A/N: Hey guys, I'm still alive. I'm really sorry that my writing has kind of all but disappeared here in the last mont or so. I truly do apologize. Also this chapter is kind of short, sorry about that too. As you read this you might think, "Hey, this doesn't sound much like the BFD I know." Yeah, about that... I'm kind of going through some things and my mind is slightly distracted. I am working on this story and a new one that has not yet been published on this site (yea, another ExB) called Forever Winter. I'm going to finish it up at least halfway before I post so don't hold your breath. It also pretty dark (think: if you like the dark twistedness of Broken, you'll like Forever Winter... although I do warn you; it's WAY OOC for Bella...)

Anyways, my apologies once again for the 'out of it-ness' here lately. I'm getting my groove back slowly but surely, I promise!

Thanks for all the love you guys have shown my stories; it really means a lot that I can make something that others find even the slightest bit interesting.

Without further ramblings... I give you Chapter 17!

Chapter 17 – Into the Fire

I woke on my luxuriously soft bed, the night passing, though I seemed no better for it. I knew I had not slept well if at all. In my dreams Dagon's face and Edward's floated in and out, rippling like water which had a great stone thrown into it.

I knew I had a choice to make, and it was not an easy one.

I bathed and dressed quickly and left my room. Looking at once for the drawing room I had first met my captor. I had made my decision and nothing could sway me.

As I came to the room I could hear Dagon's deep, velvety voice flowing through the slit of the doorway. I reached to turn the knob, ever so gently.

The door opened a sliver. I could see Dagon, lounging easily on the plush red sofa, just as he had the evening before; his visage, calm, unworried, completely cool. I strained to hear the words spoken, but my efforts went unrewarded. I heard only detached sounds, voices speaking in tones too low for my human ears to hear.

Still I strained. Finally I could make out the words… or at least some of it. I heard Lord Dagon's voice say to the disembodied voices, "Why don't you ask her yourself? She's been listening at the door for some time now… how rude of us to speak so low… one cannot properly eavesdrop that way." His voice was dripping with sarcasm and amusement.

Of course he would know that I was standing here. Even if I had not opened the door, my loud human heartbeat would have given me dead away.

"Come in, Isabella. It seems you have guests, my dear." Dagon said, motioning to me.

I blushed furiously as I opened the door and walked inside. The 'guests' were seated on a sofa much like Dagon's, but facing the opposite direction, and quite out of sight until one fully came into the center of the cavernous room.

I looked toward where the guests would be seated. My heart began to beat erratically, then skipped and stuttered. My breath caught in my throat, my eyes stung with tears. Edward. Jasper.

"Bella, I promised you a week to consider my offer of… eternity, but it seems that, while I am content to hold to my end of the agreement, Mr. Cullen here, requests that you choose now." He said with all the polite decorum that could only be present from centuries before.

"Bella,' Edward began, 'do you intend to… remain here, with Wulf?"

Wulf? I had not heard Dagon's given name; he had only given me the merest glimpse of his surname at all… how did Edward know it?

"I had come to inform you of my decision, Lord Dagon, before I realized that you were entertaining guests." I said directed at Wulf.

Dagon smiled pleasantly and expectantly waited for me to speak again.

"If I must die or choose you for eternity, I must choose death. That is not to say that I am ungrateful for your kind offer… but it would be… unfair to my…heart." I stuttered, my heart pounding so loudly in my ears that I could barely hear the words I was speaking.

Wulf Dagon nodded his head slowly, his massive hands pressed together as if in deep thought or in prayer. It seemed as if hours passed before his mouth opened to speak…

"I suspected that you would choose this course, Isabella. I am saddened that I will not see you in such fierce beauty as I had imagined you would possess as one of us… but I too, have something to tell you. Your Mr. Cullen and I have been a long time negotiating your life and death, but I insisted that he wait to see what your choice would be. Now that I see he was correct in assuming your decision, I will reveal to you the solution we have come to regarding you."

Dagon stood and walked toward me, circling me as if predator to prey.

"As I explained to you last evening, the Volturi will not rest allowing you the knowledge you possess. My offer of death was out of pity and I had hoped you would choose life with me to the alternative. Edward believes as I do that you are not safe and if you wish to die then you will receive that very boon before the dawn of the morrow, but not by my hand."

I frowned; he was confusing me as well as making me slightly dizzy.

"I understand that you are Edward's La Tua Cantante… his singer. I would not deprive a vampire one of the most divine pleasures known to our kind, but before you answer I shall restate my offer in revision. Edward, as I mentioned to you in your bed last night, cannot change you… he hasn't the control… your blood is too powerful for him. But, I can. Would you spend eternity…?"

