BELLA'S POV

After Alice said that, she settled more firmly on the couch. I sighed, realising that I couldn't squeeze more details from her, and I went in my bedroom and started unpacking my things. I didn't know who took care of that, but upon entering I had found my luggage in the corner of the room.

I didn't have a lot of things with me, as Alice was the one who packed my bags while I was talking with Charlie—she probably planned to take me out for some shopping. I had only three sets of underwear, two short dresses, one long one, three sweaters and one hoodie, two pairs of jeans—one light blue and one black—and my trusty pair of Converse. I shivered at the thought of the insane shopping session Alice would take me out to.

I had finished packing and I decided to change. I had to admit, the shoes were strangely comfortable despite the heels, but my feet were starting to hurt nonetheless. I had barely discarded my cardigan and my boots when a knock resounded on the door. Not the one to my bedroom, but the front one, leading to the living room.

I heard it open and heard two voices. One of them belonged to Alice, the other one to an unknown male, but surely vampire. I opened the door and stepped out my bedroom into the living room, going to sit beside Rosalie, who was perched elegantly on the couch.

She eyed my bare feet with a bemused expression, then she returned her stare to the two vampires—one male, one female—that had entered the room.

They both looked alike, and very young. I could tell that they were related not solely by venom, but also by blood. Both their hair were brown, but whereas the boy's delicately framed his pale face, the girl's were styled in a tight bun at the back of her head. Their eyes were glued on me. "Hello" I said softly.

They both smiled, and Alice urged them in. "Now that we are all here," she then said, sitting beside me and Rose while the two guards sat on the other couch, "You can report your message."

I looked at them and the girl spoke. "Before relaying our Masters' message, though, we would like to introduce ourselves" she said, and the boy nodded.

"My name is Alec" he said, offering me his hand to shake. I scrambled to shake it, not desiring to be rude, and I smiled at him. He then turned to her relative, "And this is my twin sister, Jane."

Ah-ha. So I was right. Twins, wow.

"Nice to meet you, guys" I said, and they smiled at me.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Miss Bella" Jane said, before shifting infinitesimally on the couch.

I noticed the move, and I frowned. Was she uncomfortable? "What's wrong?" I asked her, and she looked up at me, surprised I even noticed.

"You have a keen sense of observation, Miss Bella. And, to answer your question, I am indeed partially uncomfortable, because I would like to ask you something and I am afraid of how you'd react" she confessed.

"Oh, don't worry Jane. You are free to ask" I said, leaning forward to meet her red gaze.

She seemed surprised by my gesture, but quickly composed herself. "Very well. May I use my gift on you?" she asked.

As soon her words were out of her mouth, growls resonated in the room. I looked to my sisters and saw them growling and teeth-bared. Jane looked resigned. "Rose! Alice!" I gasped at their expression. They looked furious, their eyes black. "What's wrong with you?" I shook them, trying to get them out of their cloud of rage.

Their gazes slowly turned to me, and they slightly relaxed. "Ask her what her power is" Rose hissed, glaring at Jane.

"I was going to do just that before you went bananas" I replied, annoyed. Then I turned to Jane with a raised brow, "Well, what is your power?"

She sighed. "I inflict pain on my victims. They feel like fire is ravaging their minds, and they are incapacitated to move from the pain they feel for as long as I use my power on them. It only takes a stare."

I was flabbergasted. But mostly I was offended. Offended because, despite what he promised, Aro sent someone here to hurt and intimidate me. Maybe to test if I was immune to her gift as well. I was simply an experiment.

"Bella, Aro does not know about this. It was my idea. In truth, he threatened everyone that dared to harm you. See, I wanted to know if you were immune to my gift, and my brother's. He can cut off all of your senses temporarily" she explained, and I relaxed.

At least Aro did say the truth. He didn't want to harm me.

"But why do you want to hurt me?" I asked her.

Incredibly, she looked embarrassed. "I… well, everyone is afraid of us because of our gift. We're always alone, few are truly our friends. I wanted to know if you were immune, so we could have been friends more easily."

I was 100% sure that if they could, they would have been bright red.

I was just as flabbergasted as before, only that the offence was replaced by delight. Rose and Alice had long stopped growling, and now were looking at the twins with sympathy. Sympathy I felt mirrored on my face.

I sat up straighter. "Alright. You can both try and use your gift on me. But with one condition: as soon as you notice that it's working, you stop. Is that clear?" I asked sternly. It was imperative they got this right, or else I was in for a world of pain.

They both nodded eagerly. Rose and Alice slid as far from me as they could while still sitting on the couch.

