Chapter Text
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Bella asked incredulously, her head fuzzy as she tried to pack in mind-numbing information and the sheer insanity of her current situation.
The blonde groaned dramatically and leaned against the wall. "What do you not get? I've already explained it to you." She stated impatiently. The faint moonlight streaming through the window allowed Bella to get a fairly clear picture of the girl in her room.
Bella's mouth opened and closed as she tried and failed to form words. She didn't know whether to yell or scoff at the girl, but settled on both. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Bella turned her head to look at the clock on her bedside table, squinting to make out the slightly illuminated numbers. "It's three in the morning right now, you've just broken into my house, and proceeded to tell me that I am immortal." She snapped.
"Great, you get it. Now, can we go?" The blonde asked exasperatedly.
Bella's nostrils flared and she clamped her mouth shut to clench her jaw, training a glare at the girl and seriously debating calling the police to report an escaped mental hospital patient. She had been sleeping, albeit less than soundly due to her recurring nightmares, when she had been abruptly woken up by the sound of someone opening her door with no attempt to do so with discretion. "Do you seriously not see the issue here?" She asked, her eyes wide and incredulous in frustrated disbelief.
The blonde rolled her crimson eyes and crossed her arms, frowning with growing ire directed at Bella, who was sitting rigidly and tensely in her bed with her back pressed against the cold, mahogany headboard. The intruder ground her teeth together before sighing. "Fine. Ask your questions, but I'm not known for being very patient. We're on a strict time schedule, and you and I have places to be."
Bella didn't hesitate this time, determined to find answers. "First off, who the hell are you, and how did you get into the house?" She asked accusatively, trying to remember where she had last put the worthless piece of junk she called her phone.
"I'm Jane. I just walked through the front door." She said in a flat voice as she shrugged nonchalantly.
Bella pinched the bridge of her nose, seething with irritation. "For the sake of entertaining your delusions, we will revisit the fact that you are breaking and entering."
"The door was unlocked. You should really be more careful, especially because you're home alone." Jane interjected smoothly as she observed her nails in an unbothered manner, adding to Bella's growing anger.
"You are an intruder in my house, not to mention a vampire." Bella growled, easily recognizing the red eyes and pale skin. Jane merely shrugged once more, scanning the girl's room idly. "Now, what is this immortal bullshit you were talking about?"
"You are immortal. Your mother and father are immortal warriors called Knights, and we're going to go meet them." Bella just blinked at the girl once more with a blank expression, the information going straight over her head in an inability to even try to process it. Jane realized her mistake and clarified. "Oh, yeah. You're adopted. Sorry, forgot about that one." She stated impassively. "All things considered, that facet of information is good news." The vampire said, her unfocused eyes narrowing at the ground and her muscles coiling with tension as venom pooled in her mouth, apparent hatred for Charlie and Renee clear.
Bella, too disoriented to take note of Jane's shift in disposition, slumped against the wall, staring off into space. Jane snapped back to reality and the silence stretched on for longer than she would have liked, growing moderately concerned for the brunette's state of mind. "Huh." Bella breathed out, still in a daze.
"You still there?" Jane asked amusedly, observing the girl's slack-jawed expression with a raised eyebrow.
Bella didn't look at the blonde, eyes still unfocused and zoned out. "Yeah, I just thought that I outgrew imaginary friends a while back. Actually, I never had one. Better late than never, I suppose." She said placidly.
Jane frowned. "We're not friends, and I'm not imaginary." She said pointedly before an idea occurred to her, speaking again. "Also, I can prove that I'm not lying." She said smoothly, revealing nothing regarding her method of doing so.
Bella snapped out of her daze and eyed the blonde skeptically. "And how exactly would you do that?" She asked expectantly. Maybe it was the fact that Bella was blatantly suicidal and had no sense of self-preservation, but she wasn't even jarred by the fact that a most likely insane and very dangerous teenage vampire had just broken into her house in the middle of the night.
Charlie was in Seattle for the next two days aiding in an investigation for local law enforcement, and the whereabouts of Bella's phone were currently completely unknown; her increasingly deplorable memory and lack of an ability to recall the last she'd had it meaning that it could very well be hidden away in the middle of the forest or buried in the sand at LaPush.
"One minute." Jane held up her finger, signifying to Bella that she'd be right back as she exited the room and breezed down the steps to the first floor of the house.
Bella was admittedly unsettled by the fact that the girl was a vampire. The red eyes betrayed the truth of Jane's diet of human blood, but that wasn't what prompted Bella to be wary of her, as she was unconcerned by her feeding habits and wasn't one to mind or judge. The discomfort Bella felt in Jane's presence did not source from her diet, but rather her supernatural species as a whole given Bella's history with others of Jane's kind.
Nearly nine months prior was when she had first come into contact with vampires, and she had gotten into a relationship with one not long after. Following that, she had been welcomed into the coven of vampires he belonged to, accepted as a member of the makeshift family, and, despite a lack of blood connection between any of the members of the coven, they were a family that felt more authentic and real than Bella had ever experienced in her life.
She had spent the duration of the time with private reservations of feeling unworthy of their kindness and acceptance, an pathetic human among superior vampires, but they had dissuaded her worries with every smile they gave her and lowered the walls Bella had built around her as a child to protect herself, luring her in irrevocably. Her boyfriend at the time, Edward, had deceived her with ease, fooling her into believing that she meant something not only to him, but to the rest of his family as well. He presented her with the ability to be a part of a caring family, and the naive girl had made the egregious mistake of trusting him and the rest of them. Looking back, she wasn't quite certain if she had loved him or merely the idea of him, but she had—far beyond a doubt—grown to love his family, who accepted her with open arms.
The sole exception was Edward's adoptive sister, Rosalie, and to say that she was not thrilled by the prospect of Bella being integrated into the family would be a severe understatement. The nagging feeling in Bella's head and the twisting sensation in her gut that Edward was not who she was meant to be with consistently seemed to heighten in the presence of the breathtaking blonde vampire. Not only that, but the brunette had always felt a certain unrelenting pull in the direction of the stoic blonde, and it puzzled Bella to no end particularly because Rosalie rather openly expressed her distaste and spite for her. It made no logical sense for Bella to desire to be around the one person who didn't want her there, and the urge was one that the brunette found herself having to constantly battle and attempt adamantly to ignore.
The brunette's dwindling sense of time made it difficult for her to perceive how much time had passed since her birthday, but she was vaguely aware that it had been around a month. Bella's eighteenth birthday had been nothing less than an absolute disaster, and everything became exponentially worse following shortly after it.
Edward had insisted that she go on a walk with him in the woods the day after, the boy having been absent from class but already waiting for Bella when she'd returned for school, and the brunette had accompanied him with a sinking feeling in her gut. One look in his eyes revealed something foreign to Bella, not even remotely resembling the person he had presented himself to be, and it had been just as terrifying as it had been disorienting.
He had told her terrible things that day in the woods, his crushing words never far from her thoughts. They bounced around in the hollow of her skull perpetually, never granting her respite. Sometimes she was despairing, and other times, she was just furious with herself for being so naive as she recalled what he'd said. "You're a dreadful excuse for a human being, and you have no place in my life or the lives of my family. They already left, leaving me to deal with you. They didn't want you either." Bella closed her weary eyes, the faces of those she had grown to care so deeply for flashing behind her eyelids before she opened them again.
She swallowed hard and rested the back of her head against the wooden headboard, her eyes glazing over as she recalled more, preserved in absurdly perfect memory. "...no one would care if I killed you right now; if I sucked you dry and left your body in the forest like trash. Even though you're not worth the dirt to bury you in, I'd be doing everyone a great service by liberating your pathetic presence from their lives". Bella clenched her jaw, forcing down the emotion that clawed at her throat. "Do everyone a favor and take yourself out of this world. You nearly did it before we met, so I implore you not to hesitate this time". He had said those things so gleefully and sadistically, with a sickening smile and a malicious glint of humor in his unrecognizable eyes.
And then, he had left her. He left her there in the dark, and she had been in the dark ever since. The Cullens had abandoned her, and they'd taken with them the last modicum of vibrance life had left. Her reality had crashed and burned in such a violent and abrupt manner that she had yet to regain her bearings.
A large part of her wished that she had succumbed to the depression back in Phoenix—before she could meet the Cullens—because this pain was so much worse than the ache she had felt before. She wished she'd died before she knew what life could have been like; died without her dreams having come true only to have them all come crashing down in a brilliant, unforgiving blaze. This was so, so much worse.
Edward had ensured that she was living thoroughly in Hell, even now.
The sound of footsteps on the creaky, wooden stairs pulled Bella from her daze, blinking the inescapable and ever-present fog from the forefront of her mind. The brunette lifted her head to look up at Jane, who had stopped moving at the foot of her bed, and her eyes flew wide open when she saw the petite vampire holding Charlie's shotgun and aiming it directly at the brunette.
This, she was neither prepared for, nor expecting.
"What the f–" Bella didn't have a chance to finish the last part of her sentence before she was shot clean through the chest and her world faded to black.
