Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction intended for entertainment purposes only. The characters and world belong to Stephenie Meyer, I just like playing with them.

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Panthalassa: High Tide

Chapter 10– Fathers Tears

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When they first brought me into their family and had told me of their past, I tried to look at it objectively. The Volturi, ultimately, were leaders. And the one thing most leaderships, regimes, governments and so on fear; is being replaced. That fear I could understand in an impartial way. It was only because they had so severely threatened some of my loved ones lives in the past that I held a grudge against them.

Ren had shown me her memory of the day they had come to destroy her and her family. From that memory I was able to extract and understanding of the vampire leader. Aro was enigmatic, and a curious creature. I had made Carlisle proud when I had told him after a family dinner, where only I ate food, where a lot of Volutri bashing and speculating was going on I announced that I would form my own opinion of them when I met them.

A happy and pleasant smile met me when the numbness faded from me.

Realizing who it was only took a second, as did realizing I was on a comfortable fluffy bed. I quickly scurried away from him, as he was sitting at the foot of my bed staring at me as if I was a silly child for being wary. The lights were conspicuously gone now and the bed chamber I was in contained seven-no eight vampires.

Alec and Jane stood at the foot of my bed. Philippe to Jane's left and slightly closer to me. Felix stood on the opposite side from Aro's seated position. Directly behind Aro was a slight little thing I recognized as Renata. That left Caius who stood with Demetri near the door.

"An amazing little angel," Aro cooed to me, his tone amused.

I opened my mouth then closed it wondering what to say.

"Have you…" I began and glanced at Aro's hand wondering if he'd read my thoughts as I had been under Alec's numbing fog.

"Indeed sweet Evangeline. You are quiet a survivor," his red eyes, in comparison to all others in the room seemed warm and almost friendly even though they had a sort of milky film covering them.

Suddenly my eyes watered. Aro understood, and he had heard everything. I felt like there was a thin veil between myself and my family now, and all that stood in the way was whatever he might decide.

"Before we get into that Evangeline, can I have your word you will not attack any more of my guard?"

Blankly I looked at him, and had I been my normal un traumatized self I might have snorted in derision. The very idea that I could attack a vampire was insane.

"I think they'll be safe as long as they don't touch me…" I whispered letting my weary eyes roam around the gathered vampires. Philippe still looked bored as always and I wondered if it was because of Zhan he didn't show any emotion.

"See there," Aro sighed and clapped his hands contentedly.

"Keeping a human for two years whose blood that calls to all in this room will be torturous Aro." Caius warned suddenly.

A slow smile spread across the leaders face, and he and I shared a look.

"Ah dear brother, but surely the power she'll possess… Philippe here has already told us she will rival both Jane and the woman that enslaved him with her power," he gestured to Philippe who remained motionless.

Caius looked about to interject something when Aro spoke again.

"Demetri."

"Yes Master Aro." Demetri blurred to stand a few feet from the bed; I shifted further towards the corner away from him.

"Where is Carlisle Cullen at this moment?" Aro asked casually.

Leaping to my throat my heart beat madly hearing my father mentioned. The frantic sudden increase in my heart rate gathered all of their attention.

"I-" Demetri paused, perhaps to use his ability, "Nearby, perhaps France or Spain."

"Send for him." Aro stated.

"Master," Demetri answered nodding his head once and was about to blur away when Aro spoke again.

"Be sure to tell him, we have his daughter."

The room went so silent it reminded me of my first night at the prison camp. Demetri took one long look at me before leaving the room.

"The rest of you may leave us," Aro commanded. Caius seemed to be frozen with indignation at what Aro had just said to Demetri.

"Carlisle's daughter?" Caius spat coming to stand next to Aro as the room suddenly was empty, aside from Renata and Caius that was.

"She is not a hybrid!" Caius added taking a long look at me, as if to reconfirm it.

"Please, Aro sir…" I begged quietly, the light had flashed once when Caius came closer to me.

"You are safe here my sweet. Caius we shall talk. Evangeline please eat and shower. I am sure your family will be here soon." Although Aro spoke kindly I wasn't sure if I should be thankful my family was being sent for. Surely Aro knew that if he hurt my family then changed me I would be a newborn full of rage at his actions.

