Chapter 10

Again, Nan brought the human…Beatrice…back to her apartment.

Looking faint, Bea sagged into the chair while Nan brought her some tea. Made to perfection, I may add.

"Here," said Nan, thrusting the packet of cookies towards the human. "Eat."

She nibbled like a small mammal and the newly-washed Nan watched appreciatively from the confines of a fluffy dressing-gown. As humans went, Beatrice wasn't a bad one to have really. She was quite sweet.

Nan smirked.

"That's two nights in a row I've brought you back here under the cover of darkness," she chuckled. "The neighbours will start to talk."

Bea raised her little eyebrow questioningly. Why would they do that?

Nan was a little surprised.

"You know…" she shrugged one shoulder towards Bea suggestively. "Two women…spending their evenings together…Spiriting each other away from their husbands…"

Bea still looked blank.

"You've had a rather sheltered life, haven't you?" smirked Nan.

It wasn't really a question.

"I grew up on a farm in Ohio," nodded Bea. "And then when I was nineteen I was married and we moved here a few years ago but…I don't really go out too much, only to meetings."

Bea looked down. She looked sad.

"And…you don't like him?" asked Nan carefully, bothering to notice things about the human.

Bea shrugged.

"He's…" she sighed, her beautiful eyes filling with tears. "Well, no, I don't."

Nan looked on sympathetically.

"I could…have a word with him," she offered.

Bea shook her head fiercely.

"No, that…that's quite alright," she sniffled, wanting to stop that idea in it's tracks as soon as possible.

"I just meant hypnotise," said Nan, forehead furrowing. "…But maybe something more if he has mistreated you."

Now paying more attention, Nan could sense the welts of blood under Bea's skin.

Bruising.

She felt a flush of hot anger at the thought that anyone would hurt Beatrice, such a sweet little human.

Bea looked down. She had been meaning to tell somebody. It had been getting worse recently.

She shrugged.

"My husband has a stressful job," she said meekly.

"So do I," said Nan dryly, pointing to her bloodied clothes.

Beatrice looked anxious, as if something had suddenly occurred to her.

"You wouldn't…you wouldn't get hurt would you?" she asked worriedly.

Nan raised her eyebrows.

"Beatrice, we're talking about you now, not me. But don't be worried."

Nan's fangs snapped down and to Bea's horror, the vampire bit her own wrist.

Beatrice watched, fascinated, as the wound knitted back together, almost immediately.

"I heal up quickly," said Nan casually.

She then gave Bea a measuring look.

"But you do not, so you are going to have to have a think about what you're going to do about this man of yours because I don't want to bring you home to be hurt."

"Because I'm your human?" asked Bea, desperate to understand.

Nan's vampire instinct sparked.

Yes!

"No," she managed to say. "That was part of my ingenious plan. You do not have to feel obliged to me."

Bea looked at Nan as she continued.

"…But on a moral level I don't want to see you beaten to shit on my watch."

Bea looked shocked. Nan's language!

Nan laughed.

"I can say whatever I like," she grinned. "And so can you when you're with me. I don't mind."

"That's not very ladylike!" teased Bea, reaching for another cookie, and another.

After the sixth cookie, (and they weren't small cookies) Nan thought she might probe an issue.

"Is it…customary to eat that much? As a human?" she asked.

Beatrice opened her mouth to speak, spraying biscuit crumbs across Nan's nice clean floor. She looked very sorry, but Nan didn't actually mind. Humans made mess. They just did.

Not their fault I suppose.

"Um," said Beatrice, shielding her full mouth with the back of the hand. "I don't think so. I hope I'm not being greedy but lately I've been so hungry, and I don't know why!"

Nan nodded. She knew why. She could smell the hormones in Beatrice's blood that were helping her baby to grow.

"Have as many as you want," shrugged Nan. "I'm not going to eat them."

"Thank you," said Bea, and she really meant it.

Eventually, not wanting to overfeed the human, Nan, slightly reluctantly, led Bea to the door.

"Nan," said Beatrice seriously. "If…I know you're busy but if you were passing…I'm sure you would do the Suffrage movement a world of good."

Nan smiled, and managed to resist the urge to correct the human's terminology.

"I'll see," she said to appease the beaming creature, with little intention of doing so.

However, to Beatrice's delight, (and frankly Nan's surprise - what on Earth had come over her?) the next week Nan was at a meeting, on her best behaviour. She didn't say a single thing…or at least very much, that made any of the other women feel like lowlives. And, after that, the vampire came quite regularly to the meetings, just to watch her hum-…Beatrice, being fearsome.

Because Nan was starting to learn that the caramel-haired beauty was actually quite the force to be reckoned with.

Often, after the meetings, it was back to Nan's place for tea and cookies where the two friends would bicker playfully about all sorts of things, mostly Women's Rights and Nan shared stories about conditions in the twelfth century which made Bea shiver.

After only a few weeks, they had actually become very close. Bea was the only human that knew about Nan's…condition, and Nan the only person who knew about Bea's troubles at home.

But perhaps they were just a little too compatible…

Notes:

So…what do you think?

I really hope that this makes sense and appeases Twilight fans (there will be much more Carlisle and Edward later, never fear). I also hope that I haven't used any characters in a way that you don't like, or that disagrees with your perception of them.

Lastly, reviews, even just one word, really make my day so please tell me what you think and you'll get perhaps a rather over-enthusiastic reply.

And I'm bound to prompt: who kills Charles in the end? Is it Carlisle, Nan, Edward or Esme?