CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ANALYSE 

After walking at a human pace to the end of Savanna’s street, Edward stopped and turned to face me, placing his hands on both of my arms. He stared blankly at me for a moment, before his marble expression broke and surrendered.

          

“Bella,” he sighed, as he pulled me into his embrace.

            

“Your not angry?” I asked quietly, with a hint of hope in my voice.

            

“I should be,” he replied, “its rather annoying the effect you have on me,” he added affectionately.

            

My arms were around his waist, and I squeezed him slightly as a sign of appreciation. I knew that I shouldn’t have taken off like I did, and understood how lucky I really was that Savanna was alone.

            

“Come-on,” he said, “we’ll talk when we get home.”

            

No one was watching us, and Edward couldn’t hear anyone’s mind thinking about us, so we ran home at our speed.

           

I hesitated as we reached the front door to the house. I felt rather embarrassed about the last ten minutes or so, I should have controlled my emotions more – I wondered what the others were thinking.

            

“Its okay Bella,” Edward said reassuringly. I guessed he could tell how I was feeling.

            

I followed him into the house, and despite the fact that I was really not reassured, I felt rather confident. Jaspers gift never failed to surprise me – I was sure that I gave him the most practice.

            

“Hey,” I said quietly when we entered the main living area, “sorry – “. Everyone was together now – most likely discussing the decomposing bodies in the lagoon.

            

Alice came over to me and gave me hug.

            

“I would have done the same if you hadn’t bet me to it,” Rosalie said, with a reassuring smirk on her face – she was sitting next to Emmett on the couch.

            

I smiled slightly at her in appreciation. I knew that she was telling the truth too – Rosalie was more of a second mother, rather than an aunty to Renesmee.

            

“So, we’re thinking that the lagoon has been used as a place for getting rid of bodies since the early 1900’s when the nearby river was reported as being poisoned,” Carlisle said, to Edward and I – but mostly for my benefit.

            

“A vampire’s dream,” Jasper said quietly, yet matter-of-factly.

            

I didn’t understand what he meant by this, and looked at Edward for a further explanation.

            

“You haven’t experience a very normal vampire life, and your newborn phase was basically nonexistent,” Edward said, “but when a vampire kills another human you can’t just leave the body anywhere, like we can with animals; its puts all vampires in danger. You have to find a way of disposing the body.”

            

I felt sick at the thought, but Jaspers comment made sense now.

            

“So how long have the bodies been in the lagoon?” I asked.

            

“My guess would be less than twenty four hours” Carlisle said, “and given the circumstances, its quite possible that they were at the party last night.”

            

This shocked me, when I saw the bodies I’d thought that they would have been at least a few months old.

            

“Did you learn anything from Savanna?” Emmett asked, causing me to move away from my thoughts about the bodies.

            

I felt bad again about my rashness regarding my decision to see her, then I remembered what she had said, “yes!” I replied, a little surprised that I had let this fall to the back of my mind temporarily instead of blurting it out when I first arrived home – I was so overwhelmed that Edward wasn’t mad with me. “She’s a venevore! They are venevores,” I added.

            

I watched as everyone’s expressions became confused, including Edwards; I guessed that they hadn’t heard of this name before either, and Savanna clearly did not have this in her mind when Edward reached me.

            

“A what?” Rosalie asked.

            

“A venevore,” I replied, I was sure that she had been telling the truth. “She had long veins sticking out along her arms, and her fingers had changed into gnarly green claws almost,” I added, hoping that one of them would soon realise what we were dealing with here – perhaps venevore was another name for something?

            

“I’ve heard of nothing like that before,” Carlisle said in a monotonous voice, clearly still trying to process and make sense of what I had said.

            

“Bella, show me,” Edward said.

            

I nodded.

            

Closing my eyes I pushed my mind out towards him, lifting my shield that would usually be protecting my thoughts, and recalled how I had seen Savanna.

            

“Wow,” Edward muttered to himself. I opened my eyes, everyone was staring at him; “venevore!?”

            

“Surely these characteristics are mentioned somewhere?” I asked, “In some form of myth or legend even?”

            

“We will need to do some research,” Carlisle replied, “the Seward Library has many old documents about the history of the area, we can start there.”

            

“And Savanna has promised some answers on Monday,” Edward added.

            

“Carlisle, are the bodies in the lagoon not disintegrating a little faster than they should? Even with the water being acidic?” Alice asked, her voice chimed and I realised that she had kept quiet the entire time.

