Chapter 12: Lessons

True to his word, the next day Aro introduced me to the manager of his art collection. He had an entirely separate human staff to deal with the art, which seemed to be a legitimate public enterprise. I could tell that they knew something was odd about their employer, but I wasn't sure if they knew the full extent of the truth. So, remembering Jane's warning, I was careful not to say anything that could be remotely incriminating.

To my delight, Aro did indeed pull out a Solimena painting that was heretofore unknown to the public. For all his niceties, though, I still felt very wary around him, as I was sure there was another side to Aro that I just hadn't seen yet. When I contacted my advisor back at Dartmouth to tell her about the new painting I had found, her excitement was palpable, as was her shock that I had managed to easily score such a boon. I tried not to laugh at that last part, since 'easy' was not exactly the term I would have used, considering the chain of events that had led me to Italy.

For the next couple of weeks, my schedule remained pretty much the same: I worked in the art collection during the day, helping digitally catalog and document work for their archives, as well as take notes on the new painting. As soon as the sun went down, I would go for a walk around town, where Felix often "happened" to run into me, much to his amusement and my chagrin. He was a shameless flirt, but his open and engaging nature meant he was becoming the closest thing that I had to a friend in this place. Jane, on the other hand, was an enigma. I had hoped that she and I would become friendly, at least, but I rarely saw her talking to anyone except her brother. The rest of the vampires always displayed a trace of fear in their body language when she was around. It was baffling. In the late evening/early morning hours, I would go for a run around the countryside, hunting when necessary. This was my favorite part of the day, when I felt free and unobserved.

I stayed out of that main receiving room as much as possible, only occasionally being called in so Aro could ostensibly check in with me. He often not-so-subtly tried to get me to acquiesce to staying in Italy instead of returning to school; I became quite adept at politely (I hoped) turning down his invitations. It bothered me that I couldn't figure out his intentions, whether I was special somehow, or if he had just taken a fancy to me for some reason. While I still couldn't quite pinpoint the source of my unease, either option did not seem very appealing.

So, a couple of weeks in, it was no surprise that my early evening people-watching was interrupted by Felix's muscular form sliding into the seat next to me at the outdoor cafe. I had chosen a small table on the fringes, and was sitting mostly in shadow, my chair leaned up against a wall, the rough stone pressing into my back. An untouched cup of espresso sat on the table in front of me, next to a book that I was reading. With his customary grin and wink, he picked up the book and started thrumming through the pages.

"World War Z? Don't tell me you're into zombies," he prodded.

I rolled my eyes and drawled, "If you're so offended by zombies, there are plenty of other people in this town you could annoy." I couldn't stop the small smile that ghosted across my lips as I spoke, though. Our banter typically revolved around Felix's teasing attempts at conversation, which were usually rebuffed by my usual sarcastic responses.

"Oh, but you know how much I love spending time with you, my dear Isabella!" he said, imitating Aro's flowery style of address. I snorted, trying to suppress a laugh.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to me: "Wait - zombies don't actually exist, do they?"

Felix laughed loudly, startling the people at the surrounding tables and causing one man in particular to knock over his glass of water in surprise. Then his face got serious, and he spoke in a low, urgent tone, "Of course there are!"

I turned to him in disbelief, as he added "... and they ride unicorns across rainbows to visit the leprechauns on Atlantis!" He snickered uncontrollably. I smacked the solid wall of his arm in response. It was too bad that vampires and wolves didn't get along, because I knew in my heart that Felix and Jacob would have been the best of friends, supernatural crap notwithstanding. There was no way I was breaking the confidence of the pack back home, though, which meant that there was no way Felix and Jake would actually meet. Or, so I hoped. It was an entertaining thought, though.

"Come on, cut me some slack! It's not like I grew up around this stuff," I said as I gestured towards both him and myself.

"Nope, no zombies, fairies, unicorns, werewolves, etcetera," he replied, still chuckling.

I paused for a moment at his mention of werewolves, but quickly smothered my reaction. I decided a change of topic was in order, and realized that I was intensely curious about Felix's past, although I hadn't had the nerve to ask him about yet. I wasn't sure if we were quite at that level of intimacy, since most of our teasing exchanges were pretty light-hearted, but I asked anyway. "So, were you a fighter, you know, before?"

