Title: Aufschwung
Chapter: 2/?
Author: brokentopaz
Summary: What if it was the other way around and Edward was the human and Bella was the vampire? It is said their love could withstand anything, but could it stand a change in circumstance? Set in an earlier time in a vastly different place than today.
Warnings/Spoilers: None to Twilight books. DISCLAIMER: Stephenie Meyer owns the characters.
Author's Note: I'm not sure how often I'll be updating, but since I've had a long weekend I'll have a couple of chapters put in. After this it might be weekly or sometimes every other week. I'll try my absolute hardest to update as often as possible, so it won't follow a particular pattern of every Friday or something. But I will try to be consistant.
To my reviewers: windtear and imaginationrunsfree, thank you both for your kind words. I cannot answer the questions you asked yet simply because they will all be answered in due time. Stick with me, okay? Windtear, remember this is Bella's POV so it's going to be tilted to her bias. She's jealous of Rosalie and terrified of Carlisle and Esme.
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Bella POV
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I sat alone in my tower for the rest of the night. My throat was still burning from Edward's scent. I couldn't risk going out there again, he was human and therefore stupid enough to be in the woods still. I couldn't hunt small game if Edward Cullen was anywhere near the area, or I'd end up taking his life.
The sun rose slowly. It was painful to sit here for eighteen hours every day of the summer and wait for the sun to set so I could stretch my legs and exist outside my tower. To add an extra night to the day would be excruciating. I decided to distract myself with the towns people, as I always did. I stood and watched them again.
They all went to morning Mass, filing into the church one after another, murmuring quietly. The children were chastised for speaking out of turn, for somehow being dirty. The women and men walked in side by side, their children surrounding them in a vast bubble of family. There were two or three girls exchanging glances with two or three boys at the doors, winking and smiling discreetly, as to avoid detection from their parents or siblings. Damn lovers.
The church bells tolled over the town and the streets were empty. I wanted so desperately to get away from the city for a day or two, to clear my head and to quench my thirst without the fear of running into Edward Cullen. This was my only chance.
Within two minutes I had packed all of my clothing and belongings in two small sacks, which I tied to my back so I could run. My skirt was torn so I could run freely. I waited a minute to confirm the silence of the square. Then I darted out of my tower and straight to the woods. I avoided my route from last night, staying up in the trees. I caught the scent of birds, deer, squirrels, rabbits, and even more wolves. But I ignored them all, knowing that I would have to retreat to the ground to get to them.
The sun was not shining under the branches, so I stopped a few miles away from the small town to gather my thoughts. I didn't know where I was going or which route I would take to avoid detection. Traveling east to Italy seemed like a good idea, I thought I should pay a visit to Aro and Demitri. Aro was like a father to me, and Demitri was an old friend, and my older brother in many ways. When I decided that I should go to Italy, I took off toward the eastern border. I would swim to France and then finish my journey at night, hiding and hunting in the woods by day.
The sea air was salty. It cleared my senses of Edward Cullen's scent and I was able to travel with a newfound sense of intensity. I knew I needed to get away from Edward before I hurt him, and since I could no longer remember with such perfect clarity his scent, there was no part of me that wanted to return. I thought it a good thing that I had packed all of my belongings. I wasn't going to return to England for many years.
For three days I traveled and hunted by night, taking care to avoid both sun and human in the daylight. The countryside of France was well kept, livestock grazing lazily and fields upon fields of vegetation.
I ran into Volterra without any interruptions. It was dark, so there was no need for me to worry about exposure. I slowed to a walk as I made my way to the castle where Aro and Caius lived.
"Bella?" I turned around to see a pair of dark burghandy eyes trained on my face. I smiled and jumped into the vampires arms.
"Demitri!" I shouted as I buried my head in his chest. His smoke and sugar scent calmed me immensely. I felt at home buried into his arms.
"What are you doing in Italy?" Demitri pulled back and examined my face. I shook my head and tried to snuggle back into his chest. I didn't want to talk about how weak I was, especially to a vampire who drank human blood. Instead of talking, I started sobbing into his chest.
"Hey, hey, Bella? What's up?" he pulle me tighter and rocked me back and forth. When I got control of myself, I stuttered out my pathetic situation.
"...and then I had to leave because he's probably gone to Carlisle and Esme and told them I'm a demon from Hell!" I wailed.
Demitri stood completely still for a minute, his arms wrapped around my waist, his eyes connected to mine. His eyes were full of confusion. Suddenly, he burst out laughing. I snarled at him and slipped out of his grasp.
"Bella," he said, catching my waist and tugging me into his side. "Bella, relax. I didn't mean to laugh at you. I can't help it." he said as he led me gently to the castle. You are just so funny." I glared at him.
