"That's quite a gift you have young Bella, "Aro's eye glinted with sudden interest. It is very similar to a vampire I know called Renata, she is able to manipulate a physical shield around herself, and even push it out onto others." He explained.
"You know someone who has shield like me?" I asked, I was suddenly burning with a need to meet this person.
"Indeed, in fact I'm sure I would be able to let you meet her if you can help us get out of here." Aro proposed.
"You won't eat me?"
"Of course not Bella, you are far too intriguing, if you can help us out of here we would be in your debt." He explained.
"We need to know whether you can extend your shield to cloak all of us." Caius finally spoke up.
I nodded shyly in response to his question. "I can shield all of you at once." I admitted. I concentrated until I saw them all covered in a white mist. "I have you all shielded." I announced.
"How long can you hold the shields around us Bella?" Aro enquired.
I shrugged, "I don't know, the longest I've held them around others is a couple of hours, but I can hold mine constantly.
"How interesting," Aro's eyes were bright with interest. "What...
"This is all well and good, but now that we know she can keep her shield around us, do you think we could put off the questions until we escape?" Marcus asked, cutting off Aro's questing.
"Oh, of course, how rude of me," Aro apologised, "Now, how are we getting out of here?" They all turned to look at me.
I looked around the room, and decided that the door would be the easiest. Walking towards it I pushed out a fifth shield and slammed it against the door. Flames roared out of it, but they quickly died down as the door flew backwards to reveal a simple room with three stunned occupants.
Aro, Caius and Marcus quickly stepped through the hole, and I unshielded them once they were through. They immediately headed for the three men, one of which I recognised as my abductor, and I watched with fascination as the three vampires attacked and drained our captors. Their grace amazed me as they leaped for their prey, their sharp teeth quickly finding the jugular and biting down. In a matter of seconds three lifeless and bloodless human bodies lay on the floor in front of 3 sated vampires, whose eyes were now bright red.
I felt a momentary sense of guilt as I realised that I didn't feel sorry for the dead men. They had after all kidnapped me to feed to three hungry vampires.
Once they were finished, and they had destroyed all evidence in the building that there had ever been vampires there, we exited the building and I noticed that the sun was just setting. I realised that I had been away from Renee for about three hours. I knew she'd be worried sick by now.
I was distracted from my thoughts by the three vampires beside me arguing about what they were going to do with me.
"We can't just let her go," Caius argued, "What if she tells someone about us?"
"We owe her our lives. We can't just kill her, Aro already promised her that we wouldn't, and we can't turn her because she's too young. There's no way we want to deal with an immortal child." Marcus disputed.
Aro sighed, "How old are you Bella?"
"Four." I answered. I watched as their faces became surprised. "You are incredibly intelligent for someone your age." He observed. His face turned thoughtful as he internally considered options.
I decided that now would be a good time to remind him of his other promise. "I would still like to meet Renata, and I would love to know more about vampires." I stated, I was still incredibly curious about them.
Aro sighed, "Yes of course little Bella, I wouldn't dream of doing back on my words, however there are more pressing matters that need attention first. Your parents will undoubtedly be looking for you, and we have to decide how to explain why you are with us and how you got here." He explained.
"You mean we're going to let her go?" Caius asked outrage evident in his voice.
"You are forgetting Caius that even if we wanted to, we can't kill her because of her shield." Aro reminded him. "I think our best option is to keep an eye on her as she grows to make sure she doesn't tell anyone, and turn her when she is fully grown." He proposed.
"You mean I'm going to have to be a vampire when I grow up?" I asked, suddenly concerned. "Will I have to kill people and drink blood?" I started shaking at the thought.
"Calm down little one, it won't happen for at least another decade of two, and I supposed if you are that opposed to killing people, we can find other options for you." Marcus assured me. I relaxed slightly.
"Now that we've decided what to do, we need your promise that you won't tell anyone about vampires." Caius was evidently feeling reassured now that they had a plan.
"I promise." I solemnly said. I had absolutely no intentions of telling anyone about this. Even in the unlikely event that they would believe a four year old hadn't made it all up, I knew that I would have to reveal my gift as well, something I was never planning to do.
They continued discussing the best ways of keeping any eye on me before they finally agreed on a plan that hinged on me convincing my mother to find a house in Volterra, a small Italian city situated a couple of hours from Rome.
We finally made our way to the hotel where I was staying, I had been given a piggyback ride from Marcus as they swiftly moved through the streets, only slowing to a human pace when we got close to the city centre and there were more people.
We walked into the lobby, to find my distraught mother crying as she talked to the hotel manager. She looked up as we came in, and her tear stained face lit up when she noticed me on Marcus' back. He lowered me to the ground and I ran into her waiting arms, looking up at her relieved face as I hugged her.
She straightened after a moment, turning to the three vampires who were silently watching our reunion. "Thank you so much for bringing her back!" She exclaimed, "What happened?"
"Well Mrs..."Aro trailed off suggestively.
"Swan," Renee supplied.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Aro Volturi, and these are my brothers Marcus and Caius." He introduced them before starting on our prearranged story. "My brothers and I were walking down the street when we saw a man ruin up to little Bella here and snatch her, putting a chloroform soaked cloth over her face. He then ran away, carrying her limp form.
"My brothers and I then chased him into the outskirts of town, where we lost him, but we kept looking anyway, and eventually found him again.
"When we came upon him and he saw how close we were, he dropped Bella and ran off. We waited with Bella until she woke up, and told us who she was and where she was staying and then we brought her back." Aro explained in a perfectly smooth voice, which betrayed no uncertainty.
"Thank you again! What can I do to thank you?" Renee asked.
The three vampires grinned at her question. Well Mrs Swan, we happen to be the founders and teachers of a special school in Volterra that specialises in gifted students. We only have ten students at any time, and they are given advanced learning programs to suit their capabilities..." I droned out as Aro continued to describe the virtues of the non-existent school which I would be pretending to attend so that they could keep an eye on me, and I could learn about vampires and develop my shield.
"We have talked to Bella, and it is clear that she is an incredibly gifted child." I couldn't help noticing that his choice of words noted my gift, rather than my intelligence. "We feel that she would make an excellent addition to our school and we would like to offer her a full scholarship." Aro explained.
Mum looked slightly dazed by his voice as she processed what he had told her. "That's quite a generous offer."
She finally turned to me. "What do you think Bella? Do you want to go to this school?"
It was time for me to act, "Oh yes please mum!" I jumped excitedly, "They were telling me all about it on the way here, did you know the school is held in a castle?" I exclaimed.
My enthusiasm must have been convincing, "Well if you really want to go dear, I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for you, so I guess we're moving to Volterra." She decided.
"Yay!" I jumped up and down animatedly, not even needing to fake it because I really wanted to meet the other vampires and learn more about my shield.
I let Renee sort out the details of the school with them, waiting patiently until they were done, and finding that we would be going to Volterra in the morning to start looking for a house.
When they finally finished mum and I bid the brothers good night and made our way up to our room.
I fell asleep early that night, exhausted by the day's events, but with my curiosity still burning for more information about the mythical creatures I had encountered.
Within a week Renee and I had found a small house to buy in Volterra for a really cheap price (Which I found out later was due to my vampire connections), and she had found a job illustration children's books for a local author, and working at the children's library.