A.N. Thanks for all the great reviews I really enjoy reading them.
Enjoy.
"What the fuck do you want?"
"Oh come on love. That is no way to speak to your mate"
Edward quickly stepped into the flat and closed the door. He walked past a gobsmacked Bella into the front room. It was empty she was clearly moving out.
"Good" he thought. "Makes things easier."
It was a nice place though, homely, clearly her kind of place. The flat was filled with scents, the girl who had just left was the strongest, but under the smell of cleaning products and alcohol he could make out another, male scent. That was not good. Someone to miss her.
"I don't recall inviting you in, you arrogant arse hole." Bella hissed at him as she entered the room and stood arms crossed, glaring at him.
To say he was taken aback by her reaction was an understatement. She was supposed to be pining away for him. Clearly that wasn't the case.
"I missed you love, I needed to see you again."
"Really" she answered in a sarcastic tone with a raised, disbelieving eyebrow. "Somehow I find that impossible to believe. But no matter, you have seen me now you can leave. Don't let the door hit you on the way out." She turned her back and headed into the bedroom, but before she got that far he grabbed her and spun her around.
"Now, now love. I know I was unpleasant when I left but there is no need to be rude. We can move past that and be together again."
"Be together again. Are you crazy? I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole. Go to hell Edward, go to hell and stay there." She looked him up and down. He looked exactly the same, perfectly messy hair, smooth, perfect skin. Not a hint of stubble or scars, or of any sign he had had anything other than a pampered, sheltered existence. It was his eyes that she found she disliked the most. They were hard, cold and angry, they held none of the love and affection she used to see. He was angry that she had moved on, that she hadn't locked her heart away waiting for his return. He looked like a child, spoilt, self-indulgent and arrogant. Bella began to wonder what she had ever seen in him.
Edward was angry that Bella was quite clearly over him. She was supposed to be pining away for him at Dartmouth. Not having packed up and moved to a different continent. Never mind the fact she was wearing a wedding ring! How had that happened? He was very aware of the way she looked at him too. He didn't like that she was clearly comparing him to another and he was coming out wanting.
"Bella love, you've changed and not for the better. Your language isn't what I expected of my mate, neither is the fact you have clearly been less than chaste. But I will forgive you. After all I did leave you in less than pleasant circumstances. No doubt you felt the need to get revenge on me. I probably even deserve it. But come with me now and we can avoid any further unpleasantness. We can move forward with our lives together. I will turn you and you can be mine for ever."
At first Bella was too stunned to speak. She couldn't quite believe the complete and utter drivel that this supposedly intelligent being had just spouted. The fact he appeared to think the crap he had just said would make a difference was hilarious. She could no longer hold the laughter back.
"You really are just a silly boy aren't you?" She said while tears streamed down her face. She was almost doubled over laughing.
"How dare you." Edward roared while grabbing Bella around the throat and slamming her into the wall. "How dare you laugh at me? How dare you treat me with so little respect? I am your mate you will do as you are told."
Her eyes rolled and her vision swam, she was dizzy and felt very sick. He released her and she dropped to the ground before slapping her hand over her mouth and staggered toward the bathroom. She vomited as her head swam again. Touching the back of her head she felt a sticky wet patch, she was bleeding. Bella just lay down on the floor, the cool tiles soothing the monumental headache she now had. Pulling her phone from her pocket she tried to call Alistair. The call connected but before it could be answered it was snatched from her hand and flung across the room.
"Calling for help Bella. Why would you want to call a human surely you aren't that stupid? You have to know I will kill him." He grabbed her arm roughly and yanked her to her feet to face him. "Come on love we have to go. Don't make me punish you again. If you even try to misbehave I will kill your mother not to mention the man who gave you this tat." He yanked the ring from her finger and dropped it to the floor as he yelled in her face. "Do you hear me Bella? You will do as you are told."
His eyes were flat black. He was licking his lips. The smell of blood hung in the air making Bella feel faint. Turning away from him as best she could she passed out cold.
Edward cleaned her head wound up as best he could. It wouldn't do to attract too much attention with her injured. Luckily it was a small cut but like all head wounds it bled profusely. It was swelling well and he was sure she would have a headache when she came round. Once finished he hauled Bella out of the flat and into his waiting car. He flung her bags onto the back seat, she had been all packed waiting for Alistair to return, and took off fast toward the airport. She started to come round as they drove but was feeling too dizzy and sick to fight him, she put her head back and closed her eyes. In what felt like moments she was being bundled onto a private jet.
"Typical fucking Cullens" she thought tiredly as she slumped into a seat and closed her eyes again. Her head was pounding, she was feeling nauseous. She felt him fastening her seat belt but couldn't bring herself to thank him. She had no desire to look at Edward, no desire to speak to him or even acknowledge his presence. All she wanted to do was stay alive long enough for Alistair to find her. And he would, of that she had absolutely no doubt.