Bella awoke with a start, sitting up quickly and immediately regretting the motion when pain tore through her chest. She groaned and closed her eyes tightly, clutching her chest tenderly. Slowly, the haze cleared from the brunette's mind, and she opened her eyes again. She blinked a few times as her vision refocused and she took in her surroundings, finding that she was still in her room. However, she was now coated in blood, which had splattered not only on her sheets and headboard, but also on the wall.
"She lives!" Jane mock cheered, unenthusiastically throwing her hands in the air, the blonde no longer holding the shotgun. Bella narrowed her eyes at Jane with ferocity when her memories came flooding back into her skull with disbelief. "Took you long enough." The vampire huffed as if she'd done absolutely nothing wrong and Bella was at fault here.
"You shot me, you psycho!" Bella snapped in a shrill voice with disbelief and anger.
"Yes, and you died; but, now you're back, and we're late." Jane answered simply. When Bella continued to glare at her with incredulous rage, the blonde rolled her eyes. "I told you I could prove it. Now, pack your bag while I clean this up." She ordered sternly, wasting no time and zipping off into some other part of the house, most likely to grab some cleaning supplies.
Bella looked down at her chest in wonder. Her shirt was ripped and torn, and she was utterly soaked in blood. She lifted her shirt to get a better look at her chest. She watched in amazement as her wound healed itself before her eyes. She watched the last outer linings of her beating heart and working lungs form through the sight of her ribs piecing themselves back together and regenerating, and it was hardly five seconds later when her skin had mended and healed over, not leaving so much as a blemish or scratch.
Suddenly, a sharp pain from her left shoulder blade on her back tore her from her awe and she jumped up off of the bed to go look in the mirror. She took off her shirt—which was really more of a tattered rag at this point—without the capacity to think about the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra and that she'd left the bathroom door open in her haste. She positioned herself so that her back was facing the glass of the mirror and craned her neck to peer over her shoulder to try to see the source of the pain.
It looked as if an invisible blade was actively carving a mark into her back from top to bottom on her shoulder blade. It was a thin, vertical gash, which was about an inch long and looked like some sort of tally mark. It healed over before her eyes, but, unlike the gunshot wound, it left a scar. The pain subsided and Bella furrowed her brows as she observed it, perplexed.
"That's your first mark. Congratulations, Princess." Jane smirked from the doorway. Bella whipped her head in the blonde's direction, covered her chest, and opened her mouth when Jane cut her off. "Don't you dare say I should have knocked, the door was open." She deadpanned. She then threw a pair of clothes at Bella. "Clearly, I have to do everything around here. Take a shower while I pack your stuff and clean the mess. If you're not done in ten minutes, I'll come in and drag you out." She stated, shutting the door before Bella could protest.
Bella bit her lip and shook her head to herself but obeyed since she was more than willing to clean the drying blood off of herself. She scrubbed every inch of her body; in a timely manner of course, as she didn't doubt that Jane would follow through on her promise to drag her out. If the vampire had no problem shooting and killing Bella, the brunette doubted that the vampire would have any moral conflict with pulling her out of the shower.
The brunette's heart still beat rapidly in her healed chest, adrenaline pumping through her body but the fog in her mind slowing her back down. Her world had flipped upside down, and Bella didn't think that it would ever flip upright again; irreversibly warped and distorted. Bella was so dizzyingly disoriented that she had to actually use the wall as a bit of a brace, not putting it past her clumsy self to fall.
So many thoughts filled her head that she couldn't even attempt to properly sort through them or even begin to address them, overwhelmed and hollow at the same time. Everything that had occurred since Jane had arrived had made great strides towards prompting her brain to melt and malfunction. It was all crazy—absurd beyond description—but she could hardly argue with what she'd witnessed and experienced. She supposed there was a possibility that this was some sort of fucked up dream, but everything was far more tangible than any dream—or even her waking moments over the past month—had been. She'd felt the pain of dying, and she'd felt the unsettling, disorienting, and bewildering sensation of coming back to life, and, while it was insane, it felt entirely authentic.
She quickly dried off and changed into the simple pair of clothes Jane had thrown at her, her eyes glazed over and a faint ringing noise in her ears that the brunette honestly couldn't discern as being from the sound of the shotgun or the intensity of her swarming thoughts. When she exited the bathroom and walked into her room, she saw her suitcase already fully packed on the floor next to Bella's bed, the brunette not even bothering to check its contents.
Jane was scrubbing the wall to get rid of the blood, and when the brunette took note of the absence of her bloody bed sheets, she merely decided against asking what happened to them, trusting Jane to have handled them in one manner or another. Bella might have offered to help her if the blonde hadn't shot her and caused the mess in the first place, and because she was fairly certain Jane didn't want her help and would swiftly turn her down.
Bella tilted her head to the side as she observed the blonde idly. "It doesn't bother you?" She asked curiously, having expected her to struggle with it.
The brunette realized then that she wasn't aware how long she'd been unconscious with a hole in her chest and blood all over, but, however long it had been, the blonde didn't even appear to be tempted. Her serious eyes had been red, not the obsidian black Bella had grown accustomed to seeing on the expressions of the Cullens, particularly at her party. It struck her as odd that a vampire that had a diet of human blood would be at ease around so much blood when a coven of vegetarians weren't.
Jane glanced at her briefly but remained focused on the task at hand. "The blood? No. I've been around for a long time, and I have great control. It burns a little bit, but only faintly. I feed on humans only to keep up appearances; when the need to present myself is not current, I actually hunt animals quite frequently."
"What do you mean by 'keep up appearances'?" Bella asked quizzically, grabbing a brush from her desk and running it through her still mildly damp hair.
"I'm a member of the Volturi. Feeding on animals would not only lower the respect I receive and prompt some to question my position and effectiveness, but it would also draw more attention to me in a scrutinizing manner, which is something I can't afford. The Volturi are not receptive to signs of those within their ranks displaying any hints at having some semblance of morality or a conscience." Jane paused momentarily, backtracking due to her uncertainty of the extent of Bella's knowledge. "Do you know who the Volturi are?" Jane asked the human, turning her head to the side to face her.
The name rang a bell in the brunette's head and she almost instantly recalled what Edward had told her about them. It was the night of her disastrous birthday party when he told her about the wicked ways of the self-imposed government of the vampire world. "The Volturi are like the government of all vampires, right?" Bella asked for confirmation.
Jane nodded and continued cleaning. "Yes. They are tasked with keeping the existence of vampires a secret, and they enforce the rules they created. While the laws are fairly reasonable, the same cannot often be said for the three kings." The blonde said with no small amount of distaste. "They're rather grandiloquent and certainly supercilious, and their methods are draconic. They don't govern for justice, they do it as a display of power. They rule the vampire world because they cannot fathom not being in control." She concluded flatly.
"If you disagree with the way they conduct themselves, why do you remain?" Bella questioned, not understanding why the blonde would subject herself to that.
Jane sighed. "My twin brother Alec and I were asked to keep an eye on them. Your kind, Knights, are a much lesser known—but far more powerful—kind of immortal race. Very few know of their existence. Even the Volturi know nothing of Knights past a few vague rumors and old tales, and they've dismissed the possibility of the validity of the existence of Knights due to the scarce and flimsy proof. The Volturi think of themselves as all-powerful, but, really, they only have that kind of power because Knights let them."
Jane stood on top of the bed to reach a different spot. "Alec and I met a Knight thousands of years ago, not long before we were turned. Alec and I were sentenced to burn at the stake because our village accused us of being witches, and while the Knight couldn't give us immortality, he had a friend who could give it to us and offered to bring us to them. Knights are born immortal and have no way to transfer that to another being, while vampires are the opposite.
"A day before the sentence could be carried out, the Knight broke us out of the makeshift prison in our village and helped us escape, bringing Alec and I away to meet up with his friend. He ensured that we understood the price of becoming vampires and everything that comes with it before allowing it, having his friend—a woman from a distant village—turn us. He remained present for the three days of the change and stayed for a while afterwards, helping us adapt and providing us with everything we needed.
"When we discovered that Alec and I had very powerful gifts, the Knight requested that Alec and I join the Volturi—knowing we'd be accepted without any debate due to our gifts—to keep an eye on them from the inside. We accepted, and we have been with the Volturi ever since, collecting and reporting intel to the Knight on vampire affairs and crises around the world that might require a Knight's attention.
"Neither Alec nor I regret agreeing to help, and the Knight has made it clear that he will not have any qualms if we wish to leave the Volturi, as his aid when we were in trouble was not conditional and came merely from a desire to help, and the Knight has offered for us to live with him and the others should my brother and I decide to leave.
"Alec and I are treated very well within the Volturi, and, honestly, if we were to ask for the most obscure, expensive thing in the world, they'd find a way to get it to us in the span of a week, tops. The issue we have isn't with our treatment, but by how the Volturi treat others, in addition to their repulsive personalities." Jane remarked with a small smirk before getting back to the topic.
