The reaction inside me was immediate and without warning, a primal explosion deep in my cells that I couldn't prevent. I lunged forward, bellowing like a stabbed rhinoceros. The guards holding me weren't ready for it and so I snapped out of their hold. I felt the thrill of rage coursing through me as my human mind disappeared and the animal inside me took over completely. There was no conscious thought, only animalistic instinct.
Losing control like that had never been so satisfying, even though I would regret it badly later on.
Kill her. She killed Alice! KILL HER!
I bolted forward, intent on hitting that bitch with everything I had. If I had managed to make it to her, it would have been over right then and there. I'd have killed her instantly, I swear. One punch, right to her smug face was all it would have taken.
As it was, I got halfway across the room before four guards slammed into me and sent me sprawling twenty feet to the side.
I kicked, snarled, screamed, hissed and roared but more of the Elite came down on me, their strength beginning to overwhelm me.
I felt heat spread in my belly. I felt power rush through my veins. I knew it was Rosalie's power, and I used it without thinking, explosively kicking, punching and slamming into whatever body I could get to, swinging and cracking into armor that made my knuckles crunch painfully but miraculously sent them flying away from me as my cells burned with ferocity.
It was incredible. I wouldn't realize it until later, but it was like becoming a vampire all over again and understanding the strength you suddenly have. I used it. I used it, sending all ten of the Elite guards that had descended on me into the floor, making the ground shake and the marble crack like their skin and armor.
If I had thought I had no cool superpowers before, I was sadly mistaken. But that was not what I felt in that moment. All I felt was the maddening, deeply engrained desire to murder Sulpicia and fuck any and every one that got in my way.
That everyone getting in my way happened to be about twenty five or thirty of the fifty or so guards milling about.
The blurs seemed too many to be real, but my vampire screamed a challenge that came pouring out of my mouth.
Alice, Alice, Alice. They all killed Alice. They helped in her death. My mate, Alice!
"COME ON!" The words exploded from my mouth like a foreign language as I was bomb rushed by them all, glittering diamond and loyal guardians coming at me with everything they had.
They hit me like a hurricane, like a goddamned earthquake. Bodies slammed into me and piled on like a rockslide, sending me down into the floor. Agony billowed out through my whole body and I know I was screaming unintelligibly. I could barely see through the cracks in the bodies surrounding me, pinning me down. My muscles burned with the effort as I gave them as much hell as I could raise.
I fought with everything I had. I kicked, clawed, broke bone, marble and diamond in an effort to work my way out of the fray, but as strong as Rosalie's power made me, it was useless. There were too many. If I knocked back one, snapped one's neck, another was there, grabbing at me, throwing my head back into the ground and letting it rebound as chips of my own skin flew up around me.
The strength began to go out in me. My vampire didn't want to go down, refused, but it was just so impossible to take them all down. I must have killed at least ten, but there were so many. So many vampires to fight, to kill, all trying to bring me down with all their power.
I could hear the Cullen's cries around me, but whatever blood I had was roaring in my ears and drowning them out. I tried so hard. I tried. I wanted to break free of their punishing blows and limbs and go after Sulpicia, get my revenge, but…
I couldn't. As strong as Rosalie's power made me, it began to drain me. My insides whined with exhaustion. My bones strained to the breaking point. My cells were popping. My limbs gave out and their punches and kicks came harder, broke me into a thousand little pieces as the pain began to override the ability to fight.
After what felt like years but must have been only a minute at most, I fell still, the sound of my skin cracking ringing in my ears as I whined pitifully and curled up, defeated while they rained down the pain.
I'll be damned if anyone tells me that I went down easily though. I knew I had taken as many of Sulpicia's precious Elite with me as I could. It was all I could manage…
As the blows began to ease up and I lay in a pile of my own armored skin, breathing hard and shaking violently from the exertion of using so much of my strength, a faint clapping met my ears.
"Bravo, Brava!"
Her voice made my instincts ache, but I was down for the count after being beaten mercilessly into a pulp by the guards still standing after my assault. I could do nothing but growl and stare directly ahead of me, my body rattling.
Rosalie had warned me. I hadn't thought it would drain me so badly. My veins felt closed off and my whole body was hurting from using so much of that power. All I could do was lay there and listen, before I was dragged up and gripped in a death grip by two of the Elite as the others backed off but stayed around me, making sure I couldn't go after their queen again. My skin fell off in pieces as I dizzily dragged my ankles on the floor. I no longer had the ability to stand.
I guess I really didn't understand how strong my instincts were. Seriously, there was nothing I could do to resist my newborn impulses.
"My, my, my. What a brilliant display of power. I imagine that took quite a good bit out of you, though, Isabella."
Sulpicia's voice was getting nearer. I raised my head with what little strength I had left and my eyes landed on her. My human mind still wasn't all there. I wasn't really thinking with my human consciousness. My vampire still owned my body, and growled weakly at her image swimming before me.
"Still, what a magnificent display, and from a newborn at that…"
Her ebony hair shone in the light, her high cheek bones risen up in a sickening smile. She was walking towards me, passing the Cullen boys and backed by more of her endless stream of guards. The closer she got, the more my insides writhed.
It was all rushing back. Sulpicia stood before me, perfectly fine and high and mighty while Alice lay at the bottom of a riverbed, neck snapped and dead-and I could do nothing! Absolutely shit to hurt her! My vow for revenge wasn't for shit now because I was too weak to break through her army and hit her, even slap her at this point.
