Sorry this chapter took longer to finish than I would've liked; my only excuse is that I got distracted with reading other people's fanfics instead of, you know, working on my own. Anyway, I hope you like Bo and Bella's first meeting now that it's finally here.
Bella stared into her closet, scrutinizing its contents with unusual care. After almost a week of torturous, nail-biting anticipation, the day she had been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading had arrived at last. Today, I meet my sister…and I can't decide what to wear! It wasn't exactly a formal occasion – the place where Edward had arranged for them to meet Bo was not especially fancy or expensive – but still, introducing oneself to a long-lost sibling seemed like the kind of event that warranted something nicer than her customary t-shirts. Too bad Alice isn't here the one time I actually want her fashion advice…
As if the mere act of thinking about her had summoned her, Bella's bedroom door flew open and the diminutive fashionista breezed in. "I saw that you'd need my help choosing the right outfit for the big day," she said cheerfully. "I also brought your morning pick-me-up." She reached into her purse and took out a capped syringe, which she carefully set aside on the nightstand.
Bella eyed it with distaste; she'd needed several more B12 shots over the last few days (in fact, it seemed to take more and more of them to keep her going as time went on) and by now she was thoroughly sick of getting poked with needles.
"Let's get you dressed, then Edward can come in to give it to you," Alice went on blithely, already rifling through the row of shirts hanging in Bella's closet.
"It'll have to be something with long sleeves," Bella told her, pushing up the short sleeves of her pajama top to inspect the bruises that dotted her arms from the increasingly frequent injections, which all looked as fresh as when they first appeared. "I don't want Bo to see all these needle marks and think I'm a junkie."
Hearing the despondent note in her voice, Alice abandoned her inspection of Bella's wardrobe in order to give her a hug. "I know it's been rough, but look on the bright side; with any luck, this will be the last one you'll need."
"I hope so," Bella replied while hugging her back as tightly as she could. The nice thing about vampires was that you didn't have to worry about squeezing them too hard, and she wanted Alice to know how much she appreciated her support – not just today, but throughout the whole ordeal, all the way back to when Alice and Jasper had tried to protect her in Phoenix, only failing because she foolishly fell for James' trick and ran away from them. "I really hope so."
Pulling back so she could peer into her psychic friend's golden eyes, she asked, "Have you seen anything about how things will go today? And…after?"
Alice met her anxious stare, then regretfully shook her head. "I'm sorry, Bella. I don't know your sister well enough to get a read on her, and I can't see how you'll react to what she tells you until you know." As Bella's face fell, she added, "I may not be able to get a clear picture of your future right now, but if it helps, I don't feel like it's ending any time soon. I think you have a very long life ahead of you."
That brought a smile to Bella's face, albeit one slightly tinged with melancholy. Alice's prediction would have been more comforting if she was a little more certain, but Bella was grateful for the attempt at reassuring her nonetheless. "Thanks, Alice."
"One thing I can see is that this will be perfect for your lunch date." She pulled a button-up gray cardigan out of the closet, with a lace-edged white camisole to go underneath.
The rest of the outfit was easy, what with options for covering her lower half being limited to things that would fit over the bulky cast. Bella cast a longing look at the row of jeans she hadn't been able to wear in weeks before sitting down on her bed to carefully pull on a pair of old, stretched-out gray cotton pants.
"Want to try some makeup?" Alice offered when she was dressed. "Just something to give you a little color?"
"I don't see the point," Bella answered glumly. "I look like crap." She studiously avoided even the briefest glance toward her mirror as she spoke, knowing perfectly well what it would show – eyes that had grown dull and sunken as the days went by, skin almost as pale as the Cullens', but with an unhealthy grayish tinge, and hair that hung in lank, lifeless clumps around her face despite having been washed and conditioned the night before.
Alice looked like she wanted to argue but, realizing that false reassurances would do no good, instead said, "Nobody looks their best when they're not getting proper nutrition, but a little blush and contouring really can work wonders, at least until you get your natural healthy glow back. You want to make a good first impression, don't you?"
