Disclaimer: Not mine. :)

A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long but as always life got in the way. But you're not here to listen to me attempt to pitifully excuse myself...you're probably here to read. So without further ado...Chapter 27!

As always, your reviews and views are what keep me writing. Thank you for all of your kind, kind words!

-S

P.S. NOW, without further ado...;)


Miss Imprint

Chapter 27: The Other Side of Normal

It was dark. I'd been slowly bringing my hand inwards as I tested out exactly how dark. So far I'd estimate I was about a foot from my face and I still couldn't see the pale skin of my palm which should have reflected any light. I brought my hand in another inch. Still nothing.

"What are you doing?" Alice called from her post a few feet away. "You look completely idiotic."

I dropped my hand. "You can see me?"

She snorted. "Vampire."

"Right." I let out a long breath. "How long do you think we'll be in here?" I didn't want to think about what came after. I didn't. But waiting was killing me. I wanted to get it over with, whatever it was.

She didn't answer for a moment but when she did, her voice was frustrated. "I don't know—They keep switching their plans, never settling on anything. They've found how to hide from me."

So that was it. There was no hope what so ever. We were trapped, just the two of us and her magical, vampire-y power was useless. "Figures the one advantage we have is useless."

"Useless is a little strong, don't you think?" She said, wryly.

"I don't know if you've forgotten, but I'm in here, possibly about to die, because you thought it would be fun to play trick the terrifying super strong monsters in freaking Europe."

She was silent for a moment. "Cassie, I…"

"No, I'm sorry." I interrupted, bitterly. I didn't mean it. I was just cranky. And well Alice was making a serious reservation in the dog house but she was my only company and possibly the only person who could save me so I figured it was better to be civil.

"No, you aren't." She said, her voice direct and cold. She sighed. "I've never liked small spaces. I hate them actually." She complained suddenly, and it was such a non sequitur that I was momentarily speechless.

She laughed softly, almost to herself, like it was self-soothing. "I know what it is to be in utter darkness," she continued, "locked away, hidden."

"Alice—"

"Cassie, I've done you a terrible wrong, haven't I?" Her voice was so soft, so unbearably sad and any lingering fury I'd had melted away.

"No, Alice, you haven't." I let out a slow breath. "I would've done it on my own, if I knew it would help him." I let my hands fall forward onto my lap. "I bet that makes me sound rather pathetic doesn't it?"

"Not at all." She sighed. "Just in love."

"Great." I let my head rest back against the wall. "That's just great. This is ludicrous, Alice. You made me break up with a boy I was in love with, so he could fall in love with someone else, and then kidnapped me so I could sacrifice myself so those two could end up happily ever after." I groaned. "When did I turn into such a doormat?"

Alice was silent for a moment. "I did not kidnap you. If I recall, you came perfectly willingly."

"You said you were taking me to Paris, not prison!" I said, sort of giddy with the ridiculousness of it all. "

"I did nothing of the sort. I said to bring your passport. I never specified where we were going." She said, icily. "Besides, that's hardly the sort of thing you put in an invitation. You never would have come."

"You think?" I slapped my hands against the floor. "Alice, I could strangle you right now."

"I really don't think you could." She said, her voice far too amused for my taste.

"Alice!"

"What! You are completely over reacting." She huffed. "I have this perfectly under control."

"Alice, we are in prison with manacles around our wrists, how is that perfectly under control?"

"You're not dead, are you?" She said, finally and then quickly before I could interrupt. "That's what I thought. You're going to be fine." She let out a long breath. "You are my friend, no matter what you think of me right now and I watch over my friends."

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't believe you." I grumbled. There went maintaining civility.

She was resigned when she spoke again. "I forgot how young you are, how sheltered." Her manacles clanged quietly in the darkness. She must have been shifting around. "You don't know what hopelessness tastes like, but I do. And this is not it."

I drew myself up, indignant. If hopeless wasn't being manacled in a dungeon in who knows where, Europe, zip code, we're about to die then I didn't know what was. "Alice—"

"My parents put me in an asylum." She interrupted.

"What?" Oh. Well. That was sort of a cheap shot, pulling out the horrible childhood card. I mean everyone's childhood sucked at some point. Then again, being carted off to an asylum by both your parents was pretty shitty.

