Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

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They had barely left the City of Port Angeles behind when already the woods had emerged on both sides of the highway, dark and ominous. …Ominous. How laughable. As if there could be anything more sinister in there than his kind, than him. The Children of the Moon, perhaps, save for the fact that it was still daylight and a waxing moon would be seen in the day sky, if not for the rapidly thickening snow clouds above them. Objectively speaking, if this indeed was the usual cloud cover level in the Olympic Peninsula (and it was, according to Patrick's and Miss Young's memories), this could very well be a perfect place for vampires (without the skill to not sparkle in sunlight) to settle down.

He'd consulted Demetri before setting out to find Carlisle, as Aro had known his old friend resided somewhere in the United States, but not his exact whereabouts. As Demetri had had the pleasure of meeting the Cullens in Boston in 1985 and tune in to all of their mental footprints (it would be interesting to find out if Bella was immune to his gift as well. So curious. Even if Isabella did not possess any major gift (not likely!) when turned, the reaction of his gifted guard to the girl would be so worth it. She would make them go crazy, just as the lovely Miss Camilli did, constantly, only in a different way. He was so excited. He could not wait! First, however, it will be so very fascinating to find out if that telepathic boy could hear a thing from her (Aro thought not), or if the Empath was able to perceive her emotions. But most of all, whether his little scheme of eluding the seer by kindly informing Bella of the existence of annoying future seeing girls who cannot keep their blabbing mouths shut would bear any fruit.)

Oh yes, Demetri could easily tell him that each and every one of the Cullens was currently located in Washington State, Olympic Peninsula, Forks. Aro had seen it perfectly clearly in Demetri's mind. However, Demetri had not been able to narrow it down further and find out their home address as the Cullens had been scattered around Forks when Demetri had taken a look (shortly before Renata and Aro had parted from the Guard in Los Angeles).

And if the Cullens were still keeping to the same pattern (considering all it took to confirm that Carlisle was indeed a doctor at Forks Community Hospital was a quick visit to the hospital's homepage, and which was now reconfirmed by Miss Young), Carlisle's 'children' should be enlisted as students in Forks High School, as it was the only educational institution in the village- small town. Aro was counting on them staying there for Christmas, and not visiting friends themselves (the Denali coven, for one).

And now, thanks to the paranoid shifters and Miss Young, he knew that Carlisle's home was located at the end of David Mansfield Road near Bogachiel River.

Anyway, Demetri had promised to frequently check in on the Cullens' location in the next few days and inform Aro and Renata, on the off chance they left the peninsula. As there had been no update from Demetri, he could only deduce that Carlisle's lovely family were still staying put.

It was nine minutes past three o'clock in the afternoon, which meant only one more hour of daylight.

And how curious he should meet Bella on winter's solstice. On one of the two most powerful days of the year. This could be nothing but Fate's doing. There were too many coincidences for it to not be.

"I can't let Charlie see me like this." Bella said in a quiet and despondent voice.

Aro could empathise with her - it was likely not because of the broken arm she was so dismayed. Sounded like Bella being a regular guest to the ER should be old news to her parents, rather he supposed Bella was talking about the fact that the morphine she had been given at the hospital was still in her system and her reaction to it was a little more pronounced than an average human's. Simply put, she looked and sounded (occasionally, much like tide and ebb) high. He could understand that her father, being the Chief of Police would not be thrilled with his daughter turning up on his doorstep unannounced and under the influence, even if the reason behind it was more than valid.

"And you won't have to, angel."

Bella looked at him then, with her slightly red rimmed eyes, her pupils still fully blown.

"What do you mean, Aro?"

"Renata and I, we do not know if Carlisle will have a spare room for us to stay in. I believe he should, but I haven't the faintest, to be honest." Bella was listening to him, but it seemed she was incapable to muster up the usual amused sentiment when he started to voice his less than believable explanations. That, however, did not discourage him in the slightest-

"So, I thought it would be prudent to ask around for any available lodgings near here, considering Forks is not so far away."

"Okay. I'll bite. Who did you ask? What did you find out?" But she was still playing along. How lovely! Truly. The girl had such spark in her soul, even now.

"Yes, Uncle, which unfortunate soul did you collect the information from?" Renata too appeared to appreciate Bella trying despite the less than stellar turn of events.

"Why, Patrick, of course." he smirked.

"Riiight. And who's Patrick?"

"The polite gentleman who sold me Carlisle's wine bottle, of course."

"He was very helpful in this regard. Knew of the best lodge houses in the vicinity of Port Angeles. And as it happens, he'd recently spoken with the owners, friends of his, of a very nice and comfortable two storey, three bedroom lodge in Crescent, by Lake Crescent, who'd complained that the family that had booked the house for Christmas, had changed their minds in the last minute. And won't be coming."

"Oh, that's wonderful, Aro. I had feared we would have make do with an inn somewhere, if the Cullens chose to not offer us to stay with them. This will be so much more relaxing! A proper Christmas holiday! I still can't believe it! This is officially the best Christmas ever!" Sweet darling Renata was not putting much effort into pretending anymore, was she. "Have you called them already?"

