A/N: Thanks for the follows, favourites and reviews :). And to reply 1avidfan's question, yes the romance will be between Bella and Demetri! And what is HEA?
~.~
Chapter 4
She stared at the checklist of dangerous vampires that Seth had made. A black quill in hand, she drew a small cross beside Joel's name.
The warg was to be eliminated by Demetri.
She slid the tip of the quill down to the second name. Amelia – waist-length auburn hair, a heart-shaped face, full lips and approximately five and a half feet tall. She should be easy to spot. Amelia apparently had the power to paralyse. According to Jacob, her powers functioned like an electrical circuit. Contact was required between Amelia and her victims in order for the effect to set in. If the victims happened to be in contact with one another, Amelia could paralyse them all with a single touch. The effect would fade when the contact ended.
Bella sighed. She was nasty.
The third one had no name yet. According to his description, the unknown vampire had dark hair, an aquiline nose, and thin lips. He would be difficult to spot. Apparently, Leah had fallen victim to his frighteningly realistic illusions. Victims of this vampire were awarded front-row seats to the HD screening of their deepest, darkest nightmares, making him an unusually difficult opponent to face.
Bella thanked the heavens for her mental shield. The last thing she wanted was to witness Edward's death a second time.
The fourth one was an Asian male vampire who could manipulate weather elements. The shifters didn't know much about this one either, having only caught a glimpse of him once. Would her shield be any use against such a gift?
The fifth vampire went by the name Aaron. Embry had overheard a conversation regarding his abilities. It had to do with reflections, but this in itself was too ambiguous to work with.
"It'll be great if you can just, you know, hunt them all down," Bella groaned, tapping her quill against the marble table. "They're all quite OP."
Demetri was in deep concentration, his eyes frozen on the world map right before him. He was probably running through the battle strategy he'd planned out with the Generals a while ago. He looked sharp today, irresistible even, in his dark suit. She could almost picture him as a dashing Hella highborn, sipping tea elegantly in a Byzantine-style ballroom (probably surrounded by coquettish noble girls vying for his attention).
"Hello," Bella snapped her fingers in front of his still face. "Did you even hear me?"
"I did," Demetri replied. "But am I supposed to know what this 'OP' is?"
Seth laughed. Anything that came out of Demetri's mouth sounded classy, even some thrash gaming term like OP. Like the rest of the Volturi, he spoke in a sophisticated manner - his enunciation faultless, his cadence measured. The Volturi had refused to adopt the lazy speech habits of the millennials, preferring to cling to 19th-century verbal expressions.
To Bella's amusement and Demetri's displeasure, Seth began imitating Demetri's careful elocution. It was a rather disastrous attempt. When Bella laughed, Seth grinned and returned to his lazy millennial speech. "OP means overpowered, like a gaming term. But you're Demetri, aren't you? Aren't you supposed to be OP too?"
Bella's brows knitted into a frown. "You know of Demetri too?"
Seth rolled his eyes. "Duh, who doesn't?" Wiggling closer to Demetri, he added in a gossipy way, "Heard that you single-handedly took down eight vampires at once."
Demetri glanced at him incredulously. "The most I have ever engaged is six at once."
That was news to Bella. "Are you better than Felix?" She wanted to know. Was that even possible?
Her question was buried by Seth's sudden outburst. "Man, six?" He practically yelled. "Bloodsuckers are – "
At Bella and Demetri's identical unamused expressions, he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, you guys are hella difficult to kill. So… I guess that's what earned you your reputation." He dug his pants pockets for his mobile phone. "Jacob is going to kill me for this, buuuuut can we take a selfie?"
Demetri looked like he wanted to be anywhere but taking a selfie with an ultra-hyper fourteen-year-old shapeshifter who smelt like wet dog. He probably regretted letting Seth live. Even if it was for the information.
"May I… politely decline?" Seth's eyes transitioned from pleading to straight-out downcast. Sighing, Demetri unclenched his hand and held it out to receive Seth's phone. "For the record," Demetri bit out. "I do not quite comprehend your request."
"I think you're cool," Seth shrugged, his tone matter-of-fact. "I know, you're a vampire. I'm supposed to hate you. But how many people can actually say that they've met the renowned Volturi Assassin? If I show them this picture, they'll be like "oooh"."
