Her Voice ✿ Emmett Cullen

Chapter 24

Lyra follows after a somewhat melancholy Bella towards the Swan house. She wasn't quite sure what made the brunette upset, but she worried about her anyway.

They step through the front door and a strange scent hits Lyra's nose, causing her to pull Bella behind her and quietly command her, "Stay behind me."

"Why-" Bella is immediately shushed by a confused Lyra as typically in these situations she also feels overwhelming dread pulling at her chest, but she doesn't in this case.

Lyra makes her way towards the kitchen with Bella right behind her, and they are both stunned to see a girl, who couldn't be older than fifteen, sitting on the counter, eating from a bag of chips. Freckles covered the top of her nose and cheeks, and she had long, wavy, bubblegum pink hair that fell over her ears and slightly over one eye.

Bella was the first to break from the stunned stare and asked, more confused than angry, "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" She couldn't find it in herself to be afraid of the girl.

"Shit." She muttered, setting the chip bag to the side as she jumped off the counter, pink hair bouncing with the move. She smiled awkwardly at the two girls and waved, saying, "Hi, I'm Eris." She had no idea what else to say. Lyra's eyes narrowed at the girl, Eris, and she began to move forward, a rather threatening look in her eyes. Eris' eyes widened, the irises a familiar shade of violent that made Lyra want to threaten this girl even less. Eris began to scramble to figure out a way to stop Lyra, "Please, I promise I mean you no harm." Lyra raised a brow as she moved closer, "Look, I promise there's a logical explanation for all of this if you'll just let me explain. Please, don't hurt me!" Eris cowered back as Lyra leaned in close.

A slight smirked played at Lyra's lips as she backed away, "Go on, then. Explain."

Eris stuttered for a few moments as she tried to find the words, nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, revealing a pointed ear. She's not human, Lyra notes mentally. "Look, um..." Eris trails off, "I'm Nyx."

Bella and Lyra share a confused look before the former says, "I thought you said your name was Eris."

"It is." Eris assured, "What I mean is: I am your cat, Nyx."

Bella furrowed her brows in confusion, meanwhile Lyra had a look of understanding slowly creeping onto her face as she put the pieces together.

"How are you Nyx?" Bella questioned, "As you said, Nyx is a cat."

Before Eris could respond, Lyra replied, "Bella, I think she's a Cait Sidhe." Bella sent a confused glance towards Lyra, causing the banshee to elaborate after gaining a nod of confirmation from Eris, "She's, to put it simply, a cat Faerie. She can turn into a cat." Lyra turned to Eris, rambling almost excitedly, "You never smelled like a normal cat to me, but I thought that I was imagining it. And, you always had this almost human look in your eyes. It all makes sense now!" Eris couldn't help but smile at the excited banshee, it was kind of cute and if they didn't know how in love with Emmett Lyra was, she would almost be attracted to the girl. However, her smile dropped slightly when Lyra's did, "You can't stay here, though. Charlie..."

Eris nodded, "I get it. I can go."

Eris moved around the girls, a sad look on her face as they made her way towards the door. Lyra felt bad for them so she called out to her, "Eris, you can stay at my house."

Eris spun on their heel, turning to look back at the banshee, "Really?"

"Yeah." Lyra agreed, "My dads won't mind and I'm sure my 'banshee intuition' would tell me if you were dangerous so I think it'll be fine."

Eris grinned and hugged Lyra tightly, squeeling a myriad of excited thank you's into the banshee's ear, making the copper-haired girl smile.

***