𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍:
Speaking of trauma...

THE DAY BEFORE THE FIGHT.

Eloise stood where the newborns were supposed to arrive. As she inspected the clearing, it occurred to her that the clearing was too open, meaning the creator of the newborns could easily slip through their grasp.

She and Jasper talked about this. The creator wouldn't join the fight.

The newborns were just collateral damage, a bait.

They needed something to contain the newborns in the field that wouldn't let them pass through the town, so Eloise suggested that Bella should mark the trees that surrounded the area with her blood, which made Edward disagree at first.

"I'll do anything," Bella tells Eloise, agreeing to her idea. Eloise nodded as Bella walked towards the trees with Edward.

The scent of Bella's blood immediately greeted Eloise; she held her breath and closed her eyes shut, controlling the urge.

Bella finished her scent trail. She walked toward Eloise with a handkerchief wrapped around her thumb.

Eloise then looked at Edward as they communicated mentally. Edward nodded, agreeing.

"Can I borrow that handkerchief for a moment?" Eloise asks as Bella looks at her, confused and skeptical, yet unwraps the handkerchief from her thumb.

"I need to memorize your scent, so I can mimic it when we're in the fight. It'll attract the newborns to me." Eloise explains as Bella nods in understanding, handing over the handkerchief to Eloise, with dots of blood staining the cloth.

Eloise neatly folds the handkerchief as she braces herself, placing the cloth on her nose as she breathes in Bella's blood.

And heaven forbid Bella's blood smells divine. As she familiarized herself with Bella's scent, Eloise couldn't blame Edward for being in a state of frenzy when he met Bella, and it was the most tempting and delicious scent she had ever smelled.

Edward clears out his throat as he notices that Eloise is getting lost in Bella's scent.

Eloise immediately brought down the cloth.

Eloise looks at Bella and Edward with guilt as she breathes in the fresh smell of the woods.

"My apologies, your scent was truly...distracting." Eloise apologizes as her mind and ability begin to mimic Bella's scent, so it does work.

Eloise smells strongly like Bella.

"Your gift is one of a kind, Eloise," Edward comments as he is immediately engulfed by Bella's scent coming from Eloise.

They have an advantage in the fight.

"It has pros and cons," Eloise responds, clearing out her scent and returning to her original scent. Bella then looks at Eloise, curious.

"What can you do with your ability? Other than replicate a scent?" Bella asks Eloise, and Eloise grins as she tilts her head to the side, then closes her eyes.

Bella stood in shock as Eloise's appearance changed drastically before her eyes, Eloise's golden blonde hair turned brown, and Eloise was transforming into...Bella.

Eloise stood before them with a completely new appearance. She mimicked Bella's stance and facial expression.

"You can completely change your appearance," Bella says in awe of Eloise's ability. Eloise nods as she turns back to herself.

"My ability reminds me of my human life, a girl that pretends," Eloise tells her as Bella and Edward walk alongside her, with Edward looking at her in sympathy.

"I don't like that look on your face, triple V, so please wipe it off your broody face," Eloise tells Edward as Edward looks at her, confused and curious.

"Triple V?" Edward asks. He tries to peek inside Eloise's mind, wanting to read her mind to know the meaning behind the nickname.

"Virgin, Vegetarian, Vampire." Eloise laughs as she speeds towards the house, and Edward rolls his eyes, with Bella giggling in his arms.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

"I WANT TO BE THE ONE TO KILL THE RED HEAD BITCH." Cordelia firmly says they stand in the living room. They are currently having their family meeting, arranging their plans and motives for tomorrow's battle.

They agreed with Edward sitting out of the fight to hide Bella in the mountains. With Thalia agreeing to stay in the Cullen house, feeling too many deaths of newborns will only distract her from the fight because of the constant migraines. The ancestors also warned her that they wouldn't be able to control and help Thalia with her screams.

"No. I'll be the one to kill her." Edward disagrees with a scoff. And Cordelia looks at him in the offense.

"With all due respect, Edward, Victoria, and James hunted me for decades. They killed my father. I fucking think my trauma is more valid than yours and Bella's, no offense." Cordelia tells him frustratedly as Edward raises his hand in surrender.

"Damn," Emmett mutters, amused.

"Understandable. I got to kill the one who caused mine and Jasper's trauma." Eloise speaks as the family looks at her.

"What? I thought we were talking about how we heal from our traumas by actually killing those who caused it." She shrugs as Jasper chuckles, wrapping an arm around Eloise's shoulder.

"Aren't we just a big happy vampire family of vampires with a baggage of traumas?" Emmett grins as Jasper snorts.

"You got killed by a bear."

"That's so fucking different, and you know it." Emmett dramatically plops down on the couch and crosses his arms to his chest.

"Let's just stop talking about killing," Bella suggests as the family looks at her rather oddly.

Christopher chuckles, "We're vampires, Bella. It's not as if we're innocent of killing people." Esme scolds him with a look as Rosalie looks at Bella with a dull look.

"Let's unpack a little baggage. I killed Royce and his little friends." Rosalie lists as she looks at Emmett, with the man rolling his eyes as if he already knew what she would say.

"Emmett here accidentally killed his blood singer in the '70s, and in the '90s, it was on purpose."

Then her piercing eyes set on Edward, with him pursing his lips.

He wouldn't be able to stop Rosalie from being brutally honest.

It was just in Rosalie's nature.

"Edward, when he strayed, went on a little rebellion emo phase and killed people."

Bella looks at Edward questionably.

Rosalie just opened a big can of worms.

Rosalie looks at Alice, who looks chirpy as ever.

Alice had already seen this conversation before.

She didn't mind Rosalie's attitude. She was used to it. In a way, she respected Rosalie for being honest with Bella when it came to being one of them because Edward would surely try to maintain Bella's consciousness.

"When Alice was a newborn, she killed the whole hospital staff."

Alice nods, not denying anything. "True. I was a wee bit hungry."

Rosalie then moves her eyes to the person beside Alice. "Cordelia only changed her diet when she joined, so she killed people too." Cordelia shrugs.

Then she looks at Eloise and Jasper, with them only nodding.

They, too, agree that Bella needs to come up with the terms of being a vampire, that once in a while, they slip up and kill a human, accidentally or on purpose.

Bella's eyes switched from one family member to another.

"Eloise and Jasper, when they were in the South, killed a hell lot of newborns and humans." As her hand went to her chin, Rosalie casually says, looking at Christopher and Esme, "Christopher and Esme killed Charles, Esme's abusive ex-husband."

"Didn't regret it one bit." Christopher chimed in proudly as Esme placed a hand on Christopher's chest, looking up at him gratefully as Christopher placed a peck on Esme's forehead.

Rosalie looks at the person she respected the most, "Carlisle killed Thalia's ex, and Thalia, well, she only saw people get killed, so I guess that doesn't count, so she is innocent."

Thalia looks at Bella awkwardly. While Carlisle didn't even bat an eye, he didn't regret what he had done.

"My wife killed a lot of humans, the number bigger than Eloise and Jasper combined," Rosalie tells Bella with her eyes finally setting to the only human in the room.

"We kill once in a while, Bella. But that does not mean we're monsters. We just accepted ourselves for who we are, Vampires." Rosalie sighed as she looked at her family one by one apologetically, and they just smiled at her in response.

No harm done.

"So better get used to it."

Author's Note:
➵ Rosalie being brutally honest to Bella's reality of wanting to be a vampire😌