A/N - ...So...seven weeks...I'm sorry! School is just doing the absolute most right now and although I do probably have the time to write I just struggle to find the energy, like I'll get home from school and have loads of really cool ideas to put into this fic but when I try to get any of it out onto my laptop I'm too exhausted to put the ideas into words. I know I'm a complete prawn for updating so late but I promise I'm really trying. Also I've spent the last two weeks writing a scene that I ended up removing all together because it just refused to work (it was an Aro scene for those that are wondering) so if that hadn't happened this would have taken five weeks to come out which is still horrible but less horrible than seven weeks. I don't know if this will happen again, hopefully it won't, but if I am gone for ages again please know that I probably haven't decided to stop writing this fic, I'm most likely just too tired/bogged down with school to write anything.
I got a couple of reviews which I'm gonna respond to now:
Guest - Hello again! First of all thank you so much for calling my fic "the light of my life", that is genuinely one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me and it means the absolute world to hear that. Also, I love those authors too! They're all really talented and Oy Angelina's Alec/Bree fics are actually what inspired me to write this in the first place. Anyway, I agree with what you said about 12 year old Alec being sweeter than 16ish Alec, I don't think he'd actually be anywhere near as angsty if he was 12 haha. But thanks for saying you like my version of Alec, I've worked really hard on him to make sure he's not just a carbon copy of another writer's interpretation of his character so it's nice to know I've succeeded in that so far. As for the stuff with the Cullens, sorry you didn't like it as much, I'll be honest with you, I did have a bit of trouble writing that part. But thank you for your review, it's great to hear from you again, and I hope school and homework is getting better for you now.
Nualie - Thank you for reading and reviewing! I'm glad you liked it so far. But I'm sorry about the makeup thing, I hadn't heard that before, but now that I think about it it makes sense. I'll definitely remember that for the future.
Ok, now for the chapter. Please leave a review if you can, they really make my day and do motivate me to write. Thanks!
Chapter 5 - New Faces
It was a couple of hours before anything particularly exciting happened. I tried reading one of the books I'd brought for Alaska first, but I couldn't get into it. I wasn't sure why, perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for reading, but since sitting in a despair fueled silence had proven to be mind-numbingly boring back on the plane and was therefore not an option, I decided to take a closer look around my captor's room.
There was a general theme of dark, old and expensive that ran consistently through everything from the furnishings to the wine-colored blackout curtains that were closed across the windows. However, despite the bleak atmosphere to the place, there were a few things that caught my attention. First of all, there was the huge mahogany bookcase that sat on one end of the room. I'd considered taking a book from it at first, but when I'd look closer I noticed the glass doors hinged on the front of it were padlocked shut, leaving the books trapped in a dark wooden prison. I could've broken the padlock off easily, of course, but that didn't seem like a good idea to me.
The other thing to spark my interest was the black upright piano that was tucked quietly away in a corner. Slowly, I made my way over to the instrument. Upon reaching it, I couldn't help but run my hand over the glossy woodwork, enchanted by its incredible craftsmanship. I didn't like to admit it, but it seemed to be even better than the huge grand piano that I'd spent hours poring over with Edward back at the Cullen house. Without thinking, I sat down on the black leather stool and lifted up the lid of the piano. I mentally flipped through the pieces of music I knew, trying to decide what to play, until I came to one of the melodies Edward had written for me a few weeks previous to help me learn. He'd composed a few pieces to help me with my new hobby over the couple of months I'd spent in the Cullen house, but that one was my favorite. It was light, quick, happy and, in that moment, exactly what I needed. I placed my fingers over the right keys, ready to play the tune.
That's when I heard the scream.
It was deep and male but clearly in pain, and was loud enough to jump me right out the piano stool. The sound was coming from deeper within the castle, maybe two or three floors down, and was almost directly below me. I eyed the sweater Alec had told me to put on if I wanted to leave the room. Carlisle had advised me to take caution and 'stay wary', and leaving the relative safety of Alec's room to investigate a blood curdling scream was possibly not the most careful thing to do, but I couldn't shake the image of some innocent person - human or vampire - being attacked by one of the torture-happy Volturi members lurking about the castle. In a moment of bravery, I threw on the three-sizes-too-big sweater and left the room.
