4
URIEN'S voice startled Alice out of her thoughts. "I know you're thinking of doing it, little dove," he grumbled, as he led them up the walkway that led to the Volturi's clock tower. "Please don't think of rabbiting off or doing anything stupid, Alice, I don't want to hurt you," he whisper hissed into the shell of her ear as he roughly shoved Alice forward, causing the petite vampire to let out a startled squeak of surprise as she almost lost her footing.
She'd have fallen too, were it not for Urien's hand shooting out at the last possible minute to wind around her forearm and help her up. She shot him a glower and violently wrenched out of the stronger vampire's grasp.
"I can walk by myself, thank you!" she snapped haughtily, gingerly rubbing her hand as though Urien's tight grip had injured her. Alice let out a squeak as she heard Urien let out another of his low, wolfish snarls from deep within the confines of the man's broad chest, causing her to shrink down as much as she possibly could to try to put some distance between herself and her captor, though it did her no good.
Urien bared his teeth at her and leaned down so the tip of his hooked and slightly crooked nose almost touched her slender one as he snarled and growled at her.
"Alice." He spoke her name with such coldness that it caused the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand upright. "This is me warning you. Consider this my one and only piece of advice, little dove. You might think this is over, but this is far from resolved. What you thought you knew of the Volturi, of Aro, forget everything. While you are in their presence, there is to be zero back talk of any kind, do you understand? No criticizing their methods, and for the love of the gods, please, please stay quiet. The same thing goes for the way things are run around here. You must learn quickly and be careful to do as they tell you, whatever it is. Do you understand, Alice? I need you to say yes."
Urien was not quite begging her, but nor was he being gentle with his words to her.
"Yes." It was all that Alice could say, not sparing her creator as much as a second glance.
Urien stifled his urge to roar like an enraged dragon and shook his head in disgust and fear. This one may be clever and intelligent, just as he had remembered her from the days where he'd worked in the institution, but that would not do Alice Cullen any good in her new position. She had to be clever but in a different kind of way. And unfortunately, Urien was beginning to suspect that Alice did not have the capacity to do so, that her tongue was sure to get her in trouble, as he thought it must have been hung in the middle so it could wag at both ends.
Urien fell silent and kept guiding her on. Alice could only comply. She swallowed down hard and looked towards the clock tower with a sense of foreboding and trepidation as the emotions flooded her system. Alice tried to slow her thoughts down to something she could cope with, but the harder she tried, the more panicked she felt, thinking it was impossible.
For the first time, Alice felt old, as if all millennia, immortality tricked had taken its toll.
The breeze here in Tuscany, even in fall, was fragrant, now crept on her pores like maggots and filled her nose with the putrid stench of rotten flesh that she was sure, yes, she was sure, were leftover remnants of the Volturi leaders' last meal.
Tourists that they'd ship in in rather large crowds to attract them here, to them. She swallowed and repressed a shudder of revulsion, trying not to think of those poor souls who were being led there under false pretenses to their violent deaths. As she dutifully allowed Urien to lead her at a snail's path down the cobblestone path that took her towards the Volturi's clock tower, she knew there weren't many things in this world left that she wanted. She'd been bent, bruised, tormented, both mentally and physically abused in her old life, her human life.
Her dreams, until she'd met Jasper, had been shattered in the cruelest of ways. She'd watched Jasper struggle to overcome his bloodlust, again and again. And now, Alice Cullen would be a broken vampire. Without Jasper and the rest of her family by her side, as a captive, willing or otherwise, of Aro and the rest of the Volturi, she would be well and truly, utterly all alone in this.
Alice shuddered as a tremor of cold fear wafted up and down her spine as they approached the massive, intimidating structure. She'd always found this place disturbing, the few times in her lifetimes that she had been unfortunate enough to visit, but she could never quite put her finger on why.
It seemed otherworldly. Magical almost, and all that entailed with such a description, though Alice knew nothing of what they did was 'magical.' If anything, it was monstrous.
As she stood transfixed, standing on the front steps of the structure alongside Urien, a certain uneasiness filled her chest as her chest began to constrict. The daunting building never failed to exude a sort of intimidating aura as they approached the set of wide oak double doors.
She stiffened at the sight of what looked like two hired guards. Both vampires and both shrouded in shadow, away from the light of the sun, as were Urien and Alice, thankfully, due to the cloudy weather here in Tuscany since their plane had landed.
