This was written for Valentines Day 2016. Hope you like it!

-Jenna Tee

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Mature readers 18+ only.

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Finding Love

Thierry and Marcel walked into Rousseau's, a bar in the French Quarter in New Orleans, the morning of Valentine's Day, to get a drink. They could have gotten a drink back at the compound, but Marcel wanted to wish the bartender, Camille, Happy Valentine's Day. He wasn't a real sentimental guy, Valentine's Day had no real appeal to him, but he had a soft spot for the bartender, so he would be nice to her.

When the two of them walked in, they were assaulted by the most delicious scent. They both looked around, trying to find the source of the scent. There was a girl sitting at the bar with a tumbler of whiskey in front of her. They watched her drink the whole thing in one go, then motion Camille to get her another, "Another, please." She was about 5'4, long wavy brown hair, pale complexion. If she had been healthy, she would have had beautiful curves. But she looked skinny and unhealthy. They could tell by the scent of her blood that she was still a virgin too. Marcel was still intrigued.

As Camille poured another one for her, she smiled in greeting at Marcel and Thierry as Marcel seated himself on the girl's right and Thierry on her left. The young woman noticed the movement but she seemed unphased by it; normally, humans seemed to shy away from them right away. This had Marcel and Thierry each raising an eyebrow at her.

"Hello love, I'm Marcel. This is Thierry. Are you new in town?" Marcel introduced them, motioning for Camille to get them drinks.

"Don't call me love." The girl scowled. "Yes, I'm new here. I'm not sure how long I'm staying."

"What's your name? Why can't we call you love?" Thierry asked.

"Bella. And my dill hole ex called me love. I will punch the next guy in the nuts that calls me love." she threatened.

Both of them chuckled a little at that.

She went to pick up her drink, but Marcel noticed the crescent-shaped scar on her left wrist when the sleeve on her shirt slid up a little. The bite of a cold-one. The sparkly lower level vampires.

Marcel grabbed her hand, bringing it towards him, pushing her sleeve up her arm a little to inspect the bite.

"How are you still alive, little one?" he asked her in surprise.

Bella pulled her hand back, lowered her sleeve and looked at him warily.

"How do you know what this is?" she asked suspiciously.

"So, you know about cold-ones, but not the other vampire breed," Marcel stated more than asked.

Bella made a choking noise as she looked at Marcel wide-eyed.

"Another breed?"

"Come with us to my reserved table." He nodded in the direction of the table, "If you share your story, I'll share mine, and tell you about the other breed. My kind," Marcel offered. He was intrigued by this tiny woman.

She looked at him for a moment, knowing that she truly didn't have a choice. He could kill her with a flick of his wrist. So, she nodded, picked up her drink and climbed off her stool to follow him.

Camille handed him a bottle of whiskey, knowing they would need it.

They sat down back in a corner away from everyone else. Bella sat down, once again between Marcel and Thierry. She sighed, then began her story, rubbing the scar on her wrist subconsciously.

"I was seventeen when I went to live with my father in Forks, Washington," she began with a low growl. "My parents are divorced. I lived with my mother until she married a baseball player and wanted to travel with him.

"Anyway, my first day at Forks High School is when I saw them; the Cullens. There were five of them. They were the most beautiful and flawless people I'd ever met. They drew me in right away, just by their looks and smell. There were seven in the family, as they call themselves, but only five of them went to school.

"Carlisle Cullen was a doctor at the hospital. Then there was his mate Esme. The ones in school were Emmett and Rosalie who were mated, Jasper and Alice who were mated and then there was Edward, the only unmated one in the group. He was a mind-reader," she shrugged. "But my mind was silent to him. This angered him, he didn't like not being able to know everything at the drop of a hat.

"On top of that, apparently I was his singer. My blood sang to him like no other. He hated me at first. He disappeared for a week after that first day. Then he came back and was nice to me but he was playing this push and pull game.

"He would be nice to me, talk to me, be friendly, then tell me I should stay away. It was another way to lure me in, I guess, since it worked. He even saved my life a few times. Once was in the school parking lot when a van slid on the ice, the kid driving lost control, and it almost crushed me.

