Is It Really You?| Alec Volturi

Chapter 17

"Yes, I will join," I said, smiling.

Everyone's frown turned into a smile except from Edward, Alice and Bella. Their smiles turned into frowns.

"What!" Edward and Alice shouted in unison.

"I'm sorry. I have been with you for a while but I'm going to stay here. Please don't hate me. I'm not turning against you. I just want to stay here. I have friends here." I explained to them.

"Like who? You don't have friends," Edward said.

"She is mine and Felix's friend," Demetri piped in.

"And mine," Jane said. "If she is my friend then she is Alec's friend too,"

Edward looked embarrassed. He didn't know Kira had friends. She always kept to herself and didn't talk as much.

I smiled at Jane, Demetri and Felix. I didn't really know if Alec is my friend or not, because clearly he is confused.

"Fine. You can stay with them." Alice said.

"Thank you, Alice."

"I'm not your friend, neither is Bella." Edward hissed at me.

"I don't give a damn." I hissed back.

"Ok!" Aro ended our staring contest. "Demetri will show you out. Kira, Demetri will show you to the guard room," he said smiling.

"Ok, thank you."

"No problem."

Demetri gestured that we should follow, and then set off the way we'd come in, the only exit by the look of things.

Edward pulled Bella swiftly along beside him. Alice was close by her other side, her face hard. I was walking with Demetri.

"Not fast enough," she muttered.

Bella stared up at her, frightened, but she only seemed chagrined. It was then that she first heard the babble of voices—loud, rough voices—coming from the antechamber.

"Well this is unusual," a man's coarse voice boomed.

"So medieval," an unpleasantly shrill, female voice gushed back.

A large crowd was coming through the little door, filling the smaller stone chamber. Demetri motioned for us to make room. We pressed back against the cold wall to let them pass.

The couple in front, Americans from the sound of them, glanced around themselves with appraising eyes.

"Welcome, guests! Welcome to Volterra!" We could hear Aro sing from the big turret room.

The rest of them, maybe fifty or more, filed in after the couple. Some studied the setting like tourists. A few even snapped pictures. Others looked confused, as if the story that had led them to this room was not making sense anymore. Bella noticed one small, dark woman in particular. Around her neck was a rosary, and she gripped the cross tightly in one hand. She walked more slowly than the others, touching someone now and then and asking a question in a different language. No one seemed to understand her, and her voice grew more panicked.