Supernova c15: Sunrise (part 1)

This chapter kept getting longer and longer and longer. So I had to split it like c13. The other half will be tomorrow and this story arc will finally be finished.

4 years later

Amirah Cullen

Las Vegas, 2235

 

It had been five years now. Five years since my world had stopped turning.

It felt like five minutes.

“Another?” the bartender asked me taking my empty glass. I nodded, my eyes glazing over slightly as I watched a couple at the end of the bar making out. It was a mess of lust and wet kisses. My stomach turned at the sight. That was me a year ago. Sleeping with anyone that would give me a second glance. I’d gone through a few years of washing away my pain with sex, now it was alcohol. Well, it had always been alcohol, but the sex had stopped. Id slept with a married man and when his wife had walked in on us I saw the heartbreak and anger on her face and the emotions hit too close to home. I regretted it instantly. I wasn’t out to hurt other people. I wasn’t an utter bitch these past five years. I still had emotions, too much of them in fact, hence the alcohol and the sex trying to drown them out.

I began spinning the glass on the bar, my perfect reflexes keeping it and the liquid inside perfectly level as I span it faster and faster. I watched the liquid create a small tornado and focused on the movement of it. The pounding sound of the music around me was a hum in the back of my mind as I focused on the sight before me.

It reminded me of the darkness. The never-ending swirling darkness in that place. That realm.

The place that haunted my every dream.

I saw him. Every time I closed my eyes. I saw him at my knees. No breath, no life. Just him.

“Hey beautiful, want to dance?” a voice knocked me out of my thoughts, and I looked to my side to see a blonde male standing before me. He was handsome, not that I had any standards at all when it came to men. Especially the past few years. No one was perfect anymore. The only one who mattered, who was made for me, was dead in the ground.

I didn’t know where in the ground, although I assumed he had been taken home, back to Navarino. But I hadn’t asked anyone, and no one had sought me out to tell me either, which I was grateful.

I stopped the spinning glass with a clutch of my hand. I lifted it, downing it in one gulp and lay it back on the bar. I used my other hand to reach out to him.

“Sure” I responded, and his cool hand took mine. Everyone was cold to me now. Despite the fact I ran as warm as a wolf, human had never been cold to me as such. But now they were all the same, humans, vampires, any touch was cold.

“I’m Cal” he said pulling me into his arms.

“Nyx” I answered him as he pulled me flush against his body and we started to move to the music.

“That’s your real name?” he asked sceptically as he pulled me closer. “You smell delicious” he purred as we danced.

“No but it sounds cool” I said, I hadn’t used my real name in years, nor had I used my more famous cover name ‘Reinette’. I changed my name every town I went to. Often a Greek goddess. Nyx was the goddess of the night, sometimes I used Aphrodite or Artemis or Persephone. Depending on how I was feeling that particular time I needed a new name. He shrugged as he held me tighter, his nose tracing a pattern down my neck as if he was smelling me. Well, he did say I smelt good. Id met a few men that had thing for scents especially when mine was so good at luring others in, so this didn’t surprise me or raise any red flags straight away.

The dance was sultry, and as he began kissing my neck with fever I groaned in annoyance. In hindsight if I’d been paying attention at all id have registered his eyes and his touch before his teeth grazed my neck in a tease. I wasn’t scared as the vampire pulled back to frown at me. He wouldn’t have risked biting me in here, but he must have known from the feel of my skin that his razor-sharp teeth wouldn’t have done anything to my enhanced tribrid skin. He wouldn’t have known from smell alone though. Not many supernatural creatures had met the only tribrid in existence but I had too much of a unique scent to not bring up questions when they eventually did. I could hide it, with magic, I could easily make myself smell like a regular hybrid or even human, but it was more fun this way. More fun to see the look on their faces as they tried to work out what the hell I was.

Plus being reckless was the only fun I had these days. Seeing people’s eyes widen at my power, at my strength, getting to show them the predator before them was the only thing that made me smile anymore.

I never hurt anyone. It was just some harmless fun. Leaving a trail of mess for the Volturi to clean up whenever I felt like it, was my own way of reminding myself they were still there, they still cared enough to cover for me. I never let them catch me or see me though, I hadn’t seen a single soul I knew from home in the five years I had been gone.

Part of me was grateful they’d listened to my warning, that they’d given me space but then part of me ached and cried to be held by someone that loved me again. If just for a moment. I called my mother every few months, just to let her know I was okay, to give her just enough evidence to keep her off my trail. She understood why I couldn't go see her, why I couldn't go home. But she was grateful for any contact I gave her.

I thought by now I could go back, that after five years I would feel just a little bit better. But I was a mess, and they were better off without me.

