A/N- So... it may have accidentally kind of been three weeks since I last uploaded? I'm so sorry, there really aren't any excuses, I'm just lazy and terrible lol. I have to say though, I think the once a week schedule I tried to put myself on was a little unreasonable. These chapters are all coming out like 5-7k and with school I just can't write that much in a week the majority of the time, and I don't want to have to sacrifice quality for faster updates (not saying my work is of any quality at all, but I spend a lot of time writing and rewriting this so it comes out as good as I have the ability to make it and I won't be able to do that as much if I put myself on a strict weekly schedule). If I have any readers left I hope this is ok for you.
The amazing reviewer came back and I'd like to reply to them so I'll just do that now
Thank you for saying that about my characterization of Rosalie! Her and Bree's interactions were the ones I spent the most time on so I'm happy to see you enjoyed that. I think she's such an interesting character and it really does irk me when I see people limit her to the role of The Bitchy Blonde and never give her any development. So thanks haha. As for the Seth stuff, I did try and make some bits of it awkward (i.e. the 'saying goodbye' scene) but I'm sorry if you didn't like any of the Seth bits I put in. I really love Seth and I wanted to incorporate him into the story somehow, so maybe that was just me being selfish and wanting him in there lol. I did try and stay with the characterization he's given in canon though. With the Renee bit, honestly I know it was stretching canon a little but I felt like Bree would have needed some sort of confidence boost to her abilities of self control before the wedding in order to resist everyone's blood and that's just the way it came into my head. But thank you so much for saying my story made you happy, that's honestly such a lovely thing to hear and it brightened up my day.
Anyway hopefully you like this chapter and please leave a review if you have the time. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 4 - Stolen
Five thousand, nine hundred and sixty-one seconds was the amount of time I was in that silent, empty darkness. It had only taken my vampire-fast brain a few moments to realize I was very possibly going to be confined to the Alec-induced blackness for a while, and that if I didn't do something, anything to occupy my mind I'd end up spending an indefinite amount of time thinking, rethinking and then overthinking my situation. So I counted. It'd been a good idea too, that was until I felt soft vibrations under me and heard the low hum of a car engine and had it quickly dawn on me that I had no idea what I was going to do.
I snapped my eyes open and gasped as my senses came back to me at once. I was lying down across what felt like leather, so I pushed myself up into a defensive sitting position at supernatural speed and wildly darted my eyes around. They fell on the only other person with me.
"What the hell are you doing?" I spat. My tone was laced with venom and obviously livid. Alec looked up from the book he'd been reading and at me, his face a picture of apathy.
"Hello to you too." The boy's tone sounded uninterested and bored.
"Why am I here?" My voice wasn't as strong as it had been before, but it was still clearly angry. Alec shut his book and gave a large eye roll, as if my question was somehow stupid or unreasonable.
"You've caught my attention and I'm not entirely sure why. I'm taking you back to Volterra with me so I can work out what exactly it is about you that draws me to you. As soon as I've done that you will leave." My mouth hung open as my mind raced with the millions of questions his short statement had raised. What did he mean by 'caught my attention'? Was this why he'd let me live a month before when the Volturi were going to kill me? Where the hell were we now? Were we somehow already in Italy? I paused to try and work out what my next move should be.
"You can't make me do any of this." I said. "Your master, Aro, is a friend of the Cullens' and I doubt he'd be pleased if he found out you'd kidnapped the newest and youngest member of their coven." I tried to add a note of menace to my voice in an attempt to seem in charge of the discussion, infuriatingly, however, my words came out high-pitched and tight. In truth I was terrified of Alec, he would kill me in an instant if I pushed the wrong buttons and he'd do it with a smile on his face. I couldn't admit that though. Not if I wanted to be taken seriously.
"I'm not kidnapping you. You can get out of this car whenever and run home right now, I'm not going to stop you." My brow furrowed. Alec was smart, he had to be if he'd managed to survive in the Volturi guard, so surely he would be able to work out that I wasn't going to go through with his little plan of my own free will. "But," he continued, as if he'd read my mind, "I think it would be greatly... beneficial to you and the rest of Saint Carlisle's disciples if you agreed to come back to Volterra with me." I remained confused for a second longer before it hit me: the relationship between the Cullens and the Volturi had been growing strained recently. If I didn't do what Alec wanted me to, the relationship between the two covens would become even more broken which would never be good for my family who were ultimately not as powerful as the Volturi.
