Hi! I have been rewriting the previous chapters, if you want to read them again (if you don't ... well I have changed the guy's name to Javier and ... I added a couple of details.) Well, there it is, the next chapter after quite a moment of wait. Forgive me for this, I have been quite busy. Anyway, I hope you'll like it!

Convincing Javier to move had been easier than I thought. He had said yes right away. Probably he'd seen a way to make me like him. I didn't think it could ever be possible. After over a month spent together, the further I'd go would be friends. He had packed up for me and we were ready for the big day. Aro was supposed to pick us up soon. My dearest sister wasn't coming. Sadly, it had been a while I hadn't talked to her.

"He's there," Javier said.

I nodded and he touched my arm to guide me. I had to face it; he was making efforts. He had nothing in common with the stupid and mean boy I remembered. Maybe he had changed. Maybe. But I didn't care enough to say it aloud.

"Hi, sister," Aro said.

"Hello, brother," I told him.

He took my hand and helped me settle down for the trip. The way to go was quite quick, but I had fallen asleep, so I had no idea. I felt Javier's hand on my knee. I moved it and he took his hand back. His touch didn't repulse me, but almost.

"We've arrived."

The horse-drawn carriage stopped. I wasn't prepared for such a brutal stop, so I almost fell off the seat I was on. Javier had held me back. I didn't shiver of disgust. Not this time. He took it as an acceptance and probably as a victory and helped me getting outside. It smelled fresh. Flower perfume, something like roses, or maybe tulips. I liked it. I immediately thought we—and I obviously didn't mean Javier and I—could be happy here. The one thing I really was wondering was: what did Aro find?

"Aro," I said, "will I like it?"

"Like what?" Javier asked.

"With all the respect I owe you, this is none of your business, it's between me and my sister. Feel free to ask her later, when it's done. It'll be her choice whether she wants you to know or not," Aro immediately snapped.

"She doesn't get to do stuff without my approval," Javier argued. "I'm the man here, she doesn't get to keep secrets. I won't allow it. I let her come here with you, it's time you both tell me what's going on." I felt anger rising inside of me. I didn't get to keep secrets? Who did he think he was? Of course I could have secrets on my own, that was the whole point of being married! I was married with him, indeed, but he wasn't ruling my goddamn life. I didn't have to tell him everything. But, he had pointed out something. He had let me come here with my brother. I owed him some respect.

"I would tell you if I only knew. Aro told me nothing. He only said I could …" I said.

"—Now hush, sister. He'll know the truth when time has come. It'll be soon enough, he won't even have time to worry about your pretty little face," my brother assured.

"I barely know you, and I'm already sick of you," Javier grumbled at Aro.

"That makes both of us," Aro replied.

They would be the end of me if they kept going. I didn't know how long would be the trip, but I was hoping it would be fast. I believed it would. Aro had left his dearest wife back home. Not that it mattered to me, that wasn't the point. But if he had left her home, it meant that he didn't intend to stay for long. It meant that whatever it was that he had planned, it could easily be set and I could see again. Maybe soon, maybe sooner than I thought. The only thought of it made me smile. Before that day Aro came to me, pretending he had found a solution to my blindness, I had never thought of seeing again. Of course, I had wanted to, but I had never thought it would actually happen. My hope had died years ago, but now it was waking up again. And it was stronger than ever. Hope. It made me really feel alive for the first time in years.

"Shut up, both of you," I said. "I am tired of hearing you fighting like little baby girls. I know that is your specialty but could you please, shut up." I wasn't even asking them to shut up, I was telling them. Big difference.

Surprisingly, they did stop. But not for long. Aro opened his mouth like two seconds after I had asked him to close it, "Sister, I'd do as you say, but I won't. Come with me, we have things to do. Could you tell your lovely husband to take care of the suitcases. We shall be back in … a couple of hours. It won't be too long." I didn't like the tone he had taken. His voice was honeyed and that was a hint. He was either hiding something or lying straight to my face. And I couldn't tell which one it was because … he could be doing both.

