——
AT 10:15 the next morning, Ellie sits at the kitchen table, slowly eating a bowl of cereal while reading the newspaper. Which was a mistake.
Annies face is plastered right there, shes with the rest of the victims. Ellie shoves the paper away, sending it across the table. She stares down at her cereal, stirring it with her spoon.
Bella soon stumbles down the stairs, she sees the newspaper, and then she sees Ellies dipped down head and her somberly sagged shoulders.
She tosses the paper away and then prepares herself her own bowl of cereal. She silently sits across from Ellie and begins to eat.
Surprisingly, Ellie is the one to break the silence. "Bells, I have a question. About vampires."
Bella looks up, a bit surprised. "Whats up?"
"Yesterday, Emmett said Edward could read minds." She was too distracted by the fact that Bella was getting married yesterday to react to what else Emmett had said until she was recently rethinking the conversation. "Can he read yours? Or mine?"
Really, Ellie is quite interested in vampires after speaking to Carlisle about it. She still gets a chill when she pictures their cold skin and red eyes, but a hint of fascination lingers within it now.
"He can't read mine. But he can sometimes read yours." Bella answers and then takes a bite of her cereal.
"Sometimes?" Ellie raises an eyebrow. "Why only sometimes?"
Bella shrugs. "They aren't sure how it works. They suspect maybe yours will just develop even more in time. And maybe mine started early for some reason."
Ellie slowly nods. "Right. So, Edward has heard some of my thoughts, though?"
"Yes." Bella confirms.
Ellie isn't sure if she should feel violated or amused — violated because her thoughts should be hers and hers only, though amused because shes thought up some pretty good insults at Edward while he wasn't looking, and she hopes hes heard some of them.
"Does anybody else read minds?" Ellie asks. She hopes not, though, because she can only think of so many insults.
"Some do. But not in their family. Remember when we went to Italy?" Bella asks, because now is the time shes decided to inform Ellie about the Volturi. She didn't have the chance to at the Cullens yesterday, because they began wedding planning out of nowhere.
Ellie feels her heart twist and her mind can't help but recall back to the night she and Demetri met, under the glow of the street lamp. She can remember exactly how beautiful he looked, and exactly how she felt. Her chest pulls uncomfortably, as it has been since she left Seattle and pushed Demetri away.
"Yeah," she responds offhandedly and a bit delayed. "of course."
"Well, the Volturi, from yesterday, live there. We went into their castle, and they almost killed Edward." Bella tells Ellie. "They want Alice and Edward to join them, but they're not good, Ellie. They drink from humans."
Ellie grimaces at the flash of Annies blood behind her eyelids at Bellas words.
"They think Aro will want me to join, too." Bella continues. "And probably you, because you're a shield too. Demetri is apart of them."
"I know." Ellie responds dryly. "About him being apart of the Volturi, and I kind of assumed about the humans..." It was clear, because obviously vampires drink blood, and at the time, Ellie didn't care much about Demetris diet, but after Annie, it disgusts her, she can't help it.
Bella resumes, "They ordered for me to be turned into a vampire. After my wedding, I will be." Ellie will obviously still be apart of Bellas life even as a vampire, so Bella supposes she should just tell her now about her plans.
Ellies eyes slightly widen. "Oh. Thats kinda soon. Do you want that?"
Bella nods enthusiastically. "I do." Her voice holds unwavering absolution.
"Good. As long as you want it." Personally, Ellie doesn't want it. Though she knows one day, she'll have to accept it, its inevitable — well, that, or death, but the latter isn't her favorite option, even if Annie awaits her somewhere in the beyond.
Bella smiles slightly. "Yeah."
Ellie stands up and takes care of her bowl, and then she checks the time, seeing its now 10:27. She sits back down with a sigh.
"So, are you excited to marry Edward?" Ellie asks. "Like, is it something you wanted? Not him just... using it as leverage or something?"
Bella takes a second to answer. "At first, he kind of was. But now, I want it more than ever. I'm still a little scared, but I know it's what I want."
"Are you sure? Because someone in my class got married right after she graduated, and she ended up pregnant a month later. Now she has five kids." Ellie grimaces at the thought.
Bella rolls her eyes. "I'm not going to get pregnant! I'll be getting turned right after our honeymoon, and vampires can't make babies, anyways."
"Well, thats good, at least." Ellie shrugs, Bella nods in agreement.
And then, from the street in front of their house, a car horn can be heard.
"Alice and Rose here." Bella says, standing up, Ellie follows. They leave the house, locking the door behind them. They're in Rosalies cherry red BMW, whom is the one driving. Alice sticks her hand out of the window and rain pelts off of it.