The Volturi castle was difficult to navigate with all its identical, never ending corridors and unnecessary staircases, but luckily (or unluckily, depending on your perspective) there was more sound to follow. Not screams anymore, but crashes, like wood and stone being broken. I raced toward the source of the noise, closer and closer until I was just the turn of a corner away from the noise, but was stopped dead in my tracks by a shout from the same man who had been screaming before.
"Get off me you irritating wench, I did not take your camera! You must have left it.. Alec? Is that you?" Shit I thought. I'd severely misread the situation. The man wasn't in any danger, it was just a petty squabble over a camera. And I'd walked right into the middle of it.
"That isn't Alec." A woman's voice said. "Show yourself!" She commanded. I stayed firmly put.
"Now!" The man ordered. There was a pause, a split second of decision time. I couldn't show myself to them, it was too risky. My best bet was to try and get back to Alec's room. I sprinted back the way I'd come, following the scent I'd left before. Unfortunately, the two Volturi members got the same idea and ran after me. I went as fast as I could, but so did they, and I was quickly caught. One of them pushed me to the ground, face down, and dug their foot into my back to keep me there.
"Who are you?" The woman barked. I didn't answer. The foot pressed deeper into my back, making me wince in pain "Answer me!"
"Bree! I'm Bree Cu-"
"Corin, get off her." The man said calmly.
"Why?"
"She's the new Cullen girl. Alec's Cullen girl." The pressure on my back was instantly gone and I stood up and turned to look at my pursuers. I recognized one of them, the man. He'd been there both times the Volturi had come to forks. Carlisle had told me he was their tracker- Demetri, I remembered his name as. I hadn't seen the woman - Corin - before, though. She was around Rosalie or Emmett's physical age and tall with wild, bright red hair that fell just past her hips. Her face and figure were similar to Esme's in the way that they weren't as angular as most vampires', but instead soft and rounded. Carlisle had told me what he knew about her gift, although his knowledge on her seemed pretty restricted. From what he could gather, her power was similar to Jasper's in the way that it manipulated emotions.
"You shouldn't be out here, this place isn't safe. Especially not for little girls." Demetri said. I felt a flash of frustration at the words 'little girl'. I'd been called that more times than I could count in my short life as a vampire and it never failed to make me feel inferior.
"Why? Jane's just as much a kid as I am and I doubt you're telling her she should stay in her room all day." I snapped. The words had spilled out before I could stop them and for a split second I tensed, ready to run again if the two vampires took offence to my outburst. Demetri looked a little annoyed, but Corin simply laughed. It was a nice, friendly laugh that put me more at ease with the situation, even if it was only by a little bit.
"I wouldn't let her hear you say that." Corin said between scoffs. "She has a tendency to torture people who piss her off."
"Yeah, I know all about that." I muttered, cringing at the memory of two months before when Jane had been kind enough to show me her talent.
"Most of us do. The only guard member she hasn't used her...gift on is Alec." I frowned a little.
"Really? I'd have thought she would've used it on him by now."
"Oh, god, no, Alec's the only person Jane would never hurt. She'd do anything, kill anyone to keep him safe. That's the first thing you learn about her." Corin's eyes suddenly widened as she realized she'd said something she probably shouldn't have. "I... I mean... maybe she would. I'm probably wrong, Jane's a very unpredictable person, you can never be certain what she'll do..." She trailed off. There was a short but undeniably awkward silence before Corin came back in at full energy.
"Anyway, how long are you staying?" Her cheery tone came across a little forced, but I didn't acknowledge it.
"I don't know, Alec basically said I'm here until he's bored of me." Okay, so maybe those weren't his exact words, but that was what he'd meant. "If you've got any guesses on how long that might be they'd be more than welcome."
"I'd love to help you but I honestly don't know. He's like Jane, unpredictable and temperamental... in the best possible way of course." My heart sank a little. I hadn't expected her to know anything, but it would have been nice to get some sort of guess as to how long it would be before I saw my family again.
"I thought you'd say something along those lines." I mumbled sullenly.