“What are you?” the vampire asked studying me. My eyes locked with his dark black ones. I just grinned up at him as he held me tightly against him.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“Who are you?” he asked again surveying me again, but I didn’t answer him as I went to walk away. His iron grip kept hold of me, pulling me back into his chest. I used my combined power of my wolf side, my vampire strength, and a little bit of magic to push him away from me. He looked back shocked.

“Hybrid?” he asked with a playful smirk. He obviously had little to no experience with hybrids if he thought a hybrid could do that to him.

“You can say that” I said, and his face melted into a playful smirk.

“I’ve never been with one of your kind before” he flirted, and I rolled my eyes.

“And I won’t be the first” I said but he stalked me like prey.

“I’m just asking for a bit of fun. I won’t feed on you” he said right as I caught the sight of something over his shoulder. My eyes fell on her as most did in the room as she entered.

I could see she was dulling her natural lure, but she couldn’t help being beautiful. She couldn’t help having that perfect blonde hair and striking blue eyes.

Esther. 

Had she finally decided to care enough to drag me back home kicking and screaming? I guess I was about to find out.

I sighed. I was waiting for the day she’d show up. I knew Axton and Alena had woken her long ago now, before I even left Chicago, but she was still unconscious when I left. I had known then that I needed to get out of there, not only for space and to be away from family but to avoid the sight of Esther as she grew strong again, as her family and the Volturi rejoiced in her return whilst my entire world had been shattered. I couldn’t watch it and I couldn’t be around my parents, my grandparents, any wolf. They all made me want to be sick, just the sight of a single wolf or imprinted couple twisted a knife in my heart; the pain so great it turned my stomach, and I often puked my meals up during those early weeks just at the sheer thought of being near any of them, seeing them and knowing what I had lost. So, after a few weeks I knew I had to get away. The day I left I went south, not too far south, but far enough south to avoid anyone I knew and as I travelled city and town around the United States, I finally learnt to breathe again.

That’s all I'd really learnt to do though, breathe and drink away my pain for it to come back when I closed my eyes and dreamt of him.

I had a feeling in the five years I was gone from my family and the Volturi they had been waiting to send the only person that was powerful enough to match me in an outrage. I had been right. Even if I was a few years off the estimate. I had expected Esther to come after me after a few years, especially after I had given her daughter my blood to help heal her. But as the years past I figured Ivana had never given it to her, never trusted me enough to do it. Or maybe it simply hadn’t worked. I never contacted Ivana again to find out.

I raised my eyebrows at the sight of the Original Moon Pool Child as she gave a perfect smile to the drunken human man that was foolish enough to walk right up to her. 

“Do you know of Esther Josephson?” I asked the vampire in front of me. He scoffed.

“Of course I know Esther Josephson. Do you think I’ve been living under a rock?” he asked I shrugged. Some vampires did. I wasn’t one to judge.

“Well, she’s about to kick your ass if you don’t leave me alone” I said with a knowing smirk as Esther’s eyes landed on me across the dance floor. I ignored her gaze, finding amusement in the disbelief of the vampire in front of me. He laughed at my comment.

“You think you’re that important that Esther Josephson is going to come to your rescue?” he asked before pausing. “You don’t strike me as the damsel in distress type.” He teased still not believing me.

“Oh, I’m not.” I smirked back right as Esther appeared behind him. She raised her hand to tap on his shoulder and he pivoted, anger on his face at the disruption. His anger dropped instantly at the sight of Esther before him.

“Esther” he gasped. “I…” he couldn’t finish his words. An invisible force pushed him away from her. It wasn’t enough to put him on his ass but enough of a warning to accompany Esther’s next words.

“Leave. Now.” Esther spoke. The words sent a shiver down my spine. Even though they weren’t directed at me; being in her presence when she was like this was enough to soak fear into the bones of anyone around her. No matter how powerful I was, I was no match for the woman before me.

The force on him dissipated and the vampire was gone from my sight in a blink of an eye. Before me stood Esther, a wide smile on her face as if she was greeting an old friend.

“Sit.” She ordered me, pointing to the booths at the edge of the room. It was sweet and inviting but I knew the hidden meaning behind her word. I had no choice but to obey her. I was no longer immune to Esther's powers. At least not the immunity my imprint had granted me with our mystical connection. That had snapped the moment his heart stopped beating. I had felt it shatter right along with the imprint bond.

Just because her abilities worked on me, it didn’t mean I had to be nice to her.

“Ah sleeping beauty is finally awake. Can’t believe it took them five years” I remarked as we sat opposite each other in the booth.

