Karma's A Witch

'I'd only seen Edward's fangs twice.'

Chapter Twenty-Seven

7:22 pm, Saturday

November 1st

I stayed in my room avoiding running into or passing by Rose. Edward said she was still furious, her mind rushing a mile a minute with hateful things, he had noted her mind was usually angry anyways... but it didn't help. She would never forgive me and it was a simple, silly, unfortunate misunderstanding! No wonder her and Emmett had so many troubles. I hadn't said no but to her I had. When she calmed down, which may take a while, I'll tell her. I would help her.

Alice came through the bathroom door, smiling. We'd gotten over our tiny fight in seconds. Why couldn't Rose be like that? Alice and I didn't even have to apologize to one another, we understood it was a moment of frustration on both our parts. She'd been left out of her family being a part of Twilight, she'd been misled about the basement lab and Alice knew I didn't want to go to the Halloween dance with her.

Sometimes people did things they didn't mean because they were upset.

"Jasper, Edward, and Emmett are going to collect another Werewolf tonight," Alice said, making herself at home on my bed like normal. I found my bookmark and put the book I had been reading down next to my picture frame Seth had made me. I hadn't repeated or told Rose's story, just as Emmett hadn't told it to me when we were talking. It was too personal and too fresh. I still had moments where I blanked out, thinking about what Rose had gone through.

Although Alice did notice the bruise on my check, she's the only one I've faced since yesterday... Besides My Vampire. She knew right away that Rose and I had gotten into a fight. I didn't correct her or add to the story she weaved. Having been sick worked in my favor. I had the best excuse to stay in bed all day.

"I told Carlisle to send them and their superior noses out East and they'll pick up a trail of a girl recently bitten. They'll be gone most of the night but Jasper will have enough time to make it back to his hidey-hole." I laughed, but Alice glared so I tried to stop. She called the tomb a hidey-hole though. That is laugh worthy. "I'm glad I can help. Dad will regret not including me earlier, I will be so helpful with the experimentation and finding willing subjects."

I didn't blame Alice for wanted to prove her parents wrong for not including her. Being extra helpful isn't a punishment but that was about as cruel as Alice got. Still, I worried about Edward. He'd hunted Werewolves for the past couple of years but I didn't like thinking about him going after one, even if it was to cure them of the disease they contracted.

Jasper and Alice were getting to know one another. Every night since they met they've spent some time together. Alice was just glad to finally get to see him in real life and Jasper seemed to like that she filled every silent moment with chatter. The fact that Alice didn't want Jasper to kiss her on her birthday hadn't come up again. It had hit too close to home for me. Edward and I would always be together because we had to be. We've been getting closer, but how long will that last?

"So you aren't going to tell me what happened between you and the wicked witch?" Alice asked, poking at my thigh beside her. I wouldn't ever repeat Rose's story. So I smiled at Alice, shrugged and changed the subject since that worked best with getting Alice off your case.

"How are you and Jasper getting along? I saw you go for a walk after the dance." Alice groaned, rolled over to look at the ceiling and put both her arms over her head. Her elbows crisscrossed and pointed over her cheeks hiding her face from me. I smiled, Alice did have the habit of acting over dramatic.

"Edward told him all about the dance." She said, her voice muffled under her arms. "I had to explain the boys I danced with were friends. I mean it was nice that he was jealous, that he sees me like that... but I didn't want to have to defend myself like that!" She continued on about the dance. I stopped listening after a moment, did Edward see me in that way? Like... a potential partner? One he didn't want others to be interested in the same way he was interested in me?

I grew slick from just the thought.

"Are you even listening, Bella? You did ask, remember?" Alice huffed, whacking me with one of her hands. "Jasper won't touch me. He says he isn't as disciplined as Edward... It's so infuriating." I stare at her, my eyebrows raising. I didn't know that Jasper refused to get close to Alice, Edward cuddled with me when I was sick, held my hand sometimes and even kissed my forehead... picked me up.

"Jasper and Edward have been drinking animal blood for the same amount of time though... is he having trouble? Have you tried at all?" I asked and Alice huffed her arms falling the rest of the way off her face so she can turn and look at me again. She didn't sit still well.

