Chapter 6

Placing Isabella in his bed, Stefan gently moved her bruised and swollen hand from her side to get a better look at the damage. Even he could tell she did a number on it and knew it was bound to cause her some issues for the next few weeks at least. Glancing at the door when Radu knocked, he looked back to his beauty and called for him to enter. Once Radu was in the room, Stefan started to give him his orders.

"You know what is to be done with the humans, yes?" At Radu's nod, Stefan continued, "select your fastest and have them go as far away from here as they can before sunrise. They have just over four hours until then. Once they have left, there is going to have to be a deep bleach scrubbing of any and all blood spatter. I am afraid that neither Vladimir nor I were as neat as we could have been."

Nodding, Radu bowed, "Yes My Lord. It shall be done. Is there anything else you require?"

Cocking his head to the side, "Yes actually. Somewhere around here there should be a human aid kit used to treat pains of different calibers. Find it and bring it here. It would seem that my human was somehow injured tonight."

Bowing once again, "Of course My Lord. I will return in a few moments." Waiting for his dismissal, he swept from the room when Stefan waved his hand.

Once the door closed again, Stefan turned his full attention back to his human, a small smile on his lips as he gazed at the peaceful expression on Bella's face, his mind flashing with her reaction once she wakes up and finds her dream was no dream and that she was never again leaving his sight.

Cocking his head to the side, he studied her, getting a closer look at her features. From the distance he was at in Italy he knew that she was the definition of beautiful and womanly perfection. He was able to get nearly on top on her over the night as he watched her attempt to navigate the passageways and catacombs but even with his advanced sight, the flicker of the flame she carried distorted her face and messed up the picture she made. Now however, as she lay in his bed completely unaware of her current observer, he was able to see every tiny pore, the small patch of freckles on her left temple, the scar next to her right eyebrow. Nothing was kept from his sight and every detail he discovered did nothing but make her more perfect in her imperfection.

He was drawn away from his observation by the return of Radu. Moving out of the way and allowing a vampire that had a little more experience with humans and keeping them breathing than he did to tend to his human. Leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, he waited for Radu to finish his inspection and tell him his findings. What Stefan was told, he was not surprised.

"It is broken, My Lord, quite badly from what I can tell. I can reset and splint it, but I am afraid that that might not be enough. Once I hand out assignments to the staff I will make a trip to the clinic and gather what is needed to cast it and something to give her for the pain that this is going to cause her. For now, it is best to keep it iced and immobile to get the swelling down and keep it from being further damaged."

When he grabbed Isabella's wrist to reset it, it caused her to whimper and Stefan to growl at the noise and Radu to gulp at his master's growl. Radu knew that this kind of thing was done after a pain medication was already given, but as there was nothing to give her, he was resigned to the fact that this was going to hurt her and probably lose him an arm or hand because of it.

Glancing at his master a moment, he hoped to convey that there was nothing he could do about this and that he was quite sorry about it. Taking a deep breath, he gripped her forearm above the break and tightened the grip he had on her hand, bit his lip and closed his eyes before pulling them apart to reset the bone into the proper position. The reaction from Isabella was not what he was expecting so he didn't have the time to move and avoid being the target of her getting ill. He had heard that humans were known to be physically sick from a dose of pain, but it was something that he had never seen before. She was not woken up by any means, if anything, this knocked her deeper into her comatose state, but it was disgusting either way.

Shuddering at both the display and smell, he grabbed the first aid kit and got the splint kit and wrapped it around the break before moving a pillow next to her and setting her arm down lightly making sure it was elevated before turning his attention to his smirking master with a sour expression as he stood. "That was the grossest thing I have ever seen."

Stefan chuckled, "You did it to yourself Radu. Even I, who am not one to care about the pain of a human, knew that something like that was bound to occur." Stefan then gave him a sinister smile, "Just be glad she didn't scream for that would have been your head."

