Tears Don't Fall
29 June 2009
Summary: Big Girls Don't Cry, but then again, Victoria didn't want to CRY, she wanted revenge. This is her story.
AN: This is very, very strange for me, but I had the idea and the general feel of character to actually try and get this out and I hope you all like it and actually read it. I promise to not deviate from the story given, but I am drawing on my recollection of the novels and will do my best. (And it is now more than four stories in the Twilight Universe, don't kill me, please?)
It was so easy to avoid those mutts. Victoria dove into the pools of water as a wave crashed onto the cliff face, and her trailers followed after her. She pushed hard and fast, going deeper and further out. They eventually dropped out of the race, her even strokes, unbroken by something as simple as a breath. She never needed to resurface, staying deep, avoiding the physical restrictions even her above human capacity still lashed against her movement. She couldn't deny physics, breaking through the water's surface only slowed down her pace. When it was sufficient, she resurfaced, knowing the dogs had lost track of her again as her scent diluted in the water and they were too far away to do anything about her, even if they did see her, they'd never reach her.
Victoria treaded water, watching as the true leader of the pack dove off the cliff, but not for her, for the human girl that she had been stalking. She had been so close to her goal. They had left her unprotected, allowing Victoria to almost reach the house the girl had taken to hiding in, thinking wrongly that if a coven of vampires, (who'd abandoned her, subsequently), couldn't protect her, then a pack of werewolves could. The werewolves made more mistakes, had more weaknesses than the vampires did, because they were inherently still human, and had human failings just as strongly if not more so than that vulnerable girl. However though, they were actually weaker, falling into the trap to think that just because they were physically stronger than those they protected, that they were infallible, in truth, it just made them more prone to making bigger mistakes and leaving themselves wide-open. Besides, nothing they could come up with would ever match her years of learning from the masters, or of her own deductions.
Yet... the human girl still lived.
Victoria had been tracking and trying to penetrate the girl's inner circle for almost a year. At first, Victoria had fled, as was her nature, when they killed James. She'd fled Forks, she had been working with James and was giving him his insider information, but when they all returned and she didn't hear anything from him, she bolted. She knew he was dead and their next logical step was to track her down and finish off the step, even humane vampires couldn't break free of that tradition so embedded in them, to protect what was theirs and destroy any possible threats. However, they let Laurent live, in fact, giving him the keys to understand them better and be their downfall, by sending him to live with a coven similar to theirs.
At first, Victoria concentrated on being safe, not allowing any of them to catch her scent and track her to finish her off. When no one bothered to follow her, she gave in to her second impulse, the first for others, second to her only because that was the human trait she brought into the vampire world with her, self-preservation. She allowed herself to feed, and feed she did, she massacred an entire village, there was only seventy individuals living there, but she wished there were more, she wished there were so many more. She fed and burned all their bodied, the investigators would say one building caught on fire, and spread to the neighbors. No one would know she was there, but she had to leave the area quickly.
She was satisfied in so many ways, it allowed her to let off some of the steam that had been building, hidden beneath the surface, but it was unbidden in the moment that the first victim's neck was snapped and her teeth sank into that life blood. The following victims weren't treated so kindly, and all screamed and cried, she ensured it.
Once fed, she didn't know what she wanted to do, so she headed into the mountains, but she had a feeling she was now being followed. She was to attack a camper she stumbled upon a month later, four months after James was destroyed, she'd never know the truth behind his death, not unless she could steal the tape he told her he was going to make of the human's death, he was to get such sweet pleasure out of it, she only wished she was there to see it herself, and bask in his joy. Then he would get pleasure out of the vampire-boy's pain, doubled only in watching again how his pet died.
Victoria never doubted James' ability, so when news of his demise was obvious, she didn't know how to handle it, it was nothing she ever thought was possible, not a continuity that she planned on or through, she never needed to, because James never failed. It was the one thing she was sure on, and never needed to learn how to escape.
He was never something she escaped from, not even as a human. James had been the one to change her, and from the only memories of her human life, she remembered always being able to escape when she was pressured into something she didn't want to do, and it didn't matter what it was. At her youngest of ages, she was able to weasel herself out of first classes and then when she did show up, able to avoid penalty for truancy or grade reduction, able to always shrug off the blame and punishment. Later in school, if she didn't want to do a project or public speaking she was always able to get the responsibility to rest on another's shoulders or manage to convince the teachers that she didn't need to do it, or there would be no time, and get the marks for doing it anyways. She always managed to slide by in classes with good grades, mostly because she was too smart for school, and the teachers recognized it. Then when people got too close to her, closer than she wanted, whether it was physically or emotionally, she was able to slip by them, drop them from her life without a blink and forget them just as suddenly. When she was older and more developed, the pursuits became more formidable, and she narrowly avoided molestation or worse, but she got out of it all on her own. Always avoiding danger before it was ever noticed by others, if at all, but she knew it was there.