"He says Edward has always been more controlled and that he didn't want to risk me, that if he ever hurt me he'd ruin his one chance at being happy. Like Edward almost did." When did Edward almost ruin his chance with me?

"Well Edward is going to stop by to say bye, so I'm going to wait for Jasper to do the same... They will be gone for seven hours and leave at eight, so don't take too long." She climbed off the bed mumbling about me always being in my own world and left through the bathroom doors. Even for Alice was a bit of an abrupt end to our conversation.

'Shifters are coming to guard the house while we're away. Carlisle is coming with us and we didn't feel comfortable leaving without some kind of protection here.' Edward told me, apparently having heard Alice and I talking. Or... Alice talking and me zoning out. I had imagined his hard member sparkling in the sunlight as I do dirty things to that part of his body. 'Bella.' Edward warns in my head, but my hormones have already started and there was no undo button.

'I can't help it sometimes. I am a teenager!' Any excuse I could use, I would. He didn't need to know that he was the star of all my fantasies or that the simplest gesture, look or tone of voice from him sent me into a whirlwind of sexual frustration. If this didn't stop I'd start playing one handed to get off before I had to see him. Maybe I could cool down some if I brought myself to orgasm. Ever since Edward gave me one with his teeth, I've been craving another. I wanted to beg 'Please Edward, may I have another?' But didn't think he would appreciate that. Edward can be serious. 'Anyways.' I think to him. 'Why do you need shifters to protect the house? I don't think the Volturi know where we live.'

That had been the first rule Esme gave me. Where we lived is a secret that we don't tell anyone, too many people can exploit that knowledge. Of course I didn't have anyone to tell my address too, so it was a moot point, but still a point! Edward stared at me for a long moment and not for the first time I wished I could read his mind, what was going on in that head of his that made him look so intense?

'Why do you think the Volturi are the only ones we need to worry about?' He said we! I flushed. His ominous message making my spike of hope fizzle out while I met his eyes trying to understand what else there was to worry about. I shrugged.

'I haven't heard of anyone or anything else that wants to hurt us.' Had Royce, with his evil powers, somehow found a way to create an army from the grave? Did he have a family? Did elf-hating crazies somehow know that Carlisle was trying to help the lore... Were there others out there that thought the Cullens were more than just a solitary coven of witches and they wanted to destroy us? What did Edward know that I didn't know?

Admittedly, he probably knew a lot more than me, but about this in particular...

We had a stare down, his burnt golden eyes and my brown ones locked in something like anticipation. Was he debating on telling me something? Was he following in Carlisle's footsteps, believing that having no knowledge of what is going on is better than including me? I wanted him to include me. To confide in me. We've gotten closer, I knew of his past and I've told him of mine... We've learned of one another but we didn't know one another. I couldn't guess his plan or his next move, I didn't understand his motivations in most things and I didn't know the faces he made when he felt certain emotions.

I have barely scratched the surface of Edward, my vampire, and he has done the same with me. What was next? How do you move past this phase in our relationship? Is there a breakthrough, some twelve-step program that must be initiated to become better friends? Angela would know, or maybe Alice. I sighed. Our gaze broken as Edward leans forward with his eyes closed, dips his nose into the side of my head, in my hair and whispers, "Be safe."

What? He's gone before my brain unscrambles. So there is something I need to stay safe from? I went to my balcony, Emmett in bear form, Jasper, Carlisle and Edward were all standing in a circle. Carlisle and Emmett ran off first, Edward looked up at me on the balcony one last time and ran after the others. Jasper followed quickly after, flitting as Edward does.

A knock is at my door, I turn to look at it, wondering what Esme wanted. Alice would come through the bathroom... unless it was Rose.

"Bells?" My dad asks through the door. "Wanna play a game of chess? Jake is here too but he said he'd take patrol so I get house duty." Now I felt like Edward arranged for my father to watch me when he couldn't. Damn it, stupid vampire. He must think I'm in more danger than I know of and unable to take care of myself.

