Three

Chapter Three

My body felt like lead, heavy and cold.  The cold was not an unusual feeling for me being in the constant presence of vampires but the weight was definitely something new.  I tried to force my aching eyes open only to shut them again quickly from the assault of what I assumed to be the afternoon sun.  Rolling to my side with a groan I tried again, this time under the cover of my own shadow only to be met but the mirthful eyes of my pixie-like sister smiling widely back at me.  I lurched up with a startled scream only to slam back into a rock hard body.  

“Ow.”  I grumped, rubbing my sore elbow.

“Silly Bella, it’s just me.”  Alice chirped as it was the most normal thing in the world.  Maybe it was for her, but personally I was against waking up to find someone staring at you.

“Thanks for that Alice,”  I grumbled.  “I didn’t know.”  I said sarcastically sitting up from the comfort of the plush massive bed I was currently at rest in. The heavenly duvet of white down was not something I was willing to give up just yet.  Her only reply was to giggle.

After a quick survey of my surrounding I realized I hadn‘t a clue as to where I was.   The room was large but cozy covered in an abundance of creams and earth tones, and the uses of woods and stone made me realize we had to be in a hotel of some sorts.  Looking to the offending window I gasped, the view of the ocean with Mt. Rainer in the distance was gorgeous.  

The hard body I slammed into was Rosalie, sitting on my left with what I was sure to be the latest copy of Vogue Magazine, she smiled softly and I couldn’t help but smile back, she had never really hated me but that didn’t mean we were going to be best friends any time soon but I was still grateful she was here- wherever here was.  

Hearing a low growl and a frustrated curse, I remembered what had woken me… Emmett.  Sitting in the chair closest the window, he was mashing his thumbs on a controller.  Playing some video game I didn’t recognize on a television set that seemed to swallow the room whole.  As soon as he felt my stare he looked over never pausing his game.  “Hey Belly-boo.”  he waved and went back to it, this time turning up the game as he went.

As the sound of explosions and gunfire filled the room I decided I might as well get up.  There was no point in trying to sleep in a room full of vampires and when one of those vampires happens to be Emmett.   Stupid non-sleeping vampires, I thought sourly stretching my back and arms.  That’s when I noticed the heavy purple cast, reaching to the top of my elbow.  Great.

“Alice,”  I said warily, still looking for any inclination as to where we were.  “Where are we?”  

“Seattle.”  She answered, as she furiously typed something into her phone.

“Where in Seattle, Alice?”  I growled.  

“The Four Seasons Hotel,”  Rosalie supplied, jumping up from her spot next to me and flitting to her husbands lap, which he welcomed with open arms.

“Why?”

“Why what?”  She asked still not giving me her full attention.  

“Why are we here?”  I snapped.  “Where is everybody? Where’s Edward?”

My outburst must have been louder than I thought, Emmett paused his game and he and Rosalie looked over at us with what I guess was sadness.

“Bella,”  Alice sighed.  “How much do you remember?”  

“I remember everything: the fight, Jake… Oh God, Jacob… is he…,”  my mind raced at the possibilities that could have happened to my best friend, my sun.  

“Jacob is fine, Bella.  Carlisle is still with him and won’t be able to join us until tomorrow.”

I really didn’t like the way she said join us, but I had more pressing matters and would get to that question later.  

“Go on, what else?”  She encouraged.  

“The Volturi came, they wanted to kill the newborn and then…”

I stopped short as the memory of the rest of the morning came spilling from my mind.  Ruby eyes, white hair, a scar…  Caius.  

“I passed out.”  Tears sprang to my eyes at the memory.  Pet, I was Edward’s pet and he was… well I didn’t get to hear that part but my imagination I sure couldn’t do it justice.

She nodded.

“What happened after?”  I asked, swiping one of my rouge tears that despite my attempts to be brave, sprung free from my eye.

“Well,”  she sighed in a very human way.  “Jasper and Alec have take Edward north to Denali where he will be staying until after your change.  Caius has agreed to let him live because of Carlisle’s close relationship with Aro.  Bella you have to understand, if he were anyone else…”  she trailed off, but she didn’t need to finish her sentence I knew what she would say: Edward would be dead.

“Bella, do you need a human moment before I explain the rest of this?”  I shook my head I couldn’t possibly wait.

She nodded and took a deep breath.  “I started having vision of you with the Volturi, shortly after we arrived in Volterra.  I didn’t understand at the time what it meant, and still didn’t until we found Edward.  I’ve seen so many different scenarios, so many different ways for him to do it, but in the end Bella you always end up dead.”

I breathed deep, absorbing all the information she had given me, but I was still confused.  “So you’re saying he wouldn’t have been able to handle his bloodlust, like an accident?”  I knew it was a stretch but I just had to believe Edward loved me, that I wasn’t his…pet.

She shook her head sadly, her shoulders sinking in on themselves.  “I’m sorry, Bella.”   

My eyes filled with tears and this time I didn’t try and hold them back as I slumped against Alice.  It all finally made sense to me and that thought shattered my heart, I knew he wasn’t lying that day in the woods behind my house.  He never loved me, not in the sense that I wanted him to.  He loved my silent mind and the scent of my blood, but not me, never me.  I let it all out, every agonizing wail I had held in for the past two years and Alice just held me whispering words of encouragement that were a balm to my soul.

