Mystic Falls, 2010.
AFTER MAKING SURE EVERYTHING WAS ON POINT (the outfit, makeup, and hairstyle), Bella walked out from her room. She was about to leave the house as well, but Damon and his compelled girlfriend Andie Star happened to be in the way, blocking the front door. She actually could just force her way past them, but it was kind of too early to piss someone off.
"You have your story straight in your mind, right?" Damon asked for sure, hands busy tying the scarf around her neck to cover the bite wound.
"I can't say that you bit me or drank my blood... just that we hit it off and I really like you," the news lady answered, completely brainwashed. "You are terrific, though. You're sweet, funny, and you're honest."
He grabbed her head with both his hand and added, "And you're falling hard."
"You might be the one," she replied, eyes staring blankly.
The oldest Salvatore smiled with satisfaction and let go of her. "Perfect."
Andie blinked in confusion after Damon broke their eye contact. But as soon as her eyes caught a little blonde presence behind them, the confusion was replaced with a bright smile. "Oh, hi, little barbie."
"Call me that again and I'll break your skinny legs into pieces," Bella retorted through her gritted teeth, sounding calm and dangerous in the same time. Andie's smile slowly faded away.
Damon turned to his little sister and jokingly warned, "Sister, play nice."
"What do you think I've been doing?" she replied, looking back at her brother with a cynical smile. "If I didn't play nice, she, your drinking bud, your precious Elena and her brother wouldn't have any blood left in their bodies the second they set foot in this house."
"You're a maniac," he commented, somehow looking impressed.
"Thank you," the blonde girl responded. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere else to be." She then walked past them out of the house.
But just when Bella set foot outside, Alaric showed up. The history teacher gave her a brief smile and nod before stepping inside. Suddenly, she had a strong feeling that he and her brother were up to something. She wanted to stay and found out what it was, but she couldn't just go back to the house after exclaiming that she had somewhere else to be. Damon already began to distrust her after she showed her trust to Elijah. It was very likely that he would distrust her even more if she showed more suspicious gestures.
After their little bonding last night, Caroline invited her to meet at the Grill this morning. She told her it was important so Bella decided to come. And as soon as she walked inside the local pub, she immediately found Caroline waving at her from one of the tables, the Bennett witch sat next to her.
"You invited her?" Bonnie asked Caroline in a whisper voice, but Bella still could hear it since she was getting closer to them.
"I figured... the more the merrier," Caroline explained, using her whisper voice too.
"And you sure we can trust her?"
She tried hard not to roll her eyes at Bonnie's skepticism.
"She's Damon and Stefan's sister, of course we can trust her."
"What am I missing?" Bella exclaimed with a fake excitement as she finally arrived at the table.
"Nothing," Caroline quickly answered with her usual cheerful smile, "you came just in time."
Bonnie kept eyeing Bella suspiciously as she sat herself beside Caroline. Bella just responded to it with a fake innocent smile.
"So, Bonnie," Caroline cleared her throat as she turned to her witch bestfriend. "please tell us about this big witchy plan you've been cooking up."
"But I need to know something first." Bonnie's gaze shifted from Caroline to Bella as she asked, "How much do you trust Elijah?"
"Only ten percent," Bella answered simply, then shrugged. "I wouldn't trust someone farther than I could throw them."
For a moment, Bonnie didn't say anything and just kept staring at Bella. The Bennett girl looked like she was trying to decide whether to trust her or not. And after a few while, she sighed and finally spoke, "Since we still don't know the extent of what Elijah's up to, I'm planning to ask Luka to tell me what he knows."
"And he's not gonna tell you anything," Caroline pointed out.
Bonnie smiled mischievously as she replied, "I didn't say he was gonna have a choice."
"I like the way it sounded," Bella commented, smirking. Elijah might have explained to her about his plan, but it wouldn't hurt to investigate more about it. After all there was a high chance that the original wasn't completely honest with her. What if he had a secret hidden agenda that would harm her or her brothers? She couldn't just let that happen, could she?
A dark blonde haired guy suddenly came into view and Caroline quickly gave him a small wave. But the guy just ignored her and left. And as Bonnie and Caroline started discussing about the guy's strange behavior, Bella suddenly realized that he was the quarterback and the doppelganger's ex, Matt Donovan. Apparently, he was involved in some kind of complicated relationship with Caroline at the moment.
