AN
Thanks to everyone still reading and enjoying this fic!

Back to another Edward point of View for this chapter :)

As always I hope you enjoy reading and let me know what you think.

Chapter 24 - Endless suffering

EPOV

I was pulled again from my darkness and thrust back into the living. I had no idea how much time had passed since last time. My eyes focussed and I realized the sun was streaming into the window at a different angle.

Morning? Had a full day and night passed?

I look up and saw Aro once again standing before me.

'What do you want?' I asked him, feigning nonchalance. I couldn't let him know I was torturing myself when Alec was blacking me out. If he knew that he wouldn't bring me back up at all. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my mind.

'The same thing as last time. Did your time alone change your mind?'

I cocked my brow at him. 'Do you really think I'm that weak?' I asked him haughtily.

'No. I don't. But I know what is haunting your thoughts.' Aro grinned at me maliciously and my eyes widened in shock.

Was he touching me during the blackout to see what my mind was doing? If so, I was truly and royally fucked.

'Alec's gift tends to draw out the things you regret doing most in your life.' Aro sneered and grinned at me. 'And I think you have a lot of things you regret, especially when it comes to Isabella.'

I grit my teeth. I couldn't let him know he was right, but I had a sinking feeling he already knew. I expected him to continue his taunting, but he didn't press on. Instead he nodded to Jane and then left the room again.

Jane stepped closer and a particularly nasty smile lit up her face. I braced myself, apparently it was torturing time again. Her gaze settled on me and the pain flooded through my system and I groaned.

But apparently a groan wasn't what Jane was after. She wanted me to scream. To yell, curse, damn her to hell. She enjoyed that the most in her victims; the evidence of the pain she was inflicting. God she was a sociopath. But then all my thoughts left me as she amped it up and I crumbeled to the floor. I groaned and hissed and cursed as the pain overtook me.

My mind spiralled and somewhere in the back of my mind I was glad Bella's gift had made her immume to this torture. I heard Jane cackle vaguely somewhere in the room.

Then the pain was gone. I stayed on the floor, panting hard. My mind still reeling from the onslaught.

'That wasn't even the highest I can go.' Jane said, standing over me with a wicked smile.

'Come on, Jane.' Alec said, 'let's leave him to his thoughts.'

They both grinned wickedly at me and then darkness once again plunged around me.

I sighed heavily. I tried to keep my mind occupied in other ways. I tried to think of a plan to get out of here, there had to be a way to escape, perhaps I could somehow contact Bella. If she was here, and yes that was an if, I still wasn't sure she was really here, but if she was then perhaps I could convince her to help me somehow. I wasn't sure how, I was sure she still hated me.

I knew my family was probably planning something to get me out of here. But I was worried that Alice's gift would be nullified by the fact Aro had read my thoughts. I wasn't sure if he had, but if he did he knew how her gift worked. He knew how to get around her visions. Although it was hard to do, I was sure he would be able to mislead them, and I definitely did not want them in here with me.

I shuddered thinking back to Jane's power and how helpless it made me feel. The only person to be able to stand up to them was Bella…

but she was gone. I'd chased her away. She didn't want me anymore. She hated me, and I couldn't blame her.

I tried to steer my thoughts in a different direction, anything else than Bella.

But my mind would not be deterred. Instead it drifted back to the day that I had first given in to my desire and kissed her.

I'd been upset when I'd heard Jasper and Emmett attacking her. Part of me had truly been concerned that she could be a Volturi spy whom they were teaching our battle techniques, but mostly it was pure anxiety that had me bursting in that training room, demanding what was going on.

Emmett had called it immediately. Calm down bro, we're just practicing, no one is hurting her.

His thoughts had calmed me down. But not for long. The anxiety of the threat against her life had me demanding she'd return to her room and stay there. She had surprised the hell out of me by fighting back though, and that was the first glimpse I got into her real character. I had been impressed. She'd gotten in my face and dared me to kill her, because she would not be a prisoner again.

I had focussed on Jasper as she'd snapped at me, and I was surprised at the strength and confidence she was exuding. She'd been meek and quiet and demure before in her emotions, but this had been an inferno. I'd really upset her it seemed.

I'd let her go then off to the gardens to practice with Kate.

The others had rounded on me and demanded to know what my problem was. They thought I had been exceptionally harsh and rude and way out of line. Of course they were right. But I knew I couldn't slip up. We'd found a threat against her life. I'd told them as much and they instantly deflated. immeidately we set to planning. I couldn't treat her better, at least not out in the open like this, but they suggested simply staying out of her way as much as possible. I'd agreed I'd gone a bit overboard, and we'd agreed that training was a new priority for her, because if they wanted her dead, she needed to have the skills to protect herself.

After everything was arranged and Jasper and Emmett set off to compose her new training schedule, I had stood in the widow of the gardens and watched her train with Kate. she was still unsure of herself when it came to her skills but she was determined, that much was clear. She kept perservering, even when I could see her frustration at herself and her shield.

When she'd returned to her room I'd followed her, trailing behind her in the shadows, seeing the slump to her shoulders. I wanted to comfort her. I wanted to tell her she would improve, that we would help her. But I knew I couldn't.