I couldn't even stand face to face with her as she got close to me. I had to be held up like a beaten dog and glare at her as my grey skin was revealed through the massive breaks in my marble armor.
There are no words for the emotional pain that caused me. All I could think when I looked into her heartless red eyes was Alice's name, over and over. The mantra came back to me again.
Alice is dead, Alice is gone. Alice is dead, Alice is gone. Alice is dead, Alice is gone.
All because of her.
Sulpicia…
"I imagine you wish all these dead men and women around you were me," Sulpicia hummed softly as she reached me, motioning to her fallen warriors.
She had no idea how much I wished they were her, a million times over.
At least ten were dead around us, five of them of the Elite, destroyed in my wrath. Their armor had done nothing to protect them in the end. I felt no sympathy for them. They had to know what kind of person their queen truly was. They deserved no regret, and I would give them none. They, to me, had aided in Alice's murder. They had it coming.
"Sulpicia!" Esme's voice rang out behind me as I panted, supported only by the two men holding me up. "Leave her alone! Stay away from her!"
"Get the hell away from her you fuckin' psycho! I swear-"
That was Emmett…
"Don't you touch her!"
Edward…
"You lay one finger on her-"
Jasper.
And from Rosalie, only a threatening snarl that echoed around the marble room. Their protective cries soothed me only a little. It was nice to know that they still wouldn't bow down to that bitch, that they would still fight to protect me even after witnessing my crushing defeat that only proved we could never win here.
It all suddenly felt so hopeless. What could we do anymore? We just had to accept that we had lost. We could never beat Sulpicia. She was too far ahead of us. We get one step ahead and find out she's really been miles ahead the whole time.
I felt so pathetic and weak. Even after giving my all and taking down her absolute best, it didn't even matter because she was still coming out on top and in control. We just couldn't win.
God damn it…
Sulpicia halted, and I saw her red eyes darken slightly, narrow a bit. She cocked her head to the side and before I realized what was happening, she had back handed me almost out of the arms of her guards. My ears rang and I could only yelp, too weak to fight back.
I hated it. I felt so helpless. I was literally her bitch at that point.
"Goddamn it, Sulpicia! Let her go! Stop it! Haven't you done enough?" Esme refused to back down, her voice only escalating in volume from behind me.
"Effie," Sulpicia's voice softened into something like sympathy.
I still had no idea of their past, but Sulpicia always treated Esme with something akin to…Regret. Filled with mercy. And maybe a bit of longing if you looked hard enough.
"Don't you dare call me that!"
I watched Sulpicia's eyes narrow again. Her jaw locked. She turned to the two holding me.
"Put her with the others. She's harmless, for now. And them as well!" she added, calling out to the guards still restraining Esme and Rosalie.
We were all dragged over to the Cullen boys. I was dropped down next to Jasper, but the men kept their hands on my shoulders even as I nearly pitched face first into the ground, unable to hold myself up.
"Bella, Bella are you alright?" Jasper hissed, straining towards me in his chains.
Kind of a stupid question really. I honestly doubted I looked even remotely okay.
Still, nice to know he cares.
I didn't answer as I weakly turned to see Esme hit her knees next to me and then Rosalie next to her, forced down by the Volturi Elite. Esme's chest was rumbling more than I had ever heard it before.
"Well, now that that's settled, we can move on to the real show!" Sulpicia clapped her hands together before trotting towards the thrones, and I weakly looked up to watch her, my heart burning with hatred the whole time. Jane followed closely behind. Aro sat in the middle throne and on either side of him sat two others, who I assumed were Marcus and Caius, his left and right hand men.
Aro looked…Depressed. There was no other word for it. His papery form sagged in the throne and his face was sadder than I'd thought possible. His eyes were downcast and his lips turned down at the corners.
Is it weird for me to actually kind of feel a little, itty bitty bad for the guy? I mean, he was married to the biggest bitch on the earth, and as far as I knew, the guy had no ill intentions toward us, even liked us.
I know, I am an idiot for even going there. He was married to Sulpicia and as such my sympathy for him died almost instantly, but still…
I was just a bleeding heart for a guy that was usually beyond peppy and happy and creepy and now looked like a kicked puppy.
As Sulpicia reached the throne, she kicked Carlisle directly in the chest. He coughed once, grimacing in agony and letting out a moan of pain that had Esme surging forward in rage. Still, it meant he was alive, for the moment. That was a bit of good news.
Wow, that's absolutely depressing.
The best news all day is that Carlisle's alive, found out by way of being kicked in his probably already knocked in chest cavity!
I hate everything. Mostly the bitch that kicked him.
"Enough!" Aro snapped, half rising out of his seat. I had never heard his voice so commanding. Sulpicia seemed a little startled as her husband warned her away from Carlisle, as if she had not expected it from Aro either.
"As you wish," she sneered at him, her eyebrows coming down from their ridiculously high arches and Aro sank back down slowly as if tired simply from this movement.
My suspicions were confirmed a bit more by his outburst. In his own way, Aro still seemed to resist tensions between the Cullens and his wife.
And it made me happy to see he wasn't a whipped bitch for her, and still had some kind of say in what happened here. Maybe, just maybe he could be our ticket out.
