Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Protecting Maddie

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 29:

BPOV

I can’t believe I let Alice dress me like this. What the hell does she mean I need to look like a vampire? I have pale cold skin, freaky eyes. Isn’t that enough? Nope, apparently not. She has lathered me in dark red lipstick, eye shadow and a long black flowing dress that is strapless. I look like the bride of Dracula. What if I need to fight? Why do I let her do this to me? She’s been doing this crap since I was 17 and I just roll over and take it.

Oh well. The castle was pretty cool. From what Jasper told me, I will be going through the underground entrance. Gross. I hope there aren’t spiders. I hate spiders. I walked the streets at night and saw them easily. Two glowing beings on the top of the wall of the castle. Gifted. One could control the weather. A lot of good that did for a vampire. The other was more interesting. Looked female. She had the power to bind others to her will or any others she so wished. Interesting. Must be Chelsea. The glue that holds the Volturi together for Aro. That would be helpful. Maybe I could turn these bastards against each other.

Still she wasn’t the one I was looking for. No, I wanted Alec and Jane. Once I had Alec’s power it would be simple to touch Aro, get the information I needed and walk out of there. Smooth as silk. What could go wrong?

I heard her coming long before I saw her. She was glowing as well. Everybody is special in Volterra. I felt the jolt to my body immediately. I held in the shaking tremor I usually had when this happens. She didn’t appear to notice anything strange. Interesting. She draws people in. A sort of mind influence. Not strong. But strong enough to work on humans. Strong enough to make them not think about why they are being led into a dark underground chamber until it is too late for them. Bitch. She is the fisherman.

“Well hello. Who might you be?”

Who might I be? Didn’t want to give my name in case Carlisle mentioned it.

“My name is Amber.” I don’t know why. I always liked that name. It was the first thing that popped in my head. I nearly named Maddie that, but AJ really wanted Madison.

“Welcome Amber. What do you want?”

“I want to talk to the brothers.”

“I am not sure where you come from. You sound American so I can forgive you a little stupidity, but there is a war going on. We don’t let anyone just walk in to see the Masters.”

I held in a snort. Masters my ass.

“I have come to offer my services.”

“And what gift might you have little girl?”

Apparently not sound judgment or great fashion sense considering how I let Alice dress me. I’m supposed to be a mysterious, bad ass, sensual vampire here. Better start acting the part.

“I am a mental shield.” That caught her attention.

“And why would you offer your services?”

“The Romanians took a friend of mine. I want her back. I want revenge. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So here I am. Are you going to take me in or should I be on my way and find new allies?”

She only stared at me so I read her mind. She was torn. If she took me in and I was a trap she would be in a lot of trouble. If what I said turned out to be true then she would also be in a lot of trouble. Decisions, decisions.

“I don’t have time for this.” I turned to walk away when I heard what I wanted to hear.

“Wait.”

Disco.

I slowly turned and put on my best bored face.

“Yes?”

“Follow me.”

She led me into a corridor that looked like it belonged to a cellar in the side of the castle. I followed her and saw several vampires filling the halls. There must have been at least 15 of them. They kept moving in and out so the number was hard to determine. I thought of reading their minds but I didn’t want so many thoughts at once. I tried to look for a vision but had nothing. I guess too many possible outcomes. I suppose I could be like Alice and look at each one but I really didn’t have the time or the patience. Visions could change in a second so I didn’t rely on them much. I would much rather bend metal or paralyze someone or throw fire or shake the… focus Bella.

After an extremely slow walk for vampires we arrived in a large open space. Holy shit. Those dorks actually have thrones. 12 vampires surrounded me. All of them glowing.

And it hit me. All the powers at once. The force made me stumble to my knees. No small feat for a vampire. And pretty noticeable. Luckily these dumbasses, didn’t notice.

“Rise my child. There is no need to kneel before us. Unless you plan to give your allegiance to us. Until then you are a guest.”

This idiot thought I was kneeling before him. I held in the tremors rocking my body. I didn’t even know all the powers I had just accumulated. I guess I could sort them out later.

Two powers I wanted however were not there. Uh oh. I looked around, remembering the descriptions Jasper gave me of the witch twins. They weren’t here.

Shit.

I rose to my feet, still shaking a little. Caius found this amusing.

“I believe the child is frightened of us Aro.”

