We walked out of my room together. I could see the fearful look in Bella's eyes as she reached for my hand. She winced as the thoughts came to her, but she bore them out in order to receive the comfort I was able to provide. I was glad I still did comfort her. I didn't know if her detachment, her distance, was simple—and all too familiar—self-loathing or if she had figured out I had given her no gift by changing her. As much as I did not want her to hate herself, I desperately prayed she did not detest me. To gain her and lose her again so quickly would destroy me completely.

So I felt another flicker of fear run through me as we walked to the hall, her slender hand in mine. I focused on the thoughts of the others—those not in my family—so I could figure out if they had any ideas of what was about to happen.

Stupid girl, I don't know why Aro even bothers with insignificant little things like her. She will most likely prove useless to him. I wonder if I can affect her now…

I felt Bella stiffen beside me as she heard the thoughts as well. I growled at Jane, whose eyes narrowed but she did nothing. She couldn't touch Bella. Her immunity would not allow it. But I didn't want her to try, regardless. I then focused on Felix, mucking through his thoughts, vile and disgusting as they might have been.

She was beautiful as a human; it only stands to reason she would be beautiful as a vampire. Even if she is with him. Disgusting excuse for a vampire, she has no idea how much better—

I discontinued listening to them. Clearly none of them knew anything useful. I looked to Bella again, who looked extremely embarrassed. She had heard what Felix thought as well. Did she not know how radiant she was?

The brunette color of her hair had not faded or darkened, only became shiny and soft, falling around her face and creating a sort of dark halo about her features. The blackness of her eyes had given way to butterscotch, a beautiful and rich color that was as sweet as it was deep. They were just as expressive as her brown ones had been, for that I was thankful. I had to rely on her physical cues to know what to do and say. If I didn't have those I would have nothing. They displayed evident fear, but also obstinacy. She would not simply give in. I loved the strength she possessed, envied her blindness to the obvious danger.

She did not know much of the Volturi, except that they had taken her life away. She had seen them torture me at the slightest provocation, so she most likely thought them cruel. Not exactly the attitude one would want in someone they planned on inviting to join the team. Perhaps her refusal would be enough to have them let her go.

I sincerely hoped so.

As we entered the hall I felt a hush fall over the atmosphere. The thoughts turned to something akin to awe as everyone looked at Bella. Her brilliance, the splendor she seemed to exude through each pore on her body was now as evident to everyone else as it was to me the very moment I saw her. Now they knew why it was I wanted her, needed her, loved her. Because how could I not? I heard the jealous thoughts of the other males, wishing I had not already claimed her. She was mine, and no one, not the Volturi and certainly none of these jealous vampires, would change that. No matter what happened now.

Aro looked exuberant when he saw her. Her physical beauty was incomparable at least to me, and it looked like Aro felt much the same.

"Isabella! Oh don't you look wondrous!" he exclaimed, walking over to us. I let go of Bella's hand, trying not to alert him of something strange if he touched me. If suddenly he was unable to read me I didn't want him thinking a single thing about it relating to Bella. Currently he was focused on her magnificence, so her gifts and abilities were far from his mind. He suspected nothing—so far.

He took her slender hand in his, kissing the back of it. I remembered doing the same when I met her first. The taste of her skin had been unimaginable. It hadn't changed.

"My dear, you have turned into quite the little vampire haven't you? Brothers, does she not look splendid?" he inquired. Marcus and Caius nodded. To the others it might have looked like they were causally disinterested. But that was far from the truth. They were both quite captivated with her. I wondered what it was that made her so much better in their eyes now that she was changed. Was it because they no longer lusted for her blood? Was it because she was now an equal? Or was it because they had not even paid enough attention to her while she was human to notice her radiance?

"I see you've fed. But not from a human. Resisting just like the Cullens?"

"Yes," she said. That one word, if one was listening, detailed her disgust at herself, at what she was, and at the Volturi for what they chose to be. Aro seemed not to notice, but I heard the distinct inflection in her voice. She had chosen to limit her words to that one, but it was enough.

"Delightful. So your hunger won't impede this little chat in the least. Are you finding this to your liking?" he asked, whimsically, as though this was temporary and if she wanted, she could exchange this body for a new one.

"It's very new," she said stiffly, "but so far I have enjoyed it."

Enjoyed it HOW? A thought from one of the many unnamed vampires swept across my mind.

