Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. The content, ideas and intellectual property of this story and the 'American Vampire Series' in its entirety are owned by Just4ALE. (FYI - introducing some new characters in this one... none of the existing ones would suffice.)

Chapter 9: With a Little Help From My Friends

BPOV

Raised as a Catholic, I had grown up believing in God. I still believed … even though I didn't go to church anymore or understand His "mysterious ways", particularly why He was doing this to me right now. As such, I was a firm believer in a few things:

A) Do unto others as you would have done unto you… because God was in charge of karma;

B) Always say 'God bless you' to whomever sneezed around you, even if you don't know the person… actually, that one I learned from the movie Dogma; and

C) The Footprints poem where God carried the person in times of trial and suffering was true. Over the course of my life, I believe He did it by sending me someone who was there for me when I most needed it. After our breakup, He sent me Angela to help me pack and move out of the house. And then He sent some other helpers.

~#~

About three weeks after my move to Lincoln Park, Nicole showed up at my door. Nicole was a commercial real estate lending banker in New York and had been my roommate at Dartmouth. I was shocked.

"Nicki! Hi!" I said, hugging her, "What are you doing here?"

"Angela, Serena and I had a conference call two weeks ago." She walked past me and looked around a little, her long dark hair swishing on her back as her head swiveled around. She'd gotten it cut a little since I last saw her and the layers complemented her round Hawaiian-looking face. "Nice apartment."

"Thanks."

She whirled around. "We're going to Italy. San Gimignano."

"San Gimignano?"

"Yeah, Serena has a spare room in her pensione for a week and so we're kidnapping you."

I felt my chest constrict. Aside from trips to Blockbuster down the road and the Thai place across the street, I hadn't been out too much over the past few weeks and wasn't sure I could deal with the outside world just yet. "I can't…"

"What excuse do you have? You don't start work for another two weeks." She looked around, saw a door and pointed at it. "Bedroom," she stated and walked through. "I'm helping you pack. It will be hot there."

I followed her. "Nicole, I don't know..."

"Fuck that shit," she said. Yeah, Nicole may have looked meek and like a nice Hawaiian due to her half-Asian ethnicity but she grew up in New York and had no qualms about expressing herself with choice words. She turned and grabbed me by my shoulders. "Bella, there is NOTHING better for getting over pale bronze-haired shitheads than hanging around dark-eyed, dark-haired swarthy Italian men. You're going." She opened the door to my closet and started eyeing my wardrobe. "Plus, you took Italian in college. I'll need someone to give me the Italian equivalent of 'voulez-vous coucher avec moi.' "

I laughed. "Okay, A) My Italian is rusty, B) I don't know how to say that in Italian, and C) You'd never say that to a stranger, let alone to a strange Italian man."

She shrugged. "I know. Whatever. It's nice to dream. Anyway, Angela can't come but she said it's her treat for some hazelnut gelato for you and a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino – not together of course. I'll join you on the gelato… I'll be drinking Peroni when I'm there since I don't like wine." She looked at me. "So?"

I love my friends. They were right: get away. I nodded. "I'm in."

~#~

We left a few days later. Nicole used her frequent flyer miles to upgrade us from economy to business class to Florence. I didn't want to think about my last European trip too much so I took half of a Tylenol PM and knocked myself out for the flight. I didn't even wait for dinner.

Serena was waiting for us outside of customs and baggage claim looking all glamorous and European despite her Indian ethnicity. She wore big sunglasses and a scarf draped around her hair and wrapped around her neck. "Ciao Bella!" she said, air kissing my cheeks.

"Cut the crap Serena. Give me a real hug," I said.

Serena had been one of my project managers at BCG. Another native New Yorker, she was a Dartmouth alumnus as well, but from the B'school, Amos Tuck. She rapidly became a good friend and mentor when we worked together, and she had desperately tried to get me on-board with her classic sense of style, but I didn't have her income or family wealth or any sort of fashion sense, so it was a losing battle. However, I loved shopping with her. The woman could drop $10,000 on herself in a couple of hours no problem. She could give Alice a run for her money.

She hugged me warmly, then she pulled back and looked at me. "You look like hell, BB," she said softly. BB was her nickname for me… depending on the moment, it stood for Blunt Bella, Beautiful Bella or Badass Bella. It was an amazingly versatile nickname. "You've lost so much weight." Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. "Fuck him," she said. "Let's have fun, okay?"

Serena drove slowly as we made our way through Tuscany and it was driving me crazy. We were in Italy… land of the cars right on your ass flashing signals and beeping. "Jeez Serena, you're practically DWO and you're not O! What the hell? Pick it up. I could walk faster... Let me drive." Serena and I had traveled a lot together and we were practically like sisters... sisters who fought and gave each other shit.

"DWO?" Nicole asked.

"Driving While Old. Snail's pace." I said.

