Hearts & Spades

Swan residence.
Forks, Washington.
January 2010.
Bella.

I slowly close the door behind me and toss the sketchbook on my desk, flipping open the cover. Probably not the best idea, considering that the ink is starting to run. I quickly pass it in front of the heater, which seems to dry it out for the moment, and I cautiously turn past the first blank page. Then the next. Then the next.
6 blank pages pass before I come across one splashed with a shocking shade of blue, a vibrant turquoise like the ocean in postcards, framed with thick slashes of black. The next page is covered with violent streaks of red, orange, and yellow, mingling together in a chaos that seems to leap off the paper. The third page is an elegant stone fountain, with water droplets dotted around the page. And the one after is completely filled with a hasty sketch of an eye, the only color from the ring of red surrounding a massive pupil, like the pictures you see of solar eclipses where the sunlight is seeping around the edges of the shadowy moon.
I pause for a moment. Well, Ivory must have had blue eyes and kept the color there as a reminder that she used to be human. Then the fire… I think of the day back in the clearing and nod to myself. It’s there because she controls fire. And the eyes are red vampire eyes, obviously. But what’s important about the fountain?
I flip to the next page where there’s a scribbled note, almost like she wrote it whilst focusing on something else.
Note to self: Drawing this all out so I don’tforgetrememberthink about it? Screw it. I’m just drawing to draw.
Frowning, I turn to the next page, which has the intricate drawing of a silver V, with four different symbols surrounding it.
“V… V… Volturi?” I mutter to myself, thinking back to the conversation in Carlisle’s office in front of the painting.
As I continue to flip through the pages, the images begin to connect, one after the other: a pair of perfect red lips, curved in a smirk; a diamond ring, spinning in place on a table; a pile of bodies, soaked in blood; and a quartet of people, one girl standing out from the rest, with their faces hidden in shadow. The last picture is the exact same sketch of Forks that Ivory gave me for my birthday.
And after that, a page with nothing but a question mark.

~~~~~~

Volterra, Italy.
April 2010.
Ivory.

You know that feeling you get, when your stomach’s in your throat and your palms are sweating waterfalls? I haven’t had that feeling since I died. Mentally, however, I’m putting myself through hell.
Alice presses her foot against the ignition petal and the sleek yellow Ferrari roars in response, gliding down the dirt road, easily overpowering the tractor and car in our way.
“I’m guessing you didn’t rent this car,” Bella says, breaking the silence.
“I figured you wouldn’t be opposed to a little grand theft auto,” Alice smiles in response, a scarf wrapped around her hair, and her arms and torso covered by gloves and a coat.
“It’s okay.”
I tap my fingers against my knee, shifting from leg to leg as I sit on my feet in the backseat, pulling the sleeves of my hoodie further down over my arms; the feeling of dread growing in the pit of my stomach with every inch.
Alice’s expression suddenly turns blank, and I ready myself to grab the wheel from her if necessary, but she blinks and returns to the present situation.
“What?” Bella asks. “What do you see?”
“They refused him,” Alice responds with a tone of shock in her voice.
“So…?” Bella says urgently.
“He’s going to make a scene. Show himself to the humans.”
“No! When?”
Alice thinks about it for a moment before continuing. “He’s going to wait until noon, when the sun’s at its highest.”
“God, Alice, you gotta hurry up!” Bella demands, pressing her hand against the dashboard.
“There’s Volterra,” I cut in, nodding towards the city.
Volterra. It’s still as beautiful as I remember it to be, with cream-colored brick and red terracotta roofs, bleached by the sun. The car speeds along the road, cutting through streets and alleys so familiar I could walk them with my eyes closed. And that feeling of dread in my stomach turns into a full out gnawing sensation. I don’t want to be back here. I want to be as far away from here as possible. Yet, at the same time, I just want to come back… home. Home. Yeah, that’s the word. I want to be back here at home. Then, there’s the nagging thought that makes me want to walk in, face my demons, banish them for good and get this over with.
Why can’t life be like a movie, where all your problems are over after an hour and a half?
A few pedestrians stroll by on the streets, cloaked in red; eventually, we come across a street completely blocked with them, and Alice slams her palm on the wheel multiple times, blaring the horn and sending them scattering.
“Why are they all in red?” Bella demands, panic filling her voice.
“St. Marcus Day festival,” I answer, almost automatically. “They’re commemorating the expulsion of vampires from the city.” Ignoring her rapid heartbeat, I continue. “It’s the perfect setting. The Volturi will never let him get far enough to reveal himself.”
“How do you know all this?!” she snaps, turning to look at me, and we lock eyes.
The sketchbook. The damn thing I left behind, that I filled with my entire life story after a particularly draining memory relapse. Of course she found it and looked through all the pages. Of course she knows I used to be part of the Volturi; she knows every bit of my past that I tried desperately to forget. And of course, she’ll hold that against me now. I sink back against the plush leather seat in silence, snapping the glare in two as I turn to look out the window. Bella glances at the clock, running her hands through her hair. “Five minutes!”
“I know. Bella? Just breathe,” Alice replies calmly.
The car is forced to stop at a police blockade and she practically tears the door off as she jumps out, then looks back into the car. “Alice-“
“Bella, you’re the only one he can’t see coming!” Alice explains quickly. “If we go, he’ll read our thoughts, and think we’re lying. It’ll rush him into it.”
Bella stands in stunned silence for a moment. “W-Where do I go?!”
“He’ll be under the clock tower. Go!” Alice commands and Bella runs off, disappearing into the crowd.
I quickly switch from the back seat to the passenger’s, glancing at the policemen tapping at our window. “Great. How’re we gonna deal with them?”
“Shouldn’t you know?” she says pointedly, turning to look at me.
I look down, sitting in silence. “That’s not fair.”
“I’m not fair? Ivory, you didn’t really lie, but you didn’t tell the truth either, and being a fugitive from the Volturi is a pretty big thing to hide!”
“I had my reasons,” I say sharply. “Now roll down the window.”
She nods after a pause and hits the automatic window switch. The window slides down and the officer looks in.
Queste strade sono bloccate per il festival. Perché sei qui?” he questions. These streets are blocked for the festival. Why are you here?
“Lo e mia sorella erano solo i nostri amici in visita al castello. Passiamo. Ti prometto che non ti disturberà più,” I reply casually, the words easily rolling off my tongue, despite the fact it’s been years since I’ve spoken the language. My sister and I were just visiting our friends at the castle. Let us pass. I promise we will not bother you again.
He turns to his partner and they converse in rapid Italian, before he turns back to us and nods. “Go on,” he says in thickly accented English. “Drive few meters then park the car and walk.”
“Grazie,” I smile warmly, rolling up the window as Alice slowly drives away.
“It only took that?” she blinks.
“They understand that very powerful figures live in the castle. So all you need to do is mention the castle and you’ll be fine,” I shrug. “Now park. We’ve gotta get in there.”