She was always free to follow her own desires and path in life, never burdened with the weight most people had on them, the responsibilities they believed they had towards others, the only thing she had to look out for was herself. She was good at it. She succeeded in life, she had a beautiful career and never was pushed beyond her limits or boundaries that she set up for herself and others.
Only one person was able to wiggle his way under her radar, and she never saw him coming, her human existence had never prepared her for a way to deal with a vampire. It never mattered how beautiful, charismatic, charming, sexy, persuasive, intelligent or creative a man was, no one had gotten closer than a few dates with her. James had watched her from across the street, easily dancing out of the way of another admirer's advancements, shutting the door firmly in his face. Then he became amused, and watched again, intending to make Victoria his meal once he broke through her defenses, after he saw the pattern begin to form. He marked the path in his challenge, it was a different tracking and different challenge than he was used to, but it would make an interesting diversion to him. So he watched until one day he strolled forward and caught Victoria by surprise when she turned away from one person who moved in to close, to smack into another one. He caught her when she stumbled back, she would have known he was there, had he been human, no one could sneak up on her, but since he was faster than anything she'd ever encountered, she didn't have the usual tells to caution her. The warning bells weren't there.
James was none of the things that most men pride themselves on when they are describing traits they inherited, though he was very clever and very smart, he didn't bring it to her attention, instead he allowed her to believe he was very plain. But something inhuman drew her to him, without her knowledge and she was weak for the picking, and James' challenge was short lived as she fell easily into his clutches, falling for him with a force and speed he had not expected, he had thought he needed to trick her so fully before he could have her.
Bored with the challenge, he had intended to take her life on that second night out, but the only thing that saved her, was his previous amusement and the knowledge that she would be useful if she took into the next life, the ability to escape all danger that would befall them. So he still took her life, but instead of fully draining her, he made her one like him. He came back in three days just before her eyes were open and the hunger took over and he took this new challenge in teaching her his way of life.
So Victoria was born and she'd proven useful to him, that was all he thought of her, but her thoughts weren't much better, she became so confident of his ability, she over looked the other feelings buried deep inside of her, the love she felt for him as a human carried through with greater intensity. They were mates in this life, James was never interested in another female to share his life, and the only other vampire he'd allowed to join them on their journey was Laurent, though she'd never learned what he possessed that would make him a benefit to the duo traveling together, and it had confirmed her suspicions when he broke away the second a real threat appeared.
James always allowed Laurent to appear the leader of their coven, but everyone knew where the true hierarchy lied. One would think, that with her natural and embedded talent to flee when things got too complicated that she would have been the one to run, to leave the other two in the dust and continue on with her life, but James was her mate, and deeper than that, even if it was only one sided, her love. Plus, with him around, her chances of survival greatly increased, because no one, would be able to defeat him, he was unlike any other, and together they were a perfect match and no one penetrated their barriers.
Until one frail, fragile human girl, weaker than the others and her irritating overprotective sinewy bodyguard of a boyfriend vampire stepped into their lives. Toying and tempting her clan in with a baseball game, everyone knew that a vampire was unable to resist such a treat. Then her smell, it had been intoxicating even to Victoria, but it had been James' kill, though she knew there had been one other in their lifetime that James had wanted more, had wanted to taste the blood like none other. She'd learned that the boy's 'sister' had been that girl, the one that had almost torn James away from Victoria in his trail to have it. Twice, it seemed in this coven, had managed to escape James, the inescapable, even the master escape artist couldn't avoid and actually clung on to. How they did it once, much less twice, befuddled her mind, her James, had never failed in his life, he couldn't fail, he didn't know how, and it was impossible, literally impossible. She had been so sure of him.
James had been everything Victoria had known and depended on him like nothing else, and he was torn brutally away from her, she knew it had to be brutal. How could they take her life like that? He was what had guided her when she would only have fled from one spot to the next only pausing to feed, he gave her non-life a path, a reason. She would be wandering around amissly without him if she had been turned and he wasn't there, he gave her balance, a plan of action and a destination. They were nomads, wandering, true, but with him, it seemed like it was all part of grandiose plan that she wasn't privy to know what the end result was.
