Chapter 8: Eleazar's insight and knowledge

"Where were you?" "We were getting worried." "The Denali's will be here soon," came the worried voices as we entered the house.

Alice grabbed me and towed me upstairs. She propelled me through the bathroom doors with strict instructs to shower quickly.

After my shower I wrapped the towel round me. I opened the door a crack when it was thrust wider, clothes and underwear came flying in. I dressed at vampire speed to not further upset Alice.

I cautiously opened the door prepared for the worst, and it was. Alice had enlisted both Rose and Charlotte to partake in torturing me. Hair, make-up and nails have never been primped and preened so expertly or so quickly before. I just wish they could keep in mind they were attacking a person not a dummy. Although allowing myself to get in this position may just put me in the dummy category.

Peter and Charlotte had asked if they could stay for a while as, in Peter's words, "It's interesting here at the moment!" They decided to live with the Cullen diet while they remained here. Alice had seen them using my room so she assumed I had agreed to share Edward's room. I don't really need my own room now I no longer need to sleep.

Tempting as it would be to tease Alice by implying she was wrong, I didn't want Charlotte to think she was putting anyone out so I settled for just nodding to confirm Alice's wishes.

"Good, I moved all your things last night," she replied smugly.

When I was released from the torture chair I checked when the Denali's would arrive, "Argghh, all that and they don't get here for another half hour."

"You just being here blocks my visions, how am I supposed to know what I'm wearing when I see them. It's all black when you are in the room. Now go, we need to get ready too, Go and wait downstairs but don't you dare mess up you make-up or your hair," Alice ordered me.

"Yes madam!" I saluted smartly at her, giggling as I escaped.

Edward was sat waiting for me when I got downstairs, "We have just under half an hour before I have to go through another recap of the strangeness that is me!"

He laughed lightly at me.

"Can we try something? I want to see if I can let down my shield enough so you can read me," in all our practice with my shield he has never been able to get even the slightest glimpse of my mind.

"I'd love to see your mind but the silence is amazing in it's own right," he turned looking into my eyes as if trying to use my eyes as a window to my mind.

I tried every thing I could think of to open my mind to him but nothing worked. I could feel my frustration rising. Instead of opening my mind I tried to will him to hear my thoughts, mentally shouting, "Edward, hello. Edward can you hear me,"

I saw his eyes widen, "I heard you. But, but I didn't read your mind. Your words came into my mind. How...?"

I tried again, like throwing emotions, I threw my words to him.

"I can hear you, it came through loud and clear that time," he answered in his head this time, directing his thoughts to me so they knocked at my shield. I explained to him last night how I try and ignore everyone's thoughts but when they are directed at me it triggers something in me to let me know someone it trying to get my attention.

We sat and chatted silently until Charlotte came to join us. As she sat down I mentally sent her a cheerful,"Hi!" She didn't see my lack of mouth movement but she responded to my greeting.

"I escaped the make-over manics," I chuckled at her description, "How much longer until the Denali's arrive?"

I checked the future again, "Three minutes now."

"That's a useful gift," she made light of my ability.

"It's taking some getting used to," I admitted.

The others had overhead my time warning so they all moved into the room to wait.

Edward tapped my shield again with his conversation. He gave me a quick reminder of each member of the family and a warning that Tanya had hit on him for years without success. He told me not to let her attitude worry me as he had me now, I was more than he had ever hoped for. I sent my response back to him, a swoon at his words, gratitude for the information and my joy at now being able to have private conversations with him.

Esme shouted out to them, "Come on in," as we heard them arrive.

Edward mentally put names to the faces and subsequent hooks and threads as they entered the room, "Carmen, Kate, Irina, Tanya," distaste coloured his thoughts at even thinking her name, "and that's Eleazar."

They all had easy smiles as the entered the room. Their eyes quickly scanned the room nodding greetings to their old friends. Tanya's predator glance at Edward combined with her evaluation of me, I did not appreciate.

Peter, Charlotte and I got tighter smiles and nods, they were waiting to be introduced first.

Eleazar, as the last one to come in, was the last to scan the room. When his eyes met mine they widened in shock. The building fear that followed, screamed at my shield, I strengthened the block. He staggered backwards, knocking a lump of plaster from the wall.

Carlisle dashed over to him, "Eleazar," worry and concern obvious in his entire demeanour.

"An accumulator," Eleazar whispered in fear, his eyes never leaving me. He cocked his head then intrigue drew him towards me again, "but she's not is she. Then what..?"

I could feel an intrusion each time he looked at me like that. It seems I automatically block threats without a conscious thought, he mustn't be a threat. I closed him out hoping to make him less uncomfortable.

Carlisle relaxed slightly, "I would like to introduce our newest member of the family; this is Bella. I think Eleazar, you might like to know a bit more about her."

Eleazar's reaction to me had changed the mood of the room, everyone was now on edge.

Eleazar was staring at me again, "You've blocked me, I can't see your powers any more."

"I'm sorry, I thought they were making you uncomfortable. I can let you see them again if you would prefer," I can't seem to do anything right.

