A/N: I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get posted. My vacation went longer than I expected-well, the clean-up from it did, anyway! I hope that this chapter makes up for the long absence.
The iron door was wide open, and the dimly lit hallway beyond it both beckoned me and frightened me. I had not stepped foot anywhere but this room in so long that the idea of crossing that threshold was almost too much to bear. A small shove between my shoulder blades propelled me forward, and I glanced back to see Renata lift her lips in her customary small, cool smile.
"We won't bite, Bella…well, not much. Don't you want to get out of this room?" she teased me. If I could have fainted from shock I would have.
Even though we had begun to relax around each other since the commencement of my "vampire lessons" four months before, we never joked with each another. Was this a sign that my life outside these four walls might be something other than lonely and dreary? Perhaps the Volturi weren't as bad as I'd feared, I reflected. I shifted first one foot and then the other, repeating the simple pattern until I managed to push through the invisible barrier that seemed to have held me here for years instead of months.
The hallway stretched only a few feet to my left, but to my right it might as well have gone on forever. Even my enhanced eyesight couldn't make out the end. I began to comprehend the measures the Volturi must have taken to keep dangerous newborns such as myself contained long enough to "civilize us", as Renata called it. An endless succession of candle sconces lined the walls every five feet and six inches, just close enough to light the way without creating irritating pockets of shadow.
It was only when Renata impatiently cleared her throat behind me that I became aware of my frozen state, one foot in the hallway, blocking her exit. I moved forward and to the side quickly to let her by. The path away from my little cell was obvious, but I had no idea how far down the hallway my new quarters were.
Renata moved along swiftly as if she had no doubt that I would follow. Of course I did, my wide eyes searching for any color besides gray and black, the gray of the stone and our clothes, the black of the shadows ahead. We were at the end of the hall within seconds, a dead end with another hallway which branched off to either side. I trailed behind as Renata turned left, distracted by the richly colored tapestries which now began to grace the walls.
They should have been beautiful. Every strand was perfectly dyed and woven together, the colors forming scenes of people working in fields, walking along city streets, floating in boats along winding canals. Yet mixed among these visions of loveliness were shadowy forms with glowing crimson eyes, startlingly beautiful faces carefully depicted in exquisite detail to contrast with the vagueness of their bodies. The tapestries were a reminder that vampires lurked in every aspect of human life, unseen behind trees, around corners, under bridges, simply waiting to take sustenance from the lives around them. Around us.
I felt as if my stomach should be roiling from the mess of emotions the images to either side of me invoked, but my newly improved body was outwardly calm as I continued moving slowly forward. Renata's sharp voice called my mind back from its semi-panicked state, and my wide eyes met her narrowed ones when she glanced over her shoulder at me. The panic receded as shame slid greasily through me, as if I were a child being reprimanded for not paying attention. It was rare for Renata to make me feel that way, but I suppose she was as anxious as I was that my transition should go smoothly.
"Bella, we must familiarize you with your room and get you changed so that you may meet the Masters," she hissed at me.
My eyebrows shot up. "The Masters? You didn't say anything about that earlier!" I whispered back to her harshly, catching up to her with smooth, gliding steps I could never have managed as a human.
Her lips quirked down slightly. "I did not want to worry you unnecessarily. This is but a formality, an introduction to the Volturi as a whole. You will meet all of us individually after the Masters have a chance to view you."
The way she phrased it rankled. "You make it sound as if I'm going to be on display." I hated to be the center of attention. I might not have remembered much about my human life beyond the memories I clung to of my parents, but I did know for sure that I was not the kind to relish the idea of all eyes trained on me.
My mentor nodded slowly and spoke as if I was just a small child. "Of course you are going to be on display. You are the first newborn among the Volturi in centuries. While we have encountered many on various missions, no vampire fresh from the change has been brought into our ranks since Jane and Alec," she explained.
My eyes widened at that. I had asked her about the strange girl and young man my last fuzzy human memory provided me a glimpse of. I knew that they had been responsible for the decision to bring me to this place, a palace of sorts in a small town in Italy Renata told me was called Volterra. The explanation behind Jane and Alec would have caused me to shiver uncontrollably in my previous life, but shock had held me still while I absorbed their story during one of my "acting human" lessons.
