Tangle of Thorns
Chapter 9

It was a good thing Edward fainted. This way he missed the tantrum Rosalie threw afterwards.

She stomped out of the kitchen (breaking a floorboard or two as she went).

"Why are we feeding him at all?" she demanded. "Why don't we just let him starve?"

Rosalie's voice was a high, angelic, and furious; it echoed throughout the entire house.

"He's lived his hundred years. No one's gonna care if he dies- except Bella. He doesn't actually have a family! His parents are dead. His friends are all dead. His cousins and uncles and aunts and- They're all dead! He should be, too!"

Emmett followed along cautiously, trying in vain to soothe her. Everyone else- including Jasper, in his library, head perked up at the sudden noise- did nothing. They all knew that there was no sense in trying, not really, and knew likewise that there was no sense in getting upset over the things she said.

"She doesn't even consider him her family anymore?" Alice asked, her voice low. She knew Rosalie would be angry- they all knew. But somehow this sort of reaction wasn't what she'd expected. Rosalie was cold, harsh, but she didn't do much screaming. Usually she just dug and dug, putting her insults exactly where she knew it would hurt you most.

"She has the right to be upset," Carlisle murmured quietly, hoisting Edward into his arms. "Don't try and smother her into seeing a good side to this, Alice. I know you're happy with the life you have, and you're happy for Edward and Bella, but remember that things aren't the same for her."

Alice nodded, and Carlisle drifted out of the room, carrying Edward upstairs. A lamp smashed somewhere overhead, and Rosalie cursed angrily at– well, no one in particular.

She felt Esme's hand resting on her shoulder. "Don't worry, dear," her mother sighed. "Things will turn out alright... Perhaps you should go let Jasper know what's happening. It might be for the best to keep everyone informed."

"Of course," Alice said, her voice lifting. Jasper could figure out on his own that Rosalie was upset. He didn't need to know of the event that had made her finally snap. Esme and she both knew that.

But Esme was right in saying that going to see Jasper was for the best, at least where Alice was concerned. It didn't take a mother's intuition to know, but it sometimes took a mother's love to say it out loud.

Bella's knuckles cracked as she flexed her fingers experimentally, stretching her arms out towards Edward's face. An embarrassed, girly smile spread across her face as her fingertips brushed his high cheek bones– not changed a bit by the transformation of ever lasting monster to human. His features looked the same– beautiful and otherworldly, but Bella could feel the difference as she touched him gently.

Her skin was colder than his, and the warmth caused a familiar heat focus in Bella's cheeks. Flushed with happiness, she leaned impulsively down to kiss his nose. Something scratched softly along her cheeks, and looking to the side she realized it was Edward's eyelashes. She gasped as they fluttered apart, snapping her neck back reflexively for a better look– only to be pulled forward again, trapped in a desperate kiss she was entirely sure she didn't want to escape from.

"Bella;" her name fell from Edward's lips to land upon her own, muffled as their mouths pressed urgently together.

The kiss ended too soon– exactly the same way as it had for as long as Bella had known Edward. As he sat up slowly, cringing against some pain unknown to Bella, and yanked her easily down into his lap, she wondered why, thinking about the abrupt end to the kiss, and blushed when she became overly conscious of a world of intimacies suddenly available to them.

"Bella," Edward murmured again, lips curved against her cheek. She stared at his arms, wrapped firmly around her waist. She traced his veins with only the edge of her nail, noting that they were much harder than his flesh, his legs, his lips– just the way it should be for a human.

Edward's wet lips stuck to her dry cheeks, emphasizing the skin of her face where he didn't touch. Bella giggled with a sort of joy she once saw as being beneath her. Edward was so much to her, a soulmate, a lifelong companion– but for a brief moment she felt like nothing more than a little schoolgirl with a crush, and the rush of ecstasy went straight to her head, making her dizzy and warm.

Edward's finger moved along the tiny imperfections of her jawbone, and at her chin the rest of his fingers unclenched, his entire hand cupping her face– and turning it towards him.

Bella shifted, knees spread out to either side of Edward's waist. Their faces were so close they were touching, and her jaw dropped, lips open upon his chin.

Shaking she reached up to rub the circles under his eyes. Unwilling, she stared at her own nails–

"Bella?"

She bit her lip, and let her gaze travel just an inch higher. Straight into a circle of vibrant green.

"Rosalie," Emmett sighed. "Rose, baby, come on."

He placed his hand on her shoulder, massive grip enveloping much of her collarbone.

"No," she wheezed furiously. She wasn't going back in that house, and Emmett knew there were hardly words to change her mind.

Bella was there. The second the sound of Edward and Bella's happy banter drifted down to Rosalie's ears, she had gone screaming from the house, as loud and terrifying as a banshee but ten times as dangerous.

