Isabella, a human and vampire hybrid, is a treasured part of the Volturi guard. She is sent out into the human world by Aro to complete her training, despite never truly interacting with humans before. To keep up the pretense she must lie, but lies have a way of catching up to you...especially in the form of Edward Cullen. EdwardxBella
I do not own Twilight…although I would like to be the recipient of a few reviews!
Thanks so much to the PTB betas that helped with my comma issues, and helped make this opening so much better!
Preface
Renée Higgenbotham cradled the towel beside her as she rested from her recent bout of puking. Her grandmother screamed at her through the door in Italian, begging for her to tell her what was wrong. That was the problem. What she thought was wrong couldn't even be a possibility.
"Renée, please open the door for me." The soft voice echoed through the tiny bathroom that Renée had locked herself into. She couldn't let him in, not with the threat of vomit looming over her head.
"Damn it, Charlie. I need you to go away!" She didn't even hear him break the lock as she clutched for the toilet, ridding herself of nothing but bile.
"Shit, Renee, will you just tell me what's wrong? I hate seeing you sick!" His blood red eyes were frantic when she finally stopped to look over at him. She still cringed every time she focused on his vampire eyes, which were so different from the chocolate brown they had once been.
"I'm scared to tell you." For the moment Renée felt her stomach calm, no longer cramping and fighting to rid itself of nothing, and she deemed it safe to stand up from the bathroom floor.
"Why?"
"Because the idea of what I think it could be just seems impossible." She stepped around him to shut the bathroom light off and enter the hall. Her grandmother was in her usual spot in front of the television, glued to the newest object that they were presenting for sale. Though Renée only spoke broken Italian, she had decided on the sudden departure from Forks to her family's homeland, bunking down with her grandmother in Volterra.
"Where are you going?"
"We're going to the roof so that Nana doesn't wonder why there is suddenly a raging vampire in her apartment." She had only learned about vampires her first month in Volterra, accidently coming across Charlie when she had gone out in the middle of the night to get some air.
"Renée, you are seriously freaking me out." He followed her closely out of the apartment and down the hall towards the roof access. "You need to stop and breathe."
"Okay, stay right here." She pointed to the farthest part of the roof that they had entered and shuffled over to the other corner. "I'm staying here. Now just get over there and I promise I'll tell you what's going on."
"Okay." Charlie seemed hesitant but moved to where she had directed him before she could even blink. Thankfully, the nausea was gone, but she was having trouble stifling her fear.
"I think I might be pregnant." Her sentence ended in a nearly inaudible whisper, but Charlie heard it, and he was staring openly at her. Renée felt herself shaking; children had never been a part of her plan, and she had by no means thought that one with Charlie was a possibility.
"Pregnant?" Charlie's voice was clear in the night air. His red eyes were bright even in the darkness, and his mouth was gaping.
"I have no idea how it's even possible, but all the signs are there." Renée couldn't look at him anymore, so she lowered her eyes from his face to the cement floor of the rooftop.
"But we only slept together for the first time two weeks ago." Charlie was no longer standing where she had ordered him to, moving in a flash to stand before her.
"That's why I'm freaking out!" She gripped for the soft sweater she wore and pulled it up over her stomach, revealing a rather prominent bulge. "It's already showing."
"Our baby…" Charlie murmured low enough that she could barely hear him, but she felt his freezing fingers tentatively touch the firm bump in her abdomen. "Maybe it's not impossible."
"What are you talking about?"
"What if we can make it work? A baby is something I never let myself believe in, but it's here." He pressed his whole hand over the bump, his red eyes meeting Renée's frantic blue ones. "I'll leave the Volturi behind, and we can head back to Forks, for all I care! But I'll have you and maybe even a little carbon copy with your looks and my…well, my-"
"It can have your brown eyes," Renée cut him off, getting lost in thoughts of a small pale baby with Charlie's former chocolate brown eyes.
"We can make it work," Charlie reiterated, hope present in his bright eyes.
"It won't be easy, though! It's not going to be completely human, like any other baby, and how exactly do I explain coming home to Forks after only a few months with a baby belly?" She cringed at the thought of her stomach expanding, and though it was already showing, it would get so much bigger and worse.
"We don't need to go to Forks. We can go wherever; it doesn't exactly matter at the moment to me." Charlie's face split into a huge grin, his white teeth clear in the night.
"Maybe it's not going to be impossible, but it won't be as easy as you're making it seem," Renée whispered.