            

“Of course!” Edward said, sounding a little more enthusiastic – Alice must have been on to something.

            

“Ahh, yes – ” Carlisle answered curiously.

            

“So how was the bear that almost killed Emmett poisioned?” she asked.

            

No one responded, and at first I had no idea where she was going with this – “her claws!” I said, breaking the silence as I made the connection.

            

“Yes,” Edward said, already knowing what Alice did, “the acid is actually their venom!”

            

“Vene,” Esme muttered as she was processing what Edward was saying too.

            

“So, the bear was actually being hunted by one of them?” Emmet asked.

            

“The name, venevore, its really quite self explanatory if you look at it that way,” Esme said, “we drink blood, they drink – “

           

“Venom!?” I said, interrupting her.

            

“It sounds wrong, but fits,” Edward said.

            

“And it also explains why the bodies in the lagoon are decomposing so quickly,” Alice added.

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “they’ll be completely disintegrated by the time the police have the chance to even begin looking for them –“

            

“Making it look like they simply ran away,” Jasper finished. “Truly a vampires dream,” he added again.

            

“Eric’s one too,” I exclaimed, “A venevore. I noticed his fingers were the same gnarly green, and claw-like as Savannas when we took Renesmee home last night.”

            

Carlisle and Edward nodded slightly in acknowledgment, the others remained as still as statues while they processed everything. “I’ll go to the library now,” Carlisle said, “Bella’s right, there has to be some sort of documentation on this – I don’t think they would be the only ones either! They’re different to Nessie; their characteristics seem too, individual; Nessie’s simply both human and vampire.”

            

“I’ll come to,” Edward said.

            

Carlisle and Edward left the room to head to the library, Jasper went along as well.

            

I went upstairs to check on Renesmee, she was just waking up – I sat on the side of her bed and placed my cool hand on her forehead.

            

“Hows your head?” I asked softly.

            

“Mmm, not to bad,” she said, her voice slightly croaky from sleeping.

            

I sat next to her in silence for a few minutes whilst she continued to wake up, then heard a slight clinking sound, and footsteps coming up the stairs. Esme came through the door quietly, holding a tray with food and some sort of herbal tea; Alice and Rosalie were behind her. “We thought we’d come and join you two for a while,” Esme said.

            

I smiled at them as they came into the room. Nessie sat up so that Esme could place the tray in front of her. All four of us sat with Nessie on her bed for the next few hours, talking about all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, from the party last night to me confronting Savanna, whilst Carlisle, Edward and Jasper were at the library trying to find more information about venevores.

            

Despite the fact that what we weren’t talking about the most ideal issues, I was enjoying the company of the girls never-the-less.

             

             
© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

V_ _ _ _ _ _ _?!


By the time we arrived home – which wasn’t long as Edward drove fast – Renesmee had fallen asleep. It really was like she was drunk. Edward carried Nessie into the house and up to her room, where I had pulled her sheets back on her bed ready for her to be put in. When Edward had finished gently laying her on the bed, I pulled the sheets back up again, and gave her a light kiss on the forehead before leaving the room with Edward.

          

We went downstairs to the main lounge where the others were gathered.            

            

“How is she?” Esme asked softly.

            

“Completely out to it,” Edward replied.

            

“What did he give her?” Rosalie asked, referring to Eric.

            

“I’m not sure,” Edward answered, “its like she is drunk, which is probably possible considering she can eat human food; but, she hasn’t consumed any alcohol – we’d have smelt it on her otherwise.

            

“Whatever it is, its affected everyone else though,” I pointed out, “except us.”

            

“Well, at least we know for sure that if they had any suspicions about weather we’re human or not, they do now!” Emmett said, his tone a little more light-hearted compared to how everyone else seemed to be.

            

“Hmm, it’s a good point,” Carlisle said, “we need to break the ice with them - quickly.”

            

“Savanna seems to be the odd one out in all this though,” Edward added, “and she has some explaining to do with the strange medicine that she gave to Emmett; I want to speak to her first.”

            

“I think that would be best,” Carlisle replied, nodding his head slightly in agreement.

            

“When?” I asked, anxious to get some answers. I wanted to leave right now to speak with her.

