CHAPTER NINETEEN

WELCOME TO THE SUPERNATURAL

The concept of witchcraft seemed so fictional to me – which of course was contradictory considering my permanent status in this world!

“So what happened at the airport?” I asked Jacob as we were driving home. I knew the basic facts, that Desiree used magic to capture him; but I wanted to know what is was like, what it felt like – magic was a foreign concept to me, all new aspects of being a vampire were more, physical feeling, beyond super-athlete! Magic seemed so mysterious.

“Ahh, well,” he started, sounding a little confused, “I’m not really to sure! I was walking down the last corridor towards the metal detector, and as I stepped through it I found myself in a locked room at Savanna’s house.”

  “And when I say locked,” he added, “I mean like with magic, or, some kinda force! I tried to break the flimsy looking door down, but couldn’t even leave a mark!”

I longed to be able to laugh at this – the thought of Jacob being too weak to knock a door down would have been funny about a week ago, when were still in Forks. But it wasn’t funny – given the circumstances. The concept of dealing with the reality of one new beyond-real being, a venevore, was more than overwhelming, but two!? It turned our world upside-down! Desiree wasn’t being subtle in expressing to us what she was either, and that she is more powerful than she looked. Somehow she knew that we were vampires, that Jacob was a warewolf, and Renesmee, half vampire and half, human – something that was meant to have been completely unique.  

I didn’t know what to say! I was a vampire who had the ability to process twenty things in a matter of seconds and I was speechless – I felt weak, human again. I was an easy target before Edward turned me, fragile and weak; but where did I stand now when I had reached invincible? Where did any of us stand against these new beings!?

“Bella,” Edward’s voice was clam as it broke my full-powered train of thought, “we will figure this out! Stop worrying so, hard,” he continued somewhat thoughtfully.

I turned to look at him. He was looking back at me, his face serious, his eyes intent. He looked worried and concerned, but strong at the same time – there was hope inside of him; something that I seemed to be neglecting. I realised that my neurotic instincts, which were kicking in from the potential threat that Desiree and her family brought, were clearly much stronger than when I was human – I guess this helped to explain why I was feeling so weak, so un-vampire!

The car came to a stop, we were home. As I momentarily continued to stare blankly at Edward I wondered whether Alice had seen anything, had she seen Jacob vanish? Had she seen Edward and I become consumed with bloodlust? I couldn’t hear that she was home yet, they would all still be in the last class of the day no doubt.

I flinched a little as Edward stroked his hand against my cheek – I wasn’t flinching out of discomfort, but the complete opposite. His touch was like an ice-pack to a fiery burn – not cold like when I was human, but soothing. I forced a slight smile in appreciation of the comfort he was giving me, then turned to get out of the car.

“Jacob!” I heard Nessie exclaim as she raced out the front door to meet us - I hadn’t even shut the door of the car yet; she would have heard us coming from the beginning of the long driveway.

“Are you okay?” she asked, the concern in her voice pained me, “what happened? You just, vanished!?”

A slight feeling of guilt rushed over me at Nessies concern for Jacob – I had brought her into this world, a world that wasn’t safe!

“I’m fine,” Jacob replied, pulling a slight grin as he spoke.

“Show-off,” I thought to myself. Jacob being his usual, witty self, was instantly beginning to mask the sombre, negative thoughts that I seemed to be generating at high-speeds.

Nessie’s face relaxed a little too, and she gave him a hug.

“Come on, lets go inside,” Edward said to me, “Carlisle’s almost here and schools finishing in a few minutes; there’s something I want to run past you first, before everyone comes home.”

I followed Edward into the house and up the stars to our room. I had no idea what he waned to talk to me about.

“Bella,” he said softy as he closed the door behind him.

“What is it? I asked.

“We don’t know how much of a threat Desiree and Savanna really are, and we don’t know anything about what they are;” I nodded for him to go on, I knew this already so wasn’t quite sure where he was going, “the point is, we need information – and we nee it quickly,” he added, “we need to know what we are dealing with because it doesn’t just effect us.”

