A/n: At long last, another chapter. Thanks to Mistress Maleficentknits and Aleighy, my unfailing support in all things dark and pervy. I'm going to be a diva and not recap – sorry.

I pressed my ear to the bedroom door and listened very carefully.

"Dearest Carlisle, how good to see you," Aro crooned.

I could feel my stomach clench. He was frightening.

"Aro," Carlisle acknowledged him coolly. I could feel the tension from the room below snake up the stairs like a fog of noxious gas. I was practically choking on it.

"We've come to discuss our arrangement with Edward."

"Everything is in order. My pet, Isabella, has been returned to me. There is no need for interference," Edward explained.

"There most certainly is need, dear boy," Aro growled. "You must change her or drain her."

"Please pardon me, but we agreed as I am using her as a continuing food source-"

"We agreed to a demonstration!" Aro shouted.

"A demonstration which you sabotaged…!" Edward fired back.

"I did no such-"

"I need her docile and compliant for feeding to work, Aro. Do you think I'm feeding on animals for fun? You broke her collarbone. Do you realize how long it takes a human collarbone to heal?"

"Your pet struggled. I moved to assist you in restraining her," Aro snapped.

I remembered that night as they discussed it. I could feel Edward inside of me, the tingly almost high of the two of us together, the oddly exhilarating feeling of being watched… and the jarring cold sensation of someone behind me.

Skin tearing.

Bones cracking.

The wrong kind of pain.

A tremor moved through me. I clasped my hands to force them into stillness.

The shouting down below became louder. I scooted away from the door. I'd heard enough. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen to me, or Edward. If something happened to him, then I was a goner. Aro would discover me and my unnatural half-vampireness along with the baby. What would happen to the baby? Would I be allowed to keep it? Would he or she be stripped away like everyone else?

I started rocking back and forth, rolling from side to side ever so slightly. Why couldn't a human boy have fallen for me? It would have been so much simpler.

Boy meets girl. Boy stays in Biology class and impresses girl with stupid jokes. Boy asks girl to dance. Boy does not go psychotic and start a war.

I didn't think I was asking for much.

Fate hated me.

I was fate's bitch.

My best friend and first boyfriend was a werewolf. The boy I loved was a hundred or so years old and a vampire, whom I just so happened to throw off of the vegetarian wagon. Then there was the matter of the creepy vampire army downstairs demanding my death one way or another.

"A brothel!" Carlisle's shout jarred me. Had he just scream the word brothel? I had to be mistaken.

"Yes, that's the idea, we've acquired several humans to use in this manner, but none have survived mating, much less feeding," Aro said indignantly.

"They're human, you can't fuck them like you would another vampire."

I felt bile rising in my throat. Aro had tried to recreate our circumstances. I tried not to imagine the broken bodies of the women he'd likely kidnapped.

"We are aware, and have shown restraint. If you want to continue using her as a food source, your Isabella must teach these humans how to submit to a vampire."

I looked around the room frantically for something to vomit into. I found a bath towel within reach, and grabbed it just in time. I retched repeatedly until my stomach was completely empty. Aro wanted me to train his whores.

"Respectfully, Aro, I doubt that members of your guard are able to show the restraint that Edward does with Bella-"Alice was cut off abruptly.

"How dare you?"

I heard snarling and growling.

"Jasper," Alice said quietly, trying to calm her mate.

"Aro, you will refrain from touching members of my coven," Carlisle's voice was strained.

"I am not in the habit of repeating myself. The human slave, Isabella is to come to Volterra and teach our slaves to be docile."

"Isabella is unable to perform such a task, as her arm has not yet healed," Edward seethed.

"How long will it take?"

"A minimum of ten weeks," Carlisle volunteered.

"Well, it's already been three. In seven weeks I expect you to return to Volterra with the human," Aro demanded.

"And if I do not?" Edward asked, venom seeping into his voice.

"Do not try my patience, boy; you will lose."

The door slammed, and I heard vehicles starting outside.

Edward was in front of me within seconds. He wrapped his arms around me and I sobbed. I couldn't go to Volterra and lead women to their deaths. There was no way I could teach them to survive intercourse with a vampire.

"I can't," I cried. "I can't do it."

Edward held me closer.

"Shhhh, pet, hush. I will find a way out of this."

