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

 

               

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DESIREE

I didn’t expect Savanna to show up to class today, but she proved me wrong. She was sitting in her seat by the window when Edward and I walked into our math class. She didn’t move a muscle, continuing to star blankly out the window as we took to our own seats. When the bell rang for lunch she was the first to leave the room.

           

“Have you two seen Eric today?” Edward asked Renesmee and Jacob when we were all gathered round the corner table in the cafeteria.

           

“Yeah,” Jacob muffled through his mouthful of food, “he was in class today, seemed the same as yesterday.”

           

“Ahh – yeah,” Renesmee added, with a slight smirk of amusement on her face from Jacob, “he was the only one to actually say hello again.”

           

“That’s weird,” Edward said, “Savanna was the complete opposite, completely hostile.”

            

Everyone was silent for a moment.

            

“I hope Savanna didn’t get in any type of trouble,” Rosalie said, breaking the silent thoughts from everyone at our table.

            

“Ahh,” Edward said. I guessed that he had heard something more interesting from Rosalie than what she had just said aloud. “Of course!”

            

“What!?” Alice asked in a demanding tone.

            

“Savanna was awfully hostile when she left last night, and she seemed to be in a hurry,” Edward answered.

            

“So….” Alice encouraged, wanting him to explain more.

            

“Maybe the rest of her family don’t know about it?” I guessed.

           

“Exactly,” Edward said.

            

“Oh,” Alice chimed, “well that means our costumes won’t be wasted then! I thought we may not have been going with what happened last night; but if the rest of them don’t know then it wouldn’t look good if we didn’t turn up.”

            

We all laughed at this. Alice was right, but the tone of her voice and the ‘pointing-out-the-obvious’ nature of her remark showed that she was more interested in the fact that she was still able to dress us all up!

            

“And –“ Edward added, “we can try and get some answers out of Savanna. We have the upper hand here, if she’s worried about her family finding out what happened last night –”

            

He was going to continue but was interrupted when his phone vibrated. We all barley used our cell phones, as our few contacts were mainly each other; so it was rare for it to go off.

            

“Its Carlisle,” Edward said, the tone of his voice expressing surprise, “he’s found some more information relating to the samples he took; he’s also arranged the flights for Jacob and Nessie to Forks in about an hour.”

            

“Uhh –“ Renesmee piped up, “I kinda – want to stay here.”

            

My body froze at this, I didn’t want her to be near any danger; and I could tell that Edward felt the same way – his perfectly sculpted face became my serious statue again, a sight I had strangely missed and felt like I had not seen lately.

            

“If Savanna is hiding last night from her family then we have nothing to worry about!” she added.

            

Edward and I looked at each other, but I just nodded slightly. She did make a fair point – and we couldn’t force her to go.

            

“Sure,” Edward said, a little reluctantly.

            

When the bell rang for the end of lunch Jacob, Nessie, Edward and I went to the office to sign out – Edward was his charming self, so there were no issues with the receptionist about leaving school early. We got inside the Volvo and drove home so that Jacob could pack a few things, and Carlisle could shear what he had found. We were silent for the duration; probably from anticipation to see what Carlisle had found out – when we reached our narrow driveway Edward barley slowed down.

            

“In the study,” Edward murmured as we entered the front door. Carlisle was at his desk surrounded with stacks of papers, and old books.

            

“Your’ve been busy,” Jacob said, seeming to be in awe over the amount of reading Carlisle had clearly done.

            

“I’ve been looking through the towns archives to see if I can make any connections,” he replied. Edward was nodding, always one step ahead. “Around 1940 there are reports of river contamination, high acid levels which as the main source of water to the Beer Creek area at the time, killed a significant number of the population,” he continued.

            

“I took a sample from the lake outback, which is connected to the river, and the acid levels are much higher than they should be – something we would never notice but if a human swam there then their skin would burn slightly,” he said.

            

“But how does this relate to last night?” I asked.

            

“Bella,” Carlisle said, “the bear that Emmett was hunting had been poisoned with the same form of acid, just in a much higher concentration to that in the lake.”

            

“And Savanna?” I asked.

