Chapter Eight: the forming of bonds

After I had learnt I was the mate of one of the leading kings of the vampire world, a future member of the vampire monarchy things began to progress faster than I had imagined. Leigha still was a saint for me, taking care of me when I was at Charlie's house.

She didn't know anything else than the fact that I was good friends with the Cullens.

She had no idea that I was being watched by the so called 'witch twins' of the Volturi, whom would often stay in my bedroom during the night and do whatever they wanted while I would be asleep (they had no interest in the blood of Charlie nor Leigha for some odd reason, I didn't think too much about it because I was merely glad their blood didn't call to the preteen vampires).

The summer was tough, but I knew that I had things to look forward to in the future. I would have an actual future, but we didn't know if I would have my cerebral palsy be healed completely once, I became a vampire. Perhaps I would end up being healed from it or perhaps I would be a vampire who still had Cerebral Palsy, which would be a sight to see.

It was the weekend, and I was upstairs in my bedroom, while Leigha had to step out really quick to do an errand. She had reassured me that she wouldn't be that long, and I hadn't been worried at all. Partly because I was in the company of Alec and Jane.

They were noisy busy bodies, but they were still here for me to make sure they could write letters back to Caius. (He obviously wasn't their favorite king, since they thought of Aro as their father figure, but he had asked them to report back to him and he was still one of their kings)

They were always making sure they would have too much information about things they shouldn't know about or should care about, so they were kind of a pain in my ass. Useful but still kind of a pain in my ass, nonetheless.

At the moment they were trying to keep Alice away from coming into the bedroom, since she was sitting in one of the branches of the tree next to my bedroom window. I almost expected Jane to send out her Gift to her, in order for Alice to fall out of the tree and start convulsing on the ground but even she knew Alice would be able to see it before she could do it. It was one of the reasons why the twins hated Alice with a passion I didn't understand.

"Chi-Chi-Children be n-nice."

Jane turned to me and hissed at me, as though she was a cat that didn't like to be messed with. Alec on the other hand slumped before he gave a silent look at his sister. Jane slumped a moment later. It was obvious they had a bond like no other and if one of them met their mate they would only deal with it so that their sibling could be happy.

To say the least I was glad I wasn't forced to become their aunt. I was indifferent to them, but I didn't hate them. I was relieved that they hadn't tried to make a snack out of Charlie or Leigha. Otherwise, they would have been on my shit list.

"Bella! Tell them to let me in! Caius sent a gift for you."

I blushed at what she had said, or more like whined, and gave a look towards the twins. They moved out of the way, only because Caius had sent a gift to me. Alice hopped into my bedroom with a victorious smirk upon her features. She even decided she would stick out her tongue at them, only for the preteens to stick their tongues at her too.

There was a small jewelry box that she pulled out of her designer capri jeans, making me perk up at the sight of it. Every few weeks he sent me jewelry and if it were from someone else, I knew I would have been upset with receiving gifts.

Yet I knew Caius was just reminding me how he cared for me and was waiting for next month, when I would join him in Volterra and start the process of training to become his queen.

He wanted to let me know he was ready for me to join him, and it both flattered me but also made me a little frightened. I didn't know how the vampire community would feel about having a queen that would be a human when I first arrived in Italy. Much less a human queen that also had a disability that could even follow me into my vampire life, I hoped that wouldn't be the case.

Alice came almost skipping over to me, her shoes barely making any sound upon the floor. I envied her and how she was able to walk without needing support. I envied her because she was beautiful, and I was nothing more than a plain jane. I hated her a very tiny amount because she was able to be true to herself and already be a vampire when she would meet Jasper.

She sat down on the bed and opened the jewelry box so I could look inside. The twins came closer to see what one of their kings had sent me.

I doubted they knew all the jewelry the kings collected despite being around them for over a thousand years. Caius seemed as though he was private when it came to jewelry he must have collected for his future bride, and the last thing he needed was for the twins to see the jewelry. He could barely stand to be around the vampiric guard.

I peered down at the jewelry in front of me, noting that the chain was a simple but pure gold design. There were little jewels encased with gold around them, while the jewels were the shade and shape of red pomegranate seeds. It reminded me something that Hades would end up giving to Persephone and it made sense that Caius would decide to give me this, since he was the sullen and Hades like king out of the three most likely and I would be his Persephone.

Alice moved my hair out of the way and did the clasp on the necklace once it was around my neck. She went over to where my handheld antique mirror was (pure silver and passed down throughout the generations to me from my many-great grandmothers). She put it in front of me and showed me how beautiful the necklace was on me, and how delicate I was with it on.

