Disclaimer: I mean no copyright infringement by using Stephanie Meyer's creations. Like millions of others I enjoyed the books so much, I hated to see them end and so created an alternate universe in which they could live on and on and on and on...
The Blood Wars
Chapter 13
"Where is everybody?"
Bella opened the screen door and stuck her head out to find Edward sitting in Rose's rocking chair. She had finished the dishes while Carlisle and Esme talked with Rachel and Jake upstairs.
"Around, I guess. Alice is upstairs staying clear of the wolves as much as she can so she can see if Aro decides to send someone here. Jasper is with her plotting a strategy for defense, if the worst happens. Rose and Emmett are giving the baby a bath and getting him ready for bed..."
"You can hear them all?"
"Yes," he sighed a weary sigh. "Don't worry, I'll hear the thoughts of any stranger's mind if they get within a mile or so. And Alice will see them coming... she always does. Jake worries me though."
"Why?"
"He keeps fretting about the human survivors captured by the Volturi. He really wants to stage a rescue."
"Is that possible?"
"I don't know... Carlisle is in favor of it, but casualties are a very real possibility. It will mean war between two of the most powerful covens in existence."
"A war over blood."
Are you still mad at me?" He changed the subject abruptly.
"No, but then I haven't heard your bedtime story yet." She stood half in and half out of the door.
"About that... we really need to talk, Bella."
"What you doing out here? Hiding from kitchen duty?" She was becoming quite accomplished in the fine art of angst distraction.
" Waiting for you. Listening to the rain."
"A poor man's rain."
"What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure. My Gran used to tell me that a rain at night was a poor man's rain. Maybe because poor people often worked outdoors or on the farm during the daylight hours, and a night rain wouldn't hinder them." She shrugged as she stared off into distant memories.
" You sound a little lonesome. Come sit in my lap. You can drive me crazy for a while."
"I'd like that," she grinned.
The screen door slammed as Bella danced across the porch and curled up in his lap. She tucked her head into that fragrant place under his neck where she could feel the vibrations of his voice in his chest when he talked.
"This is a big rocking chair."
"Emmett bought it for Rose a while back. Actually, he bought two, but they broke one...don't ask how."
Bella giggled.
"On the front porch?"
"Well, the rest of us had gone to visit friends in Alaska, so... yeah on the front porch." Bending his head, he wrapped a kiss up in a smile and laid it gently on her cheek. Mischief made him bite her ear lobe when Bella giggled again at the image of Rose and Emmett breaking the other chair.
"You smell so...very...very good."
"So do you," she whispered shyly.
For a long time he gently rocked the two of them back and forth, back and forth as they listened to the gentle rain. Night was coming. Spirit light filtered through leftover clouds as the storm marched steadily onward to the west. They could hear the songs of night birds at the edge of the forest and the distant howls of the pack as they coordinated their positions on patrol.
Bella felt safe, and more at peace here in his arms than she had ever felt before in her whole life... despite the horrors that threatened all around them... despite the painful loss of her family. Here in this moment, she felt for the very first time that she was exactly where she belonged, where she had always belonged and would always belong. There was something timeless about the way their bodies fit together so comfortably, so effortlessly as if they had once upon a long time ago been one complete being instead of two...and she would have been content to stay right here in his arms for the rest of eternity just listening to the slow rain and enjoying the lazy, hypnotic cadence of the rocking chair.
"Are you asleep?"
His deep voice made his Adam's apple vibrate against her nose. She liked that deep, quintessentially masculine sound. A simple question, but for some reason it made her squirm restlessly in his lap. She smiled against his neck feeling how her little movements had affected him.
"Kiss me," she murmured and lifted her mouth demanding to be pleasured.
Whispering across her face, his cool breath mesmerized her. Firm lips moved possessively over hers, and a sudden, powerful jolt of lust made her whole body clench and tighten with intense hunger. Edward pulled her more fully onto his lap, so that she faced him, her legs astride his powerful thighs, her knees resting on the soft cushions of the rocker, Slowly, he dragged the opened core of her aching sex over the long hard ridge between his thighs. The demanding feel of it made her shudder violently. With a deep, deep sigh, she melted against his chest.
