CHAPTER FIFTEEN

There's snow fallin' over the city

You thought that it would wash away

The bitter taste of my fury

And all of the messes you made

Yeah, you think that you got away

~ Olivia Rodrigo, Can't Catch Me Now

Edward

Vladimir was excellent at controlling his thoughts. Better than even Aro had become in the ninety years I was with him. He knew it, too. Always watching me, grinning when he saw my frustration that I couldn't get the immediate answers from him I was desperate for without waiting for him to tell me.

Stefan was a little easier to read, but not by much.

The house was in pandemonium; vampires had already gathered from across the world in the area because we thought we were going to have to go to war with Aro. Maybe we still would. Aro and his plans to reveal our existence to humans and attempt a world-wide coup were still a potential problem.

But maybe not, if Vladimir and Stefan would just tell us what they knew.

"You are not very patient, my friend," Vladimir cooed, taking his seat at the table across from me. We had emptied out the house and the surrounding area for the conversation, only the Cullen's and Romanian's within earshot for it.

Jasper had a hell of a time making sure everyone understood they were not to interfere.

Vladimir sat back, arms crossed over his chest as he studied me. "Hostile, tense, unresponsive to anything not involving the Queen–"

"Bella," I snapped.

Just Bella. That was what she liked.

Vladimir smiled. "Bella. Tell me, how long has she been gone again?"

"One hundred twelve days," I answered immediately.

"That's a long time to still be going through withdrawals."

"Withdrawals?" Carlisle asked, sitting at the head of the table. Everyone else followed suit, filling out the table.

Vladimir paused, I'm assuming for dramatic effect, before grinning at the crowded table. "The venom of a Vampire Queen is… unlike any other delicacy in existence. It can do many wonderful things. The one thing a Queen cannot do, however, is create a new vampire. In the traditional way, at least."

"Vladimir," I snapped, hands falling to the table as a large crack spider webbed through the stone. "Stop with the cryptic innuendos. Stop taunting us with information. If all of this is true – if Bella really is a Vampire Queen–"

"Of course she's a Queen," Stefan scoffed. "Why do you think she is so powerful?"

"We didn't know why," Carlisle admitted. "We had only just gotten her… somewhat…"

Vladimir raised his brows. "Sane?"

A feral growl vibrated in my throat.

Emmett laid a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Yes," Carlisle added. "After her change…"

"I am impressed," Vladimir offered. "That you were able to keep her alive - and sane - until he showed up. How long was she alone?"

Alice piped in. "Three months."

Useless. All of this was useless chatter when Bella was gone. Locked in those dungeons so thick that even she couldn't get herself out. One hundred twelve days she had been gone and we were sitting around gossiping -

"Vampire Queens are not the only ones that can lose their minds," Vladimir added, eyes locked on me. "Her presence alone is a heady thing; but mating with her…"

"She is gone!" I snapped, that loose tether I had kept on myself from the moment I watched her walk away snapped. "Gone! For months she's been trapped with Aro, he's doing God knows what to her and I will not sit here for another fucking second listening to you dangle information in front of us for your own enjoyment. Tell me what I need to know. How to get her back. Keep her safe. Tell me."

Vladimir and Stefan looked at each other and smiled.

"You'll do."

—Miss Americana—

Emmett had to sit beside me, a stone arm around my shoulders to keep me from launching myself across the table at the Romanians as they told us their story.

"We cannot offer you guidance on our original creation or purpose. We do not know who the first queen was, how she came to be, or what happened to her. All we know is from our experience with Adria. And Edythe."

"Who the hell is Edythe?" I snapped.

Vladimir smiled at me. "My daughter."

I froze. Everyone around the table did.

"Please, Vladimir," Carlisle begged, the only one of us able to even pretend to breathe. "Tell us what you know."

The pair of Romanians sighed dramatically. Stefan sulking as he murmured, "You always ruin our fun, Carlisle."

"We shall start at the beginning, then," Vladimir said, his attention focused solely on me. Finally opening up his mind and letting me see… everything.

