Over the next two years Jacob finished his degree and got a job able to fully support them. Bella became a stay-at-home mom, still finding the time to paint, Bella cared for Aiyana and Ankti 24/7. Several weeks before the girls turned two, Bella began acting very strangely. Jacob noticed her staring out of the windows of the house at twilight. She barely slept, and was awake before dawn.
One day as she was gazing into the yard Bella gasped. The phone in her hand rang and Bella immediately answered, "How long?" she asked.
"Not long," Alice replied.
"Alice I need specifics," Bella's breathing accelerated as she watched the trees.
"Five minutes," Alice answered.
"I'll call you after if I can," Bella hung up and Bella called for Jacob.
"What, what is it?" Jacob asked rushing to her side.
"Come with me," she took him by the hand and pulled him up the stairs to their bedroom. Opening the closet she pushed aside the clothes exposing a panel of what looked like a security system. Bella placed her hand on the scanner and a door opened. "Jake, I need you to listen to me very carefully. I need you to collect the girls. This is an elevator that will take you to the basement. I built a shelter down there it will keep you safe until morning."
"Safe? Bells what the hell is going on?" Jacob demanded to know.
"I don't have time to explain, and you wouldn't believe me if I did. The important thing right now is that some men are here to take me away, and I have to go with them or they will kill us all." Bella tried to explain without giving any details. "Listen Jake, do you remember just after the girls were born I asked you if you were given a choice to save yourself or someone you love, what would you choose?"
Jacob paused for a moment before answering, "Someone I love."
"Exactly, now Jake I have to go and you have to protect our daughters, you have to tell them I love them every day."
"I will, you just do your best to come back to me," Jacob ordered.
"I am so proud to be your wife," Bella kissed him, opened the door of the elevator, and gave him one last message. "Get the girls, keep them safe, and don't come after me. They need their father." Bella left making her way down stairs she heard Jacob go to their daughter's room a moment later.
When she finally arrived back at the window the sun was behind the trees, and she could see two cloaked and hooded figures standing in the yard. She went out the back door and met them, with a knife in her hand pressed against her own wrist. "There is no need for that," one of the figures stated.
"Oh, I don't know, if it guarantees my family's safety I think it is necessary," Bella replied dryly pushing the blade a little deeper. "Before I go with you I want a guarantee that you won't touch my husband and children. They don't know about your kind, and your laws have no claim on them."
"Ultimately it is Aro's decision, but we will not touch them – tonight," the other vampire answered.
"I suppose that will have to do," Bella agreed. She picked up several rocks, turned and threw them so they broke several pots and a window. "Okay, let's go," she stepped toward them. One of them picked her up and carried her to a car in seconds. Faster than Bella would have liked they were off. She sat gazing out the window watching as the city passed her by. They arrived at a hotel near the airport, just as the last light of the sun's light left the sky. The two vampires escorted her through the front door without a glance to anyone, thought plenty of women looked at them.
Bella's expression was carefully neutral as she stepped into the enclosed space of an elevator with two of the deadliest creatures on hearth. "I'm curious," she stated trying to break the quiet, "do the Volturi guard have names, or do you just go about dispensing justice?"
"Why do you want to know our names?" one of them asked in return.
"Like I said, just curious," she replied.
"We are Felix and Demitri," the same vampire replied. The elevator doors opened and Bella sighed, "Well it was nice to meet you," she added sarcastically. Felix and Demitri guided her into the penthouse suite of the hotel stopping her in front of a vampire unlike any she had seen before.
"Ahh, you must be Bella," the vampire smiled benevolently. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you," he held out his hand to her. Knowing refusing would do no good Bella extended her own hand placing it in his. They stood like that for almost a minute, hands clasped, his eyes gazing into hers.
"It's not working is it?" Bella asked.
"What do you mean?" Aro asked his brow furrowing.
"You read minds don't you?" she asked rhetorically. "For some reason vampiric powers like that don't affect me. So if you want to know something you should just ask."
"Very well," Aro agreed dropping her hand. "Have you told anyone of our existence?"
"Not even when I was being treated as a paranoid schizophrenic," Bella answered honestly.
"Interesting," Aro observed, "It seems that silence is a gift of yours." He was silent for a moment deliberating, "A choice lies before you Isabella. The law claims your life, your human life."
"Wait," Bella interrupted in shock. "You want to make me a vampire?" she asked.
"Clever too," Aro observed before continuing. "Your human life is over no matter what you choose," he stated decisively. "I am offering you the chance to spare your family and the Cullens."
"At what cost?" Bella asked tying to keep her anger in check.
"Oh, don't think of it as a cost," Aro suggested. "Think of it as a trade. Twenty years, twenty short years of service in the guard and everyone goes free," he offered smiling once again.
"Why so little time?" Bella asked skeptically. Aro seemed confused, "Twenty years is an awfully short amount of time for your kind."
"The length of time is not important," Aro replied cryptically, "your choice is." Silence filled the room. Bella took a breath to answer, and her phone rang. She closed her eyes and pulled it from her pocket.
"I have to answer this," Bella stated before answering the phone, "Not now."
"Bella what do you think you're doing?" Alice demanded to know.
