Ch. 9: Tell the Truth

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Thanks to ladysharkey1 who betas these and Jen328 who pre-reads, they are wonderful.


Time.

Before Bella, I had never paid attention to it. It was endless, infinite, empty. I spent time roaming from place to place, and saw parts of the world that most humans only dreamed about. I had seen the beginning and the ending of new days; from watching the sun rise from the top of Mt. Hikurangi in New Zealand, to watching it set from the sandy beaches of Savaii Island in the South Pacific.

I had seen the Eiffel Tower lit up in a spectacular fashion and the dark waters of the Seine glisten with secrets from thousands of years passed. I walked through the deserts of Egypt and visited ancient burial grounds of powerful Pharaohs. I sat in the Sistine Chapel and stared at the ceiling for hours trying to understand my existence.

I came to the conclusion that there was no reason to count time because I had nothing to count time for. The humans, they counted time. They had years to celebrate, birthdays to share, lives that needed commemorating, simply because one day, they would run out of them. They would run out of time, but until then, they had something to look forward too.

Then on a simple day, I started to count time.

It took her forty-two seconds to reach me from the moment I saw her. Another ten minutes and fifteen seconds past while I followed her to her home. Our first conversation lasted less than three minutes and it took me one week, six days, and twenty hours for her to agree to let me take her dinner.

For the first time ever, I celebrated a birthday as a vampire. It wasn't because it was the typical thing to do; it was because I was excited that she had another year ahead of her. I planned New Year's Eve parties, not because Alice insisted on it, but because I would have another year with her. I marked the passage of time by anniversaries, birthdays, holidays. I marked it by Bella's smiles and breaths.

I no longer wished to be unfeeling or gone, I only wished for more time with her.

As I ran for our home, to that tiny town that wasn't all that special, I realized that even our time could have an end. The time I had spent before her, wandering and searching, was driven with the purpose of finding something. If she were taken away then I would need to follow. There would be no way I would be regulated to a life of observation from quizzical humans.

"We're getting pretty close." William's voice brought me out of my thoughts. We had been running for hours and it was now early Wednesday morning. I shook my head when I realized I was measuring the time I had been away from Bella.

Five days.

"Good, I'm ready to be still for a moment." Stefan said, keeping pace with Garrett a few steps ahead of us.

I watched the trees begin to thin and moved in front of the pack. I turned us right to stay in the woods and bypass the town. I did not want to run into any humans, especially friends of Bella's. I couldn't tell them anything anyway.

As we made the circle, I checked the air around me. There were no scents of the other contenders so I relaxed as I ran through my hunting grounds to the back of the house.

Just like before, I hit the invisible line where our scent extended. Unlike Bella, who was either edged in my scent or after being intimate, covered in it, the house and surrounding areas always smelled like us. It wasn't something that went away, simply because it adopted the smell of the people around it and that smell was me and Bella.

"My God…" Vladimir whispered as he crossed the line.

I didn't say a word; I just kept running until I reached the back porch steps. Our home wasn't large by any means. It was two stories, and held two bedrooms and one bathroom on the top floor, with the downstairs containing a living room, dining room and kitchen. It was comfy and it was Bella's childhood home, so I took great pride it in. I had repainted it last year, white with red shutters. The deck was something I had built after I moved in and I made sure it stayed in good shape and was sealed annually. There were low hedges that ran around the house that I kept perfectly even. I took great pride in our home, and I hoped that it would have been enough to impress Bella's father had he been living.

I cleared my throat and lifted the key from under the mat.

"This is my home. Come in, please." I held the door open and each of them filed in.

Our scent was much stronger in here and with the pictures and little things that screamed Bella in each room it made it difficult to concentrate.

"You can have a seat here." I gestured to the dark blue couch and the two matching arm chairs in the living room. I sat in Bella's reading chair by the window and waited for them to begin.

"You have a nice home, Edward." Garrett offered.

I smiled. "Bella redecorated a couple of years ago. I didn't plan anything, but moved the heavy things and painted while she was at work."

"Do you mind if we look at your pictures?" Stefan stood up and moved to the mantel before I had even said he could.

"That's fine. I'm going to change." I stood and walked up the stairs.

I couldn't help but wonder how Bella had felt as she left here. Was she scared? Did she think someone was going to jump out and grab her as she went to her car? I entered our bedroom and looked at the closet door standing wide open, the unmade bed, her pajama pants on the floor, and finally my favorite t-shirt hanging off the bed. I went over and brought it up to my face. She had been wearing this, probably right before I called.

I immediately took off my current button down and pulled the shirt over my head. I shuddered and sighed because I felt closer to her than I had in days. I missed her desperately.

I needed to go downstairs and decide what to do next. Since we were the first here, it meant that no one else had gotten on the right track yet and realized that Bella was gone. It was a good thing, but any of them could have run through San Francisco by now. It was doubtful, but still very possible.

"What are you doing?" I heard her voice float up the stairs and I stopped breathing.

"Baking." My voice followed.

I deflated and ran down the stairs in time to see my smile on the television. Bella had been playing with her new video camera and caught me being creative. It was last year. I stopped behind the couch and smiled as she spoke again.

