9. Everything You Didn't Want to Know and Were Afraid to Ask
Edward explained everything to the new arrivals. Both Emmett and Jasper expressed their agreement that there was no reason for Bella to worry.
"Even if the Volturi find out somehow, we've got your dad's back," Emmett assured her.
Whether it was Jasper's unnatural gift for affecting moods or rational thought had finally taken hold, Bella visibly relaxed and sat back down on the couch. "Okay, if you're all so sure," she said at last, then looked at me. "When is this gonna happen?"
I shrugged. "I told you, I don't know. It depends on your dad. He only told me he wanted to ask her."
"You're cool with it, aren't you, Bella?" Seth asked. "I mean, I know you're best buds with Jake and all, and he might end up as more than that some day, but is it that you don't want to be related to Leah and me?"
"Oh, no, Seth," Bella replied with a shake of her head. "It's not that. Despite Leah and I having our differences, I'm beyond happy that my dad found someone he actually wants to marry. Sue's been really good for my dad. It's just that I worry about his safety."
"You don't have to, Bella," Edward told her. "We have our own guard, so to speak. Charlie is perfectly safe knowing the truth now. It's only a matter of whether or not he can handle knowing everything."
"You think he can't?" she retorted.
"No need to get defensive, Bella," Emmett told her.
"I think what Edward is referring to is your father's insistence that he didn't need to know everything," Carlisle pointed out. "He only wanted assurance that you knew what you were getting into and that you were safe, remember?"
Bella nodded, but before anyone else spoke, Alice inhaled sharply and Edward was staring at her, obviously reading her thoughts.
"What is it?" asked Carlisle.
Alice and Edward looked at each other, saying together, "Charlie's coming."
"I've been concentrating on Charlie since Edward told us what he was planning to do," Alice went on. "He asked her, and Sue's told him the truth. They're on their way here right now."
"Is my dad okay?" Bella asked.
Alice looked at her. "I don't know. He seemed very upset, though,"
"Grandpa will be okay, won't he, Momma?" asked Renesmee.
Bella wrapped her arms around the little girl and kissed the top of her head. "I sure hope so, sweetie."
We all waited anxiously for Charlie and my mother to arrive. While we did so, Alice revealed that she had also seen something of Sierra that afternoon.
"I'm sorry it isn't much," she said. "I only saw that she's being held in a dark place, and she's very frightened."
"So someone has kidnapped her?" Leland asked.
"It would appear so," Alice replied softly.
"Thank goodness the poor thing is still alive," said Esme.
"For the moment," Jasper said succinctly. "We will need to find her soon in order to ensure she stays that way."
"I'd better go tell Sam," Jacob said. After patting Renesmee on the head, he walked quickly out the sliding glass door. He returned just a few moments later, saying that Sam was grateful for the update and Collin was furious that someone had taken his girl.
We didn't have long to contemplate the ramifications, as Edward's looking pointedly at the front door told us Charlie was coming up the drive. I had the feeling Charlie had driven like a bat out of hell to have gotten here so quickly, and fervently hoped my mother was okay.
"I suggest letting Charlie enter on his own," Edward said as he got up from his place next to Bella on the couch and stood off to the side. "He has something he wishes to say to me."
Bella looked at him. "What does he want to say? Edward?" she asked, standing when he only shook his head.
A moment later we heard a car door slam forcefully, followed by a quieter one. In seconds, Charlie Swan had entered the house, marching straight up to Edward and, grabbing his shirt, pushed him as hard as he could into the nearest wall. Two pictures fell and hit the floor, the glass inside them breaking. I knew Edward, having heard Charlie's thoughts before he'd arrived at the house, was allowing it to happen.
"YOU TURNED MY DAUGHTER INTO A MURDERER, YOU SON OF A BITCH?"
Emmett and Jasper moved to intervene, but Edward waved them off. Bella ran over as Mom was stepping up to my side.
"Dad, no! It's not like that!" Bella cried.
"I didn't do anything to Bella that she did not wish for me to do, Charlie," Edward said quietly.
Charlie's face was a dark shade of purple. "You turned her into a monster who kills people for their blood-don't you dare tell me she asked for that!"
"Dad!" Bella shouted, even though she was standing right next to him. After another moment of enraged staring into Edward's eyes, he turned his head to look at his daughter.
"How … how could you let this happen, Bells?" he asked. "I can't believe you'd be willing to go along with this, especially having a cop for a father. Do you have any idea what this means to me? My baby girl has become a murderer!"
