Chapter Two – Scars
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed Bright Star, or put it on their alerts/favourites list. The reception has been brilliant, with much credit to Twi-Muses for letting me plug in their New Stories section. Much love to AzureEyedI and McGee42 from Project Team Beta for bestowing their awesome beta powers upon this chapter.
Please Note: Alice's visions deviate from canon; she can see the werewolves.
Edward
I was in half a mind to imprison Alice in her much-loved closet.
"That won't work!" she taunted, a vision of me wrapping her in a Louis Vuitton jumper flittering in her mind. Alice continued to hum gaily as she arranged the vase of flowers atop my piano yet again.
I groaned, which made Alice smile more. She had convinced nearly everyone to 'get the house ready' for Bella's visit. Emmett and Jasper were out hunting – Jasper's mind on that fateful day five years ago. Esme was unfolding a large, wine-red tablecloth along the dining room table whilst Carlisle rearranged the living room furniture according to Alice's demands.
For once I was actually glad of Rosalie; she had blatantly refused to help, and was currently busy admiring herself in her bathroom mirror.
For the past week, I had begged, pleaded and threatened in regards to Bella coming here. Surely, we could take on Victoria and her army by ourselves. Why put Bella in more danger?
However, every member of my family had agreed that as Bella had been kind enough to warn us of Victoria's intent, we would not go against her wishes.
I had resigned myself to an internal monologue of complaining after Carlisle had given me a stern look reminiscent of my father.
Look at you, moping around, Alice teased, her thoughts directed at me. You are such a Romantic.
"I don't exactly have a pantheistic view on life, Alice."
No, I suppose not. Nevertheless, your brooding nature is certainly reminiscent of old Lord Byron. You need to calm down.
I ignored the comparison and suggestion, and sat forlornly next to the chess set where Jasper and I had played the night previous. I had let Jasper win.
Two minutes later, Alice's redecorating was complete. "Thank you, Carlisle and Esme. This room looks great! Oh, Bella will just love it!"
The little vampire spun around just in time to see Jasper and Emmett enter the house via the back door. I had no doubts that she had timed every inch of this day perfectly.
"It looks fantastic, Alice," Jasper commented warmly, sliding an arm around her petite waist and pulling her close.
"Thanks," Alice beamed.
Rosalie finally decided to grace us with her presence; she was down the stairs and beside Emmett in a second.
"All she did was move the lounge to the left and change the tablecloth, Jasper," she remarked dryly, to which Emmett gave an appreciative, booming laugh.
Alice rolled her eyes at Rosalie, not particularly ruffled by her observation. Alice quickly glanced at the clock, and squealed, "Bella will be here in three minutes!"
If my heart were still beating, it would have gone into overdrive; I was terrified of seeing Bella and angry that I hadn't been able to keep myself away from her sweet life. I ignored the voice in my head that quietly diseased my thoughts; while I knew I would have never searched for her whilst she was alive, Bella had actively sought me out.
"Jesus, Edward, you look like hell," Emmett said, his mouth twitching, as though this whole situation was secretly hilarious.
Jasper groaned, obviously feeling the countless tumultuous emotions storm inside of me. "Don't tell him that; he'll just go on about how he deserves to be in purgatory! 'Oh, I do not deserve to see my precious Bella! I am but the malignant devil!'"
Emmett and Jasper roared with laughter as they continued to mimic me in pitch-perfect tones, quoting everything from Shelley's Frankenstein to Milton's Paradise Lost to Dante's Inferno. Even Alice had to stifle a smile.
My brothers and sisters had never understood my preoccupation with the soul, but had always delightedly teased me for my passion for classical literature.
I once again ignored another comment and instead addressed Alice.
"Bella might be later," I argued. "Or she might be lost. It might take her hours to get here. You can't even see her properly."
Alice narrowed her eyes. "Well, I can't wait to see her again. I want to know how on earth she knows Victoria is out to get us!"
I absolutely did not want to know that type of information. It meant that Bella had been in some kind of contact with the woman who wanted her dead.
We all heard the clean roar of an engine streaming down our winding road - definitely not the rickety sound of Bella's old Chevy truck.
"Motorbike," Emmett and Rosalie guessed in unison with identical, striking grins. Vampire hearing permitted my family and I to hear the transportation slow and change gears. I felt my sundered soul be plunged into the icy depths of fiery Hades as the motorbike turned into our driveway, slowing to a stop.
"She's here! Bella's here!" Alice cried, racing to the front door.
I sourced my exits; there were three, not including the kitchen windows. However, it seemed my family members were now the mind readers; the unmistakable thud of vampire flesh hitting vampire flesh echoed around the room as Emmett seized my form and held me, so I was forced to face the front door.
"Dude," Emmett said forcefully. "You can't just run now! And don't you smell that? Werewolves."
I could indeed smell the putrid scent of a werewolf. Bella was consorting with a werewolf? That explained the large wolves Alice had seen in her vision during Bella's phone call last night. Emmett released me.
