* Content Warning: Depictions of abuse and domestic violence *

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Short Sad Life

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - 12 Years Ago

Brianna's bedroom door stood like a sentinel, that kept the horrible voices from reaching out and grabbing her, as angry shouts echoed down the hall. She was curled up under her blankets with her favorite stuffed animal, a mangy black wolf named Lilly. She couldn't help but peek out from under the blankets at the door and the light shining in from beneath it.

Her parents fought like this all the time, or sometimes it felt that way. She squeezed her wolf tighter. "It's okay Lilly. Everything will be okay." She whispered, trying to reassure the toy. She didn't understand that it was really herself she was trying to console.

Then she heard her mother scream some words she didn't understand. There was a large crash, of what sounded like a dish breaking, followed by a masculine bellow of rage, and a much smaller scream from her mother. She heard the sound of something hitting the wall with a heavy yet dull thud, then her mother cried hoarsely in a way that even a four year old could tell was begging. "No, no!"

After a long moment of silence, she heard a strange thump, immediately followed by several more that slowly changed into a wet squelching sound she didn't understand. Then it was quiet, no more yelling, no more weird banging, nothing. The quiet made her even more frightened for some reason. It stayed that way for several long minutes before anything happened.

The commotion that followed was even stranger than the thumping, there was grunting and whispered mutterings that sounded like daddy's bad words, something being dragged into the bathroom, the shower curtain being moved around a lot, then more dragging. After another long silence there was more grunting and dragging, that moved towards the front of the house. Finally the front door opened and slammed shut, although the time between it being opened and shut took way longer than usual.

She wanted to go out of her room and make sure everything was okay. But she had learned her lesson the one time she had tried to venture out and found her crying mother. Her mother slapped her across the face, a fiercely angry expression on her face, then screamed at her to get back to her room. She ran back terrified, and once inside her bedroom she huddled up under her covers and didn't leave again until morning. That was the first and last time she ever acted on her curiosity.

She told Lilly, "It's a good thing when the door slams, mostly. Because that means that the fighting is over."

She woke up still curled around her wolf, she rubbed her eyes because it was still dark. She stood on her bed and peaked out the window to see that the sun hadn't risen yet. She hopped down and tiptoed tentatively to the door, pressing her ear against it to make sure her dad wasn't up. But she couldn't hear anything coming from the other side of the door. She slowly ventured out of her room, only to find her dad was already awake and busy.

After the night before she didn't want to startle him, and she made sure to leave Lilly on her bed where she'd be safe. She was confused because everything looked clean, the dull white paint on the walls no longer had scuff marks, and the kitchen was gleaming. Then she realized most of the stuff in the living room and kitchen was gone too, and her dad was carrying a box of stuff from his bedroom to his truck.

He didn't even spare her a glance as he made a few more trips in and out of the house. She knew better than to bother him when he was busy like this, so she made a piece of bread with peanut butter for breakfast. She wasn't allowed to use the toaster or she got paddled.

She had barely finished her meager breakfast when her dad grabbed her roughly by the arm and pulled her out of her chair. "Where are we going daddy?" She asked him plaintively as he walked her out the door and towards the truck.

"Your mother ran away," he practically spat the words out, "we have to leave now."

"When will we come back?" She asked him as she stood next to the truck, while he checked the ties on the ropes. She clearly didn't understand.

"We can't come back." He said harshly.

She turned and tried to dash back into the house. She made it two steps before he had grabbed her arm again and jerked her back, his face contorted with rage. "Don't you ever run from me you ugly little bitch or I'll fucking kill you!" She let out a terrified squeal as he threw her into the crowded cab of the truck, a pile of clothes between her and the passenger side door. Her clothes.

"Lilly!" She cried out tears pouring down her face, "I can't leave her!"

Her dad ignored her as he slid into the driver's seat and started the truck up. When they began to drive away, the girl sobbed piteously and let out a long wail. She didn't want to go with him, she didn't know where her mama was, and she was leaving her only friend behind.

She was cut off by two hard sharp slaps that made her face explode in pain. It made her jaw fall open and she couldn't close it right. "Stop that noise or I'll give you something to cry about!" he snapped viciously at her. The four year old girl stopped crying, even though her face was on fire. That was the moment she learned that tears got you nothing but pain.

Abandoned Cabin, British Columbia - 85 years ago

The wood was fragile beneath the power of her fists. The structure itself collapsed within minutes. Yet she kept pounding the wood into pulp, from the shoddy roof down to the poured concrete anchors, until there was practically nothing to indicate anything resembling a building had once sat on this land. She had been sitting in the rubble for a while as a heavy rain cleaned her face and hands, although the blood on her stolen clothes didn't completely wash away.

She had been a victim until emerging from her tomb, and slaughtered everything in her path that breathed. Until she devoured an entire family camping far too deep in the Canadian wilderness. That brought her down, as she lowered a teenage boy to the ground. It was the first sense of self she had felt in a long time, filtered down into her conscious mind and the horror of what she'd done finally sunk in. She had the presence of mind to rummage through their belongings for some clothes, and then ran back to the cabin, not sure where else to go. After destroying it, she crumpled to the forest floor and wept without tears.

After an immeasurable length of time, something broke through her private living nightmare and the emotions that were strangling her so completely, finally released her from their iron grip. An oddly bright thought blossomed in her dark anger riddled mind, she was free.

