Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Down the Rabbit Hole

Bella Swan was scared shitless. Trapped in a dungeon with beautiful model types, with blood red eyes, giving her and twenty other tourists Death Glares. They looked at them like they were Happy Meals. How the hell did she even get here?

Well she came to Italy with her Mom, Renée. Another adventure her Mom decided to go on last minute.

An hour ago she was touring the city of Volterra. Taking in the sights and history, when a beautiful woman asked if they’d like a tour of the local castle. Renée said yes immediately.

“Bella! A real castle! How exciting”. I nodded along, agreeing. It was always easier to just go along with Renée. She had an eerie way of getting what she wanted.

My dad Charlie (her ex-husband), and I were the only ones who really ever could push back against her. Pulling her back from her more extreme ideas, bungee jumping, down hill skiing, sky diving, etc..

But when it came to more mundane activities it was still easier to just go along with her. Like taking a tour of a castle, I mean what’s the worst that could happen?

So now here we stood after a brief tour of the castle and she knew she was going to die. Three men on thrones sat in the middle. Their skin had a weird texture, as if it was made of paper. Like you could poke a hole straight through their skin. Four more supermodel types surrounding them in cloaks matching their blood red eyes.

The alluring tour guy, a bulking man with short black hair as big as a small car, and two blondes, a boy and girl around my age. Maybe a year or two younger, that looked like siblings. They were all very beautiful, the blonde girl smirking at me, as if she was holding in a secret that she was dying to tell me.

The room was dead quiet, a feeling like waiting for a test you didn’t study for. Waiting for doom you knew was coming. And then as fast as a breath, it began. The gorgeous tour guide was the first to move.

In less than a blink of an eye, the tour guide went from being behind the men on the thrones to biting one of the women that was with us on the tour. Blood seeping from her bite.

As if that was a signal the rest of the supermodels were waiting for, the other three cloaked figures from behind the thrones sprang forward, tearing at the throats, of the men and women, even some children. Tearing apart their necks. And what I could only assume was them DRINKING their blood. The sounds they made were especially disgusting, as if they were in the throes of lovemaking, like these innocent people were their secret lovers that they had waited a life time to be reunited with.

I wanted to scream, but I knew if I opened my mouth all that would come out was vile.

Renée had no such problem. She screamed.

While the scream wasn’t necessarily loud. At least not compared to the others who weren’t currently being necked .

Her’s reverberated. Almost physically knocking back the heads of everyone in the room.

As if her screams were actually worth note. Every person, red eyed or not, paused. As if all the sudden they wanted to help this poor woman in their grasp, like she was lamb who needed to get back to her herd.

The three men looked at each other, a question in their eyes. The man on the left throne looked peculiarly intrigued. The look on his face one as if he was waking from a long nap. Renée seeing she had their attention started to beg.

“Please, please” she sobbed. “Please spare me and my daughter, we won’t tell anyone.” She begged “Just let us go.”

Tears falling down her eyes, she gave them a look I’d seen before but amplified to 11. Like a puppy you loved, but just kicked. Only now it was more intense, as if she was baring her very soul, just for you.

The red eyed man on the left stood up. “Marcus” the fey-ish man in the middle spoke seemingly surprised.

Marcus? Took a step toward’s Renée. As he came before her, he put a hand on her face. An expression of surprise on his own. As if he was seeing light after a century in the dark. You could hear Renée breathing nearly stop, holding her breath.

“Please” she begged him. “Help us”

Renée’s face was heartbreaking and everyone in the room seemed to feel it. All the sudden Marcus swept Renée off her feet.. Marcus finally breaking his gaze away from Renée, gave a quick look between me and the other paper men and then disappeared.

The man who appeared to be the leader, rose from the middle throne and stepped to me. Everyone in his way parting like the Red Sea. Scared of what he might do. He gad a queer smile on his face. A smile so wide it looked cartoonish.

“Well” he said, talking as if he has seen something so surprising that he couldn’t put it into words. “I don’t think anyone could have seen that coming” his words having a giddy lilt to them. He turned to me still with that cartoonish smile.

Gathering my courage I asked him “What are you going to do with my mother”?