"Yes," Bella quietly admitted, looking down at her folded hands as her fingers twiddled nervously together. Maybe it was silly to care so much what a perfect stranger thought of her, even a stranger she happened to be related to, but she couldn't help it; after all the times she'd felt inferior next to the Cullens, she hoped, now that she was about to meet someone just like her, that their relationship would be a bit more equal, which wasn't likely to happen if Bo saw her as a sickly, pathetic weakling. Squaring her shoulders, she raised her eyes to meet Alice's with a resolute stare. "Do what you have to do."
Alice clapped her hands gleefully and began unpacking the requisite supplies from her purse. When she declared her work finished twenty minutes later and held up a hand mirror with a flourish for Bella to check out the results, she had to admit that Alice was right – somehow, the tiny vampire had managed to restore her complexion to within a shade or two of its normal hue, as well as arranging her hair in a low ponytail secured with a silver and abalone clip (complete with matching earrings and necklace) that made its stringiness less obvious.
"Wow – you're a miracle worker. Thanks, Alice. And thanks for the jewelry too; it's very pretty," she added as she fingered the necklace's pendant, admiring the multicolored ripples in the abalone shell's smooth surface.
Alice smiled and hugged her again, glad she had been able to do something to make her friend feel better about herself. She just hoped such efforts would soon be unnecessary, that Bella would be healthy again and maybe, once she fully accepted her new identity as a fae and became everything she was born to be – whatever that was – her self-image would improve.
###
The Seattle restaurant where Bo had agreed to meet Bella and Edward was nothing special, just a typical burger joint, but it satisfied her stipulations perfectly – it was large, full of humans, and right across the parking lot from an even more crowded mall.
"This is about as public as you can get," Bella observed as she hobbled inside while Edward held the door for her, noting the stark contrast between their current surroundings and the more elegant, intimate dining establishments he usually preferred to take her to. "She still doesn't trust you not to try anything, huh?"
"It would appear not. Still, there's something to be said for exercising a prudent level of caution in potentially dangerous situations. You might try it sometime."
"But if I was cautious, I probably would've stayed away from you like you told me to," Bella pointed out. "Then where would I be?"
Before Edward could offer a response, if he had one, the guy manning the front counter came over to ask if they wanted a table or booth.
"A booth, please," Edward answered. "We're meeting someone who should arrive shortly."
The man nodded and summoned a waitress to show them to their seats. When she returned to take their orders, bringing the obligatory glasses of water, Bella, whose energy boost from her latest injection had worn off a couple of miles outside Seattle's city limits, asked for a large order of fries with ranch dressing and bacon bits, a double-patty cheeseburger with everything on it, and two milkshakes, one chocolate and one strawberry.
"I know it won't really help," she said with a shrug after Edward had mollified the incredulous waitress by saying they intended to share the food, "but at least I'll get placebo effect benefits."
By the time her order arrived, however, anxiety had twisted her stomach into such a knot that she couldn't eat a bite. "This was a huge mistake; I can't do this. I have to get out of here – I'm going to throw up, or maybe I'm having a heart attack – I need air…"
She tried to squirm out of the seat, but Edward, who was sitting next to her in order to leave the other side of the booth free for Bo, didn't budge, trapping her between himself and the wall. Taking her face between his hands, he said firmly, "Bella, calm down. I can hear your heart beating, and I assure you, you are not having a heart attack. Just breathe."
He demonstrated by taking slow, deep breaths, and after a moment she started to emulate his breathing pattern, her panic slowly subsiding as she let go of the napkin she had been wringing like a wet dishrag and wrapped her fingers around his wrists instead, clinging to him as if he was her only lifeline in a storm-tossed ocean.
"That's better. Now, what are you so worried about? Are you still afraid your new diet will be…disagreeable?"