"In fact, I have. The Sinclairs were very surprised by my call. But also very glad. I informed them that we will arrive tomorrow, or even today, and they assured me that everything in the house is in order as they had expected the family to arrive tomorrow at noon. We should find the keys to the house in a pagoda bird feeder to the left from the main entrance."

Aro turned from Renata to Bella, who was watching him with tired eyes.

"See, Isabella? We will go to Forks tomorrow, after you've gotten a good night's rest."

"Why are you doing all this?"

"First of all, we ourselves need a place to stay at. Even if Carlisle has the space available for us, it would be terribly rude of us to expect him to accommodate Renata and me, when he hopefully does not know we are coming. This is the best possible outcome for us. Second, I believe that we, Renata and I, would feel more comfortable away from Carlisle's many children, at least for a few hours at a time. "

"È proprio vero."

"Third, we are doing this because you are our friend, dear. And you got hurt while under our watch. For that, I apologise."

"Aro's right. I am truly sorry, Bella. This shouldn't have happened."

"It was not your fault, Renata. I was just... being my ordinary clumsy self."

"Even so."

"Well, angel? Will you stay with us?"

"Do I even have a choice? You've totally kidnapped me already," she let out a small laugh. "And now it would be even harder to escape." Bella lifted her splinted arm an inch and winced.

"You could not have escape from us even if you had tried, before. Do not beat yourself up about it." he grinned.

"Right. Comments like this is why I keep getting this odd feeling that you are not actually lying. Which is disturbing. As fuck."

"And you are completely right."

"See? Just like that."

"I cannot help it." Aro unapologetically confessed with a dramatic flair.

"Aro lives for scaring people. Most of the time he's not even aware he's doing it."

"Like that police officer today?"

"Oh, no. That was completely intentional." Aro huffed a laugh, "the lad was practically begging for it."

"Aro, where should I-"

"Turn right after approximately one point seven kilometres. There will be the sign of Olympic National Park East Beach Road." He saw Bella looking out the windows, but there wasn't anything except for forest massifs to be seen. "About four point three kilometres in, take the left fork to Spruce Railroad Trail. The lodge house is at the end of the road."

"Ma certo, Padrone."

"How do you know all this?" It seemed Bella was still a little confused after her hospital visit.

"Patrick was very helpful."

The car fell into silence (relative silence, the car itself was very loud).

Snow had started to slowly fall from the enormous clouds in feather sized snowflake clusters. It was a very peaceful sight.

He was still holding Bella's silent palm, slowly and almost absentmindedly tracing the back of her smaller hand (Aro could not tell when he had last held someone's hand for this long. There was no need to see into the minds of prey or fellow vampires for this long. He got everything he desired in seconds. The last time that he was one hundred per cent certain of was when Sulpicia had been brought back to Volterra (surely the last time could not have been over a hundred years ago?) and he had not let go of her for the entirety of the excruciating thirty-three hours before the poison stole the last of her life force and His Darling died in his arms-

"Are you okay?" Bella asked with concern, which prompted Renata to immediately shift her sharp gaze to him. He must have allowed the memory to reflect on his face, and yes, his eyes had indeed flooded with venom, which he hastily blinked away.

"I am fine, angel. Merely haven't seen snow falling like this for a long time." he gently squeezed her hand and mustered up a small smile, but could clearly see none of his darlings believed him.

He felt Renata take a sharp right turn.

"How is your arm Bella?"

"…It doesn't bother me. Anymore. Yet. The doctor said the drugs will last for four to six hours, when she gave them to me."

"Good. You should not be suffering pain needlessly." His Darling had suffered immense pain from the bite, as the poison slowly spread through her body. He'd never felt anything like it-

"Um, that's why she gave me the pills, remember? I'm covered for the next two weeks. You don't need to worry about this, Aro. I'll be fine."

"Oh, you most definitely will be." He'll make sure of it.

"Right… It's really very pretty outside. The snow, the hills… the dark woods. I can't really remember ever seeing snow like this."

"Have you never been here in winter?"

"Ah. No. I've only visited in summers. I live with my mother in Arizona. …Lived." The last word was said much more quietly. The human had piqued his interest.

"You are then moving to Forks permanently?"

"Yes I am." She nodded a bit stubbornly.

"May I ask why?" It was so strange to wheedle information out of someone the hard way, by asking. He was not complaining. It was refreshing. To have to work for it.

"Err, yeah, sure. My mom... she remarried a minor baseball league player and decided she wanted to follow him on tours around the country." Bella let out a wistful sigh, "I'm really happy for her but I felt like I was in the way of her new life, so… Here I am."

"Here you are." While he couldn't comprehend ever making his children feel like this or putting them in such a position, at least she had somewhere to go. "And I'm very glad, Bella."

"Otherwise, we'd most likely have never met?" She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, smirking.

"You never know, angel. Fate works in mysterious ways." Perhaps she would have visited Volterra, and gotten eaten by one of the Guard, if Aro had not been the first to single her out from the crowd… A very disturbing thought. He did not want to envision a reality in which someone from his coven would have simply sucked the life out of his angel with him being a few feet away and none the wiser.

