I'm so sorry its taken me so long to update this story! August is always a hellish month for me, but never fear, I am writing more for this! Thank you to all of you who have reviewed and favorited my story! It really makes writing so much easier when I know others are enjoying it just as much as I am!
Enjoy!
BPOV
I couldn't believe that I was standing in the Volturi stronghold. I thought I had made it to safety, when we ran out of that fountain and down the alley, but I was very very wrong. We started running back to the hotel, but I had forgotten that their sense of smell far surpassed ours and Shorty One and Shorty Two were waiting for us when we arrived. It was only a matter of time before we were caught and brought here. I had tried to explain to Char before we got to the hotel exactly what was hunting us, including showing her the scar on my wrist to illustrate the severity of how fucked we were, but she refused to believe that the supernatural existed and she thought I'd lost my mind. That was about the point in which we reached the hotel and noticed we weren't alone anymore. I was an idiot and I got Char mixed right up in this with me.
"Char, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but would you have honestly believed me before now?" I ask.
"No." She replies. "I would have thought you'd lost your fucking mind."
"I'm sorry that I got you into this mess. Whatever happens though, we're doing this together. Ok?" I said.
"I kinda hate you right now, Swan." Char seethes.
"Yeah, I kinda hate myself right along with you." I reply morosely. "Like I said, I didn't want to get you involved in this mess and I'm sorry that you're paying such a heavy price for my mistakes."
I could tell that she knew I was being sincere in my apology, but that didn't lessen the anger she held towards me. Frankly, I deserved her anger and anything else she had to dish out at me and once she got the opportunity, I wouldn't expect her to take it easy on me.
"You know, this isn't exactly how I wanted to go out, but if I have to die with anyone, I'm glad it's you, Swan." Char states honestly. "That doesn't mean I'm not still fucking pissed off, because I sure as shit am! It just means that I'm glad I'm not alone."
"I'm glad you're with me too, bitch." I reply smirking slightly.
We don't wait long before the Kings come back out and sit back on the dais. "We have discussed the options available to us and we have decided that you both will be changed." Aro states proudly.
"Might I inquire as to who exactly is going to be doing the changing?" I ask.
"That would be me." Caius replies.
"Alright." I state confidently. "Let's get this over with. I do have a request that Char be bitten first so I know she's changing while I change."
"I can honor that request." Caius replies. "Follow me, ladies and we'll get this done quickly."
We follow Caius out of the throne room and down several halls before coming to a set of ornately carved double doors. "This will be your room for the duration of your stay here." Caius states simply and opens the doors.
The sight before us is extravagant. Dark stained wood floors greet us as soon as we walk in and to the right, we notice there is a common area with a flat screen television, pale couch, two dark wood stained desks to match the floor, an extremely large bookcase to match the desks, and a very modern and high quality radio all sitting on pale carpeting that looks like it would be heaven to run your toes through. On the left side of the room are two bedrooms. The first bedroom closest to the doors is a cream colored bedroom with a king-sized white four-poster bed with gold sheets and a white comforter with gold trim. This en suite bathroom houses a white Jacuzzi tub and a standing tile shower that has gold tiles placed in random patterns to match the bedroom.
The second bedroom has light blue walls with a dark-stained wood king-sized canopy bed with dark green sheets and a dark blue comforter and also has an en suite bathroom, but this one has the biggest claw-foot tub I have ever seen. It has to be six feet long and three feet deep at least, which means that I would be able to lie flat with every part of my body covered by water. This bathroom also has a stand-alone shower, but the tile colors match this bedroom and are less randomly placed. I could see myself living here for an unknown period of time.
"Holy shit!" I hear Char say. "I'm calling the white room!"
"That's fine. I'm happy with the blue!" I call back.
"Don't get too comfortable here yet, girls." Caius responds. "Although this will be your room eventually, you will have to wait out your newborn year in the Newborn Suite that we had built."
"Newborn Suite? What is that?" Char asks.