"In those days, visions were demonic and they were scared. So they put me away. They even had a funeral for me, pretended I'd died." She was sardonic now. "They thought isolation and darkness would cure me when what I really craved was sunlight and affection." She let out a half sob-half laugh. "The room I was given wasn't unlike this, small, bland, dark. Always dark. And no matter how much I screamed, or begged or pleaded, no one ever came, no one ever listened."

She was quiet for a long time and I thought maybe she wasn't going to speak again. I didn't know what to say to that, so I just waited, hoping she would. "I prayed for them." She said softly. "I wasn't sure I believed in their God, but I wanted them to find peace. And I prayed that one day, they would find their way back to me."

"Did they?"

"No." Her voice was a whisper now, terrible and sad. "But they wanted to. I know they did. They just couldn't find the right road to take."

"Alice, I…"

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything." Her voice was lighter now, but still a bit nervous. "It was a long time ago. And I have Jasper now and he will always be there, just as I will be there for you. Understand? I will let nothing happen to you Cassandra Kennedy. Nothing at all."

And I believed her. She would keep me safe and I would keep Seth safe and we'd all go home. I had to believe that—there wasn't any point believing the alternative. I felt my lips pull apart in a smile. "No need to be so dramatic," I teased, "I believe you."

She laughed, the sound was light and musically and slightly hysterical. "If I had to pick anyone to be stuck in a dungeon, it would be you Cassie. You're never boring."

"I aim to please." I shifted. "These rocks are really grating—too bad they couldn't have put a mattress or anything in here."

"I don't think comfort was their primary concern." She snorted. "Besides, maybe it means we won't be in here for too long."

"About that…" I paused unsure of how to continue.

"Yes?"

"Well—what exactly are we going to do?"

"It's not a matter of what we do." She said. "It's a matter of what they ask us to do."

"What do you mean?"

"The Volturi are seeking to control the packs—they will try to use you, force you to call for help and then use your life as collateral."

"They're going to kill me, if they don't comply."

"Not kill, no." She laughed bitterly. "There are things worse than death for the werewolves."

"You can't mean—"I broke myself off, realizing who I was speaking to. "No offense, Alice, but I don't want…to be that."

"It wasn't the life I would have chosen for myself either." She said, quietly. "But there are perks—sometimes. But we won't let it get that bad—I won't let it get that bad."

"What are you going to do?"

I could hear the grin in her voice when she replied. "Lie."

The gate creaked and suddenly all the bravery and confidence I'd been building up fled and I was just a little girl afraid of the monsters in the dark. My heart was beating impossibly fast and in that one moment, even all of Alice's immortal strength wasn't a comfort. I only wanted Seth.

But I would not get him.


"Cassandra Kennedy." The woman, Heidi, called from the side of the great stone throne room we had been brought to, her eyes glimmered red and her teeth were brilliant white. "I knew a Cassandra once," she sneered, "she was far more interesting than you."

"I knew a Heidi once," I replied, conversationally, "she had pig-tails and didn't eat people."

Alice laughed quietly beside me.

Heidi bared her teeth at me as if she were growling. She shoved me forward with a light tap that sent me stumbling forward. Alice walked forward on her own, dainty and careful.

"Cassandra." A regal man in the center of a raised dais crooned. His skin was pale and papery and his eyes deep red. "At last we meet."

"Aro, the leader." Alice whispered quietly in my ear.

"Are you going to kill me?" I blurted out. Alice, sighed, but I ignored her. I had a right to know. And I'd rather know now than sit around wondering.

He laughed, then simpering and high pitched. "What a terrible question! Who do you think we are?"

"Vampires." I said. "But you didn't answer."

"No," he said, softer, more resigned. "I don't think I will, either. But never mind all that."

I took an unconscious step back, but immediately Heidi's arms, unbreakable and unyielding were placed gently against my back, a suggestion that would turn to command in a nanosecond.

"I thought you were strong!" Alice said, her voice quiet, pleading. "You can protect yourselves, Aro, and you have for thousands of years. You don't need to do all of this, you don't need guard dogs."

"Guard dogs!" He laughed. "What a fanciful idea. Is that what you think, Alice?" He tilted his head at her, his lips pursed as he said. "The question is are you lying or blind."