She started running before she thought about a destination until she found a road, then followed it to the first signpost 'Victoria - 100km'. The name made her seethe, but reigned in the rage. She couldn't let herself fly out of control upon seeing the relatively common name. So she stared up at the sun, and turned due south and ran until she reached water. For a human that would've been the end of the road, but for her she simply waded in and dove under the frigid depths, swimming in a straight line until she reached the other side. The highway butted right up against the water, and she knew it would lead her back towards home. She took off at full speed, and the run was exhilarating, even more so than when he carried her. She pushed that thought away and focused on the moment. Less than an hour later she crossed into Forks proper.

Less than a minute later she was at her house, or where it used to stand. She stared at the empty lot, the building that had stood her entire life just gone. The only remains were the old swing she spent countless hours in as child, a few paces behind it was something she'd mistaken on her run in for a large rock. The strange object seemed to beckon her, and she found herself walking towards it with a mounting sense of dread.

Someone had carefully engraved words into the oval shaped rock. It was obviously meant to be a gravestone, or some sort of memorial. She couldn't make herself read it until she got within a few feet, then her eyes moved across the surface. Each letter hardened her features as her entire world stopped. She sank down to her knees in front of it, lost beyond words and traced the text with one careful finger again and again.

Charlie Swan.

Police Chief, Forks Washington

Loving Father, Loyal Friend

He Never Stopped Searching,

May He Find Her in Another Life

She found herself weeping again. For once she was grateful for the pouring rain, it mimicked the tears she could no longer make as the cold droplets rolled down her face. The rain also gave her privacy. No one saw her, or came to talk to her, wondering about a figure crouched in front of a gravestone in the rain.

It was a long time before she once again gathered herself, and with a renewed purpose made a beeline out of town. She didn't want to think, but she had to know how long. She stopped at a convenience store on the highway north towards Port Angeles. The guy behind the counter didn't even look up at her as the door chimed. She moved to the newspaper rack, and looked at the date…

"Ten years." She muttered to herself as a feeling of helplessness washed through her, it felt so profound that her entire sense of self was shattered. That helplessness folded in on itself into something horrible, something beyond hatred or anger. This new feeling took the breath from her dead lungs, and burned behind her eyes like the fires of Hell.

She had nowhere to go. No one to turn to, except this monstrous inhuman fury. The blackness of this new rage made her still, burning away all her sympathy and heartache, leaving only guilt and hate. Until finally a strange clarity came to her, bringing with it an idea, a memory. Something he had mentioned once. A sharp hatred rose up at the very recollection of him this time. But she recalled that conversation he'd deemed to share with her about his fake father and the time he spent in Volterra, with the Volturi. The rulers of the vampire world, the only place vampires could go to die if they wished.

In her darkness, rage, and guilt... The final release of death was all that was all she wished.

Silverton, Idaho - 6 Years Ago

Brianna's right arm was still tender when she woke up with a start from the unmistakable sound of the front door slamming. A sound that echoed in her nightmares practically every night. This time it slammed so hard that the house shook slightly. She looked up from the couch in horror at the clock. She had fallen asleep in front of the TV and he was home. She stood up to run to her bedroom before he could see her, but her ten year old legs faltered and she tripped over her own feet, falling face first towards the hard tiled floor. Instinctively she threw out her arms to stop her fall, only to earn an intense jolt of pain that shot up her injured arm.

She started to scramble to her feet but his hand closed on her already sore arm and yanked her up. Her shoulder dislocated again with a dull pop as he spun her around to face him. "You thought you could stay up because I wasn't home?!" He half screamed, half slurred and only inches from her face. She could smell the distinct scent of beer, cigarettes, and scotch on his breath. She'd learned that the different types of booze he drank had slightly different effects on his mood, this combination was almost the worst.

"No, daddy I just fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons, I'm sorry!" She pleaded, but it didn't matter. She flinched before his hand even started to swing. The slap across her cheek tickled the place where her jaw had been broken years before, and not in a good way.

"Need to teach you a lesson just like your mother!" He snarled at her. He reached down and fumbled with the belt with his free hand, in awkward jerks he pulled it from around his waist. She wasn't sure what he was going to do but she didn't like the ugly look on his face.

He spent several seconds trying to fold the belt into a loop, before finally giving up and just folding it in half. Then he dragged her over to the couch and bent her over onto the cushions. He pulled her pajama bottoms down and then the first welt flared across her exposed skin. The resulting explosion of pain was something she knew well, but could never quite get used to. She couldn't hold in her shrieks, which only seemed to encourage him to keep going. Again, and again, and again. Involuntary tears welled up in her eyes, so she shut them hard to keep the moisture from falling down her hot cheeks.

After the fifth or fiftieth lash, she wasn't sure, he released her arm and she slid off the couch, trying desperately to reign in her uncontrollable sobs. "Crying!" He paused to snort a hard laugh. "Reminds me of your mother, you're a filthy little whore just like her aren't you? Keep it up and I'll really give you something to cry about!" She tried to pull her emotions inside, and wiped the tears from her face with her working forearm, but they still kept falling. He slapped her once to make her stop, but when it caused more tears to come he closed his fist. After the third punch he pulled back, and sighed. "Now get your hideous face out of my sight!" He didn't even bother looking at her as he turned and stumbled into the kitchen. She managed to get to her feet, but she had to hold onto every piece of furniture and wall for support.

