Another short, sweet outtake, enjoy!


Lily

Paris, 1976

"Darling, you know I cannot deny you anything, but we cannot stay in Paris for more than a handful of days. I just brought us a lovely little villa in a quaint town in Greece for us. You'll love it there."

I rolled my eyes at Étienne's words, as I reminded myself to struggle with my large suitcase as we exited the train station in the presence of the few humans milling about at the late hour. I have not been home for almost ten years, not since the night he turned me and changed my life forever. I should be angry and bitter because my life was robbed, but I simply cannot be upset. While the last decade has been very different from what my human self would have expected, I am happy. I have a man who loves me as deeply as I love him and all eternity in front of me!

Being out of my beloved hometown is another story altogether. My parents were dead; I lost three of my brothers in the war, and my sister married a German and moved to Germany shortly after their wedding. I was close with some of the nurses I worked with, but I am most likely a distance memory to the people who knew me. People in Paris went missing all the time; my disappearance would not have caused much of a stir at all. We could have easily been back sooner, instead of returning now.

"Don't worry. It's not like I am going to make a trip to the market in the middle of the day and eat the people! I just miss home that's all," I replied, quickening my steps in a hurry to make it to the hotel. We told Bella that we would call her as soon as we arrived in Paris. It has been a few months since we last spoke and I missed her.

If Étienne was the love of my life, she had become the sister I never knew I wanted. Having been born the eldest of five kids, I had always envied those who had fewer or no siblings at all. Bella and I became the fastest of friends, and I learned as much about this new world from her as I did from my mate. She very patient during the first few months after my change, calmly weathering the storm of my turbulent mood swings. Letting me stay in her room for days on end when I hated Étienne for "killing me," as I saw it back then. Ignoring the insults I hurled at her mentally when I found out that I would never have privacy around her because of her gift. For that first year as a newborn, Bella was the only person I truly trusted, even if I was brat around her.

"We can talk about it once we're at Le Meurice and have talked to Bella. Let's take the back streets, so we don't have to walk so painfully slow."

Within a few minutes, we were at the hotel and checked in. Bella loved this place, having all but purchased a suite of rooms that were more an apartment than a hotel room. I sighed with pleasure as I kicked off my heels and lay across the giant bed that took up most of the bedroom.

As Étienne settled in, I started to think about how differently her situation was to mine, especially in regards to her maker. "Do you think she has found Gregorio? It has been a long time since she's seen him. What if he doesn't want to see her and she's alone there?"

"I never had a relationship with my sire," he replied. "Once I was awake, he taught me how to feed, told me never to expose myself to humans and left. I never saw him again. Bella's maker seemed to care for her—much like a father cares for a child—so I think if she finds him that he would be relieved to see her."

I nodded, although a part of me, a very selfish part admittedly, didn't want their reunion to go smoothly. What if it did and Bella never returned to live with us? I shook the thought out of my head, glad that she wasn't here to hear them. To distract myself, I opened Bella's closets, hanging up my clothes, thankful to see them out of a suitcase after weeks of travel. At the very back of her closet was a bundle of leather-bound books, her journals. She left them behind when she moved to America!

Grabbing them, I spun to show them to Étienne. "She left them here to leave the past behind, good for her. If you're done snooping, I'll try to ring through to the States to talk to our girl."

I tucked the diaries back in the closet, deciding that I would take them with me when we left. I wished I had kept a diary as meticulously as Bella did as a human. Through the words on those pages, she had a direct link to her human past while mine faded away. She was smart to sneak into my apartment the night I was changed and bring my diary, but the entries were few and far between to be of any use to me. From what I read, I lived a practical, but boring life.

After a few unsuccessful tries, Étiennemanaged to get through to Bella and we were talking away happily. In the months between our chats, she had been quite busy in her search. Finding Gregorio had turned out not as easy as she initially thought, and the constant searching was weighing her down.

"So where are you now?" I asked, so I can pin on my map the places in America she has been to so far. I'd like to visit there someday, but the thought of being trapped on a plane for hours wasn't something I wanted to do yet.

"In Seattle," Bella replied. "It's in the Pacific Northwest area of the country. I just got here a few days ago from camping my way up from the South."

"The Southern part of America is full of reckless vampires," Étienne chimed in, "I remember hearing about the Southern vampire wars, and the Volturi going in and killing a slew of them because their behavior was boarding on exposure."

Bella laughed, stating that some vampires there had apparently not learned their lessons. I was glad to hear that she was far away from such a place. We spoke a little while longer, with her promising to inform us of any changes or updates. I really wanted to ask her when she was going to come home but decided against it. We ended the call shortly after that; we only had a few hours of darkness left; I was hungry and wanted to hunt before being locked all day indoors.

As Étienne and I rushed out into the night, I recalled that we never did get around to discussing Greece. Walking in step beside him, I caught the scent of two humans less than a mile away. As venom flooded my mouth, I pushed back any thoughts of Greece as we gave chase.


Author's Note:

Working on the next full chapter, but it's very likely that an outtake will be posted next again instead of a full chapter. As always, thanks for reading :D