He sobered slightly. "Yes, I was. I grew up very poor, and would compete in local fights for money. It was the only thing I was good enough at to afford my survival." Felix gazed blankly into the shadows beyond the cafe's ring of light and became uncharacteristically silent.

I was surprised by his suddenly melancholy expression. "I find it hard to believe that's the only thing you're good at," I said consolingly, and then groaned as the implications of my words sunk in. Felix's face split into the widest grin I'd ever seen. "Well, dear Isabella, perhaps you could be the judge of that!"

"Argh! That's not what I meant, and you know it!" I ground out. I struggled to bring the conversation back on track, as I became distracted by the predatory gleam that had appeared in Felix's eye. "Would you teach me to fight?" I asked suddenly.

Felix's expression sobered quickly, and he looked at me intently. "Why? Is there someone you need to fight?"

Disturbed by his sudden change, I tried to lighten the mood once more. "Well, you, actually, if you keep bugging me. Really, though, it's not something that I could have ever done when I was human, but now, I don't know - it seems like it could be a good skill to have. I'd like to try, at least."

His gaze was still serious, although not quite as much as before. "Whatever my lady wishes," he replied with a slight smile, "How about tomorrow night after I return from patrol? I'll stop by your room."

Even though this would cut into my "me" time, upon further reflection, I thought my spur of the moment idea was good. I had started to become more accustomed to seeing myself as an alpha predator, but the sheer number of other vampires here made me reassess what I would actually be able to do if I were attacked by more than one vampire at a time. I wasn't ready to say anything about Victoria, either, since I would have to come up with a story that didn't involve the pack. Plus, there was still so much I didn't understand about vampire culture, and this would give me an opportunity to ask questions more informally.

"Sounds good to me," I replied, "Thanks."

"It's a date, then," Felix winked as he stood up. In the darkness across the street, I could just make out the shadowy form of Dimitri, his body language indicating obvious annoyance at Felix's unauthorized detour.

"It most certainly is not," I muttered, to answering laughter from Felix's retreating form.

...

Late the next night, Felix knocked on my door. When I answered, he stuck his head inside, unashamedly looking around at my mostly untouched living area. "Hmpf. Not exactly what I would've expected for an American girl's room," he said.

"I'm only here for a couple of months!" I replied, "It's not like I'm moving in!"

"And that is entirely too bad," he responded, looking appreciatively at the leggings and snug shirt that I was wearing in preparation for our training session. "Come on, then, warrior woman."

I followed Felix through the winding corridors into another part of the building that I had never been to before. Honestly, I had done very little exploring inside, as I decided that whatever secrets this place held, I'd rather it kept them. Eventually, he ducked into a surprisingly modern exercise room that had all sorts of intimidating-looking weaponry lining the walls. My eyes must have been huge, because with a grin he said, "Don't worry, I save the broadswords for the second lesson."

I laughed uneasily, wondering if I had just made a huge mistake. Picking up on my uncertainty, Felix continued, "You'll do fine. Don't worry. I'm going to teach you some martial arts techniques, and get you more in touch with your body and reading the body language of others." He stopped at the center of the mat that was in the middle of the room.

"Now, you're a vampire ..." he began.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," I interjected.

Ignoring my interruption, he continued, "You're fast and strong - much, much stronger than a human. So, you shouldn't have to worry about humans for the most part. However, other vampires are another matter entirely. You have to assume that your opponents are faster and stronger than you are ... so, you need to outsmart them. There are certain schools of martial arts that specialize in using your opponent's size and speed against them, which is where we are going to start. First, though, let's see how fast you are." He motioned me in towards him, until we were only a couple feet away, facing each other. The difference in our size was never more apparent, as I felt completely dwarfed by Felix's massive strength. I briefly wondered if even Emmett would be able to give Felix a run for his money. "Now, I'm going to swing at you slowly, and I want you to stop my arms like this," he said as he moved my arm up in a blocking position.

"Oh, like the Karate Kid," I said suddenly.

Felix shook his head in exasperation and said, "If that's how you need to remember it, then, yes, but good lord, Bella - please take this seriously. Okay, let's do a couple in slow motion, so you can get the form down correctly. Then we'll speed up."