I opened my mouth to speak, to refuse once more… I might not be able to tell Edward how I feel about him directly but I could not deny my heart's longing. I would not spend eternity with a man I did not love. Just as I found my voice he finished his sentence…

"With Edward and his family?"

I gasped; the shock was evident on my face as I looked from Dagon to Edward.

Edward stood and walked toward me.

"Bella, I know we have not known each other for very long and I know that my lifestyle and everything about me and my family must appall you though you are too polite to show it. But I too have been worried over the things that you know… the Volturi will not let you live knowing what you do about us. I'm sorry that this is the only chance at a life that I can offer you, but here it is… I care for you Bella… I cannot tear my mind from you, even when you are away from me…"

"But… Charlie… if he lost me, I don't know how he would take it." I said, my mind reeling.

"Charlie thinks you're dead, Bella." Jasper said quietly from the sofa.

"What?!"

"We had to, even after we rescued you from here, there was no way we could allow you to go back to him. It puts him in danger as well as anyone you've come into contact with. The historian, we suspect to be a double agent; Dagon is not the only vampire he is working for… the other may have Volturi connections. You are not safe unless you are one of us or dead… he's taking it hard, but he'll be okay, I promise; we won't let anything happen to Charlie."

Jasper rose from his seat as well. My mind was reeling even faster than I had imagined possible. Of course I loved Edward and would spend every day of eternity gratefully by his side, but did he return the feelings? He said he cared for me… as what his pet? An oddity? At that moment I realized that it really didn't matter. It was eternity with him or death without him.

"Yes… I'll live with Edward's family… for eternity." I said gravely.

Was it a selfish choice? Charlie already believed me dead… I had nowhere else to go.

"Well chosen, Isabella… come, we will prepare you in your room." Said Dagon and slowly we all returned to the room I had left only an hour or so ago.

I could not help but imagine our little troupe as somewhat of a funeral march. My funeral march infact.

"Lie quietly on the bed, Isabella. Soon, you will feel a great amount of pain… it will last for three days… and then you will die. When you awake you will be one of us and you will burn no more."

I lay on the bed as instructed. Dagon positioned himself over me gently.

"Can…Edward hold my hand?" I asked, my voice shaking as a child's.

Dagon smiled. "Of course." He said and waited until Edward had my hand securely in his own.

I closed my eyes and waited. Dagon's long black hair brushed my face; chills ran through me as his mouth found my neck and then… searing pain. White hot fire slashed through my neck, shoulders, wrists, stomach, thighs and ankles. I screamed out once in shock and agony, and forced myself into silence as the pain grew.

I must have passed out from the horrendous fire that ran through my veins, because the next thing I remember was opening my eyes.

My senses were incomparable from the ones I remember as a human. Everything looked brighter, more colorful and certainly more detailed than I remember. I could hear voices and I instinctively knew that some were in the house I was in and some were as much as a mile away. My sense of smell was the most surprising… it was so strong it was as if it had taken over my sense of taste as well…

I decided to try to stand… and found that it was quite easy. I walked over to the dressing table and peered into the mirror. I jumped at the sight of someone right behind me; a female, even more beautiful than the one who lead me to my room on the first day.

I gasped as I realized the female in the mirror was not behind me… she WAS me. My ruby eyes widened in awe and amazement. My mousy, just past the shoulder unmanageable hair was now a deep mahogany with ebony lowlights, and it had grown just long enough to graze my waistline. My pale, watery skin was now pearly and translucent… it almost seemed to glow. My features were still my own, but they had seemingly arranged themselves into a more perfect formation. Everything about me was perfectly symmetrical.

I could hear footsteps behind me, I turned faster than I would have thought possible to face Edward and Jasper Cullen. They carefully and quite slowly entered the room.

"Bella… the transformation… you look amazing." Edward said, his voice hushed and filled with something… was it awe, reverence or something else?

Jasper spoke next. "Now that we have a little time on our hands, we need to talk… when you're ready Bella, we need to leave and head out for Forks."

I nodded dutifully. My mind was a jumble… blurry images, visions, memories. None of them seemed to be sorting themselves out quite yet – this was definitely going to take some getting used to.

A/N: Okay, hit me with it and be brutal if you must. (I promise I'm not deviating from the original plot; just taking the scenic route) - it will eventually make sense, yeah, sorry; it's kinda a cliffie.