            

“We’ll go round first thing tomorrow morning,” Edward replied, it wasn’t the immediate action I wanted, but I knew it wouldn’t look good going back now; “she seemed to be excluding herself from the party too, so perhaps she will even be the one to answer the door if the others are sleeping-in from a later night –”  

            

“No,” Alice said, causing all eyes to turn and focus on what she had to say; “I think we should wait until Monday, and speak with her at school. It could make things worse if we go around tomorrow; and besides, I will know if any of us are in danger.”

            

“But you didn’t see that Nessie was in any trouble,” I pointed out. What was Alice thinking?! Savanna’s family were somehow dodging the effects of both Alice and Edward’s gifts; and I needed some answers! Now! It made sense to confront her at school, I just didn’t want to wait the weekend – none of us did.

            

“And Emmett,” Rosalie added, quietly.

            

“That was because I wasn’t looking properly,” Alice said; “ when we went to look for Nessie, I tried to get some sort of vision, but only got these weird, interferences – a dazed, laid-back, joyous feeling, and all I saw was a range of blurred colours.”

            

“So?” Rosalie said, prompting her to continue.

           

“So,” Alice said, “whatever they gave Nessie was effecting her body, manipulating my vision; I wasn’t looking for Eric’s future, that would have helped – I think that the colours I saw, the feelings I felt were what Nessie was experiencing.”

            

“What about Emmett?” I asked.

            

“I wasn’t really looking out for any of us at that point,” she said, “I thought we were safe here; but even if I had seen something, it wouldn’t have made any difference as the bear actually sprung-up on Emmett, changing his immediate future anyway – someone else’s last minute decision perhaps.”

            

“It makes sense,” Edward said, his tone, serious and thoughtful.

            

“Yes,” Alice replied, “the visions are there, they’re just different to what I’m used to seeing!”

            

“And if we are dealing with magic here, it only make even more sense,” Edward added, getting a little more excited now.

            

“Exactly!” Alice said.

            

We continued discussing the situation for a little while longer – mainly the way that Edward and Alice’s gifts were affected, what these odd effects could mean, and how they should be interpreted. For Edward, it was simple – they either know he reads minds, or they know someone else who can, so are conscious of it; and Savanna seems to know more than the rest of them.

            

Whilst it was likely that she had told her family about Edward’s ability, after seeing how distanced she made herself at the party, I questioned her closeness with the other family members, and highly doubted that she would actually had told them about Edward if she was aware of him. The effect that Alice was experiencing was simply from the unknown aspects that this family possessed and brought into this fictional world we were all already a part of as vampires; the effect on her was similar to what happened with Jacob and his pack – simply because they aren’t human; we were pretty safe in saying that much!

            

After around another thirty minutes, we decided to go to our own rooms. Edward held the door to our bedroom open for me, and closed it once I was inside. I turned to face him, hoping for some sort of reassuring expression, but he didn’t give me the chance to look at his face as he was too quick in coming over to me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in close against his chest – if he were human I would have heard the beat of his heart. I concentrated on this, trying to hear something, even the faintest flicker of a beat, but only received silence – something that I welcomed all the same though. I stayed in his embrace for what must have been at least half an hour, but only felt like two minutes, when Edward broke the silence by chuckling slightly.

            

“What is it?” I asked, looking up at him. He had become a lot more rational about things since Nessie was born, not worrying so much – the multiple encounters that we had had with other vampires when I was human probably helped this as well. I’d expected to see his eyes full of fear, and was even more surprised that he was actually laughing about something.

            

“Emmett,” he muttered to me, “he’s trying to get my attention. He’s found us some entertainment for the weekend – which I’m sure will help get our minds off things.”

            

“What kind of entertainment?” I asked, completely clueless.

            

“You’ll have to wait,” he said, chuckling again, “it’s a surprise – and its not my surprise to spoil;” his white teeth gleamed as he gave me a slight, cheeky grin.

            

I rolled my eyes at him, light-heartedly of course. His mood was taking my mind away from Savanna and her family – which was important for my sanity’s sake, as we had decided to wait the weekend before talking with her.

           

He kissed my forehead and led me to our private bathroom, where our constantly hot bathtub was featured. Edward clicked a button on the wall with the bath’s features, and I heard the small jets inside of it come to life. The bath slowly began filling up with white, foamy bubbles.

            

I sat in Edward’s arm, in our bath, watching out over the clam forest until it was time to start the next day. We sat in silence. There was no need to talk; being in each other’s arms was more enough – safely together.

