"I've been thinking," Demetri said, resting his head on his forearm and staring at the gray sky. I wasn't sure what time it was, except that it was some around near noon. How long had we been here? I wasn't entirely sure, but I knew it had been at least a day.
"About?" I rolled over to look at him.
"About getting a place, a permanent place, something like the Denali sisters. I have no desire to interact with humans more than I have to, so if we live near enough to a large city, there will be enough people that no one will really notice us, other than that we're attractive, but they won't remember anything more than that. Maybe have a human agent like the Cullens to to get our identities sorted out as needed."
"I'd like that." I ran my hand down his bare chest. "Where were you thinking?"
"Somewhere not far from here, Oregon or Washington maybe, so I'm not trapped indoors during the day." He glanced at me. "I've got money and can buy a large enough tract of land that no one would get close enough to us to realize that we're not human."
"Near enough to my mom that I can be there for her but far enough away that we can remain anonymous."
"So we can start looking for a place?"
"Yeah. Maybe Esme can design a house for us if we don't find place we like."
"Or maybe she can design a place for us anyway. I've got a lot of things still in Volterra that I've collected, and I'd like to have them with me."
"Like what?"
"Books, jewelry, furniture, things that caught my fancy over the centuries."
"What about clothes?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He grinned.
"Not that I mind your aversion to wearing anything beneath your jackets and flashy shirts, but that makes me think you've always been a touch flamboyant."
"I've got some things you might find amusing, but I get bored easily with most clothing, so I never keep anything for very long."
I moved to straddle him, pinning his hands above his head.
"What about me?" I teased, then whispered against his lips, "You're wearing me now."
"I think I can make an exception." He placed his hands on my hips and slid them up my torso to cup my breasts, lifting them up, weighing them in his palms. "Fashions do change, I'll admit, but a having a beautiful woman with eyes of fire on your arm is always in vogue."
"Beauty standards change."
He flipped us so that I landed on my back and said, "Well-shaped cheekbones, a full mouth, and eyes that can pierce your soul have been considered beautiful for as long as I've been alive, especially where I grew up." He kissed my cheek. "I may not remember much of my human life, but I do remember what I found attractive."
"I care about the Cullens, but there's only so much of them I can take before they become too much."
Demetri chuckled, "Vampires are an intense race, best taken in small doses, especially the younger ones. They are less in control of their emotions."
"At what point do they become more bearable?"
"After about the second century of this life, from my experience."
"It'll be a relief to have the house mostly back to normal," I said. "As much as the Cullens can get to me, the others just make it so much worse."
"Not to worry, darling, the only ones left in within a hundred mile radius are Felix and Amun's coven."
A wolf howled somewhere to the east, an almost panicked sound, and I sighed. There must have been some kind of trouble for him to sound like that. What happened now? Didn't we get passed all the emergencies for a while?
"We need to get dressed, don't we?" Demetri rose onto his knees, pulling me up with him.
"I wonder what's going on." I grabbed my clothes and tied them to my leg in preparation for travel.
"It's a shame." He tugged on my hand, dragging me to him.
"What is?" I pressed a quick kiss to his lips before raking my fingers through my hair to remove the leaves that had accumulated there.
The wolf howled again, a little closer this time.
"That." He tilted his head towards the sound.
I phased and found the pack mind in turmoil.
I thought she would never do this!
Isn't she supposed to have super control?!
She was around Charlie just after she woke up, no problem. Why would she slip now?
What happened? I asked.
Bella. She killed her mom and Phil. Jake replied. The confusion over what he should do bleeding through his thoughts. They showed up unannounced and Renee got hurt. Bella was there alone and she lost control. I showed up just after Phil died.
The image in his head showed Bella on her knees, mouth smeared with blood, screaming in agony.
Oh, my god. I wasn't the newborn's biggest fan, but I knew from Jake that Bella was particularly close to her mother and felt responsible for her when she lived in Phoenix, making their relationship an almost inverted mother/daughter bond. Now, to have to live with what she'd done, that had to be devastating for her.
I don't know what to do. She killed someone, but she's Ness's mother. If I do anything against Bella, Ness suffers.
The original treaty wasn't meant to cover imprints. I said. Make it clear that you'll accept this as a one off accident, but if she makes it a habit, we're going to have to send her away from this area and never allow her back. If she does return, you'll be forced to kill her.
I'll speak to Sam. We have to come to a full consensus about this.
Leave my name out of it. I cautioned. Sam won't listen so well if
"Shall we?" Demetri asked.
I nodded once.
"Is it bad?"
I raised my shoulders than dropped them before nodded.
"Complicated then, is it? Let's not keep them waiting."
We ran towards the house, this time shadowed by a tension of a different kind.
When we stepped onto the porch, we found Bella rocking back and forth, dry sobbing, with Esme rubbing her shoulders.
