Ban Together Chapter 38

Waiting for a newborn to wake up was, frankly, boring. There were much better things Athenodora wanted to do and needed to do besides waiting for her daughter to wake up. Even Sulpicia was struggling with the boredom. They wanted to oversee the preparations for the Irish coven’s arrival but they were loathe to leave Bella’s side for too long. Even with Kate and Jane there, they were still nervous to leave Bella’s side.

They had bit Bella on her wrists, injecting as much of their venom as possible. The absolute bliss of knowing, while Bella may not be of their blood, she would be of their venom was astounding. They were so proud and honored to change her. They were worried she would have changed her mind at the last second and decide to have her mates do it as some sort of act of love or some nonsense.

As the venom took over Bella’s body and destroyed any human attributes, the queens felt their connection with the daughter grow stronger; they even had Didyme confirm the bond was indeed growing. Everything was going exactly how they wanted it to; well, most everything.

What they hadn’t planned on was the silence. And it was driving them mad.

Bella hadn’t screamed, yelled, groaned, pleaded or use her voice in any capacity since she started to change. The queens hadn’t expected the silence and it was very concerning. With all their years combined of everyone in the castle, no one knew of a human remaining silent while they changed. It was always a painful process as the venom was literally killing of the human cells and replacing it with vampire cells; it hurt like hell. But Bella didn’t make a sound.

Because of the silence, the queens couldn’t leave. They originally planned on leaving the room and allowing Jane and Kate to hold their own private vigil while Bella changed; they felt it was only fair since they were the ones blessed enough to change Bella. But with the deafening silence, they couldn’t leave Bella’s side. They had been growled at several times from both younger blondes, likely wanting them to leave while Bella was so vulnerable; yet they still couldn’t bring themselves to leave. No matter how bored the two queens were.

There had been several guard members, Didyme coming by on regular intervals as well, to check on them and to deliver messages. The guard members quickly found out they were very much unwelcomed; the two queens hadn’t even needed to say anything, Jane’s gift was more than enough to get the message across fairly quickly. Didyme was a bit more unperturbed by their aggressive ‘go away’s’; Jane would never dare to use her gift on a queen so Sulpicia was forced to take her attention away from Bella long enough to have a quick conversation. Athenodora didn’t even try talking to Didyme, confident she would likely lose what little control she had on her anger from the situation and lash out at their fellow queen. In the end, only Didyme visited every five or so hours to make sure they hadn’t tried to kill each other from the tension.

As the end of the third day was drawing closer to an end, all four vampires had their eyes trained on Bella as her heard sped up much faster than what was healthy for a human. The two queens were at the foot of the bed, waiting for Bella to wake up and likely see them first. Jane and Kate were on either side of Bella, itching to hold either of her hands but knowing how sensitive Bella would be with her new senses, they were barely restraining themselves.

As Bella’s heart beat its’ last beat and the venom destroyed and replaced what was left of the heart muscle, Bella’s transformation became complete. Every vampire waited on baited and unneeded breath as they all waited to see how Bella would react.

The four vampires were quite aware of how jarring it was to not only be changed and go through the inferno that was venom but to also ‘wake up’ to such heightened senses, it was very overwhelming. Bella’s new mind, regardless of how fast it now could process everything, was still being assaulted with new sounds, new smells and far more of both than ever before.

Bella slowly opened her eyes as she focused on everything around her. She could hear other’s talking about how it wouldn’t be much longer for her to wake up if she wasn’t already. She could smell how old her room was; never mind the different molds and uncleanliness; now she understood why the Cullen’s house was always so clean, the bad smells were a hundred times worse than anything she had smelt as a human.

As a human. That’s right, she’s a vampire now. Which was why she was able to see the old cobwebs that likely hadn’t been inhabited in decades if not longer. She was even sure she could hear the flapping wings of birds from somewhere outside; something she had never been able to hear before.

She slowly sat up; at least that was her intention.

In reality, she ended up bolting straight up with such a force the whole bed creaked and bolted forward from her new strength. Straight in front of her were Sulpicia and Athenodora. She could smell there were vampires in the room as well but her instincts knew those people weren’t a threat, so her entire focus was set on her parents.

She could actually smell them from her spot on the bed and they smelled so much better than they did when she was a human. In fact, Bella could confidently say they smelt like home.

All Bella wanted to do was go to her parents and hug them, to thank them for everything for just being them and to welcome that feeling of being home. But she underestimated her strength and speed. Instead of gracefully crawling from the bed, she ended up jolting from the bed and literally tackling the two into a fierce hug as tears, tears that would now never fall, pooled in her eyes.

“I don’t know if we’re under attack or not.” Athenodora said with a gruff voice as she struggled to keep all three of them on their feet from the power of Bella’s tackle. She knew it was meant to be a hug but with newborn temperaments, there was a very real chance of the hug turning into an attack for whatever reason.

Sulpicia had no such qualms, she hugged her daughter back just as fiercly, thankful Athenodora was as old as she was and quick on her reflexes to keep her on her feet instead of on the floor. How embarrassing would that have been if word had gotten out that her, Sulpicia, feared ruler of the Volturi, was tackled by a newborn? She’d never live it down.

“We were so worried.” She whispered into Bella’s hair.

