Disclaimer: I own nothing.

And of course, I must give big props to Jess who Beta's for me. Praise park calls! :)

Chapter 35: Bella

As if on cue, a light rain started to fall from the sky. Alice could see that the Volturi would wait in Denali indefinitely for someone to return. Eleazar had convinced his family to go home without him, even though they had all met me, they didn't know that much about my gift. Eleazar had asked them to wait in the car for a reason- he didn't want them to know.

"I can't risk going home. If Aro touches me, he'll see everything." Eleazar sat down heavily on the couch in the living room, while everyone else was silent; a gripping, uncomfortable silence that made me shiver. The minds, however, were in overdrive, racing with plots and scenarios of what we would do next.

What Eleazar said had confused me. "Why can't Aro touch you?"

"Aro has a gift similar to mine." Edward was stroking my hand as I sat in his lap. "He can read minds, but he needs physical contact to do it. He doesn't just see what people are thinking in that moment, he can see everything they have ever thought; their memories, their dreams, everything. If he touches Eleazar, he will know everything that Eleazar knows."

The fear and worry surrounding me was making me dizzy, and I couldn't stop myself from listening to what they were thinking. My brain was listening to everyone at once, picking apart the rational from the irrational, looking for information. I felt as though I couldn't react, not until I knew more about what we were facing.

Jasper's thoughts were on the defensive. He was strategic in his planning, thinking we could run, become nomads. He didn't think we could pull it off together; that our best course of action would be to spilt up, and he shuddered at the thought. Alice was trying fruitlessly to see anything, but ideas were coming too fast. Since no one was actually making a decision, the future could not be known. Carlisle was contemplating speaking to Aro; they had been acquaintances once upon a time. The Aro he knew was a fair man, but it had been over one hundred and fifty years since he had seen him last. Carlisle felt that if Eleazar was right, and I was this crazy powerful being, then Aro would know everything after he shook Carlisle's hand and he always shook Carlisle hand. Edward was concentrating on Jasper; he believed Jasper's plan would work the best. It was Eleazar's thoughts that made me freeze- he didn't think Aro could hurt me; he was convinced that my gift would protect me. He was worried for my family, worried that they could be used, harmed, or killed trying to protect me.

My shield snapped back into place and I was stunned. I felt a numbness running through my body. Everyone else's thoughts were gone and I found my own mind blank, and suddenly felt like I needed space, that there were too many people in the room. Edward's arms came around me tightly, trying to comfort me. He pushed our heads together and I could feel him concentrating, his lips moving, but he wasn't speaking out loud. My body began to relax and I closed my eyes, feeling as though there was a cool breeze on my face, I could have sworn I felt a slight mist upon my skin. Edward's laughter broke my daze and I opened my eyes and gasped. We were no longer in the living room- we were sitting on the roof of the chateau. Edward radiated with a smug little smile.

I could hear a flurry of activity from inside the house. Edward chuckled. "We are right outside Carlisle."

To say that I was confused would be an understatement- I couldn't speak. Edward touched my hand. "Eleazar was right."

"Earlier, he said that you could take the powers of others and he also said that you could give powers to others. He was right, although I am not sure that you really gave it to me. All I know is that I could hear your thoughts downstairs. I knew you wanted out of there."

"Wait, you heard that? I had the shield in, it wasn't over you."

"I know, but I could feel how stressed all the thoughts were making you. I didn't like it, so I tried to calm you down."

I smiled, so proud of him. "You did. I felt relaxed right before, you... you moved us up here?"

"I'm just as surprised as you are, but it makes sense. When we were sparring, I moved you back. There have been a few times over the past couple of days when I have heard your thoughts and I am fairly certain that you didn't have your shield on me. I knew something was different at the wedding. I was feeling your emotions, everyone's emotions. I couldn't explain it, but now it makes perfect sense."

He jumped up. "Are you ready to go back inside?"

I took a deep breath. "No, I think I need a minute."

He sat beside me and put his arm around me, his finger running up and down my arm. He turned to face me and ran his hands through my hair, his fingers moving up to gently massage my scalp, calming me. All my tension was lost and suddenly replaced by arousal, so I pulled him toward me and kissed him forcefully. He was smiling as he kissed me, almost laughing.

I moved my mouth to his ear. "Edward?"

He was trying to hide his grin, but failing miserably. "Yes?"

"What are you doing to me?" I asked playfully.

"I'm distracting you. I should really stop. I'm starting to distract myself." He laughed. "Sorry, probably not the best emotion for me to try and throw at you right now, but now I know for sure that it works." He pulled back and gave me a shy smile. "You're sharing your gift with me."

