Chapter 8
Two weeks, extensive training, endless watch duties and countless glares from Jane and Heidi later I was walking through the rainy market in Volterra. Why was I doing this? Well, Marcus and Aro had decided to host a 'small' party. But when I say small I mean huge, at least fifty vampires would be there not including the guard. All the main guard were expected to attend and that; somehow, included me.
I walked over to a little stand and smiled at the young man behind it, lovely silk dresses were laid out in front of me; in every colour. About thirty different shades of pink from baby pink to pinkish orange to hot pink, a million shades of blue and way too many shades of purple. I ran my hand over the soft material, a smile across my face.
"Sei molto bella, signorina" The man behind the stand said, as I looked to meet his eyes. If I was human a blush would have coated my cheeks. I wasn't fluent in Italian but I had picked up a few things Felix or other people would say often. "Qual è il tuo nome?" He asked; I blinked at him apologetically.
"Sorry, I don't speak much Italian…" I said; a small frown on my lips. The man grinned back at me.
"That's good because I don't speak much Italian." He told me, my mouth opened to form a small O shape. "What you thought I wouldn't understand you? Most of the sellers here can speak English, miss." I nodded, not wanting to get into convocation with a complete stranger. I started to look over the dresses again, a smooth brown one catching my eye, it was the colour my eyes were as a human and it brought back floods of memories, they weren't just the colour my eyes should have been, they were the colour of Charlie's eyes too. I frowned, putting the dress back down neatly when I realised I had picked it up.
When I looked back up the young man was walking around the stand, heading toward me, I held back a sigh. The smile on his face reminded me of Mike; a small laugh escaped my lips causing him to give me a questioning look.
"Do I look funny?" He asked me, I shook my head in response.
"You just remind me of someone I know, well used to know." I said; a hint of sadness in my voice. Lucky for me, he didn't notice though and continued with what he was planning to say. He held up an extremely short red dress.
"What about this then?" He asked, causing me to shake my head; horrified at the idea of wearing the scrap of material he was holding.
"Maybe, if it was longer." I commented, noticing how beautiful it was once you got over its length; it had a small detailed pattern down the side, it looked like every little stitch had been done by hand. The dress looked surprisingly delicate. I tilted my head to the side, wondering if the dress would look differently to human eyes.
The man held his hand out to me after placing down the dress, neatly.
"I'm Manuele, by the way." He told me, as I shook his hand.
"I'm Bella." I smiled at him; the not talking to him thing was not going well.
"And I'm Alec." I heard from behind me, the smile on my face grew bigger, instantly. Alec's arm brushed mine as he walked past; he did that a lot lately. Nothing intension; or anything that would seem intentional, simple things like standing a little to close in the elevator or his hand lingering on mine for an extra second or so after I had passed him something. "What was that red dress you were looking at Bells?" He asked, smirking.
My eyes widened, he would not make me buy that dress. I could already see the plan forming in his mind, it was written all over his face.
"I wasn't looking at a dress, Manuele was just holding one up, I was thinking of getting one of the longer ones, the brown one maybe or the silver…" I said, trailing off as I saw Alec pick up the dress.
"What size are you?" Alec asked me as I glared at him.
"I'm not saying." I stated before turning back to Manuele. "Can I see the silver one?" Manuele nodded, holding it up; it was a floor length dress, which had a seemingly dazzling effect, it sparkled but it wasn't covered in glitter or sequences, it was the closest thing to vampire skin I'd ever seen. My eyes trailed over it, I'd liked it but it was something I could see Heidi or Chelsea wearing not me. I wouldn't feel comfortable in something that skin tight.
"I think your boyfriend likes the red one better." He told me, breaking my trance.
"10." Alec said, suddenly; not giving me a chance to correct Manuele. We turned to look at him.
"What?" I demanded.
"You're a size 10." Alec grinned, grabbing a dress in that size and checking the price tag.
"I won't wear it." I said, knowing he was teasing me. "You won't do it."
"I will, I bet you'll look amazing, Caius would love it." Alec laughed as I pretended to throw up. "Well get them both, you never know when Aro will want to throw another party." Alec handed Manuele the money, folding both the dresses and placing them in the shopping bag he was already holding.
I sighed, "I hate wearing dresses anyway." I complained.
"It's a shame, you have amazing legs." Alec stated, leading me away from the stand.
