Bella's POV

That was twice in an hour that Alec had walked away from me. Good riddance. He was nothing but a thorn in my ass anyway.

As I began to walk away in an attempt to find Aro and confront him about this absurdness of leaving me in a room full of humans, the screaming got louder on the other side of the door. Without even thinking I opened it up again. I couldn't let these people die because of me. I was overwhelmed with the scent of their blood yet again but I bit it back. I needed to control myself in order to save them. I spotted Caius looming over the crowd of terrified people on the floor.

"No! Stop!" I ran over and grabbed his hand just as he was going to pick young Natalia up by the neck. He shot me a look of contempt. Keeping the hold on his wrist was proving to be harder than I imagined. He shook me off and I landed on my bottom in front of Natalia and her mother. Thanks to my super speed I was able to race to block his way from them a second time.

"Caius, please!"

"Bella." He growled. I was afraid that he would hurt me and then finish them off. That's when inspiration hit me. I changed my facial expression from scared and protective to angry and possessive.

"I. Wasn't. Done. With. Them." I said each word at a time putting as much anger as I could into them. Surprisingly enough, he seemed satisfied with my little act and relaxed his posture and laughed.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. Just wait until I tell Edward how wrong he was on his assessment of your newborn willpower. Go ahead. Feed. If you need anything, just call for Alec."

I nodded my head and waited for him to leave me with them. All the while, the screaming never stopped. Once I was sure that we were alone I raced to the opposite side of the room and sat down hugging my knees. I needed to be as far away from them as the room allowed. I should leave, but I had a feeling that I wasn't their worst threat.

I stopped breathing so that I couldn't smell them anymore. It was way harder than Edward made it seem. My brain still thought I was human and insisted that I inhale and exhale. I forced my brain to shut the hell up and forced the air to stop invading my dead lungs. I closed my eyes concentrating on the matter at hand. How was I going to get them out? How was I going to get myself out?

"Thank you." I heard a soft voice whisper. My eyes flew open. Even though people were yelling and screaming in fear I managed to pick that voice out amongst them all. Never mind that it came from thirty feet away from me.

I slowly lifted my gaze and it landed on Natalia's fragile face. I nodded once and she turned her attention back to her mother. They spoke in Italian so I had no idea what they were saying. It was probably better that way. It was bad enough seeing the terror on their faces. Even seeing them like that I couldn't help but keep my eyes on them the whole time. If I could cry I would have. There were eleven of them; five men between the ages of twenty five through forty, five woman, four of them who looked to be in their late twenties and Natalia's mother. Then there was Natalia herself somewhere in the age range of seventeen through twenty. All of them looked to be related to each other with their dark brown hair and long eyelashes, the same olive skin tone and beautiful green eyes. I wondered how it is that they ended up here but the thought of that was almost too much for me to imagine. I heard a knock at the door and I stood up immediately.

"What?" I yelled. "I'm…uh…a little busy in here." I lied.

"It is me Alec. Aro sent me to bring you a towel or something." He said in a bored voice.

"Um…just a second." I looked around the room worried that I would be caught lying. I didn't exactly know how I was going to save these people, but I couldn't just let them die. Natalia stood up and ran to me stopping just inches from my face. I was startled and took a step backwards. She had been crying and the blood had rushed to her face. I could see the red pooling just under her cheeks and it distracted me.

"Take my blood and pretend." she said barely above a whisper. I prayed that Alec hadn't heard that, but then again I barely heard it over the screaming and gasps of shock coming from her family. I shook my head. I would kill her or turn her if I tried. She nodded her head encouraging me to take it. When I refused again she bit down on her wrist, wincing in pain as beads of blood streamed down the side of her arm. Immediately I felt the rawness in my throat return. It throbbed as the monster within me raised its ugly head out from the shadows. I picked her up and took her to the part of the room I was previously sitting at and cradled her.

"Are you sure?" I mouthed hoping that she would say yes. Tears fell down the side of her face as she nodded. I didn't need any more encouragement. I pushed back the venom that gathered itself in my mouth I willed it not to affect her. I hoped that I wouldn't turn her. I really didn't want this life for her. I looked at her one last time and her eyes were closed tightly shut and she was muttering what sounded like a prayer in Italian. I really hoped her God was listening.

I took her hand in mine and I bit down over the bite she had already made. It was like chugging ice cold water on a hot summer day or like drinking a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter night. I relished the way her blood felt going in my mouth spreading through my veins. I heard her heart beat rapidly in fear and in pain. The twisting knot in my stomach undid itself and all sense of humanity left me for those few moments. I had become a monster, a monster who didn't care whether this girl lived or died, a monster who wanted nothing more than to take gulp after gulp of her warm, soothing delicious blood -"

"Looks tasty, but if you weren't planning on killing her you should probably stop now." Alec's voice came from directly beside me. It brought me back to myself, to Bella. Reluctantly, almost impossibly I stopped feeding. It took three attempts to finally take my lips off of her flesh, but I managed to. I looked down at her and felt repulsed. How could I have done this to her?

"Here." He said as he handed me a black towel. I looked at him in wonder. What the hell was he doing? He was sitting there next to me with his head tilted back resting on the wall, looking at me from out of the corner of his eye.

"You have blood all over your face Bella, wipe." And he took the hand that wasn't holding Natalia and put the towel in it. I didn't move. I just sat there starring at him wondering why he had told me to stop. How did he know that I didn't intend to kill her? How did he know that I needed someone to stop me?

He leaned his head to the side a little observing me. We sat there like that, both of us unnaturally still as only an immortal vampire could be, starring at each other.

He blinked first and reached out his hand wiping the side of my mouth with his thumb before bringing it to his mouth, all the while not breaking his eye contact with me.

Several long minutes passed before he spoke again. And when he did, it was not the same condescending voice that he used with me previously, but a much kinder cadence took its place.

"I heard her. She tried to help you. It's not often that a human will lay their life down on the line for a vampire who wants nothing more than to kill them."

I continued to stare back at him, my mouth slightly open in shock.

"I've been where you are before," he continued. "… in the exact same situation, actually. My first human…his name was Elijah." He shifted his weight and looked down at his hands and fidgeted with them. I found that really odd as only humans felt the need to do such silly things as that.

"I did not have anyone there to help me stop." He went on. "I took too much…I couldn't stop. His last words… 'I forgive you.'" His eyes unfocused and I knew that his mind was a million miles away. I held Natalia closer to me, not because I wanted to harm her, but because I wanted to protect her. He looked down at the hands wrapped around her and smiled before looking back at me. Why was he telling me all of this?

"He saved me from the Volturi, but he couldn't save me from myself." He stood up and walked back towards the door stopping as he reached for the knob.

"I'll help you, Bella. I'll speak to Ulric. I'll ask him to compel these people…and I will make sure they are set free."

Before I could think of anything to say he ghosted out of the room closing the door behind him leaving me with way more questions than I had answers.