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Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight

Chapter 37

JANE

I felt a cold hand I knew definitely not to be Alec's pulling on the bindings on my hands.

"Hello love." A frisson of unease rose in my throat as I felt Demetri's cold breath hissing right at my ear. He slowly removed his hand from my mouth, pressing hard against my lips as he did so.

"We need to take her now. Lucy's waiting." I heard Heidi say sharply. Lucy was the human doctor who Aro had 'adopted' in his fairly new fascination with exploring the field of medicine. Why would they be taking me to her?

"Why did you untie her hands?!" Heidi snapped.

"I'm not carrying her, she can run with us." He retorted in a surly tone. "Besides, I want her to fight me..." He added in a low snicker.

"There won't be any time for your plans, Demetri." Heidi sighed.

I inhaled sharply to scream in a protest but Demetri clamped his hand over my mouth again, effectively stifling my cry. Grabbing my arms, they shepherded me out of the tiny cell. Swiftly and forcibly, they began running leaving me no choice but to run with them at the same blurring pace.

I heard the sliding movement of a door being opened then I was abruptly pushed down onto a hard bed. The sterile scents of the room indicated I was in the medical lab that Aro had painstakingly outfitted with every type of medical equipment and gadget he could possibly acquire.

I made to rise to stand but immediately I felt Heidi's hands grabbing my shoulders and attempting to forcibly push me back down. In my enforced blindness, my free hands unerringly shot out and enclosed tightly around her neck as she gasped loudly. With all the disgruntled oppression I had experienced for the past days, I could have rendered her headless with just my bare hands.

From somewhere beside me, Demetri grabbed my neck, hissing ominously at my ear, "Let her go!"

Slowly, my tightening fingers loosened and I dropped my hands off her, breathing harshly.

Demtri's hands around my throat eased up fractionally. Then I felt one of his hands reaching further down to encircle one of my breasts. Immediately, I bucked furiously against him, seeking to push him off me. But his hand held me tight as his other hand squeezed my breast almost painfully.

"Get your hands off me." I ground out between my teeth. An intense surge of nausea rose within me at the feel of his hand squeezing me and at the proximity of his clammy lips close to my skin. My stomach heaved but there was nothing in me to emit but empty air. When the guards had brought a struggling person to my cell, I had railed at them madly, refusing to drink...I could only feel grateful at the time that they hadn't forced me...

"I wonder if I pierce your skin if it would bleed like a human..." Demetri whispered. "I imagine it would be like drinking wine...from a flower..."

"Demetri as much as I'd like to join you in this..." Heidi said smoothly, "...there's no time. Aro gave us our instructions! Re-fasten her bindings!"

"But she smells so alluring now...so irresistible...almost like a human but better." His too familiar whiny voice grated on my senses.

"Focus on the task at hand, Demetri! Let's get on with what we're supposed to do now!

"Fine then!" He responded sulkily.

I felt Heidi's hand caressing my cheek softly and sensed her face close to mine as she continued to whisper in a sing song voice. "I can't help feeling a bit regretful that I informed Aro of my...observation. It seems such a waste to kill such a thing... I wonder if he would have this...effect on any other vampire..."

What in blazes was she going on about?

"Of course this is not something you would want to do. " She crooned softly. I gritted my teeth, twisting my face away so that her hand fell off where it had been cradling my cheek. "It's what you must do...or your sweet lover will be killed. Orders from Aro himself." Heidi continued in her sickeningly sweet voice, giggling softly now.

"What are you talking about?" I hissed fiercely. These bindings across my vision were so frustrating to me!

"You really are unaware of your little miracle, aren't you?" Heidi added in a baffling tone.

I sensed someone else moving about the room now, most likely the human doctor Lucy and then I heard the clink of metal objects. What in the hell were they up to?

"A knife straight into her abdomen would have sufficed." Demetri muttered. "I'd like to be out of here before this...begins." He added sneeringly.

A deep suspicion was beginning to form in my mind now but I quelled the root of that thought before it could blossom. That was not at all possible...

"Of course, dear Demetri. As soon as she is bound securely, you can..." Heidi never finished what she had been about to say. She gasped sharply and Demetri loosened his grip from me.

I rose from my perch on the bed as I sensed Alec untying my eye restraints. My sight was returned to me as Demetri's, Heidi's and...Lucy's were taken away from them.

"Alec!" I exclaimed, slumping in relief. He didn't spare a glance at me as he resumed his concentration on keeping Demetri, Heidi and Lucy paralyzed so that they were involuntarily anchored in their varied positions of surprise and fear.

Then with calculated menace and with the same cold, ruthless demeanor he had used to physically destroy the Volturi's enemies, Alec dispatched Demetri and Heidi. I turned away as he did it, closing my eyes briefly as I heard the familiar snapping sounds of vampiric execution taking place.

I slowly opened my eyes to see...Lucy cowered with her hands over her face in a corner of the chilly, all white room, her senses numbed as she made incoherent whimpers. Alec advanced on her slowly. Avoiding the incapacitated bodies of Demetri and Heidi sprawled on the pale tiled floor, I rose fluidly, rushing up to clasp Alec's shoulder. He turned to look at me.