“Oh I believe she is going to have a wonderful destiny here . Hehe ” his laugh was creepy, like a man possessed.

“I believe my brother wishes for her to join us” He said it with a smile. Like this was the happiest news he ever heard.

My stomach plummeted. Did he mean she was going to become…? A monster like these supermodel looking….beasts?

As I took a breath trying to calm down, a word came to my brain. In my panic I didn’t think of the obvious, the word that fit so perfectly for these Gothic creatures. A word so absurd I would never believe it, if I hadn’t seen it for myself.

“Vampire” I said. Looking in to his dark eyes, he smiled even wider as I said the word.

He offered me his hand palm up, waiting expectantly. Knowing, just like I did. I had no choice but to accept. It was this or die. I grabbed his hand.

Truly I thought he couldn’t look more surprised after Marcus ran off with my mother. I was wrong. He look at me like I was jewel. Waiting to plucked from the dirt that he almost stepped on barely giving it a second thought.

“What a surprise” he breathed. “And I thought your mother was gifted, but you my girl… You are truly….. special,” he breathed the words, they creepily floated in the air between us.

Like bugs.

I was lost. I had no idea what he was talking about. But I didn’t have long to think on it, because in the next second he grabbed me and in a nanosecond we were running through the castle. Moving so fast that the painting’s and tapestries were a blur. Finally we stopped at what appeared to be a small tower.

It was small, circular and had only a bed. I was immediately scared of the implications. But there was thankfully, no lust in the way he looked at me.

And then faster than a cobra, he bit me, and the world burned.

Chapter Text

Bella would later find out that she was only “out” for about 60 hours. But those hours FELT like days. Every minute the burn was spreading from the bites covering her body. Burning away at her flesh. Fire washing through her body. A baptism in Napalm.

Screaming didn’t help. Neither did begging, yelling for them to just kill her. Eventually she decided to just lay still, and hope if she finally died Hell would be kinder.

She got seven bites in total. One on each limb, one on her neck, and two on her back, upper and lower.
Say what you want about the Volturi, but they were efficient. Having had millennia’s to perfect their techniques.

After what felt like years the fire started leaving her limbs, starting with her toes and fingers. As she curled them, they felt like ice against her burning skin. The fire receded little by little. Her ability to think of anything other than the fire returned. At least a little.

As she lay there all she could think about were those monsters with their blood red eyes and paper skin. The supermodel types surrendering them, smiling, laughing and groaning as they gorged themselves on those innocent people. When they took her out of the room what happened to them? Bella had an idea. It wasn’t a pleasant one.

As the burning became less and less, a second (smaller) but still painful burn made itself known in the back of her throat. Bella did everything she could to ignore it. It wasn’t a priority right now. She had other problems.

Like how her heart felt like it was about to explode! Getting faster and faster! Tears gathering in her eyes, but for some reason they just wouldn’t fall! Her breathing becoming more and more labored! Taking bigger and bigger breaths, trying to catch them. All the fire constricting into her heart, burning hotter and hotter. Hotter than the surface of the sun!

OH GOD!! IT WAS GOING TO EXPLODE!!! SHE WAS GOING TO EXPLODE!!! THIS WAS IT, FINALLY SHE WAS GOING TO DIE!!! THANK YOU!!!

Thanking any and all beings for finally showing her mercy. Bella welcomed death, as if it was an old friend.

With one final gasping breath her heart stopped…..

…

…

…

To her surprise she didn’t die. Her brain continuing to think.

Bella was taking in this feeling, of being conscience but having no heartbeat.

At first she thought she may be a ghost,,,,,but no. She could still feel her body. Just to test if she was still connected to it, she wiggled her middle finger. It responded. In fact, it responded amazingly quickly. As if she never even gave the command to begin with. As soon as she had the idea her body responded.

Not breathing felt weird, so she tried to taking a breath. Again her body was quick. Doing it without effort. But with that breath came smelling. AND HOLY SHIT! The room smelled both amazing and very complex. She was sure she could smell things she never had before.

