I Fear No Pain
C23: Family Matters
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable themes or characters.
Didyme's POV
A couple of weeks after Helena's return had become less of a novelty and everyone was used to having the ancient around again, life at the Castle seemed return to a semblance of normalcy, and nothing brought that to the forefront more then where I now was, with my dear daughter in the gardens, just the two of us on a picnic blanket enjoying the weather.
Summer was now in full swing and the garden was in full bloom and I just couldn't help but smile as I nuzzled my nose into her neck. "I've missed these moments with you sweetheart. It's been far too long since we've had some uninterrupted time together."
Bella smiled at me. "I'm all yours for the foreseeable future mother, since Jane is on that hush hush mission I'm not supposed to know about. But you are right that it has been far too long since we've been able to relax like this."
I smiled and pressed a kiss to her neck. "It wasn't that we wanted to keep things from you on purpose sweetie. It is just that this particular mission is a bit different from our normal ones. Jasper requested us if he could put together a team to hunt down his sire and what remains of her Coven, which coincidentally is also one of the last remaining thorns in our side. He didn't want to worry you or Alice too much so he asked us to keep quiet about his plan."
She nodded at me. "I understand that Mom, I knew it could only be something very important, or something personal to someone. I was just being curious."
I smiled at that. "I know that you are curious by nature, sweetie. It is one of your best qualities."
Bella smiled and relaxed against me. "Only that mother? I thought that my sparkling personality was the reason you loved me so much."
"I love you for more reasons than I can put into words, my sweet Bella. You are the light of my everlasting life and the reason I exist these days, because while I love your aunts very much and we have shared everything over the last three thousand years, I can't talk to them about my interests as much as I can with you." I said softly.
She smiled at that. "I know Mom. I was only teasing you a little bit. I know that you love me for more than just my curiosity. You've proven that time and time again over the last months and I wouldn't give up what we share for anything."
I smiled and pressed a long kiss to the top of her head as I gave her waist a squeeze. "Neither would I sweetie. You've brightened my life in so many ways that I couldn't imagine a life without you anymore."
Bella smiled at me as she repositioned herself a bit, so that she was sideways in my lap and could nuzzle her nose in my neck, and on instinct I cradled her against me. "You won't ever lose me mother, because I have no intention of ever leaving Volterra again. My life is here now and I am more than content in my role here. I get to indulge in my love of history, explore things I never would've thought were possible, a mate that I love more than life itself, a family I get to share everything with, and on top of that the unconditional love of my mother, who I couldn't live without anymore. I really love you Mom."
I smiled at her as I started running my fingers through her hair. "I love you too sweetie, nothing in the world could ever make me love you less."
Bella smiled and kissed my cheek. "And I will forever love you for everything you've given me in my new life."
"Shall we go back inside and take a bath together, sweetie? It's been a while and I'm feeling a bit in my instincts. I just need to have you close for the foreseeable future." I said softly.
"Of course Mom, I would never object to spending such quality time with you, especially since we haven't done this since I woke up." I said as I wrapped my arms around her neck, fully knowing how this was going to go.
As I expected she picked me up and carried me back into the Castle like a baby, which given how emotional we both were did not even feel weird.
When we were in her bathroom and had gotten in the tub, she immediately pulled me into her arms again while also drawing soothing circles on my stomach. "I almost forgot how amazing it feels to have nothing between us, Mom."
I smiled and pressed a kiss to her neck. "It does, and given how you and your sister usually spend your days alone, I would say you are more than used to being naked with family by now."
Bella smiled at that. "I didn't know you knew of that. Did you feel that in our bond?" She asked softly.
I nodded at her. "Indeed I did sweetie. I feel everything that makes you happy, sad and when it does not include your mate also when you're excited. I do wonder how that came to be however, because it is unheard of to feel such things for others than your mate."
"Honestly, I can't really explain it either, and neither can Alice. What we've learned about the Soul Sister bond we share is that it goes as deep as the mating bond, and that involves a certain level of intimacy. We could never go all the way with each other, but in the past months we've experimented a lot with what we can do. Our bond tells us exactly how far we can go, and given the fact that Alice and I always had good skinship between each other, and finding out that we shared such a bond only improved that, unconventional as it may be." She said softly.
I smiled at that. "It's been an honor to see such a beautiful bond blossom, and a great pleasure to see how close you two have become ever since everything was revealed. And while the closeness you two share is a bit unconventional for unmated vampires, the bond you two share is so rare that even I don't know a lot about it."
