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Chapter 8

New Friends?

Victoria attacked. She jumped and tried to get my torso, but I was able to swing out of the way just in time. I leaped toward the right, rolled and stood on my feet, ready for another attack. Victoria ended up crashing into the tree that she had thrown me into. Hee, hee. Karma's a bitch.

Victoria picked herself up from the rubble that used to be called a tree and stood to face me, all snarl and no smile. We started to circle each other again; measuring the other up. I looked around and saw that the boys were no longer in the window. They were probably on their way down here, but their dorm was on the fifth floor and they couldn't perform the kind of magic that I did to jump out the window. It was too much magic for them, especially for all the big things they use for. If I was correct, they would probably be down in about five minutes. Five minutes. Shit, Victoria could rip me to shreds and bury the pieces in five minutes. I'm so dead.

My only chance was to buy the boys some time. I had to keep Victoria interested enough where she thought she'd be able to kill me now, but sidetracked enough not to leave me for another day. I had to talk.

"So, Vicky," I started. Victoria just snarled in response. We circled each other some more before I continued. "Whatcha doin' in Ipswich?" Honest enough question. What was she doing here?

"You should know," she snapped. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows came together in a 'V' on her forehead. Yep, she looked mad. "After what you did, you should know."

"What does that mean?" I asked her. I was honestly curious. "What'd I do?"

Victoria snorted. "You did nothing, but take everything that ever mattered to me! My friend, my lover, my brother. My whole family. You took everything!" Victoria's voice had risen up as she was talking, to the point where she was yelling at me. But now, as she spoke, her voice was deadly quiet, and it was even worse than her yelling. "So now, I'm going to kill you and your family. One by one so each of them feels the hurt and loss that I felt." Victoria pounced again and my eyes turned black.

I through my hands up and quickly created a shield. She hit it hard, hard enough for it to crack. Thinking quickly, I ditched the shield and created an orb of energy. I let it grow until it was about the size of a volleyball before I threw it at her. It her in the side, throwing off her balance and sending her spinning to the ground. Victoria lay on the ground gasping for air that she didn't need.

"What do you mean I killed your family?" I asked her. Victoria just stood up and glared at me. "I didn't even touch them! The last I saw of Laurent and James was when they threatened me in Washington. And I didn't touch the guy you were with the other day, either. My brother did, and that was only because he attacked him first." Victoria gave me a blank look.

"So you're saying that you DIDN'T kill my family?" asked Victoria. She didn't seem mad anymore, just curious and dumbstruck.

"I didn't kill your family." I looked at Victoria steadily, while she eyed me warily. Victoria took tentative step towards me, but she kept her distance.

"How do I know you're telling the truth? How can I trust you?" she asked me. I sighed and with my still black eyes, I motioned for her to come to me.

"Come here, I'll show you my memory." Victoria took another step toward me, so now we were within arm's reach. I brought my hands up and put them on either side of her face. I took a deep breath, and showed her my memory in flashes. I showed her the time in the meadow playing baseball, to the time Edward leaving me, to when I came back to Ipswich, to seeing the Cullens my first day back, to telling the Cullens what I am and telling Edward I was in love with Reid. I also showed Victoria what happened the night we saw her at the Dells and the anguish and remorse on Caleb's face when he announced that he had killed Victoria's assumed brother. When I was done, I sighed again and withdrew my power. I took my hands from Victoria's face and watched as she stood motionless with staggering breath. She looked like she would be fighting tears, if she could cry.

"I know it's hard, Victoria." I told her quietly. "But I didn't kill your family. We only killed your brother because he was going to hurt Caleb and Sarah. If you hadn't attacked first, it wouldn't have happened." Victoria just nodded her head in agreement. It took her a couple of tries to finally be able to speak.

"I know. I'm so, so sorry, Bella. I didn't mean to hurt your family." Victoria looked at the ground again and shook her head. She was tearlessly sobbing now, and I've never seen anything so sad. "It's just that, they were my family, you know? I would've done anything for them, and now their gone! Forever!" Victoria started to sob harder, and I knelt down on the ground next to her. I wrapped my arms around the thought to be evil vampire and rocked her back and forth as she mourned.

