Chapter Eight – Just Dreams?
Charlie POV-
She was shaking in her bed. I had tried piling blankets on her and turning up the heater, but the fever she was suffering from wasn't one from cold, rather memories and fears.
I sat down in the rocking chair beside her bed, where her grandmother used to sit and sing to her.
I wasn't going to try singing; that would just give Bella more nightmares. So I just leaned back hoping that Bella would know that she wouldn't be alone and that someone would protect her from the monsters in the dark.
With Bella's hair and half of it in her mouth I often wondered how she never choked. She had always done that ever since she was a baby, so she must have learnt it from her mother. I chuckled; Renee was a notorious hair chewer.
Bella would always deny this but I could see it every day in her eyes: she was afraid. She was afraid for me and Renee, afraid for herself and afraid of the agency.
It always came back down to the agency.
I looked back down at Bella's sweating, shaking form and hated myself. I should be braver than this, stronger than this but with every breath she took I remembered that if I had to choose between Forks and Renee or Bella, I would give Bella up.
I got up and silently tiptoed out of my daughter's bedroom.
…
BPOV-
It was dark and musty; the trees around me gave no comfort with their dark roots cutting into my bare feet. I was cold, too cold,and the harsh moonbeams cut into my skin like knives.
Something padded towards me, its shape indistinct but I could make out sharp white teeth, pointed ears and thick russet fur.
A wolf.I inhaled sharply. Its cold yellow eyes seemed to be just waiting to kill me. I steadied my breaths trying to get out of the ever rising panic in my mind but I just couldn't.I was frozen,able only to stand and wait for my demise.
I turned around.I could sensethatsomething or someone else was here but I couldn't see them orhearthem. Would they help me?
I felt an icy cold hand on my shoulder, twisting me around. It was Edward, but not Edward;he was inhuman, callous almost. His lips parted in a smile and the wolf silently treaded towards me, enjoying my terror.
Edward leaned in close to my cheeks and said in a voice so unlike his, almost like…no,it couldn't be. "I hope you enjoy your time at the Agency my dear Beauty."
The wolf started loping towards me in clean swift strides, his claws an inch from my face.
I woke up panting, my whole body shaking. 'It was just a dream Bella, you shouldn't be afraid. It's just a dream.'
But there was one inescapable word that haunted my mind: 'Vampires.'
