"Please, mi amore." The pleading voice rang once again through the door. The beautiful voice that broke my heart. But not more than what was running through my head. Spinning and flashing like colors feelings mixed together pulling me away from where I was.
It had been three days.
Three days since I woke up. Three days since I had been a vampires. Three days since I ate. And I wasn't leaving.
My throat was on fire. Dry and burning like a hot metal rod was blistering against the sides. It took everything in my power not to leave the room and not to answer the two men who routinely tried to coax me out.
"I must insist again that you are incorrect." I heard Aro's gorgeous but clearly frustrated voice hiss.
"And I must insist that you trust my son." Carlisle said, calmly but with a song of hurt in his voice.
I heard Aro scoff before another voice chimed in. One I had not heard before my becoming a vampire, but one I've heard every day now since I locked myself in the room I was staying in.
"She is much stronger than any of us right now, not to mention short tempered and out of control." The voice said factually, almost dutifully. Like a book report. "She will likely attack you."
"I would watch your tongue." Aro growled menacingly before a loud thud could be heard.
There was a long pause before a still angry but more reasonable Aro spoke up again.
"Then what exactly do you suggest? I do not intend to allow her to stay in there and starve herself."
"It hurts me to see as well Aro-"
"NOT ENOUGH!" The man yelled making me jump in surprise "I gave you the responsibility of changing her because I thought you loved her almost as much as I did. I couldn't bare to be the one to which she owes her new life, but if I had known you would feel no responsibility for her, I would have decided far differently!"
"Aro, Edward already said she has far more than we can understand, him included, running in her mind. He's still trying to pick out a singular thought. She isn't focusing." Carlisle urged "We have to get her to eat but be careful about it. Love you as much as she does, she will attack even you if we just bring her blood."
"She will not even speak to me, Carlisle." Aro answered, this time pain overcoming the anger in his voice.
"I know." Carlisle whispered back. "Jasper and Alice are going to bring something we think can hold her long enough to make her feel better and perhaps explain what Edward is seeing."
"Ah yes." Aro sneered "Your experiment. If she were not in there alone and thirsty, I would never allow it."
"I know you see it as unnatural, but she's only going to get worse in there. And the way she reacted after the human, Edward and Jasper aren't unsure she isn't gifted somehow and it's creating a problem with her ability to feed."
To feed? An issue? My mind couldn't slow down long enough to think as to what everything Carlisle said meant. Instead an odd swirling of colors and scenery flashed through my head.
"Just do it." Aro said, sounding as if he would have preferred to say anything else.
I sat on the floor, clinging to the black wooden bedpost. It wasn't strong enough Keep me if I decided to leave, but enough to remind me I needed to stay. If that's what feeding was like, I never wanted to eat again.
I tried to focus. Focus on anything. The feeling of the smooth wood my arms were wrapped around, the feeling of the floor beneath me, the sound of Aro humming what must have been the nine hundredth song through the door in desperation to calm me down. But nothing. Just a thousand different thoughts. A thousand different feelings. All of it mixing together only being interrupted by the scorching coming from my throat.
That's when it hit me. A muddy, dirty, warm smell hit my nostrils followed by a reluctant but even stronger burn overwhelming all of my senses at once.
"Please. Let this help you." I could hear Aro whisper, almost to nobody in particular before the door opened and several dog like creatures…coyotes…were released into the room.
Not being able to hold back I all but flew from my position in the bed and began to feed.
The taste was like I remembered. Kind of gross. Like a stew mixed with a poorly made curry. A muddle of earthy flavors, none that were particularly satisfying but it was better than nothing. My throat felt better and my mind came back into focus. I looked down to see nine Coyotes laying dead on the floor, some of them broken and others looking almost peaceful.
The colors and scenes in my mind had faded and my mind instead was instantly called to the man I could sense outside of my room.
"Aro." I said, almost desperately, wanting him next to me. This was all so confusing. So fast but so vivid. More than anything I had ever known but happening almost as if life were in fastforward.
"Wait." I could Carlisle insist but instead, the door flew open, Aro flying through it and in a single motion gathering me close.
"Oh amore mio, come mi hai fatto preoccupare." He whispered into my hair, his his hand caressing the side of my face and the other holding my waist steady.
I had no clue what he was saying nor did I care. I missed him. It was like I just realized just how long I had locked myself away. It felt like ten minutes but yet it was three days.
I clung to Aro, my eyes finally opening to see Carlisle at the doorway flanked by Edward who was shockingly defined as well as the honey haired vampire from the fight with the Romanians.
"Annabelle." Carlisle's familiar and comforting voice spoke carefully. "How are you feeling?"
It took me a moment but I found my voice, breaking a silence I wasn't aware was so loud. "I'm fine." I only partially lied.
At the sound of my voice, Aro grasped me tighter before turning me to look at him, both hands secured on my shoulders. His piercing red eyes captured mine with such urgency I could not look away.
"Do not shut me out like that again. You tortured me so." He said firmly before I nodded once and he gathered me close once more.
"Annabelle, this is my son, Jasper. He and Edward have been talking and they are curious about what happened after you fed on that man in the woods." Carlisle gestured to the vampire who's name I did not know yet.
"Carlisle. She has just once again allowed us near. I must ask you not to upset her again so soon." Aro said harshly. A tone I have learned to associate with him making orders rather than suggestions.
"And I am sorry, Aro. But you have asked me to look out for her well being as I would any of my other children and I am. We need to see if what Edward and Jasper thing may be happening is correct. We can't let her keep starving herself like that."
"And she will not. It was her first time. Surely that takes a tole on all newborns." Aro suggested but the man named Jasper shook his head.
"I know you haven't had to deal with newborns in quite some time. But when have you known one to behave like that? Even after their first meal?"
Aro did not seem happy in the slightest at what Jasper had to say nor did he seem interested in interacting with him at all. It was as if the idea of handling these matters with anyone other than someone he saw as in charge was silly. Instead, he kept his stare fixed on Carlisle.
"Fine. But only because I see what Edward spoke of. It is unlike any response I have encountered before." Aro said finally before once again turning his attention to me "My dear Annabelle, please tell us what has disturbed you so very much. I cannot bear to see you in so much turmoil."
I looked at him for a long moment before looking to the three vampires who had stepped in from the doorway, my gaze wandering to meet Edward's who stayed silent although I am certain he already knew what I was about to say.
"The man in the woods." I began, looking to Aro begging him with my eyes to understand. "I think I knew him."
