Chapter Twelve

I was sitting on one of the simple but still light colored elegant window seats in my and Marcus's bedroom chambers, peering out at the award winning royal gardens in the distance when I could hear the bedroom door opening. I thought nothing more than it being one of my family members, or even the two other queens coming to visit me.

So it didn't surprise me when I saw who it was.

I glanced over and noted Alec coming into the room.

He glanced around the gold and emerald room before his crimson eyes landed on my meek brown ones, softening like they always did when he first looked at me. He did have that weariness that would be there for some time (even when I would become a vampire), expecting me to tell him me and Marcus had spoken to each other, and we decided we wouldn't want him and Jane after all.

Even though we had proven our commitment to them through the blood and venom. There was no way of going back once you drank the venom of your future vampire husband and your surrogate vampire children along with your own blood. That's just the way things were, and I couldn't complain in the least about this connection made through that.

"Mother, Corin says she wants to have a session with you. Just so she can see how you feel about becoming a vampire in a month," Alec spoke, earning a nod from me to let him know I understood him. He came over and took my hand that was closest to him in his, squeezing it gently to let me know he was supporting me. He was always doing that.

"Okay, you can bring her in. I'll see you in about an hour, okay? You can read me one of your favorite novels again, if you want?" I probed, earning a nod from him before he walked out of the room to let Corin know she could come in so we could have our session.

Yet I knew something was off when Corin came into the room dressed in a bright color instead of the soothing light color she normally wore. Her eyes were off, they weren't that same twinkling sweetness. There was something hard, unforgiving deep within those crimson eyes. It was barely there for a second, but I had caught it at the perfect time.

"Bella, let's go sit by the loveseat and chairs. Then you can tell me how you feel about the upcoming special occasion in a month's time," Corin stated, in a tone of voice where I couldn't tell her I would rather be sitting on the window seat than over on the loveseat because I was more comfortable here. There was no way to disagree with her decision.

Getting up from the said window seat I went over to where the velveteen loveseat was and stretched out while Corin sat down in the love chair facing me. The fireplace wasn't lit, so there was no cracking of heated logs. Nor were there flames that were sending lineaments to objects around the room.

Just a simple quiet room, peaceful.

Corin opened the simple brown journal that had no embellishments where she had all her notes about her patients written down.

There were photographs of the said clients pinned to the top of their information. No reason why she would mistake an information sheet for another when their faces were there for her to see. She even wrote in an ink quill, a bottle of simple black ink sat on the side table next to her. An old-fashioned quirk, something she carried on from her time period to modern times.

"It says here that you're considering having both Alec and Jane bite you along with Marcus. So, you can have all their venom in you, and you can have parts of them forever. I'm sure you've been told the effects the venom has, and the more painful it would be with more than one vampire biting you," Corin explained, earning a nod from me to let her know I understood.

She studied me before she looked back down at her written notes, she had gathered in the months I had been here.

She drifted away for a moment, when it came to her thoughts. She was trying to analyze a probable decision or subject. I shifted a little bit on the loveseat, noting as she looked up from the journal, she had her eyes train onto my neck where the locket was.

I reached my hand up and placed it over the locket. She looked as if she wanted to throw it into the fireplace.

I had never had anyone look at my locket that way, except for maybe Renee but thankfully we never had fireplaces in the places we were renting whenever she would have that look.

Corin stood up and went over to the fireplace and lit it, where the logs popped and cracked from the heat of the flames. She placed her hands together behind her back before she turned and looked at me. She shot me a kind smile, before saying, "it's best to keep the fireplace going. This is a castle, it gets drafty, and you don't have to worry about getting up for a blanket before settling back down."

I stiffened as she came over to me, her high heels thudding against the rug and the carpeted ground might be muffled but it still brought shivers down my spine. She seemed different than she usually was, not so far away in her thoughts. Always making sure that we would not talk about something which could make me uncomfortable or doing something that would make me feel uncomfortable.

"One of the first things we should do as an exercise is to make sure to get rid of anything that can bring you trauma. Such as this."

Before I could react, she yanked the locket from my neck, the chain breaking and scattering some of the metal beads all over the place. The next second, she threw the locket in the direction of where the fireplace was, making me fall onto the ground in shock.

