Twilight: Darling of Volturi (YURI/GL)

At Marcus’ feet lay piles upon piles of books. Some were stacked neatly, while others appeared to have tumbled onto the floor. The volumes were old, their pages brittle with age. Many of their spines had long since crumbled apart, allowing yellowed sheets to scatter loosely across the ground.

Lying amid those faded pages was the body of a dead woman. A human woman. She wore exquisite makeup, and her figure was graceful and elegant. Sophie felt as though she had smelled the scent of that woman’s cosmetics somewhere before. She simply couldn’t remember where.

Now, however, the blood had ceased flowing beneath the woman’s skin. All that remained was the unmistakable stillness of death.

”Marcus, Sophie has come to help organize the documents.” The butterfly-like guard calmly bent down and lifted the corpse with effortless ease, as casually as if she were picking up a discarded bundle of paper. Afraid Marcus might refuse the arrangement, she hurriedly added, ”It was Caius’ order. He wanted Sophie to keep herself occupied.”

Marcus reluctantly lifted his gaze from the documents before him and looked toward the girl lingering near the doorway. Without another word, he silently accepted Caius’ arrangement. These duties had originally belonged to Aro, but after he departed to attend the art festival, Marcus had temporarily assumed responsibility. Most of the work had already been completed by the guards working together. As one of the ruling leaders, however, Marcus still needed to review and approve everything personally.

Caius often complained that this entire process existed only to satisfy Aro’s obsession with ”proper procedure.” Marcus neither agreed nor disagreed. With Caius’ impatient temperament, painstakingly reading stacks of paperwork was simply out of the question. Quiet, melancholic Marcus, on the other hand, was perfectly suited to such work.

”I remember you, Sophie. Aro assigned Jane to be your guardian.” Marcus’ voice barely rippled through the silence. It was gentler than the faintest wave spreading across the surface of an ancient, forgotten well.

Once the butterfly guard finished removing the corpse, she quietly left the room. On the surface, only Marcus and Sophie remained inside. Yet Sophie’s sharpened vampire senses immediately detected hidden eyes watching her from somewhere in the darkness. They were most likely guards assigned specifically to protect Marcus. There was simply no way the Volturi would leave an immensely powerful newborn vampire completely alone with one of their ruling leaders without precautions.

Jane was indeed her guardian, but Sophie had already forgotten who Aro was. Lowering her voice instinctively, almost afraid of startling the ancient vampire before her, she quietly asked, ”Why did that woman die?”

The corpse’s skin remained healthy and rosy, and there was no scent of blood lingering in the air. Which meant she hadn’t died as food. She had simply been killed.

”She dropped a book while carrying them.” Marcus answered with complete indifference. Among the stack beside his feet, one volume indeed lay open, its pages scattered untidily across the floor. Every other book remained perfectly stacked.

Sophie counted them. Seven. Maybe eight. For such a slender human woman, that amount of weight had already been excessive.

Based solely on the arrangement of the books, Sophie could almost reconstruct the final moments before the woman’s death. She imagined the young woman struggling to carry several thick, ancient ledgers by herself. Just as she reached the table and prepared to adjust her grip before setting them down, her concentration slipped for a brief instant. The topmost volume slid from the stack and hit the floor. She immediately crouched down, placing the remaining books beside her before reaching to retrieve the fallen one.

Unfortunately, Sophie’s breathing caught. She no longer dared underestimate the refined, melancholic man standing before her. Merely hearing him state the facts so calmly was chilling enough. Whether Marcus himself had killed the woman or whether one of the hidden guards had done it in his stead made no real difference. The leaders made the decisions. The guards merely carried them out.

Books and documents covered nearly every inch of the enormous table. Marcus casually selected five or six thick volumes with one hand and tossed them toward Sophie before speaking in the same lifeless tone. ”These are human records from English-speaking regions. Identify every place where the Children of the Moon or vampire hunters have appeared. Copy down the place names and give them to me.”

The vampire race had always been astonishingly small in number. Long ago, the Volturi had begun recruiting humans to serve their interests. No one understood better than they did how useful human society could be. Naturally, Sophie had no authority to view the truly confidential files. The locations she copied would eventually be handed over to human authorities as the primary regions for future investigations and searches.

The long table was spacious enough that Sophie quietly accepted the assignment without complaint. Cradling the books carefully in both hands, she walked to the seat diagonally opposite Marcus and sat down as far away from him as possible.

The stack wasn’t particularly heavy. She could easily have carried it with one hand. But after witnessing how the previous woman had died, Sophie wasn’t about to make the same mistake.

The room provided an endless supply of blank paper along with traditional quill pens. Sophie silently thanked herself for bringing along her favorite fountain pen when she’d attempted to escape earlier. She genuinely loved it, from its elegant design to the smooth flow of its ink.

Only dim candlelight illuminated the room, bathing the yellowed pages before her in an atmosphere steeped in history. Thanks to her enhanced vampire vision, Sophie could even distinguish the subtle abrasions worn into the paper over countless years. Every page seemed rich with age and texture.

Taking a deep breath, she focused herself and began reading through the disorderly handwritten manuscripts. She dared not relax for even a moment. One careless mistake, and she had little doubt she might lose her head.

Using the pronunciation as a guide, Sophie quickly identified the written forms of the terms ”vampire hunter” and ”Children of the Moon.” The handwriting throughout the records varied enormously, making many passages difficult to decipher.

Fortunately, the contents themselves were fascinating. The manuscripts covered an astonishing range of subjects, and before long, Sophie found herself reading them as though they were journals chronicling one grand adventure after another.

Gradually, she forgot about Marcus. She forgot the unseen guards watching her. Her attention became completely absorbed by the ancient records.

The entries concerning the Children of the Moon were especially abundant and remarkably detailed. They were a race that preferred living in large communities, and throughout history they had occupied countless towns and villages. During the decline of several human royal dynasties, the werewolf clans had once risen to the height of their influence and power.

Sophie carefully copied down several obscure place names. Sure enough, hidden along the forgotten edges of human history, countless other races had been fighting wars, building civilizations, and writing glorious chapters of their own.