The next day found Isabella and Victoria wandering through the sewers of Volterra. They had caught a mass of different vampires' scents all conglomerated around a man hole no more than half a mile from the Volturi's castle, and, having no other leads, they popped the lid off and dropped down to follow the trail.

It led them on for several minutes before they arrived at a dead end blocked by a stone door, intricately carved with golden accents. The Volturi's emblem was emblazoned in the carvings and Isabella took no time to examine them. Rather, she braced her weight against the cold stone and pushed it open. It groaned under the stress but opened to reveal a strikingly modern waiting room. Victoria nearly laughed at the elevator music that piped through the speakers overhead and Isabella had to blink several times just adjust her eyes to the bright fluorescent lights overhead.

In front of them sat a woman with long brown hair and knowing brown eyes. At the Isabella and Victoria's entrance, the woman looked up from her desk and watched them as they observed their surroundings.

"Do you need something?" she finally called breaking the silence. Her voice was much huskier than Isabella anticipated and the mesmerizing thud of her heart nearly made the newborn forget why they had come here in the first place. The woman's smell was enticing and Isabella was still recovering from the effects that they flight had on her sensibilities. She took a deep breath and then a step towards the human, eyes darkening significantly before a hand on her forearm shook her from her stupor. A knowing smirk from Victoria made Isabella growl at the other vampire before she finally spoke.

"You're human," Isabella asked. She quirked an eyebrow at the woman but held her breath to prevent a reminder of just how human.

"And you're not." It wasn't a question. Upon seeing the responding confusion flicker in Isabella's eyes, she continued, "very few who come here are human. In fact, no human could make it through that door."

Isabella glanced at the door she'd come through and then back at the curious human. "Then what are you doing here?"

Isabella could hear Victoria snickering behind here but gave no indication that she noticed.

"I work here," she stated matter-of-factly. A small smirk lingered on her mouth. "Now what can I help you with?"

"We're here to see the kings," Victoria said from where she stood closer to the entrance. Without an answer, the woman donned a headset and made a call. From listening in on the conversation, Isabella learned that the woman's name was Gianna and that they were at the southwest entrance of the castle.

"There will be someone down to escort you in a minute," Gianna eventually said after hanging up.

Isabella moved to where Victoria stood and plopped down into a seat next to her. The thought of sitting and waiting unnerved her but standing made it to easy for her to spring herself on the unsuspecting receptionist. The ticks from her human life slowly seeped their way into her posture and she began to bounce her leg on the floor and bite her lower lip. She tried to keep her face a stoic mask but underneath her mind was inches from panic. Isabella had never dealt with this level of power before.

The click of a door opening to the left of Gianna signaled the entrance of another person. Glancing up, Isabella watched as a man entered the room. He was wearing dark burgundy robes and a silver chain with an emblem around his neck. His strut held an air of arrogance and self-importance while his eyes shown red with mischievous mirth.

"Ladies," he said when he spotted them. Isabella rolled her eyes and pulled Victoria up with her before following the man into the tunnels of the castle. He chatted with Victoria like they were old friends as they walked but Isabella had no interest in making friends so she ignored them both.

They stopped outside a set of grand double doors crafted from mahogany wood and painted in reds and blacks and golds. Isabella could hear talk on the other side of the door and was about to enter when the man, Demetri, stopped her.

"Before I can allow you to enter, I must know if you have any gifts," Demetri said. When Isabella gave him an accusatory eyebrow raise, he continued, "Standard procedure for all new visitors."

"I have no gift that I know of," Isabella said quickly. She sent a look towards Victoria who just shrugged.

"They already know me," she said.

Demetri guided them into the throne room and up to the front where three men sat across a raised dais on intricate thrones.

"Master Aro," Demetri said bowing slightly to the man in the middle. He was a man of average height and build with dark brown hair and ancient red eyes. This was a man who had seen the rise and fall of kingdoms numerous times over.

"Thank you Demetri," he said softly. His voice was higher than Isabella anticipated. "Victoria! To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Victoria bowed beside her and seeing Isabella had not followed suit, she quickly grabbed the newborns arm and pulled her down. When she rose again she had on a brilliant smile in which every one of her white teeth shown in the afternoon light.

"Master Aro," she spoke. Her voice had lost all its usual haughtiness and energy. Isabella nearly did a double take to make sure it was still the same woman.

