Cat Got Your Tongue?
Chapter 23
Bella's POV
Alice is acting odd today. I notice it almost immediately because, even though I pretend to be oblivious to her, I'm actually hyper aware of the littlest vampire.
From the corner of my eye, I watch her arrive with Jasper (her husband of 80 years- and doesn't that suck extra when I think about it?) as I force a smile and a laugh at Alexis and pretend ignorant to her presence. From the corner of my eye, I watch Jasper place a hand on her shoulder. From the corner of my eye, I watch Alice watching me.
For weeks now Alice has all but ignored me (I'm aware that this is exactly what I wanted). Looking miserable and frayed, I watched her (while pretending not to watch her) stare off into space and do her best to respect my wishes.
She's not ignoring me now, and it's enough to turn my head fully and our eyes to meet. My chest tugs as it always does, and Alice takes a step in my direction.
In a bit of panic, I quickly turn away. It wouldn't do to backslide; it finally seems like I have a handle of my cat again. It's been a few weeks since I've started cuffing myself to my bed, and it seems to be working. Nothing has been out of place (namely me) when I wake up.
"All good?" Ivy asks, sending a worried look over my shoulder.
"All good," I confirm, deliberately not turning back. I don't know how much longer I can do this.
I can feel Alice's eyes following me all day, and it's disgruntling. It's impossible to ignore; I have to stop myself more than once from looking over, and I wish I could blame it on the cat, but it's being strangely docile today. Alice has just always been able to draw my attention without effort.
Almost unwittingly, as the Cullens pile into the Volvo at the end of the day, it's my eyes following Alice as she climbs in. I have the strange sense that something has changed, but I just don't know what.
"Can…" I hesitate, glancing to my nearest pride member. Ian blinks at me. "Can we run home?" I ask.
He shrugs, tossing the van keys to Angel. "You drive today. Izzy and I are running home," he says through the window. "We'll see you there."
Angel dismisses us with a salute before climbing over the console from the passenger seat to the driver's and puts the van into reverse. As they pull out, Elliot immediately launches himself from the back into the open front seat. When Ian looks back at me, he raises his eyebrows.
"Well?" he says, gesturing to the tree line.
I glance around a moment, noticing a few people looking over curiously, but it doesn't really matter what they think, does it? We are worlds apart now. Probably from the moment I discovered vampires were real, though to be honest, I have always felt disconnected.
I take off towards the trees, putting distance between me and the humans, and with each footfall, I feel the cat stirring more restless in my chest.
It's an agonizing feeling, this desperation, drive, need, to get out of my own skin. I barely have time to kick off my pants before my bones start snapping.
Ian isn't too far behind, but he takes the time to collect both of our clothes and stash them in a waterproof bag under a bush that's kept for emergencies. Then he's shifting too, and I lead the way deep into the wilderness. But no matter how fast I push my legs, or how many trees I rake my claws down, I just can't shake this rising restless anxiety.
Eventually, I stop shredding the bark from trees. The motion, and usually satisfying feeling, just doesn't work. I pry my claws from the tree I had been working on and glance toward my friend.
Ian sprawls on his back under one of the few untouched trees that surround us, arms crossed behind his head and as naked as a human can get. He looks over when there is a pause in my destruction, raising a lazy eyebrow. "Feel better?"
I grimace, letting my bones crack back into that of human, groaning a bit at the pain as the last one snaps into place.
"No," I say, striding forward to flop on top of the man (I really don't know how he can pass for still being in high school).
I sigh into his chest, just wishing for this nagging feeling to end, but I know it won't. It's getting harder and harder to remember why I resist. It's getting harder to see why it's worth it.
Ian lets me use him as a body pillow, comfort pulsing from the bond, and while it helps, even that doesn't get rid of my unease. If anyone outside of the Pīsica's stumbled across us, it'd be hard pressed to explain that our naked cuddling is purely platonic. Charlie would have an aneurism before I could open my mouth. It's lucky we're far too deep for anyone to stumble across us, and if by some miracle some hikers were to come close, I can hear the forest's inhabitants for miles. Being able to be part of it is a miraculous thing.
As the minutes pass, my fingers absently trace the tattoo on Ian's peck- the one connecting him, me, all of us, together. Then my fingers rove to the other peck, and my attention sharpens in curiosity as I trace the raised spiraled scar there.
"How'd you get this?" I ask.
Ian's entire body stiffens underneath me, and I look up in concern. The green ring in his eyes shine brighter than normal as they blink at me slowly.