Maybe we weren't completely fucked yet.
…Talk about wishful thinking…
I had never taken myself for someone to rely on faith, but it was getting to that point. I honestly didn't care if I survived at that point as I gasped while my body tried to slowly heal me back together. All I wanted was my shot at Sulpicia. I would die to kill her if that was what it took, for what she'd taken from me, for killing my Alice.
But I didn't want the Cullens getting hurt anymore. This wasn't their fight. I still loved them and wanted them to get out okay.
And maybe Aro did, too…
Sulpicia turned back around to face us before easily draping herself over Aro's lap. He made no indication to acknowledge her. He stared down at Carlisle with listless eyes. Jane stood next to them, keeping watch as the Volturi guard watched us closely from the edges of the platform and from behind us.
"Now then," Sulpicia said, addressing us. "To decide the fate of the Cullens…And Isabella Swan…"
So it had come down to this. Our fate decided by some sadistic bitch with no heart who should never have been a part of our lives in the first place.
A sudden desire to be human again flooded me. A need to be at home rereading Harry Potter for the thousandth time and fantasizing about Rosalie and Alice Cullen instead of actually being a part of this fucked up life claimed me.
"Let's see…I suppose we should state your crimes first. Hmm, how about treason, attempts to expose yourselves to humans, leading wolves into the city and to our doorstep, murder of the Royal Protection, damage to royal property, attempts to assassinate Volturi Royalty…"
And what about your crimes, Sulpicia? Do those just magically not fucking exist?
I wasn't well enough to speak yet, so my tongue remained still. That was probably for the best, because whatever I would have said would only have made the situation worse, as impossible as that seemed to do.
Somehow, I think I could have managed it.
"All of this from vampires we had considered friends. All of this from people we let live freely, despite desiring you in our coven. All of this from the dearest Cullens who once were held in the highest regards…" Sulpicia went on, idly playing with a lock of Aro's dark hair as she gazed down on us, her triumph written all over her face.
I just wanted her to die. Disappear off the face of the earth. I wanted my Alice back. I didn't want to be there, under her infuriating thumb, helpless and useless anymore. My head hung practically between my knees because I couldn't keep it up.
"And Isabella Swan, the driving force behind it all…Losing your mate just wasn't enough for you, was it? You've brought all of this down on yourself and the ones you love, Bella…I have to wonder how you live with all the guilt…"
Rage flooded me and I tried to yell back but all that came from my mouth was a grinding sort of wheeze of protest. I glared at her, trying to murder her with my eyes.
How dare she even go there…It drove me wild, but I was still too drained to reply.
However, my pathetic wheezing was interrupted by laughter. It wasn't kind laughter, or genuine. It was a hollow, bitter sort of laugh, bordering on hysterical. To my surprise, it was pouring out of Esme's mouth.
The sound was unbelievably unnerving.
"You-ha-you s-stupid bitch!" Esme spat, her laughter coming to an abrupt halt. "How could you ever speak of guilt, Sulpicia? How could you?"
Sulpicia's eyes flashed and she was on her feet instantly, her face screwed up in the most lack of control I'd seen since she'd realized my powers.
"How could I? How could I speak of guilt, Esme?" Sulpicia's voice was deadly quiet, her words like acid in the air. Sulpicia streaked forward without warning, appearing in front of Esme like a specter materializing from the otherworld. She grabbed Esme's chin in her hand as the guards tensed and wrenched it up. Esme's fangs dipped out to meet her with a hiss.
"How could you, my Effervescence? You should know of guilt better than us all!" Sulpicia snapped as Rosalie lurched threateningly towards them, but before even the guards could do anything, Rosalie's body arched at an eerie angle and a scream ripped from her throat.
I whined pitifully in the back of my throat as the boys swore and jerked in their chains and more of the men and women of the Royal Protection began slapping and kicking at them for their efforts as Rosalie hit the floor, wailing.
I wasn't even restrained because I could do no more than move my eyes to Jane who smirked sadistically down on Rosalie, apparently enjoying herself.
"Stop," I croaked, my voice barely more than a whisper. "Stop it…"
Seeing Rosalie tortured again made my chest ache. Why, why did Rose always have to be the one to bear the brunt of the agony?
Poor Rosalie just could not catch a break…
I tried to summon whatever ability I had deep inside me, but I could not find that sensation, the need to push back at an invading force. I couldn't protect her.
Rosalie's cries of anguish drove Esme wild. She jerked and pulled her head from side to side, squirming in Sulpicia's grip. Sulpicia only glared down at her.
"Stop it! STOP IT! Make her stop, Sulpicia! Please," Esme finally broke down as Rosalie's body writhed and twisted and her screams grew in volume. Sulpicia's other hand went up instantly, and just as instantly Jane's eyes averted and Rosalie went limp on the floor, panting, with her hair covering her face.
For a long, tense moment, Sulpicia and Esme merely stared into each other's eyes as if wordlessly communicating.
It was hard to have that bitch so close and be unable to do anything. Thoughts of Alice rang clear in my head. Her voice resonated inside my skull, probing at my heart and my sanity. I yearned to be strong enough to get to my feet and hit Sulpicia, knock her onto her back and tear her face off but I had exhausted everything I had trying to go after her earlier.
Before I registered what was happening, I was shoved out of reality as my world tilted sharply.
