Bella could hear them talking from upstairs where she took refuge in one of the rooms, not even looking where she was going. If she had a choice she would have wanted to go outside, get some fresh air, but with Klaus possibly lurking around that wasn't really a safe option.
Moments later Caroline joined her.
"Bella, I'm so sorry," the blonde tried consoling her in barely a whisper to keep their conversation private from supersensitive hearing.
"All these years I thought that Damon was the biggest douche in the universe, even trumping Edward. But it turns out he was just protecting me. I don't even know what to think anymore," she turned to her friend agitatedly.
"Don't worry, he is still the biggest douche in the world," Caroline smirked, causing Bella to actually crack a small smile at the reassurance. "He should have told you, consulted you on how to handle the situation."
"He is right about the Volturi, you know. Maybe there really wasn't another option in the long run," the brunette told her, for some reason wanting to create excuses for his behavior.
"It still shouldn't have been his choice when that actually happened. You know you are in his room though, right?" the blond vampire asked with concern as she glanced around.
"Fuck… I knew it seemed familiar," Bella chuckled darkly. Her human memories weren't as clear as the ones she had acquired since. "He had brought me up here before. Kissed me once, right there on this bed, just days before turning me. I knew he loved Elena, but I let him anyway. I was so stupid."
"No, you were not. You were just in love," her friend hugged her again, this time the brunette returning it. She was never that big on hugs, but it felt nice just now.
"No. I wasn't. With Edward I was. Unhealthily so. With Damon, it was just nice to get the attention," the agent muttered into Caroline's shoulder, a bit ashamed of that truth.
"Yeah, I can attest to that. Damon has a way in bed for sure," the former cheerleader recalled those early days with the Salvatore brothers in their lives, now somewhat glad that becoming a vampire released the compulsions that made her forget parts of the experience.
"Ew. TMI," Bella feigned being grossed out, pushing her head away from its resting place to make a face at the blonde. "We never got that far. I left the moment I awoke after he snapped my neck. I'm still a virgin, you know," she confided in her.
"Well, we can try and help with that," the blonde conspiratorially winked at her.
The conversation from downstairs hit their ears again.
"Not to mention potentially a witch," they heard Bonnie say.
"Yes, that too. Whatever," Damon agreeing sarcastically.
Bella took a deep breath. "Alright, it's time to get everything in the open."
Both girls whipped downstairs to rejoin the others with supernatural speed. Caroline went and sat down by Stefan's side, but the brunette remained standing to have a better view of everyone.
"Sorry for that interlude," Bella started with a sigh as she took note of all the worried glances of varying degrees towards her. "I have a proposal. How about, from now on there are no secrets between us. Regarding who we are, or if something happens that might concern someone else in the group. And I don't care if you think that you are protecting that person by keeping quiet," she emphasized, throwing daggers with her eyes at the older Salvatore brother. "Yes, I'm looking at you, Damon."
Said dark-haired vampire threw his hands up in the air in a dramatic fashion, conceding to her will.
"Alright. So, yesterday as we talked with Jeremy, I deduced that probably I'm the hybrid Klaus is looking for, just like you came to that same conclusion," the agent shot another begrudging glance at the moron of the grouping because surely he had realized a long time ago. "Anyone wants to make any other confessions before I continue?"
"I ate all the muffins Caroline brought," Damon spoke up flippantly, obviously not taking the meeting too seriously, and also just to get on Bella's nerves.
Everyone looked at him exasperatedly, rolling their eyes, but no one deigned to acknowledge him with a sassy comeback.
"In the morning Klaus also sought me out by the station. He set up Joey Bates to take the fall for the murder of the petty officer. Then said something else that got me thinking. I believe he arranged the whole thing to lure me back to Mystic Falls because he wants me to be his mate," the brunette revealed with mild disgust at the notion. He was a sociopath. A cold-blooded murderer. He caused so much pain for her friends in the past years.
"WHAT?" Caroline was the first one to react. There was a hint of jealousy in her tone too that Bella wasn't expecting. The Original used to have an obsession with her, she knew that but why on Earth would the blonde care if he moved on or not? "Are you sure?"
