E-POV
I heard the voices. Taunting, teasing, threatening voices in the base of my skull growing louder as they descended upon the household.
It took all my control not to throw Bella over my shoulder and take off into the night. It would be wrong. First, because my lovely Bella was bare and beneath me. Second, because it would only end poorly. The further I ran, the shaper I made the sword hanging over my head.
My instruction for Bella to get dressed came out more as a growl and less of a request.
She took a painfully long time. Her humanness was endearing until it wasn't. Typically, I listened to the sounds of the soft pads of her feet across the tile, smiling to myself when she lost her footing or accidentally kicked the wastebasket. This night, while she carefully pulled on her clothing and took the time to wash her face, I found myself snapping my fingers, willing her to hurry. The second she opened the door to the bathroom, she muttered something I barely heard—my thoughts were occupied by the voices hammering in my head and the loose plan taking form.
I took her by the arm, nowhere near as gentle as I normally would be with my love, and towed her towards the door.
"We need to hide you. Now."
"Edward!" Bella yelped, frightened. Frustrated with her stumbling feet, I hoisted her up over my shoulder in a fireman's carry.
"The Volturi are here," I explained, running down the stairs. I winced at the sound of her teeth chattering with the jostled movement.
"What!?" she cried, gripping the hem of my sweatshirt as she dangled behind my back. "How? Wouldn't Alice…?"
"I don't know how, but they clearly figured out a workaround for Alice."
The twins arrived at our house, and Alice had been none the wiser. Surely, the Volturi couldn't continuously put off a decision like that until the last second—the only known way around Alice's visions. Aro had figured something else out. And now, his mental voice was grating into my mind, beckoning me to join him in his ranks.
At the center of the house, I set Bella down on her feet. She stumbled, immediately, and caught herself on my arm.
"Bella, I need you to hide the second I walk out that door."
Her grip on me tightened. "I don't see how that would help."
"I know," I placed a hand over hers, "I know it's futile. I know how quickly they will find you anyway. But please, Bella. One more second it takes for them to get to you is one more second I have to stop them."
Bella's chin quivered from the argument she had in her, but she ultimately chose not to speak whatever it was. "What are they going to do to you?"
"I have no idea." The threats in my head were all too vague to guess what punishment awaited me.
Again, her chin quivered, but this time from holding back tears. "Please come back."
Leaning down until I was eye-level with her, I laced my fingers through her hair, cradling the back of her head in my hands. "Nothing in heaven nor hell can keep me from returning to you."
She crushed her lips to mine. I winced at the bruise she no doubt procured with the force, but kissed her back. Deep, thorough, promising more kisses as deep and thorough in our endless future together.
"I love you," I whispered as I broke the kiss. Without giving her the chance to return the sentiment, I flashed to the front door. I still heard her small whisper of love behind me as I stepped into the snowy night.
It was hauntingly familiar. The vaulted ceiling of the ancient castle was now an endless expanse of a starry sky. The echo of the stone tile with replaced with the crunch of freshly fallen snow. The scent of death didn't linger in the air, but it hung as a promise for the future.
New location. Same, eerie smile of an ancient vampire who held too much power in his hand and too much knowledge in his head.
"Edward, my boy," Aro greeted.
He stood at the back rear of a semi-circle made of his guard. His golden children were by his side, both delighting in the memory of torturing me. It had only been two days, yet they were eager to hear my screams once more.
I bowed respectively, "Aro."
"Come, now," he waved me up, "There's no need for that." Though, his mind told me if I hadn't attempted to grovel, there would have been no conversation.
"I believe you know why I am here," he began.
I nodded. "To rectify a misunderstanding."
"What a wonderful way to put it."
He regarded the careful space I kept between us with distaste. He beckoned me with his hand, "Come closer, now. We are family, here. You think of Carlisle as your father. Please think of me as your uncle."
I took one step closer.
