Damon stopped at the edge of the French Quarter, out of earshot of Klaus and Bella. He was tempted to track Dickward down. His scent was all over the streets of the neighborhood, straightforward enough to identify as he was the only fucking cold one in town. But he promised Bella that he would leave the issue alone.
Did Major Whitlock and his chick know what their coven member was up to? Didn't Bella say that Alicia… or Alice… or whatever her name was… was capable of seeing the future? Surely she had seen the mess Edward was pulling them all into. Jasper did give Damon a number so that he could reach him in case he wanted to catch up again... Worth a try to see if they could talk Edward out of his crazy plans that would ultimately mess Bella's life up. Not to mention their own.
The vampire gave it a try, but the phone number was out of service. Weird. It worked just fine a few days earlier. Damon impatiently drummed his phone against his palm, pondering on what to do. His fist itched to slam against that douchebag's chiseled face. And when did Damon ever fight against his impulses?
"So what was Damon Salvatore doing here?" Klaus inquired from Bella on their run out of the city so that they could find the carnivores she was craving. Elk and deer just wouldn't cut it for her at the moment. Apparently, there was a black bear habitat ninety miles west from them in the coastal area. Barely a fifteen minute run at full speed. And totally worth it in Bella's opinion.
She detected a hint of jealousy in his tone, which given his possessive nature wasn't all that surprising after witnessing how laidback they had been with each other. Didn't mean she wanted to encourage or enable the behavior though.
"Don't worry, the gang won't be bothering you. He was just finally acting like the friend he was to me before turning me," the brunette shrugged. His utter lack of response told her that wasn't news to him. "But you already knew that."
"Yes, I am aware that he is your sire," Klaus smirked because by proxy she was also his, which filled him with an odd sense of satisfaction. The only way it could have been greater if he could have been the one to actually turn her.
"How much do you know about me?" Bella inquired with a raised brow. "Scratch that, how did you even find out that I exist?"
"Freya. She tapped into the spirits looking for a solution on how to handle Lucien three weeks ago. They told her about a vampire cold one hybrid that was created in Mystic Falls nearly five years ago," the Original explained. There wasn't really any point in hiding the truth now. Maybe open honesty was the way to her heart.
"And you immediately jumped to the conclusion that it couldn't have been anyone else but me?" she probed further. Finally, he seemed to really be forthright with her, and she was going to milk it until it lasted.
"Well, I was in town at the time, knew all the people who were there. It took a bit of research and process of elimination, but you were the only possibility left after that," Nik revealed, glancing nervously at Bella, wondering how she would react to the truth.
"We didn't even meet back then," the girl scowled, trying to figure out how Klaus found out about her.
"Yes, but Elijah remembered that there was another girl at the Salvatore Boarding House when he went there to negotiate with Elena," the werewolf hybrid revealed.
Bella remembered that too. She was supposed to stay in her room, Damon wanted to keep her hidden from the Originals, out of trouble, but she just couldn't help herself when Elijah came barreling in. She had to go see if Elena was alright. Thankfully he didn't mean harm at the time, because truthfully she wouldn't have been able to do anything about him if he wanted to attack them.
"So you went back to Mystic Falls to look for me?" she prompted again.
"Yes, only to find that you were long gone," Klaus smiled despite himself, recalling how enraged he was at the time that this little girl wasn't making it easy for them to find her. How differently he felt now. In the end, all the trouble was worth it.
"I left the minute I woke up from the transformation," Bella admitted. "I was so furious with Damon. I never wanted this… not after…" she paused with a sigh. She hated that everything boiled down to Edward. That everything she did was somehow still dictated by him.
"After what?" he asked with concern veiling fury, assuming that Damon had done something to elicit that faraway hurt look in her eyes.
"That part of the story I'm only telling after I had my bear," the agent said, and he immediately got the hint that it had something to do with this Edward character. She already promised that she would tell, so he didn't push further. He could be patient if he wanted to. "Tell me, how did you find me?"
"Well, since I knew you would instantly realize a vampire was looking for you if I went there in person and possibly vanish again, I hired a human private investigator after I had learned your name. He tracked you to NCIS and Washington, D.C.," the Original disclosed, again a slightly embarrassed smirk dancing at the corner of his mouth. He assumed at one point Bella would start running for the hills from all the stalkery, but she just listened attentively.
