Bella came back in the middle of the woods, clutching at her arms as she took deep breaths. Oxygen may not have been necessary for her anymore, but the action itself was so ingrained in her from her time after the Cullens' left, that she resorted to it now in her panic.
Could it really have been the same Aro? Could the literal King of the vampire race have been sitting in that house, just yards away from Bella, as a human? Could the leader who gives less than two shits for the suffering of his subject really have been a child once?
Bella remembered the twisted grin on the boy's face as he stood over his dying father and thought 'yes, yes he could.'
She clawed harder at her arms cracks forming in her granite skin at the strain of her steel grip.
She had left Didyme there. Bella had left a girl who smiled at a vampire like she was an angel alone with that twisted bastard. Her brother.
Oh my god.
"-la!"
Bella grit her teeth, letting go of her arms and digging into the ground around her. She had been thrown through time and space more times than she could explain, and she was getting tired of it. She'd had no control over any of it. She would just be standing there, and suddenly her power would activate and chuck her across the years like she was nothing. It was her power. It didn't control her. She would control it.
For the first time since becoming a vampire, Bella tried to consciously activate her power.
She didn't know how it worked. It had been a surprise each time. The first time, it had been activated by her change, and the second time her life was in danger once more, so maybe that was the key? Did she need to be in a life and death situation in order for it to work?
"-ella!"
But no. The next two times it had been when she was calming down. There was no more danger with a sobbing vampire on top of her, just grief. There was no danger out here in the woods, just companionship. Though, both of those times it had happened around Irina, so maybe that meant something?
Bella shook her head. That couldn't be it. Irina showed up after the first two, so that wasn't the common factor here. Then what the hell was causing her to fade out like this?
If she couldn't find the cause, she'd focus on the symptoms.
Bella could remember the tingling in her fingers that always signaled that her power was activating, and she tried to recreate it. She focused on the tips of her fingers, willing some kind of change.
When that yielded no results, she brought to her mind the failing of her vision that always accompanied the power. The fuzziness around the edges, and the tilting of the world, like gravity had changed and up was down and the only thing holding her to the ground was the thing on the other side of her power. She tried to hear the ringing in her ears, the rush in her veins, the warmth that flowed through her chest when she 'left'.
It wasn't working.
Bella threw up her hands in frustration.
She needed this to work. She needed to be able to control this new power of hers, this thing tied so inexplicably to her that she was thrown about due to a will that didn't even feel like her own. She needed to get back to Didyme, to warn her of her brother or something, anything, to help her. What good was she if she couldn't control the only thing that was solely hers. She wasn't some puppet, and she refused to be treated like one.
She'd been treated like a puppet her whole life, actually.
Bella curled in on herself at the thought, her shoulders hunching and her hands coming up to instinctively curl around the vulnerable skin of her stomach.
Her mother had treated her like a puppet, or a housekeeper at the best of times. She loved her mother, she really did, but she wasn't really a mother to her. Mother's take care of their children. They teach them how to be a good person, how to survive in the world. They cook for them and clean up their messes when they make a mistake and they comfort them when they're sad. They 'mother' them.
Renée had never 'mothered' Bella. If anything, Bella had 'mothered' her. Bella had cooked when Renée was passed out in her bed after a long night of drinking and partying with her friends. Bella had cleaned the house when Renée had brought home a new man. Bella had comforted Renée when her latest boyfriend left, claiming they were looking for a partnership, not a child in their relationship. Bella used to think that they were referring to her when they said that, but now she knew better.
She'd been Renée's puppet. She'd let her control her and shape her into this person who'd had to grow up far too fast to take care of her.
Edward had treated her like a puppet, too.
She'd fallen for the charming boy with little less than a thought. He'd swept her off her feet, literally in some cases, and provided everything she'd needed.
When Bella needed a coat, he'd give her the coat off her back. When Bella needed shelter, he'd taken her to his home and made her family. When Bella needed friends, he'd isolated her from the ones she had because he 'knew better' and they were just too dangerous. She was so fragile after all, she couldn't be friends with a shifter. She should be friensd with his family because they could, of course, snap her like a twig.
But time and time again, he came back. He came with words of how stupid she was to want to be near him. He brought her to beautiful places just so he could show her just how dangerous he truly was. Bringing her to the meadow had been a ploy to scare her. He'd talked about how no one could hear her from that secluded paradise.
He'd raced around, showing her just how much faster he was. 'She could never outrun him. How stupid of her to ever think she could.'
He'd uprooted a tree with his bare hands, showing her his strength. 'She could never beat him. He could beat her down in a second with his strength.'
