Siren Of The Twilight
Chapter 25
Ok, I'm back! I've got two weeks until my next exam, so I can finally do some serious updating. Although I think my right hand will be permanently damaged by writing six pages! In just an hour and a half.
Grrr bloody Exams Boards!
Ok put Supermassive Black Hole on, and turn it up loud. It's baseball time!
Sorry for any mistakes but I know nada about baseball, so just be nice.
Bella's POV
I stared around me as we pulled up, out of the forest tracks, into a large clearing. Overhead the sky was gun-metal grey, and I could hear distant crashes of thunder.
"Is it such a good idea to do this in the rain?" I asked, as Alice hopped out of the Jeep behind me.
"We need the thunder," she shrugged her shoulders, striding around to the back and began hauling out duffel bags of equipment out.
I frowned, mentally adrift.
Emmet drew up in his own Jeep, and as he got out he spotted my frown.
"Careful Bells, you'll get frown lines," he warned, as I growled at him.
"Ha, ha," I muttered, but I smiled at the friendly giant.
As I watched Alec and Demetri start pacing out bases, hundreds of metres apart, I watched the interaction between the two covens.
It was joking and respectful, clearly comfortable with each other. Well mostly.
I noticed a slight distance in the way Rosalie, Alice and Jasper treated the Volturi. I wondered why, if it was because of their diet.
"You don't speak much do you, Bella?" a voice suddenly asked in my ear, and I turned to find Demetri standing behind me, watching me intently with those crimson eyes. "But you watch, and you perceive more than you should."
"Errr…thanks, I think," I muttered, before swinging back to watch the vampires setting up. Overhead the thunder began to crash, but the rain still did not fall.
"What do you want to know, Bella?" my fellow watcher asked, a slight smile on his face as I turned to him again.
"How do you know I want to know anything?" I asked, watching him narrowly.
"The person who wishes not to know anything is a fool indeed," Demetri replied teasingly, while I glared at him, but I realised he was only teasing me.
"You know what I mean," I muttered, giving him a slight swipe with my hand. But not too hard, I didn't want to break my hand after all.
Demetri laughed. "When you're curious a little furrow appears in your forehead. Aro told me of it," he told me, as I stared at him open-mouthed. "He also said you like leaving your mouth open a lot when you're surprised."
"I do not," I muttered, snapping my mouth shut. After a minute, I relented. "Fine. Why do some of the Cullens not well, not dislike you but keep away from you and the other Volturi?"
Demetri smirked. "Because they're afraid of us. Aro has quite the reputation for collecting vampiric powers, and some of the Cullens are the most powerful vampires we've ever come across."
"You mean he would try to 'collect' them?" I asked, returning my eyes to the figures of Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Carlisle, now testing the weight of each baseball bat. I noticed they were all made of metal.
"No," Demetri muttered certainly. "Not the Cullens, he respects Carlisle too much."
"If you two have finished gassing, let's get playing," Emmet suddenly yelled over, interrupting our conversation. Demetri smirked at me, then pulled something out of his pocket and shoved it on my head.
"Bring it on, Cullen!" he called, flitting over to the group of vampires while I followed rather more slowly.
That's when I noticed everyone was dressed in baseball shirts and caps, either with a 'C' or a 'V'. Tracing the letter embossed on mine, I felt the outline of the 'V'.
The two teams took their places, with the Volturi fielding and the Cullens batting first. Wondering how the hell I was supposed to umpire uber-fast vampires, I nervously took my position behind Alec, who was on the catcher's position.
Felix and Demetri were in the outfield, while Alice was pitching.
Rosalie was first to bat, stepping up to the plate. In a move so graceful it was more like a dance, Alice threw the ball and Rosalie hit it, the crack sounding more like thunder.
Now I knew why they needed the thunder to play.
The ball sailed away, out of my sightline as Rosalie darted around the bases.
"That's gotta be a home run," I muttered, but Alec snorted.
"Demetri's very fast," he replied, as I glimpsed Rosalie's blonde hair flying towards us, at the same time Alec stood up. I heard the ball hit the skin of his palm, as Demetri reappeared in the clearing, and Rosalie slid into home plate.
Alec looked at me, and I gulped, seeing the animosity in Rosalie's eyes.
"You're out," I said, holding up my hand.
Glaring, Rosalie stood while Alec and Felix celebrated behind me.
"Whoo, she's out!" Felix yelled, pumping his fist into the air, while Alec grinned at me.
I was too preoccupied with Rosalie's glare as she stood, eying me like a deer she wanted to tear apart.
I didn't blink, holding the eye contact with her until she looked away, Carlisle stepping forward to clap her on the back.
"Nice Kittie," I heard him mutter before taking up position on the home plate, while Alec snorted.
"Meow," he said, miming a cat claw's swipe, while I glared at him good-naturedly.
"Are we gonna play ball, or we gonna play impressions all day?" I asked, nudging him with my foot, as Demetri and Felix laughed.
