Aro was anxious at dinner. Yes, anxious was the right word. If he remembered the Oxford English Dictionary correctly, and of course he did, anxious meant experiencing worry, nervousness, or unease regarding an imminent event. And as soon as dear Bella finished her steak, she would return to her room to lost her virginity with, of all people, his brother-in-law Marcus, who had not had sex in so long his virginity might as well have grown back. And, in a way, this would also be a first time for Marcus as well. He'd never bedded a human since becoming a vampire, after all.
Oh, Aro knew it was possible. He'd touched the hands and seen through others' eyes the incubi, those vampire men who liked to play with their food first. The only problem was, in every single one of those cases, the woman died. And Aro had gotten rather attached to dear Bella. Surprisingly attached, actually, given he'd known her barely more than a week. He'd suspect Chelsea's work if it weren't for the fact he'd touched her hand just that morning and knew she'd done no such thing. It was simply the Bella effect, her odd (and by her own admission, only applicable to vampires) ability to draw you in. If what Marcus saw in the coven was to be believed, then at this rate by the time Bella was changed, they wouldn't need Chelsea at all to stay loyal. Everyone would stay, merely because they were all mutual friends through Bella.
And so, given Bella had accidentally become the lynchpin of the entire Volturi coven, Aro had some very understandable concerns over her decision to engage in sexual relations with a man with literally more power in his pinky toe than she had in her whole body.
Aro knew it was a work of pure fiction, but he wondered how Jerry Siegel had imagined Superman having sex with Lois Lane. Given the power difference, how did Clark Kent manage not to accidentally kill his beloved wife just by breathing on her too hard? Maybe he should suggest they really go with Bella's plan she'd proposed to Carlisle during that phone call earlier, have Bella do all the work while Marcus just lied there like a living dildo. And even then there was risk. What if the force of his ejaculation was such his seed perforated her intestines or something?! Assuming he'd even ejaculate, Aro honestly wasn't sure how likely an event that would be. The longer he thought about it, the more he was unsure whether a mortal wrapped around his manhood would be better or worse than sex with an immortal woman. On the one hand, the lovely warmth and friction, human skin being rougher than a vampire's. On the other hand, it would be a weaker grip than he could manage with just his hand. And then there was the whole having to monitor his every twitch to make sure he didn't break her bones or something. Humans thought about baseball to stave off premature ejaculation, surely that level of concentration would interfere with a natural release and climax.
All the same, Aro knew that short of Bella actually saying "I changed my mind," or screaming in pain during the act itself, Marcus would not stop. He was very consistent, and if he said he would pluck Bella, then he would barring his death or some random vampire tearing off Marcus' member and tossing it in a fire. And even in the case of the latter, he was sure Marcus would make do. That was just Marcus once he made up his mind.
Felix had of course spread the news far and wide, and the whole coven had crammed into the dining hall just for the chance to stare at Bella in wonder and amazement. Here was a woman, not even that physically attractive even by human standards, who had managed to make Marcus break his chastity. Felix had been joking at lunch, but this was truly an historic event in the minds of many.
Aro used his hold on Edward's head to keep track of the thoughts of his coven, his beloved family and their loyal guards. Through long practice, he tuned out the repetitive stream of nonoGodnothisisn'thappeningthiscan'tbehappeningnotBella playing in Edward's mind. Really, though, Bella couldn't have thought of one more way to hurt Edward deeper after her suggesting his decapitation than this. When she'd agreed to sleep with Marcus at lunch, Aro had the distinct sensation of feeling Edward's mind fracture. Most vampires took longer than a day of being reduced to just their head to crack, but Bella giving up her innocence to the king of 'demons' as Edward truly saw them had broken him like a sledgehammer to a fine glass window. He was now nothing more than a gibbering wreck inside his head, muttering in denial and praying to a God he thought had long abandoned him, along with a mental radio picking up the current thoughts of everyone for over a mile in every direction. Once he managed to filter out the mad ranting, it was almost as if Aro's gift had evolved and expanded all on its own.
Bella finished her last bite of filet mignon and her last sip of soda. Aro normally had a low opinion of the carbonated syrup, but high fructose corn syrup was proven to make humans gain weight, something Bella still desperately needed. Months of wasting away wouldn't be undone within a week. She stood, and turned to Marcus. "Um, would you mind walking me to my room?" Heavens, but that girl would never be suave. Luckily, her social awkwardness was so oddly endearing as to have practically the same effect as a trained seductress putting on her best bedroom eyes and saying "Come with me, lover boy."
Marcus blurred and appeared at Bella's side. He offered her his hand, and she took it. They walked out of the dining hall, Bella visibly nervous and Marcus still somehow managing to look bored even with what he fully intended to do to Bella once they reached her room.
Aro cleared his throat and stood. Everyone turned to look at him. "Now, now, children. While I certainly understand the urge to be as close to the action as it happens just to verify it's even happening in the first place, Bella would have a fit if she learned the whole coven was eavesdropping in the hallway outside her door all night. Therefore, I am issuing an edict: those not on guard duty on the walls are staying in here until sunrise."
"Aw, Master, come on!" Felix whined. "Can't I be an exception? I am Bella's babysitter, after all!"
"No, Felix," Aro denied. "I however, will be on hand given I have the best control and the most medical knowledge of everyone in the coven. In the event Marcus accidentally injures her, I will be as close as possible to help minimize the damage done and help her to heal. I will be truly disappointed if I see any of you before tomorrow morning. Farewell!"
Thanks to Edward, Aro knew many of his coven were cursing him as a flaming hypocrite in the privacy of their thoughts. But Aro didn't care. He was only looking out for dear Bella's best interests after all. There was absolutely no ulterior motive… oh, who was he kidding? Aro always had an ulterior motive.
Aro reached the door to Bella's suite. None of the doors in the castle were equipped with locks, there was no lock made by man that could stop a determined immortal. If he was so inclined, Aro could just walk through the wall into Bella's room. But he was just going to stand here and use his own ears and Edward's telepathy to get a play-by-play of this whole affair.