"I got five tickets in the last two months," Serena said. "No more leadfoot."

"Were the cops cute at least?" Nicole asked.

Serena smiled widely. "Don't you know it! I was asked out by two of them."

"Well, damn, floor it girl. We're only in town for a week and Bella needs a distraction," Nicki said laughing.

I looked out the window. Cute guys. I hadn't thought of another man in ages. I supposed that I'd have to get used to that eventually.

As we made our way through the countryside, I caught a glimpse of San Gimignano's tall towers in the distance as the town came into view. The medieval skyscrapers in this walled hill town in Tuscany were what drove the tourists in by busloads daily. Luckily, Serena's pensione was off the main tourist drag.

I chuckled when we pulled up to her building and saw the name of the place: Pensione Karma. She had purchased the place a year ago after she left BCG for a career change. She had told me that she planned on renaming it, but it took her that long to actually do it. Serena could overprocess and overthink more than anyone I knew.

"Karma, Serena? That's an Italian sounding name," Nicki said sarcastically, having the same reaction as I did.

Serena took one hand and lowered her sunglasses down her nose so that she could look at directly in the eyes. That was one of her 'don't fuck with me' looks. "I'm Indian and it is my place, so I'll call it whatever I want. It's been booked solid since the name change so I guess Indian works just fine. Now get your butts inside so that we can get you settled in and we can relax."

Nicki and I settled into a room with a double bed and unpacked our things. "I guess we'll be sharing any cute Italian guys who either of us finds," she said, smirking at me and pointing to our bed. Nicole was teasing; neither of us had ever been that type of gal.

I shook my head. "You know double beds here in Europe are often twin beds put together." I looked more closely and found the split between the two small mattresses. "We can separate these no problem so that we don't have to share, but the width on these mattresses is mighty small so whatever guy you find had better be damn skinny. I have my iPod so feel free to bring him in; I'll just blast the music and cover my head. You'll never know I'm here. You can scream and moan and ride him to your heart's content."

Nicole's mouth dropped open. I never joked about sex before. Well, that was probably because I hadn't done it before when we last hung out for any length of time, so I didn't know what the hell to say.

I made a face. "Sorry. Someone was a bad influence on me, I guess."

Her open mouth slowly closed into a smile. "Actually, I was just thinking that it's about time. If nothing else came out of that relationship, you can think and talk smut now."

You have no idea.

We went back downstairs and sat down on the patio overlooking an olive grove. Serena stood up to head inside but paused to ask, "Are you guys okay with just pasta tonight?"

"JUST pasta?" Nicki asked.

"Pasta is usually only the primo piatto – the first course – in Italy," I explained. "It is different than the typical Italian restaurants in the States." I looked at Serena. "Pasta works for me." "Me too," Nicole said.

Serena disappeared into the kitchen; we could hear her giving her cook instructions. "Vorremmo solo il primo piatto. Le pappardelle al cinghiale, per favore."

"D'accordo," a man's low voice replied.

A little while later we sat eating the most delicious wild boar ragu on top of pappardelle pasta. Serena poured the Amarone della Valpolicella and we enjoyed our first evening there, eating and entertaining Nicole with stories of Serena's and my last trip to Italy several years ago. It was then that Serena made the decision to leave consulting and take over this pensione in San Gimignano.

"We went to Milano and then took a day trip to Lake Como to go in search of Mr. Clooney. Didn't find him though, damn it," I said.

Serena smiled. "I've found him since."

Nicki's eyes popped out. "You have not!"

Nicki wasn't used to Serena's talents. Serena didn't wait for anything to happen to her; she bent the world to her will. I had no doubt that she found George Clooney in her usual forceful manner and then managed to have coffee with him.

"Yes, I did. I'm very persuasive. He is better looking in person," she said, swooning.

"The last time we were here, Serena refused to drive because she was afraid…" I began.

"This was clearly before she started using her driving talents to lure men," Nicki said dryly.

Serena's eyes narrowed and looking at Nicki she gently rubbed her nose with her index, middle and ring fingers on her left hand.

Nicki laughed. "So polite of you! Italy has changed you. A real New Yorker would have just used one finger."

"I'm the owner of this place. I have to be respectable in front of guests," she said sweetly. "Go on BB."

"We drove around Tuscany, just stopping wherever looked interesting. I'd heard about this spa town that was supposed to be lovely so we found it on a map and went there... what was that town?"

"Montecatini Terme," Serena answered.

"That's right. So here we were, walking around some fairly empty streets by these beautifully manicured gardens and old mansion-looking buildings. It's gorgeous, flowers everywhere. We were looking for a place to just sit and eat our bread and cheese and drink our Oranginas." I remembered that day so clearly.