Caius did not look like he wanted to leave at that moment, but as Aro stood and glided effortlessly to the door the blonde vampire was hot on his heels.

.~.

I was wearing a knee length summer dress, my damp hair pulled back into a low braid. I hadn't been able to eat much of the feast Aro had sent up for me, as I was so terrified at what could be happening to my family.

The first thing I had noticed when I had gotten into the bathroom and given myself a proper look was how much weight I'd lost. In addition to that I had a very off and unhealthy looking color to my face. The burn scars on my body were still red and healing and there was heavy concentration of them on my back crossing over the scars from my stitches.

It took forever for the water in the shower to run clean, and I had managed to have a little cry at the glamorous feeling of the dirt being washed away. The palms of my hands hurt and I tried to wrap a towel around them to ensure they didn't get infected, which I was pretty sure they were.

Someone had put the delicate and beautiful dress out for me, along with proper under things. I felt much closer to home when I was wearing actual clothing.

It was late into the night when Felix came to collect me.

"You clean up pretty well," he said when I opened my door. I wasn't sure if it had been meant as a compliment, so I didn't comment on it.

I knew why I was being summoned. I knew who awaited me down in the throne room. But my brain and heart weren't ready to see them. It was something I had desired from the very first moment I had been taken by Philippe, to be reunited with my mum and dad. But now, I felt more broken and dirty than I ever had.

How could I look my family in the eyes full well knowing what I'd become?

Maybe they shouldn't have come for me. Maybe that had been the real reason Edward hadn't come to save me that night. He saw what I'd become and never wanted me near his family-his daughter- ever again.

Akharad's locket was sitting on my collar bone right where my family pendant should have been. And it provided a different kind of comfort than my own necklace, but all the same I clutched it as we got closer to the room.

A soft caressing melody played in my mind as each step brought me closer to those I loved, unsure of how this day would end. Felix opened the large doors and soft light spilled into the darkened hallway where I stood. I bit my lip and ducked my head.

I followed Felix unable to look up, shaking with doubt and grief.

I heard many gasps and then I heard a sound that pulled the tears from my eyes.

Esme had cried my name out with such pain and longing I doubted there was a soul in the room that didn't feel the tenderness she felt towards me.

I hadn't raised my head to look at them as I followed Felix to stand before the three chairs on the dais, but I could feel them off to my right not more than ten feet away.

"Evangeline is there anything you'd like to say?" Aro asked, and I could sense a sort of tone in his voice that was vaguely familiar to the way the district judge had talked to me after my mum disappeared.

"Please," I slowly looked up to him, and took notice of Marcus sitting there with a slight air of boredom. "Aro, sir, please don't hurt them. P-please."

"Ah, so you know they had violated our laws by telling you of our existence," he had been hoping for that, I assumed.

The need, the desire to look at them grew in me. But if they were to be destroyed I wasn't sure how I would cope with that.

"I cannot make excuses for their actions sir, but please I will do anything you ask of me, I would have you change me now if only-only you…"I hiccupped trying to contain my tears.

"I know this. And as you are aware this is a delicate matter," Aro turned his attention to my family and I bowed my head again wishing I could clench my fists, but as they hurt already it would only do me more harm. "The law has been broken by the Cullen's," Aro announced, and I felt a cold chill go through my body.

I saw Caius out of the corner of my eye, a small evil little smile creeping across his face.

"However, I have consulted with my brothers, and we agree that this is certainly a troubling time for all. Alice dear, the darkness you see, is it there for all of us here as well?"

"I can't see for everyone Aro, but for you and Caius just as with my family we seem to be going in and out of the dark." The voice, her voice, my lovely sister Alice's voice ripped a cry out of me. It abruptly brought Aro's attention back to me.

She sounded so amazing to me, she sounded like peace and like home. I pressed my eyes together tightly.

"Do not cry Evangeline. For I will only ask a few small favors of you and if you can do them you and your family will be free to leave." Aro consoled me his voice patient and kind.

"What would you ha-have me do sir?" I asked my voice quaking with the longing to gaze at my family without worry they'd be taken from me or me from them.

Aro spoke in Italian and I heard Jasper say something, it was quickly followed by hissing. Confused I opened my eyes and looked around. That was my undoing.