Bella nodded as much as she could with him holding her head. "Yes. And if it is…" She gulped, her grip tightening to a degree that would have been painful for anyone with softer skin. "From what you've told me about your conversations with Bo, it doesn't sound like she's starving, so she's obviously okay with whatever we have to…to feed on, and if it's something horrible… What if I'm related to a real monster, Edward?"
He gazed into her beautiful brown eyes, the eyes he loved so much, though he hated to see them filled with fear and anguish as they were now, as they had been far too often in the last two weeks. "If you are…it doesn't say anything about you, Bella. You are more than your blood, more than your genes…and none of it will ever change the way I feel about you." Seeing that his words seemed to be soothing her to some small degree, he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers. "Besides, your sister didn't strike me as a monster, so if she was able to adjust to her new lifestyle, I'd say that bodes well for you."
She gave a noncommittal hum of assent, though in truth she wasn't sure what he was saying. It was hard to focus on anything else with his lips so close to hers, and she just knew that if she kissed him, it would make everything better. She tilted her head to close the gap between them…
Just before their lips met, he suddenly let go of her and pulled back, looking toward the restaurant's entrance with an expression of rapt interest and anticipation. "She's here."
It took a moment for the meaning of this simple statement to penetrate the haze of want, need, that had enveloped her brain, but when it did, she too locked her eyes on the glass doors at the front of the building, every muscle in her body tensing as she spied two figures approaching, their faces obscured by the lettering on the doors which spelled out the restaurant's name and hours of operation.
Why did they have to put that there? Bella wondered, annoyed at having the agonizing suspense drawn out an extra minute by that inconveniently placed paint. If people want to know when they're open, they can look it up online!
At last, one of the doors opened, and a pair of women entered, drawing a few looks from the people seated nearby. For her part, Bella was aware that she was openly gawking at them, but she couldn't help feeling that a little staring was justified; the shorter one, with her heavy makeup, black nail polish, purple-streaked black hair, metal-studded boots, and honest-to-goodness corset, looked like a genuine goth – not unheard of, but not a style Bella had encountered very often even in a larger city like Phoenix, and certainly not in Forks – while the taller one was…simply breathtaking.
She was also dressed in dark clothing and boots that looked like they were made to kick butt, though her outfit didn't give off the same gothic or punk rock vibe as her companion's. It did, however, include a lot of leather that clung in all the right places to show off her slender yet well-toned physique, as well as a rather low-cut top that did an excellent job of showing off her other (even more impressive) assets. All of that, combined with her flawless, creamy skin and elegantly sculpted features framed by thick waves of shiny dark brown hair, made her one of the most attractive women Bella had ever seen; she would even go so far as to say that her looks were on par with a vampire's, except that where their icy perfection was almost painful to look at and made them seem untouchable, like priceless statues out of antiquity that could only be admired from a distance, everything about this woman made you want to get closer to her.
Shaking off her bedazzlement, Bella leaned toward Edward and whispered, "Please tell me Bo is the purple-haired goth girl."
Edward, who had been about to get up to greet the new arrivals, turned back to her with a look of surprise at her beseeching, almost desperate tone. "No, that girl is human. Bo must be the taller one – her scent is similar to yours…and I can't hear her thoughts."
He tilted his head toward the two women as if to make sure, but while he could hear the smaller one's constant stream of mental chatter with perfect clarity, there was nothing but dead silence from the other. No one could keep their mind that blank for long, unless perhaps they were engaged in deep meditation.
Seeing Bella's face fall, his brow furrowed in consternation. "Are you disappointed?" He couldn't imagine why she would be; even from this distance, he was able to discern a certain resemblance to Bella in the angles of the leather-clad woman's face and her chocolate-brown eyes, which of course meant she was beautiful, and her curious expression as she scanned the diner's interior seemed perfectly pleasant.
"No," Bella sighed, hunching her shoulders as she shrank down in her seat. "I'm just glad now that we were separated at birth, because if I'd grown up always trying to measure up to her, I'd probably have an industrial-strength inferiority complex by now."