"You know, it was a flimsy decision on my part, to go now. At Christmas. Charlie's expecting me only in the middle of next month." And was it not yet another coincidence that she had changed her mind, as had Aro about not returning home this soon?

"Bella? Uncle?" Sweet darling Renata was never going to let this go, was she? Fate forbid she let it slip in Volterra. "We're here."

"Excellent."

They had stopped before the cosy little (compared to the Castle's dimensions) lodge house. It was just as he'd seen in Patrick's memories. A two storey log cabin that could comfortably house a family of six, right on the shore of Lake Crescent; said lake could even be seen from the car, right behind the building.

Renata killed the engine and they all stepped out of the car. The ground was covered in a thin blanket of soft snow as were the spruce trees and the tile roof of the cabin, although it kept snowing steadily, meaning the snow cover would only grow with time. The temperature had dropped slightly below zero degrees, so it was likely the snow would hold for some while longer.

It was remarkably peaceful here. Even if the woods were full of little sounds made by birds and other animals, even despite the sound of the snow falling or the far away disturbances humans made in their abodes. He could count thirty-nine human heartbeats in the five kilometre radius, his mind sketching their exact whereabouts in relation to him, with eight hundred metres being the distance to the closest one of those heartbeats.

They were essentially alone.

Renata, Bella and Aro entered the lodge through the front glass door after Aro had retrieved the house keys from the pink stained glass pagoda bird feeder. They moved through the foyer and soon descended a few steps into a high vaulted living room with wood beams and floor to ceiling glass wall, which presented a clear view of the lake and the dark green hills in the distance.

From what he had seen in Patrick's mind, the house had a rustic kitchen, a wine cellar, a utility room, a bathroom, two bedrooms with en-suites on the ground floor and one larger one that occupied the entire upper floor and was connected to the living room, only symbolically divided by an ornate railing, thus making the bedroom even more spacious. And lighter. Beside the skylights, the glass façade facing the lake provided additional natural lighting through the living room.

The area of the living room was about fifty square metres in size, a low square table was placed in the middle of the room, surrounded by two white sofas with black cushions and two black armchairs with white ones. A chandelier was hanging four and a half metres from the ground, directly above the table and the left wall was covered in books. A fireplace, already filled with logs, was set on the right side of the room, accompanied with a pair of dark armchairs.

"This is such a lovely lodge! You definitely wouldn't find anything like this one in Forks." Bella said as she took off her black alpinist jacket and placed it over her arm. He had seen as much from Miss Young's memories and had come to the same conclusion, which had made him inquire about this house by the lake to the wine shop owner in a heartbeat's time.

He took Bella by her hand and pulled her to the closest sofa. Renata perched on the armchair behind him, swinging her legs over the armrest and throwing her head over the other one. Her long wavy hair brushed the wood flooring. It was a true joy seeing her bask in the unexpected Christmas holiday cheer.

This sudden slight shift seemed to herald to the human that there was something not quite right with the situation.

"What... What's going on?"

"I must confess something to you Bella. I fear Renata and I have not been entirely honest with you." The human tensed a little and threw a speculative look to both of them. Then her eyes widened comically and she asked in a tiny, desperate voice-

"You really are serial killers, aren't you? I knew it. It all makes sense now. Assassini seriali? At the airport? I'm not a complete idiot, you know." Her pronunciation was almost spot on.

"You will pick up Italian in no time, bella Isabella! I'm certain of it!" It was delightful to have the human comfortable enough with them to play pretend in response to his potentially daunting words. She had caught on to their particular brand of humour in no time at all.

"This is bad. Very bad. …And I told you my home address. Poor Charlie, he's going to get murdered in his own kitchen…" She shook her head in faux despair.

"Fret not, angel. We don't have any ill intentions. Your home address is safe with us." And his darling Renata coughed. Loudly. Which was very reassuring, he could imagine, to Bella and most likely did nothing to ease her guarded anxiety.

"Bella… Bella." Renata took two deep breaths before trying to say, "We are… not… serial… killers!" And Renata's speech had yet again become half-impaired.

"Renata. Darling. That sounded so counterfeit! What are you, twelve? I can't even." Aro shook his head in dramatic disappointment.

"Forgive... me, Mas-"

"Ah-ah-ah. You have lost your chance." Aro fully turned around to face Bella. "Isabella. We are not serial killers. Well. At least… not in the sense that you mean." He amended. He could see her eyes widening a bit, in genuine surprise, this time; her heart starting to beat a little faster.

"Okay. We can stop now. This is starting to get really creepy. …You are not actually a couple of serial killers looking for your next hit, are you? Please. Pretty please. With a cherry on top."

Renata had started to shake because she was laughing so hard. Aro was giggling and Bella looked like she did not know what to think.

Let's be honest, even he could admit they were acting like complete lunatics.

"This is soooo not funny, you guys."

"Trust me, dear. You and your father have nothing to fear from us." He reached for her uninjured hand and clasped it in his chilly white ones and reassuringly squeezed it. "All we want to do here is visit my friend Carlisle. And we are very grateful you are willing to help us."

