Eliana slipped back into consciousness very slowly. She could feel her mind waking up, but her eyes were still closed. She could feel a bed beneath her. Was it all a dream?

That would make sense, since her memory of what she'd just witnessed was almost impossible to access. There were three men . . . and one of them was called . . . Aro, maybe? He might've had an ability too, but she couldn't seem to put her finger on it. They were the Volturi, that's all she remembered for certain.

"How long has she been like this for?" Alice asked.

"About 16 hours," an unfamiliar voice answered, causing Eliana's heart rate to instantly pick up. It had to have been a dream, but the prospect of everything that had happened being a figment of her imagination was fading away quickly. "She has not so much as stirred in that time, unfortunately."

Unable to stay calm for any longer, Eliana's eyes fluttered open. She jumped when she saw that she was not alone, far from it. While Alice stood at the foot of whatever bed she was in, which was rather reassuring, to her right was Aro accompanied by the other two Volturi leaders.

"Um . . . hello?" Eliana mumbled, confused and just a little frightened.

Her puzzled gaze drifted between the faces in the room towards Alice, whose only explanation she could provide was, "We're glad you're okay."

But was she 'okay' though? Everything hurt—her head, her body, her lungs—she was in a room full of red-eyed strangers who were all looking at her weirdly, and she had no idea where Bella was. She wasn't entirely sure why the Volturi leaders of all people were there in the first place.

Just as she began to sit up straight, although it hurt to do so, her attempt was interrupted.

"I would not bother with your feeble efforts at sitting up," the same unfamiliar voice as before advised, although it seemed unexplainably tense. She reluctantly glanced up, her gaze meeting the blond man she somewhat recognised who was perched on the edge of the bed. "You went through a lot yesterday, and using up any further energy will only cause you to experience further unnecessary pain."

Eliana hesitated for a moment before resting her head back against the pillows so that she was slightly more upright than before. "Okay . . .?"

"Can we get you anything?" Aro asked, knelt just beside her.

Incredibly confused, she opened her mouth but couldn't think of how to structure her question so closed it again. "Why am . . . I have so many questions about," she motioned around her, "what the hell is happening here right now. Sorry, who are, um . . . you?"

Aro exchanged a glance between the other two before turning back to her. "I do believe we have already met, amore mio, but I doubt you remember. My name is-"

"Aro," she interrupted, surprising herself slightly. "Sorry, yeah, Aro, but um . . .?"

The blond man from before seemed mildly amused by her awkwardness in asking for their names. "I am Caius," he introduced ever-so-slightly short-temperedly, "and this," He motioned to the man stood up beside him with his arms crossed over his chest, "is Marcus."

"Oh, er . . . okay . . ." Eliana stared at her lap for a moment, "and why exactly am I here? Actually, better question, why are you here?"

"Yes," Marcus sighed, his voice deep and somehow incredibly calming, "there is something that must be explained to you, but it may take some time."

Eliana shrugged. "You might as well just tell me now. It's not like I'll be going anywhere like this."

Before Marcus could begin, Aro turned to him and shook his head. He then switched his attention back to her with a slight smile which confused her just a little more. Weren't these the same people who supposedly had no value for human life whatsoever? This was shaping up to be a weird, weird day.

"In that case, we'd best leave you to rest," Caius said as he stood up along with Aro—Marcus was already standing near the door. "The last thing we need is for your condition to worsen, carina."

With that, the three of them left the room as gracefully as vampires tended to do. The moment the door closed behind them, Eliana let go of a breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding.

With a confused eyebrow raised, her head turned to Alice. "Did he just call me cute?" Alice made a strange squeaking sound, surprising her slightly. "What's up with you?"

That did it. Alice almost fell over in peals of laughter, to the point where she would've been crying had she been a human. Eliana definitely would've joined her if she wasn't so confused, in discomfort, and plainly irritated.

"Alice," Eliana grumbled, "I swear, if you don't tell me whatever the hell is going on right now, I'll-"

"You'll do what, El?" Alice giggled. "You can barely move!"

Alice continued to laugh uncontrollably for a few more moments. As much as her child-like attitude to things was sometimes hilarious, it really wasn't when her entire life and wellbeing was on the line.

Eliana raised an eyebrow. "Finished now?"

"Look, Eli," she let out one more short laugh, "I'm really not in a place to tell you right now, but I promise this isn't as weird as it seems. Do you trust me?"

Eliana rolled her eyes. "No, but I guess I have to. Now, if you don't mind me, I'm gonna close my eyes and bloody hope I'll wake up in my own bed, and all of this will be just one long fucked-up dream."

Still quietly laughing to herself, Alice skipped out of the room again, closing the door gently behind her. With a heavy sigh and her confused and disoriented thoughts racing around her head, Eliana closed her eyes and allowed herself to be overcome by sleep.

Everything would be back to normal in the morning in anyway. She'd wake up in the spare bedroom at the Cullens' house, and Emmett would make fun of her for her dream as she ate whatever breakfast Esme would make. Everything was fine.

Probably.