"Maybe we can spare her?" I said softly.

"Dear sister, you don't have a clue, do you?" In one lightening movement he crouched down and swiftly twisted her neck. I backed away slowly, covering my mouth with my hand as nausea surged in me again.

He turned to stare at me a bit strangely for a brief moment. I knew that he could hear this unbelievable change in me now...my heart beating again. Not only merely beating but thundering as if to make up for all the time it lay still and silent within me.

"We don't have much time. I was locked up as well. We have to move fast, escape from here before the others come in here and discover us." Alec said quickly.

"Alec, it won't be that easy!" I whispered frantically. "The guards will catch up to us and everything will be made more difficult."

"We'll have help!" He whispered back urgently.

We rushed out of there with blurring haste, Alec tugging my hand as he led the way and I wondered of this help of which he spoke. In a matter of seconds we were now in one of the many corridors leading out of the subterranean fortress we had lived in for over two hundred years.

SETH

I landed lithely on my feet into a crouch, straightening instantly as I peered into the darkened corridor stretching out before me. Immediately I went into a run, the pounding of my feet echoing loudly through the meandering tunnel like area. I didn't bother to quiet my approach. Felix had indicated I was expected, after all.

My jaw clenched as I contemplated how I would go about this meeting...confrontation... whatever it turned out to be. He wouldn't let her just simply walk out of here with me that much I knew. And that's if she would even...want to. But some deeply entrenched instinct communicated to me that she could be in danger...

Just ahead of me I could see a pair of doors now, an elevator. I punched the button impatiently, stepping into the cubicle. There was only one arrow which indicated that I was going further down into the bowels of the Volturi fortress...and I wasn't coming back up without her...

The doors slid open and I strode out of them, my strides long and sure as I observed a reception area now. It was eerily empty and I passed through cautiously out of another door which led me down a shorter corridor where there were two huge wooden doors just ahead of me.

I could detect numerous...presences just behind these large doors now and gritting my teeth determinedly, I pushed the antiquated doors open.

A long line of vampires stood facing me, I didn't even bother to count them. My eyes were immediately drawn to Aro. He sat before that large gathering of vampires, with his two ancient cohorts flanking him, his filmy ruby eyes drifting over me with sardonic assessment.

Then he smiled.

I clenched my fists, a nerve wildly jumping in my tense jaw as I willed myself to keep calm. I valiantly reminded myself that I needed to make sure that she was fine...

"Welcome, my young one to Volterra." Aro said quite formally given the aggressive gathering just behind him. "I have been awaiting your arrival with bated breath."

I did not respond to his rigid politeness, my eyes darting about the still forms of the Volturi. I heaved a silent sigh of disappointment...she was not among those in this room. I felt completely out of my element here. I had to continuously quell the raging urge to phase a a result of being enclosed by these ancient stone walls and equally ancient stone...vampires. Jane might be a vampire, created by the very creature who regarded me with a display of cheer, but in all the aspects that really counted, she was nothing like them. Not anymore. This discomfort at being here was nothing to endure, not when I was so close to her now.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Aro exclaimed buoyantly, leaning forward a little from where he was sprawled on his royal chair.

"I've come here to inquire about Jane...I'd like to speak to her."

"Why would you ever want to do that?" He creased his brows quizzically as he regarded me. I was not willing to play his evasive game.

" I believe she was forced back here..that she wants to leave but you won't let her!" I responded bluntly.

"Hmmm, such a bold accusation, my young, rash one."

"Where is she?" I growled.

"A little patience...you'll behold your...dare I say... love...soon enough."

I glanced at the two vampires flanking him. I remembered the blond one Caius having a lot to say during the confrontation in Forks five years ago but now he looked completely disinterested, bored even as Aro spoke to me. And the staid, black haired one Marcus was abnormally still yet I noted there was a certain energy radiating from him, his eyes were alive with some virulent emotion that I did not really focus on at this point.

"For now, let us get to know you better. I believe you are aware of this humble little talent of mine, dear boy."

Gritting my teeth, I reluctantly walked closer to him, putting my hand atop his with barely restrained violence. He grasped my hand with an avid anticipation that further riled me. I could picture myself all too readily phasing into my wolf unexpectedly and tearing his head off before any of his guards could react...yet I tamped down this innate aggression, not out of any fear of being killed but because I wouldn't be able to see her if I succumbed to my irrational urge to attack now.

Aro dropped my hand numbly, potent menace leaping from his red gaze.

Shit. He just 'saw' that didn't he?

I allowed the tremors quaking my tense form to increase steadily expecting him to command his gathering of guards to attack me at once.

JANE

As we approached a cross-way interconnecting the corridor to another, Alec came to an abrupt halt. I skidded to a stop beside him, glancing up at him with my eyes wide and my heart...thudding. What a strange feeling!

"We can't stop now, Alec!" I said breathlessly, wrapping my arms about my torso from the cold draft that drifted through the corridors.

