Welcome back, Nessie090603 and corkykellems! Great to see you back for the sequel! She explained to me the basics of what is going on and I'm not too happy with her. I was fine with how the last one ended. You're so full of it. Fine but I'm still not happy with you. I can live with that.
I was standing in the middle of that field again, the blue haired girl…Dol. Her name was Dol. She stood a few feet in front of me smiling sadly.
"You're my sister."
"Yes and no." She spoke quietly, moving her gaze away from me.
I considered that as I took a step forward which she met by stepping away from me. "What does that mean?"
"I'm part of your mind."
"So you aren't real?" I moved towards her again which she immediately responded to by stepping away from me.
"I didn't say that either."
I gave up on the confusing questions and chose to ask one that was pretty straightforward. "Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
"I'm dreaming, right?" Being aware of being in a dream was strange but it was the only explanation for what was happening.
"Are you?" She tilted her head to the side questioningly before turning away from me.
"I have to be dreaming." I heard her laugh quietly as she started to walk away.
"There is a thin line between reality and fantasy. Remember that." As the world around me began to fade, she turned to face me again. "I miss you." That was the last thing she said before the world around me faded and I woke up.
I moved carefully around the cave, it was still difficult to walk but it was at least possible. I looked towards the blanket at the exit of the cave that was letting in sunlight around the edges. I could faintly see trees around the edges. I moved back to the crib again, looking down inside it.
"Momma!" Renesmee ran through the front door followed closely by my husband. Edward and I shared a look as she jumped into my arms, I caught her easily as we spun around.
"Hi, baby girl." She giggled as I set her down. She pulled her backpack off her back and threw it on the floor, dropping down and digging through it.
I blinked rapidly. A daughter. I knew that was my daughter. I had a daughter. "Bella?" I slowly turned to face the entrance. "Some people want to see you."
"Can't they come in here?" Even though I asked the question I moved carefully to the cave entrance.
"They're babysitting for me." She glanced away.
I stopped next to her and leaned against the cave wall. "Whose baby is it? You said a friend. Why are you taking care of a friend's baby?"
"She ran off after she had it. It's a long story."
"You're full of those."
"Or I just don't like answering your questions. If you remembered me you'd understand why."
"You told me others have had this happen. What about the memories?"
"Some of you remember and some of you don't."
I wanted to remember everything. I wanted to know who I was and who everyone else was. I wanted to remember. Knowing what things were was great but knowing who people were would be better. "Do you think I'll ever remember everything?"
"I don't know. I have absolutely no idea." She pushed through the blanket out of the cave leaving me alone.
It was weird. I knew I should wonder what was outside but I didn't care. I was tempted to go lay back down in bed and go back to sleep. "Rosalie." I pushed off the wall and went outside, I had been sleeping in a cave. I'd known that. What was in front of me was a massive treeline with tents scattered around and two small wooden houses, one on each side of the cave. There weren't too many people in sight but there were several wolves walking around the perimeter. A baby tiger ran out of one of the tents, charging for me. I didn't get to react before Rosalie -who I hadn't noticed standing to the left of the cave exit- picked him up mid jump. He made a small sound somewhere between a growl and a meow.
"Brady."
I looked at Rosalie who was staring at the small tiger with pain in her eyes. I moved my gaze to the tiger that morphed into a small boy with dark hair. It made me jump but all focus on that vanished when his eyes met mine. Those eyes. Ever changing eyes. They didn't stay a solid color for more than a few milliseconds. They were the same eyes Dol had.
"He's her son." I whispered, pain tearing through me. I didn't know her but it didn't change the fact that it hurt to know. Rosalie refused to meet my eyes when I looked back at her. The boy in her arms squirmed, making another sound between a growl and meow after he changed into a tiger again. She set him down and he took off in the direction of the house behind her. "You said she thought you were dead. How did you end up with her son?"
"He doesn't know. I haven't seen Dol since Missouri."
