Chapter 7: Island Getaway
Renesmee Point of View
Even with the sun making everything really hot, I wasn't leaving the beach until my sandcastle was finished. The sun couldn't hurt me, but I could still feel the heat even with the silly hat mom had put on my head to shade my face. Mom and Dad were having some alone time. They asked me if I wanted to take a walk with them to the other side of the island, but I wanted to be by myself too. The hat was making my head itch, so I took it off and set it beside me as I packed more sand in my bucket. When Mom and Dad get back, they promised to help me dig a moat.
A few minutes later the castle was done, so I walked down to the water's edge and let my feet get wet. That was when the world spun and this time I didn't get afraid, instead I laughed when Dad ran with me in his arms into the ocean.
"You should hear your heart beating," he said once we were both all wet.
"You surprised me," I told him, hanging my arms around his neck as I floated in the cooler, blue ocean water.
"Are you ready for us to help with the moat?"
"Yes, but I still want to cool off and this feels good," I answered feeling a little tired. Sometimes sun did that to me. Here on our island we don't get waves that are really big, unless it is stormy, so floating on my back while dad held me was pretty relaxing. "Do you think Harvey and Gracie miss me?" While it was really great to come here, leaving my bears behind wasn't such a good thing. I showed them with my mind us together and also me going away, but I'm not sure they understood what that was about.
"I think they will most likely wonder where you are, but Gracie seems capable of taking care of their needs."
After a few more minutes we went back to shore. My Mom was waiting, and after I gave her a hug, we got to work on my moat.
~*~*~*~*~
Edward's POV
By the time Renesmee had taken a bath and prepared for bed, she was almost asleep on her feet. After we finished putting a moat around her elaborate castle, she decided we needed to go for a walk to the other side of the island. Bella and I were more than happy to do that with her even though that made our second trip.
At the table, our daughter sat slightly slumped forward, resting her chin on her hands as I put her plate in front of her. "Do you want to go on to bed?"
"Not that tired," Renesmee mumbled as she sat up and took her fork, spearing a green bean and popping it into her mouth.
"You did an amazing job on that castle," I said as she yawned before taking a bite of chicken.
Renesmee nodded once before her head fell forward.
With ease I caught her before her face fell into her plate, and in a moment had her cradled in my arms. "You did this quite a few times our first journey here," I reminded Bella as we walked back to the Blue Room.
"If I can remember correctly that was because you made sure my days were filled from the time I woke up, until I did fall face first into my dinner."
Once Renesmee was tucked safely into her bed, Bella and I gave her kisses, and I took my wife's hand leading her back into the main room of the house. "Alone at last," I whispered, pulling Bella into my arms.
Her hands were suddenly in my hair grasping my head as she pulled down. I crushed my lips to hers, parting my mouth while running my hands down Bella's sides, totally lost in the moment.
"I forgot my medicine," Renesmee whispered.
In half a second Bella and I managed to compose ourselves. Our daughter was looking at her feet, and I quickly went to her, wondering how she had woken up so fast.
Once she was in my arms, Renesmee rested her cheek against my left shoulder while Bella arrived with her medicine and the cup of human blood required for the medication to work properly.
In her room I sat down on Renesmee's bed and helped her hold both the medicine cap and her cup steady while she drank from them.
"I'm afraid to sleep," Renesmee whispered.
"Are you seeing the dark room?"
My little girl nodded once, and I held her closer shutting my eyes. This dream wasn't going away and Bella and I were divided on what it meant. Alice still wasn't seeing anything from Italy to indicate that these dreams might have something to do with that, and I still held to my belief that they were just a product of Renesmee's past encounter with the Volturi.
"How come they won't go away?"
"I'm not sure. Do you think of them often, when you are awake?"
Renesmee sighed as she played with my wedding band, spinning it around on my finger. "I try not to, but how do you know that it doesn't mean I'll go there?"
"You have never been to a place like that, and you told me the dreams didn't become scary for you until after Brady told his story," I answered, hoping that talking about this would alleviate some of her fears.
"Do you promise that it's just dreams?"
"I promise," I told her without a doubt in my mind.
Renesmee lifted her head from against my chest and looked me in the eyes, needing to see my confidence there. When she did, my little girl sighed and yawned. "Where's Mom?"
"Right here," Bella said walking into the room stiffly, something our little girl didn't notice.
My wife sat next to us and Renesmee crawled onto her lap. "Mommy do you promise that this is just a dream?"
I looked at Bella, seeing the barest sign of discomfort before she answered. "Dad is right baby. This is most likely just a dream."
Renesmee yawned again and I stood pulling the covers down while Bella held our daughter, hugging her once before she put her back in bed. "Now, you need to get some sleep so we can go snorkeling tomorrow."
Our little girl gave us both hugs before she grabbed Jack and rolled on to her side facing away from us.
Once Bella had tucked her in she turned and left the room and I knew this was not going to be a good night for us.
In the main room, Bella was cleaning up from dinner with her back turned away from me. The one thing I'd learned over the past four years of marriage was that my wife wasn't one to hold back when she had an opinion and as I entered the kitchen she turned, "How can you sit there and promise her something that we don't know for sure?" Bella hissed.