My dad beats me once, his knight taking my king, but I win three games before we decide to watch a movie. Esme and Alice watch with us but Rose stays away from me. I know it is my fault that she doesn't feel welcome to join us. I want to invite her but I do not wish to be punched again. I didn't know how long I should let her cool down. It was pretty serious.

My face is still sore and puffy. Charlie fumed, but after I told him a lame story about my clumsiness and a kitchen chair he calmed down enough to mostly believe me. Esme still eyed my purplish skin every once in a while. I'd catch her looking and she'd either pretend like she wasn't watching me or smile sadly. Maybe I should tell her the truth... Did she know about Rose already? I sigh. Probably. Did she know I said I couldn't... Was she looking at me because she thought I should do something for Rose?

This made me think that maybe Edward left me here with Charlie due to Rose. Was he trying to say Rose's thoughts were turning murderous? That I was in danger here and not just from the volturi? I shivered. Why couldn't Edward explain himself? The night wore on, Charlie and Alice were cute together and Esme and I laughed at them as they debated about Star Trek Deep Space Nine. She was hell-bent on him forgetting it ever occurred claiming it ruined the whole series and Charlie laughed, saying he felt it was like another universe that fit into the Star Trek genre.

My dad looked happy when he was around me. His light brown eyes would catch mine and we'd share a secret smile, one that I committed to memory. Charlie loved me, and I loved him too. He hadn't gotten to meet my vampire yet but they were on the same team right now, protecting me and helping the humans infected by Were venom. Esme made too many snack foods, rolled up pickles with cream cheese and salami slices, jalapeno poppers, an arrangement of vegetables and fruit with dip for both. The whole table looked like a party spread. Esme piled a plate full of everything and walked it out to Jake, I had seen him briefly but we didn't get to talk, which might be best.

Alice shared some things about Jasper with Charlie and Esme. It was only awkward for a moment when Charlie asked when her birthday was, implying that she and Jasper were planning on being bound. Alice explained the situation, that she wanted to live like her parents. Charlie responded with "He can't hurt you if you two are bound."

It made sense to me and I knew Alice was again considering her options. To be bound... or not to be bound. Twas the question.

An option I never had.

When the howls from the woods started Jake appeared at the front entrance. "Female Were, barely in puberty, a mile east." Charlie stood, ruffling Alice's hair before putting the same hand on my shoulder and squeezing. He followed a mostly naked Jake out the door.

"You gave up a beefcake like Jacob up for a pale, redhead that never speaks to you?" Alice asks, her eyebrow raised. She had to be kidding! Edward was... gorgeous and he did speak to me I was just the only one that could hear it. She laughed at me and I threw a couch pillow at her that she easily caught. "Kidding! But admit Jacob is a beefcake." She challenged me with a raised finger.

"Vampire hearing is excellent. Jasper probably heard you say that." I didn't deny her, Jake is an eight-pack of a tanned and buttered up hottie. Still, her little features soured up, they converged in the center before her mouth popped open breaking her face muscles continuous movement inward. How could she do that? Strange girl.

"That's why Jasper growls at him!" Alice says, jumping to her feet and running to the door in a mild panic. Esme and I smile at one another, sharing a thought like aunts and nieces did from time to time and I followed Alice out the door. Silly Alice, my lovely cousin.

Snarls, growls and dying animal sounds are coming from the woods to the east, just as Jake had said. The howls remind me of Riley, his twisted face as he snarls above me, the tortured yells he'd emitted while I stumbled around in the lab basement trying to find the boy. He had wanted to go home. Instead, he was dead, unable to ever return and it was my fault. Carlisle was trying to help him, he could have undone the Were venom and gotten Riley home. I got in the way of that. The Werewolf noises stopped, a girls voice, shrill and scared, apologizing for biting replaced the horrible outbursts.

"I don't mean it." The girl said, her voice changing halfway through her sentence from a childlike twinkle to an animal growl. It made what she voiced sound insincere. The hissing started, Carlisle came through the trees with a worried expression since we were all standing around the front yard, two wolves in human form, Alice, Esme and I. Rose still hadn't left her room, possibly planning out my murder... Maybe I could have my medical examination records released to her so she'd know my weaknesses and work around them. Sigh.

