Settling into town
As Bella past the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign on the way into town in her rental car she noticed that the sun was just going down. So she would have just enough time to use her supposed grief to stop by her house and change from the long flight. She had her own place in town because she decided to call her Aunt Carol and have her build a house on the boarder of the Lockwood property line and the older rundown mansions property line. Pulling into the driveway the only thing she could think other than it was beautiful was that what she wanted as a cabin thanks to her aunt was the size of a manor even if it looked like it belong in the trees.
No one other than Damon and Tyler knew she was going to be in town so any reaction to seeing her and then finding out she knew Damon was going to be a major shock which was what she was hoping for to catch everyone off guard. Walking up to the master sweet; she decided on a quick shower before going to change. Knowing that Damon had told the girls that he hated yellow she decided to wear it since everyone knew it was his least favorite color just for the extra shock value. Pulling on a pair of high rise black skinny jeans and a yellow cropped hoodie before braiding her hair to the side and slipping back on her black converse. She used her phone to check on her thing being shipped back to the states before checking the time and headed to the door to leave again.
As she drove she couldn't wait to go car shopping and actually move into her new place and her cave would at least hold a small portion of her books. As she pulled into the parking space Bella concentrated on finding Damon and Tyler. Tyler was with their uncle and wasn't that something her uncle seemed to have his wolf side no longer asleep or in chains. Bella then noticed Damon's aura was a few feet from Tyler with a few others near him. Paying for a ticket she giggled at the ticket persons wide eyed stare and the fact that quite a few others after spotting her walking turned the other way in fear. After Her uncle came into view at the arm wrestling booth with Tyler she walked around until only Tyler could see her and once she caught his attention she put her finger to her mouth to tell him not to say anything. Looking to the right she caught Damon in an argument with two people one she assumed was his brother from the age his aura was giving off and the girl was an aura she recognized from helping the duckling with her pranks. Deciding to get every ones attention at one Bella placed two fingers in her mouth before releasing the loudest whistle she could which caused her uncle to jump and Tyler to laugh as everyone turned her way.
After he was done laughing Tyler was the first to reach her before picking her up and twirling her around. As he put her back on the ground Bella was able to notice her baby cousin was taller than her before she was running past her still gob smacked uncle and into Damon's arms who had realized she was going for maximum shock and met her half way with a grin. Before Damon released her to put an arm over her shoulder as Tyler walked up with his uncle and grinned. "So that was shocking here's another shock for you Uncle Mason meet Bella's best friend Damon you would have meet him the last time you were in town but you left pretty quickly."
Mason pulled Bella into a hug and Bella could see the shock still in his aura and underneath the disbelief and anger. What really caught Bella's attention as she pulled out of the hug was the horror and blood lust she sensed coming from her duckling. Deciding to give Damon a hint on what his ex had been up to and starting to put her own game into affect spoke while looking over Damon's shoulder. "We still on to catch up tomorrow ?"
He nodded at her with a smirk before turning to face his brother and the brunette who were trying to pull the duckling away to a restroom to get the blood off her face. Though she made it a little harder for them as she waved to Bella before catching on that Damon still needed her to play her part. Uncle Mason began pulling Bella back to the car with her cousin in tow and just as she rounded the corner she spotted a witch who was feeling horror and anger as she spotted Damon heading towards her friends. Taking note that it was one of the other girls the duckling liked to prank before convincing her Uncle to detour for food .Once Bella was in the parking lot she asked her uncle if he was going to come to her place or be going back to the manor. He replied that he would be going back to the manor but she could see that he was lying which meant he was most likely meeting up with someone if the change in her duckling was anything to go by then Bella would place a bet that it was Katherine. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before getting into his truck and leaving.
Catching Tyler's eye Bella pulled the car keys from her pocket before tossing them his way and heading around the car to the passenger seat. As Tyler drove them back to her house he caught her up on things they had not filled her in on over the phone because they didn't want to chance being overheard. As Tyler picked out a room to claim so he could decorate as he saw fit they received a text from Damon about having to babysit his brothers girl and wanting to know if Bella wanted to go with. Bella said yes if only to see if there would be more books in it for her since this person was suppose to be a supernatural researcher. Tyler said no and that he was going to be spending the day trying to get some answers out of their uncle and what he was searching for since Tyler had seen him sulking around the mansion. He also was going to guilt trip him into spending some time with them in hopes that he would try and keep the pack and family ties instead of continuing to cut them like he had started the day he left town all those years ago.
After a good nights sleep Bella woke up that morning and took a quick trip down to the grill to get breakfast since none of her things were in the house yet so she couldn't cook. Stealing on of Tyler's white wife beaters to wear she also slipped on bright blue bandeau underneath and a pair of light grey high rise jeans and her black timberland before putting her hair in a high ponytail. Eating with her baby cousin she convinced him to take the rental car home with him so that he could give it back to the dealership by noon. Shortly after he left she could sense Damon heading her way and as he pulled into the drive she grabbed her satchel and phone before meeting him on the porch.
