Bella POV
"Your joking, sorry to break it to you Jace, but I don't have wings, I'm not a pyromaniac, and quite frankly, I don't know jack all about the fountain of life or whatever," I said sighing heavily. It seemed like a possibility, but I didn't want to contemplate it because I knew nothing about Firebirds and if they knew anything about them, they would've told me. Considering that I'm some kind of Phoenix Firebird thing only opened up a whole new can of worms and only answered a single question, what I am. It was a start, but it just wasn't good enough for me.
"Look at the bright side B, being a Firebird, or Phoenix, if there is a difference, then it means you have untapped abilities. The most obvious one being fire, you may turn out to be our most useful weapon against them," he said calmly, sounding much more certain that I was this strange creature. Come on, seriously, I've never in my life thought I was anything but human. I've never magically turned into some weird mythical bird, never set anything on fire with my mind, never even dreamt of anything anything remotely related. Never even read a related book or really considered some weird magical pool of eternal life.
Wait, it would explain why I was so attracted to the Cullen's without realizing it, or even Jake. The Cullen's could live forever, and Jake could probably live a few extra hundred years. Aleera and her family would more or less live forever too. Was that why I always found my way to them? Was I really only intrigued by them in the first place because they were immortal, in one form or another? That didn't sit right with me, I hated the sound of that.
I dismissed that idea quickly, I wasn't interested in any of them as a whole, it was certain ones of them. I'd met Adam and Aleera at the same time, and barely looked at Adam. Same went for Edward and I.
"So what your saying is, if I am a Firebird, I'm like vampire kryptonite?" I said finally, more then a little doubtful. This all seemed rather far-fetched to me.
"Exactly," he said, grinning now.
I sighed, rubbing my face tiredly, "whatever, can we just go see if they've found anything yet?"
"Sure," he said standing and I rolled out of the bed. We both made for the door, "wait," I said quickly, and he glanced at me, "leave it here?"
He looked down at the old leather bound book in his arms and then raised his eyebrows at me, "thought you didn't believe it?"
"I don't-," I argued, and he gave me another unconvinced look, "maybe, I don't know, I just, want to look at it again. Later."
"Of course," he said, this time not teasingly, and set the book down on the dresser. As we left I couldn't help but look back at both the book and the mural. Both of them calling out for me to understand and read between the lines. I shook off the feeling, I had other things to worry about right now. Like getting my fucking girlfriend back.
-xxxxx-
We got downstairs, and then realized everyone was in the basement, so that where we went next. "Anything?" I asked hopefully. There expressions answered the question. I said nothing else and just went to sit in one of the chairs at the small table in the center of the room.
"We've frozen all there accounts, there is some money in all of them, and they'll be flagged and in turn we'll be alerted of their location and the camera feeds will be sent to us," Nate explained, when no one else knew what to say.
"That could be weeks from now, they could be doing anything to her," I said in frustration, and then turned to Adam, "There must be something we can do."
"At least they wont kill her," Connor said quietly.
"Your not helping," I snapped irritably.
"Bella, we don't have a lot of options. It may take a while to find them, but we will find them," Adam said slowly.
"Whatever," I grumbled, standing and exiting the room. Then the basement. Then the house. Then the driveway. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, I just kept going. The guilt, regret and craving all over Aleera just made me keep walking.
-xxxxx-
I must've walked for several hours, until I ended up at some kind of gated warehouse. I hadn't really been thinking straight, I'd just been moving, thought of Aleera and god knows what would be happening to her plaguing my mind.
Several transports were lined up against the wall, and I found myself following a barely noticeable trail of blood. I had to climb over the barb wired fence and cut my left hand, but a weird part of me kept egging me on to go this way. No one seemed to notice me, it was rather late, but to be fair there weren't many people here. I counted half a dozen, all within the building and all looking like they had something better to do rather then continuously watch for teenage girls with weapons running around outside there windows.
I found four bodies laying between a dumpster, which hadn't surprised considering how big the trail of blood and drag marks had gotten. I tilted one of their heads to the side, seeing the very obvious bite marks. Vampires. Maybe even Kaylee and the Volturi. This was just too good to pass up.
I pulled out my phone, quickly dialing everyone back at the house. "Where are you?" Adam snapped angrily, "we've been looking for you for over an hour."
"I've got a lead, it's a warehouse that ships furniture, there are four-," I cut off feeling something small and hard press into my back and grimaced into the night air.
"Drop it," the gruff male voice ordered and I did so, and he stepped on my phone, effectively destroying it. I took my chance, grasping the gun and twisting it away from me, he pulled the trigger, a shot going off and hitting the wall of the building. I spun hard with my fist out, getting him hard enough in the side of the head to knock him off balance. He stumbled backwards and I looped my foot around his and tugged, sending him sprawling to the ground. As he moved to get back up, I brought the end of the pistol against his cheek and he hit the ground unconscious.
I looked around, and heard running, but I was pretty much backed up into a corner. I looked around and then jumped up, kicking off of the brick wall to get most force into to the leap and wrapped my hands around the escape later. I swung back, and my timing couldn't have been more perfect as two men came flying around the corner.
