A/N: So, so, so, so sorry. Seriously. My muse abandoned me for a long time – I think she sensed winter approaching and fucked off to Australia. To make it up to you, I am giving you a super long chapter. In fact it may be too long, and probably should be cut in half, but it's been so goddamn long since I last posted I don't want to take any longer messing about. So here it is.
"Can you get banned from hospitals?"
"I think that would defy the entire point of hospitals," Bella said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Why?"
"I don't think they liked me very much. They seemed really pissed." Diane winced, holding a hand against her stomach as the car jolted against a bump in the road.
"Sorry," Carlisle muttered.
"Of course they were pissed," Bella said, pressing herself even tighter against the car door. "You had really serious surgery four days ago and woke up out of a coma yesterday. It wouldn't have killed you to stay a bit longer."
"Blah, blah, blah," Diane said wearily. "Whatever, it's done. You can stop nagging now."
Bella narrowed her eyes briefly, then decided to keep her mouth shut. Diane had always been rather blunt, but since she had woken up, she had been downright rude. Bella knew why, of course, and couldn't blame Diane for not particularly caring about being tactful, still, it was starting to grate.
Bella leaned further against the car door in the pretense of looking at a passing sign. She was vaguely curious as to where they were going—she was pretty sure they'd already driven past their apartment—but mostly, she was trying to subtly avoid touching Edward.
Emmett and Rosalie had picked them up from the hospital in Edward's car, and since Diane was hurt, she had taken the front passenger seat. Carlisle was driving, so the rest of them were crammed into the back. Rosalie sitting on Emmett's lap hardly helped; he took up nearly two seats by himself. So Bella tried to melt herself into the door that she was pressed against, and pretended that the fact their thighs and arms were touching didn't freak her out. Because that would be pathetic.
She gained a little consolation from the fact that Edward seemed rather discomforted as well. He was uncharacteristically fidgety and agitated, and he kept making these strange, frustrated grunts.
"Dude, what is up with you?" Emmett asked. "You keep making these noises."
Edward pressed his lips together and glared at Emmett. He crossed his arms in sullen silence, knocking his elbow lightly against Bella's. She stared out the window even more intensely.
"You're being weird," Emmett announced.
Rosalie chuckled deep in her throat. "He's being pathetic. How can it bother you this much?"
"Shut up, Rose," Edward growled.
Bella felt her face burn. Did Rosalie really need to talk about this now, when they were all confined and couldn't run away?
"Get over yourself, Eddie," Rose snarled back.
"Yeah, right, you're one to talk."
"Jesus, you're such a control freak!"
"That's it!" Edward yelled. "Stop the car!"
"What?" Carlisle asked, alarmed.
"I'm not kidding, Carlisle, stop it now!"
Carlisle gently pulled over to the side of the road. Bella was completely confused. Edward looked angrier than she'd ever seen him, and Rosalie had her head buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking.
"Bella, can you move, please?" Edward asked, his lips barely moving.
Not even thinking about arguing, Bella opened the door and scrambled out of the car. Edward followed, stalked over to Carlisle's door and opened it.
"Get out, Carlisle."
Carlisle tried to look stern, but it seemed as though he were trying to hold back a smile. "Edward, we discussed this. Diane's hurt—"
"I'm serious, get out."
Edward and Carlisle swapped places, Edward sliding into the driving seat and Carlisle climbing in next to Bella. There was a very long silence as Edward signaled and merged into traffic, driving quite a bit faster than Carlisle had done, but just as cautiously.
"So," Emmett said, in a strangely tight voice. "Who had seven minutes?"
As one, Emmett, Rosalie and Carlisle burst out into loud peals of laughter. Diane turned in her seat and exchanged a bemused look with Bella.
"Are you done laughing at me, now?" Edward asked. Bella couldn't see his face, but she could hear the acute embarrassment in his voice.
"I had six." Carlisle, unsurprisingly, was the the first to control himself.
"I had eight," Emmett said through gasps of laughter. "I guess Alice had seven."
"She had ten," Rose said, smugly.
"What?" Emmett asked incredulously. "Alice lost a bet? We should make this some kind of national holiday."
"Yes, all right, that's quite enough now, thank you," Edward muttered, still very obviously embarrassed.
"I don't know what just happened," Diane said, her face caught between smiling and frowning.
Edward sighed deeply. "It's just … it's a forty zone," he said, an uncharacteristic whine in his voice. "He was going twenty-five … it felt like my head was going to explode."
Bella couldn't help it; she burst out laughing, setting the others off again. Edward hung his head over the steering wheel.
"I forgot …" Bella wheezed as her laughter started to die out. "I forgot you were such a freak about driving."
"I'm not a … shut up," Edward whined, but she thought she could hear a smile in his voice. Bella pressed a hand to her mouth, but couldn't stop the extremely girlie giggle that escaped. It had been so long since she had laughed so genuinely about something, she didn't want to stop.
Edward sped through Brooklyn in record time, but he was extremely careful to avoid bumps in the road and sharp accelerating or decelerating. Bella was actually impressed, but she didn't say anything because she felt that—after the earlier show of his obsessiveness—he shouldn't be encouraged.