Jasper comes through the tree line next, flitting to stand before Alice, rumbling his chest at Jacob as my little cousin predicted. Jake looked surprised, his brow furrowing but quickly turned toward the tree line to watch for the Were in case something happened. Maybe this meant Jake was finally listening to my dad and giving up on me completely. I had to look away from Alice and Jasper because their eyes were locked like the rest of the world faded away. I knew the feeling, just like when Edward had fought Emmett in the yard. Nothing else could get through to me, I only seen, heard and experienced my vampire at the time.

'Stay back.' Speak of the vampire. Edward's voice ghosts across my consciousness. I hadn't realized how much I missed him. His voice made me ache and he was only gone for a few short hours. I could barely obey his command because I had to fight my natural instinct to go nearer to him. I don't obey commands normally, this one was just because he was holding down a Were and I did not want history to repeat itself...

The first time I saw Edward he was tearing a Were to pieces. I hadn't known what he was back then, he moved so gracefully and the fight between him and the three werewolves over so quickly it was barely a true battle. Then, Riley. It seemed combining me, my vampire and a Werewolf together in any combination had deadly and soul-splitting consequences. Staying back is the right thing to do right now.

She was tiny, her body twisting and half animal. Alice was right, she was new to the change and must have been bitten within the night sometime. Had Alice seen her be bitten? Had she let it happen just so we could experiment on her. I shook my head to get rid of the thought. No, Alice's visions were random and unreliable. Don't get me wrong, they helped a whole bunch, but they were like dreams, she even told me that she had normal dreams too and her visions were hard to separate from them. If Alice dreamed her, she still couldn't help her. It's hard to pinpoint a location, send someone out and save someone if all you saw was a werewolf and a little girl in the woods.

Carlisle lets the humanoid Emmett and Edward lead the girl into the Lab. She struggled, snapped, growled and acted out of her mind but for the most part, it looked easy bringing her to the cage in the basement. I knew then that I didn't have to hear know that this little Were wanted help. Who wouldn't if they were being transformed into a monster? She was fighting the disease and helping them bring her here as best she could.

"Her name is Bree. She just turned fourteen and she was bitten yesterday night by a neighbor boy who she'd been friends with." Carlisle shook his head with a frown on his face. His eyes did the crows feet thing again and I listened as he told the story about Bree still having a human enough mind to stop before attacking the lot of them. Her creator though was already a beast and beyond saving. Jasper had killed him.

The howls stopped so I knew they made it to the basement with the girl. With the soundproof magical barrier, it cut the noise off immediately. The silence spread around us and it seemed worse now then the growls and hisses because it seemed like the animal died. Trees crinkled together, crickets chirps and spring peepers were... peeping. It was eerie going from something so loud and overpowering to nothing.

Edward's movements were quick, I turned, anticipating his arrival and he nooked me, his face tucked into my neck sweetly. My smile grew. He missed me too! Or wanted to make Jake jealous but I'd take what I could get. He nuzzled making my heart flutter and butterflies bloom in my tummy. Edward had a cuddly side and he was showing it to everyone.

'You should tell the others, Edward. But I won't say anything.' A thought invaded me as they had before when I didn't know what was going on. This was Emmett's thoughts, one he sent to Edward but ended up broadcasting it to me too. I stiffen against Edward's side and pull away. So he was keeping something a secret, something that he told Emmett and probably Carlisle on their little outing. But not me...

He hasn't told me anything.

Fearing what happened before in school with all the thoughts invading me and pulling me under I pull away from Emmett, not in the least tempted to dive into his mind. He probably hated me too anyways. I didn't want to hear anything from anyone. Being able to read minds is manageable if there is an off button and Edward didn't have one and I didn't know how to work mine.

'I heard that.' I tell my vampire, looking up at him. He was getting purple little moons under his eyes again, a sign that he was getting hungry. My blood lasted longer than animal blood, but his eyes were fading from sun-gold to black. Edward's face stayed stone still, a vampire trait, one that was driving me mad especially in times like these where I wanted to know how he felt about something. Instead, he presses the back of his hand to my forehead like he was testing me the temperature and leads me back to my room.

