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Chapter 42:

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It was quite a run back to the city but luckily I had bought a section of the curtain with me that I wrapped around myself to cover my nakedness. Soon I was in the city and slipping through the shadows and hoping that this was the right thing to do even though it was clearly the only thing to do. If I had stayed at the mansion it was only a matter of time before Heidi killed Bella. And me, as well, when she realized I would never return her feelings. It had become obvious that I couldn't reason with her or beg with her or plead with her. The only remaining option was to fight. I had tried by myself but there was nothing I could do against two newborns and even less I could do if the other three newborns joined the fray. My only chance was Kate.

And so, becloaked in winecolored curtains like some scurrilous queen stripped of her vestments and driven from her castle, I finally made it through the city and hove up at the door of the house where Kate lived with Leah. I knocked on it right away with a balled fist, loudly, and waited. It was late. The streets empty. Clouds moving across the black sky in wisps of gray like the cannon smoke of distant battles. Leah was probably asleep but Kate shouldn't be. Why wasn't she answering? I knocked again and waited. I hoped nothing had happened between them. Last I spoke with either of them was this morning when Kate was despairing about telling Leah the truth. An uneasy feeling was stealing over me as I stood on the stoop with the gold trimmed burgundy curtain wrapped around me like some door to door sorceress with potions to peddle. Why was nobody answering? Was Kate ignoring me?

I pounded on the door again, louder, determining to break it down if it was not answered soon.

"Kate," I called out, loud but not loud enough to draw attention in the street. "Kate, it's me."

I waited. Nothing. The uneasy feeling intensified. I knocked again and again there was no response. I stood there, frowning.

"Leah?" I called, almost softly, leaning toward the door. "Kate? Are you there?"

For a moment there was no response, then very faintly, I heard the click of the lock.

The door opened slowly and revealed Leah. She was wearing sleepclothes, shorts and a tanktop, and her brows were gathered in a dark frown.

"What do you want?" she asked, holding the door partly closed as if she didn't want me to come in.

I couldn't possibly guess what this attitude was about but there was no time. I pushed open the door, easily with my vampire strength, and went in.

"I need to speak to Kate," I said. "Where is she?"

I was looking around. It was dark in the house. The only light was coming from the kitchen. On the sofa was a blanket and on the coffeetable was a bong with the bowl still smouldering.

I turned to Leah. Leah had shut the door and now she turned back to me sullenly.

"She's not here," she muttered.

The uneasy feeling had left when the door opened but now it was returning. Leah was stoned. Kate was nowhere to be found. What was going on?

Leah was looking at me in disgust, as if noticing for the first time that I was wearing nothing but a curtain. I looked at her with the beginnings of panic in my eyes.

"She's not here?" I asked her. "What do you mean?"

Leah didn't answer. She walked past me, skirting around my curtain-clad form as if I might be contagious, and then plopped down on the sofa and took up the bong.

"Leah, this is an emergency," I said. "Where is Kate?"

The bong gurgled. Leah lowered it and sat back on the sofa. Then she opened her eyes and blew the blue-gray smoke into a thin mist in the darkness overhead before rolling her eyes to mine.

"She told me what you are," she said.

Ah. So that's what was going on.

"Oh," I said.

Well. How to proceed with a stoned human who recently learnt you're a vampire? I admit I wasn't sure and more than that I didn't really have the time.

Leah was taking another toke from the bong but then something occurred to her and she put it down quickly.

"I should call the police right now," she said, struggling up from the couch.

I watched her, frowning. This was no good. I couldn't very well reason with her while she was in this state. She was headed over toward the kitchen vaguely and she actually did reach for the wallphone beside the fridge. I snatched it away from her before she could dial.

She swung toward me. "Hey!"

"Where's Kate, Leah?" I demanded firmly. "What happened?"

Leah grew violent and shoved me. "What do you think happened? I told her to get the fuck out of my house. She's a fucking vampire."

"Did she take her phone?"

Leah went sullen again and turned away to lean on the counter. "I don't know."

