Sight Unseen 38

“Why are you bringing a strange vampire into my home?”Edward asked when Tanya and the group that had gone with her to save Victoria walked into the Cullen’s home with Victoria. Victoria who had become rather tense as they got closer to the house. Tanya had asked her if she was alright and although Victoria told her she was Tanya didn’t believe her. It made the Denali coven leader wonder if the reaction was related to Victoria’s gift. Tanya had quietly asked Eleazar about it while they were making their way back but Eleazar didn’t know what it was. He claimed to know the gift Victoria had was a very powerful one but his gift wasn’t able to identify it. Eleazar said that it was likely defensive and the gift itself was protecting Victoria against his gift. He also suspected that it probably protected Bella as well. Tanya liked hearing that because that meant Bella had the protection of a powerful defensive gift when she was around Victoria. Knowing Bella had to stay human for a while longer Tanya would take any help she could get to keep her daughter safe.

“This is Victoria. She will be staying with us from now on.”Tanya would need to discuss Victoria officially joining the Denali coven later.

“You don’t the right to invite people to live in my house.”Edward wasn’t going to allow another stranger who’s mind he couldn’t read to stay in his house. Especially because Victoria’s very presence screamed danger and had his instincts telling him to flee as fast as he could because he knew he didn’t have chance of winning a fight against her. Not a fair fight at least.

“Carlisle we just saved Victoria from a false mate bond. She has nowhere to go so we invited her to stay here until she has a chance to make some decisions. Surely a man of god wouldn’t turn his back on someone in that position.”Tanya shot Bella a look when she heard the human scoff. The plan was to play nice with the Cullens until they could work out Bella’s future. Bella agreed to stay at the Cullen’s as long as she didn’t have to interact with the Carlisle, Edward, Jasper and Esme. They also weren’t telling anyone about the mate bond between Victoria and Bella. It was an advantage they were going to keep hidden until it couldn’t be hidden anymore.

“Of course I would never turn away a lost soul.”Carlisle like Edward felt how dangerous Victoria was and was wondering how he could get her to join his coven. She would intimidate a lot of people into doing what Carlisle said.

“Carlisle you can’t be serious. The woman looks like she has been living in the wild for over a hundred years. She likely isn’t civilized. Plus she drinks human blood. We can’t trust her around the human.”Edward flinched when Victoria growled at him.

“I would never hurt Bella. She saved me.”Victoria wouldn’t hurt her mate.

Kate deciding to stir up shit asked.”Where’s Jasper?”

“Jasper got called away to help his friends Peter and Charlotte.”Edward lied. Well Jasper was really going to visit Peter and Charlotte. What Edward lied about is him being called to help them. After Jasper had seen the photos Bella told everyone about he calmly packed his most important personal belongings and told Edward he was going to visit Peter and Charlotte. He told Edward he would be back when he was ready to see Edward again. Edward had pleaded with him but Jasper left anyway.

“That’s mighty nice of him to help a friend.”Emmett joined in on Kate’s fun.

“Jasper is a truly selfless man.”A man that Edward wasn’t sure would ever look at him the same way again.

“This is all very interesting but Victoria and I are going to my room. I’ll let you know when we are done talking.”Bella didn’t care about Edward or Jasper.

“Are you sure I can’t come with you?”Rosalie wanted to be involved in the discussion for many reasons. The biggest one was she didn’t want Victoria to be alone with Bella where she couldn’t at least hear what was going on.

“I need to talk to her alone.”Bella was getting annoyed with everyone trying to join her conversation with Victoria.”Come on Victoria.”

“She is not to go upstairs.”Edward yelled.

“Ignore him I do.”Bella told Victoria as she led the red head up the stairs and into her room. Once they were both inside she shut the door.

Victoria looked around seeing how clean everything was.”I don’t feel comfortable sitting on anything.”

“Just sit in the chair and I’ll give you some of my clothes and hygiene products for you to take a shower after we speak. I would say take one now but the others won’t leave us alone that long and we have a lot to talk about.”Bella predicted they would be lucky if they got an hour.

“A shower sounds nice. James wasn’t concerned about such things or anything really other than the hunt. If it wasn’t for me we would have no money saved or anywhere to stay except for the homes of the people we killed.”Victoria never did get comfortable living that lifestyle.

“Do you have the resources to take care of yourself?”Bella didn’t know much about how nomads made money.

Victoria pulled the chair in the room closer to the bed where Bella was sitting and sat down.”I am considered extremely wealthy for a vampire. I have a gift for predicting trends in the stock market.”

“Is it an actual gift?”Bella asked.