'The farther away we were, the more anxious I became.' I guess that was the end of our conversation about Edward's secrets. Still, my heart warmed at his confession even though I scowled at the subject change. At least he missed me.

11:22pm, Sunday

November 2st

Screw this!

I'm not just waiting around fiddling my damn thumbs while everyone else, minus Rose, is allowed to see Bree. I have a bad track record with werewolves, I understand, but Edward is there! His track record is far bloodier than mine! He's been in the lab since before I even woke up this afternoon! Maybe I could help, just keeping Bree company would be nice. Riley had been alone down there, left with supplies for the weekend but Emmett and Rose had been busy making up and he'd been on his own.

I saw Bree come in, she was half crazed. If you are left alone with a monster fighting to take over from the inside, human contact is probably for the best. I had to make sure that this Werewolf was being looked after. I didn't doubt Carlisle but he got technical sometimes and might be overlooking the other things that are important too. Like mental health. We could talk about normal stuff, like video games and... normal people stuff. Okay, I didn't know what normal people do but I'd try.

So, I got dressed. Alice was in her room and I went in through the bathroom door stepping over all the clothes she had laying on the floor to make my way to her desk. She was hunched over her laptop.

"Periwinkle or Peridot?" Is this a color test? My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to switch topics in my head. If I dived into Alice's head I don't think I'd ever recover, especially if she thinks faster than she speaks. "Quick!" She snaps her fingers at me and glares like I'm withholding something precious.

"I thought Peridot was a stone, not a color." This must be a fabric thing again. If this is about her new look, shouldn't she be the one to pick what she likes? She just copies everyone else, magazines, things she finds on the Internet. She should just go with things she likes and not try to define it. It is easier that way, anyways.

She groans, apparently not interesting in an answer anymore. Her hand even comes up and shakes at me as if that would make me go away. Strange little Alice. Still, I'm curious now and try to sneak up on her to peek at her screen. Since I have to look at the floor to dodge all the clothes on her floor that she swears are clean, I miss what Alice was looking at when she snaps the laptop closed.

"Okay, let's go visit Ms. Were-thing. I'll bring the nail polish. She loves colors." It was silly of me to expect Alice to only have a hand full of bottles. Oh no, Alice grabbed a cosmetic case the size of a computer tower, she plopped it on her bed and opened it. The rainbow colors of nail paint making my eyes bulge as my cousin dances around the clothes gracefully. She pulls out some files from a drawer beside her bed and nail polish remover from her desk drawer. I assume these things used to be in the bathroom until I moved in. She had so much of... everything.

Did she even paint her nails? Hopefully, she painted something with all this.

We head out together, me holding the polish remover and a roll of towels Alice had in her room. Rose still isn't around. I can't be that lucky, so something must be up. Even Emmett hasn't been around. I don't get off this easy, ever. Emmett should be pleading with me, making me feel guilty about not helping but he hasn't even looked at me twice. Maybe Rose hadn't told him? Maybe he didn't want to talk about it... Would it be easier if I sent the message through Emmett? That seemed rude.

'Edward, Alice and I are coming to cheer up and make friends with Bree while you guys work on science stuff.' I'm glad my super intelligence showed in that comment. I berated myself but smile when I heard Edward's chuckling voice in my head. Worth it.

'Science stuff?' He asked, can I mentally shrug to him? 'I think that's a good idea. We gave her what Riley had, she is earlier in the disease but at least we stopped it from developing any further. She's coherent mostly. We're trying to find a way to digress it, make the werewolf inside of her fade rather than stay constant.' Okay, I guess I wasn't banned from the lab. My paranoia about Rose was spreading to other areas of my life it seems. I smiled too and Alice did a double take like I was going crazy. I did hear voices in my head, but so did Edward. My vampire approved of my visit.

