As you all know by now, I am obsessed with Jacob x Bella so naturally this chapter is long as hell. Enjoy!
chapter 8: origin of bella
Bella is dreaming.
She's in the desert again, running and screaming. Running down a never-ending plain of red soil and cacti, a bright blue moon illuminates her path.
The air is charged with a chorus menacing howls.
How dare you, they cry to her. Give him back!
Jacob is there, just out of her reach in the distance, a mangled corpse standing among a circle of fire and brimstone. Pale arms burst from the ground like white serpents, scratching and clawing at his legs.
He stares at her with wide brown eyes as tears stream down his bloodied face.
Turn around, Bells, he begs. Don't come here.
She doesn't listen. How could she?
She needs to get to him. She was lost without him. She would die without him.
The accusing howls suddenly cut into silence, and the hands clawing at Jacob still before they slither away.
Bella frowns, her legs abruptly coming to a halt. This isn't how the dream usually goes.
Jacob's expression transforms from agonized to solemn as he glances up, staring at something behind her. He closes his eyes and turns his head away, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.
What have you done, Bella? he whimpers.
Curious, Bella turns on her heel and lifts her gaze. The sight leaves her bewildered.
This is wrong. All wrong.
There are two blue moons in the sky.
She squints, leaning closer, and then she feels it: A huff of air that blows her locks away from her face. A vibration throughout her body from a growl so loud the ground shakes with it. A heart that has long since stopped beating in her chest drops into the pit of her stomach.
Nothing is going the way she remembers.
The shroud of darkness before her parts like a curtain, unveiling a large white muzzle. Trembling lips peel back to show off rows of sharp and gleaming canine teeth. Its jaw opens wide, unnaturally so, and the base of its throat glows with the light of hellfire.
The beast surges forward with a thunderous roar of a thousand voices.
HOW.
DARE.
YOU.
Bella can only stare into the mouth of the approaching beast before it quickly overwhelms her, and then she's swallowed whole and falls into a pit of agonizing flames–
Bella's eyes snap open into sudden awareness as she sits up ramrod straight, silk sheets pooling in her lap. The last dredges of her dream dissipate as she blinks at the blackout curtains surrounding her bed.
The sleep cycle of a vampire was akin to a set of nesting dolls. An endless, repetitive anomaly, vampires are eternally cursed to always rise and rest in the cover of darkness. Always in darkness, never to bask in the warmth of the sun again.
Bella always thought it was an ironic and fitting punishment for what she's done.
In layman's terms, it was a temporary death. Sunrise compels a vampire's body to drop everything and seek shade, followed by forced dormancy and short-term rigor mortis. At sunset, vampires reanimate and pick up right where they left off. Like a flip of a switch, consciousness turns back on.
After 30 years Bella is used to the routine, but the dream… It was an anomaly. Any time she did dream, as rare as the occurrence was, she always saw the same sequence of events. It became predictable to the point that Bella had every moment memorized down to the millisecond. A memory she was forced to relive, over and over again.
Except now. But what did it mean?
Bella hisses under her breath, frustrated.
In the next second, she snatches her arm away when spindly fingers tentatively curl around her wrist. Her eyes swivel to the right, snagging on a pair of cautious red eyes staring at her under mused bronze locks.
"Dreams again, love?" Edward asks quietly.
Edward Cullen, head general of a coven of vampires called the Holy Crows, was her latest immortal lover. He was smitten with Bella from the moment they were introduced to each other, instantly wrapped around her finger like cling wrap.
She used his infatuation to her full advantage, and thanks to his coven's help she was able to get rid of several of her enemies on her quest to the top.
"Yeah," Bella acknowledges with a nod.
Her eyes turn to the left, watching the shallow rise and fall of her other bed partner's back, Angela.
Bella took a liking to the doe-eyed half Italian, half Mexican human who was originally meant to be a midnight snack once upon a time in Rome. Meek as a mouse and fully willing to offer her neck after she was lured into a back alley, Angela's demeanor charmed Bella so much she was spared from being drained completely dry that night.
