AN1: There were some people asking about having some scenes from Victoria's POV. I plan on there eventually being some but not until this story arc is over which still has some ways to go. There will be some scattered Cullens POV but for the most part it will be all Bella.
AN2: Does anyone want to take a crack at making an image for this story? I don't own photoshop or anything and wouldn't know how to begin to make a nice looking image for the story. If anyone thinks they would like to do so feel free to contact me.
AN3: This chapter was going to be well over 12k words so I had to cut it in half. It's a tad shorter than the last two but I hope you still enjoy it. Also I want to thank everyone who's read and reviewed this story so far! It feels like A Witch and her Vampire really jumped in popularity last chapter. The views count skyrocketed and I got over forty reviews after posting last chapter! So thank you again everyone. Ya'll really make my day.
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There was a new person in Bella's art class that day.
Alice Cullen sat in one of a series of round tables which is how the class was arranged. The petite vampire looked right at Bella as soon as she walked in the classroom and gave Bella the biggest, happiest smile teenager could ever remember seeing in her entire life. Alice's face lit up like a beloved long lost relative had just walked in the room and this made Bella somewhat uncomfortable. People around the classroom gave Alice and Bella looks ranging from curious to disbelieving. Alice ignored them all and started motioning for Bella to come sit next to her.
Bella was sure Alice hadn't been in this class the day before. In fact she didn't have any of the Cullens in her classes except for Edward in first period, she had made sure of that. Reluctantly Bella went over and sat next to the pocket sized, oddly enthusiastic vampire.
"Hi Bella!" said Alice enthusiastically and the girl looked to be stopping herself from giving Bella a hug. Good thing too because Bella might have jumped out of her seat and bolted.
"Hi Alice" said Bella a little awkwardly, giving the vampire a watery smile.
Alice leaned in a little closer to her and whispered, "I know you go by Bella at school, but do you prefer Bella or Marie?"
Bella swallowed. "I go by both. Bella's fine."
Alice nodded resolutely seemingly pleased. "Good, Esme and I both thought you looked more like a Bella and even Emmett seems fond of the name. Not that there's anything wrong with Marie though" she hastened to add, as if afraid of giving offence.
Bella smiled a little and it was more genuine this time. "Good, because if you had a problem with my name I was going to have to start pulling out all my Alice in Wonderland jokes."
Alice's lips quirked and her eyes sparkled. "You have Alice in Wonderland jokes ready for when you meet girls named Alice?"
"No, but I'm pretty sure I could make some up on the spot" said Bella. The banter felt easy and natural and Bella was starting to relax a bit around the overly friendly vampire.
"Hmmm," said Alice tapping her chin in mock though "I'm not sure I believe you. You might just have to give me a demonstration."
"You sure you want one?"
"I'm sure."
"Ok, but first you have to answer me one thing."
"What's that?" asked Alice eyes shining with amusement.
"Why did you drink the bottle labeled 'DRINK ME' but never ate the cake?"
It was maybe slightly more mean spirited than she wanted but Alice didn't seem to mind as she dissolved into a fit of giggles. Bella couldn't help but let out a few giggles of her own at Alice's reaction.
"Short jokes already? I thought you'd have more class than that Bella" said Alice teasingly while trying to contain her giggles.
"Well if the shoe fits. Or in your case the doll shoes I suppose."
"Ouch! Zinger. Now I have to find some obvious trait of yours to poke fun at. Physically you're very pretty so I'll have to find some personality trait to make fun of. I bet you probably snore and wear mismatched socks."
Bella's smile was full and genuine now. "Mismatched socks?"
Alice nodded sagely "It's a deep and troubling flaw but don't worry, I won't let it get in the way of our friendship. I can be benevolent in overlooking things like that, Tigger and Pooh socks aside."
Bella gave a little confused frown at that. "Tigger and Pooh?"
Alice grinned and looked down meaningfully at her ankles.
