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Chapter Text

Bella didn’t share in Alice’s ability. As helpful as it would be (especially in moments like these), the human girl could not see the future. She couldn’t expect anything. But she wasn’t stupid. 

Even if she did find herself incredibly fortunate, if it turned out that Fate was on her side and she did manage to somehow save Edward from his self-provoked demise, she wasn’t sure she still wanted to be with him if the possibility arose. 

She was no different now that she had been in Forks all those months ago when Edward had left her in the forest - save for marginally longer hair and more self-reliance and resilience - which meant that she was no more special than she’d been back then, when the vampire and his family had packed up and left her alone in a place that she could only associate with them. And thus, there would be no new reason for Edward to want her now - unless, of course, if she could save him from himself and he felt indebted to her.

She didn’t want that to be the reason that they got back together. 

They began their descent into New York City, Alice remaining in her trance even as the plane touched down with a jarring impact as the landing gear hit the tarmac. Bella had to shake the vampire out of her stupor so that they would have enough time to make their connecting flight, but even the rush was far superior to waiting in the terminal. 

Once the second plane was in the air, Alice slid back into her vision-state. Bella waited patiently until it became dark in the cabin, but opening the window shade to stare into inky nothingness was only a marginal improvement than the piece of cream coloured plastic that covered it. The monotony of it was almost comical; an ironic parallel to how the girl had lived for the first few months after the Cullens had left Forks. At one point, three months into her Edward-centric major depressive episode, Bella had learnt how to control her thought processes in much more healthy ways. 

Instead of dwelling on the terrifying idea that there was a large possibility that neither herself, Edward, or even Alice would survive this, Bella decided to concentrate on a lesser problem that she would encounter if she ever made it back to Forks. 

What was she going to say to Jacob if she got out of this alive? He’d promised her that he would wait for her… but after this? She was even less sure about ever taking him up on his promise. Sure, she loved Jake. Definitely. 

Just not enough. 

Not enough to leave behind the idea of the vampiric life she had idealised since she had learned the Cullens’ secret.

Regardless of if she was with Edward or not. 

Maybe, just maybe, she didn’t want to survive this. Even if Edward and/or Alice made it out alive themselves. Bella had nothing to offer the Cullens now that she wasn’t in a relationship with Edward. Of course, Alice had sought her out to go across the globe to save her former boyfriend, but if she succeeded and everyone somehow managed to live? She supposed that the Cullen’s might be indebted to her - but she doubted that that fact alone would be enough leverage for any of them to turn her; especially considering they wouldn’t do it while she was with Edward. 

Alice shook her shoulder and Bella’s eyelids shot open as she startled - she hadn’t realised that she’d fallen asleep. 

“Bella,” she hissed, her voice a little too loud in the darkened cabin full of sleeping humans.

“What’s wrong?”

“They’ve decided to tell him no. They’re interested in him… They think his talent could be useful to the Volturi. They’re going to offer him a place with them.”

“What will he say?” She wasn’t sure if her tone was indicative of her hope, though, Bella wasn’t even sure which option she was hoping for. On one hand, Edward would live, without her interference. She wouldn’t have to see him again, and he could live out the rest of his immortal days without her. On the other, he would never accept. Bella knew that. He would never agree to reside in Italy with the largest coven of human-drinking vampires in the Western hemisphere; his supposed conscience would never let him. 

“I can’t see that yet, but I’ll bet it’s colourful.” Alice grinned again. “This is the first good news - the first break. They’re intrigued; they truly don’t want to destroy him - ‘wasteful’, that’s the word Aro will use - and that may be enough to force him to get creative. The longer he spends on his plans, the better for us.” The vampire explained. 

Bella sighed. “I really wish that you could have been right about me. In the beginning, when you first saw things about me, when we met,” she paused. “When you saw me become one of you. Maybe then this wouldn’t have happened.” Bella speculated. 

“It was a possibility at the time.”

“At the time,” the human replied tentatively. 

Bella rested her head against the seat, watching as Alice concentrated on finding the answers to whether Edward would die by the command of the Volturi or by some assisted suicide. 

The next thing the girl knew, Alice was snapping the window shade closed against the faint brightening in the Eastern sky. 

“What’s happening?” She mumbled, groggy with sleep.

“They’ve told him no,” Alice said quietly. Bella noticed very quickly that the vampire’s enthusiasm was gone.

She’d known that Edward wouldn’t accept a place with the Volturi Guard, and yet her voice choked in her throat in panic. 

“What’s he going to do?”

“It was chaotic at first. I was only getting flickers, he was changing plans so quickly. He’s going to keep it simple. He’s just going to walk out into the sun.”

It would be enough. 

Bella dredged up the repressed memory of Edward in the meadow - his skin created from diamond fragments packed into marble, the expressions that crossed his face when he explained that he was a dangerous predator that she ought to be afraid of. No ‘normal’ human who saw his skin would be able to avert their gaze, and they would all crave him just as she did; “Everything about me invites you in,” he’d said in the forest, “my voice, my face, even my smell.” They wouldn’t be able to forget the image of Edward and his glittering skin.

The Volturi couldn’t possibly allow that. Especially not if they wanted to keep their city inconspicuous from the public eye and the never-ending search for the ‘mythical’. 

“Right now, he’s leaning toward the melodramatic. He wants the biggest audience possible, so he’ll choose the main plaza, underneath the clock tower. The walls are high there. He’ll wait till the sun is exactly overhead.”

“So we have until noon?”

“If we’re lucky. If he sticks with this decision.”

A bright yellow Porshe slid to a stop almost at Bella’s feet, the word TURBO scrawled in silver cursive across its tailgate. Everyone else waiting to be picked up from the crowded airport sidewalk stared as the seemingly reckless driver popped open the passenger side door. 

“Sheesh, Alice,” Bella complained, “could you pick a more noticeable car to steal?” The human asked as she raced around the bonnet of the sunny sports car, throwing herself into the leather-upholstered passenger seat. 

“The important question,” the vampire corrected, “is whether I could have stolen a faster car, and I don’t think so. I got lucky.”

If she had watched out of the window with any amount of attention as the pair drove through the European landscape, Bella would have seen the outskirts of both Florence and Tuscany as they blurred by. Being her first trip out of the US, and more than likely her last, she thought she probably should have been paying more attention to the scenery, but Alice’s erratic driving almost frightened her. She was well aware that she could trust Alice behind the wheel just as she had trusted Edward. The vampire was pushing the Porsche nearly to its limits (the speedometer arm pointed much further to the right than the left), which was saying a lot, and Bella was too tortured with anxiety over Edward to take any actual notice of the rolling green hills or the walled towns that were likely often mistaken for castles that dotted the distance. 

“There’s something going on,” Alice muttered. “Some kind of festival. The streets are full of people and red flags.” She thought for a moment before continuing, “it’s Saint Marcus Day.”

“Which means?” Bella questioned.

The vampire chuckled in a humourless kind of way. “The city holds a celebration every year. As the legend goes, a Christian missionary, Father Marcus - Marcus of the Voltun, in fact - drove all the vampires from Volterra fifteen hundred years ago. The story claims that he was martyred in Romania, still trying to drive away the vampire scourge. Of course, that’s nonsense - he’s never left the city. But that’s where some of the superstitions about things like crosses and garlic come from. Father Marcus used them so successfully. And vampires don’t trouble Volterra, so they must work.” Sarcasm dripped from her words, her smile sardonic. “It’s become more of a celebration of the city, and recognition of the police force - after all, Volterra is an amazingly safe city. The police get the credit.”

Ah, there’s the irony, Bella thought. “They’re not going to be very happy if Edward messes things up for them on Saint Marcus Day of all days, are they?”

Alice shook her head, her expression grim. “No. They’ll act very quickly.

The sun was terrifyingly high in the pale blue sky. 

“He’s still planning on noon?” Bella checked. 

“Yes. He’s decided to wait. And they’re waiting for him.”

“Tell me what I have to do.” Bella implored. A small red car seemed to be racing in reverse as Alice zoomed around it.

“I’m going to get you as close as possible, and then you’re going to run in the direction I point you.”

The sun continued to climb in the sky while Alice raced against it. It was too bright, and that had Bella almost panicking. Maybe Edward wouldn’t feel the need to wait for noon after all.

“There,” Alice said abruptly, pointing to the castle city atop the closest hill. “Volterra,” she announced in a flat, icy voice. 

The steep incline of the road that the Porsche climbed was congested, the cars becoming too close for Alice to continue to weave madly between as they wound higher. The car in front of them was a little tan Peugeot, a relatively ugly colour to be forced to stare at while being barricaded behind. 

Edging forward at a crawl, one car length at a time, the sun beamed down brilliantly above them, seemingly already overhead. 

As they crept forward and towards the city, Bella noticed that people had left cars parked along the edge of the road and she thought at first that it was just impatience - something that she was very quickly coming to understand - but when the sports car came around a switchback, Bella could see the filled parking lot outside of the city wall. No one was being allowed to drive through, and instead, crowds of people walked through and towards the gates on foot. 

Directing the flow of traffic was a stout man in a navy blue uniform. He was turning away the cars from the full lot, motioning lazily, and the redirected cars U-turned and headed back to find a space on the edge of the road. The uniformed man was not paying a large amount of attention, and thus Alice accelerated, edging around him in the direction of the gate. He shouted something at the entering car but didn’t move from his position on the road, and then his attention was taken by the next car behind them. He waved frantically at the next car so that they wouldn’t follow the yellow Porsche’s bad example.