"It will be your room until you learn to control your new strength and temper that comes with being a vampire." Caius replies. "We don't want you destroying the place in a fit of rage."
"Fair enough." I state. "Let's get this show on the road, then." I respond.
Caius then leads us back down through the castle until he gets to a more secure-looking door. "This is where we house our newborns." He states before throwing open the doors and leading us into the most barren and unfriendly room I've ever seen. It has concrete walls, five reinforced steel beds with concrete mattresses lining the left side of the room, and absolutely nothing on the walls. It's very gray and I immediately hate it.
"This place looks way too clinical for my liking. It's almost like it's been sterilized, but not at the same time." Char notes.
"I don't like it either." I reply.
"No one likes it, but it's necessary. Neither of you will be able to control your own bodies, nor the strength that comes with them, so this is where you must stay until you can." Caius reiterates. "Now, I want both of you girls to sit on a bed and move your hair to one shoulder so I can have easier access to your arteries."
Both Char and I pick a bed and sit down on it. It's by far the most uncomfortable thing I've ever had to sit on, but I can understand the necessity.
Caius takes a seat on Char's 'bed', looks at her and says, "Charlotte, I'll start with you, per Isabella's request. I will tell you that these next three days will be some of the most painful days that you will ever experience. It will feel like your entire body is on fire, but no matter what you can't smother the flames. Be brave and be prepared." I see Char take a deep breath in and out before she nods to Caius and he bites into her jugular vein to pump his venom into her system. She starts screaming before her body lies back fully on the mattress as the venom works its way in.
Caius then moves to me and says, "Isabella, you know the pain of the venom. This will be much the same, but also much worse. The longer the venom is in your system, the hotter it will become. It is not until the last day that you will feel any sort of relief. Be brave and be prepared." I take a breath just like Char did and Caius bites into my jugular vein. I can feel the familiar yet foreign feeling of the venom burning through my system, but Caius was right. I know the feeling, so I can hold in my screams more than Char can. I lie back on the 'mattress', close my eyes, and pray that these three days will pass quickly.
I lost count of how long I've been burning for.
The pain of the burn is all-consuming.
All thought ceases as I try vainly to stop the incessant burning.
How can anyone survive this? How am I supposed to survive this?
I know time is passing, but I can't make myself wonder how long I've been enduring this. I can't wonder how much longer I have to burn.
I was finally able to think around the pain eventually, but the burning was still in the forefront of my mind. I hear a voice telling me to remember. Remember what? I wonder.
The same voice tells me to remember family. Family conjures up images in my mind of a middle-aged woman with brown hair and an inner youth in her eyes. One who laid in a hospital bed with tubes surrounding her. Renee. Mom. Another image permeates my mind. A dark-haired man with a severe expression, but kind brown eyes that seem so familiar and a 1970's mustache that never went out of style for him. Charlie. Dad.
I remember both are dead now and I'm alone.
No. I think to myself. Not alone. Yet another image slams into my mind and this one I know immediately is Charlotte. My best friend and now, my sister.
Other images begin to imprint themselves on my mind the longer I remember and these have a distinctly different effect on my mind. I see a beautiful bronze-haired boy with yellow eyes and a smile that makes my heart falter. Edward. The boy who left me. The boy who broke me. The boy who said I wasn't good enough. The boy who said I was nothing more than a distraction.
I see a petite dark-haired girl with those same yellow eyes who said we were going to be the best of friends. Alice. My brain reminds me as I remember she used to dress me in expensive clothes and how she would make me sit in front of a mirror for hours as she made me 'beautiful'. She didn't care that I didn't like it.
I'm inundated with more images of yellow-eyed people. A blond man who was a father-figure to me, but left when I needed him the most. Carlisle. A woman with caramel colored hair and a heart-shaped face who was a better mother to me than Renee ever was, but she left me, too. Esme. A huge dark-haired man who was intimidating to anyone that didn't know him, but was once a brother to me. He was a big kid at heart and had dimples when he smiled. Emmett. A blonde goddess of a woman who was impressively full of herself and always looked down on me. Rosalie.
