Synopsis:
Bella has not thought of Edward Cullen or his Coven, nor the horrifying events that followed, since they cruelly discarded her in the woods. Events that lead to her world as she knew it to crumble, but as Bella rose from the ashes and rebuilt her life from the bricks of what tried to bury her, Isabella Swan was irrevocably changed.
Bella does not have time to drown in the lingering pain that echoes within her heart. She is far too busy balancing the precarious peace she'd helped build between the various factions of the supernatural world and clinging to her humanity to bother with addressing her dark past.
Rosalie Lillian Hale is a vampire on a mission. Her blatant disregard to reconcile with her coven vexes Carlisle, and this brings her untameable joy.
Indeed, Rosalie Hale, as luck would have it, has never met Isabella Marie Swan, in fact, she'd not know her from Adam. She cares little of the opinions of others, and is not looking for a lover, let alone something as rare and infuriating as a mate. That is, until fate intervenes...
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Hello loves,
Welcome! This is a little story I've been thinking about for AGES and finally got around to writing since my last story was finally completed.
Without spoiling anything…Rose/Bella have never met. Rose knew of Edwards human 'dalliance' and didn't care to learn her name because she left before she met her. I won't say why, because it's part of her story/plot. I'm aging Rose up to have been turned around 21, because Bella is also 'stuck' (appearance wise) at around 24. Rose's story remains relatively the same, but I will likely be giving her a vampire gift. Bella is non-human, no, she's not a were-creature, or anything like that. She'll mostly appear and behave 'human' though. She's a bit different from the Bella we know from canon, she had shit go down but she's not a doom and gloom version, she has layers and ima peel them back for you. Again, I'm not going to give too much away because I'll hopefully explain as the story goes along!
· On a side note - this story is slow burn romance in terms of feelings and acknowledging them. (These gals are a bit of a mess) But their physical relationship is NOT slow burn, again I won't spoil it for you but yeah, bear this in mind.
· Both girls own their sexualities and deal with their individual circumstances how they see fit. But yeah, they might have dalliances to varying degrees here and there (one more so than the other). They're not sex obsessed or anything but when the mood strikes and the right partner presents themselves…
· I'm always eager to hear feedback, so I highly encourage you to leave comments on each chapter if you can; they truly brighten my day. But don't be mean, I'm doing my best here.
· I don't have a beta so any mistakes are my own, but I do try to edit chapters before posting as much as I can. I do not own Twilight, and I'm not making money from this story.
· Any original characters/plot is my own however, so please don't be a jerk and repost this anywhere without both my explicit consent and the appropriate credit.
· Lastly, there is a playlist for this story, I mostly just add them as I go along, check it out; https/open./playlist/4rpHcQ9MeMtPji2uekExDC?si=YEamO-vyTyOanHD8Udx8fA
Strap in for this one loves! Ty x
Chapter 1:
Prologue
'Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way' - Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere.
~ Isabella ~
(Approximately 4 years after the Cullens' departure)
Bella panted heavily through gritted teeth as her bare feet pounded against the pavement, her shattered arm swung limply at her side. Each stride sent pain shooting down her shoulder and back and made her wince.
The sleeping city blurred around her, tall buildings blotted the greyish deep blue sky, and droplets of mist-like rain distorted her vision all the more. The rain had already soaked through her meagre, dirty clothing.
Bella zig zagged helplessly around corner after corner, dodging the creature at her back, no doubt inching ever closer by the second. Her sides burned from the extra oxygen thanks to her overworked adrenaline filled heart.
Her brown eyes tried to focus on the pavement below her feet, her ears on the eerie silence, the only noises she could clearly hear being her own rapid breathing, the slap, slap, slap of her feet against the wet ground and the piercing wails of distant emergency services. If only she could get to them. But that was a dream, and Bella Swan no longer wasted her energy on wasteful wishes like that.
Bella rounded another corner, her brain tried desperately to recall the location of her hotel room. Her nice, dry room, with freshly washed linen, her hide out for the last two months…She hoped her foggy muscle memory would kick in. She could feel she was close, if only she could push a little more. Alter some people to her distress, even this crazy being would not risk the wrath of Aro. Of the kings.
She was never really very good at crisis management, the only experience that could come close before were her rudimentary experience with self defence (thanks, Charlie) and the second hand adventures of the fictional hero's from her beloved books. Bella had been little more than a teenage scholar; a painfully awkward, lover of solitude. She'd never been required to worry about such things as crisis management, and certainly not in relation to the supernatural world.
But of course, her relationship with Edward had ruptured that illusion, and thrust her into his world. Into theirworld.
So she ran. And she fought. And she bled. And she got up and gritted her teeth, for if Isabella Swan learned anything about herself in the weeks and months post-Cullen-abandonment, it was that she had a fucking resilient stubbornness in her brokenheart.