"Dad," she said more calmly. "I told you, it's not like that. We don't hunt people to feed, we hunt animals."
"I actually tried to talk her out of it, Charlie," Edward said. "I tried to convince her not to become one of us. But you know how stubborn your daughter can be."
Charlie pushed him against the wall. "You shut up! Don't you pretend you know my daughter better than I do."
"Bella is right, Chief Swan," Carlisle spoke up, slowly taking a step toward him. "I have lived … a long time. Not once have I fed on a human being, and I have taught my family to do the same. Not all of us have been on this diet the whole time, but each of us values human life far too much to take it so casually. We struggle daily with our nature so that we do not become the monsters myth and legend has painted us to be."
"You hunt … animals?" Charlie said slowly.
"Yes, Dad. I promise you, I have never killed anyone in the last three years," Bella told him. "I've wanted to, I won't lie, but I don't want to do anything that would make me a bad person, or worse, make you ashamed to call me your daughter."
She put her hand on his arm. "I knew what Edward and his family were long before I became one of them. I'm sorry I never told you, but I couldn't. It was for your own safety. I promise you, I knew what I was getting into from the beginning, and I was okay with it because I love him. I couldn't stand the thought of living without him, so the only way to be sure I would never have to was to become immortal."
He looked at her with incredulity. "You're gonna live forever?"
"More than likely, unless I'm torn to pieces and burned to ash," she replied.
I could tell she meant it as a joke, but neither Edward nor her father took it as such, both of them getting pained expressions on their faces.
"Bella, don't ever say something like that again, please," Edward told her.
Charlie looked at him, his expression still livid, but at long last he released his son-in-law and stepped back. He then turned slowly to look at my mother, his gaze roaming from her, to me, to my brother, and then back again.
"And Leah and Seth are … they're wolves? Like Jacob?"
Mom nodded. "Yes Charlie," she said, her voice so low I almost didn't hear her, even with my heightened sense of hearing. "Now you know everything there is to know, all of it things I know you'd rather you didn't. But I couldn't enter into a sacred union such as marriage without telling you everything. I wouldn't want to go into it already keeping secrets."
He turned to Bella. "You said you didn't tell me for my own safety? What does that mean?"
She nodded. "Partly due in fact to your not wanting to know everything, but yeah, because it kept you safe. We don't hunt people, Dad, and there's another group of vampires who don't hunt people, but we're the exception. Most vampires do hunt people. Plus, the ones who enforce the law of secrecy would want you to be turned or killed if they knew you'd been told. So we decided that just enough was all you needed to know. It's what you decided."
"I know it is," he snapped back, then looked sorry for having been so sharp. "So what now? Do you have to turn me into one of you?"
"Oh, no!" Bella exclaimed. "Dad, I know you. This life that I've chosen isn't for you. You need to stay human and be happy and grow old with Sue."
"No one here will tell anyone else that you know about us, Charlie," said Carlisle. "And if by chance it does get out, this family and our friends will protect you."
"The packs will protect you, too, Charlie," said Jacob. "All the wolves will make sure nothing happens to you."
"Charlie," my mother said, stepping forward, "I know that all of this is a lot to take in. And if you've changed your mind about wanting to marry me, I'll understand. I just wanted you to know the truth because I love you and I didn't want to have to lie to you."
Charlie looked at her for a long moment, then turned and began pacing, first back and forth, and then he started walking around the room. We all watched in silence, waiting for him to speak, and when he did, it was to begin firing questions at each of the Cullens, and at Jacob, Seth, and myself. He asked questions of my mother, and he asked Bella and Edward about Renesmee. He even asked Leland a bunch of questions, too, about what his part was in all of this. For a man who once declared he didn't want or need to know everything, he sure seemed like he was trying to find it all out.
I realized then that he was in cop mode. Of course-he was asking for so much detail because he was trying to gather all the evidence he could. But what would he use that evidence for? For his own understanding? Was he planning to go public? Declare us all insane so that he could have us committed, saving his only daughter from the madness she had gotten caught up in?
Edward clearing his throat had me looking over at him. He returned my gaze with the barest hint of a smile, a telling sign that he'd been listening to my thoughts. I narrowed my eyes at him, and clearly thought the words, Butt out of my head, bloodsucker. He smiled just a little more, then turned his attention-or appeared to-back to the conversation.
