Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. The content, ideas and intellectual property of this story and the 'American Vampire Series' in its entirety are owned by Just4ALE.
Chapter 11: Things That Make You Go Hmmm...
EPOV
Ever since the day I revealed myself to Bella, I had been open and honest about my feelings for her. It sometimes astounded me that despite her keen intellect and powers of observation, she often missed what I truly meant. That conversation about her future job search was surprising to me; obviously there was only so much I could say about our future at that time but I still thought it was obvious that I would stay with her always. I realized each day how very different vampire bonding was from human bonding; never having been in love as a human, truly in love, I couldn't speak to this. In 85 years, I'd never felt anything different until the day I met her.
"Vampires, when they bond, are constant," I told her.
"People change their minds all of the time," she said. "That is the world I'm accustomed to."
I was concerned at first. "Do you think you'll change your mind?" I asked, hesitantly.
She rolled her eyes at me. "Edward, I've told you before… I'm not like other people. I'm a constant as well: only a force of nature changes my mind."
Bella: my oh-so unique human girlfriend. She was right… she was NOT like other people. The more time I spent with her, the more I learned about her distinctions from all other humans I'd ever known.
I'd already catalogued so many of her wonderful characteristics… beautiful, funny, smart. So reserved and controlled. Also the fact that she was the only being I'd ever met who could shield her mind from mine.
Then I came to find out another unique yet disturbing fact about her: Bella had an unconscious fascination and attraction to all things vampirish. This, I found out, had existed since she was a child.
To this day, I sometimes found her sleeping with her head covered. This began in elementary school: scared that a vampire – a vampire! – might bite her, she covered her head so that he wouldn't get her.
"A blanket wouldn't stop a vampire," I pointed out.
"Yes, but I figured that all things being equal, he'd see that it would be easier to go straight for someone else's exposed neck than my covered one. It would be a deterrent."
I shook my head, incredulous.
Then there was her musical taste. She had a Loud and Kicking playlist she'd made up that consisted of songs that were predominately written by, played or sung by or about vampires. Examples: Evanescence's Bring Me To Life? Too blatant, despite the fact that the lead singer tried to play it off as a song about changing her relationship. Pink Floyd? Just listen to Dark Side of the Moon sometime. The Black Crowes' Sting Me? Christ, it was practically a neon sign flashing 'Vampire Here.'
Obviously, I kept that information to myself. Unless absolutely necessary, you don't out other vampires, particularly celebrities.
She'd subconsciously identified me as a vampire within the first few meetings, much to my shock and amazement. But it wasn't until I revealed myself on a frozen pond that she realized she'd been spot-on in her assessment of me.
And finally, there was her crazy attraction to vampire havens that she knew nothing about. New Orleans, Bangkok, Santorini, Rio… she'd vacationed in them all, not realizing that those were some of the vampire capitals of the world.
But it wasn't until Angela showed up that I realized exactly how extreme and possibly dangerous her vampire attraction was.
Angela was one of her best friends and her cubicle mate at BCG. She was an attractive half-Asian woman, a year younger than Bella and, from what she told me, a lot like Bella – serious and quite reserved. Passing through Chicago, Angela made plans to stay over at Bella's apartment for an evening before heading back to her place in San Francisco. As Bella only had a studio, I would have to do without my Bella-quotient for the night. But she really wanted me to meet Angela. She pre-warned me that Angela was super-observant, a skill honed from years of being responsible for watching over her twin baby brothers since a very young age.
"Seriously, Edward, she puts me to shame and she's completely open to all things magical and otherworldly - she's read all of the Anne Rice vampire, mummy and witches books. If she figures it out and there is no way around it, I'm not going to deny it."
In order to get around the whole not eating issue, we decided to have me meet them at pub night after they finished dinner. I liked this idea: I didn't like going to pub night as a rule because the male energy directed at the females was a bit daunting. I particularly didn't like the energy directed at MY female, which obviously dissipated when I was around. However, I didn't want to interfere with her B'school experience and social networking was an important part of this, so I typically stayed away.
By the time I got there, Bella and Angela were laughing with some of the wolves, beers in hand. From the looks of things, Angela was getting a lot of attention: fresh meat. I noticed a table in the back opening up – my vampire radar ever at work – and I waved to Bella, gesturing that I'd be back there when she was ready. She smiled and nodded, pointing me out to Angela. They joined me when they could get free of their conversation about ten minutes later. I saw them talking as they made their way through the crowd. They were still laughing when they made it to the table. Bella introduced us.
Angela seemed surprised by my appearance. Nice hair. Hmmm, he's so different looking from Jacob. That's a point in his favor already.
I liked Angela immediately.
"What's so funny?" I asked, watching their smiling faces. My heart warmed seeing Bella so at ease and happy with her dear friend.
"Angela is shocked by the attention," Bella said. "I think she's going to sign up for the program next week."
Angela shook her head. "It's crazy… I never get any attention. It's like I usually wear a big FU sign on my forehead, I hear." Bella looked at me and raised her eyebrows. Yep, could be Bella's twin.
"What was the topic that kept them so fascinated?" I asked, gesturing to the guys looking over in our direction.
"We were just telling them about some of the odd things we've had happen to us," Angela said.
"Like what?" I asked. I'm not sure if I knew of any odd things about Bella and Angela together, but then again, Bella didn't talk about her old job a lot with me.
