AN: So I was doing some timeline research in preparation for writing the confrontation in Seattle (I know that's a while off, but I wanted to make sure I had my dates and numbers straight, and I realized that I made a few mistakes in the initial chapters which I have now gone back and fixed. One was that I originally said that the beginning of new moon was a year after Bella had met Edward, when it's more like eight-nine months. Also my numbers for the Volturi were off, and I fixed that.

As best as I could find, these are the dates according to canon:

Jan 18th - Bella meets Edward for the first time

Sept 13th (same year) - Bella's Birthday, incident with Jasper and Edward leaves shortly after this. Few weeks before, Bella starts to be suspicious when Jasper stops messing with her.

March 19th (next year) – St. Marcus' Day, and Bella arrives with Alice and all of the story thus far after the preface happens between noon and 1 p.m.

As for numbers, Breaking Dawn numbers the Volturi at 32 when they arrive (not counting their witnesses, but including the wives) and 17 of those are unnamed. In this story, my OCs fill some of the other 17 unnamed spots allotted by Stephanie.

Keep in mind, however, that Caius and others have already left to feed earlier and not all of the guard are dining today anyway—roughly 2/3rds are since vampires without physical powers feed on a bi-monthly rotation. Those with physical powers feed monthly, and typically consume more than one person. (their names are marked with a *) Those with mental powers powers are marked with a ~

Anyway, the list of Volturi thus far is:

1. Aro~ (Tactile telepathy – all thoughts one has ever had, involuntary)

2. Marcus* (Relationship perception)

3. Caius

4. Athenodora

5. Sulpicia

6. Chelsea* (Relationship manipulation)

7. Afton~ (Invisibility Aura)

8. Demetri~ (Mental Tracking Sense)

9. Felix

10. Corin~ (Addictive Contentment)

11. Renata~ a.k.a. woman who drifts forward when Caius threatens Bella ch(7) (Misdirecting Shield)

12. Heidi* (Physical Attractiveness)

13. Jane~ (Illusory Pain)

14. Alec~ (Sensory Deprivation)

15. Vera* (Physical Healing)

16. Titania~ (Tactile Telepathy – surface thoughts and experiences only, but voluntary)

17. Lucretia~ (Memory sharing)

18. Yvonne* a.k.a. woman who stands by Caius as a guard in ch(2); one of Carlisle's test subjects (physical power of telekinesis)

19. Emi* a.k.a. the other woman who stands by Caius as a guard; one of Carlisle's test subjects (physical power to mess with the temperature in a small area)

20. Santiago a.k.a. hulking dark-skinned guard ch(19)

21. Other smaller Vampire who brings Edward to his knees along with Santiago ch(7)

22. Chen* one of Carlisle's test subjects (physical power of teleportation, needs to see or have a physical image of where he's going)

23-32. Unnamed Guards (probably physical strength types with no powers and/or mates of powerful members)

Don't freak out if you have no idea who Yvonne, Emi and Chen are-this is the first time I have mentioned their names and powers. Also, Heinrich is not on the list because he was kicked out of the Volturi a while back because his gift was too annoying (he kept distracting the guard when they were supposed to be focused). Two of the other female test subjects and all but one of the men left (not having very useful powers).

Note: Usually all 7 physically powered members feed every month and eat at least two people, sometimes three. The remaining 25 feed bi-monthly (half one month, half the next) and usually only eat one. This means that those with physical powers require 4-6x more sustenance than other vampires, so they had better have really neat powers for Aro to want to provide for them. The average consumption per month with this arrangement is about 31. Parties of humans brought to feed on usually consist of around forty just in case they need more than they think. If any are left unconsumed, they are kept in the dungeons briefly for later emergencies. In this instance, Caius took Yvonne, Emi, Chen and two powerless guards with him so the crowd has been reduced to twenty-eight instead of the original forty that Heidi brought with her.

Okay, that's enough numbers and dates, lets get back to the story!

Oh... and if it wasn't already obvious from the previous chapter, just a warning, this one is going to be pretty violent.

Chapter 20: Bloodbath

Although I had witnessed three deaths through Edward's mind as Felix fed Vera after healing him, and I had felt the immense pleasure Carlisle experienced drinking human blood when Aro had revived him from death, nothing I had witnessed earlier today could have ever adequately prepared me to endure watching the Volturi's muderously indulgent feast. Never, even in my worst nightmares—which could be terrifyingly vivid at times—could I have conjured something as simultaneously bone-chilling and macabrely beautiful as the violent scene which unfolded before my eyes.

