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As always, huge thanks go to my pre-reader/cheerleader team. Gredelina1, Verseseven, IamTheAlleyCat and Mary-Alice-Brandon-Cullen. Also to Snarkymuch for beta'ing this chapter and listening to all my bitching when the words wouldn't flow. I love you all.
~ Chapter Fourteen — Boredom ~
Jane POV
The drawback of an eternal life was boredom.
When you had forever there was not enough to fill the hours. I should have liked someone to torment, but there were no lawbreakers in the castle, and my masters did not like it when I used my gift on the human servants. They did not handle the pain as well as a vampire could, and all too often, their feeble hearts would fail.
For a while, I amused myself by watching the human receptionist quail every time I passed through her area of the castle, but that soon lost its entertaining value. I needed a new challenge.
An idea occurred to me, and I hurried my pace to the throne room.
"Dear one, what is it that you want?" Aro asked, seeing my excitement.
I held out my hand in offering to him Aro preferred to communicate through thoughts, and I was always happy to oblige.
He took my proffered hand in his and closed his eyes for a moment as my thoughts flowed to him. There was little new in my mind for him to see, having been read by him just the day before. It took only a moment for him to find the right idea.
"Ahhh, Jane, you are feeling out of sorts." He sighed heavily. "I think you are quite right; a visit to Isabella is just the tonic. Would you like to take Alec with you?"
My brother smiled wickedly. He enjoyed anguish and suffering as much as I did. Also, it was more convenient to have a partner when dealing with Isabella. She did not fight us, but it was better for the delusion to have two voices speaking. Bella didn't often exchange dialog with us during our sessions, and it was dull to have a one sided conversation.
"That would be most kind, Master."
"Very well, you and Alec may take one other. I suggest Felix; he has earned his reward by dealing with the last rule breaker."
It was not a suggestion, it was an order. I was not so foolish as to forget who my master was. It was a shame, though; I was looking forward to using this as a chance to gain favors from others. A visit to Isabella was a rare treat offered to chosen few. Sometimes, Aro would have her brought to the castle to entertain him and to show those accused of lesser crimes the price of crossing the Volturi. Those occasions always drew a crowd. Caius said it was once a custom for the humans to make visits to asylums to view the insane; with Isabella, we had something similar.
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The flight was as horrid as ever. Despite the opulence of our jet, it was tiresome to be forced to breathe circulated air for hours. It was raining when we landed. Pelting sheets of rain that doused us in the seconds it took to disembark the aircraft and get into the waiting cars. Neither Alec nor I found any pleasure in driving, so Felix took the wheel.
At home, we had people that we paid to drive us, but it would have looked odd for us to ask a human driver to stop at the edge of the rainforest and wait for us. Secrecy was always paramount, and while we could have killed a human to cover our tracks, it was not worth the effort of disposing of its body.
I decided to seek out the vampire, Zafrina, from the Amazon coven to assist us in our game. She could create the image of the empath and the doctor in Isabella's mind for us to torment her with. Aro said often how glad he was that he had not killed Zafrina when he had the opportunity; she was far more useful to us like this. Alec was able to keep Isabella aware whilst blinding her, but it was not so entertaining as showing her the faces of whom she thought was speaking.
I had to admire my masters for this torment they had concocted. Only someone as great of mind as them could find a way to use the innocuous talent of imitating voices to create such agony.
Once Felix had collected Zafrina, we made our way into the forest in search of Isabella's hole. The last time I was here — almost a year ago — it was to retrieve her for Aro's entertainment. There had been another scent in the forest that day, and I had fun using the empath's voice to question her. She hadn't spoken a word of sense, so I deduced whoever it was had not made contact with her. There were no fresh scents in the area today; the smell of the earth and animal excrement disturbed by the rain overpowered all else.
As we ran, I plotted. I liked to use the psychic's voice first to lull Isabella into a false sense of security before using Carlisle's and the empath's voices to punish her for her imagined crimes. I found the anguish to be much sweeter after giving her hope first.
When we were within sight of Isabella's cave, I called out to her. "Isabella, make yourself presentable; you have company."
I heard a whimper from her, and the sound pleased me; I adored these moments of anticipation. She came slowly to the edge of the cave. I could see her outline in the shadows.
I frowned. She was usually more cooperative than this. "Felix, please retrieve the girl."
His hulking form blocked the cave mouth. There were sounds of a struggle before he appeared, pinning a writhing Isabella against his chest.
"Alec," I said in a bored tone.
His eyes narrowed as he focused his talent on Isabella. The hazy mist his gift created crept along the ground towards her. Felix held her away from him, still gripping her tightly. The moment the mist reached her feet, she stilled, and Felix released his hold on her.
As punishment for her lack of cooperation, I shot her with a sharp dose of pain. Through centuries of experimentation, I had learned all there was to know about my talent. She remained immobile, but I knew my pain was torturing her nonetheless.
Alec began to withdraw his influence, leaving her free to move again. Her jaw unclenched and a low moan broke from her. It was always this way. When she first arrived in Volterra, I had tortured her long and hard, and she eventually gained the control to suffer in silence. That was then; now it took her a few sessions of my gift to build up the resistance again.
"Do your work," I instructed Zafrina.
"Who would you like her to see?"
I considered carefully. I was not sure I was patient enough to use the psychic today. I wanted the pain to come swiftly. "The empath."