Admittedly, she struggled to leave just enough blood for Angela to survive the night, but not enough for her to make it to the next morning without a blood transfusion.
And it certainly wasn't the last occurrence either.
Just last night Angela once again found herself dancing with death after another bout of Bella's insatiable hunger; her neck was ravaged in celebration after a key victory that finally secured Bella's spot as the sole leader of the world's vampire royalty, the Volturi.
Wars among vampirekind were common, whether it was for expanding territory or simply for survival, but Bella's gambit had nothing to do with either. Bella's reason was simple:
It was for Jacob Black. Always, always for Jacob.
Years ago, in Bella's first life, she was born and raised by Renee and Phil Dwyer in the rainy peninsula of Forks, Washington. Just an hour west of Forks was a Quileute reservation called La Push, and every summer Bella's family would venture to First Beach when the sun was out.
It was on one such sunny day that Bella met her first childhood crush, Jacob Black, at the tender age of ten years old. While her father was paddling in the waves and her mother was sunbathing on a piece of driftwood, Bella was inspecting shells as she roamed along the span of the beach.
By pure chance, or perhaps by fate, Jacob was also wandering along the beach to collect shells, and they both bumped into each other while reaching for the same shell.
When Bella looked up, she saw a boy who suffused her being with warmth like the sun. When Jacob looked up, he saw a girl who pulled at his soul like the moon.
"Woah," they whispered at the same time, and then, "Jinx!"
They both burst into peals of laughter.
"I'm Bella," Bella murmured shyly.
Jacob's eyes glittered in wonder. "Jacob," he said. "But my friends call me Jake."
They couldn't stand to be apart from that moment on, and all the moments that followed between them were as easy as breathing.
"Kindred spirits," Jacob's family would tell them later.
His father, Billy, thought it was cute. His elder sisters, Rachel and Rebecca, were decidedly unamused; they were especially protective of Jacob since their mother died, leading to strong suspicion of anyone outside of their pack.
Jacob came from a long line of werewolves and weaponsmiths; generations of magic ran deep in his veins, and Bella was sworn to secrecy with everything she learned. He was destined to step into the role of Chieftain as soon as he was considered fully mature in the eyes of his family.
But he loathed his lack of freedom and his inability to choose his future.
In their secret meadow, full of vibrant foxgloves and dragonflies, Jacob would vent about his impending fate. It was a place they stumbled upon accidentally on a hike one day, and Bella would bring him there to talk whenever he seemed really upset; it was the only place they could speak freely and away from prying eyes.
"Isn't there any way for you to get out of it?" Bella whispered. "Couldn't one of your sisters lead instead?"
Jacob shook his head. "I'm the firstborn boy, Bells."
"That's misogynistic."
"That's tradition for you." He laughed bleakly. "I'm in this for life."
"What if we ran away? Just you and me," Bella implored. "What if we left home, and left it all behind?"
"It's not something I can run away from, Bella," he whispered. "I would run with you, though, if I could."
It wasn't the last time they spoke of this; they repeated that conversation for years. Bella would suggest that they should run away together, and Jacob always declined, but the pressure continued to wear on him.
Finally, in an impulsive attempt to avoid his fate, Jacob snuck out of his home as soon as the clock struck midnight on his eighteenth birthday. He climbed the tree in Bella's front yard, crawling through her bedroom window she always left unlocked for him.
Bella was already awake, sprawled on her quilt and reading a weathered copy of Romeo and Juliet.
"You and these old books," Jacob said with a playful shake of his head. He plucked the book from her hand.
"Jake, give it back," Bella complained.
"'O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.'" Jacob scrunched his face into a grimace. "How do you read this stuff? What does that even mean?"
"Juliet doesn't want Romeo to swear his love by the moon because it's always changing, and she wants his love to be constant."
"Sure, sure." He turned his cheek toward Bella. "Forgetting something?"
Bella huffed before she leaned forward, intent on kissing his cheek. At the last second, Jacob shifted his head so she kissed his lips instead. It was soft and sweet, like everything else about their relationship.
