Note: I love that you're all getting into this! I just want you to keep in mind that I'm awfully fond of the set-up. All the pieces must be set on the board before I can continue, or else the game wouldn't make sense, would it? So please stay patient. We're actually very close to the start. -cheers-
Summary: In which the majority of the players take their places or
In which Aro's magpie tendencies flare up with a vengeance.
Bella wasn't sure what about her had snagged the Cullens' attention, but she couldn't help but feel a little flattered. And scared. She bit down on a slice of apple, chewing thoughtfully. There were high expectations when it came to people that were as pretty as the family she was being introduced to, no matter how friendly a few of them seemed. She wasn't sure she could meet those expectations. They drove nice cars, they wore nice clothes, they had nice…everything. Meanwhile, she was decidedly not nice, at least not in comparison. It wasn't like she was going to change for them any time soon, either.
She liked her beat up truck, she liked her comfortable worn-out jeans, and she liked being able to blend in the background, which was very much not possible with the kind of friends she was likely going to be spending more time with. Bella nearly bit her tongue at the tail end of her thought. It was a little presumptuous to call them friends already, wasn't it? It didn't matter what Alice thought they would be – the fact of the matter was that they weren't yet. But she wasn't exactly going to become friends with them if she spent all her time worrying about how they were different, now was she?
As she spent her time mentally spinning in circles, the Cullens sat at their table, sending her surreptitious glances. Jasper chuckled softly to himself, and Alice nudged him slightly to get his attention.
"What's so funny?"
"She's spinnin' herself in a tizzy. Most prominent is anxiety in that emotional cocktail of hers."
Rosalie snorted. "Good. Maybe the silly little human has some self-preservation instinct after all."
"Rose!" Alice hissed quietly.
"You're making a mistake, Alice," Rosalie hissed back. "We've never gotten close with one of them before. Why are we doing it now?"
Emmett wrapped an arm around her shoulder, rubbing gently in an attempt to soothe.
"Rosie, there shouldn't be any harm as long as we're careful, right? It'll be great! We can think of it like…intense practice."
"This isn't a risk we should be taking," Rosalie insisted with a fierce scowl. "We're already pushing it just by caging ourselves in here like sardines with what amounts to a buffet served on a silver platter."
Jasper's face screwed up in discomfort and Alice patted his hand gently before frowning at Rosalie with disapproval.
"We know what the risk is, but we're better than that, and you don't need to remind us. This is worth it!"
"Why?" came the quiet question to Alice's left. She looked over at Edward, taking in his unhappy expression.
Emmett looked confused.
"Shouldn't you know? I mean you can see, can't you?"
The look Edward shot Alice was pointed. "No."
Alice shrugged sheepishly. Okay, so she'd been a little evasive ever since Bella had become a focal point of her visions. But she knew that if Edward saw her visions, he wouldn't understand. He'd try to protect what didn't need protecting, and that was the last thing she wanted, because if he did, there would only be a lot more grief that no one needed.
"Some things should remain surprises," she murmured with a soft smile. Jasper squeezed her hand and she flipped it over to lace their fingers together. He leaned toward her and whispered, too low for even the other vampires to hear.
"She's goin' to change everything, isn't she?"
A small nod was his only answer and he squeezed again, ghosting a kiss on the crown of her head. He wasn't comfortable with having a human so close, but he had to trust Alice to keep him, and everyone else – especially Edward – in check. The boy felt as uncomfortable as he did, and Jasper could tell he didn't appreciate being left in the dark with Alice on top of his inability to read his singer's mind. But underneath the frustration, he could detect a growing sense of curiosity. He wasn't sure how good that curiosity would be. Curiosity did, after all, kill the cat – but the cat would be the human in this scenario.
"I hope you know what you're doing," he mumbled.
Aro and Demetri stood in front of the door to the Cullens' home, Jane sent back to Italy for a rest. Forks was an acceptable place to be – dark, safe for beings such as himself and those he intended to visit. He silently applauded Carlisle's choice. It afforded him and his coven the freedom to move as they pleased, and for a moment, Aro wished he possessed that freedom. But what need had he of freedom, what need had he of the outside world, when all the world's power lay in his grasp within the confines of Volterra's castle? He dismissed the feeling like an errant fly.
Barely a moment had passed before the door opened, a woman with golden eyes and hair the color of caramel standing in the doorway. A quick glance told him that this vampire was married, and she carried the scent of Carlisle on her clothes. His mate, then.
"Hello, how may I help you?"
Her tone was friendly, but her body language was cautious. A good mate, being wary of strange males. Of course, she likely knew who he was, but instinct was a difficult thing to ignore in vampires.
