Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters…though I do own the twins and Matthew.

Come what May

Chapter 12

Emma's POV

Alec seemed to be the most amazing man ever. I was so lost in his gaze that I didn't even notice the hallways that we moved through. I didn't care where went, only that wherever we headed that he went with me.

Every second the feelings in me seemed to become more solid, less confused, and with each passing second he became a physical part of my soul, something I couldn't live without. His intense stare told me he felt the same way in regards to me.

Would he care that I was so much younger? Would that matter to him?

We passed a window and I could see the sun had begun to set, the red and orange hues in the sky shone in through the tall windows and softly lit up Alec's features, lighting his skin until it glowed as if it was on fire.

I was on fire.

I wanted to touch him…to feel his hands on my body, and to feel his skin under my own roaming fingers.

I ducked my head in embarrassment for a moment as the reality that my parents were only feet away while I was having the first sexual thoughts I had ever entertained, and my father probably heard everyone of them!

I was on the verge of wishing the floor would swallow me up when I felt a jolt of electricity and pressure emanating from my elbow. Glancing up I saw Alec watching me. His gaze was worried, but intense with something primal. It urged me to keep moving, to not care who surrounded us, or who heard what.

This man was mine. This was a blessing, not something to be embarrassed of. My parents would understand, after all it had happened to them, to most of the members of our family, only my brothers had yet to find someone that would make them forget about the petty concerns that worried them, and make them want to live each moment from that second onward trying to do everything…anything for the person who had taken residence inside their hearts.

Matthew's POV

To say that I was shocked to learn of her story would have been a gross understatement of facts. Genevieve had been living here in this underground dwelling for hundreds of years. She was human when the Volturi first settled in here, and claimed the city as theirs. She lived with her parents and siblings, a large family of eight, two parents and six children consisting of two boys and four girls. Her family was large for the time and the fact that so many of their offspring had lived past infancy had been a blessing. Her father had been a mason, working with his hands to create, while her mother had been renown for the tapestries she wove in the evening hours and at night while her children slept.

As the baby of the family, Genevieve followed her father around like a puppy. The man didn't hesitate to show his child what he knew when he saw her passion for his craft, her gender be damned. He doted on her, perhaps because she was only one of two of his children that followed in his footsteps, but out of her and her older brother she was the truly talented one, as her father said, she felt the stone in her blood.

There was no favoritism in their family, no one begrudged another and everyone pulled their own weight, working together to make their home a happy one. They lived this way until she was almost eighteen. Her parents had not pushed to match their children to mates as they had no need of money to better themselves, and while Genevieve was of marrying age her parents did as they had for all of their children, something unheard of in the time she was raised, they allowed them the right to accept or reject suitors, or to choose their matches should the boys wish to court a girl.

I'd had to drag the story out of her, prompting her and pleading with her to give me the smallest of answers. Finally she admitted that she was the last girl at home when it happened. There had been talks of raids on nearby villages and they feared the town surrounding the old castle where they lived might be targeted next. Her family had stayed when many others had fled to the surrounding countryside, not willing to give up the home and business they had worked so hard to build.

Her father had been working in his shop one cloudy late afternoon when she heard it, crashing and shouting, concern for her father had drawn her out of the barn where she was caring for the draft horses that pulled the heavy stones her father used in his work. She arrived in the stone workshop in time to see her father's body collapse to the ground, lifeless, beside the form of her brother. Before them stood dark, cloaked figures who terrified her.

"That must be the one!" One of them said pointing in her direction, turning her blood to ice in her veins.

She had tried to run, to escape whatever danger they had brought to her family. She wanted to warn her mother, but the small hope she had of that disappeared as she passed the window of her family's small kitchen and she saw the streaks of blood and dark crimson handprints on the wall and smelled whatever her mother had been cooking burning and smoky on the heavy air.

She knew than that her mother was lost as well, never would she allow the families resources to go to waste, and the bloody traces on the wall only substantiated her beliefs. With no one left to save she ran, or at least she had tried to, for only moments later she found herself trapped outside of one of the outbuildings with one of the creatures blocking the path ahead of her and as she whirled around another behind her.

Her voice was silent as her throat tightened in fear. They seemed to move faster than her eyes could follow, and they had taunted her.

"Nowhere to run little mouse." One had said in a singsong voice that made her shiver.

"Is this it?" The second asked in what had seemed to be surprise.

"Of course it is, can't you feel the energy rolling off her? She is the one Aro sent us for." The first answered, leering at her as she had tried to edge her way towards the wall of the building hoping she could slip by while the two men talked.

"She don't look like much." The other voiced, sounding agitated.

"Are you the one who can see energy? No, that would be me, so shut you mouth before I close it for you, in a more permanent manner!" Responded the man who had identified her as the prey they had been sent to procure. Their gaze had been unnatural, dark and predatory, their eyes devoid of light and life, Genevieve has explained, describing the way their unblinking eyes had frightened her further.

