Chapter Text
Chapter 1
“Too predictable.” Bella Denali easily sidestepped Noella’s lunge, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her into the ground. She stared into the girl’s black eyes, sighing when she caught the scent of Noella’s arousal. “If I were an enemy, you’d be dead. Now isn’t the time to get horny.”
“But you’re you, and you know how much it turns me on when you take me by the throat.” Noella laughed as Bella immediately let go with an annoyed yet slightly aroused growl. The girl flipped to her feet and shook out her short light brown hair before grinning at Bella from under her choppy bangs. “Come on Bells, what’s the big deal? You act like we haven’t fucked hundreds of times before. Why is it that it’s suddenly a problem if I get aroused?”
“Because we’re training,” Bella reminded Noella tersely. “It’s been over four hundred years since you joined my coven and you’ve gotten a lot stronger but recently, you seem to have grown complacent and you’ve started relying too much on your gift. There’s always potential for a threat to appear and I care too much about you to let you die because you were unprepared and weak.”
Noella’s eyes softened and reverted back to gold. “Right. I’m sorry, Bella. I’ll train harder.”
Bella let out a relieved sigh. “That’s all I ask of you.”
“Bella, phone call. It’s Alice,” Eleazar said, appearing on the porch. He tossed the phone when Bella nodded at him, and the coven leader snatched it out of the air.
“What’s up, pixie stick?” Bella asked seriously once the phone was at her ear. While she was always happy to get a phone call from one of her favorite cousins, Alice tended to only call when it was well after what Alice knew to be training time at the Denali coven. She knew how important training was to Bella. The only reason Alice would interrupt would be if it was for something important.
“Bella, I need you to come down to Forks pronto. Things are getting bad and if you don’t come down soon it’ll get worse.” The words, accompanied by the clear stress in Alice’s voice, was enough to make Bella forget all about working on Noella’s training–almost.
“Carmen!” Bella called. The woman was at her side in a human heartbeat, already seeming to understand the situation. It made things easier for Bella to simply gesture at Noella and say, “Take over for me.”
“Of course.”
“Oh, come on!” Noella complained. “There isn’t even going to be much training at this point, Carmen’s just going to kick my ass.”
“Hush, it’s not like I’ll kill you. You’ll survive.” Carmen’s answer would have made Bella laugh had she not already been back into the house for some privacy. She signaled for Eleazar to go outside and watch the training and he left, closing the door behind him.
“What’s going on?” Bella’s mind had already been racing to figure out what could possibly make Alice so upset, seemingly to no avail. But it was as if asking the question gave Bella her answer. “It’s Edward isn’t it?”
The boy had run to her coven a few years ago in clear distress at what had happened on the very first day of school he was attending in Forks; apparently he had met his singer, a freshman like him named Tanya, and he was desperate not to kill her. Yet he also believed he and his family shouldn’t leave, especially since they had only just shown up at Forks a month prior. After a lot of talking and working on him, along with the reassurances of Alice, he had been able to go back to school.
“Yes.” She could hear the upset in Alice’s voice, as if the girl was on the verge of crying. “Now that Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett ‘graduated’ he’s having a lot more trouble in school. My visions have saved us a few times, but I can only do so much, his desire for her blood is getting stronger, and–”
“He refuses to leave,” Bella sighed. Of all the stupid things Edward could do…his pride was going to be the death of him and maybe his entire family one day if he didn’t get his act together.
Alice sniffled. “Yes.”
Bella sat at the dining room table, drumming her fingers against the hardwood. She had practiced acting human for so long that some behaviors helped her think, or even vent her frustration in ways that didn’t lead to things being broken or dead. “So how exactly will I be of help?”
“Not just you…your entire coven.” The nervousness in Alice’s voice made Bella’s eyes widen. No. Surely she couldn’t expect them to do what Bella thought. There was no way. “You see…”
“Alice. Tell me we won’t have to start high school.”
“Only senior year,” Alice rushed to reply, and Bella felt her undead heart drop. “I know it’s a lot to ask–”
“More than a lot,” Bella clarified. Being around a ton of humans, the majority of who she couldn’t or wouldn’t fuck, while also being bored with “learning” things that she already knew, likely accompanied with blatantly false information? She’d rather do nearly anything else.