“It didn’t take them five years. I was recovering but you already knew that. You gave my daughter your blood to help speed it up” she explained as she crossed her hands in front of her, her eyes bore into my face, and I held the stare as long as I could. So, it had worked? Did Ivana give it to her? I wasn’t giving her the satisfaction of asking. “I’m sorry for what happened. For what you lost.” she said, and I scoffed, leaning back on the booth and folding my arms.

“Everyone’s sorry. Everyone cares. Everyone loves me. Blah blah blah… you can save the speech.” I said defensively.

“I can make you come home. You know that” she said any softness gone from her voice.

“You could. Yes. But you won’t” I said testing her. She leant back, her hands falling to her lap, but her stare remained on me.

“Why do you say that?” she asked. “I’ve done far worse in the name of the Volturi” she said. It was true. She could be ruthless, all in the name of putting on a show. So that vampires like Cal feared her and respected the Volturi.

“Because I’m Renesmee’s granddaughter. Eddie’s great niece. And you’re good. You sacrificed yourself to save the world, didn’t you?” I asked and leant forward now, my gaze locking hers as I said the next few words. “But you didn’t save the world. I did.” I said anger building up in my bones. My travels had taught me one thing, five years ago there was only one name on the lips of the supernatural, one name that was credited with saving them all. Esther.

It angered me immensely in those early days. I had got caught in a few fights because of it. The tale of the battle led by ‘the tribrid and her infinite army of wolves’ appeared a few weeks later, but there was no mention of him. All the glory was laid at mine and Esther’s feet for the taking. I hated it. The dismissal of my imprint’s sacrifice had been enough for me to almost break my promise and wipe the planet of anyone that looked at me the wrong way, but I knew that wouldn’t be what he wanted. I knew he sacrificed himself so I could live, so I could be better. It wasn’t for glory or legend or fame. It was for me. Me.

It was hard, it was so incredibly hard every single day to wake up and be normal, be human, be anything, knowing he no longer drew breath.

“You may have stopped a full-scale invasion, but I killed them all. I sacrificed everything to save this ungrateful world,” I snarled at her but her calm terrifying look make me shrink back into my chair.

“Ignacio did that” she argued, and I flinched at his name. She saw it. Esther saw everything. I felt a presence in my mind, like claw scratching at my mind’s defences. She was trying to get in there, trying to read my mind, see what that name did to me. But I wasn’t letting her. I’d been trained by immortal witches. I knew how to keep a shield on my mind to protect it from those like Esther.

“Get out of my head” I growled at her, and I saw her perfect emotionless mask falter at my words. She was obviously shocked I knew what she was doing.

“Your defences, they’re better than they used to be” she remarked.

“I’ve had some years to practice” I shot back.

“I’m not your enemy Mia.” She said softly, her usual maternal voice that she used around the Cullen’s returning.

“No, I killed my enemies. Committed genocide in fact. Didn’t you hear? I’m a hero.” I mocked and I saw her face contort with pity. “I don’t need your pity!” I almost yelled at her.

“Do you think he’d be proud of you?” she asked after a moment of silence between us.

“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief. Was she really asking me that question?

“Do you think he’d be glad to see you like this? Do you think he’d be happy that you’re wasting your life away on alcohol and sex?” she asked, and I bristled in defence at her words. I was fairly sure the Volturi had people watching me, but this confirmed it. Not directly, they knew they couldn't send anyone I would recognise in person or in scent but it wouldn't surprise me if they were using their endless resources to hire people to check on me, either that or Chloe Cullen was constantly reporting my whereabouts and filling in the gaps.

“You didn’t even know him. You barely even said a single word to him. You feared him. Everyone feared him. Ten years it took us to find a way to save you. To enter that realm and wipe evil off this planet. Ten years of being by his side. Ten years of being his only friend.” I said my voice varying in emotions the entire time I spoke. It was the most id spoken about him in five years.

“He had the pack. Weren’t they, his friends?” she asked curiously. Clearly shed seen the emotion in my words, or felt it, God knows what with the number of powers this woman possessed.

“They weren’t interested in companionship, just worship.” I laughed humourlessly. Was this woman seriously that delusional? “You and he were a lot alike. Your only true friend is Eddie because he is your other half. Everyone else either worships you, hates you or stays on your good side to use your power for their own gain.” I put as much hatred behind my words as I could. I saw her bite her lip as she refrained from arguing about the ‘friend’ thing. Whether she realised it or not I wasn’t sure. I’m sure she thought she had friends, but did she? Could someone as powerful as her have true friends that didn’t have something to gain from her friendship? “Do you know what Eddie was like without you? Did he show you? did your family show you your soul mate?” I asked and this time I dropped my shields, I flooded her mind with my own power. I showed her Eddie, the broken shell of a man that walked around in her shadow. The shattered version of her best friend. He put on a show most of the time, he was good at disguising it but there were little things I had seen that had told me how utterly broken he had been. What she had done to him. She flinched and seeing the pain she couldn’t hide made me instantly regret what I had done. I withdrew the images and snapped my shields up. Falling back against the booth again.