I looked at her anxious, but her face was unreadable, she was frozen in shock, or maybe it was guilt. It didn't matter, I decided. I had to trust her. If I didn't, I was alone in all of this.

"I thought because of what-" She began stiffly.

"Of what Edward said." Aro finished for her, gleefully. "Oh dear, I was only joking." He was mournful then. "I suppose I must practice my comedic routine."

"Among other things." Alice muttered quietly before freezing, her eyes turning blind as the vision hit her, devastating and strong. "No." She gasped.

"What?" I cried. "What is it?"

But Alice only looked at Aro with eyes that were furious and terror struck in turn. "No! You can't-"

"Silence her."

And one moment Alice was protesting and the next she was still, her head hanging strangely from her neck and as they let her fall to the ground. Her body hit the ground with a startling thump, that mirrored my heart jerking back to a start as I watched horror.

"I needed you to focus, Cassandra." He said, airily as if he hadn't just killed one of his own.

Of my own, I corrected, Alice was mine, not his. I took deep breaths, pushing what had just happened to the back of my mind. If I thought about then I would lose it, I would lose everything. I would get him. I promised myself. I didn't know how, but somehow, he would pay for Alice.

Aro stood, his smile as gentle as a spring breeze. "We are far too strong to need dogs to guard us, dear. No, no, we are after something far more...exotic." He was closer now, so much so that I could see the spidery blue veins that cross beneath his face. "Let me offer you a puzzle: a mother, terrified for her child's safety, shows extraordinary strength. This is strength that she has neither before nor after the even in which it was required. Just for a moment the strength is there. Why?"

But I knew the answer to that question. Everyone did. "Adrenaline." I said, slowly, "She had an adrenaline rush."

"Very good." He took my hands in his and soothed his thumbs over the backs of them. "It is why human blood makes us stronger, animals do not frighten quite as complexly, as deliciously as people."

"I don't see where the wolves come into this."

He smiled. "The fear of vampires comes from here," he tapped the side of his head lightly, "It is like vertigo. Your body knows that we are an impossible creation but your eyes tell you differently. The juxtaposition can be...jarring." He smiled. "But the fear of animals-that is something more primal, something ingrained in your very being."

I could hear Seth then, his eyes wide, his body tense as I'd asked to see him as a wolf.. It's dangerous. I don't always have- He'd broken off before he'd finished the sentence but I'd known what he was going to say. I don't always have control..

"You're going to use them to frighten people, before you turn them." I said, in horror. "Why?

He smiled then. "I'm an old man, Cassandra, I want my children to be strong, to survive."

"They're not your children." I spat. His recklessness had enraged me and try as I might I couldn't keep myself from seeing Alice there, helpless, broken, dead on the stone floor. "You all seem to forget that you're dead!" I was being stupid now, but I couldn't help it. They were carrying on like it didn't matter that someone had just died. "The wolves will never agree, never."

"Even if I take an imprint?"

"You'll never get an imprint!" I regretted the words as they came out but it was too late. My heart thudded horribly loudly in my chest as I saw the dangerous smile slip across his face.

"I thought so."

"I didn't mean-" But I knew it was too late for excuses, for protests. And then the fear set in like a heavy fog, dulling out everything else. Every movement was a threat, ever whisper was death and ever breath was one closer to my last.

"If you knew I wasn't an imprint then why do you take me?" My voice was calm, belying the terror inside. It was starting to dull, still prevalent but I could feel myself detaching from everything.

"You will take a message for me." He smiled, his eyes glimmering. "And to thank you, I will let you live."

But he wasn't going to let me live. I knew that. It was lie, just like all of this-the court, the decorum, the clothes, the painted faces-all a lie to cover up the horror beneath. He was going to make me just like them, corpses with sugary smiles and death on their breath. "They'll stop you-they won't let you do this."

He took my hands in his. "But Cassie, my darling, he isn't coming, is he?"

The same words I'd asked Alice, just moments before, twisted so horrible, a hundred times worse than when I'd said them before. There had been hope then.

There was nothing now.

But I would not bend on my knees before him. I jutted my chin up, strong, resistant. If he could lie, then so could I. "He will."

