Chapter 6
Tanya watched from where she stood at the door, wondering how she should even start, as Bella tried to make herself comfortable on any surface except for the bed. She sat on the floor, on the desk, on the chair, against a wall, even on a stack of books, but nothing seemed to work for the human. Finally, in a frustrated huff as she mumbled about the unfairness of surface comfortability, Bella turned to Tanya.
"You need to sit somewhere," Bella said as she crossed her arms over her chest with a slight pout. "Then I'll figure out where to sit."
"Okay then," Tanya said, hiding her amusement, as figuring out where to sit was the only thing she had seen work Bella up so far. With a gracefulness of a predator, Tanya strode across the room and sat on the bed.
Bella frowned as she looked around her room, then came to a realization. "Is this going to be a long talk?"
"Yes, I believe so," Tanya answered, unable to stop herself from examining every inch of the brunette. She hadn't even met the brunette's eyes to answer the question.
"Then coffee is key to survival. I'll be back," Bella said, and walked right out of the room. Tanya kept herself from following––Tanya couldn't protect Bella from everything, after all, and the girl had managed to survive this long without her––but the sound of something hard hitting a wall wasn't helping the vampire's nerves.
Downstairs, Bella was rubbing her head, confused as to what she even hit it on as she stared at where the coffee pot should have been. She thought hard, trying to remember what she had done this morning. She did drink some of it, didn't she? If she hadn't, she wouldn't have made it through ten minutes of the day. But what had happened after that?
"Tanya, I can't find the coffee pot!" Bella called. "I wanna talk and all, but if I don't get any coffee, I'll die, and then our conversation won't ever finish."
Tanya was downstairs in a flash with a fond sigh. "Where did you last see it?"
Bella looked seriously up into the blonde's eyes and, never breaking eye contact, held up a hand like she was holding onto something, and pointed to that hand with her other.
"And after that?" Tanya coaxed, and watched as Bella's brow furrowed in thought, before the girl shrugged. Tanya sniffed at the air, trying to locate the stale scent of coffee, but she couldn't find a source besides the bagged coffee itself. It was like it was somewhere where air couldn't reach it.
"Bella, try to think back. You poured yourself some coffee––"
"Actually, I drank right out of the pot," Bella said without a change in her blank expression.
"Okay," Tanya said, arching her eyebrows. "Well, you drank out of the pot. Then you…"
Bella's eyes lit up. "I was betrayed by the coffee, so I made it cool down," Bella said, confusing Tanya immensely. How could someone be betrayed by a beverage…? Things only got more confusing, however, when Bella opened the freezer, reached in, and pulled out a filled, frozen pot of coffee. "Found it." Then Bella reached into a drawer, pulled out a spoon and, opening the pot, started to hack away at the frozen drink.
"Do you need help cleaning that out?" Tanya asked unsurely, as Bella was weakly but surely breaking off little chunks and not actually getting the pot clean.
"No, this is fine," Bella said, right before she scooped up a spoonful of the frozen slush and stuck it into her mouth. It tasted different, but it still had caffeine, so it should still help.
"But...are you sure…?" Tanya started, wondering if what Bella was doing was even sanitary as she followed the girl back upstairs.
"Coffee is love, no matter what form," was all Bella answered, taking another mouthful as she stepped into her room. Once Tanya was inside, Bella closed the door, and the two stood incredibly close to each other. The desire to take the girl was so strong, Tanya would have pinned Bella against the wall had Bella not broken the spell by looking pointedly at the bed.
"Right," Tanya murmured, unnecessarily clearing her throat as she walked back over to the bed and sat down. To her surprise, Bella followed her. She sat on Tanya's lap and used the hand that wasn't holding the pot to take Tanya's arms and wrap them around her, one at a time, before settling into the blonde's body.
"Now, talk away, Dream Girl," Bella mumbled as she chewed on another spoonful of coffee ice.
Tanya stared down at the brunette, unconsciously tightening her grip and bringing the human closer into her body. At that moment, the vampire barely knew how to speak, let alone ask any questions.
In the end, Bella was the one who spoke first. Looking up into Tanya's eyes, eyes that were not just familiar because of her dream but because of several other people, Bella said, "Are golden eyes the new in thing right now?" At Tanya's confused look, Bella said, "Other people have gold eyes at my school. Do I have to get golden eyes too if I'm to continue to bask in your presence?"
