Author's Note:
Happy Thanksgiving Folks! Damn am I glad its a break from college. Hope everyone is around some people they love and enjoying the holidays. If not that, watch the football game on the big screen. Honestly, whatever floats your boat; I just wish you and all your loved ones well. I know ima kick it back with my roomies and dogs and stuff myself like there ain't no tomorrow. After this break, I'm gonna have to work it all out like crazy, lol.
ThirdPov
A few weeks went by without any trouble and no sighting of The Nomads. For Bella things changed a bit. The Cullen kids made public displays of engaging with her in school making the whisperings of Isabella rage on. Bella had wanted to remain inconspicuous and would have been a little miffed, but she couldn't be mad with their earnest efforts in getting to know her. Bella, Emmett and Kate were like the three musketeers and would often nerd out about games or talk about the best prank ideas. Lee, Alice and sometimes Emmett and Kate joined Bella when she was with her human friends.
Bella would often go to the Cullens house after school so, she wasn't at home alone. The Cullens and Denali had to adjust to having a human around. While Lee brought out the more human side of them, being around Bella made them more attuned; actually feel it and act it. Lee observed all of this and thought that it really was a wonderful thing that Bella was able to change people so much in so little time.
Jasper would encourage Lee to try and talk to the Denali sisters. Lee wanted to but, every time she felt like she was ready a small niggling doubt in her would worm it's way in her head. Irina's words would play out in her head, "We don't want to see you with anyone else. We should be enough." Lee had conflicting feelings, because she knew what she felt for Rosalie, Alice, and what she was starting to feel for Bella. She knew in her head though that they had mates and couldn't be with her, but that still didn't stop what she felt. Lee cursed the Dragon blood that was in her, sometimes it was just too greedy. She had three wonderful mates already and though things didn't look great right now, she just knew she had to talk to them.
Lee was currently in the music room with Edward playing the piano and violin together. It was Friday and Bella was currently playing Call of Duty with Emmett, Jasper and Kate. The other 'kids' were around the living room watching them decimate the other team.
Lee let the bow slowly caress the string as the song ended and then placed the violin back on the stand.
"Thank you, Edward. I feel more at ease and we made yet another beautiful piece I think."
He gave me a crooked smile, "You're welcome and thank you. Some of the others do know how to play instruments, but they don't play with me. It's nice to have someone to play with."
He started up another song to play. Lee left the music room and made her way to the living room. She was only a couple steps in when she looked over to see Tanya's and Irina snuggling on the couch. If Lee was honest with herself she missed them dearly even though they saw each other almost daily. Lee took in a breath and let it out.
LeePOV
"Tanya, Irina and Kate, can we talk?" I asked.
Irina and Tanya looked at each other and a silent message passed between them. Then they looked at me and Tanya was the one to answer me.
"Yes, come on Kate." Tanya threw over her shoulder to Kate standing up with Irina.
Tanya and Irina walked past me and out the front door. Kate jumped up tossing her controller to Rosalie.
"Take over and kick ass." Kate told her walking past me too.
Rosalie gave me a worried look and I gave her a shake of my head telling her to not worry. I followed the three outside and took off into the woods when they started running. We ran for a couple of minutes and stopped until there was a small clearing.
"We are far away from the house now. What do you want to talk about Lee?" Tanya asked turning to face me.
I licked my lips and looked at all three of their eyes once all three of them were turned around.
"Well, I want to talk about us."
I watched as Irina crossed her arms over her chest, Tanya leaned her weight to one side and put her hand on that hip side and Kate sighed.
"What about us do you want to talk about?" Tanya asked.
I furrowed my brow, there was something here that I wasn't understanding with their demeanor, "I... y-you guys have been really distant and I wanted to know... If there really is still much of an us."
"Why don't you tell us?!"
My eyebrows shot up at Irina's shouting.
"I don't think I understand. Why are you upset with me?"
Tanya put an arm around Irina's shoulder and brought her close and Kate spoke up.
"It's because of the claim you made on Rosalie and how you've been acting with her since."
