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Playing With Fire
Chapter Twenty: Plundering

I felt my hands start to shake. Images from the moment at my car assaulted my full force. I found myself remembering his presence, remembering him staring at me, remembering his smell and his voice and how he moved, how he reminded me so much of what I had lost. And yet he was nothing like that.

I stepped forward so I could get a better look at him. Paul turned his head so fast to look at me, I was surprised he didn't get whiplash. He growled, pressing his scorching hot hand against the flesh of my arm.

"Bella," he said. It was both a warning and a plea.

I stayed where I was, honoring his request, but I still spoke.

"Your eyes," I blurted. They were an odd shade. Violet, almost.

"Contacts lenses do funny things," he mentioned. "Red tends to unnerve the general public. When I walk around like a human, I do this."

"And purple isn't unnerving?"

Riley grinned, and this one wasn't malicious. It was almost friendly, jovial. I felt this one was genuine, which was odd to me. I had this picture of him from my car, predatory and threatening, and now…it was strange. Almost like a mirror opposite of what I had been presented with before.

"Bella," Angela's voice came closer now. She was now fully behind me, able to see the scuffle happening on my doorstep. The urge to tell her to leave was so strong I had to bite the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

Riley stiffened before shaking a finger at me.

Of course he would notice the blood.

I felt Paul tense beside me, now noticing that his hand had not left my arm. It gave me a strange sense of security.

"Hello," Riley said jovially, strangely so. "Riley. I'm a - ah - friend."

"Angela," she introduced herself, giving him a shaky smile.

"Why are we all standing out here like hooligans?" Riley asked smoothly. He was remarkably civilized for a vampire. I remembered vaguely Edward telling me that vampires could never completely control their thirst, but after working on it for a while, it got better. Some vampires were naturally gifted with control. I wondered just how long Riley had been a vampire - or if he had a special affinity for that control Edward struggled with daily. "Can I come in?"

"Psh, you think he would know it doesn't work like that - "

"Embry," Paul cut him off.

Riley looked from Embry to Paul, his eyes then landed on me. He gave me a smile, his eyes shining like gems. "Bella, wouldn't want anyone to think that anything's wrong, right?"

"He makes sense," I said, and Paul and Embry looked at me in shock. I said to Paul in a voice low enough that Angela couldn't hear. "We're not necessarily invisible here, Paul."

Paul grunted and stared at me, the weight of his gaze falling over me like a ton of bricks. The silence that followed was deafening. "You have a point."

Embry looked past me, stared at Angela for a moment, and then looked away. His hands tightened reflexively around Riley's shirt collar. "He doesn't go near them."

"We're between you two at all times."

"Fine, fine," I said.

Angela said nothing; if she thought this whole exchange was weird, then she showed nothing to give that away.

Embry and Paul flanked Riley on both sides. Embry shoved Riley through the doorway while Paul stayed near me, keeping me at his side at all times. It would have touched me had it not made me feel smothered in my own home. However, telling them something like, "I can protect myself," was not applicable in this situation.

Angela moved out of the way as Embry tossed Riley on the couch. He was still as attractive as I remembered him, with his windblown sandy blonde hair and the look of a movie star, his skin white as bone and his movements as smooth as the surface of an untouched pond.

"Um…" Angela said, looking at Riley. "I'm getting the feeling that he isn't welcome?"

"More than." Paul glared at him. The phrase "if looks could kill" came directly to mind.

I inhaled sharply. Riley tensed in his seat as he looked at me. "I just came to talk. To Bella."

"Talk?" Paul stalked forward. He looked ready to kill. Embry circled around to stand in front of Angela, who looked rather worried that she was about to witness a murder. I felt my heart skip in my chest as Paul got so close to the thing that could very easily kill him. It was the same strange feeling that I got when Jacob told me that they hunted vampires. The werewolves seemed more…fragile than the indestructible vampires. All too easily, I had the image of Riley's hands snapping Paul's neck. The distress it brought me was far too real.

"Yeah, I'm sure you came to talk," Paul continued, growling deep in his chest. "You came to do away with her, like - "

Riley raised a finger and held it to his nose before pointing in the direction of Angela. "Innocent ears here, mutt."

Embry growled.

Angela started wringing her hands. "Um…if I'm a bother, I could leave."

"No," Embry said suddenly before turning to the vampire. "She doesn't have to. You need to leave."

Riley smirked at him, his features suddenly looking wicked. "I'm not leaving until I say what I need to."

