CHAPTER ONE
.:Jasper's POV:.
"So, tell me again why I owe you money?"
"You spun a ten."
Esme stared at Emmett like that explanation made absolutely no sense, unless he was trying to play her—and from past games, it was very possible, in her eyes.
"Really," Emmett assured, chuckling lightly at her expression. He pulled out his Career card. "I'm a Police Officer—"
"Lord help us," Rosalie muttered from the recliner.
"—and it says right here that whoever spins a ten owes me $10,000 for 'speeding'. Check it if you don't believe me."
Esme read the card with a frown and narrowed eyes. Reluctantly, she accepted the terms and forked over her money. Bella watched the exchange with amusement, her ruby eyes peeking over the bills of fake money she had fanned out in her hands. My newest sister laughed now, but she had yet to fall victim to one of Emmett's made-up rules; when he wants to, the guy can be convincing, especially when it's your first time playing a game and are therefore more easily influenced into believing him. I can hardly blame Esme for not being willing to listen to him without proof. Although, the fact she's never played the game of "Life" before seems odd, I think.
"OK, my turn," Bella said, once Esme was done moving her plastic car forward ten spaces and collecting her earnings. The spinner landed on five, and Bella gladly stopped at the red stop sign on the board that informed her it was time to get married. "Can you hand me an Edward, Jasper?"
I gave her a little blue man to add to her car.
"You mean you're not going to give a big production about getting married this time?" Emmett grinned.
Bella shot him a dirty look. "This is just a game."
"Ah, save the drama for reality. Got'ya."
"Be quiet and spin."
"OK."
"No, wait!"
"Too late," Emmett said, spinning the wheel.
"But I wanted to buy car insurance."
"I know," Emmett chortled.
"Emmett! That's not fair." Bella scowled.
Esme and I laughed.
"Bella, dear, you must accept that you can't be gullible when playing games with other members of this family," Esme said.
"How was I being gullible?"
"You let him get under your skin, just as he wanted," I explained. "You became distracted because of it, forfeiting your turn before you achieved everything you wanted to." Bella's scowl deepened, while Emmett took his turn with a grin almost too big for his face. "Believe me, Bella, it will only get worse as time goes on," I warned her.
"Perfect," she grumbled.
The game continued in a similar fashion—we spun, we lost, we gained, we joked, we learned, we laughed. It felt nice to laugh. I wouldn't be surprised if all the laughter we've been engaging ourselves in lately has simply been for there to be laughter.
It has only been roughly three months since December and my family's disconcerting encounter with the Volturi coven and their guard, and we were all glad it was over. For now.
It was hard for me to see the ones who governed the laws of our world in such a negative way, when I had revered them so much in the past. Not to say I am not still grateful for their intervention in the south—their presence and their duty has helped keep vampires restricted, and the death toll down for vampires and humans alike. But the Volturi have become a problem. Their greed, getting out of hand. In retrospect, it was inevitable that, no matter who they are, every leader has to be replaced over time. Perhaps that time is stretched longer for immortals, but Aro, Caius, and Marcus have definitely outstayed their welcome.
And their unyielding pursuit on Alice particularly isn't something I appreciate.
I listened for the distinct feel of my wife's emotions. Alice was upstairs, content in whatever she was doing. She was humming a song I knew well simply because she listened to it often. It wasn't one of my favorites, but I do grow to like the things she does... For now, I was simply glad she was happy.
And the Volturi would take that away from her. They'd do anything to have her, to have a psychic in their midst. Even when they had no need for one, being as powerful as they are already. Even if it meant hurting her by disposing of the ones she loves.
Some things cannot be forgiven. Once their mission to destroy an immortal child was no longer valid due to the proof that my niece Renesmee was a solid, safe species truly conceived by my brother and his mate, the Volturi should have saved their pride and went home. They have no one but themselves to blame for what the vampire world is gossiping about—questioning Aro and his true motives.
Although, I knew the Volturi blamed us above anybody.
I took my turn, spinning the colorful wheel that would determine my "life's" fate, and continued to wonder about when the Volturi would strike again. It's something we all feared. Nothing ever good happened when they were mad. It was worse when you're the one that angered them. And they were angry — I had felt it firsthand. My gift of feeling emotions might not be as impressive as Alice foreseeing the future or Edward's mind reading, but it was more informative and helpful than most think. People tend to overlook the power of my gift, but that was fine by me — it produced less attention. I was never one who sought out the spotlight, and it was safer for me on other accounts, as well. Sometimes I wished Alice had a gift less appreciated by others, if only to protect her from those greedy enough to try and take her.
