Chapter 10:

SPOV

I had taken in so much information in the last 72 hours that now I was in overdrive, and this was the straw that was going to break the camel's back. I couldn't imagine teaching my newly formed vampire girlfriend how to fight, but the determined look on her face told me that if I didn't, she'd just find someone else.

"Cap, you still awake over there?" Tony's looking at me curiously, and I don't think he realizes the emotions I'm dealing with. "I'm going to need your help. Thor's too."

"What am I supposed to do, Tony? She's a predator. How do I teach her to fight?" I scrub my hands over my face and sit back against the couch cushions. "She might rip me limb from limb while I'm trying to help her."

"I doubt that'll happen, Steve." Tony clears his throat. "She told me that you're her mate."

I can feel the blood drain from my face as I jump to my feet and scramble to the door.

"Don't run, Steve. She needs you right now." Tony sounds tired. "We all do."

I swing the door open and grab my leather jacket off the hook and shrug into it.

"I need some air," I tell him as I walk swiftly out the door and climb onto my bike.

It's dark when I return, and I sit on my bike for a few minutes before I swing off and make my way to the front steps of the cabin.

"I see you finally came back." Bella's voice rings out from the darkness, and it startles me.

"It's late. Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I don't sleep anymore, Steve." She emerges from the darkness, and in the moonlight, she glows like an ethereal being. "If I want to pass as a human, I have to teach myself to blink and force human food down my throat. I can't cry. I can't sleep. I'm not a normal person anymore."

She's angry, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting this. Bella being angry was one thing. Bella with the capacity to maim and possibly kill with her bare hands while angry, well that was another.

"Bella." I put my hands up in front of myself. Not in a defensive manner, but in submission.

"Where were you?" Her voice catches. "I needed you here with me, next to me."

I sigh and sit down on the porch steps. "Well, I needed some time and some space."

I hear the rocking chair squeak under her weight as she sits down in it behind me.

"Why?"

It's now or never.

"I don't want to teach you how to fight." I thought that maybe some clarity would come to me on my ride, but I am dead set against this. "I can protect you."

Bella laughs darkly. "No, you can't. Steve, they'll kill you in an instant." She's by my side in an instant. "And if they changed you … I couldn't bear it. I don't know what I'd do."

Her face is contorted in pain, and I suddenly know the right answer. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and give her a squeeze.

"You'd be stuck with me for eternity, that's what. I'll teach you, but you have to be well fed before each session, and I need you to understand something."

"What?"

"We're a team—me and you." I turn her to face me. "But Tony, Thor, and everyone else … they're on our team too. You have to trust them and listen to them."

"I can do that. Can you teach me to launch off your shield like Natasha does?"

I laugh. "Yes. Can you promise not to change me during your training?"

Bella leans away from me. "Do you not want to be changed?"

"I have my concerns," I tell her as I try to pull her close to me again, and she acquiesces.

"Of course, you do." Bella leans into me, and I smile against her hair. "Maybe it can wait, but we'll need to talk about it at some point."

I stand up and pull her up with me. "How about when you master the launch off my shield? Then we'll talk about it."

The next day, a timid-looking Bruce shows up at the cabin, and it takes Thor, Tony, and myself to convince him that Bella won't harm him before he comes inside and willingly sits down.

It isn't until Tony and Thor are standing behind him, directly across from me and Bella, that I realize something is going on.

"What's going on, Uncle Tony?" Bella is still soft-spoken, and I can't help but marvel at how well she's adapting to her new life and circumstances. "You three look like some kind of united front."

Tony begins walking around the room. "Kiddo, we gotta figure some things out." He points around the room to all of us. "It's time for some lab work."

"We're pretty certain Thor wouldn't be affected by your venom since he's technically immortal," Bruce finally speaks and takes his glasses off to clean them on his shirttail. "But we need to check everyone that we consider enhanced on the team, and frankly, we're checking Natasha and Clint as well."

Bella sits down lightly on the armchair across from Bruce. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"We'll need to take a sample of your venom and mix it with everyone's blood samples to see the interactions." Bruce looks up nervously at Bella.

I can't help but notice how silent Thor is, and Tony is uncharacteristically quiet.

"So, you want to milk me?" Bella is all but seething. I can feel something radiating off of her, and I look to Thor as he cocks his head and stares at her.

"Like a snake … for my venom?"

