Chapter Nine: Rome Wasn't Built In A Day – and Neither Was Our Relationship


I suddenly bolted upright. "Well, I feel stupid."

"What about now?"

Jane squawked even though the pillow I threw at her head missed by several feet. Damn her quick reflexes.

"You really need to work on your aim," she admonished me, righting the phoenix trophy Renee had given me for my twelfth birthday. At the time I'd been going through a bird phase, even though I was terrified of birds. Make of that what you will.

"No one asked you, Janie," I said, sticking out my tongue. She hated the nickname, which meant that I adored it, naturally.

"Continue," she said, waving a magnanimous hand.

I rolled my eyes and lay down beside her on my bed, pushing aside my favorite stuffed animal, Pinkie. "I feel stupid because we could've totally bypassed the whole flying-to-Italy thing."

"Oh?" Usually when I said oh, it meant I had no idea what was happening. But when Jane said oh, it meant she was waiting for an explanation because something crazy had just come out of my mouth.

"Jane," I said, staring her straight in the eye, "I can teleport."

She tilted her head. "I'm so glad you've discovered this on your own."

I smacked her arm, which only meant there'd be a bruise on my palm later. At least there was a possibility she'd kiss it better. "No, I mean – why did we fly? I could've just teleported us to Volterra and back! Do you know how much time we could've saved?"

"Bella –"

"Twenty-four hours!" I hollered, growing agitated. "Twenty-four hours of time! That's a whole day, Jane! Do you understand what this means?"

"You think we wasted a day of our lives?" she asked patiently.

"Yes!" I pumped my fist in the air. "Yes, that's exactly what it means! How did we not see this before? I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I know that well enough, but Jane, you're hundreds of years old! What else have you been doing if not thinking these things through?" For a second, I wondered if I was forgetting something important, but then I swatted it aside.

"I'm not sure whether I should be insulted or not," she said thoughtfully, "but regardless, did you consider that I had already thought the situation through and decided we should avoid teleporting?"

This gave me pause. I had not, in fact, considered that possibility.

She nodded as if I'd spoken aloud. "Right. And did you think to ask me instead of berating me in a loud, unfriendly voice?"

I grumbled and turned away from her.

"What was that?"

I sighed. "No, I didn't think to ask you, Jane."

"That's what I thought."

She's too smug for her own good, I thought, annoyed. That's going to hamper her later in life. Probably when she hit her three-thousandth birthday.

"Now," she continued, gently rolling me over so that we faced each other, "why would I want us to avoid teleporting in and out of Volterra?"

It took me a second, but finally – "Oh, now I really feel stupid." I had totally, totally forgotten the reason for keeping my teleportation secret. Who forgot something so major? Me, that's who. My memory was total shit.

Jane tried to wrap her arms around me as I covered my face. "Stop it, Bella, you're not stupid and you're not thoughtless. You're just…overthinking things a bit, that's all. C'mon, now."

I allowed her to pull my hands off my face so she could fully wrap her arms around me. Despite her stony exterior, Jane was really skilled in the art of cuddling. It was just another of her many conflicting personality traits.

"If Aro finds out about your teleportation ability, he'll try to exploit it, Bella. He'll do everything in his considerable power to make you stay in Volterra, and that doesn't exclude turning you into a vampire to keep you by his side. To him, such a skill is invaluable. Vampires are fast, but not that fast," she added.

"But can I still do it?" I asked, afraid of the answer. It hadn't occurred to me that "keeping it secret" included doing so not only in Volterra but my life here.

"Teleport?" At my nod, Jane sighed. "Yes, but you must be careful now, Bella. Every time you decide to pop up or disappear somewhere, you need to really consider the consequences. Is it that important that you teleport, or can you walk? Do you really need to go, or can it wait?"

"Wait for when? Vampires are immortal, apparently, so I'll be waiting until I'm dead. What's the use of this power if I can't even use it?" Grumpily, I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted. It wasn't fair. None of this was fair. I hadn't asked to be in possession of this awesome ability, but now that I was, it just so happened I couldn't even use it? What kind of nonsense was that?

"I meant wait as in until you get your license, but I see your point," Jane said with a thoughtful frown. "We just have to play it safe, okay, dearest?"

How could I stay mad when she used a nickname like that? "Okay."

"Don't sound so despondent," she chided, nudging me with her elbow. I squirmed a little at the pressure – she was often unaware of her own strength, but that wasn't her fault. I mean, not really. Well… Nevermind.

"When will your mother be home?"

I shrugged. "Whenever. She doesn't exactly stick to one schedule."

"Well," Jane said, with a sly smile that made goosebumps rise on my arms, "we can do anything your little heart desires until she returns. How does that sound?"

"Much better." Restored to my former cheerfulness, I sat up straight and leaned down to peck Jane's cheek. She moved her head so that my lips met hers, and an explosion of warmth blossomed in my chest and spread throughout my whole body.