                                                                        *****

A few hours once the sun had fully risen, Edward and I got out of the bath and dressed for the day. We went to see how Nessie was first. She had a really bad headache – something she hadn’t really experienced before – so we left her to continue to rest and sleep it off.

            

We hadn’t feed for a number of days now, and our eyes were very dark. Carlisle gave us a few strips of metal each, the size of a small rulers, so that we could test the blood of the animals before we drank from them – to prevent the situation with Emmett from happening again; if the blood was acidic like the bear’s was, then it would eat through the metal instantly. We had to kill with our hands before we drank too, something I wasn’t use to doing – I usually jumped and bit simultaneously; I wouldn’t find this way hard though.            

            

Hunting took up the entire morning; we also filled a bottle of blood for Nessie, in hopes that it would help sooth her headache faster.

            

“How are you feeling,” I said softly, almost in a whisper as I closed the door to Nessie’s room behind me.

            

“Mmmm not good,” she replied, her voice slightly croaky from resting.

            

I went over to her bed, and sat down next to her stroking her head. “You should drink this,” I said, opening the cap to the bottle of blood I had brought in with me.

            

Her eyes opened slightly as she clearly smelt the deep-red blood. She sat up slightly, and I passed the bottle over. She seemed to come more alive as she drank, almost chugging it down.

            

“It’s helping already,” she said, putting the bottle down slightly as she spoke. She had drunk about half of it.

            

“That’s good,” I replied. I took the bottle from her after she took a last sip, and placed it on the side table next to her bed so that she could drink more later on. “I think you should continue –“

            

An engine noise cut through the air interrupting my sentence. It wasn’t overly loud, but definitely louder than any of the cars we owned – even the motorbike that Edward gave to Jasper.

            

“What was that?” Nessie asked.

            

“I’m not sure,” I replied, moving to the window to take a look outside.

            

Before I got to the window to open the curtain however, Alice came into Nessie’s room; “Bella,” she said, “come outside, Emmett’s found a new toy.”

            

“What is it?” I asked.

            

“A jet-boat,” she chimed excitedly, “we can use it in the lagoon!”

            

“Awesome!” Nessie said, her face lighting up. She already had one foot out of her bed too.

            

“Ahh, you’re staying right here,” I said in a light-hearted tone, “your not well enough”.

            

She froze for a moment, “maybe you’re right,” she replied, clutching her head as she eased back into her bed slowly.

            

Alice chuckled softly; “you’ll be on it in no time Nessie.”

            

I went back over to her, and ran my finger lightly down her soft cheek, “I love you,” I said quietly, then followed Alice out of her room, and outside to the front courtyard where the boat was.

            

The boat was on a trailer attached to the back of Emmett’s jeep. It was sleek, sporty and shiny black, with bright red seats.            

            

“Wow!” I said, as we reached Emmett and Edward, who were adjusting a few things with the boats engine. I still wasn’t used to being surrounded by such luxurious things.

            

“Not what you expected?” Edward replied, with a huge grin on his face.

            

“I think we’re ready,” Emmett said.

            

We walked back through the house to the backyard where the lagoon was; Emmett was now reversing the jeep so that the trailer on the back was closer to the water. Edward ran over to him, and we followed closely behind.

            

The lagoon didn’t have a boat ramp, but it was easier for Edward and Emmett to take a side each and lift it into the water anyway – they did so with pure ease. Jasper and Rosalie had now came to join us, Carlisle and Esme had stayed inside.

            

The boat looked like it could fit about eight people at a time, including the driver, so we were all able to get in at once. Emmett was having the first drive, as it was his idea; Edward sat in the passengers seat next to him, and Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and I sat in the middle row, which had four seats, behind.

            

The engine roared to life as Emmett turned the key, and we drifted off, slowly at first, in the lagoon. Once we were a few metres from the edge of the water, Emmett floored the acceleration pedal, causing the back of the boat to sink into the water more, as it generated speed. In a matter of seconds we were level again, and coming extremely close to the opposite side of the lagoon. Emmett suddenly turned the steering wheel sharply to the left, and the boat did a three-sixty spin, spraying a small wave of water all over us.

            

“Hey!” Alice said, in a serious tone at first, but then broke into laughter before she could say anymore. We all did.

           

Emmett put his foot on the accelerator again and went in another direction, this time making a few shorter turns in between the large, three-sixty ones. We swapped drivers every ten minutes or so, and after about thirty minutes on the water, Alice was in the drivers seat and I was sitting next to her in the passengers seat – my turn was next. Alice was trying hard to get us all as wet as possible, doing as many three-sixty turns as she could – pay-back to Emmett!

