Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight / JR Ward own Black Dagger Brotherhood.
Edward pulled Bella's chair out and motioned for her to take a seat, while he remain standing. Bella fought the urge to roll her eyes at him, and sighed before taking a breath and sitting down. Alice sat to the left of her, and didn't wait for Jasper to pull her chair out before sitting herself down and bouncing in her chair. A huge grin across her face.
Bella noticed Carlisle and Emmett pull out chairs for Esme and Rosalie, before taking their own chairs. The stranger's were all standing, before the one with long black hair, sat down in his chair causing all the other men to hastily sit back down. 'mm wonder if he's the king' Bella thought as she looked at Edward still standing.
"Sit" she hissed quietly at him. 'Typical always trying to protect everyone'
"Yeah sit, we don't bite" the stranger opposite Bella said.
Bella turned and looked at the stranger. His eyes were black, and he had a large scar running down his face, starting at his forehead and ending at his lip.
Bella pushed Edwards chair back a bit, and held out her hand for him. He slipped his hand into hers and squeezed before sitting down.
No one said anything. For most of the part Bella could see the strangers were all studying them, while they were studying them. Alice was still bouncing up and down in her chair looking up and down the table at each of the strangers. Everyone thought Bella had no self preserving abilities, but she was saw Alice would of gladly gone anywhere with these strange men. She was acting like they were giant size Ken Barbie dolls and she'd just been given them for her birthday.
Bella could see Rosalie down the far end of the table, slouching back in her chair, and her finger nails tapping the table. Bella could tell she was trying to give off the impression she didn't care, but she could tell she was studying all the strangers, just as Bella was.
"Okay, I'll go first since no one's going to talk. My name is Alice" Alice practically shouted before jumping out of her chair and reaching her hand across the table to shake hands with the stranger opposite her.
Before Bella had time to blink, Alice pulled her hand back quickly and threw her tiny body in front of Jasper. The stranger's opposite them all pulled out guns or knifes and rose from their chairs, their guns and knifes all pointed at her family.
"WAIT" Alice screamed with her hands up. Bella noted that everyone on her side of the table had stood including her. Jasper had managed to push Alice to the side.
Then sent out calming emotions. She wondered if the strangers would be susceptible to it. Apparently they were, as they holstered their weapons and sat down slowly.
"I'm sorry I just wanted to shake your hand" Alice said softly before sitting down. Bella glanced the room around her, wondering why in heck security hadn't stepped in or why there was no screams coming from the humans in the room. Normally when a group of men pull guns in a room, there's screaming and running for the nearest exit. But Bella was surprised to see people and security carrying on like nothing was happening. Actually come to think about it, no one was even looking at them. 'This is weird' They always drew attention to themselves when they were out in a group.
The strangers still hadn't spoken, but they were all seated and from their expressions wondering what the hell was happening to them.
"My apologies for my daughter Alice, she tends to get excited and not think. I assure you she meant no harm." Carlisle said smoothly. Bella had to suppress the urge to giggle. She'd seen Carlisle bedazzle few people, never really having the need, but he was working his bedazzling skills now.
"What are you doing to us?" the man called Wrath asked.
"Safety precaution. My son Jasper" Carlisle nodded his head to his right where Jasper sat "has certain abilities shall we say. He's merely trying to stop us from attacking each other. Can I suggest we both agree no fighting? We want to just talk to you all, that's all"
"Get him to stop and we'll talk." Wrath said
Carlisle nodded his head and Bella felt Jasper cut off the calming emotions. The strangers went straight back to being angry and on the ready to fight.
"Cool it brothers" Wrath commanded, the strangers sank back into their chairs, but their body language suggesting they were ready to attack again.
"Let's start again" Wrath said, while looking at Alice. At least Bella thought he was looking at Alice, she couldn't really tell where he was looking from behind his dark sunglasses. Alice beamed her mega watt smile, before standing and reaching her hand out slowly across the table to the same stranger.
"Hi I'm Alice"
"Phury" the stranger with a head of luscious hair said. Bella was tempted to stand next and introduce herself, just so she could ask if she could run her hands through it. Instead Alice turned to the stranger seated to the right of Phury, the one opposite Bella with the scarred face, her hand outstretched. She frowned a little before pulling her hand back. "Hi Z, I'm Alice". The stranger looked back shocked at Alice knowing his name. He nodded his head, but didn't extend his hand to be shaken. Alice didn't look at all offended.
"Alice" Carlisle said softly. They'd been around each other long enough to know that Carlisle was telling Alice to cool it with the freaking them out by knowing their names. Bad enough they suspected Edward could read minds, and Jasper could control emotions, they really didn't need to know, Alice could see the future.