Edward watched Bella quietly. He wanted to talk to her but couldn't bring himself to speak, he was still too angry. She had ridiculed him, laughed at him, and rejected him. He wasn't sure what to do now it was evident he had lost his hold over her. He needed to discuss things with Carlisle before proceeding.
He had been shocked three weeks before when he had contacted Dartmouth to get her graduation date. He was going to surprise her by turning up there and whisking her away. They had told him that they had no record of her.
"Well where is she then?" Jasper had yelled. "You were sure your venom was working, that she would do as you wanted. It was your stupid idea to leave her behind. We should have just grabbed her and turned her. It's what she wanted."
"We couldn't do that. She wasn't attached enough. You know we would have lost that influence over her once she was turned. We needed her devoted to me." Edward replied. "She also needed to mature to be able to control her gift. It was safer to let her do that away from us. The temptation of her blood was getting too strong."
"Edward is right Jasper. We all agreed with that course of action at the time. It was indeed safer to let Bella mature away from us. We had no reason to think the venom would not work. She must have had incredible strength of mind to break out of it. More than we had reason to suspect she had." Carlisle interjected.
"Well the question still remains. Where is she and what do we do now?" Jasper argued. "We need that shield Carlisle you know that. We cannot hope to succeed against the Volturi and all the others who would come against us without it."
They had all known they needed a shield to keep them safe. Jasper and Emmett could protect the family most of the time but not from gifts like Jane or Alec in the Volturi. It had been a godsend when they discovered her. Add to the fact she was his singer Edward had thought himself in heaven.
Alice had spotted her first by recognising the blind spots in her visions of the future, she could not see Bella's future, she never told Bella that though, hoping to keep her in check. Edward of course could not read her mind. Bella knew this fact but it worked in his favour, she liked feeling she was special and it helped to keep her with him. Jasper could affect her emotions sometimes but not always, it took a lot of effort for him. For her to be so powerful as a human was incredible. Carlisle was practically salivating at the prospect of getting her into the coven. They could force her but it would work out better if she wanted to be there and loved them. The first time Edward had brought her back to the house, they had all played their parts perfectly. Even Rosalie being distant and disdainful had just served to make Bella want to be with them even more. She tried so hard to win Rose's approval. Bella had quickly fallen in love with him and the family from then on it was easy to control her, to play on her weaknesses and self-doubts, to undermine her self-confidence while appearing to love and adore her. When surrounded by such ethereal, beautiful creatures what mortal could fail to feel insignificant?
The nomads chasing her had also been a godsend. It gave Edward the opportunity to replace James venom with his own. James had wanted her for his coven and foolishly thought he could get her. They had dealt with him easily and in so doing cemented Bella's belief that she needed Edward, and had to be one of them. However having tasted her blood that day Edward had known he wouldn't be able turn her without help. Or wait till she had matured before tasting her again. It had taken all of Jaspers gift to stop him feeding as well as Carlisle and Alice pulling him off. It had been days before he had recovered enough to be around her without someone else there. Jasper had been outside the hospital room the whole time, helping him keep his thirst under control. All in order to keep up appearances of the doting boyfriend. It had been worth it though. Bella had been totally submissive afterward. There had been truly no reason to assume she could break his influence.
They had come up with the idea to break up with her following her birthday in order for Edward to get a reprieve from her scent and allow the venom to work its magic and make her depressed, suicidal even, to miss him so desperately that when he re-appeared she would be completely his. Unable to recognise her true mate even after she was turned, if he ever showed up that is.
Carlisle had calculated that three/four years would cause her to pine for him to such an extent that she was his completely when he returned. It also allowed her to mature enough to be able to control her gift once turned without being a danger to anyone else. Turning her too soon, without her complete devotion would run the risk of her breaking away from him and therefore the family. It would mean months if not years of hard work while she struggled to control her gift and they struggled to control her. No they all had agreed it was better to leave her alone for a while. Let her go to university then pick her back up after she graduated. Alice had seen no problems with this and Edward had anticipated the relief and joy on her face when she saw him again. How she would have clung to him, insisting he turn her at once. He being the gracious, loving boyfriend he was would have obliged. But now here was the reality. She hated him, had moved on and it hurt.
It wasn't like he actually loved Bella. Love would make him weak. He had liked her well enough though and the silent mind certainly helped. She had been devoted to him so it was easy to pretend to be totally besotted with her. She was pretty too so he would have happily fucked her when she was turned, when he would no longer have to worry about draining her while in the moment. Edward had thought they would have done well enough together.
Like Carlisle he did not believe in allowing his instincts to choose a mate. Carlisle saw giving into any instinct as a weakness. Even when feeding he never lost control. Edward tried to be like him. He saw Jasper and Emmett as weakened by their attachments. The bond made them put their mates' welfare first. Alice and Rosalie led Jasper and Emmett by the nose. They manipulated and controlled them. And yet he knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. The other mated pairs he knew were true equals, but he couldn't risk his mate being like the girls. He wondered why they were like that. But then again they tried to manipulate and control everyone. It must be just the way they were. Edward would never allow himself to be treated in such a way, he would not be controlled.