Bella and Marcus were sitting on her bed. "So… how do you want to, er, do this thing?" Bella asked, probably fiddling with her fingers nervously.
"I have a few ground rules," Marcus said, his voice so soft even Aro had to strain to catch it. "First of all, you will not try to kiss me on the mouth. I only kiss the mouths of women I love, and you are not one. That being said, feel free to kiss my cheek or neck or chest or even perform fellatio if you desire. This whole exercise is purely for your benefit, after all."
"No kissing your mouth, got it. What else?" Bella asked.
"You must communicate with me. If you feel any true pain at any point, you tell me and I will stop. I am not Aro, and his gift does not work on you anyway. What I mean to say is I cannot read your mind. I will only do exactly what you tell me to do. If you want me in a certain position or to grab your breasts or to engage in dirty talk with you, tell me to do so. Otherwise, I really will just lie here, how did you put it? Like the world's coldest blowup doll."
"Totally off topic, do you know why vampires are so cold? It can't just be that you don't have any more blood, you'd only be room temperature then like most corpses," Bella asked.
"I never gave it any serious thought or investigation. Ask Aro tomorrow, he's the scientist, he probably knows," Marcus told her. "Thirdly and finally, and I am being as serious as the plague, try to have fun. A person's first time should be a fond memory. Tell me what to do to give you the first time you always dreamed of, and I'll do my very best to fulfill your expectations."
"Minus kissing me on the mouth," Bella chimed in.
"Except for that part, yes," and Aro could just see Marcus giving his little nod.
"In that case… stand and undress, please."
Any shame Aro had at being a voyeur had been worn away to nothing within his first century thanks to his gift. He knew details about his little sister that would haunt him for the rest of his days through Marcus. He wasn't so crass as to press his ear to the door, but he kept a firm grip on Edward and listened as Bella gave Marcus simple instruction. After getting naked, and Bella did the same, the commands were "Lie on the bed,", "Kiss my neck," and "Touch me everywhere."
About 15 minutes in, Aro winced as Marcus did something that he had predicted on his end Bella would not like. "Did you just stick a finger up my butt?!" she shrieked like she would cheerfully burst into flames in that moment just to escape the situation.
"You said 'everywhere'. You did not specify not to touch inside your ass." And damn him, Marcus thought this was Bella's fault for being imprecise.
"Look… talk to me after one or two rounds the traditional way. But that is master class territory, and this is supposed to be a 101 course." Aro wondered if Bella might have burst a blood vessel or two, he'd never seen a redder face than what Edward saw on her through Marcus' eyes.
"Very well," Marcus agreed easily.
"Um, are you enjoying this? What I mean to say, er, is that you're… still soft," Bella managed to force out.
"You did not ask me to become hard. Ergo I am not," Marcus said like it was obvious.
"You can control that? Is that a vampire thing or just a Marcus thing?" Bella asked in shock.
"Any male can do it with enough practice and self-control," Marcus said, not seeing the big deal in having conquered one of the defining involuntary reflexes of the male sex.
"Marcus, get hard, please," Bella said.
A few seconds later, Bella gasped. "Wow. Um… I don't mean to insult you or compliment you, I just honestly haven't seen one of these outside a biology textbook or a statue. Are they all that big?"
"The average length of the human penis is, to my understanding, between 5 and 6 inches. I am 7.9 inches. By definition, I am above average. I am less certain about girth or testicle size. Again, ask Aro tomorrow. He has literally written a book about the male reproductive system. Never published, of course, but he knows more than I."
"The scary part is I believe you. That's such an Aro thing to do. Anyway… I'm the virgin here. I know I'm in charge, but I'm going to be open-ended here. Do whatever you think will get me as wet as possible down there. Once I am, in your estimation, as lubricated as I can get, tell me," Bella instructed.
Which led to Bella's first experience with cunnilingus.
When Bella came down from her first orgasm that wasn't self-administered (or possibly her first ever, Aro could actually believe Bella was the type too embarrassed to touch herself), Marcus said "You are ready."
"O-okay," Bella said, catching her breath. "You said you want this to be the first time I always dreamed. So, I want you to put it in and then do whatever you think I'll enjoy until you finish yourself. If that takes all damn night, go ahead. So help me God, you're getting something out of this too, even if it's the weakest orgasm of your life because I'm just a human girl and not an immortal goddess."
Marcus had sworn to obey her every direction. So he did, indeed, put it in, the resistance of her hymen no resistance at all, Marcus sliding in until he was up to the hilt in Bella.
Edward's gift was more about thought and imagination than tactile sensation. Aro couldn't feel what Marcus was feeling, that would happen when they touched hands tomorrow. But Aro distinctly heard Marcus think 'Unexpected. This is actually pleasant. This won't take that long at all.'
Of course, to a vampire used to marathon sessions that could go days at a time, 'not that long' to Marcus turned out to be precisely 74 minutes and 39 seconds (and yes, Aro had used the stopwatch on his phone. He would even record the exact figure when he wrote the historical account of this night. These details must be recorded for posterity!). Bella had screamed herself hoarse. Marcus had indeed done everything he thought she might possibly enjoy short of pressing his lips to hers. And he had centuries of experience, never mind that every woman was different and he was 2000 years out of practice.
"I am finished," Marcus told Bella. And his voice was not quite as dead as usual. His first orgasm since the Gregorian calendar had been instituted seemed to have made him feel the closest to happy he'd been since the day Aro told him Didyme was dead.
"... Right," Bella said, sounding mildly delirious.
"Are you injured?" Marcus asked in genuine concern.
"I won't be able to walk tomorrow, but not one bit of that hurt. Um, are you going to take it out?"
"You have not told me to yet."
"Since you are the freaking Mr. Miyagi of vampires and you can control your every muscle, get soft and take it out. And then… can you just hold me?"