Edward stared at her for a second as he digested that; then, not knowing how to respond to such a ridiculous statement in one minute or less, he shook his head and stood up to get Bo's and her companion's attention before they decided they were too early and left.
"Bo Dennis?" he called softly as he approached them where they hovered uncertainly near the front entrance, explaining to the host who was offering to seat them that they were there to meet someone and trying to ascertain whether the other party had already arrived.
The taller woman broke off her dialogue with the host midsentence and turned to face him, eyes lighting up as she recognized his voice from their phone conversations. "Edward Cullen. Nice to finally put a face to the voice."
"And what a face it is," the goth stage-whispered while Bo and Edward shook hands.
She gave a slight involuntary twitch at his cold touch but refrained from commenting on it; there was something much more pressing on her mind. "Is my sister here?"
"Yes, she's very anxious to meet you," Edward replied – which was true, even if his phrasing didn't quite convey the full picture that included all her misgivings. "If you'll follow me…"
He led her to their booth where Bella waited, still huddled into herself, though she straightened up as Bo drew closer, leaning forward to get a better look at her. Bo was equally transfixed, her gaze instantly fastening on the younger girl and never wavering as she slid into the seat across from her, eagerly drinking in every detail of her features.
Evidently she found the hint of familiarity she was looking for, because the corners of her mouth curled up into a warm smile. Bella automatically smiled back – it felt good to make this gorgeous woman happy – and when Bo reached across the table toward her, she didn't hesitate to place her hands in hers.
"Isabella… Wow. I can't believe I'm finally meeting you in the flesh."
"Me too," Bella breathed. "I mean, me either… I mean… Holy crow, you're beautiful," she blurted out, then blushed as she realized she had said that out loud.
Luckily, Bo just kept smiling, though it took on a slightly indulgent tint, like she heard that all the time – which, Bella thought, she probably did – then glanced sideways, drawing Bella's gaze to the goth girl who had sat down beside her while Edward resumed his place next to Bella. "And this is Kenzi, my best friend and…partner, I guess."
"In our detective gig," Kenzi hastened to clarify, "not in any other sense of the word. I lurve my Bobo, but in a strictly platonic way. Are you gonna eat that?" She was now eyeing Bella's untouched plate with the same intensity with which the newly reunited sisters had examined each other, though her expression was decidedly more ravenous.
"No, help yourself." Bella pushed it toward her, then quickly turned her full attention back to Bo. "So, how long have you known about…?" She waved her hand in a vaguely encompassing gesture.
"I first realized I wasn't normal about ten years ago; that's when I left the town where I grew up and started looking for my real family, but I didn't get anywhere until just a few months ago," Bo explained, earning a wide-eyed look from Bella. As much as her uncertainty regarding her true nature had tormented her over the last couple of weeks, she couldn't imagine it stretching on for a full decade.
"And since then…" She paused, swallowing hard as she gathered her nerve for the next question. "Have you found out anything about our…our family?" she asked softly.
"Yeah. I met our grandfather, Trick, right after I stumbled onto the fae world, although I didn't know he was our grandfather until just before I left Toronto to come here. Even before he came clean about us being related, though, he always looked out for me, and he's taught me a lot about the fae. I think you'll like him."
"I bet I will," Bella agreed. Bo seemed like a decent person so far, so if she liked Trick – which she obviously did – Bella was sure she would too.
"He told me I was named after our grandmother, Isabeau," Bo added, before her face fell slightly. "She died a long time ago, though." Then she made herself perk up again. "Maybe our mom was going for theme naming – 'Isabeau and Isabella' has a nice ring, doesn't it?"
"It does, but I prefer Bella."
"And everybody calls me Bo, so that works too."
Bella nodded somewhat absently, already steeling herself for the next potentially sensitive query. "So, you, uh… Have you met our mother, then?" It was with some trepidation that she voiced this question, because she suspected there must be a reason Bo had readily volunteered information about their grandfather while saying nothing about their actual parents.