He'd shed his clothed, showing her his skin. He was 'the perfect predator. She could never get away. She would never even want to.'
Everything Edward had ever done, from the constant belittling to the scare tactics, had been to control her. He'd used her like a puppet, pulling the strings all the while that he issued declarations of love.
Bella was real fucking tired of being controlled.
A furious roar echoed through the trees, and birds took flight, escaping the wrath of the predator beneath them.
Hands settled cautiously on either side of Bella's face, then, and Irina's face entered Bella's line of vision.
"Bella!" Irina practically shouted in her face. "What is going on?"
Bella just looked into the golden eyes in front of her with her own sad red ones, and Irina gently pulled the newborn until Bella's face was securely nestled in the crook of her neck, and she started sobbing as the older vampire rocked her back and forth. Bella's hands grabbed at Irina's arms, her fingers digging in and acting as her anchor.
"Shh." Irina cooed at Bella as she smoothed her hair away from her face. "Whatever it is, it will be okay."
Bella rubbed her face against the woman's neck as she shook her head. "I j-just left." The words barely made it out in between her heaving breaths. "She's in trouble, and I just left her there." Bella couldn't force anymore words out and just continued to sob, the tears in her eyes never dropping down her face.
They spent almost an hour in that position until Bella finally managed to get a reign on her emotions and rubbed unnecessarily at her eyes. She glanced up at the blonde vampire crouched next to her, offering an embarrassed smile.
"Sorry about that." Bella said, and even while Irina was shaking her head, she continued. "I've just had kind of a rough time lately, and I guess everything just hit me."
"You have nothing to apologize for, as I've told you many times now." A small smile let Bella know that Irina truly believed what she was saying, and Bella resigned herself to quietly making up for all the harm she'd caused, albeit unintentionally. "May I ask, what was that reaction?"
Bella froze up, her vampire muscles making her look more like a statue than a living being.
"I…" Bella began, only to trail off when she couldn't think of no good explanation for her actions. She couldn't really say 'oh, there's this kid in ancient Greece who's just the sweetest, but her brother's Satan incarnate. Oh, and also he'd the King of the Vampires.' Bella settled for shrug, her eyes peering down at the dirt below her.
"Alright, then." Irina stood from the ground, still gazing down at the newborn. "Maybe you could tell me later?" She questioned, softly.
Bella gave a small smile in response before lifting herself to stand as well, and the two of them took off toward the house. Before they reached the house, though, Bella wondered at how much time had passed this time around. She'd been gone for the longest amount of time, yet, but Irina was waiting for her in the forest alone. She would probably have to have a long talk with Charlie when she got back.
"Irina," Bella spoke while they ran, and the tilt of the blonde's head let her know she was listening, "how long was I gone?"
"Not that long," Irina replies, gliding gracefully over the forest floor, "Just under five minutes."
Bella's feet halted, and she actually had to stop herself from running straight into a tree.
"What?!"
OOOOOO
The rest of the Denali coven were in the living room of the Cullen's house when they arrived, and they were greeted with smiles all around, surprising Bella.
"Took you two long enough." Kate spoke from her position, laid out across the couch. All the other seats in the house were taken, and Bella foresaw a lengthy conversation taking place once everyone got settled, so she leaned up against the wall opposite the couch, steeling herself. Irina, however, took one look at her prone sister and leapt onto her stomach. Kate let out an exaggerated huff of air, complaining about Irina being too heavy, which prompted Irina to flick her sister on the nose, starting an all-out war of poke's and playful comments.
"Alright, settle down." Tanya said, gazing at her sisters fondly. "I believe we have a few things to discuss." Her eyes settled on Bella at that, and the newborn had to stop herself from gulping like a cartoon at the weight behind that stare.
"Right." Bella nodded. "So…" She had absolutely no idea where to start this conversation. The woman Bella hadn't spoken to yet, who introduced herself as 'Carmen', apparently knew where she wanted the story to start.
"You know the Cullens. Edward came to visit us a while ago, and he informed us of a human girl back in his town that his sister, Alice, had visions about. You were that human? Isabella Swan?" At Bella's nod, Carmen continued. "And you said that the Cullens didn't change you, Laurent did." She spoke the name with an apologetic glance at Irina, but the blonde didn't seem too upset at the mention. "So then, the obvious question here would be 'where did the Cullens go?'"
Bella flinched, and she knew it was seen by every vampire in the room, but her thoughts had already begun a downward spiral. Apparently, they were jumping straight into this. She should have expected it, and honestly, she did, but it didn't make it hurt any less to be prepared for it.
