Chapter 10

La Bella Italia

I picked up Bella at 6 pm that day. Pulling up into her driveway, I heard the conversation in the living room die down. I guessed the vampires turned their hearing on now since it would be impossible for them to hear my Vanquish otherwise.

"Pretty boy is here!" Damon called from downstairs.

"I'll be out in a minute," Bella spoke calmly from her bedroom.

"No rush, I can wait," I replied in my regular voice.

What an interesting development this relationship was. I could have never imagined I would find myself happy and in love with a different version of a vampire. This was unexplainable, unbelievable and so…right. I couldn't find it in myself to stop or to give her room to get to terms with this…I had a strong need to be around her all the time, to protect her and care for her. Bella Salvatore was my other half, my mate and I would have been damned if I waited longer than I already had for her to enter my life.

As soon as the front door opened, I stepped out of my car and waited for Bella to reach me. She was a little faster than usual in her movements, a big smile on her face. She looked breathtaking, more so than usual. The deep blue dress really suited her well. Bella had her coat hanging on her arm and a small black purse on her shoulder.

"You look beautiful." I greeted.

"I can say the same thing about you." Bella pointed at my attire.

"Alice picked it." I shook my head. I was planning to wear my favorite grey cashmere sweater and some khaki pants, but Alice assured me that she knew better, so I was standing in a dress shirt and grey suit pants with a matching grey peacoat on top.

I opened the passenger door for Bella and that's when she noticed my car upgrade.

"What did you do, Edward?" Bella laughed. "Rob a bank?"

"Alice can see the future and I can read minds…We do well in the stock market."

"Very well." Bella agreed and jumped into the car. "It's a very nice car. How many of those do you have lying around?"

"Just this one." I chuckled.

"What a shame." She sighed jokingly.

We spent the drive there asking trivial questions. I, for one, really wanted to know more about her life story, but she started by asking me what my favorite genre of music was first, and it would have been weird to switch.

La Bella Italia seemed like a perfect place, just like Alice promised. The seating area was quiet enough for people to talk but loud enough for others to not be able to eavesdrop. The dark wood floors and soft-lit lamps on the ceiling created a calm romantic atmosphere. I asked for a private booth in the corner of the establishment, satisfied when I noticed we could still see the stone pizza oven from over here.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" The waitress asked after seating us.

"I'll get a glass of bourbon. Straight." Bella smiled politely.

"I'm going to need to see some ID please."

"You already saw my ID, it was okay." Bella looked into the waitres's eyes and I watched as her facial expressions stopped moving.

"Absolutely, anything for you, sir?"

"No, thank you."

The waitress went away and I looked at Bella with an impressed smile.

"Just like that? You make it look so easy." Bella blushed a little.

"It's really not that hard, especially if you practice and the person doesn't know what's happening."

"So some people do?"

"Just a second," Bella whispered and that's when the waitress came back with a glass of bourbon. My date ordered mushroom raviolis and a house salad and then we were alone again.

"We don't have a rule about not telling mortals about who we are." Bella shrugged. "In Mystic Falls it's something that you shouldn't officiate because some locals actually believe the stories and know the proper ways to kill us. But here in Forks…It's definitely not a problem, not many of us stay so far north for long."

"Why not?" I asked.

"We don't feel the cold but have to pretend like we do. All the parkas and hats and snow, who likes that?"

"So why would you move to one of the rainiest places in the continental US?"

"I'll tell you later." Bella pointed at our waitress who was coming back with Bella's food. "Can I ask you about your story?"

"Only if I can ask you about yours."

"Well, I will be the one eating, so you can talk first." Bella winked and took a fork, digging into her salad.