The rest of that evening followed the same pattern: Felix showing me a martial arts-based blocking technique, starting slowly, and then getting faster and faster, until our movements would have barely registered as a flicker for mortal eyes. I was amazed that for all of his strength, Felix was extremely agile, which made him an intimidating combination of speed and force. I fervently hoped I would never have to meet him on the opposite side of a real fight. I was also pleasantly surprised at how good of a teacher he was: he was patient and kept the inappropriate flirtatious comments to a minimum, which kept me from becoming too self-conscious. Apparently, Felix took his role as instructor pretty seriously. Instead of assuming that I would be clumsy and fail, he was determined that I would get it right, and sure enough, after a lot of practice, I did. At the end of the session, he turned back to me. "Good, you're decently fast. Not the fastest vampire I've seen, but you'll get faster. Next time we'll start working on throws."

Invigorated by my new self-defense knowledge, I joked, "What, no broadswords?"

With a sly look, Felix gave me his trademark grin and wink, "Oh, we'll just have to see how the evening goes."

Feeling lighter than I had in a long time, I winked back at him and murmured, "Well, then, I'll be looking forward to it." I laughed at Felix's surprised expression that I had actually teased him in return.

"See you later!" I said over my shoulder as I breezed out of the room.

...

So, my new schedule now included training with Felix about three times a week, more often when he was free. He had Volturi duties that kept him occupied on other days - what they were, I didn't ask. I began looking forward to our training sessions, as they were the one time of day when I thought of nothing except where my arm, or leg, or body should be. As I become more comfortable, I even had flashes of wondering what Edward would have thought if he could see me. Most likely, he would have thrown himself in between Felix and myself, and tried to protect me. The thought made me somewhat angry, as I again imagined it as a manifestation of his mistrust in my ability to do anything on my own, and I fought harder in response. Jacob, surprisingly, was a fan of this training, although he had some reservations about the vampire I was learning from. I think he could hear in my voice how much more confident and relaxed I had become, however, and that was good enough for him to encourage me to continue.

I also found myself spending quite a bit of time with Felix outside of our training sessions as well. He was easy to get along with, and made me laugh, which was something I hadn't really done in a long time. There was something disarming about his manner that made me start to lower the walls I had built around myself, and while I still wouldn't reveal much about my past, I felt free to at least be myself, not hiding who or what I was. From the measured glances I would occasionally catch out of the corner of my eye, I think Felix could sense some of the underlying sadness in me, but he never directly asked me about it. Instead, he seemed to take it on as a challenge, doing his best to always make me feel good. As a result, my relationship with him had become the closest friendship that I had, next to my friendship with Jake. It seemed that just as he often happened to run into me while he was on patrol, at other times I would find myself in the vicinity of his rooms, and he was usually there when I knocked.

The first time I saw his living quarters had been shocking for me, as it was totally not what I expected. Instead of some type of "warrior's" room, Felix's walls were peppered with vintage movie posters, and he had the largest flat-screen TV that I had ever seen. "You have a TV?" I cried, "How did I not know this?" I picked up the remote and turned it on, flipping through the channel guide. "Wait - you get American TV channels? How?"

Felix chuckled from his position sprawled across the couch, where he had been watching me freak out over the television with a slight smile on his face. "It's called satellite TV, Bella. Besides, don't you think we can do pretty much whatever we want here? That includes getting TV channels from all over the world. Me? I prefer American TV."

I turned to look at him, my eyes narrowing, "So, Mister holding-out-on-Bella-with-the-TV, what do you like to watch?"

He grinned in response, "All sorts of things. Old movies, reality shows, American Ninja Warrior, the History Channel - you'd be surprised how much they get wrong on that."

"You seriously watch reality TV?" I responded, latching on to the most unbelievable part of his previous statement. "Why? Aren't humans just food to you?"

Felix regarded me thoughtfully. "I know your feelings on humans, Bella, and in a way, I respect your decision to not, ah, indulge. The enjoyment I get from watching them make fools of themselves on those shows, though, only solidifies my belief that we are actually doing the world a favor by making them our food source."

I sputtered, "So, you're using reality TV to justify eating people?"

Felix shot me an unrepentant grin. "Yes, ma'am," he drawled out.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

"Also, it keeps me up to date on the newest lingo. You know, since we do occasionally have to interact with the human world."