"Yes, my dear, I was hoping that Carlisle would be home. You are his lovely mate, I presume?"
She smiled and bowed her head in a way that Aro thought was abashed.
"I am. My name is Esme." She lifted her head, her posture relaxing minutely. "May I similarly presume that you are Aro?"
"Quite correct. Would it be alright if I came in, along with my companion Demetri?"
"Oh of course! Make yourselves at home. I called Carlisle as soon as I knew you were here; he should be home soon, as should the rest of my children."
Aro blinked.
"Children?"
Esme held a hand up to her mouth, hiding a smile at the curious look on Aro's face.
"Yes, our coven functions a little…differently. Carlisle and I have assumed the role of protectors, or parents. Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, and Edward are our 'children'."
"I see. How curious!" he exclaimed, his hands clasping together. His eyes narrowed in thought, then he took a step toward her, holding out a hand. "May I?"
The request was innocent enough, but Esme couldn't help but feel that it was less of a request and more of an order. Perhaps it was just the way he carried himself. He had the air of a man that always got what he wanted, and knowing his position in their world, he probably did.
She knew he had tactile telepathy. There was nothing she had that she wanted to hide, but still…it made her feel oddly vulnerable to know that he'd see everything she had seen. At least Edward's ability was only surface level. Gulping silently, she acquiesced, and he reached forward, engulfing her small hand within his larger ones. His eyes bored into hers, but it didn't seem that he was actually looking at her; rather, he was looking through her. After a couple of seconds, he pulled away, his eyes glinting strangely.
"Fascinating…"
Her freed hand curled up near her chest, her earlier wariness creeping back. Call it mother's intuition. Aro seemed to notice, but said nothing, simply smiling peacefully.
"I was actually in the middle of designing a new home when you arrived, so I'd very much like to return to that - I hope you don't mind."
Aro's smile widened. She wasn't lying, of course – she knew better than to lie. But what a lovely concept, to design one's own homes. She put an astounding amount of thought into her creations, even for a vampire.
"Not at all, dear Esme. In fact, I hope you do not mind if I join you? I'm afraid I do not have much to do in the time that I will be waiting for Carlisle."
"Oh…yes, of course," she said cordially. "Please, follow me."
Esme had long ago become numb to things such as cold or heat, but in that moment, as Aro smiled at her, she couldn't help but feel ice crawling down her spine.
Carlisle sat behind the desk in his study, Aro lounging in the chair before him. The elder vampire's eyes roved around the walls of the room, gleaming with what he could only assume was approval.
"It's not often that I get to see you outside of Volterra's walls, Aro. May I ask what the occasion is?"
"Ah, so even you suspect me of ill intent, dear friend. I'm saddened, but not entirely surprised. It has, after all, been many years."
Carlisle looked both ashamed and concerned.
"No, friend, nothing like that. I'm simply surprised. You've never made it a point to be too far from home."
Aro barely lifted his shoulders in a shrug, one leg crossing over the other.
"I have a member of the Guard that passed through this area and reported that you were here," he said off-handedly. "I was rather overtaken with excitement and could not control the impulse to see for myself."
His cloudy red eyes drifted toward his lap, his fingers lacing together over his knee and his voice dropping to a murmur.
"You are one of my dearest friends, so I'll have to ask that you forgive me for not being able to contain my joy."
"Aro…" Carlisle said softly, not quite sure what to say.
Those red eyes shot back up to the younger vampire, and the moment of weakness was gone, a bright smile morphing his features. Carlisle almost felt whiplash from how quickly it had happened and wondered how his friend could change disposition so quickly.
"Worry not, Carlisle. Demetri and I will not trouble you for very long. I simply wished to catch up and meet this wonderful…family…of yours."
"Aro, don't think that you are on a time limit. You are more than welcome to spend time with us – I just wasn't expecting it, that's all."
"We both know that isn't necessarily true, now don't we?" came the quick response, smooth as silk. Carlisle had to resist raising his hackles.
"I'm sorry?"
"I have made contact with both you and your lovely mate, Esme. My arrival was hardly unexpected, dear friend. You had forewarning from one of your coven mates." He paused. "Family members, I beg your pardon," he corrected with a faint twist of his lips, as if the phrase sat strangely in his mouth.
"Not only that," he continued, feeling excitement grow beneath his breast, "but this young woman wished that your resident telepath not know of my presence until there were no other potential paths to take. Why is that?"
Carlisle looked perturbed, his mouth pinched into a fine line.
"We don't know. Alice has been very cagey in letting us know what she saw. The only thing she informed us about was that you were going to be visiting."