When Jane was human, she had been able to do small bits of magic, enough to get her noticed and decried as a witch in the late sixteenth century, the time when the witch craze was just beginning to take hold in England. In fact, she was one of the first sentenced to burn at the stake as a witch, or so records of her death in a tiny hamlet in southern England would have the humans believe. In reality, Aro of the Volturi had learned of Jane shortly before her death and rescued her just before the flames consumed her. Then he bit her and allowed the internal flames to heal the shell that she had become. After her transformation, Jane's primary care was causing as much pain as she had been dealt in her mortal life. The only person besides Aro that she gave a damn about once she was a vampire was her twin brother, Alec, whom she persuaded Aro to turn after her newborn year by threatening to leave.
I had filed away that last piece of information, careful not to betray my interest. Still, I hadn't realized at the time that Jane and Alec were the last newborns brought into the Volturi. Renata had mentioned several other guards during our lessons, though. I had finally learned the name of the large, dark vampire who sometimes came to help her but never spoke-Demetri, a man of few words but a strange cheer in his burgundy eyes. While introducing the silent Demetri to me, she casually mentioned that he joined only a few centuries ago, a comment which came out sounding, a lot like the ones made by the popular senior girls in high school when talking about the freshmen girls, from what I could remember.
I brought my mind back to the present as we passed door after door, most closed. The few open doors revealed bare floors and walls, as if the rooms were waiting for their next occupants. Finally we came to an area that seemed more alive. I could make out definite sounds through the thick walls, many of which I struggled to interpret. In some rooms it almost sounded as if whoever was inside was breaking down the walls, although I saw no cracks on the outside.
We passed five doors on the left and four on the right before Renata stopped at the fifth door on the left and opened it. She gestured for me to precede her, and what I saw when I stepped over the threshold surprised me.
A modern overhead light illuminated the space, causing even more glitter among the veins of stone and exposing every air pocket in the mortar between. A small table and comfortable-looking stuffed chair covered in deep red velvet stood along one wall next to a wooden door which matched the main entrance. A large four-poster bed graced the opposite wall, rich mahogany draped in more red velvet and piled high with pillows. I glanced back at Renata, my eyes full of questions.
"We may not sleep," she explained as she followed me into the room—my room, "But we are able to make use of human furnishings all the same. The pieces in our rooms are a reminder that when we enter the human world, we must act as the humans do or bring scrutiny upon ourselves. Also, you may find some of them useful for…other things."
When I finally understood the smirk that crossed her face I wished for perhaps the hundredth time since my transformation that I could blush. I was sixteen—well, seventeen now. I had never even gone beyond a first date with a few guys in high school, some tame kisses and touches. I couldn't imagine using that large bed for anything like what she hinted at.
"Where does that door lead?" I asked with a nod towards the door beside the chair. It was a lame attempt at redirection, but it was all I could manage.
Renata took pity on me and strode over to it. A quick flick of her wrist and the door opened to divulge the most beautiful thing I had seen in months outside of the deep ruby drops of my meals. Slate tiles, more blue than gray, covered the entire enclosure immediately facing the door. Thick glass walls surrounded barely enough space to stretch my arms between, but it was enough. A shiny chrome showerhead with what looked like multiple pressure settings was the crowning glory.
I had reluctantly submitted to the idea of merely wiping down after my meals. After all, I no longer produced sweat and my skin cells no longer shed. However, dirt and grime could still accumulate on the hard surfaces of my body and in my shiny hair, although that never seemed to any part of me entirely. I stepped into the smallest piece of heaven I could hope for here, already anticipating a hot shower with the hopes that it would help me forget what I had done to survive, even if just for a little while.
Renata stayed in the main room. When I was able to drag my gaze away from my paradise, I looked back to see her smirking at me. "You have half an hour to prepare yourself, Bella. You will find towels and suitable clothing in the small closet attached to the bathroom. Do not take your time cleansing yourself. The Masters are expecting you," she reminded me even as she shut the door, closing me away from the rest of the world. Just where I wanted to be.
I avoided looking into the mirror over the small marble sink while I bustled around grabbing a thick gray towel and a new set of clothes, this time a red blouse and black pants, from the closet. I was thankful to finally have something to wear besides the gray that had been given to me for the last few months, but I found the colors to be trite at best. I was a vampire wearing black and red. Oh, I was so scary. Except that, yeah, I probably would have been since my eyes undoubtedly matched the blouse I had chosen.