Bella glared at Seth, feeling slightly jealous. She had saved him, and now he suddenly liked Demetri more? Would he be such a fanboy if he knew the depth of Demetri's manipulations; that Demetri had initially imprisoned him to torment and control her?
"Shit," Seth said after fumbling with his pockets for moment. "I think it must've fallen off me when I shifted into a wolf." He shot Bella an imploring gaze. "Bella, do you happen to have a phone that I can borrow?"
She did not. She hadn't bothered to replace her phone in the aftermath of Victoria's battle because she'd had literally no one to contact anymore.
"Nope," She said smugly. "I guess you can't take your selfie then."
She couldn't help herself. Demetri really brought out the worst in her, whether it be hatred or jealousy.
Demetri's eyes sparkled with the promise of a challenge. To her bewilderment, he pulled out a sleek black IPhone 7 from his trousers pocket. She gawked at the realization that his phone was a model up from hers. Hers had been an IPhone 6!
"On the contrary," He announced, casting devilish smile in her direction. "We can take that selfie."
"You have… an IPhone 7?" Bella's questioned in disbelief. She rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing it right.
Amusement flashed across Demetri's face. "Do you expect us to be troglodytes just because we are centuries old? We live in the present, not the past. You will find that the wifi here is inordinately fast."
It was hard to believe they lived in the present when they literally lived in an anachronistic mansion fashioned after Imperial Rome.
"But who do you even text?" She wondered aloud. "Caius? He must be a great texting buddy."
She almost chortled at the absurd thought of Caius texting anyone.
Demetri raised an eyebrow, clearly unappreciative of her sarcasm. "You are not wrong. I text Felix, Aro, Jane and occasionally Heidi. It is easier to communicate this way. We have a Volturi group chat too."
"A Volturi group chat?" Bella exclaimed. The Vampire Mafia actually had a group chat? "Do you guys talk about who to kill on it? Or is more for collating meal orders?"
Initially, he seemed positively exasperated at her histrionics, but he got over it quickly, irritation phasing into something more predacious in nature.
Before he could reply, Seth interrupted him. "Guys!" Seth prompted impatiently. "Are we going to take that selfie?"
Demetri switched the home-screen to camera mode, jumping slightly when he saw himself on the camera's screen. Bella giggled as he held the phone up hesitantly. Though he was an expert at texting, he sure did not know how to take a selfie.
She snatched the phone from his grip. "This is a bad angle." She postulated. "Come, let me hold it."
He had been holding the phone at double-chin-angle, and although it was virtually impossible to have a double chin as a vampire, it was an instinct of hers to hold the camera slightly higher, its lenses tilted downwards. She smiled at the result. They looked gorgeous.
"Is this a ploy to include yourself in our photo?" Demetri ribbed.
Bella's smile evaporated like alcohol in the wind. She gave him the evil-eye. Before she could argue that it was her that'd made the photo infinitely better (literally and metaphorically), Seth beat her to it.
"I want her in it too," He insisted, before tapping her shoulder incessantly. "Okay, you can take one, Bella! 1, 2, 3… Cheese!"
She pressed the button on Seth's cue, before flipping back to inspect the photo. As usual, she looked beautiful, otherworldly even; easily a model off Vogue's cover page. She moved on to Seth; he looked like a jubilant little boy, his arms wrapped tightly around her. Demetri, on the other hand, had not smiled, but as she'd expected, his angular features made for stunning photography. Despite the terrible lighting, the shadows that spilled over his face further emphasized his high cheekbones and chiseled jawline. It was a pity that he barely took pictures.
"Thanks!" Seth grinned like a kid when he received the IPhone from Bella. He inspected the selfie like how a child would inspect a new toy. Seemingly content with it, he handed it back to Demetri. "Send this to me when I get a new phone, please!" He instructed, before again directing a pressing question on his mind to Demetri.
"So… like Bella said, since you're so OP, can't you just wipe out all these OP vampires?"
Demetri raised an eyebrow. He was clearly of Greek descent, but English was still his second language, and Seth had essentially butchered it with his uncultured abbreviations and glaring lack of diction.
"Well, I am no match for an army," He explained; his eloquent, euphonious explanation a stark contrast to Seth's graceless short forms. "Since – according to your packmates, most of these vampires barely stray from the encampment, I cannot hunt them down without alerting an entire army."