"Rosalie, I know you're angry," Emmett began warily, wondering if this would land him as much in her hatred as the rest of the family was right then. "But you know you don't really–"

"You're wrong, Emmett," Rosalie told him, her voice almost as dead as it was alive with anger.

"You're wrong," she repeated, looking, finally, into his face, her beautiful eyes deep and consuming. "I wish he were dead, Emmett."

She stared at him unblinkingly, and Emmett knew it was true.

Jasper buried his head in his knees, his forehead warm from the sun that just barely reached it, but his legs frigid from a century of cursed time.

He shook violently, feeling colder than he ever had– and at the same time feeling the most intense of heats in his throat. He may have been a heroin addict, twitching from want and–

No, Jasper thought angrily, not from want. Need. He needed blood, blood that didn't come from the animals that roamed the forest, or from any of his past victims.

But he couldn't take anything from the person whose blood he needed. Every time he thought of giving in and spiriting Edward away to feed in as much relative peace he could manage– outside of his own head– his stone heart felt as if it were alive again, beating a horrified tempo against his chest.

But Jasper's heart couldn't beat, and further, he couldn't hurt Edward. He couldn't imagine the guilt, the pain, the–

"She was right," Alice said, her wide eyes focused almost eerily on his face.

"Who?" he squeaked, not understanding, and then thinking, was right, or will be, Alice?

She rose and stretched like an animal, her cold hard spine cracking as she did.

"Who are you talking about?" he asked as she began walking away from him.

Alice repeated, "She was right," but this time added to the end– "You're obsessed."

"Well," Edward carried on in a conversational tone, his smile bright and his hands resting gently on either side of her hips. "Jasper hasn't been hunting awhile... There was one scary moment, but, as you know, he just needs to feed and I'm sure he'll be fine..."

"Haven't been hunting in a while?" Jasper asked through clenched teeth.

Jasper's library had become the official meeting space.

Edward's scent permeated the rest of their home, and Jasper was left to slink through the back parts of the house only, an animal in the shadows. Rosalie stood immobile against the glass windows, Emmett cross-legged on the floor beside her, and Alice sat on the arm of Jasper's chair.

"Is that what he thinks?" The blond's fury seeped through his control, filling the room slowly. He reigned it in, pulling it back as he became aware that he was fueling others who were already angry in their own right. His eyes narrowed as Carlisle and Esme, standing by the door, exchanged furtive glances and hung their heads. Rephrasing, he growled, "That's what you told him."

"We didn't want to scare him," Esme explained, looking at Jasper with pleading eyes.

Rosalie opened her mouth at the same time as two others did, but Carlisle was faster than all of them.

"It doesn't matter... Edward is right, anyways. You would be better off if you had something in you." His voice softer than his previous clipped tone, he said, "You need to hunt, Jasper."

Emmett quipped, "Me too, I'll go with."

They each looked around the room, meeting black eyes everywhere they turned. None were used to restricting their thirst for so long.

Maybe, Jasper reflected, that's the only reason I didn't kill Edward when he was right there. Too weak to fight Emmett off.

He wanted to think it was his own mental strength, but the moment it occurred to him, he knew it was his lack of physical strength.

"Well," Esme sighed, "Someone has to be here with Edward. We can't all go at once."

"Sure we can. We'll just bring Edward with us. Let him loose in the range where Jasper's–"

"Rosalie, stop this instant." Carlisle's voice was full of authority even Rosalie's anger could not overcome. She shrugged, looking haughtily out the window she stood at.

Alice ventured, in the silence that followed, "We could bring him. We could go hunting somewhere with a hotel nearby, and some of us could take turns watching."

The proposal sunk in. Only one of them needed to consider it for a decision to be made, but each turned it over in their minds anyways.

"Yes," Carlisle consented. "That will work. Alice, Esme, and I can stay with him in rotations..."

"I can, too," Emmett told his father, and Rosalie smacked his head, but he didn't change his mind.

Esme smiled softly– "Thank you, Emmett."

Jasper twisted his gaze around the room, watching his family interact, and noting with a sickening dread how different this scene was from others before it.

"So," Carlisle vocalized in a final tone, opening the door and stepping into the hallway. "First thing tomorrow. Two cars. Esme and I will take Edward. The rest of you–" He looked directly at Jasper, and then at Rosalie– "Will take another vehicle. And none will attempt to change the arrangements. Understood?"

He could have been a father scolding his children, but every "Cullen" heard the seriousness in his voice. They all knew that infringement of his orders would not be taken lightly. He wasn't Daddy anymore.

He was coven leader this time, and none would disobey unless they were ready for the punishment that followed.