Chapter 4
The plane ride is tense and Bella anxious the whole time - that does not abate the whole journey to the city.
She finds it hard to relax around this woman who had so easily abandoned her after saying they were best friends.
“Why can’t I see you?”
“What?”
“I thought it was just the wolves but even now I can hardly see you and I have no idea what you plan to say or do”
“That makes two of us I guess”
“Bella this is serious”
Bella doesn’t answer. A part of her wonders why she is even here. It’s not that she had completely moved on but time and discussions had caused things to waver a bit. She finally felt like she was in charge of her mind again.
She could see the relationship more as an unhealthy obsession and notice how caught up she had been in it and with the vampires in general.
Still, she cares enough to want to stop Edward from getting himself killed. If only for the part of her that had thrown herself wholeheartedly into that relationship.
She’s soaking and cold by the time she convinces him, and the kiss pressed against him does not help with the discomfort she feels.
Then the guards show up and they’re being led to vampire royalty.
By the time she gets to the throne room she’s freezing, bruised and utterly terrified.
That moment where she’s ‘asked’ to touch Aro doesn’t help. He seems dissatisfied with not being able to see anything. It feels like a signed death warrant.
And then Jane has Edward on the ground screaming and she’s pleading for them to stop.
When Jane turns to her on her Master’s request she feels her heart skip a beat.
No pain comes.
Instead the room is in uproar as the guards rush at something behind Bella but she only sees them get thrown back.
She is manoeuvred quickly but gently from Alice’s arms and into the comforting embrace of a beautiful woman she’s never met.
When she meets her eyes she hears an echo of Harry’s voice say “vampires? Really Bella? Fucking vampire royalty?”
But Henrietta is not here. Just this woman and the other similarly dressed one who stands before them, facing forwards.
They truly are not familiar to her but something about them is. It’s in the way they carry themselves. There is a sort of weaponised beauty hiding genuine danger in the same way Harry sometimes is.
There is a barrier around them. It’s not visible but the way the vampires in this room bounce off it speaks for its existence.
“Who dares” the blonde vampire kings snarls as Aro signals the others to stop futilely trying to get to the unknowns.
The woman in front is the one that speaks, and even her voice is beautiful,
“I have no quarrel with you, I was sent for Isabella”
Bella’s confusion grows again and she twists in the others hold to get a look at her. Her eyes catch sight of the crest she wears on a choker and her response cuts into whatever someone from the Volturi was saying.
“did- sorry but did Harry send you?”
The woman nods towards Bella’s wrist, “you sent out a distress signal”.
Bella looks from their necklace to her own leather cuff with an identical charm, “it monitors my state of being?”
A part of her is alarmed but she simultaneously feels cared for and important.
Wait, but, “how did she know where I was-”
“you bear our crest little mortal, did you think you coud ever be lost to us?”
Bella glances back at the bracelet in confusion, “it’s a tracker too?”
“it’s more than that dear one, we take care of our own”
Bella humms but turns her hand as she peers at the little charm.
“Do you not know the rules childe? Come forward” Aro cuts in.
The woman laughs, “as enticing as that idea is I have to decline”
The guards stare at her in shock and horror before Jane snaps, “You cannot speak to Master Aro like that!”
“And why not?”
“They rule us you imbecile. You should address them as Master”
“Why would we call them master? They don’t rule us.”
“Who does?” The boy in the red robe cuts in from where he tries to inch close to Bella.
“Wouldn’t you like to know pretty boy”
Jane lets out a little noise of outrage from where she stands glaring at them.
That, too makes the woman let out an amused titter and say with an audible smirk “I’d advise you to call your childe off. I am not yours to command”
Then she turn to Bella, giving the room and most importantly the Volturi Kings her back, “come with us Isabella, our mistress would like to verify your safety in person”
And Bella is shifting, glancing to Edward and Alice to say “I love you. Both of you, but Harry was there when you weren’t and she’s a safer option right now.” Then tries to urge Edward with her eyes not to do anything rash.
He turns his eyes to the woman holding her.
“If you do not cease your attempts to read my mind I will tear you limb from limb and roast marshmallows over the pyre of your remains.”
“he, uh, he cant help it” Bella cuts in
“oh? And is that what he told you?” she questions as she soothingly rubs Bella’s back, “I doubt he’s truly tried. Men rarely do”
“uh-”
“nevermind that Isabella, our queen awaits”
The woman who had been in front of them steps closer but turns sharply when one of the guards – the large one that had led them didn’t here- lunges at her back.
She raises a hand in a smooth motion and everyone flinched back when a ball of fire appears hovering over it.
The flames are about the size of an orange but emits scorching heat and bright light.
She keeps in up as she gets to Bella then wraps her other arm around them both and throws it to their feet.
It turns blue as it arches down and then swirls into a ring around them as the woman mutters a phrase in Latin and a swirling sensation overtakes Bella.
She closes her eyes against the feeling and when she opens them she’s in her room being pulled into her own bed by Harry.