Um, hello to whoever reads this. First off, I'm not Kit, and the reason she isn't here is the same reason she hasn't been online which is really long, and I'm not typing any more right now. She sends her apologies on the updates (?) (I'm not sure if that's the word she used). Either way, she's asked me to put these chapters up for her, and it looks like I'm going to be doing that for the next few times. I think that's all I'm supposed to tell the people who read this, so yeah, bye.
***BELLA POV***
Stepping through the waterfall, I find us standing in a small cavern that can barely hold ten people.
"This is one of the Wild Hearts' hidden bases?" Bree asks in bewilderment. "It's just a cavern."
"That's just what we want people to think," Leon states as he walks to the far wall.
I expect him to stop walking when he's a few feet away from the rocks, but he doesn't. He almost walks right into the wall when the rocks suddenly move and form a small passageway. I exchange surprised looks with the others, except Khalin looks unsurprised in the slightest. He just follows behind Leon, and we follow him. After walking a few minutes in the dark, narrow tunnel, we see a light up ahead, and it only takes us a couple of minutes before we exit the tunnel and enter a large cavern that branches off by two passages on both sides. Maps are lined along the cavern walls with a large table in the middle. Another map rests on top of it while eight people are standing around the table. I recognize one as Natalie, but none of the others. I'm surprised that out of the ones I don't know, only two are shifters, but one smells different yet familiar, while the rest are vampires. One of the vampires moves, and the rocks close in behind us. My eyes fall on the vampire, and I see he's young, fourteen at most, with pale-blonde hair and gold eyes.
"Thank-you, Luke," Natalie says, and the boy nods before glancing at all of us.
His eyes scan our faces until they land on me and widen slightly in recognition before he ducks his head.
"Natalie, it's good to see you again," Khalin smiles as he walks over and hugs her.
"It's nice to see you too, Khalin, as well as some of your squad," she replies with a smile at us.
"Where's Shane?"
The name sounds familiar to me, but I can't place it so I just ignore it.
"Aaron sent her on a mission," one of the shifters speaks up. "We don't know when she'll be back."
The girl who spoke up is eighteen, taller than me by three inches, and has very short, brown hair and smoky-grey eyes. Thanks to my advanced hearing, I can detect her Scot-Irish accent with some Italian. Beside her is a Hispanic girl of the same age with pitch black hair and topaz eyes. The Hispanic girl moves slightly, and I notice a tattoo on her right forearm of a tribal panther with red eyes. The pain and light-headedness from before return, and I close my eyes just as in image appears in my mind. There are four people standing outside of a house, and by the smell, I can tell they're shifters. Three are Native Americans, two boys and one girl, each with black hair and brown eyes, while the last girl is an American girl. The Native American girl and the younger boy, who seem like siblings, are arguing over something while the other boy is bringing out another dirt-bike to add to the other four. I look over at the other girl, but she just sighs and shakes her head, making me notice her black hair that has white tips, before she walks over to the two arguing. I expect her to pull them apart or something, but she just smacks both of them in the back of the head.
"Hey, what the hell was that for?" the Native American girl demands as her body quivers slightly.
"Act your age, or have you forgotten that we have company?" the other girl asks as she nods her head towards me, and I notice her dark, silver-grey eyes.
'Silver-grey? That's strange,' I think to myself.
The other girl looks over at me before looking down in a sheepish manner.
"What was the argument about this time? Whose bike is who's?" Silver-Eyes asks, and this time both the boy and girl look down.
"You've got to be kidding me," Silver-Eyes groans as she smacks her own forehead.
"What do you expect? It's them," the eldest boy states as he walks over with a greasy rag in his hands.
A marking on his arm catches my attention, and I notice a tribal tattoo of three wolves on his bicep. I look at the others and notice the two who had been arguing also have the same tattoo, but not Silver-Eyes.
"Bella," I hear someone call, and I open my eyes to see everyone else's eyes on me.
"Sorry," I mutter before clearing my throat. "I was lost in my thoughts."
"It's ok," Natalie smiles. "Now, why don't we all get down to business?"
This seems to catch everyone's attention as they turn back to the map, everyone except for Luke, the brunette shifter, Leon, and one of the other vampires. A quick glance at their eyes lets me see their emotions. Luke has shame swimming in his eyes and on his face while Leon is looking at me with an unreadable expression. The brunette shifter is looking at me with confusion and questioning clear in her eyes while her nose is flared slightly enough to let me know she is sniffing the air. I glance one more time at the other vampire who is twenty-seven, I suppose, with dark-blonde hair and red eyes that shine with intrigue. With all these emotions, I'm starting to wish I could read their minds and hear what they're thinking about. And speaking of minds, what's up with mine? These visions, are they my past? If so, who were those people? Am I getting my memories back? I wince at all of the questions running through my head and nearly jump when I feel someone's hand on my shoulder. A quick glance over my shoulder lets me see the hand belongs to the blonde vampire who had looked at me before.
"I'm going to run a quick patrol around the area," the blonde vampire speaks with a European accent and catches everyone's attention. "Khalin, may I borrow a member of your squad?"
Khalin's gaze drifts from the vampire to me, and I see the indecisiveness in his eyes. I nod slightly, and he nods back.
"Sure," he replies.
"I'll go too," the brunette shifter speaks up, and I notice Bree flinch from the corner of my vision. "Kia can fill me in on everything after."
I glance over at Bree to see she has a frown on her face with worry barely showing in her eyes before they set in determination.
"Same for me," she says, and everyone looks at her in surprise. "It's best to have a little more backup just in case anything happens."
"Very well," Natalie finally says. "I believe it's a little much, but you all may go."
"Thank-you," the blonde vampire says before leading the rest of us towards the exit that was starting to form.
All of us walk in silence until we reach the clearing outside of the waterfall, then the blonde vampire speaks up.
"Well, why don't we-" he starts.
"Why do you smell like Shane?" the brunette shifter cuts in, and I blink at her commanding tone.
Bree quickly steps beside me, and I feel the wind pick up slightly. I don't know how to reply, but apparently the shifter takes it the wrong way.
"I said, why do you smell like Shane?" the brunette growls slightly and takes a step forward.
"Back off," Bree hisses. "We don't take orders from you."
That was obviously not the right thing to say because the shifter bared her teeth and growled at Bree. In return, Bree hisses back while her eyes start to darken. I look back at the shifter and notice her eyes have changed from the smoky-grey to silver.
"Silver," I breathe as an image of Silver-Eyes appears in my mind before I quickly push it away to focus on the here and now.
No sooner did I push away the image did the girl shift into a large wolf with black fur.
"Oh, shit," I breathe. "Now you've done it."
Bree hisses and starts forward, but I grab her arm.
"Bree, calm down," I command, and she turns to me with black eyes.
I see her fighting the urge to run into the fight, but her instincts are wearing her down.
"Fight your instincts, Bree," I command in a soft voice. "Please, calm down."
She closes her eyes and takes a few breaths. When she opens her eyes, they're a very-dark crimson.
"I will not take orders from her," she hisses through her teeth.
A growl catches our attention, and I turn just as the wolf races towards us. I don't have enough time to catch Bree before she races to meet her.
"Dammit," I growl before chasing after her, shifting in midair.
Why can't things ever be simple?