A/N: Heya. I was meant to post this chapter a couple of days ago, but due to the content, I thought it'd be in bad taste. You'll see what I mean.
Thanks, Kim. Love you. You too, Melinda.
Black Swan
Chapter 34
I stand before Jane's father in a white, sleeveless Victorian-esque nightgown. It's what I was wearing when I woke in that convoluted Baroque bedroom, and I shudder to think who undressed me out of the blood-soaked, filthy gown I was buried in. My feet are bare, and my toes are painted a deep red; it's something else that was done on my behalf, and recently. But then, Aro has never been known for his respect of another's personal space, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was the one personally responsible for it.
He's alone without his two usual sycophants, Marcus and Caius, flanking him. I don't inquire to their whereabouts. I don't care.
He extends his hand, and I take it without hesitation. It wasn't an invitation on his part, and I just want this over and done with so I can leave.
He sees nothing; I know this because as he searches my mind, his is blank.
Simply curious...
"I can't release it," I admit upon seeing the hint of suspicion knot in his brow.
I suspect he thinks I'm faking it. I'm not. Almost the moment I awoke, I realized I have not retained the ability to manipulate my shield.
I've tried multiple times already, but it simply won't expand. I know how to do it in theory—Carlisle taught me decades ago—but when it comes to practice, nothing happens. My initial anxiety over it was with the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to shield Edward. Until I remembered, Edward can shield himself. But my concern now is I might never be able to control it again.
It's ridiculous. I learned how to once and I will again, but I detest that I've lost abilities. I hate feeling so vulnerable.
"We'll work on that," Aro concedes, tipping my chin as that eerie smile of his lights his face.
When I first met Jane's father, I was convinced he was the devil incarnate himself. Catastrophically handsome with long jet black hair that falls to his waist, but too often prone to sinister expression. He holds a lot of power, and he's aware of the status it awards him. It's not Aro himself who enforces law and order in our world, though; it's his guard. Needless to say, it is not wise to find yourself on the wrong side of him.
For my part, even as Jane's closest friend, I'm not sure I've ever been on the right side, but I never feared him. I still don't. I'm stronger than him and a good proportion of his guard, and their gifts cannot penetrate my shield.
Ah, she is lovely.
"Come. Sit." He offers me the chair to the right of his; the chair Marcus usually occupies.
I oblige him and take it, watching from my periphery as he's inhumanly still for several moments, resting his chin in his curled fingers, his elbow propped on the arm of his chair.
Or his throne.
That's how I always referred to this marble and granite room, with the arched columns filled with Greek and Roman sculptures, whenever I visited Jane in the past; the throne room.
Aro sits on a tall, winged-back, black velvet Renaissance chair with gothic carvings so grotesque it's practically nauseating. But royalty do tend to enjoy their pomp and ceremony and that extends to their material possessions as well.
"You slept for close to eight hours, Bella," he muses, as his mind reflects the image of me doing just that.
I come very close to balking. "I did what?"
Sleep? I was unconscious, but I did not sleep.
"You slept. Edward sleeps, as well. It is very curious."
I'm positive my face loses all expression because when he turns to me, he breaks into a highly amused grin.
"Very curious," he repeats.
I open my mouth to speak, but no coherent sound emerges. I know this goes without saying, but vampires do not sleep; it's unprecedented.
"Yes, yes, we thought he was degrading, but he simply needs to sleep," he replies to my expression alone.
"For...how long?" It's the least of the questions I want to ask, but it's all I can put into words.
"Three, four hours a week. I once made him go almost two months," he discloses, as that unnerving smile once again dominates his expression, "but he began to weaken. He slept all night after, and when he woke, he was back to full capacity."
"I...don't understand." And full capacity? I'm unimpressed by his choice of words. Edward is not machinery.
"Nor do many. I'm sure Jane informed you of how she passed her gift to Valentina," he suddenly changes direction, leaning slightly closer to me as his face brightens in obvious anticipation.
I'm well aware he wants me to do the same, but I have no intention of doing any such thing. My gift is mine alone; mine and now Edward's, and Edward was the only human I will ever feed my blood to.
"She did." I shrug a deliberate disinterested shoulder.
"Edward...refused to give his consent to pass on his," he adds, frowning like it was some kind of Greek tragedy. "Would you—"
"No!" I break in firmly.
"Just as I thought," he states simply as if it was no great loss before he falls into what appears to be contemplation. His thoughts are as equally quiet, I notice. I suspect he's deliberately closing his mind to me, but I'm in no mood to continue humoring him.