I have literally no control over anything anymore. Honestly.
It would be nice, Life, if you would at least grant me the choice of whether or not to be bitch slapped by a vision.
But that would be just too easy.
A vision clapped across my eyes, stealing my regular sight. I jerked my head backwards, letting it wash over me as vertigo threatened to knock me out.
The ceiling was cracking, falling apart. Great chunks of marble fell down like rain and hit the floor like meteors, rocking my senses. Cracks of thunder shook the air as what seemed to be the apocalypse rose around me. The ground was shivering and shaking violently. The sky seemed to be coming down on the building, smashing it to pieces. Surely this had to be the end of everything.
I ripped myself back into reality, gasping for breath and ignoring Jasper's voice in my ear as he desperately tried to use his powers to calm me down.
Yeah, okay, buddy. When you're as ramped up as me, Jazz, you kinda, sorta, really just make things worse.
Thanks for trying though bro. Means a lot.
I had no clue what all that meant -not surprisingly- and I had no idea of why the vision had struck me then, or what to do with it. All I knew was that it left my heart pounding as hard as it still could.
And a part of me felt Alice's echo dying out, and I could do nothing to stop her ghost from floating out of me again. It all just hurt so badly. It was a war just to listen to the conversation taking place next to me.
"You haven't even told them, have you? They're still clueless as to why everything is happening, aren't they?" Sulpicia gawked, releasing Esme's face. She seemed shocked and I couldn't tell if it was real or fake.
"Let them go. Let my children go. They have nothing to do with this. They never had anything to do with this!" Esme gasped as Rosalie was pulled back upwards, her face expressionless and her eyes staring into the floor after having been forced to endure that torture Jane could inflict all over again.
"We're not leaving you even if she does, Mom," Emmett growled out from my right.
Esme's face clearly said Like hell you won't.
"I won't," Sulpicia said simply and Esme gave her a look filled with hatred that almost rivaled mine.
What was their story? I knew now that it had to have played a key part in why we were here now. Why else would Sulpicia actually have the audacity to look dumbfounded in her own glorious triumph?
"Our past should never have involved them. Why can't you just let it go, Sulpicia? Why?" Esme groaned out, sounding exasperated and broken and angry all at once.
Sulpicia's face screwed up as if Esme had slapped her. (And I soo wish she had, mind you.)
"You know why! YOU KNOW WHY!"
Her voice leapt in volume so quickly that my newborn ears cringed. I was startled to see the ice queen actually lose it like that, and so, apparently, was everyone else. Her Guard flinched as did the Cullens. She looked…Crazy.
Okay, shut up. The bitch is obviously cray-cray, but she never really looked like it until that moment, with her eyes wide and wild and her chest heaving when she never even faux breathed before.
Only Esme remained unmoved, staring up at the psycho before her with an odd expression on her face.
"Sulpicia, please…"
Unlike before, Esme's plea only served to further agitate Sulpicia. She shook her head and let an unnerving sneer peel up the corners of her mouth.
"Tell them, Effie. Tell them what happened between us. They might as well know. They've been faithful, idiotic pawns in the game. They've earned the right to know that much," Sulpicia said evenly, backing up a few steps and motioning to all of us.
Fuck you, bitch.
"Fuck you, bitch!"
What?
My eyes widened and I looked sharply to the right. It was Edward who had spit it out. I'd never heard him curse in all the time I'd known him, let alone at a woman.
Yeah, never going to fight the fact that I'm immature again. I grinned, despite everything as Edward threw Sulpicia a livid look and Emmett whooped in delight. It actually hurt my cheeks to do it. My skin was still trying to seal back up and fix the cracks but the look on his face was absolutely perfect.
Sulpicia's head cocked again, in that way it seemed to do when she was in the mood to cause some pain.
I knew Edward was about to pay for his gall. All we could do was brace for impact. She lifted her right hand immediately and Edward crumpled in a heap of agony, yelling his lungs out.
Esme swore.
"Stop it! STOP IT! Stop! I'll tell them, I'll tell them everything! Just stop hurting them! STOP!"
Sulpicia let it go on for a little longer, until Esme began to fight her captors, before she lowered her hand and Edward sobbed into the marble floor, going limp as Rosalie had before being yanked back upright.
The Court was quiet again and I saw Aro staring directly at the back of Sulpicia's head, his face contorted into an unreadable expression.
God, how I wished he would do something to help us. We were so vulnerable and helpless. There was nothing anybody could do anymore but wait for Sulpicia's assaults.
I had never felt so useless, worthless, or defenseless…
"I'm waiting," Sulpicia warned, her hand twitching up slightly. Esme began talking immediately.
"I met Sulpicia five hundred years ago in Biloxi Mississippi. I was five hundred years old, and she was two thousand. I had been changed by an elder vampire, and she by an ancient. My change was much kinder than hers…"
"They don't need to know how we were changed. Tell them what happened between us," Sulpicia snapped, interrupting Esme.
I was already stunned. For one, Esme was one thousand years old? And Sulpicia was over two thousand years old? Holy fuck- and they met in Biloxi? Alice's home town?
What.
The fuck.
Why had Esme never told us this?
And she couldn't seriously be that old, could she? Let alone Sulpicia! Nobody, vampire or not, could be that old!