After about twenty minutes of racing along various expressways, Edward veered off toward Forest Hills. Eventually, he pulled up outside a large redbrick house with a flat roof and turrets that made it look like a miniature castle. Alice obviously agreed with this assessment, because she was sitting on the front steps in a long, flowing green dress and a cheap plastic tiara with glitter that would be appropriate for a children's birthday party.
"Welcome!" Alice said cheerily as they climbed out of the car. "Enter ye to my grand abode and let us eat, drink and be merry! Except for the eating and drinking bit, 'cos you know, yuck. Except for you two, you can eat and drink. Where was I?"
Bella smiled and shook her head. "I've got to admit, I am pretty impressed. Though, I'm not sure I want to know how you managed to rent this place at such short notice."
"We didn't rent it, we bought it!" Alice cried delightedly. "And look, it was actually two houses, but we made it into one! I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get the permission so quickly, but the local authority is very easily blackmailed. I'm thinking of writing a letter."
"Fleurgh." Bella felt like she'd been punched in the stomach.
"Don't freak out," Alice implored. "It would have been dangerous for you to stay in your apartment, and this way we're in Queens and we can all stay together."
Bella took a deep, calming breath. She didn't want to appear ungrateful or crazy, so she forced herself to use her inside voice. "Please, just promise me you'll never ever tell me how much this cost."
"Done!" Alice said happily. "Come in, I'll show you around."
Sighing heavily, Bella reached into the car and eased Diane out of the car, being careful not to hurt her. Diane, at least, looked very amused, and didn't seem to mind the vast amount of money the Cullens must have thrown around to get this done. Bella carried her up the stairs and lowered her into the wheelchair Emmett had brought in.
The hallway was huge and bright with yellow walls and dark wooden floorboards. It smelled like paint and polish and was rather bare, apart from the huge gilded mirror next to the front door. "This side of the house is ours," Alice said. "That room down there is mine and Jasper's." She waved at a dark oak door at the end of the hall. "And that's our living room." She indicated an open door to their right. Bella caught a glimpse of a large, bright space with soft white carpet. "Emmett and Rosalie are up the stairs and to the left, Carlisle and Esme are upstairs and to the right, and Edward's in the attic. You're through here—follow me!"
Dazed, Bella pushed Diane through a white door on their left, which opened up into large living space. It had the same white carpet as the other living area, with three huge brown leather couches angled toward an epic flat-screen television.
"This is your room, Diane," Alice continued, walking through the living room into a little hallway. "And yours is right next to it, Bella. You've both got ensuites, of course."
Bella pushed open the door Alice indicated and smiled. She couldn't help it. It wasn't as big and scary as she had expected. The walls were white, but one side was covered in dark blue and silver striped wallpaper. It was dominated by a large, cast-iron bed with blue sheets, but apart from that and a small vanity, it was mostly bare.
"And the kitchen's through here!" Alice said, ushering them away from admiring their bedrooms.
Once again, the walls were bare white, but the cabinets were dark black and seemed to sparkle, they were so new and clean. Bella had forgotten what it was like to be able to cook in a lovely, bright, clean kitchen. She couldn't wait to make something, which was an urge she thought had died quite a while ago. Could she even remember how to cook?
"What do you think?" Alice asked anxiously. "You didn't make any of the ooh-ing or ah-ing noises people do when they like something. I know you don't like a spectacle, Bella, but —"
"It's amazing, Alice," Bella interjected, putting the poor girl out of her misery. "You know it's amazing. Thank you—this is really great."
Alice's face lit up, and she made a strange squeeing noise as she rushed forward and grabbed Bella for a tight embrace. Bella laughed in relief as she hugged her back.
A door slamming made them jump apart. Bella looked around and realized that Diane had left. She closed her eyes briefly in something like defeat.
"She'll be all right," Alice said sympathetically. "She just needs time."
Bella smiled vaguely, walked to the kettle, filled it up and turned it on. Alice flitted beside her and showed her where the tea and coffee were kept. Bella had never seen such a varied display of teas in her life. She hovered for a moment, but finally decided on Jasmine tea, because she had always liked the Disney character. That seemed as good a reason as any.
"So this is what the big mystery was," Bella said wryly. "I am a little relieved—I thought it'd be much worse."
"Not too scary then?"
"No, not too scary." Her fingers drummed against the rapidly warming kettle, feeling the heat beginning to spread across her skin. "Are … are we okay, Alice?"
Alice looked up at her with huge eyes. "What do you mean? Of course we're okay. Why wouldn't we be?"
"I just sort of thought that you were … avoiding me."
"What? I've been here, sorting out this house!" she cried indignantly.
"I know, I'm sorry, but I didn't know that before and I kind of got it in my head that you were avoiding me, and it wouldn't go away," she said apologetically. "It's just, the other day, before all this happened, you seemed upset with me, and we haven't talked since then."
Alice pulled herself up onto the worktop and looked down at her knees. "I was upset," she said slowly. "But not with you, not really. This whole thing just … sucks."
Bella hummed and took a big sip of tea so that she wouldn't be expected to offer anything deeper.
"But I have been told by certain people that I cannot expect things to happen exactly as I want, exactly when I want," she continued, rolling her eyes dramatically. "And if you need time to figure out some stuff, then that's all right. Apparently, it's not a big deal and is only to be expected after what you've been through."
Bella raised an eyebrow archly. "Been discussing me, have you?"
"What can I say? I'm his favorite." She lowered her voice, and leaned in conspiringly. "This is the point where you say I'm your favorite, too."
