Chapter Nine
As the trickling of water registered to my ears and the sweet tinkling of whispered voices alerted me that I was not alone. “She should be waking up any second.”
Something wet and cool placed on my forehead had me surging forward with a gasp as the heart banging in my chest threatening to burst through. My one hand grasped the cool cotton of the sheets on my bed while the other gripped the front of the sweat covered nightgown I didn’t remember putting on. “Bella, it’s okay. I just need you to breathe, okay?” Alice pleaded softly.
I nodded frantically, taking a couple of deep calming breaths and I felt myself becoming more centered. “Alice? What happened? Where am I?” I asked, panic seeping into my already rough and cracking voice. She smiled gently pressing the cool cloth to one cheek and then the other. “Shhh Bella, just relax.” She cooed pushing me gently back onto the soft mattress of my unfamiliar bed. My eyes followed her every move as she reached to the bedside table and picked up two white tablets along with a glass of water.
“Here, take these.” She offered while Rosalie and Esme helped me to sit long enough to drink down my chalky pills. “You have a mild concussion.” She informed me as the others laid me back. “Carlisle has proscribed you a pain reliever and a sedative to keep you calm, you really scared us last night.”
“What exactly did happen, Bella?” Rosalie asked a look of concern clouding her beautiful face. “Alice had the vision of you slumped by the bed when the growling started in your room.”
Something wet and cool placed on my forehead had me surging forward with a gasp as the heart banging in my chest threatening to burst through. My one hand grasped the cool cotton of the sheets on my bed while the other gripped the front of the sweat covered nightgown I didn’t remember putting on. “Bella, it’s okay. I just need you to breathe, okay?” Alice pleaded softly.
I nodded frantically, taking a couple of deep calming breaths and I felt myself becoming more centered. “Alice? What happened? Where am I?” I asked, panic seeping into my already rough and cracking voice. She smiled gently pressing the cool cloth to one cheek and then the other. “Shhh Bella, just relax.” She cooed pushing me gently back onto the soft mattress of my unfamiliar bed. My eyes followed her every move as she reached to the bedside table and picked up two white tablets along with a glass of water.
“Here, take these.” She offered while Rosalie and Esme helped me to sit long enough to drink down my chalky pills. “You have a mild concussion.” She informed me as the others laid me back. “Carlisle has proscribed you a pain reliever and a sedative to keep you calm, you really scared us last night.”
“What exactly did happen, Bella?” Rosalie asked a look of concern clouding her beautiful face. “Alice had the vision of you slumped by the bed when the growling started in your room.”
I wracked my brain, trying to remember everything I could. “Um… Caius was with me and we were…,” I stopped short as my face flushed bright pink.
Alice in the same moment bounded off the bed, clapping and twirling in a circle as she squealed in excitement. At my look she huffed blowing a tuft of her jet black hair billowing under her unneeded breath. “All right, all right.” She pouted begrudgingly as she retook her seat beside Rosalie and Esme took the plush wingback with the gracefulness of the perfect fifties house-wife.
“Anyway?” Rosalie prompted waving her hand impatiently for me to continue, I knew it wouldn’t be long before she lost her patience completely.
“Uh… things were going… uh, well and…
One minute I was burning in the blinding throws of passion, soaking up all that Caius would give me but left still wanting more and the next my body was being wrapped like a swaddled infant and shoved to the farthest wall from the entryway. For all intents and purposes I was blind to who had entered the room and if I hadn’t heard the heavy creaking wood of my door or the snarl Caius let loose a second later I would have remained unaware.
Caius had still been half undressed when our unexpected visitor came calling, and since I couldn’t see around him I decided to take a brief glance at the manly scenery. I’ll never know how I missed the large mutilated flesh of Caius’s left side and chest. Starting at his left shoulder blade and running in three ragged, saw-tooth lines down to his right hip bone, stopping just above his light trail of snowy white hair. The other in four angry mark down his left side. He looked as if he was mauled by a giant bear, but that wasn’t possible. Nothing that I’ve ever heard of besides vampire venom could leave a scar like the one’s on his body and these were no bites.
