A/N: This is a shorter chapter by a bit, but it's still one of my favs! :) Thanks to Clairehasdimples for all the help she gives me. If you like all human, check out her story Elephant Guns and new beginnings, it's in my favorite stories on my profile (I think)
Anyway, onto the story! Stephenie Meyer owns all Twilight characters!
My pensive mood as dawn broke was ruined by the shriek of Jane. I rolled my eyes and waited a second for her to enter the tower.
"WHO IS THAT HUMAN?" She charged into the room, followed momentarily by Savio. Jane was either in one of two moods, sweetly plotting, or hell-hath-no-fury angry. I didn't need to guess which she was in now. She flew at me, stopping in front of my seat and pointed her hand to somewhere outside of the door. "I smelled human blood, so I went to investigate and Savio stopped me! He said it was 'very important to Aro'! Who is it then? Tell me," she demanded, all in the space of a minute. Sulpicia turned her red eyes towards me in wonder. I hadn't gotten around to telling her about my plans for Domitilla. I glared at Jane and then stood up.
"Everyone! I have a very important announcement to make. Last night, I… invited a human woman to stay in our castle." I ignored the shocked gasps and chatter. Even with the excitement, everyone quieted when I began to speak again, "You all, of course remember little Renesmee Cullen? Well, I was thinking, why not have our own little half-vampire child?" Sulpicia stood up, enraged. All around us the vampires broke into yells some approving, some not. Caius gave Jane a smug smile. Ah, so he tipped her off. Well, he was never one to fight fair. Marcus didn't react.
Sulpicia shouted, "Were you planning on telling us? Or did you just want to wait until one of us found out?!"
"I was going to tell you! Of course! And now I have. The woman, Domitilla hasn't made her… official decision yet, but by seven 'o' clock tonight, we'll know if she's willing to be our surrogate. I want all of you to be there to hear the decision as well." Many vampires quieted down, waiting to hear if I would elaborate. "Now, we are the rulers of vampires, are we not?" Cheers managed to find their way through the chatter. "Should we let some 'vegetarian' coven from America know more than us about our own race? Or the primitive South Americans? I certainly don't think so. That's why I've taken it upon myself to learn all that I can about our existence, so we can never be taken off guard again." The whole room was silent. Sulpicia had sat down, outwardly calm now. I knew that later she would be nagging my ear off. Her special talent was the ability of persuasion, though the only problem was that she couldn't change a person's mind once they made their decision. She was two days too late to change this, though I knew she would try.
Savio quietly slipped from the room as all of the Volturi went back to their business. I sat again in my chair, thinking all was well, until I noticed Jane. She was still glaring at me. Alec was by her side, trying to pull her along, but she wouldn't move. Suddenly, I was struck with the pain that I only wanted to experience once.
I fell out of my chair and began to scream. It was as if my mind was tearing itself apart, tearing my nerves and limbs along with it. I couldn't hear what was going on in the room, or see. My eyesight was completely black. The pain was lifted an eternity later. Sulpicia was at my side, shouting at Jane, while Alec pulled the girl from my sight. I lay on the floor for a moment or two, waiting to gather my mind together to talk to Jane. Once I was ready, I whipped myself from Sulpicia's doting hands and made my way to Jane's room.
I entered without knocking. Jane was lying on her bed, completely still and calm. Alec was sitting next to her on his chair, holding her hand. His eyes were turned in sadness and he hardly noted me when I came into the room.
"I use my power to calm her down," he said awhile later. "It helps her to not think about anything for awhile." My mouth opened in shock. I had never realized that Alec used his power outside of battle, and that it could help soothe Jane. I had given up all methods of soothing Jane besides giving her what she wanted. I sat on the foot of the bed, taking care not to smash Jane's feet.
I replied, "Do you do this often?"
Alec shook his head. "Not anymore. Years ago, when we were dealing with the Cullens, I had to all of the time. She would be in such a rage that she would use it on me. I never minded though." He looked at me and noticed my puzzlement. "I mean, the pain is almost unbearable, of course. But I would rather deal with it and feel her remorse then let her unleash it on others."
"That's very kind of you Alec. But really, she shouldn't use her power whenever she has a fit. She's almost two hundred years old, she needs to behave herself."
Alec nodded and let out a sigh belying his youthful appearance. "I know Aro, I know, but she is so fragile, and she doesn't even realize it." He squeezed her hand. I left them there, a tableau of sibling affection, and made my way to my den.
