Chapter III: Penitence

Bella and Altheia hadn't looked much at anything else but each other as the screams gradually faded, their brown eyes wide and both lips sealed into thin lines. They stayed silent for the most part.

After leaving the throne room, their group had been ushered back into the reception area, where Gianna had instructed Alice and Edward not to leave before nighttime and offered the waiting lobby couches for them to pass the time comfortably.

Gianna had placed two glasses of water and some biscuits, which Bella and Altheia consumed separately in silence. Edward had initially tried to get Bella to talk to him for a while, ignoring Bella's subtle cues for disinterest in conversation, until Bella put her foot down in annoyance by standing up and placing herself beside Altheia at the opposite end of the gray couch.

"They need space, Edward," Alice said absentmindedly from beside him. Her eyes were glazed over again, as if in a trance. "It's called post-traumatic stress. You should read on it sometime."

Edward could see the vision Alice was currently following in her mind. The remaining members of the Olympic Coven, composed of Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper, would be settled into Hotel Etruria by past seven in the night, waiting for their arrival at the open carpark. Rosalie would be asking for Bella's forgiveness as soon as they got there. It seemed relatively vivid, decided, that Edward allowed himself to relax.

Edward left Alice's mind as she pulled out her phone and contacted Jasper to update their family. "...Yes, Jasper. Drive straight to Volterra and look for Hotel Etruria... no, no, we're fine, honestly... Is Carlisle beside you?... Yes please... Hello, Carlisle? Could you stop by for clean sets of clothes for Bella and the girl... Medium... Yes, we'll see..." His gaze would drift back to Bella and Altheia, who now seemed to be in isolated discussion.

He frowned.

While Edward hadn't expected Bella to forgive him for leaving her, he hadn't really expected it to hurt for her to look at him as if she knew better than to give him another chance. She was alive, sure, but had it all truly been for the better? Obviously not. The very second he had a concrete experience of what it was like to have Bella leave him for good — Bella dying after jumping off a cliff in apparent suicide — he lost it. Completely. Went straight to crazy town and begged to die. In light of this, he knew he wasn't capable of handling the responsibility, at all, much less the moral argument, of rationalizing why he left Bella in the first place.

How could he have left Bella, throw hurtful words in parting, in the middle of the damn forest with not so much as a backwards glance?

How could he assume culpability, when he didn't even know the right thing to do now?

He loved Bella, loves Bella, he was sure of it. But did he deserve her after all this? What kind of monster would he be, to love her, leave her, and build her up again? At what point would it end? Was immortality really the issue, or was it all really just about him being unable to accept that he would have to doom Bella to stay with a person like him, forever, in the blasted name of love?

They needed to talk... but what would he say?

"'Bella, I'm sorry I left you and had you save my idiotic ass'?" Alice suddenly recited matter-of-factly, her eyes glazed over again. Her eyes cleared a second later and she shrugged at Edward's grimace. "How does that sound to you? To me, it seems like a great line to start with."

Edward winced. "Alice, I'm sorry I put you through that."

"Ed, I love you, you know that," Alice patted his hand with her own impatiently. "But god-damn. Just look at Bella. No, Edward, really look at Bella."

Edward took the chance to observe Bella as she started to whisper animatedly. She was trying to distract her newfound friend from the palpable tension in the room.

He noted that although Bella seemed well, she had obviously lost weight, from the newly-formed worry lines now marring the sides of her face and thinner stature. She had deeper circles under her eyes, and was... actively avoiding him, now that she didn't need his protection from the Volturi.

In her mind, Alice projected her conversation with Charlie from the day before they left for New York. "Think about what happened to her back in Forks when we left. Hallucinations, starving herself, extreme sports, dependency issues... Forget the Volturi, Ed, you owe Charlie your head on a platter."

To this, Edward could only agree sadly.

"I know, Alice. I was wrong. Trust me, I know," he couldn't help but observe Bella again as she started to talk about Italian literature in an obvious but successful attempt to soothe Altheia's dwindling anxiety. "It just doesn't even seem to matter that I really am sorry."

