A/N: New chapters for my stories are instantly updated to my P atreon, under the same username, as soon as I finish writing them! I will still post new chapters here, just much slower, only twice a month now as I'm putting all my focus on P atreon. I really appreciate all the support I've received from this site, which is why I will not stop posting here, just slowing down. I keep an updated list of the chapters I've posted so far on P atreon on my profile, just so you guys know what to look forward to when I eventually post them here ^^
If anyone has any questions or concerns about me posting on P atreon, please PM me about it and I will explain the move, but please don't post a review about it, please leave reviews to be just that: a review about the story. There was a lot of thought and research about moving to P atreon and I'm more than happy to explain it all. But please, above all else, enjoy the chapter! =D
It was eerily quiet. Everyone was staring at Kate who had a shit-eating grin with absolutely no remorse on her face. Bella had her face hidden in her hands, bent over her lap as she sat down next to the blonde that had a hand curled around the humans' waist.
With a sigh, Tanya dropped her hand from where she had been tiredly scratching her face and decided that her sister had had way too much fun at the humans' expense, "Kate, we've been through this," Tanya said with a tone that spoke of how many times she's had to say this exact same sentence, "We do not steal humans to have sex with them, and no matter what you say, Bella may not actually forgive you for insinuating that you rescued her, a supposed damsel in distress, and saying you should be rewarded properly, leaves a lot of room for the imagination." Tanya said with a stern face that spoke of the long years she's had to deal with her wayward younger sister.
"I'm just saying, a little kiss for taking her away from danger is hardly anything big to ask for." Kate said with a wide grin.
"It is when you tell me that you want that kiss in bed," Bella started, hands still covering her face, "With no clothes on."
"That isn't necessarily the best way to make a good first impression." Eleazar commented from his spot with his wife near a window. They had stayed mostly quiet, watching the scene play out with gentle smiles.
After Carmen had helped Bella into the house, it was evident that the human was definitely out of her element. But that wasn't to say it was necessarily Kate that was making her uncomfortable. The couple assumed it was simply having everyone's attention on her that was causing the human her high embarrassment. It was going to be very interesting to see how Bella would interact with Kate in front of the Denali family when Kate clearly had nothing to hide and literally no shame.
"I made the best first impression!" Kate all but yelled, looking towards Bella to affirm her statement.
Bella finally took her hands away from her face, somewhat confident that her face wasn't as red anymore, "You literally kidnapped me." She deadpanned, happy that she was able to maintain her composure once she was solely focused on Kate. As unbelievable as it was, Kate seemed to be a calming force for her.
"What? I thought we agreed it was Irina? She was the one making all the demands, I was just standing there, admiring your beauty." Kate had started with a scandalous look, a somewhat comical face, but then ended with a seductive purr that didn't help Bella keep her face blush clear.
"Says the one that literally dragged me into the house and then into the car." Bella said, happy that her voice remained strong, not reflecting the flustered feeling Kate was giving her.
Before Kate could respond, Tanya decided they really needed to get back on track, "As lovely as it is to hear your… brand of flirting, we need to talk about what happened with Victoria." Tanya said, acting like a cold shower to definitely Kate and apparently Bella as the girl seemed to shake her head to clear her thoughts as Tanya continued to talk. "We understand that she wasn't with her mate when he was killed, and that you've seen her when you were out swimming, but is there anything else you can tell us about her?"
Bella shook her, "I don't know anything but her name." Bella said with a slight hint of annoyance. "They really didn't like to tell me anything."
Irina couldn't help but scoff at that from her spot in the corner, "They probably thought you couldn't handle the information as a 'mere' human," Everyone could hear the quotation marks without Irina needing to actually give the air quotes, "They always thought they were so much better than humans, often forgetting that they are technically human, just a little more advanced."
"They were always so full of themselves." Carmen said in bored tone from her seat, "I was always so happy when they would leave from their 'family visits' they insisted on having with us."
"It was a bit tedious," Tanya admitted, "But it was always so much fun to mess with Edward and his prudish ways with just my thoughts." The smirk Tanya grew was absolutely lecherous.
"I had always hoped you would have gotten more physical with him." Irina said, her smirk matching her sisters', "I would have loved to see how fast he would have… reacted from you."
Kate leaned into her human, leaning close to her ear, "I would love to see how I can get you to react from me." The ancient vampire husked in the humans' ear, eager to see her mates' reaction.
"Cradle robber." Bella whispered back to the vampire, not even knowing if age was a sore subject or not but wanting to rub something in her face. Bella stared the vampire in the eye, not even paying attention how closer their faces were.
"I haven't even begun to rob your cradle yet babe." Kate said with a seductive smirk, absolutely loving this moment with her mate.
"Can you two please save your awkward flirting for when we aren't trying to have a serious conversation?" Irina drawled, fighting off her own smile from how happy she was for her sister. It was about time one of them found their other half.
"I'll flirt with Bella whenever I want to." Kate said as she slowly pulled away, sitting back against her seat, "I just know that this conversation needs to happen so we can keep Bella safe."
"Thank you so much for your permission Kate." Tanya drawled from her position, shaking her head at her sisters' antics. "Bella, you only saw Victoria that time because she let you, but what would be good to know is if you ever sensed her around besides that time. Usually humans can sense us around, their instincts letting them know danger is around, kind of like a sixth sense. Did you ever feel that before? It might give us an idea of how long she's been around Forks."
Bella shook her head in disbelief as Rosalie's words filtered through her mind. The blonde was always happy to tell her that she had no survival instincts, that she should have been terrified of the Cullen's and Bella had always thought it was because of the connection she had with her ex. Perhaps Bella really didn't have that sixth sense Tanya was talking about; clearly she didn't if she was there, flirty very poorly with the very thing that was supposed to scream danger at her.