Eliana slowly opened her eyes, feeling completely calmed and well-rested. There was a bright beam of light shining onto her bed from the window which forced her to squint as she sat up and glanced around her.

"Fuck," she muttered.

Nope, it hadn't been some kind of dream. The room she was in was exactly the same room that she remembered from the previous night—or day, maybe—her mental calendar was kind of messed up.

She had to admit, though, it was a nice room. The walls were a dark beige colour, the large four-poster bed she was in was very comfortable, admittedly, and even the ceiling had a mural painted on it, although she didn't know enough about art to properly appreciate it.

She tried to think of her next course of action to take. She couldn't just lie there—that would be dumb—but she wasn't entirely sure where she was.

With a sigh, she decided to climb out of the bed, still wearing the same creased clothes as before, and explored the room she was currently in. She was alone, but the fact that she couldn't completely confirm that to be true unsettled her.

There wasn't much to the room. The wardrobe was empty, the shelves in the adjoining bathroom were bare, and it truly did give off the feeling that this was a guest room.

At the foot of the bed she found a few stacks of clothes, clothes that definitely looked like they could be hers but weren't. Eliana rolled her eyes, knowing Alice probably had something to do with it, and picked up the first few items she found.

Even showering and getting dressed felt wrong. The fact that she wasn't completely sure of who was around only made her feel more insecure as she removed her previous clothes.

Just as she began to examine the state of herself in the mirror in the bathroom, she heard a knock sound from the door to the bedroom. Refusing to let herself panic, she slowly wandered over to the door and opened it a little centimetre at a time.

Surprisingly, the person at the door seemed familiar—she'd probably seen him in her dream-that-was-not-a-dream-after-all. He was tall, well over 6 feet, wearing a grey cloak and with dark crimson eyes that looked her up and down for a moment.

"The kings have summoned you to the throne room," the man told her.

"Er . . . okay." She tapped her foot against the floor for a moment. "Who are you again?"

He rolled his eyes but smirked a little at her. "Felix, ma'am. Do hurry. The Masters don't take well to tardiness."

With an indignant huff, Eliana picked up her phone, stuffing it into her pocket, and stepped out of the room into the considerably colder and darker corridor. Even the windows were sparse, the little daylight available being the few small windows located nearer the ceiling.

They spoke little while Felix somehow tolerated walking at Eliana's human pace. There wasn't exactly much that she knew to say, and even the millions of questions rushing through her head didn't seem appropriate to ask.

"Um, Felix?" she asked after a few minutes. He glanced down at her but otherwise said nothing. "Where . . . where am I, exactly?"

He looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. Maybe he would have to take her to the coven's doctor before the Masters.

"You're in Volterra, Italy," he replied slowly.

"Well yeah, I'm not stupid," she retorted. "But, like . . . where? Just a general explanation of everything happening right now would be nice."

Felix sighed. "I am taking you to see Masters Aro, Caius, and Marcus, as per their request."

"Anything else?" she pried.

"Nope," he lied, attempting to keep his tone nonchalant and even.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the help. How tall are you?"

The question came out faster than she could stop it. She clasped her hand over her mouth. Goodness, she needed to work on her verbal filter.

"Pardon?" He seemed bewildered by her question. "Why do you need to know my height?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, you're just—and I mean no offence—freakishly tall."

Rather than show any signs of him being offended, he laughed at her humour. "'Freakishly tall', that's a new one. I'll remember that, little human," he chuckled. "I am 6'7"."

"6'7"?!" Her jaw dropped open. "Holy crap! I'm only 5'4''!"

"I did say little human," he reminded her. "This is it."

He stopped in front of a large set of double doors that looked oddly familiar to her and knocked a few times before pushing it open. Before he left, he spun around to her and said, "By the way, you're not wearing shoes," after which he winked and stood back for her to enter.

Eliana glanced down at her feet and found that he was right. Of course, she'd forgotten to put on a pair of shoes before leaving the room. She rarely remembered these kinds of things when in the right headspace, so it was inevitable that she'd forget something now of all times.

Narrowing her eyes at Felix, she stepped into the room, which had a nagging feeling of familiarity about it. Unfortunately, she wasn't given much of an opportunity to dwell on that thought, since her gaze flickered up to the three people sitting at the top of the dais opposite her.

In the centre was Aro, his straight raven black hair flowing down his shoulders and a book on his lap which he proceeded to close and place on the armrest of his throne once she entered.

"Ah, my dear Eliana. What a pleasant surprise!" He smiled warmly as he stood up and gestured her over with a finger.

Her heart racing in her chest, and knowing there was a good chance that she'd reach her end right there and then, Eliana took a few hesitant steps forward with her arms crossed over her chest timidly.

Only a few steps into the centre of the room, she was yanked out of her thoughts when Caius, who she hadn't noticed was there for a moment, nudged Aro slightly and whispered something so quickly and so quietly that it just looked like a subtle twitch to his mouth.

Apparently it was enough to make Aro laugh, but Eliana had the feeling that he was one of those guys who didn't take much to start laughing. She knew it was bad, though, when even Marcus, the bored-looking leader on the left, seemed only very mildly humoured by it.

