Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Still Waters

By SkyDancingHobbit

Chapter 09: Of Kisses and Kings

“My life and her’s are twisted into a single strand. Cut one, and you cut both. If she were gone, I would not be able to live through that. If I were gone, she wouldn’t live through it, either.”

---

The request hung in the air a moment like the scent of the summer wildflowers as Bella allowed a smile to touch her lips. Ignoring the blush that warmed her checks yet there was an odd electricity in the moment as she responded in almost a whisper.

“Yes, Marcus you may”

He wasted not another moment closing the distance between them in a heartbeat and almost tentively brushed her lips, waiting a moment to be sure she neither withdrew or shrank from him then slowly deepened it. A gentle rumble vibrating through his chest as she returned it. In a moment she was pulled into gentle arms that held her tenderly against the cool metal of his armor. Bella wished she could have later described it, the moment everything shifted,it was something so small but felt powerful all the same, as if her world had been shaken like an old dusty snow globe taken off a shelf and all the broken pieces of her life had fallen back together the way they always should have been. Almost without her consent her right hand buried itself in his long hair tangling in the silken strands.

How long the kiss lasted she couldn’t have said, or even if it was a single kiss or one of a thousand only that when they broke apart she was breathing hard drugged on the scent of him a strange warmth tugging at her gut that promised endless possibilties. She was both utterly lost and found all in the breath of a moment he too seemed to be wrestling with an onslaught of emotion.

“la mia bella luce della mia anima”

The words were spoken roughly against the curve of her shoulder as if they had been torn from his very soul, both plea and promise as he took an unneeded breath then another clearly fighting to stay in control as the hand that still held her close shook like butterfly wings against the skin of her back.

“Cara forgive me”

His plea sounded gently in her ear as he gently put distance between them in a moment she frowning at his sudden retreat utterly confused at the sudden change.

“For what? Marcus as far as I know you have done nothing for which you need ask my forgiveness”

Standing facing away from her his proud shoulders were shaking and the sudden sharp creaking sound be told of the grip he held on the railing as he spoke again attempting it seemed to regain some sense of mastery over himself a low purring growl escaping his lips for several moments. instead of the fear she knew that sound ought to have provoked Bella was ashamed to admit a thrill ran up her spine, that she or they rather had thrown his control in such shambled after such a kiss.

“I… ask this not for what I have done Cara but what I am attempting not to do. I must beg leave to depart from you for the time being, my instincts are raging nearly at the limit of my control and it is not safe for you to be this close else I rashly act on them without thought and take, more then I should.”

Blush reasserting itself in force Bella was able to put the pieces together rather quickly even though the end of his admission was spoken as both plain fact and warning wrapped in one.

” I see… will I see you later?”

He turned nodding once, his normally crimson gaze had turned feral, black as night and a hungry as the predator that he was, fangs burning in the sunlight for a split second as their eyes met, then he vanished in a blur of movement back the welcoming halls of the castle. Exhaling sharply Bella leaned back in the chaise lounge breathing uneven and emotions in an unfamiliar tangle. She felt warm flushed almost, with an uncomfortable urge to follow him and, then what? fling herself into his arms? Bella knew that neither of them were ready yet for that step that it would be a foolish choice based on little more than a rush of sudden passion and despite what she was feeling she knew better.

“Well that was interesting”

The voice spoke behind her prompting Bella to turn to face a women who stood leaned against the gazebo’s door way a smile tugging at her lips. the classic features and dark hair all proclaimed this to be Aro’s mate and she blushed.

“Oh I meant no offence Bella, Marcus hasn’t been that flustered and out of sorts for decades beyond count, it does him a world of good in my opinion gets the blood flowing, if you catch my meaning no doubt he is holed up in some dark corner venting and throwing dusty objects at the guards and in an hour or two will be right as rain and probably looking for your forgiveness for teasing without being able to, shall we say, finish what he started”

“That may have been my fault”

Bella wished she could stop the heat that suffused her face but there was no help for it. Her companion merely laughed good naturedly her keen eyes had missed nothing and neither side needed to know that she and Aro had found the display quite, inspiring but Aro had been wearing period clothing in the French style which was much more to her tastes. It did not take much to fluster the poor girl and to smooth any unnessicary embarrassment was her duty to their newest coven member.

“I have no doubt he started it, don’t fret Bella, there has been no lasting harm done. Marcus is relearning to feel normal emotions and there were bound to be a few hiccups as he adjusts to things he hasn’t felt in several thousand years. Aro was much the same the first year we met.”

Bella raised an eyebrow attempting and failing miserably to picture Aro Volturi in love reading her expression the other women shrugged, a modern gesture that seemed almost out of place.

“He was surprised at meeting another immortal he couldn’t read, I had just escaped an arranged marriage and had no interest in another suitor but he was and and can still be quite… persuasive as I am sure you may have noticed. the Volturi brothers rarely take no for an answer for long, passion and violence runs in their veins”

Bella couldn’t disagree but also knew the same seemed to be true for most of their kind.

“You do realize my dear that most of Aro’s nonsense is just for show correct?”

Her face must have said it all and the women burst out laughing.

Bella couldn’t help but like this new friend, and they sat swapping stories for the next hour while Bella regained her composure, yet little did she know that Marcus was at this moment standing next to the pieces of a ruined throne, reading a certain letter rage being vented on ancient walls and a reckoning was shortly to come calling in a dreary Washington town.