It had been a rough flight, to put it lightly. Alice had bought two books from the airport's gift shop, though she couldn't even manage to bring herself to crack open either one on the flight. Her mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of Jasper and too keyed up to allow herself to relax and try to close her eyes. Alice blinked and steadily returned her attention to the daunting building in front of her.
My….my new home? She wondered to herself, not even caring if Urien heard or not. Her eyes widened as she realized what she was doing to herself. Alice gritted her teeth together and gave her head a curt shake to rid her mind of such a ridiculous notion.
This was not her home. Home was back home in the continental United States of America, in Forks, in the comfort of her own home, with Jasper by her side, and the rest of her family, too, for that matter, but this?
This would never be her home. She said it over and over to herself like a mantra as she and Urien approached the set of doors.
While she remained rooted, almost transfixed to her spot, and staring up at the clock tower, Alice was completely unaware that the newer vampires, the two male guards, stepped forward and slightly out of the shadows, though to her, they seemed to come out of nowhere.
At the sound of Urien speaking, however, Alice flinched and reverted her gaze back to level ground, where the two guardsmen standing on either side of the entrance's double doors were peering at her in curiosity. She stiffened angrily. It was more than a little unnerving. Alice felt her fingers curl over the strap of her grey purse, ready to pelt them with it if she saw the need to.
Not that it was going to do her much good in this regard with Urien and the rest of the Volturi here, but if nothing else, it would get the message across that she was not here willingly and would cause less of a scene than if she and the other vampires here were to reveal the extent of their power out in the open like this.
"Come a little closer," said the taller of the two, both male guards. Alice could only comply after shooting a questioning look toward Urien.
Just do it and don't think about back talking, Cullen, he barked in their shared telepathy.
Urien gave a curt jerk of his head and motioned for Alice to do as the guard ordered.
She stepped forward, her chin held high and a look of pure defiance and rancor in her eyes.
"Oh, this one's quite pretty," said the shorter of the two guards, and the stockier one as well. "If you like brunettes, that is, but then the master does tend to have a way with women. A very strange way indeed." He crinkled his brow in thought. "I wasn't aware he liked brunettes."
The taller one turned towards Urien, pursing his lips into a thin line as he looked at the centuries-old vampire with a questioning stare.
"Have you brought her here to see the master?" he asked, his gaze flitting from Urien and then down to Alice's eye level quizzically.
"Yes," replied Urien before Alice had a chance to speak.
Alice, as it so happened, was unable to even formulate an articulate response. She simply gaped at the newly-turned vampire, this guard who didn't seem to find anything amiss with the piece of information he had divulged about Aro's seemingly strange taste in women.
"Good. He's been cranky ever since you left, he'll be glad to know you're back," replied the taller guard, giving a little nod of satisfaction. "I can at least let you in through here. Doesn't mean that you'll get the approval to join, but we'll take you through to the master and then—"
"You mean I'll be taking Cullen to Aro," interrupted the shorter, slightly older vampire.
"Could you just hurry up and open the damn bloody doors, please?" barked Urien in a bored, listless baritone, clearly not giving a damn in the politics of who was going to usher them inside. "I haven't got all day to do this. I have got a family to get back to, which I'd like to see my wife before the end of the day," he growled.
At the mere mention of family, Alice felt her entire body stiffen and her chest constrict, reminded suddenly of the huge ramifications that came with what she was about to be put through, something she had desperately been trying to repress within up until this second.
"Very well then," the taller guard remarked in a slightly rueful tone as he turned his back on the pair of vampires for a moment to open the doors and allow them entry into the building.
Once the guard had ushered her and Urien inside, the doors behind them clanged shut with a loud, audible bang that almost made her jump. It took a moment for her sight to adjust to the brightness of the lobby she found herself in. Alice wasn't given much time to look around, as Urien merely grunted for his creation to follow him, and she reluctantly allowed herself to be led towards a dingy looking hallway that looked to need a good cleaning, towards a part of the building she'd never been to before, that sent her swallowing.
"This way, please," the taller guard barked in a hoarse voice as the trio trekked down the marble hallway, while Alice tried to take in her new surroundings as best as she possibly could, wanting to commit them to her memory.
Alice looked around at the building with trepidation and fear in her bones. And as she looked up at the domineering stone walls that felt like they were closing in around her, trapping her here, and the sharp, unforgiving corridors and passageways that practically begged her to get lost in this place, she reminded herself to give Aro a good foot-stomping. The thought almost made her smile.