“We all deal with it differently” I said, and I couldn’t help the softness in my voice. I couldn’t believe I was trying to comfort her. Of all people. “I’m dealing with it my way. Please just leave me alone. I’m not hurting anyone.” I said softly but her eyes, soft and caring locked on mine.

That look was piercing. No wonder people bent over backwards, sacrificed their lives, and swore oaths to this woman. She was beautiful and powerful and knew just how to make you feel loved and cared for by her.

“you’re hurting yourself” she answered.

“You can’t hurt something that’s already dead.” I responded and I felt it in my bones as I said it. I died five years ago. I saw the defeat in her face as she nodded. She moved out of the booth and stood at my side. Her hand reached for my hair and her lips brushed my temple softly. I ignored the pang of emotion that ran through me at the maternal contact. No one had kissed me like that in five years, no one had shown me any concern or love in five years. I’d never got close enough to anyone to let them.

Even over my long life, I’d never been close to Esther. Not in the way other members of my family were but she still had that feeling to her. That aura of comfort and safety and home.

I blinked and she was gone from the club. Teleported back home probably to give a full report on our encounter.

Any buzz I had felt before was now long gone, any motivation to dance and drink my night away had gone. So, I left the bar, seeing the vampire Cal, from before eye me warily as I left but I didn’t give him a second glance as I walked human speed back to the small apartment I was renting in the city.

I had no job, after all I had no actual useful traits past ordering people around as an alpha and battling evil, since they weren't exactly sought after traits in the human world I was left with very little choice. So I had been grateful that my great-great-grandfather had never cut off my funds linked to the shiny gold card I had been given as a teenager. Endless Cullen funds, right in my hand. I had barely touched it over the forty years I had lived in La Push, never really needed it. But I had certainly made up for the lack of use over those decades now. I knew Carlisle could cut me off, probably should have cut me off long ago, that would have been one way to get me to come home but he hadn’t. And I knew that was his way of letting me know that he was on my side, that he would support me as long as I needed in the grief I was experiencing.

Either that or he had completely forgotten it existed and me taking a couple grand out of the endless Cullen bank account each month was barely a blip on the system that tracked Cullen funds. I wasn’t even sure who handled the Cullen finances. I couldn’t imagine Carlisle let any human accountant near it, but I had never thought to ask when I still was a Cullen.

The image of dozens of vampire accountants, all typing away furiously at computers with little Alice Cullen at the head of the room muttering away numbers made me chuckle slightly as I slumped in my bed that night. Still with my clothes on, I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.

My dreams always took me back there. Every night it had become like clockwork to see it over and over. Right back to that realm, right back to the mist and the claws and the snarls, right back to him as he died, over and over again in my arms, my lips on his cold wet bloodied mouth as he took his last breath.

It was torture. Constant torture that meant I got little sleep and had gotten little rest over the last five years, as if my mind and the universe was punishing me for not being the one dead in the ground right now with him.

Oh, how in those early days I wish I had been. The only thing that had kept me alive had been Cain. After I felt my soul break, after that final kernel of hope had died at Anelie Balev’s words when she couldn’t bring him back, Axton had taken me to the Grand Canyon. Literally. He had teleported us to the middle of nowhere so I could scream and rage and cry. My outburst had only lasted a minute or so, my will to live faded as the rage died down and I was standing on a cliff top with the immortal warlock. I wasn’t sure what would kill me, how I would go about it, but Axton, whether he had known or feared it, had taken me to his father next. To Cain, my mentor, my father figure, and teacher. In the days I had spent with the ancient warlock he had told me stories, even though I didn’t say a single word to him, he had stayed by my side and reminded me I needed to live. That even though the pain seemed unbearable, that it would get better, and I couldn’t put this pain on others. My family, my friends, they would experience this if I had found a way to follow my imprint. That they loved me and needed me alive, even if I didn’t need them or want them around.

That had been enough, Cain's relief in his face when he had seen his son and me alive before him. The gaze Axton had given me and the soft, gentle kiss he’d placed on my forehead before he had left that day had been enough. The thought of my parents, my grandparents, my pack, my friends. I would stay alive, if only for them so that they would never experience this pain.

