Ok! So, no one was even close to guessing the unexpected 'visitor' but I dont' blame you but I hope you enjoy the turn of events. I've had this written for a year but only now is it time to slot it inot the story.
Comments always appreciated and I will try to answer any questions this chapter throws up.
Enjoy xx
xxxxxx
What's that?" Tanya jerked to attention and her sisters were a vampire second behind.
There was someone in the house.
"Bella!" a voice called out, they had reached the stairs, "Bella! Bella Bella!"
Bella heard her name being called but before she could react and even analyse the voice the door to their bedroom had burst open and all three vampires instinctively took up defensive crouches on the bed where they had been laying.
"Bella!" A small body came flying towards her, completely unperturbed by the phalanx of vampires confronting it. "Bella!"
All vampires in the house were now either in the room or crowding the doorway and all were shocked to silence as they stared at the intruder.
Or, rather the small blonde haired girl that was currently clinging to Bella like her life depended on it. She looked to be about five or six with shoulder length blonde hair that was almost white in it's paleness and the brightest blue eyes Bella had ever seen, and she was naked. It was obvious she was no threat, it was who she was and where she had come from that was the mystery.
"Bella?" Rose was the first to speak.
"I -," she had no idea who the child was. It wasn't until she started babbling that Victoria inhaled sharply, calling all eyes to her.
The red-head moved to kneel in front of the girl who smiled widely, exposing strong white teeth
"Victor!" She announced happily and began babbling again. The coven members were shocked when their newest member began speaking in the same tongue. The child answered, the words flying out of her mouth in rapid succession.
"Sssh, sssh!" Victoria held her hand up to stem the flow and the child blinked and then snapped her mouth shut and blinked furiously, the effort to be quiet obviously hard for her. "I'm going to ask her who she is and where she came from," the other vampires nodded or hummed their agreement as they waited. Victoria spoke what was obviously a question and a series of words and actions followed, it was quite enchanting to watch the small child gesture and move around in front of the red-head, her actions told a story but not one they could interpret until they heard a word they all recognised.
"Storm," the girl cheerfully pointed to herself.
"I don't believe it," Victoria was completely stunned.
"Rose, Victor," she made a kissing face and pointed to Rose and Victoria,"Bella." She giggled and it wasn't just Bella's heart that melted, every vampire was touched. "Carm'n, Elzer, Tana, Kat, Nina!" She finished naming the coven, including its still absent members, with a proud smile.
"Vargr," Victoria murmured to herself but they all heard and turned questioning eyes to the red-head.
"Storm, Vargr!" She announced with a puff of her chest, hand slapping against her breastbone.
"I don't believe it," Victoria whispered as she stared in awe at he child. "I thought they were all dead," she marvelled.
"What? What's wrong?" Bella was getting stressed now as she barked the questions at the red-head.
"Easy, my young one," Victoria smiled. "It is no cause for concern, more of a miracle," she confirmed as she smiled at the child who had made herself at home in Bella's lap. The young vampire was sitting on the floor looking perplexed but making no move to dislodge the child.
"Explain," Irina demanded softly. Victoria turned to Bella and smiled.
"You have adopted a Vargr," she announced.
"A what now?" Bella was almost comical in her confusion.
"I thought they were myth?" Tanya murmured as the elder vampires looked on the child with new eyes.
"No, they existed once but I thought they were extinct. A few gave the many a bad reputation," Victoria explained. "They are a race of shape-shifters with a reputation of violence, they joined the army's of the North but turned on their masters and many were exterminated," she explained. "They became myths but it was only a few that actually went mad from the blood-lust, the others were relatively peaceful and lived in the wilds of the North until humans expanded their settlements."
"A shape-shifter, like Jake?" Bella queried, still confused. "Storm is a shape-shifter?" The red-head issued a brief nod. Then Victoria returned the question with another.
"Jake, who is Jake?" Victoria growled, was he a human that Bella had bedded before her change?