I had barely studied myself in the mirror when the sound of Leigha's car pulling into the driveway made itself known. I let my eyes flicker towards Alec and Jane, noting how they both sent looks towards the said car and the person that owned the car. Alice on the other hand didn't seem as though she was bothered with Leigha coming into the house and randomly coming across her in the bedroom, since Leigha knew of Alice's existence, but she didn't know the twins.

"Time to go hide in the closet," Alice chimed in, she was really enjoying the fact that the twins still had to listen to the Cullens to a point. They would rather listen to Carlisle and Esme than anyone else in the Cullen family, but they still had to listen to Alice.

Jane shot the finger to Alice without turning around, both of the twins went into the closet right at the moment that the front door opened and Leigha came into the house. There was the sound of her putting some of her plastic bags full of food from Thriftway in the kitchen and though a part of me wished I could help her I knew I would never be able to do so.

Once Leigha had put away all the food in the kitchen to their proper places, her footsteps went in the direction of where the stairs were. My eyes kept glancing over at the closet, knowing that Leigha would unknowingly be in the presence of three vampires when she would come in here instead of unknowingly being in the presence of one vampire. I didn't know how she would feel about the whole thing, especially when Alec and Jane were part of the whole thing.

It was only a moment later Leigha came into the open doorway, her eyes landing on Alice sitting on my bed with a jewelry box in her hands. Her eyes went away from the golden eyed teenager to me this time, her eyes landing on the beautiful necklace that was on me. Enough that she couldn't help but come into the room and probe about what was happening.

Coming up with an elaborate story about how Alice had found the necklace in an antique store and thought I would love it, Leigha listened with rapt attention to what was being told.

Alice helped me take the necklace off before she handed it over to Leigha so she could see it. Leigha held it as though she was holding the holy grail, her eyes taking in the stunning gold chain work and the jewels that had been harvested in order to be shaped into the same shape as pomegranate seeds. She handed it back to Alice a moment later, where Alice wordlessly put the necklace back into the box and got up from the bed to sit it onto the top of my dresser.

"I got some of your favorite yogurt, they were restocking it when I was at Thriftway. I can get you some if you want," Leigha informed me, earning a small nod from me. She leant forward and kissed me on the forehead before she pulled away and stood up.

Jane and Alec poked their heads out from the closet when Leigha left, before they looked at each other. They seemed to be quietly conversing with each other, I wondered what they thought of. I wondered what it was like to have a twin, and where you could automatically have this connection with them that you couldn't describe to anyone else. I was envious of them, at least they had each other over a thousand years later as vampires instead of just one of them.

"How can you stand her? She's too nice," Jane grumbled, rolling her eyes at the thought of her being in my place and having a nice medical nurse helping her around the house.

I couldn't help but smirk at the fact that she was acting like her normal age, and how she wasn't acting as though she was older than she usually tried to act like she was. Sure, she was over a thousand years old, but she was still a twelve-year-old, and that meant she would be like any other preteen. She wasn't supposed to act like she was actually older than she truly was on the inside, the age she had been frozen to for over a millennium.

As though she sensed me having deeper thoughts than a usual thought, Jane turned and looked at me. She studied me too and I knew I would never be able to truly know what she was thinking.

She looked away from me and off to the side in the closet.

She might be looking at a pair of my shoes that were easy to slip on, or she could be looking at one of my shirts (quite possibly it was one of mine that I hated to wear but was easy to slip on, so it was used more than I wanted it to). She looked as though she didn't know how to feel about me either, as though she knew I was quite as complicated as she was and we could understand each other.

She shut the closet door quickly and soundlessly, enough for me to let out a sigh a little bit before Leigha came into the room. She craned her head to the side, studying me to make sure that I was okay, but I gave her a reassuring smile.

"You okay, Bella? You look troubled."

I nodded my head as well as I could before my head tilted to the side. My fingers curled together on my lap, where I wanted to pull pieces of my blanket I had over my bedspread. I was aggravated a little bit, when things like this happened. I also wanted to pull pieces of my hair out of my head. I wanted to just be healed. I didn't want to be in this state.

As though she sensed this Alice went to touch me, but I pushed away from her.

Tears began to rise in my eyes, and I bit the corner of my lip. I closed my eyes and felt the anguish wash over me. I didn't want to deal with this at all. I felt hands reach out and grab my head before my head was brought up. I opened my eyes and saw that Leigha and Alice were sending me pitiful looks. I let my eyes flicker away from them and to one of my fake plants that were throughout the room (an attempt that would make me feel cheerful and brighter in happiness).

