When Noela was still a newborn, the coven received a visit from the Volturi, led by Aro himself. With him were Caius, Jane, Chelsea, and a few of the more physical guards. Caius accused them of attracting too much human notice with their big coven of young, unruly newborns. Hilda defended her coven, maintaining that they had never introduced more than one newborn at a time, to be sure they could control them. Aro asked for evidence. Hilda agreed to prove her case with a handshake. After reading all her thoughts, Aro sadly claimed that the coven was guilty. Hilda angrily accused him of lying and was immediately slaughtered by the guards.
Jane inflicted pain on each of the others in quick succession, halting their instinctive attack. Aro wanted to know if anyone was willing to live by the law — or would they all have to be destroyed? Almost as if in a dream, Heidi got to her feet and moved forward. Aro smiled and welcomed her while her former covenmates watched in shock.
Victoria did not understand any of what she was watching, but she sensed that she and her sister were about to die whether they surrendered or not.
Victoria did not understand any of what she was watching, but she sensed that she and her sister were about to die whether they surrendered or not. She screamed for the others to run.
Anne, Mary, and Noela all scattered in different directions than the one she took. Victoria was surprised when Jane did not attack again, not knowing that the Volturi guard enjoyed a good chase. Anne, Mary, and Noela were all quickly caught and dispatched. None of the Volturi worried much when the redheaded girl proved impossible to find. She was unimportant; they could deal with her some other time. For now, Aro was happy to go home with his prize.
That was the end of Victoria‘s peaceful vampire life. Now suspicious of other vampires, she avoided them all. With her gift, it was not difficult, until James. In James she found someone who was honest in his intentions and confident in his abilities. She was attracted to his gift, which was like a mirror of her own. Eventually she fell in love with his self-assurance. It felt safe to her, stable in an odd way. She was never aware that his feelings did not entirely reflect her own. While she was happier with James, her life definitely was not peaceful or easy. The way he liked to live constantly put her into situations that, on her own, she would have avoided.
She was extremely paranoid for a time, setting up layers of protection for herself.
When the Cullens killed James, Victoria lost her mate and her stability. She felt vulnerable. She quickly created a companion, choosing a strong young human man. She made sure Riley was totally loyal to her, and was surprised at how readily he believed she had changed him out of love. Then she made more vampires, feeling that if she could surround herself with allies, she would be safe. At the same time, she hid herself from these new allies, aside from Riley. She was extremely paranoid for a time, setting up layers of protection for herself. She was loosely copying what she‘d seen with the Volturi guard, but waiting for her newborns to be old enough to train. In the meantime, she had Riley control them with carefully constructed lies—
most notably, the myth that vampires were destroyed by the sun.
In the first six months after James‘s death Victoria created fifteen newborns — and killed roughly four humans to every one that survived as a vampire. One of the first was Diego; one of the last — of this period — was Raoul. Fred was also created during this period. About half of this first wave did not survive during Victoria‘s absence.
Victoria‘s gift forewarned her when Edward was hunting her, just as it had with James.
She left Riley behind to mind the other newborns she‘d created. Passing through Texas, Victoria ran up against a territorial coven with a small force of newborns. Victoria had no interest in a pitched battle over land and escaped easily. The encounter gave her new ideas for her newborns, though. When she was sure she‘d thrown Edward off her trail, she headed back to the Pacific Northwest.
Victoria had not tried to avenge Anne; it wasn‘t in her nature to choose to put herself in danger.
Victoria had not tried to avenge Anne; it wasn‘t in her nature to choose to put herself in danger. However, her time with James had changed her in some ways. She was able to take slightly greater risks now. The newborns in Texas had inspired her to think beyond just protecting herself, to actively repaying Edward for what he‘d done to her. Her plans in regard to the newborns shifted: They were no longer to be a guard for her, but an army.
The more plans she put into motion, she thought, the more likely one of them would succeed. The newborns were one option, but one that — were she to use them that way — would require more of a head-on confrontation than she was totally comfortable with. Another of her plans included Laurent. She traced him to Alaska and, feigning friendship (like James, Victoria had not forgiven the defection), she was able to glean all the information he‘d learned about the Cullens from the Denalis. She asked him to do her a favor: Visit the Cullens and see if they were all still with the girl. It was win-win for Victoria; if Edward was back in Forks, she assumed he would kill Laurent when he saw the connection to Victoria in Laurent‘s head. If not, Laurent would bring back news of the girl‘s location and how many protected her.
Meanwhile, she created more newborns, leaving them under Riley‘s care, in case she ended up having to go through the full coven to get to the girl. After thinking carefully about Alice and her gift, Victoria put Riley in charge of making all the decisions about the newborns‘ movements. She made no plans to use the newborns for anything concrete. In fact, she thought about them as little as possible.
Laurent called Victoria once to report that the Cullen house was empty and he would look around to see if the girl had gone with them. She heard nothing more from Laurent. Very carefully, she went to investigate, and discovered the wolves. This was an unforeseen problem.
James had tracked a werewolf once, for the challenge of it. He‘d been successful, as usual. But werewolves were supposed to be nearly extinct, not traveling in large packs. Nor should they be able to maintain their wolf forms in the daylight. This was worrying, but secondary to the fact that Victoria had crossed a fresh trail left by the girl. The Cullens were gone, and all she had to do was get past the werewolves to find the girl totally alone.
This proved frustrating. With Victoria‘s powerful self-preservation instincts, it was nearly impossible for her to physically make a bold move. The wolves were able to drive her off again and again. She was patient, for she thought she had plenty of time. Then one night she caught Alice‘s scent and knew her hopes for an easy kill were over.
Riley and the newborns became her first priority. She created more and more of them, until Seattle was nearly overrun. Meanwhile, she continued making feints into the area around Forks, gathering information and hoping that the Cullens would believe these fruitless attacks were all she had up her sleeve.
FAMOUS QUOTE
The Mexican Coven
The Mexican coven was formed in the 1850s, its main purpose being to win back the land Maria had lost during the lesser hostilities that continued after the Volturi put an end to the Southern Wars. The coven lived on human blood and consisted mostly of often-replaced male newborns. Only Maria is presently a part of this
