Chapter 3

Zafrina kept running for as long as they could see, smell or hear the wolves. They weren’t sure if the wolves meant any harm to their new human since they had destroyed the other vampire, but they weren’t going to take any chances. Their new human wasn’t worth the risk. So they ran until they could be sure they were all safe.

It took hours for them to feel they were no longer being followed. They kept running until Kachiri told them they were in the clear and could safely stop to check on their human. They needed to make sure that the human didn’t suffer any injuries while they had been running. Zafrina was already tense enough after carrying her human for so long while going so fast. None of them had ever had to carry a human while running so fast for so long before, they were all anxious to make sure she was okay.

Once they stopped, Kachiri looked at her sister, letting Zafrina know to check on her human.

Zafrina didn’t bother to nod in acknowledgment to her coven leaders words before slowly putting the human down on her feet. Zafrina kept a hand on the humans shoulder while the human took a moment to gain her balance from standing still after moving so fast for so long.

After a minute, Bella finally found her footing and glared at the vampires, moving a few feet away from the red eyed females.

“Where did you take me?” Bella demanded, hoping the vampires would be willing to talk with her. They hadn’t seemed to want to talk with the wolves, but Bella couldn’t really blame them; they were each other’s enemies after all.

“We kept you safe.” Zafrina said while giving her young human a confused look. Why was her human upset with her keeping her safe from the shifters? She should be happy, at least she thought she would be.

Her words seemed to stop Bella from wanting to yell at the vampire, it wasn’t what she was expecting to hear from the vampire. While Bella knew she was talking about the wolves, she had actually kept her safe from Laurent. It wasn’t the wolves that had originally saved her from the French vampire, it was these women. Why had they done that?

“You kept me safe from Laurent.” Bella said, sounding slightly in awe about it. Zafrina practically preened from the acknowledgement; not that she would actually preen, but she did smirk. Of course she would protect her mate, what kind of vampire would she be if she didn’t?

Zafrina nodded her agreement that she did in fact save her from the other vampire. Was that all she wanted to confirm? Zafrina held her hand out towards the human, wanting the close contact with again. Having her human move away from her did hurt a little, but that was okay. Her human wouldn’t feel a vampire mate bond, not until she was a vampire.

Bella barely glanced at the hand extended towards, not at all inclined to take it. “Why?” She asked, giving a side glance to the other two vampires that took a few steps away from them, as if trying to give them some sense of privacy. It was a nice thought, but Bella knew there was no privacy, not when there were vampires involved.

Zafrina gave her a confused look, not understanding why she would ask that. Why would someone question why they were saved? Did the reason really matter? Why else would a vampire protect a human? If the human wasn’t her mate and had only been an intended meal, she would have already been dead. The laws were very strict and allowed for no deviation. To Zafrina, there was only one other option as to why a vampire would save a human, either to kill them immediately for a meal or because they were the vampires mate. The ancient vampire didn’t understand why her human didn’t realize that.

“Why?” She parroted back, confused by the question and in turn confusing the human.

“Yes, why did you save me?” Bella asked again, adding clarification even though she didn’t think it should have been needed.

“Why would I not?” Zafrina asked, still not understand why her human was questioning her.

“Do you plan on killing me?” Bella asked, thinking she had finally figured out the real reason for her being saved. If she somehow managed to survive, she would really need to look into getting a blood transfusion to fix her blood from apparently attracting every vampire that smelled it.

Zafrina’s eyes went pitch black immediately at hearing that question. Allowing harm to come to her human was out of the question, much less doing the unthinkable. She would never allowing anyone to harm her mate; the only thing that would happen to her would be a single bite from Zafrina that would ensure her mate would be able to spend eternity with her. But before Zafrina could do that, she had to make sure that turning her mate wouldn’t cause any more issues for her.

