A/N: so, before you guys say anything, if you know about Egiptyan history, you'd know none of the characters I'm about to say lived in the same years. some were contemporary to each other but they werent necesarily direct family. the thing is I love them all, and, seeing as though I didnt exactly know all the names of all the members of the family and well, they were all pretty much immortals, let's just pretend that they were all brothers and sisters. please. anyway, this is the only time when I'll mention this so don't pay much mind to it. also, i'd like to apologize for the mistakes on the last chapter. I'm about to fix them. sorry.
Chapter 22:
"So… you're a werewolf, uh?" Bella awkwardly commented making both Jacob and I roll our eyes.
"Last time I checked." He spat at her making her flinch slightly.
I started to walk a little faster towards the shore; arms crossed across my chest, and left them behind. I still could hear them, though.
"You have to stop, I mean it's wrong." Bella told him, confusing me.
How could it be wrong? It's not like he can help it. It runs in his blood, it would happen one time or another.
"What? I'm not the kind of monster you like? You didn't seem to have trouble with the bloodsuckers." He said angrily.
Or with me. I silently said, suddenly very interested as to where this was heading.
"B—but you've killed people Jake! They've never hurt anyone!" she yelled, making me turn around immediately.
Wrong again, Bella. I thought before saying: "They haven't killed anyone! God, Bella what the hell?" I cut into their conversation startling both of them.
"What? Then who has?" she frowned and directed the question to both of us, waiting for the first one to answer.
"Oh, come on! I thought you were smarter. Laurent has and probably Victoria too." I explained her exasperatedly. "They attacked us, remember? And then they killed him." I added.
Her frown relaxed into a look of understatement and she blushed, embarrassed. I can't believe I hadn't put the pieces together. It was so obvious! Jacob's body temperature gets higher than 40 ºC and then he completely disappears claiming to have mono? Then when I finally went to see him, he's in the middle of a fucking storm—without a shirt, May I add—with his hair cut and a freaking tattoo? If that isn't a red alarm I don't know what is—oh! And let's not forget about how some huge wolves came out of nowhere to our rescue—not that we needed it anyway, I had everything under control—and how one of them simply looked me in the eye with those beautiful brown eyes that simply made me melt, I mean come on! You don't melt under a normal wolf's stare, that's just plain creepy! I should've known before.
I should've figured it all out the day he broke up with me but I guess I was into denial because I knew what that meant. I had made a promise to Carlisle, so long ago the memory was almost blurry; I had promised him I wouldn't date Jacob if he phased. And when the sighs started to appear, my brain simply shut them off, ignored them.
"Where do you fit in this story? I mean you know a hell lot of stuff and you lived with the bloodsuckers." Jacob asked me and I ignored the 'bloodsuckers' part.
I looked over and Bella who was looking at me with a pointed look that practically screamed 'tell him now!', I shook my head while she nodded and we did that little battle for about two minutes until I snapped.
"Fine! Ok, I'll talk," I said loudly. Jacob frowned at me and I rolled my eyes.
"Ugh, please don't look at me like that." I said bitterly. "I'm a witch." I shrugged and then smiled innocently at the both of them, hoping that he'd be happy with that and that it'd be the end of it. I already knew it was mere wishful thinking.
"How is that even possible?" Jacob asked without looking at me.
"I don't know. How are you possible?" I said sarcastically.
"Mia… explain." Bella said demandingly.
She apparently was sick of my avoiding of the subject or maybe she wasn't used to see Jacob and me acting cold to each other, I wasn't. I raised my hands up.
"All right, all right." I told her, making Jacob chuckle. Yeah? Let's see if you keep laughing once I'm over. I took a deep breath.
"First, you have to understand that this happened thousands of years ago, even before the Romans or Greeks and before Jesus Christ was born. In that time supernatural creatures and humans lived in harmony but there was dark and light. I, unfortunately, was born in the dark.
