DISCLAIMER: SM owns all Twilight characters and settings. No copyright infringement intended.

WARNING: This chapter contains scenes of graphic violence and suicidal thoughts.

I am not trying to torture Edward, but this journey is very important in understanding where he ends up. There is some subtle little hints in this story that you might find confusing but will make sense down the road. I'm just sayin' ;o)

The tremors started during the third week. Given that a vampire's body can remain completely immobile for an infinite amount of time, the constant twitching of my marble muscles was disconcerting. There was no one incident that triggered them, at least none that I could clearly identify so I attributed them to the constant chilling images and thoughts that oscillated through my mind.

I was left alone for the first few days, so I could "become accustomed to my new home" as Mary politely put it. But with ten vampires within my range of hearing on any given day, to say I was alone was a bit of an overstatement. My room or space which aptly described it, might have been a drawing room in years past, but now it was just a bare decrepit crumbling corner of the house. Part of the roof was missing and the large window had no glass in it. Not that it mattered. Most of the exterior wall was a pile of rubble anyway. It was devoid of furniture, pictures, and decorations of any kind; there was no Esme here to add that homey touch and since I brought nothing with me, I had nothing to personalize the interior with.

I spent my hours huddled on the filthy mosaic tiled floor in an undamaged corner of my personal space, trying not to listen to the thoughts of the newborns that were focused entirely on planning their next kill, relishing the memories from their last, or celebrating their latest. They relived each hunt like their centuries old human ancestors, reenacting their kills to the attentive audience of the other young vampires, describing in graphic detail the sadistic nature of the hunt, not just feeding but the terrorizing of their prey beforehand. As they spoke they would remember the delectable flavor of the sweet blood, savor the aroma and texture as it slid over their lips, elaborating on the feeling of the warm body under them twitching as its life force slowly ebbed. I was able to relive every moment through their thoughts and words imagining myself bent over and feeding on the human in every sense, except for the satisfaction of having my thirst completely quelled for even the briefest amount of time.

I hunted only once, steering clear of the city of Morelia , heading into the surrounding foothills surprising a lynx, the only predator in the area. I felt the presence of a newborn and an older vampire I knew as Rachael trailing me, their curiosity clearly evident alleviating my need to turn and defend myself. I heard their snickers as I bent to feed on the thrashing animal, but shuddered with my own need as their bloodlust intensified with the spilling of its blood. Amidst growls and snarls, they quickly left me to find their meal of choice and I heard the muted sounds of their feeding as they found their human victims some miles away. I fought the urge to follow them. It was only later that I felt real fear that I was losing control over my own bloodlust.

Other than the single hunt, I did not leave my room. I spent much of my time playing my imaginary piano; the keys vividly clear in my mind. I embraced each composition, each note, each melody and the uniqueness of each piece was an achingly familiar memory carried with me of my other life. I played Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, my fingers flying over the keys, the notes soothing in their familiarity. But I didn't play Bella's Lullaby or Esme's song, the intimacy of those compositions was too painful for me.

I did think of Bella. She was always asleep so she would be oblivious to the horrors surrounding us. Curled in my arms, her warm body, sweet scent and amusing sleep talk distracting me from the ghastly thoughts of those around me. I did not think of my family, the shame too great, my betrayal overwhelming in light of their never ending patience with me. I was not worthy of their consideration and kindness, proving myself again and again to be a failure to them, to the values that they worked so hard to protect, even to their humanness which I only appreciated now as I was surrounded by monsters. I was no longer allowed to consider myself their equal, their peer, their son or brother. I was nothing to them even as they remained everything to me.

Eventually my self-imposed exile was brought to an end and Cameron had me subtly sit with him, reading the minds of the newborns that Daniel brought forth individually, as if I was incapable of focusing on only one mind at a time. They were fearful of the individual attention, recognizing the safety in numbers. But lessons in the art of fighting, private time with Mary and gawking at the peculiar newcomer from the north, were all used as excuses to separate them from the rest so I could concentrate only on their thoughts. They were little more than animals, having lost most of the memories of their human life. They certainly remembered no specifics and what they did retain was just a shallow memory of a place, a sensation, an emotion of a life they no longer recognized.