"Easy there, tiger," Rose reached out and laid a gentle hand on her mate's shoulder to calm her, understanding the exact source of the ancient's jealousy because she always felt it too. "Jacob Black is a member of the Qulliete tribe, a tribe of shape-shifters that made a pact with the Cullen's a century ago. They are Native Americans who can shift into giant, horse sized wolves to kill vampires," Rose informed their guest. "Bella just happens to have been best friends with one before he shifted but that bond is broken," she finished with a growl, one echoed by Victoria.
"Rose! You know we were only ever friends, and not even that now," Bella reprimanded her mate and Victoria looked on in bemusement as the couple bickered.
"You seem to attract wolves," Victoria commented. "The Vargr are different, they are shape-shifters but spend much of their early life as animals, the ability to shift does not manifest until they are older. I am assuming that this is one of her first, if not her very first change," she paused, glancing out off the window and noting the full moon. "Look, the moon is at its fullest. I believe that is when the young ones often shift.
"But what is she?" Bella was still baffled. "I mean, how do we take care of her?"
"They are relatively immortal creatures, the mother must have sustained a grievous wound not to be able to shift herself and heal," the red-head was frowning at the thought of such a rare creature losing it's life.
"It was gutted," Bella confirmed sadly as she tightened her hold on Storm and the girl nuzzled into murmuring contentedly to herself.
"Yes, she told me how her mother died but asked you to protect Storm." Bella blinked.
"So, I didn't imagine that?" Victoria shook her head.
"No Bella, they are fully sentient, as you can see," she gestured towards Storm.
"But I make her sleep in the basement," the newborn added guiltily and Victoria couldn't help but laugh.
"Give her a room," Victoria instructed Tanya who nodded, intrigued by the days revelations, not questioning the demand. "She should be able to shift on the full moon as she gets older, until she can turn at will."
"Um, Ok." Bella looked down at the girl in her arms and smiled. "Hi," she greeted Storm.
"Bella!" The girl reached up and wrapped her arms around the newborn's neck and planted a wet kiss on her cheek.
"She has no fear of us," Tanya smiled down at the little blonde girl.
"But she understands you?" The red-head nodded an affirmative to Irina's question.
"Yes, she speaks the old tongue," she confirmed. None questioned her on exactly which tongue that might be as each country had a rich history of language going back many centuries and it was impossible to know them all.
"Can you teach me?" Bella asked shyly as she placed a kiss on the little girl's hair.
"Of course, I shall teach all who want to learn," Victoria confirmed with a smile. "But for now she should be treated like a child and not an animal. I think she enjoys the telly-vision, yes?"
"She loves it," Bella nodded. "She likes Disney," she added guiltily at which the red-head looked confused.
"Disney?"
"Oh! Victoria! You need to come out of the forests more," Irina teased. "Actually, I'm surprised you knew what a television was!" She chuckled at her friend's expense, only to receive a swat to her stomach as reprimand.
"Bella's not had chance to make her watch Mulan for the millionth time yet," Rose grumbled and received a death glare from the newborn.
"She obviously knows not to mess in the house but it would be unfair to make her go outside in the bad weather. I would suggest you build a small porch to the door and she will clean up after herself when the weather improves. Yes Storm?" The child had interrupted with a short sentence, "she is beginning to learn your language," Victoria confirmed, "it may not be necessary to teach you hers."
"Well, I would like to learn," Bella confirmed, "It seems the right thing to do."
"I respect that," Victoria smiled at her mate and the child in her arms.
"Me too," Rose chipped in. "She's family now," golden eyes stared in awe at the little bundle in Bella's arms.
"What happens when she gets older? Will she be able to change at will?" Bella was eager to learn all she could about her, friend? It was wrong to call her a pet now.
"Yes, eventually, but I know they live a lot of their lives as wolves," Victoria confirmed, charmed by her young one's enthusiasm to learn. "Has she grown much since you found her, how big was her mother?"
"She's grown quickly, she's twice the size she was a few weeks ago when I found her." Bella confirmed to her mate. "Her mother was a large wolf but not unnaturally so.
"Then she will grow fast, she will probably have aged years the next time she changes and reach maturity within the year. After that she will not age much past a human's mid twenties at most." Victoria confirmed and more than one vampire present wondered where she had gained this knowledge, it had been over a thousand years since even a rumour of a Vargr sighting had occurred.