He answered the shuddering of her body with a demand of his own...his feet braced themselves firmly on the floor as his arching hips lifted them both up from the cushioned seat one, twice, three times... and then again, causing the rocker to tilt dangerously backwards. His hands fumbled with the back of her shirt trying to find the warm smooth skin of her back.
Their kisses grew frantic as Bella slanted her open mouth over his... accepting the urgent penetration of his tongue as it swept around her lips and explored the warm, moist interior of her mouth. The chair continued to rock and jerk unevenly from the restless straining of their bodies.
How quickly they had moved from calm restraint to explosive desire...like 'fire and powder' as the Bard once described it. Bella saw herself standing on the edge of a dark awakening, a fiery cataclysm that beckoned her relentlessly forward to some great unknown, some fearful but desperately yearned for thing...almost like death. Just one more delicious thrust of his hips would take her there...maybe two...but they were on the porch, some slender thread of reason told her...
"Let's go upstairs," Bella tore her mouth from his and breathed hotly against his ear.
He may have heard her, but his answer was a low frustrated growl. He would not permit the removal of her lips from his.. even for a second... He grasped her hair roughly turning her mouth back to his so he could continue his thrusting forays deeper and deeper.
Suddenly, he stood with her in his arms. Her legs instinctively wrapped themselves tightly around his hips as Bella peppered his face with little nipping bites and moist kisses,
He looked around for some place to lay her down... his human side said, "Bed!" His predator instincts compelled him towards the forest. As he stood frozen momentarily by indecision, he heard Carlisle and Jake coming down the stairs in the house behind them, and in that moment, reason returned. Carlisle was thinking about coming out onto the porch.
Slowly, he let Bella's body slide down the front of his. Her moan and his groan as her warm core rubbed against his aching erection one last time was loud enough to draw the attention of his father.
"Edward?" Carlisle called hearing them.
"Bella!" Edward whispered shaking her to make her focus. She was so incoherent with lust, she was unable to form even the simplest thought. His lips were moving, she knew, but she had no idea what he was saying. He pulled her hands away from him abruptly.
He could see the sting of rejection in her eyes. Why did he keep hurting her this way. Couldn't she see he was no good for her?
She looked away from him.
He lifted her disappointed face for his inspection, a thumb and forefinger under her chin.
"Let's go for a walk." he murmured softly.
"A walk or a ride?" She was confused. Her words were still a bit slurred by the remnants of her dissipating desire .
"A little of both."
"Is it still raining?"
"Alice just assured me that the rain will stop in exactly two minutes. Get a jacket. The air is getting cool."
Amazed at his complete access to the thoughts of his sister and the others, she pulled her chin out of his grasp reluctantly...but not her thoughts, she gloated smugly... he couldn't hear what she was thinking, could he?
She hurried through the house, tossing a quick hello to Carlisle and Jake before mounting the stairs to grab a hoody out of the closet, she now shared with Edward. She liked the way her clothes looked along side of his. She took a minute to appreciate the sight.
She felt so alive. Her face was flushed. Hot blood supercharged by lust and adrenaline still raced through her veins. A pang of guilt made her heart clench, but she couldn't deny the way she felt when she was with Edward... powerful and weak at the same time...giddy with expectations and wild with reckless passion.
"Edward and I are going for a walk," she tossed at Carlisle and Jacob trying to sound casual and calm as she raced to the door where he waited.
As soon as she opened the screen door, he threw her onto his back and they went flying through the misty forest. Raindrops were still falling from the trees, and every once in a while a fat one would land on her head. They hadn't gone far when he stopped at a spot near a stream and set her on her feet She could still see the lights of the house dimly through the trees.
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked him hopefully.
"Aren't you afraid to be in the woods at night alone with a thirsty vampire?"
"Yeah, I'm really petrified. Now tell me why we're here."
I want to show you why it's dangerous to provoke a predator like me, the way you just did back there on the porch... and last night in my room... and yesterday in the meadow..."
"Here we go again. Well, it takes two to tango, Buster And yes, I've "provoked" you several times already, if you want to call it that, but here I am still living and breathing. I think you've been alone so many years, you've turned into the vampire version of a repressed old maid. And I thought I was abnormal because I never..."
He put his hand over her mouth to stop her angry words.
"Stay here. I'll be right back."