"Of course, Bella."
There was a few minutes of silence, as they both just breathed. Aro could have been knocked over with a feather when he realized that Marcus' thoughts had the contented haze of any afterglow he'd shared with Didyme. Sweet Lord on high, just what was sex with a human like?
There was a sudden intake of breath. "Oh, crap, we didn't use a condom!"
It took everything Aro had not to burst into laughter at Bella's panic over a non-issue.
"Bella, keep in mind I am not human. The pain of the mutation, Aro is fairly confident, is from every cell screaming in protest as our very DNA is rewritten. Vampires have 25 chromosomal pairs, as opposed to humans' 23. We are less related than a lion and a house cat. And no human woman who had sexual relations with a vampire man ever ended up pregnant, to the collective knowledge of the Volturi," Marcus explained patiently.
"Horses and donkeys have different chromosome counts but mules still happen. And how many of those human woman survived the night she had sex with the vampire?" Bella asked, sounding very rational beneath her terror of getting pregnant.
Aro's mind skittered to a halt. It was impossible… surely. Vampires were sterile. That was a simple fact. Only… of course they were. Or at least vampire women were. They never ovulated, frozen in time as they were. And even if they could, their bodies were too unyielding to grow and change around a developing fetus. But vampire men… Aro had looked at a sample of his sperm under a microscope, purely for the hell of it. The little swimmers had still been swimming. They had been alive, or as alive as any vampire really was. In fact, they had started eating each other. Aro had even named the one that survived and kept the tiny thing to this day in a petri dish in his office (Invictus, for the record).
But still, what were the odds that Bella was even ovulating, that she was fertile? The universe would laugh itself sick if a loose ovum was even in Bella's fallopian tubes for a little Marcus spermatozoa to find and possibly, just possibly, fertilize.
Marcus was on a similar train of thought. "When was the first day of your current cycle?" he asked Bella.
"I'm doing period math here," she said, and Aro saw through Edward and Marcus she was actually counting on her fingers. "14 days ago. Ovulation typically happens somewhen between day 11 and day 21. And I'm regular as a metronome, have been for years. Oh, sweet baby Jesus, this isn't happening! I am not getting knocked up with the first ever vampire-human hybrid on my first time!"
Aro abandoned all pretense and knocked on the door. "Come in, Aro," Marcus said, for of course he'd known he'd been listening. He would have recognized Aro's footsteps as he approached the door before this whole thing started.
Aro came in, and found Bella and Marcus still spooning under the covers. But their nudity and the fact his beloved brother had just had sex were nothing compared to the increasingly likely sounding consequences of said sex.
"We tell no one," Aro said, serious as the grave. "This does not leave this room. If, and this is a very big 'if', if Bella ends up pregnant, then we will tell only the guards we trust the most. If this gets out, there will be chaos. Every vampire couple who longs for children and aren't satisfied with adoption, every vampire bachelor who wants to experiment and is willing to chance fatherhood, widowers who want a family again, an heir to pass their teachings down to. All of them would kidnap human women and rape them repeatedly until they either died or got pregnant. And I have serious doubts they would take her to a hospital or be equipped to care for her through the pregnancy. If this miracle is possible, then it must remain the exclusive, proprietary knowledge of the Volturi. Do you understand me, Bella? I will rip out your tongue here and now if you can't look me in the eye and say you'll never breathe a word of this to anyone."
"I can't lie," Bella said plainly. "My face is an open book. If someone asks me to my face if I'm pregnant, I won't be able to convincingly say no until I've gotten a negative pregnancy test result and can be sure I'm not lying. Other than that, though, we're safe. I'm very good at keeping my mouth shut."
"Bella… you could always abort," Marcus spoke up. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."
That option hadn't even occurred to Aro. But then, he was a different man than Marcus. This is why he didn't rule alone, because he needed outside opinions, outside perspectives. In Aro's mind, Bella deciding to end the pregnancy before the fetus was viable had not been in the cards. If a woman got pregnant, then her fate was sealed. That was how Aro genuinely saw it, even though he knew all the technical know-how to do an abortion himself. Unconscious bias, that's what they called it, the shape of your mind based on ideas so woven into the foundation you didn't even notice them anymore.
Bella's hand went to her belly. The womb was actually several inches lower, but Aro didn't feel like Bella needed to hear that right now. "Look… I'm freaked the fuck out, here. I know in my head that at the moment, one of Marcus' sperm probably hasn't even touched the maybe-not-there egg yet. Unless vampire swimmers are as inhumanly fast as vampires normally are compared to humans, but… never mind. The point I'm trying to make is, I'm not pregnant yet. Implantation takes a couple days. And hCG levels won't even be detectable to a blood test for about a week after that. We won't know I'm pregnant until we get me to a doctor in about two weeks and they do the test. But if I am… then I'm all in. Unless there's some birth defect inherent to hybridism and the little guy or girl dies before they come to term, then I'll keep him or her in the oven until they're ready to come out. What I'm saying here is… I'll give birth to Marcus' child. Damn it, why couldn't I have been on the pill or something? I am not ready for this shit."
And since Aro was still holding Edward's head, he was privy to what went through Marcus' mind in that moment. He realized exactly what the nature of that potential relationship he'd detected between them would be. Bella was to be the mother to his child. To Marcus, the test was irrelevant. He knew it in his gut, and intuition meant more to him than empirical data. Bella Swan was pregnant with Marcus' heir. And Marcus would now die to keep her and their child safe. Where before this instant he had stayed alive out of duty to the world and loyalty to Aro, he now had two people to live for.
Aro felt like two miracles had occurred that night. The conception of his niece or nephew (and what a strange thought that was). And Marcus coming back from the dead.
"You may leave, Aro," Marcus said. And his voice was a normal volume, filled with a normal amount of emotion and tone. "I want to be alone with my new wife."
Feeling almost dizzy, Aro turned and walked to the door, even as Bella squawked "Wife?!" in disbelief.
