A/N: Thank you so much for all of your reviews! Here is the next chapter, as promised…although I won't be able to do a repeat and post again tomorrow as I'm out all day today. But leave me some love and I'll post asap…but I don't know when that'll be.

Hope you enjoy this…and don't kill me when you see what happens at the end. xxx :)

Chapter 28

"Aro, Sir, is it really necessary to kill the Cullens?" Tanya spoke up respectfully, but there was panic written in her face. "They've always been our friends…"

"Right now I believe it's a case of who you value more as friends." He turned his face towards my neck, inhaled deeply. I clenched my teeth tightly together to keep from screaming; I was shaking with a mixture of fear, fury and helplessness as Aro's fingers dug cruelly into my wrist.

The vampires were creeping even closer; one girl who looked younger than me, was stealing silently across the outcrop towards Edward, and my heart constricted. I opened my mouth, but no sound beside a strangled sob came out. Edward was going to be killed before my eyes by a black haired girl – exotically and obviously Italian – while I was barely two metres away and held captive by the oldest vampire in existence. Why, why couldn't their strength diminish as they aged? But even that wouldn't be enough; I could never be fast enough to reach my love before he died.

"Sir, look!" Felix's harsh tone – I'd never forget it – came suddenly from behind. "They brought their babies with them. Can I wake them up?"

Babies? Children. Rylan and Liraz. Soft moans and whimpers as the children woke; a wail from Liraz. But I still couldn't tear my eyes away from Edward's. His met mine, held them with an intensity that had my heart shattering, the air catching in my lungs. That topaz gaze was filled with yearning, sorrow, and the love that had become the focus of my life. I was going to lose him; we were going to lose each other. Better to die than live without him.

I was Juliet to his Romeo. Never was a story of more woe…

"Edward!" The word tore itself from my throat in a scream as I threw myself hopelessly forward in Aro's vicelike grip towards him. I was brought up short, a sharp crack echoing through the clearing with my shriek of agony…than that of Juliet and her Romeo. On my knees, tears pouring from my eyes to blur my vision, I watched as the girl lowered her mouth to Edward's frozen neck –

Wait. That wasn't right.

Her gaze lifted to meet my eyes as she did so, and I could almost have sworn they glinted with topaz fire.

"No!" The cry, this time did not come from my lips. Instead it was Jane who flew forward through the air, only to reverse direction and go soaring backwards with a shriek. "No! Aro –"

"Tanya!" Aro hissed. "Hold the girl, Rocana." He sprung backward from the outcrop, dragging me with him but instead of the dreadful crunch I was expecting, cold marble arms caught me and I found myself staring up into a pair of red eyes set in the cruel face of a woman whose pale features could have been carved from marble. Except for the cloud of white-gold hair that framed her face like a halo, I could have been looking at Victoria all over again; in the twist of the lips, in the utter heartlessness in those blood-red pupils. "Hold her, Rocana," Aro repeated over the sobs of the children.

I opened my mouth and screamed again, this time out of pure terror, but the arms tightened around me and I was rewarded with a bone-crushing slap across the face. "For God's sake don't make her bleed yet, Rocana," a male voice hissed, a new face appearing in my swimming vision. It was the one who'd sent the wolves into unconsciousness – the one who'd paralysed Edward. I felt myself snarl, struggled to leap at him – I wanted to claw his eyes out, wanted to hurt him – but he only gave a chuckle and stepped back and Rocana squeezed me so tightly I felt my ribs were about to break.

"Stop it," she spat. I stopped, my face and wrist throbbing as I gasped for air.

"Tanya!" Aro hissed. "What is this betrayal?"

"Tanya had nothing to do with this." A new voice, light and sweet, spoke from above, and the dark-haired girl stepped to the edge of the rock to look down on us.

"Belladonna!" Tanya gasped.

"Thanks for the help, Tanya." My heart stopped. Was I imagining it? That voice, velvet despite its heavy sarcasm; was it another of the hallucinations I'd suffered during those months he'd been gone? But no – Rocana seemed to hear it too, for her head whipped upward to fix on the point beside Belladonna. "Let go of her, Rocana."

And then he stepped up beside the girl.

I would have sworn in that moment that he was an angel; the breeze teased his copper hair as those topaz eyes burned in his pale, pale face. The world seemed to still, until there was nothing in it except me and him; his eyes on mine filled with that all-encompassing love that was the entirety of my universe. Romeo and Juliet had no idea.

It was only when I blinked, and the noise flooded back in, that I noticed Belladonna had disappeared; but not for long because within a few seconds she returned to Edward's side, accompanied by the rest of the Cullens. "Release Bella, Aro," Edward demanded again.