I thought about this for a moment, “just us? Who else was there?” Then I realised – vampire life didn’t involve just “us,” we were part of an elite world, a secret world, with its own set of rules–

“The volturi!” I exclaimed, as I made the connection. He nodded slightly but continued to let me process things. He wasn’t referring to the volturi specifically, but I knew that if Desiree and her family were a threat to our existence, which we weren’t entirely sure of yet, then they would also be a threat to all vampires - and if this were the case then the volturi would no doubt be the first on the scene. “Has Alice seen something?” I asked, thinking that she may have had a vision that they were deciding to visit due to some sort of future commotion that Desiree and her family were going to cause. The idea of the volturi visiting made me nervous, we didn’t exactly sit in the best of places with them; the last time we saw them, around six years ago, they left feeling somewhat humiliated, and defeated in regards to the power that they held over us – the friendship that Aro had with Carlisle was somewhat broken, and Edward knew that our large family threatened them. 

“No,” Edward replied, “she hasn’t. But I’m thinking that we should visit.”

I clenched my teeth as I realised what he had said – despite the fact that I knew I could protect us all with my shield, I still felt nervous at the thought of seeing them; probably more out of habit than anything.

“We, as in all of us?” I asked, knowing that he probably meant himself and Carlilse, maybe Alice too. I didn’t want to think about being separated from him. 

“Just you and I,” he replied, “Carlisle needs to stay here, people will notice his absence as he’s proving pretty popular at the medical centre – and we can’t all take time off school either, we have to look normal, blend in as much as we can still.” 

“So why you and, me?” I asked, em phasing the word me – Edward had almost one hundred years over me, I was still a new vampire really; “wouldn’t Alice be more helpful?”

“Well Bella, like I said before,” he replied, “we want to blend in; if we go away then it will just look like we’ve just taken a holiday or something – and in Desiree and her families eyes, a holiday for us should be more understanding considering what Desiree has just put us through.”

He did have a point, if a few of us were to leave then Desiree and her family would get suspicious; but if Edward and I left, we would have a better chance of them buying whatever story we decided to throw their way – Desiree especially as she seemed so confident that she had power over all of us, her arrogance would hopefully get the better of her in this case.

“Plus,” Edward said, with a slight grin on his face, “your more useful to me than Alice. You can protect us from any of their gifts. If they decide to do anything that would put us in danger, I will be able to hear it in their thoughts; and if its something that they haven’t thought of yet, then Alice will be able to contact us on the cell phone – she’s already watching them closely here.”

I thought about this for a moment – I liked the idea that I was more useful to this venture than Alice, not because I was jealous of her or anything, but because this was the first time that my gift was being relied on with more certainty about the extent that I was able to push it. I had simple surprised everyone six years ago when the volturi came to kill us. 

“So your with me?” Edward asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be with –“ I stopped as I realised what he meant. “Renesmee,” I said quietly. Leaving with Edward to go to volturi would mean leaving her behind. I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her, especially if I wasn’t there, and both Desiree and Eric had taken a particular interest in her.

“No – “ I started, but stoped as Edward put his hands on my shoulders.

“Bella,” he said, looking directly into my eyes, “I don’t want to leave her anymore than you do, but I have a plan! We will only be gone a couple of days and the others will be with her the entire time, so they won’t touch anyone. You can protect us in the forest tonight so that we can all hunt, that way we can ensure that everyone will be together while we’re gone – and whilst Alice can’t see Desiree and her family in her visions, she will see if Renesmee’s future disappears, then we will come straight back.”

*****

I agreed to Edwards plan after a little more convincing. Though still I hated the fact that we were leaving Renesmee behind, I knew that it was more important to find out about witches and venevores, considering we were now living with some; and how to protect ourselves from them! When everyone had arrived home Edward and I filled them in on what had happened with Desiree this afternoon - including Alice who couldn’t get a vision of us - and discussed our plans to see the volturi immediately. They all seemed to agree; none of them liked the idea of a visit from them any time soon, as they would most likely blame any disruption on us – any excuse to get rid of such a large, and potentially threatening clan. Carlisle also made the point that if anyone knew anything about these other supernatural’s that they would be likely candidates – given their age.