~~~~~~

Alice easily breaks the lock on the door and pushes it open, stepping into the familiar hallway as she pulls off her scarf. “Come on, guys,” she smiles. “It’s a festival. You wouldn’t wanna make a scene.”
A break of silence follows. “We wouldn’t,” Felix finally responds, emotionless.
I slip through the doorway, pulling down my hood and nodding at Demetri and Felix. “Gentlemen.”
“Ivory,” Demetri smiles; however, I can’t exactly tell if it’s genuine. “It’s been years.”
The mood in the room immediately shifts, and I feel my voice slipping back into a formal tone. “Indeed it has,” I say quietly, glancing towards the familiar figure heading towards us, her shoes clicking on the polished wooden floors.
“Enough,” Jane says simply.
“Jane,” Edward nods, his voice nearly as quiet as mine.
“Aro sent me to see what was taking so long,” she says blankly, giving pointed glances to Demetri and Felix before finally acknowledging me. “Ivory. I see you’ve made your decision.”
“I have not, yet it can still be easily swayed,” I respond, slightly taken aback by her coldness towards me.
She nods after a pause then turns around and retreats down the hallway. I walk at the front of the group, behind Jane but before Edward, Bella, and Alice, to avoid the questioning stares I know are being directed at my back.
“Just do as she says,” I hear Alice whisper to Bella as we continue, the light from a window creating dancing reflections on my skin.
“There are matters that Aro wishes to discuss with you,” Jane says in a low tone, too quiet for Bella to hear.
“There are always matters to discuss,” I reply. “I’m not surprised.”
She suddenly stops after we descend a small group of stairs, waving her arm towards the next set. “Go ahead.”
I continue and block the world around me, plugging the sounds from my ears and focusing only on the small tunnel of vision ahead of me. The dread in my stomach clashes with confusion, heartbreak, and anxiousness, and I force myself to calm down. I’m being overdramatic. Right?
Felix slides open the steel gate in front of the elevator doors and steps in; I follow close behind as Demetri fixes his glare on Edward and Bella before stepping into the elevator.
The next 10 seconds are the most awkward of my life as the opera music flows around us, attempting to stifle the tension in the air before the doors glide open and Jane leads the procession out once again. An unfamiliar woman greets us as we pass through the reception area and I glance back at Felix. “They never seem to hold your attention for a while, do they?”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “They never do.”
Edward and Bella have a mumbled conversation, and only the last sentence seems to stand out. “She wants to be…” Bella trails off.
“And so she will be,” Demetri smirks.
“Or dessert,” Jane says simply, and I bite back a snicker, because, well, it’s true.
She pulls open the intricately carved wooden doors and the hall comes into view, spread out before me, so familiar it’s like greeting an old friend.
“Sister,” a voice calls out, and I resist the urge to freeze. “They send you out to get one and you bring back 3 and a half. Such a clever…”
Alec’s sentence trails off as our eyes meet, and the silence that follows is deafening.
“Ivory,” he says in a choked voice.
“A-Alec,” I stammer, and suddenly it’s that day back in 1994, the day where our eyes locked after nearly 40 years, the day where everything changed.
“What a happy surprise!” Aro cuts in, and I turn my gaze away, slamming an iron curtain around my thoughts.
“Bella is alive after all!” he smiles, stepping down from his chair.

“Isn’t that wonderful?”