CHAPTER THREE – COMING OUT

I do not own Twilight, and no copyright infringement intended.

Bloodthirstiness and adultery ahead—straight lemons.

Thank you so much to Voluptuous Vamp and Remylebeauishot for betaing this chapter. Much love.

"Relax, Bella," Riley said, leaning back in his chair and looking calm. I wished I had his faith. "It'll be fine. At least you don't have Jane around for your first mission."

"Yeah." My mouth twitched nervously. I felt strange today. Feeling nothing had become the norm, but today I felt on edge and unsure of myself—it was understandable, given that I was going with Demetri and Felix on my first ever assignment. All my time in Volterra had been geared up for this moment. "What if it goes so badly that Aro decides that I'm not Volturi material?"

There was a snort from the sofa in the corner. "Come on, Bella," Chelsea said, sitting up and looking at me. "Aro loves your shield. Even if it's no good in combat, there's no way he'd ever throw you out of the guard. Besides, it couldn't be much worse than last time."

The three of us smiled and remembered the incident Chelsea had referred to. Aro had wanted to recruit a particular vampire because he had an unusual power: he could reflect or divert other talented vampire's abilities back at them or onto others. Sending Jane and Alec had been a disaster—though hearing about the terrible twins getting a dose of their own medicine had made a number of vampires extremely happy.

With Aro's not-so-secret weapons neutralized, tomorrow brute force—otherwise known as Felix deftly assisted by Demetri—would be used. We had no idea how my shield would be affected, but it was hoped that it would be enough to counteract his power and that he would be unable to use Demetri's talent to his advantage.

Demetri had been on the previous encounter and reported nothing other than slight disorientation before Alec's power had been projected onto him. Riley had told me that Demetri was still able to track the vampire. Felix's strength was physical and not a specific 'talent,' and he had seen no other adverse effects beyond Jane's pain.

If I could successfully contain the vampire within my shield, we were to bring the offender back to Volterra; if not, he was to be terminated. I felt strangely nervous. After having witnessed numerous executions in my twenty years with the Volturi and after taking numerous human lives myself, I wondered why I would feel so apprehensive now. Usually, I felt nothing except the prickle of numbness, but today it had deserted me.

Riley reached across the table and grabbed my hands. "Bella, it will be fine. You have Demetri and Felix to look after you. You'll be great—I know it. There might even be a promotion in it, and you'll be out on missions every other week."

I looked up into my friend's eyes and smiled. Riley had been my constant support since I arrived in Volterra as a newborn. We were close—he was my most trusted confidante and personal cheerleader. When I had been a complete failure at hand-to-hand combat, or when Jane worked me too hard, he was there for me and I had grown to rely on him so much.

Chelsea groaned. "No, don't say that. I like having someone to talk to. If it's just me and Raveena again, I'll just die." Afton, as usual, was out scouting for news of wayward vamps.

I grinned at my best female friend. Chelsea was great—it was hard to believe she was as ancient as she was. She truly was a Rosalie/Alice hybrid. My heart twinged a little as I got nostalgic, and I became uncharacteristically emotional at this touching moment with my two friends.

"I love you guys, you know that. If I didn't have you, I don't know what I'd do."

Both of my friends smiled in return.

"Bella, that's really sweet. I'm so glad you joined us." Chelsea looked like she was being a little more sensitive than usual.

"Hey, where's Raveena? I want to say goodbye before I go."

"She's busy with Marcus, and she's staying out of the way so you can be a little more clear today, Bella. Got to stay focused!" Chelsea said. Mostly, Raveena spent her days keeping Marcus sedated, but when she spent time with the rest of us we felt the effects.

"Yeah, I guess." I fidgeted, and Riley took my hands again. I looked into his burgundy eyes as they widened.

"Bella, you'll be fine. I promise. Get the job done, and then we'll all go out and have a celebratory drink. Bella—kick-ass Volturi guard! Watch out Jane!"

We all heard someone approaching in the distance and instantly quieted. A few moments later, Demetri entered and made a beeline for his lover.

As their mouths connected, I shifted awkwardly, trying to focus all of my attention on Chelsea and failing. Chelsea smiled widely and unashamedly watched what they were doing.

No matter how much I saw them both together, I could never be entirely comfortable. It wasn't that it was two men together—it was the shivers of electricity it sent up and down my body.

I was still a virgin, and Demetri teased me mercilessly about it. Apparently, I was the only sexually inexperienced vampire he had ever met.

The truth was that for my first decade in this life, the idea had not even crossed my mind. Now that I was more in control of my thirst, the only new people I encountered were human…and they never survived long enough for me to want to know them on a more personal level. One guy had come close when Chelsea and I had gone hunting in Milan, but in the end, the lure of his blood had overshadowed anything else he had inspired. Humans were just too tasty to consider sleeping with.

