Disclaimer: i do not own most of these characters, they belong to Steph Meyer.

A/N: A special thanks to my so loyal reviewers: MickeyandMinnie, MyChemicalRomance70, Nerdlee, literaturecrazy, twilightfan0195, pricel, darkalyria, VampireCat3, darkmistres, Hermsrock4563, & EdwardObsessedForever. You guys sure are good for a girl's ego –hugs- I really appreciate all the comments. And to my silent readers out there, thanks for sticking with me. I know this seems like the ff that will never end, but we're getting there now.

Chapter 29 The Garden

(BPOV)

Aro and I were walking through his walled gardens as we did most mornings. We'd all settled into a comfortable routine lately. My mornings always belonged to Aro, sometimes Marcus, but usually Aro kept me to himself. Well, as to himself as Renata would allow. She followed us everywhere, but did try to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

She'd quickly become my friend and confidant. Clearly, I couldn't trust her with my inner most secrets or anything, as she was Aro's creature through and through, but it was nice to have a woman to talk to and share things with, as much as I could. She made me miss Alice something fiercely. They were oddly alike at times.

I half wished I hated everyone here, but when they weren't trying to kill you, they were damn pleasant vampires to be around. How I was going to fight against any of them was beyond me.

Two weeks had passed, and it had seemed little more than a handful of days.

That I enjoyed practically every minute here was shocking, but it would all come crashing to an end soon enough. Seline's punishment was nearly up. Really, she should have been released yesterday, but Aro seemed hesitant to do so. Somehow, I didn't think that Seline would approve of our morning strolls through the sunlit garden.

I plopped gracefully down on the carved marble bench that overlooked the gaudy fountain listening to the trickle of water and feeling the cool breeze fluttering through my hair. Aro was perched haphazardly along the thin wall encircling the fountain sparkling like so many exquisite diamonds. I never got tired of gazing at a vampire glistening in the sun. It still amazed me when my own skin gleamed so beautifully. And that we could do it so openly here behind these high walls was a special treat.

Aro opened his mouth to say something, but closed it just as quickly, looking altogether uncertain about how best to broach some subject.

The more time I spent amongst them, the more vampire-like I became. I felt no need to fill the silence and I didn't bother with human movements, instead I sat utterly, inhumanly still, not bothering to breathe or blink while I waited for him to find the perfect words.

"I have a few things to discuss with you, my lovely Bella," he began hesitantly.

"Go on," I encouraged, not at all concerned about whatever it was that he was finding so difficult to disclose.

"First, Seline is due to be released today." He held up his hand, though I didn't know why. I hadn't moved, changed expressions, or interrupted him in any way.

"Do not fret, dear, I am not going to release her until tomorrow, by which time you will have departed."

Life flowed back into my still form and made me sit up straighter. Departure? That had certainly piqued my interest. "Where exactly am I departing for and with whom?" I asked somewhat excitedly. I hadn't been anywhere except the castle for two weeks, an outing would break up the monotony nicely, plus, I might be able to contact Edward.

"I have a little assignment for you. Just a little journey to a small village not more than an hour from here."

"It is not like you to be so vague, Aro. Just spit it out. What's the job and who's going with me?" I demanded, finally becoming slightly frustrated by his uncertainty.

"Alright. Alright. No need to become cross. A matter was brought to our attention five months ago. We let it go, deciding to simply keep an eye on it, but I fear that we must now interfere. Virat was supposed to be the one to deal with it, but he has not yet returned from the errand I sent him on."

A thrill of excitement fluttered through me at the mention of Virat's name. I was finally going to get some answers. "And who is this Virat and what errand was he on?"

Aro had the grace to look embarrassed as he lowered his gaze to my black boots. "Do not be irate with me, Bella. Please, I beg of you. We did not break the treaty." He stood up and took two steps forward to close the distance between us looking down at my blank face. "I sent him, and a few other guards, to replenish our ranks and while he was near Washington, I asked him to extend an invitation to Demetri - to offer him his old position back. The treaty clearly stated that we could not fight or force anyone to do anything. All we did was make him an offer."

I raised my eyebrows. Either he was lying - though I was doubtful as I seemed to have acquired a knack for detecting lies and his words rang true – or Virat was no longer following orders to the letter. I debated telling him the truth, but figured it was best to continue on as though I was ignorant of this matter. I took his hand which hung limply at his side and pulled him onto the bench next to me. "It's okay, Aro, I understand. Demetri has been in your service for many years, and you thought once he'd had a chance to mourn that maybe he'd long for his old position, but feel as though he was no longer welcomed among you."