Aro dipped his chin and lowered his hands like a disappointed mother. "Do you always act so acerbically for Carlisle?"
Not wanting to cause any more strife between us than I already had, I closed the distance between myself and Aro. I passed his guard—each humming with delight with what was to come—and met Aro at the peak of his circle. At my arrival, he grasped both of my hands in his. A comforting gesture in just about every other scenario but this one.
"Ah, there she is," Aro said, smiling at my memory of my last kiss with Bella. "Your human pet."
I wrenched my hands out from his. "Leave her out of this."
Aro clicked his tongue. "I am not here to punish you, Edward."
I looked pointedly at the row of vampires wearing black cloaks behind him that looked like they very much wanted to punish me.
"I am here to help you." As Aro spoke of peace, the two vampires at the ends of his lineup swept away toward the house.
"Please," my voice cracked. "This was all my doing. If Bella had her way, she would have been a vampire months ago."
It was useless. Aro knew my mind. And he knew there was nothing he could do to hurt me that would hurt more than inflicting that pain onto Bella.
"I knew I should have done this before you left Italy," Aro mused as the front door to the house was kicked open, breaking in half from the force. Only dressed in a flimsy flannel and sweatpants, Bella was forced into the frozen midnight. Her bare feet dragged through the snow. "I saw it in your stubborn mind. You would have rather spent an eternity in misery than force what you believe to be an affliction onto your little human. Of course, you wouldn't be able to turn her on your own." Aro touched my cheek with false affection, "You're a young boy in love. It would be cruel not to offer assistance for such a daunting task."
The two vampire flunkies help Bella up by the arms like an offering to Aro. Her teeth chattered. Snow and ice froze in her hair. Instinctively, I moved towards her, to rid her pain in any way I could.
But Aro grabbed me by the collar like a mother cat would grab a kitten by the scruff. "Take one step closer and you will regret it."
Ignoring every, single instinct, I remained next to Aro.
"I don't want to punish you, Edward. I am quite fond of you. You remind me so much of Carlisle," he moved his hand from my collar, allowing his fingers to brush my ear and down my jaw. He continued down the front of my neck until he placed a palm on my sternum. "However, if you do not turn this human of yours, you will be openly defying me. And I cannot allow that."
I whimpered at the plan taking form in his head. He was having fun, revealing bits and pieces, allowing me to piece the puzzle together. "Don't hurt her. I will turn her."
"I can no longer trust your word."
The two vampires pulled lightly, pulling Bella's arms out of their sockets. She screamed; I screamed with her as if the pain were my own.
"Even this night, you had no intention to turn her. You were going to fuck her until she fell asleep, securing yourself one more day."
With surgical precision, Aro's brutes dragged their fingernails down either side of Bella's throat. The sweet scent of her blood permeated the crisp forest air. There was no pleasure in the fragrance.
"A bird pushes their young from the nest to fly. A turtle lays her eggs far up the shore. Sometimes, the best way to help our youngest is to give them no other choice but to survive."
Bella slumped forward. Still being held by the arms, she cried out at the pain as they forced her up. Already weak from the cold, the blood loss brought her closer to death, but not close enough. Aro would not allow her a slow death. She was to be brought to the cusp, to the place where there would be no other option but to turn her. His act of kindness for me.
Simultaneously, both vampires placed one hand other on either side of her rib cage and squeezed, effectively breaking all her ribs. Her scream of pain tore through me like a lance.
"Enough! Please!"
"Without my help, you would have never been able to turn her. It would have ultimately led to your death. Now, you will be able to live. You both will."
The vampires continued down the horrifying track of destruction. One tore her flannel, exposing her to the elements. Bella tried to flinch from the chill, but the small movement only brought her more pain. I whimpered her name. The vampires did the same to her torso as they did to her neck, carefully cutting the skin ensuring she would bleed out. The snow around her was more red than white.
