Chapter 8: The Plot Thickens

Sorry this took so long, I am trying to improve my writing so I tried to slow down the pace for this chapter. It took three times as long but Is hopefully three times as good. What do you thing? Too fast still? So slow it drags? Constructive criticism is more than welcome, but fluffy praise is happily accepted too. PLEASE REVIEW!

Gold. Not red, not orange-y, but a soft buttery gold. Bella's eyes were not red. This fact seemed to take the wind out of Emmett's sails as he dropped the sunglasses to the ground and backed up. Edward bent to help her to her feet, still confused about why she had stopped him, but confident she had a reason. Bella allowed him to pull her up but then signaled for the hunters to follow her, turning toward a small out building and setting a brisk pace toward it, not checking to see if she was being followed. The hunters stared after her for a second before Edward followed, Emmett sneaking around the house to collect the sisters.

Edward slowly opened the door to the out building and surveyed it. It was a disused tool shed, some of the rusted tools looked like they had been new more than fifty years ago. The shed was pretty cramped and even though Bella stood in the farthest corner, when all of the hunters had managed to squeeze into the tight space Edward had been pushed forward enough that he could reach out his arm and move the hairs from her face. He refrained from doing so though as he thought it best to draw as little attention to her as possible. He found that not touching was much easier than not staring though and he found himself drowning in her eyes.

She didn't look quite right. Her eyes, though quite beautiful were somehow just as wrong looking as most vampires red eyes and though none of the hunters had ever seen or heard of a vampire with bloodless eyes, they weren't stupid and could still deduce what she was from other clues. Like the way her skin a few shades too pale to be considered fair and practically in the realm of albino, or how her eyes shined just a little too much in the dim light from the lonely naked light bulb overhead like a predator, or how she hadn't taken a breath since they got in here. CRAP. Edward coughed and then took a deliberately deep breath looking into her eyes meaningfully. Thankfully Bella took the hint and started, panting almost too fast to be human, but at Edwards look she managed to regulate it to slow even breaths. Edward looked at his comrades to see if they had noticed and his stomach plummeted when he saw Emmett looking at Bella with suspicion. Bella noticed and leaned toward him holding out her hand, in a move Edward would have described as colossally stupid. The second Emmett's hand touched hers his scowl melted away and he smiled as he gave her a quick handshake. Edward's jaw dropped. Bella smiled at him and gently touched her index finger to his chin to close his mouth and Edward jumped back as he felt her skin which was toasty warm. She was warmer than his own skin probably due to the evening spent out in the cold. In a moment of stupendous idiocy Edward blurted out the very dangerous thing he was thinking for his fellow watchmen to hear.

"Why are your hands so warm" the second he said it Edward's face drained of blood and he smacked a hand over his mouth as if doing so would pull those treacherous words back. He looked at Bella, horrified at his mistake that could very quickly cost her life but Bella just smiled.

"They were in my pocket silly." As if that explained everything. And to the other hunters it did, they were all chuckling at Edwards minor dumb comment not even considering the ramifications of his statement. Bella grinned and grabbed his hand with her rapidly cooling flesh. "I'll warm yours up for you." She pulled his hand and slid it into her pocket in what the others would see as merely an affectionate gesture. Edward was surprised at the warmth of the pocket. He felt around and found it was emanating from a hot gel pack. He immediately felt very foolish. Bella just smiled and kept holding his hand, merriment twinkling in her newly amber eyes.

-Ahem- the lovebirds turned to look at Emmett. "So . . . why are we in this shed?"

Bella's expression suddenly turned very grave. "Vampires coming this way. At least seven of them and I am fairly certain they are part of Aro's elite guard. I don't think they know about us though, they are probably over-responding to some imagined threat, still, we couldn't take them and it's best if they don't know we're here." Edward felt a little burst of joy in his chest every time she said 'we.'

"Pfft, only ten, we can take that many. There are six of us and we have the element of surprise." Unsurprisingly Tanya's sisters both nodded their heads in agreement. Bella frowned.

"But it's the elite guard." The hunters all looked at her blankly. "The Volturi." Edward's face scrunched up like he was trying to remember where he had heard that word before while everyone else still looked puzzled. Bella sighed dramatically. "The Volturi are like the vampire police. They're vampires so badass that vampires are afraid of them. They are all good fighters and almost all of them have special abilities. They live in Italy and are part of the True-Blooded coven. I didn't know they were all here though. That's bad."

"Special abilities?" Irina asked.

"You know, like mind reading" All of the hunters suddenly looked alarmed. "You didn't know?"

"Vampires can read minds?" Emmett this time.

"Some can. Others can do other things, mind control, see the future, it's rumored there is a very old vampire that can just will things to happen, like a genie." She paused to gauge the reaction of the hunters. Their faces ran the gamut from horrified to disbelieving. Tanya was the one to finally break the silence.