Meanwhile Caroline tried to sort things out with Matt, Bella went to help Bonnie with her witch herbs that could get Luka spill out everything he knew. As expected, Bonnie continued giving her a suspicious gaze as they were working together. Bella tried hard to just ignore it, since it would only lead to an unnecessary fight if she chose to confront her.
Caroline already back at their table when they were done with the herbs. The two blonde girls watched with interest as Bonnie got into action by going over to Luka who was at the pool table. It seemed like their plan was working perfectly when Luka didn't show any suspicion at all.
Jeremy suddenly came to the table and distracted the two blondies' attention from Bonnie and Luka. He shot a nervous glance at Bella after seeing the sudden change on her expression, like she was really annoyed just by his presence.
"Hey, how's it going?" the Gilbert boy asked, trying to break the ice.
"What are you doing here?" Bella and Caroline asked in the same time. But meanwhile Caroline sounded genuinely curious, Bella sounded more sharp as if she was trying to tell him to leave immediately.
"Bonnie called, I wanted to help." He then repeated his question, "How's it going?"
"She's selling it and he's buying it," Caroline answered while looking back at Bonnie and Luka. "She's giving him the sex smile."
Jeremy grimaced in disgust. "Yeah, all right, Caroline. I get it."
As Bonnie continued talking with Luka, the witch boy suddenly started feeling unwell. And when he was about to fall, the three of them walked over to join them.
Jeremy quickly took over Luka from Bonnie and asked, "What kind of witch roofie was that?"
"A strong one," Bonnie said, smiling proudly.
They decided to bring Luka to Caroline's house. After putting his body in the middle of living room, Caroline tried to look for some candles like Bonnie had requested. Bella chose to help the host since she didn't feel like being in the same room with the two people she disliked the most.
"We only have like an hour or two before my mom gets home," Caroline stated as she returned to the living room with hands were full with candles. "And these are all I could find."
Bella followed her from behind with even more candles.
"Place that evenly around the room," Bonnie ordered as she took some of the candles from Caroline and started to place them around the room.
Jeremy walked over to Bella and tried to take some of the candles from her. "Let me—"
"Here," she cut him off and shoved all the candles in her hand into his, then walked away to the other side of the room.
Jeremy sighed, and patiently put all the candles around the room. He couldn't help but question, "How does this work?"
"Um, I'll put him in a trance and ask him questions," Bonnie explained simply. "It's like hypnosis."
"You sure you're strong enough for this?" he asked again, raising an eyebrow.
"That's what the candles are for," Bonnie answered while looking around at the candles that already placed evenly all over the room. "I'll draw power from the flames."
"I'll get the matches," Caroline exclaimed and turned around to find the matches. But she quickly stopped and turned back as Bonnie replied and lighted all the candles with her powers.
"Never gonna get used to that," Jeremy commented.
Bella folded her hands across her chest as she leaned closer to Bonnie and remarked, "I'd say it was pretty cool, but I heard you almost killed my brother with that."
Bonnie looked back at her, but didn't say anything. Instead, it was Jeremy who respond, "It's not like he didn't deserve it."
"Yeah, nobody asked your opinion, Gilbert," she retorted sharply without even bothering to look at him. The boy suddenly fell silent.
Bonnie and Caroline exchanged glances as they finally realized the tension between Bella and Jeremy. The situations suddenly became a bit uncomfortable.
"I need a bowl of water," Bonnie exclaimed, trying to break the ice.
Jeremy quickly volunteered, "I'll go get it."
And when he left, both Bonnie and Caroline quickly turned to Bella.
"You have to understand... your brother is a dick to everyone," the Bennett witch uttered. "He killed Jeremy once, and he ever tried to kill me and Caroline too."
Bella just rolled her eyes as she knew she could neither deny that fact or justify her brother's action. It was wrong of him, but who was she to judge? She wasn't even any better than him.
"And I think he didn't mean like that, you know?" Caroline chimed in, eyes following Bella's movement to the couch. "Because in case you haven't noticed, he is so crushing on you."
"I've notice," Bella replied, her tone indicating that she didn't want to get into the matter any further.
But Caroline ignored the hint and teased, "And?"
"And nothing," the Salvatore girl emphasized, frowning.
Meanwhile Bonnie started trying to concentrate on Luka, Caroline walked over to Bella to continue their little conversation. "Look, I know you have a terrible experience in love, but you said it yourself it was a really long time ago," she uttered, looking more sincere. "Maybe it's time for you to try to open your heart again. And who knows that he might be the one."