Bella looked down and lifted the hem of her jeans. Sure enough on one foot was a white sock with tiny Tiggers on it and the other was covered in tiny Winnie the Poohs in various stages of a honey induced coma.
"Oh crap" whispered Bella suddenly feeling embarrassed. How had she not noticed she was wearing mismatched socks? Well she had been pretty distracted that morning.
"Don't worry" said Alice patting her arm in a grave manner "I won't tell anyone" she whispered with a mischievous smirk.
Score: Alice 1 Bella 0.
Before they could say anything else the bell rung and the teacher started speaking.
"Hello class. Today we're going to do a sketch of the human face in charcoal. Remember like we talked about yesterday this doesn't have to be an exact replica. Your goal is to draw enough traits to make the person you're drawing recognizable to others in the class. That means finding prominent features in your subject and doing your best to replicate the general feel and shape of them in charcoal. Partner up and each partner will spend half the period drawing the other" said the teacher Mrs. Pope.
"You'll be my partner?" asked Alice and Bella caught just a hint of insecurity in her voice.
Bella considered her for a moment. It would be really rude to refuse and they were supposed to be socializing with the Cullens right? Besides despite her general wariness of vampires the two of them had a pretty good banter going. After talking to her for a bit Bella was starting to find that she really did like the tiny and excitable vampire.
"Sure. Partners sounds good" said Bella and she couldn't help but feel pleased and amused at the happy look on Alice's face when she said that.
Bella suggested Alice draw first and the other woman went along with it. Alice pulled out a sketch pad and a stick of charcoal while leaning back on her chair, worrying her lip as she examined Bella's face. Despite knowing the assignment was to draw her Bella couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious at the scrutiny.
She fished for a topic of conversation "So why weren't you in this class yesterday? I know all of you guys came to school."
"Oh that's because I had it changed today. I came in early this morning to get it done" said the vampire as she started sketching on the pad.
"Wait" said Bella feeling a bit of trepidation "what do you mean you had it changed? They don't let you just change classes whenever you feel like it."
Alice gave a little smile but didn't stop her sketching. "I told you I can see the future right? It's more like I can usually see what will happen when someone makes a choice. I kept thinking of different ways to get the administration to agree to my totally unreasonable change in classes and eventually came up with a scenario that would work. A little flattery, a note to say I can't do gym class anymore plus some homemade cookies softened the ladies at the office right up. I pretty much got my pick of new classes."
Ok. That was kind of freaky. The possible ramifications of that power were mind boggling. Could you get literally anything to go your way if you just thought through enough different options beforehand? That sort of thing sounded much too good to be true. Just how much did her power actually let her see?
There was also another question that was maybe more troubling. "Why did you change into this class?" asked Bella fearing she already knew the answer.
"Because you're in it of course" said Alice.
The admission brought a surge of discomfort and worry to Bella. Something must have shown on her face because Alice's voice took on a softer tone.
"I'm not here to hurt you or stalk you or anything like that Bella. I just really want to get to know you. Do you remember that I can see the future? One thing I saw was the two of us being good friends. Best friends actually. I thought us having a couple of classes together could be the start of that" she said with a tender and hopeful look that seemed out of place with how long they had known each other.
Bella swallowed thickly while she thought. She didn't know how much of what Alice said she could take at face value. Was there some kind of angle here? Or was she actually telling the truth?
"So you're saying you see my future and we stay here in Forks long term?" asked Bella skeptically.
Alice made a displeased face at that. "Actually I can't really see you in my visions for some reason. Sometimes I can tell where you are or will be by a conspicuous empty space in my visions. Other times I can't see you at all or you blot out everything around you. I think you have some kind of natural shield that blocks me from seeing you in my visions and blocks Edward's telepathy. If or when you're turned you'll probably have some kind of really strong mental shield-like power."
