My Queens: Chapter 5
Summary: Bella takes a trip of a lifetime, but all is not as it seems.
Bella/Athenodora, Didyme, Sulpicia
"I'm Edward Cullen." The boy who had run at her piped up.
"You are a Cullen!" Bella exclaimed with a smile. "Carlisle, when did you add to the family. I'm hurt you didn't tell me, and I find out due to him running at me. Well, congratulations." Bella rattled on, paying little attention to the somewhat shocked and perplexed looks she was getting.
"You don't remember me?" Edward's devastating stare stopped Bella who had moved to hug Carlisle and Esme. "What have you monsters done to her? You take away the memory of her real mate and have her believing this bullshit." He sounded off angrily.
Bella Ignored him and turned her attention to the rest of the Cullens. "He was the first of us to talk to you…" Alice gave Bella a detailed account of her time with Edward with interjections from the rest of the family. Bella knew Alice was telling the truth but still struggled to believe what she'd just heard. Seeing her doubt, Edward offered his hand to Aro willingly, who eagerly took the proffered hand.
As a human, Bella had often wondered how he was able to see an entire life in mere seconds. Vampires lived long existences, yet Aro was able to see it all in no time. Now, as a vampire, she understood just how quickly the vampire mind worked through things.
"Every word uttered is true." Aro offered. Despite having seen it himself, his features held the same disbelieving shock as Bella's.
"Strangely, the one thing I am struggling to comprehend is the fact that I dated a boy. This is me we are talking about. I fucked my way through half the female population on campus." Edward winced at her confession. "I mean, I can see why. He does have a certain effeminate look to him… but still." Bella groaned. "He's a boy." Her devastation at having dated Edward amused Rosalie greatly. In all honesty, she wasn't the only one amused by it.
"Well, I wouldn't call it dating. At least not by the standard I have come to understand." Aro interjected.
"You two were more... friends who occasionally kissed," Alice added.
"Closed mouth kisses at that." Rosalie snarked.
"Still, the fact that I even entertained the idea is…."
"From what I saw, your interest mostly lay in the fact that you suspected they weren't human. Then he saved your life, a means by which no human could possibly achieve. You were intrigued, fascinated by the unknown, and determined to solve the mystery. He was as Winston Churchill once coined, a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. You, my dear, jumped in head first in your persistence to learn the truth." Aro explained gleefully. Bella's presence always brought with it a great deal of entertainment, even if at times it was at his expense.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Bella murmured, staring at the boy in question.
"Bella." Edward looked offended that she would reduce their time to a mere fascination of the unknown.
Unfortunately for Edward, she ignored him entirely. "I remember my time with you. He never once came up." Bella questioned the Cullens.
"We made the decision not to bring him up unless you did, and you never once did," Alice answered with a shrug.
"I was with at least one of you every damn day for eight and a half years, forget mentioning him, I never even met the boy."
"I am not a boy. I am older than you by a century." Edward blustered.
"Really, you are a seventeen-year-old boy outside these walls. You are a boy in their eyes and mine. Your actions when I knew you is evidence enough, and if you disagree, then it is proof of just how blind you are to your fallacy." Bella returned. "Anyway, none of it matters. Mr. Cullen, I don't remember you, and considering everything I've heard, I'd consider it a blessing." Bella was already over this conversation.
"A blessing." Edward raged.
"Yes, a blessing." Bella returned with as much fury. "You took me into a forest, and in that forest, you chose to shatter every bit of self-esteem I possessed. To add insult to injury, you left me at the mercy of a vengeful vampire. Do you truly want me to remember that?" Edward had the decency to look ashamed.
"I didn't want you to become this… this soulless monster. I wanted a human life for you, to get married, have children, grow old as God intended.
"First of all, God's original purpose for mankind was everlasting life. Second, had your family listened to you and left. How would I have had this life you planned for me after Victoria had killed me?" Bella did not wait for him to answer, simply because she did not care for his reasons. "You made plans for a life that was not yours. Did I ever tell you I wanted to get married, have children, or any of the other bullshit you intended for me? I am surprised you did not pick my fucking husband while you were at it. You had the unmitigated gall to decide what was good for me, to hell with what I wanted. I made my decision for my life; I thought long and hard about what I wanted and went for it. If my father supported my decision, who the fuck are you to decide that I am incapable of making decisions for myself." Bella finished much calmer than her words would suggest.