Bella wrinkled her nose in disgust at the last sentence. "Pretty sure that's not gonna happen."
"Why not?"
Before Bella could answer the question, Jeremy came back to the living room with the bowl of water on his hand. He gave it to Bonnie and she put it on the floor beside her. "Looks like he's waking up," the boy commented, eyes looking at Luka.
Bonnie finally began, she put Luka on trance as she had her hands on his head. At first the Martin witch was trying to fight her, but in the end Bonnie managed to put him in trance.
They soon learned that Klaus had his sister, that the only reason the Martins teamed up with Elijah was because they wanted to get their family member back. They also found out that Elijah was planning to kill Klaus the only time he would be weak and vulnerable; after the sacrifice. But that would also mean Elena would die too.
In all honesty, Bella didn't mind that at all. It was nothing personal, but the exchange of Elena's life for the lives of many people that would be safe from Klaus sounded fair enough to her. But the others wouldn't think so, especially her brothers. And since Elijah had assigned her to keep an eye on her brothers in case they tried to screw up his plan (and she was quite sure they would, especially now they knew about Elijah's endgame) that would only mean she had to betray them again by doing anything she could to foil their plan. She sighed when she realized that was going to be tough.
When Caroline exclaimed that she was going to drop Luka back at the Grill, Bella decided to come along with her since she left her car there. And this somehow gave Caroline a ridiculous idea. The Forbes girl tried to play cupid by asking Jeremy to be the one who dropped Luka back at the Grill so he and Bella could spend some time alone. Jeremy didn't mind that, but Bella was very much against the idea. However, it was already late and she was too lazy to argue, so in the end she chose to just go along with that.
"Are you still mad at me?" Jeremy asked from the shotgun, breaking the silence in the car.
"I'm not mad at you," Bella answered without interest, eyes not leaving on the road. "I'm just back to the phase where I don't want anything to do with you."
He smiled wryly and nodded his head in understanding, somehow thinking he deserved it. Clearing his throat, he uttered, "I'm not gonna say I didn't meant what I said about Damon... but I am really sorry for what happened to Stefan."
"Can you please stop talking?" she retorted through her gritted teeth. "I'm really not in the mood."
There was no longer any conversation between them for the rest of the trip. And as soon as they arrived, Bella quickly went to her car, leaving Jeremy all alone with Luka's unconscious body. Before entering the car, she decided to check her phone first. There were several messages from Elijah informing about his confrontation with Damon and asking what she knew about what her brother had been up to. For a moment she just bit her lower lip and stared at her phone screen, considering what to tell him and what not.
She finally decided to warn Elijah about what they might do to screw up his plans without telling him about what happened today. But before she finished typing, a sudden agonizing headache hit her. She started screaming in pain and accidentally dropped her phone as she held her heads with both of her hands. As the blinding pain got worse, she fell to the ground. And then someone suddenly injected her with vervain, making her lose consciousness.
WAKING UP IN AN UNFAMILIAR PLACE, Bella groaned and blinked a few times to fully regain her sight. She was in a dirty and empty room, sitting on the only chair at the room with both her hands chained up tight. She looked around and found out that there was only one door and one window that was covered with curtain at the room. She tried to move her hands and break the chain, but failed. The vervain had made her weaker. And when she looked over at her hands to check out the chain, she finally realized that her daylight bracelet was gone.
Before she could even think about her situation, the only door opened, and a tall man walked in. He appeared to be in his early thirties, he had jet black hair and brown eyes.
"Look who's finally awake," he exclaimed as he closed the door back, a slight smirk on his face.
Bella frowned as she couldn't recognize the man at all. "I'm sorry but... who the hell are you?"
"I'm Brian," he answered casually as he started walking closer to her. "Brian Morgan." Her body suddenly stiffened, and that didn't go unnoticed by him. "The name does ring a bell, doesn't it?"
She scoffed when she finally managed to overcome her shock. "Not at all," she lied.
"What about Breanna Morgan? 1986? Middletown, Ohio?" he asked again, his feet starting to walk around her in circle.
"Nope," she answered nonchalantly. And another agonizing headache suddenly hit her. She screamed in pain.
Her kidnapper smiled with satisfaction. He then leaned closer to her and asked, "What about now?"
