Chapter 25
Bella POV
"It's just a little bit further." I said, as we walked through the forest. Dumbledore and Kingsley were the two to come with me. We walked in silence for a few minutes before getting to the lake. Kingsley and Dumbledore stopped and looked at the lake Kingsley raised his eyebrow at me. I pulled out a piece of red silk ribbon and set it near the water. "No we wait." I said, and they nodded Kingsley sitting down. We waited for a few minutes when the Elders and the beautiful blonde woman came out of the water. We stood up as they stepped on to the snow.
" 'Ello," I said, "Zank you for meeting wiz us." I said, and the woman translated to the women. Dumbledore stepped up next to me to speak.
"Ladies, I am very thankful you were willing to meet with me." Dumbledore said, and the woman translated and the women smiled.
"My pogasheniya dolga Dambldor vot i vse." one of the women said.
"They said that they are just repaying a debt." She said, and Dumbledore looked at me.
"A few of zem were in Nurmengard." I said, and he nodded.
"We are not asking you to help us, we would mainly want to know that if we did need you that you would help us." Dumbledore said, and the woman translated. The Elders spoke to each other and Kingsley and I looked at each other. After what felt like hours we waited for them to stop speaking. They turned to us and started to speak.
"My gotovy pomochʹ, yesli eto nyeobkhodimo. Khotya my nadyeemsya, chto nasha pomoshchʹ ne ponadobit·sya" one of them said.
"They said they will give their help if needed. We do hope that it will not be needed." The woman said, and the Elders went back into the water and the woman came up to me and handed me a piece of paper with an address. "Keep me informed of what is happening." She said, before turning and going into the water.
"Can we go?" Kingsley asked, and I realized how cold it was.
"Yes, let's go." I said, and we turned to walk away from the lake.
A Few Days Later
"You're being ridiculous Bella." Edward said, as I again brought up the idea of me being changed.
"Sorry, but I don't think I'm being ridiculous." I said, and Edward rolled his eyes. "You're being unreasonable." I said, getting up off the bed we had been laying on. We had all come down to France for the veela meeting and were staying in Catherine's mother's house in Nice. "I don't zink you are being fair. You aren't even listening to me and you're not even zinking realistically." I said, getting mad.
"Yes, I am. You should have a life. You should be able to go and have a career and a family and kids." He said, and I rolled my eyes at the kids comment.
"I 'ave never 'ad any desire to 'ave kids." I said, and Edward rolled his eyes.
"Bella you don't know if you might want children in the future." He said, and I shook my head.
"I don't zink I'll want children. If I wanted a sibling it was always an older sibling." I said, and he started to grind his teeth.
"You'd never be able to see your family again." He said, and I raised my eyebrows.
"I don't really see Charlie anyway and I don't see my mom except for holidays and I can make up excuses for zat." I said, and he still shook his head.
"What about Fleur or Catherine?" he said, and I took a deep breath.
"I will be able to see zem after I get control and I'll still 'ave Kristina to keep me company." I said, and he frowned.
"That's not funny Bella." He said, and I got up from the bed and headed to the door. "Where are you going?" he asked, getting up.
"Going to get everyone for a meeting." I said, and he stepped in front of the door. "You can come too. It's probably a good idea for you to come. You'll want to give your opinion." I said, heading out of the room and down stairs. I walked into the living room where Catherine was sitting looking at a book. She looked up when we came down.
" 'Ello Bella," she said, and I smiled.
" 'Ello Catherine," I said, and looked around the room as Catherine went back to her book. I walked into the kitchen where all the Cullens were standing looking at us. "So you 'eard me?" I said, and Emmett and Alice nodded. "So do you already know what we are arguing about?" I said, and they nodded.
"You're being ridiculous Bella." Edward said, sounding annoyed.
"And you refuse to live if I die. So even if I stay 'uman I will die and you would follow and no one wants you to go." I said, and the others looked at each other worriedly.
"Edward, I've already said that it's going to happen. You are the only one who is against it." Alice said, and Edward started to grind his teeth again.
"Well, I zink ze only fair way to deal wiz zis is for everyone to vote-"
"No." Edward interrupted, and I rolled my eyes, "You aren't realizing how serious this is Bella. You may think you'll be fine with it but you might not later on." He said, and I looked into his eyes.
"I want to be wiz you forever and I don't want you to die because I died eighty years from now." I said, my voice going soft.
"Edward none of us want either of you to die anytime soon. And if Bella is changed it wouldn't be till after she graduates." Alice said, and I nodded. "For one it would be weird if the two girls who transferred just pulled out to go back to their old school. So Bella has to stay of it'll make Hogwarts look bad and that is dangerous during a war." She said, and Edward rolled his eyes at her.
"So, Edward do you want me to be a part of your family?" I said, and he growled a bit.
"Not that way you're staying human." He said, and I turned to Alice.
"Alice?" I asked, and she smiled.
"I already consider you my sister." She said, coming up and hugging me, "Yes." She said, and I nodded.
"I vote yes," Jasper said, and I looked at him "It'd be nice to not want to kill you all the time." He said, and I nodded my head a bit.
"I'm sorry, but this isn't a life I would've chosen for myself and I wish there had been someone there to vote no for me. So I vote no." Rosalie said, and I nodded as Emmett spoke.
"I vote hell yeah. She's going to make a fun newborn!" he said, coming and picking me up as he hugged me.
"I already consider you a part of the family. Yes." Esme said, smiling and I looked at Carlisle whose vote meant the most.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Edward asked, from next to me.
"You've chosen not to live without her, which leaves me no choice." He said, calmly. "I won't lose my son." And Edward walked out of the room and out of the house.
"Zank you all for wanting to 'ave me in your family," I said, looking to where Edward left.
"Go and talk to him Bella." Alice said, and I nodded heading out of the kitchen and I notice Catherine had left the living room. I stepped outside and noticed the slight chill and saw Edward near the water. I walked over to where he was sitting and sat next to him.
"I'll be fine," I said, "I know what I want." I said, grabbing his hand and kissing it.
"If you could have anything in the world what would it be?" he asked, suddenly and I smiled.
"You," I said, and he grinned a bit.
"Something you don't already have." He said, rolling his eyes.
"I would want you to change me." I said, and he frowned a bit.
"What would you give for that?" he asked, and I answered immediately.
"Anyzing," I said, and he grinned.
"Two years?" He said, and I laughed.
"No, if you are staying in your teens forever zan so am I." I said, and he groaned.
"One year?"
"I'll give you six months." I said, and he laid back in the sand.
"Is it worth anyzing to you at all?" he asked, and I looked back to the ocean. "Fine, then a condition." He said, and I looked back at him.
"Condition?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.
"Marry me first?" he said, and I felt my eyes widen.
"What?" I asked, my voice getting a little bit higher.
"Marry me." He said, calmly.
"What's ze punch line?" I asked, and he frowned
"I propose and you think it's a joke. Great." He said, and I took a deep breath.
"You're being serious?" I asked, and he nodded. "You do realize zat I'm eighteen?" I said, and he grinned.
"Yes, and most people get married at eighteen." He said, and I took another deep breath.
"Yes, some do because zey are pregnant. 'Onestly what would people zink?" I asked, still freaking out a bit.
"That we are in love and want to be bonded together forever?" he said, and I smiled at how nice that sounded.
"Two out of three marriages end in divorce." I said, and he raised his eyebrow.
"I'm pretty sure the human vampire divorce rate is a lot lower than that. If you can't marry me are you really ready to take immortality?" he said, and I rolled my eyes.
"You know marriage isn't high on my priorities list. It was sort of ze kiss of death for Renee and Charlie." I said, and he laughed.
"Interesting choice of words." He said, and I groaned falling back into the sand.
"This would probably go better if I had gotten a ring." He said, and my eyes widened.
"NO! No rings!" I said, sitting up.
"Rings?" I heard Catherine ask, from behind me and I turned to see her.
"Catherine," I said, and her eyebrows were raised. "Um… What did you need?" I asked, my voice a little high.
"I was about to call Kristina and I zought zat you would want to talk to 'er." She said, and I nodded.
"I'll talk to you later." I said, to Edward kissing him on the cheek before following Catherine into the house and up to her room.
"Ze rest of ze Cullens left to 'unt." She said, dialing the phone as Fleur came in sitting on the bed. I noticed an old photo album on the night stand and went to pick it up while she got the call set up. " 'Ello Kristina, 'old on a minute let me put zis on speaker phone." Catherine said, and I sat on the bed. "Ok, you are on speaker phone wiz Fleur, Bella, and Me." She said, holding the phone out.
" 'Ello ladies," she said, her voice sounding more bell-like.
" 'Ello Kristina, we 'ave missed you." Fleur said, and I smiled.
"Yes, 'ow is Alaska?" I asked.
"It is nice. It's so pretty. I miss you all too." She said.
"So, I 'eard zat you and Laurent don't get along well." I said, teasingly.
" 'E is always cheating," she said, " 'E also isn't 'ere anymore. 'E ran off and might come back. I don't really know." She said, and Catherine raised her eyebrow.
"Kristina, you didn't scare 'im off did you?" she asked, a little worried.
"No, 'e left on 'is own. It was not my fault." She said, defensively.
"Don't worry about it." Fleur said, and I nodded.
"Zank you for sending me my stuff." She said.
"No problem. We miss you zough." Catherine said, and I spoke before thinking.
"Edward asked me to marry 'im." I said, and the room got silent. Fleur's eyes were wide as she stared at me and Catherine just had a look of shock on her face.
"What did you say?" Kristina asked, and Fleur nodded.
"I asked if it was a joke, told 'im ze divorce rate, and explained Renee and Charlie." I said, and Fleur smacked her head and Catherine shook her head and I heard Kristina sigh.
"So you said no? Bella," Kristina said, and Fleur shook her head.
"Oh, zat poor boy," Fleur said, and I raised my eyebrow. "Bella you practically rejected 'im." She said, and I froze.
"I 'ate to say it but she's right. It takes a lot of guts to propose to a girl." Kristina said, and I winced.
"What could I say? You know 'ow I feel about marriage." I said, and Catherine nodded.
"Zat is true. But Bella do you love 'im?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Do you love 'im enough to be with 'im forever? And I mean like immortal forever?" Kristina asked.
"Yes, of course." I said.
"Then why can't you marry 'im? It's just as big as a commitment." She said, and I couldn't think of a reason.
"I don't know. I'm worried what people will zink. What my mozzer would zink." I said, and Fleur laughed.
"Yes, because she'd rather you become a vampire than get married." Kristina said, sarcastically.
"You zink you're kidding." I said, and Fleur and Catherine rolled their eyes.
"Personally if you can't marry 'im are you sure you can really be with forever?" Kristina said, "I 'ave to go Kate is ready to go 'unting." She said, and we all said goodbye and hung up the phone.
"So, what are you going to tell Edward?" Fleur said, and I shrugged.
"Good luck?" Catherine said, questioningly and I laughed.
"Zanks Catherine." I said, laying back on the bed.
Ok so it took me a while to write this chapter. I am sort of just focusing on this story at the moment but I might not be updating for a while soon. I just got a job so I won't have as much time to write. Also for those who are probably wondering about what I said about Nice being a little cold and it being December. That is true the temperature around then is between 50 and 40 degrees. It took me a while to update because I don't feel like people are reading my story as much anymore because I haven't gotten as many reviews as I used to get so please review it makes me want to write more.