"Happy birthday," she whispered when they parted.
"I have something for you," Jacob said, digging through his pocket.
"Jake, it's your birthday, not mine-"
Jacob dropped to a knee beside her bed, and for a beat Bella was stunned into silence.
"What are you doing?" she gasped.
"It's not like that, Bells." He held up a braided strip of red thread in front of her eyes. "This is a promise bracelet."
Bella still felt nervous. Marriage was a personal taboo that made her want to run in the opposite direction. "Okay…"
"You always told me we should get out of here. Get away from it all," Jacob said, excitement raising his voice. "I'm ready. Right now. I want you with me all the time, just like I'll always be there for you. Forever." He swallowed nervously. "That's my promise to you, Bells. What do you say?"
Bella took one look at the tiny wooden wolf hanging from the bracelet, and she knew she would follow him anywhere.
"Shotgun," she answered, holding out her wrist.
Jacob tied the bracelet to her wrist, laughing. "That's a given. You drive like a grandma."
"Hey! I obey the speed limit!"
"Sure, sure."
They disappeared that same night.
Escaping from the pressures of Jacob's family left them free of the responsibility of leading a pack and tribe, but Jacob could never escape the instinctual mandate to hunt and destroy vampires.
During the day they would travel in stolen cars or by foot, and at night Jacob ran on four paws with Bella on his back and set up camp wherever they could.
For years, they were hunting companions and lovers. It was effortless. Easy as breathing. Just Jake and Bells, a lone wolf and a human girl, hiding out together as backroad nomads across the States. Young and naive, they believed they were invincible.
Bella made her first acquaintance with death at the age of twenty-three.
In the Sonoran Desert, she witnessed the death of Jacob Black at the hands of the Volturi's most ruthless henchman, James.
Arizona was meant to be a rest stop on their way to Texas, where the rumor mill whispered of a vampire coven showing exponential growth by the day.
Their temporary lodging, an abandoned home with no neighbors for miles, was attacked by a swarm of vampires dressed in all black at sundown.
Bella fought with the weapon Jacob cast aside whenever he phased: a katana with his family crest on it, made by his father. Without the magical prowess to activate the magic, she needed to thrust the point of the sword into fire. The blade would be engulfed in flames that could only be extinguished by its scabbard– perfect for slicing through vampires.
They fought beside each other, picking off their enemies one by one until the only vampires left were a duo, male and female, who watched the chaos from the sidelines with sinister smiles.
James faced off against Jacob, and Bella fought the female who donned ginger hair and candy apple lipstick.
Bella should've known then that the duo was the real trouble. The vampires they destroyed were the easy pickings, minions that only served as a disposable frontline to wear them out.
Tired and clumsy, one misstep from Bella earned her a bite from razor sharp teeth to her wrist. The sword clattered to the floor while Bella screamed and writhed beside it, clutching her burning arm. Her veins were cauterized by liquid fire as it coursed through her bloodstream.
Before the redhead could spring on Bella for a second taste, Jacob interfered.
Jacob, whose fur was covered in lacerations and matted with blood, swiveled away from James charging at him head on to body slam the redhead out of the way. His back leg was caught by the blonde, and he was left with a savage looking bite that audibly sizzled and would not heal.
The venom quickly spread through Jacob's system and weakened him, but he stood guard in front of Bella regardless, gnashing his bloodstained teeth and snarling froth.
The duo paused to look at each other and laughed. Even through the haze of pain and fire, Bella would never forget their laughter: one like a rabid hyena and the other Iike a bubbly child's.
"Light 'em up, Victoria," James said.
Victoria lit a match and set the dusty living room curtains on fire. The duo fled the scene as they laughed again, and Bella screamed at their retreating backs.
The house began to slowly collapse in on itself as the flames spread and destroyed everything in its path.
Jacob slumped onto his side, his fur receding as he phased back to his human form. The damage to his leg looked worse without the fur disguising it; his paling skin around the bite turned green and black, and black was visibly spreading beneath his skin. He stared at Bella, sweating and wheezing, as she struggled to move closer to him.
