I OWN NOTHING!! STEPHENIE MEYER OWNS ALL!!
CHAPTER SIX
I stood staring at Demitri, wondering if I truly was safe with a vampire who is obviously not vegetarian. There was no way I was sleeping with a strange man in the room with me.
"I need to call my roommate and let her know I won't be home tonight. If I don't she'll start looking for me and ask a lot of questions. I'm sure you and Aro don't want that. She's a cop." Hopefully I can keep calm and not sound panicked on the phone. I'm sure if I don't Demitri will kill me here and now.
"Fine, make the call. Be careful of what you say to her. If you try anything we'll kill her." He was very intimidating, even if he wasn't a vampire, he would still intimidate me.
"Thanks." I walked over to the phone on the desk and dialed home. "Hey, Michelle. I didn't want you to worry if I don't come home tonight. I'll probably pull an all nighter here. I can't seem to get anywhere on the new product." I was positive I sounded calm and nothing out of the ordinary. I knew Michelle wouldn't think anything of this; it's not the first time I didn't come home from the office.
"Okay, what is this new product anyway? Is it really this important? You need to get some rest." Michelle is one to talk about rest, hell she's a cop for crying out loud.
"I will, just don't worry about me. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight." With that, I hung the phone up feeling satisfied that I didn't sound out of sorts at all.
After the phone call I walked over to the window and looked out at the busy street below. I stood there for a few minutes and decided to call for room service; I knew Demitri wouldn't let me leave to get something to eat. I ordered a chicken Caesar salad and a coke. Demitri stood in the corner not really seeming to watch me at all. I know he was aware of every move I made though. I'm not going to try anything; I'm not stupid or suicidal.
I didn't sleep at all that night. After I ate my salad and drank my coke, I sat in the chair by the window and watched the night go by.
The next morning, Aro came back to my room with a young looking blonde girl. "Good morning, Miss Swan. I trust you slept well."
"Not really, no." I answered him warily.
"I'm sorry to hear that. This is Jane. She is part of my guard." He said gesturing to the girl who accompanied him.
"Hello, I'm Isabella. My friends and family call me Bella." I introduced myself to her. I felt a bit freaked with the way she was looking at me, almost like she was looking through me.
"Master, she is not responding. I'm using my power, but no response." Jane said, still looking `through' me.
"Hmm, interesting, Jane. Bella, Jane has the ability to inflict the illusion of pain on someone by looking at them. It seems she has been using her power on you for about thirty seconds. Do feel anything at all?"
Okay, now I really am freaked, a lot. "No, I don't. I still need to clear my calendar for the day, if you'll excuse me." I needed to put some space between myself and these dangerous people.
"Of course. Then we will get into your past, Isabella. We will not wait any longer." The way he said this told me to stop screwing around and just get to it.
I walked over to the phone on the desk and dialed my office. When my assistant answered I `explained' I would be out of the office today. "Good morning, Lindsay. I won't be in today; I have a meeting with a potential client that will most likely take all day. If anyone calls for me just take a message, tell them I'll call them back as soon as possible, and don't tell them anything else."
"Yes, ma'am. Who's the client, can you say?" She innocently asked.
"I can't say because it's not a sure thing yet. When we land the client for sure, I'll tell you. Thanks Lindsay." With that, I hung up and turned back to the three people in my room. "Okay, let's get this over with."
"Very well, start from the beginning." Aro politely demanded.
I walked over and sat in the chair by the window, taking a deep breath, and began talking. "Will he be safe from harm if I tell you everything? He and his family."
"That depends on how much you know, Isabella." Aro answered impatiently.
I did not like that answer at all. I know quite a bit about the vampire world, including their laws and consequences to breaking those laws. Am I going to survive this? Will Edward and his family survive this?
"Alright, um I met him when moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with my father after my mother remarried. I moved because my step-father was a minor league baseball player and my mother wanted to go on the road with him, so I made it easier for her to do that.
When I showed up at school that first day, I saw him and his siblings in the cafeteria and he gave me a very strange look. Then, to my horror, I was in the same biology class as he, and I was assigned as his lab partner. That first day was strange, to say the least." I began at the beginning as he asked me to do, still not giving a name.
He nodded at me, and I took that as my cue to continue. "He disappeared after that day for a week, and I had a hard time believing I had affected a perfect stranger in such a way he would disappear. When he didn't show up for those few days, I felt confused and upset at his behavior. Then, he returned and actually spoke to me. He introduced himself and didn't speak of the day before his strange disappearance, and I didn't ask.
It seemed every time I turned around after that, he was there. One day before school started, a classmate lost control of his van on the ice coming into the parking lot and nearly hit me. I was standing at the back of my truck when I heard the tires of Tyler's van squealing. I looked up and around at my classmates, scared to death, and the next thing I know, that strange boy was on top of me, pushing the van away with one hand. After everything happened, I asked him how he did that. He told me he just pulled out of the way and that he was standing right next to me, but he wasn't. I saw him across the lot with his siblings, looking horrified. He wouldn't tell me the truth about it at all. He tried to tell me I was seeing things. I'm not stupid and I knew what I saw.
" One night I went to another town with two of my friends to go dress shopping and I left the store we all went to. I wanted to go to a book store while my friends finished with their things, and I got lost on my way to a restaurant where we were going to have dinner. I was approached by four men who were quite obviously drunk, and they were trying to corral me between the four of them. I told them not to touch me and they shoved me against each other. I saw headlights coming at us and I was determined to make that car stop and help me. When the car suddenly stopped, he swung open the passenger side door and told me to get in. He then turned the car around very fast, nearly making me sick, and drove off quickly. He drove about ten miles before pulling over into an abandoned driveway and asked me if I was hurt. I wasn't hurt, but I was a bit freaked out by this time. I wasn't sure how he found me or how he knew what was happening with me. He told me sometimes he had a problem with his temper and needed a moment to collect himself. He got angry because I was going to fight those men if a car didn't come.
"Then I told him my friends were waiting for me and were probably getting worried about me. He then backed out of the drive and took me to the restaurant my friends and I had agreed on. I never told him what the name of the restaurant was. He just seemed to know. He told my friends he would take me home and they could go on with their evening and not worry about me. So, they left and went home, since they had already eaten by then.
"During dinner, he didn't eat or drink anything and patiently waited for me to eat. He said he would feel better once I had some food in me. I told him I needed answers to how he always seemed to know where I was and what was happening with me. Why he was so determined to be my knight in shining armor. He laughed a little at me and told me I needed to stop asking so many questions and just be thankful for once. These things were just too much for me to let go.
"I had done some research on the Internet about his cold skin, how pale he looked, the speed I knew he had, and the strength I had seen him use. Most of what I found was silly, stupid, and ridiculous. So, I decided it didn't matter what or who he was. I knew what I wanted, and I wanted him." I was trying to remember the feelings I had as I spoke, and from the looks I was getting from everyone in the room, they were very shocked.
"Did you confront him on your readings, Isabella?" Aro asked me with a raised brow.
"I'm getting to that. Listen, it's going on twelve thirty, and I'm hungry. Could we go somewhere so I can get something to eat? There are some restaurants pretty close to here. I need to get out of this room. I won't try anything, I swear. Hell, if I was going to try to run, I would have already tried." I hope they agree to leave the room for now. I need to check out of the hotel anyway. It's cloudy outside, so there is no chance of odd happenings with the sunlight. I didn't see a reason why we couldn't go.
"Alright, Isabella, we will go wherever you would like. Just not too far. Just know if you do try to run, we will catch you and all bets on your safety are off." Aro was not playing games with me and he made that very clear.