The conversation between Caius and my mystery intruder was nothing more than the low hum I recognized as vampire super-speak and angry snarls and growls. I felt a little dejected for not being included in the conversation but that all ended when the room started to shake and Caius roar rumbled in my ears. It rattled the entire foundation of the room sending bits of dust and small rocks falling from the rafters and I nearly fell to the ground with its force.
A moment later and it was all over, and I found myself wishing for the snarls opposed to the deafening quiet that engulfed the room. I barely registered his apology for having to leave or the kiss to the forehead he parted with, all I could grasp was the sinking, vast emptiness I felt when he was gone.
I fell to the floor a moment later, my head bouncing painfully off the wall as I went but I didn’t care, he was gone. It was like a alarm bell ringing painfully in my ears that this was all happening again. I wasn’t good enough and he left, just like him. I don’t think I could have laid there more than a minute before the family swept in to save the day, again.
I sat there lost for a minute not fully comprehending all that had happened. “Bella!” Alice’s frantic voice cut through the dim memory of what I had just remembered, though if asked to explain it at all, I wouldn’t be able.
I could feel her arms encasing me and rocking my trembling body gently. Her hands pressed firmly to my face cooling my flushed skin. “Bella, are you okay?”
As much as she tried to gain my attention my eyes stayed trained on the door, willing him to return. I refused to believe he was really gone or that this was happening to me again. If I just kept my eyes steady on the door, he would return.
The light treading of what had to be vampire feet and a few seconds later the materialized into view. Knowing who it was already, I refused to look up from my post. I knew they had heard the slight scuffle and my cry of pain and I knew they were worried, it made it all the more harder to not acknowledge them.
Carlisle’s voice floated to me like a lullaby on a breeze and found a strange comfort in it. “Bella, can you hear me?” I knew I had answered him, I felt my mouth moving but I couldn’t hear what I was saying, like I was deaf but only to the sound of my own voice. Had my time with Caius left me mentally disabled or did I just really not want to hear my own voice, shielding myself from the truth?
“Carlisle, what’s wrong with her? Why does she keep saying that?” Esme, pseudo mother, the epitome of calm and collected was near in a full panic.
The sting of Carlisle’s medical light along with the freezing temperature of his fingers only added to my discomfort. “I honestly don’t know? I’ve never seen her like this before.” He told as I felt a painful push to the back of my head. “She has symptoms from her concussion but the rest of her vitals are normal but she just won’t respond.” I felt my lips moving again as I protested my case of everything was not fine when Carlisle cleared his throat. “Except for that.”
“Should somebody slap her,” Rosalie asked. “What? It always works in the movies.” Rosalie added.
“Rosalie.” Alice admonished.
“Where’s Caius?” I gasped out in panic. “Caius?!”
Carlisle swooped in grabbing both sides of my face. “Bella, I need you to be calm. I don’t want to have to sedate you again but I need you to be calm. Can you do that?” He asked in full doctor mode.
Nodding, my eyes scanned my unfamiliar surroundings taking in the differences in the room I now resided. The walls were once again stone, but finished into a alabaster cast rippling into stunning molds of brocade. Inhaling deeply I scented fresh cedar and something singularly different but familiar in its own right. A glowing fire was roaring in the fireplace and I was in heaven in this room. The fog in my head had lifted and the rooms presence seemed to fill me with a calm that not even Jasper’s gift could compete with; it felt like home.
Alice in the same moment bounded off the bed, clapping and twirling in a circle as she squealed in excitement. At my look she huffed blowing a tuft of her jet black hair billowing under her unneeded breath. “All right, all right.” She pouted begrudgingly as she retook her seat beside Rosalie and Esme took the plush wingback with the gracefulness of the perfect fifties house-wife.
“Anyway?” Rosalie prompted waving her hand impatiently for me to continue, I knew it wouldn’t be long before she lost her patience completely.