Bella only smiled as she relaxed back against me, going as far as to rest her head on my breasts, which was honestly one of the best feelings ever.
Sulpicia's POV
The following day Bella and I were in my storage room to do some necessary cataloging, something I had asked her help in assisting me with and that most definitely needed to be done.
Bella of course didn't mind helping me, since we rarely had the opportunity to spend time together because our usual assignments kept us far too busy, which made these moments all the more special in my eyes, and apparently it was something she agreed with since I hadn't seen her this excited in a while as she followed me through the room. "I have to say sweetheart, I am a bit surprised that you were so eager to do this for me. I know we haven't exactly spent a lot of time together since you came here."
She smiled brightly at me. "We've both been very busy recently aunt Sulpicia, that we haven't spend a lot of time together doesn't mean I love you any less, and I think that from now on I'll be spending a lot more time with you too, especially with Jane on assignment."
"That may be the best thing I've heard in a long time, Bella, and I truly hope that we can start getting as close as you are with Dora." I said honestly.
She smiled at me. "I'm sure we will auntie. I love history, and while aunt Dora has taught me a lot about vampire history, you are more connected to the history I've been interested in since I was a little girl."
I smiled and hugged her as I also took a look at the list she had compiled so far. "I'm happy that my collection brings you such joy, sweetie. I also see that you are as diligent as always."
"Always auntie. There is no use in doing anything of this importance only half when I can easily do a good job the first time around." She said with a soft smile.
I nodded as I led her to one of the couches. "I would say we've earned a bit of a break. It has also been far too long since we've been able to talk."
She smiled at me as we sat down and she immediately cuddled up to me, which while unexpected, was not unwelcome. I cared a lot for my found niece even though I sometimes had trouble showing that, but that would hopefully improve now that Bella too seemed adamant on spending more time with me.
"Are you okay sweetling? I've never seen you be so cuddly with me." I asked softly, and admittedly a little worried.
She smiled at me. "I'm perfectly fine auntie. I just had the irresistible urge to cuddle with you."
I smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as I pulled her into me. "I'm glad that you trust me enough to do this with me Bella. It truly means a lot to me."
"Like I've said when I met you aunt Sulpicia, I trust you implicitly, and I will never have secrets from you, at least none that I won't share with you eventually." Bella said with a soft smile.
"I know my sweet, but as you well as I do that know trust is not just simply given, but is also very much earned, and I know better than most that it is hard to earn when your heart is hardened by betrayal." I said softly.
Bella nodded at that. "That's true, but I also know when I can trust someone and never have to be afraid of being betrayed, and I have always known that I can trust you."
I smiled at her. "Then I am honored to have earned your trust sweetie."
Bella smiled at me. "And I am honored that you trust me enough to share this with me, auntie. I know you are probably the most private of the three Queens."
I nodded at that. "It comes with being the leader of our triumvirate. I can't share too much even within our family. It is a mask I have to wear in order to protect everyone. In truth I allow myself far too little pleasures outside of the bedroom, and while it is something I would really want to change, I am afraid I won't be able to until I find your remaining sister."
She smiled at that. "Perhaps Alice can be of assistance there auntie. She saw me being Didyme's daughter and she told me she had visions about Helena too, even though she didn't know who she was."
"That is actually a great idea sweetie, but she's so busy already, I'll go and ask her when she has a little bit less on her plate." I said with a kind smile.
Bella just smiled at that. "Trust me that she would gladly do that for you auntie, no matter how busy she is."
I nodded and smiled at her. "Then I will ask her later today, after we've finished our work, and speaking of which, are you ready to continue? There are only a few more artifacts left to record."
Bella nodded and smiled at me as we continued our rounds through the Vault. "If I may ask aunt Sulpicia, which artifacts are you still looking for?"
"There is one that I would still like to have in our Vault, but unfortunately it is also the most elusive artifact to find or even find information on. The Cup of Life, or the Holy Grail as you may better know it. So many rumors exist on its location and unfortunately we've explored them all, up to the one in your mother's favorite movie, although that did actually give us some information, which honestly was a bit unexpected and something your mother is still a bit smug about at times." I said softly, not wanting to admit that so openly.
Bella merely smiled at me as she continued to take her notes and we continued in a comfortable silence, with me sometimes providing little tidbits of information about certain artifacts.