"Suddenly, I see this guy walking down the street in our direction. Not coming to us specifically, but just walking our way. He looks crazy. Like a zombie. His eyes are bugged out. His hair is sticking out all directions and his neck has this gauze wrapped around it… he's all bandaged up."

Serena jumped in. "As he's walking toward us, Bella whispered to me, 'Serena, do you see that guy?' I'm walking and looking in every direction BUT at that guy. The one ugly thing in the whole town and Bella fixated on it. Figures."

"How could we avoid it?! He was the only other person on the street midday! How could you not look at him?"

"I managed nicely, thank you," she said. "I like to look at and surround myself with beautiful things." We laughed. Remembering this guy and his odd look suddenly made me wonder why he was bandaged up and walking like that. Now, knowing what I know, I wondered if the guy hadn't been ravaged by a vampire. Yeesh. With my luck, he probably had been. Ward and Paris clearly proved that I was a vampire magnet. Sure, I randomly picked a town on the map to visit and it was probably loaded with them.

Around that time, the cook came out to see how we liked the food. Nicki's and my collective jaws dropped. This guy was a tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, well-toned, gorgeous man. "Ah, Marco!" Serena said, reaching out for his hands. Hot damn, Serena. The guy was almost as beautiful as the Cullens.

"Bella, Nicki, this is Marco, my chef. Marco, Nicola e Bella," she said, gesturing toward us.

"Molto lieto," Marco said, nodding at both of us. "Pleased to meet you," he repeated in accented English. His eyes met mine and I could have sworn I saw a faint bit of curiosity in them as he took me in. She must have told him about me and my breakup. Then he turned back to look at Serena.

Serena let go of his hands. "Grazie, Marco. Delizioso!" she said, smiling.

I added my compliments. "Una vera bontà…" I said raising my wine glass to salute him. Then I took a sip. Yes indeed, it was divine.

Nicole piped in raising her glass of Peroni. "Sono il tuo schiavo."

I choked on my wine when I heard that and started coughing. Nicki turned to hit me on the back. Meanwhile Serena's eyes were big and Marco burst out laughing. "Grazie, bella donna," he said winking as he took away our plates.

I turned to Nicki when I could finally breathe. "'I AM YOUR SLAVE?!' Where did you get that from?"

She shrugged. "My Wicked Italian phrasebook. I memorized it in case I could find a use for it." She leaned over to me and whispered, "Okay, you might need to learn how to say that phrase I asked you about and teach it to me." Then she sat back and looked over at Serena. "Damn, Serena, are you going out with that guy?"

"Ah, I just know how to surround myself with beauty," she said smiling widely and winking at me. Hmmm, she didn't really answer the question.

The sun had gone down at this point, making the patio a bit chilly. We took our glasses and went back up to our room. Serena joined us. She and Nicki sat on the beds while I sat in a chair looking at my wine glass. Uh oh, here it comes.

"So tell us what happened," Nicole said softly, looking at me.

"Didn't Angela tell you?" I said quickly, hoping to dodge this question on my first night.

"All she said was that you had just moved in with him and he left one day. You woke up alone and there was a small note. Did you have a fight?"

Could I even begin to tell this without losing it? Only Angela knew what he was and clearly she'd kept that secret from them. Serena and Nicole were not into the weird otherworldly stuff so I'd only mentioned that we were dating and eventually engaged. I didn't think I could get into it all just now. I wanted to escape, not relive it.

"Hey, I came here to get away, not remember, okay?"

They were silent. Finally, Nicki spoke. "It might help you to let go…"

I sighed and looked down at the glass of wine in my hands. "Okay, I'll give you TheMovieSpoiler-dotcom 'Cut to the Chase' version: Girl meets boy. Girl and boy fall in love and get engaged. Girl and boy are very sexually active. Girl stupidly gets pregnant and then loses the baby. Girl and boy go back to normal. Boy disappears one night leaving a crappy note." I knew it wasn't fair to leave out the key part about being a vampire and the restraint he had shown during our time together, but I wasn't feeling particularly charitable toward Mr. Cullen at the time.

I looked back up at them. Yep, that was the reaction I was expecting. Both of them were staring at me with sadness and surprise in their eyes.

"What a MEAN FUCK!" Nicki shouted. Then she realized her volume in this small pensione. "Oops, sorry… but what the hell?"

"Do you know if something happened to him? Maybe he died," Serena suggested.

"I'm sure he didn't die." Oh boy, am I sure of that. "Anyway, that is the short version. I'm not sure I'm up for a longer story tonight, if you don't mind," I said, looking down at my wine glass again.

"Whenever you're ready," Nicole said. "What a shithead," she muttered.

I could see Serena from my peripheral vision as she took another sip of her wine. "If he didn't fucking die, I'll go and kill him for you."

I looked up at them both and smiled.