"Go to hell."
Another agonizing headache came again, this time even worse than before.
"You're really not in the position to challenge me." He stood right in front of her, grabbing her face with both hands and forcing her to look at him. "I thought you were smarter than that."
She chuckled weakly and looked at him with mocking gaze. "Is that all you've got?"
His jaw tightened at the unexpected reaction. He then straightened himself and walked quickly to the only window. "I also got this," he said as he pulled the curtains aside. She let out another scream of pain as her skin started to burn from the sunlight that came from the window.
He then closed the curtains back and walked back to the burning Bella. Kneeling in front of her, he watched as her burnt skin slowly began to heal. "Not so pretty again, huh?"
Bella didn't say anything and just stared at him with a furious gaze. She swore that if the situation were reversed she would torture him even worse.
He then got up and started walking towards the other sides of the room as he began, "I was only six when Breanna died, meanwhile she was almost seventeen. And just a couple of months before that, she told me about her new BFF... who turned out to be a vampire. And this vampire was somehow more than willing to help us find out about our biological parents, who turned out to be witches."
She pretended to yawn and slowly closed her eyes. "Please only wake me up when you're done."
With angry steps, he went back to the window and pulled back the curtain. "I haven't even told you the best part of the story," he snarled, but it was barely audible because of her scream.
Seeing her in great pain, he smiled mischievously and closed the curtain again. He cleared his throat, then continued, "My sister was so eager to learn more about her magical abilities. And the vampire BFF, who happened to be the only one who understood those things at the time, offered to help out with it. However, at the end of the day, the vampire BFF wanted something in return. She wanted my sister to cast a really strong protection spell on her, which led to her death."
There was a brief pause before he began to glare back at her and say, "If you dare to say you don't remember any of that, I swear I'm gonna—"
"What do you want me to say, huh?" she finally snapped, eyes looking up at him angrily. "Anything I say won't bring her back from dead, and you're still gonna blame me for that." She was breathing heavily. "So just go ahead, kill me if that's what you want." Her eyes looked at him sarcastically. "I'm sure Brea would be really proud."
"How dare you say her name with your filthy mouth!"
"You're the one who started talking about her!" she shouted back, refusing to budge. "And for your information, Brian, I've never asked her to do that spell. She was the one who insisted to help me with that, even after I told her the risk."
They were interrupted by a sudden noise that came from the other room. And when he left to check that out, she tried to break the chain again, but failed miserably. She could even feel her body getting weaker after all that torture. Now, how could she save herself?
A few minutes later, she heard footsteps approaching. She swallowed hard as she thought this might be the real end of her life, but she was proven wrong as she found out it wasn't the kidnapper who came, it was Jeremy.
She frowned as the Gilbert boy tried to break her chain, but failed because it was too strong. He then brought his hand to Bella's mouth and mouthed, "Hurry."
Without wasting any time, Bella pulled out her fangs and dug it into Jeremy's hand. Her bloody red eyes slowly looked relieved as his blood started run down her sore throat. All her wound quickly healed and she felt more like herself again.
She finally let go of Jeremy's hand when she heard another footsteps approaching. Hiding back her vampire face, she looked up at the Gilbert boy and ordered, "He's coming, go. Hide!"
Jeremy quickly got out from the room and hid somewhere. A few minutes later, Brian came back to the room, this time he brought a stake in his hand.
"Where were we?" he asked, hands swinging the stake playfully. "Oh, right, you just told me another lie so I'll spare your life."
Bella watched as the kidnapper stepped closer to her. She secretly waited for the right moment to break the chain and strike back, because even though she already got her strength back, he still could give her an aneurysm to weaken her if she wasn't careful.
"But guess what? It doesn't matter anymore." He stood right in front of her, his eyes blank. And before he could drive the stake to her heart, Jeremy suddenly came back to the room and pushed him away. And as the two of them got into a fight, Bella used the opportunity to break the chain.
Before she could join the fight, Brian already stabbed Jeremy with the stake, making the Gilbert boy fall dying. Dropping his body to the ground, Brian bent down to take out the stake from his body. But as soon as he straightened up again, Bella already stood in front of him. Before he could do anything, she shoved her hand into his chest and her fingers quickly gripped his heart.
He choked out and looked at her with wide eyes.
"Say hello to Brea from me," she whispered to his face, then ripped his heart out.