"And because I was a federal agent you thought you had to get creative about contacting me or getting me to Mystic Falls, so you came up with the murder case idea," the brunette concluded, not incorrectly. "Not exactly the conventional method to charm your way into a girl's heart," she added sarcastically. Yes, this had been the main driving point of her doubts all along. If he wanted her to be his "queen," why go about it like this?
"I have to confess that charming you wasn't my initial plan," Klaus acknowledged with a sigh. Now or never, he thought. He had to tell her everything. "I thought the murder was the perfect idea, until I first laid eyes on you in the town square, collecting evidence. I had seen pictures of you before that, but at that moment something just changed inside me. I don't know how to explain it, I felt this tremendous pull towards you. Instead of using you, I wanted you by my side from that point on. I scrambled to make it right somehow. By that time, I had already set Joey Bates up to take the fall, not much point in changing that with what I knew about him, but I felt that somehow I needed to make you see me for the man I am, and not a monster. I went to the sheriff's station to talk to you, but when you were so closed off and hostile, I realized that I had to restart. So I tried to erase your prejudiced memories of me. That didn't work out either, did it?"
Bella laughed out. "Made it worse actually."
That little rant eased her worries some because everything started to make sense finally. The contradictions in his approach, how his priorities seemed to have changed. Why Rebekah might have thought that Klaus was only using her.
"I bet. Then when you left town, I sent Elijah to investigate how you were able to shake off the compulsion," the Original rambled on further, seemingly unable to stop the truth to fully come out.
"By breaking into my apartment?" the agent dubiously inquired. She recalled Elijah's words. Klaus must have a closer relationship with his brother than his sister because he was aware of the change in plans even at that time.
"I did not know he would do that. He gets really fierce when it comes to protecting his family," he said with a frown, worrying about what she was thinking of the whole thing.
"Seems like a common trait," Bella commented with a knowing smirk. The question was where they drew the line between family and everyone else. That one seemed to change for the Mikaelsons all the time.
"It is. When he came back telling me that he didn't believe that the reason for your resistance was vervain, it intrigued me even more. I wanted to get to know you, figure you out. So I tried to take the conventional route and asked you out to dinner," he really looked like the twenty-something boy in love at that moment instead of a thousand-year-old being. The image of him in the woods with the boys from the dream popped into her mind. He was just as carefree and happy there.
"And me being combative through the whole way didn't put you off?" she teased with a giggle. Even in the cemetery, he had commented on liking her being feisty.
"No, I like a challenge," Klaus winked at her, with that smirk again.
"You're impossible," the girl shook her head with an amused smile. She had to admit it though, he was breaking through her walls, inch by inch.
"May I ask you something?" his tone turned serious again, and she almost stopped running.
"About what?" Bella asked worriedly.
"Who are Renly and Carter?" the original blurted out, averting his gaze as jealousy overtook him again.
Bella knew that she had a tendency to talk in her sleep, but it had been so long since there had been anyone to witness her midnight ramblings that she had almost forgotten about this habit of hers. This time she really stopped, right in the middle of a clearing in the woods, very similar to one in her dream. Klaus noticed her sudden halt a bit late and had to jog back to her.
"Bella, love, what is it?" he inquired with concern, taking her face in his hands, fearing that he had unintentionally stirred something else up. He really didn't want to cause her pain. She seemed to have had far more than her fair share already in her life.
"Nothing, I just…" the girl shook her head. "I forgot what it's like to have someone there watching me sleep."
Though the thought of Edward sneaking into her bedroom without her knowledge creeped her out now instead of endearing him to her.
"I didn't mean to intrude on your privacy, I was just worried because you were out for so long," Klaus searched her face for signs of disapproval or anger.
"Did you sleep at all?" she inquired with a raised brow.
"Uhm… no," he admitted with a shake of his head. Bella rolled her eyes, but she was touched by the devotion he showed her.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad. More like embarrassed," the brunette said to ease his mind. "The dream was about two little boys, twins actually, who could turn into huge wolf puppies…"
And that is when a realization hit her.
The boys' wolf forms were way too big for ordinary wolves. Where did she had seen this before? At La Push, of course. The shapeshifter wolves. Everything fit. Even the pace they matured at. She remembered Jacob changing so fast, going from looking like a gangly teenager to a twenty-five-year-old buff guy in a matter of weeks when the transformation hit.
