Sun's Gravity
Book 1
Bella
1. The Wedding
Summer. Some of the worst memories of my life. So why did I look forward to it every year? Maybe it was the fact that I would be spending it with my vampire husband, Edward, my half-vampire half-human daughter, Renesmee, and the rest of Edward's vampire family? Or maybe the fact that after my many failed attempts, Edward finally turned me into a vampire, so I could be with him forever? Or maybe it was Charlie? My Dad who had finally found some one after my mom that he could be with. Charlie who had let me be with the one I loved, who had always been there for me. So maybe I should do the same for him. Even if who he wants does reek like werewolf.
I liked Sue. And I know that she would be great for Charlie. No one would ever have to eat his pitiful attempt to cooking again. Thank God. Charlie would be happy again. He had finally gotten over Renee. And that's all I wanted for him. To be happy.
When I finally made it out of my little cottage on Charlie's wedding day, I was suddenly reminded of my own. The happiest day of my life. Didn't I want that for Charlie? I know I did. So why did I get the feeling that today wasn't going to end well? But I shouldn't think like that. This was Charlie's day. Not mine.
This morning was the first time I was grateful of my new closet in my little cottage Edward and I had gotten as a wedding present. I had completely forgotten about getting something nice to wear and was relieved that when I went in my enormous walk-in closet Alice had insisted on putting in our house, I found a nice little blue sundress.
I walked over to the mirror after putting it on and nearly jumped when I saw Edward standing behind me wearing black tuxedo with a bow tie. I didn't think people wore those anymore. But as I so often forgotten, he wasn't of this time. "You know that color blue makes your skin look amazing," he told me, "Just like cream and roses."
"Thank you," I replied, "You don't look to bad yourself." I said as I stroked the side of his face. Even after three years, I still felt the current between us when we touched. I reached up to kiss him, and he kissed back. But unlike just last year, when I was human, I was now the one that had to be careful with him. New vampires have unimaginable strength due to their human blood that still lingers in their body. Though still not as careful as he was with my human self.
He pulled himself back. A feeling I was way too familiar with. "We had better wake Renesmee." He smiled my favorite crooked smile that made even my un-beating heart soar. When we got to her room, all I could do was look at her. Her beautiful red-brown ringlets that glimmered even in the fluorescent lights of our cottage, her sweet innocent face, and her ever-growing body. Though she was only a few months old, she looked seven or eight. At first I was afraid that she would die after about ten years by the way she was progressing, but I was happily relieved after I met Nahuel and discovered after six or seven years Renesmee would reach full growth and become immortal just like a regular vampire.
As we drove down to La Push in my "after" car, of course Edward insisted on taking my new car probably just to sow it off, did I realize that the Quileute's had opened their land to us. "Edward," I said, "How are we allowed on the reservation?"
"I talked to Sam and Jacob yesterday. They agreed that since Charlie is your father, you, Renesmee, and I would be allowed to visit just during the wedding and then we would have to leave." He said this in a monotone without breaking his stare from the road. I knew he was hiding something. Why else would he be so formal about it?
"Edward, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing. Why?"
"Edward, you know you can't lie to me. I know how you get when you're trying to hide something. And you know if you don't tell me, I'll just ask Nessie to ask Jacob." I knew this was cheating. Werewolves couldn't resist giving the object of their imprint everything she asked for. But I needed to know and I knew Renesmee would get that information for me.
"Fine, I'll tell you. No need to get the werewolves even more upset-"
"Will you please just tell me?"
"I'm going to. If you would just have patience. All right, last evening, when I went to talk to Sam and Jacob, I found them following a trail-"
"Whose trail? Did you recognize it? What does this mean? Are they after us or are they just crossing through? Do we have to pack up and move?" We had just gotten the Volturi off our backs.
"Shhhh. Bella, love, please calm down. I'm getting to that part. As I was saying, I found Sam and Jacob on a trail. I smelled it and it smelled fresh. Sam, Jacob, and I followed it into Forks and then west into the Pacific. I didn't recognize it, but we are not even sure why it was here. It could have been just another nomad. So please, please, don't be worried."