"L-Leave me a-alone."

Leigha stood up from the bed and sat my cup of yogurt onto the bedside table along with the plastic spoon before she got up. Alice was the next person to get up and tell me she would call me later to see how I was doing before she walked out of the bedroom with Leigha. I looked at the plants still, the bright green was a calming sight for me and kept me from wanting to start crying again in distress at all that was happening.

My closet door opened and before I knew it a pair of hands took mine in theirs, enough for me to jolt and turn to see that Alec was sitting on the bed. Jane was standing by the window, her lips pressed together, and her arms folded against her chest.

She seemed to be watching to make sure that Alice would get into her car and drive away. So that it was just me and the twins along with Leigha downstairs–unaware about the twin vampires that were trying to comfort me in their own odd way.

"I'm tired," I sighed aloud, though my eyes flickered away from looking at the faux plant to the sight of Alec having his hands upon mine. I couldn't help but smile some at how he was trying to massage my hands in his, as though he was comforting me.

"Go to sleep then, I'm sure that–"

"N-Not that kind of tired," I quickly remarked, making him give me a look that let me know he understood that too.

He pulled his hands away from mine but without thinking I reached out and took his hands in mine again, which made him blink a few times at how desperate I was for him to do that simple little movement. He didn't say anything, just gave me another twinkle in his crimson irises and continued to silently support me.

"B-Bring me hi-him."

Jane didn't say anything in the background, but she did sit down on the windowsill, her eyes traveling from wherever she was looking outside to me again. The wind came and played with everything in the room but did not mess with her hair or even the light weight but still glamorous robes they were to wear so everyone could identify them for their high status in the vampiric world.

And yes, they still wore their robes when they would come and visit me, even if I wasn't a vampire yet. It was supposed to show respect towards me since I would become one of their future queens. They had to show they would guard over me seriously, and word could go back to Caius when Aro would read their minds to see that they weren't wearing their robes when they were supposed to.

"Not yet Zia."

Jane snapped her attention away from me to Alec, her mouth falling open at what he had called me. I furled my eyebrows at them, knowing that Alec would be blushing if he were able to do so. He peered at my blanket that was draped over my bedspread.

"W-What did you call me?"

Neither of the twins knew I knew the bare minimum of Italian.

Caius had told me he would teach me more about the language when I would move to the country, as another way for us to bond together. I wasn't against the notion of learning the language before I would arrive in the country. Still, if Caius still wanted to be with me despite my disability, then I could surely wait until after I would move to Italy to learn the language.

"N-Nothing, don't worry about it."

"Why did you call her that? She's not that to us! Aro is the only parental figure we know, the only one that we should care about in that manner. Yes, we can eventually learn to like her, and we can respect her, but she is not like Queen Sulpicia. She will–"

"I know that, Jane! I know that! Queen Sulpicia has always been more drawn to you, and yes, I can see her as a mother…but eventually I might choose the term I just said for her and mother for Bella," Alec confessed, their vampiric speaking was lower than a human could detect downstairs.

Jane blinked in shock and sadness, pain that overwrapped her. She had never felt isolated when it came to her feelings towards people, usually she would have the same feelings towards someone that Alec felt towards the same said person. This was the first time that she could end up feeling a way about a person in one way and Alec would towards another.

She reached her hand out and grabbed part of the windowsill, where it ended up breaking and splintering. My mouth felt open as she got off of the windowsill and stalked towards me, one moment she was by the windowsill and the next second she was next to me–such a blur I wasn't able to detect it with human eyesight.

"If you ever hurt–"

"Jane, stop!"

Jane let out a loud growl, her eyes darkening, before she rushed towards the window and jumped out. Chances where she would end up running up to Port Angeles or Seattle so she could hunt.

I didn't say anything about the small tantrum that the over a millennium vampire, who had been stuck at the age of twelve. I wasn't in the same situation as she was so there was no point in adding any of my opinions in the mix about the said emotional turmoil she was going through.

"Is it true?"

Alec had stood up from where he had been sitting on the bed and went over to where my dresser was. He picked up the yogurt and brought it up to his nose, sniffing it for a moment, before he sat it back down with disgust. I giggled some at the little motion he had just done, as though he was smelling a carton of milk to make sure it hadn't gone sour.

"What is true?"

