AN: Once again, thank you for all the lovely reviews, I really appreciate the feedback, even if it's really short. One thing I saw a lot of reviewers worried about is that I won't update. I've been updating rather regularly, and plan to do my best, but I am a college student, so keep that in mind around finals week ;). Also, I am trying to stay a few chapters ahead in my writing before I post them here, just to make sure I don't have any continuity problems, so I already have a few more chapters completed than what is posted here, I just want to make sure they're as professional-looking as possible before they hit the screen.

...And now we get ready for some action... *rubs hands together plotting a dastardly plan*. Once again, I don't own anything you recognize, and if I did-boy oh boy would Twilight be a different story... ;) Also, we'll be introducing an OC in this chapter, and I hope you like her.

Chapter Three: Confrontation

Edward was glaring at Aro with a feral intensity, his body coiled and poised to fight, but his eyes were betraying something that looked akin to fear. Not a fear of physical danger, but a psychological fear; a fear that Aro would reveal something I wasn't supposed to know. My breathing had gone shallow and ragged as their eyes bored into each other's from all be ambient tension in the room, and my mind was surging wildly, trying to wrap my head around the fact that there was something big—huge, judging by Aro's unsubtly sour expression—that Edward was hiding from me. Something that maybe, he'd been hiding from me for a long time.

I was so focused trying to piece out what sort of secret Edward might be harboring that I practically jumped out of my skin when Aro's cheery voice suddenly cut through the heavy silence. "Edward, why don't you enlighten, our dear Bella—it simply wouldn't do to have such 'strong bonds' severed by petty secrets, wouldn't you agree?" The words "strong bonds" had rolled with the same buttery smoothness off of his tongue as the rest but had a distinctly sarcastic flavor to them which set me on edge. Though the disturbing grin which suddenly burst across his face, scared me more. His white teeth were bared ferociously in neat little sparkling white rows.

Edward's cold eyes narrowed further, and I yelped in fright as I was thrust violently behind him—an action which was meant to place me protectively out of the way. But instead, it sent me crashing to the unforgiving stone floor in a heap of bruises, and a jarring, throbbing pain in my left arm. It all happened so fast, but I swore I'd heard a loud crack when my arm collided with the pavement.

I bit my tongue so hard in my attempt to keep myself from crying out that I drew blood. Red dribbled ungracefully down my chin, and suddenly all eyes in the room were on me—brimming with unbridled hunger.

Before Edward or anyone else could react, Aro rushed behind him in a flash and gracefully dropped into a kneeling position at my side, his eyes swimming with worry and arms outstretched to his sides with palms facing outward, as if to halt anyone else's approach. I watched, through my pain-induced haze, a flicker of comprehension pass over the faces of everyone in the room. At once all except Edward and Alice took a collective step back from where I lay, whimpering and fighting back the tears threatening to spill over my cheeks.

Edward rapidly turned to face Aro and growled loudly, ready to pounce. Before he could make his move, Alice lithely jumped on him from behind and wrestled him with her tiny, but powerful gloved hands into a tight headlock. Her black eyes hungrily passed over the blood leaking from my lip for a fraction of a second, before she snapped them shut and immediately stopped breathing. As she held her painted lips firmly sealed, Edward struggled fiercely to be released, but Alice refused to relent, fastening her little arms even tighter around his pale neck and shrieking out, "No, Edward! You'll kill her!"

Edward's expression held no indication that he'd heard Alice. But after a fleeting glance at Aro, something in the ancient vampire's mind caused him to cease thrashing in her arms and suddenly he went painfully still. My eyes darted between him and the powerful vampire kneeling beside me, whose gaze travelled quickly over my prone figure, seemingly trying to assess the damage that had been done. My skin turned feverish under his close scrutiny, and I tried not to wince at the pulsing agony in my left arm—his eyes on me were calculating, but absolutely beautiful and I hated the idea of looking away. They lacked the cruel amusement I'd been expecting, and instead, they were filled with warm concern. And although I could tell that he was well aware of the fact that I was bleeding, and there definitely was a part of him which was enticed by my blood, I somehow knew that my blood wasn't what he was after at the moment.

