After we left the kitchen, I assumed Aro would take me back to his quarters where we could spend the day without interruptions. Instead, we took the elevator down to a lower level, the one that had the majority of the maze of tunnels and fewer rooms of interest besides where some of the guard kept. I glanced up at Aro, silently asking where we were going.

"I want to show you something, but it isn't inside the city walls. It's further north," he replied.

I nodded. "Are we going to a car then? I know one of these tunnels leads to the resident lot."

"No, my dear," Aro answered, smiling. "I thought perhaps we could run."

"You know I can't keep up with you. Vampires are too fast."

He laughed, and I looked up at him again to see a twinkle in his eye. It made my stomach flop. "I should rephrase that. I meant that I would run while I carried you. It's a much more convenient way of traveling."

Rolling my eyes, I commented, "For you, maybe."

We reached the end of the corridor, where Aro opened a door that led to a long and dark passage behind it. Aro looked at me with his arms out, feigning the fact that he was asking for permission, and I sighed before nodding. The next thing I knew, I was in Aro's arms, and the drafty air in the tunnel whipped past me. I closed my eyes before I got sick. I couldn't see anything anyway, but just the feeling of my eyes being closed helped to calm the queasiness I could feel building.

Aro stopped at a gate, and he put me down as he fetched out a key from one of his jacket pockets. Once the door was unlocked and he had shut it again, he began to walk forward. I assumed then that we must have been close to where we were going since he hadn't decided to pick me back up. I followed until we reached another door with what looked like light sneaking out underneath it.

It was locked with keypad security, and Aro typed in the code, the door clicking a second later. When he opened it, I saw a lit stairwell on the other side, and we climbed. At the landing, I realized we were in some old work shed. I looked around and then at Aro, trying to figure out what in the world was so amazing about a work shed when he opened another door to our left.

He ushered me through, and what I saw on the other side was breathtaking. We had entered a vast indoor garden. What surprised me the most was that even though it was entirely closed in, the lighting made it appear as if we were outside. I glanced at Aro to see if anything was happening with his skin, but it seemed the same as always, perhaps paler, if such a thing were possible.

Aro moved ahead, and I stayed close behind until we reached a small gazebo. Once he sat, he patted the spot next to him, and I joined him inside. "What is this place?" I asked him. "Where are we?"

"It's a private garden of mine. We're about three kilometers outside of Volterra, and as you know, I own most of the town. I also own much of the surrounding land in the area. I had this place built nearly five years ago. Sometimes I come here when I need to be away from the challenges of governing my kind. It allows me to clear my head."

"I can see why. It's beautiful. Do you tend the garden yourself?"

"Most of the time. I also employ someone to come in every few days to check on the plants. I am not always able to do so."

For some reason, it shocked me to think that Aro liked gardening or even would enjoy being in a garden. I knew he loved the literature and the arts, but gardening seemed so out of character that I almost wanted to laugh. I didn't, not knowing how he would respond, but it was a little discovery about him that I found mesmerizing.

"Why didn't you tell me about this place? You've been reading my mind for weeks now, against my knowledge I might add, but I'm sure you've seen how much I love visiting the Arboretum back home."

"I apologize for not showing you sooner. I was waiting for the right time. I had it built for you. When your grandfather told Chelsea of your visits to the gardens and your love for them, I knew you needed to have one here when you finally came to me."

That's when I realized what Aro had said. He had this garden built nearly five years ago, which would have been around the time we moved from New York to Dallas. I had hated the move so much at the time, considering I had started at a new school and had moved away from the one close friend I had in New York, that my mom suggested we volunteer together at the Arboretum. My first visit there, I had fallen in love, so it only made sense.

"I won't gift it to you, yet," Aro continued. "That wouldn't be appropriate, but in the future, when you're ready, it will become yours."

I gazed around again at all of the green and other vibrant colors surrounding me. I noticed one of my favorite flowers nearby, the pink bleeding heart, and I smiled. I had always liked the look of them, but the symbolism was not lost on me. They signified romance and love, but not only that, it honestly looked as if the heart-shaped flower was bleeding. Vampires and their subtlety.

"Thank you for bringing me here," I told Aro quietly. As much as I wanted to hate him for everything he had done, it was impossible for me to do so utterly. The bond was annoying, and this whole spending time together would probably only make it more challenging to fight, especially when Aro did things like this.