The man at the gate wore the same navy blue uniform as the one directing the traffic. As the girls approached him, pedestrians passed, staring cautiously from the sidewalks at the flashy yellow sports car who had decided not to follow the traffic rules. The guard stepped into the middle of the street between the car and the open gateway before coming around to the driver’s side of the car with an irritated expression. He angrily tapped on Alice’s window. 

“I’m sorry, only tour busses allowed in the city today, miss,” he said apologetically in heavily-accented English. 

Alice reached out of the car window and into the sunlight. Bella froze until she noted that the vampire was wearing an elbow-length, tan glove. 

“It’s a private tour,” she said, flashing an alluring smile with her straight, white teeth. She took his hand, pulling it slightly into the car. Alice thrust something into his palm and the man’s fingers closed around a wad of cash - the outside bill was a purple one, 500 Euro.

His face was dazed as he retrieved his hand from the open car window and he stared at the thick roll of money he was now in possession of. He looked at Alice, eyes wide. Nervously, Bella glanced at the clock on the dash. Only five minutes left if Edward was sticking to his plan. 

She hoped he would. 

“I’m in a wee bit of a hurry,” Alice hinted, still smiling her picture-perfect smile. The guard blinked twice, depositing the money into a pocket on the inside of his vest. He took a step away from the window and waved the car on and through the gates. None of the passing pedestrians seemed to notice the quiet exchange, and the girls sighed in momentary relief as Alice drove forwards and into the city. 

Cobbled with the same coloured stones as the faded cinnamon-brown buildings darkening the street with their shade, the road was very narrow and felt more like an alleyway. Crimson red flags hung on poles perpendicular to the sandstone walls, spaced only a few yards apart and flapping in the wind that whistled through the thin space. 

It was crowded already, and the foot traffic even further slowed the car’s progress. Alice’s swift and agile driving was reduced to quick spurts and sudden stops at the people in the roadway shook their fists, coupling the action with angry words that Bella was fortunate enough not to understand. The car turned onto a little path that couldn’t have been meant for cars, shocking people who swiftly squeezed into doorways at the human and the vampire scraped by in their Porsche. 

The buildings were taller here; they leaned together overhead in such a way that no sunlight touched the pavement and the thrashing red flags on either side of the passageway nearly met. The crowd was thicker here than anywhere else, meaning that the pair were as close as they could get to the main festivities. Alice stopped the car, and Bella had the door open before they were at a standstill. 

The vampire pointed to where the street widened into a bright patch of openness - as much as there could be considering the people filling the plaza. 

“There - we’re at the southern end of the square. Run straight across, to the right of the clock tower. You have two minutes. Go, Bella, go!” Alice shouted, climbing out of the car as she spoke. 

Brilliant sunlight beat down on the human girl as she left the mouth of the dark lane. Vermillion enveloped her as she was swept into the close-pressed sea of bodies. No pathway or crevice was left between Saint Marcus Day patrons and so Bella pushed through and against them in furious determination, fighting hands that shoved back. Exclamations of irritation and sometimes pain could only just be heard above the chanting of the crowd, but none of it was in a language that the girl could comprehend. Surprised and angry faces blurred together as she barrelled through the throngs. A blonde woman scowled at her, the red scarf coiled around her neck almost looking like a gruesome wound - a beheading-gone-wrong perhaps. A child, perched on a man’s shoulders for a better vantage point of the occasion grinned down at Bella, the boy’s lips distended over a set of plastic, novelty vampire fangs. 

The crowd jostled around her and Bella became disoriented quickly and had managed to be spun in the wrong direction. She was glad that the clock tower was visible or else she would never have been able to keep her course straight. 

Both hands of the clock pointed upwards towards the pitiless sun, and even as she pushed and shoved viciously against the flow of festival patrons, Bella didn’t need Alice’s precognitive abilities to know that she was going to be too late. She was only halfway across the plaza. She wouldn’t make it. She was stupid and slow and entirely too human. And all three of them would likely die because of it. 

Bella hoped that Alice would get out, at the very least. She hoped that the little vampire would see her from some dark shadow and know that she had failed, so that she could at least reunite with Jasper. 

The girl listened, above the angry exclamations, trying to hear the sound of discovery: the gasp, maybe the scream, as Edward graced someone’s view, sparkling in a million diamond facets. 

A fountain had seemingly materialised in the middle of the plaza, and Bella’s shin grazed the low wall as she flung her leg over it and into knee-deep water. Even in the sun, the wind was glacial, and the wetness of her jeans had made the cold genuinely painful, but she saw that the fountain was a blessing. It was very wide, and it let her cross the centre of the square and then some in a matter of seconds. She didn’t stop when she hit the far edge, and instead used the fountain’s lip as a springboard to throw herself into the crowd. 

A deep, booming chime echoed throughout the plaza. It throbbed the stones beneath Bella’s feet as children cried out, covering their ears. 

There was a break in the throng, space between the sightseers and the festival-goers who milled aimlessly around the brunette girl. Her eyes searched the darkened and narrow passage to the right of the wide square edifice at the base of the tower. 

The clock tolled again. 

“Edward, no!” Bella screamed, but her voice was lost in the roar of the chime. 

She could see him now. And she could see that he could not see her. 

As motionless as a marble statue, Edward stood just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. His eyes were closed, the rings beneath them a deep purple, and his arms relaxed at his sides, palms turned forwards - he was accepting what he expected to happen next, welcoming it even. He seemed at peace with it as his face betrayed that he was thinking of pleasant things. The ivory skin of his chest was bare, and a small pile was white fabric lay at his feet. The light reflecting from the pavement gleamed dimly from his skin. 

Bella had never been so relieved - even as she ran, gasping and screaming. 

The last seven months almost meant nothing. 

His words in the forest almost meant nothing. 

And it almost didn’t matter if he wanted her. 

A few months ago, Bella would have also thought something along the lines of how she ‘would never want anything but him, no matter how long she lived’, but now she knew better. 

The clock tolled, and the vampire took a large stride towards the light. 

“No!” Bella screamed. “Edward! Look at me!”

He wasn’t listening. He smiled very slightly, raising his foot to take the step that would put him directly in the path of the sun before it hit the ground. 

Bella slammed into his chest so hard that the force would have hurled her to the ground if his arms hadn’t caught her and held her body up against him. It knocked the breath from her and snapped her head back in a way she knew she would feel later. 

Edward’s dark eyes opened slowly as the clock tolled again. He looked down at her with quiet surprise. 

“Edward,” she tried to gasp, but Bella’s voice had lost its sound. “You have to get back in the shadows. You have to move!” The human girl managed to wheeze out. 

Bella’s lungs filled with the sweet scent that emanated from his skin, mixed with the sandstone of the enveloping alleyway walls. 

“I can’t believe how quick it was. I didn’t feel a thing - they’re very good,” Edward mused, closing his eyes again and pressing his lips against Bella’s hair. “ Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty, ” he murmured, and she recognised the line spoken by Romeo in the tomb.

The clock boomed out its final chime. 

“You smell exactly the same as always,” he went on. “So maybe this is hell. I don’t care. I’ll take it.”

“I’m not dead,” Bella interrupted. “And neither are you! Please, Edward, we have to move. They can’t be far away! We’re not dead, not yet! But we have to get out of here before the Volturi–”

Comprehension flickered across the vampire’s face as Bella spoke, but before she could finish, he suddenly yanked her away from the edge of the shadows. He spun her effortlessly so that her back was tight against the brick wall, his back to her, as he faced into the alley. Edward’s arms were spread wide, protectively, in front of her. 

She peeked under his arm to see two dark shapes detach themselves from the gloom.

Chapter Text

“Greetings, gentlemen,” Edward’s voice was calm and pleasant, but there was a clear, dark undertone to his words. “I don’t think I’ll be requiring your services today. I would appreciate it very much, however, if you would send my thanks to your masters.”

“Shall we take this conversation to a more… appropriate… venue?” A smooth voice whispered menacingly. 

“I don’t believe that will be necessary.” The dark undertone became much more prominent as his voice hardened. “I know your instructions, Felix. I haven’t broken any rules.”

“Felix merely meant to point out the proximity of the sun,” the other shadow said in a soothing tone. Both figures were concealed within smokey grey cloaks that reached the ground and undulated in the breeze that permeated the alleyway. “Let us seek better cover.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” Edward said dryly. He didn’t turn to her but spoke over his shoulder. “Bella, why don’t you go back to the square and enjoy the festival?”

“No, bring the girl,” the first shadow said, injecting a leer into his hushed speech. 

“I don’t think so.” The pretence of civility disappeared and Edward’s demeanour, his voice flat and icy. The vampire’s weight shifted infinitesimally, and Bella noticed that he was preparing for a fight. 

“No.” She mouthed. 

“Shh,” he murmured, in a tone specifically for Bella. 

“Felix,” the second, more reasonable shadow cautioned. “Not here.” He turned to Edward. “Aro would simply like to speak with you again, if you have decided not to force our hand after all.”

“Certainly,” Edward agreed. “But the girl goes free.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” the polite shadow said regretfully. “We do have rules to obey.”

“Then I’m afraid that I’ll be unable to accept Aro’s invitation, Demetri.”

“That’s just fine,” Felix purred. Bella’s eyes had almost adjusted to the deep shade, and she could see that Felix could very well be taller and more broad through the shoulders than even Emmett was.

“Aro will be disappointed,” Demetri sighed. He was much shorter than his companion, maybe a little under six feet tall. He seemed, to Bella, as though he would be more lithe, agile, than his partner. 

“I’m sure he’ll survive the letdown,” Edward replied, sneering. 

