Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
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6 Hours and 58 Minutes Earlier...
The steam from the near scalding shower had made the air in the bathroom humid to the point it was getting hard to breathe. The air in the bathroom had become foggy and the mirror had misted over long ago.
Emily was not sure, not sure at all, how long she had spent drowning herself under the hot stream, but it could have been anything between thirty minutes and a full hour.
She was desperately trying to stop the shivers that hadn't left her all the way from Port Angeles to her home. It was slow progress but she was gradually calming down. The highly alert state she had been in for the past hour and a half was waning.
But try as she might, she could not get the feeling of the vampire's cold lips and his wet tongue, his chilly hands off of her.
You tasted wonderful dear
Despite the hot water, goose bumps erupted on her skin.
Emily did not remember her drive back home from Port Angeles. Not really. It was all in a daze. Fragments. Wrenching the car door open, speeding through the city's streets, then nothing at all, until she came to awareness in front of her house. Emily had sat there for an undecipherable amount of time, white knuckled fingers wrapped around the wheel. Until her half-seeing gaze had slid to the right, to the Blacks' neighbouring house some sixty metres away from hers on the other side of the road, where Billy Black was sitting in his wheelchair on the porch, looking straight at her.
She had quickly broken away from his eyes and her gaze had fallen to the wine bottle she had completely forgotten about after colliding with- and which she definitely did not remember putting in her car. The sudden realisation that the vampire had been in her car felt as if lightning had struck her.
She'd almost fallen on her ass throwing herself out of the car and running for her house. Good thing the door was unlocked, as she had left the keys in the car and she would not be able to retrieve them.
Emily had made quick work of locking herself in the bathroom and tearing her clothes off to get under the water faster and wash the memory of the vampire and his chilly touch down the drain.
With little success.
Emily Young
"Emily!"
Sam. Billy must have finally tracked down Sam.
Shit. She was not. She did not. Know. How to tell him.
"Are you okay?"
There were only faint traces of the steam in the air as it appeared she'd spent all the hot water and it was now running barely lukewarm.
Emily turned off the shower and stepped out on the bath rug, and took a towel from a cupboard and a large white bathrobe that was hanging on a hook on the door.
"Emily!" Sam was still standing on the other side of the door.
She made quick work of drying herself off and wrapping herself in the large (Sam's) robe and stumbling to the mirror. She could still feel his touch on her face and on her neck, despite the prolonged shower. Emily swept her palm on the steamed up mirror to see if she could see his touch as well as fell it, but froze as soon as the mirror cleared.
Because.
There were no scars on her face.
There should be scars on her face.
There were no scars on her face.
Anymore.
How.
"Em, do you hear me?"
She remembered all too well how the vampire had scratched her face open again, right over the scars, she had not seen him move, only felt the pain that had erupted when his nails left deep incisions in her flesh.
But-
There was nothing but her old, unscarred face staring back at her, the one before Sam had-
"Emily! Open the door!"
Shit!
No. There was something there, she leaned closer to the mirror and saw a shade paler skin, not white, thank Gods, just as her skin would look if there was no tan on her face. Emily lifted her hand to the right side of her face and traced the faint lines of her once again smooth skin with trembling fingers.
Her eyes slid to her neck and she turned her head to the right a bit to see the spot the vampire had scratched open and drank from. There was nothing there to be seen as well. Just a short thin line of the same pale skin.
How? She'd never heard of anything like this being possible.
There, as good as knew
It seemed the legends had some major gaps in them. What a surprise.
"Emily, I swear if you don't open the door this secon-"
She went to the door, unlocked it and slowly stepped through, into the hall.
And then there was silence.
She raised her head and looked straight at Sam and saw pure shock had taken over his face.
Great.
She brushed past him and went to the kitchen to make a cup of hot (Irished up) tea for herself.
Emily filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove. She noted that her hands were still shaking. Will they ever stop shaking? She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands flat on the counter and took several deep breaths. She could hear Sam slowly approaching her from behind her back and then she found herself in a soft, warm embrace, nothing like the hard (but oh so gentle) hold of the vampire.
And Emily's forced calm crumbled.
She started crying in his arms, silently at first, then harder. And harder. It was loud and ugly and she could not do anything to stop her hysterics.
And all through it Sam kept her in his arms and told her that it was okay and that she was fine. That he was here.
That he was here now. Yes. Now. But not before.
And she was not okay. And she definitely was not fine.
After some time that felt like hours, but was most probably no more than fifteen minutes, Emily had stopped sobbing and had calmed down considerably.
They were just standing there, in the kitchen, silent.
"…Em." His voice was so gentle. "What happened to you?"
His question caused her to suck in a loud breath. Not again.
"Shhhh." He practically carried her to the table and set her down on a chair. "Just. Wait for a bit. I'll make you that tea."
After turning the stove on and some fumbling through the cupboards, a couple of minutes later he placed a steaming cup of black peppermint tea on the table in front of her.
"Bourbon." Gods, her voice sounded choked. Emily cleared her throat. "I- I need bourbon too."
Her request made Sam pause for a moment but he obliged nonetheless.
A sequence of knocks sounded on the front door just as he set the whiskey bottle in front of her.
"It must be Billy. He called, earlier…"
Emily snatched the bottle and proceeded to pour the bourbon in the cup, until the liquid threatened to spill over the rim. Not nearly as much as was needed.
Another knock sounded and Sam went to open the door.
"Billy. Harry."
"Sam."