"Agreeing to the task was the least we could do to repay the Knight, and, although it's not exactly fun to be in the presence of the stuffy old members of the Volturi, we know that this is important." She paused momentarily. "I just hope that, one wonderful day, I'll be the one to do the honors of ripping the heads off of the three kings and reducing them to ash." Jane said with a combination of disgust and humor, her distaste for the Volturi obvious.
Despite her hatred towards them, she was content with her position and glad to help out the man who had saved her and her brother all those years ago. It was a debt she hoped she could one day repay, even though he continuously waved the idea of such a thing and insisted that their loyalty and support was more than enough.
For a moment, Bella considered talking to Jane about her and her brother being sentenced to burn at the stake, but she decided to bookmark it for later and instead headed to the bathroom, Jane clearly not expecting a response and once again absorbed in her task. Bella brushed her teeth, just feeling like the entirety of her needed to be clean. She was also pretty positive she had a lingering taste of her own blood in her mouth, but she paid it no mind.
"So, who was the Knight?" Bella asked curiously, plopping down in her desk chair after returning from the bathroom.
Jane wrapped up what she was doing and jumped off of the bed, dropping the supplies in a basket. "I suppose I should refer to him as King Ambrose." She then looked directly at Bella. "He's your father."
Bella merely stared at her and blinked for a moment before she dropped her head in her hands and rubbed her temples to try to take everything in. She was seriously regretting not having a stockpile of Tylenol handy. "So that adoption thing wasn't a joke?" The brunette couldn't exactly say she would be sad to part with Charlie and Renee given their treatment of her.
"Nope." Jane replied, vanishing from the room in a blur to put the cleaning supplies away.
"And did you say king?" Bella asked in a regular voice, fully aware that from the other side of the house Jane could still hear Bella even if she had whispered. She certainly hadn't forgotten about her supposed birth-father's title.
"Yes, I did. He is the King of Knights." Jane responded, sitting on Bella's bed and facing her in the blink of an eye, her posture somehow simultaneously casual and poised. "Princess isn't a nickname; it's your title. You're royalty in the immortal world."
Bella leaned her head back and gazed at the ceiling. "My brain is facing the very serious risk of short-circuiting due to the sheer absurdity of the information you've told me tonight. It's honestly a wonder that I'm even stringing words into sentences at the moment." She muttered.
The brunette then did her best to absorb what she'd been told and what she'd experienced in such a short span of time and in such an abrupt manner, but, even with all of the facets of information that could be considered good things, Bella still had that hollow feeling in her chest that she'd felt long before she'd actually sustained a literal hole in it. Jane thankfully didn't comment, just allowing the brunette to try to process it. Jane was snarky, yes, but she did sympathize with the girl and decided it best to at least let her breath for a few minutes.
"You know, that hurt. I will say that I wasn't expecting you to pull out a shotgun." A ghost of a smile appeared on Bella's lips at her attempt at lightening the mood, her eyes still looking blankly at the ceiling.
The corners of Jane's lips twitched upwards, but she chased the budding smile away and pushed forward. "Before you ask, that scar on your back is called a mark. You get one every time you die." Jane informed her calmly, leaning back on the bed and propping herself up on her elbows. She didn't truly hate Bella's company, despite acting in a manner that suggested otherwise, and she had to say that the brunette was taking this fairly well, all things considered.
"Interesting", was all Bella offered in response, still staring with unfocused eyes at the ceiling. She thought about the marks and what they meant, prompting her chest to constrict with dread at the implications of it, which would bar her from what she had planned to do in only one day. It had to be before Charlie returned, as she'd heard him on the phone with an institution in Seattle days prior. He intended to send her to a psych ward when he returned so she could be someone else's problem, and she'd moved up the date of when she'd planned to end her life—without any reluctance—because of it. She had no intention of living anymore, and certainly not in a psych ward.
She voiced her question before she could think better of it, needing to know for certain. "Suicide is a fruitless attempt, then, isn't it?" She asked quietly, her gaze dropping from the ceiling to meet Jane's. Bella's lips were pulled slightly upwards in a tiny, forced, and broken smile that more so resembled a grimace, but the question behind her words remained sincere.
Jane flexed her jaw when she recognized that the brunette's question was serious, also discerning easily that Bella had truly considered it, and she nodded slowly. The thought of anyone having to deal with such thoughts was completely foreign and saddening to Jane, unable to even imagine what Bella must be going through internally to prompt such thoughts and inclinations. Still, showing or conveying emotion other than irritation or smugness was never the blonde's strong suit, so she chose not to speak on it, instead letting a heavy but comfortable silence fill the room.
Jane soon decided to break the silence and try to steer the princess's mind away from such a harsh subject. "Alec and I are your personal guards. We've checked in from time to time throughout the duration of your entire life." Jane informed her placidly, prompting Bella to refocus on reality with intrigue.
"I have personal stalkers?" Bella asked sardonically with a grin, raising an eyebrow.
"Your father and your mother, King Ambrose and Queen Astrid, had you sent off to be adopted after your birth for your protection, away from the dangerous world we live in. They thought that sending you away and giving you a normal life would be your best chance at both normalcy and safety, as being a Knight—not to mention immortal royalty—can be burdensome and pressuring. Trust me when I say it was extremely hard for them to make that decision." Jane conveyed her sincerity through eye contact. Bella nodded slowly and silently, not interrupting.
"Either Alec or I would check up on you every few months or so when we could slip away from the Volturi unnoticed to make sure you were alright. And then, you moved to Forks and met the Cullens." She said with no small amount of bitterness, palpable hatred for the family radiating off of her. She didn't think they were bad people until they abandoned Bella the way they did.
"Your parents were understandably wary about you spending time with vampires, so I made more frequent trips to see you. Alec and I weren't around when you met those nomads, but we had just reached the ballet studio and were about to jump in to join the action when James tried to turn you, but that prick Squidward beat us to it." She huffed, clearly unhappy that she missed killing the tracker who had hurt Bella.
That caused a small smile to form on Bella's lips as she watched the no doubt many centuries old vampire pout like a child. She hummed in amusement at the name Jane had called her ex-boyfriend, but also mentally apologized to Squidward for the unwarranted comparison to such a vile and horrible boy.
"And then, you had your eighteenth birthday. It was decided at your birth that you would return shortly after your eighteenth birthday, and that day is today. So, I'm here to collect you and bring you home." Jane finished.
Home. The word bounced around the hollow of Bella's skull. It was a word that in Bella's life had such a negative connotation to it. Neither of her parents—adoptive parents, she supposed—ever cared about her. For a long time in her life, she wondered if they had any sort of attachment to her whatsoever, and it confused her to no end that they'd decided to have a child that they'd clearly never held any love for.
Renee was worse than Charlie. She had always been explosively verbally abusive and cruel towards Bella, even in her youth. Then, one day, when Bella was eight, her mother hit her. She had been arguing with Bella because Bella had forgotten to pick up a marker in the living room. Bella apologized and tried to go put it away, but her mother wasn't done berating her for the trivial and unintentional mistake. She started yelling about a bunch of other things along those lines, all irrelevant mishaps, and ended up striking Bella across the face.
Instead of apologizing, she did it again.
Renee once pushed Bella down the stairs when she was eleven in a fit of rage, which resulted in her getting a concussion and breaking her leg, but that had been the worst of the injuries. The rest faded with time. She was glad to live with Charlie. He didn't hit her or scream at her, but he was still quite agitated by her presence.
They lived in the same house but they really only spoke perhaps five times a week, communicating on groceries and technical things when the need arose. He liked to be alone, which was fine with Bella because she preferred to be alone as well. However, the degree to which he ignored her stung almost as much as Renee's hits. Neither of her parents offered her any semblance of love or appreciation, not once, and every time she attempted to form a stronger relationship with them, she was either given a cold shoulder, wounding words, or literal wounds.
To know now that she'd had real parents all along, parents that had sent her away—no matter their pure and noble intentions—and had thus essentially sentenced her to enduring a life she couldn't ever remember not loathing, made her bitter. However, she was far too exhausted mentally and emotionally to fit anger into her skull at the moment, so, while she didn't feel it in its full intensity, she wasn't nearly fine with it.
"Okay." Jane stood up and clapped her hands together. "Enough story time; let's go." She grabbed Bella's suitcase and breezed down the stairs with it in a flash. Bella walked to her window to see a sleek, black car parked on the street that promised to bring Bella to wherever life would take her next, and likely in a drastically different direction.
The brunette idly ran a finger over the old window frame, the paint flaking and showing the age of the house. When the question of why she should go floated to the forefront of her mind, the brunette corrected the question so she could answer it properly. Why should she care? She had no fight left in her anymore, and the only plans she'd had for two days from now were now permanently scrapped. Jane may be insane, but she was also right. She had every reason to doubt the strange blonde vampire, but she couldn't argue with what she'd seen, and she didn't care enough to.
She looked around her room and sighed. The only good memories she had in here were spent with people who had abandoned her. With no one who loved her or cared about her, she wouldn't even truly be leaving a life behind. She had nothing left to lose, and thus nothing here that she would miss. She had no problem leaving the dreadful town of Forks and the ghosts within it behind.
