AN Hi everyone! Another chapter for you, hope you enjoy it.
Just a little warning, this chapter is pretty dark. Aro will be doing a lot of manipulating of Edward and it will get kind of harsh.
Hope you enjoy and as always let me know what you think!
Chapter 26 - Relief at last
The darkness subsided once again and I clambered up to my knees. I didn't know how long it had been.
Had months already passed? Or was it only days? It felt like years…
I felt like I was losing my mind.
I looked up to see the dreaded trio again and an involuntary growl slipped through my teeth.
'How are you enjoying your stay here?' Aro asked gleefully. He was enjoying this far too much. He liked seeing me suffer like this. He wanted to see me suffer more.
I scowled at him. 'How long have I been here?' I demanded.
Aro shrugged. 'Days, months, years... Who knows?'
'Is it getting you yet?' Alec asked, smirking at me. I growled at him in answer.
Jane raised an eyebrow at me, challenging me to continue my threat against her brother. In her thoughts she was hoping I would attack them, so she could unleash her full power on me. She was itching to use her gift on me again. It appeared she hadn't been able to use her gift this day yet. IT was like she was addicted to it. addicted to inflicting pain and suffering.
I shuddered to think what the force of her full power would feel like. What I'd gotten so far made me wonder if I'd survive it, though the pain was an illusion, it felt real and I was sure my mind would not be able to come back from such a pain without the relief of unconsicousness.
'Are you ready to concede your coven?' Aro asked.
I shook my head. 'No. Never.'
'I can keep this up forever, Edward. It would really be most prudent for you to concede to my wishes.' He clasped his hands behind his back as he regarded me steadily. 'In a different life we could have been allies, friends even.'
I scoffed. 'Unlikely.'
Aro started pacing in front of me. 'But we could have.' he insisted. 'You would have made a fine acquisition to my guard.'
I shook my head. 'And that is why we would never have been friends. You think you can own people. You collect these powerful vampires and make them complacent until they forget who they even were, outside of your servants.'
He was in front of me in a flash, his teeth bared and his eyes fierce. I closed my eyes, waiting for the sweet relief of death. I was sure I had pushed him too far this time and that he would definitely kill me in his ire.
But no blow came. I opened my eyes again to see Aro had retreated back to his henchmen. His jaw was still clenched tightly. But his thoughts revealed he did not want to kill me. Though I had seriously pissed him off.
Aro shook his head. 'Such a shame.' Then he nodded to Jane.
My eyes widened and I almost changed my mind. I didn't want to endure more of this.
But I steeled myself anyway.
I needed to do this. My coven was my priority. Carlisle and Emmet and Jasper would make sure everyone was safe, but if I signed them all over… They wouldn't stand a chance. My family would be killed, Alice and Jasper would be recruited into Aro's guard, the rest of the vampires would be hunted down and forced into allegiance or be killed. I couldn't do that to everyone. So I had to endure.
Jane fixed her gaze on me and I let out a scream as I doubled over. The pain raced through my veins, almost more painful than the firey burn of the change. I fell to the floor and my head banged against the tiles, the sudden coolness of it against my skin made the pain slightly less excruciating. Almost bareable. But I knew this was not the higest she could go. Another scream ripped through me before the pain suddenly stopped again.
I groaned and inhaled deeply, trying to settle my body again. The pain was starting to mess with my head. I felt I was slipping into madness more and more. I lifted my head slowly to look back up at Aro.
'How about now?' He asked me, his tone less than friendly. 'Do you concede your coven?'
I shook my head again, clenching my jaw. I wanted to give in. I wanted this to be over. But I couldn't. I could never do that to my family or to Bella.
Bella... I held her face in my mind like a beacon. Focussing myself on her loveliness, her strength and power. She had endured this man, she had endured it all before. I owed it to her not to break now. I owed it to her to fight and make sure she was safe. I grasped unto that as a lifeline.
'Where is Bella?' I asked Aro, my voice rough from Jane's torture.
His expression shifted into surprise. 'She's safe.' he said, though his voice was slightly unsure.
'I want to see her.'
Jane snorted, but Aro quickly shushed her.
'She doesn't want to see you.' Aro replied crouching down in front of me. He's tougher than I gave him credit for… perhaps I need to try something else.
I steeled myself. What could he possibly throw at me next?
'You know… Isabella has been a very good little girl since she came back.' He said, a devilish glint to his eyes. 'I guess I have you to thank for that.'
He stood back up and smirked down at me. Then an image came into his mind that had me lunging for him.
Bella, on her knees in front of him, his hand in her hair and her lips around his cock.
No!
I lunged for him and managed to get one punch in before Jane crippled me, the intensity of the pain was enormous, but not more than the one currently in my heart. My mind was rebelling at the image Aro was forcing on me. IT was threathening to crack between the onslaught Jane was unleashing on me and the pain ripping through me at the sight of his vile hands on Bella.
No!