When Aro gave the signal, all at once the wall of black and red bodies surged forward out of their previous formation towards the nervously fidgeting congregate of humans, with hands ferociously drawn back and teeth bared as they rushed in for the kill. A rumbling cacophony echoed off the chilly stone walls as their inhumanly fast feet thundered across the gap, and their dark robes rustled like the wings of a thousand bats in the stale breeze. In stark dissonance with this low growl of sound as the guard barreled threateningly across the flagstones came a series of bright, high screams of alarm released by the startled tourists as they were surrounded by thirsty predators. It was a discordant symphony of death, and as the lethal dance began I struggled to choke back the bile that was steadily rising in my throat.

This was real, I realized in terror—real as in, real people were going to actually perish right in front of me and there was nothing I could do about it.

No, worse than that, soon I was going to be a part of it. And despite my earlier assertions in favor of the "greater good" at the expense of the few, the knowledge that these poor, innocent people were about to die still made me painfully sick.

But as I fidgeted uncomfortably in Aro's throne, instead of averting my eyes from witnessing the brutal attack, I forced myself to focus, to intently watch every horrid detail, so as to steel my resolve so that I could handle these sorts of things when I was invited to participate myself. Aro's warning words rang in my ears. "It will not suddenly become less upsetting when you become one of us," he had said, and if that really was true, then if I were to be transformed anytime soon as it seemed I would be, I needed to get working on rescinding my moral scruples against human slaughter immediately. It would not do to wallow in unnecessary guilt or try to run away from the Volturi when the time came to feed.

Alice, Aro and the whole world it seemed was absolutely depending on me not to give up—and unless I wanted a nuclear fallout on my hands, it seemed that I could not afford to let them down.

Of course, as Carlisle had discovered, I found that uprooting what I had believed for as long as I could remember to be the most fundamental moral wrong and trying to wrap my head, and more importantly my heart, around the idea that it was okay all of a sudden—that killing people for food was perfectly fine—was something profoundly easier said than done. The gut revulsion I had accumulated over the last eighteen years of my life towards performing such a ghastly deed wasn't going to disappear overnight, that was for sure. But I realized that Aro was probably wise to suggest that I begin to desensitize myself to the vision of mortal death as soon as possible, because if it was going to take awhile, I might as well get started now, when I wasn't clawing at my thirst-ravaged throat right?

Still, my newfound determination to attempt to put myself at ease with the events transpiring around me did absolutely nothing to mitigate my horror as I watched my friend, Alice, the adorable little fashionista, race in the forefront of the hungrily dashing crowd. Her wide black eyes were fixated on an American man in his late thirties, and her chin was oozing with thick drool. I cringed deeply as she seized him harshly with her petite, gloved hands—being the first of the vampires to grab hold of her intended prey—and had to bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming as she made no hesitation before burying her spiky-haired head savagely into his neck.

An awful wet ripping sound was heard as she tore hungrily through his skin before bright red blood began to pour from the cavernous laceration she made, and the viciousness with which she slurped up the thick fluid as it gushed from his esophagus churned my stomach. The man in her arms howled and wriggled in her solid granite grasp, his utterly unprepared body was wracked with excruciating pain as her venom was introduced into his bloodstream. But Alice paid his pitiful struggles no mind whatsoever as she zealously consumed him. Her mind was rather occupied at the moment.

I noticed that every curve and angle of Alice's petite body appeared to be livened with a feral electricity, the act of feeding clearly energizing her, restoring to her the strength she had lost to black-eyed hunger and to those years of living on the brink of starvation. It made me queasy to watch her imbibe this man's life away so excitedly. But remembering my purpose for witnessing this, I painfully swallowed the acrid lunch backing up in my throat and after briefly glancing away until the worst of the disgust passed, I redirected my horror-struck eyes towards the rest of the tour group, anxious to see their reactions to this terrifying, nonsensical (in their eyes at least) violence.

It seemed, however that the rest of the thus-far unscathed tourists were completely frozen in shock, and before they could properly react to what was happening, beyond their faces draining completely and mouths gaping in unbridled horror, Jane leveled an icy glare into a twenty-something year-old woman of Asian descent. The woman abruptly collapsed against the hard stone floor, shrieking and thrashing wildly. After a few moments of amusedly watching her prey writhe, scream, and beg for mercy in sobbing Japanese, the tiny blond vampire seemed to grow bored with playing with her food and lunged for her throat.