"Get out of here, Bella," Jacob begged. "You still have a chance to live."
Bella ignored him and continued painfully dragging herself across the floor as the fire in her veins grew worse and worse. Her heart was working overtime, threatening to beat right out of her chest.
"I won't leave you, Jake. We promised each other," Bella cried.
"I'm already dead," Jacob growled. "If you stay then you'll die, too."
"Then I will! If you die, I die!" Bella snapped back. She sobbed once. "How can you ask me to go on without you?"
Jacob's voice became fainter. "No… Go now… Don't stay. Please, Bells… Please."
Bella, having finally made it over to him, stared into his desolate eyes and accepted the situation for what it was. There was no one nearby to rescue them, and Jacob had no pack to fall back on. His family was hundreds of miles away.
"'These violent delights have violent ends,'" she muttered to herself.
Jacob was going to die.
Bella was going to die with him.
Shakily pulling herself up on her arms, Bella leaned over to press her lips against Jacob's. His mouth was full of blood, and the venom pumping through her veins already made his werewolf blood taste like brimstone to her.
Jacob lost most of his strength after that kiss, turning sallower by the second.
"Bella, plea-"
His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and froth began to drip from his mouth as he trembled and moaned. Bella laid over his chest with a sob, covering as much of him as she could to protect him from the flames and falling debris.
For a few precious moments, she was overcome with a deep sense of contentment, until the flames grew uncomfortably closer. The venom sent her new instincts haywire, and she couldn't resist the compulsion to get away from the flames, a natural deterrent for vampires.
Bella fruitlessly struggled against her body as it stiffly lifted itself up and away from Jacob without her permission.
"No, no, no," she moaned in horror.
Her body's self preservation instincts could not be ignored.
Screams and cries of denial left her lips and she fought herself, but still, her body haltingly backed away from Jacob and trembled as she fought her own movements.
"Jake! Jacob!" Bella screamed, trying to reach out to him. "J-Jacob, I can't– No. No! I won't go!"
Jacob regained some lucidity, eyes rolling around in his head until he was able to focus on her.
A weaker version of that sunny smile of his bloomed on his face as he murmured, "It's okay, honey. It's okay."
He was always trying his best to make sure Bella felt nothing but love and comfort in his presence. Even so close to death, he was still trying.
"I love you, Jacob," she choked out.
Jacob's bloodshot eyes softened, and a trickle of blood dribbled from his nose.
"Love you more," were his last words to her.
The house fully collapsed when Bella finally made it to the lawn, and she wailed in terror. Her body wouldn't let her take not one step forward. She cried and shouted as the flames grew higher and turned everything to ash.
There was nothing she could do anymore. There was nothing left for her there now.
Bella continued to stagger through the empty desert until she fully succumbed to the agony of the venom and collapsed. She heaved for what felt like an eternity, her body rejecting all the food she consumed during the day; vampires were unable to ingest nutrients of that nature. Her throat was left dry and raw, already screaming at her with an intense thirst for blood.
Despite the pain in her throat, the agony in the rest of her body rose to a higher severity, but she vowed to never let another scream leave her lips in defiance. Her heart strained painfully in her chest. She would not give it a voice.
Sensing the approaching sunrise and feeling a renewed sense of urgency to get away, Bella mechanically dug a hole in the ground until it was deep enough for her to lay in. She covered herself in soil until she was fully submerged in the earth.
When the sun broke through the horizon, her heart gave out. After three days, she emerged at sunset as a full-fledged vampire.
Her first instinct was to return to the house. The only remains were blackened debris and Jacob's unmarred sword in its scabbard. The hilt burned her hands when she pulled it free from the rubble. She held it for hours, frozen still and unseeing in her silence, until her palms were charred to the bone.
The pain was nothing compared to the loss of Jacob. Negligible, even, when she finally found the nerve to return to La Push.
Jacob's family deserved an explanation.
Bella was greeted by a wall of wolves as soon as she crossed onto their land. They snapped at her in warning and prowled closer, preventing her from taking another step. She bristled on instinct, swallowing back an answering snarl. Her teeth ached to tear and destroy.