Nodding to his master, already knowing that information and grateful himself for that, he looked down at himself with a frown. "The assignments have been handed out and the bodies are currently heading out in different directions; many of them in the direction of the Royal City. They will not be there before sun up, but they will be planted before the time that the humans will be reported missing. The cleaning staff is working to remove both the blood and the scents of the humans from the whole of the grounds. The only one that will never be found besides Miss Bella is the body that was crushed in the barn. There was not enough left of him intact to identify."

Cocking a brow at that, Stefan thought back to the kill and the terms of his bet with his cousin. Vladimir will win if the body was unable to be moved. "Tell me Radu; was the body able to be moved at all?"

Blinking at his master, "I'm sorry My Lord, I don't understand. What body are you referring to?"

"The one that you said was unidentifiable."

He shook his head, "No My Lord. There was no body. It was crushed to nothing. When the crate was moved, some stuck to the floor and some to wood. The only reason we even knew it was a guy was because all the females were accounted for elsewhere."

Pursing his lips, Stefan growled low, "Damn." Waving off the confused look he was getting from Radu, he moved back to Bella's side and sat down next to her and placed his hands on her broken wrist. He figured he was colder than any ice pack and he didn't melt and soak the blankets.

Settling in and getting comfortable, he glanced down at the face of his human again before closing his eyes and tried to figure out the best prize for his cousin considering that he had won their bet, and the best way for Vladimir's prize to piss off and/or annoy Aro.

*X*

Sunlight streaming through the window in the breaking dawn of the morning had Isabella groaning and rolling away from the offending brightness and farther into the covers of the bed she was on. It took her taxed mind all of three seconds to catch up with the events of the night before and she shot up in bed like someone kicked her. Eyes wide, she looked around the room before confusion settled into her still sleep fogged mind. Blinking to clear the grit from her eyes, she drew her bottom lip between her teeth and cocked her head to the side.

It was weird, to her at least, that she was in a room that she had never seen before nor had any memory of going to. But the biggest 'what the fuck' was the lack of fear that she was absolutely certain she should feel if the images that were bombarding her mind's eye were anything to go by; or if not the images then the emotions that went with them sure as hell told her that she should not be all la de da currently but for whatever reason she could not force herself to freak out as she knew she should.

Her already blurry eyes started to sag more and her body felt akin to putty making her sitting position a chore and a half. She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear the cobwebs, but all that did was make her both dizzy and slightly ill feeling. So, it was with a huff of clear annoyance that she slowly lay back down and pressed the heels of her hands in to her eyes.

THAT caught her attention.

Eyes shooting back open, she stated in wide eyed horror at the seemingly innocent purple cast that marred her wrist. Looking from that to the bedside table, she discovered the leftover medical supplies and a vial with a case of syringes. With a slightly raised brow, she reached over and grabbed the vial and nearly choked on her breath.

'Morphine? What the…' "Well that explains a lot actually."

There was a knock on the door that had Bella about jumping out of her skin. Whirling around to face the abused wood, she swallowed hard and actually had to clench her butt cheeks to keep from crapping her pants when the door knob started to turn. And this was no ordinary turning of the knob; this was one of those slow motion, horror movie turns that seemed to take way too long just to get the blood pumping, heart hammering and cause bladder control loss. Had she not been on the verge of messing the bed she was on, she would have called whoever it was an asshole. And the worst part, it didn't end there, oh no. The prick then made sure that the door creaked and groaned the whole way giving her the feeling of a flippin' heart attack before the face of Radu came into view.

Eyes the size of dinner plates and legs tangled in the comforter, Bella scrambled as best she could away from the looming form; and fell off the bed for her troubles. Landing hard with a thump and scream, she ripped herself free of the restraining cloth and bolted to her feet to continue her escape, tripping over everything that got in her way.

Radu walked towards her with a face of concern mixed with amusement and for every one step he took, she took two. When she found herself trapped, she pressed as close to the wall as she could. She tried to keep her voice level and calm but even she could hear the fear and tremble in it.

"Stati inapoi." When Radu kept coming towards her, her voice rose but didn't sound any braver, "Vorbesc serios, lasă-mă în pace nenorocit."