"I now know why they seemed that way", She said quietly, "But at the time vampires were not something anyone actually knew enough about to warn others of their existence."

I nodded my understanding and continued to quietly listen as she explained how she had been brought before Aro, Caius and Marcus. Aro had been informed by one of his scouting crews that this city held a human who had an ability to form and shape stone. He had been intrigued at the idea of having a vampire under his command, who could command the stone to do his bidding. Thus he sent them for her, to add her to his growing collection of talented members.

Aro wanted to use her to help him change the city to suit his needs. He found it humorous that he found such a human that would help him turn Volterra into a city built for Vampires, especially since the lore of the city was that it had killed vampires in it's past.

Aro turned her without delay, and after she awoke from a torturous four days of burning in an inferno, he had set her out with guards to see how her skill worked in her new form.

What had once been her favorite thing to do now became the only thing she was permitted to do. In her human form she had been able to carve and shape stone by seeing the small lines that showed the stones natural strengths and weaknesses, but as a vampire her touch caused the stone to move to her every whim, ebbing and flowing beneath her fingers as if it were wet, pliable clay…clay that was hard as granite once her hands had left it's surface.

Genevieve found that she craved blood, as do all newborns, but much like my grandfather, Carlisle, she retained her humanity and refused to drink from humans. She would not eat. Aro worked her non stop to create the catacomb style homes for the minions he planned to bring into the city, but as her strength began to ebb due to not feeding he became angry with her.

He had her beaten, a fact that made me want to kill him all over again due to the rage that shook my body, and when that didn't work he resorted to slaughtering humans in front of her, even forcing blood into her mouth which she refused to swallow before spitting it into his face.

I was overcome with pride at how she'd handled herself, even in newborn form. I wish I could have seen Aro's expression when she reacted unlike any other newborn, despite his tactics. Finally she became too weak to work and Aro had every gifted vampire try to use their powers to make her bend to his will, but to no avail.

" I can only guess it is due to the unyielding nature of stone, I am one with it, and it seems that my mind is as strong and un yielding as granite is." Genevieve said with a contented sigh.

I listened as she explained how as she became to weak to do as he commanded he had her thrown into a dungeon, stating that if she wished to act like a 'pathetic human', than he would treat her as one. She was so weakened by this time that she was unable to even walk. Aro refused to even waste a guard on her, merely sending a scout to check on her through the day.

"It was a few days in that I began to dream," she said softly, "Or at least it felt like dreaming. I could see and feel things as I lay on the ground, but they had nothing to do with me. It turned out to be the power of the earth that I was sensing, not just stone, but the small grains in the soil, like clay. I could feel them shift and move. I even imagined wishing that they could open up the floor and swallow me up…imagine my surprise when they actually did!" She said smiling.

Her weakened state had allowed her mind to open further, to let her power wander until it reached out for more, as if looking for energy to keep it alive, and while her body dwindled, her mind strengthened. As it reached out around it it felt the clay mixed in with the soil. The pliant, yet stone like nature of clay, was easier for her mind to move and it moved to her whim just as the stone did, but it did not require her hand to guide it.

It shifted the ground beneath her, until the stones gave way under the shifting soil and pulled her under, following her minds wish to escape and to not be noticed, the floor was pressed back up by the clay and soil, leaving her cell as it had been with the exception that she was no longer inside it.

It was fascinating to listen to her as she described how she felt as if the soil was a cloud, carrying her beneath the blackness of the soil until she was far outside the city walls, and only once she was there, as if sensing her desire to be able to breath and see once more, it pushed her to the surface, breaking through the heavy layer of root and grass until it deposited her on a bed of grass and leaves. The only thing she could do was to lay there and stare at the sky, wishing she was human again, to be able to drink water and eat, to even hunt the small forest game to eat, oh to only be able to eat rabbits again, or other small game.

The only outlet for her desire was her thoughts, and once more the soil around her moved to fulfill her wishes, apparently collapsing an underground den around a family of rabbits as it pushed the small creatures up through the soil beside her.

The smell of them was not what she expected. They no longer breathed, but were warm with a faint pulse from having been smothered by the earth. The blood beneath their flesh called to her, and she managed to turn her head close enough to allow her teeth to rend through the skin, letting the blood flow into her mouth, across her tongue.

One gave her enough energy to reach her hand slowly for the next, and two lent her the strength to sit up, it went this way until she had eaten the whole family, and once more felt alive.

"I then knew I could live by feeding on animals and stayed away from the city for years, only venturing back a few years ago. Even then I travelled underground to avoid detection." She explained.

This whole time she had no idea she was free.

"You never have to fear the city again, and can hunt whatever you wish." I gently responded, mulling over all of the events that had taken place to bring her to my side.

"The golden eyes are how I knew you were speaking the truth," she said with a smile, reaching out to touch my cheek. We had spoken long about my family before she had relented and told me about her own life.

