The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (37 page)

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.

T
he 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 coven.

L
UCY

Lucy joined Maria and Nettie to further her ambitions. Her former coven—just her and her mate—had come under attack from another coven that was expanding its territory
into northern Texas. Her mate was killed, but she escaped. She wanted a new hunting range, and the power to keep it. Maria had a good vision for how to accomplish that, so Lucy followed her lead.

After Lucy’s new coven had established itself, Lucy and Nettie began to feel that Maria had too much power. They did not want to surrender their territory to her and seek another place, so they tried to kill her and her right-hand man, Jasper, instead. They underestimated Jasper’s abilities, and Maria was able to surprise them with a preemptive attack. Lucy and Nettie were both killed.

M
ARIA

Before Maria’s time, a young vampire named Benito, from Dallas, used the strength of newborn vampires on a massive scale to wipe out neighboring covens and take over their land. Once other covens realized what was happening, they, too, created armies of newborns, to try to defeat Benito. The Volturi eventually had to step in to clean up the havoc these reckless armies had created in the South, destroying every newborn they could find. To serve as a deterrent to future newborn armies, anyone associated with the newborns was also executed.

When the Volturi returned to Italy, the survivors in the South quickly laid claim to the land. Before long, the covens began having border disputes and the wars resumed, but on a smaller scale. Newborns were used again, but more quietly. No one wanted to give the Volturi a reason to return.

It was during one of these battles that Maria lost her coven, which included her mate and two older vampires who were—for all intents and purposes—her parents. Along with them she lost control over Monterrey, Mexico, and the surrounding area. Defeated and alone, she looked for allies to help her get revenge. She found Nettie and Lucy, both of whom were survivors of other battles, and together they formed a coven. Maria’s goal was to reclaim her land and exact vengeance; Nettie and Lucy hoped to gain more hunting territory.

Maria took newborn armies to a new level by choosing humans with combat potential and giving them more training than anyone had bothered to do before. When Maria met a young Confederate officer named Jasper Whitlock, she hoped
his physical stature and military experience would make him a helpful addition to her army. She also sensed that there was something special about him, and her instincts were on target. After assessing his abilities, she put Jasper in charge of her other newborns. He was able to facilitate cooperation between the members of the group. Casualties dropped, and Maria’s army swelled to around twenty newborns—a large number for that time. Even Nettie, Lucy, and Maria were able to work together more easily with Jasper around.

Maria grew fond of Jasper, depending on him more and more.

Thanks to her planning and Jasper’s gifts, Maria’s army was very successful. Maria grew fond of Jasper, depending on him more and more. Eventually Nettie and Lucy betrayed their alliance with Maria and planned to turn against her. Jasper was able to give Maria early warning, and she killed them both. Jasper became her only ally. However, she never treated him as an equal or thought of him as her mate. As was normal for the vampire temperament, Maria never forgot her deceased mate or moved on.

Several decades passed, and Maria noticed Jasper growing depressed. He was no longer interested in their lifestyle of conflict and acquisition. Maria grew paranoid that he might turn on her the way Nettie and Lucy had, and she made plans to destroy him first. She selected a few of the older, more promising newborns and plotted secretly with them, offering them Jasper’s position and perks if they got him out of the way. Jasper was well aware of her shift in feelings toward him, and began making similar defensive plans against her with the newborns he most trusted. Before it came to that,
however, Jasper found an alternative and left her coven for a new way of life in the North. Maria eventually forgave Jasper for his defection, and considers herself to be on good terms with him. She continues to zealously defend her territories in Mexico against interlopers.