She was beautiful, Adria. Her hair was a few shades darker than Bella's, but there were other obvious similarities between the women. Both had the same, round eyes and delicate features. Both that sense of… power radiating off of them.

Vladimir met Adria long before time was commonly kept. He'd had a feeling, an urge pulling him toward what was modern day Romania. A gut feeling he couldn't get rid of until he happened upon the beautiful woman sitting with her feet in a forest stream as the sun set beyond the horizon.

He fell to his knees the moment he saw her.

She simply turned in his direction, smiled, and patted the stone beside her.

Adria knew little of her creation into a Vampire, and even less of her human life. But none of it bothered her once Vladimir sat beside her.

How he found her, what her history was, it never plagued them. They took each new power she exhibited and worked on training and mastering it. They never felt the need to ask why or how, they simply enjoyed the privilege of finding each other.

They discovered most things by accident; each new power, the difference in her abilities after feeding off of her mate, and her ability to carry a child.

A child.

It was decades, maybe a century after they found each other that she fell pregnant. A shockingly human-like progression to it, resulting in not only a healthy mother but healthy daughter as well. One who stopped growing once appearing around the human age of eighteen, getting there in less than nine years time.

Edythe.

They had so long together. So many decades after decades where there were no power struggles or vampiric politics or wars. They kept to themselves, lived as nomads most of the time, but they had each other.

As time went on, as the planet grew more crowded and cluttered and advanced, things got more complicated. Adria saw others of their kind taking risks, causing problems with the overall state of countries, of continents.

So, she made a court. Because she felt it in her gut, realized the reason for her powers and strength, and so began the Romanian's rule over our kind.

It wasn't always pretty. Rarely did any civilization take kindly to a ruler stepping into a role so many thought unnecessary. Proving their power and position didn't come quickly, but they persevered. Found Stefan along the way, originally a member of their guard solely devoted to keeping Edythe safe.

Then Aro was turned around 1300 BC in Greece. Everything went to hell as he grew more powerful, more obstinate to the Romanian's authority.

The downfall of their reign was where Vladimir stopped his story. He got up, refused to look anyone in the eye, and silently walked out of the room.

Stefan was silent for a few minutes before he went on. "He was never the same after she was gone. Queens… they are powerful, but they do have weaknesses. Vladimir was a weakness. Edythe…"

He shook his head and it wasn't hard to understand how Adria fell from power.

"He still has her," Stefan added quietly, venom dripping from his voice. "Aro, he still has Edythe. He promised to return her if… he promised to return her once he got to power. But he didn't specify when. We have tried everything. We do not care about being the rulers of our kind anymore, it was never our calling. The Queen… it is her who brings us peace and tranquility. We were simply following her. But Edythe… we have been trying to get her back for millenia. Searching for others like Adria who might have a chance against Aro, always arriving too late or watching them waste away before they can reach their true potential. Edythe is the only thing that has kept Vladimir here this long. He would have followed Adria the second she was destroyed, but he promised her to stay for Edythe."

The room went silent.

Eventually I stood, following Vladimir's trail at a slow, human pace in an attempt to digest the story. I had many, many questions. More questions still than answers, but I kept all of them quiet as I found Vladimir sitting with his bare feet in a small stream, looking out into the sunset.

"I met her once," I offered, my throat tightening uncomfortably. "Edythe. She… she looks just like her mother. Aro sent me to deliver news to the wives… and she was there."

Vladimir nodded. "She was a gift to them. A child that none of them could actually conceive."

"We will help you get her back. Bella… I will get her back. And we will get Edythe back."

Where my confidence came from, I wasn't sure. The months I had spent lost in a blurry haze of fear and anger and confusion and rage… withdrawals. That was what Vladimir had said.

Vampire Queens are not the only ones that can lose their minds.

"How do you do it? Survive… without her?" I asked hesitantly.