"It's ok, Victoria. I would've done the same thing." I told her. We sat like that for a while on the ground, arms wrapped around each other, Victoria crying. A little while later, she sobered up and we were able to talk.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what made you think that we killed James and Laurent?" I asked her. We were still sitting on the ground, but we had our legs crossed and we were facing each other.

"Well," Victoria looked thoughtful. "We were ambushed somewhere in Oregon. I was thrown around a bit, and was pulled away from the fight. Riley, my brother, was pulled away with me. We decided to stick together, because of the strength in numbers. We didn't know who had taken us, but we knew that there was a lot of them. By the time we had gathered our wits and were waiting to fight, the enemy retreated so fast, we didn't get to see who attacked us.

"Since we hadn't heard anything from James or Laurent, Riley and I decided to make our way towards our camp. It took us a while, but when we finally got there, we found it in ruins. Our stuff and the forestry around us was completely destroyed. The simple little campfire we had built to light up the darkness had been built up higher. At first, I didn't know what it meant. I walked over to the big bonfire and saw a piece of silver catch my eye. I went toward it and found a silver ring in the shape of a snake with small, emerald eyes." Victoria stopped for a moment. Her voice started to waver, like she was going to cry again. She put her hand inside her shirt and brought out a silver chain around her neck. On the chain was the ring she had described.

"It was James' ring. He and I had found them in an Egyptian raid hundreds of years ago, when we first met. We found these matching rings," Victoria now held up her wedding finger and an exact replica of the ring on her chain, was around her wedding finger. "We wrote our vows on the spot and went to the nearest house of worship to be married. These rings were like our wedding rings. We've had them for more than three hundred years." Victoria sniffled a little but continued.

"When I saw James' wedding ring in the bonfire, I knew. I knew that my love was dead! That I would never see him again! That he was gone! And I felt anger. I was angry at the world for taking my love away from me. For taking my best friend away, too. I want revenge, I wanted someone to pay dearly for what they had done." Victoria took a deep breath.

"Riley and I walked to the nearest town and fed for a while. We were empty and lonely without the rest of our family. We were broken. No, we were shattered. Shattered beyond repair. We walked from town to town, staying for hours instead of days, trying to look for peace, but finding none. We finally went to a little town in Colorado. There, we met some other vampires. Vampires who thought they knew who had killed my family." Victoria stopped and looked at me with unshed tears in her eyes.

"Victoria, who told you that I had killed Laurent and James?" I asked her. She gave me a pleading look before she answered.

"The Volturi." She whispered. "They said that they had foreseen you killing my family. You and the Cullens. I was about to go back to Forks when they said that you were now residing in Ipswich, Massachusetts. They offered me help in exchange for helping them kill you and your family. They wanted nothing to do with the Cullens, but they said that I could kill them too if I wanted." She looked back down at the ground. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I didn't mean it. I thought you had killed my family, but now I see that it was the Volturi who had killed them so that they could use my anger to get to you. If I would've known, then I wouldn't have attacked you. I prom-"

"Enough, Victoria." I interrupted. "I forgive you, and I'm sorry for your family. You just got involved in something that has had nothing to do with you. You and your family were used to get to my family." Victoria gave me a thoughtful look.

"I've been meaning to ask about that. What do the Volturi want with your family?" she asked me. I sighed and got comfy in my seat. This might take a while.

"Well, as you can see from our fight, I'm not exactly normal." I motioned toward the destroyed scenery around us and Victoria chuckled.

"You can say that again!" she mumbled. "You could've kicked my ass!" I snorted at her.

"I was gonna kick your ass!" Victoria sulked playfully and we laughed a little. I continued on a little later. "Anyway, my family is from a long line of witches.

(You know the story, so I'm not gonna tell it. Sorry, but I hate repeating myself.)