Either Bella's presence or their inherent cold one genetics triggered the two little boys to grow at such rates. But if the twins were her and Klaus's babies, then that would mean that the origins of the Quileutes weren't exactly like in their legends.
"Bella?" the Original shook her slightly, his heart racing with anxiety as she spaced out.
"Just a moment, I'm having an epiphany here," she held up a finger to halt him. The shapeshifter wolves must be descendants of a cold one father and a werewolf mother. It wouldn't work the other way around since female cold ones couldn't carry babies. "I have to call someone."
Bella fished around for her private phone in her pocket and dialed Jacob. Klaus let her do her thing, though he was starting to fall to pieces on the inside from not knowing what was going on.
"Bella! I was just about to call you!" the Black boy picked up on the first ring. The Original almost growled beside her when he heard the male voice on the other end and the agent shushed him so that she could concentrate.
"What's going on, Jake?" Bella asked, noticing the unease in his voice.
"Charlie is here. He wants to talk to you," he said, giving the phone off to her dad before she could respond.
"Oh, okay…" she mumbled anyway, sparing a glance at Klaus who started pacing around. It was so easy to wind up the man.
"Bella?" Chief Swan's voice came through the phone.
"Yes, Dad?" the brunette deliberately addressed him as such which instantly eased the werewolf hybrid. She rolled her eyes. They really had to deal with the jealousy issues and soon.
"Are you in trouble?" Charlie frantically inquired.
"Why do you ask?" Bella responded with a question of her own, acutely aware that on both sides they had people with extra-sensitive hearing.
"I had a Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs giving me a call, asking about Edward Cullen and his connection to you," he revealed, accusation and that fatherly authoritative tone in his voice that instantly threw the girl back into her childhood.
"Dammit, I should have seen that coming," the agent cursed. She really should have. Gibbs wasn't the kind that would leave matters alone.
"Bells…" the police chief chided her language, and there was also a warning in there, implicating that he wanted answers and wanted them now.
"I don't think I am personally in trouble, Dad…" she really hoped at least. "But Edward was flagged as a threat. NCIS is investigating him."
There were a few moments of pause.
"Are you in contact with him?" her dad inquired earnestly.
"No, I'm not," Bella confirmed truthfully, at which Charlie sighed in relief. He probably told that much to NCIS and was glad that he didn't unwittingly lie to them.
"Then why are they asking me about him?" he perplexedly asked.
"Well, he did live in Forks for a while so you would be the authority figure to ask… and they also think he is stalking me," the agent summarized, glancing at Klaus again. He had been listening in on her conversation with Damon, so this wasn't exactly news to him. Either way, he was intently paying attention, probably already thinking about how to solve the problem.
"Just so you know, I share that notion. I told them as much, along with what he did to you, and that he was here asking questions just days ago."
At that, the werewolf hybrid snapped his head up. What did he do to Bella?
"I appreciate you telling me, but didn't they tell you to not talk to me while the investigation is ongoing?" Bella asked, knowing NCIS protocols for investigations. Witnesses, suspects, and persons of interest should not be allowed to confer with each other about the case. They were no doubt monitoring Charlie's calls. Had he called Jake or Billy before going there?
"They did, that's why I thought you were in trouble," Charlie admitted.
"They are going to know you called me," the agent worried.
"Well, they won't actually. I didn't call Jake before coming here in case they were listening in," he proudly announced.
"Did you take your phone with you?" she probed, just in case. GPS tracking.
"No, I left it at the station. Also asked the neighbor if I could use his car so that I could tow the cruiser to the repair shop, claiming that there was something wrong with it. I even banged up the exhaust to explain the rattling, and to have something for the mechanic to fix. I'm not stupid, Bella, besides I have worked in law enforcement all my life. I know our tricks," the police chief rolled his eyes. The things he was willing to do for his girl.
"What would I do without you, Dad?" Bella gushed. He really did think of everything, even the transponder in police cars, to cover his tracks to sneak in this phone call to her.
"Not sure, kiddo. So what did Edward do? They asked me all kinds of questions about what I knew of their background if there was anything suspicious about them while they lived here, but wouldn't tell me anything," Charlie inquired further, wanting to know what was really going on.
"All I know is that they have fake identities, Dad," the agent lied. Well, they did have fake identities, but that wasn't all she knew.
"That son of a bitch. I knew something was fishy about them," he said.
Bella rolled her eyes. No, you didn't, you even defended the Cullens to Billy Black. You only started being wary of him when I ran off to Phoenix, then when he left me in the woods six years ago…
"Did you know this back then?"