"Well, you already know I was born in 1901 in Chicago. I was the only child, my father Edward Masen Senior was a lawyer, I don't remember him much. He was always away with the clients and then he shipped me off to a private school. My mother, Elizabeth, was a housewife, and she taught me how to play the piano. I remember I was dreaming about joining the army and going to the war. I was waiting for my 18th birthday, everything seemed to be planned out, and the only thing I worried about was making my mother upset. She didn't like the idea at all. My dad got the Spanish influenza first, he went quickly, just a couple of days. My mother contracted it just a few days later, I was basically sleeping on the hospital's porch until I got sick as well." I looked over at Bella when I noticed she stopped eating. I pointed at her plate with my finger and she continued. "Carlisle was working at the hospital, he was my mom's doctor. I met him a few times while visiting my mother's room. I remember thinking he looked odd. So pale and young, all the nurses were looking at him as though he was god." I chuckled. "My mother's dying wish was for Carlisle to save her boy, so he did. I don't remember much about my transformation, just that it hurt a lot. It felt like my whole body was on fire, burning from inside and outside at the same time. And it stopped as suddenly as it started, the first thing I noticed was the noise. Everything was so loud, I could hear every breath that the nearby heard of deer took, could hear the whistling of the wind outside, and I could hear a concerned voice in my head. I didn't realize it was Carlisle's mind until he pointed out that he wasn't talking to me. He later explained what happened to me and what I became. Carlisle became my savior, my role model, a father I never had and didn't remember anymore."

"So your memories aren't perfect?"

"The human ones aren't. They are blurred and many of them disappear with time. I saw a picture of my parents in this new life, so I remember what they look like, but beyond that…It's hard." I explained.

"What happened after?"

"Carlisle and I traveled together for a while, I got the hang of my urges. Carlisle was working in the hospital in 1921 in Ohio, that's where he found Esme. She barely had a pulse, humans couldn't hear it, so she was put in the morgue. Carlisle recognized her, she treated her 10 years before that, when she was only 16. He turned her and they fell in love. After that came the time when I rebelled." I looked at her eyes. "I wanted to try human blood, so I left them. I hunted predators, rapists, domestic abusers. I believed I was doing more good than harm, but I was still killing people. Carlisle and Esme took me back and forgave me for my mistakes. In 1933 we lived in Rochester, Rosalie Hale was the most arrogant woman I've met in my entire life." I laughed, remembering Rose's antiques back then. No way she would even touch a car engine back then, afraid her glove would get some dirt on it. "Her story is very personal, but Carlisle saved her life and she joined us. A couple of years later we moved to Tennessee. One afternoon, Rose came back from a hunt, dragging a massive bleeding guy on her back into Esme's house. She begged Carlisle to change him for her. Emmett is still the only vampire I know who woke up and was immediately happy about his change. The strength and speed especially."

"And Alice and Jasper?" Bella was finishing her ravioli.

"Alice and Jasper found us. Jasper was a soldier in the Civil War, the youngest major the army had seen. His story is different from ours. We were brought into this world rather peacefully. We were dying, Carlisle saved us. Jasper was turned to fight in the vampire wars for territory in the South. Vampires didn't live for over a year, and losing their newborn strength meant a death sentence. Jasper spent almost 60 years there, the right hand of the coven leader before he found out about a peaceful lifestyle vampires lived up North. A decade later he met Alice in the diner, the meeting was planned by her, of course." I smirked and Bella laughed. "I came back from hunting a few years later and found all of my belongings were in the garage, and two strangers occupied my room."

"Being evicted by strangers, that sucks." Bella drowned her drink.

"We're a family." I shrugged. "We all have different upbringings and backgrounds, different people raised us, but…They're my people, it feels like we were destined to become this massive blended family."

"God's plan?" Bella smirked.

"I wouldn't call vampires God's creatures." I chuckled. "But something like that, yes."

"Can I get you two anything else?" The waitress came up a few seconds later. I looked over at Bella.

"Just the check please." She spoke politely, her eyes never leaving mine.

I paid for dinner and offered Bella my hand.

"Thank you." She smiled. "I should've paid, you didn't even have anything."

"I had the pleasure of being in your company." I protested. "But I would love to hear your story now, if I may."

We walked out of the restaurant and to my car. Our hands parted ways only to be reunited once more once we were both inside.

"No pressure." I started.

"Okay." Bella breathed out. "I was born in 1841 in what is now Mystic Falls. Damon was only 4 years old back then. My father, Giuseppe, was a businessman in the logging industry, and my mom, Lillian, was a typical woman of that era. They had Stefan five years later."

"You're five years older than he is?" I was surprised.

