Chapter Thirty Eight

Carlisle

Edward was still convinced that going back was a mistake,

"We should be headed away from Forks if Jazz is headed there after the Quileutes, if we go there we're making ourselves sitting ducks, tell him, Garrett, maybe he'll listen to you."

"Edward, just shut up. You came back rather than keep running so you're fitting in with our decisions now and we're going to Canada."

"You really think you can find Bella? And if you do? What then?"

"We try to persuade her to stop him from killing us."

"As simple as that?"

"Simple? No, but it is our best chance for survival, besides if we have Bella then he's not going to attack us now is he?"

While they continued to argue I called Darius for an update,

"You really should have listened when I told you to ge5t the hell pout of Dodge, as it is The Major isn't far behind you and he's not going to stop, not now the girl is unconscious. Whatever influence she may have had over him isn't working now and even the Volturi are getting a little worried. It appears he's not keeping to his script, usually, he's finished with business and ready for a nice nap by now and they are concerned maybe they are losing control of him. Can you imagine a man-eating tiger let loose in a kindergarten? That's more or less what they have right now. If he's not taking down his targets then just who is he aiming for?"

"But if we get to Bella first, if we can just speak to her, explain the situation, that she can save us all."

"You might find that a tad difficult seeing as she's gonna wake up with a terrible thirst and an even more terrible attitude as a newborn but knock yourself out Carlisle, I guess it's as good a plan as any considering where you are."

He gave me directions to the cabin where Charlie and the hunters had come across The Major and Bella, I hoped to be able to track her from there.

"Be careful Carlisle I have no idea where Felix is now but he was sniffing around and Johnny H has been there too."

"Johnny H? Yes, Felix mentioned that, has he made a decision? Is he going to use the guardians to take Jasper down?"

He laughed,

"I doubt it, he'd lose too many men that way and the Quileutes disobeyed a direct order. I imagine he'll send the remaining villagers to Denali until the smoke clears, after all, it's not really his fight now is it?"

Darius was right of course, this was vampire business that the Quileute pack decided to meddle into their cost.

We drove to within a mile of the cabin and then began to see signs of Bella's gift, trees with branches snapped and debris caught among their leaves, large stones scattered on the track and lodged in the undergrowth and one severed wolf's paw dangling obscenely from a trail marker.

"I guess we'll be walking from here on in."

We left the car off the track hidden by undergrowth and continued in on foot finding the devastation becoming more and more apparent, By the time we reached the cabin it looked as if an explosive device had been set off in the clearing.

Cautiously we approached the cabin and Garrett peered in,

"No one there but signs that a human was in residence, there's blood on the floor and the arm of the couch, I guess Bella was injured at some point."

"Darius said he'd lost the signal from her tracker device her mother had implanted in her when she was a baby, maybe Jazz found out about it and cut it out."

Edward shook his head,

"He wouldn't do that, it would be crazy putting himself in such temptation's way, no if I had to guess I'd say Bella did it herself."

Garrett's eyebrow shot up,

"Does she have a death wish or is she just loco?"

"More like stubborn and determined. If she's decided to protect Jasper she'd do anything to achieve it, she was always wilful."

"Yeah, but even so..."

Garrett broke off staring over our heads and we swung around to find Peter Whitlock standing watching us from the edge of the trees.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

I moved in front of the others knowing how volatile Peter's temper could be.

"We're looking for Bella."

"Really? And why do you want her?"

"To help stop Jasper before he kills us all and destroys himself. Do you know where she is?"

"I've seen her and I can tell you this, you stand no chance persuading her anything right now, you can't even talk to her."

"So, she is transforming? Well, once she wakes up we can talk to her, we just need to be patient."

"You need a lot more than patience Carlisle, you can't even get close enough to speak to her and if she can't control her gift when she wakes up the Volturi are gonna have one hell of a fucking headache."

He agreed to take us to Bella and we followed him through the trees and into the gloom but that didn't last long. The further we walked the more devastation appeared again.

"Was this caused at the time she destroyed the clearing?"

"Nope, this is new shit."

I glanced at him waiting for a further explanation but he just grinned,

"You'll see soon enough."

A dull roaring sound reached our ears along with the sounds of wrenching and screeching.

"What's that?"

"Bella's busy trying to redesign the forest in her sleep. See..."

He had stopped and pushed some bushes aside and we stared in shock and awe.

