The Storm Inside

Chapter One: In the Cold

A/N: this is the third book which I doubt anyone will read, but oh well
this won't be the final one after all, I still have a lot to cover and I'll find a way to make this series longer because I'm so emotionally attached to it

I stood in front of the apartment door, Valerie standing closely beside me as Evianna nervously crossed her arms over her chest.

"So, who's gonna knock?" Valerie asked, wiping her palms on her leggings, looking at me expectantly.

"Maybe we should just go in," Evianna said. "She's expecting us."

"It would be weird not to knock," I argued.

"She called you," Valerie reminded me. "You should be the one to knock. It's only right."

A hand reached in between us and tapped its knuckles against the door.

We all turned at once, and saw Beatrix standing behind us, looking cool and collected as she always did, some of her hair in space buns with the rest of it hanging loose, wearing a black mesh top and some lacy thing underneath that she definitely couldn't afford.
She looked cute, for the walking dead, but if I were her, robbing a Victoria's Secret would not be at the top of my to-do list at this very moment.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, forcing my voice to be calm. Evianna and I had come to the conclusion that it would be better not to tell her about the meeting and simply pass on whatever we heard to her later, as we assumed she would want to be left alone. And it was almost hard to look at her after I'd seen her kill eight people without batting an eye.

"Val texted me," she said, and Evianna and I turned to glare at the younger girl.

"It was before you said-" she started, then seemed to realize that it wouldn't be wise for her to let Beatrix know that we'd tried to exclude her, and didn't finish her sentence.

Beatrix let out a bitter sounding laugh/exhale, shaking her head.

The door opened, and Dove beckoned us in. "Come in, before anyone sees you," she said.

We all hurried inside, and I heard her close the door behind us. "Beatrix," she said quietly, reaching out to touch her cheek like they family. "I'm glad you're here."

"You are?" Beatrix asked softly, looking surprised.

"Of course. Come in, all of you, take a seat. I made tea," Dove said.

The apartment was small but comfortable, slightly cluttered with books and papers everywhere, and a nice view of the city. We found places around the coffee table, Evianna and I sitting side by side on the couch, while Valerie and Beatrix settled into separate chairs.

As Dove went into the kitchen, someone came out of one of the rooms. She was very pretty, with bouncy black hair and large brown eyes.

"Hey," she said. "I know you guys!"

"Yeah, you've probably seen us on the news," I said.

The girl shook her head. "Not just that. You're the ones Dove has been talking about. The new generation of powers!"

"Who are you?" Beatrix asked.

"Bella," she replied. "I live here."

Though she did look like Dove, she was our age, a bit too young to be her daughter. I was about to assume she was a niece or a little sister when she spoke again. "My mom had a stroke when I was eleven," she said, sounding sad at the memory before perking up again. "Dove kinda took me in after that. I thought she was just a normal lady, one of my mom's coworkers. Turns out my mom was a different kind of scientist than I thought. I didn't know about the whole powers thing."