AN: I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my beta's for all their hard work and help to take this story from 'meh' to 'WOW'. Their help has been brilliant, whether it be with my grammar, criticism or expanding descriptions and dialogue improvements. Those brilliant beta's are:
A Little Birdie Tells Me
fri13girl
The Quote Queen
RKD-CULLEN
LadyGrimR
All these beta's bring their own flavor to help enhance my story to what you are reading here.
Now that I have given credit where credit is due, on with the chapter.

I arrived back at the castle just as dawn was breaking on the horizon. I was happy I could help that family.

'And of course the meal helped too,' I added to myself.

Aro detests the fact that I hunt criminals, and even more my refusal to feed on the people that Heidi brings in. It is a small victory to annoy him at any turn, and he allows my feeding habits since it is only my honor that keeps me loyal to him and his brothers.

I supposed Aro was getting a little twitchy that my time serving them was coming to an end. And the knowledge that threatening the Cullens again to keep me bound here for another century or two, will only result to his head sitting beside Maria's in my bedroom.

Aro had a thirst for power, an even greater zest for collecting power that was only one of its kind. He has already tried to have Chelsea bind me to him on many accounts. It had turned out to be an epic failure on his part at every instance. I had taken a great pleasure from his look of astonishment when I had finally told him that if he ever tried that on me again, or had Chelsea use her gift on anyone, vampire or human whom I claim as mine; I just might find myself shielding Marcus.

Aro knew that both Marcus and I were painfully aware of the fact that he was the one to kill Marcus's mate, who was also Aro's sister. The only thing keeping Aro alive was Chelsea's hold on him. His look of utter horror would have had me in hysterics, had it not been for the impassive mask that I had learned to carve for myself in the time I spent with Victoria.

Victoria, yet again, was another of Edward's fuck-ups. She tortured me for three years; torture that included rape, genital mutilation, beatings, cutting, having venom enter my system through a bite only to have it removed 10 minutes later and almost any other physical torture you could imagine.

The venom was her favorite form of physical torture. She indulged in this at least once a day. The trace amount of venom left behind slowly began to change me. She was thrilled with this discovery, as it led to my body being able to withstand more punishment.

The psychological damage was another thing all together. I was forced to watch as one by one everyone that I had ever cared about, died in the most painful of ways; the newer wolves that phased after my capture, took their last breath, blaming and hating me. The deaths of the wolves were the worst to watch.

As far as the punishment went, they suffered before their hearts gave out. But the most heart breaking was those of Kim, Emily, and even my mother. They all were heavily pregnant when they were brought in for me to watch them suffer.

Edward and Alice weren't affected by Victoria's revenge, yet every non-vampire was.

'Their time will come,' I thought viciously; I've had 350 years to plan my revenge.

Victoria met the same fate as Maria, except her head is mounted on my wall; Maria's sits on the mantel.

I was roused from my musings by Jane. She sneered at me, "Master Aro requests your presence in the throne room."

What could I say, she didn't like me and the feeling was mutual, even though we each had very different reasons. Jane hated the fact that I didn't always obey her master, and that I didn't show him what she deemed to be the proper respect. I refused to abase myself before the pompous ass, and I think it offended her sensibilities.

On the contrary, I found Jane to be the spoiled little brat who ran to Aro if she couldn't get her own way. Aro obviously indulged her, if he could; but he couldn't make me lower my shield around Felix and Demetri, just so Jane could use her gift on them to watch them in pain. I had a feeling that when I did leave this place, those two would follow. I even discovered recently that they too had given up Heidi's 'fish' in favor of my criminal-only-diet, much to Aro's displeasure.

I arrived at the throne room. Standing before the brothers, I simply nodded my head at them in acknowledgement, as opposed to the full on bowing and going to my knees. My lips twitched slightly at the grimace on Aro's face as I once again refused to partake in all his pomp and circumstance.

Caius almost smiled; I think if he did, the guards would die from shock. Caius and I have a mutual respect, maybe even mild affection, for each other. However, anything more than mild is beyond what either of us is capable of feeling. It developed when he decided he would take over my training, and made me his personal guard after he had found me so weak that my shield could no longer protect me from Jane.

I was lying prostrate on the dungeon floor with my arms and legs removed, and hadn't fed in almost six months. This was about 100 years into my time here. Jane was having fun using her gift on me; yet I still refused to utter a sound, nevertheless, my face betrayed the pain that I was in. He ordered Jane to leave and to stand guard outside the door; no one was to enter until he allowed it.