"Aro, I cannot stay here. I need to return to my family and find Edward." I'm positive this old fossil wants to put me behind glass, and I absolutely detest that Edward spent any length of time within these walls. My one consolation is that Jane finally got out.
"Yes, yes..." he echoes, waving his hand dismissively, "but you have questions. Questions dear Jane was not prepared to answer."
I gauge him for too long a moment, my eyes narrowing cynically. "What questions?" I ask slowly.
Raising his hand, Aro snaps his fingers and almost instantly a small door behind him opens and a benign-looking, middle-aged human male emerges dressed in a three-piece, pin-striped suit. Aro further motions to him, and from his pocket, the human produces an iPhone and hands it to him.
"Look closely, Isabella," he instructs me, after scrolling through several pages and opening a video.
He holds the screen out for me and watches my reaction intently, but my thoughts don't linger on him.
The video is footage of the US State Capitol on fire. Numerous helicopters circulate above an array of police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances as hundreds of humans scatter about like a plague of ants. The news headline running along the bottom of the screen in capital letters reads, "Major Terror Attack on US Soil."
In the next frame, a sober-looking journalist appears before the ensuing drama, microphone in hand inscribed with the logo of one of the mainstream media outlets. "While the president is being held at an undisclosed location, we can confirm that the House Majority Leader, and several Democrat and Republican Representatives have been declared dead, while scores of Senators, Congressman and Secret Service are still unaccounted for."
I'm silent; my breath bated. I'm aware of the implications behind what he's showing me, I'm just not sure I want to delve deeper and confront it.
"Such a tragedy," he laments as the edges of his lips curl. His sentiment is completely feigned, and there's something about his expression that's beginning to chill me to my very bones.
"What happened...?" I ask, my tone flat, but my question's more rhetorical than I wish it was. Whatever took place, it's very clear Edward was part of it.
"The knowledge of our kind was known throughout the human world. They'd been monitoring us closely for years and disposing those of us who created a little too much trouble. Like you for instance."
I continue to gaze at him, realizing I am doing exactly what Edward always attempted with me; to read his mind. I get nothing, though. He's obviously taught himself to conceal his thoughts, and perhaps it's because I'm hesitant to face the inevitable of where this story leads, but I find myself becoming distracted, wondering whether Edward was able to break through his barrier.
"Do you have any questions?" he coaxes, a sly grin ghosting on his lips. He's fully aware of what I'm doing, but he wants me back on topic.
"It was Edward," in resignation I state what we both know.
Jane confirmed that he helped Aro hunt down the vampire hunters, but the US House of Representatives?
"Yes. His gift to read the minds of the humans from such a distance was invaluable. He was quite angry that he couldn't save you, Isabella, and his thirst for vengeance was great indeed." His eyes are wide with an almost manic glee behind them, and then without warning, he opens his mind to me, taking me so off guard I practically stumble from the chair.
Edward front and center in his thoughts. Edward, so soaked through with blood it was as though he'd bathed in it as he led the Volturi Guard through the halls of Congress. I watch frozen in horror as he slaughtered one human after another; tearing them apart like they were made of paper as he moved with unimaginable speed. Some humans he fed from while still alive, killing them in the act of it, while other times he fed from corpses, and then there are instances where he drew the blood from nothing but limbs and severed heads...
I've witnessed a lot as an immortal. Horrors I've been personally involved in, that I've instigated, but this is beyond even my realm of comprehension. It's so unspeakable my mind struggles to accept it's real; to accept I'm not looking at the work of fiction mastered in realism by the humans. That this bloodthirsty killer was the same human boy who once went into shock after he witnessed me hunt.
I'm beginning to feel like I'm swaying, losing my equilibrium. My hands clamp down on the arms of the chair in an effort to anchor myself as I squeeze my eyes shut. It's a ridiculous human mannerism I've done more than once now, but it's the only way I know to break this gift of sight my mate has bestowed on me. "Stop!"
"Aro." I hear his voice. There's a deeper and richer resonance to it than there ever was as a human, but it's still Edward.
On absolute impulse, my eyes fly open, and through Aro's gaze, I see Edward's. They're deep red and completely alight, but overrun with animus. "We're done here," he states as a sneer tugs askew on his lips, revealing two long, flashing-white canines.
"My god..." An utterance passes my lips entrenched with dread even as anger begins to simmer within me. "What did you do to him?!" I turn on Aro and demand. My hands are itching to wrap around his throat, but I'm more distraught than I am angry, and the vampire beside me knows it.
"Not a thing. This was all Edward's deepest desire. He's an extraordinary immortal, Isabella. I wanted you to see that," he replies, his amusement blatant and broad across his face.