I looked at Paul, wishing desperately that he would provide me a look or something to let me know he had this under control. I wished I had the strength to protect myself. Like the utter, impossible strength that I knew Riley possessed. Like the shape-shifting, self-healing, wolfy powers of Paul and his friends. I wished that I wasn't so…human. That I didn't have to rely on them for protection. An image of me, glorious and immortal, came to mind, and I banished that thought completely.

That didn't apply to me anymore, and it never would. And I wasn't sure that I wanted it to.

"Okay," I spoke up, eyeing the situation in front of me. "We can talk in my room." Paul tensed, about to interrupt when I cut him off. "Paul can stay outside the door, and Embry can stay down here with Angela." I stopped for a moment, then added, "If that's okay."

Paul looked like that was anything but okay, but he seemed to understand that this might be important, so he relented. He stared at Riley for a moment, his eyes so furious and protective that it startled me. I wasn't sure where this was coming from, but it was new. I thought, feebly, that I might have seen such flashes of concern from him before, but it was nothing like this. Nothing like this burning, mad, fierce gaze he had locked on his natural prey.

"Fine," he snarled. "Go have your talk. Make it quick."

I nodded, looking at Riley, expecting him to rise. He did, and as soon as he was standing upright, the atmosphere in my humble abode changed. The wolves were on point, staring at him and trembling with barely suppressed indicators of the withheld phase. I looked at Paul and he nodded tersely at me before we all walked up the stairs. Riley led, and I was about to follow until Paul shoved me behind his towering frame so forcefully I let out a gasp.

He glanced at me and made a pointed look. I was to stay behind him. Sure, it made sense, but…I just wished I could do something more to protect myself. These vampires were indestructible to everything except other vampires and the werewolves themselves.

I stopped in front of my door, face to face with Riley - well, I would have been face to face had it not been for Paul's back.

"Well," Riley began. "Your room?"

"Here," I said, steering them in the direction of my quarters. Paul opened the door for me and snarled at Riley as he went past.

"If he tries anything funny," Paul stated, "just call out. I'll hear you."

"If I wanted to hurt her, I would have already." Riley set a glare on Paul that would have made a weaker man flinch. Paul just stared at him with hatred in his dark eyes.

"You're not helping your case, leech."

Riley smiled in response.

"Come on," I interrupted. "Let's get this over with."

Riley put a look of false-hurt on his face before he followed me into my room. Paul shut the door behind us, but not before I caught the strangest look on his face - almost as if he wished he could prevent all of this from happening.

I heard the door click closed and then I looked up, trying to spot Riley, just in case this whole thing was an elaborate ruse and he was about to murder me. He was standing near my window, his arms folded behind his back, rocking on his heels. It was an oddly human thing for someone that…well, wasn't. It almost reminded me of the many times I'd come in my room and find Paul standing by that same window, in such deep thought that I hardly wanted to disturb him.

I didn't realize that I was staring at him until he said, "You must live in your head a lot."

I tensed, wondering how transparent I'd been. It wouldn't be the first time someone had called me out on it. I swallowed and moved to sit down on my bed. "You can sit down."

Riley smiled at that. "That's not necessary." He flexed his fingers in a casual manner. I immediately had an image of those fingers crushing my throat. I shivered. "Not anymore."

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

Riley turned to face me fully. He looked at me with those odd, violet colored eyes, brought on by the contacts. He then ran a hand through his hair and took a deep, whistling breath. "Victoria."

I let in a gasping breath.

"Don't come in here, wolf. I want to get to know Bella without any other distractions that might influence her answers."

I thought that Paul might ignore what Riley was saying, but he didn't open the door. I did hear it turn minutely, but then it stopped. Just like my heart.

"You know…you know Victoria." I felt as if I was living in dream. Something didn't seem real about any of this. If Victoria had friends, then she could easily orchestrate something like this to take me away from the protection of the wolves. I rose from my seat, unsure of what I was going to do.

Riley nodded. "Sit down, though. I have a few things to find out."

"I'd rather stand, thank you."

This caused him to smile a bit. "If you prefer."

I nodded at him. "I'd prefer it if you went ahead with what you had to tell me, to be honest."

Riley's smile became a true grin, showing teeth - teeth that could rip, tear, kill. But the grin wasn't malicious. It was as if I actually impressed him, actually amused him. Honestly, with no pretense.

"When Victoria described you to us, she said you had no backbone," he said, smiling. "Her first lie, I suppose."

