"It's been an hour. I think we should go after her. Do you remember what happened last time she disappeared?" Tanya said pointedly. For unclear reasons, she was glaring at Edward—though I could find nothing wrong.
Edward noticed her dirty looks, but he refused to meet her eyes. He acted as if it didn't bother him, but I could tell from the tense way he held me that it did. This confused me even more.
"She's a big girl," Carmen said dismissively. She wasn't nearly as contentious as I had thought earlier. Once I'd made it obvious that only Edward could hold my attention, she became friendlier. I sat next to her on the long couch, with Edward on my other side, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist as I leaned my head back against his shoulder.
"I'm more worried about the humans."
"I will go," Eleazar said, standing up. Carmen didn't look too happy about it, but I could tell she didn't plan to argue.
He left quickly, and the others in the room began talking, catching up on news of the past month. I was amazed on how much could happen in such a short time. Alice told in detail the story of our little Shakespearean misunderstanding. She was a good story-teller, eliciting shocked gasps and squeaks of fright in all the appropriate places.
Tanya, Irina, and Carmen wanted to know all about my experience with the werewolves, having never come into contact with any. I was nervous speaking in front of so many people, but the three women made an easy audience, and I soon loosened up. Edward's comforting presence didn't hurt, either.
When I mentioned Victoria, I caught Carmen's sly glance toward Esme, and I knew that they would talk about I later—probably when Eleazar got back and they could make plans to 'deal' with the menace. As the mother figures of their respective covens, I wasn't surprised that Esme and Carmen were very close.
As the conversation relaxed to speculations of the future and everyday, normal chatter, I was given more of a chance to observe the others, and what I found what strange.
My vampire eyes picked up so many small details that I never paid attention to before. After spending less than a day around the Denali coven, I had picked up subtle hints of character.
A slightly flared nostril from Tanya, for example, told me that she disagreed with something. An almost imperceptible squinting of Irina's eyes predicted a question about to form.
And those vampires I had known more than a year, such as Alice and Carlisle, were more transparent than ever. Alice always wore her heart on her sleeve, even then, but now her spur of the moment actions didn't catch me by surprise. Carlisle's warm smile seemed to spread to his very posture.
And Edward…his was the most noticeable change.
I had always seen certain emotions in his eyes: love, anger, amusement. Those intensified, until not only did I saw the anger, but it seemed I felt it as well.
He hadn't brought it up yet—I was sure he would, when we had some time alone—but our connection to each other seemed to me to be what was amplified when I changed to a vampire.
Alice claimed that my gift was acceptance. Perhaps that was partly true, for it certainly was strange that I could think about something other than blood. But I knew that a large part of who I had been as a human was my love for Edward.
If my conversion hadn't amplified that, then I had doubts as to the theory in general.
It had taken me a while to notice it. Waking up (if you could call it that) after the transformation had distracted me. So had the hunting trip, and the strange turn of events that led me to believe Kate wouldn't make as good a friend as I had thought she might. I was pretty sure she was a 'bad influence' according to vampire standards—and that terrified me.
But now that Kate was absent, and I could spend some time in Edward's arms and just relax, I began to pick up on certain…anomalies.
For instance, I was fairly certain that it was not me thinking, If Kate plans to tell Bella, then I don't know what I can do. I'll just have to tell her the truth.
And I was definitely certain that what I felt radiating from Edward was not heat, as it should have been, but nervousness. I could feel his emotion.
And I had to admit, this was way better than the gift of acceptance.
The thoughts were quiet, barely whispers. I needed to concentrate in order to hear, but when I wasn't paying attention, I noticed a faint buzzing on the periphery. I remember Edward telling me that was what the voices were to him—noise in the background until he focused. I was surprised I hadn't noticed it right away, until I realized that it had indeed been there all along, and I had just mistaken the sound for heat circulating through the air.
That made me feel ridiculous. I could just imagine telling Edward that I mistook his thoughts for circumvention. I was glad he still couldn't read my thoughts.
I only seemed to be able to hear his thoughts while I was touching his skin—I tested this on the sly—and the emotion was also barely distinguishable, but I had heard both Edward's and Jasper's abilities described often enough to know that I wasn't crazy. Edward reminded me often that I was uncreative, so I knew that it wasn't just my imagination.
The entire time that I was listening to the playful banter between the reunited covens, I was wondering if Edward knew. I was thinking of interesting ways to break it to him.
Oh, yes, this was going to be fun.
Just as I was considering a method of trickery to get Edward alone, Eleazar came back…without Kate. He took a long look at all the vampires assembled and then promptly fell to the ground.
Carmen growled. I didn't need my new perception of body language in order to tell that she was furious.
A/N: Heh, I decided I didn't like Bella's gift much (I wanted something I could use throughout the whole story, and acceptance was really just so that she wouldn't be crazy with bloodlust), so I decided to add something else. Sneaky, huh? I hope it was smooth enough not to make the story all stupid. Since I haven't updated in forever, I decided to put the diner scene in the next chapter. As compensation for both the delay and Bella's freakishly sudden switch of gift, I'll give you a hint and say that you'll get to see Kate's power in action next chapter.
Begging: Review, pretty please with a cherry on top? Not convincing enough? Then how about pretty please with an Edward on top? Come on, now how can you resist?