BPOV
Things did seem better in the morning. I woke up quite early still cradled in Marcus' arms. That alone caused a small revelation for me as to the power of this bond between us. It had been so long since I felt comfortable even touching someone else and yet it felt so nice for Marcus to just hold me. Even his rather intimidating size now seemed comfortable and protective rather than completely terrifying. To be honest it was a little daunting how quickly my attitude towards vampires had changed. Yet they were so accepting, even with my clear multitude of issues. Heck they had been more welcoming and kind than most humans I had dealt with since the onset of my symptoms.
Sometime in the night someone had brought Athenodora's promised shoes. There were three pair but the ones I ended up choosing for the day were a cross between running shoes and hiking boots in a dusty purple shade. They looked sturdy, comfortable, practical and waterproof; made by Columbia, a brand I had seen quite a lot of back in Forks. I silently thanked Athenodora's insistence on getting me shoes as these are ones I would have chosen for myself if I had the money.
After Marcus left to change for the day, I took a quick shower and got ready as well. Soon after Marcus came back and we relocated to his study where I am now. Someone who's name I didn't catch, had just dropped by with food for me (pancakes with a creamy lemon sauce- yum). Marcus seemed completely unaffected by the smell of the food thankfully, and was doing paperwork at his desk while I sat on a loveseat in front of the fire. The quiet between us was peaceful and comfortable; I appreciated that greatly after the hectic year and a half in Seattle. I'm just about finished eating when I hear Aro's voice through the entry door. He soon bursts through it and his words stop me cold.
"Marcus we've chosen a section of the guard to see to the situation with the newborns Isabella mentioned. I wanted to see what you thought but I believe we shall have them start where Isabella was living at the time, Forks."
I'm fairly sure it is the increase in my heart rate that causes Aro to finally notice me over by the crackling fire but he does then turning to see me with a cheery "Good morning, Isabella dear."
I'm sure my eyes are wide with fear but I force myself to say the next words out of my mouth, I just cannot contemplate the possible deaths that would be on my hands if I do not.
"Forgive my saying this," I barely whisper, "but sending vampires to Forks is a very bad idea."
Aro blinks at me in surprise an eyebrow quirked slightly and Marcus has a slight furrow on his forehead as the look towards me. "Why so dearest, the possible presence of the newborns?" Marcus asks me. I slowly shake my head no, taking a deep breath before responding. I seriously don't know how they are going to react.
"You know that Native American tribe I mentioned? The one who's legends I figured out the existence of vampires from?"
Both nod their heads, Aro giving me a gesture to continue. "Well it turns out that the tribe has a gene that is activated when vampires are nearby. Their teenagers and young adults start turning into werewolves to protect them."
The two vampires before me completely freeze over. It is as though all life has been sucked from them and they are inanimate objects made by a highly talented sculptor. Then they both seem to spring to life at once.
"WEREWOLVES!" Marcus bellows standing up forcefully from his chair fists clenched and anchored on his desk. I flinch back in my chair as Aro seems to be furiously whispering to Marcus as he firmly grabs his brother's shoulder squeezing so tightly that I can hear small cracks form in his flesh. The unpleasant sound causes me to flinch again and close my eyes. This revelation has not gone over well to say the least.
"Isabella, we are not angry with you, just the fact that some children of the Moon still exist. Didyme died at the hands of werewolves and the insanity of their species has caused many incidences of near exposure to the human population many times over the years. We had thought them wiped out for more than a century now."
"Oh, well, I'm fairly sure they've been like this for at least four generations," I state timidly before something Aro said registers.
"What do you mean by insanity? The pack isn't insane; moody sure but most teenagers are."
"You have met them Isabella? They are not out of their human minds?" Aro questions.
I shake my head slowly. "No. I… after my father died I moved in with his closest friend for a while. His son and I were friends for a time and he was part of the pack. Quick to anger but you could still reason with him. Mostly."
Marcus makes a sound of distress somewhere between a moan and a huff of disbelief placing his head in his hands. Aro distractedly pats him on the shoulder just as Caius bursts through the door causing me to startle again.
"What is this about Werewolves?" he demands of Aro. I can see this conversation going downhill fast and so quickly take a Xanax while Aro seems to be speaking to both Caius and Marcus above my hearing level. Soon Caius has a face that resembles stone as he sits stiffly beside Marcus. Aro then turns back to me.
"What do you know of their transformation, Isabella? These do not sound as though they have the same temperament as the Werewolves we have met before."
I swallow thickly thinking that this is a description that is not too painful to provide.
"Umm well they are normal until a vampire or vampires come into range and stay there for a period of time. They will suddenly have a shorter temper before they will become sick with a fever. I'm not sure how many days it takes because the elders are so secretive about it, but eventually they bulk up and grow like crazy. There isn't one of them when they are in human form afterwards that is under six feet. Mostly it's the boys that change but for the first time one of the older girls of the tribe changed while I lived there. Like a real wolf pack they have a hierarchy. One leads and his word is law to the rest. When they first shift they get angry easily and shift on a hair trigger but mostly the others try to keep the new wolves in line. Umm, they can change at will and in wolf form look like normal wolves about four times the regular size. You can tell individuals apart by their colouring, but they keep their personalities. Jake- the boy who I lived with along with Billy his father- said that when the pack shifted that the wolves hear everything that the others think at all times. That there isn't much privacy between them, but that it makes going after vampires much easier. And, well, I brought them up because the entire Quileute tribe isn't just afraid or bias against vampires- they hold a deep loathing for them, especially red eyed ones."