~#~

That night as Nicole and I slept in our individual twin beds, I had a strange dream. I was walking up a hill toward an incredible fortressed town. The cobblestones and buildings were medieval like San Gimignano, but it was a different town and it was drawing me to it.

I wandered around deserted cobblestone roads admiring the buildings and narrow streets and tried to find my way down to the center of town. Suddenly, I saw Marco in front of me. He stretched his hand out toward me. "Bella. Venga con me," he said in a low sultry voice. I was hypnotically drawn to him. And then a different voice came from behind me.

"Bella, don't you dare!" I whirled around to see Edward about ten feet away. His eyes were angry, looking at Marco and then at me.

I was instantly furious but I couldn't bring myself to say anything to him. I turned back to go toward Marco, whose outstretched hand was still waiting for me. Then I felt Edward's arms around my waist, wrapping himself around me, his lips by my ear. "Bella," he growled, "You're mine." I could feel his lips and tongue on my neck and it felt so good, so familiar, so erotic. I could feel my body responding and I started leaning back into him, but when his hands started wandering up toward my breasts, I came to my senses.

I grabbed his hands and wrenched them off of me. "NO, Edward! You left me! You don't get to tell me what to do!" I whirled around and then slapped him in the face. He stared at me in shock and then I turned and ran to Marco.

I felt Edward's hand in mine, pulling me back toward him. "No! No, Edward!" I screamed.

Hands started shaking my shoulders. "Bella… Bella… you're okay. You're here…" I jolted upward in my bed. It was Nicki who'd been shaking me.

She was looking down at me. "You were moaning there for a minute. I thought I was going to have to borrow your iPod to drown it out," she said smiling softly, "but then you were shouting. I forgot how you talk in your sleep."

"Sorry. Bad dream. What time is it?" I asked.

"7:45."

"Oh, wow. Later than I expected. Um, I'll go get washed up. I need some coffee." I got up out of bed. "I'm sorry I woke you. Do you think you can go back to sleep?"

She started to crawl back into bed. "Are you kidding? You know me... I'll be asleep before you get in the shower."

While I showered, I dared to think about my dream for a few moments. I wasn't surprised to see him in it... the only difference was that he touched me in this one. Usually in my dreams he was walking away from me, never getting close. I chalked it up to the Marco influence and my conscious acknowledgment that he was an attractive man. That, in addition to having to recap my story to the girls.

I got ready and went downstairs to the dining room. Serena was down in the dining area in her corner table, looking all glamorous as usual. She had her typical Hermes scarf tossed casually around her neck and it looked great with her short-sleeved Anne Fontaine top, capri pants and ballerina flats. I joined her at the table as a different cook came out of the kitchen and set down a plate of eggs in front of her. "Cappuccino?" Serena asked me.

I nodded. "Bene," the cook said and she headed back to the kitchen.

"Where's Marco?" I asked.

"He does the dinners here. I have someone else for breakfast and I don't serve lunch."

"Where did you find him? He's a great cook… and completely beautiful, obviously!"

She took a sip of her coffee. "I have a knack for finding the right kind of help. You know that." She changed the subject. "So, any thoughts as to what you want to do this week? My assistant can run the place while we tour."

"Yeah, I thought about it a little on the plane. I'd love to go to Firenze and Siena. Oh, and I know it's cheesy, but I want to do Pisa. I have yet to get my picture with the Leaning Tower and I want one before they straighten it up some day."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay. Anything else? What about Montecatini Terme? Would Nicole like to see that?"

I shuddered at the thought of seeing another vampire zombie guy. The last thing this vampire magnet needed was to go to a vampire haven. "She might, but I'd prefer not to myself." The cook came out with my cappuccino and put it on the table. "Grazie." I said to her. I put a sugar cube in it, stirred it around and took a sip, watching her as she made her way over to serve a different table. I was reminded of Marco and my dream, and that's when I realized I recognized the town.

"Hey, what about that beautiful town we found last time? The one where we stopped in to have lunch? It was the first place I ever ate that wild boar dish. It had an amphitheater…"

"Right, I had Marco put it on the menu based on that original dish. You want to go there this week?" she asked slowly, peering at me over her coffee cup.

"Yes, I loved that place. What was it called?"

"Volterra." She put down her cup and sat up, leaning toward me. "Whatever you want BB. We're at your beck and call."

I sat back in my seat and sipped my coffee. Volterra. Cool.

A/N: As mentioned in the first story (AAVIC), there are no Volturi in my version. Thanks for staying with it - there will be more familiar faces in the next chapter. Please review.

Post A/N: After the original posting, a new reader from Italy helped with the Italian phrases. Thank you to AnnaLund for her help!

And, that crazy zombie-guy with the bandages around his neck... Seriously, when I saw him walking our way in real life, the first fleeting thought that ran through my twisted brain really was 'bitten by a vampire - hiding it.' LOL.