He looked over at me, his stark white hair making his blood red eyes flare. "Do not get me wrong, Edward Cullen, I am a… shell of who I was with her. But for my daughter… for her, I keep fighting. Because her mother would want me to. Because I cannot bear to ask Stefan to end my days while there is even a seed of possibility that I could see her again."

"I don't… I can't…"

My brain was scrambled. My entire being focused on the only thing I had left of my wife, my mate, and that was the vision of her locked up, alone and chained.

"The withdrawals," Vladimir murmured. "Very difficult, especially in the beginning. It is impressive you have kept your sanity this long. The average mated vampire pair are emotionally shattered beyond repair when losing their loved one. You and the Quee–Bella, are not an average pair. She needed you to fully complete her change into a queen, and now you both walk a fragile line of interconnectedness. Eventually, you would be able to be separated for short spans of time… but a queen cannot thrive without her mate, and so that mate shall not know peace without his queen."

—Miss Americana—

Bella

Most of my time was spent in an almost suspended state between reality, and every possible future in existence. It was an odd experience, even more odd when I had no other stimulants in the room with me besides the stone floor and the memory of Edward's crisp, amber scent always in the back of my mind.

Then I found the note.

Her scent still clung to it, feminine laced with power with an innate part of me recognizing her for what she was. Me. Like me, at least. Whatever I was.

The words repeated over and over in my head since I found the note buried behind some crumbling stones of my cell.

He will betray you, no matter what he promised.

You are stronger than you think you are.

Get out, take Edythe with you.

Find Vladimir.

Find your mate and do not leave his side.

The note was… disconcerting to say the least. The first line was easy enough to understand, no matter how frustrating it was. I had to assume it was Aro. That he knew some way to fool the part of me that rebelled against lies.

That one answer, though, fueled dozens of follow up questions.

How did she know Aro could fool me? How did she know he would make me a promise that would lead me to this cell? How did she –

She could have seen it. I've seen things that should have been impossible, and Alice saw me. Before I was ever born. This female… she watched me play right into Aro's hands.

Which meant I left Edward… for nothing?

No, not nothing. They all would have been destroyed had I not gone willingly. But, sitting here, docile and fulfilling my half of the promise when Aro knew how to deceive me… it was useless. Stupid.

The second line didn't bring as many questions as the first. Something inside of me had shifted since I started feeding off of Edward… since he fed off of me. I didn't deplete so quickly, I had gone months without feeding and hadn't felt a single effect from it.

I could get myself out. It would cause immeasurable damage to… wherever we were. But I could do it.

Edythe, however, was another puzzle. Was she a member of the guard? I didn't remember anyone by the name in Edward's memories. How would I find her? Why did I need her?

And Vladimir. That name, at least, was familiar. I had seen the man in Edward's memories, however briefly. He was a member of the few remaining Romanian vampires. That was all I knew, though.

A heavy sigh sounded from down the hall, and I pocketed my note and turned toward the iron door. Heels clicked on the stone.

"Finally," a voice sighed. Soft, feminine… Heidi. The one who constantly tried to take Edward to bed while he was here.

I stood quickly as the hinges on the door squeaked, blinking away the strangeness of the light as it hit my eyes for the first time in months.

She was prettier in person than in Edward's memories.

"What?" I snapped, wiggling my fingers beside me.

"You found Ri's note. Took you fucking forever."

Questions. So many more questions rushed through my mind. "I–"

"Look, we don't really have time for answers right now. I'm kind of risking everything here, and that deer-in-the-headlights look you've got going on isn't giving me a lot of confidence. Edythe and the wives are here, which only happens every few centuries. If we're going to do this, we do it now."

My eyes flashed. "Do what?"

Heidi shrugged. "Escape."

A/N: It might take me forever to update this story but that's simply because I have no plan. Whatsoever. I'm winging every second of this just to scratch that vampire itch in my brain, but I do hope someone out there is enjoying it!
PS: you can find me on bsky these days under fragilelittleflame if you're looking for more constant updates on when I'll be posting!