Volterra's stone walls vibrated in the night with something ancient and powerful. The night air metallic, crisp and cold; like the threat of a storm was heading their way.
In the throne room, three stone thrones sat draped in crimson velvet their rulers sat. Aro leaning his elbow on his throne, gaze listless and bored. Caius perusing old battle blan scrolls at his seat, but even he didn't seem completely focused. Marcus sat his gaze vacant as he stared into nothing - his grief no longer hiding behind the centuries of ruling without sunshine at his side.
The queens were gone. First Didymus, assassinated. Then Suplyca after she found her true mat in another coven, while one mission. And even Athenadora had also broken her ties to the kings and Caius no longer wishing to be confined in a tour but wishing to explore the world.
The kings were wifeless.
The kings were bored, distracted and grief-stricken.
And then it suddenly changed all in an instant.
Marcus jerked upright, his eyes wide and his jaw slackened in shock.
The two other kings instantly noticed for Marcus had not moved for centuries.
Marcus didn't even glance their way, his gaze fixed on the golden thread that had appeared.
Like sunlight piercing through stained glass, three ray-like threads joined the main thread that shot into distance.
His gaze looked down to his chest where one thread attached to where his heart once beat ages ago, before turning his head to see the other two strands had attached themselves to his brothers. Tying all three-of them to the bond.
"It's impossible."
A soulmate bond could not just appear out of nowhere. Even with the birth of the link, it would gradually grow from a light white, to silver then gold bond; linking the souls as they grew in strength.
Soulmate bonds didn't tie more than one individual to another, and yet here the three strand cord was proving him wrong. Binding the three kings and its main thread shooting out westward.
Toward America.
"Marcus." Aro's voice was curious, inquiring at his side. He had stood from his throne and walked to his brother's side curious about what he saw. "What do you see?"
"A new bond."
"For whom?" Aro's voice was tinged with something dangerous - hope.
Marcus swallowed - unneccesary but it helped ground him in the moment. To reassure him what was actually happening was reality.
"To all of us."
Caius stood, frost on his tongue as he hissed, "Impossible."
Marcus would have chuckled if he could, but it had been so long. "Oh, but it is very possible, I assure you."
Aro stood silent for a moment before he felt it. Like a stone had been thrown into the pond of the world, a ripple of something ancient and powerful went out from the three kings. A shiver ran down their spines.
A feeling of deja vu, something seen before but a long time past. Something that echoed with the very basis of who the vampire race was.
"What was that?" Caius tensed as if readying himself for a battle.
"Magic. It touches to the core of what we are."
Few knew what made vampires what they were, except for the Volturi Kings.
Caius shook his head, "There has been no sign of fae magic for ages. It couldn't be."
"This is not fae magic. At least not wholly." Aro's hands flexed as if he could catch the vibration in the air in this ice cold clutches. "It is old. Friendly to life forces." He breathed in deeply, "It feels like a new dawn has arrived across the world."
Caius scoffed, "Sounds like a fae."
Aro smiled, "Perhaps but this feels as if it wishes to coax us rather than command."
Marcus glinded in front of them his eyes following the Bond's light, "She's calling us."
"She?" Caius's eyes narrowed.
Marcus closed his eyes and focused on the main thread, "A young woman. Youthful, bright, she feels like sunlight."
Aro's crimson eyes gleamed with greed.
Caius's ruby gaze narrowed in suspicion.
Marcus spoke in an undertone, "She is not a vampire but... She is tied to us. I've never seen such a strong bond before mates have met."
"Where is this...anomaly?" Caius demanded.
"Across the sea."
Aro's hand brushed Marcus's seeking the bond his brother saw but he only caught an echo like warmth from a fire.
"America."
"She's a threat. A new supernatural occurrence that may threaten the very foundation of us all." Caius's hands clenched at his sides.
"Or perhaps she will be a gift."
Caius rolled his eyes at Aro, "You always want gifts."
"And you always perceive threats." Aro chimed back.
Caius growled, "Someone needs to."
Marcus broke through the argument his voice firm from centuries of reinforcement. "She is ours. An equalthree-way bond for each of us. " He glanced at the gold thread, "She belongs with us, and us with her."
Aro's eyes widened and a shiver ran down his spine at the word 'belongs.' Longing ran through his being, a feeling he forgot he could feel.
Caius clenched his jaw and turned away while Aro strode back to his throne raising his voice.
"Prepare the guard." Aro's eyes took on malicious delight, "The kings of Volterra are going to America." And with that their destiny was written.
----
Across the sea, in America Rowan was finishing up her first shift at the Forks High library. She had just started to turn off each computer station when she felt a strange tightening in her chest. A tugging sensation had her stumble and fall into a desk chair, her hand grasping at her chest with a gasp.
"What?"
She felt her magic stretching inside her, seeking, stretching beyond herself and out the room. The room's lights dimmed. The rain seemed to pause outside and then they hit her.
Three separate pulses. Like heartbeats rhythmitically thrumming within her. She gasped at the strange sensation.
Each pulse felt different.
One felt like velvet sliding against stone. Cold but soft, an oddly comforting.
Another felt heavy, sinking into her bones like a steady weight a feeling as if it had waited for her for centuries.
And the last was sharp and electric, sparking through her veins like static electricity before a storm.
She felt her magic bond with something or somethings pulling her toward somewhere not there. East? Or was it west? Out beyond the forests of Forks.
Rowan clutched the desk in front of her as she almost felt dizzy with the power thrumming within her. It was on the edge of overwhelming. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and she took a shuddering breath.
She felt the call. They were calling her. The three mysterious someone's the fae had told her about. Not even realizing what she was doing she acknowledged their call sending back one of her own. A burst of energy flashed through the space around her. The plants of the sill grew rapidly. The lights shimmered. The room grew warmer.
Then the pressure vanished but she knew the bond wasn't gone.
And whoever was at the other end of it, she knew for sure now they were coming to find her.