My eyes met my family's. All eight of them were looking at me with longing and worry on their angelic faces, dark circles under their eyes. And they were as unkempt as I had ever seen them. Jasper however had another look of anger and I knew him well enough to know it wasn't directed at me. I nearly fell apart looking at my mum. Esme was shaking subtly, her face contorting in a mother's pain wanting to go to her child when she was not allowed.

"Aro, what you are asking-she doesn't even know how she did it, let alone how to control it or reverse it," Edward spoke up passionately but with restraint of possible respect or fear of Aro's position.

My eyes looked past my family unwillingly and I saw that Afton had carried the still form of Bianca down and was bringing her over to place her in front of me. I felt nauseated realizing what Aro was going to ask me to do. Bianca was still in the exact same position she had been when the lights went blank.

"Aro, Caius, Marcus, old friends please-" Carlisle began.

"She will do it friend. She must. However if you think proper stimulation is needed Edward-" Caius interrupted and nodded to Jane who blurred forward.

All of my family started growling and hissing.

"Aro, if you will allow me, I believe I could have the same result without actually causing her pain," Jasper spoke loudly over the growing noise. Aro held a hand out to calm the gathered vampires to watch the spectacle.

"Very well then, Jasper," Aro gave me a considering glance before taking his seat. Afton stepped back into the line of the guard waiting around the edge of the round room.

I shuffled slowly to Bianca's still and outstretched arm. The same one I had wrestled myself out of when she was first stuck like this.

Jasper came up next to me, close enough I could feel the coolness of his body.

"Don't…touch me Jasper," I warned him with a worried whisper. I felt like a ticking time bomb and I didn't know what would set me off. Or if what I had done had been a fluke.

Jasper stood on the other side of Bianca and our eyes met over her head, as I was slightly taller than her.

"What were you feeling when she touched you?" he asked gently, his eyebrows puckering together slightly.

I drudged up the feelings I'd had just before she had been about to force me into the bath. That tight tension that had told me I needed a break from all of the pain and complications. I showed Jasper by reflecting on the intricacies of the emotions I had felt just before the anger at being ordered around yet again and treated like vermin had cause me to snap.

He nodded once and started to push those same emotions at me again. I should have known how good he was because the same tension building in me while I touched Bianca had the lights flashing back on all around me. But oddly I could feel something near me, and it was blank, it wasn't gone just not bright.

Was that Bianca? Blank? Off not on?

I hadn't known how long I tried to figure out what was what with the lights, but it was causing a migraine and then suddenly I was falling backwards.

"She is exhausted, dehydrated, starved and emotionally distraught!" I heard Carlisle yell. I found myself kneeling on the ground in front of Bianca. Jasper kneeling with me his hands inches away from mine on the cold marble. We were looking at each other through her legs.

"Again, Evangeline." Caius ordered.

.~.

Three times I had fainted before I was able to do anything.

It was the hardest I'd ever pushed or thought or concentrated on anything. And Alice must have seen it work because when I managed to find the blank darkness that seemed to know me and I reversed it Alice pulled me back and away from Bianca by the sash of my summer dress then flipped instantly over me to block the swift movement of Bianca.

A lot of hissing and growling instantly was silenced by Caius as I sank to my knees. I was shaking so violently it felt like my body was the epicenter of an earth quake.

"She needs rest." Edward spoke sternly with half a growl that had me swivel my shaking head to look at him.

The entire family had formed a semi circle around me and my brain was too exhausted to form any full thoughts to communicate to Edward.

If things were bad at that second it went to hell in a split second later, and I couldn't even comprehend what was going on.

I thought it was Jane doing something to me at first, because it was painful, whatever was happening to me. But it wasn't a burning pain and my throat was cracking as I screamed on the marble floor, my eyes pinched tightly shut.

When the odd pain stopped I could understand it better. It was as if I had been cut off from my own body, paralyzed and the thing that was cutting me off from myself had been sharp and it stung. I was panting on the floor in a pool of drool and no one was touching me.

Maybe the vampires in the throne room were just as mystified as to what had just happened as I was. Face down on the floor I could see the base of the dais and the feet of the chairs Marcus, Aro and Caius were still seated in.

Carlisle was behind me, that much I could tell as he was leaning over me his hands hovering as if about to touch me. His eyes were swimming with tears and numbly I looked at him.