I stood at the edge of the forest a few hours after dark, with Edward by my side. Everyone except Edward and I was going to hunt while I protected them, we would go together once they had fed. I closed my eyes, concentrating on letting my shield flow from me in multiple directions as they each went their separate ways to catch their prey.

Edward and I were to leave in about an hour to catch a flight to Italy from the international airport in Anchorage. The flight left in the early hours of the morning, but we had to drive to Anchorage first, which was around one hundred miles away, as the Seward airport had no flights there until tomorrow. Once we were in Italy we would then meet with the volturi in hopes of discovering some useful information on this new element to our supernatural world that we all faced.

Copyright © to Jonathan Cameron 2011

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ANSWERS

Edwards grip around my waist tightened slightly as the first glint of the mornings sunrise began to form in the horizon over the large mass of forestation the filled our bathroom window. From around 2am we had stopped talking to each other, waiting, still and silent as marble statues for Monday to come around. The rest of the weekend had been a bit of a waiting game too. Carlisle, Edward and Jasper, had been spending as much time as they could at the library, but had found little information on exactly what a venevore really was and where they came from – we were hoping that today would bring some real answers. I was anxious to see that Savanna was going to show-up at school, that she would honour her promise to answer some of our questions.

            

I leaned back slightly in Edward’s embrace, lifting my arm and finding his smooth face with my hand. I gently ran a couple of my fingers down his jaw line – lifting the barriers of my mind I said the words, “I love you,” as loud and clearly as I could, without making an actual sound from my mouth. He answered with another slight squeeze of his arms around my waist, and continued watching the sunrise in anticipation for the day to come.

Renesmee had came better by Sunday, but we still made her take things easy – the headache had gone, but her strength wasn’t yet as strong as usual. She was looking forward to seeing Jacob again after his first weekend back in Forks visiting Billy, this week had felt like an entire lifetime, and we all had noticed his absence; he was meant to have come back Sunday evening, but we received a call a few hours beforehand from Billy, who said that his flight had been delayed due to a bad storm and was rescheduled for today. We weren’t surprised by the call though, as Alice, who was now able to see visions of Jacob as she had became use to his presence, had been keeping an eye on him and saw the freak storm and the delay coming well before meteorologists. Esme and Nessie were picking him up from the airport early this afternoon.

The sun was almost in full view over the horizon line. I watched it closely, my anticipation growing. I could see the sun moving inch-by-inch, higher into the sky. As soon as it came into full view our day would begin.

“Bella,” Edward murmured, a little awkwardly, unexpectedly breaking the silence of the last few hours. I turned slightly to look at his face. “Your elbow,” he added in the same awkward manner.

I concentrated on my elbows, quickly realising that I was digging one into his chest a little to hard – my whole body was on edge today. “Opps,” I said, quickly relaxing it. I still had moments with Edward where I forgot that in terms of fragility we were equal.

Edward kissed my shoulder as I began to let my body gently sit against his again.

“Perhaps we should just start getting ready,” he said about a minute later, “the others are anxious to start doing something now too.”

I liked this idea a lot. Time was moving excruciatingly slow, watching the sun rise every inch. I was out of the bath and drying myself before I had the chance to answer him, “I think that’s a great idea,” I said as I ran the towel through the wet ends of my hair; my voice sounded like it had more of a ring to it than usual.  

*****

Getting up earlier didn’t help at all; it just made the morning seem that much longer! We hadn’t seen Savanna at school yet, but Edward reassured us that she was here. Our first three classes of the day, English, History and Science were extremely slow. Why did Math have to be in the afternoon! The one day that it wasn’t in the morning!

We were the first to be waiting at our usual lunch table, along with Alice. Nessie was coming towards us now.

“Eric doesn’t seem to know anything about our arrangement with Savanna,” Edward said, monotonously shearing Nessie’s thoughts before she had reached the table to shear them herself; “he’s keeping his distance though – probably a little confused from us intervening with his plans at the party on Friday,” he added.

Nessie sat down, and Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper joined us a few minutes later. After lunch Nessie was to be picked up by Esme, so that they could get Jacob from the airport together. She was excited to see him – this weekend must have seemed a lot longer for her being stuck in bed for the large majority; Jacob had no idea what had happened at the party and she was probably dying to tell him all about it.