Emily looked to the figures of Billy Black and Harry Clearwater on the other side on her front door, both of whom she could see from sitting at the table, as it was conveniently placed to provide a clear view to the door.
Nosy old men. They were worse than her nana June and her aunt Abby.
She leaned down and took a long slurp from her cup. Who cared about manners around here anyway? Definitely not her, not right now.
"Is she all right? Billy said she looked quite distressed earlier."
Nosy old codgers.
Sam turned his head back to her and frowned as he seemed to decide on an answer to give them.
"She's better."
The hot alcohol infused tea was working its magic. Her hands had finally stopped shaking and the deep warmth of the strong drink had finally chased off the feeling of cold completely.
"Might as well let them in, Sam. I believe this is something they should hear as well."
Better to get this over with as soon as possible. And they needed to know, either way. She couldn't keep this to herself. Not that she could escape their suspicion anyway, not with the state of her face.
She could see how Sam's shoulders stiffened and how his grasp on the door tightened.
"All right. Come in."
Emily took one more sip from her irished up drink and gestured for them to sit down at the table.
Harry wheeled Billy in the kitchen and she saw the exact moment both of them fully registered the condition of her face. Is this the reaction she is going to get from all the people who had seen her scarred face?
Finally, they all found their seats.
But she just… didn't know how to start.
"Ems?"
"I. Right. Right…"
She looked out of the window and saw that it had started to snow. Big soft snowflakes slowly descending from the dark blue skies…
"Emily."
Her gaze fell back to their expectant and concerned faces. And then shifted down to the contents of her cup.
"I went to Port Angeles today. To get the last of the shopping done… and a haircut," she'd completely forgotten about that part. She had had a half hour until her appointment when she'd finished with the presents and had decided to get some wine in the interim, "I did not get a haircut… Obviously."
"I had some time left before my appointment and decided to go get some wine." Why did she have to go to that store? Why. "For Christmas."
"When I was leaving the store, I tripped on the doorstep and would have face planted on the sidewalk, but- Gods." Tears were attempting a comeback so she swiftly poured some more bourbon in her yellow tea cup and took a long sip.
"Emily…"
"I'm fine. I just. I tripped and would have fallen and surely smashed the bottle but someone caught me. And the wine."
She lifted her eyes and saw all of them listening carefully but still not knowing where she was going with her tale.
"A vampire. It was a vampire that caught me." She could see colour drain from Billy's and Harry's faces. And her Sam. He looked as if her words had punched all the breath from his lungs.
"WHAT?!"
"Are you quite sure, dear?"
"Was it one of the Cullens?"
She let out a bitter laugh.
"As sure as I can ever be. And no, he was a complete stranger."
That seemed to calm them down a little. As if what was running through their minds were "then the Cullens may live another day". Funny.
"I've seen all the Cullens in town, from a distance. And I would have remembered if I had seen this one before."
Her Sam was drawing in even breaths and visibly straining to keep his cool.
"He had the same white skin, although… No. That's not quite right. He was even whiter than them. His skin was powdery white."
"What happened?" Harry quietly prompted.
"As I said, he caught me, and at first I did not see his face. I just heard this stranger tell me to be more careful." Now they had light frowns on their faces.
"I was apologising, saying it was my fault and then I looked up at him and, and then I understood what he was."
"And I figure he saw me recognise him. I. I think that was the reason he went after me." Emily finished in a whisper.
"WHAT!" Sam let out a low growl, his hands clenched in white knuckled fists, a vein pulsing on his left temple.
"Sam, calm down!" Billy, who sat in front of her and to the right from Sam, reprimanded.
"Please continue, Emily." Harry encouraged her.
"Um... I got out of his hold and went to my car. I had almost reached the door, hurriedly searching for the right key when the vampire… he appeared in front of me." She lifted her cup to her lips and took another gulp. She could do this. She had to.
"I was so stupid. I panicked. But I was just so scared. So fucking scared."
"What did you do?" Billy asked.
"I. I ran to the beach. Away from him."
She could see Billy wince and Harry grimace. She did not look to Sam. Emily did not want to see his expression.
"Ems…"
"I know, okay?! It was stupid."
"Alright. Alright, dear. Nobody is saying that." But thinking it loudly and clearly.
"Then what happened next?" Billy asked with curiosity.
"I had gotten almost to the shore, when-"
"-when what?" Harry was leaning forward.
"I'd tell you, if you'd let me finish!"
"Okay, okay. Sorry."
Old geezers.
"I was running one minute and the next he was just there, a few feet in front of me. And I just… froze." Sam reached for her hand and put his large warm paw palm over her hand. It was such a contrast from the v-
"Anyway. He was very curious. Asked me how I knew what he was. Said it was supposed to be a secret."
"And then he said the weirdest thing. He asked if 'I was spoken for'." She saw understanding dawn on them and the expected disgust creep up on their faces. "I did not understand at the time, but-"
"There are people who choose to become one of them out of their free will. People among us. Out there. Who want..." Black was clearly repulsed by the notion.
"Yes. That is what I figured."
"Anyway. As he saw that it was pointless to ask me he- um."
"Em?" Sam gently squeezed her hand and it gave her a bit more support to continue.
"He took off one of his gloves. His teeth looked so sharp…" Emily shook her head. "Anyway, he said that he would take a look for himself. He was about to touch my face and I almost screamed, but he- he said that he would ri-rip my throat out, if I, if I did that."
Emily felt Sam withdraw his hand and saw him ball his palms into fists on the table top. Then she looked up to the serious but sympathetic faces of Harry and Billy.
