Believe Me Chapter 9

Victoria couldn’t help but just stare at her mate. She knew from listening to the others that the human was able to block Edward’s and Kate’s gifts. She suspected that the only reason Jasper’s emotional manipulation and Alice’s foresight wasn’t blocked was because Bella’s gift didn’t see those gift as a threat to Bella. Her mate was essentially bullet proof against vampire gifts that could hurt her. That wasn’t to say if there was a vampire that wanted to physically hurt her that Bella would be safe; but that was where Victoria came in. She was more than capable of protecting her mate from everything and anything.

But to know that her mate, especially once she’s turned and has her power amplified, will much more than capable of protecting them both with such ease? It was hot as hell and Victoria couldn’t be more thankful that literally have the perfect mate that she actually wouldn’t necessarily have to actually rely on her gift to make sure nothing happened to her mate; not that she actually wouldn’t use her gift to keep her mate safe but it would be nice to not have to rely on it like with the boys.

Truthfully, with all the work that went into keeping them, especially James with his hunts, alive was practically not worth it. If it wasn’t for her gift telling her she had to stay with them, she would have left them a long time ago. At least now she understand her gift was protecting her mate long before they had even met. Victoria was sure that if James had met Bella without her there, he would have definitely killed Bella or at least traumatized her if the Cullen’s had been able to save her; then who knew how long it would take for her to meet her mate.

But she didn’t have to worry about that because her was with her, in front of her, each of them just staring at each other and that was part of what worried Victoria. While she had no issue with just staring at her mate, because wasn’t that the least newly mated pairs did?, her mates eyes were still concerning. While they weren’t as clouded over as a completely glamoured person, they were still cloudy. But she didn’t seem glamoured; at least from her experience she didn’t.

If Bella was glamoured then she would, at the very least, be practically begging where Edward was. But the human didn’t seem to care at all and it made Victoria wonder if perhaps the effects of the glamour that was clearly used on her weren’t as strong as it should have been. Bella’s shield must have been protecting her at least somewhat for her not to be constantly talking about the boy. Bella didn’t seem to have as strong of a filter the human was likely used to when it came to her thoughts and her mouth; which Victoria was definitely enjoying a lot.

If Bella’s gift was protecting her from Edward’s glamour, then perhaps her gift wasn’t just physical. Eleazar had apparently not read the human yet as Bella hadn’t wanted him to; something about wanting to be surprised when she was eventually turned into a human. That little declaration had made Victoria purr in delight as she thought about sinking her teeth into succulent flesh and tasting her mate’s blood as she in turn gave her mate venom. It was quite a euphoric thought; she wasn’t even a little embarrassed to know that the other vampires in the house knew exactly where her thoughts had gone and could literally smell her excitement about it.

They had already agreed to stay with the Denali’s for at least a few days while hopefully the others dealt with the other two nomads. But then Bella would have to go back to her home where her father would be expecting her. Apparently Alice had been able to convince her father that Bella was spending the weekend with the Cullen’s on their camping trip. From what little Victoria had seen of her human, it wasn’t a very believable story; thankfully vampires were very good at lying and at being believed.

Victoria knew she would follow with her mate; she understood her mate had human ties that were not easy to cut as it was when she was a human. When she was a human, it wasn’t uncommon for humans to go missing; especially females. But now and days, it could very easily get national attention; especially since it would be a Police Chief’s daughter that went missing from a town that supposedly has next to no crime. Humans would be much too curious to not know what happened. Bella had to go back and then they would need to come up with a plausible way for Bella to ‘die’ without her father being any wiser about the truth. She was sure she would be able to be some friend of Bella’s that her father had never met and beg to bunk with them. Well, she would at least get to spend a lot of time with Bella without always having to sneak in all the time.

They had also briefly explained the treaty they had with the shifter wolves on the reservation. But as far as Victoria was concerned, as long as she didn’t go on their land or hunt anywhere near them, they wouldn’t be a problem. Her mate was unfortunately friends with them, as was her father, Victoria was going to be forced to spend at least a small amount of time putting up with their existence. She couldn’t believe the sacrifices she was willing to make for her mate; putting up with disgusting shifters so her mate would be happy. She was such a sap.

After spending the rest of the day talking and going over their plans with everyone and purposefully not getting more info about what the two Cullen’s were going to do with Edward and Carlisle or the rest of the coven, Victoria decided that her mate had yawned one to many times and took over one of the only rooms with a bed. Thankfully for the succubae to be known as succubae, they would have had to have beds in order to literally bed humans; so there were a couple rooms to pick from. Unfortunately for them, there was only one room that seemed to not be drenched in one of their scents and so Victoria had chosen a room that had a bed that, while big enough for both of them, was an utter mess.

