AN: I am so sorry for taking so long to update this story. A lot of changes happened in my life, some good and some not so good. I'm dealing with life as best as I can and unfortunately my story was something that was overlooked when things were going down. Thank you so much to those who have stayed with this story. Thank you so much for your reviews and follows. I can't believe that anyone is even reading this let alone eagerly awaiting more chapters. I hope to have new chapters up every week/ 2 weeks but I can't make promises :( Here is a short chapter which hopefully sets things up to get things moving along for our Rosella!
Edward's POV
Tanya turning up out of the blue is a very welcoming distraction. It was another person who can keep Rosalie's attention away from Bella and the more people there are to do that the merrier.
For the duration of the week I've been more amiable towards Bella whilst avoiding the overbearing feeling to give in and drink her blood whenever she is near me.
I'd wave to her in the corridors, talk to her in class briefly and even call out to her for short conversations. Nothing too deep and not too distant either, just the perfect balance between friendly and cautious.
Bella and Rosalie haven't officially met which is good as the further those two are away from each other for now, the closer King Royce is to getting his throne back. I know once Rosalie finds out what I have done, she'll find it hard to forgive me but this is for her. My sister. The one who was my companion when Carlisle was off trying to cure humans, finding his new vampiric nature of the utmost fascination while me and Rosalie, we had a silent understanding. The understanding that were we given the choice we wouldn't be what we are today.
Although that view is changing for me now. Rosalie was born this way. Does that mean we are not monsters? Does that mean we have souls? How can one be born naturally into this without the need of the change and not have a soul?
These questions cause me turmoil within myself. Believing one thing for years and then along comes someone who throws all those beliefs away and says, 'think again, you're wrong.'
During the week Carlisle had managed to get Tanya enrolled at the school which was starting to become a trying experience in itself. Emmett, Alice and even Rosalie to some extent were thrilled with having Tanya there. Tanya is very... free when it comes to voicing opinions about things that society might consider taboo and hearing the thoughts of the boys and some girls regarding her and her freeness was causing me to nearly have a vampiric form of a breakdown. I wish she would reign it in as surely it is not necessary to turn every comment into a sexual innuendo, right?
But there was one bit of good news. Rosalie and Emmett have decided to go away on a hunting trip all weekend which means I can invite Bella to the Cullen house to spend some time with me. It was tricky convincing Carlisle that inviting Bella to the house would be a good idea. I had to explain that since her blood smells so divine to me and I need to share a class with her, it was testing my control. The only way for me to get that under control is to spend more time with her. If the rest of the family are close by they can step in if anything goes wrong.
I know it's risky to have her come over to the house where there is a chance that Rosalie will be there but inviting her anywhere else where humans are present, in a more open environment than school, would be disastrous. Keeping my vampire at bay around her blood takes every ounce of my control, add non-restricted humans into the mix and it will clearly not end well. As for inviting her to a secluded place, that would be testing my control too. It would be so easy to drain her and discard her body.
I can feel my eyes turning darker just thinking about draining her and I shake the thoughts from my head. I can't make mistakes. Everything the King has worked towards relies on the Blood Singer remaining unharmed.
Carlisle finally agreed and all that is left for me to do is invite Bella. He had already told the rest of the family of my decision to work on being around the new girl. The only ones who kicked up a fuss were Alice (because of Jasper) and Rosalie. Rosalie and Emmett's hunting trip was partly to do with Bella coming around as Rose thought bringing a human into our sanctuary was the most foolish thing she had ever heard and wanted nothing to do with it if it went all wrong. Alice softened at the thought that it would be good to make friends for once rather than push people away.
On Thursday, as soon as school lets out I look around the parking lot for Bella. My siblings have already left; they've made plans to have a home movie marathon and since we've been making home movies from 1936 till now, they'll be watching them well into the weekend.