"You're my favorite, too," she said playfully.
Alice clapped her hands together and jumped down from the worktop. "I'm going to go order some stuff for the house. Want to come?"
"It's probably best that I don't."
"As long as you understand that I'm just working on the house." She smirked. "And that I'm not avoiding you."
Bella laughed loudly, and with a wink, Alice had disappeared.
The kitchen seemed too big with Alice gone, but Bella stood there a long time, staring at the remains of her tea. She had a great expanse of time before her where she had nothing to do, and no one to see, yet instead of filling her with relief like it had just a week ago—had it only been a week?—she felt strangely empty.
The sound of tinkling laughter broke her haze, and she glanced up at the white door Alice had closed behind her. She could hear the Cullens in their living room in the other side of the house, talking and occasionally laughing—doing family stuff, she guessed. For a terribly long moment, she fought against an irrepressible sense of loneliness that seemed to well up from her toes and gather like a mist in her chest. She was only separated from them by a couple of walls and empty space, but in that moment, the distance felt infinite.
She reasoned that she was making herself accessible to Diane by staying in the kitchen, but it was a lie. Diane had been surrounded by people since she had woken up, and Bella knew that she wouldn't want company for a while. She had been seriously injured and witnessed the death of someone who she truly loved, and there must have been a part of her that blamed Bella for it. There was nothing that Bella could do right now to make anything better, and she knew it.
The truth was … the truth was that she missed Edward. Despite the tension that had lingered between them over the last few days, she had grown used to his company. Even when they had sat in absolute silence, staring obstinately in opposite directions, she had taken comfort in the fact that he was just there. She had only been separated from him for mere minutes, and she already missed that silence, missed his presence, missed—most of all—the times when he broke that silence and made her laugh, or allowed her to make him laugh.
She really wanted to hear him laugh again.
The thought disturbed her. She had seen, over and over again, how love ruined people. Didn't she have the perfect example in just the other room? Poor Diane, who had allowed herself to be drawn in by the promise of something good, only to see it torn to pieces in front of her eyes. She was better off alone.
Then why was it so damned hard?
So, like the addict that swore one more couldn't hurt, she stood up and walked slowly to Diane's door.
"I'm going to call a meeting about Kahled," she said quietly, knowing that Diane could hear her, but giving her the option to pretend that she couldn't.
There was a long silence, and Bella had just turned to leave when she heard, "Yeah, just … just give me a second."
Diane emerged from her room a few minutes later, with the skin around her eyes red and puffy, ineffectively covered by make-up. Bella smiled tightly and didn't say anything. She couldn't think of anything to say that could make Diane feel any better, and asking how she was seemed almost cruel. So she just pushed Diane in her wheelchair across the hallway and into the other living room.
They were all there. Alice and Esme were crouched over a laptop on one of the couches, discussing the various benefits of oak and pine furniture. Jasper was sitting opposite them, legs crossed, reading an old, musty-smelling book in a language Bella didn't recognize. Carlisle was kneeling on the floor, surrounded by a circle of papers and frowning. Rosalie was sitting on Emmett's lap, curling a lock of his hair around her finger as he stared at the chessboard in front of him with so much concentration it looked painful.
Edward was sitting on the couch opposite him, looking highly amused. He was leaning back casually, one foot resting on the table in front of him, his head tilted slightly as he watched Emmett's struggle.
"That's not going to work," he said smugly.
"Look!" Emmett cried suddenly. "Bella and Diane are here! We should all stop everything we're doing and concentrate on them."
Blood rushed to Bella's face as everyone followed Emmett's advice and turned to stare at her.
"Oh, um…" she mumbled awkwardly.
"Ignore him," Edward said kindly. "He just wants to avoid losing to me. Again."
Emmett glared at him. "Not everything is about you, Mr. Mind Reader. Maybe I'm just really interested in what Bella has to say."
"I'm more interested in what you lot have to say," Bella said, still slightly embarrassed at the way they were staring at her. "I mean—"
"Kahled," Diane interrupted roughly. "We need a plan."
"To make a plan, we need to find out something, anything, about him," Bella said heavily. She wandered over to a couch and sat down next to Edward without thinking. It was only when she felt her heartbeat automatically increase to his proximity that she realized what she had done, and that she could hardly have found a more distracting place to sit.
"What do we have?" Jasper prompted.
"Kahled Kaldas—nineteen years old, American citizen, Indian descent, lived in Queens," Bella rattled off. "Became a vampire about three weeks ago. Seven victims so far, the first being his mother and two brothers. They were killed cleanly. Three were his father and two middle-aged Indian men, who—as far as we know—had no connection to him. He bit them, kept them hidden for approximately two days while they went through the change, and then decapitated them. He…"
Bella hesitated and glanced over at Diane. Diane stared back steadily and nodded once.
"He's talked to Victoria, who has evidently told him about us," she continued. "He used Jo to isolate and attack Diane. Victoria told him not to hurt me or Edward, so when Edward turned up, he disappeared, and we haven't heard from him since."
"Do you think he'll try attacking again?" Alice asked nervously.
"I kind of hope he does," Bella replied grimly. "It's probably the only way we'll be able to find him."
"We can patrol again. We caught his scent once in the tunnels—we can do it again," Alice protested.