Other than my friendships, I felt nothing for no-one. I needed and wanted nothing more.

Finally, Demetri stopped making out with my friend, and with a final peck on the lips, he pulled away.

"Are you ready, Bella? Or do you want to get changed first?" He looked down in disdain at my usual uniform—grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a snug pair of slacks. Demetri was into clothes, in a big way.

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm good to go. I'll just grab my coat on the way."

As I was getting up out of my chair to leave, Chelsea jumped up and hugged me.

"Oh, Bella. Enjoy your mission and come back soon—I'm going to miss you," she whispered into my hair. "But don't be too efficient. I don't want you out on the road all of the time!"

I chuckled.

As I walked out of the room, Riley gave me the thumbs up, and I fell into line behind Demetri. As we passed by my quarters, he paused and gave me time to grab my grey mid-calf length coat with its heavy hood.

I paused at the mirror and observed myself. I was short and slight, but with my red eyes peeking underneath the grey cloth and mahogany curtains of hair framing my face, I could look menacing. I practiced my most impassively arrogant face before turning to join my superior who was still waiting outside.

"You look the part, at least, Bella. Are you looking forward to your first time?" He smirked at me, and I eyeballed him in return. Demetri barely said anything to me unless it was a dig at my sexual inexperience, or frustration at my relative lack of vampire grace while he and Felix unsuccessfully attempted to teach me to fight and defend myself. Eventually, it was given up as impossible.

I was no longer clumsy, but I certainly wasn't as stealthy or deft as your average vampire. Sometimes, how you were in life echoed in eternity.

"I'll let you know when I find out whether it's worth making a fuss over, Demetri."

Demetri smirked even wider. "It's so very nice to be coming along for your initiation. We'll try and be gentle."

We met Felix at the exit, and it felt nice to be out in the warm, Italian night air. Felix and Demetri had to slow down for me as we departed Volterra unseen. Following Demetri, the Italian countryside passed underneath us as we headed towards Budapest. It was the furthest I'd been away from home since I'd awoken as a vampire. I glanced around at the European scenery as it sped past.

As expected, we closed in on the condemned vampire in the center of the city. He was in a small apartment overlooking a square. Demetri took the lead as we walked up the stairs, and as we slowly approached, I raised my shield so it enveloped all of us.

Felix did not seem aware, but Demetri sensed once he was inside my circle and gave a wide smile.

"As we practiced. You know the drill."

"Yes, sir," I replied meekly. Felix punched me in the shoulder in encouragement, and it made a painful cracking sound.

Demetri scowled. "Shhh."

We paused a moment before the friendly giant pushed the door, and it gave way with a crash. He stepped inside and Demetri followed. I kept close, enveloping us all within my shield.

In a dirty, worn armchair, there was a vampire who appeared to be around thirty human years old and in a far less polished state of attire than me and my slick Volturi friends.

"I see you've come back for more. What have you brought this time? I certainly know her talent isn't stealth, as I heard every footstep." He looked directly at me as he spoke. His accent was thick and very eastern European.

Demetri, as the highest ranking Guard member, took the lead. "That is for us to know, and you to find out. You have a choice. Either you come willingly or you die. The choice is yours."

The strange vampire laughed and made no move to get up from his seat. "Can you not remember how I brought the feared Volturi to their knees last time we met? Hurry up, I haven't got all day—let's get this demonstration over and done with. Do your worst."

"Bella, contain him."

I nodded and flung my shield forward, reshaping it so that Demetri and Felix were now on the outside, and the familiar electricity licked over myself and the stranger.

The stranger looked around confused. I felt slight pushes from the inside of my bubble, as if someone was experimentally trying to figure out what it was. There was a sudden expansion around the armchair.

"This is new. What do we have here?"

I kept my focus and spoke to my superiors. "We're both inside, but he can manipulate it a little."

Demetri smiled. "Then we deal with the problem here and now. For your dangerous disregard of the Volturi and their laws, you are hereby sentenced to sudden and immediate dismemberment and burning. Felix."

As Felix approached, the vampire got to his feet and looked around with wide eyes. Without a talent that was of much use in defense, Felix was a formidable opponent.

"I've changed my mind. I'll come with you."

Felix chuckled as his hand grabbed one of the stranger's limbs and tugged. It crumbled away from his body easily. The vampire screamed, but it did not last long as Demetri now had his hands around his head. It joined the unattached arm on the wooden floor, as did his remaining arm, his legs, and his torso.