"So you're not kidnapping me, but blackmailing me into doing what you say?" My stomach turned. It didn't matter what he said, he wasn't giving me a choice.
"No, I'm persuading you. There's a difference." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This man - no, this boy - was sick. Completely and utterly sick. "So, what are you going to do?" He asked. I cast my eyes down, knowing there was no point in deliberation, I was never going to throw my family under the bus.
"You already know." I looked up at the teenager from under my lashes, expecting to see at least a hint of smugness or triumph on his face, but instead his features were straight and neutral, not a trace of expression.
"I thought you'd see things my way." He said, his voice as unreadable as his face. "We'll be arriving at the airport shortly. Ten minutes at most." I almost sneered at that - had the boy ever met a newborn before? I wouldn't have been able to keep myself under control in an airport, much less in a small, stuffy plane.
"I'm a newborn, I won't be able to control myself in a plane full of humans." Alec looked over at me like I was a flaming idiot - I'd expect no more reaction if I'd suggested that vampires don't like blood. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but it got to me a little bit, having him stare at me as if I was stupid. I quickly promised myself that I wouldn't let him upset me again, if I was to survive any sort of prolonged period around this boy then I'd have to develop a thicker skin.
"We're going on a private jet." He spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well... I don't have my passport with me. I won't be able to travel without a passport." Alec rolled his eyes and reached into a pocket of his dark grey coat. He pulled out an american passport and handed it to me. I opened it hesitantly to see my details written down, all correct with the exception of my name which had been put as 'Bree Voltur', and the passport photo I'd had taken a month or so before when the Cullens were forging documents for me. My heart sank, it seemed Alec really had prepared. I wordlessly handed the passport back to him and he, after pocketing it, returned to his book, signalling that the conversation was over. After a couple of minutes of empty silence, I risked a glance over at the boy. His eyes were still firmly locked on the pages of his hardback, so I let myself look a little longer, taking him in. He was physically young, around sixteen, and had dark chocolate hair that fell across his face. He was objectively handsome, I knew that, but his features were too close to Jane's for my liking. I couldn't look at him without seeing a ghost of the she-devil who'd tortured me for shits and giggles.
It wasn't long before we pulled up outside an airport. For a second, I was fine, but the moment I inhaled everything went wrong. My senses were overloaded with the scents of thousands of humans and the deafening sounds of their heartbeats. I clutched my throat in agony, the thirst burning as strong as it had my first day as a vampire.
"I can't go in there." I managed to splutter. Just as I finished my sentence, the doors to the airport slid open for a family of humans coming out of it, causing the fire to rage even stronger than before. I began to cry tearlessly from the pain, it was too much for me to cope with. The wedding had been difficult, but this was something else entirely. It was like how the hug from Renee felt, except this time instead of one person, it was at an entire airport of intoxicating, blood filled humans. I looked up at Alec, silently begging him for help. His face showed that he was taken aback, it was the most expression I'd seen on him so far.
"Ok, ok, calm down. Let me just..." The almost clear mist that I was all too familiar with creeped out of the boy's fingertips. I cringed away instinctively, but once the mist reached me, instead of spreading up my body and making its way into my face, it went directly toward my nose and, upon reaching it, down my throat. Almost immediately, the pain subsided, but it wasn't just the airport-induced burn that was gone- he'd taken everything. For the past six months of my life, there had been a subtle yet constant heat in my throat, an unfortunate and irritating side effect of being a newborn, but Alec's mist had removed it, leaving nothing but a feeling of cool emptiness behind. At first I didn't like the lack of pain due to how very alien it was to me, but after a few seconds of adjustment, it was liberating.
"Are you alright now?" Alec asked.
"This is... wow." I breathed, ignoring his question. I didn't speak again, I was too focused on the blissful removal of pain to even think about conversation, but Alec quickly grew restless and broke me out of my haze.
"Get your bag, we're going." His voice had a clear note of irritation to it and I, having snapped back to earth, didn't want to make one of the most dangerous vampires on earth angry, so obeyed. I pulled my backpack over one of my shoulders and nervously followed him in to the airport.
