Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. Lucky, lucky girl!
Warning: Graphic scenes of violence in this chapter.
DPOV
I had spent the evening in Volterra going about my normal duties, feeding, and desperately trying to avoid Aro, Marcus, and Caius. Luck seemed to be on my side once again. I wondered just how much longer that luck would hold out. The evening over, I was heading home to my family.
My family resided in Monteaperti, about 67 miles east of Volterra. It was a remote village populated by only 472 humans and 2 vampires. Our home, the most grand for miles, was situated in the middle of 54 acres of rolling hills and pastures. It was beautiful, peaceful, and remote.
It had been peaceful in our world, the vampire world, for the last sixteen years. No need arising for the Guard to be deployed, and in effect, no need for me to come into contact with the three leaders of the Volturi. For sixteen years, I had successfully hid my secret from them. I had been foolish in believing that my secret would never come to light.
Lately, there had been whisperings amongst the Guard. Rumors that the Leaders had discovered one of their own had been hiding something from them. My worst fears had finally begun to take shape. I knew it had to be my secret they referred to. Heidi and I had been so careful and foolishly believed we could keep up our pretenses indefinitely, that we would be able to protect the one thing most dear to us.
Heidi and I kept going over the last few months in our minds, trying to locate the exact moment in time that we may have slipped, may have inadvertently revealed our secret to an outsider. We couldn't figure out how the Leaders would have come to know our secret, but we were convinced they did know. Only one person was privy to the secret we kept. Jasper Whitlock. There could be no doubting his loyalty to our family, no doubting the love he held for us. The love he held for our daughter.
Isabella. Our secret and our life.
It had been sixteen years that Isabella had been with us. With her, she brought love, devotion, and joy to our family. She was all that was good in us. She gave us a new life and she completed our family. She was the child we thought we could never have. She blessed our existences.
Isabella was human.
/
Heidi and I had been traveling the world for a time. An extended vacation, if you will. Our travels had eventually led us to Canada. We had heard, during our time in the United States, that there was a small coven located in Vancouver. Knowing the Volturi would want information regarding any organized grouping of our kind, Heidi and I made our way to Vancouver.
We encountered the coven shortly after our arrival. They were a small ravel of only four vampires. Victoria, James, Laurent, and Jasper. To consider them a coven was utter folly. Victoria, James, and Laurent were unorganized, uneducated, and unkempt. They were truly an insult to our race. They lived only for the kill, for the hunt. They showed no signs of loyalty or pride for what we were. Jasper, however, was different.
He had joined the others only out of necessity and loneliness. Heidi and I quickly took a liking to Jasper and began sharing all our knowledge with him. We educated him on our origins, what it meant to be a vampire, and the responsibilities we had as such. He soon decided he would return to Italy with us and make a new life for himself.
The night before the three of us were to make our way back to Italy, we decided to feed. As we were planning an inconspicuous visit to a hospital in Vancouver, James began regaling us with the details of a hunt Victoria, Laurent, and he had partaken in several hours prior. He relayed to us the sufferings they had inflicted on a small family living just outside of Vancouver. His eyes were alight while explaining the forms of torture the family endured at their hands.
They were truly disgusting, loathsome creatures. Yes, I would indeed be informing the Leaders of their existence and lack of regard for our laws. They would surely be dealt with swiftly.
During James' tale of carnage, he explained how they had left one survivor, an infant child. He explained it was his interest to see how long it would take for the babe to starve to death on its own. After his words regarding the child were spoken, I glanced towards my wife.
Heidi's face was contorted with hatred. She looked at me pleading with her eyes to take action. I simply shook my head at her. We could not risk a confrontation on our own. We continued with our own planning. The sooner we put distance between ourselves and these vile creatures, the better.
After Heidi, Jasper, and I left the house, we made our way for the cover of a nearby forest. We stopped when we felt we were at a safe enough distant not to be heard by the others.
"We must do something, Demetri," Heidi pleaded.
Jasper spoke, "I know the family James was referring to. I can lead the way to their home."
"And what then, Jasper?" I interrupted. "Call the authorities? Be accused of the slaughter? Better yet, end the child's suffering ourselves? We cannot become involved in this. Should we risk discovery of our existence for a single human child?"
We were all silent. I believed there was no way for us to help this child without risking ourselves. I wanted as much as Jasper and Heidi to do something, but I saw no option other than to walk away.
As I was about to tell them to keep with our original plans for the evening, Heidi spoke.
"Demetri, if you are willing to abandon a child, leave it there to die, you are no better than those vicious vampires back there," she stated, motioning back the way we had come. "You are no longer the man I love, the man I married.