Seth nodded. "Oh yeah, they'll probably smell us from miles away. Good thing Joel travels far out for his animals. Can't wait to kill him."
"Demetri is going to kill him," Bella corrected him. "You, on the other hand, will stay very far away from Joel. What if he possesses you again?"
Demetri will have no qualms killing you.
Seth shook his head stubbornly. "He can only possess me when he is in contact with me. And when he is in contact with me, I will kill him."
"You will stay far away from him!"
"I will not stand by idly!"
"You will! There are other battles you can partake in, but not this one!"
"What if I asked you to stay away from Victoria?" Seth exclaimed exasperatedly, eyes blazing with defiance. "Joel's possession killed a brother of mine! Your revenge and my revenge are the same! Can't you understand me?"
With that, he left the room abruptly, leaving her with no time to rebut that.
She could, she wanted to reply. She could understand him more than well.
But after losing so many loved ones, she only wanted him to be safe.
Couldn't he understand that?
~.~
As Felix had instructed, Bella tailed a rapidly flitting Guard with her shield as she sparred with Santiago. She was getting better at multi-tasking – something she had struggled with in the beginning.
It was starting to feel almost natural.
She blocked Santiago's blow with practiced ease, before returning one of her own. Unfortunately, he caught her arm and she winced as he tossed her over his head like a sack of potatoes. He was strong, Bella noted, but not as strong as Felix. Felix's strength was rather imposing, and Bella often depended on her speed to bypass his blows. To meet them would be suicide. Both, however, had an aggressive style of combat, a stark contrast to Demetri's poised, graceful movements. She had once observed him sparring with Felix. He had moved like a lioness stalking its prey; his manoeuvres self-assured, fluid, unpredictable, his limbs coiled like a spring with suppressed aggression. It had been alluring to watch him dance his prey to his death.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. There was no time to think of him now. Refusing to let go of Santiago's arm, she kicked the ground, using the momentum to flip herself over him again. The element of surprise on her side, she wheeled her body downwards, slamming both her feet into his abdominal area, sending him barrelling backwards. Her landing was not as graceful as she had anticipated, but she managed to recover quickly.
So did Santiago.
These Volturi Guards were like machines. Killing machines.
He was up in a millisecond and flying at her in the next. She dodged him deftly, before ducking to avoid another blow of his. She was on the defensive, again. It was becoming a norm when she sparred with the Guards.
Santiago's next blow hit his mark, the immense impact sending her sprawling on the marble floor. She rolled over before he could finish her with a kick, and this pattern continued until she found an opening – an opening to trip him. He stumbled backwards, and she used this moment to recover, jumping to her feet, arms facing forward – just in time to block his next blow.
When it came to brute force, he was unrivaled by all except Felix. She could not hold her own against his blows. Was there no other way?
She ducked and rolled aside, just in time to avoid an overhead punch. The momentum of his punch propelled him forward like a bullet, but he recovered quickly, snapping his body around to face her again.
He recovered quickly.
But slower than before.
He was slowing down. He was tiring. He was muscular in physique and his stamina was not as great as hers.
She would outlast him.
She ran rings around him, dodging; feinting; refusing to meet him head on. Santiago's attacks grew more aggressive; more reckless; more thoughtless as the battle stretched on. He was impatient – she could see it in his eyes. He wanted to this to end quickly. In his eyes, she was a weak newborn.
This was taking longer than he had expected.
And this thought was making him careless.
She finally struck. She jumped, grasping the statue's marble arrow shaft like a lifeline. She kicked Santiago in the face, and he stumbled backwards, dazed, before recovering once more and flitting towards her at maximum speed. She smiled. Bait, meet target. She swung her body forward – over him, before landing soundlessly behind him.
Immediately, she turned and flew at him. His back still faced her. Don't turn, don't turn, don't turn…
He didn't turn. At least, not in time. Too slow.
Utilizing the momentum from her run, she kicked his back, and this sent him sprawling face first on the concrete floor. The Calacatta marble floor splintered beneath his weight, severing the gold-grey veins that meandered through its body.
She mounted her victim's fallen form, hands curled tightly around his neck like a chain. Adrenalin surged through her veins. Was this how it felt like to be powerful? To hold a person's life in the palms of her hands? His soul throbbed for mercy beneath her touch.
She had won.
Her first victory.