"Another time was when a group of men surrounded me in Port Angeles. I think you can guess what they wanted. Anyway, after that, he and I started dating. I met his family, they all swore I was Edward's mate. Then one day they took me to a clearing in the woods to watch them play baseball. Some nomads came up on us. James, his mate Victoria, and Laurent. James was a tracker, he loved to play games with humans. When the Cullen's protected me, he saw it as a challenge. Jasper and Alice even took me to Phoenix, Arizona to get me away from him while the others tried to lure James in the other direction, away from me," Bella sighs sadly."It didn't work for long, He figured out what they were doing. He had Victoria find my school records and get my phone number and my home address in Arizona where my Mom still owned the house. Then he called me, telling me he had my mother, and would kill her if I didn't meet him at the old ballet studio I used to dance at. I was able to get away from Jasper and Alice and went to meet him.

"He didn't have my mother," she said angrily. "He just implied it in order to lure me there. He beat me, then Edward showed up and fought him. James was able to get away from Edward long enough to bite me. When the rest of the Cullen's showed up, Jasper and Emmett destroyed James, while Edward sucked the venom out of me to stop the change."

"Wait, hang on. First, why didn't they just kill James, instead of driving you off somewhere and luring him away? Why not catch him in the woods and kill him? Why did he stop the change? Did you not want to turn?" Thierry asked incredulously.

"Honestly, I have no idea why they didn't just kill him in Forks. I wondered that same thing, more than once. Also, I did want to change. I still do want to be a vampire. I don't feel like I belong with the humans. I never have. Edward said he didn't want to damn my soul. But I think it was more than that. I was his singer. If he changed me I wouldn't have blood anymore." she answered.

"I think the James thing was a setup. Possibly to give Edward a reason to have your blood. He didn't want to change you because of your blood, you're right." Marcel stated.

"What happened with the other two nomads?" Thierry asked.

"Laurent went to live with the Denali's, cousins of the Cullens, he said he wanted to learn about the animal diet. Victoria ran away. They come back later in the story." Bella answered before taking a drink.

"If she was James' mate, she didn't just run away," Marcel said with hardened eyes. He was getting angrier by the second as he heard her story.

"I know. So did Jasper. Jasper argued with the whole family about going after Victoria. But Edward, the golden boy, swore up and down that James and Victoria weren't mates.

"Edward can only read thoughts at the forefront of your mind. Neither of them were thinking about the other when we met but that was good enough for the Cullen's so nothing was done about it. Time went on and everything was fine until my 18th birthday when Alice insisted on throwing me a party. I didn't want a party but she used her visions to manipulate her way to it: She got what she wanted.

"She's a seer but her visions are decision-based. So, we had a party. I was opening one of my presents when I got a paper cut. Jasper, who is an empath, felt the bloodlust of every vampire in the room and lunged for me. Edward pushed me away, but he pushed too hard. I flew across the room and into a glass table, gashing up my arm.

"They got Jasper out of the room. Everyone else ran out of the room too, except Carlisle; he stayed to patch me up, and Edward drove me home.

"I only heard from Edward for the next few days, but even he was unusually quiet. A few days later he didn't show up for school. When I got home that day, he was waiting for me outside my house. He asked me to go for a walk with him, so I did. He took me out into the woods where he told me his family had left, and he was leaving to join them. He said that he was tired of pretending, that I wasn't good enough for him and I was only a way to test his control. Then he left me standing there alone without someone to show me how to get back home; I couldn't find my way out of the woods.

"A few hours later a boy from the nearby reservation found me and took me home. I went through a zombie-like phase for a while until one day while I was hiking, trying to find this meadow, Laurent came up on me. He said he was checking in on me for Victoria. He obviously didn't stick to the animal diet since his eyes were red. He was going to feed on me and kill me but the local shape-shifters got to him first and killed him. For months Victoria tried to get to me, but the shape-shifters kept me guarded.