When I was done telling her my story, she just sat there stunned. Of course, wouldn't you be stunned too if the person you were just trying to kill ended up being a supernatural witch who could kill you, an indestructible vampires, with a flick of her fingers in a matter of seconds? Yeah, I thought so.

"Wow" she said, a little breathless. "that's some story." I chuckled and nodded.

"Yep, it is." We sat silently for a moment. The silence was broken when Victoria spoke again.

"I want to help you." I gave her a blank look, so she continued. "I want to help you take down the Volturi. They killed my family, Bella. And I know that I've only known you for, like, ten minutes, but I think we could be really good friends. The Volturi tried to hurt you too, and I won't let that happen." She looked down at her hands that were in her lap. "Please let me help, Bella."

I looked at her for a while before I figured she was right. About everything. About the Volturi killing her family, about them hurting mine, and even about us being good friends. I wanted to be Victoria's friend, especially now that she was all alone in the world. Talking to her these last ten minutes or so, I found she was exactly like me. Badass and sarcastic all the time, but caring for her family. And now that her family was gone, I wanted to bring her into mine, if she'd let me.

"How about we start over, Victoria?" I asked her. Victoria's head snapped up to me questionably. "How about we start with a clean slate? We forget about the past and focus on the present?" Victoria gave me a mega watt smile.

"I would really like that." I nodded and stuck out my hand. Victoria grabbed it with hers and we shook hands.

"Hello, I'm Isabella, but my family calls me Bee. Nice to meet you." For good measure, I even bowed my head a little and pretended to tip a hat with the hand I was shaking with. Victoria gave a good natured laugh.

"Hello, Bee. I'm Victoria, but my family calls me Vicky. And it's nice to meet you, too." We sobered up for a second. When we looked at each other again, we burst out laughing at the situation. When you really think about it, it was kind of funny: Victoria the supposed evil villain shaking hands with the super hero (moa) and the finding out that said evil villain was actually super hero sidekick material.

"Alright, this is a little stupid." Said Victoria, or Vicky now. I giggled a little more and nodded.

"Yeah, but still it was necessary." Vicky rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Soooo necessary. We already knew each other!" I nodded but held up one finger, sophisticatedly.

"Yes, but every clean start/slate needs to have a proper introduction." Vicky gave me a look. "It's written in the handbook!" Vicky snorted and raised an eyebrow.

"What handbook? I would love to read this handbook." She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"The handbook is in my head." I smirked at her. She gave me another look that said, 'crazy witch' "Say what you will, nonmagic folk wouldn't understand." Now it was my turn to cross my arms. I stuck my nose in the air with fake superiority.

"Non magic folk?!?" stuttered Vicky. "I'm a vampire! How much more magic can you get?!" I put my finger on my chin and looked thoughtfully.

"Well, you could be a fairy or a pixy, but they're too annoying. You could be a werewolf, but they're too serious, and no fun to hang out with. Oh!" I snapped my fingers, to add effect. "You could be a witch, like me!" Vicky just rolled her eyes and looked at me hopelessly. After a while, something in my words finally hit her.

"Wait, pixies and fairies are real?" she asked me. I smiled and nodded and her draw practically hit the floor. "And werewolves, they're real too?" I nodded my head again, this time with a frown.

"Well, some of them are real werewolves with the whole changing at full moon against their will, being killed with anything silver, you get bitten you turn into one yourself, you know, the stuff in movies. Those werewolves are cool. They throw awesome parties, and they're completely trustful, fun, and loyal. They're good people to have on your side when you're in trouble." I paused for a second, making sure Vicky was taking everything in okay. She seemed to be doing fine, I'd met some vampires who I'd told this about and they had completely freaked out, even though they were part of the supernatural themselves. Making sure Vicky was alright, I continued.