Bella paused in the doorway when a piece of silver caught her eye, backtracking to her bedside table and looking at the jewelry, momentarily unsure of what to do with it. Ultimately, she picked it up, the cold of the silver a stark contrast to the warmth of Bella's hand, and wandered into the bathroom. The brunette looked in the mirror, hesitating for a moment before she sighed and just clasped the necklace around her neck. Bella stared at it in her reflection, observing the simple silver engraved rose that was positioned just below her collarbone.
She didn't think Rosalie had given it to her because of her name, more plausibly believing that she gave it to her for the symbolism of love and passion. However, that raised several possible questions, particularly the deeper meaning behind it. What love was Rosalie referring to? It was out of character for Rosalie to give Bella such a meaningful gift, but she supposed it was because it required no talking on Rosalie's part.
Looking at the pristine silver rose, her thoughts drifted towards all of the people in her life that had been significant in one way or another, and she came to the sobering conclusion that she had never truly experienced redamancy; loving someone that returned that love in full. She had begun, in recent weeks, to look over how she had felt about Edward with a more scrutinizing eye, and she truthfully wasn't even sure if what she'd felt for him was love. Regardless, she was wrong in thinking that Edward had loved her, and she was wrong in thinking that the Cullens cared for her, having made the mistake of taking them all at face value.
Then again, Edward was so adept at manipulation and deceitfulness that Bella wasn't sure if what he'd said that day in the woods was a lie; not about him, but about his family. He had told her point-blank how little he thought of her, and that was something Bella didn't doubt in the slightest. How he'd acted—the things he'd said and the way he'd behaved—was something that she couldn't write off as insincere, and she harbored not a single doubt in her mind that Edward had finally been completely honest with her about how he felt about her. He had lowered his mask, telling her terrible things with such conviction, passion, malice, hatred, and even sadistic pleasure, and that was something that could not be fabricated.
However, he had screwed so thoroughly with her head the night he left that she couldn't untangle the lies from the truth regarding his family. Edward had deceived her very convincingly by pretending to love her, but she was somewhat to blame for not recognizing subtle signs and slight cracks in his facade over the months they were together. His family, however, had never once faltered in expressing kindness towards her that seemed just as genuine as Edward's words that day in the forest.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, meeting her own tired eyes in her reflection. Whether they had truly cared for her or not, Bella could not discern, and, regardless of the possibility that Edward had been lying when he had told her that they viewed her as a pet and subsequently a burden, they had still abandoned her. Even if they hadn't been fooling her with a facade as Edward had, they had abandoned her, and that spoke volumes.
Yet, Bella couldn't find herself able to remove the necklace that really served as a reminder of the family that had left her. The necklace was beautiful, yes, but that was not the reason she couldn't muster the ability to unclasp it. It puzzled her for a moment, wondering if, on some level, she was simply unwilling to leave them completely behind, but she ultimately cast aside the train of thought, resigning to keep the necklace and leaving the bathroom after turning off the light.
It was perhaps odd that she felt so little within her when taking one last look around her house, the brunette moderately convinced that she should feel something, but no emotion accompanied the knowledge that she would be leaving and likely never returning. There was a scintilla of relief, but that was all, and she simply turned to walk outside, walking over to the car where Jane was waiting.
"So, I'm just supposed to go with you, no questions asked?" Bella asked, walking calmly over to the blonde vampire.
Jane raised an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly upwards in a grin. "You've been asking plenty of questions already." She flatly replied.
Bella rolled her eyes and came to a stop in front of the car, not making a move to get in quite yet and looking pointedly at Jane. "How do I know this isn't some sort of elaborate, over the top kidnapping scheme?" She questioned, crossing her arms.
The blonde scoffed. "I'm not patient enough for that. If I were going to kidnap you, I'd just knock you out and take you, which I could have done before you'd have even had the chance to process that I was in your house. I am also seriously considering doing it right now." She deadpanned.
Bella pursed her lips and ditched all of her remaining sanity, bidding farewell to thinking logically and climbing into the passenger seat after Jane had opened the door for her. The small vampire then blurred over to the driver's side and put the car into drive, wasting no time peeling away from the curb at a high speed. For a brief moment, a ghost of a somber smile crossed the brunette's lips as she recalled how ridiculously fast the Cullens drove.
The world was dark outside and the only light came from the subtle, twinkling stars above and the headlights from the car. Being the only car on the road at this time of night—or, more so, very early morning—meant that there were no interruptions or hindrances as they sped down the winding roads and passed the looming trees, shrouded in shadows that formed a seemingly impenetrable wall that were a barrier of the forest.
Bella eventually broke the silence that had settled in the car, turning her gaze from staring idly out the window to the vampire beside her. "I get that you're undead, but your cloak is a little over the top. You're, like, the epitome of the depiction of vampires in the media, and I'd be convinced that you sleep in a coffin too if I didn't already know that vampires don't sleep." Bella commented with a tiny grin.
A grin tugged at Jane's lips. "What can I say, I'm dramatic. Besides, it's not like I get much of a choice; it's the Volturi uniform." She replied sardonically.
"Where are we even going?" Bella asked after a moment when the thought occurred to her, her brows knitted together. The only information Jane had provided thus far regarding their destination was that it was where Bella would meet her birth parents. "Also, should we be concerned about Charlie in the wake of my abrupt absence?" She added.
She wondered how Charlie would react to her sudden disappearance, but she imagined he'd be more pleased than concerned. He treated Bella more like a nuisance than his daughter, so it wouldn't be an outrageous assumption that the only investigating he would do would be out of obligation as the Chief of Police rather than genuine desire.
"We're going to a private island that is hidden from the rest of the world, protected by a kind of barrier to shroud it from view—including satellite imaging—and dissuade mortals from unknowingly venturing close to it in one way or another. The only inhabitants there are people of your kind, and only few live there consistently because the island is more of a training compound than a permanent residence." Jane answered easily.
Bella decided to bookmark the mention of training as Jane continued. "And, as for that vile excuse for a man you called a father, he'll know nothing. To the rest of the world, you'll be a missing person; later presumed dead, no doubt. Believe me when I say they'll never find you, so you have nothing to worry about." It was impossible to miss the venom and disgust in Jane's tone when she spoke of Charlie.
The brunette tilted her head, observing the blonde. "I take it you don't like Charlie?" Bella questioned.
She had never really called Charlie anything other than his first name, as he wasn't receptive to anything else and they were certainly not affectionate, but the concept of him being her father had, of course, always existed without question, and it was odd to have to deconstruct what she'd grown up believing. That being said, she wasn't exactly torn up about not being related to the apathetic and uncaring man, and definitely not upset by the knowledge that she shared no blood relation to Renee.
"I despise him. Due to my duties at the Volturi, I was unable to remain here long, really only permitted to gain a few minutes observing you to ensure that you were alive and well before my absence could raise suspicion within my coven. I wasn't around to see much, but from the little I gathered in the situations I did witness, Charlie was an absent, selfish, and pathetic father." Jane's features darkened, a dangerous shadow crossing her expression.
"Renee, however, has always been the worst of the two in my eyes. The brief and scarce opportunities I had to check on you when you lived with her, she was yelling more often than not. From what I heard, the arguments were trivial and petty, and they never seemed to be initiated by you. I only caught pieces of a few arguments, perhaps four or five, but they sounded bad. Regardless, with the limited number of times I was able to check on you, the fact that most of them involved your mother raising her voice at you left quite the impression." Jane shook her head and flexed her jaw.
"I wanted more than anything to storm in there and teach her a lesson for treating you like that, but I couldn't without compromising too much, so I just barely managed to restrain myself. If that despicable, poisonous woman had ever laid a finger on you, however, I would compromise everything to ensure that she wouldn't ever dare do such a thing again—and I would stand by it without remorse. She's lucky she never did." Jane sneered, oblivious to the truth.
Bella averted her eyes and clenched her jaw, wincing at the memories that the false statement brought up. Her reaction did not go unnoticed by the astute vampire, who traded her gaze from the road to the brunette, assessing her analytically. Bella's eyes, although averted, betrayed the truth. The brunette was torn from her immersion in memories when the car suddenly swerved to the side of the road and skidded to an abrupt stop, Bella turning to look at Jane in question, but the blonde cut in before she could get her question out.
"Tell me she didn't hurt you. Tell me she didn't lay a finger on you, Bella." Jane requested in a low tone that was filled with dangerous venom, hoping for an answer she was beginning to doubt she would receive.
Bella bit the inside of her cheek and fidgeted slightly with her hands in her lap. After a moment, she managed to voice her answer. "I can't tell you that." She said in a grim and sullen tone, looking away from the blonde.
The red in Jane's eyes became consumed by obsidian black, and she had to pry her hands from the steering wheel when it creaked and groaned so as to not break it. "She hurt you?" Jane demanded in a rage-filled roar, locking onto Bella's eyes.
