Chapter Five

I was stupid and slow and human, and we were all going to die because of it. - NM - Pg. 448

"I don't like her," a young voice announced.

"I know you don't, Jane, I'm in an understanding with you, but this is Aro's request. We must obey. Please, keep your voice low, I don't wish to wake her."

"Are you sure the wretch isn't awake now? I hear her heart racing... Mmm... I do not know how you resist her blood, even with your talent. It is alluring... The only aspect I find pleasing about her."

Bella froze, her heart stupidly picking up its pace.

"She has nightmares," Alec excused.

"Is that so? You like her, don't you brother," she demanded accusingly.

Alec was quiet for several long moments. "I cannot lie to you."

She grunted and gagged. "It's repulsive!"

"Sweet sister, she's captivating without her blood."

"Lets see about that!"

Bella sat up straight in bed, expecting Jane to furiously charge her way inside. Except, she didn't come. There was an incredible loud sound, like two colliding boulders, the walls echoing the anger. She heard that sound before, what felt like lifetimes ago in a field with the Cullens playing baseball. It mimicked the sound of thunder, a bat hitting a ball, and two vampires running into each other.

She flew out of bed, and wrenched the door open. She was met with Alec's back, him crouching defensively in front of her. Bella fought the feeling she had to dive between them, as if she could stop them. A mere human like herself.

Jane was adjacent to them, standing from where she had apparently been thrown. Her hands were clenched into fists by her side, glowering at her twin, hissing between her teeth like a rabid cat. With a growl she lunged over Alec's shoulder, right to Bella's throat.

Alec jumped, grabbing her shoulders and pinning her to the wall, back into the indention that had previously been made. She squirmed and snapped by his ear, the frenzied blood lust halting Bella in her place.

"Sister, cease this insanity!"

Jane did not stop. "Release me, brother or I will release my insanity upon you."

Bella stepped forward, but suddenly a hand was out, silently ordering her to stop.

Aro peered on in satisfaction, as though it was a simple experiment that produced astounding results. Beside him stood stout Felix, smiling at the scene.

"Interesting," muttered Aro. "Interesting..."

Bella was horrified. "Do something!"

Aro looked to her as if just noticing she was there. "Fascinating. Alec, let our dear Jane go."

He hesitated, glancing at Bella. "Master -"

"I asked you to let her go, Alec. Don't disappoint me."

As soon as his fingers uncurled from her arms, Felix moved between them, constricting Jane in his hold. She continued to struggle, not taking her eyes off of her brother until a beautiful girl in fishnet stockings strolled in.

"Heidi, leave," Felix warned, but it was too late, Jane looked right at her.

Heidi crumpled to the floor, her screams ten times louder in the small space they had gathered. She clawed at her head, grasping her long mahogany hair, her legs kicking, and her back arching. Bella was reminded of when she was bitten by James. The fire that was going through her hand...

Alec took one glimpse at Bella and slowly the screams stifled, Heidi's black eyes roaming everywhere in blind refuge. She lied there in a limp heap.

"Remove Jane from this floor, Felix. I'll see to her later."

"Yes, sire."

Heidi blinked and stood. Brightly, she smiled at Alec, woefully giving him her thanks before Aro squeezed her hand. "Return to what you were doing, dear."

Heidi left, her chin raised proudly.

In turn, Aro touched Bella's palm. "I hope, my Isabella, that you do not think badly of us. Jane is a tempered girl, but in time she will come around to you. She is not as terrible as she appears."

Bella highly doubted that. She couldn't imagine one of the Cullen's abusing their power in such a manner, but she wondered if the power reflected the personality.

Maybe as humans Edward had instinctively known what people were thinking, and Jasper with feeling what others were feeling, and able to change it. Alice could see the future, or had an inkling of what was to come. They used their gifts for good, for keeping their family safe.

Jane had to have been an awful human being. Bella normally didn't think such things, but a power to cause pain... To use it for fun, to enjoy it; was sickening. There was a gleam in Jane's eyes, one of unadulterated enjoyment.

Aro held out his hand to Alec. "Mind?"

By the tightening of his jaw line it was clear that he did mind. Nonetheless, he complied, placing his hand in the ancient one, but for a mere three seconds. It was enough. Aro looked stunned, and then he laughed.

"My young guard, that is quite something."

"Yes, Master."

Aro gazed curiously down at her. "Do you enthrall ever male vampire like this?"

Enthrall? She looked to Alec, but he didn't mirror her. Was it possible... It couldn't be... Did Alec feel something for her?

He bowed his head, his eyes unseen past the long fringe of his hair. It looked so shameful, that she wondered if she was right. He could not have held an interest in her, they were too different. She was just a human...

"It is intriguing," Aro continued on, "that a boy who causes a sensory loss in others, can feel so much from a young human girl. It is ironic, I say. Extraordinarily beautiful. Alec, meet my eyes. Thank you. Our Isabella here is special, and if I'm not mistaken you have been without the joy of a mate all of your existence. Five-hundred years is a long time, and our guest is lovely. You have my blessing and delight if you wish to court her."

Court her? He made it sound as if they were living in an Anne of Green Gables book.

"Dear Isabella, are you beginning to like this life we here have to offer?"

She sucked in a deep breath, peering up at the boy who protected her, who cared for her. She couldn't know what Aro saw in his mind, but "I'd like to have Alec do it," she requested lowly.