But now he was gone, and she was lost, wandering without an end point, but as she realized she was being followed, she realized that it was a vampire on her trail. Eventually she lost her tail, but it wasn't without learning who was so determined to follow her. She had ideas, but she never imagined he would leave his so breakable human for even a minute, much less months. Victoria thought he would send one of his coven members after her, probably the big guy, but he would grow tired of it, because it wasn't his pet that had been threatened and his mate was sitting back home. As she had been followed, she hadn't bothered to care who, only what was following her, and once that mystery was unraveled, then she cared why or who, as that would probably tell her why. But it still left her confused, but only served to up her plan of action, for as she had wandered, aimlessly adrift in a void of loss that James had always filled, her hate, anger and rage filled her with a desire for a revenge.
It filled her so much that it overrode anything else she had ever done in her life, she had been permanently changed and her new goal was to destroy that which had destroyed her by destroying her life, her love, her James. Her mind filled in the way she would go about getting her revenge. She knew only one person was to truly suffer, the one that had toyed with James, had made his plans harder and had actually given him a reason to deviate from his natural path to follow the new spark. Only Edward was to blame, with his defense of the human, his pet, his future meal once he grew tired of her.
He was unwilling to share his tasty strumpet, wanting her only for himself, and that had caused James' down fall when the boy had halted his path and feed. Had challenged James with a game so wickedly tempting he couldn't say no, he had to with this game with them, but he hadn't truly wanted the girl, he wanted to cause pain to Edward and destroy him after killing the girl. To get revenge on both of those who had dared stopped him from what he wanted when he wanted it. Through the human, he'd get both the bronzed haired Edward and his sister Alice, it hadn't been enough to just kill her old vampire who had taken a likening to her and stopped James' feed by turning her, he had to get Bella though before the weaklings managed to change her as well.
So Victoria's plans were set, she would go after Bella and complete James' task, both for him and for herself. Bella would die, and Edward would suffer, like she was. Victoria however didn't plan on making either suffering easy or incomplete. Bella would suffer as she died a slow and painful death and there would be no chance of her being saved, and hopefully Edward would watch the whole thing live. Then Edward would live forever with his suffering, no vampire was stupid enough to seek out another form of death, even when their mate was gone, their self-preservation was too strong and over-weighed even their grief over the loss of a mate, and the human would never be his mate, if she was, then he would have already turned her and protected her from any harm that way. He was only amusing himself, but her loss would be felt, she would guarantee it.
So she sought out Laurent when she'd lost Edward to the southern equator. When he admitted he had grown tired of the vegetarian way of life, he agreed to help her, even if it had hurt the girl in the new coven who had grown to like him. Victoria was amused to learn through Laurent's failing that when he had headed into see the Cullens and show them how well he was doing, and his eyes were gold, such an ugly shade, he found the house barren and only the human's faint trace remained but the vampires' was long gone. Then he couldn't help himself on his way of luring out the human, he stumbled upon another when he'd grown hungry and his eyes dark. She'd seen him one last time, with one last request, to find Bella and bring her to Victoria, glad his eyes were red again, and fresh with a new wave of hunger.
Bella was weak, alone and unprotected by not only her keeper but his entire family had left her there as well, at the scene of her original death sentence. It seemed that he grew tired of her earlier than expected and still didn't have the balls to destroy the evidence that a human knew of their existence. Victoria would take care of it for him. It was too easy, Victoria decided, but when Laurent didn't return, she went on the path herself and uncovered the most disgusting of odors. She didn't know what it was at first, but she ran, ran far until she knew she was safe and could figure out her next step, there had been a complication she hadn't expected.
She made hesitant steps towards the frail creature, but that hideous stench assaulted her every time she tried to get closer, so cutting off one of the key senses that allowed her self-preservation in this form an advantage, she stopped her breath so she could discover what she was up against, and found herself face to face with a giant wolf who growled at her menacingly. She bolted, easily alluding it and finding safety again. She was up against her natural enemy, the only thing that could kill her other than other vampires.
If it hadn't been for the change in her entire being, she would have been long gone by now, but since she was a vampire and once changed, it was impossible to return to who she was previously, she had a new mission in life, and she wouldn't rest until it was completed. Even if it meant time and danger, she would continue the path she laid out for herself and Bella Swan would die. She could still use her ability to avoid danger to achieve this task, in fact it might actually benefit her, able to cross treaty lines whenever, even if the wolves themselves violated it, now that the vampires they shared it with were long gone and needed to protect a greater area and large amount of people.
She'd learned that they weren't just wolves, but rather werewolves. They belonged to the tanned skinned boys and one girl from the reservation, but had claimed protection over these humans as well and any human even visiting their area. Victoria scoffed at the idea, werewolves now joined the challenge to protect that inconsequential little girl? There was nothing important about her, but in the coming days and months Victoria learned that one of the wolves' feelings towards the human was almost as deep as the vampire's. Victoria shook her head, the puny human was the worst thing, she wasn't beautiful, wasn't talented, and it turned out, seems in more need of protection from herself than anything else. Why would anyone bother with something so pitiful?
