Hey guys! Thanks for the Reviews and sorry it took so long! Go read my other story, The War of the Ring, it has two chapters up so far and I really like it so far! Thanks!
~R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~
His words echoed through my mind, as if he was miles away from me.
I need to talk to you.
I need to talk to you.
I need to talk to you.
My first instinct was to go over everything I had done in my mind and find out where I had gone wrong. Was he angry at me for saving that girl? That I had gone against his master and spoken back to him? That must be it.
"Look I'm sorry about that girl but I had to do it. I couldn't just leave her to-"
"I'm not angry about that." He interrupted, his red eyes never leaving my face. The bright reds in my room seemed to reflect in his eyes and make them look even more luminescent and terrifying.
I froze beneath his glare and for a moment I felt...different. I felt very small. Ever since I had come here I had been angry and upset, but now I was afraid. It was strange how just the look in his eyes could change my mood so much.
"Then what did I...?" I trailed off. I saw his eyes starting to blacken more with every word that I spoke. I knew I was in danger.
"That's not what I mean!" He finally yelled, throwing a vase across the room. I watched it crash into the far wall and shatter into a million little pieces, my eyes trained on the tiny reflections shown in the shattering glass.
I tore my eyes away from the broken vase and looked back to Demetri, he had yet to look away from me.
"Then what do you mean?" I hedged carefully, very unsure of where this conversation was heading.
"I'm- I just-I-" He tried lamely ending with a frustrated growl. His thoughts swirled through his mind making my head start to pound again.
"I think you should calm down a little bit." I whispered gently, trying to get him to be quieter for the sake of my sanity.
However my gentle voice did not seem to help his mood in the slightest.
His angered eyes flashed back to me and I couldn't help but flinch away from both the intense pain in my head and the furious look on his face.
He finally took notice of my fear and it seemed to dull the ferocity in his eyes.
"Don't be afraid." He said softly. My fear disappeared after he spoke.
But it was not because he had comforted me.
It was because my fear had been replaced with anger.
He'd given me every reason to be afraid. He had yelled at me, thrown things around, and he had barely even tried to explain himself.
I was about to open my mouth to say something that probably wasn't very smart but thankfully he interrupted me.
"I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at Aro."
My eyes bulged in shock.
I hadn't been expecting him to say that, my mind had been going in a totally different direction. And I had lost all hope in trying to read his thoughts or even trying to use any one of my powers, they made my head hurt too much.
But my shock was also due to the fact that I had never heard any one who was a member of the Volturi refer to The Brothers as anything else but 'master'.
"W-Why?" I stuttered.
"There's something that I've realized recently Bella. And today just made me believe in what I was thinking even more." He said with closed eyes and heavy breathing.
"What? What did you realize?" I pressured, I couldn't help it, my curiosity and my thirst were driving me insane.
"I realized that...this is not how I want to live my life anymore."
What did he just say? What does that even mean? The confusion made my head ache with an impossible intensity.
"What?" I finally choked out.
"I don't want to live the way I have been living. I want to be like you." He said.
Like me? What the hell was he talking about?
"Demetri stop being so cryptic, I can't take it." I pleaded. "Just explain everything and don't you dare leave out a single detail in that explanation."
He sighed and then looked deep into my eyes, never looking away, he looked as if he was searching for something in my confused gaze.
He seemed to find whatever it was that he was looking for so he finally continued.
"I was changed into a vampire when I was just twenty seven, a very long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that I hardly remember anything about it anymore. I could have been anything and I wouldn't know about it. I could have been married, been in love had children and I would never know about it!" He stopped to compose himself. "Only four years after I was turned they found me. The brothers I mean. They offered me a position here and I took it, because I wanted the power the position gave." He paused and seemed to think very hard about what he said next. "I've killed countless people, because they've told me too. They wanted me to. I learned to numb myself. I learned to ignore the screams for mercy and I've learned not to feel anything as I watch the light fade from people's eyes." He said, painting gruesome pictures in my mind.
"But," he continued, a little more lighthearted. "You've shown me something. Your family has shown me a different life. One that's not filled with blood and gore, but instead is filled with love and family. And I want you to teach me." He said looking straight into my eyes, unblinking and unwavering.
I blinked in surprise.
"T-Teach- You?" I stuttered out.
He only nodded. I stared at him. Waiting for him to start laughing and say Just Kidding Bella!
