Black..

Everything was black and she was in a void. She could feel the cold stone of the floor beneath her trembling body but her mind could make no such connections to the physical world. Her screams were the lightning to her thundering heart and sweat dripped from her pores like rainfalls from hell. And yet, she knew nothing.

Bella Swan's brain was on fire. The embers of her pain had seeped into her bloodstream devouring every aspect of humanity they could find. She was in the middle of The Change. She knew nothing of how she'd ended up here nor that the agony would soon end. She could only scream as lava coursed through her, melting her into a void of nonexistence.

She knew nothing of the three women who stood watch over her squirming body, their dignified composure slipping with each paralyzing scream that ripped from Bella's throat. She knew nothing of the venom that slid through her veins like a predator after its prey, slinking along slowly like it was trudging through molasses.

The women knew.

The women knew that Bella would awaken soon. They knew that she would awaken transformed into the predator that trudged through her. She would become the venom that she screamed so sorrowfully from. Her basic senses would enhance tenfold and her strength and ability immeasurably more. Her desires would no longer consist of a good book and comfortable companionship but would now only include blood and sex.

The women knew and they waited anxiously for the venom to finish its ungodly task.

Bella had lain still now for a day. Her body had not stirred and her cries had ceased nearly a day ago. The three women still remained with her. They wore black velvet robes which hung fitted against their pale bodies. Each bore similar features to one another; deep red eyes and matching clothes emblazoned with a golden insignia.

They stood in a crypt-like room. Bella lay naked on a stone slab, a blood red sheet covering her body leaving only her face visible to the queens. The high ceilings of the room had caused Bella's screams to echo like calls in a cavern. The walls around them were cracking and fragile, made with crumbling granite, and the room was light by soft torches which danced across Bella's sunken face and cast long shadows across the floor and walls

"It's been four days," one of the women said. "She should have awaken by now."

There was a hum of agreement from one of the other women, the smallest of the three with dark hair and a soft face. "Some take more time... though it is strange." Bella had taken to the change magnificently at the start. The first two days of the change had gone smoothly at least from an outsider's perspective. Of course there had been the typical screaming and pain for Bella but it had all gone normal, faster than normal actually and then at the start of the third day, she had stalled. Physically her change looked complete. Her heart had given its last weak beat at the end of the second day and she should have woken several hours later. It was now two days later.

"Have you ever heard of a change proceeding so difficultly before?" the platinum blonde woman who had been standing quietly near the door said. "What has hindered it so?"

"I have heard, in rare circumstances, that those whose change begins traumatically can sometimes take longer to awaken." the woman with dirty blonde hair said. "It has only been four days. Changes can last until five days normally."

"Sulpicia, what if she does not awaken?"

"She will Didyme. She has to," she responded. "She's our mate."

"Are you sure?" Didyme said brushing her dark hair over her shoulder and moving closer to Bella to brush the unconscious girl's bangs away from her eyes.

"It is as the little psychic said," the third woman said. "And she has yet to be proven wrong."

"The little Cullen has indeed never been wrong, but there is a first time for everything Athenodora," Sulpicia said.

The three women stood in silence for a time contemplating. Alice had come to them with a vision of a girl. A beautiful brunette with deep, caring brown eyes and a quiet confidence that lay dormant behind years of playing the wallflower. The psychic told them that this human was to become their mate when she was turned. The downside was that Alice couldn't tell them when the human would be turned or how she would be turned as the Cullen family had already left the area where the girl resided.

And then, a week ago, the girl had shown up on their doorstep. She was thin like she hadn't eaten in weeks and her eyes were sunken and dull. Her hair was lackluster and nothing like the vision that Alice had shown Sulpicia. She came to their doorstep and asked to die. While not unheard of, it still came as a surprise to the women to have a human show up on at their castle with complete knowledge of who they are and completely resigned to die.

All hell had broken loose after that. The entire Cullen clan arrived soon after Bella.

"Please, kill me," the girl had whispered. She knelt before the three women in a grand room. At the head of the room was a raised dais with three ornate thrones in which the women sat watching the girl who had bowed her head. They listened as she tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill.

Didyme, whose heart bled for the broken girl, rose from her throne and moved down to kneel with the girl. "Why did you come to us?"

Bella looked up and caught Didyme's eyes and held her gaze, mulling over her next words. "I didn't know where else to go and I couldn't stand the thought of Charlie.. my dad.. finding me..."

"What is your name?" Sulpicia said from behind Didyme. She of course already knew the identity of the girl in front of them. There was no way she could have been mistaken but she needed to be sure.

"Bella."

Athenodora rose from her seat and approached Didyme pausing briefly to look the girl over before circling around her. "You know about us... why do you not ask for immortality?"

Bella looked at Athenodora and watched as the vampire scrutinized her and inhaled her scent deeply. She never answered though. Didyme wondered briefly if that was because she hadn't thought about it or because she'd thought about it entirely too much.

And before Didyme could pursue that line of questioning, a guard entered the throne room. He was a large brawny man with muscles the same size as Bella's head.

"My queens," he said. "You have visitors... They know the girl."

Didyme's eyes widened in shock and before she could ask who, they walked into the room.