“Uh… things were going… uh, well and…
One minute I was burning in the blinding throws of passion, soaking up all that Caius would give me but left still wanting more and the next my body was being wrapped like a swaddled infant and shoved to the farthest wall from the entryway. For all intents and purposes I was blind to who had entered the room and if I hadn’t heard the heavy creaking wood of my door or the snarl Caius let loose a second later I would have remained unaware.
Caius had still been half undressed when our unexpected visitor came calling, and since I couldn’t see around him I decided to take a brief glance at the manly scenery. I’ll never know how I missed the large mutilated flesh of Caius’s left side and chest. Starting at his left shoulder blade and running in three ragged, saw-tooth lines down to his right hip bone, stopping just above his light trail of snowy white hair. The other in four angry mark down his left side. He looked as if he was mauled by a giant bear, but that wasn’t possible. Nothing that I’ve ever heard of besides vampire venom could leave a scar like the one’s on his body and these were no bites.
The conversation between Caius and my mystery intruder was nothing more than the low hum I recognized as vampire super-speak and angry snarls and growls. I felt a little dejected for not being included in the conversation but that all ended when the room started to shake and Caius roar rumbled in my ears. It rattled the entire foundation of the room sending bits of dust and small rocks falling from the rafters and I nearly fell to the ground with its force.
A moment later and it was all over, and I found myself wishing for the snarls opposed to the deafening quiet that engulfed the room. I barely registered his apology for having to leave or the kiss to the forehead he parted with, all I could grasp was the sinking, vast emptiness I felt when he was gone.
I fell to the floor a moment later, my head bouncing painfully off the wall as I went but I didn’t care, he was gone. It was like a alarm bell ringing painfully in my ears that this was all happening again. I wasn’t good enough and he left, just like him. I don’t think I could have laid there more than a minute before the family swept in to save the day, again.
I sat there lost for a minute not fully comprehending all that had happened. “Bella!” Alice’s frantic voice cut through the dim memory of what I had just remembered, though if asked to explain it at all, I wouldn’t be able.
I could feel her arms encasing me and rocking my trembling body gently. Her hands pressed firmly to my face cooling my flushed skin. “Bella, are you okay?”
As much as she tried to gain my attention my eyes stayed trained on the door, willing him to return. I refused to believe he was really gone or that this was happening to me again. If I just kept my eyes steady on the door, he would return.
The light treading of what had to be vampire feet and a few seconds later the materialized into view. Knowing who it was already, I refused to look up from my post. I knew they had heard the slight scuffle and my cry of pain and I knew they were worried, it made it all the more harder to not acknowledge them.
Carlisle’s voice floated to me like a lullaby on a breeze and found a strange comfort in it. “Bella, can you hear me?” I knew I had answered him, I felt my mouth moving but I couldn’t hear what I was saying, like I was deaf but only to the sound of my own voice. Had my time with Caius left me mentally disabled or did I just really not want to hear my own voice, shielding myself from the truth?
“Carlisle, what’s wrong with her? Why does she keep saying that?” Esme, pseudo mother, the epitome of calm and collected was near in a full panic.
The sting of Carlisle’s medical light along with the freezing temperature of his fingers only added to my discomfort. “I honestly don’t know? I’ve never seen her like this before.” He told as I felt a painful push to the back of my head. “She has symptoms from her concussion but the rest of her vitals are normal but she just won’t respond.” I felt my lips moving again as I protested my case of everything was not fine when Carlisle cleared his throat. “Except for that.”
“Should somebody slap her,” Rosalie asked. “What? It always works in the movies.” Rosalie added.
“Rosalie.” Alice admonished.
“Where’s Caius?” I gasped out in panic. “Caius?!”
Carlisle swooped in grabbing both sides of my face. “Bella, I need you to be calm. I don’t want to have to sedate you again but I need you to be calm. Can you do that?” He asked in full doctor mode.