"It was… strange. He was so nice about it. Like an indulgent parent…"
"Emily."
"Wha-. Oh. Right. Sorry. Then he touched my cheek with his ice cold hand. And suddenly he knew my name. About the wolves. About you, Sam! Us. I. I think he somehow read my memories. That's what I think he did."
They all looked visibly shocked. Their eyebrows had practically disappeared and they appeared-
"How could he-"
"How could I know! One second he was brushing his hand against my face and the next he knew everything!"
"How is that possible…"
"I don't know."
"And I think your facts about the cold ones are wrong. Well, at least incomplete."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked and he sounded, not quite angry, but frustrated. Emily could feel this whole conversation was very hard for him.
"We were at the beach. He was… so close. So close and the sun was shining through the sparse clouds directly on him. His skin did not shine, or sparkle or whatever it was you said it did. At all. No more than mine did."
Deep frowns etched themselves on their faces.
"Alright. What happened next?"
"He said that his wife had been killed by werewolves. Bitten by werewolves. He called them the Children of the Moon, said you were just an overgrown puppy compared to the real ones."
A deep rumble started to rise from Sam's chest while Billy and Harry exchanged looks.
"He. Sam," tears surged to her eyes once more.
"He said that his wife had been 'innocent' and that he, that he... was tempted to take me away from you, since he now hated dogs or something…"
"That fucking leech!"
"Sam!" Harry and Billy barked.
"Emily. Dear."
"Please, continue."
"He said I was lucky, that you, Sam, were lucky because he did not want to steal me from this world... today. But- Gods," her heart had started to beat faster and she lifted and drank all the remaining whiskey from her yellow cup.
"…He was so beautiful." That was not what they wanted to hear. At all. She could see. Her waxing poetic about the 'disgusting bloodsucker'. "The Cullens. I guess they are beautiful, in an Edwardian style sort of way. But this vampire? He was beyond beautiful. He looked like an angel."
Her Angel of Death.
"And his eyes.. When I first looked into his eyes, they were pitch black."
"But after..."
"After?"
"Emily. What happened after? Did he do something?"
"He. He would have killed me, if I'd refused. I saw it in his eyes. Despite his words."
"His words...?" Sam prompted.
"He asked if I would allow him to drink from me. Said he had not had a drop of blood for a month... that he did not need much." They paled. Sam had leapt to his feet and was pacing the living room and kitchen. "…That he would not harm me."
"And did you...?"
"Of course, I agreed! He would have killed me, otherwise! What else was I to do!?"
Silence rung through her small kitchen.
"And he was so strong. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything."
She knew she was hurting Sam, by retelling all this. That it was so, so hard for him to hear what had happened to her while he was not there to protect her. But he had to know.
"Did he hurt you?" Harry asked in a quiet voice. Full of sympathy.
"He. No. He was gentle. At first. I didn't even feel it when he cut my neck open before he started to drink my blood."
They looked green, the old farts. Sam looked positively sick, like he was one moment away from throwing up.
"But when he drew back a couple of minutes later. His red eyes looked to my face and slid to the scars. It all happened so fast. One moment he was still and the next he had my face scratched open again." Sam roared and punched the wall. Hard. There was now a hole in her wall in perfect size of Sam's fist. Joy. His knuckles had started to bleed on the ground.
"And he- he did something. As soon as he opened the scars, he licked them over and they did not hurt anymore. Then he just let me go."
"I first saw that they were gone in the bathroom mirror." Emily inclined her head to the direction of the bathroom.
"Why would he do something like that?"
"I don't know why he did it. We did not exactly chat. …I didn't know vampires could do something like this."
"We weren't aware they could either." Billy replied in a thoughtful voice. "How are you feeling, Emily? Any weird-"
"-cravings for your blood? Are you worried I am going to start turning into one of them any minute now, Chief Black?" She asked in an icy tone.
A loud growl sounded from Sam at her words.
"No, dear." Which sounded very much like 'Yes, dear. Exactly, dear.' to her ears.
"Billy, don't be ridiculous. The girl is fine. We could tell if there was… something not right with her." Sam growled again, louder and more threateningly, which made the old coots quickly shut up.
"How did the fucker look."
"Sam. Stop."
"Tell me! I'm going to kill him!"
"SAM!"
Her scream seemed to stop his raging rant.
"This vampire. He's not like the Cullens. He's bad news. Really bad news."
"Explain."
"I don't think you should try to track him down."
"Of course I'm going to hunt that son of a bitch dow-"
"Sam! You are not listening to me!"
Okay, now they were listening.
"There was something about him... what he said. He sounded- Uhh. I cannot explain it. He said his wife had died one hundred years ago. In 1903. But. He said to him it felt like it had happened a moment ago."
"What..."
"A hundred years, just a moment for him. I think he is old. Very old. I've seen the Cullens. How they are. How fake they act."
"But, Sam. The Cullens. They look young, but ... they don't seem old, you know? Even if they are."
"This vampire? He... felt ancient."
They all collectively shuddered.
"Emily. Dear girl. We have to know what he looked like. If he comes near here…" That was a reasonable request, she supposed.
"More than a head taller than me. But shorter than Sam. Slender but athletic. I couldn't tell his age. Late twenties, early forties? I can't... Um. Long black hair tied in a ponytail. No. Blue. Blue hair."
"Blue?"
"Yes. Odd, I know. The sun was shining through it. It looked more blue than black. Fancy clothes. White shirt. Dark coat. Red shoes... and he was so beautiful, Sam."