Aro could see that his 'perfume' was making it hard for Bella to focus on anything else but him and his words. He was still holding her hand and could fell her calming down, even if she was as hidden from his gift as ever before. His angel was such a curious human. Usually, humans found the cold hands of vampires unsettling. Not Bella. Obviously.

He could see in her eyes when she finally made herself believe that he was telling the truth.

"You know what… Sometimes, the words coming out of your mouths sounded like total bullshit, but, I figured you were just exceptionally good at making the truth sound bizarre. That it was just one more way of entertainment for you."

"But you have a fucking awful sense of humour sometimes." She accused but smiled a little, either way, and because she was looking straight at Aro, caught the micro expression of a wince he'd failed to smooth out in time.

"What? You don't think so? Who laughs about- "

"Bella, that's not it at all. You're completely right. Our humour may seem a bit morbid at times. But," Renata had lost most of the hysterical edge to her voice, but still seemed a little amused, up until she grinned evilly at him and looked at Bella with glee in her eyes, "Uncle despises cursing. Despises. With a burning passion."

"For real?" Bella turned to him, thoroughly amused.

"I've only heard him swear three times in all the years I've known him. The first time was-"

"Renata-"

"Really? I can't believe-. What was it-"

"Renata. Don't you dare tell her-"

"I'd love to tell you, Bella, but it seems my head is on the line here." Aro snorted.

It appeared as if tension had finally left Bella.

"Then what is it that you've kept from me?" Bella asked, her earlier alarm disregarded.

"Let me ask you this – have you noticed anything… strange about us? Something that you could not explain however hard you tried?"

"Besides how you are uncommonly pale, unnaturally... nice-looking, have freaky eyes and seriously sharp looking teeth and your skin is as cold as a corpse's? Nope, nothing comes to mind."

Bella nonchalantly started looking around the room, but Aro could trace a ghost of a smile on her lips. He couldn't help but chuckle. Bella was still looking around the room, pretending to ignore him them.

"We are vampires."

That got a reaction.

Bella froze and a second later her full attention was back on him them.

"Vampires? You're shitting me, right?" She laughed. Another crude expression. Fate help him. Nonetheless, she appeared to be observing him- them very vigilantly, her laughter eventually dying down as none of them were joining in, trying to gauge the situation in the wake of such an outlandish statement. "Vampires aren't real."

"Oh, but we are, angel." He gave her one of his shark smiles, his razor sharp teeth on clear view to the girl sitting right in front of him. This display had her leaning back a little. But not nearly as much as she should have. Was there something wrong with her?

"Okaaay, I admit the teeth are a bit unsettling, but it doesn't mean-"

Renata slipped her contacts out of her eyes, which were now scarlet in colour, luminescent in the twilight that had fallen over their surroundings due to the heavy snow clouds hiding the setting sun and giving way to sweet darkness. Her red eyes could not be mistaken for anything but exactly what they were, and Renata blinked once, before focusing on Bella.

The human's breath caught in her throat. Surprise. Wonder. Admiration. Unease. Apprehension. Fear.

"Angel, angel, angel. Look at me." Her panicked eyes focused on him. "You are completely safe with us. We won't hurt you. There is nothing to be afraid of." It was not something he had to do often, or barely ever – reassure humans of their 'good' intentions towards them. "Nothing at all."

Her heart, which was trying to leap out of her chest, appeared to calm down the longer she listened to his voice. Could only mean that the girl really liked him. The feeling was… nice, he didn't want Bella to fear him- them, not truly. A little scared? Completely acceptable. Terrified? Not so much.

"Why… Um." There were tears gathering in her eyes. He truly believed that the drugs in her system were helping the situation along but they were still one of the reasons for her swiftly fluctuating emotional responses. "What. What do you want with me? Why am I here?"

Then more hesitantly-

"Is Carlisle even real?"

"Carlisle's very real, angel. As is everything we have told you, up until now. Everyone's real, only… vampire. We did not lie about anything else. Well, except for our ages."

"Then why…"

"You are a very curious human, Isabella Swan."

"…I'm really not. I'm perfectly ordin-" and he could see that she truly believed her words.

"Oh, but you are, angel." he slowly reached for her hand that had slipped from his in her brief bout of panic, and was pleased to note she did not so much as twitch.

"You see, some vampires have exceptional gifts. Powerful, unique abilities that make them more dangerous but essentially are there to help us throughout our existence. "

The human was listening, eyes wide and jumping back and forth between him and Renata.

"Okay…"

"Renata and I, we possess such gifts."

"Okay..?"

"There was a reason why no one was sitting near us in that airport, if you were wondering about it, at the time. The truth is, you should not have been able to see us at all, much less come more than ten feet from us."

"I knew there was something weird going on, but I was so tired…"

"I'm very glad you approached us." Aro smiled. "For you see, Renata has a shielding ability, discourages humans to even look at the shielded space and diverts absolutely everyone from crossing the field's barrier. A very neat and powerful mental gift."