“No it isn’t an actual gift. It’s entirely based on paying attention to the way humans have lived since I was changed. After traveling the world for so long I have come to understand what humans want.”Victoria explained.

“Other than the sisters you are the oldest vampire I have met.”Bella still had trouble wrapping her head around being alive for so long.

“What do you know about me?”Victoria was curious to know what Bella had been told.

“I dare say I know everything about you. Even things I bet you wish I didn’t know. When Anne showed up yesterday she was the one who told me that the group I was with were vampires and all about them. She told told me that you were my mate and I needed to be in that field playing baseball to save you or the kings would have killed you. That was the only time we would have been able to meet. After she explained what a mate bond was she told your entire history. Your human life, about your original coven, what made you join up with James and what you have been doing since you did. I mean I’m sure she left out stuff but I know more than the basics.”Bella explained.

“I don’t like that she told you so much.”Victoria would prefer to have told her mate about her life herself.

“In her defense she did it so that I wouldn’t judge you based on your actions while you were with James. She wanted me to know that you weren’t a sadistic, psycho who took pleasure in torturing humans for fun.”Bella was glad Anne told her about the real Victoria.

Victoria flinched thinking about what she had been doing since meeting James.”I really am not that person. I don’t even know why I went along with half the stuff I did. As soon as we locked eyes and the mate bond fell into place a lot things didn’t make sense anymore. I mean it was obvious that James wasn’t my mate. I’ve never ever been attracted to men. Plus he physically and verbally abused me. Even the idea of raising my voice to you is inconceivable.”

“Most of it wasn’t your fault. You met James and Laurent months after your coven died. You were feeling overwhelming guilt and grief. The men pounced on your vulnerability using Laurent’s gift which is best described as glamour on steroids to make you go along with anything they said. Anne told me that Laurent’s gift if used for long periods of time makes the effects last for longer between him having to use it. Meaning you were still under the effects when he wasn’t there.”Bella hated to be the one to tell Victoria about this but someone had to.

“That bastard made me their puppet!!”Victoria wished she had taken their time killing both men.

“You not being of sound mind when you met them made you more susceptible to the effects of Laurent’s gift.”Bella told her.

Victoria growled.”I have wasted so much time and done despicable things all because of them.”

“They have been the driving force behind your actions since most of your coven was killed.”Bella said.

“You said someone is alive and they need my help. Who is it?”Victoria knew it wasn’t Anne even though she wished it was.

“When the Volturi came for your coven it wasn’t because you had committed any crimes. They came because they wanted you and Heidi for the guard.”Bella reached out her hand and took Victoria’s in her own when the vampire shot out of her chair growling loudly.

Victoria took a deep breath and gently squeezed Bella’s hand. Retaking taking her seat she reminded herself that Bella was human and not the one responsible for anything. That meant she needed to stay calm so she didn’t accidentally hurt Bella.”I was away at the time. Can you tell me what really happened?”

“Aro is obsessed with collecting gifted vampires. Around the time he went after your coven he was going after others as well. What happened to your coven was that Aro and the guard showed up at your home and put on a trial accusing Gilda of creating an army to overthrow the kings because of how big your coven was. He went through all the motions and even held every coven member’s hand to see their every thought. He claimed that he found proof from each of them. He ordered the guards to kill everyone but it was all preplanned. The guard knew that they were sent with Aro to kill everyone but you and Heidi. Which they did. Aro offered Heidi a place in the guard and in her grief she said she would rather be killed with her coven.”Bella told her.

“Oh Heidi.”Victoria wasn’t surprised by Heidi’s decision. She was the most sensitive member of the coven.”Did they kill her?”

Bella shook her head.”There is a secret that only the three kings and the vampire that keeps the guard loyal knows. The vampire that keeps them loyal is named Chelsea. She has a gift that gives her the ability to form false bonds and break real bonds. She bonds all the guard members to the kings making them believe they are their fathers. Chelsea traveled to every coven with Aro and bonded the gifted vampires to him so they would willingly join the guard. Heidi is currently living in the castle believing that she has a familiar bond with Aro. There are other guard members in the castle as well with mental gifts that the kings use to keep everyone happy and more than willingly to follow their orders.”

“Fucking hell. How are we going to save her?”Victoria couldn’t leave Heidi in that situation.

“You aren’t going to like hearing this but we have to wait to save her.”Bella spoke before Victoria could.”Saving Heidi and all the other guards will coincide with the plan to rescue Didyme and overthrow the kings so that she and the queens which are mates can rule in their place.”

Victoria stared at Bella in shock.”Didyme is alive?”

