Chapter 6

Zafrina had been released as soon as they were all escorted into a sitting room. Bella had been kept between Athenodora and Caius while another guard member, whom she learned was Felix, literally walked Zafrina in her zombie like state into a love seat in the room. As soon as Bella realized where Zafrina was to sit, she immediately moved to sit next to her. A part that she was definitely ignoring, was really worried about the strong warrior; Bella really didn’t like seeing the dark skinned beauty so pliant. Bella was also very sure that if Zafrina could, she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her but in her current state, Zafrina couldn’t protect her and Bella had no idea what the Volturi wanted with her; especially since she was sure Aro was upset that she was a human and not vampire.

“There is a lot for us to discuss.” Athenodora started as she and Caius moved to stand in front of a fire place. The room was larger than Bella thought was necessary for a sitting room; not that she had ever actually been a place that was big enough or important enough to have a sitting room like a castle; she just thought it was rather large for a room that vampires that don’t get tired to sit and wait in. “You will not do anything.” Athenodora commanded as the guard left the room, leaving Zafrina alone with Bella on the loveseat. “You will not attempt to leave, you will not attack. There is much for us to discuss and if you insist on not cooperating, things will become very difficult for you.”

Bella wasn’t sure exactly how Athenodora’s gift worked, but she knew the very second Zafrina was released because the Amazonian beauty was immediately pressed tightly against Bella, her hand around her waist and the other hand held tightly in a fist in her lap. There was a soft growl continuously emanating from Zafrina; Bella wasn’t sure if it was from anger or a warning.

Bella looked at Zafrina, the black nearly completely taking over her eyes and knew that the ancient vampire was going through a lot of conflicting emotions. And for someone that didn’t normally express herself, Bella was sure that the woman was overwhelmed. If it had been Bella in her shoes, she wasn’t sure what she would do. The old Bella, the one that wanted nothing more than to be perfect for Edward, would have probably started crying and ran or just sat there in silence, waiting for death. But that wasn’t who she was anymore; she had said goodbye to the old Bella, the one that wanted to be perfect for Edward. Well, she had tried to do that before Laurent interrupted the whole thing, but the point still stands.

She was different now. She would like to think after the experience that was the Cullen’s, she had matured more than the average teenager in that time. And at that moment, Zafrina was clearly struggling with herself; with what exactly, she wasn’t sure. But she wanted to help. There was some type of need to help Zafrina in whatever way she could that she just couldn’t ignore.

“Where are her sisters?” Bella asked the first thing she could think of. She was sure that was at least one of the things weighing on Zafrina’s mind, one of the things she wanted to ask about but couldn’t find the words.

“They are in another room, a guest room, waiting for us to finish our conversation.” Caius answered, his frown still present in his tone. He sounded like he wanted to be anywhere but in that room, yet he was the one, and his mate, to command them all to be there.

“So, they’re safe?” Bella asked to clarify, not leaving anything to speculation. Zafrina’s slightly tightened grip around her waist let her know that was exactly the best thing to ask.

“They are in no danger little one.” Athenodora answered, causing Bella’s eye to twitch in annoyance. What was it with vampires and calling her names like ‘little one’? She wasn’t necessarily one of the taller women around, but she wasn’t short like Alice either. Was it some way to show a type of superiority over humans?

“They are simply out of the way while we talk about what is happening.” Caius said with a small sneer, “They would be in the way.”

Zafrina’s growling seemed to get just slightly louder at those words, but Bella wasn’t sure what she could do to help. She was at a loss of how to make the vampire feel better without knowing exactly what was on her mind. But she was going to try. Bella put her hand over the woman’s fist, just laying it there, hoping that it would provide some sort of comfort.

Her growling didn’t get softer, but she did turn her hand over to clasp hands with the human. Even though Zafrina’s emotions were out of control and she was struggling to control herself because she needed to protect her human, she needed to get answers and she needed to stay safe. Both of these vampires were far older than Zafrina, therefore they were both stronger. Never mind their guards and the queen’s gift that would work against her. Her number one goal though, above even that of her sisters’, was to keep her mate safe. If Zafrina let her anger and emotions go, she wouldn’t be able to do that.