Sometime during my cry, I fell asleep for when I woke again it was dark, and I was alone.  I could hear raised voices in the adjoining room and I went to investigate.  Of course with Alice’s visions and vampire accelerated hearing, it was useless.  As soon as my feet hit the ground the voices stopped and not a second later Alice blurred through the door with a set of folded clothes and a whicker basket full of toiletries.  

“Morning sleepyhead.”  She sing-songed.  “Are you feeling better?”

Actually I was, and I couldn’t believe it.  I waited for the despair and pain to clutch at my heart at the thought of Edward but it never came.  I guess in the time that Edward had been gone the first time I realized that I didn’t need him as much as I thought.  

“Yeah, I think I really am.”

Her beaming smile was sunshine in the darkly lit room, as she plopped down on the bed next to me.  

“What time is it?”  I question not really knowing if it was night or morning.  

“Four A.M.”  

I couldn’t believe I had slept so long, but seeing as sleeping in a tent with your werewolf best friend in below zero temperatures the night before, I guess I needed it.  

“There’s still a lot we need to discuss, but I thought you might like a shower and something to eat before we get started.”  

I nodded my head enthusiastically, a hot shower and food really did sound amazing.  
It was difficult to say the least trying to shower without the use of one of your arms, and when said arm happens to hurt like hell.  Eventually I had to call Alice for help, modesty be damned, I wasn’t leaving that shower until my hair was washed from the debris and vampire ash from yesterdays activities.  Alice was only too happy to oblige to my request and we were finished in no time.  The shower felt great but I was anxious to find out what would happen next.  I left off my shaving routine as I really couldn’t use a razor in my state, and nicking myself in a hotel room full of vampires was not something I saw as ending well.  Alice informed me that she already had a spa day planned and that I wouldn’t need to worry about shaving for a very long time.  

Cryptic little pixie.

I could only guess that she meant that I would be changed sooner rather than later and from what I understood, vampires didn’t exactly get stubble.  So I let her help me out and dry me off, even with the damn bag over my cast things proved to be harder than I expected.  

I could have kissed Alice when I unfolded my clothing to find a pair of stylish yoga pants coupled with a new fluffy sweatshirt and tank top.  The were designer though, but in that moment I could care less.  I heard the doorbell sound as I made my way to what I thought was an adjoining bedroom, I should have known better.  We were not in a hotel room, we were in a suit, a large one at that.  

The large living area was creamy and delightful, plush cream colored sectional and terracotta club chairs.  Stone fireplaces and a dinning area for six.  Even now, living among the supernatural for two years I still didn’t understand their love of the luxurious.  They had no need for fancy dinning areas, they didn’t eat.  They didn’t need to sleep or sit… well never mind I could only guess the ways they used the beds.  Not everyone is denied, Bella.  

Five pairs of eyes met mine as I entered the room, three of them shining red garnets and two golden balls of sunshine.  Alice having zipped past me to get the door, left me standing there nervously hoping from one foot to the next.  Rosalie, bless her undead soul, noticed my predicament and came to my rescue patting the seat on the sofa next to her and Emmett.

Jane and who I guess was Demetri was seated in the club chairs, Jane staring me down with a glare and Demetri looking off into space with boredom clearly written on his face.  But standing near the window just behind Jane was Caius, looking amazing as ever in a tailored black suit and crimson red undershirt.  I wondered briefly if it was a challenge getting someone that looked like Caius into a hotel like the Four Seasons without raised suspicions.  Out of all of the vampires I had ever met Caius seemed to look the most supernatural.  He really didn’t even look like the rest of his species if I were honest with myself.  Yes he had the classic pale skin and ruby eyes of his brethren but that’s where the similarities stopped.  His hair was somewhat of a mystery to me and when I first saw him in Volterra I just had assumed he was a platinum blond, but seeing him in the fresh morning air and now in the brightly light room I could tell that was false.  His hair was literally the color of snow, almost silver under the cast of the moonlight.  That and his scar, I had seen Jasper’s scars; thousands of bite marks that littered his body, but this was different.  

Hearing Alice clear her throat, I blushed scarlet and realized that once again I had been caught openly ogling vampire royalty.  The man is going to think I was a mental case.  I scolded myself, sitting abruptly in the gauze of eating hoping no one would noticed how embarrassed I truly was.  I didn’t work.

I made quick work of the veggie burger and sweet potato fries that Alice had ordered me and a fleeting thought of buying her another Porsche should I ever become a rich vampire had her giggling and telling me that this time she wanted one in red.  After making quick work of my food, Alice whisked away the tray and garbage only to plop back down next to me.

“Take these.”  She said handing me two round, white tablets and a glass of water.  “Carlisle said it would help with the pain, he’s bringing you something stronger tonight.”  I took them gratefully, swallowing down the water and hoping for some respite from the pain.  

“Alright,”  she said with determination in her voice.  “Bella this may be hard for you to understand, but I want you to know before hand that you are still apart of this family.”

“Bella, you will be leaving here tomorrow night for Volterra.”

“What?!”  I screeched, jumping to my feet.  

“Bella,”  came a sultry smooth voice from the corner of the room I had been trying to ignore.  “Do you remember who I am?”

I glared in his direction.  “I’m human, not stupid?  Now, what the hell is going on?  No more games.”