Chapter 12

Soft warmth and the smell of fresh grass were the first things Bella could sense through the muddy darkness of her mind. The comforting cocoon of heat eased the tension away from her heavy limbs, and she smiled softly, turning her face to the side to press it further into the long blades of green that tickled her cheeks. She breathed a sigh of satisfaction on the currents of warm breezes that ruffled her hair. She really should get up and head inside. Charlie should be home from his shift any minute now, and she needed to start on his supper.

A gentle tingling laugh in the fragrant air aroused her from her drowsy thoughts, and she blinked dark eyes to stare at the vibrant green that greeted her. In a rush, memories of dancing figures, lilting tunes, burning pain, a reaching hand with panicked red eyes, and a maliciously sharp smile flooded her, and she shoved herself upward into a sitting position in panic. Her heart thudded painfully beneath her ribs as she twisted herself to get a bearing on her bright surroundings but was left at a loss. The grassy field that welcomed her was unfamiliar, and the intensity of the sun's warm rays left her disoriented.

Shakily, she stood on her wobbling legs, tingling from their disuse. Taking a few tentative steps, she stumbled slightly, bracing herself against the rough bark of a nearby tree. Wildflowers in various shades of yellows, blues, and pinks sprinkled against the bright green of the glade's swaying grass, with soft shadows cast by manicured hedges and towering branches at its perimeter.

Where in the world am I?

Feeling eyes watching her, she swung around to see a lightly tanned young woman with dark hair standing within the shadows of an arched hedge. Bella's breath felt stolen as she stared stupefied at the beauty of the unknown youth in front of her whose vivid green eyes were crinkled mischievously. Yet, a sense of familiarity plagued her consciousness. She felt she should recognize the willowy, dark-haired girl who tilted her head to the side to return Bella's curious gaze, the movement causing the thick cascade of black curls to slide over the gauzy white fabric of her Grecian-styled dress.

Swallowing lightly, Bella cleared her scratchy throat before calling out to the unnamed beauty, "Excuse me, um…where am I? Am I still in Volterra?". The woman's widening smile but continued silence caused Bella to pause before forcing herself to take a few timid steps toward the opening in the hedge under the woman's watchful eyes.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but…I don't know how I ended up here." Bella glanced down at herself discreetly and noted with unease that she was dressed in a similarly gauzy white dress. However, the cut of her own was distinctively more modern than that of the other girl with long sheer sleeves, a cinched waist, and a flowing skirt. Wiggling her bare toes into the grass beneath her, she flickered her eyes around the space around her, her anxiety building quickly with each passing moment. She couldn't fathom that any of the Volturi coven would change her clothes, place her barefooted, asleep, and alone in some unknown hedged garden without at least one of the guards remaining behind.

Clenching her fists tightly, she narrowed her eyes at her quiet companion, "Where am I?! Who are you?!". The girl's head tilted in the opposite direction, her face the visage of amusement. Bella once more felt an uncomfortable sense of familiarity when the woman's dark pink lips pulled upwards into a wide smile. Bella's lips nearly quivered in tightly repressed apprehension, and she was desperate for someone to explain what was happening. But above all, an even greater wish pressed even more substantial on her heart, "Where is Aro?!".

The ethereal beauty threw her head back in a soundless laugh within the answering silence of the grove. Bella fumbled a step backward as she stared wide-eyed at the now familiar smile gracing the woman's lovely face to the man she yearned so much to see. The vivacious, bright green eyes creased in perfect replication of Aro's own, and Bella breathed out shakily.

"…Didyme?"

At the softly spoken name, the woman appeared to giggle, though no sound emitted from her, and covered her full lips with long fingers before lowering them to smile beatifically toward Bella, looking every bit that of an angel gracing the Earth. Bella jolted as the memory of the sculpted woman from Marcus's garden came forward, followed quickly by that of the hung portrait above Aro's mantel. There was no doubt in Bella's mind that the woman in front of her was Didyme, and said woman was now turning around to retreat through the arch with a laugh.

Panicked, Bella dashed after her through the opening, her heartbeat thundering in her ears as she followed the giggling woman through the twisting turns of the hedges. Several times, Bella thought she had lost her, if not for the flash of white robes as she turned a corner or the mirthful green eyes that would peek around back at her if she fell too far behind.

"Wait!"

Bella's steps were clumsy compared to Didyme's, who bounded gracefully ahead her. Her lungs burned as she stumbled on one particularly sharp turn, falling to her knees with a grunt. Trembling from exertion and cursing her poor endurance, Bella forced herself back to her feet to see Didyme slip through a wooden door at the end of the lane. Cursing under her breath, Bella took off again after her and slammed her hands at full speed onto the wooden planks of the door to swing it open with a resounding crack against an unexpectedly stoned wall on the other side. Bella allowed the door to slowly close behind her with a click, now coming to a complete stop to stare in surprise at the interior of the familiar room in front of her.

Her room, bathed in the crackling light from the burning fireplace, met her bewildered eyes. At a loss for words about how she had ended up here, she inched further into the room, and her eyes lit up in recognition of Alec, who stood before the burning embers.

"Alec!"

Rushing forward, Bella reached out an eager hand to grab his cloaked shoulder, only to crash to the polished floor when she passed directly through him. Her mind blanked as she stared at the floor's reflective surface when she pushed herself back to her hands and knees. Sitting back on her feet, she stared at Alec's stony expression. The boy did not move other than his eyes moving slightly to trace the flames before him; his lips pressed firmly together.

"Alec?"

Once more, there was no indication that he had heard her, and Bella studied him timidly from her lower vantage point. He was no longer dressed in the formal dress clothes she had seen him in at the Gala, and instead, was once more in his usual militaristic uniform of gray with his heavy black cloak wound around his shoulders and his Volturi crest centered on his chest, shining in the fire's light. After becoming accustomed to seeing his easy smile during their usual banter, it was readily apparent that the boy was currently upset.

Soft baritone murmuring drew her anxious eyes away from his statuesque posture toward her bed, where her lips parted softly in exclamation at the shadowed figure of Marcus, who sat beside the massive four-postered bed within one of her high-backed chairs, thumbing through a hefty tome held atop his crossed knee. His deep voice carried lightly across the room, whispered words of Latin smoothly filling the air, the only sound in the room other than the soft crackling of the fire. He was no longer in his decorous garment and was once more in his usual loose-fitting robes of green and black. She could see just the tiniest glimpse of a slim figure tucked carefully beneath the crimson sheets, with an ashen hand extended from underneath with Marcus' larger one curled over the top. Beside him, atop the bedside table, was a massive bouquet of white lilies, purple and white hyacinths, delicate daisies, and pink tulips.

On his other side stood the still form of Didyme, whose smile was full of tender longing as she appeared to be reading the aged text over his shoulder while stroking her tanned hand lovingly over his dark brown locks, though Bella could see that Didyme's hand passed through Marcus as readily as Bella had through Alec.

That now brought an even more worrisome fact to Bella's mind.

Didyme was dead. Like…dead, dead. Killed by her beloved brother's ambitions.

Bella's next thought was hallowing, numbness taking root in her chest where her heart shuttered. Did that mean she was also dead? Her feet felt like a stone as she shuffled closer to the foot of the bed and focused closer on the figure within the bed. She could make out her own face positioned delicately on the plush satin pillows, her hair loosely curled over the edges, and she felt panic fluttering when she couldn't see her chest rising. She couldn't stop her voice from wavering as she whispered lowly.

"Am I dead?"

Didyme's eyes turned away from the pages within Marcus's lap, and she shook her head gently in response. Didyme presented her with a tender, reassuring smile before turning to run a ghostly hand over Bella's face on the bed. She folded her hands in a sleeping motion, tilting her cheek to rest against her folded hands. Bella stared back at her still form silently before returning her eyes to meet Didyme's gaze.

"Can you not speak?"

Didyme's grin turned rueful before she shook her head again, this time in slight exasperation. Bella's lips turned downward in a small frown, "How is that possible? That makes no sense. None of this is making any sense".

The beautiful woman shrugged her shoulders lightly before curling her fingers into a clawlike position and pressing them lightly around the middle of her throat before violently ripping her hand away from her. Bella's gut twisted in disgust, and it didn't take much deduction for Bella to understand the woman's portrayal of her throat being ripped out. Her eyes fell to the bedspread at the implication, and she softly apologized to the now eternally silent woman.

Bella jumped in surprise when warm hands cupped her cheeks, and she turned her regretful eyes to meet Didyme's smiling ones. Didyme smoothed back Bella's wayward bangs before sliding her hands down her arms to grasp at her fingertips and tugging her toward the door. Following quietly behind her, she stepped through her bedroom door and realized she was not within the maze or even the hallway but now stood in another chamber's confines. It took a moment for Bella's eyes to adjust to the room's dimness, but she recognized it quickly as Aro's quarters.

"How does no one know how the poison made its way into the glasses?"

At the haughty voice, Bella turned to glance over her shoulder to now look at Caius, who stood before Aro's desk with his arms crossed over his slender chest, glasses set atop of his platinum blonde head while staring at his reticent brother whose hands, laced before him with thumbs pressed into his temples, while he stared at his desktop in contemplation. Bella's heart pulsed strongly as she greedily took in Aro's face. He lifted his head to stare at the disbelieving Caius, and she thoughtlessly took several steps toward him until she found herself at the edge of the massive desk.

"The maid was already slaughtered when Demetri tracked her down."

"And Sulpicia?"

A deep growl reverberated throughout the room as Aro led backward into his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him, "Nothing. I went over her memories several times, and there was nothing to indicate she was involved".

Caius snorted delicately while pressing his fingers into his temple, and Bella randomly wondered if it was merely by habit or if he was actually experiencing a headache. She secretly hoped for the latter.

"So to summarize, someone slipped the little human poison in her drink…in public…without any vampire…including Marcus, who is well versed in poison, detecting it. We have no known accomplices or suspects. One can assume that you were the primary target of this mystery adversary and chose to utilize your…dear Isabella. However, the fact that the girl is your fated mate is not public. The only ones who would know this are the individuals living within this castle and the covens from last night who scented her, leaving them very little time to procure something to slip past us. The visiting covens had no prior knowledge of your 'attachment' from my intel until she entered with Marcus at the Gala, which rounds us back to those within the castle. Are we missing anyone else that potentially could have known?"

Bella recoiled as if stricken and likely would have stumbled onto the stone floor without Didyme's steadying hand. Inadvertently, she gripped the woman's hand back in shock; her heart echoed loudly in her ears.

Fated Mate? What?

Didyme appeared wholly unsurprised at the statement; in fact, the minx was grinning ear to ear at her flabbergasted expression. Bella wanted to lash out in retaliation for her smug expression, to state that it wasn't true, that what Caius had spoken was wrong, but numbly, she realized she couldn't. Marcus had made several inferences regarding her 'bond' to Aro, carefully skirting around the facts and merely suggesting that she discuss it directly with his brother. That was a conversation that Bella had been avoiding in earnest. The puzzle pieces were right there before her, and Bella was terrified to assemble them. She couldn't put them together because if she did, everything she knew, her hopes and dreams, would all disappear. Her desire to live amongst the Cullens…with Edward…would be all for naught. Despite Marcus confirming her lack of mating bond with the young vampire, Bella had held out hope that perhaps the bonds could be altered, that everything would fall into place once she changed.

Marcus had known. Caius had known. Alec and the entirety of the Volturi coven had known. Which means, Aro, himself, had also known and did not tell her.

He played me like a toy. Everything was right there, all the facts, yet I was too stupid to see.

Anger and disgust at herself warred in her gut, but Bella found her eyes drawn again to the powerful man occupying the chair at the desk.

Aro grunted softly in response to Caius before he swept his eyes over the stack of paperwork on his desk. Files on various covens were in neat stacks, some with small page markers, others turned over completely in a separate pile on the other side of the desk.

"Interrogation of our coven proved fruitless." Pressing the side of his peaked hands to the length of his lips, he hummed, "Either young Edward or Alice from the Olympic coven may suspect my attachment, but their involvement would not be likely."

Caius nodded slowly in consideration before murmuring lowly, "Regardless, it still wouldn't hurt to look into it. The fact remains that harm to the girl could result in issues for yourself, which cannot be tolerated. I will dispatch one of the guards to see if we can get additional information."

Nodding distractedly, Aro eventually let his hands fall to rest in his lap, his face turned to stare at the darkness beyond the curtains of his room. His hushed voice was so low that Bella had to step closer to make out his words when he addressed Caius again, "Brother, how is she?".

Caius stared at Aro for a long moment before he lowered his resting spectacles to sit properly on the bridge of his nose, "She is alive…for now. The poison was rapidly eroding her esophagus and stomach lining. It also had anticlotting properties, which contributed to the internal bleeding. I have stabilized her, but she will likely need rest due to the loss of blood volume. She should be her usual self, likely in a couple of days. Marcus has remained at her side since the incident. Therefore, you can be at ease that she is at least safe currently, but that will not always be the case. I implore you to do something with the girl, Aro! She is a clear liability to our coven. Change her or be done with her!".

Red eyes flashed precariously as Aro turned to bestow a glacial look toward Caius, "Do not overstep, Caius. This will be your only warning."

Caius' shoulders had stiffened, his back painfully straight. After several long moments, Caius inclined his head minimally and pivoted to exit Aro's quarters.

Now alone, Aro let his shoulders slump, and he ran both hands through the length of his hair, disrupting its usual perfection, with an audible groan of agitation. Automatically, Bella's hand was reaching to brush the errant strands away but jerked the careless appendage away as soon as her fingertips would have reached the glossy strands. Didyme slipped around Bella to stand directly behind her brother. Her expression was affectionate as she wrapped her slip arms around Aro from behind, her head laid gently atop his own.

Aro made no movement that he felt Didyme or was aware of her presence. However, he absentmindedly reached up to run his fingers over the base of his throat where her arms were crossed around him before allowing his head to rest back against the chair, closing his crimson eyes wearily.

It was the first time Bella had ever witnessed Aro dropping his carefully constructed mask, and she was amazed to see how human he appeared when others were not watching. Gone was the flawless smile, honeyed words, calculated banter, and the ever-present genteel persona, and in its place was left a normal man. Well, normal was perhaps a stretch. There was nothing 'normal' about Aro, but more and more, Bella could see that he wasn't the untouchable, omnipotent vampire she initially presumed he was.

"Marcus mentioned previously that it was because of Aro that you have died. Are you not resentful towards him?"

Didyme turned, scrutinizing green eyes in her direction, looking aghast at such a suggestion before firmly shaking her head no and throwing a long finger toward the ornate golden-trimmed mirror hanging on the adjacent wall. Bella looked blankly at the gaudy ceiling-height mirror, unable to determine what exactly the woman was gesturing to; taking several steps closer to its reflective surface and taking a closer look to no avail. Other than looking massively flamboyant, which fit its owner in her own opinion, she couldn't find anything remarkable.

"I don't see anything," Bella glanced over her shoulder back towards Didyme, who had shifted her stance beside her reclining brother. Her raised dark eyebrow and cavalier stance were identical to those of the man alongside her as she gestured once more towards the mirror. The irritation creeping onto her face accompanied the darkening look that shrouded her face as Didyme remained staring at Bella and the mirror.

Holding up her hands in surrender, Bella motioned towards the mirror helplessly. "I looked! There isn't anything there!". Just as the words slipped past her lips, she noticed a sickly green light pulse on the mirror's surface. She turned slowly to study the mirror once more, and iridescent green symbols appeared one by one over its shining exterior. Swallowing the thickened saliva that had pooled in her mouth, Bella took a step back to survey them at a better. Dozens of sharp, jagged signs decorated the perimeter of the grand mirror, each pulsing brightly before fading.

Unconsciously, Marcus's soft baritone warning her of the mirror in her room reverberated in her mind. A strong shiver shook her as she now thought that his warnings of the eyes that stared back from her mirror might not be her own, may not be so much as wordplay, but an actual possibility. Her tongue moistened her dry lips as she inched trembling fingers toward one of the carved runes. However, its progress was halted by the grip of long, tanned fingers. Flinchingly, she saw Didyme holding onto her wayward wrist firmly and mouthing the word, 'No.'

"What is this? I don't understand."

Didyme moved to pull her away as the room started to shift and fade around them. Bella looked about, alarmed, "What's happening?!".

Didyme tilted her face toward Bella before motioning with her free hand toward her neck again. She trailed her thumb and forefinger down the sides of her neck, over her collarbone, to meet between the valley of her breasts, where she then tapped the area firmly. Bella gaped at her stupidly as the room fell away around them, "What?! What do you mean?!".

Didyme's hands, now growing transparent, cupped Bella's cheeks firmly to turn her panicked eyes to meet her own. Bella paused at the gentle smile on the taller woman's face; green eyes shimmered in affection. While brushing back a wayward lock of her hair, Didyme pressed a featherlight kiss to Bella's forehead before stepping back. Before her eyes, the woman's body shifted. Long legs and arms, shortened. Her dark curls shortened, and her face rounded. Where the beautiful nymph once stood in front of her, now stood a child so like the young girl from the painting above Aro's mantle, except for the dark eyes that stared back at her, twinkling mirthfully. The girl swayed slightly before glancing worriedly at the large mirror beside them, her body fading more by the second before she fixated, determined eyes back to Bellas, began to mouth something to her.

Bending slightly, she studied the girl's small lips while attempting to communicate the message. 'Take…him…please'

Blinking her eyes repeatedly, she carefully copied the girl's words before recognition dawned.