"It's ok Carlisle. We're going to all be great friends" Alice said still grinning. Rosalie grunted from down the end of the table. "Even you Rose, in fact, your friend from out the front, you two are going to be great friends" Alice said moving out from the table, because she couldn't reach any of the strangers anymore without climbing onto the table, and Bella wouldn't put it past Alice to try doing that.
"Whatever, like I'd be friends with a dyke" Rosalie muttered. Esme sent her a chilled look.
Alice was around the table now standing at the head, in between Edward and one of the strangers with black hair. She reached her hand out to him and smiled "Hi, Alice" she said. He shook her hand, but didn't offer up his name, though Alice didn't seem surprised or offended. She moved onto the blonde man standing behind him. Bella noticed he had one green eye and one blue eye. Very rare.
"Hey Qhuinn, we're going to have so much fun together" she said putting her hand out for him to shake, which he shook.
"Not that kind of fun. She's my wife" Jasper said angrily from his seat. Alice and Bella laughed, even Esme was trying to hide a smile, and Rosalie as always looked bored.
"Okay are you all mind readers? And if so stay out of my head, or don't take offence to what I'm thinking" the stranger named Qhuinn said.
Bella could see Carlisle was about to say something, but Wrath spoke first. "Qhuinn, you don't have to be a mind reader to smell the lust coming off you. So keep your head in the game and out of the gutter"
The stranger named Qhuinn looked down and blushed. Actually blushed. Bella jabbed Edward in the side and motioned for him to look at Qhuinn's blush. Except Edward just rolled his eyes at her. Typical.
Alice moved back around the table to their side of it, before going and squeezing her way in between Jasper and Carlisle, and reaching her hand out to the stranger who was sitting next to Phury the man with the lush hair.
"Hi I'm Alice"
"I'm Tohrment, Tohr for short" he said shaking Alice's hand. Bella had to say out of all the men, he was the most normal looking one, well him and the one right down the other end of the table sitting opposite Rosalie.
Alice turned and faced Wrath, her hand outstretched to him.
"Hi Wrath, I'm Alice" she said.
Wrath seemed to hesitate for a second, and then reached his hand out. In that second, Bella saw that his movement was a bit off, and in the end Alice grabbed his hand.
"He's blind" Bella thought.
"Nice to meet you Wrath" Alice said before releasing his hand.
She moved on putting herself in between Carlisle and Esme reaching her hand out to the stranger with tattoo's around his eyes.
"Alice" he said giving his head a nod, and a small smile while shaking her hand.
"Vishous or V?" Alice asked
"V's fine" he answered
Alice pushed herself back from the table and practically crawled over Esme's legs to get to the man on the left hand side of Vishous. Bella had to admit, the man was something beautiful. Shoulder length blonde hair, neon blue eyes, muscles everywhere. Bella could freely say no current Hollywood actor came close to looking as beautiful as he did.
"Rhage, wow your just as beautiful as I saw" Alice gushed while holding out her hand for him to shake. He seemed flabbergasted and embarrassed but held his hand out and shook Alice's.
Bella couldn't help the grin spread across her face. Alice was acting like a normal teenager gushing over a hot guy. Jasper didn't seem too bothered, but he didn't seem happy either.
"Why don't you just hop up onto his lap Alice" Rose mocked sarcastically.
"Shut up Rose" Alice said pushing Rose and squeezing past her to the end of the table.
"Hi" she said holding her hand out to the second most normal looking guy in the bunch.
"Hello Alice" he said, shaking her hand. When he released her hand, he sat back and smiled "so you know my name?" he asked.
Alice stood back, her smile gone, and a stumped look across her face.
"Why do I want to say Cop, Butch and Dhestroyer?" she asked. The stranger's smile widened.
"You're good. Butch is fine" he answered.
"Blaylock I presume?" Alice said to the last stranger, her hand outstretched ready to shake his. He had red hair, and looked the youngest out of them all. He reminded Bella of Seth. Not physically but just his demeanour.
"Yep. Alice right?" he said taking her hand.
"Yep. Alice Brandon Cullen at your services" she said smiling. He smiled back at her, and Bella knew straight away he was going to be just like Seth. He and Jacob were going to get along great.
Alice made her way back to her chair, and then Carlisle cleared his throat.
"So as you've all meet, that's Alice. Right down the end is my son Edward, and his wife Bella.." Bella couldn't help it; she gave a small wave to the table. She felt stupid immediately afterwards, but it was too late, it was already out there "..my son Jasper, Alice's husband, my wife Esme.." he said looking at Esme a smile on his face "..my son Emmett.." he gestured to Emmett who grinned at the strangers "..and my daughter Rosalie, Emmett's wife. So now that we all know each other, I guess we should get down to why we're here"
"Sure. Just a minute, I think this calls for drinks" Wrath said before turning to his left and nodding his head at the man called Vishous.