Harry cleared his throat.
"Anything else you can remember?"
"Accent. Something exotic. Italian, maybe? Definitely something European."
"What could he be doing in Port Angeles? Passing through? To where?" they all new that Forks and their land were very close to Port Angeles… as were the Cullens.
"I believe… he was there to buy wine."
And now they looked dumbfounded. A vampire buying wine? Billy and Harry eyed the contents of the bourbon bottle and oh, no, they didn't-
"I'm not fucking drunk. It's what it looked like."
"The only reason he went after me was because he saw that I knew what he was. If I hadn't known the truth about vampires, he wouldn't-"
"You can't know that, dear."
"I guess we'll never know."
"Ems, do you have any of your clothes from today? I want to check if I can catch his scent from them."
"Sam…" Emily closed her eyes. "…On the bathroom floor." He went to the bathroom and started to sniff her discarded items of clothing. How romantic. Every girl's dream to have their significant other snuff their dirty clothes.
"There is nothing I can pick up. The steam from the shower must have damaged any trace left from him."
"Well there is always the car."
"The car?"
"Yeah. The car. I realised only after I got back but he must have been in it."
"What!"
"Whatever do you mean, dear?"
"The wine bottle I had bought earlier was on the passenger seat. And I'm certain I did not take it back from him after I tripped."
The three of them stilled and held a long staring contest.
Then Sam sprinted to her car.
…
"Motherfucker!"
.
Present Moment…
It was such a peculiar sensation.
To have a silent, soundly sleeping human in his arms.
To be fair, Aro had waited for this to happen, his sweet scent having a very suggestive, even persuasive effect on the girl. However, it was not the only reason his angel was now peacefully sleeping in his arms.
Despite what he had told the girl about the diluted state of his venom was true, he had, perhaps, very intentionally withheld the little titbit about the fact that he had injected far too much of it in her system. Far too much. Just a quick graze would have done the job of mending her broken arm in the generous time estimate he had given her. She had not been able to tell something was wrong (and really, there was nothing wrong) just that his venom had made her intensely euphoric for a little while. Nevertheless, it had been a major shock to her whole body even if Isabella could not tell this due to the anaesthetic coursing through her veins, and falling asleep after such a strong dose was to be more than expected.
Oh, Aro knew that it would not pose any harm to the human. He was very careful and he's had countless centuries of practice, after all. Granted, it has been some time since he had last experimented on his meals with his venom, but as he had already mentioned, he had fully mastered the art many millennia ago. One did not forget such things. To use a contemporary human saying, it was just like riding a bicycle.
Nevertheless, in all his previous experiments, the food which had had the privilege of being his unwitting guinea pigs, had exhibited a range of interesting side effects to the venom over-flooding their blood. They were never bad results, per se. Never did any harm to the humans, however, the side effects did vary from very mild to almost palpable.
Those on the weak side of the spectrum showed nary a change, save for a bit more pronounced senses, such as clearer vision, more acute hearing, heightened reflexes (he dearly hoped Bella will get at least those and have her abysmal, perilously inclined equilibrium corrected, for the time being, until time for her inevitable change finally came).
Further down the spectrum, more visibly apparent changes could be perceived on top of the previously stated, such as smoothening of wrinkles, disappearance of freckles and sunspots, minor scarring or grey hair regaining its original pigmentation, just to name a few.
Another level was the food regaining full perception of sound if they had suffered partial or obsolete hearing loss, sight if they had been blind, sometimes the terminally ill made a full miraculous recovery (before becoming his dinner).
The most prominent changes, however, could be observed in those humans who showed potential for gifts, such as his angel. Their mere presence gained a more mysteriously charged air, and one would have to be a complete fool not to have at least an inkling, that there was something not quite right with those humans. The venom in its benign state brought out their potential powers even further to the surface, enabling them to become partly aware of their abilities still in their human lives, if they had not already been aware, before.
He must confess he, they had released a few of them back in the wild, to see what would happen. Under close monitoring of course (and whilst it was not as cardinal for the food to be completely unsuspecting of their kind a few millennia ago, one should never be too overconfident. Humans were much more vigilant of the monsters among them long ago anyway).
For one, they lived considerably longer lives after meeting him. Years even, not months or weeks as was wont to happen when humans without any real connection to magic (unlike Miss Young and her tribe) crossed paths with vampires.
For another, his venom seemed to not lose its effect in the slightest (imagine that… needless to say, he wasn't terribly surprised). Also, they healed faster. Their brain worked quicker. These humans retained the venom created properties until their eventual demises.
If they happened to have children after his little experimentation, before they died a few years later, this is when it became interesting. The children, most of the time, exhibited heightened mental sensitivity, and were often gifted themselves. He had usually turned the most promising ones. Long ago. It had been such a long time ago. He and… and Didyme. His sister had loved to engage in their cultivation of gifted vampires and he had not been able to find it in himself to continue their pet project ever since-. It had been her hobby. Before… before-
His divinely warm angel stirred in his arms a bit and pressed her cheek into the crook of his neck and sighed in contentment. She was such a lovely human. Aro lowered his nose to her mahogany hair and drew in a deep breath. Her uniquely lovely scent was still the same, sweet white peaches and fragrant tangerines, however, it had gained a barely there undertone of spices, cloves to be more exact, and an even sweeter vanilla flavour.