            

“I’m not sure,” he replied, “but she clearly knows something about how this bear was poisoned to being with, and possibly something about the 1940’s river contamination. The acid is not like anything I’ve ever seen before either, it feeds off of blood which is why Emmett’s skin turned so grey last night; the acid turns the blood into a stronger form of acid – “

            

“Which explains why the bear wasn’t dead,” Edward interrupted, “Emmett said that it was one of the angriest bears he had ever seen, all the more appealing at the time.”

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “the bear was actually in distress from the acid taking over and contaminating it’s blood. I mixed the a sample of water with blood from an Elk and, its taken a while, but has had the same reaction – I would show you but I had to get rid of it before it became too acidic and ruined more of my equipment.”

            

“So – “ Nessie began, but was interrupted by Edward.

            

“Yes! It has to be witchcraft,” he said, his voice was filled with more passion than before – Edward had been guessing that witchcraft was involved the entire time.

           

“Well it’s a high possibility,” Carlisle said, “it could be something else too, but I have no other ideas.”

            

“Guess we’ll find out tonight,” I said. The others nodded slightly, and we stood in silence for a moment.

            

“Okay guys,” Esme said, breaking the silence as she walked into the room. She had been keeping a very ‘back-row’ position in all of this; she hated situations like this. “We need to get Jacob to the airport. I’ve already packed your bag”

           

Esme had a real soft spot for Jacob as in a way he was the closest to a real child than all of us were, particularly with his nutritional needs – Esme loved mothering us all, but particularly Jacob.

            

“Gee thanks,” Jacob said, with a huge grin on face. He totally knew about this soft spot!

            

I drove Jacob to the airport with Nessie. Edward and Carlisle stayed behind as Carlisle was going to show Edward more specifics on his findings – data that would have been completely over my head as I didn’t have multiple science degrees like them. Esme stayed back at the house too. 

            

Jacob was excited to be seeing his Dad for a few days, we had had a really full-on week, a new school, new house, new town, and to top it all off, mystery witches or some other type of creatures living near by.

           

Nessie and I saw Jacob to the entranceway for his plane, “contact us if you need anything,” I said, as I gave him a hug goodbye.

            

“Sure,” he grinned. He had probably noticed the worry I was feeling on my face.

            

“See ya later Ness,” he said, giving her a light and playful punch on her arm.

            

“Have fun with your Dad,” she replied, and poked her tongue at him.

            

He laughed, then turned around and showed his ticket to the flight attendant at the entrance of the gate to his plane. She quickly checked it and he continued walking down the gate turning a corner and becoming out of sight to us.

           

We sat in silence whilst we drove home, I wasn’t really thinking about anything in particular, but seemed to be worrying about everything at once.

“Stop worrying Mom,” Nessie said as I stopped outside our house; she gently grabbed my left hand from the steering wheel. The word ‘Mom’ had taken me by surprise as she usually called me Bella. “Close your eyes,” she said.

            

I did as she told me, and found myself surrounded in our small, cozey cottage in Forks. I had forgotten about Renesmee’s gift, as she had been using it less and less as she grew older.

            

I opened my eyes again, “thankyou,” I said to her. She knew how much I loved that house, and it worked in calming my worrying down.

            

“No problem,” she said, smiling at me. “Lets have fun tonight! Maybe we can actually scare some people if Alice’s costumes are that good.”

            

I laughed, “I’m sure they will be, its Alice!”

            

I jumped as my door opened behind me, and turned around to find that it was Alice. “Did I hear my name mentioned,” she chimed, “time to get you two into your costumes!”           

*****

“And three, two, one,” Alice clicked the shutter on the camera, and ran back to where we were standing for our photograph. Alice was living the dream with this opportunity to dress us all up so much, we looked as though we had just came off of a Hollywood movie set. “Pose everybody,” Alice added, and the flashing on the camera’s self-timer became more intense, indicating that it was about to take the photo.            

            

We looked just like a real coven of vampires were supposed to look like – in the everyday human’s eyes that was. Alice had whitened our faces ever more than what they were already, she made us all wear thick black eyeliner, and had painted us girls’ lips a bloody red colour. We each had a drip or two of fake-blood running from the corner of our mouths to suggest that we had just finished drinking from a human. I always loathed being dressed up by Alice, but was surprisingly grateful this time as it seemed to offer a distraction from fear and worry.