"Yes. Precisely. I simply wanted him to know that we harbored no ill will towards him and that the door was always opened." He frowned slightly, eyebrows furrowed. No one did irritable quite the way Aro did. He looked positively stunning when he was irked. "Virat has not reported back to us in a month," he muttered. His face smoothed out and his charming smile was just suddenly replacing his pursed lips. "Was Demetri truly happy before you left? Had he made peace with Heidi's death?"

I'd already filled Aro in on everything pertaining to me and Demetri and even Leah. He'd been perfectly shocked by the notion that a vampire and a werewolf could be soul mates, but he hadn't been disgusted or concerned. I'd been worried that he might want to destroy the wolves, but again they were covered under our treaty and he seemed hell bent on abiding by it, which made me curious about Virat's activities in Forks. Not enough to come clean to Aro, but certainly it was something that I was going to have to look into. "He's completely over Heidi and, as soon as Leah gets over her abhorrence to vampires, he'll be quite happy, I'm sure."

"Do you think since you are here, that he will consider rejoining the Volturi?"

"Ah, Aro, I highly doubt that. Not so much because he would not wish to, but more that Leah cannot stand me and wouldn't willingly live anywhere near me."

Renata came forward silently, a smile dancing on her gorgeous face, holding two large goblets full of animal blood. Aro and Marcus had been putting on quite a show for us the last two weeks once they hadn't received the reaction from me and Christian that they'd been hoping for when they'd drained those six humans dry in our presence. Now they drank animal blood whenever they were with us. I'm not foolish enough to believe that it was their prime source of sustenance, but so far they'd had two glasses of animal blood every day! And never once did I see a look of disgust on their angelic faces.

"Breakfast, "Renata chimed as she handed us our goblets.

"Where's yours?" I teased. She had tried it once and openly admitted that it was the foulest substance known to vampire kind.

She grimaced and then laughed. "I forced it down Seline's lovely little throat."

My mouth dropped open. "Did you really?"

She nodded, her eyes sparkling with pleasure. "Yes. We all so enjoy our petty torments." She sighed and leaned against the fountain wall. "We'll get her properly fed today so that she's a little saner than she is right now."

We finished our breakfast and she took our glasses and left us to our conversation.

Aro was staring off into the distance.

"It must have been hard for you to order your lover to be tortured," I offered gently. I felt terribly guilty about it, even though she'd meant to do me much harm. He'd been wonderful with me about it. Not once had he blamed me or made me feel guilty in any way, but he was lonely and lost without her, which was how these morning strolls got started in the first place.

"It needed to be done. She'd forgotten her place," he murmured. He faced me and had his happy face painted on again hiding his real thoughts, though we were both aware that I could read them if I wanted to or gauge his emotions, but we also both knew that I would not invade him in such a way.

He'd taught me much control since I'd been there. I could now turn all of my powers on and off like a switch, even Jasper's - which seemed to just run on autopilot all the time - was now entirely under my control. My visions of the future were the only power behaving erratically. I'd gained some control, but the images were often fuzzy and searching the future on purpose was still hit or miss, but we were working on it. I was spending a little time each night by myself just trying to find something out about the Cullens and Demetri, but so far, no such luck. I'd had a few spontaneous visions, but often they were jumbled, though I had seen Jasper and Maria training vampires in a dungeon like scene for a fraction of a second, certainly not long enough to make anything out of it.

"So will you look into this matter for me?" He prodded.

"Sure, but you'll have to actually tell me what it is you want," I chuckled, shaking my head.

"Ah, yes. A young girl - sixteen - has been having a tryst with a vampire for the last five months. Her health seems to be deteriorating, and we have been waiting for him to change her, but he has showed no sign of such an intention, so it is time that we intervene. Your job is to destroy the vampire and either kill, or change, the entire family. Your choice dear, though if you're going to change them, you should probably bring them here first."

I swallowed hard, but otherwise kept my panic hidden inside and my face expressionless.

"What's wrong with her? You said she's ill?"

"Our spies tell us that he has been cutting her and feeding from her daily, so I'm assuming that she has become anemic." He clasped his hands together in his lap. "Are you up to the task?"

I nodded.

"Superb! Then you, Felix, and Santiago shall depart this evening." He stood in one quick movement and offered me his hand which I took and allowed him to help me to my feet and lead me through the rows of flowers and shrubs. "You can take your time. Enjoy your brief sojourn away. We will cover all of your expenses. Of course, you may take your Christian, as well." We were at the stairs leading back to my newly renovated wing. "A week should be a nice vacation, do you agree?"