"I got turned before my brothers, but Stefan and I were technically the same age when we got turned.." Bella's smile was sad, I squeezed her hand trying to give her comfort. "I was a good daughter, never got in trouble, never voiced my opinion, just what my parents expected of me. I wanted more though, I dreaded being married, especially to the man my parents chose for me. He was nice and all, but so boring. Honestly, I don't know how anyone found him pleasant to talk to. My father was an abusive man with control issues. The wedding was never going to happen though. My mom and I spent the last month of our lives together, doctors diagnosed us both with tuberculosis and my father shipped us off to a hospital. The nurses there were nice women, so when they offered us a mysterious drug that was supposed to heal us, my mother jumped on it. It seemed to work with her, so she allowed the nurses to treat me with it as well. Lilly died of consumption that same evening, they took her body away as I cried my eyes out. I was afraid to be alone, but I was more afraid to go back. Without Lilly, I couldn't even imagine what father would do. And so I grabbed a spare bottle of that magic elixir from the nurses' cabinet and ran, I was running until my lungs nearly collapsed, till my feet were bleeding. I drank the elixir again and felt my feet feeling better, but I was still so tired. A man found me lying on the gravel road, I must have passed out. I heard him say something, but it didn't register in my head. I didn't know how it was possible when I woke up in a fancy bed in an expensive room of some house. The man who I thought saved me told me what happened. I was in transition. He killed me the night before but because of the magic elixir I drank, which turned out to be vampire blood, I came back and had a choice to make."

"You must have been so scared." I squeezed her hand once more.

"I would think so too, given the situation." Bella snorted. "But I was more interested than I've ever been before. My life was so boring, it was designed that way. And after that night, I had a chance to change that. So I asked a lot of questions, Luc was pretty annoyed…"

"Luc…So you've become friends?"

"We didn't spend enough time together for me to consider him that." Bella disagreed. "But he was very patient with me, as I found out later he had quite the temper."

"And you made a choice to become a vampire," I whispered.

"I felt like it was a second chance for me. A chance for me to do something different with my life than just be someone's wife and mother." Bella shrugged. "And I was right in my choice. It hurt like hell when Luc told me I needed to stay away from my family, he's heard the rumor Mystic Falls organized a community of vampire hunters. My father was a part of the council, he would figure out I was the enemy. It would be easier for my brothers to think I died than to see me as a monster."

"How did your brothers…What happened to them?"

"A woman." Bella chuckled. "A crazy woman and my former best friend. I met Katherine Pierce about two years later. She liked my spirit, 'survivor sisters' she called us. We traveled together, had fun, and met so many new people, she taught me everything I needed to know and warned me about the dangers. I didn't know it back then, but she was on the run from Klaus. He's the Original, creator of my sireline. Him chasing Kat and my meeting him are two other long stories that I'm sure Carlisle would want to hear as well. I was interested in learning more about them, so she sent me to New Orleans. We parted ways. Kat went to Mystic Falls, wanting to meet my brothers, despite my warnings about the town being filled with vampire hunters. I met the Originals, I actually stayed with them for about a year, learning and enjoying life in their kingdom."

"Their kingdom? There's a vampire kingdom in New Orleans?"

"The French Quarter." Bella agreed. "Werewolves, witches, vampires, all living side by side."

"Don't witches hate vampires?"

"The witches there use Ancestral magic, they can't leave without losing their powers, so they have to deal with it."

"Why not just kick vampires out of their home?"

"Remember when I told you it's nearly impossible to kill an original vampire?" Bella asked, I nodded. "Well, it's easier to say that it is impossible. There is just one thing in this world that can kill them. One stake, carved from the white oak under which the siblings died."

"Wait…" I shook my head. "A wooden stake to the heart, just like in stories."

"A regular one would kill a normal vampire, originals are tougher cookies."

"It can kill…you?" I whispered.

"They're going to have to get to me first." Bella laughed, but I couldn't find it in myself to do the same. "I don't want to go home yet, can we talk some more?"

"Whatever you wish."

"Take me to the meadow, Edward."

I put her hand up to my mouth, kissing her knuckles, and prepared to turn to the right in five minutes.

