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Special thanks to Gredelina1, Augustmoon and Mary-Alice-Brandon-Cullen for pre-reading this. This was beta'd by Maxipoo1024 from Sparkly Red Pen.

~ Chapter Twenty Four — Cowardice ~

Isabella POV

I struggled against the arms holding me, fighting desperately to be free. Jasper's image flickered in front of me, giving me something to fight for.

"Dammit, Isabella. Stop fighting me!" a voice hissed in my ear.

"Felix?"

"Yes, it's me."

I was being carried away from the battle pinned against Felix's chest. I did not want to flee; I wanted to rally our guard and head back into the fray. They were only newborns. We were the Volturi. We did not flee from a fight.

"Stop it, Isabella!" This time it was Aro commanding me and not Felix. I ignored him as completely as I had Felix.

"Let me go now!" I ordered Felix. For all the notice he took, I might not have spoken at all. "Felix, I am ordering you to let me go!"

"Sorry, boss lady," he said, not sounding in the least sincere. "Aro's orders."

Aro was going to pay for giving those orders. I would make sure of it.

Maria. I blamed her for this. As soon as I had my liberty again, I was going to make her pay. I would destroy that shield, and then every vampire that stood against us would be writhing on the ground under the pain of Jane's gift. I would not use her for the task. I would siphon her power for myself, and I would enjoy every minute of it. I would save Maria for last. She would be made to cower at my feet for hours before I allowed her the peace of death.

The trees whipped past us, and I struggled all the harder. The sounds of the newborns' chase had died away. They were no longer following us; they were satisfied by our capitulation.

I knew from the lightening of the air that we were almost at the edge of the forest where we had left the cars. I fought against Felix's grip, and his grip slackened slightly. I thought myself victorious for a moment, but then I realized his intentions. We were at the cars, and he was preparing to bundle me inside like an unwanted package.

He set me on my feet, and I reached out and gripped Aro's hand. Releasing my shield, I allowed him to see the fury of my thoughts. It was a far more efficient way of expressing my anger than screaming at him as I wished to do.

His eyes widened under the onslaught, and he struggled against me, but I held fast.

"Alec!"

I heard the order from Caius' lips but did not react in time. Before I had a chance to shield myself once again, Alec's gift reached me, and I was cast into hellish oblivion.

I would make them pay for this.

xXx

There was no creeping sensation of returning consciousness. Awareness came back to me all at once. I was standing in the centre of the throne room, placed there by I did not know who. Aro, Caius, and Marcus were there, but the guard were absent.

As awareness returned so did my anger.

"Cowards!" I shouted. "You are nothing but cowards!"

"Isabella, calm yourself," Marcus said, rising to his feet and approaching me.

I stepped away from him and began pacing the circumference of the room. Alec's influence ended the moment you regained awareness, but I felt as if I needed to be in motion to avoid becoming still again.

"Did they tell you what they did?" I spat the question at Marcus. "Did they tell you how they ran like frightened children from the fight?"

"That is enough!" Aro said angrily.

I waved a hand at him. "No, it does not come close to being enough."

"We would have been overcome," Caius said reasonably.

"We would have been victorious!" I shouted.

"We would have suffered heavy casualties," Aro said. "Do you place so little value of the lives of your coven?"

"My coven?" I laughed. "My coven has just destroyed itself. Do you imagine any vampire will respect us after that. How are we to rule when there is no price for punishment. There will be anarchy. No one will maintain our laws when they hear of this."

"Isabella," Marcus said softly. "You are underestimating our kind. We must all keep the secret for our own survival. They understand that. And this is not a defeat. It is merely a delay in justice. We granted them a reprieve and by attacking us they broke our trust. We shall return and punishment shall be carried out, but we must be better armed. We need to swell our ranks."

"And are we to fight then?" I asked. "Or will there be some other excuse to turn tail and run?"

"You shall lead," Aro said. "When we face them again you shall take the guard alone, and you shall make the decisions."

"Do you really think I will hold an ounce of influence over our guard now? You had me carried away like a misbehaving child, and then you used Alec to hold me. I shall be the laughing stock of the castle."

"Do not misjudge them," Marcus said softly. "Aro has attended to each of the guard and all of them hold you in high respect still. The fact you were forcibly removed from the battle only serves to strengthen your image as a warrior in their mind."

"Aro has attended to… how long did you hold me under Alec's influence?" I asked.

I knew it was hours as it had been time to make the two hour flight home and to return to the castle.

"Well…" Aro began awkwardly. "You see we felt it best to wait some time to allow things to be arranged."

"What things? What have you done Aro?" I demanded.

"We, or rather I, thought you might need comfort, and so I…"

He trailed off looking at something behind me. I spun on my heel and my mouth dropped open as I saw the figure standing at the door.