"It's too dangerous," Jasper said in his soft, calming voice. "We underestimated how strong he is, and we can't risk wandering around in small groups, blindly trying to find him. He could just as easily find us, or follow us back here. Besides, we don't know for sure that he is using the tunnels on a regular basis."
"He must have used them to get to the police station," Diane said, her voice hard. "It was sunny that day."
"We could go back there, try and follow his scent to wherever he's hiding now," Emmett boomed enthusiastically.
"That was four days ago. None of us are good enough to track such a weak trail," Jasper countered.
"We have to do something," Bella asserted. "We can't just let him get away with this."
"Believe me, Bella, he's not getting away with anything," Jasper said grimly. "But we can't just stumble around and hope for the best. We need to find out where he is and base a plan of attack around that environment. Kahled is still an unknown, so we need to find out everything we can about everything else. Our main priority is making sure no one else gets hurt."
A brief silence followed this speech. Bella felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. With Jasper leading them, she thought that they were as safe as they could possibly be.
"So, how will we find out where he is?" Alice asked.
"Kahled is mad," Edward said bluntly. "His mind is chaotic and frenzied—he can barely catch a thought before it's torn away. But in some things, he is disturbingly determined. When he attacked Diane and Jo, he wasn't thinking clearly, but something was driving him to act, something more powerful than a mere thought. I'm not sure he could even remember why he was doing it. He just knew he had to."
"That's rather unsettling, but how is that going to help us find him?" Bella asked.
"It'll help us find him because we can understand his motives, and so anticipate his actions. It shows us that his killings aren't just part of a game or casual whim, but compulsion: a compulsion that is more powerful that newborn bloodlust. From what I saw of his mind, he won't stop killing, and his pattern won't change just because he knows we're after him."
"So we can track him through his victims," Jasper summarized helpfully.
"I can still break into New York's police databases," Diane said quietly, without the eagerness she had shown in previous hunts. "Find people from missing persons that fit with his M.O. We can find out where they were most likely taken from, and see if we can follow a scent from there."
"You have to be missing for twenty-four hours before you go on that database," Bella said doubtfully. "Do you think we'd still be able to catch his scent?"
"It depends where it is, but twenty-four hours shouldn't be a problem," Jasper said.
"What will we do then?" Bella asked.
"We'll do recon and create a plan based on what we find out," Jasper replied. "We can't afford to risk—"
A loud howl cut across Jasper's words of caution and made Bella jump in her seat. She swore under her breath and struggled to extract her ringing cell phone from her pocket while everyone stared at her, again.
"Sorry, sorry," she muttered as she finally managed to wrest the phone from her jeans. Her thumb moved to dismiss the call, but the number that flashed on the screen made her hesitate.
"Who is it?" Diane asked. "Dwaipayan?"
She stared at the number, unsure why the sight of it made her feel as though she had missed a step. She didn't recognize it. She was sure she didn't. It didn't even look like it was American. Who did she know that would call her from overseas?
"I don't know," Bella whispered, inexplicably anxious. "I don't think so." She answered the call, and asked hesitantly, "Hello?"
"Am I speaking to Miss Swan?"
Bella jumped out of her seat. Her heart was suddenly thumping manically in her chest, her head spinning, a feeling of nausea rising in her throat. She had thought she would never have to hear that voice again. She had been counting on it.
Panicked, Bella looked to Diane, who was staring at her in the same shock—her mouth open, her eyes impossibly wide.
"Swan?"
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!
Bella swallowed loudly. "Y-yes, it's me. How … how are you, sir?"
"I have to admit, I am a little concerned."
Bella pressed a fist to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt dangerously close to either hysterically laughing or vomiting all over the floor.
"Who …"
Diane slapped a hand over Alice's mouth so quickly, everyone jumped. Alice was so surprised, she didn't even look affronted.
"C-concerned, sir?" Bella cursed herself silently, wishing she could stop stuttering. She didn't want to sound as though she was scared.
"Yes, concerned," he said, his accented voice clipped. "Do you know why?"
I can think of a few reasons, Bella thought frantically.
"No, sir, I don't know."
Alice typed something on the computer she still had on her lap and passed it to Diane. Diane typed a quick response and tilted the screen toward her. Alice raised her eyebrows in understanding.
"I have just received a phone call from Sinha, and I have a few questions about this arrangement you've apparently made."
Bella's legs buckled with relief, and she had to fight with the urge to burst out laughing. Dwaipayan. He wanted to talk about Dwaipayan.
"Oh, yes, that," Bella said quickly. "Yes, well, I saw in the newspaper about the disappearances and deaths in Seattle, and I phoned him to ask him about it. My father lives near there, sir, and I was worried."
"I know about the trouble in Seattle," he said. She struggled to pay close attention. Sometimes his accent was difficult to decipher. It was an extremely strange accent, as though it didn't belong to one country, but to the entire world. "Sinha called me when he realized what he was dealing with. He requested reinforcements, and I was busy organizing transportation when he called me today to tell me that it was no longer necessary. He said that you had something to do with this."
Bella caught Diane's eyes and pointed at the computer on her lap. Diane turned it, showing an open Word document, which read:
Who is it?
Pierre Gaudet, he runs the Academy. Sort of like the headmaster.
"Yes, sir," Bella said, nodding at Diane. "I just suggested that he could contact some of my friends who would be willing to help him out."
"Werewolves?"