The very moment I had sat myself in my overlarge chair, Sulpicia burst into the room, speaking as quickly as possible. "So this is what you plan on doing now with your immortality, taking HUMANS off of the streets and using them as experiments! Well they are hardly better than rats, but show some class my dear Aro! I can't believe that you want to make something like that Cullen! We dragged ourselves halfway across the world half a century ago to deal with that monstrosity and now you want to have one of your own? Sometimes, I believe you to be no better than a spoiled child! Like Jane, your dear and precious Jane who attacks when you do anything that displeases her. Now we'll have another little fiend to ruin our peaceful lives here. Remember when it was just the six of us Volturi, happy and immortal and free? Then you had to go and add all of the guard and Jane and Alec and now, and NOW you want to add a little thing! Why does everything have to be so complicated with you?" She said this all in one breath, though she didn't need to breathe again, she did so for dramatic purposes.
"Calm, Sulpicia. I decided to make a hybrid child to… make up for the unpleasantness that Jane now brings us. Think about it, she'll be like the daughter you wanted in our first hundred years. And, she won't be illegal," I guffawed and Sulpicia gave a small smile. She sashayed her way over to my chair and sat on my lap.
Though my wife was my age and had the filmed eyes and powdery skin as I did, she still retained some of her youthful exuberance. She gave my neck a slight kiss and then rested her head against mine.
"Aro, I just don't understand: why now, why not fifty years ago when it was fresh in all of our minds?"
I chuckled before I answered, "To be honest, it wasn't on my mind until a few days ago. I completely forgot about it, imagine that!" Sulpicia kissed the top of my head and laughed with me. She gave me a final squeeze and stood up.
"Is she pretty?" I was caught extremely off guard by my wife's question. She wasn't facing me anymore, her hand lightly touching the books in my personal collection of favorites. I sputtered a bit and Sulpicia stopped moving. "Well," she said, "is she?"
"She's a human Sulpicia!" It was truly the only answer I could think of.
"Yes and humans aren't ogres Aro," she replied, evenly.
I took a moment to comprehend what she wanted me to say, and then replied, "She isn't pretty, no. How could she be? I spend all my days with the most beautiful vampire woman in the world, which is you, my darling!" Sulpicia turned around with one eye brow raised. She gave into her weakness though, vanity. She smiled widely and flung herself into my arms.
Into her ear I whispered, "Now that we have that settled…" She drew back and playfully smacked my chest.
"Aro, behave yourself!" She left the room, giving me a faux glare as she shut the door. I laughed softly and returned to my desk. I flipped open the book that was sitting there, one that I had written when we moved against the Romanians Vladimir and Stefan. I shut it quickly though, not wanting to recount the easiness that it was to overthrow them. I twiddled my fingers and looked at the clock. 8:59. 9:00. 3:00. 5:15. Soon, it was seven. I stood up and walked to the tower.
All of the Volturi was sitting and waiting patiently. Sulpicia gave me a small smile and turned back to Athenodora. I took my place in my official chair, Caius and Marcus flanking me.
Savio entered first and stood aside as Domitilla walked into the room. Her eyes were slightly swollen and her face gaunt. She looked over her shoulder at Savio before she made her way closer to us. She was visibly frightened by the multitude of immortals before her. I looked at them to make sure none were looking at her with bloodlust in their eyes. As I surveyed the group, I noticed Jane and Alec were absent. I thought about sending for them, but I knew the trouble that would cause.
"Domitilla, you have come to make your decision before all of the Volturi," I stated. Domitilla nodded and twitched nervously, looking around her. I raised my eyebrows and spoke to her again, "and?"
"Oh, I… I choose, umm I choose to have the-the, umm, baby, child, uh, thing. I mean, I choose to have the child. Your," she shuddered, "child." She shut her eyes and bowed her head.
"And do we accept her, Volturi?" The vampires around me gave their unanimous accordance, besides Caius. He could barely restrain himself from lunging on the girl again, to end the whole thing. Domitilla gave a small cry. Savio rushed her out before she could begin to sob. Chatter broke out among the guard as they relaxed into their regular selves. I swished over to Sulpicia and bent down to lightly kiss her forehead. She touched my cheek and took my attention with her eyes.
Though she was still next to Sulpicia, Athenodora pretended she couldn't hear Sulpicia say to me, "You don't have to go through with this."
"Ah, but I must. We both know that." Sulpicia looked away and nodded faintly. I left the guard and went to Domitilla's room. Savio was standing outside of the door, waiting. He noted me with surprise. I made a motion for him to move away from the door, but he stood firm.
"You're, you're going to do it now?" he hissed.
"There's no time like the present Savio. Now, move away." With a large amount of reluctance, which I couldn't understand, Savio stepped aside and granted me access into the room.
A/N: Did you like it? I'd love to hear what you think, constructive criticism is so important!
-Lasweetie