"Just being honest with you." Corin said with a shrug. "It's not as horrible as you think it is here though. There's plenty to do and as long as you mind your own business no one will bother you." She paused and thought for a moment. "Actually, I doubt anyone would bother you no matter what you did. You're Alec's." I felt a strong pang of irritation at Corin's last statement.
"What do you mean 'Alec's'? I don't belong to him." Corin put her hands up in front of her defensively.
"Hey, calm down. I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying that you're his guest so that gives you protection. No need to get so angry." Corin waited for me to reply. I was still a little annoyed at what she'd said, but pressing the matter seemed pointless.
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." I said. Corin gave a bright smile.
"I know it does." There was another short pause, but this time it was Demetri who broke the silence.
"So, what is our dear friend Carlisle up to these days?" The man's voice was laced with venom- he clearly did not think of Carlisle as a 'dear friend'. I responded with equal measures of acidity in my tone.
"Well, you saw him a month ago. He hasn't fallen off the animal blood bandwagon since then."
"Ah- just as I suspected. He's forced you into that vegetarian nonsense too. I should've known really- now I look at them, your eyes are already turning that awful shade of yellow." Corin shoved her coven-mate conspicuously, but he ignored her.
"Carlisle didn't force me into anything," I said through gritted teeth "I was the one who decided to not drink human blood. All he did was explain that we have another choice." Demetri laughed obnoxiously.
"Oh, you Cullens do crack me up. You're just so...infatuated with Carlisle, there really is no reasoning with any of you when it comes to him. He's manipulating you, all of you, and you're too blind to see it."
"Shut up, Demetri." Corin butted in before giving Demetri another, slightly harder shove.
"No. I won't. She needs to hear the truth about that snake."
"Don't call him that." I said, my voice beginning to rise.
"I shall call him exactly what he is, a controlling, manipulative, self-interested liar."
"Stop it! Stop talking about him that way!" I shouted. Demetri scoffed at me.
"This is exactly what I was saying, one bad word about their precious Carlisle and they get hysterical."
"I'm not hysterical!" Demetri scoffed again.
"Are you seeing this, Corin? The lack of self awareness is truly remarkable."
"Demetri, please stop." Corin said. She sounded desperate now, she could tell I was getting angry and that was never a good thing for a newborn to be.
"Why should I? You know I'm not lying and so does she. Carlisle is not at all the innocent saint he makes himself out to be. He preys on the vulnerable and the weak minded and tricks them into thinking they owe him something. It's clever, I'll give him that, but it's evil." Demetri turned to me. "You know, little girl, you can look down on the Volturi all you want. You can think us corrupt. You can think us cruel. But that will never change the fact that Carlisle is no different than Aro." That did it. There was a lot of things Demetri could say to me, but comparing my coven mate to a Volturi member was not one of them. My vision clouded in a red haze and I felt rage like I'd never felt before. I wasn't in control anymore, but I didn't want it back. A snarl escaped my throat and somewhere in the back of my mind I registered Corin begging me to calm down and Demetri's unbothered expression. He'd been provoking me, trying to make me lash out. Maybe there was a time when this would have made me calm myself down, when I would have refused to give him the satisfaction of making me attack him, but I was a newborn vampire and the concept of controlling my emotions was a foreign one. I leaned down and forward slightly, readying myself to strike, when a voice rung out through the corridor.
"What on earth is going on down here?" Alec asked from the other end of the hallway. He was furious, that much was clear, but what wasn't so obvious was who his anger was directed at. I bolted up into a straight standing position without a second thought, the urge to hurt Demetri just a memory. All I could think about was self preservation now.
"Corin and I were just getting to know Bree." Demetri replied calmly. In the blink of an eye, Alec was next to me, his hand firmly gripping my arm just above my elbow.
"Oh, is that so?" Alec said, standing over me in a way that was obviously meant to be threatening. I glanced into his eyes for less than I second, but that was all he needed to terrify me. His gaze smoldered with fury- I wasn't even sure why. I'd done nothing wrong by being out, and although I'd lost my temper at Demetri, he'd said terrible things about my and family and me, any other vampire would've reacted the same way. But still, he wasn't happy. "I hope you all managed to get yourselves acquainted."