           

Edward took Nessie, Alice, Jasper and I in the Volvo, whilst Emmett and Rosalie went with Carlisle and Esme in Carlisle’s Mercedes.

            

As we entered the more residential part of Beer Creek I started to notice the odd person or group of people dressed up in Halloween costumes. They all seemed to be heading in the same direction as we were too. We made our way through a few small streets and the amount of fellow Halloween – goers began to grow in size; as I looked ahead in the street that seemed to be the busiest, I could see that they all seemed to be going down a particular driveway a few metres from where we were. “It must be there,” I pointed out, knowing that my statement was probably obvious.

            

“Looks like it,” Edward replied. A sense of nervousness seemed to fill the car as we drew closer to the entrance.

            

There was a sign taped onto a lamppost near the entrance that had an arrow pointing towards the house, and read “PARKING” in capitals. The house was two storied, and seemed to be rather large. It appeared dated, and slightly tired in areas; which was in keeping with the surrounding houses. The house had a large porch which was lined with people, and from what I could see through the windows, it looked as though the inside of the house was the same, if not more crowded. “They’re clearly popular,” I said, stating the obvious again. No one responded to my nervous remark, except for Jasper, as he used his gift to ease my nerves. “Thanks Jasper,” I added quietly.

            

They had a relatively large front section, where we parked, joining Carlisle and the others in the developing few rows of cars.

            

“Glad you were able to make it!” a woman dressed as a witch who came out of the front door to the house, greeted us as we were close to reaching the porch. “You and your family all look fantastic!” she said. I realised that she was directing this to Esme – I guessed that she was Savanna’s Mom who had introduced herself to Esme at the supermarket yesterday.

            

“Why thankyou,” Esme said, her voice sounding genuine and convincing. “I love your costume too!” She was wearing all black, with a pointed hat and witches broom in one hand. She was pretty, and her hair was long and black. She gave off a certain feeling of confidence too, which was different to how Savanna came across, sweet and somewhat shy. “This is my husband, Carlisle, and our children, Rosalie, Emmett, Edward, Bella, Renesmee, Alice and Jasper.”

            

“Lovely,” she replied, “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you all. I’m Desiree, I’ll introduce you to my lot soon, but first, come inside and I’ll get you all something to drink.”

            

We followed her as she went back through the front door; I glanced back at Jasper, giving him a sheepish smile, grateful that he was still controlling my nerves.

           

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010

              

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LONG NIGHT

No one moved for what seemed like a long time, but was really only a small moment.

           

“Don’t answer it,” Renesmee said quietly.

            

“She’s not going to harm us,” Edward replied. Savanna had obviously removed her guard allowing Edward to read her mind.

           

“Just wait a little bit more then,” I said. I thought that now would be a good time to put my gift into practice. I closed my eyes, and blocked out all my other thoughts concentrating on the expandable force inside of my mind. I felt the thin walls to my bubble of protection, and concentrated on slowly pushing it out around me. When I had pushed it out far enough, coving each of us, I waited a for a moment making sure that I had a good grip on it – I was much better at using and controlling it than I was six years ago, but perfecting this ability would take centuries Edward had said. “Okay,” I announced, opening my eyes, “I’m good”.

            

Edward went to the door, my protective shield moved and moulded with his body easily – I had a confident hold of things. “Savanna,” he greeted coldly when he opened the door, “what brings-“.

            

“I’m here to help,” she said quickly, interrupting him. She was holding a small tube of glowing-red liquid.

           

Edward didn’t move a muscle, and snarled slightly at her, “what have you done to him?” he asked.

            

“It was an accident,” she said, seeming somewhat frustrated with him. “You’re running out of time! He will be dead in a few minutes if he doesn’t take this,” she held up the bright red tube.

            

“Edward!” Rosalie’s voice cut through the tension in the air. “I think she’s right, Emmett’s skin has almost turned black – we have to try.”

            

Edward moved aside slightly, indicating for Savanna to come in. She started but stopped suddenly.

            

“Bella – “ Alice said. I realised that my protective force was blocking her from entering, and I quickly let it disintegrate – at least I knew it worked on her. If Savanna was right about Emmett only having a few minutes left to live then I didn’t want to waste any time withdrawing my shield to mould around her, protecting us while she walked amongst us.

            

“This way,” Rosalie said, indicating for Savanna to follow her.

            

Savanna entered the house, walking past us and followed Rosalie into Carlisle’s study. Rosalie stopped just before she reached the hospital bed where Emmett was lying, indicating for Savanna to approach him. Savanna walked up to Emmett, and opened the cap to the small tube of the glowing red substance. “Can you hold his mouth open,” she said to Carlisle.

           

Carlisle nodded, and did as she asked. We watched intently as Savanna let two drops of the liquid fall into Emmett’s mouth. “Done,” she said, facing Rosalie, “he will be fully healed in about six hours.”

            

“What did you give him,” Edward asked, his voice still cold and unfriendly. I guessed that she was blocking her mind from him again, which would have made him extra cautious – not that we all weren’t cautious of her as it was.

            

“My blood,” she replied flatly and a little hesitantly. “I shouldn’t be here,” she added, “I need to go.”

            

“I don’t think so,” Jasper said, his voice surprised me as I realised that he had only just joined us. I noticed that his shoes were covered in mud too. He must have followed Edward to get Emmett and had been searching the forest for clues to what or who was behind this. “What are you?” he said coldly. His body was tense; and I could tell he was prepared to attack her if he needed.

            

Savanna didn’t reply. “Jasper,” Carlisle said, “she has helped us enough, let her go now.” Jasper relaxed his body slightly, and Savanna left the room.

            

“Thank you,” Carlisle said, just before she reached the door. She stopped and looked back at Carlisle and nodded slightly before leaving.

            

When we heard the front door close Rosalie was the first to speak, “his skin is getting lighter,” she said, her voice filled with relief and astonishment.

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “whatever Savanna gave him, it seems to be working.”

           

“What do you think it is?” Edward asked.

            

“I’m not sure,” Carlisle replied, “I’ve seen nothing like it, same with the black substance that must have been in the animal blood he drank. The acid content was so high it completely destroyed the equipment.” Fortunately vampires are almost indestructible.

            

“I haven’t heard of anything that relates to acid, especially acid so violently potent as this,” Edward said, puzzled, “it must be witchcraft!”

            

“Well we should have the chance to get some answers tomorrow,” Carlisle said, “now that Savanna has made the first move – “

            

Emmett interrupted him throwing-up a mouthful of the black acid, which started bubbling on the floor as it dissolved and disintegrated the carpet.            

            

“Edward I’m going to need your help,” Carlisle said, “if I can pump his stomach then hopefully the recovery process will be a little faster.”

            

“Sure,” Edward said. Rosalie stayed too, but the rest of us left the room. Emmett didn’t need an audience, and the sight wasn’t exactly pretty.

            

“Well see you tomorrow,” Alice said, holding Jasper’s hand as they started to head to their room. Tonight had been tyring; we had been living in fear-free bliss for the last six years, so everything seemed to be happening too fast, shocking the system.             “Are you guys okay?” I turned to face Nessie and Jacob.

            

Jacob yawned, and Nessie nodded.

            

“I think you two need to go back to bed,” I said, a little amused at them both – it was cute seeing them tired; this sight must have been similar to what Edward saw from me when I was still human.

           

I followed them as they slowly walked up the stairs, heading to their rooms where I was sure that they would both fall back into a deep sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. I wished that Edward was with me. I felt a little lonely – like something was incomplete without him. It wasn’t that I needed to discuss the nights events, but it was all so dramatic, and now that I was by myself, this was highlighted – usually after something like this Edward was with me, holding me and making me feel like everything will be okay. I went into our bathroom, and turned the heat of the water up as far as it would go on the baths’ electronic dial. For any human, the temperature would have been too hot, but I would still barely feel it. I was hoping that it would act as even a slight substitute for the comfort I was craving from Edward.

            

I relaxed into the bath and after quickly failing to escape to the world Edward’s music was sending me earlier, I settled on watching the subtle glow forming in the far distance of the forest – the sunrise. We would be going to school in a few hours, which I wasn’t looking forward too. Fortunately we had started late in the week, today was Friday. I couldn’t believe that all this had happened and we hadn’t even had our second day at High School yet. This night seemed like it had lasted forever, and I felt like we had been in Seward for months.