"Your hair is so blonde," I said breathlessly. "It's truly like angel's hair." At her sudden glare, I added, "Not that you're an angel, of course, because you're the complete opposite. That's not to say you don't have the beauty of an angel, but maybe a beauty that's a little twisted, but in a good way, obviously –"

"Bella," Jane said, a finger pressed to my lips, "hush."

Wordlessly, I nodded.

After a silent moment, I asked suddenly, "Are you leaving?"

"Not unless you desire it."

I shook my head. "That's not really what I meant. Like, are you leaving for good?"

Jane tilted her head, considering. "No. You're my soulmate. I've searched centuries for you. Never would I leave you now that I've finally found you. Unless, as I said, you desired it." She turned her gaze to the ceiling. "But even then, I'd be…very reluctant. I might not be able to stay away, despite myself. Or your wishes."

"But if you stay… Which," I added hurriedly, in case she thought I didn't want her to, "is entirely up to you and of course I don't want you to go anywhere else, but…" I licked my lips. "Where will you live? There's no way you already own a house around here. We're at the corner of Bumfucktown between Nowhere and Unimportant, USA, if you hadn't noticed." I took a moment to admire my wit. "Will you rent an apartment or a condo or something?" Then I gasped in alarm. "You won't kill anyone and start living in their house, will you?"

Jane laughed. "No, Bella, of course not. That's far too conspicuous." She seemed to study me, but I hoped not too closely. After all, she hadn't expressly said she wouldn't kill someone. That was worrying. "Being a vampire, I can move exceptionally fast. When I stalk prey, I am so quiet even the sharpest ears on earth will not hear me coming. Nothing can catch me, even most other vampires." She smiled then, her incisors sharp and white.

I was still hung up on the word "prey" and its connotations as pertaining to people. Real, live, red-blooded humans. I swallowed.

"I can tell this talk of my nature upsets you," she added, as if reading my mind, "so we'll drop it. For now."

"I'm not totally upset by your nature. After all, I'm still here, right? I haven't run screaming from the room yet." I shot her a cheeky grin to let her know I was joking. Mostly. "I don't mind that you're a…vampire. So you're fast and quiet and strong. So what?" I breathed in deep through my nose. "It's just the…feeding part. The fact that you "hunt" people like me. Humans. That's just a tough idea to wrap my head around, you know?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do know." Then, quieter, "Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, Bella. Rarely do I receive such honesty, and never from my own kind. It is refreshing to hear the truth."

"Well, we're soulmates, Janie," I teased, secretly touched. This girl knew just how to make me all teary-eyed. "If we can't trust each other, the term kinda loses its meaning, right?" I grinned at her, square teeth and all. She could be so goshdarn serious sometimes. It was sort of cute, to be honest.

Then I had a brilliant idea.

"Wait," I said, holding up both hands like a traffic cop. "Hold everything."

Jane waited, amusement plain on her face.

"You're super quiet, right?"

"More than you know," she replied dryly.

"Well, why don't you stay here? With me!" This idea was so clear to me, so obvious, that I almost smacked myself upside the head for not thinking of it sooner. I mean, really, Isabella? Where's your brain?!

"In your house?" Jane asked dubiously.

"Duh! Yes, in my house! My mother will never know you're here, and that's not just because you're silent as an…umm… Well, an animal that's quiet," I finished lamely. "It's because Renee's never around anyway. Probably messing with another pool boy somewhere. That fancy swim club, I bet. A lot of college boys work there…"

Jane snapped her fingers in front of my face, and the sound was like a slap against wet concrete. Loud and jarring. "Focus, Bella."

I jumped and shook my head. "Right. Anyway!" I turned big, pleading, puppy-dog eyes on my soulmate. "Please stay here. No one will know. There's not a neighbor around for more than four hundred feet!" Was that a far distance? It sounded like it, but what did I know? I wasn't a mathematician, for Chrissake. "Besides, how else will I get to know you if you're far away?"

Jane studied me thoughtfully. "I do not see –"

"You can even sleep here!" I blurted enthusiastically. Whew. Been wanting to get that off my chest since this conversation started. But wait, was that too obvious? "I mean sleep as in –"

Jane blinked and said, "Bella, dear, I'm a vampire, remember?"

I deflated a little. "Oh, you don't sleep. Forgot."

"It's perfectly okay. I can still…rest…in your bed, though. If you'd like," she added with a mischievous smirk.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Rest, yeah, sure. You'll probably do something creepy, like watch me or hope I talk in my sleep so you can discover all my dirty secrets."

"Do you have dirty secrets?"

I licked my lips. "Uh…" She grinned, and I smacked her hand. Ow. Bruise later. "None of your business!" I finally said, with a confidence I didn't feel. As if any denial I ever made could fool her.

"I do have one question," she said, rolling onto her stomach and propping her chin in her hands, eyes flashing a deep red. Talk about adorable. Lethally adorable, but still adorable.