Charlie stopped his pacing and questioning. He stood in front of the large television set with his back to us, his hands on his hips, his head hanging down. "This … this is all very fantastic, and I don't mean that in a good way," he said slowly. "You're all telling me that you're some kind of horror story monsters, but oh-you're not bad ones."
"Without the darkness, Charlie, how would we recognize the light?" Carlisle said quietly. "In your profession, you are the opposite of those you seek to imprison. You are the good compared to their evil. Everything has its opposite, even amongst our kind. Animal hunters are a very small minority, but we do exist. And even though we cannot force others of our kind to live as we do, it's not like we don't try to change their minds."
"And our kind may have been created to destroy theirs," Jacob added, "but we've all learned over the past few years that a vampire with the kind of moral fiber these ones have, aren't bad people. They're just different, like those of the tribe that can become wolves. It took a lot of getting used to, believe me, because hating what they are is a natural part of what we are. But we've learned to respect them, for their choice not to hunt people if for nothing else. Some of us call them friends, and some of us even love them."
Edward cleared his throat again, and this time it was I who smiled. I could tell he was stifling a groan-though he was pretty much reconciled with the relationship that Jacob would one day have with his daughter, he still wasn't overly fond of the idea. He'd had a hard enough time keeping Jake's hands off of Bella when she was human, and I imagined any thought of him putting his hands on Renesmee in that way only served to enrage him.
Edward looked at me darkly, and I just resisted the urge to stick out my tongue-though I certainly didn't resist picturing it in my head. Serves you right for poking your nosy head in where it doesn't belong, I thought at him. For the briefest of moments, I wondered why he suddenly seemed so interested in what I had to think, because he was constantly picking my brain whenever I was near. Perhaps it was a force of habit, but it was unnerving. And annoying. And I wanted it to stop. I decided then and there that I would think the most unpleasant things I could think of to keep Edward Cullen out of my head and no longer invading my privacy.
He smiled again, which only annoyed me more. I pointedly looked away and concentrated on my mother. She had taken a seat in one of the armchairs, and sat twisting her hands in her lap, staring worriedly at Charlie. I couldn't help wondering what she was thinking, though I figured I could guess. She was probably wondering if Charlie had changed his mind about marrying her, and frankly so was I. Some people, like Leland, like the other wolves' mates, they could handle this stuff. For that matter, they may well have been born to handle the toughness, the strangeness that came with being part of the pack-part of the family. As tough as Charlie was, being a cop and all, maybe this was the one thing that was more than he could take. I suppose I couldn't blame him if he walked away, but it would still piss me off. I mean, the man had declared his love for my mother and a desire to become her husband. If he left her because of this, then he wasn't as good a man as I had come to believe he was.
And he didn't deserve her. My mother deserved-needed-a man who was strong enough to handle anything.
Charlie turned abruptly and headed for the door. "I need some air," he said, leaving us all staring after him. We heard his car roar to life a moment later and tear off down the drive.
Anger flared, and for the briefest of moments, I imagined turning wolf and going after him, confronting him about what a damn coward he was.
"Charlie's not a coward, Leah," said Edward. "I believe he just needs time to take all this information in."
"I told you to stay out of my head, bloodsucker!" I said angrily.
"Leah, calm down," Leland said, and it wasn't until he put his hand on my arm that I realized I'd begun to vibrate. I looked over at my bondmate, and looking into his eyes instantly soothed me.
But I was still angry at Charlie for walking out on my mother like that. I patted her shoulder and said, "Come on, Mom. Let me take you home."
She nodded silently, and I could see that she was struggling not to cry. I hated Charlie even more just for that. The jerk wasn't worth crying over.
Leland, Mom and I walked out to my car. Seth stayed a moment to say goodbye to the Cullens and Jake, whom I heard promise to run with him tomorrow and continue the search for Sierra.
When we got home, Seth and Mom headed into the house. I stood with Leland by his car. "I really hope everything works out with your mother and Charlie," he said quietly.
I scoffed. "He walked out, Lee. Means he hasn't got the stones to handle the fact that the world is filled with more kinds of monsters than the ones he has to deal with on a daily basis. It figures that just when I was getting used to the fact that he would become a part of my family, that I was going to be in-lawed to that coven of bloodsucking leeches, something happens to prove that I was right to keep my distance from them, like I always have."
He looked at me with admonishment in his eyes. "I might not have known them as long as you have, but I can honestly say they seem alright to me. I think Edward was right, Charlie just needs time to get used to knowing the whole truth."
I raised my eyebrow. "You're siding with that thing? The one who can't keep his cold, marble nose out of other people's thoughts?"