»»—- ❈ —-««

"So I'm really sorry about today," Bella began again lightly, as if telling an inside joke. "But in the brighter side of things, you were able to celebrate the Saint Marcus parade in passing."

Altheia cracked out a half-smile in Bella's direction. "Barely."

"And you could probably guilt Edward into paying for your whole stay in the municipality for however long you want."

"That's true," Altheia agreed thoughtfully. "While you, bella Bella, owe me...?"

"Whatever I can afford," Bella promised. She emptied all her pockets to display a worrying amount of... 18 American dollars. They both laughed. "No, seriously. We can bail and look for comfort ice cream when we get out of here. I happen to know that there are different gelato flavors, like stracciatella, pesca, menta..."

Altheia nodded thoughtfully again, as if contemplating the flavors, until she froze and suddenly brisk-walked to Gianna, leaving Bella dumbfounded on the couch.

"Excuse me, signora," she breathed nervously to the receptionist. "We won't have to drop out of a hole to leave the premises, will we?"

"Of course not, signora Beneventi," Gianna replied politely, but with humor in her tone. "At nighttime, all visitors may come and go through the main entrance leading to the plaza mayor. The passages are reserved for daytime, you see, where their kind must maintain cover from curious eyes."

Bella overheard from her seat and started to laugh, for the first time in a long time, genuinely. She almost forgot that Altheia had acrophobia.

From the reception desk, Altheia whipped her head around to glare halfheartedly at Bella.

"I would do what any good friend would do for you, bella Bella," Altheia said seriously. "But I will never jump down a fifty-foot hole again."

Bella didn't think she could laugh any harder, but she did. "God forbid you faint halfway again!" She wiped at the happy tears flowing from her eyes.

"Ingrato bella Bella!"

»»—- ❈ —-««

Two hours, four gelato servings, and an awkwardly hovering vampire ex-boyfriend later, Bella and Altheia made it to Hotel Etruria with the help of Alice's stolen Porsche. As they alighted from the vehicle, Alice expressed her newfound love for the model.

"I'll get you one for Christmas," Edward promised.

"Oh, I know," Alice's eyes twinkled. "Yellow, and black interior."

Just as Bella walked past, intentionally ignoring them, Altheia fell into step beside Bella and headed to the hotel lobby.

"I should probably warn you... the rest of them are all really good-looking."

Altheia chuckled. "Thanks for the heads up this time."

"No proble— oompffh!"

Bella was cut off when she was engulfed and tackled into a bear hug by a black-haired burly man, who Bella later introduced as Emmett. Once she was finally let down, an attractive blonde approached her and offered her sincere apologies, before introducing herself to Altheia as Rosalie Cullen. Alice skipped straight past the welcoming committee to embrace Jasper, who was trying to level out the turmoil of emotions in their gathering.

Altheia straightened her posture when a man cleared his throat next to her. Instinctively, her hand shot out to pull Bella back to her side. Bella told her to relax, and introduced him as Carlisle Cullen, Edward's father, who apologized profusely for the commotion and danger that they had gone through to save his family. Esme, Edward's beautiful mother, would apologize as well, until Bella assured them that all was truly well now that Edward was safe. Edward had come forward at that time to embrace his family members one by one and offer his own apologies.

"I would hate to be demanding," Altheia's voice suddenly called out to their group huddled in the ample lobby of Hotel Etruria. Immediately, all attention focused on her. "But I do believe I deserve an explanation."

"Of course," Carlisle responded immediately, guiding Bella and Altheia to the elevators himself. "Esme, could you get Edward settled into our suite please? Rosalie, if you could help her, thank you."

Alice and Jasper followed their group wordlessly as they carried Bella and Altheia's luggage. Bella would later realize that this was a side of Carlisle she had never really seen before, Carlisle the coven leader and sire, accepting culpability for Edward's actions.

