A/N: And do I need to even say anything? Things start to get going in here, so if you really want me to finish... I love reviews ;]

Chapter 10- Burn Beautiful

Arianna POV

I was sitting at the coffee table with Alec; we were playing a game of cards. Alice had been playing too, but she had to go get changed for school. I put down two fours and one five on the table. "Three fours," I lied.

Alec smirked at me, "Cheat." I swore and grabbed all the cards in the pile- I was a really horrible liar. Our game continued along those lines- and by that I mean I was losing pathetically- until Alice came back down the stairs. Rosalie was with her. I could hear Edward and Bella talking about what they had today; apparently Bella had a field trip this afternoon that she was going to skip.

I don't blame her; no other Cullens were in the class, so she would have been stuck on a bus with only a bunch of humans. Not the smartest thing you can do when the Volturi are trying to reduce you to a pile of ash. The buddy system was invented for a reason- going off alone causes painful things apparently. Zafrina was going to go and pick Bella up right before her class left for the trip. Our 'dear aunt Margaret' was going to pass away this afternoon.

Both she and Bella really wanted to scare the humans, and Zafrina can be quite intimidating when she wants to. Alice had managed to persuade Zafrina, Kachiri and Senna to wear dresses and real clothing instead of fur. It really didn't suit them, it looked nice, but it didn't match their personalities.

Eventually the rest of my family went out to the cars and drove off to school. Charlotte gave a relaxed sigh and leaned back into the chair. "Finally some peace and quiet." Alec and I traded mischievous glances and she shot us a glare. "Don't even think about it. You two fit in to well with this family for your own good."

We just shrugged and kept on playing cards. We could bug the nomads later.

Alice POV

I walked into the school; our first class today is math. Very boring, history and science class change over time, but the rules for math always stay the same. One plus one equals two, boring. I didn't have anyone in this class with me either, so I couldn't even make fun of the teacher.

I sat down in my chair and pulled my books out. I managed to pay attention for the first half and hour, then I got bored and started checking the future. The blurred spots were becoming more and more prominent, I could see for the next week or so, but it got blurry after that.

It's like my ability to see long distance is vanishing, like the power of my sight is weakening. I resisted the urge to let out a huge snarl. This is just like when Bella got pregnant with Nessie, but worse. Whatever it was isn't going away the way Nessie did after she was born, it was here to stay, and it was making my sight go away as the possibility for it to happen became more and more powerful!

I checked the near future again, something I had to do more and more often as my long distance sight vanished. I saw Ari and Alec going hunting, they weren't going very far out. Ari got two deer and Alec got a grizzly bear. That was when things went bad.

They turned to run back towards the house when something shot out and hit Alec. It was Afton, Ari lunged forwards to try and help Alec. Jane stepped out and hit Ari with her gift before Ari could block it.

Alec was fighting Afton and trying to use his gift, but for some reason, Alec's gift wasn't working on Afton. I could see Sylvia hiding in the trees, the little bitch was a shield! Of course Alec's gift wasn't working. Alec was a good fighter, but after a while Afton got tired of playing and used his gift to overwhelm Alec's mind.

Alec was in mid twist and he collapsed and lay there, totally unmoving. Sylvia, Demitri and Felix left their hiding places.

"Is your shield up Sylvia?" asked Afton. The petit blonde child nodded. Afton gestured for Felix to come grab Alec. "I'll take her while you decide what to do with them Jane."

Jane nodded and stopped using her gift, Afton looked at Ari for a few seconds before she stood up and walked over to him. Her face had this horrible blankness to it, it wasn't Ari anymore - it was Ari's shell. Jane walked over to the two of them and smiled. "Hello brother." Alec snarled in response.

I stopped watching the vision then; watching what Jane did to them wouldn't help anyone. I had to call Carlisle and get this stopped before it happened. No one messes with my baby siblings.

I held up my hand. "Mr. Elliott, may I go to the washroom."

He looked at me, "of course Alice. Are you feeling okay? You look a little stressed."

"No not really, I'm feeling a little queasy, can I go home?"

"Of course Alice, relax and get better." I opened the door and walked out before I broke into a run and pulled out my phone. Carlisle picked up his phone immediately. "Carlisle!"

"What is it Alice?" He asked quickly, he could tell something had me terrified.

"Have Ari and Alec left yet?"

"Yes. They left ages ago."

"Get everyone you can out to them, the Volturi are making a move." He didn't even bother hanging up his phone; he just dropped it and started getting everyone ready as fast as he could.

I love Carlisle.

I hung up my phone and pulled the rest of my startled siblings out of class. The teachers were looking at us funny, but right now I didn't care. We could go to a new school; we couldn't put Ari and Alec back together again if Jane turned them to ash.