Alice would never be taken. It's one thing, among many, that I wouldn't ever let happen. Even when there are stronger forces against me. Even when I might forfeit my life while doing so.
I smiled. "Nice. I Collect $100,000, and I passed a Pay Day." By my calculations, this put me in the lead. Emmett's envy, and misleading smirk, proved it further; it always amused Edward and I when our brother tried to poker-face it with an empath — or a mind-reader, for that matter.
"Just wait until my next turn — you'll be needing that money real soon."
"Wow. You truly believe that, don't you?"
I had to give him credit for his unyielding optimism.
"Just wait," he repeated.
As Esme took her turn, Emmett's smile never left his face. He even looked at me with an exaggerated warning in his eyes. Bella grinned when I started laughing, then she shook her head at us, stating something about silly, overly-competitive brothers.
Esme moved her piece, and suddenly I felt an unexpected jolt of fear.
My eyes went back to the board, watching Esme take her turn, wondering what her plan was. When it was clear nothing significant was happening, I checked the others—their pieces were both stuck on 'lose a turn' spaces. Bella had a lot less money than she had earlier, and Emmett was having terrible luck regarding spins, always hitting low numbers and landing in terrible places. I made sure to double check again, but I still didn't find anything that I should be worried about. I had this game in the bag. I knew that, if things continued the way they were going, and if I kept watch on whatever tricks Esme or Emmett had up their sleeves—I wasn't particularly worried about Bella, as she was still too naive for this family's way of playing games—then there was a clear path to victory for me. The game of Life could be unpredictable, and my strategies could prove pointless when it was all over, but there was nothing right now that should catch my attention as a problem. I could spot nothing that should worry me.
It wasn't until I realized this thoroughly that I knew I had mistaken the troubled emotion as my own, when it was not.
Rarely did I feel anything this strong when it either wasn't positive or my own emotion. In the past, most exceptions had to do with Edward and Bella, if not them being the source. Each of those times, the emotions I felt were caused by something too big for the person feeling them to handle on their own. Their feelings derived from something they could hardly control, but had to face anyway, how ever risky. The stress I am feeling and am now in control of—hurrying to keep it to myself and whoever is responsible, not accidentally infecting anyone else in the household—was powerful enough for me to mistake as mine, and as that doesn't happen often, I fear the worst. I had to remind myself that it was different for everybody — it might only be frightening to them, rather than the family as a whole. Still, I disliked anyone in my family struggling, and I might have to step forward to help them any way I can, whether they ask for my assistance or not.
I traced the terror to its rightful owner, and my stomach sank when the source was upstairs, in my room. Alice.
Concentrating on her now, my body tensed automatically, and I straightened up. I vaguely heard Emmett tease me about it, mistaking my involuntary reaction for something that was triggered in response to the game.
The suddenness at which Alice's emotions changed was likely due to a vision, I thought. There had been an instant decline in contentment, an increase in alertness, and the primary emotion of fear had naturally been replaced by anger, then sadness. Anxiety swirled through her, mixed with confusion, like something startling wasn't making sense. I could picture her on her feet, staring off into a space that cannot be seen by the rest of us, her eyes wide, pupils dilated.
Before I could act on the urge to ditch the game and go to her, she was already coming down the stairs — almost as if in response to my need to go upstairs.
Esme smiled when Alice walked into the room, being the only one other than myself to acknowledge her entrance; she then proceeded to be peacemaker between Emmett and Bella, who were suddenly arguing over a rule.
Alice's expression showed no trace of the emotions I sensed from her. She stared evenly at me, probably knowing what I wanted to ask. But she simply pulled up a chair and sat down next to me.
I couldn't be positive, but I assumed she had come down to say what she'd seen. It felt as if it had been urgent. If she was downplaying it now, or if it just startled her at first, but wasn't as big of a problem as she had thought, I couldn't tell.
Then again, maybe I could.
Alice stared at the game board for a long while, seeming to take in everything on it — where our game pieces were, who was who, what spaces we must have landed on to get what we had. Her mind was locked on it. In the process, her emotions were being reeled in very precisely. Her interest in the game and determination to feel only good things overruled anything else that might be stirring in her.