I looked at her for a moment. I felt sorry for her, I truly did. The last thing I wanted to do was cause her any distress or damage her relationship with Kate.

But right now Bella's life was more important and I quickly dialled Kate's cellphone number.

I put the phone to my ear, tucking the curtain under my arm to hold it there. It rang—which meant at least she had the phone turned on—but no one answered. It went to voicemail and I had to try very hard to keep my voice level.

"Kate, this is Victoria," I said. "I'm at Leah's place and I need you to get over here right now. It's an emergency. Bella's in danger, they all are. Hurry, please."

I hit disconnect. Leah was watching me in the yellow light of the kitchenbulb, eyes dilated and solid black, glowering at me. I looked at her sadly and then I handed her the phone.

At that her brow loosened slightly. She took the phone and looked at me. I was hoping she had either forgotten about calling the police or would change her mind and it seemed I was right. She turned and put the phone back in the cradle.

I watched her and again I felt sorry. I just hoped Kate would get the voicemail and hurry back as soon as possible.

"What happened, Leah?" I asked her again. "What did she tell you?"

The question seemed to irritate her and she began pointing toward the front door. "I want you out of my house too. Not just this one, next door as well. I want you to get your shit and go. Right now."

I didn't answer. In many ways perhaps it was a good thing she was so stoned. Otherwise maybe she never would've opened the door.

"I mean it," she went on, still pointing vaguely. "I want you out. Right now before I call the—"

She turned back to the phone but I'd had enough games.

I grabbed her and spun her around and slammed her back into the fridge. She grunted and glared at me and I held her there and looked directly into her opaque black eyes.

"Listen to me very carefully, Leah," I said. "Bella is in danger. It may already be too late. So please. Don't do this right now. Okay?"

She didn't answer. My forearm was against her throat. But she didn't struggle and she seemed to have had some sense knocked into her. I looked into her eyes for a moment more and then I let her go slowly.

She glared at me and touched her throat.

"What happened to Bella?" she asked.

"An old friend came to visit," I explained with a sigh. "An old friend who wants to hurt her."

"Is she going to be okay?"

The question caused my face to ripple with sadness. "I honestly don't know."

Leah looked at me, her back to the fridge. I lifted a knuckle and dabbed at my eye even though they weren't capable of shedding tears, just trying to get myself under control. I had never been so worried and anxious in all my five hundred years. Bella right now was alone with Heidi. With a woman who wanted to kill her. My heart ached from the thought of what they were doing to her right now. I had already left her half raped and bleeding from her vagina. By now it was possible she wasn't even alive anymore.

But no, that couldn't be true. I could feel it. Even beyond the hopelessness and despair I could feel she was still alive. I knew it in my bones. Heidi's true goal wasn't to kill Bella. It was to convince me I loved her. And it was that misguided belief that would keep Bella alive while I cobbled together my little rescue mission. God, I'm such a terrible mate. I couldn't protect James and now I was failing at protecting Bella. Where are you, Kate? Why aren't you here? I need you. Heidi would not hurt Bella but Heidi was as unstable as the newborns she commanded and—

Leah had been watching me this whole time and now she spoke.

"How could you never tell me what you are?" she asked.

I glanced at her. In my anxiety I had almost forgotten about her. "Would you have believed me?"

She didn't reply. I sighed and looked toward the front door. How long would it take for Kate to get the voicemail? Would she return the call? Or would she just—?

"Kate says she doesn't kill people," Leah said. "That she feeds from animals."

Again I turned to her. Her expression had softened strangely and I realized for the first time that she wasn't as intolerant as her earlier behaviour suggested. Just scared and confused. My stomach still roiled with fear for Bella but perhaps Leah needed my help too.

So I nodded at her question and even managed a weak smile.

"She does," I said. "She doesn't hurt people."

Leah nodded as well, as if relieved, and then she looked at me and darkened again. "And you? Do you kill people?"

I sighed and looked away. I wouldn't patronize her with a lie but I couldn't just admit it out loud either. She saw it in my expression, though, and her face drained.

"Oh god," she said.

I sighed and looked at her and then I sidled over in my curtain and stroked one of her shoulders soothingly.

