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Chapter 25

The next day, after a torturous night alone, Eveline's was the first face I saw in the morning. She explained why we had to rush out of that room the other night. Other than Cole, no one knew of its existence, and that was exactly the way it should stay. Vampires other than the highest ones surrounding Aro and Caius, weren't supposed to have private rooms aside from the living area that got appointed to everyone. She also told me that the type of room she and I had, was one of the better kind, indicating my 'special place' in the clan.

When I made a face at this comment, she tried to mimic my sour expression and we ended up laughing and making more funny faces. I actually had something resembling fun for the first time there. Eveline was like a warm fire in the middle of a cold, moist and dark cave.

Of course, a mere fire couldn't stop my thirst. The next couple of days I felt my energy drain away, and I noticed Eveline and, when I encountered him, Cole, shouting worried looks at my darkening eyes. Abstinence from blood for such a long period had some interesting effects, which I examined with some kind of curiosity. After all, I once forced Edward to go about under the same circumstances.

First of all, though I moved around underground and thick walls separated us from life in the open air, the smell of humans' blood and even the sound of their heartbeats were detectable, and stronger by the hour. And had the smell of blood since long ago disgusted me, now, with painful waves, the odour filled my nose and smelled so sweet, so irresistibly good, that I had to freeze on the spot, squeeze my eyes shut and focus on nothing but a meditative breathing in-and-out, until the scent changed into a repulsive one again.

Thirdly, most disturbing of all, the thirst made my emotions go rampant in an incomprehensible way. The talk between two vampires discussing a tasty recent meal no longer sent shivers down my spine. The candlelit hallways no longer made me long for the blinding, warm sunlight, as I noticed I actually had gotten used to them.

Sometimes, more frequent as the days I spent with Eve progressed, I caught myself not thinking about Edward, Renesmee or the life I had left behind for a split second. The times when I realized that, were the moments I feared the most.

The hunger, or so it seemed, accustomed me to my new life with terrifying speed. Luckily, I had Eveline now. She promised me to get me some food, and soon. Hunting for animals myself was out of the question, since I'd have to leave not only the underground, but venture out of the city grounds as well. It would become possible later, she explained, but since I still had to prove to the leaders that I was a compliant Volturi member, such a thing wasn't allowed. Instead, Eveline pulled some strings and a day later, came knocking on my door carrying a package. The smell was enough to make the venom run in my mouth, and as she carefully lifted a small vial out of the box, while sitting next to me on my bed, my muscles twitched in anticipation.

'It's cows blood', she said apologetically, but I shook my head no.

'It's perfect. Not as good as lions', but right now I could do with just about anything. Thanks.' And I gave her a hug.

The apologizing look hadn't disappeared from her face when I released her from my embrace, though.

'I know it's not enough,' she sighed. 'Getting an animals' blood is so hard, since you have to alter it so it won't solidify. I'm trying to get someone to send you vials on a regular basis, but this is all I could get on such short notice.'

I nodded and smiled at her, now with an apologetic look myself. 'I'm sorry for all the trouble I'm causing you. This is perfect for now, thanks.'

Eveline winked and handed me the small vial, made out of crystal clear glass, so the content was perfectly visible. My hand shook a little when I took it from her. A cow's blood or a lion's, the colour was the same: a stunning, brilliant red.

Evy gestured at me to open it, so I lifted the stopper, immediately sending a wave of the rusty smell of blood into my face. I actually let out a growl before I couldn't hold it anymore and pressed the vial to my lips. It emptied way too fast, and I held it up to my mouth for a couple of seconds more to make sure the last drop had fallen on my tongue. Then, I reluctantly pressed it back into Evy's hands, putting the stopper back on to get rid of most of the smell.

To be honest, the blood tasted horrible. The taste of the tame, domestic cow's blood was meek in comparison to my regular diet of the fierce mountain lion, if not other free animals. On top of that, the process to stop the coagulation of the blood left little taste of blood at all. It was like drinking water instead of wine, but without most of the hydrating value.

When Evy had put the emptied vial on the nightstand, she shot a worried look at my sour face. Quickly, I changed it to a more neutral expression, and then laughed to lighten up the mood. 'Sorry, I'm such a bother.' I couldn't help but to bite my lower lip.

'You're not,' Eveline protested, and smiled back. 'I like being able to take care of someone..' She pouted her lip and frowned. '.. to some extent.' At which we both laughed.

A second later there was a knock on my door and then Cole stepped in, pinching his nose shut with index finger and thumb. 'I smell animal.' He complained.

'It's terrible', Eveline complained, winking at me. 'A hurd of wild bulls came by suddenly and almost knocked us of our feet! We had to change our whole outfit to smell a little decent again.'

Cole let go of his nose and rolled his eyes. 'Very funny, Evy, but that's not what I'm smelling.'

Suddenly, I wanted to just be a part of this small talking between old friends, and I blurted out the joke before I knew it.

'Maybe it's your upper lip you're smelling.'