“There is no need to be frightened if you are a friend, child.” Aro responded. The fisherman who walked us in walked up to Aro and touched his hand. I was a little nervous about that. I really didn’t want to know every thought he had ever had. The idea of what he has thought about over two thousand years is quite frightening. Jaspers swears it won’t affect me. He says I can compartmentalize it in my expansive vampire brain. We will see. I know after today I don’t plan to use this power ever again. That is one box that is stay shut under lock and key in the back of a very dark corner of the attic in my mind. The idea of it to me, is the equivalent of mental rape. But seeing as how Aro has been doing it for centuries he should get a taste of his own medicine.

“A shield. A mental shield. Interesting. I have a physical shield behind as you can see. My lovely Renatta stays at my side constantly. But a mental shield is hard to come by. We thought we had a lead on one a few years ago but he wound up dead.”

Gee, I wonder who that could be.

“Why don’t we test your power? Would you mind touching my hand?”

“Of course.” I walked slowly up to him with my hand stretched out. I really didn’t want to touch this creepy bastard any more than I had too. His skin looked weird and his eyes were kind of foggy. Not much but enough that you could tell. Jasper prepared me for this. He told me it was a result of staying in a castle for too long. They don’t get out much apparently.

His fingertips touched mine and his thoughts hit me like a freight train. Aro had been watching everything. Garrett and Charlotte weren’t here. The Romanians had the Cullens. Edward Cullen. He thinks Carlisle must have joined them to keep Edward safe. Carlisle used wolves and vampires to capture Garrett and Char to draw us in. He wanted to trade Maddie and I for Edward’s freedom. Aro killed Marcus’s wife… wait, what? His sister? Where the hell did… oh that’s just cold blooded. Holy shit, he’s a cross dresser, no wait, he just likes robes a lot.

“Amazing. I can read nothing. How I wish Jane was here! I would love to see if her powers work on you dear!”

Asshole. I bet he would.

“Hold one second dear. I need to have someone measure your power. I want to know if you can truly expand this shield.”

“You want a demonstration?”

“No need my dear. Eleazar! Please come down to the throne room.”

Fuck.

I turned towards the stair way and saw him descending. Good looking guy. Not to pale considering his probable Spanish ancestry. His eyes widened when he saw me. Yep. He’s heard of me. He may never have seen me but I can imagine the power spike I am throwing off.

Shit.

He walked up slowly beside Aro.

“What do you think of my new shield, old friend?” Aro smiled.

“You told me once if I could find the power thief or her daughter you would release Carmen. Did you mean what you said?”

Aro frowned.

“I never break my word, old friend. You know this.”

“Say hello to the power thief. You look older than 18. I am guessing you would be Bella Swan? The mother?”

Okay.

Wasn’t expecting that. Smooth as silk. Right…

“My name is Amber…”

“There are only two of you that have ever been heard of. Carlisle Cullen told me about you. You seem like a nice lady. But my mate and I would like to go home.”

Aro and Caius were looking at me with a bit of fear in their eyes now. Nope Caius was worried. Aro was figuring out how to play this.

“What is your reason for being here Bella Swan?” Aro was smiling again.

“I told you. A friend, actually two friends of mine, were taken by the Romanians. I want them back.”

“This would be the two the Romanians took to lure you in. I never thought Carlisle’s plan would work. And it didn’t. Instead of going to Romania you came here. Why?”

I didn’t say a word. We locked eyes. I tried to read his mind. Silence. And then it hit him. Fuck.

“You wanted to copy our powers did you not? The powers you have accumulated so far aren’t enough are they? You want more. Oh I like you.” Aro had that creepy smile on his face. He was rubbing his hands together like I was some sort of fucking birthday gift. I guess I kind of was.

/Bella, I know Chelsea’s gift won’t work on you. However you will join me. If you join me I will not search for your daughter. If you do not I will not stop until I have found her and taken her. I have ways of making others do my bidding. Help me destroy the Romanians and you can have your freedom and hers./

“Lie.”

Apparently I can tell lies in thoughts as well. Course I can’t stop the involuntary word coming out of my mouth.

“Oh this is wonderful. You can tell between the truth and lies.” Caius was still sneering at me.

“Your war is none of my business Aro. I plan to get my friends. Whatever Romanians get in my way will die. Other than that, I have no use for your help. I wanted your powers. I have them. Thank you. I will be leaving now.”

Yeah, that should work. They don’t know exactly what I can do. They will stay back. I wanted to look for a quick vision but I really didn’t need to be dazed right now.

“Bella my dear, you are going nowhere. Perhaps having your hands and feet ripped off and staying a spell under Felix’s watch in the dungeon may convince you of what we can do to your daughter when we find her. Felix?”