"I won't apologize for my feelings, nor the events that have happened if that's what you are looking for. All I can say is that my instincts made me protect what I saw as mine. A lot of good that does me though, I've told you she rejected me. I've only kept that charade up so she is not hassled. You know her story and I'd rather her not have to just deal with people's comments and leering. She is family and if I could ease some of her burdens just even a little then why should I not? I would do it for any of my family memebers, hell for any of your coven members. You all mean that much to me. Rosalie has found her mate in Bella and I have been actively pushing them together at school. If you've noticed at all, I no longer keep up that charade with Rosalie out of respect for Bella's and Rosalie's budding feelings. Besides you guys were the one that asked me for space until you were ready to talk to me again. You have not come to talk to me; I sought you out today because I saw Tanya and Irina cuddling on the couch. I miss you guys even when I see you daily. Yes, I may have potential mates. Yes, I may develop feelings for them. Does that mean I'll just have sex or mate them then and there? No. Dragons are different from you vampires. I feel the mating bond differently than you do. I understand that vampires can be highly jealous, but do not constrain me to your jealousy. I won't betray you, my mates, just because I may have developed some inkling of feelings. I love all of you for who you are. If that is what you were scared of, did you really have so little faith in me? That I would just betray what we have?"
I felt a little miffed at the beginning of my speech, but at the end I just looked at them searchingly. I met Irina's eyes first and she looked to the side from my eyes. I moved my gaze to Tanya and she closed her eyes pinching the bridge of her nose sighing. When I looked to Kate she was they only one that held my gaze and gave me a small smile. My heart squeezed a little at Kate's smile. Out of the three, I shouldn't have been surprised Kate would have had the most faith in me.
"I wouldn't really say it was faith little dragon..." Tanya sighed.
Her shoulders were slumped and she looked at me tiredly, "It's the jealousy. Vampire instincts can be a bitch sometimes. Yeah, I did ask you for space, but I don't know. I figured you would have come talked to us a lot sooner. Maybe that was a little unjustified of us to think you would come seek us out when we were the ones that asked you for space. I'm sorry. The whole charade with Rosalie really wasn't helping any and I can admit we were being kind of distant about it, but what were we supposed to think?"
I ran my hand through my hair and sighed, "Since we are being honest, I'm just gonna lay everything on the table. You know about Rosalie and Alice being potential mates. It seems like Bella is also a potential mate. Before you ask or say anything I'm not gonna even try and do anything to get between Rosalie or Bella mating. Now, where does that leave us? I mean do you guys still even want me as your mate?"
I was scared to ask the questions, but I had to. I saw Tanya's eyes go black and her jaw clench.
"Is that why you made that warrior's oath?" Tanya asked.
"It is partially why I made the warrior's oath."
"That means you would have gone against me if I had decided to get rid of the girl, before we knew she was sent by the Volturi."
I closed my eyes and bowed my head, "I would have stopped you, yes."
I felt the rush of air as Tanya blurred past me and probably to the Denali house. I sighed in resignation then opened my eyes to look at Irina and Kate with tears in them. I felt anger at myself and sadness well in me that I caused her to leave. I could feel Tanya's anger through our bond and it was only fueling my own negative emotions.
"Dragons have always been associated with greed. The treasure hoarding and the multiple mates plays into that image. A lot of the other races used to hate and fear us because they did not understand us. There was a time when we were hunted down. Granted, most still fear us because of the immense power we can hold. Dragons are both strong and vulnerable because of their mates. Our mates give us our strength and they themselves can hurt us the most. I told you that we feel the bond differently. I feel negatives emotions 10x worse and with mates it is only amplified. Mates are the greatest gift we were allowed, but also our greatest curse. Be angry with me if you want. Be distant still if you want. I've only ever seen mates as a gift from the gods and I still do despite how sad I've felt over this year and feel now."
"You knew how we felt about upholding the Volturi laws. Especially given our history with our mother and little brother. I know things are different because it was an order from the Kings and Queens, but it still sting Drakon to know you would have stood aginst us had things been different."
Irina shook her head and blurred past me too. I bit my lip and I felt the first of the tears fall. I watched as Kate stepped closer to me. She placed her hands on my shoulder and kissed me on the fore head letting her lips linger. I sobbed because it wasn't a kiss of promise, it was a parting kiss.