Just then, his cell phone began to ring and he answered it without looking, his voice becoming cool and professional.
"This is Carlisle Cullen speaking."
Aro briefly considered if that was what he would sound like all the time if he had embraced his nature instead of fighting it. But then he would no longer be Carlisle, would he? He had become so fond of Carlisle because he was different from the rest of his kind – he had retained his humanity while the rest of them, including himself, had abandoned it and embraced the monster inside.
"Carlisle, it's Alice," said the voice on the phone. "I'm bringing a friend home from school. Her name is Bella Swan, Chief Swan's daughter from Arizona."
For a moment, Carlisle was uncharacteristically struck dumb, his mouth opening and closing twice before recovering.
"Alice, you know we have company already…"
"I know, I'm the one that told you. It will be fine, I promise. I've seen it. Oh, here she comes now. I'll be bringing her by around seven for dinner. We can all hunt before then to prevent any mishaps," came the speedy reply before the line abruptly cut off.
Carlisle stared at the phone, then at Aro, and the excitement blooming in Aro's chest exploded. She was going to be at the house tonight. What fortune! He kept his expression placid and raised a brow in question. His friend was silent for another moment, seemingly at a loss.
"I…suppose we're having a guest."
Aro smiled.
"Please, tell me more about this…guest," he purred, leaning back in his chair.
"Aro," Carlisle immediately started, half caution, half plead, "she's not for…for eating."
The elder vampire's snort was derisive.
"Judging by the still-unusual color of your eyes, I had assumed as much. Please do not think so little of me."
"I was actually thinking about you when I said that. I don't want you or Demetri to think that she can be picked off at the earliest convenience. It's not just her, either. We have a treaty with the Quileute tribe that no vampires will hunt humans in Forks and the surrounding forests, so for our sakes, please hunt outside of the area." Aro graciously accepted that, and Carlisle continued. "She knows nothing about us, I can promise you that, and it will stay that way."
'For now', Aro thought to himself rather smugly, then paused again. There he was again, thinking of her being a vampire as he was. She was yet young, barely entering the tender age of seventeen. Older than Jane, but younger than him when he was changed at twenty-four. He hoped to have her join his Guard after her turning, should she agree to be turned. At that, he mentally scoffed. Agree? She didn't need to agree to be turned. And she didn't need to agree to join, either. She would be a vampire serving in Volterra. He had to see it for himself, to see if her human gift grew stronger with the venom in her system. His venom. He had taken a rather personal interest in this little human. When she was to be turned, it would be by him, and the thought had a surge of possessiveness coursing through his body, causing his fingers to curl. He nodded slowly, letting Carlisle know he'd heard.
"This is acceptable. Tell me more."
Carlisle opened his mouth to say he knew nothing else, but was interrupted when his phone buzzed 3 times in quick succession in his pocket. Frowning softly, he pulled it out and saw 3 texts from Alice, all using the max character limit, with information on Bella. So telling Aro was important? Why? She was just…he sighed to himself and shook his head, accepting it for what it was and arranged the information in his brain in a way that sounded more articulate than a bunch of abbreviated words and chopped sentences.
"Alright, well…"
Aro and Demetri stood in the living room as the rest of Carlisle's coven entered the house. Such talent, he thought to himself, and the solitary male, Edward, swiveled his head toward him, his brows furrowing.
"Relax, brother. His emotional climate is content," Jasper reassured. Aro fixated on him.
"Ah, yes, you are the legendary Major of the Southern Wars, are you not?"
Jasper strode forward, power in his long strides, and he held out a hand for Aro to shake. Jasper towered over him, and his expression was perfectly neutral, which would have intimidated lesser vampires, but Aro felt only excitement. Grinning delightedly, Aro grasped the offered hand firmly, then trapped it with his other hand, his eyes fluttering closed.
"Spectacular," he breathed. "You are every bit as incredible as the stories say, dear Major." His eyes opened and locked with the veteran vampire, open admiration shining in his milky red orbs. "Perhaps it is presumptuous of me to say," he said lowly, glancing pointedly at Jasper's covered arms, "but you should have no shame in what you are and where you came from. We all have our stories, some darker than others. It is who we are."
Jasper shifted uncomfortably, pulling out of Aro's grip with little resistance.
"I'll…think about it."
"Of course."
Oh, how powerful an asset the famed Major would be! He could intimidate lesser vampires and newborns just with a glance at his scar-covered body, and incapacitate any other vampire by filling them with raw terror, drive out all reason in skilled vampires by pumping them full of mindless rage, overwhelm them with desolation so powerful they would beg for death…the possibilities were many, and all highly favorable.