Once she was back in her room she tried several times to pop her loose shoulder back in place until it finally did. She had to keep her mouth tightly closed around her screams to remain as silent as possible. Then she crawled onto her thin mattress, which was covered in dirty sheets that he had refused to give her the quarters to wash. The miserable excuse for a bed was laying directly on the cold tile floor, which meant she could never seem to get warm in the winter. At nights she would shiver herself to sleep, wishing she still had Lilly to hold onto.

She slid under her meager covers, forced to lay on her stomach. Her bottom was still burning, and a little bloody. She wanted to wash off the blood, but didn't dare leave her room again. She wished she had some place to run to, or somewhere better to hide. She fantasized about running far away from him, but no one would help an ugly little whore like her. Even at school they treated her like the monster she knew she was, hideous and miserable. No wonder no one wanted to be her friend.

She listened with fear for any sort of follow-up, but it was clear after a while that he'd fallen asleep in his easy chair. Eventually she managed to drift into a restless sleep. The last thing she remembered thinking was that she wouldn't be able to go to school the next day since he hit her in the face again. The last time that happened a man came and talked to her dad and asked some questions and then told her dad he'd be back to check on her every week for three months. After the man left she got a whipping so hard that she couldn't sit down for two days.

Her dreams drifted in and out of nightmares, until she found herself in the middle of a vast untouched forest shrouded in thick shadows. A darkly dressed woman with pale white skin and waves of long dark hair was staring at her curiously. Her eyes were a deep unnatural red, and should've been frightening, but for some reason Brianna felt safe under their gaze. The woman stood completely still like some kind of living statue, until she rushed towards her with a speed that couldn't be real. Brianna flinched ready for the pain she knew was about to come, but instead she found herself being lifted into the air with that same unnatural speed. Then the woman let go, and she found herself flying. High above the clouds to places she knew she would never see in real life.

The descent back to the real world was a rough one. Brianna ached everywhere, her face and backside the worst it had ever been. Her shoulder throbbed relentlessly, and he was standing over her looking furious. He gathered up the clothes she had folded in a corner of the floor, and then ordered her to follow him. The truck was already idling, and she knew what that meant, they were leaving again. He tossed her stuff in the cab, then practically threw her in after them. Once they were underway he turned and said, "If we have to move one more time because of you, I swear I'll kill you, you ungrateful little bitch."

Volterra - 82 Years Ago

"Elizabeth, please sit." Isabella motioned for the young vampire to take a chair opposite her.

"Mamãe?" Elizabeth sat as requested, but gave her a worried look. Afraid she had done something wrong. It had been less than twenty-four hours since arriving in Volterra, and the girl was terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing.

"Don't worry, I'm not upset with you, and you've done nothing wrong." Isabella managed to convey the softness her words expressed without modulating her tone. "We have to talk about our situation here."

"Eu não des." Elizabeth's voice was small, and somehow Isabella understood what she meant, 'I don't understand'. She stared at the eerily similar features the girl had somehow adopted. In a lot of ways it was almost like looking in a mirror.

"Do you want to be here with me?" Isabella asked after a moment, her tone kind and soft which was oddly easy with this girl. That kind of sentiment would've been impossible to duplicate with literally anyone else.

"Sim, mamãe." Elizabethth said, before frowning. "Yes, mama. I never learned English, how can I speak it?" Her voice and accent was very close to Isabella's and it made the strange transformation even stranger.

"I wish I knew." Isabella said through a deep frown of her own. "Can you hear this?" She managed to order her thoughts into a coherent sentence.

"Yes." Elizabeth said out loud. "Can you hear me?"

"This is insane, but yes I can. Not even he could read my thoughts." Isabella grinned slightly at the idea this girl was more powerful than Edward Cullen.

"Edward." Elizabeth said softly out loud.

"Yes Edward. Look, he is a problematic figure in my past. So let's promise each other to never speak of people that we would rather forget." Isabella explained through this peculiar new connection.

"I promise." Elizabeth thought back with a shy hopeful smile.

"Do you know what we are?" Isabella asked out loud.

"Vampire. Like Dracula or the Lost Boys." Elizabeth said after a second of thought.

"How do you know that?" Isabella asked through the link, feeling creeped out by the potential answer.

"From you. I saw everything… even… we were both hurt. You saved me." Elizabeth already felt comfortable with this telepathic communication, even more than Isabella.

Isabella looked deeply into the odd purple eyes of this new presence in her life and realized she already had a way to define their relationship. Sure she declared the girl her daughter, but it was a defensive action. Yet the more she thought about it, the stronger the emotional pull she felt.

"Do you understand what you mean to me?" Isabella finally asked through the link.

"I am your daughter?" Elizabeth said, her face twisted slightly in excitement, anticipation and a strong fear of rejection.

"Yes, now and forever." Isabella sent along with a few images of motherhood that resonated with her, including one of her own mother. The declaration restated clearly and without even a second of hesitation. "Do you accept me?"

"Yes." Elizabeth said across the link, her whole body shaking from emotion and tears were starting to form in her eyes. "I love you mama." She said out loud a second later.

Isabella wasn't sure how to handle that declaration. It wasn't as if her own emotions were clear, from the first moment she woke up connected to this girl she knew she was her family. Love just didn't come naturally to her anymore.

"I know I won't say this enough. The part of me that would be affectionate is broken, but I love you Elizabeth, unconditionally." The words didn't feel hollow or fake to Isabella. She knew in what was left of her heart that she loved this girl as if she were her own flesh and blood.

