Edward.

Chapter Nine: My Favourite Place in the World.

I couldn't believe how I'd been able to leave Bella there. Her head had smashed helplessly against the rocks and cracked like an eggshell under Demetri's grip and I had done nothing. Only watched as her eyelids had slid shut and her slender body had fallen to the dusted ground. However, that was so much better than the alternative that I had seen in Alice's mind as I flicked between strategies in my head. If I had let them take Bella, she would have refused to do anything they ordered her to and they would have burnt her. That image that I saw in Alice's head of Bella's body melting away into ashes was petrifying. The option of letting them take me seemed to be the safest, yet the future was unclear. Aro's decisions for what to do with me had not yet been made.

Why hadn't my mental strength slipped so I could turn around and help her? Alice was hiding behind the rocks, frozen as she flicked between the different possibilities of what would happen in the future. Sure she would help, but when she awoke her reaction could turn into anything. Bella wasn't exactly known for her emotional control, or sudden change for that matter. Would she go into a dead state again like when I had been compelled to leave her before, or another wrecking tantrum or even something suicidal? No. She wouldn't do something like that, she couldn't.

I wasn't dead; I was just gone for a while. She would have to know that.

Aro wouldn't be happy with them returning with me, they would still have lost their main offenses in the fight this would come to. Jane would most probably be delighted at my capture, another mind to tear apart piece by piece, another mind.

My daughter - I had being attempting to block the thoughts of her suffering from my mind to make myself even slightly useful; god knows why I had even tried.

"Edward." Demetri snarled, breaking my thoughts.

The wind had stopped flowing past my face. The landscapes had stopped flicking repetitively in front of my eyes. Two of the most beautiful and perfect girls in the world were both in pain, whatever type that may be now, because of me. Sometimes, I had to wish that Carlisle had picked one of the other boys to save that night in the hospital and that I had died then like I should have done. None of this fantastical story would have ever even been thought of.

Oh, bugger off Demetri.

I started to run again. A mound was gradually appearing in front of us on the horizon, towering above us like a deathly giant. I drew a sharp breath in through my mouth, Bella's scent still lingered on my clothes and it touched my tongue like silk. Volterra.

Her scent was disappearing from my reach. I could remember what she smelt like of course, I could never forget that, but inhaling it for myself felt so much more incredible. Demetri bundled a dark, hooded cloak into my chest.

"Put it on, there's no need to cause a commercial today. We wouldn't want to give Aro a reason to kill you at all would we?"

Their sickly sweet scent swung around me as I tugged it on, stuffing my arms through the rough, tight sleeves. The narrow cobbled streets were so familiar, for all the wrong reasons. At least the place was less crowded with tantalising humans, only a few wandered absentmindedly through the shadows. This amount would be inadequate to satisfy their hunting needs, they couldn't just wipe out the entire population of the town unnoticed.

"Aro is waiting in the central chamber for you." Felix mumbled, leading the way through the large oak doorway out of view and knowledge of the humans. "Well, he's waiting for your wife."

Our footsteps echoed eerily off the marble floor. Bella would have recovered for certain by now, if only we'd been more careful that day, warned our daughter to watch out, we would have never been in this mess. Or would we? This wasn't really about Renesmee's breach at all, no; this was something much deeper than that. Ongoing hatred between two clans, such a deadly and powerful thing isn't it, hate. The doors flew open ahead leading into a dimly lit room; blazing torches secured in silver plated brackets along the walls were providing the only light.

"Edward?" Aro stepped forward, wringing his translucent hands over and over.

I gritted my teeth, grinding my incisors together.

"He gave himself up for his wife, said he'd be the biggest blow to their fighting side." Demetri snorted and then whispered under his breath. "It's all a rather ridiculous plan if you ask me."

Aro raised one eyebrow. "Would you care to explain yourself Edward, please? I'd love to hear what pushed you to this decision of all things."

Why did I have to explain to him, of all people, my decisions? I wouldn't, simple. I left his waiting hand doing just that, waiting.

My attention was caught be something in the corner of my eye, a sprinting figure. The figure came into my view every time it passed one of the ornate windows that surrounded the circular room. Another figure was in pursuit behind but she was of no interest at all to me. A sharp creak sounded the opening of the ancient doors again.