Her lips brushed my forehead, "I love you little dragon and I love that you have such a good moral code. I understand and can agree with your perspective, but I have been with them for a thousand years. I made my own warrior's oath to them a long time ago to protect them and stand by their side no matter what may come our way."
She blurred away from me too and I dropped to the forest floor. My forehead touched the ground and I cried for awhile. My heart hurt so much. My mates walked away from me. I thought over what they had said and I started to think maybe I was a bad mate and that hit me hard. I threw my head back and let out a roar. I felt the shift happen of its own accord. My wings sprouted out of my back and I took to the air in a second and my entire form shifted in a cover of purple and blue fire. My wings were a lot bigger and with one hard flap I was sent higher into the clouds. I opened my maw of sharp teeth and let out a stream of fire in my sadness parting some of the clouds as I ascended upwards. After a few more powerful flaps I leveled out and soared high above the clouds.
I had to get away and I knew just where to go. I made my way east towards Massachusetts. It took me five hours to fly there and when I was above the city I was looking for I landed down in a forest not terribly faraway from my destination. I shifted back into my human form and walked out of the forest. I started up a street that had an incline. After ten minutes of walking up the street I took a left and continued on for another five minutes. It ended at another street and I took a right this time and followed it for another fifteen minutes. I looked around at the very familiar houses from my childhood. I started to feel anxiousness creep up on me so I walked a bit more briskly and crossed the street at one particular house.
I gazed at the old oak tree in the middle of the lawn with wistful eyes. I used to climb up that tree a lot as a kid. I snapped out of it and realized it might have been creepy for a random person to be standing at the end of the property at night. I looked around to make sure nobody was looking and used magic to make myself invisible. Then I teleported inside of my old house just in front of the door.
I could hear that the television was on in the living room. I quietly maneuvered my way into the living room. I took a look around and I could see that the furniture was different. There was a tan couch with someone sitting there watching tv. I was only able to see the back of their head but they were female.
I moved into the living room some more with anticipation. I was near the side of the couch and I took those last few steps to see the face of the person sitting there. I was both sad and yet some how relieved; it was the face of a stranger. I had built up that maybe just maybe it would have been my mother. Instead was a seemingly young woman no older than 24 years old asleep in front of the tv.
I guess I was sad because I had hoped I would have been able to see the faces of all my siblings again. They meant the world to me and for the last of my human years, they are what drove me to continue on when our mother seemingly gave up. I guess I was also relieved in a way to know that my siblings weren't in a world that was filled with the supernatural. Not with monsters out there like James.
I closed my eyes and thought of the woods. I teleported out and when I felt the crunch of leaves under my foot I exhaled a slow breath and tilted my head up and opened my eyes to look up at the sky. This was not my Earth and I did not exist here. I felt the pang in my heart and I took to the sky letting myself transform into my dragon form again. I kept soaring high up into the sky until the air became even too thin for myself to breathe. I didn't care that I was letting my grief consume me for this moment. These past events were just too much to bear even for me. I didn't think about it and used magic to be able to breathe as I climbed even higher.
I roared and screeched letting out torrents of flame in every direction. I let out the sadness and rage at the unfairness of it all. I don't know how long I spent doing this, but it didn't quell the anger much and it sure as fuck didn't quell the sadness. I let out one last loud roar in frustration and then nose dived down and flapped my wings fast and hard. I flew as fast as my wings allowed me back towards Washington and it only took me about 3 hours this time. I was losing myself slowly so I perched on top of a mountain outcrop that even had a cave attached, I stayed inside the cave letting myself stew there. I knew I wasn't safe to anyone and I curled up folding a wing over my head.
ThirdPOV
Bella had left the Cullen house that night around 8 pm with some leftover dinner that Esme packed for her for Charlie. It was a meat lovers lasagna. She noticed Lee wasn't around to tell her good bye like she usually does.
Rosalie figured that since Lee didn't come back home and the Denali didn't show back up at the house that their conversation didn't go good. Rosalie swore if those idiots didn't get their shit figured out she was gonna rip them a new one. She didn't give a fuck if they were a thousand years old or not she was Rosalie fucking Hale.
