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AroPOV
7th July 2048
"You wish is my command, master," she said, her tone seductive in its submission. My body lit with pleasure. It was like this for all my conquests, the thrill of watching them bend to my will would never wither. But with Miss St Clair there was more. Decades of waiting to be satisfied had amplifying the pleasure. Each meeting had teased me, titillated my desire, and it had made this victory all the sweeter.
The way her unusual eyes watched me made my palms itch. The flashes in Edward's mind had spurred on my hunger. I wanted to own her in every way. Dominate her mind and body, bending it under my will. Where Edward had tenderly caressed and coaxed, I wanted to pull her cries from her lips. I wanted to watch her come undone in my grasp. To see the change in her eyes as she leaves her old life behind.
Lost in the moment of my victory I reached to touch the supple skin on her cheek. The hum of energy below her surface was intoxicating in its power. And to think it was all mine. Forever.
The grinding of stone registered in my ears and almost in tandem Sarelle's eyes snapped open.
A flare of electricity crackled off her skin, the shock of it making my hand pull away.
I stood in horror as a look of euphoria flooded onto her face. Those unusual eyes that had drawn me in with their strange gold flecks and endless fire now stared cold and vicious. Darkness started to swallow the gold, sparks dancing in her irises. She was death incarnate and it was beautiful.
"Don't play games, Miss St Clair. I will not play as nicely as last time." I gasped, mesmerised as she stalked towards me. Those strange eyes watching me. "You agreed. You are mine."I hissed, trying fruitlessly to tame the force before me.
She was unlike anything I had ever seen. A force of nature. The ender of worlds.
"You have taken everything from me. My life, my parents, my hope. Now I'm going to take everything you've ever had, ever wanted, from you." Her fury sparked fear in me and for a moment I basked in the way my veins fizzed. The urge to run tensing my long-wasted muscles. Not since the Russian war had I feared for my life and the more time passed the more my existence had slipped into boredom. No thrill except for the thrill of outsmarting my opponent.
Chaos erupted around us. Sparks flew from her, striking out like lightning. I watched in wonder as the electricity licked the walls around us, leaving blackened scorch marks in their wake.
We stood here, locked in each other's regard, at the eye of the storm.
I saw Alec leap towards the vampire who held Aaron's severed head in his hands. He was fighting valiantly but he was no match for Alec's gift. I waited with anticipation as Alec's hands found their purchase against the man's neck. My thirst for violence was quenched in seconds but not by the screech of stone ripping from stone. Instead it was a crack, sharp and vicious as tendrils of electricity wrapped themselves around Alec's throat. They wove over him like an anaconda winding round its prey. A look of surprise lit his face before fear followed. Watching the life drain from his eyes seemed to take a lifetime, but it had taken less than a second.
Jane screeched in horror as she reached for her brother. The man's cries followed as she turned her rage on to him.
I should have been outraged at what Sarelle had taken from me, but as I tore my eyes from Alec's lifeless body and saw her before me, I felt the insatiable greed rear its head once again.
"We'll tame you and use that power for the greater good." As I saw the wild beauty of her in front of me, I almost hated the idea of her shackled. To never see her looking like this again. Still, the idea of the alternative was intoxicating. It would be like having a supernova, an atomic bomb, ready to detonate at your command.
"Why me? Why was I so important to you? Some prized possession you had to capture. Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" She screamed, a shockwave rippling through the room.
Cracks started to appear in the walls of the chamber and with them rubble started to fall.
Carnage was all that surrounded us. The Cullens had joined the fray, battling with what was left of our guard. What had taken millennia to build had taken Sarelle minutes to destroy.
"From the moment Jane discovered you I wanted you. I had to have you." Never had words been more true.
"You honestly thought I would stay with you? Let you unpick my mind piece by piece until I ended up like all your other drones?" she seethed as we circled each other.
"Never," I vowed.
"Then what. You keep me as your whore? Sulpicia not satisfying your urges?" she sneered, unbecoming of her femininity. "Or can you not satisfy hers." She laughed wickedly as another flurry of sparks crackled into the air. She was a goddess of fury, a real life Kali.
The thrill of standing this close to death lit my cold veins with fire. It was raw and seductive. A rush. I wanted to push her. To see how far she would go. How far she could go.
"From what I could gather from Edward's mind you are more than qualified for the job."
My risk was worth the reward as she shrieked in anger. Whatever modicum of control she had was now burnt up in her rage.
"How can it be that you would give yourself to a man as weak as him yet fight the idea of being my mistress? I would have given you everything. Anything you desired. Power, wealth, respect."
Her eyes set on me, tightening callously. "And all I'd have to do is change everything I believe in? Funny how that doesn't sound very appealing."
I saw the moment she decided enough was enough because I saw the change in her expression. The energy around us burned, her body no longer capable of holding the energy within. As I looked at her, I saw my end reflected in her eyes. Like Icarus I had gone too far and now as death hurtled towards me I could do nothing to defend against it.