Inhaling, I walked over to her and sat down.
"I killed my father, you know," I said. "Maybe not directly, but my phasing triggered his heart attack. He would have had a few more years at least, if it wasn't for me. I know it's not the same, but I do know what it's like to have the blood of someone you loved on your hands."
"How do you deal with it?" Bella whispered.
"By taking one step at a time, one day at a time. It's all you can do"
"Vampires don't heal from loss, not like a human. Once they lose someone, they don't move passed it." She looked at me, her eyes red with the blood of someone she loved.
"Don't. Don't do what I did. Don't internalize it. You'll only destroy yourself and everyone you have left. For the last year I blamed myself entirely and I became someone no one wanted to be around if they didn't have to be. But then Demetri helped me."
"Demetri." Bella scoffed softly and shook her head.
"No, listen. You're a vampire, a new vampire. You have to accept that it was an accident. With what you've been through with the Volturi, you were too stressed and then your mom caught you off guard. You did nothing wrong. You were home, a place you should be safe and they came here, unexpected. You had no time to prepare yourself, unlike the other times you were around humans and when presented with that situation, you lost control."
"What about Jake?"
"The Black pack came to a decision, but Sam still has to be informed. I'll let Jake tell you how that goes down. Don't worry, no one's coming to kill you."
Bella nodded once. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For understanding."
"I just don't want to see someone else make the same mistakes I did." Looking around, I asked, "Where're Rosalie and Alice?"
"They're the experts in cleaning up messes like this. I believe they're staging a car accident of some kind off the bridge." Esme replied. "They should be back shortly."
Bella dropped her head back onto Esme's shoulder. "I never thought I'd be the one they had to clean up after."
"And maybe that's the problem," Demetri said softly.
"What do you mean?" Bella glanced over at him.
"The reason why Carlisle has never killed anyone is because he knows that any day could be the day he slips up. It's when you allow yourself to think you're above such mistakes that you allow your control to slip and then you become vulnerable."
I didn't want to talk about this anymore. The wolf clawed at the door of my mind, wanting to attack. She'd killed a human, the proof of it in her scarlet gaze, and my very existence was tied to their protection. I stood up and turned towards the house, tilting my head as I listened.
"Emmett has the children in Haylla's room," Esme explained. "We didn't want the children exposed to this so much, so Emmett volunteered to get them somewhere they wouldn't see anything."
"Did they see anything?"
"Renesmee and Haylla were in the living room. I think they may have seen something, but enough to understand what was going on."
"Is he reading them a story?"
"Telling them one, more like it, a very tall one."
I didn't fight the quick chuckle as I walked inside, Demetri on my heels.
We walked silently up the stairs, towards Haylla's room.
The bedroom door was open and we peered inside to find Emmett sitting on the floor with the girls in front of him, eyes wide. He cradled Leland in his arms and the little boy was staring at him, enraptured by whatever Emmett was saying.
"Then what happened?" Haylla asked.
Emmett looked up at us and grinned. "Your mom and dad showed up, taking you away."
"Mama!" Haylla cried.
"I'm gonna take a quick shower, but I'll be right back. I just wanted to check on you before I did." I really didn't want her getting close enough to smell the scent of sex on me and start asking questions. "Maybe Emmett would like to finish his story in the meantime. I know Leland looks a little irritated that we've interrupted the story."
"Okay." She focused her attention back onto Emmett.
Turning on the water, I stepped under the spray and tilted my head back.
The bathroom door opened and then cold arms wrapped around my waist. I sighed and leaned my head back against his chest.
"Mind if I join you?" Demetri murmured against my hair, his hands sliding down my stomach.
"We're not having sex with Haylla still awake," I whispered as I turned around to face him.
"Spoil sport." He pouted and kissed me before grinning mischievously at me.
"If you can't behave, I'm gonna kick you out." I slapped him lightly.
"What will she say if she finds me on the floor, completely naked?"
"I have no idea, but I'm sure you'd figure out something." I grabbed the soap and squeezed some out onto the sponge.
Demetri leaned close to me, pressing his lips to my ear, and whispered, "Now, Isabella has no reason to look down her nose at me for my former lifestyle. She's tasted human blood as a vampire, just like almost every single other vampire in existence."
"Be nice. She's just lost her mother."
"Arrogance was her downfall. Now, she's no better than the rest of us."
"Just don't talk like that where she can hear you. It doesn't help anything."
"Allow me to gloat for a moment. I'll be respectful and polite later."
A commotion down stairs caught my attention and I listened for a moment.
"Alice and Rosalie just got back," Demetri said.
"Which means Charlie will be coming by soon. And since most of Bella's school friends went to Washington State, we'll have to expect them to show up over the next several days too."
"It will soon be time to play pretend for the humans."