While she feasted, crouched over on the ground, a few nameless guards rapidly subdued their own meals and the remaining mortals scattered frenetically across the room. Some scratched against the entry door in a pitiful attempt to escape, and others simply ran wildly about, trying their hardest to avoid the hordes of grasping hands and venomous teeth searching them out.

As absolute chaos erupted in the throne room, I was disgusted to see several immortal faces twist into expressions of sadistic glee—apparently momentously pleased with the terror of their soon-to-be victims. And their evident satisfaction with the helpless howling and squirming human beings scrambling around pathetically only served to terrify their intended meals further.

Only two of the faces I could see, that is, two of the faces which were not yet subsumed in some mortal's wriggling neck—Aro's and Marcus'—seemed to display other emotions than brutal excitement. Marcus wore an expression of shrewd calculation as he paced slowly around the room, sweeping his cold dark eyes over the people who scurried away from him as fast as they could manage once he settled his unnerving gaze upon them, as though using some unknown criteria to search for the perfect dinner. And Aro's face presented a vibrant kaleidoscope of emotions—ranging from mildly amused, to inconsolably sad, to ravenously thirsty—as though he was pleased with the delight of his guard, and was itchingly anxious to feed, but also harrowed up by the knowledge that his gift would inevitably make the experience somewhat sour.

It jarred me, as I held the armrests of his throne in a strangling death-grip and bit my tongue to keep myself from screaming, that I felt a stab of empathy for the man as he glided effortlessly over the sandy slabs of rock beneath his powerful feet. His eyes were flickering wildly toward every remaining menu option, and at first I was perplexed by his indecision (since it hardly mattered who he chose, if none of their blood particularly appealed to him). Until I abruptly realized that he must be trying to ascertain which life would be the least traumatizing to witness as he eagerly drained it away. Some people had lived through some positively unbelievable things, and having spent quite a while within his chaotic mind, I empathized with his desire to avoid further suffering. Also, I understood that to be forced to feel not only his victims' paralyzing agony in the moment he bit them, but also to intimately connect with every aspiration, every motivation for living, and every clamoring instinct for survival when he sank his famished teeth in, and brushed his frigid lips over their fragile skin must be absolutely torturous.

How could he stand to do such a thing? I marveled. Jasper thinks his own gift makes feeding hard. But to me it looks like Aro has a much worse burden to bear.

While I was lost in pondering this, I noticed Aro's daughters raise both their chubby little arms in unison and point at an older Latino man in his late fifties who was cowering pitifully near the rounded wall, and muttering what looked like a desperate prayer in Spanish. When he noticed the approach of the little girls, he stumbled over his own feet trying to run away, crashing helplessly to the floor. As he shakily clambered back to his feet, without a word, the unsettlingly synchronized twins split up and dashed towards him from both sides, before leaping above him in deadly, graceful arcs which sent their lavish gowns splaying and ruffling. There was a terrifying, and yet breathtaking moment as they soared over his head, their cherubic faces and arms sparkling along with the sumptuous fabrics they wore in a shaft of sunlight before they dived with stunning precision onto his shoulders and bit gruesomely with their tiny, razor-sharp teeth into his neck.

The force of the twin's fatal impact knocked the unstable man off his feet and sent the trio hurtling to the floor. But even as they toppled into an ungainly heap on the ground, neither of the twins broke away from their hungry guzzling. Nor did they seem to care that the man pinned beneath them was weakly struggling and globby, salty tears were pouring from his fading brown eyes while his blood waterfalled into the girl's mouths.

As the twins happily devoured their shared meal, some of the first vampires to start feeding finished draining their victims and drew their heads back from their pale necks. The vampires' lips and sometimes chins too were all stained the same hue of vivid crimson as their eyes, and cheeks flushed brilliant rouge and eyes closed as though enraptured by the taste they had just experienced. Before I could truly understand what was happening, the bodies of these vampires seemingly involuntarily arched backwards, and noises of profound pleasure escaped them—ragged gasps and moans that sounded halfway between the "ah" sound one makes after downing a particularly delicious drink, and the cries of delight typically issued only in the climatic throes of passion. A hot blush suffused my face and suddenly, I felt extremely dirty for having witnessed their satisfaction.

Especially as Alice's head titled back, her dusky eyelids fluttered closed, and she released the loudest moan of them all.