            

Edward surprised me when he walked into the bathroom. Usually I would have heard him well before he entered the bedroom, but my brain was not thinking straight at the moment – as a vampire I didn’t need sleep and couldn’t even if I wanted too, which would have been nice now.

            

“Hows Emmett?” I asked, turning to face him.

            

“He’s better,” Edward asked, “he’s gone for a run to try and get rid of any remaining poison, and he will be coming to school with us too.”

            

“Wow,” I said, astonished, as he was almost dead about an hour ago.

            

“Mind if I join you?” Edward asked, sounding slightly amused by something.

            

“Please,” I replied. As I watched him remove his shirt I noticed that it was completely ruined, as if he been in a fire or something. His pants were the same too. “What happened to your clothes?” I asked.

            

“Acid,” he said, “it doesn’t hurt us though unless its consumed,” he added reassuringly. Sure enough his skin was flawless as usual. He came into the bath next to me, and grabbed my face gently as he leaned in to kiss me. His kiss sent an electric pulse straight to my heart, making me lean into him, kissing him back passionately. I didn’t want this kiss to end, and neither did my body as I had somehow managed to move into a position where I was pinning him to the edge of the bathtub. We remained locked in this moment of passion for the next hour until the sun had almost filled the sky. 

   © Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010         

           

             

           

 

             

CHAPTER TWELVE

SUPERNATURAL

“What?!” I blurted, in a much quieter voice than I’d expected. The rush of fear that went through my body was in full control of me, I hadn’t had this feeling since we were nearly taken-out by the Volturi six years ago.

            

“Their parents introduced themselves to me at the supermarket today,” Esme said, “they’re the owners. It was all very odd – the woman, Sara, did all the talking and invited us all to their supposed annual Halloween party. Such a contrast to the rather stand-off shoppers around.”

            

“What could they be?” Nessie said.

            

“I don’t know,” Edward answered, “but their definitely more than human.”

            

“Well it’s a good thing they’ve invited us,” Alice said, with a subtle snap to the tone of her voice, “the only way we can figure this out is if we interact with them; so on a more important note, I’m going into town to sort our costumes out. It is a Halloween party, so don’t roll your eyes Edward!”

            

We all laughed. Alice was right though, we didn’t need to be sitting around, obsessing over what Savanna and her family were. “Can I come with you?” I asked. Forgetting this fear was still going to be easier said than done, especially being around Edward – the biggest worrier.

            

“Sure,” Alice said, her eyes brightening up. We hadn’t spent any time alone together since Forks, so it was be nice to have the chance to hang out with just each other again.

            

“See you all soon,” Alice chimed, as she jumped up from her seat pulling me out of the room with her.

            

Alice sped down the driveway in her yellow Porsche, the gift from Edward for baby sitting me when I was still human. “So, what are we going to get dressed up as,” I asked.

           

“I was thinking vampires,” Alice said, with a sly smirk. “Its always fun to dress up as our fictional depictions.”

            

“That would be pretty cool,” I said, “what about Jacob though? Shall we find him a dog outfit?”

            

Alice chuckled, “that would be funny, except he’ll be flying to Forks tomorrow to see his Dad, remember?”

            

“That’s right,” I said. I had forgotten about this – our misbehaving border – although it was a good thing; if Savanna and her family turn out to be a threat, then at least one of us that would be safe. “Do you think we should send Nessie with him as well, until we can find out what these people are?”

            

“Bella!” Alice said sharply, “everything is going to be fine, Nessie will be fine to stay behind, stop worrying.”

           

I was still worrying, something I was trying to get away from by coming with Alice in the first place. We didn’t talk for the rest of the journey to Seward’s shopping centre. Alice parked the car outside of a large black shop, with green text reading, “Cosmo’s Costumes.”

            

“I’m sorry,” Alice said once she had turned the engine off. “I get so frustrated when I can’t see things, and I’m starting to get a headache like I did when Jacob first came into our lives, so I’m pretty sure that someone or something is effecting me.”

            

I smiled at her sympathetically, and gave her hug – which was comforting to me too; Alice was my sister now. “At least your gift hasn’t been affected,” she added.

            

“What do you mean?” I asked.

           

“You can protect all of us,” Alice replied.

