I am hoping there will be only a few more chapters before I start a new story, so if anyone has any suggestions on what they would like to see happen with the queen situation let me know, I have an idea but still floating a few ideas around and wouldn't mind if anyone had a suggestion or two, I write for you too read and I would like to write what you want so leave me some reviews and ideas lol thanks for reading and keeping up with the story and I would like to give a few thanks to some ppl for their reviews ---Rahma, Shamonti, reader13lovesbooks, just to name a few, thanks guys Chapter 12
It was black as night and there seemed to be no difference with the tinted shade of the windows. No human could be able to see in and they wouldn't be able to see out if they were inside as well. Realistically, no human would ever want to find themselves in this vehicle at all, this car belonged to the Volturi. That meant Aro was officially here, and I had wished with every part of me that this were just a dream, actually a nightmare to be honest.
I paused at the front door of Carlisle and Esme's house, hesitating to enter, like I needed someone to push me over the threshold. I felt that things were not as chummy as I wanted, when Edward called me while I was on my way home, he didn't sound comfortable or enthused about Aro being there, and most likely Jane as well, she always made him nervous. Slowly I turned the doorknob, the door managed to weigh more than I remembered, it created an uneasy creak as it finally showed me the scene in the living room, which was filled with and awkward silence.
"Ah Bella," Aro announced as I entered.
"Aro, sorry, I was….uh finishing up some things. How are you, was your trip well?" I questioned trying not to be too in depth right away.
"It was okay, thank you for asking Bella. Um, I hate to just be so blunt, but we need to get down to business," he blurted out.
"Of course, we have opted to have you stay with us," I said coming to stand next to my anxious Edward. "We have our own house now, and there is more room there, I hope that is okay?" I said not really caring what his reply would be.
Aro nodded in acceptance, and I made sure to tell Carlisle and Esme we would call them later to fill them in. That way if something were to go wrong and we didn't call, they would come to check and make sure things were kosher.
Jane drove Aro's black car and his shield, who he called Mary, rode with him in the backseat while they followed us back to our awaiting abode.
"Edward, what are they thinking?" I asked eager to know something, anything that might be running through their minds.
"Jane is not happy, and is arguing with Aro and Mary, she doesn't want to be here any more than we want her to be," he said slightly laughing.
Anything else?" I demanded.
"Yea, Mary wants to be your friend, she has the ability to tell the kind of person you are, besides being a shield, which she thinks connects you both more. She knows you have good character and thinks you would be a great friend. That's how the fight started between Aro and Jane, otherwise Mary is shielding most everything else," he said grinning to himself about Jane being upset.
We arrived home shortly after that and let Aro have the garage space so his vehicle wouldn't be noticed by anyone, Aro seemed paranoid about it. Edward followed me into the house; always keeping less than an arms length in distance between us, always protective, God did I love him. Jane lingered outside reluctant to enter our home, mumbling something about wet dogs, as I laughed hysterically in my head.
"So Bella," Aro said coming to find himself on the couch by the fireplace. "I assumer you never got the package I sent you," Aro got right into business before we were all in the house.
"No, actually I didn't, did it get lost or something?" I really was interested now.
"I believe it was intercepted, stolen really, before I could do anything about it," Aro grimaced.
"Well what was in the package that was so important it would get stolen Aro?" I softly begged to know.
"It was a necklace and bracelet, the necklace was worn by the Genevieve, and it was constructed of gem stones you cant even find now a days. Gems more precious than emeralds and diamonds, and in one of the stones, its thought to contain her power. It's said to have a piece of her flesh that contains the power, and the next to ensue her will inherit those powers when the necklace is finally placed around her neck. Also was the king's bracelet, which Genevieve gave her husband James as a token of her love, it is what connected them while they were together. I did some research and found that the king doesn't have to be a pure blood at all, in fact, she can choose her king," he said pausing slightly, there was more, and I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. "But, she must turn her king herself, meaning she must choose a human and turn him, her venom will make his blood pure like hers. If whoever she chose was already a vampire, he must already be a pure blood. Its very confusing, I know," he slowly said, not once looking in Edward's direction, knowing this would hurt him more than me.