"No, they're not werewolves, sir. They're shape-shifters that can turn into wolves. They've been protecting their land from vampires for about eight years now— though they're part of an ancient ancestry—and they're always pretty eager for a fight."
"Are they any good?" Gaudet asked bluntly.
"Yes, sir. They're very strong and fast. They haven't had any formal training, but when they're transformed they create a psychic link, so they work together as a perfect team. I …" Bella hesitated, suddenly uncertain. "I'm sorry if I was out of line, sir. I was only trying to help."
"You haven't acted out of line, Swan. I remember Sinha from school, and he never acted particularly rationally. I merely wanted to make sure that he was safe and that my help was no longer needed, but it seems as though you two have it under control."
Bella grinned to herself. She hadn't imagined that the conversation would end like this, with him actually—sort of—praising her. Had she really managed to have an entire conversation with Pierre Gaudet without threats, accusations and/or crying? She felt strangely light-headed.
"Since I've called you," Gaudet said casually. "How is Miss Knox? Is she better?"
"Oh, she's going to be fine," Bella said unthinkingly. "It was scary for a while, but she's healing …"
She trailed off, horrified. The nausea returned with double-strength.
"How did you—"
"I have eyes and ears everywhere, Swan, especially in New York City."
Her brain felt frozen. She knew she had to say something to somehow save this situation, but her mind refused to do anything but free fall.
"Would you care to explain yourself?"
Bella walked toward the window, feeling all of their eyes on her, unable to look at any of them.
"I think, sir," she said softly, staring at a child riding past on a bicycle, "that you have probably guessed most of it."
"You are working with vampires," Gaudet said swiftly.
"Yes, sir."
"You knew these vampires before you ever came to the Academy."
"Yes, sir."
"You care about them."
Bella sighed heavily. "Yes, sir."
"And I am assuming that they do not hurt humans."
"You're right, sir—they don't."
"This is where I stop being able to guess. This is serious, Swan. Think carefully about what you want to say to me."
"I …" Bella turned slowly, shooting Diane an apologetic look. This was all Bella's fault. If Diane was punished, or thrown out, or hurt in some way because of this, she could never forgive herself. Diane typed on the computer again and showed her the words, 'Just tell him the truth.'
Bella's eyes moved of their own accord to Edward, who stared back at her, completely still. He didn't smile, or nod, or make any attempt to encourage her. They just looked at each other for a long moment.
She took a deep breath and began, "I met them when I was sixteen. I had moved to Forks to live with my father, and they were living there, too. They stay in a place as long as they can, so the younger-looking members of the family had enrolled in the high school, pretending to be foster children of the older-looking couple. I had some classes with them, and we became friends."
Diane typed a question mark on the computer, but Bella just shook her head. Gaudet didn't need to know about Edward—that was none of his business.
"I got hurt because of my relationship with them. It could have ended really badly—"
"That scar on your hand," Gaudet interrupted.
"Yes, sir. They left soon after that," she said, smudging the time lines just a little. "Then I changed, and I came to the Academy. You know what happened then. I met them again a week ago. One of them was in trouble, and I promised to help. In return, they offered to help Diane and me with our own problem. There's a vampire in New York, a newborn, and he's the one who hurt Diane a few days ago. They're helping us. They saved Diane's life."
"Yes, that would be Edward Cullen, am I right?"
Something strange happened to her body then. It felt as though insects were crawling all over her skin, but she couldn't move a muscle.
"And she was being treated by Dr. Carlisle Cullen," he continued, his voice dark. "And was visited by Esme, Rosalie and Emmett Cullen. Don't be so arrogant as to think you can lie to me."
Bella curled her hand into a fist. She took a moment before speaking, because she was so angry she didn't think she could form words.
"I have told you the truth, sir," she said, her voice shaking. "I didn't imagine you would be upset if I tried to protect the identities of my friends, but I certainly did not lie to you. If you think you can intimidate me by talking to me like this, you are mistaken. I will view any threats or attempts to hurt my friends as a personal attack against me, and I will not be afraid to defend myself."
"Bella!" Diane gasped, horrified.
Bella ignored her, breathing heavily as she waited for Gaudet to speak, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
She knew he must have been furious that she dared to talk to him like that, but his voice was deliberately soft as he said, "I am sorry if you misunderstood me. It was not my intent to intimidate you and I did not want to cause offense.
She relaxed slightly, but couldn't make herself uncurl her fist. "I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page."
"That we are," he said reassuringly. "I always knew you had a secret like this, Swan. Chia Huang noticed your scar the moment she met you, and there's only one thing that can cause us permanent damage."
"Yes, sir, I know."
"It is one of the reasons you are so valuable to us … but we have talked of this before."
Bella stayed silent.
"What I am trying to say is, I trust your judgment. If you believe that you are acting in the wisest manner, then I will support your decision, but please know that if you need help, we will always give it."
"Thank you, sir," she said, relieved yet also deeply unsettled. He said that he trusted her judgment. Why was he lying to her? Everything he had ever done in regards to her proved that he had no faith in her whatsoever.
"There is one other reason I called you today," Gaudet said, almost tentatively. Bella had the inexplicable feeling that whatever he was going to say now was the real reason he had called, and that he was worried about it. "I wanted to know if you had heard about Miss Sternberg."
Bella frowned. "Sorry, sir, who?"