Then the girl smiled, and the expression quickly turned playful, "I think I like Eliza, rather than Lizzy."

Seattle, Washington - September 7th

Brianna's father wised up after their last move, and was never stupid enough to hit her in the face again. He didn't let up the violence, he was just smart enough not to hit here where it would show. Mostly it was bruising, but a couple of times he grabbed her too hard and broke her arm or dislocated her shoulder again. Enough that she had accumulated injuries over time that covered her entire body twice over.

She thought she had seen the worst of it, having suffered through almost every type of violence a drunk man could inflict. Except somehow he upped his game, and it had been getting worse for months. For the most part she had learned to avoid him when he was drunk or angry, but it wasn't a fool proof strategy when he went out and she couldn't always estimate when he would come home. At times it felt like he was looking for ways to punish her. He wouldn't even have to be drunk, merely crossing his path in the house was enough to earn her a shove at the very least.

On this night a few days shy of her birthday, he had come home drunk again, smelling of Tequila. She was sound asleep, and was awakened when he wrapped his hands around her ankles and pulled her out of bed. She realized instantly what was about to happen and did her best to remain limp, because the beatings weren't as bad if she cooperated. This time though, instead of hitting her, he slurred out, "come here, give me a kiss baby."

She noticed that the Tequila wasn't the only thing he was on, and his eyes were glassy and a bit wide and wild. She braced herself for the first wave of abuse, only to flinch when he tried to kiss her. The flinch was enough to stoke his anger, and in response his hand closed around her neck. He leaned into her as he started to choke her, as he began to scream in her face.

"You think you're too good for me Franny? You rotten whore… no… Bree…" He sputtered and shook his head trying to clear his vision, then his face shifted and he sneered in disgust. "You're a spoiled brat just like your mother! I'll teach you!"

He started to raise a hand when his chest seized and his mouth ballooned, he turned and ran into the bathroom the sounds of retching soon followed. Brianna sat on the floor stunned and unable to move. After a few minutes she stood and tip-toed towards the bathroom, finding him sprawled on the floor unconscious and drooling. She stared at him for a long moment, tempted to grab something heavy and end her misery. But she could never be violent, not like him. That's when she noticed his wallet, laying on the floor between the doorway and his limp body.

She knew this might be the last chance, if he was starting to confuse her with her mother she was terrified what would happen next. She picked up the wallet only enough to open it and pull out whatever cash he had. Then she padded softly into his room and pulled up the right corner of his bed where he kept his 'savings'. She felt an excitement she had never felt before, despite the terror and knowing if she were caught, he would probably kill her.

Every creak of the floorboards, and ever unexpected noise as she moved through the house felt like a call to him. Yet as she got to her room, she found that the money amounted to barely five hundred, along with the fifty she had managed to save by not eating lunch at school. She thought it might be enough to get a bus somewhere and some food for a few weeks if she was frugal. She moved into her room, got dressed, packed a small bag of her clothes and snuck out of the house.

The walk to the bus station took longer than she hoped, but it was still closed when she got there. She hid behind the building near the trash cans in case he got up and searched for her. Then as the bus depot opened at the crack of dawn she bought the first ticket, that just happened to be going to Seattle. It was such an obvious play, the bus, so her only hope during the hour-long wait was that he would just think she left for school early, like always.

As the seconds ticked by, she tried to not let her hope overwhelm her. She was expecting him to walk through the door any moment, except he didn't and the bus showed up. She checked out the window for his car every few seconds even after she boarded the bus. Then they were off, out of town. It wasn't until they hit the highway that she realized she was finally doing it, she was finally getting away. For the first time in her life she was actually eager for the journey. She knew it wouldn't be easy, she'd have to find a minimum wage job and work hard, but she was hopeful she could find something no matter how menial. She didn't know what was coming, but she was sure of one thing; no matter what lay ahead for her, it couldn't be worse than what she was leaving behind.

London, England - 78 Years Ago

Even the rooftops were icy, finding just the right spot to land forced her prey to be reckless. Dashing and sliding down inclines and otherwise acting like a fool. It almost made her smile, if not for the fact that he had broken one of the laws, a big one. Him and his entire coven were marked for death, and it was now her job to put an end to the violence. She wasn't sure why these vampires decided to draw so much attention, but after weeks of disturbances they were sent by Marcus to investigate and perform their duty.

Execution.

It made Eliza somber, when all she wanted to be was joyful. Which was the only way she could think of to balance out her mother's darkness. This wasn't her first mission, but it was the first shake and bake.

"Shake and bake?" Isabella questioned when the term floated across their link.

"You know, shake out the snakes and then bake them." Eliza responded distractedly, her thoughts mostly focused on the chase.

"You lost me." Isabella responded sounding a bit confused. It wasn't intelligence that made Isabella ignorant of colloquialisms, just an intolerance for anything outside her very narrow worldview. If it wasn't a mission, or related to the Volturi it didn't matter. Her past didn't matter. Her human memories didn't matter. The only exception was Eliza, and while it was important that her mother loved her, at times Eliza wondered if her mother would ever have anything else.

Eliza pushed those thoughts away before Isabella could hear them and responded directly to her question, "bake, as in cook, roast, burn… you know, bake them." She kept her mental tone light, almost as if it were a joke. Despite being a deadly serious affair.

"You mean kill?" Isabella responded with a touch of irritation.