Shaking his head, Radu tried to reason with the petrified girl but doubted it would do much good. "You need to calm yourself mea Doamna. I am not trying to hurt you but you on the other hand, might have further injured your wrist with that stunt."

Glaring at the still advancing man, Bella gathered every last ounce of courage she had and looked him in the eye, "I'll scream rape, I swear to god I will."

Radu stopped in his tracks not knowing if she would actually keep that promise and not really wanting to find out. It was not the screaming that bothered him, though it would hurt his ears, it was the accusation reaching the ear of his master that stilled his feet. There was not a creature within fifty miles of the palace that was unaware that this human belonged to Lord Stefan and not a single one of them wanted to be on THAT vampire's bad side, Radu included.

With that conclusion drawn, he stopped about half way across the room and nodded, "Alright Miss Bella. I'll stay back."

Swallowing hard, she nodded, "Okay. Now what is going on? Where are my friends?"

Radu cocked a brow at her, "Your who? My Lady, when you arrived yesterday you were by yourself. There was no one with you."

She shook her head, "No, that's not right. I was with twenty others."

He tilted his head to the side, "That, I am afraid is not possible. I am the tour guide here, as you know, and I never had a group that big come yesterday. The largest one was the one you were in, but that was only twelve, not twenty-one."

Shaking her head harder, "NO DAMN IT. I was with my mythology class. You invited us to stay here last night for a vampire hunt game thing."

Radu snorted, "Perhaps you hit your head harder than we first thought. My Lady, this palace is old and not in the type of shape to inhabit. There is very little left that can support even the normal tours we do so to invite anyone to spend the night would have been most unwise and very unhealthy."

It was at that point that Bella had enough. Stomping her foot, "I didn't hit my fucking head you asshat! The only thing I hit was my wrist and it was in the tunnel system after I dropped the torch." Looking around the room, "Where's my stuff? I'll fucking prove it." The confused look she was receiving didn't leave a happy feeling in her gut. Face flushing a dark red as all the blood that had drained from it came rushing back, "You LOST my stuff?"

The smirk on his face was an indication of what was coming but it was no less shocking. "I have no idea what stuff you are referring to. You had nothing with you when you came in."

Glaring at him but not able to argue the point because she didn't, she crossed her arms as her temper flared even more at his blasé attitude. "I remember you being WAY nicer last night." Looking around again, she tried to figure out what was going on when she put her hand in her back pocket and found a folded up piece of paper. Pulling it out, a smirk of her own appeared on her face. "Tell me, if last night didn't happen like I thought and like you claim, then how do I have this?"

Holding up the diagram of the secret passage system, her smirk grew all the more when she saw the shock pass through Radu's eyes. She watched his mouth open and close a few times and saw his eyes flying all over the place and look everywhere but at her. Just as she was about to tell him not to lie to her, someone beat her to it.

"Yes Radu, if the events of last night didn't occur, how did she come to possess such damning evidence to the contrary?"

Eyes flying to the open door, they grew to comical size when she once again came face to face with the man from Italy, the statue in the main chambers AND the son of a bitch that dropped her dead teacher. Gulping and deflating all at once, a very disturbing sound came from the pit of her throat. He was leaning casually with his arms and ankles crossed on the door jam, his mouth morphed into a twisted and slightly sinister smirk and his bright ruby red eyes locked on her.

Bella looked at him, eyes wide and confused, "you."

The smirk on his face grew, pleasure flashing in his eyes as he bowed his head, "Stefan ce Mare at your service My Dear." Glancing at his servant, he jerked his head back, "Out."

Bowing and doing just that, Radu left the confused human and his master to their own devices and avoided the coming scolding for scaring the girl. Once Radu was gone, Stefan entered the room and sat down on a chair that was close, but still had a bit of distance, to his human that was still plastered to the wall following his every move.

Once he was seated he nodded to a chair that was across from him, "Have a seat."

Bella just blinked at him but didn't move a muscle.

