Work Text:
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
Bella’s brows drew together as she wheeled around to where the voices had come from. Butch and Vishous both stood in front of the library door, their legs encased in leathers were braced apart, their muscles bulging against the black shirts they wore as they stood with their arms crossed. The only difference between them was V was wearing a Red Sox hat.
Bella put her hands on her slender hips and glared at the brothers. She was casually dressed in a dark green cotton short sleeved blouse along with blue jeans and bare feet.
“Excuse me. Last time I checked you were not Nalla’s parents.” Bella said as she pointed at the two hard ass vampires.
“She’s our niece, enough said.” Butch said with a note of finality.
V nodded his head in agreement. “True? True.”
Bella rolled her eyes in exasperation and turned to her hellren, who stood leaning against one of the bookcases, his stance mirroring his brother’s, arms crossed, legs braced apart. Hell he was even dressed like them, the only difference being he wore a long sleeved turtle neck.
Zsadist shrugged at V’s and Butch’s interference. Hell, he even welcomed it considering they shared his opinion on the whole situation.
Seeing that her hellren wasn’t going to do anything about the intrusion she would take care of it herself. Turning back around she glared at the brothers. “This is none of your business. So you can both get on your way.”
Bella paused at that. Did she just use a Dr. Suse line? Dear Virgin in the Fade, she was going to really have to get some new books to read to Nalla.
Only Zsadist noticed her wording, and the slight lift of his scarred lip was indication enough that he was amused by it. Bella missed the look entirely as she was still glaring at the brothers.
“Of course it’s our business. Safety of the vampire race.” Vishous said smoothly. It was partly true reason. The full truth was this was Nalla they were talking about. His and Butch’s Little Red Sox Princess. When it came to her all bets were off. There were only two others he loved more than Nalla and that was his Shellan and Butch.
Bella rolled her eyes again, letting him know what a load of crap she thought that was. Ignoring the brothers for now, she turned her back on them, her blue eyes focusing on her mate. Before Vishous and Butch had so rudely interrupted them, Bella and Zsadist had been discussing (arguing) a winter carnival in the Caldwell City Park that Bella wanted to take Nalla to. At three years old, Bella thought Nalla would enjoy the activities as well as the entertainment that was going to be provided. Zsadist of course was completely against the idea. He hated when his mate was out of the mansion and the feeling was compounded when Nalla was added to the mix.
“It will be perfectly safe. There are going to be a ton of humans and you will be there to watch over us.” Bella said in a reasonable tone of voice.
“Humans can be just as dangerous as the lessers.” Zsadist said with a growl, his eyes flashing black as he thought of those black blooded bastards.
Butch nodded his agreement. “I can attest to that.” He said, recalling his sister’s death and his experience as a cop.
Bella looked over her shoulder at Butch and lifted a brow. “Butch, I could have bench pressed you with one arm when you were human.”
Butch frowned at her words, but couldn’t fault her logic. Marissa had pretty much said the same thing when he confessed his fear about hurting her after the Omega had gotten ahold of him.
Before anyone could say anything else Nalla burst into the room from the other door, the little three year old squealing with laughter as she ran directly to her father. Her blonde, brown and red curls bouncing on her shoulders as she moved. She was dressed in a little New York Yankees t-shirt with a matching blue tutu. Lassiter had found a new way to annoy the brotherhood, specifically Vishous and Butch, and that was by putting the Red Sox's rivales gear on Nalla. And by the groans from Vishous and Butch just gave, it was working.
Nall would start the day off in something that Bella or the females of the house had bought her, and by the end of the night she was dressed in either a Yankees or Red Sox outfit. Bella had long given up trying to keep Nalla in her non baseball affiliated clothing. She was just happy Nalla seemed to enjoy all her different outfits that she wore each night.
Right after Nalla came into the room, Phury shot through the door, hard on her tail. He was grinning as well, his blonde, brown and red hair bouncing on his shoulders just like Nalla’s. Unlike the brothers he was dressed casually yet still sharp, with tailored slacks and a fitted sweater that molded itself to his sculpted chest.
Zsadist knelt down and his daughter ran straight into his arms. Wrapping her arms around his thick neck she cuddled against his chest as she babbled at him. “Uncle Phewy twickle mostow!”
Zsadist raised his brows at his twin while standing up, his daughter tucked gently against his side. His black eyes having flipped back to the canary yellow at the sight of his daughter’s smile and laughter.
Phury came at the father and daughter, his hands held out as if he was about to tickle the little girl. Nalla smashed her face into Zsadist’s neck to hide from her uncle, her giggles of anticipation smothered against his turtleneck.
The little girl in his arms just reinforced his decision.
“You and Nalla are not going to that carnival.” Zsadist told Bella in a hard voice.
Phury’s brow shot up at Zsadist’s words, his eyes moving from his twin to Bella.
“What carnival?” Phury asked as he crossed his arms and looked from his brother’s shellan to his twin and niece.
“Bella wants to take Nalla to the winter carnival in the Caldwell park.” Butch said in a disapproving tone of voice.
“No. Not happening.” Phury said automatically.
Bella threw her hands up and shook her head. “All of you are absolutely unreasonable.”
All of the brother’s shrugged in response to her statement.
As if things could get any worse Rhage came strolling into the library sucking on a tootsie pop dressed in shorts and a muscle shirt.
Bella rubbed her temples and closed her eyes, a blasphemy muttered under her breath.