"Is there a way around this by chance?" I questioned for myself and mainly for Edward's sake and sanity.
"Well, there is, but I don't think it is an option you would take or even consider Bella," he said with regret that he even brought it up.
"Well, I need to know every option, what my possibilities are, and what I need to do," I almost yelled.
"You would have to be reversed…which means that if you were to reject the place as queen, you would take your place with the humans again," he sighed.
"That's not so bad, Edward would have to turn me again that's all," I laughed thinking this was easier than I thought it would be to get around.
"The other part of that isn't so simple Bella, you don't have the option to become a vampire again, you rejected us. Also, once you become human again, you wont remember anything from your past, vampire or human past; it all disappears to protect our secret. You can't return, and let's say Edward were to try to turn you again, his venom would you, and your blood would kill him, no matter what. I told you it wasn't an option you wanted, I'm sorry Bella," Aro seemed truly sorry.
"Okay, let me get this straight Aro," Edward said pausing to collect his thoughts and make sense of the situation at hand. "Bella either becomes queen and chooses another to be here king, or she becomes human never to return to me, or our family again? So either way, I will lose Bella, is that what you are telling me?" Edward demanded, his eyes were filled with furry now, and a growl was starting to resonate within his chest.
"Edward please try to understand, I don't believe those are the only options Bella has, I have two trackers out right now looking for the stolen package, there are also old scrolls that will be able to tell us more. I never got a chance to look at any of it, I had someone send it straight to you, and it was intercepted, I am trying my best to get it back before anything happens to the precious contents. I don't know than this right now, other than Bella, or the next queen in line must be at least twenty, in vampire years that is, before she can take on her role. Bella is just almost a year, so this isn't going to be something that happens overnight Edward, just be patient, I am trying to find a way to avoid this. If you look at it this way, I will benefit from this as well and the Volturi will still maintain their rule, and trust me that isn't something I want to give up, so I am trying everything I can to find a way out of this, for everyone's sake," Aro said finally revealing his true reasons for being so involved and concerned in finding a way around the situation.
"Do you know if your trackers have found the package yet?" I asked anxious to know more.
"Yes, well they're on the trail right now, and should expect to catch up with the thief later this afternoon, they will call me when they know more or when the recover the package," he said reassuring me. "I hate to be a burden though, but where would the best place to hunt be?"
"Well it depends on what you are hunting for, if you are in search of human blood, you must go at least a hundred miles from here as not to disturb our balance around here. Otherwise you can do what we do and hunt animals, its actually not that bad if you try it," Edward said more calm now then before.
"I refuse to bring myself down to your 'save the human' level, I will not settle for some animal, we will drive if we have too," Jane exclaimed at the thought of trying our vegetarian life.
"Actually Jane, you will hunt animals as will Mary and I, and if you don't like it, that is too bad, you will not disrespect their way of living, they would not do the same to us," Aro chimed in, automatically shutting Jane up.
There was to be no more discussing dinner with Aro, Jane had lost and she knew it, now she was angrier than before and it showed in her eyes. Edward and I led them towards the woods behind our home, it's a newer area for us, we had hunted it before but not much. Edward liked it because it housed more mountain lions than the regular hunting grounds we had. Aro and Mary found it easy to hunt, while Jane had a difficult time much to my surprise, she had settled on using her painful gift to stun the animals to give her time to attack so she didn't have to worry about a little chase. It was a lazy way of hunting I thought, but at least she was trying to make an effort, only because she didn't have any other choice. Edward was full after just one of his precious big cats, and everyone seemed to gather once they had their full, except me. This seemed to be like my last hunting trip with Edward, no matter how many kills I made, I couldn't quench my thirst for blood, and it consumed my entire body, my every thought. I was on my eighth elk when I heard Edward calling me, even though I heard him, I couldn't break away from slaughter I was so fond of.
"Bella, haven't you had enough already?" Edward said almost embarrassed for me.
