Reborn : C16
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B E L L A
Upon arriving home, Edward and I found Alice in a blind panic.
She sat squarely on the vast sofa, her fingers pressed to her temples, her lips parted in shock. Fear rose up inside of me. What now? What was happening?
Edward froze beside me, his own expression aghast. "The dog…"
My body was suddenly as rigid as his. As much as I hated Jacob for what he had done . . . for what he had tried to do . . .
"He's told Charlie."
Time stood still, and I remained statue-still, my mind blank from the shock. And then my head slowly turned, my fingers curling as I absorbed the meaning of his words.
"He's…told…Charlie…"
"Everything. My family, where you've really been the past week . . ."
No. No. Charlie couldn't know the truth . . . he couldn't know what I had become . . .
Quicker than lightening, I was at the Cullen's telephone, my fingers pushing the buttons so fast that they were nothing more than a blur.
And then I waited. One ring…two rings…three rings…like the steady heartbeat that I no longer had.
You've reached the Swan Residence. Leave a message.
I
hung the receiver back into the base, resisting the urge to crumple
it into dust. Naturally Charlie wouldn't be there . . . he would be
coming here, wouldn't he be? To see if it was true?
Edward was at my side then, his hands firm on my waist. "Bella, love . . . there's something I need to tell you."
Something about the unnaturally evenness of his voice made me pull away. I studied the careful composure of his expression, the guarded quality of his eyes. "What?"
"Bella . . . remember when I told you about the vampires in Italy? The ones that I had decided to seek in the event that you had died?"
I winced at the memory. The idea of Edward dying, of Edward ceasing to exist . . . it was an unbearable thought. Impossible. But I nodded, my eyes narrowing as I recalled the conversation in perfect context. "The Volturi?"
He nodded. "Bella, the Volturi have a strict set of rules . . . the most important being that people can't know that we exist."
I was silent for a moment, considering that. And then I shook my head. "You weren't exactly abiding to that rule, Edward. I mean, I knew about you before, didn't I?"
"Bella . . . I technically wasn't allowed to tell you. Had the Volturi known . . . you wouldn't have lived for very long after that. It was selfish of me to expose myself to you, to let you in on the danger . . ." He shook his head, the corners of his mouth turning upward, though it wasn't a happy smile. "You have no idea how selfish I was . . . how much danger I would keep you in, day after day . . ."
I grabbed his hand then, and his eyes fluttered open, meeting my burning gaze. "I don't want you feeling that way, and you know it. If you doubt for one minute that all of the trouble wasn't worth it . . . The danger was meaningless."
He smiled a real smile now, though his eyes were still subtly hinting at his inner turmoil. "I will never doubt that . . . not now, not ever. You're everything to me, Bella. Never forget that."
I kissed him lightly then, but I had other things on my mind. "I love you, Edward. But I need you to tell me: Is Charlie in danger?"
"It's very possible; if the Volturi were to find out, our law says that we would have to kill him."
I blinked once, unphased. "Right. Okay. They're not going to find out, and so that's not going to be a problem. If I may remind you, they didn't have the slightest clue about me . . ."
Edward sighed. "It's not that easy, Bella. It's nowhere near as simple. You were lucky, and extremely so. All we can do is rely on Alice, and hope that she will be able to see it, should they decide to come . . ."
I nodded again, confident. "Okay. That won't be a problem." And it wouldn't be; what were the chances of a league of Italian vampires randomly showing up here, of all places?
"That's out of the way . . . now we just need to figure out what we're going to tell Charlie."
J A C O B
I hated to frighten Charlie this way; he was such a good friend of Billy's, and such a kind, decent man . . .
So undeserving of the fate of his daughter . . . undeserving of a bloodsucker.I grimaced at the thought of seeing her again, as I had many times in the past few hours. I couldn't bear the idea of being revolted at her smell, at the iciness of her skin . . . the vivid crimson of her newborn eyes . . .
What would Charlie think?
He hadn't said much to me, after I had showed him that my words weren't lies. He just sort of sat there on the couch, his eyes staring into space. I knew that it was taking time for him to absorb what he'd just seen . . . hell, when I myself found out that I could take the shape of a giant wolf, I thought was losing my mind.
I knew Charlie wasn't going to break down – he was too sturdy for that. Like Bella, he would let the truth wash over him before jumping to any conclusions.
And I was right; after sitting in stillness for two hours, he cleared his throat, his eyes locking with mine.
"So, my Bella is a vampire?" His voice was rough, corrosive.
"Yeah."
"She's been one for how long?"
"It's hard to say . . ." I bit my lip at the overwhelming guilt that flooded through me as the painful memory came into view; the harsh sunlight, my paws stretched out in front of me, Bella's fragile form as she crumpled to the ground . . . "A few days, I think."
He nodded; I had answered some unspoken question. He stood up, stretching slightly, his eyes hard. "I have to go see her."
I grabbed his arm. "Whoa. No can do, Charlie. She's a vampire. They feed on blood."
His eyes remained hard, his jaw set stubbornly; my heart ached at the way that his features reminded me of Bella . . . "Dammit, Jacob. She's not going to eat me." He frowned at the words, his nose wrinkling in disgust.
I said nothing – but what could I say? That newborn vampires had a tendency to be mad? That all they cared about was satisfying the insatiable thirst? That it was very likely his own daughter would rip his throat out upon seeing her?
"You can't go, Charlie. It isn't safe."
"You say that the rest of the Cullens are vampires . . . and yet they blend into a normal society. Carlisle . . ." His expression grew more confident as he collected his thoughts. "Carlisle's a doctor, Jake – and a darn good one. He hasn't killed anyone."
Perceptive. "Right, but that's different. The Cullens . . . they're supposed to be safer than the average vampire; they feed on animals."
Charlie narrowed his eyes at me. "You might've mentioned that before, Jacob."
I shrugged. Did that really make a difference? They were bloodsuckers, through and through.
"I trust my daughter, Jacob. No matter what she is . . . no matter what they've done to her . . . she's still my Bella, isn't she?"
I opened my mouth, but words failed me. Was she still the same Bella? Was I being entirely stupid about this? Surely venom couldn't have changed her that much . . .
And then the image flashed in my mind again; the image that had gone with the scent.
Happy Bella, laughing, her dark hair blowing lightly around her porcelain face . . . Bella, as she was supposed to be, her cheeks bright with the blood that ran through her.
She was not the same. She would never be the same.
I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice Charlie as he walked swiftly past me, slamming the door behind him as he went. I was only vaguely aware of the sound of the engine of his cruiser starting to life, the gravel of the driveway crunching as he drove away.
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It's been a while. Thank you, as always, for reading.
Oh, and another thanks to those who have read Dawn . . .I don't want to post messages at the end of the chapters, so I figured I would thank you all here.
School's started up again, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update – I'll do the best I can, though.