Shrugging a shoulder at her, "Suit yourself but you would be more comfortable I should think."

There was another knock on the door and Stefan called them to enter. A servant opened the door and brought in a tray of tea and a light meal that had Bella's mouth watering and stomach growling quietly. After she set the tray down and left the room, Stefan glanced at his human. He didn't truly relish the idea of forcing her compliance, but if she remained as stubborn as she was, he would do so and couldn't find an ounce of himself to feel bad about it.

Bella looked at the tray and then at the man she knew was supposed to be dead and shivered before licking her lips and tried to speak, "What's going on?"

Lacing his fingers together, Stefan simply looked at her but said nothing for a long moment. When he did, it was not to answer her question. Instead he pointed to the chair again, "Surely you must be hungry. I can hear your stomach from here so do not bother to deny it. Sit, eat; we can discuss your situation once you are finished as it is not going to change between now and then."

Swallowing hard, Bella blinked and licked her lips again. "I, um, don't think I can eat no matter how hungry I am thanks. If it's all the same to you I would really like to know what the fuck is going on."

Locking his eyes with hers, "It is not. This is not a choice you get to make. You will sit or I will make you."

Glancing around the room to gauge her chances of escape and coming to the conclusion that she really didn't have a choice, she slowly moved from her position to the indicated chair. Once she was seated she crossed her arms over her chest and pulled her knees up so she was curled into the smallest ball she was able to get into. Looking at the man over her knees, she relaxed a tad when he sat back in his seat again. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and kinda squeaky, "Please, just tell me what the hell is going on. Where are my friends?"

Stefan cocked his head to the side, "do you not remember finding them scattered across the palace and grounds? Perhaps you put it out of your mind and forced yourself to believe it was all a dream but I assure you, you did see me kill that sniveling excuse of a male human last night, Mr. Nelsen I believe you called him." Then he chuckled, "well among other things."

A tear breaking free of her eye as she looked at the man across from her, Bella said nothing for a few moments as that settled in her brain. "Why didn't you kill me, too? What is going to happen to me?"

Drumming his fingers together, he looked at her a long moment before answering that. "I am not fully decided on that as of yet. All I have to say at the moment is I hope you like these chambers because you are going to be here for a long, long time."

Choking on her tongue at that, she stuttered, "You can't just keep me here!"

Smiling a smile that was anything but nice, Stefan chuckled again, "I assure you there is very little I cannot do and even less you can to stop me."

Openly crying but not blubbering, she shouted, "But why?"

Stefan just shrugged, "Because I want to. I need no other reason than that."

Jumping to her feet, "The fuck you don't!"

Smirking at her and flashing his teeth as he did, "I don't. You are miles from anything resembling law enforcement, you are a foreigner and this is my territory. There is no one within hundreds of miles that would lift a finger if I didn't say they could. Simply put My Dear, you now belong to me for as long as I deem it so and there is truly absolutely nothing that you can do about it. You became mine the moment I saw you in Italy and will remain so for a very long time."

Bella shook her head, "I don't think so. I don't belong to anyone and certainly not you."

Slowly standing up and moving in measured paces towards her, Stefan forced her to lock eyes with him. Once her deep brown eyes were focused on his red ones, he spoke, his voice soft and soothing, "I beg to differ Mea Pereche." Lifting a hand and taking a strand of hair between his fingers, Stefan tilted his head to the side. "It is not a question of you belonging to me because I promise you, you do. No my delightful little morsel, the question is what it is I plan to do with you."

Blinking and licking her suddenly dry lips, "And what's that?"

Smiling at her, he tisked, "Well, I have come up with two options. The first is I keep you here, hide you away from the world until you outgrow your usefulness to me or you die, whichever comes first. However, as I have every intention of keeping you far longer than your life would allow, the second option is the far more likely one."

Sniffling more she asked, "And what's that?"

