Almost 4,000 words :)


BPOV

Christmas. The time of year where everyone puts on their smiles, pulls out their decorations, and for one day are hopefully selfless.

And today was Christmas Eve. Really, Christmas Eve is the best day in the festive season, as it's the climax of the whole thing. And at this moment I was returning to my house where fuming Alice was stood.

I gave Edward a quick kiss and he ran off towards his own home.

"Bella! You were meant to be back an hour ago!"

"Calm down Alice, we have three hours yet." I rolled my eyes as I slid past her through the doorway.

"You're filthy! What were you doing?" She smacked a hand to her forehead in frustration.

"Well-" I began, grinning.

"It was rhetorical! Now get a shower in Kaiya's room." She commanded.

I huffed and walked upstairs, wanting to argue with Alice but knowing better.

Kaiya was walking out of her room when I got there, her usual dark mane straight and down to her waist.

"Alice has been going berserk." She laughed. "Well we're all in your room doing make-up and hair, as it is the biggest. Oh and Annabelle got back when you were out."

She gave a little wave and floated off humming.

I had a quick shower and wrapped in a towel, ventured up stairs.

I opened the door and quickly saw every woman was there. So all the guys were at the Cullen's, and they were going to pick us up on the way.

Alice was marching round with her hair pinned back into a bun, telling people which shade of eye-shadow, how to give that perfect flick of eyeliner, etc. Joanne was sat on my bed looking grumpy, saying she's all for wearing a dress but she isn't going to be a Barbie doll. Rosalie and Kaiya were doing hair, and Valerie and Esme were doing make-up.

I sat next to Joanne on the bed.

"Don't argue with Alice, she'll get her own way, even if she has to drug you."

"Like that would happen." She muttered crossing her arms.

"Just remember, Alice is a force of nature, and can nature be stopped? I'll do your make-up for you if you want, it'll please everyone."

She sighed and stood up. "Fine, but if it's too much I'm taking it off."

I smirked. She reminded me of all the things I came up with when Alice kidnapped me for her 'beauty sessions'.

We all decided to go at human speed, so we were all finished in two hours. Before I was going to get in my dress, I was one of the last as I was trying to control Alice, which wasn't very successful, but it relaxed her more, Annabelle looked pointedly at me and went out onto the balcony.

I followed her and pulled the door closed behind me.

"How is everyone?" I asked quietly, sitting down on the wicker seat. My attitude to her had changed since the fight, she was one of the last ones who were standing and she tried her damnest to help Kachiri. But there was still that nagging in my gut telling me to stay away.

"Better." She shrugged looking out over at the snowy landscape.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Do you still refuse to help me?" She looked sideways at me, and I looked down guiltily.

"Yes."

She slammed her hand down, smashing the glass and bending the metal. Out of the corner of my eye I saw everyone begin to come out, but I held a hand up towards them and after a hesitation, they went back in and added the finishing touches to their looks.

"You know why. Back when I agreed I wasn't in my right mind, neither were you. I even thought you had changed your mind."

"Why should I? They killed him, but I can't find out their leader without you!"

"Then you'll have to do it yourself. I'm not saying what they do is right. But we don't do the right thing either."

"They killed him when he was a newborn! He hadn't even made the choice yet."

"Stop. I will not help and that's that. And if I hear you talking about it again, I will stop you. It's not your decision whether to kill some many for doing what they honestly believe is right."

She glared at me which actually made my stomach roll.

"You'll regret that you sided with them over your own race."

"My race is vampire, I'm not denying it. I'm not trying to get revenge anymore, it's too tiring."

"Too tiring? It wasn't tiring before. You were the most lethal vampire when I met you- an assassin with a conscience. You were happy to kill if it was for a valid reason. This is. What changed your mind to hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you, there is something else going on with you. I think I know what, but if it's true then I'll have to kill you which I don't want to have to do. If I'm right it'll explain a lot."

"I don't know what you are talking about. I'll see you at the dinner." Her eyes glinted at the final word; she then leaped over the side and disappeared into the darkness.

I sat there for a few minutes afterwards, gnawing my lip. Knowing she was right on some accounts, but I couldn't trust that girl.

When I re-entered I quickly changed into my blue dress, avoiding everyone's curious eyes.

The men were due to pick us up from half seven, so we all ventured down to the hall five minutes beforehand.

Everyone looked really good. Esme was dresses in a floaty green dress with gold detail around the bust. Kaiya was wearing a vintage Valentine down which was pale and draped across her figure perfectly. Rosalie was wearing a red (surprise surprise) dress which clung to the waist then had a very slight princess look towards the floor. Valerie was dressed in a beautiful floor length gauzy gold dress with sequins decorating it. Joanne and Alice were the only two wearing short dresses. Joanne had a short simple black cocktail dress with sequins, and Alice was wearing a simple asymmetric fuchsia silk dress which accentuated her tiny figure. Lastly Martiee was wearing a gold shimmery dress which fell simply to the floor but had an amazing intricate pattern covering it.