He was absolutely right; I was sharing it with him, I wanted to share everything with him. My silly husband was experimenting with me, and he had to try it with lust... I couldn't help but laugh. The arousal seemed to drift away and was replaced by gratitude and a strange confidence. We stood at the same time and Edward smiled at me again. "Ready to go downstairs?"

I nodded and he took my hand. "Mind if I try again?"

The next thing I knew, I was lying down on our bed with Edward hovering over me- now that was a distraction. He chuckled. "Oops."

"I thought we were going downstairs to talk with everyone."

He smiled. "I wanted to make a quick detour."

He kissed me gently before we sat up. He closed his eyes and seconds later, we were back in the living room, sitting next to Rose and Emmett on the couch. They both jumped up.

"What the hell? Could you warn us next time? You scared the crap out of me." Rose shouted. Edward smiled at her.

"Edward, I would love to know why you have that shit eating grin on your face. I don't see anything vaguely humorous right now."

"Relax, Rose," he said casually. For a moment she looked like she was going to rip his head off, but then she sighed and sat back down on the couch, stretching and leaning back, before shaking her head in confusion. She knew she should feel angry, but she didn't. Edward had calmed her down. He held his grin.

Jasper nodded. "I can't believe it. Edward just went empathic on Rose. Damn."

Edward looked over to him. "How did you know?"

Jasper scowled. "You are talking to an almost two hundred year old empath. Once you use it, you will see what I mean; emotions sort of drift around. I felt it move from you to Rose, but you moved it too fast. Normal calm only drifts in and out slowly, other than that, nicely done."

Carlisle suggested we focus on the matter at hand. "Alice, do you know when they are going to arrive in Denali?"

"Tomorrow, sometime in the early afternoon."

"Do we know for sure what they are looking for?"

"No, I can't see that."

"For now, I think it would be best if we left Paris. If Eleazar is right, tomorrow afternoon they will know where we are. I say we leave now.

Everyone acted quickly. Edward grabbed a few things before running to the car. I asked Eleazar to ride with us. During the drive to the airport, Edward was on the phone with Alice, Emmett and Carlisle planning and making travel arrangements. I turned to Eleazar.

"I would like to know more about this gift you think I have."

"You have it, Bella, don't doubt that. I believe you will fare better if you accept it and use it to your advantage."

"How so?"

"You have already given Edward a taste of what you can do, it would greatly benefit everyone in your family for you to extend it to them as well."

"To protect them?"

"Yes. Bella, being part of the Cullen family has exposed you to incredible gifts. You can see what the future holds, you can read the mind of anyone you cross, you can manipulate emotions, and you can move things with your mind, including yourself. Oh, and you are a shield none the less, a shield with the ability to take on the powers of others. Just by being in my presence, you will be able to use my gift. Do you have any idea of how many different types of gifts vampires have? The potential for what you could do is staggering. All that and you can give these powers to whomever you choose. You have to realize how powerful that is and how others can see you as a threat."

I sat back and realized that he was right. Everything he had told me about my gift made sense, but it didn't seem real to me. Considering the situation and the reactions of my family, I felt like I should have been scared, but I wasn't.

"Eleazar, tell me about the Volturi, tell me about Aro. Carlisle shared a few things, but what he told me was they are not to be feared unless one of the rules has been broken."

"Normally, that is the case. Did you know that I worked in the guard?"

"Yes, Rose mentioned it."

"My experience working in the guard was as Carlisle described; we only sought out those vampires who threatened our existence, and those who broke the rules were dealt with swiftly. I left the guard after finding Carmen. The wives of the guard live within the walls of Volterra City, but my time with her was so few and far between, I decided to leave and spend my life with her.

"There are only a few who even know of Imperturo Tutore, and even fewer who know of Aro's obsession with it. For the past few hundred years Aro has been secretly employing trackers that aren't part of the guard, and they have only one purpose- to find shields. This is an incredibly difficult task, considering a shield can easily hide their gift. In my existence, I have only known of one shield. He was brought to the Volturri very young with no control over his gift. Aro called me, in hopes that I could read him."

"Were you able to?"

"No and he was unable to extend at all."

"What did Aro do?"

"Aro offered him a place in the Volturi, bribing him with never ending money and a promise that he would always be protected and well fed. To my knowledge, he still resides in Volterra City. Even after all this time, he has little control over his power and Aro knows that he is not Imperturo Tutore."

"How did you know that I posses this?"

"I didn't know for sure, at first. I couldn't read you. You see, the way my gift works is I can see certain things in people; similar to what most refer to as an aura. Everyone is surrounded by something- even those with no gifts have a faint glow around them.