“But you’ve never been to school before anyway! It could be a new adventure for you, and you and Noella are the right age–”
“Wait. You want Noella to go too? The girl who barely had human interaction even when she was human and who, as a vampire, would only hunt humans in the forests so she wouldn’t have to pretend around them until she switched diets? The Noella that is outside, and who hasn’t been around a human once since moving in with my coven unless it was for practicing control from a distance? That Noella?” Bella clarified.
She could almost hear Alice wince from over the phone. “When you say it like that, it sounds so bad.”
“Because it is bad.” She loved Noella, she really did. But she was not going to bring Noella around a bunch of humans with how she was now. Doing so would be a recipe for disaster of their own making.
“But I thought Noella didn’t have any problems controlling her bloodlu–” Alice paused, and Bella was sure she was having a quick vision. “Oh. It’s not blood that’s the problem.”
“That’s right; it’s her filter.” More specifically, her lack thereof. Subtly was something Noella heard of before, but couldn’t define, and she was the ‘speak first think later’ type no matter how much Bella tried to teach her otherwise. Even Edward had been in awe when he met her for the first time as everything she thought came out of her mouth without any hesitation no matter how blunt or rude. While she had gotten better over the years, she certainly was nowhere near good enough. “I just don’t see why this is necessary. It might just be best to let Edward kill his singer somewhere secluded.” While Bella was an animal drinker herself, she did so for the other benefits of control–mainly not killing whatever human she wanted to fuck. She still understood human deaths were sometimes necessary, especially when protecting the vampire secret.
“No!” Alice's voice cracked, startling Bella, but Alice was too quick to continue speaking for Bella to ask what had made her so worked up. “She’s one of the Chief of Police’s daughters anyway. If she goes missing, it will lead to even more scrutiny.”
Bella sighed. Damn Alice for having a point. “Are we really the only option? I don’t see why Edward can’t just leave.”
“If he leaves now, his beast will eventually drive him back and he’ll kill her in the next two months. Right now this is the only option.”
It sounded as if this would only be a temporary solution, but Bella could tell how important this was to her tiny cousin. She sighed and glanced out the window to watch as Noella crashed into the ground with Carmen on top of her, creating a good sized crater. The girl tried to crawl away, but Carmen grabbed her by the leg. The last thing Bella saw was her eyes, wide and begging as they met Bella’s before she was dragged back into the hole and out of sight. Training clearly wasn’t going as well as Bella had hoped, and now they would have a whole extra training regime to add to it all.
“How long can Edward last without our help?” Bella asked.
“Twelve days,” Alice replied in a small voice.
Bella wasn’t about to push Edward to his limits; she wasn’t cruel…unless her current lover wanted her to be. “Give us a week.”
“Thank you Bella! Thank you thank you thank you!”
“Thank me when it’s all over.” Bella responded before hanging up. She just hoped she wouldn’t regret this.
************************************************************
“Tanya! Come on, hurry up! I need to use the bathroom!” Irina pounded on the door for the seventh time in as many minutes. “I know you better not be doing your makeup in there when my bladder is about to explode!”
There was no immediate answer, leaving Irina to groan with frustration and turn her back to the door, sliding down the wood into a sitting position as she hoped beyond hope that her bladder would make it. Crossing her legs did little to help, so Irina tried to focus on going over her math homework in her head, hoping it would be a proper distraction.
Kate walked by then, pausing to take in the amusing scene with laughing green eyes and a barely suppressed smirk. “How many years is it going to take for you to realize you need to beat our sister to the bathroom?”
“I overslept,” Irina grumbled. “Not everyone can be like you and wake up with the sun every day, you crazed sports freak.”
Kate grinned at her before making a big deal of posing, even going so far as to flex and show off her enviously muscled physique. She was already dressed in simple running shorts and a red tee, her straight pale blonde hair still damp from the shower she had taken after her morning work out. “I may be the sports freak, but who’s the real winner here? The girl ready for school with plenty of time to spare, or the girl curled up in front of the bathroom door?”
It was at that moment the bathroom door opened, revealing their oldest “sister.” Her makeup was perfect, her curly strawberry blonde hair blow dried and styled. Accompanied with her slinky blouse, black slacks, and heels, she looked more like she was about to step on a runway than go to school. Irina was grumpy that she really had been doing her makeup in the only bathroom of the house, but she was too desperate to scramble inside and finally relieve her bladder to say anything.
