OK - I think this bit is actually ready. Not the chapter - just the teaser. :) There's still a lot to do on the chapter, but it will hopefully start coming along a little quicker.
***
“Forks will be mine, you know,” King Aro said in a low voice. “It is only a matter of time.”
“I am tiring of your threats,” Edward responded. He had managed to regain some of the control in his voice again. “We have done everything you have asked to maintain peace between our kingdoms. There is only so much one can give.”
“But there is always more I can take!” Aro announced. His voice turned low. “And take I shall. You go ahead and hold out as long as you can, but when I am through with you, your pathetic kingdom will be under my control.”
I felt a shiver run through me, and I pushed my back up tighter against the inside wall of the stairs.
“If Forks is so insignificant, why do you continue to demand more of me?”
Aro cackled, and the high pitched sound made yet another shiver run up my spine. His voice deepened as he snarled out his words.
“Because there was once a man who thought he could live in my shadow and continue to look down upon me. He ignored his duty and refused to unite our lands for the greater good. Now his son tries to do the same? No. Not again.”
“What is this?” Edward’s voice rose slightly. “My father?”
Aro’s bitter laugh filled the hall again.
“If you had spent more time studying in your youth than you did lying with your whores…but it does not matter now, does it? You have demonstrated quite affectively that common women cannot bear kings. You have two at your beck and call, but there is no decent place for your seed to find purchase, is there?”
***
He's really not a nice guy, that Aro...