But I didn't have time to mind about that. Everything was going wrong in my life, if I could fix one thing, that would fix the others. If I could see again, it didn't matter if I was still married to Javier. I'd get to be free. Free from his little annoying maids and from his sweetness I hated. "Javier, could you please do as he says?" I almost begged.

I heard him sighing and I knew that wouldn't be an easy victory. "Look, Didyme, I haven't been asking a lot of you lately, but I'm not okay with this."

"I didn't ask you to be. I didn't even ask you to come. You insisted." And as he stayed silent, I added, "What? Did you really think I would run away and never come back?" I got no answer and I knew I was right. This was stupid. The most stupid thing ever. I couldn't run away and never come back. Couldn't he get that it just wasn't an option? There was no way in heaven I could escape my misery. "Don't be ridiculous," I mocked meanly. "We're married, now, remember?"

I didn't know where he was, but I tried to turn around, to face my brother and then, we'd go. But it didn't work the way it was supposed to. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me. I shook on my legs, unstable and then, the hand let go of me and I fell on the ground. I groaned as I tried to get up. No one helped me and I was mad about it and glad about it as well. Mad because it felt to me like they didn't even care enough to help me up when they had pushed me down and glad because it could mean that they thought I could do this on my own, that I didn't always need their help.

I immediately knew who did it, who pushed me intentionally on the ground because my brother's voice was heard, "Don't you dare raise your hand on my sister. You do that again, and I will find you and I will kill you." Aro might be a bad brother, sometimes, he might expected too much of me, might wanted too much from me, but he loved me and he wouldn't let anyone hurt me like that. Maybe he was only trying to make it up to me since I still hadn't still digest the fact that he had let me marry Javier without saying anything. But he was my older brother. It was his duty to protect me.

"Are you threatening your prince?" Javier replicated. I had to force myself not to roll up my eyes. Just because he was a prince didn't mean he couldn't get blamed for things he had done.

"There is no such things as prince, here. You are just my sister's husband and you will not hurt her nor treat her wrong. Am I being clear?" When he wanted to be heard and listened, Aro always knew how to find his way to people's heart, whether it was by flattery or threats.

"I could have you arrested and thrown in jail for these words," Javier reminded him. That was definitely something he could do. But would he? I wanted to protest because I didn't want my brother to risk his entire life just because he was trying too hard to be my bodyguard. I was old enough, I shouldn't needed one anymore. But the sad fact was that I kind of did.

"Do this, and I swear to God you'll pay for it." Aro's voice was strangely calm as if he knew that Javier didn't have the guts to do it. It was true. He didn't. I didn't really know Javier's father nor his mother—I had briefly met them and they had literally scared the hell out of me—but I had noticed they seem to be severe people. They sounded strict and not really nice to hang out with. But that was only my own feeling. It didn't mean that it was true. Javier never talked about them. Well, it wasn't like he was talking to me, because maybe he would have, but he hadn't spoken about them before, when I still thought he was anyone but this old enemy of mine. Maybe he was like that because of his parents. Every kid ended up similar to their parents even if they hated it. Well, there was some exceptions which were the total opposite, like I was. And like I would always be. I would always be the only blind girl in the family. Thinking of family made me think of my own. Family. Would I ever get to have one? I mean, I couldn't have one. How could I get pregnant? How could I possibly hold one of my baby in my hands? I would drop her or him, maybe even hurt the little kid that would be my own flesh and blood. I couldn't think about having babies. If I had, I would have to have a nurse take care of them and I didn't want this. I didn't want children if I couldn't raise them on my own. That was pointless. I wanted to be able to tell them how lovely they looked, how to dress, how to eat, how to act in public, how to smile politely when you were deeply annoyed … But I would never get to teach them these things. Someone else would have to do it for me. I couldn't even read, for Christ's sake! Nor write. But of course, there was no way I could avoid having children. Javier would eventually force me into doing things I didn't want to do and I'd have to live with the consequences of his crazy mind. Carrying his children, wasn't that the most disgusting thought ever?