Suspicious, I continued watching her. She met my gaze only once, and it was to encourage me to pay attention to what was going on in the game. It was Emmett's turn, meaning mine was next. But I didn't care. Alice wasn't fooling me, and it made me wary to think that she was trying to.
When Emmett's turn ended, Alice hurriedly took my turn for me. I assumed she must have seen that my lack of response to the game would bring attention to her. Of course she didn't want that, did she? Which proves my point further that she, for some reason, must want to hide whatever it is she saw in the future.
Her sudden laughter caught me off guard. Apparently, she landed me on a space that forced the other players to give me money. For a moment, all I could catch from her emotions was joy, pleasure, pride that she had helped me. Unlike seconds earlier, this happiness wasn't forced, so I smiled at her. This pleased her more, and I was happy to taunt Emmett to make her laugh again.
Once my turn was over, however, and Alice believed I was attentive solely to the game, as I laughed with Emmett, my wife faded silently, purposely back into the background. She had her arms folded tightly around her chest now, and her muscles would tense and relax in uneven rhythms, while her eyes shifted around the room, from the windows to the doors, as if feeling the need to escape. I grimaced, for even though she might have acute control of what she allows herself to feel in front of me, I've spent years perfecting the language of one's body. Immortals are no different than humans in some aspects; emotions trigger automatic responses in everyone. Fidgeting eyes, readying muscles, defensive posture — all signs of fear. Whatever Alice had seen, it was still on her mind, and it was irritating her. She froze all together when the sound of crunching gravel indicated that Edward's Volvo was coming down the drive.
"Esme, you and Carlisle need to slow down."
I focused back on the board just in time to see Esme happily pluck her third and fourth child—twins—out of the box and add them to her car, rightfully dubbing them Jazz and Rose.
"Seriously. I think you've hit every 'Get a baby!' space so far," Bella said.
"It seems my life in Life is blessed then, right?"
"Until you land on a space that makes you pay $50,000 for every child." Emmett grinned, and I knew he was hoping for it to happen.
Esme was now in the lead, despite this being her first time playing Life, so Emmett was all for a merciless game. As for Esme's success, I'd call it Beginner's Luck, but the stir of confidence in her was telling me otherwise. If I didn't know any better, I'd think our sweet mother was, in a way, hustling us. She always did have a deceptive side that she liked to bring out once in a while, keep us on our toes. And Emmett and Bella were completely unaware of the truth. Not that I was going to tip them off or anything—allowing Esme to fool my other two opponents will give me a better chance at winning.
"It would be bad," Esme agreed, "if I did not have all this money." She ran her fingers over the corners of her stack, flipping through blue, green, yellow, pink, and orange bills. "I don't know what to do with it all."
Clearly, she was rubbing it in our faces. I was now dead certain Esme was not new to this game. She met my eyes, and I gave her a small smirk that told her I knew her secret.
"I have to go," Alice announced, amidst our antics.
"Where?" I asked, my attention instantly one-hundred percent back on her.
"There's something I have to do. It's nothing, really." She smiled, as though that was supposed to assure me. When Alice stood up, she noticed my expression. "We can talk about it later, okay?"
"Later," I agreed, kissing her cheek.
Did I honestly believe it was nothing? Of course not. As much as I wanted to press her about it, I had to convince myself that Alice would tell me when she was ready. She always did. So I held my tongue and watched her leave. I stared after her until she was out of the house, and then I listened as she sprinted away, into the forest.
Why did she go into the forest? What was so important in the woods? Or perhaps she was going to run the whole way, wherever she was headed? But then the question, still, was why — why hadn't she taken her car? She loved to drive, and did so whenever she could. There must be something wrong. More so than I suspected a minute ago.
I had to remind myself that at least she wasn't going to keep it from me — she told me she'd tell me later, right? Whatever it was, it didn't seem she wanted the rest of the family to know and, like months ago, when she and I left the family, there had be a good reason behind her decision. But also like that time, I wanted to trust her completely, yet I could not keep myself from worrying.
Emmett reached across the table and smacked his hand on my shoulder, obviously sensing my disappointment regarding Alice.
"Women," he said, shaking his head as if Alice's action was the result of an inevitable female trait.
"We're sitting right here, too, you know," Bella said, gesturing to herself, Rose, and Esme, both of whom were also eying Emmett.