Bella groaned as she came to an abrupt halt, her chest heaved violently as she tried to gather her wandering thoughts.
"Fuck" she muttered. Bella glared up at the sky, the rain poured down mercilessly, and the moon watched on. She briefly mused whether, on this night, it would finally witness her demise.
She bit her lip.Hard.
Her eyes quickly scanned her surroundings. A dankly lit alleyway, tall buildings at either side hid her from view of the main city road she'd ran down. A lamppost flickered orangey yellow light on the opposite side, the only really light source.
"After everything?This? Really!" She shouted at the sky. Her nostrils flared with frustration. Still, the sky watched on, seemingly unamused. Bella knew there was little use in hiding, the vengeful creature, her torturer, was mere moments from her, following her bloodied, fear-filled scent. Of that she had no doubt. She knew how this creature worked, how it craved the hunt. In fact, it was all a game to it. On some level Bella knew this and she fought onwards anyway.
"That was rude" the sing-song voice echoed behind her, had Bella not known otherwise, she'd have thought the voice of an angel had greeted her. Bella sighed and turned slowly, almost theatrically so. There, at the bottom of the dank, dirty street stoodher.
Victoria.
Hair aflame and face contorted in veiled anger and mild amusement. Bella laughed, somewhat manically. Her many wounds, some weeks old, screamed at her now. The adrenaline could do only so much for her, and it would seem she'd finally reached her expiration date, so it would seem, her body was surrendering. She wanted to scream, but she knew it'd do little for her cause.
"I admit, I didn't think you'd run. I've not been surprised in many, many years" the voice purred as she made her way towards Bella with a leisurely stroll.
"Fuck you" Bella spat. The creature laughed, head thrown back heartily.
"So many creatures fought for you Isabella…the shifters" she could see the woman's crinkled nose from where she stood, Bella bit the inside of her cheek to keep her from crying. She would not cry. But her eyes filled with traitorous tears all the same.
"there's the human police force of course, surprisingly resourceful I'll admit" Bella couldn't fight the tears from escaping her eyes at that comment, this of course, delighted the creature, who's red eyes glimmered with glee.
"And he," she stepped closer, Bella could clearly see her red dress, clinging to her beautiful, deadly body, "hestill didn't come for you. How pitiful a creature you are, that your mate would abandon you to face this alone" she gestured to herself with a menacing grin on her gorgeous face, Bella stepped back slightly, she knew it was futile but it was human instinct.
"He's not my mate, I told you!" Bella gritted out, pain laced her heart at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. The man - the creature - who'd left her for dead, not once, but twice.
"I know" Victoria said simply, almost bored. Bella stared at the vampire, her eyes widened at the creatures nonchalant shrug. In all her time with her, she'd been adamant that Bella had been left behind by her mate. A fate worse than death, unimaginable for her kind, so she'd claimed. Despite Bella's vehement rejection of this claim, for how could a mate, a soulmate, leave his love behind without a second glance backwards? It hadn't felt right to Bella, though she was young and inexperienced and blissfully, vulnerably, human…
"That boy was never your mate, I knew it for certain when he did not check on you in the years after he left. I waited for him to come." Bella glared at her captor. Yet, it didn't stop the woman from hurting her… from… Bella shook her head.
"Then,why?! Why didn't you leave me be, Victoria?" She asked disparagingly.
"Because dear Isabella, a debt had to be paid. And when so many fought to keep you alive… well it would seem my dearly departed James was correct in that you werea fun hunt after all" her red eyes flickered with amusement.
Bella shifted and felt her back hit a shattered window, shards of glass stabbed at her feet. She quickly bent down and gripped at a large shard, it cut into her hand but she held it tighter. Victoria giggled, her tone gleeful, her nose flared slightly and Bella could see her fangs eagerly poking out from her painted red lips.
"Oh you're so fun, I'll be sad to end our little game!" The vampire pouted mockingly.
"I'll see you in hell Victoria, IswearI will see you again, and when I do, you'll fucking pay for what you've done." Victoria's head tilted to the side, calculating like the predator she was. Her face remained slightly amused, and held a new note of confusion.
Bella briefly felt sad. Sad she'd never see Charlie again, sad she'd never finish college or get a doctorate, sad she'd never read another book or learn anything new. For she loved learning above all else. So deeply sad she'd never have another barbecue at the Res with Jacob and Leah and their pack. She sincerely hoped they were all safe. Sad she'd never have sex again! Her limited experience was boring at best, and depressing at worst. Plus, she'd never explored her lingering interest in women. And sad for the life that was taken from her at the premature age of 24 all because a selfish vampire wanted to play with her heart, as a guise to test his restraint.
