“I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to do so,” He smiled but his eyes appeared sad, and he looked away from my gaze.

“Why is that Edward?” I glanced away from Edward, as I supposed he was called, and saw that there were three other vampires sitting with him. The one who had just spoken was wearing the same outfit as him, and the other two were wearing their black cloaks buttoned up to their necks, making their skin appear much more pallid than it already was.

“I… I don’t know,” Edward admitted, and I was surprised to hear so much grief in his voice. He couldn’t read my mind; so what?

“Why are you here?” I demanded suddenly, angry that they had scared my mother. Indeed, she was sitting in the armchair in the corner, her eyes frantic.

“We were… curious about your way of life,” One of the ones in a buttoned up cloak answered me. “We were hoping you could show us how you hunt.”

“No one else has bothered to care before,” I snapped, annoyed at these vampires. My mother shook her head silently from behind me. I don’t know why she was so scared of these odd people.

“No one else rules over the vampire world,” The second buttoned up cloak one answered quietly and ominously. “Edward here is the crown–”

“Felix!” The tall one with the brown curly hair and the tunic hissed from the corner. Too late. I had already gone looking.

I put a mask of polite attentiveness on my face as I delved into the one called Felix’s mind, and found what he had wanted to say fairly easily, as well as something else. Edward was the crown prince, the next in line to the throne in… Volterra, their city in Italy. They called themselves the Volturi. Edward was supposed to convince me to come and live with them. Felix didn’t know why. I would find out though. Eventually, I ended up letting him get away clean, not forcing him to say anything.

I smiled up at all four of them now, my voice sickeningly sweet as I said, “Once my father returns from work, I am sure he would be honored to allow you all to accompany us on a small hunt. In the meantime, may I get any of you anything?”