If you asked her to navigate the room without her eyes, she was sure she could do it. She could smell the cotton from the bed she was laying on, the wood from the floor and door. And the air! It held smells she couldn’t identify at first, but she quickly realized she was smelling herself. A smell like sweet flowers. And in the air she could smell others that had similar smell to herself.

Vampires. She remembered….. she was in a castle…full of vampires. And then it sunk in. She was a vampire. Tears came to her eyes, but they didn’t fall. Eyes still full of tears she opened them.

The tears made no difference to her eyesight. The world around her burst into colors. It was beautiful.
Had she been blind her whole life?

The colors danced. Light bouncing around the room. Almost playfully.
The thought made her laugh. And again she was surprised. Her voice!.. it was beautiful. Like a song. Like a bell ringing reverberating around the room. Making her laugh again, joining the first. The cycle continued, one laugh inspiring the next.

Bella felt like she might have gone insane. But for some reason, it didn’t feel like a bad thing. She felt giddy, experiencing the world in ways she never thought possible. Had the world always been this beautiful? And she was only in this small tower! What would the actual world look like? What would her father and mother look like?

The thought sobered her some, her laugh dying. Was her mom ok? Did she too, go through what Bella had gone through? Death would almost certainly be kinder.

Since she opened her eyes, everything that had happened, had only been a few seconds. Bella intrinsically knew it. Having some innate timer in her head. Her thoughts feeling wider and deeper, as if she could contemplate the meaning of existence and do differential calculus at the same time.

Bella’s ears perked up, hearing someone walking up the tower stairs. Her ears too seemed to have incredible
abilities.

Had her laughing caused her to be noticed? Bella braised herself, it would seem she was about to have a visitor.

Chapter Text

Bella’s door opened. The hinged metal on metal making a eeehhhrrr that she was sure a few days ago she wouldn’t have been able to hear.

In walked beauty. Two people came through the door. First was a 5’10, dark haired woman with legs that would make Marilyn Monroe jealous. The second was a beast of a man. Muscular but still lean.

Their skin had an iridescent quality, much like her own arms(all she’s of her own self, so far). Bella was sure if her heart was beating it would have sped up in this moment.

“Ah! If the princess hasn’t woken from her slumber”,’ the woman on the left joked her voice was thick voluptuous having an almost beautiful eeriness.

It took her a second, but Bella finally recognized the woman. This was the seductress who led her to her death. Bringing her and Renee to the castle.

Her hatred was extreme, coming out of nowhere. One second she was sitting, the next she was across the room attacking the woman. Trying to strangle her. Before she made it half way, the man met her in the middle picked her up and threw her into the wall. It didn’t hurt, just startled her.

Bella slowly rose to her feet, trying not to make sudden moves. Hands palms up showing her surrender.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” Bella’s song like voice startling her.

She felt like she was in a dream, everything looked normal. Just three people talking to each other. But the details were all wrong. No heart beats, smells she could almost see, there red eyes staring at her, the man in a cloak, and the woman so beautiful Bella felt both jealous and attracted to her. (Although her attraction to women was nothing new).

The pair looked at each other, a surprised look passing between them.

“I’m Felix and this is Heidi” His words were honey, a slight accent that she couldn’t place.

“Bella” she replied, giving a quick nod. “Where is Renée?” After a second she clarified “My Mother?”

Again a look passed between them.

“She’s fine. Marcus is by her side. She woke an hour ago, and is being fed.” Heidi said it like a report. A soldier telling her General how the battle went.

“ Marcus? The man who saved us, from that…….. massacre?” It was the only word that fit. What she had seen. What she had almost been apart of.

“Yes, Marcus. He’s what you humans would call a King. No one else but him, or his brothers could have spared you. One of the three rulers of our kind, the Volturi.” You could see all her teeth, a smile I’ve only seen on missionaries, those true believers who came knocking on your door, evangelizing.

“Why..why didn’t you kill us?” I was almost afraid to ask, wondering if they might change their minds.

“Your mother is quite gifted, but more than that, Marcus recognized her as a potential mate. Some vampires have extraordinary powers.” She chuckled. “Well most of the Us in The Volturi have powers. But Marcus specifically can see relationships, and he “saw” a high likelihood of potential in your mother. A potential to be his mate. His Wife. Very rare. Especially for those that have already lost a mate, like Marcus.”

