A/N: Thank you to all of you who have been reading. I'm so thankful to you. I'm also thankful to my wonderful Beta Nachos for Children. A heap of gratitude to you, darling!
Enjoy!
"Well, at times it's awfully lonely."- A Girl's Folly 1917
Tanya's POV
It was a short run from where we parked the car to where the woods opened up to the little white house. Even in June, Forks was cold for humans, so we made sure to pack warm blankets and pillows for our own little human. Today was the same as all the rest in forgotten town-if you could call Forks a town-damp from recent rain, cold, and overcast. At least it wasn't raining; rain would make a camp-out impossible. Under normal circumstances, my sister and I wouldn't set foot in Forks-it was dated, with very little to entertain, but as it so happened we had a friend here.
When we arrived at the edge of the forest where the trees divided the Sheriff's back yard and the wilderness, we stopped. Charlie was giving instructions to Shelly Cope, the babysitter, and he sounded about as nervous as a mother hen away from her chicks.
"Shelly, please keep an eye on her at all times. I don't want Bella going outside today at all."
"Of course, both eyes, Charlie. We'll have fun in here, won't we darling - just us girls."
From inside the house, Bella sighed and her cat hissed.
"Damn cat, get off me. Sorry, Bells, but after last night, I don't feel comfortable with you playing outside. It's not safe."
Alice's warning from last September rang in my ears as the Sheriff spoke. The flash of panic in her eyes then came back in a rush and spread through my entire body. Concern pooled in Kate's golden eyes as she looked from me to Irina. The fear in the sheriff's normally calm and monotone voice put us on alert. All three of us became aware of the scent at the same time; it was faint, overpowered by the scent of wet dog and washed away by the night's rain, but it was there.
Vampires-three, possibly four.
"What does this mean, Tanya?" Kate whispered.
"I don't know."
Bella peaked out the kitchen window and right at me. I could feel her, almost as if she pinned me to the ground-it was a feeling I'd never get used to. It was so different from Edward's gift. "But Charlie-"
"Don't even think about arguing with me; I'm not changing my mind. You can call Angela to see if she wants to come over, but you two play inside the house, do you hear me?"
She responded with an obedient "Yes, Charlie," but I knew she wouldn't be staying inside for long. The sheriff left-after reminding the babysitter about the rules and the phone numbers he could be reached at and that Bella liked grape jelly, not strawberry. From all his rambling, it almost seemed as if he didn't want to leave-as if he was afraid to leave.
After the door slammed shut, the creak of sofa springs and a click of the remote followed by the obnoxiously fake tittering laughter of some witless talkshow emerged from the little house. Day time television was atrocious.
Kate leaned back against one of the trees and glowered at the back door, picking little branches off a thick bough and snapping them in half. "Charlie should really hire someone else to watch the kid. All this Shelly woman does is sit on the couch and watch Days of Our Lives before falling asleep. She forgets to feed Bella sometimes...it's a good thing the kid knows how to make her own PB&J. Can't imagine Shelly would stand much of a chance against whoever was prowling around here last night."
"I don't like this. Why would they be hanging around here? She doesn't smell like food.
What do we do now?" Irina asked, her eyes flitting around. "The Cope woman is pretty dim, but I'm sure she'd notice if we hung out in the Bella's room all day...it's too small for all four of us."
"Bella knows we're here. Let's just wait."
We waited for a while with Kate's impatience and the pile of broken branches growing by the second. Just as Shelly's sawing snores began to tear through the forest, the black cat ran out the back door, closely followed by Bella. She was dressed warmly in a jacket as blue as the car's eyes. She had grown in the months since we saw her; she was taller-all elbow and knees. Her hair was longer, and the sadness in her deep brown eyes was almost gone.
"Ms. Cope is sleeping," she told us as soon as she came through the line of trees, smiling mischievously as if she had something to do with the woman dozing off. Buttoning her lips, she tried to contain her grin, but failed. "Charlie won't be home for hours, and she won't bug us."
Kate bent down and pinched her cheeks playfully, "What did you do, Isabella?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders innocently, "Nothing."