A Marcus, not only with a new mate but a blood child to protect, on his side. Aro felt himself grin in utmost triumph.
What few of the Volturi's enemies remained were doomed. Totally and completely doomed.
But even as Aro savored the sweet taste of victory, his mind was working. It never stopped, not once in over 3000 years. And Aro knew that if Bella and her unborn child (and there was still no proof said child would even come to be, no matter Marcus' gut feeling) died in the course of this pregnancy, then Marcus was gone. His heart had been put back together by Bella and her fertility, but it would not survive shattering a second time. He just might survive the fetus dying, doomed to never take its first breath by its very nature, or Bella dying in childbirth, her human body unable to go on after delivering the world's first true demigod. But if they both perished, then Marcus would become actively suicidal. Nothing Aro or the whole coven could do would stop him. He would cover himself in gasoline and light a match. He would attack them all and force them to rip him apart. He would create an army of immortal children to force their hand. He would steal the freaking space shuttle and crash into the sun if he had to, but he would do everything in his power to join the two who now owned his soul. And Aro would let him, because if Marcus wasn't willing to use his gift and help him rule, then he was useless. And the Volturi were now so secure in their rule that they could afford to lose Marcus as they couldn't when Didyme had asked Aro for his blessing that they leave.
So, if he was to keep Marcus, then Bella and the little hybrid had to live. As Aro understood these affairs, a doctor should be consulted at every point of the pregnancy to ensure the health of both mother and child. And there was only one doctor on Earth that Aro would trust with this secret and the lives of his new sister and Marcus' heir.
Aro's cell phone rang. He took it out, and it was an unknown number. No one knew this number, though. Only the guard had this number. It was possible someone in the world had randomly happened to string the right digits together for a crank call and gotten Aro's cell phone. But given this call came just after Aro decided to get in contact with Carlisle, he could guess who was calling him.
"Hello, this is Aro. Am I correct in guessing I am speaking with Alice Cullen?" Aro asked the caller in his most pleasant voice. He'd spent literal ages practicing it in the mirror.
"Yes, I'm Alice," came a light soprano. Aro could detect a tinge of fear to it as well.
"I only know what Edward knows about you. So I don't know what your husband Jasper or Carlisle have told you about me or my coven. I don't know if you think I'm the best thing since sliced bread or the devil incarnate. But I can guess what concerns you based on what concerned Edward. So let me say this now: you will not share Edward's fate. I'm not going to hunt you down, use Chelsea to make you leave the Cullens, and brainwash you into my personal oracle if you're willing or just carry your head in my other arm to enjoy your visions if you're not. Your gift is most intriguing, and I would be delighted to make your personal acquaintance and get to know you as a person more than I already do from viewing Edward's memories, but I don't need you."
"You don't?" she asked, sounding like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Oh, don't get me wrong, if I'd come across you in ancient Greece I would have stopped at nothing to get you to my side. With your gift, we could have taken over the world so much faster and with much less hassle. But the fact is we already have taken over the world. And I would welcome you with open arms if you ever came to Volterra and asked for your own cloak. But I merely want your power, I don't need it. Feel free to spend all of time chasing deer and playing at being a high school student. Now, what is the purpose of this call?" Aro told the seeress.
"Don't think me a pervert, but I was watching every second of what happened between Bella and Marcus. I wanted to know if he'd hurt her. And the second she made the decision to keep… whatever that thing inside her is, she vanished from my sight."
Aro paused. "So, she dies?" he asked, already mourning the poor, lovable girl.
"I don't see her dying. I don't see anything, that's the problem. Oh, glimpses. But nothing more than a minute or two out. Whatever the creature is, I can't see it with my sight. And since Bella has hitched her star to it, looking at her is now like looking at a static-filled television. Blurry and indistinct. I think I actually have a headache, I didn't think that was possible."
Aro hummed in thought. "Well, Bella is a powerful shield in her own right. And as Jane and Alec prove, gifts seem to run in bloodlines. Perhaps the child has a shield that works against you. And I really should have asked you this before, but are you alone?"
"I'm five miles from the house, and I asked everyone to leave me alone. I was going to call you anyway to warn you, but when you decided to call in Carlisle to treat Bella I figured I'd just beat you to the punch," Alice revealed.
"Ah, how convenient you make things with your third eye, dear Alice. So, let us conspire. What is the best way to get Carlisle to come to Volterra?" Aro asked the slip of a girl with one of the greatest gifts in history.
"If you call out of the blue and ask him to come, even for Bella's sake, he'll hesitate. He didn't hear what you just told me, he'll worry that you'll poach me and I'll never leave. Plus, while he considers you a friend and thinks the best of everyone, he's still uncomfortable with being surrounded by vampires on the traditional diet. But if I say I had a vision and that it's best for us that we go to Volterra, he'll cave. Now that Edward's not around to cross-examine me, he'll take my word as gospel," Alice explained.
Aro picked up on a certain word choice. "We? You intend for the whole coven to come with Carlisle? I really only need his expertise, and rest assured I'll return him to you in the same righteous, saintly, if demented condition he arrives in."
"We're Bella's family," Alice said, and Aro was sure her face was twisted with grief and regret, it was plain to hear in her voice. "A pretty shitty one, but we love her. And these could be her last moments. We're going to be there for her the whole way, unless she explicitly asks us to leave."
"I see. I'll arrange for a limousine to pick you up from Leonardo Da Vinci airport, text me your flight information. I'm most eager to shake your hand, Alice," Aro grinned.
"I may even do it willingly. You're not what I expected," Alice said with a chuckle.
"And Alice? Tell any of your family about the pregnancy without my express consent, and I will burn them myself to keep the secret," Aro said, in the same genial tone he'd used the entire conversation.
"That's closer to the mark," Alice said dryly. "Message received. We'll be there as fast as it takes to pack and get a flight to Rome."
"Looking forward!" Aro said before hanging up.