"How am I to tend her if I cannot touch her?" he asked Aro. I stayed staring at Carlisle. My dad.

.~.

Alec must have done something again because for the third time in less than 48 hours I was brought out of the numbness and agonizing reality welcomed me back to consciousness.

Again, I was in bed. But this time the vampires in the room with me consisted of my family. Well, when I got a look around it was my family plus Alec. Esme was the first thing I saw when I blinked my eyes clear of the fuzzyness.

"Evangelne!" she cried and moved swiftly to hug me on the bed. The lights flashed quickly and I screamed, not wanting what I'd done to Bianca to happen to Esme. She froze centimeters from touching me, her eyes swimming and her face crumpled in agony.

Edward put a hand on Esme's shoulder and guided her back to a sitting position.

"She doesn't think she can control it. She knows you aren't a threat mom." Edward comforted her.

I took a moment to just soak in the fact I was in the same room as my family, while the wild thoughts flew through my head so quickly and randomly I wasn't sure when I could ever ask them aloud.

Were they going to be destroyed? Where was Ren? Why hadn't they rescued me from the camp? What had I done to Bianca? What had been done to me right after?

"Evangeline… what happened to your hands?" Carlisle asked, not bothering to hide his dread filled concern and broken voice.

I looked to them, and saw they had been re bandaged. And then I realized the whole of me had been seen to. The burns on my body had coverings. The scratches down my arms had Band-Aids. My body and mind were like a war veterans. I couldn't just relish the feeling of my family being near me as a hundred years had passed since I had seen them last.

Looking up into Carlisle's eyes I saw him as if we were divided by a veil, as if he were falling further away from me.

"I k-killed," I whispered laboriously. I bit my lip at the sudden over flow of my tears at the way agony passed through Carlisle's features. I had never seen such a horrible sadness expressed on his face before, it was so profound. He started shaking and he bowed his head as tearless sobs ripped from him, as I shook with my own sorrow, my eyes supplying enough water for the two of us. Esme put her arms around him and started sobbing with him.

"Evangeline," he whimpered and it pierced me, his pain. The pain I caused him because I'd done something so horrible I no longer belonged in his family.

"Never," Edward's sorrow filled voice cracked. The whole family came closer to me, Rose scooted on the floor near the foot of the bed her hand on the covers as if to sooth me, Emmet kneeling next to her. Jasper's head was bowed and I could barely make out his profile as Alice stood in his arms, her wide golden eyes staring at me achingly tortured. Bella was directly behind Carlisle; Edward was now kneeling next to me, his bronze hair looking much more limp and colorless than I had ever seen it.

"I am-so-sorry-… my little girl…" Carlisle stuttered as he cried out.

I sobbed harder hearing his pain hunching over my legs, tears were so thick I was gasping out for air. I needed Esme to hold me, needed to know I wasn't a monster. I needed to be held, and yet… I knew if they tried my own body would do something horrible to them. It would be beyond my control, because Bianca had broken a dam inside me.

A box of tissues was gently pushed into my side, and I felt the warm glow of the lights brimming on the sides of my eyes. I started blowing my nose, my body once again feeling the exhaustion but I forced myself not to give in to it. After the three weeks of hell I needed to look at the people that loved me. I needed to know why.

"Alice had seen the vampire-Philippe catch your scent," Edward's voice was but a whisper and he seemed afraid to speak. "I had called Seth the same second Alice called you, but-" he broke off and I slowly shuffled back against the giant head board to watch him.

"It hadn't been enough. Seth- he caught their scent in the sewers and tried to follow you. It was still dark in the shadow of the buildings and they left in a car. Alice had lost sight of you as he pursued you."

I envisioned Seth bare foot in pajama bottoms as he ran after a nondescript car as I was carried away by nameless vampires, it brought remote and drafty warmth to my heart. He must have been so distraught.

"He was-he is. Jake had to Alpha order him to eat. He's been blaming himself."

Hollowly I nodded, letting the twinge of guilt for acting so foolish helped stop the tears from flowing. My brain and I were at odds with one another as I debated whether I wanted to hear everything that had happened since I had been taken. It was better hearing about what happened on their end than having to retell-relive- what had happened to me. Telling them wouldn't undo it and it would only serve to cause them grief and guilt, I wasn't sure they earned.