"She decided to try to lure me out. She killed my mother and step-father in Florida, but that didn't work. Then she killed my father. That almost worked but it lured her to me instead. The shape-shifters were able to get her. But the damage was done, I had no one left. No family. So, I somehow managed to graduate. Once I was done with school I picked up and left. I've been drifting from place to place since then."

Both Marcel and Thierry were looking at her, wide-eyed and mouths agape.

"You've been through a lot as a human." Marcel murmured, looking at Bella with admiration.

"Now, it's your turn. What are your stories?" Bella asked, looking at Marcel and Thierry pointedly.

"I was born in 1810. My mother was a slave. My father was her master, and the Governor of Louisiana. Even though I was his son, I worked as a slave on his plantation until I met Niklaus Mikaelson at my half-brother's funeral. Niklaus took a liking to me, so he adopted me as his ward.

"My mother never got the chance to name me. She wanted to be sure I would survive the fever, but she ended up dieing from the fever before she could name me. Klaus named me Marcellus, meaning 'little warrior', Marcel for short.

"I lived with the Mikaelson family for the majority of the next century until I enlisted in the Army during World War I and was deployed to France until 1919. I came home that year and continued living with Klaus and his siblings; Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol at their compound until their father Mikael, the Original vampire vampire-hunter, came to town at mine and Rebekah's summoning. He chased the Mikaelson's out of town. Rebekah and I had been lovers at the time, and Klaus wouldn't let us be together. I eventually took over as leader of the vampire faction here while I built up my numbers. Eventually, there were more vampires than any other supernatural species here. I became the King of the French Quarter," he told her.

"I turned Thierry in the 1940s when I found him during World War II. He was dieing from a war wound outside of a VA hospital," he added.

Thierry didn't expound on his story; in his opinion there wasn't much to tell so Bella dropped it after that.

They told her all about the Mikaelson's when she asked. They also explained everything they could about normal vampires and a bit about the supernatural world in general. But Marcel told her that in order to explain more they would need more time. He offered to let her stay at the compound during her stay in New Orleans. He even offered to be her companion for Valentine's day, flirted with her and made her laugh. She found she was surprisingly at ease with the two vampires, despite everything she had been through.

Not so surprisingly she was a little nervous about staying in a compound with a bunch of vampires. Marcel assured her she would not be touched since he was the King of the French Quarter. She felt she could trust him, oddly enough, so she went with them back to the compound. Marcel slipped his arm around her waist as they walked, making her raise an eyebrow at him. He just grinned at her.

"To make sure no one messes with you," he explained with a shrug.

"Uh huh," she chuckled, not completely believing him. "Does this mean I have to stay in your room too, to make sure no one messes with me during my stay?" she gave him a cheeky grin.

Marcel laughed. 'If you'd like to. I did offer companionship for your stay," he waggled his eyebrows at her while Thierry snickered at them.

"I might take you up on that," she told him. He smiled and led her into the compound.

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When they walked in, every vampire in the vicinity froze and looked at Bella while sniffing the air. Marcel let out a deep growl, warning them off. They all looked at him with wide eyes.

"This is MY human. You do not touch her. If you disobey, I will kill you." Marcel commanded with a loud growl.

They all agreed and quickly went back to what they were doing. They couldn't help but be curious about this human girl whom Marcel was fascinated with though.

Thierry parted from the pair to go take care of business within the compound, he was Marcel's second in command after all.

Marcel led Bella up the stairs and down a confusing maze of hallways before stopping in front of a door, "This is my room. You can stay in here with me if you want, or you can have your own room. That being said, my room would be safer, just in case a vampire decides not to listen to me."

She nodded, "I think I'll stay with you. I could use a companion for Valentine's Day." Marcel smiled at that. "Could we maybe go out and do something, though? I haven't seen much of the city yet," she asked.

"Of course. Let's put your stuff in the room and we'll go spend the day together. Thierry can handle stuff here," he responded, opening the door for her.

She walked in and looked around in awe. The room was amazing. He smiled at her awestruck expression.

"We only have the best here," he told her rather smugly.

She smiled at him, put her luggage down at the foot of the bed and walked back over to him. "Ready to go?"

