Bella Vita (14 page)

“
So what? I don't plan on
being part of the teaching scene. My people need me. I'm only here
to ensure that I get the proper training before I fulfill my
destiny.” My words were strong and once they were out I knew they
were absolutely true.

“
Yes, your destiny. Let's
talk about that.” He steepled his hands.

Oh, that is so it!
Dominic, I'm leaving. This is shit.
I kept my face calm. “My destiny, as of this
moment, is leading me out of this room.” I turned and walked to the
door, unfortunately Leland was sitting his big panther butt in
front of it.

A low warning growl escaped from him.

“
Oh, please. You are no
scarier than bunny slippers with fangs. Now move before I make
you.” The threat seeped into my words in a frightening
way.

Leland moved like he was
ready to pounce on me. I rolled my eyes, the inner wolf was begging
to be released. “You're nothing more than a lap dog,
move
.” I
growled.

He didn't move. His body never left the
attack stance. I released the wolf inside. My clothes swiftly
shredded into tatters and I was once again the beautiful black
wolf. My size was nowhere near the panther, but I knew Leland well
enough to know he wouldn't be out to injure me. I was beginning to
doubt whether or not I should hurt him just so he'd learn. My fur
hackled and a snarling growl escaped from deep within me.

Dominic stepped between us. “Leland, I think
you should let her pass.” His hands were up in a surrendering
gesture.

Not bloody likely.
I heard Leland project his thoughts.

Move you idiot. My fight
isn't with you.
I told Dom.

Mia
bella
, this is not the way to win this
battle.
His words were pleading, but
calm.

I thought for a moment. The layout of the
room was very box-like with the door on one end and the windows on
the other. But as I retraced the memory of the room, I realized
that there was an open window just to the left of Spawling's head.
I knew instantly what I would do.

Dominic, I never took you
for a coward. Nor did I ever expect you to stand against me on
something so important to me. This issue is not up for debate. I
will not be used. I've
our
people to help. I am done here.
I turned faster than anyone expected and leapt
through the window and made sure to slap Spawling with my tail on
the way out.

Chapter
three

When I woke up at my grandparents' house, I
knew I needed to talk to Grandpa. But first I had to check my
email. I didn't bother to check if I had gotten any phone calls. I
didn't want to deal with school, Dominic, or Leland. I had called
the school and requested a temporary leave of absence. Taraneh in
the office accepted the request and put in the paperwork.

I logged onto the spare laptop I kept in my
room at my grandparents'. The room was still packed up, and the
walls were a plain beige. The internet booted up quite happily, it
was like putting on a favorite sweater. My inbox boomed with
messages from Dominic. I wanted to just delete them all, but then
my eye caught something. I had two emails that were not from Dom,
one from Issy- his sister, and one from Kelly.

I clicked the one from Kelly first.

Hey Em, I'm going to be in Italy for a
shoot. Well, not just any shoot, but my first serious one! I
thought maybe we could hangout. I know that you've got all that
school stuff going and all. But hey, it isn't everyday that I'm in
town. :) So, I'll be there about a week after your classes start. I
know it's totally earlier than it was originally planned, but I
know you'll figure out how to make time. I'll give you a call when
I get there. See ya soon.

XOXO,

Kelly

It was strange to hear from Kelly. It had
only been a few months since I had last saw her. But our
relationship was so different from where it began. She was the
little girl I bit in kindergarten, and our friendship was
nonexistent until Acacia appeared in town. It was as if having
another person challenge her territory of queen bitch caused Kelly
to be nice to me.

Kelly was a nice enough girl once you got
passed her cold exterior, and she was an awesome ally when you had
a common enemy. I was glad I helped her make it into the vampire
world of modeling. There was no way she would have made it without
an insider, especially one with influence.

I was happy she was coming. Having a
friend here would be the distraction I needed to give my mind a
chance to heal and strike a balance from everything that had
happened. I just needed time to breathe and get a hold on
everything. All I wanted was a chance to go back to the way things
were when I was a kid- calm and peaceful.
I almost forgot... Issy wrote me an email too.

My memories jarred me back
to the task at hand. I needed to know what was going on with Issy-
Dominic's wayward sister, and my childhood best friend.
Did my message finally get to
her?
With a trembling hand I clicked on the
message from her.

Emma, I'm not sure what to make of
your messages. I've received them all, but what am I supposed to
do? You say this horrific thing will come to pass if I don't change
my path, but where am I to go? I don't belong in the vampire world,
I'm not human, nor wolf. My place is with Jack. We made the choice
long ago to stand by each other no matter what. You foresee both
our deaths, and should that come to pass, then we will be together.
However, I don't know if my path or the path I might take because
of this vision is the cause. To change my course might alter both
our lives. I can't risk that for Jack or myself, there is too much
at stake. Please let my brother know I'm well. I'll be in contact
soon, and I'll try to keep in touch more frequently. Perhaps next
time you're in London, you'll come and see us. You are always with
me Emma.

Please be safe yourself.

I
ssy

Her sensible nature was difficult to handle.
My memories of her, were of a little girl. She was not level headed
as a little girl. I would have easily called her a free spirit.

I sat in my computer chair
with my thick green robe on, and pouted at the screen. I don't know
what I was expecting, but this response was not it.
How do I even respond to that?
I felt frustrated and annoyed for not knowing
what to do next. I knew I needed to write back, but I didn't know
what to say. I swiveled my chair away from my desk. I looked out
the window. The sky was a beautiful shade of pink, the sunrise was
at its peak. I sighed.
This isn't how I
wanted to start my day
. I took a deep
breath, I needed to center myself. I turned back to the laptop and
clicked 'reply.'

