“Then I left her to her work in Apollo's temples. I resented that god from that moment onwards.

But then I started worshiping another god... Artemis. I asked her for her blessings, to help me free this prostitute.

I became a proficient hunter. I started providing the town with meat and killing dangerous animals that ventured too close. I became renowned and well off.

But that prostitute never left my mind in those two years apart. I returned to the same temple and she was still there. She was thinking and her eyes were sad.

I offered her money as she wore her veil and she took me away. She laid down and unwrapped her body.

A desire swelled in me but I resisted. I urged her to remember me...I was the man she had saved. I had not come to use her but to save her.

She shed tears then and told me it was vain to try. I told her to meet me at dark in the alley she once found me in. She accepted. I covered her body, feeling weak with temptation in front of my eyes.

I met her at nightfall and I stole her away to my home. We cohabited but I never touched her. Many men so many times before had forced themselves upon her.

I was so glad to be her freer. She was Selene. Then one day a man came, with short blond hair, and muscular arms. He wielded a knife and some quills in a leather casing.

He asked if I had a temple maiden with me. I said no. He asked me two more times but I refused each time.

His eyes glimmered then I felt my skin burn and I opened my eyes to see he had disappeared. My skin was blistering everywhere very rapidly.  I screamed and closed the door. Selene found me squirming on the floor. She tried cooling me with water or covering me with a sheet...it was no good.

Then when she dragged me to the basement where no light reached ; my skin stopped burning.  I had second degree burns. She said Apollo had cursed me, and maybe it was because she had left without being purchased.

Whatever the reason was why that happened; I could no longer go into the sun without sustaining  burns. So, after she patched me up I had to remain in the house during the day.

It took me weeks to recover fully and it affected my business. Soon, no-one wanted me to hunt for them and I could no longer hunt for money. She offered to go back into prostitution to make cash. I wouldn't let her. We still had enough money for a year if anything.

But I hunted still in the poor visibility of the night. I learned to use all my senses and I began catching more prey after a time.  Selena would sell it for me and my business flourished once more.

The man who met me before my affliction came to me one day when Selene was away. He said I had to kill an albino deer with silver antlers and he would take me to be healed of my illness in the temple of Apollo. I agreed and I left Selene a note saying I would depart for a week.

I went into the forests near Delphi,on a wild goose chase hoping to find the answer to my problem. I had my silver bows. I found the stag and in the bright moonlight I killed it.

I went to dissect the antlers but when I touched them my skin burnt. I retracted and tried to pull out my arrows. I jumped. My hands were raw and bleeding.

I could not touch silver. I realised my mistake immediately. I had killed Artemis' sacred animal yet I claimed to be loyal to her, as a hunter. In my desperation, to free myself of my affliction, I had been tricked. Now, we would starve. How could I hunt without weapons. And I did try but it was done...my fate was sealed.

The money finished after a year and I returned to the forest where I had killed the sacred stag. I cried out to Artemis to remove her curse if not for me for the woman I loved.

I went home. No-one had answered. My home was ransacked and Selene was gone. The magistrate had ordered my home be searched and Apollo's priestess be returned.

I was never searched for. I don't understand why. I was desparate ... I returned to Apollo's temple, at night, and I killed one of the oracles and the head priestess and fled with my Selene. I was chased down by the enraged followers of Apollo.

They wounded me but we lost them. I was losing so much blood. I knew I would perish by the time day broke so, I took Selene to the forest of Artemis and I saw the stag I killed looking at me with haughty eyes. I knelt.

I cried:

'Artemis, Artemis...I am dying and you are a virgin goddess of hunting; I know my Selene is not pure any longer but this was not her choice...please protect her.'

I felt myself slowly weaken and I closed my eyes. I thought I died.

I heard screaming and when I tried to get up; I was surrounded by dirt. It was Selene...the followers of Apollo had found us. I don't know how I found the strength but I dug my way out from the dirt and burst through the ground.

I growled.  The men were surrounded around Selene and she was naked. They had their genitals out but were robed. I saw red. I killed all of them with my bare hands. They tried to stab me and the knives went through my skin but I felt no pain, only rage.

She stared at me with red, strained eyes, barren of clothes as the day she was born and surrounded by the stiff bodies of the men who tried to touch her. Their eyes were open and their mouths stretched into permanent screams.”

The filthy vampire ended his story. Marcus was stunned into silence. It was now late in the day.

“So you are the first? And you died?”

The man nodded.
“And she buried you and you came out of the ground? Oh, my word that also happened to me.”

“So, we have one thing in common then.”

Marcus laughed himself. They had more than one thing in common now actually.

“Now, tell me of Aro and how vampires can walk in the light now if you couldn't?”

“Well, I did mention this but I made a coven before....but let me continue with the previous story in mind.

Selene was horrified the dead man she buried had popped out of the ground, unharmed. She looked like she wanted to run out of her own skin.

I think when she buried me in holy ground the ground healed me and blessed me. Artemis had shown me mercy or at least she had shown Selene mercy. I can't begin to think what those cowards were going to do to her.

