By the time they had to leave Angelokastero for Volterra, Cecilia had regained much of her composure. Sure, the thoughts of her family still spooked through her mind, but after grieving, something that felt oddly wrong without anybody actually dead, for a good couple of days, she was able to push those thoughts far away. For once she was looking forward to her busy schedule, since it at least offered some distraction.
As soon as they arrived in Volterra, they were called into the throne room. Cecilia pretended not to notice the way Aro's eyes immediately wandered to the finger with a diamond on it, realising that he must have read it in Demetri's mind before they left for Virginia.
"Welcome back, my friends, it seems we have reason to congratulate you," Aro broke the silence quickly, looking oddly excited. Both Marcus and Caius offered Demetri and Cecilia a slight nod of acknowledgement. "It has been a while since we've had a wedding at Volterra, but it will be a grande ordeal indeed."
"Thank you for your kind offer," Demetri replied, bowing his head ever so slightly. This Demetri, the stiff and formal guard Demetri, had once scared Cecilia. Now she could understand, having many masks herself. "Though we would like to have the wedding in the summer."
"Of course, though a winter wedding would fit the two of you so good as well," Aro said, nodding to himself.
Suddenly Cecilia had the crazy thought that maybe Aro and Alice weren't so different from each other if it concerned parties and festivities. After all, if she was to believe the rumours, it had been Aro who had organised the ball thrown in honour of her turning and joining of the Guard, from the colour of the drapes in the ballroom to the country where the flowers had come from. It was a funny idea, an ancient and feared vampire organising her wedding.
"It would be too much to organise in such a short period of time," Demetri said politely. "We wouldn't want to burden anyone."
"If anything, your return to Volterra fills us with great joy," Aro said, his milky red eyes looking from Demetri to Cecilia. So far, he hadn't asked for either of their hands and she sincerely hoped he would keep it that way. "Your presence has been greatly missed, for there are grave matters at hand. Cecilia, your help is needed with one of our prisoners in the dungeons, whereas I need you, Demetri, to track a very specific person for me."
Without another word, they fell into their routine at Volterra. Cecilia glanced at Alec from the corners of her eyes. Ever since the Masters had made her their right hand, relying more on her than on the witch twins, the two of them had given her the cold shoulder. She had never been great friends with Jane, but she used to spend time with Alec every now and then, though that mostly ended in bickering as well.
"How was your stay at Angelokastro?" Alec asked pleasantly after a while, breaking the silence first.
Cecilia forced a smile on her face. Though there'd been happy moments at Corfu, there had been just as many sad ones, but that wasn't something she could let Alec know. Both he and his sister were like bloodhounds, always sniffing out for the littlest sign of disloyalty so they could tattle on her at the Masters. "It was very pleasant, thank you," she said. "Now what's the matter with this prisoner."
"He was reported by the count and countess Weber, the one's keeping control of southern Germany. Apparently, he is a very good liar," Alec explained quickly, shrugging.
Cecilia raised a single eyebrow, not finding Alec's explanation very satisfactory. "That's it? He's a good liar?"
"Well, that and the fact that he managed to slaughter a whole city and make everyone believe it wasn't his fault."
Cecilia was quiet after that. If what Alec was saying was true, that meant that the Volturi had managed to discover a seriously dangerous person with a gift just as extraordinary as her. She turned to Alec once more. "If you say he made everyone believe he didn't do it, then how is it that the Weber's caught him and managed to report him?"
"Evidently there was an inconsistency in his story," Alec explained. "That's what made them see through all of his lies. Obviously, he could have lied again, if that is truly his gift, so the Webers placed him in isolation until we managed to create a way of transportation to Volterra."
Cecilia nodded quietly, mulling over the story in her own head. It was not unusual for her to help along with the interviewing process, especially since every now and then there was a vampire who was able to withstand Alec's and Jane's gifts or just a great liar. In a sense, she could do what Aro did whenever he was combing out people's minds, but in a greater and more complex scale.