The education they received was not of the arts or sciences; they were not afforded the luxury of an extensive library or the insights of a scholarly mind. They were given no stimulation, no opportunity to exercise their considerably enhanced mental abilities. The emphasis was on how they could fight, defend and protect their coven. And the thirst, the thirst was always there. Their bloodlust occupied most of their thoughts, to the point of madness for some. They had nothing to distract them, every minute of every hour of every day they would be thinking about their next meal, the sweetness, the warmth, the way the salty blood flowed across their tongue and slide down their throat. These images would bombard my senses. I could feel their need as if it were my own, venom would fill my mouth, my muscles would coil and my nostrils would flair looking for the scent of the human from their memories. I would relive every kill as they thought about it and it was all they thought about. Cameron appeared amused by my predicament, urging me to join them on a hunt, a real hunt as he liked to call it. But if I could do nothing else for Carlisle, at least I could give him my loyalty, upholding his ideals in this horrendous set of circumstances and if I suffered, all the better.

The newborns held little animosity for their coven leaders. They were not capable of planning an overthrow or organizing an effective attack. They could barely keep from killing each other. It was only when their food supply was cut off as form of punishment that they were truly dangerous and even then the method of administering that punishment was spotty at best. The only thing that could restrain a vampire was another vampire and newborns with their superior strength were almost impossible to physically control. Besides death which wasn't really a punishment but the final solution, banishment from the coven seemed the only deterrent in keeping the newborns in line and under the control of Daniel and to a lesser extent, Cameron and Mary. They would not be able to survive on their own, not in this territory. A lone vampire represented a threat. Viewed as a spy he would quickly be destroyed by neighboring covens. In the young newborns, I saw nothing in their thoughts that alluded to a betrayal. Their needs were of the most basic; they were not raised with love, compassion or kindness, so their expectations from their master were not exceedingly high.

The older ones, however, presented another kind of challenge to the coven's security. There were only three, their comrades having fallen in battle the previous year. All harbored secret longings for more than this coven life offered them. They were seasoned veterans in battle, lucky to have survived; each possessing superior skills as warriors that had served them well and kept them alive. Their bloodlust though marginally better than their newborn coven mates, was still decidedly weak. Any human in their scent radius stood the potential for falling under their teeth. If they had fed sufficiently, they were capable of delivering live humans to their masters. Cameron and Mary in their ongoing efforts to emulate the Volturi had attempted to institute the ritual within their own coven with some success. Sometimes the humans made it back alive and sometimes they didn't. Not a hardship as both Cameron and Mary could hunt for themselves. The newborns and the young ones fed every few days or when the opportunity presented itself. Daniel usually accompanied them. Cameron and Mary were more in control of their thirst, decades old or in Mary's case, centuries old, yet they fed often, much more so then were necessary. The abundant food supply afforded them luxuries that most nomadic vampires in the north couldn't fathom.

Jasper had once calculated that thousands of humans died a year at the hands of covens in the southern regions. During Jasper's time, the rural and often violent nature of the country let most of those deaths go unnoticed or undocumented. As years went by and the reaches of the media expanded, especially in the Western Hemisphere these deaths and disappearances were explained away as drug related hits. The Mexican authorities apparently didn't find it odd that entire families, men, women and children were being wiped out, their bodies seldom found, but the brutality of their deaths evidenced by the large deposits of blood found at the scene, a sign of messy kills by newborns. The southern territories were a vampire's feeding paradise.

During my second week, Daniel and the four newborns left the coven for what Cameron called a scouting mission. I knew he was hiding something but I couldn't read the true nature of their absence in his thoughts. My apprehension increased, fearing they might seek out my family, if not to hurt them then to perhaps kidnap Alice or even Jasper, having garnered enough information from Nicholas to understand the value of their gifts. Whenever rational thought attempted to alleviate my paranoia reminding me that newborns would not be disciplined enough to undertake such a complicated mission and were incapable of following Daniel half way across the continent without leaving a path of human devastation that would not go unnoticed; I would somehow manage to convince myself otherwise and I spent the better portion of the time they were away, fretting over the fate of my family.

