Okay guys, I know it's been a little while since the last chapter, but I've been dealing with a lot of reality lately. First my mom was in the hospital, but she's okay now. She has a condition that I was diagnosed with years ago, it's just developing for her now. It's nothing too serious and can only be life threatening if we aren't diligent. Also, I am moving and that's taking up a lot of my time. I happened to have a bit of free time because my girls are visiting their dad and I decided to give you two more chapters today because it might be awhile before I can add another. Thank you all so much for the reviews, they are greatly appreciated! Even those of you who don't review and add me to alerts or favorites, that tells me just as well as a review that you like the story. ~~Becca
BELLA POV-
We drove to the new house in silence and I introduced the three of them to Leah and Ang. Leah had blushed and looked away daintily when she shook Jasper's hand. They sat down and explained what they were and what Jasper was to them. Emily and Kim showed up shortly after and they joined in on the conversation while the three of us started cooking like hell. Everyone had moved into the kitchen to chat or help.
"We need to hire six cooks and a butler or two." Leah laughed as she began helping us. Her eyes would stray to Jasper every few minutes and then she would blush again, I was so utterly confused.
"Very true, but then again, we all have superhuman strength and speed other than Emily and Kim." I smirked.
"Which is completely unfair." Kim huffed.
"I could say that you could get bitten, but then you'd be my enemy." I shrugged, she blushed and looked away so I added, "But Kim, I wouldn't want that. I like you."
"You do? I didn't think you did, I've seen you hug everyone but me, Jacob, and Paul."
"Really?" I asked her, "I've been so stuck in my own world lately, Kim, you are my sister, just like Leah and Emily, just like Ang." I looked up and met Charlotte's gaze, "You too, although that is also legally as well, considering you are married to my brother."
She giggled but the other girls stopped what they were doing to gape at me, "Peter and I have the same birth parents." I shrugged, going up to my room to get the picture of the two of them together to show them. "He looks just like my father, except blonde."
"You have that photo too?" Peter laughed, it was such a laugh that it filled the entire house, the kind you couldn't help but smile about.
"She left them for me with the paperwork." There was just so much going on, so much. I sighed, "I've also got this." I tugged the locket out from beneath my shirt. Peter opened it and smiled.
"You were a beautiful baby, Isabella. So sorry I missed it." He frowned.
"It's fine, you were so busy playing charades, you didn't know I existed." I winked.
He just smiled and went back around the counter to lean on it and continue the conversation. "Did she give you any other gifts?" He asked, truly curious.
"Well, their wedding bands, and another necklace, and then the most chilling gift ever. A pair of silver wolf earrings."
Peter erupted into booming laughter, "Mom had the gift I do, she had the gift of knowing. I promise you those earrings mean something, or will."
Emily, Leah, and Kim all shared a look, but when they saw me staring at them, they rushed back to work. They were keeping something from me. That or they had noticed something I hadn't.
"So have all of you been close since the last time I saw you?" Jasper asked.
"No, Leah and I were very close before she phased awhile ago. It was before she even knew she wasn't human, she knew I wasn't because I trusted her. When she did phase, she ran straight to me and I handed Sam his ass." I smirked, "He came into my home and made an ass of himself, I put him in his place and calmed things down enough for everyone to have a nice little conversation. It was the following night that I met Kim, but I'd met Emily that morning before the fight."
"Fight?" Peter asked.
"Everyone thought I was human, they threw a fit about me being welcomed into the pack. I walked in and tossed a vampire's head on the table. There was a huge blow up and Seth got angry at Paul and vice versa. I diverted attention onto myself so when Paul attacked he would be going for me. I pissed him off, he phased, lunged, I forced him to phase back and took him down. We spoke about it and everything is fine now." I left so many things out, but it didn't matter.
"Then I found you last week and dragged you home with me, and now here we are, as if we've known each other all our lives." I said to Angela.
"Before I phased, life with this one was pretty dull." Leah teased, draping an arm around me. "But since I phased, I've met two more angels, two half angels, watched her kidnap someone, watched her argue with… well everyone."
"Well, the food will be done in a half an hour, everyone should be arriving soon." Emily said.
The doorbell chimed and I snickered, "Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear."
"Speak of food, and the wolves will appear." Kim corrected me with a hand to my shoulder.
"It's the elders." I called as I walked into the living room. Not only could I smell them, I could see Sue's car in the driveway.
I went to open the door and was pulled into a hug by Sue. "I have been told that you've received some very interesting visitors. Another bonfire is in order to welcome our new allies, that is, if they are willing to join forces with us."
"Better than being stuck in a house that reeks of death!" Jasper smiled as he stepped into the room. "I'm Jasper Whitlock, pleased to meet you ma'am."
