Everyone looked at me.
"Th…the what?" I asked.
"The most powerful future vampire in existence."
I blinked and swallowed.
"This has got to be some sick sort of joke, right?"
Eleazer shook his head. "It's not. You have the ability to take any vampire's gift. You are either a threat to the Volturi, or…" he trailed off.
"Or what?" I asked.
He looked me in the eye.
"Or you'll become part of their guard."
"What?! But, I don't want to!"
"It's not your choice anymore. You're in Volterra, and you're a human who knows entirely too much about vampires. It's either be changed or die."
"He is correct." Aro walked in. "Hello, Seth. Good to see you're up and about." Seth just glared at him.
"Hello, Aro." I said angrily. "Are you going to let us go now?"
"No. I'm going to offer you a choice. Join us, and you live; decide to leave, and we'll have no choice but to kill you."
"Join you or death again, Aro?" Edward walked in. "Really?"
Aro nodded. "Yes. She would be a very powerful vampire. If she leaves, she could tell people."
"Who would I tell? Nobody would believe me." I said.
"There could be that one person." He looked at Bella, who looked at the ground.
I shook my head. "That's different. They love each other. I've already found my soul mate." I squeezed Seth's hand. "And he's already a part of this world."
"A different part."
I rolled my eyes. "But it's all the same. What about your receptionist? She's human."
"She will be…disposed of when she is no longer useful."
"And how long is that?"
"A few years." He looked at me. "Where are you…"
"So, give me a few years. At least. If I can give everyone, including you, their gifts back, will you leave me be?" I looked at him, mentally begging him to at least consider it.
He raised his head and looked at me down his nose. I stared back at him, holding my breath.
"I…will have to talk about this with my brothers."
I exhaled and he walked out.
When he was out of the room, I collapsed onto the floor.
"Now all we have to do is wait."
*
I was pacing the room like crazy when they walked in. I immediately stopped and went to Seth. Aro sighed and said, "We will give you two months. If you still have the gifts, you will join us. If you have given them back, we will leave you be."
He left and Caius said, "We have a car to take you to the airport."
Caius left. Marcus, the eternally bored one, said, "We will come in the last week of March if we haven't heard from you by then." He left.
Jane glared at me. Alec put his hand on her shoulder and said to us, "Come. We will take you to the car."
*
"Mom!" I ran and hugged her at the airport, being careful not to touch her skin.
"What did they say?" she whispered.
"I've got two months."
"Two months?! That's it?!" Mom screeched in the middle of the airport.
"Mom, sshh!" I told her. "People are staring."
"I don't care if people are staring; my daughter's got two months before the Volturi people come here." She paused, then asked, "What will they do?"
I sighed. "If I still have the gifts, I have to join them. If I've given them back, they'll leave me alone." I breathed deeply. "I don't know how I'm gonna give them back, Mom. I don't even know how to give them back."
"Um, I might." Eleazer said.
"What?!" Carlisle said.
"You mean you know how Aleena can give us our gifts back?" Renesmee said.
He nodded. "I just remembered it. I had heard rumors, but I didn't think it was true. I have some friends in Russia that had the same thing happen to them."
"You didn't think it was true, yet it happened to some of your friends?!" I yelled.
"Aleena, sshh. Wait 'til we get to the house." Seth said.
I huffed. "Fine."
*
"You mean you knew about this, and you didn't say anything?!" Rosalie yelled at Eleazer.
He nodded. "I know I should have said something, but I had to contact my friends to see if the human had actually given them their gifts back."
"And did he?" Seth asked angrily.
"I don't know; they haven't responded yet. I'll have to check my phone and email." He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Before he could do anything, I closed my eyes and focused.
"It'll ring in…" I counted down. "…Now." His phone rang. I smiled at him. "Answer it." I said.
Looking at me with a confused look on his face, he answered his phone.
"Hello?" his face lit up in a smile. "Ah, Benito!" he started talking in Russian. When he got up, I moved to follow him. He motioned for me to stay. Grumbling, I sat back down. My mom followed Esme into the dining room, both carrying plates of food.
"Mom, what are you—?" I started, but she interrupted me.
"Did you really think I would listen to you, my daughter, and go home? Not knowing what was going on?" she scoffed. "I asked Esme to bring me."
I sighed. "I guess that's where I learned it. How are your bruises?"
She shrugged. "They're better than they were. I still don't know why I was attacked."
Seth started rubbing circles on my hand with his thumb.
"They attacked you because you're related to me." I said through my teeth.
"But, why?" she seemed nervous. She was avoiding eye contact with me and wringing her hands together.
"Mom?" I stood up and held a hand out to her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." she said, her voice a little too high.
"Mom." I said.
She stopped fidgeting. "Yeah?"
"What's wrong?"
"I'm…" she mumbled the rest.
"You're what?" I stepped closer.
"I'm not…"
"Not what?!" I said, getting angry.
"I'm not…" she took a deep breath. She finally looked me in the eye and said, "I'm not your real mother."
I ran out of the house just as Eleazer was walking back in with a smile on his face.