I waited anxiously through the tormenting milliseconds as Alice placed a pale palm around the doorknob after hearing two sets of boots crunching along our gravel driveway.
Bella's scent was the first to hit me. The fragrance of freesias overwhelmed my senses. The werewolf smell lurked dangerously underneath her overpowering, sweet scent.
The painfully familiar rhythm of her heartbeat shocked me.
Distantly, I caught the thoughts of my family; Emmett couldn't wait to tease Bella, whilst Rosalie was already bored. Jasper hoped she wouldn't sustain a paper cut this time.
More footfalls sounded, her heartbeat sounding closer with each second. At the knock, Alice graciously opened the front door.
In the glorious, golden light of the sleeping sun, Bella came into view.
I heard Esme let out a gasp. Rage clouded my vision and I was unable to form words.
There were the unmistakable marks of a vampire criss-crossed up and down Bella's arms. Dozens upon dozens of scars etched into her pale, mutable skin. A painfully long and jagged line flowed up from her chest to just below her chin.
"Hi," she said, her voice echoing through the silence.
Her heart rate quickened. I could see her temporal pulse move, sheathed by the delicate ivory skin of her temple. An ambrosial blue vein neared the pulse by exactly two millimetres. Hot venom pooled in my mouth.
I tried to banish the instinctual vampire inside that told me in the number of microseconds it took this sweet seraph to blink, I could have her drained and lifeless.
A beautiful blush coloured her cheeks. I heard Jasper swallow his own venom. Bella looked anywhere but at me.
"Bella," said Carlisle, the first to recover. It seemed right that the leader of our coven would speak first. "It's lovely to see you again. You look well."
Well? Well? Had Carlisle truly seen those scars? God, I could not believe how my inane actions had tortured Bella so!
However, I could not deny that she looked even more beautiful than when I had last saw her–a feat I had once concluded impossible. She had grown into a fine young woman; her figure more defined, her cheekbones high and bright. Her hair was exactly four inches longer and a perhaps shade darker. The red tints still shone in the sunlight. She wore mascara and lip colour.
Yet, she still seemed to be the Bella I had held and loved so dearly.
"Thank you, C-Carlisle," she stammered, her blush deepening. "It's nice to see you all too."
"I believe it is we who should be thanking you, Bella," Esme countered gracefully as the werewolf walked in behind Bella and shut the door quietly. "You have gone out of your way to help us."
Bella laughed uncomfortably as Alice nearly throttled her in a hug. "I'm not gonna lie to you, this is as much helping you as it's helping us. We need Victoria out of our lives once and for all."
"She's caused enough trouble for a lifetime and a half," the werewolf whom I finally recognised as an older, stronger Jacob Black said.
Jasper seemed torn between feeling uncomfortable and trying to stop the rest of us feeling so.
"How is your father, Bella?" Carlisle asked Bella politely in attempt to alleviate the solemn mood.
My beautiful Bella swallowed audibly, and looked down.
Jacob Black cleared his throat. "We need to figure out a plan of attack straight away," he said in a deep, commanding voice. Both of them acted as though they had not heard Carlisle's question. Bella was chewing her lip; her gaze firmly on the ground. "Today, Bella and I will tell you what Victoria's moves have been, how she attacks, and what her army is like. We feel from there you can help us with tactics."
Jasper seemed relaxed at the notion of divisionary strategy, and grinned. "It sounds like a plan. What's your name?"
"Jacob Black."
"Ephraim Black's grandson?"
"Yes," Jacob said tersely. I could see he didn't like the idea of us much. After what I had done to Bella, I could not blame him.
"That explains the werewolf trait," Carlisle concluded pleasantly.
Esme offered Bella and Jacob a seat, which they accepted, and sat on our white leather lounge.
Rosalie looked over at the two strangely. She now thought of Bella differently, in consideration of her scars. "Why do you smell like a vampire?"
In my dazed state, I had not noticed the faint trace of a vampire scent. Now, I could. A newborn, young when changed, I deduced.
Bella met Rosalie's eyes bravely. "Our secret weapon," she said with a knowing smile.
As she further explained, I could only stare in wonder at Bella Swan.
Motorbikes, werewolves, and vampire armies; perhaps she was no longer the girl I once knew.
Bella
I felt that I addressed the issue of Renesmee, our 'secret weapon', well enough to the Cullens; I had practiced it on the ride over. I explained how she had once been apart of Victoria's army and had known the plans–how little Renesmee had surrendered to us, giving us information in the process. How Victoria had even waited until Renesmee had turned nine years old, so that the Volturi didn't see the girl as an immediate threat due to her young age. How Nessie had become someone I considered my own family. How the wolf pack had helped her to hunt animals instead of humans.
The Cullens seemed ready to accept this explanation. I must admit it would have been a bizarre thing to make up.
All the while, I had avoided Edward's gaze; I didn't even look at his feet. Avoiding Edward was how I spent the rest of the day, too.