Nodding, my eyes scanned my unfamiliar surroundings taking in the differences in the room I now resided. The walls were once again stone, but finished into a alabaster cast rippling into stunning molds of brocade. Inhaling deeply I scented fresh cedar and something singularly different but familiar in its own right. A glowing fire was roaring in the fireplace and I was in heaven in this room. The fog in my head had lifted and the rooms presence seemed to fill me with a calm that not even Jasper’s gift could compete with; it felt like home.
Feeling more myself I asked again. “Where is Caius?”
The faces of my family fell one by one and a cold eerie feeling settled in my blood freezing me to my spot on the bed. I gripped the bed linens closer to my heart, willing myself not to fall apart until I had all the facts but I could already feel the burning of traitor tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
“Where?” I asked again, more forceful and the tears I had been fighting to conceal slipped from my eyes.
“Where not sure, Bella. All we know is what we heard.” Carlisle spoke calmly and I think he was actually trying not to spook me or set me off. Either way I was grateful for the gesture.
“Okay, so what did you hear?” Emmett asked, and I looked at him confused. Wouldn’t he have heard it too? “What?” He shrugged innocently at my look. “I was hunting.”
Rosalie rolled her eyes while smacking her husband playfully. “All we know is that there’s a threat somewhere to the east of here. We don’t know much.”
“I didn’t get to here everything, Bella but from what I understood, something is attacking small farming communities about an hours run from here. I didn’t get a chance to here anything else, I’m sorry.”
“Alice, was it Edward or… the pack?” I asked my voice quivering with fear for myself and for my loved ones who had put themselves in unnecessary danger because of the lies Edward fed them.
She shook her head. “No, I spoke with Jasper a few hours ago. The pack is still in Washington and Edward is in Denali. Alec is on his way back now.”
I nodded. It was comforting to know that Jake was still out of danger, but I knew it would only be a matter of time. Jacob was as stubborn a person as I had ever met and I knew that once he was mended that he and Sam would be making plans. I could only hope that Edward hadn’t told them where the Volturi had taken me, but it was a dim hope.
Absorbing all that I had learned this morning a thought struck me. “Wait. Alice, if Alec is coming home then why is Jasper still in Denali?”
“Because Alec is needed here and Jasper is needed there.” Alice answered brightly as if everything was that simple. Maybe it was and I was the one who complicated everything. What ever the case was my head was still reeling from everything else and looking around this beautifully decorated room it only added to my growing list of questions.”
I sighed sadly, letting it all go for now. “All right,” I conceded. Looking around I really was unsure of where I was exactly and that brought on a mirage of new questioning. “So…” I drew on dramatically. “Where am I exactly?”
The faces of my family fell one by one and a cold eerie feeling settled in my blood freezing me to my spot on the bed. I gripped the bed linens closer to my heart, willing myself not to fall apart until I had all the facts but I could already feel the burning of traitor tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
“Where?” I asked again, more forceful and the tears I had been fighting to conceal slipped from my eyes.
“Where not sure, Bella. All we know is what we heard.” Carlisle spoke calmly and I think he was actually trying not to spook me or set me off. Either way I was grateful for the gesture.
“Okay, so what did you hear?” Emmett asked, and I looked at him confused. Wouldn’t he have heard it too? “What?” He shrugged innocently at my look. “I was hunting.”
Rosalie rolled her eyes while smacking her husband playfully. “All we know is that there’s a threat somewhere to the east of here. We don’t know much.”
“I didn’t get to here everything, Bella but from what I understood, something is attacking small farming communities about an hours run from here. I didn’t get a chance to here anything else, I’m sorry.”
“Alice, was it Edward or… the pack?” I asked my voice quivering with fear for myself and for my loved ones who had put themselves in unnecessary danger because of the lies Edward fed them.
She shook her head. “No, I spoke with Jasper a few hours ago. The pack is still in Washington and Edward is in Denali. Alec is on his way back now.”