I released my hold on the rusted bars, flying forward and kicking one in the chest, sending him flying backwards into the other worker. I dropped, landing right next to them and kicked one straight in the face, and he fell onto his side unconscious. The other gripped my ankle and twisted it, but thanks to my training, instead of resisting and probably twisting my ankle, I gave into the pull and collapsed on my knees. I turned and struck out again, this time hard enough to knock him out.
I let out a breath, heart pounding and then shook out my now throbbing knuckles. I moved around the building, relieved to see the front door wide open. I stepped through, shivering at the warmth that hit me. I looked around, noting the sudden lack of power and moved towards the wall of the building. Knowing my luck I'd get lost in the maze of weird looking furniture. To be honest, I was expecting something much more sinister, maybe even some coats made of kittens.
I wonder how the Cullen's or even the Volturi had gotten them to go along with this kidnapping thing. Either a lot of money or a lot of threatening. And who the hell needs guns to protect furniture.
I heard foot steps and dropped low, spinning and aiming at the top of the building right as several more gun shots sounded and landed right above me. I took two shots, moving targets were far more difficult and got him in the hip. I shot at the same area, ignoring the echo and the anxiety that hit me, and watched as he fell forward, smashing his head off the rail, then collapsed.
"Four down two to go," I muttered, standing back up and moving even faster this time, this time keeping my gun out.
I eventually found the main office and one of the remaining men burst from the room, launching himself at me. The floor disappeared as he then threw the both of us into several wrapped chairs and a desk. Everything fell apart and I lost my breath in the collision and again when my head bounced off of the concrete.
I struck out again, and then leaned forward and headed butted him. I maneuvered us enough to get my knee up to my chest and I used whatever strength I could muster up and forced him off of me. Once he was back far enough I pulled both my knees to my chest and kicked out, sending him flying backwards and into the wall. He was high enough to hit the back of his head on the bottom of the railway and I couldn't tell if he was dead when he hit the ground. But to be fair, I didn't really care.
I saw someone emerge in my path and grabbed the first thing I could my hands on, the leg of one of the chairs and whipped it at him. Sadly, the end of the piece that wasn't jagged and all busted up was not the piece that got him in the forehead. He stood there disoriented and shook his head. Through his disconcertion I'd gotten up and as he lifted the gun again, I swung the leg of the desk, much thicker, like a bat and straight into his face.
Satisfied when he didn't get back up I moved for the office, only to freeze and spin at another gun shot. I watched an unaccounted for worker sway, gun pointed at me about a dozen feet to my right, before he dropped his knees and flopped over. Behind him stood Kade, arm extended and gun in hand, he was smirking, "you missed one."
I burst out laughing, heart pounding and completely exhilarated over the last few minutes. "Thanks," I said breathlessly.
Adam and Brandon walked around the corner, "nice work, so what'd you find?"
"Four bodies out in the alley, vampires," I said going into the office.
"Guess there are more furniture burglars in Moscow then we thought," Kade said joining me in the room before others.
"It's not even brand name," I added, going towards the desk and looking through the papers with Adam.
"There probably manufacturing or moving drugs, Kade-," Adam started
"On it," Kade cut in, leaving the room instantly, to search the rest of the warehouse I guess.
Brandon just strolled around the desk and sat down at the computer to work his magic. "They have cameras," Adam said to Brandon, who just nodded slightly, not even looking around to see if he was screwing with him or not.
"They're last delivery was today, twelve hours ago to St. Petersburg, they may have arrived already. I don't think it's going anywhere else," Adam said absently.
"They've arrived, they did however make an unscheduled stop in Veliky Novgorod," Brandon muttered to us, still typing away, when we just stared at him in response he glanced at us, "there's a tracker in, which supports the drug theory."
I dropped the papers, they were pretty much useless. "Where is that exactly?" I asked frowning and turning to the world map, it didn't even have the place on it.
"It's on the route to Estonia, got the camera feeds for this afternoon?" Adam asked, a tad impatiently.
I surveyed Adam for a moment, wondering how his missing sister was effecting him. I hadn't really thought about the reaction everyone would have to it. Had any of them slept at all? They loved her as much as I did, though in my opinion that was debatable, I didn't think anyone could love that nut job as much as I did. But they all appeared to be very restless without their baby sister. It was good to know everyone was working there hardest, and that was saying something. I could re-cap all of the crazy shit they'd done and be here for days trying to sift through it all.
"Yeah, there up for you," he said distractedly.
"Wait, what's on the other side of Estonia?" I asked frowning, why did that feel so much like a red stop sign to me?
"To the left is Latvia, then there's the Gulf of Finland and then straight ahead across the Baltic Sea is-," I cut off Adam, and he scowled at me, he was really getting tired of everyone cutting him off.
"Sweden! There going to Sweden!" I said everything clicking in. "They told me a while back that they had a house in Sweden that they hadn't used in years."
"Which means trap," Kade said, having overhead from outside and re-joining us.