When the next round of vampires expressed their delight at the conclusion of their meals in a similar fashion, Marcus seemed to take this as his cue to select his prey. He darted without warning toward a young African couple who were kneeling on the floor near the center of the room, clutching each other in fear and whimpering nonsensically. As he approached them, they made no additional protests—seemingly resigned to their fate—and eerily did not even scream as Marcus' strong hands aggressively separated them, taking the man forcibly away from his wife so that he could tear at the man's soft flesh with his craving teeth. It was disturbing to watch Marcus feed with such fervor—since he had seemed so utterly lackluster about everything in life only minutes before—and I cringed as that awful gooey tearing sound, and Marcus' eager slurping reached my ears.

Once Marcus had finished with the man, he savoringly licked his bloodstained lips while sighing heartily, and like the others, his wavy-haired head sailed backwards instinctively in response to the magnificent flavor. With his brilliant crimson eyes were tucked out of sight, and his body was still arched as he relished his recent feeding, Marcus callously dropped the man's bloodless body to the floor only a few paces away from the woman who had originally knelt beside him. The surviving wife shivered and wailed pitifully, staring heartbrokenly into her husband's cold, dead eyes. Unexpectedly the pathetic sound caused Marcus to snap upright and saunter slowly back over to where she cowered—I thought at first, to taunt her—since his dark red lips were twisted into a cruel smirk. But I nearly leapt out of my majestic seat when Marcus suddenly reached for the woman and voraciously proceeded to consume her as well.

None of the other vampires thus far had taken a second victim—Alec and Renata both seemed to be content with just one, and were now dragging the pale, lifeless bodies they were left with towards several others. Clearly they were attempting to amass all the human remains in a single location, probably so that they could be more easily dealt with once this was all over. Jane too, was finished and instead amused herself while the rest of her guard was still feeding by sending the handful of survivors crashing to the ground in head-splitting agony. Even the twins, who had shared their meal, made no move to subdue any additional prey, and instead skipped happily, hand-in-hand towards me. As they suddenly plopped into sitting positions several steps up the dais, they settling into an animated conversation about their recent meal.

But while the disharmonious chorus of human fear and vampire satiation continued to ring, I realized that Marcus was not alone in his extra indulgence. I watched Heidi, Vera, Chelsea and Alice all rush off after impassively depositing their bloodless victims on the growing mound of expired tourists, in search of a second course. Once they had completed their animalistic biting, drinking and gasping, Heidi even took a third victim in her ravenous thirst—apparently quite spent from utilizing her physical charm to lure all those humans here, and Alice took a fourth, clearly trying to compensate in part for the past fifty years of insufficient nutrition.

I shuddered in my seat as I witnessed the four women revel in their additional feasts. But I was somewhat distracted from Heidi's and Alice's final cries of bloodgasming delight as Aro's daughters' conversation reached my ears. It unnerved me to watch and listen to the twin's cheery, adorable little voices speak so casually of the human being they had just consumed—like they were evaluating the quality of a particular flavor of ice cream—especially since neither of them seemed to notice, or care, that their petite rosy cheeks were splattered with sticky droplets of blood and it ran in rivulets off their immaculate teeth. They interacted as though absolutely nothing was amiss, at least until Titania seemed to realize there was something unintended lodged in her tiny molars, and after fishing around with her tongue, she eventually spat a sizable, gelatinous chunk onto the tawny stone steps which I was horrified to recognize as human skin.

Dark spots filled my vision, and I briefly had to duck my head between my knees to prevent myself from passing out—watching Aro's adorable daughter spit out a piece of human flesh like it was broccoli stuck between her teeth was just too much. I was acutely aware of the fact that my own tissues were just as fragile as that of the man that these little girls had recently consumed, and it was disturbingly difficult not to think that I could end up as nothing more to these beautiful creatures than a sweet taste and a minor dental annoyance. Certainly Aro had promised my safety as long as I remained confined to his chair for the duration of the Volturi's gruesome feast. But even with all of my faculties tirelessly devoted to trying to keep it together—endeavoring not to scream, cry, faint or vomit—I believed it was only a matter of time before I could no longer endure it.

The sticky, crunchy, and slurpy sounds my ears were consistently assaulted with were utterly nauseating, and the images of savagely moaning crystalline faces, discarded scraps of broken skin and clothes, and beady droplets of blood littering the floor awakened every dormant survival instinct in my highly vulnerable body. My instincts begged me to run, to hide, to do something other than just sit here helplessly and watch my fellow human beings get viciously massacred, but I had resolved to do this. And upon noticing Aro's dark maroon eyes searching mine out among the crowd, brimming with a paradoxical concoction of concern and confidence, my determination to see this through to the very end was strengthened.