"Let's get out of here, show you around the French Quarter," he replied, leading her back out. He had his hand at the small of her back as he showed her around.

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They spent the whole day together. Marcel showed her all the sites. She had never smiled and laughed so much in her life. Not even when she dated Edward.

Halfway through the day, Marcel came to a startling realization, Bella was his mate! He had been trying to figure out why he was so intrigued by her, why he wanted to be near her constantly. Now, he just needed to figure out a way to tell her. He didn't know how she would take it since she had been hurt by the cold-one before.

He decided to have a nice dinner in his room with her. He quickly put in a call to one of his vampires, a female whom he knew to be a good cook, and told her what he wanted to do. After congratulating him on finding his mate she told him she'd have the room and food completely ready for him when they returned.

They walked along a strip where there were several booths and little market stalls. He watched as Bella bought a couple of things until she came to a stall which had jewelry. She picked up a ring and slid it on her finger, smiling at it. It was obvious that she really liked it. When the man told her how much it was, she put it back down sadly. She liked it but didn't have enough money for it. When she moved down a few stalls Marcel bought the ring from the vendor, who grinned at him.

They walked around for a while longer before going back to the compound.

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When they got back, he led her to his room and opened the door. She walked in and gasped at the sight in front of her. Near the window was a candlelit dinner waiting for them. The lights were off; the only light in the room was the candles.

Marcel guided Bella over to the table and whispered in her ear "Happy Valentine's Day, beautiful."

Bella shivered and looked at him over her shoulder as she smiled, "Thank you."

He pulled out her chair for her to sit down, then sat down himself. They talked some while they ate then she asked the question that he had hoped would wait until after dinner.

"Why did you do all of this? What's in it for you?"

Marcel sighed and sat down his fork, "I know you might not believe me when I tell you this, but you are my mate. I realized it while we were walking around town. I want you to be mine."

Bella stared at him with wide eyes, as a million thoughts flew through her mind.

"I've heard that before," she muttered.

"I know," He replied softly, taking the ring out of his pocket and setting it on the table next to her hand.

She looked down and recognized it and looked back up at him. "You bought this for me?"

"Yes, and I will change you when you are ready. I want eternity with you, Isabella. I won't deny either of us our chance at happiness," Marcel told her, knowing that Edward never wanted to change her. He was showing her that he truly did want her for eternity.

"If I asked you to change me tonight?" she asked.

"I would," he answered as he nodded his head.

"If I asked you to make love to me first then change me tonight?" she asked again.

He nodded and smiled, "I would do that too."

She nodded at him. He stood up and held out his hand for her. She took it and let him guide her to the bed. This was it, she thought. He was going to do it!

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It had been two hours since Marcel had made love to Bella, fed her his blood, then broke her neck to turn her. He was just waiting for her to wake up so she could finish the transition. Thierry had brought in a couple of humans for them both to feed on. Marcel had compelled both humans to sit at the table and stay there until he told them to move.

He smiled when he felt her stir. He looked down at her to see her looking up at him. "Are you ready to complete the transition, beautiful?" he asked softly.

"Yes," she replied.

He nodded and guided her out of bed and over to the table. She wrapped a sheet around her naked body as she walked over to the two humans sitting at the table.

Marcel stood behind her, whispering softly into her ear, telling her how to compel a human. He was going to teach his little mate everything she needed to know. When she successfully got one of the humans to stand in front of her, keep quiet and offer her his blood she let her vampire instincts take over. Her fangs clicked into place as she ran her nose along the human man's neck, taking in his scent, before she sank her fangs into his neck, drinking from him deeply. She moaned in delight at the taste. She dropped the body when she was done, and watched with lust filled eyes as Marcel drank from the other human.

When he was done and had dropped the body, she pounced on him, needing him right then. He caught her and chuckled before kissing her hungrily, taking her over to the bed for a second round where he wore her out enough to make her go back to sleep. He fell asleep with her as it was now late into the night.

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A few hours later Marcel was awoken by a commotion downstairs. He looked at his slumbering mate, happy that so far she had stayed asleep through the noise. He got out of bed, put on some pajama pants, and headed downstairs to see what the problem was.