Carlisle had fought his instincts and won. He had chosen Esme years before he had turned her. He had left a little venom in her system after treating a broken leg as a teenager. It had started out as an experiment, he wanted to see how long it would be before she was overcome. She had pined for him, missed him even though she had hardly known him. She had been pushed into marriage by her family but it had been a failure because she was unable to give her husband her love. Only having a child had caused her to snap out of it enough to love something else. However when the child had died she had been so completely bereft that she had tried to end her life. Carlisle had felt compelled to step back in then and when she awoke from the burn Esme had been so completely his she had almost no thought of her own.
Both Edward and Carlisle had agreed that they had left things too long with Esme. They had risked losing her completely by allowing her to have a child. Had it lived Carlisle would have lost his hold on her. They should have stepped in sooner. Having spoken to her at length and reading what memories she had they had determined that three/four years would be long enough without risking Bella becoming suicidal.
If Carlisle could do it so could Edward. Creating a false bond was risky and was despised by most but worth it in Edwards's opinion. The others accepted it was necessary in this case to ensure Bella's loyalty to the coven. Edward had always known he would have to 'win' the shield when they found it. He was glad really, that it was Bella, imagine if it had been a man. He shuddered at that thought.
Edward had been convinced of his influence over Bella. He had told her time and time again to attend Dartmouth. He had never suspected she wouldn't be there when he was ready for her. The others had been incandescent when they discovered she was missing. He was ordered to retrieve her at all costs. Eventually with Emmett's help they had hacked into the Dartmouth records and found the transfer of her acceptance to Durham University in England. It had come as a shock to them all that she had just left her father like that. So they had dug deeper and discovered the records of his death. They had concluded that it was that incident which had led Bella to fight off Edwards venom.
So that was how Edward found himself on a jet heading back across the Atlantic with Bella asleep opposite him. She had not spoken to him at all since he had hurt her. She had not acknowledged he was even there. There was a cool distain about her that he found unnerving. Studying her carefully Edward had to admit the years had made a difference to Bella. Her looks had matured, she was truly stunning. He smiled to think that she would give Rosalie a run for her money now. He could smell the blood from her head wound, there was no trace of his scent at all. How was that possible? Had it dissolved when she broke through his hold? It was certainly something to speak to Carlisle about.
Edward knew that the only way to cement her loyalty to them now was to threaten the people she loved. Threatening Bella herself wouldn't work, he knew her well enough to understand that. But what would happen once her mother and husband were no more? Hopefully they would have achieved their goal by then and it wouldn't matter. Or she would have found someone else to care about. He dreaded the prospect of her finding her real mate. Edward could only hope if that event should ever happen that they were able to convince him to work with them or that they could kill him easily. Either way she could not be allowed to leave their coven.
Bella woke when they were about an hour away from landing. She was stiff and sore but her head felt better and she was more alert. Not wanting to speak to Edward she reached into her bag for her IPod. As she did she just happened to let out a rather loud fart. Bella was usually very aware of her bodily functions around vampires and tried hard to be considerate. But on this occasion she got a great deal of satisfaction from watching Edward screw up his face in disgust and move several seats away.
"Maybe I can throw up on him as well." She thought cheerfully. Turning on her I pod she picked her Iron Maiden playlist knowing Edward hated that kind of music most of all. She turned it on as loud as she could stand and settled back into the seat. Edward looked at her in shock as she closed her eyes again and listened tapping her feet and fingers in time to the beat. She was trying to annoy him as much as possible all the while making it painfully obvious she had nothing at all to say to him.
Edward glared at her angrily. She was defiant and composed. Not something he had expected. Why wasn't she begging to be freed? Why wasn't she trying to talk him round? This new Bella was a mystery that was for sure.
When they landed Edward tried to take her arm to lead her to meet the others, she shrugged him off.
"I am perfectly capable of walking on my own Edward." She hissed at him. The venom in her words made him drop her arm and walk in silence beside her. Carlisle and Esme were waiting for them by the car. They looked just the same as she remembered. They both had warm smiles plastered on their faces. Bella really wanted to wipe the fake, simpering, looks off their faces. Esme moved to hug her but she stepped back and held her arm out to stop her. Scowling at them with unadulterated hatred she ignored them and slid into the car. They quickly stowed her bags and got in.
"How was your flight Bella?" Carlisle asked in a pleasant conversational tone attempting again to get a response. "It is wonderful to see you again, we are so glad you decided to visit."
Bella laughed a humourless bitter laugh.
"Fuck you Carlisle. We both know I am not here through choice so cut the crap and shut the fuck up."