“Yes Anne wasn’t supposed to tell me that but she let it slip that Aro and Caius planned to kill Didyme because she somehow knew about all the fake or broken bonds and had been asking questions about them. Aro told Caius he would take care of it but instead of killing her he has her held captive in a castle that is heavily guarded. He isn’t keeping her alive because she is his sister he is trying to ware her down so that he can exploit her gift. I don’t know what her gift is however. Anne hinted at me being the one that was needed to rescue her and Heidi which I think is because of my shield. It likely will break Chelsea’s influence on everyone because Chelsea’s gift is mental.”At least that is what Bella thought.

“It would make sense that we would need your gift to save everyone. You also said the queens are mates?”Victoria wasn’t sure she wanted Bella to be involved in a fight against the Volturi.

“Yes Chelsea broke their bond and bonded them to the kings. Didyme’s and Marcus’ false one was broken before Didyme was sent away. Marcus didn’t want to bother with another woman because he didn’t think it was worth it so he pretends to be depressed about his dead mate so no one will suspect that Didyme wasn’t really bonded to him.”Bella thought that was stupid but she wasn’t a vampire. Maybe it made perfect sense to them.

“Christ. That’s a lot of information.”Victoria didn’t know where to begin unraveling everything Bella told her. She was happy to hear Heidi was alive but upset with herself for not doing something to help her sooner.

“Yeah Anne is a talker. She is giving us privacy right now but I expect her to show back up soon.”Bella knew that Anne wouldn’t leave them alone that long.

“So what happens now between us? You live with your human father and go to school you said.”Victoria wanted to plan her future with Bella.

“Something that must be mentioned first is that I also have a mate bond with Rosalie.”Bella could tell Victoria didn’t like hearing that.”Yes I know it isn’t ideal but it’s the truth. Anne confirmed it for me.”

“My sister wouldn’t lie about that but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”Victoria didn’t want to share her mate after breaking free of James and Laurent. She wanted to take a step towards her happiness.

“Honestly I don’t like it either. Not that I am rejecting you. I just don’t like the fact that you both aren’t mated to each other. From what Anne told me the mate bond for a vampire is all consuming and it isn’t fair that you with have to share your time with me with another vampire.”Bella wished that Victoria and Rosalie were mated to each other so Bella wouldn’t be pulled in two different directions.

“It’s not anyone’s fault.”Victoria couldn’t blame Bella or Rosalie for being bonded together.

“As to what the future holds. I have asked that Tanya and Irina pull me out of school, get custody of me from my dad and then we all go live in Alaska until a ghosts enlists me to help them and we need to leave. That or if someone wants to take a vacation to someplace sunny. I would like you to join me but I am open to hearing what you want to do.”Bella wouldn’t force Victoria to do anything.

“Why would they want to go someplace sunny?”That didn’t make sense to Victoria. Vampires couldn’t be in the sun.

“Oh right you don’t know. The physical part of my shield blocks uv rays. Meaning if a vampire stands within 40 feet in any direction around me they don’t sparkle.”Bella thought that was a good side effect to her gift.

“We could go anywhere in the world.”Victoria had always wanted to travel to many different places that the sun was a problem for vampires. With Bella’s gift she could go anywhere and would have no limitations.

“I’m more than willing to travel with you. Unfortunately though we would need to talk to the my parents and Rosalie about it before we go.”Bella didn’t like having to ask permission to do things.

“We will deal with that once we settle.”Victoria like Bella didn’t like having to ask for permission.”I don’t mind Alaska. Even changing diets isn’t a big deal. After going hunting with James I have had enough of killing humans. I need to buy some new clothes now that I am no longer a nomad. Something I am happy about. Until we leave for Alaska I would like to stay with you even at you father’s house. That is where I would feel most comfortable.”

“I understand and don’t mind if you stay with me at my dad’s. Your gift has got to be going haywire while in this house. Especially with Edward around.”Bella bet Victoria was seconds away from ripping Edward’s head off.

“It has been going haywire. Each of the three people who we met when we came inside my gift is telling me they are a threat to you or me in some way.”Victoria wasn’t sure how they were threats just that her gift said they were.

“Edward is a threat because he reacts with physical violence when he feels he isn’t getting his way or someone disagrees with him. Esme is a threat to our bond because she has been trying to make me see her as my mother and has been putting in the effort for me to ignore my bond mates including Rosalie to give all my attention to her. Carlisle is a threat because he is a horrible person who would do anything to make himself more powerful and respected than the rest of the world. His father’s ghost showed up for me to help him have a conversation with him. To prove to you how disgusting of a person Carlisle is his father who was priest and doesn’t believing in taking a life begged me to kill Carlisle for him. He even gave me the instructions to how a human could kill a vampire and not get hurt. His father wanted to stop Carlisle from committing more evil deeds. That’s how bad of a man Carlisle is.”Bella was going to kill Carlisle eventually.