"Sue Clearwater, I'm Leah and Seth's mother." She shook his hand and frowned at him, "I don't understand how the three of you managed to hide what you are from those monsters." She shook her head.
"I have just enough of what they are in me to pass as one if I wear contacts." Jasper told her. "To them I smell like one of them, to Bella and the others, I don't. It's an anomaly."
"You're the one who was an angel and then you were bitten?" Billy asked, rolling through the door.
"I am." Jasper nodded.
"You eat human food?" Billy asked with a hint of a glare.
"I do."
"Then allow me to test you." Billy smiled, he pulled out a pocket knife and slit open his hand.
"Billy!" I shouted, he was watching Jasper closely as the blood welled up, there wasn't even a hint of a change, not even to my increased senses. I could smell the blood though and I began to get a little sick.
"I told you not to do that dad! Bella faints at the sight of blood." Jacob's voice pierced the air and I felt even more sick because it was he that spoke on my behalf.
I began to fall toward the floor but a pair of hot arms wrapped around me and I was pulled tightly against someone's chest. I heard a growl reverberate off the walls from somewhere in the room, then someone said, "Shut up Jacob!" The growling stopped.
I looked up to find that it had been Paul that caught me, "Careful now." He breathed, "You've always been so sensitive." He shook his head and scooped me up.
I was plopped on the counter and a glass of ice water was placed in my hand. There were murmured conversations going on, but I heard nothing of what was being said because of the throbbing in my head. Paul watched me drink the water he'd given me, and under his gaze, my wings trembled beneath my skin and my stomach flipped. My head tilted as I tried to figure out what I felt toward him. I hadn't seen him much since being around the pack, and I was surprised to find that I had missed him.
When my head cleared I hopped down off the counter gracefully and thanked Paul. Every time I looked at him any more he had this war going on in his eyes, emotions warring with each other to break free, but I had no idea what to do about it, other than to pretend it wasn't there. If he wanted to discuss it, he would, simple as that.
I joined the others, who were all seated at the table, discussing our newcomers. Apparently, Sam had already filled in the pack and the elders, and they were all for allying themselves with more angels. Even Charlie was giving the thumbs up.
"No offense to anyone, but why are you all accepting this so easily?" I asked quietly.
"You accept them, we trust your judgment on this one, besides, I was told we are expecting a little visit from your old friends." Paul locked eyes with me, his eyes had gone yellow, but unlike Leah it wasn't with concern, it was something else entirely.
"Not just that, the redhead has been around, we've been tracking this one for months and can't get a hold of her. I want this bitch in the ground."
I jerked upright with so much force that my glass fell to the floor and shattered. "Redhead?" I asked tensely.
"Yeah, she's been trying to get through us to Forks, we don't know what she's after." Sam looked around the room. "But it's just one vampire, right now I'm more interested in the fact that Charlotte is half shape shifter half angel." He was purposefully changing the topic. He'd already run through everything with everyone about Charlotte.
"Can we see?" Seth asked her quietly, "Can we see both forms together?"
"Give me just a moment." She smiled and practically danced out of the room. What returned in her place was a mountain lion the same size as the wolves, we watched and listened as the wings erupted from the cat's back. She was truly magnificent looking, I'd never seen anything like it. A horse sized sand colored mountain lion with huge black wings. She looked like a griffin, minus the eagle head and scorpion tail.
There were many uttered compliments about her form and she vanished into the other room to change back and probably fetch her clothes. Jasper told them all about his past and it had made my heart break for him. He'd had his heart broken twice before leaving for the army, then he encountered Maria and her minions. He transformed and Maria decided in that moment to force him to ally with her. She changed him and had her army torture him until he agreed to join her. That was when his act had first begun. That annoying as hell nagging feeling returned like the bile trying to force it's way up my esophagus when Sam mentioned a redheaded tick.
By the end of the conversation, dinner was being served and everyone was eating. It was so strange to watch Jasper eat and I wondered how he managed it when the Cullens never ate. He had mentioned knocking them out sometimes, or taking off.
I shook the questions away and decided I needed to tell Sam who the redhead he'd mentioned was. Sam had upped patrols, he'd been on edge for a few days, something was going on. It had to have been her.
"Sam?" I asked him.
"Yeah?"
"The redhead, how long has she been around?"
He wouldn't meet my eyes, he looked like a whipped puppy sitting there.
"Sam." I said through my teeth, he would not keep things from me, I wouldn't allow it.
"You were awful welcoming to these three, as soon as you found out they were not a threat, you sought to make them our allies, what the hell is going on?"
