A/N: Wow I can't believe it's been almost 3 whole years since I've updated… that's pretty terrible. Honestly I changed emails and just checked my old one again. But I reread this story and good news is I found the start of Chapter 10 that I had been working on. Let's hope that I've only gotten better in my absence.
Chapter 10: Now We Know
BPOV:
"Hey Al, I think I need to go upstairs now. If you still need me I'll stay I will. Feel free to stay down here though," I say quietly, my lips press against her hair.
The light of the digital clock in the room shows 7:02 A.M.
"Silly, Bella. I'm fine. Besides I wouldn't leave you alone up there and talk about the end of the world," Alice reassures me.
"I'm glad you're better babe," I smile, kissing her back.
"Are you ready?" she asks after nodding.
"Yes…" I sigh out.
Alice takes my hand gently in hers and pulls me off the bed along with her. I smile gently as we come face to face, me leaning down slightly. I lean forward and place a soft kiss on her lips. She returns my kiss before pulling back and walking towards the door, taking with her.
Ascending the stairs her hand grasps the doorknob and turns it. I take a sharp breath in and exhale, squinting against the light in the house. It was pretty dark downstairs.
"Hello ladies. So great of you to join us," Lily smirks, leaning against the counter.
I see Valerie after she closes the refrigerator door. I wonder why she was in there. She smiles before walking up behind Lily, wrapping her arms around Lily's waist and resting her head on Lily's shoulder.
"Well you know how we are," Alice recovers for us.
"Yeah like you two," I counter with her, letting a grin onto my face.
Lily opens her mouth to speak but one of Valerie's hands came up and covers Lily's mouth. Lily looks shocked for a second, then looks back to see Valerie giving a pointed look.
"Be nice," Valerie reiterates her look.
Lily sighs exasperated before grabbing Val's hand from her own mouth and nodding.
"Ok but they are going to have to get used to it," Lily states.
"We won't have to if your girlfriend is around to protect us," Alice replies, smirking.
I laugh, pulling her hand closer to me and wrapping my other arm around her. She giggles replacing her arms around my neck. I kiss her deeply before pulling back to see Lily with a pout on her lips.
"Aw babe, you know I'm on your side," Valerie coos.
Lily's pout turns into a victorious grin spread wide across her face. She sticks her tongue out. I only roll my eyes but I laugh softly when I see Alice sticking her tongue out in retaliation.
I bring a hand up and turn Alice's head back towards me, before taking her tongue and forcing my tongue into her mouth over hers. She hums in contentment.
"Whoa a lesbian make out! Sweet!" Emmett makes his presence known and the statement is followed by a familiar smacking sound, announcing Rose's presence.
While Emmett groans and cradles his head with a pout, Valerie moves, grabbing Lily's hand, and takes them into the living room. Alice grabs my hand and pulls me into the living room after them. I sit down on the couch and I pull Alice onto lap smiling gently. Rose and Emmett finish the remaining people missing and join the group on the couch with us. Everyone else was already seated somewhere in the extravagant living room that I failed to take much notice of the first time passing through.
"Alright everyone is here. Good. Now I guess there are a few things that we should clear up," Viktor announces.
APOV:
"Ok as all of you have been told, each of us is a member of an ancient vampire legend called Septum. As the word suggests from the Latin origin, there are seven members of our… "Elite" vampire race, I guess you could say. One of us has appeared, from our dormant human blood after being changed, every 500 years since 1000 B.C.; we've also had interesting occurrences in our human lives to say the least. I appeared in 1000 B.C. noticing that once I found out what I was that I had a vision and started my duty knowing that the rest of our race would not be quite as powerful," Viktor explains, and then his eyes take on a solemn look.
"After a couple of years of the mindless scavenging, and surviving I began to gain back that curiosity of what had happened to me. I travelled, searching for anything that could help explain my desire for blood. It wasn't until I came to Norway that I found something. You see, I was the first of my kind but I found markings on the walls of a cave just outside of Oslo, Norway. I spend months trying to figure it out only taking time to feed or clear my head," he continues, rubbing his forehead as if reliving the confusion of this script.
"This cave was massive mind you, and I had maybe a mile of stone to decode. After months of deciphering I finally decoded it to basically be a different older version of the Mayan calendar. It had the appearance of a crown on the year I was changed. I noticed the pattern that roughly every 500 years a crown would appear on one of the years. I couldn't believe that I had done all this and then my mind wouldn't allow me to understand it," he stopped, letting it sink in before continuing.
"It was then that I created the tomb and I vaguely remember what happened. I was in another trance and I awake with this tomb in my hands. On the tomb reads: Semptum Fabula cruor Imbido, otherwise meaning "The Seven: Fable of the Blood Drinker". I used the Latin word Imbido but once the population grew the word "vampire" emerged in the Scandinavian area since that is where I started with the population increase; Vam meaning blood; pir meaning monster. I still revert back to Imbido from time to time when I revert back to Latin," he pauses again. It was a lot to take in.
"As I am the first, I was nervous that I had just gone crazy. So I waited hundreds of years until the year 502 B.C.E. It wasn't until November when I felt Valerie's transformation happen as my own and I finally wasn't crazy anymore," he laughs a little to himself.
