Now we had made our deal that I would tell him, I had no idea what to say or where to start and Alec seemed to know that as he just sat there in silence waiting for me.

'Okay,' I sighed again, suddenly having a lot of trouble with my words. 'Um' (I could tell Alec was trying his best not to chuckle) 'you know when my father asked if I got into any dangerous situations while I was gone?

'And you said no,' Alec nodded warily.

'I kind of lied,' I admitted, moving slightly so I could see his face. 'While I was Bella Swan, I got into a very dangerous situation with some American Nomads: Victoria, James and Laurent. James is, was, a tracker and Victoria his mate, Laurent just stayed with them for convenience.

'Edward had "introduced" me to his family that morning and they'd invited me to watch them play baseball-'

'They made you watch baseball?' Alec chuckled: no matter what form I was in, I hated watching baseball with a passion.

'Shut up,' I laughed, hitting him lightly in the chest. 'Anyway, it was fine until James and his coven heard them playing and decided they wanted to join in.'

Alec whistled slightly at the bad luck but bad luck seemed to follow me around.

'My uncle and the rest of the Cullens tried to hide my presence among them but it didn't work: James caught my sent and it sent him off.' (I heard Alec curse under his breath) 'He hunts for the sport of it not the thirst so, when the Cullen's realized he was going to track me and Edward pushed me behind him to protect me, he realized that he just found the best game yet.'

Alec hissed dangerously at the word "game": I knew he hated the idea of anyone taking my life lightly.

'I came up with plan and we followed it –'

'You came up with the plan?' Alec asked surprised and I knew it was at the fact that they used the plan made by the person they thought knew practically nothing about vampires not an insult to my plan-making abilities.

'Of course, it was the best plan,' I explained, repeating similar words to the ones I had that night.

'I said goodbye, dramatically I might add, to the man who Adrianna's, she can create background stories for a person, power made my father before Alice and Jasper drove me south towards Phoenix where I had livid before Forks while the rest of the Cullens tried to lead the tracker away and take him down. '

'What about the other two?' Alec asked furrowing his eyebrows.

'Laurent didn't join the hunt, he was intrigue by the Cullens way of life and was going to go up to the other settlement in Denali to try it,' I told him, trying to sort through my murky "human" memories – that was problem with my gift of changing into a human, the memories from my time as it were hazy, apparently like a vampires memory of their human lives. 'Victoria, however, helped James.'

'This Victoria is the one who sent you that note?'

I nodded, 'James followed me to Phoenix and tricked me into meeting him at "my old" ballet studio with the sound of my "mother's" voice where –'

'Wait, wait, wait,' Alec interrupted, raising a hand. 'Izzy, you went willing to a tracker who wanted to kill you because he had and was threatening a woman that was only acting your mother?'

'I know it was a little stupid –'

'Izzy, do you realize how dangerous that is?'

'What was I supposed to? Let her die?' I snapped at him. I got no answer and, for me, that was enough said on his part. Standing up from his lap, I placed my hands on my hips, glaring down at him. 'She was innocent, Alec! I couldn't let her die. I had brought her into this, unknowingly of course but still, I had to get her out of it. I don't take lives as lightly as you it seems.'

I couldn't help being angry at him, although I knew he was only worried about what could have happened but I was being irrational due to the fact that my emotions were all over the place, with my mother's jewellery and her letter, Victoria's note and now having to tell Alec this story. However, he knew how sensitive I was about human's s lives being treated as something less than us and he was being a bit of a jerk.

He sent me a look which I couldn't quite decipher before his eyes urged me to continue. I continued glaring at him before sitting back down, this time next to him.

'He toyed with me,' I continued, 'trying to drag his game out.' (I said this with a sardonic smile) 'He didn't have Renee, never had, and he knew Alice from when she was human, he'd tried to kill her and had killed her creator so she was alone. I tried to run, although I knew it was useless, and he stopped me, of course. He threw me against the glass and stood on my leg, breaking it.' – Alec hissed – 'before he bit me. It seriously hurts.'

I couldn't help adding that last bit on the end and got a dark smile from Alec in return for my observation.

'It gets worse as time goes on,' he told me flatly in his accent that, despite my best efforts, still charmed me even when I was annoyed or angry at him and I pulled a face, shivering at both his words and his tone of voice.

He'd been so kind and sweet not so long ago and now he was off, different somehow, harsher and more cutting. It was a side of Alec I hadn't seen in a long time, a side that was set of by the slightest things and it wasn't a side I particularly liked but it was a part of Alec, a part I hated but a part of the man I loved. However, the side he was showing a glimpse of now was the side that gave me an idea of why people gave him and Jane the reputation that they did – that the twins' were cold, cruel and callous monsters. I could put up with this part of him, every once in a while, as long of the majority of the time he showed the side he hid from the majority of the world behind his façade.

While I was drifting away in my thoughts, Alec had turned to look at me.

'Well?'

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and met his dark red eyes, which I only now noticed had been looking somewhere behind me for a long time around when his mood changed, with my butterscotch golden ones, 'they Cullen's came just in time. Emmett and Jasper killed James while Alice, Uncle Carlisle and Edward had their attention on healing me. My uncle had Edward suck the venom out of my bloodstream so I wasn't changed.'

'Good, we don't know what would happen if you were bitten while in you human form,' Alec said causing me to frown at him because he still sounding off.

'What's up with you?' I asked suspiciously.