The reaction shocked her. These wolves were her friends, and some had become like family to her, but every cell in her new body recoiled from their presence.
Three of the wolves stiffened with wide eyes, straightening onto human legs. The other wolves fell silent.
Jacob's father and elder sisters stared at her in shock. For a beat, they stood in silence with the pack as their black hair billowed in the wind.
"Bella?" Billy eventually gasped.
She could only respond with a wounded noise, nodding helplessly.
Billy swallowed before he narrowed his eyes, searching behind her. "Where is my son?"
After unclasping her satchel, Bella revealed an urn full of ashes that she collected from the aftermath of the fire.
The twins let out a sound that wasn't human. It was an inconsolable, broken cry that would have made Bella's heart squeeze if she still had a heartbeat.
Rachel caught Rebecca as she fell to her knees beside their father. They both sobbed in each other's arms.
"Give him back," Rebecca wailed. "Give my Jacob back."
"You did this to him!" Billy shouted, his voice echoing in the woods.
Bella stiffened, taken aback by the accusation and fighting the urge to attack. "N-No! A group of vampires found us, and they bit us-"
Rachel shrieked in outrage, stunning Bella into silence. "You lured him away from us! You encouraged him to abandon the den," she screamed. "Your foolishness got him k... ki..." She couldn't finish her sentence, dissolving into tears again.
Bella set the urn on the ground and backed away, sensing danger.
"I'm sorry," she croaked. Tears of venom fell from her eyes. "Please, tell my parents-"
"Leave his blade here," Billy demanded.
Bella unconsciously reached for the sword strapped to her back. She shook her head in denial. "No, I-"
"How dare you keep something that isn't rightfully yours! It was made to kill your kind." Billy spat the last words. "You have no right to wield it!"
Bella clutched the wolf charm on her bracelet, shaking her head again. "I'll avenge him with it, and then I will return it to its rightful place."
"YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH," Rebecca roared, rising to her feet as her eyes flickered blue.
More wolves appeared in the underbrush, snarling and howling, blue eyes twinkling like fireflies in the night.
They chased her for miles.
Since Jacob's death, Bella had sworn to exterminate all vampires involved in the night that irreversibly changed their lives. She tracked his killers– her makers– across the globe on a two decade campaign of death and destruction. First James in Paris, then Victoria in Germany. Killing them didn't feel like enough.
Where one Volturi member fell, two more took their place.
Unsatisfied, Bella shifted gears and made it her mission to do away with the Volturi entirely. If she couldn't defeat them then she would join them, and ultimately destroy the faction of soulless monsters from the inside out.
Feeling her vengeance was still incomplete, she refused to return Jacob's blade.
A vampire hell bent on killing other vampires just for the sake of it was unheard of, but it was how Bella gained the attention of Sam Uley, becoming the first and only vampire ever inducted into his assassin squad. She was quickly regarded as one of the top contract killers in the world under his leadership.
Operating under the codename "Red," Bella only took vampires as a target, refusing to kill humans for hire. She took her doctrine a step further, swearing to never kill humans when she had to feed; it was her way of honoring Jacob and everything he stood for.
After the massacre in Caddo Parish, Sam deemed Bella worthy enough to back her in several battles during her global power struggle against other vampire covens to gain a foothold with the Volturi.
"You scratched my back, I'll scratch yours," Sam told her.
With his financial support and fighting prowess, Bella was able to secure her seat and assume power over the Volturi. Decades of effort had paid off, culminating with an unholy coronation taking place tonight.
Her unholy coronation.
Bella stands from the bed, eyeing Angela's pale skin and the dried blood around the puncture wounds on her neck. They would have to act quickly if there was any chance of her survival yet again. Humans were so delicate, after all.
"Summon Carlisle," Bella commands.
Edward tips his head. "Yes, Bella."
"And fetch my gown."
"Yes, Bella."
