Author's Note: I want to give a special thanks to all of my sweet readers and reviewers, including several that have really stuck with me and this wild ride so far! I do read each review, and ChristyWIX, very lucky guess on that last chapter – although I did seriously consider your thought on having Edward drink from sharks if needed! Haha. I decided the drama in Volterra would be a bit more fun than keeping them on the island. And so, onward we go to Italy!


EPOV

Carlisle agreed to meet us in Siena, Italy, not too far from Volterra. He phoned ahead to request a meeting to discuss some scientific studies he had done on vampires and to attempt to convince Aro to meet outside the castle. We wanted to meet him somewhere we would only have to worry about one or two human drinking vampires being around Bella instead of an entire large coven. Alice made certain that we knew she was sending a few new outfits for Bella by Carlisle for the meeting, to which Bella smiled and rolled her eyes.

To my surprise, Aro agreed to meet us sans the majority of his guard, choosing to bring only Renata, his personal shield, to accompany him. It was clear that he respected and trusted my father a great deal. It was highly unusual for any of the three brothers to leave the castle and even more so without a full complement of protectors.

My wife and I were incredibly nervous, but if anything went wrong, I would bite her and change her at a moment's notice. I promised her that my father or I would hold on to her at all times. He had also agreed to bite Bella if necessary if it seemed Aro wouldn't let us go without proof she wouldn't cause trouble for our kind still being human.

We were in the nicest suite of a plush hotel. Although we knew he wouldn't care, Alice wanted Aro to be as comfortable as possible with us. She also wanted to make sure Bella was able to rest and have her every need catered to, like that was an ever an issue with me around.

Bella and I were in a tight embrace, sharing thoughts and trying to keep each other calm. Carlisle was waiting patiently by the door, knowing that Aro was only minutes away.

"I love you." she whispered softly in my ear.

"I love you too." I replied, kissing her, and feeling a new courage within me from her reminder.

There was a soft knock on the door, which my father quickly opened. "Aro, old friend!"

"Carlisle! It's been too long!"

Aro was unchanged. His unaging pale skin and dark hair looked as it had in paintings from centuries ago. His eyes were a glowing red. I was mildly amused at the sunglasses sitting on top of his head. That was a rather simple disguise around the humans, but hey whatever worked. There was a small woman, Renata, with him, but I immediately found her uninteresting and looked away. This was her gift, which she could extend to her master if needed.

"Won't you please come in and get comfortable?"

"It would be my pleasure."

Here goes nothing. Bella thought as we stood up together, only holding hands now.

"Aro, this is my son Edward and his wife Bella."

"She's human!" He exclaimed, his eyes growing wide with both anger and curiosity. Oh no, we can't have this. No, no, no, no. Tsk tsk. He thought.

"For now, yes. That's actually what we came to discuss."

"Carlisle, you know the rules." His thoughts were incredulous that we would dare break a rule so blatantly in front of him, but he was also extremely curious. He still respected my father greatly and was at least willing to hear him out before submitting his judgement. "Where are my manners? Hello Edward, Bella." he added with a slight bow.

"Please explain yourselves." He added bluntly. It was clear his patience was limited.

Aro held out a hand in invitation to either me or Carlisle. Carlisle stepped forward and offered his, although I knew Aro would want to hear from me next. I wasn't ready to let go of Bella until he at least knew the reason we were here, and I could be assured that she wouldn't be harmed.

Aro read through my father's thoughts like one would thumb through a stack of index cards, taking time for the ones that interested him the most. He was amused that we still stuck to our vegetarian diet, although he knew that already. He was most interested in Alice and Jasper's talents. I hated thinking that I was endangering them by letting Aro know about their gifts, but Alice assured me that everything would be alright.

I held my breath and squeezed Bella as close to me as possible when Aro started probing into my father's memories of us. I could feel that she was nervous, and I gently rubbed her side with the hand I had around her, knowing that she would focus on me more than anything when I touched her. I loved knowing that about her from our shared connection.

Aro was extremely intrigued when it came to our shared gift. He decided right then that Bella would not be harmed no matter what. She was worth a great deal to him.

I finally started breathing again and felt my wife relax a little beside me in return. It was a long, silent moment while all of my father's memories swirled about in Aro's head. "Fascinating." he whispered.

He wasted no time in coming to stand in front of me and Bella at his full vampire speed. If I hadn't read his intention in his thoughts, I might have growled and tried to protect my mate from him, but he truly meant no harm. I didn't like his thoughts of how valuable we could be to him though, not one bit.

"May I?" he asked me, looking at Bella. As much as he wanted to learn about her, he still saw her as a slightly lesser being since she was human.

"Ask her."

"How rude of me, again. My apologies. Bella, I was merely wondering since you are in a sense immune to Edward's talent, if you would be to mine as well. May I?"

