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Chapter 55:

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Most of christmas day was spent cleaning, a calm contrast to the festivities of yesterday. The holidays were officially over and it was time to start preparing for our departure from Seattle. The mansion would be closed up but not sold. Tanya had a lawyer to sort out all these things, a very expensive lawyer who gladly accepted even more expensive bonuses for providing fake passports and illegal papers. Over the next week the mansion became a ghost mansion, the furniture covered with sheets, the chandeliers extinguished, shrieks and screams from the upper rooms like banshees in orgasm.

There had been a discussion on where the coven should relocate next. Bella mentioned that her and myself had always had our hearts set on moving to London and Tanya smiled and said that would be perfect.

Soon it was New Year's Eve. The coven was still somewhat recovering from the tumultuous christmas and no one had formed any real plans for the occasion. No party. Not even an orgy. Most of us simply wanted to be with our loved ones. Leah wanted to go out clubbing but then she recalled she was wanted for murder. Most of us were. Bella had been linked to multiple murders for a long time and Claire and I had been caught on camera. Luckily, however, none of the fugitives among us had any official connection to Tanya or the other Denali ladies, so the mansion itself was completely safe and free from police attention.

Irena kept Claire to herself and they spent the evening behind a closed bedroom door, Irena bringing with her a bottle of champagne for Claire to perhaps have a toast after a long night of submissive love making. Kate and Leah were cuddled up on the floor of the parlour. The room had been completely cleaned out, the christmas tree gone, the piano and furniture all covered with sheets. They were binge watching Netflix on a laptop with a bowl of popcorn for Leah and a few cans of soda and a bottle of bourbon. Carmen was busy in one of the studies, crouched over a bare desk with a single lamp for light as she reviewed forms and papers pertinent to our departure.

Bella and I had decided to spend the evening on the roof where we could see the fireworks from the city after midnight. We were wearing nothing special, me in a dress, her in jeans, and there was no champagne or celebration. Tanya was with us as well, likewise clad in just a simple dress, and the affair was all rather informal, the three of us just talking and smiling and discussing our future.

There was a terrace on the roof and we were sitting at a small iron gardentable, Bella and I side by side, Tanya opposite. It hadn't snowed in days and the sky above was clear black and dotted everywhere with clusters of pinbright stars. The wind was freezing but none of us at the table could feel it aside from subtle stirrings of our hair. We'd been talking about London, Tanya and I sharing tales of our visits there throughout history, Bella smiling and particularly excited as I detailed the dark and narrow streets of cobbled stone that were simply perfect for stalking. Eventually we lapsed silent for a moment and it was Tanya who spoke again.

"I spoke to Carlisle tonight," she said. "To arrange our visit. They've been spending the holidays on a private island he bought for his wife. Isle Esme."

I scoffed at the extravagance of such a thing. Bella smirked at me.

Tanya smiled as well. "They'll be there for the rest of the month and he said we could come see them whenever we like and stay for a while. I thought we could stay with them for the rest of the month and continue to London in the beginning of spring. I've had enough of cold weather for a while. The island's tropical, so we'd better pack some bikinis."

Bella grinned at the idea of bikini's on the beach but I smiled and sighed and looked up at the stars that glistened coldly in all that blackness.

"Oh, I don't know," I said. "I like the cold."

Bella laughed and shook her head. "No way, I'm with Tanya," she said. "I'm finally a vampire and I'm gonna show off my body in the tiniest bikini I can find. Just wish we had our own private island and didn't have to share theirs."

She said that last part with a smirk at me and I rolled my eyes.

Tanya smiled at the exchange. "Perhaps Victoria will buy you one someday," she said. "She'll need to learn the stock market first, though."

Bella laughed again and waved it away. "Nah," she said. "My needs are simple." She was sitting right at my side and she took my hand and laced our fingers on the latticed iron tabletop. "All I need is my mate and some fresh victims."

"What a coincidence," I said, smiling. "Exactly like my needs."

Bella gave me a giggle, our eyes connected, and then she leaned and kiss me.

As she did we heard the first dim pops of fireworks behind us.

We broke the kiss and turned to look. Far out there, miles away, there were tiny explosions of colour in the sky. Pink, red, purple. Each accompanied by a dim pop and a flare of light that illumined the smoke of the rockets that expired before it.

Bella and I were still holding hands, smiling and gazing up at the sky, and when I turned to Tanya I noticed that Tanya hadn't even glanced at the fireworks. She was looking at us, also smiling, and she seemed to finally be at peace with her feelings.