Leaning against my Volvo, I see Bella walk out of the school doors with Angela and Eric. Bella parts ways and walks towards her truck. I start to make my way over, being careful to hold my breath.
"Hello Bella."
She startles at the sound of my voice and turns around with her hand over her heart.
"D-Dude, w-wear a bell or something! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
I can see her face start to flush red and the visual image of blood rushing towards her cheeks is so enticing. Her blood is death. My death. I double my efforts to keep the air out of my nose and mouth (which causes me to speak in a strained voice) and keep the conversation short.
"Sorry Bella, I just wanted to ask if you'd like to… hang out at my house… tomorrow after school?"
Bella looks at me with a surprised look and blinks a few times before answering, in my opinion, too slowly.
"Yeah sure! What time?" She seems eager now which takes me by surprise. Well that wasn't so hard. Vampire charm is a God send at times like this.
"Around 3pm? Is that okay?"
"Sure! I'll see you tomorrow then," Bella grins and excitedly rolls back and forth on the balls of her feet. Well that wasn't difficult at all.
I let out a sigh of relief unbeknownst to the human and smile back while still holding my breath. I'm sure it must have looked like more of a grimace.
After telling Bella the address and departing with a 'see you tomorrow,' I walk backwards towards my car before fully turning around and getting into it.
I watch from my rear-view mirror as Bella drives off before resting my head against the steering wheel and holding onto it with both hands. This is going to be difficult. I can't even take a breath in while she's around because the slightest hint of her scent drives my vampire crazy. Tomorrow will be a test. A test I cannot fail. With that thought in my head I start the car and drive towards home.
Tanya's POV
I didn't want to leave the confines of Leah's arms. It took over 900 years to find my mate and here I was now, in her arms, counting her breaths, feeling her heartbeat beneath my hand, gazing into her chocolate eyes and listening to her vow that she will help me fulfil an ancient prophecy that can save my kind's existence.
You would think that finding your mate would be followed with animalistic carnage of ripped clothing, guttural moans and clashing mouths but our precious moments were filled with me telling my Puppy all about the prophecy and how Bella is a big part of it. Not exactly what I had in mind when I daydreamed about meeting my other half. I guess the rampant love making can wait for now.
After Leah's knight-like vow she asks to know more about me, so I tell her more of my past. I hesitate a little, embarrassed to tell her about my 'conquests' but I bite the bullet. Might as well get this bit of information out of the way. Pull off that wax strip in one stroke.
If I was still human, I would be called a lot of degrading names but I explain to her that vampire nature, when it comes to sex, can be a similar need to blood lust. I tell her that I have some succubus blood in me, courtesy of my birth mother. I have to explain to her what a succubus is. The frown on her face grows more and more as I tell her about the people I have bedded. All the people I'd fucked. The kings and queens, the Italian wine merchant, the sultan's daughter, the thieves, the gentlemen and the gentlewoman, the list goes on and on. The greater my 'body count' gets and as I describe what I had done with them, the tenser her jaw sets and the more rigid her body starts to get.
The shame starts to set in and I decide to stop with the rest of the stories. The sheer number of people I'd bedded is vast even for vampire standards, how did I really expect Leah to take it? I start to disentangle my arms from her, get off her lap and face away. I'm thinking about running away from this moment. To just move away from this moment and erase it from my memory. Erase my past.
Leah's reaction is instantaneous and she grabs a hold of my wrist before I can move further away, she stands up, spins me around and pulls me towards her.
"Stop, Beautiful."
She cups the bottom of my chin with one of her hands and pulls my face up so that we're eye to eye. "I'm not angry at you my love, I promise you I'm not." She says, moving her hands to cup each side of my face.
I finally let my downcast eyes move up from the ground to look at her. Her eyes are sparkling with unshed tears and the fierce look of devotion in her eyes makes my breath hitch.
"When you were speaking about all the things in your past, there was such a detachment from it, My Queen. You were telling me important parts of your life in the same way you'd tell me there were leaves on the floor, like it didn't matter to you, but your eyes kept saying otherwise."