"I come here with important news," Victoria said. A smirk peaked at the end of her lips as she tried to contain her glee. "News of the Cullen coven."

"The Cullens?" A blonde man to the left of Aro had spoken. He seemed much younger than his counterpart and had sharp, angular features that contrasted starkly with his large, round eyes. His blond hair was pulled back tight in a ponytail at the back of his head giving his features an even heavier sternness.

"Yes," Victoria said. She directed her statement to the blond man and then returned her attention to Aro. "They left a human with the knowledge of our kind. They left her alive."

"Who is this human?" Aro said stepping forward. He looked like he was about to reach his hand out to Victoria but Isabella stepped forward.

"I am," she said. "I was."

Aro hummed lightly and approached Isabella. "What is your name, my dear?"

"Isabella."

"Isabella." He rolled the name across his tongue like he was tasting. "What is your story, Isabella?"

She opened her mouth to speak but Aro shook his head and grabbed her hand instead. She looked to Victoria for an answer but the only response Victoria gave was a nod telling her to just go with it.

"Nothing!" Aro proclaimed, startling half of the vampires in the room including Isabella. "I see absolutely nothing. What is your gift?"

"Gift?" she responded. "I didn't think I had a gift."

He hummed in response and continued, "You do indeed my dear Isabella. A powerful one at that. You must have some sort of shield for it completely blocks out my own ability. Do you know of my ability?"

Isabella shook her head.

"I can read every thought and memory you have had since the day you were born with a single touch of the hand. Everything you have ever experienced, I can too experience," he said. Isabella grimaced, thankful she could block his ability. "Where did you come from?"

"She is my changling, my lord," Victoria said. "When the Cullens left her with the knowledge of our kind, I changed her myself."

"Well that was certainly quick thinking on your part," Aro said. A glaze had come over his eyes and they gleamed manically at Isabella. He returned to Victoria and clutched her hand much the same way he had Isabella's. When his eyes popped back open, his grin had gone from wicked to nearly feral. "My, my... It seems we do have some grievances to correct."

He returned his attention to Isabella once again. "You would make an excellent guard," he said. "Have you considered joining our coven? With control you possessed even during your change, you could become remarkable."

"How much of my change did you see?" Isabella asked suddenly worried. She had almost killed Victoria, would they punish her for that? They would never punish a vampire for torturing a human but surely there was some law against killing their own kind.

"All of it, my dear." He grinned sickeningly at her as he enjoyed what he had seen while Isabella was thrown into a memory she would sooner have forgotten.

White hot pain tore through her body. The vampire was slowly killing Bella, who couldn't concentrate on anything more than the pain. She was sure there wasn't a bone left in her body that hadn't been shattered.

Somewhere in Bella's burning mind, she could hear movement as she prepared herself for whatever would be the next instrument of torture.

This was the Cullens' fault. This was EDWARD's fault. They left her. HE left her.

Alone.

In the woods, while she was being hunted like an animal.

That's not how you treat someone you love.

But then again, he never loved her. He used her to pass the time. She wasn't even good enough to be animal. She was just a toy. First for him, then his family, and now Victoria. They may as well have a stuck a key in her back, thrown some cymbals in her hands, and played her like their little monkey.

These were the thoughts that rolled through her mind as she lay there, barely conscious. 'Fuck them', she thought before she let out another blood curdling scream as Victoria drove another spike into her calf.

She had been screaming for so long, her voice no longer sounded human. It cackled and cracked with every painful push of air through her tattered vocal chords. It left her sounding like a ghost whose moans couldn't quite pierce the spectral boundary—just wisps of fractured air.

"Aw, don't you have any more pretty screams for me?" Victoria called tauntingly from her position in the room. Her voice echoed around Bella and she was unable to tell where the vampire stood. The blindfold covering her eyes left her guessing. She didn't know where she was or what was coming next. By the way sound moved through the space, Bella could tell she was surrounded by concrete walls, almost like some sort of solitary confinement cell. But Bella's lack of sensory abilities and the blinding pain coursing through her body made it nearly impossible to think about anything other than the spike driven through her leg.

"Let's try this again," she stated as Bella braced herself for the coming pain. "And this time, I want you to scream nice and pretty for me. Make those dear, pathetic Cullens hear what they've done to you."

