Chapter Thirty Three
Aro
Bella looked over at The Major and then smiled back at me,
"I think I'd call it blackmail Aro"
"Oh, such an ugly term I always think"
"But apt. I want my mother here, I don't trust you, do you even have her I wonder?"
"Are you calling me a liar Bella?"
"More a stranger to the truth when it suits you."
"Very well, Alec if you would please"
She watched as my choice for her left the room still Alec, he'd had high hopes of Bella as a mate.
"Still find Alec attractive Bella?"
"Still? I think I made a far better choice Aro"
She took The Majors hand and kissed it before turning as the door opened again and Alec returned with Renee. I waited for the tearful reunion but the two women merely stared at each other, then Renee walked over and held her hand out to The Major.
"You must be the butcher I've heard so much about. You don't look like a blood crazed killer."
He smiled at her and took the proffered hand, kissing it before letting go.
"Renee I've heard a lot about you too"
"All lies I hope, I'm much more boring than the rest of you. Bella, I understand you are being awkward and stubborn. Aro tells me he wants you to work for him and I'm the threat he's holding over you. I did explain you won't be persuaded by force but he feels he knows better. Hows Charlie by the way?"
The two women stood there discussing matters as if they were sitting together in a coffee-house and I was forced to intervene,
"Excuse me ladies but I think you have something more important to discuss."
Bella
Aro was annoyed and puzzled by our reaction to each other. I think he underestimated my Mother, thinking she would run screaming into my arms. I could have told him differently, while Renee was in many ways very immature it had its benefits. She still accepted that monsters and ghosts were real possibilities and I think she was slightly intrigued at the possibility of meeting some in the flesh.
"I'm sorry you got caught up in this Mum. I did tell Aro I wouldn't work for him but he didn't listen"
"Typical man, they rarely do dear. I like your boyfriend by the way, so much more spirited than his brother Edward. He always seemed wrong to me, a little too full of himself and over protective of you, stifling. I knew it wouldn't last."
I smiled at her summation of Edward, she always saw more than we gave her credit for.
"So what exactly is it they want you to do for them?"
"I have a gift that Aro wants to have control over"
"Really? How exciting, your grandmother had a gift, she could see things that were going to happen but only enough to warn us, nothing specific just generalities. Is it anything like that?"
"Not quite Mum."
"Oh well never mind. I don't like him very much, he reminds me of a boyfriend I had once, always looking for what he could get from everything, grasping hands. You're not going to do what he wants are you? If you do he'll only be back for more and your life will never be your own."
Caius was almost smiling outright now,
"Well Brother it seems you have a dilemma on your hands. Bella wont work with you and her mother won't help you change her mind so where do you go from here? You can't let Renee go so you either have to change her or kill her. If you kill her you make a deadly enemy of Bella and the Whitlocks and if you change her you may well find she joins them. What a puzzle, I'm glad its your problem not ours."
"This isn't funny Caius. Do you want others to hear that we are being ignored? Our power overwhelmed by a single coven? The Whitlocks are dangerous to the stability of the Volturi."
"They weren't until you decided you couldn't keep your hands off Bella Swan. All she wanted was to be left alone Aro but no, you had to try and force her to work for you"
"US. I wanted her to work for us brother"
"Well it may have slipped by you but she's not going to, and now we have a delicate situation to deal with. We can't fight her, not with her shield, and we can't appease her by handing back her mother or we break our own Law so what do you suggest we do Aro?"
"We offer to change Renee and allow her to live here in Volterra if Bella is cooperative."
Marcus
Aro really had lost the plot here,
"Brother, how do we convince Renee to stay here? If you try to use Chelsea Bella will block her. If she leaves she will only join up with he daughter so you've given the Whitlocks a new fighter to add to their number. I read a story once about a little boy who caught a Tiger by its tail. His dilemma was what should he do? He couldn't kill it with his bare hands and if he let it go it would kill him. You are that little boy and Bella is the tiger, waiting its chance to take you down."
Bella
This bizarre conversation was going on in front of us as if we didn't exist so I decided it was time for the tiger to roar and get everyone's attention.
"Excuse me, I have something to say."
The Brothers stopped dead and turned to face us again,
"You do?"
"Yes Aro. Its obvious that you don't have a solution to this so allow me to suggest one."
Marcus looked at me with a smile,
"Please go on Bella."
"Thank you. This particular tiger has a set of demands."
"Demands? No one demands things of the Volturi"
"Until now Aro, you see I have the upper hand at present as Marcus so aptly put it. There is no way you will allow my mother to go free as a human so her only choice is to be changed. If that is what she wants then I will agree to it but she chooses and she also chooses what she wants to do afterwards. We have the skill to keep her safe as a newborn, you're well aware of that. Secondly, I want a place on the ruling council, in fact two places, one for myself and the other for my mate. We will have full powers to decide what is done and when. No one acts alone again Aro, not even you. In fact especially not you. I think you have forfeit your place on the council by your reckless and single-minded actions. Unless you accede to my demands I intend to destroy you and the rest of the Volturi, kill your Guard and allow the vampire world to govern itself."
"You can't do that, there would be anarchy and anyway it would mean the death of thousands of humans as the Armies of the south fight for control ungoverned by us."
"Oh I can actually, and I'm prepare to take that risk. Let Maria and the Southern Covens fight amongst themselves. I have no doubt that new leaders would rise to the challenge, fill the void left by the destruction of the Volturi. I can think of two such vampires ready and waiting, two Carlisle Cullen told me all about some time ago"
"You mean the Romanians? You'd let them take over the running of our world?"
"Would they be any less capable or more corrupt than you?"
The silence that followed my words went on and on.