I hung back as she entered her suite and I heard the excited voices of Rosalie and Angela who were waiting for her. I hesitated at the end of the hallway. The soundproofing we'd had done made sure I couldn't hear what was going on inside, and I wasn't sure I really wanted to. I'm sure I was one of the topics. I shuddered to think what choice words Rosalie would have about my behaviour. Rosalie had told me in no uncertain terms that she would not tolerate my dickish behaviour around Bella.

So I made sure to wait until both girls had left Bella's room. I hid behind a pillar until I heard their own doors close. Then I stepped out again. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but before I'd known it my feet had carried me to her door and I had knocked on her door. I just wanted to see how she was settling in, I convinced myself. Nothing strange, nothing too pleasant. Just a quick chat. I also needed to tell her about training more, though I wasn't sure yet how to phrase it.

I had fixed my face in a scowl and waited. She'd opened the door looking absolutely gorgeous. The green dress from our ceremony had been fantastic, but this… sweats and a loose shirt, it was so casual, so clean and innocent that for a moment my mask slipped. I struggled hard to contain myself and remember what I had come there to do. I had pushed into her room and turned to face her.

She was indignant, of course. 'Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?' she'd asked. Then she'd continued, giving me an ultimatum that I couldn't go into her room without her permission.

I had scoffed, although she had absolutely every right to demand that. Still I scoffed and told her that this house was mine and I would go where I'd damn well please. That didn't go over too well either. Her anger had taken control again, and she'd pushed at my chest. Where her hands had landed, my skin tingled with electricity.

'Then kill me!' she'd yelled. 'You've made it abundantly clear you don't want me. so just kill me and be done with it!'

Pain had laced through me at her words. Did she really want to die? I tried to imagine the world without Bella, but it seemed bleak. I couldn't imagine it. The pain was just too instense. My anger had dissipated immediately and I'd voiced my fear.

'You'd rather die?' I'd asked, feeling absolutely hopeless and dejected.

'Yes.' She didn't miss a beat.

'Why?' I'd asked. Again I wondered what those fuckers in Volterra had done to her, how they had damaged her that she would rather die than be a prisoner again.

She stalked over to me and got up in my face. 'Because I've been a prisoner. I've been the lowest of the low. I've been treated like crap and I've endured it all before. I'm done. I'll never allow anyone to treat me like that again. Not without a fight. So I'm going to fight you every step of the way if you try to make me your prisoner here. So if that's your plan you'd be better off killing me right now.'

My heart constricted and pain at her words flashed through me, I struggled to reign in my emotions and put my mask back.

'I'll allow you to keep training with Emmett and Kate. But not in the training hall where everyone can just walk in.' I had said quickly changing the topic to what I'd come here originally to do.

'Oh how gracious of you.' she had sniped at me.

I couldn't help the grin that escaped me. She was fiery and I loved it. 'And your progress will be detailed to me.' I warned her.

She rolled her eyes.

'You will take an escort to your trainings of my choosing.' I'd continued. But she'd not agreed. She'd put her foot down again. Insisting that she would only except Rose or Angela. I blew out a harsh breath and insisted that she had to listen to me.

I may have been a dick about it… using the word obey… the moment the word had left my mouth I knew it had been a mistake. Her anger flared again and she sniped and growled at me, insisting that she would never obey me. Ever.

The change in her was so tangible, so sexy, that my body responded of it's own accord. I pressed her up against the door, capturing her wrists above her head and bringing my lips down on hers. Instinct overtook me.

Her mouth opened and my tongue had shoved into her mouth. It was heaven. Nothing I had ever done with Tanya compared to this feeling. I couldn't ever imagine doing this again with Tanya ever again either. This girl… it'd only been three days by then but she'd already completely had me entranced. I was in deep shit. That had been the first time I had kissed her, and the second time she had slapped me.

But once my lips had realized how amazing she had felt… I just wanted to do it again and again again. I tried to keep my distance, knowing it was fucking with er emotions, Jasper had told me as much. But I just couldn't seem to help myself. I just couldn't keep my distance from her, no matter how hard I tried.

God I'd made so many mistakes. I should have just trusted her enough to simply talk to her. I should have told her about the threats, she was strong. I knew that now. If she endured these fuckers for more than fifty years, she was incredibly strong.

I had underestimated her immensely.

What hurt me more was that it was my own blind stupidity that had caused all of this. My family had told me after that first day that there was no way she was a spy and that she was here because Aro had hoped she'd be killed here.

The death threat issue was another thing. Jasper and Emmett understood my need to protect her, although they thought I had been a bit idiotic in my rationalising. They understood my need for it.

But Rosalie, Alice and Esme had told me at the start I'd been an idiot. Alice especially. She'd told me over and over that I would drive her away with my behaviour. And I knew that was what I was doing. But some part of me had hoped after we'd caught the mole that she could learn to forgive me and explore this attraction we had to each other.

But it was doomed. She didn't want me anymore. I had pushed her too far it seemed. Yet I knew… I knew there would be no one else that could measure up to her.