"Let's go have a bonfire in the woods to celebrate a job well done. Who needs Jane?" Demetri smiled as he picked up some of the body parts; Felix took the rest of the pieces. Standing back, I felt a little unnerved but relieved that the execution had been uneventful. I had just played my part in ending a life, but rationalized it by reminding myself that he was already dead.

We headed out of Budapest and built a small fire. As soon as the vampire appendages were added, the flames jumped higher and sent a purple, ashy plume into the air.

"I need to feed." Felix looked at his friend.

"By all means. We will wait for you here."

Felix needed no more encouragement, and he quickly became a rustle of undergrowth in the distance as he left. I found a fallen tree and sat on it. Demetri remained motionless, staring into the light of the fire.

"That will teach him to be so arrogant in the future." He bent down and picked up a twig, examining it before throwing it on the pyre with the vampire remains. "Remarkably easy, wasn't it?"

"Uh, yeah," I agreed, feeling slightly awkward at being alone with my friend's boyfriend.

"And here I was thinking Chelsea liked you for your conversational skills." Demetri laughed. "You can talk to me. I don't bite—wait a moment. Actually, I do."

The side of my mouth lifted a little. "We all bite. I thought that was the point of the whole vampire thing."

"Now that's more like it, Bella. For a while there, I was thinking you didn't speak to me because you didn't like me."

"No. You're just kind of my boss."

Demetri moved a little closer and sat a few feet away from me on the same tree. "I am, but I'm also a sociable kind of fellow. Riley has told me that you've settled in well."

"Yeah, feels like I've been doing this all my life. I can barely remember what went before. I guess Volterra is where I feel at home."

"It's the same for all of us," Demetri said as he got to his feet again. "I guess Riley is a taste of home for you, too."

"Not really, I only met him moments before you did. Then he helped Victoria tear my boyfriend apart, of course. I'm sure our friendship could have started on a better footing." Maybe it was the experience of my first execution, but I felt an emotional twinge as I remembered Edward's final moments twenty years ago. I shook my head and pushed it back out of mind.

Demetri's mouth curled upwards, but his eyes were serious. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure it could have, but it doesn't seem to have suffered."

We both paused awkwardly for a short while.

"You know, I get a little jealous of you spending so much time with him, Bella."

My eyes snapped up. "What?"

"Please," Demetri's ruby reds rolled at me. "I've seen the way you look at him and how territorial you get when I touch him."

My eyes almost bugged out my head as I registered what Demetri was saying to me. "No…way! We're just friends, I don't—" I gave him a look of total disbelief.

"Bella, I've been around long enough to know lust when it slaps me in the face. You want him."

"I do not want my best friend."

"You do," Demetri said with complete confidence. "Just remember who he belongs to. He's in Volterra because he's mine, so keep your dirty hands off."

For once, my superior looked less than composed, and the intensity in his eyes scared me. After all of my combat lessons, I was well aware of how easily he could overpower me, yet I couldn't contain the bubble of rage building up in me.

"I've never touched him. How dare you accuse me!" I got to my feet.

"Just because you're one of the few people I can't see all of the time, don't think I don't keep tabs on you and see how close you get. I wonder what it is you get up to when you're both in that bubble of yours. Virgin? Please."

I gasped. "I am a virgin. Just because you don't have any morals, don't think that we're all the same as you. I know that you got Chelsea to bind him to you in the beginning. You took away his choice. He wasn't even gay when I first met him."

Demetri suddenly rushed at me and grabbed me by the throat. "You repeat that to no one. He is mine. Don't forget it."

Panicking, I trembled a little as I looked up. Demetri might have a flair for the dramatic, a fine taste in clothes, and a liking for pretty boys, but he was far from soft and feminine. I stared into furious crimson eyes in silence and total submission.

Then, unexpectedly, he kissed me. His mouth moved against mine roughly, and his fingers around my throat softened slightly.

Even more unexpectedly, I kissed him back, unsure of what I was doing or why.

Demetri's other hand pushed against the small of my back, and suddenly my slight form was flush against his cold, hard muscular body. Thrills ran up and down my spine.

He thought he saw something between me and Riley. Maybe it wasn't Riley that made me crackle with electricity?

I put my hands inside his coat and rested them on his waist, before regaining some rational thought and pulling away.

"But you're gay," I groaned, shocking myself with how unfamiliar my wanton voice sounded.

The familiar smirk reappeared. "I'm open-minded. Now come here."

We kissed again, but this time both of our hands began to wander and take liberties. As Demetri's thumb ran over my nipple, I moaned into his mouth. When his hand made a trail up my inner thigh, I all out gasped.

"Innocent Bella, would I be the first?"

I hesitated, unable to form words—partly through nervousness, and partly through my lust haze.