I nodded. It was comforting to know that Jake was still out of danger, but I knew it would only be a matter of time. Jacob was as stubborn a person as I had ever met and I knew that once he was mended that he and Sam would be making plans. I could only hope that Edward hadn’t told them where the Volturi had taken me, but it was a dim hope.
Absorbing all that I had learned this morning a thought struck me. “Wait. Alice, if Alec is coming home then why is Jasper still in Denali?”
“Because Alec is needed here and Jasper is needed there.” Alice answered brightly as if everything was that simple. Maybe it was and I was the one who complicated everything. What ever the case was my head was still reeling from everything else and looking around this beautifully decorated room it only added to my growing list of questions.”
I sighed sadly, letting it all go for now. “All right,” I conceded. Looking around I really was unsure of where I was exactly and that brought on a mirage of new questioning. “So…” I drew on dramatically. “Where am I exactly?”
“I think I can handle that question?” Came a melodic voice from the entrance to the room. “Hello Bella, sleep well?” She asked with a frightening beautiful smile.
“Yes,” I answered shaking. Even though I knew this woman was no longer a threat I still couldn’t stop the shiver that traveled down my spine in her presence.
“Oh come now, Bella. No need to fear me.” She said sugar sweet. It would have been hard not to believe her if the years in the presence of vampires hadn’t taught me different. It was just another hunting tool their kind used to lure you in, their sweetness, their beauty.
“What exactly do you want, Athenodora?” Rosalie asked glaring daggers at my guest. Athenodora’s white-blond head whipped around then cocked to the side.
“What ever I wish, Cullen.” She replied with a sneer. “But if you must know, I am here to invite Bella to spend a day with Sulpicia and I.” At Rosalie’s bitchy “Why?” she answered with something that spun my head. “She has questions and I mean to answer as many as I can.”
Stunned into silence I stared, it was the only thing I could physically force my body to do, and if I were honest with myself it wasn’t forced, only allowed. She smiled brightly at me, her pink shimmering lips glistening as the parted from her venom coated teeth. She was offering me all that I had ever asked from my family; honesty.
“Will you except?” She question, cocking her platinum blond eyebrow.
Smiling brightly at her I nodded and she clapped in a very Alice like fashion. “Very well, I will leave you to get dressed.” And then with a white blur she was gone.
As I looked to each of my family members, gauging their reactions to my decisions. Rosalie as suspected was skeptical of the whole thing.
“You know we are coming with you, Bells?” Although it sounded like a question, I knew it was anything but. She left me with little room for arguments as she grumpily invited herself, mother and sibling to this play-date with the Volturi royalty.
An hour passed and after I was stuffed full - at Esme demand - washed and dressed I was scurried from the room with Alice, Esme and Rosalie at my sides. I cast a glance at her when I hoped she wasn’t looking, trying to understand this hostility towards the vampire queen of all people. Her face was a hard mask, one that I recognized very well as I had seen in often in the past; one that suggested that through her calm and bitchy façade she was just as vulnerable as the rest of us. But why she felt this way was my question. Not pretending to have known the real Rosalie long I opted for Emmett’s approach to life.
“Rose, are you okay?”
Her face morphed before my very eyes into something that had I not been experiencing right then, I would have never believed it. She looked a little scared and it did wonders to her face. Her beauty had always been beyond compare to me, but in this new light, Rosalie was more stunning than ever.
It lasted only a second, this new look, before it was once again frozen over by the bitchily mask I was so accustomed. “I’m fine, Bella.” She replied harshly, but her soothing hand on my shoulder likened me to the fact that she was not upset with me.
Through the twisted turns and ever confusing steps through the maze of corridors we marched, like soldiers to our doom and when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore it was Alice that announced that we had arrived.
I muttered on angrily about needed golf carts to maneuver the long halls but Alice giggled and replied that to immortals the distance was nothing. Of course my face flamed red at her statement as it brought me back to other carnal desires that have been fleeting through my head all morning. The thought of never ending stamina had left me breathless and near panting.