After a few more moments of sitting ramrod still as I perceived this ghastly scene of lawless indulgence, I noticed that only two humans had not yet been added to the hideous pile of bodies amassed over the grate in the center of the room, and that Aro was the only vampire still pacing agitatedly around in search of food. The others had all ceased to dine and were drifting slowly towards the outskirts of the room, leaving their ancient leader alone as he wandered elegantly in wide circles. Aro surveyed both frightened figures who were still left alive with a paradoxically thrilled and grim expression.

For fifteen agonizing seconds the room was utterly silent—the remaining pair was shell-shocked into wordless terror, unable to gasp or scream or even cry, and Aro made no sound whatsoever as he floated majestically over the pale stone floor, his hungry eyes flickering uncertainly over their cringing forms. One woman and one man exchanged nervous glances from their positions clinging to the far walls while Aro paced. But they did not dare make the slightest disruption, lest they garner the fearsome vampire's attention and earn death at his hands as a result.

Finally, after he had circled the room like a vulture patiently waiting for death at least ten times, Aro drifted slowly towards the woman. She was a pasty, freckled red-haired girl no older than nineteen who huddled trembling behind her knees. Aro graciously (at least it appeared that way) extended his hand to her as though he wanted to help her to her feet. Her bright blue eyes widened in disbelief at the terribly out-of-place gesture, and after an uncomprehending moment she hesitantly reached to take it, figuring she had absolutely nothing to lose at this point. While Aro languidly pulled her to her feet, his thin alabaster lips whispered something low and smooth in her ear which seemed make her relax, putting her in perfect ease in his indomitable presence, despite the momentous danger she was in.

Once she was breathing evenly again, Aro's cool hands fluidly left hers and skimmed up over her bare shoulders and tickled softly up her throat until they tenderly grasped both sides of her head. His thumbs traced intricate patterns over her cheeks for a moment, which caused her innocent blue eyes to widen in appreciative awe, before he dipped his head solemnly and deposited a small goodbye kiss on her forehead. As he drew back, I thought I saw his nearly black eyes reflect the glossy light of venom (though it could have simply been a trick of the light), and I felt tears of my own spilling over my lower lashes and stinging against my raised hands as I knew what would happen next.

With another delicate whisper that lulled the young woman to calmly close her eyes, his hands suddenly twisted sharply to the right, her spine emitting a hair-raising crack as it shattered in response to the jerky movement. The the remaining mortal let out a strangled shriek as the young woman went terribly limp all of a sudden. No longer consciously present enough to support herself, the redhead nearly collapsed to the ground before Aro gingerly caught her breathless corpse in his lean arms, and raised her freckled throat slowly to his lips. I wasn't sure whether I should cringe or sob as I watched him gently sink his teeth through the vulnerable layers of her skin, and hungrily lap at the bright red blood that spilled forth. His hands fisted tightly in her flimsy white sundress as though he was in considerable pain, and yet his enthusiastically sucking lips and tongue told another story entirely.

Every vampire in the room paused to watch him feed—and I honestly couldn't blame them. The scene was so heartbreakingly beautiful and sad that I couldn't bring myself to look anywhere else.

As he fed he somehow managed to keep a single drop of the young woman's precious from slipping wastefully to the floor, even as he drank with the same savage fervor as everyone else. Having experienced Carlisle's obscenely messy feeding as newborn, and having now viewed the comparatively tame, but still somewhat carelessly dripping mouths of the other members of his guard, I figured this was an evidence of several millennia of practice, rather than an inherent skill to all vampires.

When her blood was finally spent, and after he had licked away the viscous scarlet streams dripping from his lips, his head sailed backwards like the others had and he called out with a disturbingly orgasmic moan that utterly eclipsed all his earlier apparent despair with extreme, unadulterated pleasure. Several of the vampires watching looked somewhat perturbed by this rapid shift of mood. But they quickly averted their unblinking stares as Aro suddenly straightened and glanced around the room with a severe expression before he recalled that a bloodless body was still trapped in his tenacious grip. In a poignant display of gratitude, Aro gently cradled his kill, holding her soulless shell securely in his arms and bending to his knees to cushion it even further as he lowered it reverently to the floor beside the others.

