The Mother's Loving Touch

Valencia's POV

"Well since I'm all power and all," Aurora began as she flipped her blonde hair back. I had to roll my eyes at that action. "I think I will let you go first before I glue you to the ground."

I smirked at her. "Very well then, I hope that you won't regret this."

I turned to Ambrosine whom was looking around the area, probably trying to find an escape. I growled at her which caused her attention to instantly turn to me. "Even if you find a way to escape out of here, I will still be able to find you. Remember, you can run from me but you can never, ever, hide from me."

She lowered her serpent head and casted her eyes on the ground. I chuckled quietly at the display before briefly glancing over at Estrella. When I noticed that she was still glaring at Anthony, I sighed. I needed to give Estrella more credit for actually caring for me. Quietly frankly, I didn't deserve it.

"Well, I'm still waiting unless you're chickening out." Aurora called out.

I turned, gave her one death glare before rising the temperature in the room. Bella didn't seem to be affected by it, but the vampires in the room were gasping and of course, the Siren and Harpy as well. I could feel the extent of my power, the power that I had been suppressing for all these time under Anthony's watch. I couldn't describe the feeling of my wings freeing themselves and expanding out from my back. Not to mention the feel of my feathers against my bare skin. When I felt my claws touching the concrete floor, I couldn't help but let out a joyful cry. That joy didn't last long when my transformation completed, and I was standing as tall as Ambrosine, although slightly bigger than she was. I looked down at the people below me, looking up at me with shock and fear in their eyes. The look on Aurora's face was priceless.

"Well, still want me to make my first move?" I asked, my voice ringing throughout the room.

She didn't answer so I took a step forward and shook the tension out from my long neck. I hadn't been in this form for far too long. When I saw her blinking off the shock, she quickly snapped her attention at me and tried her best to hold me down with her gravity controlling power. I let out a chuckle that sounded like a bird shrieking, but I didn't care. At least she was experiencing my full power. Now I could take all of these stupid people out and leave. The world would be better off without these fools fighting each other for dominance over the world.

I turned to Anthony first, my nostrils flaring as I took another step forward. My first target had always been Anthony since I never did give two cents about these worthless vampires. If they couldn't withstand my fire, then they were all weak to me.

"Wait Valencia, please, surely we can talk about this." Anthony began to beg as he began to back away from me. It was only just him in the view, the vampires around him had quickly scattered away from my advance.

"We've talked enough, Anthony. It's time for me to determine who will win the fight between us." I responded before opening my beak. He conjured up a shield to protect him, but as soon as I fired the fireball out towards him, the impact and the heat of it was enough to penetrate his shield and hit him, knocking him back.

That wasn't enough. I needed to hurt him more. So I continued to release my fireball, letting it rain down upon his form until half of the area was covered in smoke. I waited for the smoke to clear, and when it did his body was laying on the ground, completely charred from head to toes. It was sad that he wasn't even dead yet.

He began to stir and I narrowed my eyes down at him. With quick and long strides, I stood over him with my claws trapping him to the ground. "Surely that attack would have killed you, yet you decided to live? Do you want to suffer more?"

He let out a whimper and that was enough for me. I started to put more pressure on the foot that was holding him down, slowly and painfully crushing him underneath me. All I could see before me was him and my foot, crushing him and hearing the bones inside his body giving in. His whimper turned into a cry of pain and I almost laughed at that. With a final push, my foot completely crushed him. His blood was pooling around my foot and I looked at it with disgust. I lifted my foot off of him and shook off the dirty red liquid, before turning to the vampires and the, well, non-vampires.

"So, who's next?"

I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on every single one of the vampires. They feared me, I could tell by the way they flinch at me when my eyes landed on them. The Cullens didn't flinch though, so I thought that they would want to die next. Perhaps those who fear me would have the privilege to die last, or watch me kill and anticipate how they would die. The first one to go would be that little pixie. She was glaring at me the whole time and while everyone was shock over my true Phoenix form, her glare didn't even fade. She was still clinging over the fact that I had Bella first, as in...in bed and such. She should be thanking me, not hating me. I was pretty sure that Bella used that experience on her already.

"Since no one volunteers, I'll pick." I grinned as I lowered my head, looking straight at Alice Cullen. "You."

"No!" Bella immediately objected.

I sighed and turned to look at her. "What? You clearly can't stop me."