Two guards met us at the double hung walnut doors, both bowing regally as they stood back from their posts to open the door for us. I would never openly admit that I liked the gesture, I felt like I was in some grim fairytale and I had yet to waken, every thing was so surreal from the overly gentlemanly fashion of the footman to the way everything was beautifully detailed right down to the gold-leaf brocade spread throughout the castle. I felt like royalty myself and the dress that Alice had left me in for today did little to deflate my ego. She had picked a airy muslin gown of purest white lace and a apple red satin sash. Not something I would usually go for but I had to admit to feeling like some wayward princess in it.
“Yes,” I answered shaking. Even though I knew this woman was no longer a threat I still couldn’t stop the shiver that traveled down my spine in her presence.
“Oh come now, Bella. No need to fear me.” She said sugar sweet. It would have been hard not to believe her if the years in the presence of vampires hadn’t taught me different. It was just another hunting tool their kind used to lure you in, their sweetness, their beauty.
“What exactly do you want, Athenodora?” Rosalie asked glaring daggers at my guest. Athenodora’s white-blond head whipped around then cocked to the side.
“What ever I wish, Cullen.” She replied with a sneer. “But if you must know, I am here to invite Bella to spend a day with Sulpicia and I.” At Rosalie’s bitchy “Why?” she answered with something that spun my head. “She has questions and I mean to answer as many as I can.”
Stunned into silence I stared, it was the only thing I could physically force my body to do, and if I were honest with myself it wasn’t forced, only allowed. She smiled brightly at me, her pink shimmering lips glistening as the parted from her venom coated teeth. She was offering me all that I had ever asked from my family; honesty.
“Will you except?” She question, cocking her platinum blond eyebrow.
Smiling brightly at her I nodded and she clapped in a very Alice like fashion. “Very well, I will leave you to get dressed.” And then with a white blur she was gone.
As I looked to each of my family members, gauging their reactions to my decisions. Rosalie as suspected was skeptical of the whole thing.
“You know we are coming with you, Bells?” Although it sounded like a question, I knew it was anything but. She left me with little room for arguments as she grumpily invited herself, mother and sibling to this play-date with the Volturi royalty.
An hour passed and after I was stuffed full - at Esme demand - washed and dressed I was scurried from the room with Alice, Esme and Rosalie at my sides. I cast a glance at her when I hoped she wasn’t looking, trying to understand this hostility towards the vampire queen of all people. Her face was a hard mask, one that I recognized very well as I had seen in often in the past; one that suggested that through her calm and bitchy façade she was just as vulnerable as the rest of us. But why she felt this way was my question. Not pretending to have known the real Rosalie long I opted for Emmett’s approach to life.
“Rose, are you okay?”
Her face morphed before my very eyes into something that had I not been experiencing right then, I would have never believed it. She looked a little scared and it did wonders to her face. Her beauty had always been beyond compare to me, but in this new light, Rosalie was more stunning than ever.
It lasted only a second, this new look, before it was once again frozen over by the bitchily mask I was so accustomed. “I’m fine, Bella.” She replied harshly, but her soothing hand on my shoulder likened me to the fact that she was not upset with me.
Through the twisted turns and ever confusing steps through the maze of corridors we marched, like soldiers to our doom and when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore it was Alice that announced that we had arrived.
I muttered on angrily about needed golf carts to maneuver the long halls but Alice giggled and replied that to immortals the distance was nothing. Of course my face flamed red at her statement as it brought me back to other carnal desires that have been fleeting through my head all morning. The thought of never ending stamina had left me breathless and near panting.
Two guards met us at the double hung walnut doors, both bowing regally as they stood back from their posts to open the door for us. I would never openly admit that I liked the gesture, I felt like I was in some grim fairytale and I had yet to waken, every thing was so surreal from the overly gentlemanly fashion of the footman to the way everything was beautifully detailed right down to the gold-leaf brocade spread throughout the castle. I felt like royalty myself and the dress that Alice had left me in for today did little to deflate my ego. She had picked a airy muslin gown of purest white lace and a apple red satin sash. Not something I would usually go for but I had to admit to feeling like some wayward princess in it.