"You bastard," I all but seethe. In an instant, and acting on pure instinct, I grab him by the lapels of his jacket and force him to the ground. "I'll kill you," I threaten between clenched teeth, but in response he only laughs lightly.
"Bella!" Jane calls from behind me, her tone high-pitched and full of fear, but I don't react. "Stop—now!"
"I can see why you're mated," Aro speaks, the relaxed smile remaining on his lips even as I lean over him, my knee wedged into his chest. "Dear Isabella, do let me up."
Before I can decide on my next move, however, he unleashes more images of Edward on me. Edward, repeatedly savaging humans, brutally and without mercy, more so than I was ever capable of even in my darkest hours.
My breath draws on reflex as my anger rapidly dissolves until I'm left feeling utterly helpless. Jane thinks it was her who failed Edward, but it was me. It was always me.
"You made him a monster," I whisper, as the first tear spills silently down my cheek.
"On the contrary, your death made him one, sweet Bella," he counters, using the pet name Jane often does.
"Bella," Jane speaks close to my ear this time, gentle and soothing as she wraps her hands around my arms and coaxes me to my feet.
I allow her to move me, and releasing Aro, I turn to her. Without a word, she pulls me into her arms.
"Aro..." She sighs. There's something reproachful behind her tone as she turns and leads me from the room, even as his laughter follows.
"Next time you visit, please bring your mate with you," he calls after us.
I instantly tense and come very close to reacting, but Jane only holds me tighter and quickens her step.
We pass at least a dozen vampires, all who milled in the doorway, undecided on whether to intervene and help their master, or not. They're instructed only to come when he explicitly calls; something he did not do.
I don't see their faces; in every one of them I only see Edward's. It's as beautiful as it is terrifying with blood oozing from his fangs and down his chin, but that sneer...I could not recognize the human boy I fell in love with behind it.
"Leave," Jane orders them, and they do so without hesitation.
"Get me out of here, Jane," I plead with her as tears continue to plague me. I've already spent five years too long between the walls of this wretched place; I can't stomach the thought of spending five minutes more.
. . .
The sun is high over Volterra, the sky clear and so blinding my eyes immediately burn.
I'm forced to look away, and for a single moment, concern wells within me until it's replaced by recollection. It's the first time I've seen the sunlight in more than five years.
I don't dwell on it; I can't. My mind is overrun with thoughts that aren't my own.
Even before Jane and I left the main tower that leads to the Volturi's underground chamber, I heard them, and now as we move stealthily into the shadows of the narrow streets and looming stone walls, I cannot escape it.
Hundreds of voices all blending together until they become little more than a buzzing murmur, no different than the sound of a hummingbird's wings.
A select few are set apart from the others, and I'm uncertain whether they're from humans with a louder subconscious, or I'm inadvertently concentrating on them more.
Bellissima
Occhi rossi
Ammazza
Cosi bello.
Holy fucking shit.
Evidently, there's a few English speakers in the mix.
Their thoughts are immersed with me and Jane; our faces, the weird, lithe way we're walking side by side, our hands joined together; not to mention the fact that I am still barefoot and wearing a nightgown befitting of the queens of old.
They wonder whether we're earthbound angels, and as I turn to meet their brazen stares head on, I scoff at them as well as to myself.
It's loud enough to make the humans closest to us to blush and avert their gazes, but it's not wholly for their benefit. Through their eyes, I see myself, a newly reborn vampire I barely recognize. It's almost poetic considering my mate is as equally unrecognizable to me.
His beautiful immortal face immediately flashes before my eyes, threatening to steal the air in my lungs, but I quickly push all thoughts of him to the back of my mind. I can't think of him right now. At lease, I can't think of him like that.
"Jane...Stop for a moment," I direct her softly, and with a small shake of my head, I close my eyes and draw a deep breath. I allow the constant string of voice and sound to fade into the distance and become background noise. I tell myself it's nothing but the sound of waves crashing onto the shore as I wander along the beach.
"You okay?" she asks, turning to me as her small hand tightens around mine. She's concerned for me; it's written blatantly across her face.
"No." I give her the answer she's keenly aware of, but I'm fooling no one, least of all myself. "Let's go."
The instant we leave the ancient walled city, we head north and break into a run over the hills of Montebradoni.
Jane leads, turning and weaving through the darker, denser part of the forest with me close on her heels.
As we move deeper into the countryside, we startle a large flock of starlings into the air. I watch as they collectively take flight, making shapeless formations against the backdrop of the stark blue sky; their boundless squawking sounding like one, long interminable cry.
Comprehension hits me so suddenly, I stop dead in my tracks.