"How?" I sobbed. The baby rolled and kicked. "Those women." I shuddered. I fought the image of broken bodies at the back of my mind.

"Don't think about it," he whispered.

"It's our fault."

"It's my fault," Edward murmured into my hair. "You had nothing to do with this, pet. I was trying to keep you human."

"So you could feed," I sighed.

"No, because I didn't want you to be one of us."

His confession shocked me. Then it occurred to me, he wouldn't be able to dominate me so thoroughly as a vampire. I would be able to break ropes and fight him. I nodded, and felt more tears slide down my cheeks. It made perfect sense. I started to worry because I wasn't human anymore, not completely. He was going to replace me. I wiped my eyes and pulled away. It would be better if I wasn't so clingy.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, calmly.

"I'm going to protect you," he said.

"I'm not worried about me," I said. It wasn't entirely truthful. I was worried about myself. "The women, Aro's slaves… it's terrible."

"There's nothing to be done," he sighed.

"We have to save them," I said.

"Bella," he growled.

"No, he's going to keep raping and killing them…" I was horrified that he would be willing to leave others to such a terrible fate.

He pulled me closer and ran his hands through my hair.

"Aro cannot see you again. If he knows about your transition and the pregnancy, he will never let you go."

"Would he trade?" I asked. The words were out of my mouth before I'd fully considered them. If I was valuable, perhaps I was valuable enough to Aro to save them. Edward could have someone else as his pet. Edward wasn't all bad, and he had to be a better master than Aro. Aro didn't seem to care, but Edward had always taken care of my needs. I would be sad to leave him, but if Edward wanted a human…

"Pet," Edward said, shocked.

"I will go to Volterra, after the baby is born, and stay with him if he will release the human slaves. He can't have my baby!"

"Bella…"

"Aro cannot know about the baby, especially if she's a girl. You have to keep her safe." I said placing my hands on my belly. There was no telling what demented things Aro would do if I had a daughter.

"This is out of the question," Edward growled.

"I can't let him hurt anyone else."

"No!" He shouted and flung me onto the bed.

I stopped talking.

"You will not go to Volterra."

He stalked toward me, removing his belt.

I didn't move a muscle. I could feel a small surge of excitement course through me. I wasn't sure exactly why making him angry excited me. He was sexy in his anger. I wanted him. He grabbed me by the shirt and whipped it off over my head.

He folded the belt in half and flipped me over onto all fours. His hands slipped my pants and underwear down. He brought the leather belt down on my ass and I moaned. It stung and burned. He continued to smack me with it until I felt like he would never stop.

"Oh, please," I whimpered.

The belt flew across the room, breaking something where it struck the shelves. Edward's fingers were suddenly buried in me. They rubbed that spot inside, right where I needed him. His fingers weren't enough.

"More, more, more, more, more," I chanted.

His fingers were gone, and I felt painfully empty.

"Noooo," I whined.

Then, with one forceful thrust, he was inside.

"Uh, yes," I sighed.

He moved hard and fast. I came right to the brink of orgasm and he stopped.

I started crying again.

"You will not leave me," he growled, and grasped the back of my neck. His cold fingers sunk into my flesh. He wrapped his other arm around my waist and pulled me up so that his front was flush against my back. The hand around my neck slid down and around me to my breasts. He squeezed them and rubbed my nipples in turn. I desperately tried to rock up away from him for some friction, but he held me steady.

"Please," I begged.

"Do you still want to leave me? Do you want to become a plaything for Aro and his guard, to be their whore?"

I shook my head.

Edward started moving slowly, rolling his hips up into mine.

"You're not a whore," he whispered. "It matters to you who's buried inside you."

I nodded, and he rolled my nipple. I gasped and rocked. He stopped me.

"You want me, and only me."

"Only you." He slid a hand down and rubbed my clit, causing me to buck violently.

"They will never give you what I can."

I was shaking uncontrollably.

"You're my pet, not theirs, never theirs."

He thrust hard upward, and I gasped.

"Say it," he grunted.

"I'm your pet," I wailed. "Always yours, always, always…"

He picked up the pace and let my orgasm crash over me. I felt my muscles squeezing him, hard, and then the pulse and cold of his release inside of me. He slid out of me, wet and messy.

Edward turned me around to look in my eyes.

"Mine," he growled.

I nodded.