Bella pulled her head back as slowly as she could to make sure she didn’t accidently jerk her head back with unexpected speed and strength again, “You were?” She asked, confused. They knew what was happening, it wasn’t like they had accidently turned her or the mortality rate was very high with turning someone who was healthy and young like she was.

“You didn’t make a sound the entire time.” Kate said with a worried look, and just a hint of jealousy. Well, a lot of jealousy. Bella should have ran to her, or at least Jane, before she ran to the queens. They were mates, weren’t the higher up on the chain of relationships or something?

Bella turned to face Kate, completely enthralled by her voice; it hadn’t sounded nearly as melodic when she was human. Bella was sure she wouldn’t have been so difficult on Kate in the beginning if she could have properly heard Kate’s voice.

As soon as the thought to hug Kate popped up in her mind, she was already tackling the blonde warrior to the floor in a fierce hug. Behind Bella, the two queens exhaled in relief. They were much older yes and while Athenodora’s strength was greater than a newborns, Sulpicia was struggling with the strength of the hug and Athenodora was doing her best to make sure neither of them were struggling with their new newborn; she didn’t want to hear Sulpicia complain about how her daughter had bested her without even knowing it.

“Kate!” Bella said as she gave the blonde a tight squeeze, just happy to have her there with her.

Kate laughed as she fought coughing; from the struggle to get air in order to talk. “Easy there Bella, remember you’re a lot stronger than you were before.” Kate didn’t think Bella could crack her skin with how old she was, but she could definitely make it uncomfortable for her. She idly wondered if any of the Cullen’s would be able to hugged by newborn Bella and her unrestrained and unrestricted new strength and get cracked skin. She’ll have to find Emmett later.

Bella grew a horrified look and jumped to her feet and away from Kate, ashamed at having hurt her mate. “I’m so sorry, I completely forgot.”

She was going to turn her head to look at her parents and offer the same apology but her line of sight caught Jane standing on the other side of the bed instead. Completely forgetting what had just happened with Kate, Bella’s smile was fully back on her face as she raced to hug Jane.

“You were born to be a vampire.” Jane said as she was engulfed in a hug, thankfully already braced for the assault. She would have to make sure to tell everyone it was only the ‘warrior Denali’ that had landed on their back from not being able to handle a newborn. She was looking forward to that.

“Jane! You look so beautiful.” Bella said as her new eyes looked over every detail of Jane’s face. It was like seeing her for the first time all over again but so much better.

“Hey, what about me?” Kate asked with a pout as she quickly climbed to her feet.

Bella looked towards Kate, careful not leave Jane’s arms. While being in Jane’s arms didn’t feel like it did with the queens, she still felt very much at home there. The feeling of belonging and the rightness was overwhelming.

“Kidnappers aren’t all that cute.” Bella teased with a wide smile. She didn’t want to smile, wanting to have a faux serious look on her face to make the teasing even more fun, but she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face no matter how much she tried.

“I’m not a kidnapper.” Kate said with a frown, both annoyed and amused that Bella was still giving her that title. She was starting to think she wasn’t going to lose it anytime soon. That was fine; she could come up with some very fun games with that title in mind.

Kate’s comment was drowned out in Bella’s mind by Sulpicia and Athenodora’s comment.

“She seems very well in control for someone who just woke up.” Sulpicia told her mate as she watched the interactions between her daughter and her mates.

“She doesn’t even seem hungry.” Athenodora commented. There were usually two possible strong emotions when a newborn woke up: hunger and lust. With Bella’s mates there, they all assumed she would feel lust first and foremost. But it doesn’t seem like she was affected all that much by her newborn emotions.

“Should I be hungry?” Bella asked, confusion clear on her face and tone. Why would she be hungry?

“You just lost all your blood from the transformation. At least, all the excess blood.” Sulpicia commented. “You need to replenish it and usually that’s the first thing on a newborns mind.”

“Especially because of the burn.” Athenodora added as she studied her daughter, impressed by the fact Bella was so in control. To not be demanding sex and/or blood was impressive.

“Does you throat not bother you?” Kate asked, remembering when she was first turned, how much her throat burned and ached to have something coat it to soothe the flames.

“Should it?” Bella asked as her attention turned towards Kate, “Is it bad that it doesn’t?” Bella asked as she turned her attention towards Jane. As Bella focused on her throat, all she felt was a light discomfort but nothing that wasn’t easily ignored. Was that not normally how it was?

“It would seem our daughter likes to keep things interesting.” Athenodora said with a smirk, completely amused by the turn of events. Or course it would be her daughter to be something more than just a regular vampire.

“Perhaps we should meet with a few others and see if we can’t figure out what exactly is going on?” Sulpicia’s need to make sure her daughter was okay was nagging at her. Yes, Bella seemed perfect and normal on the surface. But clearly there was something else going on and Sulpicia needed to make sure Bella was one hundred percent okay. “Jane, Kate, why don’t you take Bella to get some blood and in the meantime, we’ll gather a few people.” Well, Sulpicia would ask for just a couple people and the others were sure to follow and in Sulpicia’s need to make sure her daughter was okay, she would forego her usual secrecy in favor of getting answers faster.

Hopefully it wouldn’t take long, as their guests were due to arrive soon and that was definitely going to take everyone’s full attention to make sure nothing went amiss.