I understood her words, but they sounded like gibberish in my ears. Mates? Powers? I felt like I should be overwhelmed, but there was so much room in my head the anxiety attack I would have usually expected, just wasn’t coming. I was just deeply concerned.

“So my mom is the potential mate of a vampire King? And that’s why you didn’t kill us?” My disbelief was obvious..

Heidi gave that wide smile again. Looking at me like I was a child. Or an idiot. “Well that and the fact the of you both had abilities of your own. Humans! Having powers before even being bitten! We haven’t seen that since The Twins. Jane and Alec. To Aro that alone was enough reason to see the two of you turned.”

“Powers? What powers?” I demanded, if I had some amazing kind of abilities I needed to know. Ever since the burning stopped, in the back of my mind I was constantly thinking of how to get out of here. I needed to get Renée and we needed to get away from these psychos.

“You my girl, have quite the little shield” she said it like I should already know what she meant . “So powerful Aro couldn’t read your thoughts. You had no response to Jane or Alec. Here let’s do a little test ourselves. Take my hand. “ She offered me her hand, palm up. I took a step back, I was waiting for some trap. Fire to spring from her fingtips or something.

She laughed a good natured but slightly disbelieving chuckle.

Felix too smiled. “I’ve never seen anyone untrained refuse Heidi before, any other newborn would have grabbed that hand and never let go” he informed me.

“My power is subtle but strong. Basically I’m irresistible.” I could believe it, she was gorgeous. If I wasn’t being so paranoid right now I would have almost definitely given her what ever she wanted. She was just that gorgeous. And I’m a baby dyke who loves Fem women, it would be easy to let her wrap me around her fingers. But not right now, not after my humanity had seemingly been burned away.

“Newborn?” The word caught my attention, I needed all the information possible.

“Newborn Vampires darling. It’s the beginning faze of your new life. You’ll have more trouble thinking, be a bit more cranky, and will have only one thing in mind.”

“Sex?” I blurted the word out. Even if Heidi power’s didn’t work on me, I still found her gorgeous.

She laughed, like I just gave quite a good punchline to The Aristocrats.

“Blood sweetie. It’s all about the blood. That burning in the back of your throat? It’s the only way to cure it.”

The burning was quite painful, but I’d had other things preoccupying my mind right now.

“In fact most newborns upon waking, it’s all they can think about.” She informed me. “In all my time as a Vampire I don’t think I’ve ever, just had a conversation with a Newborn who has just woken.”

“It’s definitely a strange sight” Felix agreed. “Your mother has already drained three. Just kept begging for more. Marcus of course wasn’t going to deny his possible new Wife anything. Even if it was overkill”

If I was alive I know the blood would be draining from my face. Renée had murdered THREE people?

I couldn’t believe it.

I wouldn’t believe it.

Chapter Text

Tears gathered in my eyes. Renée would never hurt a soul. I knew that.

Squaring my shoulders I demanded, “Take me to her.”

“I think it best if you feed yourself before you visit her” Heidi told me.

My eyes widened in horror. “NO.” The word left my throat before I could even process what I wanted to say it. They gave each other another look, and I adjusted my tone. Trying to sound calmer. “I mean, thank you, but I’m fine. I really just want to see my mother.”

I tried to reason. “We’ll both be much happier if we could just see each other”.

Heidi gave me that cultish smile and agreed to my demand. I gave a sigh of relief. Even if her supposed powers weren’t working on me, the way she looked at me, still sent shivers down my spine. If she was like this with my alleged “shielded mind,” what was she like around regular poor unfortunate souls? A scary but enticing thought. At the imagine Ursula swam through my head.

They took out of the tower and down a hall. As we passed hallways I memorized them, hoping I would find a way out later. It was surprising easy to organize all the twists and turns we took. My new mind was optimized to its fullest, organizing everything into boxes and folders that slotted neatly into the vast recesses of my consciousness.

We came to a suite of rooms. It smelled like my mother, Juniper and an Arizona soil, I could smell her easily. Underneath her usual smell was something sweeter and sharper. It was both nostalgic as well as new.