Felix and Demetri edged closer towards the mouth of the alley, separating from each other so that they could come at Edward and his human from both sides. They were attempting to cordon the pair deeper into the darkened space, to avoid making an accidental scene should a fight become necessary. The light reflecting from the pavement would not permeate the two new vampire’s charcoal cloaks, keeping them safe from exposure. Edward didn’t move an inch, dooming himself by protecting Bella. 

A sound or movement too minuscule for Bella’s very human senses to pick up on set all three vampires on edge, heads whipping towards the darkness of the winding alley. 

“Let’s behave ourselves, shall we?” a lilting voice suggested. “There are ladies present.” Alice stepped lightly from the shadows to Edward’s side, her stance casual and relaxed with no hint of underlying tension. She looked so innocent, childlike in both stature and mannerism as she swung her tiny arms. Yet, Demetri and Felix both straightened up, their cloaks swirling slightly as a gust of wind funnelled through the alley. Felix’s face soured. 

Apparently, Bella thought, they didn’t like even numbers. 

“We’re not alone,” Alice reminded the convening vampires. 

Demetri glanced a few yards into the plaza, where the little family with the girls in their red festival dresses were watching us. The woman and her husband were conversing, eyeing the five of them. She looked away when Demetri met her gaze, but the man she was with left their field of vision, walking somewhere to the left of the tunnel and out of sight. 

Demetri shook his head. “Please, Edward, let us be reasonable,” he said. 

“Let’s,” Edward agreed. “And we’ll leave quietly now, with no one the wiser.”

Sighing in frustration, Demetri rebutted, “At least let us discuss this more privately.”

Six men, all dressed in red, approached the mother and her two daughters with their father at the lead. Bella was very conscious of Edward’s protective stance in front of her and she recognised this as their cause for alarm. 

The girl straightened up in her place between Edward and the wall, attempting a small smile towards the woman and her children, hoping it just looked like she was part of an awkward conversation. 

Really, she wanted to scream at the little group to run. 

Edward’s teeth came together audibly, bringing her attention back. “No.”

Felix smiled, his lips curling up around his very white teeth. 

“Enough.” The voice was high and delicate, with an odd air of power in the cadence. It came from somewhere in the darkness behind where the group stood. 

A third dark shape emerged from the alley, smaller than Demetri, possibly smaller than Alice. Their darkened grey cloak billowed at the edges in their gait towards the arguing vampires and the slightly panicked Bella. She knew it had to be another Volturi vampire - who else?

At first, she thought that they might have been a young boy. Bella could now see that the newest member of the party of six was indeed the smallest (but only by a few inches) with mousy blonde hair cropped close to the skull. The body under the cloak was slim, petite, and androgynous (no feminine curves or masculine shoulders), but the face was too pretty to be a boy’s.

At second glance, the figure’s hair was not close-cropped, but was, in fact, pulled back away from their profile in a series of french braids, the beginnings of which peaked out below the raised hood of the cloak. The wide-eyed, full-lipped face would make a Botticelli angel look akin to a gargoyle - even allowing for the dull crimson irises. 

Her size was so insignificant that the reaction to her emergence and the tone of her voice seemed disjunct - without taking into account the colour difference of the Volturi vampires’ cloaks. 

Felix and Demetri relaxed immediately, dropping their offensive positioning and body language to blend again with the shadows of the overhanging walls as they stepped closer to the edges of the alleyway; almost as if parting the way for the new vampire. Edward relaxed also, dropping his arms to his sides and straightening up - but his demeanour screamed in defeat. 

“Jane,” he sighed, both in recognition and in resignation. 

Alice folded her arms across her chest, betraying her insecurity over the situation (not that Bella picked up on that fact), but kept her expression impassive. 

“Follow me,” Jane spoke again, her childish voice a monotone. She turned her back to the group and drifted silently into the dark. 

Bella looked back towards the direction of the family at the mouth of the alley; the men had gone again and the mother and father shot intermittent glances at the congregation as if monitoring the situation. 

The human girl shot another awkward smile at the family alongside a thumbs-up gesture, hoping to diffuse their worry, lest they follow them down the dark and very secluded alleyway and become a vampire’s lunch. The woman returned Bella’s smile and began speaking to the children. 

Alice caught the gesture and gave Bella her own small smile. It was genuine, definitely, but it didn’t make it to her eyes. 

Felix motioned for Bella and the Cullens to go first, smirking. 

Alice didn’t hesitate, stepping behind the little Jane at once. 

Edward pulled Bella along with an arm around her waist, half a step behind Alice. 

The alley angled downwards as it narrowed. Edward shook his head as Bella looked up at him with a questioning gaze. No sound echoed from behind the party of four, but Bella was sure that Felix and Demetri were bringing up the rear. The brunette girl silently thanked herself for convincing the woman that she was okay, because she hoped that she would be the only human to be in trouble with the Volturi coven today. 

“Well, Alice,” Edward said conversationally as they walked. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.”

“It was my mistake,” Alice answered in the same tone. “It was my job to set it right.”

“What happened?” His voice was polite, as if he were barely interested. Bella imagined that this was due to the listening ears behind them. 

“It’s a long story.” Alice’s eyes flickered towards her and away again. “In summary, she did jump off a cliff, but she wasn’t trying to kill herself. Bella’s all about the extreme sports these days, aren’t you, Bella?”

“Yup,” she answered, blood rushing towards her cheeks as she turned her eyes straight agead, looking for the dark shadow of Jane that she could no longer see. Edward would no doubt be reading Alice’s mind as they walked, seeing her near-drowning, the werewolf pack, and her foray with Victoria’s friend, Laurent. 

All things that she had done to see him again - even if only in hallucinations. 

“Hm,” Edward murmured curtly, the casual tone of his voice slipping. 

The alley rounded in a loose curve, still slanting downwards, so Bella didn’t see the squared-off dead end coming until they reached the flat, windowless, brick face. 

Jane was nowhere to be seen. 

Alice didn’t hesitate, didn’t so much as break pace as she strode toward the wall. Then, with the same easy grace that the vampire did everything with, she slid down an open hole in the floor. It looked like a drain, sunk into the lowest point of the paving. Bella hadn’t noticed it until Alice disappeared, but the grate was halfway pushed aside. The hole was small and black. 

The human girl balked. 

“It’s all right, Bella,” Edward said in a low voice. “Alice will catch you.”

She eyed the hole doubtfully; Edward probably would have gone first, if Demetri and Felix hadn’t been waiting silently behind them. Bella might not have a vampire gift, but she didn’t need Jasper’s mood powers or Edward’s telepathy to know that the two male vampires emanated smugness and superiority over the situation. 

Bella crouched down, swinging her legs into the narrow gap. 

“Alice?” She whispered, voice trembling.

“I’m right here, Bella,” the vampire below reassured, but her voice came from too far below to make the girl feel any better. 

Edward took her wrists - his hands feeling like stones in winter, cold and hard in their grasp - and lowered her into the blackness. 

“Ready?” he asked. 

“Drop her,” Alice called. 

Bella closed her eyes so she wouldn’t see the darkness, clamping her mouth shut so she wouldn’t let loose the scream building in her throat. Edward let her fall. 

It was silent and short. The air whipped past her for less than a second, and then, with a huff as she exhaled, Alice’s waiting arms caught her before she hit the ground. Bella was going to have bruises; the vampire’s arms were very hard. 

Alice stood the girl upright. 

Not quite black, the light from the roof of the chamber provided a faint glow, reflecting wetly from the stones under Bella’s feet. The light lost to the darkness for a split second when Edward entered the room, but he became a faint, white radiance beside her. He put his arm around her, holding her close to his side. On any other day, she would have melted into his embrace. 

Edward began to tow her swiftly forward, and so she tripped and stumbled her way across the uneven stone surface. The heavy grate was replaced over the drain hole by one of the tailing vampires, and it rang with metallic finality. 

Even the dim glow from the street was quickly lost to the darkness. Bella’s staggering footsteps echoed through the blackened space; it sounded wide, but she couldn’t be sure with her faulty human hearing. The only sounds escaping the group was her frantic heartbeat (which the vampire’s probably would have been able to hear even without their enhanced senses) and her still-wet Converse on the damp stones - except for once, when an impatient sigh whispered from behind her. 

Edward held her tightly, reaching his free hand across his body to hold Bella’s face, his smooth thumb tracing across her lips. She only tolerated it because this was likely the only reunion that they would get. Now and then, she felt his face press into her hair, though she was sure it was only his nose that she felt in her scalp and not his lips - this action was about him, he wanted to feel her scent near his almost certain end, and not about comforting her nor an appreciation of her presence. 

It wasn’t affectionate. It was selfish. 

Guilt most likely played its own role also - the same guilt that had compelled him to temporarily relocate to Volterra for his death sentence when he’d believed that Bella had killed herself and it was his fault.

For now, he wanted her, if only in a self-centred regard. 

Months ago, Bella would have been happy to even be in his proximity before one or both of them met their end. She would have said that it was better than living out a long life without him.

She didn’t think that anymore. 

Bella wanted to ask him exactly what was going to happen - she wanted to know desperately how they were going to die.

Everyone except her knew what to expect, right? Edward knew that he would face the punishment for almost exposing the vampiric secret to the public, as well as fraternising with a human. Felix, Demetri, and Jane knew how their Masters would sentence Edward’s offences. And Alice, well, she could outright see the future, so she would have already seen multiple outcomes to whatever was coming next. 

