Chapter 7: Divide and Conquer, Indeed
"Aro, do you understand how proud you should be in this moment?" I faintly heard Jasper ask. The ice that had been in his voice for days was gone, and his soft Texan accent had returned. My throat felt like hot sand, scratchy and burning.
"I do." Aro replied simply from much closer. That brought me some comfort.
"Aren't you glad you did not listen to Caius and I when you wished to change her yourself?" Marcus said with a laugh.
"I knew even then, Brother. I knew even then." Aro said softly. "Ah, her shield is up once more."
"Hey, Bella?" I recognized Emmett's voice, and even if I hadn't, he was the only one who still called me Bella. "Rise and shine!"
"Isabella, you are too weak right now. We cannot risk feeding you while you are at all unaware. You'll have to hunt on your own." Carlisle's voice stated. "I can tell you heard me. You just frowned like disappointed child." His soft laugh was warming.
"What do you think it will take to wake her up?" Jane asked when nothing was working.
"I can do it. Watch this." I heard Demitri say. "Edward is staring at your boobs."
I jumped to my feet and whirled toward where I felt Edward was standing using Demitri's gift. His eyes were wide when I saw him. Shaking my head, I turned to glare at Demitri.
"That was just mean."
"You need to go feed." Was Demitri's reply. "Your stone eyes creep me out."
Groaning, I turned back to where Aro, Marcus, Carlisle, and Jasper were standing. I waited.
"Even going mad with newborn thirst you wait for evaluation." Jasper said with an amazed shake of his head. "I hope you at least pretend to have less control when we move out."
"I will." I replied, but I did not move.
"Isabella, it was perfect." Marcus said when he realized that I was still waiting.
"No one has ever had the infamous Whitlocks in a fatal position before." Jasper said with an ecstatic smile. "Even when I was on my own I never was, and we definitely have never been in that position when the three of us are working together. People only got bites at us when they snuck up on us, which didn't happen often because of mine and Peter's gifts."
"Plus, I have never seen a gift evolve before!" Aro added, and then he walked forward and took my hands in his. "You, Isabella, shall be known far and wide. Your name shall be more feared than any other. You shall be known as Leading General Isabella of the Elite Volturi Guard, King Aro's third, the most powerful Child of Volterra, and the fourth member of the Whitlock Coven. I shall introduce you to the vampire world personally once you return."
"Thank you, Aro. That means a lot." I replied with a stressed smile.
"You deserve it all." He said with a huge smile, and he gave me a slight push toward the nearest town. "Go hunt. Demitri is right. Your eyes are creepy."
"I doubt they're that creepy." I argued.
"Need proof?" Aro raised his eye brows with a smile and beckoned to a member of the guard. "Kelly, care to give Isabella a view?"
"Leading General, you'll have to lower your shield." Kelly said nervously. Kelly had the ability to reflect the image she was seeing into the eyes of anyone else.
"Okay, reflect it." I said, and suddenly I saw myself as everyone else saw me. There I stood, the irises and whites of my eyes a solid, dull black. My hair was tangled and littered with leaves. I was covered in dirt and grass stains, and my clothes were wrinkled and tattered. Only my cloak seemed untouched due to its tough, stain and wrinkle resistant material. "You weren't kidding. I'm like the Grim."
"Kind of." Marcus said, chuckling slightly. "Like the dreaded Ma'ak."
"Oh no!" I said seriously, causing everyone to look at me. "If I'm Ma'ak, then I think I've lost my feather."
"Judgment is coming then?" Aro asked, trying to hold back a laugh.
"You got it! Right after I hunt." I said, bowing to excuse myself, and I ran to the nearest town. I snuck into an empty house, and after checking their calender to see that they'd be gone another five days, I took a shower. I put my clothes into their washing machine, and I borrowed an outfit from the closet. I took a belt and tied it around my waist to disguise my cloak as a coat. I went into the town. It was about nine thirty at night, and a good amount of activity was still going on. I made sure to hold my breath and keep my eyes hidden. I got into an alleyway and found a prostitute and her client against a wall. I sated my thirst, put in some contacts to make my eyes look an auburn brown, and I began walking the streets normally.
I took a deep breath and smiled slightly to myself. I was about to walk into a club to pick out another victim when I felt as if I were being followed. Pretending I hadn't noticed anything amiss, I continued walking down the street and turned into an alleyway; two heartbeats followed. I went a bit deeper and three more walked from around a corner, surrounding me.
"Where you goin', sugar?" One of the men behind me asked. I turned and smiled, trying my best to dazzle.
"Hello." I said, blinking slowly as I looked up at him. "I wasn't really headed anywhere in particular."
"Well, my boys and I think you should just stay here with us for a while." He said, and they all closed in. I took a deep breath, letting their scents overtake my instinct.