I sighed. I was defeated. I could refuse her nothing. The things we do for love, indeed.
"Jasper, lead us. We will figure out what to do with the child along the way," I stated, conceding to my wife's wishes.
As we neared the family's home, no closer to a decision as we were before, the stench of blood hit us. It was overwhelming. The smell held no appeal, however. It was dead blood, lifeless blood that had pooled and grown cold after so many hours. We could hear muffled cries coming from the house. The cries were distinctly those of an infant. They sounded weak and exhausted. The three of us made our way to the front door, each of us dreading the horrors we would find inside.
As we made our way across the threshold, we saw a corpse splayed in the center of the room. The body of what appeared to be a child of maybe ten years of age was lying mangled on the floor in a congealed pool of blood. His throat slashed to a depth that nearly decapitated him. Heidi let out an anguished gasp at the sight. I turned towards her to offer comfort.
"Keep your eyes ahead, love. Don't look around. Let's just find the baby and be done with this madness," I whispered to her, while taking her hand in mine.
We followed Jasper down a narrow hall, towards the cries. I found my resolve slipping away as I chanced a glance in one of the bedrooms we passed. What appeared to be a woman of about thirty years of age was tied to a bedpost. Her body was naked. Her torso split open, her insides no longer contained. Her lifeless face still wearing a look of terror.
Finally, we had come to the room where the child's cries were originating. As we opened the door to the room, Heidi let go of my hand and rushed forward. She went immediately to the crib that held the baby. She reached down and gently lifted the child to her bosom. Cradling it and rocking it ever so slightly. The child's cries ceased.
"Jasper," Heidi called with urgency, "go to the kitchen and find food for the child. Quickly."
"What do they eat?" Jasper asked completely perplexed. Maybe it was the emotional turmoil causing a lapse in my sanity at the time, but I couldn't help but to chuckle at Jasper's question and accompanying facial expression.
Heidi shot me a menacing glare clearly telling me with her eyes to shut the hell up.
"Milk. You must put it in a bottle and...," her words trailed off.
"Never mind, I will do it myself," she said exasperated as she shoved past us two, very inept men.
We followed behind her as she entered the kitchen. The kitchen held even more grotesque horrors. What I was certain to be the corpse of the father, was lying on the floor. He had been torn limb from limb. I recalled James' story of leaving the father for last. The father had put up the most resistance in his feeble attempt to protect his family. James felt as though the father should be made to suffer the death of his beloved wife and children before he met his own death. A punishment for his insolence, as James put it. Monstrous.
Heidi was oblivious to the gore that lay practically at her feet. She was on a mission. While cradling the child in one arm, she searched for the items she needed in the kitchen and set about preparing and providing sustenance for the child. As the baby began suckling from the bottle Heidi had placed at its mouth, she turned to address Jasper and I.
"She is coming with us," she stated simply.
"She?" I asked. Heidi nodded in reponse.
I looked into my wife's eyes. There would be no arguing. She had already decided. I couldn't think, couldn't focus with the chaos that surrounded me. I looked towards Jasper and explained that we needed to leave quickly before James decided to come back and see how his 'experiment' was progressing.
We left the house and quickly made our way to a hotel located in downtown Vancouver. Once in the hotel suite, Heidi made a list of supplies. She instructed Jasper to go gather the things we needed to provide for the child. Jasper left with the list in his hand with a look of utter confusion plastered on his face. I suppressed yet another chuckle at his expense.
Heidi and I were alone now, with the baby still nestled peacefully in her arms. As I watched my wife holding, rocking, and speaking words of comfort to the child, emotions I had never felt before ripped through my very being. Suddenly the one thing that we could never share together was within our very grasps. A child. A love like no other was very much obtainable for us in that very moment.
Insanity! This was a human child and we were vampires. This could not be, this could not happen. I would not allow it. It would destroy us and destroy the child.
I waged a silent, internal war with myself; seeing the possibilities at a life with a child to call our own and then quickly denouncing those notions as insane and foolish. My head was reeling. I couldn't think. I couldn't act. What should I do? What would I do? How do I get us out of this unholy mess? That was when Heidi spoke. Not to me, but to the child.
"Sogni d'oro, la mia bella bambina. Ti amo, sempre. Sweet dreams, beautiful little girl, I love you, always." Heidi whispered softly, lovingly, to the sleeping child cradled in her arms.
Heidi then looked up to address me. Longing as I have never seen, shining in her eyes.
"Nessuno prenderà quello che è destinato per te. Demetri. No one can take the one who is destined for you," she said to me. A hint of warning laced her tone.
In that moment, I knew I would be a father to the human girl sleeping in my wife's arms and that our lives would be forever changed.