Leland shook his head. "I don't see it as a matter of taking sides, though if it somehow came to that, you know I'd be on yours," he told me, rubbing my arms with his hands. "But I can look at all this a lot more objectively, still being something of an outsider. And I think Charlie will come around, you just gotta give him some time."
"You didn't need time, at least not a lot," I pointed out. "For a guy who was clueless twenty-four hours ago, you sure are handling everything pretty well."
He smiled. "It's been a very weird day for me, to say the least," he conceded. "I mean, learning that vampires are real, that there are people who can turn into giant wolves-giant ravens, even-it's a lot to absorb. And it's hard to believe even for someone who's in it up to his neck, like I am. Part of me still doesn't want to. But it's like I told you, I can't ignore what's right in front of me. I've seen and heard too much craziness for it not to be real. Plus, I get a bonus."
His smile helped me to relax finally, and I smiled back. "What's that?"
Leland reached for me and drew me to him, and we wrapped our arms around each other. "I got you," he said. "I've wanted to find me a girl and settle down for a while now, but I never met the right one until I came here. The perfect one. You're probably the only thing right now that's keeping me from losing my mind in the middle of all this."
I pulled back. "Has it really been that hard on you?" I asked.
"Leah, think about what you told me earlier today. How difficult it was for you when Sam was forced to leave you. How you felt when your phasing appeared to have caused your father's heart attack-how guilty that made you feel. How hard it was being the only female among all the wolves. Becoming what you are, knowing that the legends of your tribe are real, that took getting used to, didn't it? Despite the fact that you weren't peaches and cream there for a while…"
Because I knew he didn't say it to be mean, I merely pulled my arms away from him and crossed them over my chest. Leland broke them apart gently and held my hands in his. "Through all of that, there had to be something that kept you grounded. What was that?"
I thought about it for just a moment. "My mother," I replied. "And Seth. I was determined to keep them safe. The tribe too, of course, but my family was the most important thing to me. Now you are."
Leland smiled. "And you are my anchor, as I get used to the strange new architecture that is my life. Whatever I'm destined to become, and no matter how crazy it sounds, I know without a doubt that I want and need you in my life, to be a part of my future. I don't think I could live without you now that I've met you. That could be the supernatural thing inside me talking, it could not. All I know is that's how I feel. I don't ever want to lose you."
"And you never will," I replied, leaning forward to give him a long, lingering kiss.
Eventually, Leland left for his grandfather's house. I went inside and found Seth in the kitchen, eating. I would have laughed had my brother not been wearing such a forlorn expression.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Where's Mom?"
"Mom's in her room," Seth replied. He started to raise the sandwich in his hands to his mouth, but instead put it down, and looked at me. "Do you think Charlie is gonna leave Mom?"
My irritation flared again, though not as strongly as before. Perhaps that talk with Leland at the curb had done some good after all. I sighed and joined him at the table. "I don't know, Seth. I honestly hope he doesn't, that he's a better man than that."
"I thought he was too," my brother agreed. "I just can't believe he walked out like that."
"Leland thinks Charlie just needs time to get used to knowing the truth, like he did."
"Your boy didn't seem to take too long getting used to how things are. Most of the girls got used to it pretty quick, too," Seth told me.
"Lee says it's because he's in it up to his neck," I replied.
"Dude, I still can't believe he might turn into a giant bird," Seth said. "That's crazy."
"No crazier than the fact that you and I and eighteen others in our tribe can become giant wolves, kiddo," I retorted. "From what his cousin told him, the ravens came about in much the same way as our wolves did, to protect the tribe from vampires."
"I don't get how you could have imprinted on him, though. I mean, for one thing, you've stopped phasing. And he's probably a shapeshifter, too. No wolf has imprinted on another shape-shifter, let alone one with a different animal form. 'Course, we didn't know there were other kinds of shapeshifters out there until today. Who knows how many other kinds there are?"
"There's also never been a female wolf before," I reminded him. "Maybe it has something to do with that, I don't know. Nobody does."
I grabbed the sandwich from his plate and took a large bite, as I hadn't eaten dinner, either. "Nobody even knows how in the world our ancestors were able to separate their spirits from their bodies. It's all conjecture, because no one living can give us the answers to these questions. Maybe it's one of those millions of things we're just not meant to know. All I know is that I'm indescribably happy to have discovered I'm not so much of a freak after all. I'm like the rest of the wolves, only female. I've been blessed, Seth, I really have, not only to have endured all that I have and somehow ended up more mature because of it, but to have actually met the one person in all this world who is perfect for me. I was beginning to think he didn't exist, and then there he was."