Arriving at the doppelgangers house Bella and Damon choose to stay out side mostly because Bella did not want to deal with the girl more than she had to. It didn't last long however since Damon's brother seemed to realize they were outside and stepped out onto the girl moved to follow her boyfriend wanting to keep an eye on who she deemed the unstable brother before catching sight of Bella and groaning loud enough to catch the attention of the others in the house. Just as the vehicle they were taking to the college pulled up with the hunter driving Bella heard the girl groan "she would be friends with Damon."
As she put her bag in the back seat and Damon moved to the passenger seat Bella decided the best way to answer a comment she wasn't suppose to hear was by annoying the girl further than just having to deal with her presence. "So Damon tells me you have decided to give him the silent treatment. Please tell me this is true because the last time you spoke in my presence I had to go back to the library and regain the I.Q points I lost for listening to you." Seeing Damon's brother frown Bella held up her hand to keep him from speaking and ignored the snickers from behind them in the house, "Ah that was not a suggestions for you to speak in her place. I happen to believe Damon when he has something to say and I'd really hate to have to learn your name because you decided to help her with lowering the I.Q of everyone nearby. I have done it enough times over the years because she refused to take a hint I'm determined to save myself the trouble this time." Damon was snickering now because of the jab against not listening to him or believing him both noticing the hunter trying to hide his smirk at their comments. Smiling sweetly at them I opened the back door of the vehicle and climbed in as Damon spoke.
"On that note it's time to go, have fun looking after Bella's duckling Stefan." Elena groaned at hearing the nickname of the girl she tried to befriend in the last two years hoping to stop the pranks and with a long parting kiss as if she was trying to prove a point she climbed into the backseat with Bella. Bella on seeing the door close grabbed her head phones and began playing her music loudly to see if she could drown out the girl. The entire trip to the college Bella would be texting Damon suggestions to needle the girl since the girl seemed to think the only possible reason that Bella could have to be in town was to annoy her and visiting Tyler had nothing to do with it no matter what the adults said.
Once they were in the office of Elena's birth mother and the hunters ex wife wasn't that a title to claim. Bella tuned in and out of the conversations as she began to browse the shelves seeing most of the books the woman had were copies of ones Bella already possessed. Bella notice they were going through the woman's notes as well before three books caught on a back shelf the others seemed to be ignoring caught her attention. All three were leather bound in some way and looking to see if the others were looking and finding out all but Damon were busy Bella let some of her magic wash over all three books before she placed two of the three back on the shelf with a glamour and slide the third copy down the table to Damon since it had Petrova on the leather cover. The original found its way into my bag the second book was the same color leather as the third and as she flipped a few pages she could make out the Bulgarian words and realizing it was a grimiore before putting it in her bag too. Since it was the third book that really had her attention it was the smallest of the three books and the leather was almost a black color with how dark it was. Though seeing me looking at it seemed to catch the attention of the human who let us into the room.
She was holding another box of research and as she passed by commented, "That book is a joke, it was given to her by a colleague as a gag gift it's just a bunch of native American stories he didn't even get her a book about their legends." This of course caught Bella's attention because she knew sometimes even just stories could be very real. from what very few words she could make out and the fact that the pages seemed to have been torn from another grimoire Bella was curious on what would cause the books to be separated but decided to hold off on the research of that particular mystery until she finished one of the three she had at the moment. Bella spent the rest of the time helping Damon bug the others while looking through the notes and finding it to be very sad that all but Damon believed the sun and moon curse. Damon not believing having everything to do with Bella's research claiming it a fake.
As they were packing up to go Damon was more than happy to let Bella be the one to hand over the copy of the book to his brother he was the one to explain what the title on the cover was as they drove back to her house. Once Bella was in Damon's vehicle with him he informed her that he would be picking out a room too. Bella just smirked as she invited him inside before saying that was fine if he could put up with their uncle coming along on the trip. Damon just nodded and asked that when she got done with the new additions to her horde that she would at least fill him in if only to hold over the scooby gangs heads.
Let it be known taking three men shopping with wildly different tastes for any thing not cars is defiantly an adventure. Bella's favorite part of the trip was the car dealership, since all three assumed Bella hadn't already bought the vehicles so once they had pointed out their favorites to her. Bella laughed very loudly as the sale man handed her the keys to her black matte four door jeep rode back to the cabin with her and Tyler went with their uncle. The trucks arrived with the rest of her things and the furniture she had ordered a while back just as they pulled in. Damon though was more impressed with the Yamaha R6 that was dropped off as her things were being unpacked.
The majority of the unpacking Bella did was unpacking a small portion of her horde that she had collected on her travels into "the cave" or study. She still had two large storage units filled with the rest of her horde. Mason was helping Tyler with his room but from the emotions Bella could feel him giving off he would much rather be anywhere than helping the one person who was suppose to be his pack. Before Mason left to go back to the mansion or as she checked his emotions went to meet up with his owner he remined Tyler and Bella that Tyler's mother was asking for her presence since a united front needed to be shown to the town and a duckling was asking to see her as well.