Apparently Kate saw no need to clean when she was hosting anyone and didn’t bother to spend literally a minute or two to clean the mess. Victoria couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she realized that the thousand year old vampire was really just a teenage boy that had no sense of decorum or privacy or anything else for that matter.

“Why don’t you go take a shower and I’ll clean up in here?” Victoria asked her young mate, realizing her mate would likely be more comfortable in different clothes to sleep in. She couldn’t help but mentally curse herself at not having any clothes covered in her scent; of course she wouldn’t as a nomad. Oh well, at least Kate’s scent was palatable. Perhaps she could figure out what her mate would want to wear tomorrow so she could lay on them overnight to get her scent on the clothes?

“You better not break any of my stuff!” Kate yelled from someplace in the house.

“I was planning on throwing it away.” Victoria said in a normal voice but quickly kept talking so she would have a better excuse at ignoring the blonde’s retort, “Kate had said you can use anything in there; just be careful on what you touch, she may be a vampire but I’m not very confident on her cleanliness in the bathroom given her room.”

“Hey!” Kate yelled, “I keep the bathroom spotless because I never use it!”

“Succubae are weird.” Victoria muttered at a volume that no one would hear but had to say out loud.

“I know Victoria, I’ll be fine.” Bella said with a smile that she wasn’t sure was placating or dopey. She wasn’t sure if she was touched because the hot redhead was looking out for her or annoyed that she was starting to act like Edward. “I’m sure I, a mere human, can manage a shower on my own.” Bella said with a roll of her eyes before going into the bathroom.

“That’s not what I meant.” Victoria started but stopped as Bella firmly closed and locked the door behind her, clearly ending the conversation.

“Ouch, screwing up before you can even get to first base.” Kate said not even a second before what Victoria knew to be a vampire getting slapped sounded around the house.

“Shut up Kate, it’s none of our business.” Irina scolded just loud enough for Victoria to hear.

“Dammit.” Victoria muttered before zipping around the room and tossing everything into the room that had all three of the sisters scents in it; probably their main room.

“Here, you can put on these clean sheets and we can always wash some clothes for her to wear tomorrow.” Carmen offered as she held out sheets to the redhead that was just standing in the middle of Kate’s room. Carmen couldn’t help but look around it; it was the cleanest she had ever seen it and would definitely being teasing the middle blonde sister about it.

Victoria gave the Hispanic woman a thankful smile and quickly switched out the sheets. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than having her mate sleeping on something that smelled like another vampire. Vampires were very territorial and being newly mated, and to a human mate, didn’t help control those instincts. Once the room was ready for her human to sleep in, Victoria couldn’t help but think that her mate may not want Victoria in the bed with her. In all honesty, Victoria was not looking forward to lying next to a sleeping human, but she wanted to hold her mate while she was her most vulnerable in a house full of vampires she didn’t know.

Her gift was saying everything was fine and that there was no danger, she couldn’t ignore the part of her that said these were technically strangers and two of them had literally stolen her mate from her. In all honesty, if Victoria thought she had any sort of chance at all she would have wanted to join her mate in the shower to not only keep her in sight but also for some more enjoyable activities. Having Bella out of her sight was making her nervous and if lying next to her while she slept to make sure no one stole her away again made sure her mate was safe, then she would suffer through it.

“You know, eventually you will have let her leave your sight.” Tanya gently said from the doorway as she watched the redhead stare holes into the bathroom door as they listened to the human in the shower, Victoria listening more intently than everyone else.

“Not right now.” Victoria practically growled at the other woman. She wanted nothing to do with the woman, she was here because they were safe and keeping her mate safe; beyond that, she didn’t need them. She didn’t need to hear whatever ‘advice’ the other vampire thought she needed to hear.

“If you crowd her too much, she may push away.” Tanya carefully said, knowing how on edge Victoria was probably feeling. Her young, human mate was in very real danger and even had another vampire claiming to be her mate. There were a lot of problems Victoria had on her plate that nomads typically weren’t well equipped to handle.

“She would never.” Victoria snarled, her eyes went pitch black as she quickly turned to glare at the blonde that was still casually leaning against the doorframe, apparently not concerned about angering the other vampire.