"Sternberg. Margot Sternberg."
Something molten rose in her stomach, and she had to hold a hand against the wall to steady herself. "Margot?" she whispered.
"Yes. I'm afraid that she was killed two days ago."
She couldn't say anything. She felt that if she opened her mouth, all that would come out would be a scream. That son of a bitch.
"I thought you would have wanted to hear it from me," he continued, evidently disturbed by her silence.
"Actually, I would have rather heard it from anyone but you," she spat, unable to contain the venom in her voice.
"I'm sorry," he said simply. It didn't soften her.
"She left the Academy one year ago," she fumed. "She should never have been allowed to go into the field. She couldn't fight like the rest of us … but it's not like you didn't know that. It's not like you didn't use it to your advantage."
"She passed the test. There aren't enough of us—we can't afford to deny the ones that choose to fight."
"You should have protected her. Even if she did want to fight, you could have given her a partner," Bella insisted.
"There aren't enough of us," he repeated heavily.
"No, but there are enough that you can put two of us in New York, aren't there?"
"There have always been two slayers in New York. The amount of vampires—"
"Don't give me that," Bella snapped. "I could handle this city on my own, and you know it."
There was a long silence, and Bella knew that she had him.
"You're still the best fighter I've ever seen," he said reluctantly. "Knowing your history, I had to make the best decision for all of us. I couldn't leave you on your own because I didn't trust you to stay without an influence. I can't afford to lose you."
"But you could afford to lose Margot," Bella said, disgusted by him. "Because she just wasn't quite good enough."
Gaudet sighed, which enraged her even more. She didn't want him to give up; she wanted him to keep defending himself so that she could continue to tear him down.
"I just wanted to make sure that you knew," he said eventually, sounding impossibly tired. "And the offer still stands. If you ever need help …"
Bella hung up the phone, refusing to listen to him pretend to be kind.
She continued to stare out of the window, unable to see anything. Everything was falling apart. Gaudet knew about the Cullens, he had been spying on her since the start, Margot was dead … nothing made sense any more. She didn't see the reason for anything. How had she let him have this power over her? How had she allowed herself to be trapped like this?
"Bella?" a voice said. She didn't know whose voice it was, couldn't even tell if it was male or female, vampire or human. "Are you—"
She didn't wait for the person to finish, she just strode out of the room, never looking anywhere but the floor before her feet.
She slammed the door of her bedroom shut behind her and just stood there, shaking, for an indeterminable amount of time.
Her world was crumbling around her, and all she could do was watch it fall.
Bella had been cooking all day. She had woken up early, unable to sleep from memories, and decided to make use of their beautiful kitchen to make herself an omelet. Immediately afterwards, she had washed up, stood by the sink for a long time, unsure what to do next, and decided to make something else for lunch.
She had caught herself in a cycle where she had cooked, washed up, tried to think of something else to do, and started cooking again. She enjoyed doing something productive, keeping herself busy.
She could hear the Cullens in their living room, talking and watching television, but she felt too embarrassed about the day before to take advantage of their company. She didn't want them to ask questions that she wasn't prepared to answer, and she didn't want to pretend that everything was all right. So she cooked, and she cleaned, and she allowed the smells of the food to calm her.
"Something smells good."
Bella turned and smiled vaguely at Diane, before doing a double-take. Her smile turned into something more genuine.
"Had enough of the wheelchair?"
Diane smiled as she leant against the countertop. She looked tired but relatively happy.
"I woke up and rolled out of bed this morning," she said, breathing in the vapors rolling off of the tomato soup simmering on the hob. "I was half-way dressed before I realized what I was doing."
"That's great, Di. You'll be back to normal in no time. Do you want dinner? There's soup, or you can heat something up from the fridge. Or freezer. I kind of went crazy with the cooking."
Diane opened the fridge and laughed at the amount of Tupperware crammed on the shelves. "Yeah, I see that. I'll have some soup, though, since it's already hot."
Bella ladled some soup into a bowl and handed it over, turning off the heat and letting it cool. She wasn't hungry; she had eaten so much just by tasting the food she was making. She turned her back to Diane and started to fill the sink with water, waiting for it to warm up.
"Hey," Diane said, tentatively. "Are you okay, B?"
"Yeah, 'course," she said, sounding too cheery. She shook her head, and continued in a more normal-sounding voice. "Seriously, I'm fine. I'm sorry about freaking out yesterday. That man really knows how to push my buttons."
"I didn't know you knew him so well. I only met him a handful of times. I don't think I ever said more than a few words to him."
Bella chuckled quietly, without humor. "Yeah, well, he took a special interest in me."
"I can't believe you talked to him like that."
"It's what he expected," Bella said heavily, scrubbing at a wooden chopping board. It had been brand new the day before, and it was already covered in knife marks. "He never would have told me about Margot unless he wanted me to react like that. I think he felt guilty, and he knew I was the only one that would dare confront him about it."
Diane stared at her darkly, her jaw tight and her head tilted in a way that seemed confrontational. "Actually, I'm more surprised that you basically told Gaudet that you'd kill him if he came near the vampires."
"I never wanted him to find out about them," Bella said softly. "The truth is, I don't trust him. I wouldn't put it past him to hurt them to get to me. It's his style. I don't want to ever give him a reason to try anything, but if he did, I needed to make sure he knew what would happen."