He shook his head. "It does not matter."

He let his fingers trace up my arms and I forced myself to stay still. I would not dignify him with a struggle. He wanted me to fear him, he wanted me to fight for my life, I could see it in his eyes. They craved the thrill of not just killing prey but dominating it.

"Why?" I breathed. "Why doesn't it matter?"But I knew the answer even before the words passed through his lips.

"I was not planning on waiting." He said. The icy knife of his smile pressed into my neck and as the warmth trickled down my chest, saturating my dress, all of the lights in my world went out.


I had been under for so long that when I awoke it was almost a surprise, as if somewhere in the darkness I had forgotten I would ever see light again. The light in question was small, flickering and too far away to provide much illumination at all.

"Cassie?"

I sat up slowly, groaning as I felt my entire body aching, as it if had been rung dry, and then left to wither. And then the source of the voice hit me and I whipped my head up in shock. "Alice?"

"Don't sound so surprised."

"I thought Aro killed you!"

She didn't reply for a moment but when she did, her voice was milder than I thought it would be. "I was already dead, Cassie," she laughed. "Besides it takes more than that to kill a vampire." She rolled her head back and I heard a dull thud as her bones shifted. "I'm going to have to find a way to pay him back for that." She muttered under her breath.

"Where are we?"

"Another dungeon." She said, moodily. "I'm not entirely sure—I woke up here a few minutes ago." She scuffed her bare foot against the concrete. "I was hoping you might be able to tell me."

I smiled wryly, and then winced as I felt my head pounding, horrible and my throat unbearably dry. "I feel awful."

She smiled sympathetically. Her eyes were darker, I realized suddenly, no longer the faint gold that they usually were but almost black. "Unfortunately the injury drained me a little." She said, nonchalantly, predicting my question in that eerie way only she could. "I could use a little blood."

I felt myself freeze, ravenous and nauseous all at once.

But she continued as if she hadn't noticed. "What happened, Cassie? After I—well, after I died." She laughed a little to herself. "What a peculiar thing to say!"

"You were wrong," I said, slowly trying to remember what had happened. Everything seemed foggy, as if it had been wrapped in glass. The voices, the faces, the people, it was all dulled and strange. "I remember him saying you were wrong."

"Yes, after that." She said, patiently.

"I…I don't…" I shook my head, trying to clear the fuzz but no matter how hard I thought, I couldn't seem to break into the past. "I don't remember." I said, finally.

She just nodded. "You will," she encouraged. "Just keep trying."

My heart was beating faster as I tried desperately to remember. Why couldn't I remember? Something was wrong, something was different but I couldn't remember what it was. And as the fear pulsed through me, it struck me suddenly. "Fear," I breathed. "He told me about fear."

She leaned forward encouragingly, forgetting the manacles that bound her to wall and tearing them off her with a resounding crack. She winced. "I suppose they'll have heard that. You'll have to hurry, what happened?"

It was coming back quickly, horribly, terribly like a flashing movie in my head, the images unraveling almost too fast for me to dictate. "About animals and vampires and how the former are more terrifying because it's primal, organic and how he wanted to use that fear to create an adrenaline rush right before turning people to make stronger recruits and then…" I trailed off as the images stopped.

"And then?" She prompted. She couldn't see it, because I couldn't see it.

"Something happened." I whispered. "It made everything go dark."

"Cassie," Alice, gasped suddenly. "What is on your dress?"

"What do you—"But I cut myself off as my hands searching the fabric felt the matted, tangy blood that was all over me. I turned to her in horror. "Blood, Alice. It's blood!"

"Are you hurt?" She cried, and suddenly she was right next to me, her hands running over me, checking my pulse, my temperature, my breathing, everything.

"No, I—"And then I remembered at the same time that she saw. "He bit me, Alice! Aro bit me. He turned me, Alice!"

She was just sitting there, shocked, incredulous as her hands fell away from me, and she stepped back slowly until she was pressed against the far wall. "Cassie, you're—"

"I'm a vampire." I finished for her, dully, as the awareness ricocheted through me.

"That's just the thing." She said, the wonder in her voice taking me by surprise. Her eyes were wide, her smile brilliant. "You're not. You're still human."