Using his free hand, Stefan slid it around her waist and placed his hand on the small of her back pulling her body closer to his. Bending his head down and running his nose along Bella's jaw line he whispered, "I sink my teeth into your neck, kill you and keep you here, by my side for eternity." Smirking into Bella's flesh when she whimpered, he scraped his teeth across the skin of her throat leaving welts but not breaking skin and tightened his grip on her when her knees gave out from under her.

Bella was in a fog, in a dark cloud that threatened to consume her. She wanted with everything she had to push away from the ice cold form that held her in a lover's embrace but she was powerless to do so. She wanted to but knew it was not going to happen. She was terrified, petrified really, and was sure that her heart was going to explode.

Looking up at him through her lashes, her voice soft and pleading, "Please don't do this."

Looking down at her Stefan simply smiled, "but don't you see dragă inimă, I already have. By the time anyone even notices you're gone, it will be far too late to do anything about it."

Bella shook her head and closed her eyes, "No, my father would never stop looking for me."

Smile turning darker and eyes lighting with anticipation, "for his sake as well as your own, I certainly hope he does. For mine however, I do so hope your right. With as wonderful as your blood smells my dear, I hungrily await the chance to sample it aged since that will be a pleasure that I will miss out on with you."

With there being a little distance between her and Stefan, Bella was able to think as well as better understand what was being said and that, coupled with the previous statement, she tried to stop the question, but as always, her mouth ran away from her. "I don't understand."

Flashing his teeth one last time, Stefan smirked, a chuckle that was reminiscent of the one in Italy sounded in the room causing a shiver to travel her spine. Looking down his nose, his eyes going dark in both bloodlust and the other kind, he spoke in a voice that would never in a million years be described as nice, "You will Pereche, very soon."

Standing there pressed to the icy chest of her captor, the next question was near silent, only Stefan's hearing was what gave it life. "What are you?"

His brow vanishing into his hairline, Stefan snorted softly, "It is not nearly as much fun if I TELL you that. Besides, I already know you know the answer to that Isabella. I heard you both in Italy AND in the throne room draw the proper conclusion. It will simply take you time to come to terms with it and embrace the truth." Dipping his head down so their noses were touching, his lips brushing hers with his every word, "you found yourself in an… interesting situation."

Biting her bottom lip nearly hard enough to draw blood, she had to swallow the moan that tried to claw its way up her throat. She might have been terrified of this man, for reasons that she thought were pretty clear, but he was still fuckhot and she was still undeniably attracted to him, but that was for reasons unknown. He was not really all that nice, he was a murderer and to top it off he was bat shit crazy. She had enough crazy when she was with Edward and REALLY didn't want to deal with another nutcase but that seemed to be all she could attract; besides Mike but that ship sailed if the blank baby blues really were his last night. But if she really thought about him, he wasn't all that stable either.

Closing her eyes to the pitch black orbs that were pushing down on her brain and cutting off thought, she tried to think of how the hell she was getting out of this alive. She couldn't make a lick of sense of this situation. She couldn't understand how someone that was born AND died over six hundred years ago was alive and holding her like this guy was. She couldn't grasp the concept that he seems convinced that she already did. She knew what she said in both places but the sheer unbelievability of the existence of vampires was at an all-time high even though she had SEEN the proof in the pudding; the blood on his lips and chin, the chunk missing from her teacher's throat. It all pointed to that conclusion but she refused to believe it. Refused to even consider that he was anything but a crazy fuckhot nut job.

Reopening her eyes, she gasped when the previously black eyes were back to the scary bright ruby red. She was of the opinion that the red eyes were far creepier and was surprised to find she preferred the black. Blinking at the abrupt change, Bella licked her now throbbingly painful lip before taking a deep breath. Her voice was not as strong as she would have liked it, but really, she didn't think she was to blame for that; "You can't keep me here, I won't let you."

Stefan chuckled, "I didn't assume you would My Dear. I actually look forward to the entertainment that is sure to come." Stepping away from her, he crossed his arms and looked in her eyes, "Just remember this one piece of advice won't you; all myth and legends were born from truth but nothing is above evolution."