            

“Okay, one more spin,” she said, shouting slightly over the noise of the engine, “then its your turn Bella!”

            

“Make it a good one then,” I replied.

            

She winked at me, then slammed her foot on the accelerator moving forward in a straight line. When we were about three seconds away from doing the turn, I noticed something strange floating on the surface of the water directly in front of us, I squinted my eyes slightly to try and gage what it was – then I realised it looked like somebody’s hand.

            

“Look!” I shouted, pointing to it.

            

Alice jerked the boat to the right a little too suddenly – I assumed to avoid obliterating the object that appeared to be a hand – and I heard Rosalie scream. The turn was so sharp that if I didn’t grab the side bar in time I would have fallen out of the boat – unfortunately, the strength from me grabbing the sidebar was too strong, causing the boat to capsize on us. I guessed that the others had probably done the same thing as the turn was so sudden – only adding to the reason for the boat to capsize.

            

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, yet in reality it all happened in a matter of seconds. I hit the water head first, and when I fully registered this, I pushed myself away from the upside-down boat to swim up to the surface.      

            

The others had already done this, and Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper were already strating to flip the boat the right way up again.

            

“Are you okay?” Edward said, swimming over to me.

            

“I’m fine,” I replied, “Where’s Alice?” I couldn’t see her.

            

Before he could answer, Alices voice cut through the air, showing where she was as it came from behind the boat, “there’s more!” she shrieked, her voice held a chilling tone to it. The drama of the boat capsizing had caused me to momentarily forget about the object that caused Alice to react the way she did – the object that I was sure was a human hand.

            

I followed closely behind Edward as he swam just as fast as if he were running over to her.

            

“What is it?” I asked.

            

“Look under the water,” Alice said, “there’s more”.

            

I did as she said to, and to my horror, saw lying on the bed of the lagoon three decaying bodies. I resurfaced as I didn’t want to look any longer; I would have thrown-up at the site if I were still human. The bodies were completely naked, and most of the skin had been burnt off, leaving decaying muscle and bone. I looked at Edward, for some kind of explanation.

            

“It’s the acid,” he said, “it doesn’t affect us though. Remember Carlisle said this lagoon had a high acidic level? From a past river contamination?”

            

The image of Nessie with Eric last night popped into my head; I was sure that they were connected with this in some way. Was he planning to kill her last night? So much for a distraction! I was so desperate for answers; and I knew that if I wanted any, I would have to act now, and quickly.

           

I ducked my head under the water and swam as fast as I could to the edge of the lagoon. I was on the side that was furthest away from the house so I went straight into the surrounding forest, running as fast as I could until I reached the driveway. I didn’t dare look back as I didn’t want to risk loosing a single second as I knew Edward was most likely following me closely behind –he would most definitely stop me! I ran as fast as I could, stopping outside Savanna’s house. Her street was quite and empty of people, not that anyone would have noticed me anyway as I was running too fast. I was completely dry from it too, so didn’t look out of place by being all wet.

            

I made the effort to be as casual looking as I could when walking to the front door. There were no cars in the driveway, so I was hoping that someone was home, but not the whole family.

I had to knock on the door twice before I heard someone coming down the stairs inside.

            

“Bella?” It was Savanna who answered the door. She didn’t open it fully, simply peering through a small gap as she said my name nervously and with surprise.

            

“We need to talk,” I replied coldly.

            

“Ahh – ,” she stuttered, nervously, “I can’t right – “

            

In one swift movement I pushed the door back, allowing enough room for me to step inside the house, and held Savanna against the wall with one hand around her throat, closing the door simultaneously behind me. I knew that she was alone as the house was quire, and he took a while to answer the door – although I didn’t really care about that at the time, I just wanted some answers. 

            

“Yes you can,” I said, interrupting her. “I know you’re alone. What are you? What is Eric?” I demanded.

           

Before she could speak I noticed that her arms now had large purple veins running down them, just like Eric’s were yesterday, and her fingernails had grown and turned gnarly and green like his did too.

            

“What are you!” I demanded again, moving my hand from her throat to pin back both her hands instead, as they looked more threatening.

            

Savanna’s face was full of fear, “I’m a,” she stuttered again, I tightened my grip slightly on her her wrists, “a Venevore!” she exclaimed.