"Thank you, Master." This too got a reaction from Bella as she mouthed the word 'Master' in perplexed bewilderment.

"I did not see any shield back there in Frisco."

"You wouldn't have, Bella." Renata assured the human, "It's not exactly visible to anyone but me. But, you should not have even been looking our way, seen us, yet you did the unprecedented by stepping right through it, and you did not even know it."

"Right, right." Bella coughed. "Okay. Sooo… what's your special gift, Aro?"

"Oh, I have several. But," he looked down to their joined hands. "I can read minds." And those wide lovely chocolate eyes of hers were back. "Every single thought, memory and emotion a person has ever had, from their subconscious mind. By a single touch." And that warm hand of hers disappeared from his yet again. This revelation seemed to horrify the human like nothing they had said to her had managed to do thus far.

"…What?" barely a sound had left her. "You know everything about me now?"

"Just the opposite, angel." Aro gave her a sly grin.

"You are a very curious human, Isabella Swan." He repeated. "Never, in all my long existence have I ever met a person, human, vampire or otherwise, whose mind I had not been able to read. None. Except you. "

"All this is very hard to believe, you understand, right?"

"It's the truth, angel." He looked in her still not fully convinced eyes and let the truthfulness of his words show in his eyes, reflect on his face.

Renata jumped to her feet.

"I'll go get our things, I want to unpack." Renata informed and Aro waved her away. Bella gave a start when Renata simply disappeared to her human eyes (she could probably only feel the chilly gust of wind that had swept in through the now fully open front door) and reappeared with two of their suitcases after eight seconds, left them in the clear space between the sofa and armchair surrounded table and the fireplace, and after another five she had closed the door behind her and put Bella's and the last of their suitcases next to the already waiting pair.

It was reasonably warm in the room, the Sinclairs having already turned on the gas heating and he could tell that the fireplace had been lit a couple of days ago. Nevertheless, he threw an intense gaze to the preplaced logs in the fireplace and willed them to catch on fire, as well as simultaneously ignited the twenty-five candles that had been placed all over the room, on the table, by the windows, on the floor. The room lit up in a second. Very nicely done.

Bella jumped a bit in her seat.

"Show off," Renata grumpily remarked.

"I know morphine can cause people to see hallucinations, sometimes, but that was real, right? This just happened."

"Yes, it did. You are not seeing things. That are not there."

"How did you do that?" Admiration shone in her eyes and could be clearly heard in her question.

"Magic. …And intent."

"This is insane. Can all vampires do what you just did? With the fire." Renata loudly snorted. His darling had bad manners.

"No, I expect not many can."

"How about practically no one?" Renata retorted.

"Darling. Don't be like that. I have offered and tried to teach you, have I not? It is not my fault you have no patience."

"What patience. I'm very patient. It's practically my middle name. Renata Patience Volturi. But manipulating the elements? Commanding fire? You can't teach the impossible, Master Aro."

And Renata was off exploring the house. She'll come around. In time.

"I can't believe there are actual vampires. That you are actual vampires. This is such a mind trip."

"Mhmm."

"Oh My God! This is crazy."

"Do you have fangs?" Renata's laughter from deep within the upper level could easily be heard by both of them.

"No, we do not. We do, however, have exceptionally sharp teeth."

"Do you burn in sunl-. Of course you don't, I saw you perfectly well today. You were fine."

"We don't, but then again, many of our kind would not be out in a sunny day."

The human found all of this fascinating, he could tell. Not a trace of fear left. Excellent.

"Oh?"

"Yes. The venom in our bodies makes our skin shine, for lack of a better word, in direct sunlight. It is very striking and draws unwanted attention immediately. There are those, like Renata and me, who have learned how to circumvent this unfavourable reaction our venom has to sunlight, so that we could move unimpeded, be it night or day."

"Why don't the rest of you learn this? Wouldn't it be more convenient?"

"It would, undoubtedly. It takes time, and concentration-"

"Oh, this is a very nice cabin! I love it, Aro! And I'm taking the second floor!"

"Renata, I am trying to teach Isabella about vampires here." he said in a level tone.

"Sorry, Master. Sorry, Bella." But his darling was not finished yet. "But I'm still taking the top floor. I'll fight you for it, if I have to."

"You can have it. Bella is not going near the second floor."

"Hey! You can't tell me where-"

"Do you want to break your other arm as well?" He nodded to the steep stairs and the slippery finely polished steps.

"…No."

"I though as much."

"I wouldn't fall again, you know. Probably. Um, yeah, I… I'll just sleep in one of the rooms down here." The girl looked in the direction of the ground floor bedrooms and hid a yawn behind her right hand.

Aro got up from the sofa and seized the handles of his own and Bella's suitcases.

"Come, Isabella. You are clearly exhausted from your injury, and the subsequent fainting spell, and the resulting hospital visit. You can interrogate me in the morning, after you have had a good night's rest and slept off the drugs." Bella swiftly but gingerly got to her feet.

"Wait! You can't drop such a bombshell on me and expect me to just go to sleep."

"Yes, I can. Come. You can ask me a few more questions while we search for a bedroom for you."