"Alec will try first, is that okay Miss Bella?" Jane asked, and I nodded. Alec turned to me, staring at me with a concentrated face. I waited some seconds but I felt nothing.

"Nothing changed" I said, looking at him. He looked surprised, yet relieved, "You are immune to my gift then."

"It's my turn now" Jane declared, and I steeled myself. "I truly hope this doesn't work" she muttered under her breath, before staring at me fiercely. I tensed—as did Rosalie and Alice—prepared to scream at the first ounce of pain, but I felt none. Two second later, Jane smiled happily, "You are immune!" she said jovially.

Alice and Rose were relieved and somehow proud. "You are very powerful" Alec congratulated me. I felt myself smile, half embarrassed by the compliment and half absurdly proud.

"Well," Jane crossed her legs, "Now that that's settled, we will rely our message. Master Aro pleaded you to come have a stroll—which will probably turn out to be a massive soiree if Aro has it his way—this late afternoon in the gardens of the Palace. Do you accept the invite?"

I was going to say yes, but then Alice asked, with a panicked face "How long do we have?"

"To accept the invite? Well, if you could tell us now—" Alec started, but she interrupted him, "No, no. of course we accept. Duh. How long do we have to prepare ourselves?" She still looked panicked.

Oh god, typical Alice. Always thinking about clothes.

Jane looked at the pendulum clock in the room. "Now it's five pm, I think you have about two hou—" she didn't even had a chance to finish the sentence before Alice screeched and started going bananas. "Oh dear Lord! We don't have time!" she yelled, before flashing inside my room, then hers and then Rosalie's.

I turned to the twins. "I'd suggest you leave if you want to live," I joked, and they smiled, "Thank Aro for his invite."

They nodded and bowed before leaving our suite.

After they were gone, Alice came back. "God, couldn't have they told us earlier!"

"Alice calm down" Rose tried to soothe her, but to no avail.

"Everyone needs to have a shower and then dress and then we'll have to go!" Alice said, taking deep breaths as if she was trying not to hyperventilate. Even though she technically didn't need to breathe.

I laughed under my breath when Alice proceeded to run both me and Rose in our respective bathrooms. When she left I began to undress and got into the shower. I let the warm water soothe me and relax my muscles. I quickly washed my hair and my body with the expensive lotions Alice had put in my bags. They were odourless, probably o the smell of shampoo wouldn't mess with my blood's one.

I rinsed myself and stepped out the shower. I dried my skin with the softest towels I had ever touched and wrapped my hair in another one. As I was rubbing some cream—also odourless—on my body, Alice rushed in with a blow-drier. "Sit" she ordered. She was already wearing make-up and her hair were styled in the cute messy look I adored.

I did as told and she proceeded to dry my hair. My hair fell dry, lucent and perfectly straight down my back in less time that I would have deemed possible.

"Now put on the clothes I laid on your bed" she ordered me, and I dutifully went in my bedroom to look at the outfit chosen for me. I thanked whatever deity was listening that it was no dress.

She had laid out a dark blue, skin-tight stretch cotton t-shirt with sleeves that reached just below my elbow and a deep V neckline. My boobs were wrapped in white lace and it was a miracle the material didn't show—the neckline was deep, but not so much. Matching panties were covered by white jeans so tight I thought I was going to rip them when moving.

It wasn't lost on me that the only things belonging to my wardrobe were my Converse, but I decided to let it slide.

Alice came back just as I was finished. She held in her hands a mascara and a lip gloss. I glared at her and she tsked, "You are not going to talk me of out this, I assure you. Now be good, we have only half an hour."

I looked at the wooden clock on the wall, surprised to see that more than one hour and a half had already passed.

"Yes, time passes fast" Alice informed me, while applying make-up on my face. When she was done she grabbed me and parked me on the couch. A few seconds later she did the same thing with Rose.

She was wearing a dark green one-sleeved bodysuit, blue jeans and a pair of nude pumps; Alice was wearing a Tiffany-green halter dress and white flats.

When all of us were seated on the couch, ready to go, I asked, "What now?"

Alice smirked wordlessly and, sure enough, two seconds later there was a knock at the door.

I went to open it and found the vampire I recognised as Heidi smiling at me. "Miss Bella, I'm here to escort you and your sisters to the gardens. Shall we?" she asked politely.

I felt Rose and Alice come stand beside me. Alice smiled at me. She mouthed the word 'search' and I nodded back at her. The research for my mate would start today then.

I smiled at Heidi. "Lead the way."