"We'll stay outside, Carlisle," Jasper muttered after placing Altheia's bags in the room next to their beds. Carlisle nodded at Alice, who looked apologetic as she left the room.

After handing Bella the room key, Carlisle closed the door behind him and let the humans find comfortable seats on their respective beds before clearing his throat.

"I would apologize for my tactlessness in the future, signora Beneventi, as you have not only saved my son but my entire family today. We are in your debt."

Altheia nodded slowly, bracing her knees to her chest.

"But there is no easy way to say this." Carlise said sadly. Altheia narrowed her eyes at Carlisle when he let out a pained breath and looked her directly in the eyes, startling her at how his eyes transformed from golden yellow to a shade of crimson. "We are vampires."

»»—- ❈ —-««

"We vampires have great strength and senses, cursed with immortality... and sometimes, the special ones have gifts, like my daughter, Alice, who sees glimpses of the future." Carlisle elaborated stoically. Altheia clamped her hands on her mouth to stop herself from screaming and bolting out of the room. "But my family does not feed on humans," he amends quickly. "In fact, this is the reason that Edward and Bella were able to maintain their relationship before... before we left her in Forks."

"It's what ostracizes them in the vampire world," Bella explained softly. "Unlike the Volturi, the coven we met today, Carlisle's coven prides itself in their willingness to coexist with humans, refusing to harm them, treat them as prey, through discipline and restraint. They drink solely animal blood. They hunt in forests — elk, bears, mountain lions..."

Carlisle sighed. "But when Bella was wounded accidentally with a paper cut, it triggered Jasper's bloodlust. It was a lapse in my judgment to delay our hunting when we would be hosting Bella's birthday that night."

"They had... deserted me for a while when Alice came back to Forks to check on me after her vampire gift showed her that I had died. Edward... He really did love me. Enough to leave me, I guess. He was overcome with grief and asked to be killed by the Volturi when he thought I died. The Volturi are basically the vampire rulers who had sworn to ensure the secrecy of vampire existence. We were racing against time to stop that." Bella's brows furrowed as she recounted the events. "When Alice and I met you on the plane, she saw a vision. With you in the equation, with us in Volterra, Edward would be saved, and no one would die."

Carlisle and Bella waited in silence and observed the only other person in the room.

"You're telling me... vampires are real." Altheia rasped slowly after a long while, but not nervously. "They live with humans, prey on humans, and in special cases, be romantically involved with humans." Altheia dropped her hands to the sides and clutched at the comforter. She could feel her temper rising. "And it never occurred to you that Bella was a danger to your kind?" Bella flinched. "After all, as long as you are vampires, one of you could always slip and drain her dry. What would happen to your lifestyle then? Reduced to a principle founded on wishful thinking?"

Bella fidgeted nervously as Altheia reprimanded them - she hadn't really thought about it like that. She hadn't really realized that Jasper, who stood just outside the door, had felt morally liable for breaking his family apart because of a simple slip up.

"Or that your kind were always a danger to Bella and the humans you wanted to coexist with? That you all could have killed those people in Forks, given just the right trigger? That it just actually isn't just Jasper who could have slipped. Hell, it could have been you, Carlisle." Altheia's tone was mocking.

Carlisle winced. Bella started to whimper.

"You all decided that leaving Bella was for the better, only to bring her back into the mess when you needed her help to save Edward from his own idiocy? Maybe throw in another human, too, it doesn't matter if she is innocent, as long as her participation saves Edward? After all, we never meant to hurt any human, so it is all good, hmm?" Altheia's voice was sharper now, unwavering, and it bit fiercely at Carlisle's conscience.

"I am not sure which vampire lifestyle is better; I see no significant difference. Whether it is killing humans for sustenance, or claiming to coexist with humans but then using them to intervene on your behalf, you vampires will always pride yourselves in your greater strength and revel in the premise that you will only always use humans as a means to an end. Your survival.

