Chapter Twenty Three: Caius

I was disgusted with myself.

If I had thought that I could have tasted Bella's blood and restrained myself- especially after two weeks without feeding, then I was horribly- hilariously mistaken.

It had taken both Jane and Felix to drag me from her unmoving body, and when I had regained control of my senses enough to see what I had done, it looked like her entire neck had been mauled by a werewolf, and she seemed even more dead than before.

And then Aro congratulated me- sarcastically- cynically- on managing to leave her head attached to torso.

Needless to say that Jane and Felix had to double their grip on me as I attempted to do the said above statement on Aro.

That had been three days ago.

I did not hold in such sappy and ridiculously unbelievable tales of instant and all-consuming love- even my and Athenadora's relationship had been hard fought for, but I swore, that the second that the human girl's heart had begun to beat once again, my own dead heart stuttered.

Bella had been placed in one of the underground rooms- the ones we used to house newborns in their first few years and Aro was fascinated by her change.

She did not scream once.

I did not know whether it was her stubborn pride, or the fact that she was incapable of screaming- but not a single sound escaped her lips. She merely lay there, her hands clenched into fists, teeth gritted in absolute frustrating determination, motionless.

Subconsciously I admired her.

I could still remember my change- even two thousand years later, the memories of burning were still painfully fresh in my mind, and like her, bound by stubbornness, I had fought to contain every scream and every sound that was proof of my torment, to not give satisfaction to the one causing me pain…

Was that what Bella was thinking?

Felix, Demetri, Alec, and basically all the guard except for Jane, who had point black refused to leave, disobeying Aro so vehemently, Aro had to give in under threat of torture from Jane- had flown to America to hunt down the Cullen's killers- this Victoria and her newborn army.

I would have gone too- but Aro had insisted, along with Marcus, that I stay, stay to be with the human-soon-to-be-vampire. I still cursed them. From what I knew of Bella, and from her last few moments as a human- she would not appreciate my presence at all, and neither did I see the point of being there with her. It was not as if my presence would help, nor did I feel inclined to sit there for three days doing nothing.

I may have been in love but that did not mean that I would change.

Aro was furious, along with Marcus- who while he wore his apathetic mask, was clearly burning with fury for the slaughter of the Cullen's- as both had grown rather attached to Carlisle Cullen during his stay a few centuries back. Apart from his unfortunate choice of diet, if he had stayed a few more hundred years, I well could have imagined him becoming the fourth leader of the Volturi.

Of course, while Aro was outwardly wracked with bouts of anger at the death of his friend, I could also discern that one of the main reasons for his reaction was the end of the physic girl- Alice.

As in Aro's words- "Such a waste of that gift…. Imagine the possibilities…"

But then my deranged brother had never been one for seeing the wider image.

I was in my study when I heard her heart speed up, morphing from a forced beat into a single sustained sound.

3 days?

Usually the change took at least five days- or in the case of Jane and Alec, two weeks- but 3 days had to be the fastest change that I had ever encountered.

That would interest Aro.

As calm and composed as I tried to be, I found myself yelling for Jane to bring a human, and then I was at Bella's side in less than three seconds, anxiously waiting.

It was not the time- no, it was the worst time imaginable to be thinking of it, but I couldn't help but notice that she was… for lack of a better word- stunning.

I had never noticed before, never really bothered to notice, as she was merely a human, and of no consequence, and in any case- it shouldn't matter to me, and in fact, it didn't matter to me, but she was stunning.

Not. The. Time. I repeated angrily, as Bella's heartbeat sped up into an unidentifiable tempo even for vampire ears, rushing through the last few moments of its life.

There was no visible change with Bella, only a single second, where the room was frozen, and her heart stuttered once, and for the second time, stopped. Only this time- forever.