/
After sixteen short years, the time had come where I would be giving up my beloved daughter. I had always envisioned giving her away. I had prepared myself for the day. Those fanciful visions involved white lace, flowers, and a handsome, undeserving man awaiting her arrival at the end of the isle. Instead, I would now be giving her away as a means to save her life, an action born of fear and desperation instead of one of love and devotion. This, I was certain, I was not prepared for.
I would soon be entrusting the Cullen's with the one thing Heidi and I were willing to die for, the one thing we loved more than each other. It was the only way I knew to keep her safe. Protecting her was my duty, as a father. If giving her up was the only way to protect her, then I would do just that.
"Ti amo, la mia bella bambina, sempre," I said to myself as I pulled the car up to the front door of our home.
HPOV
I heard Demetri's footsteps in the foyer. That sound was heaven for me. That sound meant he had survived another day, that he was returning home to us, and that I had just a little longer with my family.
The last few weeks had been a living hell for me. Never knowing when my greatest fears would come to be realized, never knowing when or where to expect the end. If not for Isabella, if not for knowing that I needed to be strong for her sake, I would surely have gone mad. But I needed to be strong. I needed to keep up the pretenses that life was going on around us as it always had. I needed to protect her from the knowledge that the end was near and that her life would soon, forever be changed.
Demetri was suddenly behind me. The flower arrangement I was working on quickly forgotten as his arms wrapped around my waist, his face nuzzled my neck allowing his lips to graze my skin.
"Mmmm, how I missed you, love," he moaned into my neck.
"Perhaps later you can show me just how much I was missed," I teased him.
"Why wait until later? I could surely demonstrate for you here on the kitchen counter," he said.
"Ah, Demetri, as tempting of an offer as that may be, I would rather not have to deal with replacing yet another piece of furniture. And more importantly, your daughter's home," I informed him.
Demetri spun me around to face him. He wore a beautiful smile on his face.
"Isabella's home?" he questioned excitedly.
Our daughter had spent the last two years in the United States enrolled in a boarding school. It broke our hearts the day she came home and announced her intentions of leaving us. But we knew it was inevitable. She was an extremely intelligent young woman with high hopes for her future and this school was necessary in helping to facilitate that future. We reluctantly complied with her wishes. Mainly because we knew distance from us would be just another measure in protecting her.
Isabella wasn't due home until the following week. The school year was coming to an end. I was surprised when she phoned me from the airport that morning and announced she was home. She had been able to convince her professors to allow her to take her exams a week early. She stated it was her surprise gift for us for our 50th wedding anniversary. I, of course, was elated. My baby girl was home.
"Yes, she's home early. A gift for our anniversary," I informed Demetri.
Demetri could barely contain his excitement. His love for his daughter never ceased to amaze me. He gave into her every whim, spoiled her, and showered her with affection. He could deny her nothing. Sometimes I would watch the two of them together, from afar. The two of them shared a connection like nothing I had ever witnessed before. He doted on her endlessly and she worshiped him as though he were a god. I had heard the phrase 'Daddy's Girl' before and thought I understood the definition of it in relation to humans and their offspring. However, seeing it first hand was utterly mind blowing and rendered me speechless.
"Where?" Demetri asked.
"Where else would she be?" I chided him.
"The stable," we both said in unison, laughing with one another.
Demetri rushed out to the stable to find Isabella and welcome her home. I returned to the flower arrangement in front of me.
I found myself wondering if we were making the right choice in asking Carlisle and Esme to take on the responsibility of our daughter's well-being. That was me, the responsible one in this family. Someone had to be after all. Would they eventually come to love her as we did? What would they be willing to sacrifice for her? Would their sacrifice be enough? Would they help her understand why her father and I chose to give her up? Would the Cullen's, themselves, pose a danger to her? No, I couldn't dwell on these things. I wouldn't. I just had to trust my husband's decision. I had to trust that he would do what was best for Isabella. He would only choose what was safe for her. I just hoped the Cullen's understood what they would be agreeing to.
If, Heidi, if they agree with our proposition, I thought to myself. They could very well show up tomorrow and refuse our request. What then? That prospect frightened me more than giving up my child.
Isabella knew what we were, of course. Vampires. She understood the differences between our two kinds. It never seemed to bother her though. It was what she knew, what she had grown up with. She loved us unconditionally and accepted us as her parents.
Even though Isabella loved us and never faulted us for what we were, she had decided long ago that she did not want to become a vampire. She understood what it meant to be human and what she would be giving up if she were to choose to be a vampire. She knew that each moment, each experience she had as a human, was precious because she knew she'd never experience it again in her short human life. She wished for so much more in her life. Love and family, all of the things that came along with being human.