First came Sam who was driving his vintage Mercedes. They exchanged a passionate kiss which we all cheered at causing them to dash off embarrassingly.

After that came Emmett in Rosalie's newest convertible, and Jasper in Alice's black Porsche. Carlisle came in his old Mercedes which Rosalie and I had recently touched up.

Adam came in my Audi, which I grudgingly let him borrow after much pleading. Jack came to pick Joanne up in his cherry Mustang, so they could do something beforehand, probably another evil prank of theirs. Lastly Lorrie came in his new Eagle, which he finally got around to buying after his last one took a trip off the cliff thanks to Adam.

About five minutes after Lorrie and Martiee left, Edward arrived.

"Keep me waiting huh?" I asked raising an eyebrow as he stepped out the car. But then my first thought was y-u-m.

"You look good in a tux." I tried to stop myself drooling and pouncing on him, it was hard but I restrained myself.

"You look beautiful Bella." He grinned. Then all I saw were his smouldering gold eyes and all I felt was his lips on mine.

Thankfully I pulled away after a minute, leaving Edward with a huge pout.

"Now look who's being responsible," I laughed, grabbed his hand, and towed him to his Vanquish.

We arrived at the Arctic Club hotel in just over half an hour. It was a hotel in the middle of Seattle. It wasn't impressive from the outside but I had been inside and knew it was amazing.

As Edward pulled up someone helped me out of the car and a valet took the car. We were lead inside and escorted to the Northern lights dome room. It was, you guessed it, circular with a domed ceiling, but it also had golden furnishings. There were large tables with orange centrepieces and crystal glasses.

There were people everywhere. All in designer clothing, grabbing a glass of champagne here and there, but everyone's attention was on the vampires waltzing on the dance floor.

I couldn't hold back a giggle. They were all perfectly in time; it was possible they were hired professionals. Everyone was dancing wither their partners, and Annabelle was dancing with Jack. Joanne wasn't anywhere to be seen but before I had fully registered this I was with Edward blending into the waltz with them.

We enjoyed a couple more dances before I hinted for some of us to leave so others could dance too.

As we left all smiling kindly at those who look like they literally had faeces shoved up their perfect noses, Joanne walked in, accompanied with Rob.

"Crap." I whined.


EPOV

"What?" Lawrence looked shocked, his thoughts unusually unclear.

"Wow." Emmett laughed awkwardly with his eyebrows raised.

"Not again." Rosalie moaned.

Most comments were along those lines, but Adam, Jack and Bella who were looking at each other in an odd way.

"How about we go on the balcony?" Bella suggested. Carlisle started to call us back to give them some privacy.

"No Carlisle, you're all like family now anyway." Adam smiled and led everyone onto the balcony.

I looked around for Bella and a little way away saw that her and Anna were hissing to each other incoherently.

"Bella?" I asked, she looked up and smiled which made me kick myself again for being such an idiot in hurting her like that all those years ago. But as Jasper says, what's done is done and at least she is smiling again.

"Coming now Hun." She left Anna and walked over to me, leading me outside.

It was deserted outside and too loud from inside for anyone to hear what we were talking about in the first place.

Adam, Jack, Joanne and the human boy, Rob, were stood in a group facing the rest. Sam, Kaiya, Carlisle and Esme were drifting in the middle looking interested and happy. The rest were stood opposite the group, Bella's family were the ones who looked most shocked and slightly betrayed. The rest of my family were slightly amused as they never thought it'd be Joanne who would mate with a human, so they were all fairly shocked too.

Bella gave me a kiss on the cheek and went over to stand next to her vampire children. I went and stood in the middle, opposite my parents and Sam and Kaiya, fully prepared to stand up for Joanne but also wanting to know the story.

"This is Robert, Joanne's mate." Bella announced looking around intently; she quickly looked around at the human and gave him a warm smile which calmed him down slightly.

"How long have you known, Bella?" Lorrie asked.

"About a month, as has Adam because he's too nosey for his own good. And Jack found out a week ago. She told me because of my past." Her golden eyes flicked to me, and a small amount of guilt wormed its way through my gut, but I squashed it, this is about Joanne not me.

"Okay, I understand that, but why are you letting this happen?"

"Excuse me?" Joanne burst out, her thoughts a whirlwind of anger towards her adopted brother.

"Joanne." Adam warned.

But it was Robert who calmed her down. He grabbed her hand and stood in front of her, he shook his head minutely, and she quickly calmed down her thoughts turning into a flood of her care towards him.