"Why?"

In the video, I smiled at the camera and held up a piping bag full of icing.

"It's your birthday, sweet girl."

"Tomorrow is my birthday." The camera shifted as she sat it on the counter. Then she moved into the frame. Her dark hair was pulled up and she was wearing sweatpants and a tank top. It was just us, being comfortable together.

"What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't give you a treat on your birthday?"

I knew what this video contained, so I quickly walked to the DVD player as Bella said, "I think you'd make a delicious treat."

The screen went black and I looked up at the vampires in my living. They were all staring wide-eyed at the television, not breathing.

"That's private and you shouldn't go digging through things you have no business in. This was hidden."

William cocked an eyebrow at me. "We're trackers. We find things that are hidden."

"Yeah, well, I didn't tell you that it needed to be found, did I?" I took the DVD out of the player and found its discarded case. I opened the bottom cabinet of the entertainment center and reached into the back for the shoebox that we kept for special videos and found the lid popped off. I bit back a growl as I pulled the box out and put it back before replacing the lid. I decided to hide them better, incase other vampires came through and found them.

That hall closet had a loose floorboard that I hadn't fixed yet, so I started toward the kitchen, holding my shoebox protectively, intent on finding a trash bag to put the box in to protect it.

"I do believe we were about to witness vampire/human porn." Vladimir laughed loudly and doubled over.

I found the trash bag and went to the closet. After the box was carefully put away, I walked back to the living room and found them pouring over the "safe" photo album Bella kept in the living room. This one had all the generic pictures that were companions for ones on our walls.

"She's very beautiful," Garrett said as they looked at the pictures from last Christmas. It was of me and Bella. My arms were wrapped around her waist and she was leaning back against me, as I leaned against the island in Alice and Jasper's home. She was smiling at whoever was talking off camera and I had my eyes closed, leaning my face against her shoulder.

"She is," I answered.

They continued to flip through the book and I grew more and more agitated. Finally, I had enough of the silence and rummaging through our things.

"When are we leaving?" They all looked up. "There have been no other vampires here; we made it first, now I'm ready to leave. I need to get to Bella."

"We'll leave within the next hour, Edward." William flipped to the next page.

"I'd like to leave now." My voice was firm and each of them sighed.

There was the soft sound of the book closing and the others stood up. I carefully placed the album on the shelf and turned for the back door.

At that moment, several things happened. The ancients hissed low and crouched into an attack stance, Garrett ran down the hallway toward the kitchen, and the back door burst open.

I was pinned against the wall before I knew who had me. Normally, I wouldn't have been this distracted, but I was in my home and I was thinking only of Bella. A tall man with sandy brown hair lifted me by my neck.

Liam.

"My, my Edward. You've got some explaining to do." Siobhan's voice was playful as she walked around him. My allies had backed off when they realized who had made an appearance. The Irish coven wouldn't harm us, but they would want something in return for that courtesy.

I couldn't speak because of Liam's grip so I just shrugged.

"Your toy is our target?" she asked and then looked around the room. After several seconds of looking over our pictures, she placed a hand on Liam's arm and he dropped me.

"Edward, who is she?" Siobhan asked.

"My mate."

"Truth," Maggie said from the living room.

"How long have you been together?" Another question from Siobhan.

"Five years."

"Truth," Maggie echoed.

"Is she here?"

"No."

"Truth."

Siobhan leaned down close to my face. "Do you know where she's at?"

I swallowed. "No."

Maggie was kneeling beside me as soon as I spoke. "Lie."

"Did you send her away?"

"No."

"Lie." Maggie stared at me with wide brown eyes and for a moment I was lost, thinking about how Bella's eyes would look after her change. The color wouldn't change, but it would get more defined, and I wondered what colors were swirling under the brown that would be brought out, caramel or honey brown, maybe?

"What are you thinking about?" Siobhan asked.

"Eyes."

"Truth."

Siobhan's breath escaped in a frustrated sigh. "Do you plan on changing her, Edward?"

"Yes." I looked up at her for the first time.

"Truth, I know, Maggie." Siobhan stopped her before she could speak this time. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Edward. It's not an easy task to fall in love with a human." She looked at Liam and they shared a smile. "It wasn't easy five hundred years ago and it's even harder now. I can promise you that if we find her we won't drain her, but we are also in this Challenge to win it. I won't force you to give out information about your mate because I know what that kind of betrayal will feel like for you."

I nodded.

"We'll leave here and give you a few hours head start. From there we will follow the trail that you all leave. If we can get there first we will, but you have my word that she will remain alive. I would never be so cruel as to kill a vampire's mate.

"I can guarantee that we are probably the only ones who would take this into account. You should go to her and hide her, change her before the Volturi understand what has happened."

I made eye contact with her.

"Edward, I know what you're going through. Try not to let this all weigh down the most important thing; she's your mate." She smiled and took a step back, grabbing Liam's hand. "Like, I said, we're still in the race, but we will not harm her if we reach her first."

With those words she turned and led her coven out the back door and into the woods behind our home.

"Well, that went better than I thought it would." William snorted and turned toward me. "We should probably get going."