"Katherine didn't send me a letter. We wrote to each other every three days, so I started to worry something happened. If only I wasn't so occupied...See I was seeing someone back then..."

"Kol?" I asked quietly, not sure how Bella would feel about me knowning that name.

"Stalking much?" Bella chuckled sadly.

"I'm sorry."

"Shush, I told you I find it sweet." Bella shook her head, her eyes clearly stating she will kick me if I apologise again. "Yes, Kol. He was one of the youngest Originals, the most mischievous one, but also the one who knew supernatural history better than anyone."

"Was?"

"He died a few years back." Bella was whispering.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I squeezed her hand in mine, her face turned toward me. "If you'd like to talk about it, I'm here to listen."

"Having conversation about my dead boyfriend doesn't seem like the best topic for our first date." Bella chuckled. "Anyway, where was I? Oh right. It was 1864, six years after my death, and I was going back to my hometown in secret. It took me two days to get there, if I had been there a day earlier I could have prevented so many things."

I stopped the car on the side road, from where we would have to travel on foot. I opened the door for her and helped her get out of the car. We started running, I kept to her pace.

"Edward?"

"Yes?"

"I wanna see how fast you run." Bella half-asked.

A smile grew on my face as I thought of a better idea. In one quick motion, I swept her feet off the ground and pressed her to my chest, bridal style. Bella giggled and wrapped her arm around my neck.

"That's fast!" She continued giggling as I pushed my feet even faster. In no time we were standing in the meadow, the sky was clear, the moon shining bright above us.

"We can talk about something else if you want to take a break." I offered.

"I am alright if you're still interested."

"You can never tell me something that won't interest me." I sat down with her still in my arms.

Bella closed her eyes and adjusted herself, laying her head on my shoulder. She continued speaking when her eyes opened once again.

"I arrived at night, my father's house was lit, and the front door opened. It smelt like blood. When I was able to come inside I knew I was too late."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Vampires like me can't enter a house that belongs to someone alive. The owner has to invite us inside."

"That's why you stopped at our front door that day." I breathed out. "I didn't say come in?"

"You didn't. And that's why when I entered your house, I turned on my supernatural hearing and found out you guys are dead." Bella mumbled. "When I entered my father's house I knew he was dead. I knew my father well enough to know he had a will and that my brothers were to inherit the estate. Which meant they were all dead if I could enter. I saw Giuseppe lying in his office, his neck torn open. A vampire killed him."

"Katherine?"

"I didn't know back then, all I was thinking about was finding my brothers. I ran outside and followed the villagers' voices. 27 vampires were burned in the local church that day, and Katherine was one of them. Noone mentioned my brothers' names, so I prayed there was a mistake, and prayed I was wrong about my father's will. I ran to the church sight and I was about ready to give up when I saw the burned remains."

"Fire can kill you…"

"Yes," Bella spoke calmly. "I heard two heartbeats nearby, and then shouting came. The voices sounded more mature, but I recognized them. The closer I came, the louder they sounded. When I finally saw them, I had to turn off my hearing, it was so loud. Kat made both of them fall in love with her. Stefan killed our father. I heard more information than I wanted to that day, but they were alive…Or as much as they could've been after our father shot them both."

"What?!" The word came out of my mouth, like a bullet out of a shotgun.

"My brothers tried to protect Katherine. She was sleeping with them both, feeding them her blood, feeding on theirs. It's nasty and disgusting if you ask me." Bella shrugged. "I knew they transitioned, there were two dead women at their feet. I remember saying their names out loud and them turning their heads to the sound of my voice. It felt like my heart was full again. I had my family back, at least the two people out of my family who mattered."

"Do you and your brothers travel together?"

"Not always. Until recently, Damon and Stefan despised each other, and I couldn't stand being the middle sibling and fixing their attitudes all the time. I spent more time with Damon, we got along better. Stefan was barely a teenager when I was human, and I was mature for my age even back then. I love them both equally, it's just I can relate more to Damon, you know?"

"I have the same connection with Alice." I agreed.