I hadn’t been able to handle it though. Even if I had convinced myself to work through it, to continue without my world spinning, I couldn’t face anyone. Not Axton or Alena, not my parents, or my friends. Their concern, their love, their faces, it was all too much. The thought even now, of my mother’s heartbroken face, of Nova as she reached out to help me, of Ivana, as I broke the only bond I had managed to maintain in those dark weeks, ached constantly in my chest like a candle that would never go out.

My existence felt like a punishment, a plague, and so I tried to drown it out. In the only way I knew how, sex and alcohol and dancing. And a bit of fun showing off my powers in between.

I had been in Las Vegas for a few weeks now and I had to admit it was one of the better cities I had chosen in the last five years to call my home.

Not that anywhere was actually my home. Not anymore.

It had been several days since I had seen Esther and she hadn’t returned to drag me back to Chicago or La Push so that I was grateful for as I arrived at a new bar I hadn’t tried yet.

I had barely been there an hour; the alcohol had already started to take the edge off my mind when I saw a familiar silhouette of a woman at the bar. Initially in my hazy mind, my heart leapt, the outline being similar to that of Nova, my old best friend. But it wasn’t her, it was her mother. My sort of not rival and frenemy, the person that had kept me alive for two weeks when I couldn’t face any others.

Ivana Balev raised her head but gave me no smile as I walked over to sit on the stool next to her.

“Two visits from family in one week. I’m starting to consider fulfilling my promise. Even if it is a stretch to call you and your mother, family.” I snarled as I looked at her. “What the hell do you want Ivana?” I asked unable to push past my anger. In the initial days after losing my imprint Ivana had been the only face I could stand. In a strange twist of fate, our hostility was a comfort in the emptiness of my soul. When all my family and friends wanted to talk to me and comfort me and coddle me, she was the one that gave me a break from it all. She sheltered me with her power and visited me only when necessary. She helped give me the space I needed. In those weeks we had somehow formed an almost friendship, a bond, until I had shattered even that too. I had threatened her daughter’s life, I had almost hurt her daughter. My best friend. I knew what ever Ivana and I had started to build broke on that day I left the Volturi.

To honour what she did for me, the kindness she showed me back then, I wouldn’t hurt her now, despite the fact I had threatened my entire family and the Volturi I would if someone came after me. She ignored me, motioning for the bartender and ordering herself a drink.

I tried to stand but her hand appeared on my wrist and held me down. I was slightly drunk but not drunk enough to lose my strength. I was stronger than a Child of the Luna Bambini. I pulled my arm out of hers with a jerk, but her eyes focused on me as I felt a strange sensation around my thighs. I looked down to see she had manipulated the metal of the chair to pin me in place.

“Save the pep talk. Your mother already tried and failed. What makes you think you will get through to me when your saint of a mother couldn’t? Do you think because I let you into my home all those years ago when I was grieving that we are somehow friends now?” I snarled showing my teeth in a very clear threat. My body was starting to shake as I warned her, I could phase and rip the chair to shreds.

She let out a laugh and folded her arms across her chest.

“Careful now Amirah. You wouldn’t want to make a scene” she said with a sickenly annoying voice. Something had changed in the five years since I had seen her, and I couldn’t quite place it. I supposed she was back to her annoyingly feisty arrogant self now her mother had been returned to her.

Honestly, I liked her more motherless. I regretted the words the second I thought them, but I kept that same resentment in my voice as I spoke.

“I don’t give a shit about making a scene” I warned her, but my arms were now pinned to the bar.

“Give me ten minutes. Ten minutes and I will set you free and leave you alone. You’re going to want to hear what I have to say.” she said thanking the bartender for her drink and downing a good half of it instantly.

My eyes narrowed at her, but I nodded.

“Can I remove the restraints on the bar or are you going to try and rip my throat out?” she asked.

Remove them. I invaded her mind. Not a sweet caress like my uncle Eddie or her mother Esther would do but a magical onslaught on her thoughts.

She tutted but the restraints disappeared with a wave of her hand. The one on the stool, keeping me sitting did not.

“You don’t want to fight me.” She warned. I’d very much like to fight her and see for sure who was the strongest of us. I could use my magic to invade her mind, trick her to using her own power against her, maybe. Although I was a little drunk, I’d like to be at full strength to dance with Ivana. Metal vines with sharp pointed ends began to ascend around me, the points aimed at my chest. I was powerful but I wasn’t immortal. She could kill me in my current state and with life and death being her sisters she could very easily deny me the right to a second chance at life.

“What are you here for?” I ignored her warning and her patronising tone. The vines disappeared instantly. They were a warning telling me she had me exactly where she wanted.