Bella let out a humorless chuckle, shocked at how accurate the blonde was; she should have been more surprised that the non-mind-reader would be able to read her so well. "Rosalie used to tell me that I had no sense of self-preservation, that a vampire could literally be right about to bite into my neck and I would know it until my blood was almost gone."
"Don't take it as a bad thing babe." Kate said with a frown, not liking how sad her mate was looking, "It just means that you were born to be to be my mate, so I could meet you and you would be afraid of me." Kate said with a wide smile, absolutely sure of her words. Mates were made for each other after all, and since she was already a vampire, it wouldn't do for her human mate to be afraid of her.
"That's still debatable." Bella mumbled, not fully believing Kate's words; at least not wanting to give in as quickly as she had previously.
Tanya quickly stepped in before the couple, regardless of what Bella said Tanya was sure it was inevitable they would be together soon, could go back into their awkward insult/flirting conversation, "Okay, that's okay." Tanya said quickly, not at all thrown off by Bella's admission. Truth be told, if a vampire didn't want a human to sense them, the human wouldn't. "Then we need to figure out exactly what her plan is and what Laurent's role was." Tanya looked towards her youngest sister, "Did you sense him anywhere?" Tanya asked, knowing already the French vampire was dead, but also knowing her sisters had been in town for at least a full day before Bella ran into them. Perhaps they picked up a pattern of where Laurent went while he was there.
"Actually," Bella said quickly, knowing the answer as Laurent had actually told her exactly what he was doing there. They had already known he was there to see she was alive, and then was killed by the shifters when he started talking about killing Bella, "Laurent told me that Victoria wanted him to get more information on the shifters; she was apparently concerned about getting too much attention from them."
"What would get her too much attention from the pack that didn't know she existed?" Eleazar asked.
"Likely nothing good." Irina muttered, still not happy about how Laurent had played her.
"You know what I want to know though, Tanya?" Carmen asked as she tilted her head to the side as started to look confused about whatever she was thinking about, "Carlisle spent a lot of time with the Volturi, and I know for a fact that while he was there, they had several trials about a vampire going on a rampage after their mate was killed. He would have known the danger Victoria posed to either Bella or Edward. Why would he had not only let Victoria go knowing her mate was killed by his coven, and then leave the human that would likely be her first target since a human is easier to kill than a vampire?"
There was silence again as everyone digested what Carmen had asked and what it potentially meant. Kate's arm immediately wrapped around Bella's waist, pulled her closer to her, not have even thought that Carlisle really should have known better.
Eleazar cleared his throat, a show of how uncomfortable what he was about to say was, "While I haven't been an active member of the Volturi for longer than Carlisle has been alive, I still keep in regular contact with them." He said, then shifted as he thought a little deeper about his next words, "While he had been there, several of my friends had mentioned him, noting that his eyes were the same color mine had turned to after I joined this coven. But they talked about this vampire being strangely interested in how the lone mate acted after their mate was dead."
"Carlisle is as inquisitive as you are dear." Carmen said, though everyone could tell she worried where her husband was heading with this new story that not even she had heard of. "It's incredibly unlikely he wouldn't have learned what happens when one half of a pair dies."
Eleazar had everyone's attention as he straightened his posture, knowing the high significance of his next words, "From what I understood, Carlisle didn't leave because he found the Volturi's diet and supposed lack of care about human life, he left because Queen Athenodora told him to."
Athenodora was the oldest vampire to know to be alive. Her power was what allowed her to live as long as she had and to rule for as long as she had, even after her wife's brother attempted to usurp the queens. Athenodora's power was thought to be trust. She knew who she could trust and how much she could trust them. Add that with her lust for learning and perfecting any and all fighting technique, and her wife's power and support, it was unlikely the Volturi could ever be taken down. Athenodora's word was law. No one questioned her. If Carlisle was told to leave, he would have immediately.
But he likely wasn't happy about it. Not if he was learning so much about an apparent topic he was apparently so interested in.
"Are you suggesting that Carlisle purposefully let Victoria live?" Tanya asked, her eyes narrowed in anger. If that was true, what he was doing was cruel to everyone involved; especially to Victoria.
"I believe, and I can only assume of course, that Carlisle's interest in a broken mate bond caused by death, never faded." Eleazar spoke with a sense of dread, "Perhaps he escalated from only watching when he could no longer watch the trials in Voltera and instead opted to create his interest instead."
"You're saying he purposefully left Victoria alive, knowing Bella was at risk? Knowing what she would do?" Kate asked, her voice so tense that Bella was surprised the blonde wasn't actually growling.
"If what you're saying is true, could he perhaps already know Bella is here?" Carmen asked, "Would a scientist running an experiment keep an eye on his subject?"
"Did Edward even really like Bella, or was he pawn in Carlisle's game?" Irina asked, thinking back to how much the boy had talked about the human that was mute to him and how much he supposedly love this human. Were they somehow apart of Carlisle's plan as well? Did he have something in mind for them. She didn't like that; she didn't like not knowing.
"There are two important questions here: do all of the Cullen's know, and what exactly is Carlisle's endgame?" Tanya asked, her tone letting the entire room know how serious the situation had become.
Bella didn't even realize her hand had moved to grip Kate's as tightly as she could when the blonde could no longer contain her growl. The warrior in Kate was yelling at the blonde to kill everyone that posed a threat to her mate, and that include both Victoria and now Carlisle.
The coming days were sure to be much more chaotic than anyone thought they would be when they decided to clean up the Cullen's mess.