Once he was finished, he rose regally to his feet again and coolly stepped away from the pile. He then nodded authoritatively towards a few of his guards who at his signal abruptly split into two groups. The first sprinted towards the remaining survivor and forcibly hauled him out of the room—no doubt to be imprisoned in the dungeons until he was needed. And the second suddenly darted towards the grisly pile of bodies and began stripping them for loot—watches, wallets, cameras—tossing their tattered clothes in a pile to be burned, and heartlessly shoving the naked figures into the hole in the center of the room where the grate had been taken away.

I closed my eyes tightly, and covered them with my hands, unwilling to watch the unfeeling desecration of the dead, and nearly jumped out of my skin as I felt an icy hand settle calmly over my shoulder.

My eyes shot open and I was surprised to find Aro standing before me with bright crimson eyes, flushed cheeks and slightly bloodstained lips, with all traces of previous sadness and grief completely erased from his features. Instead, he was grinning ecstatically, as though he was nothing but pleased with the experience of his recent meal, and not at all troubled by whatever emotionally taxing experiences he must have lived through whilst consuming that poor red-haired girl's blood.

I knew that centuries of practice gave him impeccable control of his emotions, but it was still highly unnerving.

"Are you alright, Isabella?" He enquired softly, stroking my tense muscles with his strong masculine fingers. "I do hope we did not frighten you too much with that display."

All I could manage was a numb nod—my emotions were all a mess: I wasn't sure whether I should break down in devastated sobs, vomit in total revulsion, scream in absolute terror, or laugh hysterically in extreme discomfort. None of these reactions seemed adequate to express how I really felt—I was terrified and traumatized, but the experience had also been very enlightening, especially as far as Aro was concerned. I now felt that I understood exactly what he meant when he had said that he had "nothing but the utmost appreciation for their sacrifice," about the humans he slaughtered to satisfy his thirst.

It was painfully evident that Aro did not feed torment-free—seeing all of that woman's thoughts had made a profound impact on him I could tell. But at the same time, it was just as evident that he enjoyed the taste and sensation of drinking human blood to a degree that was mind-boggling in its loftiness. The height of the pleasure he gained from the act was obvious—as it had been with the others. But as he had tenderly lowered the woman's bloodless body to the floor, it was equally obvious that a part of him was pained by the loss of someone who through his inescapable powers had essentially become a part of himself.

"Shall we proceed with your transformation, then?" Aro asked suddenly, capitulating me out of my swirling thoughts back into the present with his weighty suggestion. His eyes, as they peered down at me seemed to completely comprehend the tumultuous storm of feelings raging within me, despite the fact that my mind was closed to him. "It would be best…" he paused, wringing his hands uncomfortably, sensing that I might be disturbed by his next words, "…if I performed the act while I am well nourished. Otherwise, I might simply devour you."

I cringed as he mentioned the possibility of accidentally eating me. But having seen what that would entail, I actually relaxed a little bit. If I were to die being eaten by any vampire, perishing in his arms was probably the best that I could hope for, as it seemed he was rather considerate toward his victims—lulling them softly into sedation and snapping their necks so that they would die instantly and not have the endure the agony of his venom.

"Unless…" Aro continued with uncharacteristic trepidation, "…you no longer desire to become one of us with what you have seen…"

I shook my head resolutely to refute his last statement. "No, I still want to become a vampire. And I will still join you. But does it have to be right now?"

"I am afraid that is when it is safest, my dear," Aro explained with a melodious sigh. "I too..." he splayed a hand over his Volturi pendant, which rested over his unbeating heart, "...would prefer to give you more time to consider the matter," he expressed, genuinely indicating his desire to allot me more time for such a vital, and irrevocable decision. "But I cannot promise your safety should we wait another few weeks."

"With what you now know," he continued, tossing an errant hand in the direction of my brain, "I cannot let you out of my sight until you attain immortality. But to keep you here in such a vulnerable state is ill-advised…" he trailed off with a look in his eyes that clearly said I am certainly not the only danger to you in this castle—and you really have no idea how peculiarly mouthwatering you really are. "Who knows what might happen on accident?" he declared, spreading his arms wide to emphasize the wide swath of possibilities which could lead to my demise if another incident like the one at my 18th birthday party were to occur in these halls. "I would hate to lose such a riveting individual as yourself because of thoughtless procrastination," he murmured softly, sliding his hands delicately beneath my shaking chin and gazing deeply into my swimming brown eyes, before hovering back a step to allow me some space to mull it over.