«My parents were both mere-people, with a lot of magic. But with one problem: they were good. They didn't approve of the mere-people's behavior; they thought that the humans were kind and worth befriending. They didn't like having to feed off them. There were a few mere-people who thought the same way but were too afraid of expressing their thoughts, my father, however, was brave, so he spoke his mind up. The king hunted him and my mother down and they ran through the 7 seas; their fellow friends and the people who shared the same thoughts they did, gave them shelter but just for two nights no more no less. After 6 hundred years of running, they finally found a place where they and some others could not be disturbed. Unfortunately it didn't last long and all of them were discovered by the king."
I started walking around the beach with them following closely behind. I wondered about how this would affect mine and Jacob's relationship, would we be together again? I was not sure, if he broke up with me because Sam ordered him and I was supposed to be an innocent human, that's ok; but now that he'd know I'm nothing but a monster he'd still break up with me and not just because Sam said so. Although if Sam had my book, he must know about me and if he did then this war was already lost.
"My mother whose gift was taking and giving life, had a spell that could allow them to live on the land; that's how they got out off the water and started living on the land. That's how the veela specie was born." I continued, looking out at the sea longingly. "They traveled a lot, trying to find any kind of living creatures and they didn't find one until they came across a little village near a river—the only river that there was on this area—the village had a population of about 900 people with tan skin, black eyes and dark brown hair, and they happened to be wizards, they took them in and were intrigued by their story; they new that most mermaids were killers but my parents and the rest of the group promised they were not. The years came and went and soon they had created a civilization, with my mother and father as king and queen, they decided to call it the great Egypt. One year my mother discovered she was pregnant and 9 months later gave birth to two beautiful girls; what surprised my dad the most was that this girls had black hair and I'm not talking about dark brown hair, no, their hair was pitch black; that was the only weird thing they had, for the rest of them was complete veela." I told them carefully.
Nobody knew this, only Carlisle and it felt nice to be able to finally let it all out but I was honestly worried about their reaction, Bella already knew I was dangerous but Jacob didn't and I was really scared of his reaction.
"Wait, wait," Bella interrupted. "You said it took them six hundred years to find somewhere. And then you said they built and entire civilization. Shouldn't they have died?"
"No… you see, mermaids and such can live pretty much forever unless someone kills them directly. When my mother died she was five thousands years old and didn't look older than 30." I elaborated.
"And I guess that's why you're here," Jacob jumped in.
I looked at him for a moment, hoping he'd be the same as always. But there was some uncertainty in his eyes that killed my hopes right on the spot. He wasn't sure about me yet.
"Not exactly… My mother had a secret she could never tell but that she ended telling anyway; those girls weren't her husband's. She had had an affair with a wizard and ended up 's how the hybrids appeared. My father didn't learn this until I was thirteen I think, my sister and I were the oldest of our sisters, which meant we had to fight to earn our power and see who would be the one to marry the future king. That fight was to death, I wasn't fond of the idea because I knew Anaksunamun didn't stand a chance but I fought anyway and in the last moment, I let her win."
They both gasped—Bella's gasp louder than Jacob's—and Bella was the only one of them who dared to ask: "Your own sister killed you?"
I stopped walking and turn to look at her.
"No, she didn't kill me, I just let her disarm me; I thought she'd stop... I was wrong. When she was about to kill me I did something only a witch could do, I protected myself by creating a protective circle, I had seen Elijah, who was the wizard at our service, use it and when I was at risk the words were the first thing that came to my mind. My father went into a rage fit and, giving in to his nature, killed half our servants. I had never seen him like that; my mother lately told us the truth and confessed that Elijah had been his lover for the last 14 years. Dad turned his back on us after that and he never spoke to me again. My sister develop her powers 2 weeks after that and Elijah became our teacher. Those were the happiest moments of my life until when I was 17 strange things started happening…" I stopped there and hesitated as to how continue.
How do I tell them that I was actually married? This would definitely be awkward. I ran a hand through my hair and looked out at the sea. Today wasn't that cloudy and it was pretty cool, the air hit my face and made my hair go crazy behind me, making it get in my face once or twice.
