A captain entered the bridge of USS Ohio (an Ohio class submarine). He ignored the greetings of the night shift and walked straight to the sonar. The commander of the shift joined him.
"What is it?" he asked, still sleepy.
"You need to hear this," said the operator and started a playback.
The captain listened and then asked, "What was that? A landslide?"
"No, sir," answered the operator.
The shift commander cleared his throat and informed the captain, "Sir, it could be some kind of an accident, even though nothing is supposed to be here. Given the circumstances, I've ordered to slow down."
The captain pressed his hands against his face and rubbed his eyes. "Very well, stop the ship. We'll investigate this," he commanded.
It's hard to tell what would have happened to them if they had ignored the sound and continued at full speed. Alas, about two minutes after the submarine came to a stop, the hull of the ship shook and a terrible sound spread through it - a sound of a metal tearing. The effect wasn't as spooky as it would be in a WW2-era submarine because modern submarines have rubber suspension systems which prevent sounds from inside to escape outside. A moment later, the sound repeated. Louder and clearer. Unfortunately, the brains of the crew were incapable of making the obvious logical step and admitting that the sound was coming from the inside - that something had torn its way to the inner hull.
Soon enough, the instruments on the bridge alerted the night shift that there was a flooding. The captain ordered to seal the compartment on his mark and called the area. Nobody picked it up. He gave the signal and called a neighbouring compartment. Some low ranking sailor answered the call and informed the captain that the situation was chaotic. The captain ordered emergency surface.
The chaos kept spreading through the ship. The captain ordered a shut-down of the reactor and was preparing to broadcast SOS when something tore out a steel door to the bridge and slaughtered everybody inside.
USA, Washington:
Bella sat up and inspected herself for a moment.
"Bella?" addressed her Edward carefully.
Her head snapped to him and she asked something unexpected. "Was I moved? During my change, I mean."
Edward narrowed his eyes in confusion and shook his head.
"Very well. How's my daughter and what's the situation?"
"Elizabeth is fine but missing the mind link. She is in the cabin with most of the others. The Quileutes are disturbed but willing to give you both a benefit of a doubt. There were some magical discharges from you during the change, hence the cage you see." Edward felt as if he was giving a tactical report. Which he was, in a sense.
"Thank you. I need to talk to everybody."
"I would like you to feed first. Per your request, there are two deer tethered in the woods behind the house."
Bella nodded and let her husband to lead her. She pounced on the first buck while Edward knocked the other one out at the same time (toxins released by fear spoiled the taste of blood).
"Well, I think I'm full," said Bella after draining the second deer. True enough, blood was sloshing in her stomach. "Wait a minute, that has been a lot of blood!" she added. "How could all of it possibly... Never mind, it doesn't matter. Let's go."
The family assembled in the living room (minus Rosalie and Esme who were with Elizabeth on the top floor).
"You are keeping yourself quite under control," remarked Carlisle.
Bella's eyes flicked to Emmett who was standing by the stairs, blocking her way up, and replied, "Well, I've caught Elizabeth's scent from here but she doesn't smell like food. If you are referring to the thirst in general, I have to admit that it drains heavily on my ability to concentrate."
"Carlisle means that you don't behave like a newborn at all," explained Edward.
"Well, maybe my mother and Voldemort did something right for a change. It doesn't matter, I believe we have a problem."
The Cullens remained silent, waiting for her to explain. Jasper raised an eyebrow, Carlisle seemed to be worried.
"I'll ask again," continued Bella. "Was I moved or turned around during my change? The reason why I ask is rather obscure. As you know, I entered a state of deep meditation to escape the pain." Nobody remarked that it was Fawkes who helped her to do that. "And whilst in that state, I felt something. A distant echo. A disturbance in magic."
"And you want to locate it?" asked Edward.
"Indeed. So, was I moved?"
Edward answered, "We moved you to a bed after your change started. Other than that, you remained in exactly the same position in which you woke up for the whole time. What was the nature of the disturbance you felt?"