Aro sighed like a parent utterly exasperated by childish antics, and calmly rested a hand on the sleeve of my left arm, which was bent at an awkward angle at my side. As the temperature of his icy hand permeated the fabric, the heat of the swelling appendage rapidly decreased. I tensed as I worried about my mind being exposed to his gift when there was clearly nothing I could do to protest—until I realized that he probably couldn't see anything with the barrier my sleeve provided against my bare skin. After a brief pause, He drew his hand away quickly and turned his head sharply towards the crowd of vampires converged anxiously near the ornate wooden thrones.

Marcus still seemed utterly bored, despite the recent commotion, and his eyes were thickly clouded with disinterest as his thin chin rested in his palm. To emphasize his nonchalance towards the recent commotion even more, he gazed off in the distance at nothing in particular, instead of watching the dramatic scene in the center of the room. Cauis, on the other hand, watched Aro and me intently with a look of savage glee, his pale, spidery hands clasped tightly under his chin. His robe-shrouded feet were flat on the stone floor beneath him ready to leap into the middle of the action if anything happened and it was clear from his fearsome expression that he was looking forward to a bloodbath.

I desperately hoped it didn't come to that.

As I struggled to swallow upon seeing Caius' excitement for violence, Aro's penetrating red eyes turned away from his brothers and landed on a woman of average height, perhaps an inch or two taller than me, among the crowd. She had deep brunette hair that fell perfectly straight past her knees and wore a long black dress, which ghosted just a hair's breadth above the chalky floor. The sumptuous gown covered practically everything—it was high-necked, long-sleeved—but it was very tight. Except where it flared out in sharp, crisp pleats at the bottom, the dress was flush against her dramatic curves, and I once again was reminded that I was hideous in comparison. The Volturi crest gleamed brilliantly where it rested atop large round breasts, which strained against the fabric covering them, and her face broke into a stunning smile as she saw that Aro was looking at her.

"Vera," he addressed her calmly. "It seems that our guest forgot that his beloved was so fragile and behaved carelessly." Aro snarled the word "forgot" with obvious disbelief and distaste and Edward responded with a low growl of his own. "Although I normally prefer for people to endure the negative consequences of their own actions..." he stole a deprecating look at Edward before continuing: "...Our dear Bella has a broken arm, which needs your attention immediately."

Vera's smile widened into a Cheshire-cat-like grin, and she sprung across the room to my side immediately. The motion was a cross between floating and skipping and it made her impossibly long hair toss in gorgeous chocolate waves. Alice's steely gaze followed Vera as she neared us. But the darker-haired girls's porcelain doll-like features betrayed absolutely nothing—neither fear nor relief—as the woman knelt beside me, the pleats of her luxurious dress fanning out around her in a pool of glossy satin.

Without a word, Vera drew back the scratchy sleeve covering my left arm. As she reached out with a delicate hand to grasp at the bare skin of the arm she had just exposed, at first I was inclined to panic, since I suspected that she also possessed a tactile power and was going to use it on me. But just before our flesh collided, Aro gave Vera a slight smile and a small nod. And in that moment I irrationally, but completely trusted that whatever this woman was going to do would be for my benefit. Something in my gut assured me that even though I had every reason not to, that I could rely on Aro to protect me.

So for a brief moment, despite the throbbing pain, I was content…

Until Vera's fingers wrapped around my arm, and I let out a bloodcurdling scream.

At the very same moment her hand made contact with my skin, an excruciating shock of agony surged through my broken arm. I writhed in horror as I felt the sickening sensation of my twisted muscles rippling back into place and forcing the fragments of my shattered bone back along with them. While the bone fragments uncomfortably wriggled back into position, I continued to scream. I felt all the blood vessels which had been damaged from the impact then begin to vibrate unpleasantly and reconnect their severed ends, gradually erasing the black and blue splotches which littered my swollen skin. There was a sickening pop as the bone finished growing back together, and then the pain was gone as suddenly as it came.

Once I stopped howling, Vera gradually retracted her wintry hand, before lighting swiftly onto her feet and flitting back into the crowd of vampires huddled together at a safe distance from me. I blinked once slowly, dazed by the recent events, and slowly started to sit up, surprised to find that no part of my body cried out in protest as I did so. Hesitantly, I moved my tongue within the dry walls of my mouth, and was astonished to discover that the bleeding had entirely stopped. She'd healed me, completely.

