CHAPTER TWELVE

Boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?

Darling, I'm scared

~ Taylor Swift, Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

Edward Cullen

The rest of the family was long gone. We had celebrated for hours. Talking and dancing and enjoying a rare stress-free moment. I even got Rosalie to dance with me, winning her over with a waltz that Emmett was never a fan of doing.

But now, hours after our first kiss as husband and wife, I swayed in the middle of the now empty forest with her. Soft music still floated through the air, various twinkling lights shined against the black night, and my hands rested comfortably on her waist.

I felt her quietly chuckle against my chest.

What's so funny?

Bella shrugged. And her mind fluttered open to me. I was just thinking about how I wanted this day to last forever. And realized it kind of can.

I smiled into the top of her head.

We could spend a hundred years together, she mused quietly. Almost as if she had forgotten her mind was still open to me.

A hundred is hardly enough, I countered.

Her head tilted up, a lazy smile tugging at her mouth. "Thank you for waiting for me."

I pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "Thank you for finding me."

The air around us was quick to shift. That peaceful, blissful calm that had followed our wedding morphed into a heavy, sudden need for her. To know she was real and mine and here.

My hands tightened around her hips. Our swaying stopped and her fingers clenched around the lapels of my tuxedo.

A frustrated growl rumbled from the back of my throat as she pulled away before I could capture her lips.

"Take me home, Edward," she said quietly.

I had her safely in my arms a moment later. Her dress flowing behind us as I ran us to our cottage. The closest thing we had to a home at the moment.

The sudden urge to give her everything her heart desired flowed through me. A home, an island, anything she wanted. The cottage was technically Carlisle's. And while I knew it was a matter of semantics, I wanted to provide for her. Keep her safe and secure with my own means.

When I left Carlisle, I left him with a majority of my finances as well. He graciously took care of them while I was in Italy. Even then, I didn't want Aro having too many hooks in me if I ever needed a quick getaway.

"Has anyone ever told you you're incredibly old fashioned?" Bella mumbled against my neck as we approached the cottage.

We didn't stop at the door. She quickly swung it open with an impressive gust of wind that had me smiling down at her.

"Has anyone ever told you you're remarkable?"

She playfully rolled her eyes which had them landing on the small piano in the corner of the living room. "Will you play for me?"

Without a break in my stride I stopped us in front of the piano. It was a new addition to the house, one Bella must have requested after we got here.

"I convinced my mom to put me in piano classes when I was fourteen," Bella said softly as she sat beside me. "I was absolutely horrible." I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. "But I always loved it. The piano. Wished I could actually make it sound as beautiful as it should."

It had been decades since I had actually played. It wasn't a luxury I bothered with in Volterra. But my fingers immediately remembered what they needed as they floated across the keys in the lullaby I wrote to myself to remind me of her.

Bella let out a contented sigh, her head falling to my shoulder. After a few run throughs of her lullaby, I grabbed one of her hands and placed it over mine as I slowed down the melody and let her fingers follow mine.

A pure, undiluted rush of happiness flowed through the room. One I would remember for the rest of my existence.

Then her fingers tightened around mine, not wasting any time as she pulled me from the bench and toward our bedroom.

Before we could get ahead of ourselves, I pressed her gently against the far wall. My hands slid down her waist, over the soft fabric of her dress before I turned her around with a quick flick of my wrists.

"I would never forgive myself if I destroyed your wedding dress," I mumbled softly against her neck as I forced my fingers to gently undo the buttons that cascaded down her back.

She got her revenge as she meticulously removed my tuxedo. With the garments safely tucked away, the careful hands disappeared as she stretched herself out beneath me in bed.

I leaned down for a kiss that started out as sweet and gentle as she deserved but quickly morphed as both of our baser instincts kicked in. My mind was quickly flooded with an overwhelming amount of possibilities. All the different ways I needed to make her mine.

Strong hands tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck to grab my attention. "Please," she murmured against my lips. "I can't—I need—"

I set all of my more creative ideas aside for the time being and firmly hitched one of her legs around my thigh. I felt the muscles of her thighs shake as I slid inside of her in one, sure stroke.

We each let out matching, shaky breaths. It was unlike any of the other times I'd had her before. The knowledge that she was my wife was a heady feeling. An old fashioned one as she suggested, but one that had me realizing that it would be next to impossible to let her out of my sight for the foreseeable future. Or out of bed.

—Miss Americana—

I would be hard pressed to string together another ninety-six hours of pure perfection in my lifetime. In however many lifetimes I lived.