Victoria got closer and closer to her goal, even to the point that she was at now, pulling the wolves on a wild chase that would have them far away and at a dead end, without her needing to lead it. They wouldn't know what hit them, but she was in reach of the girl, she could almost feel the warmth of the child's skin under her fingers and the venom flowed freely and she would drain her, she hadn't fed since she first discovered the existence of the wolves, they would catch her in mid hunt and she would be vulnerable, and that was something she'd never be able to put herself in. She didn't desire the girl's blood as nutrient, rather, wanted it splattered throughout the town and reservation and staining the walls, painted rather, of the Cullen household, written clearly for all to see, that Victoria had won after all, for Jame's behalf, against a coven of seven and a pack of werewolves. Nothing would be a greater victory, especially not for her. Her revenge would be complete and then she would be able to continue her lifeless existence wandering to the next feed as Edward suffered, curling into a shell in his vampire body, lashing at himself in guilt over his failure.
Victoria had almost called off the attack once she knew they'd all abandoned her, thinking that it wouldn't no longer harm him as greatly as it would have before, but the reminder that he had tried to track her, using skills in weak parody of James, it taught her one thing, he might not be with her, and his family didn't care about her, but his desire to protect her was still great, his feelings towards her great enough to have him destroy the only threat against her to ensure her safety. He left her unprotected for ages and her death and his failure would be an even greater treat for Victoria.
Her fingers could have brushed the human's neck if it hadn't been for the three werewolves she hadn't known existed and the one she had thought was further away, he had least been running in the opposite direction and should have been far. They had to have a way of communicating that she hadn't known about if they could be thrown off her carefully laid out trap so easily, no one had until it was too late. The younger, smaller ones chased her off the cliff and into the water, the true leader behind them, then realizing how close they had come to the weak human on the edge of another cliff, turned directions towards her instead of chasing after Victoria, possibly the only one who could have caught her at the time.
Victoria laughed viciously, the girl wanted to do what Victoria had been planning herself, she wanted to take her own life, but it wouldn't be so easy, Victoria mused as the girl dived into the icy raging waters and not resurfacing once. She wouldn't manage to take Victoria's thunder quite so easy, though it would have been an ironic twist of fate. She laughed, if Bella took her own life, Edward would suffer greater, for he had been fighting the wrong villain, the real one rested in his human's heart.
All the protection of her for naught? Oh the humor would never fail at the thought, it pleased Victoria immensely, though the dog managed to pull her to the surface, then the sand and pound life back into her frail body and Victoria continued on her plans, Bella would die, one way or another, and now that they knew she was suicidal, she would not be left alone again and that door would be shut firmly. Victoria would have to fight, be it human, vampire or werewolf, one would go up against Victoria in the near future, but she could not take on a whole pack and once Edward learned of his precious pet's attempt, would be back, and perhaps his coven as well, and even those she could not destroy on her own.
She needed help, and as she stroke away, to decide her next plan of action, she saw Bella look at her with disbelief, ah the human had seen her, or at least her hair, and the rest remained ignorant. The disbelief turned to fear and Victoria realized the girl hadn't thought the attack real, and found a satisfying pleasure in the human's fear, it made it sweet, intoxicating, something Victoria would draw out, and get high off of. The torture would be slow and not altogether physical, she would mentally derange the girl first, and have her on such a tight rope, that she'd snap and then she would be in the greatest physical pain she'd ever felt, for the longest time, before her boyfriend would end her life himself. Ah, that was so much better.
Victoria had almost seen her goal come to fruition, but this was better, she decided, she would take the whole coven down, they would be back, she didn't have a single doubt in her body about that fact. She didn't know why they were gone, but it didn't truly matter, with Edward's return, they all would. Now however, she had to gather an army large enough, and strong enough to take on seven old vampires with varying degrees of intelligence and capable of strategic planning and fighting skills. The only way to achieve that was to find a somewhat intelligent vampire who would do her bidding and was easy to sway to her side and could control the rest but wasn't smart enough to leave her. The rest would all have to be newborns, only their brute strength could pose a challenge large enough to distract the coven while she moved in to take care of the human, and possibly her two protectors. She'd need her lackey to help her distract one, while she fought the other and steal the girl away and then set up her torture of both vampire and werewolf. She wasn't sure which one annoyed her more now after a few close calls and his annoying ability to always reach the girl before she could.
First, though, she needed to create her army. Second, she'd come back and get every vampire whipped up ready to kill the desirable scent and thirdly, she would unleash them on the town, on the Cullens and on Bella herself. For Bella's life was coming to an end and her days were numbered. All Victoria needed was to go to Seattle.