Chapter 18 #2
Even through the smoke, Bella managed to laugh, her hand tightening around Yasmine’s waist. They were nearly to the bottom of the stairwell now. Yasmine could tell because the heat was a lot less oppressive, and she could hear people shouting again. The crowd outside had definitely gotten larger.
“You’ll deal with it,” Bella said, much too cocky for Yasmine’s liking. “What’s your money even good for if you can’t bribe your local news anchors?”
Unable to support her neck, Yasmine leaned her forehead into Bella’s chest and made a sound of indignation. Bella wrapped her arm tighter around her. Bella’s skin felt so warm. Somehow not a burning warm; just pleasant. Like a wool blanket.
It was completely strange. A vampire had never felt comforting to her before.
They were always so… cold.
“I’m only holding onto you because I can’t see,” Yasmine muttered quietly into her collarbone. “I’m still weighing the possibility of having you assassinated.”
Bella pinched her side.
“I would expect no less. You might need a nap before you call the hitman, though. You’re drooling on me a little.”
Yasmine didn’t have to see her to know she was smiling.
***
Of all things, an infant woke Yasmine up.
One of Rafael’s feet was dangling just above her head, kicking her softly and repeatedly in the cheek. He wasn’t being hoisted there by some mischievous adult: he was just there, levitating, holding a juice pouch and a picture book.
Because babies can only hold onto things for approximately three seconds before losing interest, the picture book was shortly released onto Yasmine’s forehead.
She hissed, scrubbing the quickly forming welt. The book was needlessly heavy.
“Sorry, those things are like mega dumbbells,” Aster said as Rafael began to float upward. “We had all his toys enchanted to be thirty times heavier than their normal weight so he stops flying out of windows.”
“Enchanted?” Yasmine mumbled, slowly rising from the couch she’d been laid out on. God, her head hurt.
Aster gently yanked Rafael down before he could make a full ascent towards the ceiling. “Yes, enchanted. Sylvia needed a new hobby to distract herself from having thoughts. Her words, not mine.”
“Ah. Sounds healthy,” Yasmine muttered, massaging her pounding temple. She hadn’t talked to Sylvia in a while, now that she thought about it. Not after their little fight about the credit cards. “And where is the thoughtless woman?”
Yasmine heard the water run in the bathroom. “On a work trip,” Aster answered.
“A work trip?” Now Yasmine thought she really might be in some kind of coma-induced dream. “Sylvia doesn’t work.”
The door to the bathroom opened, and Aster hastily pinned Rafael to her chest, so he couldn’t fly off anywhere. Yasmine was confused by her urgency until she realized who had just come out of the bathroom.
It was Bella.
And everything came rushing back to Yasmine.
The fire. Bella’s confession. The last thing that Yasmine remembered is that she was walking down the stairs back to her burnt foyer.
And now she was here. Did Bella take her here?
Why did she know where Sylvia lived? Then again, she’d known enough about Sylvia to know she was abusing Yasmine’s credit cards. Of course she knew her address.
“I like your soap,” Bella said to Aster, as if this was a hotel. “It smells like… I don’t even know what it smells like. But it’s nice.”
“Thanks,” Aster said. “Sylvia shoplifted it. Apparently it’s shark secretions.”
Bella snorted. Yasmine watched them interact with her jaw slightly dislodged.
“I see you two are acquainted,” Yasmine said, wincing as she pried herself off of the couch. “Bella, how did you even get me here?”
Bella gave her a bewildered look, as if that was a stupid question.
“You have a fleet of SUVs, and a personal driver that follows you around like a puppy. I just asked her where you’d ideally like to wake up after your house just burnt down, and she drove us here. Plus, it’s not like I had a place to take you.”
The sentimentality in that question made Yasmine frown.
She could admit that it had been comforting, waking up in Sylvia’s apartment.
A false sort of comfort, though. She could only romanticize it because Sylvia wasn’t in town to piss her off.
She’d left behind her much less offensive counterpart—the literal serial killer.
“Were you in the house while it was burning? Because you look like shit,” Aster said, sizing her up.
Yasmine looked down at her arms, wincing when she saw the burn marks.
“I can’t believe you were targeted. Sylvia would be having a field day with this.
She’s been obsessed with those girls all week. ”
Bella clicked her tongue. One of her nervous tics, Yasmine registered idly before feeling an odd sense of discomfort that she’d picked up on that.
Meanwhile, Aster settled down across from Yasmine in an armchair, and Bella joined Yasmine on the couch.
Given the positioning, Yasmine felt suddenly like they were at couples therapy.
Yasmine slid over several inches so there was a wide margin between her and Bella. She didn’t want to give Aster the wrong idea about them.
“Of course Sylvia’s obsessed,” she muttered. “She’s a true crime junkie. What has the illustrious idiot detective made of the situation, then? Has she figured out who they are yet?”
“Well, she seems to think they’re…” Aster paused, then stared at Bella. She made that awkward face that she always pulled when she had to lie. “...Supernaturally good at what they do.”
Oh, for the love of fuck.
It had only been a few minutes, and Yasmine had already had enough of this circus.
Aster was holding her tongue because she thought Bella was a human.
Bella was refusing to say otherwise because she was pointlessly secretive about her identity.
And Yasmine wasn’t speaking up because she’d promised Bella that she wouldn’t divulge her secret to anyone else, per their stupid agreement.
Well, Yasmine hadn’t signed any dotted line.
“Aster,” Yasmine said, wearing the world’s tightest smile. “Bella is a vampire.”
She didn't look at Bella when she said it, but she could hear the blonde’s teeth clench. She could also very much feel the temperature in the room increase.
Bella tried to do her usual thing of laughing it off. “Yasmine, don’t be silly—”
Yasmine didn’t even let her try and start the bullshit machine. She just grabbed Bella’s hand, then grabbed Aster’s, yanking them both forward towards each other.
“Aster, this is Bella. She’s two thousand years old, can put out fires with her hands, and she’s been fucking with me for the last month and a half.
Bella, this is Aster. She’s essentially impossible to kill, and she can separate your head from your neck in two seconds flat.
So, keep that in mind. Wonderful to finally introduce you. ”