Unfortunately, I do not own twilight.

Chapter 3:

EPOV:

"I'm sorry did you say witches?"

"Witches aren't real." Emmet and I blurted out at the same time. I threw him a glare when he said that. Yes, we'd never heard of witches but it's not like any of us are that old in the grand scheme of things, not compared to Isabella who seems to be a few millennium years old. Vampires and werewolves were also not supposed to be real either but here we are with a peace treaty with an entire pack not 20 miles away.

I looked back to Isabella when she giggled softly. Wow, that was a beautiful sound. She blushed slightly when she caught my eyes and her strange scent permeated the air some more. That's odd, there was no burn in my throat when that happened. I listened in around the room and noticed that Jasper and Carlisle were thinking the same thing. She smelled wonderful, mouthwatering even, but not like food.

"Actually, you are somewhat correct in that statement.. umm… I'm sorry, I've just realized that I don't know your names", Isabella said looking around the room. She caught my eye again and continued to look at me.

"I'm Edward", I blurted out rather awkwardly before I sighed and looked away.

Wow dude so not chill of you, Emmet thought towards me.

I caught Esme's stifled laugh and the end of Carlisle's thoughts, he seems quite taken with Isabella. I hope the girl means us no harm as she says.

"You know me and my mate Esme, this is Emmet and Rosalie and over there is Jasper and Alice", Carlisle said pointing everyone out around the room.

"Right well as I was saying, Emmet is partially correct in his statement. Witches are now considered an extinct species. There is only one known being able to pass on the witch heritage left on Earth and she's standing in your living room", Isabella said hesitantly.

BPOV:

I looked around the room and waited for what I said to sink in. I could read the surprise on all their faces when the realized what I was, the only vampire-witch hybrid known in history.

"Your mother was truly a witch?" Carlisle asked me.

"Not just any witch, she was the strongest witch in the Mediterranean coven. There were only 3 major covens in the world. The Mediterranean, North Asian and Scandinavian covens. The Mediterranean was always the best from what my mother told me. They were closest to their roots and respected the land and the forces that our powers came from. My mother was actually said to be a direct descendant of Hecate and that's why she was so powerful. She successfully and peacefully led the coven for 78 years until Aro caught wind of her. When my mother turned him down, all hell broke loose. Witches were systematically wiped out from the face of Earth within 13 years of my mother challenging Aro. From what I know, no witches ever actually made it to America. There were rumors spreading around at the dawn of this country that a witch had escaped Aro's hunts and had fled to America so seek refuge and start a new coven. Aro sent spies to plant seeds of doubt into the minds of the rich and religious until ultimately the Salem witch trials began. Aro is responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent humans solely based off a rumor that was never even true."

It was quite for a moment as I reflected on my story. I remember coming to America with Felix to check on the situation and seeing the young women hanging in the trees on false pretenses that could not even tell you a true witch.

Jasper took a step in front of Alice while saying, "You must be very powerful, how could the Volturi possibly keep you a secret for so long and also keep you imprisoned?"

Edward took a step towards me with his hand reaching out for my arm like he was ready to snatch me away at a moment's notice. Good the bond was forming already then. That didn't mean I was going to let my mate fight his own brother though. Not when I could beat him without ever moving a muscle.

I reached out to grab my mates' hand and pull him toward me. The tingles that shot through my body from our point of contact were unlike anything I had ever felt before. Edward gasped and pulled his hand away. I let out an involuntary sigh at the loss of contact. We were going to need to have a talk and soon if the rate of our bonding was anything to go by.

"It's okay, please. I mean you no harm, I'm here to protect you. Please, please let me. I can't be the reason more innocent people die again." I pleaded while I noticed my mate reach his hand out toward mine again. When we made contact both our bodies relaxed and an almost drugged look passed over his face and I'm sure mine as well.

"It's a fair question if you are part vampire and your mother was strong enough to challenge Aro and therefore the entire Volturi then you must quite something", Rosalie sneered at me again.

Okay so blondie definitely doesn't like me. That could be an issue since I plan to stay if they'd let me but she was right. It's a fair question.