"Bella!" I cried, desperate. Her breaths become more belabored. Her sweet, fragile heart sputtered, like a candle flickering out at the end of its wick. "Please!"
For their final act, the vampires let Bella sink down to the ground, only to stomp on her legs, breaking both femurs at once. My entire heart shattered with her bones. Once she was properly broken and bleeding, they released her.
The core of my existence was left lifeless in the snow.
Aro leaned his face into mine, so close, that his nose brushed against mine. I hardly noticed. The colors around me were already draining with Bella's life force. "Please thank your favorite uncle for his act of kindness."
"Thank you," I muttered, barely processing the words I spoke. The blackness teased at the edges of my vision, threatening to take everything away once my everything was taken from me.
"And because you are feeling so gracious towards me, swear your loyalty to me."
"I swear."
Already, there was nothing but Bella. Once she was gone, there would be nothing. I did not know Aro's final question, nor did I know my response to it.
Seconds before everything would have been lost, Aro released me.
In the second it took me to get to Bella's broken body, her heart—my heart—stopped.
I wasted no time. Like a knife through warm butter, my teeth sliced into the skin of her neck. Her taste bloomed in my mouth, a flavor of incomprehensible notes and power and delicacy. In my haste, I swallowed the mouthful. A part of me, the monster inside, would relish this moment and this incomprehensible pleasure. Another, the part that loved her with all the power of a mortal man, would hate it for eternity.
Desperate to save her, I bit right above her heart. Then, both wrists. There was no need to be as gentle as I normally needed to be to perform CPR—my life was already damaged, and she would feel worse pain than anything my hands could inflict. The moment her heart restarted, it felt like mine did as well.
Nearly sobbing, I kissed the bow of her lip. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…"
Her strength, her stubbornness. Both things I loved so dearly and drove me crazy. Both things that kept her alive long to stay with me.
As I lifted Bella's broken, bleeding body from the snow, The Volturi retreated to whatever sewer system they emerged from. I paid them no mind. My everything was back in my arms, writhing in pain. The fire had already started. I had given her enough of my venom there was no lag in the beginning of her transformation.
Though there was no reason to fear hypothermia, I still raced Bella back to the warmth of the house. I set her by the fire first, careful to arrange her in a prone position, so her broken bones could mend faster. She wouldn't feel the pain past the fire coursing through her veins, but I wanted her whole as fast as possible, just the same. I removed her torn clothing, soaked through with blood and snow. She screamed not from the movements, but to beg me to put out the fire.
"It'll be okay," I said, gently brushing her hair from her face. It stuck to her skin, glued by perspiration and melted snow.
Gritting my teeth, I reset both of her arms back into their sockets. She barely reacted; the blaze of the fire was too strong. I was enough of a monster to lick the places against the still-bleeding wounds, using my venom to close and heal them faster, as well.
Two hours in, she was whole enough that I could relocate her from the floor to the bed. I used a warm towel to clean her once again before I dressed her in one of my softest shirts. The plush comforter did nothing to soothe her. As soon as her head touched the pillow, Bella begged, "Please, let me die."
The words pierced my impermeable skin. I pressed my forehead to hers, breathing into her face. Desperate to ease her in any way I could. "I know it's hard. Just hold on. Just for now. It'll be over soon and then it will be you and me, the way we've always wanted."
Bella arched again, her eyes opening, finding mine. Her hands clenched, grasping for me.
"I'm here. I'm right here." I lowered my forearm near her hand so she could grab it. She fisted the material of my sleeve, tearing the seams.
Again, she begged for death. Again, I choked down a sob.
"I'll try to find you some relief, okay sweetheart?"
I backed away from the bed, keeping my eyes on her. At the last possible second, I turned to rummage through my suitcase for one of the First Aid Kits I always had on me. Unbeknownst to Bella, I had one in every car, in every bag. I even stashed one in her bedroom, under the floorboards. I pulled out the syringe and a vial of morphine. I kissed the spot on her arm before I injected the medicine into her bloodstream.