With a blur of motion he disappeared. A minute or two had passed when Bella was startled by the bleating cry of an animal coming towards her through the mist. The fog parted, and there stood Edward. He held a large doe that struggled and squirmed in his arms. Stopping only a few feet away, he looked at her for a long moment with something like sadness in his eyes and then he pulled the doe's head back and bent his head biting through its jugular. His eyes never left hers while he rapidly drained the deer. Breaking its neck, he dropped it at his feet, and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. He took a step or two closer to her. He meant to horrify her with his brutality, but despite his intentions, she was deeply moved by the beauty of his cat-like grace and the predatory efficiency of his hunting prowess.
"This is what I am," he told her. "A monster... a killer... Now do you see why you should fear me?"
Bella looked at him long and hard. She sighed deeply.
"Now, we have a problem, Edward."
He flinched from her words even though they were no more than he expected.
" Good. You understand now why I'm no good for you."
"What I understand is that we are going to have a hell of a time getting this venison back to the house." She turned and peered back the way they had come. You've ruined what I'd hoped was going to be a romantic stroll through the moonlight. I hope you're happy."
His blood-smeared mouth fell open.
She turned back to him, her eyes narrowed, her mouth tight with impatience.
" Look Edward, I decided at thirteen to become a vegetarian...but before that I ate venison every time I stayed with Charlie. Several times I helped him butcher deer he killed. I could gut and clean a salmon by the time I was eight. If you only knew how many times I've spent my Saturday nights up to my elbows in fish guts... you don't drink fish blood, do you? Because I really hate to clean fish... or horses...that might be a deal breaker. I really like horses."
" You aren't disgusted?" He blinked at her in confusion.
"Yes, I'm disgusted. I hate to butcher deer, but only because it's so messy, and just plain hard work. I come from a long line of hunters and fishermen who were proud to put meat on the table. I have some Quileute ancestors on my father's side. How do you think they lived? I don't have a problem with people who eat meat, even though I've made the choice to eat a vegetarian diet, myself. To each his own, I say. You're going to have to try a lot harder than this if you want to scare me off. I'm my father's daughter. He said you eat what you kill, so help me field dress this thing and get it back to the house. I don't guess you have a knife, do you? I'll make Jacob help. He's done this a hundred times."
"I don't eat meat, Bella. I drink blood."
"Yeah and what do you think that pink color is in a prime rib? Everybody who eats meat, drinks blood, Edward...maybe not as much as you do... maybe cooked blood... but they do drink blood."
"I need to tell you something else."
He said the words slowly... his eyes held hers. He stepped closer in case she panicked and fell while running away.
"Tell me."
" I ...I've drunk human blood before. When I was very young in this life. I went through a period of rebellion...it's no excuse... but I left Carlisle... went out on my own. I tracked down and killed serial murderers...not just one but many. I could hear their evil plans and when they struck, I was there to stop them."
Bella looked at her feet for a moment choosing her words carefully.
"So you killed to protect innocent people. I don't know the right or wrong of that. You'll have to figure that one out for yourself, but I know Charlie had to do the same thing several times. It was his job to protect the innocent and the weak, but he didn't do it just because it was his job. He did it because it was the right thing to do."
"God, Bella, I've just confessed to murder..."
"Did you kill them while they were planning to murder or prevent them while they were in the act."
"While they were in the act...once after... I didn't get there in time."
"Well, then I would have done that myself... if I could have... to save an innocent person from being killed."
"I don't know what to say."
"Say you're sorry. I thought you were bringing me out here for well, you know... not to skin a deer."
"I'll take you to the house and come back for the deer."
"No, you carry the deer. I'll walk. It's not that far."
As he slung the deer over his shoulders, Edward laughed.
"What's so funny?"
He shook his head still laughing.
"I spend half the time happy that I've found one human being whose mind I can't read, and the other half wishing I could read your unpredictable mind. One thing I'm sure of though..."
"What's that?"
"I'm sure if I could read your mind, I would be terrified."
They both laughed.
"Just call me Buffy," she quipped. "And keep a close guard on your heart."
Suddenly solemn, he looked down at her.
"It's too late for that."
He took her hand and they wended their way toward the lights of home. The ground fog was beginning to rise up into the darkening trees, their path made clear before them.
"Don't forget, you owe me a bedtime story, Mister," she told him, "and it better be a good one!"