Esme halted before carrying on, shaking her head. "Fine. We met in Biloxi and I was infatuated by a woman I thought was beautiful and strong and ancient. Sulpicia took a liking to me. She began to show me the ropes, because I was still lost in the ways of vampires. I was this close to being outed to the humans by my own mistakes, and Sulpicia was actually the ancient designated to put me down. Lucky for me, I used to be quite a charmer, and with a natural seductive ease matched by her power, we became close."
I had thought they'd had a past, but the fact that it was romantic was not what I'd expected.
Like, seriously. I had thought it was impossible me for to be blindsided anymore.
Silly Bella!
I should have known better than that by then.
"We stayed by each other's sides for the next three hundred and fifty years-"
Jesus fucking-That is a long time! A long time with Sulpicia!
Who she had a romantic relationship with!
What the fuck, Esme. Just what in the fuck.
I hoped she had a good explanation for all that.
"And we fell in love."
Nope, guess not.
My eyes latched on to Sulpicia, who listened, motionless, expressionless, though her eyes didn't waver from Esme's face the whole time.
"What?" Emmett gasped and a guard cuffed him into silence.
"Yes. We fell in love. I loved you, Sulpicia. I admit that," Esme spoke directly to Sulpicia now, but the ancient vampire made no move to respond.
Just…How…Could you ever love…Sulpicia? At any point in time?
I suddenly felt a deep resentment towards Esme.
I couldn't stop it. Not with the emotional ache that losing Alice still caused me, would always cause me.
"I loved you with everything I had. You saved my life, and protected me. You kept me safe from anything that could have hurt me. I was the light in your life, your effervescence, and you were the rock in mine, keeping me together. But that doesn't compare to a mate's connection and you knew that. I knew that. We both knew that, from the moment we started everything."
Sulpicia's eyes flashed and her fists clenched, but she still said nothing.
Ah…It was starting to come together a little bit now. A little, not much. I'm still Bella. I was trying to piece it all together through the haze of pain I was in. But even an idiot could see that Sulpicia would be the jealous type…
Let me rephrase that.
Even an idiot could see that Sulpicia was the jealous-homicidal-murder-you-and-everyone-you-love-in-a-horrible-twisted-fasion-ex type.
Still, my mind was literally blown. I listened, shell shocked, like everyone else. I saw Rosalie giving her mother the most whip lashed look possible.
"Three hundred and fifty years ago, I met Carlisle, my mate, on a trip to Forks, Washington. You all know how that goes. We locked eyes, and both of us being vampires, it was so easy to go to each other. The only thing to hold me back was Sulpicia. My love, my lover, my friend. And I know it killed you, Sulpicia, that everything we had could never compare to that one moment with Carlisle. If I loved you, I loved Carlisle more. If I wanted you, I needed Carlisle. And I'm sorry that it came to that. A part of me even resisted it, fought the urge to find my mate, the most hereditary need of a vampire, for all those years because I. Loved. You," Esme enunciated these words and each word seemed to crack Sulpicia's resolve a little more.
This just can't be true. It can't be happening. It can't have happened.
Oh, but by the tick in Sulpicia's eye and the sorrow in Esme's face, I knew that it had.
Welp.
I reiterate: I hate everything.
Damn it, Esme…
This was just the icing on our royally fucked up cake, wasn't it?
"You're leaving parts out," Sulpicia spoke monotonously, her hand twitching again. Esme cringed, as did the rest of us, wondering who Jane's eyes would land on, but the auburn haired vampire rushed on.
"And you gave up everything to try and keep me. I know that. I don't blame you for it. I'd have done the same, but your losses were huge and mine could never have compared. You left the Volturi, a crime punishable only by death. You did it anyway, because you thought you could somehow keep us together. But you had to know, there's no way that you didn't, that I would never leave my mate for you. You had to know but your past blinded you to rational thought-"
"Don't speak of my past! YOU ARE MY MATE, ESME! Nobody else! Don't make this into something it's not!" Sulpicia screamed, that insane look taking over her again.
As much as I hate that cunt and would never back down from her, she still looked pretty freakin' scary when she flew off the handle like that. It was so sudden and unexpected when she did it.
She's also completely off her rocker if she honestly believes Esme is her mate. Does she really? Is she actually that deluded?
And I swear to all that is holy and unholy, if this is the reason, the real story as to why this bitch did everything she did and is doing now, if this is why my Alice was murdered…
I will never, ever find solace in this world, even after I've killed her. I will hunt her down in the afterlife and kill her over and over and over again if her goddamned jealousy is the reason all this happened, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it is.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, eh?
No shit, huh.
I saw Aro's face tighten in hurt, and again, before I could stop it, my heart went out to the guy. Sulpicia obviously didn't love him, and it was easy to see that she still harbored intense feelings for Esme.
The only question was, were they the reason Sulpicia was the way she was?
I sincerely hope not. I refuse to let my life have come to this over a jealous girl.
Like, fuck that in every way possible.
"I am not your mate, Sulpicia. I never was, and never will be…" Esme said slowly, as if talking a jumper down from a ledge.
"You cannot deny what we had was real, Effy. I won't let you. That man could never compare to my devotion. All of my planning and work I've done over the years is proof of that. But you…As much as I care for you Esme, you still need to be punished for treating me the way that you did. And I'll see to it that you are, and then all can be put as it should be," Sulpicia rambled and reached out with one hand as if to pet Esme's hair, but with a tremendous display of power, Esme ripped one arm free of the guards holding her and slapped Sulpicia, hard.
