Bella could smell the human from at least a mile away. Just a faint murmur at first, a nice scent in the air, but second by second it got closer, closer and closer and stronger. It became almost unbearable, like the scent of bacon when you've yet to eat breakfast.
She wanted it so bad that she almost jumped from the window in order to meet her meal half way. Her throat burned with ten thousand fires, her nose filled with the scent. Only her own pure will kept her where she was, she sat so still and so straight that it would be immediately obvious she was something a little more than human. It was probably illogical, because she knew that Peter and Charlotte expected it of newborns, but she felt she needed to wait, to prove she was worth the effort after they had rescued her from that forest despite not even knowing who she really was. She also wanted to check that the person she was feeding from was actually a criminal. Whilst she didn't like the idea of feeding on animals, for that was as bad as feeding on innocent humans, she didn't want to take the chance that the human was actually innocent.
She knew the exact moment that Peter entered the house with the human. The previous scent intensified by about ten times. What was a fire became an inferno, a raging blaze as his scent wrapped around her, filled every corner of the house with it's alluring presence. She needed to be closer to it. She needed it within her, filling her starving body with it's taste.
Before she was even considering it she was up on her feet, rushing quicker than she'd ever moved before towards the door. Only pausing when she pulled the weak wood of it's hinges as she flung it open. She looked confused at the door in her hand, both because it was no longer on it's hinges and because she was able to carry it with such ease. It was like a dead weight in her arms despite her knowing that it actually had a substantial weight, one that she definitely wouldn't have been able to manage as a human.
With a sigh she turned back to Charlotte, her mind temporarily waylaid from the temptation downstairs.
"Do you have a spare door?" Charlotte, who had being giggling softly since the door first came off it's hinges, broke into full belly laughs. The kind that can only be brought on by a close friend doing something stupid, the kind that would end in tears if they had been human. Bella glared at her but didn't say anything further, letting the older vampire's giggles subside on their own.
"Don't worry Isa, we got a few spares whilst you were changing. I got through 12 in my first two weeks." Okay, so it was a newborn thing, not a Bella thing, that was definitely a comfort. Still though she was holding a spare door.
"What should I do with it?" Again Charlotte let out some resemblance of a laugh due to the innocence with which the question was asked with.
"You give it here Darlin'. You go downstairs and go feed. You've done fabulously to hold on this far. This is the kind of restraint we usually see in newborns who are at least half a year old." Bella pushed the door out towards Charlotte with murmured thanks.
She had managed to temporarily shut out the beautiful scent from downstairs, the way one shuts out the scent of food they know they can't have. The temptation is definitely still there but you promise to focus on anything but the scent in hopes that it won't effect you so much. And like usual, it worked for a short amount of time, whilst there was something else to distract her. And like always, as soon as the distraction was removed the temptation returned, ten times worse than before. Any restraint she had was removed and she rushed downstairs (without destroying the house further).
When she was there she was met with the sight of Peter lounging around on the sofa, his feet propped up on the coffee table as he had his arm wrapped around the shoulders of a relatively short male with wavy brown hair, American white teeth and blue eyes glittering with his fear. Because the arm around his shoulder was decidedly not friendly, it was oppressive, a warning of impending doom. Peter smirked up at Bella from his position.
"Hey, Little Lady, I brought you lunch and you destroy my home. Tut, tut, tut." Bella was listening to Peter, she was even a little amused because she could hear the joking in his tone, but none of the rest of her attention was on him. Her eyes were fixed on the man's neck, she could see his neck throbbing, faster than usual in his terrified state, as blood flowed from his racing heart to his frazzled brain. Trying to desperately oxygenate the organ so he could make sense of his predicament.
No amount of oxygen to his brain could lesson this complete petrification, nor could it make sense of this situation. He had been out in the streets, the man holding him had accosted him, looked him in the eye before flinging him over his shoulder as if he weighed little more than a feather. He started to scream, both as a fear response and in hopes of attracting attention. Yet before the air had even had chance to pass his lips there was a hand over his mouth. A hand of pure unyielding marble. The creature, because the man could not be human, had then proceeded to run at breakneck speed under tree cover to this home. It had been surreal just sitting with this man, confused when he'd laughed.
Even more surreal than the man was the woman that had come down the stairs. She was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen, her hair seemed to dance around her shoulders, she was the personification of grace, there wasn't a single blemish on her whole face. It was mesmerising and terrifying in it's own right. Or maybe that was just the blood red eyes that stared fixedly at his face… or was it his neck?
"What has he done? I know it's silly but I need to know he'd worthy?" The woman had a voice like charms, it danced in the air and rustled through his hair. He could not think of what he had done. He had done many a bad thing, but very little good. He didn't want to know what would happen if he was to be found unworthy.
"Oh don't worry sweetheart, there's many a thing that's earned him his presence here, but most prominently is the fact that he suffocated his little sister because the child was crying whilst he was trying to have a phone call." A small growl escaped from Bella, with a smirk Peter rose with the human, pushing his shaking form towards Bella.
She caught him in a grip so strong that her fingers pushed through the thin barrier of skin on his arms, finding purchase on his sinewy muscles. Blood dripped onto the floor where Bella removed her fingers, licking at them, getting her first taste of the ambrosia that was human blood.
With that first taste she was lost, her left arm reached up, pushed the man to his knees, tugging his head so harshly to the side, by the hair, that his neck broke, the bone pushing through the nerves to the side and out through the skin, blood pumped out the wound from his torn jugular, coating the floor, the man, Bella in the substance. The flow only stopped when Bella's head came down over the wound, her mouth acting as a plug as she sucked desperately on the man below her, his blood rushed into her mouth, pushed by his still beating confused heart, pulled by the suction from her lips. She pulled until nothing came. With a disgruntles but satiated sigh she released her lips with a slight pop. Blood dribbled down her chin, which she swiftly wiped away as she surveyed the damage she had caused. It was definitely substantial, he barely looked human. But then again he had barely being human.
"I got a little blood on the carpet." The comment was quiet but by no means inaudible to her fellow vampire. Peter barked out a laugh in response. 'A little blood' was definitely an understatement.
"Nearly as much as you got on yourself, Little Lady. It's fine I know how to get blood out my carpets. You go up to Char and get yourself cleaned up. We can work on control later." Whilst Bella was accepting of her new life she was still in slight shock by the brutality she had experienced, the brutality she had taken part in, as such it was easier to follow instructions.
Char met her upstairs with a warm smile.
"You did good sweet cheeks. You resisted for so long, the control of the feed we can work on. I've started the bath running, you get undressed, those clothes will have to be chucked anyway." They were so saturated with blood that some of it had passed through and stained Bella's skin, creating a blotchy patter across her body. Though she didn't realise it, that was another sign of her control. The fact that she did not lick at her own skin, suck at her clothes, the fact that she had enough of her mind to obviously be in shock.
Bella did not know how to describe the feeling of having a bath in her new form. She knew the water was hot, by the steam coming off it she would even guess at boiling, but her body did not complain, her skin did not redden nor blister. She was warmed only on a surface level, as if there was a barrier between the water and her, stopping her from truly feeling it. She sighed at Charlotte's hands running through her hair, pushing blood out and lathering shampoo in her wake. It was a sensation that should have sent her to sleep.
Yet another weird thing, her eyes did not grow heavy or weary, instead she watched mesmerised as the clear bathwater turned a murky red. And all too soon it would all be washed down the drain.
Oh look, you don't always have to wait ages between chapters ;)