Felix and Heidi led me into her room. I immediately knew why they brought me here without a fight. She was still feeding. In shock I watched as she tore out a girl’s throat. A girl no older than me. The smell was overwhelming. Her heart beat like drum and sounded…..juicy. I wanted to jump in and sink my teeth into the girl as well. The instinct was nearly impossible to resist.

But I did. I froze. Closing my mouth and not letting the sweet air in. My body clenched, muscles straining. If I so much as flexed I knew I’d lose myself. I would help my mom kill the innocent girl. All I could do was watch as she did just that. I wanted to stop her, to save the girl. But I knew I was a slave to the burning in my throat, screaming at me to satiate it by drowning it in blood. All could do was watch as the girl died. Killed by my mother.

It felt liked hours until the girl was dead and they finally dragged her body away. The front of René’s white dress was covered in blood, she looked like monster straight out of some cheap B movie. Finally she noticed me, she too, had been only able to concentrate on the blood.

She had a surprised expression on her face, apparently I wasn’t expected.

“Bella!” Renee grinned, her eyes wide. “My god you look so beautiful.” I could tell she meant it. And if I looked anything like her, it was probably the truth. I’d never seen her look so gorgeous. She still looked like my mother, but only as if Michelangelo had sculpted her out of marble to create his picture of beauty.

She walked to me and tried hugging me. My instincts wouldn’t let her. They screamed DANGER. I jumped across the room, not wanting the blood to get on me.

“Bella?” she asked. A hurt expression crossing her face.

“Mom” my voice broke on the word. I didn’t know how to put my feelings into words.

“Why” I sobbed. Looking in the corner of the room where the girls body now lied.

She followed my eyes. She looked confused, as if not understanding what she had done until this moment.

“I….I…..baby…I’m so hungry. ….My throat hurts so bad. …..And they smell so good, Bella.….Can’t you smell them? They smell heavenly,……They smell like food” The words tumbled out of her mouth slowly as if she was putting complex sentences together just to describe something as mundane as breathing. I felt like a child, having adult try and spell something out, without calling the child an idiot to there face.

I didn’t know what to say. The words that came to my mind like Monster and Psychotic were stuck in my throat, refusing to speak themselves into existence. Because while I did FEEL that way, I could still smell the blood. And to my deep shame, I knew exactly what she meant. That girls dying heart that I could hear as she took her last breath, sang to me like a siren. Wanting me to sink my teeth in, and soothe that last part of me that still burned.

(Note: where I stopped for fanfiction. Net)

As I gathered myself, a man walked in. Looking at him is like remembering a dream. Familiar but hazy. This must be Marcus. The reason Renee and I are still alive.

Alive?

No existing.

He’s the reason we still exist. I felt grateful but mad.

Grateful he saved us, mad he we were in the castle to begin with.

“Bella it’s so good to see you.” He talked like we’re old friends. His voice, low, smooth and calming.

To my new eyes his skin still seemed thin, but not like paper, as my human eyes remembered. But like harden stone. Not as shiny and beautiful as my and the other vampires diamond skin. But like diamonds translucent and hard.

Another thing I didn’t notice with my human eyes was how young he looked. Like someone maybe in his early twenties, barely.

Renée attracting a younger man? Not like that’s never happened before.

But that’s the thing. He doesn’t carry himself like someone so young. And I would bet like my former human eyes, not many humans would say he looked young. He carries himself like…well a god. Even compared to Felix and Heidi who walk around like stuck up supermodels, Marcus seems not….old ….but Timeless.

“I’m so happy to see you aware. The turning proses is not pleasant, even after all my years I remember it well” He smiles effortlessly, talking calmly, and carefully.

He smiled at Renee, looking at her with affection in his blood red eyes. And she looked at him like a love sick teenager. A girl with crush on the popular boy, who decided the nerdy girl in class looked so pretty without her glasses.

“I’m happy you and your mother could join me and my brothers here in Volterra. Your mother and I, are excited to get to know each other, I hope in few months time your mother will agree marry me and be my Queen.” The look on Renee’s face said she didn’t need a few months to decide.

“And you my dear Bella, will be the very first Princess of the Volturi.”