The crack resounded throughout the Court and a lethal hush fell over everything.
My respect for Esme came back with a vengeance for doing what I couldn't at that point.
"Just because men have hurt you before, Sulpicia, does not make them all that way! Don't you dare speak of Carlisle like he was one of the ones to put you through that hell. You never could let anything go. Your issues go far deeper than me and you just can't admit it. Why don't you tell them how you really got to where you are today? Why don't you start admitting that bad things happened to you?"
Esme challenging Sulpicia probably wasn't the best idea, but nobody was willing or able to stop her.
These two really had their share of problems together. Understatement of the year, I know, but how could I have ever expected them to be like that?
But it seemed as if the real problem, not surprisingly, lay with Sulpicia's past, and not just what she'd had with Esme.
Sulpicia's head was still bowed to the side from the blow Esme had struck her. Her whole body was shaking. She backed up, kept backing up, her face turning to watch Esme with a look of pure rage. She kept moving back until she was practically at the throne platform.
She looked to Jane and my heart stopped.
Ah, hell.
And then she looked down at Carlisle.
"No!"
Carlisle's body lit up off the floor as if he had electricity coursing through his form. His silence was broken by a piercing cry, and the only things that interrupted his screams of pain were Esme's cries and Sulpicia's psychotic ranting.
"You think I don't admit to myself what happened? You want me to tell your precious family what happened to me? His pain is NOTHING compared to mine, nothing! Pain isn't physical anguish, it's emotional trauma that wrecks you beyond repair! Pain is being given something true and perfect that finally makes you feel worth something and having it taken away from another just like the ones that caused you the emotional trauma in the first place! Pain isn't this!" Sulpicia swung her arm towards Carlisle's shuddering, wailing form. "You don't know what pain is!"
It killed me.
It literally destroyed me to listen to Esme's pleading and sobbing, to watch Carlisle, already half dead going through unbelievable agony, to hear the Cullen children shouting and bellowing in helpless fury.
And all the while, I could only stare, broken down and too weak to hold myself up.
All of it was my fault.
All my fault that we were here…
If I had been smarter, I could have stopped it from getting to this point. I could have saved Alice, I could have kept Sulpicia from getting us so far into her clutches, I could have…
I could have done something to keep it all from happening.
And now I could do nothing.
"You don't know, you will never know. You want to hear my sob story, fine. Thousands of years ago, men were the monsters of the world, not vampires, or werewolves, or whatever else your nightmares could come up with. They owned everything, controlled, abused and used everything. Imagine being four years old, living in some unknown third world country and being raped by your own father, who was supposed to be your protector, beaten by him on a daily basis, watching even your mother experience the same, having to live every day knowing you would be sold into a marriage to experience the same treatment for the rest of your life!"
Sulpicia was officially checked out. She was screaming over everybody, and Aro was looking at her with shock.
And Jane's eyes never wavered. How much could Carlisle take? How much could any of us take?
Esme had officially pushed Sulpicia beyond her breaking point. It had turned out to be a terrible mistake.
"Imagine that after being married to a fat bastard who can't even keep his food in his mouth when he chews, that someone actually offers you a way out. But that way out is bullshit! They promise you strength and the ability to protect yourself from these men, but then they sink two of their teeth into your neck and nothing could ever compare to that pain! And when you wake up after three more days of blinding pain, you are still under the control of a male, only this time, they're a vampire! You can't fight him because he's fifty times your age and he rapes you, and he makes you kill just to stay alive!"
It was hard to listen to her coherently because all eyes were on Carlisle.
I just wanted his agony to stop.
That was all I could think of. I yearned to leap across the room and rip Jane's eyes out, stop her powers from ever touching anyone again.
Mercifully, Sulpicia's hand flew up and Jane, like a robot, averted her eyes.
The collective gasp of relief from the Cullens made my heart tighten.
Carlisle hit the floor, motionless. I wasn't sure if he was unconscious, if that was even possible for vampires, but I hoped so. I hoped he was in some blissful coma where none of this could touch him anymore.
The pieces of the puzzle were all falling into place.
Sulpicia wasn't just a jealous bitch, she was a crazy bitch with a fucked up past and a mind that was probably shattered at an irreparable age, and only had that crazy solidified when she was changed and still kept under the thumb of a man.
It made sense.
But it did nothing to soothe my hatred for her.
If anything, I only hated her even more.
Esme's sobbing didn't stop but the rest of the Cullens had fallen silent. I thought I could hear Edward and Emmett weeping. Jasper shook next to me.
Sulpicia went on.
"So don't tell me I haven't admitted it to myself, sweet Effy. I live with it every day. I know that you don't mean it when you tell me such things, but you have to understand that it still stings to hear it. You just don't know, Esme, you just don't know what I've been through. That's okay, that's understandable. But you have to know that what I've been through only makes everything that I've done right, and you are so. So worth it, Esme. So worth it…"
Her voice had softened. She spoke directly to Esme, and her tone now seemed soothing, accepting. Her complete 360 reverse in mood left my head spinning.
Talk about psychotic…
And her words brought the venom back to my mouth in a rush.
How could she…How could I even begin to sort through that fucked up, insane speech?