"Yes, I mean kill." Eliza replied with a touch of sadness.

"You can say the word, there's no need for euphemisms in our line of work." Isabella partially scolded, although Eliza knew there was no anger or real disappointment behind the correction.

"Says the woman who is becoming known as the Volturi Assassin." Eliza bantered back, feeling a spike of displeasure from her mother. Isabella was not fond of the term, and while she considered herself a weapon for their coven, to be considered an actual assassin rubbed her the wrong way.

"You'll get a nickname too." Isabella's response almost made Eliza stumble, it wasn't like her mother to be playful at all.

"I don't want one." Eliza tried to play it off, in secret she had always wanted a fun nickname. Maybe something like a call sign, Red 5 came to mind immediately.

"Yes you do." Isabella gave the impression of a smirk.

"Fine, how about Princess Pony?" Eliza tried not to giggle at the in-joke, although if she were being honest with herself, she still wanted that pony.

"If you like, but if Caius hears the word Pony again he might just order your execution." Eliza actually had to pause for a moment to hold in her laughter, using the opportunity to scan for her prey, spotting a silhouette against some security lights on top of a stretch of row houses. "Now focus, this one is yours."

"Yes mom." Eliza basically muttered across the link, which was a weird sensation of understanding the words but not quite hearing them clearly. Isabella shook that off and continued her own pursuit of the other main culprit, they had already dispatched one. So if the intel was right, these two were all that was left.

She pushed herself harder, closing the gap between her and her quarry. The tiles beneath her feet became a blur as she bounded from rooftop to rooftop barely touching the next surface. The vampire was tall, easily over six foot, and broad at the shoulder. Nimble and a bit reckless, he had driven them all the way to the riverfront. The beige brick buildings converted into ground floor shops and upper floor apartments were mostly empty. A few lights betrayed the life asleep within.

He dropped down several stories into a sloped alleyway with four way access. One way leading towards the water, another a pedestrian pathway, the next an underpass beneath a museum and last a quiet street with several non-descript buildings grouped so close together they shared walls.

She followed him down to the ground, but somehow in the handful of seconds when he was out of view he had somehow disappeared. She stopped, closed her eyes and expanded her senses as best she could to catch his trail. It took less than a second to pick him up heading north along the sleepy street. The only evidence of his presence was a scent line and a busted latch on a door halfway down the street.

She had cloaked herself as soon as she landed, she began to follow moving at human speed in case there were any cameras in the vicinity. The door had creaky hinges, and the sound seemed to reverberate throughout the stairwell leading to several landings with thick doors painted black. Each apartment was indicated by a number and letter, with three units per floor.

Eliza kept her pace slow and quiet, finding the right door based on the broken lock and the clear traces of the sweet fragrance left behind by a younger vampire. The long hallway was empty, the unit clearly unoccupied. The large room at the end of the hall was the primary living room, with a small attached kitchen. There in the center of the room he stood, waiting with his hands behind his back and a smirk on his lips. She examined him closely, he was totally unaware of her presence, so she checked the other rooms first. Finding two other vampires waiting to ambush her.

She had to spring the trap but signaled her mother first, "Ma, there are three here instead of two. We must've missed something."

"Can you handle it?" Isabella sent back along their link, a slightly worried bent to her thoughts.

"Yeah, they're just kids. I'll figure it out." Eliza sent back a sense of confidence along with images of the three vampires in question. Two men and a woman, each roughly a year into their transition. They had been fairly young as humans, with the second male clearly the youngest at no more than sixteen. She moved into the hallway and dropped her cloak, there was no reason to reveal her gift in front of him. She moved into the room, and the vampire's smirk twisted into a devilish grin.

"Volturi." He said with a hint of satisfied joy.

"That's not my name, but nice guess." Eliza said without her usual mirth, her lips drawn in a tight line.

"You won't have a name for long." He said with a sneer as his two companions tried to sneak up on her. The younger male reached out towards her shoulder, which she ducked below and turned to grab ahold of his arm. She used an all too familiar motion to dislocate his shoulder, which effectively removed his arm at the joint. Then used the appendage to knock him aside the head and into the older male who shrieked in shock and fear. In the next split second, Eliza moved around the woman, grabbing both her arms and forcing her to the ground in front of her. Her two male companions righted themselves, although the one missing an arm was more focused on his shoulder than anything else.

Eliza frowned slightly and sighed. "Yes I'm Volturi, and your coven has violated the law. We do not give second chances, so you will tell me right now who exposed themselves to humans?"

"It was the boy." The older male said without hesitation. His younger companion looked at him in shock and confusion.

Eliza applied some pressure to the woman's arms making her yelp in pain, "is that true?"

"No, it wasn't him. It was me and me alone." The woman tried, shaking her head and looking up at Eliza.

"Shut up Miriam!" The older male vampire shouted at her, taking a step forward. Eliza warned him off with a warning glare, and he moved his foot back in fear.

"I know that isn't true, and I appreciate the attempt at loyalty. However, I know you were not seen, there was no report of a woman in your coven." Eliza explained, doing the math. Counting the first they killed, the one Isabella was chasing and the two in front of her. Four were seen feeding and caught on video, the upload was blurry but it was clearly four men. The video was quickly debunked by the Volturi assets in the media, but the violation was clear, and the boy had participated.

"He's only sixteen. Please, don't kill him." Miriam begged.