I felt a spike of anger, felt my hands curl into fists. "First lie?"

"I know this isn't what you want to hear, Bella." The way he caressed my name caused me to want to look away from him. "But I was created by Victoria."

"Riley," I started, realizing that I never addressed him like this before, "what - "

He held up his hand. "Before you ask any questions, I'd like it if I told my story first. I'd imagine that there would be many of them."

"Okay," I said, "I can give you that."

This seemed to amuse him as well.

"I'm from Seattle," he started. "No one knows me here. People figure I died. I've been missing for months. Victoria recruited me. Told me things. She said she loved me, that she wanted me to help her with something very important. When I asked her what it was that she wanted help with, she gave me a whole story. One that was hard to believe."

I stared at him, my heart had stopped beating, it felt. Everything in the room - the air itself - seemed like it was pressing in on me.

"You were the source of her problem - a human. One that she had a grudge against. Your mate had killed her mate for no reason. Unprovoked. And she was recruiting vampires - turning them and using their unpredictability as well as their bloodlust to become fighters in the cause for your demise."

I ended up lowering myself to my bed, sitting on the plush fabric of my quilt. Ratty and old, it felt less comforting than it should have.

"I had no idea why she wanted so many of us to do the job, but now I see. You have the wolves on your side, and all of that. But there was something about her story that just didn't feel right. I wasn't sure what it was, but I could almost feel her deception. I didn't tell her this, fearing that she would dispose of me.

"So that brings me here. Coming to you with a proposition, wanting to hear your story first before I decide whose side I will take. It only seemed fair."

I stared at him blankly.

He shrugged. "I've been told I'm rather rational for a newborn."

"How old are you?" I asked him. "Vampire-wise."

"About five months," he replied. Those odd violet contacts threw me off guard every time. I almost wanted him to remove them. The red irises would be less unnerving, if I was honest with myself.

"I'm…impressed." I fiddled with my hands, wringing them unnecessarily. "I thought that all newborns are rabid for the first years of their life."

Riley shrugged yet again, his elegant, thin shoulders making the movement more interesting than it should been. Thus were the ways of vampires. Making even the most mundane of movements the most fascinating by a landslide in comparison to the clumsy human movements every other person exhibited each day.

"I'm told that some vampires have better self control than others. It kind of depends on the individual's personality type before they were turned. For example, more impulsive personality types have more issues…adjusting. I've been rather vanilla, I suppose." He smiled as if remembering something fond. I felt a bit of guilt tug at my heart. He had his humanity stolen from him, just like so many others, and just for the pity act of revenge.

"So," he started again. "Would you mind telling me your story?"

"Would you like to sit?" I asked him, mimicking his earlier statement.

A wicked smile came across his face. "I'm good, thanks."

Sighing, I started my tale.

I went through everything I had experienced. Going through my meeting Edward, glossing over some of the more painful memories - the happy ones, the ones in which he told me he loved me - and headed into the moment where I met James and Victoria and Laurent. Flipped through the memories in which I thought James had captured my mother. I stuttered through the part where I had found myself in his clutches with a broken leg and near my death. Being saved from the burning inflicted upon me by James. I told him I woke up days later, in the hospital, human and broken but with Edward.

He looked at me after I finished. Riley's eyes hadn't strayed from mine since I began the story. He cocked his head to the side and stared at me.

"Do you sense a lie?" I asked wryly, feeling my lips twist into a smile that I deemed almost Paul-like in nature. That very thought frightened me. "Edward, Alice, and Jasper had gifts. They told me that others had them as well. Maybe that's yours."

Riley started to smile. It was surprisingly genial in a way. It was really strange that this was the same person from so many days ago, the same one that I thought had wanted my death.

He looked toward the door. "Your wolf wants in."

Audible growling issued from the other side of the door.

I flushed, and then scoffed.

My wolf. Like Paul could ever be owned by anyone.

But I liked the ring of it far too much.

"Let him in, then," I told him.

"Not before I say this," Riley said. There was a strange tone to his voice, almost as if he didn't want to mention what he was about to say, but that it had to be said anyway.

I stared at him, wondering what else he could possibly have to say.

"There is one glaringly obvious solution to all of this."

Riley paused for dramatic effect. I idly wondered if that was a part of being immortal. That the person automatically developed a flair for melodrama.

It was then that my heart stopped, the meaning sinking in before he even said the words aloud.

"I could turn you."

End Chapter Twenty.