BILLY BLACK HAD LOST SO MUCH IN HIS LIFE. That fact permeated through his thoughts and his memories. He had known the sharp sting of fighting for his family to stay together despite the conditions of the Reservation being subpar before he began leading them into the twenty-first century. Now they had a good school and the ability to make their own decisions on their land most of the time. Even if they had to get the funds themselves, Billy saw this as a good thing.

Now he was being introduced into a new part of a world he thought he hated. His ancestors had done everything they could to keep the vampires at bay, now he was attending one of their balls as an esteemed guest. If his ancestors saw this, there would have to be a great, long explanation. These were the people who had co-opted their land.

He supposed he couldn't blame Aro, he'd spoken to the man and while he was quite odd, he wasn't malicious. Billy's family always believed he was a good judge of character and he felt like he could attend this event if just to manage relations between their people. Of course, he could not attend alone, being that his health had begun to decline in the years since he'd stopped shifting. His diabetes had gotten much worse and he needed someone to help him in case something happened.

Unfortunately, all of their fuss had sort of outed the whole Shifter issue with the reservation. All of them had heard the stories. Hell, Billy had believed they were just stories until he himself began shifting. Billy had brought his people together and explained the circumstances, the vampire problem, and expressly told everyone that if they spilled the vampire secret that he may not be able to save them or whoever they told from vampires trying to keep the secret.

While he wanted to protect everyone he could, it was clear that by expanding their world they had to follow some simple rules.

Then came to the discussion after with his immediate family about the event. Only shifters and their families were invited, but most had family graduations to attend, either in Forks or out of state for University. Jacob had graduated a semester early and all of his children were either still in college or out of it and with families of their own. Jacob had to stay with the majority of the pack to keep his status and protect his freshly formed bond with his imprint. He understood, he was happy for him, but that left him in a hard place.

Once Connie had heard of the issue, she volunteered. His little sister had always had a heart of gold, helping in any way she could even after that fucker left her with Collin. It was decided that the two of them would be helping him and would attend the party. Collin was a shifter, after all, and a minor, meaning that it was only right that Connie come with. Collin didn't mind missing a few graduations if it meant a paid trip to Italy.

Billy had resigned himself to the fact that despite being an old man, he would be surrounded by people centuries older than him who he had seen as enemies. Pale faced demons, bloodsuckers. Many of them would likely have the same prejudices towards him. To be honest, he was old and sick of all of the fighting. If he was able to end some of the hurt, he would. If it would help his people he could do it. Suck it up and see what these people did with their lives, see what their culture really was and if it was just a bad group that hunted his people and forced them to become Shifters in the first place.

They'd packed only what they'd need for the trip, having been given a bit of money from the Volturi in order to purchase nice suits for he and Collin and a pretty outfit for Connie. She'd been over the moon showing him the glittering jewels and Billy decided that even if this went haywire he was happy that he could see Connie happy again. Collin had been hard to buy for, hating all of his tie choices and finally decided to go for a coffee brown tie that matched his mother's eyes. They didn't match the shoes he insisted were the only comfortable pair, but Billy knew that he was 13 and it was only for a night. Nobody would be psychoanalyzing their outfit choices.

He'd never been on a plane, but he was happy that they didn't crash like in Lost.

Everything about the way over was smooth. Connie had beamed with excitement like when she was a little girl at the small bakeries and various historical buildings. It had been a dream for her to leave the country and see some of Europe, but they'd never had the money growing up and then Kevin left her destitute.

That fucker.

Billy had been impressed by the accommodations. The hotel was not what he was used to. When he had to leave Forks, he always went with a cheaper option. If he had to pay more to be on the first floor, he would do that, he hated going up stairs even when he could.

He had to say, the city was gorgeous. When Connie had been raving about how beautiful the cities in Italy were, he had simply believed that she was just under the spell of the historical aspects of the area (as she'd wanted to be a history major, go figure) or the water. Connie loved water since she was a little girl, always at the beach. La Push was her home when they were still within the confines of High School.

These pleasant surprises only continued once he got himself together for the night and found himself being wheeled into the massive building.