"So, you meant it?"
"Of course I meant it."
Diane fell silent, and Bella could hear her blowing on her hot soup. She concentrated on trying to clear the holes of the garlic press.
"I'm sorry about your friend," Diane said quietly.
"She wasn't my friend. I barely even knew her."
"What?" Diane asked, sounding almost angry. "But you were so upset!"
"I was—I am—but not really because of her. It's more what she represents that upsets me, and what her death means because of that."
"What does she represent?" Diane asked bluntly. Bella had the feeling that she was being used as a distraction again, and although it irritated her, she couldn't find it in her to care all that much.
"Do you remember when you decided to do this?" Bella asked, turning around so that she could meet Diane's eyes. "That moment that you chose to make this your life?"
Diane frowned slightly, obviously wondering if Bella was trying to change the subject. "No. I don't think I had a moment like that. I knew I was going to do it the moment I found out about it."
Bella raised her eyebrows. She couldn't help but be jealous of Diane's certainty. "Well, you can probably guess that I wasn't like that. I had to be convinced. Gaudet tried to talk me into it a few times over my first year, but he could see that I wasn't going to budge. So he used more drastic measures."
"Like what?"
Bella sighed. She didn't want to lie to Diane, yet she knew she didn't have the strength right now to be honest. "He showed me what I stood to lose if I left. He showed me what I was turning my back on."
Diane looked frustrated by her vague answer. "What's that? What does this have to do with Margot?"
Tears sprung unexpectedly to Bella's eyes, and she ducked her head before Diane could see. "Margot was just another innocent," she said roughly. "She was exactly the sort of person he promised me I could help, and now she's dead. He threw her life away like it was fucking nothing. Goddamn it," she swore under her breath as emotion choked her throat.
"I'm sorry," Diane muttered into her soup.
"Don't be."
"I shouldn't have badgered—"
"I wouldn't have answered if I didn't want to," Bella insisted. "I just need to sort my head out. Too much is going on right now, and I just want to slow it down."
"Hence the cooking," Diane observed shrewdly.
Bella managed to crack a smile. "Yeah, hence the cooking. I thought I could take today, you know? Just hide away, and hope that, for just one day, nothing will be able to find me."
At her words, someone knocked loudly on the front door. Bella felt her heart sink. She should have known.
"Don't worry," Diane said breezily. "I don't think it's anything big and scary. It's probably just a delivery for Alice."
Bella allowed herself to relax, only to tense right back up again as she heard a very distinctive voice at the front door say, "I am looking for Isabella."
"What the fuck?" she muttered to herself desperately. Leaving an alarmed Diane in the kitchen, Bella ran out of the kitchen, through the living room, and skidded in the hallway, staring at the person standing in front of Alice with a mixture of shock and wariness.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
River raised a thin, painted eyebrow; her gaze was steady even though, to her, it must have seemed that Bella had appeared from nowhere.
"I need to talk to you," she said haughtily, staring over Alice's head, pretending as if she wasn't there.
"Right," Bella said. She hesitated for a moment. She really didn't want to talk to River, and didn't particularly want to invite her into her house, but at the very least she needed to find out how River knew where to find her. Just so that she could make sure no one else would be able to. "Come in."
Alice stepped back, her eyes fixed suspiciously on River. "I think I'll—"
"Alone," River said emphatically, still refusing to look Alice in the eye.
"Sure," Bella said wildly. The world was determined to screw her over, why should she bother trying to stand in its way? "Why the hell not? It's not like I was doing anything, anyway."
She waved River in and directed her toward her living room. She was about to follow, but the way River moved made her pause. She was practically brisk. River always put up such a sexy, mysterious façade, moving with the fluid grace of a jungle cat. It made Bella nervous that River looked, for once, like a normal person.
"Can you get Edward?" Bella whispered to Alice. "Ask him to listen in."
Alice nodded and sprinted up the stairs.
River looked odd against the brightness of the room. She was dressed all in black, with bright red lips, her pointed teeth just about visible against her bottom lip. It made Bella think back to the first time Edward took her to his house, and how surprised she had been by his family. If she was honest, she had almost expected them to look like River did now.
"Do you want some coffee, or tea?" she asked.
"No, I need your help."
Bella frowned as she sat down, indicating that River should follow suit. River perched on the edge of the couch, her fingernails digging into her knees.
"My help?"
"Yes, I need you to help me with ... with vampires."
Bella fought the urge to roll her eyes. She really did not need this right now.
"I'm sorry, River, but I'm really busy at the moment," she said impatiently. "I haven't got time to get embroiled with your games."
River bristled. "I am not talking about the club," she hissed. "I'm talking about real vampires."
After a brief moment of panic, Bella plastered a tiny smile onto her face. "There's no such thing," she said lightly, as if she thought the whole thing was a joke, but her eyes were hard as they scrutinized River's tight features.
"You can drop the act," River said lowly. "I've figured you out."
Bella leaned back, draping her arm across the top of the couch. "Yeah? What have you figured out exactly?"
"You only come to my club when one of my patrons has been killed," River said darkly. "You became a member after Marion, and then you disappeared for months. Then Jacques died and you came back, just for one night, only to disappear again. Then it was Selene, and most recently, of course, it was Xensor. For a while, I thought it was you."