"Perfect." I replied, giving them a fully toothed, preditorial smile. They began to look unnerved. "Who's first?"
"You know, Jerry, I think I'm going to just go home." One of them said to the leader. I pretended to look surprised.
"Yeah man, I'm going to go with Kevin." Another one said, and the others began to back up also. I started to shake my head slowly.
"Oh no. You can't leave." I said, stepping forward whenever they'd step back. "I know what you were planning to do to me, and so I cannot let you leave. Besides, I'm extremely thirsty." I pounced, quickly knocking them all unconscious. Just as I was about to feed, I felt a gifted vampire approaching with my shield. I recognized it as Aro, and I turned.
"I am sorry to bother you." Aro said, his expression was serious and somber. "I just..." He trialed off, breaking eye contact.
"It's no problem." I said truthfully, a bit unnerved by how he was acting. "Five is a little much for me, but I don't plan on letting any of these creeps go. Do you want those two?" I asked, pointing to the two nearest to him.
"Thank you." He said, walking up to them. I nodded and began to feed off the first one. We both finished quickly, and after stashing the bodies, we sat against the alley wall.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"Truthfully, I don't know if I could bring myself to." He replied, staring at the wall across from us.
"I think I understand." I said, leaning my head back against the wall and hugging my knees to myself. I changed the subject, hoping to break the ice. "I feel guilty about leaving Jake without a real goodbye. You know that much, but it came into my thoughts again today. I thought about contacting him. He already knows about vampire existence, and he was a really great friend of mine. Plus, he's probably been the one consoling and helping out Charlie. I seriously thought about calling him. I have his number memorized still."
"Why didn't you?" Aro asked.
"Well, I thought about it a little more, and I realized I probably shouldn't." I answered, hugging my knees tighter. "He'd hate me. Not only am I his natural enemy now, but I feed off the very species he lives to protect. I 'ran into the lion's den' after he pleaded with me not to go. Plus, I'm not the same person he was friends with, not really. I'm not Bella anymore. I've changed more than even I can comprehend. At first, I believed it was my becoming a vampire like everyone else, but I realized something. The second I walked into the throne room in Volterra, something began to shift inside me. When you asked me to join, my thoughts could never tell you what happened to me in that moment." I paused to take a slow, unnecessary, deep breath. "I found myself. I knew in that moment, that if I accepted, that I could have more. I knew that I could find myself there. I..."
"Could be full." We said at the same time. I smiled.
"Exactly." I said.
"I felt the same way." Aro confessed, and I had a feeling we were getting closer to the reason for his distress. "I saw you walk into that throne room, glancing around like you were going to die of a heart attack. Then, I saw you begin to stand up straighter, and I watched your fear become curiosity. I could tell you were shocked by your decision to join as much as Edward and Alice were, but I also saw resolve in your eyes. When I walked into my room and saw you sitting at my window, nothing was different in my thoughts. The thing was, I felt different. I moved differently. I knew that by changing you, I could have more. I could find myself, if only you were there. With you, forever, I could be full."
"It confuses me, and I really don't like being confused." I said, smiling.
"I'm afraid, Isabella." Aro said suddenly, turning to look into my eyes for the first time since he'd arrived. "I'm absolutely terrified, but I can't admit it to anyone."
"What are you afraid of?" I asked, truly curious. I understood why he felt he couldn't admit it to anyone. People would view the king's fear as weakness, even if that wasn't at all the truth.
"To tell you, I'd have to confess something that I'm not ready to divulge as of yet." He replied, staring into my eyes without blinking.
"Jasper's right about my feelings, Aro." I blurted, not able to hold it in anymore. "His gift is always right. I'm afraid too. I'm afraid of going South, into a world that I know will be the like stepping into a nightmare. I'm afraid to leave my cloak behind and all it represents, and I don't want to lose all control. Most of all though, I'm afraid of leaving you, Aro. I'm terrified of dying now that I know all I have to live for."
"It seems we fear the same thing." Aro said with a strained laugh. He continued in an amazed, reverent whisper. "I am afraid that you will leave and never come back to me. If the unspeakable were to happen, I feel as if I should whither away."
"That cannot be, Aro. That would mean that..." I broke off and shook my head. That would only happen if we were True Mates, which just wasn't possible.
"You are right. It would mean exactly what you are thinking." Aro said, and he stood up and began pacing. He came to a sudden stop and knelt before me, grabbing my covered arms and looking into my eyes. "I need you to remember with me. When you first came to Volterra, and you called for me to wait in that nearly silent whisper, what did you think when you looked into my eyes?"
That was one of the few human memories I could recall with a perfect clarity...
.:!*!:.
In a whisper, I called for him to wait. I was petrified at what I was about to do.
Edward looked at me, shocked. Alice looked confused.