"How did you end up with my sister's kid?"
"It's a long story." She finally met my gaze. I was going to go off on her for avoiding the question but she continued before I could. "But. Let me give you the short story. I told you I don't know where she is or what happened to her. I don't even know if she's alive. She left her son with Embry who got in contact with Quil who talked to Alice who got ahold of me."
"Why did he end up in your care?"
"I was pregnant before and I lost the child." I wanted to ask her to elaborate but was interrupted. "I don't want to talk about it. Don't ask. Please. They decided that I would be thrilled to raise a baby and I was even though the circumstances were terrible."
"What is he?" I finally addressed one of the things that had been bothering me.
"He's a shapeshifter. Let's go talk to some of your old friends. Maybe seeing them will jog memories."
"How old is he?" She went to move away from me but was jerked back when I grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop. "How long ago did my sister go missing? Don't you dare tell me 'it's complicated'. How long?"
"Eight years ago." She finally said after she looked at the determination in my expression.
Eight years. I knew from basic instinct that that boy couldn't have been older than three by his human appearance but that didn't bother me as much as knowing she had been missing for eight years.
"I know you have a ton of questions. You always do. I'm begging you to come talk to your friends. Please. I don't want to be the only one to answer all of your questions. I can't answer them all." I groaned in frustration, letting go of her arm in the process. "Thank you."
She led me the distance from where we stood to the small house the tiger had gone to, we stepped through the doorway with me behind Rosalie.
"Bells." A voice came from inside, the second Rosalie moved out of my way I was pulled into a tight hug by an old woman with graying hair, she pulled away and looked me over like I might vanish into thin air.
"She doesn't remember anyone." Rosalie spoke softly from next to me, I thought about the memory that had triggered when I'd looked at Frog. If I focused on it I could faintly remember seeing a woman with her appearance in the memory. A much younger version of the woman but the same one all the same. She was someone from my childhood and I was thrilled to see her though I had no recollection of who she was.
"Who are you?" She flinched at the question but didn't pull away. Instead she placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
"I'm Dol's mom. I'm your Aunt Ellen."
"We'll explain that later, Bella." I wasn't going to ask though I faintly wondered how she was my aunt if Dol was my sister.
She pulled away from me, backing away so that I could get a full look of the room we were in.
The middle of the room had a large wooden table surrounded with dark chairs. There were four other people excluding my aunt and Rosalie. A male with pale skin and pale blonde hair and blue eyes sat at the furthest away seat looking through a pile of papers. There was a small black haired girl was laying on a couch at the back of the room shaking violently and a male with honey blonde hair and pale skin was sitting in a chair facing the couch with his back to me blocking most of my view of her. The tiger, Dol's son, was lying on the floor watching us quietly.
"Hello, Isabella." The blonde vampire briefly glanced up from his papers before looking back at them.
"Isabella?"
"People you didn't know as a friend weren't allowed to call you anything but your full name." That made a lot of sense, I knew it was something I would do even though I hardly knew who I was.
"Can I get introduced?"
"The girl on the couch is Alice. She had the same thing happen to her that you did. She hasn't woken up." Rosalie motioned to the sleeping girl; Alice.
I considered asking why she wasn't connected to wiring like I had been but I didn't.
"That's her mate; Jasper. Paper nerd there is my father; Carlisle." She held up a hand in what I knew was a symbol for stopping where I was. "I'm not human. Carlisle is a vampire. Jasper is a vampire. I'm a vampire werewolf hybrid. Alice was a vampire." She moved away from the door and past my aunt. "Your aunt is human." She added as she sat down in one of the chairs and motioned for us to join her. I was more than happy to walk over to the table and sit down.
My aunt joined us, sitting in the chair across from me. I tried to ignore the way she kept glancing at me like I'd disappear.
"Go ahead. Ask your questions."
"Where are we?" Rosalie sighed softly.