The Audacity of Bella Swan
As Carlisle walked into the throne room of Volturi Castle, he reflected on the last time he'd been in this chamber. He had told the kings he was leaving for the New World, that he could no longer stay. Aro had been sad, but had seen this coming in the tone of his thoughts. Caius had scoffed, glad to see the back of an immortal who 'purposefully poisoned himself for the sake of dogma'. And Marcus, well, Marcus had just stared at him with that bored look on his face that never changed.
Of course, much had changed since then. He'd found a family of his own, who shared his ideals and ethics. They were with him now, on Alice's insistence that it was what was best, though she'd been oddly vague as to why. Esme was huddled into his side, honestly afraid of carnivores. They had no morals, of course, for so casually murdering humans. And they were proven by Carlisle's own experience to be stronger pound-for-pound than vegetarians. Emmett was strutting like a peacock, either putting on a brave front or honestly too stupid to see the danger of this place. Carlisle loved the man as a son, but he never claimed Emmett was anything other than what he was: a lovable idiot. Rosalie was gliding along with her best slink, dressed in her best. She was determined to prove herself, to impress even the Volturi with her beauty and poise. Jasper looked like a spooked horse, his eyes casing every room they entered for exits in case he needed to make a break for it. The Volturi terrified Jasper, had put the fear of God into him after their last sweep through the South to clean up the newborn wars. And he worried for his beloved mate, Alice, who of course Aro would covet. Alice had a one-of-a-kind power, and Aro loved power above all else. As for Alice herself, she seemed quite blase about walking into the heart of vampire power on the planet. Whatever she saw, either it didn't bother her or she'd made her peace with it. Carlisle wondered just what she'd seen that would make her willingly walk into a potential cage and hope no one would lock the door behind her.
They paused in the center of the throne room, right over the grate of the drain for whenever they fed in here. Carlisle knew that had been a deliberate touch on Aro's part. Every visitor would be hit with the scent of old blood soaked into the stone, distracting them and making them more likely to slip up or make a mistake that Aro or the other two kings could capitalize on.
The effect was just as striking as Carlisle remembered, in the room older than the religion Carlisle still practiced in private. The guard in a circle around the room, their eyes watching, evaluating, waiting to be called upon and used or consulted. And there were the three kings, their skin fully petrified as precious few immortals ever achieved, sitting on their thrones. The wives were present, that was a surprise to Carlisle. They only left their tower for the truly important meetings. On Aro's right was Sulpicia, and on his left was Renata. To Caius' right was Athenodora and his left Corin. And on Marcus' right was Bella, with Felix at his left hand.
Carlisle looked at Bella for a second, more than long enough for a vampire to do a full visual examination. She'd lost weight. A significant amount of it. More than that though, her whole demeanor had changed. She was the lone human in the room, but her chin was high as if she was confident she was also one of the most important. She was also, Carlisle noted in surprise, wearing a dress cut in the same style and color as the wives'.
"Ah, Carlisle, old friend! Welcome back. And to all your family, simply welcome!" Aro grinned, grinning down at them all from the daius on which the thrones were placed. Aro stood and walked until he was standing right in front of Carlisle. Sulpicia and Renata had moved in unison to stay the same exact distance from Aro. "We simply must catch up," Aro grinned, holding out his hand.
Knowing he had no real choice in the matter, Carlisle took it.
Aro's eyes went unfocused for a few seconds as he reviewed decades upon decades of memories. Then he chuckled. "Oh, Carlisle, Carlisle. Still crazy in the best way, as you were when you left. Though fatherhood suits you. You've really grown into yourself!"
"Thank you, Aro," Carlisle grinned, taking the compliment at face value. While Aro could happily chatter someone's ears off, he never said something he didn't mean. Even with enemies, he preferred lies of omission to direct falsehood. He once told Carlisle that it just felt more satisfying to pass off parts of the truth in an utter mix of baffling bullshit than to simply make up a story.
"And Esme, dear Esme! You're everything I ever expected of a woman who could catch Carlisle's eye. Though know I really do think less of you for picking Edward over Bella," Aro said, reaching out to cup Esme's cheek with his usual casual disregard for personal space.
Esme shuddered. "Where… where do you keep Edward's head? I want to say goodbye."
"Oh, he's in my personal safe, I thought it rather gauche to keep him in the room when I knew you'd be visiting," Aro explained. "Rest assured, you can speak to him at a later date. Though I do warn you, he's lost every last shred of sanity already. His mind was quite… brittle is the word I'll use. He barely lasted 24 hours before he cracked like an egg."
Esme let out a sob, but she kept herself composed with a herculean effort in that room filled to the brim with carnivores.
Aro went to Emmett and Rosalie. "Emmett, Rosalie. Brawn and beauty personified. If only either of you had an ounce of brains between you."
"What did you just say?" Rosalie gasped.
"You heard me," Aro shrugged. "Through Edward, I know almost every thought to ever go through your minds since you became immortal. I hardly need to use my power on you at this point. Your redeeming quality, Rosalie, is your degree of control. Bloodless murders barely out of the newborn stage? Remarkable. And Emmett's saving grace is that he has many of the same qualities of an untrained puppy: adorable, and impossible to blame because he honestly doesn't know any better. But you both are simpletons. You, Rosalie, define yourself on your surface appearance, your physical appeal and the power and worth you think it bestows on you. And Emmett is honestly the dumbest immortal I've ever seen through the eyes of anyone. Ah, but I'm being casually cruel in the name of honesty. A rather bad habit of mine. Moving on." Aro moved past the mated pair, not even trying to touch them.
"Jasper, you are quite the sight," Aro said admiringly. "Though one of the youngest in the room, I don't doubt you're one of the better fighters and certainly survived the most combat. Our campaigns spanned decades, yours meer weeks or even days. Fast-paced and brutal were the newborn wars, the blood flowing enough to fill the Rio Grande. May I?" Aro asked, holding out his hand.
"Am I allowed to say no?" Jasper asked wryly.