"No," she lied again swiftly. Well, this technically wasn't a lie, she didn't explicitly know they had fake identities back then, though she figured as much.
"Alright, I have to get back to the station, let me know if I can help," Chief Swan said finally, not calmed at all by the things he found out, but he trusted his daughter to handle the situation.
"Sure, Dad," the brunette smiled. She really had the best father in the world. "Can you get Jake back on the phone?"
Klaus huffed at that, in a sour mood again. Bella shot him a warning glance.
"Of course."
There was a moment of silence, doors opening closing, some footsteps, then another entry before her friend spoke up.
"Bells, what the hell is going on?" the wolf shifter practically snarled into the receiver, troubled by what he had heard. Of course, Charlie thought he had that conversation in private, but Bella knew better.
"Is everyone out of earshot?" she asked just to make sure.
"Yeah, I came out to my garage," he said.
"Edward is causing trouble that's what's going on. If he doesn't stop trying to find me, he might even draw the Volturi's attention to himself."
Just days before Edward left her, he mentioned them and their rules, but since then she had done her own research, of course.
"Those bloodsucker royalty you told me about?" Jacob frowned as he tried to remember the talks they had almost six years ago about the different things they knew about the supernatural world.
"Yes, them," the brunette confirmed. From the corner of her eye, she could see Klaus smile to himself. She really didn't like the look of that.
"Well, serves him right," Jake actually laughed out at the cold one's impending doom.
"No, it's really bad news. NCIS is inches from stumbling into the truth about the supernatural world," Bella huffed, perturbed by his callousness. Though he didn't know this could include her too.
"Not your problem, Bella," the shapeshifter emphasized.
"Jake…" she began to explain but was cut off.
"Don't tell me you still care about him?" he jumped to the wrong conclusion. The werewolf hybrid standing beside her was also very interested in her answer.
"No, I don't, but… it's not only their problem," the agent tried to hint again at the core of her predicament.
"Don't worry about us, we had no official connection to the Cullens, they won't find out about the wolves in La Push," Jake arrived at the wrong assumption again.
"Yeah… You are right," Bella sighed, not able to bring herself to admitting the truth to him. "There is something else I wanted to tell you."
"What is it?" the Black boy perked up.
"It's about your tribal legends. About the wolves…" she knew she shouldn't be having this conversation in front of a vampire, but she was fairly certain that Klaus wouldn't want to hurt them. He would be just intrigued with the wolves and their origins. She could see the interest in his eyes.
"What about it?" he asked perplexedly. Definitely not what he was expecting.
"Well, you know the part where you told me that your ancestors made a pact with the spirits to enable the transformations?" the brunette hesitantly broached the subject.
Truthfully, ever since she became a vampire and found out about other segments of the supernatural world that were hidden from her until then, she thought those legends meant witches and magic involvement, but maybe it had referred to something else entirely.
"That's an oversimplification but yes," Jacob rolled his eyes.
"You know how in Christianity the visit of the Holy Spirit is used as an explanation for the Virgin Mary's pregnancy? I think that's actually a euphemism for her having an illicit sexual relationship. What if the first shapeshifter came to be because an actual werewolf mated with a creature of another kind that enabled their offspring to transform on will, without pain or the moon's influence?" Bella suggested unsurely. It sounded crazy even to her out loud.
Jake exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself before answering.
"What do you suppose that creature was?" he humored her, but his tone spoke millions of his skepticism.
"A cold one," she proposed in a small voice. Klaus's eyes went wide. Now he really wanted to know what she had dreamt about. Two boys who could shapeshift exactly like her… acquaintance… from La Push, but obviously not from there if she was formulating theories on how they came to be. A werewolf and a cold one? Who was she talking about? Whose kids were those?
"That's just… sick," the boy spat with utter disgust. "Besides, in our legends, we were able to shift long before our first contact with cold ones."
"Might have been kept secret," the agent tried.
"Bella, this is just… repulsive. Why do you even ask?" Jacob inquired, his outrage so strong his hands quivered, almost transforming into a wolf right then and there in his cramped garage.
"Never mind. Forget I ever mentioned it," Bella backpedaled, sensing that it was best not to push the issue further at the moment.
"Bells… what's going on with you?" the concern returned to his tone as he scrolled through the whole conversation in his head. Was she caught up in the supernatural again? Besides Edward freaking Cullen that is.