"Of course you ask that. As you've probably realized your nephew isn't nearly the age he should be. Shapeshifters don't normally start changing forms until they are in their late teens. He started changing forms when he was two and as long as a shapeshifter is changing between forms they don't age at the right rate. Since he doesn't like being human I moved into the forest." She paused, allowing me to take in the information before she continued. "I'm not exactly safe to be around all the time so I asked Carlisle to come live with us. Have him lock me down on full moons that I'm supposed to change. Over time we've picked up a few shapeshifters, most of them prefer their animal forms over their human ones so it works well for them. Basically we're in the middle of nowhere."
I absorbed the information, accepting it all without too much of an issue. I was aware some of this information should bother me but it all seemed so typical that it didn't. "Okay." I finally said after I thought it over. Something else was bothering me though, something I needed to ask. I didn't say anything for a short while as I considered how to ask it. If I should even ask it. After all how could someone answer a question like that for you? "Who am I?"
Rosalie moved her gaze to Jasper and Alice. "That's a question that I don't know how to answer."
I hadn't really expected her to be able to answer that question but I'd had to ask. I looked towards the two by the couch when they black haired girl made a small choked sound. She stopped shaking a few seconds after she made the sound. This was one thing I did remember. The cold. It had been so cold.
I didn't think before I got out of my chair and ran to her side. Jasper growled at me but I ignored it. "It's uncomfortable. Waking up hurt horribly."
"She's terrified." Jasper shook his head as Rosalie joined my side, she was holding a cup with water in it.
"Bella, move." I didn't move when she tried to push me out of the way.
"Give her the vitamin drink first. The water hurt my empty stomach so it will probably hurt her as well." I pulled away, letting her take my place. Carlisle moved into the spot I had been in, holding a cup with the vitamin drink in it.
"Can you tell me about it, Bella? The transformation?" I shook my head at Carlisle's back.
"I don't want to think about it." I mumbled as I turned away from them. Brady approached me slowly. "Hi, there." I spoke softly. He watched me warily before nodding his head slightly. "How are you?" He glanced over my shoulder, then bolted out the door. I looked up as Rosalie walked past me towards the table.
"Why didn't you tell him?"
"I didn't want him to know that his mother abandoned him so I let him grow up believing I was his birth mother. I am his mother." The way she said it was a mixture between joy and sadness.
"I understand that, Rose but it's not fair for him to believe you are his birth mother when you aren't."
"You called me Rose." I looked at her, surprised. I had called her Rose but that wasn't the point right now.
"Don't change the subject."
"Fine. We'll discuss the nickname later. Bella, Dol left him. She abandoned him. A week after he was born she told Embry to find someone to take care of him and vanished off the face of the planet. She didn't tell anyone why or where she was going. You don't remember her. She was a good person. She was also a selfish person."
"You say was like she's dead." I narrowed my eyes.
"She isn't dead." Our attention moved to Ellen who finally spoke up. "My daughter isn't dead. If she was her pack would know."
"El, as much as I hope you're right you know that isn't completely true."
"My daughter isn't dead." Ellen stood up quickly, knocking the chair she was sitting on over in the process. "Bells is right. She's telling you the same thing I've been telling you for the past eight years. It's not right that he doesn't know." She shook her head and gave me a tired smile before heading for the door.
"Don't tell him, El. Please." Rosalie moved past me towards my aunt, panic clear by the way she moved.
"I have let you lie to him for eight years. I'm not going to spill the beans now. It doesn't make the conversations we have had about this nullified. You have to be the one who tells him." She stopped in the doorframe, looking over her shoulder at me. "It's amazing to see you again. I'll see you at dinner." She left the room leaving us alone. I turned my attention back behind me to see what was happening with Alice. Carlisle was leaning over her, I couldn't tell what he was doing exactly but he was very focused on her.