"He called me," Jasper said.

My fury vanished at the sight of him. Not caring that my brothers were watching with avid interest, I ran at him and fell into his open arms.

"They made me a coward," I said, my voice muffled against his neck.

"No, Isabella," he said soothingly. "You could never be that,"

xXx

Sometime later, Jasper and I were alone in my chambers.

"I'm sorry they dragged you back here," I said, speaking into his bare chest.

While Alec kept me under his influence, Demetri had been dispatched to collect Jasper from Washington in the jet. I was furious that they had dragged him back here when it was barely a week since I had got him away from the place. I didn't want him here where he would suffer.

"I'm not," he said simply. "Having you in my arms makes me happier than I can say. You have no idea how scared I was for you. Especially when Alice had a vision of Aro running."

"Running scared," I said angrily. "Did they explain what happened? What they did?"

"I had a summarized version on the plane," he said. "It seems you had a lucky escape."

I scoffed. "Escape? We would have been victorious had my brothers the strength of character to face them."

"Not without loss," he said, echoing Caius' words. "I could have lost you, Isabella."

I thought of the way I had felt when Felix's arms had wrapped around me. I had been sure it was a newborn and I had, by fixing Jasper's image in my mind, prepared myself for death.

He noticed the stiffening of my body and lifted my chin to look me in the eye. "What happened?"

"I thought you would lose me," I admitted. "I did not recognize Felix as my captor and believed myself to have doomed you."

"And yet you are angry they took you from the fight?" he stated. "Does that mean you hold more value to the fight than you do me?"

"No," I gasped. "Never. I swear to you, Jasper, you are the most important thing in my life."

"Then why are you so upset about this fight?"

I considered his words carefully. It did not seem right, given how close I believed myself to be to death, that I was still so enraged by our defeat. Jasper was the most important thing in my life, far more important that the thrill of the fight. But the Volturi had been my priority for so long, it was hard to break the habit. Despite Marcus' reassuring words, I was sure our position as rulers had been severely damaged by all that had happened.

"Because we were forced to flee."

"You know there is a human name for people like you," Jasper said conversationally. "They call it adrenaline junkie. They are people that are only ever truly alive when the adrenaline is coursing through their veins."

"I am not any kind of junkie, thank you very much," I said. "And I have no adrenaline."

"I know that." He laughed. "But you are like them. You are only truly alive when you are in the thick of the action. Even though you thought you would die yesterday, you are upset that you were forced to flee. I thought it was lack of care for me, but it isn't; you are just addicted to the fight."

I didn't agree with his words entirely, but I was pleased he realized it was not lack of concern for him. He was more important to me than anything. I needed to find a way of proving that to him.

"How long are you here for?" I asked.

"As long as you need me," he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Let me rephrase, how long before you are required back at school?" I tried very hard to keep the derision from my tone at the mention of school. It seemed ridiculous to me that this powerful, talented vampire was forced to play at being human five days a week.

"I am due to return on Monday morning," he said grudgingly.

"Wonderful," I said brightly. "That gives us four whole days together. What shall we do?"

"Well you're preparing for battle, aren't you? I want to help."

xXx

I intended to take Aro at his word and lead the guard alone. We would need even more in our ranks than we had last time, and so Demetri was sent out to find others we had dealt with before to bring them to our cause. Jasper offered his own services, again, and I denied him, again. I could not fight if he was there, and I must fight.

The shield was the reason for the Romanians triumph and the crux of my new plan. She was the one that had stopped Jane and Alec's gifts from working. Had we been able to use Alec, destruction would have been as easy as it usually was. I would have to destroy her.

Jasper said he wanted to help, and help he did. The first thing he did was to teach me everything he knew about Maria and the way she operated.

"Maria always wanted gifted vampires for the army, but I was the only one she ever found," he said. "She will stay as close to the shield as she can at all times."

"That will be helpful. The closer they are the easier it will be for me."

"You intend to kill Maria?" It was not phrased as a question, so I did not feel the need to answer. "Isabella."

"Yes, I intend to kill your maker," I said. "I was prepared to spare her before, but not again. She will be destroyed as will the rest of her army."

He was silent for a long time, and I wondered if my admission had upset him. He had gained better control of his gift now when around me, so I was not able to gauge his reaction from his emotions.

When he finally spoke, it was in a somber tone. "I understand, but I cannot help but fear for you. Maria stole so much from me: my humanity, my peace, and my liberty. I fear that she will steal you away from me as well."

"You forget who I am," I said, affronted. "She is no match for me."

It was not long before I realized the folly of those words.

Thanks for reading. If you would like a teaser of the next chapter let me know in a review or a PM.

Simaril x