"Did you forget your shoes by any chance?" Caius asked, the remnants of a taunting smile on his face.

Eliana briefly shut her eyes. "I just didn't think shoes would go well with this outfit." She paused, before adding, "Your corridors are filthy by the way," and then internally beating herself up about her comment.

Fortunately for her, none of them seemed to take any offence by it. "Well, it is lovely to have you, amore mio. Please do take a seat." He stepped to the side, offering her his throne.

She blinked for a moment in pure confusion. On the one hand, she'd probably get into more trouble if she didn't do as she was told, but on the other hand everything about the situation was unsettling her. He was really offering her his throne?

Very hesitantly, Eliana began to take a few steps forward. Once she was within reach, Aro grabbed her hand within a split second and sat her down where he'd previously been seated. It surprised her when she sat down and for some reason expected the seat to still be warm, only to find that it was freezing.

"Finally we can meet properly, cara mia." Aro had now taken up the space she'd previously been occupying in front of the dais. "I do hope you feel better than you did when we last saw you."

"Um, yeah," Eliana stared at her hands in her lap, "great, life's going just swimmingly."

Marcus, who was sitting to her left on his own throne, hummed in mild amusement. "We are very glad that is the case. We were all very worried about you, my dear."

"Yes, about that," Aro continued, her head quickly turning back to him, "there is something we must speak about, Eliana, something you deserve to be made aware of sooner rather than later."

Shit, shit, I'm dead, I'm dead as I can fucking be. Great. Brilliant-

"You see, your little incident earlier was no coincidence," he told her, all three of them examining her expression to gage her reaction, "but rather due to your presence with us."

Eliana's eyebrows drew together. "Er . . . what?"

"The truth of it is, tesoro," Marcus explained, "there are bonds that exist between beings. These bonds are invisible but connect people together based on how they interrelate with one another. I have the ability to see the way in which people's very souls are connected together, and I can confirm that there are bonds connecting you with each of us," he breathed heavily, "meaning that you are destined to be with us."

Eliana coughed unnecessarily. That had certainly not been the explanation she'd been waiting to hear, but that didn't make it any more believable. Was this seriously it? Or just a lame prank being taped to be played at her 19th birthday party which Alice was already planning for?

Her mouth opened and closed as she attempted to come up with a response. "Come again?"

"I understand this is a lot to take in, Eliana," Caius said in a tone which she assumed was supposed to be soothing, but little could soothe her now, "and we would never mean to overwhelm you."

Her eyes widened slightly. "So you're not joking? There's not some kinda, I don't know, hidden camera with Emmett ready to make fun of me? This . . . this . . . what?"

Aro cupped her hand in his, his skin being so smooth but cold that it made her fingers feel numb. "We speak only the truth, cara mia."

Her eyes widened like saucers as even more questions than before whizzed around her throbbing head. Just how? How was this possible? How was she mated to three wealthy vampire overlords? Didn't they have mates in anyway? And what about Noah? She couldn't just leave her boyfriend behind for some rich husband—or apparently husbands.

Calm down, Eli, you're not moving to Italy.

"Our legal marriage paperwork with our previous wives is no longer valid, piccola," Aro told her, almost startling her. "Once Marcus confirmed our suspicions, we sent them away," he said as if speaking about a fly he let out of the window.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Oh my jeez, are they okay?" she questioned.

"Marriage does not mean as much to us as you may believe, dear one," he replied. "We have been around for some millennia, after all."

She cleared her throat, her breathing already beginning to pick up in pace. "So, you guys are, like, my . . ."

"True mates," Caius finished her sentence for her, "that is correct."

She'd heard about true mates before, but Esme had made it seem like some kind of crazy fictional fantasy tale of vampires literally willing to lay their undead lives down for each other.

But now the reality was weighing down on her. The room felt like it was spinning out of control, like every remaining trace of sanity was fading away from view and reach. She could feel her heartbeat in her mouth, pounding against her tongue.

Well, that's not normal.

"Ssh, carina, just breathe, I know this is a lot to take in at once," a muffled voice reassured her.

She had no idea who it was, and her mind wasn't feeling up to the task of figuring out the mystery now. Nothing could reassure her, nothing. Her nails dug deeper into the armrests either side of her as she felt a sickly chill envelop her body.

After a few moments of panic, she gathered up all the strength she had left in her to force herself onto her feet, which caused a sharp pain to ring through her legs. A hand reached out to grab her arm before she could stumble down the steps of the dais, but she strangely reluctantly pulled herself away, pushing at Aro as he stepped to the side so that she could run for the door.

She'd never felt like this before, never this overwhelmed with any emotion, and she'd certainly never been known to react like this to any situation. She just needed to leave.

Nothing within her could stand being in that room with them for any longer.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Yes, I felt the need to leave Eliana running through the castle like a crazy person. I just felt like this fic wouldn't be this fic without it to be honest hahahah. I think out of all the chapters written so far, I'd say this is probably the truest to the original content, but still little bits have been altered, as you can see.

Also I'm kinda thinking of putting this fic up on AO3 as well, but if I do I think I'll wait until it's finished before then, because I'm just insecure

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!