"Of course you are. I'll touch you anyway, but you won't be punished for expressing your preference that I don't. This isn't a cult, I value free will, even if I don't truly respect any opinion outside my closest family," Aro explained.
"Very well then," Jasper sighed, taking the king's hand.
Aro grinned after a second to read Jasper's mind. "Ah, not only a fierce fighter, but a rather clever tactician. And your gift is subtle but not to be underestimated. I know you'll never go back to the traditional diet, your gift makes each feeding a miserable experience. But I suppose since you won't be one more mouth for Heidi to feed if you stick to animals, we could find room for you if you ever chose to stay."
Jasper's jaw dropped. "A vegetarian Volturi?" Jasper asked in shock.
"Consider it a compliment. You truly are so valuable I'd compromise the loss of your true potential so you can maintain your happiness. And of course, if I succeed in my project of seducing Alice away from Carlisle, you'll be staying anyway," Aro winked at Jasper.
Then Aro let go of Jasper's hand to turn to Alice. "Ah, dear Alice. I've been looking forward to this."
"That makes one of us," Alice said with a tight grin.
"Ah, but you're used to having your privacy invaded by Edward. And I assure you, it's painless," Aro grinned.
Alice wordlessly held out her hand.
Aro took it and went still. "Magnificent…" he breathed. "To see the world through your eyes… I really must repay you. Will you be satisfied by sketches of your family's faces?"
Alice blinked. "You can read my human memories too?" she asked in shock.
"But of course! Ah, I'll get right on the sketches as soon as I have a free moment. But now that introductions have been made, we should get to the reason you all are here," Aro said, turning and returning to his throne.
"Why are we here?" Emmett asked, looking at Alice in confusion. "Alley Cat wouldn't give us a straight answer."
"A rather sudden but most fortuitous development has appeared. Bella wanted you all to be here for the announcement," Aro grinned.
"What announcement?" Carlisle asked, wondering what news Bella could possibly have that warranted telling both the whole Volturi guard and his family simultaneously.
Bella, who had been covering her left hand with her right in front of her this whole time, removed her right hand. A rather substantial diamond set in a white-gold band was on her left ring finger.
"Marcus and I are getting married," Bella told the room, with a rosy blush to her cheeks.
There was stunned silence. Medusa might as well have been let loose in the room, for most stopped even breathing. All the world was still but for Bella with her human heartbeat and inability to keep perfectly still even if she tried.
Felix, of all people, burst out laughing. "Sweet everloving fuck! How good in bed are you, kitten? Good enough to lock down Marcus, I guess! Oh, man, I can't believe I didn't volunteer instead to be your first! I'm sure it would have been unforgettable!"
"Everything's unforgettable to a vampire, Felix," Bella said with an eye roll.
"You know what I mean!" Felix guffawed.
Alice squealed, actually squealed, in pure delight. "Oh, Bella! I know I have no right to ask this, but please let me do your wedding!"
"You can be the wedding planner or my maid-of-honor. You can't be both," Bella chuckled.
"Oh, I can't decide! If I pick one, who'll fill the other role?" Alice asked brightly.
"Chelsea for the wedding planner, Renata as my maid-of-honor. Both Aro and Caius are Marcus' groomsmen, so I guess Rosalie can be my other bridesmaid if you pick maid-of-honor. Jane will be the flower girl, of course," Bella grinned at the short immortal tween.
"I will not!" Jane huffed, as if Bella had suggested she volunteer as a sewer worker using her bare hands.
"Oh yes, you will. Or I suppose we could alway see what Alec looks like in a dress," Marcus said, grinning at Jane as if to soften the blow of his edict.
"You'll look lovely in pink, sis," Alec said immediately, selling her down the river to save himself.
Carlisle shook his head, wondering at what point he'd fallen through a crack in spacetime and slipped into an alternate dimension. "Marcus proposed to you?" Carlisle asked Bella, just to make sure he hadn't misunderstood.
"Went against all my childhood programming from Renee, but I actually had to beg for an actual wedding and formal ceremony instead of him just declaring me his new bride to the world and we went off on a honeymoon," Bella said, batting Marcus' shoulder to express her annoyance that he'd forced her to actually have wear a white gown.
"I simply want you all to myself at earliest opportunity. We could have exchanged vows in front of everyone once we got back," Marcus shrugged. "It's not like we have to worry about a legal marriage certificate, who cares what order we do things in?"
"I care, and I learned something about myself when I processed that I even did. Apparently, I'm the kind of girl who just imprints on her first. Edward was my first kiss, look at all the crap I got up to over him. You were my first time, and now I'm willing to endure a wedding at 18 just for you," Bella sighed, but with affection. She wasn't really upset.
Marcus took Bella's left hand, leaned down to kiss his ring on her finger, then turned her hand over to kiss her palm. "And I'd do anything for you, my heart, you know that."
"You're being mushy again. Where's the bored statue that was here when I first arrived? I kind of miss him, actually. He would have been a great poker player, now that I think about it," Bella chuckled.
"I am fully capable of returning to my 'Zen mode' as I think you called it last night if you ask. But I haven't felt this alive and engaged in over 20 centuries, so indulge me, if you will," Marcus said with a wry twist to his lips.
"And there you go, reminding me you're older than dirt. It's gross. I should be thoroughly repulsed at the fact you've been inside me," Bella said with a fond sigh.
"Would it be any less 'gross' if our situation was reversed? If you were the immortal from ancient Greece and I was the American teenager?" Marcus asked rhetorically.
"Not at all. In a way, that's worse. That makes me seem like Tanya trying to seduce Edward. Plus, while I can whole-heartedly agree that vampire men with human women can equal fantastic sex, I'm not sure how it would work the other way around. From my understanding of human genitals, ice is generally used to make an erection go away, not entice one," Bella mused.
Carlisle watched and listened to Bella and Marcus exchange banter, feeling more confused than he'd ever felt in his life.