He glanced at the other two gifted vampires in the room and felt his fingertips itch. The ability to hear thoughts of multiple individuals at once without touch…the famed ability of premonition…both abilities would enable these vampires to know the moves of their target before they even made them. Together, they would be an incredible force to be reckoned with, granting near invincibility, and a pulse of want flew through him. Such wonderful treasures…
Edward cleared his throat, obviously becoming upset at Aro's line of thinking, and the man forced himself to relax. He had all the time in the world to ask them to join him, and even if they refused, they belonged to Carlisle, and by extension – in his mind – him. Calling in favors surely wouldn't be a bad thing?
"Don't count on it," he heard a low mutter, almost too low for him to hear. Edward refused to look at him, and Aro smiled at the petulant look on the other vampire's face. Sullen like Marcus, snappish like Caius, with a spark of something else in-between. How quaint.
"Alright, everyone," Carlisle called, holding up his hands. "Alice is going to bring Bella around seven. That gives us three hours to hunt and return – and to shower and change, if necessary," he added with a look toward Emmett who shrugged innocently. "If you feel you must take any extra precautions, please do so."
He turned to Aro.
"Did you bring any contacts, in case you wanted to be here when Bella arrives?"
"I can always buy some. I did not exactly have any intention of meeting humans during my stay." Lie. He had two pairs of sky blue contacts to make his eyes a murky purple, but to the Cullens he had no reason to possess such things.
"Alice," came the soft voice of Esme, "do you perhaps know what it is that Bella likes to eat? I'd like for her to enjoy her meal."
Medium-rare steak, mashed potatoes with skins and sour cream, and sautéed green beans, came the immediate answer in Aro's mind. It was an uncommon meal in Bella's repertoire, admittedly, but Jane had reported that the girl took special care cooking the dish and took her time consuming it, always looking a little happier afterward. Alice's eyes flicked over to him as if in warning, and she suggested a simple chicken carbonara. If Alice thought he was foolish enough to forget that Edward could hear him, she had not observed him well enough in her visions. In a vampire his age, it was rather easy to divide his thoughts into conscious layers to hide what he was really thinking. On the surface, he was considering matters in Volterra, and what his next meal would be, and he saw the resulting cringe in the bronze-haired vampire, which made him smirk.
I am what I am, dear boy. I will not spare you that reality. And then his thoughts were filled with all of the humans he'd fed from before, taking a sort of vindictive pleasure in hearing the boy's jaw clench hard as he attempted to control his rising bloodlust.
A harsh exhale came from Edward's direction, and then he was gone. Motion made Aro turn and he saw that Jasper was hunched over, shaking, his arms wrapped around himself. Then he, too, was gone. So he felt bloodlust as if it were an emotion, as well. Interesting, he thought mildly. Esme and Carlisle ran after Edward, and Rosalie and Emmett ran after Jasper. Alice stayed behind, scowling fiercely.
"That was uncalled for," she hissed, striding forward. She poked him in the chest, and Demetri took a step forward, a growl building in his throat. Aro held up a hand, commanding Demetri to stop and he stared down at the offending appendage. "I'm doing you a favor here, the least you could do is not torture my brother and my husband!"
"My apologies," he said with a smile, completely unapologetic. "I was not aware it would be so…potent."
"Edward hasn't always been so supportive of our diet, and Jasper is still struggling. The least you could do is keep that in mind, especially since you've seen it from touching our hands. You have no excuse!"
"It would not be such an issue if they simply embraced their true natures."
"That's not the point! They have their reasons for drinking from animals. It's called respecting their lifestyle. You do it for Carlisle. Try to do it for the rest of us."
Feisty little thing, he thought happily.
"I will take it under consideration," he promised with a smile. "Now why are you doing this for me, little Alice?"
"She's my sister, and she deserves to be happy."
Well, there was an odd string of words.
"Care to elucidate?"
Alice began walking toward the rear entrance of the house, pausing in front of the door.
"All you need to know is that I care about her and that she will find happiness with us, in the path she's going down. She was meant for this."
She was meant for immortality.
A slow smile curved Aro's lips.
"I see."
She pointed at Demetri.
"And send him to feed. If he doesn't, he runs the risk of killing her."
Unacceptable. He glanced at Demetri and gestured carelessly.
"Go."
A whisper of air told him his companion was gone. He glanced back at where Alice was standing and saw that she was gone, too. Feisty and quick, he amended. What a curious little family, he thought as he reclined in a cushioned wooden chair that was bordering a chess table. He glanced at the set, then reached down and picked up the white queen, twirling the piece between his fingers.
It wouldn't be long now.