Ellie pulls her hood up and hurries to the car, she pulls the back door open and throws herself inside. Bella is soon inside too. Rosalie quickly pulls away from the home.
"Good morning, girls." Alice greets much too enthusiastically for Ellies taste. "Are you ready to shop?"
"Yeah, so ready." Bella says, though she couldn't sound any less excited.
The drive to Port Angeles is quick, mainly because Rosalie drives at the top speeds. But, surprisingly, Ellie didn't feel unsafe in the car or with the driving.
They park in front of a little bridal boutique, Alice excitedly hurries out of the car. The others follow behind her, though they don't have half as much the energy as Alice does.
Soon, Ellie is staring at herself in a lavender dress, Rosalie and Alice wear the same color dresses, but they are not the same style.
Alice had chosen a color scheme for the wedding, and it was lavender, because it was the only color Bella really liked, the others were too much in her opinion.
"Aren't they perfect?" Alice gushes, running her pale hands along the fabric of her dress.
Ellie nods. "Yeah." She likes hers, probably only because Alice picked it out, because Ellie really didn't know what to chose or really even what she liked.
It has long flowing sleeves and the skirt isn't too long, which Ellie is thankful for, and she supposes she looks pretty it in. But then she turned and caught a glimpse of Rosalie and it all pretty much flew out the window.
Rosalie looks astonishing in her dress, with the color, how it compliments her skin, and the way it makes her body look. Plus, her golden hair and eyes stand out wonderfully against the color.
Ellie finds herself realizing that Rosalie isn't scary, rather utterly gorgeous, which was already obvious, but now Ellie sees it truly, and she doesn't see Rosalie as a bloodthirsty monster, nor Alice, like she previously had just yesterday.
Rosalie then glances at Ellie in the mirror, and Ellie quickly looks away. Rosalie chuckles lightly.
"Your dress is very pretty, Ellie." Rosalie compliments.
Ellie looks back up at her and smiles, cheeks lightly burning. "Thanks. Yours is great, too."
Rosalie flashes her perfect teeth at the human. "Thank you."
Ellie nods. "Of course."
Alice watches them with a smile, already knowing they'd become friends.
IN Volterra, Demetri stares at the rolling hills basked in sunlight with a deep frown set on his face.
He feels hallow. Which isn't surprising, but those around them have noticed it and aren't thrilled.
Felix, of course, immediately noticed the change in Demetri after Ellie left her apartment in Seattle, he was, and still is, completely different. He worries for the man he considers a brother.
But Jane is annoyed, because Demetri isn't giving her the reactions she wants, he simply ignores her now and that frustrates her — at least when he was with the human he was entertaining.
Demetri had thought about calling said human multiple times, he even opened her contact and almost pressed the call button, but he stopped himself, remembering to respect Ellies boundaries, even if his chest physically hurts.
Even Aro has given Demetri some pity, when he gazed into his thoughts he saw what happened and lightly frowned at him.
Marcus saw how dim the bonds have grown between Ellie and Demetri, it was just a burning gold not too long ago, but now it is a faint orange, fading slowly. The King knows how it feels, maybe to a different extent, but he still knows how it feels to lose your soulmate.
Caius is still harsh to Demetri, though, which isn't surprising and it is sort of a relief — Demetri doesn't want to be pitied, and Caius surely does not do that.
Demetri also feels a little angry, though it is shrouded by the longing and emptiness, he can still feel it. He isn't angry at Ellie nor himself, more so with fate. Why would Ellie be brought into his life, make it better, just to be torn away from him? It makes no sense, and every time his heart aches, it just makes him wonder more.
"It has been what, five days? And hes still pouting?" Jane asks, sitting right next to Demetri in the library where he stares out of the window. Shes attempting to get a reaction from him, merely out of boredom.
Demetri stays silent, not even blinking or sighing. Janes eyes narrow. She would use her gift on him, but verbal insults are much more rewarding. Plus, you can only see your coworker thrashing in pain so many times.
"Sister," Alec sighs a warning.
Though Jane ignores it, "What was so fascinating about that human? She looked rather plain to me." She drones. "Neither too intelligent."
She watches Demetri, waiting for a reaction, but Alec watches her warily, while Felix just watches everybody with budding amusement.
Really, Demetri isn't even focusing on what Jane is saying, hes just more focused on his painful thoughts of Ellie, reeling memories.
Jane sighs sharply. "Stupid little humans ruin everything, don't they?" She mumbles under her breath, though it was heard by every vampire in the library.
Demetri keeps his eyes on the window, longing.