           

I thought about this, clueless for a moment, and then it hit me. I remembered the day that the Volturi came to kill us all, and that I was able to send out a protective shield covering all of us. A sense of relief began to come over me, “thanks,” I said to Alice, “I totally forgot about that.”

            

“Well you haven’t really had much need for it,” she said, and then chuckled to herself as she got out of the car.

           

The store was overcrowded with racks of costumes; “Halloween must be a big deal here,” I said.

           

I followed Alice to the shop counter, where a woman in her late twenties sat reading a book. She had pale skin, multiple piercing’s on her face, and a few tattoos on her arms. Her hair was shoulder length, and died black which didn’t really suite her complexion; she had heavy black eye makeup on too. “How can I help,” she said in a very monotonous voice, putting her book down. She was reading True Blood and I had to hold back from bursting into laughter – we had all watched a few episodes of the television series, it was all so real yet totally fake as we obviously knew that most fiction about vampires was false; it was the ultimate fictional depiction for the serious vampire fan.

            

“I need seven vampire costumes,” Alice said, “three guys four girls please.” She put a small piece of paper down on the bench too, which I guessed was everyone’s sizes. Alice really was the ultimate personal stylist. The shop assistant took the piece of paper, and went to a rack which appeared to be full of black cloaks.

            

“The Volturi would be ecstatic if they saw us in these,” Alice whispered jokingly, “they’d think we had decided to join them.”

           

I laughed quietly, it had never really crossed my mind that the Volturi actually dressed somewhat as fictional vampires.

            

“So that’s why you didn’t accept Aro’s offer,” I teased back, “can’t live without fashion.”

            

“Of course,” Alice said.

            

The shop assistant came back to the counter and zipped the costumes in a suite bag.

            

“I can’t wait to do everyone’s makeup,” Alice said as we drove home.

******

When Renesmee and Jacob went to their rooms to sleep, Edward and I went to ours too. Alice, Jasper, Esme and Carlisle did the same, whilst Rosalie and Emmett went out hunting. I could see that Edward was still worrying about things, but he was trying hard not to show it. He played some of Chopin’s Nocturnes to me, which if I were human would have sent me into a peaceful sleep – not out of boredom, but simply because of their peaceful beauty.

           

“I love you,” I said softly, as Edwards fingers swept ever so softly over the keys of the shiny black grand.

            

“Love you to,” he murmured.   

            

“Alice reminded me of something today,” I said.

            

“What was that?” Edward asked calmly, continuing to play the slow and peaceful music.

            

“My gift. They may be able to affect yours and Alice’s, but at least I’ll be able to shield us all,” I said.

            

“Unless theirs something like witchcraft involved,” he replied, “but hopefully your gift would overpower that too.”

            

“What do you mean?” I asked, taken back a little, “does that kind of stuff even exist?”

            

“Bella, we know that vampires, shape-shifters, and ware wolves exist,” he said, with a subtle smirk across his face, “so it is likely. I’m not entirely sure though, and neither is Carlisle. But if they do, I would imagine that there would be very few around, we know that many people suspected of witchcraft were killed in the sixteenth century, there could have been some truth in their accusations.” He had momentarily stopped playing as the song had ended, but continued with one of my favourites – Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

            

The fear from earlier on in the day was beginning to creep back in, and I remembered my thoughts for Renesmee when I was with Alice earlier – I couldn’t stand the thought of her being in any danger. “Should we send Nessie to Forks with Jacob tomorrow?” I asked.

            

Edward thought about this for a moment, “No, I think that they at least want to get to know us first.”

            

He had a point, and it was reassuring enough. I lay back on the sofa again, and in an attempt to relax, closed my eyes letting the music penetrate my mind and take me to a different world.

My developing image of our small, comforting cottage in the woods outside of Forks was interrupted when our bedroom door sprung open, slamming against the adjacent wall that I’m sure if I had looked would have left some damage. “Edward!” Alice said, the shrill tone to her voice sent a haunting chill down my spine. “Edward! Emmett –” she started again.

Edward was up from the piano stool, “tell Carlisle to be ready when we get him back!” he said cutting her short, as he sprinted out of the room. I had no idea what they were talking about as Edward had heard Alice’s thoughts – a faster way for them to communicate to each other; and I could only guess that she went to Edward first as he was the fastest runner.