"So that is the story of the beginning. I don't know how to explain it better than that. Do you have any questions?" Viktor finishes, directing the question mostly to Bella.
"Just one really… Carlisle said there were 3 of those tombs. How did you recreate it if you don't remember how?" Bella speaks slowly.
"Ah well I eventually figured out how it worked during the hundreds of years of waiting for Valerie. It's an ancient art combined with a little black magic. Apparently I taped into it through my subconscious. It's a little hard to explain," Viktor smiles warmly, turning to Emmett.
"How did the first time turning into a big bat man work out?" the big bear of a vampire questions excitedly.
"Well it was quite frightening to be honest… I hadn't actually deciphered that part of the book when it happened and I though I was imploding. Not to scare Bella but it kind of hurts the first time. I feels like your muscles are … trying to escape from within your own skin and it's like being a human again, skin ripping all over your body. Your bones seem to turn to paper and you have trouble standing. But hmm, we'll talk more about that later," Viktor concludes abruptly when he notices the look of nausea on Bella's face.
"I have one…" I start hesitantly.
"Sure, Alice," he responds with a curious tone, turning his attention to me.
"Does it say anything in the book about you all being… gay?" I ask softly.
"Well… no it doesn't. It doesn't mention anything about our mates," Viktor replies with a thoughtful look.
"It obviously doesn't matter I was just curious…" I say quickly, embarrassed.
"It is all right, Alice. I am just as curious as you that the book didn't mention anything about it. Especially since it seems to know so much about us," Viktor clears up the reason behind his look.
"What do you mean? It knows so much about us?" Bella speaks up.
"Well… when I recreated the book, I didn't put everything in the copies. It was just me being cautious but I didn't have the utmost trust in Aro and although I trust Carlisle I was worried that Aro would try to steal Carlisle's copy if I made an exact copy for him but not Aro," Viktor explains.
"So what exactly did you leave out?" Carlisle questions, no anger in his voice, with curiosity.
Bella takes in a breath behind me, burying her face into my neck.
Regaining some composure that I guess he thinks he lost, Viktor takes a deep breath and shifts his stance.
"The book didn't have it in the beginning but as soon as one of the Seven's dormant vampire characteristics were awakened some of the pages of the book that were blank filled with words. It included any definitive, traumatic, or otherwise significant events that happened in each of our lives. You know now that if someone untrustworthy had access to those events that disturbed us, it could us vulnerable and be used against us," Viktor clarifies, looking directly at Carlisle as opposed to Bella and I.
"Are we allowed to see it or what?" Emmett so gracefully puts into question what half the room is thinking.
"That is not really for me alone to answer," Viktor replies cryptically looking around the room.
"They can read mine if they want. I don't care," Lily remarks with a shrug.
"Fine by me," Valerie states, laying her head on Lily's shoulder.
"You guys are practically family now, might as well know the dark and dirty secrets," Jeremiah grins brightly as he answers.
Abraham only nods his approval with Jeremiah's comment.
"I have no qualms," Viktor replies, calmly.
"Sure, what the hell," Demetri is the last to comment.
Viktor nods before standing and walking off before suddenly reappearing with a similar tome to the one Carlisle had although it was a little thicker. He hands it to Carlisle who nods and thanks him.
I feel Bella tense behind me.
Wait a second… Bella will be in there now, which means…
"Wait!" I exclaim.
The whole room turns to me. I turn around to look at Bella.
"Are you ok with this?" I ask her.
"Oh my, I'm terribly sorry Bella," Viktor comments, embarrassed.
"I…I'd rather you guys not… maybe after a couple of decades, it's still a little fresh," Bella mumbles quietly.
"Of course, don't worry baby, no one blames you," I offer.
"Of course not, we all have things in our pasts that it takes time to accept," Carlisle replies as well giving Viktor the book back.
Viktor closes his eyes and then hands it back.
"It's no longer visible, Bella. The pages are once again blank and you just let me know when you are ready," Viktor says quietly.
Bella nods, not looking at anyone. I turn back around and snuggle into her. Her arms tighten around me and she leans into my neck, breathing deeply.
"I don't think these need to be read aloud so if there are any other questions I will gladly answer them otherwise I will be around if anyone needs me," Viktor states, before seeing blank stares and shakes of heads, and then walks upstairs.
"Can we go?" Bella whispers to me. I don't think the others could've heard it.
"Mhmm," I reply, standing and grabbing her hand to pull her up.
"Downstairs or outside?" I question.
"Outside," Bella says shortly, no more explanation needed.
Turning I catch a quick glimpse of her pitch black eyes and rush towards the door. I could probably use a hunt too.
About twenty minutes later…
I am about to head back to the house when Bella grabs my hand, holding me in place. I turn around gently to see Bella looking at me.
"Can we just explore a little? I don't want to go back just yet," she mumbles, looking down at the ground.
"Of course, that just means time alone with you and that's something I will never turn down," I reply, grinning so she feels more comfortable.
She pulls me off in the opposite direction of the house. Walking around with Bella, I lose track of time. I take in a deep breath, inhaling the crisp cool air of the early morning.
A/N: Turns out that what I had previously written was an entire chapter, which means I get to start fresh after I post this. Yay! Long time awaited I'm sure. I'm very super duper sorry. Reviews always appreciated.