"How is she?" I asked hesitantly, moving behind him so I could look over his shoulder at her. Her eyes were open and full of tears. She opened her mouth when she saw me and made a small sound.
"Don't talk. It's okay." Jasper kissed her forehead and she sighed softly.
"Do you remember us?" She made a slight motion that had to be a nod as her eyes closed.
"She seems more…" I couldn't figure out how to finish the sentence.
"More lively? Awake? Less dead than you were?" Rosalie offered, annoyance clear in her voice. "You're the only ex vampire we've encountered that took more than a few days to recover."
Carlisle stood up causing me to back away as he returned to his papers. "The only explanation we can come up with is that you were underground for such a long time it took longer for you to physically recover. Quil and the pack are supposed to be back tonight. He'll be thrilled to see you around."
"You're kicking us out, aren't you?" Rosalie sounded stunned.
He shook his head disapprovingly. "As much as I love you I don't like the drama that comes with your son's family. Now go help build the bonfire. Bella, since you're still recovering I recommend you go take a nap." He didn't look up from his papers as he spoke.
I turned and headed out the door without a thought. Rosalie closed the door behind me and I could hear her yelling on the other side though I couldn't make out the words. I walked to the cave entrance ignoring the temptation to stay behind and listen to their conversation. I dropped down on the bed, sleep pulling me under immediately.
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I stood outside the cave, watching a couple people walk around the camp. I finally got a chance to absorb everything. The cave was in the side of a large mountain and I could see the sunset from the front of it. The sunset which I was currently absorbing like it was the greatest thing in existence. I was so focused on every color that I didn't catch the sight of a guy with dark skin, and black hair approached, the most shocking part of his appearance being the fact that he was missing one of his brown eyes.
He stopped a few inches in front of me, a grin on his face, his sudden arrival made me jump though. "Bella." He chuckled. "It's been forever."
"Who are you?"
He sighed and shook his head. "Of course you are one of the ones without memories. Why the hell didn't Rosalie tell me?" He growled lowly, shaking his head. "My name is Quil."
I'd heard that name. Rosalie had mentioned it. I couldn't remember the exact context though. I considered asking him some questions but decided against it. "Where's this bonfire Carlisle mentioned?"
"You woke up just in time." He grinned. "Bonfire nights are always fun."
"What do you know about my sister?" The question slipped before I could stop it.
The grin vanished from his face. "I mean-"
"You don't remember anything. Of course you would ask about. I didn't know her long but she did good things for me."
"I want to see her."
"I wish I could help. I'm just as in the dark about her whereabouts as everyone else. I'm sorry." I noticed something in his expression. I almost didn't notice it but it was there. He was lying.
"You're lying." He looked away from me immediately. "Why are you lying?" I grabbed his arm.
"No one has caught me in that before, Bella. Don't mention it to anyone else."
"What do you know about my sister?"
"I'll tell you after the bonfire. I planned on telling you later. I know you want to hear more but I am not ready to tell you. Okay?" I bit my tongue, I wanted to argue with him about this. He knew something. That was more than Rosalie had told me since I'd woken up.
I sighed but nodded my head. "Fine. But you're telling me everything you know when this bonfire thing is over."
"I swear." He turned away from me and headed straight forward where I could faintly see smoke rising into the sky as the sun set behind it.
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The bonfire was interesting. There was a massive fire built in the middle of a clearing not far from the camp. There was a dead deer lying next to the fire and another one hoisted over the fire being cooked with two people attending it.
There were logs spread around the bonfire with a few people sitting on them, then there was a large assortment of wolves, tigers, panthers, and other things pacing, laying, or sitting around the fire.
Brady was sitting on one of the front logs next to a younger boy with dark brown hair. Quil separated from me and walked over to where Rosalie was sitting with her arms crossed over her chest not far behind Brady.
"She's still such a child." I jumped when someone draped their arm over my shoulder. I jerked away and backed up to face a black hair brown eyed guy who couldn't have been older than fourteen. "Relax. My name is Nahuel. I've been here for around four years and have learned a few things about the people."