"Take Edward for example, when I look at him, his aura swirls around his head, telling me that his gift is centralized to his mind. I have to watch the movement of this aura to catch what exactly what he is able to do. Edward's aura stays very close to him, and this tells me that only he is affected by his gift. When I look at Alice, I see an aura that swirls around her head, but it is more free flowing than Edward's, reaching away from her and frequently changing. This tells me that her gift reaches beyond her mind and is affected by the actions of others."

"What do you see when you look at me?"

"Right now, I see a faint glow. When you put your shield on me, your entire being was radiating. It was like rays of sunshine coming off of you, almost blinding me. After a second, I saw a second aura swirling around you, just like Edward's and then I saw a third aura just like Alice's. There were also traces of empathetic gifts too. Being a shield is rare in itself, but it is unheard of to possess a shield as well the other gifts I saw in you. There is only one being that can posses all of those things. That being is the Immortal Guardian."

Edward finally pulled the phone away from his ear.

"Bella, Alice would like you to try and focus on Denali."

"Has she seen what is going to happen?"

"I believe so, but she won't say and she is too far away for me to read her thoughts. I think she is a little put out that you are not using her gift." He smiled at me.

I closed my eyes and focused. I saw the same vision that Alice had seen earlier; again I saw the cloaked figures surrounding the house, there was a flash, and then Tanya was standing in front of two of them. They stepped aside and another one walked forward. Once in front of her, a hand extended from the sleeve. The hand was that of a man, with pale delicate skin. She stared down at the hand, but would not bring her hand to meet it. Suddenly, she was on the ground, her body writhing while she screamed. The cloaked figure bent down beside her and put his hand on her head. I had to assume that this was Aro. His hand remained on her head for close to a minute before he quickly withdrew it and stood to join the others. Tanya became still and Kate and Carmen were now at her side. The Volturi were retreating quickly into the forest.

Edward reached over and took my hand.

"Did you see?" I asked.

He nodded. "They are going to be fine, Eleazar. Aro is going to read Tanya, and once he does that, they will leave Denali."

I heard Eleazar breathe a sigh of relief and I continued to concentrate, remembering Aro's hand. In my vision, his skin was immaculate, as if he never used his hands. There was a change- I saw his hand again, knocking. I held my breath as the vision came into total focus. I recognized the door. It was the door of the chateau.

"They're coming." I said in a shaky breath. "They're coming to Paris."

I couldn't get the vision out of my head. I could feel the knocking in my ears. It changed again, but I still saw his hand. He held it out to one of the other cloaked figures. My eyes moved away from the hands and up to the hood of the stranger. He turned and his hood shifted, revealing his mouth. A mouth I recognized. I could feel myself starting to growl.

"Bella?"

I couldn't answer him. I was too focused. I had to be sure it was him. I forced my eyes to stay closed. That mouth...It curled its lips and smirked at me. It teased me. The growl in my chest was rising.

I felt the car decelerate. Edward was pulling over. The car was not even at a full stop when I opened the door and jumped out. I stepped to the median, unaware of what I was doing as I put my hands on the guard rail and forced the metal to bend and twist in my hands. I could feel Edward a few feet behind me.

"Bella, please talk to me."

"That bastard!" I snarled.

"I can't read your mind right now. Please, talk to me."

"Did you see?"

"I saw them in your mind. I saw them at the chateau and then there was nothing." He stepped closer. "What happened?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you out like that."

I wanted to turn to him, but I was so angry, I didn't want him to see me this way.

Something shifted. Edward was trying to calm me down, but the waves were just bouncing off of me, as if I were repelling them. I drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly trying to rid myself of the malice coursing through me. I wanted it gone, but I didn't want to push it away; I wanted to bury it.

My fingertips were tingling and the sensation spread through my body until there was just a hint of anger left. I opened my eyes and turned to see the most beautiful sight: Edward, his arms open, his need for me pulsating in the space between us.

I flew into his arms, and the nano-second I felt him, I felt relief. I put my lips to his harder than I ever had, wanting to drown myself in him, wanting to take anything that stood in the way of my happy ending and crush it into dust with my bare hands.

Although my eyes were closed, I could see something. It wasn't a vision...

It was an awakening.

A brilliant light entered my mind. It was mesmerizing, a ball of energy that started as a tiny point of light and grew until it was all I could see, and I was struck by a realization. The anger was gone. I no longer had a need to be angry.

There is nothing to fear and nothing to doubt.

I broke my embrace with Edward and his hands stayed on my face, his eyes dancing over me in wonder.

"What was that?" He asked breathlessly. He was mesmerized too. He had been inside my head to witness the light.

"An epiphany." I answered. I took his hands and moved us back into the car immediately.

"We need to go."

"Before we go, I need to know. What was it? What did you see?"

"I know how they found me."

Both Edward and Eleazar looked at me and waited.

"Victor."