If one was acquainted with him and were familiar with his scent, and knew what to look out for, they would be able to tell that he'd done something to the girl. Less intuitive ones would just presume that his scent clung to her due to their close proximity. Either way, hopefully this would warn any other vampires with ideas to give his angel a wide berth. Not that he planned to let Isabella out of his sight until her turning. He would not take the risk. And he would kill anyone who so much as considered not heeding his warning.
He traced her bare arms, marvelling at the sensation of utter blankness from her; he'd had billions of second hand experiences of how skin to skin touch felt to 'normal' individuals, however, he had never been able to feel for himself (in his undead existence, at least. His human life before his turning amounted to barely half a per cent of his time as an immortal. Aro counted it a win that he could recall the region from where he had hailed, as well as his native tongue in which his… Didyme and he used to chat in, between themselves, though he did not know the name of the language, and Aro doubted he would ever meet anyone who could shed light on this insignificant puzzle piece of his first life). Well. Dead humans and dead vampires were silent too, but Bella's blankness was a completely different silence.
And now he could. And indulge he did. Her skin felt so soft, so delicate… so fragile under his marble hands.
She lightly shivered and pressed even closer to him, no, not to him, to his thick cashmere sweater. It was so apparent, in hindsight, that Aro felt a flicker of embarrassment shoot through him for assuming anything but the obvious. His angel was steadily losing heat due to sleep, her state of undress (most evidently explained by the splint on her arm) and the temperature drop in the spacious room with the rapidly approaching nightly hours, to say nothing about his inherent coldness that was radiating through the fabric of his clothes and leeching away her warmth.
Aro gently slid his arms under her knees and her bare upper back, her head still resting on his shoulder, before rising from the sofa and carrying her back to bed.
Light was pouring into the hallway from her room as he stepped into it and carefully, as not to jostle her, placed her sleeping figure on the sheets. He truly had no idea when the last time he tucked a human in bed had been, if ever. The thought made a smile form on his lips, a completely independent action that had escaped his control.
Aro sat there on the edge on her bed and pulled Isabella's previously discarded down duvet over her, effectively cocooning the human in. After a few minutes he could practically see warmth return to her by the slight rosy shade to her cheeks. Lovely.
He got to his feet and headed to the door, switching off the light before returning to his previous spot on the sofa.
He'd been meticulously going through millennia old archives and submerging himself in memories, his own and those of others, before Bella had woken and left her bed in search of her painkillers, effectively halting his efforts.
It had been such a different time then. A different civilisation altogether, among many others that had born, flourished and died long before the current one. He was going through his memories of early Ancient Greek period, having already shifted through some of his memories of an age when the pyramids of Ancient Egypt were not even a flicker of thought to anyone. It had been a completely different climate there then. Not a dune of sand in sight. Utterly unrecognisable.
The main purpose of this little trip down memory lane was to brush up on some (a few dozen) of the long since extinct languages from that time, such as Cypro-Minoan and Archaic Egyptian among many, many others. Perhaps it was a little… over the top, if you will, but when he had the time, he liked to do things thoroughly.
It was not quite as easy as it sounded; especially if he wanted to functionally relate them to the current Italian that he had taken preference to in the last millennia.
The reason for this tiny mental exercise was to keep his secrets under another layer of protection from prying telepathic eyes and ears. Not that he really thought the boy could hear anything he did not want him to hear or see anything Aro did not want him to see.
His plan when visiting the Cullens was to limit his visual thinking (this, however, did not mean he could not throw in the more disturbing (to some) flashes of his memories for the sensitive eyes of vampires that condemned the true nature of their own kind, if the occasion called for it) as he was sure the boy could view every vision the seer had from her mind, so this was categorically off the table. Aro could easily ensure Carlisle's firstborn would not have the slightest whiff of his true sentiment.
Additionally, these languages were not some, which could be learned overnight by acquainting oneself with the correct dictionary and online audio lessons. They were dead, no more meaningful, if any, written examples having survived, much less any evidence that could even identify the spoken language. He'd come to the conclusion that his thoughts would be more than safe as he planned to fluctuate between several tongues every few hours. He was fairly confident he was going to give the impertinent boy a headache.
Oh, he had seen too much through other vampires' eyes to think better about the boy. Well, there was always the chance of him being wrong about Carlisle's first son, he supposed, and he would welcome the revelation with open arms, but alas, he highly doubted such a thing would come to pass.
Anyhow. This left only Renata (as he strongly speculated that Bella would able to evade the boy's gift) but he had a suspicion that her innate gift of aversion would similarly come to her aid, plus, he doubted the boy spoke her native Maltese dialect as well as couple of other languages she had picked up in Europe before joining the Volturi in 1802. Plus, he'd taught her Venetic, Pictish and Akkadian. She should do fine.
There had been so much blood spilled
Such senseless killing
All those wars
All that violence
Sometimes he marvelled at the scale of destruction and the unquenchable bloodlust humans were capable of. To appoint the title of 'monsters' uniquely to his kind and, perhaps, to the Children of the Moon would be the height of folly and hypocrisy.
"Master." Darling Renata had returned.
Aro opened his eyes and saw her standing a metre from him, two paper bags full of something food? in her arms, but with such heart-break in her venomy scarlet eyes, bright red from a recent feed.
No wonder the Guard was worried about him, he'd glimpsed as much from more minds of his coven than just sweet Renata's.
"Renata. Darling. I-" had lost track of his surroundings to the point of not sensing another vampire approach him, even if it was one of his most trusted.
"You were what?" Renata put the bags on the table and sat down on the closest armchair. "Meditating? Thinking? Reminiscing?"
"Anyone could have come in here and beheaded you! Anyone!"
"Darli-"
"Quiet." She said the word in a whisper but it cut off his like a whip. Aro's lips drew in a tight line but he did stop his attempt at placating her.
"I left you alone because I thought I could count on you to deal by yourself with anybody who showed up on our doorstep, be it vampire, wolf or an army of newborns!"
"But what do I find, instead?" If it were possible, her voice would have broken.
Aro could not help his wince-
"You. Completely vulnerable," -and his cringe, "just sitting here, tempting your beloved Fate," she drew in a desperate breath.
"Cos'era questa volta? La tua regina morta? Tua sorella mor-"
"Basta!" Aro shouted.
Renata looked as if he had hit her. He had never shouted at her. Not like this.
"Carissima..." this was all his fault. "Come here."
He opened his arms and suddenly found himself flat on his back on the sofa with an armful of Renata.
"Mi dispiace, bambina," Aro pressed his lips to the crown of her head. "I forgot myself."
And Renata started sniffling. It was such a pitiful sound… to hear a vampire struggling to cry.
"I promise to be more careful," the sniffling got louder, "Ti prometto." His hand stroked lightly over her head.
"This will not happen again. You have my word."
Minutes passed until darling Renata had stopped her dry crying but still stayed tightly wrapped around him, not letting go.
"I did not hear you approach me because I trust you with my life, dearest." Renata pressed herself even closer to him.
"I have not told this to anyone. Not even to Marcus. What I am about to tell you," Aro began carding his fingers through her hair. "And I expect you to not repeat this to another soul." Renata stilled and he could tell he had her undivided attention.
"My... little sister," he could feel Renata withhold her breath, "Didyme."
He took a deep fortifying breath but could still feel venom flood his eyes.
"She... set fire to herself and jumped from the West Tower." And spill over.
It should not be possible but Renata became even more rigid. "But... everyone-"
"Is wrong."
"She wanted to die, you see. Turns out she had for a long time. Wanted me to be the one to-" He could feel it roll down
"I could not." He said in a whisper. "I refused." the sides of his face
"We argued. But you know how that tower is, don't you, darling." and suddenly his ears were wet
"Those outside of it cannot piece together a word that's been said inside its walls." Renata quietly replied. "Not even vampires… The sound gets too distorted."
"Yes. It was built especially with this reason in mind. A true piece of acoustic marvel."
"The Guard had heard our raised voices. There were several of them who saw me at the exact place where she had stood… before her fall."
"…Master-"
"Shush, dearest," he kissed her hair again. "It was the crux for my obsession with mastering fire. If I could have done then what I can now… I could have saved her."
"Aro-"
"But I could do nothing but watch her burn to ash."
"I'm so sorry. So, so sorry, Aro."
It felt strange for someone else to know. He'd never told anyone, not even His Darling. He should ha-
"It was not your fault, Master Aro, you must know this." But it was. He'd failed- "…Not even Master Marcus?"
"Just you, dearest. It is kinder to let him believe it was I who killed her than for him to know the truth." She wrapped him in a crushing hug.
They laid there together for a long while.
"How was dinner?" he eventually asked.
"How was yours?" she asked with a devilish smirk. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Delicious. If not for the drugs in her blood."
"I've never understood why they bother you so much. I can ignore them with ease."
"You will, once you're as-"
"Don't remind me of your age. Please." Renata had the weirdest issues sometimes.
"I made sure she won't keep taking them. I wish to have her again. Properly."
"Bella seemed to enjoy it quite a bit," that she did. "What exactly did you do to her?"
"Injected her with my venom." This made her lift her head from his chest and look into his eyes with her widened ones.
"…Master-"
"Do not worry. I made sure it would only heal her and give her a bit of an advantage before her turning, nothing more."
"I guess that's something, at least. It'd slipped my mind we could do that."
"Now. How was yours, dearest?" he could not help but smirk himself.
Renata crossed her arms on his chest and laid her chin on them, her eyes gleaming.
"Oh, Aro. He was such a gentleman. Helped me change the tire on this dark and lonely road in the middle of the woods. Not a soul for miles…"
"My damsel in distress." He said with a pleased smile. "I'm glad you had fun, darling."
"What's in the bags?" he looked to the brown paper clad parcels.
"Don't you know already?"
"No, dearest." He'd touched only her hair and clothes. As had Renata. It was practically ingrained in him by now. To not touch someone's skin with his bare hands if he did not intend to see their mind.
"Well, in that case. After my meal, I remembered about Bella and realised there was no food for her here. So I went to Port Angeles and got her something for breakfast. And while in the market, I also realised that if you indeed decided to part with a few items from Sadami's generously handed-over porcelain collection, I got us some boxes, bows and wrapping paper."
"How thoughtful of you, dear."
"Besides, humans have to eat every day, right?"
"They do, usually. …Speaking of Port Angeles." Aro lightly traced the tips of his fingers over her spine. "I met the most interesting surprise there."
"Again? How many surprises are we going to get?"
"I went in hunt for that bottle for Carlisle and at the door of Patrick's shop I find myself catching a divinely smelling human girl."
"Another one?"
"Suspend your disbelief for a second more, will you."
Renata huffed, but let him continue.
"So, I catch her and she is all 'Excuse me, sir, I'm so sorry, sir' and then… she looks up and recognises me." Renata lifted herself on her elbows on his chest and eyed him with a small crease between her eyebrows. "And then she turns around and runs away." Renata barked a laugh and her eyes shone in entertainment.