And it was disturbingly satisfying.
A slow clap resounded from above. Bella looked up, only to be greeted by two dark silhouettes scrutinizing her from the balustrade above.
Felix and Demetri.
Felix stilled mid-clap. "So I lost the bet," He admitted, his expression rueful. "Who would have guessed?"
"You made a bet on this battle?" Bella frowned. Her tone developed a more accusing edge. "You betted against me?"
"Yes," He said sheepishly, side-glancing Demetri. "Frankly speaking, your odds were close to zero. Do not take it personally – Santiago is literally twice your size, after all."
She studied her victim's hulking, thickset physique and the circlets muscles that bunched up around his biceps as he struggled to stand. Comparing this to her petite maiden frame; her lack of experience and… who would bet on her?
Demetri stared at her for the longest time, and Bella chanced upon an unidentified emotion she could not quite put her finger on. Did he think her weak too?
He had told her to 'shed her weakness', so clearly, he did as well.
Finally, Demetri turned away, and smiled. It was beguiling, and Bella found it difficult to look away.
"As discussed, your lunch is forfeit," He simply told Felix. "That fleshy American tourist you received from Heidi today – he is mine."
She was stunned into silence.
Despite the odds, Demetri had betted on her.
~.~
The Big Ben's famous striking clock struck twice, its sleepy gongs reverberating through the streets of London, signalling the beginning of a new hour. Besides the street urchins that stirred every now and then in their sleep, the city had seemingly been lulled into an eternal slumber.
Shadowy silhouettes appeared to pour from the night sky like soot, striking the brick-paved streets soundlessly. They darted across the deserted ally with feline subtlety, swiftly surrounding two figures – one hunched over the other – in a clearly executed formation. Their hoods fell from their faces, revealing a circle of menacing red-eyes glowing in the inky darkness.
One of the two figures stood, and Bella noticed that he donned a leather jacket and ripped jeans. He looked like a typical college student – handsome even, if not for his striking scarlet eyes that currently swiveled around in alarm. He seemed familiar, and it took Bella a moment to realize why.
He was one of Victoria's henchman. One of her favourites. But she could not remember his name.
"You must know who we are," Aro whispered, his voice dark and foreboding. His lips curled into an eerie smile. "You must know that it is over."
Victoria's henchman took a halting step backwards, before lunging at Aro without warning. He stalled midway, his body appearing to go into a state of septic shock as he crumbled to the ground. Inky, serpentine veins strained underneath the epidermis of his neck, threatening to burst free. A dense mist wreathed the inner circle, it's black tendrils devouring the victim, numbing his senses, rendering him incapable of escaping. Felix broke the circle and slammed the much-smaller victim against the red-brick-wall, holding him captive as Aro bent down and grasped his hand.
Aro's eyes sparkled with understanding. He unclasped his hand from the victim's.
"Riley Biers," Aro cooed. "Victoria's little army recruiter. He selects and gathers potential humans for her newborn army. In fact, we have been lucky to catch him in the act itself."
All vampires turned to the second figure who Demetri had incapacitated. The adolescent girl appeared to be unconscious, the mouth-watering scent of blood wafting off her and ambushing Bella's senses. Bella bit her lip, fighting to establish control over her limbs. This girl was still human but judging from the multiple bite-marks that decorated her jugular and upper body, Bella guessed that it would not be long before the change occurred.
"Bring her over, my dear," Aro said. Demetri did as he was told, carrying the girl's petite body to Riley's side.
Aro placed a hand underneath her delicate chin. He angled her chin upwards, tsking at the blood that dribbled out of the poorly made incisions.
"A poor little street urchin that Riley found, feasting on thrash behind a restaurant," He murmured. "A human whose disappearance will attract little notice - a perfect candidate for Victoria's army." Sighing dramatically, Aro pressed a spindly, pale finger against her open jugular wound. More blood gushed out like a tiny waterfall. "Pity. His botched attempt to change her though… will leave her dead within a few hours."
He gradually increased the pressure of his thumb against her exposed neck, eventually snapping it like a twig.
Aro stood, his hands clasped together in delight, turning to face Demetri. "My dear Demetri, you sought out Riley's essence through the shifter's mind," He said smoothly. "Riley has changed three more in this city alone, and he intended to return to them before our unsuspecting arrival. Unlike this girl, they may live. With no masters to control them, these newborns will run amok and inspire suspicion in all who lay eyes upon them. Seek them out through Riley's mind, and hunt them down –
Kill them all on sight."