Bella closed her eyes and concentrated on her memory. "It was dark, ancient, hungry, evil. Definitely vampiric in nature."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a fluke in your perception?" asked Jasper. "Maybe some kind of imagination or hallucination caused by the change?" He wasn't sceptical but he wanted to be thorough.
Bella nodded and started to think about ways of confirming what she had sensed. Emmett interrupted her musings by another question, "Dark. Are you sure you didn't feel yourself changing? You know, like a kind of out of body experience."
"You know, there's a grey-darkish and there's pitch-black creepy dark," snapped Bella.
Edward gave Emmett a look but Emmett wasn't going to be deterred. "Well, it could have been some kind of a hidden program inserted into you by Voldemort."
"Then why did I feel it coming from a certain direction and distance?" asked Bella back, finally revealing why was she obsessing about being moved during her change.
"You can actually determine the location?" asked Jasper.
"Not precisely. It was thousands of kilometres away in about that direction." Bella pointed into the ground and made a circle with her arm to show the margin of error. She wasn't pointing directly under her feet, more like to west and south.
"Wait a minute," protested Emmett. "How could you feel it through all the rock and magma?"
"I wasn't sensing its energy," explained Bella. "The sensation was more spiritual in nature."
Carlisle brought a globe. While the others were computing the intersection of Bella's direction with the planet's surface, he asked her, "You've said that it was vampiric in nature. I assume you didn't mean our kind of vampiric."
"Indeed. It was definitely ancient. Not semi-ancient. Full fledged ancient."
"But all ancient vampires have been destroyed," reminded Edward, since somebody had to state the obvious.
"Which leads me to a theory that some semi-ancient has empowered himself somehow. In fact, it seems logical in hindsight. Aro had to panic when things didn't work out as he expected. Maybe he decided to do something drastic."
"You mean turning himself into an ancient?" asked Alice dubiously. "How would he achieve that?"
"Maybe he sacrificed Caius and Marcus and added their dark energy to his own?" proposed Emmett.
Jasper was about to throw a sceptical look at his brother when Bella uttered, "Maybe."
Carlisle shook his head in disagreement and argued, "That doesn't make any sense. What would Aro gain by that?"
"Maybe it isn't enough for him to have influence over wild vampires. Maybe he wishes to control semi-ancient ones as well."
"Wouldn't he become visible to some magical radars which were used in hunting the ancients down?" asked Rosalie from upstairs.
Edward shook his head and corrected her, "If I understand it correctly, last generation of ancients does not have such a distinctive signature, right?"
Bella nodded and supplemented, "Not to mention that there is no detection grid any more. There was no reason to maintain it after the war."
There was a moment of silence which Emmett exploited by saying, "What about the cage?"
"Excuse me?" asked Carlisle.
Emmett shook his head and said, "I know I'm repeating myself but Bella could have felt her own magic, being reflected back at her by the cage. She says that she doesn't feel that way and I believe her. But maybe there are some outward magical emissions which she doesn't know about which simply created a backfeed between her and the cage."
Bella rubbed her eyebrows. It was a remnant of human reflex. Truth to be told, however, most newborn vampires don't retain their human reflexes.
"I'll show Jasper and Edward how the echo felt," she replied. "Let them judge whether the echo feels like me or not."
She closed her eyes and replayed the memory. The empath and the telepath concentrated their senses on the memory and compared it with the way Bella usually felt to them - both as a human and newly as a vampire. Both of them glanced at Emmett and gave him a short shook of their heads.
Emmett was about to keep voicing his scepticism when Bella spoke. "Does your mind always feel so full?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" asked Carlisle.
"I keep thinking about many things at the same time. I remember everything at the same time. I analyse it, cross-reference it..."
"That's perfectly normal," assured her Carlisle.
"Not for a newborn," whispered Jasper.
"Or me. I'm not letting my multi-tasking brain to bother me with more than two or three things at once," murmured Emmett in even a lower voice.
"Don't mind it, it will become a second nature to you," assured her Edward.
