Chapter 4

The call hadn’t taken long. Senna and Kachiri had ran ahead and made the arrangements while Zafrina took her time in running with Bella following her coven mates direction. Eventually all of them met up again and continued running, Zafrina was sure plans had been made and all she needed to do was follow her coven leaders path and eventually the plan would be made clear. Zafrina had so much faith in her leader that words were hardly needed between all three of them; never mind the fact that the other two were never fans of talking. So Zafrina would follow and in time, she would have her answers.

Bella didn’t have nearly as much patience, but she knew there was only so much she could do with vampires that clearly wanted her. When she was brought to an airport, even though she could see humans in the distance doing their jobs with the different planes, the fact that the vampires had quickly followed a shadowed path that lead to a covered pathway that led to a clearly private plan, told Bella that it didn’t matter what she wanted, she was at the mercy of the vampires. No matter how loud she screamed, it was incredibly unlikely she would be heard from how far away she was from the other humans.

When she got on the plane though, all bets were off. She knew the chances of her friends finding were next to none, but she could at least do her best to be as difficult as possible and make it so the vampires that took her regretted their choice. She was a teenager after, she was allowed to be difficult; especially if she was being kidnapped.

They had just gotten into the air when Bella decided it was safe enough to start her questioning. Hopefully she would get better answers than she had before.

“So what exactly do you want with me?” Bella asked as she unbuckled her seat belt, the only one on the plan that was wearing one. She figured not only were they in the air now, but if something were to happen, she would have better luck with the vampires keeping her safe than the seatbelt.

Zafrina tilted her head to the side, confused as to why her human was asking that question again. “To keep you safe.” Zafrina said with an edge in her tone, “Which you will be with me.”

“But why am I with you? Why did you take me?” Bella persisted, hoping the ancient vampire would answer her question.

“You were in trouble, I saved you.” Zafrina answered, then with a look from her coven leader decided to add a bit more, “I was sent to find you, and I have.”

Bella’s eyes widen with realization, she was being hunted. It wasn’t just a coincidence that Zafrina and her coven had shown up when they did. Were they with Victoria? Was Bella about to be in the same situation she was with James? Should she had tried to run for help at the airport, regardless of how little chance she had?

“Who um, who sent you?” Bella asked, not able to hang onto her anger as long as she had wanted with the threat of possible death so near. She shook her head just slightly to try and shake off her growing fear, if they were going to hurt her, they would have already done so. If they were like James, she would already be in pain.

“The Volturi.” Zafrina answered with confusion that never seemed to leave her around her human. If she had truly been around the Cullen’s for as long as she claimed, should she not know the laws? The Cullen’s surely would have told her of the risks of her continued presence around them, especially as she remained human. “Do you not know the laws?” She carefully asked, noting the slight fear she could sense coming from her human. As much as she didn’t like sensing that, she needed the answers before they got to Italy and were brought before the royals. They would want answers and would not be as kind as her in getting them.

“Carlisle told me about them.” Bella quickly answered, happy that Zafrina was finally talking in full sentences, like a normal person. “The kings make sure the laws are followed right?” She asked, sure in her answer, Zafrina’s nod let her know she was right.

“Do you know the laws?” Zafrina asked, her eyes narrowed at the seriousness of the conversation.

It was a bit unnerving having Zafrina’s undivided attention on her. Bella knew that while she stared at the taller woman, having all of her focused on her, she couldn’t help but feel like the most important person in the world. Something about having this ancient vampire’s attention on her made her feel impervious to the rest of the world; like nothing else mattered.

It was unnerving.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, afraid that she was going to fall into the same trap she had been in with Edward. She had to keep her mind clear, she wouldn’t let this vampire do what the last one did.

Bella gritted her teeth and all but glared at the dark skinned woman. As beautiful as she was, Bella would have to make sure not to look directly at her; she was sure direct eye contact helped the vampires control over humans. So instead of looking in her eyes like Bella really wanted to do since Zafrina’s eyes were as beautiful as rubies, she looked just to the side.

“Of course I do.” Bella said, “Were you sent to kill me?”

