Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 6

I didn't know how long had my crying session lasted but as soon as it was over and I was coherent enough and blew my nose in Aro's hanky, a phone started ringing.

"Perfect timing," Aro sighed happily and fished out his shiny cell phone from his pocket. I gaped at the thing – it was made of platinum and while stylish and all, it was really resilient looking. He handed it to me with a wink. "It is Alice."

"Oh, hi?" I said tentatively and eyed my vampire employer. He had made himself more comfortable in the chair and was watching me with dark hungry eyes and a small smile on his face which was making me nervous for some reason. He was not even going to pretend that he was not eavesdropping.

"Hello, Bella! Oh, I'm so, so, so sorry!" She sounded like she wanted to cry. Vampires couldn't, though.

"Yeah, me too… Why are you apologizing?" I shifted and my eyes strayed to the figure so elegantly draped over the chair. Aro was still staring but he was obviously amused.

"Is Aro there?" she asked timidly. I had never ever heard Alice sounding that way and my eyes widened as I watched him. Now he looked awfully smug and nodded at me graciously.

"He is… but Alice, can't you see him?"

"Well… Hello, Aro," Alice addressed him and I was again struck by the shy tone of her voice. "I can't see him anymore if he is with you. Bella, you seriously should stop blocking me, I can't even express how annoying it is!"

"Good morning, Alice," Aro replied pleasantly after she spoke and then moved to sit next to me on the bed. I knew that he didn't need to be closer to speak or hear her – he was doing it for my sake so I wouldn't feel so awkwardly human. "I hope your journey back was pleasant?"

"Very pleasant, thank you. How is the weather in Volterra?"

"Sunny, as always. Do you have any news for me, my dear Alice?"

"Nothing but as I've said, I can't see you when you are close to Bella."

"Watch my brothers and keep an eye on the others, as I have asked you earlier."

"Yes, of course…"

I blinked and then blinked again as the two of them talked. Aro's voice was soft as always but I could detect how differently he sounded when he addressed my vampire sister-in-law. When he talked to her, he was Aro of the Volturi and he was a king talking down to a commoner. When he talked to me, he was simply Aro and his voice was slightly deeper, warmer, and more intimate.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked when their conversation paused for a second.

On the other end of the line, there was a momentary pause – Alice was waiting for a clue what to say. Aro flashed me a smile and patted my knee.

"Oh, nothing important, my dearest," he said. "But I do apologize; Alice called you and I monopolized the conversation with nothing but business talk. The floor is yours."

"Yes, sorry," Alice added quickly.

In that moment, I understood what was happening. Alice was terrified of Aro, it was as simple as that, and she had obviously agreed to watch things for him; to watch his family and the others – his enemies, his allies, wandering nomads… I didn't want to know why she had agreed to this, why she had involved herself with the Volturi. Was she doing it for me? Was she doing it because she was scared? Had Aro offered her something? Or had he blackmailed her?

Eyeing him nervously, I shifted again. He didn't give any indication that he was planning to move out of my personal space in the nearest future so I resigned and rested against the pillows while Aro was playing with the fingers of my free hand. He was so tactile, it was funny – when I had first met him, I had thought the exact opposite to be true.

"Yeah… So, Alice, well…" I couldn't possibly ask her the things I wanted to know with him sitting so close to me that I could smell him. It was highly distracting, as were his fleeting cold touches. However, I needed to know at least something. "How's the rest of the family? Why did you come alone?"

There was silence again which was broken by Aro's words, "Please, do not mind me here! Alice, answer Isabella. It is impolite not to."

Alice swallowed – I heard that – before she spoke, "Oh you know! Jazz really dislikes traveling on planes and Rose and Emmet were out hunting and Carlisle was in the hospital… Esme needed to redecorate the house and when Edward came back, I was the only one up to a field trip…"

She was totally lying.

"How did he know where I was?" I wished I didn't have to talk to her now but I didn't know if I would get the chance to talk her later at all. She had called Aro's phone, after all, and I doubted that I could go and get myself a cell. Aro's safety precautions served two purposes – it would keep me out of harm's way and it would keep out of his way and blissfully ignorant, dependent on his company only.

"He arrived home just in time to see… my vision."

Her vision. Hadn't I asked her not to watch Aro's decisions? I bit my lip and my eyes found Aro's. He was smiling at me in a way that suggested he knew a secret – like a little school boy in a first grade. He mouthed to me I was touched, my dear. Of course, he knew. Aro always knew everything.

"Alice! Why? I asked you not to!"

"It wasn't my fault, really. It's just… The decision was so fundamental that I couldn't not to see it! Bella, really… I am sorry, I didn't mean to."

"What was it? What did you see?" I asked faintly. What was so fundamental about Aro's decision to help us? It certainly had changed my life and saved my baby's life but how it had affected the rest of the world? Had it, really?

Aro hummed softly and Alice remained silent. Then he reached for the phone and gently took it from me, putting it to his own ear with a wide smile.

"Thank you, Alice, but Isabella needs her nourishment now. Please, do call in the future and give my regards to Carlisle. You all should come to visit in a decade or so."