I felt a surge of gratefulness toward Aro for being considerate enough to see to it that my injuries were swiftly taken care of, and for leaping directly in to the fray to make sure no one lunged for my throat. Warmth blossomed in my heart at the idea that he was behaving protectively over me.

Of course the idea that Aro was superseding him as my protector did not sit well with Edward, who suddenly snapped forward, teeth gnashing riotously, and thick venom splashing over his chin and onto the floor. The blood drained from my face and horror washed over me as I watched the one I claimed to love trying his hardest to chew Aro's beautiful face off, while imprisoned in Alice's unyielding grasp.

Aro swiftly fluttered backwards, out of Edward's reach, his shoulders shaking—at first I thought in fear, until his head tossed back, ebony locks sailing along with the sudden movement and I could see his face. A deranged high-pitched cackle erupted from his smiling lips.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! This is how you react when you so carelessly harm your beloved and I am the one responsible for restoring her health? Certainly you should know from experience that your precious Bella has been restored, not damaged by Vera's powers," Aro chided, clearly implying that this was not the copper-haired vampire's first encounter with the immortal woman at my side—a fact which jarred me and filled my fear-harrowed heart with uneasy suspicion. "And yet, you would bite the hand that assists you… rather literally…" he trailed off incredulously, peering thoughtfully at his nearly bitten off fingers. "The spell must have disturbed your mind further than I thought," he concluded, a slight astonishment coloring his features—which paled in comparison with the fierce shock that overtook mine.

Spell? What spell? Does he mean, like a magic spell kind of spell? Do things like that even exist? I supposed with the existence of vampires and werewolves I really shouldn't have been all that surprised that there could be something out there which could cast magic spells, but I had honestly never considered it before—vampires and werewolves I knew were real because I'd had firsthand experience with them. Magic, I had still assumed was a thing of fairytales, along with dragons and unicorns and little green men. The whole concept of casting spells seemed extremely ridiculous, not to mention scientifically impossible.

"…What are you talking about?" My throat was dry, and my voice raspy and weak. But I had to know—and it seemed like Aro wanted me to be aware as well.

Edward's expression radically darkened and… was it guilt that flickered in his eyes?

Aro smiled softly, and gestured an open palm towards Edward, an invitation to speak. "Yes, Edward, do enlighten us," he beckoned melodically, "I'm sure our dear Bella is simply dying to know."

My stomach lurched at the intensity of the animosity between the two—I sensed his use of the word "dying" was deliberate, to egg Edward on, because if there was one thing that could make Edward lose his mind completely, apparently it was the thought of me meeting my demise. A world without me in it, was a world in which Edward didn't want to exist—he'd made that much painfully clear by his arrival here in Volterra.

Edward's hands fisted tightly, the veins over his knuckles protruding substantially at the effort. "She can't know, she wouldn't understand," His voice was frantic now, "She might jump to the wrong conclusions about us, and about you. We can't trust her with information like that. She's young, naïve, and human. She has no idea what's good for herself. She's not very bright, acts on impulse and is a huge magnet for danger," he ranted, shaking his fists slightly as he spoke. "I don't want her to make any mistakes that could permanently mess up her life."

There was a reverberating silence at his words. Every vampire in the room looked shocked, and given that Edward had only recently implied that his love for me was the reason for his dedication to not drink my insanely delectable blood, I didn't blame them. Even Aro, whose face told me he knew exactly why Edward was saying these awful things, raised an eyebrow at Edward's rude remarks and looked dubiously towards Marcus, probably curious about how our intense emotional bonds were fairing. The bored, wavy-haired ancient merely sighed in resignation, before glancing over at a light-brown-haired woman standing off to his right amid the petrified crowd. The pair exchanged no words, but the tiniest of nods in my direction apparently told the female vampire all she needed to know.

Meanwhile, I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach.

While there was a good possibility that Edward thought he was saying those hurtful things to protect me, it was painfully obvious that, to some degree, that was how he actually perceived me: untrustworthy, young, naïve, unintelligent and… human, as though that in of itself was an unforgivable crime. While I couldn't disagree with a lot of what he had said—I was only eighteen, human and an enormous hazard-attractant—I felt that his less-than-adulatory words about my wisdom and intelligence were unnecessary and terribly rude. He was basically trying to reduce me to a child, to convince Aro that I was not mentally or emotionally mature enough to make my own adult decisions.