"Lorrie, what do you mean let this happen?" Bella put her hands on her hips, perfectly straight and her eyes slightly annoyed but understanding.

"What happened to you ended so well didn't it? And now it's your duty to either turn him or kill him, but you have to pass it through your employers first. He's what, sixteen?"

"Exactly because of what happened to me. Rob is in love with her as she is with him, if I told her to leave he'll be in as much pain as I was, I will not subject him to that."

I tuned into Jasper's thoughts who confirmed they did indeed care for each other very much.

"But what about the Volturi?" Rosalie asked. She doesn't care about them that much does she?

I turned towards her and glared.

"Not fair Rosalie." She just ignored me.

"Well it was meant to be kept quiet until someone we know had left." She looked pointedly at the vampire who had just slipped through the door.

Annabelle laughed once humourlessly and leant against the wall looking smug.

"You planned on lying to us, didn't you? Our master's too. Wow you are worse than I originally thought." She looked Bella up and down disgustedly. I tried to tune into her thoughts, but got very little, which was unusual for her.

Bella sighed but still kept her posture.

"Yes I was, to protect my family. How else could it have worked? Aro may have agreed, maybe Marcus but Caius wouldn't be pleased in the slightest."

"You never tried though, no manners. You never keep your promises."

By now everyone had realised that this was no longer on the topic of the Volturi and everybody's heads were moving back and forth between the two of them like it was a high speed tennis match.

"Maybe we should get back to the topic at hand?" I suggested.

"Good idea." Jack nodded.

As Rob opened his mouth a well dressed woman walked through the doors.

"Is there a Miss Marie Littlewood here?"

Bella looked confused and glided over to the woman.

"Yes, what's the problem?" The black sequined detail glittered merrily in the lights from inside.

"There is a woman at the front asking to see you." I tuned into her thoughts but came up with nothing as she had been informed through her ear piece.

"Who is it?"

"She says her name is Trix Rouge?"

Bella looked confused but agreed to follow her to the front. I caught her attention before she left.

"Want me to come?"

She smiled and held her arm out towards me. I linked mine through it and we left the group who was looking after confused.

As we reached the desk I caught the thoughts of the receptionist who was mind molesting the vampire.

I froze and brought Bella to a stop. She looked at me questioningly and tried to pull me along.

"It's Victoria," I hissed. Her eyes widened and before I could blink she had slipped away and was at the front desk.

I ran after her confused and worried. She wouldn't kill Victoria in front of all these people would she?

As I appeared at Bella's side, I paused and looked at the red-head properly.

She was wearing a long coral coloured dress, her fiery hair was swept up into a sleek side bun, but her eyes were gold.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard Alice mention a ball on Christmas Eve, and thought I could find you here." Victoria said looked down almost... shyly?

"But why?" Bella asked softly.

"I-I-I was wondering if I could see what a family was like... and I want to see my sister again."

I had been tuning into Victoria's thoughts during this and saw how sincere she was, I was completely gobsmacked.

Bella sighed but saw her smile.

"You've tried this hard, so yes. But I don't know what my family is going to say." She gave Victoria's hand a quick awkward squeeze, but Victoria looked ecstatic.

"Thank you!" She hugged her, and Bella's eyes bulged but she laughed slightly.

"O-okaaay." I looked over a the woman who escorted us here and gave her some money as a donation enabling Victoria to be allowed through.

"Thrown from the ball pit into the lion pit." I muttered shaking my head at the absurdness of the situation, following the two women back towards the room.

Bella looked over her shoulder and smiled at me, grabbing my hand while Victoria was close on her right side, looking nervous.

"Erm, it's nice to see you take an animal diet." I said, feeling awkward but also needed to tell her that her decision was a good one.

"Well, thanks." She looked away and sped up.

I let out a breath never feeling so nervous.

"Calm down." Bella giggled tiptoeing to kiss me. "I'll be ready if something bad happens."

"I'm sure you will." I kissed the top of her head. "Maybe we should go in first and warn them?"

"Good idea. Trix?" Bella called, she stopped and looked back. "I'm going in to warn them, and Edward will bring you in when it's time."

I looked down at her, horrified.

"Be nice." She winked and sped off.

"Thank you for not killing me on the spot." She looked at me from across the hall.

"Well as Bella said, you obviously have tried hard to change." I shrugged.

"Honestly, thank you. And I'm sorry for being such a bother on your family. I'm sorry for James, he could be very determined." She winced when she mentioned her dead mate.

"I'm sorry for killing him." I wasn't sorry for the loss of his life but I was sorry for taking him away from his mate.