The hand completed its journey, and the sudden fire in my panties burned away any doubt I might have had. "Yes…yes."

Suddenly, my coat was pulled down my arms and laid on the ground. I joined it, still attached to Demetri by the mouth, but he pulled away as he removed his own coat, placing it more carefully over the fallen tree.

Coming back to me, his hand rubbed over my breast and back down to the crotch of my pants. I was powerless to prevent my hips lifting to encourage more contact. Our mouths met again in a heated exchange.

Demetri leaned over me, resting on one hand and beginning to toy with the button and zipper of my slacks with the other. Before long, my pants joined Demetri's coat, along with my panties.

This was much further than I'd ever been, and I felt apprehensive as he found my most private of areas. The delicate sensation of fingers running over my lower lips made me feel weightless. Then suddenly, they were inside me.

"Oh." There was nothing else I could possibly say at that moment, as his hand began to slowly move. It was devastating to my ability to think, and I bit down on my lower lip while he continued.

I whimpered as his fingers suddenly left me, but then realized that Demetri was loosening his pants. My jaw dropped as I saw my first real-life penis. Were they always that big?

Obviously, this pleased Demetri, and he positively beamed as he positioned himself between my thighs. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the unfamiliar body part that was eagerly pointing in my direction.

Fingers rubbed against me, and I felt myself tensing in anticipation.

"Relax—I will be gentle, Bella. This is a first for me, too. I've never had a vampire virgin before."

Our eyes met, and I realized that he mistook my tenseness for hesitation.

"Please…" was all I could manage.

Demetri supported himself with one arm, and continued to toy with the dampened flesh between my legs. I found his mouth but broke the kiss, as suddenly, I was filled. My eyes rolled back in my head at the invaded feeling of flesh inside flesh, before closing so I could concentrate more on other senses.

He slid out and then pushed forward again. This time I expected the overwhelming sensations, and my hands dropped to his firm buttocks.

When my eyes opened, Demetri was looking down at me intensely, his eyes black rather than crimson. His free hand made quick work of the buttons on my shirt, and then found my small breast in its pure white bra, pushing it back so my nipple was exposed.

We said nothing, but the male above me became steadily quicker. Where I moaned, Demetri began to hiss and his thrusts became more urgent. Wanting more contact, I began to push my own hips against his on the in stroke and felt the sting of venom as I bit my lip more firmly.

After what felt like an eternity of pleasure, Demetri froze and cried out. A few seconds later, he collapsed on top of me, and I felt my coat sink into the earth a little further.

I waited, expecting Demetri to climb off, but instead, a hand drifted down our bodies to where we were connected. When it began to gently circle a hidden nub of flesh, I cursed aloud.

Within a minute, it was my turn to gasp and freeze. I lay there in total ecstasy, oblivious to everything unless it was touching me at that moment in time.

Demetri's mouth found my breast, and then he pulled out of my body, sat back on his ankles, and began fastening his trousers. He always looked a little smug, but right now, he was more so than ever.

I sat up and cringed a little when the evidence of what we had just done rushed out of me. "Ew."

"'Ew'?" Demetri smirked. "That isn't the reaction I usually get."

I smiled nervously, strangely self-conscious now that rational thought came flooding back. Demetri got to his feet and held out a hand for me. I accepted it and then set about getting myself into a more decent state of dress.

"How does it feel to be thoroughly initiated into vampire life? Good?"

I tried to speak, but I eventually gave up my awkward stuttering to simply grin. Demetri followed suit.

"This is our little secret. Yes?" He gave me an intent look that warned me not to do anything other than give my assent.

That was when I realized the implications of what I've done.

Riley.

I had just slept with my best friend's boyfriend. The coldness of self-disgust washed over me.

"Bella, you are going to keep this to yourself, aren't you?"

Demetri caught my attention again. By now, he had straightened himself up and looked as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I, on the other hand, had yet to put my pants back on and felt disheveled.

"Um, yeah. Of course."

"Good. Now I suggest you get dressed quickly, because Felix will be back soon." Demetri walked away with his back to me, and I picked up the rest of my clothes.

Felix's first words when he arrived, to find me sitting awkwardly on the fallen tree and Demetri standing stiffly by the fire were, "Bella, what on earth have you done to your coat?"

Both male vampires looked at me intently. I looked down at the muddy garment.

"Uh, I tripped."

Demetri's mouth twitched and Felix guffawed.

"I can quite believe it. The world's only clumsy vampire."

I nodded my head and looked sheepish. My head was elsewhere, as I wondered how on earth I was going to act normal around Riley.

This was one of those times when it would be nice to have a little emotional numbness, and I was keen to get back home to Raveena.