Don't, came Urien's disapproving tone inside her head, startling Alice, and causing her to jump, not having anticipated the initiated conversation in her mind. She flinched and guiltily turned toward her creator and tried to shoot the older vampire an apologetic look.
"I—I wasn't," Alice whispered out loud, wincing as she swore she thought the guard looked back curiously over his shoulder as he continued to lead them down the hallway.
He offered a brief incline of his head to her, though Alice did not mistake the hint of steel in his voice as he continued to initiate their mental conversation, nor did she mistake the disparaging look of disapproval for anything but what it was.
My dear, you must take better care of what you say. Back home in your stupid little rainy town of Forks, you could have gotten away with your silly outbursts against the Volturi. But here, in their world, it's different. You're about to enter a very different world. You're not in Forks anymore, and I don't think you need ME to tell you that. This is a world where such behavior is not only looked down upon but since as treason. You'd be killed for thinking of laying a hand against Aro, or any member of the Volturi, for that matter. Do you understand what I'm saying to you, Alice?
Yes, came Alice's reply as the petite little vampire barely spared her creator so much as a second glance as they paused outside a wide set of double doors, rich, fine mahogany, which was a stark contrast to the rest of the hallway.
"Here we are, miss," the guard announced in a droll, bored-sounding voice as he turned on his heels and stood at attention by the door. "Just wait here for a moment, if you please," he muttered, before turning again and raising his knuckles to knock. Without waiting for an invitation to enter from whoever might be on the other side, the guardsman opened the door and quietly slipped inside, slippery as a snake.
Snakes in the night, the lot of them, Alice thought bitterly to himself as she watched the door gingerly close shut. All of them, monsters.
"Urien, please," she begged, all the while keeping her gaze fixated at a spot on the door, her gaze somber. Urien stared at her nebulously before turning away from Alice.
"You know I can't," he grunted, albeit with some difficulty as his voice trembled, and he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket to conceal the trembling of his palms as they had started to shake. He seemed to be having difficulty managing to look Alice in her eyes.
Hearing the sound of footsteps coming from inside the room, Urien turned to look at Alice once more, a pained expression on his face.
"You will do well here, I'm sure, little dove." Urien looked as though he wanted to say more to Alice, though before he could, the door creaked open, and poked his head through.
"Miss Cullen? He's waiting for you, just inside through here. Urien, you may wait here," the guard commanded in a curt tone.
Urien offered a slight dip of his head in acknowledgment. "Good luck," her creator muttered, to which Alice shot him a withering look, though it quickly turned into a curt nod and tight smile that didn't feel genuine at all.
Before disappearing through the door, Alice turned slightly to give Urien one last lingering look. She did not know when she would see him next. She didn't know why he had been so kind to her through the flight, save for forcefully kidnapping her from Forks, but all the same, she was grateful that he had tried.
She made a silent vow to help Urien, in whatever way she could. He might be their best chance at escaping this place, Alice realized.
"Thank you," she murmured lowly, before turning away. As she outstretched a hand and curled her slender fingers around the door, she noticed that she was starting to feel nervous, something Alice had not anticipated feeling and that her hands were becoming clammy.
Before her growing resolve and newfound strength that stemmed from a desire to help free her creator from Aro's clutches failed her, she swung the heavy door open and took a step back as the door swung out to avoid hitting herself with it.
What she saw on the other side stole the very breath from her lungs.
Dressed in an immaculate black suit and seated behind a desk was the vampire of the hour himself.
Aro, Alice thought bitterly to herself as she took in the sight of the aristocratic vampire.
Red lips the color of blood, white skin near the color of paper, and high, sharp, angular cheekbones that were most decidedly European. His eyes were a dark and piercing crimson and never failed to unnerve Alice. Right now, was no exception.
Alice felt a cold shiver run up her spine as she looked at him, awkwardly lingering in the now-open doorway, her feet feeling frozen and rooted to her spot, unable to take that first step to cross over the threshold and into Aro's office space, judging by the looks of the room.
The room was paneled and rich crimson color, with a large mahogany writing desk in the middle. Aro had been staring down at several long lists of paper. As to what they pertained to, Alice didn't know, nor did she particularly care to find out, given that they seemed to be extremely tedious, considering until Aro lifted his gaze and looked at her, he'd looked rather bored.
Until he saw her, and then his features brightened considerably.