"I had been… married off when I was 16 years old to the Persian prince, he was nice I guess but I never loved him and no more than a year later, he died at war. Seeing as though I was supposed to be devastated, they sent me back home and that's when things went down." I explained with a shrug and the occasional eye roll.
Jacob's face was emotionless but his eyes were a complete different story. I knew he was still surprised over the fact that his six month girlfriend was pretty much 3 millenniums older than him and that not only was she a witch but she was also a very dangerous creature who could kill him if she wanted to. Oh, and she had also gotten married already.
"People started to die mysteriously and when the bodies were found they were drained of blood, the habitants blamed the mere-people but it wasn't them because when a mermaid kills she eats organs, blood, flesh, muscle everything except the bones. We can even feed on your soul," I continued after the little pause where I examined the boy I loved. "They were vampire attacks, somewhere along the way they had appeared and were haunting my empire; we didn't pay mind to it until a vampire killed my little brother, Nathaniel.—the ancients discovered vampires were pretty much invincible but as everyone they had their weakness: fire. Seeing as though I'm able to control fire and ice and so is my sister the ancients taught us how to fightthem off, but there was a problem: they were immortals, we weren't. The ancients told my parents that there was a way for us to become immortals—Elijah refused, saying it'd bring great consequences but they didn't listen." I finished, almost unable to continue with the next part, not only because it was hard for me but also because I wasn't so sure about it myself.
"What happened then? I mean, you're here so they clearly did go through with the plan." Jacob said kind of bitterly which stung more than I thought it would.
"Clearly." I said with the same tone. Two can play a game. "A month before my eighteen birthday, on a full blue moon, the ancients sacrificed me and my sister to the god of death, Anubis, as if we were some tribute there was to pay. They took us against our will and when the moon was right above us they drove a dagger made of gold through our hearts and once they made sure we were dead, submerged us on some sort of bathtub each. Wanna know what they were filled with? Blood and it wasn't even mine!" I spat, my eyes watering and my breathing heightening.
How dared he treat me like that? Oh, look at me I'm Jacob and I just figured out I'm a freaking wolf! Pity me and understand my bitterness! Oh, yeah? What about having your own family murder you for some fucking vampires and then said family dies leaving you alone to deal with eternity on your own? That did deserve pity and yet I wasn't going around asking for it.
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Bella assured me putting one hand on my shoulder.
"But I want to." I told her, taking a deep breath. "I woke up four days later. Because I had been under blood for such amount of time I couldn't breathe so I jumped gasping for air the minute I opened my eyes. In the next five months I had fought more than 300 vampires—my sister had an equal number of victims—and had been killed only twice. After a few years things got under control, until one day…"
My voice started to fade a little as I recalled what had happened that day, which was by far the worst day of my life. Jacob and Bella took a step closer, hanging to my every word.
"My highness, there's been a message delivered from Sais." A servant said as he ran into the room that the royal family—except for the king who was in a traveling mission to the city of Memphis—was using as shelter from the heat.
My head instantly shot up and my eyes met my sister's; we knew that the city of Sais had been having trouble with the vampires—all the empire had—and they were between death and life.
"Tell us the message," Anaksunamun—my sister's birth name—demanded without waiting for our mother's permission, although by this time I didn't think it really mattered.
"Sais has fallen, Karnack has fallen, Memphis has fallen, Thinis has fallen and we are the next target." The servant breathed and we all gasped.
For the love of the great god Amun! This was worst than I expected. How could they suddenly win so much power? It didn't make sense. Thinis and Sais didn't have people like me and my sister, they were small cities, they weren't supposed to be in danger; but Karnack and Memphis? They had a great army, I had trained them myself. These people had to have some sort of help, it was impossible for them to suddenly have this much power and population.
"Neferure, daughter, what do we do?" my mother, speaking for the first time, asked me snapping me out of my thoughts.
My eyes slowly drifted towards my other siblings, the younger ones were playing around while the older ones were quietly talking in a corner. My family consisted of nine children: four daughters and five sons. My sister and I being the oldest and followed by one of my brothers and then came another girl and then the rest. I wasn't really sure about the birth order of the rest of my brothers and sisters, I just new the age gap between them wasn't very long.