"Dad!" The figure screamed at me and launched herself across the room to smash into my body. I took her porcelain face into my hands and bent my knees to crouch near the ground.

"Renesmee..."

If she had not claimed me to be her dad, I doubted that I would have recognised her easily at all. Her rose tinted lips were swollen on one side, a bright red pulsing lump. Her cheekbones stuck out more than they should against her now sheet white skin. Her hair was matted with the remains of dried blood and scraped back into a tight knot on top of her head. Her chocolate eyes were now an intense, burning crimson and they were surrounded by a dark shadow of purple under her lower lid. Her arms were covered in spiked scars and silvery crescents that twisted in the flickering light. Her hands were shaking a little and her heart was beating fast, faster than it should. The sound reminded me of the buzz of hummingbird's wings.

"Ah, I do love reunions." Aro announced, raising his hands up into the air.

I slid my hands down from Renesmee's cheeks and pressed her cool body to mine, even when I did it so gently, it felt like she would snap into two in my arms at any moment.

I allowed myself to snarl quietly, trying not to scare my daughter when she was already so petrified. "What the hell have you done to her?"

Jane smiled and set her eyes upon the body in my arms. Renesmee jerked in under my grip several times but didn't let single sound escape those swollen lips. I spun around to face her away from the monster in the doorway and block her torturing stare that could bring even the strongest men to their knees. Bella was so determined to kill Jane; I couldn't help thinking that it would end the wrong way. Alice had seen something, flashes of different scenes that might emerge from the thick clouds looming over our future. The image of my wife lying dead beneath on the sandy ground of a clearing now haunted me every second of every minute. I wrapped my arms around Nessie tightly, shielding her from the danger, from the pain. The jumping stopped instantly releasing her mouth from its clamped position to take in small, staggered breaths. I braced myself for the pain Jane would inevitably shoot at me, but it didn't come. Later.

"That."

Jane's tinkling voice sparked something inside me like a match would with a thousand barrels of dynamite but I had to contain it, at least while I was with my daughter.

My cool lips felt natural against Renesmee's ice cold ear. No trace of the warmth that used to flood through her veins remained for me to feel, although the blood still flowed as strongly as it had before. "How did you manage not to scream?"

"Well, when you've had it done for twelve hours on the trot. You sort of get a hold of yourself." Her voice cracked. "I mean, it still hurts but..."

Twelve hours. Someone had just poured a thousand gallons of petrol of the raging fire in my heart. She'd been put through unbearable pain for twelve whole hours with no one to tell her what was happening, if she would be okay?

"That and a couple of little experiments, we didn't get chance to on that other half breed, Nahuel was it?" Jane spoke again, laughter in her voice. "He was so delicious. And she's been fed appropriately Edward, we haven't starved her."

"Jane, let us not push Edward's patience to its absolute limit." Caius warned, although he was still smiling. I believed it was too late for the warning he had given, I'd reached the limit of my patience with the Volturi years before this moment. It was much too late to save them from that.

Renesmee flinched away from the words she was throwing at me.

"I tried; I tried to stop myself..."

A warm droplet touched my cheek from hers and trickled down to hang precariously on the tip of my chin. I turned her face towards mine slowly with my fingertips. When I saw her expression it felt like the fire had freed itself from my heart and was burning all over my body now, punching its way through my skin. It was unbearable.

Oh, Jane. It seemed she couldn't wait to place that cloak of agony over my shoulders again.

"Easy sis, you can have him for as long as you want later." Alec walked across the room to block the only doorway. I gripped Renesmee's hands in mine, as tight as I could without hurting her.

"Show me." I whispered. "Show me what they've done to you."

The vibrant coloured images flicked through at the back of my mind.

A set of razor teeth sinking into her skin again and again, the venom brought no pain more than that of the cuts as their lips drew the infected blood straight back out again, unnaturally sharp nails ripping through her trembling arms, bringing blood to the surface that sparkled like a thousand rubies, screeching screams bursting out from her prickled throat and fireworks of pain shooting through her body while the large audience watched on from above her. Some were laughing and grinning, some were watching with extreme interest and taking carefully scripted notes on the yellowed parchment that sat on their laps, but it seemed that there was no one with the slightest feeling or intention to help her or stop her suffering. Not one single person in the room had a conscience in their minds telling them that this wasn't right. Nothing to tell them that torturing a four year old continuously was sick but what else did I expect? The final thing she showed me was her meals, the soft, hot liquid running through all the veins in her body as she closed her lips around the girls' necks, the incredible flavour as the human blood ran over her tongue and the grasping addiction it brought, so tasty, so mouth-wateringly delicious.