Edward, screaming in pain on the floor of this very forest; screaming for me. His voice, so clear and high pitched through Jane's memories it's as though he were right before me.
It takes Jane several moments more before she realizes I'm no longer right behind her. She turns back to me, at least half a mile in the distance on the edge of a small clearing as I stand stock still on the hillside, my chest heaving, my heart threating to explode.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" I demand, knowing I sound irrational as my emotions swing like a pendulum between grief and anger. "Instead you let that madman break it to me like that!"
"Bella..." she whispers to herself, a sound that I barely hear before it's carried away on the afternoon breeze.
"Is that who he is, Jane? A monster? Is that who he..." My voice chokes with fresh tears and the words die on my lips. I can't speak it; I can barely conceive of it.
Jane takes a step toward me, but before she can reach my side, I fall to my knees and sob. I sob unlike I ever have in the...eighty-whatever years I've now existed as this creature. I sob so much my shoulders wrack and my lungs burns. I sob because I realized the magnitude of my feelings for that confounding human too late, and now he's lost. Lost to the blood lust and cruelty of immortality unlikely to ever return to me.
The last time I cried like this was at that stupid, decadent vampire bar in Seattle. It feels like yesterday, when he was sweet and innocent and maddening all rolled up in that boyishly-handsome human package. Yesterday, he was my adorable idiot boy who looked at me with stars in his eyes, who played those ridiculous video games in my room, and left candy wrappers strewn over the floor; who constantly forgot who I was, and who never feared me even when he remembered. Yesterday, he was a boy, a human, and today he's a twenty-five-year-old sadistic, ruthless vampire.
The perfect immortal.
I want him back, my sweet adorable human. God help me, I want him back, but how does he come back from that? I have to face the brutal reality of it; the days of falling slowly in love with a schoolboy are over. I blew it. I really blew it. I always knew I was the biggest danger to him, and what Aro showed me today has only cemented it.
It's incomprehensible to me that I lost so much time as well as my mate in what only feels like a single night.
"Bella," Jane repeats in a whisper, as she apprehensively wraps a gentle arm around my shoulders. "It's not who he is."
"I saw him, Jane," I blurt out impatiently in reply as I hastily wipe my tears dry, even as they're immediately replaced. "Your father showed me him killing humans and enjoying it!"
"Bella, look at me," she snaps, her tone turning firm.
I do. I meet her gaze through fresh tears as my breath repeatedly shudders from my chest.
"You know what Rose did to her killers after she was turned, right?"
I nod.
"Is she a monster for what she did to them?"
My breath gushes from me and I bow my head. "No," I whisper wearily.
"What happened with Edward is no different. Granted, Rose didn't have Aro behind her leading her into Hades, but Edward wanted blood for your death and nothing was going to stop him." Pausing, she sits herself properly beside me and drapes an arm over her propped knee. "He wouldn't rest until every last vampire hunter was dead, no matter how high it went in the human world." Expelling a heavy sigh, she turns to momentarily stare up at the sky, her brow knotting as her thoughts obviously stray. I see him in them; a newborn vampire mad with vengeance and thirst. She's making every effort to conceal it from me, but she hasn't learned the art of protecting her mind like her maker has. "He killed a lot, Bella, and he showed them no mercy. I'm not going to lie to you, but it was something he needed to do. At the same time, while he was born into vengeance, his primary emotion at the time he was turned was heartbreak, and after, there was nothing left to distract him. We could see him steadily losing himself to it. Every day it was that much worse than the day before, and I was so worried about him. Bella, he's my son, I had to do something. I even tracked down Kate and turned her. Edward was furious—"
"What?!" I cut her off in complete and utter disbelief. "You did what?" I'm sure I misheard; if not, I'll undoubtedly have to murder her.
"I turned his old girlfriend," she admits, having the decency to lower her eyes, though the small smile on her lips is unmistakable.
"Kate?—Kate?" I repeat as my voice automatically restricts around her name.
"Yeah," she confirms with a small, helpless shrug of her shoulder.
"Why would you do such a thing?" I demand, unsure whether I'm more frustrated at her than I am angry.
"Why?" she echoes as though it went without saying and I'm completely mad for questioning her. "I just explained in some detail why. He lost his mate, Bella. You know what that means for our kind. Okay, perhaps I was naïve, but regardless, he wanted nothing to do with her, and she showed no inclination toward him, either. I sent her to live with Carlisle and Esme after only a couple of weeks. Rose hated her, and it wasn't long after that they shipped her off to live with Carmen and Eleazar. She mated with Garret last I heard."
"Fantastic," I mutter, but I can't deny how relieved I am that Edward felt nothing for her.
Good god...