The path beneath their feet still sloped downwards, taking them deeper and deeping into the ground beneath the Italian city. The air around them turned dark grey and Bella was starting to pick out the surrounding walls, and she now knew that the ceiling of the tunnel was arched, feet above even Felix’s head. Long trails of ebony moisture trailed between the grey stones, as if they were bleeding ink. 

Bella had begun shaking, and at first, she thought it was from fear and the imminent threat of death, but then her teeth began to chatter together percussively and she realised that she was cold - her clothes were still wet, her socks and shoes squelched under her feet with every step, and the temperature beneath the city was the kind of cold that it takes a while to notice. Edward’s skin was just as cold. He realised this at the same time that she did, and let go of her. Only their hands maintained contact. 

She had to think twice, but Bella decided that she wouldn’t throw her arms around him again. Sure, they might be nearing slaughter, but Bella had to remind herself that he left her in the first place. 

The pace that the others had set seemed fast, hurried, to her, and yet Bella knew that they moved incredibly slowly to accommodate her human-ness. Those thoughts were punctuated by Felix and his occasionally heaved sighs that permeated the near-silence every few minutes. 

At the end of the tunnel was a grate with rusting iron bars about as thick as Bella’s forearm. There was a door made of thinner, interlaced bars that stood open leading into a far larger and startlingly brighter stone room. She had to blink a few times to refocus her eyes to adapt to the new light, and as she did so, the grille slammed shut with a clang, followed by the grating sound of a deadbolt and then the snap of a lock. Bella didn’t want to look behind her at the secured door. 

On the other side of the long chamber was a heavy wooden door. It was thick - a fact that Bella knew because it, too, had been left open. She relaxed automatically as she stepped through it.  Edward’s hand still rested in hers, but he tensed, jaw clenched tight. 

It seemed that the group had now entered the actual Volturi castle, in a brightly lit and unremarkable hallway. The walls were slightly off-white, the floor carpeted in the same industrial grey carpet that one would likely find in an office building. Common fluorescent bar lights were spaced evenly along the high ceiling, and oil-painted artworks hung, illuminated by smaller spotlights inset in the walls. The abrupt change from dank, ghoulish tunnel, to crisp, almost benign hallway was welcomed, accentuated by the warmth that Bella was grateful for. 

Edward seemed far less welcoming of the change in scenery as well as Bella’s assessment of the space. He glowered darkly down the lengthy hallway, toward the dark-cloaked figure standing menacingly in front of the open elevator. 

Alice walked on Bella’s other side as Edward pulled her along. The heavy door they had entered through creaked shut behind them. Bella assumed that they had just exited one of possibly hundreds of access or service tunnels leftover from the previous inhabitants of the castle. Though, thinking about it, Bella thought it possible that the Volturi had even built the castle, hundreds or maybe even thousands of years ago. 

Jane’s expression was apathetic as she watched them, one hand between the elevator doors. Once inside, the three Guard vampires relaxed, throwing back their cloaks to let the hoods fall on their shoulders. 

Felix and Demetri would have had an olive complexion had they been human, but this, combined with their vampiric, chalky pallor, looked odd. Felix’s black hair was cropped in the way that Bella had thought that Jane’s was, but Demetri’s rested, wavy, just below his shoulders. Their irises were deep crimson, darkening towards blackness around the pupil. Beneath the cloaks, both male vampires wore nondescript, grey button-down shirts and black slacks. Jane, however, wore a black, knee-length dress and light coloured stockings - she could almost be mistaken for a schoolgirl. 

All three Guard wore Volturi crests - a ruby stone embedded above a four-part shield that had been superimposed over a Roman-font V - on thick chains of bronze over the lapels of their cloaks, something that Bella hadn’t noticed earlier. 

The elevator ride was short; the group stepped out into a high-class reception area, carrying over the ‘office’ theme Bella had considered in the hallway. The walls were panelled in wood, floors carpeted in thick, deep emerald green - like grass that hadn’t been mowed in a few weeks. There were no windows, but large paintings similar to those in the hallway hung everywhere in replacement. Several black leather lounges were dotting the space, arranged in cozy groupings around glass coffee tables with crystal vases full of brightly coloured flowers sitting atop them. The fragrance reminded Bella of a funeral home. 

In the middle of the room was a high, polished mahogany counter. The woman behind it was tall and slim, with olive-toned skin and eyes the same dark green hue as the carpet. In any other context, in any other company, she would have been model-stunning. But she was every bit as human as Bella was - which was why she couldn’t comprehend what she was doing here, totally at ease, surrounded by human-drinking vampires. 

She smiled politely at the little group, no surprise in her face as she glanced between the six of them. 

“Buon pomeriggio, Jane,” she said. 

“Gianna.”

They followed the little blonde vampire through a set of double doors in the back of the room, Giana giggling as Felix winked at her in passing. 

On the other side of the wooden doors was a different kind of reception. 

A pale boy in a grey suit stood between two marble pillars. He had so much likeness to Jane that it was incredibly possible that they were twins. His hair was two shades darker, and his lips weren’t quite as full, but he was just as lovely. He opened his arms in greeting, reaching out for Jane. 

“Alec,” she said, embracing the boy and exchanging a cheek kiss each. 

Then he looked at her companions. 

“They send you out for one and you come back with two… and a half,” he noted, looking at Bella. “Nice work, sister.”

Jane laughed, the sound sparkling with delight. 

“Welcome back, Edward,” Alec greeted him. “You seem in a better mood.”

“Marginally,” Edward agreed in a flat voice. Bella glanced at his hard face, wondering how his mood could have been darker before. 

Alec chuckled, examining the human girl as she clung to Edward’s side. “And this is the cause of all the trouble?” he asked, sceptical. 

Edward only smiled, his expression contemptuous. Then he froze. 

“Dibs,” Felix called casually from behind them. 

Edward turned, a snarl building in his chest, to a smiling Felix. The larger vampire’s hand was raised, palm up, as he curled his fingers towards himself twice. He was taunting Edward, inviting him forward. 

Alice touched Edward’s arm. “Patience,” she cautioned him. 

They exchanged a long glance, and Bella wished she could hear what his adopted sister was telling him. She figured it had something to do with not attacking Felix, because Edward took a deep breath and turned back to Alec. 

“Aro will be so pleased to see you again,” the vampire boy said, as if nothing had passed. 

“Let’s not keep him waiting,” Jane suggested. 

Edward nodded once. 

Alec and Jane held hands as they led the group down another ornate hallway, ignoring the gold-sheathed doors at the end of the corridor to slide a piece of the wall’s panelling to expose an unlocked plain, wooden door. Alec held it open for Jane. 

The antechamber was stone, dark and cold just as the alley and the sewers had been. Bella wanted to groan. 

It was small, but opened out quickly into a brighter, cavernous room, perfectly rounded like a huge castle turret - which was probably exactly what it was. Long window slits threw rectangles of bright Italian sunlight onto the stone floor from two or three storeys above. There were no artificial lights, and the only furniture in the room were three massive wooden chairs, like thrones, spaced evenly upon a stage-like outcropping that jutted about a third of the way into the room at the far end, four steps leading up to them. 

In the very centre of the circular room, in a slight depression, was another drain. 

The room was not empty of bodies; a handful of people were convened in seemingly relaxed conversation. The murmur of low, smooth voices was a gentle hum in the air. The exquisite faces all turned towards the entering party, and the humming of the voices ceased. 

Most of the immortals were dressed in a business-casual style. The majority of the male vampires wore button-down shirts in pale and neutral tones, both tucked and untucked from black or grey slacks - very similar to Felix and Demetri’s outfits. The vampiric women mostly wore light coloured sundresses, a few had opted for darker ensembles in the form of blacks and greys. Only Felix, Demetri, and Jane wore cloaks, but almost every vampire in the room wore the Volturi crest. 

The man who spoke first was clad head to toe in black. The obviously tailored suit contrasted his paleness in such a way that was reminiscent of paper and ink. For a moment, Bella thought that his long, jet-black hair was a hood of some kind. A gold Volturi creat hung at his chest, but the gem set between the prongs of the V was black; onyx or obsidian if Bella were to guess. 

“Jane, dear one, you’ve returned!” he cried in evident delight. His voice echoed throughout the room. 

The vampire drifted forward, and the movement flowed with such ethereal grace that Bella gawked, her mouth hanging open. Even Alice, whose every motion looked like dancing, could not compare to this vampire’s movement. 

Bella was only more taken aback when he floated closer to her, and she could discern his features. She couldn't decide if ‘beautiful’ was the word that she would use to describe him.

He was, of course, unnaturally attractive, just as the faces that surrounded him (because he did not approach the group alone; two other suit-wearing men had converged onto the outside thrones, while a male and female vampire walked slightly ahead of him with the alert manner of bodyguards), and his features were textbook perfect, but clearly not from a modern age. His skin was only slightly more pale than Edward and Alice’s, but looked, somehow, both delicate and incredibly hard. Bella had likened Edward to a marble statue, but the vampire almost upon them fit the description far better. He had a Grecian nose, and dark hair that framed his face was pulled back along the temples and tied somewhere behind his head. His eyes were the same crimson as the other human-drinkers in the room, but in places, they seemed almost clouded, milky; Bella wondered if his vision was affected by the haze. 

He glided to Jane, took her face in his papery hands, kissed her lightly on the cheek, and then floated back a step. 

“Yes, Master.” Jane smiled; the expression made her look like a cherub. “I brought him back alive, just as you wished.”

“Ah, Jane,” he smiled, too. “You are such a comfort to me.”

He turned his misty eyes toward Alice, and the smile brightened - becoming almost ecstatic. 