“As I’m the only one who is able to get enough sleep and look this good for school, I’d say the winner is me,” Tanya said with a smirk. “Sorry Rina, I really didn’t mean to take so long,” she called over her shoulder once the door slammed behind her.
“But I like waking up early. So clearly I’m the winner here,” Kate argued.
“Only because you need to constantly be on the move,” Tanya shot back, but then turned her attention to her middle sister’s outfit. “You know, if you want someone to do your makeup sometime–”
“No. Hell no.” Kate quickly backed away from Tanya, hands held up to keep her away in case Tanya were to follow. “I don’t do makeup, especially when it’s you who is trying to force me.” Maybe chapstick or lip gloss, but that was it for Kate Swan. Anything else was way too much work and incredibly unnecessary.
Tanya sighed. “You’re going to regret it when you find someone you like, only to look like a...well, you.” While the words might have sounded harsh, Tanya didn’t know how to better display her concern for Kate. Outside of sports, martial arts, and her teammates, she took no interest in other people, let alone interest in love. Each of them had their own still unspoken traumas from their time in the foster system both before they found each other and before they were rescued by Charlie, and it was often something all of them didn’t like ever being brought up whether it was on purpose or not. But where Tanya had learned how to cope in her own way and make friends, and shy Irina even managed to have a few friends of her own, Kate still seemed to struggle with those kinds of relationships. All of her friends were from her sports teams and she never invited any of them over to the house, every time they hung out was somewhere else and always because someone invited Kate instead of the other way around. While Tanya had the most fun with dating by far and was the only one to date at all save for that one date she pushed Irina to have with Mike–which was a big mistake that she still felt bad about–Irina at least often gushed about the occasional book character or actor. Kate, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in any kind of romance and often found even the romance in movies they watched together boring or stupid. It was like she couldn’t see herself interested in others in that way or understand why others would want to be in that situation, and Tanya worried if Kate was unconsciously holding herself back or blocking all kinds of thoughts regarding romance. So many people clearly wanted Kate, but Kate appeared so oblivious to it all that all the denseness in the world couldn’t explain why she didn’t notice.
“Not like that’s ever going to happen,” Kate said with a roll of her eyes. “I like being me, and I don’t want to have to do so much extra shit just to make someone else like me. I’m gonna go get breakfast.” Kate turned on her heel and bounded down the stairs, leaving Tanya to wince by herself. She hadn’t meant to put Kate in a bad mood.
Before Tanya could follow Kate down and try to make things up to her, the bathroom door cracked open just enough for Tanya to see Irina peeking out in nothing but a towel, pale blue clearly anxious, even with them half hidden behind a curtain of wet silvery blonde hair. Irina had to have taken the quickest shower in her life, likely out of fear that if she were to leave the bathroom to get some clothes to dress in the bathroom might be stolen once again. “Um…about that makeup…could you maybe do mine?”
Tanya softened at her youngest sister. The girl often didn’t want to do her makeup either, thinking herself too plain or that it wouldn’t really change anything to make it worth it. While Irina was already beyond beautiful, Tanya loved getting the opportunity to use makeup to help her youngest sister see it. “Of course, Irina.” She already knew what to do. Instead of doing Irina’s makeup like Tanya did her own, she went with colors that matched her skin and enhanced Irina’s already beautiful features. For Irina, it wasn’t about covering her up or making her look different like Tanya sometimes did to herself when she was feeling extra. Tanya wanted to keep the look natural and give Irina more confidence in herself and her looks.
It wasn’t long until Tanya was finished, even blow drying and straightening Irina’s usually wavy hair to give the youngest a different look. Irina was staring at herself in the mirror with awe.
“Wow,” Irina breathed at last.
Tanya put her hands on Irina’s shoulders and gave the girl a comforting squeeze. “I think the same thing about you every day.”
Her words made Irina laugh–not the response Tanya wanted from the younger girl, but it was better than nothing. “You know what? This totally makes up for you nearly bursting my bladder earlier.”
“So the way to Kate’s heart is through her stomach, and yours is through compliments. Got it,” Tanya said, pretending to check off an imaginary list.