"See you soon, Bella!" Manuele called after us, Alec continued to pull me along; not giving me a chance to reply. I rolled my eyes, noticing the time, three forty five.
"You realise we have like five minutes to get back don't you?" I said, knowing if we were late Caius would go crazy, he'd been keeping an unnervingly close eye on me lately. I had set times when I had to go see him and if I wasn't there on time, whoever had made me late would be punished, unfortunately that would usually be Alec or Felix.
"I know." Alec stated, moving faster to a human run, I followed him moving at the same speed until we reached the alley that leaded to the back entrance of the castle. The second we were out of sight, I sped ahead of Alec, the buzz of traveling so fast; knowing I wouldn't fall, still hadn't worn off.
I grinned as I entered the throne room, exactly on time for a change.
I had both dresses laid out on my bed, I knew Alec wanted me to wear the red one and it was beautiful and soft and unique…but so was the silver one. It shone like diamonds, it was elegant and it looked a lot classier than the red one. I sighed, picking up the red dress; as I did I noticed a note on the back.
"Wear this one." I read aloud and rolled my eyes, I knew it was Alec; he didn't even need to sign it. I shook my head, dropping the note and letting it float to the floor while I placed the dress back into the wardrobe.
Turning back around, I headed over to the bathroom grabbing some straighteners I'd borrowed from one of the lower guard, I'm pretty sure her name was Cora. Once inside the bathroom; I closed the door and plugged them in. I looked at myself in the mirror while I waited for them to heat up, my make-up was already done. A faint blusher graced my cheek bones and a light shimmery eye shadow donned my eyelids. I added a touch of complexion enhancer below my eyes to hide the purple circles that now shadowed them.
I straightened my hair quickly, smoothing out the small kinks and waves and giving myself a satisfied smile. I guess the whole vampire thing had helped me a lot in the looks department; at least I had an excuse to be pale now. I turned the straighteners off before heading back into the room.
Straight away I knew something was missing and it didn't even take a second for me to realise what; my dress. My floor length silver gown that had been delicately laid across my bed had now vanished.
"No." I said, it wasn't true, it was here. I told myself moving around the bed to check the floor; nope, still no dress. Growling, I moved to the wardrobe, maybe I'd put it back with the red scrap of material. I knew I hadn't but I could wish. "Dammit." I grumbled, damn you Alec. He must have really wanted me to wear that damned red dress.
I quickly pulled on the red one, frowning at the image in the mirror; I really hated Alec right now. I had no time to find my gown or buy a new one and I looked horrible.
Standing outside the doors to the party, I could hear the rambunctious sounds of vampires dancing, talking, and laughing and to my surprise drinking. I pushed open the double doors that lead into the ball room, my eyes widened at the scene in front of me. I wasn't the only person here only wearing a scrap of fabric but that wasn't what caught my eye; what caught my eye was a tall beautiful vampire named Heidi would just happened to be wearing my silver gown. I should have known.
I took a step inside the room and at least half of the assembly of vampires turned to look at, I hesitated unsure of what to do once again as I told myself not to run. I saw Alec walk over to me with a huge grin on his face.
"I told you that dress made you look hot." He grinned, his eyes traveling over my body.
"W-what?" I stammered as Felix plied Heidi off his arm before walking over to me as well.
"Awhh, doesn't little Belly look all grown up?" Felix said, intentionally trying to piss me off. I glared at them both, I knew I looked ridiculous but they didn't have to take the mick out of me. This was all Heidi's fault and if it was possible I hated her more than before and for the record I don't usually hate people.
I walked away from them, pushing past them and walking smack into Caius. "Ouch." I grumbled, not because it hurt but it was my natural reaction and to be honest I didn't really want to see him; especially when I looked like a hooker.
"You look sensational, Isabella. You seem to be drawing a lot of male attention." He commented, giving various people around the room stern looks. I scrunched my eyebrows up, so what if people were looking at me? I could defend myself, what gave him the right to do anything about it? But I knew if I said something it would only infuriate him so I simply nodded in thanks and turned to my right heading across the room to sit down and hopefully not be forced to dance.
I was doing well until I got about halfway across the room and someone pulled me into their arms. A small squeak escaped my lips as they dipped me and wrapped their arms around me. I started to freak out and pushed him away. When I saw the rejected look on his face my momentary dear vanished, he hadn't meant to scare me.