"What's her story?" Bella furrowed her eyebrows. "I mean you've told me about everyone else's life…"

"Alice doesn't remember her human years at all. She woke up as a vampire in Mississippi in 1920, and her visions…without them, she would have been completely lost. Alice says the first vision she had was of Jasper, meeting him at a diner in Philadelphia in 1948." the thought made me chuckle. "Her gift is based on decisions people make, the future is never set in stone…But I guess some things are just meant to be."

"Did she ever see me in her visions?" Bella wondered, she looked up at me. I kissed her on the lips softly.

"She did." I smiled. "She is hiding them from me though. Doesn't want to ruin the surprise or whatever."

"Surprise?" Bella asked confused. I laughed, completely understanding her confusion and sharing her frustration.

"Alice showed me just one vision of our future," I spoke carefully, not wanting to spook her.

"Would you show it to me if you could?" Bella asked, sitting up.

"Sure?" I wasn't sure what got her excited. There was no way I could project it in her head…

"I don't know if this is going to work with your kind." Bella rubbed her hands. "Another thing that vampires like me can do is enter someone else's mind."

"Oh, so you're all mind readers?" I chuckled.

"Sorry, it must be hard finding out you're not that special." Bella giggled. "No, we're not mind readers, it's more like projecting yourself into someone else's consciousness. But if you push that memory to the front, I can see it…Theoretically, I mean. I still don't know if I can even do it."

"What do you need to do for it?" I asked intrigued.

"Just keep your mind open, try not to fight it?" Bella sounded unsure.

I closed my mind and pretended like it was a house, after a few seconds I heard quite pounding, as though someone was knocking on the door. I relaxed, and let my guard down and another few seconds later I almost gasped. My eyes were still closed, it was still pitch black, but now I saw Bella in there. Her face looked slightly different like she was mirrored or maybe that's how she saw herself.

"Hey." Bella in my head smiled and then looked around. "Now that won't do."

I watched her close her eyes and suddenly everything shifted. We were sitting in a symmetrical living room, two large windows on each side of a massive fireplace were draped with deep red curtains. Dark brown wooden floors had two red carpets on them, on top of the carpets stood two identical red couches facing each other. Each couch had an adjacent red armchair next to them as well as a coffee table. The left side of the room basically mirrored the right one. There were a couple of paintings on the walls as well as the mantle on top of the fireplace with an already-known to me family crest.

"Is this your house back in Mystic Falls?" I asked, looking around the room.

"You like?" Bella smiled.

"You can just take us anywhere?" I asked again.

"Anywhere I've been myself. I can also do this." She chuckled and a minute later her clothes changed to a simple white T-shirt and jeans.

"I liked the blue dress you had on before." I couldn't recognize my own voice, it sounded pretty pathetic. Bella giggled and a second later she was wearing the dress again.

"Try to bring out that vision now."

I closed my eyes again…or I guess the projection of me in my head did. That was weird. I played the vision that Alice showed me and opened my eyes when I felt Bella's hand on mine.

We were both standing at the edge of the meadow now, the sun shining right at the two people in front of us, the future us.

"I thought you said you sparkle in the sun?"

"Look closer, it gets weirder." I nudged and then groaned realising what she just said. "And I don't sparkle, my skin reflects light."

"Yeah, okay."

The future us in the vision were laughing together still. "Your eyes are green?" Bella asked me.

"Just like they were when I was human." I agreed reluctantly.

"It suits you." Bella kissed me on the cheek. "But how can this be our future?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "As I told you, Alice is being very protective over her mind."

"You think she knows how this happens?"

"When she showed me this vision, she didn't…But anything is possible with that little devil."

"Ready to go back to reality?"

"I really want to kiss you," I admitted sheepishly.

"Oh, we can do so much more than that."

Bella came in closer to me, I felt her hands on my face, both in my mind and in real life. Her soft warm skin combined with the shards of electricity emitted when we touched, made me feel like I was on fire. Enveloped in the feeling of ecstasy and joy, my hands traveled to the small of her back, pushing her body closer to mine. Our lips met, her scent of strawberries and freesia washing over me, making me stop thinking of anything closely resembling purity. The ways I was brought up were long forgotten, nothing else in this world mattered anymore. Only her and me.

More Salvatore action in the next chapter. Please review!