So, we lived together in those woods. I couldn't leave those grounds but she could and she stayed. I think she once gave me a chaste kiss on the face and I felt my face sizzling.”

“So, kissing was definitely out of the question.”
Ambrogio agreed.

“Artemis' blessing had a consequence. I couldn't be with a woman. And I couldn't spill the blood of one since I had of sorts been resurrected to protect one.

So, any man stupid enough to enter the forest was mine and there were many.

We were together until she was...I think maybe ninety. She said she had a headache. I laid her to rest and she never woke again. I cried for weeks.I buried her. Nothing could console me but after a decade I decided I could not be alone anymore.

So, I sought out men, like minded, but I seemed to be ahead of my time. Every man I found was crass or selfish hearted. I ended up killing them.

I was so young then I didn't know my venom could make more vampires and by the time I discovered it we ran rife in the country.  I had to slew  them to prevent mankind from dying out.

That was the time when there were only male vampires because of my blessing but my progeny discovered they could change women too. So, they did.

I created a coven in those years, I tried more than a hundred times but they were too stubborn or evil. I would kill them. Some escaped me and that's how we spread.

I gave up trying to create like minded people then I made some called Amun, Vladimir and Stefanus. They were the closest to my ideals but they were still flawed in that they thought humans were inferior yet we were all human once.

They thought I should have made Selene immortal by my own lips. If only they knew how much I wanted that but couldn't have that...

They left me eventually. Then Aro, I found him at the height of the Greek empire before its fall to Rome. He was in a similar situation to Selene. His father drank his inheritance away and to pay his debts off he was sold; he was not a daughter who could marry the family into kingship.

His master would beat him silly and then he was molested constantly.  I think that hardened his heart.

He was dying when I found him...
He was an energetic little spirit but very overzealous whilst feeding. I loved him almost as much as I loved Selene but he never appreciated me. He said I was weak. Why would I cry for useless, little mortals?

And then one day he led me to this place and whilst I slept he and that woman...he called her Desdemona...”

“Aro!”
A gypsy woman with with red,wavy hair growled at the trio of Volturi.

“Brothers, this witch is a danger to our secrecy. We must kill her.”

Marcus frowned.
“Is that necessary Aro?”

“Marcus, he is very right. We cannot leave loose ends.”

“I vote no.” Marcus insisted.
The woman shook.

“No, after everything we have been through? You dare doublecross me?”

Aro smiled.
“I only did what was best for my kind.  You should have done what was best for yours. But I promise you no witch will ever suffer again. They are all dead!”

Aro laughed as she screamed.
“Desdemona, good bye. You are no longer of use.”

Marcus stood so suddenly it startled Ambrogio.
“What is the matter?”

“Aro...Aro killed her in front of us. And we did not know of this. He told us she was a powerful witch who could expose us.”

Ambrogio shook his head.
“Him and that unfortunate girl trapped me here forever. I could leave at night but I would be the victim of my progeny, who don't know the truth.

I look human don't I? And if I die with this curse still bestowed on me then you and all vampires will remain virtually indestructible.

You don't have to sleep; you cannot be harmed by silver or the sun; you can enter homes uninvited. The only thing that could kill you now is another supernatural creature.”

Marcus sighed.
“Unlikely now, my coven brother Cauis has hunted children of the moon to the brink of extinction; Aro has killed every witch he could find and had sought out every gifted human until now and I always wondered why... until now.”

Ambrogio looked at Marcus.
“Don't tell me you haven't figured it out. Aro wanted us to be indestructible and the only way for us to not be is to free you of your curse but the only one that can do that is another witch, right or a gifted human?”

Ambrogio  nodded.
“I never thought of it...I never even tried to look. How do you know this? You just heard of this now.”

“My mate is a gifted human. She led me here unknowingly.  I think it's the work of the Fates. You have been cooped in here too long.

And I fear for her life with Aro...she was originally his mate but he wanted to kill her because he already has a vampire mate. But he soon realised that he could not part with her or loose his power. He only cares about power.

He killed my lover, his sister, just to keep my power  in his reach.”

Ambrogio 's eyes darkened.
“I created a monster and only I can stop him now but I need you and your mate to help me. I can give you anything you want thereafter.”

“I was hoping you would say that...”

“Are you sure you and I cannot remove this collar ourselves? ”Marcus said referring  to the rope.

Ambrogio pulled on the rope and it constricted Ambrogio's neck until his eyes bulged and he wheezed. He let go. And the rope stopped choking him. It was loose again.

Ambrogio gave Marcus a bitter gaze.
“You don't think I tried? Why would Aro have needed a witch to do it if he could have inflicted a curse on me alone? Even if another vampire tries to remove it, it will do the same thing.

You are all my children it will not allow you to free me. I need a human who knows what I am to remove it.”

Marcus touched the rope necklace and it contracted. He was right.
He sighed.

“Go to Denali, Alaska. Look for a Tanya and Elezar. Tell them Marcus sent you. They won't ask you questions. Then when I say the word you will come to meet your long lost progeny.”