            

“What!?” I asked. At first I thought she was lying, but from the terrified look on her face I knew she wasn’t. I hadn’t heard of anything like that before, at least with Vampires and Ware wolves I had known them as fictional characters – but venervore, I had never heard of that before.

            

“Bella!” Edwards’s stern voice broke my thoughts as he abruptly opened the door to Savanna’s house. I loosened my grip on Savannas wrists, and she pulled away from me instantly.

            

“You both need leave?” she said, pleading a little.

            

I was speechless, still trying to process what Savanna had said she was. I looked blankly at Edward – I knew that he was probably reading Savanna’s thoughts and wondered what he was thinking about it, she couldn’t possibly be keeping her guard up with the shock I created.

            

“Come-on Bella,” he said, taking my hand and leading me out of the house.

            

“I’m sorry,” he said, turning to look back at Savanna in the entranceway, “we will need to talk on Monday.”

            

She nodded slightly and Edward closed the door.            

            

“What were you thinking!?” he demanded.

            

I ignored this, still consumed in the own thoughts, “what did she say?” I asked, “could you read her mind?”.

            

He didn’t answer me, but instead pulled on my arm so that I was walking briskly next to him from Savanna’s property – he was annoyed with me, I bet they all were; I was just lucky that Savanna was the only one home.   


© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010   

           

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

PARTY

The inside of the house matched the outside – old and a little run-down, but clearly grand once-upon-a-time. The furniture was ripped in places, and the colours in the fabrics were faded, yet everything seemed like it was from an elegant, Victorian period – just very lived-in.

            

We followed Desiree through the living area to the dinning room. The large table that looked as though it could sit about twenty people was being used as a drinks and nibbles area.

            

“There is a real sense of monumental history in this house,” Esme said to Desiree, “so grand, yet completely, liveable – I adore it,” she complimented.

           

“Thank you,” Desiree replied, with genuine enthusiasm, yet the smile on her face was somewhat sly, holing a possible hint of suspicion towards Esme. She began handing us all a drink – some sort of homemade fruit-punch.

            

“Let me find my family,” she said, “my husband has been looking forward to meeting you all.”

            

“Sure,” Esme answered.

            

Desiree left the room, via the other doorway from which we entered; I guessed that it was probably the kitchen.

           

We seemed to be alone now in the dinning area, and just like it was at school, people seemed to be keeping a distance from us. “These outfits really must be scary,” I said jokingly to Alice, voicing my observation out loud.

            

She responded by giving me a knowing wink.

            

“Desiree seems to be acting the same,” Edward muttered under his breath, though we all could hear clearly, “she’s reciting some Latin poem over and over again. I can hear Savanna’s thoughts too. She’s blocking me, but also trying to communicate with me – they don’t know about last night, so we can’t say anything.”

           

“I think that would be best,” Carlisle agreed.

           

Desiree walked back into the room via the entrance to the kitchen. A tall, skinny man followed closely behind. He was different to what I had expected, even though he was wearing a wizards costume, Desiree was so confident, and seemed very sure of herself; this man looked timid and shy – somewhat nervous too. He had short, mousy-brown, wispy hair and was balding; he most definitely did not live up to Desiree in the looks department, she was by far the prettiest of them all. Eric came through the door with Savanna now too; he was dressed as a zombie and Savanna a witch like her mother.

            

“This is my husband, Roy,” she said, without even glancing or making a slight gesture to acknowledge his presence; it was such an ordinary name which only encouraged my thoughts around their differences, “and our children Eric and Savanna; I hear that some of you have met in school?” she added.

            

“Yes, we have,” Edward answered. I noticed Savanna look away slightly when Edward spoke – clearly nervous with us being here.

            

“Well enjoy the party, help yourselves to anything you need,” she said, “Esme, shall I take you on a quick tour?”

            

“Sure, I’d love that,” Esme replied. Desiree showed her out of the room through the kitchen. Carlisle moved closer to the nervous looking Roy and began introducing himself properly. Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper headed back towards the lounge and through the French doors which appeared to lead to a large backyard.

            

“So where’s your boyfriend?” Eric said in a somewhat arrogant tone to Nessie; the word boyfriend startling me – I was sure that I wasn’t missing something there. I also noticed that Savanna had now left the room.

            

“Ahh, he’s at his Dad’s,” Nessie replied as casually as she could pull off – something that she didn’t seem to find hard from being around Jacob so much; “and he’s not my boyfriend. We’re family,” she added.  