"Now, now, let's not panic," I said. "I'm sure this is very difficult for you, Leah, but let's remain focused on the real crisis. Bella is in very true danger."

Leah looked at me with red ringed eyes.

"She killed Chrissy," she said. "Didn't she?"

I nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so."

Leah seemed stunned. The breath came out of her in a wheeze. I stroked her shoulder and watched her with a caring expression.

"In fairness, it was an accident," I said. "Bella can be a little overzealous."

Leah shook her head and sniffed to herself and shrugged away from my hand. "I knew there was something weird about her but I never would've guessed she was a vampire."

"Well, technically, she's not," I admitted. "Not yet."

"She's not?"

"Not quite, no."

"Then why did she kill Chrissy?"

I gave her an apologetic look. Her face drained even more as she realized that Bella, her friend, a girl she had often had sex with, was a simple psychotic murderer. I watched her come to terms with it and again I was thankful she was stoned. This conversation might've gone a little differently if her mind hadn't been chemically loosened prior to my arrival.

"Leah," I said. "Look at me."

Leah looked up. Her coppercolored face was pale, perhaps the same palor it would assume if she ever became a vampire, and her eyes were frightened. But not of me. That was a good sign. Somehow she seemed to trust me or least she believed I was no danger.

I took a deep breath, trying to momentarily compartmentalize my worry and fear, and I managed to give her a reassuring smile.

"Bella and I lived next door to you for a long time and we never hurt you," I said. "You know you have nothing to fear from us, right?"

Leah didn't answer. I tilted my head, searching her eyes.

"You said there was something weird about us," I said, "but maybe there's something weird about you too. Hm? I mean, if you were just a regular person, why would you have even let me through the door tonight? And how could you even stomach being this close to me? Me, a monster, a murderer. Who lied to you and seduced you and buried your best friend Chrissy."

Leah winced slightly at that last part. "She wasn't my best friend."

I smirked at her. "See what I mean? You're lying if you think you can't handle any of this."

Leah frowned at that but she seemed to agree and much of her fear and shock simply faded away, as if it had been an effort to maintain and there wasn't really much point in it anymore. She looked at me in a half-glare that demanded candour.

"Can I really trust you?" she asked.

I nodded simply, cowled in my winecolored curtain like a fortune teller. "Yes, you can. I've never done anything more than follow my heart, in light or darkness, and my heart would never allow me to hurt you. Even if you picked up that phone and called the police right now."

I nodded at the phone on the wall. Leah looked at it. I gave her plenty of time to reach for it and make any call she wanted but in the end she only sighed and shook her head and slouched away toward the couch.

I followed her back into the living area. It was darker here and above us swirled a haze of bong smoke. Leah slumped down onto the sofa and I sat beside her, keeping the curtain around myself. The material draped over my legs, dark almost to black in the smoky gloom. The bong had gone out and now Leah took it up and put it to her mouth and lit a cigarette lighter. The two of us bloomed for a minute in the small orange flare and she touched the flame to the bowl of the bong and drew deeply.

I watched her lounge back with her eyes closed, the bong sitting in her lap, and spoke to her softly.

"Kate loves you, Leah," I said.

Leah opened her eyes. The smoke seeped from her mouth and nostrils like her soul escaping and then she blew it out and coughed and looked away as if she didn't care in the least whether or not Kate loved her.

But I knew she did.

"I've been trying to get her to tell you about herself for a while but she was too afraid you wouldn't accept her," I went on. "She needs to know that you do."

Leah shook her head and sat back. "But how can I? How can anything be the same?"

"Because it is the same," I told her. "Nothing's changed in how she feels about you. And I can see nothing's changed about your own feelings either."

She rolled her head to me, sitting there in her sleeptank and sleepshorts. It was cold in the room but she didn't seem to notice. I smiled at her and touched her bare leg somewhat erotically, the touch all the more daring and inappropriate for the circumstances.

"Kate is the most incredible woman you'll ever know," I whispered. "And she can introduce you to the most incredible lifestyle you've ever known. Kate can turn you into a vampire and you could be together for centuries. Eternity is yours for the taking."