It only took around an hour to get checked in and arrive at the plane, but it felt like a lot longer. Almost every stare in the airport was following us and I, being my annoyingly shy self, was made wildly uncomfortable by this. I'd hated being the center of attention more than most things in both my human and vampire lives, so having thousands of pairs of eyes locked on to me, scrutinizing every move I made, was not exactly what I found enjoyable. That was only half of the problem though. Through the entire hour the pair of us had been in the airport, Alec hadn't said a word to me, and that deeply bothered me. I wasn't sure why, I wanted nothing to do with this spoiled little boy who thought someone 'catching his attention' was reason enough to kidnap them, he was everything I hated in a person, but still, somehow I was disheartened by his apparent indifference. I hated it and I hated my eager-to-please nature.
After what could have been years of showing my passport, being stared at, not talking and, of course, being patted down by a man in his fifties who I could've sworn I saw wink at Alec, we were picked up by a car that drove us to the private jet we were taking to Italy. From the outside, the plane looked pretty normal, if a little small, but as soon as I stepped in I could see where the Volturi had spent money. The interior was all white plushy armchairs and soft cream carpets, with flowers on every possible surface and honey colored wood accents. There was a full sized couch opposite a massive built-in TV, fitted with every games console imaginable on one end and a fully-stocked bar on the other (which was pointless considering none of the Volturi would be able to drink anything from a bar. They really were made of money). It was a picture of luxury. An air hostess showed us to our seats, putting me next to the window and Alec beside me.
The airplane soon began to roll along the tarmac, quickly gaining speed until it took off into the sky. I watched as the world below me grew smaller and smaller before we went above the clouds and all I could see was white in every direction. It was nice to look out of the window at the cottony world beyond the plane for a while, but with my newborn attention span the novelty of that soon wore off. I sat back in my seat and waited for the flight to be over.
After almost thirteen hours we touched down in Florence Airport. The journey had been uncomfortable in more ways than one; aside from having to sit in what was essentially a big metal box all night, something which any vampire would dislike, Alec hadn't made any attempts at conversation and I was too scared of him to try, so we'd sat in silence through the whole plane ride. It was awkward, to say the least. Maybe he hadn't felt it, in all his Volturi majesty, but I certainly had.
We checked out of the airport and were met by another expensive-looking car driven by a middle aged man with graying-brown hair and a surly disposition. He drove us through Italy for a little over an hour before dropping us off in on a dimly lit street corner somewhere in the city. I was confused at this, when Alec had told me he was taking me to Volterra with him I'd assumed he meant to the castle, but we were surrounded by shops and cafes.
"Why are we here?" I asked. Alec ignored me, instead making his way up the street with his eyes on the ground. "Why are we here?" I repeated, following him as he walked. He ignored me again and turned in to an alleyway. Alec led me a few more paces down the alleyway before stopping dead in his tracks.
"Get down this." He lifted the grille off of a drainage hole in front of him and gestured down to the darkness beneath it. I hesitated for a second but reluctantly did as he said, it wasn't like I had a choice after all. I jumped down the hole and landed on a concrete floor around twenty feet down. I was standing in a tunnel, wide enough for maybe three average-sized vampires standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get through but only a little over a foot higher than I was. It was completely unlit and would've been impossible to see in had I been human, but fortunately my enhanced vampire senses meant I could pick up my surroundings. Alec landed beside me. I opened my mouth to ask why we were there, but he got in before I could.
"Stay close to me and don't even think about running away, these tunnels were built to be impossible for any intruders, human or vampire, to navigate them, you'll get lost in second a if you go off on your own." His voice was stern, cold and intimidating. If I'd had any plans about making a break for it, they were gone now.
I shadowed Alec as we worked our way through the complicated twists and turns of the tunnels. I tried to memorize the way we were going in case I ever needed to escape, counting how many lefts and rights we took, but even Alec took a couple of wrong turns and had to take us back the other way, so I wasn't confident in my idea. Eventually, Alec stopped us under a metal grille, similar to the one we'd entered the tunnels through, except this one was painted with a gold 'V', like the pendant on Alec's Volturi necklace.
"We're here." He said. He started to climb the iron rungs on the wall of the tunnel, toward the grille above him. Something told me that if I wanted to leave, that would be my last chance. After I got into the castle, there would be guards upon guards who would be able to stop me from getting away, I wouldn't be able to leave until Alec let me. I looked back at the tunnels behind me, and then up at the teenage boy above. With a sigh, I put my hands on the rungs and began to climb. I had to do this. For my family. In the two short months I'd been with them they'd already given me everything I'd been craving since I was a child and more, staying with the Volturi for a while was the least I could do to thank them. Besides, Alec had been right before, I would get lost in the tunnels almost instantly. There was no point in trying to run away.