"I'm doing what I must," Bella answered.
"You can't –"
"Look after my girls," Bella interrupted. "Make sure they grow up."
"I promise," Alice agreed. "I'll miss you."
"I'll see you soon," Bella replied fighting back tears, she hung up.
"You agree to my terms?" Aro asked.
"Yes," Bella answered. Aro positively beamed as he gave instructions to Felix Demitri to prepare for their departure. There were phone calls, bags packed. One of the vampires was sent to find her passport with strict instructions that her family was not to be harmed. Bella stood there, frozen, saying nothing, looking at nothing. She became aware of Aro's hand on her shoulder, she didn't know how long she had been like that but she followed him to the car that would take them to the airport.
The entire flight to Italy and the drive to Volterra Bella remained silent. Once inside Volterra Castle she was led to a room beneath the castle. "This room is soundproof, even to vampire ears," Aro explained. "On the rare occasion a transformation occurs here we like to minimize the unpleasant effects."
"You mean you don't want to hear me scream," Bella translated.
"Are you ready?" Aro asked, he was so close Bella could see the texture of his skin. She nodded and before she could blink Aro's teeth sunk into her skin. One bite and he was gone, the door was closed, and Bella tried to find the stillness she'd had on the journey. Fore burned through her veins, she suffered what felt like unendurable agony, trying to stay as still and silent as she could. Moving made it worse. Slowly, so slowly the fire receded from her limbs. First her fingers and toes, then arms and legs. As it receded the fire burned hotter, focusing on one central point, the heart.
Faster and faster her hear beat as the fire raged within. Then it began to slow, until finally with its last beat the fire disappeared and Bella opened her eyes to her new life. Bella stood and walked to the door and found a thin cord, something she wouldn't have noticed as a human. Curious she pulled on the cord and the door opened. "Aro suspected you would wake today," a vampire standing directly across the hall stated. Bella stared at him for a moment before she remembered him.
"Demitri," she said his name.
"Very good," he complimented her with a smile. "Follow me," Demitri led her through the castle to a room filled with sunlight. Along the far wall were three thrones, all of them occupied. "My lords," Demitri called the attention of the enthroned vampires.
"Bella!" Aro exclaimed with delight. He stepped forward and embraced her, "I am so glad to see you with us my dear. Brothers this is Bella, the newest member of our guard."
Marcus and Caius stepped down to greet her, "So this is the girl who caused all of the trouble?" Caius asked rhetorically. Bella stood silently as they inspected her, "Welcome to Volterra," Caius finally concluded.
"Thank you, my lord," Bella replied quietly.
"Come Bella, you must be hungry," Aro took her by the hand and led her to a small room off the hall. A young woman was tied in the corner cowering in fear. Bella immediately stopped breaking and tried to back out of the room. "What is wrong?" Aro asked, surprised by her reaction.
"I'm not going to drink her," Bella stated with what little breath she had.
"I don't understand," Aro replied.
Trying to keep control Bella inhaled through her teeth, "I am not going to feed on humans," she stated emphatically.
Aro paused for a moment contemplating what she meant, "You plan to follow Carlisle's path."
"Yes," she hoped the conversation would end there; she was out of breath again.
"Very well," Aro stepped aside letting her exit the room. "I have something for you," he led her to another room, much longer with two deer inside. "You should eat before you lose what little control you have. You may hunt outside the walls later."
"Sounds good," Bella replied taking in a deep breath. The deer never saw her coming. "You were prepared," Bella observed once she'd finished.
"I suspected that after all the time you spent with the Cullens you would share their views," Aro explained. Bella could see him calculating the effects of her meal. "Your ability is quite strong," Aro observed, "Let us see how far it extends, shall we?"
Bella followed Aro from the room, "Do you really think this is the best time?"
"Bella you are the most controlled newborn vampire I have ever seen, everyone will be perfectly safe." Aro replied with supreme confidence. Bella sighed resigning herself to going through Aro's tests. Hours later she was led to a bedroom of sorts. There was a day bed, shelves for books, a wardrobe of clothes and her 'Alice phone'.
As soon as she was left alone Bella picked up the phone and dialed. "Bella are you alright?" Alice asked before a full ring had gone through.
"I'm fine," Bella assured her. "All of this will definitely take some getting used to. Has anything happened to my family since I left?"
"Nothing I've seen," Alice replied. "I'm sure they just miss you, and they're probably confused."
"I hated to leave them," Bella confessed.
"I know you did," Alice replied sympathetically.
They were silent for a few minutes, finally Bella spoke. "Listen; there isn't much point in keeping my whereabouts a secret anymore. I want you to tell your family everything. Where I am, what's happened, everything. And give them my love."
"I will," Alice promised.
"See you later," Bella sighed.
"You bet you will," Alice replied. They hung up the phone. Bella was left alone for only a few hours before Aro requested her presence again. Over the following months Bella was set into a routine. Most of the morning and early afternoon was dedicated to training. The evenings she would spend reading or walking the castle, Felix often followed her on these walks, and she quickly learned to ignore him. Every couple of weeks humans would be brought to the castle for the Volturi and their guard to feast on, and the soon after she would be allowed into the countryside to hunt.