“And Alice and Isabella, too!” he rejoiced, clapping his thin hands together. “This is a happy surprise! Wonderful!”

Bella didn’t correct him, she just stared in shock as he spoke their names so informally, as if they were old friends dropping in for an unexpected visit. 

He hadn’t met the girl’s eyes once. 

“You see, Edward?” The strange vampire turned and smiled at Edward like a fond but scolding grandfather. “What did I tell you? Aren’t you glad that I didn’t give you what you wanted yesterday?”

“Yes, Aro, I am,” he agreed, tightening his arm around Bella’s waist. 

“I love a happy ending.” Aro sighed. “They are so rare. But I want the whole story; how did this happen? Alice?” He turned to gaze at Alice with curious, wine-red eyes. “Your brother seemed to think you infallible, but apparently there was some mistake.”

“Oh, I’m far from infallible.” She flashed a dazzling smile. Alice looked perfectly at ease, except that her hands were balled into tight little fists at her side. “As you can see today, I cause problems as often as I cure them.”

“You’re too modest,” Aro chided. “I’ve seen some of your more amazing exploits, and I must admit that I’ve never observed anything like your talent. Wonderful!”

Alice flickered a glance at Edward. Aro did not miss it. 

“I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced properly at all, have we? It’s just that I feel like I know you already, and I have a tendency to get ahead of myself. Your brother introduced us yesterday, in a peculiar way. You see, I share some of your brother’s talent, only I am limited in a way that he is not.” Aro shook his head; his tone betrayed envy. 

“And also exponentially more powerful,” Edward added dryly. 

He looked at Alice as he quickly explained. “Aro needs physical contact to hear your thoughts, but he hears much more than I do. You know that I can only hear what’s passing through your head in the moment? Well, Aro can hear every thought that your mind has ever had.”

Alice raised her delicate eyebrows, and Edward inclined his head.

Aro didn’t miss that either.

“But to be able to hear from a distance…” Aro sighed, gesturing toward the two of them, and the exchange that had just taken place. “That would be so convenient.”

Seeming to remember that he had an audience, Aro turned. “Marcus, Caius, look!” He crooned. “Isabella is alive after all, and Alice in here with her! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Both looked similar to Aro, the one on the left (the one Bella knew to be Marcus) even had the same long, dark hair - though his was more like Demetri’s as it curled in loose waves around his shoulders. His crest hung at his chest atop, what looked to be, an 18th-century dress shirt. The other (assumedly Caius) directly contrasted; snow-white hair sat an inch above his shoulders.  They shared the same pallor, giving the illusion of likeness, but upon looking closer, Bella could see that there were many differences between the three vampire Kings. 

Even all three of their Volturi insignias were different; the inset gemstones were different, even from their Guard. Bella noticed that Aro’s was black, onyx or obsidian, while the other dark-haired vampire had an orange stone, probably citrine or topaz. The third King had a diamond - the girl thought that he must enjoy the ‘lightened’ aesthetic. 

But neither of the two Kings looked as if wonderful would be among their first choice of words. The brunet vampire seemed utterly bored, as if he’d seen too many millennia of Aro’s enthusiasm - which he probably had. The other’s demeanour was sour, closed-off, and perhaps even a little pretentious beneath the snowy hair. Their lack of interest did not curb Aro’s enjoyment. 

“It’s just so difficult to understand, even now,” Aro mused, staring at Edward’s arm wrapped around Bella. It was hard for her to follow Aro’s chaotic train of thought, and thus she struggled to keep up. “How can you stand to be so close to her like that?” He asked, still not having met Bella’s gaze. 

“It’s not without effort,” Edward answered calmly. 

“But still - la tua cantante! What a waste!”

Edward chuckled once without humour. “I look at it more as a price.”

Aro was sceptical. “A very high price,” he said, quirking an eyebrow. 

“Opportunity cost.”

The vampire King laughed. “If I hadn’t smelled her through your memories, I wouldn’t have believed the call of anyone’s blood could be so strong. I’ve never felt anything like it myself. Most of us would trade much for such a gift, and yet you…”

“Waste it,” Edward finished, his voice sarcastic now. 

“Your memories of him are quite a gift for me, though they astonish me exceedingly. I am surprised by how it… pleases me, Carlisle’s success in this unorthodox path he’s chosen. I expected that he would waste, weaken with time. I’d scoffed at his plan to find others who would share his peculiar vision. Yet, somehow, I’m happy to be wrong.”

Edward didn’t reply. 

“But your restraint!” Aro sighed. “I did not know such strength was possible. To inure yourself against such a siren call, not just once but again and again— if I had not felt it myself, I would not have believed.”

Edward gazed back at Aro’s admiration with no expression. Bella knew his face well enough - time had not changed that - to guess that something was seething beneath the surface. She fought to keep her breathing even. 

“Just remembering how she appeals to you…” Aro chuckled. “It makes me a little… thirsty.”
Edward tensed.

“Don’t be disturbed,” Aro reassured him. “I mean her no harm. I simply think it to be interesting that you misconstrue your singer for a mate. ”

Bella looked at Edward, confused by Aro’s comment. La tua cantante? Singer? Mate?

The ancient vampire standing before them must have registered her confusion at the statement while she stared at the floor.

“You aren’t aware, Isabella?” 

She looked further down at her shoes, embarrassed that she was in the presence of vampiric Kings and yet she didn’t understand what was being said, even after spending a year in the embrace of the Olympic coven. 

“La tua cantante, a vampire’s singer , is someone who’s blood calls to us, begging us to spill it from the confines of the body it is created and housed in. Usually, we only come across one singer every few hundred years, though, Edward has been lucky enough to meet his before his hundred-and-fiftieth birthday. And yet, he quenches his thirst, because he believes that you are his mate, a being created from the same essence as themselves; a perfect fit for each other. He believes that his inability to read your mind is a sign that you are meant for him.” He paused, and Bella lifted her eyes as Aro stared Edward in the eye. “And yet, for a singer to be an intended mate ? That is simply not how Fate operates. The singer is food, they are simply a means to an end. Our mate is something that we will cherish forever , not merely for the seconds that we drain them, or in your case, the months that you have suffered through to not drain her.” Aro was almost growling now, his tone dark and threatening. 

Vampires have soulmates . 

If Edward was so sure that Bella was his, why would he not turn her? He knew how much she wanted - how much she wants, needs - to become one of them. 

“But I am so curious, about one thing in particular.”

Edward’s jaw clenched and he moved his gaze to the wall and away from Aro. 

“Do you think that she will have the same blockage to my gift as well?” He asked. 

Edward looked almost pained, taking his time to consider his answer before Aro cut off his voice in his throat before he could speak. 

“If she does, I discredit your assumption,” he says, referring to Bella. “If she does, you will know that she is not intended for you. Your hope will have been misled.”

“I am aware. Ask her yourself.” Edward barks out from between clenched teeth. 

Aro turns to Bella as she meets his eye.

Chapter Text

When Bella thought of soulmates, she envisioned two halves to a whole circle. Two beings that had been created to complement each other in a perfect harmony. 

So when she felt something deep in her soul shift, it confused her. 

It wasn’t how the media depicted soulmates, that’s for sure. 

There was no immediate need to run into his arms and kiss passionately in front of anyone who was present in the room. There was no rush of intense longing, nor was there a hidden feeling of love or affection that bubbled to the surface. 

There was only a shift. 

Some minuscule piece of Bella’s soul had slotted itself into Fate’s jigsaw puzzle as the world slowed down for a few seconds. 

By the furrowing of his brows, Bella knew he felt it too. 

The ancient vampire King standing in front of her, eyes locked on hers, seemed just as confused as she was. 

Somewhere in her periphery, Bella registered Edward being restrained by Felix. He thrashed around in the larger vampire’s restrictive embrace but couldn’t break free from his arms. The veins in his neck protruded and his jaw was clenched so hard that she might have been worried that he would break his teeth. 

Marcus shifted in his throne, suddenly interested in the scene laid out before him. He no longer exuded apathy, and instead sat straighter with rapt attention. 

Caius eyed Aro, breaking his angry and pretentious body language to show the same interest as his brother. 

Aro and Bella hadn’t broken eye contact. 

“ Magnifico ,” he breathed out, barely audible. 

Somewhere to her left, Edward had been forced to his knees, Felix holding him down by the shoulders as Demetri materialised in front of him, hands gripping around Edward’s temples. 

If Bella had looked at Alice, she would’ve seen a small, knowing smile grace her pixie-like features. 

Marcus moved to stand beside Aro, causing him to look away from Bella and to his fellow King. She monitored Marcus’ movement as he pressed his hand into Aro’s. A calm sense of understanding ghosted over his face as he searched Marcus’ memory for what he wished to tell him. 

Bella wondered what Marcus’ gift was that he felt it so important to show Aro what he had discovered right at that moment. She wondered if Caius had a gift. 

As soon as Aro dropped Marcus’ hand he looked at her again. 

“Isabella, may I?” He asked, gesturing to the hand that rested in the pocket of her jeans. She lifted it immediately and laid it in his outstretched palm. She trusted him. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her. 

“ Allucinante , I see nothing.” He said as he released her hand and drifted a few feet backwards. “I wonder is she is immune to our other talents… Jane, dear?” 

“No!” Edward snarled the word from his knees between the two Guard vampires. 

Little Jane smiled up happily at Aro. “Yes, Master?”