Anger rushed through Bella at her mention of the Cullens. 'How dare they leave me? How dare they make me suffer for their own failings?' Bella's anger only solidified her resolve to never give Victoria the satisficing of hearing her scream.

Her anger at the family who'd left her fueled her determination. If she was going to die by Victoria's hand, it would be the red-head's frustration and Bella's lack of obedience that killed her. Not Victoria's joy of torturing her.

Bella bit her lip to muffle the scream the threatened to escape her throat as Victoria drove another spike into her arm. The lack of noise angered Victoria causing her to drive and second spike in quickly after the first. Bella could feel blood seeping into her mouth from her busted lip.

"Dear, sweet Bella, why are you resisting? It will only make the change slower and more painful," Victoria taunted as Bella felt the vampire trail another spike up her leg toward the apex of her thighs leaving behind a burning trail.

"You see dear, these aren't just ordinary rail spikes. I've added my own little twist to them," Victoria chuckled darkly and though Bella couldn't see Victoria's face, she would have been willing to bet there was a smirk curving her sadistic, red lips. "I've coated them in my own venom. For every one of these harmless, little spikes I push through your body, I'm turning you a little more. With your cooperation, I can make it all stop."

Realization dawned on Bella as the burn on her leg finally made sense. Her desire to resist Victoria's attempts to break her increased tenfold. It would be the slowest change possible but in the end, she'd be dead. And whether that was as a corpse or a vampire, she didn't really care. Her hardened heart would no longer beat and hopefully she'd be able to get her revenge. The Cullens would wish they were dead by the time Bella was done with them.

It felt like months before the torture finally ended. Slowly the venom that Victoria had introduced to her system changed her. It started before she was even aware of it but Bella could tell when it had begun. Her blood had felt like lava, sticky and burning, ebbing its way through her veins, mixing with the venom. Soon she knew Victoria could sense the change as well. Her heart would palpitate and stutter but Bella couldn't figure out why Victoria allowed it to continue. If Bella had been her, she would have killed Victoria as soon as she'd shown any signs of vampirism.

But she let Bella live.

When Bella's heart finally fell silent, all pain stopped. Bella could feel the strength in her limbs and she reflexively clenched her fists as she took a deep breath. She could smell the faded scent of Victoria but she wasn't here. Cinnamon and cloves, that was Victoria's scent. Bella relaxed knowing she was alone and became aware of the ropes that still bound her hands. They felt like nothing but threads now, flimsy and weak, and the blindfold covering her eyes may as well have been saran wrap, she could see almost perfectly through it.

Standing is all it took to break the binds on her hands and she reached behind her head to remove the blindfold as soon as her hands were free. The room was washed in fluorescent light and Bella had been correct in her assumption that she was surrounded by cement. There was a table in the corner of the room where the bloody spikes from Victoria's torture still lay and the only other piece of furniture in the room was a steel table from which she had just stood.

There was a door behind her that looked like the entrance to a bank vault and the sight of it made Bella even more confused as to where she was. The only thing she could think of was some kind of underground bunker—like an apocalypse bunker.

Bella flexed her arms. She could feel the strength within them and wondered if she could break through the door. She also wondered where Victoria was and why she wasn't here with her.

Bella cocked her head when she heard a clunk come from the other side of the bulky door. Silence followed.

She waited several moments before moving to the solid door and examining the lock. It had no handle on this side and no visible way of opening from the inside. How had Victoria left?

Before Bella could think too much on the issue, the door released with a sudden groan and slid open slowly revealing a smirking Victoria.

"Well," Victoria said looking Bella over, her smirk widening into a full on grin. "Vampirism certainly does suit you doesn't it?"

Victoria looked very much the same as when she had first shown up in that field with James. Her flaming hair cascading down around her shoulders, tight jeans, and a jean jacket, her bright red eyes shining playfully. Bella couldn't help but think she hadn't truly understood how beautiful Victoria had been when she was looking through human eyes. Now as a vampire she was a bit breathless at the sight.

"If the Cullens could see you now," she said circling Bella slowly, predatorily. "I could just eat you up."

Bella saw red. Her newborn rage took over her body as the name she hated most slipped from the red-head's lips and she blacked out in fury. The last thing Bella remembered was the red of Victoria's eyes fading as she tore into her flesh.