AN: Quotes from A Thousand Years are in bolded italics

BPOV

I walked in behind Jane, taking in the cold beauty of the marble room. Imposing columns, as high as could be found in some of the most impressive cathedrals I had seen, were making me feel even smaller and fragile than I knew myself to be. I swallowed, feeling the hold of fear trying to suffocate me. My heart continued hammering against my chest. In between the columns, vampires with shinning red eyes stood, too many for my panicked brain to count, definitely more than ten, maybe fifteen or twenty, I registered still. Everything in me screamed that I needed to run and my muscled tensed, adrenaline continuing to fuel me and I looked around for an escape, before the rational part of my brain reminded me that I would be dead before even taking my first step. Screw me and my stupid ideas. Running straight to the vampire lair, great idea. Bella. I told myself off as I continued moving forward.

I finished my inspection of the room and finally looked closer at the three vampires who sat on thrones, a few step up on a platform. Royalty, Carlisle had told me. They certainly looked like it. If my heart could have broken my own ribs, now would have been the time. I whimpered internally, no sound seemed to be able to pass my lips anymore. Focus Bella.

In the few seconds it had taken for me to gather my thoughts, two of the vampires had stood and I heard several faint gasps echo in the enormous throne room. I looked around, expecting something was about to happen. Something that would probably be a very bad end for my short human self. I braced myself, wanting to close my eyes and forcing them to remain opened, alert.

Finally, my gaze focused back on the Vampire Kings and that's when my life ended, the thread of fate snapping around me as everything I thought I knew was redefined in a crashing moment of clarity.

Frozen, I held my breath.

Nothing else existed, nothing else seemed to matter. I simply knew. My heart beat faster still and I lost myself into crimson eyes that were full of life and promises.

I took a deep, sharp breath and slowly forced myself to breathe normally again, fighting to remain alert.

How to be brave? How to start moving again?

My world had shattered in a second and my path was hurriedly rewriting itself in a breath-taking hurry.

How had I ever thought I knew love? I wanted to cry under the force of my feelings. My head felt light and I stumbled where I stood, afraid to fall.

The crimson eyes looked at me, too still to be real. They were telling me a story, a story of suffering that ran so deep that it tore at my soul, shattering my heart as I fought to regain clarity, locked into his gaze. I wanted to… no, I needed to go to him. I had to hold him, comfort him, cherish him, and love him. But how can I love when I'm afraid to fall, when I don't even know who I am anymore?

But watching him stand alone? All of my doubt suddenly went away somehow. I took a step.

One step closer

As swiftly as the stillness had enveloped the room, it disappeared, exploding into a blur of colours and I looked up into my vampire's eyes. His deep, crimson eyes, which were somehow alight behind a thin veil that gave them a burgundy hue rather than a deadly red.

And I was lost to them.

AroPOV

It all happened in an instant, barely the length of a human breath but even without having to read any thoughts, I knew what had happened.

There, behind Jane, the human girl, Isabella, Edward's forbidden love, had walked in with her head tentatively held high despite the clear fearful shaking that we could all see run through her fragile body.

I could see the attraction. She would make an astonishingly beautiful vampire once turned.

What happened, though, took us all by surprise and several of our present guards gasped in shock. I could forgive them as in this moment, they witnessed something so unnatural to their young eyes.

My brother was standing on my right. He had stood with such vampiric speed, a feat that no one had seen from him in over a millennium and I, too, gasped slightly, barely maintaining my composure at such a sign of life.

My eyes took him in, his expression changing so fast that the girl would not have caught the shifts. But I did. We all did.

My eyes travelled towards the girl, and then I knew. It should have been impossible and yet, this fragile human, that so many vampires wanted to own, had made the impossible happen.

I inhaled deeply, taking in her beautiful and soft smell. Her blood was… tantalising. I had not lived for three millennia without learning to master my urges however and I chased away the thought, starting to analyse the possibilities…

This was going to be such a beautiful game to play.

AN: Thank you so much for reading, favouriting, following and reviewing already, it made my day :)

What are your thoughts?

Only our not so mystery vampire's POV remaining.

Ada x