Edward was truly snarling now, the sound ripping and tearing from him, glaring at Aro with baleful eyes. The room had gone still, everyone watching him with amazed disbelief, as if he were committing some embarrassing social faux pas. Bella saw Demetri grin hopefully and grip Edward’s temples a little harder. Aro glanced at him once, and he relaxed his grip, his grin turning to a sulky expression. Then he spoke to Jane. “I was wondering, my dear one, if Isabella is immune to you. ”

Caius sat stock-straight in his throne, eyes pursed and focussed on Bella. 

Jane turned to the girl with a smile that she could only describe as sadistic, then she too narrowed her eyes, focussed on Bella. After a second or two, her jaw clenched slightly, and she squinted marginally harder. 

The room watched for a reaction. 

Bella didn’t move. Not so much as a cringe escaped her body. 

She looked to Aro, tilting her head slightly in question. 

“ Meravigliosa , she confounds us all.” He said, clapping his hands together. 

Edward was squirming in Felix and Demetri’s grip.

“Let us show Isabella your power, Jane.”

Jane reacted immediately, focussing her gaze entirely on Edward and away from Bella. The two Guard vampires had moved away, careful to not get into Jane’s line of sight, and suddenly she understood the reaction to the little vampire in the alleyway. 

No one was touching him, and yet he was writhing on the stone floor in agony while Bella and Alice watched in horror. 

Jane was smiling.

“Please, stop.” Bella asked, her voice taking on a slightly pleading tone. 

“Jane,” Aro recalled in a soft voice, raising his arms and putting both palms towards the little blonde vampire, signalling her to cease. 

“Master.” She moved her eyes back to Aro - sans intense stare - awaiting another command. Edward stopped writhing and both Felix and Demetri moved back to their former positions in front and behind the vampire. 

Aro inclined his head towards Bella. 

“Now you know what you missed out on. Being on the receiving end of Jane’s gift is quite excruciating, and young Edward here was very brave to endure such torture in silence. I asked her to do it to me once - just out of curiosity,” he chortled, shaking his head. 

“So what do we do with you now?” Aro sighed. 

Edward and Alice stiffened. This was the part that they had been waiting for. 

Bella began to tremble. 

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance that you’ve changed your mind?” Aro asked Edward - who was still on his knees between the two Guard vampires - hopefully. “Your talent would be an excellent addition to our little company.”

Edward hesitated. From the corner of her eye, Bella could see both Felix and Jane grimace. 

Edward seemed to weigh each word before he spoke it. “I’d… rather… not.”

“Alice?” Aro asked, still hopeful. “Would you perhaps be interested in joining with us?”

“No, thank you,” Alice said.

“And you, Isabella?” Aro raised his eyebrows. 

Edward hissed, low in her ears. Bella stared at Aro blankly. Was he joking?

He felt the shift too, she knew it. Marcus knew something of it also, and Alice was glancing at her hopefully. 

Bella had wanted Alice’s gift of foresight earlier, but now she found herself wishing for either Edward’s or Aro’s. 

Was he really prepared to let her go? He had said only minutes before that a mate was to be ‘cherished forever’, and he was going to give her the choice to join his coven instead of forcing her to?

It was the white-haired Caius who broke the silence. 

“What?” he demanded of Aro; his voice, though no more than a whisper, was flat. 

“Caius, surely you see the potential,” Aro chided him affectionately. “I haven’t seen a prospective talent so promising since we found Jane and Alec. Can you imagine the possibilities when she is one of us?”

Was he actively choosing not to tell Caius why he wanted her to stay with the Volturi? Did Caius have some kind of bias against Bella because of Edward? Because of Carlisle, perhaps? Was Caius averse to turning humans like Edward was?

Caius looked away with a caustic expression. Jane looked put out, eyes sparking with indignation at Aro’s comparison. 

Edward fumed beside Bella. She could hear a rumble in his chest, building towards a growl. She couldn’t let his temper get him hurt. 

“No, thank you,” Bella replied in barely more than a whisper, her voice breaking in fright. She didn’t want to say that. She wanted to live among the vampires, as one of them. Aro would turn her. He had quite literally just offered to, without her request. 

Aro sighed, and Bella didn’t miss the hurt look that crossed his eyes for less than a second. “That’s unfortunate. Such a waste.”

Alice looked at Bella in confusion. 

Edward hissed. “Join or die, is that it? I suspected as much when we were brought to this room. So much for your laws.” The tone of his voice surprised Bella. He sounded irate, but there was something deliberate about his delivery - as if he’d chosen his words with great care. 

“Of course not.” Aro blinked, astonished. “We were already convened here, Edward, awaiting Heidi’s return. Not for you.”

“Aro,” Caius hissed. “The law claims them.”

Edward glanced at Caius. “How so?” he demanded. He must have known what Caius was thinking, but he seemed determined to make him speak it aloud. 

Caius pointed a pale finger at Bella. “She knows too much. You have exposed our secrets.” His voice was strong and booming, carrying the weight of allegation. 

“There are a few humans in on your charade here, as well,” Edward reminded him, and Bella thought of the pretty receptionist. Caius’ face twisted into a new expression. Was it supposed to be a smile?

“Yes,” he agreed. “But when they are no longer useful to us, they will serve to sustain us. That is not your plan for this one. If she betrays our secrets, are you prepared to destroy her? I think not,” he scoffed. 

Bella looked at Aro. “I wouldn’t–,” she began, still whispering. Caius silenced her with an icy look. 

“Nor do you intend to make her one of us,” Caius continued. “Therefore, she is a vulnerability. Though it is true, for this, only her life is forfeit. You may leave if you wish.”

Edward bared his teeth.

“That’s what I thought,” Caius said, with something akin to pleasure in his tone.

Felix leaned forward, eager. 

“Unless…” Aro interrupted. He looked unhappy with the way the conversation had gone. He eyed Bella. “Unless you do intend to give her immortality?”

Edward pursed his lips, hesitating for a moment before he answered. “And if I do?”

Aro smiled, happy again. “Why, then you would be free to go home and give my regards to my friend, Carlisle.” His expression turned more hesitant. “But I’m afraid you would have to mean it.”

Aro raised his hand in front of him. 

Caius, who had begun to scowl furiously again, relaxed. 

Marcus looked at his brother, confused. 

Edward’s lips tightened into a fierce line. He stared into Bella’s eyes, and she stared back. 

“Mean it,” she whispered. “Please.”

Was it really such a loathsome idea? Would he really rather die than change her? Bella felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach. 

Edward stared up at her with a tortured expression. 

And then Alice stepped away from them, forward toward Aro. Edward and Bella turned to watch her. Her hand was raised like his. 

She didn’t say anything, and Aro waved off the anxious female Guard who had originally stepped forward with him as she moved to block Alice’s approach. Aro met her halfway and took her hand with an eager, acquisitive glint in his eyes. He knew that he would see Bella, as a vampire, most likely at his side. Bella didn’t need to have his gift to know that. 

He bent his head over their touching hands, his eyes closed as he concentrated. Alice was motionless, her face blank. Bella heard Edward’s teeth snap together. 

No one moved. Aro seemed frozen over Alice’s hand. The seconds passed and Bella grew more and more stressed, wondering how much time would pass before it was too much time. Before it meant something was wrong - more wrong than it already was. She couldn’t believe that Edward would rather die than turn her. But then, she knew that he knew that they weren’t what he had thought they were - they weren’t destined for each other as he had hoped. 

And Bella was grateful for that. If he had left her, unprotected (save for the wolf pack), while he thought they were mates, how much did he really care about her?

Another agonising moment passed, and then Aro’s voice broke the silence. 

“Ha, ha, ha,” he laughed, his head still bent forward. He looked up slowly, his eyes bright with excitement. “That was fascinating !”

Alice smiled dryly. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“To see the things you’ve seen - especially the ones that haven’t happened yet!” He shook his head in wonder. 

“But that will,” she reminded him, voice calm.

“Yes, yes, it’s quite determined. Certainly, there’s no problem.”

Caius looked bitterly disappointed- a feeling he seemed to share with Felix and Jane. 

“Aro,” Caius complained.

“Dear Caius,” Aro smiled. “Do not fret! Think of the possibilities! They do not join us today, but we can always hope for the future. Imagine the joy young Alice alone would bring to our little household… Besides, I’m so terribly curious to see how Isabella turns out!”

Aro seemed convinced. But, that was most likely because he knew that if Alice or Edward wouldn’t turn Bella, he would - or, at the very least, would have someone turn her so that she could join them.

Would it make any difference if Bella was turned by Aro or another member of the Guard, when the idea was so repulsive to Edward in general? If death was, to him, a better alternative than having her around forever, an immortal annoyance?

Bella wasn’t afraid, to her credit. The other vampires in the large stone room should have incited immense fear in her very human self. She was in a confined space with around ten blood-drinking vampires, and yet Bella found courage in knowing that Aro - and possibly Marcus - wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her. She knew that those who had gifts couldn’t use them on her, and everyone else would be at the mercy of the Volturi Kings’ rule, and two of those three Kings would keep her safe. 

“Then we are free to go now?” Edward asked in an even voice. 

“Yes, yes,” Aro said pleasantly. “But please visit again. It’s been absolutely enthralling!”

“And we will visit you as well,” Caius promised, his eyes suddenly half-closed like the heavy-lidded gaze of a lizard. “To be sure that you follow through on your side. Were I you, I would not delay too long. We do not offer second chances.”

Edward’s jaw clenched tight, but he nodded once. He was released from Felix and Demetri’s grasp before he sidled over to Bella and replaced a protective arm around her waist. 

Aro took a calming breath. 

Was he possessive of her already?

Bella wiggled out from Edward’s arm as he and Alice turned to exit the room. 