Alice had left the house to go to Bella's house for watch duty. Jasper sat in the living room with Emmett, and Edward as Emmett was now playing a survival zombie game. Jasper felt Rosalie's worry and anger under the surface as she sat looking through a car magazine. Edward listened to both Rosalie and Jasper's thoughts with half a mind. He wasn't anywhere near being able to block out people thoughts yet.
The rest of the night passed on and still Lee did not return home. Lee did not send a message to anyone or left a call either and the family started to get worried. The next day Bella came over around noon and still Lee had not shown up. Esme was worried and called Lee. She waited a few seconds and all the vampires heard the familiar right tone of Pacman that Lee had set as her ringtone for Esme. Esme loved to play Pacman and that was why Lee had chosen that ringtone for her. Esme put her phone down and the worst thoughts started to enter her head. She immediately felt Edward's arms around her in a hug.
"Don't think like that mom. Lee is really strong, she's probably okay." Edward soothed.
Esme hugged Edward and breathed in his scent to help calm herself down.
"Yeah, your right. She's probably okay." Esme said still doubtingly.
Alice squealed from the living room, "Guys! I just had a vision that next weekend is gonna be thunder."
Emmett whopped and hollered, "Hell yeah! This means rematch Pixie! I'm kicking your ass."
"You want to bet?" Alice said teasingly.
"Aw come on, really? Emmett whined.
"What's so great about thunder?" Bella asked.
It was Rosalie who answered her with a small smile, "It means we can play baseball."
"Why would- oh..." Bella finished lamely.
"Yeah, our strength at hitting a base ball makes quite the sound and thunder is the perfect cover." Rosalie said matter of factly.
"Oh my god! I have to make everyone outfits!" Alice squealed out again.
"Is she always this uh, extreme?" Bella asked looking at Rosalie.
"You get used to it." Rosalie said with a whatever hand gesture.
"O-oh, okay. Hey, uh, Rosalie can I talk to you outside?"
Rosalie looked at her questioningly, but stood up and motioned for Bella to follow.
They crossed the back yard and into the woods and Rosalie walked for a few minutes helping Bella along when she stumbled. Bella had a blush on her face from how clumsy she was and was pretty nervous. Rosalie stopped walking, "This should be far enough where they can't hear us. What is it you wanted to say?"
Bella toed the ground nervously, and looked at Rosalie. She took in a deep breathe, "I w-was, well... *cough* I wanted to know if you would go to Seattle with me tomorrow?"
Rosalie gazed at Bella and thought how adorable she looked right now. "Are you asking me on a date Swan?"
Bella huffed, "What is it with you Cullens and calling me Swan?"
Rosalie chuckled, "For the record it's Hale and it's probably for that look on your face right there I would presume."
Bella rolled her eyes, "Hardy, har, har. Do you want to or not Hale?"
"Yes."
Bella felt her heart thump loudly in her ears and she could feel a smile break out on her face, "Cool. I'll pick you up at 6 pm tomorrow."
Rosalie hummed and started to walk back, "Sounds good."
Bella started walking back towards the Cullen house. She felt giddy inside, she had a date with Rosalie tomorrow. They exited the forest and saw Lee in her partial form walking towards the house, looking down at the ground. Bella has never seen coloring so beautiful like the way Lee's scales blended in together. Rosalie walked towards Lee and Bella followed.
"Where have you been everyone's been worried?" Rosalie asked.
Lee didn't answer her and kept on walking. Rosalie grabbed her arm, "Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Lee ripped her arm out of Rosalie's grasp and looked back at her. Rosalie just looked at her face as she saw Lee's tear stained face. Lee's eyes moved to Rosalie's hand and her eyes widen and Rosalie looked to her hand to see two scales had come off.
"Shit." Rosalie whispered.
Lee plucked them out of Rosalie's hand and let out a humorless laugh. She covered her mouth and more tears came out of her eyes. Bella grabbed Lee by the shoulders when it seemed like Lee was going to fold forwards. Rosalie growled in anger and turned to march to the Denali house. Lee had grabbed her wrist stopping her.
"Don't. Leave them be, Rosalie." Lee said looking at her with pleading eyes.
Rosalie searched her eyes and sighed, "Okay, but I don't like this."