He scowled when he saw what the problem was: The Cullen's were in his compound yelling and demanding to see Bella.

"You dare come into my town and demand anything?!" Marcel growled.

"My name is Carlisle. This is my mate, Esme. Our children, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper. We only wish to see my daughter. To make sure she's ok." Carlisle stated.

"If she's your daughter, then why did you abandon her?" Thierry yelled. Many of the vampires were shouting with him, having been told parts of Bella's story by Thierry.

"We had no choice. Edward told us she didn't want us around anymore," Carlisle replied.

Bella snorted as she walked down the stairs, still wrapped in a sheet, "Well, he lied to you. But more than that, you all have minds of your own, you could've come to my house and asked me yourself. Not to mention, you could've asked Jasper what my emotions were when I was with you all, or you could've asked him what Edward's emotions were when he told you all that." All of the Cullen's stiffened when they got a whiff of her scent; it had changed a little. They could see the mating marks on both her and Marcel.

Edward roared, "You defiled her!"

"You bet your lying ass he did. He was really good at it, too," Bella smirked. Marcel chuckled and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.

"I didn't want this life for you, Bella. You were supposed to get married, have kids, grow old." Edward cried out.

Bella's face was suddenly covered with black veins and her fangs clicked into place as she let her vampire self take over: She was very angry. "It was never your choice, you jerk! You were my boyfriend, not my father! I never wanted to get married. It's nothing but a piece of paper and a name change. I never wanted kids. You knew I was the parent when I lived with my mom. I was already a parent! I wanted to be a vampire. It was my choice, my decision! You all hate who you are so much, but you seem to forget a few things..." Bella shouted before she looked at Rosalie.

"Tell me Rosalie, where would Emmett be if Carlisle had let you die that night? You wouldn't be with your mate right now. Do you hate your existence? Do you hate your mate too?" she asked her. Rosalie looked down.

"Not to mention, you turned me into a damn beacon for cold-ones. Between James' bite, and yours I have the scars and your scents on me for life. And let's not forget Laurent and Victoria. Laurent found me in a meadow a few months after you left. He was going to kill me but the wolves saved my life. Then Victoria killed my mother, step-father, and my father before the wolves managed to catch her and kill her. Then there's the Volturi, did you forget that if you touch Aro he would see me in your memories. You're all bloody idiots!" Bella ranted.

"Bella please, forgive us. We didn't know," Esme begged.

"Tell me, Alice. Did you know how he was going to break up with me? Did you have a vision of it? Did you see how he led me into the woods and told me I wasn't good enough, how he was tired of pretending, how I was just a way to test his control. Did you see my parents die?" Bella asked the seer.

Alice looked down guiltily. The rest of the Cullen's looked between Edward and Alice in shock and anger.

"You said all that to her?!" Emmett snarled at his brother.

Bella laughed. "Oh, don't act like you care Emmett. You could have come to my house and talked to me yourself. Every single one of you knew how I felt about you. Yet you listened to the golden boy, and took his word for it."

"I've said my peace. I want you gone. Leave the French Quarter, and don't come back. Don't contact me at all." Bella demanded and leaned against Marcel for comfort. Her emotions were going haywire.

Marcel held her close, kissing her head softly before he looked at the Cullen's. "You heard her. Leave. I catch you anywhere near here or near her and I will kill you." He looked out at the assembled vampires, then at his mate and smiled, "better yet, I'll let the newly risen vampire take her rage out on you then teach her how to make sure you never bother her again!"

The Cullen's looked at Bella with sad eyes, knowing they had lost her forever. They turned and walked away.

Marcel looked at a group of his vampires, "Make sure they leave."

They nodded and ran out the door.

Bella grinned then started laughing, "Damn that felt good! But I'm hungry again." She made the most adorable pouty face, "Let's go get dressed and get you fed then. You'll feel better then." Marcel said to Bella. She nodded and followed him up the stairs.

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Should I write a sequel? Let me know what you think! Favorite it. Follow it. Comment on it.