Chapter Two:
Introduction
21st century. Forks, Washington, U.S.A
Forks, Washington.
What a joke. This was the worst idea to ever to come here. It was cold and wet, crowded and very, very green. Too green if you asked her, but it was the last place to hide other than Alaska, and she definitely didn't want to go there. Either way, both places were too far from her homeland to find any comfort.
The lush forest was at odds with her ancient volcanic homeland that was once knows as Mons Albanus, or Alba Longa but now it was known as the Colli Albani, Rome. Basically Isabellas Latini tribe lived in the center of an extinct volcano surrounded by water. It was a very peaceful place for her. Unlike her current whereabouts in a Port Angeles bar, on a Saturday night, she thought dryly. What a blast.
Isabella missed home, but home was dead and gone for over thirty-five thousand years. There was no going back. No changing how her life turned out. She had only memories to torture and keep her company.
Isabella sat at the bar nursing a large bottle of Gran Patron Burdeos. The burn of the tequila was delicious. She emptied the last of the content into her shot glass before waved the bartender over .
"You here with some one tonight?" The bartender asked as he hesitantly set another bottle of tequila in front of her.
Isabella grunted in acknowledgment. "I'm with the idiots in the back of the bar."
Isabella went to pour herself another shot but thought better of it and instead drank straight from the bottle. She emptied half of it, enjoying the burn as it traveled down her throat to pool in her belly.
"M...maybe you should slow down a little, huh?" The bartender asked concerned. He eyes the bottle she chugged from.
Isabella set the bottle down. She could barely even feel the effects. On the scale from buzzed to wasted, she was fairly tipsy, but not intoxicated. Yet. Sadly, takes more than this to get her drunk. She set the bottle down and gazed up at him from under her lashes with a raised a brow. She looked at his name tag. Mike. He was cute. In a gangly lost puppy dog sort of way.
"Afraid I can't hold my liqueur?" Isabella raised a brow.
"Hah," Mike laughed, his bright powder blue eyes danced in good humor. His dark blond hair stuck up all over in careless spikes. "I think you can hold your liqueur, but," He looked over at the four rowdy men in the back of the bar. "You just might drink me and my dad out of business if you and your brothers keep this up on a regular basis."
Isabella looked at him hollowly. "Don't worry, I'm sure my brothers and I will keep you in good business." She pulled out a wad of hundreds and tosses seven of them on the bar. "That should cover us for tonight." She sighed as a loud raucous of laughter roared through the bar. She thought about it a moment and decided to add another three hundred and make it an even thousand. Who know what kind of damage her brothers would cause. "In case of damages."
Isabella turned around on the swivel stool to watch her brothers have fun. Nik and Yuri played pool. William shouted insults from his stool next to Sasha who scrolled through the music box touch screen. They seemed content, happy. Even Sasha who frowned at the music selection. He must not like the selection, and still he seemed content to just be here. A state Isabella seemed unable to reach. She was exhausted. Too weary to keep running and out of places to hide. She never felt safe, not since she was a young girl laying in bed with her leopard cub, so how could she ever find genuine peace in the moment?
Isabella glanced down at the black tribal tattoo on the underside of her forearm. The beautiful leopard was made up of sharp intricate lines and curves. The tattoo was unlike a humans. It contained the leopards physical form, who was now names Styx after Greek River of Styx, the Underworlds very own River of Hate, witch Isabella and Styx had plenty of.
With a single thought Styx was able to manifest into solid form, and in Isabella rare case, she and Styx could meld forms and become more than tattoo and bearer, they become one entity, with two spirits
Styx, sensing Isabella's discomfort, shifted on her arm and traveled up to her shoulder as if embracing her. She heard him purr inside her mind. A welcome comfort.
A loud wave of insults reached her ears. She glanced up just in time to see Yuri hit the eight ball a little too hard. It jumped off the table and hit Nyk straight in the crotch, almost like it was intentional. William threw his head back and laughed so hard her tumbled backwards off of his stool. She shook her head at their antics. She wished with all her being that she was able to join in their fun. Isabella turned around and took another long swig, emptying the bottle, ignoring everything and everyone. Isabella wiped her mouth on the back of her hand with the same one that held the bottle.
"Hi," A young man greeted.
Isabella paused and slowly set the bottle on the bar. She looked at him from the corner of her eye. He was handsome. He had dark eyes and long dark hair tied back at the nape of his neck with a leather string. He was obviously of tribal decent but damn if she couldn't pin point exactly where. He looked an awful lot like the original chief of the Quileutes. Huh.
"I'm Jacob." He introduced. "You can call me Jake,"
She ignored him as she finally felt the stirring of the alcohol. She took in a deep breath, held it, and then released it. The Constant pain and rage was muted, if only for a moment. Her head felt fuzzy. She was more uncoordinated, and slower than normal. And hungry. Very hungry, but not for anything she should allow herself to dine on. Uh! She felt like a human. Speaking of humans... Isabella turned in the swivel chair to look at the human next to her.
Jacob froze when she looked at him. She didn't move, didn't blink as she gazed at him with her strange eyes. They shifted between yellow and deep amber, almost red, and the pupils... Jacob swallowed. They looked like cats eyes. They must be contacts. It was near Halloween. Yeah, that's it. He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. Choosing to go for humor to alleviate his unease, he smiled and turned on the charm.
"Did it hurt?"
Isabella frowned. "Excuse me?" Did he hit his head as a young boy? Too much peyote? It wasn't until he asked her again that it dawned on her that he was flirting.
