Disclaimer: I own nothing apart from the plot.

Transformation

Victoria had come for me.

I swore to myself that I would not be afraid. I did. But I was breaking my promise even as I thought of this bit of fact, for I was visibly quivering in fear and shock at what would happen to me.

For Victoria had come for revenge against... him. For killing her mate, James, she was determined to make him feel identical pain to her.

She came to me in the night, in my bedroom. To say I was shocked was quite the understatement.

"Bella Swan," she hissed from some opaque corner of the dark shadows that dwelled in the corners of my room. "Your Edward will regret his mistake after tonight," She took a step into the pool of light that fell in a circle from the lamp resting on my bedside table.

I flinched at her use of his name. I was terrified, yes, but also irritated. Irritated at her misunderstanding, at at the fact that I would be forced to explain such an emotionally painful thing to another vampire. She might kill me anyways, I thought doubtfully, but at least then I would die without giving her the satisfaction of hurting... him.

I flicked back my bedclothes and turned to look Victoria in the eyes. "Ed-Edward is mine no longer. You waste your time here. You would better seek your revenge directly at the source."

She barely showed any response at all, though I caught her mouth twitching slightly in surprise. "You do not lie?" she said, making it sound like a question. "Such a strong bond... broken. Sad things happen, do they not?"

I eyed her suspiciously. "I suppose."

"But what to do with you then? No longer under the protection of the Olympic Coven. And such a tantalizing scent."

I braced myself for the inevitable. She would drain me. But then at least I would no longer be the bearer of this pain.

Victoria paused, seemingly pondering that option, and then she smiled. "No, I think not. I feel for you, human. Different though we might be, we have both been hurt by the same man. But we shall not be so very different in a time."

So she wished to change me. I was not sure whether I was delighted or terrified. Probably the latter, I reflected.

"This might hurt a little," she whispered, and then she was upon me, her frozen lips pressed to my neck. I shivered. Not from the cold, oh no, for had I not spent enough nights with Ed- him, to be used to that? No, I shivered from the pure terror. I knew that it would be futile to resist.

For one fraction of a second, his lips lingered there below my ear as she savoured my essence, the scent of my blood. I feared that she might lose control. Then her razor-sharp teeth sunk into my pale neck, faster than I could have perceived, and I thought of such trivial concerns no longer. It was like a paper cut, painless for the first few seconds. Except, this was far, far more painful than a paper cut. It was overwhelming. I was so immersed in my nightmare that I scarcely noticed the scene around me. It seemed impossible to me that I was not dead yet. How long could it take a vampire to drain one measly human? All I wished was to be dead, to be gone, to flee from this cruel world.

But my wishes were not granted. I would not, could not get my mind around the immense fire. It slowly unfurled its wings, spreading through out my blood stream. The venom was relentless, I thought with despair, as I realized that with every passing second I grew closer to immortality.

Was this not what you wanted? I chided myself through the pain. But only if... he was with me.

These thoughts were quickly abandoned as I was overcome with a new wave of torture. I could feel my heart, pumping the venom through my body, with a steady beat that overshadowed all else.

Seemingly hours later, I did find that it was not so very impossible to think around the pain. My mind seemed widened and I discovered that there was more room in there than I had thought. I forced the fire to a dark corner of my consciousness.

I was not physically in control of my body. This was proved to me as I distantly observed myself thrashing and tossing. I heard myself scream.

However, it did give me some measure of satisfaction to know that I was in control of my mind.

Not long now, I caught myself thinking. Not long.

And then, my eyes opened. Just like that. I was wholly overwhelmed again at what I saw. I was lying on my back in the centre of our meadow, limbs spread limply out around me. Victoria must have moved me there during my transformation. The clouds drifted by high in the sky above me, and I could almost convince myself that I could see every individual water droplet amongst them. I could see every needle on every tree that framed the clearing, every miniscule speck of yellow pollen on every flower. It awed me.

I was a vampire, at last. Months ago, this would have been a cause for celebration, of an eternity with my soulmate, Ed- him. Now, I quailed in apprehension of my eternal loneliness. For had he not said that he did not want me. He had, and now I was all alone.

By vampire law, he was supposed to have drained me, when he first suspected that I knew his secret. But he did not, and now all of this had happened. I caught myself thinking to myself that I wished he had drained me. Then I would not have been the burden that I was, and everything really would have worked out for the better. I would not have needed to deal with the pain of losing him, my all, my everything. My Greek god. My soul-mate. My Edward. I was dry-sobbing just from thinking about him.

By vampire law... The Volturi! I remembered... Edward telling me about them. Vampire royalty, enforcing the laws of vampire-kind. Or- the singular law of vampire-kind. Secrecy.

He lied to me, telling me that he could not live in a world where I did not exist. He would go to the Volturi, and ask to die, or go to Volterra and annoy them somehow. The Volturi were not a force to be reckoned with.

I liked that, for some reason. I had always thought that the Cullens were so immovable, so invincible, so very vampiric. To think that they were helpless compared to the Volturi pleased me.

Perhaps it was childish of me, but I thought of going to Italy, just to satisfy this urge of mine, this desire to be something stronger than him. He had hurt me enough.

I was decided. I would go to Volterra.

I could not bear to say goodbye to Charlie. This would be painful enough for him without knowing I was alive. He would think I had died, and someday would get over my death.

I pondered going back to say goodbye to Jacob one last time, but decided against it. I held some love in my heart for him, and though I had no wish to harm him, I knew that this was what I must do. I would come back to visit someday, I hoped.