Kachiri’s side-long looks were telling her that they needed to leave soon. But Zafrina had hoped to get more information on her mate and perhaps find out what exactly had happened to her and the Cullen’s. But given that there were wolf shifters around and they weren’t exactly known for giving up a hunt for vampires very easily, they would need to leave very soon. Kachiri would have to call the Volturi and actually take them up on their offer of using their private plane that they hadn’t bothered to accept to use. With a human traveling with them, Zafrina couldn’t very expect Bella to handle Zafrina holding her across the Atlantic and not get sick. They would stop someplace, likely Seattle, to call the Volturi and have them make arrangements for them and their new member.

“Never.” Zafrina growled out, trying her best to control her anger as she didn’t want her mate to think she was mad at her. Zafrina should be more than old enough to have more than a good handle on her emotions, but when it involved her newly found mate, it seemed all her control leaves her. “You are safe.” Zafrina affirmed, wondering if perhaps her mate just needed to hear those words after being so close to that other vampire and wolves. She could not blame her mate being afraid, it was a frightening situation after all.

“Am I though?” Bella asked skeptically, “Who are you?” If she was going to actually be killed, she at least wanted to know who they were. Getting info from James as he tried to kill was so much easier than these women.

“Zafrina.” The woman answered right away with the smallest smile Bella had ever seen; she was sure if she hadn’t been looking, Bella would have missed it. “Senna, Kachiri.” Zafrina introduced, using her eyes to point out the aforementioned women. Bella wasn’t sure how she was able to understand which vampire was which as Zafrina’s eyes had hardly moved, but she knew. She knew Senna was the woman with slightly wild looking hair while the other woman had intricate braids and beads in her hair that made her hair look more like a piece of art than hair.

“We will keep you safe.” Zafrina clarified as she the human seemed at a bit of loss for words, when in reality, Bella just wasn’t sure of what to do in her situation. She was at a total loss of what these vampires wanted from her and just wished the pack had been able to catch up. Bella wasn’t so sure she could believe the vampire, not after what little experience she had of vampires.

“What do you want with me?” She asked, wrapping her arms around her, trying to gain some type of comfort from something. While was angry about being basically kidnapped, there really wasn’t much she could do against the vampire. She was at their mercy.

“I only want you.” Zafrina asked, not sure what she was being asked. Did Bella mean she wanted to know if her father owed anything, like a dowry? “I do not need anything else.” She affirmed, perhaps the America’s were not quite what she thought? She understood that she was old and most definitely out of the loop on a lot of things, but one thing she thought she remembered Carlisle saying when he had passed through the Amazon in the early 1900’s, was that humans mostly married who they wanted. Perhaps she was wrong?

“Why?” Bella questioned, trying to get Zafrina to say that the vampires really did want to drain her; at least then she would know for certain instead of dealing with the not knowing, that was practically worse.

“Why would I want anyone else?” Zafrina asked, unsure of what her mate was asking. Bella was her mate, and as far she knew, there was no one else. Of course, there were her best friends Kachiri and Senna, but they obviously were not the same as Bella. Bella was so much more than both of them. Zafrina was sure that in time, Bella would understand. They just had to get her safe first and in a comfortable environment instead of the forest and Bella would start to trust Zafrina.

“Zafrina.” Kachiri said, eyeing the direction she wanted them to go.

Their time was up. Kachiri was starting to feel anxious now that they had been still for so long. She understood that the human needed more time and answers, something Zafrina seemed to not be able to articulate very well, but they would have to do that when they were someplace safe and didn’t have prying ears. They would have to break in someplace to contact the Volturi and then make sure the plans were made very quickly to get them to Italy; the farther away from the pack of shifters they were the better.

Zafrina moved closer to her human, intent to pick her up again so they could leave. “We must go now, we have to keep moving to stay safe.” Zafrina said before she picked up Bella again and immediately the three women started running again.

Bella had taken a step back when Zafrina moved closer out of instinct, but she knew it wouldn’t matter. She was going to be stuck with these vampires for the foreseeable future and would have to try her best to try and get better answers from any of the women when they weren’t running… or really just from Zafrina since the other two could have been mute for all Bella knew as they hadn’t said anything she could hear. Bella couldn’t help but think as the forest blurred around her that it would figure that she would meet the one vampire that was worse at communication than Edward was.