I squeezed her hand tightly and then let it drop limply to her side. She stopped re-enacting her stay in her mind and the images snapped out of my vision.

"I am so sorry." My whisper was barely hearable over Renesmee's pumping heart. "I didn't know what they were going to do; we thought they were just keeping you, a hostage, not this."

She looked at me, eyes still so full of tears that the tiny droplets could flood the entire room if they overflowed.

"Mom..."

She was so like her mother, never bothered about herself and her feelings, only aware of the wellbeing of others around her.

"Yeah. Bella's not great love, she was frozen for nearly a day when you went; you broke her heart in two. Took quite a while to get her around." I managed to push a half-hearted smile into my expression. "Although she did smash our holiday villa up when that camera went off and you disappeared from us altogether."

Her mouth did not return it, instead she frowned deeper and a fresh set of tears traced the wet snaking trails on her cheek.

"Edward. You're making her cry." Aro walked over to us tutting. He placed his claw shaped hand on her heaving shoulder.

Renesmee pulled her sleeve over her wrist and dragged it across her cheek. She frowned as the scratchy, woven material crossed the scars and left her cheek covered in a dark red mark. Aro rested his hands on her shoulders. She was so vulnerable and delicate, so unbelievably Bella.

I was making her cry. Honestly, I needed learn how to distinguish the difference between what was going on in my mind and what came out from between my lips. Aro's touch turned into a grip, he yanked Renesmee out of my arms onto the flag stoned floor in less than a second.

"Alec." Aro stepped back, tilting his head to one side, his eyes a hollow black.

Renesmee's knees scraped across the stones as she tried to scramble away from the approaching shapes that swooped down to catch her, too full of exhaustion to even stand. Alec bound his arms around her body and swept towards the door with her body pressed firmly against his chest.

"So feeble." He kicked the door open. "We've got you some humans Ness, don't worry."

And then I'll suck it out of you again. Jane added in her head, a new grin appearing on her angelic face. If ever the saying you cannot judge a book by its cover is appropriate, it would fit best in this situation as Jane was as far from an angel than anyone could possibly manage to imagine. At least that had explained why my daughter had suddenly become so weak. She'd been fed human blood regularly, the strongest supply of power for our kind, yet she had been so weak that I would have believed it if they had told me she hadn't eaten for over half a year - because Jane had been drawing all the strength away with her horrific talent.

Nessie screamed something so spine-tinglingly high pitched that I couldn't pick out any words, and the door slammed shut.

"Tell me Edward." Aro walked around me to sit back in his carved wooden throne and stared down with a genuinely curious expression. "Why did you come, when we weren't even going to kill Bella and Jane could not torture her? Yet, I have every reason to murder you and Jane has free reign of your mind."

"Instinct." I murmured.

A bellow of voices spoke in my head.

What an idiot!

Good move Cullen, we can kill that Bella off while she's alone.

This one is definitely in the bag.

The fire from my heart surged through my body furiously at the mention of Bella's name.

"Everything you do is about life or death, winning or losing, Aro! You don't care about feelings or emotions, only the final result of the bloody battle. No wonder you don't understand why I sacrificed myself to you for her!" I screamed at him and lunged forward towards them. "You will never, ever feel love in however long your sickly life goes on, Aro. You have your pointless wife, but she's no use to you. You're only interested in people who bring advantages to your guard! You feel only addiction and greed; you are a complete waste of a body and of a mind. I hope with my life, that you rot in hell when someone finally bumps you off and I hope with my life that that someone will be me."

Aro smiled with excitement at my anger, it was like he fed off anger, pain, and fear. Like some sort of life-sucking beast you hear of in a horror story. He flicked his hand towards me.

"You're welcome to fight me Edward." He whispered, perfectly calm as I snarled roughly again and again. "But I really would hate to have to kill you now, think of your daughter and oh, your so perfect little wife Bella. What your death would do to them is simply unimaginable..."