"We most certainly did." Demetri's voice was sickeningly professional, worlds away from what it had been just moments before. Surely Alec wasn't falling for it?
"Well, we best be off. Apparently, Bree and I have some catching up to do. We'll see you both later." Alec didn't wait for a reply. He began to speed walk back to his chambers, dragging me along by the upper arm behind him. His fingers dug painfully in to me.
"Ow- Alec you're hurting me, let go." The vampire responded only by diggings his fingers further in, making me cry out in pain. Fortunately for my arm and unfortunately for the rest of me, it wasn't a long walk back to Alec's room if you knew where you were going and we were behind his door again in little time. The second we were, however, Alec didn't hesitate to give me hell.
"What in god's name were you thinking?" He yelled. Somewhere in my head I realized that this was the closest thing to emotion he'd shown since I met him.
"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.
"You know exactly what, don't play the fool."
"I can't say I do." Alec took a step closer to me, which I responded to by taking a step away from him. This was possibly not a great move, however, since my back was now firmly against the wall.
"Picking a fight with Demetri!"
"I didn't pick a fight with him." My voice rose in anger, there was no way I would let the blame fall to me.
"Oh really? So the growling and the attack stance was just friendly banter?"
"No, but I wasn't out there to start a fight with him. You should've heard the things he was saying about Carlisle-" Alec didn't let me finish.
"I don't give a damn what he said about Carlisle. If I hadn't turned up when I did you'd be lying disassembled on the castle floor right now."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were my knight in shining armor!" I was shouting now. It felt unnatural, I hadn't done it since I was a child when I'd learned that raising your voice above a loud whisper warranted a harsh beating. I screamed out of pain or fear, that was for sure, but never shouted.
"Could you please, just for one conversation, stop being so immature and realize that I'm trying to help you? Demetri is over a thousand years old and far more intelligent than you could ever dream of being. You may be slightly stronger than him right now but he's been trained to deal with silly newborns like you by the very best and could end your life before you would even know what was happening. The same thing goes for all the vampires in this castle." I lifted my gaze, which had fallen to the floor at some point in Alec's speech, to meet his.
"Why do you care?" I asked defiantly.
"What?"
"Why do you care about what happens to me? You just said all I am is a silly newborn, why does it matter to you if Demetri, or anyone, kills me?" He didn't say or do anything for a moment, seemingly taken aback at what I'd said, but almost as soon as I'd spoken everything drained from his face, all the anger, all the frustration, gone, and he was back to the apathetic, bored teenager he'd been when I'd seen him before.
"I don't care about you, but Aro would have my head if anything happened to one of Carlisle's little projects while they were staying with me. However you have made it abundantly clear that you don't want my help, so I doubt I'll be expected to give it anymore." His tone matched his expression- cold, detached and without a hint of expression. My stomach turned as the realization hit me that whatever protection I'd had was gone, all because I'd been idiotic enough to forget that I wasn't with the Cullens anymore, I was with one of the deadliest vampires in the world, who didn't care about anyone but himself and his demon of a sister. I took a deep breath and wiped all the emotion from my face. Perhaps, being a newborn, I wouldn't be able to control how I really felt, but that didn't mean I couldn't change the way I presented myself. I needed to seem just as apathetic and unfeeling as Alec.
"Thank you for your honesty." I said icily.
"You're welcome." He returned. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got some very important Volturi business to deal with, so if you could find something quiet to keep yourself busy with, that would be great." Without another word Alec turned around, walked to his desk and sat down before reading through some papers in front of him. I moved to a chair in the opposite corner of the room to him, I wanted as much distance between him and I as possible. He was possibly my least favorite person in the world right then. He was too complicated, too dangerous. Everything about him was wrong, even his face grated on my senses. Maybe it was because I'd been so used to people like the Cullens, people who were kind and generous and... good, all things Alec wasn't as far as I was concerned. I caught a glance of myself in one of the mirrors and realized I was still wearing Alec's sweater. I pulled it from my body as quickly as I could, almost tearing it in half in the process. But it wasn't enough. His scent still clung to me and my clothes, like ivy gripping and choking an old oak tree- it would be a while before it washed out. Maybe it never would. Maybe Alec's scent would stick to me forever. I couldn't imagine anything worse.