I had no idea how late it was when I fell asleep, but the hot sun shining brightly through the window told me it was late afternoon, and the sun was forcing me to get up, burning the light through my eyelids. I stretched my aching muscles. My arms still marked with hand prints, still darkening purple. I pulled up my shirt, still purple there, too. I pulled myself out of bed, taking a quick shower to rinse off. Clothes were laid on the bed when I left the bathroom. I gray short sleeved t-shirt, green sweater and a pair of jeans. I didn't really care as I threw on the clothes. I pinned my hair up, noticing the laced fingers running across the back of my neck. I touched the lightly tinted skin, and smiled. Aiden's impression left on my skin, his sadness. I didn't need to hide the marks, I left my hair up, and grabbed the sweater.
Rosalie sat on the sofa leafing through a book. She cocked her brow, noticing the marked skin.
"You know what it's from. It's not like I need to hide it." I said.
"You never have to hide any of this from us." She said lightly touching the handprints on my arm. "You look beautiful."
"You have to say that." I smiled.
"It's easy to say when it's the truth, but yes I would tell you that no matter how you looked." Rosalie said. "Esme is making a big dinner, if you think you can handle the smell, we can go up to the house now or we can wait until she airs it out."
"I don't want to be babied. I need to suck it up, since I'm the only one that has this unique issue."
Rosalie laughed opening the door. "After you."
We began walking up the trail to the house. In the light, I didn't trip or stumble. I felt l wasn't a complete invalid.
Rosalie asked. "Can I ask you about the ties you see?"
"Sure."
"What do you see? Do you see something toward Leah or Emmett?"
I could sense her apprehension and deception. "Leah's tie to me is similar to Emmett's. I would say it's familiar, friendship maybe a little stronger. The vampires are always stronger, Leah is pretty strong. Why?"
"I just don't know how you see all these things, or hear or feel all these things and it doesn't drive you crazy. I want to understand."
"When I'm around Jasper, I can feel a lot more, it's not just like an intuition, it's the actual feelings of others. But I've had emotions pushed into me for most of my life. It's one ability that I can separate from myself…mostly. The seeing things…it's annoying, but it doesn't bother me. The ties and auras are weaker today, so whatever has happened is fading. The telepathy is different. Normally, I can't hear you or any vampires or hybrids, but there have been a few times it screams in my mind. It's so much, so many thought all at once, that I can't process it. Other than those times, I've tried to think of it as being in a noisy room, where people are all talking, and I don't have to listen unless I want to." I stopped and shook my head. "I sound crazy."
"You do, but it's not the crazy we haven't dealt with before." Rosalie said urging me down the path.
"Carlisle says I'm a syphon. That if I'm near someone's ability I can pull it from them, but I've been around Alice, and she's not had any issues."
"Carlisle thinks you have to have touched them, or had some contact with them other than just being around them. Alice is careful, she thinks it's skin contact, and she doesn't want to drive you crazy with what she sees."
"By that theory, at some point I met a telepath?"
"You did." Rosalie said. "Edward and you were in the airport, you bumped into him. He remembers the voices in his head quieting before returning to normal. He remembered you when he saw your picture."
"Weird." I said.
The smell of cooking meat, hamburger, hit me as the house came into view. I stopped, trying to get used to the diluted smell. My stomach rolled, but settled.
"I'm good." I smiled walking to the door.
Esme opened the door before I could. She hugged me. "I'm happy to see you."
"Good to see you, too." I said.
"I found veggie burgers for you, and I made French fries and salad." Esme said.
"Thank you."
"Rosalie said you hadn't really eaten."
"I probably haven't eaten as well as I should." I rolled my eyes at Rosalie.
"It will be ready soon. Everyone's in the living room."
I followed Rosalie into the living room. Shocked at the transformation…no broken furniture or mess, everything cleaned and new. A football game played on the TV, everyone seemed to be watching. Everyone smiled at me, but Charlie stood quickly from the couch and crossed the room. He looked at my face and neck.
"Dad, she's fine."
"This isn't fine, Bells." Charlie said. "What happened?"
"I'm fine." I said. "I can't have people touch me."
"What? That sounds ridiculous." Charlie scoffed.
I held out my arm. "Take my arm."
Charlie stepped back seeing the marks already lacing around my wrist.
I stepped toward him. "It won't hurt me, but I need you to see this isn't BS."
Charlie shook his head, but placed his hand on my arm. I waited, feeling the apprehension and anger. He wasn't angry with me, but with the look of bruises on my body. I could feel the mark. I pulled my arm away, showing him the light bruise starting to appear under his hand.
"It doesn't really hurt me." I said.
Someone scoffed from behind me. I ignored them.
"Carlisle knows about this?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, he's trying to figure it out. But it's the normal kind of weird, so we don't talk about it." Rosalie said.
"Bella said you were sick, it's good to see you're better." Charlie said before returning to the game.
"You're ok?" Rosalie whispered.
I nodded.
"You look a little pale." Bella said walking toward me.
"I just need to sit down." I said turning back toward the kitchen. I sat at the bar, watching the mark on my arm darken from Charlie's hand.
"You didn't have to do that." Rosalie said.
"I didn't want him to freak out. It looks like someone smacked me around."
"We know that's not what happened."
"And he doesn't know, and he won't have to know." I said.
Matt and Rachel walked into the kitchen, stopping the conversation. Rachel's eyes widened as she looked at my marred skin. She held me tight kissing me on the cheek.