Hours had trickled by. Jake and I had been given a tour of the house by Esme and Carlisle, and Alice had shown us where we would sleep. I had protested that I sleep in her and Jasper's bed until she reminded me that their bedrooms were mostly for appearances only. As vampires don't sleep, I wasn't pushing Alice and Jasper out of their room.
It seemed that in such a short amount of time I had forgotten all of the un-dead quirks I had grown accustomed to when I was seventeen.
Holy crow, if I was honest with myself, I had forgotten how handsome Edward looked. I had forgotten that when I caught his eye that my heart would race the way it did.
I had forgotten how much I had loved him. Seeing him in person confirmed that feeling all the more. My memory, the sieve, could never do him justice.
I had also forgotten how much I loved Alice's company. Alice regaled me with tales of her latest honeymoon in Paris. She seemed utterly enthralled and proud of me when I told her that for the past four years, I had been tutoring kids at the Quileute high school and working as a receptionist at Jacob's auto shop. I had always wanted to become a high school teacher, but I hadn't had the time or money, what with Victoria's poisonous presence.
The rest of the wolf pack – Sam, Emily, Jared, Paul, Quil, Embry, Leah, Seth, and Renesmee – joined us later that afternoon.
"Bella!"
Renesmee had shrieked my name as soon as she saw me, and almost knocked me over with the force of her hug.
"Hey, Ness. I laughed, pulling a coppery ringlet that framed her lovely face so that it sprang into a coil once again.
"I missed you!" Renesmee said, her bottom lip protruding in an irresistible pout. She then proceeded to launch into a rapid-fire monologue about her day – detailing in particular how Seth was 'such a meanie' because he wouldn't let her take down a deer that reminded him of Bambi.
I swear that I saw even Rosalie smile at the little vampire. She could warm anyone's heart. I told myself that I didn't notice the way Edward looked on at Renesmee and my's exchange.
Sam had wanted to talked strategy with Jasper as soon as the rest of the pack walked through the door.
Leah had quirked an eyebrow at that. "Shouldn't this be kind of a team thing, Sam? We're the ones saving these bloodsuckers. We all deserve a say in how this should go down."
Sam had conceded defeat. That was what I liked about Leah, she knew how to stand her ground. You're right, Leah. I'm sorry."
Emily's scarred mouth twisted into a smile. "You know these wolves, Leah. Act first, ask questions later."
"How about we discuss it at dinner?" Carlisle suggested warmly.
"Dinner? We don't eat grizzly bears." Jacob blurted out.
Sam shot Jacob a warning look, but Esme let out a musical laugh.
"I'm cooking for you, of course," she explained. "I hope you all enjoy roast lamb."
At seven o'clock that night, Embry looked around with his mouth hanging open. "This isn't your ordinary roast lamb, Mrs. Cullen!"
The spread on the table was indeed a remarkable sight. The food was abundant and lavish. Esme went beyond the skill level of a woman who hadn't eaten in over fifty years.
It seemed vampires and werewolves could co-exist if need be – despite the smell. I was sure of the fact until Rosalie, who was leaning into Emmett's embrace, opened her mouth.
"So, when are you going to tell us how you got those scars, Isabella?"
Her tone was not vindictive; she seemed intently curious. I sighed; this would have come up eventually. The room went silent as the wolf pack visibly tensed.
I could feel every pair of eyes trained on me. I could feel Edward's eyes on me. I kept my gaze firmly on my plate as I pushed my peas around in the gravy.
My throat was horribly dry, and to my embarrassment, my voice squeaked when I tried to talk.
"I thought that would have been obvious," I started nervously. I steeled myself and looked up – right into Edward's golden gaze. Crap!
I couldn't back out now. I was stronger than this.
"Victoria sort of held me hostage about a year after you left," I confessed softly, proud that my voice stayed strong. "She killed Charlie in front of me, and gave me these scars as a reminder of what she could do to me."
Alice had her hands over her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Bella!" she cried. She seemed to be in shock. "If we hadn't had left you…oh, poor Charlie…"
I interrupted her. "It's in the past, Alice. It happened, and I've come to accept it."
I pretended to not notice that Edward looked as though he was about to kill something. His expression resurfaced memories of that first day in biology. I shook my head, trying to banish my foolish thoughts.
It's no good, Bella. He doesn't feel that way.
Renesmee, who was sitting next to me, placed a cold, reassuring hand on my leg. I addressed the Cullens with more confidence.
"The way we've been talking strategy," I continued. "I know you agree with Sam and Jacob in thinking the best way to destroy Victoria is to capture her. And I know that Emily and I will be away from the army when you lure her here, but I want revenge for what she did to my father. I want to be the one who burns her."
Carlisle looked at me sadly. "Of course, Bella."
That was when Edward pushed his chair away from the table so hard that it snapped in half and stormed out of the house in a blur of incandescent ivory.
A/N: As AzureEyedI mostly aptly stated, 'typical Emoward!' Reviews are greatly appreciated, as is constructive criticism – I do reply to every response I get. Thanks!