The brunette swallowed thickly. "I prefer to leave the past where it is, and I'd really rather not discuss the details." She replied in an attempt at an even tone, trying to quell the vampire's furious anger. Jane opened her mouth to respond when she caught a whiff of something and her posture went suddenly rigid. Unmistakable fear crossed her features, a sight that was entirely unsettling and terrifying to the human, unable to think of something that could possibly frighten the ferocious, stoic vampire so thoroughly.
"We need to go, now." Jane said hurriedly, hastily throwing the car into gear and tearing down the street, quickly surpassing top speed. The brunette blinked, her hands curled around the sides of the cool leather seat as her gaze shifted back to the blonde vampire, whose jaw was clenched and set in stone, Jane's hard eyes focused intently on the road ahead of her.
"Who the hell are we fleeing from?" Bella asked in an unsteady voice, looking over her shoulder and out the window, scanning the dark for someone but not being able to see past the back taillight.
"Not who; what." Jane corrected, her voice made of steel and cutting through the roar of the engine as she pressed further on the pedal. "I came to collect you because you're in danger. Because you are a Knight, after your eighteenth birthday, you start to emit traceable light energy. We didn't think you would be in immediate danger for another few months, because it normally takes longer for a Knight to become trackable, so we thought you had more time. Clearly, we were wrong." She hissed out with frustration and subdued mild panic.
"The creature that can track that light energy—the creature we are currently trying to avoid—is the one thing that can kill you and make it stick; no coming back. You might as well be a glow stick to them in their eyes." Jane gritted out, her eyes flicking to the rearview mirror every few seconds as she internally cursed.
"You're a vampire; can't you kill it?" Bella questioned incredulously. She wasn't afraid of death, but she was certainly wary at the thought of some sort of monstrous creature giving it to her.
Jane shook her head with frustration. "No. I can't hurt it, and that creature could swat me away like I'm nothing more than an irritating fly and snap me in half like a toothpick."
The brunette then abruptly felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, momentarily spacing, and reached back to touch it, but she felt nothing out of the ordinary and was unable to locate a source that prompted the unsettling sensation. It elicited an overwhelming feeling of danger, bringing Bella to the conclusion that the proximity of the creature was the cause for it. As the feeling grew, blossoming like a flower of dread in her chest, it told her that whatever was chasing them was getting exponentially closer.
"It's gaining on us; I can feel it." Bella reported, adrenaline coursing through her veins and her heart picking up speed.
"Fuck." Jane cursed in a panic under her breath, her red eyes flicking down to the odometer and noting that they were already traveling at the top speed, wilderness blurring around them as they flew down the road.
As Bella took to frantically scanning their surroundings, something very notably began to shift in her. The brunette was absolutely befuddled to find that her surroundings, which had previously appeared to her as blurred shadows, became clearer and more refined, her vision sharpening and her visibility improving beyond the capability of a normal human.
The sun was not set to rise for another couple of hours, yet the world around her seemed to gradually fill with light. She could see the road ahead of the car and the trees around her as clear as day; everything down to the drops of water on the blades of grass bordering the forest and the ridges of tiny rocks and rubble that were scattered on the road. In the matter of half a minute, she went from being able to see nothing beyond distorted shadows to seeing everything around her clearly, even in the black of night.
Her eyes fluttered as she blinked repeatedly and in quick succession, adjusting to the drastic shift in her visibility, and then shot a glance in the rearview mirror. Her rapidly beating heart abruptly halted entirely and a chill ran down her spine when she caught a glimpse of the creature looming behind the car. Hastily, she unbuckled her seat belt to turn her whole body so she could get a better look at the frightening creature.
The creature was at least ten feet tall, bulky and made entirely of rough, crude rock, seemingly cobbled together but still firmly accumulated and attached, the slight cracks in between them revealing a fiery orange glow. The molten orange glow matched the glow of its menacing and malicious eyes, which were merely two holes, and they were staring directly at Bella, making her blood run cold.
Although its mouth was not fully open, the brunette spotted a glimpse of imperfectly-shaped sharp teeth made of the same rock that the rest of it was composed of, its jaw strong and wide, and a pair of sharply-curved horns that were somewhat comparable to that of a bull—minus the fact that they were also made of unrefined rock—extended from the sides of its head near the top. It had broad, rough shoulders and a huge, muscular body, and its long fingers ended with a sharp point, appearing more like claws.
"What the fuck is that?" Bella demanded in a shrill voice, her gaze remaining to the creature, unwilling to take her eyes off of it for even a moment.
"That is an Ignisachane. They are more commonly known as fire or lava demons, which means they're absolutely the last kind of Achane that a vampire would want to run into. Only Knights have the ability to kill them, though, like the others of its kind, they are very difficult to kill; not to mention utterly impossible for me. As I said before, they are the only things that can kill you permanently.
"You're not trained to be able to fight one, which really, really sucks right now, so our only option is to try to outrun it. Unfortunately, they move damn fast for creatures of their size." She muttered. "Considering the fact that you can now see it in spite of the dark, it seems that your heightened senses and abnormal abilities are at least starting to kick in. As I'm sure you've figured out, you can clearly see in the dark and that tingling on the back of your neck alerts you when a demon is near." Jane said in a monotone voice, though she was obviously trying and failing to keep her calm.
"And you didn't think to tell me I was being hunted by fucking demons?" Bella snapped at Jane.
"I was going to break it to you on the plane so you didn't have a mental break as a result of trying to comprehend all of this in such a condensed time period. They weren't supposed to be able to find you so soon." Jane shot back, her voice sharp.
Bella clamped her mouth shut, merely keeping her gaze intently fixed on the demon, and Jane drove down curved roads at top speed with perfection to try to put distance between them and the creature, but, with each passing minute, the demon got closer. A loud, guttural roar erupted from its throat when it was only about a dozen feet away, and it suddenly launched itself forward into the air, nicking the tail of the car and causing it to spin so that the front of the car was facing the side of the road.
The momentum from going so fast and abruptly turning propelled the car into a sideways roll before Bella could even process what was happening. Time seemed to slow as glass shattered and metal warped, everything around Bella becoming a dizzying blur as the car flipped and rolled violently over and over down the road.
Bella didn't even have time to curse herself for foolishly unbuckling her seatbelt before she was thrown through the windshield of the car. The sound of Jane's voice was muffled and distant amidst the fog of shock and pain in Bella's mind as she slammed harshly onto the unforgiving cement road, her head colliding with it and the sickening sound of bones snapping emanating from her.
The world faded to black as the air was stolen from her lungs, and she felt death swiftly claim her, succumbing to her fatal injuries.
When Bella came to, she was disoriented and confused, but the sharp pain in her back did a good job at grounding her again in reality and told Bella she had just received another mark, meaning she'd died a second time.
The brunette laid motionless on the ground as pain shot through her system, and now that she had the time and consciousness to do so, she thoroughly internally cursed herself for unbuckling her seatbelt. She had several broken bones and countless gashes all over her, blood seeping from numerous wounds. She hissed out a strangled breath through gritted teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and choking back the yelp of pain that threatened to escape. The now familiar sensation of a tingle on the back of her neck was what got her to snap her eyes back open, her eyes finding the dreadful sight of the Ignisachane fast approaching and heading straight for her.
Bella was lying in the middle of the open road, unable to move, and although she was not fond of the idea of suffering a brutal death, which the demon surely promised, she accepted it regardless of the burning questions she had that had still gone unanswered. She knew that this time would be the last, considering that this monster was the only thing that could kill her and make it permanent.
Jane appeared out of nowhere, jumping in front of Bella to defend her as the demon neared. Bella tried to open her mouth to tell Jane to get the hell out of there and to safety, knowing that the blonde didn't stand a chance, but the flare of pain in her chest prevented her from getting a single word out. The demon raised its right arm and brought it down with crushing strength, but Jane dodged it. Something she couldn't dodge, however, was the creature's left hand, which backhanded her and flung her deep into the forest.
The demon then redirected its attention on Bella and roared once more, lunging for the brunette. However, it was again foiled when Jane sped out of the forest and knocked it aside. It only budged a few feet at most, and the punch Jane landed on its midsection didn't even seem to phase it despite the loud cracking noise it made. The brunette then realized the cracking was Jane's hand, which was now splintering with long cracks.
Bella's fingers began to twitch as determination seeped into her blood, her fear for Jane's life prompting her to gather the strength to drag herself into a sitting position, biting down hard on her lip to contain her screams. She looked down to locate the main sources of her pain, finding wounds that would have killed any other person. Her gaze swept over her stomach and chest, finding a large piece of sharp, warped metal protruding from her stomach, and a fairly large piece of glass embedded in her chest on her right side only about two or three inches below her collarbone.
Bella nearly took a deep breath to prepare herself, but she thought better of it due to the sharp pain in her chest. So, she didn't hesitate. She first pulled the shard of glass from her chest, hissing out a breath of air as she did so, and ignored the way that the sharp edges also cut her hands. She didn't dare take even a moment of a break after dropping the shard to the ground, not wanting to give the pain a chance to dissuade her from her next task.
