A thief and the vampire II.
"Bella, get behind me," Victoria whispered, recovering from her shock faster than Bella, whose mouth was still agape.
Bella maneuvered herself behind the redhead, looking closer at the thing on the floor. As she stared, the object began to form edges and curves, until she could finally make out a human being. The person was screaming in agony, drumming the sound deep into Bella's eardrums. His bones seemed to be breaking, and Bella could make out claws expanding from his fingers.
From head to toe he was drowned in crimson and his clothing was partially ripped from his body, leaving a tattered pair of pants clinging to his damp skin. He seemed to be so wrapped up in his pain that he didn't notice the pair of women watching him, but Bella noticed that there seemed to be an object producing from his back.
Bella couldn't determine what it was, but the closet she could assume it to be was a wire of some sort. "What's wrong with him?" Bella whispered in horror.
Victoria's face was uncharacteristically grim. "If I had to guess, I'd say we have a werewolf in front of us."
Bella didn't know what to say, and so the silence was filled with the man's roar of pain. His body seemed to be morphing into something bigger and hairier by the second.
"Maybe he escaped, killed them all in a pain induced fever. But that doesn't explain why there are two guards outside acting like nothing was going on."
"You think they was ignoring him, or couldn't hear him?" Bella asked, her eyes still pinned on the moaning man.
Victoria scoffed. "Trust me, they heard. A werewolf bite is agony. There's something else happening here. Something sinister, and I have to stop it."
Bella glanced at Victoria in surprise. She spent so long hating the redhead because she deemed her evil, that it was a weird concept to imagine her saving anyone, or stopping any acts of evil. Victoria walked forward and with her small blossom of respect growing for her, Bella gripped Victoria's arm in panic. "You just said the bites are agony. What are you doing?"
Victoria smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. "If I don't end this now, then he'll complete the transformation. Then he'll be an even greater threat, trust me. The Volturi didn't just wipe these guys out for no good reason."
Bella gently released her arm, though her strength wouldn't have dented Victoria's resolve or halted her movements unless the redhead had allowed it. "Who's the Volturi?"
Victoria glanced between Bella and the man who was more beast than human. "Another time."
As Victoria continued to move closer to the hulking hybrid, Bella's breathing became heavy and shallow, her chest confining the rapid beat of her heart. The man, who had seemed not to notice their presence before suddenly pinned Victoria with blood shot eyes. Bella squeaked in fear, but Victoria stared back at him without blinking.
"It hurts," he whispered hoarsely. "Please."
Victoria blurred with how quick she moved, and Bella expected it to be over in seconds. But it seemed the werewolf had a change of heart, or had been playing her all along because he caught Victoria by the throat and shook her like a rag doll. Bella yelped, despite not being the one swung around by her neck.
Victoria hands covered the werewolves and her talon nails dug into his dark skin, leaving gouges and rivulets of blood leaking down his bulging forearms. Bella watched in horror as the skin of those forearms rapidly sprouted hair, and his hands healed under Victoria's attack. He dropped the vampire to the floor, clutching his head.
Beneath his paws, Bella could see his skull rapidly altering shape and between his thick lips fangs produced, cutting into the supple skin beneath them. He removed his paws from his snout and looked at Victoria with beetle black eyes, devoid of light and human reasoning. The beast let out a stomach clenching roar, and Bella fell towards Victoria in fear.
"No," the vampire growled in Bella's direction, but not removing her eyes from the werewolf. "Stay there, Bella."
The beast snarled, its tongue lolling out of its mouth like the crude version of a pet dog. "He's massive!" Bella protested. "You need help!"
"No I don't."
Bella stood by uselessly as the two opposing supernatural creatures fought, teeth and nails, limbs and muscles breaking and spraining, reforming and being damaged in a continuous loop. Victoria fought hard, but defense seemed to be her best offence as she ducked and dived, rolled and tucked from the beast's claws.
"Fucking hell," she snarled, breaking the silence after minutes of stomach clenching fighting. Her fist landed in the werewolf's chest viciously, conveying her frustration and anger.
The wolf roared to her statement and Victoria struck at the opportunity, quite literally. Her arms swung back and forth into the man's stomach, before she landed an uppercut to his jaw that sent him stumbling into the corner. Bella thought she was actually making a dent in the creature's strength.
That was until he seemed to become fed up of playing cat and mouse, and swiped Victoria so hard that she was flung across the room in a blur of red hair. Bella screamed before clapping her hands over her mouth. The werewolf rose from its position, its jaw at an odd angle as it charged Victoria's crumpled form.
He gathered the vampire in his arms like a lover before he tossed her again. She landed further away, a gaping crack forming in her pretty face. Bella had to hand it to Victoria: she was pretty bad ass, despite the multiple beatings, she was back on her feet in no time and running back at the werewolf with fury burning in her black eyes.
With a running kick, Victoria landed the werewolf with a square quick to the chest before she swung her fist down into his exposed thigh, cleaning snapping the bone in two with an audible crack. The man howled its anger, its claws swinging in no clear direction which Victoria managed to avoid by dancing away from the sharp objects.
While Bella had to give her respect to Victoria for being badass, she also had to give her respect to the werewolf too, because he bounced back up on a broken leg and took Victoria down, kicking and screaming to the floor. Its teeth snapped for her throat, and she held it at bay by throwing her legs into his chest.
Victoria put all her strength into keeping the beast's teeth out of her neck but she didn't seem to have enough reserved to throw him off, or finally kill him, and it became apparent to Bella that she was going to watch Victoria die if she didn't do something. That meant no information, no location and no way back to her.