Sulpicia was out of her goddamn mind!
I was speaking before I even realized I could.
"You are out of your fuckin' mind," I gasped out, lifting my head to stare directly at her narrow, now charcoal black eyes.
I saw nothing but barely suppressed insanity in her eyes.
The sight sent a chill up my spine. To stare into the eyes of a crazy person is an eerie sensation, one that made my skin crawl.
But I would not look away. I had a whole lot that I wanted, needed to say to her.
And it all came back to Alice.
Her eyes snapped to mine and her eyebrows shot up as a sickly sweet smile claimed her face.
"Oh, is the little newborn back in action now?"
"You really are pathetic, Sulpicia. I didn't get it before, why you are the way you are, how you could be the way you are…But it makes sense. Your past is painful. It's more painful than I thought possible. What happened to you…Nobody deserves that...Nobody…"
My speech was halted, almost slurred. I never thought I'd speak those words to her. I had thought that Sulpicia deserved all of the ache in the world for taking my mate from me, for being the sick, evil person she was, and honestly, a part of me still believed that, the part that yearned for Alice with no restraint.
So basically, all of me.
But…In a way, how else could a person like Sulpicia come to be?
Her past had to have been something so traumatizing because I never want to meet the person that is the way she is for no reason at all...
She watched me like a hawk and I kept going, my chest rattling as I took a deep breath, struggling to keep going. There were spots of light popping in my vision.
"But if you think…If you think that justifies everything you've done…Anything you've done to us…You are so out of your mind…You can't really believe that…Tell me you don't believe that…" I gasped out ruggedly, watching her upper lip curl back with disgust for me.
"I deserve happiness! I deserve my lover, my mate back! I deserve everything I will get out of this, Isabella Swan! Don't pretend to comprehend matters far beyond your feeble, infantile mind!" Sulpicia barked at me and I shook my head in disbelief.
Loco. She was absolutely nuts.
I took another deep breath, and this time my voice didn't shake when I spoke.
"She's not your mate. She's Carlisle's. You know that. And how could you deserve happiness after everything you've done? You want to talk about our crimes? What about yours? What about manipulating innocent people? What about taking their lives and using them to achieve your own sick, twisted idea of happiness? What about using their weaknesses against them for your own pleasure? What about taking the life of an innocent, beautiful person, my mate, for your own goddamn, so called happiness! What about my life, Sulpicia? What about that!"
I was yelling by the end of my rant, and I felt how much easier it was to hold my head up in the heat of rage.
Who was she to decide that she had the right to use and hurt people for someone she knew didn't want her anymore?
What a hypocrite. I could not, for the life of me, feel any bit of sympathy for that woman. She was the exact thing she preached to despise.
"How dare you-" Sulpicia started, her face tightening with anger.
"How dare I? You are such a hypocrite, and you don't even realize it! You claim men are the monsters because they raped you and used you and took away all your joy and innocence but what have you been doing for the past hundreds of years, Sulpicia? The exact same thing! You are-God, you are so fucked up! You took my innocence away when you stepped into my life and took control of it for your own goals, the same way they did the moment you were born! You used me and my Alice to get to Esme, you used her children! You used us and hurt us in unbelievably painful ways, and don't tell me we don't know what pain is by now! You have tortured us, taken away everything that you can for your own desires! How are you any better than them? Tell me. TELL ME!"
My chest was heaving and so was hers. Her eyes were wild, like a caged animal. She didn't say anything back. I knew without a doubt that she couldn't.
She couldn't argue with me. She had no rebuttal.
She had no way of refuting me because it was all the truth, and by the look on her face, she couldn't stand that.
That she was exactly what she claimed to despise, claimed made her right in everything she did.
"You are not entitled to Esme just because you want her! You are a rapist, Sulpicia, but you rape the mind and not the body. But I bet, I guarantee if you killed us all right now and took Esme prisoner, you would say you had the right to have sex with her, whether she wanted it or not, right? Because you deserve her? Because you have some mythical right to her and she gets no say in it?"
Sulpicia snarled then and the sound of it was ungodly. It came from deep within her belly, like an enraged dragon roaring from across the room and she took one step forward, her hands clenched into fists and her eyes flashing violently. Instinctively, I knew this was the roar of an ancient vampire made angry.
Astonishingly enough, I felt no fear in the face of it.
It seemed that implying she would truly hurt Esme was her line of control, though, implying that she was like the men that raped her, even if it was true.
She was no longer the untouched ice queen. She was turning into the beast that lurks inside every vampire and I can't lie; it gave me a deep sense of satisfaction to see her wilt beneath the unwavering truth that she was a sick, evil person, despite whatever her past was.
"And you know what else? You're a coward. You hide behind these guards and their armor, which by the way, nobody should be able to afford, Jesus Christ, and you camp behind this ultra self righteous crap but Esme was right. You would never face anything head on. You hide behind your past like it somehow makes everything you're doing okay when it doesn't and you hide behind your expendable protection because you're too afraid to face me head on. You're too scared to admit that you would lose if you had to face me alone and see just what happens when you fuck with people's lives like this!"
My ability to talk was waning. I was still so weak and I knew by the way she threw her head back and started laughing that she was calling my bluff.
If she had let me up right then to fight her, I'd have lost in a split second. I needed to recover, but I also knew that if she would just give me that opportunity, I knew it deep in my bones that I could beat her.