The one consolation was five less minds I had to listen too. It was during this time that I acquainted myself with the three young vampires left behind. Rachael,a rapacious female who delighted in the sadistic nature of her kills and reminded me vaguely of Rosalie with her preening and primping in front of a broken dirtied mirror that still had fragments big enough for her to view herself in. Roberto, the most cerebral of the bunch, held onto some human memories and actively sought to distract himself from his bloodlust with games of chess or entries in a journal. He was older in human years than me, but his naivety and lack of education made him appear much younger. He was just over a year old in vampire years, and though his thoughts, I could see that he understood his existence to be perilously close to ending.

He would visit me in my room, asking about life in the North and my former coven. I found it difficult to talk about the latter and instead unexpectedly found myself talking about Bella. Breathing life into her memories for someone else made her feel closer to me and when he realized she was human, his eyes widened in shock and he viewed me not with contempt, but a new found respect. It fascinated him that I was able to resist her blood. He had no knowledge of what a la tua cantante was, so he had no idea how much her blood really affected me, but given his upbringing, his own thirst for human blood, any human blood, he had a reasonably means of comparison. I told Cameron of his thoughts, his fears that he would be destroyed as he'd suspected others of his kind and age had been. Not at the hands of the enemy, but by Daniel with Mary's assistance. She would use her charms to entice the older ones in, while Daniel slid behind them, twisting their heads from their bodies as they, oblivious to the danger, bathed themselves in Mary's alluring gaze.

Cameron only chuckled. "Amazing how needy they are. Even when they know their fate they don't runaway. How much simpler it would be if they did."

"Aren't you worried that they will join the enemy covens?" I asked surprised that my news didn't propagate more worry in him.

"Edward...Edward…so much to learn." He'd chided as if I were a child. "What coven is going to want a vampire with no skills, no education, and no newborn strength? Not to mention, the fear that he may not be what he appears. They don't have a mind reader to tell them otherwise, not like we do."

I shrugged. I felt like a prized pet to them. They valued me, slathered me with compliments, even tried to accommodate my need to be alone. But it sickened me, their fawning and reverence towards my gift. I was nothing more than a slave forced to conform to their predilections; secretly repulsed by them and their invidious habits.

Michael, the third one, had a scheming mind. Despite efforts to distract him, he obsessed with my abilities. He did not have the skill to control the myriad of images that would pass through his vampire brain at any given time, so I could pick out bits and pieces of his thoughts; his hatred for his coven leaders was powerful. I refrained from verbalizing his desire to destroy Daniel even though the specifics of his thoughts left little in the way of misinterpreting them. It wasn't that I felt any moral obligation to him; his death which would quickly follow once his traitorous intentions were known did not weigh heavily on my conscious. He was as much a monster as any of the rest of them. It didn't matter that he wanted to kill those that had taken my freedom away and held my family hostage with their threats of violence should I run. I had only one reason to protect his thoughts and hide his treachery.

His fear of my abilities was very real, but his understanding of them was suspect. He assumed that I couldn't read him unless I was near him, focusing on him, so he often forgot that I was listening as he made his way around the hacienda or sat in a tree on guard duty a couple of miles away. It was during those unguarded moments that he would plan my death, down to the very last detail. He was unimaginative in his attack, elementary in his plan to creep up behind me, spring on my unprotected back and deliver a fatal bite to my neck. He would elicit the newborns help by feeding into their natural suspicion of me as the newcomer, the one that could read their thoughts, and reveal their secrets to Daniel, Cameron, and even their precious Mary, who was lusted after by the newborn males.

Then when I'd been destroyed, my body turned to ash in the fire managed by the newborns, he would blame them, hold them responsible for my killing, thus eliminating me without implicating himself. Once I was gone he could continue anew his mission to take over the coven. The plan itself was full of holes, not withstanding that it was highly unlikely that he could ever sneak up on me, but his line of reasoning gave me hope. He could be my way out of here yet. He was willing; I would just have to give him a means. I did not want to interfere with his computations by raising the ire of Cameron and Mary. Michael offered me freedom; I just needed to give him time to put his plan in action.

It was during the third week, right after I noticed my muscles twitching not of my own volition, that I heard Daniel and the newborns off in the distance making their way back to the coven. I'd been sitting with Mary at her request on the nearly completely crumbled rock wall at the edge of the property facing north, watching the sun slip beneath the trees. She listened with rapt delight as I described in my newly acquired monotone voice, hollow and without emotion, the thoughts of those that were some distance away; my abilities to decipher their ramblings astounding her even though she understood the power of my gift.