"I'm sorry." Eliza's face tightened as she flashed forward, the boy was headless within the blink of an eye and the other followed in the next instant. They both looked almost comical as their bodies collapsed to the ground like puppets whose strings were cut. She dropped their heads and stared at Miriam whose jaw was clinched in rage.

"Murderer!" The woman spit out loudly, her body was shaking with anger.

"It had to be done. We cannot tolerate this kind of exposure. You will do well to find a coven that can follow that basic rule." Eliza tried, but she knew the woman couldn't hear her. She glanced down at her own handiwork and sighed before meeting the woman's angry gaze again.

"How is this anything other than murder? He was turned less than a year ago, how can you just kill a sixteen year old boy?" The woman's voice was starting to quiver, filled with more sadness than rage.

"Justice, not murder, and I have done you a favor by overlooking your mistake in harboring them." Eliza countered, using the excuse that had been drilled into her since she had become an enforcer.

"Oh, so magnanimous." Miriam said with a sneer, shaking her head in disgust.

"I'm just an enforcer. We follow the law. He broke the law." Sure she was a full member of the coven, a Volturi princess, yet despite her title, they still went on missions. Perhaps too often.

"An enforcer with purple eyes, I think our world should remember that, because you're nothing but an executioner for your masters." Miriam said indignantly.

"So be it, now go before I change my mind or my partner shows up and takes your head." Eliza motioned for the door, and the woman barely hesitated before running, pausing only as she crossed the threshold to look back for a fleeting second. Once she was alone, Eliza looked down at the teenager she had killed, his expression had shifted to one of terror.

"I'm sorry kid." She muttered mostly to herself, as she heard her mother enter the apartment.

"I've already called the cleaners. Let's get out of here." Isabella said, looking down at the bodies. "Good work."

"I guess, let's go." Eliza felt a bit empty, and left without looking back, but the expression on the boy's face stuck with her for years.

Seattle, Washington - November, 15th

The days following Brianna's arrival in the city, which was much larger and more complex than she had ever imagined, she found the first direct consequence of running away; She was now homeless. Without an address she couldn't find a job. Even though she was willing to take on any chore or any task if someone had given her half a chance. She knew there was another option, but refused to sell her body… yet. Not that she imagined many would find her appealing.

Most of the shelters had a line, and arriving too late meant missing a chance at a bed and a hot meal. It was also a risk, if someone noticed how young she looked, they might call social services and that would be a one-way ticket back to him. Or worse, she would end up in the system. Placed in a home or a foster family that might be worse than living with her father. So she avoided going whenever she could.

Most nights she was so cold, even colder than sleeping on that miserable bed on the tile floor. She had learned how to keep warm the hard way. While the combination of huddling in an alcove of a building, using an old tarp she scavenged to keep away the rain, and judicious use of cardboard to provide a bit of warmth, she made do, but it was never enough.

Necessity forced her to learn to beg, steal and scavenge for money and food in the most anywhere and anytime she could. She avoided the drug pushers and gangs, and learned to spot the predators who prowled for victims in the night. She couldn't fight, but she could run and she was determined to survive. That resolve was waning though, the bitter cold sapping her will to live. It was December and she hadn't been prepared for the frigid Seattle nights. If she hadn't been so desperate to escape she might have thought about going somewhere warmer.

It was late on a Wednesday and she hadn't made enough over the last few days for a nice dinner at a restaurant and room for the night which meant a shower for the first time in weeks. It was also getting late enough that the spots for the closest shelter were probably gone already. The gamble hadn't paid off, but the cold would be setting in soon so she was about to wrap up and head to her usual spot for the night.

"Hey there, are you okay?" A voice said, startling her. Brianna had been scanning the street every few seconds to check for danger, and had no idea how this person had materialized above her. She looked up to see a pale but impossibly beautiful face. The woman was exotic looking, her tailored fancy clothes and large gold jewelry gave her a distinct style and presence. Dark hair framed her face, and nearly black penetrating eyes seemed to be examining her intently, although Brianna had no idea why. She was momentarily worried this was maybe an off duty cop or a detective, but the clothes were too rich for that to be the case.

"I'm fine, could you spare some change for food?" Brianna asked, putting on a hopeful but somewhat pathetic smile.

"You look cold, and hungry. Why don't you let me get you a bite to eat, a burger or something?" The stranger smiled brightly, and Brianna's worry faded. This was just a nice person trying to help. Brianna nodded, she looked back and forth between the hand and her face several times before reaching out to accept her offer. It struck her as a little weird that the woman's cold fingers almost matched the chill settling in, her hand also felt harder than normal, and the grip reminded her of her father.

"My name is Aliyah. Let's go get you that bite." The strange woman's voice was slightly sharper than the smile on her face, as he pulled Brianna to her feet. Then she tugged on her arm to get her moving.

Cullen Residence, February 2nd

Isabella felt the world return as she began to regain consciousness. She felt severely disoriented, and it took her far too long to become fully aware of her surroundings, using her hearing and sense of smell first. It took her another minute to force the images swirling around her head away. The things she just witnessed made her want to kill. That asshole's thoughtless and selfish acts of brutality brought Isabella's beast caged deeply inside of her far too close to the surface. She had a deep almost irresistible urge to eviscerate the man she'd seen in those memories, teaching him a lesson he wouldn't live through.