I turned to see the big fucker walking to me.

“We are going to have some fun Isabella. Don’t worry. I plan to make sure your legs stay on. What else would you hold on to me with?”

“Aro, she can paralyze with a touch.” Eleazar said, pretty much confirming that I am going to be burning him on the same bonfire I have reserved for Carlisle Cullen.

“Good information friend. Guard, don your gloves. Felix take her.”

Without thinking I threw a fireball at Felix. It struck him in the chest and he immediately lit on fire. His clothes burned off but he was still standing, still smirking.

“If you wanted to see what you were getting girl, all you had to do was ask.”

I didn’t know the exact way out and I sure wasn’t going out the way I came in. The guard was surrounding me. This was going to be tricky. What to do, what to do. Not getting raped by a 7 foot Italian would be a good start. I looked around and saw nothing. I looked up.

Bingo.

With a blink of my eyes the roof of the throne roof came down around me. Heavy stones. Made a big fucking noise. Enough pressure to knock the surrounding guard down. Unfortunately they were standing up quickly and I had to leave. Shit!

I felt myself being held in an iron grip. I recognized Caius smell. Baby faced bastard.

“You are going to have to learn how to behave child. Maybe I will take you to my private chambers. I doubt Felix could handle you.”

He had an arm around my neck. My eyes strayed up and I saw the ceiling of the room whose floor I just brought down. Sunlight. A window. I just had to get up there. I head butted Caius to gain some space. All I needed was an opening. Caius had gloves on. I reached back and stuck my hand in his hood. He froze.

Felix and the other guard were running at me. Have to be fast.

I jumped straight up. Felix came after me, jumping as well. I saw the metal beams at the very top. Upper level of second floor ceiling. Must be steel. I turned myself into a magnet and shot straight up. I stuck to the beams and turned in time to see Felix grab my leg. I kicked him in the face and watched him fall.

Looking at the floor two stories below me, I saw Aro. Fucker wasn’t smiling now.

Deep Space. Black hole. See how they like living in one of those.

I heard the loss of breath downstairs. I couldn’t hold this forever but if I could keep them blind long enough to not see which way I was going, it would be helpful. I pulled myself magnetically to the next beam and landed on the remaining floor at the end of the room. Apparently I hadn’t brought the whole floor down. Just the parts around me.

They were going to have to get new thrones.

I knocked down the remaining floor onto them. I heard Aro screaming to grab me. I smirked. No way. I am so out of here.

“There is the bitch! Get her. She attacked the Masters!”

For real? 10 more vampires were running from the door on the other side of the room. They jumped the hole I had created with no problems.

I took off. I didn’t stop. I ran through three walls before I found the daylight that had been in the window above me earlier. I had a feeling that window would have led me to a courtyard or something and I was really not in the mood for gardening right now.

At least my dress would be ruined. Fucking Alice. Serves her right.

Dammit they were right behind me. It was cloudy outside. I thought I would keep running and they would slow down because of people in the streets or the sunshine and I could take off in the sunshine. Considering I just broke their castle breaking a few Volturi laws isn’t that big of a deal right now. Nope, they continued chasing me. My phone rang.

“Yeah Alice?”

“Bella they are going to catch you eventually. Come towards us. Peter and Jasper have set a trap.”

“Nope. Keep Maddie safe. I am going to lead them away.”

“Bella you can’t! Ten vampires Bella? You can’t take that many.”

“I find your lack of faith disturbing Alice. Gotta go. I will call when it is clear. Keep my girl safe.”

Up ahead was a hill. All I had to do was reach that hill. When they came over I could place them in a vision and then paralyze them. Easy. Smooth.

The top of the hill arrived quickly and so did the son of a bitch who just tackled me. We slid down the hill and I could feel my dress tearing. Please don’t let the ass tear out of this dress.

He rose up on me and I kicked him his sneering face and then in his balls. Nobody, human or vampire likes to have their balls kicked. I flipped on my back and saw I was surrounded. Time to paralyze some motherfuck…

Ouch! That was a tree! That fucker just threw a tree at me!

“Glove on boys. She is tricky. Avoid her skin. Rip her legs and arms off. Then we can throw her in a bag and take her back to the kings.”

“That isn’t very nice boys. Here I was just trying to run away so I wouldn’t have to hurt any of you and you want to do that to poor little me? Why don’t you all relax?”

I sent calm towards them and they held up. But they kept walking towards me. Just more relaxed now. It always works for Jasper. Then I threw fear at them. Maybe I could scare them off.