The one that hurt the most was an image of an astonishingly beautiful blond man with curly hair cut to his chin. I had never really gotten to spend much time with him. He was quiet and always on the fringes of the rest of the family, but he protected me. I remember his voice, a faint and pleasant southern twang as he says "You are worth it." And I could see in his eyes that he meant it. I remember the last time I saw him. The one time he rushed me…a papercut I believe…but he wasn't going to attack me, he wanted to protect me again. Jasper.
All of a sudden, the physical pain of the burn is a welcome feeling. It cleanses me from the emotional pain like a baptism of fire.
More time passes and I try to remember more from my life. I finally remember Jake, Sam, Paul and the wolf pack. I remember Phil and why I moved to Forks. I even remember some of my human friends like Angela, Jessica, and Mike.
I can feel the fire receding from my fingers and toes now and I can hear Char's pained cries have all but ceased. Perhaps her change is over? Perhaps she's screamed herself hoarse? I'm not sure, although I'm positive I'll find out soon.
The pain is slipping from my elbows now and my heart feels hotter. I can almost see the flames battling each beat of my heart. It makes me curious as to which one will win.
I can hear breathing in front of me and I can smell something that reminds me of sandalwood and sage coming from that direction. That must be whoever was down here watching our change. To my right, I hear short, gasping breaths that remind me of a marathon runner and I smell oranges and crème and I'm almost positive that's Char.
The pain has moved out of my arms and legs and has concentrated everything it has left on my torso and heart, which sounds very much like a helicopter's rotors. I can feel my body rising as my heart beats faster and the pain becomes even more intense, but it doesn't last long before my body slumps down again and the beating finally stops.
The pain itself hasn't stopped though, just moved into the back of my throat. It feels as though I've got a severe case of strep, but I know what that feeling is. I'm thirsty. That thought has me opening my eyes and what I had seen only a few days ago doesn't hold a candle to my sight now. I can see everything. I can see the individual grains of the cement I'm lying on, I can see the dust motes in the air and I can hear the humming of the lights above my head.
"Isabella." A calm voice says. "Can you hear me?"
I don't recognize the voice that I hear. It sounds like the notes played on a church organ, but without the resonance. I sit up to see who spoke to me and it was almost like I didn't have to put any thought into the action at all. I wanted to sit up, and I did. I felt as though I should have been disoriented, but I wasn't. I could see everything.
"Woah." I manage to say. "That's gonna take some getting used to."
I hear a chuckle over to my right and I'm astonished at what I see. A man - with hair so blond it almost looks white - stands about ten feet away from me just watching my reactions. This must be the owner of the sandalwood and sage scent.
"You," I begin, but I'm shocked by the sound of my voice. It's not as low as I remember it. In fact, it sounds a lot like bells and I love it. I try again, "You stayed."
"Yes, Isabella. I've been here the whole time. Making sure you and your sister are well taken care of through your change." The blond replies.
"I know you, but my memories are a bit fuzzy." I state annoyed. "Who are you?"
"I am Caius Volturi." He states simply.
"Oh!" I nearly gasp. The memories returning to me are difficult to make out. It looks like I'm seeing things through a veil, but I remember Caius. I remember being dragged to the castle and I remember being led to this room for my change.
I look over to the other occupied bed in this room and notice that a petite blonde woman is sitting in a position similar to mine, but she's looking all around the room in wonder and awe. She's the one that has the oranges and crème scent. So that must be a new and improved Charlotte. She looks similar to the way she did, but her features are sharper than they were. I also think she might have grown an inch or so, too and her hair seems to be longer.
"Char?" I ask tentatively. She turns her bright red eyes on me immediately and a growl rips through her throat. Caius is right beside her in an instant and when he whispers something to her, her eyes look back up to the ceiling and her growling stops.
"I wouldn't try to get her attention right now if I were you, Isabella." Caius replies.
"Why? Is she alright?" I ask in a near panic.