I remembered my fears about Jacob and Nessie falling in love so soon, as she was only a few months off becoming fully grown; but I wasn’t as worried now. Jacob and Nessie had become a lot closer over the last few weeks, but it wasn’t the type of love that I had feared; they were best friends, companions – maybe the romance would come in a few more decades, after all, we’re living forever!

For the rest of the lunch break we all seemed to be consumed in our own thoughts, making the odd bit of small talk – moments like this were never awkward for us, we were all so used to one another.

“And three, two, one,” Jasper muttered. On one, the bell indicating that it was time for classes to resume rang – he had clearly been counting down out of anticipation for meeting with Savanna.

“Esme’s here,” Edward said to Nessie.

“Great!” she replied enthusiastically. Her anxiousness was concentrated on Jacob as oppose to the slightly more frightening thought of finally getting some answers out of Savanna in regards to what exactly the deal was with her and her family – something we were looking forward to, but was frightening never-the-less.

“Have fun,” Alice said, as she started getting up from her seat. Edward and I were meeting with Savanna alone. We were hoping to organise a time with her during math class, or to even skip math and talk to her elsewhere.

I smiled slightly at her, “keep watch,” I replied.

She winked at me as she turned to head to her class. The rest of us got up too, making our way out of the cafeteria. “See you at home,” I said quietly to Nessie, as she was about to part from Edward and I to sign out of school for the day at the main office.

“Bye,” she replied quietly.

Edward took my hand, squeezing it slightly as we continued down the corridor to our math class; we were a matter of minutes, seconds from finally seeing Savanna since my outburst on Saturday. I could sense that Edward felt the same climax to our waiting as me.

Savanna was standing opposite our math class, looking more nervous and awkward than usual – she was constantly moving slightly, shifting her bodyweight from leg to leg. “Hey,” she said quietly, her voice quivering a little; “ahh, meet me in the car park.”

She didn’t give Edward or I a chance to respond, walking past us immediately towards the office – possibly to sign out?

“Lets go through the cafeteria,” Edward murmured to me, “we don’t want to make too much of a scene with all of us leaving.”    

I followed Edward, back though the cafeteria to take the different rout to reach the car park. We kept our pace slow, human and casual, as we didn’t want to bring any attention to ourselves – we were still susceptible to being noticed as straying students in the teachers eyes!

When we reached the student parking lot Savanna was waiting for us near our Volvo. “I guess we’re skipping class,” I said to Edward under my breath.

“So, where are we doing this?” Edward asked Savanna, when we were a few metres away from her.

“Desiree knows,” she said, “we’re going to see her”. I wasn’t quite sure whether that was a direct reply to Edwards question, or more of a sperate statement, a demand even.

“I’ll drive,” Edward said, his voice sounding a little confused – Savanna must have had the usual guard up for protecting her thoughts.

I sat next to Edward in the passengers seat; Savanna was in the back. We didn’t talk as Edward drove to her house. The silence seemed rather awkward to me. Though I had the feeling that I already knew that answer, I wanted to ask whether this change in plan was a bad thing. Desiree seemed to play the lead figure in the family, introducing us to her family, and coming across so confident – I wanted to know Savanna’s thoughts on that, before we met with Desiree. I was confident that she was in some kind of trouble over this.

I refrained from speaking however – she seemed nervous and on edge. Instead, I pushed the natural barrier that constantly surrounded my form out towards Edward so that he could read my thoughts – he always knew instantaneously when I was allowing him into my mind, to read my thoughts, as he always seemed to show it on his face; even when it was fixed like a statue I was able to make him twitch ever-so-slightly. I knew that he wasn’t able to respond with Savanna in the backseat, but was happy that I was able to express my thoughts knowing that he was listening.

The car slowed and Edward turned the indicator on as we pulled into Savanna’s driveway. We parked outside the entrance, and Savanna was quick to open the door. I started to do the same, remembering to be slow as Desiree was probably watching us from the house – I hadn’t looked. We’d not said that we were vampires, though it was obvious that Savanna and her family could tell that we were more than human. As I began to pull the handle of the car door with my left hand, I felt Edwards smooth touch as he grabbed my right. I turned to look at him.