“Alice what happened, what did you see!?” I asked, panic filling my entire being.

“I’m not sure,” she said quickly, “but Emmett has lost almost all of his strength. Its almost like he’s been paralyzed”

I didn’t know what to make to make of this. I looked out the window into the dark night, to the forest where he was lying somewhere; as I looked out into the night I couldn’t help but notice the odd red patch of light in the sky – as if a meteor had fallen from the sky and left a blood-red path.

            

“Alice!” I said, fixated on the strange sight, “look at this.” When she didn’t reply after a short moment I turned to see if she was looking, and was meet with a stunned expression that was probably equal to mine.

            

“This is bad,” she said eventually.

            

“What is it?” I asked.

           

“I don’t know, but its not natural,” she replied. I remembered what Edward was talking about when I brought up my gift – could it be some form of witchcraft?

           

Alice and I must have been staring at this sight for a while, as the sound of Rosalie’s voice snapped us back to reality, “shall we put him on the couch” I heard her ask as they entered the front door downstairs.

           

“I’ve set a bed up in the study,” Carlisle replied.

            

I followed Alice as she left the room to see what was going on now that Emmett was back. When we reached Carlisle’s study Edward and Rosalie were finishing lifting Emmett onto the hospital bed that had been set up – probably the same one that had been pulled out for me a few times in Forks. I looked at Emmett, he was completely unconscious, and his skin had turned a subtle grey colour. His lips seemed to be smeared with some sort of black substance as well.

            

“How long do you think it will take?” Rosalie asked.

            

“I’m not to sure,” Carlisle answered, “but he should become conscious within a few hours. We should let him rest in the meantime.”

           

“What happened?” Alice asked, as Carlisle closed the door after we all left the room except for Rosalie.

            

“Emmett has been infected,” he said.

            

“By what?” Alice asked.

            

“Where not too sure,” Edward answered, “when I read his mind all I saw was that he was hunting an ordinary bear, but as soon as he sunk his teeth into its skin he was in pain briefly before everything blacked out.”

            

Alice didn’t speak, and I didn’t know what to make of this. “There’s something else,” I said, speaking for the first time since Emmett had been brought home. I ran up the stairs to our room, which had the best view of our surroundings, the others followed closely behind; “look out over the forest.”

            

Edward gasped slightly as he saw, “any ideas?” Alice asked.

            

“It could be witchcraft,” Carlisle said.

            

“It has to be,” Edward replied, “its surreal!” The red in the sky hadn’t faded at all since Alice and I had first seen it, and it really was an abnormal sight as the surrounding sky was pitch black. “I’ll see what I can find in the libraries archives tomorrow,” he added, “if there has been any sort of witchcraft in Seward throughout history then surely we can find some form of an indication about things there.”

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “in the mean time don’t hunt in the forest; we’re going to have to go offshore for a while.” By this he meant the sea. “I’ll go check on Emmett now, I need to take samples of that black substance around his mouth – that could help us a lot.”

            

“Renesmee’s going with Jacob tomorrow!” Edward said. I was relieved at this, I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her – and after seeing Emmett grey and unconscious, I didn’t want to take risks.            

            

“Good,” I said.

            

We stood in silence for the next few hours trying to unfold everything. The red beam in the sky slowly began to fade away after about an hour. I couldn’t help but wonder why everything supernatural always seemed to happen to me. Why trouble seemed to come to those I was around? I must have been showing this somewhat on my face, as Edward moved behind me, embracing me in his arms while we continued to watch the sky in silence.       

              

After a short while longer Edward broke the silence, “Emmett’s conscious now,” he said. But before anyone had the chance to reply, a loud shriek of pain took us all by surprise. It was Emmett. “Whatever this is,” Edward said, his voice full of panic and fear, “its getting worse!”

            

Emmett’s cry of pain must have woken Renesmee and Jacob too, as they followed us now as we started to run downstairs to the study. As we were about to pass the entranceway to the house, the doorbell rang, causing us all to stop dead in our tracks. I instantly looked to Edward to see if he could hear who it was – nobody knew this house was even functioning, let alone the fact that it was the middle of the night!

            

“Its Savanna!” Edward said, with a slight snarl to the tone of his voice.


© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron