Chapter Text
BPOV
I was holding onto Edward, my heart hammering in my chest, making my ears numb with its painful beats. We had been too late. So close and still—a second too late.
Jane was leading the way to the Volturi, the two guards that accompanied her flanking our sides.
I swallowed, and Edward's hold over my shoulders tightened ever so slightly in an attempt to comfort me, no doubt. I took a few shallow breaths, trying to slow my heart as we walked through the dark halls of the Volturi stronghold.
We entered an elevator—of all things to find in this ancient place. Edward's hold on me seemed to become more tense; a faint growl vibrated through him into me. I swallowed hard, anxiety rising even more.
"She is mine," he warned, looking at one of the guards. The taller one.
The guard chuckled. They locked eyes, and I understood that the Volturi vampire must have angered Edward with his thoughts.
"That's enough!" came the sharp, cold command from the child-faced vampire, Jane.
As the doors of the elevator opened, we entered what seemed to be a lobby, albeit with a medieval twist to it. A very normal-looking desk was near the exit, and a very normal-looking human secretary stood as we approached.
She bowed her head slightly in a respectful manner. "They are waiting for you, Miss Jane. They want to see the girl." She looked skeptically at me, and I couldn't help but note the hint of superiority she felt toward me. Something deep within me wanted to fight. But I was frozen. "Only the girl. The other… guests are to be taken to the south antechamber."
Edward grabbed me and pushed me against his chest. "She is not going anywhere without us," he whispered, his tone deadly. I closed my eyes, taking in the feel of his protective touch, reveling in the clear sound of his voice… that voice that had haunted me, made me hunt for its echo.
It was finally there, cruelly about to be taken away from me. Once more. I held tighter, but as quickly as he had grabbed me, Edward let go of me, falling to the floor, his body held in an invisible grasp, while a silent scream fought to escape his lips. His beautiful marble skin was cracking under whatever torture he was being put through.
Something snapped in me.
"STOP, please, make it stop!" I shouted, begging. "Please, please, make it stop!" I fell to my knees next to him, trying but failing to hold him as he convulsed through an indescribable pain. "Please, I'll go, I'll go, just make it stop, don't hurt him!" Tears were running down my cheeks, burning a path on my face, blurring my vision. I looked at Jane, who was clearly in charge. One of the guards was holding Alice in a lethal grip, and I repeated my prayer. "Please… Just don't hurt them. I will do anything."
After what felt like an eternity, Jane finally broke her focus on Edward and looked at me. Wiping at my face, gathering all the strength I had in me, I stood up, head held as high as I could manage in my shaken state. The other guard moved to grab Edward, and both he and the tall one dragged Alice and Edward away from us.
Alice had an air of defeated horror on her face as we briefly made eye contact, and I suspected she must have seen something happening to us all—probably something lethal. She seemed... broken.
"Come," commanded Jane. "The masters have waited long enough for you."
She turned her back on me as the massive doors behind us opened to reveal a cathedral-like throne room.
I followed. I would do anything they asked, but I was going to do my best to ensure the Cullens' safety. Every one of them. I would…
But what I hadn't expected was for my world to come crashing down so suddenly.
AroPOV
We had heard the little altercation behind the doors, of course, and something stirred in me… excitement, anticipation. This was such an unusual situation, and I felt eager to enter the play.
The human girl, Bella, had begged Jane to let go of my old friend Carlisle's first son, Edward. The intensity of her plea, the shakiness of her voice giving away to our well-trained ears that she was crying. Her emotions were so raw, so genuine… so pure. My lips curled into an anticipatory smile, and from the corner of my eye, I saw my brother Caius roll his eyes in the smallest of movements. A human would never have noticed. My eyes, however, would never miss a thing.
"Can't you simply deal with the sentencing?" my brother asked, a note of annoyance in his tone. "Must you always play with your food?"
I laughed. "Three thousand years of life at each other's sides, and yet you ask again?"
He smirked, again so faintly that only one from our race would notice. "Will you at least share this time?"
I chuckled and nodded. I would. Probably. "This seems to be a special one. Maybe Marcus, you would delight in joining us too, brother?" I raised an eyebrow, looking at my ever-so-still brother. If Caius' movements were minute, Marcus' were all but nonexistent.
Marcus sighed and turned his youthful face toward the doors that were now opening. If I had needed to breathe still, I would have been holding my breath.
BPOV
I walked in behind Jane, taking in the cold beauty of the marble room. Imposing columns, as high as those in the most impressive cathedrals I had seen, made me feel even smaller and more fragile than I already knew myself to be. I swallowed, feeling the hold of fear trying to suffocate me. My heart continued hammering against my chest. In between the columns, vampires with shining red eyes stood—too many for my panicked brain to count. Definitely more than ten. Maybe fifteen or twenty, I registered still. Everything in me screamed that I needed to run and my muscles tensed, adrenaline continuing to fuel me. I looked around for an escape before the rational part of my brain reminded me that I would be dead before even taking my first step.
Screw me and my stupid ideas. Running straight to the vampire lair, great idea, Bella. I told myself off as I continued moving forward.
I finished my inspection of the room and finally looked closer at the three vampires who sat on thrones, a few steps up on a platform. Royalty, Carlisle had told me. They certainly looked like it. If my heart could have broken my own ribs, now would have been the time. I whimpered internally. No sound seemed to be able to pass my lips anymore. Focus, Bella.
In the few seconds it had taken for me to gather my thoughts, two of the vampires had stood, and I heard several faint gasps echo in the enormous throne room. I looked around, expecting something was about to happen. Something that would probably be a very bad end for my short human self. I braced myself, wanting to close my eyes and forcing them to remain open. Alert.
Finally, my gaze focused back on the Vampire Kings—and that’s when my life ended. The thread of fate snapped around me as everything I thought I knew was redefined in a crashing moment of clarity.
Frozen, I held my breath.
Nothing else existed. Nothing else seemed to matter. I simply knew . My heart beat faster still, and I lost myself in crimson eyes that were full of life and promises.
I took a deep, sharp breath and slowly forced myself to breathe normally again, fighting to remain alert.
How to be brave? How to start moving again?
My world had shattered in a second, and my path was hurriedly rewriting itself in a breathtaking hurry.
How had I ever thought I knew love? I wanted to cry under the force of my feelings. My head felt light and I stumbled where I stood, afraid to fall.
The crimson eyes looked at me—too still to be real. They were telling me a story. A story of suffering that ran so deep it tore at my soul, shattering my heart as I fought to regain clarity, locked into his gaze. I wanted to… no, I needed to go to him. I had to hold him, comfort him, cherish him, and love him. But how can I love when I'm afraid to fall, when I don't even know who I am anymore?
But watching him stand alone? All of my doubt suddenly went away somehow.
I took a step.
One step closer.
As swiftly as the stillness had enveloped the room, it disappeared, exploding into a blur of colors, and I looked up into my vampire's eyes. His deep, crimson eyes, which were somehow alight behind a thin veil that gave them a burgundy hue rather than a deadly red.
And I was lost to them.
AroPOV
It all happened in an instant, barely the length of a human breath. But even without having to read any thoughts, I knew what had happened.
There, behind Jane, the human girl—Isabella—Edward’s forbidden love, had walked in with her head tentatively held high despite the clear fearful shaking we could all see running through her fragile body.
I could see the attraction. She would make an astonishingly beautiful vampire once turned.
What happened, though, took us all by surprise, and several of our present guards gasped in shock. I could forgive them, as in this moment they witnessed something so unnatural to their young eyes.
My brother was standing on my right. He had stood with such vampiric speed, a feat that no one had seen from him in over a millennium, and I, too, gasped slightly, barely maintaining my composure at such a sign of life.
My eyes took him in, his expression changing so fast that the girl would not have caught the shifts. But I did. We all did.
My gaze traveled toward the girl—and then I knew. It should have been impossible, and yet, this fragile human that so many vampires wanted to own had made the impossible happen.
I inhaled deeply, taking in her beautiful and soft scent. Her blood was… tantalizing. I had not lived for three millennia without learning to master my urges, however, and I chased away the thought, already beginning to analyze the possibilities…
This was going to be such a beautiful game to play.
MPOV
I had died every day for the past three thousand years, forbidden to truly end my existence by my base instincts and by the denial of clemency I had begged my brothers to bestow upon me during the first millennium of my unending torture. I had eventually given up, standing frozen in time, playing my role when needed, and altogether happy to leave my brothers to deal with the woes of our world. I had seldom taken part in battles or decisions, but somehow or other, I could not completely retreat into myself and invariably took part in the greatest moments for our kind.
But at that moment, I knew . Right now was the reason I had been held captive in an undying body—that my soul had been shrunk, piece by piece, until only an echo of it remained, waiting to be set alight once more. If only I had known...
I locked eyes with her , her soft brown eyes telling me more than words could. I could see the purity of her heart, her soul. I could read the care she could give, and the love that was overwhelming her beautiful spirit. I felt like moaning in pain under the assault of my feelings—feelings that had been foreign to me for three thousand years.
I could see her blood pumping life through her soft body, and a low, deep growl barely made it past my lips. Still, I knew that its meaning had not been lost on any of the vampires present. She was off limits. She was mine .
The young woman—Isabella. I remembered her name perfectly—took an awkward step forward. Before she had even put her foot down, I was standing in front of her, looking down into her beautiful chestnut-colored eyes. They had streaks of gold to them and a hint of forest green around her dilated irises. They were… eternity.
Suddenly, or maybe finally, her legs gave out, and I caught her before her knees even bent an inch. My hand cupped her face, bringing her gaze back to mine.
"Isabella," I whispered, her name a prayer on my immortal lips. "Do not fear, precious one." I reassured her as her gaze returned to mine. "No harm will come to you while you are here."
"Leave us," I heard my brother Caius' voice command behind me. Barely had he spoken before the throne room emptied. Within seconds, the guards had disappeared into the furthest recesses they could find—deep in the castle or the tunnels. When Caius ordered, one obeyed.
I was still lost in Isabella.
Time stood still.
She was… beauty. She was life. She was my life. From the dungeons, I heard the agonizing roar of despair from the young vampire who had claimed to love my Isabella. Foolish boy. I will not let anything take her away. What stood before me— every breath she took —had led our paths to this instant. The boy had merely been a tool of Fate, a way to bring us together.
I looked at the glorious light that surrounded her—a pure, ever-so-light green glow that enveloped her in an aura promising new beginnings and love in abundance. If I still had a beating heart, it would have been pounding in unison with hers. I caressed her cheek, letting my hand worship the gift that had appeared in front of me today. She remained silent, seemingly overtaken by the same whirlwind of emotions that had engulfed me. Her still-human brain was slower in understanding—and accepting—the meaning of this precious and unique instant.
"Brother, may I?" Aro’s voice broke the silence that surrounded us. He held out his hand toward me, ordering without words that I show him what I saw, what I felt, what I thought when Isabella entered my life.
I thought to deny him, to grab Isabella and run, but that would be in vain. I knew where I truly belonged, and against the base instinct that wanted me to keep both hands on Isabella, I offered one to my brother, who took it reverently.
I could not hold back a smile at his anticipation. Aro lived to be entertained. A fraction of a minute later, he let out a slow breath, his face telling me he was relishing the feelings and images he had experienced through my mind.
"This is… this line between you… is this...?" he asked, and I nodded in confirmation.
"Astonishing. Purely and truly astounding," he declared, a predatory smile spreading on his face. Yes, he was definitely plotting already. I sighed internally, already forming plans to keep his most extravagant ideas at bay.
"Would one of you care to enlighten me as to what happened?" Caius demanded, annoyance clear in his tone.
"Our brother has found his mate, Caius," Aro said, clasping his hands together in excitement. "A human mate in the form of the most lovely Isabella Swan." He laughed out loud at this declaration, and once again, I heard the tortured cries of the Cullen boy echoing from below us.
BPOV
Aro’s words seemed to call me back to reality, and I finally realized I was standing in front of my vampire, his unbending form giving me strength to stand despite the awe I had felt when I saw him for the first time.
And suddenly, it all made perfect sense. Every moment, every step, every hour had led to this. One step closer toward my… mate.
It all fell into place. I raised my hand toward his face, shaking in anticipation, longing to touch him, feel him. I needed to know he was real—that he was there.
My hand touched his soft, marble, almost translucent skin, and there were no words to express the feelings that shot through me.
"Hi," I whispered, somehow finding my voice and then immediately regretting my choice of words. Hi? Could I not come up with something more… meaningful? I berated myself. But this seemed to be exactly the right thing to say, as my vampire’s face broke into the most handsome smile I had ever seen in my very short life.
"Hi," he whispered back, his eyes full of promises as we held each other in the most perfect and natural embrace.