"Imagine that, a member of the Guard with the ability to make anybody believe whatever he's saying," Alec said, sounding smug.
"Sounds dangerous, in my opinion," Cecilia countered. "He could lie to the Masters and make them believe whatever he wanted. He could make them crown him and take over."
"Of course, that's something you would say," Alec muttered in return.
Cecilia raised both of her eyebrows, coming to a sudden halt. "Excuse you?" she said, the tone of her voice calm and cold. "Just because you can't handle your fall from grace gracefully doesn't mean that I will as well. If there was someone with such a gift that he would take my place I would give it away willingly if it serves the Volturi better."
Not waiting for a reply, Cecilia continued her way to the dungeons in silence, not even her shoes making a sound as she walked over the ancient stones of the hallway. She didn't have to look over her shoulder to know that Alec was following her, and suddenly she couldn't help but wonder if her becoming the right hand of the Volturi really still bothered him after thirteen years or whether it was his childish pride she had squashed in the process.
Quietly, she rushed down the stairs and followed the narrow corridors until she ended at the dungeons, the route more than familiar for her now. In the first cell was Vasilisa, whose upper half of her head was once more attached to the rest of her head, allowing her to spit as soon Cecilia passed.
The latter halted, staring into the cell amusingly. "Hail, great red queen," she said, giving the vampire a mock bow. "I hope you find that your accommodation is up to the standard of your rank. I surely find it fitting."
Vasilisa spat some words in Russian, none of them all too kind, Cecilia knew, and unbothered, she walked to the next occupied cel. At least there were a couple of empty ones in between Vasilisa and the German, so that Cecilia at least didn't have to suffer the fate of having to be spat on constantly, though she supposed Alec would pay big money to see that.
"Ah, Cecilia Roseanne Cullen," an unknown voice greeted her as soon as she neared the cel. The voice had a slight accent, hitting the consonants just a tad too harsh to be a native speaker. The man behind the bars eyed the ring on her finger. "Or is it Georgiou this day?"
"Not yet," Cecilia said politely enough, staring through the bars. Though she had no idea how old the vampire in front of her really was he appeared to be turned somewhere in the middle of his thirties, his blonde hair cut short and a stubble covering his jaws. He was wearing clothes that belonged from the victorian era, though that didn't have to mean anything. "May I have the honour of knowing your name?"
"I am known as Karl Schneider," the prisoner replied, smiling cunningly.
Cecilia felt a tug at the back of her mind, as if her subconscious was warning her to be extra alert, and she did her best to match the smile on the vampire's face. "Your real name."
"Very well, Cecilia, your wit is as great as your beauty, those rumours are true," the man said. "My name is Arwin Wagner."
She felt another tug at the back of her mind and her smile turned into a frown. "I have been nothing but pleasant and yet you would lie to me like this." Cecilia turned her head to look at Alec, knowing that she only had to give a nod for him to leave the vampire in front of them completely senseless.
"Please forgive me, I was only seeing how far I could go," the prisoner said, his accent suddenly disappearing. "The name that was given to me by my mother is Charles Louis Dupont. I have no association with Germany, other than the fact that I was stopped by the Weber's during my passing through. In fact, I was born in the noble city of Paris during the 1700s."
"If by noble you mean filled to the brim with rats and rubbish, then you're very correct," Cecilia countered, letting out a very unladylike snort. Not bothering with further conversation, she got on with what the Ancient Ones expected of her in these cases and searched for his mind. Though it was not as easy to crack as her family's, it was still a task solved in under a minute.
Scenes that seemed to come straight from a horror movie filled her mind. It had been a small and isolated village, but the at least two-hundred bodies piled up in the town centre were enough to make her stomach church. She experienced it from Charles' point of view, filled with a bloodlust so enormous that it was an unknown sensation to her. Quickly, she pulled back, taking a moment to regain her composure. Cecilia watched as Charles appeared to do the same.
"Thank you for your willing cooperation, mon cher," Cecilia said, eyeing the man coldly. "It was most helpful."