"I know." Charlie was still grinning hugely as if he hadn't a care in the world.
"We'll go somewhere and figure it out," Renée relented, giving in to the possibility of Charlie breaking free from the Volturi and raising their child together. It was an insane dream, but it was the only one she allowed herself to cling to at the moment. If it was at all possible, Charlie managed to grin even wider and scooped her into a carefully balanced hug.
A week went by after their conversation on the roof, and Renée was finding it impossible to hide her expanding waistline. Three inches had been added to her belly, and she was struggling to keep it a secret from her grandmother's watchful eye.
"What is with the too large clothes, Renée?" Her grandmother's thickly accented voice rang out even from her spot in front of the television.
"I need to do my laundry." It was a lame excuse but it seemed to appease the old woman, plus it gave Renée a chance to leave the cramped apartment. She pulled together the dirty clothes she had left neglected and headed out, waving absentmindedly to the couch occupant that was her Nana.
Sadly, the laundry only gave her a few hours of freedom from her grandmother's nagging, though she did take extra time to fold every last article of clothing right down to her socks. Even when the folding was done, Renée decided to delay the inevitable by leisurely flipping through the out-dated magazines that cluttered one of the laundry room tables. She tossed the magazines aside and finally made her way back to her Nana's with her freshly clean clothes in tow.
"Renée, where have you been? That demonio came looking for you." Renée's Nana was an extremely superstitious woman, a devout Catholic, unlike Renée's current dalliance with being a Wiccan. Different from the rest of her family, Renée liked to consider herself a free spirit, though some would call her flighty.
"He is not a demon, Nana!" She hadn't spoken to Charlie since the morning after the rooftop, when she had come clean about her pregnancy. He had gone back to the Volturi to find a way out permanently. "Did he say anything?"
"No." Renée left her Nana behind in her usual spot to put away her laundry. She couldn't hide the fact that she was seriously disappointed in missing Charlie, and her stomach was twisting painfully. Putting away the clothes was easy, but figuring out what else to do for the day was hard. Prowling around the apartment wasn't really an option, since the slightest movement sometimes made her queasy, plus her Nana was a little too sharp-eyed. Renée was shocked enough that she had even managed to hide the growth of her stomach from the little woman. No matter what she decided on doing, staying cramped inside the apartment just wasn't a possibility.
"Where are you going now?"
"Out for a walk or something. You know I don't like being cooped up for too long." She left her Nana behind for the second time that day, eager to find anything in Volterra that would keep her busy. Locking the door behind her, she almost missed the small envelope tucked beside it completely.
Renée was scribbled hastily across the crisp white front in Charlie's unmistakable chicken scratch. It was nice to know that so small an aspect of him had stayed the same despite being changed into a vampire. She slid her finger through the back closure, breaking the glue seal and pulling out the equally hasty note that was tucked inside.
Renée,
I need to talk to you as soon as possible. I didn't want to leave this note with your Nana considering how much you talk about her snooping. Can you meet me at the fountain near the clock tower? Pack a bag, it's very important. I'll be there as soon as I can without drawing too much attention.
-Charlie
"Back so soon?" Nana called cheekily from her couch as Renée reentered the apartment. She simply nodded and headed straight back towards her room, closing the door against the noises coming from the television. Charlie had said to pack, but she wasn't exactly sure what she would need, and considering how ridiculously fast she was growing, she feared that most of her clothes wouldn't fit in the span of a week.
Her backpack was already lying to the side of the bed within her reach when she piled her basic necessities on the comforter. The backpack was a decent size; she had used it throughout school and had brought it along with her when she came to Italy. All her clothes were freshly clean, so she chose those most likely to accommodate her stretching stomach and tossed them inside the bag. Anything else she needed she could pick up on her way to the fountain.
"I'm heading out for a little while. I'll try not to make too much noise if you're asleep when I get back." Her wallet and keys were the last things she tossed inside her bag before zipping it up. She didn't know what to expect from Charlie, but she was hoping for some sort of good news.
"Where are you going?" She turned to face her Nana, unsure exactly when she would see her again. In truth, Renée looked more like her Nana than her mother. Her height, bone structure, and hair color, she had gotten from the small Italian woman. But her eyes and sense of adventure, or her need to move from place to place, was from her father.
"I'm going to meet with Charlie. We have a few things we need to talk about."