Edward flits from the bed, already dialing a number on his tiny cell phone and speaking so quickly his voice would be unintelligible to anyone without supernatural hearing. He returns seconds later, impeccably dressed in a black three-piece suit with paisley designs only visible at certain angles under the light. He brandishes a garment bag and unzips it with a flourish.
The gown inside is a midnight blue and velvet soft. It fits Bella's silhouette like a glove as Edward assists dressing her. He murmurs words of praise as he closes the fastens at her back, brushing his fingers against her exposed skin for longer than necessary.
Bella purrs at the attention and spins, and the cape sleeves of her gown flutter with the movement. She drags Edward closer by his lapels and kisses him hungrily. Ever the aggressor, she purposefully nicks his tongue with a fang. She draws his tongue into her mouth and laps at the dregs of Angela's blood that remains in his system.
When she pulls back, Edward's eyes are pitch black with hunger. "Bella-"
Bella smears the corner of his bloodstained lips, silencing him. "Later," she says with promise.
Edward swallows heavily, nodding. He straightens his suit and leads her out the room.
They walk down an unremarkable hallway, flanked by the rest of the Holy Crows. Just beyond a rusted metal gate is a long, spiraling tunnel built from damp stone that leads further underground. The torches that line the walls are unlit. There's no need for light, as a vampire can see clear as day in the blackest of nights. At the end of the tunnel is a large wooden door, and through it she can hear the murmur of several voices.
Edward pushes open the door and announces, "May I present your new leader, Isabella Marie."
Bella walks ahead, turning her gaze to each former Volturi leader currently sitting at a large table. Her guards fan out behind her as she stands at the head of the table.
"Welcome to the new regime," Bella says brightly, tilting her head to them in acknowledgement.
Caius, one of the founders of the Volturi, smacks his hand against the table, causing the surface to crack and crumble under the brute force. The other council members turn toward him following his outburst.
"Caius!" Vladimir shouts in alarm. "What is the meaning of this? We are supposed to be celebrating!"
"And what exactly are we celebrating?" Caius spits, curling his lip. "The perversion of our once flawless council?"
Aro leans away from his companion with nervous eyes. "Caius, have you gone mad?" he squeaks.
Out of the entire council, Aro fears Bella's strength and power the most. He was quick to surrender his position when she finally came for him. In a show of fealty (and to keep himself in her good graces), Aro gifted her with a gaudy diamond necklace from their vault of precious jewelry and gold.
That very necklace sits on Bella's neck, glittering under the fluorescent lights.
"Of what perversion do you speak?" Bella asks quietly.
"I started this council with Aro and Marcus thousands of years ago. But while you all sit there…" Caius glares at his council sitting at the table. "And laugh like fools, everything we have worked for is crumbling before our very eyes by a fledgling who has not lived to a century yet! She even employs humans in our conclave. It is unheard of!"
Bella raises an eyebrow. Out of the entire council, she expected his insubordination, but not to this extreme. He didn't seem to have a shred of self-preservation in his body.
Stefan gasps in outrage. "It is you who insults this council, you bastard!" he screams. The others begin to shout in agreement.
"Everyone," Bella yells over the noise. She addresses them all with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Caius obviously has something on his mind. Let the man speak."
Caius faces Bella with a sneer. "I speak of the blasphemy done to this sacred council– by making a werewolf-loving bitch from the States its leader!" he bellows.
His words are followed by a choked scream as Jane, Bella's tiniest personal bodyguard, subdues him with her powers of affliction.
Caius writhes awkwardly in his chair, and Jane laughs with childlike delight.
Bella leaps onto the table, landing in front of Caius. She pries open his mouth with her bare hands, pulling until his head tears free at the joint of his mandible.
Beside the headless body, Aro releases a shrill, demented laugh.
Bella holds Caius' head, grinning as his tongue hangs uselessly from his mouth. His eyes roll around his head in outrage; still alive, but without his lower jaw he cannot speak.
She turns to face the rest of the council, who stare back with varying ranges of shock in their expressions. The silence is tangible.