I nervously chewed on my lower lip and offered a curt nod—Aro was right. It was probably best if I was transformed as soon as possible. And honestly, what did I want to wait for? I had made my choice, and I was sticking with it, even in spite of the unspeakable things I had just seen and just learned over the past hour. Was I really going to turn my back on the world and change my mind tomorrow?

No. My decision stood firm, so it hardly made a difference if I was made immortal today or tomorrow.

"You're right. Change me," I boldly invited, extending my arms at either side of me as I sat in his throne and tilting my head back to offer him much better access to my neck.

Aro gasped—I wasn't sure if it was in excitement or fear—before he hastily gripped my face by the ears with his glacial hands and pressed it back into its original position. "It is not prudent to tempt me, Isabella. I will need to be in complete control for this," he cautioned sternly, before casting a few glances around the room at his guard, who were just finishing up the routine post-feast clean up procedures and filing impassively out of the room. "Besides, I think you will want to lie down for this—the pain typically lasts for two to three days, and I think this chair will begin to be rather uncomfortable long before that."

Oh. Duh—why didn't I think of that? I knew what transformation pain felt like through Carlisle, and I definitely did not fancy experiencing that again while struggling to maintain a semi-upright position. Writhing on the floor or against a soft downy mattress seemed much more preferable.

"Can you stand? Or would you prefer me to carry you?" Aro asked tenderly.

I was about to snort at his ridiculous question—of course I could stand, thank you very much—before I found myself totteringly dizzily as I struggled to rise to my feet, feeling ridiculously faint all of a sudden. As I nearly tripped down the steps of the dais and gave myself a terrible concussion, Aro swiftly caught me in his lean arms before my head connected with anything hard (something he seemed to be disturbingly expert at) and adjusted my haphazard positioning in his careful grasp so that I was resting comfortably, bridal-style in his reassuring hold.

Aro chuckled to himself as he began descending the short stone steps with me safely tucked away within the folds of his flawless robes and cape. "I do apologize," his rich baritone voice purred softly in my ear as he passed his twin daughters and floated effortlessly closer toward the turret room's sole entrance and exit. "I simply find it hilariously ironic that you grow faint at the sight of blood, considering what you are about to become," he admitted with a bemused smirk.

I was about to laugh too at the ludicrousness of my current queasiness until I was stricken with a frightening possibility.

"Do you think I will keep that when I change?" I questioned nervously, looking up into his jarringly bright red eyes. I struggled to keep my flushed face several shades lighter than tomato red as I noted the rosy hue of his cheeks, and recalled the unfathomable gratification which had accompanied them not too long ago. My hyperactive hormones decided that's what Aro's face might look like during sex—and that thought really wasn't good for my sanity.

Aro truly laughed this time—loud and ringing like a church bell—as he imagined me as a newborn vampire, passing out as I tried to feed. "Now that would be most unfortunate," he joked mirthfully, a bright smile gracing his heavenly features, which was only enhanced as he strode through a thin patch of sunlight and his bright white teeth glittered like a thousand diamonds. "But I highly doubt that will be the case," he assured confidently, considerately brushing a stray strand of my stringy hair behind my ear as he spoke. "Your enhanced senses will recognize blood as food."

"The best human equivalent to the scent is... probably the smell of fresh baked cookies right out of the oven," he supplied with a sly grin. "Though that still fails to capture it, I think." He tapped his chin thoughtfully, searching his fathomless mind for a more appropriate metaphor. "Imagine the tastiest food you have ever consumed and multiply that by ten and you'll have some idea of human blood's magnificence. Trust me, Isabella, the last thing you will feel is queasiness," he related with the utmost confidence.

While we paced gradually closer towards the entrance/exit door of this violence-tarnished throne room, the other vampires were far too absorbed in the task of taking care of the human remains to spare a glance at us.

"But you said... feeding... still would be just as hard..." I protested weakly, still struggling with the uncomfortable word, especially now that I had seen just how nasty it really was.

"No, I said that killing humans will still be difficult to watch and do at first," he clarified, with pointed emphasis on the most disturbing portion of his statement. "The thirst can help compel you to bite, but it cannot absolve you from the guilt you might feel when you are finished with your meal," Aro explained, a dark shadow of sorrow covering his complexion for an infantesimal moment before his blindingly sunny demeanor returned. "I was hoping that today might show you that there is no reason to feel guilty for living as we were created to. Because guilt in a vampire, can induce nausea, and I do not appreciate waste."