"Sure.
He smiled and kissed both cheeks. "Pack and I will see you in a week. Plenty of time to get Seline under control," he admitted as he squeezed my hand a little nervously.

He'd walked a little ways down the corridor when I called after him. "Aro,"

He turned.

"If the vampire feeding off the girl wasn't causing her harm, would you still order me to destroy him?" I asked while visions of Alyria's beautiful blood donors flashed through my mind. Viktor with the brand over his heart, Melody and her exotic beauty, and Anna with her looks that rivaled Rosalie's. Aro must never learn of them.

"Of course, my lovely Bella. She is a human who now knows of our existence and apparently he has no intention of transforming her, not to mention she is a minor." He'd moved towards me during his reply and was now planted directly in front of me studying my face. "Why?"

I shook my head. "No reason, I was just trying to understand what it was that bothered you most about the situation," I murmured softly and glided up the steps before he could interrogate me further.

Christian was not back from his training with Santiago, but Felix was still glued to my door. "Don't you get bored just standing there every hour on the hour?" I asked as I approached my door.

He smiled, but shook his hand. A man of few words, I liked it. "Would you like a book or something? I hate that you're just out here with nothing but that damned painting to stare at."

"Perhaps you would be kind enough to mention that you despise this particular painting," he motioned to the lovely painting in question, "And ask him for something a little more contemporary."

I smirked. "I'll see what I can do about it." I patted his shoulder softly as I walked past. "You want one of my chairs?" I called back to him.

"That would be welcomed." He was suddenly behind me grabbing a chair and picking it up as though it weighed no more than a feather and shoved it through the doorway, closing the door quietly behind him.

I sat in the middle of my bed and again concentrated on seeing something miles and miles away. Hours passed when I suddenly saw Edward in a rundown house, but the landscape surrounding it was not that of the Carpathian Mountains. I searched for the moon and saw that it was nearly full. He would be in this new location in a week's time. Maybe I could discern the exact location and manage to plan my trip back to Volterra through this town.

Seeing his striking face again ripped open my heart and allowed my loneliness to seep in. What I wouldn't give to feel his lips on mine again and to inhale his delicious scent. We'd made love right before I left Forks and two weeks wasn't a long time to go without, but at that moment, looking at his flawless face in my vision so many miles out of reach, it seemed like an eternity.

I sighed and flung myself roughly against the duvet reliving all the pleasant memories that Edward and I had shared. This power was mine and I'd always had excellent control of it, so I could watch those memories as though they were on a crystal-clear big-screen TV, which is how Christian found me hours later. I'd just finished our honeymoon memory. I could almost feel that silk blindfold covering my eyes and smell the scented candles swirling around me, but more importantly, I could feel my hands exploring his body in a way that I hadn't able to do in a while, could still imagine my human heart pattering out of control and hear my uneven breaths panting out of my half opened mouth as his cold lips brushed against my breast for the first time.

"Well, don't you look all hot and bothered?" He smirked as he curled up against me. "I hear we're going on a vacation, so to speak?" He confirmed.

"Yeah, in a manner of speaking. Did they fill you in on the rest?"

He shook his head, sending his golden hair every which way. I explained what our mission was and he let out a low whistle.

"So, what are you going to do?"

I gave a humorless laugh. "Bring them all in and have them changed, of course. Being a vampire is better than simply being dead, right?"

"To some, love. But not all." He rose up on one bent arm, his head resting against his hand and searched my face. "And what about the vampire? Are you simply going to destroy him? Their situation, after all, seems strikingly similar to yours and Edward's."

I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. "He's feeding off of her, the situation is not the same," I said adamantly, though who I was trying to convince was anyone's guess.

"Could you destroy him personally?" He asked curiously.

"She's sixteen," I replied as though that answered everything.

"A year younger than you were when you met Edward," he reminded me gently. "Don't let them turn you into something your not, Bella. You've become a little too comfortable here and and a little too attached to some of the Volturi members, keep in mind what happens in two weeks time, love. Your current path can only lead to heartache," he whispered as his lips brushed my temple softly.

A/N: I do believe the next few posts will be from Bella's POV as she's going to start gaining some control over those pesky visions and she'll be able to tell us what the others are up to, plus it's much easier writing from her POV :-P Thanks!

Sabrina