But he never did. He just stared at me with the same intense expression. Then I finally named the expression for what it was.
Pleading.
He was begging me for help. Begging for me to teach him.
"How?" I finally asked. Then I asked the more important question that was on my mind. "Why?"
"I think only you know how Bella. That's why I am asking this of you in the first place." He said with a sarcastic scoff. Then he continued. "As for why. I-"
He stopped short, I was unsure whether he had halted because he was embarrassed or because he just didn't know what to say to me.
"I just- I want to know...what its like."
I furrowed my brows in confusion.
"So...you want me to teach you to resist human blood because your...curious?" I asked.
"No, no, no, no." He told me hurriedly. "Its not that I want to know what its like to drink animal blood. I want to know what it feels like to...god this is embarrassing." He stopped again, though now I knew the reason for his hesitation.
"Just spit it out please." I demanded, my headache was making me a lot more irritable.
He looked at me in the eyes once again and I watched as all the insecurities seemed to melt off of his face, only to be replaced with fierce determination.
His jaw was set, and his chin high, his gaze unwavering.
"I want to know what its like to...love like you do. I want to give my whole heart to someone, the way you gave your heart to your Edward, and he returned the favor. I want to know what its like to crave a woman's body instead of her blood."
I felt the pain flare in my chest while he spoke of mine and Edwards love. Our love seemed like such a distant thing to me now. A far off goal that was barely visible because of my distance from it. It felt like a dream to me.
I opened my mouth to say something, but the words caught in my throat. I didn't know what to tell him. I barely knew what I was doing as a vegetarian, and I was supposed to train him? And besides, wasn't I considered a vampire...exception? Didn't the rule of a 'crippling craving for human blood' not fully apply to me?
Demetri seemed to read the hesitance on my face, and went into damage control mode...or begging mode. Which ever you prefer.
"Please Bella. I- I'll do anything I swear. I'll help you to keep your normal...diet and I'll do anything else you ask, please. I'm...begging you." He said roughly, and then he added in a tense whisper. "I just want to know...I want to remember."
"How would you do that? How would you keep my diet?" I asked, he had caught my full attention when he said that.
A small smile ghosted across his lips.
"Bella, I've already told you. I've been here for a very long time. I'm an elite member. That comes with benefits."
I let out a breathless chuckle, but still couldn't find the answer to his request.
"Anything you want Bella, I can make it happen." He told me. "Within reason of course." he added as an afterthought. Most likely catching onto where my mind was headed.
"I...just don-" I started but was then interrupted by the ache in my head. It had intensified to an unimaginable amount. All the air in my lungs whooshed out and I clutched my hands to my head.
I closed my eyes as tight as I could and tried to will the pain away. But it just wasn't working.
But then something happened.
I started to see something.
At first it just seemed like some kind of spark behind my eyelids, nothing out of the ordinary. But then those sparks started to become faces. I tried to focus on the blurred faces, curious as to what or who they were. Slowly, the fuzzy faces became brighter...and then more defined. Until I could finally recognize a face...But what I saw, made me wish I hadn't tried so hard.
Renesmee.
Seeing her little face made me gasp and choke with instant sobs. I was barely aware of Demetri now, though I could vaguely hear him calling to me. But I chose to ignore him, and instead focus on my daughter.
I saw her, lying in her bed back at the house. My heart broke as I saw little tear droplets rolling down her face. She had her tiny hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her sobs.
She took her hand away from her mouth for a just a moment to choke out one word.
"Mommy."
The vision changed again...but what saw next was not any better than the first.
This time I saw Edward.
Seeing his gaunt and sad face made my heart throb.
He was sitting on a couch, opening some kind of envelope. Then he took out a letter, he glanced at the page for the shortest moment before dropping it like it had burned him. Then he wrenched his legs up to his chest and began gasping for air. I tried to focus on what it was he was reading. It hurt my head to try, but I felt like I needed to know.
I couldn't see much, but what I did see was all that I needed to finally fully understand everything that I had been thinking ever since I had first looked at Serena.
-cannot express how much I love and miss you.
Bella.
He had been reading a letter from me.
I wrenched my mind away from the visions and was surprised to find myself on the floor, still clawing at my head like an animal. But I shook off my bewilderment and blurted the only two words I could.
"Teach me!" I all but yelled at Demetri who was knelt next to me on the floor, confusion on his face.
He hesitated before asking what I wanted him to teach me.