'Nothing,' he said, moving his eyes to lock with mine causing me to see an emotion retreat in his eyes before he smiled. 'Perfectly fine, except my fiancée just told me a story I would have liked to know sooner.'

'Al,' I began to moan at him.

'I'm teasing,' he chuckled and I realized, with a soft smile, that my Alec was back and that Alec was gone. 'It's just,' (his smile slipped from his face) 'this Victoria, she a red-head?'

'Yeah,' I nodded wondering where he was going to this and how he knew this. 'Fiery red hair, around 18 years old. Why?'

Alec gestured me towards him with a finger and spoke in such a low voice only I would be able to hear it if someone where nearby and straining their ears to hear, 'on the corner wall, behind you.'

Leaning back from him, I turned my head to the left slighting to see Victoria perched on the castle wall far enough away that even with her vampire hearing she wouldn't be able to hear our conversation but close enough that I could easily see all her features. Without being consciously aware of it, I leaned closer into Alec's marble body causing him to wrap a protective arm around my shoulder, although I knew his eyes were firmly locked on Victoria.

'That's her,' I breathed not able to move my eyes away from the figure.

'What does she what?' Alec asked quietly, although we both knew if we spoke at normal levels she still wouldn't be able to hear us.

'Me,' I answered. 'I'm probably the reason James is dead in her eyes.'

I was speaking to Alec but my eyes, as well as his, were still focused on Victoria, who was staring menacingly back.

'Hey,' Alec said, placing a finger on my chin and turning me to face him, I kept my eyes on Victoria as long as possible. When I was facing him, his eyes moved from her to focus intently on me. 'It'll be fine; we'll figure it out together. You've got the two best guards in the castle.' (he cast a wary look over my shoulder) 'Let's go inside, though, talk to your father and uncles.'

I nodded hesitantly as he stood up and offered me a hand. As we walked back towards the castle, I looked back to where Victoria had been perched but she was gone and the garden was empty.

'You're telling me you lied to me!' my father snapped, why was it always when I had something important to tell him someone always went and annoyed him first.

'Is that really the thing to dwell on, master?' Alec asked, he was the only member of the guard to say things like that to my father since he was going to be his son-in-law he was allowed to be a little bit more casual around him.

'Of course not,' my Uncle Marcus, the calmest of my Volturi uncles, sighed, looking worriedly over at me from where he was seated at his throne. 'We have to do something about this Victoria.'

'There's something else,' I interrupted before he could say anything. I shared a look with Alec before telling them the information. 'She was on the castle wall just now, while Alec and I were in the garden.'

My father and uncles eyes either widened or narrowed dangerously.

'Alec, ask around the guard if anyone has known this Victoria,' my uncle Caius ordered at Alec. 'If they've been in the same coven as her before or if they have met her in passing.'

'Wait,' I heard a voice call out from the side of the hall and I recognised it as Heidi's, the Volturi's "Fisher". 'You've met her masters.'

'When?' My father asked excitedly, no doubt glad that we could deal with this quickly.

'We were in the same coven when I was first created,' Heidi explained, moving from the shadows as my father gestured her forwards. 'She's the only one of my former coven who survived the execution you order on us for being too exposing.

'She's very vengeful, master, and has the gift or self-preservation – she'll do anything to survive.'

'I have another problem, masters,' Jane said, walking in the room from the side doors causing everyone to turn to face her sharply and sigh heavily at her words. 'The Romanians who were in power before you are behaving oddly and there are a lot of people going missing in the area where we know they live. They're planning something, I'm sure of it.'

'Everything always happens at once,' my father groaned quietly and I almost smiled.

'I see no way for them to be connected,' Uncle Marcus said cautiously, as though he was still thinking it through in his head as he spoke, after a few minutes.

'I think we need to find out more about the Romanians plans,' I suggested. 'I can deal with Victoria; she's not that much of a threat.'

'No,' Alec said at the same time as my father causing me to roll my eyes at how protective they were over me.

'Izzy doesn't need help,' Heidi told them causing me to smile warmly at her, at least someone didn't underestimate my abilities. 'She's a brilliant fighter.'

'No,' my father repeated firmly. 'You will have a guard member at your side at all times, Isabella, do you understand me? Jane, Alec, I don't care who, just a trained guard. We'll find out more about the Romanian's and keep an eye out for Victoria, maybe have Demetri track her. You agree, brothers?'

'Best course of action for the time being,' Uncle Caius agreed as my uncle Marcus nodded in agreement. 'As long as Victoria doesn't turn into a larger threat.'

'Father, that isn't neces-' I began.

'That's my final word on the matter, Isabella Maria,' Father said sternly and I knew it really was finally he hardly ever called me "Isabella Maria" unless he was trying to emphasise a point or was angry. 'Alec, Jane, Heidi make sure the rest of the Guard knows of the new situations and have a sketch drawn up of Victoria so they can recognise her.'

'Yes, master,' the three said in sync and I couldn't even send Alec or Jane a dirty look for agreeing so easily since I knew they both just wanted to protect me.

Alec, Jane, and Heidi all disappeared as Felix and Demetri came in, holding a tall, frail looking vampire by the shoulders. All of our heads snapped towards them at the loud entrance, they had swung the large doors out the way with an unnecessary force.

'What's going on?' I asked before my father or uncles could open their mouths.

'He was caught hunting in the city.'

I find bad things or problem always come in threes.

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