It was working! They were backing up!

Fuck! Somebody just threw another tree at me. I opened the ground and watched them fall into the earth. And jump right back out.

It gave me the opening I needed though. I took off running again. I had some distance.

Except from the four who were in front of me now. Reinforcements.

I never stopped, throwing ice and fire constantly at them. They never stopped either. We collided. I tried to jump but three went low and one went high, knocking me on my ass. I cracked open my eyes and saw I was surrounded by 14 vampires. I tried to put them in a vision of hell but they began hitting me. I couldn’t concentrate. I could feel my arms being pulled. My skin was cracking. This was not fucking good.

“That is no way to treat a lady.”

Peter?

No, Peter would not have stopped to say anything.

The vampires stood up. Two pulled me up and wrapped my arms up between them.

The others surrounded a tall man, extremely well built with long blond hair. Wow. Guy was good looking. He was about to be torn to pieces. Too bad. He had great hair.

“This is not your concern. This is a Volturi matter. Do not interfere. Leave now.”

“No, I don’t think I will. I like her spirit. I watched her escape. She made you all look like fools. I respect a lady who can do that. So no, I am afraid I will have to kill you all. Who’s first?”

The blonde guy was smiling. He certainly seemed sure of himself. Four vampires jumped him. Holy shit.

I have never seen anybody move that fast. Not even Jasper can move that fast.

Body parts were lying on the ground. 8 legs, 8 arms, 4 torsos and 4 heads. I lit my arms on fire and the two fuckers backed off. I threw flames at the pile and saw them go up instantly. The blonde smirked.

“Thank you dear lady. Okay gentlemen. Ten of you left. I have to admit I haven’t been in a fight in a few years. This is stimulating.”

The ten remaining Volturi did not look happy. They looked scared. They were scared. I tried to read the blonde’s mind. All I got was joy. Excitement. He wasn’t thinking of anything but which opponent he was going to rip to pieces first. I felt his emotions. Lust. Not for me. For killing.

“Nobody wants to volunteer? Fine. I will choose.”

He attacked the two who had been at my side. Before I could blink I was standing between two headless vampires. I lit them without thinking and jumped at the one in front of me. He was so focused on the blonde he never even looked my way. I dropped him to his knees and went for the straight bite to the neck. I wasn’t in the mood to fuck around. I didn’t know who this new guy was but I knew one thing for certain. I could not win a fight against him. No way, no how. I turned to go after the next vampire and found there was no next vampire. Only the blonde guy standing surrounded by body parts. I lit them up quickly. He turned to look at me. He had black combat boots, tight blue jeans and a solid black t shirt. He had eyes that were a mixture of red and yellow.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

“My name is Alexander. I saw you escape. I like your fire. Literally and figuratively of course. You remind me of my wife when I was human. My Roxanne. I have been observing the war these children have been waging for years now. It is entertaining. However, I really don’t want to upset the balance too much. What do you say we get out of here before I have to kill them all? I would hate my only entertainment to be television. It gets so dull. Why don’t you take your cellular phone and call the girl you were talking to earlier? Find out where they are. I will accompany you to them. Then I will be on my way.”

Not wanting to look at a gift to hard, I dialed Alice.

“BELLA! Where the hell are you?”

“Calm down Alice. Another vampire stopped by to help me. Where are you? We are coming to you.”

They were three miles away. Peter and Jasper had taken off after me, ignoring my instructions to get Maddie away. I would bet Maddie took off first. Probably not. Her and Peter probably both took off at the same time.

“Lead the way my Lady. I would love to meet your coven.” He smiled.

We ran without a word. I could tell he was running slower to keep pace with me. He was holding back. Who the fuck was this guy? I didn’t see any power radiating off of him. He was just extremely strong and fast and vicious. The way he went through those vampires. Glad he liked my fire. If not I would be a limbless torso in a bag in the Volturi dungeon.

I saw my Mate and my girl a hundred yards away. I ran straight to Peter. He kissed me and held me like I was going to disappear.

“Peter, I want you to meet Alexander. He saved my life…”

I turned around and saw Alexander. With my daughter wrapped around him. With her her legs around his waist. His hands were on her butt. They were playing tongue hockey. She was winning. He just laid her down on the ground. Oh fuck. I used the power I picked up from Marcus and saw it immediately.

“What the fuck are you doing to my daughter? Get off of her!” Peter began moving towards him. Alexander would kill Peter if he got involved. I grabbed his arm.

“Peter stop. He is her Mate.”