The locket didn't have the chance to land in the fireplace, instead a thin and feminine hand caught the locket, a hand that belonged to the real Corin. The Corin that was more than livid at the vampire that had the ability to shape-shift into what they wanted. The vampire that took her form.

The shape shifting vampire was slammed into the ground by Marcus, who sat upon him and had his eyes as black as coals. His hands tightened around the vampire's throat, which in return made the shape shifter turn back into their original form. A young male vampire who could honestly be a freshman in high school, and who looked up at the king with the utmost fear in his eyes.

I still was on the ground, right next to my mate and the vampire that was most likely going to kill me. Marcus squeezed the vampire's neck hard enough that cracks were starting to form around the throat. The vampire beneath him started to fight now, thinking since he had the right to defend himself, he would use despite him not really having the right to defend himself.

I opened my mouth, only for an arm to wrap around me and pull me up from the ground.

I was slowly led towards the chamber doors, or well what used to be the chamber doors. The doors had been thrown off their hinges and were smashed to pieces on the ground. I had been in so much turmoil at the thought of losing Avalyn's ashes that I hadn't even heard the doors being slammed open.

The last thing I heard was the sickening sound of the vampire's head being torn clean off of his head. It wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt like hell. He'd probably be led down to the dungeons and have his head put back onto his body before he would be tortured and interrogated on how he got past the security to me.

I was led into one of the private parlors near the tower. Sulpicia and Athenodora were waiting for me, still richly dressed in those queenly dresses.

They rushed forward and hugged me, shushing me as tears came down my cheekbones. I shook in their arms, as one of them kissed me on the forehead and the other one ran her fingers through my hair. Sweet remarks were sent to me, death threats towards the shape shifting attacker were made. They wanted me to be comforted but also knew they were on my side. They wouldn't stand for the treatment I had just gone through.

They slowly pulled away from me, Athenodora had her eyes widened in shock when she saw that my locket wasn't around my neck anymore. "Don't tell me he…"

Behind me Corin came forward, the real Corin, and presented the locket to me. I took it and Athenodora let out a sigh of relief before she began Greek curses.

I kept hearing the word: Erinyes.

The three goddesses of vengeance, who punished men for crimes against the natural order.

It was rapidly being chanted.

I barely could tear apart what was being said and understand it some (I had to thank the queens for teaching me their culture and language from their time period or otherwise I would be completely lost at what Athenodora were saying).

Still, I was able to and though I didn't believe in God or Gods or Goddesses or whatever divinity was out there I hoped in that moment someone had answered Athenodora's prayers so that the attacker would suffer an immense fate. I knew Marcus would see this attacker's death come true, he might end up being the one who killed him.

"Mamma!"

I turned around as the twins came rushing into the room and hugging me.

I fell onto the ground from the sudden ambush of both them and the emotions I was going through. I didn't know if they could feel the terror going through my body the entire time, I was in my chambers with that shape shifter. I did know I felt more than useless in not defending myself in a way that would actually work. My human strength was nothing close to their vampiric strength.

"I'm okay, babies. I'm okay. Your father is taking care of the attacker. My locket is okay, you didn't lose your sister," I assured them, leaning down and kissing them on the heads. They were grasping me so hard it was bruising, but it was the kind of hurt and bruising that let me know they were alive, and I was alive, and we didn't lose each other.

Caius and Aro came into the parlor room and wrapped their arms around their wives to usher them out of the room to leave me in privacy with the twins.

Athenodora didn't look as though she was a fan of this but maybe that was because she was imagining if she were in my place and her locket of her baby's remains was thrown into the fireplace. Sulpicia on the other hand might have been looking as though she was about to commit one of the worst murders of the millennium for almost losing another sister queen, one who was to be married to the same king that lost his first wife.

"We will have our turns with him, don't worry, darling," Aro told Athenodora, only for the woman to frown and eventually nod her head. She gave one last look at me before she left the parlor with the other royal family members.

I sat in that parlor with my children for what felt like a thousand years but was only an hour at the most. I sat there and neither twin dared to utter one word. They knew the fragility of the moment and they didn't want to ruin it with mindless chatter.

