Chapter Eight: Bella

"So where's Caius?"

"It's Friday."

I shot Jane a confused look. What did it being Friday have to do with anything?

"Fridays are when the three Masters 'hold court' and dish out punishments for criminals or offenders. They also on rare occasions listen for pleas of help from covens and convene on whether or not to deal with possible threats to reveal our existence."

My mind flashed back to last night and the whole talk about the Romanians. I was about to bring up the subject until I remembered Caius's warning.

I swallowed down the words and decided to ask a different question. "Who are the Romanians?"

Jane stiffened by my side. I didn't think she would answer until she did. "The Romanians were the former rulers of Volterra, their two leader's names were Stefan and Vladimir. They held our position of power in the past and used it to their advantage. They ruled the other vampire covens and nomads like dictators until a thousand years back when Aro, Caius and Marcus overthrew them. The Romanians had lost but as a last resort they kidnapped Aro and Caius's sister, Marcus's wife Didyme and demanded that they surrender."

Jane paused, as though trying to remember, but in reality trying to steady herself. I'd seen the look before on Charlie's face when he was about to tell a family the bad news. I knew this story wouldn't have a happy ending.

"Before they could decide though, Didyme threw herself into the fireplace so her family wouldn't have to choose. She burned to death before their eyes. The Volturi won then but the Romanians escaped to hide in Romania and have been trying to overthrow us ever since."

I felt like crying. No wonder Marcus was so dead-like. She'd committed suicide right in front of his eyes. For a good cause admittedly, but still.

Suddenly Jane sat bolt upright, and turned to me. "Can I please dress you up for today please, please, please, please, please?" Her words were blending together by the speed of her excitement. "I have got the most gorgeous outfit in one of these bags and it would go perfectly with you!"

Yup. Definitely an Alice.

As Jane started digging into the bags, she began throwing random items at me telling me to try them on, then snatching them away a moment later with an excuse of having something better, until finally after two hours, I was dressed in faded white skinny jeans with a pale blue button up blouse and half of my hair was up in a fish-tail plait while the rest hung loosely, sleek and shiny over my shoulders. I wore a pair of sneakers and I had a few touches of makeup applied by Jane. I looked great.

Certainly an improvement from yesterday.

Jane was wearing a pair of jeans too, hers a dark blue colour which contrasted with the one-shoulder burgundy red top that she wore that brought out the intense red in her eyes.

During the intense 'makeover' session, I had learnt that while totally obsessed with clothes, Jane liked more practical good looking clothes. Clothes that looked great but were useless didn't really go high up in Jane's esteem. She also tried to go more for comfort than Alice. Jane was fun.

Apparently it was Heidi who had persuaded Jane to fill my closet with dresses and offensive lingerie before. Her head was MINE.

I didn't really feel like exploring so I asked Jane to tell me about herself. Apparently she and Alec were twins and born in the middle ages in England. Their father was the leader of their small town where the most feared were witches. Their mother was accused of being a witch and was burned alive by her own husband when they were only seven.

Alec whose gift was to create a fog that cut off all five senses, as a human had always been able to block out pain, or numb his own senses when their father beat them in his drunken rages. Jane when she turned eight, discovered that when she was angry with someone, they would get intense blinding headaches. They were sentenced to burn at stake on their fifteenth birthday after their father accused them of being demons.

Aro and the Volturi had been passing by when they happened across the town and stopped to feed. Aro on a whim had saved and turned the two of them just as they were about to be burned.

"You know Aro's not really that bad."

"What?"

"Aro," Jane continued. "He may be a power hungry guy who will stop at almost nothing to get what he wants, but he's actually really nice. Eccentric and a bit loony and very obsessive but ruling a coven this huge takes its toll right?"

I had to think about it. Creepy as he was, Aro hadn't really given me much reason to think badly of him since I got here.

It also occurred to me that while Jane just looked like a kid- three years younger than me, she wasn't. She was someone who I could trust to be there for me in the six months I was here for. Inside, Jane wasn't the sadistic bitchy girl I thought she was.

Something soft hit me and knocked me sideways off the bed.

"What the?" I struggled upright, brushing strands of hair out of my face. Jane was holding a pillow in her hand her ruby eyes twinkling.

"Oh no you didn't."

Jane tossed me her pillow and grabbed another. "Pillow fight?"

"Nah uh. You're gonna cheat with your vampire strength and speed."

Jane looked at me with puppy dog eyes. "C'mon, please? I promise, cross my dead heart that I won't cheat okay?"

I was tempted. I didn't have pillow fights with Edward, he'd be too mature for that, Alice wouldn't because it'd mess up her makeup, or hair, or clothes, or accessories, or whatever… Emmett wouldn't because he'd crush me and I'd only ever had a pillow fight once with Jake before he turned into a wolf and Edward came back and he'd stop talking to me.

"You're on!" I yelled, lunging across the bed, scattering bags everywhere, pummelling Jane with my pillow.

She squealed in shock and wiggled free, retaliating by hitting me with her own pillow. I elbowed her in the gut- giving myself a bruise, damn vampires were hard- and struggled upright. Jane lunged for me knocking me down, my pillow tearing underneath her fingernails. Feathers were everywhere.