I would have growled at the thought, but I did not want to cause any more problems than we already had. So I remained silent, restraining the urge to pull her along, to get her out of here as quickly as I could manage. But we had to wait. We needed to ask. Bella needed to assert her opinion.

"You will adjust in no time, I am sure of it. I myself am quite curious about your new self. Has the change affected your…immunity to the gifts of the others?"

"No, I still seem to be the exception to their powers," she answered. Her voice was chillingly even. She was restraining herself beautifully.

"May I?" Aro asked her anyway. It was as though he didn't quite believe her. She nodded and then stepped toward him, reaching out her hand. He had kissed her hand before, but he had not been trying to get a read on her. Now he was. Aro touched her and frowned, as I was sure he did the first time.

"Still nothing. You are quite the puzzle. But I have another question. As to your new life, well Isabella, I was wondering what you planned to do. If you, as was planned, intended to stay here as part of the Volturi?"

Bella inhaled deeply and sighed. She was going to have to be brave here, strong. But she would have no trouble there. She was brave, almost to the point of being stupid. Lovable, but stupid. Intriguing and wonderfully strong, and completely idiotic. She was such a contradiction and I loved it.

"I was hoping I could…go with Edward. I want to go with Edward, and the rest of his family."

I looked to her as she spoke, watching her expression. Her tone and face were resolute and final. She wanted to come with us. She would come with us, if she had anything to say about it.

"But my dearest, Isabella, we would so like for you to stay here with us. Surely Edward and his family would be permitted to stay if they so wished. It would be such a loss if you left us," he said. His manner intended to imply it was a choice. But really she had none. She was staying here, with or without me. Whether nor not she liked it.

I was going to grab her hand and direct my concentration to Aro's thoughts so she knew what to expect but I didn't have to. Even without using my telepathy she had heard the threat in his voice. She was quite perceptive. She glowered.

I wanted to tell her to calm down, but she was already angry. Aro noticed the expression on her face and looked rather shocked.

"Why what are you so angry about?" he asked. Innocence. Blamelessness. He was trying to appear to her as a virtuous creature that cared for her deeply, as a father might. She did not believe him.

"You take away my life—my human life, all the things I could have done, the experiences I could have had—and give me this! And now that I have it, now that I have realized what I am and know that its worth going on with because I have him, I have them," she motioned to me, and then my family, "you want to take that too? How dare you!"

In all my years here with the Volturi no one has dared to speak to Aro that way. I couldn't believe she had just said that. Where had it come from? She appeared so gentle and unassuming. Even those whose death was imminent have always remained respectful and humbled in the presence of Aro, Marcus and Caius. But not Bella. Brave and stupid, oh yes.

Aro's stun was visible. His eyes widened and he gaped at her. I expected him to go into a rage, as he had been known to do once a decade or so. She had the audacity to insult him in front of a whole room, to challenge him as a new, weak vampire.

He laughed.

"Oh you are quite marvelous aren't you? So young and so…feisty! It's nice to see someone with passion again, Isabella. Don't you see? That is why we need you here, to keep us…alive so to speak. I know it is not your ideal arrangement, but surely you see that the alternatives are quite lacking."

"And what are the alternatives?" she asked, the anger still in her voice.

"Edward can leave, as you well know by now. And leave he will, Isabella, never to be allowed here again. And if even that is not enough to persuade you to live here willingly…" he trailed off. And suddenly pain hit me with force. I sank to the floor as I heard Bella shriek. And then I realized, even though I could barely think beyond the pain, that if she touched me they would know. If she even laid one delicate finger upon my flesh the pain Jane was inflicting would cease to wrack my body. And she would be so much more of a mystery to them. She could never leave. If Aro wanted her so badly now I had no idea what he would do if he knew such things about her.

But I couldn't speak. I couldn't tell her to just let me ride it out until Jane stopped. I could bear the pain, the mind shattering agony, until it was over. So since I was unable to communicate I did feel her hands on me, touching my face gently, trying to be comforting. It was only after I shuddered out a breath and opened my eyes that she realized what she had done. She was an angel, a saint, for taking away the pain. But she had just damned herself as surely as I had.

Oh Bella, what have you done?

Jane glared at me as Bella helped me to my feet. She kept in constant contact with me, careful never to remove her fingers from where they were twined with mine. I could see Jane trying to hurt me, watching in utter frustration as she realized she could not. It was Aro who figured it out first.