Bella breathed an internal sigh of relief at that. It would have freaked her the hell out if Alice could see everything she was going to do in her future. Other people having that kind of knowledge about you was dangerous. Bella didn't know if she had some kind of natural protection against mental abilities but part of Bella kind of doubted it. She had spent a great deal of time and energy making sure she and Tori couldn't be tracked by magic with spellwork of her own. If she had to guess it was due to that reason the vampire's abilities didn't work on her. Then again she had no real way to know for sure.
"If you can't see me then how do you know we're supposed to be best friends?" she asked skeptically.
"I see some of my future with my best friend but in those visions she is blotted out. It's the exact thing that happens whenever I try to look into your future. Ergo I'm positive it's you."
"So you just know what's going to happen in the future and there's no way to change that?" asked Bella dubiously. She was not a believer in fate.
"Well… not exactly. If people make different choices the future can change. It has some flexibility but it's not fluid like water either. It's hard to explain" said Alice, a look of frustration crossing her face at her inability to ever properly communicate what seeing the future was like.
Well as interesting as the conversation was Bella wasn't about to take anything at face value. For all she knew Alice was completely off her rocker. She decided to file the whole conversation in a 'I'm skeptical but we'll see what happens' box in her brain.
Besides, her with friends? It's not that she didn't want it to happen. It's that she didn't see how it could. Not with constantly being on the run.
Alice must have been pretty good at reading her because she gave a little unhappy sigh and said "It's ok I can't really expect you to believe me without having seen any proof yet. I keep forgetting you don't know me yet and it makes things a little strange for me. How about we just agree to be friends and not worry about what happens next?" said Alice with once again sporting an infectious encouraging smile.
It wasn't as simple a question as it looked on the surface. For one, she was a vampire. Even being 'vegetarian' Bella still didn't really know how safe these golden eyed vampires were. For all she knew they accidentally killed a human every few months.
Still for the Cullens to attend high school their control had to be leap and bounds above that of your average human-eating vamp. It would be almost impossible to go through high school without being exposed to someone who cut themselves or skinned their knee and bled in their vicinity. They must all be confident that something like that wouldn't cause them to lose control. The Cullen vampires were probably pretty safe to be around.
Did they have nefarious purposes though? It was hard to shed her some of her inborn prejudice in thinking that just because they were vampires the other shoe was going to eventually drop. Victoria had been the only vampire before the Cullens who didn't look at her like a happy meal on legs. Was it really fair of her to judge Alice based on her experiences with other vampires? So far, for vampires, all the Cullens had more or less behaved unfailingly decent and polite towards her. Was it possible that they really were just nice and weren't plotting something she wouldn't like?
In the end Bella thought back to the situation with Victoria and how terrified she was of suddenly finding herself abandoned if and when she figured out how to set Victoria free. Having someone else in her life, a friend, might make the whole thing easier. Whether she was a crackpot or not Alice did seem genuinely sincere in her belief that they would be 'best friends'.
Nothing ventured nothing gained. It was a risk but the alternative of remaining isolated seemed worse. She looked at Alice's hopeful face and offered a tentative smile in return.
"Ok. Friends" she said. Even if she was nervous it felt pretty good.
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They got through the rest of the period chatting about small things. Bella's drawing was amateurish and frankly pretty bad since she had never really practiced drawing, or the medium, or art in general before (unless you counted magic as an art). Alice's drawing, maybe predictably, was an almost perfect replica that managed to flatter her at the same time. It was like looking at herself with all her appealing features further emphasized in a subtle way.
"Here, you keep it" said Alice handing it over.
"You know I can just look in a mirror anytime I want" said Bella sarcastically but she took the picture anyway and thanked her before putting it in a folder.
They were getting ready to leave class and Bella was feeling quite good. She didn't know about best friends but she did know that she enjoyed talking to Alice and that she was very easy to talk to. On a lot of things they were on the same wavelength even though the vampire could probably be her grandmother who knew how many times over. Bella felt she trusted Alice at least a little bit now so she decided to mention something that had been bothering her.