I nodded and turned for the stairs. "I just need to get something and I'll be right back."

The closet door remained open, so I slipped inside and grabbed the black leather jacket that Bella had bought for me last Christmas. She had said I looked like a badass in it, and right now, I needed to feel like a badass. Then I turned and went to the nightstand. There on my side of the bed was a picture of me and Bella, taken during our time in San Francisco. She was laying her head on my shoulder with her face turned toward my neck, a smile on her lips, touching my skin. I stared up at the camera, wide green eyes and a look of utter happiness on my face. It was my favorite picture of us, and every time I looked at it, I felt her lips on my skin, smiling. I felt her love for me in that picture.

I took it from the frame and placed it carefully in the inside pocket of my jacket. I put on some black boots that I knew would survive the run, and then headed downstairs.

I entered the living room and noticed that the others sat, talking quietly about the Volturi.

"How do you think they found him, Stefan?" Vladimir asked confused. "We would have been lost trying to track him down. He lives in the middle of nowhere so how did they do it?"

"Nothing really makes sense. Edward would have known he was being followed if they trailed him on the plane back from one of his visits. I think they sent someone while he was in Volterra, when they asked him to be a part of the Challenge again. I just don't know what they did to find out where he was going when he left them though."

I stepped into the room and took a seat. They kept brainstorming, ignoring me completely.

"Could they have had trackers looking for him before? Like for months or something?" Garrett offered.

"It's possible, but the timing is so good. The refusal of marriage to Tanya, the Challenge, Bella's scent. I'd be willing to bet they did something tricky to find him," William said.

They got quiet and lost in their own thoughts.

"We should leave now," I said. I didn't wait for an answer as I strode to the front door. I didn't want to go through the woods; I wanted to walk through town to see if there was any scent around that screamed Volturi before we left. I knew that someone had come here, but never around our home because I hadn't noticed a scent when I got back from my last trip, which meant that they had to have gone to Bella's work, a place I had not gone to in three weeks.

"Where are we going?" Garrett asked as they exited the house and I locked up.

I took off running and explained to them my theory. Amazingly they all agreed with me and hoped that if we could find the scent of a Guard member then we would have some type of lead before going to Bella.

"You know if they left immediately after confirming who Bella was, then the scent will likely be gone," Garrett said calmly.

"I know, but we don't get a lot of vampires in Forks. I mean, if one is walking along Main Street, peaking in shops, people notice. If we don't find a scent then we should ask. We'll look for an hour then leave to find Bella."

Soon, we were walking at a human pace down the sidewalk toward the boutique that Bella worked. Like Garrett had assumed, there was no trail. This meant that whoever had been here came specifically for Bella's scent and then left. Direct orders.

I looked into the window the store, wishing that Bella was inside, safe. As I turned to the others I noticed the hulking form of Emmett McCarty walking toward me.

"Where's Bella?" He asked harshly.

The vampires beside me gaped at his tone and stared at me, expecting violence of some sort. Again, they would think I was crazy for dealing with humans the way I had been.

"Bella and I are taking a vacation. I missed her birthday and wanted to do something nice for her. After we finish up here, my friends will leave and I'll go back to Bella. I was called out on a small assignment." I answered obligingly.

"What kind of assignment would have you bringing more vampires into our town? I think we have enough of your kind running around." Emmett sneered.

"Well, Emmett, we're looking for one of our kind that seems to be making a nuisance. We're on business to quell the problem."

"Why don't you start with those four behind you then follow along?"

Stefan clapped. "I get it!" He pointed between me and Emmett. "You take his verbal abuse because he holds some type of significance to your mate. My Lord, what a pushover you are, Edward." Stefan laughed.

"He should really be ashamed. This is quite depressing." Vladimir shot a disgusted look at Edward before turning on Emmett. "In my time, I would have killed you for impertinence, but here we are." He gestured to the street around him.

Emmett looked slightly shaken and I took the opportunity to change the course of the conversation.

"Maybe you can help us." He turned back to me. "I know not a lot of vampires come through here and we're trying to see if maybe in the last couple of weeks you noticed one hanging around here." I left out any mention of Bella.

He stared at me for a moment before clearing his throat. "A woman vampire came through."

"When?" William asked quickly.

"Ummm, Edward was on business, so I guess a couple of weeks." He shrugged and looked away.

"What did she look like?" Garrett questioned.

"She was tall, supermodel tall, with long blond hair and these weird purple eyes."

"Heidi." Vladimir snorted. "All the men remember her. Although one must be close to notice her eye color. Did you speak to Heidi, Emmett?" He intentionally smiled wide and showed more teeth than necessary.

Emmett swallowed hard, and I assumed he was frightened from the vampiric demonstration by Vladimir. "No, I didn't speak to her at all. She just walked by me."

"Lie." A small voice rang out behind us, and we turned to see the Irish coven smiling.

"What? You didn't leave town so we followed." Siobhan turned to Maggie. "Apparently, it was a good thing too."


Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about this new development.

Next week is Ch.10 and that means its back to BPOV. We'll see what she's been up to in San Francisco.