AN: We all know full well that Stephenie Meyers owns our favorite series . . . even if a certain Panic at-the Edward wishes that it was her own mind that created Edward Cullen . . . sigh
MAJOR BREAKING DAWN SPOILERS-READ AT OWN RISK!!
My life, rather my existence, was now complete. I had my family and we were safe. It seemed almost criminal to be so blissfully happy. It had been six months since my peace had been majorly disturbed. In those six months, nothing, and everything had changed.
Nessie, or Renesmee now had the IQ of an adult in her beautiful six year old body. She grew so fast that it was like watching a time lapse, though Carlisle assured me that her growth rate was steadily declining. Jacob's terrible nick-name for my daughter had started to rub off on me, I found myself sub-consciously calling her Nessie, the nick-name that I once detested. Jacob had another nickname for Renesmee now, and I would have opposed it forcefully, if I hadn't been the one to create the name in the first place. "Miss Wolfe!" he often called as he entered the Cullen mansion in the mornings. Renesmee would always laugh when he greeted her in this way, but she would probably have laughed at any joke he made, including the blonde jabs directed at Rosalie.
The bond between Jacob and my daughter had become, if possible, even stronger. She loved him as much as she loved Edward and myself, but in a completely different way. Their relationship was not in any way romantic, though I knew that that would change all too soon. For the time being, however, it was as if Jacob's entire world revolved around her. From Renesmee's perspective it was as if Jacob was her favorite present, one that she never grew tired of playing with. He was her big brother and her best friend all wrapped up in one.
It was so hard to imagine that Jacob and I had ever loved each other in a romantic way. He was still my best friend, but there was no pain as there once had been. Fate, or the magical force of our mythical reality, had finally laid down its winning hand. All other players had folded, leaving us with the jackpot. My jackpot was filled quite a bit with Edward. Being indestructible had some serious advantages when it came to filling the space between dusk and dawn.
My Edward, I got to think every night. Since I discovered the power that I had, I always wanted him to know that I was, and always had been his Bella too. I was getting better at controlling my gift and could now effectively let him see what I was thinking, even as he distracted me. Once things got past "distracting" though, my mind shut down in more ways than one and my instincts took over. I smiled at my latest similar memory . . . only a few hours ago.
Renesmee was lying in our bed, sandwiched between myself and Edward. She lay facing me, her chocolate eyes staring deeply into mine. Lying down together in the mornings had become a bit of a tradition with us, Renesmee would wake up, Edward would hear her thoughts shift from her floating dreams, and then we would race to get ready. The first one to make it to Renesmee's room re-clothed would win. We would all eventually lie down and talked, or showed, in Renesmee's case. At first I won the race, and then, as my newborn abilities started to fade, Edward would win. Of course there were
days that we forgot about our race altogether and Renesmee would be the one to collect us instead of the other way around. It happened to be one of these mornings.
She would knock on the door before entering, though that wasn't really necessary when you had a mind reader in the room. Edward would sigh contentedly and whisper "until tonight", pressing his lips against mine one final time before dashing into the ridiculously huge closet, emerging fully dressed and handing me something to wear before opening the door and scooping up our daughter in one fluid movement. My clothes were on before he turned around with our daughter. The time in between Renesmee's knock and the door opening was literally under two seconds at the most. He would carry her to the middle of the room where he would drop her onto the soft bedding. Her little intelligent face would sparkle as she greeted us, crawling into my lap to give me a hug. Then she would look into my eyes and tell me good morning using her strange gift.
I was not the only one working to perfect my unique power. Renesmee had discovered that her touch was no longer necessary for her to share her thoughts with others, though the contact made it much easier for her. She merely had to look into the eyes of anyone and they were captivated, seeing exactly what she wanted them to see. Though her non- touch method was much harder for her, she relished the challenge and strived to master her power.
