Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

14 - ᴀʀɢᴜᴇᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ

ATHENA WALKED into Billys, having received quite a frantic phone call from him just as the sun rose from the sky. She had travelled quickly, making a quick stop to have a short conversation with one of the wolves using her thought reading power. She did not know what wolf it was as that was information they were not willing to give at the time so she didn't delve into their mind, wanting to keep an interesting act of secrecy. All she knew was what their voice sounded like, other than that the person was a complete mystery. When she strolled through the door, Athena's nose turned at the stench of alcohol that came from the empty cans in the bin that had definitely been there longer than a day. She found that Jake was not home, having been finished with his grounding that morning. "Bella's with Edward," Billy stated as soon as she walked into the darkened room. Athena opened the curtains, letting the light of morning spread through the house.

"Depends what you mean by with," she shrugged, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. She could sense that Billy was not pleased, it didn't take the smartest person to realise that. She just wondered why he had decided that she would suffer the brunt of his discomfort with the arrangement.

"Romantically," he huffed, giving her a greater insight into his anger levels. Athena did not think that the human and vampire relationship would go very well, given everything that worked against them but she remained impartial in the argument - for the sake of her friendship with the Cullen clan.

"I believe so," Athena responded, physically watching as his expression changed to an angry one with every passing millisecond.

"Do they not-" he hesitated, not able to find the words as he moved closer towards her.  "Are they stupid?"

"Billy-"

"They'll kill her," he interjected, voice steady yet full of anger. Athena half worried that he would phase for a second then remembered that he couldn't anymore, that could have been an interesting problem.

"No, they won't," Athena defended, knowing that none of them would dare cause Bella, or any other human for that matter, any harm at all. In fact, the accusation boiled a wave of anger within her but she swept it under the rug, not wanting to lash out.

"They will, they're uncontrollable," he argued, voice getting louder with every syllable. It was a miracle that Jake wasn't home.

She exclaimed, "Hey!"

Billy sighed out of vexation, "You have the ability to control yourself, they do not."

"That's unfair and you know it is," she replied softly, the scowl on her face telling him of the emotions that she worked so hard to hide.

He held his ground, growing angrier out of concern. Athena knew his genes had something to do with it, not that it excused anything. "Well, it's the truth. Bella's being put in harm's way," he retorted.

"I'll watch out for her, I swear to you," she swore softly, hoping to get rid of some of the anger that caused a wall between their two species. A wall she thought had been demolished long ago. 

"What about those others," he hesitated, raising a brow. "You can't go against all of them."

"I'm more powerful than I look, Billy, you know that," she huffed, crossing her arms over her middle.

"Against the Volturi?"

"I have my ways," she shrugged, having planned exactly how she would tackle them multiple times before.

He scoffed, almost laughing, "You didn't before."

Athena scoffed, rising from her seat and she did not care for the apologetic look that overtook his features when he realised what he had said. "I get that you're angry but that gives you no right to be an ass, Black," she snapped, the use of his last name stinging harder than any of the other words could ever. Athena stormed out of the house, slamming the door a little too hard - the shattered glass did not come with an apology.