"Everything. I want to learn everything. Teach me how to use my powers like I want to. Teach me how to fight. And damn it don't hold back. When I say I want to learn everything I really do mean everything! No breaks, no arguing, nothing! Just teaching." I babbled, sounding like a complete fool but not finding it in me to care. Then I added the only thing I knew would change his mind.
"Teach me all this, and I'll show you how to resist humans."
His eyes widened in surprise, like he hadn't expected me to agree in the end.
We stared at each other in silence for a moment.
There was no noise around the castle. It was strange to me, how we could be having this really tense conversation, and nobody even has the slightest clue of the huge change that's happening right now.
Finally Demetri grabbed me by the arm and all but dragged me out of my room.
"Okay it's a deal. I swear to you I will teach you everything I know, and as fast as I can. But there is one more thing I have to ask of you." He asked me, while still walking at a rushed pace.
"What?"
We finally reached a door and he released my arm and spun around to face me.
"You have to promise-" He started but then thought better of his choice of words. "You have to swear, that you don't tell anyone about this whole thing." He told me solemnly.
Without even having to think about it I thrust my hand out towards him.
"Deal." I said.
He took my hand and shook it once.
"Deal." He said with a smile. Then he thrust the door open and I couldn't help but gasp in surprise.
It was outside.
Just beyond the door there was a thick, vast forest that probably stretched for miles.
"Lesson one starts now. Let's go." He said, running off into the darkness of the forest.
I hurried after him, eager to learn.
...
After a week of training I felt as if I finally knew everything I needed to.
Excluding one thing.
Serena's power was still out of my reach. I'd had to explain how I'd received her power of teleportation and how I thought I could transform it into something much more.
He'd laughed and then said he was surprised that the brother's hadn't seen right through my lies when I'd told them I had not taken her powers.
Nonetheless, he had taught me everything I'd needed to know about fighting. I could probably kill anyone or anything I wanted to now...or at least that's how I felt.
We'd had no breaks or rest, except when we had to make appearances so as not to raise suspicion among the guard.
I'd told Demetri how to resist humans, and in exchange he taught me everything the rest of the Volturi would not want me to know, and he also let me hunt.
Every few nights he would take me out of the castle and we would try to hunt the nearby wildlife together.
He tried his best to just take the animal blood and still function and act the way he wanted to...but it was still very hard for him.
Of course I'd expected this, he'd been drinking human blood for who knows how long and he just up and decided to quit cold turkey?
I knew he was frustrated with his lack of progress, but I told him that it took time. And then I'd told him something I'd promised myself I would not talk about here.
I talked to him about my family.
Well, about Carlisle specifically and how he overcame his blood lust, and how long it took for him to become totally desensitized.
I didn't tell him a lot, but we both knew it meant a lot that I was talking about it in the first place.
It was nighttime now and we were going to try yet again to learn Serena's power.
I was waiting in the same spot we usually used to train. The arena.
Demetri finally showed up and took a seat on a fallen tree.
"So...you ready?" He asked with an odd look on his face. He was...smiling. Usually he never smiled while we did this, he was always either straight faced and serious or he was frustrated and angry.
"Why are you so happy?" I questioned, quirking my eyebrow at him.
"Well, my dear Bella," Oh here we go, I thought, rolling my eyes. Demetri was such an actor. Always trying to raise the suspense and make everything more dramatic. He smiled wider in response to my reaction.
"Okay, okay I'll get on with it." He promised, no patience, he thought condescendingly. "I walked in on one of the members going for a...midnight snack, I suppose you could say."
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
"No. It's not what you're thinking. Let me finish." I nodded for him to continue. "So I walk in on one of the guard members draining this guy dry-"Wince"-and just completely out of control. The guy was twitching and everything." I grimaced; he was coloring a picture in my mind that was just a little too bright.
"Sorry." He said, taking notice of my discomfort. "So I walk in there, and my first instinct is to just try to take the blood right? So I was about to go for it, when I remembered what you told me. I thought about the life this guy had and everything. Then when I got myself back under control, I held my breath, and I was able to walk away eventually." He told me proudly.
I looked at him in disbelief. He had only been avoiding human blood for a week and already he'd resisted it in a situation like that?
"That's...unbelievable." I told him honestly.
He beamed at me, and I couldn't help but smile hesitantly back at him.
To be honest, I was somewhat proud of myself. I had taught him something that was going to help change his life. And on top on that I'd taught him well. Way to go me.