"I'm fine now, it was just a shock. Whatever makes you happy is fine," he appeared more unnerved being unable to see so I opened back up slowly.

Carlisle gave them the abridged version of my adventures. Eleazar's interest picked up when he learnt of the circumstances of my change, questioning and re-confirming every detail. He nodded in recognition as Carlisle gave details of my powers. The biggest response came when Carlisle re-counted Emmett's theory of a power from each that vampire that bit me. Eleazar pounced on details of James before going totally silent and still.

"Five, five, I never thought it could be true, much less that I would ever..." he mumbled before looking up with in amazement.

"I think I need to tell you some little known history and lore," he mused.

"The Pentacle Prophesy was ancient when I was with the Volturi. Even the language of the known written version of the prophesy, is written in language so ancient there were none then with the knowledge to translate it. The hope of the prophesy has lead to entire beliefs or religions that survived for millennia amongst even humans. Few still have wide practice but not all has been lost," okay, that told me a sum total of nothing, some ancient prophesy that triggered a following.

"You may have been told how the Volturi like to collect powerful vampires," he looked at me for confirmation, I nodded at him.

"The ancient prophecy vampires believe describes a vampire born from the bites and venom of five vampires. The potential powers of this vampire lead to some experimentation trying to combine venom in newborns to obtain control of the powerful entity. The Volturi tried to create themselves a 'Pentacle'. It resulted in failure more often than not, trying to get five different vampires to bite and allow their venom to flow without the feeding frenzies and the natural possessive vampiric nature when it comes to our prey was hard to overcome. The few successful victims of the bites didn't often survive the overwhelming pain from having more than one venom for the change, their hearts gave out. The few that did survive, well, the madness from the pain is bad enough in a normal newborn but the more intense pain and the emerging powers, let just say it didn't end well. The Volturi gave over trying as the risks were too great," Eleazar watch me closely with the revelations.

"Didn't end well?" I questioned slightly fearfully.

"Even mortals may have heard some of the names of the newborns that were created in hope of replicating the Prophesy. Persephone and Rama become the most famous amongst mortals but other failed experiments tended to go insane either from the pain of the change or unable to cope with the magnitude of the power or powers. Insanity is not good news when dealing with vampires with powers. One committed suicide by digging his way through solid rock into a volcano causing a major disaster for both humans and vampires. That was the final straw, they banned anyone from trying to create the pentacle after that. They thought the Pentacle Prophecy referred to a vampire created from five bites, the venom lines combining. They never did figure out how the circle that contained the pentagram can come into the prophecy, I think your natural shield that protected you even while human may be the circle the prophesy refers to," he was shaken and thoughtful at this.

"Venom lines, do you mean the five vampires that bit me each came from a different line of venom," I didn't realise that venom could come from different lines.

"We didn't even try and follow that aspect of the prophesy when I was with the Volturi, there are legends but as far as I know the Volturi haven't found a discernible difference in venom between different vampires," speculation raced across his face.

Carlisle broke in to question, "What did you mean by the overwhelming pain from having more than one venom for the change?"

Eleazar looked at me for an instant before answering, "You know the burn you feel if you are bitten even as a Vampire?" nods and shudders ran round the room. "Well from what we learnt, rather than the venom just converting the cells, each separate venom tries to take over each cell for it's own, the person feels the fight for every cell, the pain of the conversion is mild in comparison to the fights. The burn is considerably more intense than a normal change, one with a gift like Aro compared a normal change as a soak in a hot bath."

All eyes were on me, shock, fear and bucket loads of horror and self-loathing radiated especially from the three in the room that put extra venom in my system.

I hung my head, no-one had questioned my change. I had expected pain so I never realised mine might have been different to normal.

I answered the unasked question, "I did feel the fight for every single cell, I was expecting the burn to be beyond excruciating so I thought it was normal. I recall someone mentioning I wasn't screaming, the pain was so far beyond... I couldn't have screamed if I wanted." My voice was so low, had my audience not all been vampires they wouldn't have heard me.

I met the three set of eyes in turn that held the guilt, "I spent most of the time during the change hidden inside my shield, at least I think that must have been the safe harbour I retreated too. I don't have the remembrance of horror the rest of you hold from your change, it was painful but I don't dwell on it. I don't blame anyone, you each did what you thought was the best for me to reduce my pain. It's the past now so let's just put it behind us."

I knew it wouldn't be that easy for them but I had to try and stop the outpouring of self-hatred they each felt.

Eleazar continued, "A lesser known side effect in a small number of cases of a multiple venom change is the increased natural abilities of the vampire. The newborn strength and speed is never lost to them. The venoms can give an even greater strength, speed and other senses than is normal. Although in a few cases they ended up with less strength and speed, some no better than humans, some weaker, the fight for the cells ended up weakening rather than strengthening," he shuddered, the strength of his horror of the memories caused me to look, I unwillingly saw in his memory some mutated vampires looking so frail and an image of a hand disintegrating as they tried to pull themselves upright. Edward and I had the same look of horror mirrored on our faces. Eleazar answered us in his mind, "It was one of my darkest times with the Volturi, those memories, I would never knowingly inflict on anyone, I'm sorry..."

