7
MEETING HEIDI
In the morning Emma came in, we were still in bed kissing and she began bustling about. I was by this time in a playful mood and made Aro make love to me again. I laughed as Emma pretended to be shocked but by now she was getting used to my openness and of course guys are never embarrassed.
"Master Aro," she said, "Master Marcus told me to say you have a full schedule today and how soon you plan to start."
Aro grabbed the phone and dialed a number. He spoke to someone in Italian and then hung up, "I have to leave quickly," he said.
He looked at me but then spoke to Emma, "After Isabella is dressed, I want you to call Vicente to bring her to me, you may converse as friends but that is all," and to me he said, "After our conversation last night, I trust you so don't betray me and bring some of your school books; Vicente will bring the rest later."
Without waiting for an answer, he went to the bathroom to shower and a few minutes later he dressed and was gone.
Emma had started bustling around as soon as he went to the shower and I remained in bed but as soon as he left I jumped out of bed and gave Emma a hug.
"I'm so happy he's letting me be your friend," I said.
"You're so different from the others, everyone else is so high and mighty but you want to be friends and yet you sleep with the most powerful man here," she said smiling.
"He owns me but he can't change who I am and he loves me because of who I am," I said thoughtfully.
"Master Aro runs all over the castle telling everyone how wonderful you are," she said enviously.
I smiled realizing that many would be jealous of me, no wonder he watches me carefully.
"What are you thinking madam?" she asked, seeing my faraway look.
"How much I love him," I said dreamily.
"What about Edward?" she asked wonderingly.
"I am very fortunate to have two wonderful men who love me and I will always love them," I said twirling around happily.
"Maybe you should jump in the shower madam, I don't think Master Aro would approve of you going to his office naked and I don't think he will wait all day," she said shooing me towards the bathroom.
"You're probably right but please call me Bella at least when we're alone."
"Yes," she promised me but shut me into the shower after turning on the water.
I was soon done then she helped dry me off, fixed my hair into a long braid falling down my back and dressed me in one of my gowns.
"You need something around your neck Bella, do you have a necklace?"
"Probably in my jewelry box over there, let me find the key,"
I found the key in my purse and opened the box to a glittering array of diamonds; she was amazed,
"Are those real?" She asked.
"Yes, Edward won't buy me costume jewelry, he buys me too many gifts, hopefully Aro won't get any ideas," I said.
We searched for a plain necklace which would go with what I was wearing. The gown was plain navy blue, cinched in at my waist and then fell straight down to my ankles; my shoulders were bare as usual and the gown showed off the bite marks on my breasts as well as the one on my neck but the necklace and some tiny diamond earrings added enough to it without being too gaudy. The gown looped down low in the back with one thin strip of material to hold it in place at the higher end of the loop. My braided hair which was quite long, hung down lower than the lower part of the loop. Emma put a large navy blue bow at the bottom of the braid. I put a little make up, not needing much and she gasped when she saw the resulting overall look. I knew that Aro would be pleased with me and I wanted him to be.
I put away the jewelry box and looked through my books to decide what I needed to study as Emma called Vicente. He came immediately and carried my books for me; I kissed Emma on her cheek and winked at her, she laughed.
Aro was not in his office but in the room where the vampires had taught me previously and where I had met Marcus. Vicente kept my books and went away after a brief conversation with Aro and I looked around. Marcus was there as was Demitri and Heidi and everyone stopped there conversations to stare at me. Aro too stared at me as if amazed at what he saw. Instead of calling me to come to him, he came to me and touched me as if he thought me to be an apparition, his hands moved over my face, my shoulders and my bite marks, starting with my neck and moving down to my breasts.
"You are indeed a witch or a sorceress; you took my breath away just now and made me speechless. Are you pleased with yourself?"
"I wanted to do this for you, I think you deserve me at my best, I'm apologizing for yesterday and thanking you for last night and for letting Emma be my friend, I whispered softly, then I tiptoed up to kiss him and he bent his face down so I could."
"When you agree to comply, you do it gracefully and I thank you," he said smiling and brought me over to the rest of the company.
"This is my belladonna," he said, "Who some of you have already met, please meet Isabella Cullen who will soon have my name added when she becomes my wife. Isabella you have already met my brother, Marcus, and Demitri, who you spoke to yesterday. Maybe you remember Alec and Heidi from the time you originally came here. Aro took me to each person as he said their name; Marcus kissed me on my cheek and Demitri kissed my hand. Alec and Heidi looked at me strangely but nodded.
"I do recall meeting you but weren't you human at that time. It seems Edward was very protective of you and you seemed very frightened and overwhelmed. Jane was upset because she couldn't infer pain on you as I recall and to me, she vowed she would find a way to hurt you," Alec said.
"She did find a way," Aro said, "And it was for that purpose we need to meet here, I need her to explain step by step what happened to her."
He looked at me and I shook my head emphatically, "No Aro, please," I said.
"You need to say it Isabella, Carlisle will join us shortly to help you. In the mean time you need to get acquainted with Heidi, to find out how we find our prey. The two of you should go to my office and Vicente will bring you back here when Carlisle arrives," he said matter of fact.
The two of us left and Heidi led the way to Aro's office, I still didn't have any idea how to go from one place to the other and I know Aro preferred it that way. Heidi was wearing more subdued clothing than the last time I saw her but otherwise the same tall, beautiful woman with lavender colored eyes. We soon reached Aro's office and went in and sat down before she spoke to me.
"I vaguely recollect seeing you but maybe you should remind me," she said.