“I will be turned, and it will be here, and I will join you,” Bella stated, glancing around the room in an attempt to meet everyone’s eyes. Her gaze rested on Aro. “I will join you.”

The weight of the human girl’s words seemed to carry. 

Marcus looked pleased, the edges of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. He nodded at her, maintaining eye contact when her line of sight met his. 

Edward seemed hurt, betrayed by Bella’s proclamation to become one of the Volturi coven. Perhaps he should have thought about turning her sooner, or had the forethought not to leave, and avoid this entire event.

In an emotion akin to Marcus’, Alice seemed delighted at Bella’s declaration, though she smiled fully, the action even making it to her eyes. 

And Aro. The brunet Volturi King looked hopeful, as if he didn’t quite believe Bella’s announcement to be true, despite most likely seeing it just seconds before in Alice’s vision. He stepped forwards to stand in front of her, reaching a marble hand out to stroke along the curve of Bella’s cheek. He slipped something into the front pocket of her pants. 

Felix groaned. 

“Ah, Felix.” Aro smiled, amused. “Heidi will be here at any moment. Patience.”

“Hmm.” Edward’s voice had a new edge to it. “In that case, perhaps we’d better leave sooner rather than later.”

“Yes,” Aro agreed, stepping away from Bella. “That’s a good idea. Accidents do happen. And we wouldn’t want our dear Isabella to be caught in the middle.”

Alice moved until she was next to the human girl, taking Bella’s left hand in her right. “She will be taken care of,” she said with finality, directing a smile at Aro. 

“Be sure of it.”

“What the hell was that, Alice?” 

“What?” She asked her adoptive brother, innocently. 

“You knew, didn’t you? You knew my Bella was Aro’s mate and not mine .”

“I knew no such thing. I knew that she wasn’t your mate, because even though she wasn’t a vampire, you would have felt it if she had jumped off that cliff and died. You would have known if she was dead.” Alice explained, a slight edge to her words. 

“Excuse me? You ‘knew’ ” Bella air-quoted, “that I was ‘ yours ’? I am my own fucking person, Edward. You do not get to dictate who I belong to. Especially not after your little escapade to fucking Rio to get away from me! What the hell is wrong with you? Maybe I should’ve let you step into the fucking sunlight and expose yourself, dick .”

Alice ran a soothing hand up and down Bella’s arm and pulled her slightly further away from Edward. 

“Perhaps you should have, better me be dead than you being Aro’s mate .” Edward spat.

“Bella is Aro’s mate whether she let you expose yourself or not,” Alice countered. 

“But neither would have known. Bella would have died of old age before they met. I thought I ensured that when I left - that she wouldn’t encounter any more danger from our kind.”

“Oh yeah,” Bella said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue, “that’s why Laurent came after me, is it? Because with you gone I wouldn’t be in any more danger?”

Edward soured, his fists and jaw clenched. 

“If the wolves hadn’t been watching me, I would be dead right now, you self-centred bastard.”

Alice lifted a finger and opened her mouth before speaking. “I was just out of the town line. I saw Laurent’s decision to leave Irina and go find you. But, I also saw the wolves’ decision to watch you as well as track him through the area. I knew that you would be safe, Bella.” She said, speaking fully to her human companion. 

“And if you weren’t, I was going to kill Laurent, and then turn you myself.”

Edward scoffed. “Of course you were watching her.” He paused, both in sentence and in step.  “But how did you see around the wolf pack? They’ve always been a notorious blind spot for you, even since we moved to Forks the very first time.”

“I spent some time with Seth Clearwater and Paul Lahote.” She explained, “I informed them of the situation with Victoria, Laurent, and James. I told them that it was highly likely that either Victoria or Laurent would come back and attempt to kill Bella and to spread their watch accordingly. They listened to me.”

“So you weren’t lying on the plane? You really would turn me? You’ve considered it?”

“That’s what I told you.” Alice said, “But you don’t have to worry about me turning you now.” She smirked.

Bella felt the blood rush into her cheeks as she slipped her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, which were still damp to the knees. Her fingers brushed the edge of something hard, papery.

A business card?

Aro Volturi

Volturi Castle, Fortezza Volturi

Printed in fine, gold numbers on the reverse side were both an email and a phone number.

“Aro, might I ask what crossed your mind to allow Jane use of her power on Isabella?” Marcus asked as soon as the Cullen vampires were out of earshot.

“I knew my mate would not be hurt,” Aro answered simply.

Caius stood from his throne. “I’m sorry, brother, did I just now hear you correctly? Your mate ?”

“Yes, Caius, catch up, please.”

“You’re telling me that you allowed your mate to be hurt at your command?”

Aro rolled his eyes. “She wasn’t hurt. You did just watch her walk out of this room, did you not?” He questioned, lifting a dark eyebrow.

Caius looked quizically at his fellow King, and then to Marcus. 

He couldn’t believe that they had just let Aro’s own mate leave the castle at all, let alone with the pair of Cullen ‘children’. Insolent little Edward, who had only been begging for them to take his life less than a full rotation of the sun ago, and the seer, Alice, who knew far too much for her own good - though, Caius thought, she would be an incredible defensive weapon to the Volturi. To see things before they had happened, what a gift .

“Brother, I feel the connection. She is safe with the Cullens, safer with them - for now - than she is with us. She has a sibling bond with Alice, and at the very least, she will keep her safe. Marcus has shown me that the romantic bond my little mate formerly had with Edward is dissolving; he has fallen out of favour with her by seeking us out to end his existence, though the bond was strained even before that.”

“Aro, are you delusional? Fortezza Volturi is the safest place for the mate of a King in the entirety of the globe. What if the Romanian Coven hears word of a King’s mate, undefended? How can you be away from her, not knowing if she is safe until you feel the snap of the bond when she is murdered? How can you not wish to have her by your side even as we speak?”

Aro was, in fact, not delusional. Despite setting Jane loose on his very human mate, Aro was well aware of the possibility that Isabella may be hurt or killed while not at his side. There was a dull ache in his chest already, and she had only been out of eyesight for minutes. How he wished she was near to him. He wished to emulate the Earth, revolving around his Sun. 

“Volturi Castle may be the safest place from threats from outside the walls, but, Caius, you forget that, should we lose Corin or Chelsea, much of the Guard would waver in loyalty. It is far safer for Isabella to be surrounded and protected by the Cullens. Carlisle’s family is loyal by choice, far more naturally loyal than our company - aside from Edward and Rosalie, it seems, though Rosalie would not become an insurgent, for her mate has incredible bonds with the Cullens. But nevertheless, five vampires at the very least will defend my Isabella to the best of their ability - five vampires that fly almost entirely under the radar to unfriendly covens due to their lifestyle choice. Alice can monitor their opposition, should any arise, through her gift, and her mate, the Major ,” Caius’ eyes snapped to Aro’s, “is an expert in tactical warfare. Emmett is much like our Felix, stronger than a regular vampire, but has fixed loyalty to Isabella through a sibling bond much like Alice. Il mio compagno will be well protected, brother.”

“The Major is the seer’s mate?” Caius’ crimson eyes sparkled. “And what of her? What did she show you?”

Marcus’ lips quirked a fraction into a knowing smile, finding Caius’ sudden interest in The Major rather humourous. 

“Is there an echo in here? Yes, Caius. The Major. You did, in fact, hear me properly. Your enhanced hearing surely isn’t failing you after three thousand years, is it?” Aro snickered, “Dear Alice showed me their conflict with the woman that fled the German coven from who we procured Heidi. Her name is Victoria, and her gift presents as evasion and self-preservation.”

“The fiery redhead that Afton found, correct?” Caius inquired. 

Aro nodded once. “Afton was only able to find her because of his gift. If he had any other variation of psychic invisibility, like Isabella’s mental shield or Renata’s physical shield, we never would have found her in the first place. Victoria must be eliminated. And while I place an immense amount of trust and faith in our friend, Carlisle, and his family, and despite the shifters also working in Isabella’s defence, I believe that we should dispatch Afton to work in tandem with The Major and the seer to ensure my dear mate’s safety.”

“Anything for your mate, brother. She is almost as important to us as she is to you.” Marcus spoke.

Aro looked towards the doors that the trio had just exited from. 

“Alice has prophesied Bella at my side, and I intend to make that prophesy a reality.”

Chapter Text

As Alice was booking their return flights, Bella found that she didn’t really want to leave Italy. 

She’d spent the rest of that afternoon exploring Volterra under Alice’s watchful gaze. Edward seemed to have lost almost all interest in the girl, though she had felt his glare on her skin a few times throughout the day as if it were sunburn. 

Spending some time nearer to the outer walls of the city meant that the two Cullen vampires accompanying Bella were able to stay close to her - even if Edward looked at the girl as though she were tainted goods. She could look around a few of the more interesting shops in these areas because Alice could come inside with her rather than stand outside with Edward, who was giving his adoptive sister her fair share of contemptuous looks also. 

There had been a couple of bookstores - Alice bought her an Italian edition of Wuthering Heights in the last shop when Bella had picked it up in the same loving manner as she picked up her own copy - and a gift shop full of novelty Italian, and more specifically, Volterra and Saint Marcus Day items which had mostly cleaned out from the day’s festival. Alice had forced her inside a clothing shop also (unsurprisingly), where she’d instructed the girl to pick out a change of clothes for before they would board the plane home. That was when Bella had realised that she’d been wearing the same t-shirt and jeans for a little over two days. 