And then after an eternity, her eyes snapped open, and I was pinned to the wall, my throat slowly being crushed.

~~~(o.O)~~~

Bella

Well this was new.

I mean, I wasn't complaining, at all. The fire was gone- thank you! And I would have thought that that pain was enough for a thousand hells- but I didn't want to jinx it by thinking it- so ignore that last bit….

But if I wasn't in hell any longer, where was I?

If this was heaven… Well it wasn't what I was expecting- but I'd take it any day.

I couldn't remember my last coherent thought, only the last thing in my mind had been the feeling of pain throughout my body.

It wasn't like some kind of weird novel where the person burning gets to describe every single second of what they experienced- because come on- be realistic. I was too busy screaming my heart out in my head to compose a long lengthy pointless self-monologue.

All of that said…

My eyes shot open, the dim lights of the room blinding me for a moment- why was it so bright to me? And before I knew it, I had pinned down the nearest threat to the wall, snarling in their face.

Wait, snarling?

I blinked, shaking my head from side to side. "Well this is new," I said, then laughed inwardly.

My eyes refocused, and somehow I had space in my brain to think about 'Wow this is so cool! I can see everything!' and also- 'What the hell? Shouldn't I be dead?' and also- 'Yeah! I can move really fast!' and also- 'My voice sounds really weird.' and also- 'I really should be letting Caius down now.'

Caius?

Ah!

I automatically let go of Caius, shocked at the fact that somehow I had managed to pin him up against the wall, and that he wasn't yelling at me about it.

That was when I realized.

"I'm a vampire aren't I?" I asked.

Caius eyed me cautiously, although there was something weird in his look. He was staring at me differently… Different from how he usually would sneer down at me. Even when we had been getting along better, it was a habit he never dropped. Now… it was almost like he was waiting for me to start screaming and throwing a fit.

Weird.

"Because if I am, I have got to say, this is so cool!" I grinned, bouncing slightly on the heels of my feet. Just to test it out, I began snapping my fingers, the beat, which I was going by would have been too fast for me to identify when I was a human, but now I could still hear it… I began tapping my foot so fast it became a blur, and then punched a wall. My fist went straight through like it was paper, and I snickered. "I could get used to this."

"Um, Bella…"

The word 'Bella' sounded weird on Caius's lips. Like he didn't call me if often… I couldn't remember. That was weird too…

"…you aren't… You don't…"

I raised my eyebrows. From what little I could remember, was that Caius didn't stutter, or mumble.

There was the sound of footsteps, and suddenly two other vampires appeared in the room. Definitely weird. Usually weren't vampires meant to be completely silent? I never before could have heard their footsteps…

"Amazing…" breathed the vampire that was Aro.

I didn't know why I was all so 'amazing' only that I didn't like the staring.

"Amazing what exactly?" I demanded, glaring at the lot of them. Aro, Marcus, Caius, Jane…

Aro cocked his head to the side like a curious child. I almost sighed in relief. Finally someone was acting like they usually would. Maybe the world would start turning again. "You don't feel thirsty at all?" he asked.

Thirsty?

As the word registered, a blinding pain tore through my throat, a dull ache, and as I breathed in, it was like sucking in a handful of flames, along with the intense urge to kill?

~~~(o.O)~~~

I blinked.

How did I get here?

The simple jeans and shirt I was dressed in were perfectly clean, no evidence of what I had just did… What I had just done…

What had I done?

I couldn't remember… I couldn't remember so much it was like I had a block in my head, hiding everything I needed to know behind it. Did vampires get headaches?

But I could remember.. I could remember the absolute uncontrollable need for the blood of the man who was standing next to Jane, and then I had been pouncing on him, snapping his neck neatly and burying my teeth into his throat like I had been doing it all my life…

I dropped the body, now lifeless, but the regret that I thought would have overwhelmed me didn't come. There was just a faint hint of guilt, but not any more than I would have if I had just killed a cat.

"See?" said Aro, like he was proving a point. "So well controlled… It usually takes years to perfect the feeding technique…"

What…the hell?

I did not call that 'well controlled', I lost it! I lost it and just killed a guy right then and there…

Speaking of killing…

A memory returned to me- Carlisle talking about the guilt of killing, not wanting to take a life… What would he say? What would Edward say? Alice? Emmett? Rosalie? Esme? Jasper? I then remembered what I had heard from the T.V. just a few days ago. Tears formed in my eyes and a sob passed my lips, causing Caius and Aro to run to me in worry.

"Bella, what is wrong?" Caius asked, rubbing my back in a soothing way.

"They're dead," I whispered.