"Ah, dear, lovely Alice," Aro replied warmly, perhaps a little too brightly, his tone polite and courteous, though Alice was not about to be fooled. His voice was richly accentuated and deep. It almost would have been enough to lull her into a haze was Alice not smarter than that. "Please, don't just stand there, come in." His voice was a buttery purr, enough to cause Alice's stomach to clench in anger. "What a pleasant surprise," he murmured, remaining unmoved from his seat as Alice followed suit and gingerly closed the door behind her.
His crimson eyes made a quick scan of her waifish, elfin-like appearance in her green short-sleeved blouse, black mini skirt, black tights, and black ballet flats, not a stray wisp of her jet-black pixie out of place.
A vision of loveliness, Aro thought, as he rose from his desk the moment Alice shut the door timidly behind her and made to greet her.
"What a pleasant welcome to see you here. Sit." He motioned with a flourish of his arm for the spritely little vampire to occupy the chair that was seated across from his desk. Alice bristled at being ordered around by the older vampire but knew that she could only follow.
Alice sneered, feeling her lips curl upwards in a twisted smirk at hearing his false concern. "Spare me the homilies, Aro, I can smell a fraud a mile away. I believe we both know why I'm here, and it is not of my own volition that I came," she snapped, her tone clipped and curt.
Alice looked away before she could see Aro's smug smile slid instantly off of his face, like water falling over rocks. She was not about to grant the older vampire the courtesy of being kind. She felt her legs move of their own accord at his invitation, feeling her fingers curling over the strap of her bag, wishing for nothing more than to pelt Aro across the face with it and wipe that damned smug smirk off of his face.
Alice clenched her fists as she slid the strap of her bag off her shoulder and awkwardly rested her purse in her lap, feeling like she needed it for security as much as to give her hands something to fidget with to prevent herself from lashing out at something in anger.
In this case, that 'something' would be Aro, and she couldn't let her temper take control.
"I take it that you and Urien had a pleasant flight?" Aro asked casually in an attempt to make conversation as he strode over back towards his desk, to pick up a tin flagon of what was definitely chilled blood, though with enough water diluted, it might as well have been wine.
Alice fought against the urge to scrunch her nose in disgust at such a practice.
Alice gritted her teeth and tried not to shiver as she felt her long fingernails pierce the skin of her palms. Aro's very voice was enough to set her on edge and the fine hairs on her neck to prickle. Nothing the older vampire said had ever sounded sincere. "There's no need for such pleasantries, Aro," Alice snapped, lifting her chin to glower at the dark-haired vampire. "I do not intend to take up much of your time."
Aro turned after her with a small frown, his thin lips pursed as he swirled the liquid in his cup, a golden chalice that looked quite ancient.
Maybe even as old as he is, Alice thought meanly and bit down on the wall of her cheek.
"Yes, yes, please do come in, dear," Aro retorted, mocking her, furrowing his dark brows together as he strode back around to his desk. Alice pointedly ignored him and studied the vampire's office for a moment, quite distracted.
She wasn't certain what she'd expected, but it certainly wasn't, well, this.
Neatly organized shelves of books on every wall, a perfectly clean desk with papers stacked in perfect piles, pens laid out side by side with the same sort of precision and attention to detail that Carlisle laid out his medical tools at the hospital when working.
Alice awkwardly leaned forward and lifted one of the black ballpoint pens, feeling Aro's piercing stare burning a hole in the side of her head as he looked at her with a look of perfect impassiveness he'd perfected over the years.
He was a surprising vampire and man, this Volturi member, but she already knew that pleading with Aro for him to let her go was not going to work. Whatever he wanted of her would not come without a terrible price, and she feared to hear what he might have in mind.
She had seen a number of scenarios, potential visions, play out in her mind, but which one of them Aro would choose, only he knew.
The ball was in his court for the minute.
Alice lifted her gaze to his with a small sigh, turning the pen over in her fingers swiftly as she glowered at him. "Why am I here, Aro?" she asked as she offered the other vampire a cold glare with as much hate as she could muster up, not a difficult feat for her to manage at all.
He merely observed her over the rim of his goblet of blood and clucked his tongue icily, causing her to shiver involuntarily. "How disappointing, my dear. You always were a lively one but asking such queries of me will not get you the desired results, little dove."
Alice supposed in this instance, her best response would be to fight back against him with silence and lack of emotion. She could not allow herself to give in to her growing temper, nor would she grace Aro with a verbal retort.