Isabella was about to give into that temptation when the oddest of sensations filtered through, a soothing sense of calm wafted through her body and combated her immediate urges. She felt inclined in a weird position, partially supported under the back of her thighs, the small of her back, and her head. Most strangely, there was the feeling of something running through her hair lightly and repeatedly. Most of all, a wonderful and alien sense of reassuring joy seemed to invade her. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself staring up towards Alice who was holding her without restraining her in any way, and caressing her hair.

"Alice." She felt the smile on her face as she pushed herself up. "Where are they?" She asked a second later as she realized what had happened. Her mind space in the link somehow had broadened to accommodate another mind. She could feel Brianna's presence, and felt both conflicted and relieved.

"Upstairs, Leah is with them. She was the only one that could get close." Carlisle said with a shrug, he was close but not too close. Sitting on a nearby chair. Isabella noted that she and Alice were on the couch.

"That tracks, anything else I should know?" Isabella said somewhat sarcastically, not really wanting to move yet.

"Your eyes are brighter." Alice said with a bright smile, "and I think your hair is somehow a bit longer."

"That happened last time, I gained half a foot. Brighter huh, so let me guess they look like rubies or something." Isabella grumbled, she had just done a trim the other day before leaving for Seattle.

"Pretty much, they do look like gemstones." Alice said in wonder, her hand moving up to Isabella's cheek and caressed a line down her face, the action not entirely consciously done. Isabella felt herself press into the touch a bit, and in turn Alice cupped her cheek and peered into Isabella's gaze unflinchingly with a look of need that Isabella could almost feel in her bones.

Isabella started to feel self-conscious under the intensity of Alice's gaze, and smacked her lips with a wry smile forming. "You're staring."

"Sorry, can't help it." Alice said a little breathlessly, just being able to actually stare into those eyes felt like a gift and for her part Isabella didn't look away. "She's okay."

"Yeah, I think I knew that. It's gonna take some time though, Brianna's been through a lot. We'll need to be patient with her." Isabella reluctantly sat up and finally drew her eyes away from Alice glancing around the room.

"Like what?" Rosalie asked, drawing Isabella's attention.

"Sixteen years of physical and mental abuse, and then she ran away only to be experimented on by the people that took her in." Isabella said bluntly, causing most of the room to flinch. Kate and Tanya looked almost as if they had been slapped, yet both remained silent.

"How long was I out?" Isabella looked at Alice, but Carlisle spoke up first as Alice opened her mouth to answer.

"Almost five hours." He sounded upset for some reason, perhaps still stewing over the confrontation with Edward. Then after a beat of hesitation he decided to expand on his answer, though his voice clearly reflected his puzzlement. "You sort of…blacked out. You said Eliza's name and then collapsed. Alice was able to get you up and onto the couch, and you've been completely still since. She's the only one that you allowed close to you, you started thrashing anytime any of the rest of us moved within a few feet."

Isabella sighed, and looked at Alice. "I assume Leah is upstairs." Alice immediately nodded, and held out a hand. Isabella looked at it for a second, before taking it and together they practically flew up to the office. She knew at least some followed them up, probably the usual suspects, like Carlisle and Esme, possibly Rosalie and the two Denali sisters that seemed to have the most guilt about their reaction to finding Brianna.

"Hey." Leah said, looking up at Isabella. Along with Alice they both knelt down next to the couch where Eliza and Brianna were lying clutched tightly to each other. "They just started to move, a few seconds ago when you woke up." Then she looked over at Isabella with crystal clear anguish in her eyes. She lingered in that unspoken plea for reassurance before she turned back to watch Eliza.

"She's fine, she just did something very stupid." Isabella reassured, slowly putting a hand of reassurance on Leah's shoulder. Leah instinctively put her hand over top of Isabella's without thinking. The simple familial contact made Isabella almost gasp, she hadn't realized how much she already accepted Leah into her life. A part of her expecting to have that voice around forever, mostly because she could already feel how Eliza felt about the wolf.

"What happened? What did she do?" Esme asked, her voice was full of concern, more than might normally be warranted.

"It's a long painful story. We'll explain in time." Isabella said, looking over at Esme, answering easily without anger. Esme's eyes rounded slightly, as she realized something had changed between them. She finally let herself hope that maybe she could have something of a relationship with her lost daughter. At least more of a hope than even earlier in the day.

"So Eliza knew she could safely suck the venom out of the girl?" Carlisle asked, finally speaking up again.

Isabella shook her head slowly, "Not exactly. Eliza figured out something we hadn't realized before. I think she was trying to duplicate what happened when we first met, and I think she succeeded."

"I can give her as good a bill of health as a cursory inspection can allow, the gray lines are gone, the darkness under her eyes has vanished and she has a healthy skin tone now." Carlisle looked pleased, but reverted to his usual clinical voice. Not entirely sure how to handle all these conflicting emotions.

"Mama?" Eliza's mind shouted out causing Isabella to flinch. Brianna's mine, which was also very quiet, was startled awake at the outburst.

"Where am I?" Brianna thought, unintentionally sending it through the link.

Eliza opened her eyes, sat up and immediately hugged Leah, and then her mom and then after only a second of hesitation Alice. Alice was the tightest of the three embraces, because the simple act let her know that Eliza had accepted her into their lives. It was almost more than Alice could process, but everything was moving fast now, and she was learning to roll with it. She pulled away reluctantly after a few seconds and smiled sheepishly at Eliza, who just chuckled. Brianna woke up a few seconds later, sitting up looking very confused. Her bright blue eyes darted around the room with the kind of fear she had when she was first brought into the house.

