Her Voice ✿ Emmett Cullen

Chapter 22

"Just past the foliage." The brunette gestured toward the throngs of trees about twenty feet ahead of them, "It's just a little meadow, nothing special, but..."

"But the memories you have there are." Lyra finished, causing Bella to nod, thankful that her friend understood. Lyra sighed softly as she felt compelled to share, "I know how it feels... There's this tree behind my house Emmett and I always hung out in, but I just haven't had the heart to go see it. Hurts too much knowing that he is too far away to be there with me."

When they got to the small clearing, Lyra allowed Bella a few moments while she grabbed a water bottle from the backpack she brought with her. It was unnaturally quiet, and at first Lyra didn't think anything of it, but when she felt a tight feeling in her core pulling her in the opposite direction of the meadow, she tensed, a sense of foreboding falling over her.

"Bella, we should head back soon." She began, turning to look at her friend, but then her eyes widened as she caught sight of a familiar dark-skinned vampire, some ways from them. Bella frowned at the look on Lyra's face, turning around and gasping when she noticed the nomad as well.

"Bella and Lyra." He drawled, his bare feet pressed into the dead grass beneath them.

"Laurent." Bella breathed in surprise.

Laurent moved closer, his gaze drifting over Lyra's features before settling on Bella, the one who seemed a little less apprehensive at the moment. "You seem... pleased to see me." He told her.

Next to Bella, Lyra's entire body ignited with warning as it thrummed in her chest. Laurent didn't have good intentions and her intuition was warning her. The banshee moved closer to her friend, preparing to do whatever she had to stop the vampire from reaching her friend.

"I almost believed none of it had happened." Bella admitted.

The vampire chuckled darkly. "What an odd thing to say." When Bella just stared at him, he advanced toward them further, "I didn't expect to find you girls here. I went to visit the Cullens, but the house is empty. I'm surprised they left you both behind."

"They didn't." Lyra replied curtly, lying straight through her teeth. By this time, Bella had caught onto the bad vibes emanating from Laurent, and her fingers clasp around Lyra's hand out of nervousness.

Laurent smirked. "No?" He didn't believe her, "Still, I'm surprised. Aren't the two of you sort of like... pets to them?"

"You could say that." Bella mumbled.

"Do the Cullens visit often?"

Bella hesitated, but Lyra didn't. "All the time." She told him, "In fact, they call and check in on us daily."

"Yeah," The brunette beside her spoke up, "We'll tell them you stopped by. But, um... We probably shouldn't tell... Edward, or Emmett." She glanced over at Lyra, but the banshee didn't notice; she was staring Laurent down, her gaze sharp as she analyzed his behavior, "'Cause they're pretty protective. They might misinterpret this little get together."

And still, that damned smirk didn't leave Laurent's face. "You'd be right," he told Bella, "if they were here... but they're far away, aren't they?"

Lyra's jaw clenched as Bella stiffened beside her. "Why are you here?" The copper-haired girl asked, avoiding Laurent's question.

"I came as a favor to Victoria," He admitted, "She asked me to see if the two of you were still under the protection of the Cullens. Victoria feels it's only fair to kill Edward's mate, given he killed hers... An eye for an eye."

"And, she wants to kill me because I killed James." Lyra stated.

"And, because you've been a thorn in her side since." Laurent added with a slight shrug.