"She's supposed to be here!" Alec whispered, his brows crinkling as his eyes darted swiftly about in the darkness.

"Who's supposed to be here?" I asked curling my bare toes as I hurriedly rubbed my hands up and down my arms.

Alec shook his head, his eyes darkening a little.

"Why isn't she here yet?" Alec hissed in frustration.

"Alec..." I was about to insist that we couldn't linger here even one second longer when his scent wafted to me. I felt my dark eyes dilate a little then cold, stark fear pulsed through me.

"He's here..." I whispered. Without further thought, I twisted around, running back down the corridor at whooshing speed. Alec ran after me, whispering harshly, "Jane! What are you doing? We can't go back there!"

" I have to, Alec. Seth's in here."

My thin white shift molded itself to my frame as I sprinted with speedy intent. Crazy, suicidal wolf...what on earth was he thinking to follow me here like this!

We had been so close to escaping...we could have actually made it out without my even knowing that Seth had come here...

I sensed him now in the grand room where Aro, Marcus and Caius royal dais was situated and where they held their tribunals. I veered towards the corridor that would lead me there now. The door came into my sight and my fingers reached out to touch the ancient, polished wood eagerly, a fleeting feeling of exhilaration rushing through me as with just one push of the door, I would be seeing him again.

SETH

The irate anger disappeared from Aro's face as he rose from his seat now. He watched me, smiling ingratiatingly again. Such a benign gesture seemed grotesque on his fossilized countenance.

Then the smile slowly dissolved from his face. His eyes widened as he glanced behind me and his jovial facade of just moments before disintegrated like paper on fire crumbling into dark ashes.

Her sweet scent assailed my nostrils and I knew she was standing somewhere right behind me. My chest rose in a deep breath and I felt as if I was finally breathing again. Slowly I turned to face her.

She stood just before the door looking at me as if I were an apparition. Her beautiful eyes were pure black. Beside her stood her brother Alec. His gaze darted anxiously about the room as he held himself tensely. Her eyes remained riveted to me. She did not even so much as glance in Aro's direction where he stood before the silent throng of still Volturi, seething quietly.

I strode determinedly to where she stood too far from me. I forgot about everything and everyone else...forgot there were numerous vampires in the room ready at any moment to kill me.

She lowered her eyes when I finally stood just before her.

"You shouldn't have come here." She whispered wrapping her arms about herself. She leaned towards me in a reflexive motion then sprung back quickly. Something was wrong. She was acting so stilted...Now she dragged her eyes away from me and glanced at Aro and the other vampires as if she were deathly afraid of them. I could happily kill them all just for causing that look of fear in her eyes.

Something caught my attention then as I stood there staring down at her. I could distinctly hear another heart thumping wildly besides mine but that was impossible. Not in a room full of eternally still hearts.

I looked around a bit confused. Was there...someone else in this place? But all I could sense was the cloying smells of the other Volturi.

Besides that wildly thumping heart that could beat my own thundering heartbeat in a marathon, I detected another subtle thumping, separate in its own fast rhythm and less intense than this other mysterious heartbeat. In fact, I had to strain to hear it, it was so light...in terms of sound and speed.

"Do you hear that?" I said, glancing around. All I could see and smell were vampires but there had to be someone else here...someone with flesh and blood. "Is there another...human in here?"

Jane raised her eyes to me. I could see that she fought to hold in her breath but that she couldn't. She couldn't stop breathing...because she needed to!

In a flash of understanding that was frightening in its intensity, I knew there was no human in the room. Because I fully realized that the sound of this wildly beating heart came from...her. And the other sound, that subtle, speeding thumping that sounded like the almost muted beating of hummingbird wings in flight...that could only be...

"My God..." I said slowly. I felt as if all my senses were undergoing a complete shutdown. Like a fully lit house that went completely and unexpectedly dark. That tiny heartbeat...her heart beat...our heartbeat.

All around us the Volturi remained still and silent seemingly out of shock. Or maybe they were waiting for Aro's final gesture to attack. Whatever reason, I was glad for their rigid silence, glad that they were not rushing toward me in a frenzy of blood lust because I couldn't tear my eyes away from her at this moment.

My hand reached out and I placed it over her heart...her beating heart. The light slowly came back on bit by bit, flooding my crashed senses with clarity. My eyes held hers and I refused to let her go. My hand slid down to cradle her flat stomach through the thin material of the dress she wore. Her eyes widened as she stared at me. In that second as realization dawned bright and clear in her eyes, I knew she hadn't been aware that another heart besides hers beat within her.

"No!" She exclaimed suddenly in a loud, shrill octave that rebounded around the completely silent space. If I hadn't been rendered rigid with absolute shock, her abrupt, deafening protest would have made me jump out of my skin.

Before her loud denial finished echoing, I felt the stirring of monsters around me and I still wouldn't take my eyes off her. My hand still rested on her flat stomach...where I could hear this new heartbeat. Our eyes were locked together. Mines filled with awe and wonder...and hers with foreboding and fear.