"Wh-whats going to happen now? Will they let us go?" my eyes turned briefly to look at Alice and then went back to Edwards sorrow filled face.

"Aro… he will let us go. But he has a few conditions, which in my opinion are because he is intrigued by you," his eyebrows pinched in the middle, and it seemed that whatever Aro thought of me might not be exactly something he wanted to repeat in front of Esme and Carlisle.

"He is still figuring out all of what he wants to ask-" Alice started her beautiful voice tiny and full of worry.

"And I have to warn everybody here, that what he might ask isn't… isn't very pretty," Edward interrupted Alice and looked at the others before resting his eyes on me.

"Why don't you tell us so we can be prepared?" Esme asked suddenly sharp.

Looking back and forth between Edward and Esme I saw the tension and fury in her glare.

"Mom-" Edward began,

"Don't you mom me Edward! Look at HER!" She screamed at him. My lights flashed weakly and I back further away from her and Carlisle's forms on my bed. I had never seen Esme so furious, she looked lethal and it frightened me.

Then they talked over one another.

"Esme you are terrifying Eva." Jasper stepped closer which caused the lights to feebly distracting me slightly.

"Why did you not tell me what was happening to her!?" Esme yelled at Edward over Jasper.

"Calm down Esme!" Bella said urgently coming to Edwards's defense.

"She was being tortured! Look at her hands! Edward LOOK! Look at her skin! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?! My own daughter!" Esme's fury was being crumbled by grief and sorrow as she yelled at Edward. She took a small glance in my direction as she had stood up behind Carlisle, her hands on his shoulders. His head was still ducked while his hand snaked up to hold one of Esme's hands.

"Esme! Calm down!" Jasper shouted, but Esme ignored him again.

"We should have gone that first night!"

"I couldn't see Esme! We had no idea what-"

"She's YOUR SISTER and you LEFT her there!" Esme yelled again, her face a powerful contortion of anger.

It was as if the angry monster inside of me, that small voice that ate at me while at the concentration camp that told me they weren't coming for me, had taken over Esme's body. It broke my heart to see her so angry, so furious at her own children. My body and mind were scared due to an insane vampire and perhaps Zhan would be thrilled to know that her playtime had transformed my mother into a vengeful monster.

"HOW could I tell you!? How could I tell any of you what Alice saw, whenever it was that Alice saw anything? Do you have any idea how hard it's been knowing that we couldn't do ANYTHING?!" Edward said back, though he wasn't quiet shouting his tone was so sharp it was almost worse than yelling.

Esme had been about to say something when I heard Jasper growl.

Instantly he was next to Esme his hand gently on her forearm. I felt a rush of serenity go through me and I laxly blinked looking at my family now. Esme's eyes drooped a little and her shoulders seemed to slump.

Everyone was on their feet. Carlisle had stood to watch what Jasper was doing; Edward had taken Bella in his arms and buried his face in her hair.

"Jasper you can let up." Edward sighed helplessly.

"What-" Esme began, her kind voice back her eyes taking in the others expressions. When she landed on me her eyes crinkled at the edges.

"Esme, please, look what you're doing to Eva," Rose quietly said while taking a seat near where my knees would have been if I was laying down. Carlisle took Esme in his arms after giving Jasper a nod. Jasper went back to hold Alice and I felt the bed dip slightly as my mum and dad sat back down at their original spot on my right side.

"I can't even touch her," Esme whimpered her eyes reaching out to me.

Any time they'd move around me I felt the burn rather than the actual lights. And my body knew preparing itself against any and all contact from those it felt a threat. If I could only tell my body that this was my family, and that I needed them to touch me.

I was reminded of the times Kevin would hold me and try to touch me before I'd been ready. But this situation although similar in a fashion, was much worse. I thought to Seth, how even when I first met him the lights had never happened around him. I desperately wanted to see him, maybe my body would be okay if it was Seth, maybe I wouldn't hurt him, freeze him like I had Bianca.

"Edward," I toneless whispered, "I want to know what Aro is planning on asking me to do."

"He will want you to sing…" the last word hung in the air. Once the words soaked in, I felt sick. How in the hell was I going to sing in front of these vampires as emotionally unstable as I was…

"Evangeline," my eyes felt heavy as I looked to Edward again.

