Chapter Text
One recipe became another, and soon Bella was spending more time with Scott outside of class than in it, which was impressive, given the subject matter. She seemed to have an endless list of food that she missed making and eating, and he was enthusiastic in return. He shared recipes with her, too, but it was still mostly for his benefit. He was the one who ended up eating them, unless he took them to his mom.
"My abuela taught me to make this bread," he explained as he sifted the dry ingredients. This time, they were at her apartment, instead of his. He was wondering if her family—a brother, named Laurent, and his mate, Irina—would drop by. For the most part, they didn’t live with her. Laurent tended to prefer a more nomadic lifestyle, and Irina lived with her extended family most of the time, unless she was traveling with Laurent. Bella usually didn’t mind; she liked living alone, she had told him.
Despite her diet, she seemed endlessly intrigued by all the recipes he showed her. And, of course, everything about werewolves. He wasn't the first werewolf she'd met, but the others were different, she explained.
"They aren't bound to the moon cycle, like you are," she told him, kneading the dough "They can transform whenever they like, as you do, but...they shift into full wolves." She smacked the bread down onto the counter.
"Derek can do that," he said thoughtfully. "I think it has to do with bloodlines; apparently his mom and older sister could do it, too. I've never tried, though, so maybe I could?."
She hummed thoughtfully. Even that sound was strangely beautiful in a way that other voices couldn't compare to.
He tried not to get caught up in the thought.
"That's really interesting," she said. "I never realized there were so many species."
"Does it make you wonder if there's multiple vampire species?"
She seemed amused, but also intrigued at the concept. "I'll look into it."
Scott was more curious about Bella and her origin than he'd imagined he’d be, but she was the first vampire he'd met. He'd been peppering their conversations with questions since they'd each confessed. He didn't feel too bad about it, since she did the same thing.
In fact, it had been a while since he'd slipped a question in. "So, no human food, but...you do drink blood, right?"
"A different kind of human food," she joked. She sobered pretty quickly, though, as though she didn't want him to worry. "I don't drink human blood. Sometimes I hunt animals, but I buy blood from local butchers and keep it on hand. It's not the best way to live, but...well, I am living, and no one is dying because of it." She said this a bit fiercely, like she's had to defend her choices over her time as a vampire.
It was a relief to hear that she didn't hunt people, actually. He wasn't sure of the mechanics of vampire hunting, but he figured for the most part, the victims didn't like it. If she had turned out to be the type of vampire that killed people, he'd have to fight, or perhaps even kill her, and he really hadn't wanted to do that. Thank god she'd decided to go a more humane route, with animal blood. The concept seems pretty familiar though, and it only takes him a moment to place it. "Like Angel," he suggested.
She nodded, laughing a little. "Part of why my family finds it so distasteful. But it makes sense; they're just picky. Most of them started out drinking human blood and only recently started supplementing it with animal blood. Hunting makes it easier on them, but it doesn't matter as much to me, since I've never had human blood." It's all fairly disgusting, he can tell, but that might be because Bella clearly had a developed palette as a human and had found blood drinking to be a pale imitation of the joys of food.
He took the dough from her, because she seemed distracted for the moment. It was kneaded well enough, anyway, so he set it in a bowl and covered it with a towel. "So...what do you tell the butchers you buy the blood from?"
She laughed a little. "I'm in culinary school. I tell them that I cook with it."
He could imagine the conversation between them, and wondered if the butchers thought it was odd that she cooked with so much blood. Still, it was a creative solution. "Tell me about your family?"
She blinked her golden eyes at him and smiled. "I met Edward when I was seventeen, nearly...thirteen years ago. We fell for each other pretty fast, but...well, I almost died and he felt guilty, and he didn’t want me to become a vampire, so he left, which sucked.” She paused and laughed. “No pun intended. Of course, I ended up getting bitten by Laurent less than three years later. Then I traveled with him for a while, until I felt like I had enough control to live among humans again. Laurent comes through to stay with me every couple weeks. It’s harder to stay in one location when your main food source has police detectives looking after their murders.”
For all that the explanation was concise, he was reeling from what he’d read in between the lines. She’d never mentioned Edward or his family before, so he wasn’t sure what to make of him, but he could tell she was still sad about him leaving. She was resigned, too, though.
But Laurent ate people? That was...not great news. He did not want to kill someone that Bella obviously cared about quite deeply, and honestly, he wasn’t even sure how he would do that. Maybe Laurent could be reasoned with? It seemed extreme to jump right to murder, when most vampires wouldn’t even think to live as Bella did...
Which, actually, was a good question.
“So, you don’t eat people, but Laurent and other vampires do, right?” he said slowly. “How did you decide to do that?”
She sighed a little. “Would you like some coconut water?”
He blinked at the non-sequitur. “Sure.”
As she poured him a cup and set the timer for the bread’s rising, she briefly explained how Edward and his family were different, that they’d given her the idea to eat animals rather than humans. “I look for all kinds of replacements, now. Coconut water is good for when you get a little peckish, not quite hungry…It doesn’t work as a meal replacement, but it adds some nice diversity to the diet. I also take iron pills, crushed up and mixed in with the coconut water so I can get another little boost.” She grinned at him. “I might be inhuman, but I try not to be a monster. Seems unfair to...who I used to be.”
Scott thought of Lydia, all those years ago, telling him that not all monsters do monstrous things. True enough, he decided, and drank his coconut water.