"Yet you didn't learn it's rude to sneak up on people?"
"I don't have any memories. I don't know what's considered rude and not."
"I know it's rude and I've got no memories." I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you want?"
"Crap. You didn't wake up with memories?"
"You thought I did?"
"I like screwing with people. Part of that is laying a pity party."
"You sound like an ass."
"Only when people first meet me. Let's sit down." He took hold of my hand and guided me to one of the logs on the other side of the fire. He sat down and I sat down next to him.
He picked up a stick off the ground and picked at it. I watched his hands as he picked at the stick. "I couldn't remember anything when I woke up. I didn't know what anything was, I didn't know how to talk or walk. I'd have probably died in the woods if Carlisle hadn't found me." He pushed against my shoulder with his and grinned when I moved my gaze up to him. "I love not remembering though. I was basically reborn. No knowledge who I was or what I'd done for however long I've been alive."
"How can you not want to remember?" I couldn't understand how someone would not want to remember that kind of stuff.
"You have a different perspective here. I woke up alone. No one knew me or anything about me." He continued picking at the stick thoughtfully. "I had nothing. Nothing but the knowledge of how to breathe. Then this vampire shows up and helps me, he feeds and waters and teaches me how to crawl then walk. Lucky me it only took two and a half years for me to develop language and other skills." He threw the stick into the fire, draping his arm over my shoulders.
"Get off the girl." He made a sound of protest when he was knocked back off the log and someone took his place.
"Fuck off, Jared!" Nahuel's voice was filled with irritation.
"Make me, kid." The newcomer -Jared- grinned at me. "You're new." I moved away from him warily. "Bella, right? Quil spoke highly of you. Of course we never believe a word out of his mouth but he did speak highly of you."
"Come on. Give the girl some space." He climbed into the space I had created by moving away from Jared.
"Dude, if I gave every person I met space I wouldn't have a ring on Kim's finger."
"I really should learn more about marriage." Nahuel shook his head as he spoke.
"If you did that you wouldn't have any excuses when you flirt with my wife."
"I'm offended. I haven't hit on your girl since you broke my jaw." Nahuel threw his arm over my shoulder again. "I got a new girl in my sight anyway."
"She might break your jaw this time." Jared pointed out as I pushed his arm off my shoulder and stood up, glaring at him.
"I'm going to sit with Rosalie." I turned to head over to where Rosalie sat, I noticed she was now talking to both Carlisle and Quil. Nahuel grabbed my arm.
"Come on, Bella. I was screwing with you."
I turned to face him again and asked him, "you done?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die." He let go of my arm and put it over his heart and his other one next to his head.
"Fine." I shook my head in defeat and sat back down.
"Great." He grinned at me then turned his attention back to Jared. "So where is Kim?"
"She's in town. Her and Lauren headed in to pick up some supplies yesterday."
"You let her head off on her own?"
"No one told me." He growled in annoyance. "I sent Collin off to check on them the second we got back."
"Making Collin miss the bonfire just so you can be paranoid? And I'm the ass."
The sound of howling filled the air making me jump. I looked up to see Quil standing in the middle near the fire, all of the wolves that had been around the fire had sat down around the tree line in small groups and had their head thrown back, howling at the moon.
"Did they really start without me? Assholes!" Jared jumped up as the sound of shredding clothes and cracking bones filled the air. Jared was replaced by a brown furred wolf that joined in on the howl as he ran to join one of the groups.
"What is happening?" I watched him as he sat down with the group furthest from me.
"The bonfire is a sort of event for shapeshifters who are going to become mates or when one of them imprints on someone."
"What's imprinting?"
"I have absolutely no idea. Now come on." He got up and pulled me to my feet, leading me to the side where Rosalie and the others were sitting. He let go of me and sat down next to Rosalie, practically sitting on top of her. "Hi there, Blondie." I absently noted the other people joining us on the same side.