Vampires mated for life. This was a fact, or at least a widely accepted theory that had yet to be disproven. There was not a single documented case of a vampire widow or widower who ever 'moved on' and fell in love again. Oh, they could take lovers, all the 'plumbing' still worked. But the loss and heartbreak was permanent. The severity of the grief seemed relative to how much of the vampire's heart had been invested in the other. And Marcus had so loved Didyme that her loss had reduced him to an empty shell of a man.
And yet, unless this was all one elaborate joke (and hats off to all actors if that turned out to be the case), Carlisle could not deny the evidence of his own eyes. Marcus looked… in love. He was saying all the right things, in a rather 'Marcus' way at that. He was making excuses to casually touch Bella. He seemed to enjoy his back and forth with her simply for the sheer pleasure of hearing her voice wash over him.
Carlisle found himself wishing Bella or Marcus would answer Felix's question. How good was the sex between those two? Because unless there was something Carlisle was missing, Bella had somehow restored Marcus to the man he'd once been, who Carlisle had only known through Aro's wistful anecdotes. Either she'd somehow made him forget Didyme… or whatever Marcus felt for her outweighed what he'd felt for Didyme, enough that the positive force of his love for Bella outweighed the negative of Didyme's loss.
Aro clapped, and the room went silent as everyone focused on him. "Yes, well, while Bella asked that you be here for the engagement announcement, I have another reason for wanting you here, Carlisle. I want you to give Bella a full physical. See that she's in tip top shape. I know the venom will fix any damage, but as I understand it modern weddings can take months to plan! And I don't want to chance that we miss that Bella has cancer or some other malady and she slips out of our fingers before we even realize she's in danger."
"I'm so dead serious, check if I have a brain tumor. Would explain some of my recent behavior," Bella said in a deadpan.
"You're not funny, love," Marcus told her solemnly.
"Excuse me? I'll have you know that I am freaking hilarious. You're just a sourpuss," Bella huffed.
"You're the one with the sour puss, Bella. We should have Carlisle check that too, I'm not sure that's normal for human women," Marcus said, with perfect delivery too.
Felix actually fell to his knees and started pounding the ground laughing. The stone tile cracked. "I can't even! She's got Marcus making sex jokes! It's official, you are my favorite human EVER, kitten!"
"Follow us, Carlisle. Sulpicia, you may return to the tower, or perhaps you'd like to get reacquainted with dear Carlisle? Renata, please escort the other Cullens to their rooms," Aro ordered.
"Master?" Renata asked, her eyes wide. Aro very rarely went anywhere without her.
"Did you misunderstand me, Renata?" Aro asked, turning to her.
"No, Master," Renata quickly denied. "Follow me to the guest suites," she said to the Cullens before walking out of the room. All but Carlisle followed her, Esme throwing a worried look over her shoulder at her husband. He gave her a reassuring smile.
Aro led Carlisle, Bella, and Marcus to a particular room in the castle. "I took the liberty of preparing a medical office for you, Carlisle," Aro said, opening the door for him.
Carlisle walked in. "Aro, my friend, did you rob a hospital?" Carlisle asked, suspecting the answer would be an unrepentant 'yes'. There was everything short of an MRI or X-ray machine. Including an examination chair with stirrups for gynecological exams.
"In the ordinary course of events, I would have been patient and bought everything through legal channels. But needs must. You got here within 24 hours, and you needed equipment as soon as you got here. If it makes you feel better, I had the guard leave the exact amount for all this equipment at current market value along with a generous gratuity in Euros at the scene of the crime," Aro said, his usual lighthearted playfulness vanishing. Bella and Marcus' smiles were smaller now.
Carlisle felt a frisson of alarm run up his spine. "Wait, does Bella actually have cancer?"
"Well, there's a growing collection of cells multiplying away inside my uterus, but not in the way you're thinking," Bella said. She gave a weak jazz hands. "Surprise! I'm pregnant."
Carlisle blinked, before her words were processed. "Oh, congratulations! Who's the father?"
"You're looking at him," Marcus said dryly.
Carlisle tilted his head. "But, that's impossible. Bella simply must have had a human lover before you two met."
"Carlisle, I'll take the polygraph if that'll convince you, but the only man I've ever been with is Marcus. And this morning, knowing it was pointless, I had one of the maids fetch this." Bella took a plastic baggie out of a pocket of her dress, inside which was a disposable pregnancy test. Carlisle saw there was a pink '+' sign in the indicator.
"Bella, it's just a false positive. Vampires are sterile. More to the point, you and Marcus had sex just last night. There's no way there's detectable levels of hCG in your urine at this point. Implantation wouldn't even have occurred yet," Carlisle explained to her. She was worrying over nothing.
"That's for a purely human pregnancy. This is a hybrid pregnancy. What's the timeline for that, doc?" Bella asked pointedly. "If you need more proof, Alice can't see the baby. And according to Aro who heard from Alice herself, I'm almost impossible to see ever since I decided I was keeping it when I realized Marcus and I had unprotected sex and I was ovulating. That's the 'vision' she had and used to convince you all to come here."
Carlisle stared at Bella. From the moment she'd entered their world through her relationship with Edward, first as his singer and then as his girlfriend, he'd been surprised by her. But this was the biggest surprise of all. By far. "This… so, does that mean you're not really engaged?"
"Oh, no, that's for real, and makes for a really convenient excuse. I'm debating between rushing the wedding so I can fit into my dress and no one will know or waiting until after the birth so the baby can be there for his or her parents getting hitched. Or, hell, babies. It could be twins or, God forbid, triplets!" Bella let out a rather hysterical sounding giggle.
"Breathe, Bella," Marcus said, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
And suddenly, it clicked in Carlisle's head. This was the explanation for Marcus'... resurrection. It wasn't just a love for one person. It was a love for two. But it must all be in his head. This… this just wasn't possible. And he was going to prove it, using science. "Bella, I'm going to give you that physical. We'll work all this out."