"It's the bond mark of my previous pride," he says after a long moment.
I sit up, alarmed. My first instinct is disbelief (they told me that's impossible). Then, concern for my friend overrides that.
"Can I ask what happened?" I venture slowly, gaging the link to see if this is something I can push on, or if it's a trauma I should steer away from.
He sighs, pushing himself into a sitting position as well. "Centuries ago, I lived in Europe with a pride of three others. I joined them after Maida bit me to save me from a gang of thieves. I was with them a hundred years," he muses, hand coming up to trace his scar. He suddenly bares his teeth in something feral. "Then the vampire 'rulers' there tried to wipe out all of the Children of the Moon. My entire pride was slaughtered."
The silence after that statement is deafening. Only, it's not silent. The forest noises don't stop to marvel or soak in the true horror of that one sentence. How silly my perceived problems and abandonment issues must seem to him. Issues that stem from vampires leaving me.
I scoot as close to Ian as I can possibly get and wrap my arms around him. He hugs me close with a sigh. His emotions push at me, but they are just a shadow, present but weak. This injury is old, scabbed and scarred and faded with time- much like his first bond mark.
….
A week passes and, along with it, another new moon which is spent in a giant, humanoid, cat pile. Each day, I have to deal with Alice's sudden renewed interest in me. It's much harder to ignore her when I feel her golden gaze burning me in the halls or across classrooms.
It's much harder to ignore her with Ian's story burning the back of my mind. The story, combined with my cat's insistence to just be with the pixie, wear at my nerves even more.
There's so much that I don't know about my pride mates. Did any of the others have previous prides? I don't think so. I don't remember seeing any other makings on any of them that could be a bond mark. But how did they get bit, how old are they really, how did they meet each other?
I've come to realize that I've been very self-absorbed and selfish since the day I met them.
"Have any of you ever tried telling a human what you were? Like, after you first got bit?"
Alexis tilts her head back and forth in thought, leaning against the picnic table.
"My father saw me on my first full moon," she scratches her cheek idly. "He gathered up the whole town to run me off with their pitchforks."
Damn. I swallow hard.
"You thinking about telling your dad?" Eva asks, munching on her bag of chips she carefully keeps out of reach of anyone else lest it get stolen.
"Ah, I'm sure that won't happen with you," Alexis says, seeming unbothered by what she just told me. "It was a different time back then. You know, when they still did witch hunts and believed psychotic people were possessed by the devil."
"I was kind of thinking about it," I admit, shrugging uncomfortably. "It's just, I've realized that I've kind of been an ass lately. To everyone, but especially to Charlie. I haven't been fair to him."
"Yeah, you are kind of an ass," Angel informs cheekily.
"But we love you anyway," Ivy quickly finishes, making me smile.
"You know what? Just for that, let's go pretty boy," I say, swinging around on the bench to slam my elbow down on the table. "I can take you."
Elliot whoops, sliding down the opposite bench to make room across from me.
The oldest Moon Child shakes his head as he flops down into the open space, but a huge eager grin spits his face in half. "Bring it on, kitten."
He grips my hand hard in his, and I can feel the supernatural strength coiled and ready in his muscles.
"Ready?" Alexis calls cheerfully. "Set? Go!"
The resulting weight suddenly pressed against my arm is immense.
"Damn it!" I hiss, immediately pressing back as hard as I can against his hand. I search for my cat, trying to touch it like I'm supposed to- to just touch it through the bars rather than open the door.
I find the cat easily enough, but the cat is a wild thing. My arm trembles under the weight of Angel's assault on my arm, but every time I reach for the cat, it swipes its angry claws at me.
Alexis moans when my hand slams into the table, signaling the end to our game.
"Sorry, I tried," I offer helplessly. "The cat just doesn't like me very much."
"The cat is you," Alexis sighs before slapping her hands down on my shoulders. "You're fighting yourself, Iz."
I moan miserably, flopping forward on the table to bury my face in my arms. As the bell rings, I turn my face to the side with a sigh. As I do, I catch Alice's penetrating gaze through the cafeteria windows.
The cat doesn't like me, but the cat is me? That's some deep psychology shit right there. Damn it all.
A/N: Guys, at this point I just want this story to end. I don't get excited about writing it at all, but I promise I'll finish it. Soon. Hopefully. I think there will only be a few more chapters since our main villain died in like... chapter six? I'm not even going to go check.
Thanks for reading though, guys. You are the only reason I still write this one.
Happy 4th to all you American readers.
~Silver~