"I'm only going to say this once, so listen carefully," Bella warns. "Under my leadership, there will be things you'll simply have to get used to, even if you disagree with it." She pauses, her eyes boring into each ex-council member. "The subject Caius just brought up is off limits."
The smile on Bella's face is as dazzling as the diamond at her neck. "Anyone who brings up my furry associates as a negative will forfeit their life, and I'll collect their head as an offering to my dead mate."
Bella holds Caius' head up higher. "Just like this fucker right here," she adds.
Jane giggles again, and Bella offers her an indulgent smile.
"Does anyone else have something they would like to share?"
Bella's question is met with silence. Her smile widens. "I didn't think so."
She jumps from the table, tossing Caius' head into Edward's hands and readjusting her skewed necklace.
"Edward, take care of that, will you? I want to sit on my new throne."
Absorbed in her own world, Bella feasts on a very eager and vocal young man. Her rolodex of humans was diverse, filled with flavors of blood that balance all five basic tastes; she keeps a roster of humans on rotation, choosing flavors depending on her mood.
Tonight's menu was citrus with hints of ginger.
The man was completely at ease as Bella drank from his neck. He sits between Bella's legs at the foot of her throne. Every few seconds, as if timed on a queue, he moans theatrically while Bella sucks mouthfuls of his blood from his artery.
Bella can't get enough of it, still floating on the high of her triumph. She sucks with renewed vigor, gripping his shoulders tight.
"Easy now," he breathes.
Bella ignores him and yanks head back by his hair to gain more access to his jugular.
The man begins to panic, and the fear only makes his blood turn sweeter.
"H-Hey," he cries, trying to pry Bella away. His feeble strength is nothing against her iron grip. His flailing hands are like feathers brushing against her skin. "Let me go," he whimpers.
He bucks against her grip until he loses strength. His limbs fall slack as Bella steadily drinks her fill, tiny whimpers and gurgles escaping his throat as he feebly paws at her hands.
The rhythmic thump of his heart slows and stutters to a halt. The zest of his blood turns stale.
Bella sits back, taking in large gulps of air as if she were a human held underwater for too long. She feels engorged with blood, lost in the ecstasy of it, craving more and more.
"Another," she gasps.
She pushes the body from her throne, watching with uncaring eyes as it tumbles down the dais.
Another human takes his place at her feet, and Bella wastes no time with pleasantries or gentling as she sinks her teeth into his neck.
I finally did it, Bella thinks. Can you see me, Jacob? Are you proud of me?
Bella's assassin codename is in reference to Little Red Riding Hood. A bit of an accommodation/ironic twist on Sam's naming system, since all other members of Sam's assassin squad are werewolves (and named after fictional wolves) while Bella is not. There are many different versions of Little Red Riding Hood, some with happy endings and some not, but the girl is primarily the victim; Sam sees Bella's situation as the complete opposite. It's more of a case of "looks are deceiving, beauty emis/em the beast," or simply that Bella is a wolf in sheep's clothing (pun not intended-ish).
Bella's blue gown is a nod to her prom dress in Twilight and the dress Alice put her in when she was turned in Breaking Dawn.
The Holy Crows come from the exclamation "Holy crow!" that Bella repeats a lot in canon since she doesn't curse. There's no deeper interpretation of the name (although I guess you could say vampires are unholy?). I just thought it was funny...
Bella's dreams: I always found it interesting how Bella had these prophetic dreams that never really got explored further in Twilight, so I wanted to incorporate that part of her character in this.
Jacob x Bella: I could truly ramble about them forever, so I'll try to keep it brief. I dabbled with the sun and moon trope for this one, just to explore how in canon Bella refers to Jacob as her personal sun; the sun (Jacob) is healing and the moon (Bella) is destructive, so their relationship is a literal interpretation of that. The inclusion of Romeo and Juliet (including the lines Jacob and Bella say) was also intentional; sort of reinforcing the sun/moon trope but also some foreshadowing...
I love how my end notes are getting progressively longer. I have more things I'm itching to point out, but I will refrain. Now that we have some background on Bella, the next chapter will pick up with Leah hunting her down ;)