Alice and I huddled under an umbrella as we make our way across the yard. It wasn't cold enough for snow yet but the rain stung, liquid ice against skin. Not actually liquid ice, but cold. Edward is warmer. Alice shakes out the umbrella in my direction once we're in the garage. I squeal and a heavy metal something is dropped on the concrete floor. We both turn to see Rose, in a grease monkey suit with her head down, a curtain of blond hair covering her face. She was working on her Ferrari, and I interrupted her. Since I'm a sissy I shut up immediately and go through the lab doors to get away from her. Alice is just as scared as I am, having followed close behind. I can't meet Alice's gaze and I knew she wants to sent me a message with her eyes. She still thought Rose hit me for no real reason. When she found out, would Alice be angry with me too?

I hadn't meant to say no.

Then why can't I just tell her 'Yes, I'll help you.' I just passed up an opportunity to speak to her. She hadn't looked angry, she looked down, hiding. I broke Rose again. This time I knew for sure she was acting this way from my actions. Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity, fuck fuck.

'You should have just told her it was a misunderstanding.' Edward says in my head. He wasn't helping because I knew what I should have done. Rose is scary, she just surprised me. 'I've never heard you curse before.' Oh, had he heard that string of fucks? I glared at the ground as Alice chattered away as we walked through the lab about Jasper's empath abilities. I froze right before we reached the door that leads down to the basement lab.

"What did you just say?" I ask her, Jasper is an empath? Like... can feel people's emotions or just change people's emotions?

"You're lucky I love talking or I might get upset you never listen and have to repeat myself all the time. I know it is just your nature to get lost in your head, I accept you for who you are. I love you regardless." She starts down the stairs. Wait, she never answered the question! I stumble after her, catching myself on the railing and dropping the towel roll down the steps, it unrolled as it went hopping. Edward's body appeared in front of me in one eye blink and I blushed furiously as he physically moved me in his super-speed-way don the steps. Why? Edward smelled me, dipping his nose to brush against my ear before going back to Carlisle at the table with books and dripping liquids. I huffed, Alice laughed and nudged me as she joined me at the bottom of the steps.

He had to make me all hot and bothered by brushing my ear.

Jasper was farther from the other two, looking through a microscope at something. Was it distracting or helpful for Edward in this situation when others are around? I follow Alice, taking in my surroundings again. It looks more organized now. The rectangles on the wall behind Edward and Carlisle take my attention for a while and look exactly the same but the rest of the equipment has been pushed aside or removed. There had been a lot more down here when I'd been trying to find Riley. Maybe when they cleaned up the blood and body parts they did some cleaning?

A couch was visible but it's very likely I missed that when I first came here. Rolls of sleeping bags, camping gear, and emergency supplies were stacked on a shelf in the right corner and I studied all of it before catching up with Alice. I missed Edward's cold flesh pressing against mine but I wouldn't bother him right now. He was busy.

He had shown me affection yesterday in front of everyone. I was still high off that experience anyways. I can wait.

Esme was sitting on a folding chair beside the cage Riley had occupied. It had been cleaned up, the bottles were gone, the bed was made up with sheets and pillows. A bookshelf with many books there and the television was positioned to face the cage, the remote was sitting on the end table. It looked like a room in there now. A red and white curtain was in the corner and I had to assume the bathroom was there. So Riley just refused to use the facilities then, was that it? Although it looked like a normal bedroom, it was still a cage so my morals did bother me a bit when Alice and I joined Esme by moving our own folding metal chairs beside her. The mess of unrolled towels flopped down on the cement when Alice released them.

In the spot where the poor boy died, I stared for too long. His death will forever mare my soul. I will remember him and I am grateful that he literally scarred me so a true mark is on my body and not just on the nonvisible insides of me. Riley had been caught in my bad luck, Edward may have delivered the death blow but it was my price to pay. I acted before thinking, before consulting or considering any other possibility. Hopefully, I learned my lesson.

Rose came to mind again with her curse.

"How do you feel about nail polish?" Alice asked the tiny girl with the twisted face, she moved her mouth sideways with the rest of her face making her look like her neck hurt or something. Was that a smile?

"I like colors." The Were says, her voice the soft girl voice you wouldn't expect out of such a monster. Alice had predicted she loved colors. Good for her, she's been getting more and more visions since she's been napping. Bree's fangs showed. They were different from Edward's because she had two sets that crossed next to one another when her teeth were clamped. Like a real wolf, one set pointing up and the other set point down. I'd only seen Edward's fangs twice. They fascinated me more since they weren't ever-present. Did they grow, what triggered them to go away and come back?