"Then, you like it?"

"What's not to like?" I closed my eyes and took in all of the scents. Melded together like they were, it was a little overwhelming, but the freshness and spring-like quality in the air boosted my mood more than I would have imagined.

"I'm glad. I was hoping you would," Aro replied. "I do have another reason for bringing you out here, Lia. I wanted to have a conversation with each other so that I could learn more about you, and you could learn more about me."

What he said confused me. Aro read minds, so what else was there that I could tell him? "Don't you already know everything there is to know about me?"

He chuckled. "Even though I can read your mind and see into your memories, I would rather hear about them from you."

"That seems boring, but okay."

"On the contrary, my dear, you could never bore me. You frustrate me, but that has more to do with the fact that we were born in such different times, and you continue to fight the pull you feel towards me. You also have no concept of what it's like to go three millennia without meeting your mate, only to find her and have her taken away. Then when you arrived back in Volterra not so long ago, for you to want nothing to do with me, it's physically painful.

"I know I have made mistakes, and as I told you before, I have no regrets. I hate that it hurt you so deeply, and I hope that one day you'll be able to forgive me. It is not easy to understand your modern world, but I am trying to for you. Courting was not a thing of my time, though I did use its practices to win over Sulpicia." Then Aro added somewhat sheepishly, "Carlisle recommended it."

I rolled my eyes. It was funny to me that Aro asked for advice, but there was something more pressing in what he had said that needed to be corrected. "First of all, Sulpicia isn't a prize. She can't be won or claimed. Neither can I. Secondly, I think I'm looking forward to meeting this Carlisle."

Thankfully, Aro laughed. "He was pleasantly surprised to hear that I had found my mate but troubled when I told him that you wanted nothing to do with me. The mating bond doesn't work in such a way for vampires, but I did fail to mention that you were still human. That discovery alone when he arrives should be interesting to see."

"Why didn't you tell him?"

"It's selfish, but I wanted to see the look on his face for myself," Aro said, grinning. "I do hope while he is here, he and I can reconcile our differences from our last encounter. Carlisle may be the only true friend that I've ever had. Power comes with adoration and respect, but not so much friendship. Carlisle never cared about such things, though he did often try to change our minds about humans. I have missed his company since he left for America centuries ago."

It was strange hearing Aro talk about his friend. While I knew he claimed to be in love with me and even still have love for Sulpicia, hearing him talk about Carlisle was different. He admired this man and cherished him not for what he could do, but for who he was. "What happened the last time you saw each other? What caused the falling out?"

"Carlisle has a strange coven. He calls it a family, going as far as to refer to his younger coven members as his and his wife's children. They coexist amongst humans. As I mentioned, Carlisle is a doctor; he works in a hospital. Our kind does not formally sanction this behavior, but his coven and another have seemed to make it work.

"However, some years back, Carlisle's adopted son fell in love with a human girl. I met her once when she came to Volterra to stop Edward from being killed. You saw them that day, Edward and Isabella, as well as Demetri. That memory is what brought you straight into my home once more."

I nodded, knowing precisely what he was talking about. It seemed as if our fates were already intertwined. It made me a little dizzy. "I remember. I assume Isabella found out what you all were, or did she already know?"

"She knew."

"What did you do?"

"The law claimed her, however, sweet Alice, another extremely gifted member of Carlisle's coven, showed me that Isabella would become like us."

I furrowed my brow. "What do you mean showed you?"

"Alice has a wonderful and most prized gift," Aro said gleefully. "She has visions of the future. As much as I desire her gift for the guard, I could never do such a thing to Carlisle. The offer, of course, always stands. Though I find it very similar to yours, and I am curious to see how your gift changes once you become one of us."

Aro loved powerful abilities, but I wasn't going to be another pawn of his. "Maybe it'll go away or be something incredibly useless. If I'm lucky, I suppose."

"Don't say such things, Lia. It is a gift as much as you believe it to be a curse. Additionally, you are my mate, not a member of the guard. I don't plan to treat you as such just because of your abilities."

Wanting a change of subject, I asked, "So you let Isabella go?"