Leah moves her right hand from my cheek and runs the pad of her thumb under my eye before she takes a hold of my hand. She brings my hand up to her velvety lips and softly places a kiss on the back of it.
"I could feel your sadness and regrets Tanya, even when you were trying to be nonchalant about it physically, I could feel how you felt about them, I could feel that in all those conquests, as you called them, you were trying to find…well, me." Leah traces the corner of my mouth with the thumb of her hand still on my face before letting go. She wraps those strong muscly arms around my waist instead.
"I was angry that I never came to you sooner, that I couldn't be with you all them years ago, that I couldn't be there when you were looking so hard for me. I was angry that it took me so long to get to you. I could have prevented that sadness and that regret every time you had to bed someone when you were searching for me. I am angry at the cruelty of life not you. Never you."
This woman… I can't contain myself anymore and charge forward, capturing her mouth with mine and kissing her with everything that I can muster. I've never let myself be this vulnerable before. I was trying to stay the rough-edged chick that I am but Leah could see through all my bullshit. She could see that behind my words there's underlying feelings that I would never fess up. I didn't need to fess anything up because she just got it. I have found her and you know what? It was worth the miserable wait. I just had to ask her what she meant by she could feel what I felt later because right now I needed her to be closer to me.
I push us back until Leah's back hits the tree. I keep kissing her, soft licks on her lips, a slight bite of her bottom one, low moans in the back of throats, hands grabbing and pulling gently on clothes to bring us that much closer. No animal carnage, no bare skin, just deep gentle and understanding love through the touch of lips. The kiss comes to an organic stop after a few minutes and we both are breathing heavily.
"This may sound fucking stupid, and if we were human I'd be called mad but… I love you Leah Clearwater." My voice comes out as a whisper in the end.
"I love you too Tanya Denali, I love you too."
We stay there in each other's arms till dawn approaches. No words exchanged anymore, just fingers tracing the glow of sunrise upon the other's skin and gazes sated by the look reflected in lover's eyes.
When it's time to part small declarations of love are made again, sealed with more kisses and promises of meeting up later that day.
I take another dunk in the river before getting back to the house. Can't be having the Cullen's smelling Leah on me just yet. When I get back to the house the Cullen's are either ready for school or getting ready for school.
"Right Tanya, everything is sorted for you at the school, just go to the reception and you should get your timetable from there." Carlisle tell me when he spots me as he walks down the staircase towards the foyer.
"Blonde Bombshell is sitting with me in the car!" Emmett yells, barging past Alice who has just walked out from the kitchen and runs out the door.
Alice looks at me and scrunches up her face, "Why are you wet again?"
I just smile. Time for school, time to look for the Blood singer.
Bella's POV
Leah has been acting weirder than usual all morning. She walked in just as I was getting ready for school and just kept looking at me and sniffing like she had a damn cold. It was like badly undercover stare-stare and sniff-sniff for a good 10 minutes.
"You okay there Lee?" I finally asked once her airborne cocaine habit started getting to me.
Her eyes widened at being caught and she shook her head. "Oh! Yeah, yeah all good!" She then ran past me, up the stairs and into her room yelling that she was feeling ill and for everyone to leave her the hell alone today if they wanted to live.
This woman's moods were giving my brains the swings alright. Taking her advice, I shouted a bye to Sue and Seth who were also watching the trail Leah left behind and left for school.
Just as I parked up, the Cullen's had just pulled in too. They sprawled out gracefully out of 2 cars but there was someone new with them. Another blonde haired, super pretty woman. She also had the same gold eyes as the rest of them. Rosalie's were obviously still far more superior, but they were similar. Another relative?