The days following our wedding were, without a doubt, the best days of my existence. Because there was just her. Nothing and no one else mattered. I had my wife in my arms, in my bed, and for the first time in the ninety years since I joined the Volturi, I was hopeful.

That I'd get to keep her forever. That we could live in this perfect little bubble for eternity and never have to deal with anyone else. That she wouldn't one day be hunted down or stolen away from me.

Her teeth nipped at my hip at the last thought and I quickly shoved it away for another day.

—Miss Americana—

There were probably plenty of vampires in the world who would have found it disconcerting. Off putting. At the very least, a little weird even for a supernatural being.

Were it any other vampire feeding off of me, maybe I would have felt the same way. But having Bella with her teeth in my skin, knowing that I was helping sustain her in one of the most necessary ways she needed, it was more of a turn on that I'd care to admit. Something I never would have imagined enjoying quite as much until it happened.

The blinding orgasm every time was also a nice perk.

Bella coughed out a laugh across the room.

Seven days. We gave ourselves seven uninterrupted days after our wedding to live in a blissful bubble of ignorance before returning to reality.

We nearly made it all seven. We were just a few minutes shy, already begrudgingly getting ourselves dressed when it happened.

Bella froze, dropping the cardigan she had just pulled out of her closet. Her eyes went glassy, seeing something obviously other than our cottage bedroom. Something that had her mouth drop open in shock.

Her eyes zig zagged, as if she were reading. Or cycling through a dozen different futures searching for one she wanted. One that got that horrified look off of her face.

I gently cupped her cheek, waiting for her eyes to focus on me. "What is it?"

"Volturi," she breathed out. "Here. Now."

"Where?" I asked, not giving myself a moment to panic.

"Clearing by the river. At sunset."

My eyes flickered over to the window. At the sun already dangerously low in the sky.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering for a few seconds we didn't have to spare, before grabbing her hand.

We ran into the family on our way, as they were headed for us.

In the clearing by the river. Just where Bella said the Volturi would be.

"He knew I'd be watching. He must have disguised his intentions until the very last moment," Alice huffed, pacing before the stoic group.

Carlisle stood still, a stoic hand under his chin with the other wrapped around Esme. Emmett and Jasper were quietly discussing battle strategies while Rosalie and Alice spoke quietly together. None of them acknowledged our appearance other than for a few hesitant glances our way.

"Who did he bring with him?" I asked Alice.

Alice swallowed before meeting my eyes. "Everybody."

"You should run," Bella said quickly. "All of you."

Every vampire in the clearing glared at her and answered simultaneously. "No."

"We've broken no laws," Carlisle added firmly. "The Volturi have no grounds to attack us."

"That doesn't mean he won't," I told him. "Aro won't care about the repercussions if he gets Bella out of the deal. If he knew a fraction of what she could do—"

"He brought the whole guard, Carlisle," Esme whispered gently. "He's not here to chat."

"On the contrary, dear Esme," Aro's voice floated from the field behind us. "I have quite a few questions for you, my friends."

I quickly slid Bella behind me as we watched Aro and his guard emerge from the forest. Surrounding us on all sides, our backs to the river.

I felt Bella's forehead press into the center of my back. Her mind opened up to me, for a quick moment. Just long enough for a quiet I love you to slip through.

It sounded far too much like a goodbye.

"We've broken no laws, Aro," Carlisle said confidently.

"I know, my friend. You do, however, have something I've been searching for."

A growl vibrated in the back of my throat.

"Edward, my son, I'm hurt you wouldn't want to bring your mate home."

Ignoring his own accusations, I asked, "How did you find out?"

Aro smiled softly in our direction. Discretely twisting himself to try and get a glimpse of Bella. "I've known about her for quite some time. About the possibility of her. There are things about this world far older and darker than any of you can comprehend."

"Bella poses no threat, Aro," Carlisle said calmly. I saw it in his mind, though. The way even he knew there would be no easy way out of this situation. No way with all of us still intact.

Bella's hand squeezed mine from behind.

"There have been stories told about her from the beginning of our kind," Aro started, eyes impatiently searching over my shoulder for a glimpse of her. "A vampire born, not created. One with unmatched power, unlimited abilities. One that needs the venom of her mate to thrive.

"I've found one other before you, dear Bella. She never found her mate, though. Never grew to her full potential. A waste, really."

It was all new information to me. To every person in the clearing, including Marcus and Caius. They were all led to believe they were coming to get me back, and destroy Carlisle's coven.