"Anyway, let's keep going with this." He said. I nodded and started with my training exercises.
...
After hours of trying I was starting to get really annoyed. This had to work. I needed it too, and I just could not figure it out.
Demetri had been silent the whole time, still sitting on the fallen tree, somewhere behind me.
I tried once again, in vain, to move the rock I had been focusing on all night.
I watched as I poured all my energy into the stupid rock, and then I watched as the stupid rock stupidly wouldn't budge, and then it just stupidly sat there, mocking me.
It made me feel...stupid.
I growled and then lounged forward and started to tear the rock apart. Every crash of the rock crumbling was more satisfying than the last. When I had finished with my...'rock rage' I turned around and looked back to Demetri.
"This isn't working." I called to him, stating the obvious.
He had his eyes closed and had a small smile on his face.
"I can see that." He said back. His smugness was not helping me or my heightened emotions right now.
I stormed back over to him and plopped down on the ground in front of him.
"I just don't get it. I've tried everything. I tried being pissed at the rock! I tried ignoring the rock! I tried being friends with the rock! I tried being happy with the rock! I tried everything! The only thing I didn't try is being in love with the ridiculous rock!" I yelled.
Demetri sighed, I knew he was just as frustrated as I was with this.
"Well, Geez Bella, how the hell am I supposed to know what to do? Only you know, in the end, how to make your own powers work. And if you've tried everything except falling in love-" He suddenly stopped and looked away from me, like he had just remembered something important.
Then he was laughing, and I had never been more confused.
"Um...can I ask what is so funny?"
"I just realized what you're doing wrong." He told me, with a smile still on his face.
I looked at him in shock.
"Really, just like that you had an epiphany?" I asked doubtfully.
He nodded. "Come here." He said standing and then taking me over to another small boulder. One about the size of a computer.
"Okay now look at the rock." I did as I was told. "Don't bother with the energy thing, just think about your heart."
"What do you-" I started to ask but he stopped me.
"Don't interrupt. Just listen."
I nodded, giving him my full attention.
"I want you to focus on what you want the most at this very moment. In the deepest part of your heart, what is it that you desire most." He stopped to let me think.
"I want-"
"No, don't tell me what it is. Just focus on it. Think about it. And think about how it would make you feel if you got that."
I focused on what it was that I wanted most, I let it turn into a vision. It consumed my entire mind and filled me with such an overwhelming joy that I almost fell to my knees.
"Good, now I want you to use what you're feeling right now, and try to share that energy with the object you want to move." He whispered, trying not to distract me too much with his voice.
I did what he told me without opening my eyes; instead I could sense the rock in my mind, so I tried to include it in the wonderful vision in my mind.
Then there was silence, there was no sound of movement, and there was no sense of overwhelming accomplishment going through my mind. I realized with a crushing finality that I had failed, yet again.
I turned away and started to walk away.
"W-Where are you going?" Demetri asked, baffled.
"I quit. This obviously just isn't meant to be, so I'm just going to quit trying so damn hard." I told him in an utterly defeated voice.
I felt his hand on my shoulder then, trying to get me to come back.
I sighed.
"Demetri look, if it's not going to happen it's just not going to happen. Don't try to change my mind. I-"
"Bella stop." He said. I stopped walking. "Look." was all he said.
I decided to just listen to him; he obviously was not going to let me go until I did what he asked.
I sighed again, still completely frustrated, and turned around lazily.
Only to freeze in shock.
The rock had vanished; there was a small patch of soil left where it used to sit. I could do nothing but gawk at that one spot.
I had finally done it! I smiled brightly, trying desperately to restrain myself from bursting into dance, and turned to Demetri.
"How far did it move?" I asked excitedly.
"It didn't move, Bella." He answered. I furrowed my brows in confusion.
"It just vanished." He clarified.
"So...So I..." I couldn't get the words out.
"Congratulations, you're a teleporter."
:O
Ha-ha. Sorry peeps, I took a really long time to update. It was because of multiple reasons. First, my mom kicked me out of the house, so I had to move in with my dad and start a totally new school, which sucked. And then I saw New Moon, and I was a little less than impressed.
I kind of lost my passion...
For a couple of days, lol.
But then I saw it again, and I liked it a lot better the second time around. So with my passion renewed I wrote up this baby. :D
Sorry it took so long!
R~E~V~I~E~W~P~L~E~A~S~E~