Opulence was something he didn't find himself desiring, even as he watched all of the vampires around him stroll through the doors looking like royalty. It shouldn't have been surprising how many vampires there really were. Across the seas, there were no Shifters to keep them at bay. It was colonialism that had introduced them to his people's land. At least half of the vampires he watched come in had to have been born before that land had been discovered.

"How long are we staying?" Collin asked, tapping his foot on the ground. "There's nobody my age here, they're all old."

Collin had been tasked with introducing himself to at least three people. His mother was more interested in international relations than himself. She had only just found out about the Shifters being real and now she threw herself into the whole thing. That was the way she worked, though, and Billy shouldn't have been surprised that she would go at this with the same fervor that she did teaching 5th graders at the school.

"Chrissy mentioned a pair of twins," Billy began, looking around the event from the sidelines to see if he noticed them, "They are children only a year or so younger than you."

Billy waved off his nephew and insisted on wheeling himself around for the time being. The boy would have to do the majority of the work for them, seeing as the Shifters had to have a representative and he was that. It was only right that he make contact with these mysterious twins and make friends with them.

Connie came to his side with a woman at her side. He recognized her from the pictures Chrissy had gathered from the Cullen Residence of her and River.

"Billy, it is wonderful to finally be meeting you." Billy shook her hand firmly and she smiled wide, showing unnaturally perfect white teeth. "I hope the plane ride over was alright for everyone."

"It was, it was," he nodded and looked behind the woman to see that Collin had finally found the pair of twins. "There are a lot of you."

River laughed and nodded. "Honestly, I don't know anyone here. People came from all over. I'm sure Collin will get to see Jane and Alec as well as the rest of the London Coven. They were all turned at 12 to 16, most are under five hundred years old besides the twins. Maybe some of the younger Shifters would be able to fly out to see them, I know they're always looking for new friends."

Billy appreciated her consideration. Though, he had to wonder who would turn someone at that age, knowing they'd be immortally a child. Seemed unfair. It was just as unfair for Collin, who had been stuck being the same height for six months and wanted to grow up already.

"How many, would you say, are turned before they reach 18?" Billy asked.

"It's been illegal to turn anyone under the age of 16 since the Volturi came to power unless there's a dire circumstance," River explained, "Some people break the rule, their makers die if it was on purpose. To combat the problem the Volturi banned feeding on anyone under 16 since that seemed to be the only way to fix it. I'm pretty sure it's been that way for... Shit, I don't remember but it's been a while."

"You can't feed on children, but you can turn someone if they're 16?" That seemed a bit weird to have such a rule. Weren't these people worried about snagging a younger one? Did that matter to the vampires? "I don't see how the vampires know who they're picking off and killing."

River let out a small chuckle. "We have to do background checks. Heidi manages it for the Volturi. It's easy now that we're in the age of technology. Just get on the dark web and advertise a disgusting 'fun time' who deserve to die. I wouldn't feel comfortable eating a random person, mainly because that's too dangerous and what if they didn't deserve it? Seems wrong."

"Odd to have a moral stance on killing if you're still doing it," Billy noted. "Most vampires my people come across don't give a crap."

It's not like people stopped growing at 16, they were still young. Quite young to be stuck at. Billy had been devastated to know that many of the younger boys were turning. 12, 13, 14... all of them too young to be tasked with the kind of responsibility needed to be good at their jobs. Protecting the land meant sacrifice and who could expect that of a little boy? A boy who had not yet had to sacrifice could not be forced to do so under harsh conditions. At least, that was what his father always said.

"It's understandable that you'd think that, given your experience with some of our people." River let out a sigh before she added, "Aro says there's been an uptick of crime in the Americas, mainly because the continental divide. We're planning on making an outpost so nobody has to travel across the sea to get their issues handled. Hopefully there won't be any of these issues anymore."

"As long as we have access to our land and create barriers to prevent the boys from becoming Shifters, we will do what is needed."

Billy glanced over at his nephew and saw him continuing to talk with the younger vampires. Each and every one of them had been human once, had hopes and dreams beyond killing and joining these Covens of their kind. What would it have been like if they'd been allowed to grow up? Even if he did not particularly like these people (they'd done nothing but they were also a group that forced his boy to Shift) he had to admit they were trying. Nobody had been attacked, everyone was jovial and conversing as if they were just humans at an event.

His whole view was being questioned, but it took a lot more than one night to change Billy Black's mind.