"Get off of me." She shoved him away from her.
I took a seat on the log in front of them and watched as Quil stepped up to the front of the fire, turning to face us. The howling died down. "Welcome to the bonfire everyone! It is great to have everyone here!"
Nahuel leaned over my shoulder and whispered quietly. "Quil is the pack alpha. He runs everything that has to do with the pack. He also hosts these."
"We are here to celebrate the imprint of Samantha Black on Emily Young. It's not often that one of our pack has the honor of imprinting so it's great to be here tonight." He looked around the group as a large black wolf moved down the center with a girl sitting on her back.
"The imprinting ceremony is less interesting than a mating one but I come to it because they serve wine." Nahuel chuckled as he climbed onto the spot next to me.
I ignored him as I watched the black wolf stood next to Quil, kneeling down slightly allowing Emily to climb off her back.
"Imprinting ceremonies can be a lot of things. Sometimes it ties in with a marriage or mating ceremony. Sometimes it symbolizes family bonds. Sometimes it shows off a new Guardian. Today we are here for a Guardian. Samantha Black has imprinted on Emily Young." There were several sounds of approval from the animals and the people around us. "Samantha, as a symbol of being a Guardian over Emily you have done something to symbolize that you'll be able to protect her."
"She killed a bear for her." Nahuel whispered quietly.
"Shut up, Nahuel." Rosalie spoke up from behind me as she moved into the spot on the other side of me. "We aren't supposed to talk during this."
I drowned them out and watched in interest as Samantha moved back down the center back into the woods.
"Come on, Blondie. For someone that doesn't know what is going on it is important they know these things."
"How about knowing that it's rude to talk during these ceremonies." Jared the wolf walked up in front of us as Rosalie growled the sentence quietly. He sat down on Nahuel's feet who smacked him in the back of the head.
I focused back on the event as Samantha drug a large dead bear down the center. Everyone watched with interest, my gaze moved briefly to Emily who was grinning slightly next to Quil, biting her lip nervously before I moved my gaze back to the wolf dragging the corpse. She stopped in front of Emily and lay down in front of her with her head on her paws.
"Thank you." Emily knelt down and lay a hand on Samantha's shoulder. There was a brief silence then she continued. "You've saved my life before, Sammy and I trust you will save me again if you need to be saved."
Samantha made a small barking sound and licked Emily's hand. She hugged the big wolf before pulling away, the wolf standing up slowly in front of her. She didn't stand completely, allowing Emily to climb on her back. Samantha's tail wagged slightly as she stood completely.
"Now that the messy part is over, let's eat." Samantha turned and headed into the woods with Emily on her back.
"They are so sleeping together." Nahuel whispered from next to me, Jared growled at him and turned his head, biting at his hand.
I got up as a few people worked to pull the thing that was being cooked over the fire down. Quil caught my eyes and nodded slightly. I headed into the forest behind us, moving around the people and logs that were in my way.
I moved into the trees, ignoring the sound of giggling coming from behind some rocks not far from the clearing. I walked for a while then stopped and turned to face Quil. I hadn't heard him following me but I'd known he was there.
"Time for some answers, Quil. What do you know about my sister?"
"I don't know where she is. I really don't. I wish I did." I went to cut him off but he cut me off before I could. "I have an idea of how you can find her. Her Imprintee. Mike. If she's still around she would never completely abandon him. She's not capable of it."
"So this Mike guy…"
"He might be able to help. And I know where he is." Quil smiled comfortingly.
There is no way I abandoned my son! I would never do that! Calm down. You better tell me what the hell happened or- I'll tell you. Later. I swear. You better. This is crap. Making me out to be a child abandoning bitch. It all has a reason. I promise. How long do you think it will be before I make an appearance? Technically you have appeared. Those are dreams. Not really me. Not the point.