The shadow that passed over Bo's face seemed to confirm her suspicions. "Yeah, I have," she said quietly. Bella's inquisitive expression made it clear that she wasn't satisfied with that answer, and Bo knew she owed her more, so she reluctantly delved deep into her brain for the right words to briefly explain how things stood with Aife without going through the whole complex, painful story in the middle of a diner. "Her name is Aife, and she's… Well, it's complicated. Actually, that's the understatement of the century. She's been through some really bad shit, and even though I'd like to think she's still a good person under all the emotional scars, she's…damaged. All the trauma warped her mind pretty badly, so by the time we met…let's just say we didn't see eye to eye."
Bella could tell there was more to the story, but the pained look on Bo's face told her this wasn't the time or place to press for more details. In an effort to lighten the mood, she said, "Well, after all the Omen jokes Emmett made when he heard how my human parents adopted me after losing their own baby, it's a relief to know that at least our biological mother isn't a jackal. …She's not, is she? I mean, that's the kind of thing you'd have mentioned if she was, right?"
"No, Aife's not a jackal," Bo assured her with a rather forced grin. Then her mouth fell into a sourer twist. "She's more of a cougar." At Bella's puzzled frown, she elaborated, "Put it this way: if you ever meet her-" Which she thought was entirely possible, since she wasn't going to believe Aife was dead unless Trick told her someone had actually found her body "-do not leave her alone with your boyfriend."
Bella's frown deepened as she finally grasped Bo's meaning, which prompted Edward to slide closer and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I would never be unfaithful to Bella," he said indignantly.
"Good for you," Bo replied almost dismissively, "but if our mom decided you'd make a tasty snack, you might not have a choice. I didn't get the impression that she was big on taking 'no' for an answer."
Bella gaped at her in astonishment for a second – vampires were so strong that it was hard for her to fathom how anyone could make one do anything they didn't want to – before the curiosity that had been simmering inside her throughout their conversation boiled over and all the questions she had intended to ask one at a time, slowly building up to the real crux of it all, burst through her carefully constructed dam of self-restraint and poured out in a rush.
"What, does she have some kind of mind control powers? What exactly can she do? What can we do? What…" She stopped to take a breath, her onslaught petering out as she finally got to the most crucial question, the one that had kept her awake for the last several nights, the one she'd been dying to ask since the moment she came face to face with her sister at last: "What are we?"
Bo took in her pleading expression, the burning need for answers in her eyes, and sighed. "Damn, I'm an idiot. All those years I was so desperate to know the same thing, and then when I meet you I go off on a tangent about our family history instead of telling you what you most need to know."
"Way to bury the lead, Bobo," Kenzi commented through a mouthful of fries.
"Although I thought, since you have a fae boyfriend, maybe you two had already figured it out."
"No, despite my family's best efforts, Bella has remained quite an enigma," Edward told her.
This earned him a strange look from Bo, who would have thought most guys would notice if their girlfriend was sucking out their life force every time they were intimate, before Bella's urgent entreaty reclaimed her attention.
"It's okay; I'm the one who asked about the other stuff since I didn't want to start things off by asking 'what are you?' right off the bat – that would've felt rude, and I really was interested in what you've managed to dig up on our background – but can you tell me now? Please?"
Seeing how it was eating at her not to know what she was, to be missing this vital piece of her identity – and had, Bo suspected, been eating at her for some time – she put the younger girl out of her misery without further ado. "We're succubi – singular form, succubus."
Beside her, Bella felt Edward stiffen and heard him draw in a sharp breath, but her mind was already racing back through recent memories, trying to recall where she'd heard that word before. Then, in a flash, it came to her. "Wait a minute. When I first realized Edward was…different…I researched a bunch of vampire myths from all over the world, and one of them had to do with succubi. But if a succubus is just another type of vampire, then I can't be one – I literally get sick around blood."
"Why does everybody always think that?" Bo sighed. "Even Kenzi asked me if I was a vampire when we first met."