But I could see it in Aro's mind, the story that had been practically engrained in him from the beginning of his vampiric life. Even in his mind, it read more like a fairytale or folklore. Especially before he found the one other born vampire he spoke of.

She looked about Bella's age, maybe changed on her eighteenth birthday as well. Based on the surroundings of his memories of her, she had to have been alive nearly a millennia ago. She was blonde, so malnourished by the time Aro found her she looked to be mere skin and bone.

One that needs the venom of her mate to thrive.

How long had she been alone to end up in a state? How long would it have taken before Bella ended up the same had we not found her need for my venom?

"A vampire like yourself is not born without the world feeling the consequences," Aro said. "I knew the exact moment you were born, my Bella. It was a surprise that Edward turned out to be your mate, though."

"What do you want, Aro?" I snapped, losing my patience.

"Oh, it's fairly obvious, dear boy. The girl comes with me."

"No," I growled.

As did every other Cullen surrounding me.

Aro smiled. "Isabella?"

My entire body tensed as Bella took a tentative step out from behind me. My arm shot out, wrapping around the front of her waist to keep her as far back as possible.

"It's lovely to meet you, dear. I mean you no harm."

"No need to lie," Bella said coolly.

Aro beamed.

Nauseous. I was fairly sure I felt nauseous, though the feeling should be entirely impossible for a vampire.

"I could give you a life you never dreamed of, my Bella. A new world, yours for the taking."

"I won't help you. Won't hurt any humans."

Aro sighed dramatically. "Yes, yes, I figured Carlisle might have gotten to you with his… radical ideas. The problem, my Bella, is if you are not on my side you are against me. And I cannot have you of all vampires against me.

"So, I shall offer you a deal. You come with me where I can keep an eye on you and I'll let everyone else here live. Even the mangy wolves you've got hiding out there."

I answered immediately "No."

Bella's hands squeezed my arm still around her waist. It was the last thing I felt before the familiar agony of Jane's gift had my legs falling out from underneath me.

"Would you like to watch him die, Bella?" Aro mused.

Even as I fought against screaming out in pain, the growl that erupted from behind me was nearly deafening. The pain stopped nearly immediately after. A moment before the screaming started.

My eyes snapped open to see Jane writhing in pain on the ground. Likely for the first time in her entire existence.

Aro could hardly control his excitement while I watched a kernel of fear settle into the rest of the guard.

Jane's screaming stopped. The clearing when silent.

There was nothing left to say.

Only a fight—

"Promise," Bella said quietly. "Promise me you will never harm any of the Cullen's. Or—or the mangy wolves."

"Bella," I gasped, getting to my feet and standing in front of her.

She side stepped me immediately.

"You will never harm them. You will not send others out to harm them. No matter what you have planned, you will leave them alone."

"If they stay out of my way, I will stay out of theirs," Aro readily agreed.

"Bella."

There is no other option, Edward. Her voice floated through my mind.

Then we fight.

Even with Bella and her abilities, it was more likely than not to be a massacre. The sheer number of guard members with Aro was enough to drain Bella within minutes.

Her eyes met mine. Mostly silver now with a few amber strands after how much of my venom she had the last seven days. Long gone were those eyes that were nearly glistening with impossible tears as we spoke our vows.

Fear and determination hardened her gaze.

I can't watch you die.

The gut wrenching despair that shot through the field wasn't new for me. It had been in my own stomach from the moment she dropped her shoes earlier this evening.

"Bella."

I watched, frozen in fear, as she turned toward the Cullen's who would have fought and died for her without a second thought. "I'm sorry. I—I'm sorry."

Then she turned to me. And I couldn't stop my hands from shaking as they wrapped around her waist and pulled her to me.

You don't have to do this. Even if he's not lying now he will betray you. We can fight, Bella.

Her head shook softly against my chest. I can't watch you die. She repeated it. Over and over. As if she didn't even realize she was letting me in.

Even as she pressed a gentle kiss to my lips, as she squeezed me close one last time, my mind was frantically looking for another way out. Hell, I could grab her and just run. We could use the lake to hide our scent. We—

My fingers tightened around her hips as she tried to take a step away.

I'm sorry. I love you. I'm sorry.

I wasn't sure where her thoughts ended and mine began. They were identical.

It was a torture worse than any Jane had ever inflicted as I watched her slowly walk toward the guard.

My knees fell out from under me as they all immediately retreated, forming a tight circle of protection around my mate.

A/N: I know. I'm sorry. We're in for quite a ride, I hope. To be honest, every chapter from here on out is unplanned and I just start writing and see where we go. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless, and I'll see you next time!