The shower was the most amazing thing I could remember experiencing. My fuzzy human memories did not go into details about my hygiene methods, but I was sure that nothing could ever have compared to the way that my skin registered each hot droplet as it slid from the point of contact down until it flew from my body. The shampoo, conditioner, and body wash I found in the alcove beside the showerhead were lightly floral and did not detract at all from the pleasant sensations I allowed to envelope my senses for sixteen minutes and twenty-four seconds. Finally feeling clean, I shut off the water, dried my marble skin quickly with the towel, and then wrapped the soft piece of terrycloth around my hair to soak up the moisture it had absorbed while I dressed.
I took particular care with these clothes since they were the first I had seen in months that were above the equivalent of a hospital gown. As I slid on the red silk I wondered if vampires even had need of hospitals. From what little Renata had let slip during our hours of instruction I thought it was not very likely, but maybe the newborn phase, as she called it, was as close as we could get to the hopeless fragility of humanity I was once so familiar with. I had been such a clumsy little human that the increased grace of my vampire body was almost the only positive thing I could find in this new existence.
Finally dressed, I unwrapped my hair and used the brush lying on the sink to comb out the tangles in the thick mass. After the initial discovery that someone had braided my hair for me during my transition, I had spent hours learning how to do so myself so that I could avoid any contact the creatures here might think was essential for my personal care. Now it took me only moments to weave the strands around each other, tying them off with a thick rubber band from a small bowl just under the mirror.
I had shunned looking at my reflection this entire time, but the small brave part of me still left after months of misery and monotony finally managed to force my eyes to the image before me. Unnecessary air whistled into my lungs as I gasped. There was no way the stunning woman I saw in the mirror could be me. Whose jaw was that, no longer slightly rounded with childhood chubbiness? The nose was too straight, the set of the eyes too symmetrical. Oh, and the eyes…
Ruby irises stared back at me in abject horror. I could see every fleck, every slight variation of the color. The sight sickened me even as it fascinated, drew me in. It was as if I had never seen this terrifying perfection before, despite having the examples of Renata and Demetri around almost daily. I realized that I had been evading the compulsion to examine what they represented even as Renata stood over me while I fed, even as Demetri accompanied her for my lessons.
In my panic I ceased all movement. Only the knock at my bathroom door broke the spell. I should have heard Renata's footsteps, but I was too engrossed in my self-inspection to pay attention. Her knock brought me back to the present, back into the shell that my body had become, and I moved to open the fragile wooden barrier between us.
Perhaps she recognized the shock in my eyes, or perhaps she just wanted to make sure that I understood what she was about to say. Renata's firm grip on my arm woke me from my stupor as her harsh words reached my ears.
"No matter what they do, you will show the Masters the utmost respect, Isabella." She rarely called me that anymore. Only when I displeased her or she was trying to make a point. "You will address them with a civil tongue if they ask a question, and otherwise you will remain silent. Do you understand me?"
I nodded without a word. What could I say? It wasn't as if I could escape this place, and they wouldn't kill me for any transgressions outside of exposing myself to humans. That would endanger my parents, which they seemed to know was important to me, so rebellion seemed pointless. Renata was my guide in this, as in all else, and I had to be satisfied to listen to her advice on how I was supposed to behave during the upcoming interview.
My apparent meekness must have been enough to satisfy her. Renata turned on her heel and strode out of the room, obviously expecting me to follow. Keeping up with her pace required no physical effort on my part, but my emotions were all over the place. At least my emotional state no longer affected my coordination or motor skills. It almost took almost no concentration to put one foot in front of the other.
She led me down several hallways, up two different staircases, and into a wide lobby that contrasted sharply with the older feel of the rest of the Volturi compound. In the half second it took for me to register the marble floor, smooth painted walls, and sleek receptionist desk at the other end, the tempting scent and wet heartbeat of a human reached me. I realized that this must be a test when I saw the source sitting behind the desk staring at us as we approached. Would I kill the human, obviously an employee who was familiar with the red eyes and absolute perfection of vampires? Did they expect this of me? Were the Volturi Masters trying to determine if Renata's assessment of my control was accurate?
Whatever her purpose, we moved past the tempting human with ease. We approached a dark wooden door which fit the feel of the rest of the Volturi stronghold much more than the incongruous lobby behind us. Renata glanced back at me and lifted her eyebrows in a silent command before grasping the thick iron doorknob. She pushed the wooden slab open in a sharp movement, her head high. I tried to copy her as I shadowed her movements into what was revealed to be a large, echoing stone room. Twenty or thirty bodies in dark cloaks stood between us and a raised dais across the room which held three occupied chairs—twisting metal monstrosities I couldn't help thinking of as thrones.
Even the stinging venom which continually coated my mouth and throat dried up at the sight of the men sitting above all the others.