“Stop asking that.” Zafrina asked, her ruby eyes back to being black. Bella would have to tread carefully if she didn’t want to make the vampire so mad that she did in fact get angry enough to hurt her. “You are safe with me.” Zafrina asserted through gritted teeth. “You will not be killed; not ever.” She hissed, practically yelling at the human.

“Zafrina.” Senna cautioned, letting Zafrina know she needed to tread carefully as the scent of fear started to grow stronger.

Senna and Kachiri had not wanted to intrude in the couple’s time together, trying to give them as much of a private moment as could happen while they were vampires stuck in closed quarters. But the two did not want their sister to cause any harm to her new bond that she had waited quite a long time for. They would always be there for their sister, even if indirectly as just saying their sisters name from across the room. It was more than enough for Zafrina to take stock of her situation.

Zafrina took a deep breath, her stare becoming more intense as she focused on her mate that was staring wide eyed back at her. She needed to keep better control of her emotions. Her human wasn’t used to being mated to a vampire; not truly at least. She had heard the rumors of the young Cullen claiming to have a mate in a human, but surely he couldn’t copy all the emotions of true mate bond with a human.

Zafrina stared at her mate, wanting to take comfort in being so close to her human, but the more she stared, the more unnerved she became. Her human wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Vampires were really big on eye contact. With humans, it was a way to lure them in to eat. With other vampires, it was a way to gage their strength and who would likely win in a fight. But with mates, it was a way to strengthen their own bond, a way to feel the peacefulness a mate always made each other feel; it was why mates were constantly staring at each other. It made them closer.

But Bella was avoiding eye contact. Zafrina wasn’t okay with that.

Zafrina quickly, but gently and assuredly, gripped Bella’s chin and moved her head so that the human was forced to look into Zafrina’s eyes. It took a couple minutes, the human doing her best to initially pull away from her before stubbornly looking away from her. But eventually, her human gave in and Zafrina felt a calming peace infuse her very being as she was finally able to look into her humans eyes.

“Please don’t look away from me.” Zafrina said in a quiet tone, remember to say ‘please’ as most humans tend to like hearing then when being asked something.

“I won’t fall for your traps.” Bella sternly said, doing her best to go over random math problems, just the easy ones because math wasn’t necessarily her best subject, but it would do the trick to make sure she didn’t get lured into Zafrina’s trap.

“What trap?” Zafrina asked, going right back to her default state of confusion around her mate. Getting to know her human was going to be harder than she thought.

Bella shook her head and moved away from the vampire, only allowing a spare thought to be thankful that the vampire let her move away, even though the brief look of hurt in Zafrina’s eyes confused her.

“Are you bringing me to the Volturi so they can kill me because I know about vampires?” Bella asked, choosing to ignore that situation that just happened and moving the conversation on.

Zafrina angrily stood up, taking a deep breath to watch her anger before she needed to be calmed by her sisters again.

“Why must you insist on saying you will be killed?” Zafrina angrily moving next to her human again, not happy with the distance the human had put between them. “No one will ever harm you, I have told you this.”

“Well excuse me for not trusting a vampire.” Bella said with a roll of her eyes, not all sorry about making the vampire angry. She had every right to assume she was being brought to the vampire royalty to be killed.

“What did the Cullen’s tell you about vampires?” Senna asked, putting a calming hand on Zafrina, concerned they would run out of time on their long flight because her sister kept getting flustered just from being near her mate.

“I believe there is a lot to tell.” Kachiri cautioned as she too put a calming hand on her sister’s shoulder, knowing the woman would keep in her circular conversation unless a third party broke the chain. She knew they were all bad with communication, but it appears Zafrina has forgotten that while the human may be her mate, her mate certainly hadn’t known her long enough to be able to read her like the coven had. It was time for Kachiri and Senna to step out of their comfort zone for their sister’s benefit before Zafrina really angered her mate, and for them all to get the information from Bella that they needed. Preferably they needed the information before they arrive in Italy where the whole coven was sure Bella wouldn’t be treated quite as kindly for not automatically giving all of her information right away.