In all honesty, she didn't quite trust herself to do either one. She feared she would not only worsen her and Urien's fates, but the fate of her family and friends as well if they were to ever learn that the Volturi was behind all this.
If it were just herself at risk, she would have no qualms with throwing herself at Aro and attacking the man or doing something to garner attention to herself and reveal to the outside world that she was a creature of the damned and force them to kill her themselves.
However, that wasn't the case. She had Jasper and the rest of her family to consider.
"There are quite a few things that must be made clear to me." Aro merely offered Alice a confident smile as he gestured towards his goblet. "Are you sure that I cannot tempt you? I have a feeling based on your current mood, that we expect to be chatting for quite some time," he murmured, making a visible show of swirling the crimson liquid in his cup, as if to entice Alice to take the offer of the garish liquid. Someone's lifeforce, she thought, afraid.
"No, thank you," Alice answered stiffly, ever mindful of feigned courtesies, though, in her mind, Aro was the least deserving of them.
"Suit yourself," Aro shrugged, though she swore she caught the faintest traces of disappointment and disgruntlement seeping its way through his tone. He studied her with raised eyebrows as the vampire raised his goblet to his lips and heavily drank, dabbing at his mouth with a white handkerchief. Alice stiffened when it came away bloodied and ruined, though she offered up no verbal retort.
They were silent for a time while Aro indulged himself, mostly because Alice was painstakingly observing every little detail about the older vampire in front of her that she could, but Aro's expression gave away nothing.
Just a stone-cold aura that made her want to flinch. She most certainly was not pleased with this little arrangement of the Volturi's.
"What is it that you want?" Alice demanded in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest, and pinning Aro with an icy glower of her own. "I take it that it's not for the sheer joy of having my company, which I'm told is quite exquisite."
Aro let a dark little chuckle escape his lips as the edges of his thin mouth curled upward into a light, almost somewhat affectionate grin.
Alice inwardly shivered and clutched at the edges of her chair with her hands to steady herself. Gods, but how frightening his smile was. She swallowed past a lump in her throat.
"How perceptive of you, little dove," Aro said in a smooth, languid voice as he put his fingertips together and started rocking them slightly. "I brought you here because it pleases me to, lovely, sweet little Alice. There are quite a few questions that still surround you, pet, even after all this time," Aro explained quietly.
"And what makes you think that I will answer them?" Alice fired back immediately, not missing a beat. Her mind was already flitting through at least fifteen different scenarios in how this initial first conversation of theirs in her newfound captivity was going to proceed, though her response depended heavily on what he was going to say next.
Aro faced her with a somewhat sensuous smile on his lips and broke Alice out of her haze of anger. He looked at the flashing of her amber eyes with critical interest, but Aro looked away soon enough for it to not be weird.
"Because, girl," he began, his smile widening to almost Cheshire-Cat-like proportions that rendered Alice's very blood to ice in her veins. A smug expression crossed the Volturi member's emaciated features. "I can make him suffer." He leaned forward, and for a brief moment, Alice envisioned Aro leaping across the desk, looking like he quite wished for nothing more than to dig his own fangs into her neck and take her head off himself. He leaned forward even further and allowed his face to come within inches of Alice's nose. "More than you could ever possibly imagine."
Alice immediately withdrew her face from his, pressing herself back into her chair as far as her body and the constraints of the chair would allow her, and recoiled in disgust and fear.
There was no need to question who Aro happened to be referring to, she knew. Of course, she knew. Fear clawed at her heart.
Jasper, she thought desperately, chewing on her bottom lip as she stuck it out in a little pout that almost looked like it set Aro smiling.
"Don't you dare touch him, or any of my family," Alice growled in a low, dangerous whisper. The threat escaped its way past her lips before she had a chance to bite it back.
Aro merely chuckled for a moment before throwing his head back and let out a single, dry laugh. Hearing the older vampire utter just that single sound was never a good sign, Alice knew and was ten times worse than watching the Volturi member smile. He was a terrifying creature no matter what he said or did, and Alice, against her best efforts to tamper it down, could feel a sense of panic rise within.
This was not a good position for her to be in right at this moment. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed her swelling temper to cool.
"Your threats mean nothing to me, dear one," Aro replied smoothly, settling back down against his seat and folded his hands across his middle in a relaxed, casual manner as he looked at her. "Your mate cannot save you. You cannot even save yourself from this, there is no escaping it, and please don't think of looking to Urien for any assistance, you won't be getting any help from your maker, my little eclair," he sighed. "Your friend standing just outside has no true understanding of the word 'love,' my pet. Urien is ignorant of the word itself and its meaning."