"Ok, so you have the cool werewolves. But then, you also have the shifters. A shifter can be anything from a giraffe to a guinea pig. They inherit their forms from their parents, grandparents, you know. It's in the blood. Since shape shifters inherit their forms, they're very prideful in what they are. They think they're some sort of super race, because any shifter who has a kid will definitely have a kid that can shift. Usually people of the same form group together, you know, protection and safety in numbers. Shifters are usually very stuck up and think very highly of themselves.

"There was a group of shape shifters in Forks too. Do you remember that Quilette reserve towards the end of town? Well, their elders and the elders' kids were all shape shifters. Their forms were wolves. They always thought that they were werewolves, but I tried to point out that they weren't werewolves, but shifters, but it was kind of hard to tell them that without giving anything away."

"What's the difference between a shape shifter wolf and a werewolf?" Vicky asked. Her eyebrows were pulled together again, but not in rage like they had been before. Instead they were pulled by curiosity. It suited her face well.

"Well, the difference is that, like I said, werewolves are forced to change at the full moon. They can be killed with anything silver, even if it's just a scrape or paper cut. When they bite people, the person they bite becomes a werewolf too.

"Now shape shifter wolves may look the same as werewolves, but they're completely different. Their forms are in their blood. They aren't forced to change, like werewolves. Instead, their changes are due to their emotions. If they feel anger, hurt, loss, their reflex to make those feelings go away is to change into a wolf, were wolves can't feel those things. When they bite people, the person doesn't change into a shifter or a werewolf. It would have been like any other wolf bite. Silver doesn't bother them, either. Shifters can also live for a very long time. IF they shift a lot, then they won't age. I've met shifters who have been hundreds of years old because of all the time the shift." I took a breather.

"So, does that answer your questions?" I asked Vicky. She still had that curious look on her face, but I could tell she didn't want to go into it now.

"No, but I think we'll save the rest for a rainy day." She said. I laughed and nodded. "Then you can tell me about fairies and pixies."

"And goblins and trolls! Don't forget Goblins and Trolls!" Vicky gave me another look. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it, probably thinking that she didn't want to know. We got up and I looked at my watch. Six thirty. We'd been out here for about thirty minutes. Where were the boys?

"Hey, have you seen the boys anywhere?" I asked Vicky. She looked thoughtful for a second, and shook her head.

"Nope, and I can't hear them anywhere, either." We looked at each other for a minute.

"What do you think happened to them?" Vicky asked me. I frowned for a moment, looking up at Tyler and Reid's dorm room window.

"I don't know, Vicky." I said. "But I'm gonna find out. You coming?" I looked at her, and she nodded her head.

We both got up from the ground and started to make our way back to the dorms. We talked and joked as we walked, sharing stories about childhood memories, and dishing out on people that we didn't like in the news or in Hollywood. We had finished checking the dorms, so we had made our way over to the main school building, then the library, café, and we were just going to go check out the pools when we were passing by Mr. Glue's office. We saw seven figures step out of his office sullenly before they closed the door. We could hear Mr. Glue from within his office, talking to them. "Now run along, boys!" he said. "And no more running in the halls!"

Vicky and I started to giggle hysterically until we came up to his office and saw who the figures were.

"Guys, what are you doing?" I asked them. I was completely flabbergasted. The people who had gotten in trouble were the boy Cullens, and my boys. They all turned to me and I could see the looks of relief and guilt pass over their faces. Relief, because I was alive, and guilt, because they didn't help me when I needed them.

"Oh, God, Bee! You're alright!" exclaimed Caleb. He made a move to come up and hug me, but Reid pushed past him and got to me first. He gathered me up in his arms and put his face in my hair. He didn't say anything for a while, he just held me, so I silently put my arms around his neck, nuzzling into the crook of it. We stayed like that for a while, the boys all around us coming over to awkwardly try to join the our hug, but mainly just patting me on the back and saying that they were happy that I was alright. I just 'hmmed' and 'uh huhed' to whatever they had said. I was paying any attention to them. After a little while, Reid pulled back a little bit to put his lips to my ear.

"Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me Isabella? Do NOT do that to me again." He spoke quietly but I could hear how much he was worried and suddenly felt guilty for being stupid in the first place. I mean, sure NOW I was happy that I had jumped from the window, otherwise Vicky wouldn't have attacked me and I wouldn't have gained a good friend and ally. But what if Vicky didn't listen to what I had to say? What if she had killed me on the spot? What would that have done to the Coven? To Reid?

"I'm sorry, love." I whispered back. "I'm sorry." It seemed like the only thing to say.

"AHHHHH!" yelled Tyler suddenly. He had just parted from the group when he had spotted Vicky. Vicky! Oh, shit, I had completely forgotten about her!

"What are you doing here, vamp?!" said Tyler. I noticed that his eyes were already as black as midnight. He faced Vicky, ready for any attack that he might give or receive.

"I'm here with a friend, witch. Mind your magic!" Vicky's face twisted into a look of pure distaste as she gazed at Baby Boy. I don't think she hated Tyler, just the threats he was giving out.

Completely absorbed at what was going on, I didn't even notice as Reid pushed me abruptly behind him. He shielded me with his body, and his eyes turned as black as Tyler's. He held his hand positioned as if he were holding a little ball in it. He was preparing to create an energy orb, I realized. This was not good.

"What do you want, Vamp?" Reid asked. I put my hand on Reid's shoulder, trying to calm him down. It worked, he relaxed a little bit, but not enough to lower his hand. Hesitantly, I looked over at the others. They were all like Tyler and Reid. Caleb and Pogue had their eyes black and hands ready to form energy orbs, and the Cullen boys were all in crouches, ready to spring and attack Vicky at any time. I took a deep breath and put more pressure on the hand that was already on Reid's shoulder.

"Reid, baby, stop it." I told him. I spoke loud enough for him and the other boys to hear me, but low enough where we wouldn't be overheard. "She's my friend, she means us no harm." Reid relaxed a little more, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others wavering as well.

"How can we trust her, Bee?" he asked. His eyes were still locked on Vicky, catching every small move she made, trying to interpret where she might attack.

"Simple. Do you trust me?" I asked him. His eyes immediately snapped away from Vicky and boar into mine. I looked into his beautiful blue eyes for what seemed like forever, but was only a few seconds.

"Of course I do, Babe." I smirked at him. I grabbed the hand that was positioned for an energy orb and brought it to my face. His hand automatically cupped my cheek and I caressed the back of his hand with mine. I didn't even see Pogue and Tyler exchange glances at each other and smirk at us. I didn't see Caleb smile at us, happy that we were together. I didn't see Edward gazing longingly at me, and then give Reid a look of pure hatred, and I didn't see Vicky look at us like we were some chick flick. I didn't see any of it, all I saw was the blue in Reid's eyes.

"Then," I told him quietly, my hand still caressing his on my face. "you have to trust her." I turned my head and kissed the palm of his hand, without breaking eye contact with Reid. He sighed, but nodded his head, reluctantly. I smiled, and tip-toed to kiss him lightly on the lips. It was so quick, it didn't even last a full second, but it held all the feeling and emotion that a heavy make-out session would have had.

I turned toward the rest of the boys and gave them a look that had them each lowering their guards. I smiled at them as I introduced the new member of our group.

"Alright, everyone!" I exclaimed. "This is Victoria, or Vicky. She was sent by the icky Volturi when they had told her that we," I motioned at the Coven and I. "killed her family, Laurent and James. Now, after telling and showing her that we had taken no part in their demise, she has gladly agreed to join us in the fight against the Volturi!"

"Dun, Dun, DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!" sang Tyler. We all burst out laughing, including Vicky. It took us a while before we were able to get back on track.

"So you had really thought that we killed your family?" asked Pogue. Vicky nodded.

"And you had no idea that it was really the Volturi?" questioned Caleb. She nodded again.

"And now, you just tried to kill Bee because you thought that it would be payback for us?" asked Tyler. Another nod.