He raised his brows. "Yes, I do believe he'd be the perfect one. Very well. Alec, you shall begin the transformation tonight? Good? Good! Now, if you don't mind, I have business to attend to." He bowed, kissing her knuckles. "Please, excuse me."

Even when they were finally alone, neither of them moved. Bella's head whirled, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened. In the back of her mind with the petty worries, she was glad that she had gone to bed in jeans and a t-shirt, the clothes taht she'd normally wear during the day. There was no telling what happened in a house full of beings that never slept.

"Did you mean it," Alec suddenly asked.

She didn't give it much thought. The idea of her being changed by someone with red eyes made her queasy, but it made sense. Not just because Alec didn't thirst for her blood; he was her only ally there. Her friend. "I meant it. I want you to be the one."

"Then that you shall have." He took her hand. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

He guided her through the dark halls. The only sound was the light slap of her bare feet on the stone floor.

Alec stopped her gently to face a small pastel painting trimmed in gold. The cheerful colors starkly contradicted the scene. A small village, covered in blood, the pale moon a witness to pale men and women attacking the weak, their mouths attached onto necks. The terror, the screams could have leapt off the canvas.

Alec pointed to the bottom left hand corner where Aro could be seen with two scared children.

"That's my sister and I, before we became what we are. We were fifteen and a half."

Bella tore her eyes away to look into his. She expected to see sadness or anger, but he appeared happy and proud. She felt the stirrings of sickness in her stomach. "You were so young."

"Don't forget that we've been around for over five-hundred years. In my time, Bella, I was a man. I may not recall my surname, every detail, but I recall the important facets of my former life. My father was convening with fellow fathers for my bride. My sister was to be wed; an awful man he was. That was how it all began. Jane lost her temper when her fiance was invited for dinner. He tried kissing her, but he suddenly obtained a splitting headache. He screamed of witchcraft, and he died before he could leave. He collapsed right there at the doorstep."

He met her eyes. "Bella, we were going to be sent to the stake. Aro saved us."

"Because of your talent."

"We lived, the means matters little. I wanted you to see this so perhaps you will understand. In the guard you are protected. We'll be your family. I know you care for the Cullens, but they are not your only choice. You have been deeply misguided by them."

"I have not," she spat. "The Cullens are good. You don't have to feed off of humans, you choose to. You take lives, you're a murderer, Alec. All of you!"

Alec's features didn't change. "It's a part of who we are. It's nature, Bella. We are the predator, and you are the prey. Can you blame the lion that feeds on the lamb when all it is trying to do is sustain its life?"

"You are not animals."

"We are not human."

"I don't want to be apart of that, Alec."

"Deny my lifestyle if you will, but would you deny me as well?"

She bit her lower lip. She wanted him, she wanted him more than she had wanted anything in her life. It was one thing, to fall in love with Edward. He chose not to hunt her kind, but Alec chose differently. He even helped kill his own kind. And yet, none of it mattered to her.

"Would you leave the Volturi?"

"You cannot answer a question with a question."

"You can if you answer depends on the answer to the question asked." That was a horrible lie, because she already knew what she was going to do. As far as her heart was concerned, she didn't have a choice.

He appraised her shortly, and she knew that he knew she was lying. "I saw you with Carlisle, your love for him. It was watching something lost in my life, for my father was willing to give me and my sister up. I felt no remorse for his death. He was not much of a father. The closest parent Jane and I have is Aro. It is not wise to disobey the Volturi, but disobeying the ones that gave you eternity... It's unmannerly."

She felt hollow, unworthy, rejected. It did more than open that hole in her stomach that Edward carved when he left. She was waiting for the end of her heart beat, for her to disappear, but there she remained, with him in the cold hall. She removed her hand from his, as if it would help, but instead, it felt destructive, speeding up the time on bomb.

No one wanted her, not for anything other than any ability she may have possessed. After Edward refusing her, she shouldn't have been surprised. She wasn't, in fact, she was surprised at how much it hurt from him, more than it would've from anyone else. More than it had from Edward, and it hit her.

She was in love with Alec. It was terrible to realize that then, when he was confessing his loyalty to the power hungry. It was like the world enjoyed her pain.

"If I chose to leave, would you leave with me?"

She could barely believe what she was hearing. "If I did?"

"Don't be careful. Not with me. Let yourself go."

It was the first time in her life that she was told not to be careful. Everyone assumed that she wasn't, and rightfully so, she was the had to be one of the clumsiest people out there.

He took a step towards her, reaching out. "Bella, please. You have nothing to fear from me. Just as I have no thirst for blood, I will not leave you."

She inhaled deeply, and ran into his chest, her arms circling his neck. He held her, tighter than anyone dared.

"You were made to be a vampire," he assured her.

"Because I can't walk or stand on my own?"

"Because you were meant to be mine."

She rested her forehead on his chest. "It will be worth it if I see you in the end."

"You will. I won't leave your side, Bella."

Somehow she knew that what he said was true. Alec would never leave her. Not like Edward. He wanted her to be like him. He wanted her. He would be the one to change her, act to keep her.

"I love you," she said.

"Nei tuoi occhi, io vedo la tua anima. Il mo mondo. Nella tue mani tieni la mia stess vita. tu sei tutto per me. In your eyes, I see your soul. My world. In your hands you hold my very life. You are everything to me."