Chapter 14
The raven-haired vampire trudged through the maze of the Volturi gardens. The head of guard had asked for an audience and the venue was quite peculiar. Jane would usually meet him in his study when it concerns the affairs of the Volturi.

He pieced that what she was about to say had nothing to do with the affairs of the Volturi.

"Jane..."

Her cloak that was black as coal billowed in the cold windy night. The blonde vampire lowered her hood. The end of the maze overlooked the lake on the outskirts of the Volturi Castle. It was nice to get out of the suffocating walls of the Volturi Castle once in a while.

"You asked for my presence, dear?" Aro held out his hand but she paid no attention to his gesture. The Volturi king just sighed in defeat and he patiently waited for the blonde vampire to speak.

"I regret... everything..."

He raised an eyebrow at her statement. He could not figure out what she meant by the tone of her voice. Jane spoke so emotionlessly with him, and it was far from the joyful yet meek tone he was accustomed to.

"What do you regret, dear?" He asks.

"Loving you." She spun around as she faced him. Although her tone was devoid of any emotion, her eyes certainly gave it away. The raven haired vampire thought she had put it past them, yet he was mistaken.

"Regret will not change my feelings. If you think regretting what you felt can make me reciprocate what you feel, you are mistaken." Aro simply states.

"You think I do not know that?" She stared at him furiously. "Do not treat me for a fool! Stop treating me like I am a child!"

"I do not treat you like a child, Jane. Perhaps it is you who is childish enough to run after a man who already has a mate." The Volturi king said as he attempted to rectify the situation. His words shook the head of guard to her core.

"Was it because I am trapped in the body of a child?"

She spoke with such pitiful tone that the Volturi king restrained himself from giving everything he worked hard for. He could not let himself falter, barriers must be set.

He must keep a distance from her.

"Of course not. Do not be despicable, Jane."

"I did everything to please you. It was not just my power. I put in all of my efforts but why did you not apprec-"

"I am to be wed in a few days. You will bury this silly infatuation to the deepest depths of the earth. We shall never speak of this matter ever again." His gaze hardened as venom dripped in his voice.

Seeing no progress in their conversation, the raven-haired vampire spun around and began to retreat back to the castle. A light rainshower splatters on the grass and they were both soaked wet.

"You must love me."

Aro stops in his tracks. The volturi king spared her a glance over his shoulder. His eyes displayed coldness and indifference that even Jane did not see before. As if on cue, the rain poured down heavily. The droplets of rain fell down on her cheeks as if they were tears that were shed by the heartbreak she felt.

"Is that an order? How could a lowly guard have the guts to order me, your king, around?"

The burly vampire opened the door to the shed and he saw her there. Jane was in the farthest area of the shed with her knees huddled to her chest. Felix slowly trudged closer and knelt down to her level.

"Jane?"

Her pitiful eyes met his. The burly vampire then understood the pain that clouded in her eyes. Felix treaded lightly with the head of the Volturi vulnerable and pleading look in her eyes is too much for him to bear. He pulls her in his arms, she sighs and eases herself in his hug, wishing to stay like that forever. She is wet and he becomes wet, but he doesn't care.

He bravely brushes the stray hair away from her face. The blonde haired vampire's pitiful eyes met his. Jane slowly leaned forward as the burly vampire froze uncomfortably. Her lips slowly met his and for a brief moment he enjoyed it.

At first he was reluctant, but Felix gave in.

One arm snaked around her waist and his other hand was on the back of her head pulling her closer. It wasn't long before passion took them as his hands fondled with the clasp of her cloak and it came undone. His kisses then trailed from her lips towards the crook of her neck. The burly vampire then uttered a low growl.

Jane pulled away and he saw lust and pain radiating from her eyes. Felix was brought back to reality as he edged away from her.

"I apologize for my actions." He murmurs under his breath. The blonde's eyes shifted from confusion to disappointment to heartbreak. If she were human, tears would be falling from her eyes.

He could not comfort her in this state. Felix was confused.

"W-Why did you do that?" Jane manages to ask as she self consciously placed her cloak around her shoulders.

"I will not take advantage of the situation especially when you are vulnerable." The burly vampire manages to muster up an excuse yet he feels conflicted.

"You told me once that you would do anything for me." Her red eyes locked with his. "Do you really mean that?"

Silence engulfed the both of them.

"Of course." Felix was a man of his word after all.

"Run away with me."

It took him seconds before he understood what she meant. A conflicted expression appears in his features. Jane watched him intently.

"J-Jane..." Felix trailed off as he tried to process what he heard from her.

"Run away with me. Let me leave this hell hole."

"Jane-" he attempted to console her but she cut him off.