"Did you know Edward asked me out on a date?" said Bella a little self-consciously.
"Did he now" she said in a voice that was carefully non-committal. She didn't seem surprised.
"Yeah, I was just wondering about that and about him. Sort of was wanting your opinion on that. In a way it's kind of flattering but I don't even know what to make of it" said Bella.
Alice took a long time before answering. "Underneath it all Edward is a nice guy but he does have his flaws. He's an old fashioned kind of person so casual dating would be a little alien to him. He would most likely take you going out on a date with him as a sign of serious interest" said Alice looking at Bella in a concerned way. The younger girl wondered why Alice seemed to be picking her words so carefully.
Bella nodded. "I see" she said even though she kind of didn't. Surely Edward knew times had changed a bit since those days.
"What do you think about it?" asked Alice.
Bella thought about it for a few moments before replying. "I think I'm probably going to say no. He seems like a nice guy, and he's been nothing but a gentleman to me at least, and he's very handsome but… it would probably just be messy for all sorts of reasons. On top of that I'm not really in a good place in my life to be thinking about potential relationships. Plus it would probably just piss Tori off to no end. It's kind of tempting but it seems like a bad idea right now."
Alice just nodded at that and Bella for some reason thought the vampire might have even looked relieved. Then again she might have just imagined it.
"Come on. It's lunch time."
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By the time Bella and Alice excited the classroom the hallway was already filled with people making their way to the lunch room. Leaning against the wall across from their classroom was Victoria. One foot was pressed against the wall and her arms were folded underneath her generous bosom looking the picture of a surly and rebellious teenager. She gave her a look and Bella knew what the vampire wanted.
"Alice, why don't you go on ahead? I'll talk to you later" she said to the shorter girl besides her.
Alice looked at her and then at Victoria who regarded the smaller vampire with carefully neutral features. Victoria, or Andromeda, had always seemed cold and distant and not very friendly the couple of times Alice had met her and this time was no exception. Bella seemed to adore her though so there must be something more to the gorgeous redhead than cool receptions and formality.
"Sure. Catch you later Bella. Bye Victoria" she said. The other vampire acknowledged her with a barely visible nod before Alice flashed Bella one last smile and sauntered off in the direction of the lunch room.
Bella watched until Alice had gone a little ways before turning back to Victoria. "So, what's up?"
"Just want to talk to you for a bit. Let's go outside where we're least likely to be overheard" said Victoria. She tilted her head and motioned for the other girl to follow. Bella walked with her through the school wondering where they were going. Eventually she led them out a back door of the building. There were some wooded areas near the school and the two of them headed in that direction. Bella thought technically they were not supposed to go that far but it didn't seem like anybody noticed.
Victoria brought them to a copse of trees a little ways from the main building. It was a little isolated and the trees gave them an illusion of being secluded from the outside world. Victoria leaned against a tree and crossed her ankles casually regarding Bella curiously.
"Unless we shout even vampires shouldn't be able to hear us from all the way inside the cafeteria. It's safe to talk" Victoria said.
"Right, talk. Talk is good."
"You don't know what I want to talk about do you?"
"Nope. Unless it's about the Cullens, then yes I would happen to know then."
"Right" said Victoria. She seemed to be looking her over with a critical eye.
"How are you handling interacting with them?" asked the vampire.
Bella took a deep breath. "Good. Sort of. I mean they are vampires. I keep waiting for something bad to happen but they are all so nice I'm starting to feel like I'm being unreasonably paranoid."
Victoria snorted at that. "You really are young if you think people being nice to you means they have good intentions."
Bella took a moment to process that. "Are you saying you think they don't have good intentions?"
"I'm saying we don't have anything to gain by getting more involved than we have to. I get they are nice, I saw how you were chatting up the little one when you were coming out of the classroom."
Bella frowned at that. "Her name is Alice."
"Right. Alice. She looks like she could fit down a rabbit hole."