"Kade's right, they wouldn't take her to Sweden knowing full well they told you they have a residence there unless they wanted you to come," Brandon said, cutting off and looking at us.
"There," he said jutting his chin at the television screen in the top right corner. We all looked over to see none other then Edward, Kaylee and Demitri appear and stroll in like they owned the place.
"I found several kilos of cocaine as well," Kade added.
"Edward probably read one of their minds," I said letting out a huff of air.
"How'd you even end up all this way out here in the first place?" Brandon asked eyebrows raised as we exited the building.
"I don't know, I just started walking, I wasn't really paying attention," I admitted. I got lucky is what happened my mind reminded me slightly bitterly.
"Bella, I wouldn't chalk this up to getting lucky," Kade said softly, seeing the look on my face I guess.
"I assume you were thinking about Aleera?" Adam guessed.
"I'm always thinking about Aleera," I said unashamedly. I'm sure she was the same way, I wonder if she was starting to regret meeting me, damn was I bringing a lot of problems and pain into her life.
"Your bond with her brought you here, shit is that ever starting to come in handy. Your more psychic then the rest of us, all we do is keep coming back to life," Brandon said grinning at me. All of them couldn't have looked more relieved now.
I just shrugged and then grinned a little after tossing over the last hour or so in my mind. So maybe luck wasn't the only thing that was contributing to finding my girlfriend. "Excellent, we know there general destination. Sweden," I said thoughtfully. Yes, I was going to get my girlfriend or die trying.
-xxxxx-
Everyone was still moving fast to find the location of the Cullen house hold, but back accounts couldn't be traced that far back and there wasn't a whole lot to go on aside from Sweden. Though it was better then nothing. So i distracted myself by going over the mural and the fairy tale story over and over again. Until Jace interrupted me anyways. He plucked the book from my hand, snapping it shut and handed me a cup of coffee. I glanced around the room, realizing it was now late morning and I'd been sitting here for over six hours. That explained why i was so sore.
We sat silently, and i didn't need to look at my new brother to see that he probably looked as disheveled as i did. i doubted if anyone had slept. I may have dozed off, but i think I'd zoned out looking at the same page for an hour more then anything. "Jace, do you remember the night Aleera tossed me into the pool?"
He frowned, and then gave me a weird look, "yeah, why?"
"You guys made this big deal out of my being Edward's singer, then asked those weird questions about whether or not I'd ever want to be turned why?"
"Aleera didn't tell you?" he asked, mildly surprised.
"No, it never really came up," i said shrugging. It really hadn't, or at least not around me. I didn't really care anymore, i wasn't with Edward.
"It's a theory Adam and Aleera have. We've across singer relationships before. There very," he hesitated, thinking for an apt word, "unstable."
"Explain."
"It's more of an obsession," i quirked an eyebrow, as if i hadn't noticed that part of our not so slightly dysfunctional relationship. Especially now. "Its not as rare as you'd think, were not sure why there are singers. It's like a huge group of people, both turned and not, would've been attracted to each other for two reasons. The human, you, would find the creature fascinating, amazing even. The vampire, would find the human entrancing, mostly because of their blood. The vampire would constantly be attracted to this person, where the fascination on your end would dim over time, not for the other though, it would be continuous, endless, to the point where he'd always want you, regardless of whether you wanted them or not. Don't get me wrong, the love is real, to an extent. But it also isn't exclusive to just those two people."
"So your saying there are a bunch of people ou-."
"Vampires. Once your turned the bond will have died out, or once your dead, then you'd reverse and be attracted to the human. Sure you could still love one another, but that all depends on whether you, the human, stays themselves."
"Stays themselves?" i asked confused. This was like vampire 101 or something.
"I guess there's quite a bit Aleera neglected to mention. When a vampire changes, for obvious reasons, their general personalities flip flop, and they stay that way. Very hard to change or grow emotionally and mentally afterwards. So there either the exact same person they were when they died, or there entirely different."
"You don't know why were like this?" i asked confused.
"Actually, Connor has a theory about that," he said cringing a little.
"Go on."
"Breeding," he said bluntly, and i stared at him, the words not registering.
"As in," i let the words hang there when he nodded. "Well that's kind of fucked up."
"Yeah, no kidding. There species can't have children, but we have researched slightly unorthodox stories about woman getting pregnant with vampire children, and we've even heard several legends of a vampire woman getting pregnant. Though stories are well buried by the Volturi. All of them describe the singer bond being involved, but only on parent usually survives one way other the other."
I didn't really know how to respond to that. That was like saying my entire relationship on Edward wasn't all that real and he only wanted me for some half vampire baby mama. Jace said it himself, he doubted it both of us would live through something like that and i couldn't help but wonder how Edward would end up dead if i didn't. I could see why i would die, but why would he if i didn't?
"Wow," was all i could say, "so how does Aleera fit into all this?"
"it's not irresistible," he said bemused. "It's a choice, either give into the attraction or don't. In the end you chose your feelings for Aleera."
"Well it wasn't much of a competition," i said thoughtfully. Weird vampire attraction or not, i would always pick Aleera, even just on the principle that she'd never abandoned me.