She gripped the protruding metal with shaking hands and pulled it out, not being as delicate as she had hoped but getting the job done regardless and dropping it to the ground. She was incredibly thankful that she hadn't eaten in a while—two days if she had to hazard a guess—because the nausea she felt at that moment would have surely prompted her to throw up any food in her stomach; that is, if her stomach was even intact.
The brunette coughed up some blood, folding over and clutching her chest protectively as she squeezed her eyes shut. Blood oozed from her mouth over her bottom lip, dripping onto the road to mix with the already large puddles of blood that had leaked from her wounds, and Bella wiped her mouth lazily with the back of her hand, ignoring the potent taste of copper in her mouth.
She bit down on her lip again as she pulled herself slowly to her knees, asphalt embedded into her skin and her scrapes and wounds stinging against the rocky surface of the road. She ignored it as much as possible and raised her head to see the monster picking Jane up, who dwarfed in comparison to it. The vampire thrashed and did everything she could to release its hold on her, but nothing she did worked. Even so, not an ounce of fear was in her eyes as she fought against its hold, glaring at it and snarling like a vicious animal.
Bella spit out more blood and pushed off the ground to stand on unsteady legs that threatened to give out at any moment, her heart beating wildly in her chest. The adrenaline pumping through her veins numbed the pain of putting pressure on her broken left leg, and a certain surge of power washed over her in an invigorating wave. She clenched her jaw and stared down the beast with a kind of defiance and confidence that was completely foreign to her, and the monster was too focused on Jane to even notice that the brunette had gotten up.
The brunette felt every nerve in her body electrify and stand on end as energy coursed through her and her skin started to benevolently glow, emitting a very faint—but still distinctive—white light. Her pain subsided and her sole thought was to kill the monster. Her brain seemed to rewire itself and a switch that she had been oblivious to her entire life flipped in her head, like an instinct that had always been a part of her but buried until it was time for it to make itself known. A bright, white glow consumed her eyes entirely, her brown irises fading and disappearing as her mangled body healed.
Conscious thought faded, replaced by a drive of pure instinct that guided her every movement, taking control over her body and actions. Bella reached her right arm above her in the air, and, suddenly, a sword materialized in her right hand. It was fashioned in the form of a bastard sword. It was straight and double-edged, able to be used with one or both hands. It had a navy blue hilt with subtle silver designs, a straight, horizontal guard between the hilt and blade, and ended in a slightly angular pommel. It also subtly emitted some sort of energy that showcased itself in the same white light coming from Bella.
Without a thought, she lunged at the creature and raised her sword over her right shoulder, swinging it at a downward diagonal angle in full force and slicing cleanly through the rough rock torso of the Ignisachane. A shrill roar tore from its throat and it dropped Jane, who blurred behind the monster, ready to assist in any way she could if need be. Bella dodged its claws with impossible speed and grace, twirling out of the way and crouching down to take a swing at its leg. She hit her target and the monster screamed again, tilting its head to the sky as lava oozed from both its midsection and left leg.
Bella had just enough time to ready herself before it swiped at her with its right claws. Instead of side-stepping it this time, she launched herself into the air, propelled into a flip to land gracefully on its arm and swiftly cutting off its massive hand. She wasted no time pivoting and plunging her sword deep into the monster's chest, piercing the rock and twisting the blade once embedded.
The creature fell to its knees and Bella placed her feet on its chest, pushing against it to remove her sword and landing sturdily on the ground, watching as the Ignisachane's body broke down and crumbled at her feet. The ground beneath it suddenly opened up to a pit far below and shrouded from sight. Fire engulfed the creature, who roared and fruitlessly used the claw still attached to stop it from being dragged down, ultimately being pulled down into the hole. The strange opening in the ground closed back up and nothing more than a scorch mark was left as proof that the being had ever been there.
The white glow faltered and dimmed, and it took the brunette's strength with her. Bella was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness that prompted her to sway, quickly growing lightheaded, and her sword clattered to the ground, the girl no longer able to hold it. Before she could hit the ground, she was caught by a pair of small, cold arms, and she faded into unconsciousness.
Bella stirred to the hum of an engine that was significantly louder than a car. Her eyes fluttered open again and she saw that she was on a lavishly decorated private plane, the brunette being one of the two sole occupants. Jane was seated rather rigidly across from her, observing Bella intensely, and she breathed out a silent breath of relief when the brunette woke.
"We have to stop meeting like this." Bella coughed weakly with a sly, tired grin.
A grin tugged at Jane's lips. "That depends on how many times you plan on passing out or dying." Bella moved her stiff limbs to sit up, grimacing from the pain in her chest and torso and being reminded of the wounds she'd sustained in the car crash. She looked down at the second shirt that had effectively become unwearable—plus one pair of jeans, which were tattered and torn and stained with blood—in just one night. Through the tears in her shirt, she could see that her wounds were nearly healed over, the last layers of skin now regenerating. "The severity and number of injuries you sustained made the process a bit slower to complete, but the pain will be gone pretty soon and you'll be as good as new." Jane informed her.
Bella only hummed and nodded, unable to offer any semblance of a coherent thought in response. She lifted her head and turned to look out of the window closest to her, quickly noting that they were currently flying over the ocean due to the sight of solely water stretching in all directions. "How long was I out?" She asked a bit groggily, rubbing the back of her head where it had smacked the road, a faint aching pain emanating from it.
"About an hour. The car was effectively inoperable after the crash, so I just carried you and your suitcase to the airport after you passed out. The plane was already waiting for us." Jane replied smoothly, still managing to possess a poised posture despite being in a relaxed position. Bella nodded, still trying to comprehend how her life had changed so drastically in only a few short hours.
Suddenly, the brunette remembered her necklace and her eyes shot wide open, looking down quickly to make sure it was still there. When she found it still around her neck and miraculously unharmed, she let out a sigh of relief and sank back into the plush leather chair she seated in. Satisfied, she returned to staring out the window on her left.
"Do you miss her?" Jane hedged, studying Bella with analytical and somewhat apprehensive eyes.
"Edward?" Bella asked absentmindedly, thinking Jane had simply made a mistake and interchanged her ex-boyfriend's proper pronouns.
Jane wrinkled her face and shot Bella a look. "No, are you deaf? I said 'her'." She replied, reiterating her statement and making it clear that the use of that pronoun was intentional.
Bella traded her gaze from the horizon line to the girl in front of her, but only for a moment. "I heard you correctly; I just assumed that you had meant to say 'him'." Bella said, then averting her eyes from Jane and instead looking out the window again, not responding to her initial question either because she was waiting for Jane to clarify or because she was simply too spaced-out to remember it.
"I mean her, as in the blonde vampire. I wasn't around a lot, mind you, but when I was, I saw the way you looked at her." Jane clarified easily. A smirk curled at the vampire's lips as she added another facet of information. "You also said her name in your sleep a few times." She said rather smugly.
The brunette blushed, but only faintly, still focused on the water below. "Rosalie?" She asked quietly.
Jane nodded. "Yeah, that's her."
Bella watched the world subtly begin to fill with light, telling her the sun was about to make an appearance. She pressed her lips into a firm line as she considered Jane's question, tossing around the question in her head as she tried to put her feelings into words while also balancing a healthy amount of logic. Ultimately, she sighed and slumped a bit. "I shouldn't, in all honesty, but I do. She was never very... kind to me, and we weren't close, but I still miss her, and not in a small amount." She answered, the volume of her voice only just above a whisper.
The vampire sitting across from her held her tongue, having many things to say about what she thought about Rosalie and the rest of her coven but refraining for Bella's sake. She didn't reply, sitting with it in silence for a moment before standing up and leaving the cabin to retrieve something, thus leaving Bella to her thoughts.
When Jane returned only a moment later, she had Bella's suitcase in tow, putting it on the ground beside the brunette and drawing Bella's gaze to it. All things considered, the suitcase had held up pretty well, only a few dents and scratches in it. "Considering that your clothes are more like shredded pieces of fabric at the moment, and also that you're still covered in blood, I think you might want to shower and change before we arrive. We still have several hours." The vampire informed her.
Bella's brows knitted together incredulously. "There's a shower on this plane? I didn't even think that was a thing." She muttered.
Jane responded as the brunette ran her fingers through her hair and found it to be matted with blood. "Why don't you go see for yourself." The blonde said with some humor, pointing in the direction of the back of the spacious jet.
The brunette nodded and stood, ignoring the aches in her body. "Definitely a good idea." She mumbled, taking the suitcase and heading to the back of the plane.
She returned over half an hour later, having thoroughly cleaned herself and washed her hair several times until she was satisfied, the modern bathroom already stocked with everything she needed. She had also brushed her teeth and washed out her mouth to get rid of the lingering taste of blood, and she was now wearing a fresh pair of clothes, one hand holding the suitcase and the other hand holding her torn and bloody clothes.
Jane wasn't in the cabin, presumably to have gone to speak with the pilot, so Bella returned to her seat and noted that there was a lack of any blood on it, assuming that Jane had again taken up the task of cleaning up Bella's blood for the second time that night. She set her suitcase down and settled into her seat, pulling her knees into her chest by wrapping her arms around her shins and resting her chin on her knees, resuming staring out the window at the vast expanse of ocean.