TRIGGER WARNING**

I sighed, "For the first couple of decades it was my mother, that kept me from leaving. I'm sure you've all heard of Alec and Jane?" At the nods around the room I continued, "Their nickname the witch twins is not a coincidence. They once were witches, born to my mother's coven. Twins are often very powerful but they were always a rotten pair. Playing cruel tricks on people and torturing animals with their powers, not to mention their incest. Hecate punished them and took away a large portion of their power when she discovered what was going on. When the war started, they fled to Aro and asked to be made into vampires so that they could regain some of the strength Hecate had taken from them. Witches are not easily made into vampires, most die during the transformation, they are the only two I know of that survived the transition that lasts for an entire week instead of the typical 3 days for a human. The witch twins are the reason my mother was successfully captured. Jane burned her with her mind so she could not caste and Alec paralyzed her so she couldn't summon her power. My mother had killed Aro's true mate during the war so he in turn raped her repeatedly and brutally. That is how I came to be. Aro allowed her to heal herself enough to survive my violent birth and raise me until my full maturity. You see witches have abnormally long lifetimes. They are not immortal as you and I are but the most powerful live to be about 200 years old. After I reached maturity in just 13 years and my mother had trained me, she had outlived her use."

The room was silent as I mourned for my mother. He made me watch as he killed her. Always reminding me that he could do the same to me, daughter or not.

END TRIGGER WARNING**

My mate squeezed my hand and I looked down at where we were connected.

"I'm so sorry, Isabella", he whispered softly as I looked up into his eyes.

"Bella, you can call me Bella. And thank you, I've been alone for so long. I have no one and nowhere to go. I was too valuable for Aro to let run away, I knew too much and have seen too many things. I tried so many times to run away after my mother was gone but Felix caught me every time." I whispered tiredly to Edward though I knew everyone else had heard me.

It had been an incredibly long few days of constant running and fear that what I did wouldn't work but I knew I had more of my story to tell.

"Each time I ran away, my punishment got worse. Aro would send me on assassin missions just to tease me with my freedom and then have me dragged back when the killing was over. I came to enjoy the missions sadly. I got to used to using my power in an unrestrained way and I knew if a vampire had been sentenced by the Kings that they likely were not good beings. I could make sure those who were innocent were not killed and wipe their mind of me or ensure they never noticed that I was there. You see I can use or borrow a vampire's gift when they are close to me. When I finally trained enough and got the opportunity I attempted to permanently borrow Felix's gift of tracking. It was an extremely painful process for the both of us. His mind clung to his gift while mine fought for dominance and attempted to reject the gift because it was not my own. It drained me greatly but I am confident that it worked."

"I'm incredibly sorry for the life you've been forced to live Bella and you can stay here as long as you'd like. However, that still does not explain why the Kings want us dead", Carlisle said to me.

I beamed at him when I realized I was invited to stay and looked to Edward who was also grinning at me.

"Thank you, you have no idea what that means to me. I'm sorry to tell you that you do not hold the favor of Aro as you believe. He was always jealous of you, even before you started your family. He could never have the restraint and compassion that you do and Marcus often thought of you as another brother. Once you started building your family, Aro and Caius saw it as a threat. You have so many gifted family members and they know your family would stand a chance if you ever decided to challenge the Volturi rule."

"We would never do that", Esme exclaimed coming up to grab Carlisle's hand while he shook his head and looked to the ground. Disappointment obvious on his face.

"I was summoned a few months ago and told of my mission to end this family. I remembered you from when you lived with them for a few decades and knew that whatever they were accusing your family of could not be true. One look at Marcus confirmed my suspicions and I knew I had to do something. Lucky for you and for me, the Romanians decided to stir up some trouble right before I was set to leave with Felix. Aro would never send me out on anything concerning them because they were one of the only groups of vampires still around to remember the rule of witches."

"How can we thank you for coming to us", Carlisle asked?

"You risked everything to come here and warn us having never even met any of us. Why would you do that", Edward asked me?

"Like I said before, I could not be responsible for the death of more innocent lives. Now I am eternally grateful that I came. That I got to find you after so long", I said turning from Carlisle to Edward.

"I'm not sure if you've picked up on it yet or not but you are my mate or my soul match for witches. It's what hit me so hard when you walked first walked in and looked at me."