Emmett raised his eyebrows, still looking at me. "You see what I mean?"
"That's it, give me one of your Life tiles." Bella reached over and snatched one from his pile.
"Hey, that's completely unfair! I only had three — Jazz has about fifty."
"But he knows how to keep his mouth shut."
"Women," Emmett grumbled again.
Edward entered the house a minute later, after parking his car in the garage and dropping off a couple of bags of food in the kitchen. There wasn't much we needed when it came to food at the moment; Renesmee was gone, as was Jacob. On a trip to visit Charlie and the wolves. It was hard for us to let Nessie go. The initial plan was for Jacob to head back to Washington to get the rest of his things, the stuff he left during our move, and to check in on his pack, who had new living arrangements. Apparently, Carlisle and Esme graciously left our old house in Forks to Seth, Leah, Embry, and Quil. I heard it took a lot of convincing on Jacob's part as he tried to get Leah to see reason. In the end, she and the others obviously took the offer. I suspect doing so allowed them to remain a part of Jacob's pack while keeping close to their tribe; moving away from it, even when no longer connected to Sam, must feel like a betrayal to them, and Jacob couldn't command them to go back to Sam - he refuses to command anything from them. Something I don't blame him for.
Renesmee, of course, had been missing her grandfather and the pack since we moved. When she heard of Jacob's trip, she desperately pleaded with her parents to let her go. There was no winning with that little girl. She had us all wrapped around her fingers, and Edward and Bella were no exception to the rule, as parental as they try to be at times. Knowing it was only a week trip helped, and they allowed her to go, setting rules like making sure she and Jacob called them at least twice a day.
They barely left yesterday afternoon, but already I can feel that everyone misses them...or at least Renesmee. I wasn't quite used to Jacob yet myself, after all that's happened. Though I suppose I will have to be sooner or later.
"Hi." Bella greeted Edward with a kiss.
"Who's winning?" Edward asked. But by the smirk on his face, one that he directed at our mother, it was clear he already knew.
"Esme, I think," Bella answered anyway. She sighed. "It's definitely not me — I've been in last place the entire game."
As the others laughed, I couldn't keep my thoughts off of Alice. It was hard for me to join in my family's fun when there was something wrong with my wife. I wondered if Edward heard anything in her head before she could get far enough away, or if he had even been paying close attention to her. Edward wasn't the type of guy to pay distinct attention to any one person's thoughts without a good reason. He kept an eye out for us, but he didn't like intruding.
My youngest brother looked at me, confused and questioning. I just shook my head in response. Him being unaware of what I was talking about already answered my question. And I doubt it would be farfetched to guess that Alice had left specifically to hide what she had seen from Edward, who was now staring out the window with concern, looking out at the direction I remembered Alice running off to.
Our game of Life ended smoothly and rather subdued. Emmett seemed pleased that whatever was suddenly distracting me was enough to stop me from gloating about how I was the winner. Honestly, I had no idea how I beat Esme, who came in as a very close second. Even so, I did nothing to earn bragging-rights. It was simple luck that helped me win.
While helping Esme disassemble the game board and put everything away, she shot me brief, curious looks several times before asking the question that was on her mind.
"So, what was wrong with Alice?" she asked, her tone casual, but concerned. "It looked like something was bothering her."
It shouldn't have been surprising that Esme had noticed something was off, but admittedly, I was a little shocked. She was very good at catching these things.
"I wish I knew the answer to that," I said, being honest.
"Well, I am sure Alice can handle it. She'll tell us if she needs to." Esme placed a comforting hand on my arm, smiling reassuringly.
I sighed. "That's what I keep telling myself."
And yet, something inside me was clenching uneasily. I took a moment to think back to a time when my instinct had ever been wrong — it never had.
OoOoOoO
It was late, past 2 AM, and Alice had yet to come home. It was no surprise; Alice sent me a text hours earlier saying she wouldn't be home until early morning. I was hoping she meant early morning. Clearly it was not the case, but I had hoped, partly because I was worried about her and I wanted her home, with me; the other part of it was that I couldn't keep myself distracted enough while I anxiously waited for her to return. Esme had noticed how keyed up Alice was, but nobody realized the extent of it when she ran off this afternoon, or was even aware of her vision. But something was definitely going on. Something I hoped wasn't as unsettling as I felt it was.
