Chapter 21

Despite the drama of Stefan's party, the next few days went by smoothly… or as smoothly as they could with the town elders thinking they had captured and disposed off of their vampire. Parties were held, restrictions and enforced curfews were lifted. The teenagers were all ecstatic. With the exception of Stefan dumping Elena in his need to mourn his friend. A friend he knew all too well wasn't the murderous vampire that had killed so many people lately, but no one was listening.

Needless to say things were not happy at the Gilbert house and both Jenna and Jeremy had been camping out at Bella's. A lot.

"Jesus, aunt Bella. If only you could hear her going on and on about how Stefan should stop caring about his dead friend and focus on Elena! It's as if she's never lost anyone!"

Jeremy exclaimed, fingers absently stroking Barkley's silky fur.

"Aunt Bella?"

Bella raised a brow as she sliced onions for dinner. Jeremy had began calling her "aunt" ever since she shouted at him and Elena when they arguing in the kitchen during Jenna's last overnight trip.

Jeremy shrugged and Jenna snorted as she uncorked a bottle of wine.

"Didn't you know? By moving out here with me, you inherited a pair of teenage nephew and niece package."
"Fuck you."

Bella shot back at her friend. Jeremy laughed at them both and went back to petting the dog.

"Did I remember to thank you for having us?"

Jenna changed the subject. Elena's actions lately had been rubbing everyone the wrong way but there was something stopping Jenna from sitting down her niece for a lesson in attitude. She just didn't know what it was, but everytime she'd decide it was high time she did it, she'd just not do it. Bella laughed.

"You brought wine and an official petter for the dog, why would I ever turn you away?"
"Easy there, your horns are showing."

Jenna threw back.

"Have you two thought about taking this on the road? You're really good at it."

Bella laughed harder and pointed him to the sack of potatoes on the other counter.

"Start peeling kiddo. If you wanna eat, you gotta help out"
"I'm petting the dog!"

Jenna swatted her nephew with the dish towel. No one spoke about Elena throughout the whole meal and the movie they watched afterwards.

- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -

It was a bright day out when Bella arrived early at work. Wanting to kill time, she opted to buy a coffee from a kiosk and was nearly run over by someone. She hit the ground with an oompf and her assailant was... smoking?

The woman screamed under the sunlight. Operating on instinct Bella grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her under a large oak tree. Shielded by the sun, the woman stopped smoking but she kept on crying. She was dressed in what could barely be considered a nightie. Her long straight blond hair were covered in mud and she looked like she'd had been through the wringer.

"Are you alright?"

Bella asked, keeping her voice low. The woman shook her head. Taking her life in her hands, Bella pushed the woman's hair away from her face.

And gasped

"You're Stefan's friend! I saw the cops shoot, stake and then take you away."
"Don't talk to me about that bastard!"

Stefan's friend growled, fangs extending and her under eye bags becoming full of veins. Bella took a step backwards

"Okay... you need food and I value my life a bit too much to offer a vein. Can you stand? I know somewhere where you can get nourishment and try to look less of a burn victim."
"Thanks. My name is Lexi."
"Bella"

Bella grabbed Lexi's hand, and the two broke off with a sprint, towards the funeral parlor. Lexi steamed and burned while Bella worked fast at the locks of the store and quickly yanked Lexi inside after a quick 'come in'.

"Sit here"

She ordered the blonde vampiress before she ran to the basement, retrieved a handful of bloodbags from their recently embalmed customers and returned to the main office.

"Here you go"

She tossed Lexi the bags, who tore one open and emptied it in a single gulp. Then, at a more leisured pace, she drank the second and third ones. She was merely sipping the second to last one, when Bella dared speak again.

"What happened Lexi?"

Lexi, whose skin was slowly healing as she fed, thought back. She remembered being shot and staked but it was under a cloud of fog. Then she had woken up in a strange room, with Stefan, enjoying the morning after of some very naughty and pleasurable activities.

"Only it wasn't Stefan and I was very human. We both were"
"What do you mean it wasn't Stefan? Humans?"
"I saw him as Stefan but what he said... his words weren't Stefan's. Does that make any sense to you?"
"No"

Bella shook her head. But the whole story rang something familiar inside her. She shook her head to clear it because Lexi was still talking.

"I've known Stefan for ages. I met him and later Damon, shortly after they were changed and, I like to believe I know him as best as one person can know another. We've been through a lot together"
"Okay... and then what happened? How do you go from that to calling him a bastard earlier?"

Lexi's left lip corner curled.

"Because it wasn't him in bed with me"

Her voice was soft. Bella bit back a smile of her own. Was there something in the water in this town that it turned lifelong friends to lovers?

"Who was it?"

"Some guy. Something nagged at me and when he left our room to get breakfast I decided to get some sun on. It's been so long since I last felt sunshine without burning like an overdone chip."

Lexi's voice was wistful

"Then I did... as soon as sun hit my skin, I began burning and with each moment the sun burned me, the more the lie I was being fed began losing its effect."
"Pain brought you out of deep dazzling? Wait, can one vampire dazzle another?"

Lexi shook her head.

"He looked more a bedazzled 90s partier than a vampire. Dude sparkled under the sun! He ran out to get me back inside and I saw him for who he was. Not Stefan. Some dude I have never seen. He kept talking to me, trying to get me back under his power but... the pain was too strong."

Bella nodded but her ears kept replaying Lexi's words

"Dude sparkled under the sun"

Lexi had been captured by a cold one. Good thing she had mentioned them to this founder's council.

"If you wouldn't mind my help, why don't I call a girlfriend of mine to bring you some clothes? Also, call Stefan. The guy's been a wreck since you were killed."