I gave him a knowing look, and he merely turned and looked at me, before he turned his attention towards the jewelry boxes that were sitting on the top of the dresser. He had a soft look across his features as he opened them and looked inside at the necklaces and the earrings and the rings that Caius had collected before meeting me and giving them to me.

"You…call-called…me…aunt."

Alec nodded his head, his lips pressed together before he came over and sat down at the end of the bed. He turned to look at me, the bottom of his irises was starting to form glistening tears that would never fall. He let his eyes flicker down to my hands, before he clicked the corner of his mouth, nibbling on the inside before he looked at me once again.

"I am certain the Cullens told you of what happened to Jane and me when we were turned into vampires without the respect of privacy," Alec started, a tinge of annoyance coming from his voice. He continued a moment later, "yes, we were turned into vampires in 800 A.D because our village had become paranoid and believed us to be witches. We were not, but the humans were quite idiotic…."

I brought my hand up, it was shaking but it was enough for Alec to notice so he moved closer to me. He put his hand in mine and started to rub his fingers against my hand. I leant back against the pillows and imagined that I was being comforted by a little brother, instead of being comforted by a vampire who had been stuck in the form of a twelve-year-old for over a thousand years.

"Queen Sulpicia automatically fell in love with Jane the very moment she had met her, but she did not find me quite useful. She was the more violent one between her and Aro. Aro wanted to collect us, while Queen Sulpicia was more interested in making sure to use the guards for violence than with pacification. I am the pacification route, the boring route. So, she only makes sure to have me in her presence when all other routes are used than the one, she wants…"

My mouth felt open, and I brought my other hand up, motioning for him to come closer. He came closer and without hesitation I brought my other hand closer to him, it was shaking and weak and almost fell a couple of times, but I managed to bring the hand up and touch the side of his cheek. His eyes widened at how I was placing my hand upon his cheek as though I was his mother.

"Calling me your aunt is not a bad thing," I assured him, making him duck his head down before he grabbed my hand and kissed it in a platonic manner, holding my hand in his for a moment. His mind went off before he came back to full attention.

He dropped my hand and nodded his head, his head snapping in the direction of where the bedroom door frame was before he rushed out of the bedroom through the windowsill. Not that long after, Leigha came into the bedroom so that she could make me eat the yogurt she had gotten for me earlier. She didn't want the yogurt to go to waste and it had fruit in it so it was the perfect snack before she would start making dinner.

I sighed and paid attention to Leigha, even though the rest of the day and even that night I wished nothing more than to tell Alec it was okay for him to feel a different way towards me than his sister did towards me. I might get close to Alec but I might not get close to Jane but that wasn't something that I had to do in order for me to become a future vampiric queen.

Time sped faster since Alec had confessed, he could see me becoming his aunt in the future. Leigha had become more focused on me than before for some odd reason, as though she sensed that there was something else in the house than just humans. She never voiced anything, because of the fact that it would obviously make her sound as though she was insane.

My birthday was yesterday, and the Cullens had invited me over to their house.

I only stayed a good bit over an hour, ate a small birthday cake from one of the high-class bakeries in Port Angeles, and watched a movie with them before I came back to Charlie's house. Then Alec and Jane appeared and began to pack up all my clothes and nick-knacks that I wanted to take with me to Volterra. There was no need to pack anything that held no personal value to me.

Leigha and Charlie had gone to sleep, and my bags were outside of the house, underneath the tree next to my bedroom. Jane was next to the tree, making sure she could watch over the luggage and not be in the same room as me. Alec folded up my wheelchair after he sat me upright, as I was dressed in lounge clothes that were easy to take on and off and threw it out the window so that his twin sister could catch it and it wouldn't break into a million pieces due to his vampiric strength.

I hadn't expected the whoosh of something landing on the tree branch outside of my bedroom window. It wasn't Jane, and as the person climbed into the bedroom my heart stopped for a moment as Caius Volturi appeared in front of me. In his eternal beauty, and with a small smirk upon his lips that allowed me to know he was here to take me to Volterra.

I stayed still, his ring he had given to me was hanging on a silver chain around my neck, and he smirked even more at the sight of his volturi ring resting against my skin. He crouched down in front of me and brought my hands up before he kissed them. The natural scents he gave to me, hit me full force and made me shiver some.

"Come, my darling, it's time to go home."

He picked me up and hopped out of the bedroom window, while Alec followed behind him. The next morning Leigha would get up to wake me for school only to find my bedroom empty of both me and my treasured objects.

UPDATE: 3 OF 3.

as always: Twilight doesn't belong to me.

-Emmy