“Edward is weak and I could easily kill him. As for Esme I won’t stand by while she acts like that so be prepared for me calling her out. You had already convinced me that Carlisle wasn’t worth the effort to get to know when you told me in the field not to trust him. Hearing his own father who was a priest wants him dead is like you said more than enough proof of how bad a man he is. When you decide to kill him I will help you.”Victoria would gladly help Bella kill anyone she wanted.

“We have to wait so that the kings don’t punish us because he is a favorite of Aro’s.”Bella didn’t want the kings to target them.

“How long do you think we will have to stay here?”Victoria asked.

Bella shrugged.”I’m not sure. I made it clear I don’t want to be around Carlisle so I might go back to my dad’s house to get away from him.”

“I don’t want to be around any of the three of them so I am in favor of going to your dad’s house.”Victoria would prefer being alone with Bella.

“I will just tell my dad you are a friend from Phoenix who I invited to stay with us. We don’t have a guest room so it will give you an excuse to be in my room so much.”Bella thought it would work out fine.

“Tell me about you. All we have talked about is me and the future. How long have you been able to talk to dead people?”Victoria wanted to know about her mate.

“I lived in Forks with my parents until I was five and they divorced. My father didn’t fight for custody so I was stuck with my mother who is a horrible parent and an all around horrible person.”Bella smiled sadly when Victoria growled.”You don’t have to be angry for me. Her neglecting me kept me out of a mental hospital because she wasn’t around to see me talk to ghosts. She also didn’t care about where I went or what I did so I was able to help the ghosts as well.”

“When did you first talk to a ghost?”Victoria would think about Bella’s mother later. The woman needed to be punished for treating Bella like that.

“The earliest memory I have was talking to a ghost was when I was four. It was a teenage girl who was very excited that I could actually see and hear her. She just talked to me for a few hours and left. That started the trend of other ghosts coming and talking to me. It was when I was thirteen that a ghost asked me to help him. He was hiking in the woods with his wife and they had gotten lost. The man had left his wife to try and find help. He fell off a cliff and died. He came to me to help his wife. It was three am and I didn’t want to go. The man proceed to scream at the top of his lungs until I agreed. That led to me hiking through a forest by myself in the early morning hours being led by a ghost. I did find her and got her to safety but on the way there I passed the man’s body. That was the first of many dead bodies I have seen.”Bella hated that ghost for making her do that.

“Do you help a lot of ghosts?”Victoria wasn’t sure what to think about Bella being all alone in the forest in the early morning hours basically with no way to protect herself.

“Since that incident there hasn’t been a day I haven’t been doing something related to a ghost coming to me for help. We just got back from a trip to North Dakota to help solve the murder of a ghost that was killed by a hitman who was hired by his wife and business partner. I still haven’t finished putting together the evidence to send to the right people.”Bella needed to do that before Ralph showed back up and started bothering her again.

“Is there any way for you to control it?”Victoria didn’t think it was healthy for Bella’s whole life to revolve around ghosts.

Bella shook her head.”No nothing I have tried has worked.”

“I don’t like the idea of your life being all about death.”Victoria said.

“I’ve only known the other vampires I was with in the field for less than a week. Most of them find it fun and exciting to help the ghosts. I understand why they would feel that way but I hate it. Like your life with James and Laurent I don’t think all the things I have had to do because of the ghosts is in any way fun. It has mostly been traumatizing.”Bella found no joy in helping ghosts.

Victoria leaned forward and pulled Bella into her arms.”I wish I could take this burden from you.”

“I wish I could take yours from you.”Bella snuggled into Victoria not caring that she was filthy.

“Maybe that is why we are mates. So we can share our burdens with each other.”Victoria wouldn’t mind speaking to Bella about her past. That being because not only was Bella her mate but Victoria felt that Bella truly understood her on a level no one else ever could.

“It would be nice to talk to someone who doesn’t look at my actions as exciting or judges me for them. I know they mean well but the others can’t really understand what I’m going through.”Bella would like to have someone to confide in.

“Then it’s settled you and I will go to each other when we need to talk about things.”Victoria liked the idea of being Bella’s confidant.

“Can I just say after talking to you I am even happier that you’re my mate.”Bella meant that. She was very happy to have Victoria as a mate.

“I am just as happy that you are my mate. I never really put much faith in mates before I met James and even when I was with him I didn’t really like being his. When I locked eyes with you I finally understood what all the fuss was about. Then talking to you I know you are my perfect match.”Victoria couldn’t have picked a better person to be her mate.

