It was a 'brunch day', as Paul had put it, and the pack was getting together. Paul had said they usually talked 'business' on brunch day, which was the only reason Diana had agreed to come. Sam, Emily, Jared, Embry, Jacob, Bella, Paul, and Diana sat together at a picnic table, in the middle of a quaint, backyard garden. Sitting around a huge breakfast, the current topic of discussion was the newly discovered Victoria.
"Excellent," Jared said decidedly. "If the redhead's after Bella, we've got bait."
Diana scoffed and rolled her eyes. She didn't take Jared's attitude towards them personally, she just didn't pay him much mind at all. On the other hand, Jacob grabbed a four-pronged spading fork from a cluster of gardening tools and flung it toward Jared's head.
That was how he always reacted when Jared insulted either one of the girls, but, as flattering as it was, it only encouraged the other boy. Jared easily evaded the attack, caught the tool, and rolled his eyes.
"She is NOT bait," Jacob growled.
Bella cut in at this point, which greatly aggravated Diana. As much as she loved the girl, Diana hated it when Bella tried to voice an absolutely absurd, useless idea.
"I should leave town," Bella suggested. The girl would've been lying if she had said that sitting at a table full of werewolves and a vampire didn't intimidate her.
Sam shook his head at her, "Victoria will just follow you and make it harder for us to catch her."
Now Bella shook her head at Sam, "No one can catch her. She can escape anything."
Paul scoffed, "Oh, so, she has special powers?" Diana cringed, she had hoped he could keep his snarky remarks to himself.
"Some of them do," Bella said. Diana cringed again, did no one know when to shut up?
Of course, the wolves paused and turned towards Bella and Diana who sat opposite each other.
"Like... what? Bella?" Jacob asked though he was looking at Diana.
"The mind reader you said you knew. He was a suckhead? Can they all do that?" Jared asked, glaring at Diana, suspiciously. He and Embry hadn't seen Diana's gift that night, and from the clueless looks on their faces, Diana guessed the others hadn't told them about it.
"That would blow." Embry sighed, shaking his head.
Bella tried cleaning up the mess by backtracking her previous statement, "No, I- I shouldn't have- no."
Paul scoffed, "She's still protecting them."
Jared shook his head, "I don't know why. It's not like they stuck around to protect you."
"Hey!" Diana snapped, swatting Paul on the shoulder. He looked at her with apologetic eyes, but she ignored him.
"Guys, back off." Jacob sighed, looking apologetically at Bella. She looked at Diana with a sad glance and Diana tilted her head, giving her a warm smile.
"I appreciate your loyalty to them, to my brother," Bella nodded meekly and she continued, "-but please understand; I don't share that loyalty."
Bella's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything as Diana turned to Sam, "You're already aware of my gift, but; my brother can read minds, Alice, the quirky one, can see the future, and her mate can manipulate emotions. As far as I understand, of the nomads causing all the trouble last year, only one had a gift and he's dead."
Jared looked like he wanted to interrupt, but at Sam's glare, he quieted.
"But then, what's so special about Victoria? Why is she so hard to catch?" Sam asked.
Diana shook her head, "She's been around a long time. She and her mate, the tracker, played games of hide and seek. Which may seem unintelligent, but because of those games, she has gained well over 300 hundred years of experience in evading her seekers."
The people surrounding her nodded to themselves, seemingly taking in the new information. Diana wished she could help more, but she had never met Victoria, nor James. She knew so little, and the lack of knowledge was killing her.
"Thank you, Diana. This is helpful." Sam nodded to her.
Diana nodded back to him, "I'm sorry, I don't know more," she said quietly.
Sam furrowed his brows, "This was helpful enough. You being on our side is helpful enough. I won't forget this."
Diana smiled softly, "That's my job now," she said, looking to Paul. She grabbed his hand and squeezed, "-to be on your side."
⎿✶⏋
Bella had never seen Diana's house. So, when the chance arose, she accepted Diana's invitation to dinner.
The initial tour was stiff, Diana not being used to having company in her home and Bella not being used to seeing her friend in what seemed to be her natural habitat. She hadn't even expected that Diana had a 'natural habitat' the girl had always seemed to be natural anywhere.
"So, I planned to make pasta, but I can make something else if you'd like?" Diana said, leading Bella back to the kitchen.
Bella shook her head, "I love pasta."