"I chose to help a young woman on a plane today," Altheia said as she pounded her fist in front of her, voice shaking. "She said her name was Bella, and that she just really, really wanted to save a man named Edward. I believed her because that woman seemed like she would never lie about being so desperate to save the man she loved. So fucking what if that Edward turns out to be a vampire and the one that left her alone in the first place? I was helping this woman because it seemed that only I would."

Bella started sobbing. Carlisle's hands clenched to a fist as he accepted the berating. This woman would have died for them all and she had not been wrong so far.

"I chose to help her not because it was the only way to save your son. Not because she was hurting. In fact, I don't care that you are vampires! That, in your world, you have rules and principles and great immortality and powers and varying lifestyles with fickle foundation! I don't need your gratitude or your apologies!" She shouted in frustration. "I care that when I walk out here tomorrow — if you'll even let me, now with this secret placing a target on my head — that sometime in the near future, a girl named Bella will be sobbing again, helplessly, to another stranger that won't recognize the desperation in her face as well as I did!

"I don't even care that the Volturi might come for me in my sleep," Altheia argued bravely as she stood from the bed and walked slowly to Carlisle, who now weighed her words in serious admonishment. "I don't care that I wasted so much of my time and effort to save such an immature boy. I don't care that your family used me to save your son. Hell, I don't even give one fuck that vampires I never even knew existed tested their powers on me today!" Carlisle flinched at the raw ferocity that sparked from the intensity of her gaze as she snarled at him. "But as long as I am alive and human, and the woman named Bella is hurt and confused and desperate and helpless?

"I expect nothing less than a lifetime of penitence from your kind."

Carlisle matched Altheia's gaze for a long time in silent contemplation. After a few minutes, Carlisle nodded.

"I'm glad you understood me, Carlisle Cullen."

Carlisle shook his head slowly as he headed for the door. "I cannot remember the last time I had been berated," he jested lightly. What age did Alice say this woman was again? Twenty-eight?

"Maybe next morning we can argue about your principles," Altheia tilted her head to the left, gesturing to Bella who was sobbing uncontrollably onto her pillow. "But for tonight, Bella and I would appreciate some time to ourselves before delivering judgment."

Carlisle stiffened, whirling around as he stepped out the door. "Judgment? On what?"

"Whether or not she would like to stay with your kind, for one," Altheia shrugged as Jasper and Alice came into her view as they stood beside Carlisle, expressions contorted in a mixture of awe, guilt, and anger. It made her want to laugh. "Whether she forgives your family, or Edward, or hell, even me for rudely speaking on her behalf."

Alice stepped forward. "If I could just talk to Bella for a mo—"

Altheia held up a hand immediately. "It's a free country, Alice, but in the end she will decide. You should let her."

The implication was clear — The humans will decide for themselves.

Carlisle let out a breath, resigned. He pulled Alice to him. "My family will hope for the better, signora Beneventi."

"Don't we all?" she said wistfully, before watching the vampires leave as she bid them good night. As soon as their backs disappeared at the end of the hallway, she closed and locked the door. Not that it really made a difference now that she knew vampires could just... flick it open. She shrugged.

She turned back to face Bella and was surprised to be tackled into a messy hug of snot and hair onto the carpeted floor. She patted the top of Bella's head as she sniffled.

"There, there, bella Bella," she cooed. "Tomorrow we will explore Volterra and don't you worry about a thing."

"I'm not sure if I should love you or be scared by you," Bella mumbled against Altheia's chest.

Altheia hummed thoughtfully.

"It doesn't matter. I guess I can always take you to a fifty-foot drop and watch you tremble..."

And then they both started laughing at the absurdity of it all.

In the end, they really were just humans.

»»—- ❈ —-««

Unbeknownst to all inhabitants of Hotel Etruria, two cloaked figures were listening silently, hidden in the shadows of the trees the entire time.

"This is my best assignment to date," The Kingsguard named Demetri whispered excitedly to his companion. "It doesn't even come close to that one time with the Romanians. I can't wait to show Master Aro!"

Jane looked at him impassively and said nothing. Her gaze drifted to the window as the humans rose from the floor and started wiping their tears.