Bella had to smirk at that even if she was a tad annoyed. The two of them sometimes thought along similar tracks. Was Victoria's brand of humor starting to rub off on her? Heaven forbid.
"She's very nice" said Bella.
"I'm sure."
"I'm serious, she is."
"You mean she seemed to be. What's your point?"
Bella huffed at that. "My point is that it's a little hard to stay hostile and suspicious when they are being so very nice. Plus that's not how people should treat each other I don't think. If you hit it off with one of them how would you deal with it?"
"I did hit it off with one of them, kind of. But I'm not going to have the same problems you seem to be starting to have."
Bella ignored the last part because she was much more curious about the first.
"Really? Who was it? What happened?" she asked with sudden excitement.
Victoria frowned at her enthusiasm on the subject. "Does it matter?"
"Well only in the sense that I'm dying to know. Who was it? Emmett was super friendly and kind of like that class clown, I bet it was him. Oh or Jasper with his gentlemanly ways, I'm sure he's great what with being Alice's mate and all" she babbled. When she got excited it made Bella look and sound years younger.
Victoria looked at her searchingly before letting out a small sigh in defeat. "Neither of those actually. I sort of, kind of, hit it off with Rosalie in a passive aggressive bitchy sort of way. Had her for two classes this morning and ended up sitting next to her in the first and partnered up in the second. In the first class she would barely look at me and I could almost feel the disdain coming off her in waves. The second class we were forced to work together and she refused to give me anything other than short clipped answers until I asked about the one thing vampires never seem to get tired of talking about; her mate."
"Oh? What did she do then?" asked Bella genuinely enthralled by the story. She hadn't interacted with Rosalie but the impression she got from her and from what little Alice had talked about her it sounded like Rosalie had written the book on being cold, unfriendly and unapproachable.
"At first she didn't want to but when I finally got her to start talking about him she relaxed and opened up a bit. We spent the whole class period talking and trading barbs," Victoria shrugged "she's kind of a bitch but I like her. You can tell there's a whole lot more going on behind that haughty ice queen mask. She's interesting."
Bella felt an unexpected stab of jealousy at hearing Victoria talk about Rosalie that way. She'd never had to share Victoria with anyone and she found she didn't particularly like the feeling that prospect brought up. If Rosalie had been single and unmated it would have probably made her a great deal more uneasy.
"But my point" continued Victoria "is that I'm not going to give her the keys to my house and I'm not going to become emotionally invested. Even if she was the most likable person I've ever met I'd still be able to walk away. Just don't lose sight that this is a temporary arrangement and that we'll probably need to be moving on sooner than we originally planned."
Bella sighed and nodded. She knew Victoria would probably want to be moving on in a month or two at the most. For now it was mostly safe but there was always the chance something could go wrong. The Cullens might tell someone about them and if word somehow reached the Volturi… well Bella wasn't eager for another tussle with the extremely dangerous vamps that worked for them. They also couldn't well ask the Cullens not to mention them to anyone else without raising all types of questions. Bella didn't like it but logically she understood the necessity of having to move. Again.
Maybe she could keep in contact with Alice by emails or over the phone or something. That might be nice.
The conversation fell into a mostly companionable silence. Now that there was a break in their talk Bella became acutely aware that they were for all intents and purposes alone and concealed from prying eyes. Her eyes looked Victoria over taking in how she made clothes that would have made anyone else look like a maladjusted teen look incredibly sexy and rebellious. She had a sudden impulse to reach out and touch Victoria's hair but held herself in check. Suddenly feeling uncharacteristically self-conscious in the presence of the vampire Bella fished around for another topic of conversation.
"Hey want to hear something funny? Edward asked me out during first period. I totally didn't see that one coming" said Bella in a lighthearted tone.
Victoria's demeanor changed immediately. Her back straightened and she narrowed her eyes on Bella. In a split second the vampire went from relaxed to extremely intimidating. Bella gawked at her sudden change in demeanor and started to wonder what she'd said wrong.