Alec lifted the grille and pulled himself up out of the tunnel. I paused but followed behind him and placed the grille back over the hole. I looked around. We were standing in what looked like a reception area. There were chairs dotted around the room and a large desk with a human woman sat behind it. I touched my throat automatically and waited for my throat to burn, but felt nothing. I was confused momentarily but then remembered Alec was still using his power on me. I'd already gotten used to having it there. That was going to be a pain when he had to take it away.
We walked along corridors and up flights of stairs. I didn't bother counting which turns we were taking this time, there didn't seem much point. Alec stopped us outside a large wooden door with the word 'Alec' engraved in the center. He pulled out a key and used it to open the door. We both went inside.
"These are my chambers. You'll be sharing them with me while you stay here." He said. I didn't answer, just took in the room I'd been led into. It was huge, at least three times the size of my room back home. It had a running theme of crimson and black throughout it, from the walls to the antique furniture. I smirked slightly, what other colors would the world's most dangerous vampire's room be? I sat down on the king sized bed but then remembered that Alec was a vampire who didn't sleep and therefore would only have one use for a bed. I stood up again.
"That's fine." I said quietly. There was a heavy silence before Alec spoke again.
"I have to go on a five hour patrol now. Do what you want while I'm gone, I don't care, just make sure you're back here when I return." I nodded. Alec walked over to the dark wood closet on the opposite side of the room and began to rummage through it. "I advise that you don't leave this room while I'm not with you, but if you do then you'll need my scent on you." He tossed a plain black sweater onto a couch. "Put that on if you go out."
"Thank you." My voice came out even smaller than it had the last time I spoke. I mentally kicked myself for coming across so obviously terrified, it would only give him more confidence that he had total power over me. I didn't stand a chance of surviving this place. I dared a look up at Alec. His features were cold and stony.
"Just try not to get killed." He spat before turning and slamming the door behind him as he left the room. As soon as he was gone, the burn in my throat came back. It wasn't the worst it had ever been, but it was hard to ignore. I felt a tug of sadness, if I'd been home right then I would've gone hunting with Emmett and Jasper to get rid of the thirst. We'd have played 'who can find the biggest grizzly' before going back to the house and snuggling on the sofa with Esme and Alice to watch Grey's Anatomy, even though Alice had known everything that was going to happen for months and had to constantly bite her tongue to stop herself from spoiling it. After that I might have gone back up to my room to play The Sims on the new laptop Edward had bought me, or maybe I'd have gone to Carlisle's study and see if he was free for another history lesson. I could've also spent time getting to know Rosalie better since she'd finally accepted me, she might start teaching me how to fix up cars or give me tips on how to avoid becoming Alice's mannequin. I bit my lip as I felt a lump that wasn't really there form in my throat. I missed my family. I hadn't even been gone for a day yet, but the new world I'd been taken to was so alien, so far from the comfort of the Cullens that it felt like I'd been away from them forever. Not to mention the fact that I had no idea how long it would be before I saw them again, Alec had been as vague as possible when talking about why I was with him and when I could leave, it was possible that I wouldn't see the outside of the Volturi's castle for years. I sat down in one of the expensive looking armchairs that had been dotted around the edges of the room and unzipped my backpack in the hope that maybe one of the books I'd packed for Alaska would distract me from the cocktail of sadness, thirst and anxiety I had bubbling away in my stomach. I dug past the spare jeans, t-shirt, hoodie and underwear to the bottom of my backpack. Sitting there I saw the two books I'd brought with me, my i-pod and my phone. I narrowed my eyes slightly, I'd almost forgotten I'd packed my cell. I pulled it out of my bag, forgetting about the reading I was going to do, and switched it on. I wasn't certain it would even work when I was out away from America, but I had to try. My contact list flicked up and I scrolled through, until I came to Carlisle's name. I pressed the little green button on the keypad and waited. There was nothing but silence for at least ten seconds, but just as I was about to give up and switch my phone back off the ring came through. It was answered almost immediately.