I doubted it, but putting one nosey, meddlesome woman to sleep was harmless.
"Yup, harmless. Besides...I don't need a babysitter."
"Of course you don't." Irina gave her a hug, took her hand, and started off towards the clearing where we had all met for the first time.
It was months ago that Alice had asked us to come and check on Bella. She hadn't given us too many details, but alluded to her importance-to both our families and Carlisle. When we had agreed to swing by, never did we think we would find such an intriguing little girl or that we would have such a difficult time leaving her. She was sweet and lonely, and seemed to stick out in this tiny town. We loved her and had felt a kinship with the small, odd child almost instantly-and every few weeks, we came back to play and talk with her. It was almost impossible to stay away.
"Bella," I started, catching up with them, twigs crunching beneath my boots. "Why doesn't Charlie want you playing outside?"
"He saw red eyes out here last night. I heard them whispering. They...they knew my name. They were calling me."
Irina and Kate looked back at me, but said nothing, more than likely to avoid scaring Bella. She saw the look and read the fear in their eyes, but made no comment.
Irina swung her hand as they walked over the uneven forest floor, attempting to appear calm and relaxed. "How did Charlie get them to leave?"
She shrugged her shoulders, her words white puffs in the air. "He didn't; they weren't scared of his gun like most people. The wolves chased them away. They were howling all night."
"Wolves?" My sisters and I asked in unison. The Quileutes? This was not good.
"Yup, wolves...big ones. Billy hates me, but he cares about Charlie, so the pack protects him. Charlie doesn't think it's safe for me to be out here, what with the red eyes and the giant wolves. He doesn't know about the wolf-men-about Billy. It is safe, right?"
I smiled and smoothed a hand down her wavy brown hair. "You're safe with us, honey."
She nodded and ran off toward the bright green tent in the distance, her cat running alongside her like a black shadow. I moved to follow her, when Kate's hand clamped down on my arm.
"They knew her name," Kate growled, low and threatening.
"I don't like this-first vampires, then the wolves...they have no love for her; you heard it yourself. Tanya, we should tell Alice."
"Shut up, both of you. She can hear us. If there was any danger, Alice would have seen it and she would have told us. Alice sees everything."
"Even the all-knowing imp can make mistakes...the kid is different."
"Alice and Edward brought her here; she is safe here. They know where she is, and Alice watches for trouble at all times. She would have seen any danger. For now, let's just put this out of our minds and spend a normal day with Bella. That's why we're here, right?"
Both my sisters nodded-Kate more reluctantly than Irina.
We passed the day in the tent, coloring and reading stories, sometimes making up our own when the written word became too predictable. While she colored, Irina braided her hair-a Russian braid that started in the front and curled around her head like a crown and fell like a waterfall of wavy brown hair over one shoulder.
The cat walked around Isabella like a tiny protector, hissing at us when we got in the way. He wasn't afraid of us as most animals were, only irritated that he had to share his girl with the likes of us. His blue eyes were fierce as he clawed at Irina's brightly patterned leggings.
"Carlisle, that's not nice," Bella scolded when she saw the rip in the fabric, and we all did our best to keep a serious face. The cat lifted one paw and began licking it, nonplussed, as if to say he couldn't give a crap about what was-or wasn't-nice.
"Sorry, Irina, he doesn't like a lot of people. Carlisle scratches Charlie all the time."
I wasn't too sure the real Carlisle would like having a cat named after him, and by the looks on Kate and Irina's faces, they found it hilarious.
"It's okay, he didn't hurt me."
"Who knew that little devil would get so attached to you, Bella?"
The girl's eyes met ours, completely serious. "Carlisle is my best friend. I love him."
Kate slanted her eyes at me. One didn't need to read minds to know what my sister was thinking. Which Carlisle, the cat or his namesake?
From the new light in the girl's eyes, I knew she had heard Carlisle's name in our thoughts-possibly even gotten a good glimpse at him, but she asked nothing. She knew not to ask, as all her past efforts to wring information from us had been fruitless. I didn't think for a second that she had given up; behind her quiet exterior was the mind of a plotter, waiting for one of us to slip up.