"You are using your brain nearly at its one-hundred percent capacity," explained Carlisle needlessly (he had discussed the matter with Bella before). "You'll get used to it. What's staggers us is the fact that you are able of this so soon."
"Maybe that's why I can't do magic yet," remarked Bella, ignoring the last sentence. "Magic is mostly subconscious for humans. I guess I'll have to learn how to do manually something which used to be automatic for me."
Jasper cleared his throat and spoke, "Excuse me, let's not forget the matter at hand. Unless Bella can provide us with more solid information, our only option is to notify my net of informers in the area to keep watch for anything unusual."
"Wait a minute," spoke out Emmett, looking at the result of their calculations. "What would Aro do on the East Coast? Isn't he still in Italy?"
Truth to be told though, the computed circle was actually more to the east.
Bella's eyes shifted to Alice who just shook her head (to communicate that she didn't see Aro - after all, she had never met him).
"We could ask our friends in the government," proposed Carlisle. "I'm sure there are wizards who have been keeping track of him for this whole time."
"I don't want to take any risks," stated Bella. "I don't want anybody to know that I know anything. Nor do I want anybody to know that there is anything special about me, as you claim."
"You know, there is a time when you simply have to trust someone," remarked Carlisle.
"Well, if you think that you can submit an inconspicuous query to them, then go ahead with it," conceded Bella. "However, I would like us to remain dark until we strike."
"You mean until the Volturi send somebody here?" asked Emmett.
"Exactly."
"That could be a long wait, if you are wrong," he observed.
"No, I'm not. Aro never lets anybody to slip from his grasp. The only reason why he let Aleazar go and why he spared Tanya is because he felt that he was going to use them later. Dimitry knows where they are. Aro will contact them soon, I'm sure of it."
"So, we are basically going to wait till Alice sees them and then we'll ambush them," commented Jasper.
"What if they intend to make their moves in Europe first?" asked Edward.
"Well, that would be a problem for European wizards," replied Jasper.
"The question is, are they going to face the problem, with all that's happening?" contended Carlisle.
Bella shook her head and spoke, "Look. I still believe that waiting till they come here is our best option. After the ambush, we'll approach Tanya and declare North America as a zone outside of the Volturi law. Europe will do the same, once they pull themselves together."
"And in the meantime?" asked Emmett.
"In the meantime, I can try to rediscover my magic. Which brings me to my further agenda. I should start working on my magic as soon as possible but I would like to see Elizabeth first."
The others looked at each other nervously. Edward said nothing but Carlisle cleared his throat and protested, "That wouldn't be a good idea. As you know, she has a beating heart and flowing blood."
Bella's eyes narrowed so Edward quickly added, "She may not smell like food to you but it would be better to wait for a while."
"Very well, later then," conceded Bella. "Still, I would like to see her from distance at least."
The meeting concluded. Jasper went to contact his informants while Carlisle composed a message for John Smith. Rose and Esme carried Elizabeth to a window while Bella and Edward walked out. Once they were by the river, Esme opened a window.
While vampires have perfect vision, they are still limited by the diameter of their pupils. Hence, seeing Elizabeth from distance was a poor substitute for actually meeting her. It had to do for the moment. Still, she couldn't but notice how grown up she was. Bella wasn't startled by that. If anything, she felt that the fast growth rate was convenient given the situation. She also noticed that she had bronze hair, like Edward.
Edward and Bella jumped over the river and ran to a small clearing which was a few paces away.
"So, your magic," Edward broached the subject.
Bella closed her eyes, concentrated for a split of a second and then answered, "I can still feel it inside me but I can't touch it for some reason."
"Because your neural ways have been rewired?"
"Maybe."
Edward twirled with his hand and reported, "Well, I still can't hear your mind."
"And now? And now?" thought Bella, once into her quantum entanglement wristwatch, once at the forefront of her mind.
"Yes and yes," answered Edward, repeating the words through his own wristwatch as well.
"Well, and I can still feel your thoughts on the other side of my communicator," observed Bella. "Would you mind...?"