I didn't hear her response but Aro slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned to me. "Hungry, my dears?"

When he mentioned that, I realized that I was hungry, so I nodded and watched him fetch me a fresh blood bag and a glass. All the while I was thinking about the obvious fear he had instilled in Alice and how he had completely taken over every aspect of my life from my diet to my wardrobe.

"Aro?"

He handed me my 'nourishment' and smiled, "Yes, my dearest?"

"Is this how things will be from now on?" I asked nervously. For the first time in his company, I felt uncomfortable and a little bit afraid. I didn't want to be controlled like this, shielded like this, live in a golden cage and be a pet to him. I didn't want to be dependent on him and him only. He already had my gratitude and loyalty – there was no need to do… this.

He straightened and looked me in the eye seriously. I could almost see the shift in his demeanor – gone was the gentle and caring man who talked to my belly softly and I saw a vampire who appraised me with an expressionless face, the ruler of the vampire race.

"You do not wish it, am I right?" he spoke still so very gently. "No, of course, you do not, Isabella. You are nothing like the women I have met before."

"I'm not," I nodded with relief. "Aro, we have a deal. I'm gonna serve one hundred years in the Guard. You… well… it's… I need to know things. Edward always kept them to himself, hid them from me but I… I need to be aware of what's going on especially if it's concerning my life."

"Yes, I begin to see that," Aro murmured and then he moved closer to me in a blink. I had noticed the dark expression on his face when my husband's name was mentioned, though. His eyes got darker, he looked tense.

"Well, then I promise you this, Isabella: once you are changed, the situation will be different. But for now, you are too fragile and I while I respect your opinion, as your physician, I will do what I think is best for you and the child. Right now, you are not to fret over anything, you are to relax and rest. Am I understood?" The tone of his voice left no room for discussion and when Aro spoke the last sentence, I detected a faint growl coming from him.

Defeated, I whispered, "Yes, Aro."

That was my life from now on and I knew that my fight for independence was far from over. Aro was a mind-reader and he was used to knowing everything and control everything that moved in Volterra in the same way Edward pulled the wires in the Cullen family. It was their nature, I could see that now. The only difference was that Aro was at least willing to listen to me. With him, I would always get a choice to stay or go; I would always get the chance to say yes or no. However, I didn't doubt that Aro would do his best to manipulate that choice. That was his nature, too.

-.-.-

Days passed, weeks passed, time flew by. I was mostly alone and I spent the time reading books or listening to soothing piano records Aro had procured for me. He came once a day and stayed with me for an hour or so to simply talk. It was mostly during the evenings while I had my 'dinner' and sometimes, I would share with him my glass of blood.

His eyes were frighteningly dark most of the nights and every time I offered him a sip, he took it with a small smile. I was grateful for his company because without any other visitors, I had quickly become lonely.

My strength was also waning rapidly and the cold I had caught didn't help matters at all. I couldn't stomach human food and blood was good only for my baby, not for me. Aro's idea to get me nutrition intravenously worked but I felt more and more tired every day and when the summer was ending, I spent most of the time feverish and sleeping.

My belly was hard and thick; the child was surrounded by something as indestructible as vampire skin. A normal childbirth was impossible therefore, Aro planned for a C-section but without a scalpel. My baby was going to be cut out of me using vampire teeth. The idea was making me absolutely terrified and Aro was beginning to worry, too. His visits tended to be longer lately – he started to stay with me until I fell asleep and I could swear that he was guarding me during some nights, too. That, or my dreams of cold hands caressing my fevered skin were awfully vivid.

It was during one slow morning when I faded in and out of consciousness when I knew for certain that a cold touch of vampire hands really smoothed my hair from my forehead.

I blinked in surprise and almost shrunk back.

It wasn't Aro as I had come to expect. It was his brother.

Marcus's face remained impassive but his eyes sparkled momentarily as he carefully tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. Was every vampire in Volterra this tactile? I doubted that – Alec and Felix were not like this. Perhaps it had something to do with age… there was something grandfatherly about the way Marcus did that.

"Don't fear, little one," he spoke in a gentle voice. His was much deeper than Aro's and managed to calm me immediately. Yes, grandfatherly was the right term. Marcus was the only vampire who really looked old – not in the physical sense, though. He and Aro were both changed later in their lives, I guessed in their forties, and the mature look on their ageless faces was extremely attractive. The centuries were reflected in his eyes and the bottomless sorrow in them. "I will not harm you."

"Ok," I said quietly and smiled at him. "Not that I don't appreciate the company… but why are you here? Aro said…"

"My brother says many things," Marcus reclined back and observed me. His voice was so soothing, he didn't change inflection much but that was the liveliest I had seen and heard him. "After a few centuries, you stop listening; he does love the sound of his own voice and it takes him much time before he gets to the point, so to speak."

I smirked. That sounded like Aro.

"I wondered about your state," he continued then and the tiny spark of amusement from his eyes disappeared. "Aro never shares his secrets but it doesn't mean that the rest of the family is not interested in the matters concerning Volterra and our lives. I decided that my visit would be preferable to my brother's. Caius has the tendency to speak before he thinks."