"How could you possibly know that when we don't? We have been studying them for years whereas you just started dabbling recently. Why should we believe you? How do we know you aren't one of them?" Edward bristled at the implication and jumped to Bella's defense, moving his body in front of hers as if to make a physical shield against the verbal attack.

"All of Bella's information has been right on the money so far and she has risked her life to get it for us. Maybe you should show a little respect. I don't see you sneaking into vampire territory for intel. All of our information before has come from Eleazar's vampire contacts and others like them. Do you really trust them more?" Bella looked at the back of Edward's head adoringly before adding her two cents.

"Vampires with special abilities are apparently very very rare. Like one in a thousand. Since there are only like thirty thousand vampires in the world the number of 'special' vampires on the entire planet wouldn't fill a school bus. And the elite guard has nineteen of them." She paused and directed a smug glare at Tanya from behind the protection of Edward's broad shoulder. "And I know that because my brother is cozy with one of Aro's daughters and she has a special power."

"Aro has daugh..."

"Enough of this back to the matter at hand. Elite guard or not we can't leave the civilians in that house to die. Bella did you recognize any of the guard members you saw so you can give us an idea what we might be up against?" Bella was no longer paying attention. She was staring out the sheds sole grimy window.

"We're too late. They're leaving." She paused and her brow furrowed. "But they don't have Athenadora or her bodyguards with them."

Edward moved up next to Bella and looked out the window at the retreating guard. They didn't look terribly fearsome, they were all slight and the flowing robes they wore fluttered out behind them making them look like princesses in a movie rather than fearsome killers. All of a sudden four blurs darted past between him and the vampires who were walking relatively sedately away before disappearing into the woods. He thought for a minute he had imagined them but when he looked at Bella he saw that her face seemed to have paled a bit, if that was even possible, and her fingers had sunk into the wood of the window sill like it was soft cheese. Edward covered her hands with his own and gently coaxed them off of the windowsill as the vampires finally vanished into the forest. They turned together to see the other hunters were already cautiously making their way out of the shed. Edward waited until they were all gone before wrapping his arm around Bella's waist and leading her outside. He desperately wanted to ask her what was wrong but knew it was too dangerous with the hunters so close.

Emmett met them at the door to the house.

"Why don't you take Bella home? She must be exhausted." Bella pushed past him and through the open door. Edward nearly knocked Emmett over in his rush to follow.

The scene inside was not all what he had expected. The family was dead, piled up in a corner as an after thought. Their deaths had been clean and quick, they were not the apparent target. The true reason for the evening was more than obvious and the lack of blood somehow made it no less ghastly. Athenadora and her small retinue had been brutally dismembered. There were chunks of them spread all over the room and all three of their heads were missing, though which was the local vampire queen was readily apparent from the pieces of velvet gown that some of the cadaver parts were still wearing. Edward turned questioningly toward Bella but she looked like she was about to be sick. She was obviously as shocked by this turn of events as the hunters were. She had no answers. At a look from Emmett Edward started towards her to offer comfort but suddenly Bella's head snapped up and she was running up the stairs almost too fast. Edward hurried after her.

He found her in the last bedroom on the upper floor. It was a child's room and she stood completely motionless staring into the crib. Edward braced himself for more sadness and went to her side. Not looking in the barren crib he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her towards the door. Bella pulled away and reached into the crib. Edward saw movement out of the corner of his eye and realized that the crib wasn't empty after all. There was a baby in it, a girl by the look of her pink onesie and probably less than a month old. She was awake now and her huge blue eyes stared at Bella whose hands were hovering over the little bundle as if she meant to take her. Abruptly she pulled her hands away and backed towards the door. Edward picked up the baby, who was ignoring them now in favor of sucking on her tiny fist. By the time he turned back around Bella was gone.

Edward headed downstairs with the now sleeping baby and a small diaper bag he had filled about ten minutes later to find the hunters finishing up their investigation but no sign of Bella. A pointed look at Emmett got him a vague "I guess she left."

"I'm going to head back and get to work finding this little guys family." Rosalie's head snapped up at the mention of the baby and Edward saw her visibly affect a disinterested look and go back to picking through the remains of the humans. Edward was glad; he really didn't feel like dealing with her baby issues. A little one armed scrounging in the garage produced an old but serviceable car seat and Edward buckled the baby into the back seat of his Volvo, leaving the other five hunters to find their way home in Tanya's Rav 4.

She was a good baby. Quit the whole way back to the mansion. She just watched the back of Edward's head and chewed on her fingers, making soft slurping sounds all the while. For a moment he decided she looked almost like Bella and he wondered what it would be like to have a child with her. Ridiculous. They couldn't even get married. Or do the baby making thing. Heck he wasn't sure it was even physically possible. He glanced in the rear view mirror at the baby again, (she had fallen asleep during his inner monologue) and saw her as she truly looked. Adorable in an ugly sort of way but just a normal baby like any other who didn't particularly resemble anyone yet.

Edward turned the radio on softly and tried not to think of the implications of the turn of his thoughts, but the seed of an idea had been planted, and promised himself he would he would ask her.