"Thank you." Lee stood up straight and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"What's wrong, Lee?" Bella asked.
"Rosalie can fill you in, I'm heading to my room. Please, no one disturb me and no one make mention of this to the Denali." Lee gave Rosalie back the scales then walked into the house heading straight for her room. She just collapsed on the bed curling up on it and sigiling out of her clothes and into a sports bra and shorts.
Rosalie and Bella walked inside and they sat in the living room where the rest of the family sat.
"Yesterday, Lee went to talk with the Denali sisters. With the state Lee is in it seems like the talk did not turn out good."
"Okay, why are we talking about our sister's love life like a family meeting though?" Emmett asked.
Rosalie placed the two scales on the coffee table in the middle of the living room. Alice gasped grabbing Jasper's arm and he could feel her worry mounting.
"The reason we are talking about it as a family meeting Emmett is because Lee is weakening. Her scales came off when she pulled her arm out of my grasp." Rosalie said looking at him with a solemn look.
"Does she know why she is weakening?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes." Rosalie said not sure if she should say anymore.
Alice spoke up, "She is weakening because the Denali sisters started to reject the mating bond. At first it was just subconsciously, so just her human form was weakening. It's why Rosalie was able to knock out Lee's fang during their fight those few weeks back."
"You knew about this, why didn't you do anything? You butt into everything else." Rosalie stood up to get in Alice's personal space.
Alice stood up, "Don't even go there Rosalie. You could have done something to help her too, but you chose not to."
Rosalie growled, "Shut up, Alice."
Alice glared at Rosalie sitting back down, "Anyways, Lee warned us that the second symptom would be if her scales came off with a touch. Since they went to go talk yesterday and the Denali didn't come back they must have actually rejected her in some way."
Rosalie sat back down and sighed, "There is more to it than just the symptoms. She warned me that towards the end she would lose control and go on a rampage, start to rot and become an undead dragon. Her soul would be lost to the netherworld over time and then eventually the Dragon Eater would make an appearance to eat what is essentially just the her husk. She said there would be nothing, but chaos if this ever happened."
Bella didn't know if that seemed more farfetched than vampires flying on purple elephants in clown costumes dropping hot pockets on everyone. Bella chuckled nervously, "Good one, Rosalie. That seems like something Lee would make up."
Emmett started to laugh, "Sounds like a scary story they told dragons to keep them in line or something. I mean we saw how powerful Lee is. Your telling me there is something out there that just eats dragons? Pfft?"
Jasper was quiet and put out calming waves because he could feel the underlying fear in everyone. Carlisle was quiet, "It seems you guys don't know your sister as well as I thought. I guess I am the only one that has been so inquisitive or brave enough to ask."
Edward started to shake by the thoughts he was reading from Carlisle and Emmett noticed and grabbed Edward's hand.
"What do you mean dad?" Emmett asked confused.
"The Dragon Eater is very real. Your sister saved her world from the chaos of the Undead Dragon, and the Dragon Eater."
Everybody was silent and didn't know what to say. Bella was curious and leaned forward, "Can you tell me the story?"
Carlisle stood up and walked until he was looking out the window.
"You need a little bit of knowledge on the mating bonds of dragons for this to make more sense. Generally, dragons only tell their mates, but since Lee has entrusted me with this knowledge... I am now entrusting all of you with this knowledge. Dragons were once harbingers of death sent down by the gods to bring an end to war, famine, chaos, by way of fire. Life started anew from the ashes and the dragons would sit atop mountains, watch and guard the world as tasked. The gods gifted them powers, longevity, and mates for their service.
One of the boons given was that Dragons can have multiple mates and the mates can also develop mating bonds between each other too. The bonds if strong enough allowed the mates to leave emotional imprints no matter how far or communicate telepathically. The mates and the dragon all gained a trait from one another or power if there were multiple mates.
As you can imagine this made a dragon incredibly strong. Dragons always gave them a choice whether or not they wanted to be their mate. Thus, that intended was called a potential mate. A dragon goes through an emotional change unwillingly when they are around a potential mate. Dragons are powerful, but emotional beings as I've come to understand.
