"You know, something different about Aurora, right?" Nicholai sipped on a glass of wine, he seemed to be doing that alot lately and Miranda doesn't know if it's to express how rich he is without words, or he's just stressing, "she can do things you haven't seen before." He starred in Charlie's eyes.
"How do you know that?" He was suspicious, ''what did Aurora's Principal have anything to do about this, "did she tell you, or did you accidentally stumble across her doing something?" He had to tread carefully, he didn't want word getting out that Aurora was doing things impossible to mankind.
"I'm her husband." He shrugged, not even bothered by the dropped beer glass that was in Charlie's hand, "we've been married for quite some time actually." Like a lovesick puppy, he leaned back in his chair to reminisce about all the things they used to do together.
"Husband?" He was too shocked to think, "Aurora's married to you?" In his head, he was thinking it was impossible for his seventeen year old daughter to have a husband already, "was she married off to you by her old parents!" Enraged, he stood up, he'll have to find those people that previously had the girl, it was illegal to marry off a child to some older man, it was considered to be human trafficking, and he couldn't bear the thought of Aurora going through that.
"Calm down," Nicholai signed, "no her parents didn't marry her off to me, the second she was born she belonged to me." He frowned, "I don't expect a human like you to understand what's Fate, but Aurora was Fated to me the second she had a heartbeat." He placed the glass down with a pose, a calm expression on his face, though the annoyance shone bright in his dark eyes.
"Fated!" He was still angry, and yelling, but at least he was listening, "Fated? To you? Who even are you?" He snapped, he wasn't pleased to know his daughter was already taken by another man, sure she was old enough to date, should be dating, but he didn't want her too, he didn't want Aurora near any guy that had an attraction to her.
"Yes, Fated, I'm not a bad person you know, I helped you gain information about your failure of a daughter." He smirked, he could see the fire light behind Charlie's eyes at the mention of Bella.
"Oh yeah, the girl will also be facing punishment for attacking the Queen." He frowned, "so I suggest you get back on the idea of her being dead, because her head's going to be removed whether you like it or not." The two men stared at each other, both with fire in their eyes that held different emotions.
"Why?" Charlie mumbled, "what did she do?" She could've done something so bad that she needed to be killed for it so what exactly did she do?
"Attempted to kill Aurora." nonchalantly speaking, he watched Charlie's face fall, "though if it wasn't for me transferring a bit of my energy to her, she would've died." He frowned, "she has to pay for that, I need my people to know that any act of violence against me is a death wish." He didn't really care if he was losing Charlie's favor by saying he'll kill his daughter, because his first priority was Aurora, though he did care about how Charlie felt, being curious and all.
"She did?" He couldn't think straight, "her and the Cullens?" The pain in his heart increased as he realized he was being lied to, those Cullens dared take his daughter away, then pretend she was dead.
"No, just her." He scoffed, "though they did knock Aurora down the stairs a day ago." He chuckled a bit, amused by Charlie's ragged breath.
"I thought that Leo boy did it!" He felt a little disappointed that he acted so rash towards the Lady of the Richwood family, "I need to apologize to Leona." He signed, he felt ashamed of himself, his father didn't raise him to disrespect women no matter how bad they can get sometimes.
"No need," waving his hand Nicholai stood up, "she wanted to apologize for bothering you and Aurora, which she did, by coming to me for information." He smirked, "don't make her feel like her gift is useless." He went back to sipping on his wine. Charlie finally calmed down enough to sit back down, the broken glass of the beer glass, cleaned up and replaced by some random maid.
"Regret? Why would she regret it?" He was confused, it would be normal to regret something that you didn't have to do or wouldn't last.
"She sold her soul to me." A grin on his face, "she now serves me, though I gave her to Miranda, she's always wanted a helper of some sort." He spoke without a care, but Charlie had to think for a second.
"You have her soul? You're a demon?" He wasn't a Christan, but the thought of a devil made him want to raise a cross.
"Demon?" Nicholai bursted into laughter, feeling emotions he hadn't felt since Aurora disappeared, "don't compare me to those commoners." He whipped a tear away, "I'm far more stronger than those lowly beasts." He wasn't bothered by the raised eyebrow from Charlie, but he was amused by the roll of eyes, when he spoke of those 'lowly beasts.'
"Then what are you?" He was curious, "is Aurora the same?" If Nicholai knew what Aurora was then he knew exactly what she needed, because the random waves of sickness were scary to deal with.
"Not a God, those don't exist," A smug smile on his face was present, "but I'm immortal, Aurora is immortal" He was pretty vague, the man not really wanting to answer.
"Okay," pressing for more, Charlie flinched when Nicholai purposefully dropped his glass onto the floor.
"Okay." Charlie sat back, "though you must know that Aurora gets sick easily then?" He hoped he did.
"Of course," He snorted, "I know everything about my wife like a good husband should." The glass might've broken upon the floor, but a maid was quick to swoop in and clean the mess.
"Miranda should be done with it right now." He motioned to the door, a beautiful woman entering with a bottle filled with pink liquid.
"My god." Charlie's mouth dropped, "you're gorgeous." He had to force his eyes away in fear of making the woman uncomfortable.
"While you're trying to collect yourself I'll explain exactly what this bottle is." Miranda smirked, she quite enjoyed being called beautiful, "this will help Aurora with regulating her body. The reason why she gets so sick easily is because her body doesn't know what to do with the excess energy so it forces it out through high fevers and random outbursts." The bottle was filled with things that one would expect to be impossible, especially the blood, and venom from a Cold One.