I remembered that Ari had borrowed Esme's cell phone this morning. I tried calling her. It started ringing.

Someone picked up the phone, "Hello," my siblings and I looked at each other hopelessly, Emmett let out a snarl of fury and everyone else started hissing.

"Hello Afton, I don't suppose you'd let me talk to Ari." I already knew the answer; I let out a tiny hiss of frustration, one that the phone wouldn't be able to pick up.

Afton laughed, it wasn't a friendly laugh. It had a cruel edge to it. "No Alice, I don't think I can. I'd have let her answer the phone herself; it would have been fun messing with you. But she can't really talk right now; she can't really make any noise at all. She can't even walk." I let out a snarl of pure fury, my entire family echoing it.

"Let them go." I spat out.

"Now that would make Aro angry, besides, why would I bother letting them go? There's nothing you can do about it Cullen." He hung up the phone and I just stood there.

"That's it," Emmett said, his voice filled with rage, "Aro dies. Now."

Arianna POV

Demitri lifted me off of the ground and started walking, I couldn't move. They had crushed every joint in my body the same way they did my throat. It was really unnecessary, Afton could have held my mind, and with Sylvia around all Felix had to was hold on to Alec.

Not that I object to Afton getting the hell out of my head. But they decided that it would be better to totally destroy us so we can't even move a finger. If they were to set us on fire right now we wouldn't be able to run away. But Jane's a bit of a psycho bitch from hell, she's not going to kill us, she's going to make us suffer.

Surprise.

They travelled through the woods to two cars. They were both silver with darkly tinted windows; Felix took Alec towards one car and me towards the other. I began to try to twist around and get to Alec. It was less like twisting and more like just shifting slightly; a hissing noise came out of my throat as I tried to tell them to stop.

Demitri chuckled; his voice was deep and smooth, "don't do that. It's funny, but Jane finds it annoying." When he said that Alec tried to look at me, I could tell he was worried. I calmed down and stopped pissing Jane off; I knew it was making Alec worried about me.

I was more worried about him, I wasn't the one stuck in a car with Jane.

Felix put me in the backseat of the car. Afton was driving; I hope he drives like Alice. I would love to see him explain to a cop why he had a dead girl in the back of his car. Afton would probably just kill the cop, but it would be funny until that happened.

Esme's phone started ringing, "can you pass that to me Felix?" asked Afton, "I wonder who would be calling the little kitten. Perhaps she's made a new friend?"

I gulped, I knew Aro would find out we were Cullens now, but he's not going to like it. Either he'll lock us up until he's exterminated them, or he'll just kill us. Afton looked at me as Felix handed him the phone. "I wonder who it could be, she looks absolutely terrified."

"Hello?"

I heard dead silence on the other end of the phone, and then there were a bunch of snarls. Felix raised his eyebrow at me and smirked.

Alice started talking; her voice was cold and hard. "Hello Afton," she spat out, "I don't suppose you'd let me talk to Ari?" Don't piss off the pixie Afton.

"No Alice, I don't think I can. I'd have let her answer the phone herself; it would have been fun messing with you. But she can't really talk right now; she can't really make any noise at all. She can't even walk." The snarls increased, I don't think I've ever heard an angrier sound.

"Let them go." I could hear the unspoken threat in her voice.

"Now that would make Aro angry, besides, why would I bother letting them go? There's nothing you can do about it Cullen." He hung up the phone.

Afton was smirking, but Felix decided to initiate the taunting this time. "So you're a Cullen now?"

I shook my head a little bit, as if I was saying no.

"Don't give me that, they only react like that if it's one of their own in danger. Aro is going to love this..." I started to tremble.

Aro is scary.

Alec POV

Damnit, not again. I thought I might have actually gotten away this time. And now Ari was caught too. If she had ran she would have been able to get away, but instead she has to try to help me.

And she says that I'm overprotective. Aro hates her, that much is clear- which means that the chances of her living through the next twenty-four hours are slim to none.

I resisted the urge to snarl. Jane was sitting in front of me, and we all know she would torture me for breathing. I couldn't move at all. There's a reason Jane is often referred to as the psycho bitch from hell.

Carlisle POV

I frowned and paced back and forth across the living room. Alice had called again and told us to wait in the living room. We were all angry right now. If we ended up storming Volterra I wouldn't be surprised, this was the kind of blind rage that made people do stupid things. Put it all together in a group with strengthened emotions and you have one very angry mob.

Alice and the others were all furious as well, they gathered everyone into the living room, Alice began to talk, her voice was entirely devoid of emotion. You could feel the rage coming off of her, but her voice did not show it. "We are going to Volterra, now."

