A/N: I'm really (x 10) sorry about how late this chapter is! I hope it was worth the wait... please read and review!
Chapter Nine (Part Two)-
Bella watched me closely as I took in her information. I had no trouble believing it- I had always known that she wasn't human, but my thoughts had always leant toward a heavenly being, not a soulless monster-
I stopped myself there.
Bella was not some soulless monster, she was my best friend and no matter what she was, she would always be my saving angel. She protected me, loved me, treated me like a sister; I would not abandon her because I finally knew what I had always wanted. Bella was no different than she had always been. She had always been a… vampire- I shuddered at the word- and if she were going to hurt me she would have. Now the question is, will I run away from her- my best friend?
I shook my head quickly doing away with the thought. There was no way I could let her go, especially not now. I smiled to myself, my decision was made and I wasn't going back. I looked up to meet Bella's eyes. They were full of sorrow and were shining with unshed tears; she looked pained and I couldn't understand why.
"What's wrong?" I asked suddenly confused. Why on earth would she be sad?
"What's wrong?" She choked out the last word and stood up quickly from her spot on my bed. Her back was to me, but I could tell that she was upset. Her shoulders were hunched, which was a sharp contrast to her usually perfect posture, and she was shaking slightly. Slowly I moved towards her and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged off my hand and moved quickly to the other side of the room as if she were afraid. But of what? I thought to myself.
"Angel?" I asked uncertainly. She shouldn't be crying. Why was she crying?
She let out a sob at the sound of my voice and her shaking increased. I ran quickly to her side and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "Shhh" I whispered as her sobs quieted. She pulled slightly away from me and scrutinized my face.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
Is that what she was worried about? I could have laughed if it weren't for the despair that marred her expression. I shook my head furiously and her brow furrowed.
"Why not?"
"Angel, you haven't hurt me yet and you have been my best friend since I was seven. I think four years of safety is more than enough to ensure that you won't kill me." I laughed and after slight hesitation she smiled at me.
"You are just like I was." She said quietly. I looked back at her face and saw that it was twisted with pain and I noticed with horror that her usual golden eyes were a hollow depthless black.
"Angel?" She snapped her head back to me and the pain that was there before almost completely disappeared from her face. It was only her eyes that betrayed her. Hoping to distract her I hopped up form my spot on the floor and grabbed Bella's hand. She was seemed surprised as she stared at my hand, but took it willingly. I pulled her to my bed and sat down so that we were facing each other.
"Now," I began as I made myself comfortable. "Tell me everything."
Bella looked at me like I had just grown another head but nodded. "Well as you know I'm a vampire…" She began but I interrupted her.
"Wait!" A thought had just occurred to me and I shifted uneasily before continuing. "Do you eat humans?"
To my surprise, she laughed. "No," I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. "I'm what you might call a 'vegetarian'. I hunt animals, but we still have to drink blood." I wrinkled my nose and she shot back, "Hey! It tastes better than what you eat!" She gestured over to the table that was covered in junk food.
"But blood?"
"What else did you expect? Tea and crumpets? I am a vampire." I blushed and opened my mouth to speak when she cut me off. "Do you want to find out about my life or are you going to keep interrupting me?" I closed my mouth and nodded for her to continue.
"Well aside from drinking blood." She glanced at me as I made a face. "We are blindingly fast, super strong, and heightened senses- super hearing," She shot me a look and I found myself thinking how it explained everything. "We have special powers, are deathly pale, and inhumanly beautiful." She snorted at the last one, but I ignored that and tried to wrap my mind around what she was saying.
"Special powers?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. She narrowed her eyes at me.
"I thought you weren't going to interrupt?"
"Come on! You can't say something like that and not expect me to be curious!" I defended and she rolled her eyes.
"Well when you are… changed into a vampire,"
"You mean you weren't always like that?" She glared at me and I clamped my hands over my mouth.
"As I was saying, when you are changed, supposedly you carry over a trait from your human life and it is enhanced." When I was sure she had finished I ventured a question.
"Do you have a power?" She grinned at me and suddenly she was gone. I was just about to panic when she reappeared once again.