"Lingo?" I laughed incredulously, "Good luck with that."

I continued my inspection around the room, my gaze coming to rest on the largest collection of DVDs that I had ever seen. For a second, I had a flashback to Edward's room, with all of his CD cases lined up against the wall. I started browsing through the titles, my fingers absently trailing along the cases. I paused over one film, pulling it from the stack. "Aha!" I exclaimed, "I knew it!" I turned around triumphantly, holding up the copy of The Karate Kid.

Felix laughed, "Wait, wait. That is NOT where I get my training ideas!"

"Uh huh," I said, unconvinced. Laughing under my breath, I turned back towards the rows of DVD cases again. All of a sudden, I felt Felix's presence behind me. "Want to watch something?" he murmured in my ear, "Just pick one out." Choosing to ignore his nearness and the unexpected confusion it caused, I started looking more intently, finally settling on one that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Felix raised his eyebrows at my choice, "E.T.? Is this a favorite of yours?"

"It's about finding your way out of isolation," I said softly, "I get it."

Felix gave me a long look, but didn't comment. Finally, he took the DVD from me and put it in the player, and we settled on the couch to watch the movie.

...

After several more weeks of training, Felix decided that I knew enough to actually spar with him. I knew he would be holding back significantly, but I still felt a sense of pride that he thought I was good enough to even make the attempt. It was with surprise, though, that I saw both Jane and Dimitri in the training room when I went down that night.

"Wait, why do we have an audience?" I blurted out as soon as I saw the three of them talking. Their conversation stopped, and Jane and Dimitri both turned towards me. "Felix won't shut up about you," Dimitri drawled with a half-smile, "so I thought I'd come and see what the fuss was about. He threatened me with death if I interrupted before now, though."

"I'm bored," Jane replied flatly, "This should be pretty good." I had a feeling she meant watching me get my ass kicked by Felix.

"Have you ever fought against Felix?" I asked her curiously. Felix and Dimitri quickly glanced at each other, and Jane responded with a smirk on her face, "I guess you could say that."

"What?" I said in confusion, "Am I missing something?"

"Jane's talent makes her almost impossible to beat in a fight," Felix responded.

"Really? How does that work?" I said, looking at her diminutive form more critically.

Jane glanced at Felix hopefully, who sighed after a moment and said, "Okay, but only for a second. I need her functional."

"Wait - what's going on?" I said nervously.

"Jane's going to do a brief demonstration. That's the best way for you to understand what she can do." Felix said, looking at me with a little bit of concern and pity.

I tried not to panic as I waited for Jane to do whatever horrible thing she was capable of. I knew that whatever her skill was, it was why the other vampires regarded her with respect and fear. I couldn't even imagine why that might be, and that scared me more than anything else.

A moment passed, then another. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer. "Just DO it!" I yelled, my eyes scrunched up in anticipation.

Another moment passed. I opened my eyes to see Felix and Dimitri looking at each other and Jane in shock. Jane was looking at me, obviously unnerved by something.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" I yelled in frustration, glancing between the three of them, unable to take it any longer.

"Well," Felix's voice cut through the answering silence, "it looks like you're the one person that Jane can't hurt."

"Wait - so you were trying this whole time?" I said to Jane in confusion.

"Yes," she responded in a clipped fashion. Before I could say anything else, she turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

There was a moment of silence, then Dimitri began quietly laughing. "Oh, that was priceless. Did you see the look on her face? I'm so glad I was here to witness that. Bella, you might be my new favorite person."

Felix was just looking at me with an unreadable expression. "Aro is going to want to know about this."

"Is it really that important? Do you have to tell him?" I said nervously.

"Yeah, it kind of is, and I can't not tell him" he responded, a somewhat regretful look on his face. "Jane is able to make people feel enormous amounts of pain - it's only mental, but it's just as debilitating as if it were physical. She's our greatest weapon." He added after a beat, "You're the first person we've seen who has been immune to her power. We didn't think that was possible."

I wasn't really sure how to respond to that, even though it was obviously a big deal. "So, does that mean our sparring match is off?" I asked, unsure.

Felix's face relaxed into his trademark grin, "Oh, no, you don't get off that easily! C'mon, we'll worry about Aro later. Let's do this."