I was laughing now. This was fun! I dug my nails into her pillow too and with a muffled ripping sound, Jane's sight was obscured by hundreds of feathers.

I tried to pin her down, but she rolled sideways snagging the sheet off the bed and entangling us both in it. We were now just basically failing around, trying to hit the other, not really having any idea of where anything was. I lost my grip on my pillow and was just free of the blanket when the door opened.

~~~(O.o)~~~

Jane had just gotten to her feet, her hair filled with feathers and a fading smile on her face. "Felix, Demetri."

My first thought was that them two were always together, like the two evildoers, buff and brains. Emmet and Jasper.

"We thought we heard someone getting some, and we thought we'd barge in to catch them in the act. Jane, I didn't know you were gay." Demetri said it all with a perfect poker face.

Did he just say what I thought he just said? The feathers were floating down now, making a nice blanket of white across the room.

Suddenly Felix broke into a smile and smirked at us, "We're joking! Geez you girls need to calm it down a notch. We heard there was a pillow fight in progress, are there any spaces available?"

Felix was definitely an Emmett.

I considered. Provided Felix didn't crush me…. "Ok, you're in. Grab a pillow. Rules are this- do not break the human, and no cheating by using vampire strength or speed okay?"

Felix blurred to the bed, snatching a pillow up. He eyed me evilly. "Piece of cake. You're going down Swan."

"You're going down…er, Volturi guard…. Thing." I stumbled over the words. A. I didn't know whether 'downer' was a word, B. I didn't know Felix's last name.

"Pathetic." Felix was running a tongue across his perfect painfully white teeth.

"Boys against girls?" Jane challenged suddenly. "We win, you guys need to go around wearing the 'Stupid' and 'Stupider' t-shirts for a month."

I glanced at her. 'Stupid' and 'Stupider' t-shirts?

Jane grinned at me, "A Christmas present I got them two years ago."

Demetri appeared on the other side of the bed, tossing a pillow from one hand to the other. "And if we win, you girls will run around the throne room fifty times…. Naked." He looked at us maliciously. "You can still back out darlin's."

My breathing stopped. "What?"

Jane was glaring at them both. "I knew you'd get back at me for that." Then in an undertone that I knew the other vampires could hear perfectly well, "Last time I challenged Felix and Demetri to a fight between me and Alec without our gifts, they lost and had to run around the throne room human speed naked."

I laughed with her. Did I want to risk losing? I was just a human versus two giant vampire dudes. Then I saw Jane out of the corner of my eye, her eyes flashing defiantly.

It was only a few laps around a throne room naked, who cared?

"I have another suggestion."

Felix raised his eyebrows. "Yes?"

"The loser does both. And they need to run around the throne room a hundred times, not fifty, at human speed. Break the rules and you automatically lose." I was grinning wildly, trying not to think about what would happen if we lost." I stuck out my hand to Felix. "Take it or leave it."

He hesitated a bit before his eyes tightened. He shook my hand. "We accept."

My grin grew even wider.

"Excellent."

I saw Jane shaking hands with Demetri and then we attacked.

~~~(O.o)~~~

To say the least Felix kept his promise, but he wasn't particularly gentle all the same. He charged me, and knocked me across half the room before I could scamper free and start throwing things at him. A hairbrush, hair straightener, nail polish, bag of accessories and a hand mirror all went his way. My aim, being the same as usual, meant that everything I threw missed.

Then Jane tackled Felix, sending him crashing to the ground and I was facing Demetri. He was snagged in the blanket that was on the floor, the closet doors askew, and I didn't waste my opportunity. I snagged a fairly intact pillow and launched myself at him, pounding mercilessly on his head and torso.

I knew with vampire strength he could have easily thrown me off, but if he did he would be forfeiting the match.

With a sudden heave he threw me off sideways so that now I was under the blanket with him on top smothering me with his own pillow. "Do you surrender?"

I kneed him in the 'between the legs' area and flipped him over again. "Do you?"

Felix suddenly slammed into me, and then we dissolved into a blur of laughter, pillows, blankets, shrapnel from around the room and feathers.

Sometimes I was attacking Felix, then I was defending against Demetri, and all in all it was the most fun I actually had…. Ever. Even with the Cullens. Even with Jake.

Demetri had surrendered after I kicked him in the balls for a second time and now it was just Jane and I after Felix even though it was obvious we had already won. He was persistent, I'd give him that.

Now Jane and I were perched on top of him, hammering at him with our pillows. "Do you surrender?" I yelled at him. It seemed appropriate to yell.

He bucked violently, causing me to fall off him sideways facing the door.

I froze, my smile fixed in place, my pillow falling to the ground.

Jane was still struggling with Felix.

"Um, Jane…."

"Yeah, Bella? What?"

I felt backwards with my hand until I came in contact with her shoulder. I yanked her around so she was facing the direction of the door. "We got company."

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah baby! I won, I rock this world now I get to see you girls dance naked across the… throne…. room…." Felix sat up his cocky expression melting into one of complete horror.

Aro, Caius and Marcus along with the rest of the guard were standing in the doorway of the room.

Felix said it all. "We're dead."

thank you to

thelonelyapple, SerenityPax, .50, and Matthias Stormcrow