“You know, on the day you left, when you left Nova in my arms sobbing and shaking; I swore to myself that if I ever saw you again, I would finally put our rivalry to rest. Finally give you the fight you’ve been itching for for years.” Ivy said as she played with her glass on the bar.

“I could use a workout” I mumbled even if I was bluffing.

“I’m not here to put you on your drunk ass. It wouldn’t even be fun” she said eying my body up and down before looking at me. “I’ve since overcome the anger I had for you. My daughter doesn’t need you anymore, she learnt a much needed, hard lesson, when it came to friendships, and she’s moved on. Nova is not why I’m here.” She continued and I tried not to let her words hurt me. Isn’t that what I wanted? For my friends and family to move on without me? To forget me, to stop caring about me?

“I’m here to stop you making a mistake I made” she said her voice changing to the maternal tone I knew she used on her daughters. It frustrated me to no end. I was fourteen years older than the woman in front of me and gone through a hell of a lot more than she had with her perfect life.

“Save me the speech about how you missed your mommy. You got her back” I growled to hurt her, but her face didn’t falter.

“And what if there was a chance you could get Ignacio back? Would he really want to be with you when you’re like this?” she said motioning at my body at the last word.

“We tried everything. Your sisters tried everything. He’s not coming back” I snarled determined not to let her words get to me emotionally.

“you’re wrong” she said downing the last of her drink. “you’re making a mistake Mia. You need to stop being reckless. Stop showing your power to strangers. Stop forcing the Volturi to clean up after your mess. There’s going to be a point where they will stop trying to look past it. There’s going to be a point where you’ll be dragged to a cell. My mother’s patience only goes so far. She wanted to see for herself what you had become. She hasn’t had to deal with you for the past five years. She pities you now, but it doesn’t mean she won’t be the one to bring you back to rot in the basement of the Volturi if she must. You have to face the pain inside you one way or another” she said turning to the barman for another drink. I didn’t peg her for the drinking kind of girl honestly. I knew she was meant to be a 'no fucks given' kind of person, I could imagine her in her youth partying and drinking but I had never seen any part of her that suggested she was still that way. I would have guessed her husband had levelled out her recklessness.

“So, what do you do for fun around here?” her tone changed instantly, as if she hadn’t just been staring me down ready for a fight and teasing me with the idea of my imprint returning to me.

“Dance, drink, sex.” I mumbled. “In no particular order” I said, her words racing in my head but I refused to let her see it was getting to me.

“Well, I can’t do the last one” she said with a wink and a flash of her hand. It had no ring on it, but the implication was there. She was married to Micah Cullen, even if there was no piece of paper declaring that fact. The manacle she had formed on my chair disappeared instantly. “But I’m down for the first two, even if its been a while since I drank and danced at a club,” she shrugged pushing the newly ordered drink over to me as she ordered yet another one.

“What do you mean ‘I’m wrong’?” I asked her as I took the drink and downed it anyway. It wasn’t alcohol. What was she playing at?

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she winked taking her own. I glowered at her in frustration.

“Face your pain, Mia.” she said as she stood and held out her hand to me. I stared blankly at it. confused, almost irritated at her coy words and temptations. She said my name like a caress, like we'd been friends for centuries.

“Would you ladies like to dance?” two tall, well sculpted muscular human men, probably no older than twenty-one stood before us. The kind of men that would spend way too much time obsessing over the gym and the size of their muscles than have time for an actual relationship in their lives. The type that used bars like this to hook up and move on. Ivana’s hand was still outstretched to me.

“Sure!” she beamed right at them, one of them looked at her with a feral gaze and some part of me, I don’t know where it came from stood and immediately stepped to her side.

“she’s taken” I said instantly. Ivana, who stood at my height put her arm around my shoulder and let out a teasing smirk.

“I’m sorry we didn’t realise you were a couple” the man said with a respectful nod. Ivana choked on her laugh, but I continued to glare at the human. I had to admit, I almost smirked at the irony of his words considering mine and Ivana’s history. But reflecting on how quickly I had stood to defend her relationship status, it wasn’t a stretch for these men to assume I had been defending what was mine. I almost laughed along with her at the thought. I would have laughed, five years ago, would have probably played right along actually. But any and all teasing and fun was lost on me.

“Oh, we’re not together. I do swing that way, but… not so much anymore. I have a husband at home. That’s what she means.” Ivana explained but placed her hand on the man’s bicep in front of us. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a dance does it boys? It’s not like you’re stupid enough to try anything on two helpless women, right?” she asked her intent clear in her voice. She said helpless, knowing we were two of the most powerful and least helpless women in the world, like a hidden secret.

