I followed Jane to the antechamber with my robe on. I saw six other vampires with their hoods up, so I pulled mine over my eyes as well. I couldn't see the faces of the other vampires, but since they were in their designated seats, I knew that it was only the ruling members of the Volturi, which as it were, now included me. The only other vampire that wasn't a part of the ruling was Renata, who was standing behind Aro just as silent as she normally does.

It seemed as though we waited for only a minute before I heard soft knocking at the humungous door. Gianna promptly opened the door and my entire body froze.

The vampire that followed Gianna brought with him almost every unpleasant memories that I had since moving to Forks. In summation, he was part of the reasons that Edward and his family left, just by association.

I'd never seen a scared vampire before. Even the last few glimpses I had of James was of an overconfident and cocky vampire. But now, outside of his element he looked downright petrified. I knew how he felt, and my face probably matched his.

Laurent followed disconcertingly, looking around at everything before he even noticed the seven hooded figures staring at him from beneath dark robes. I was glad my hood was deep enough so that he wouldn't be able to see me.

Gianna led him right in front of me and quickly took her leave. She's been here long enough to know that something unpleasant was about to occur and she wanted nothing to do with it. I shifted in my seat as Laurent stood completely still.

"I am Laurent. I believe I was summoned? Though I must confess, I don't know what for. I've done nothing wrong."

"No, Laurent. You've done nothing. This is merely a fact finding meeting of sorts." I recognized Aro's polite demeanor.

"What is it you would like to know?" I couldn't tell if Aro lifted his hood or not. But soon I heard his feet shuffling down the steps and before I knew it, he and Renata were standing beside me.

"A vampire named Victoria. What do you know of her?" Aro asked.

"Victoria? I don't know. I haven't seen or heard of her in a few months. Me and her mate disagreed on a few things and I parted ways with the both of them."

Aro took his hood off of his head and lifted his hand for Laurent to take it, but the vampire backed away, unsure what to expect. 'Just touch his hand already.' I didn't even mean to project out to Laurent, and I could see the fear returning to his face as he looked around tryig to figure out who was in his head. He did grab hold of Aro's hand tentatively though.

"Hmm." Aro hummed lightly. "It seems our Bella is in your thoughts an awful lot. Why is that I wonder." He called back in amusement to me I figured. Laurent looked shocked when Aro proclaimed "our Bella." My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. I now found myself to be very invested in this exchange. "So you're a liar? Laurent? Explain yourself."

"Okay. Victoria came to me a few weeks ago and told me she had a favor to ask of me. She wanted me to kidnap this girl Bella, the Cullen's pet human." I was pleased that I resisted the urge to cringe at Laurent's description of me. I was much more to them than just a pet, at least I thought I was. And besides, calling me the "pet" seemed almost derogatory. "At first, I declined, I'd just gotten settled down in Denali with my new mate, Irina. But by the time she came back again, I'd grown restless with the animal diet. I agreed to the request." Laurent admitted, though I could see that he felt ashamed of caving into Victoria's whim since he hung his head down.

"Well you're hence released of your favor to Victoria. She's dead."

"O-kay. Thanks." Laurent said backing away from the menacing hoods.

"Oh. Please forgive me. You misunderstood. Your favor to Victoria has been relieved, but there's still a matter of dealing with you lying to us."

"What? But I didn't know what you were after!" If he could, I was positive that sweat would have been forming on his brow by now.

"All the reason to speak the truth. Don't you think, Bella?" I hadn't expected my name to be so entwined in Laurent's thoughts, any more than I expected for Aro to call me out. Nonetheless, I lifted my hood and brought my face from out of concealment, and Laurent took a step back with a gasp.

"Aro, is this necessary? This is a trivial matter." Caius said.

"You all may leave then. Forgive me of your time. Bella?" We only needed to wait about a tenth of a second for the other vampires to leave the antechamber. Soon it was just Aro, Renata, Laurent and myself.

'What do you want from me Aro?' I said with a slight growl to my thoughts, never taking my eyes off of the ancient vampire.

"Wait. How could this be? She was human in that bloody field. I'd swear it!" Laurent confessed.

"Well it would seem that fate has given young Bella here an ironic twist." Aro said musingly. "Bella, this is your first judgment. Laurent will live or die by your hand."

"That is not my responsibility."

"It is now."

"No!" I was standing up now. I could feel the breath of the two vampires beside me. One called for judgment and the other's who life was apparently in my hands.

"Do it!" I could hear a slight threat to his voice.

"Then he lives."

"Life. For a monster sent to bring you to your death? Really? That's an interesting choice."

I turned to Laurent now, "On the condition that you return to the Denali clan, and stay with Irina." I cast my eyes to Aro, "But he lives." Laurent was looking between the two of us frantically.

"You would rather he live? You are an enigma dear sweet girl. He turned to Laurent, "You've been give this second chance. Use it wisely as they do not happen often. You understand the terms of this situation." Laurent nodded in appreciation, and Aro returned to his throne.

'Gianna, he may leave now.' I called to her.

Once Gianna gathered Laurent, I stood up and Aro was suddenly standing in front of me again. "Tell me why you wanted him to live."

"Demetri explained the history that lays between the Denali's and the Volturi. I didn't want to add to the bad blood by taking away Irina's mate. And besides, he was intrigued at the concept of settling down. We parted as associates the last time."

"But this "associate" accepted a mission to kill you."

"Well he won't succeed. Why hold it against him? And besides, if we need a favor, he'll be more than willing to comply."

"But he has no verifiable gift. He is of no use to us."

"And yet you keep Felix?"

"Felix is our brute force. His strength is greater than your Emmett." I couldn't help but cringe at the mention of his name. Emmett wsa like the big brother that I never had. The one I thought I would have. "You may go to your room, if you wish." I realized how natural it was to bow before Aro, when I started to leave. I next remembered hat he never answered a question that I asked earlier. The only response that I got, was a stupid riddle.

"Aro, why do you seem to favor me over Jane?" I said turning back to Aro.

"Renata, would you excuse us a moment?" The vampire bowed her head just as I had earlier, and walked out of the antechamber. There was no danger of me harming Aro. "Would you believe me when I say you remind me of my daughter. Of course from when I was human. Her name was Ava, and you look just like her, except her hair was jet black, similar to mine. Because of your resemblance, I wanted to be the one that changed you, despite the fact that my venom is potent, due to my age. In fact, we did make it law some centuries ago, that our venom could not be used to start the transformation. This is perhaps why your change occurred in only one day. It is because of my venom that I like to believe that you may be single-handedly the strongest mental vampire."

"To me, and that's all that matters, really, you are the Princess of the Volturi. Your rulings will matter just as heavy as mine or any of the brothers."

I couldn't help but feel slightly touched by his little speech. I felt a bit choked up about it, to be honest. "Aro, tell me about her. Your daughter."

"Ahhh, Ava. My darling Ava."