"Yes I can." She shouted and with her speed, she moved towards where Estrella was standing. My eyes widened a little in surprise when she quickly raised her hand that was holding onto a scorching fireball so close to Estrella's marble face. I saw Estrella flinching from it, but Bella was holding her so firmly that I could smell the burning charcoal that was giving off from where Bella was holding her. "I will burn her on the spot if you don't cease your attack."

I narrowed my eyes. I've never seen this side of her before. Maybe I pushed her too far but it was all for a good course. Now that she was actually threatening me in hope of making me stop was actually flattering. She had finally learned that if she wanted something, she would need to demand it. If being nice wasn't enough, be aggressive and take charge.

"Wow," I said, chuckling at her. "I'm so proud of you, Bella. Finally you're aggressive. I guess I've pushed all of your buttons, didn't I?"

She snarled at me, inching the fireball closer to Estrella's face. "I'm not amused Valencia and I'm not sure why you are. Your lover is at my mercy and you're still standing there, laughing. Don't you have any feelings at all?"

I was quite taken aback at that question. Thinking back of what I had been doing ever since I got here, all I was doing was taking pleasure in seeing the painful looks of my victims as I killed them. Not only that, I clearly was taking pleasure in tormenting Ambrosine when the woman clearly wanted to flee. I also hurt Estrella, more than once, both in my words and actions. Most of all, I enjoyed, oh so very much, at killing Anthony. The feel of his torn body crushing beneath my foot was one heck of a sensation. I didn't have any feelings, at all, while doing all these nasty things. However, when I thought back of the time that Bella had betrayed me without much of a second thought it brought anger back into me, and all I could do now was to glare down at her with a growl.

"You've taken all of my feelings the moment you turned your back on me, Bella. Do not talk about mercy when you clearly didn't show me one ounce of it."

She lowered her hand as I watched the fireball slowly being removed from Estrella's face. Perhaps I hit a nerve. I knew that Bella was too weak to hold up the offensive side of her for long. She was still lacking that; the determination to hold on to that aggressive side of hers.

"I was...confused back then." She murmured, her posture wasn't enough for Estrella to counterattack unfortunately.

I snorted. "Lame excuse."

"And what about you?" The pixie decided to speak up. "You left Estrella for Bella without much of a second thought. What does that make you?"

I didn't exactly know how I was able to leave Estrella for Bella without a second thought, after promising that I would always and forever love her, but what Alice said brought more anger into me that I've never thought I would have this much. I turned to her and, without thinking, fired a fireball directly at her. All of her family members had already stepped out of the way, but Alice was too slow to get avoid it. Well, it only burned off half of her shirt but that wasn't my intention. Burning her clothes was absolutely not my intention!

Estrella's scream stopped me from carrying on. When I turned and looked, Bella was literally burning off Estrella's face. I hissed at her but she didn't stop, and I wasn't expecting her to.

"You know Bella, if you kill her, it doesn't mean that I would stop killing everyone else."

"You'll be left alone." She retorted.

"So will you." I smirked, taking the advantage to take one step closer to her. "Do you think that I've figured out the way to kill you? Then again, if I did I doubt that I would use it. If my mate was to die and I would be left alone, so will you. I will kill off every single family member, friends and the people that you care about. Then you will be exactly like me, alone with no one to talk to, no one to trust and no one to love."

She growled and opened her mouth to retort back, only to be interrupted by another Cullen.

"Enough!"

The both of us turned to look at her, the woman that claimed that these 'children' were her sons and daughters. It was amusing, but not as amusing as I never did try to catch her name.

I sighed in irritation and shook my head. "What now?"

The chestnut vampire took a step forward, and another step until she placed herself right in between me and Bella. At that time Bella had already stopped tormenting Estrella, and was looking on with wide eyes in shock. If I knew this woman, I would probably be shock as well. Right now I was just impressed by her courage of placing herself right in front of me. If she had one bit of a brain cell in that forever frozen brain of hers, she would know that I wasn't one to negotiate at this point.

"I wish to talk to you in your human form. It is odd enough to talk to a bird that actually can talk back." She said as she looked straight at me in the eyes. There was no fear left in her golden hues. There was only love, understanding and compassion. But those weren't enough to make me turn back at will.

I laughed. "Wow, seriously? Who are you to tell me that? You're not my mother and last I've checked, my real family didn't even want me!"

She sighed and shook her head in...disappointment? "Please, I will promise you that no harm will come to you when you turn back into your human form."