"He was very vague, but he tried to compel me to forget what he said when he thought that I might have figured out his intentions from that small hint," Bella reasserted her reasons that brought her to that conclusion.
"What do you mean tried?" Stefan skeptically inquired.
"As it turns out, I can't be compelled even by Originals. I was supposed to stay in town until he was 'ready' for me, and when I didn't, Elijah broke into my apartment to confront me privately," the agent revealed, sitting down, feeling uncomfortable with standing out so much, even if the change in position only resolved the physical aspect of it. Everyone's attention was still intently on her.
"So now they know? Damn, that would have been a nice secret leverage," the younger Salvatore brother dejectedly leaned back against the couch.
"Let me finish. Fortunately, Klaus also compelled me to 'bring the killer to justice' so theoretically there was a loophole that enabled me to go to Charlottesville and back to D.C. because the investigation required it. I'm not sure whether I did manage to convince Elijah that I wasn't immune to compulsion or not though. More importantly, he also let some words slip that has me thinking that I was right. Elijah was talking about a 'union' and Klaus finally finding 'his equal,'" Bella purposefully exaggerated the quotation marks with her fingers to make sure they understood that these weren't her words.
"Wow," Caroline managed incredulously. What the hell was Klaus thinking? Certainly not the proper way to woo a girl, by killing a poor innocent bloke to force back to Mystic Falls. "Just wow."
"You guys know that because he is a werewolf hybrid he can procreate, right?" Tyler interjected with disgust, referring to the child he already had with Hayley Marshall because of nature's loopholes. Hope Mikaelson, the first vampire-werewolf-witch hybrid, born just over a year ago.
"Yeah, but Bella can't!" Caroline huffed at the ridiculous idea. Was that really it? He wanted another overpowered offspring?
"I'm not so sure about that," Jeremy frowned to himself as something occurred to him. "Bella, yesterday when we were at the house, you said you have never drunk human blood before, right?"
"Yes, that's right," she affirmed with a nod.
"Great, another bunny eating munchkin," Damon rolled his eyes mockingly, throwing a pointed look at his younger brother accusatorially, completely missing the point.
"Stefan isn't the one who thought me that remember?" the brunette sardonically reminded him of her time with the "vegetarian" cold ones.
"Guys, you don't get it, do you?" Bonnie sat up straighter, being the first to catch onto what Jeremy was insinuating. "Bella never drank human blood. How the hell did the transition even go through? You should have died after 24 hours."
"She is a hybrid, Bonnie. Get with the program already," Damon jabbed at her, frankly quite bored with this whole discussion already.
"Cold ones are turned differently," Bella began contemplatively. "They are venomous, and one bite is all it takes. Then three days of excruciating burning pain as I was told. So bad you are unable to move and wish to die all the way through. And that's it. The burning thirst after waking is the same, maybe even worse, but one could survive solely on animal blood. Carlisle has never drunk human blood either, and he was turned in 1663. Fit as a fiddle."
"I'm not sure how much you have researched Bella after becoming this way, or what cold ones are in this regard but vampires are magically reanimated human corpses, which are inhabited by the spirit of the deceased person and who closely resemble the living human they were before their transformation," Bonnie went onto give an explanation that sounded very much like a lecture at school. "Basically it's a blood ritual. To turn you are required to drink the blood of a vampire shortly before dying. When you wake after this, first you are in transition and have to drink human blood within 24 hours to actually complete the process, or you die. For real this time."
"From what Carlisle told me, cold ones are more like an evolutionary anomaly race, the venom transforming their DNA. They have been around for several thousands of years I think. Maybe even ten thousand," the brunette vampire unsurely revealed. Besides those minute talks with her almost-adoptive-father-in-law, only various tribal legends spoke of their kind, and those were very superficial too, just the basic outward characteristics were documented.
"And can they make vampire babies? You know… by sex?" Caroline probed with a mixture repugnance and curiosity.