Her hands flattened towards me. Her palms almost glowed as they directed the sparks.
"Beautiful," I whispered as I took a final look at the splendid force of nature before me.
***SPOV***
I couldn't control it. It was too much.
I could hear the destruction around me but all I could see was sparks.
Where my body had once kept the tingle contained it now was just a conduit for its escape. Ravenously it swept through the chamber, devouring whatever stood in its path.
I had always spoke of it as if it was a separate entity but never had that feeling felt so true.
I screamed as the pressure rolled through me. It was unrelenting. Unforgiving.
I thought about the people outside this castle, going about their day like any other. I couldn't stand the idea that I could hurt them, but I didn't know how to stop it.
I stood blindly; my head held in my hands. Why had I let Aro push me? I had wanted to destroy them, the Volturi, but when Aslo had killed Aaron and the tingle took over I should have taken control. But I didn't, and now I couldn't. And now it was like the feeling of being helpless just fed the tingle more. Aaron's death had started a chain reaction and no matter how I tried it just kept gathering force.
Through the turmoil I felt hands grasp my shoulders tightly.
"Don't! Don't you dare do this, Sarelle!" he shouted, entreating and earnest.
I sagged in his hold because I knew I couldn't keep him safe and I couldn't do what he wanted. No matter how much I wanted to.
"Aslo, I told you no hero moments," I scolded half-heartedly. "You have to leave. Now!"
"No. I left Derren. I let him destroy himself. I won't let you."
"Let go!" I beseeched. "I can't control it."
"You saved me. Now I'm saving you." His voice was fervent and steady.
"You can't, we'll both die," I said weakly as the tingle reached a precipice. It had exhausted this place, but it wanted more.
"Then at least we won't die alone."
My body pulsed violent and then silence fell. No sparks. No words. Just an endless dark.
Darkness was all that followed the flash, and it was a long darkness. Not just in time but in the very depth of it. It was like I'd fallen into an abyss that had no end.
But as soon as it came it receded. Sounds and sensations came clawing back, emerging feverishly from the dark. With them came the rush of life.
I gasped, not for air, but because it felt like if I didn't, I would never really be here. Like I needed to absorb the essence of life around me.
I stood in an instant, my legs crouched and ready for the attack. Except it never came. I looked around me and my breath froze in shock.
This room, the symbol of the Volturi's ancient power, was now nothing but dust. Bodies lay disjointed in the rubble, some in pieces, others just staring with vacant eyes. All of them dead and gone.
"Rose!" Emmett's arms wrapped round me as I stood stunned. His kiss woke me from my catatonic silence, but it could do nothing to quell the bewilderment.
As I cast my eyes around the room, I counted each of my family in turn. Jasper and Alice, Carlisle and Esme.
"Where's Bella?"
"We don't know," Emmett murmured solemnly beside me. She was behind me when we followed the others, I was sure of it, but I didn't remember seeing her during the fight.
"Edward?"
"He's still looking for Sarelle," an uneasiness was in his voice. I looked across at my brother as he scoured the fallen stones. "I don't know how anyone could have survived that, Rose." Emmett finished and I heard the pain as his words cracked.
"It's Sarelle, remember. If anyone could make it through that, it's her."
But my tenacity was short lived.
A howl echoed through the room, a cry of grief that called to our own. It was one of heartbreak and despair, the kind that made your blood run cold.
"No!" Edward's sobs shook the room, mirrored with our own. His was a sadness so profound that we all felt it with him. Not because we knew how he felt but because when you see that kind of sorrow on someone's face you can't help but mourn with them.
Jasper lay a tentative hand against Edward's shoulder. Some small piece of comfort.
"I tried to get to her," Edward mumbled as he knelt beside the scorched stone. "But Caius was in my way and… I tried but every time I escaped he pulled me back."
"She knew you loved her, Edward," Jasper said softly.
Unable to cope with the grief in front of him, Emmett roared at my side. He reached wildly for anything in his grasp. Hurling fallen chunks of marble in an attempt to satisfy his rage.
This wasn't how this day was meant to go.
"How could this happen?" he yelled.
"The hybrid," a voice whispered from the far side of the room. Emmett raced to find it, dragging Marcus' disjointed body from the wreckage.
He ruby eyes watched us all with caution. I had never heard Marcus speak. He had always just stared blankly, watching but never partaking in whatever show Aro performed. Now his eyes were clear and focussed. Whatever influence he had been under had been lifted.
"Nessie?" I asked as horror gripped my throat.
He nodded slowly, tensed to run at any moment.
He jumped as my phone rang in my pocket. I looked at it for a moment, unable to answer. I didn't know what to say. If I could say anything at all. Eventually I mustered the courage, holding the phone lightly against my cheek.
"Renesmee, what have you done?"
A/N: Thanks for reading!