"Did it hurt?" He smiled, flashing his dimples.
Oo-kay, then. Deciding to humor him, she asked. "Did what hurt?"
"When you you fell from heaven?" He smiled.
She couldn't help it. "Did you just call me Lucifer?" She asked seriously, Isabella wanted to laugh, actually laugh, but the look of genuine fear at her question made her stay as she was glaring at him like he was her next meal. He was so spot on in his poorly stated come-on and he didn't even know it.
Jacob smiled. The skin around his mouth leeched of color but he held his ground. He didn't answer her question.
"That has got to be the worst pick up line in existence. Does it ever work?"
Jacob laughed. "No, but that was plan A."
A smile played with the corners of her lips. "Okay. I'll bite." Isabella leaned against the bar with her elbow. "Whats plan B?"
"Take you hostage."
Isabella was going to laugh at him, but the look in his eyes and the secret smirk I his deceptively boyishly handsome face and her instincts told her he wasn't joking. He would do it. She leaned in and stealthily took in his scent. She tensed. It wasn't human, and she didn't recognized it.
"You know," Isabella cocked her head to the side. "Your right above clown on my creepy scale."
Jacob was taken of guard. He threw back his head and laughed. He had not felt this free since before the cold ones arrived. Jacob smiled at her, his eyes crinkling in the corners.
"What's your name?" Jacob asked.
Isabella opened her mouth but before she could speak, Yuri interrupted. He leaned against the bar beside her and rested his chin on her shoulder. chills shot down her spine. She had to fight the urge to shove him out of her personal space. He knew her past, they all did, and they never let her issues get in the way, they forced her to face them.
"What'cha doin'?" Yuri asked. He dangled the bottle of whiskey he drank in front of her face. "Want some? It's really gooo-oood." he said in a sing-song voice. "No drinking four and five bottles of tequila." he gaged.
"Bottles?" Jacob laughed. He looked between them. "You guys like to have fun, don't you?"
"Well, I do. Not Isabella here. She has a permanent stick up her a-ofe" Yuri grunted.
Isabella elbowed him in the ribs. She grabbed the bottle he had and walked away from them. She passed William and grabbed his bottle as she went. She glared at Nyk and Sasha, daring them to say something. Nyk raised his hands in mock surrender, and Sasha covered his male parts.
She sat down in a booth in the car corner of the bar to finish the whiskey by her self. She scooted down in the seat and pulled up the hood of her jacket to cover her eyes. She took a long pull from the bottle and let the world bleed away.
William walked back to the bar with Nyk and Sasha in tow. Yuri nodded to them.
"She's not very friendly, is she?" Jacob murmured.
"You wouldn't be very friendly either if you every human you ever trusted betrayed you." William slurred sullenly.
"Human?" Jacob narrowed his eyes on him.
Williams clammed up and sucked his lips back between his teeth.
"What he meant was dickhead," Sasha glared at William before looking to Jacob. "It was very human of them to betray her."
Jacobs glare never let up. Sasha matched it with one of his own. This little boy didn't intimidate him in the least. If he knew who stood in front of him... Sasha was a former galley slave, and gladiator. William was a former gunslinger and notorious bounty hunter. Yuri, a samurai and Nyk, he was a King of Pirates.
Jacob relaxed his glare. "What happened to her." Jacob asked.
William opened his mouth to speak but Nyk cut him off with a heated glare. "Nothing. It was a long time ago." Niklaus snapped.
"Someone hurt her pretty bad, huh?"Jacob wondered out loud.
William snorted. "Lets just say, trusting people has made her the asshole she is today."
Nyk growled low in his chest, imperceptible to human ears , band yet Jacob shifted slightly towards him as if he just noticed he was in the presence of a predator.
Nyk looked at Jacob, his unique storm gray eyes clashed with dork murky brown. "I think we should be getting Isabella back home." Nyk murmured darkly. A warning to the human to leave.
Taking the hint, Jacob excused himself and disappeared into booth where three other males sat on the opposite side of where Isabelle was.
"Why can't you keep your mouth shut?" Nyk hiss at William as soon as Jacob was out of earshot.
"Why can't you open yours?" William slurred. "We came back to tell Isabella what happened. You haven't said a damn thing about it since we got here, and-"
"Yeah, to tell Isabella." Nyk hissed. "Not a random human."
"Shut up," Yuri stepped in. "Both of you. Now is not the time." He looked at William, and then to Nyk. "But we will tell her."
"Tomorrow?" William asked.
"Lets give her one more day." Yuri frowned. He looked at Isabella as she drowned her rage and pain in alcohol. He sighed. "Just one more day."
"And what will that one day cost us?"Sasha asked.
Nyk sighed. "Doesn't matter. We will weather the coming storm. Together." He declared.
"You mean with whats left of us," William grumbled.
"Whoa!" Sasha exclaimed. "Why so pessimistic?"
"I'm just being real." William huffed. "She deserves to know."
"She will, just wait, will you?" Yuri asked. William ground his molars in frustration but nodded his consent.
"I hate when she does this to herself," Nyk mourned. He watched her guzzle down the liqueur with a vengeance. If she were still even half human she would be dead by morning from alcohol poisoning.
"Does what? Get drunk?" William asked.
"I wish that was all." Nyk ached for her.
Sasha made a face, half his mouth turned down in a half frown. "It takes a long time to realize your immortal. Even longer to accept it." And she was the eldest of them all. Sasha stepped forward. "Lets get out girl home."