He was starting to harden again under me. His tip slid between my lips and found my clitoris. I moaned. He smiled, and twitched against me. I shivered. He leaned me back so that my upper body was on the bed, my legs were around his hips. He pushed in again, and fucked me until I didn't have a coherent thought left in my head, except that I was his. We were back to this, I was always his.

I was shaking and completely spent when he shifted to lay me down on my side. He laid down behind me and continued to carefully finger me until I slept.

I woke up to an orgasm. My sleepy eyes met his.

"I think the baby likes it," he whispered.

"Huh?" I asked.

"He gets still," Edward explained. "I think the contractions rock him to sleep."

"You're telling me that you're fingering me in my sleep for the baby's sake?"

"Yes."

"But it wakes me up," I complained.

"You like it," he responded, shifting downward. He was going to replace his hands with his mouth.

"Stop," I whined before his mouth made contact with me.

He licked my lower lips.

"Just cleaning you up," he explained.

My stomach growled.

His smile grew mischievous. "You needed to wake up anyway."

He helped me sit up. My stomach rolled, and I could feel bile rising up in the back of my throat.

"I don't feel good," I said shakily.

"I'll get you some food," he said and rushed out of the room. He returned with bread, cheese, and a glass of milk. I vomited bile just looking at it. Edward wiped me down with a warm, wet cloth.

"Ginger ale?" he asked.

My stomach rolled again. It burned.

"No."

"What do you need?"

"Something salty," I said. "Something salty and warm."

He brought me broth. I kept it down for a minute, before Edward was washing me again. The burn from my stomach seemed to be spreading.

"We need to get some food into you."

"I can't," I said, clutching my stomach, barely able to speak.

Edward disappeared and came back with Carlisle. I was still naked, but I didn't care.

Carlisle touched my forehead and my stomach. He sniffed me. Then, he swiftly stabbed a needle into my arm, trying to draw blood. He could only draw a tiny sample, and it didn't look red.

Carlisle and Edward exchanged a panicked look. Carlisle ran for the door. Edward was starting an IV in my arm.

"We're going to give you a transfusion," Edward explained.

Carlisle was back with blood as soon as the needle was taped down. He connected the bag to the tube, and I made a weak, inexplicable grab for it. Edward held me down. I thrashed against him. The bag of blood called to me. I had to have it.

"Edward?"

"No, I haven't given her anymore venom. I didn't touch the cut with my mouth."

I could feel the blood entering my veins. It was soothing, but I was still struggling. I could smell the blood in the bag, and it smelled good. I wanted it.

"Blood," I grunted.

"Bella, stop fighting me."

"Want blood."

"Carlisle, give me the second bag."

"Edward…"

"Do it."

Edward opened the tubing on the bag and slipped the end into my mouth. I sucked at it greedily. It wasn't warm but the blood slid down my throat easily, coated it, and made my stomach stop churning. The burning from my belly stopped.

My body relaxed.

Edward didn't release me. He was waiting for me to fight again.

"The baby was thirsty," I sighed.

Edward's hands loosened. He leaned back and looked at Carlisle.

"It's not a bad theory," Edward said.

"Bella, I want to check your blood for changes regularly," Carlisle said.

I nodded.

Carlisle left the room. Edward released me and wrapped me in a blanket.

"Do you want some food, now?"

I nodded and Edward went to get me some food. I carried the bag of blood attached to my arm over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of pajama pants. I pulled them on, and looked for a shirt. Getting my arm and the bloodbag into a shirt was going to be difficult. I grabbed a Tee and some scissors. The fabric cut smoothly, and I could get it on after cutting the side and the top of the sleeve. I slid into it sideways and taped the side around my abdomen.

"Creative," Edward said when he returned with a tray.

He sat with me while I ate. Everything went down smoothly and stayed there. He breathed a sigh of relief. My vampire was worried about me. He pulled me into his lap.

"That was scary and it's not even the most frightening thing to happen today," I said.

"Whatever it takes, I will keep you safe," he whispered.

End Note:

Yeah, he spanked her, but I think it was his coping mechanism, and she didn't seem to mind. Also… ::sigh:: vampire recovery time puts mortal men to shame. Although, a glass dildo is probably a good substitute.

So... Aro... we're going to have to do something about him. I'm thinking Rosalie, time, and some titanium restraints might fix that.