Oh, Bella, you have no idea. "You must be talking about my cousins," Tanya said, and she swore that was the closest she would ever come to outright evading and lying to Bella. While Tanya had been a strict upholder of the law for many years and knew the punishment for breaking it, she also knew that she wouldn't be able to outright lie to her strange little mate. Of course, since Tanya had every intention of turning Bella, she wouldn't really be breaking the law if she told Bella the truth.
"Oh. You have cousins...you're a cousin," Bella said with a slow nod as she seemed to be processing the information as she hacked away at more of the coffed ice. "That explains a lot, actually."
Tanya almost asked how so due to a spike of panic that seemed to stab her in the chest, but she stopped herself. There were more important questions to ask, questions that involved Bella's safety. "Bella, why do you fall asleep so often? It's not normal, and after tonight, it's clear that it's outright dangerous."
Bella shrugged and took another scoop of the coffee, sticking it her mouth. Mumbling around the ice, she said, "Energy."
Biting her lip in frustration, Tanya tightened her grip on the brunette. It would be so much easier to seduce and turn her mate then and there to take away the danger, but she would never do that to Bella. "I need more information than that. Is it narcolepsy?"
"Nope. Doctors tried everything. Don't know what it is," Bella answered between bites. She could feel her need for sleep lessening, which was good. Unless she knew her Dream Girl would be there when she woke up, she didn't want to sleep. She also knew the chance of that was incredibly small due to her dad being the Chief of Police and the shotgun he lovingly took care of every day.
"But you said something about energy," Tanya prompted.
"Uh...yeah…" Bella stared down at Tanya's hand, which, unknowingly to the blonde, had slipped under Bella's shirt to rub circles on Bella's skin with her thumb. Now, Bella was distracted for two reasons; Tanya's touch, and the fact that Bella had never felt more awake than when Tanya's hand was on her skin. "Lots and lots of energy." If this kept up, Bella had no doubt she would have enough energy for sex. Maybe this time, Tanya should feel Bella's boobs. Just in case Bella was wrong.
Tanya paused as she scented Bella's arousal, and it was only then that she realized what her was doing––not to mention that her hand had started to climb higher. She started to pull away, for her sake as much as Bella's, but Bella grabbed her wrist, stopping her before Tanya's hand even left her shirt.
"No, it's okay. You can feel the boobs," Bella said with incredible seriousness, pulling Tanya's hand up and up until it covered one bra clad breast. "Feel it. It keeps me awake."
"Well, that's good to know," Tanya murmured, afraid to so much as twitch now that her hand was cupping warm flesh. She knew, without a doubt, that Kate would be laughing her ass off if she learned that Tanya, one of the first succubae, a woman who had taken countless men and women to bed, was afraid of even squeezing her mate's breast. But Tanya couldn't help it; she was once again so close to losing control, her arousal only getting higher as she scented Bella's. If Tanya were to go through with it, she would have to claim or mark Bella in some way, at least with a hickey, and she would be insanely possessive until Bella was a vampire and they had exchanged marks. And that wasn't normal for humans, even humans who were bonded to a vampire. Yes, humans could meet a man or woman and fuck them in the next few hours, but it wasn't normal to then realize that they were meant to be together for eternity. Tanya knew if any vampire would give into their instincts when courting a human mate, that mate would run away screaming within an hour of meeting their possessive, sex and marking crazed vampire. The fact that Tanya couldn't, for the life of her, imagine Bella running, didn't change anything.
"Bella, what were you saying about energy?" Tanya prodded, trying to keep her mind off the soft flesh in her hand. "Do you know when your sleeping problem started for you?"
"Since I was a baby, I think. According to my mom, she couldn't wake me up even when I was an infant unless I smelled food," Bella said, taking another bite of coffee ice. When Tanya started to inch her hand away from her breast, Bella dropped her spoon so she could grab Tanya's wrist, holding her hand in place. With clear confusion in her eyes, Bella looked up into Tanya's face. "Do you not like my boobs?"
"No, Bella, I like them. A little too much," Tanya worked to choke out. "I don't want to go too far."
"It's fine. There's no such thing as too far when it comes to you groping me," Bella said with a thumbs up directed at the blonde. "I also need to inform you that I believe you're the only one I can have sex with."
Tanya let out a low groan as more of her control slipped away. Her head fell forward so her forehead rested on Bella's shoulder as she muttered, "Well isn't that fucking fantastic."
"Yes," Bella deadpanned. "Yes, it fucking is."
