Please note from here on out the Rating has changed to M. Please don't read on if that offends you.
His teeth pierced my skin and there was pain only for a moment as he broke through the toughened scar tissue left behind by James. The ruby red of his lips matched the color of my blood as it trickled from the corner of his mouth and left a trail of crimson around my pale wrist, his tongue soon followed the escaped droplet though, letting none go to waste. I watched in fascination as his eyes changed from black, to maroon, to their usual clouded crimson hue.
He pressed his tongue and then his thumb to the wound in an effort to stem the flow of blood as he moved his blood stained mouth to his own arm and I flinched at the force with which he tore into his own flesh.
He offered it to me and moved back to swipe his tongue over my wrist again, now with tenderness rather than hunger as he waited for me to take his blood. This time I didn't hesitate, so eager was I to taste the nirvana inducing liquid again.
I practically lunged forward and I felt his laugh huff in a breath of cold air across my wound. I moaned aloud and unashamedly as his blood met my tongue and I held onto his wrist with strength I didn't know I possessed. I was sure when I thought about it afterward, once I had regathered my mental wits, that he had allowed me to drink from him far longer than was necessary.
I remembered, during my lust induced haze, him placing a final kiss on my wrist as the skin clearly healed over and lifting his head to press a kiss atop my hair. He had caressed my neck as I drank from him deeply and only drew me away once the wound had begun to heal over, much to my irritation.
My chest heaved in my thin chemise as I panted and licked my lips, I felt his blood flow through me and that familiar feeling of power thrummed in my veins. As I raised my eyes to his, a euphoric smile broke across his face and he raised his hand to my temple, almost brushing the corner of my eye with his thumb.
"There she is…" He whispered and I frowned until he pointed over my shoulder at the mirror in the corner of the room and I knew before I turned that my eyes were violet.
"So it is your blood…" I said, looking at myself as I straddled him, my hair tousled and legs bare with eyes so strange and yet so wonderfully right. I finally felt like I belonged by his side, like I was equally striking and powerful. Yet, I knew I was vulnerable as I felt my heart pound in my chest, desperately pumping the oxygen I had denied it whilst drinking from Aro around my body.
"No my love, it is us, combined we are a force to be reckoned with. This proves you were destined to rule at my side la mia bella principessa." He whispered against my ear and I felt tingles shoot up from the base of my spine and gooseflesh ripple where his breath fanned against my neck. His lips made contact and I watched our reflection as he ravished my neck, with my head tilted back for as long as I could, before my eyes fell closed involuntarily in bliss. His hands moved from my back down over my hips and to my rear where he gripped me, unabashedly and I couldn't help but let out a whimper of desire as I felt it shoot through me to my core.
He pulled me closer, continuing to suckle and kiss my neck whilst kneading and squeezing and I realized just how impractical my shorts were as his cold fingers left their icy trail upon my skin. Closer and closer until they almost, subtly brushed against the cloth which barely concealed the moist heat beneath, and I froze. Chest heaving as I forced my lust drugged eyelids open to look at him. He too paused as he beheld me, one eyebrow raised in question as he kept his hands firmly in place, holding me to him.
"Come now Isabella, you didn't expect to make it out of my bed un-ravished when wearing so little to protect yourself, hmm? I am but a man, after all." I fought not to melt back into his arms as he looked at me, so damned perfect and without even a hair out of place whilst I sat panting atop him, looking, I was sure, every inch the wild eyed nymphet he had turned me into.
"Would you rather I wear full flannel pajamas, because that can be arranged." I threatened teasingly, feeling happiness well within me as he growled his displeasure.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to tell him I had only been teasing I felt my stomach lurch threateningly and I clapped my hand over my mouth as my eyes widened in terror. Aro's grip on me loosened immediately as I lunged from the bed and ran to the adjacent bathroom. I just made it to the perfect, unused porcelain toilet as my abdomen clenched and I retched painfully.
Aro was at my side in an instant, pulling my hair back from my face and placing his cool hand against the back of my suddenly clammy neck. I feebly tried to push him away, my hand just brushed against his pant leg however as he stood, statue like beside me.
My whole body convulsed again and I coughed as I fought for air whilst emptying the contents of my stomach.
"Please" I managed to gasp out. "Leave."
His thumb stroked the back of my neck whilst his other hand still gathered my hair at the base of my skull whilst I held onto the toilet bowl for dear life.
"Don't want you to see-" I threw myself forward again as I retched into the toilet, noticing it was Aro's blood which filled the water.
"Hush my darling, I am not leaving you so please stop talking. Heidi, we need water, now." I hadn't even registered his words until there was a tap on the door and for a moment Aro left my side and my hair fell forward.
I could hear hushed mumbling but only for a moment as Aro was beside me again, offering me a glass of clear liquid.
"Drink, dear one."
I weakly raised my hand to flush the toilet but his fingers captured mine as he shook his head and pushed the glass toward me. "Leave it, I will have it examined."
I frowned at him as I took a sip of the cold water, feeling my stomach clench threateningly before settling again.
"Why?" I croaked, my throat feeling sore. "I must have just caught a bug Aro, you don't need to have my puke looked at."