After letting the Brian's body fall to the ground, Bella threw his heart away in disgust. She then started searching his lifeless body to find her stuffs. And as soon as she found her daylight bracelet, cell phone, and car keys, she turned to Jeremy's dead body. She chuckled and shook her head in disbelief when she realized he just saved her life.
Half an hour later, Jeremy finally came back from the dead. He quickly sat up and started looking around. And when his eyes caught another dead body lying around, he sighed in relief.
"How did you find me?" Bella asked in curious. She was now leaning against the wall behind him with arms folded across her chest.
Jeremy turned his head around to face her and explained, "Um... I accidentally saw him took you. I wanted to call your brothers for help, but my phone died. And I knew if I try to borrow another phone I might lose his tracks, so I just took off and followed him."
"And why would you do that?"
"Because I know you needed help, even if you probably wouldn't admit it."
"I literally threatened to kill you and have been treating you like shit, but you still want to help me?" She chuckled in disbelief and started moving closer to him. "Please don't tell me it has something to do with your silly crush on me."
"Well, what if it has?" he replied quickly.
"You might think I'm just pretending to be mean, but I'm really not," she patiently explained to him. "I am a horrible person."
"I know you don't ask my opinion, but I'm gonna say it anyway," he responded, somehow still didn't believe her. "I think you want people to believe that you're not a good person... that you start believing it for yourself and acting like one."
"Oh, you want another proof?" She scoffed and narrowed her eyes at him. "That guy's sister died because of me," she informed while pointing at the lying corpse, "because she cared about me, and I didn't even mourned her or shed a single tear for her." She glared at him and continued in a calmer voice, "And in case you haven't noticed, I just killed her beloved brother in cold blood."
"Because he tried to kill you first," the Gilbert boy pointed out, still not changing his mind. "I understand how literal the word 'kill or be killed' now."
Bella sighed as she realized how stubborn the guy could be. She then decided to try once again. She needed to make him understand why he couldn't have feeling for her, since it was the least she could do after he saved her life.
"Jeremy, they aren't my first victims. There were others like them, people that used to care about me, all ended up dead." She wasn't even need to lie about that. "So unless you want the same fate as them, I suggest you start looking for another subject of your adoration."
"I don't think that would be a real problem..." He shook his head, then showed off his magic ring as he added, "Since I have this."
For the first time in such a long time, she was completely at a loss for words.
IT TOOK ALMOST EIGHT HOURS TO GET HOME. And along the way, Bella tried hard not to think too much. If she started thinking about all her troubles at the moment, she wouldn't be able to fall asleep as soon as she got home. And after the very long day, aside from shower, she really needed her beauty sleep.
But after three hours of falling asleep, she was already awake again, and that was thanks to the noise from Stefan's room. She groaned in annoyance and went to check that out with eyes still half open.
"What's with the noise, people?" She grumbled as she entered Stefan's room, hands rubbing her own eyes. All eyes suddenly fell on her. "It's still too early and I really need my..." she trailed off when she realized who was in the room.
Both of her brothers were there, along with two Elenas. But Bella could immediately recognize which of them was fake as she caught the bitchy smirk on one of the faces. "You've got to be kidding me," she muttered in disbelief.
"Good to see you too, Bellabug," the fake one replied, still smirking.
She didn't need any explanation as her brain already put together the right one. There was no way Elijah would free Katherine from his compulsion to stay at the tomb, so the only conclusion that could be drawn was that the original was being daggered right now. She slowly stepped back and left the room as she realized her pile of problems was just getting bigger. Seriously, couldn't she got one day off from problems?
As Bella walked back into her room, Damon quickly followed her from behind. "Where have you been? I've called and left you some messages."
Instead of answering, the youngest Salvatore just groaned.
"You know, this whole appear and disappear act kind of getting lame," the raven-haired guy continued. "You really need to stop."
Bella finally stopped walking and turned around to face her oldest brother. "I was kidnapped," she finally answered his previous question, somehow didn't sound annoyed. "And tortured. And almost got killed."
"Wait, what?" Damon frowned in surprise. "By who?"
She let out a nonchalant shrug as she replied, "Just a witch from my past."
"And where's this bastard now?" he questioned again through his gritted teeth, his jaw tightened.
"Dead."
This made him blink in surprise. "Oh."