Tanya couldn't help it. Hearing a curse word come out of Bella's mouth, in that flat tone of voice, just made the blonde crack up. As Tanya's body shook with the force of her laughter, Bella decided the best thing to do was lean back into the blonde and enjoy the ride as she ate some more coffee.
It took a few minutes, but Tanya managed to calm down, shaking her head in amazement. This entire situation was crazy, her mate especially so, yet Tanya was filled with more happiness and having more fun in the last few hours than she had in years.
"Right," Tanya said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "So, what were you saying about energy?"
"I use a lot of it. They even had some experts check me out. I baffled them because all I did was eat and sleep, but it's because I burn energy that I need to eat and sleep. You feel me?" Bella asked as she dug at some particularly hard ice.
"Are you sure?" Tanya asked, unable to help but wonder at that possibility. After all, who could burn so much energy doing nothing that they need to sleep and eat to such a high degree?
"Yeah. See?" Bella grabbed Tanya by the wrist once more and put Tanya's hand on her stomach. At first, Tanya thought that Bella was just being strangely random again, but then Tanya paused. She pressed down on Bella's stomach, and she breathed in sharply with her surprise as she felt some very strong, very defined muscles under Bella's skin. Muscles that someone didn't just get from laying around the house.
"Bella, can you flex your arm for me?" Tanya asked as she put her hand on Bella's bicep.
"You know, arm candy doesn't actually mean you have to hang from my arm," Bella said, making Tanya roll her eyes.
"I know that. Just flex."
"Whatever the Dream Girl commands," Bella mumbled, flexing her arm. Both triceps and biceps bulged from the skinny arm, confusing Tanya even further.
"But then...how...you have trouble doing basically everything. I mean, the groceries…" Tanya trailed off, trying to wrap her mind around the possibility.
"Strain? Reverse force? Maybe my strength is directed towards doing something else?" Bella said, throwing suggestions out there, although Tanya could tell it was just for her benefit and not the human's. In fact, it was clear Bella didn't care at all about why she was the way she was.
"This is so strange," Tanya muttered, tracing the lines of muscle in Bella's arm.
"Yes. Yes I am," Bella agreed. "Is this talk we're having the right one?"
"Sort of," Tanya muttered. She knew now that she really had to talk to Carlisle, as he would be the one most likely to have answers.
As if thinking about one Cullen summoned another, Tanya's phone rang. Bella started nodding her head to an imaginary beat within the ringtone, and Tanya was so focused on watching the brunette that she nearly forgot about the call.
"That was exhausting. No more music around me," Bella announce the second Tanya answered and the ringtone stopped. Tanya started to smile, but Alice interrupted.
"Hey Tanya, so sorry to bother you; I know you're having a blast and all. But see, there's a little problem that includes Bella; part of it being that we haven't been properly introduced yet. Anyways, Bella can't answer a good chunk of your questions, but Carlisle can answer and test parts of them, and there's this whole big thing happening. Anyways, I talked with the family, and they agreed that Bella should just come over tomorrow instead. You know, it'll save time and vampiric heart attacks and all that. You should have seen Rose's reaction when she realized Bella nearly got hit by a car. Of course, I reacted badly too, until I saw you rescue her. Which is why, in order to stop any of these happening again in the future, you should bring her over tomorrow. I'm repeating this for you because I know, after spending an entire school day away from your mate, that you're going to consider skipping us and keeping Bella to yourself. Don't do that, cause then we'll have to hunt you down. Get it?"
"Yes, Alice, I got it," Tanya replied dryly. "We'll be there tomorrow."
"Good!" And with that, Alice hung up.
With a roll of her eyes, Tanya closed her phone and pocketed it, only to find Bella looking up at her with a confused look in her eyes and a bit of a coffee mustache.
"Your phone was buzzing. How are your ears okay?" Bella asked as Tanya absently wiped the coffee off of Bella's face.
"Lots and lots of practice." Tanya's eyes darkened, and she had to swallow hard when Bella's eyes landed on the coffee on Tanya's thumb, and Bella decided it was a good idea to take the thumb into her mouth and suck. It was nearly impossible to control herself, and, once again, Tanya had to call upon all of her willpower to stop herself from jumping the human.
It seemed that controlling herself around Bella was going to take a lot of practice too.
Author's Note: Sorry for the bad ending, but I couldn't find a good place to end it that wouldn't take a lot more pages and time. My bad.