Taking the tootsie pop out of his mouth he lifted a brow at the serious faces and asked "What's doing?"
“Bella wants to attend a Caldwell carnival with Nalla.” Phury said, shaking his head in censure.
Rhage frowned, his brows dropping low. Like the other brothers he had spent a good deal of time with the little girl. Hell he was already showing her hand to hand moves that Nalla now had the reflexes of a cat. Add to the fact that he couldn't have any young with Mary, he came to think of Nalla as his own. So it wasn't a surprise that his pupils flashed white at the thought of the young going to such an event.
"No way in hell." Rhage said in a firm voice, letting everyone know he was so not popping shit right now.
“It is perfectly safe.” Bella said again as her hands fell from her temples to her hips, giving a good glare to all the brothers in the room.
“The only way the both of you are going is if all of us go with you.” V said as he adjusted his hat.
“No, all of you can’t go with me because everyone is going to notice a bunch of more than six and a half foot tall males who are built like Mack trucks.” Bella said with a frown as she moved forward to take her daughter into her arms, to which Nalla went willingly. Zsadist wasn’t happy to have his young taken from him.
"There is only one person who's opinion matters in regards to my daughter. And even then his opinion is only taken into consideration." Bella told the room at large. Showing her displeasure at their high handed behavior.
Zsadist growled at his mate.
Bella lifted her eyebrows as she shifted her young from one arm to the other. Nalla babbled happily at her mother, totally oblivious to the tension in the room.
"I am going to take Nalla to that carnival." Bella said decisively.
All the males grumbled their disagreement with her declaration. Bella gave the brothers another hard glare and walked out of the room.They were all silent for a moment until Butch spoke up.
"We could lock them in The Pit."
V shook his head no as he took one of his Turkish hand rolls and lit it up. "You really think our shellan's would let that fly."
Butch nodded his head in agreement.
"We could kill all the humans." Rhage threw out there before putting his tootsie pop back into his mouth.
All the brother's save Zsadist rolled their eyes at the ridiculous suggestion. Z actually looked like he was seriously contemplating the idea.
Phury eyeballed his twin for a moment before speaking. "We could have Wrath order her not to go."
Vishous blew out smoke as he nodded his head. "Can't disobey the King."
"And what makes you think that Bella won't go directly to Beth to have it countermanded?" Zsadist asked as he lifted his hand and rubbed his skull trim, a hard frown on his face.
"And given that Beth was human once she would probably agree the carnival would be safe to go to. Hell she would probably want to go with Bella and Nalla." Phury added, shaking his head in resignation, his blonde, red and brown waves following the movement.
All the brothers grumbled at that.
The grumbling sound made Mary pause in the doorway. Brown brows lifted as she looked at all the unhappy males in the room.
"What's wrong? Did Lassiter threaten to dart all of you and make you watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians with him again?"
All the brothers winced except for Rhage, drama queen that he was, he liked the show. Hell the brotherhood practically were the Kardashians: high end cars, pricy threads and accessories. Only difference was no cameras and instead of making money they were working to save the vampire race. Suffice to say Rhage horrified the brothers when he made the comparison.
Mary walked over to her male as she waited for them to answer. She was dressed like she always was, a simple dark blue polo sweater and light brown khaki pants. Rhage took out his sucker and enfolded Mary into arms, a kiss pressed to both sides of her throat before kissing her on the lips.
Mary smiled up at Rhage before looking at the other vampires in the room.
"No. Bella wants to take Nalla to the winter carnival in Caldwell park." Butch answered as he rubbed his nose that had been broken one too many times.
Mary waited for the rest of it but none of the brothers spoke up.
"And ...." Mary said as she rolled her hand, asking for the rest of the story.
"And nothing. She and the young are in danger if they go." Phury said.
Mary arched her brows at the explanation as the brothers nodded their agreement.
“No wonder Bella was grumbling about overprotective males.” Mary said with a shake of her head. “Nall and Bella will not be in danger if they go to the carnival. There will be lots of families there as well as police officers.” Mary said knowingly, as she pointedly looked at Butch who should have known that. And Butch actually flushed with a bit of embarrassment because he should have known it.
“The lessers would never try anything in a setting that public. Neither would the Band of Bastards.” Mary said in a reasonable tone of voice to which all the brother grumbled.
"And it's being held at the Caldwell City Park. Not the shady part of town with all the clubs and bars that all of you seem to enjoy frequenting. Where it is actually dangerous." Mary said, looking pointedly at each of them. Again the brothers grumbled at her logic because she was right. Caldwell City Park was in the better part of the city. With the capitol building on side and prominent businesses surrounding the park, it was a nice area.
Seeing that she had made her point she gave Rhage a kiss on his cheek, reminded him that the dinner she cooked for him (the original reason she had gone in search for her mate) would be ready in about 10 minutes and left the room.
"Rooftops." Vishous said as he took another draw from his hand rolled.
All the brothers looked at him expectantly.
"Caldwell City Park is surrounded by buildings - the park isn't that big, we can keep watch on the roof tops."
"It's perfect, out of sight of the public but we can still keep watch over Nalla and Bella. Plus Zsadist will be with them." Phury said, more than pleased with the plan.
All the brothers relaxed now they had a plan in place to keep watch over the females. Well all the brothers except Zsadist. Although he was relieved to have his brothers as back up, he wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being around so many people, but there is no way in hell he wasn't going to be by their sides the entire time they were at the carnival. Plus he didn't want to miss any of Nalla's or Bella's smiles.