"They left." The whispered words drew a few concerned frowns from the vampires in the room, but she soldiered on knowing she'd have to give more than that to stem their curiosity. "I don't know where they went, they just left." She took a shuddery breath, not seeing many of the vampires in the room looking to each other, concern plain in their faces for the obvious hurt the girl in front of them was in.
"I…It started on my birthday. Sort of. Or kind of when James and his coven came after me." Bella began her story. "Edward had always been a bit…overprotective." She heard a scoff from somewhere in the room, but ignored it despite her agreement behind the sentiment. He'd been a bit more than 'overprotective'. "When I just managed to survive one vampire attack, he began to try and 'limit the danger in my life'." Bella mimicked the words her boyfriend had used with derision.
"It started by limiting my exposure to Jasper. Jasper had always had some trouble trying to control his thirst, and Edward was worried he'd snap and attack me, so I was never left alone with Jasper. In fact, I barely saw him at all. No one seemed to think that 'practice makes perfect' was an appropriate phrase here, and Jasper was practically reintroduced to the smell of my blood each time I saw him, instead of building up a tolerance.
"So, my birthday was coming up, and Alice, of course, wanted to throw a huge party." Bella gave a sad smile at the thought of her best friend. "I always hated big parties, so I told them no, but you can't exactly say no to Alice. She's got puppy dog eyes." Another snort from Kate. "So, I got the party, and I actually really enjoyed it. There was a lot of awkwardness, mainly from me because I'm not the smoothest operator, but overall the party was really fun. Until the end of it that is." Bella took another deep breath, clenching her hands together and not making eye contact with any of the Denalis.
"We got to opening the presents, and klutz that I am, I got a paper cut." Bella's jaw worked as she struggled to keep her tone calm, but it started to grow heavy with the knot in her throat. "Jasper had already had the 'Bella ban', that combined with his empath abilities, and he felt all the bloodlust in the room. I'm Edward's singer. Jasper felt all of that and more, so I'm not angry at him for his reaction.
"Jasper snapped, and he came at me. Edward moved into the way and ended up doing more harm than good, because he shoved me back into a glass table, and I cut my arm pretty badly. Long story short, all the vampires had to leave, apart from Carlisle, while I got stitched up. My blood used to smell abnormally good, so they were already straining themselves as it was. Anyway, after that, Edward got even weirder about things.
"He was always so cold with me, and I could feel this distance building between us. I noticed that I hadn't seen the other Cullens in a while, but Edward never really explained it, and I trusted him so I didn't question it. Later, when he came over to my house and wanted to take a walk through the woods, I assumed this was him trying to be romantic, and that things were finally looking up." Bella let out a hollow laugh, startling a few of the Denalis. "I was wrong.
"He brought me out into the woods, and when he stopped, he turned to me with this blank face, and I knew something was wrong. I…I asked what was wrong and he just told me that 'we are leaving, Bella.' I of course immediately told him that I would need time to pack. I started thinking about ways to tell Charlie, or if I was going to have to fake my own death, when he stopped me. They were leaving, not me. They had decided that I wasn't entertaining enough anymore. They'd gotten bored of their human pet, and the Cullens were leaving me behind."
There were muttered curses coming from multiple mouths in the room, many of which in different languages, but Bella was trapped in the memory.
"He told me that I wasn't good for him. Like that wasn't obvious from the start. I was just this clumsy human, intent on getting hit by a truck of falling down a flight of stairs and breaking my neck before I reached middle age. He was an immortal vampire. I knew I wasn't good for him. I tried to argue, though. I asked what Alice thought about all of this, because I was sure that my best friend, the girl who called me her sister, and Esme, the woman who was a mother to me, would have argued on my behalf. When he told me that they had already left, that they didn't want to say goodbye, it took whatever fight I had left right out of me.
"He left me there, in the middle of the woods, with the parting words that I should take care of myself for Charlie. I ran after him for a little while, but I got lost in the woods, and eventually I just curled up into a ball on the forest floor and cried. I didn't even think about moving, and the temperature was dropping fast. I'd probably still be lying there, decomposing by now, if the Alpha of the wolves, Sam Uley, hadn't found me.
"He picked me up and brought me home to Charlie." Bella let out a breath, having finally managed to say it all out loud. It was almost therapeutic to go over it now. The loss she felt from before lessened now that she had lived with it for a while. Now that she'd come to accept it. "So, yeah. That's it. End of melodramatic story." She gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
"Son of a BITCH!"