Bella would never let this man touch her willingly… but that meant that he'd forced her into this. That was worse. What if she was here, a prisoner again only this time much worse off?
Jane's pain raged through my body, but my mind was absolutely shattered. I barely noticed when Aro called off Jane and pulled me up by the collar of my shirt, smirking at me. The pain wracking through me did not seem to lessen in the slightest.
'If you so much as touch her.' I growled at him menacingly. 'I'll find a way to rip you limb from limb, in the most painful way you can imagine.'
Aro laughed, letting my threat pass over him like they were nothing. 'As if you could touch me.'
I snarled at him and grabbed at his hands still holding my shirt. I dug my fingers into his flesh, brute strength coursing through me at the thought of my mate being harmed by this vile creature. Aro's eyes widened and he signalled for Jane to start her torture again.
Her pain hit me and my grip loosend a fraction, giving Aro the oppertunity to break my hold and dropping me to the floor again. Jane amped up her gift just enough to have me writhing in pain, but no incapacitate me completely.
'If you don't sign over your coven, I'll make sure Isabella's new profession will be as my personal cock sucker, whether she wants to or not.' Aro threatened with a snarl.
A red haze clouded my vision at his words. They echoed around my already shattered mind like a mantra, taunting me, hurting me, driving me to insanity.
I was up and had my hands around his throat within the next second. My snapping teeth inches from his throat.
'Never' I snarled out, a deep menacing growl resonating from deep within. I clutched him tightly as his own hands started to counter my attack, staying off my snapping teeth just barely. His eyes widened for a moment and his thoughts descended into a panic. He hadn't fought an actual battle for a long time and his skills were rusty. I could take him! I could take him down!
'Jane!' He snapped.
'He's fighting it somehow!' She responded anxiously. 'Get Felix and Santiago down here!'
She kept up her torture, trying to amp it up and I could feel it burning through me, but the need to rip off Aro's head won out. His words had set off something so primal in me that I was overruling the pain of Jane's gift. I was fighting through the pain she was inflicting. It was affecting me, making my movements more sluggish than normal, but I was fighting through it. I could do this! I had to do this. I had to kill him!
'Guards!' Jane yelled frantically, trying to up her gift again as Aro's skin started to crack underneath my fingertips. Just as I was sure I had him, a heavy shape knocked me away from Aro and into the ground. It felt like a freight train had knocked into my side and pinned me down.
I snarled and thrashed and started grappling with the bulky shape above me. AS my eyes focussed again I realized it was Felix who was on top of me. HE grabbed hold of my collar and started slamming me over and over into the floor.
Still I grappled and tried to fight my way over to Aro. I had to kill him, I had to. Nothing else registered in my mind but the urge to kill him.
Pain burned through my mind and body as Jane still continued her torture and Felix was smashing me to shards. I knew I was losing this battle, yet still I fought. I fought with everything I had. Either I died or he died. I couldn't go on like this.
Suddenly another bulky form whipped past and barrelled into the man on top of me. Snarling erupted all around and I was confused and dazed as I tried to get my bearings through the pain still searing through my body. There was yelling, screaming and orders being barked. Someone was at my side, but I didn't know if it was friend or foe and on instinct I snapped and snarled and tried to roll away from them.
'Edward!' a voice yelled. I tried to focus on it. It sounded familiar but the pain was spiking in intensity. It seemed Jane had finally given me her all and I could barely stand upright anymore. My eyes were losing focus as I tried to fight the pain again like I had been. I still had to kill Aro!
Then the pain stopped, as another scream filled the air. My shoulders slumped and I let out a relieved breath, but the screaming signified someone else had taken the brunt of Jane's power. I wante dto curl into a ball and let the blackness overtake me like it normally did after one of Jane's torture bouts, but I couldn't. Something else was going on here, and I needed to get my bearings.
I clambered unsteadily to my feet and gazed around the room, To my shock I recognized my family. Emmett and Felix were locked in a struggle behind me, Esme and Carlisle were struggling with Aro. And Alice and Jasper were grappling with Alec.
But in front of me, Rosalie lay on the floor, screaming her head off as Jane held her vindictive little gaze on her. I tensed my muscles preparing my mind for another round of Jane's torture as I prepared myself to attack Jane. But before I had the chance to spring forward, Rosalie's screaming stopped.
I waited with baited breath to see who Jane had targeted next, but no scream came. Rosalie got to her feet unsteadily and I helped her up, frowning in confusion as to what was going on.
Jane was utterly confused as well, her eyes swinging across all of us as she tried to torture us one by one. I winced over and over as she target every single one of us over and over again. Alec started frowning too. And then Aro as well.
Their thoughts were echoing their expressions, they were confused as to what was going on, as all their gifts seemed to have been rendered useless.
I glanced around confused until I saw her.
She had a fierce look of determination on her face as she leapt from the shadows onto Jane's back and pounded into the girl.
Bella was here… Bella had saved Rosalie… she'd saved us all.