Demetri inclined his head in crisp acknowledgement. Irradiated by the eerie glow of a nearby street lamp, he bore an uncanny resemblance to a grim reaper.
Aro raised a single hand as he strolled from the scene, and a grisly ripping sound echoed in the silent night.
~.~
The wives of the Volturi leaders were nowhere in sight, and so were the lower ranking members of the Guard. Bella presumed that this was a meeting between the Volturi leaders, which made her feel extremely out of place. She did not even don the darker shade cloaks of the elite, or a dark cloak for that matter.
She was only here courtesy of her potent shield. That, and perhaps because she had been the one to suggest the skeletal strategy which they were currently working on.
This meeting was particularly boring. It felt like an ordinary day of lessons, and Bella had never been an attentive student.
She certainly wasn't attentive now. She had spent the last hour casting her dome-shaped shield over the leaders, mulling over her newfound ability to feel their presence around her without having to look. It was intriguing – certainly more intriguing than their discussion.
All she had gathered from their two-hour discussion was that: the Volturi intended to secure more alliances, Jane was to identify and incarcerate the 'dangerous vampires' on sight, and Felix and Santiago were to take them out simultaneously. Aro had also shared snippets of Victoria's plan (that he'd viewed in Riley's mind). Victoria hadn't divulged many secrets to Riley, but they had managed to confirm the Quileute wolves' intended involvement and had also learnt that Victoria's battle plan was hinged upon bringing Bella down first, thus dismantling the Volturi's impenetrable mental shield, allowing her gifted newborns leeway to debilitate them.
Marcus had insisted that Demetri was to protect her at all times. She was to be guarded, like a valuable asset, at all costs.
Her shield had made her a wanted vampire. She wouldn't be surprised if Victoria had put a bounty on her head.
~.~
Even with her eyes shut, she could distinguish each and every individual scent of the vampires in the clearing; discern their differing footfall patterns as they sparred; taste the dewy petrichor on her lips. She opened her eyes, drinking in the courtyard of spectacular opulence. An archaic fountain stood in the center of an enclosed garden bursting with lush greenery and flora. Carrara marble tiles encircled the the garden, providing for a spacious training ground.
Just another attestation to the Volturi's extravagant lives.
A russet-coloured Mexican wolf the size of a car ambled halfway down the pristine white staircase, plopping its huge head on her lap. It turned its snout to the side, sensitive nose twitching, and if wolves could look guilty, Seth certainly did.
Bella smiled. It was Seth's way of apologizing to her. He'd probably felt bad walking out on her mid-conversation.
She ruffled his soft fur. "Aw c'mon, it's my fault too," Bella sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't try and put myself in your shoes."
Seth made a gentle scuffling sound with his oversized paws. He was telling her that it was okay.
She expanded her shield to include Seth, basking in his presence as her hands smoothed his coat affectionately. I will always protect you, she promised in her mind. Victoria will not take you, or any of my friends away from me, ever again.
"Well, well, well," Felix's voice echoed behind her. "Could it be, that physical combat has seduced you, like it has me? Even after your training hours, you sit facing the courtyard watching the Guards train."
She twisted back, smiling when she saw Felix. Felix was a friendly face that she was happy to see – and this was not a common occurrence amongst the Guard.
"I need to get better, Felix," She explained. "And it helps to observe others sparring."
"Well at this rate," He joked. "Should I expect to have my ass handed to me in a week's time?"
"Even if I had centuries," Bella replied truthfully. "I still don't think that's possible." Felix was far better than Santiago. He was literally the vampiric hulk.
Felix winked. "Even if? Oh Bella, you do have centuries now! So you can do some planning: perhaps three centuries to beat me, and another three to beat Demetri."
"Demetri is better than you?" Bella asked in disbelief. She liked the idea of beating Demetri, but six centuries was far too long a wait.
Both vampires turned to appreciate Demetri's fluid movements, its grace and beauty further accentuated by the soft glow of the overhanging crescent moon. He was moving diamond, alluring, yet adamantine. He was currently busy with training a Guard named Afton, who didn't seem very skilled at all. If Afton had caught Aro's attention, Bella guessed that he must have had a very powerful gift.