"How do you expect me to sit there and not give her reassurance? We don't know that her dreams aren't just dreams. More likely than not it's just a worry she hasn't gotten over, and she needed to have that extra promise to ease her mind," I answered calmly, promising myself that this would not turn into a fight.
Bella pushed past me and was out the door in a second's time. I debated going after her, but went back to Renesmee's room instead, standing by her bed as she slept. Was I wrong to make that promise? I thought on that for a while, analyzing my reasoning for needing to make that promise when her dream could turn out to be more than that. Honestly, I still felt strongly that it wasn't anything else to worry over, and with that in mind I headed outside to try and calm my wife down.
Bella was sitting on one of the benches on the deck looking up at the cloudless sky. Without a sound I sat down next to her waiting to see if she was willing to talk to me.
"You really believe that she isn't having a vision, don't you?" Bella finally asked as she turned to face me.
I reached out and brushed my hand over Bella's cheek, "I would never make a promise unless I was sure. I am constantly amazed at how strong our baby is, Bella. She has been through so much in her short life, and I think her dreams are just a way of her mind to process everything without going into overload."
Bella leaned forward and I put my arms around her as she pressed her cheek against my chest. "I am afraid of what might happen if that ever came true."
"We won't let anything happen to her," I promised leaning back a little as Bella lifted her head. After a moment we resumed what we had begun earlier and it was a long time before either of us thought of anything other than the constant desires of love that were always waiting to consume us.
~*~*~*~*~
Renesmee's Point of View
After a week on the island, we all needed to go hunt. On one of our gloomier days we got in the boat and went back to Rio. After Dad got our boat tied up at the dock, we went into the city and beyond that, headed for the jungle without anyone knowing what we were doing.
The smells of the animals here were so much different than they were at home. The animals here had a sweeter smell, almost as good as human blood, and I was excited to see which ones were around. It was the sweetest smell that I followed, and for a while I led the way, trying to find out what kind of animal could smell so good. Finally, up in a tree I saw a dark cat with darker spots.
With one easy jump I was on the same branch as the cat and he didn't even know I was there before I was on his back. We fell a short distance to the ground and I sank my teeth into his neck killing him before he could make too much noise. The one thing I don't like about hunting cats is that they cry if you don't kill them fast enough, then it's hard to enjoy a meal because I get sad for them. Is blood tasted very sweet and by the time I was finished my belly was full and I felt better than I had all week.
Not far away from me, my mom and dad were finishing with what they had killed, two foxes by the look of them.
"How come you let me kill the cat?" I asked my dad as we headed back toward town.
"I think you smelled him before your mom or I did."
"His blood was sweet, not as good as human blood, but I wish all of the animals were like that."
It was still gloomy when we got back to the city and there was music playing from somewhere. The music was different than anything Uncle Jazz or Emm listened to back at home. "What is that?" I asked my parents wanting to know what the metal sound was.
Further in we found the people making music. There was a man with long hair that looked tangled up, playing a metal drum with dents in it. The sounds it made were really neat, and people all around were dancing wearing very colorful shirts and dresses. "Mom, may we buy a dress like the one that lady has on?"
It didn't take much to convince her and we found someone selling them on another street that wasn't so noisy. While I was looking at a pretty blue dress with flowers printed all on the soft fabric, nothing else mattered to me. Aunt Alice probably wouldn't like this dress, but I did, and turned around to ask Mom.
Suddenly Dad picked me up and I was on his back. "Hold on tight baby," he said as we began to push past a large crowd of people.
Everything was confusing and I held on to him trying to be brave. There were lots of people who looked like people from around home, and they were all being so pushy that it was hard to hold on. They kept bumping me while Dad made his way through them. My dad had to be careful so he wouldn't hurt any of them.
"Edward," Mom called out over the noise. She was behind me, and I let go of Dad, reaching for her when something knocked against us.
Someone grabbed me and I tried to scream but they put a stinky rag over my mouth and nose and it was dizzy and bad.
~*~*~*~*~
Edward's Point of View
It seemed as though they had materialized from thin air. One minute Bella and I were watching our baby look at some of the local styles in clothing and the next the strong scent of werewolf was everywhere. When we were trying to get away, a huge group of American tourists arrived on the street we were on. Renesmee heard Bella say something and let go while in front of me I saw the man who I'd seen from Jacob's memories. It took all my strength not to do something rash because, at the time I thought Bella had Renesmee.
The man grinned at me before he turned and ran. Just as I was about to pursue him, Bella yelled my name and when I turned around she was alone. "Where is Renesmee?"
A burley man pushed in front of us, pulling his hand back when it came in contact with my chest. I moved around him finding my wife standing in a state of shock. "Isabella," I said sternly while looking all around us, still smelling the strong scent of wolf.
"I had her and then I didn't."
Before she could say another word I had her hand, pulling her with me, following our daughter's scent which was now mixed with the smell of wolf. There wasn't time to feel anything because the longer we dwelled on what had just taken place, the further away our little girl was getting.
~*~*~*~*~
AN: Not to worry, all will be revealed in time, including how someone could get Renesmee away from her parents with such appearant ease. Thank you to Mackenzie Creations for helping with the editing, and thanks to all of you who have read and to all of you who have reviewed. This is where the story finally pics up pace so be ready...
~Ella~