"Alone? No, don't go alone. I'll go with you, just don't go by yourself." Renée was shocked by the sincere panic in her Nana's words and eyes. She seemed genuinely distressed over Renée meeting with Charlie. Though she had always been hesitant about Charlie-who always strictly wore dark sunglasses when faced with the woman calling him a demon and such-she had never shown true fear, just anxiety or a natural hesitancy around him, something Renée seemed to lack. She had never really been afraid of what Charlie was; it fascinated her rather than repelling her. Apparently, she lacked the proper flight instincts instilled in a human from birth when facing a predator.
"Don't worry about me, Nana. I'll be back sometime soon." Though she rarely ever did it, she leaned into to hug the woman before leaving the apartment. The hallway was quiet as she made her way down the stairs and into the bright sunshine of the day.
"Where are you, Charlie?" Renée sat in the newly clouded day, wanting to tuck her legs up underneath her but not having the proper room. Though the chill from the water seeped through her clothes, sitting on the fountain wasn't too bad. Over the past hour, the sun had been covered by thick clouds ranging from beautiful fluffy white to a threatening gray.
At first, she had passed the time by sorting through her simple purchases of deodorant, tooth paste, and a better hair brush, but those were now long packed away, leaving her with nothing to really do but to enjoy the lessening sunshine.
"Renée," a voice to her left called out though it seemed that only she could hear it. She turned towards the voice and smiled brightly, eyeing Charlie's permanently young face in the shadows. "Stay there, you're surrounded by sun, I need you to stay in it."
"What?"
"Just please, no matter what you see, stay in the sun or what's left of it." She nodded in confusion, unsure of what exactly he was trying to do. Her eyes were a tad bit too weak to catch the fast movements of the tiny girl and two grown men. The growling caught her attention, bringing her to her feet; her heart rate sped up so suddenly she felt dizzy. Something was wrong.
"Charlie?" She didn't get a response but felt a familiar cold hand rest along her cheek, calming her heart easily. But the way the hand traveled down to grip her shoulder like a claw was nothing like Charlie, sending her eyes crashing open to level with the grown man towering over her. Unbeknownst to her, she had stepped far enough away from the light that he was able to approach her, his skin and eyes so eerily like Charlie's. Her urge to run finally kicked in; fear sent goose bumps up her arm as she struggled to get away.
"Knock it off." His growl brought her protests to a stop, leaving her to search the shadows for any sign of Charlie or the other man and girl.
"I won't go, damn it!" she screeched, louder then she had ever done before, and prayed for any of the few humans surrounding them to look up. No one seemed to really notice as he dragged her under the shadows in the blink of an eye, leaving her backpack and small shopping bag behind.
"Oh, Felix, you brought me a present!" Though she had tried her hardest to break free, the man's crushing hand had brought an easy end to her struggles. Renée tried to comprehend the huge room they had entered and the large group, of what she believed to be vampires, waiting there. The three men in the forefront of the room caught her attention though, so different from some of those who surrounded them. From their milky eyes to the odd shade of their skin, they looked nothing like the ones who joined them. It sent a fresh chill down Renée's spine when every set of eyes in the room swung towards her.
"Yes, Master, she was the one you saw Charlie thinking about. There's quite a little surprise here, I'm sure." The vampire, Felix, smiled. He was so much larger than her, even larger than all of the vampires in the room.
"So, you're the lovely Renée! I believe you're much more fascinating in person than merely through the thoughts of another." The one vampire smiled brightly down at her before stepping closer and turning towards Felix's slightly bowed frame. "What of Jane and Demetri? Where have they gone?"
"I came after the human, Master, when the sky finally permitted. At the same time, Charles attempted to break free. Jane and Demetri went after him."
"Ah, foolish Charlie. I guess he saw himself protecting his mate." His sad frown was quickly replaced with a smile when he again looked upon Renée, though she kept her eyes glued to the floor where a drain sat just to the left of her foot. "Now, could it possibly be true what I saw in his memories, a baby?" Sharp hisses echoed through the room, whether from anger, glee, or fear, Renée couldn't tell.
"It's impossible, she has to be lying. Such a thing has never happened before, Aro." The white haired vampire's voice reverberated around Renée like nails on a chalkboard, and she felt an urge to run for cover.
"Dear Caius, I saw it all in Charlie's head. From the tone of his thoughts and the scene itself, it's all quite romantic." The vampire Aro smiled, reaching his hand forward shyly, much to the displeasure of those around him. "May I?"