As the man's jaw inched closer to ripping Victoria's throat out, Bella racked her mind in desperation, trying to formulate a plan to save the vampire. Bella couldn't think of any logical, rational ideas so she threw caution to the wind, picked the irrational plan and charged the beasts, whose eyes locked onto its new threat immediately.
"Bella! What the hell are you doing!? Stay back!" Victoria roared, rolling now that she was free from the werewolf's looming body and teeth.
Bella jumped in the air, the werewolf swiped out an arm to try and cut her into ribbons, and she took this opportunity to grip his paw and twist it around its back as she landed on the ground. The wolf howled and Bella locked eyes with Victoria who looked too stunned to speak, but not too stunned to act.
The redhead scrambled up from her spot, but the wolf sensed the trap and ripped its arm free from Bella's grasp, nearly flinging her to the floor. Bella screeched and held on by gripping the man's fur. Using more energy than she could handle, Bella wrapped her lean arms around the beast's neck and began to twist.
The creature howled until then was a final crisp snap, and then silence but for Bella's harsh breaths. Bella's arms felt like jelly, and her legs wouldn't cooperation. Feeling as if all the energy had been drained from her, Bella fell from the werewolf's dead body, expecting to hit the ground.
Victoria managed to catch her before she cracked her head open, staring at Bella with surprise etched into her now healed marble face. "Bella, your eyes… they're yellow," she whispered, stroking Bella's chocolate curls back from her face to get a better look.
Bella was so exhausted she couldn't move, and struggled to formulate words. Bella finally managed to croak, "I know."
Victoria shifted from the ground, helping Bella to rise and steadying her on her feet as she wobbled. "What are you?"
"Another time. Let's just get that necklace and get out of here," Bella answered tiredly.
Victoria nodded briskly, wiping emotion from her face and pointing towards a door. "Through there, I'm sure if it.
Bella glanced back at the giant beast behind her. "I hope it's dead."
Victoria walked over calmly before savagely tearing the wolfs head from its body, spraying herself crimson. Bella gasped in horror. Upon her return, Victoria smirked. "It is now."
Shaking her head mutely, Bella led the way down a narrow hallway with an oppressive white light. They reached the only door in sight, and opened it to reveal an office with two more doors and bookshelves sagging with years of books. Victoria examined a desk and all its contents, while Bella examined the books.
"Black hearts," she read aloud, glancing back to the redhead. "What is this place? These titles are nuts."
Victoria was silent, bent over the desk before she straightened and revealed her findings: a pearl necklace. They smiled at each other as Victoria walked closer, cradling the pearls between her pale hands.
"It's beautiful," Bella whispered simply.
Victoria nodded. "It is." She proceeded to hang the pearls around her neck and that's when Bella noticed the folder cradled in her arms.
"What's that?"
Victoria stroked her fingers over the cover, squinting as if puzzling something in her mind. "Something strange."
Bella rolled her eyes. "Must you always be cryptic? How strange?"
A loud noise in the distance had the two women on alert and glancing in the general direction of the sound. They weren't alone. "We have to move," Victoria whispered, clutching the folder tighter to her chest while reaching for Bella. "This way."
Once through another door, they bolted down a long corridor that was lined with glass windows. Bella glanced through them, barely making out lab rooms full of cages, coats and equipment. Bella wanted to inspect more thoroughly but shouts from the distance informed them that whoever was giving chase wasn't too far behind.
They reached a fire exit door just as Bella felt a stitch forming, and was struggling to keep up with Victoria, despite the vampires deliberately slow pace. The sigh of relief died in Bella's throat however, when they reached the outside, and more trouble. Arm guards surrounded them, and every one had an armed weapon aimed at their hearts, head and other limbs.
"Don't move."
"Kill them! We have orders to kill!"
Bella flinched, struggling to determine who was speaking as flood lights blazed the outside and blinded her. In all the confusion, Victoria shoved Bella to the ground, forcing her arms around an object as she dashed off into the light. Bella couldn't see a thing, but she could feel the folder in her arms, and hear necks being snapped.
When Victoria had finished off the humans, taking bullets and hits, she walked briskly back to Bella, roughly hauling her to her feet and forcing her to jog to keep up. Bella glanced quickly at the vampire, struggling to breath. She was covered in cracks. "Are you okay?" she gasped.
"I'll heal," Victoria snapped, as if Bella had been the one to hurt her, then she hauled her up by her forearms and threw her onto her back.
Bella squeaked in panic, clutching the folder and Victoria's hard shoulders. She lost track of how long they were running for, too busy ducking her head into Victoria's cold, solid neck. When they finally did stop, they were in surrounding Bella didn't recognize: trees, humid arm and a rising sun.
"Where are we? A forest?" Bella asked, stumbling from Victoria's back.
"Yes," the vampire answered crisply, apparently back in her bad mood.
They were silent, until Bella whispered, "you look better," indicating the redheads face.
"Doesn't surprise me. Guns only do damage for a short period of time."
Bella scowled at Victoria's blunt response. "So what happens now?" She demanded.
"Now we find what you've been looking for," the vampire responded, glancing out at the trees.
"We?" Bella repeated, moving closer to her.
Victoria nodded. "You didn't think I would leave did you? Besides, I'm not bored with you yet, Bella." Victoria finally cracked a smile, glancing in Bella's direction.
Bella cocked her eyebrow in amusement. "Okay… so where are we going?"
"I looked in that folder, and there was a location that confirmed the one I found before. Something strange is happening here, so I thought I'd check it out while you try and find the person you're looking for. Maybe they're connected."
Bella waited for more details, before she huffed in annoyance. "So where are, Victoria?"
The redhead crossed her arms over her chest and blew out a large gust of unnecessary air. "Forks, Washington."
AN: So things will start picking up from here. A huge thank you for all the support!