"So now you want to join our fight to rid the world of the Volturi?" said Pogue.

"And you're friends with my girl?" asked Reid. More nodding. Goodness, doesn't her neck ever get sore or tired? I mean, ever?

"Yeah, I guess I am?" Vicky looked at me as she said this. She said the statement like a question, I felt that I had to stick up her for.

"Hell, yeah, she's my friend!"I exclaimed. I jumped forward from behind Reid and hopped over to Vicky. I carelessly slung my arm over her shoulders and gave the boys a look. "And if you have a problem with that, then you can suck it up and deal with it, because Vicky ain't going anywhere!" The boys looked at me, completely shocked, but Reid just smirked.

"Well, if Bee trusts, you than I do, too." Reid walked over and stepped between me and Vicky, putting his arms around both our shoulders. "I'll never go against my baby." I smiled at him and kissed his cheek. Reid just grinned like crazy, and I heard Pogue chuckle.

"Dude," sighed Pogue. "You are soooo whipped." Emmett, Caleb, and Jasper started to crack up. Edward looked pained, as usual, and Tyler just looked amused. Vicky and I both laughed, but Reid was protesting.

"Shut up, Pogue!" exclaimed Reid. "You guys need to shut it too!" he added to Emmet, Caleb and Jasper. "You all are just as whipped as I am!" Now, it was my turn to laugh.

"So you admit to being whipped?" I asked him sweetly. He just looked down at me and smirked.

"For you, I would admit to being whipped any day." I smiled and used my hand to cup his cheek and bring his mouth down to mine. I lightly kissed him, and pulled away when I felt him smirk. " I would definitely admit being whipped if you did that more often." I laughed.

"Don't I do that enough?" Reid just smirked and shook his head.

"It's never enough, babe." He leaned down and kissed me again, this time putting both arms around my waist, bringing me closer. I snaked mine around his neck, but pulled away from him when I heard the boys and Vicky laughing.

"You know," said Tyler. "The dorm rooms are only a, like, two minute walk away." He shrugged. "Maybe you can save us all the experience of seeing our lunches again, and take your activities to your dorm?" Reid looked at me, and smiled.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea, Baby Boy." I nodded, and Reid scooped me up into his arms, bride style. We all laughed as Reid started to carry me to his dorm room. As he kissed my neck, I looked over his shoulder at one more look at the Coven and the Cullens. Everyone looked so happy. Pogue and Emmett were play wrestling, Caleb and Jasper were talking about something. Tyler was on the phone, probably texting his latest crush (Tyler was weird that way. He always had crushes, never dates or girlfriends. I might have to get on that.)

The thing that was probably the weirdest and happiest thing that I had seen in the group was Edward and Vicky talking to each other. And I didn't miss Edward making eyes on my friend, or that my friend was making eyes back. Edward was looking at Vicky like she was a type of goddess, and Vicky looked like the building could be burning down around them and she wouldn't notice unless Edward had pointed it out. The certainly, hit it off fast. I was happy for them.

My attention turned back toward the man who was currently carrying me to his dorm. I felt him playfully nibble and bite my neck, and I giggled at his touch. We finally made it to his room where he didn't even put me down to open the door. Instead, he used to open it and when we were threw, he reluctantly put me down on my feet. He pointed to his bed.

"Wait right there." He said. I cocked my head and looked at him, but did as he said. He rummaged around the dorm room until he finally found what he was looking for: a permanent marker and a piece of construction paper. In big letters, he wrote: DO NOT DISTURB! On the paper and grabbed some tape. He opened the door and tapped the sign to it. When he was done, he closed the door and locked it, then made his way over to his bed with me, so we could do the SOMETHING that Tyler and Emmett had accused us of earlier.

Hey guys. Well, that's it. The two chapters that I promised you. I spent a week in paradise and all I could do was come up with ideas and different ways to do these chapters. If ya liked it, review it. If ya hated it, review it. If you're indifferent, review it. Either way, you're gonna have to press that button! Happy late Thanksgiving!