like Abigail, a rather a powerful one. Lithiovai destroyed his parents in the midst of the night and kidnapped an eight-year-old Nicholas. Nicholas by far gave the most fight but was unable to best Lithiovai at such a young age.

Cassandra was last. And she too was handpicked.

Lithiovai knew of the fae species, they had been on the decrease for a while, but they were still rather powerful creatures. Of course, the power depended on the natural talent and skill of the fae. Just as it did with any creature.

A fae would be the perfect creature to end his collection of children/weapons.

He loved his children in his own way: he loved the power that they gave him. The power he held over them.

Aro, Marcus, and Caius beat his large coven with a small army once upon a time. Now, the tides would change: Lithiovai was confident he only needed his eight children.

The look on the Volturi's faces when Lithiovai revealed himself as alive and attacked with only eight powerful creatures of the supernatural was something he looked forward to.

It would be a glorious day, indeed.

Then he would reunite with Stefan and Vladimir and all three would rule over the vampire world once again.

Cassandra was the hardest of his children to find as the remaining fae in the world used their magic to stay hidden. But there had been rumors of a small clan of fae in the highlands of Scotland: the Queen of said clan had apparently given birth.

A rare feat in the current times.

Lithiovai knew that the little fae would be powerful: she was the daughter of the clan leaders and one of the only fae to be born among their practical extinction.

It took him years and a small newborn army to finally find the Roseanine Clan, and when he did, they attacked viciously. They burned the clan to the ground.

The fae put up a proud fight, but the fae were not fighters — they barely stood a chance against starving newborns.

Tiny Cassandra was easy to find in the midst of the chaos as she was the only child in the clan. He was impressed when she managed to put up a fight against him.

Of course she was not able to win seeing as she was merely ten in human years and five by fae standards.

But she attempted to defend herself nonetheless.

He knew then that she would grow to be powerful, and under his guiding hand, she would be a force of brutality. He would beat the gentleness out of her: he would replace her natural fae kindness with cruelness.

She was the last piece to his perfect machine.

The Volturi would fall against Lithiovai's new family.

Cassandra screamed and wailed as Lithiovai took her away from the only home she had ever known: the young girl terrified as she listened to the screams of her people. The death in the air was too much for a life-bringer such as her.

When they arrived in America (or rather the colony of Virginia, seeing as America was not yet a country), where Lithiovai was raising his other children, she was thrown on the enchanted lands with her new siblings. The lands meant to keep them in and all else out.

Lithiovai sent the newborn army he'd created to the head of the Mexican vampire coven; Maria, where they were ultimately killed when they were out of their newborn phase.

It was the only way he was able to ensure that the Volturi would never find out what he did, not until the time was right, at least.

Aro would only realize what Lithiovai had done as he was beheaded.