"Well," she said. "Happy New Year."

I smiled at her. "Happy New Year, Tanya. Bella and I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for us."

"But we can sure try as soon as we go downstairs," Bella chimed in with a giggle.

Tanya laughed silently and glanced away and glanced back again. "Well, before we go inside," she said, "there's something else you should know about my conversation with Carlisle."

"Yes?"

"I told him that Bella's been with us."

Bella and I were silent, the fireworks quietly popping in the background. Bella didn't quite know what that entailed and I wasn't really sure either. Tanya smiled and chuckled once.

"And I mentioned that we've been feeding from humans," she added. "I thought it was only fair to warn him and give him the opportunity to refuse our visit."

"And?" I asked, half hopefully that we wouldn't have to go.

Tanya smiled and made a small gesture with her shoulder, something like a shrug. "He was disappointed in our new lifestyle, of course, but he was never one to judge. The realities of being a vampire are not lost on him. He promised he wouldn't tell the rest of his coven. He said we ought to do that ourselves."

Bella was frowning. "What about me? Did he say anything about me?"

Tanya nodded at the question and spoke with a smile. "I told him that after they left you in Forks, you had become targeted by Victoria. Luckily for you, however, your charms caused a change of heart in your captor which both spared your life and acquired you a mate. He was actually quite happy for you."

Bella seemed shocked, in a good way. She smiled and snorted in disbelief and glanced at me to see what I thought. I was pleasantly if cautiously surprised. Bella turned back to Tanya with a grin.

"Seriously?" she asked. "He was?"

"Oh, yes," Tanya went on, as if it wasn't all that big a deal. "He's a very open minded man. A man of conviction to his own ways and yet curious of other's. Once I assured him how happy you two were together, he could find no objection at all. He only hopes Edward will understand."

I sighed at that and set my brows. "I do as well, but I'll have little patience if he does not. After all, he's not the only one with injuries to resent. These Cullens are the ones who killed James."

"James tried to kill me," Bella said with a smirk.

"Well, yes," I admitted. "But still."

Bella laughed and shook her head and Tanya did as well. The fireworks were still popping far in the distance, small explosions of bright colored phosphorescence in the darkness that flared and hung in the air and dimmed to smoke that spread in the wind like ink.

"Bella's right," Tanya said. "James tried to kill her and it was Edward and his coven that saved her."

Bella sobered at that and a grudging frown came onto her brows. I knew how she felt. I didn't like the idea of being indebted to these Cullens either.

Tanya smiled at us, like a wise mother dealing with pouty daughters, and spoke again.

"You might want to keep that in mind, Bella," she said. "Edward is a good man who loved you very much. He left you, but he did it for the best—if misguided—reasons. You owe him at least proper closure to his feelings. You too, Victoria. If not for Edward, Bella would be dead and you'd still be with James. Neither of you would even be here right now."

I sighed elaborately and rolled my eyes. "I suppose you have a point."

"A very tiny point," Bella added, measuring an inch between her thumb and forefinger to demonstrate.

Tanya smiled and shook her head. Bella and I laughed.

"In any case, any friends of yours are friends of ours," I said to Tanya. "Right, Bella?"

"Yeah," Bella said, nodding, and then she shook it all away. "But who cares anyway? It's past midnight, let's go downstairs and fuck already."

Tanya chuckled and rose from the table elegantly.

"Of course, but why go inside at all?" she asked. "After all, it's such a beautiful night."

Smiling, she pulled off her dress in one motion, revealing a body was as white and perfect as a marble statue in the starlight. Bella giggled and took the hint, rising and pulling off her top to reveal her nice little tits, and I rose as well and slipped off my dress. My large heavy breasts were unveiled and I pressed them to Tanya's equally impressive breasts and wrapped my arms around her neck and applied a generous kiss to her mouth while Bella kicked off her boots and unbuttoned her jeans. By the time Bella was naked I had taken Tanya's ass in my hands and lifted her onto the small garden table and together the three of us began to make love, under the stars with the fireworks bursting above in blooms of pink, red, blue.