"…Fine. How many vampires are there, really? Shouldn't people know about them? Or be more suspicious?"

They moved past the fireplace and down the hall. On the left there were the kitchen and the wine cellar and to the right stood two engraved wooden doors.

"There are fewer of us than you are most likely imagining now." he opened the door to the room closer to the living area and stepped back to let Bella look around for herself. It was a rather nice bedchamber, he supposed, nothing extravagant and the interior was made in soft beige tones. However, for a mere log cabin- house in the woods it held an unexpected charm. Bella switched on the artificial light and took in the space.

"The why we are just a myth to humans, is rather simple. Self-preservation. It is a very well guarded secret." He moved to open the second door and found the room very similar to the neightbouring one, however this was in dark greys and with red accents.

"And people are not more suspicious about us because they do not know of our existence. It is as you said. Vampires aren't real." Bella had joined him in the room but did not bother with the light this time.

"I want the sandy one."

"Of course." He left his suitcase in the middle of the darker room and rolled Bella's into the other one.

"Thanks." Bella said as she stepped in the room behind him.

Aro turned to Bella, "Think nothing of it," and moved to the open door.

"Goodnight, angel. Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite." he sang and winked.

"You too." How sweet of her.

"Oh, we don't sleep." She had so much to learn.

"Ever?" It appeared he had managed to shock her yet again.

"Ever. You know where to find us, if there is anything you need." He smirked as he closed the door to the view of the stupefied expression on her face.

.

Bella's consciousness slowly slipped back to awareness as she was overcome by an oppressing feeling of a persistent ache originating deep within the left side of her body. Which would not go away, but only increased in strength. She attempted to move but dearly regretted the shift a moment later.

Abruptly, it all came back to her.

She'd broken her fucking arm, again. For the fifth time. This kind of pain should not be anything new to her. And it wasn't. But that did not mean it did not suck. It was such a stupid fall. She'd accidentally dropped a book by the top of the staircase and when she had stepped forward and leaned down to pick it up, she'd lost her balance and tripped over it, which led to her tumbling down the stairs. She agreed with the doctor. It was pure luck an arm was the only thing she had broken. A fall like that? It could have been her leg, her skull… her neck.

Of course, it was a miracle as well that she did not have a concussion. However, even if the skin had been broken only on her injured arm, it didn't mean Bella hadn't hit her ribs and her back and her left leg really hard on the angular steps. She could practically feel the bruises forming on her left side, on the right side of her back and on her left leg. It was much worse than it had been yesterday… or was it still today? What was- she looked to the green luminescent clock which showed it was only 22:06. She'd slept for little over five hours. Bella had changed in her sleeveless pajamas, for obvious reasons, and tried to fall asleep. She had not believed Aro would turn out to be right and she would fall aslee-

Aro.

Renata.

Her red eyes.

Aro's magic.

Vampires.

Oh, God.

Abruptly, It All Came Back To Her. Now that she was fully present, Bella could tell it had not been just a very weird figment of her imagination that she had dreamt up in her drug induced state.

Vampires were real. How? And she was currently under the same roof as two of them. Her new friends were a couple of freaking vampires. Why was she here, with them? Aro'd explained, kind of, but. What was their endgame? She had not really thought about it before, she'd still been in shock and then her fascination of them had replaced her worries.

In hindsight, it was not hard to see it. They did not look human, not really. They looked like humans. But there was just something… other, about them.

Bella didn't really think they wanted to eat her. Aro'd practically sworn that she was safe with them. And she believed him. Bella knew that it was a silly thing to do, to trust him, after what he'd revealed to her, but she couldn't help herself. She believed, to her very bones, that he was telling the truth. About this particular matter, at least.

And she wanted to know more about them. Vampires. About Aro them.

He- they were fascinating.

And her broken arm had started to throb more persistently. She needed her painkillers. Now. It would take at least thirty minutes for them to take effect, an hour was the more realistic prognosis. She braced herself and slowly shifted in a sitting position on the bed and let her bare feet drop on the cool floor boards. Ouch.

Fucking stairs.

Bella vowed she was never ever going to step on another set stairs again.

Bella turned on the light and looked around for her jacket. She'd put the prescribed pills in her jacket pocket. But she couldn't see it anywhere. …Because she'd shrugged it off as soon as they'd stepped into the living room and later forgotten it on the sofa, when she had suddenly leapt to her feet, the painkillers the last thing on her mind at the time.

"Fuck."

She dragged herself to her feet and carefully went in search of her forgotten jacket.

She exited the bedroom and stepped into the hall that would have been completely dark if not for the light coming from her open door. She moved to the living room and could see a faint glow from the candles, still burning, the flames in the fireplace long since having died down.

Before she had really stepped into the room, she saw Aro, sitting on the sofa that faced the hall and the stairs to the second floor, with his back to the huge windows. He was sitting in a cross-legged position just like this morning at the hotel (it felt like a week ago) with his eyes closed and his palms on his knees.

He must have heard her because his eyes snapped open and stopped her in her tracks. Because they were scarlet red. Red like fresh blood and focused on her in the dim lit room. They looked, he looked… spooky.