"You thought long and hard and still chose to become a soulless monster." Edward snarked in reply. Bella stared at him and smiled. It was the kind of smile you wore when you realized you were talking to an idiot.
"What evidence do you have that when you become a vampire, you lose your soul?" Edward opened his mouth but quickly shut it. Bella, though waited, gave him the time he needed to think of an answer.
Jane huffed impatiently. This nonsense was eating into their vacation time. "Sweetheart, Santiago isn't going to take off without us." Bella placated, kissing her daughter's forehead. In truth, Bella was hoping this bull would be over before her mates came looking for her. The three were waiting at the villa while Bella picked up the twins. The twins were very much capable of making their way to the villa by themselves, but Bella loved picking them up as much as they did. It was one of their many little rituals.
"It's how I feel; from the day I woke up a vampire, I knew my soul was no longer with me. We are capable of such hurt and devastation. We are monsters with little to no regard for the lives we ruin. We take human lives because we believe they are beneath us." Edward answered with conviction, and Bella understood it was what he truly believed.
"And I feel differently," Bella replied softly. "Neither of us have any evidence to back it up." She added. "Being a monster, Mr. Cullen is a choice some make."
"So you chose to become a monster," Edward said with a humorless chuckle. Bella looked confused. Hadn't they established she did not feel that being a vampire inherently made you a monster?
"You feed on humans." He murmured, pointing to her eyes.
"Ahh," Bella mumbled with a chuckle. She tapped on her watched and projected a picture onto the wall behind him. "Do you know her?"
"Yes, that is Dr. Amara Bianchi Rossi. She made the breakthrough that effectively led to the cure of many cancers."
"Indeed," Bella whispered. "That is her at a gala honoring her a few months ago." They all listened as Dr. Rossi talked about being a victim of rape and how it almost destroyed her. In the two months before the rapist was found tortured and killed, she had given up on her dream of becoming a doctor as she could not find the strength and courage to leave the house for fear of what might happen. Until the police showed up at her door and informed her the rapist had been found dead. She went on to say how she got a letter telling her she had nothing to fear. A letter she still carried with her.
"You wrote to her," Alec asked, surprised.
"Yes, I did. I told Amara she had nothing to fear and that I was keeping an eye on her. They weren't just words of platitude. I encouraged her to take self-defense lessons and carry pepper spray. I kept an eye on her until she thanked me one day and told me she no longer needed me. It didn't mean I stopped entirely, and she knows that."
"What has that got to do with you feeding on humans?" The disdain in Edward's voice didn't affect Bella in the least, and he could see it.
"His name was David Brown, a twenty-five-year-old American backpacking through Europe. He had also raped twenty-seven women in eight different European countries in the space of two years. He was stalking his next victim when the twins and I found him. It wasn't a coincidence or happenstance that we came upon him. We have been following the police investigation for months without success, and one night after several hours of searching, there he was. Tell me, Mr. Cullen, would you call such a man a monster?"
"Of course."
"And yet he had a soul. By your reasoning, he is incapable of being a monster because he has one, and anyone without a soul is inherently a monster." Bella finished. "Humans are just as capable of coursing hurt and devastation. Countless wars, and a lot of the time, it is motivated by greed." Bella finished.
"Well, damn," Emmett whispered. He wondered why none of them had ever thought of that argument.
"As I said earlier, being a monster is a choice. Having a soul, Mr. Cullen is not the determining factor of whether one is a monster or not. In my fifty years as a vampire, I have met other vampires; some have dedicated their lives to advancing human medicine." Bella smiled at Carlisle. "Some are the kind of monsters you would not wish on your worst enemies. Human beings, in that regard, are no different from us. We might be powerful and superior in almost every way, but we are no different deep down." Bella sighed, she was ready for this conversation to be over.
"You are such a hypocrite." Rose blustered. "Here you are, all high and mighty about her feeding on the scum of this world when you spent five years doing the same." She added, annoyed by his bullshit.
"They were monsters," Edward argued.
"And what would you call the ones Bella hunts?" Jasper cut in.
"I stopped. I realized I had no right to play, judge, jury, and executioner." He turned to Bella. "Fifty years of hunting human beings. Can you be certain they were all monsters?" He argued. Bella got the distinct feeling it was his fear he was projecting on her. At some point, he had hunted humans he thought were monsters only to realize he had made a mistake.