"Of course," agreed Edward and they made an eye contact.
"Well, everything seems to be in order on this score," informed him Bella after a while.
"Maybe because you were actively utilizing your occlumency during your change?"
"Maybe. And maybe my mother and Voldemort made me this way. After all, I was supposed to replace Aro."
Edward raised his finger, shook his head, and reminded her, "Your mother said, quote: Or did you think that you can cast the killing curse from your bare hands because you are exceptional? Unquote. Wouldn't that suggest that they meant for you to be able to do that as well?"
Bella raised her hands unsurely and theorized, "Maybe that was supposed to work only during my human life? You know, so I could take care of myself in case something unexpected happened? That being said, I think I can still feel the power of the killing curse inside me. I just have no idea how to project it outside."
Edward nodded. Then something occurred to him and he proposed another theory, "We are presuming that you were changed the way they intended you to be changed. Maybe you weren't supposed to become a wild vampire. Maybe they possessed some means to make you into something more ancient."
"How would they do that?"
Edward snapped his fingers and continued, "Maybe that thing you've felt was kept in captivity by them till now. But they are dead now and the thing escaped."
Bella stared at him for a moment. "You know, that sounds like something Emmett would come up with."
"Now hold on, it isn't that far fetched. Why else would it be on the East Coast instead of in Europe?"
"Because they knew where I was for the whole time?"
"Well, your escape to America is kind of an obvious move in hindsight. Maybe they had always planned to do the whole thing right here so you could build your power base as far from Aro as possible."
Bella just shook her head and grinned a little. They sat in silence for a minute.
Finally, Edward spoke again, "There is another thing to consider. About your magic, I mean."
"And that is?"
"You are thinking about the abilities you've possessed as a human. But you are not a human any more - your essence is different now. Both Jasper and me can sense it. Wouldn't that imply that your magic is going to be different now? I mean completely different."
Bella thought about it for a while and replied, "Well, that sounds quite plausible actually. We'll see. It reminds me of my wand though - I should try to hold it."
"I've come prepared," said Edward and produced a thin box.
Bella reached for it but retracted her hand again out of fear of crushing it. She held her hand to Edward, palm up, and asked him to place the wand on it.
"I feel nothing," she said after a few moments. "There should be some kind of a connection but the wand does not recognize me. As if I wasn't even here."
"Well, maybe the connection can't pass through your skin."
"That's possible but not probable. After all, the connection between a wizard and a wand is a spiritual one. The essence theory makes more sense - the wand doesn't see me as me, it doesn't see me as a witch."
She held her hand to Edward again and he collected the wand.
"Store it. Maybe Teddy will use it one day."
Edward nodded and put the wand back in the box. Bella spent next few hours meditating, trying to reach her magic, while Edward watched over her from afar. He used that time to contemplate all that had occurred since Bella had awoken. He couldn't say that he was surprised by any of it but he wondered what was the future going to look like for the three of them (him, Bella, and their daughter). He hoped that they would be a real family but at the moment, he didn't have much faith that such a picture would come in fruition completely.
Edward's pondering was interrupted by the end of Bella's meditation.
"Have you made any progress?" he asked.
"Not really," she answered. "I guess it's going to be a longer run."
They discussed the matter of Bella meeting Elizabeth. Edward knew better than to outright tell her that it wasn't safe yet. Instead, he listed his concerns.
"Should we test my self control on some random passing hikers?" proposed Bella.
"That would be unwise," disagreed Edward. "Look, Rose and Esme are about to tuck her in. She slept almost through whole night yesterday, waking only once to be fed. Maybe we should leave it for tomorrow morning?"
Bella frowned and asked, "And what about her? Does she want to see me?"
"She saw you today," reminded her Edward. "To answer your question, she would like to meet you but she understands that it would be better to wait. Plus, Fawkes is keeping her company so I think she will fall asleep even without you."
"Fawkes?"
Edward quickly explained.
"I've got an idea. Go there and giver her you wristwatch," proposed Bella.