“It’s not!” Irina said with a playful shove. “Ugh, remind me to stop being nice to you. I should just keep holding on to my grudges.”
Tanya pulled away in mock alarm. “Wait, how many grudges do you have?”
Irina’s eyes glinted as she laughed. “That’s for me to know, and you to…well, you’ll see.”
“Girls! Time for breakfast!” Charlie called from downstairs before Tanya could ask just how concerned she should be for her own safety.
“Oh no, we better get down there if we don’t want Kate to eat it all.” The panic on Irina’s face was laughable, even more so when she looked down and realized that she was still in nothing but a towel and had to get dressed. She glanced back and forth between the stairs and her room, trying to figure out if there would still be food to eat if she decided to take a moment to put some clothes on.
“Go. I’ll save some food for you,” Tanya said, and the relief and trust in Irina’s eyes made the thoughtless promise worth it. Charlie would never let any of them go hungry, but there was still a deep rooted fear Irina had about missing meals that Tanya wasn’t sure would ever go away.
“Thanks Tanya,” Irina said, giving the taller girl a brief hug before rushing to her room.
Tanya went downstairs to see Kate wolfing down way more food than should be humanly possible. She quickly made two large plates of what was left, knowing anything that she and Irina didn’t eat would end up in Kate’s stomach anyway. Kate was determinedly not looking at her, which made Tanya feel worse. She had known Kate for nearly six years at this point, yet she still kept managing to step on her usually happy go lucky sister’s toes.
“Morning Tanya,” Charlie said with a sweet grin, nearly hidden under his bushy black mustache were it not for the way his eyes crinkled. “Where’s Irina?”
“Morning! She’ll be down in a minute, just running a little late.” Tanya gave her savior a tight hug.
“And who’s fault is that?” Kate said with a snort.
Tanya nearly answered, only to be distracted by her phone buzzing. She glanced down to see a text from Jessica. Guess who asked me where u were this morning? U need 2 go out with Edward, girl! He’s been wanting u 4 ever.
I’m with Eric Tanya texted back, hoping that would be the end of it. Of course it wasn’t.
U srsly need 2 dump Eric already. Edward is hotter and u don’t even like Eric much anyway. He’ll only last u another week.
Tanya grimaced. She had always known her track record of dating and dumping both boys and girls was going to come back to bite her, just not in this way. She knew of Edward’s “interest” in her since freshman year, but ever since that first weird reaction he had to her in her first ever high school English class, she just didn’t like him. While the other Cullens mostly kept to themselves, Tanya had no problem with them–originally, anyway. Even then her only true problem was with Edward. All the hotness in the world couldn’t make up for the red flags that went up with their first meeting, and the other red flags that kept popping up after. For some reason her friends didn’t see it and kept pushing Tanya to give him a chance, talking about how it’s probably destiny as Edward ignored everyone else and Tanya got bored with whoever she was dating quickly.
“Is one of your dumb friends pushing Edward on you again?”
Tanya glanced up with surprise at Kate’s question to find the other blonde watching her, gaze dark with concern and her previous problem with Tanya forgotten. With a sigh, Tanya put her phone back in her pocket, checking to make sure Charlie was too busy getting ready for work to pay attention before nodding. “Yeah. Apparently he’s already at school and asked Jessica about me.”
Kate’s grip on her fork tightened and she scowled. “I don’t like that guy; he’s a fucking creep.” She stared down at her plate for a long moment, then stabbed a piece of her scrambled eggs with a lot more force than necessary before looking up at Tanya again. “If he does anything, you let me know, okay?”
And risk you getting suspended like last time you protected me? No way.
Irina rushed down the stairs then, face lighting up with relief when she saw a plate of food left untouched. “Hey Dad,” Irina said, hugging Charlie then picking up her plate. She sat between Kate and Tanya, only to notice the heavy air between them. “What’s up? You guys okay?”
Charlie looked up with concern. “Something wrong?”
“Nothing,” Kate and Tanya chorused.
Then Tanya’s phone buzzed again. She knew she should just leave it alone, but a part of her couldn’t help it. Tanya pulled the phone out of her pocket once more and glanced at the screen. It was another text from Jessica:
Just overheard something amazing from the office. Guess what it is?
Tanya’s phone buzzed with another text before she could even wonder if Jessica actually wanted her to guess or not.
We have new students!