A dark circle of the guard was closing in around me, encasing me in inescapable danger. There was no hope in fighting and winning here, not with so many fighting against me and there was no point in anything suicidal for my families' sake, but most for Bella's sake, I could not take her life with my own foolishness, that was an unbearable thought. My hands were raised in surrender and defeat as the circle approached me further, all baring their gleaming teeth.

The dimness of the room – if you could call it a room, wasn't convenient at all. There were no luminous colours shouting out at me as a distraction to my thoughts, the so torturing thoughts. Only a thin stream of misted light squeezed itself through the iron grate above my head and hit the wall opposite where it reflected off several trickles of water and split into a thousand streaks of pearly shimmers. If I had any intention to break out and escape, I would not be in here. If I wanted to get out now, it would be only too easy to snap those bars, jump to the floor and run. However, I had been made a promise, if I left this room at all without being escorted, the neck of someone I loved would be snapped, no conditions. I wouldn't be worried at all about that threat simply for the fact that they would have to get past the whole of our group to murder any single member but the girl that they most likely would head for first was in their grip already. Four days had dragged themselves by so slowly it was painful. A small piece of rock crumbled onto my lap. Maybe I was pressing my face harder than I thought against the dripping stone wall that surrounded me. I pulled my face away, checking for any indentations where my head had been leant. There was nothing, nothing at all to suggest that I'd chaffed away the rock with excess pressure. I turned my head back to the door, studying the knots on the oak frame carefully. Someone was shouting at me but I'd been drowning it out completely along with all the other totally insignificant voices up until now.

Please, just listen to me.

Ah, the voice wasn't being sounded out loud; it was being spoken in my mind. I slipped my gaze down to the wall nearer to the slimy floor; another chunk of rock had fallen away from the wall where a small crack had appeared between the sandy mortar. I pressed my fingertips against the brick and pressed lightly, it crumbled away into dust easily and my body slipped forward as my whole hand shot through.

Brilliant, that's really unnoticeable dad.

Trust a daughter of Bella to be sarcastic in a situation like this; I didn't understand how that was even possible. Renesmee's skin brushed that of my hand as she placed something into it. Something cool and impeccably smooth; the pearls that I had swum down to the depths around Isle Esme for, the pearls I had given to my wife. I couldn't take them from her; she needed them. But I needed them, to remind me of the sole reason we needed to remain alive through the pain, I wanted to be reminded of that reason every minute of every day though she was impossible to forget. No. My hand touched hers again as I pushed them back at her, a shock of ice rippling through my veins.

I can't keep them while, while I'm like this. I'm a killer right now, Cullen's are not killers. I am not a Cullen.

She was not a Cullen? Why was she blaming all this on herself, it was so frustrating!

My eyelids protested as I scrunched my forehead harder. "Renesmee, you will always be a Cullen."

A groan came from a mouth that most definitely was not hers. I retracted my hand from the hole and the pearls clattered to the ground as she forced them through.

She thrust her fingers through the opening after them to touch mine. The thoughts that echoed in her mind showed that she honestly believed this was the last time we would touch; either I or she would die before we could see each other again. Her little finger curled around mine tightly like a link in a chain, unbreakable through her struggling desperation not to leave me. But her hand slipped away and she was gone, leaving the necklace behind her on the stones. A familiar scent drifted into the room through the grate. I squashed my forehead against the iron grate, straining my eyes to see everything in the shaded courtyard that was set in the middle of the castle at the end of the tunnel that led from the bustling streets to the eerie silence of this ancient fort. A small group of people stood facing another group in the centre. I recognised the shockingly blonde hair of my father as the light shone of it from all directions creating rays of rainbow colours in the air. Beside him stood a smaller figure whose waist was surrounded by the arm of Carlisle, my mother obviously. My father was not at his usual place at the head of the triangle, instead a slim figure with a face that was beyond perfect and pale, radiant skin that shimmered every time she turned in the sunlight, took the helm.

My voice was a broken croak as I whispered her beautiful name. "Bella."

Her head snapped around, eyes searching for the source of the voice that had just called her name, her eyes were tormented but so viciously determined. As determined as always.