"Thank the scribe" Butch sighed from down the end of the table.
Just like that, people started staring at them. It was though they were invisible before and now everyone could see them again. A waitress hurried over to their table, and Bella felt sorry for her. She didn't seem to know where to look. Then after a few seconds she relaxed significantly. Jasper's handiwork no doubt.
She took drink orders from all the men opposite them, and then turned to their side of the table. They all rattled off drink orders, all knowing they had no intention of drinking them, merely keeping up with appearances. In fact Bella had become quite good at lifting a bottle of beer to her mouth tilting it back and then spitting the liquid back into the bottle, so that everyone around her bar her family thought she'd taken a drink. She wondered if the strangers would be able to tell.
They all remained silent while the waitress went and brought back their drinks, having to make two trips. When she left the table, Bella noticed everyone went back to ignoring them. Like they had on a cloak of invisibility.
"So is that you guys doing…that?" she asked the table of men opposite her.
"Doing?" Wrath asked
"Turing us invisible or whatever it is your doing, that's making no one in this room look at us" Rose stated bitterly.
"Rosalie" Carlisle sighed.
"What you know you want to know as well. Probably more than me." Rosalie said innocently.
"It's called a mhist. Just like your boy Jasper confuses your emotions, I'm confusing everyone around us into thinking there's nothing here but an empty table" the one called Vishous said.
"Fascinating" Carlisle whispered.
Rosalie rolled her eyes. Emmett grunted and looked around the room. "So what's stopping any of these guys trying to come and sit down at the empty table" he asked.
"Me. If they see the table and think it's a good idea to come and sit down, they'll walk over here and get confused and won't remember why they're actually coming over here in the first place and then walk away" Vishous continued.
"Do you…could you show me? If I stepped away from the table, could you block me out?" Carlisle asked, he was trying to appear calm, but there was a slight hint of excitement coming through his tone.
Vishous looked to Wrath, who nodded after a few seconds, and Vishous waved his hand to Carlisle to step away from the table.
"Mind if I join him?" Bella said getting up the same time as Carlisle.
Wrath nodded again, and she and Carlisle took a few steps away from the table. Almost immediately people in the room began looking at them. However she could still see the table and everyone there.
"Well…?" she asked
"Yes Bella?" Carlisle asked like he was waiting for Bella to ask a question.
"Can you still see them?" Bella asked
"See who dear?" Carlisle seemed genuinely confused and concerned.
Bella looked over and stared directly at Edward who grinned at her. Alice sat waving at her, while Carlisle seemed to be looking around the club like he was wondering what he was doing there. Bella waved back at Alice and as she looked up she saw the table of men looking at her confusingly.
"Come with me" Bella said guiding Carlisle back to his chair. The moment he touched it, he seemed to be aware of the table full of his family and the strangers sitting opposite him.
"Wow, that was something else. I honestly couldn't remember what we were doing here, and I couldn't see any of you at all" Carlisle said excitingly.
"But you could?" Vishous asked Bella
"Yes. I'm what you'd call special.." Bella said using air quotes for special "no one's getting into my head without my say so"
The man Vishous seemed to think about it before nodding his head slowly and taking a drink of his vodka.
"So we can take it, you all have certain gifts, as we have ours, now what I'd like to know is exactly who are you all and what are you doing in my neighborhood?" Wrath asked in what Bella thought was supposed to be a scary tone. Except all it did was make her laugh, which she fought hard not to let out. Alice on the other hand had no problems laughing out loud.
"Wrath…you sound like a mafia don. Really we're going to be great friends, and we'll laugh about this one day" Alice said quieting her laughter.
"Be careful how you speak Alice, that day hasn't come yet" Z said threateningly.
"Dude don't threaten my sister" Emmett said leaning forward in his chair his eyes on Z.
"Everyone calm down" Carlisle said directly to Emmett. "We all forget how daunting Alice can be. Our apologies, sometimes Alice speaks without thinking, but once you get to know her, you'll learn to handle her" Carlisle finished looking at Alice, his eyes telling her to cool it with the predictions.
"Also word of advice. Never bet against Alice. If she says we're all going to be great friends, than whether we realize it now or not, we will be" Esme added.
"So Alice…we're all going to be good friends are we?" Wrath asked bemused.
Alice looked quickly to Carlisle who sighed and nodded.
"Best friends Wrath. So close in fact, that every time we're in Cadwell or in the area, we'll stay with you at your mansion" Alice said beaming.