I knew inherently that she felt the connection she had with me, the moment our eyes had met, but she was so unlike any vampire I had ever met or heard of that I was afraid to ask her if she understood what had happened.

"There may still be some of the guards that were there, but if they are still there it means they were doing so through force, as you were." I added, trying to prepare myself to ask her if she would come back wit me.

She nodded, as if to show her understanding.

"Will you...would you come with me, to the palace? My family is there. I know they would like to meet you. I don't want to go back there without you." I said slowly, unsure of how far to push my luck.

"Could you do that?" She asked, her head tilting as her voice took on a timbre of confusion.

"Do what?" I inquired.

"Leave your soul bond? I thought that it wasn't possible . Or was that also one of Aro's tricks?" She asked, her voice suddenly softer once more.

"You know that you're my bond?" I said gently, "My mate?"

She nodded.

"At least that was what I though this feeling was…as if, for some reason were you to walk away, I would have to choice but to follow, this desire to be here beside you. To-" she started but fell silent.

To?" I asked leaning closer in case she whispered something too low for me to hear.

"To kiss you." She said looking up once more, her eyes wide, as if she feared that even now Aro had duped her once more. My response was instant.

My lips crashed against hers, fiercely and I growled as she opened her mouth in surprise, opening the cavern of her mouth to me so I could taste her flavor on my tongue. My arms reached to hold her closely to my body and hers tentatively, then more surely began to grasp at my torso, pulling us closely together.

I pulled my lips from hers for only a second to breathe against the shell of her ear.

"Never doubt this, this is the only true thing that Aro had no real control over, all he could ever do was bind people to him. This...love…this is real!" I gasped as I felt her fingers flex, the tips of them ripping through the fabric of my clothing.

It was as if her loneliness slipped way like an forgotten garment. She opened her self to me, emotionally and physically, her small figure welcoming mine as I hovered over her, pressing myself closer.

I found it odd, yet thrilling that though I had never been with a woman, that this came naturally to me, perhaps because we were meant for each other. I clutched her to me and her clothing fell away before my suddenly desperate and determined fingers. I was driven forward to make her mine and to give myself to her in return.

Anything outside of the bubble of our bodies was of no consequence. The only thing I saw was her. The only feelings were those I felt for her and the way she made me feel as she touched me.

She didn't hesitate to open her legs to allow me to slip closer to her center, I ripped my own clothes away, not caring for anything except feeling her skin, her wet welcoming center, inviting me in.

The moment I felt my length slide against her wetness I didn't even attempt to slow myself, instead I pushed into her, feeling the walls of her body press back against my intrusion for a moment before they gave way to me and welcome me home.

"Ahhh!" we cried out together as our bodies joined to become one.

"Fuck." I muttered without even meaning to, but it just felt so over whelming.

I pulled out and thrust into her again, feeling her tightness pull at my cock as I withdrew.

"Matthew-" She whimpered as I thrust back in so quickly that the base of my shaft hit the silky nub at the crest of her center.

""Ungh, yes!" I growled as I continued to withdraw and press forward again as I shifted and felt the head of my cock graze a softer spot inside of her.

"Gods!" She screamed the moment I hit that spot, so I instantly did it again, and her body suddenly clenched tightly around mine.

Another curse fell from my lips, followed by her name as I felt my testicles tighten.

"I-I…Oh My-!" She screamed as her body seized around mine. I tried to pull back slightly, but she was clamped so tightly around my shaft that it was as if she was stroking me from base to tip and it caused me to explode inside of her, ejaculating in long, shuddering pulses that made me wish to collapse on top of her.

I braced myself on weak arms, still inside of her fluttering walls. She gazed up at me, her eyes fierce and sparkling.

"This…this love is real!" She repeated, her tone firm as she shifted up her body until her mouth could sweep across the edge of my collarbone and shoulder where she placed gentle kisses before she opened her lips slightly before sinking her teeth deeply into the flesh there.

Instantly I hardened within her again and her body tightened around mine as she swept her tongue over the flesh there. moaning. I felt her constrict around me and I suddenly longed to taste her as well, so I leaned down to sink my teeth into the gentle curve of her throat, the instant I tasted her venom in my mouth, sweeter than anything I had ever tasted I violently erupted inside her again as I swallowed and laved her flesh with my tongue.

"Real, my love, more real than anything else." I confirmed. Wrapping her in my arms as I pulled her tightly beside me, curled up nude amongst the rubble in the passageway.

"Real," She echoed, her voice sounding as if she was smiling. I looked down and sure enough she was.

"Genevieve..?" I asked.

"Hmm?" she replied.

"Is that a yes? You'll come back with me?" I questioned worriedly.

"I will come with you where ever you go." She responded softly before I gently touched my finger to her chin to lift her mouth to my own so I could capture her lips in a kiss.

"Anywhere and everywhere." She mumbled against my lips before she fell silent and kissed me back.