“I know.” Tanya quickly said to soothe the angry vampire, “But her human family may. Remember, she is human and has human attachments. Just be careful on being too clingy.” Tanya said as the water turned off. The blonde left before Victoria could retort, not that she thought the redhead would since the nomads attention was fully on the door, awaiting her mate. She didn’t have to wait long.

Bella had no problem agreeing to letting Victoria lay next to her while she slept. If anything, it was actually a lot better to have her lying there instead of having her standing in a corner staring at her like Edward would do. A lot less creepy. Victoria wasn’t happy when she heard that, but her growls were quickly shut off when Bella invited her to lay next to her, under the covers, and mentioned that was something Edward would never do.

Once they heard Bella fall asleep, the vampires started talking, knowing Victoria would be able to easily hear and answer without waking up her mate.

“What do you two plan on doing with the Cullen’s?” Carmen asked their two cousins.

The looked at each other, knowing the older vampires wouldn’t like their answer. “We hadn’t really thought of that. This was kind of a last minute thing that we were hoping wouldn’t get out to Edward or Carlisle.” Emmett answered as he scratched the back of his head.

“Has Edward not asked to speak with his so called mate?” Irina asked, knowing she would want to talk with her mates if they were in trouble and not with her; not that they would ever not be with her and in trouble at the same time.

“He’s not allowed to talk with her.” Victoria hissed, being very careful not to wake her sleeping mate that was currently gripping onto her in her sleep and making Victoria wish she could do some very none-private things that her mate likely wouldn’t approve of just yet.

“We can’t very well keep the two apart when we get back to Forks.” Rosalie said in an annoyed tone that made Victoria want to teach the younger vampire some manners in a very brutal way.

“Technically, Edward still thinks they’re together.” Emmett carefully said, doing his best to make sure not to say that Bella and Edward hadn’t actually broken up since Bella left Forks. “Not that they are anymore of course.” He quickly added when he heard her start to growl.

“I think, with the fallout about to happen with the Cullen’s since Carlisle is clearly delusional and unable to lead his coven in a safe manner, I think it would be best if at least the three of us joined you.” Tanya said gesturing to herself and her mates, “Carmen and Eleazar will remain here to keep up our property boundaries unless needed.” From her tone, she was suggesting she and her sisters come along, she was telling them.

“What do you think you will accomplish with your so called cousin?” Victoria hissed, afraid that the succubae would side with the idiotic males and try to keep her mate from her.

“They are only our cousins because of our diets, and we happen to like a few of the members. We have never considered ourselves their allies. I tolerate Carlisle at best and Tanya loves to annoy the shit out Edward for fun, I swear we wouldn’t go to side with them.”

“Plus, didn’t Tanya already say she was siding with you?” Eleazar quietly asked the redhead, trying to remind the angered woman that she truly wasn’t alone in her fight to keep her mate. All of the Denali’s were mated and to try and steal another’s mate, never mind claiming a false mate claim, was completely out of line. Carlisle and Edward have made their bed and now they must lay in it.

“We will be going to Forks and we will stand with you Victoria.” Tanya firmly stated, “Now, do you have any way to contact your former coven to see what they are doing and if they are causing too much trouble for the Cullen’s?” Tanya asked, getting to the real conversation she had wanted to have with the redhead; saying they were going to Forks was more of a notice than asking permission.

“I destroyed my phone on accident when I crossed into Canada.” Victoria said, not saying that she had actually thrown her phone into a river because the boys had kept incessantly calling her and it had pissed her off that they wouldn’t let her be. “But I can pretty much guarantee they are causing problems.”

***

“Are you sure this is wise friend?” Laurent asked for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last five hours.

Laurent had agreed to stay behind and keep the Cullen’s and wolves distracted in Forks while James went on the real hunt.

“Don’t question me.” James growled, trying to concentrate on keeping Victoria’s trail. He was worried that she hadn’t answered her phone, or even had it on, in quite some time. She was the thing keeping him alive with her gift, he didn’t want to lose that. She was up to something, he had to figure it out, especially since her scent was very likely to lead him to his ultimate goal.

What Victoria seemed to forget was that James was a very patient man; all good hunters had to be after all. He was more than willing to bide his time to track Victoria down and see what she was doing and how to go about his hunt of the human. His ultimate hunt, he was going against a protected human and a vampire that had a gift of self-preservation. He could already feel the venom in his mouth pooling at just the thought of being able to catch them both.

James hung up the phone, not caring what Laurent had to say as long as he kept his part of the plan up and kept running. Laurent wasn’t really needed so James wasn’t concerned about whatever Laurent was so worried about.