“Remember your gift,” he murmured. Then he let go to get out of the car himself.

Despite the fact that I had just used it to communicate with Edward, I had forgotten about using it to protect in case anything went wrong in this situation – was I going to have to enter a series of potentially dangerous positions with various supernatural beings to remember that my gift can be used to protect? Remember that it was a weapon of sorts, rather than just a means of being able to communicate with, Edward!?

I put that thought to one side as I stepped out of the car, following Savanna and Edward inside.

“Edward, Bella,” Desiree said, in the same welcoming tone from when we had first met her as we walked into the living room. She was sitting in a red armchair, which I hadn’t seen when we last here – it must have been moved out of the way, in a corner or something. It wasn’t as worn as the other furniture in the room, but definitely looked as though it was from the same period. She looked like a Queen sitting in her throne – her long black hair was luscious and sleek, with a gentle wave and blended with her matching black dress. She wore dark lipstick, and a little black eye liner, which accentuated her white skin. If I was still human I would have seen her as flawlessly beautiful – but I could see normal human flaws in her skin, so I knew that she definitely wasn’t a vampire, or at least didn’t have that same trait of everything being enhanced when turned! Not that this observation actually meant anything; after all that had happened over the last couple of days.

“Please, sit down,” she added, gesturing to the three-seater couch across from her, “Savanna tells me you have some questions?”

I followed Edward, who was heading to the couch to take a seat. “Yes, we do,” he answered, a little coldly, “I’m sure your aware with all that has happened over the last few days, otherwise we wouldn’t be meeting with you; so lets cut to the point, what exactly is a venevore?”

Desiree’s face seemed thoughtful as she spoke; “Well its rather self explanatory,” a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice, “a venevore is a creature, a being, who lives on a diet of, venom.”

“Using their claws to infect another’s blood stream to create a source of food, we’ve got that,” Edward said, a little impatiently, “how many of you exist? Where do you come from? What does Eric want with Renesmee!?”

“Savanna,” Desiree said, maintaining a certain level of grace and elegance in her voice, “would you get us all something to drink?”

“Ahh, sure,” Savanna said, quietly, her voice still trembling slightly with nerves like she did in 

the school car park.

Desiree looked back at Edward, who hadn’t seemed to had taken his eyes off of her whilst she spoke to Savanna. “Two,” she said matter-of-factly, answering him, “I come from Salem, Massachusetts; and as for Eric, well, he is a venevore like Savanna, isn’t it rather clear what his intentions were?”

Edward let out a low growl that I was sure only I could hear – she was over-confident, and looking down on him, which he didn’t like! Reflective of his age perhaps. I was processing what Desiree had just said, only two venevores! If Savanna and Eric were the only two, then what was Desiree, she had to be something more than human, she held too much control over Savanna.

“What are yo –“ I was cut short as all of a sudden the sweetest smell entered my nose. It was a familiar smell, but in a form that was a lot more concentrated than what I was use to. It was blood, fresh human blood outside of a body! The burning in my throat was increasing by the second, and I clutched it as I looked over at Edward to see if he was having the same reaction. He seemed to be composing himself better than I was, but it was clear that he was struggling too.

“Bloody-Mary anyone?” Desiree asked, her voice now clearly lined with amusement. Savanna immediately came back into the room, with three glasses of dark red liquid, fresh, warm blood, each with an authenticating green stick of celery. She placed the tray on the small coffee table between Desiree, Edward and I. The drink was clearly not the tradition tomato juice and vodka mix, but simple pure human blood. 

I focused on trying to paralyse my body, the smell was so strong now, sitting right in front of me. I was afraid that if I moved even half a millimetre I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and if I drank it then it would almost be impossible to drink from animals again. I remembered what Edward had said before we came inside, to use my gift! Now would have been the perfect time, except I couldn’t shield the smell of blood – if it even were possible for me to do so then it would be something that would take years, even centuries to perfect. Blood was something so engrained into me, into all vampires. The constant thirst was the price I’d paid to be with Edward for eternity –

Desiree chuckled, and the smell instantly went away. The burning in my throat didn’t subside as quickly, however, I was in full control of myself again and could risk moving. I looked over at Edward, he appeared to be feeling the same way as me. 