She looked at me. I took the bong out of her lap and smiled with it.

"You like your little narcotics?" I asked. "Wait till you try blood. There's no rush in the world like it."

My words bought some clarity back to her flat black eyes. A faint flicker of excitement in those inky black pools. She blinked them, gazing at me. I smirked and set the bong on the coffeetable and then I sighed and corrected the curtain around me and looked toward the front door anxiously where it stood in the darkness off the corridor.

"Where do you think Kate went when she left the house?" I asked. "How long has she been gone?"

Leah heaved a sigh and shrugged. "Couple hours."

"Maybe I should call her again."

"Maybe you should put some clothes on," Leah said, eyeing my curtain skeptically.

I looked down at myself. The heavy winecolored cloth was draped around my shoulders and pooled in my lap. I nodded and rose from the couch.

"You're right," I said. "May I borrow a few of your things?"

Leah nodded, frowning but relaxed, and I offered her a fleeting smile before I went past and started up the stairs.

I flipped the light on in the bedroom and the sight of the unmade bed made me pause. It was only last night when Bella had strangled poor Chrissy there. So much had happened in the span of a day. I dropped the curtain and opened the top draw of the dresser and put on some underwear and a bra. I just hoped she was still alive. Bella. My mate. How could I have left her like that? I knew I had no choice but that didn't make it any easier to bare. I was positive that Heidi would not hurt her till she could do it in front of me but what made me so sure? Was it because I knew my old friend so well? Or was it simply denial and the will to convince myself everything would be alright? How well did I really know Heidi? Not well enough to have foreseen the least of what she was capable of, apparently.

I pushed the doubts away and opened the wardrobe and took out one of Kate's dresses and slipped it on. It was yellow with a bow at the neckline. Oh, Kate. Where are you? I need you. Bella needs you. Your coven needs you. Why tonight of all nights did you have to be kicked out of the house by Leah? But as soon as the question occurred to me I almost laughed. Because it wasn't Kate's fault at all. It was Bella's. Bella killed Chrissy and as a direct result Kate was forced to confess to Leah what she really was. I shook my head with a sinking heart. Such a stupid girl. Now if she died, if we were too late to rescue her, it was perhaps her own fault. Stupid, stupid, stupid girl. I found some shoes and slipped them on, shaking my head, and—

I heard something downstairs.

The door.

I heard it with a jolt of hope in my heart and spun around and hurried downstairs. The lock in the door was turning and then slowly the door swung open. Leah was sitting up on the sofa in the darkness of the living area, watching as if she thought it could be an intruder. Kate poked her blonde head in, worried and frightened, looking about as if afraid her angry girlfriend might be poised just within to clock her with a frying pan. Then she saw me in the corridor and came all the way in.

"Victoria," she said. "I got your message, what are you doing here?"

But before I could answer she turned to Leah and completely switched focus.

"Are you okay, Leah?" she asked her. "What's going on?"

Leah was still sitting on the couch. She didn't answer. Kate was wearing jeans and a pink top, a handbag over her shoulder, and her face was filled with insecurity. Again I felt terrible for doing this to them but there were larger things at hand here.

"Leah's fine," I said. "It's Bella who's in trouble."

Kate frowned at me but she easily managed to put her feelings aside. "What happened?"

"Heidi," I said.

Kate looked at me. In her yellow eyes I could see part of her wanted to blame me for everything that was happening. Not only for the assault on her coven but for what was happening with Leah as well. I gave her an apologetic look and went on.

"I need your help, Kate," I said. "Tanya and Irena and Carmen have been…incapacitated."

"Oh god, they're not…?"

Kate put a hand to her mouth but I quickly shook my head to reassure her.

"No," I said. "Heidi has made it clear that there's only one person she wants to destroy. Bella."

Kate nodded at that in some relief although she still had strong concern for Bella. Leah had risen from the couch and she was wandering over in her sleepclothes, finally beginning to look cold, rubbing her arms as if her returning girlfriend had bought the chill with her. She was frowning at us but she seemed willing to let us confer.