"Nefertiti, take my brothers and sisters away." I ordered her dead serious. My brother was about to refuse but I sent him a pointed look and he obliged.
"Right, how bad are the damages?" I asked, dreading the answer.
The servant looked down at his feet and back up. "irreparable." He whispered and I felt like the world was crumbling beneath me.
"When will they be here?" I demanded, raising my voice.
The servant opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a heart-breaking loud pierced scream that came from the main room at the begging of the palace, that scream was followed by many others.
"I'm guessing about now. What do you think?" Anaksunamun sarcastically asked, causing me to smirk.
"You think? No, they must be taking a break… I guess this summer." I teased making her laugh and roll her eyes.
"Children! This is not a matter to make fun about." Our mother snapped at us.
"Right. Take mother to a safe place. We'll deal with this."
"Sorry—who's Neferure again? And Nefertiti is Charlotte, right?" Bella's voice brought me back to reality.
I blinked a few times until the vision had faded completely and then looked at them who had different looks. Bella look distressed and Jacob simply looked confused as hell.
"No, no. Anaksunamun is Charlotte's birth name and Nefertiti was my younger sister. As for Neferure, you're talking to her right now." I explained them, Understatement filling their faces and eyes.
"What happened then?" Jacob eagerly asked. Apparently my eventful past interested him. Well, wait until you know who made you a dog.
"All hell broke loose. The entire city was a mess, the palace was the only building standing, bodies were scattered all over the place, we couldn't fight them all and before I knew it I was badly hurt and left unconscious. I wake up two hours later on a Jewish village with a bandaged head and a sprained wrist to learn that my dear sister had taken me out of there and had escaped. Our family left behind to die," I furiously said, my eyes watering and one betraying tear fell down my face.
I wiped it away angrily, I hated it when people saw me cry it made me feel weak and I wasn't weak.
"That was the end of the great city of Memphis, with my sister and I as the only reminder that it indeed existed." I added as I played with my moon pendant and then remained silent. I was done talking, if they wanted more information they had to ask.
I sat on the sand, not giving a damn about my clothes getting dirty anymore, and sighed.
"What happened when you left Rome? You never told me." Bella asked me, sitting beside me.
"Well, I took Charlotte away, very far away and we taught people how to fight vampires—they had started to get out of control again—and traveled the entire world." I shrug.
"If you fought vampires, why are you living with them?" Jacob suddenly asked, his bitter tone apparently forgotten as he flopped himself down on my other side.
"Carlisle changed my mind. I had come across him when he was human and thought he was a nice guy, I taught him and his father everything they knew about vampires, and suddenly one night around 1670 he appeared out of nowhere, I would've killed him if it weren't because 1) I knew him and 2) I didn't hunt vampires anymore." I explained him, hoping it'd be enough for him.
He nodded and looked out at the ocean his brows furrowed together and his eyes on a glare, he was clearly trying to take everything I had told him in. seconds turned into minutes and no one spoke, we simply sat there and looked at the orange-tinted sea.
"That's enough!" Bella groaned as she got up from the ground. "I'm tired of the tension here; you two just discovered shocking things about the other but you clearly love each other." She yelled at us, making me jump. You don't get to see this Bella very often.
Jacob opened his mouth to say something but Bella cut in. "Don't! I'm gonna leave now and I want you to fix this. You either get back together or decide to never see each other again but just talk, I can't deal with this game of yours anymore because my two best friends? The ones I've been with since I moved here? They're not the people sitting in front of Me." she finished and turned around, walking towards the parking lot. We stayed quiet for a few minutes until Jacob decided to talk.
"I have two more question for you, answer them right and we talk—answer them wrong…" his voice faded away and he looked at me right on the eye. My heart started to race, actually scared of what he would ask me.
"Have—have you killed anyone?"