"You are responsible for that, Aro!" Alice spat back at him, her icy glare and cutting anger deepening, despite her best efforts to remain calm. "You're the one over the years who's convinced him that he's a monster! That he's not worthy of affection, caring, or kindness. Let him go. You got me, let him go. He's done nothing," Alice pleaded, trying a softer approach, hoping to supplicate the man a bit.
Aro's eyebrows shot so far up onto his forehead that they almost disappeared into his dark hairline as he merely looked at her in disbelief. Alice couldn't be sure, but she almost swore that the man looked somewhat irate.
Disappointed, even, as though he'd expected better. "You and I both know that I cannot and will not do such a ridiculous thing, Miss Cullen." Aro shook his head sadly to himself.
Alice felt her heart sink to the pit of her belly. She clenched onto her purse for support. "Why?" she shot back, hating hearing the faltering crack and dip in his voice as she asked. She knew Aro had already made up his mind. Once he had, there was no changing it.
"Do you honestly believe that our society would see him as anything but? Our world is a cruel, wicked place, child. It shows mercy to no one. Not even to a man like Urien, dear Alice."
Alice shivered as she felt a piece of her bravado and resolve start to falter.
In an eerie, horrible way, Aro did perhaps have a point. She had seen Urien's erratic, sometimes volatile behavior popping up in increments during the drive to the airport, and especially while on the plane. The poor vampire after years of captivity and torture was very clearly sending his mind insane, clinging to what shreds of sanity and dignity he still possessed, if there were any.
Their own kind would be afraid of Urien, even if the Volturi had never chosen to keep the man out of sight of the others. Other vampires would be afraid of him, and the world was that much colder and darker because of it.
The young ebony-haired vampire vehemently shook her head in protest, reaching up with a manicured finger to tuck a stray wisp of her jet black hair back behind her ear. "Even so, you disgust me, Aro, keeping Urien all of this time."
Aro pulled a face and feigned hurt feelings.
"You didn't appreciate the gift of being reunited with your own creator, after all this time?" he pouted, pretending to sound hurt.
"You call that a gift?" Alice scoffed angrily.
"Don't play coy with me, Miss Cullen, you would have done the same if it were you in my shoes," he retorted, pursing his lips together.
Alice could hold her wrath no longer as she brought her palm down on her knee and slapped it, letting her purse tumble to the ground at her feet. She made no move to grab it, instead, keeping her gaze fixated on Aro.
"If it were me, Aro, he would be dead!" she shouted, feeling frustration bubble within her chest as her temper threatened to implode.
As much as she was loathed to admit it, she would have rather killed Urien out of mercy, anything to stop the man's endless suffering.
Aro pouted, folding his arms across his broad chest, looking unfazed by Alice's outburst. "Where would the fun in that be? In the end, Urien would be but a ghost to your pain and grieving for Turning you all those years ago," he snorted, almost sounding amused, as he quirked a brow Alice's way.
Alice let out a hiss, breathing out what was supposed to be laughter, and gaped at Aro.
"You would really have me believe that you've kept him a prisoner, tortured him…to—to what, avenge me for what he did to me?!"
She could hardly believe her own ears. She felt Aro pause, almost succumbing to defeat.
Aro studied Alice in silence for a moment while she continued going on her tirade about the unfair treatment of her creator thus far.
"To keep Urien locked away from those of us who have the potential to help him, it's wrong! A—and how? Let's talk about that, huh, Aro?" she shouted, bolting to her feet, looking livid.
A dark shadow flickered across her face as she made a mad grab for her bag she'd dropped, her jaws clenching tightly in anger as she swung the strap of her bag over her arm.
"You mean," the Volturi member paused, raising an eyebrow. "Keeping his existence a secret from you. How very selfish of you, Alice."
Alice recoiled and flinched as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head as her blood went cold in her veins, pure venom salivating in her glands.
"Oh, yes," Aro nodded slowly, light seeming to ignite in his eyes in understanding. "I am now, after all this time, much aware of it. Never before have I seen your own creator fight me in such a way as he did a few nights ago when I gave him this little assignment to bring you back, dear. And for what? For such a prize like yourself? How truly pitiful of the man…"
"H—how…" Alice stammered, her breaths catching in her throat, her brain not quite working with her, her mind feeling like it was reeling with a dozen possible verbal responses.