Cole shot his head in my direction, while I clasped my hand over my mouth, on the one hand shocked by my nerve, on the other hand finding it quite funny myself. Eveline seemed to agree, because she had fallen back on the bed and was rolling back and forth, laughing. I managed to keep my volume down at a modest snickering under my breath.

''Hooo,' Cole chuckled darkly, 'I get it now. They're joining up against me! Doomed, I am.' And feigning desperation, with his hand on his forehead, he sank down next to me on the bed. I laughed at his gloomy expression, and then a strange twitch flew through my stomach. Worried, I placed a hand on my abdomen. Still half laughing, Eveline rolled back into sitting position. 'What's wrong, Bells?'

The strange feeling was gone as fast as it came and I removed my hand. 'Dunno.' I smiled at her. 'Guess the cow's blood is taking effect.'

The quick glance between Eve and Cole didn't go unnoticed, but before I could ask for the meaning of it, Cole stood up from the bed, sighing.

'Well, I'm glad Eve got you some food, because I'm guessing you'll need it later. Aro wants to see you.'

I gulped and looked at Eveline. She smiled reassuringly. 'He probably wants to fill you in on your position, give you the necessary information, that's all. Besides,' she said, eyes sparkling with excitement, 'when you've settled, you can finally go around freely, go hunting for example.'

She hopped up and down on the bed at this thought, and for a moment I saw Alice, always and ever cheerful Alice, with her pixie like appearance and her ability to drag everyone with her in her excitement.

I blinked and then bit my lower lip, remembering the situation I was in again. Though I hated the idea of getting the full ins and outs on my 'job' here, since it meant an even deeper integration into the Volturi group, the awful taste of the cow's blood still lingered in my mouth, and just the promise of freedom to escape the dark underground once in awhile made me stand up from my bed. Rolling up my sleeves (a priceless, but at least plain-looking blouse I found in a very dark corner of my closet) I made my way to the door. 'Let's go.'

On our way to Aro's quarters, Cole and I talked about the regular things, gossiping about some couple I had seen fighting in the hallways, or Jane's angry glare I felt burning on my back from time to time. Sometimes there even were a joke or two, and I noticed I slowly dared to show a smile at hearing them as we progressed through the underground maze. Thinking back at when I came to Italy, not even so long ago, my mentality had changed. I remembered shouting Cole in his face that I didn't need to make friends or be friendly at all to anyone, but I appreciated the blooming friendship with Eve more than I could imagine, and since she put faith in Cole, for whatever reason (I still hadn't asked after that night in her secret chamber), I allowed myself to warm up to him as well, slowly, but steadily.

But he had changed as well. The cold, malignant face became rare, replaced by a warmer and friendlier one. And with his reserved attitude, his harassing of me also slowly stopped. The past days, which Eveline and I had spent almost entirely together, Cole sometimes came by to just hang out with us. And as the hostility between us disappeared, Cole had become the second Volturi member I let into my life.

As we took a turn in the maze of tunnels the lair existed out of (in which Cole could find his way blindfolded and as drunk as a lord) he stopped and looked at the end of the corridor, which existed of a huge set of doors, covering the entire width and height of the hall. They were massive.

'Through there?' I asked, my voice a little squeakier than I'd hoped.

Cole nodded. 'You'll be fine.' It sounded like an incantation.

But when we started walking towards the doors, he mumbled, almost inaudible, 'Just don't give him your usual big mouth..'

Even softer I chuckled and elbowed him in the ribs, but before he could return the favor we had reached the doors. As if it were a reflex, we sucked in our breath and held it in, as Cole let a heavy knocker, shaped in the form of a head sticking out a snake-tongue, fall against the door twice.

Behind the door, I heard the light tapping of a pair of feet walking towards us. A moment later, the door handle creaked on the other side and slowly the doors swung open, moaning like two old men. In the opening there appeared a young boy, quite plain-looking for a vampire, but with a set of extravagant red velvet clothes on, which made up for the lack of his looks more than enough. He gave us both a quick glance, then nodded (more at himself than at us, probably) and turned around. 'This way, please.'

As we entered a hall which could hold my entire quarters five times, I noticed Aro brought his company with him to practically his bedroom. Spread over the room were cliques of vampires standing, sitting or lounging together. Some of them existed of guards, in black, long cloaks. The rest were mainly female, their conversations falling dead silent as I walked past, then continuing at full speed, their voices chirping in symphony. I didn't bother to listen to them, though I could without effort. I knew what, or rather, who they were talking about.

At the other end of the room, the boy had stopped at a door guarded by two enormous men, who were shooting dangerous looks at us. I felt myself shrink under their glares, and was glad when our guide opened the door, totally unaffected by the two doorkeepers I might add, and stepped aside to make room to pass. When Cole and I stepped forward synchronically, he held up his hand at my guardian. 'Only the woman.' He said strictly.

Cole only huffed and took my arm, dragging me after him into the room. As we passed the boy he snarled under his breath, barely audible so that only us three could hear: 'Don't you tell me what to do, boy. I can rip your head off with one hand behind my back.'