“You’re a witch!?” he said, gasping slightly. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at Desiree as he spoke this time, but rather the three drinks on the table; they were now a light and more tomato-red colour, no longer the deeper red of the real blood, they looked and smelt the way they were suppose to – to any human that is.

“And you’re a vampire,” she replied, with an element of humour and sarcasm in her voice, “and clearly vegetarian? Which type of animal do you prefer to drink?” It was evident that was mocking us now.

Edward glared at her. I was rather overwhelmed by the whole situation; this really was not going as we had planned. I starred at Edward, waiting to see what he was going to say next, what he was going to do – I was waiting for him to jump from his seat and push her to the wall, demanding that she take us seriously or something, but he remained perfectly still. He calmed his face, but just as he was about to speak his cell phone rang. He answered it immediately. My sharp hearing allowed me to hear every word of the person calling – it was Esme. I wondered why she calling; I glanced over at the clock on the wall, Jacob’s flight should have landed about ten minutes ago.

“Edward! Edward!” I heard Esme exclaim when he put the phone to his ear, “something’s happened to Jacob! We saw him coming off the plane, down the hall to meet us, he was even waving at us, but as soon as he came through the metal detector he vanished!”

Edward immediately looked at Desiree, glaring at her, and bearing his teeth slightly. “Don’t panic,” he said through his clenched teeth, “I think I know what’s happened, just go home.”

I watched the phone crush in his hand as he slowly re-closed it. He kept his eyes locked on Desiree. She stared back, looking smug and content. “Where is he?” Edward asked. I could tell that he wanted to hurt her badly, but guessed he was restraining himself as she was clearly unpredictable.

“Upstairs,” she replied, “you can have him back shortly, don’t worry.”

Her face then turned cold and serious, “I just thought that I’d make the most of this, opportunity, to let you and the rest of your family know that this is my town.” She held her stare of a moment longer after she had spoken, then relaxed he face slightly again, “I think its time you both left,” she said abruptly.

“Savanna! Get the dog would you.”

She was clearly more powerful than she looked. How had she known that we were vampires and Jacob was a wolf – did she know that Nessie was half human too?

Edward was the first to move, getting up from his seat. I followed him as we left the living room. Jacob was waiting with Savanna by the front door, his face looking a little sheepish. Edward went through the door first, I stopped to let Jacob go before me, he smiled slightly – he must have been glad to see Edward and I, he sure had a lot of catching up to do!

As I was about to step onto the porch outside of the front door Desiree spoke, making me freeze, “Renesmee is a fascinating creature,” she said, slightly playfully. I knew that she was playing a game here, being tactful about something – what was prompting her to bring Renesmee up? Then I remembered that Eric wanted to kill her, to turn her blood to venom to drink. 

I was about to turn around, to face her – I wanted to run at her, threaten her. But Edward beat me to it! His body flashed past mine, and I turned instantly to help, to watch his back if he attacked, but he stopped suddenly when he was about half a metre away from her – his muscles were tense, his back arched and he groaned slightly. He was in pain! I realised that I had seen him like this before. Jane from the Volturi had had the same effect with her gift!

“Gift!” I thought, suddenly remembering what Edward had said earlier again. Closing my eyes I focused on my shield, pushing it out towards Edward, I could feel the strength of the hold that Desiree had over him, but was able to move past this completely surrounding him. I opened my eyes, and Edward looked like he was in control of his body again. I couldn’t see his face but I could tell that he was glaring at her; Desiree was ignoring him, fully focused on me – I stared back at her. She looked a little stunned, which I took some pleasure in; Desiree had clearly not expected me to be able to stop her.

“Lets go,” Edward said, breaking the silence. He turned around and started coming towards me. I did the same, leaving the house. I had a good control of my shield, and I didn’t need to see Edward who was behind me, to continue to cover him with it.

I kept my shield expanded around the three of us as we drove away from their house. Our meeting with Savanna had not gone to plan at all, and we were left with even more questions due to being taken by surprise with Desiree – but, on the other hand, we had learnt enough to give us a better grounding for finding more answers ourselves. 




© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2011