On the ride back, Isabella wondered if this is how life would be for her from now on?
Just a while ago, her biggest problem was that she didn't have a job or livelihood, her own mother and entire family hated her and her brother magnus was trying to kill her best friend, but now, she was facing the most life threatening predicament, this thought overwhelmed her so much that she burst into tears, she cried in a manner that was gut wrenching, even Rafael could not ignore that he had just heard her crying,
"Are you okay?" He asked,
"What do you think genius?" She responded with a snap,
Rafael remained quiet, he imagined that she just needed some time to fully let it all out and express how she felt,
"This is all your fault you know and I hate you so much for that" she said in anger as she stared at him with blood shot eyes.
Rafael remained quiet.
After a while of driving in absolute silence, they arrived the foyer, Rafael got down and opened the car door for Isabella, he offered her his hand to get down but she ignored him, got down, bumped into his shoulder and walked right into the house;
On getting inside, Isabella is shocked to see Niko and four strange faces in the living room just staring at her,
"You must be the bride" one of the four, a girl with blue eyes and brunette hair said as she moved with unnatural speed and stood in Isabella's face "I'm Jenny" she added.
"I see my brother has taste" another one of the four said from the dining area, he sat on the chair with his legs disrespectfully on the table where people normally would eat from, "you look just like the last one" he added,
"Just like the last one? What last one? and why do I look like her?" Isabella thought to herself, before she could finish processing her thoughts and all the questions that she had, she noticed Rafael move with an insane speed, he grabbed his brother and he slammed him into the wall (as per usual)
"Oh, she doesn't know about 'the last one'? My bad brother" he said to Rafael, Rafael let him go.
"Don't worry, that's how the bicker" Jenny said to Isabella.
"Everyone, have a seat" Rafael said as everyone approached the dining and sat down.
Just as everyone sat down, the door bell rang and Niko immediately ran and opened the door, it was Rafael's mother, Thalia Voss, she walked into the house and walked straight to the table with a serious face and she sat down, Isabella was seated beside Rafael, by his left hand side while Thalia was seated beside him, by his right hand side.
Rafael began to recount their entire experience with Kate at the diner, he told them all about the VERMILIAN spirit and the plan of the vampires to overtake new port and push out the Voss bloodline entirely, he recounted everything that Kate had said one by one and when he was done, everyone was shocked, flustered, confused, you name it;
Silence filled the room.
Rafael brought out the bracelets and handed one each to everyone except Niko and he explained why it was necessary that they all wear it.
After due process was done, Rafael got up and said "now, mother, brothers, sister…allow me to introduce to you, my bride…Isabella"
They all looked at Isabella, Thalia looked irritated…
"You rejected Anastasia for this?" Thalia said as she looked at Isabella with disdain,
"Yes mother, I did…in fact, you must all know that Isabella is with child, MY CHILD and if any harm comes to her, I will go on a killing rampage" he smiled psychotically.
"She's pregnant?" Thalia said as her face became gentler "wow" she smiled a bit.
Rafael wondered why he hadn't done this since, he knew he had just won his mother over to his side again seeing as he had just given her the heir that she had so bloody wanted.
Thalia looked at him "I thought you were impo—" but Rafael cut her off "I guess not mother"
Thalia wanted to continue talking but Rafael cut it off in a bid to introduce Isabella to all of his siblings.
"Isabella, this is Jenny, she is the princess of the house" he said as he pointed to the gorgeous girl with brunette hair and blue eyes, Isabella waved her and Jenny smiled while flipping her hair in a sassy way.
"This is Flynn, the idiot who can't keep his mouth shut" Rafael pointed to the male specimen who had his dirty legs on the dining table, Isabella waved but he didn't wave back, he just kept staring at her rudely.
"This is Jeremiah, the calm one" Rafael pointed to his brother who looked very put together and had the most polite and precious countenance, Jeremiah took Isabella's hands and landed a gentle kiss on her
"Pleasure to meet you" Jeremiah said to Isabella.
"That's enough brother" Rafael said "this is Coleman, he's an idiot, stick around long enough and you'll find out why" Rafael added as he pointed to his last brother who had been giving Isabella the 'I want to sleep with you' eyes since she got in.
"These are my siblings, they'll be staying here with us or not, I really don't care what they do…they will hang around until we have caught this spirit and sent it back where it came from" Rafael said.
"Nice to meet you all" Isabella calmly replied.
It was already a damn Long night, everyone got up and made their way to their various rooms, Isabella and Niko didn't talk that night, she was still overwhelmed by all that had been happening.
Isabella went down into the basement, got into her room and sat on her bed quietly for a while after which she decided to take a shower.
She took off all her clothes, took off her necklace and instinctively took out her bracelets, including the ghostbane bracelet because it's normal to take off all your jewelry before showering, don't we all?
Isabella did this without thinking.
She stepped into the bathroom and walked up to the mirror to brush her teeth, as she looked up at herself in the mirror, she saw a black cloaked figure behind her, it had a sword, Isabella was crippled with fear, she slowly turned around and there was no one there.
She believed she was going crazy, she turned back and looked into the mirror and the cloaked figure was still there, this time it was closer to her, Isabella turned back around and there was no one there, it got too overwhelming for her that she ran out of the bathroom, she wanted to run out and scream for help but something tripped her, she couldn't see anything but she knew that something or someone was there…
She tried crawling to the door, she just wanted to get out and call for help and that's when she was immediately hit with an overwhelmingly jarring high pitched sound, she held on to her head and she cried in pain, she began to hear whispers, voices "let me in, let me in, let me in"
In this moment, she knew without a doubt that she was being tormented by something, a ghost maybe? She immediately looked at her wrist and realized that she wasn't wearing the ghostbane bracelet, she felt stupid but there was no time to feel stupid, she instinctively began to crawl towards the table where she had left the bracelet, she was in pain and the voice kept getting louder "let me in, let me in, LET ME IN"
She kept fighting and crawling to the bracelet in pain and in tears and in complete agony, she was close to the table when the high pitch sound hit her again, she retracted, it was too loud and painful, she stretched out her arm to grab the bracelet and for a split second, she saw the cloaked figure with his sword raised up against her.
Before Isabella could think or move, he slashed her stomach with the sword, it was a deep cut and she bled profusely while coughing up blood.
She cried silently as she held on to her stomach trying to stop the blood from flowing, it felt like that was the only thing she could do in that moment to protect her child.
"My…baby" she uttered silently in tears.