"Yes. But I have a better self-control now; I learned the hard way that just because someone angers me or betrays me doesn't mean I have to kill them. Revenge is never the answer." I admitted while breaking eye contact by looking down at my hands.
He stayed silent for a few seconds before sighing and asking again:
"Why haven't you killed me? I mean, we've been really… close and you've never shown anything that would make me think you weren't human."
I frowned and tried to think of a way of answering that question without telling him that I loved him, we weren't together anymore and I had no right of telling him such things. I sighed and ran a hand through my already tangled hair, my fingers getting stuck at the end of the knots.
"I'd never hurt you—although I'm pretty sure I'd kill anyone who hurt you." I chuckled without humor.
"I stayed here for a reason, Jacob; I wanted to be with you, I didn't want to just leave you behind like you didn't mean anything." I pressed the matter, hoping that was a valid answer for his second question and praying to God I had answered that one correctly—I already knew I had answered the first one wrongly.
"Sam never told me why I couldn't see you; I simply thought it was because I'm not good but then you came here and you just looked at me with those pleading heart breaking eyes and I had to visit you." he started talking and I visibly relaxed, well seems like I passed the test.
I didn't know what to say so I simply stayed in silence; when in doubt, stay quiet.
"He was furious, started to say things like I couldn't be with you because you were dangerous, that you'd kill me the moment we were alone…" he added and I cringed a bit. Well, looks like Sam has my book. Oh, well.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted," He said taking my small hand on his, my extremely white skin practically glowing next to his tanned tone.
"And I'm sorry for playing along with it." I muttered before getting up.
"Can—can we try again?" he asked as he also got up, towering above me.
I smiled before realizing something I had forgotten to tell.
"You need to know something first…"
I started before explaining how Charlotte and I had come to America a long long time ago—so long I cant even remember the year—and had taught the Quileute tribe how to fight vampires—just in case they also invaded America—and seeing as though they had magic in their blood, we taught them a little trick.
"You are responsible for me being a wolf?" he asked loudly and I nodded.
"Why—why would you do that?" he said, the bitter tone back.
I looked around trying to avoid his gaze and about to say sorry when I realized I had nothing to apologize for, I didn't know I'd meet him and I did it to protect all of them.
"It's not like I knew I'd meet you, I just wanted to protect them. That's why Sam didn't let you talk to me, not because he thought you'd hurt me but because he thinks I betrayed you by being with the Cullens. But what he doesn't realize is that this isn't my war anymore!" I explained heatedly.
I was tired of fighting, I just wanted my Jake back and it looked like I wouldn't be getting him back any time soon; at the mere thought of losing him maybe for ever my eyes started to water for the fifth time today and I looked down, trying to control the tears threatening to fall. Out of nowhere, two strong arms wrapped around me and I instantly hugged back, hiding my head on his chest when I felt him bury his face on my hair and breathe deeply.
I sniffed a little bit but he still heard me because he stepped back—his arms still around my waist—and looked at me, not an ounce of bitterness on his features and his warm brown eyes finding my own blue ones—that were shining a little bit because of my tears; sexy, yeah I know (sarcasm intended.)—to then slowly travel around my face and finally land on my lips. I got the hint immediately and stood on my tip toes a little bit but without touching his lips; he smirked at me, knowing I was teasing him and got even closer to me—if that was possible—before pressing his lips against mine, the feeling that that simple action gave me made me unconsciously smile into the kiss.
"I don't care if you're the fucking creator of vampires or something as equally bad; I'm never letting you go again." He told me, his forehead against mine and one of his hands caressing my cheek.
I giggled, yeah actually giggled before stepping out of his hold and taking his arm.
"then, let's go! I want to ask Sam to give you something!"
He laughed but ran after me anyway. "What thing?"
I turned over my shoulder to look at him and smirked. "My book." I said before letting go off his hand and starting to run toward Emily's place.
"You're boo—Antoinette, wait for me!" he yelled after me and started to run too, wrapping his arms around my waist once he reached me.
I laughed truly happy that things were back to normal again, well… as normal as it could be.