“What do you want with us?” Bella asked, taking just a second to think that recently she was asking that question a lot.

“Don’t sound so miserable,” Caius said with a sneer, “You are better than the fear I’m starting to smell coming from you.”

“Fear is beneath you.” Athenodora added with a slight sneer that Bella couldn’t figure out if it was actually directed towards her personally or just her words.

“Well excuse me for being afraid for being around a bunch of human drinking vampires that apparently don’t like humans knowing their secret.” Bella said, her eyes going wide for a moment as the snark in her tone finally registered in her brain. Being sarcastic to the vampire royalty wasn’t really the smartest thing to say. But she couldn’t help that Caius’s mere presence made her want to argue with him.

“I will not let anyone harm you.” Zafrina said, though it sounded more like a growl. While Zafrina was struggling with her emotions, with restraining herself from trying to run away with her mate and get far away from the Volturi and the possible threat they appeared to be towards her new bond with her mate.

Athenodora scoffed at the Amazon’s words, but it was her mate that responded, “How dare you think we would harm her. Do you not sense the importance she is to us?” Caius asked, not even attempting to hide the anger he felt at the younger vampire’s insinuation. “If you were not so sheltered, you would have realized that we share a bond with the human and keeping her from us would only hurt her in the long run.” Caius said, shedding some light on what was going on but not completely clearing everything up for Bella. Bella was torn between wanting to defend Zafrina and her life choices, no one should shame her from wanting to stay away from humans as they were pretty bad after all, and wanting to question the royals for some answers. “If you truly cared about the human, you should have at least felt we built a familial bond with her the second we saw her. Dora wasn’t even in the room and she felt it as their bond is so strong.”

Zafrina didn’t verbally respond, but Bella felt her tense, the grip around her waist becoming almost painful. The vampire was struggling and Bella was at a loss of what to do to help. She did know that while the vampire had taken her from her home, after all she had heard about the Volturi, she would rather be with the Amazon than the Volturi. She would do what she could to help Zafrina and hopefully the Volturi would let them go. What would happen after that, she wasn’t sure.

“What bond?” Bella asked, hoping to get the attention off of Zafrina and allow the Amazon at least a small moment to try and gain some control again.

Athenodora then turned her full attention to Bella and the smile she gave Bella was both one of happiness and one of concern. Bella couldn’t quite tell what exactly about the smile it was that unnerved her, perhaps it was the look in her eyes, but the smile was unnerving.

“It is a rare bond.” Athenodora started to explain as she took a step forward, “One that many view is more important than a mate’s bond.” Zafrina hissed at that, so Bella hooked their arms together and then clasped their hands together in a way to show that she was with the older woman regardless of what the two Volturi said. “We have only seen a handful of examples of the bond in our lifetimes it is so rare.”

Bella hadn’t heard of that bond; well, not in those exact words at least. She knew the Cullen children saw Esme and Carlisle as parental figures but from what it sounded like, they didn’t have that bond. Perhaps even though the Cullen ‘children’ saw the ‘parental’ figures of the Cullen coven in that light, it wasn’t an actual bond. If how close they were wasn’t a bond, then what did it mean for Bella and the royals? Did that mean Bella would never see Charlie again because there was Caius now? Truth be told, she wasn’t very heartbroken if Renee was replaced; the woman was never truly a parent as she always tried to live vicariously through Bella instead of being a parent.

“What exactly does it mean?” Bella asked, still not understanding. Was it a vampire thing, not explaining things properly? She was starting to think it was and dreaded she would be the same way once she was turned. Because she knew, without a doubt, that she was going to be turned sooner rather than later now that the Volturi were involved. “Like Carlisle and Esme are with their coven?” She asked, knowing that that wasn’t very likely but didn’t have any other examples to pull from.

“They know nothing of the bond.” Athenodora sneered, insulted that the bond she now shared was compared to that of what the Cullen’s perpetrated. What the Cullen’s had was a sham, a disgrace. They played at being a family as a way to trick the humans but then tended to carry that charade into their real lives. They were fools. What they did was insulting, pretending to have a bond they could never hope to have themselves. Lucky for them they had never actually claimed to have a familial bond, so they could be spared from punishment. “What they pretend to have is nothing more than a fondness for each other and some day that fondness will run dry. They are not a true coven just one of convenience; their animal drinking ways will destroy them in time.”