A text came through to my phone. Worried about whatever update would be sent at a time like this, I glanced at the message.
It won't help.
I growled and threw the phone at the wall, smashing it to smithereens. I didn't need Alice and her texts to remind me. I knew the morphine wouldn't help. It hadn't helped her in the ballet studio with James' venom coursing through her, it wouldn't help now. The weakness that made me cling to some stupid hope that it would infuriated me almost as much as the helplessness. The things I had told myself to sugarcoat the outcome of what I would need to do to keep her with me forever were being stripped away in the face of reality.
I joined Bella on the bed. If Morphine could bring no comfort, I hoped the safety of my embrace could, like it had so many times when she was distressed. I kissed both eyes. Her nose. Her lips. Bella contorted again, more violently, attempting to curl into herself. She was no longer trying to scream, only panting, and wheezing. Tears streamed non-stop from her tightly clenched eyes.
Twelve hours in, Bella writhed against my chest. Her heartbeat stuttered, raced, slowed, then raced again as it desperately tried to find a rhythm to maintain life. The sweet scent of her blood filled the room. The broken bones and cuts from Aro's brutes were long healed. Horrified, I searched her body for the source and four her hands clenched into fists so tightly, her nails tore through her skin. Blood pooled in her hands. I captured them in my own and licked the bleeding little crescents to heal them, adding more venom.
Twenty-four hours in, Bella gaged. I supported her while her body violently purged the food she consumed that day. So many things I did not tell her about the process. The ugly, vile, process that would remake her into something infinitely stronger, would first destroy every function of her human body.
I cleaned her up and changed the sheets. The new shirt I dressed her in immediately spoiled as sweat rolled from her skin. Her eyes found mine, again. I tried to find any words of comfort for her, but they had lost meaning hours ago. I could barely offer a convincing smile.
Thirty-six hours in, Bella was quiet, but she had not stilled. Her body writhed against mine when she could stand me holding her, and against the soaked sheets when she could not.
Periodically, I changed the soaked sheets. An abysmally futile offer of comfort. This time when I changed them, I placed towels beneath her, praying Bella wasn't lucid enough to notice the final purging of her body. After, I bathed her tenderly, using her favorite scents of strawberries and sweet basil, though she wouldn't notice.
After her bath, she let me hold her for the longest time since her transformation began. I stood in the middle of the bathroom for a full ten minutes, with her wrapped in a towel, nestled against my chest.
I whispered in a quiet voice for her to stay with me. Hold onto me…
She tried her best, but she could not unfurl her hands from fists.
Sixty-six hours in, and she could no longer hear me. The pain had reached the blistering point where nothing else could exist outside of it. Not even me. Not even us.
The mind fractured under that much pain. Mine had. Esme's had, Rosalie, Emmett. It was the kind of pain that drove people insane, sending them into the deepest part of their subconscious, seeking escape. On the other side, there was no lasting mental effect beyond the brutal memory we all carried.
Knowing this, repeating this to myself over and over, did not help with the fear. All the knowledge in the world could not take away the fear that my love was slipping from my hands. I kissed her still lips. Her mouth was cool, her body no longer capable of providing heat. All her resources focused only on the most basic needs.
A weak, slow heartbeat. Air in and out of lungs.
She was so eerily still.
Only her pattering, slightly sporadic heartbeat told me she was alive. Her heartbeat, and the tears. Pale, pink blood tears that streaked down Bella's face. They tasted like my venom, her sweetness nearly vanquished.
Seventy hours passed, and my Bella had not woken up. The extra venom I had used had done nothing, possibly made it worse.
She wasn't moving.
At this time, Esme had been awake. Emmett had been peering through partially opened lids falling in love with his angel at first sight. Rosalie had been calling for her mother.