"A few months ago, after nearly a year on blood bags, I felt the need to hunt. It took me almost a week to find someone. I made it to Denmark before I found a meal. It thrilled me to no end, not because I had finally fed, but because it took so long to find a human who met my criteria. The world still has monsters, but they are becoming harder to find. I like to think it's because there are so few of them now, and it's fucking beautiful. That, Mr. Cullen, is how I know that every single life I have taken was not a life that would deprive this world of someone who could end up curing mankind of cancer."
"I don't know any monsters who think that way," Esme murmured.
"A conversation with your family would have told you all you needed to know. Your trip was a waste of time." Bella made clear.
"He is a telepath. All he had to do was read their thoughts." Alec groused.
Bella whirled around and stared at him. "Then why are you here?"
"He came to save you from the Volturi." Rosalie intoned in what was supposed to be an imitation of Edward's voice. To Edward's surprise, the coven burst into laughter at the notion that Bella needed saving. It took a couple of minutes before the room calmed down.
"Mr. Cullen, I don't need saving from the Volturi. First, I am a mental and physical shield; there is no gift in this world that works on me. Well, except for Maggie's." Bella murmured that last bit more to herself. "Two, I am not a member of the Volturi coven, never have been. Do you see a coven crest anywhere on me?" She spread her arms wide. "I may be mated to their queens and have a maternal bond with two of their guards, and I am friends with… "Bella looked around and found Corin and Chelsea, their ever-present glare still in place. "Most of the guard. I'm at a loss as to why you believe I need saving." In truth, so was Edward as the reality of the situation dawned on him.
"Despite what you believe, the queens are my mates, and above all else, I love them with every ounce of my being. Alice can tell you how well I fared on certain days away from them, and I had yet to meet them. You and I had met, spent time together, had closed-mouth kisses, and yet when you walked away, my life continued as is. That, Mr. Cullen, should tell you all you need to know." Edward opened his mouth, but got nowhere.
"Whatever else you've got to say, I am not the least bit interested. I have wasted enough time indulging you. Rest assured, you received that courtesy because of your family and nothing else. I don't remember you, and I'm sorry if it hurts, but the truth is, it's no great loss." Did the idiot think she was justifying herself to him because she cared what he thought?
She turned her attention to the Cullens then. "Guys, your timing sucks. We are going on vacation, but please make use of the villa. We will be back in ten days. You will stay, won't you? I built quite the extension, you will love it. Felix will program your biometrics into the system."
"Of course, Bella." Esme finally got her hug.
"We have a lot of planning to do." Alice chirped. "Give me this one." Alice cut in before Bella could protest.
"Who knows how long I've got. Are you sure this is the one you want? Think about it, it's only fifty. Hell, a century would have been so much better." With arms around the twin's shoulders, she left Alice to it, knowing full well Alice would go ahead with whatever plans she had.
"First thing first, you do not say anything until the plane takes off," Bella warned, she did not need Athenodora running to the castle to rip Edward fucking Cullen's head off. She couldn't stand to see the Cullen's lose their son.
Jane suddenly cracked up laughing. "I can't believe I fell for that. I truly believed you did not remember him." Alec stared at Bella with his jaw on the floor.
"Of course, I remember him. The boy saved my life. Aro called it, I was entirely fascinated with what I did not know. I knew there was something there but had no idea what it was and was determined to find out." Bella grumbled. "If he asked about the van incident, I might have struggled with how to play that. Thankfully, none of them brought that up. Trust me, no amount of burning will ever make me forget that incident. It cemented every suspicion I had about the fact that the Cullen's weren't human.
"How did you figure it out?" Alec asked his sister.
"Why would Bella worry about Athenodora if she did not remember anything about the boy."Jane was still laughing.
"Of course, you would not remember Athenodora's threat to rip him apart if she ever saw him. That happened before your change, and after that, he never came up." Alec looked impressed with his twin for having quickly picked up on that. "When did you decide to pretend you did not remember him?"
"When I walked in and saw him." Both their jaws dropped at the revelation. "Yeah, that is why the whole saving my life thing would have messed me up. Now, I have time to think about how to play that. You two think of something as well." Bella said as they were pulling up at the villa. She hoped nothing delayed their departure, or else Felix might show up with the Cullens in tow.
"What took you so long?" Didyme complained, looking completely put out. Bella had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Didyme was just too cute when she was having a cow. Aro was quoting Winston Churchill, and there she was using Bart Simpson like terms like 'having a cow.'
"Jane couldn't figure out what to do with her hair," Alec answered without a hint of irony while his sister glared.
"You are here now," Athenodora murmured as the three settled into the limo.