Bella scrunched her eyes in confusion. She had always been told that the red eyes were always so blood thirsty because the human blood they drank made them constantly lust after, made them more animal than human. She had been told to fear those with red eyes because they would want nothing but to drink her dry and from the little amount of red eyes she had thus really interacted, at least before Zafrina stole her away, everything they had been said was true. But the fact that these vampires were now telling her they were bonded somehow; she wasn’t sure who or what to believe.

“And what exactly does it mean to have this bond with you?” Bella asked, silently wishing that vampires would learn to just get to the point instead of dragging things out. But at least she seemed to be learning a lot more about what it meant to be a vampire than she ever had with the Cullen’s. The Volturi didn’t seem to mind giving away any type of information; no matter how long it seemed to take to do so. “What does it mean for me?” She asked, hoping for an easy and quick answer if she was blunt.

“It means you ours and are here to stay.” Caius said, causing Zafrina to start her growling again and Bella to roll her eyes and the reaction from the Amazon but then what the king had said registered in Bella’s head.

“I am not yours.” Bella argued back, earning a sneer from Caius. She would have added on that she wasn’t going to stay, but realistically she knew there really wasn’t a way to leave if the vampires wanted her to stay.

“Don’t fool yourself; you are but a human, it is not expected to feel the bond, but I assure you, you are ours.” He asserted, taking a few steps closer to Bella, raising his fist in front of him as if he was preparing for a fight instead of an argument.

“Just because I’m a human doesn’t mean I can’t feel relationships and right now, I’d rather walk away from here with Zafrina, even if it meant not seeing my dad again, if it meant I didn’t have to see you again.” Bella said. If she could, she would have stood up to match Caius’s movements, but Zafrina’s grip on her waist and arm only tightened, not allowing Bella to move much at all. Instead, Bella put as much strength as she could into her glare at the king, only taking a moment to think about the fact that she shouldn’t be arguing with someone that held so much power over her life and wellbeing, but she quickly wiped that thought away. She didn’t even pay attention to the fleeting thought of regretting fighting with Caius and that technically his and his mate’s claim did save her from Aro’s possible wrath. But that thought was easily ignored in favor of fighting with the king.

Caius opened his mouth to retort, but his mate’s hand on his shoulder stilled his words. Instead, Athenodora took over the talk, “The familial bond is unique to each bond.” Athenodora explained, moving a few steps closer towards the human to match her mate’s closeness but still not as close as she would prefer. But contrary to what most believed, the Volturi respected bonds and the mate bond between others and the bond Bella and Zafrina had was new and as much as the Volturi loved messing with others, they did not want to harm Zafrina’s bond. Zafrina was struggling being around so many other vampires, especially so many unmated ones, and then being taunted at. The fact the Amazon had come in the first place and really only attempted to run once was impressive and while Athenodora knew Zafrina would be punished for fleeing, the punishment would be miniscule. “One trio we know of, the Denali coven, share a familial bond of sisterhood.”

“I’ve heard of them.” Bella muttered, thinking back to how Laurent was sent to the sisters and when asked about them, very little had been explained. All she really knew was that they were vegetarians like the Cullen’s, were chosen cousins of the Cullen’s and apparent sticklers for the law. But beyond that, she knew nothing of them. “And what is our bond?” Bella asked. She had been told on several occasions that humans couldn’t feel emotions nearly as strongly as vampires and that humans could only feel a fraction of bonds that vampires feel. From what Bella could tell, she didn’t feel anything towards them except wanting to annoy Caius.

“Parental.” Athenodora answered right away with a soft smile that didn’t seem right on her face. To Bella, it felt like that was a type of smile she didn’t normally use and for a moment, she actually felt lucky to see it and to be the receiver. “To us, our instincts are screaming at us, that you are our child and for that reason alone, you can never leave here.”

Not only did Bella feel a sense of dread fill her as those words registered, but it seemed dread had filled Zafrina as well from the growl, nearly a howl like sound, emitted from the Amazon. Bella really was regretting going on that walk to find the meadow.