When being dragged forcefully and irresistibly by Caius towards the labyrinthine, complex, and eerie depths of the Volturi, Katherine envisioned countless scenarios of herself being torn to shreds in her mind.
All along the way, Katherine was the center of attention. All the vampires looked at them either in astonishment or calmly, and very consciously made way for them.
Katherine noticed a kind of awe and a sense of taking-it-for-granted in their eyes that left her utterly desperate. It seemed as if not a single vampire thought that she, this uninvited intruder who had suddenly appeared, was worthy of being isolated or suspected.
She had no idea how long the Volturi had existed, nor did she know about the system and rules here, let alone the hierarchical divisions among them. However, all the signs along the way indicated that this bastard who was gripping her as tightly as if she were his sworn enemy held a rather high position within the Volturi.
If Heidi hadn't deceived her and the Volturi didn't keep useless people, did that mean Caius's abilities must be truly terrifying?
Katherine twisted her wrist, which had been grasped until it was almost numb, thinking that with his ability to go berserk at any moment and his arrogant and capricious personality, he was indeed capable of scaring other vampires to death.
Sensing Katherine's struggle, Caius glanced back at her, and the force in his hand grew even stronger. Katherine couldn't help but push him, and upon noticing that his eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes had become even gloomier, she quickly said, "You're hurting me!"
Taking advantage of the moment when Caius slightly loosened his grip, Katherine quickly pulled her hand back. He stood there for a while, then turned around and continued to lead the way. Eventually, he stopped in front of a rather inconspicuous room, opened the door, and waited for Katherine to come up.
There was the smell of blood!
Katherine was initially stunned. The instinctive craving that welled up made her not even aware of how she managed to ascend those stairs that were a challenge to her self-control.
This room was an ice chamber, seemingly used for storing blood. The extreme purity and transparency of white and the extreme scarlet darkness were the only colors in this ice chamber. Row upon row, they looked like clusters of frozen blood-colored flames, sending shivers down one's spine.
Katherine sniffed and discovered that the blood here had two different scents. One was sweeter, while the other was relatively less alluring.
Caius took out a bottle of unfrozen blood, uncorked it, and poured it into an intricately carved crystal glass that was placed upside down beside it. A full glass of the liquid that could instantly relieve the pain was handed to Katherine.
Katherine's last shred of sanity reached a conclusion that this blood smelled very much like the blood of the animals she had hunted for the first time, not as maddening. She quickly grasped it and gulped it down. The vampiric instinct to suck blood, which had been ignited by the blood, rampaged through her body but was maximally alleviated when the cold red liquid entered her mouth.
The feeling of being reborn, as if maggots were clinging to the bone, penetrated deep into the marrow, making it impossible to resist.
After calming down, her thirst was greatly alleviated, and the endless psychological pressure took center stage. Katherine looked at the glass in her hand. The remaining blood slowly slid down the inside of the glass, torturing her like a slow-motion movie in her eyes. That bright red had almost become the only color in her sight.
She felt that the venomous snake named bloodlust was gradually occupying her mind, coiling there, immortal.
"What... what kind of blood is this?" Katherine grasped the glass with both hands. The glass groaned painfully in her hands, and spiderweb-like cracks spread from her fingers to the rest of the glass body. God knew that her nerves were almost as fragile as this glass.
"Animal blood." Caius looked at her, his voice calm, brushing past her ear like silk. "It's used to control newborn vampires. They would lose control even more if they were exposed to human blood at the beginning."
Katherine let out a sigh of relief. The glass's endurance had reached its limit and shattered into pieces in her hands. The patterns on the edges of the fragments were clearly visible.
She looked at the bloodstains remaining on her hand. The dark red liquid began to coagulate on her hand due to the low temperature, looking even more like a ruby. Thanks to the excellent vision of a vampire, she could even make out the tiniest highlights on it.
Noticing that Katherine was distracted, Caius clicked his tongue lightly, pulled her hand, and with a slightly threatening look, quelled Katherine's shrinking back: "Come with me. The others want to see you."
"The... others?" Katherine's tongue trembled uncontrollably. Who were the others? Were you sure they were people? Why did they want to see me?
Staying put wouldn't solve the problem. Katherine was dragged around by Caius like a private rag doll, following him all the way downstairs and into the hall. Before she could even be surprised that she was gradually learning to control her steps in this shock-inducing teaching method, she heard a melodious and gentle exclamation floating over from the front.
It was a handsome man wearing the Volturi's uniform robe with long black hair. His voice was so soft, and the enthusiasm in his expression was so sincere that Katherine was almost moved to tears, if it weren't for the fact that she saw that he, like Caius and herself, also had a pair of blood-red pupils of a vampire.
"Dear Katherine, you're finally here." He spoke as beautifully as if he were singing. The blonde woman beside him, also wearing a black and red robe, had a delicate and beautiful face with a gentle and charming look, making one want to exchange it for the most precious pearls.
Katherine had learned her lesson this time. She first looked at the eyes. They were red.
"Aro, Sulpicia." Caius said casually.
At first, Katherine thought he was greeting them, but later she realized that he was introducing to her who the people in front of her were. She opened her mouth but found that she didn't know what to say. Then she felt that her thoughts were rather dangerous.
She actually wanted to greet these vampires? Greet these lunatics who condoned serial killers and had even turned herself into one of them?
Perhaps she was really on the verge of going crazy from being scared by Caius's mood swings. When encountering a relatively mild-mannered vampire, Katherine had an urge to rush up to the other person and burst into tears. This was simply a disaster!
Was this also the Volturi's way of training newborn vampires? Indeed, old monsters were old monsters.