"Well, Bella," Felix answered her question with another. "Have you seen a gladiator fight?"
"What does that have to do with my question?" Bella demanded. When Felix beckoned for her to reply, she scoffed. "No, of course not. I'm born in the 21st century."
Felix grinned cattily and pointed at Demetri's perfect form. "Well, now you have seen one."
It took a second for his response to register in her brain. Confusion blossomed in her cerebrum. How was this possible?
Her meagre history knowledge contradicted what Felix had just revealed to her. The last known gladiatorial fight had occurred around 400 AD, if Bella had remembered correctly. Demetri couldn't be that old!
"So he's… more than 1000 years old?" Bella queried, her head rearing back in shock. That was crazy old; old enough to have watched empires flourish and fade, to have seen generations come and go. As an ageless constant in an incredibly dynamic world, he'd probably bore witness to gargantuan changes that'd shaped the world as it was today.
Most major world events were merely history to her, but to him, perhaps they were distant memories.
"Yes. He was born sometime in 100 AD. That makes him almost as old as the AD timeline."
"But... I always thought he was a highborn," Bella admitted, thoroughly shocked to the core. "I guess I was wrong. But still…" She observed his regal features and stiff, kingly stature from afar. "He has those noble airs about him. And his fighting style is so… dainty. How could a slave learn to fight in that manner?"
Felix smiled at her disbelief. "Who told you that an upper-class patrician could not fight as a gladiator? Your history teacher?"
Bella's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Why would a nobleman want to fight as a gladiator? Did he fight for honour and glory; a patrician eager to demonstrate his mighty warrior pedigree? Her grip on Seth's fur tightened. Was Seth hearing this? Perhaps he could add this to his endless list of gossips regarding Demetri.
Before she could bombard Felix with more questions, she was distracted by a commotion that had erupted in the courtyard.
She immediately caught on to the source of the commotion. An ordinary pigeon circled above them, eyes flashing a dangerous red.
It was the warg, Joel. He was here to spy.
Realizing that its cover had been blown, the pigeon attempted to flee in Bella's direction. But before Bella could take off after it, an ornate wrought-steel dagger buried itself into the pigeon's tiny body, sending it plummeting twenty-metres to the ground.
Its bloodied carcass beckoned Bella forward, and she moved closer to inspect the strange dagger. The intricate inscriptions that decorated its length were faded, but still slightly visible. It must have been a beautiful dagger in the past.
Her stomach rumbled – she was a little hungry. The smell of pigeon blood was overwhelming; venom pooled at her fangs.
Thoughtlessly, she lowered herself to take a bite out of the juicy pigeon.
"You would devour our sole evidence?" Demetri's smooth voice stopped her cold.
Right. The pigeon. Joel. The dagger. She sighed. It had been weeks since she had been changed, but when the thirst took over, all she knew was blood and prey.
Santiago's massive shadow loomed overhead. She looked up, properly chagrined. The other vampires had gathered around her, and there was no doubt that they had witnessed her utter lack of control.
In a single callous stroke, Demetri retrieved his dagger from the dead pigeon. Blood and sinew coated its blade like a gory wrapper. Bella couldn't help but notice that the blade looked quite at home in his hands. Vampires never used weapons – their durable bodies shattered almost all kinds of weapons. And yet, here stood Demetri, an expert marksman with a dagger. Bella could imagine that he was equally familiar with swords, javelins and spears.
Felix had not lied. Demetri had been a skilled fighter in his lifetime and judging from his practiced ease whilst wielding the dagger, he'd been a good one at that. Perhaps he had been a gladiator, a patrician, or maybe even both, but one thing was certain: he had been a killer.
This was a man who had been as dangerous in his lifetime as he was in his death.
Said dangerous man turned to Santiago, who happened to be right beside him.
"Per favore, pulisci il pavimento," He requested in fluent Italian.
Santiago nodded. "Si," He agreed. His heavily accented English was difficult to follow. "It shall be done."
Demetri mirrored his nod, his expression dire. "And I shall inform Aro immediately."
He was off and up the spiral stairs in a blink of an eye, his black cape billowing wildly behind him. Bella's eyes remained trained on him until he disappeared completely from her view.
There was so much about him that she did not know.
And it scared her that she wanted to know more.
Was she… drawn to a killer?