Athenodora's POV
A couple of days after Bella had helped Sulpicia finally catalog her collection, which had been something she had been putting off for many years, we were back in my office to once again work on the Chronicles, and it was clear to me that she was excited to be able to work on our special project again, and wanting to reward that excitement, I figured it was a good time to talk about my own history today.
"So aunt Dora, what are we going to work on today?" She asked excitedly as she opened up her laptop.
I smiled at her. "Today, my dear Bella, I am going to tell you all about my own history, and with that a bit of your sister's history too."
Bella smiled brightly at that. "I've been wondering when we would get to this. You certainly know how to keep a girl in suspense, auntie." She said with a wink.
I smiled at her. "I know sweetie, Helena has frequently accused me of the same over the last few weeks."
She just smiled at me as she gave me her undivided attention, to which I just couldn't help but smile.
"You of course know of my early history already, so we won't have to put that in double. We'll start with what happened when my siblings and I started to build our own city after killing our sires.
We tried to build a city as grand as the First City once was before the Great Flood, and as it filled with humans, we were worshiped as Gods. This was also far before we were cursed by Cain for the slaughter of our sires and thus we were a lot more powerful than we are now. For centuries we prospered and sired our own childer, for myself being Helena and a few others that unfortunately have by now lost their lives.
When Cain finally found and cursed us, we descended into a civil war, and wanting no part of that, I took Helena and fled the city, leaving behind everything we had built in order to survive.
We roamed the continent for many decades together, until we ended up in Greece where I found your mother and aunt as my mates, and Helena's wanderlust overtook her, and while it hurt to let her go, it was unfortunately necessary for both of us."
"Is wanderlust a common thing, aunt Dora?" She asked softly.
I smiled at her. "Not anymore, you don't have to worry that you at some point feel the need to travel the world. It only happened to the first childer of myself and my siblings for some reason, which I suspect is a part of the curse of Cain being so new that he hoped that it would turn our childer against us and put us off from turning more, but as you may know that didn't exactly go that way."
Bella nodded and smiled at that. "That is putting it lightly I'd say. But may I ask what the cause of the civil war was and what started it?"
"Of course sweetie. It won't surprise you when I say that it had everything to do with general mistrust we now had of each other. Some of my siblings wanted to keep the status quo intact, where we were worshiped as gods and we did as we pleased, while others wanted what would eventually become the laws we now have, ironically among those was Ventrue.
Those that wanted to keep our way of life intact thought themselves above everyone, while others simply did not care one way or another. Ennoia is a good example of one of those ancients, and while it was called a civil war, it was more of a dispute between ancients with nothing better to do, and I will fully admit that I was just as much guilty of this as the rest of my siblings were. After so many years of being both feared and revered we all got complacent and it eventually turned us against each other.
Of course I didn't want to deal with all of that when I was so newly mated to Didyme and Sulpicia, so we sort of followed Ventrue and Malkav, who set up a new base of operations in ancient Rome, helping build that to the great power it became, all from the shadows of course. That is what led us to Volterra to take power from the last remaining Second Generation Vampires, who I told you about before. I knew that both Ventrue and Malkav would never expect us to stay so close, which is why they left us alone for so long, and only when they were ousted by Troile in Carthage, they went their own ways and Ventrue met back up with the Eldest to hide away in Romania, after which Malkav tried to end your mother and aunt, for which I put him into a long slumber, known to some as torpor."
Bella nodded as she typed away. "I would never have thought that the war between Rome and Carthage was a vampire conflict."
"They made it seem as a dispute between the Greeks and Carthage, but in truth it was a spat between Troile, of whom Jasper is a descendant, and Ventrue. Troile was a rebel at heart and until her dying day she was kicking against the system, which is why the descendants of Ventru and Troile can't stand each other." I said with a soft smile.
Bella smiled at that. "That I can imagine. Even back in Forks I could practically taste the tension between Jasper and Edward."
I smiled at her as I took a look over what she had written, making a few slight alterations where needed, although those were very minimal. "I will never fail to be impressed at the way you manage to put my rambling thoughts to paper in such an eloquent way."
"That is the easy part aunt Dora. The difficult part is always to find a good way to work it into the rest of the Chronicle. Editing is far harder than note taking." Bella said with a soft smile.
"Still, I am very proud of you sweetie. The enthusiasm with which you have thrown yourself into making this happen is almost infectious, and I know I am far from the only one here in the Castle who thinks that." I said softly.
She smiled and hugged me, which I just couldn't help but return, because as much as I had to wear my mask during the day, with Bella I could always let go at least a little.
