I seemed to remember Edward mentioning the Volturi during Romeo and Juliet and he’d told me about the three of them in Carlisle’s office. In fact, Carlisle had even lived with them for a time. What had me shivering in the very hot night was the fact that Edward had said:

“You humans have it so easy! All you have to do is throw down one tiny vial of plant extract… It’s something I had to think about once, and I knew from Carlisle’s experience that it wouldn’t be simple. I’m not even sure how many ways Carlisle tried to kill himself in the beginning…”

I replayed that afternoon before my party and his ridiculous confession. “Of course I was trying to focus on finding you alive, but part of my mind was making contingency plans. Like I said, it’s not as easy for me as it is for a human. So I was thinking maybe I would go to Italy and do something to provoke the Volturi.

There’d been more, but Dylan had poked me in the ribs. “Earth to Bella. Where’d you just go?” he asked, amused.

“I’ve heard of the Volturi before,” I admitted. “Edward told me they were very old and considered vampire royalty.”

“That’s right. Carlisle was long gone before I was born, obviously, but my family worked there even all those hundreds of years ago.”

“Doing what? Are they vampires now?” I asked unable to keep the questions from bubbling out of me. He got off easy, really, I had tons more.

“We take care of everything. Paying bills, shopping, anything that vampires can’t do because they are limited by things like the sun…and their hunger. Most of them struggle when they are near humans.”

“But they are around you and your family,” I pointed out.

“True, but fear is a strong motivator. Aro would see them dead if they harmed one of his humans. Most of them just avoid us when they are really hungry.”

“And your family, are they vampires?” I reminded him since he hadn’t gotten around to answering.

He looked uncomfortable, but the next second I wondered if I’d imagined it, because he seemed open and relaxed. “No. They have all lived and died natural deaths in the service of the Volturi. Now quit interrupting or we’ll be here all night.” He glanced at me with heat in his eyes. “Not that spending the night with you would be a bad thing.” He winked then settled back and contiued his tale.

***The quote from Edward about the Volturi are from the hardback US edition of New Moon pages 18 – 19.