My bets were on Irina.
Around noon, we broke out the peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches and milk we had packed for her, and while she ate, we asked her about school and her friends and whether or not she was excited to turn nine. It seemed like a big deal to human children, growing up.
Bella was different.
She had good friends in both Angela Weber, the bespeckled girl who befriended her last year, and Mike Newton, and though I suspected that kids still bothered her, she didn't seem too fussed with it. Jessica, Bella told us with a smile, hadn't talked to her since the day she broke her arm last year and never did anything to physically harm her. She didn't say much about the teachers or school in general, just a few tidbits here and there about the things she'd learned, but I could imagine it being difficult for her. Too many thoughts and emotions all confined to one building...even Edward and Jasper had difficulties with it, and they had decades of practice.
"Is Charlie planning something for your ninth birthday? Kids like parties, right? With cake and balloons and..." Kate searched for something else children liked; we were so out of touch with those sort of things. "Presents! Everyone loves presents."
"I'm not supposed to know he's planning one." She stopped coloring and looked outside the tent, focusing on the huge moss covered trunk. She looked...pensive.
"What's wrong, honey?" Irina asked, laying down where the kid was sitting, cross legged.
"Sometimes...I forget to miss them." Her shoulders sagged, like the weight of her confession was just too much.
Kate nudged her softly. "Your parents?"
"Charlie, he takes good care of me...takes me places and makes me feel special. Even if he's not my dad, I love..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought. "Sometimes I forget to miss them, and I'm scared I'll forget them. Do...do you know what I mean?"
All three of us nodded, understanding her completely. Our own mother-or creator, depending on which side of the fence you stood on-was gone, and we missed her every day. We loved Carmen and Eleazar; they were family, but at first, that fear of being happy with and loving someone else was overwhelming.
"I feel guilty sometimes...when I'm happy...like I shouldn't be because they're not with me. Charlie notices, and then he feels bad because I miss them, but how do I tell him that he makes me forget to be sad?" She sighed, rolling the crayon between her fingers. "It's all so confusing."
"Welcome to life, kid." Irina laughed humorlessly.
I moved closer and grabbed her hand. "You don't need to be sad in order to remember your family, Bella. They wouldn't want you to be miserable. Part of moving on is putting away the sadness and finding memories that make you smile, not cry. Missing them doesn't diminish what you feel for Charlie, darling," I told her. "Or vice versa. Loving Charlie doesn't mean you love your parents and brothers any less."
Because I knew she could hear me, I showed her how we had healed, how Carmen and Eleazar helped us. Let yourself be happy, honey, it's okay to be happy.
Bella nodded; she was young and grief wasn't an easy thing to handle, but already I felt her guilt lessen.
Kate nudged her again. "Trust me, kiddo, Charlie doesn't feel bad because you miss them, he feels bad because they were taken from you. He's a parent now-what hurts you hurts him."
"He was so scared last night, not for himself, but for me. He slept in my room." Carlisle climbed into her lap, purring loudly, sensing that she needed him. They cuddled for a bit, the black cat's fur dark against her pale cheeks. When she spoke again, her words were soft. "I wish you guys could come to my party. I'd love for you guys to meet Charlie." A wide smile spread across her face. "Could you try?"
There was a long pause, neither one of my sister knew how to answer her, how to tell her that it wasn't exactly wise to commingle with humans any more than necessary. She understood and assured us that it was fine, but her smile dimmed nonetheless.
To lighten the mood, Kate suggested a game of hide and seek, though it was slightly pointless because Isabella could feel and hear us thinking, and we could smell her from a mile away. Regardless, Bella pulled on her boots from the corner where she had kicked them off and ran outside to hide, but not before tagging me. I had never seen her so animated.
"You're it! Count to a million and no peeking!"
Irina's laughter rang through the trees, mixing with Isabella's as she took off.
"Yeah, no peeking, Tanya," Kate reminded me as she stepped out into the cold air.