"Why, Bella, what a wonderful trick! How is this possible?" he asked, clearly delighted. His thoughts all centered on her. She was precious, a prize to be guarded and kept forever. She shook her head vehemently. She opened her mouth to speak but I shook my head. It was bad enough she had revealed that part of her gift; there was no need to expose the rest of it.

"Its my gift," she said quietly, as though that was all there was to it. I prayed her believed her.

"Her ability to avoid our gifts will shift to anyone she touches while she maintains physical contact," I explained to anyone who was missing the significance of Aro's revelation. Nods of understanding and looks of puzzled shock spread across the room.

"So if I were to attempt to read you, I would get nothing?" Aro inquired. I simply nodded. He came over to me and pressed his hand to my arm. The astonished look on his face only grew.

"This is spectacular! It's astounding! You were a prize before Bella, a riddle in and of yourself. But now that we know what you can do…oh this is wonderful."

Bella growled. She did not think this was wonderful. And neither did I. Aro seemed to have forgotten that he just so happened to threaten Bella, and then threaten me in order to convince her to stay in Italy. Which she clearly did not want to do.

"Don't be angry, Bella dear. I know that was an unpleasant way to show you how serious we are, but you need to understand. Your value is beyond what I could describe, beyond worth, beyond importance."

Her hand tightened around mine. I thought perhaps it was out of fear. But when her eyes caught mine they were still aggravated and tense. She just wanted to get out of here. I sympathized completely.

"If I still refuse to stay?" she asked brazenly. This time Aro's eyes did narrow. He was growing impatient with her. Either she didn't hear the thoughts that passed through his mind, or she disregarded them.

"I think you would find the conditions under which you would experience the remainder of your stay quite distasteful."

Bella stiffened. She clenched her jaw, most likely to keep from saying something she would regret. I was glad she had some sense left. This entire ordeal was turning out to be as shocking to me as it was to everyone else. I wondered where all her nerve came from. Brave and strong she was, but willing to disrespect the direct wishes of one of the Volturi? That was not something I would have chosen to do. But Bella was more than I was in many ways. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that she had worked up the nerve to stand up for what she wanted.

"Take them," Aro said icily. Before I could read his thoughts and understand what he was talking about I felt hands clamp over my arm and haul me back. So this was why there were so many vampires in here. Aro knew this was not going to happen without a fight, though he most likely assumed it would be me that would cause a problem. I scrambled, turning quickly and throwing a punch to get the vampire off of me. I needed to be back with Bella. She couldn't stand there by herself. But as I looked at her, she wasn't by herself. Alec and Jane were holding her back as she was scrambling to get to me. She was thrashing around, kicking and punching and shrieking for them to let her go.

Before I could get to her more hands grabbed me. Three pairs to be exact. Three vampires restrained me. It would take more than that to keep me from her. Her face was full of pain and fear and anger, the worry in her eyes so poorly disguised. She needed me. I shook off my captors, sending them out of my way. I noticed as I did so that each of my family was being pulled away as I was. The only other one who was receiving as much attention from the Volturi was Emmett, who was being taken out by five other vampires.

I got two steps in her direction before there were so many hands on me I didn't know how many people were holding me back. I flailed, kicked and punched and tried to get to her. It wasn't until I realized I was moving in the opposite direction that I wanted to be that I knew I couldn't get to her. I was cursing Aro in my head for this, screaming at him for taking her away.

I was restrained until we were on the streets of Volterra. I was dumped on the ground in an alley along with the rest of my family. All of their things were packed up and neatly arranged on the ground a few feet away. The vampires here were none that I knew very well. A few names flicked through my mind, but none of them meant much. The important ones—the affluent, powerful ones—had stayed behind with Bella.

Bella. My beautiful, wonderful, astounding Bella, trapped in Volterra.

"Edward Cullen, you and your family are henceforth banished from Volterra. Any attempt to return here with be punished with immediate death," one of the little vampires said. I growled immediately. I was thinking only of her, how I could get her out, how I could get back to her. Now I was not only banned from taking her with me, I wasn't allowed to ever see her again, if I stayed or otherwise.

My head swirled. How could I pass so many moments without her here? I had survived almost a century without her and now that I had found her, I felt like I couldn't breathe without her. Not that I needed to breathe. Jane might as well have been torturing me; this felt more or less the same. No. This was worse. Jane could torture me all she wanted, being without her, knowing that I would be forced to remain without her, was the worst pain. I had to go to her; I had to find a way to get her back.

I had to.

AN: Don't kill me…with words I mean…