Twilight: Darling of Volturi (YURI/GL)

Disbelief flooded Charles's face. The strength of Sophie's grip around his neck was only enough to restrict his movements, not crush him outright. Struggling desperately, he poured every ounce of his power into reinforcing the lie that bound her heart, shouting over and over in near hysteria.

"Sophie, you love me! You love me! You love me!"

Sophie slowly tightened her grip. Her current strength was still far from enough to snap a vampire's neck cleanly, especially Charles's. He was much taller than she was, and she had always hated looking up at him, so she gradually forced him lower and lower until he was kneeling before her.

Only then, after their positions had finally been reversed, did she look down at him and speak softly. "

Yes... I love you." Her voice overflowed with sorrow, so heavy it seemed ready to spill into tears. Yet even as heartbreak consumed her, she delivered his sentence without hesitation. "But... I should be the one to kill you."

"What...?" Charles stared at her in utter disbelief. This completely overturned everything he believed about love. Love... the kind of love that made people willingly surrender their very lives. Even while trapped beneath such overwhelming devotion, could she still choose to kill the one she loved?

His survival instinct exploded into action.

In the fleeting instant before everything slipped beyond his control, Charles abandoned his previous strategy entirely. There was still time. He only needed to speak one more sentence.

"Sophie... you..."

You cannot kill me.

The final lie...

Never came.

Jane stepped forward and casually dislocated Charles's jaw.

His mouth fell open uselessly, his jaw hanging crooked as all coherent speech vanished. The only sounds that escaped him were meaningless groans and muffled whimpers.

Jane's gloomy expression disappeared as though a cloud had passed. Her tone even carried the faintest trace of satisfaction.

"Don't even think about deceiving Sophie with your lies again."

Patience had returned to her.

She calmly walked to Sophie's side and, as though teaching a routine lesson, personally instructed her. "Feel for where the bones connect. Twist there. It'll require much less force."

Charles's meaningless cries continued to echo through the tower.

Suppressing the unbearable agony tearing at her heart, Sophie followed Jane's guidance exactly. She found the joint and twisted with all her strength.

Silence.

Charles's severed head flew through the air, slammed violently into the ancient stone wall, then bounced back and rolled across the floor with a series of dull thuds.

"Mmm..."

Another muffled sound followed.

This time...

It came from Sophie.

Vampires no longer possessed the privilege of tears. Even when grief reached its absolute limit, all they could produce was a choked, trembling sound that faintly resembled sobbing.

A familiar object appeared before her eyes.

It was the lost matchbox.

Sophie's hands trembled as she accepted it, but there was no hesitation in her movements this time. She freed both hands, struck a match, watched the flame blossom to life, and gently lowered it onto Charles's severed head.

Even in death...

Disbelief still lingered in his red eyes.

Sophie stared quietly into the growing flames.

"No matter how much I loved you..." she murmured almost to herself, "...I could never allow you to hurt Jane." After a long pause, she added in a voice barely above a whisper, "She's my soul."

The fire swallowed Charles's head whole while his headless body collapsed lifelessly beside it.

Jane lifted the mangled corpse without a word. Piece by piece, she tore away its limbs and fed them into the growing blaze until every fragment had joined the fire. In the end, Charles was reunited one final time...

As nothing more than a pile of ash.

Sophie slowly sank onto the stone floor, hugging her knees tightly against her chest. She never once looked away from the flames as Jane continued feeding them the remaining pieces of Charles's body.

Sitting unusually close, she almost seemed to be seeking warmth from a fire that could never warm a vampire. She remained there in complete silence until the very last spark faded into darkness.

Only after the fire had gone out did Jane finally speak.

"...Did you break free from his lie before it ended?"

Sophie quietly shook her head.

Jane fell silent for a moment.

Then she said, "Vampires don't have souls."

Sophie blinked in surprise.

"Who says we don't?"

"Aro."

Jane extended her hand, allowing Sophie to grasp it and rise to her feet.

"When vampires gained immortality through the fires of Hell, we became demons who walked among mankind. The price we paid was abandoning our souls forever."

After standing, Sophie walked over and picked up the twisted remains of the broken necklace Jane had tossed into the corner earlier.

Holding the mangled strip of metal carefully in both hands, she gently shook her head.

"I don't agree."

Jane raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

"Before the 19th century," Sophie continued thoughtfully, "people believed women didn't have souls either. But after that... society decided they did." She smiled faintly, looking down at the ruined necklace. "Now it's the 21st century. I think... vampires can have souls too."

Jane gave a small shrug.

"Think whatever you like."

Her voice carried neither agreement nor disagreement.

"Plenty of humans dream of giving up their souls in exchange for immortality."

Heaven...

Hell...

She had never cared much for such abstract ideas. Words about souls simply entered one ear and left through the other.

Lowering her head, Sophie cupped the twisted necklace in both palms and slowly shuffled over beside Jane.

"I'm sorry..." She looked unusually guilty. "The necklace... it's broken."

The black lace lining had been torn apart when Sophie was caught during her fall from the tower. The red opal set into the pendant had been completely crushed into glittering dust during Jane's furious outburst. Had the metal itself not possessed remarkable flexibility, the necklace would likely have shared the same fate as Charles...

Torn apart beyond recognition.

Jane had no intention of blaming her.

After all...

She herself had been responsible for half the damage.

Looking at Sophie now, Jane realized something that instantly lifted her spirits. This time, Sophie's sadness wasn't because Charles had suffered.

It was because the necklace had been destroyed.

That realization alone was enough to brighten Jane's mood considerably.

"As long as you weren't the one who broke..." She paused, then smiled faintly. "...that's all that matters."

Taking Sophie's hand gently, Jane slipped the ruined necklace from her fingers without drawing attention to it and tucked the remains safely into her pocket. She reached up and softly brushed Sophie's pale cheek with her fingertips.

"This necklace will always belong to you."

She spoke with quiet certainty.

"I'll repair it first. I might even redesign it a little."

Jane's reassurance worked.

Though only barely, Sophie managed to force a small smile onto her pale face. The illusion of love had drained nearly all of her emotional strength throughout the night, leaving even her immortal body with the unfamiliar weight of exhaustion.

"Can you still walk?" Jane asked after studying her expression for a moment. Seeing through the forced smile immediately, she took Sophie's hand once more. "Come with me. Rest in my territory for a while."

Together, they descended to the base of the tower.

Jane pushed open the hidden stone door concealed within the wall, leading them back into the tunnels beneath the Palazzo dei Priori.

During the journey, Jane briefly summarized the announcements made during the banquet concerning vampire hunters and werewolves. She also casually explained Charles's identity and history.

"He always resented being expelled from the Volturi," she said calmly. "But that was hardly anyone else's fault. His gift carried far too many limitations."

Sophie listened quietly before suddenly noticing something that didn't quite fit.

"Wait..." She frowned. "He knew my name from the very beginning."

After a brief pause, she looked at Jane.

"Who told him?"