I nodded and clenched my fists to keep myself from shuddering-the image of my vampire self violently coughing up blood in self-disgust with murdering people for food was vastly unpleasant and horribly gross. I sincerely hoped that my conscience would be easy to sway into acceptance of the orthodox vampire diet, because the notion of wasting the lives I had taken made me even sicker than the notion of taking them in the first place.

"But enough of this dismal talk," Aro dismissed cheerily. "Let us find a suitable place to change you, shall we?"

…

Aro carried me down the gloomy fortress hallways until we reached a small room in one of the other towers which housed a large, soft bed draped in black silk sheets. There a low oak table beside it, and a tall dresser on the other side of the room, both carved just as ornately as every other wooden surface seemed to be in this underground fortress. The room was very dark, lit with a low, orange glow by dimly flicking candles which sat in wrought-iron candelebras atop the polished furniture.

As Aro padded quietly over the threshold, he took a deep, focusing breath—not because he actually required it, but simply as a force of habit to channel his concentration—before he settled me gently against the luxurious mattress and deftly peeled back the collar of my wrinkled blouse to further expose my neck. Climbing slowly onto the bed with me, I gasped—and then rapidly became mortified by my reaction—as he spread himself over me. He rested a fraction of his taut, masculine frame over my all-too-thrilled-to-be-under-him mortal body, much as Carlisle had done with Edward just before he had delivered the transformative bite. My heart raced thunderously in my chest at our proximity, and as his soft, freezing hands once again tugged impatiently at the vexingly high collar of my button-up shirt, I had to grit my teeth to prevent myself from making any more embarrassing noises.

His extreme closeness and his icy touch were sending my crazed, one-sided lust for him into overdrive.

And it only got worse the longer he lingered there.

After a while of lying beneath his unbearably seductive figure (made infinitely worse, considering the fact hat he was married) I began to wonder why he had not bitten down yet, and I nervously inclined my head upward slightly to ascertain the issue. Apparently my shirt was still in the way, and as Aro fought unsuccessfully to drag it far away enough from my neck, in his growing frustration he seemed to forget that there were buttons he could undo to remedy that. Instead, he opted to forcibly rip the garment in half, the hopelessly flimsy cotton not standing a ghost of a chance against his supernatural strength. Peeling the shredded material gradually open, he immediately leaned in to perform the fateful deed and I stiffened as I felt a cool draft of air blow over my exposed stomach and shoulders, thankful that he had not managed to rend my bra in two as well, or else I would have completely lost it.

His teeth were ridiculously sharp as they bit through my throat—so much so, that in his meticulously practiced and perfected gentleness, I hardly felt them as they sank in like a knife through melting butter.

His venom, on the other hand, was a completely different story. ithin seconds I was screaming at the top of my lungs in tortured agony while his rough pink tongue danced over my hot skin, and he sucked savoringly at the deep wound he had inflicted. His tasting of my blood only lasted for a second though, before he reigned himself in and with great effort, resisted the instinctual frenzy and detached his clamped lips from my bleeding neck. As a few streams of blood leaked over his chin and he deftly caught them with his tongue before they spotted the dark sheets below, Aro tried unsuccessfully to placate me with soft shushings and gentle caresses. But suddenly it felt like he was miles away and I had been thrown in to a raging inferno which blossomed from my neck and spread rapidly to the rest of my body with each traitorous thump of my erratic heart.

Deciding to spare me a marginal portion of pain, Aro dipped his head and bit me in several more places, (on the wrist, across the stomach, on the other side of my neck, and on my ankle) to introduce more venom into my bloodstream and thus speed up the process of my transformation. With each bite I screamed louder and flailed in his unyielding grasp, and he struggled even harder to pull himself away. Though, of course, since he'd successfully turned many of the members of the guard without a single mistake that I was aware of, and he was quite well fed, he did not succumb to his baser instincts and drew his teeth out of my skin while my heart was will firmly beating in my chest.

At last he was finished biting, and after tenderly giving me a goodbye kiss of his own, he slipped off of me gently and floated backwards from the bed, surveying his handiwork—toothiwork?—with a torn expression. Through the thick haze of my pain-inflamed mind, I saw that half of him looked positively delighted that I would be a vampire shortly, and the other half looked deeply sorry that I had to endure so much agony in order to get there.

The last words I heard as a human were: "Do not fret, my dear Isabella. The pain will be over soon."