Chapter 19
"Damon, I'm bored. Can we go home yet?"
"What's wrong little brother? I thought you enjoyed creeping on your girlfriend"
Stefan glared at his older brother. Well, as much as a small white pigeon could glare anyway. Damon burst laughing at the expression.
"What? I know you've been perched right here on this very branch pretty much every night since you met Elena. I bet there are even little tiny spots to prove it."
Stefan debated between answering the black raven or not. While he had in fact spent the past few days decked in all his feathery glory using up the entire preserves of his meals to finish the transformation, he had never done what Damon was insinuating. For one thing, birds lack the necessary equipment!
"I may be primed to keep an eye on Elena but your branch is looking right into Bella's room. Wanna keep an eye on her big brother?"
Stefan's try to leer was all kinds of awkward but it must have worked because Damon's silky black feathers shook as he sputtered. Before the older brother could retort, music began blaring from Jeremy's room. Elena popped a pair of earbuds in her dainty ears muttering about choices. Bella, in contrast, took the napping dog by the front paws and began dancing with it.
"At least there's a free show."
Damon's leer was far better than Stefan's, both brothers watching as Bella began taking off her clothes, not missing a beat of the music, and tossed them frisby style to the small dog. To both brothers' dismay she went to an adjoining room to shower, so they both turned their attention to Elena who was also stripping, only her try looked alot more like a pro at her place of employment.
Neither bird noticed the teenage boy in the middle room taking out his drawing kit and beginning to put the birds' on paper.
Damon's eyes ignored his brother's girl as Bella emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a peach colored towel, wet hair hanging down on her shoulders and his breath was taken away. And then returned with a woosh as she spoke with some guy on the phone
'Figures she'll have a boyfriend'
He thought, careful not to broadcast the thought to Stefan. While proud that his little brother had finally begun dropping his balls, he didn't want all his thoughts being public knowledge. Especially about the girl that had doused him with vervain laced water and outwitted him in one go. Right after her looks stopped him from killing her and his compulsion on her hadn't worked. Just how much was a guy expected to handle?
"For the umpteenth time, I'm fine Edward. I truly am"
Despite their enhanced vampire hearing, neither Damon nor Stefan were able to listen what this Edward fellow said. They both did see Bella rolling her eyes however
"Well then, tell Esme not to worry either... uhhuh... 'She loves me like a daughter'... right... you both do realize your adoptive mother isn't my mother, right? I have one already!"
Bella snapped and Stefan was impressed with the little growl that came out from low in her throat
"Listen Edward, I'm dripping wet and I do need to get off the phone now. I'm fine. I'm in one piece and if Alice was so worried, why did she and you both wait over a week before calling to see if my bridge attack had harmed me?"
The brunette slapped the phone closed and threw it on her bed, narrowly missing the dog. Then she sat on the windowsill and put her face in her hands.
"Tell me Barky, what did I ever see in him?"
The dog's only response was to shuffle close and lick her foot.
"She's exaggerating"
Stefan commented
"The guy just wanted to make sure she's safe after her run-in with you"
Damon didn't bother to grace his brother with an answer. Instead he turned his attention back at the free show as Bella dressed, braided her hair, went to get a snack from her car and then went to bed.
"That was enlighting"
Stefan mocked.
Before Damon could tell him to go suck a bunny, Bella's phone chirped again, the sound of the classic doorbell striking in the dead of the night. Bella jumped from her bed, grabbed the phone and brought it to her ear.
Then her eyes went glassy, her posture slacked and she breathed a word
"Yes"
Damon and Stefan exchanged a look. What was going on?
Bella stood mechanically, not disturbing the dog that was also wide awake and looking at her. Mechanically she knelt by the bed, picked up a pair of indigo sweats and the matching hoodie and put it on unseeingly. Then she opened the window fully, climbed through it and scaled the house easily like a cat.
'she has cute toes'
Damon thought absently as the lilac painted toes gently brushed against him in her climb.
"What the..."
Stefan breathed as she took off in full vampire speed. The brothers exchanged another look.
"You're faster, go"
Stefan ordered and Damon complied. Even in raven form, he was fast and soon he was flying overhead from Bella who was jumping from roof to roof to tree to roof as casually as if she was skipping. She stopped only when she reached her workplace. There, she scaled down the building, snuck in using the hidden key and went straight down the basement. Damon tried to fly in but the whole 'vampires need permission to enter' stopped him dead in his tracks at the doors of the funeral parlor.
Not three minutes later Bella emerged, her glassy eyes not even seeing him there waiting for her. She closed and locked the door behind her, then ran back to the Gilbert house, package in hands. She stopped to put it in the boot of her car, keeping one item.
"Tell me that's not a blood bag."
Stefan was mystified at the sight of a human girl drink blood as casually as they did. Hell, at the scent of fresh human blood, he got hungry!
"I'm afraid I can't do that little brother"
Damon's deadpan sounded hollow. Bella finished her drink, a healthy 'just fed' flush turning her alabaster skin pink, licked her fangs and lips and tossed the empty bag away. Then she went back to bed and as soon as the glassy look was gone, she was slightly snoring, mumbling about annoying ex-boyfriends in her sleep
"Well, I think we need to re-examine this whole 'human girl looks just like one from our youth' theory we've been tossing around as fact"
Damon tried, and failed, to sneer.