"Nothing… really," she deflected, then suddenly another theory came to her mind. "Do you know if Charlie has any familial connection to the Quileutes? Any ancestors from the reservation?"
Klaus was able to mate with Hayley because of his werewolf side since they were compatible. He wouldn't have been able to do that with a human. What if she was part wolf then? None of the women or older men transformed on the reservation when they were exposed to cold ones, that would explain her and Charlie's lack of triggering after spending time with the Cullens if this really was the case.
"Not that I know of. What is this about really? You are really freaking me out here," Jake pushed for answers again.
"I… I just had a dream, that's all. I'm trying to make sense of it," the brunette rubbed her eyes tiredly. Starting this topic was a mistake.
Meanwhile, Klaus was starting to piece the puzzle together. Cold one and werewolf. Both of them were hybrids, each being one of those besides being a vampire.
"A dream about cold ones and werewolves making shapeshifter wolf babies? How does Charlie's ancestry come into this? Wait a minute… you think you are a werewolf and want to make babies with that Cullen leech?" he shrieked in outrage, again almost losing his grip on his transformation.
"What? No!" Bella yelled back with equal amount of disgust.
Her vehement reaction was even surprising to herself. Until she had another epiphany. She really didn't want anything from Edward anymore. She had loved him once, and the bittersweet memories and reminders, like his scent, still hurt, but she didn't love him anymore. The mere thought of him touching her, much less having sex with her, made her sick to her stomach. The realization was liberating.
"Then I don't understand… wait… are you the cold one?" the shifter tried again, but that was an even scarier alternative.
"Uhm… not exactly."
This was it, the moment of truth, she had to tell him. Klaus was intently watching her.
"Bella…" Jacob prompted her to tell him the truth.
"Remember that time when I went to Phoenix a little over than six years ago? And I fell down a couple of stairs through a glass window in the hotel?" the girl asked in preparation for the full explanation. The original raised his brow, imagining just how clumsy and unlucky one must be to pull that one off. Even if human.
"Yes…?" he encouraged her to continue.
"Well… actually what happened was that James, that tracker who was in town at the time, he was hunting me. Alice and Jasper took me to Phoenix to hide from him, but he lured me to a ballet studio there with a recording of my mom, making me believe he held her hostage. He roughed me up pretty good then bit me… and I didn't become a cold one because Edward found me and sucked the venom out in time," Bella revealed.
The werewolf hybrid had heard the core of this story too before, but now the details were starting to fill in for him.
"I knew there was something weird about that scar."
Of course, Jacob knew about James and Victoria, found out about them when he first became a wolf through the pack mind, but all they knew was that James was destroyed by the Cullens.
"Yes, sorry for lying to you," the agent apologized.
"I still don't get it though. You said you didn't become one," Jake knew she didn't become one back then, she was human at least until she left town after graduating from high school. Naturally, he hadn't seen her in person since.
"Not a cold one… or more precisely, not purely a cold one," the brunette alluded to the shocking truth.
"What are you saying?" he asked for clarification because he just didn't want to believe what he was hearing.
"That I'm a vampire, a hybrid because of that bite," she came out with it finally. A long, long silence followed. Only the ambient noises in the background gave away that they were still in line. "Jake, are you there?"
"When?" the wolf shifter asked, forcing himself to stay calm. Eerily calm.
"Almost five years ago, when I was in Mystic Falls," Bella dropped the next bomb. She had kept this a secret from him for so long. "Jake say something."
"You say hybrid… and that there is some other kind of vampire out there… do you still feed on humans?" Jacob inquired because truthfully her diet was one of the most important factors to him. That decided if he would have to hunt her or not.
"Vampires in general, yes, but I'm not," the agent said, very happy with that life choice of hers right about now. She didn't think blood bags would have made a difference to her friend.
"That douchebag at least had some good influence on you," Jake huffed.
"Thanks… I guess…" she rolled her eyes. Why did everyone assume that someone had to have an influence on her? Couldn't she have a morality of her own?
"I really need some time to process this," he announced after a while, his tone emotionless.
"I… understand," the brunette sighed. That was to be expected. "Look, I'll have to get rid of this phone just in case the feds do somehow figure out the number, but I'll call and get the new one to you when I can, okay?"
"Okay," the wolf boy agreed, but there was no warmth in his voice.
