Disclaimer: I own not the wonder of Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse
AN – Okay, so I started writing this on the 24th of June 2008. At this point, I'm actually in the middle of writing Avaritia; and we're on Chapter 16. So, I was once again looking through the 7 deadly sins, and found the one I liked most. Well, the one I'm most partial to, I guess.
So here is the third in the trilogy – Superbia. It means Vanity in Latin, by the way.
Thank you all for reviewing the preface, by the way. It means a hell of a lot, and I'm glad to see plenty of you are sticking with me for Superbia!
I know a lot of you will be shocked by this chapter; by how much Bella has changed. The years have changed her, yes. Go ahead and read, I know ya wanna ;)
"No, Edward," I sighed, running my hand through my luxurious chestnut hair. Again. "I'm part of the Volturi now, and if Aro says that there is a power I should possess, then I will gladly accept him and the wraith with the power into our home, all right?"
"No, Bella!" Edward growled, pinching the bridge of his nose. Again. "You don't know what this power is, even, and you're letting Aro come into our home to subject you to it, when you have no idea what it could do to you!"
"Why are you so worried? Aro's chosen powers for me to absorb before. What is it about this damn power that I don't know?!"
"You know you're more powerful than him. Just say no!"
"No, Edward. I'm saying no to you. You're avoiding my questions, and you've been acting suspicious since Alice had that vision! I will absorb this Antonio's power, and then you can tell me what you think about it!" I cried, my porcelain forehead creasing.
We were arguing so much more often, by now. I wondered, vaguely, if human Bella and Edward had argued at all. He'd always said it was so perfect, our relationship. And then I found out that he'd lied. Was I that much of a push over back then? Or was Edward lying through his teeth? Again?
No! I scolded myself, running my hands through my silken hair again. Why was I always thinking this, lately? I'd never questioned Edward before. And it had been so long since I'd questioned human Bella, too. Why was all of this coming back in force, like it was my immature first year once again!? I'd been a vampire for almost four decades by now. I mean, no one had anything less than a cinema screen these days; the scientists were well on their way to finding another alternate renewable energy source; but I was still acting like a pitiful, precious, nervous newborn, curious and confused.
What was wrong with me?! I hadn't been this restless in years, literally. It had been back in 2037, I think, when I'd last questioned whether Edward had told me the entire truth about how I first met my vampire companions, the Volturi.
But it was even worse now that the family had learned how to block me from their minds. I'd been so busy concentrating on grasping my newest powers that when I finally brought the originals back into practice, I found that they were a lot less potent.
I'd tried for the last few nights to break stealthily into Edward's mind as we recovered from heated...kissing sessions, but to no avail. Losing your touch, Bella, I'd sighed, resigning to playing with my powers. I hoped if I buttered him up enough with my sweet illusions that he'd let his guard down and let me in.
But to no avail.
The family was no better.
Esme and Carlisle, having had plenty of practice with evading Edward's questioning throughout the years, were succeeding well in keeping my powerful mind out of everything. They continued to be my parental figures, but I knew they thought I needed them less, by now. They let me in enough to see that.
Rosalie and Emmett were the same as they always had been, never altering throughout the years. Emmett continued to be his childlike self, unable to protect his mind from me. He was insightful, and this could have helped me greatly. But this was the reason none of the family told him a god-damn thing. He wasn't very useful in that case. Rosalie and I were like sisters, really and truly. We would tell each other every single thing we thought, and we would finish each other's sentences. We would shop together, we would admire ourselves together, and occasionally drop a compliment to the other. It was rare. She knew me so well, yet she still used Edward's course in how to extract me from her mind.
And then, there was Alice and Jasper. Dysfunctional was their middle name, and they didn't even try and hide it. Jasper was depressed, mourning for some idiotic human girl who liked to sing quotes from Moulin Rouge. Seriously, I sighed. After what, eighty years, he was still unable to let her go? Even though he had Alice, well, barely, he still moped after this frail human girl. Who was, by now, I realized, quite plain and worthless.
I couldn't hate Jasper, though. No matter how much I tried to.
Alice, however, was schizophrenic. Literally. Carlisle was unable to send her to a mental institution for obvious reasons, and her multiple sessions with therapists and myself made no progress. In fact, they often made things worse. Alice had killed the last therapist she'd had; it had caused untold chaos for us. We now lived in France; having had to move from Canada because of her idiotic actions. There was a reason she had killed him, we were aware. She wouldn't tell any of us what it is, but I heard it once, in her mind, while she was caught off guard.
"Is that why you hate her so much, Alice?"
"She stole him then killed him. And I'm the one holding the corpse."
The therapist had come too close. To what, I didn't know. I was still in the dark about that, of course. I ignored it, by now. She stayed holed up in her room, separate to Jasper's hell hole. They only came out to hunt. And then I could tell, the light practically burned them.
Edward was the only one who still spoke to Alice properly, apart from Esme and Carlisle. Edward was always with Alice. Consoling her. I used to be there for Jasper. But then one day, Edward visited him, and he never responded in the same way to me. I stopped going to see him, then.
I was still in the dark about that, of course. I ignored it, by now. I had more important things to take care of, like my appearance and the power I had obtained by becoming the first leading female member of the Volturi. And the most powerful.
But behind all of the harsh – yet realistic- stereotypes I posted on my family, I was hurt. Because they didn't find me independent, or interesting, or even part of the family. Truly, they were scared of me. Absolutely and completely terrified of me.
"Bella, please," Edward whispered, sombre now. "Just this once, let me take the veto on this. You don't need this damned power!"
"Oh," I whispered, the pieces clicking into place suddenly in a burst of intuition. "The power's got something to do with the past, hasn't it? What did Alice see?"
"Nothing." He answered quickly. "You know she sees very little by now. She saw nothing."
"What if I take a visit of my own up to see Alice?" I hissed. "What if I break into her very fragile mind? What will I see, Edward?" I asked, advancing. "What will I see?"
"Nothing, Bella. You'll see absolutely nothing, beautiful." He sighed. "You can have the power."
"That's what I thought," I whispered, pressing my lips to his again.
We all know how much I like painting the bad girl :D