He reached over to smooth out the crease in between my eyebrows that materialized every time I got worried. But he was right, it could have been just a wanderer that happened to cross one of the Cullen's sent and followed it to Forks. There was no need to panic. It was already far, far away from the Olympic Peninsula. Could be half way across the world by now. Probably was, at the rate some vampires can run.
I was paying attention to the road again. We were already parked on Sue's street just talking in the car. Edward did drive fast, but it didn't scare me anymore, like it used to when I was human. Now everything was so clear, I only wished I could go faster and feel the wind through my hair, but even if I were going to a place where most people knew our true identity, I still had to keep up a charade.
When I walked into Sue's backyard, I was relieved that Alice hadn't decorated. Alice would've gone completely overboard. Alice could make a movie set look like a hobo designed it. She tried to get Charlie to let her have the wedding at the Cullen Mansion, but he said that after, he would live down in La Push with Sue so it would be better to have the wedding down there. But I knew he was really just scared of what Alice could do.
This was the complete opposite of my wedding. Sue's backyard was decorated with an altar of white daisies that would look pretty in the background, but if you were human, you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for them. The rest of yard had little tables placed here and there with white tablecloths and a basket of the same white flowers that were on the altar. The rest of the yard looked fairly blank with a few potted trees and some balloons, but it was altogether a nice effect. Besides, this day was about Charlie and Sue, not the scenery.
The service was very traditional. It was a small backyard wedding. Sue was never really into all the Quileute tradition and Charlie had no Quileute in him, so it was just a normal American wedding with the vows, the poems, and the rings. It was a nice little wedding with some nice little people. Exactly the kind of thing you would see on a TV show about the Northwest. Typical. But there was nothing typical about this wedding, the father of a vampire and the mother of two werewolves being joined together forever. The parents of two enemy species, if our relationship with the Werewolves hadn't been so unusual, this would have never happened.
During the reception, while Renesmee was off playing with Jacob and Seth, Edward's tiny cell phone started to ring. He picked it up and Alice's high-pitched familiar voice was already talking on the other line. If I hadn't had a heightened sense of hearing, along with every other sense, I would have never understood.
"-Was just talking with Jazz and then a vision came on while I wasn't even looking for one because I figured you're with the dogs and I wouldn't be able to see anything anyway and I saw something terrible happen you have to get out of there-"
I stopped listening at that point and several things shot through my mind at once. First, Edward, the love of my life, the father of my daughter, the reason I was still here on this very earth. If anything happened to him I would have to find a way to kill my self. Second, Renesmee, my beautiful little girl that was already growing up. I couldn't get enough time to be with now because she was growing so fast, how would I ever be able to say goodbye to her. She needed me. And finally, my should-have-been brother, Jacob. The boy I had feared so long would never find love again after me, would always be destined to be alone. My personal sun that helped me thought the toughest time in my life. How could I live without any of these people? How could I survive if I knew anyone got hurt?
But the part that bothered me the most was how Alice could see us. What was going to happen that would make all the wolves disappear and let Alice through? I knew it was not going to be a good day. Why didn't I ever listen to my instincts?
Just then, Edward turned to me and told me at an inhuman rate to fetch Renesmee and Jacob if he must be with her too, and that we were leaving a soon as we could. I didn't question him and did as he asked. Of course Jake would come too. How could he not be with Renesmee? Besides, I didn't even know how long we would be gone or if we were even going anywhere.
As I went back to Edward, I heard it coming. I knew it was a vampire at once. How did he get on the reservation? Of course! All the werewolves except a few were at the wedding. How could this be happening? How could some one know exactly when La Push's defenses would be down? Then I figured it out. I was a vampire now, but I was still Bella Cullen, the girl with a danger magnet built into her with the force of the sun's gravity. Anything dangerous within a hundred mile radius was bound to find me.
I opened up my mind to Edward for the briefest of moments to let him in on my epiphany. I had mastered this skill over the past few weeks. I didn't feel comfortable holding my shield off of me but I could do it. And it turned out to be a good way to communicate with Edward secretly and quickly.