Edward narrowed his eyes and argued, "But she can't read minds."
"No, but maybe I will be able to sense her and she will know that I do."
Edward could patch Bella through to Elizabeth but that wasn't the same, at least not for Elizabeth.
Edward nodded and ran off. When he returned to the house, Rose was putting his daughter to a crib already. He asked Rose and Fawkes to leave and approached the crib.
"Your mother would like you to have this for tonight," he told the newborn. He almost said "mummy" but stopped himself in time. "It's magical. If you hold on to it and focus, she will hear you."
Elizabeth grasped the wristwatch in her tiny fists and concentrated, pushing her thoughts to the forefront of her mind. After a while, Edward smiled, stroked her hair and told her, "She can't hear exactly what you think but she can feel you on the other side. Go to sleep now, mummy will watch over you. She can't wait to meet you tomorrow." He failed to prevent himself from saying the word the second time around.
"Tomorrow?" repeated Rosalie after Elizabeth fell asleep and Edward left the room (Esme slipped in right afterwards to watch the little dhampir sleep). There was a hint of disagreement in Rosalie's voice.
"I think it would be for the best," confirmed Edward. "Bella is in complete control over herself. We aren't going to test it on humans because that's a whole another level but I think we can do this safely."
"What if..." started Rose and stopped herself. She failed to stop her thoughts though. "What if she has an ulterior motive? What if she wants to regain her human magic by consuming her own daughter?"
"If you think that, then you don't know Bella at all!" snapped Edward. He turned his head toward the nursery door and motioned that they should move the discussion elsewhere.
"She loves her daughter and takes her new role of a mother very seriously!" he snarled once they were downstairs.
"I didn't say anything out loud!" protested Rosalie. "Stop policing my thoughts!"
They didn't discuss the matter any further.
Bella returned to the house shortly after Elizabeth fell asleep. She approached Jasper and asked him whether they shouldn't talk to Quileutes.
"I don't know," he answered. "We should verify this thing first."
"Indeed," agreed Bella. "Alas, it presents us with a new possibility."
"And that is?"
"A new common problem. After Voldemort's death and my transformation, there wasn't much to bind us together. That is, apart from that little plan of ours concerning the guard. But if there is an ancient vampire out there..."
"Then the Quileutes might be willing to cooperate again," finished Jasper.
"I don't it's a good idea to try to manipulate them like that," protested Carlisle. "Like Jasper said, we don't know if it's a vampire."
"Well, we'll just tell them what we know so far," insisted Bella. "Let them make whatever they want from it."
And so it happened that Bella called Billy that evening.
"Billy? It's me," said Bella when he picked it up.
"Bella?" he responded. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you. So soon, I mean."
"I know. Something came up though. We have a new information. We have not verified it yet but I think Sam and the others should know. Could you tell them to meet us tonight?"
Billy wasn't expecting that apparently and remained silent for a few seconds. "Very well," he said finally. "Where?"
"Right here, if they are willing," supplied Carlisle when Bella looked at him. Bella repeated it to Billy.
The meeting occurred an hour later. Sam arrived with Jacob and Jared. Jacob and Jared made sure to comment on Bella's new appearance. The Cullens told them everything they knew and used the globe to show them the probable area from where the echo had originated.
Jared looked at the marked circle and observed, "What makes you think it's the East Coast? As I see it, it could have been somewhere in the Caribbean area as well."
"Yes, or in a middle of Atlantic," remarked Jacob.
"No, seriously," insisted Jared. "That area has a huge necromantic folklore..."
"Oh come on!" exclaimed Sam. "For all we know, it's nothing."
"Well, he was right about the ants," reminded Emmett everyone. "Maybe it's some kind of an undead pirate."
Sam raised his hands sharply and stated, "OK, we are dully noting the information. Keep us posted if anything else comes up."
"We shall," acknowledged Bella.
They stood there in silence for two seconds. Then Jacob asked, "And what about the little one?"