"Edward, you understand how much we truly value you, don't you?" As she spoke she touched my back, her fingers rubbing little circles as she felt the trembling of my flesh. She'd started touching me a few days earlier, indiscreet little acts of placing a hand on my arm or taking my hand when she wanted me to follow her. At first I pulled away, but when I saw that this displeased her, I allowed it. I would not jeopardize my loved ones by irritating the ones I was forced to serve. Her touches became more frequent, a hand on my back or leaning over me she'd press her chin on my shoulder or wrap an arm around my waist and all of it I tolerated. But when she tried to slide her fingers through my hair, I jerked away growling at her, bringing forth a snarl of rage from Cameron who sprang at me in defense of his mate. Free of her fingers, all aggression subsided and we'd resumed the normal course of our conversation as Cameron looked on tense but otherwise under control. She hadn't attempted to touch my hair again and resumed the other gestures of what I could only perceive as affection that I would tolerate without questioning my curiously inappropriate behavior to a seemingly innocent gesture.

I felt no need to explain myself, flabbergasted by my misplaced sense of loyalty to memories and the people in them that I'd so readily betrayed in the past. My hair…my head belonged to those that were no longer with me. The soft patient fingers of Bella, stroking my longish locks as we spent hours in our meadow, our special place that held so many bittersweet memories of my times with her. Esme who for the better part of nine decades would run her fingers through my hair as I sat at my piano, urging me to play her favorite songs or compose new ones and in more recent memories, the tireless stroking to ease my sorrow as I mourned Bella. My pixy of a sister who would tug my hair to get my attention or pull on it teasing me out of one of my foul moods and even Rosalie, her final act of kindness as she comforted me as a mother would a child, pressing me to her body her fingers gently stroking away my sobs. I would not cheapen these recollections by having the fingers of a woman driven by power and greed crawl through my hair, replicating the motion but without the emotion that had accompanied those before her.

But her fingers pressing against my back were tolerable, and I felt the excitement build in her as I recited the thoughts of the others, even drawing a chuckle from her as I explained seeing the sorry state of Daniel's clothing through the eyes of one of the newborns.

"He's carrying something too….a package maybe." I kept my monologue of senseless chatter going, hoping it would endear me to her enough so that she might allow me slip away before they arrived.

Her fingers stopped rubbing my back for a moment, then started up again. "It's something for Cameron. A little treasure. He likes to collect them."

I could see nothing in her thoughts; a treasure? There was nothing of value left in the hacienda; vandalism, theft and the destructive nature of newborns had seen to that.

"It seems pretty big for a little treasure. What is it?" Showing interest was a good thing and it was polite to ask.

"You'll find out in good time darling, it's quite….hmmm…..unique."

As my narration of their approach continued, I was cognizant of the flickering of thoughts that weren't tied to the five approaching vampires. I could not make them out clearly, they faded in and out, seemed confused and unfocused, but definitely a sixth mind.

"I think they're being followed." I interrupted my unimportant prattle, my voice growing serious. I hadn't felt I'd added any real value to the coven yet; my presence here not really justifiable given the expectations, so I took the opportunity to emphasize my concerns for the safety of my coven mates as indifferent as I might feel about it.

"Followed you say?" Cameron appeared at Mary's side. Sliding his hand in hers, looking towards the North his eyes adjusting to the fading light, as he tried to see what I could hear.

"Yes, another set of thoughts, they don't belong to any of us." I emphasized the word us and felt the pressure of Mary's fingers against my back increase. This pleased her.

I jumped as a shrill whistle emanated from between Cameron's lips. Seconds later, Rachael and Roberto had joined us. Called like dogs, I concluded.

"Go meet Daniel. Edward thinks he is being followed."

By one you say? He turned back to me an eye brow raised. I nodded. I could hear the inexplicable thoughts of only a single mind.

"There should be only one. If you find him, bring him back alive." He emphasized the last word. "Rachael?"

She sighed and looked at everyone but him. "Yes master, alive. I won't mess up this time."

In her thoughts I saw her take down a fleeing vampire, her teeth shredding his neck as others joined her, forgetting their instructions, tearing him to pieces; an irate Daniel cursing as he came upon the smoldering fire.

As they ran to meet up with Daniel, Cameron sniffed the air searching for the notably absent Michael. I could not hear him and assumed he was deliberately avoiding his master. I could only hope his disobedience would not cost him the opportunity to execute his plan against me.

We heard no confrontation as the group of vampires eventually joined by Rachael and Roberto, made their way back to us. I could still hear erratic thoughts of a stranger. I sensed his fear, his confusion, but nothing coherent, nothing to tell me who or where he was. I tried to see through his eyes so I could gauge his location to the group, but I only saw blackness. I felt uneasy as we saw them, unalarmed, unconcerned with my warnings of another. From the newborns who should have been in a frenzy with the additional knowledge that they were being followed, their thoughts were of my perceived failure, my gift that was not without its flaws, I was not error free. There was nothing in Daniel's thoughts but the poems of George Herbert, though he appeared more amused than alarmed by my warning.

My eyes flickered past them, to the surrounding shadows, wondering where the owner of the mysterious thoughts hid. I could not smell him specifically, but there was an odd scent, a suggestion of the presence of a vampire without allowing me to pick up the unique odor that would be distinctly different from all the others. Feeling Mary's gaze I glanced at her and found her studying me thoughtfully.

"I'm not wrong about this… I'm not wrong. He's out there." I said defensively.

"It's alright Edward. We'll find him." Her fingers continued to trace circles on my back. I felt the tremors intensify.

"Were you successful in your quest?" Cameron waved the other vampires away as he spoke to Daniel.

I noticed he was no longer carrying the package with him. Rachael had it and she and the others ran south towards the town; judging from their enthusiasm and remembrances of feeding, they planned to hunt.

Daniel looked distracted, he was listening to Cameron but his thoughts weren't processing the question. He was still trying to hide something from me. "Perhaps we should talk privately."

"Yes of course. Mary stay with Edward, whilst Daniel and I take a walk." He glanced at me and smiled. "Don't worry young friend, you already know more than I would ever willingly share with such a recent acquaintance."

Did I care that I was being excluded? I didn't think so, but I was glad he thought I did. My eyes drifted towards the trees again. The thoughts of the other were gone.

Michael's failure to respond to Cameron's whistle did not go unpunished. I was summoned to the courtyard the following day amidst the musings of all the vampires of the coven.

What happened…why are we here...so thirsty… I only had one everyone else had two… I need to feed…mind reader was wrong… master says we are making more vampires… is he in trouble…sediento…sediento...kill him he's to blame for this…it's all the stranger's fault…

I could read nothing in the thoughts of Cameron or Mary that implied I was under suspicion for my alleged misinformation about a mysterious sixth vampire, but the unusual congregation of unpredictable vampires in such close quarters was unnerving.

"So Michael, perhaps you could enlightened us on your absence yesterday," Cameron said severely. The young vampire was in the middle of the group towards the front, an orchestrated position. I'd taken up a spot off to the side of Mary, not in anyone's direct line of sight, but visible if their eyes strayed to me.

"I didn't hear you." His voice was muted, still defiant. It's that mind reader's fault, all his fault. I should kill him now.

Please kill me.

"Ahhh… of course not. You never hear me do you? How can we change that Michael? Do you even want to be part of this coven? Your value here is diminishing with each passing day." Cameron spoke cordially enough but he did not try to hide his irritation.

"You bring me here to reprimand me, yet you do nothing when the mind reader fails you. They weren't being followed. It was a trick. He was testing you to see if he could get the others to leave you unguarded so he could kill you." Michael spat his fists clenching at his sides.

Perhaps I underestimated him. His logic behind the perceived failure of my abilities sounded viable.

"And yet you did not come when you were summoned, so even if you speak the truth, we couldn't count on you to help us," Mary reminded him gently. Her tone of speech was different than Cameron's. She acted as the young ones' confidant, the understanding matriarch. It was why she could entice the newborns to join her alone when they knew such a request often had deadly consequences.

I could hear Michael's venomous thoughts, his burning need to spring at his master almost trumping his need to feed. His control surprised me. Perhaps he was capable of bringing on my demise and turning the blame on others as he planned. He would need to be careful though, he'd aroused suspicions and now he could not be trusted.

"Edward."

I jumped slightly. The snickers of the other vampires suggesting my surprise at my summons did not go unnoticed.

"Please tell us what Michael is thinking. I fear that he isn't being entirely truthful." Cameron smiled enjoying Michael's reaction. For the first time he looked nervous and irresolute. He looked at me uncertainly. I would not have had to see his thoughts to recognize the pure hatred burning from his red eyes. I was aware that my gift had been called out in front of the entire coven. I would not be a friend to my coven mates after this. Perhaps fueling the animosity the newborns held for me was part of Cameron's plan to control me.

This was it then. My first big test would be deciding the fate of another. Perhaps not the enemy in the traditional sense, but still someone that meant to do the coven leader harm. But he was also my savior, the one that could and would remove me from this hell, and he would do it with pleasure, without any prodding or manipulating from me. I would not have to trick him into killing me.

I closed my eyes; my skills always seemed more legitimate when I resorted to this human facade of concentration; delving deep into the mind of a specific subject. It had elicited giggles from my siblings when I teased the unsuspecting, newly acquainted Peter and Charlotte with my parlor tricks. I thought it would also enthrall my new audience and it did; they all held remarkably still, anticipating my response. I waited several seconds, allowing for the building of tensions before opening my eyes again, staring right at Michael.

"I see nothing in his thoughts that speak of a betrayal." The lie came easily enough but if I'd said it to Carlisle he would have heard it immediately. I trusted that my new master and mistress wouldn't know the cadences of my voice well enough to pick out my deception.

The look on Michael's face was one of relief, then suspicion and finally comprehension. He believed that my gift was a myth. In his thoughts, I could see his desire to contradict me, to confess to the truth, reveal his intentions thus exposing my gift as a fake. Would he be that stupid? I waited, watching his face, willing him to keep himself under control. I was saving his life by not revealing his murderous intentions. It worked in my favor that he would think I was a farce. He would not feel the need to refrain from killing me as a repayment for my silence. He just had to keep quiet.

Cameron looked disappointed. I could tell he'd been hoping for this opportunity to showcase my talents to the entire coven. He wavered in his response, not prepared for my answer, no alternative in place. He believed in Michael's treachery even without my conformation. I sighed at his thoughts. I was too caught up in the moment to understand how I'd put myself in peril. I didn't recognize it for several seconds until I saw Daniel snake his arms around Michael's, locking him in place.

"What are you doing? Michael growled. He did not struggle free of Daniel's arms; another sign of his control. Instinctually he should have reacted wildly. Instead he pulled in protest, but seemed submissive in all other respects.

"I think we should test Edward's skills as a mind reader." I felt Cameron's eyes on me, then Mary's. His gaze I could avoid, but I was immediately drawn into hers. They knew I was lying.

"Rico. Come do the honors." Daniel spoke to one of the newborns.

The youngest in human and vampire years stepped forward. I knew him only for his intense thirst. It was all he thought about. But now he had something else on his mind. Something he'd been prepared to do regardless of what I found in Michael's thoughts.

Daniel released one of his arms and Rico immediately seized it.

No…no…no…no…"No….no…no…no." Michael's voice first in his thoughts exited through his lips in one long wail. "You heard the mind reader, I would never betray you. You heard him….." He blubbered. All of his previous bravado evaporated.

"Sometimes Edward doesn't see the picture clearly. It's not his fault. He's not use to the conniving minds of warriors." Cameron conceded. "You are a warrior aren't you Michael, a protector of this coven?"

"Yes…yes….of course I am. Please….." His pleas were interrupted by a ghastly scream that came from the same orifice. The sound of an arm being torn from its socket was not as disturbing as the noise generated from the vampire that owned it. In seconds Rico was standing with the arm in his grasp, shaking the twitching hand, his attempts at humor receiving varying degrees of reaction, some looked on in terror where others snickered despite attempts to remain solemn.

I saw the horror on my face, through Cameron's eyes. He watched me closely. This was being done for my benefit. Was it a warning?

"Now Michael let's try this again. Did you hear me call for you today?" Cameron had turned back to Michael who was withering in pain. Daniel held him only by his one remaining arm now, keeping him from moving towards the detached arm, the pull to regenerate was strong, from both body parts.

"Yes." Michael said meekly. He'd dropped his head to his chest. He was not the arrogant young male he'd been just moments ago.

"And why didn't you come?"

"I heard the mind reader's words of an intruder. I was hoping Daniel would be killed."

Amusement, not angry appeared on Daniel's face. He was not offended by the comment.

"Why do you want Daniel to die?"

"So I can replace him as leader of the newborns."

A round of snickers erupted from the young ones at the mere idea of Michael as their leader.

"And once you replace him then what would you do?" Mary still, managed to look charitable.

"I would kill the mind reader." The loathing in his voice suggested he would like nothing better.

There was hope for me yet. But I faced a new worry. Would they know that I'd seen these thoughts? Would I be able to lie my way out of it?

"Why would you kill Edward?"

"He can't read minds. He's a liar. If he could, he would have seen all of this." The accusations were damaging, but I couldn't imagine how Michael thought they would help him.

"I see. Yes we will have to do something about Edward. Though you are wrong, he can read minds. We just have to show him that honestly is always the best option, despite what he will witness today." Mary seemed thoughtful.

I felt disengaged from the conversation. Would they remove one of my arms too? I knew how painful it was. But it wasn't as painful as Jane's special torture. I'd survived that without making a sound. It was just another part of my punishment. I was reasonably sure it wouldn't be the last. As long as they focused only on me. I had to keep their focus on me.

"Rachael, please help Michael with his arm." Cameron nodded to the lone female amongst the youngsters. Too my surprise, Rachael made no attempt to retrieve the arm from Rico. Instead Daniel readjusted his grip around Michael's waist and before even he was aware of it, Rachael had grabbed his forearm arm twisting and jerking it, tearing the other limb off just above his elbow.

A new wave of shrieks emanated from Michaels lips, but he was no longer reacting to just the pain. He understood now that he would be given no second chance. And I understood what Mary meant about honestly. Despite answering the questions truthfully, he was still going to be destroyed. I turned to leave.

"Edward stop." Cameron's voice was firm, implacable. We're not done with you yet. You will stay and witness. It will be interesting to have someone with your gift here to observe this with us. You can hear everything that he thinks as he dies. I'd like you to concentrate so you can chronicle it for me later."

I did not turn around, and wasn't asked too. This was to be my punishment. My act of witnessing would be just as Cameron alluded too. Seeing Michael's thoughts and if I liked, viewing his dismemberment and decapitation through the eyes of those that were committing the atrocities. I'd been fortunate in my other experiences with vampire deaths. With James, I was too focused on Bella to hear his thoughts as he was dismembered and burned by my brothers. Victoria had screamed her rage, but again Bella distracted me. I knew she was watching me tear Victoria apart. At the time, all I could think about was how she would finally view me as the monster I was. Little did I know that it was the last imagine of me that I'd left her with as she lay dying on the cliff behind me.

Michael's thoughts left little to the imagination. His verbal screams were cut off by the twisting of his head under Daniel's hands, but they continued long afterward in his mind. He held no more rage, no more petty notions of taking over the young newborns, building his own army, destroying me and the coven leaders that he hated so much. Instead all I felt was his alarm, his terror and the unrelenting pain as the fire licked at his dismembered body. He felt it all, felt it in his headless torso, his detached limbs and when his skull started to burn, he felt that, saw it as he looked at us from a slightly oblique viewpoint, his head lying nestled in the charred remains of his body. He watched us through his eyes as he slowly burned, his vision was surprisingly clear. I could even make out myself, back turned, head down. Only as the acidic smoke bloomed from his smoldering body did his field of vision disintegrate, but his thoughts hung on and as the flames consumed him, he was still aware, screaming silently until finally, mercifully his brain was turned to ash and no more thoughts radiated from the dwindling fire. He was dead.

Being dismembered and burned did not seem like such an appealing way to die, after all.

Author Notes:

I always wondered why SM didn't consider that Edward would be reading the thoughts of the dying vampires around him (James, Victoria, Riley) but then it occurred to me that her stories were from Bella's POV. What was Edward thinking when he witnessed the death of others of his kind or more importantly, what was he hearing.

Next chapter from Carlisle's POV.