Chapter 3 – introduction

As the car rolled down towards the many parking spaces filled with different kinds of expensive looking dark cars I realized that this was it. I was actually doing this. Well, why not? It's not like I've got anything else to live for.

As I sat deep in thought the boy looking like Jane's twin opened the door and held out a piece of paper towards Aro. Aro took one quick glance at it and turned to Demetri, "Would you be so kind as to show Isabella here the way around the Castle? I'm afraid I have something needing my attention at the moment." With that he quickly disappeared, as if the air had just swallowed him without a trace. Jane shot daggers at me as she too stormed off, but in a fashion that made both Demetri and her look-alike-twin-brother glance at each other with a grin on their faces. "I told you she wasn't happy Alec." Demetri's voice was merely a whisper, but I could tell he had a hard time keeping it down as he raised his eyebrows towards this boy apparently called Alec.

I tried to scrape together some courage, as long as I was staying here I could at least try to get to know someone, and the sooner the better. I cleared my throat and held out a hand, "Hello, my name is Bella." I tried to sound as confident as I could, but my racing heart quickly gave me away.

Alec grinned at me as he took my hand and said, "Nice to meet you Bella, I'm Alec." He turned to Demetri, gave him a nod and disappeared.

"Well, we should probably get going. This place is huge and since you seem to be moving slower than normal humans I guess this is going to take a while." He glanced over the cars and continued, "This is, as you might have noticed, a car park. If you ever need to go somewhere by car you just take whichever one you like, except for the one we were in just now. I would recommend you to not borrow any of the cars without a metallic paintjob too, they tend to be used strictly on assignments ordered by Aro and his brothers."

"Oh, okay… "I noticed that he was looking at me with eyes that were glittering with curiosity, why was everybody giving me that look lately? "What?"

"You are really not afraid of us, are you?"

"No... It wouldn't change anything if I were, so there's really no point in wasting my energy on that." My answer seemed to only make him even more curious as he leaned closer to my face and smiled, showing off his perfectly white razor sharp teeth, "You are one strange little human, I can see why Edward kept you around."

After seeing most of the public spaces in the castle I was really tired and, to my surprise, hungry. I hadn't felt hungry in such a long time I'd forgotten what it felt like. At that thought my belly growled and twisted, making me even more aware of it.

"Demetri, go get her something to eat." Aro had appeared at my side along with two others, one of them with glistening shoulder length white hair and the other one with hair similar to Aro's.

"It's really not necessary", I tried to make my voice heard, but Demetri was already gone.

"Nonsense, we all know humans need to eat, it's nothing to hide Isabella." Aro's tone told me not to argue, but I still stared back at him with some kind of new found boldness. He just smiled at me and made a gesture towards the man with white hair, "This is Caius and the man behind him is Marcus, my brothers for all indented purposes." I gave them a faint smile and nodded, they had the same strange looking skin tone, white but almost translucent as if it could break if someone were to touch them too forcefully.

"Marcus, Caius, this is Isabella. As I've already told you she is to become one of us, I think she can turn out to be quite an asset to us." Caius red eyes glanced over me with hint disapproval in his face; Marcus merely continued to stare out into space, seemingly not caring much about what were going on in front of him.

"Isabella, follow me please, I'll show you your room." I was thankful for any chance to get out of Caius sight, so I gladly followed Aro down the gothic hallways towards a huge wooden door with iron decors on it.

Aro opened the door and took a step back, allowing me to walk into the room first.
It was beautiful, the room was in perfect size, not too big but not too small either, the huge bed was placed next to the old stained glass windows and the purple covers looked as if they were made out of satin. Looking around the room further I noticed that every piece of fabric in it was of the same expensive looking material as well as the same purple color. There were huge ancient wardrobes made out of some kind of dark wood and a small table with a stool next to them, a mirror hanging on the wall close to the door I was standing at. Old oil paintings of Italy were placed at well thought out places around the walls and across from the bed was another door. I slowly walked through it and turned on the lights. It was the bathroom, keeping the theme from the bedroom with the purple but adding some white in the tile. There was a huge shower and a family sized Jacuzzi, the wall behind it was covered in windows and the one opposite was covered in mirrors, perfectly replicating the space so that it seemed twice as large.

"Wow… This is too much…" My voice got caught in my throat as I tried to search Aro's face to find out if he were joking. This place was amazing, even though it reminded me of Alice… No, I cannot think like that. She left as well; I was just a distraction to her like I was to him.

Aro simply smiled at me and gently guided me out to the bedroom again where Demetri had appeared with a tray covered in diced fruits and a glass of water. He sat the tray down on the small table, turned to me and said, "I'm sorry, we don't have a kitchen and it's not that often someone asks me to prepare food. I hope this is to your liking."

"Yes, thank you. It's more than enough." It really was, I haven't had that much to eat in front of me since… before… I looked outside the window and saw the last piece of the sun go down behind the rooftops. A yawn escaped my lips and Aro almost giggled with delight, "Oh, eat and go to sleep Isabella. We have lots to tend to tomorrow!" And with that, they were gone.

I looked around the room while chewing on a piece of pear, the pink sky outside made this room seem magical and I found myself opening the wardrobes to check the contents. Empty. What did you think Bella, that there would be pajamas and clothes in there for you to wear? Get a grip.

After finishing as much fruit I could possibly eat I took a shower and went to bed, wondering if this was all a dream or if I really was in Italy, Europe, in a castle owned by probably the most powerful vampire in the world, I had understood that much at least, Aro was not someone you wanted against you. No matter what the cost.

I'd love to get some reviews so that I know what you like and what you could live without. :)
This chapter is a shorter one, but that's because I'm in the works of starting another story, to alternate with this one. I dont know if it'll be up today, but hopefully.