Chapter 7

EPOV

As I drove to school, I felt her eyes on me, but decided not to react. I still hadn't figured out a way to disclose the most important part of my life to the girl I loved. I felt pathetic.

Turning off the engine, once we were parked in the school parking lot, I finally turned to face her. Bella had a little frown playing on her face as she looked at empty parking spot beside us.

"Where is the rest of your family? I thought Alice would be excited to come to school on Halloween Day."

If my stupid cousins from Denali weren't on their way, they would have been here, I thought silently before shrugging. "It's Halloween, you know? My mom has us all working around the house for the day."

"But you're here," she argued, just like I expected her to.

Hoping to divert her from this topic of conversation, I smiled her favorite smile. "That's because you're here, Bella."

As if on cue, she blushed, her white cheeks flushing with red and making my smile broaden. I couldn't help but place a kiss on her cheek before kissing her lips softly.

She moaned lightly against my lips and sighed. Separating our lips, I took her hand in mine and said, "Let's get to class, shall we?"

She nodded, still blushing a little.

Crisis averted … for now.

~o0o~

Sitting beside Bella in our first class for the day, I tried to look interested in what Mr. Banner had to say so that she wouldn't try to ask me about my siblings again.

However, within a few minutes, I got bored of Banner's droning on and on about photosynthesis. So, I let my mind wander to what my sister had shown me in the past few weeks.

Even though we always joked about Alice's hyperactive nature, she had been too restless the past few days to make the whole family feel on edge with her latest visions.

It started when Bella and I confessed our feelings for each other. At first, we thought it was because of my reluctance to tell her about our being vampires, but now, we were not so sure about it.

In these visions, Alice saw Bella and me arguing, and Bella looking at me with sad eyes. Recently, however, she had seen all of my family in the visions, including our extended family from Denali.

Her latest vision came this morning just before I was going to get out of the house for school. This time, I had seen it through her mind and the only conclusion I could come at from that was we were going to be thrown into complete and utter chaos once Tanya, Irina, and Kate arrived.

But how?

I was brought out of my thoughts when I felt someone touch my hand. I looked up to meet Bella's worried eyes. "Are you ok?" she whispered.

I nodded—again lying to her out of necessity.

She opened her mouth to say something when we heard Mr. Banner say, "I have a small slideshow to share with you today. Mr. Yorkie, if you would turn off the lights, please."

Immediately, Eric Yorkie switched off the lights, dousing us in the darkness.

I felt Bella shift and move closer to me in the dark. "Hey," she whispered in my ear, letting her sweet smell wash over me.

I smiled at her. "Hey."

She smiled back at me and interlaced our fingers. "You're really not gonna come to the party at LaPush?" I opened my mouth to give her the same response I had last time when she continued. "I know Esme needs help around the house, but it's our first Halloween, Edward. Can't you come for a little while?"

Sighing, I shook my head. "You know that I would have loved nothing more than to spend the time with you, love. But I can't. I'm sorry."

"Without you, I'll be alone, you know?" she tried again.

"That's what worries me, love. I won't be there to protect you," I grumbled under my breath.

She scrunched up her eyebrows and asked, "What was that?"

"Nothing. I just said you won't not be alone, Bella. You'll have your friends with you," I said in a neutral voice.

She sighed and nodded. "Yeah, big whoop!" I heard her mutter.

Inside, I wanted to beg her not to go because I was uncomfortable with having my mate so close to our enemy turf in LaPush. Although Alice hadn't seen anything about the kids there turning into werewolves yet, but I didn't want to take a chance—not where Bella was involved.

But I couldn't ask that of her because that would mean I will have to disclose our secret to her and I wasn't ready yet.

So on the outside, I put on a calm, serene expression and faced the front of the class as if I was not at all worried about this party.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, I stood up and took Bella's hand in mine. Brushing a kiss against her knuckles, I whispered, "I love you, Bella."

Her eyes softened and she whispered back, "I love you, too. See you at lunch?"

"Yeah."

Without letting her question me again, I dropped her off to her next class and then headed toward my Spanish class.

~o0o~

Half an hour before the lunch hour, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out and saw that there was a new text message from Carlisle.

Frowning about why he would text me at school, I opened it. The message said:

Son,

You need to come home immediately.

~Carlisle

I almost shot out of my seat, and after excusing myself, left the class.

When I was in the parking lot, I decided to send a text message to Bella to let her know that I wouldn't be there for lunch.

In my worry to be discrete about our situation, I chose to send a simple text to her.

Had to leave … family emergency. ~Edward

I felt disgusted with myself for constantly lying to her, but I just couldn't figure out how to tell her about us.

Pushing all the guilt from my mind for the moment, I started driving toward home.

~o0o~

As I made the turn toward our house, I started to hear the voices of my family. The first thought that I heard was Esme's. "Oh, they look so innocent. I would have loved to call them mine,"she was thinking longingly.

I felt my eyebrows pull she talking about us? I wondered, but quickly discarded that thought because she already was our mother for all intents and purposes. So she wouldn't be wishing to call us her kids now, would she?

When I heard Alice's voice, I realized that Esme was not talking about us because Alice sounded excited as she thought, "Now I'll be able to play dress up with my very own personal dolls! Squee!"

The sound of her squeal made me quickly tune her out and look for some other source of explanation.

The next voice I heard belonged to Rosalie. They are like the most adorable things I have ever seen. "If only I had a child! I bet he would have loved to play with them."

All these thoughts made my eyes widen as I tried to think what could have brought on such powerful longing in the women of my family and I came up empty.