When she had satisfied her investigative appetite, Alice led Bella and Edward back to where she had left the car after the human girl had bolted to save the ungrateful Edward. The yellow Porsche sat tucked away between two buildings in an alleyway, the silver TURBO script catching the waning sunlight in the same way that the gold script on Aro’s business card did. 

“So, you’re definitely buying me one of these when we get home,” Alice said, a joking tone to her voice despite knowing that she was being completely serious and probably just trying to ease some of the tension between the party of three. Bella also noted that she meant Forks when she referred to ‘home’ by the pointed gaze that she fixed on the other vampire. 

“I’m not going home,” Edward pouted. Bella and Alice exchanged a look. 

“Oh, buddy, you couldn’t be more wrong,” the girl challenged, enunciating her words in such a way that forced a smile. 

There was absolutely no way that Bella was going to let Edward throw away his life with the Cullens solely because she was Aro’s mate. They were a family and yet he hated her so much that he was going to fly solo because Fate led Bella to the one she was actually destined for? Not a chance. 

Alice had backed the car out of the small space far enough to let the two others get into it before driving off into the Tuscan sunset. Edward didn’t refute Bella’s challenge. 

At exactly 7:46pm - after Bella and Alice had changed their clothes and the human grabbed something to eat on the way through the airport - they boarded their flight back to Seattle. Edward had, of course, sat in stony silence throughout the entire flight, while Alice had been talking animatedly about everything that the Cullens had been doing since leaving Bella in Forks. 

“Emmett and Rosalie are currently enrolled in a college in Michigan - they didn’t really want to sit through another two years of highschool and Rose wanted to take an automotive mechanics class while Emmett decided to try engineering,” she explained lovingly, “Carlisle is a professor at the same college, he’s teaching bio-med while Esme has gotten into baking! She loves going over every recipe she can find and memorising it and from all of the online reviews - she’s running one of those Facebook pages to sell everything she bakes because obviously none of us are going to eat what she cooks but apparently she’s actually really good at it and -”

“Alice, will you shut. Up. ” Edward groaned from her other side.

Bella had only been half-listening to the brunette, but now she had her full attention. 

“No, no, keep going, Alice.”

“Okay, well, Jazz and I went back to school because we’re working more on his control and schools are really good for it even if it increases the chance of a slip up? But he’s doing so well, and I think he’s started thinking of everyone as different versions of you? Like, he doesn’t want to drain anyone because it reminds him of how unhinged he became on your birthday - even though he’s not completely to blame for that, even Esme and I had to leave the room so we can’t pin the blame on him as much as Edward really wants to,” she paused for a second before continuing, “we really missed you, Bella.”

She knew that the vampire wasn’t lying. Between the earnestness of her voice and the knowledge of the relationships that Bella had with each of the Cullens, she knew that Alice was serious. 

“None of us wanted to leave you, especially not completely defenceless . So we took shifts. It was usually me, watching over you through both my visions and sometimes even by coming back to Forks. I spent a few weeks at a time in our house, sure that if something happened I wouldn’t be far away even though I knew the Pack was keeping an eye on you. Emmett came back a few times, so did Jazz and Esme-”

Edward let out a low growl. “You let Jasper go back to Forks alone ?”

“Yes, Edward. You don’t know how bad he felt about leaving her behind, and it was worse after you left us too, because he thought you couldn’t stand being around him because of what he tried to do. He changed, he gained more control of himself in the month after Bella’s birthday than he had in the two years before it. He asked us to test him, even. Carlisle nicked a few bags of blood from the med lab at the college and we set up tests for him. He passed with flying colours every single time . And you weren’t there to see it.” Alice took a steadying - but ultimately unnecessary - breath. 

She turned back to Bella and continued, “Carlisle didn’t leave Michigan but he asked me about you every single day, giving the excuse that he couldn’t ask for time off from a very new job, but I think that, really, he didn’t think he could face you. Rose came to the house once. I think she knew how unfair it was to leave you behind for something that you didn’t even do, and even if the two of you have a particularly strained friendship at the best of times, she said that it wasn’t right to leave a member of the family in danger.”

The weight of Alice’s words hit Bella in the face as though she’d walked into a brick wall. 

Rosalie thought she was a member of the family.

Alice kept talking as Bella considered the fact. 

“We didn’t make permanent plans to stay in Michigan - at least, not the same plans we usually make to stay in certain places. We only planned for two years, not the usual six. That’s why Carlisle decided to be a professor and not a regular doctor and why Esme started baking. Even by the time we got to Michigan we knew that we couldn’t leave you permanently, especially if Edward,” she glared at the vampire in question, “didn’t come home to us.”

The vampire in question scoffed. “And now you get to go home to Forks with your little pet , Alice. You should be positively elated that you don’t have to deal with my ‘ depressive bullshit ’ anymore,” he quoted, obviously straight from her thoughts. 

“I am no one’s fucking pet , Edward,” Bella said, gritting her teeth.

“And yet you’re Aro’s mate,” he spat, “I can’t think of a better definition for a vampire’s pet .”

They had landed in Seattle the next day. Alice and Edward had been bickering between themselves when Bella taken a particularly long blink and fallen asleep. All she remembered dreaming of was red eyes. 

Charlie hadn’t been happy - actually, that was a severe understatement. 

Bella knew as soon as she’d finished writing the brief explanation that she would be back in a few days that it wouldn’t be nearly enough, and that when she got home she would have to explain herself.

He wasn’t as mad as Bella expected him to be, but she chalked that up to their limited relationship. 

She had walked through the front door at 7:31pm. Charlie was in the living room, a pizza box in his lap, with even more dishevelled hair than usual and darker undereye bags than she’d ever seen on the man. 

He’d stood as soon as he saw her, the box falling off his thighs and onto the floor.

“Bella? Where the hell have you been? I’ve been so worried about you!”

Charlie wasn’t a hugger, and yet two arms secured around her as Bella buried her face into his jacket. 

She took a deep breath in, remembering the story she’d come up with in the car from the airport that was as close to the truth as she could get. Bella pulled back from the hug and sat down at the dining room table. 

“Alice called me. She told me that Edward was going to hurt himself and she couldn’t stop him alone - she thought that I might be able to talk him out of it or calm him down or something so he wouldn’t do anything rash. Turns out, he wasn’t living with them at the time. They’d moved to Michigan for Carlisle to teach at a college while Edward had moved out and was renting a place in New Mexico. Alice was back in Forks for the week to get some of the leftover things the Cullens hadn’t taken with them, but she got a call from Rosalie about what Edward was threatening to do and came straight to get me when I said I’d help.”

Charlie shook his head exasperatedly, wiping his mouth with his left hand.

“So you’re back with him then?” He asked.

“No, I’m not.” Charlie looked relieved, “And I won’t be again. He’s too much for me, emotionally.”

“I always thought there was something off about that kid, and depression adds up.” He thought for a second, “So the Cullens are in Michigan?”

“Yeah, but Alice is going to stay in Forks for a week or two, at least. She’s thinking about moving back here with Jasper.”

The conversation had ended quickly after that, and Bella retreated upstairs to her bedroom. She desperately needed a proper shower - because you really couldn’t count the rinse she had at the airport a proper shower. 

Alice had left the Italian copy of Wuthering Heights on her bed with a stickynote:

You’ll be needing this for Italian practice,

signorina

-- Alice xx

Bella took a long and hot shower, utilising the purple loofa reserved for her to scrub every inch of her body. When she stepped out, freshly washed hair and perfectly smooth legs and underarms met steamy air. The bathroom mirror was fogged up, so she wiped a section with the hand towel so that she could actually look at herself for the first time in a few days. 

The bags under Bella’s eyes would rival Charlie’s, betraying her overall sleep deprivation of both the last months combined with the last few days. Her face looked skinnier somehow, more angular - not in a sickly way, but in a way that hinted she hadn’t eaten a lot. 

She dressed quickly, then returned to her room, hopeful at the idea of a full night’s sleep. The purple cell phone that Charlie had given her after their talk in the dining room sat on her nightstand, beside my newest book. 

Thinking of the business card Aro had discreetly slipped her, Bella grabbed the pair of jeans she was wearing and fumbled around in the pockets for the little white and gold card. 

Bella sat in the same position now, a week later, staring hard at the little piece of cardboard that had begun to peel at the corners from her constant handling. She turned it over in her hands, reading and rereading the pretty gold script that glinted in the light. 

She still hadn’t made contact with its owner. 

On her bedside table, her cell began to vibrate.

“Hel--”

“Just do it, Bella.” Alice interrupted before she could even finish her greeting. “He wants to hear from you and you want to talk to him.” 

“But--”

“He won’t make the first move because he doesn’t want to push himself on you. He thinks that his position and Edward’s personal thoughts on him and the Volturi have made him too intimidating for you and that’s why he won’t initiate any kind of conversation first.”

The edges of Bella’s mouth quirked upwards into a small smile. “That’s so… considerate of him…”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just call him or email him or something, either way, it works out well, I promise.” She assured, hanging up.

Email. She would email him. 

Scrambling off the bed, Bella reached for the laptop on her desk before settling back into a sitting position against the headboard.

[email protected] to [email protected]

Dear Aro Volturi,

Alice has it in good faith that this email will be received well and I trust her so… hi I guess? Obviously I got your email from the business card you slipped me last week… Very clever, by the way. 

How’re things in Volterra? Are you cracking open some boys with the cold ones?

Regards,

Bella Swan

Hitting ‘send’ on the email before she had a chance to second guess herself, Bella slammed her laptop shut and buried her head in her pillow. 

She waited a couple of minutes before tentatively opening her laptop again. 

And, promptly, a PING sounded through the speakers.