Bree came forward, her legs bending too low when she walked. She had on sweatpants, they were baggy and hid her misshapen form well. The sweater matched, rolled up to her hairy, claw-like hands. It would make painting her nails difficult. Her feet were in a similar state, claws instead of nails and pointed like a wolf. She must be fuzzy all over and with the wrinkles indented into her forehead and her nose pushed in she did look like a humanoid wolf. Like when a shifter is halfway through becoming a wolf, even though it happens so fast you don't see the between stages from human to wolf. She crossed her legs sitting Indian style in front of us, the bars between us as Bree's beady black eyes blink a bunch of times in succession.

"Do you have a normal look. I imagine you don't wear oversized sweat clothes all the time." Alice asks, wasting no time to show Bree all her color options from the other side of her cage. Bree laughed, a strange hyena heckling that made her fangs separate in her mouth like a lion's yawn. She shook her head a few times, blinking quickly before focusing on Alice again.

"Converse." She says, looking down at her leather stretched, hairy, long-clawed feet in forlorn. I could recognize the expression even with the girl's strange face. For some reason though, her face hadn't become hairy like her hands and feet, nor had it turned leathery. Her face remained skin color, just the bones changed. I might prefer the color and hair change rather than my bones rearranging. "I really liked my converse. I used to have blue and purple ones." She sounded normal if only she would stop her blinking and shaking her head so often.

Bree eyes me. Her head going to the side again with her excess blinking weirding me out. Esme smiled my way and Alice keeps pulling out bottles to hold up next to Bree's feet to see if the colors would complement one another. Having tight leather skin of such a dark color was probably hard to balance.

"I'm Bella." I tell Bree, she is staring me down with her black orbs.

"You smell delicious." She tells me, but she focuses away from my face looking over my shoulder before coughing, turning back to focus on picking a color. My chin moves to rest on my own collarbone as I meet Jasper's gaze. I smile at him and he smiles back before turning his attention to watch Alice since she is closest to the Were.

'So Jasper is an empath? Does he feel or manipulate people's emotions?' I analyzed my own feelings to see if I detect anything foreign. I probably wouldn't recognize it. Still, would Edward know how much I liked him when Jasper was around us? What about how horny he made me just from hearing his voice? I swear his voice reaches out and caresses me. This would not work in my favor, I don't think.

'Both.' Edward says, 'I didn't tell you since I know he doesn't tell others about my gift.' He should know I wasn't upset about anything like that. I was upset with him, but only because he's been all secretive about Emmett's thought I overheard having to do with some other kind of danger outside the Volturi. Something else was out there that Edward was afraid would come here, something he felt was enough of a threat for him to ask for Charlie and Jake to watch the house while they were all away.

'I'm upset about the secret danger you won't tell me about.' I try to keep the harshness out of my voice but it doesn't exactly work. Internal voices were harder to keep under wraps. With Jasper being an empath though, it didn't matter if I tried to hide my emotions, Edward knew them. Still, I bit my lip, scared that Edward knew how deeply I cared for him. I wasn't ready for him to know because I hadn't analyzed it myself yet.

'We agreed to discuss it with everyone next training meeting.' He tells me. So I had to find out with everyone else. 'I've brought this on us, I want to be the one to confess. I am sorry, Bella. I could not deal with my problems on my own. I've brought you more trouble.' Edward is in some kind of dilemma? Something that followed him here that he felt put me in danger?

'Together, we can do anything. You are a part of this coven now, you don't have to deal with any of your issues alone anymore.' I wanted to smile, I wanted to be happy about Edward needing us but all I could think about was Rosalie and how she was dealing with her problem alone. I had to tell her I would help her... but would Rose even let me talk to her again? Was I brave enough to approach her when she'd already left my face this bruised after one misunderstanding? I cursed at myself for not being self-assured, for not acting immediately when I could.

Esme says something funny that makes Bree's Hyena laugh sound again. Alice was painting her nails a light purple. Why wasn't there an easy solution to everything? A button that just made all the worlds problems go away?