Aro nods glancing at his brothers while Marcus gets up from his desk before moving to sit next to me on the loveseat seemingly calmer than before. I cannot help flinching slightly as he grasps my hand but he ignores it before kissing my forehead reverently. "I am not cross with you my Bella, and I apologize for yelling. I should not have done so in your presence but your revelation set me aback and to hear that you could have been in such danger…" he trails off and I nod my head in acceptance at him. Werewolves don't like vampires and vampires don't like werewolves, why am I not surprised. Aro picks up where he left off.
"It sounds to us dear, that these are different beings than the Children of the Moon we are familiar with. More like a shifter than our traditional werewolf. The wolves we have encountered are truly insane and are completely controlled by the moon's pull. They do not look like one of nature's creations having features of both man and beast and they tend to completely destroy or infect all that come in contact with them. Isabella can you tell us why these Quileute's despise vampires so?"
I shiver but resolve myself to speak about it at least in vague detail, gripping Marcus' hand tighter. He seemingly is over his anger and runs his fingers over my knuckles soothingly.
"When I was there last they had lost over half their pack due to newborns led by a vampire named Victoria. She was determined to torture and kill me because the coven I was with destroyed her mate after he thought I would make a fun game to hunt. But it wasn't just the wolves that died. People were going missing from the town itself, and later during the thick of it all one of the imprint's children was killed along with some of the elders," I explain looking at my new shoes with high interest feeling tears as they start to flow down my cheeks.
"What is an imprint, my Bella?" Marcus asks me softly pulling me closer to lean against his side.
"An imprint I suppose is like a vampire mate," I say sniffling slightly as I use my sleeve to wipe the tears from my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye I see Aro flinch at my apparent lack of manners. Oops. "The elders always said that they were the perfect match for the wolf, that they see the imprint and their entire world view shifts. Jake, he explained it as though gravity wasn't the force that held them to the earth anymore, that instead it was that person. It doesn't matter the age or the gender, the wolf then becomes anything that person needs. Quil imprinted on Claire who was only about two years old at the time. At first the entire pack was worried, heck I still am disturbed by it to be honest, but they insisted that as Claire really only needed someone to protect her and play with her and that that is what Quil became, a playmate and babysitter. It's strange though because the wolf form doesn't seem to connect with the imprint automatically. Emily was Sam the Alpha's imprint. He was newly phasing at the time and they got into an argument. He shifted too close and lashed out at her. She almost died, and the claw scars across her face stayed with her until she was killed."
"Was Victoria destroyed, Isabella?" Aro inquires seriously. I nod quickly trying not to think about it too clearly.
"Yes, about four of the wolves eventually surrounded her and tore her to pieces. One of them lit her on fire soon afterwards," I answer. Silence lingers for a moment before Marcus speaks again.
"They made you leave didn't they sweet?" he questions lowly and I close my eyes trying to stem the flow of my tears as I nod.
"I understand though," I croak out, "The imprint's child that died, she was only five. Victoria killed her in front of me slowly as a way to torture me. I couldn't stop her, I begged her to do what she wanted to me instead but she refused. She said she was enjoying my pain too much, and no matter how I struggled she wouldn't leave the little girl alone. I was supposed to watch her, to protect her; she was such a sweet little girl but I just couldn't stop it!" I'm slightly hysterical by this point. My sobs shake my body and I can hear the screams of Lianya in my head.
I soon find myself in Marcus' lap again, him stroking my head that lays on his shoulder as he holds my waist with one arm.
"You are human, my Bella. There was nothing you could do against an angry vampire. No conceivable way that you could have done anything to change this Victoria's mind. The coven you were with is to blame for this. Any vampire worth the venom in their veins knows you always destroy both halves of a bonded pair."
I gasp to stifle a sob as I say "I don't think they knew. The hunter James came with another male Laurent, along with Victoria. They may have just thought they were a small coven." I'm not trying to defend them, but I still find it hard to possibly accept that they knew and still left me.
I jump slightly in Marcus' arms as another hand softly touches my back before slowly running up and down my spine. Turning my head I see Aro sitting in my previous spot upon the loveseat. Surprisingly it is Caius that speaks next.
"It does not matter. If you destroy a vampire you kill off the coven too. We are wrathful creatures by nature and to not clean up any possible connections to the being you've destroyed screams of sloth and stupidity. As though they are asking for revenge."
I shiver at Caius' words and cry into the cloth of Marcus' shirt. I thought I had come to terms about them leaving me long ago but it seems it can still rip me open the more I think about it. That I meant so little to them that they would leave me in a situation where at least some of them knew could be deadly for me.