She looked at me, scared. I gave her an encouraging nod. We had figured that he would want to test our shared abilities at some point. My wife offered her hand. Aro heard nothing. He laughed, his thoughts echoing his amusement. "Bested by a human! Wow!"

"I'm very, very interested in the two of you together. What a pair! And for her gift to be manifesting while she is still human in such a manner…it's completely unfathomable! I have never heard of such a thing! And that you want to create children. The possibilities!" That right there was the thought that terrified me more than him insisting that we change Bella or trying to harm her. The fact that he might want to harm both Bella and our potential child, or perhaps sentence us to prison until we agreed to join him and serve on his guard.

Although I didn't speak aloud, Bella knew exactly what was going on. She held me more closely and started rubbing my back just under the edge of my shirt, pulling me out of my dark thoughts somewhat so that we could focus on the present situation. Her touch always soothed me as well.

"Will you show me how your gift works?" he asked, totally unaware of the conflict going on in my thoughts.

You know that I will give my life protecting Bella if he tries anything, son. Carlisle thought, trying to re-assure me.

I knew there wasn't much choice at this point. I was also fully aware that Aro was going to hear every fear or negative thought we ever had about him or the Volturi in just a second.

Aro took our hesitation as fear of what he might see. He wasn't entirely wrong. "I promise to skip past any of your more intimate memories as best I can."

Bella took the initiative and turned in my arms to face me. I led us over to the couch so that she would be more comfortable. Aro sat in a chair beside me. I placed my hand on Bella's cheek and she placed hers on mine.

It's going to be alright. I love you, Edward.

I love you too. I'm terrified.

I know. Me too.

"You can both hear each other now?" he asked.

"Yes." I answered.

"May I?" I could see in his thoughts that he wanted to touch my hand to hear both Bella and I at once, if possible.

"Yes."

Aro grabbed my hand that wasn't on Bella and held it. He read every thought I had ever had, skipping over the more intimate ones as he promised he would. He didn't care at all about any negative thoughts I had ever had about him or the Volturi.

He was most interested in how I could love a human, and even more so how she wasn't already dead once he found out that she was my singer.

The thought of a hybrid child and how she might survive the pregnancy was actually of little interest to Aro, a lot less than I thought it would be. He was certainly hoping that our child might have a gift, and that was most of the appeal to him. He wanted to add us to his collection of talented individuals, ready at his word to do his bidding.

I realized as he let go of me that he hadn't heard a single thing from Bella. As did he. She had heard my memories and his thoughts as he pulled them up, but he hadn't heard anything at all from her in the present moment.

Aro again laughed. All is well. Carlisle thought with a gentle smile. He knew what that laugh meant. Genuine amusement. We were safe.

Bella and I shared our relief together. I readjusted, pulling my wife into my lap to hold her properly so that we could stay connected if she wanted while we continued discussing our plans. I knew that Aro wouldn't mind.

"You two have my blessing for what you are asking. We will not harm your little family. We will watch this experiment with great fascination though. I would very much appreciate if Carlisle would report back to us with a log of what happens and how Bella is treated and how she responds to such treatment."

"I will be glad to do so." Carlisle answered.

"You are quite talented, young one. I can't wait to see how you mature." Aro said to Bella.

"Thank you." she answered with a shy smile.

"We would very much like to have you both join us some day. But I can tell that now isn't the time. I assure you that it is never our policy to have anyone join us against their will. Please do consider it."

"Of course." I answered with a polite smile,

"Aro, I was hoping that I might be allowed to accompany you back to Volterra for the evening, if it's not too much trouble. I would love to say hello to Marcus and Caius and perhaps browse your library to see if you have anything relevant to this subject."

"Any time, my friend. Are you ready now?" Aro asked him with a wink back at us. He knew exactly how we would celebrate this victory. I wanted to be embarrassed, but I just chuckled. Bella blushed enough for both of us, burying her face against my neck. "It was a pleasure meeting you both. I look forward to seeing where this journey takes you." Aro said and they were gone before either of us could respond.

My wife and I were alone. We were safe. And we had the Volturi's blessing, with a witness even, to work on making our dream of our small family come true, if we wanted.

Bella's lips were on mine before I had time to see her move. We were quickly kissing passionately and holding each other close. Safe. was our only shared thought, along with our shared emotions of love, happiness, and overwhelming relief.

Although lust and desire were definitely present, we were both completely happy just to hold each other and enjoy the feeling of peace we had that we would be the ones making the choice when we were ready, not any outside factor.

We happily snuggled for an hour or two. I always lost track of time when I was with her.

Her stomach started growling and I remembered she had barely eaten due to her nervousness since we left the island. "Let me take you out tonight. How about a nice dinner, a tour of the city and then we can come break in this big bed?" I asked with a smirk.

"Sounds amazing. I guess that explains why Alice sent me a silk dress in your favorite color?" She laughed and returned my smirk, batting her eyelashes at me. Of course, it was why. My favorite color on Bella. And she knew I would be staring at her all night. She, in fact, hoped for it.