"I'll do whatever I can to make sure all of us make it out of here alive." I said aloud, and I didn't actually want to think about what Aro could ask of me. My body and mind could taste safety and freedom, and I would promise Aro anything.

There was a moment where the family and I shared looked. Emmett was still pacing worriedly. And Jasper had yet to look me in the eyes.

"Evangeline we need to tell you something-something about what happened after you turned Bianca back on."

"-Is that what it was?" Emmett asked intrigued.

"-Was that part of the lights you see? Is it why we can't touch you?" Esme asked over Emmett looking both to me and Edward for the answer. Edward sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Carlisle still looked so broken and lost, as if he didn't know if or when to say something.

"Are you talking about th-that pain? The cutting numbness?" I asked, and I wrapped my arms around myself praying that it never happened again.

"It appears our ability's clash," Bella stated timidly. My eyes went wide and I looked at her.

Edward, with Bella's help then explained what had happened in the throne room.

In order to help protect me Bella threw her shield around me just after I reactivated Bianca. I wasn't even sure if reactivated was a good word for it, but it was the only way we had to describe what I'd done.

From what they could guess was that my ability needed to "see" in order to function properly. Jasper had suggested it was like cutting my brain off from a sensory function I'd been using all my life without knowing it. Bella putting her shield over me cut me off from it. I told her never, under any circumstances to do it again. The family was shocked when I told them how painful it had been. I feebly attempted to ease Bella's sorrow filled expression after Edward pointed out that I had never been under the protection of her shield and no one knew how I'd react to it.

"I do not like how vulnerable it leaves you," Jasper stated crossly.

"It's not like she has a choice," Rose reasoned, rolling her eyes.

"With or without Bella's shield I am the most vulnerable in the family," I mumbled my eyes gravitating to stare at the bandages on my hands. That left a heady silence in the room.

.~.

"Ah Evangeline… well rested I presume?" Aro smiled a serene and creepy smile at me.

We had all been ushered into the main chamber just after I had a small lunch. My stomach still not feeling sturdy enough for a full meal I hadn't even room or energy for the large delicious looking piece of cake they had given me.

Esme stood to my right, a few careful inches between our shoulders. The rest of my family fanned out around me.

I shrugged my shoulders at his question.

"Now that you have restored Bianca there are only a few more matters we need to discuss to clear the air-" he smiled evilly his nostrils flaring and a mild laugh at his own joke slipped out of him, "Firstly, your change will happen, that is certain. I have seen the conviction your brother has to change you himself. But when the time comes for it, in two years, it shall be done here. Under our supervision."

The whole room was silent for a moment as Aro lazily steepled his hands over his lap while sitting in his throne. I was surprised at how many vampires were here for this. I suspected Aro wanted a show, perhaps to stick it to my family. But I would consider it a victory for me to leave here alive so Aro could play all the little games he wanted.

I nodded rather than risk speaking.

"Good, now there is a small delicate matter, a request more than a command. If you would be so kind as to oblige my guard and my brothers, we are aware of what a beautiful singer you are and are content to the actions you have taken to hide your face from the public in preparation for your change. But if you would be so kind would you sing us a song?"

His request though seemingly simple did not feel that way to me. I hadn't even so much as hummed in the last three weeks let alone sang. I sighed, knowing I would do it. I would sing even though my heart wasn't in it, just so I could be taken out of here and back home, wherever that was. I certainly had no real emotional affection towards the house in Maine. The house in Reedsburg seemed the likely choice, but my soul did feel the pull to that place anymore.

Some vampire carried in a baby grand near the platform, closest to the chair Caius sat at. And I expected Edward to go sit down, but rather Jane made her way to the bench. I was terrified that Aro would request a song I didn't know and I would be punished for being unable to sing it.

"There is a song from your memory that I believe all gathered will enjoy. Now young Evangeline," Aro practically purred my name, his milky red eyes staring interestedly into mine.

The first notes of Veni Veni Emmanuel were delicately played out on the piano, it echoed off the walls in a holy solemn way.

Broken images of a man with sandy brown hair and light brown eyes that were staring straight into mine, cut through my mind. I could feel the ghost of his scarred and warm hand in mine. I remembered the soft river of tears that trailed down his cheeks and glistened in the soft first light of the new day when his body finally succumbed to death.