"Good morning. I hope you'll like the room that was decorated in a hurry last night." Aro walked over, his steps as elegant as could be. Katherine could hardly take her eyes off him,She could hardly believe that a person could walk so gracefully and be so pleasing to the eye just by walking casually.
Then she was jolted by the word "room" in Aro's sentence. Remembering her almost terrorist-like destructive behavior in the morning, her bill, and the just now very expensive glass, her stomach started to cramp again.
A cold and smooth hand gently took hers. Katherine saw Aro lower his head, and his equally cold lips quickly brushed across the back of her hand like a feather. Then Aro looked up, and his smile deepened: "Oh, don't worry, dear. That little matter will be taken care of soon. And here, you don't have to be afraid."
Unlike Caius's voice, which was as melodious as a siren's but always inadvertently exuded a dangerous aura, Aro's voice was like a piece of velvet soaked in sunlight, stroking one's hearing, so soft and pleasant that it made one let down their guard.
But Katherine quickly froze for a moment. Why did it seem that Aro knew what she was thinking?
"Aro can know all your thoughts with just a slight touch." Caius said. Katherine's scalp tingled, and she quickly pulled her hand back, her whole body becoming extremely rigid. She thought that she must have been distorted in this extreme and numbing fear, otherwise how could she be so ridiculous as to think that there was a kind-hearted person in the Volturi, even if the other person seemed gentle and harmless?
Making two stupid mistakes in one morning, Katherine Windsor, you're really stupid!
Sulpicia looked at Katherine's rigid form, looking as cautious as a frightened little bird, and couldn't help but laugh as she took Aro's hand: "You scared her, dear."
Aro blinked quickly, and the muscles on his face adjusted naturally to form an apologetic smile: "I'm so sorry, Katherine. But what really surprises me is you. Your ability is really interesting."
"Me?" Katherine repeated in a low voice.
"Yes, your ability to see the'moment of death' of all living things is simply incredible!" Aro said, his soft voice growing excited.
Katherine was left dumbfounded by his words. Only then did she remember those scenes she had seen before, whether in the past or in the future, were all the moments when those people's lives ended.
What did he call this? The moment of death? It really fit the atmosphere of the Volturi.
"I don't think this ability has any practical use." Katherine said softly.
"Of course not, Cassie, this is a precious ability." Sulpicia leaned closer to her, her long golden hair as beautiful and dazzling as flowing sunlight. "With you, it's like having the ability to avoid death. You're a miracle, dear."
Katherine thought that these two people might have a very close relationship, because the way they spoke was so similar, so gentle that it was creepy.
However, of the two questions that Katherine most wanted to figure out, she had already found the answer to one. The Volturi wouldn't execute her. On the contrary, they needed Katherine's ability to see death. Whether it was to avoid it or whatever, in short, she was useful.
Learning about her ability, Katherine was rather disappointed, because this ability seemed to have no use for her escape. The only function might be that when she was about to be caught, it would allow her to preview in advance how she would die horribly:
Her limbs would be torn apart, her head ripped off, leaving only a broken spine and muscle tears like the edges of shredded paper, with dark green venom gushing out. Maybe they would try to recover to their original state, but in the end, they would be burned to ashes by a fire.
This was indeed a miracle. Not everyone could clearly see how they would die...
Katherine almost got goosebumps. Fortunately, she no longer had the normal physiological reactions of a human, so every time she felt like vomiting, it was just a thought.
Was this an elevation of her forensic career? She had always been dedicated to restoring the death scene of each corpse. Now she didn't need those precise and complex instruments. All she needed to do was concentrate and take a look, and everything would be clear. She began to regret not listening to Landon's advice and insisting on being a forensic doctor.
Landon...
She missed Landon very much.
It was at this moment that Katherine suddenly realized that the Volturi seemed to have never mentioned Landon in front of her from the beginning to the end. But she clearly remembered that he was the last person she saw before being transformed into a vampire.
Where was he? Was he okay?
Even if she couldn't leave immediately, it would be good to hear his voice and know that he was safe. She just didn't know if there was a phone or something in the Palazzo dei Priori...
At that moment, Jane and Heidi suddenly walked in from outside. They had serious expressions and walked very fast. The rhythm of their high heels, which were arranged in an orderly manner, was like the rhythm of raindrops tapping on a canopy, as if something had happened.
"Master." Jane was slightly stunned when she saw Katherine, but still nodded to her in greeting.
Katherine became even more uneasy. She didn't think that an ability to see the "moment of death" would get her treated like this.
"Jane, what's the matter, dear?" Aro looked at her gently. Jane handed her hands to Aro, and the latter immediately grasped them, without any change in his complexion.
"We have guests coming." Aro turned to look at Caius. "Caius, we have to go together."
Caius frowned, and his displeasure was obvious. Sulpicia floated over gracefully, took Katherine's hand, and said: "It's okay, I'll take good care of her for you, I swear."
"I don't need taking care of, I..."
Before Katherine could finish, Sulpicia slightly pouted her gorgeous red lips to signal her to be quiet, while pressing her fair and cold index finger on her lips.
"Don't be afraid, Cassie. You're too tense. Relax, poor little thing." Sulpicia said as she pulled Katherine away from Caius, with a sweet smile. "We'll see you later, gentlemen."
Without Katherine, Caius's hands immediately lost all feeling. The numbing pain once again invaded his nerves and became the dominant feeling. He looked at Heidi rather irritably: "What on earth is going on?"
"It's Landon. He's here." Heidi said. "He wants to see Katherine."
As soon as Heidi finished speaking, Aro watched with satisfaction as Caius disappeared on the spot with a murderous chill. "Let's go too."
Soon, the hall was empty again.