We faced each other on the mat, and Felix gave me a short bow, which I returned. We began circling each other, as Dimitri retreated to the edge of the room.

"So, what's your secret superpower?" I asked Felix, unable to contain my curiosity.

"Focus, Bella," was all he replied, before diving for my legs. I leapt at the last moment, flipping over his head and landing in a graceful crouch.

"Good," Felix said. He came at me again, both arms extended to grab me, and at the last moment I seized his arm while twisting my body past him, flipping him over onto his back with a large crash.

"Good thing these floors were built to last," remarked Dimitri with a chuckle.

I let Felix up, and we started circling each other again. This time, when Felix launched himself at me, I leapt on to his back in an attempt to vault over him. Almost faster than I could see, he twisted and grabbed my legs, slamming me down onto the mat face first. Grabbing my arm and twisting it behind my back, he pressed his body on top of mine, holding me right at the edge of pain. "My talent is my fighting skill," he murmured in my ear, "You're going to have to be faster than that if you want to even have a chance."

"Fine," I bit out, trying to ignore the disturbing sensations that Felix's weight pressed against my back was eliciting. "Get off of me."

Felix chuckled in an entirely masculine way, but let me get back to my feet. I rubbed my shoulder absently, waiting for his next move.

"Try it again," he said.

"Oh, you'd love that -" I interjected.

He smiled and went on, "This time, don't pause at all; remember, keep it one fluid movement. Focus, get angry - whatever it takes, and don't hold back."

As we circled again, I pictured Edward in Felix's stead. I let all my frustration and anger rise up within me, and I tried to focus it into what I was doing. Felix started to move towards me, but I was already in motion. This time as I leapt over him, I twisted and caught his neck with my legs, pulling him backwards to the ground. Before I could get a better hold on him, he flipped over and grabbed my legs, yanking me under him and pressing his arm across my throat. I promptly kneed him where I knew it would hurt the most, which elicited a cheer from Dimitri. In the few milliseconds that Felix was stunned, I slid out from underneath him and latched onto his back, my arm in a choke hold around his neck. The back of Felix's head wavered in my vision between his short cropped black hair and the copper tresses that I knew so well. "Yield!" I yelled angrily. Felix scrambled to get a hold on me, but I was too small and pressed too tightly against him for him to get any real leverage. Emotions crashed over me, and I squeezed tighter, all my rage and frustration coming to the forefront, this fight no longer a game. Sensing the change in me, Felix raised his arms in surrender, and after a beat, I relaxed my grip, sliding to the ground. I slowly tried to let go of the anger that had almost consumed me, coming back to the present moment. Dimitri started clapping slowly.

"Not bad," Felix coughed, "That anger is good, it'll help you stay focused in a fight, but don't let it overwhelm you."

"She's like some kind of psycho spider monkey," Dimitri laughed.

I smiled in return, although inwardly I still felt like punching something. I hope it's not like this every time we spar, I thought, I don't think I could take it.

"Yeah, Bella's full of surprises tonight," Felix commented mildly. "I think that's enough for now. We'll drill on some of this stuff next time." I could see that he wanted to say something else, but glanced briefly at Dimitri and remained silent. I knew he had felt how uncontrolled my anger had been at the end, but was playing it off for Dimitri's sake. While I appreciated his protectiveness, I really wasn't in the mood for discussing what had happened, so I decided to get out of there before Dimitri left and Felix had a chance to corner me about it.

I quickly gathered up my things, throwing out a hurried goodbye over my shoulder. I left the room before he or Dimitri had a chance to respond, and ghosted my way up the stairs and out of the building, disappearing into the shadows. Even after fighting like that, I decided to go for a run, maybe to hunt, as I still felt really keyed up. Picturing fighting Edward had flooded me with emotion; I couldn't just turn it off.

I took a circuitous route through back alleys, keeping well out of the light. As I passed close to the main gate into the city, though, I crossed a scent that was somehow familiar, causing me to stop cold. Without thought, I turned and began tracking, following this oddly familiar scent back towards the Volturi clock tower. Just as it came into view, I saw a small figure standing at the massive front door, a glowing silhouette against the dark void of its carved surface. Before my mind even processed what I was doing, I called out:

"ALICE!"