"I can turn invisible and block other vampires' powers. The invisibility I suppose comes from the fact that when I was human I was embarrassed easily and as for the second one, I was immune to some when-" She stopped abruptly and pain flickered in her eyes. I decided to distract her from whatever she had been thinking and brought up her family.
"You said that you had brothers?" I prompted hoping to see a smile but was met with only sadness.
"Yes." She whispered softly. I sighed in frustration.
"Come on Angel! You have to give me something!" She smiled slightly but there was apprehension in her expression.
"I have nine brothers." I felt my eyes bug out of my head.
"Nine?!" She nodded, laughing at my expression.
"They aren't really my brothers, but after the change they became my only family." She paused and became lost in thought.
"What are their names?" I pulled her back from her reverie and she smiled.
"Matthew, Joshua, Anthony, Christopher, Daniel, Michael, and Ethan." I counted each one off on my fingers and came up short.
"Bella? That's only seven." She looked at me blankly for a moment and the pain flared up in her eyes as she fought to keep her face calm. I quickly pulled her into a hug as she began sobbing in my arms. She began mumbling something about herself not being good enough and my temper flared that someone had treated her so poorly; being only matched with the confusion I felt. What had happened to her? After a few minutes, she calmed down and pulled away from me, giving me a wry smile.
"Sorry." She mumbled, but I shook my head.
"Angel, what happened?"
Bella sat there quietly for what seemed an eternity before she let out a shaky breath and began a story filled with friendship, love, acceptance, monsters, eternity, and betrayal. I say there quietly throughout her story, watching as her face changed from despair, to happiness, to anger, hopelessness, and heartbreaking acceptance. By the time she was through she was dry sobbing again and I pulled her back to me. I found myself hating Edward Cullen and his entire family for what they had done to my best friend. She didn't deserve this kind of pain and he most certainly didn't deserve her.
I watched as my angel's broken heart was laid before me and for the first time, I got a glimpse of how fragile she truly was. After she had calmed down, she continued and told me about the accident and her change. Bella told me about her brothers and I felt my eyes widen in fear as she told me for the first time what really had happened the night I was attacked. How close I had come to dying and by the hand of her own brothers. She was apprehensive of how I might take this information, but I felt only relief that she had been there and gratitude that it had brought her to me. She told me of her life in the forest as her brothers slowly learned control over their natural instincts.
"It's hard." She said quietly. "But I believe in them and I know that they can do it."
That night was three years ago and Bella and I have become even closer than we had been before. She had began visiting my home once a week and she filled me in on the antics of her brothers as I told her about my life at school. It seemed so boring to me, but Bella had assured me that she wanted to hear it all.
My pacing resumed as I waited for her arrival- she had said that she had a surprise for me and I was impatient for her visit. I heard the raising of my window and swung around quickly expecting to see my angel- but in her place finding three inhumanly beautiful males whom I recognized immediately from Bella's descriptions.
The first was the biggest and most intimidating of the three. He had curly brown hair and made me want to dive under my bed in fright. The second was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and had honey blond hair. The third one I hated instantly, he had to be Edward. His untidy bronze hair was falling into his face. He was more lanky than the others, less bulky, but there was something else. Something that showed he was suffering immensely, I could read it in his eyes. Good! He deserves to suffer!
They all glanced in my direction once before turning back and arguing amongst themselves. They were speaking so quickly that I could barely catch their conversation.
"You said that she would be here!" Edward hissed to the one I recognized as Jasper.
"She has been here, I know it."
The rest of the conversation sounded like a low humming noise and I found myself impatient, I cleared my throat but they seemed to be too caught up in their own conversation. Eventually they slowed their speech as the conversation came to a close.
"What do we do about the human?" Emmett asked glancing in my direction.
"Leave her be, we won't be back here anyways. No one will believe her." They nodded their heads and Edward turned to Jasper.
"I need you to figure out how long it's been since she was here." Jasper nodded his head at Edward and turned around to face my room. He took a deep breath and in that moment three things happened at once.
The first was that Jasper had stiffened and turned his now onyx eyes to me. The second was I found myself on the ground. And the third…
Fire.
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