until dawn (marcus and bella )

chapter 4

APOV

I stand here and watch as Marcus violently rips into the neck of his third human tonight and cannot really decide whether to be joyful that he's showing so much emotion or worried about how he's going to handle all that has suddenly been heaped upon him. As is my nature, I decide to be joyful, it's not like we really needed those extra gardeners anyways.

Really comparing to the wrath that Marcus has illustrated in the past- in particular against werewolves right after my sister was killed- he's dealing with this upheaval relatively well. I duck quickly to avoid getting hit by a flying arm, then resume my position off to the side by the door to the conservatory. Just from knowing my brother for so long, I can tell that most of his frustration and anger are due to the fact Isabella had her little breakdown and there was nothing he could fight against nor do really anything to stop it. That he needed to rely on some of my input carefully whispered to him below human hearing to be able to even calm his own mate.

That isn't the only reason of course. He's wondering about Didyme and their bond. He's furious that his new mate has obviously been injured by vampires in the past, and yet she can't seem to talk about it and so the ones that hurt her are likely still out there. He's upset with Caius for having bruised her back in the Americas when trying to get information. He's frustrated that I can't seem to read Isabella and thus we still have no clue what happened to her, most especially when she is obviously physically unwell in addition to her mental distress. Then there is that she seems so frightened of him still, when he already feels for her so strongly. He'll get himself under control soon. Really I was expecting his reaction to be exponentially worse than it currently is. Things must not have completely sunk in yet.

One major benefit of this small tantrum is the guards reactions. Most of them are significantly younger than us, and thus have always seen Marcus as the weak link in our trio, or have just known him through stories of him taking action in the past. For the last 1500 years or so he hasn't been motivated to violence more than a handful of times out of his depression and apathy. They are finally getting a glimpse for themselves the power Marcus holds and is willing to use. Felix had not moved quickly enough out of his way once Marcus returned from escorting Isabella to her room and thus lost an arm and his head. The expressions on the others faces was hilarious. Truly dropped jaws. Already Isabella's presence is creating such joy for me. Felix of course is currently having his head and limb reattached but I am thinking his cockiness may drop some.

Marcus, on my suggestion has assigned Heidi to stand guard outside Isabella's room tonight. I am hoping that Heidi's human allure will help her connect to the girl, or if it is as ineffective as my own gift than at least we shall be able to narrow down the likelihood as to what exactly is going on in Isabella's brain. Unlike Caius' original theory that she has somehow become neurologically damaged I am highly inclined to believe that it is a gift that has manifested itself in her even as a human. Caius for example is adamant that he does not have a gift, and no one outside the family has any clue he does either. This is because even as a human he was above and beyond any other in academia with patterns. He can pick out a pattern, beat, sequence, number discretion, or trend with little to no effort. This simply expanded with the increased powers and mental capabilities that came with his vampire mind. He says it is was merely a natural extension to do with the physiology of the vampire brain, I on the other hand have never witnessed neither myself nor through the life-long thoughts of others anything even remotely close to what he is capable of once he gets going. It is the reason why he deals with most of our investments and businesses as he's impossible to cheat and can predict economic growth in a sector before anyone else. In addition, Caius though not a strategist in war- Marcus and myself are much better than he at that particular skill- Caius picks up enemy attack patterns and likely camp placements as though they have left him messages with explicit details of their plans. This single skill alone, ignoring all his other talents, has reinforced Caius as an essential leader in the Volturi again and again over the centuries. Caius is often thought to be likely the easiest of the three of us to take down as his gift is not blatant- that thought makes me laugh. All three of us are deadly but together we are almost unstoppable. Vampires these days think that they are ruthless, they have it easy compared to when we were born into this life. One of the first things we did was take out our sire. If you came upon another vampire you killed them quickly and then got the hell out of dodge. True alliances were only between mates, and there was no negotiations or compromises. You won or you died.