I knew the moment it worked as the girl spoke. "Jasper, you came back."
She did not sound as scared as usual; in fact, she sounded a little excited. This was most odd. The last time we had used the empath, I had combined it with a full hour of my gift. There was no reason she should have been happy to see him now.
"Where is Alice?"
I smirked. The girl was an imbecile. "She is dead. Has your feeble mind forgotten that already?"
"No, no, no…" She moaned. "Not Alice. She can't be. Not now."
She was infuriating in her stupidity. It was always the same inane dribble from her each time… Well, almost the same; the 'not now' was new. I wondered if we had succeeded in breaking her mind even further. That would please Aro greatly. He commented after her last visit to the castle that he was growing tired of the same conversations.
Ever eager for a way to prove my worth to my masters, I considered. I should like to return to them with a fresh triumph over Isabella. My memories of her torment would please Aro, but if there was something more I could offer...
As I thought, I sent random jolts of pain at Isabella. There was no need to keep her waiting. Those that said the anticipation of pain was worse than the pain itself had never met me. She screamed on cue with every jolt. The sound usually pleased me, but today it bothered me. There was something amiss here, and I couldn't work out what. Perhaps it was just my own dissatisfaction bleeding into my perception of the scene. Certainly I had never been bored at play before.
It had been too long since I had spoken. Carefully planning my script I used the now perfected voice of the empath.
"My Alice is dead because of you."
"Nooooo, I didn't mean… I couldn't stop…" Her words ended with another piercing scream.
The screams pleased me, but not enough. "Alec."
He needed no further words to understand me and froze Isabella in place, cutting off her senses.
He looked at me with concern. "What is wrong, sister?"
"I need a new challenge. This is not enough for me anymore. Her suffering has become dull."
"What do you suggest?" Felix asked, leering at Isabella. He had harbored a desire for her since the first time he saw her, first for her blood and then for her body. Aro refused him his pleasure. He believed there was a standard of treatment for our kind, and what Felix intended to do fell below those standards.
"She has suffered enough," Zafrina said boldly. "You have taken away her coven and made her live without her mate. That is enough."
I dropped her to the floor with a sharp jolt of pain. It was merely a reflex reaction to her interference. I wasn't displeased with her; in fact, she had unknowingly given me the inspiration I needed for Isabella.
"Her mate…" I whispered. "Of course!"
I could not believe I had not thought of it sooner. We had been using the empath and Carlisle for years to torture her with news of her beloved family's death, but we had been missing the obvious. Her mate. She believed he was dead; we should have used his voice long ago.
I looked down at the Amazon female cowering at my feet. "You have met the Cullen boy, yes?"
She nodded.
"Good. I want you to show him to Isabella."
"Why do you make me do this?" She looked away and hushed her voice after I glared at her. "Carlisle will never forgive me this betrayal."
"If you do as you are told, he will never need to know," Alec said. "There is no reason he should. He believes the girl is dead, after all."
"Just do it." My tone left no room for argument.
Alec withdrew his influence to allow Zafrina to work, and Isabella was at liberty again. Her eyes were open but void of awareness as Zafrina's power worked. The moment Edward's image registered in her mind, her entire visage changed. Her eyes widened with shock, and her lips curved into an ecstatic smile.
"Edward," she breathed.
"Bella," I said, affecting the smooth tones of the boy. His voice was easier to mimic as I had heard it before. "I have been looking for you for a long time."
"Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry. I would have found you, but I didn't know. They told me you died."
"I did die. I was murdered."
"Oh. I thought… When I saw… Never mind. You're here now."
"I have searched for you for a long time," I repeated. "Years, in fact."
"How did you find me?"
"Jasper showed me. He knew I needed to see you for myself."
She choked a sob. "I missed you so much."
"I didn't." I injected some mirth into my tone. "I was glad to be rid of you."
The lightness that had filled her since she saw Edward's image faded. "I…I don't understand."
"I have been looking for the person responsible for destroying my family. All this time, I believed it was Victoria I was searching for, but I saw Jasper ,and he explained that it was you. Now I have come to avenge my mother and my sister"—I paused for effect—"and myself."
"Nooooo!" She began moaning like an animal, and soon I replaced her moans with screams as I unleashed the full potency of my gift upon her. Alec lifted his influence completely, allowing her to writhe and twist as the waves of pain broke over her.
I allowed her screams to echo through the trees for a long time, enjoying every moment of her pain. When they began to annoy me, I pulled back my influence. She lay on the dirty ground, panting heavily and looking up into the canopy of trees with a dazed expression. Zafrina had evidently removed her influence too. I scowled at her, but her punishment would have to wait. I had one more bombshell to drop upon Isabella before I was done.
"Zafrina!" I snapped. "Do your work."
Isabella's eyes became unfocused as her surroundings were once again replaced by the boy's image.
I knelt as Isabella's side and lowered my face to speak directly into her ear. "I burn in the flames of hell because of you, Bella. I curse the day I met you, and I curse you for making me believe you cared. If you had truly cared for me, you would have sacrificed yourself rather than letting my family die for you." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I burn in the flames of hell, and soon, so will you."
With that said, I unleashed my gift upon her again, vowing mentally that I would not stop until she bore the pain in silence once again.
I was very nervous about this chapter so please take a moment to let me know what you thought. As always if you would like a teaser of the next chapter, let me know in a review or a PM.
Simaril x