I could beat her because she'd given me the ultimate weapon.
Grief. The need for revenge.
She took Alice from me, and that alone would be enough for me to take her down.
I just needed to goad her into this. I had to use my words better than I ever had before because if not, she would probably kill us all right now, be damned how obviously wrong she was.
Oh my god, the irony.
Isabella Swan using her words to save herself!
I almost laughed at the thought of it. Since when did I become a public speaker?
"You honestly think that you could defeat me, little newborn? You can't even stand on your shaky fawn legs!" Sulpicia guffawed, stalking forward and back up to me. She bent down and lowered her face close to mine, a brutal sneer on her face.
Being so close to her activated my gag reflex as well as my punch-a-hoe in the face reflex.
But I had to keep it together. This was my last shot, my last ditch attempt to get us one more chance out of this hellhole.
"You talk a big game for someone that stood by and let her guards soften me up first. How many of your precious Elite went down in that fight, Sulpicia? Five, plus the other five normal ones? How many Elite with their pretty armor does it take to compare to you?"
Her face darkened.
Hot damn, though. I never knew I could talk shit until the pressure mounted on me.
I prayed it would keep working, because by the look in her eyes and the expressions on her guards' faces…
People were second guessing themselves. And unbelievably, people were second guessing their queen.
Sulpicia was second guessing herself.
"A thousand Elite could never compare to me, little cygnet," she scoffed, but I saw right through her bravado.
…I chose not to comment on the fact that I had no bloody clue what a cygnet was.
No point in making myself look dumb at that moment. I had to seem like I had all the answers.
"Then why do you look so scared?" I hissed back, glaring deep into her lightless black eyes, as sick as it made me to do so.
"Scared? Scared of what? You are nothing but a pawn in my game, stupid girl! You are disposable and weak and helpless!" Sulpicia snapped back, rearing up as if struck by the word 'scared.'
Not very subtle, Sulpicia. Not very subtle at all.
"You're afraid of me. You're not just afraid, you're terrified. I saw it on the bluffs in Phoenix. We both know it. You know what I'm capable of. You can't stand that your precious mind controlling powers can't touch me. You're petrified that you can't even have the tiny sadist over there torture me into submission. You are afraid of me, because you know the only way you could really, truly defeat me would be with real strength and skill. And you just don't have that."
The Cullens were watching with rapt attention. Aro was actually standing now, wringing his hands with anxiety.
But it was the looks of the guards that made me excited. I knew when their faces changed from disbelief to suspicion and doubt that was aimed towards Sulpicia that I had her.
Sulpicia relied on the unwavering faith of her vampire coven to keep her power. If they were questioning her, how could she ever keep them under control, and therefore the power of the Volturi?
And the only way to keep them in line now would be to prove that she had skill and strength beyond her mind control.
By fighting me when we were both at full strength.
Her sneer twisted into an ugly scowl, before she chuckled softly.
"You really are quite the anomaly, aren't you Isabella Swan?"
Can't say I've never heard that one before.
I felt my own smirk twist my face. It was a hateful expression, one that only illustrated the fact that I had beaten her this time, that I was going to get what I wanted, a real fight with that bitch, a real chance to take her down and avenge my Alice.
Apparently, I could be a real smooth talker if I needed to.
Who knew?
She leaned down close to me and spoke directly into my ear, which caused a rumbling growl to echo in my chest.
Fucking gross. Her breath smelled like iron and wine, or blood.
It was a testament to my disgust for her that even blood smelled bad on her breath.
"You think I don't know what you're doing, cygnet? What kind of fool do you take me for? You think your precious words have swayed my guards?"
I froze.
Looks like I'd been busted. And that meant everything was about to be lost.
Damn it, why did I have to celebrate prematurely?
"They haven't. They would never betray me. But I'll entertain your dream of killing me. That can be the price I pay for my so called crimes. I will gladly slaughter you, and then everything I've done will really be right, and everyone will know it, and I'll have my mate, and you'll still be without yours."
Psycho fucking-
I bowed up and lunged with everything I had. My arms slid through the grasp of the two men holding me until they locked onto my wrists, grunting with surprise and exertion as Sulpicia staggered back a step with my face right in hers and I was pulled to a halt like a dog on a chain, snapping my fangs at my prey, just out of reach.
For a moment, we just stood there, my eyes boring into hers as I tried to communicate the thoughts running through my head, her death and my vengeance, her in a pile of ash, burning in all my rage.
"Bring it, you crazy bitch," I snarled and her eyes narrowed as she hissed at me before I was yanked right off my feet and back into the arms of her guards.
"Take them away. Throw them all in the dungeons. Feed none of them except Swan. You get three days to recover, cygnet. We'll see how confident you are then," Sulpicia ground out at me through clenched teeth.
"He stays," Sulpicia added darkly when one of the guards made towards Carlisle. Esme sobbed openly, but there was nothing any of us could do.
My rapid movements had left me dizzy and close to passing out, but even as we were all lifted and dragged towards and through those massive mahogany doors, I twisted in their arms and stumbled to keep my balance so I could call out one last thing to her.
"You were right about one thing, though, Sulpicia. You deserve everything that's coming to you."
The slam of the doors behind me couldn't block out her scream of anger.
Note: Cygnet = baby swan.