"What was the reason the Quileutes used to force you to leave Isabella?" Aro questions his hand never pausing.
"Lianya, the little girl was the daughter of Jacob's imprint. Jacob became the next Alpha after Sam died and Jake couldn't deal with the anger and grief that he himself had along with that of his imprint and the rest of the pack. They, I, some of the surviving wolves helped pack me up and dropped me off in Seattle the next day to escape Jacob's anger. I lived there ever since. But that is why you can't send the guard to Forks. They'll be hunting down any vampire that sets foot within 20 miles of the reservation now."
Aro nods once sharply in reply. "Thank-you Isabella for informing us of this pack. You have saved us much grief and possibly the lives of some of our guard members. For now we will leave the Quileutes be, as the newborns are the most pressing concern- especially if this Victoria was their sire. Hopefully we will have no reason to confront these wolves in the future, if they truly are just defending their people and do not meddle in Vampire affairs than they are of no concern to us." I nod slightly in understanding though I feel a growl and vibration from Marcus' chest, followed by a hiss of distaste from Caius' direction. Both seem to agree to Aro's decision however so I don't say anything merely move slightly deeper into Marcus' arms.
"Come Aro," Caius suddenly states gruffly. "We need to choose more discrete members of the guard for this and you've caused Isabella and our brother enough grief for one morning." He then swiftly stands and leaves out the study door. Aro chuckles lightly patting me gently on the back as I blink at where Caius just left.
"Caius must like you, dear," he exclaims teasingly. "Have Marcus show you some of the gardens Isabella, when you wish to go outside; they are quite lovely. Keep your chin up." He hen too stands briefly squeezing Marcus' nearby knee before striding out the study door.
"My Bella, you have thus far managed to stir the family up more than we have been stirred in over two centuries. Things are certainly not boring with you are they dearest?" Marcus teases me lightly.
I giggled wetly. "I would like to point out that trouble is usually waiting for me when I arrive, and that really I am just awful at hiding from it."
"There waiting for you, sweet?"
I nod in confirmation. "Yep, like Caius at the table in the restaurant. I got randomly assigned to that section then bam; there he was sitting there all startlingly pale and blond with dissolving contacts. Or the werewolf pack, I moved to Forks to live with my dad, then poof vampires and werewolves and rain all the damn time."
Marcus laughed a little nudging my temple with his nose. "So not only do you require someone to open doors for you dearest, you need an advance guard? My Bella, are you trying to compete with Athenodora for being high maintenance? I can guarantee you won't be able to match her level of skill quite yet with her centuries of practice nor Sulpicia who when she wishes is a near match."
I playfully try to shove his shoulder (an attempt that fails of course). "I would bet that those doors have been here since before I was born, thus they were here waiting for me with all their difficult handling issues. In addition, I pretty much raised my mother, and my dad couldn't cook or clean to save his life. I was paying bills by the time I was eight, made all the meals by nine and balanced the household budget by ten; therefore I am fairly sure I qualify as low-maintenance. At least when trouble isn't stalking me," I began teasingly then ended slightly defensive. I have been responsible my entire life as Renee moved out of Forks before I was even a toddler.
"I did not mean to offend you, dearest," Marcus says to me softly. I shrug a little leaning my head on his shoulder again.
"It's fine, you didn't. I just, I've been responsible my entire life. I've given up a lot, especially for my mother to do what she wanted. She was what one would describe as flighty and high maintenance, so to think I am like her in that way is disconcerting I suppose."
Marcus tips up my chin so that I meet his eyes. "You are not unreliable Isabella. I have not known you long, but I can tell quite easily that you are trustworthy and dependable. That you brought up your dealings with the Quileute tribe causing yourself distress and not knowing how we would react to help us just this morning easily shows me this. In addition, it has been a bit of a joke for years with Sulpicia and Athenodora about their ability to get my brothers to do what they wish. Plus, with how young you are sweet it is difficult to truly understand the era I was born in and those I have lived through. I am firmly of the belief that women are to be protected and doted upon. I enjoy caring for you, and I have not truly enjoyed tasks for centuries.
I am not faulting you for being attractive to danger and misfortune. If anything, it will provide me with a never ending challenge, which when you manage to live as long as I have, is quite refreshing. Now, Aro mentioned the gardens which have just begun to bloom. Would you like to see them?"
I smile shyly, nodding. "It would be nice to go outside."
AN: Thank-you again to all of my reviewers, you truly are what got me through the last of my exams and projects as well as this chapter! For some reason this one was difficult to write. So I'm sorry it's on the short side but I figure an update is better than nothing. Not to mention I think a bunch of stuff happens in this chapter so hopefully that makes up for it.
Also as so many of you enjoyed the Alexandria addition I'm planning on more little historical tidbits as I loved writing the last one and so many of you were awesomely positive about it!
As always reviews, comments and questions are welcomed! (I'm a chatty person by nature so please don't hesitate to contact me!)
P.S. I've now increased the rating on this to M. Not that the violence is too graphic in this chapter but I'm hoping from here on out to slowly increase the intensity of stuff and I want to be safe.