About thirty minutes later, Jane returned. "Are you hungry?" She asked in a smooth voice as she sat back down, to which Bella merely shook her head. She had grown into the habit of forgetting to eat in recent weeks, and her hunger had largely subsided, and, with everything going on, food was the furthest thing from her mind. "I just spoke to your mother. She wanted to know when we'd be there and how you were. She and your father are anxiously awaiting your arrival." She reported.
Bella's clouded eyes darkened somewhat at the usage of the terms. A bitter taste worse than the taste of her blood filled her mouth. She had a different mother and father, and she wasn't sure how to process that. To know now that she had biological parents—parents who seemed to care about her well-being—was endlessly conflicting to her. They had sent her away and sentenced her to a largely miserable life; to a life without love. They didn't know that, of course, and they had done it for her safety, but she'd have honestly lived a life at complete risk of danger, whether her life be short or not, than go through what she had as a result of being sent away. She wished she'd been given a choice.
The vulnerable part of her that yearned for love she'd been denied her entire life was thrilled, but that part of her had been thoroughly put to shame by Edward and the Cullens. She had been so naive to truly believe that they cared about her, and she'd been burned and thrown further into despair than she had ever been before. So, while a part of her was thrilled, the other part or her overshadowed it with sorrow and anger. It was like putting out small fires of hope around her mind for fear of being burned again.
"I don't want parents. I don't want a family; not anymore." Bella responded impassively, keeping her gaze on the ocean, the rising sun reflecting beautifully off of the surface of the waves.
She had never had a chance with Charlie and Renee to begin with, and the family that had offered her a place in theirs had left her. She was tired of being hurt, betrayed, and abandoned, cast aside like she was worthless, and she couldn't take another blow like that.
Jane pursed her lips and laced her fingers together in her lap. "I won't tell you what to do, considering the fact that I don't have the authority and it's simply not my place, but I suggest you give them a chance. I'm certainly not an expert on forgiveness, but I know that it takes time and opportunity, and I suggest that you give them that rather than shut them out firmly and permanently. They miss you dearly and desperately want to get to know you; to get to know their daughter." She said in a placid and gentle tone, not wanting to trigger the brunette into getting defensive.
Bella flexed her jaw, fidgeting with her hands in front of her shins while keeping her gaze averted. "We are connected by blood, but nothing more than that. They have never been a part of my life, and I didn't even know they existed until today. To consider them my parents and address them with those titles is a bit premature, honestly. The only people I have come to associate with those titles made them negative terms, and I'm not quite sure whether or not my birth parents are excluded from that category yet. They may have sent me away to protect me, but they sent me away regardless, and what I have gone through and experienced as a result of their decision is something I can't ignore." The brunette bit the inside of her cheek, her eyes briefly flicking to the uncharacteristically patient vampire before fixing back on the ocean.
"Charlie ignored me whenever he could, treating me as more of an unwelcome and invasive pest that had encroached upon his life, but Renee was worse." She grit her teeth together somewhat, her posture becoming more tense and rigid. "She did more than lay a finger on me. She sent me to the hospital on more than one occasion as a result of her explosive anger that could be triggered by the most trivial bullshit." She scoffed, her eyes hard and cold as Jane's eyes started to become completely black, the blonde barely managing to suppress a growl and stop herself from gouging holes into the armrests she gripped tightly with her nails.
"And then, I met the Cullens; a family that was not my own, but also everything that Charlie and Renee never were. I was happier than I'd ever been. And then, they left me." She said in a strained tone, fighting to keep her voice even. "So, yeah, I'm not exactly ready to greet my birth parents with a bright smile of forgiveness and open arms. I can't just look past what happened to me, and trusting people—allowing myself to hope—has worn me down to the bone, because it never ends well. I'm tired of giving people my heart, just for them to drop it and stomp on it." She concluded in a dejected and dull tone.
Jane absorbed everything she said, keeping her head as level as possible and taking a breath to attempt to quell the anger that she harbored both for Bella's adoptive parents and for the Cullens. Guilt ate away at Jane's chest, because she was supposed to protect Bella, and she had failed. The brunette was alive, but, in a way, not really, and it was because of what she'd suffered through. "I failed you." She said quietly with shame, snapping the brunette from her thoughts and prompting her to look at the vampire with furrowed brows. "I'm your guardian, and failed to protect you. I'm sorry." She said in a heavy voice, swallowing thickly with guilt reflecting in her red eyes.
Bella immediately shook her head. "What happened to me wasn't your fault, Jane. You could only spare to make brief and sporadic visits due to how closely you are watched by the Volturi, which I understand, and what you do there—gathering information and such—is important." She insisted with conviction, certain of it.
"You're important." Jane replied after a moment.
The brunette frowned, a slight bitterness in her expression as she looked out the window. "Yeah, I'm a princess; whatever. It's not like I knew about all of this wack stuff until today." She muttered.
"No. I mean you're important as a person, Isabella; not your title." She corrected her seriously, her tone earnest.
Bella froze, not knowing how to process those words; words she'd never explicitly heard in her life. Her expression twisted a bit in conflict and disagreement, but she kept her mouth firmly shut. When Jane noted that the simple statement was too much for her to handle, Bella clearly unused to hearing those things, her chest constricted and she moved on.
"As for your parents, they don't know about what you've told me today, just as I didn't know the extent of how terribly you were treated previous to today. So, I do hope that you can trust me—and them—when I say that they would have never willingly allowed those things to happen to you." Jane told her without an ounce of doubt.
"However you receive them, they'll understand. They don't operate under the delusion that you'll run into their arms, as they imagined you may be upset by this arrangement or at least wary of them since you don't know them." The vampire continued. "Go at your own pace. Even if you were to turn them away forever, they would never abandon you; not even then. Ambrose and Astrid have wanted nothing more than to be a part of your life, and they finally get that chance, in any manner that you will permit them to be." She pursed her lips. "I won't speak for them any further, however. That is between you and them." Jane said patiently.
After a moment of mulling over Jane's words, Bella faced her with a contemplative look on her expression. "May I ask what your parents were like?" She asked with genuine curiosity.
Jane stiffened slightly, thrown off by the question, but relaxed and clasped her hands together in her lap. "Alec and I were born in England in 800 AD in a small farming village. Our mother was a farmer and our father was a Frankish soldier. Our father was kind and full of life, and I have fond memories of him, but he died in battle when Alec and I were six.
"Our mother was different after he died; still kind, but she changed drastically. Rarely was she in touch with the world around her, as if our father had been her anchor that tethered her to reality—a tether that severed after he died. She often forgot to do things and seemed to possess a frequently absent mind, leaving chores and tasks up to my brother and I, though she earnestly didn't intend to.
"Sometimes, she seemed to look at things that weren't there, and there were several times that I returned home to find her talking to a spot in the empty room as if a person was there. I believe she was speaking with my father, actually. She lost touch with reality more and more as time went on, and, one day, when Alec and I were ten, she wandered off and never came back." Jane concluded, her tone unemotional.
Bella frowned, her brows knitted together. "Do you know what happened to her?" She asked carefully, not wanting to push too much.
The blonde stoically shook her head. "No. At the time, we thought that she had simply left, but, as Alec and I grew up, we looked back at the fact that she didn't leave with any possessions; not even her shoes. It was the middle of winter when she left, and the winter was terrible that year, so we believe she wandered and eventually died due to the snow and temperature." She said with a casual shrug.
The brunette felt her heart squeeze in her chest. "I'm sorry about your parents." She said softly.
Jane waved her hand dismissively. "We have long since come to terms with it." She said honestly and easily.
"Thank you for sharing that with me." The brunette replied, Jane giving her a patient nod. Bella thought again about both sets of her parents, but before she could become totally submerged, she tore herself from her thoughts, unable to get sucked back into the topic for the time being.
Bella ventured further after mulling over whether it would be pushing Jane too much, ultimately deciding to simply ask. "Can I ask why you and Alec were sentenced to burn at the stake?" She asked hesitantly.
The blonde didn't mind and nodded, having no qualms with sharing it. "Alec and I were on our own after our mother died, as we didn't have any other family and there wasn't exactly a foster care system back then in the small village we grew up in. My brother and I presented psychic abilities when we were human." Bella blinked in shock, not understanding how that was possible, but didn't interrupt.
"It didn't necessarily manifest in a specific way, merely in the sense that, when people were unkind to us and made us angry, misfortune followed them in one way or another; a freak accident, their crops withering beyond saving inexplicably, their livestock dying, et cetera. As for the people who were kind to us, such as a random act of kindness like offering us food or helping us with a task, luck and good fortune followed them in some manner; their harvest being exponentially and suddenly bountiful, barely avoiding some sort of fate—accident or illness—and more." She listed off idly, Bella completely enraptured.