'Take care of him, please.'

Bella barely got to comprehend her words as black tentacles of ash curled around them from the shadows, causing her throat to burn and choke. It felt like swallowing glass shards, and Bella instinctively reached toward the child before her. She could barely pry one eye open against the sting of the twisting blackness that closed in on them, though she was able to find the translucent girl in its haze. However, the girl's eyes were no longer focused on her but were fretfully staring toward the mirror. Covering her mouth and nose with her shaking hands, she twisted back to the mirror and went stiff at the black figure with illuminated crimson eyes reflected at her.

No facial features could be decerned, but a person was on the other side of the glass, and Bella's mind screamed danger. The eyes were manic, shimmering with blatant insanity and hate. Behind the figure, the mirror highlighted a vast, hulking form. Ice filled Bella's veins as the height of this new shadow grew, towering high over the initial figure, easily more significant than Felix or Emmett, over 8 feet high in the golden frame, which took over the majority of the ceiling-high mirror. Again, no features could be seen, but its disproportionately long arms, torso, and legs were easily discerned.

That cannot be human. There is no way.

While distracted by the beings in the mirror, Bella did not initially notice that the little girl had moved to stand between herself and the swirling surface of the mirror. She did, however, feel the two small hands pushing firmly to her abdomen, which caused her to stumble back a step.

Then, it felt that everything happened at once. A shrill whistle pierced through the swirling mists, causing Bella to clap her hands over her ears, and the hulking creature's eyes flashed open, blazing yellow as the sun turned downward to fixate intently on Bella's fumbling body. The little girl is shoving Bella harder backward into the embrace of blackness, clearly mouthing the word 'Go!'. Then, the thundering echo of a monstrous mass slamming into the mirror from beyond, gut-wrenching scrapping of something sharp against the glass, shattering reflective fragments raining down on her, and large golden eyes closing in over her before everything went completely black.

Her throat felt as if it was on fire, and she felt weighed down and hot—very hot, actually. She twisted her head from side to side and searched for a reprieve from the unbearable heat. Panting, she weakly attempted to push away whatever weighed her down, and her hand was enveloped in blessed coolness. It wrapped around her hand and wrist before another settled gently on her forehead, something brushing lightly over the surface of her skin.

Isabella.

Rich aromas with spicy undertones tickled her nose, causing her to cough and snort as they flooded her. The smell eased the burning pain in her throat and caused the pressure in her mind to retreat back into the depths.

Isabella. Il mio uccellino, open your eyes.

She wanted to do as instructed, but her damnable body wouldn't cooperate. Her eyelids felt like lead, and this new darkness was so comforting.

La mia dolce compagna, come back to me.

I'm trying!

Another soft press of cold against her forehead, then both her eyelids and the softest brush against her parched lips before that spice-filled scent pulled away, taking with it the relief from the pain in her head and throat.

Wait. No. Please don't go! Come back.

Despite her pleas, the comforting presence retreated, leaving her once more cradled in the abyss.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she became aware of the soft-timbered voice speaking. This pitch was deeper and gruff than the previous one, though Bella could not understand the artfully articulated words.

Italian? Latin?

She was finally able to flutter her eyes open, first noticing the deep red silk of the bed canopy, then the abrupt stop of the quiet words from the moment before, a creak of a chair, and a shadow cast over her face. The fuzzy outline blurred with the background, and she felt the bed dip with their weight as they settled beside her to sit.

"Isabella?"

Staring at the person from beneath her dark lashes, dark chocolate tresses slowly came into focus, pale skin, long but angler face, unreadable red eyes, and the delicate smell of woods and flowers, and Bella cracked a feeble smile.

"Marcus."

A reserved smile graced his stoic features before he laid a hand across her forehead, assessing, before turning to the bedside table, "You still have a mild fever. I was unable to administer any antipyretics while you slept without risk of aspiration. Do you feel well enough to sit up?"

Her body tingled, and when she flexed her hands, she could feel the stickiness of the sweat. Bracing her hands against the plush mattress, she attempted to push herself into a seated position. Immediately, a strong arm reached over her and slipped beneath her shoulders, pulling her upward carefully. The room rocked at the new position, and she let her forehead rest heavily against Marcus's cloaked shoulder.

The tinkling of glass drew her attention to the bedside table and the presented two small white tablets. Following the dark gray sleeve connected to the hand, she smiled weakly upward at Alec's tense face.

"Hey."

Disbelief then amusement passed over the boy's face with a slight shake of his head.

"Hey, yourself. Here, take this."