"Use the ultrasound. I even had them get every possible kind of wand just in case," Aro demanded.
Carlisle measured Bella's height and weight. He asked her some basic questions on her medical history, having already read all her records when she was his patient back in Forks. As he suspected, she was underweight for her height and age group. If this impossibility proved true, that was a bad sign. Babies leeched on the mother for all their nutrients and resources, in many ways a parasite growing in the womb until such time as the baby was born. If Bella didn't have much to spare, that would be bad for both of them. Not that Carlisle was convinced yet, Alice's vision problem notwithstanding.
Carlisle used a stethoscope to enhance his already superb hearing to track Bella's heartbeat and breathing. Then he took out a few vials and a hypodermic needle. "Hold your breath," he ordered all three of the other occupants of the room.
"I will not attack my wife," Marcus said, making his opinion of Carlisle perfectly clear with his tone.
"Really, Carlisle, just because we don't abstain as you do does not mean we're newborns, slaves to our thirst. I can smell blood without lunging, especially when that blood belongs to my beloved sister," Aro rolled his eyes.
"Just me then," Bella said, before taking a deep breath and holding it.
Carlisle inserted the needle after sterilizing the patch of skin at her elbow. He had no trouble finding a vein and collected 4 small vials of Bella's blood to run tests later. That done, he removed the needle and pressed a wad of gauze on the insertion side. "Hold this… Bella…" Carlisle trailed off, truly astounded at what happened.
Bella was pressing her nose into her elbow. She was taking great big whiffs, as if trying to get the smell of her own blood to seep into every recess of her brain. "Wow. I suddenly feel much more sympathy for Edward. He was right, I smell delicious!"
Marcus blurred to Bella's side. "The smell of blood is appealing to you, Bella?" he asked.
"That's one pregnancy craving I didn't expect. Or maybe I should have, considering the father. Hey, is it cannibalism if I drink one of those vials?" Bella asked Carlisle, eyeing the vials with all the hunger of a newborn, only her eyes were brown instead of red.
"Well, Carlisle, I hate to say I told you so… no, no, I love saying it, actually," Aro grinned.
Carlisle gulped. "This proves nothing. Bella just… just spontaneously developed and associated a hunger response with the smell of her own blood." Even Carlisle could hear how thin that was.
"Carlisle, you were there in September. I nearly upchucked all over you while you were removing the glass, and I was breathing through my mouth. The smell of blood has always made me nauseous. Now it has me drooling. What, exactly, could have caused that if not a hybrid embryo attaching to my uterine wall and transmitting a need for human blood to my brainstem?" Bella asked.
Carlisle had no answer. At least no answer that fit in the worldview he'd had when he walked into this office. "Well, let's get straight to it, then. Ready for an invasive vaginal exam?"
"At least you're the second vampire to shove something up there. Just, be gentle, please? I'm sore like nobody's business," Bella asked him.
Carlisle hooked up the wand to the screen, covered it with conducting gel, and applied the latex sheathe. Gentle as a feather, he fed it into Bella's vagina until he felt the tip hit her cervix. Carlisle activated the machine, and soundwaves inaudible to even vampire ears mapped out the inside of Bella's womb much like a bat using echolocation. An image appeared on the screen.
Carlisle stared. He actually rubbed his eyes, as if that might fix the problem. But no, there it remained, clear as day. An embryonic sac. "By the looks of things, I'd say you're two weeks along. How long ago did Marcus ejaculate?" Carlisle asked in a daze.
"22 hours, 42 minutes," Marcus answered readily.
"That's… I need a drink. I know it doesn't work that way anymore, but damn it, I need a drink," Carlisle said, some small part of him focused on remaining a good doctor twisting the wand. The image shifted, but the small collection of cells latched to Bella's uterus stayed in focus.
"Blood bags," Bella said, apropos of nothing as far as Carlisle could tell. But Bella's mind had always been a bit of a mystery. "I can't tear open a throat myself yet, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable just having one of you do it for me before I latch on and start drinking. We need to get blood bags so I can feed El in there."
"El?" Marcus asked.
"Elpis for a boy, Elpida for a girl, with El as a nickname either way. It's a Greek name meaning 'hope'. I looked it up on my phone earlier," Bella blushed.
Marcus' smile shone brighter than the sun, and it was even more stunning to Carlisle because he'd never have imagined that look on Marcus' face in a million years. "El it is," he nodded. "Carlisle, kindly get that thing out of my wife's body. And then work out with Aro how to acquire as many blood bags as we could possibly need."
Carlisle deactivated the machine after taking a sonogram picture, removed the wand, and then Marcus helped Bella lower her hiked up dress so it protected her modesty again. Then he swept her up in his arms. "Where would you like to go?" Marcus asked Bella, eyes only on her.
"I haven't seen the gardens in the moonlight," Bella grinned back.
Marcus blurred out the room, Bella's giggle echoing in their wake.
"This… there are no words," Carlisle breathed out. "I feel amazed and terrified in equal measure. Bella and the baby have brought Marcus back to life, and he might lose them both. That growth rate is unnatural, Aro. Implantation and looking 2 weeks along within a day of his seed even entering her system? If that holds consistent, she'll be full term within 3 weeks. Her body won't be able to support its appetite. What if it's as strong as we are? It could break her spine with its first kick!"
"I hear you, Carlisle. All that has occurred to me. And I cannot believe the words about to come out of my mouth, especially from me to you of all people," Aro said, staring at the door that Marcus had gone through.
"What's that?" Carlisle asked.
Aro turned to Carlisle. And there was a small smile of purest hope on his face. "Have faith. In Bella, in the child, in the benevolence of whatever God or gods there truly are. I have a good feeling about all this. Your job is to make sure they both survive, or the last thing Marcus will ever do before he forces me to kill him is take you down with him."
Carlisle had never responded well to his life being in jeopardy. But, in this moment, he hoped it would serve to galvanize him.