The ancient gave a bloodcurdling shriek. "You have betrayed us, Cullen! Belladonna, for this treachery you will die!"

All of a sudden he reminded me of an insanely raving old man flinging incoherent threats. That wouldn't have been the best idea to have at that moment had Aro's power worked on me, as he chose that point to grab my arm in his – snarling with sudden fury– and wrench me from Rocana's arms. "Move one step and your precious Bella dies," he hissed.

Edward froze, and I could feel the tears trickling once more down my face as they stung on my throbbing cheek. So close…

"If you hurt her you won't even have time to scream," Rosalie promised, her voice more dangerous than I had ever heard it.

"Well then, I suppose my both life and hers rely on none of you moving," Aro snarled in return. "Tanya, if you value your life at all you'll get over here and stand against the Cullens. Jane, Felix, Rocana, Desari, Demetriano – to me."

"I think Demetriano might find that a little hard," Edward noted clinically. I followed his gaze sideways and gagged, squeezing my eyes closed just a little too late.

"Desari –" Aro choked.

"I did not agree to slaughter vampires or children, Aro," the woman spoke furiously. "You told me I lost my soul when I was bitten, that I was a monster and that the killing was necessary; but I think it's very clear that you lied to me." I felt Aro take a sudden step back a split second before an odd thud sounded at his feet. Apparently having one's head torn off was one thing a vampire couldn't recover from.

Rocana gave a scream that had my blood freezing. "You'll pay, Desari!" she howled.

"Oh, look," Alice remarked cheerily – I was so happy to hear her voice the tears only came faster – "I think the werewolves are waking up."

Growls filled the clearing, and I opened my eyes warily in time to see Callie and Jacob spring simultaneously to their feet. Both of their faces were filled with an animalistic fury, sheer rage to an extent that made me shudder involuntarily.

"If Callie says anything, Bella dies." A flash of agonized indecision crossed Callie's face, but she nodded.

"It's falling apart on you, Aro," Carlisle spoke softly. "Let Bella go now. Let all of them go."

"I've still got –" Aro began, but he was cut off as Rocana blurred past us, snarling, to launch herself on Desari. Tanya, too, leapt into the fray, and as her actions elicited no response from the Cullens I assume she was acting against Aro.

"You've got Felix and Jane, Aro. Jane can't use her power, and she's not used to fighting; Rocana's pretty busy. Irina's sided with you, but that's only a matter of principle as she's as willing to tear your throat out as any of us. Most of Tanya's coven is with us, Aro; we have the werewolves." Edward spoke calmly, so it was only because I knew him so well that I detected the terror in his eyes. Terror that I knew was for me.

"If the dogs come a step closer their children die," Felix spat, and my heart sank. They had Rylan and Liraz; the wolves weren't about to let them die. Sure enough, each of the hulking figures stopped dead at once, eyes sparkling darkly.

"You have the wolves, Cullen? That's not going to help you, we have their children." He ignored the awful ripping, snarling sounds coming from the battle of Tanya, Desari and Rocana.

"You can't fight us, Aro. There are too many of us." Emmett's voice was a low, angry rumble, reminding me of thunder. A part of my mind by this point seemed to have detached itself, was watching as though from the sidelines with clinical eyes. We had eight vampires on the outcrop of rock; three in a battle off to one side, while more closed in around the three at the centre. Three who held the hostages; a bruised, battered human girl and two wailing children. Surrounding it all, nearly twenty massive wolves.

"I don't have to fight you. Cullen, back away now or Bella dies."

The Cullens exchanged glances, communicating in lightning-fast murmurs. "Go!" Edward roared suddenly, and they backed away. Only Edward remained standing up there. "Go get thee hence, for I will not away," he quoted in a growl.

"Romeo and Juliet? How sweet. And how clichéd." Aro's breath was cool against my throat, my own catching in my chest so that I could hardly breathe. His scent was as sweet as Edward's but somehow sickening at the same time, putrefyingly sweet rather than the cool, clean smell of my fiancé. "But you're still there, Edward. And my teeth are so close to beloved Bella."

I could feel them scraping my neck, found myself wondering with a curiously clinical detachment how Aro could keep himself from biting down, ending it right then.

"Let go of her, Aro, or I swear –" Now the passion in his voice was audible, and I felt rather than heard Aro's chuckle.

"Such a threat," he murmured as his muscles bunched beneath me.

I had about a second to live, I knew. That second slowed so that my eyes met Edward's, saw the utter agony in them as he began to throw himself forward – seemingly in slow motion – with teeth bared in a scream.

Aro's arms tensed, and time resumed its normal pace just enough to allow all hell to break loose.