Bella looked at him and retorted, "She's sleeping. And no, you may not see her now. I haven't even met her myself yet for crying out loud."
"I haven't said that," defended Jacob himself.
"No, but you've thought that."
Everybody felt silent for a second.
"You've been reading my mind?" asked Jacob.
"No, actually not," answered Bella slowly, being surprised herself.
"Well, I've heard that too," confirmed Edward. "But you couldn't possibly get it from me - Elizabeth has my wristwatch."
"It's passive mind reading, I think," explained Bella. "It's quite common among true masters but I was never able to do it myself, my senses weren't keen enough. The thing is, Jacob, your shield must have gotten really rusty."
"I didn't know that I had to protect my mind around you," snapped Jacob back.
"That's not just it," insisted Bella. "You've literally shouted the thought at me. I wouldn't be able to hear it otherwise."
"And you are still thinking it," added Edward. "Why is it so important?"
"Well, you can't deny that her behaviour will greatly influence our future cooperation," explained Jacob. "I think you can easily imagine what would happen if she grew to be feral. You would defend her at all cost and that would place us in a really difficult position. And not just us. Mrs. Tonks would have to notify your magical friends. It would be a messy situation."
Bella and Edward looked at each other.
"Very well," said Bella. "We'll arrange something up. Later. When she's able to walk and when I'm more stable."
"Fair enough," answered Sam instead of Jacob.
"That was weird," remarked Emmett when the wolves left.
"Tell me about it," uttered Bella. She looked around and mused, "Well, it's a long time till morning. What are we going to do since then?"
Emmett started to grin so Edward quickly asked, "What would you like to do?"
"Would it be a good idea to try some wrestling?"
"I think we should leave that till later."
"Very well," conceded Bella. "However, I believe you should give me some crash-course as soon as possible. I need to be prepared for the Volturi. So let's move to next best thing. It should help me concentrate as well."
"And that is?" asked Emmett mischievously.
Five minutes later, Bella found herself at a make-shift target range. She was using a suppressed SMG (she didn't want to wake Elizabeth up nor was she willing to go too far away).
"This is fabulous!" she commended her own skills. All the shots went right in the middle of her target.
"This is nothing," observed Edward. "When it comes to firearms, our strength is in hitting moving targets even at long distances and under unfavourable weather conditions. As you know, a bullet can cause a significant damage even beyond what is considered an effective range. However, trajectory of a bullet becomes ballistic..."
"Yes, yes, I know," interrupted him Bella. "I'm just enjoying myself a little since I wasn't such a good shot as a human."
"Well, it's a long time till morning," remarked Edward and picked up a few stones. He started tossing them at Bella while she was still reloading.
Elizabeth opened her eyes. It was early morning already. The final two hours of her slumber left her groggy somewhat. Jasper (and the others as well, to some extent) had noticed that her metabolism had slowed down after all the nutrients from her last meal were used up. Alas, it (her metabolism) was already speeding up a little and burned all sleep hormones away before the feeling of grogginess could confuse her. Then she realized how ravenous she was.
Elizabeth opened her mouth and was about to cry out when Edward entered her field of vision, a bottle of blood at hand. The little dhampiresa drank greedily.
"Interesting," remarked Jasper in next room. He and Emmett were preparing for a first meeting between Bella and her daughter.
"What is?" asked the new mother.
"Her hunger," specified Jasper. "She isn't thirsty like we are. It's truly more like hunger. Human hunger."
Emmett snorted and countered, "Or like a hunger of an alien species which wants to grow to a breeding age as quickly as possible!"
He was entertaining a new conspiracy theory: the Mesopotamian necromancers had used alien DNA to create the first vampires. Bella had to give it to him - there was no way to disprove such a thesis.
Elizabeth finished her breakfast and burped. With her hunger sated, she started to miss the warmth of her crib. She didn't mind being held by the vampires but the fact remained that they were cold. Edward tucked her back in and took his wristwatch back (Elizabeth had dropped it while she had been sleeping).