We all knew we were waiting for the last member of our family to arrive and then we could decide what to do next. I already had an idea of what I wanted to do next, but I didn't dare say it in fear they would tell me I was getting ahead of myself. They would say I was processing the attack too quickly, and that I needed to slow down and think of all my options.

Eventually the parlor doors opened, and Marcus came into the room.

He immediately sat down onto the ground and pulled me into his arms. I leant back against him, my eyes not really landing on anything in particular. I didn't look too long at the details of the wallpaper or how the chandelier was silver instead of the trademark gold I usually saw for the chandeliers in the castle. I didn't make a comment on what shapes I could see from the rug we lay on. I merely sat there and took in the feeling of his cool arms around me and my children's heads resting in my lap.

"I'm tired of waiting. I'm ready now."

There was no need for some spectacular event where all the highest socialites of the vampiric society would come flocking to the castle.

I didn't need to be dolled up in a traditional royal gown, with my twins on either side of me in their traditional Volturi cloaks. I didn't need to have people watch eagerly with glass wine flutes in their glove's hands, filled with blood, as Marcus would have his teeth descend upon my neck and the children would have their teeth go into my wrists.

"I'm not upset in the slightest that our people can't watch me be bit. It actually makes me feel like I'm supposed to let strangers into the bedroom and make sure we consummate our marriage. I don't need their eyes on me, watching something private and intimate. I'm fine with the kings and queens being in the room with us as I'm being bitten. Other than that, let's not have anyone else in the room. They aren't close enough to us to see it happening."

"If that is what you wish, we'll make it so. When do you want it done? And are we going to do what we said, have the children bite you also?"

Relief, sweet relief.

I knew I could count on Marcus; I knew he would understand me.

He wasn't someone who wanted the event to be spectacular.

We weren't Aro or Sulpicia, where I was certain they would have done so in a heartbeat and might have actually celebrated with loose morals. I could only be thankful that the twins hadn't been turned yet, the last thing they needed to see were orgies being held in celebration of the union of Aro and Sulpicia. Heck, it wasn't something I needed to see either.

"Yes. The children will bite my wrists and you will bite my neck. I will wear a nice dress but nothing too ostentatious. It will be done in the chambers. We will make sure that the attack does not define our home, nor our haven. It will be used in celebration."

I let my eyes drift towards the twins.

Their heads were still next to each other, the lit candles above us on the chandelier sent out little glints throughout the room on anything that was crystal. I swore if I looked long enough, I could even see their skin glisten. It wasn't anywhere close to the kind of glistening that they would have with sunlight, but it was there. Barely there, but still there.

"I wish for Sulpicia and Athenodora to be the ones to help me get prepared. I will be turned at eight o'clock tonight," I declared, with a strong voice that let them know I was going to go through with this. It wasn't just a fleeting thought.

Time sped up after my declaration, as I first mentally prepared myself for the fact that my body would feel as though it was burning from the inside out.

I had demanded they tell me the feeling of being turned, though each family member of mine seemed to want to tell me I shouldn't worry about it.

To say the least, by the time they were done with telling me the truth I knew this was the last time I would feel any type of pain that would make me feel vulnerable. I would be able to fend for myself and my family after the three-day transformation, after the three days of tortuous pain, and no one would ever make me feel inadequate or weak ever again. I would be able to truly go forward and learn to be a stronger woman as a vampire than ever before as a simple human woman.

Sulpicia and Athenodora were attentive to me, making sure I would have my last human meal as something that I enjoyed. I had decided to pig out, knowing this was the last time I would be able to consume human food.

They told me delicacies that were common during their time period in Greece, delicacies around the world that they dared their spouses to eat whenever they would go traveling. Delicacies that they couldn't help but question their existence, because even if they were still human, they wouldn't touch it. Which said a lot since they said they had always been adventurous eaters.

Both queens were sitting with their backs against the tub, while I bathed.

The bath salts and dried petals floating throughout the water reminded me of those special spas that were always on commercials late at night in Phoenix.

The ones that Renee somehow always managed to get gift cards to whenever she would flirt with men at bars and date them for a while until she decided she had spent as much money as she wanted from them. She would probably be dying in disappointment at how she wasn't in a luxurious place like this, having decided to retire from her gold digger career when she had married Phil.