Aro frowned, creasing his perfectly smooth brow with concern as he shook his head and brushed my hair away from my sticky forehead. "No, my darling, this is my fault for allowing you to drink so much. I want to ensure there are no detrimental affects to your health, I will have Carlisle take a look when he arrives. Are you feeling better?"
I took a deep breath, trembling with sudden cold as I realized I felt too weak to argue with him. Let him examine my puke if it made him feel better, I just wanted to curl up in bed next to him.
"It definitely doesn't taste as good coming back up as it did going down." I pointed out in an attempt at humor as Aro helped me stand, my legs buckled beneath me and the glass of water tipped, sloshing over the edges and down his black shirt. He took the glass from me and placed it on the counter top before lifting me into his arms gently and carrying me from the room.
I felt my vision blur as I fought to stay awake, fear made my heart stutter and having heard its erratic beat, Aro looked at me in concern as he laid me down.
"I'm afraid." I whispered, unknowing of why a deep and overwhelming dread begun to fill me as my head lolled to the side and my eyes closed without my permission.
"I am here, my love." He pulled me to him and I breathed his scent deeply and let the familiarity of it lull me to sleep.
-o-
The room blurred and my eyelids felt dry and itchy as I fought to open them, I felt cold and yet heavy blankets pressed against my skin. It was because Aro's arms were wrapped around me, his chest vibrated against my head and I realized he was speaking to someone. I fought hard to listen.
"You must not rest Carlisle until you have the answer. I will owe you a debt I can never repay, please my friend…" I had never heard such desperation in his voice. I wanted to tell him it was all okay but I couldn't, I couldn't move and it felt as though the harder I fought the more unconsciousness pulled me under.
"We will find out what has happened to her Aro. I swear."
Carlisle was here…. Then there was darkness.
-o-
"You cannot stay in this room holding onto her Aro, this is folly. You have a duty." Caius. Well, that was the last voice I wanted to wake up to. I took a moment to be mortified that he was in our room but then I realized what he was saying. How long had I been here in Aro's arms, unable to move?
"My duty is to my mate." Aro spat in pure fury and I felt it roll through him in waves. "Leave us."
I heard steps retreating and a door slam and I frowned mentally, feeling tiredness overcome me again but wanting to help calm him.
'Calm down' I thought to him, pushing my want outward and I felt him shift beneath my cheek. Perhaps he was trying to get a closer look at me.
"Isabella?" He whispered frantically, brushing my hair away from my face and cradling my jaw. "I felt that my darling, I felt you trying to calm me. Save your strength my love, Carlisle will help. I am here, I am here."
He rocked me in his arms and clutched me to his chest, as darkness consumed me and took me further from him, in the far distance I thought I heard a man sob with such pain that it made my heart ache.
-o-
"Your blood is a diluted version of your venom old friend, having such an amount in her system would, at first, have awakened the dormant cells within her tissue, but a diluted version will never satisfy her body, which is why it forced her to purge it." Carlisle was back again. I tried to smile, happy that he was here but still my body refused to obey me, too weak even to lift a finger. Instead I listened. I was learning in these brief moments of lucidity that if I remained calm I could listen for longer.
"Your venom is what her body craves, undiluted and pure. Her Vampyre cells are attacking her human cells, her own body is turning against her Aro, searching for your venom. When I placed a drop of your blood into the dish and observed… It was like her cells, both human and vampire, combined using your venom as the agent to make them compatible. There is no other way my friend… You have to turn her, or you will lose her. I'm sorry." The sorrow in his voice was real and I felt sad for him.
"I thought we had so much time…" That voice, that couldn't be Aro. His voice was so smooth and melodious, so bell like it was hypnotizing. This voice was broken, full of despair and agony. My heart broke to hear it and I longed to wrap my arms around him. "I cannot lose her Carlisle, what if I sentence her to an agonizing death?"
"I am sorry Aro, but if you don't she will waste away to nothing, just a shell of herself. If you don't, she will die."
"He knew." The fury was back and now I recognized the voice as Aro's, I felt his hands shake upon me as he was overcome by his anger. "He knew this would happen and he allowed it. Knew that I would share her blood and offer mine… I would be willing to stake my life that Archos sent William to harm her, so as to speed up the proceedings."
"Calm down old friend, you will do her no good in such a state." Carlisle's calming tone was a welcome one and I pushed my want and intent forward, asking whatever entity that cared to listen to allow me just one last moment with my love.
"Don't you dare bet your l-life." I managed to croak out, my voice sounded awful, like I had been mummified and buried alive. I felt rather than saw Aro's head whip around with lightening speed as he looked down at me. "It's quite valuable to me, you see." I was grateful for their vampire hearing as I was sure no ordinary human would have deciphered my words. I sighed as I felt his lips on my face, invigorating me and injecting life into my drying skin.
"My darling, my beautiful Isabella, please come back to me, please." He rocked me in his arms and cradled my face in his hands. I tried so hard to open my eyes, to get one last glimpse of his beautiful face. But I couldn't, using my voice had taken the very last reserves of my energy, I was determined however to say one last thing to him before the creeping darkness consumed me.
"Turn me… Please."
His hair covered my face as he bowed his head and pressed his lips to my forehead whispering repeatedly and reverently "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…"
A/N: *Hides*
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