Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Insurance

He could've been an angel. Just walked straight up to the front gates of Heaven, knocked, and God would've let him right in. No tests, no background check, not even angel school. 

He might've been one, had the world not gotten to him first. 

Behind the facade of purity and youth, a predator laid in wait. Alec had hardly moved, but there was an emanating aura of sadistic dominance that I'd never seen in him before. I had seen the empty glare that told his prey she wasn't worth the gum on his Richelieu shoes, as well as the practiced, bored expression that gave the impression that her attempt was as pointless as an injured gazelle under a lion's paw.

But this Alec, from his princely debriefs after missions to the fury inspired by my bad decisions; I don't think even Zafir, brainwashed and wild, would have been able to recover from this Alec.

I almost felt guilty. Like I should have somehow warned her. I'd convinced myself that Alec wouldn't react to anything this time, but apparently, I was wrong. While the guys had seemed familiar with Issa, I highly doubted the same relationship, if any, existed between her and the twins. There was nothing to break but her will, to take the one thing she could not live without. Then, all of a sudden she got lucky. He lost interest and she was freed, all in a matter of seconds.

As Libby tried to bring Issa out of shock, Huda showed no concern, her focus instead moving from Alec and me and then to Aro. Her disbelief was the first genuine emotion she'd shown and it turned itself into a forced smile that didn't reach her cheekbones, let alone her eyes.

"Congratulations to your boy, Aro." She didn't address Alec, who had returned to dutifully focusing on Aro as if nothing had happened. "A special human, indeed." Although there was no ill-intent in her words, which were filled more with self-preservation, there was something about it that seemed ominous. Something about the knowledge she had just acquired changed her whole game plan. Not only did she know Alec's thirst for my blood, but she had figured out why he hadn't already drained and dumped me. I assumed Huda had looked towards me again, but I wasn't focused on either her or Alec.

I'd been caught in Jane's crosshairs when everyone had been distracted by Alec. Her stare was empty, identical to her brother's, but it was aimed directly at me and there was nothing positive or familiar about it. It was a build on the glare she'd given me the last time I saw her, right before Alec and I had it out in the library. She had seemed upset with me, but instead of the vexation subsiding, the look on her face gave me an inkling that it may have ballooned out instead. For a moment, I never would have believed that she had anything but hate for me in her bones. I swallowed anxiously and my heart nearly stopped. When she was sure that I'd seen and been affected by the stare, she turned away.

Aro barely acknowledged the back and forth of animalistic sounds nor did he exchange niceties with Huda's words. Instead, he stood in the same place with his hands folded together, deep in thought. Caius had made his position clear with a brief sentence. But neither he nor Marcus seemed to actually care what Aro chose, as if it didn't matter what they said. As if the decision had already been made.

"Yes," he began as if inspired by his own thoughts. He watched for Libby's reactions to his next words. "A lesson in control for two very special young women." While I couldn't see her face, I could see Issa's eyebrows lift from a small frown, still cowering, into a more worried expression. Though everything about his posture and words said otherwise, she would be right to worry but Aro didn't care about her. "No harm done." He waited to see if there was any protest, specifically looking between me and Libby.

I said nothing. I didn't particularly enjoy the chick, but I had no intention of seeing yet another person be torn apart in the same week. Every time I talked, a pit in my stomach seemed to grow and nag at me with disappointment. An excessive worry about Jane's thoughts didn't help. However, I was more miffed that this entire meeting, just like the others, had been added to a growing list of supernatural involved confrontations where I stood around and basically waited to be attacked.