Kate glanced at her, apologizing with her eyes, and turned back to me.

"What can we do?" she asked.

I sighed and shook my head. "She has a small army of newborns. There were six, but Tanya managed to eliminate one of them. She also told Heidi that you had left the coven. Which gives us the element of surprise."

Kate nodded at all that. "You think we can pick the newborns off one at a time?"

"In stealth, yes. That's our only chance to save Bella."

Kate nodded again and even though the plan was rather flimsy she seemed to have no doubts or reluctance at all. Her loyalty and love for her coven was beyond any of that but a small gnawing of guilt in my stomach moved me to admit that it wasn't really her coven in danger.

"Kate," I said. "I can't lie and claim your coven is in the same danger as Bella. They are severely hurt, yes, but Heidi will not kill them. Bella and I are her targets. If you would prefer not to risk your life…"

Kate frowned and cut me off.

"Bella is my coven," she said. "And you are as well."

I looked at her gratefully. The firmness of her expression contrasted with the cupidity of her features in the darkness until she looked like some angry angel, some protective cherub who would guard her flock at any cost. I was so thankful for her maturity. Her ability to put aside any ill feeling she might have for Bella and I for bringing danger to her doorstep. Because she was right. We were her coven. And we would spent the next hundred years proving that if only we had the chance.

I looked at her sincerely.

"Thank you, Kate," I said.

Once more she nodded and this time she gave me a smile as well. A very small one, weak around the edges, but a smile for that.

Leah had been watching all this, listening to all these strange terms with her bong-hazed mind, and now she spoke for the first time since Kate had returned.

"What's a newborn?" she asked.

Kate turned to her, her expression softening into guilt and remorse. "It's a vampire during the first year of its life," she said. "During that period they have increased blood lust and they're far stronger than ordinary vampires."

Leah only just now seemed to be beginning to realize that whatever we were talking about it meant danger to Kate. Danger that did not necessarily preclude death. Her face was going pale again and there was no longer any trace of anger or hurt in it. Only concern for this woman she loved and confusion at what was going to happen to her.

"Well, are you gonna be okay?" she went on. "I mean, what…?"

She glanced at me, as if I might have some answers. I stood there with my arms folded under my breasts, anxious to get moving, impatience already clawing at my chest. Kate knew that time was of the essence as well and she took one of Leah's hands. Leah looked at her. Kate was a couple inches shorter than her and she was gazing down at their clasped hands, feeling the warmth of her fingers, and then she looked up into Leah's eyes.

"Baby, I'm so sorry," she said. "I never meant to…"

Leah's face hardened again, just a little, and even under the circumstances it wasn't really possible to forgive such a large deceit so instantly. She would need time but at the very least she was obviously willing to give it time. She nodded at Kate.

"Go help Bella," she said. "She's in danger."

I smiled and felt an unexpected flush of optimism. Even after all the grief Bella was causing Leah right now, even with the knowledge that she had killed one of her own friends, she still cared enough to allow Kate to go to her rescue. Everything was going to be fine and Kate and Leah were going to be fine as well.

All we had to do was rescue Bella.

Kate nodded and continued holding her hand.

"May I come back?" she asked.

Leah looked into her eyes for a long moment, gazing at her in the darkness, and finally she nodded. "Yes," she said. "We need to talk."

Kate smiled at her, eyes brimming with gratefulness, and she lifted onto her toes and placed a sweet kiss on Leah's mouth.

I watched them, feeling a resurgence of impatience but allowing them the moment. Leah's eyes had fallen closed and when they opened they were lidded and seemed to be even more dark and dilated, as if the kiss were more potent than anything she had smoked that night. Kate smiled at her, absorbing her face for a moment as if perhaps she might not see it again, and then she turned and opened the front door.

I nodded at Leah and Leah nodded back and then I followed Kate out into the street.

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AN: Short one, but I wanted Leah to have her own little chapter, and it felt correct to let this scene stand on its own before things return to the mansion. It also gives me a bit more time to think up material for the next chapter, lol. I want the next one to be good. ;)