Chapter 25

Rated M

Twilight still belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Thanks for reading. Welcome new readers. This story has had over 10K views! Pretty cool. I am beginning the "end of school marathon," so updates may be infrequent. I'm sorry! However, I need this thing called a job to support my family. They like food and clothes, you know? Hopefully this will be done before summer break and I'll think up another great story for you. Okay, enough of my rambling. If you like the story, I love when you click the favorite button!

This is your only warning. Edward is a straight out sick bastard in this chapter. Consider yourself warned.

Edward got the call Alice had prepared him for from Aro. Of course, Aro was furious that the shipment of beautiful, unattached young women had arrived with the stench of death in the container. He threatened the entire Cullen family if Edward did not arrive in Italy as soon as possible. He told Edward they would discuss the new terms upon his arrival in Volterra. When he hung up the call, Edward had to be careful not to destroy another phone. At the moment, he was riding in a hired car with the flight attendant from his chartered plane from Washington.

He sat in silence, wondering how the wolves were shutting him out. It had only ever been Bella that could block his gift. He had been gifted for nearly 100 years and she was the only one whose thoughts were blissfully silent. Too bad the woman in the car couldn't shut her repulsive thoughts off. Edward was disgusted by all of the things she wanted to do with him-not that they were so gross, but that she was recalling things she had done with other clients. Really had she no self-respect at all?

As the driver pulled up to the curb of his apartment building, he received a text from Alice. He wasn't surprised, so he simply deleted the, "No! Edward, don't do it!" He paid the driver and tipped him decently, nothing too obvious. Then, he held his hand out to his passenger to assist her out of the car. A beautiful smile lit his face as she looked up at him, admiring his features.

Once they crossed the threshold to his apartment, he grabbed her and pulled her close kissing her along the pulse points on her neck. She leaned her head back, giving him better access. Having the ability to read a woman's thoughts in the throes of passion, gave Edward an advantage over other men. He knew precisely what to do next and what to change to thrill the woman. She started to comment on the cold temperature of his body, when he silenced her with a forceful kiss. Edward pumped into her body, imagining it was Bella that was writhing beneath him, crying out for him. As he came, he kissed down her neck and bit her soft flesh, sucking her warm, sweet blood from her body. He drained the life from her so quickly, she couldn't even scream for help.

The limp body remained in his bed while he showered. He ignored it as he sat at his computer making arrangements for an international flight to Italy. Then, he walked over to his bed and folded the sheets and the woman into a heap. He managed to get the pile to the incinerator in the basement, without being seen, where he disposed of the evidence of his crime. Without looking back, or even feeling a bit of remorse, he raced up the stairs and packed a bag for Volterra.

It wasn't going to be easy keeping information about Bella from Aro. However, Edward realized that if he was going to ever be free of Aro, he would have to find a way. Aro had sent Victoria and her little coven after Edward when one little news story questioned how many women had gone missing recently in New York City. The annoying part was some women had gone missing-but none of the ones they were talking about were women Edward had taken. He was meticulous and if someone suspected him, he left or would've killed them.

Mistakenly, he had gotten involved with Victoria and her friends. He thought they could help out with his shipments and find women more quickly. Turned out James and Laurent couldn't follow directions, and Victoria couldn't stop bitching about Bella. She had desired Edward from the moment she said, "Hello." Edward had seen her as an outlet to his endless desire. He couldn't further his relationship with Bella until she was a vampire, and he still cursed himself for waiting.

Victoria had been a hellcat in bed. She was into all sorts of freaky things and Edward had been educated in all sorts of new things. Their bodies were indestructible and what would have been beyond painful for a human was quite pleasurable to them. Bella never suspected a thing and they had continued their semi-secret sex for months before Victoria began complaining about Edward not leaving the "little tart."

It all began to unravel when James and Laurent were draining more women than they were capturing for Aro's sick little games. He was furious with them. They knew that Aro was using Edward and how much he despised killing people. It was Aro that had first laughed at Edward when reading his thoughts.

Edward had gone too long without feeding and crossed paths with a beautiful young woman. She tried to fight his attack and she cried as she thought about the young child at home with a neighbor while she ran out to get some milk. There was no going back though. He had nearly sucked her dry and her last thought was of the child she loved so dearly who would now be an orphan.

It was then that Edward had decided he would become a vegetarian. It was too painful to hear the thoughts of the people he fed from. Inside he fought the monster that he was. In his human life, he had been caring and compassionate for others. His family was moderately wealthy and they firmly believed in helping those less fortunate. The shift to vampire was a difficult one for someone like him. Over the last century though, his heart slowly turned to the stone of which it was now comprised.

Edward became too arrogant. He had underestimated the ruthlessness the Volturi leaders operated under. They found out he had revealed himself to a young woman. They were actually quite serious before Edward told her of his "condition."

When Edward had affirmed his vegetarian ways and reasons, Aro called him "unnatural" and "a waste of space." Then he decided Edward's gift was quite useful in selecting guinea pigs for his trials. The women Aro collected were for various science experiments. Some were turned, some were left human. All were experimented on for an array of projects too unethical for any lab funded by the government or any corporations. Aro had agreed as long as Edward did as he asked, he could continue to live his sad, vegetarian life and pretend to be human.

Carlisle had chastised Edward after the meeting and took him under his roof to help him maintain their vegetarian lifestyle. Carlisle was not privy to the agreement between Edward and Aro. Edward would never let his friend know and couldn't disappoint him. They had moved away and left Edward's first love behind. He made Alice swear to never tell him anything about her. It was impossible to forget anything with his vampire memory, but he chose to block her out.

After Edward showered, he grabbed the suitcase he had packed. He caught a cab to the airport and checked in for his flight. Before going through security, he stopped into the bathroom to put on the dark brown contacts to cover up his bright red irises. They wouldn't let him through without sunglasses and he was pretty sure the eyes would draw unwanted attention. He sailed through security, making sure that there wasn't any metal on his person. There would be no way to explain his body under x-ray.

The long flight gave Edward plenty of time to plan his meeting in Volterra. The most important things were to get in and out and above all not to touch Aro. He planned a number of different strategies to keep from touching him. It was futile though. When Edward walked into the huge room, he listened to the thoughts of each person. Some were bored and some were looking forward to Aro's plan. They smiled at him, picturing what he would look like writhing on the floor begging for his life.

Aro rushed right up to him and grasped his hand without his permission. He didn't give Edward a moment to implement a single avoidance tactic.

"Oh, Edward," he clucked his tongue. "Did you really think you could hide anything from me? Why that's absurd!"

"Ooh, your Isabella is a true beauty and she shields you! How interesting! This is something I would love to know much more about. Though you think you were going to hide her from me? Tsk, tsk," he clicked again. "Now you get to stay here, while we go get her and those disgusting dogs!"

"Marcus! Caius! There are werewolves living in Washington! Can you believe it?" Aro turned away from Edward, giving a silent signal to his guard. They dragged Edward out of the room, screaming in protest. Aro simply shrugged and finished telling the other two about the woman they would capture and use for experiments. Then they discussed how there could possibly be a woman living with werewolves. It didn't make sense. They were horrific, uncontrollable creatures.

Chapter 26 is ready to go. What do you think?