"Yes. A few months later, we received an invitation that Isabella and Edward were to be married. We assumed then that Edward would turn his mate, but instead, we found out later that she remained human and birthed a child."

My head immediately snapped to Aro's. "Wait; what? How is that possible?"

"In all my years, I had never heard of such a thing, but we met another hybrid when we went to confront them about the child. We had a report that the child was immortal, created through venom rather than birthed. Our source had been wrong. However, the accusation and damage had been done, and the friendship I once held with Carlisle dissipated."

"I'm glad he was willing to come."

"As am I."

"You know, you said you wanted to hear about me, but honestly, you've barely told me anything about you. I mean, I know about the Volturi and all of that and about what period you were born. I even know about how you ended up with Sulpicia and that you have a love of power and a need to be in control at all times."

He playfully scoffed. "You make it sound like it's an atrocity."

"It can be. It's pushed me away," I reminded him. He frowned, but I continued. "But that's not the point. The point is that I know very little about what you like and what you ultimately want. If we're doing this courting thing, I'd rather hear about that."

I watched as Aro's brow furrowed in thought as if he was trying to pull up the answer to those questions. "I enjoy reading and studying."

"I already knew that, and that's totally superficial. What do you like when it comes to relationships, and you know, things like this," I said, pointing between the two of us to indicate what I meant. "In other words, if I wanted you to want to be with me, what would you suggest I do to get your attention?"

My analogy was wholly lost on him as he turned quickly and met my eyes. "I do want to be with you, my dear. You are my mate. There is nothing you need to do to make me want to be with you. I will always be by your side when you call."

Shaking my head, I laughed. "Okay, let me put it this way, what is it about me that attracts you? It can't just be the mating bond. You even said that when you first saw me, you didn't instantly fall in love. You just had an urge to protect me. You didn't feel love for me until you learned more about me through my grandfather, right? So what was it that you learned that caused you to fall in love?"

Aro was silent for a moment, once again, deep in thought or perhaps remembering a not so distant memory. When he smiled and looked back up at me, he said, "Your spirit. In all of the stories he told Chelsea, it was the one thing that stayed the same. You always had a free-roaming spirit that I admired very much."

If anything, I was not expecting him to say that, not with the way he had been acting towards me. It probably should have made me angry, but instead, it left me confused. "Then why would you ever try to control it?"

"It's in my nature. It's never been my intent to make you feel as if you were being controlled; however, there are laws, and I do expect adherence to them and obedience to me."

"That's misogynistic and only supports the patriarchy's subservience of women. You live in a different world now. It's about time to catch up." I sighed. "I don't want to be with someone who doesn't see my worth, and I'm not talking about my stupid gift. I'm talking about me as a person, as a woman. I want an equal partnership where my voice and my wants and desires matter. I'm not a toy, and I'm not an object. I'm your mate, and if you love me as you say you do, then you won't want to change who I am at my core.

"You're a product of your time, and I'm a product of mine, but who are we at the center of it all? Maybe you really are a control freak," I said with a slight grin, "and I don't mind some display of dominance, but there's a line you don't cross. You don't bring your leader of the Volturi and the vampire race persona into our relationship. This, right here, this is what I like: discussion, sharing, just being okay in each other's presence. Not being told what I can and can't do, and definitely not being told who I can and can't see."

"Part of that falls into line with the law," Aro added.

"It doesn't have to. You let this Isabella return home without being changed. She may have been under the watch of Carlisle and his coven, but you trusted her with the secret. Why can't you trust me?"

"You ran away from me."

"So did Sulpicia. You push people away, Aro. I know I was upset about my grandparents, but it didn't have to reach the point it did. You kept me in that building with limited contact with my mom, forcing me to lie to her about what I was doing. You allowed me to text Emilio back once and then refused from then on. You even made me lie to everyone in Volterra, making them believe that I was too distraught to stay around any longer and ran off like I never cared about my grandparents at all. You had already given me a reason to run. You pushed me away."

Aro's eyes were downcast, staring at what appeared to be nothing, but the expression on his face told me that he was fighting with something else. I barely heard him when he said it, but there it was. "I lied before, and I apologize. Hurting you is the one and only thing I will ever regret."

Maybe Aro wasn't a remorseless shell after all.

A/N: Yes, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but the end of it felt right. Hopefully, you still loved it! Please drop a review!