Two days later it was time to leave. A strange mood settled over the mansion in those final days, melancholy at moving on and excitement at what's to come. Carmen had finished shutting up the bedrooms, the beds stripped bare, the wooden frames covered in sheets. Bella and I strolled downstairs with our hands clasped, smiling, recalling the myriad memories that had transpired here in the short time we'd come to stay with our new coven. The awe of when we first laid eyes on the grand estate. The decadence of our first night with Tanya and Irena and Kate who almost killed Bella in a lusty frenzy. The victims chained in the basement. The amazon, the pixies. The blood and screams and orgasms of raped vaginas. Heidi's invasion. The newborn army stealthily destroyed by Kate and I. Irena limbless and hanging by her throat from the very chandelier we walked beneath now. Bella's transformation. The shivers and shudders as her skin iced over into the perfection she is now.

The lawyer was waiting outside. Snow in the courtyard. Everyone wearing coats and scarfs. He bantered a bit with Tanya and Tanya bantered back with easy pleasantry before handing him the key.

We drove to the airport in two separate cars, both of them rented. A private plane was waiting and we didn't have to pass through the usual checkpoints, only tender our forged passports and move through a metal detector. The hour of our departure was at hand and I was filled with the strangest sensations that I couldn't quite place until I realized that I was going to miss home. It was the first time I could ever recall feeling such an attachment to a place. Bella was going to miss it as well but she was smiling and eager for the future and I was as well—together with her.

Our small group was walking out on the runway, to where the small plane was waiting with the hatch open and a pilot in a navy uniform standing by. Tanya was her usual serene self. It wasn't the first time she and her coven had moved on from somewhere. Carmen was already homesick but it was women like her who made a home and I was sure she would make another one for us in London. Kate and Leah had already been living apart from the coven for a while and they were mostly just excited for the tropical vacation. Leah was grinning and rubbing her hands together in her thick woollen gloves.

"Can't believe this Carlisle dude owns his own island," she said. "Too bad he's married."

"Tell me about it," Kate agreed with a grin. "He's sexy as fuck, too."

They giggled, Bella rolling her eyes and scornful of the least mention of male attraction. Tanya smiled at them and gestured at the plane.

"The plane belongs to him as well," she said. "And several others in many different countries. He's been quite wise with his investments over the years. Are we ready to board?"

The icy wind was riffling through our hair and Claire nodded eagerly to get inside. Irena smiled and gave her a nudge toward the steps that led up to the hatch and Claire trooped forward dutifully.

Kate and Leah continued babbling about the man named Carlisle, Bella joining in to mock them, and I happened to glance back toward the terminal.

In a window on the second floor was a figure that felt familiar.

If I hadn't of glanced back I never would've noticed. It had been pure luck. My hair was flickering in my face while I stared at the dim blur of a woman behind the glass, the figure just standing there, perfectly still. Tanya had noticed my expression and now I turned to her and smiled.

"I'm going to pick up a souvenir quickly," I said. "I'll be back in a minute."

Tanya nodded, knowing that was just an excuse, and I nodded back gratefully and hurried toward the terminal.

It wasn't safe for me to be in public but I had to know if it was her. The glassdoors slid closed behind me and I went past a large potted fern and threaded my way through travellers with suitcases and children, overweight parents, families hugging each other in greeting. I found a set of stairs and went up and came back through a corridor that led along the windows that looked out onto the runway.

The woman was exactly where I had seen her. My steps had been half-jogging and now they slowed in disbelief until finally I stopped a short distance away. I had been coming up behind her and now I could see that it really was her. She was wearing a stylish skirtsuit, beige in color. The material tight around her broad womanly hips. Her hair was up in a bun like baroness, rich and dark like deep mahogany, and over her shoulder in the windowglass I could see the reflection of a face that was as beautiful as ever.

"Heidi," I said.

She looked at me in the reflection for a moment and then she turned and looked at me face to face. My heart began racing. Her face was cold and regal and gazing upon it gave me familiar waves of inferiority.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her. "Why are you still in Seattle?"

A small and disdainful snort came out of her. "Did you really think I was going to give up on you, Victoria?"

I began to frown. "Bella is no longer a frail human, Heidi. She is a newborn and she has an entire coven who loves and protects her. There's nothing you can do to her."

Heidi's brows gathered in a glare.

"I don't care about her," she said. "I care about you."

I continued frowning at her. With pity. With dim waves of affection, faint echoes of a friendship that had been shattered with her own hands. Her own stubbornness.

Heidi turned and looked out the window. Out on the runway, small in the distance, Bella and Leah were finally boarding the plane, Kate behind them. She watched until they had disappeared through the hatch and then turned back to me, her face softening, saddening.

"I didn't come here for any reason but to watch you leave," she said. "That's all."