"I am serious, Felix. This is what I want!" Jane raises her voice and he places a finger on her lips to silence her.

"Do you even hear yourself? You and I both know that the master's wont let me leave, let alone with you!"

The blonde vampire collapses in his arms dry sobbing. Her cry was empty and forlorn. In his silence, he must make his choice. Felix knew it in himself that he somehow possessed feelings for the blonde vampire.

The pain he felt for her may bring no reward. Her fate was tied and sworn to the masters, yet her hopeless dream must vanish.

He pulled her closer and let her lean on him. The burly vampire knew that his heart could never flee.

Foolish young lovers indeed.

She walked down the aisle but not as his bride.

Walking down the altar provided a fantasy for the Volturi guard. Was it because of the aisle that waited in front of her that her fear vanished?

Or was it because she will meet the man that she swore to love in the very end of the altar?

Jane froze for a moment. She knew that Aro could not take his eyes off her. If it was not for Alec who gently shook her out of her trance, she would have been frozen on the spot.

She was reminded that in his wedding: She was not the bride. Jane would not be the one to promise to love him and be called his wife. The blonde would not be the one to stand next to him and provide such support.

She was just his watchdog. A foolish watchdog that had foolishly fallen in love with her master.

The blonde's eyes stung with tears that she could not shed when caught a glimpse of his bride. Jane could not deny that Sulpicia was actually stunning.

And when his future wife took his hand, the Volturi guard just stared at the two of them, longingly.

That should have been her. But in her case, he did not want her.

The blonde vampire tried to hold her composure in front of the public. She stood strong even if she felt she had gone through the fire and back. Why bother attending anyway if she would be the one to hurt herself.

"If one shall willingly attest to the union of these two," Marcus began and his gaze drifted to the young blonde. "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

The Volturi guard tried to open her mouth to speak, yet found herself unable to do so. His happiness was one of the things she would not mess with.

She did not want to ruin him, especially his happiness. If it was the will that he would be happy with Sulpicia, then so it be it. Her mantra was to always put him first, and she should be last. He was far more than she could ever have.

She does not deserve someone like him. But still, she felt pain upon wondering if what if she was the one meeting him there. What if she was the one to take his hand for a lifetime?

Jane badly wanted him, that could have been the fair depiction of her actions. But she believed that fiction is hard to know.

He does not know how much she loves him. She willfully tells her heart that it was all a lie. The blonde vampire tells herself that she did not need him, but still...

She loved him.

A million words could not bring time back. Jane knew that because she knew it in herself that she tried, neither would a million of tears she could shed, believe me, she tried.

It was hard to turn to the next page when the blonde vampire knew it in herself that he would not be there for her. But in the end, it was just him and Sulpicia.

She did not fit in the picture.

Maybe one day, the universe would allow the two of them to be together. But in this universe, Jane knew she had no choice to let him go. She gazed at the bride, Sulpicia was everything that he wanted. The blonde vampire slapped herself mentally,

If he was happy with Sulpicia, who was she to stop that? Why did she not see that he did not want her? And if Aro was indeed happy with her, the blonde vampire would insist no more. All Jane wished for was that she would never hurt him and love him more than she could.

'Love him for me.' she whispers in the wind.

It can be seen in his eyes on why he chose Sulpicia over her. It was hard to fight fate after all if his future wife was fated to him?

In her mind which felt like a long eternity, she met Marcus' gaze who waited for her response. The answer could already be found in the depth of her eyes. If it was her will to let him go, he would proceed.

She let him go of her love for his brother on the brink of pressure. Marcus hoped that she would stand up for her decisions. If what she decided was what she really wanted, he hoped that she held herself accountable.

Her decisions would be going with her for the entire eternity.

Marcus did not believe in such thing as wrong love. It was just that she loved someone who can never be hers and made such foolish decisions. Such decisions were made at the wrong time. But what he knew that was so painful for the blonde its that she lost herself in the process of loving someone like his brother. She forgot herself, that's why it'd hurt.

He pitied her for loving like that.

Jane remembered that she did not want to be the sun if her master was the moon. She did not want to be a million miles away from him. Yet with him claiming his wife's lips. She was reminded that in the universe they live in,

No matter how much she wanted to be a star, in the end... Jane was always his sun. While their time together was only a dent in the universe's timeline. Their time together will always be her big infinity.

As long as they were in the same world, Jane would be okay.

She would live to accept that herself. Because in the end, the fear of losing him would be much more than the fear of loving him.

AN:

I terribly apologize for such slow updates, art school is currently keeping me preoccupied. This is one of the most heartbreaking chapters i had to write for this book. The painful scenes are just beginning.