"Yes, ma'am," Alec grinned, as he turned back to Alice and Carlisle.
As the game progressed, I found myself relaxing more and more as we joked and laughed with the family. They rotated around, and I umpired for the Cullens as the Volturi batted. We were on the fourth inning when Alice suddenly gasped.
"Alice, what is it?" Jasper asked, rushing across to his mate concernedly.
"Nomads, coming this way. They were leaving then they heard us," she muttered, as everyone turned to look at me. They flitted over to me, and ranged themselves in front of me.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked as Demetri and Felix took up a place in front of me.
"Nomads. Human drinkers at that, and Master Aro will have our hides if anything happens to you," Demetri explained, as I saw three figures walk gracefully out of the mist.
They were beautiful, in a wild kind of way. The woman had long red hair, like living flames over her pale skin. Her ragged fur coat covered rough jeans and a green t-shirt.
The two men were polar opposites, with one possessing dark skin which still managed to appear bloodless, and long black dreadlocks. He was bare-chested and bare-footed, except for a long overcoat.
The other was pale, and compact like a runner, a leather jacket and jeans completing his wardrobe. He had long blonde hair restrained into a ponytail.
They all had red eyes.
"I believe this belongs to you," the black vampire held up our ball, throwing it to Carlisle who caught it effortlessly.
"Thank you," he replied, but I could feel the tensions in the air.
"Perhaps you could use a few more players? This is James, Victoria and I am Laurent," the black introduced himself, and the two others. I felt James's eyes on me, and I kept my eyes down.
"Sure, why not. Some of us were just leaving anyway," Carlisle murmured, with a glance at me and Felix.
Then the wind began to blow across the clearing, whipping my hair around my face.
James inhaled, closing his eyes, before a purely feral expression washed over his face.
"I see you brought a snack," he growled, stepping forward but the Volturi and the Cullens blocked them before the nomads could move a muscle. I stumbled backwards, disorientated and suddenly afraid.
Suddenly I felt eyes on me, and I shivered in the cold wind.
"A human?" Laurent gasped, his red eyes on me, as Demetri and Alec stepped forward.
"She is under the protection of the Volturi, so back off nomad," Demetri growled warningly.
"Why? How is she so important, or worth anything?" James snarled, nose to nose with Alec now.
"She does smell so good," Victoria snarled, rushing forward but Rosalie grabbed her by the neck.
"Run little nomad, and pray the Volturi spare your miserable lives," Felix growled, never taking his eyes off the nomads, as they slowly straightened from their fighting crouches.
That's when the world turned upside down.
I heard a panicked shout of "Bella!", and then something hard and heavy and rancid-smelling barrelled into me, knocking me to the ground.
Winded, I fought to breathe as stinking breath washed over me, and I opened my eyes to stare into crazed yellow ones, with slit pupils, and blazing with madness and hunger.
Werewolf.
I screamed, more out of pure instinct than anything, as it opened its jaws to reveal rows of yellowing, jagged teeth, sharp and deadly-looking. Venom dripped from its jaws and onto my skin, burning it.
Then he was off me before he could move more than a muscle, and cool arms were holding me desperately, as I fought to catch up.
"Bella, I've got you," Aro caught hold of me, lifting me into his arms, as I stared around.
Some of the Volturi and the Cullens had pursued the werewolf, as its chilling howl filled the air.
"It won't get far," Carlisle's voice suddenly said on one side of me, as I felt myself being carried towards one of the Jeeps. "I need to examine her, Aro."
"What happened?" I murmured, still winded and still ten minutes behind everyone else. I was vaguely aware I was shaking.
"The werewolf attacked you," Aro's melodic voice spoke in my ear. "You're alright, Bella. I've got you, you're safe amore mio."
"The nomads?" I asked, as they placed me in the car.
"Ran off when the werewolf jumped you," Carlisle told me, as he began examining me.
The werewolf jumped me? Was it suicidal?
"I don't understand why it did this now?" I suddenly heard Aro's voice ask, to be joined by another's.
"He's getting desperate, desperate for his revenge and for Bella. It wants her blood and her flesh," he told Aro, as I shivered. "He'll go after Charlie now, we have to move quickly to protect them both."
At that I sat upright, finally alert. "We have to save him, he'll be killed because of me!"
"I need to get you out of here first!" Aro replied tersely, buckling me into the Jeep before swinging into the driver's seat.
Before I could say another word, he had put his foot down on the accelerator, and we were speeding away into the forest, leaving Edward and Carlisle behind.
Meh, I personally think James wouldn't have touched Bella if she was under the protection of the Volturi. I mean come on, you'd have to be suicidal to go up against the Volturi.
Which the werewolf clearly is, as he's shown by trying to kill Bella in a clearing full of vamps.
Just remember werewolves are not stronger than vampires, but they are much, much faster.
More soon!