"On the side of the road with a broke down car."
I playfully shoved my brother when his straight face broke into a grin, then sobered as I heard a car pull into the driveway. Seth heard it too, and we both stood. I reached the front room before he did this time, and moved the curtain aside to peek out the window. I felt my body tense as I recognized Charlie Swan's police cruiser behind my car.
"It's Charlie," I said between clenched teeth.
"I better go get Mom," Seth said, and turned to head to her room.
I snagged his arm. "Don't. I want to have a word with him first."
I'm fairly certain that the expression on my face is why Seth didn't argue, but he did plead with me to keep my cool. "And try not to ruin it if he's here to tell Mom he wants to stay with her."
"Me ruin something? I would never," I said mischievously, and slipped out the door.
Charlie hadn't gotten out. He was still sitting behind the wheel staring at our house when I came outside. I stood on the porch staring at him pointedly, my arms crossed over my chest. Eventually he got the point and got out, though that was as far as I let him get.
"Not another step, Swan," I said coldly.
Charlie froze. "Leah, I'd really like to talk to your mother, please," he said.
"Do you really think that you have any right to ask for anything, after what you did tonight? You walked out on her. You could barely even look at her," I said, feeling my ire returning to what it had been before. "My mother almost shed tears over you-probably did as soon as she shut her bedroom door, and for what? Someone who doesn't even deserve her. You proved that when you walked out on her."
"I understand that you are angry, Leah, and that you're trying to protect your mom. I respect that. And I know what I did was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done," Charlie said. "But I … I needed air. I needed space, room to breathe. You can't just throw out things like 'Vampires and werewolves are real' and expect a guy to just say, 'Okay, cool.' For goodness' sake, I'm a cop, Leah. And vampires kill people. Werewolves have been known to kill people, at least in storybooks and horror movies."
He shifted into the familiar hands-on-hips pose. "Knowing what I do creates a serious conflict of interest for me."
"How so?" I asked.
"I'm the Chief of Police. I can't just look the other way if one of you or one of them kills somebody!"
"Keep your voice down!" I hissed sharply, stepping down off the porch and stopping just a foot or so away. "Not everyone around here knows what you do. We keep that a secret to keep them safe, like we kept it a secret from you for the same reason. And if you hadn't been too bull-headed to pay attention, you'd have heard us all say the same thing-we don't kill people. The wolves exist to hunt vampires who kill people. And there are a lot of them out there. But the Cullens and a few others don't. They resist what they are for the express purpose of not becoming the monstrous murderer you've read about in books or seen in movies."
Oh good grief, I suddenly thought. I've just become the Cullens' friggin champion.
"And you believe that because they tell you so?" Charlie countered.
"Because I've seen proof," I replied. "And the surest way to know is by looking them in the eye. Vampires who feed on humans have red eyes. The ones who feed on animals have topaz-colored eyes. It has something to do with the chemistry of the blood they drink."
Charlie gulped and looked away from me. "I cannot think about my daughter drinking blood, human or animal."
I could not believe I was about to say this, considering I how I still felt about Bella, but… "Then don't, Charlie. Just think of her like you always have-as your daughter. That's what she's always been and always will be."
He was still and silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. Then he looked at me and said, "Your mom. She's not … a wolf, too, is she?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Would it matter if she was?"
Charlie sighed, then tried to smile. "No, I guess it wouldn't. I really do love her, Leah, and I still mean to marry her, if she'll have me."
"She will."
I turned and Charlie looked up-Mom was standing on the porch. We'd both been so absorbed in our conversation that neither of us had heard her come out.
Charlie stepped around me and walked over to stand at the bottom step-considering my mother's height, this made them about even. He looked into her eyes as he fished in his pocket and produced a small, velvet-covered box.
"I, uh, didn't get the chance to give you this," he said, holding it out to her.
Mom flipped the lid up. One hand went to her lips as tears welled in her eyes. She stood staring at the ring in the box for some time before she spoke.
"Oh, Charlie," she said, looking at him. "Are you sure?"
Charlie reached up and took the ring out of the box. He then took her left hand in his and slipped it on the third finger (he looked immeasurably relieved to see that it fit), then raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. I could feel myself smiling at the girly expression on my mother's face.
"Maybe I need to repeat myself," Charlie said. "Sue Clearwater, will you marry me?"