Snarls of assent travelled through the room. Here we go... nothing I can do will stop this one- might as well join in.

"If we leave now, we might win, if we don't we will lose. Something about Ari and Alec is vital to the future of our race." I'm not entirely sure, but I think Alice might be exaggerating just a little. But still...

Well... put it that way. "Let's go." We drove out to the airport, ignoring the traffic laws. Alice had walkie-talkies placed in every car so we could communicate. Her voice buzzed over the radio. "Guys, I know this might seem a bit strange but, how do you feel about stealing an airplane?"

Everyone agreed quickly to steal the airplane. As much as I hate to say it, vampires are criminals, we can't help it.

Breaking human laws is just so much fun.

Arianna POV

The plane touched down on the pavement, we were in Italy now. Jane had a little smug grin on her face the entire time that was really pissing me off. If I had been able to move I would have wiped it off her face.

I really hate Jane.

The drive seemed way too short, I don't care how boring it is, I just don't want to get to Volterra and talk to Aro. Talking to Aro always seemed to be a painful experience, and I know Aro is furious right now. When he finds out we joined the Cullens... well... things will probably get very, very ugly.

Afton and Felix were talking quietly; mostly about bets for how Aro would kill Alec. Unlike Jane Afton prefers the more psychological side of torture- he knows that having Alec dead would absolutely shatter my sanity. I could hear back to the other car, no-one was saying anything there. Having Jane around can probably put a bit of a dampener on your mood.

We pulled into the underground parking garage of the castle and I started shaking again. Afton just started laughing, one day I'm going to rip his head off. "The little kitten is trembling in her boots." I don't know how he manages to be so aggravating, really, I don't. I probably would have been able to stand just about any nickname other than kitten.

I looked over and saw Alec shooting glares at Afton too. He's just a bit overprotective sometimes, I'm probably not any better.

They carried us inside and walked down a few halls into the throne room. Aro, Marcus, Caius, Chelsea and Renata were the only ones that were inside. Aro smiled delightedly at the guards holding us. "Excellent, I see you found them. Where were they?"

"With the Cullens." Afton spat out. The grin slid off of Aro's face. He walked over and grabbed my hand. Well damn... why does he always have to grab my hand? Why couldn't he grab Jane's hand? Jane probably wants for him to hold her hand. He sighed and took a step back.

"It would appear that Ari is more powerful than we thought." He said, turning to his brothers, "her gift is whatever the gifts of those around her are- as long as she can sing." He smirked when he said that last part. Yeah, enjoy crushing my throat while it lasts. "If we don't kill her then she may escape again and return to them, if we kill her she won't be able to do that, but then again, we won't be able to use her either and with her gift we could be invincible. What should we do brothers?"

You could tell Aro didn't really want to destroy so much power, but that he was starting to see that he would probably have to kill me. But what about Alec, we were intertwined as one, if I die he would be hurt, and I don't want Alec to be hurt.

Caius looked over, "She is too much of a danger. Kill her." He said the last part with a shrug.

Marcus looked at his two plotting brothers, "If you kill her you will have to kill Alec too, he'd become useless to us with his mate dead." You know what's a really bad conversation? When people are talking about killing you the same way they'd talk about the weather. It makes you kind of nervous.

Aro and Caius shared a long look, "they die." Those words, said with absolutely no emotion, can be the creepiest words you'll ever hear.

Not that I'm going to be hearing very many words after this.

Demitri dropped me on the ground and backed up. Felix did the same thing with Alec. I couldn't even turn to look at Alec, my back was towards him.

Caius pulled out a strange metal object. It was ornately carved and had a curve to it. He pulled some kind of mechanism in it and it burst into flame.

He took a step towards me, I was going to go first. All I could think was how Alec must be right now. I wanted to hold his hand, I know I'm terrified. Death is a strange thing, the one thing that no-one knows anything about.

And I'm about to dive in head first. I could only see the fire coming closer and closer to me.

When I was a human, death was always a possibility, something that we lived around for our entire short lives. Always fearing, yet always accepting as well. When my grandfather died my family had told me that it was alright, death was peaceful, like closing your eyes and never waking up again. No pain. No nothing, just peace.

As much as I hate to ruin the moment of peacefulness... all I can really think right now is 'they were sure as hell wrong'. I tried to take a deep breath, a natural instinct when I felt the need to calm myself, but my body was to broken even for that. The fire sped closer to me flaring with sharp bursts and low flickers, mimicking the pain raging inside of me. I couldn't move, I could just wait helpless as the flames sped closer.

My family may be right, death itself may be peaceful, but I know right now that dying isn't.