Harm? No one can bring me harm, unless she was talking about Aurora. In this form though, I did not give a shit about who would be able to harm me or who wouldn't. So I lowered my head and looked straight into her eyes, before snorting.

"One wrong move while I'm in my human form, and everyone in this room will be burned alive. Am I clear?"

And why I was even negotiating with this woman?

She nodded her head and I sighed before returning to my human self. I missed my Phoenix form instantly. I had been staying in this human form for far longer than I should have. Living with Anthony was torturing enough when he always had his eyes on me and I couldn't exactly be free.

The woman smiled in approval. "That's better."

I frowned. "What do you want to talk to me about? Make it quick, I'm wasting enough time as it is."

She sighed. "My name is Esme, and I would appreciate it if you would just sit down with Bella and talk about your issues with her. Sort them out instead of continuing on this path of revenge and hatred."

"What in the world are you suggesting? I don't care about your name and my business is clearly not your business."

"And I can see that you will regret this in the future." She firmly stated, which effectively shut me up. "Surely your problem is with Anthony, but you already killed him. Now it's only Bella left and you're taking it out of Alice. Do you honestly think that when you kill off everyone in here and leave Bella alive, you will be happier?"

She actually had a point. After killing Anthony I honestly didn't know who to kill next. I could start with the leader of the Volturi but killing him because he wanted more power wasn't such a good enough reason. He was different than Anthony and at least he didn't use humans for his own gain, as in, enslaving them and literally brainwashing them. So all that was left was Bella, and since I couldn't kill her I had to go to the next best thing; Alice Cullen. But what was the point of talking to Esme when I could do that now?

"Will you be happy knowing that you will never love again? Will you be happy that there will be no one left for you to care about? Will you be happy that there will be no one left to love you the way that Estrella loves you?" Esme continued on and her words began to sink into my skull.

I started to recall my past, the time I was alone and the time that I had so much fun with those bounty hunters that came for my head but never succeeded. The price on my head was the only thing that kept me thinking that people still wanted me, still thought of me even if all they cared about was getting my head and get that big money. They were all humans then and rarely any supernatural beings would even cast one look at me. Now that my presence had been known, and I got more respect that I ever did back then, I didn't feel so much alone anymore. The thought of reliving my past frightened me, and it got me to shudder as I pictured myself in the future with no one by my side.

"No," I murmured in respond. "I won't be happy."

And at that moment, I felt so small, so fragile and vulnerable. I could be strong, I could be big, I could be frightening and feared by so many people. And yet this woman, this vampire opened my eyes to the future that I did not want t see if I was to kill them all. I would have no one to walk with me. No one would even want me. They would only fear me and scatter away from me as if I was a monster. I felt like a monster. It hit me like a truck and fell on my knees, reliving the short moment that I had been killing without much of a mercy. Surely, those people deserve to die but not in the way that I had been killing them with.

I felt a pair of arms wrapped around my shoulder and gently easing my head towards the owner's shoulder. I laid my head there as I felt cold yet soft fingers running through my scalp in a soothing pattern. I relaxed shortly after but that didn't mean that I wasn't still out of it. The screaming and the cry and the begging were still there in my head, and even though it was fading, it was still loud enough for me to hear.

"It will be alright. You will not be alone, I can guarantee that." Esme said softly.

I sobbed. For the second time this month I sobbed and for the first time, everyone was there to see it. Even though I wouldn't admit to anyone but myself this, I was broken. It wasn't Bella that had done it or anyone else. In truth, I've done this to myself. I've been craving for so much attention, so much love that I didn't see what I actually needed in my life. It wasn't a want that I wanted all these attention, it was a need. I needed that long term attention that I was the only one to receive. I've screwed up that chance once and I've received a second chance, and I've almost ruined it again. I was unfair to Estrella. I was unfair to everybody and I suppose, I was unfair to myself.

"You can't guarantee that." I responded after my sob had died down. I looked up at her to see her smiling down at me.

"I can." She said and chuckled as I gave her a questioning look. "You can come and live with us. We'll help you get better."

I heard a groan and I knew that it wouldn't be appropriate. But when I tried to refuse the offer, she put a finger on my lips, silencing me as she shook her head. "I won't take no as an answer."

I sighed. Living with the Cullens, how bad would that be?


A/N

Yay for Esme, right?

Sorry for the slow update. I have no excuse. Should probably fear from you guys now...