"It was very easy to earn our ire after the deaths of both of our parents, and the villagers grew wary of us, recognizing patterns in correlation to how we were treated by others. What we did wasn't direct or intentional, really; we would just get angry and something bad would happen to them or vice versa. Eventually, when Alec and I were thirteen, they banded together; knocked down our door in the middle of the night and dragged us into the makeshift prison that was vacant more often than not to await the return of the man who was widely regarded as the leader of our village to carry out the execution.
"Your father, King Ambrose, had been passing through the village on his travels, and he happened to be there on that night. He did not share the mania they did, despite being warned about the dangers Alec and I possessed, and he knocked out those guarding us to break us out. He saw a potential for good in us rather than a potential for bad. He helped us flee from the village, bringing us to safety. When we were safe, he gave us three options: the first was to accompany him on his travels without any condition or stipulation, the second was to head to the nearest village to gather some supplies for us and part ways, and the third was an offer to accompany him to see a friend who could grant us immortality since we had expressed an interest in it. You know the rest." Jane concluded casually with a shrug.
Bella nodded slowly, absorbing all of it. "Did your powers heighten or manifest in a certain way after you turned?" She wondered aloud, tilting her head.
Jane hummed and nodded. "Yes. Our gifts are why we have such an elevated status in the Volturi. I can cause people immense, debilitating pain just by looking at them and focusing, while Alec can rob people of their senses; complete sensory deprivation." She replied placidly.
The brunette opened and closed her mouth for a moment before a grin curled at her lips. "Honestly, I can't say it's shocking that you'd have that gift. It's very on-brand for you." Bella quipped, making Jane smirk. "Speaking of abilities, are we going to talk about me becoming a human glow stick?" The brunette asked wryly with a grin. "Also, I fail to grasp how the hell I managed to kill that thing. I've never even held a sword in my life, not to mention the fact that being clumsy is one of the hallmarks of my personality and I have a hard enough time walking in a straight line without tripping." She deadpanned.
Jane laughed and nodded. "Immortal glow stick, actually. You're not a human; you're a Knight." She said pointedly, correcting Bella's statement and receiving an eye roll before moving on. "I will explain it, but only partially, as I'm not really the person to talk to about those things." She conceded with a nod, sobering up.
"The demon triggered an instinct in you to arise; an instinct that was born embedded in you but not activated until you came into contact with the demon. You were born a warrior and created to kill demons, so it just clicked when you needed it; and thank god it happened when it did." Jane remarked gratefully. "Although the decision to use your power was automatic and unconscious this time, it will not always be that way. With training and practice, you will be able to wield that power at will."
She then pointed at a seat across the plane where a weapon sat, and Bella immediately recognized the sword that had appeared to her before she'd engaged the demon. "That's your sword. The first time a Knight uses their powers, they spawn their sword, which is indestructible. No distance can prevent it from reaching you, as you can summon it at will. You could leave it somewhere and travel to the opposite side of the world, and you could still summon it to you without fail. So, you can't lose it, which is certainly beneficial. As for your mention of being clumsy, that quality will fade very quickly." Jane informed her placidly, Bella particularly glad to hear that last bit of information.
"Your sword is the weapon you will wield in battle. Knights use blades, not guns, though I assume you'll be trained in all fields of combat to be prepared for any situation. Your sword is personalized and only responds to you. Mortals can't pick it up, but true immortals, which are Knights, can. The same can't exactly be said for vampires." She said, earning a confused and questioning look from the brunette and elaborating further.
"We are immortal, yes, but we're not purely so. We're more like an odd genetic fluke; something not meant to be. Only vampires with some sort of bond or connection to you can pick it up. I am your guardian, so I can pick it up, which is how I was able to bring it with us. A random vampire, however, such as one of the nomads, would not be able to pick it up—or even make it budge, for that matter. It takes a real bond, like that of a guardian or a mate, to pick it up. The weapon recognizes that sort of connection and responds to it that way." Jane explained.
"Wicked." Bella said with a hum and a slight grin, fond of the weapon and its many attributes, before sobering up and returning to a particular word Jane had used. "Knights have mates?" She asked quizzically.
Jane nodded. "Yes. Knights have mates, much like vampires. You will know immediately when you meet them, but it will only be obvious after the transformation, which happened tonight for you. You might have met them before and felt some sort of confusing pull, but if you were to meet them again after you transition into a full Knight, you'd know immediately. At least, from what I've heard." She said with a shrug.
Bella's mind instantly wandered to Rosalie, easily recalling the strange pull and inexplicable, intense feelings. Rosalie being her mate was a concept that seemed to fit perfectly, and, the more Bella revised her feelings and actions when around the blonde, the more convincing it became until it finally and irrevocably clicked in her head.
The conclusion that Rosalie was her mate was not one that came without misery and dread, because Rosalie had abandoned her. Bella shrunk into herself a bit as the realization that her mate didn't want her momentarily made it hard to breathe. Rosalie had left; her mate didn't care about her.
Jane didn't comment on Bella's disheartened and crushed demeanor, the conversation having come to a close regardless, and she resolved to turn on the TV and watch whatever was on for the time being so as to not put pressure on the girl.
With an even poorer track record of sleep in the previous night than usual—plus the addition of dying twice and the demon fighting—Bella fell asleep not long after. She was asleep for only about two hours, however, before she woke up in a start from her consistent nightmare. Jane had tried to shake the brunette awake, but Bella had shot out a hand in her panic and hit the blonde, sending her flying across the interior of the plane and miraculously only breaking a cabinet in the process when Jane collided with it.
She had jumped up and apologized profusely, but the vampire had waved it off, more amused than anything due to the brunette's growing strength, albeit a bit concerned by the girl's seemingly brutal nightmares. Bella had kept her lips tight aside from her apologies and Jane didn't press, the brunette clearly not up to talking about it.
She had suffered from the same nightmare every night since the Cullens had left, but it never got easier.
Jane then proceeded to demand that Bella eat at least a nutrition bar when the brunette once again refused to eat. The blonde had certainly not missed how dangerously skinny Bella was, and it was clear that Bella was denying her body of its need for food, so she refused to relent on the matter. After a very stern look from the blonde vampire, the brunette gave in and ate the bar.
"Hey, Jane?" Bella asked airily, having resigned to again set her gaze on the ocean as they ventured across it.
Jane lifted her gaze to look at the brunette. "Yes?"
"What's my real last name?" She asked curiously, supposing that Swan had been the name given to her when she had been adopted.
"Silvestri. Your full name is Isabella Astara Inkeri Silvestri." Jane replied easily.
The brunette's face scrunched up a bit. "Four names? Isn't that overkill?" She said somewhat incredulously.
Jane's lips twitched upwards. "Well, your parents have four names as well." When Bella raised an eyebrow, she listed them. "Your father is Ambrosois Nikolaos Sotiris Silvestri, though he goes by Ambrose, and your mother is Astrid Aurelia Marcena Silvestri, and she just goes by Astrid, and you are Isabella Astara Inkeri Silvestri, and, as I've picked up, you go by Bella."
The princess let out a low whistle. "That's a lot of mouthfuls." She muttered, Jane unable to stop the grin that curled at her lips. Bella then quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head, turning her head to look at the vampire. "Astara and Inkeri?" She questioned, not recognizing the origins of the names or their meanings.
Jane nodded. "Astara is derived from Greek, meaning 'star'. Your mother used to call you her 'little star'." Bella's lips twitched with the hint of a gentle smile at hearing her true name and what it meant. A small ember of joy sparked in her heart and brought her some warmth, if only briefly. "Inkeri is Old Norse." Jane said slowly, furrowing her brows. "It means 'beautiful goddess', if I remember correctly. Your father was born in ancient Greece, hence the Greek name, and I recall them saying that they met in Scandinavia and lived there for some time, hence the Old Norse name." Jane concluded with a shrug.
Bella blinked slowly, attempting to process all of that information before simply giving up, unable to comprehend the mention that her father was born in ancient Greece. The brunette instead picked up her sword and examined it, the metal so clear and reflective that she could see herself perfectly.
She did a double take when she saw her eyes and held the blade up closer to her face to get a better look. Her eyes, usually a dark brown, had somehow become more like a hazel. They contained stunning and obvious flecks of gold in them, her eyes now a lighter brown and looking like a subtle but beautiful mixture of colors. She gaped at the sight and immediately looked to Jane, whose eyes had never left her, for an explanation.
"Transitioning into a Knight will bring forth some changes. You'll put on a few inches in height, no doubt, and you'll certainly gain some muscle mass—muscle you will gain at first without prompting and later build upon and refine in training." The blonde tilted her head and observed Bella. "It's possible for your other features to alter a bit, and it seems that your eyes already have. They look great." Jane complimented, liking the look on her. Bella didn't even respond, just going back to looking at her now foreign eyes again.
Watching TV did nothing to dissuade the restless energy that had begun to make Bella itch to go outside and do something, which was also a completely foreign feeling. Less than twenty-four hours prior, she'd had trouble getting out of bed, but now she felt the strong urge to go do something and busy her idle hands. She tried to take the changes in stride, and she certainly hoped that Jane's promise of her losing her clumsy nature would follow through, because she wasn't sure how many strides she could take without tripping.
"We're here."