"I'm sorry for not telling you, I just…" she trailed off, a lone tear escaping her eye.
"I know. You worried about how I would react." Jake understood her side, he really did. But this was a bit too much for him at the moment. The girl he knew and loved was dead in his eyes.
"Yeah," Bella breathed out. Jake had been her only friend for so long. After Edward left, after Damon betrayed her, or at least when she thought he had betrayed her, Jacob was the only one she could talk to, who brought some sunshine into her world. She didn't want to lose him.
"Talk to you later, Bells," he said and hung up before she could even react.
"Bye," she whispered to no one.
Edward was standing motionlessly in his hotel room, willing the day to end even though it had just begun. He was already starting to get stir crazy, and knowing that going to see Bella that evening was still pointless made it even worse. Monday. That was the time to make a move when she would hopefully be alone for just a few minutes after work.
Unexpectedly there was a harsh knock on his door. Then the thoughts of his visitor caught his attention. The person, or more precisely vampire, named Damon Salvatore knew exactly who he was, why he was here, and he was boiling with anger, feeling infinitely protective of Bella. He was a man on a mission.
"Hey, Douchepants! I know you are in there! Open up!" Damon rattled on the door one more time.
Edward rolled his eyes at his poor manners. He listened to the vampire's thoughts a bit more. Bella wasn't aware that he came here, actually expressively asked him not to come.
"Alright, scaredy-cat, I know you can hear everything so we can do this the other way too," he huffed after a while, realizing that Edward wouldn't be opening the door, and concentrated even harder on the parts about Edward from his earlier talk with Swan.
The mind reader realized that Damon knew about his gift, as he watched that conversation purposefully play out in his mind. Bella was talking about New Orleans, then about Edward complicating things, NCIS investigating him.
Then Alice and Jasper flickered into his mind. How did Damon Salvatore know them? Images from the Civil War were shown as if Damon anticipated that question, about himself serving under Major Whitlock. Oh. That was interesting.
"You might want to give your sister a call," the Salvatore brother said out loud just to make sure.
Edward hadn't realized until then that while Alice had been blowing up his phone all evening, haven't called even once since. He dialed her, but the phone was out of service. Cullen went to the door and opened it, wanting to demand answers.
A very swift punch in the face greeted him. The mind reader saw it coming, flickering through Damon's mind just a fraction of a second before he did it, but Edward was too slow to evade it.
That really surprised him. Were vampires that much faster?
"That's for Bella. Leave her the fuck alone. Capiche?" Damon smirked at the cold one, even though his hard, marble-like face left his hand throbbing. Just to make it sting even more, he thought about the times Bella cried on his shoulder, then when he kissed her while she was still human, feeding on her, turning her. Edward snarled, trying to block him out. A bit hard to do when someone was practically shouting their thoughts at you.
"Why did you do that to her?" Edward cried out in agony as he watched his love becoming the monster that he was.
"Well, for one to protect her from Victoria. The redhead psycho you failed to eliminate before leaving her all alone in the woods, you moron," the older Salvatore brother explained in a mocking tone.
Edward saw all that happening too, Victoria coming back again and again to Mystic Falls, Damon trying to kill her, finally deciding that turning Bella was the only option. The redhead getting confused about the change in her scent as she tried to follow the newly turned Bella out of town was the opening that led to her demise finally.
"Wait, what do you know about Alice? Why is her phone number out of service?" Cullen asked a few moments later because that piece of news was really troubling along with the NCIS investigation.
"I don't know for sure, but might be something to do with the fact that you hit a hornet's nest by poking around the feds. You might want to disappear before someone else might get wind of it," he alluded to the Volturi.
"You wouldn't. That would put Bella in danger too," Edward pointed out, though quickly realizing that Bella wasn't exactly subject to the Volturi's laws. She was probably recognized as a vampire foremostly, not a cold one. Not to mention that if Alice's account of their encounter and Damon's memories were accurate, then she might have been strong enough to stand up to them, or avoid them with her mental shield.
"No, I wouldn't," Damon admitted. "Doesn't mean they won't find out some other way. Leave Bella alone before it's too late."
"Not until she tells me to leave herself," he insisted. That had been his argument even back when they first started seeing each other. He would stay until she said otherwise.
"Your funeral, man," the vampire rolled his eyes, whole-heartedly believing this one was flying over the cuckoo's nest.
His itch had been calmed though, so Damon was taking his leave.