At Bo's sideways glance, Kenzi stopped slurping strawberry milkshake long enough to say, "Hey, the way you described your hunger sounded pretty vampy to me, plus I did just see you eat a dude's face the night before."
Before Bella could ask her to clarify what she meant about Bo eating someone's face, Edward spoke up. "The idea that our species are linked in some way is actually a common misconception, though not a completely baseless one. Bella, do you remember when I told you about our friends in Alaska?"
"The other 'vegetarian' coven, right? What about them?"
"Well, before they discovered that they could sate their thirst on animal blood, the three sisters who made up the original coven, Tanya, Kate, and Irina, preferred to prey on human men. I'm sure you can imagine how they lured their victims, and they liked to…ah…enjoy the company of these men prior to finishing their meal. They continued this pattern long enough that the legends of vampires and succubi became conflated in many people's minds, but in reality we're completely separate species. The seduction was only something the sisters did for their own pleasure, and was merely a prelude to drinking their victims' blood, but my understanding is that for a true succubus, it's an end in itself, correct?"
He looked questioningly at Bo, who nodded.
"And what is that end, exactly?" Bella pressed, eager to have everything spelled out clearly, to make sure there were no misunderstandings or hidden caveats that would come back to bite her later. "This whole feeding thing – how does it work? What do we need from the people we…?" She trailed off, unsure how to finish that sentence; 'seduce' was too embarrassing a word, while 'feed on' sounded too callous.
Bo raised an eyebrow at her caginess before bluntly telling her, "Sex. We get the energy we need from sex."
Bella's face instantly turned beet-red, and she appeared to choke, which was odd since Kenzi had taken all her food. Edward patted her on the back, which would have been more like a firm thump from a human. He and Bo both looked concerned (Kenzi merely rolled her eyes), but once she got a grip on herself, she quickly realized it could be much worse.
"That's it?" she cautiously asked Bo. "We don't have to hurt people?"
"No, we don't have to, but it can still happen if you're not careful," Bo replied soberly, her face deadly serious now. "Every time we sleep with someone, we take some of their life force, and if you take it all, they die. The good news is that we can control our feeding so we don't drain our partners to death, and fae are strong enough to take it even when we let the guardrails down, so you should be fine with Edward."
"That's good," Bella said fervently, "although I'd still like to learn how to control it. Not because I'm interested in…feeding on…anyone else," she hastened to add, darting a look at Edward to make sure he hadn't gotten the wrong idea. "I just want to understand how this whole succubus thing works, you know?"
"Absolutely," Bo agreed with wholehearted enthusiasm. "I'm happy to teach you everything I know." Having spent her first few months among the fae feeling like she was constantly relying on everyone else for information and guidance as she groped her way through the strange new world she'd been thrust into, she was excited at the prospect of being the one with valuable knowledge to impart for a change, even as she recognized that it wasn't a responsibility to take lightly.
Just then, Kenzi excused herself to go to the restroom, and as she walked away, Bo noticed the waitress approaching with their check in hand. "On that note, wanna see a cool succubus trick?"
"Right now?" Bella was taken aback for an instant, but her surprise was quickly overtaken by curiosity. "Sure."
Sliding over to the end of the seat that Kenzi had just vacated, Bo shook her head at Edward as he started to reach for his wallet. "I got this." She made no move to take out her own money, however; instead, when the waitress placed their bill on the table, Bo took hold of her hand, and Bella, who was leaning in to get a better look at what she was doing, was amazed to see pulses of red light traveling up Bo's hands to her fingertips, passing from her to the waitress and sinking into the other woman's skin.
Presumably as a result of those pulses of light, the waitress' businesslike demeanor underwent an immediate and drastic change; her mouth fell slightly open, her breathing sped up, and her pupils dilated as she gazed in wonder at Bo, who was now giving her a sultry smile.
