After seeing Colin out, Aro turned immediately to return to the dungeon.
"Sir?"
Rolling his eyes to himself, Aro looked at the vapid secretary.
"Yes Bianca?"
The woman cleared her throat, working up her courage.
"We could all hear the screaming…"
"And?"
"I just– I thought I would be next," she admitted quietly.
Aro smiled.
"My dear Bianca, you've waited so patiently. Can you wait just a bit longer? I promise you dear, once Bella has finished, I'll call for you."
Bianca grinned, clapping her hands together.
"Yes! Absolutely. Thank you!"
"No Bianca, thank you." He smirked to himself as he turned to make his way back to Bella.
Aro listened with rapt attention to the rapid beating of Bella's heart, the staccato rhythm much too fast for a human to survive. She was near the end. One final cracked scream tore from the girl's throat, her back arched high up before she shuddered, her torso dropping finally. The beats slowed until at last, they stopped entirely.
Her body was completely still, lying prone on the floor of the dungeon. He looked over her, appreciating the small changes the transformation had made. At last, she opened her eyes.
Bella stared up at the ceiling, completely mesmerized by every crack and crevice in the stone above her. She followed them like a puzzle, enamored with the spider web patterns.
"Ahem."
Faster than she could process, Bella was standing and somehow across the room, her back pressed to the wall furthest from the voice.
"Who are you?" she asked, her own voice sounding strange to herself.
"My name is Aro."
Of its own volition, her body dropped into a defensive crouch.
"I'm not going to hurt you, child. I'm here to help. Do you remember where you are?"
Her fingers dug into the stone wall behind her, her eyes darting around the room as the panic started setting in. She shook her head.
"You're in Volterra. It's a small town in Italy." Aro paused. "Do you know what you are?"
"I…" She shook her head again. "I don't even know who I am," she whispered.
"Oh, you poor thing." Aro's voice was full of pity. "I'm so sorry. This isn't the first time this has happened." He shook his head. "Your name is Isabella, but I've come to learn you prefer Bella."
He took a tentative step forward. She deepened into the crouch instinctually.
"I promise, I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you." He held his hands out as if he were approaching a wild animal.
"My throat hurts," she croaked.
"Of course it does. We'll remedy that at once." Aro moved slowly so as not to set off her instincts and took the cell phone from his pocket.
"Bianca dear, I'd like for you to join me now," he said into the receiver.
Minutes later, Aro watched as Bella started carefully leaning away from the wall at last. He knew her body was reacting to the approaching scent.
"What is that?" she asked quietly. "It smells amazing."
Aro laughed to himself.
"In time, I imagine you'll develop better taste."
She looked at him, confused, but her attention was drawn to the dungeon door seconds later. There was a knock and Bella almost jumped at the sound.
"Patience," Aro murmured, moving to open the door.
"Sir, thank you! You can't imagine how grateful I am!"
Aro took a step back, allowing Bianca to enter the room. Bella stared at the woman, her mouth filling with venom. Her dark red eyes narrowed in on the pulse at Bianca's throat.
"Sir?" The fear in Bianca's voice was almost tangible. Faster than she could see, Aro's form blurred away from her.
With nothing standing between her and the pulse, Bella leapt across the room, her movements nothing more than a streak of pale skin and mahogany hair to Bianca's human eyes. The secretary opened her mouth to scream, but Bella's razor-sharp teeth were sinking into her neck, cutting the sound off almost immediately.
Bianca clutched at Bella's back, trying in vain to pull away from her. Bella growled against her skin, gripping Bianca's head in her hands to keep the woman still. Aro winced when he heard the skull cracking under Bella's fingers.
Bella swallowed mouthfuls of the blood, whining when the stream began to slow. She drew back and stared at the wound before moving in again, tearing at the flesh with her teeth and searching for more. When at last Bianca had been entirely drained, Bella dropped the body to the floor.
Aro watched silently, knowing Bella may still be in hunting mode. She stared down at her hands, her slender fingers covered in strands of hair and bits of brain matter. She looked up finally, meeting his matching red eyes. Her tongue darted out, licking at the smeared blood around her lips.
"I want more."
Aro grinned, grateful to see that Colin had outdone himself. He was worried that the newborn would still have at the least some of her human morality left to contend with, but the fierce vampire before him had no shame in her bloodlust.
"And more you shall have, my dear."
"She's gone!"
"What do you mean 'she's gone'?" Carlisle asked.
"I can't see anything! She was in the middle of the change and then she just– she disappeared! I can't see her at all!"
"Alice baby, you need to calm down–"
"Cut it out Jasper," she hissed. He held his hands up, backing off the waves of soothing energy he'd been putting over his mate.
"I thought you said everything was progressing as usual?" Carlisle furrowed his brow, deep in thought.
"It was." Alice shook her head. "I don't understand what happened."
"Maybe it's her brain thing," Emmett offered. At the resounding silence around him, he rolled his eyes. "When she was human, Edward couldn't hear her thoughts, but Jasper could still work his voodoo on her, right?" He shrugged a shoulder. "What if as a vampire, whatever was stopping Edward is strong enough to stop everything?"
"Emmett, I think you may be on to something," Carlisle murmured. "Alice's intuition became premonitions, Jasper's influence became complete emotional manipulation…" his voice drifted off.
"But, but… that isn't fair!" Alice huffed. "What do we do now?"
"We do exactly as we have. We wait."
"Carlisle, how can we leave her there? Doesn't this solve all of our problems? She's like us now."
"Esme." Carlisle took his mate's hands between his own. "It isn't that simple. She's Aro's progeny. We can't just expect that he'll let us whisk her away. And…"
"And?"
"There's always the chance that she may not want to leave. The Volturi aren't monsters. And we did essentially abandon her at Edward's request."
"But if Edward knew–"
Rose snorted.
"If Edward knew, he'd been in Italy already, signing up to join the guard just for a chance to sniff her robes."
"While her delivery could certainly use some sensitivity, Rosalie isn't wrong." Carlisle shot her a look. "And we'd all likely be facing some kind of consequence for breaking the law." He sighed. "I just can't risk the safety of my family, not without knowing Bella isn't in some kind of danger."
"What happens when Edward comes home?" Jasper asked. "There's no way we'd be able to keep this from him."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Carlisle answered. "Alice, keep an eye on him, please."