"I know." Diana chuckled, washing her hands before busying herself about the kitchen. She grabbed a pot and filled it with water, placing it on the stove to boil. She paused her work and poured herself and Bella a glass of wine, though Bella declined the alcohol at first, Diana was persuasive.
"So," Bella began, taking a slow sip of the red liquid, "I see you drink things occasionally-" she paused to gesture at Diana's glass, "-and you've even nibbled on some things at lunch before..." she trailed off with a questioning look at Diana, who was currently chopping spinach, tomatoes, and garlic.
Diana paused to look up at her friend, "Yes?"
"Well, I just thought- I mean, Edward always said you guys couldn't eat."
Diana smiled and took a sip of her wine, before bringing her chopped ingredients to the frying pan that was still sizzling from the chicken, "We can eat a little bit here and there but, seeing as our digestion isn't the same as a human's, we can't- keep things down the way you do."
Bella raised a brow, "You mean..."
Diana nodded, "We have to, eventually, regurgitate the food we ingested."
Bella winced and took another sip of the alcohol in her glass, "What about the things you drink?"
Diana shrugged, "Liquids usually go down easier, but, the reason most vampires choose not to eat or drink anything at all is because we no longer crave it. It's like the foods and drinks you taste are different in our mouths."
"Like?"
"The taste of things is significantly dulled, you can add all the salt you like and it'll taste as bland as a baked potato. We can drink all the alcohol a bar can offer and we wouldn't get drunk. So, if there is no taste appeal, and our bodies don't crave it for nourishment, you just get used to going without."
Bella nodded, finishing her glass as Diana took her sauteed vegetables, added cream and parmesan, and stirred for a moment. She then strained the penne pasta and added it to her cheesy vegetable mixture, turning the flame low, before she set about chopping the cooked chicken.
"When's the last time you cooked a meal?" Bella asked, she was surprised the vampire knew exactly what to do and how she seemed to do it with expertise known only to professional chefs.
"Well," Diana hesitated, the two hadn't had a serious talk about Paul yet and the wolf was indeed the last person she had cooked for, "I cooked for Paul a few weeks ago."
Bella smiled widely, "Oh really?"
Diana smiled and nodded, "He's been coming around more..."
Bella nodded, "What's going on with that? I thought vampires and werewolves were supposed to be like mortal enemies?"
"Well, usually we don't get along very well- but, Paul happens to be... special."
Bella laughed, "What does that mean?"
Diana shrugged again, stirring the pasta mixture yet again, "I'm not sure."
After she served Bella and the two had situated themselves at the dining room table Diana sighed, "Has Jake told you anything about imprinting?"
Bella shook her head, "No, I don't think so."
"Well," Diana sighed, "-it's probably something you should ask him about. I can't exactly describe what it's like for them, but it's essentially how werewolves find their soulmates. It's an incredibly special, incredibly powerful bond. And... I guess, to make a long story short, Paul imprinted on me."
Bella slowly swallowed her mouthful, "So, you're his soulmate?"
Diana finished off her last sip of wine and placed her glass in front of her, "Yeah, I guess I am."
"And, you don't like that?" Bella asked, sensing the change in her friend's mood.
Diana shook her head, "I'm just not sure... did Edward have a hard time first meeting you?"
Bella nodded, "Yeah, he was actually a jerk when we first met."
Diana leaned back in her chair, "I guess I'm just worried about.. losing control."
Bella offered a questioning look and Diana ran her tongue over her teeth, "I haven't been off of human blood as long as the rest of the Cullens."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Diana paused to swallow, "-that the last time I killed someone was about 20 years ago."
"But, they said that Jasper hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of them, either. And, aside from my birthday party, he seemed fine around me."
"That's because of two things; one being that you were not as appealing to him because he has Alice and two being that the last time he killed someone was about 70 years ago."
Silence lapsed between the two, as Bella processed what Diana had said.
"So... it takes decades for you guys to build up a tolerance for human blood?"
Diana scoffed, "Decades is an understatement, Carlisle has been off humans for 250 years."
"What about Edward?"
"I wouldn't know," Diana sighed, "-my brother and I weren't the best of friends throughout our vampire years."
Bella nodded, "Why did you kill them?"
Diana shrugged, "... to prove a point."
Bella gave her an exasperated look and Diana chuckled.
"I was kind of at a bad place in my life, Bella. Sometimes things happen and mistakes are made."
Bella looked like she wanted more information but she didn't push. Instead, she began praising Diana's incredible meal. And the touchy subject was forgotten between the two best friends.