I looked up with confusion in my eyes, I had not realized how many animals I had already taken and I began to feel embarrassed for myself as Edward, Aro, Jane and Mary stared at me in amazement and shock. I slowly let the bull elk's head drop to the ground, letting its antlers slide softly out of my hands as if I were remorseful for the poor animal.
"I am sorry, I guess I was a bit more hungry than I thought," I said trying to make the situation less dire than it really was.
"Bella, it is quite fine, don't worry about it, you have a lot on your mind and maybe this is just a release for you," Aro tried to justify my actions.
My head drifted downwards in shame, and as I stared at the carcass I couldn't help but want more of its blood, even as guilty as I already felt. My throat even felt scratchy again as if I hadn't hunted yet today. This was starting to become an annoyance, but maybe Aro was right, I was stressed with the last few weeks, I definitely had a lot on my mind. Just as I was about to suggest we head back home, Aro's phone rang, he quickly answered it and his face lit up like had just won the lottery, even thought money was no issue for him.
"They found him!" Aro announced as he hung up the phone. "They recovered the necklace, bracelet and scrolls, and they will be at the house in about three hours. Jared thinks the vampire that stole the package, knows more than he is telling them and so they are bringing him with, maybe he will talk for me, if not, I am sure Jane will convince him otherwise," he grinned so evil even I shuddered.
We all made our way towards the house right after that and Mary seemed to keep pace with me and talked the whole way back. She was just a little shorter than I was maybe five foot even, her hair was the shade of a dark cherry wine, and her face was unusually softer than most of our kind, almost like she was still human. The thing I liked best about Mary was her undeniable dislike for Jane, she thought Jane had some grudge against the world and it would come back to get her one day. Mary was pleasant to talk to, unlike Alice who talked about shopping, and Rose who talked about herself half the time and Emmett the other half, she could keep my interest and liked to see my reaction about her life with the Volturi. She wasn't too far off getting past the newborn stage and was approaching her third birthday soon. She told me that Aro had found her in Italy and decided to spare her after she attacked Alec, one of our their outings, Mary said Aro called her 'raw talent' and said she would be useful and spared her. I honestly knew that Aro wasn't as wicked as his reputation made him out to be, he was reasonable and at times understandable and compassionate, but he was selfish and he knew Mary's talents would serve him well.
Once we were back at the house, Edward and I decided to take Mary with us back to Carlisle and Esme's house, Aro said he needed time to straighten out Jane and we didn't want to be around for her attitude adjustment.
"Were back," I called as we came through the back door.
"I see everything went okay, where is Aro and Jane?" Esme asked slightly concerned.
"Well they are working some things out, nothing we wanted to be part of, so we decided to come tell you about what we know and introduce you to Mary as well," I said motioning for her to come forward and meet the rest of my family.
She was introduced to everyone except for Alice and Jasper who were still at the reservation with Jacob and Nessie, Mary was very polite and wanted to know more about our lifestyle. She was fascinated to know more about Ryan, he was the last one she was introduced too and from the looks of it, they could not keep their eyes off of each other. For a moment I was slightly jealous for whatever reason, probably because I still thought he was attractive, and at that moment Ryan shot me a silly smile and I immediately looked away knowing he could read my mind. Edward didn't seem to happy and of course pulled me into the kitchen, away from Ryan's view.
"You're doing it again Bella, he hears what you think and then I can hear what he thinks, thanks a lot," he voice stern.
"Don't freak out Edward, we went over this, I am yours and yours alone, don't scold me for looking, guess its one of my human traits I still have," I said hoping he would believe it, but knowing he wouldn't.
"What am I going to do with you?" he said slightly laughing at my sad attempt of an excuse.
I just smiled and grad his hand and pulled him back towards the living room where were we came to find Aro coming through the door, alone. Where was Jane, was she at our house, would he leave her there, maybe she was outside in the car waiting, wherever she was, I'm sure she would have her tail tucked between her legs, in a metaphoric sense.
Aro didn't look happy, and he just stared in mine and Edward's direction for a few moments before opening his frail lips to speak, "I'm afraid there has been a change of plans,"