All three of them were giggling, giddy like school children. Bella kept shushing them, but that only made the giggling worse. It was uncontrollable, even I was giggling in the tent.
I counted to million, using vampire speed, "999,998...999,999...1,000,000! Ready or not, here I come!"
The moment I stepped outside, I closed my eyes and let my senses take over. I could hear the birds and every little insect, smell the trees and wet earth, including the scents of those vampires and dogs before us. Kate's natural spicy perfume and Irina's exotic blend of sandalwood and roses lingered in the air like bread crumbs, but nowhere could I hear or smell Bella. Kate wasn't too far away and Irina was a little further out-I could pinpoint where they choose to hide.
Bounding over the huge moss covered trunk, I ran in the direction where Kate was hiding. Up in a tree, behind a bent and heavy bough, I found Kate crouched low-like a jungle cat. She was laughing so hard; a human could have found her, if they had the sense to look that high up.
"Found you!" I shouted, catching her leg.
"Damn it!" she screamed as she fell to the ground, landing on her toes without a sound.
Next, I found Irina wedged between a thick trunk and a boulder. She tried to run, but I was faster.
"You didn't need to tackle me!" Irina laughed, pulling leaves from her wild dark hair.
"You ran," I told her, picking leaves out of my hair as well. Again, I closed my eyes and searched for Bella, for her wet heartbeat and the sweet scent of honeysuckle and rain, but found nothing-only silence. I couldn't even hear her breathing.
It was as if she was gone. The thought sat heavy and sickening in my stomach."Bella!" I called as I retraced my steps back to the tent.
Crap, what if something happened to her? Was this what mothers felt when they lost their brats at the supermarket? If my heart was still beating, I was sure it would have given out from sheer fright. "Bella!"
Kate and Irina were right behind me, searching with the same frantic speed that I was. "Where is she?" Irina asked, pulling aside leaves and branches as close to tears as she would ever get.
Kate inhaled deeply, "I don't smell her at all...how strange."
"Bella, please come out...now."
Everything was eerily quiet. The wild green bush to my right rustled, and Bella stepped out, braid half undone, wide-eyed and face pale. I let out an unnecessary breath of relief and went to hug her, but stopped suddenly. Something was...off.
The cat was at her feet, walking between her boots in a serpentine pattern. Usually, we could hear her heart beating softly, hear the rush of blood in her veins and the quiet breaths she took. Her unique scent was always there to remind us that although she looked like the rest of them, she was anything but ordinary.
But as she stood inches away from my sisters and I, it was as if she wasn't there at all. My senses were cut off, and I didn't like it. "Bella...can you hear us?"
She nodded, and asked if we could hear her.
"We can hear you talking, but..."
"It's like there's some sort of shield around you," Kate finished, inching closer and closer to Bella.
"My mom taught me when I was little...sort of. I don't know...I can't bring it back down."
If I had the ability to cry, I would have been in tears, but her eyes only widened as she shifted from side to side, looking at a wall we could neither see or feel. A wave of panic rolled off her and spread like fog. "It's stuck."
"Stay calm, it's going to be okay," Kate reassured her.
Irina was nervous. "What are you going to do, Kate?"
"Kate, we don't know anything about this...shield." I whispered, looking from her to where Bella stood, anxiously. "What if you get hurt? What if she gets hurt?"
Kate ignored us and continued to watch Bella, focusing all her attention on her.
A look passed between them, silent like a conversation. Bella nodded once, and I knew what Kate was going to do. Before I could say anything or stop my sister, Kate wrapped her arms around Bella's shoulders. The air rippled and crackled like a live wire as Kate let a surge of electricity pass from her to Isabella.
Like a flip of a switch, I could hear her heart-a touch too fast-but it was there, along with everything else. Her and Kate dissolved in a fit of laughter, each holding on to the other as tightly as possible.
"You scared us," Irina breathed, kneeling down to wrap her arms around both of them.
"Sorry."
I joined them, hugging my sisters and dropping a kiss on Bella's head.
Bella pulled away slightly, her complexion pink from the cold of our wintery embrace or the shock Kate gave her, I didn't know. "That was so cool...do you think you could teach me to do that?"
Kate rolled her eyes. "How about we save that for the next time? I think we've had enough excitement for one day."
"Okay, next time," she agreed, her grin as wide as a Cheshire cat's.
The sky had darkened considerably, storm clouds huddling together, and rain was in the air. Bella and Carlisle the cat made it inside and up the stairs just as Charlie was driving up. We listened while Ms. Cope gave a false report of their day, and left after Charlie thanked, paid, and informed her that he wouldn't need her services tomorrow.
Charlie called Bella down for pizza, and if he noticed anything amiss, he didn't mention it, but he did stare out the kitchen window for a long time, searching the trees for blood red eyes or feral yellow ones, I imagined. We left when they sat down to eat, packed up the tent, and ran back to the car.
xXXx
On the ferry from Washington to Victoria, we huddled around a table with cups of hot coffee in our hands to lend some truth to the illusion. It was crowded-day trippers and families on summer excursions filled the air with the scent of their blood and the warmth of their bodies. My throat burned, but I ignored it.
"I hate Ferries," Kate muttered. "They're so slow."
Irina whispered, "We couldn't very well swim home, how would that look?"
"I can walk faster than this thing."
Behind me the door opened, letting in a gust of cold sea air and a combination of scents that-like Bella's-failed to make my mouth water. I turned slowly, curious, peaking at the newcomers over my shoulder. A woman with dark, wild hair and a beautiful pale face, dressed in thick knit sweater and leather knee high boots, ushered three girls to the last available booth. Each girl was pale with dark hair and dressed much like the woman-hippie chic. Again, the door opened, and this time, venom pooled in my mouth. A handsome man, tall and strong with dark hair and a luscious beard walked towards the little family, smiling.
"He looks delicious," Kate put in, following my gaze hungrily, "but don't get your hopes up. He's married, and I'm guessing those are his brats. They got busy fast. Men with baggage are no fun to play with-they always feel guilty afterwards."
From where we sat, I could hear them all chatting about a festival they were going to. Something about them reminded me of Bella. The girls and the woman looked like her, smelled like her-human enough, but not quite. They stuck out-like us.
I shook my head. "No, they aren't his." The man...he wasn't one of them. "They don't smell like anyone on this dinky boat."
I heard Kate inhale and exhale through her nose. "No venom...nothing. How interesting."
"Stop staring," Irina said between clenched teeth. "You're going to draw attention to us."
It was too late, we already had. The woman was watching us as her family continued to laugh and joke. Her eyes were brown and deep, and when they locked on mine, I felt her pinning me to my seat, peering through my thoughts and memories, flipping through them one by one, century by century. I heard her in my head whispering Bella's name. Her grip was powerful, almost painful.
Bella, my little Bella. Where are you?
Trees blurred in ribbons of green; the faded and peeling "Welcome to Forks" sign flashed before my eyes. I was sure she saw it.
The overhead speaker announcing that we had made it to Victoria broke her concentration. She let go of me, but her eyes never left mine as she and her family walked outside to their car, a blue volkswagen bus. Irina, Kate, and I walked to our car-my sisters oblivious as to what had just happened to me. I had the oddest sensation as I buckled my seatbelt, like I couldn't breathe. I hadn't needed to breathe in ages, but somehow I needed it now. Their car was behind ours, and I could feel her eyes on the back of my head.
"Tanya, what the hell is wrong with you? You're shaking," Kate asked from the passenger seat.
I shook my head, mentally willing myself to forget the encounter, the feeling of her in my head, the echo of her voice. Cars honked behind us, impatient and pissed. "Nothing. Let's go home."
xXXx
"I can't wait to see how Bella is getting along with the zapping. She picked it up like a natural," Kate beamed, pushing aside a branch heavy with bright green leaves.
We had come back for Bella's birthday-with gifts from both the Cullens and us. That time, she went on and on about the party and how Charlie had taken her to see the totem poles in Sitka.