Then her question registered, and all thoughts of adorableness flew from my mind. "No, I've never kissed a boy, even though I did think about it a bunch of times, okay, which, in retrospect, only makes me more confused because –" I blinked. "Wait, what were you gonna say?"

She stared. "I have no idea why you were saying what you were saying. I want to know about the lightning."

"The lightning?" I repeated, perplexed. I'd have sworn this conversation was moving in the direction of past relationships. Don't ask me why I thought that, but I definitely assumed that's where we were going with this.

"The lightning," she confirmed, startling me out of my thoughts.

Uh-oh. I'd lost the thread of the conversation again. Nervously, I plucked at the fraying hem of my shirt.

Jane sighed after a full thirty-second pause. "Did you forget what we were talking about already?"

I nodded sheepishly.

"Oh, Bella," she said, and pulled me down beside her. We cuddled close together, face-to-face. "You are a handful, you know that?"

"By handful do you mean full of hands? Because let me tell you, my hands are all over the place lately." As if to prove my point, I ran a finger down Jane's icy-cold neck and let my other hand play with her hair, even though it made me nervous. Did she like that kind of thing? Was I pushing it? Since when did I become the sort of person to worry about stupid, flirty touching? Since when did I participate in flirty anything?

What was happening to me?

"This is so bizarre," I said, snuggling closer to Jane and snatching Pinkie before he fell off the bed.

"What, that you're lying in bed next to a bloodthirsty, pain-talented vampire who also happens to be your soulmate?"

"Well, that," I said, throwing her a dirty look, "but also…us. We barely know each other, but we've already gone off to Italy on a spur-of-the-moment trip and spent every minute of the past two days together. I've never been this close to anybody. Not even Renee. Except," I amended, "maybe in the womb. Maybe," I stressed, because who could know for sure?

"Did you know, Rome wasn't built in a day," Jane said, staring me right in the eye. Actually kind of intimidating, to be honest. "And this relationship won't be either. Even though we are soulmates, it is going to take some time to get to know each other. We don't just realize we are meant to be together and then POOF! Know everything there is to know. Time is something I've become well-acquainted with, mi amore, and I am not afraid of waiting."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. But like I said, it's bizarre. We're soulmates, but I don't feel too connected to you. I mean, I do, deep down inside, if you wanna go that far, but the surface details are kinda sketchy, you know?"

"Then why don't you start by telling me about this lightning business."

I stared at Jane as Jane stared innocently back at me.

"Was this entire conversation a way for you to circle back to the mysterious lightning thing?"

"Of course not."

We stared at each other some more, neither of us willing to yield.

"Bella –"

"I don't believe you."

She frowned. "Bella, that is not why I said all those things. I meant every word. It just so happens that whatever the lightning did to you is important. Don't you agree we should try to discover the truth?"

I shrugged. "What truth? I was struck by a lightning bolt that came out of a wormhole in the sky and apparently hit me and gave me special teleportation abilities. What's confusing about that?" Honestly, I didn't see why this was a big deal.

"Where did the wormhole come from? Was it part of a thunderstorm or was it a weird, unnatural occurrence? Why teleportation? Why not some other unique ability?"

I was ready for that last one. "Well, lightning's fast, right? It strikes, disappears, then strikes somewhere else. Teleportation means I can appear and disappear at will. It's sorta the same thing, right?" It made sense in my mind, at least.

Jane studied me intently. "You might be on to something there."

"I better be. That's the only likely explanation." I shifted so that we lay shoulder to shoulder, Pinkie nestled in the crook of my one elbow. His trunk was frayed from so much use, but he still gave me as much comfort now as when I'd first gotten him nine years ago.

"I am sure there are other explanations, but I agree," Jane said, ever the pragmatist.

"Can we stop talking about it now? I get that you want to know all the gory details, but I'm over it. I mean, it's done. I can teleport, and that's that. I just wonder how long it'll last," I added under my breath, forgetting about Jane's extrasensory abilities.

"Maybe until tomorrow. Maybe next year. Or a decade from now. Maybe forever."

I shook my head viciously. "Nope, no way. Forever is too long."

Jane was silent, and I realized why a second too late.

"Oh, no. Jane, I didn't – That's not what – I mean, I –" Stuttering, stumbling, I tried to find the words to fix this. I was no good at these types of conversations, the kind that required depth and emotion and the expression of something not often spoken of. The ominous L word.

"It's okay, Bella," Jane said. She seemed…not quite exasperated. More like weary. "I know what you meant."

Unsatisfied, I leaned forward so that my face hovered above hers. "I'm not tired of you, Jane, I don't think I could ever tire of you, so please don't think that." Did I look as desperate as I sounded?

"Bella," Jane said with a light laugh, and cupped her hands around my face. "Please. You have not offended me. Forever is too long. I do not disagree with you on that. But," she added, eyes searching mine, "sometimes, if you find the right person, forever may just be long enough."

Part of me hoped to see for myself.

And part of me wondered if forever was just too long – period.


I hope y'all enjoyed this latest installment! As always, let me know what you think!