"Yes Bella?" He inquired, turning to look at me with a thousand questions in his eyes.
The second his eyes locked with mine, I was his. I was trapped, and I didn't even know how it had happened. I couldn't walk away, not after what he'd just offered. Maybe it was Chelsea breaking my ties to the outside world, but I didn't care. From the second I had entered the room I had felt like I would never be leaving, not as a human anyway. His eye contact gave me the confidence and strength to do that which I so utterly wanted to do.
.:!*!:.
"The second our eyes locked... I was strong, confident. I was trapped, and I didn't care that I would never leave. I couldn't walk away." I said in a stunned voice. I stared into his eyes the same way that I had that day and spoke the truth that I'd been hiding from myself. "I was yours."
"The second our eyes locked... My body longed for nothing more than to take you in my arms, and I couldn't fathom why. I wanted to make you mine in every sense of the word, yet I couldn't move. I too, was trapped. My thoughts were consumed by you, even when you were no longer there." Aro replied, slowly letting go of me, standing up, and backing away to the other wall with a look of awe and disbelief on his face. He whispered his next words. "I was yours."
"It can't be." I whispered. "You don't think...?"
"Oh, Isabella." Aro replied with a shake of his head, the same expression on his immortal face. "I have never been more sure of anything in my entire existence. You are my True Mate, and I am yours."
There was a thick silence.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, knowing the question was on both our minds.
"We tell Marcus and Jasper." He replied with a shrug.
"I meant about my leaving in twenty-seven hours." I said. I couldn't even think of poor Sulpica... not now. He was quiet for a moment before he quoted the same song I had as my last human words.
"'Press your lips to the sculptures, and surely you'll stay.'" He walked to me again and knelt beside me, taking my hand. I kept my shield up so that I could reply back.
"'Warn your warmth to turn away. Here it's December, everyday.'" I replied, using my gift to connect our minds. "You know I cannot stay, no matter how much I want to. We both have our duties to carry out. I must help defeat the South."
"You are right of course. You must go." Aro replied through the mental link. "Ours really is a Love Like Winter, isn't it?"
"It does seem as if the warmth is being sucked from it, doesn't it?"I agreed, nodding sadly. "As if we are allowed no happiness."
"As if the Fates are fighting amongst themselves, cutting our strings before we even truly experience immortality." He sighed, and then he looked at me and spoke aloud. "Promise me just one thing."
"Anything."
"Reverto." He said in Latin. "Return. Do anything you must to come back to me."
"Whatever's legal." I replied with a nod of my head.
"In times of war, the laws fall silent, Isabella." Aro's eyes flashed with his words, alerting me to his inner plight. I softened.
"Silent enim leges inter arma." I translated the saying to it's original Latin form. "In that case, I will return, Aro."
"Good." Aro said simply, standing and helping me to my feet also. "Remind Jasper of the law's relationship with war when you head South, if you could."
"Yes. I will." I confirmed. We ran to the human house I had used to wash my clothes, and I changed quickly and put everything back where I'd found it. Taking my hand, Aro began to lead the way back to the Cullen house. As we approached, he heaved a sigh and dropped my hand.
"Marcus. Jasper. We must speak with the two of you." Aro called at a normal, conversational volume. They both exited the house, and the four of us went out of hearing range, and I covered the four of us with my shield. "I'll just say it straight out. Isabella and I are True Mates."
"I knew the moment she took the Major's hit for you." Marcus replied. "You two had that indescribable bond from the beginning, but I knew it could only be a True Mate bond when she willingly took all that pain for you."
"I have to admit I knew before that." Jasper said. "After she had unknowingly attacked Peter, Char, and I, she woke up and went into the panic thinking you could be dead. I saw the life leaving her eyes, and my gift could not reach her. I knew that if simply the thought of your death could do that to her that you two had to be True Mates."
"Well, I'm glad that the two of you knew before we did!" I shouted sarcastically, actually smiling. "Just don't tell anyone until after the South is gone."
"No problem, on one condition." Jasper replied, smiling wickedly. "I get to tell Edward when this is all over."
"You've got yourself a deal." I replied through my laughter. The sparkling of my scarred skin in the dawning light reminded me of what was soon to come. "I guess it's time to stock up my shield."
"Inventory overload." Aro said with another sigh. "Divide et impera."
"Let us hope." I mumbled as we headed to the Cullen house once again. Divide and conquer, indeed.
A.N.: I hope that my spastic updating hasn't caused anyone to stop reading. I finished chapter eight today, so that will be posted by the 19th of August! (All the editing will certainly be done by then.)
Well, South the Whitlocks go! What did you guys think about the Aro/Isabella moment? Questions? Comments? Critics? Please don't be afraid to share anything with me! I could use all the help I can get. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I read every last one of them, even if I don't read it until it's too late to reply... =P