As promised, Kate taught Bella her electrifying little trick. I never thought she'd actually learn-vampiric gifts weren't exactly transferable, and they sure as hell weren't things to be taught in an afternoon, but it would seem that whatever Bella was, adaptable was one of their many traits. The first time, she knocked Kate on her ass-the second time, she shattered a tree branch.
During that visit, I observed the girl with new eyes. Her strength forced me to realize that she was much more than just a little girl we befriended and more than a little different. That woman on the ferry had heard me, controlled me, gotten what she wanted from me, and there was nothing I could have done to stop her. Bella could grow up to be so much more, and frankly, I was a little wary of what she could become.
Was it possible that there were more of her kind?
"God, how is it possible that we haven't seen her since September?"
"Time flies, Irina."
It certainly did. A month shy of a year had passed since we had laid eyes on her, and I could only imagine the changes we'd find in our little human. They grew so fast, and soon, she'd be ten.
"Ugh...why does it always smell like wet dog around here?" Kate complained, wrinkling her nose.
"That, my dear sister, is the scent of wolves...disgusting. Don't know how our cousins tolerated the smell when they lived here."
Behind me, they joked about the dogs. I couldn't join in-as horrid as they smelled, they kept Bella safe, if only because she lived with Charlie. I didn't care about their reasons, reasoning with them was pointless, but the only thing they hated more than Bella were vampires.
"Stop," I whispered. The scent of vampire was thick on the ground and trees. Irina growled, smelling it as well, crouching low, ready to strike.
Kate fisted her hands at her side, and the air rippled with a current of electricity. "The scent is a day or two old...but there were five or six of them."
Alert, we walked closer to the house, the scent growing stronger the closer we got. When we reached the line of trees, my worse fear was confirmed. The smell was coming from inside the house.
"I don't hear or smell her," Irina said, barely keeping her anger in check.
"Maybe she got scared and put the shield up. Maybe it's stuck again. We have to check on her, what if she's inside?"
The house was silent and dark, nothing moved inside-not Charlie, not Bella, not even Carlisle the cat. Without a word, I crept past the trees and into the Sheriff's back yard, my sisters trailing behind silently. The lock on the back door was broken, and the door swung open with a ominous creak.
One by one, we stepped inside the house, not one of us willing to admit the perhaps we were too late. The kitchen was trashed, yellow cabinets hung from their hinges, and cereal crunched under our boots. Kate pushed past me and took the stairs two at a time, vibrating and pulsating. Irina and I followed, noting the framed photos of Bella and Charlie askew on the wall.
Kate stood inside the room we assumed was Bella's, looking around puzzled with venom in her golden eyes. The room was blue and soft, and her bed looked like the perfect place for a little girl to dream, but she hadn't been here in months. It looked empty. The closet held only hangers, and her unique scent was being suffocated by the smell of vampire and wolf alike.
"What the fuck happened here?" Kate raged.
"I don't smell blood...maybe her and Charlie left before all this," Irina gestured around the room, "happened."
"No," I shook my head. "Charlie's scent is much stronger. He was here, not more than two days ago. She was gone long before he left, and thankfully before this happened."
Kate sank to the floor, her shoulders hunched forward. "She's gone, Tanya. Why didn't Alice say something!"
She's gone, I thought sadly. "I don't know."
Irina sat on the bed and looked out the window-the same window I imagined Bella must have looked out of. "She's gone...how? We waited too long to visit. We should have come sooner."
"We didn't even get to say goodbye." If I didn't know better, I would have thought Kate was crying.
I went over to where Kate sat and wrapped my arms around my sister. I felt a prickle of her gift run along my skin, but it died off slowly, her sadness killing the anger, and dousing the rage. Irina came over wrapped her arms around both of us. We didn't speak; we all knew that it was unlikely that we could comfort each other with mere words, and even more unlikely that we would see Bella again.
She was gone.
As we sat huddled around Kate, we became aware of a low growl, first one then another, then another and another, until it seemed that the whole house shook with the rabid growling. One inhale told us more than the growls themselves.
Wolves.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed that chapter. The next two chapters are already written and waiting to be beta-ed.
XX
Autumn