Tony and Bruce glance at each other before Tony moves toward his goddaughter.

"Sweetheart, we need to figure out what the possible consequences are." Tony smiles at her and reaches out to caress her cheek.

She looks up at him and sighs. "Fine. Where's the vial? I know you both have one." She looks at both Tony and Bruce.

Each man whips a couple of vials out of their pockets and hands them over to her.

"I'll need your help, Steve." Bella reaches for my hand, and we both move to the front door of the cabin.

"Isabella, I do not think this is the wisest course of action." Thor starts toward us.

"I'll need your help too, Thor."

I'm not sure exactly what she's thinking, but I trust her.

We step outside, and Bella suggests moving to the larger clearing where she tends to spend some of her free time after hunting.

"Steve, I need to smell your blood. Fresh, free-flowing." Bella paces away from me, then turns to face me. "I can smell you everywhere. When I'm out in this field, I can still smell you. It's how I know you're my mate. It consumes and overwhelms me; it's the thing I struggle with most right now."

"Which is why I believe this is a terrible idea," Thor chimes in from behind me.

There's a certain clarity that comes with being a vampire. Bella had explained this to me last night. Everything she was as a human is just amplified as a vampire. She was fairly smart and logical, now even more so.

She knew Tony or Bruce would be coming for her venom to test, she just hadn't expected it to be this soon.

"I'm going up the mountain." Bella gestures behind her, and Thor nods as he steps up beside me. "There's enough of a breeze that I'll smell you; although I know I would without it."

She presses a kiss to my chin before she darts off, and she's gone from my sight in a flash.

"You trust me, don't you, Captain?" Thor is staring at me seriously, and I nod.

He holds out a hand, and I somehow know to hand him my pocketknife that I always carry. He opens it and gestures to me again. I hold out my left hand, and he carefully and quickly slices across the palm.

It's not deep, but the skin tears open, and the blood runs deep red. I wince when I hear a set of thundering feet headed our way. What I see when Bella stops dead in her tracks three feet from me is a feral animal, chest heaving with her heavy breathing, nostrils flared, and a wild look in her eyes.

She opens her mouth and pulls out the vials. Bella's eyes stay locked on mine as she spits into each one, filling them completely, and then handing them over to Thor after managing to stopper them.

My girl is amazing.

"You need to hunt," Thor says gently. "Go now."

Bella hesitates for a few seconds and finally spins on her heel and takes off again.

I wrap my hand in a handkerchief and turn to Thor. "Well, that was something."

"Let's get you back and cleaned up." Thor claps a hand to my shoulder and guides me back to the cabin. "I have a feeling we won't see your vampire for several hours."

Four days have passed since Tony and Bruce came to the cabin and took blood samples from Thor and myself. Bruce is certain Thor can't be changed, but the god insisted he be tested against the venom.

We did get a preliminary report two days ago that Tony, Natasha, and Clint would in fact be changed if the venom made it into their bloodstream and starting circulating.

Tony came up today to visit and tell us more news about the study.

Bruce seemed to be a bit of an enigma—he could be changed, but the Hulk couldn't. He couldn't be sure what that would mean for his transformations into the Hulk, so we would be taking precautions there. Although, he was curious to find out if Bella's teeth could tear through the green guy's skin.

Thor, as was suspected, would not be changed. His blood composition being so completely different from humans, even enhanced ones, gave him the biggest advantage in helping Bella with her training.

Thor had her out in the clearing now working on her moves and trying to harness her newfound agility.

The only problem we were facing was me; my results kept coming back "inconclusive". There was no real way to tell what would happen with me if I was to be attacked by an enemy vamp or if Bella and I decided it was time for her to change me.

"The theory Bruce and I are working with is that if you were to be significantly injured and in a weakened state, that would be the time the venom would work best on you." Tony sits on the floor in front of the empty fireplace and sighs. "I don't have a solid answer. I'm sorry."

"I guess I'll just have to be careful." I grin at him, and he sighs again.

"It might not be that simple, Cap." Tony reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a folded up piece of paper and hands it to me. "They're coming sooner than we thought. She's only been changed for a month and they already found her."

I open up the paper and stare in shock.

"We found it in Bella's quarters at the tower."

Written in some kind of blood was loping handwriting that simply said, "We're coming for you both."

AN: Hope you enjoyed!