He leveled his gaze on me and I stood slowly, showing him I wasn't going to back down. "You are so damn stubborn, don't you back down from anything?"
"Fine, if you don't want to tell me, I will just go and find her and ask her myself." I turned to head for the door.
There was a thunderous bang behind me.
"ISABELLA MARIE SWAN! You will turn your ass around and sit down!" I turned in shock to face Peter, he was breathing very heavily and pissed beyond all reason.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" I snapped at him.
He stood to his full height, his jaw clenched in his anger. He had to be one of the scariest things I had ever seen. "I'm your brother, older than you by many, many years little girl and I highly doubt our parents, or Charlie would want you taking off to find that deranged bitch on your own!"
"Fine! But someone had better answer my question!" I demanded, looking to Sam.
"She showed up a few days ago and has been skirting us ever since. I don't know what she's up to or what she wants."
"Mate for a mate." I stated, thinking back to Laurent. "Victoria."
"Who is Victoria?" Sam demanded. "Bella, explain this."
Jasper was kneeling on the floor in front of me, when had I fallen? He gripped my shoulders hard and shook me a bit, "You're certain it isn't anyone else?" He asked me.
"She's the only one, it's her." My fingers found the coldest part of my body, the crescent shaped scar on my wrist. "She's trying to get to me." My eyes searched Jasper's for any hint of something, something I could cling to. The nagging feeling shoved away as I tried to find my answers.
"Who the fuck is Victoria?" Sam and Paul demanded at the same time.
"Someone needs to hold her, damn it!" Jacob's voice broke through the tension, "Someone needs to help her hold herself together, she's falling apart."
Immediately, hot arms wrapped around me and I was pulled into Sam's lap. "Someone please tell me what is going on." He said softly.
Jasper released a feral growl, "Fucking Cullens, causing trouble even when they're nowhere nearby!" He turned to Sam, "Do any of you remember when Bella left in a hurry, she went to Phoenix last year?"
"She said she couldn't stand it here, it's when she ended up in the hospital because of that boy!" Charlie growled.
"Well, it wasn't because of Edward directly, though I do blame him."
I struggled and leapt away from Sam and almost fell against the sliding back door. It was dark outside and it was reflecting the room back to us. I fell to my knees and rested my palms against the glass, forcing the memories forward. I heard his voice as it echoed through the room and I shook, I was right back where I'd heard his voice, and it still terrified me.
The memory played out for them, all of it, from the first phone call, to Edward sucking the venom out of my hand and nearly losing control. There were gasps and growls behind me and someone was crying. After playing out what had happened with James, I played the memory of the baseball game. Playing the memory, I realized Jasper had sensed them before Alice had, but he hadn't been able to say anything before Alice got her vision. When I showed the three of them entering the clearing and the wolves saw Victoria, they all growled.
"That's Victoria." Jasper's voice said from somewhere behind me.
"That is the redheaded bitch we've been after for months!" Sam bellowed.
I was drained, but until I removed my hand, memories would continue playing. When I got weak, I couldn't control it, I couldn't even pull my hands away.
"Bella, you can stop now, they've seen what they need." Peter said quietly, but I didn't even have the strength to move.
Random memories began playing. Edward the first time he spoke to me with kindness, the first time he had toyed with my mind to make me believe I loved him. His scrutiny as he directed me through his house that was no longer worried, it was sinister. How had I never seen it? The memories continued, " My family and I are leaving. You don't belong in our world. I don't want you." Followed by. "Leave and don't come back. You don't belong here!" They kept playing.
The memory of running through my house and to my room as my heart shattered, panting for breath. The glimpse of white that I'd seen as I fell to the floor, the sound of the window being closed roughly. It was all displayed for them. The letter, the words that stood out, showing Sam those things. The look on Paul's face when he looked into my eyes. That look, those eyes, I focused on them. A dam inside my head broke, and memories were being played that I didn't remember experiencing. Me in a hospital bed, a storm, I was crying. "It'll pass."
Me falling after bumping into someone, beginning to cry. A hand pulling me up before the person walked away without a word. Me falling to my knees in front of a boy with a gash in his leg and being overcome by the smell of blood, "You're so sensitive." Then over and over again, by many different voices as I grew, "She's such a well behaved child, such and angel."
"Such and angel!" Another voice said. Many others had said it over my lifetime, then the frame slowed and I was staring into the eyes of the woman from the photograph. "Everyone is safe, my sweet Isabella." The man in the background, then panic, fear, screaming and shouting. Being rushed up stairs, and suddenly hearing a crash and the wind as wings moved around us. Renee's face as she pulled me out of a basket on the porch. Then everything, absolutely everything went black.