"Oh, do forgive me, darling, I thought it was quite obvious, Miss Cullen." Aro smiled at her again, this time, however, it was a grin of triumph that rendered Alice feeling rather sick. "Urien tried to shield you from me. He protected you, refused to go at first, though you'll find our methods are quite…persuasive. Now, do forgive me, but the man is quite shy. Not brave at all. So, the question becomes, then, why did he resist this assignment, dove? It is not in Urien's nature to dare go against me until he did a few nights ago, and yet, he immediately did so the moment your name was mentioned, and you became involved. Why?"
Alice found that she didn't have an answer for him and chose to remain silent as a response. She bit down on her lip and waited.
"Silent, are we, Miss Cullen?" Aro's smile deepened once more. "Indeed. It was you that he cared for all this time, not his wretched mate, that disgusting filthy human," he snapped, relishing the dawning look of abject horror in Alice's golden eyes as they widened.
Oh, god, oh, god…she didn't know. Alice was unable to melt the shock dribbling on her mind as she sank back into her chair, shellshocked.
If she had known…she might have been able to help Urien. But…why hadn't he said anything to her? Even back in the asylum?
"Well," Aro let out a frustrated sigh and sank back into his seat again and pressed his fingertips together, toying with one of his rings. "It does not matter. Your friend shall meet his fate, nonetheless, my dear. And as for him, I believe that, should any of your family attempt to visit us on behalf of rescuing you, I think that I can find a fate for you if you don't fall in line that not even you can predict, my darling."
Alice froze. Suddenly, something clicked in the young vampire's mind as she processed his not-so-thinly-veiled threat. Oh. He's going to…
Realization must have been evident on her face because Aro chuckled again at her growing discomfort and set down his wine cup.
"Of course, dear. See? There's that look again. You've gotten to be quite good at this, love." His face contorted into such a twisted grimace, making the vampire look truly monstrous in the dim light of his study, that this time, Alice really did flinch away from him.
"What better way to teach you that you belong to me, now, little dove, than to take away the one person who gives you hope above all else? I'm sure losing your mate will take the fight right out of you. You'll see soon enough, love."
Without a clue as to Alice's growing anger as he rose from his chair and strode behind the desk, he wrenched her to her feet, and closed off the gap of space between himself and the door in a blur, opening it to reveal Urien.
The older vampire remained soft and convinced as Urien swallowed to meet Alice's pale, shocked gaze. He knew he was not meant to present to her as an old friend reunited after all this time but meant to torture Alice with memories she was already so vulnerable with. Aro had no claim on Alice Cullen. Yet. But even Urien knew, as Aro gestured with a wave of his arm for Alice's creator to enter the room and stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder next to the shorter, elfin-like vampire, that Aro was punishing Alice, for talking back to him.
Aro was telling Alice Cullen in subtitles, more or less, the things he could do to her to kowtow her into submission for the Volturi, and the mechanics he could plan to impose his over her. And Aro was succeeding right now.
"Urien is yours now, Miss Cullen," Aro spoke up languid, and Alice's head turned sharply upward to regard him as she slung her bag over her other shoulder. She had him face to face as she stalked her way straight to Aro. Without even a clue as to what was about to happen, Aro continued speaking, arrogantly. "You can do with the man whatever you pl—"
She slapped him. The open-handed strike from the taller man's palm to his cheek cracked the air like a firework and resonated.
Alice slapped him again against his other cheek before either Aro or Urien could move.
The silence that befell Aro's study was so still and incredulous that you could hear a pin drop on the floor. Aro and Urien's eyes were wide, all except for Alice's, whose were narrowed. She stared at Aro coldly, her face hard and austere, and surprisingly calm.
Even Urien was floored. He'd never seen this sign of the young Cullen woman, after all these weeks of stalking and observing her in Forks.
Both Urien and Aro were staring at her like she had grown an extra head or sprouted wings, even the guard poked his head around the doorframe to peer in to see as to what the source of the noise that her slap had caused. Aro's crimson eyes ignited a deep-rooted fire within and his face nursed shock while he rose his hand to cover the jaw, marked now with her handprint.
Alice said nothing, she merely turned to her heels, curling her fingers over the strap of her purse, and spun off with a horrible, apathetic disgrace as all eyes stared at her exit, unable to believe what happened.