"Elizabeth?" he addressed her after a while. The child looked back at him.
"Would you like to meet your mother?" he asked.
"Yes!" answered Elizabeth through her mind enthusiastically and nodded.
"Very well. I'll let you rest for a while longer."
Edward left and was replaced by Esme who started to prepare clothes for Elizabeth.
A quarter an hour later, Esme and Rose brought Elizabeth downstairs. Bella was already there. Emmett and Jasper were clutching her arms. Edward and Carlisle were prepared midway between Bella and her daughter.
Bella sniffed at the air. "I should be all right," she told the others. "She smells better than the wolves but it's still obvious to me that she isn't food."
"Indeed," agreed Carlisle. "I think it means that blood of a dhampir is incompatible with metabolism of a vampire."
Jasper thought to Edward, "With all that's coming, it would be good to know how would her blood react to venom."
Edward wasn't irritated by that remark. After all, Bella already briefed Elizabeth about the dangers of the world before she was even born.
Bella and Elizabeth were looking at each other from opposite sides of the room. Noting her irises, Bella had a brief thought that Elizabeth had eyes and hair similar to Harry's mother.
Finally, she asked, "Elizabeth? Would you like me to..." She trailed off and pointed at her eyes.
Elizabeth understood and nodded. She missed the link but she felt trepidation. She suspected that the experience would be different.
Her presumption was proven correct immediately after Bella established the connection. While Elizabeth's human mother's mind had been soft and warm, this new presence was sharp like a blade and hard like steel. Bella terminated the link immediately. Elizabeth made a disappointed sound. Not because the link was terminated, but because it was clear that she would never regain what she once had had with her mother. Fawkes chose that moment to land on a windowsill.
"I'm sorry," soothed Bella. "My mind is different now. Just like yours is."
Elizabeth nodded in understanding.
"I think I can handle being a little bit closer," stated Bella. It sounded like a request and it was one. She didn't want to force the issue though, she knew that the others weren't going to make any compromises when it came to Elizabeth's safety.
"Well, bringing you a little bit closer won't harm, I guess," agreed Jasper, who was monitoring Bella's mood.
Bella and her daughter found themselves two meters away from each other. They studied each other for a minute or two.
"Well, I know one thing for certain," spoke Bella finally. "You are the most extraordinary creature I've ever met. With the possible exception of..." Fawkes pushed his chest out proudly. "...dragons," finished Bella.
Two days later:
"Ha! I've got it!" cried Bella out.
Edward was roused from his relaxation (which involved laying on his back and observing clouds). He stood up and turned to his wife. She was levitating a stone.
"Well done. It's coming back to you," commended her Edward. He was talking silently so he wouldn't disturb Bella. Not that he thought that disturbing a vampire would be as simple as disturbing a human.
"Hm, maybe I could do even better," mused Bella and dropped the stone. She walked over to a fallen tree and started to concentrate again. "Holler if somebody comes this way," she asked Edward.
There was nobody in the area so Edward just watched as the tree rose from the ground, tearing free from any under-brush growing around it. Once the trunk was high enough, Bella turned it vertical and smashed it into a boulder, thinner end first. The trunk was somewhat mouldy but the resulting explosion of splinters was still spectacular.
Bella breathed out, as if winded out. Edward noticed that her eyes dimmed momentarily.
"Telekinesis. That's great," commented Edward. "I'm quite sure you wouldn't be able to do that as a human. Range and precision are bound to be greater as well, I'm sure of that."
Alas, Bella didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. As the initial joy of being able to do magic once again subsided, she realized what kind of magic she did (if it was magic at all).
"Great indeed," she sneered at herself. "I'm a vampire now! What kind of use could I possible have for telekinesis?!"
Fawkes, who had been observing the whole thing, snickered and flew away.
Note for FFNET:
This is second part of "Twilight: Dark Witch" (The Witch's Tale). It's called "The V(/W)ampire's Tale" and concludes the story. If you've read the first part recently, there's no need to re-read it but this story contains minor characters from it and references to events in it.