"Sorry, It's just I don't dance." I told them.
"Everyone dances." The man smiled at me, he had black hair and matching eyes; something told me they weren't black with hunger or anger, and if Alec hadn't been standing behind him glaring, I might have been able to utter a coherent sentence. I started to giggle and the man looked at me like I was insane.
"Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you." I said, trying to keep a straight face and standing up straight, I pulled down my dress slightly as it had ridden up. "I'm Bella."
"Alistair." He replied, taking my hand. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to dance? Or are you the reason Caius is glaring at me?"
I shrugged, annoyed, why couldn't Caius leave me alone, I don't know what spurred me on to what I did next but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact I hate it when people try to control me.
"I'd love to dance but I might not be very good." I said, stepping closer to him, I could feel the cool air coming off his chest as he placed a hand on the small of my back, pulling me even closer. He had dropped my hand and draped my arms around his neck.
As we started to move, I instinctively rested my head against his chest and an involuntary sigh slipped from my lips. I heard a faint growl and smiled imagining Caius's face. What I didn't expect to hear next was the sound of Alistair falling to the ground, unconscious.
I crouched down beside him, worried. "Alistair?" I asked, panicked.
"Alec; stop this now." Felix said, when Alistair stayed on the floor, I looked up at him; glaring.
"Alec!" I yelled, "Stop, you have no right."
"And why is that Isabella?" Caius asked walking over to stand behind me, of course the music had stopped now and rest of the party had either turned to stare at us or run just in case this was some form of trap.
"Because he has no reason to hurt, Alistair, he did nothing to him." I said why was I the only one who could see this. I looked at Felix; pleadingly, for help. He sent me an apologetic look as Heidi wrapped herself around him.
Alec looked at me, frowning; sadness filled his blood red eyes. "I'm sorry Bella." He said, as Alistair awakened and shot up from the floor launching himself at Alec. Instinctively I grabbed his shoulder and slammed him back down into the floor, the ground shook beneath my feet at the impact.
"No, fighting." I said, somewhat calmly. I don't know how I even managed to sound calm, because I was going hysterical on the inside, I really needed to stop acting on instinct; it only got me in trouble.
"What gives you the authority to order them around?" Caius asked amused, as if this was all some game to him. I heard someone laugh then and for once it wasn't Heidi or Jane, a blonde woman who stood slightly apart from the crowd was laughing.
"She thinks because she the Cullen's pet, she's special." The blonde woman said. "When really she's just a delusional little girl, Edward realised she wasn't going to put out and left her and now she's come here to be used again except once again she's somehow managed to make her the prize of some little competition." She continued and as I glanced around, on the verge of becoming visibly hysterical, I realised no one was going to stop her. "This time it is a little more exciting though, a Volturi king verses a member of the guard, someone who could force her to love them and someone who would be willing to give up his life to protect her. Anyone want to take bets on who will win her this time?" She started laughing again then and I was physically shaking with anger. "Oh Bella, I forgot to mention this but Edward's great in bed." She smirked, before dropping to the floor, screaming in pain.
This wasn't Alec, I glanced around, Alec wasn't even in the room….
"Listen here, I don't like people messing around in my brother's life, got it? Mess with her all you like but if there is even a chance it will affect Alec, you keep your pretty little mouth shut got it Tanya?" Jane hissed.
Jane turned back to me then, "Thanks." I said, quietly, I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't of shut up, I was only just managing to hold onto the threads of humanity inside me and not rip Tanya's head off.
"I didn't do it for you, hurt Alec and what I did to Tanya will seem like spa day." Jane sneered before walking off.
Felix grabbed my arm, towing me out of the hall; leaving a wide eyed Heidi. "Come on, before you attract any more attention." He said, gently.
The doors to the room closed behind us and I broke down, collapsing to the floor and clutching my chest, my thoughts revolving around what I had just heard. Edward hadn't even just left me. If he had just left me, I might have had some chance of getting over it, Edward had cheated on because I wasn't good enough and now I didn't even have Alec to hold me and help me get myself together. All because Tanya thought it was funny to point out my misfortune and turn it into some big horrible game; that I had no chance of winning.
Authors note: Soo what did you think? Thank you for all the reviews on the last chapter! Hopefully, I'm going to be able to get back to updating every week now I don't have to revise for exams.
When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.
Bernard Bailey