"I'm not scared of you."

"You should. I can be quite mean when I want to." There was something wrong with Aro's speech. Not that he hadn't threatened anyone before, it almost felt too gentle to be him. He didn't use to be this kind.

"Could you two leave it?" I interrupted. "I am tired and I just want to get this over with. Javier, please, let me be. If you really want what's best for me, you'll do as I say without asking any question. I swear, I'll explain as soon as we get back to your castle."

I heard Javier sighing. I didn't know if that was a good or a bad sign. I was sick of hearing them. It was exhausting being around them. I just wanted to know what Aro had found. I just wanted to know if my hopes raised for nothing. I just had to know if hope was gone, if there was absolutely no chance that I could ever see.

I thought he would protest again, but he chose to surprise me. "One hour. No more. You're back here in an hour, or I swear, you'll never leave my side again."

It's not like I can, I wanted to tell him but I didn't. He had been … kind enough to let me do this on my own. But everything had a price and I was already expecting this one to be really high.

I had barely the time to whisper "thank you" to Javier that Aro had grabbed my hand and had pulled me behind him as if he wanted to blow my arm off. "Come on, Didyme. We're already late enough. I don't want to make our host wait."

"Who is it, Aro?" I demanded for the fourth time, if it wasn't more.

I heard horses neighing and people whispering. I heard my brother's voice, saying, "Sorry, we're late. Took me longer than expected to convince her husband to let us go. He's quite stubborn, you should look out for him when it'll be done."

Another voice I had never heard made me shiver, "If you're late, it means the master will be waiting for a moment. I suggest you be really convincing because he's not going to be in a good mood."

"I think you shouldn't worry about our own sake because it'll be just fine," Aro assured. And maybe I was the only one to hear it, but behind his fake self-confidence, was fear. What did he have to fear, I wondered. My brother never had something to fear, he always acted as if he were fearless, but no one in this world was truly fearless. Not even him. Luckily for his poor victims.

I was taken by the waist and put up on a bench and as I could smell the horses, I supposed we were in a horse-drawn carriage going to the place Aro wanted to bring me. I couldn't tell how many peoples were with us, but I was sure they were quite a couple, more than two, definitely. They would outnumber us. They already did. If they wanted to hurt us, there was nothing I could do. But Aro would never have let me get in there if he didn't think it was safe. I was holding onto his arm, just to reassure me. It felt safer when I knew he was near me. He'd defend me if things turned out badly. But I trusted my dearest brother to find the right words. And then I would see again. What would I look like, I wondered. Once, I had asked my sister to describe to me what I looked like. She was so bad at it, I didn't get a thing. She said that it was wasting her time since I would never get to see myself in the mirror for myself. She said that if I got married one day, that I didn't have to care what I looked like, only thing I had to care about was if I could please my new master enough. Well, that was definitely not working with the master I had right now. I would never want to please him … but there would be this day where I would have to, but I couldn't bring myself to think of this day. That would be … disgusting, I didn't even know how I was supposed to get through this. But … seeing again … maybe he was good looking. Maybe he wasn't the snake I had pictured in my own mind. Maybe he was … No, I stopped myself. Why was I looking for excuses to like him? There was no point in looking for excuses since I didn't like him at all. And I would never. The only thought of it made me shiver in disgust. What a … bastard. He clearly was making efforts, though. That was … useless of him to do so because no matter how hard he would try, I would never "look" at him the way I did before knowing it was him. But what was different, I asked myself. I could have lived my entire life and loved that bastard with all my heart if he had never told me his name. If he had pretended to be someone else, I could have been his forever and I could have wanted to be his. Blindness made me weak, and it really did blind me. I could have known who he was when I had seen him for the first time. But the only thing I had to recognize him was my ears and … obviously, his voice wasn't the same than fifteen years ago. I said fifteen, but it might as well have been thirteen. I didn't remember. Well, I did, but … I couldn't tell because he used to make fun of me, then stopped, then again. Which didn't matter … he still did it once. One time he shouldn't have because I would never forget it. And … we could have been happy together, I knew we could have. But now … there was no way we ever could be happy together. Happy. I didn't even know what it meant. I never used to complain much about my blindness, but it seemed that I was finding way more inconveniences to it now that Aro had told me that I could be normal. I wondered how it felt like to be like everyone else. I wondered how it felt like to be able to be on your own, with no one by your side, making sure you didn't get hurt. I didn't want to be a child—or treated like one—my entire life. I was twenty-one for God's sake. I should have been able to be a wife. But I couldn't even do this task well enough. I needed help. Since when did I get so bitter, I wondered.