Hey Issy, I just wrote to make sure
you were okay. I needed to know what I had seen wasn't true yet.
I'll pass the message to your brother. I hope that one day soon
I'll be able to see you and it won't be on such ugly terms as my
vision. I miss you. Please remember to keep in touch with me, if
only to calm my worries. Please take care of yourself.
Em.

It was short. I just didn't
know what to say to her. I rolled my shoulders and stood up.
What am I going to do today?
The shower beckoned me from the small bathroom attached to my
room. I grabbed the small suitcase I had under my bed for just such
occasions and followed the sirens call.

An hour later, I was downstairs sipping some
hot cocoa mixed with blood and waiting for Grandpa to get off the
phone. His pale blue eyes seemed stressed from the conversation he
was having. I could have easily followed both sides but I tried
desperately to push out any traces of the chat from my mind. This
task was a challenge to myself because of my abilities.

“
Thank you for the privacy,
Emma.” His words were crisp.

“
Oh, no worries, Grandpa.”
I smiled at him.

“
Now, why on Earth did I
have a black wolf on my property last night?” His eyes twinkled
like stars in the night sky with his knowledge.

“
Do I really have to
explain?” I whined.

“
Yes, you do. It is better
to hear a story than to know the outcome. So please tell.” His
smile was infectious.

“
Okay, fine.” I told
Grandpa about my first day at my new school and all of the
interesting, to say the least, things that happened to
me.

His laugh carried as he wiped a tear from
his eye. “Now, Emma, it's not professional to walk around smacking
school heads with a tail.”

“
But...” He raised his hand
to silence me.

“
I'm not saying the poor
little fellow didn't deserve it. I'm merely stating that it's not
professional or lady-like, so don't let your grandmother hear about
it.” He tried to compose his face but just broke into another
smile.

I laughed.

“
So, my sweet child, how
can I help you?” He took my hand gently.

“
I just don't know what to
do Grandpa. I don't want to be part of something that will try to
use me against Mike. I know I'm not supposed to be drawn to him or
anything, but he's a part of me. Our futures are twined together in
some strange way that even I can't see.” I pouted.

“
Emma, you know there are
some things that can't be known. Even by powerful psychics like
yourself. Time will tell you everything you need to know.” He took
a sip of his peppermint tea.

I sighed. “But I can't just stay out of
school forever.” I pleaded.

“
True. You must go back,
next week. You can't run from this. You have to be able to show our
people that you were trained in the same way as they were. You have
to be an equal.” Grandpa was staring ahead at the warm burnt orange
wall of the kitchen, the scent of fresh paint was still in the
air.

“
But what if I'm not made
to be in the person to lead our people to something better?” I felt
hopeless.

“
Emma Mary Hutchinson. I
never want to hear you think little of yourself.” He turned my face
to look at him. “You are capable of anything you set your mind to,
you know this.”

I looked down at the cherry wood
countertops.

“
Take my hand.” His words
were a simple command.

I followed suit and did as I was told.

“
Now see.” I felt a rush of
energy entering my mind.

My mind was filled with images and
sensations. It was like an air raid on my mental senses. Every
thought and image being sent to me was about me. But these were not
just the thoughts of Grandpa. It seemed like the world was sending
me images of the leader I would be, or that they hoped I would be.
Slowly the feelings and sights stopped. Grandpa let go of my
hand.

“
You will succeed, you'll
do this because they need you to and because you're destined for
it.” He smiled at me.

All of my issues from earlier seemed trivial
now. I truly appreciated my grandpa.

“
Thank you Grandpa.” A
single tear slid down my cheek.

“
Not to worry, my Young
One. One day you'll see yourself like we see you. Until that day,
you'll have to trust what I say. Now, dealing with your male
figure. I think, perhaps, that you let your temper and stubbornness
get the best of you.” He handed me my phone which had like a
zillion messages on it- both text and voicemail.

“
How did you get this?” I
knew I had shredded all my clothes when I changed, and I didn't
remember what happened to my bag.

“
Well, there was this very
nice wolf in my yard last night, and she had a messenger bag, much
like yours,” he held up my bag which had been sitting next to him
on the floor, “and when she scaled the back wall to the house, I
realized that it was probably you.” He winked at me.

I loved my grandpa. I felt utterly
ridiculous, but I still loved my calm and collected grandpa.

“
Thank you, Grandpa.” I
took my bag and checked to see if my small bat pin was still
attached, I lucked out.

“
Perhaps, you should call
that boy of yours. You know he has called the house several times
honey. I think he just didn't know how to handle such a situation.
I also feel that you didn't tell him something that happened?” He
raised his brows at me.

“
Unfortunately, that's the
truth, Grandpa. But I didn't really have time to tell him
yesterday, not that he would've listened anyways. He seemed quite
content to not see what was going on right in front of his face.” I
felt my temper rising again.

Emma. Find your center.
This isn't the right path.
His words were
full of wisdom and his voice was calm, like talking to a small
child.

Yes, you're right. I'm
sorry. I let my temper get the better of me.
I took a deep breath.

I picked up my cell and checked the texts.
They started out as angry texts from Dom trying to figure out what
the devil happened to me. Then they became more frantic and
apologetic. After reading through them, I felt really bad. I
should've told him what happened mentally. I have the ability to
send private messages, more so than anyone else. But I didn't even
think to do that. Instead, I just got upset and felt that the world
was against me.