And knowing that he didn't trust my judment stung horribly.

Being motivated to linger in my presence because of a thirst for my blood, rather than undying love, was one thing. Refusing to transform me into a vampire time and time again when it was my deepest desire was another. Seriously injuring me and then nearly biting the hand that healed me was pushing my limits, and harboring an important secret from me for over a year hurt my feeligns quite a bit. However, these were all things that I could probably eventualy recover from and forgive him for, given the right explanation—e.g. I could forgive him for keeping a secret if there seemed to be an adequate reason.

But openly insulting my intelligence and denying me the right to be treated as a capable adult in front of those who could be our enemies just because I was mortal?

That was the final straw.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the light-brown-haired woman Marcus had boredly glanced at earlier was looking rather intently in my direction. When she focused her dark red gaze on my person, furrowing her thin eyebrows at the effort, I felt something shift within me, though I didn't connect the two at the time. As I furiously recalled all the many times Edward had dismissed my capabilities as being insufficient, there was a sudden shock of ice followed by a stab of fire in my heart. And then, like dross melting away from silver, all of the crippling and contradictory feelings I had felt for my boyfriend during the last eight months suddenly flushed away and one thing finally became painfully clear.

I was no longer in love with Edward Cullen.

And that truth was more liberating than I ever thought it would be. I could almost hear the shackles linking me to him jangling uselessly to the ground. I was free! No longer was my existence chained to another—no longer was I so sickeningly attached to a monster that wanted to eat me that I couldn't live apart from him. Euphoria flooded my being, and all the horrible guilt that accompanied my less than sisterly thoughts of Jacob over the past few months, and of Aro just recently, vanished entirely.

I thought it was a little strange that the shift was so fast, but as I mulled it over I realized that my love for him had already been in a state of decay since I began to search for the truth about vampires in early September. My feelings for him had waned quite a bit with each new discovery, and actually it was kind of uncanny that my heart had held onto him for so long when we had so little in common other than our mutual like of kissing. Really, that spark ought to have fizzled and died out long ago.

And yet, it hadn't.

My thoughts over the last several months had been uncharacteristically obsessive, and irrationally I had remained wholly devoted to Edward, in spite of his abandonment and overall manipulative treatment of me. Until a few seconds ago I had felt trapped in my position as Edward's girlfriend, feeling strongly compelled to be loyal to him even when it began to be apparent that I was little more than a toy to him. I had even heard him say so! He had grumbled under his breath to Jasper a little too loudly when I stood in the hallway outside his room, that he only kept me around because it was entertaining.

It was for that reason that I had wholeheartedly believed his cold declaration in the meadow when he said he no longer loved me, just before he vanished from my life. But even then my heart wouldn't let him go, despite the fact that it was unnatural to love him after that.

Something fishy was going on here.

But now I was thoroughly perplexed—if he didn't love me, why on earth had the news of my supposed death spurred him to commit suicide? Was it possible that—even in his obstinate condescension towards me—that he thought he loved me that deeply? If he did, he had a terrible way of showing it. Or was my death a convenient excuse to finally achieve something unattainable otherwise?

All I could say for certain was, no matter what love the teenage vampire felt or didn't feel for me, I sure as hell didn't love him. I still wanted the best for him, and I most certainly didn't want him to die, but I knew that even if all past grievances were forgiven, the most emotion I would be able to muster would be a sisterly affection towards him.

My childish dream of a forever love with Edward was shattered beyond repair.

I had expected to feel a lot more sorrow at this momentous loss—the fantasy of us living out our eternal vampiric existences together had utterly consumed me since I had learned what he was. To be as fast and strong and beautiful as he was and be a sickeningly happy couple for thousands of years until the world inevitably went up in flames, had become my only goal. That had been my whole direction, and I had thought I would feel lost and disoriented without it. But instead of pathetically breaking down weeping before our austere audience, I found myself feeling enraged and betrayed.