"We have arrived, sister," Aro's voice whispered in my ear.

He helped me to get out of the carriage, and we walked somewhere. Somethings brushed my legs—I supposed it was flowers since it was smelling good, like … like we were in a garden, or something. "Watch out for the step," he warned me. Actually, as a blind girl, the steps were the hardest at the beginning. But it got so much easier with the time, it felt like I didn't have to see the stairs to know every step of it. I just had to know how many steps there were and I could almost climb it all by myself. But this time, Aro didn't let go of my arm he was squeezing in his hands as if he was trying to reassure himself by holding onto me. This was weird. Aro was never … He had never needed my support. He was supporting me, most of the time, never the opposite.

I heard a sudden knock. I supposed we had arrived to the door of the person who would be nice enough to help me. I was ready to do anything they would want. Their price was my price, even if I had to pay it my entire life. It was worth it, wasn't it?

"Athenodora, Caius, we were waiting for you." That was an unknown voice and … I didn't know why but it didn't make me feel comfortable at all. "Oh, I see you brought back Aro. Please, welcome him in." I didn't like what I was hearing in the voice of whoever was speaking. It was … mockery.

"Careful, Didyme," Aro told me as he was taking me inside. The door closed behind us with a sinister noise. I had to fight hard with the urge of getting out of this place. It was creepy.

"Follow us, please. We'll lead you to the main room, where Volterra's king will be waiting for you." The same voice, the same mockery. Volterra's King? What was Volterra?

"Aro, where are we? What's Volterra?" I asked him, lowering my voice.

Still, I heard someone laughing in front of me. A laugh that crept me out. I think we passed through another door because I felt someone next to me, as I brushed past him, as if he were standing there, guarding the doors. We walked a little more and I wanted to beg my brother to get out of there. I didn't like what it was smelling … something like … blood and death. "Aro, can we please go?"

"I thought you wanted to see again," he replicated.

"Can't you find another way?"

"This is the only one I know."

Another voice was heard. It was the man they had called "Caius" earlier. "Aro, let's stop pretending, would you? I think you had your fun now, let's get straight to business if you want this over. Does she know that your solution implies her death?" I could feel my heart pounding and it almost felt like I could hear it. "Do you hear how scared she is? I can hear the beating of her heart. You were right. I think she could be great."

Aro's voice snapped. "Then, what are we waiting for? Let's get started, shall we?" This felt like an invitation to kill me. I wanted to back off, but I realized that my brother's hand was keeping me still. I tried to free myself but I wasn't able to. And for the first time in years, I realized that his hand was cold, so cold … death cold. I wanted to scream, but he didn't let me time to.

"Tell her what we're going to do with her," Caius demanded.

"Didyme, this is the only way I have found to save you. Please, forgive me. I hope you'll forgive me once you'll be like me, once you'll become a vampire." And the word crept me out, goose bums appeared all over my skin but I couldn't scream, I didn't have time to scream because I felt something piercing my neck as a wave of pain—like I had never felt before—flooded into my entire body, lighting up the biggest fire ever.