When The Cat Becomes The Mouse 36

“What are we going to do? Bella and the vampire haven’t woken up yet.” Kate asked the group that was gathered in and around Bella’s room.Rosalie and Victoria had been kind enough not to shut them out and let them be around Bella. The human had yet to even twitch let alone make a sound and if it wasn’t for the fact Kate could hear her heart beating and see her chest moving she would have thought she was dead. If Bella wasn’t moving wasn’t concerning enough the white streak of hair she now sported was. The hair had changed within the first half hour Bella had been passed out and every one of the vampires were worried something worse had happened. They wouldn’t know until Bella woke up though.

“I’m worried about when the vampire does wake up.” Athenodora said. They had tried everything they could think of to wake the man even going so far as to having Kate electrocute him but nothing worked. It was now going on the 20th hour since Bella had used her gift and everyone was at a loss of what to do. If they didn’t have any new information soon Athenodora knew the other two queens would be on a plane. It had taken a lot of screaming and yelling on both parts to get her mates to calm down after finding out what happened and Athenodora didn’t know if she would be able to keep them away for much longer.

“What do you mean?” Tanya asked.

“With Bella’s gift subconsciously protecting all of us if the vampire wakes up and tries to use his own gift it may trigger Bella’s again.” That’s one of the reasons the queen was debating if it wouldn’t be better to just kill him.

“I didn’t think of that.” Victoria said as she snuggled Bella closer to her body. They had had to put Bella in four snow baths and it seemed as if Bella’s temperature was finally stable.

“Me neither.Let’s have her drink some more water.” Rosalie motioned for Victoria to hold Bella up while she forced Bella to drink from the bottle.

“Is there anything else we can do for her?” Irina asked. They hadn’t been around Bella last time as her mates had kept them out of the room but seeing Bella laying so listless was beyond disturbing.

Victoria shook her head. “No we just have to keep her temperature down and keep her hydrated.”

“I think we need to discuss what is going to happen when Bella wakes up.”Athenodora knew this would be an upsetting conversation but it needed to be had.

“What do you mean?” Kate asked suspiciously.

“Bella can’t stay here anymore.” Athenodora said.

“Wait just a minute. Bella can stay wherever she wants.” Kate knew that the queen would pull something like this. She had been waiting for it.

“No she’s right.” Victoria agreed. “Carlisle knows we are here and he is just going to keep sending people. Bella needs to go somewhere else that he doesn’t know about and she needs to be changed.”

“We can change her here.” Irina said although she knew that it wasn’t the right answer. She just didn’t want triad to leave. She worried if they did they wouldn’t be able to come back.Irina along with the rest of the Denali considered the triad a part of the family now and she didn’t want to lose them.

“You know we can’t.” Tanya told her sadly.

“So what we just let them take the three of them to Italy and then never let them leave?” Kate asked.

Victoria shook her head. “No we are not just going to go to Italy.”

“Why not?” Athenodora figured that was the perfect idea.

“Because of how many gifted vampires you have there.”Victoria didn’t want Bella to be in even more danger of using her gift if someone was stupid enough to attack them.

“No one would dare attack any of you.” Athenodora promised.

“Bella is to valuable to take the chance.” Rosalie said.”It would be to tempting for even some of your loyalest guards to pass up the chance to sire her.”

“We can bring her to the castle and have her secluded right away.I don’t think we should wait to turn her.” Athenodora hoped that Bella would allow at least one of her mothers the honor of changing her.

“There is no we. Rosalie and myself will be turning Bella.” Victoria wanted the queen to get out of the mindset she and her mates would be involved. Bella already made her wishes known and Victoria had given her word that Bella would be changed by her and Rosalie. Not even the queens were going to stop that from happening.

“Regardless we need to come up with a plan.” Rosalie would prefer that Bella be awake for this but this needed to be worked out soon.They didn’t have time to wait.

“Well we definitely need to get the vampire we captured away from Bella.How far do you think her gift can reach?” Athenodora asked Eleazar who had been standing in the room quietly with his mate.

“I don’t know. I originally thought not far but where they found him is a lot farther than I had anticipated. It also proves that she is protecting you and the guards as well.” Eleazar said.

Athenodora liked the fact that her daughter cared about her enough to want to protect her even if it wasn’t necessary.”That’s just another reason we need to move her as soon as possible.”

“It’s where to take her that is the problem. Do you have any other secluded properties Carlisle doesn’t know about?” Rosalie asked Tanya.

Tanya shook her head. “Not secluded enough for a newborn.”

“We have a villa that we use when we wish to get away from the castle.It’s secluded enough that Bella would be able to be changed and after we could take her to the castle to deal with her newborn urges.” Athenodora figured that was the best way to keep Bella safe.

“How many people know about it?”Victoria asked.

“Not many and no one goes there unless we are using it.” Athenodora told them.

“What do you think?” Rosalie asked Victoria. She was leaning towards agreeing because they needed to get away from Carlisle and they really didn’t have that many more options.

Victoria hated that they were going to have to accept the queen’s help. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure about taking Bella to the castle afterwords but going to the villa would probably work. “I think we should do that. After she is turned we can discuss where we want to go.”

“We are coming with you.” Kate wasn’t going to let them leave her behind.