“I like that you aren’t sheltered like the others. Rosalie, Alice and Emmet have been spending their time since they became a vampire pretending to be Carlisle and Esme’s adopted children who have been continuously going to high school and college this whole time. None of them have ever had a job or have claimed to be over twenty one years old.”Bella still didn’t get why they did it.

“Are you serious?”Victoria had never heard of such a thing.

“Very serious. The thing that confuses me is that they didn’t see anything wrong with it until I pointed it out. From what I guess all three of them have been alive over a hundred years. That means they had been going to some type of school pretending Carlisle and Esme are their parents for over a hundred years. The three admitted they hated it and didn’t have an answer when I asked why they bothered when Carlisle couldn’t physically force them to go.”Bella was completely baffled by the behavior.

“That’s insane.”Victoria said.

“They are extremely sheltered. Even the Denali are sheltered because they barely leave their property in Alaska to do more than shop. It’s like they have no idea how the real world works. All they do is travel to different places like a tourist. They don’t understand what happens in the dark places.”Bella had trouble trying to relate to the others.

“They do sound sheltered.”Victoria agreed.

Bella sighed.”You don’t know how nice it is to finally talk to someone who knows what I’m talking about. I have had to censor myself a lot around them because of how they react when I tell them about the different things I have done. Especially illegal things. It’s like they think I have choice whether or not to do it. They don’t get that the ghosts will do anything to get me to agree. I don’t like breaking the law.”

“I don’t fully understand how your gift works but from what I get you truly don’t have a choice. They shouldn’t judge you for doing things you are forced to do. Did they actually ask you if it was something you would do willingly or did they just focus on what you did?”Victoria would never judge Bella for her actions. Especially without asking her how she felt about doing things.

“No they never ask me how I feel about any of it. I take that back. They asked me a how I felt about you and they wanted to know what Anne told me. I told them that I fully believed Anne was telling the truth about the mate bond and refused to tell them anything else about you. It felt to me like I would be betraying you if I told them the personal things Anne told me about you. To include your gift. Something that Eleazar who has a gift that detects gifts in other people can’t identify.”Bella felt smug that Victoria’s gift tricked Eleazar’s.

“I thank you for not telling them about me. It shows how good of a mate you are that even before we met you have been protecting me.”Victoria took Bella’s actions as just another reason the human was the perfect mate.

“As soon as Anne told me what a mate was, that you were mine and I needed to save you I felt a feeling of unease wash over me. I knew that she was telling the truth and the unease I was feeling was that you were in danger. I don’t know if it was just my mind making me feel that way or if it was in response to finding out about the bond but I didn’t have a doubt that you were my mate and I was going to do anything I could to save you. Including calling you an idiot.”Bella didn’t like calling Victoria an idiot but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Victoria chuckled.”You were right though I was being an idiot.”

“Do you think you can teach me your mother tongue? Anne just told me what to say to you and what it meant. I don’t know the language but I think it would be good for us to have a way to communicate in front of the others.”Bella would figure out a way for her and Rosalie later.

“I agree it’s a good idea and we will get started maybe tomorrow if we have time.”Victoria would like to get started right away.

Hearing a knock on the door Bella scowled.”Seriously it hasn’t even been that long.”

“I should take a shower anyway.”Victoria gave Bella one last squeeze before pulling out of the hug.

“I should eat dinner. I am kind of hungry.”Bella stood from the bed and made her way over to the dresser. She opened the drawers and pulled out clothes for Victoria.”I don’t have underwear for you. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t wear any so it won’t bother me.”Victoria took the clothes from Bella and with a wink the red head made her way into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

Bella stared at the closed door for a second as she willed the blush to leave her cheeks. She knew if she answered the door with a bright red face that she would get subjected to an inquisition from the others. Thinking of the others Bella sighed. They all meant well but they had a lot of living to do to understand Bella’s life. Bella hadn’t realized how much she needed to talk to someone who understood her until she spoke to Victoria. They may have done different things but both the vampire and the human had the same reasons for doing what they did. It was nice for Bella to have someone not judge her when she talked about her past actions. She knew everyone else wasn’t purposely judging her but it didn’t change the fact that they did. It made it worse when they got excited about her adventures. Especially because most of the time Bella was put in very dangerous situations. Tanya and Irina may not approve of Bella owning guns but those guns had saved her life more than once. At least Victoria would be on her side about things in the future. It was nice finally having an ally because Rosalie was of the same opinion as Tanya and Irina about Bella’s actions.