"Ugh. No. I found some Ticunas legends though from South America about demon children, human-vampire hybrids, fathered by Libishomen - male cold ones - and human females. Balkan folklore refers to these hybrids as 'dhampirs.' But I couldn't confirm anything for sure. As for women, I don't think it's possible. Their body's natural changes no longer occur, no longer aging or growing, so I don't think their uterus could make necessary adjustments to develop a fetus," the agent was sometimes immensely grateful for her biology education in high school, not to mention her weird phase two months after her turning when she went and reread everything she studied before just so that she could have perfect recall of it.
"So why would Klaus think that Bella could give birth to his double-vampire-werewolf-possibly-witch super-babies?" Bonnie mused confusedly. All signs pointed towards the fact that Bella wouldn't be able to conceive.
"Cold ones don't die to become what they are right?" Jeremy excitedly questioned, apparently some sort of idea already forming in his mind.
"Their heart stops beating at the end of the third day," Bella shot him down, but it didn't seem to faze him, too hooked on his hypothesis.
"Yes, after the process goes through, but what I mean is… what if you never actually died? Not for real. The little venom in your system that interacted with the blood magic, making you a hybrid, also somehow protected you from actually dying. That's why you didn't need to complete the transition," the hunter enthused still, ignoring the dubious looks everyone was giving him.
"That's one hell of a wild assumption. Not to mention that I still need to drink blood," the brunette informed him sardonically. Did it really matter if she could have children or not? It didn't change the fact that she didn't wish to become a mother, nor that Klaus wanted her. The agent doubted there was anything he could do, magically or otherwise, to impregnate her if she was sterile.
"Are you sure about that? Have you tried going without? Eating only normal human food," the Gilbert boy inquired, still intent on the idea that somehow she also remained human despite her obvious vampiric tendencies.
"One month was my limit. I get really restless after that. But now that you mention it, I never experienced actual blood frenzy or have my true vampire face revealed, ever," Bella contemplated.
Surely this wasn't normal. The red, blood-shot sclera with protruding veins around the eyes and elongated fangs were what made vampires vampires. Either she had immense self-control, or maybe she didn't even have fangs? Cold ones didn't have them, their teeth sharp enough on their own to make it redundant. She couldn't help but run her tongue along her teeth, but it felt normal to her. In any case, she was perfectly capable of tearing through the skin of large-bodied animals, so she wasn't too worried.
"God, this is so freaky. It doesn't make any sense. At all," Caroline exclaimed, rubbing her temples, unable to process all this new information.
"Welcome to the Bella freak-show everyone," the hybrid chuckled darkly. In all her life she had never fit in anywhere, and even in the supernatural world, she ended up being a unique anomaly.
"I meant no offense to you by that," the blond vampire apologized, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder reassuringly.
"So what else? You have a beating heart and need to breathe, but that's true for vampires too. Would you revive after suffocation or oxygen deprivation?" Stefan asked, having had the misfortune of experiencing that torture. Dying over and over again because the circumstances of his revival were less than favorable. Being locked in a safe at the bottom of a lake for three months. Less than desirable was putting it mildly.
"Haven't tried and not planning to start now," Bella shook her head with a grimace, unaware just yet that the previous inquiry had started a flurry of questions regarding her nature as a vampire in everyone's mind. "Cold ones don't need to breathe at all though. They only use it for their sense of smell, and actually, I can go without oxygen too."
"Can you shut your humanity off?" Bonnie inquired quickly.
"Same as before, never tried," she shuddered at the mere thought of losing herself like that. Having a flighty and irresponsible mother meant that she was the one who had to stay in control. It had become ingrained in her personality, and she wasn't willing to relinquish it.
"Stakes? Do stakes actually work against cold ones?" Matt fired off the next question, unsurprisingly focusing on the ways humans could defend themselves.
"No, only the teeth of other cold ones or the shapeshifting wolves can penetrate their hard skin as far as I know. Probably actual werewolf teeth too, I don't know. They call them the Children of the Moon by the way. Not sure if they would be venomous to them though. But I haven't tried that either... Geez, do you guys think I'm suicidal or something?" Bella glanced between her friends with an incredulous scowl on her face.