"What have you guys been up to?" I asked.
"We've done a lot of sight seeing." Rachel said. "We went to Seattle, and walked around campus. We've gone to the beach, which is freezing in winter, we've done a lot of shopping."
"Rosalie said you guys were heading back."
Matt sighed. "Tonight. Rachel has to get back, and we don't want her to be alone."
"I didn't get to spend any time with you."
"And yet, it's been an exciting trip." Matt mocked.
"I miss you."
"We miss you," Rachel said. "But spring break will be here sooner than you can imagine, and you can come visit."
"Because all college students want to do spring break in Alaska." Matt laughed.
"We'll work it out." I said.
Matt shifted from foot to foot as Rachel left the room. He ran his hands through his hair, not looking me in the eye.
"Spill it." I said.
"I want you to meet Tanya." Matt said.
"She was there, with Aiden."
"Yeah, how did you know that?"
"Aiden told me." I said.
"When did he tell you that?" Matt asked.
"When he was with me in the house. He watched over me."
A woman came into the room behind Matt. "We weren't to have any contact with you."
"He was there. In the room with me, he got me to the bathroom." I said.
"We can't let Aro know that." She said. "I'm Tanya. I didn't mean to interrupt."
She held out her hand.
"Please don't take this wrong, but I can't." I said. "I'm a little worn down."
"Oh, god, I'm sorry. Of course." She turned to Matt speaking quickly.
"Hey, it's fine." I said.
I didn't get anything negative from her. She seemed genuinely happy and loving with Matt. His whole body relaxed next to her. His body seemed to radiate. I couldn't help, but be happy for him. He deserved love and happiness, someone who accepted him, fully, unconditionally. My heart ached for what he had.
Esme finished preparing the food, spreading everything out on the counter. Leah shuffled in next to me as the vampires left the kitchen. I made a plate of salad and fries. Leah took my plate and angled her head toward the back door. I followed her out with a bottle of water. She sat in the wooden deck chair. I sat next to her. She handed me my plate, and we ate silently. She would glance over at me as I ate. Once I finished, I couldn't take the sideways looks.
"What?" I asked.
"Just getting used to the bruises." Leah said.
"I can hide them, if you want."
"No." Leah scoffed. "If you're comfortable, then it's fine. I'm just not used to it. Give me a sec to stare."
I laughed. "Fair enough."
"You do look like someone tried to kill you." Leah said.
"I don't know why that is. It's not like some freak actually tried to kill me."
Leah pointed to my neck and cheek. "Those aren't from him though."
"Aiden." I said.
"I'm sorry about what happened." Leah said. "I know you cared about him."
"Matt will tell me how he is." I said.
"You're hurt, why not just be upset and hurt." Leah said. "It's crappy, and you didn't deserve that, after everything you did for him."
"I am hurt. I am upset, but what good does that do." I said, trying not to shout. "I can't change it. I won't beg him or anyone else to stay with me. I may not be the prize to be won, but I'm not going to continue to be the damaged little girl everyone gets to kick around and toy with. I'm stronger than that. And as bad as it's been, I've figured that out. I'm not as weak as I thought, and I won't lower myself."
"Good for you." Leah said. "I knew you were strong. I saw it in the way you defended your family."
"I'm finally starting to feel like I know who I am, and it only took kidnapping and near death to get here."
"Next time, we go for alcohol and boys." Leah deadpanned. "They are a lot easier to live through."
"Sure. Next time hang-overs and bad decisions." I laughed.
Renesme walked out of the house. She handed Leah and me a glass of wine before pulling a chair and sitting with us.
"I hear you're staying here." I said.
"Yeah. Jake is really excited to be home." Renesme said.
"Are you going to go back to school?" Leah asked.
"Maybe. I'm not sure how busy Jake is going to be with everything."
"I think we leave in a few days. It's been nice being home." Leah said.
Renesme laughed. "Words I never thought I'd hear you say. You enjoyed being home."
"Well, Katie kept interesting. Gotta bring her back for these exciting trips."
"Shut up." I laughed. "I promised to be completely boring from now on."
The three of us sipped our wine. We each told dumb stories about growing up. We laughed and talked until I began to yawn.
"We'll walk you back," Leah said.
"Let me just tell everyone we're leaving," Renesme said.
"I'm sure they know." I yawned again. "But I can make it back myself. You guys stay."
I followed the trail back to the little stone cottage. I opened the door, and realized I wasn't alone. Embry sat on the small couch. He looked too large to be sitting on the small piece. I closed the door, as he stared at me.
"What are you doing here?"
"I have to apologize," he said standing from the couch. "I didn't mean to hurt you that day. I don't know what came over me. And then Leah said you left because you didn't want to hurt anyone else or to be hurt or something. This was all my fault, everything that happened to you, I should have let you go."
"Stop." I said shaking my head. "It wasn't your fault. I did feel awful for hurting you, but you needed to let me go. And you didn't hurt me, not really. I've had it much worse than that. I accept your apology for grabbing me, but that's all you have to apologize for. This was my own stupidity."
His face held pain as he looked at my neck and arms. He struggled with his hands, trying to keep them from touching me. I stepped toward the bedroom.
"It wasn't your fault. I need everyone to stop trying to blame themselves for something I did." I said. "With that, I'm going to bed."
"Good night." He said.
I didn't hear him leave, and as I crawled in bed I didn't really care if he stayed.
