The door bell rang and Masen started barking furiously. "I'll get it," I called to Bella, who was busy making lunch for Lily, who she just picked up from kindergarten. "What's all the barking for, huh?" I patted Masens head, then grabbed a hold of his collar before opening the door.
"I should've known it was you," I said to Jacob Black, who was standing on my front porch. Masen always barked like this when he and Ava would come over with their son, Mark. He knew what I meant and chuckled. Jacob's alone this time and I invite him in. "Come on in, Bella's in the kitchen with Lily."
"Thanks, Edward." Jacob walked passed me toward the kitchen. We aren't exactly best friends now, but we have buried the hatchet so to speak, for Bella's sake. Jacob was able to get over his distaste for me... mostly, since I became human again. And I'll admit, now that I know he would never try to break Bella and me up anymore, his sunny personality was easy to like.
"Uncle Jacob!" Lily jumped out of her seat and gave Jake a big hug. We think she has a crush on him. "Where's Mark?"
"Hi Lily," he kissed Lily's cheek and replied, "he's at school, remember?" Mark is one year older than Lily, so he's in first grade.
"What brings you over here?" Bella asked curiously, accepting Jacob's greeting of a hug. I didn't want to be rude and ignore our guest, but I was looking over some medical history for a psych patient of mine and I wanted to finish it before the other kids got home from school. I sat on the far end of the kitchen, where I had been before the door bell rang, and continued reading.
"I actually came to see you and Edward." I looked up at the sound of my name, curious. "You know how I haven't P-H-A-S-E-D in almost ten years?" He spelled out "phased" because of Lily. Not that it's a bad word, but she asks a lot of questions.
"Yeah," Bella said, "what's wrong, Jake?" I could hear the worry in her tone.
"Well, I'm starting to feel the tremors again, like it could happen. Do you know of any V-A-M-P-I-R-E-S who might be in the area?"
"No, not at all," I said. Why would Jacob's werewolf phasing tremors happen again unless there was a reason? "What about the other guys?"
"Sam said he felt it too. I haven't talked to anyone else yet," Jacob said.
"Oh, Jake..." Bella said, but she was distracted, deep in thought. "Edward, what could it - " Bella was interupted by side entry door in our kitchen opening.
"Jacob!" Alice said, surprised. "I'm glad you're here. I need to talk to Bella and Edward about something important." She paused, looking at Lily and said "Lily, honey, would you like to take your sandwich into the family room so you can watch 'Charlie & Lola'?"
"Can I mom?!" Lily looked at Bella with sparkles in her eyes. This would be a treat. "Yes, come on honey." Bella held out her hand and took Lily to watch her favorite Disney show with some little weird British cartoon characters.
As Bella reenterd the kitchen I asked Alice "So, what's going on?"
"Well, I had a vision earlier today of the Volturi coming here. It seems Aro wants to know if Bella's acquired any special talent since he saw her as a newborn vampire and at the time, she didn't have any." It dawned on me that the Volturi had no idea we're all human now.
"So that explains it," Jacob said.
"How long do we have?" was my first question.
"It won't be for a few weeks at least. Aro just had the idea and Caius said it's a waste of energy." Alice said.
With a very quiet voice, Bella spoke now "Edward, remember when you told me that the Volturi count years like I count days and I would be 30 before they thought of me again?"
"Yes," I breathed. How could I have gotten so comfortable in my human life to believe that there would never be danger again?
"Well, you were three years off..." I knew Bella like the back of my hand, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking now. Was she scared?
"What are we going to do?" Jacob asked, looking at Alice. "Have you... seen anything?"
"Yes, I've already called Adam Bailey, he's on the way," Alice said. She's referring to the most wonderful man on the planet, who was once a vampire himself, but he discovered the antidote which is how we're all human again.
"Why did you call him?" I asked.
"He's the one who's going to help us win the fight against the Volturi!" Alice exclaimed.
"No!" Bella gasped, her words dripping with horror. "I will go to them so that they leave you and our children alone! They can have me, but not my babies!"