God, I love you guys. I can't tell you how many times I've smiled since uploading the last chapter! Pinky, you have now and officially become my muse and inspriation. And the award for best reviewer/awesome person goes to: Nyx's Pinky Girl! *applause* :) And no, Claire had not seen Renesmee's power yet.
But I did not forget my other awesome reviewers: sweetsarah81, Ruby o, IDGAFIm Nate (love the name), and Cullengirl10. As for your comment, Cullengirl10, thank you for pointing that out. I did notice that as I read through, and I'll try to be more careful. Please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong, everyone. Constructive criticism is my heroin ;).Thanks, guys, for your support. I only ask that you keep reading and enjoying.
I felt stiff as a rock, but somehow I was able to open my heavy eyes to see that I was not in my bedroom as I should have been.
"Claire?" I asked, then groaned at the sound of my own voice. It pounded through my head and made me nautious. I managed to raise myself up to gather more information, still not sure where I was or what had happened. I looked out the window to see that it was the crack of dawn. I looked at the clock to see the LED letters flashing 5:37 AM. It all came back to me.
The party. The big secret Claire had never gotten to tell me. The drinking contest. But everything else was a blur.
"Shit," I muttered, trying to shake off the sleep. I occasionally cursed, courtesy of Claire, but not unless I was freaking out. And by now, I was really freaking out. My mother had given us until one to get home and we were five hours late.
"Claire," I said again, my arm reaching for her shoulder and shaking it violently. The girl would not wake up.
"Claire!" She jolted awake, her eyes blinking out of control.
"Huh?" she asked in a daze.
"We need to go now," I said, climbing out of Jenna's bed and stumbling dizzily around.
"Ness, what are you-" She suddenly seemed to remember too, because she quietly asked, "What time is it?"
"It's five in the morning! You need to get up now." She scrambled out of bed and yanked her heels back on. We grabbed our clutch purses and headed out the door. We stepped carefully over the bodies passed out on the floor, occasionally tripping.
"Bye, Jen," Claire whispered to Jenna, who was splayed wildly on the couch and looked almost as if she were dead. We ran to my truck as fast as possible in stilettos, practically ripping the doors open.
"Can you check my phone to see if my mom's called?" I asked Claire as I began to drive away, far past the speed limit. There weren't many people on the road at this time, so I went a little faster than I should have.
"Sure, sweetie," she replied, grabbing my clutch and searching for my phone.
"Ummm, did you take your phone out last night?"
"Nooo..."
"It's not in here, Ness." Great, I thought. I lost my phone, too.
"Maybe you left it at home."
"Thanks for checking, Doodle. You want me to drop you off at home? I think this is really gonna get ugly." She blinked a few times, then answered.
"No, I'll stay with you for this, Ness. It was my fault anyway." I shrugged.
"Okay..."
...
I could hear my mother from outside the door, dry sobbing. I opened the door slowly, taking a deep breath. The sobbing immediately stopped.
"Ness?" she asked shakily.
"Mom?" I turned the corner to see my Mom on the couch, looking unbelievably angry.
"Where the hell have you been?" she screamed, making Claire jump.
"Ummmm..."
"Answer me!"
"At a party," I admitted quietly. She finally took a moment to look us up and down and see our drunken appearances. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling despite the fact that she didn't need to breathe.
"You two have been drinking, haven't you?" she inquired dryly. We nodded slowly.
"Why didn't you at least answer your phone to let me know you were okay? I was worried sick!" I didn't think it was an ideal time to mention that I had no idea where my phone was, so I shrugged.
"Claire, I'll take you home-" Mom started.
"No!" she cried suddenly, then recomposed herself. "Ummm, I told my mom I'd stay here, if you don't mind, Bella." She sighed.
"Claire, you're like a daughter to me. If you stay, I'm going to punish you like a daughter."
"That's fine. I think I deserve it. It was my idea," she confessed.
"Sit down, girls," Mom said gesturing to the couch. "Now, if you guys really wanted to go to a party, you should have asked. I would have trusted your better judgement and let you go. But lying to me and coming home hung over at five in the morning is not okay with me, and you know that. Don't let it happen again, girls. I mean it."