"I'm a little short right now," the succubus told her in a low, seductive purr. "Would it be all right if I come back later and make it up to you?" The inflection she put into those words clearly implied that she did not intend to do that through any kind of monetary means.
The waitress' respiration rate increased even more, if that was possible; she was practically hyperventilating as she gasped out, "Hell yes."
"Great. I'll see you on your break then." Bo released her, the pulsing red glow stopped, and the waitress staggered off, her eyes still glazed. Bo then turned back to Bella, grinning at her look of jaw-dropping astonishment. "Pretty neat, huh?"
"That was awesome! Can you do that to anybody?"
"Well, it works best on humans; some fae can shake it off if they try – if they want to try – plus it takes some effort and the effects wear off in a few minutes once you're not touching the person anymore. Oh, and you need skin-to-skin contact; it won't work if their clothes are in the way. I've always found it easiest to use my hands, although you can project it through other parts of your body too. It's not full-on mind control, but you can generally get people to do almost anything you want as long as they're susceptible to occasionally thinking with something other than their head."
Bella was obviously impressed; Edward, not so much. "Do you use it often?" he asked, trying hard not to sound too disapproving but unable to keep a slightly stiff note out of his voice.
"Not as often as I could," Bo retorted, her hackles rising at his tone while Bella glanced between them, wondering what had precipitated the sudden tension in the air. "Mostly I use it in my investigations when someone doesn't want to give up information I need."
"Well, that's good to know. It wouldn't be right to use your gifts to avoid paying workers who not only depend on tips to supplement their wages but could easily lose their jobs for letting you skip out on a bill."
"That's what you're worried about? Lighten up – I'll leave some money on the table when we go. I just wanted to show Bella what we can do."
"Actually, I should pay," Bella piped up, hoping to smooth things over. "I'm the one who ordered all that food."
"Kenzi's the one who ate it, though," Bo pointed out.
Before they could have their first sisterly squabble, Edward solved the dispute by taking enough money out of his own wallet to cover the bill plus a generous tip, and their attention was diverted by the return of Kenzi, who looked as chipper as ever and not the least bit queasy in spite of having devoured everything Bella had ordered, down to the last fry. Incredibly, she didn't even seem to be uncomfortable in her corset.
"Ready to blow this burger joint?" she chirped.
"Yeah, let's go," Bo agreed. She stood up…then stopped and stared as Edward retrieved Bella's crutches from where she had stuffed them out of sight under the table and helped her up onto her good foot.
Bella blushed under her scrutiny, though she didn't understand why Bo looked so shocked. Surely she had seen people wearing casts before?
Bo bit her tongue until they made it out of the restaurant, but as soon as they were outside where there was no one around to overhear them, her nosiness got the better of her. "What the hell is this?" she demanded, nudging the cast with the toe of her boot.
"It's a cast," Bella answered in a rather snippy tone as she tried to hide her wince. "Doctors use them to immobilize and support broken bones while they heal."
"Guess I walked right into that one, didn't I?" Bo said ruefully while Kenzi hooted with laughter. "Obviously I know what it is; what I meant was, why are you bothering with it? Why not just heal yourself?"
"Heal myself?" Bella sputtered incredulously, her eyebrows shooting up. "We can do that? How?"
"It's supposed to happen automatically when you feed – at least it always did for me," Bo said uncertainly, suddenly gripped by doubt. Could this be one of those birth defects Trick had said were common in second-born succubi? "Did it seriously do nothing for you when you and Edward…?"
"I wouldn't know," Bella muttered, her face bright red once more. "We haven't really…you know…" As Bo's stare grew even more disbelieving, she felt a certain pressure to justify their lack of sexual activity, to convince her sister that they weren't a couple of boring prudes. "It's just because vampires are so strong, he's afraid of hurting me…"
"I guess that's understandable," Bo said in a tone that suggested she was indeed trying hard to understand, though in truth she was struggling to grasp how a succubus and a guy who looked like Edward Cullen could keep their hands off each other for any length of time. Still, she remembered how she'd held off on sleeping with Lauren until she was reasonably confident she wouldn't accidentally drain the human doctor, and told herself that she should respect Edward for exercising the same caution. "And he deserves points for not trying to jump broken bones, possibly proving that chivalry isn't dead after all-"
"Yeah, it's just on life support," Kenzi snarked.
