Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Water

"Aro murdered his sister."

The weight of that statement hung in the air like a shadow I couldn't shake. My father eyed me, and for the first time, I found myself questioning the man I'd never doubted. The depths of his knowledge and motives were shrouded in uncertainty, and it made me nauseous. Or maybe that was the concussion.

Gradually, I turned to face him, meeting his false concern with invading skepticism. "You can't possibly know that."

"It is his greatest secret." It would have to be. It would be huge – big enough to take down the Volturi from the inside out. Everything that Marcus was — his misery and pain that was so deeply ingrained as to be a part of his personality. It was all because of Didyme's death.

Childishly, "I don't believe you." I cursed myself for letting him get to me, but I couldn't convince myself to react differently. I wasn't like the others, but I needed to try.

Thomas hummed softly, the sound carrying an unsettling note. "Because you do not believe Aro is capable of such darkness or because you do not wish to believe?"

"Why would you – what am I supposed to do with that? Even if I believed you, which I don't –"

"So you've said."

"Which I don't, " I stated again through gritted teeth. "No one would believe me."

He tilted his head side to side as if disagreeing with me and tutted, "You didn't even ask why." My insides twisted. I hadn't questioned it. Thomas continued as if establishing a rapport.

"Marcus and Didyme wished to leave the Volturi, but Aro could not wield the power he has now without Marcus' gift. He killed her in the midst of battle, where his betrayal would be indistinguishable from the chaos." Thomas monitored me with every word. He had given me two statements. The first provided a powerful motive for the latter — the kind of motive worth killing for. "If you desired to leave Volterra, Alec would surely follow you. And Jane would follow her brother. Do you believe Aro would ever allow his prized possessions to leave him powerless?"

No. But that didn't mean my father was telling the truth.

I shook my head, no longer willing to play this game. "I don't want to leave Volterra."

"Which is why you are still alive."

He wasn't endearing himself to me. My father may coat his words in silver and feed them to men like dogs at his feet, but that silver raced through the vessels in my brain. He made sure of that. I was susceptible but could spot it a mile away. I gritted my teeth. "You've always been an amazing storyteller, but your bias makes you unreliable."

"That is rational of you." He nodded sympathetically, and the patronizing nature of what he himself had preached made me press my tongue along the back of my teeth. What would Alec say? Breathe. "But doubt is a weed, and weeds only grow."

I could already feel it taking root.

Alec's comments from earlier returned to me. My father had used me to fund our life, but there was so much more. We didn't need a lavish life. Deceiving people had been more than a passion for my father. It was a compulsion. I couldn't deny that it got to me as well. The thrill and the mystery, and a genuine love for art. We shared these things. But perhaps the life of a criminal had clouded my worldview and influenced my relationships with those who had nothing but the best intentions for me.

"The Volturi have given me everything I never had—normalcy, routine, friends. You left me because I wasn't useful to you," I said thickly. "Not yet, at least." He remained unbothered. If anything, the curve at the corner of his lips communicated a sense of amusement. "Why – why would I leave them, leave Alec, for you?"