Bella felt sad as she looked down at the fleeting glimpse of her charge's childhood she was seeing.
"Well, it seems as though we have another coven-mate if all are in agreement?" Tanya posed the question and received immediate consent from all present but she would confirm with Carmen and Eleazar when she contacted them, it was time they returned. "Good, life's never boring with Bella around," she chuckled and again they all agreed much to the young brunette's embarrassment. Rose had been watching from her side and reached out to squeeze her hand in comfort.
"You'll take good care of her," she whispered in her mate's ear and Bella was touched by her concern.
"I will," she murmured back.
"I have one warning," Victoria interrupted their moment, her tone dark. "Keep her identity a secret, there are many that would prize a living Vargr, they are loyal soldiers when not touched by madness." Storm growled, it was not a human sound but that of the wolf, snapping her teeth and Bella reached down to pet her hair in comfort and she calmed.
"Her scent is not like that of the shifters so she can remain undetected in both forms so it should be easy enough." The red-head continued, no one her knew her as anything but wolf and the coven hummed their agreement.
"Good. Storm, would you like to choose a room?" Tanya asked, the child smiled and clambered off Bella's lap then trotted towards the doorway, the other vampires moving to let her past. "I hope she chooses one near Bella and Rose, the other wings may not be suitable for a child," she added with a sigh.
"Seriously, and ours is?" Rose queried with a cocked brow and a smirk as she looked to Bella and Victoria.
"On second thoughts maybe we can build another wing?" Tanya muttered to herself and none of those present were sure if she was serious or not.
Storm came racing back into the room and stood impatiently before Bella then tugged at her t-shirt before reaching for Rose and Victoria and taking their hands and pulling, she was surprisingly strong for one so small Victoria noted. The child spoke as she looked up at Victoria and they held a brief conversation.
"She wants her sisters to come and see her new room," Victoria translated and couldn't help the smile the child's words caused.
"Sisters?" Rose queried, brows raised.
"Yes, apparently we are her sisters," the red-head confirmed before breaking off to speak again to the child, a smile breaking off as she did. "Eleazar is papa," the ancient was not the only one to smile at that, everyone knew Storm enjoyed spending time with him but to hear she held such a strong familial bond with the male was touching them all. "And Tanya is ørgrandr the fair-mined one," Tanya blinked but was pleased by the moniker.
"But let us do as she asks, we don't know how long we have before she returns to the wolf." Victoria spoke quickly to the child who shook her head and shrugged, the gestures so human Bella wondered how she picked these up. "She doesn't know why it happens, it just happens but three time now. Twice with her mother and now." Taking Victoria's advice they followed Storm to the room she had chosen at the end of the the corridor their shared room was on. It was close but not right next door. But, it depended on how good the hearing of a vargr was as to whether they would have their privacy with her so nearby. It was something they would just have to live with, if vargr were anything like vampires then it didn't really matter.
Storm climbed onto the large bed and after turning a couple of times curled up in its centre in a small ball, much like she did in her wolf form. She whined and turned the most pitiful pout on the vampires watching from the other side of the room.
"Sleep!" She said and the vampires stared at her. "Now!" The small one demanded and Victoria looked to her mates and shrugged before padding over to the bed and lying on her back on the left side, Storm immediately snuggled up to her, lying her head on Victoria's stomach. Bella and Rose watched as Victoria smiled down at the little girl and began whispering quietly to her. Storm smiled and nuzzled against her, small hands wrapping themselves up in the tank top she was wearing before closing her eyes.
"I told her she was safe. She said she knows her mother made a good choice. She is happy here and loves her new family. We treat her well," their mate translated and both younger vampires were touched by her words and moved to join them on the bed, Curling around Storm protectively as they held her and each other.
Xxxxxxx
Next on Crimson Bonds
The vampires were bemused when a dvd case was frantically waved in front of them and a small finger jabbed towards the TV accompanied by a relentless chattering.
"She wants you to make the black screen dance with the pictures in this box," Victoria announced, the request made all three mates smile.