"The venom affects everyone differently. She seems to be a bit more like a normal newborn than you are; which means she's very volatile, but she's also confused about what all she's seeing, hearing, and smelling. She only woke about an hour before you, but in that hour the only thing she's done is growl and count the dust motes in the air. I've been trying to keep her calm by having her count those dust motes until you woke so we can get you both fed." Caius replies.
"I'm thirsty." I manage to get out as my hands go directly to my throat to put out the burning I feel there.
"Well, now that you both are awake, why don't we get you fed?" Caius replies as he walks over to the doors to our room.
I make to follow him, but something in my movements catches Char's attention and before I know what's happening, she's growling and leaping at me. I turn my head to assess the situation and notice that she's leaping directly for my head. I'm assuming to take it off, not that I don't deserve it for turning her into this, but it doesn't mean I'm going down without a fight. As she gets within arm's reach, I push my right hand toward her face and push it to the side to keep her teeth away from my neck, but I don't take the momentum that she tackled me with into account, so we both go rolling to the floor. I know better than to have her on top of me, so I use the momentum to roll us over until I'm straddling her stomach.
I have her head pinned under my right hand with her cheek almost digging into the concrete of the floor, while my left hand tries to grab one of her arms so she can't rip my head off. Meanwhile, I notice that Caius hasn't moved from his position near the door and seems to be watching the unfolding events with polite interest. Bastard.
"Charlotte!" I growl at her. "Enough! Stop attacking me and stop growling at me!"
I can hear that my words are having an effect on her, but she doesn't stop growling at me. Oh well, she's always been a stubborn bitch. I slowly ease up on the pressure of my right hand so she can turn her head to look at me.
"Bella?" she asks seeming to come back to herself a bit.
"Hey, Char." I reply. "You alright?"
"What happened to me?" she asks.
"I'll tell you about it later, but for now, we need to feed. That burning in your throat means you're thirsty. Do you want the burning to stop?" I ask.
She nods and I tell her, "Alright, I'm gonna let you up, but don't try to attack me again, ok?"
She nods again and I slowly move to let her off the floor. Once I'm standing, I hold my hand out for her to take and she grabs it before pulling herself up.
"You two ready to go?" Caius asks smirking.
"For now." I reply looking at Char.
Caius leads us down several hallways and through another set of doors before stopping in a huge stone room. There's nothing special about this room other than its sheer size. It has high windows to let in the natural light, but there's no adornments in this room at all. It's just a blank slate. "What is this place?" I ask.
"It's where we bring our newborns to feed." Caius replies. "I want you to leave Charlotte there and I want you to walk over to the other side of the room. There's another set of doors over there."
I do as he says and flit to the other side of the room and stand in front of the other set of doors. I only have to wait a few minutes before I hear the sound of feet walking my direction. Only a few seconds later, the doors in front of me have opened and four humans are tossed in at my feet.
I can hear the sound of their heartbeats and I can feel the warmth coming off their bodies, but those are only passing thoughts before I instinctively attack them. I reach out to the first human and immediately latch on to their neck as I pull the blood into my body. It's delicious. Once the first body is drained, I focus on the other three that are no longer where I remember them to be. It looks like they've tried to escape by running towards the other side of the room. They certainly aren't going to get far. Silly humans.
I give chase and am on them within moments. The second human I catch goes the same as the first, but the third and fourth I try to break their necks so they can't get away. Smart idea in theory, but not quite so easy in practice I note when I end up ripping one of their heads off completely, which not only pisses me off because of the loss of sustenance, but also earns me a literal blood bath; and the last one I just end up crushing everything in his neck. Humans really are fragile.
I was halfway done finishing my last human when I felt a presence behind me. It was far too close for my liking, so I turned around and growled at the intruder. How dare someone interrupt me now! I was so angry that someone was trying to steal my meal that I reacted on instinct and something in my brain snapped. I just wanted whoever it was to get away. The next thing I know, following a "Woooaaahhh!" the presence is gone and I get to finish my meal in peace.