"Uh…o-okay." Renée jumped as his hand clasped hers, his coldness meeting her human warmth. She didn't know exactly what he was doing; he could quite possibly be one of those phone psychics she had called in her teens, much to the annoyance of her parents. She seriously doubted that thought though; the idea of the terrifying Aro wearing a turban and clicking away on the telephone made her bite back an odd chuckle.
"So, you've already grown so much in just the past week since telling him." Aro mused more to himself than to her, but she felt the need to nod. He reached his hand out, before she could even think to stop him, and pressed it against the firm rounding of her stomach. "It is his child, Caius. It seems the impossible has become quite possible."
"Destroy it," Caius growled. His eyes were the same off shade of milky red, but they still carried a whiplash in them, enough to cause Renée to cringe away from his words and cradle her stomach.
"Caius! You speak too soon. Have you even thought of what a possibility this child could pose, a child of both vampire and human capabilities for us to raise, a guard member from birth for us to mold? Caius, what danger do you believe that a simple child will be?" Aro's voice was scathing, even to Renée's ears, but she couldn't possibly stop paying attention. This was her child's life, and though she didn't know exactly what they were speaking of, she had the feeling that it was something she should never overlook.
"What if it cannot be controlled? What if it is something altogether inhuman? It can be a danger to our very existence; we would have to destroy it. Aro, you're taking too much of a chance with our lives."
"I am taking no chance; I am merely asking that we consider it. If the child poses a serious threat, then we can destroy it. But we must stop first and consider the possibilities!" Aro returned to his original seat in the center of the two other vampires.
"Shall we vote?" The one vampire, who had remained quiet throughout the entire squabble between Aro and Caius, piped up, though he did maintain a bored tone.
"A brilliant idea! We'll put this decision to a vote. Do we destroy both the mother and child?" Renée blanched at his words, she knew he had been hinting at it but when he stated them so boldly, she felt the urge to faint, "or do we allow the lovely Renée to continue on with the pregnancy, in hopes that the child may be of some use to us?"
"I vote that we destroy them; the risk is too great." Caius' sneer was aimed at both Aro and Renée, equally.
"Marcus?" Aro turned towards the continuously bored looking member. Renée painfully held her breath as Marcus paused dramatically, before agreeing to let her keep the child. Her breath came out in a rush as Aro made the final decision.
"Then she will continue with the pregnancy, though you will be maintained and monitored by us for the remainder of this ordeal." Aro's eyes, despite their murkiness, were bright as they turned back towards Renée.
"Thank you," Renée whispered, hoping against hope that something good would be able to come out of this. Though for the moment, she couldn't see any positive outcome for herself, she did see the chance that was possibly being provided for her child; a life with the Volturi as a member of their coven. She just wasn't sure whether that was the best chance.
"Heidi. Find Renée a room and make sure that she understands her current boundaries." Renée watched him walk out of the room followed by the other two vampires, Caius and Marcus. She met the red eyes of a female vampire who had departed from the crowd of others, making herself known to Renée. She followed Heidi as she continued on past her, not even pausing to really acknowledge Renée. The room where she was eventually led was larger than her Nana's own apartment, but the rules she was restricted with left her feeling like she was enclosed in a closet.
"You will stay in this room. You cannot wander the corridors alone, which is why your door will be locked. We'll see to any needs you have. It's best that you keep to yourself; for the time being, the outside world doesn't exist." Heidi's words were short as if she was eager to be anywhere else.
"I can't go anywhere?"
"Not if you wish to maintain your life and the life of the child."
"But what if-"
"We'll see to anything you need and when the time comes, we'll take care of the birth." She didn't even pause to explain anything, simply turned away from Renée and headed out of the door they had entered through. She collapsed on the bed when the soft lock of the door engaged. Hopelessness was not something Renée had felt often, but at that moment it was the only thing her mind registered. Charlie was gone, most likely on the run; her Nana had no idea where exactly she was, and her own fate, if not the fate of her child, was nowhere near set in stone.
"Where's Charlie?" Renée asked, glaring at the cup Heidi held out to her. She had been drinking blood every day since she had arrived with Volturi. Though she found it completely disgusting, she couldn't fight the fact that it did make her feel better. Plus, if it helped her baby, she was willing to do anything.
"Renée, just stop asking." Heidi's voice was sharp as Renée finally grabbed a hold of the cup and greedily sucked it down. Her stomach had grown to a ridiculous size in the amount of time she had been with Volturi; it looked as if she was hiding a beach ball under her sweater. Two cracked ribs and a bruised kidney had kept her in the bed for well over a week, and though it stung when she took deep breaths, she felt giddy in knowing that her baby was strong.