The new pretty person saw me watching, looked over and winked before carrying on walking with Alice towards the school. I blushed so hard at that wink I thought my cheeks had gotten slapped. Edward must have spotted me because he left the group and walked over to me for a chat. I saw the new pretty person looking over at us with a confused look on her face before she disappeared into the school through the doors.
As Edward kept going on about the things we could do at his house today, I kept peeking over his shoulder trying to get a glimpse of my goddess while nodding at whatever he was saying. Rosalie's back was to me so all I could see was the golden cascade of her luscious locks. Seems like I'm fated to only see the back of her head. My eyes drift lower to her… divine and, may I say, perfectly pert derrière. Honestly? I don't mind looking at the back of her. At all.
God! I shake my head to literally shake out the thoughts. I'm turning into a right perverted creep!
"No? That's cool Bella we can do that some other day." Edward is still talking and a 'Huh?' leaves my mouth before I can even register what is going on.
"I was saying we could watch a movie at mine?" Edward looks at me quizzically.
"Oh! Yeah that would be awesome, can't wait!" I reply with just a little too much enthusiasm while staring at Rosalie again, as all I can envision is being close to my goddess, maybe even snuggling with her on a couch and watching movies together which could turn into a full blown make out session.
Just as the mental drooling in my head gets even worse the star of my thoughts turns around and her eyes lock with mine. Her eyes go slightly wide in shock before a sneer takes over her features as she turns back around abruptly and walks into the school. The sting that hits my chest at that causes me to take a sharp intake of breath.
Why is she so… cold?
My enthusiasm quickly turns to a kicked puppy kinda vibe and I stalk in sulkily after her into the school and to my first class. Edward had already left by then, so he didn't see the 360 of my mood.
I don't get why she affects me so much. Why does the smallest thing about her cause me either a lot of joy or a lot of pain? I don't even know her properly!
Maybe that will change tonight? Maybe I could have a do over of our first encounter but without the violent pencil throwing.
Maybe.
Tanya's POV
The first class that I had was with Edward in English. I was getting all sorts of lustful looks my way. The attention was un-wanted but I couldn't help but feel flattered. Being a vamp did have its perks. For example, the sweaty dude that was seated near Edward nearly threw his seat at me (and himself) when I asked if I could sit there instead.
I wonder how my Puppy would react if she saw this. I can imagine the jealousy on her and oh my it's delicious just to think about how hot she'd look. I can't even imagine how she'd act in response because if I do, all the teens in here will end up orgasming. Succubi pheromones can be lethal especially from a mated Succubi. Reign it in Tan, reign it in.
Edward gives me a small smile as I sit next to him.
"Enjoying manipulating the humans already are we?"
"You know me Eddie Boy, just can't help myself."
"You've never said a truer thing."
Edward is a mystery to me. His broodiness keeps him at arm's length from everyone, even from his family. But there's something about him which just screams that he's hiding something. It may be just the way his personality has evolved after being able to hear everyone's thoughts by pretending that you didn't already know what they were about to say or do.
To see him talking to a human girl and even smiling at her was strange. The girl was pretty, a classic beauty even, but there was nothing else about her.
"Why were you talking to a human Eddie? Is she a special someone?" I ask him while smirking.
"That, my dear cousin, is none of your business. But she is coming around this evening so please be on your best behaviour and don't try to bed her."
He leans over me to grab a book the teacher has dropped at the end of our table and that's when I smell it.
The smell of the most appetising scent that has ever entered my senses, so appealing that my eyes want to roll to the back of my head. I stop myself from moaning out loud and ignore the burning in my throat. That girl is Bella. Her scent is clinging barely to his clothing, but he hasn't spoken to anyone else or been close to anyone else today and Eddie boy has invited her over after school.
The Blood singer has been physically identified! Well that was blooming easy and Edward has made my job even just that tiny bit easier for me.
I know Rose and Emmett are thinking of going hunting tonight but somehow, I need to stop that from happening and need to keep Rose home. She needs to be near Bella.
Rose needs to meet Bella.