Even if the comment wasn't meant for me, I still felt shivers run down my spine and looked at the boy to see his reaction. He was looking down at his feet, his face paler than white, almost a transparent grayish color it was, and, tripping over his words he blurted out: 'A- as you wish,' after which he made a run for it.

The two guards gave each other a stoic look, then one of them pushed the door shut behind us.

When I looked in front of me again, Cole had dragged me into an office the size of my apartment, with a huge shiny wooden desk at one end, and two classic chairs in front of it. There was no one there, so while we took a seat, still impressed by the boy's apparent fear for Cole, I asked him under my breath: 'Can you really? I mean rip off his head?'

Cole smirked an evil grin.

'I could, but I'd let someone else do it for me, probably.'

'And so he would', suddenly came the voice of Aro from behind us. If my heart would still work, it' d have skipped a beat or two, but now I managed to jump up about a feet high in my chair and had to close my eyes to stop the rush of adrenaline entering my veins. Aro was scary enough when you were prepared for him, but this was too much.

Cole, on the other hand, hadn't moved an inch and was calmly watching Aro take his seat on the other side of the desk.

'Well, well,' Aro said, 'it's been a while already, dear Bella.' His eyes, crimson red in their sockets, sparkled malignantly.

'After all, you were gone so fast at the party I held especially for you.'

Furious, I buried my nails in my palms, but kept quiet. Aro was examining my face, and I could see from his that he was reliving the moment of plunging his teeth into an innocent's neck. He was close to licking his lips, I thought horrified.

I was too angry to speak, afraid I might actually use my own fangs if I would, so I was glad when Cole solved the issue diplomatically. 'Aro,' he simply said, 'we've had this discussion before. No use going over it again. You wanted to speak with her, so speak up.'

Aro slowly turned to Cole, frowning, but Cole stared back, and the former sighed, letting the matter rest at that gesture. He leaned back in his chair, leather creaked, and grabbed some files from the right corner of his desk.

'As you know,' he started, looking down at the papers through which he was rummaging with his skinny, parchment colored hands, 'the Volturi have taken up the honorable task of protecting each and every citizen in Volterra and beyond from stray vampires and the like. No one,' he added, 'is allowed unsupervised hunting within our territory, and it is our task to keep the human world ignorant of our existence, so that we, but in fact every vampire on the globe,' he looked at me at these words, 'has the ability to live in peace.'

By now, he had found the document he was looking for and folded his hands on top of it, clearly not done with his speech.

'Well now, to guard and protect both worlds we need skilled people, such as yourself. That's why,' he concluded, 'I have decided you will learn to cooperate with my guards, so that you will soon be able to learn the ins and outs of how they work, learn their skills of their going about unnoticed, etcetera.' From the corner of my eyes, I saw Cole shooting a quick glance at me, but I kept my eyes fixed on Aro.

'When you have accomplished this,' he continued, 'you will be assigned the place of private guard of our highest elite, especially concerning me and Caius.'

I opened my mouth to protest, but Aro raised his hand to stop me.

'I know,' he said, 'that it is not your fysical skills that distinguish you from all the others I could ask for this job. That's why,' he nodded at Cole, 'this young man will teach you in the absolute necessary. But,' he said, 'the reason I want you in our shadows is because of you skills with the mind.' At which he tapped his temple with a bony index finger.

'You can guard the mind, Bella. And that part of me is very precious as well.'

He fell silent to let his words sink in.

I didn't really know what to think of his assignment for me. On the one hand, being one of the elite's guards meant spending a lot of time with them, which I found a horrifying idea, but on the other hand it meant a relatively easy job, which didn't include any blood shedding or fighting on my side.

Besides, Eveline's words still chased around in my mind. 'You can finally go around freely.'

Of course, it was a limited freedom since I could never return to Forks, but at least some aspects of the imprisonment would go away.

The aspect of the guards eyeing me warily when I strolled around all on my own. Or the not-so-secretive-patrol route (straight by my chambers) some unlucky fellow had to walk every thirty minutes or so.

The tension surrounding my stay here was remarkable, or so I thought. Did they really expect me to make a run for it, after the terms that were laid down for me? Did they expect me to just save my own butt and let everyone I held dear get killed? The thought of anyone managing to do that with a clear conscience made me shudder. Nope, totally not an option.

Meanwhile, Aro was waiting for an answer. Like this whole talk was a simple job interview at a fast-food company: 'Please bake my burgers', or something like that.

Slowly, I exhaled, looking down at my lap. After this, there would be no turning back. Acceptance would mean a voluntary free fall into the depths of hell, refusal.. well.. wouldn't get me any closer to Forks, because it was like asking for a one-way ticket to the other realm. And so, I chose the option that would still give me at least the tiniest bit of hope of ever getting in touch with my family again.

I locked my gaze with Aro's, and made sure I spoke with a steady, resolute voice.

'Okay. I will become your guard.'

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(A/N, I couldn't refuse: 'Okay. I will bake your burgers.'

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