“of course not” one of them said and held out his hand to Ivana at my side.

Was she seriously doing this? When she had a husband and a family at home? When she had Micah Cullen in her bed? Her husband was the kind of drop dead beautiful that turned every gaze in a room. If she loved him, how could she even entertain the idea of another man touching her?

“Lighten up Mia, even when you’ve been married as long as I have, you’re allowed to have fun. Not everything has to be about him you know. There is life outside of love, outside of sex and soulmates. You need to remember that.” She said and gave a small nod to the other male who offered his hand to me. There was somewhere deep inside me that knew she was trying to help me. Why? I had no idea. So I took the hand of the other man and let him take me to where his friend and Ivana were now dancing in the middle of the dance floor.

I didn’t know how, but something had sparked in me in those few hours I spent with Ivana. We ditched the sweaty human men after the first song, pushing them away as they got too handsy, despite Ivana’s warning her husband would come and cut their balls off. I had smiled at that, it felt foreign and strange on my lips, but seeing Ivana Balev glare up at a man twice her size and threatening the might of her Luna Bambini husband gave me a strange sense of joy I hadn’t felt in years.

“I don’t imagine Micah Cullen could hurt a fly, never mind torture a man” I commented as the men scurried off to find other women to prey on.

“Oh, he wouldn’t. Not unless it was medically necessary. But they don’t know that.” She gave me a wicked grin and ordered us more drinks.

“Does… does he know you’re here? Doing this?” I asked eying her dress and the drink she took.

“Of course he does.” She said pushing the other glass into my hands. The last one had water in it, but this one had alcohol. She was staggering my drinks so I was tipsy without becoming drunk. She clearly had an ulterior motive to this little outing.

“He’s okay with that?” I asked carefully.

“Of course he is” she said and rolled her eyes at me. “He doesn’t own me you know. We trust each other, we don’t follow each other’s every step, or consume every moment together. Its healthy to have a balance,” she said and her look at those last few words told me that she had said them for a reason, as she implied that no relationship was healthy without that balance.

“Sometimes you can’t help it. Sometimes it is that consuming. I don’t imagine you’d understand.” I said unable to stop myself with the jab. She smirked as if she was happy for the resistance to her words.

She didn’t respond she just pulled me back towards where there was a gaming area set up, consoles and one of those really old fashioned dance games with arrows on the floor.

In those hours, as we drank and danced and played games I almost forgot. Just for a moment. As I let myself be taunted by Ivana as I let her try and spark what little life I had within me, I had forgotten her earlier words, her implication.

“I’ll try and be better.” I said as we both sat in one of the booths, her feet were on the table between us, her shoes discarded underneath. She lounged as we spoke about nothing and everything. I had realised that just for a moment I had seen a reason to live, more than just surviving for my family.

“If I had known all it would have taken was a few hours with my brilliant self to get you out of the dark pit of despair I'd have come sooner” she winked but I didn’t return her joke or take the bait from our now familiar banter.

“I’m serious.” I responded and she moved, her legs coming down from the table and she leant forward.

“I know you’re not stupid. There is a reason I came here, a reason I’ve been trying to get you to loosen up.” She said carefully any and all signs of her tipsiness from her drinks was gone.

“I know. You want me to stop being reckless. Stop being like you” I said repeating her words from earlier.

“Not just that Mia. I was serious before. There is a chance. A small chance that he might come back to you. That he might live again, one day.” She said with a seriousness to her tone I would have fallen to a seat if I hadn’t already been sitting.

“What do you mean?” I asked I couldn’t help the emotion now in my voice giving me away.

“I wanted to see that you hadn’t completely lost it. That you had some sense of yourself before I told you this. I needed you to feel something else, other than despair just for a little bit so that you knew that it didn’t consume you. That you had a chance to be you again. And that you, are not tied to him. That if he returns, you can still be someone. And you that you need to remember who you are without him so that when you’re with him you may still have that part of yourself” She said and my anger flared slightly at her cryptic words.

“Spit it out Ivana” I glared, and she sighed and let out a nod.

“Your boyfriend, well, your ex-boyfriend, searched the world for an answer for you. Nova and Ophelia, despite how you’ve treated them, helped him. They feel like they owe you even if you can’t be a decent friend to them. They’ve found a glimmer of hope and my mother is going to help possibly bring back your imprint” she explained. My heart sped up at the words. Her eyes fell to my chest in response telling me she could hear it.

“Why are you the one here telling me? Why didn’t Esther tell me when she was here?” I asked I couldn’t help acid coating my voice. If Axton Ophelia and Nova had done what she said; if they had found a way, why weren’t they the ones here telling me? I couldn’t let myself believe it. Not for a second.