Edward! I thought. I know how he got here. I quickly ran over my discoveries and then put my shield back up. He just nodded at me.
I looked around. Everything and nothing had changed all at once. There was a howl in the distance and all the werewolves quickly excused themselves into the woods and phased, by the sound of it. That's how Alice could see us. Edward and I started at the woods yelling to Charlie to look after Renesmee on the way.
But just as we were reached the edge of the woods in Sue's back yard, the guest vampire came into sight.
A pale, tall, handsome vampire emerged from the trees. He had a head of black curly hair that was matted and looked as though it hadn't been combed in weeks. His eyes were pitch black. Thirsty. Aside from his bright red t-shirt he looked like he belonged in a black and white picture with his white skin and onyx hair and eyes. He had the stance of a predator with a hunched back and his knees bent in a crouch. He had a wild look in his eyes that I didn't like. I could tell Edward didn't either by the way he was crouched into his attack pose.
So this is the danger Alice had warned about. I would never take Alice's warnings lightly again. This vampire looked completely un-civilized and wild. I wouldn't let anyone see it but I was terrified.
I automatically looked around for Renesmee. She was running towards me. We couldn't keep out human charade going if we picked her up anymore. Although we had no problem holding her for an extended period of time, most humans couldn't hold a fifty pound little girl in their arms for much more that a minute. So she stood a little behind me, looking out at the man from behind my hips.
"Hello. My name is Micah Adams." He spoke in deep, hard, raspy voice. The most unique voice I've ever heard spoken by a vampire. It was a spine tingling voice that was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
"Good afternoon Micah, My name is Edward Cullen, this is my wife Bella and my daughter Renesmee. Please notice her beating heart and her cheeks filled with flowing blood before jumping to assumptions." Edward looked around. Everyone was staring at our uninvited guest and us. Most humans had no idea what was going on and were confused by Edward's mention of Renesmee's blood. Edward added under his breath so only a vampire could hear "Perhaps we should take this conversation to a more private place?"
But at that moment everything changed. The clouds parted for a split second and the sun washed over the little gathering of people. Edward, Renesmee, Micah, and I all glowed like brilliant diamonds for brief second but long enough for everyone to notice. What had we looked like to them? Would all of Charlie's and Sue's friends look at us like monsters? I had no time to think about that because Edward took Renesmee into his right arm in one fluid motion and grabbed my left hand at the same time and was running. I followed him without order. Even Micah had a look of shock on his beautiful face.
Instead of heading for the house, we were running east. I couldn't figure out where we were going until I caught the sent of wolf and realized we were going to see Sam and Jake.
We followed for another minute until we came to a small clearing with sixteen huge wolves standing in a circle. I looked around and recognized Sam as the biggest wolf with jet-black fur and Jacob as the next largest with a russet-brown coat of fur. I could tell they were having a meeting but I wished I could hear what they were saying.
Not until three wolves walked out of the clearing and then back in as three huge men did I realize Micah had followed us and was standing here with us. Why was he still here? Why didn't he care that we had what looked like to be an immortal child with us and were going to talk to our mortal enemies? Who was Micah?
Jake, Seth and Embry were standing in front of Edward and I. They were all bare-chested and in old sweats or cut off jeans.
"Who are you?" Jake asked in a hard, unwelcoming voice towards Micah.
"My name is Micah Adams and I mean you and your tribe no harm. I was passing through when I caught sent of these three lovely beings in our presence." He made a gesture towards Edward, Renesmee and I, "I caught the little one's sent and had never smelled anything like it before. I was curious so I followed it."
Jacob tensed when he spoke about Renesmee and said, "Well, now we know who you are and what you want. But the fact is that you revealed your secret to a whole party of humans. And not only your secret but ours too. Give me one good reason to not kill you right now."
"Jacob," Edward said, "Please calm down. We are going to take Micah back to our house and get to know him better. I would appreciate it if you would look after Renesmee until we get back."
Jacob nodded, too confused to do anything else. Edward handed over Renesmee to Jacob and then looked at Micah. "If you would be so kind to please follow us to our home." Edward nodded at me and we took off to Cullen Mansion. With Micah on our tails the whole time.