Sulpicia nodded her greeting and before long she and Esme were engrossed in catching up over the decade that had gone without each others company. Me, I fidgeted with anything and everything in sight, from the decorative lace that hung from the table to my the butter-soft material of my sash. I heard several grunts from Alice’s direction and I knew that my twitchy nervous behavior was just about her own mental undoing. When she had had enough, I suspected, she elbowed me non-to-delicately in the ribs making me sing out in pain.
Rose jumping to conclusions snarled over my head and was followed by a mirroring snarl from Athenodora. I blanched not expecting her, of all vampires, to be sticking up for me and in my flustered and confused state so went my verbal filter.
“Why was I moved from my room?” I blurted out quickly my eyes bulging with the effort to remain calm as the room went silent as the grave. Sulpicia and Esme just smiled proudly as Rosalie and Alice struggled to pull their jaws up from the table.
“You are a curious little thing, Bella.” Athenodora replied, shifting in her seat to give me her full attention. “I like that. Things have been so dull around here lately.”
For some reason her words struck a flat cord in my heart and my anger grew to points I didn’t know even existed within myself. It might have been Edward’s voice ringing in my ears ’You are nothing but a distraction for our kind. Something amusing to pass the time.’ or it could have been a little of the hostility left over from the day before when I still thought her to be Caius’s wife, but what ever the reason my hands came down on the table with a slam. “I am not some amusing pet for you to get your jollies, and I believe I asked you a question.”
A sly smile spread across her face and though it wasn’t exactly menacing I had to wonder if I had once again overstep some imaginary boundary of the undead. Scared or not I held my ground, leveling her right back with an unwavering stare.
“Of course.” she suddenly relented. “After all I did promise you answers.”
My racing heart finally took a dive to the pit of my stomach as I released a breath of relief that she was angry at my outburst. Looking around at my pseudo mother and siblings I concurred that I wasn’t the only one writing out my last will and testament in their head. Esme eyes were as wide as I had ever seen them and Rosalie nudged me and then mouthed. “What are you doing?” I threw my hands up in exasperation as I roughly whispered back. “I don’t know!”
At the clearing of a throat Rosalie and I turned back to our host - which I had just yelled at - with a sheepish smile.
“Now,” she said with heirs. “to answer your question. I was the one to move you at the request of Marcus.”
I felt the color drain from my face as she spoke, and all I could think was that I had yet again wrangled some vampire the wrong way and that I had yet again caught the fancy of a vampire I had wanted nothing to do with.
“None of that, Isabella. If you would allow me to finish before you pass out. I was going to say that it was Marcus who requested it of me but as a favor to my brother. Your room was not as well guarded as the wing you now reside and if I heard correctly your failed to meet the standards of my brother or your status.” She finished smugly settling her white-gloved hands firmly in your lap.
“And what about my family?” I asked sternly, glancing out the corner of my eye for help, not that I received any.
Alice face was covered by her dainty hands as she shook her head back and forth grounding out my name in agitation.
Sulpicia was the one to jump in before my verbal filter took another plummet in the wrong direction. “Well, as you are familiar with the Cullens we have had them moved to guest wing that is held in reserve for our most distinguished nobility but they cannot stay with you.”
I looked into her crimson gaze confused but as the realization of her words hit, my stomach took another dive and so did my blood pressure. I felt light headed and nearly faint when I gasped out. “You mean?”
“Yes.” Athenodora answered. “It is Caius’s personal living quarters and at his request you have been given his room and personal guard.” I sat in silence for a moment, just soaking everything in when Esme spoke up.
“I’m rather jealous, Bella. It is the newest renovation to the castle and it the most beautiful by far.”
I looked at her like she had just committed herself to the loony-bin and I admittedly I felt not far from committing myself. Things were getting stranger and stranger around here and in some twisted depths of my mind I couldn’t wait for the mystery to unfold.
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