Alec passed the medicine into her waiting palm, closely followed by a freshly poured glass of water. The pills stuck to her parched tongue, and she greedily gulped down the heavenly contents from the crystal glass. Alec wordlessly refilled the glass twice more, and Marcus continued to watch her, his long fingers bracing the rim of the glass only once when it shook within her hands. Once her thirst had receded, she glanced between them and attempted to assemble what had happened. Her memories were fragmented. Wicked smiles, twisting bodies, frantic red eyes, whispering recollections of a smiling angel, a mirror, and shattering glass. She tried to grasp these thoughts, knowing they were important, but they slipped through her fingers like sand.

"What happened?"

Alec squared his shoulders, his posture shifting when Marcus glanced at him before inclining his head toward the double doors, a clear order for the younger vampire to leave. Alec bowed deeply before quickly exiting. Marcus turned his focus back to Bella, his large hand gently rubbing her shoulder blades.

"What do you remember?"

APOV

Worthless! What was the point of having an intricate information network if not one of them could find out how poison had come to be in his castle?! Hundreds of people were interrogated, a dozen slaughtered, and not one step closer to an answer.

And if Aro hated anything, it was not knowing an answer.

He had spent the better part of the past two days personally seeking out every servant, human, and vampire that had crossed into his threshold and NOTHING!

I'll rip them apart. Carve the skin from their body once I find them, tear their limbs from their body, let them feel every ounce of pain that she did before I put them back together, and make them relive it again and again for eternity. I'll make them pray for death.

Caius' words grated him. It took draining several humans before his bloodlust had receded enough that he didn't seek out his brother and show him exactly what he thought about his 'advice.' The girl was his. Her fate belonged to him. Him alone. His brother would do well to remember.

Aro paused in his trek down one of the many guest corridors to close his eyes tightly against the onslaught of new memories he had obtained. Such a large influx constantly rattled his mind while he attempted to categorize the mass of foreign thoughts before shoving them safely behind his mental walls to dwell on at another time. However, back-to-back contact made his mind…crowded…for lack of a better term—overlapping thoughts, emotions, and memories genuinely made for a warped reality. Deception, greed, and manipulation were prominent when dealing with upper-class humans. Not much had changed since he was human. Yet they were so easy to puppet to suit his needs.

He was tired of wearing these damn contacts. His fingers twitched at his side. He desperately wanted to wash his hands.

Disgusting.

The vampires at least knew to fear him. They freely give over their memories without the excess effort required of their human associates. He merely had to present himself in front of them before they would extend their arms to him to tear through their mind in his search for answers. Saved him precious time.

"Oh, Lord Aro? How are you this afternoon?"

So distracted in his thoughts, Aro overlooked the human dignitary that had turned down the corridor before him until he addressed him. Blinking, he shoved the deluge of voices to the back of his mind once more, annoyed with himself for being caught so unaware-especially by a human. Looking closer at the one that addressed him, his lips immediately stretched into his tight, diplomatic smile. His darkened eyes trailed over the tall, tanned man in front of him before dropping to stare at the large bouquet of white roses held in his left hand. He recognized the man immediately.

"Ambassador Mehmet. I am well. How are yourself?"

"I am well as well. I had just come back from the plaza. Your city is truly a gem to behold."

A dark, twisted emotion bloomed in Aro's chest as he stared at the man's hands, imagining them sliding down the delicate curve of Isabella's flawless back, though he firmly reigned it in as he clasped his hands in front of him jovially.

"I am happy to hear it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a prior appointment to attend to."

Without waiting for a response, Aro slipped around the irritating man, intent on creating distance before his fraying control snapped again.

"Of course, Lord Aro. However, could you point me toward Ms. Isabella's room? I heard she had fallen ill and wanted to give her well wishes."

Aro immediately froze, that darkness surging forward when he glanced over his shoulder at the man again. It was a mere second before Aro pivoted around, a smile stitched wide across his face.

"Her quarters are in the East Wing. The receptionist could easily show you the way. I thank you for your concern; I am sure she will appreciate your compliments."

The human dared to smile while shifting the large bouquet to his opposite hand. "I hope so. She is quite the unique girl."

Aro's smile ticked wider, and venom pooled in his mouth, "That she is. One of a kind. It was a pleasure seeing you once again, Ambassador Mehmet."

And while maintaining his perfectly crafted smile, he extended his hand towards the ambassador for a handshake.

il mio uccellino-My Little Bird

La mia dolce compagna-My Sweet Mate