At the moment, however, she was using physical contact to relay her latest dreams. Her hand was on my face, and she was showing me her dream. Edward, of course, could see her thoughts as they passed through her mind. She was showing me a dark mass of cloaks, the back of a distinctly reddish wolf's head masking part of her vision. She was scanning the field in her dream, her eyes brimmed with tears as she caught sight of the ones she loved, her friends and family, even a few acquaintances whom she had not yet met well. They were all crouched protectively in front of her. Her mind's eye zoomed in on my hand clutched around Edward's, she looked at our faces, seeing the worry so clearly it was as if we had painted a red sign across our faces saying "we are going to die any minute". The scene abruptly changed into a dark room underground, it seemed to be a dungeon in a castle. An unpleasantly familiar face was nodding with apparent curiosity at a relatively new born female vampire as she stared worshipingly into his face. The female's features were beautiful, of course, but they were twisted into an unhealthy adoration of the vampire before her. Her scarlet eyes never broke their sickening gaze from his face. He outstretched his pale hand and the young female tentatively reached out for it, before grasping it firmly in front of her. After a moment, Aro smiled and lightly pulled his hand out of the female's reach, who hastily dropped her hands as if they had been burned. She dropped her head for a moment before she continued to gaze at her creator. She asked in a beautiful but harsh voice a simple question. "What does it mean?"
"My dear one, it may mean that our less than pleasing encounter with the unappreciative ones may yet be re-settled to our advantage."
Renesmee then clearly took the dream out of my mind, only to refocus again on the one thing the mysterious new vampire had said "What does it mean?"
"I don't know." I exchanged a glance with Edward that Renesmee did not miss, and then controlled the barrier of my mind, shifting it so that it hovered away from me, allowing me to open my mind to Edward's gift. I asked many questions in the lapse of one of Renesmee's fluttering heartbeats. "Does it mean anything? Who is the Aro-worshipper? To Aro's advantage?" I silently asked him.
"I don't know." He repeated my words out loud, a blank look crossed his face, he was thinking, evaluating.
Renesmee grabbed onto my focus once more, asking me without words if it even mattered. "It was only a dream, after all." she reasoned. I nodded not truthfully. I hadn't shared my early dreams of the Volturi attacking "EJ" with Renesmee, but Edward knew. It may have just been my instinct, telling me that something was wrong so long ago, but my instinct had talked to me through dreams, well nightmares really, before. Learning the truth about what Edward was, and then Jacob too, so very long ago, but still the memories of these nightmares came flooding back. In some cases I had overlooked my dreams, and I wouldn't let that happen again. I was monitoring Nessie's dreams, mostly about our happy family, Jacob included. Her dreams occasionally did take a less pleasant turn, the Volturi's appearance six months ago would come up, her only night mare. Until last night. The beginning was the usual, but the part with Aro and the strange female? It was all too confusing, but I decided it would be best not to overreact. I would ask Alice to try and see this new face in Aro's future later.
"Don't worry sweetie, it will all be fine." I smiled down at her, and she smiled back. She gave me a kiss and turned to face her father. I didn't need to be a mind-reader to see how much he adored her, it was etched plainly on his face like text on white pages.
He held Renesmee in his arms for a minute, looking into her eyes the entire time. They were calm one second, and then the next I heard the rush of wind as Renesmee shot through the house at near vampire speeds. Edward raced after her, never breaking stride as he hoisted her onto his back. I smiled to myself and jumped out of bed, my feet were flying before they touched the floor. I raced up to the huge mansion, catching up to Edward and Renesmee in seconds, Edward wasn't running his very fastest, though I was. I flew in the air over the water separating our cottage from the Cullen mansion, Edward and Nessie flying next to me. I heard a small scream of "faster!" and knew that the race was on. It took me only four seconds to reach the back door, but Edward and Nessie were already there. Renesmee smiled her brilliant smile and jumped out of Edward's hands to go greet her favorite half-human. Jacob had arrived.
AN: A lot of explaining in this chapter, the next is sure to be more dialogue and action-ish! And now I must address something that can be most easily resolved, dear ones . . . Aro-ish impersonation PLEASE REVIEW!! Good, bad, whatever makes the story better, please give me some tips! If you took the time to read this entire thing then you obviously have something to say about it . . .