CHAPTER 21:

(Edward POV)

When Phil asked about Victoria and Laurent, I had to cringe inside. I knew that hearing the truth was going be eventful. I just hope that both Renee and Phil will still like me after what they hear.

Bella gave me a reassuring smile as she squeezed my hand as we settled back down in the living room after lunch. I felt Jasper send me some calming waves to help ease my anxiety, and I nodded my thanks to him so I could begin.

"Well, I will start with the ill-fated birthday party Alice insisted on having for Bella. While Bella was opening up presents she ended up getting a paper cut that bled a bit. That's when all hell broke loose. Jasper, being an empath and feeling the blood lust from the rest of us, started to try to attack Bella. I over reacted and shoved Bella back a bit too hard, and she ended up getting cut worse from the glass plates. At the smell of more blood, everyone but Carlisle and myself left the room. Carlisle sent me to talk with Jasper, and Carlisle took Bella into his study to stitch her arm up. I felt that us being around her was more hazardous to her health. I took Bella home, and went back home.

I convinced the family that leaving without them saying good-bye was in her best interest. I recalled the doctor's words from Phoenix about Bella's broken leg, that a clean break would heal faster and better. I stayed back to tell her we were leaving. She tried to convince me that she would tell Charlie something so she could move with us. Knowing that you, Phil, and Charlie would panic if she came with us, I got the wrong idea to tell her that I didn't love her or want her. I realized when we came back that it wasn't the best thing to do.

Anyway, I tried to track Victoria, but lost her trail in Texas, only to pick it up in Brazil. I made Alice promise not to look for Bella's future, but was so glad when she ignored my decision." I stopped to allow Jacob to pick up the story.

"I will pick up the story from here, until Alice or Bella pick it back up. As you know, Bella was in a catatonic state, and she ended up coming to see me on the reservation. She had brought two motorcycles that were in desperate need of repair to me, and we made it a daily thing to hang out and refurbished the motorcycles.

Then Bella started to get social with her friends from school. She called me after some guy named Mike asked her to go to the movies with him. Not wanting to go alone, she suggested that a group of friends go. Well, some chick named Jessica bailed on her, her friend Angela got the stomach flu so she couldn't go. Angela's boyfriend stayed back to help take care of her, so that left that Mike guy and myself to go with Bella.

That Mike guy was annoyed that I was still around, but we watched the movie anyway. The movie got to a gory part, and Mike got up to bolt to the bathroom to vomit. I made fun of him, and then tried to ask Bella out. She begged me not to ruin things. She explained that she couldn't let things go to the next step for fear that I would leave. Then Mike came out of the restroom, and said he needed to go home since he wasn't feeling well. I couldn't help myself from getting angry. I offered to put him in the hospital. Bella got me to back off, but noticed that my body was very warm. I left the theater in a hurry.

It was then that I found out that our tribal legends were true. I wasn't allowed to talk to or be friends with Bella after that. It was mostly for her safety. New wolves are unpredictable and easily angered, and I was put under a gag order to not tell our secret. Bella came to the reservation to confront me, and I had to tell her to go away. She was very hurt, but I had no choice but to follow orders.

Bella, ended up going out into the woods even after Charlie asked her not to. She ended up in some meadow, and found herself face to face with a dreadlock sporting leech. He was about to kill her when I along with the pack came into the meadow. We chased the leech, and finally we managed to tear him apart and burn the pieces.

Later that night I snuck over to talk to Bella. I hinted to her that she knew the real reason why I had been distant. I left her with a plea to try to remember the full story I told her at the beach. Apparently, she figured it out, because the next morning she came over to my house. Unfortunately, the alpha, Sam, and three others, Paul, Embry, and Jared, came over as well. Bella went to confront them, which resulted in Paul getting slapped and angry enough to phase into wolf form. The secret was out, and I phased in front of Bella to defend her. Sam ordered Jared and Embry to take Bella to his now wife, Emily's, house. After Paul and I stopped fighting, Sam led us back to Emily's. Bella handled the secret well, just as I told Sam she would, and we took another walk along the beach. She became concerned that hunting and killing vampires was not a possible task. I had informed her that we took out the leech with the dreads easy enough. She said his name was Laurent, and she showed she was relieved he was dead. I told her that his red headed girlfriend was next. She froze at the mention of her. She stuttered out the name Victoria, and I told her we chased her to the Canadian border, but she kept coming back and we didn't know why. She elaborated that she was the reason, and the story attached to it.

I was able to hang out with Bella once more for multiple purposes. One to help her stay out of the catatonic state, and the other to protect her from Victoria. One day we were hunting Victoria, and Bella was on the reservation. I told her that I would take her cliff diving one day, but she decided to go ahead and try it anyway without me. The water was too unsettled for cliff diving, but Bella didn't realize that. She went ahead and jumped off the cliff for the rush of it. Unfortunately, Victoria was also in the water, and spotted Bella. I had noticed Bella had not come up from waves crashing over her, so I dove in to save her. She wasn't breathing, so I did CPR, and got her breathing again.

I had to get her home since Charlie had to help out with his friend's family after his friend, Harry Clearwater, had died of a heart attack. When we got there, we talked a bit, and then I noticed I could smell a vampire close by. Bella noticed Carlisle's car, and made a dash for the house.

Alice made herself known, and I made sure that Bella was safe. Alice reassured me that she wasn't going to hurt her, and I was the one to inform her of the vampire who wanted Bella dead because of them was still around. The phone rang, Edward thought Bella was dead, so Bella and Alice jetted off to Italy to save Edward from the Volturi." Jacob said indicating that he had to let someone else should take over the story.

I said we should skip over what happened in Italy since it wasn't important to the hunt for Victoria, but did mention that Aro said that Bella had to be turned or die. Caius gave us notice that they do not give second chances.

Charlie cleared his throat to indicate he should tell Renee the truth about what happened to him since it does involve Victoria.

"Okay, Renee, as you can tell, I am no longer human. I had a case I was helping with in Settle. I was on my way back to Forks when I saw a woman with red hair on the side of the road. It appeared she was having car troubles, and being an officer, I had to stop to see if I could help. I don't quite know what happened, but I do remember that Victoria woman laughing about how she was going to enjoy her torture of Bella. I took exception to that, but before I knew what hit me, I felt the pain of being bitten, and the sounds of growling and then I passed out.

I woke up for a brief time and found myself here at the Cullen's house. Carlisle was talking to Sam Uley from the reservation. Carlisle explained what was happening to me, and told me he was giving me a shot of morphine to help with the pain. As I drifted into the darkness, I could hear everything. When Bella was mentioned, I panicked. I did feel the fire burning me, but I somehow managed to not scream and thrash around like how the others told you they did. When I woke up, Bella was close by from what the other's said, and began to tell me that I was now a vampire, and I would need to go hunt before I could attempt to see Bella.

After my hunt, Jasper sat by me while they allowed Bella to come see me. Much to everyone's surprise, I had no bloodlust towards Bella. After Bella stopped crying, she asked me what I remembered before I woke up. I described the red headed woman that had car troubles. When I gave a full description of her, all the Cullen's and Bella stiffened. Bella gritted her teeth and demanded the head of Victoria. I was brought up to speed on the story, and vowed that no matter what, I would keep that bitch away from our daughter." Charlie said as he ended his story.

Jasper decided to pick up the story from there. He mentioned the news reports from Seattle, and how it reminded him of his past. Then he began to tell the story. "When I realized how many people disappeared, the murders, and what not, I immediately knew we were dealing with a newborn army. I had asked Edward where all he tracked Victoria, and when he mentioned Texas, I stiffened. I muttered the name Maria, and Edward read my mind. Victoria had met with Maria and got the idea of a newborn army from her.

I filled Charlie in on what was going on, and that we would need to lure the army into a clearing away from town so no innocent person would get harmed. Alice decided to have a graduation party, and while Bella was visiting Jacob on the reservation, a vampire had entered Charlie's house and took things from Bella's room.

Anyway, we found out that Jacob had forced a kiss on Bella, but laughed as she told us she punched him. The downside to that was she sprained her wrist. Bella and Jacob were not on good terms for a while, but when the graduation party was in full swing, he along with two of his friends, Quil and Embry I believe, came to see Bella. Alice had a vision not long after Jacob showed up. We met outside on the balcony to talk about the army and their arrival. We quickly came up with a plan and asked Jacob if the other wolves would agree to join together for the soul purpose of destroying Victoria once and for all.

Sense I had dealt with newborns before, I agreed to train everyone for the battle. Edward was going to go into hiding with Bella in hopes of keeping Victoria from her. We had Jacob carry Bella to the campsite, but not before we had Bella use her scent to draw the newborns into the clearing we chose. She took it a bit further and pricked her finger to get some blood smear on some leaves. Her blood and scent is very irresistible to vampires, and it would insure that the newborns would be single minded in trying to get to her.

When the newborns came charging in, nobody noticed that Victoria had picked up Edward's scent, and knew that Bella would be with him. She found where they were, and had her 'pet' for the lack of a better term, tried to kill Bella. Seth, one of the younger wolves, and Edward had a plan, but when both Victoria and her 'pet' managed to put Edward in a deadly situation, Bella had a plan of her own. She had remembered a story told to her by the Quileute's about a third wife. She found a sharp rock, and cut her arm to allow her blood to distract Victoria. It worked, and Seth was able to kill the boy with Victoria, and Edward managed to kill Victoria. Unfortunately, we knew that with the inconspicuous activity going on, the Volturi would come to check things out. They arrived after the battle, and reminded us that the Volturi don't give second chances when they noticed Bella was still human. We informed them that a date had been set for her transformation. Little did we know that our world would be turned upside down with shock." Jasper finished.

"What did you mean by that?" Phil asked.

Oh, I was not looking forward to telling my mother-in-law about how quickly Bella's pregnancy was.