Jane smiled. "Of course." Then she looked at me again, with the corners of her mouth stil slightly holding the smile. "It appears that you've done our work for us today... for the most part. Just out of professional curiosity, how many were there?
They left quite a wake of destruction in Seattle."
She spoke of jobs and professionals. I was right, then, that it was her profession to punish. And if there were punishers, then there must be rules. Carlisle had said before, We follow their rules, and also, There is no law against creating vampires if you control them. Riley and my creator had been afraid but not exactly surprised by the arrival of the dark-cloaks, these Volturi. They knew about the laws, and they knew they were breaking them. Why hadn't they told us? And there were more Volturi than just these four. Someone named Aro and probably many more. There must have been a lot for everyone to fear them so much. Carlisle answered Jane's question. "Eighteen, including this one."
There was a barely audible murmur among the four darkcloaks.
"Eighteen?" Jane repeated, a note of surprise in her voice. Our creator had never told Jane how many of us she'd created. Was Jane real y surprised, or just faking it?
"Al brand-new," Carlisle said. "They were unskil ed."
Unskil ed and uninformed, thanks to Riley. I was beginning to get a sense of how these older vampires viewed us. Newborn, Jasper had cal ed me. Like a baby.
"Al ?" Jane snapped. "Then who was their creator?"
As if they hadn't already been introduced. This Jane was a bigger liar than Riley, and she was so much better at it than he was.
"Her name was Victoria," the redhead answered.
How did he know that when even I didn't? I remembered that Riley had said there was a mind reader in this group. Was that how they knew everything? Or was that another of Riley's lies?
"Was?" Jane asked.
The redhead jerked his head toward the east like he was pointing. I looked up and saw a cloud of thick lilac smoke bil owing from the side of the mountain.
Was. I felt a similar kind of pleasure to what I'd felt imagining the big vampire shredding Raoul. Only much, much greater.
"This Victoria," Jane asked slowly. "She was in addition to the eighteen here?"
"Yes," the redhead confirmed. "She had only one other with her. He was not as young as this one here, but no older than a year."
Riley. My fierce pleasure intensified. If - okay, when - I died today, at least I didn't leave that loose thread. Diego had been avenged. I almost smiled.
"Twenty," Jane breathed. Either this was more than she had expected, or she was a kil er actress. "Who dealt with the creator?"
"I did," the redhead said coldly.
Whoever this vampire was, whether he kept a pet human or no, he was a friend of mine. Even if he were the one to kil me in the end, I would stil owe him.
Jane turned to stare at me with narrowed eyes.
"You there," she snarled. "Your name."
I was dead anyway, according to her. So why give this lying vampire anything she wanted? I just glared at her. Jane smiled at me, the bright, happy smile of an innocent child, and suddenly I was on fire. It was like I'd gone back in time to the worst night of my life. Fire was in every vein of my body, covering every inch of my skin, gnawing through the marrow of every bone. It felt like I was buried in the middle of my coven's funeral bonfire, with the flames on every side. There wasn't a single cel in my body that wasn't blazing with the worst agony imaginable. I could barely hear myself scream over the pain in my ears.
"Your name," Jane said again, and as she spoke the fire disappeared. Gone like that, as if I'd only been imagining it.
"Bree," I said as fast as I could, stil gasping though the pain wasn't there anymore.
Jane smiled again and the fire was everywhere. How much pain would it take before I would die of it? The screams didn't even feel like they were coming from me anymore. Why wouldn't someone rip my head off? Carlisle was kind enough for that, wasn't he? Or whoever their mind reader was. Couldn't he or she understand and make this stop?
"She'l tel you anything you want to know," the redhead growled. "You don't have to do that."
The pain vanished again, like Jane had turned off a light switch. I found myself facedown on the ground, panting as if I needed air.
"Oh, I know," I heard Jane say cheerful y. "Bree?"
I shuddered when she cal ed my name, but the pain didn't start again.
"Is his story true?" she asked me. "Were there twenty of you?"
The words flew out of my mouth. "Nineteen or twenty, maybe more, I don't know! Sara and the one whose name I don't know got in a fight on the way...."
I waited for the pain to punish me for not having a better answer, but instead Jane spoke again.
"And this Victoria - did she create you?"
"I don't know," I admitted fearful y. "Riley never said her name. I didn't see that night... it was so dark, and it hurt!" I flinched. "He didn't want us to be able to think of her. He said that our thoughts weren't safe."
Jane shot a glance at the redhead, then looked at me again.