"Felix, Demitri and Jane brought Edward, Alice and I from the clock tower, where Edward had planned to get himself killed because he had thought me to be dead. I arrived just in time to stop him from exposing himself to the crowd but too late to prevent us from being stopped by the Volturi in order for us to leave. We were brought to the tower where you arrived with several humans which were intended as food and we left just in time before the screaming began," I shuddered, "You were in the hallway just outside that room and I think you wondered who we were, especially me because I was human at the time," I finished.
"Ahh yes," her face showed her recollection, "You were the frightened little girl who Edward was protecting, he wore one of our cloaks and I remember thinking it strange you were allowed to leave at lunch time, though I knew you were not one of my catches," she said.
"If it had been up to Caius and Felix, I would have died and probably, so would have Edward and Alice because they would have tried to protect me but Aro let us go. He wanted Edward and Alice to come here eventually to stay and apparently at that time he saw more than a frightened little girl. He tried to read my mind but couldn't and I had to be touched by him as you know, in order for him to do that, he liked my scent and was curious how I would turn out as a vampire. Jane couldn't hurt me either and she was upset by that as you just heard," I concluded.
"You're right, Aro did see more than a frightened little girl and he talked about you constantly, wanting to bring you back but he knew you belonged to Edward. I didn't realize who he was talking about until just now. I do know, you wowed everyone in the room earlier with your entrance, you may have been beautiful before but you definitely are now. Aro said your name is Cullen, does that mean you married Edward?"
"Yes," I said and thanked her for her complements.
"Aro plans to marry you too, and Edward must agree," she said.
"Yes," was all I could think to say.
"So Aro has already taken you to his bed?" she enquired.
"Yes," I said.
"Well Edward is a catch and Aro is the catch and you have them both? I can even see how you do it, the way you look," she looked at me enviously, "You have no idea how many women want to be in your place with either one," she laughed.
"Unfortunately for all those women, my hold on Aro and Edward is forever and I will not share; I love them both too much," I smiled as I spoke with determination, "Call me selfish if you will."
"What does Aro want me to discuss with you then?" she enquired.
"How you choose your prey?" I said.
"Isn't it your prey too since you are here?" she wondered.
"I don't drink human blood, I live with the Cullen's, also human blood, even just the smell of it, makes me very sick," I said.
"What!" she exclaimed.
"Aro knows that I have an aversion to human blood drinking and he thinks that if you explain how you make your choices to particular humans I can better accept that it is done. To make myself clear, I'm not here to change anyone's way of thinking and I accept Aro as he is. Having just recently been human, I still have an attachment to them and I'd like to understand why you must drink human blood versus lower animal blood. I don't intend to judge," I explained.
"You have just shocked me, you're a vampire and you don't drink human blood because it makes you sick?' she questioned.
"The reason I don't drink human blood is because I'm a Cullen and the Cullen's are 'vegetarians'. I found out when I became a vampire that humans don't appeal to me as a potential meal but I treat them as I did before, as equals. I had an aversion to the smell of blood when I was human, it made me pass out and throw up. Now this has intensified and I become extremely ill."
"You amaze me," was all she could say, "And you are willing to accept Aro as is, even though you are a vegetarian?" she asked.
"When you love someone, you love them for who they are and you don't try to change them, if they change, it's by their own choosing. I have no wish to change Aro and don't expect him to change his practices for me. He accepts who I am and I accept who he is, that's all," As I said this, my body reacted with love for him and I wanted to hurry and return to him, "So will you explain to me then?" I questioned impatiently.
"To me humans divide into different groups and I question them to find out who they are, do they have children, are they retired or infirm, are they wicked or obnoxious, are they homeless or do they serve a useful purpose in life, are they intelligent, do they use others for their own purposes, do they have love or need love, have they had a decent chance in life. I choose those who fit into the worse category and we end their miserable life, I realize we are not here to judge who is bad and who is good, but we have to survive also, the survival of the fittest, I believe it's called and we are part of the food chain, humans eat animals and we drink human blood etc. Can you see our side of things? I know Carlisle can but he chooses to be what he is, we who live here in the castle don't randomly attack or torture people. We live the best way we can, indiscreetly, and have for thousands of years. We have our businesses and make money probably better than humans do, we interact with humans as business partners etc. we hire them to work here, some of them here, never realize who we are and some figure it out. If they can't accept who we are, we have to either kill them or change them, according to their usefulness. Once they become aware of whom we are; they can't leave the castle. When we hire humans we choose those who don't have families outside and they can live here in peace as long as they abide by our rules. You may or may not know, but the maid assigned as your personal attendant, does know who we are, Aro didn't want you to slip and say something you would regret." she ended.
"I didn't know Emma knew but I'm used to being careful about whom I talk to, even when I was human I had to keep the secrets; in a way it's good to know because Aro has allowed us to be friends. There are humans who work for us at my home with Edward, and I had to explain certain occurrences to our housekeeper which she thought strange, so she would not suspect who we are. I do see your side of things and I'm grateful for your explanation, Heidi, thank you, I will try not to shudder when something bothers me now," I concluded.
At that moment Vicente arrived and we went back to the other room.
"Isabella come and sit by me and Carlisle," Aro said.
I went immediately and received a long embrace and a kiss before I sat down, Carlisle winked at me.
"Carlisle, don't you think Isabella seems more at home here now," Aro asked him.
"I definitely see a sparkle in her eye now, Aro, I presume her bed is very comfortable," Carlisle said smiling.
"You will have to ask her that question but she's not shy when she makes love," Aro said grabbing my hand and kissing me.
"I already knew that because she's the same way with Edward," Carlisle laughed, "A human male would be worn out by her."