They looked at each other and laughed again, launching into stories about their old days in the Boston office: a coworker's knock-down drag-out fight with her girlfriend that occurred right in front of them and a group-wide analyst discussion – males and females – on the pros and cons of the Wonder-bra that occurred over the cubicle walls.
"Oh, and then the day after that first trapeze class: we were in SO much pain, we couldn't breathe. Whenever we laughed it sounded like: 'Ha, ha, OW! Ha, ha, OW!'"
"Trapeze class?" I asked.
Angela was surprised. "She didn't mention it? When she and I were assigned to a San Francisco project for four months, Bella attended circus school at night."
My jaw dropped. How did I not know this? That seemed an odd thing not to mention. "You're joking, right?"
Bella looked at me, amused. "No, it's true."
"Why haven't you mentioned this? Was this a clown college?"
"No," she laughed, rolling her eyes. "It was flying trapeze lessons at The Circus Center. I was never going be great at it. What was there to tell?"
"You did flying trapeze," I stated, still wondering when she was going to say 'kidding!'
"I tried."
Angela nodded. "I saw her in a recital in San Francisco. She was great... she did a split into a catch and a blind catch too."
Bella frowned at her. "Well the show was great. I was just average, but I made the catch, which was what they want to see."
My mind was reeling. I thought I'd parsed out her background; I guess I forgot to ask if she'd ever trained for Cirque du Soleil in our "getting to know you" conversations. It was disconcerting to realize that there were still things I didn't know about Bella. On the other hand, a trapeze swing... that could be interesting... hmm, bendy... I have done it in a chair, I have done it in the air...
"Oh," Angela said, "and then our first year at Ward!"
"Yeah, that was the BEST trip," Bella agreed.
In my mind, I suddenly heard the sound of a needle being scratched across the semi-erotic record I was playing in my head. Scriiiitttch.
"Wait," I said. "Ward? As in Ward, Colorado?"
They both looked at me, stunned. "You've heard of it?"
"Yes, I know where it is…"
They looked at each other in amazement. "Wow, that's a first," Angela said.
"What were you doing there?" I asked, hesitantly.
"We went to Gold Lake Resort and Spa. I selected it," Bella said, "because Jacob decided to go on vacation with no planning ahead of time so I couldn't go with him." Her eyes narrowed and her face took on a mildly aggravated look. Angela shook her head and sighed, "Jacob."
Bella gritted her teeth and growled. Then she turned back to me and continued. "Anyway, I looked for a place where a woman could vacation alone that had spa treatments and this place popped up as having an outdoor lake and ice skates included with the room rate. Then Angela decided to join me."
Angela piped in. "It was awesome… so spiritual. The wind was blowing like crazy the whole weekend. We sat in the outdoor hot pools and we snowshoed for the first time."
"We loved it so much and we were so happy there, all of the guests and staff were always smiling at us and coming to talk to us," Angela said.
Bella agreed. "We came back and told all the analysts that we were voted most popular... which obviously would never happen anywhere else: we're always the least friendly in any social setting."
"Except here," I pointed out, gesturing at the males in the room.
"That's a function of the ratio," Bella countered, reaching for my hand and squeezing it. I rolled my eyes. So naive.
Angela continued. "Each year when we went back to Ward…"
"Wait, you've been there more than once?" I asked incredulously.
"We go every year," they said together. Again…scriiiitttch. "It's a crazy place full of VERY strange people… but we love it." Angela said.
My heart dropped into my stomach. I said nothing and let them continue, my eyes wary.
"After the first year there, we discovered the town," Angela explained. "It's a dive. You never see ANYONE out there midday: just a bunch of dogs and one person in the main general store who usually looks high, selling basic supplies."
"On the Saturday night of our visits, we go listen to bluegrass at the Millsite Inn, which is pretty much the only restaurant outside of Gold Lake's resort," Angela continued. "One night, this weird guy with a sword, an animal hide coat and woolly boots came in. He was really odd and he kept staring at Bella. We figured that we must have just looked like outsiders."
"Oooh, then later that night, we were driving from the Millsite back to our cabin and we came upon a tall guy with long dark hair in this dark duster coat and boots, walking alone with a dog in the middle of the dirt road leading to the resort. We didn't actually see him until we came right up on him. He moved a little to let us pass, but when we looked back in the rear view mirror, he wasn't there!" Bella said animatedly. Angela piped in, "It was freaky."
"The town is rumored to have a bunch of Vietnam vets, all paranoid and hiding out from the government, which is why we never see any of them during the day. There is also supposed to be a silver mine that they keep hidden. That's why they're supposedly so secretive," Angela added.
They continued on, finishing each others' sentences. Bella was having a great time with her friend and she seemed thrilled that I could meet her. I tried to concentrate on their stories, but this information was very disturbing.
After an hour, I excused myself to go to work. I kissed Bella, bid them farewell and then left.
As I drove to the lab, I mentally recapped a few things I'd learned during the evening:
1. Angela was nice and with kind thoughts toward Bella. It was clear they shared a great friendship.
2. My girlfriend had some other interesting hobbies and past interests that she clearly hadn't mentioned to me. Time to have some sleepy-time chats again, although Bella had forbade me from doing so.
3. And no matter what she might think, Ward was out of the picture for Bella in the future as far as I was concerned.
Ward! Good grief!
A/N: Hmm, what's up with Ward? Thanks for reading so far. Please review.
Post-A/N: No offense to the town of or inhabitants of Ward, CO, all 190 or so of them. I happen to love that area… but it is as described above.