If by speaking he meant threatening and insulting, Marcus was right. That sounded like Caius. I still feared the fair brother the most.

"Yes, much preferable. What can I do for you?"

Now he slowly smiled like his face was unused to the chore and his muscles couldn't quite remember how to do that.

"You are alive and I can see that you are doing as well as could be expected. Your lines… your lines are curious," he said and observed me with a peculiar expression on his. "Most curious indeed."

I remembered how interested Marcus had looked so many weeks ago during the terrible confrontation in the throne room. His eyes had been flickering between me, Aro and Edward and I remembered how I had wanted to know what he had seen.

"Really? Lines? How curious?" I shifted and winced in pain. My belly was enormous and moving even the tiniest bit hurt. Aro suspected that it wouldn't be long before the child would be born.

Marcus remained silent for a long time, lost in his mind. Then he returned to the present and refocused on me with some effort. His presence was soothing in a way I had never experienced before; Marcus was calm and peace and eternity and all of my pain and worries and aches were slightly less acute while he sat with me and thought. I wondered what places he had seen and where in his memories he had gotten lost.

"I have met hundreds of vampires and thousands of people. You are aware of my gift, am I right?" Marcus was observing me just like his brother did but the feel of his stare was completely different. With Aro, there was always hunger, the obsession he had for me noticeable in every glance and touch. I was Aro's prized possession, his future favorite in the Guard. Marcus was watching me because I was the only other occupant in the room and we were conversing – and because he hadn't had the opportunity to form his opinion on me before.

"You… you see relationships? I'm sorry, I don't really know how it works." I blushed and looked away. Marcus wasn't the type to laugh at me, though – his face didn't change much but his eyes softened.

"Yes, child, that is basically correct. I see the connections between beings," he started to explain and I noticed that he barely moved at all. The Cullens had trained themselves to act like humans – they shifted in their seats, made nervous gestures, breathed. Aro was always in some sort of constant movement like he couldn't stop for a second, like he was always ready for the next interesting thing that would happen. Marcus sat down and that was it, he was like a talking statue and the only reason why he even breathed was because he needed air to speak.

"The bonds between persons are all different colors… It is quite something. I live in a world of swirling blues, reds, and greens. Bonds between vampires have a metallic quality to them because they are stronger and last much longer than mere few years of human life."

His voice started to sound more… alive.

"The bonds, they never have only one color," he sighed. "It is always a mixture of different feelings. Red could stand for passion or hate, yellow for happiness or jealousy, blue for understanding…"

"That sounds incredible. How do you know when red is for love and when it is for hate?" My mouth was probably opened, I was astonished. To see how people felt about each other, so much possible colors and meanings.

"I just know," Marcus smiled as he answered. "The majority of your lines are almost metallic, which means that you are connected mostly to those of our kind. Also, the colors are so vivid, so pure… Everyone forming a bond with you is very lucky. There was only one other person in the entire world who felt for others how you do."

When he said that, his voice cracked at the end and we stared at each other sorrowfully. I hadn't thought about the Cullens much, I hadn't allowed myself to. My pregnancy was normal at least in one thing; I was as emotional as any pregnant woman, so thinking about the past was out of the question. I worried about future enough. But when he had mentioned my bonds to vampires… I couldn't help it. Alice hadn't called me again, or if she had, I hadn't known, and just thinking their names was painful.

I had tears in my eyes and Marcus looked so terribly destroyed by grief that my heart was breaking. I could see the venom shimmering in his eyes and I burst our crying for both of us, covering my face with my hands.

Marcus was much slower than other vampires in his reactions. He watched me for a second, his eyes flickering around me as he read my bonds. Then he got up from the chair slowly even for a human and gently gathered me in his arms as if I was a child. My baby moved carefully so the position wasn't as awkward when he started to rock us back and forth. He knew why I was crying and I found myself wanting to know why he almost did.

"Who was it?" I asked after some time. I had feeling that it had been someone important to him; the source of his tragedy, the reason why he looked dead most of the time.

"My wife. You strangely remind me of her, child."

"I'm so sorry!" I choked because he spoke of her in the past tense and I connected the dots. Marcus was like I had been after Edward had left me the first time; a zombie, barely holding onto life for the sake of others because his heart had died, because his soul had been ripped apart, because a giant hole had formed in his chest. He was a vampire and Aro's words he had spoken to me so long ago finally made sense. My human heart could recover from such a loss, but vampire's heart could not. Vampire love lasted forever.

"Oh, little one, do not cry for me," Marcus told me softly. "Such is the nature of life."

I cried harder. Not only for him but for all of us who had loved and lost that love, for all those broken bonds and empty hearts.

Next: Aro is one unhappy vampire.

AN: I'm afraid I can't answer your wonderful reviews right now as I've been really busy looking for a new job. Although, keep reviewing, please, I am happy to read your thoughts and I'll answer them next time :) Oh, and wish me luck! I have an interview tomorrow! :D