Carlisle missed our silent communication as he confirmed, "She is far stronger and faster than any of us have ever experienced before. So she won't lose it?"

"The others never did," Eleazar informed us.

"The most powers I have ever seen in anyone but an accumulator, is two. That was one of the pentacle guinea pigs.

I have met one accumulator, he secluded himself as a hermit in an isolated cave. Using his power to change appearance, he sealed his mouth so he was unable to feed to keep himself weak. He feared himself and we think he was totally insane. I was with the Volturi team sent to capture him. His powers were such a kaleidoscope, it unnerved me. Just looking at his powers was memorising in a way. When we closed in, his body automatically absorbed our powers. I think that is what tipped him over the edge, he used the power of fire to burn himself from the inside. Two of our team were destroyed in the fireball of his demise, I only narrowly escaped the blast.

I'm sorry, that was the cause of my reaction when I met you," the fear and horror of his memories shook him still.

"Back to the prophesy, I have come across many different translations and versions, the original prophesy dates so far back we had no way of collaborating one version over another. The failed attempts at creating a pentacle gave more credence to the prophesy than they took away. Just based on the power of the few that survived," he was stalling.

He took a breath, "I spent many years researching, I started with the oldest known versions of the prophesy, in languages that could still be translated. The prophesy is quite long winded but much was indecipherable. There always has been a strong belief that the Pentacle was a vampire hence the testing but so much was lost. The prospect of power interested the Volturi along with others but the hope of the Prophesy gave many of us reason to wish for more. I put together this for the latter parts of the Prophesy:

Five lines combine within the sphere,

each line brings forth it's power

Spirit of earth will make us whole, bringing balance and peace,

the luminary of a new age.

So many take the Pentacle as a symbol of hope; wherever the pentagram, one message is clear: evil has no power here."

"You have to understand each translation can lose something of the original meaning, have you come across the children's game of Chinese Whispers? You'll know how small errors can accumulate into something entirely different to the original," he looked at us to confirm our understanding, "So the accuracy is unknown."

He looked closely at me, "You had five bites, possibly five venom lines. You have five powers flowing over the sphere of your shield, I think the shield is keeping you protected from the intensity of the change and the powers. The first line, 'Five lines combine within the sphere', could refer to five lines combining within the person that is the shield or I may have been mistaken but close, I think it should have translated to 'Five lines combine ON the sphere', not 'within'."

"The next line of the prophesy is concerning me," he looked at Jasper.

"'Each line brings forth it's power'. It was always assumed 'each line' refers to the five lines of venom so five powers. It looks like you have a major power from each vampire that bit you," he looked at me again.

"What concerns me is, I can see other seeds of other powers in you, telepathy was obvious when I entered the house. What if the power imprints on the venom and the venom has a memory just waiting for someone with the right inclinations to use that power? Venom is transferred by a bite," he looked at Jasper again.

I looked at Jasper and took a shuddering breath as I realised what I could see, his myriad of scars, more bites than I could make out. I calmed myself enough to put into words Eleazar's fears, "Jasper, did any of the vampires that bit you have a power?"

The implication of potentially so many powers, scares me beyond words. Every vampire in the room was shaken to the core.

Eleazar gave everyone a moment before he threw in his next stick of dynamite, "Not just bites from attackers but also the possibility of any power of each previous creator along with any of their attackers."

Carlisle stopped the current line of speculation by reverting to being an analytical list maker, he picked up on the mind speaking, "Bella, can you do telepathy, more than the mind reading?"

I attempted to send each of them the same message mentally, "Edward and I were practising earlier, trying to lower my shield so he can read me. I tried to push my thoughts to him when letting him in didn't seem to work."

Carlisle grinned at me, "I take that as a yes,"

Emmett was fidgeting in excitement, "I heard her too!"

Nods from everyone in the room confirmed I had sent it to everyone as I intended.

Carlisle asked "Can you send to individuals or just to everyone in range?"

I tried to send to a few messages to selected recipients all at the same time; Emmett: "Don't forgot you still owe me from our bets," Carlisle: "I'm trying to send multiple messages, all at the same time, you'll have to check if they all arrived properly," Carmen, Kate, Irina, Tanya and Eleazar: "I apologise for not greeting you properly when you arrived, it's been intense. I'm pleased to meet you all," Alice and Rose: "Please can I have a break from Bella Barbie for at least the rest of the week," Edward, Jasper, Peter and Charlotte: "I wish we were outside wrestling instead!" Esme: "How do you cope with so many guests, it's overwhelming!"

The answers came back all at once as everyone tried to respond immediately, they all silenced as they realised others were speaking. Well, all apart from Emmett, but his manners have always been in question!

Carlisle was the first to recover, "So you each got your own message? No messages got mixed."

The room broke into little groups all finding out what the others had heard.

I sat enjoying the lull in attention. Kate bought me out of my reverie, "Do you think your shield will protect you against my power?"

"I'm willing to try, outside or in here?" I put a hopefully inflection on the outside.

Esme noticed and decided for us with a stern, "Outside," her wink at me made me smile, as I realised she was giving me an escape.