After fighting for months, Isabella decided that she was surprisingly sad to find herself about to die, finally. For she would refuse to become a vampire, and despite the tortures she'd faced under Victoria's games of hunting her and then eventually, actually torturing her. Funny, how her perspective had changed.
How she'd yearned to be a vampire, to haveforeverwith her Edward. How she'd torn herself into a million pieces right after they'd left! How gullible, how weak of her. But she'd put her pieces back together thanks to her family and friends, for her new appreciation for the life she was building in New York; all for what?
Alas, Bella Swan's life would amount to little more than a big elaborate game. First Edwards (and by extension his families) and then, Victoria's.
She had wanted nothing more than to die when Victoria finally got her claws onto her all those weeks ago. When time seemed to still and her body was broken and then healed and broken again, in a cycle of brutal, meticulous and callus pain at the hands of an evil creature with red flaming hair. Oh, she'd craved the blissful silence of death, having long since given up on rescue.
Now? She'd have liked to have lived. Bella's relentless tears blocked most of her view now, the stoic city around her seemed to quiet, waiting restlessly for her to finally be struck down.
Another nameless, unidentifiable vampire victim to fall within the bones of the large city. Or maybe Victoria would leave her body intact? Just to hurt all the more. That was more her style anyway. She stumbled back as Victoria glowered at her, her familiar amusement danced in her cold red eyes.
Bella smiled sadly, and pointedly glared at the suddenly surprised vampire.
"Fuck you" she whispered.
And with her eyes slammed shut, she quickly and swiftly plunged the long shard of glass into the centre of her chest…
Bella waited and waited for the darkness to welcome her home to its greedy outstretched arms. For her tortured broken body to finally cease its constant hurting. For her mind to quiet and to find peace. A thoughtless, seamless slip into the afterlife - or nothingness. She waited for her swirling thoughts and aches to cease, for her heart to stop its hummingbird hammering in her chest.
She waited and waited andwaited. The silence made her feel uneasy and really, how long would she need to wait in this deafening silence to finally be able to rest? It was starting to piss her off actually.
"Isabella Swan, I have a proposition for you young one" a voice, an echo really, that lacked either the usual deeper male tone or higher female lilt.
"What?" She asked, dumbfounded.
"I have searched a long, long time for another potential bond-mate. I can try this with you, before you transition into your death, I will warn you it will be excruciating and it may not be successful" The voice said.
"What?" She repeated, half intrigued and half perplexed. (Mostly the latter)
"I sensed you did not wish to die. Your eagerness to live and learn, it spoke to me. If we bond, the transition will take many days. Though you may never wake, for it is a trying and deeply complex transition. Should you wake, we will be one. There will be no place where you exist, where I do not"
"What is your name? Are you, are you good?" She asked, desperate for a chance, however small.
"I do not have a name, or if I did, I do not remember it. I am older than most creatures on this earth" the voice answered, "I do not have feel the range of emotions as you may, this is something I must learn. I have never successfully bonded, so if we survive the attempt, we will both learn much. I am neither good, nor bad. My species were explorers, you may call us scholars. I may be the last of my kind now." The voice seemed pained and Bella felt a pang of sadness, she couldn't imagine being so alone.
"Indeed young one, it is a lonely existence, and this will be my final attempt at bonding" the voice said in answer to her emotions.
"What will happen?" She asked apprehensively.
"If we bond successfully, you will enter a state of transition, where we will exchange memories, knowledge and your physical body will change to accommodate your new state of being. We will be in unimaginable pain; then, all being well, we will wake. And we will learn the rest together. There is much to explain but I'm afraid, we are running out of time, young one, I am sorry you have to rush this decision, but you must decide now." The voice finished, a sad smile in their tone. Bella observed as an outline of what could only be described as raw energy, flashed gold and green. Bella squinted and her eyes widened when she saw a clearer outline of some sort of body.
"It's this or death," she said, not tagging on what she felt 'and don't want to die'. "Let's try this"
"Are you certain?"
"I am" she said with uncertain conviction.
"Then let us begin, young one" the voice said, the energy flickered again and she felt a sudden surge of anxiety and apprehension, as well as a flash of excitement which did not feel like her own.
Then incomprehensible pain, worse than anything she'd ever felt, even vampire venom, with its burning pain - but this, endless, scorching agony tore and overtook her body and mind.
She was trapped in it, drowning in the burning embers of agony so profound, she wished to pass out. A sudden feeling of sadness flashed inside her and she knew that it was not from herself. She leaned into the feeling, into the almost caress, instead of repelling it, as it brought her some strange comfort, in knowing that she was not alone in this strange transition.
If this is successful, she thought with an uncertain smile,I will never be alone again.It should scare her, terrify her, after everything she's seen, every heartache, every time her body was broken. Instead, it was a calming thought.
And It was her last comprehensible thought before she succumbed to the unyielding pain…