Caius approached me slowly, and told me that he was going to reattach my limbs and then fetch one of the human scum from the cells to feed me. Once I had fed, he asked me how I was able to withstand Jane's power so silently.

"It is simple, really," I told him once I'd regained my voice, "Jane's power feels like venom running through a human's veins. I had felt that at least once a day for over three years and that wasn't even the only physical pain inflicted on me at the time. I was able to stop reacting to pain within the first two months."

I told him that it took three days for normal vampires to turn, but the process could take as long as seven days. I had felt the pain of the change while under torture for over three years.

"Not days," I repeated to him, "Years."

Then I told him that despite my sufferings, I was determined not to give into Victoria's desire to hear me scream, and by some miracle, I did it. She wanted to hear me scream, but I was too stubborn to give her what she wanted.

"Now I have her head mounted on my wall. I think her red hair adds that little touch of color that my cell needs." I cocked my head thoughtfully.

Caius had chuckled softly at my last statement, but had looked at me with slight awe.

He had said to me, "Isabella, I am dumbfounded at what you have survived. I think it may have been by sheer stubbornness, which I can relate to." He laughed a short laugh, "I remember when you were first brought in to see us; you were still human. Barely, but still human. You stood in a room full of vampires with your back straight and your head held high. I was surprised at how well you held yourself and the confidence that radiated from you," then his voice fell into a whisper, "I was stunned again when you offered yourself in place of the Cullens, so that they wouldn't have to suffer."

I had gulped; my throat gone dry.

Caius continued, "I also agreed with your assessment that many of them would not have survived the fifty years without lighting their own pyre and stepping into it. But that does not mean that you should be tortured more, just because Aro wants to indulge Jane. I can see you have a warrior's heart, and if you agree, I will train you to be one of my personal guards for the remainder of your time here."

I had listened to the king talk and found myself thinking that he was not cruel as he was perceived, but he was exacting and he gave no second chances. He valued warriors, those who were willing to fight for what they believe in, and yet, he appreciated stubbornness.

"Caius, I will not lie and promise you that I will be a good little vampire," I took in a deep breath, not because I needed it, but because it felt much better now, "However, I can promise you that I will follow your orders if they do not contradict my morals. I will show you respect, as you have earned it, but I will never bow down to you as though you are a god. I will not worship you. I will not tolerate any kind of manipulation." I paused to watch him looking intently at me, and smiled tentatively, "If you think you can deal with that, I believe we will have a rather agreeable relationship."

I had proceeded to study him as he mulled over my speech. At last, he asked, tapping his chin, "And what will go against your morals?"

"I will not do anything to harm a pure soul. That is the main one. And to give you an idea about why I'm down here, it was because Aro wanted me to kill off a coven just because he wanted the gift one of their vampires had. This gift protected them from the rest of the guard, so I was sent. I was told falsified stories of crimes they had not committed, and merely ordered to kill on site."

Yes, I could remember Aro's anger very well, when he discovered that I hadn't taken him at his word, and observed the coven instead. I had watched them, and they had appeared an innocent coven, who kept to themselves and lived peacefully. I had then approached them to inform them of the target on their back and to be careful before returning to the castle.

Soon I was called back to see Aro, and found that his little pet witch had been sent to follow me. I was sent to the dungeon for refusing to follow a direct order; that was not the first time I had been sent there for similar reasons.

I had explained it all to Caius, and shrugged and said, "So, you see, if your orders contradict my morals, I will have no problem defying you." I told him like it was a really simple concept to grasp.

We had talked long into the night after that.

That's how it had all begun; I was trained by Caius and soon became part of his personal guard.

The doors banged open, bringing my attention back to the present, as an arrogant vampire walked in to the throne room. He walked up to the brothers, and bowed lowly,where he stayed on a bended knee. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. He began carrying on about his mate being torn apart by werewolves, how they did not need the moon to change, how they were just passing through, and how there was no warning whatsoever.

'It sounds like shifters,' I mused to myself, 'but if it was, then the area would be marked.'

Caius knew of the shifter packs as well. I had informed him about the La Push pack before he wanted to go after a different guardian tribe. However, I was able to convince him to leave them be, as they did not hunt vampires down, but only protected their own tribe. The area was too well-marked to warn of the danger, and he agreed that any vampire that entered their land deserved the fate that came their way.

If this nomad was telling the truth about the shifters, then these shifters seemed to have gone rogue...

'...Or he is lying about receiving no warning,' I growled to myself, my eyes narrowing.

"Where did this occur?" Aro asked the nomad.

"Washington USA, near Forks."