From Jane's look, Bella knew she'd be lucky if a single wheel were in the air before Jane blabbed. Jane could not keep a secret to save her life, or at least she pretended she couldn't. This was the girl who had not told a soul about being a vampire in over a thousand years. Some days Bella was tempted to glue her mouth together.
"So the Cullens arrived…" Jane started the minute the plane started speeding down the runway just as Bella expected. She'd be a Billionaire if she had a couple of Euros for every time she called something Jane would do right.
"Oh, they couldn't have possibly mixed up the date we gave them, they are a month early," Sulpicia said airily. Bella should have known her mates would be involved in this birthday nonsense.
The twins looked at each other, looked at Bella, and then at the queens and cracked up laughing. "I can't believe you brought him here." Alec giggled.
"Brought who here?" Athenodora asked.
"Edward Cullen," Bella growled.
"They brought that fucking incel." Sulpicia raged. Bella was sure she had no idea what the word meant.
"From what we gathered, he was determined to speak to Bella; there was nothing they could have done to stop him." Alec piped up.
"Why don't you two focus on your game." Bella cut in even though she knew they'd just ignore her.
"So what did he want," Didyme asked, she was the calmer of the three when it came to Edward Cullen.
"To save Bella from the evil Volturi," Jane answered, earning a resigned sigh from Bella.
"You know, talk to those two," Bella grumbled. She popped her earphones in and ignored the conversation taking place.
A few minutes later, there was no drowning out the laughter from the five. Bella stopped pretending she could no longer hear them and just glared at the twins. The little shits had recorded her conversation with Edward. Naturally, her mates were enjoying watching the encounter a little too much.
"Oh, Isabella, I love you, I truly fucking love you." Athenodora cheered. On occasion, when she said that, Bella's mind immediately went to the first fight of her life, human or vampire. Corin had attacked Bella in Didyme's garden. Guess after three months, she got tired of waiting for Bella to show up for training.
"Isabella, if you do not try, you will never get there." Sulpicia encouraged.
"And you think I should test the strength of my grip in Didyme's garden, a garden she has cultivated beautifully for centuries." Bella's voice had risen several octaves by the end of that sentence, much to Athenodora's amusement.
"You would think you'd want to give your mate a rose as a sign of your love and affection." Sulpicia countered.
"I love you and have a lot of fucking affection for you." Bella aimed for a sarcastic tone but missed by a country mile. Rather, her tone was full of said affection and love for her mates.
"Love you too," Sulpicia replied almost shyly.
"Indeed, I think it's safe to say you cemented your place in our hearts the minute you told Aro to go fuck himself. I love you, Isabella." The moment was broken up by a shrill scream that pierced the air. Bella turned just in time to see Corin hit her shield, then rebound off it, hitting the wall. The force of her hit created a Corin sized hole in the wall, which after a second, collapsed into rubble. Bella sighed in relief when her shield immediately snapped back. A week ago, she had struggled to get her shield to redraw. It had taken six hours before the damn thing would listen to her. She could not have Aro thinking she had no control of her shield after she had threatened him with it.
The noise and the collapsed wall attracted the attention of almost everyone in the castle. Corin stood back up and glowered at Bella with enough hatred to bury ten thousand corpses. "Corin, enough," Marcus warned.
"She is nothing without that shield." Her voice was full of fury. "How about we see the newborn fight without her shield." She goaded.
"Sure, why not," Bella said nonchalantly. The words had barely left her mouth when Corin charged. Bella smirked and sidestepped Corin, sticking her foot out. Corin's momentum sent her sprawling into a stone bench which broke on contact with her head. With a growl, the vampire leaped up and turned ready to charge again. "Oh, come on, it didn't work the first time; it's not going to work a second time. You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different…" Corin had heard the adage because she did charge. This time, she stopped short and threw a punch. Bella leaned to the side and quickly ducked under another punch and then a kick. Felix counted the punches and kicks Corin threw, so did Bella. She had dodged ninety-seven of Corin's punches and kicks. Corin had thrown precisely that number.
If there was one thing Jasper drummed into her head, it was that anger made for a careless and sloppy fighter. Corin was a perfect example of this.
"If you take a moment to put your anger aside and think, you will apologize for attacking me." Bella offered, knowing full well, the vampire would do no such thing.
"Apologize." She scoffed. Bella could see the uncertainty in her eyes, but in front of her fellow guards, the kings, and the queens, she would do no such thing.
"My turn then." Bella cheered.