Helena's POV
I will admit that it took some getting used to being around my mother full time again, since I had been so used to being alone I had forgotten how good it felt to have that unconditional love again, but what had surprised me most was how fast I had found myself bonding with my newfound sister, which was one of the reason I sought her out now.
I really wanted to get to know her without our mothers hovering and since she had just finished an entire day with my mother, I figured she would enjoy a little get away from the Castle, which would hopefully also take her mind off her mate's absence.
Knowing that she usually spent her time alone in the library, it was the first place I went in search of my sister. "Oh Bella. I have a proposal for you, sister." I said as I saw her sitting in her favorite chair, surprisingly with her laptop.
She looked up from her work and smiled at me. "Hey Helena. What did you have in mind?" She said as she gave me her undivided attention.
I smiled and took a seat next to her. "I was hoping you would join me for a little shopping trip, since you've spent the majority of yesterday with my mother and I thought you might want to get out of the Castle for a bit, you know, change of scenery and all that."
"You know, that sounds amazing. I could actually use a break with my dear sister." She said as she saved her work and closed her laptop before standing up. "Before we go though, I need to put away my laptop. Your mother would have my hide if I lost it."
I nodded and smiled at her. "Of course Bella. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble with my mother. Lord knows that she knows how to scold someone. What were you working on, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I was working on the Chronicles, which is a project that takes up most of my time. Your mother shared a lot of information with me yesterday and I was working on getting my notes worked into what I already had." She said with a smile.
I nodded and smiled at her. "I honestly don't envy you, or mother for that matter. I was right there by her side in the early years and I saw how her siblings were grating on her, some more than others."
She smiled at that as we got to her bedroom, where she quickly put away her laptop before once again following me to the Throne Room, since I knew both of us would get a spanking if we would leave without giving our mothers notice. "I know, she told me all about Absimiliard and his hatred of her beauty."
"That is putting it lightly to be honest. They loathe each other and his childer loathe those of our blood with the same passion, but thankfully they rarely let themselves be seen." I said softly as we both pushed open the doors to the Throne Room.
"Well this is certainly a surprise, both of our Princesses grace us with their presence this fine day. What can we do for you?" Sulpicia asked with a kind smile.
We both smiled at them. "We just wanted to inform you that Bella and I will be out of the Castle for a few hours."
"That's fine sweetie, we appreciate you both informing us of this." Didyme said kindly.
Bella smiled at her mother. "We know all too well that you and aunt Dora would spank us silly if we left without giving notice."
You would be very right in that, Bella." Mother said with a smirk.
We both smiled at them as we took our leave, making our way to the garage so we could go wherever we wished. "Is it okay if we took your car, I'm still debating on which car I want this time around."
She nodded and smiled at that. "It's still weird to me that you're literally older than my mother and still have so much knowledge of modern times."
I smiled at that, having wondered when she would address this. "I understand it is a bit of a weird notion, but one of the reasons it took me so long to come back is that I wanted to learn about the world I had woken up in. not even my mother knows this yet, and while I will tell her soon, I have been asleep for a very long time, about two thousand years or so. I only woke up about twenty years ago, so that was a perfect opportunity to reinvent myself and learn about this new world I had woken up in."
"Were you in torpor? Your mother mentioned it yesterday." She asked softly.
I nodded at that. "I was, put in such a state by Absimiliard because I was my mother's first turned. He honestly thought that he had killed me, but thankfully he failed. Thankfully I had sired a few childer of my own who moved me to what was to become downtown Chicago and kept watch over my tomb."
Her eyes widened a little at that. "The more I hear about you, the more curious I become."
"That is exactly what this day is for, Bella. For us to get to know each other without our mothers butting in with little facts and similarities to their own lives." I said with a grin.
Bella smiled and nodded as we got into her car, after she had shared a quick hug with the blonde that managed the car pool, and apparently the look of surprise was clearly readable on my face. "That's Rosalie. She is basically my sister, and has kept me safe from that boy we talked about on more than one occasion, plus I'm kind of affectionate with those I consider to be family."
I smiled at her. "I can understand, and of course I'm not judging, I was merely surprised to see you so affectionate with someone who isn't your mate, mother or Soul Sister."
She nodded and smiled as we drove off. "Rose and I may not share that bond, but we are certainly that close. Alice and I however is a whole other story in that sense. The closeness we share has often been mistaken for that of a mating bond."
I just smiled and nodded at her, the two of us quickly falling into a conversation about each other's lives, both of us being content to share information with each other about any topic that come to mind.