"It's okay, you're safe and you're healed." Alice said as she turned to Brianna, her wide smile open and happy. Brianna picked up her arms and stared at the bare skin, her eyes widening and a bright smile curling at her lips.

"How?" Her voice was slightly different, and Brianna made a mental note of how she sounded. For the second time in her life she had woken up with a slightly different voice, and wondered what else was different about her body. That's when she noticed her hair had darkened slightly, instead of a bright red it was auburn now. Her freckles were all but gone on her arms, and her body had filled out some in the bust and hips. She felt better than she ever did as a vampire, and everything around her was somehow sharper, brighter and louder.

"You're welcome." Eliza said, rubbing the back of her neck after letting go of Leah.

"You did this?" Brianna said, looking over at Eliza.

"Yep, although I still can't quite explain why it worked. And I don't recommend it, I feel like I was hit by a truck." Eliza felt exhausted, but smiled tiredly and chuckled softly.

"That doesn't matter. Could we have some privacy please? Family only." Isabella asked, looking around the room. Rosalie nodded and glanced at Brianna before leaving. Tanya gave Isabella a warm smile and left as well. Kate kind of waved at the family before following her sister. Carlisle pursed his lips and gave a sharp nod before turning and leaving. Esme hesitated slightly before reluctantly leaving. Then after a few seconds both Alice and Leah started to leave, and Isabella shook her head.

"Not you two." Isabella said with a subtle smile, as Leah and Alice looked at each other and shared a look of relief and mutual satisfaction that they were accepted into this strange little family.

"I guess I'll go too." Brianna said as she got to her feet with a happy little dance now that her legs worked.

"That's the thing Brianna, we need to talk to you about what just happened." Isabella said before Brianna started to move. Alice stood up next to Isabella, but Eliza just pulled Leah into her lap, wrapping her arms around the wolf. Leah didn't resist in the slightest, snuggling into the embrace and marveling at how well they fit together.

"Okay." She looked at the four of them warily, they were the ones that defended her. She felt a connection to them, loved them for what they had done for her. Yet she knew deep down that she wasn't worthy of their compassion.

"Brianna, did you hear us talking about a vision?" Alice asked with a gentle tone and hopeful smile.

"A little, I didn't understand." Brianna heard everything, and the idea of visions of the future terrified her to no end. Even more than that was the context of those visions, that she was going to be a part of this family. That they would love her, and treat her as valued. It was everything she wanted, and yet she had this gut feeling like it wasn't going to happen. Yet she waited for Alice's response, for the other shoe to drop, for disappointment and heartache.

"It's okay. I can see the future sometimes. A long time ago I saw you, suffering in an alleyway in Seattle. We found you there, nursed you to health and turned you into one of us. You became a part of our family in that timeline." Alice wasn't sure if her explanation made sense, but Brianna just nodded as if it was perfectly reasonable to have visions of the future.

"I would've liked that I think. Better than Aliyah finding me." Brianna tried to not sound hopeful, and passed off the vision as something other than what was being implied.

"Well, now that you're here, we want you to know that we feel the same way. We would like you to stay, and become a part of our family." Isabella spoke up, her voice clear and confident. She sent waves of love and acceptance over the link.

Brianna felt her chest start to squeeze, and her eyes began to water. She reached up as a tear began to fall feeling very confused. How could she cry, wasn't that gone when she was turned? It was too much, and yet her entire body felt numb with the idea of being a part of something good. Could it be possible to find happiness after becoming a monster?

"Why would you want me?" Brianna finally said after a few seconds of hesitation and confusion.

"Brianna, if you had just tried to help save the Denali that would've been enough. But after seeing what life has dealt to you, I want nothing more than to give you a home. If you'll have me." Isabella could mean it, this had to be a lie. Brianna knew she was in trouble.

Brianna searched through the new memories that she could conjure like a streaming library. She pulled on the one where Isabella asked the same question of Eliza and realized that this was all real. That weird dream was real memories.

Brianna gasped, and then stared at Isabella in shock. "Like you did with Eliza?"

"Exactly." Isabella said with an encouraging smile.

"You want me to be your daughter?" Brianna said with a flat tone of voice, as her mind began to spin, she felt this feral need to protect herself, to get away from this offer. She knew it didn't make sense, that these people only wanted to share their lives with her. These strangers had shown her more kindness than she knew she deserved.

"Yes, and so does Alice. Eliza wants to be your sister." Isabella nodded, her voice soft and welcoming. A stark contrast to the thousands of snippets of memory she had of this woman. Was this a game? No, she could tell it was genuine, this offer was real, and maybe that was worse.

"I can't!" Brianna said through a heavy sob, and then made to bolt out of the house.

"That went well." Eliza said, as she stood to follow. Joined by the rest of her motley family.


Author's Note:

Way back in the day when we original wrote this chapter, we spent a lot of time trying to make sure it didn't go too far. The violence was intolerable, and we didn't want to push the violence so far that it was to difficult to read. At the time we immediately published the last section of this chapter as a palette cleanser, but this time after going through the torture chapter so recently it didn't really seem like there was a point in separating them this time. While the Brianna sections have been touched up and modified slightly (for reasons I will not reveal yet) they were mostly left alone. The rest of the sections are either entirely new or altered somewhat dramatically to line up with the current version of the story. While I imagine this wasn't exactly pleasant to read, I hope you liked the chapter anyway.