"What about my situation is funny to you?" I snarled, but remained in his side, defeated.
"Well, first: your adversion to drinking human blood." he laughed again. "And then the fact that you've fallen in love with a human, who happens to be your la tua cantana. Third, that his father is a demon-loathing priest who would kill you before he'd look at you. And finally, that you think this Edward Cullen would want to share the idea of you with anyone else. I'm like your brother, Bell, and I hardly like it."
We had reached the castle at this point, and I could see the silhoutte of the guard. Felix, a burly vampire, was standing near the front gate, with a look of utter disbelief on his face. I never enjoyed seeing Felix when I came to visit my father and my brother. Aro had made it clear to Fleix I would be his mate, but instead, I ran away. Feliz, being as stubborn and prideful as he is, cut off the arrangement and had since set me free of my obligations toward him as a mate. Though he was very much a gentleman, I never enjoying seeing him. When we reached the gate, Felix nodded in my direction, but he didn't say anything. I returned the nod and then buried myself in Demitri's tightened grasp. Demitri glared at Felix and then leaned in and kissed the top of my head. A low growl settled in Felix's throat. I shivered and snuggled closer to Demitri.
"Back off Felix." he whispered. Felix's growl became more prominent.
"What is going on out here?" a strong voice cut through the tension, which dissolved immeditely.
"Aro." Felix said shortly. Aro nodded at Felix and turned to Demitri.
"Demitri, what do we have here? You go hunting and return with such a beauty..." Aro laughed at his own joke. Demitri smiled at the memory. Felix coughed. Bella tensed like she had been swung at. The memory hit her with such acute clarity that there was no denying it's truth.
The snarling of the creature frightened her. She ran away as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough. The massive thing bounded up and slipped in front of her, cutting off any escape. The creature was over six feet tall, all but unreasonable of girth. The sharpness of his features, and the shoulder legnth jet black hair kept her from running. She was completely captivated by this monster, and she couldn't find it in herself to look away. Her eyes roamed his body, and his face, and rested on the one feature that terrified her. His teeth. They were bared and unnaturally white, straight, and dripping with a metallic liquid.
"What's the matter, poppet?" the creature asked her. She couldn't move her eyes away from the moving of his jaw, and the shining of his unnatural teeth. He moved closer to her, quickly. In an instant he was standing mere inches from her, his face bent down to meet hers. She shuddered at the instant change. His black eyes flashed and she could have sworn she saw a hint of red in them.
"Are you afraid, poppet?" the demon asked. Wordlessly, she shook her head no. The demon laughed. "If you're not yet, you will be." With that he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the castle.
When Bella had first met Aro, she had been frightened. But she was also curious about what he was. She had never met a creature so old, so vibrant, and so able to understand everything that anyone ever said, even though it seemed to her everything was spoken in some cryptic code.
Bella learned to trust Aro, because of her ability to hide her thoughts from him, Bella had caught his interests, and he insisted that no harm came to her. The entire time that she lived as a human she was under Aro's protection, and she came to believe that he was a caring vampire.
During the time of her transformation, Aro was concious of Bella's every whim, and made sure that all the proper preperations were taken care of. He had provided Bella with the best living situation, a comfortable bed for changing, and a personal body guard to protect her from the other, more hostile vampires. That body guard had been Demitri.
Because Demitri had taken care of Bella when she was a young vampire, taking her out to hunt animals (she was insistant on avoiding human blood), and keeping her company when she felt lonely. He became a companion and a true friend, someone she could count on.
Felix had become smitten with Bella after she was changed, but she always ignored his persistant advances, and even stuck Demitri on him once or twice. Demitri always won those fights, leaving Felix without pride and without power. When Felix had complained to Aro, he was ignored and even threatened to being kicked out of Volterra. Aro was very protective of his two children, Demitri and Bella, and disliked everyone and everything that stood in the way of their happiness.
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End Author's Note: Okay, so this chapter is kind of boring. Mostly just background stuff that will be important later. Even though I hate dull chapters as much as the next person, I don't think that it will be terribly awful for much longer. Most of the Bella's background is in this chapter, and it's the basis for a lot that happens in the rest of the story. I'm sorry it's dull! Anyway- since I realise that this chapter is painfully boring, you all should know what would make the next chapter even better, right? You got it! Reviews make everything happy! There's rainbows and unicorns and candy mountains and all sorts of amazing-ness! Well now I'm done for now, but I'll keep working on the next chapter and I'll try to have it up Friday or Saturday at the latest.
Until next time,
Brokentopaz