“That’s if it’s alright with you?” Tanya wanted to go as well but didn’t want to bulldoze her way into being involved.

“That’s fine. I know Bella wouldn’t want you to be away from her.” Rosalie said.

“Good now we just have to figure out when to leave.” Athenodora wasn’t happy with the Denali coming with them but would allow it because she didn’t want to cause problems with her daughter. Even though Bella would feel the bond when she was changed it didn’t mean their relationship would be all sunshine and rainbows. The queens would still have to earn Bella’s trust and if they denied her her friends then Bella would grow to resent them.“The problem I see with that is how we get by Carlisle’s surveillance.”

“When Bella leaves he will know right away that we aren’t here anymore.” Victoria said.

“That’s true but we don’t want him to know we have the queen and the guard with us.” Tanya was trying to think of what they could do to cover their tracks.

“That’s the main thing we have to work out. It is obvious he has sentries around the property and is sending people to test our defenses. The first vampire was sent to see if we were paying attention and the second to see how Bella’s gift worked.I honestly doubt they don’t know about the guards but I’m positive they don’t know about me.” Athenodora tried to think of how to use that to their advantage.

“You came on your private plane?” Kate asked.

Athenodora nodded. “Yes, we have guards watching it and could be ready in a moments notice to have wheels up and ready to go.”

“So that means you don’t have to put in a flight plan.” Kate murmured.

“Yes and the villa is close to the castle but not close enough that we couldn’t leave a false trail to make someone believe we went to the castle.” Athenodora was picking up on what Kate was thinking. “I think we should go to the airport and take a flight to Italy and have a bunch of our security vehicles meet us there.I will have one of my personal cars dropped off before hand. Some of you will have to go to the castle and go through the motion of having an audience with the queens. They can explain away my absence by saying I was meeting with the others and Bella personally.”

Tanya didn’t like the idea of them splitting up but the queen’s plan made sense.”I’ll take Eleazar and Carmen with me you take Irina and Kate.”

“That would work. Then when things calm down and we convince everyone that Bella is in the castle you can come and join us as I’m sure the other queens will want to be there to meet Bella.” Athenodora would have to warn her mates not to be pushy when trying to get them to go to the castle after Bella was turned.

“We need to make sure there is a blood supply there as well so Bella can feed when she wakes up.” Victoria said.

“What is she going to feed on?” Irina asked.Bella’s diet hadn’t been discussed and she wondered what the human would prefer.

“She hasn’t said specifically but I know she doesn’t care if I drink human blood. I’m not going to force her to make a choice however. It’s up to her if she wants to drink from animals or not.” Victoria wasn’t going to let anyone else force Bella to either.

Rosalie would prefer that Bella drank from animals but she wasn’t going to force her mate. Maybe she could convince Bella of more humane methods of feeding though. “I agree it’s Bella’s choice.”

“I hope she will at least try hunting animals with us.” Kate had plans to show Bella how to hunt properly and was excited at the idea of teaching Bella how to survive. It was her job as Bella’s sister to make sure Bella was taken care of. That meant making sure she didn't starve.

“If she wants to she will. None of us will force her to.” Tanya told them.

“Now that that is settled when should we leave?” Rosalie asked.

“I would like to leave now but Bella is still out of it.”Athenodora wished she had a plane better outfitted for humans. “Our plane doesn’t have a bedroom but it does have a bathroom and a couch we could lay her on.”

“Her temperature has been stable for the last two hours. If we took some snow with us just in case I think it would be fine to move her.”Victoria wanted Bella to be as far away from Alaska as soon as possible. Especially now that Carlisle was sending gifted vampires to attack them.

“We should all go pack.” Kate said rushing out of the room. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t be left behind.

“I’ll go talk to the guards. I want to leave some of them here incase Carlisle makes a move. That and they can question the prisoner once he wakes up.” Athenodora wanted to bring the man with them but it wasn’t safe to have him that close to Bella on the plane.

“Is it alright to leave most of our stuff here?” Rosalie asked Tanya.

Tanya smiled brightly. “Of course.This is your home as well.You are more than welcome to leave anything you want here.”

“Thanks.”Rosalie stood up from her position next to Bella. “I’ll pack our stuff.”

“The guards came back with your mail so you have some packages I’ll bring up to you.” Tanya told them.

“That’s perfect thank you.” Rosalie was trying to hold back her excitement at the thought of what was in those packages because it wasn’t really a good time to let her thoughts go that way but it was hard. She was just happy they got their stuff before they left. Watching everyone leave the room she felt a sense of relief that they were actually doing something and not just waiting around for Carlisle to come and attack them.Ever since she had met up with Victoria she had been feeling overly anxious about Bella’s safety. Now that they were leaving and on their way to change Bella Rosalie could sigh a breath of relief. Once Bella was a vampire they wouldn’t have to worry about Carlisle or anyone else trying to sire her.That honor would fall to her and Victoria. Although she had never had human blood before Rosalie was excited to taste her mate. It was such an intimate act to drink Bella’s life force and inject her with her own venom. Rosalie shivered at the thought. She needed to get back to packing. The sooner she was ready the sooner she would get to fulfill that fantasy and if Bella was dressed in garters while they did it Rosalie wouldn’t mind.