Bella's POV
The next three months went by in a whirlwind of happiness. I had everything I ever dreamed of, a perfect husband, beautiful daughters and I had an amazing family surrounding me. Charlie adored his granddaughters, there had been a dicey discussion about their ages and the rate that they grew, but with the need to know rule, Edward assured me that Charlie was happy just being around us all and didn't want us to leave.
However, along with all the happiness, the tapestry of my new life had a dark side. A side filled with doubt, worry and regret. My daughters grew at an unprecedented rate, by three months they already looked around the size of small one-year olds. Their mental capacity far outstripped their outside growth however, Renesmee spoke her first words after only two weeks of life; her sister only seconds behind her as they fought over who got to be held by Esme.
"Grandma, can you take me to see the birdies outside?" asked Renesmee in a clear, chime like voice that froze me to my core.
"No! I want to go and see them" said Carlie in an almost identical chime.
"Girls, girls, stop quarrelling me and your grandpa can take you both" soothed Esme, and her and Carlisle proceeded to bundle them out of the room, I nodded to her in thanks as I sought refuge In Edwards arms. Not even a week later they saw their aunt Alice and uncle Jasper dancing to the music coming from the piano as Rosalie played and both of them proceeded to stand at the same time and copy the moves of their family exactly, finishing with a flourish. The family began clapping but I saw similar mixtures of horror and worry on each of their faces as they also worried about what our children's fast growths meant.
The regret part of my new life had a Jacob sized name tag on it. By all accounts he still hadn't returned to La Push and was still in mourning over me. I had wanted to go after him, but I couldn't bear to leave my girls, plus he always said if I was a vampire I was as good as dead to him anyway, so I battled with my instincts and decided maybe it was better he mourn me now, so he could move on with his life and maybe find a nice girl. One who wouldn't break his heart the way I did. It was only in rare moments of quiet that I allowed myself to think of him, when the girls were asleep, and Edward wasn't by my side, I allowed myself to feel the intense sadness I felt at the loss of my best friend. Because even if he found out I had lived, he never liked the Cullen's the way Seth did, he could never slip into the role of family friend so easily. He hated vampires and he hated my daughters for being the catalyst for my turning, so he would never want to be around them; and truthfully, I didn't feel comfortable with the thought of him around the girls after everything he said when they were in the womb. So in the rare moments of alone time I let myself feel the pain of his loss, before I put him back into the locked box in a far corner of my head.
Our fears surrounding the girls continued to grow so we decided we would go back to Brazil on a fact-finding mission and try and see if the old tribes had heard anything about half vampire children and how long they lived. The first big trip that needed to be taken was to Italy. I needed to go to the Volturi and prove that I had become a vampire, I couldn't risk them coming to us and finding out about my girls, they were so beautiful and as far as we knew so unique, we couldn't chance it. Edward had some trouble with this fact, but he couldn't dispute my logic that I had to go alone because Aro couldn't read my mind so there was no way for them to find out. Carlisle was coming as far as London for everyone's peace of mind. After that we would stay long enough for me to tell Charlie about our trip and promise that we would be coming back, before we would be off again.
The day before I was to leave I wanted to spend as much time with my children as possible, so I took them hunting with me, Seth was dragged with us, my girls loved their uncle Seth. The girls sped on a head because they could smell the Elk in the next clearing, as they ran full sprint across an open field both of them launched into matching summersaults, landing with a grace that put my human self to immense shame. They giggled as they continued running looking over their shoulder towards the 'grown up's' beckoning us after them,
"I'll go" chuckled Seth as he ran into a thicket of trees to quickly phase and run after them.
I smiled widely and just stood in the middle of the field for a second to let them have their fun. The temperature was dropping fast as December approached, small flurries of snowflakes would fall occasionally but not enough to cover the ground. I scanned the forest and the surrounding mountain ranges in the distance, something glinted off the peak of the mountain and I had to squint to see that it was a vampire with the sun bouncing off their skin, another second passed before I was able to put the fuzzy human memory to the name and I realised that it was Irina. I raised my hand in greeting, but her face twisted into an ugly expression, as if both in pain but also incredibly angry. She growled and jumped off the peak into the forest, disappearing from sight.
"Crap" I moaned as I realised she must have seen me talking to Seth, and in her eyes all the wolves were responsible for Laurent's death.
I sped the couple metres until I was next to my children. There were three medium sized Elk lying dead by their feet.
"momma?" Renesmee questioned, running forwards like she did when she was about to jump into my arms, but I was trying to extract my cell phone, so I could ring Edward, so I wasn't going to be able to catch her at the moment. I was about to open my mouth to tell her, but her sister caught her arm instead and pulled her over to Seth who was looking at my confusedly.
"Edward" I said slightly panicky. "I just saw Irina, I tried to wave but she got really upset at the sight of Seth and she ran off, I don't know where she went".
I heard the whooshes of air passing through the receiver that told me he was on his way. I breathed out a sigh of relief when he, Carlisle and Jasper came into view.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, rushing over and scanning me from head to toe.
"yes, yes I'm fine, I think she saw Seth as a wolf and got upset, she growled at me and then disappeared into the forest below the peak" I explained sadly.
"she what?" Edward hissed, enraged.
"Now is not the time son," began Carlisle "why don't you and Seth take the girls home and we will take it from here, we'll try and catch up to her, so we can explain".
Edward nodded distractedly, still visibly upset. Until Carlie skipped over to him and jumped into his arms, so she could nuzzle into his neck, stroking his face as if to calm him the way he did her when it was time for bed.
The rest of the evening was uneventful in comparison, the others weren't able to catch up to Irina in the end as she had jumped into the ocean and could be anywhere, but we had rang our cousins in Denali to inform them, they were extremely upset that she hadn't gone home to them or allowed us to explain, but we each promised to keep the other informed if we heard anything. Edward and I were just about to put our sleeping girls to bed in their room upstairs (the cottage was still undergoing renovation) when a gasp from upstairs drew everyone's attention. We all sped upstairs to the sounds of breaking glass, and when we arrived at Alice and Jaspers door we saw the unthinkable sight of Alice standing there, her arms outstretched as a pile of glass and mulch sat at her feet. Her eyes stared unseeingly, an expression of horror etched across her face.
Edward gasped equally horror-stuck. Carlie in his arms began crying and he just stood frozen there staring just as unseeingly as Alice.
I moved closer immediately, taking Carlie out of his arms and clutching her and Renesmee close to my chest as I saw my husband frozen into a statue.
"ALICE, Alice" spoke Jasper shaking her slightly, "What's going on?"
"The volturi" she gasped still staring into nothingness.
"They're coming".
A/N A short one I know, but this is where it all starts to happen so we can continue with the story past breaking dawn:)
Thank you again for reading, and please review if can!
I do not own twilight or its characters