Wrath let out a rumble of laughter. "That close huh? I don't know about that"
"No really we are going to be that close. I can't wait to meet Beth, we're especial…"
At the mention of Beth, all the men including Wrath grabbed their weapons out and had them pointed at Bella and her family. Again her family had risen out of their chairs and were facing off against them.
"Sweet Jesus. Guys relax already. Obviously this isn't going to get solved…" Alice began before Emmett cut her off. "I'm giving three seconds to get that fucking gun out of my wife's face, before I let her hurt you" he growled to the man called Butch.
"Emmett" Carlisle warned.
"Three" Emmett yelled before reaching out across the table and grabbing the gun out of Butch's hand.
Then there were gun shots. Bella looked at the scared man across from her and realized he was firing his gun at Emmett, in fact nearly all the men were firing their guns at Emmett. Bella stood there dumbfounded. Emmett looked down at his chest where the majority of bullets were hitting. When the sound of gun shots died, the sound of Rosalie laughing filled silence. Emmett started laughing too, and ran his hand down the front of his chest.
"Are you guy's even vampires?" Emmett asked amused.
"Are you?" Butch asked.
"Carlisle…this is ridiculous. God I don't even know what to make of this. They're not vampires, and if they are then they're like at the bottom of the vampire evolution table. Even the dog is more evolved than them" Rosalie said smugly.
Bella saw Z reach for a knife and throw it directly at Rosalie. She supposed she could of stopped it, well actually anyone in her family could of stopped it, but no one did, and Rosalie caught it, without even flinching, and hurled it back at Z quicker than it seemed than the strangers could see. Because Z didn't move or even seem to see it coming. Bella did though and she reached out across the table and stuck her hand out, palm facing the coming knife. It flew into Bella's palm and the blade crumbled against her skin, the knife falling onto the table. The knife bounced a few times on the table before it came to a stop the sound ringing out through the silence. All eyes were fixated on it.
Vishous or V as he liked to be called ripped a glove of his hand and lunged forward towards Rosalie. Bella rolled her eyes. Of course it as Rosalie causing the trouble.
V didn't get very far, Emmett stepped in front of Rosalie, and V collided with Emmett. The hand V had ripped the glove off was glowing. The force of V coming at Emmett wasn't enough to take Emmett down, but when his hand touched Emmett's shoulder, Emmett let out a growl, that Bella had never heard before. Emmett was in pain. Esme standing next to Emmett and V punched V hard in the head and sent him flying unconscious.
Rosalie grabbed Emmett's shoulder and Bella was sickened by the smell of burning vampire flesh. She'd smelled it before and the smell would never leave her.
"Carlisle" Rosalie screamed panicked. Carlisle as at Emmett's side in an instant, and Bella became overly aware that everyone in the club could now see them all.
"Phury" Wrath yelled.
The masculine security officer as well as about fifteen other security officers came rushing towards the table. Bella turned and bared her teeth at them.
"Jasper" Alice said quietly. Then Bella felt her body relax and calm. The security guards relaxed and so did everyone else in the club, then slowly and strangely they all began exiting the club. They were like zombies. Bella looked over her shoulder and saw Wrath standing very still and Phury was making eye contact with a lot of people.
"You'll be fine. Nothing that won't heal in a hour or so" Carlisle said to Emmett.
The club emptied out quickly, till there was no one left except Bella and her family and the strange men. Butch was beside V who was still unconscious on the floor half way across the room.
"Rosalie, apologize right now" Esme said angrily.
"What…what for? I didn't do anything. That freak hurt Emmett and you want me to apologize" Rosalie said stunned.
"Rosalie" Edward said just as angrily as Esme.
"Fuck off.." Rosalie spat out at Edward "they're all lucky I don't kill them all for what they did to Emmett"
"Rose" Alice screamed, stomping her foot and in full tantrum mode.
"Rose…baby" Emmett said softly, moving his shoulder back and forth while looking at her.
"No Emmett. He could have…he" Rosalie said quietly. Bella could tell she was trying to hold her emotions in.
"No he couldn't have baby and you know that. He just caught me off guard, if Mom here hadn't soccer punched him.." Emmett said grinning at Esme "than I would have ripped his hand off and probably pulled his arm out at the socket, or you would have"
"Are you…are you alright" Rosalie said sadly
"Of course baby. You know it'll take more than a bit of fire to take me down" Emmett said opening his arms out to Rosalie who charged forward and wrapped her arms around him. Than in true Rosalie and Emmett fashion they proceed to make out like there was no one else in the room.
Carlisle cleared his throat, which brought them back to their senses. It appeared Jasper was still working his magic on the strangers because they appeared to be calm, and just watching yet another day in the life of the Cullan's unfold.