"You know…my mom would sell her soul if she knew that she could find a way to use my royal title to her advantage," I mused aloud, as I grabbed the luffa to gather up the soap and lather both it and I up in the floral scent.

Sulpicia snorted as she glanced up at me, her eyes only on my face. She would never look anywhere else on me in respect. I was sure she had entertained plenty of women in the past, so it wasn't like she wouldn't have seen something she hadn't seen before. Still, it was nice she had never flirted with me or touched me inappropriately from the very moment she had met me.

"Well, it's not surprising. I mean I'm not defending her, or validating her reasons but I was quite a gold digger in my time too," Sulpicia informed me, before she picked up the wine glass flute filled with blood (animal blood, to acknowledge the Cullens and show honor towards them introducing me to Marcus and the world of vampires).

"What Cia means is that she was a courtesan. Aro fell in love with her right before he had been turned. She was about to be forced to marry quite a pithikos man, which generally means ugly. Aro came back, murdered the man on their wedding day, and turned her after they had their fill of carnal pleasure in others," Athenodora explained.

"That…explains a lot," I couldn't help but remark, sending a loud laugh from Athenodora while Sulpicia merely rolled her eyes.

"Yes well, there's not much to see about Dora though. She made clothes and married Caius before he disappeared," Sulpicia stated, none of us adding in the fact that she had been pregnant when he had left, since that part had been mentioned the moment, she met me.

We spent the rest of the time comparing our childhoods with each other, or what they could remember from their childhoods. Some things that were simple memories had been destroyed away by the venom through the centuries while there were some memories strong enough that survived the time. We laughed as they drank, and I got prepared for my transformation into a vampire.

Getting out of the tub and drying myself off, I slipped on some comfortable but stylish undergarments and then slipped on the simple, white chiffon V-neck dress with spaghetti straps. The skirt fell around my ankles and the fabric was so soft it swayed when I moved. There was no need for me to wear shoes, besides it was more whimsical to be barefoot.

Athenodora put my locket through another chain, surprising me when I saw that it was a garnet stoned chain.

The birthstone for January, the month I would have had Avalyn.

A signal for me to feel even more connected and special towards the locket.

She placed the now necklaced locket around my head and clasped it together in the back. The garnets shimmered in their crimson hue, catching the light and adding to the serenity. Simple pearl earrings were clipped into their places upon my ears, round and white. No multiple pearls or chained together. Just the simple one pearl in each ear.

Sulpicia brushed out my hair to make sure that not even one tangle would be there. Pieces of my hair were braided and intertwined together with just simple hair ties. Nothing that was sparkly or bright colored. Ones that were a dark brown and matched the color of my hair. I would be lying on my bed anyway, so my hair wasn't going to be the center focus.

Marcus and the twins were patiently waiting for me as I entered the chambers (the doors were already replaced, though the original beautifully crafted doors were a loss obviously) and were dressed in colors of white. Marcus was wearing the exact same white robes as he wore when he had arrived in Forks and met me. Alec was wearing a copy of his father's robes, and Jane was wearing a very similar dress as mine though there were long sleeves to her dress instead of spaghetti straps.

Caius and Aro swept into the room and went over to their wives. Sulpicia and Athenodora quietly accepted the kisses on their cheeks before they went to position themselves at the end of the bed. They all peered at me with patience and the utmost love upon their faces and in their eyes. They had no regrets towards this happening now, instead of a month from now in the open for all the best socialites to attend and see.

I went over to where the bed was, smoothed without a single winkle on it. It was to be inviting, and ready for me to lay upon. I couldn't help but wonder if I would break the bed during my transformation because I squeezed my hands into the fabric too much. I pushed that thought away, we would worry about that if it came to be.

Climbing onto the bed, I made sure I was lying directly in the middle of the bed. Alec and Jane appeared on either side of the bed, taking my hands in theirs. Marcus leaned his head down and I turned my head to the side so my neck was able to be easily accessed to. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before their teeth descended upon my wrists and neck.

Then as the fire inside my veins began, I could only describe my rebirth as that of a phoenix.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 1 OF 3 UPDATE

I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter.

as always: twilight doesn't belong to me.

-Emmy