            

“Oh,” he said with a smirk, “so what’s the story with you guys anyway? Your all like together or something? But family too?” I started to bite my tongue trying to create some pain for myself as a distraction. I had met him for two seconds about a day ago, and again now for only five minutes and I wanted to kill him! I knew that people thought our perceived family dynamics were rather strange, but no one ever brought it up, not with such cheek anyway; he was clearly testing us.             

            

Edward answered him in a calm, yet serious voice, and didn’t leave much room for more questions to be asked on Eric’s part – I was adamant that he was drawing from deep within to control himself too; “we’ve all been adopted by Carlisle and Esme.”

            

Eric’s expression seemed confronting towards Edward in a way; he had a content smirk on his face, probably well aware of the effect he was creating.

            

“The other guys went out back right?” I asked Edward. Not caring that it was rather obvious that I wanted to get away from Eric.

            

“Yes,” Edward replied, holding his fix on Eric for a moment longer, “lets find them.”

            

We left the dinning room, and Eric, walking through the French doors into the cool night air. The backyard was large, and had many random clusters of seats and a few tables for guests – it was all situated around a small bonfire where people were roasting marshmallows, and keeping warm. The others were sitting around a small picnic table towards the back of the yard.

            

“Nessie – “ I started as I realised that she was still in the dinning room with Eric.

            

“Its fine Bella,” Edward cut in quickly, “Carlisle’s there too,” he said reassuringly. 

            

“Okay,” I said, letting it go a little. I didn’t like that she hadn’t stayed with us, but knew that I was already over-paranoid about the whole party and that I couldn’t expect her to become our shadow all night.

             

When we reached them my mood suddenly felt a whole lot more relaxed – Jasper! I glared at him light-heartedly.

            

“You looked a little tense, that’s all Bella,” he said, grinning.

            

“Eric was winding us up,” I replied.

            

“Has anyone seen Savanna?” Edward asked.

            

No one answered, but they all shook their heads slightly. I glanced over at Edward and he had his eyes closed – he must have been trying concentrate on filtering out everyone’s thought to locate her.

           

“In the house somewhere,” he said, “we’re back to reciting numbers.”

           

We sat together for a while longer, watching the other party guests socialise amongst themselves; we analysed their costumes to try and overcome the boredom.

Edward kept us well informed of the conversations that Nessie, Carlisle and Esme were having too. Desiree and Esme had rejoined Roy and Carlisle, but the conversation was very dry, clearly both parties – well more Desiree from that side than Roy as he barely spoke – were making conversation that they both clearly weren’t interested in. Acting the part! Carlisle was telling them some fake story of how he and Esme met, and where he studied to become a doctor. Whilst I wished that Nessie was sitting here with us, she seemed to be handling Eric remarkably well. Her laid back attitude to it all helped a lot, resulting in Eric doing most of the talking. He was telling her all the ins’ and outs’ of the High School social world – he clearly played a significant role in this scene; the whole family did! Except for Savanna, who still seemed to be isolating herself somewhere.

            

As time moved on I began to notice that more and more people had gathered outside, and that loud music was now playing. People were starting dance with one another.

            

“Hey,” a short girl with blonde coloured hair said, coming up behind Rosalie and Emmett, “come dance with me,” she was speaking to Emmett. He stared at her blankly for a moment – I was speechless myself; everyone had been so wary around us and all of a sudden this girl was so confident in asking Emmett to dance.

            

“Ahh,” he sounded a little unsure of what to make of the whole situation, “I’ve actually got my dance partner right here,” he replied, grabbing Rosalie’s hand as and extra attempt to brush her off.

            

“Just one dance,” she said, a little more persistent now, “then you can have him back,” she added, directing this last bit at Rosalie.

            

Rosalie pulled her hand from Emmett’s, indicating for him to go; “amuse me,” she mouthed to him.

            

He seemed a little reluctant to go, but did anyway – probably more for the risk of the girl getting any more persistent. Emmett grinned back at Rosalie. We watched as the girl led Emmett towards a group of people who were dancing to the beat of the music – a popular dance club tune. Emmett didn’t move much, but the girl was hyper! I looked around at the other people dancing, and noticed that they all seemed to have a similar level of energy too.            

            

“Carlisle,” Edward said, pulling everyone’s attention away from Emmet and his dance partner immediately, “where’s Renesmee?”

            

“We came to ask you guys the same thing,” he replied. They had obviously both finished talking with Desiree and Roy.