"And what did you do then, Master?"
"I followed her, of course!"
"Nooo..."
"Turns out, she's from a small Native American tribe just a few kilometres down from Forks. From the same reservation Bella mentioned before. And she recognised me because there are legends about 'the Cold Ones' passed down from generation to generation, about our kind."
"That is… interesting. I suppose."
"Precisely my thoughts. However. That is not all. Their legends talk also about the protectors of the Quileute tribe's people. They are shape shifters that turn into wolves at will."
"Wolves?!"
"Not the real werewolves. They look like huge wolves, but the colouring is off. You would never think them real wolves if you saw them. Besides, the Children of the Moon barely resemble regular wolves anyway."
"And, strangely enough, her boyfriend happens to be exactly such a shape shifter. The only one who has currently had the gene manifest in a shift among the tribe's people. From the little snippets the girl had been told and seen, I gather his shift had initiated because of the Cullens moving back to Forks. The magic in their veins is hyper sensitive to the threat of nearby vampires. It seems as if no other of our kind had passed through for quite some time. I believe there will be a surge of new wolves since there are so many Cullens there now, all at once. And when we arrive, it will tip the balance even more."
"Are they dangerous?"
"I suppose they are, if they manage to get the element of surprise on their side. Otherwise? They are not poisonous to us, not like the Moon's Children, the tables are turned in this case. I reckon being able to shift at any time is a plus for them. Numbers work in their favour. The bigger the pack the more efficient they get. They too have sharp teeth, but. That's about it. Weaker than the average vampire, slower too."
"Alright. What did you do to the girl?"
"The girl… Emily Young. She was a very tasty human. Hmmm… Why, I let her go after having my fill."
"You did what!" Renata's bell like laughter filled the quiet room.
"Let her go back to him, yes." He felt his shark smile resurface. "You see, it's some twisted magic for these wolves. They imprint on or fall deeply in love with only one human for as long as their short lives last. None other compares to this one person, after."
"He's going to be so pissed! Oh, Sweet Circe!"
"I know. However, that was not the only reason I did it."
"Oh? What other reason could there possibly be?"
"It seems my dear old friend Carlisle has been quite the beneficial vampire and had formed a treaty with one of the tribe's chiefs when he'd first settled in the Olympic Peninsula some seventy years ago."
"What did they agree on?" Renata slid her hands to his sides and turned her head to the side, her right ear to his chest, so that he would pet her hair with his other hand. She reminded him of a lynx, a bit. Deadly, rare, and exceptionally beautiful, but still such an affectionate creature when in a pleasantly content mood.
"Carlisle and his veggie followers won't hunt humans or turn humans while they reside in Forks. And they have agreed to not cross the treaty line of the Quileute lands."
"In exchange, the tribe lets them be in peace and keeps our secret from anyone outside their people. Not that they would tell anyone anything anyway, since they are supernatural beings themselves."
"A fact, of which Carlisle had failed to inform us, even if it is expected of him or anyone else to disclose such a discovery."
"Perhaps he'd feared you and Caius would come and slay every last one of the dogs." Aro hummed a little in contemplation.
"I was not in my right mind at the time. I would have allowed it. I supposed he had reason to protect them. The stupid dogs do not even comprehend what an enormous favour my friend had done for them."
"Stregone Benefico, infatti." A ghost of a smile slid over Aro's face at Renata's words.
"Regardless, it would be bad taste to indirectly break the peace between them."
"But you did strain it, Master."
"That I did." Aro did not even try to contain his smug smile.
"Oh, I love this. Please tell me we are going to take vacations more often from now on, Master." Renata leaned up to look in his eyes with naked, childlike hope.
"I am considering it."
"Good." And she flipped back down on him.
After a brief lull Aro spoke again.
"Tell me, darling, how is your Akkadian these days?"
.
Two hours later in Volterra…
A ping echoed through the high vaulted chamber of the Castle as daylight shone through the tall stained glass Gothic windows, and in which all of the guard had gathered for a game of poker before retiring themselves to their own agendas for the Christmas holidays, just like Master Aro had done, plus the gathering had the ideal conditions to get the first live account from Jane, Jacques, Lily, Emil, Felix and Demetri (Jane having already presented Caius with the katanas and given a report of the mission to Master Marcus and Master Caius) on how the mission to Japan had gone.
Heidi had been more than surprised when the group had returned without her best friend and their beloved Master.
All of the ones left in the Castle had suffered from a short-lived panic that something truly disastrous had happened to both Aro and Renata, but the calm demeanour of the rest of the Guard who had gone on the mission to Japan brusquely dissuaded them from their initial morbid fears.
After all, all of them had noticed the steady decline of Master Aro's appetite (it was not exactly easy to hide if they fed together once a month (between their individual meals outside Volterra) when Heidi brought in the tourists, and could see who everyone chose for their dinner, and the tone of everyone's eyes between the feasts) and his whimsical nature had taken a turn for the worse as his behaviour had jumped to extremes on more than a couple occasions.
They had all hoped that the visit to Japan would help him deal with whatever-
(the one hundred year mark of Queen Sulpicia's death that had now extended to eleven month long mourning; a setback from Master Aro's decades long recovery from his devastating loss)
-that had been bothering him for the last few months.
The fact that he had taken Renata with him, an action that was nothing short of completely ordinary, as Renata did accompany him to practically everywhere, always, especially if he needed to leave the safety of the Castle, had some of the more idiotically inclined (like Santiago and Jacques) make catcalls about the two finally having some alone time. Some even more idiotically inclined (like Felix) thought they were fu- (Heidi was just going to paraphrase the cretin and say -) 'friends with benefits' which was so far from the truth it was laughable, even if their close companionship might sow some seeds of suspicion in some minds. Heidi knew her friend, and so she was one thousand per cent sure there was nothing going on besides platonic friendship, on both ends.
Renata hadn't exactly confessed but Heidi had eyes, okay? And she was fairly certain Renata loved him very much. Well, they all did, more or less strongly. But it was the only plausible explanation for why Renata had not left them already. Logically, and Heidi was quite certain of this, with her gift, Renata could pull away from Chelsea's bonds (the Masters' Insurance), if she wished it hard enough.
The devil's dozen of them: Heidi, Demetri (on her left), Alec, Felix, Chelsea, Afton, Corin, Santiago, Lily, Emil, Jacques, Jane, and Phillippa (on Heidi's right) were all sitting at the round table with Phillippa, the fucking poker shark (HOW COULD THE GIRL ROB VAMPIRES OF THEIR MONEY SO EASILY? And they were not letting her win even if they all liked her. She somehow managed to do it impossibly well on her own merit) having already won two hundred and fifty thousand euros. And it had been only forty minutes.
"…er Aro duelled Sadami for his art collection with the katanas we brought back to Master Caius. And those blades, man, they could take our heads clean off. And that's exactly what Master Aro did. Sadami didn't have any choice but to concede his defeat…"
Heidi picked up her Blackberry from the table.
You have 1 unread message
"I just got a text from Renata." That shut up Demetri's blabbering. As did anything to do with Renata. Had the fool no idea Renata despised him with a burning passion? Just like Aro despised cursing?
Heidi could feel how everyone's interest piqued up.
"She says Master Aro and herself had arrived in Seattle safely. Despite the four more swans that were eaten up by the commercial airplane's engines."
There was chortling all around.
Ping. Another message appeared on the screen.
"And because they were in need of a car, Master sent Renata to retrieve one from the company's HQ."
The sniggering died down at their collective wish for her to continue as another ping sounded a second later.
She looked to their faces before continuing.
"Renata says there was only one car left because none of the humans had wanted to reserve it for the holidays."
Heidi was building up suspense, but how could she not?
Ping.
Now, seeing this text, Heidi adopted Renata's voice, to build the effect: "Master Aro could not hide his immense surprise when he saw the blood red Maserati Quattroporte that awaited him."
The faint chortling had quieted down and a pregnant silence had fallen over the room. Another ping.
She regarded the faces of her brethren. And continued in Renata's voice: "He almost cursed."
They sucked in sharp breaths from shock.
With good reason. Master Aro never cursed. Those few someones who sometimes claimed they had heard him use a curse word were quickly dubbed Liars, as the truly authentic occasions were so rare that a Swearing Aro had practically become a myth by now.
Another ping and she had to hold in her giggle.
Oh, boy.
"This is a friendly warning to whoever decided it would be a fun idea to fuck with him and order a company car with the licence plate number..."
A pin could drop and deafen the room. The silence was that quiet.
Ping.
Heidi covered her mouth with her hand for a moment and lifted her eyes to the expectant faces: "666-MRV."
There was dead silence for a second before shocked gasps, snickers and boisterous laughter could be heard all around the table.
The chortling was immediately cut off by another ping.
"Brace yourself because Master is very interested to learn who his Secret Santa… or Santas are. Love, Renata."
The phone clicked on the table in the quiet room as Heidi set it down on the obsidian volcanic glass surface.
Heidi knew, as she had witnessed many an execution, that, while vampires had pale skin, it was more than possible for them to go even paler or greener because Felix looked positively ill.
Oh, this was going to get ugly, when Master returned home.
And Heidi was so looking forward to it.
"You never considered the inevitability that Aro will find out?" Jane said in her angelic childlike voice. "Moron."
Dread was spreading through the high vaulted room as another deafening ping echoed on the walls and the high arches.
"P.S. I feel like I should add that we got pulled over by a Very Daring Officer Of The Law. And he was very… amused to see THE Mr Volturi himself in the vehicle. Merry Christmas. XOXO"
"You're dead, big guy." Alec said between snickers as he clapped Felix's shoulder.
The rest just looked relieved they had nothing to do with this height of stupidity, except Felix.
Felix looked as if his immortal existence was effectively over.
And, perhaps, it was. Because one could never know, when Master Aro got involved.
.
Aro, I hear you have opted to further prolong your absence from the Castle.
Take as long as you wish, dear brother.
Marcus and I have not missed, nor needed your flamboyant presence for the past three weeks and will continue to do so.
Do forward my and Marcus' regards to Carlisle. It has been too long.
Will do, brother mine.
When you burn down the Castle, do have it fixed by the time of my return.
I will give you a 24 h warning, when the time comes.
;)
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Notes: Practically no Bella in this one but she will wake up in the next one.
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Cos'era questa volta? La tua regina morta? Tua sorella mor(ta)- (Italian) – What was it this time? Your dead queen? Your dead sister-
Basta! (Italian) – Enough!
Carissima. (Italian) – Dearest.
Mi dispiace, bambina. (Italian) – I am sorry, child.
Ti prometto. (Italian) – I promise.
Stregone Benefico, infatti. (Italian) – 'The Good Vampire', indeed.
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