Then the chandelier above him flared up, making her jump a little in surprise, and fully illuminated the whole room. Aro cocked his head to the right side, a slight frown marring his perfect features.

"What is it, angel?" Aro softly questioned, and really, was that honest concern in his voice?

"My stupid arm. Woke me up. I guess the morphine finally wore off," Bella stepped further into the room, "and I realised I'd forgotten the pills in my jacket." Her gaze fell to the other sofa where she'd left the jacket earlier.

"Come here." Aro beckoned her with his hand to join him on the sofa he'd taken for himself.

What… Okay.

Bella slowly approached him and gingerly sat down two feet away from Aro. She suppressed a wince and noted that the pain in her arm was getting steadily worse. She turned to Aro questioningly and… got lost in his red eyes. She'd had the fleeting thought, when she'd seen Renata pull out her contact lenses, that Aro might have red eyes too, but she hadn't given it much consideration, then. If she had believed, before, that his pure black eyes were gorgeous, his red ones were stunning.

"..ella? Angel?"

"Yes?" He'd been talking to her and she'd completely tuned out-

"I said I could help make the pain go away, if you wanted."

"…What?" Aro smirked, as if entertained by her dim-wittedness. Not nice. He did this sometimes. Got amused by Bella. Asshole. "What do you mean exactly?"

Aro let out a soft sigh, "I could release natural anaesthetic and healing agents we vampires have in our venom, into your bloodstream. It would numb the pain momentarily. It would also make that arm of yours heel that much more quickly."

"Or I could just take the pills the doctor gave me. …But it'll be a while until they fully set in." She did not want to wait that long, but what Aro was suggesting… trusting him on his word about some mysterious pain relieving vampire venom…

"Um… I don't… Are there any, any side effects to your venom?"

"You want to know if it is safe." Something like approval flickered in his crimson red eyes until the emotion smoothed out and he gave her a small smile.

Bella nodded.

"It is completely harmless. There are no negative side effects. And there will be no need to take the prescription drugs the doctor gave to you." It did not sound so bad. Not bad at all. It almost sounded too good to-

"But only if you want to. Do you?"

"I… I… Okay. Yes. Yes, I do." Bella could see that her response had pleased him.

"Where do… How are we-eep!"

One moment she was sitting beside him and the next she found herself swiftly and effortlessly lifted and placed on his lap with her back against his hard chest and an arm around her waist.

"You! …could have warned me." Heat was rising to her cheeks and her heart was beating way too fast.

"And where would the fun in that be?" he whispered in her ear with a smirk on his lips.

"Relax, angel."

An impossible thing to do. Now, so close to him, she was engulfed by his sweetly addictive scent and the gravity of her situation finally hit her.

Aro, her impossible crush, had her pressed against him, his left arm wrapped around her and his chilly right one in her hair, brushing it away from the left side of her neck and lingering on her right shoulder.

Aro, who was a freaking blood drinking vampire, had his nose buried in her hair by her ear as he drew in a long breath and then slowly traced down her bare neck with icy lips.

"Aro-" he pressed a soft cold kiss between her neck and shoulder and Bella's fucking slow idiot brain finally understood what was about to happen a second too late before his unholy sharp teeth sank into her flesh.

"Ow!" His bite hurt like a bitch. She tried to struggle but his hold on her was unexpectedly strong, there was no chance of her getting away.

Bella waited for him to do something, anything, but he just kept his teeth pressed into her skin. After what she thought had been approximately ten excruciating seconds, the bite on her shoulder abruptly stopped aching. She couldn't feel any pain from where his teeth were still buried in her flesh. After another fifteen, her arm stopped throbbing and soon afterwards all the pain from it vanished without a trace.

Bella could feel the tension seep out of her and she went pliant in his hold, her head dropping back against his hard shoulder.

After another ten or so seconds, in which her breathing levelled out and her heart regained a calm, steady pace, Aro withdrew his teeth and licked over the broken skin. There was the metallic tang of blood in the air, for a minuscule moment, she'd almost missed it, before it, too, was gone.

Her eyes had fallen shut. When had that happened? Bella could feel gentle fingers carding through her hair, and a chilly hand sneaking under her shirt, resting on her side, while his lips travelled further down her shoulder to her upper arm and stopped by the splint, a couple of inches above her elbow.

This time she braced herself for what she knew was to happen but found herself mistaken, again, as Aro bit down and instead of the expected pain, intoxicating pleasure flooded her body, and she let out a soft moan. Bella could feel his smile form on her skin, in response to her unconscious reaction. Fucking vampires.

She consciously willed her eyes to open and was presented with the view of the bright crystal chandelier and the arched ceiling of the room, the ornate balcony railing and a dark figure wrapped in shadows behind it. Renata was watching them. Oh, sweet. Not.

She must have seen Bella looking and promptly disappeared from view.

Bella looked to her arm where Aro was still biting on it and found herself transfixed by the sight. His red eyes were half lidded, his straight ponytail half resting on the sofa, red lips wrapped around her skin, and a thin line of her blood slowly oozing down her arm, having escaped his lips.