I was about to exit my car when Emmett's thoughts hit me. "How can something so tiny be so awesome? Man! I like how cuddly they look!"

Hearing my brother—who enjoyed wrestling grizzly bears for entertainment—speak about cuddling made my jaw could possibly have this effect on all of them? I asked myself as I rushed into the house to investigate the situation myself.

I had taken a few steps inside the house when I stopped short. I could hear the thoughts of Tanya, Kate and Irina mingled with those of my family's, but not of the other Denalis. However, their absence didn't surprise me. No, what surprised me was the cage sitting on the coffee table in our living room—a cage filled with six little furry creatures.

My footsteps must have alerted every one of my presence because I found each set of eyes staring at me.

"Finally, someone feels just like I am feeling right now!" I heard Jasper say in his mind.

He must have sensed my confusion because he replied to my unspoken question. "Tanya and Irina decided to bring some of their pets with them. As you can already see I am being bombarded with love for these from the ladies … and Emmett."

I decided to voice the most important question first. "What exactly are these?"

Alice, ever the ball of energy, grinned at me from where she sat beside Jasper. "They are Gremlins, Edward! Aren't they the cutest, fluffiest things you have ever seen?"

Jasper grimaced from beside her and asked me silently, "See what I'm going through? It's even harder to keep her calm now!"

I gave him a shrug and asked the room in general, "So, what was the big emergency?"

Why did I have to lie to Bella and leave her alone? I added in my head.

Carlisle stood up cautiously from where he was sitting beside Esme and said, "It was because of the Gremlins, Edward. We need to be able to restrain them tonight and we need all the help we can get."

I looked at the caged creatures and stated with confusion, "Carlisle, they are in a cage. They're already restrained."

"That cage wouldn't be able to hold them when the clock strikes seven tonight, son," he said grimly.

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

Taking a deep breath, Carlisle said, "Gremlins are usually very adorable creatures. But on Halloween, their magic gets released. So they turn quite vicious and wreak havoc any and everywhere."

"What? When will this happen? And for how long?"

"As far as we know, the magic works from seven in the evening until midnight. So during that time we need all the help we can get to keep the Gremlins from causing harm to any human."

"What kind of havoc are you talking about, Carlisle?" I asked, wondering how much damage creatures so small could actually inflict.

"Do you remember the time we passed through Australia? Remember the town that was almost destroyed?"

Carlisle's words took me back in time and I remembered passing through a town like that almost about a hundred years ago … on a Halloween night. A shudder passed through me as I tried to shove the horrifying images from my mind.

"That was Gremlins?" I whispered with wide eyes.

Carlisle's nodded grimly. "Yes. So now you know why we needed you here."

"Why is he so desperate to be away? What is so special about this girl?" As soon as I heard the thoughts, I turned to face the owner of the voice—Tanya.

Casting an accusatory glance at Tanya, Kate, and Irina, I snapped. "You are incapable of understanding that, Tanya. How could you two have brought them here? Are you guys out of your minds?"

Tanya and Kate sat back, looking guilty, but Irina responded to me. "We couldn't just leave them there, Cousin. Look how adorable they are!"

Trying to rein in my anger, I said quietly, "Looks can be deceiving, cousin. You should have figured that out in all these years."

Then I turned back to Carlisle and said in a frustrated voice, "Fine, Carlisle, I'll be home this evening. But now, I need to go back to school. Bella didn't drive to school today and I would hate to leave her without a ride."

From behind me, I heard Emmett snort as soon as the word 'ride' came out of my mouth. Usually, I would let such small obscenities from him slide, but not today.

Glancing at him and the furry creatures inside the cage, I said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "Be careful when you cuddle with them, Em. You might squish them to death."

"Dude!" I heard him protest in my head, and smiling, I left.

~o0o~

The final bell rang and students started pouring out of the classrooms. I heard her laughter before I could see her among the throngs of students. She was laughing with her friend, Angela, as she walked out of the classroom. Of course, laughing meant she didn't notice the doorjamb next to her.

She tripped, but before she could fall down, I was there to catch her in my arms. She looked surprise to see herself standing and turned to face me.

Unlike the other times I had saved her from hurting herself, she didn't smile at me. Instead, she softly bade her friend goodbye with a promise to meet her at the dance and then started walking toward the door.

Guessing that she must want me to follow her, I did.

She didn't speak until we were in my car. "When did you get back?"

"A few minutes before the bell rang," I replied, trying to be as honest with her as possible.

"Did you take care of the emergency?"

I realized that this was my chance to tell her about the dance. So, taking a deep breath, I said, "Not really. Bella, I'm not gonna be able to come to the dance."

"And why is that?" Her tone suggested that she was upset.

Cursing myself, I gave her the response I had been giving her the whole time. "My mom needs me at home today and …"

"And?" she asked, arching an eyebrow, silently challenging me.

"And I cannot tell her no, Bella," I murmured.

The rest of the drive was silent and uncomfortable, we didn't talk, hell, we didn't even look at each other.

When I stopped the car in front of her father's house, she opened the door before I could get there and got out of the car.

"Bella …" I started, but she shut me up with a small smile on her face. "It's fine, Edward. Go help your mom. Family comes first."

Even though she was smiling, I could see that she was hurt, and I cursed myself for putting the hurt on her face.

Instead of saying anything, I cupped her face in my hands and brushed a light kiss on her forehead, silently begging her for forgiveness.

And then I drove back home, wondering how the night was going to go.