"Excuse me?" Bella asked indignantly, truly insulted and hurt. "You come barging in my house and accuse me of murder? Where do you get off?"
"Oh, but you are capable of murder, aren't you?" River asked, her dark eyes unbelievably hard. "You just don't hurt humans."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I was this close to going to the police," River continued. "I know I had no evidence, but I had to try to protect my family. Then you brought your friend, Edward, to my club, and I knew that something was wrong. That I was wrong. He is very beautiful, isn't he? Pale skin, dark eyes, a rather unearthly quality to the way he moves and talks … I have seen that kind of beauty before, Isabella. I had just never connected them together."
"I really don't think—"
"Because it was them that you were after, wasn't it?" River pressed. "I was so distracted with the deaths and my suspicions that I never realized that when someone died, they would always disappear too, those beautiful creatures. You come to my club when there is a death because you want to find them, because you kill them to stop them hurting humans. Because they're vampires and you're a vampire slayer."
Bella stared into River's dark eyes, seeing the conviction there, hesitating for a moment, but anger at River's accusation stayed her pity. "You watch too much TV," she said finally, standing up. "Get out of my house."
"No," River said, standing up as well, her eyes wild. "Not until you hear what I've got to say."
"I've heard you, and it's crazy. You need to leave."
"There's always a scorch mark in the alley, and a pile of ashes—"
"I don't know what—"
"Their skin is cold as ice—"
"You need to—"
"No!" River cried desperately. "Stop lying to me! I'm not threatening you, I'm not trying to—I just need your help. He's taken Omar's father, and I need to—you're the only one…" River covered her face with her hands and she fell back onto the couch, her whole body shaking.
It felt like Bella had stuck her finger in an electric socket. Omar's father … he's taken Omar's father.
She carefully lowered herself back into the chair.
"Who's taken Omar's father?" Bella asked quietly.
River looked up, her eyes red. "Are you saying you'll—"
"I'm not saying anything," she interrupted. "Just tell me."
River sat up straight, sniffing loudly, trying to compose herself. "I've never met him, but Omar told me. He said his name was Kahled Kaldas."
River's eyes traveled over Bella's face, trying to decipher from her expression why the atmosphere had suddenly changed.
"Tell me everything you know," Bella said, in a very cold and detached voice. "Everything. Don't leave anything out."
"Omar is my … well, I care about him very much," River said quickly, as if she was worried that Bella would change her mind, and force her to leave. "He came to me last night, worried and upset. Salid Kaldas was his doctor, and their families used to be very close, so Omar was devastated when he heard what had happened to them. Do you know—"
"Yes, I know," Bella interrupted. "Go on."
"Omar was visiting his parents' house in Queens when Kahled came. They were so happy to see him—they thought he was dead—and it took Omar a long time to overcome his relief and realize that something was wrong. Kahled didn't look the same; his eyes were bright red, and when Omar embraced him, apparently he was cold and his skin was hard—like freezing diamonds, he said. Kahled said that he was in trouble, and he asked Omar's father for help. He left with Kahled without question, saying that he would do anything for him. But Omar was worried, and he followed them.
"They only walked for about twenty minutes, to the First Reformed Church of Jamaica. Omar thought that they were going to go inside, but instead Kahled opened up a grate in the street. He kept his distance, but he said that it looked like they were arguing, and Kahled pushed … he pushed Omar's father into the hole and slipped in after him. He wanted to call the police, but he was scared, and he phoned me instead, and I … I told him not to call them. I thought I knew …"
River's words trailed away, and she gazed at Bella with such frantic hopefulness that Bella softened and gave her a tiny smile.
"I don't know why I was so convinced," River muttered to herself, one of her hands tugging her hair. "It's madness, but for some reason I was so completely sure that you were the person I had to find. I was right, wasn't I?"
"Yes, you were right," Bella said softly. She felt so sorry for River that she had to alleviate her fear, even though she knew she couldn't tell her the absolute truth. "The police won't be able to do anything."
"But you will?"
"I'll try. I promise you that I will try."
"But I was right about … Kahled is a vampire, isn't he?"
"River," Bella leaned forward, a wicked gleam in her eye. "There are no such things as vampires."
River let out a breath of laughter.
"You should go back to Omar," Bella said, rising from the chair. "Tell him that you have found help. Just, please, don't tell him anything else. I know that it'll be hard, but it will keep him safe."
River nodded, standing up and wiping her fingers underneath her eyes. Bella ushered her to the front door, but River hesitated on the threshold.
"Here," she said, fishing in her bag for a moment before forcing something into Bella's hand. "Whichever way it goes, can you please call or text me? Just so we know what's happened to him."
"Of course," Bella said earnestly. "And if you have any trouble in the club, you know, if you see anything suspicious at all, you can call me."
River smiled, her whole face softening, looking rather beautiful. "I will. Thank you."
Bella closed the door behind her, the quiet clack of the lock engaging reverberating loudly in the air.
She took a long moment to compose herself, not wanting to show anyone how suddenly and acutely scared she was. She jumped when Diane clapped her on the shoulder.
"Come on," Diane said with grim satisfaction. "Let's figure out how to finish this thing."
A/N: I'm not blackmailing here, but know that every time someone gave me a review, a huge enormous feeling of guilt overwhelmed me and pushed me toward actually getting this thing finished. DutchGirl01, everyone has to thank you that they're getting this today and weeks from now.