The stillness at this stage frightened me more than anything else. I expected the screaming, writhing, and pleas for death. I expected her to retreat into the recesses of her mind during the worst of the pain. But that wasn't supposed to last for a few hours. She was supposed to be on the mend, back in her mind, and able to move.
"Bella," I whispered, touching her cheek. "Bella, I'm right here."
Nothing.
I must have done something horribly wrong. There was no other explanation.
At hour seventy-three, someone grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me off the bed. I hadn't noticed anyone arrive at the house, yet Rosalie pulled me into standing and shoved me in the direction of the bathroom. As I stared blankly at her perfect face, marred by her scowl, I realized I could hear Emmett downstairs, replacing the broken door.
"Take a shower," she commanded, lovelessly. "You smell terrible."
Uncharacteristically self-conscious, I glanced down at my body. Shirtless. Stained pants. Bella's sweat and blood still clinging to my skin. I did as Rosalie requested without fuss.
When I stepped out, cleaned and fully dressed, I found Bella fully dressed as well. Rosalie had removed my button-down shirt and replaced it with a long, ivory sweater and brown leggings. Though she did not need them, I slipped socks onto her delicate feet.
"Thank you," I whispered to my sister.
"She'll feel better waking up like this and not like something you conquered."
I returned to my spot on the bed without comment. Rosalie joined me. She pulled my head down and rested it on her shoulder. She showed me the memory fifty years back when I held her just like this, as she waited for Emmett to wake up. It was a reminder that as scared as she was, Emmett woke up on the other side. It was a promise at Bella would too. Rosalie noticed my gaze flicking to the alarm clock on the bedside table, checking the minutes, and smashed it in her hands. "That's just going to drive you crazy."
I didn't need the clock. I continued to count the seconds in my head.
At hour seventy-five, Rosalie's arm was around my waist. She stroked my hair when I shook with fear, terrified that my love may not ever wake again.
"You're being an idiot," she said simply after each time I cried out in misery.
At hour eighty-three, Bella's heartbeat finally stopped.
Rosalie's breath caught in her throat. Mine did too.
The vision of her was stunning. Bella had always been beautiful. Even her human flaws entranced me. Now, she was something so much more. Gone are all traces of her struggles. Porcelain skin was refined, smoothed, and utterly luminescent. Her body curved in delicate shapes. Not different, simply fuller. Defined curves no longer hollowed out by the severe weight loss she suffered during my absence, softening her body once more.
I hadn't released the breath I held as Rosalie got off the bed. Didn't notice that she left to room, no doubt to avoid whatever reunion Bella and I were about to have.
With bated breath, I wondered what she would think of me, now. How I would feel to her without the biting chill of a cold, hard, marble-like countenance? Would I please her? In her new body, would she feel me the same? Want me the same?
Bella opened her eyes. She blinked once, then squeezed them shut. The first sight with enhanced vampire senses was always overwhelming.
I slipped my hand under hers, careful not to grab her. "I'm right here,"
In her first too-quick, unnatural movement, Bella bashed her head against mine. I chuckled until her lips found mine, capturing them in our first kiss. I pulled her closer, unafraid to break her. With that realization, I let go of myself completely. Lost myself in Bella like never could before. As I pawed and groped and caressed, I kicked myself for not turning her sooner. Why had I fought her? Bella as a vampire was everything I ever wanted. All the sweetness, none of the pain.
Finally, my inhibitions caught up to me as I remembered Bella would need to feed. Newborns were always ravenously hungry. A smile playing on my lips, I pulled back. She used her new strength to fight me for a few more kisses before she reluctantly fell back into the real world as well. Her eyes remained closed as if she were lingering in that moment, she nestled her cheek in my hand. With a soft sigh, she opened her eyes. Instead of the deep brown I had fallen desperately in love with, they were a startling shade of red.
And I remembered why I fought her.
Fun fact! This was actually how Solar Eclipse was supposed to end. I moved it over to the sequel because I wanted to spend more time in Bella's final hours as a human.