Aro bit down a little harder and another wave of pleasure hit her. She let her head fall back against his shoulder, but managed to catch the moan, this time. She won't make this easy for him, not if she could help it.

His teeth left her arm and his cool tongue traced over the bite, stopping the bleeding.

Aro chuckled as he licked up the blood that had seeped down from the bite.

"Don't want me to hear you, angel?" Jerk.

"Renata-"

"-has left."

"Oh."

"I would suppose we made her a little hungry." That could mean-

"…so she went to find dinner for herself?"

"Of course."

Bella didn't know how to feel about it. On one hand, it was completely logical. They were vampires (what has her life become?), it's what they did. On the other, some unlucky person was going to end up in a hospital, or worse. She did not really know about their dinner habits, not yet, but it was a strong possibility they did not let (their victims) witnesses go free, for it was a very well guarded secret, after all, was it not? And Aro had told her, without a care…

"-ella. Isabella."

"Yeah?"

"How are you feeling, angel?"

"Oh. Um. I feel… completely fine. You said but even so. If I didn't know any better, I couldn't tell anything's broken at all. It's incredible." And it was. She turned around in his lap and looked into his scarlet eyes that were smiling at her.

"I'm glad to hear." He carefully clasped the palm of her splinted arm and lightly traced her side with his other hand.

Bella couldn't help the blush that rose to her neck and face. Damn it.

"Yeah. Well. Thank you, Aro. Really." Bella looked down to her arm, where she expected a fresh bite mark to be, only to find perfectly smooth skin. She could barely see the outline of the crescent teeth marks, they were that imperceptible. Hardly half a shade lighter than her natural skin tone. Her right hand flew to her neck and shoulder where he'd first bitten her but just the same could not feel anything besides undamaged skin. Her head snapped up and she saw a faint smile lingering on his pretty face.

"You could have warned me it was going to sting a little."

Aro snorted and a large, amused smile slowly appeared on his lips. "What else did you expect would happen, angel?"

Bella felt her eyes narrow on their own accord. He was making fun of her again. The Bastard.

"I fear you would not have agreed if I had told you." Aro confessed.

"You are such a liar. You know I would have. I did. Agree. I would not have changed my mind."

"I know, angel."

"So. How did I taste?"

"Like white peaches and tangerines. Utterly lovely. …And morphine. That one, not so much."

"Oh." Was it weird that she felt disappointed he'd found her blood tainted, even if very slightly? However, she could not deny the effect his venom had on her. Bella really did feel great. Even better. Than before her fall.

"…I can't feel the other bruises anymore either. You said my arm would heal faster?"

"I would think so, yes. The exact numbers escape me but it should be healed by morning, at the latest. "

"Completely healed?"

"Yes, Bella."

"You're kidding. There's no way."

"Angel. It will take this long only because it is a bone that was broken and the venom is not as effective in this altered and diluted state, and the lingering drugs in your system is interfering with the process by slowing it down a bit. However, the skin under the splint should have mended already. So, I would say a few hours more before you are right as rain."

"What about the stitches?"

"Dissolved much faster than was ever intended by the doctor, no doubt." he smirked.

"You're impossible." He just hummed good-naturedly and did not correct her. Smug bastard.

"Aro?"

"Yes, angel?"

"You said this is a very well guarded secret. So why… why did you tell me, then."

Aro reached for her, carefully turned her around again and pressed her against his chest, wrapping his arms around Bella and spoke by her ear. "There are several reasons."

"Such as?"

"Well. For one, you would have figured us out sooner or later. It was just a matter of days."

"Hmm. Maybe."

"You would have. Then there is the fact that, while pretending to be human was entertaining, it is a bit taxing to watch what we say and do, all the time, so that we don't give anything away."

"Mmmm." His sweet honeysuckle scent had started to cloud her head a little.

"The third reason - I feel it would do you disservice, leaving you in the dark. Because we had hoped, Renata and I, that perhaps you would be amenable to come visit Carlisle and his family together with us. We believe it would be much more… fun, that way. If you'd join us."

"Oh." Her eyes had slipped closed again, and she found them to be too heavy to open.

"The fourth one is your little accident. It is a lesser known fact but, those humans who know about us or have deep suspicions about our kind tend to suffer untimely deaths."

Hmm, that was a bit disturbing.

"It is better you know about the risk than go around completely ignorant of it."

"And finally, I have no doubt that you would turn out to be an exceptionally gifted vampire, should you agree to become like Renata and me." …Aw …Did he really think so?

"Sleep on my offer, angel." His voice was sounding fainter and farther away with every moment.

"Isabella, would you like to become a vampire?" was the last thing Bella heard, before she slipped into deep sleep, dead to the world.

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Notes: I'm aware they are taking their sweet time getting to Forks, but realistically, it has only been about 24 hours since they've met. And they needed a chance (time) to get to know each other better.

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È proprio vero. (Italian) – That is so true.

Ma certo, Padrone. (Italian) – Of course, Master.

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Thank you for reading. :)