"Full moon is in four days, we can have Tyler here test that out for you," Damon remarked in such an obscure tone that no one could decide if he was joking or not, causing several heads turning toward him with unimpressed glares.
"Thanks, but no thanks. Klaus's blood is the only thing that could cure it if I'm not immune and I have no intention of going for help to him. Have you guys seriously gone crazy?" the brunette huffed, her eyes darting from person to person at the ridiculousness of their questions.
"We should test the stakes later though…" Stefan suggested, quickly amending his statement when both Bella and Caroline looked at him scandalized, not expecting something like this from him. It was Damon's forte to come up with the most ridiculous ideas. "Not through your heart, don't worry, but we should have as much information as possible."
"Ugh. Fine," the agent relented, although not looking forward to the pain at all. Not one bit.
"Healing abilities?" the younger Salvatore asked just to make sure his previous proposal wasn't going to put her through weeks of recuperation.
"Same as you, don't worry," Bella muttered with finality, not wanting to go into detail how she found that out, placing her head between her palms as she waited for the next question that was inevitably going to come her way soon enough.
She had bit herself once, naturally curious when her research and her own experiences with her vampirism weren't adding up. Now that she thought about it… that should have scarred up right? Cold one venom was the only thing that could leave blemishes on their skin, Jasper was a living testament to that. His body was marred by hundreds of them, courtesy of the Southern vampire wars. The agent glanced down at the finger in question, but there was nothing. Either your own venom didn't leave marks, or she wasn't venomous.
"Fire?" Tyler was the one to speak up next, drawn into the conversation by the werewolf topic. The agent wasn't surprised that he wanted to inquire about her weaknesses too.
"That works against both I think, but cold ones have to be dismembered first," she answered tiredly, not even bothering to point out that obviously, she hadn't tried burning herself to test out that theory.
"Sunlight?" Bonnie went further on that line of questions, wondering since she hadn't seen any jewelry on her that could house the blue stone needed for the witch spell that enabled vampires to walk in the sunlight.
"Cold ones are fine, but they sparkle…" the brunette began, being cut off by the hearty laugh of Damon. "Shut up. They sparkle because their cells are hard and refractive as if they were multitudes of small prisms. I don't sparkle, but I don't need a lapis lazuli daylight ring either."
"Huh," the witch tried to make sense of that. Maybe Jeremy was onto something after all. "Invites?"
"Cold ones don't need them, and I don't either. Another thing. Cold ones have red eyes if they feed on human blood and golden or amber color if on animals, both darken as they grow hungrier, turning almost black if they are at their limit. They experience worse self-control too when that happens. But mine has stayed my natural color, chocolate brown," Bella revealed, happy that they weren't trying to find ways to kill her anymore.
"Interesting. Vervain?" Bonnie continued, the agent almost groaning at how wrong she was just before. Although they never heard of a vampire actually dying because of vervain, exposure to or ingestion of it causes a vampire to become severely feverish and weak to the point that it can even hinder their healing abilities as well.
"Burns me, but has no effect on cold ones," the hybrid told her, letting them extrapolate that probably all the other effects were in place too, but when Bonnie looked at her questioningly, she continued, guessing that she wanted to know how exactly the agent had come to discover this weakness. "I picked up a syringe at the town square, and it heated up my skin even through the gloves. So I'm guessing I won't be able to compel someone who has ingested it either."
"But normally you are able to compel. Do cold ones have this ability?" Stefan decided to take the reins of the questioning at this point.
An interrogation. That is exactly what this felt like to the agent. Even if she was the one who suggested that they shouldn't have secrets, she was starting to feel drained by it. Her time with Edward was the last time she ever felt this exposed.
"No, but there is something about them, their appearance, smell that attracts humans, like a moth to a flame," Bella stated, internally thinking that was a huge understatement.
"We can easily test the compulsion under vervain theory," Jeremy suggested smirking at the sheriff.