"She's close with Tanya. She helped her heal from the loss of Irina," she explains, her voice softening, making me feel like a right bitch.
"Of course..." I concede, hastily wiping my face with the back of my hand. I feel every bit the insecure teenager I am. Though, I'm now god-knows-how-many years older. "Do I look twenty-two?" I ask her, pretty stupidly under the circumstances.
"No, but let's be frank, you needed a few more years of maturity." Jane smirks, and struggles to hold back her laughter.
I scoff, my expression coming infinitely close to cracking along with hers. "So, you're now my mother-in-law?"
"Yes, but you have nothing to worry about," she plays along, returning her arm around my shoulders and squeezing. "I've accepted that he loves you more than me." She winks, and my laughter breaks from me this time and nearly breaks my heart in the process.
"Where was he last seen?" I ask, needing several moments to rein my emotions in before I could speak.
"Japan, around three weeks ago," she replies, her expression quickly losing all traces of humor. "He doesn't stay in one country for too long, though. I doubt he'd still be there."
I nod, and stare down at the hopelessly torn nightgown that's now hanging limply from me. "Is he still...killing?" I brave, feeling the need to brace myself, but I'm not sure how much more I can tolerate.
"If he is, he's being discreet. He doesn't feed from animals. Carlisle attempted to convert him, but Edward—"
"When was he with Carlisle?" I interject, surprised.
"We stayed with your family for a while when Edward...calmed down," she explains, clearing her throat subtly from her innuendo. "It was his suggestion."
"For how long? I mean—were they still in Forks?" It's a ridiculous question. There's absolutely no way Edward's transformation would go unnoticed in a town as small as Forks.
"No. They live in Winnetka, Chicago. They all relocated there roughly a year after your death."
"And Edward wanted to stay with them?"
She nods. "I thought it was still a bit too soon, but I had to get him out of Volterra and away from Aro. He wanted Edward to stay in his guard, but I knew it'd be the worst possible thing for him."
"He wouldn't pass on his gift," I mumble, relaying Aro's words back to her.
"No," she agrees, snorting softly past her obvious amusement. "He refused. Aro wants his shield—he wants your shield. Edward wouldn't have been able to pass it on, regardless. We realized that fairly quickly. Only the original source can pass their gift when creating a new vampire."
I pause to contemplate it. "So...I can pass on my shield, but not Edward's ability to read minds?"
"That's right." She smiles, raising her hand to wipe a stray strand of hair from across my face. It's longer than it was before I...—At least two years' worth of growth, and I wonder whether that's how many years I have aged.
"Jane?" I glance up and meet her eyes squarely.
"Hmm?"
"What of human Edward? What story was given for his disappearance?"
She frowns and breaks my gaze. "As far as I'm aware none was ever given. His parents still assume he's alive and wandering the world a heartbroken and lost boy. I have no idea whether he's contacted them since. I would assume he hasn't. At some point, we're going to have to give him a human death, though."
I nod to myself, as my thoughts naturally drift to that human boy who turned my world upside down. My body literally aches from his absence. I can't bear being separated from him, and I cannot even begin to comprehend the pain he's in; the pain he's been in for five years.
Planting my palms to the semi-damp ground beneath me, I pull myself awkwardly to my feet. Jane promptly follows and offers her assistance.
"Does he stay in contact with my parents?" I put to her, grabbing her hand when she insisted on fussing with me further. While my immortal body feels almost foreign to me, I have not been the clumsy human I once was for more than seventy years.
"He does, yes."
I break into an easy smile for the first time since I woke to this nightmare. It makes finding him a lot easier. "Good. I'm leaving for America now. Are you coming?"
A/N: I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to finish this story. Or Hoodwinked. Or any of the fics I've started and haven't posted yet. I'm just sick of the bullshit in this fandom. My beta, Kim, was recently singled out and attacked by a bunch of hypocritical hyenas with their fake ass haloes turned up way too high. I have always defended my friends, so that shit will always make me thrown down. Long story short, her, me and several other ladies have all been put on some shitlist by one of the head clique slags who has been behind dividing the fandom for more than a decade. I'm just fucking done. It's not like me to be chased off by these Regina fucking George cosplaying bitches but it's sapped all the enjoyment out of it. I've been writing for FFVII lately, and I might just quietly move over there where there's nowhere near as much high school politics and clique mentality from these fragile-egoed assface cows. I mean, what fucking 40 year old woman creates a fucking burn book? I am not 18 and neither are they. Second-hand embarrassment is real, mate.
I might get over it and be okay, but idk. I posted this chapter, so it's a good sign. Anyway, I'm just giving you a head's up incase I disappear.