"I thought you said we were going to be punished," Claire said in confusion.
"What, you think vampires get punished?" Mom asked, and winked at me. I exhaled in relief. She didn't hate me.
"So what was it like, now that we've got that parenting stuff out of the way?" Mom asked, an excited look in her eyes. She always asked me about human experiences that she might have missed out on. Claire looked at me, confused.
"C'mon, Doodle, its my mom we're talking to," I said, knowing that would explain it all. So we told my mom all about it, excluding the part about running into Kim. And I still remembered that Claire never told me what was wrong with her.
...
Victoria's POV
I sat on the arm chair in our new temporary living room, sipping blood out of a wine glass. Even I missed doing human things sometimes. It was early morning, still dark, and I was waiting patiently for Riley to come home with some good news. And I didn't doubt him; even though Riley made a slip, he had always been the perfect sidekick, and I trusted him to bring me a great plan. But he needed to know that I hadn't forgotten his little mistake, and he would pay if this plan was any less than perfect. When he finally arrived, he had a timid, yet confident look on his face.
I stared at him with narrow eyes as I waited for his news.
"Well?" I asked impatiently.
"I, um, know the plan."
"God, I hope so," I said sarcastically.
"It's simple really... we got a head start tonight," he said, calling for Bree. One of my eyebrows shot up in curiosity.
The young girl entered the room nervously, setting a phone down on the arm of my chair. I picked up the object and began to observe, trying to get past the flashing message on the front that said "17 Missed Calls". When I finally did, the sides of my mouth pulled up into a small grin. The wallpaper showed a pretty blonde and a bronze-haired beauty, smiling happily into the camera. Their faces showed that they had been having a lot of fun, and they looked as if they had just shared an inside joke and were laughing at others trying to figure it out. But those sparkling brown eyes... I could feel my throat burn with thirst at the sight of those eyes. They reminded me so much of the feeble human who ruined my life.
Bree skittered to Riley's side as I set the phone down and eyed both of them. Riley gulped and began.
"Well, I figured if she has wolves on her side, all we have to do is turn them against her."
"Riley, she's got a werewolf imprinted on her. A stolen cell phone won't do much."
"Just listen," Riley pleaded. He nudged the kid next to him, who squeaked before speaking.
"I found out something about the blonde, Renesmee's best friend. Her name's Claire. She has an older brother, Kyle, who... touches her." She stared at me, waiting for a reaction.
"Go on," I said with a continuation gesture of the hand, unfazed by Blondie's dilemma.
"Well, she didn't want Renesmee to tell anyone. Turning Claire against her will really give us an upper hand."
"And this will help us how?" I asked, seeing as this plan seemed incomplete.
"Just trust us, honey," Riley whispered. "We know everything will turn out in our favor."
"Riley, if you screw me over, I swear-" I growled, rising out of my seat.
"I really don't think you should be worrying about this, Victoria," a smooth voice piped up from behind me. I turned to see our visitor. Diego. "I'm sure you have more important things to be worrying about. I garauntee, we'll carry out with the plan and you will be satisfied."
I was, of course, doubtful of this plan. It seemed faulty, like a boomerang that would backfire on us. Didn't that always seem to happen to the "villains"? This was to risky for me to put all my faith in them, yet I really wanted to. Besides, Bree and Diego were the last two I thought would be helping Riley and heavily participating in the plan. In fact, those two were the only army members I had actually met. By accident, of course; I pretty much knew the army from watching from afar, and those two always seemed to be the quiet stragglers who always seemed like they knew too much. But, then again, maybe that was just what we needed. Expert spies.
"Okay, you three," I said, clenching my teeth and slamming the wine glass on the table. "All I want by the end of the month is three things. One: I want the army fully trained. Two: I want this plan of yours to work flawlessly. And three: I want Bella and Renesmee dead. Bree, Diego, consider yourselves Riley's beta. Help him keep the army in line and handle this plan with the wolves. Anything goes wrong, and I'll make sure you're all dead before I go, and I'll really make it last."
I really didn't feel satisfied with this chapter, but it had to happen to move on. Bella's kinda taking on some traits from Renee, isn't she? Haha, hope everyone's lovin' reading it, 'cause I'm lovin' writing it.