Can you imagine giving the entirety of your being not just to one person, but to multiple people? It can leave one severely vulnerable and it did for one dragon that was almost akin to a god in her world. This dragon's name was Nolerwin and his two mates had been captured by elites from an Abyss Lord. For decades Nolerwin was coerced into bringing chaos on the lands and even destroyed the homes his two mates came from killing their families lest the Abyss Lord kill his two mates. His mates rejected him because of the monster he was becoming. The change for him was pretty fast he became insane and started to rot becoming the Abyss Lords pet dragon. His soul was entering the nether world and because the Abyss Lord was from the netherworld he was just gaining more and more control. Eventually he did turn into an undead dragon and this is when the Abyss Lord had his armies cross the lands. Chaos was ravaging the land as armies of the undead swept the regions. Then on the last day the Dragon Eater appeared.
There was a tear in the world black and swirling. It clawed its way out of the tear and fell upon the battle, so Lee said. The tear fizzled away as if it never appeared in the first place. The Dragon Eater was one hundred times bigger than Nolerwin and it crushed the Hunters forces and the undead armies alike to eat Nolerwin. Lee was the only hunter that could actually turn into a dragon and so she fought an aerial battle with Nolerwin while trying to avoid the claws and maw of the Dragon Eater. Lee was not without help though, the Hunters, had riders on Wyverns trying to distract and attack both the Dragon Eater and Nolerwin.
It was a long and arduous battle, many lives were lost. Eventually, Eranelle managed to get an opening shot on Nolerwin and shot him with a magical arrow in the eye. Nolerwin paused for a second and that was the second Lee needed. She switched back to her human form mid fight and stabbed her sword right where Nolerwin's heart would have been were he still alive. Her sword was magical you see and that is what allowed her to essentially kill Nolerwin. Lee said she used s Soul Stone and trapped what was left of his soul inside of it so he wouldn't be trapped in the netherworld. The Dragon Eater at that moment chomped at them. Lee saw it out of the corner of her eye luckily and only managed to get wounded but was thrown from Nolerwin's corpse. As Lee was falling to what was surely her death she saw the Dragon Eater swallowing Nolerwin's corpse and getting sucked back up into a different tear unwillingly.
Nothing else was getting sucked into the tear beside the Dragon Eater and unfortunately Lee as it was starting to close. Lee said she had passed out around here because the wound she got when the Dragon Eater chomped down made her lose a lot of blood. She said Eranelle told her that she swoopped in on her Wyvern and flew Lee out of there. It was just in time too because apparently the Dragon Eater let out a torrent of Black Flames."
Carlisle turned to his family and Bella looking at each of them with a grave look, "As Lee told me, this is the short version of what happened that day. Most of you know my story, but this is more for Bella's sake. My father was an Anglican pastor and led hunts for werewolves, witches, and vampires. Most of these raid were just on innocent people. As my father aged I ended up leading these raid and I was less at ease with killing. I did find a real coven of vampire inhabiting the sewers of London on one raid. In the chaos I was attacked and left bleeding in the street. Knowing what my father would do I hid in a potato cellar for the transformation and emerged three days later as a vampire. Horrified by what I had become I tried to kill myself in various ways; starvation, drowning, jumping of cliffs. Eventually I was so desperate for blood that while I was hiding in a cave in a forest, I attacked a herd of passing deer. This is how I found out we could survive off the blood of animals.
A long time ago I used to believe that there was just werewolves, witches, and vampires in the world. Decades ago I learnt that the people of the reservation were shapeshifters, that shift into wolves. Then, I believed in werewolves, witches, vampires and shapeshifters. Then last year, Lee came crashing through our table and I asked about her world. Now, I believe in werewolves, witches, vampire, shapeshifters, dragons, gods, a dragon eater and so much more."
Author's AfterNote:
Honestly, I wasn't going to include that tidbit of Lee's final battle like that considering I haven't actually finished writing my OFC story for her. Then, I was like what the hell you are only getting a glossed over version anyways. Also I didn't quite get this finished before Thanksgiving was over so I apologize as that was my intention, but hey, I didn't sleep until it was finished. :D Anyways, I'm going to try to post another chapter before this weekend is out. Hope y'all had a good holiday.