"Oh boy," Matt groaned, already knowing that nothing good would come of this.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't make you do anything horrible even if I could…" the brunette tried to reassure him, just to be cut off by their deranged vampire in the room.
"Here's a clever idea! Compel him to shove a stake through your arm. Two birds with one stone," Damon exclaimed, enjoying the idea far too much.
"Damon!" Caroline cried out chastising him, but her friend already leaned towards the blond boy.
"Matt…" the hybrid turned to him with a heavy sigh, looking deep into his eyes, actually quite confident that this wouldn't work. "Get a stake a stab me through the arm with it."
"Nope, nothing," the sheriff exhaled in relief when obviously the compulsion didn't take hold.
"At least you are normal in some things…" Caroline commented only to trail off when she saw Damon getting up from his place.
He whipped to a cabinet where some stakes were stashed and ran at Bella with it, only for her easily sidestep him. Caroline yelped in fright and surprise because she had been sitting right next to the brunette. The older Salvatore managed to chase her into a corner though on his fifth try since he was more familiar with the layout of the house, and shoved the stake at full force against her thigh, as currently, that was the only easily accessible part on her. To his surprise, instead of going right through her skin it shattered as if encountering an incredibly hard surface, like granite.
"Don't ever do that again. Ever," Bella shoved him away furiously, sending him across the room.
"Aren't vampires supposed to be stronger and faster than cold ones?" her dark-haired opponent inquired in bewilderment, not expecting to be so easily manhandled by the tiny girl.
"Wrong," the brunette told him with an angry huff. "At least partially. That's not a universal rule. Newborn cold ones are at their strongest, probably even rivaling vampires that are several hundred years old. Later it really depends on their personal traits. Some cold ones are strong enough to stop a cement truck on a freeway with one hand, and Edward was the fastest thing I have ever seen in my life. For vampires it's the opposite, they grow stronger with age. So theoretically if a cold one and a vampire matched off, given they were exactly the same age, then the vampire would probably win."
"Want to test that theory out, sweetheart? You and me and good old fashioned arm wrestling," he winked at her suggestively and for some reason for a second Bella had the impression he wasn't talking about arm wrestling at all but decided to ignore it.
"I'm not a normal cold one remember? And besides, that enhanced strength wears off after the first year and I'm five already, whereas you are 150," the agent complained, trying to get out of this utterly unnecessary pissing contest.
"Soon 152 from the day I was turned," Damon corrected her, before realizing something. "Ooh. Our turn day is actually in twelve days, baby Brother."
"Even more the reason to test out just where exactly you are at as a hybrid," Stefan interjected to Bella, ignoring his brother's other comment.
That actually reminded the hybrid that it was her birthday, midnight having already passed.
"If I had to make a guess, Bella, you probably retained your newborn strength from your cold one side," Bonnie offered her opinion.
"Except the squirrel diet weakens both cold ones and vampires," Damon mocked, anticipating that he would have this one under his belt fairly easily.
"For your information, it's elk and the occasional mountain lion that I can find," Bella huffed at him, taking some offense at his comment.
"She had no problem tossing you across the room," Caroline reminded the older Salvatore brother with a hint of jabbing, smirking widely when she saw that it had pushed just the right buttons.
"Hey! She caught me off guard," Damon exclaimed indignantly.
"Yeah, tell that to yourself if it makes you sleep better," Caroline gibed further.
"So what are you suggesting?" Bella turned to Bonnie, ignoring their bickering.
"Have a match with every vampire in the room. Damon and Stefan are the same age, but they are on different diets. Caroline is only a year or two older than you, but she gulps down B+ bags like nobody's business," Bonnie summarized with a wide grin, thinking that this was actually a brilliant idea.
"Hey! I can't help that it's my favorite! It also doubles as my personal motto: Be Positive!" the blond vampire cried out heatedly, not appreciating that her best friend was making fun of her.
"Fuck my life…" the hybrid muttered to herself, looking up the ceiling for some kind of help at these turn of events.