As They Kiss, Consume (Alec Volturi)

Willa

"Charlie?" Bella called as she opened the door to her old home. "We're here, what's the surprise?" she asked as they walked into the living room.

"Hey, monkey!" Charlie greeted as he ran into the room and picked up Renesmee.

"Bella!" I squealed from the top of the stairs. "Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella!" I laughed as I ran down the stairs and launched myself at my older cousin. "I missed you! Oh my god, what did you do, walk through the snow to get here? You're bloody freezing," I smiled as I pulled away from her.

"Willa? What are you doing here?" Bella asked nervously, quickly glancing across at Edward. "I thought you weren't coming this Christmas."

"Yeah well, my dad promised he wouldn't be working this year but..." I trailed off. "Anyway, I figured I'd come and hang with you like we do every year! Who's this?" I asked, getting distracted by the young girl in Uncle Charlie's arms.

"This is Renesmee," Bella smiled. "Our niece."

I frowned as I looked between the young girl and Bella and Edward. "Your niece?" I asked unsurely. The resemblance was uncanny. But this girl looked to be about 7 years old, and it definitely was not possible for Bella and Edward to have a biological daughter that age, they'd only got married 4 months ago.

"We adopted her," Bella confirmed quickly.

"Ok," I hummed, not prying any further, it was clearly a touchy subject, given how tense Bella and Edward got at the question.

"I really wish I knew you were coming Willa. It's really not a good time for us at the moment," Bella sighed.

"Carlisle said on the phone when I called that you have family over," Charlie interrupted.

"Oh god, not the ones who live in Denali?" I groaned.

"Yeah," Bella frowned. "What's your problem with the Denali's?"

"The guy..."

"Eleazar?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, he's kind of weird. At your wedding, he just stared at me. The entire time," I emphasized. I'd just been trying to enjoy my evening. I was only ever in Forks for the winter and I wanted to catch up with friends and family. But the topaz eyed man stared at me the entire night, it was a little disconcerting.

Bella's eyes widened slightly. "Oh," she gasped as if realizing something before looking up at Edward.

"Bella, could I talk to you for a moment?" Edward asked as he opened the front door and walked out.

"Nessie why don't you tell Aunt Willa about the book you read last night?" Bella suggested before hurrying out after Edward.

"I'm going to whip you up a sandwich," Charlie said, lowering Renesmee onto the couch. "Want one Willa?"

"No thanks I'm good," I smiled. "My body clock is still on London time. So Renesmee? Cool name," I said nervously. I was an only child and my only cousin was Bella so I never had a lot of experience interacting with young children. "Christmas is in a few days. You looking forward to it?" I asked her awkwardly.

"Yeah," she nodded excitedly. "I've never had a Christmas before."

I frowned. How can she have never had a Christmas before? "You're 7?" I asked and Renesmee nodded. "And you've never celebrated Christmas?" Renesmee shook her head. "Ok..." I hummed, "interesting. Did your parents not like Christmas?"

"Um..." she hesitated before a loud voice made us jump.

"ALEC!" Bella roared from the front yard. I'd never heard that kind of rage in my cousin's voice before. Pure, unadulterated rage.

"Who's Alec?" I asked Renesmee, who just shrugged. "Wouldn't want to be him, sounds like Bella wants to rip his head off," I laughed.

*********************

"Alec?" Bella hissed a bit quieter, knowing her outburst had attracted Willa's attention from inside. "Are you kidding me, Edward! How long have you known?" she demanded.

"When we went to Volterra. Alice had a vision about him and a girl," Edward told her.

"I know about the vision Edward, I was there. I heard Aro asking about it. You're telling me that girl is my cousin! She's just a kid!"

"I know. Alice and I didn't recognize who the girl in the vision was, so we didn't think anything of it. Until the wedding when we saw her... and that's when we realized."

"And you didn't think to tell me that Alice had a vision of one of the Volturi guards with my baby cousin?" Bella snapped.

"We thought we could avoid the vision. Change it. They're not set in stone, you know that. After you turned, the plan was always to leave your family behind. We thought by keeping her away from our world she could live her life in peace and never cross paths with them."

"And now she's here," Bella snarled. "Whilst the Volturi march here for our daughter, she's sitting here unprotected! You should have told me."

"I know," he admitted. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want to ruin the wedding, and I didn't want to make your transition harder. Aro already knows about her. He saw the vision in Alice's thoughts. He doesn't know who exactly she is yet though."

"Yeah but if he wants to see your thoughts next week all it takes is one touch and he'll know how to find her," Bella said devastated.

"We'll try and minimize the risk. This stays between you, me, and Alice."

"Alice isn't even here," Bella snapped. "What if they come for her? She can't defend herself."

"We can ask Jacob if the pack could spare a couple of wolves to watch over her while we meet with the Volturi," Edward suggested. Bella went to protest but Edward just shook his head. "There's not much else we can do. If it comes down to it, I'll try and negotiate with him to leave her alone."

Bella just glared at him, they both knew there was no negotiating with Aro. "What about Eleazar?" Bella asked. "No lies. She said he was staring at her at the wedding. What did he see in her?"

"It's harder for him to read humans," Edward explained. "It requires concentration, which is why he was so fixated on her. I saw it in his thoughts, as soon as she stepped into the room. Power. She radiates it. He watched her throughout the wedding and he thinks her gift has something to do with persuasion."

"Persuasion?" Bella asked and Edward nodded. "No, that would make sense," Bella realized. "I used to get so mad at her because she'd never get in trouble for anything. I always just thought Charlie let her off the hook because she was younger. One Christmas she stole the last cookie off his plate and when he got annoyed she denied doing it and he just agreed. Didn't even question it, even though he saw her do it."

"Eleazar saw her convince Tanya to drink the champagne," Edward told her, and Bella's eyes widened. "Gifts usually manifest themselves weakly in humans, but hers is strong enough to influence a vampire. There's no telling what she could do if she turned and her gift was amplified."

"He'll want her," Bella stuttered. "Edward, she's a kid. She's only just turned 15. She has a difficult enough time dealing with her parents, she doesn't need this. She's too young."

"I know," he agreed.

"We have to protect her as well," Bella said sadly. "I can't believe I didn't check in with her and make sure she wasn't coming. We've spent every Christmas together since she was born. I should've known her dad would bail on her. If I'd thought about it for even a second we could've prevented putting her in danger."

"You've been caught up, you can't blame yourself," Edward tried to comfort her.

"Nessie has so many people ready to defend her Edward. Willa has no one, she can't unless we reveal ourselves to her and that would only put her in more danger. She'll never be safe now."