Bella just rolled her eyes and started walking towards her bed. "Yeah, I can take care of myself. No need to be surprised." She then jumped on her bed. While pulling the blanket up to her chest, she added, "But if you really want to help, you can still do me a favor and keep Katherine away from me."
"Like that's gonna be easy," he remarked, and rolled his eyes.
She just shrugged and started to make herself comfortable. "Consider it as a challenge then."
Damon watched as his little sister started closing her eyes. There was a guilt in his heart for not being able to carry out his duties as a big brother by protecting her.
"Hey, sis?" he called again.
Without opening her eyes, she responded, "Hm?"
"I'm glad that you're okay," he stated and looked at her with a sincere smile.
Bella just pretended to be asleep since she didn't know what to say. But even so, she was really glad to know that he still cared for her.
For about three hours, she was finally able to get a proper sleep. But that was, until, Katherine suddenly jumped on the other side of the bed and exclaimed in her ears, "Wakey-wakey, little monkey."
"Ugh, what do you want?" the blonde groaned, with eyes still closed.
"I'm bored," Katherine whined, pouting. "And your brothers are no fun."
"Then go blow someone else," she replied indifferently and rolled away from the doppelganger.
But when she tried to sleep again, she ended up having a nightmare. She quickly woke up again, sat up, and looked at the girl beside her with an accusing look.
"You bitch," she cursed through her gritted teeth.
The smirk on Katherine's face grew wider. "Now that's the spirit."
Bella rolled her eyes, then removed the blanket and got out of bed. There was no use to try to sleep again if Katherine was still there, so she chose to do her usual morning routine. She went to her dresser, took a hair tie from there, and started tying her long blonde hair into a high ponytail.
But Katherine followed her from behind and proposed, "What do you say about shopping?" She leaned her body on the dresser. "We can grab a bite after that, and I'll let you pick the dessert... just like old times."
"I'd say..." Bella deliberately paused and turned to Katherine with a cynical smile on her face, "get the fuck out of my house."
Without waiting for any response, she turned around and went to her bathroom.
The older vampire groaned and continued following her. "Oh, come on, you can't be mad at me forever."
"Watch me," she countered defiantly as she turned on the faucet in her bathroom sink.
Katherine folded her arms across her chest as she watched the youngest Salvatore washed her hand and face. "Look, I know I betrayed you once, but no friendship is perfect. And I wasn't even mad when I found out that you were secretly just using me to get away from—" Before she could finish, Bella had pinned her against the wall.
"What is it do you want?" the youngest Salvatore snarled, an angry glint in her eyes.
"Us, on the same team," Katherine answered, not looking scared at all. She even continued to maintain her infamous bitchy smirk. "We both know I'm not the only one they don't trust here."
Bella chuckled and shook her head in disbelief. "I'd rather chew off my own fingers," she refused outright, emphasizing every word.
She simply didn't understand what Katherine was thinking. Katherine had proven that she couldn't be trusted, and now she wanted Bella to work with her? Did she really think Bella would be that stupid?
And as Bella had expected, things were starting to get uglier because of Elijah being daggered. Stefan tried to get the Martins to work with them, but they didn't want to trust them and chose to go on their own way by secretly trying to undaggered Elijah. It resulted on the younger Martin ending up dying, which made his father go berserk and went after Elena. And now everyone—including Katherine—went to Elena's rescue, leaving Bella alone in the house.
She used the opportunity to check the cellar and immediately found Elijah's desiccated body in their dungeon. As usual, she chose to take a moment to think things over. How much the chance Elijah wouldn't go after her brothers if she undaggered him? And what if he decided to get rid of her because she had failed in her only duty?
Too deep in thought, she didn't even notice that Katherine had returned. She only realized it when the women suddenly pushed her away from Elijah's body.
"Bella, be smart," the Petrova girl reminded, suddenly looking a bit scared. "He would kill us all if you undaggered him."
Bella scoffed, "Or maybe he'd just kill you, then get on with his plan to kill Klaus." She smirked when her eyes caught the scared look in Katherine's face. Wanting to scare her even more, she pretended to be on board with the idea of undaggering him. "Let's find out for sure, shall we?"
But before Bella had a chance to take a step closer to his body, Katherine had pinned her against the wall with hand on her neck, gripping her throat. "I don't want hurt you," she claimed in a threatening tone. "But you know I would if I have to."
Bella didn't say anything and just gave Katherine a look of hatred. More than anything, she needed to come up with a plan to get rid of Katherine.