"Bree? Bree is that you?" Carlisle asked. My heart sung at the sound of his voice, it was nice to hear something that was so familiar when I was in a world that was so foreign to me.
"Carlisle! Yes, it's me!" I exclaimed, probably a little louder than I should have.
"What's going on? Tanya called and told us you'd gone missing and Alice saw you getting on a plane with Alec from the Volturi. Are you safe?"
"I don't know, it's all so confusing. The Denalis and I stopped to hunt a few hours after we left the wedding, but Alec was there and he used his power on me. I'm in Volterra now, we got a plane here from Vancouver. He's gone at the moment, he said he went on patrol or something, but I'm in his room."
"Did he say why he took you? How long you'd be gone?"
"Kind of, it was vague. He said I'd caught his attention and he wanted to work out why, and that I'd leave when he figured it out." There was a pause. I couldn't hear anything down the line. "Carlisle?"
"Bree, I want you to listen very closely. You're going to go and find Aro and tell him what's happened. There's no way he's authorized Alec forcing you to stay in the castle with him, he wouldn't want-" I cut Carlisle off.
"He didn't force me to stay here though." There was another silence.
"What?"
"Alec gave me the choice to go home I just... couldn't." I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. I couldn't tell them the truth, that Alec had blackmailed me into staying with him, that he'd given me the choice between going home and destroying the Cullen-Volturi alliance or staying and salvaging it. If I did tell them, it would only do what Alec told me would happen if I went home before he wanted me to - ruin our relationship with the Volturi.
"Why couldn't you?" Carlisle persisted.
"I can't say." There was a shuffling over the line, like someone was snatching the phone away from Carlisle.
"Bree, sweetie, please come home. Whatever he's said or done, we can fix it, okay? We can all fix it together." Esme said. Her tone was soft and motherly, but there was an undercurrent of panic.
"I can't, I'm sorry." I forced the words out through gritted teeth. I wanted to accept Esme's offer and leave the castle more than anything, but I knew I couldn't. I had to stay.
"Yes you can, we're all here for you and-"
"She's not going to leave." Alice interrupted Esme. Her voice was further away from the receiver, she must have been on the other side of the room to Esme. By the sounds of it they were all there, bar Edward and Bella of course, listening to what was going on. There was more movement and when Alice's voice came back it was louder and closer. "Bree, my visions don't tell me why you're there, I just know that as it is now, you're not coming back, well, not today at least. I can also tell from your face that you don't want to be in that castle." I quickly adjusted my posture and expression, I hadn't thought about Alice being able to see me. "If you just told us why you can't come back, we could sort something out and get you home. We can't help you if you don't tell us what's happening." I bit my cheek even harder, I would've drawn blood if I was human. I was so tempted to give in and tell them what was happening, to run out of the castle as fast as I could, find the nearest beach and swim home, but I couldn't. I needed to protect the people who'd protected me.
"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I really can't tell you, and I can't come home." Cries of exasperation came through the phone, but no one spoke up to try and convince me to do what they wanted.
"Okay." Carlisle said. "If you're sure."
"Thank you, Carlisle." There was a short silence. "I'd better go, my phone's about to die." I lied. I needed to get out of the conversation. Maybe I could phone them back the next day when they weren't so anxious. Their distress only made me more scared, and I couldn't deal with that right then.
"Please be careful, Bree." Esme said, her voice full of maternal worry.
"I will be. I swear."
"Seriously, Bree." Carlisle added. "The Volturi's castle isn't a safe place, least of all when you're staying there with a vampire as deadly as Alec. You're an intelligent girl and I know you can do this but please just think twice before everything and always stay wary."
"I know, I promise I won't do anything stupid." I took a deep breath before my last words to the Cullens. "Goodbye, I love you. All of you."I took the phone from my ear and ended the call. The silence that followed pushed down on me from every angle as I felt an unmistakable sink of despair in my stomach. For the first time in months, I was completely and unequivocally alone.
A/N - Hope you liked this! I'd just like to quickly give credit to panlight/keepingupwiththecullens on tumblr for the phrase 'Saint Carlisle's disciples', I thought it was really funny and definitely something certain members of the guard would say. If you haven't heard of panlight or their blog (which you most likely have) then go and check them out because they're one of my favourite blogs and they're great for twilight fans. But thank you for reading and please leave a review if you can. Bye!