            

I watched Edward as he closed his eyes quickly again, trying to concentrate on hearing Nessie or Eric’s thoughts - through all the noise I guessed.            

            

“Everyone’s thoughts are filled with this beat,” Edward said, keeping his eyes shut. I could only imagine how frustrating it must have been for him, to try and concentrate on hearing one persons voice in a crowd of so many; then it occurred to me;

            

“Do you think this is all set up?” I asked, “that girl wouldn’t have asked Emmett to dance if she was in control of herself! She’d be too shy like they normally all are.”

            

“We need to get Renesmee,” Edward said, opening his eyes now, “I think you could be right Bella, her thoughts are the same as everyone else’s. Alice and Jasper,” he directed, “you guys check downstairs, Bella and I will look upstairs.”

            

“We’ll be waiting in the car,” Carlisle said.

            

Edward nodded, “if we’re not out in five minutes, come in,” he said.

            

“Sure,” Carlisle replied. They walked away as trying to act casually as they could, and Rosalie went to interrupt Emmett and his dance partner.

            

“Five minutes,” Edward said to Alice and Jasper. They nodded in agreement.             I followed Edward back into the house through the French doors into the living room. As we walked through the room I was able to catch a glance out to the front door, Carlisle, Esme, Emmett and Rosalie had been stopped by Desiree and Roy – but they seemed to be handling it well as it looked like they were only saying their goodbyes. We went into the dining room, and through the door that I had guessed that the kitchen was behind earlier – it was. The kitchen led through to a wide hallway where the stairs to the second story were.

            

“She’s upstairs,” Edward said, “I can hear a lot clearer in here than outside.”

            

I followed Edward closely as he ran up the stairs, stopping outside the third door down the hallway. I could hear laughter coming from the room behind the door, it was Nessie; and I guessed that they were dancing from the noisy movements of their feet against the floor. I looked at Edward, and he raised his eyebrows slightly, as an indication that we were about to go in. As Edward placed his hand upon the door handle, I took one quick look around the hallway to make sure we were fine to enter. I noticed that a few rooms down, someone was watching us; the door was opened slightly as someone quickly shut it very briefly after I turned my head.

            

I grabbed Edward’s shoulder, indicating for him to refrain from opening the door for a few seconds longer, “two doors down,” I mouthed.

            

“Savanna,” he mouthed back, and continued to open the door. I forgot her quickly, as Edward opened door to what must have been Eric’s room.

            

“Sorry to interrupt,” Edward said coldly, “but its time for Renesmee to go home.”

            

Eric looked rather surprised at our presence, “ahh sure,” he replied, a little nervously, which was odd as he was so arrogant and confident earlier.

            

“But I’m having so much fun!” Renesmee said, still dancing a little – it was obvious that she had been brainwashed or something, as she should have realised that something wasn’t right; and the tone of her voice was loud and careless sounding, like she was drunk.

            

I started to walk closer to her, “come on Nessie, we really need to go,” I said.

            

“Yeah Ness,” Eric said, he put his hand on her back, pushing her forward slightly, “you betta get going,” he seemed even more nervous now that I had moved closer.

            

As Nessie complied with what we were both saying by somewhat skipping towards Edward and I, I couldn’t help but notice Eric’s fingernails has he placed both of his hands behind his back again, out of sight. They were long and a dull green colour – gnarly too, not like from a beauty salon or anything. From the glimpse that I saw they didn’t look fake either, and I was sure that there were a few dark veins running along his fingers, just before the beginning of the nail.

            

“Nice nails,” I said to him, in a cold, suspicious tone as Nessie was close enough for me to grab her arm, “you really have gone all out on your costume.”

            

“Ahh – thanks,” he said sheepishly.

            

I tightened my grip around Nessie’s arm and led her out of the room with Edward – now was not the time to be asking Eric any questions.   

            

Alice and Jasper were waiting for us by the car; Carlisle had driven home when he saw that we safely had Renesmee. We were lucky that we didn’t have any issues with Desiree either, who we said goodbye to briefly at the front door.

            

“Its like she’s drunk!” Alice said, referring to Renesmee as we were driving home. Somehow she had been affected in the same way that everyone else had. The weird thing was that the rest of us were fine!

            

“One of them is going to spill,” Edward announced as he sped around a corner, the tone of his voice firm and cold. We drove the rest of the way home in silence.    



© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron