"Vincent, the door if you please. Our guests have arrived." Archos' voice had a tone to it I hadn't yet heard until this moment. It sent a slither of fear through my stomach and as I met my great grandfathers gaze I knew that he would do his utmost to protect me, that he cared a great deal more for his strange little family than he had let on. He stood over my mother and I and offered me his hand, I took it almost immediately and found myself unceremoniously placed behind him, hidden from view but I didn't doubt they could still smell me.
I could hear Vincent greeting them at the door and asking them inside. I could feel the air, thick with tension and I knew he must have entered. For one ridiculous moment I had to restrain myself from peaking over Archos's shoulder to see who Aro had brought with him.
"Aro." Archos inclined his head in greeting but made no move to step away from where he had me in the corner of the room, between his back at the wall. "I believe you've met my great granddaughter Isabel." His hand came around his back and pulled me out from the very place he had just secluded me and suddenly I was stood before him again, feeling like every pair of eyes in the room were focussed on me.
"Indeed, I have had the pleasure." Aros voice, so rich and dark, so comforting to me, wove around me and I relaxed at his presence in the room. Still after everything I felt safe around him. Then my eyes scanned the bodies around him, looking for Alice, only to find her absent.
"Where is Alice?" I asked, my tone sharp and my eyes flashing as I stepped forward, feeling brashly unafraid.
Aro sighed, his beautiful hair shining as he bowed his head and shook it in disappointment. "So you heard our exchange after all. What a clever little pixie she is."
Again I felt confusion shoot through me, but I continued. "Where is she?" I repeated, putting emphasis on each word.
Aro held up his hands and met my gaze with his. "She has returned home to the Cullen family, I'm afraid dearest one you were witness to her deliberately provoking my ire in order to get you away from me. For Edward. I'm afraid little bird, that is where her loyalties still lay. She knew that if she could get you away from me and to your great grandfather that I…" He trailed off looking as though he wanted nothing more but to step forward and take me in his arms.
"That you would be forced to handle the situation in the correct manner. I must say i'm deeply disappointed in you, that you would merely try to abscond with my heir rather than stick to our agreement." Archos stepped forward and I felt my world spin, what the hell was going on? Who could I trust? Alice had lied to me for Edward? Aro really was the one looking out for me, trying to take care of me? I was so confused and every time I thought I had a handle on things, they were flipped upside down again.
"Our agreement was made over a thousand years ago Archos and has no bearing on Isabella or her wishes. I will not force her into anything." Aro looked as though he was going to step forward, but hesitated as his eyes moved to the man stood over my left shoulder and he decided to stay where he was. He really was afraid of Archos' influence.
"What agreement?" I bit out, looking between them and then once at my mother for good measure, who looked just as confused as I was.
"Aro is descended from a very old, powerful family. A family we respected. Upon his unfortunate transition I was brought in by his family to teach him and his sister restraint, control and power over their abilities and compulsions. I did so under an oath that when the time was right and my heir was born that he would do his duty. Restoring it if only in part to what it once was, a respected and noble house." Archos supplied, his voice chilling me the more I heard.
"Well, i'm sorry but you've got it wrong. I am not your heir, nor am I part vampire or whatever. Just let me go!" I knew it was a pathetic and futile attempt but when Archos laughed behind me I had the urge to swing around and hit him.
"Of course you are, why do you think your blood sings to them." He indicated toward Aro and the guard stood around him. "Because it is pure, purer than theirs and but not as pure as mine. Look at their eyes, they've turned into starving dogs just being in the room with us for mere minutes. I must say Aro, this guard has far more restraint than the last you brought with you to meet me. Poor fools."
I suddenly had visions of vampires leaping forward at Archos, all to be stopped in their tracks before even touching him. What had he done to them?
"I used my influence to make them believe it was their own blood they craved so much." He said looking down at me, answering my unspoken question. "They tore themselves apart never getting that satisfying taste of nirvana. Which is why Aro is so afraid to come near me."
I saw Aro's nostrils flare at Archos' words. To say he was afraid of anything was asking for death, but I knew that if there was one thing Aro was good at, it was waiting for the correct moment and manipulating it to his advantage.
"Lets save the reminiscing for later, shall we?" Aro's black eyes drifted down to meet mine and he visibly softened, holding out his large, pale hand toward me. "Come, Isabella."
I stepped toward him without thought, I knew I should have trusted my gut from the beginning. When asked outright Aro had never lied to me, had sworn he would do his best to protect me and said that he didn't want to turn me until I was ready and I should have believed him. Should have trusted how safe I felt around him. I placed my hand in his and he gripped it tightly and pulled me to his chest, cradling me in an embrace that was both strong and soft.
"Thank goodness you are safe." He whispered into my hair and I breathed in his smell as I burrowed deeper into his jacket. "For a moment I'd thought…"
I pulled back and looked up at him as he cupped my face, his thumb stroking across my cheekbone. He had that look in his eyes, that one reserved just for me and I felt myself smile back at him.
"So." Archos' voice brought me out of our self imposed bubble. "You are in love with her."
He stated it, it wasn't even a question and I glanced rapidly from him to Aro, who had me gripped firmly to his side and I could see his jaw was working as he ground his teeth together in fury.
"Then that should make things so much easier for you!" Archos continued, clearly pleased with this development.
"I will not force her into anything, as i've said."
"Wait." I spoke after Aro had finished. "Can someone explain, coherently, just what i'm missing here?"
"Aro has been betrothed to the female heir who held the vampyre blood within her, since he was turned himself." Archos supplied for me in a bored voice, like he was talking to a small child and I felt like I had taken a swift punch to the gut.
I looked up at Aro who refused to relinquish his hold on me no matter how much I struggled. "Is that why you were so interested in me? The reason behind the gifts and letters? Behind the little games you were playing with the Cullen's?" Disbelief colored my tone, I just wanted him to prove me wrong. To make it all go away. But as dread filled the pit of my stomach I knew this wouldn't go away, my eyes swept across his beautiful face as he tried to explain to me.
"This is why I wanted to get you to Volterra, where you would be safe." He said looking at me as though he just wanted to pick me up and disappear. "Your great grandfather wanted to turn you, no matter what the consequences would be. We don't know what would happen to you due to the vampire blood already in your veins. You could die, but he didn't care. All he cared about was furthering the line and he was adamant you couldn't be at all human for that."
"This wasn't why I took an interest in you. I was honest with you when I told you about your mother, I had no idea who she was or who she was related to, everything I told you then was true. I only recently discovered your true lineage when I visited your mother again and saw her own first meeting with them both."
I held up my hands, trying to quieten the room when in reality the noise was in my head, the only one in the room who had been talking was Aro and he had now fallen silent. "Lets for a minute put aside the fact you think you can use me like a pawn and dictate my life when you haven't even been a part of it." I shot at Archos, who seemed stunned at my disobedience. "Lets pretend everything went as you wanted and Aro turned me and I was a vampire. You think I would be able to get pregnant?" I looked at him in total disbelief. Did he even know what vampires were nowadays?
"I will not have another child born from my blood with human in them." Was all he said, his fists clenching rhythmically at his sides.
"So you wanted me to be turned, with no thought what might happen to me in the process, that it might not even work because I have 'vampyre' blood inside me? That I might just die?" My mother looked horrified as she looked between her father and grandfather and then back at me. The watery gaze she leveled at me told me she'd had no idea what their plans had been.
"Better that than another contaminated member of the species." My mother gasped aloud and raised her hands to her face, her eyes widening in realization.
"You're a monster!" She breathed, looking at Archos with clear eyes for the first time.
"And an idiot." I proclaimed meeting the furious eyes of my descendant. "You honestly were going to go through with this and just hope for the best? Hope that your blood won out over Aro's venom? Over my heart stopping? Dead people can't bear children."
He growled under his breath and took a step toward me where I stood at Aro's side, before he'd even moved Aro had intoned Jane's name under his breath and the child stepped forward her eyes fixed on Archos. This seemingly brought some sense back to Archos, for he froze, settling instead for resting his furious eyes upon me.
"And earlier?" I asked, all the pieces fitting together suddenly. "When I felt as though I could trust you and thought you would do anything to protect your family, to protect us. You were inside my head weren't you?"
Aro looked down at me sharply, concern creasing his brow. "His power worked on you?"
I shook my head and Archos laughed. "No. If it did do you think she'd be arguing with me right now? I'd have ripped her mind apart so quickly she'd merely be a puppet doing as she was told." He seemed to pull himself together somewhat, tugging his cufflinked sleeves down toward his wrists under his suit jacket. "She can however be marginally influenced as long as I have bodily contact with her. Much I presume how young Jasper Cullen's power can work on her. Just a little."
Archos sighed aloud and rotated his head sideways, as if he were working out the kinks in his neck. "I needn't quarrel with you about this. My will shall be done regardless, I need only look at the pair of you to see that. And now you have a real dilemma don't you, do you continue to allow this romance to progress, knowing you are playing into my hands?" Now he turned to Aro, his arms outstretched at his sides. "Or do you let her go, do you think you even could at this stage?"
He smirked wickedly as he observed the scene before him, then he turned and picked up the brown fedora I hadn't noticed on the coffee table, tipped his head and hat to us and turned to the window. "Come along Vincent. Leave her!" He almost lost his composure when Vincent turned to Renée, almost as though he was going to sweep her up into his arms and carry her along with them. Instead, at his fathers word he stepped away, his head bowed, and followed as Archos leapt from the 5th story window in broad daylight.
AN: I really appreciate your reviews & messages of support for this story. Most of you seem to be enjoying where i'm taking this, which is good! Please drop me a review and let me know your thoughts! I love reading them as much as you enjoy new chapters! (Except you get 2000+ words and i get like 20.)