"It really does look like you've gone too long without feeding, though," Bo continued, eyeing Bella with a concerned look. She had thought the younger girl was too pale when she first saw her but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, chalking it up to the restaurant's lighting, but now that they were outside, in more natural light – albeit muted by the thick blanket of clouds overhead – there was no denying the fact that, underneath her makeup, Bella really didn't look healthy. "How long has it been since you broke your leg?"
"About two weeks now," Bella answered, "if you can believe that." Considering that the same event that had culminated in her leg getting broken had also set off the cascade of painful revelations that had led her here, it was mind-boggling to think it had happened such a short time ago, when it felt more like an entire lifetime. Two weeks – that's just half a month. That doesn't seem like nearly enough time for a person's whole life to change.
Putting a lid on those musings, she said, "Edward's barely touched me since then," while shooting him an aggrieved look that clearly showed how she felt about that, "not that he would ever kiss me for longer than three seconds even before I got hurt. I swear he timed it."
"Seriously? And I'm guessing there was nothing more happening in between these three-second kisses, was there?"
"Not even a little bit."
Bo ran both hands through the hair that was pinned back from her face while her breath left her in an audible rush. "No sex ever… What is wrong with you two?!"
"I was trying to keep Bella alive," Edward said tersely.
"And almost starved her to death in the process. Way to go."
"Well, I didn't know she was a succubus until today," he pointed out. "Besides, our relationship is still relatively new, so you'll have to forgive us if we weren't as eager to rush into things as so many of today's young people seem to be."
Bo realized that his first point was perfectly valid, and she supposed the second one had some merit as well, but there was something about his (in her opinion) sanctimonious attitude that reminded her of her adoptive human mother's puritanical beliefs about sex and girls who didn't adhere to said beliefs, which hit a veritable myriad of sore spots. An angry retort sprang to the tip of her tongue before she had time to think better of it, and suddenly she and Edward were embroiled in a heated argument.
While they sniped at each other, Bella seized the chance to slip away, as much as her lurching, limping gait could be described as slipping. She was tired, her leg was sore, the beginning pangs of what promised to be a vicious headache that she could feel pulsing in her temples weren't helping in the slightest, and she just wanted to get to Edward's car so she could sit down. If his quarrel with Bo kept them occupied long enough, maybe she would even have time to make it there on her own, thus sparing herself the indignity of being carried or having to endure them watching impatiently (at least she imagined they would be impatient) as she made her slow, laborious way across the parking lot.
Kenzi followed her, jabbering away, but Bella didn't have a clue what she was saying. Her world had narrowed down to the silver Volvo that seemed to be at the far end of a long, dark tunnel, and the blood pounding in her ears as she trudged toward it drowned out all but the general sound of Kenzi's voice, making it impossible to pick out individual words.
She was so intent on her goal that she didn't notice a crack in the pavement in front of her and inadvertently plunged the rubber foot of one of her crutches into it, where it stuck fast, jerking her sharply off-balance. Feeling herself falling forward, she instinctively acted to save herself from smashing face-first into the concrete the only way she could…by catching herself on her broken leg.
White-hot pain shot up her leg as the damaged bone was abruptly forced to take her full weight, scorched through her neural pathways like a bolt of lightning, and hit her brain with such intensity that her vision actually went blank. For a split second, she wondered if she had gone blind, but there was no time to panic over losing her eyesight before the pain completely overwhelmed her, and she blacked out.
And that's it for now. I had wanted to cover a bit more in this chapter, but I felt like it was long enough and wanted to get an update out for you guys. Next time, Bella will get a chance to talk more with Kenzi (after being revived, of course) and learns some uncomfortable facts about the fae world.