"You're not dating him," said Victoria with cool authority "In fact you're not going to be dating anyone. Ever. Is that clear?"
Bella gaped at Victoria like a fish out of water. That was not at all the response she had expected. Victoria seemed to loom over her even though she hadn't moved from her spot, her brown eyes suddenly piercing down to what felt like her very soul demanding that she obey.
Bella's first and most overpowering instinct was to submit. It would have felt almost natural, right even, to bend her neck and give in to what Victoria wanted from her. A part of her felt the powerful need please Victoria and to give in to anything and everything the vampire might want from her. It might have alarmed her a great deal if the instinct didn't feel so completely right and natural.
And yet…
For a number of reasons Victoria's command also pissed Bella right off.
"What do you mean I can't date? If I want to date, I'm going to date. There's nothing wrong with that" Bella replied mustering up her courage.
"You're not going to date. That's final" said Victoria, unmoved.
"You can't stop me from dating. And what's the bright idea anyhow? Do you want me to be lonely and never experience anything with anyone else? I might die at any time in this life, what if I don't want to die a virgin?" she asked hotly. Uncharacteristic of her this conversation was making her very angry very quickly.
"It's not safe. Besides we're always on the move. It's not like you'll have time to build a relationship anyway" replied Victoria, trying to sound calm but her own anger started creep around the edges of her voice.
"Who said anything about a relationship? Maybe I just want to spend a little time with someone nice. Or maybe I just want somebody to fuck my brains out" she said, surprising herself with the bitterness and resentment she was showing "either way whatever I chose to do you can't stop me."
In the span of a heartbeat Victoria's eyes went from dark brown to a furious pitch black. "So that's what this is all about? You're eager to go and find some perfect stranger to rock your little world, is that it?" replied Victoria with anger and cruel condescension dripping from her voice.
"No that isn't what this is all about. I just want to be able to meet people and maybe have something special with someone even if it's just for a little while. But yes I'm a healthy teenage girl and I'd be lying if I said the prospect of sex hadn't crossed my mind" replied Bella defensively.
"So that's it? Little BB is lonely and wants some strange boy pawing at her until she gives it up to him?" Victoria said as she stepped closer, her voice full of anger and venomous mockery.
"Don't say that. It's not like that" said Bella angry and hurt by Victoria's attitude.
"I'm just repeating back what you said. I didn't know you were so eager to get on your back, spread your legs and let some stranger fuck you like a little whore."
"Well I don't see you stepping up to the plate!" shouted Bella, furious and red faced from anger and embarrassment. As soon as she realized what she had just said her face took on a mortified expression.
Victoria's lips slowly curled up into what looked less like a smile and more like a sharp knife being drawn. "Please Bella. Like I would ever touch you" Victoria said, her voice filled with disgust and loathing, making Bella feel like she was nothing short of repulsing to the red headed vampire.
Bella's world crumpled into a haze of hurt and pain at hearing those words. Her face fell and she looked off to the side, the sudden emotional agony clear on her features. Bella felt a lump in her throat and tears started to sting her eyes. No one had ever cut her down so thoroughly and completely with just a few words in her entire life.
Like I would ever touch you.
They stood awkwardly in silence for a moment with Bella fighting a losing battle with her tears. Eventually despite how much she wanted to hold them in tears started spilling down her face. With an angry forearm she wiped away her tears. She was angry at herself for failing to keep even her dignity in the face of what Victoria had just said.
"Bella…" began Victoria uncertainly, her voice suddenly a lot softer than before. That was all it took to suddenly break the dam. Bella turned and ran, a sob escaping her lips. She couldn't be around Victoria right now. She couldn't be around anyone. She needed to be alone. The pain in Bella's chest was overwhelming and Victoria watched, unsure of what to do, as the teenaged girl ran away from her.
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Hope you don't hate me for that . Things need to get worse before they get better. Did you like it? As always more reviews mean quicker updates!