"But where is he?" Renée hadn't seen Charlie since the day at the fountain and though Jane and Demetri had returned, he hadn't. "Did they find him? Is he dead?"
"Have you had any more injuries?" Heidi wasn't paying much attention to Renée's questions; she had had to listen to them every time she delivered blood to her.
"No…she seems to calm down a lot when I talk. The blood's made her a hell of a lot stronger, though." Renée sat back on the bed, shifting to find a more comfortable spot for her to rest in.
"You think it will be a girl?"
"I want it to be a girl. It's what Charlie and I talked about," she said.
"What would you name her?"
"Isabella; I've always kind of liked that name." Renée felt tears sting her eyes but fought to keep them back. Heidi simply nodded and turned to leave, heading for the door at a more human pace so that she wouldn't startle Renée too much. "I'm sorry, but can you please just tell me something about Charlie?"
"He managed to get away, which is why Jane and Demetri came back." Renée let out a sigh, barely managing to choke out a thank you before Heidi was gone and the door was locked. Sitting in the room alone, Renée felt more trapped than ever, knowing that Charlie was out there somewhere.
Considering the fact that her door was locked and her ability to actually walk had been limited to painful waddling, staying in bed seemed to be Renée's only option. She'd been confined to the bed for so long that it seemed to have a permanent Renée shaped dent. She rolled over to face the window, wincing when she rested too much weight on one of her injured ribs. Staring at the rolling white clouds that were partially hidden by the thick window hangings, Renée felt herself drifting off to sleep with her hand resting on her stomach.
It seemed that her eyes had been closed for only moments when a sharp cramp brought an abrupt scream from her. The cramp came again but this time it felt like more of a ripping, sending her crashing backwards out of the bed and onto the cold stone floor.
"Renée, what is it? Is it the baby?" Cold hands gripped her easily and lifted her back onto the bed before running smoothly over her hardened stomach. The pain came for a third time, but this time she knew that it was ripping, the slashing pain drawing another long agonized scream from her.
"Something's not right. It shouldn't be like this!" she choked out before another scream. Heidi was standing over her, followed by several other Volturi guards.
"Find Aro if he's not already on his way! The baby's coming out." Renée slowly tried to understand what exactly was happening around her, but she was having trouble focusing on anything but the pain. A rush of dizziness came over her, sending her grasping for anyone's hand though many dodged out of her way. "All of you need to get out. The blood's going to be intense."
"Blood!" Renée's voice screeched as another tearing pain wracked her, though this one seemed so much closer to the surface than the others had been. Her throat was raw from screaming, and the pain was nothing compared to the abrupt rush of liquid out of her stomach. For a moment the pain stopped, leaving her numb everywhere except the pounding in her temples.
"She's out," Heidi whispered to the man who had then entered the room, his presence quieting the few who had chosen to remain inside the room with the blood. Renée wanted to reach out and hold the small bundle that was squirming in Heidi's arms, but her own limbs felt like lead, unwilling to respond to anything she tried to get them to do.
"Oh, she's fabulous. My beautiful little treasure," Aro murmured more to himself than any of the few around him. He had taken the small bundle from Heidi, gazing in abject wonder at the small brown-eyed baby girl within.
"What should we do about Renée?" Heidi asked, gazing over at Renée's wide-eyed but still form.
"She'll be gone soon; we'll let nature take its course and then handle it when it's through. Now what should we name her?" Aro hadn't even looked up from the baby, whose brown eyes were trained on him as well, her mouth open and showing a tiny set of teeth.
"Isabella. She really is beautiful." Heidi had never been fond of children, and from what she could remember of her human life in Germany, she had steered clear from any, but this small child seemed to draw her in with her oddly beautiful eyes, full of so much knowledge despite their age.
"Isabella, my beautiful little treasure." Aro carried the child out of the room, away from the now whimpering Renée. She felt herself lightening as the child moved farther and farther from her, disappearing from her sight completely.
Her beautiful baby girl, her and Charlie's Isabella, the child she had never been given the chance to see. She felt herself drifting, the once warm liquid on her stomach now cool. As her eyes slowly drifted shut, she envisioned a set of warm honey chocolate eyes, the same set that had once belonged to Charlie. Her eyelids finally gave in to their increasing weight as she imagined the warm bundle of Isabella in her unmoving arms. Renée lay on the bed, open and exposed, until Aro finally sent someone to dispose of her body.