Visibly seething, with my chest heaving up and down from the sheer amount of fervent wrath boiling in my being, I was about to scream my lungs out at him for his words, but someone else much loser to him beat me to the punch.

"Stop it Edward! I'm sick of you treating her like she's five years old!" Alice bellowed angrily, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end, and the closest vampires to glide back a step. Edward, whose hypersensitive ears were directly beside Alice's mouth cringed as the sound reverberated painfully in his eardrums. I would have felt sorry for him if I wasn't too busy crying my brains out, but maybe not even then—he definitely deserved it.

Alice continued in her angry rant, her voice slightly softer now, but still bursting with fury, "She's an adult now and mature enough to know what she wants. Why not give her all the information to make an informed decision?"

Hearing her support calmed my temper considerably and smile broke out across my face. Alice believed in me and was sticking up for me—I still did not know what on earth they were arguing about so passionately, but it was heartening to know that despite the fact that she was actually significantly older than me, Alice felt that I was mature enough to understand and come to the right conclusion. I was determined not to let her down.

Aro was silent throughout this altercation, but the unforgiving glares and bestial snarls Edward was sending in his direction obviously indicated that his mind was very active in ways Edward highly disagreed with. For a brief moment I wished that I also had Edward's telepathy—if only to know what had Aro's face twisted into an enormous grin, and Edward's into a look of savage ferocity.

Alice sharply twisted Edward's face in her gloved arms—and for a horrifying second I thought she was going to twist his head off—until I didn't hear the telltale crack of inhumanly hard skin, and she stopped only a fraction past the point where human heads stopped turning naturally. I was then I realized this violent-looking action was to bring him into eye contact with her, so that he could see the emotion on her face as she spoke.

"Please tell her," Alice pleaded with him. "…about the spell, about Carlisle, about everything. She deserves to know."

Edward's golden eyes widened with an unreadable emotion at the desperate sincerity in Alice's hunger-blackened gaze, before Alice's thin arms suddenly loosened from his neck, and she skipped backwards from him, the floral scarf around her neck billowing in the slight breeze, and the clack of her high heeled boots echoing eerily against the stone walls.

Edward stood with his head bowed slightly—though no longer twisted at an unnatural angle—and his thumbs twiddling rapidly in his interlocked hands, as though lost in deep thought about his next course of action. Caius leaned forward slightly in his seat, obviously eager for Edward to lash out violently, now that he'd been released, but Marcus, on the other hand, only barely glanced in our direction, before rolling his eyes in mild annoyance and staring back off into space. The rest of the vampires in the room all had their red eyes firmly fixed on him—some in worry, others in excitement, and yet others with neutral interest.

I for one, expected a fight, and so I quickly adjusted the stance of my feet. Although I knew in my human state I didn't stand a chance against any vampire, I figured it was better to be prepared to flee if I was ever given the opportunity to do so.

But before any sudden violence could occur, an irate, piercing voice severed the musty air which sent icy shivers down my spine and caused a few of the surrounding vampires to straighten slightly in mild terror. "The girl already knows too much, Aro," Caius' frosty voice interjected, and without warning the ancient vampire slowly rose from his seat, the silver ring on his left hand glinting in the sunlight as his hand fisted tightly in frustration. "Why should we waste our precious time by telling her anymore?" he spat acidly and shot a dagger-like glare in Aro's direction, which caused me to realize that his eyes had been a dark burgundy color since the beginning of our conversation. I stiffened as I recognized the wild hungry look in them all too well.

As Caius strode imperiously toward Aro, his thick black cape rustled menacingly behind him and his face composed entirely of jagged, wrathful edges. "You said earlier it was obvious from the boy's mind he never intended for her to be one of us," he growled before coming to an abrupt halt several feet away from Aro, who stood calmly in the awkward distance between Edward and I. As soon as he stopped, Caius' eyes hungrily scraped over my figure—his gaze the agonizing visual equivalent of fingernails scratching against chalkboard.

I shuddered violently—and then froze in absolute horror when Caius' jaw twisted into a sadistic smile at my fearful reaction. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run, but I knew that would only serve to hasten my demise, as I was certain the ferocious vampire in front of me would take my pathetic attempt to flee as bait to begin the hunt.