"I would have done the same." She shrugged. "Being on the animal blood is so hard, but I like feeling plus now James is gone, I feel alone and I don't want to spend an eternity like it, plus I don't want to be known as 'that vampire who tried to kill the Cullen's', most of the vampires I have come across know you all and are fairly fond of you. Animal blood is becoming more popular because of it."

"Really? Carlisle will be pleased." I smiled, and quickly tuned into the situation on the balcony.

"We might be waiting awhile. They're a bit..."

"Angry?" She lifted an eyebrow, "If they want a fight my instinct will tell me to run away... no urges yet."

"Fair enough." I nodded. "Valerie is pleased but confused."

"How I miss her! My little sister." Her face lit up, but then she looked guilty. "Was it the right thing to do? Change her?"

"She's getting married in the New Year, so I would say so."

"Really? To that Adam boy? He will be good for her." She beamed and clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"You do care about her..." I said, feeling sceptical as it was something I didn't want to acknowledge.

"Of course I do!" She looked shocked, and then sighed. "I know it'll take a lot, but please give me a chance, if I turn bad. The wolves will kill me anyway."

After thinking it through for a minute, I decided there wasn't any actual harm in it, as we would all stop her before it got that far.

"I will give you a chance, I was given one many years ago, and I believe everyone deserves one."

She nodded slightly in thanks and then we resumed into a less awkward silence.

"Trix Rouge?" I mused suddenly remembering the name she gave.

"Well Trix, as I was dressed up as Bellatrix Lestange on Halloween, and Rouge for the hair." She grinned almost sheepishly showing off her impeccable teeth.

"Well I think it's safe... enough." I listened to the thoughts of my family. Carlisle and Esme was pleased she has tried to change. Jasper was tense, Alice was apprehensive as she didn't see her coming. Emmett was quiet and thinking seriously about the situation, Rosalie was fuming but prepared to give her a reluctant chance. Then I listened to Bella's family. Adam was really annoyed, but Valerie was really excited and couldn't wait to see her sister. Kaiya was amused at the situation and quite calm as she had never met Victoria and didn't see it as a stretch to give her a chance. Sam was fairly calm but not very eager to see her. Jack was confused but trying to think of a way to make the situation light hearted. Lawrence was thinking up a battle strategy, whereas his mate was quiet and almost out of the situation. Joanne was ready to flip out and 'kick her ass', and Robert was worried Joanne was going to flip out and 'kick her ass'.

But actually to an outsider the balcony was deathly quiet and Bella was telling me to come through.

"Time to see the real army." I grinned and walked through. Victoria straightened and tried to look more confident whereas her face was radiating nervousness.

As soon as we reached the balcony, Valerie launched right past me and into Victoria's arms, squealing ecstatically.

They buried their faces into each other's shoulders, radiating enough happiness Jasper began to grin.

Unbeknown to the two of them, Joanne was being dragged off by Jack and Rob; thankfully she wasn't fighting due to the frailness of her human boyfriend. Lawrence and Rosalie was also leaving calmer than before but not wanting to discuss this now, Martiee following. Kaiya and Sam walked off to rejoin the party, smiling, Sam was more comfortable now, but wanting to give the two sisters some space to catch-up. Adam was lurking against the wall, not wanting to leave his mate, Bella was stood next to him, whispering things to him trying to brighten his mood, and she caught my eye and smiled. Annabelle was against the opposite wall to Bella, eying Victoria thoughtfully.

After a few minutes they pulled away and grinned at each other, and you could really see they were related, their features were practically the same, although Valerie's eyes were slightly rounder and Victoria was an inch or so taller.

"Victoria, it's been a long time. I'm glad to see you are attempting to drink animal blood." Carlisle beamed, holding his hand out.

Victoria shook it. "Everyone talks of you Carlisle, and your compassion."

He laughed rather embarrassed.

"And Esme, it's lovely to meet you, on nicer terms." She held her hand out but esme gently pulled her in for a hug.

"We happily give you another chance." Esme smiled and let go, returning to her husband's side.

Annabelle's thoughts drifted towards me. The Volturi doesn't.

I looked at her, but her face was still thoughtful.

"Victoria, can you do me a big favour, and make clear decisions before you do things...it annoys be being blind." Alice grinned her small smile, and Victoria nodded with an apology.

"Should some of us return home? There's no point stretching Victoria's boundaries now." Adam murmured from his shadow.

Carlisle agreed and said we could all meet at our home for now. Half of us left, as those more annoyed at the situation were going to stay for another hour or so, then meet us there.


Sorry it ended a bit rubbishy, but I kept writing and writing and writing and couldn't find an end point.

This chapter was hinting more, and then next chapter will really begin the end of the story. Yay... almost sad, but I'm excited to restart the others.

Links for dresses and venue are on my wall.