I didn't reply but I was glad she didn't intend to cause a scene. She looked at me for a long moment and then tilted her head.

"But it was you who noticed me," she said. "You who came to me."

I frowned defensively. "I wanted to be sure you weren't a danger."

Heidi's lips moved very slightly into a smirk. Partly mocking. Partly knowing. Her eyes flickered up and down my dress, my body, and I stood there with my skin tingling. There was something in my very bones that was weak to this woman. I shifted nervously.

"Perhaps I wanted to see you one last time as well," I admitted. "Our last meeting was less than amicable."

The smirk tilted upwards even more and she sauntered a few seductive steps forward. "Our last meeting involved us making love right in front of that girl you think is your mate. Do you not remember? I do. I remember how weak you were to me. How easily your body fell under my hands."

I glared at her. "Stop."

She stopped walking but continued talking. "I also remember that you had the opportunity to kill me and you didn't. You even said you loved me as you let me go."

I didn't reply to that. She was standing right there in front of me, slightly taller, slightly superior. She smiled and looked about and looked at me again.

"And now here you are," she said. "You saw, you came to me, and now what?"

I sighed and looked at her mournfully. "And now we say goodbye. Goodbye, Heidi. I don't think we'll ever meet again."

I went to turn away but she took my hand.

Electricity shivered up my arm and through my body. I set my face in a glare and turned back. She smiled at me and drew me closer and used her other hand to cup my face.

"Stay with me," she said. "A lot has happened between us but it can all change in instant. Leave them. Come with me. Don't you see we belong together? It was fate that caused you to see me in the window. And it was love that bought you here to me."

I was looking into her eyes, our faces only inches apart. I could feel her hand on my cheek, caressing me there slightly. Filling me with a familiar temptation. Temptation to lean toward those lips that were so close to mine. So full and beautiful and succulent with lust. A temptation that I never could resist.

Until now.

I stepped backward and let go of her hand.

"I came to say goodbye, Heidi," I said. "That's all."

Her eyes hardened. "Will you at least tell me where you're going?"

Now it was my turn to smirk. "So you can follow me? No. If it was fate that brought us together today then you'll have to rely on fate once more for our next meeting. So long, Heidi."

I turned and started walking. Behind me I could hear her voice.

"I love you, Victoria," she called after me. "It took me five hundred years to realize and I'll spend another five hundred winning you to my side if that's what it takes. You belong with me. You know you do. I love you, do you hear me? I love you!"

I kept walking, smirking to myself with a flutter of flattery in my chest, and didn't look back.

The plane was fully boarded by the time I got back. I entered through the hatch and the pilot greeted me and introduced himself. The plane was far smaller than a commercial airliner, just a standard private jet, but there was plenty of space for all. Leah had never been on a plane before and Kate had graciously given her the window seat. They were sitting there with their phones out, talking about something. Claire and Irena were seated as well, Irena with an elbow on the armrest, Claire with her hands folded in her lap submissively. Carmen was sitting with Tanya and Tanya gave me a smile as I went by to let me know she noticed I hadn't bought a souvenir.

Bella was seated toward the back. My mate. She was flirting with a flight attendant, smirking at the pretty uniformed brunette as the woman buckled her seatbelt for her, and I came over and sat beside her. The flight attendant asked me if I wanted anything to drink but I told her no politely. She gave us a smile and told us to call if we needed anything and then she turned and went back down the aisle, black skirt, nice ass, bending to speak with Leah and Kate and asking them to turn off their phones until after takeoff. Bella was grinning at those long legs and that shapely posterior and then she leaned to me slightly.

"Hey," she said. "Do you think we can kill the stewardess?"

"They're called flight attendants," I told her, and then smirked. "And no."

Bella pouted and continued to watch the woman until she disappeared through a curtain toward the forward compartments. The pilot's voice then spoke through the speakers and finally the engine began to rumble.

I was holding Bella's hand in my lap and I looked about the cabin as the plane began to roll down the runway, smiling at my new coven, Tanya and Carmen, Kate and Leah, Irena and Claire. I glanced at Bella beside me, my mate, my darling forever. She was looking out one of the windows, smiling as the plane rose into the air, and I turned and looked out the window as well.

Many memories were left there on the ground but there would be many more to come.

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AN: Short little transition. The idea for the Heidi scene occurred to me mid chapter, but it seemed kind of perfect, so I worked it in. I think it was a nice little scene, and a little bit more closure. New chapter soon. :)