"And earlier he certainly was not entirely opposed to the idea of her being dead…" Caius added, almost wistfully in reference to Edward's previous belief that I had perished jumping off a cliff. The white-haired vampire's eyes never left the flesh of exposed neck, and his tongue darted out of his grinning mouth to lick his lips in feral anticipation.

Alice looked horrified at the events unfolding around her, and hunkered down in her high-heeled boots, prepared to pounce if Caius made any sudden movements towards me. I expected Edward to mirror her expression but his face was apathetic. Terrifyingly, it seemed he really could care less if I lived or died, which only increased my suspicion that there was an ulterior motive for his presence here.

Aro merely frowned.

"Hush, Caius," Aro commanded quietly, quickly silencing his brother's voracious ravings, and holding up a forbidding hand to suggest that moving any closer to me was not an action he approved of. "Although Edward may have squandered his chances with this one, Isabella is such a… miraculous creature." His voice was filled with a curiosity that was unexpectedly reverential, and was chocolaty smooth as he gracefully swept a hand in my general direction. The way he spoke of me, as though I was some sort of mysterious heavenly being caused a deep pink blush to stain my cheeks, and my stomach to swarm with butterflies. My heart soared—I was something unique in Aro's eyes after all.

"I want to see her reaction to the truth, to see if she is… ready…." He explained further, inclining his head in my direction, though his eyes never ceased boring into Caius', even as he began to pace, gliding in a slow, tight circle around his ravenous brother.

But before I could even wonder what Aro could possibly want me to be prepared for, an unnervingly ecstatic grin pulled at his patrician features, and he added: "With her abilities fully-realized, she may prove a valuable addition to our ranks."

Caius snorted and rolled his eyes, as though this was a "typical Aro behavior" which he found particularly irritating, and Edward snarled—disturbingly much more upset by the prospect of me joining the Volturi than that of my death.

I, on the other hand, was hopelessly confused.

"…What abilities?" I asked, bewildered by the insinuation that I—who wasn't even a vampire—had some sort of special power that I wasn't yet aware of. How could I have a super power if I didn't know what it was? I thought frantically, as I nervously wrung my clammy hands together, and anxiously shuffled my weight between my feet.

Seeing my apparent agitation, Aro paused in his predatory encirclement of Caius, and his stern warning expression immediately melted into a soft smile. "Shhh… One thing at a time, my dear Isabella, one thing at a time. I promise we will tell you everything eventually," he placated, his voice low, and laced with impeccable tenderness, each syllable sweetly seductive as they poured like honey over his delicate lips. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?" he suggested charmingly.

I felt myself nodding, and was somewhat stunned to discover that I completely trusted Aro's promise. He would tell me everything—for what purpose, I knew not, but I was absolutely certain that I would not be left in the dark forever. And that knowledge was comforting enough to allow me to relax and wait patiently for it all to pan out. Although there was nothing in my memory to logically indicate that I should trust him, his declaration rang with such profound sincerity, that I couldn't bring myself to doubt it.

Aro cast a fleeting cautionary glance toward Caius, warning him to stand down or else risk being brutally torn apart, before floating closer to where Edward stood, until he was mere inches from his face. There was a curt second of silence, and Caius employed the opportunity to turn in a huff, his black cloak swirling angrily around him, and stomped furiously back to his throne. Alice watched with worry in her obsidian eyes as he threw himself down in his seat, and crossed his arms impetuously over his broad chest, afraid that he might lash out again. However, as soon as his luxurious robes settled around him, he twisted his head sharply to the side and angled his aquiline nose towards the ceiling, as though everyone in the castle turret at this moment was no longer worthy of his regard.

"Edward?" Aro prompted politely, though from the devilish smirk which warped his features, I suspected that mentally he was somehow coercing him into action with his thoughts. Edward's head suddenly snapped up in response to his name, and he was giving me the coldest stare—one which made my heart pound at a vicious pace, and drops of sweat bead on my forehead. He began walking forward, each step agonizingly slow and deliberate, his hands clenching tautly at his sides and a slight grimace ruining his beautiful face. This was it, I thought resignedly, Edward is finally going to eat me.

Instead of pouncing, however, he came to an abrupt halt a few feet away from me and he spoke, his voice icy, and full of unconcealed anger at his current situation.

"Fine, I'll tell you."