“Because no one wants to see you. You pushed everyone away for too long” she said with a shrug.

“So why you?” I asked again.

“Because believe it or not I’m the only one that remotely understands what you’re going through. You were right earlier, I did get my mother back, but I spiralled exactly how you’re spiralling now. I took my pain out on those that loved me, exactly how you did… and at the end of the day. I never had the nice Mia to begin with. I’m the only one that can stand you right now because your shitty attitude doesn't hurt me” she said with a shrug.

“But why would you help me?” I asked the acid gone from my voice.

“After you hurt my daughter? After you threatened her life?” she asked. All the banter and the fun we’d had the last few hours seemed to melt away, as if they hadn’t happened for her in that stare she gave me. It had been a game for her. A test. One I had passed according to her.

Her eyes locked with mine, the power and threat behind them almost, almost, made me wince in fear of the God before me. The image of those vines she had created a few hours before came to my mind. My gut was screaming at me.

Don’t piss off Ivana Balev.

I didn’t answer her.

“Because you’re hurt and whilst I know the pain of losing a mother, I don’t know the pain of losing my soul mate.” She said and her eyes softened, any threat was gone. The power of a god simmered before me.

“I’m not your enemy Amirah. I never have been. They argued on whether you should know. I fought for you. Nova fought for you, but the others disagreed. In case they aren’t successful. The decision began to eat away at me. I didn’t know why, not until I spoke to Micah about it. He told me that you and I are more similar than I realised. That I had spiralled into a similar pit of despair as you had and only when I was reminded of myself, of a reason to be better, did I find a way to live through the pain. Had I not processed that pain before my mother was returned, I might have resented her. My father never faced his pain, not until it was too late, and it fractured his relationship with my mother. It meant they couldn’t be what they once were because his pain was always in the way.” She explained and paused when talking about her parents. Aleksander and Esther? Had her parents split up? Because of everything that had happened? She seemed to know where my thoughts had gone.

“They’re still together. Still married. Working through it. Slowly. But that was the difference between my pain and my father’s pain. I had begun to process it before my mother was returned. Not after. It wasn’t a shadow over my happiness at seeing my mother awake again. So, I wanted to extend the same chance to you. I needed to see that you could do it, even if I saw just a flash of it. Of the friend my daughter loved so much. So, I asked my aunt Chloe where you were. Telling her it was because I was going to send those books I had promised years ago” she said with a wink before continuing.

“The others thought it would be better to wait. To show up on your doorstep with a newly resurrected Ignacio. To surprise you. But I knew better. Nova knew better. So here I am…” she said pausing before she stood from the table, not a sway in sight, as if she hadn’t been drunk at all. “You deserved to know” she said her hand resting on my wrist. It was soft, a comfort not a threat. I swallowed, trying to moisten my dry throat.

“Why are you going against them? Axton, Ophelia, Esther. That’s more power than you and I both have combined” I asked. She turned and grinned at me.

“I’m not sure that’s true. Are you?” she asked. A glass of water appeared in my hand from her ability. Everyone knew what she could do, manipulate matter, atoms, molecules, create and destroy from nothing and yet she rarely showed her ability outside the medical field. Ivana had reminded me in the past few hours exactly who she was and why our decade long feud was so damn stupid, had I been smarter I might have been able to use her, we might have been quite a formidable team. We’d have been friends. For five years the most fun id had, had been with her in just a few hours together in this bar. “Sober up. Get your shit together. I'll let you know when I have more information.” She instructed me and turned to leave. I stood and reached for her wrist. Her eyes darted to where my hand was on her skin. It wasn’t a threat. I just wanted her attention as I said the next words.

“Thank you” I said truthfully.

“I’m still not your friend” she warned me, but I was watching her face. Her lips twitched slightly, and she gave me a wink before she pulled on her shoes and strolled out of the bar in an annoying ‘I own the world’ walk. I downed the glass of water in my hand instantly and followed her out.

When I got outside into the fresh air she was gone.

How had she disappeared that fast?

As I scanned the empty street there was one thing I knew. I had to get back to the Volturi.

I had to go home. That was where they’d be doing it right? She didn’t give me any information to actually go on. I had no idea where Ignacio’s body even was. I assumed Vicente and the Navarino tribe would have taken him home to be buried. My heart pounded at the thought. Where was he?

Where had Ivy gone? I sighed in frustration as my head was still foggy from the alcohol whereas hers had seemed clear as the night sky. I stared up at the sky. The stars seemed to stare at me as they blinked in the dark. Reminding me of my connection to Ignacio, of our celestial fate that bound us together.

I would find him.