Adam.

Aro was a cruel bastard. The tears in my eyes pooled and I bitterly turned away from the brothers on their thrones and looked to Edward. Jane stopped playing the song as I had missed my cue. Aro said something in Italian and Jane started up again.

This was Adam's song. From the moment I had sung it in those woods, watching as his life slipped away from me, it had been his song. Aro knew that.

I used the grief over the memory of what had happened to me, of what had happened to Adam, to help pull the courage to sing the song again.

Jasper must have pushed some courage and love through to me because it helped me gain the ability to open my mouth and push out the notes.

I reverted back to my old tendency of closing my eyes and singing out to the dark, wondering if Adam or my mum was listening. The echo of my voice filled the domed horror room. It felt symbolic to me, almost as if I was a caged bird singing to be set free, my captors watching as the notes took life coming out of me. When I had finished the song I hung my head slightly, taking in long breaths to help calm my mind. Such a beautiful song should never have been sung in a place of such senseless death and destruction.

Aro started clapping, and a few scattered other followed his lead; the whole throne room must have had twenty vampires around, not including my family. I slowly looked up and towards my family, to gauge their reaction. For the most part they still looked scared and torn about what was going on. Rose gave me a slight encouraging smile. Then my eyes looked a little more about the room. I caught sight of Philippe standing near Bianca on the other side of the room. For the first time since I had a good look at him, Philippe did not look bored. In fact he looked surprised and a little sad.

"Well then, we shall be sending some guard members to regularly check up on you Evangeline, to make sure you are being well cared for." I knew there was some sort of underlying threat in his words but I didn't know what it was.

"If we deem it necessary Alice we may need your help in capturing this Zhan woman." Aro caught my flinch at the mention of her name. The memory of her happy and excited eyes reflected in my mind.

"Capture?" Alice asked her voice thinly held the horror she felt.

"My dear, one such as powerful as her could surely see the benefit of working with us." Caius grandly gestured to those in the hall.

I scoffed mentally. Zhan would love to play with these vampires. Her demented mind would feast of the fact Aro would know every perverted and ill thought that stumbled into her head.

"Something to add?" Caius sneered at me, and I looked up sharply at him, realizing I had scoffed out loud.

"I-I," I stuttered out, frantically looking to Edward then Philippe.

"Masters, if I may?" Philippe said confidently from his spot, his strong and handsome voice echoing around me.

Caius' eyes narrowed slightly and he pursed his lips before, probably, nodding his approval. Philippe was working for the Volturi now? Did they force him? Or had he wanted to?

"Master Aro I would strongly suggest you review all I had shown you. All Evangeline has showed you. Zhan gives orders, she does not take them," Philippe looked imploringly at the leaders his accent giving the words a firm edge.

"But she will follow her mates' instruction, will she not?" Aro asked his tone patent.

Mate? That demon had someone she… impossible. My mind rejected the very thought that someone could possibly love such a creature. I gaped at Philippe across the room, his dark skin standing out amongst the pale white of all the others in the room.

"I do not know how you would plan to accomplish it and I will leave it to your council to decide what is best, but my suggestion is simply to destroy her, and her mate, at the first opportunity you have." Philippe finished his statement with a bow of his head.

Aro slowly stood from his throne and I shied away as he carefully and slowly approached me. Jane was once again nearest Caius's throne watching me intently.

"You truly have been blessed with a multitude of gifts, Evangeline," yet again he purred my name. "Carlisle, at some point soon I would very much like you and your family to come spend some time in Volterra, perhaps after young Evangeline has joined us in immortality." Aro spoke to my father but was looking at me with fascination, not bothering to hide the greedy look I saw.

Edward, please remember to tell me everything he's been thinking about me once we get far, far away from here.

Aro looked like he wanted to stroke my cheek or take my hand in his and kiss my knuckles, but when I flinched slightly I heard a vampire hiss and he promptly glided away from me. He must have thought the lights had flashed, and I wasn't sure why they hadn't.

The last look I had of that room and the vampires within was of Philippe standing there with the bored and blank face I was accustomed to seeing on him. I realized it then, as I was leaving, that he was the reason I hadn't been killed along with all of the other humans at the camp. I clutched at Akharad's locket while I wondered why he had done it.

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