"All she needs to do is drink a bit of this everyday and her body will grow to accommodate the mass amount of energy within her body, it'll also help with bringing her memories forth, because that's currently what her brain is trying to do anyways." Miranda set the bottle onto the desk in front of Charlie.
"Slip this into her drink or mix it into her food, once a day, only a teaspoon, any more than that and she could have a setback." She smiled, at the flabbergasted man, "now don't disappoint." She wouldn't stay long, her presence was putting Charlie on edge, and she had to release Esme before the woman tore Leona apart from the severe hunger she was feeling.
"Yeah," Charlie nodded, he was a little nervous, but he didn't know if it was because he was in the presence of a beautiful woman, or because he could hurt Aurora.
"But, I'll be the one to explain anything else you have questions with," Nicholai leaned forward, "anything, whether it be something personal, about Aurora, someone, or something." He looked serious, a glint in his eyes as he watched Charlie pocket away the bottle so he wouldn't forget it.
"I'd like to know about the Cullens, what part they had in Bella's change and her 'death.'" He didn't know if he would like the information he was going to hear, but he was tired of being left in the dark, he felt like he deserved to know something, but then again it was Bella's choice.
"I knew you were going to ask about them, but do you want to hear all of it, or just what concerns Bella?" He started waving his hand around, books and papers flying around and arranging themselves onto his desk as he spoke with Charlie.
"Everything, absolute everything." He was focused, so much that he didn't see a man that looked like Jacob rush by with a chain in his mouth on all fours, Esme Cullen attached to the end of it as she kicked and lashed out at everything around her, eyes completely black and skin looking rougher than ever. She didn't look like the beautifully flawless Esme anymore, she truly did look like a blood sucking monster, but no one cared about that, a maid near the door, shutting it behind her as a loud crash was heard outside it.
"Good choice, we'll start with the Patriarch." Nicholai didn't pay much mind to it either, though he was a little furious at the vampire for breaking something inside his house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Though not too far away on the reservation, the Cullens and the Shifters all stood on their respective territories. The river that separated them, flowed loudly, but everyone could hear everyone perfectly, their hearing picking up animals from afar.
"Sam," Carlisle frowned, though in his head he was snickering, the wolf of the Alpha was missing some patches of fur, and no matter how funny it looked, he was a little worried about why it wasn't growing back, "have you seen my wife?" It was a far fetch that the wolves would care for Esme no matter how welcoming she is, but he was surprised when he saw Leah step forward.
"She said she saw her, not too long ago, hunting." Edward frowned, "when was that? She hasn't been back in over two days?" He leaned forward, though not to close when her brother, Seth, started growling.
"A few days ago." Edward groaned, though he couldn't be too upset, since they would have no reason to watch them, unless they came onto their land.
"Where could she be then? I haven't seen her ever since she got that call to renovate a room." Emmett shrugged, feeling helpless, though he stumbled when Rosalie smacked him in the back of his head with enough force to have him falling in the river.
"You heard her take up a job offer, and didn't bother to tell us!" She hissed, "she's probably busy and lost track of time." She felt tired and it was impossible for her to sleep, though she was also annoyed, "had us worrying for nothing." She growled, already ready to storm off somewhere since their problem was solved.
"It wouldn't take her two days though." Jasper frowned, "she would've taken some pictures, and collected some material before coming home to plan out options for the client to choose from." It didn't make sense, she was very dedicated to her job, but she would never be gone longer than a few hours.
"She also hasn't told me she would be staying out later than a day either, she just mentioned talking to the client." Carlisle signed, he felt dreadful, the stress from being away from his mate starting to wear him thin, giving him a more sickly shade of pale than he already was.
"It might not be your problem, but something horrible could be going around if it's able to take out a vampire!" Edward snapped, rolling his eyes at the bored thoughts of the Shifters.
"Charlie also hasn't returned home, Jacob is with her at the moment." Rosalie also rolled her eyes, smirking just a little at the distressed noise Seth and Leah had let out at the sound of the man, "so they could've also gotten to him." She tried sounding a little harsh because she was angry but the thought of a human getting caught in the crossfire of their problems really unsettled her.
"They still couldn't care less about Esme being missing, it's just one less vampire they have to deal with." He was frustrated, those mutts weren't any help, and Sam's patchy fur was making him angier.
"Fine, we don't need your help then patchy." Alice Rosalie snorted, ignoring the aggressive growls that Sam sent her way at the subtle diss.
"He got his butt handed to him by an old lady." Edward snickered, "I guess we don't need help, if the big bad alpha is getting kicked around by the elderly." It was a low blow, but everyone didn't have time to argue about how they should help find their coven mother.
"You two are outrageous." Carlisle frowned, Rosalie and Edward could be such prudes when they wanted to be.
"They're outrageous." The said woman rolled her eyes, racing off with Edward who didn't bother to hear whatever else the wolves had to say.
"Well then," Alice pouted, "if you not going to help us with finding Esme, then you can at least know that I see houses over on the reservation being burnt down." She smiled, bouncing off after her two siblings, leaving everyone with their jaws hanging at the news.
"Welp." Emmett signed, he also felt the need to leave, when he saw the confused and curious looks on the furry faces of the Shifters, "I'm not sticking around to answer any questions." He ran off, Jasper and Carlisle looking at each other, then the wolves before running off also. Leaving the poor Shifters to think about what exactly Alice said and if she mentioned it just to be spiteful since they wouldn't help.
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