Isabella, while very much human, possessed extraordinary gifts. We could see the potential power in those gifts and knew the outcome for Isabella should the Volturi discover her. Only one thing frightened all of us more than our own deaths-the thought of her being forced to become a vampire.
The Volturi would take all her human hopes and dreams away from her. They would end her human life before she had even begun to live it. As a vampire, her already strong abilities would be that much more powerful. The Volturi would change her. Force her to use her powers against others. No one would ever be able to stand against them with Isabella at their disposal.
I had been considering this possibility for many years, since the moment I realized what our daughter could do.
/
Isabella was four years old. We had just returned home to Italy. We had been living in the United States for the last three years. We were there, at the Volturi's request, to monitor a possible 'situation' in the southern region of the country. We happily took on any assignment that put distance between our family and the Volturi.
Upon returning to our home in Italy, we immediately began planning Isabella's fifth birthday celebration. It was silly I suppose. There were no other children to invite, no friends we could trust to confide in our secret. Only Jasper would attend. But that didn't stop the three of us from planning a party to rival all parties. She deserved nothing less than the best.
Jasper had given her a delicate china tea set for her birthday. Later that evening, after all the festivities were over, Isabella was sitting on the floor in the living room at our feet, playing with her new tea set. As she lifted one of the cups to her mouth, pretending to drink from it, the cup slipped from between her tiny fingers. The cup shattered as it stuck the floor. She began to cry. Jasper attempted to use his powers to calm her but it had no effect. She even complained that Jasper was causing her discomfort. That was when we first began to suspect that she may have the ability to shield herself from our kind's powers.
As Isabella grew older and began forming friendships with classmates and socializing with other humans, we began to notice the profound effect she had on the people around her. She had always been well liked by all, loved deeply by many. Her beauty alone was enough to soften the hardest of hearts.
But there was something different in the way people gravitated towards her. It was as though they were under some kind of spell, intoxicated by her very presence.
I expressed this notion to Demetri. He laughed it off and accused me of reading too much Shakespeare. But I could not contain my suspicions. I went to Isabella and discussed with her why she thought people responded to her in the manner they did. The look on her face was one of guilt and shame. I knew then, that my suspicions were correct.
Isabella explained to me how she had first come to realize that she had some sort of influence over others' feelings towards her. She began recalling a time when she was thirteen years old and had formed a crush on a young boy in her class. I remembered the story all too well. She had spent several weeks in a state of depression because that young boy did not return her affections. He relentlessly teased her and called her names. No amount of cookies or chocolates would console her. Every tear she shed broke my heart. I admitted to having less-than-motherly thoughts towards that wretch of a boy; thoughts involving a bit of bloodletting-not much, just a few drops.
Then one day it had ended just as quickly as it had begun. Isabella came home from school in a joyous mood announcing the boy was now her boyfriend. I asked her what had changed his mind. At that time, she simply stated 'I made him love me.' Then I dismissed it as just something a child would say and didn't press for details but later I understood the full force of her statement.
Isabella compared it loosely to what Jasper could do; manipulating peoples' emotions, but it was more precise and focused only on peoples' feelings towards her. She simply willed it and it happened. She quipped that she felt like a character from A Midsummer's Night Dream; 'Puck run amok with the love drops'. I laughed, recalling how her father had the audacity to accuse me of reading too much Shakespeare.
After this revelation, her father and I began teaching her how to control her powers. We were determined to instill in her, a code of ethic, in regards to her abilities. She soon came to understand that it was in her power to take from people, one of their most basic freedoms, freewill. She learned the differences between using her power against people and using her power to help people.
Demetri and I once discussed the possibility of her having used her power on us years ago in that house of horror we found her in as a baby. We quickly dismissed that notion. No, it wasn't a spell, it wasn't magic, and it wasn't love drops in our eyes. It was simply our destiny.
/
"Mom, is there any mushroom ravioli leftover from last night?" Isabella questioned as she came bounding through the door. He father following closely behind.
"Disgusting! How you can even bring yourself to swallow something called a mushroom is beyond all reasoning, Isabella," Demetri teased her, "And all this time I thought my sense of good taste was rubbing off on you."
Isabella groaned, "Please, dad, let's not even go there. You'll ruin my appetite. Mom, please make him stop." She gave me a sly smile and wink.
"I'll heat some dinner for you, dear. Go upstairs and wash up," I instructed her.
As she turned to head towards her room, I called her back.
"Oh, Isabella, your father and I almost forgot to tell you," I said, "We are expecting company tomorrow."
FYI – Pics of their home in Italy are on my profile page. The Volturi must pay well. Wonder if their hiring?
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