Bella lay curled up in the center of what can only be described as a maelstrom made up of whirling branches, stones, and earth that reached at least forty feet into the air.

"Impressive eh? You can see what I mean by not getting close."

Garrett studied the situation for a few minutes then shrugged,

"There's nothing there that can damage a vampire for long. Maybe I can reach her, if we can cut across her concentration maybe her gift will stop working, after all, she's going through the burn of the change so she can't have much control over it. You gonna help Edward?"

Peter and I watched as Edward and Garrett approached the edge of the maelstrom then stepped inside where they were partially obscured by the debris which whipped around them. As Garrett had pointed out the stones and branches snapped against vampire skin and fell only to be picked up again and tossed high but as they got closer I could see the situation change. First Garrett and then Edward came to a halt about twenty feet from Bella and their outlines began to waver strangely then I saw the first section of Garret's right arm literally peel back from wrist to elbow and the same thing was happening to Edward. The force of Bella's shield was tearing them apart.

"Get out, quickly."

I wasn't sure they heard me over the noise of the maelstrom but Garrett turned and began staggering back towards us while Edward fell to his knees surrounded by ribbons of vampire flesh only attached to his body at one end.

"Garrett, get Edward, she's killing him."

Garrett turned and grasped Edwards wrist hauling him to his feet and pulling him back as the ribbons of flesh whipped around them both sending a fine rain of venom beating down on Peter and myself as it was spun out of the confined area of Bella's shield.

As soon as they were free of it I ran to Edward horrified to see what she was capable of but relieved to see he was already beginning to heal, the ribbons of flesh wrapping themselves back into place.

"Now that was fucking impressive don't you think?"

"Impressive? She almost killed two men without opening an eye!"

"That's what I mean if she can do that when she's not trying just think what she's really capable of."

"And if she can't?"

I was angry with him, he didn't seem to care about what had happened to Garrett and Edward but he ignored my tone and looked around then touched my arm,

"We have company Doctor."

I looked around to see that another figure had joined us, one I recognized,

"Chief Swan! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Carlisle. That's my daughter."

"I know but...you do know she is transforming into a..."

"Vampire? Yeah, I know but it doesn't alter the fact that she's my daughter and no one is going to use her for anything, least of all you."

Studying Charlie I saw he was wearing a shotgun over one shoulder but it was the item he held in the other hand that concerned me

Peter had moved ready to pounce but Charlie hadn't missed him and he shook his head.

"I wouldn't, I didn't come totally unprepared for vampire trouble."

He hoisted the weed burner that he carried,

"It's got a double tank so I've got plenty of firepower."

Peter grinned,

"And you think you can take us all with that before we can tear your throat out?"

"Nope, but I can sure get one or two and...oh yeah, I found a couple of these too."

He put his free hand on his belt and I saw two grenades hung there,

"Right, so you're gonna blow yourself up? Good idea, better than being torn to pieces by one of us."

"Actually I thought I might pull the pin and fry your ass along with mine. They're incendiary grenades and I'm willing to die to keep my daughter from you or any other vampire who thinks she'd make a good shield to protect your sorry asses from Jasper or whatever he calls himself."

I put a hand out to stop Peter from making a stupid reaction to Charlie's words,

"We don't want to hurt Bella, Charlie, we just want to speak to her when she wakes up."

"Yeah? Well, when she wakes up I imagine there will be a lot of people wanting to speak to her and I'm top of the list so back off."

Garrett had moved to the side and lunged forward before I could stop him but Charlie's reflexes were fast and he had the weed burner up and pointed in Garret's direction the igniter hissing menacingly while in the other he held a grenade with the pin half pulled.

"Go on, make my day."

I closed my eyes knowing neither my friend nor Peter could resist an invitation like that but neither reached him, instead they were flung back violently and Charlie buffeted by the same force dropped the grenade but fortunately he hadn't pulled the pin out completely and I ran forward and grabbed it as it bounced up from the ground.

We all turned to look at Bella, surely this must have come from her, she had to be awake but no, she was in the same position as before so what was going on? Peter launched himself forward again only t9o be tossed back and I shook my head to Garrett,

"No, stop. There's something going on here."

I looked at the grenade in my hand and stopped down to place it on the ground then nudged it towards Charlie. It rolled to within a few feet of him then stopped suddenly rocking back and forth.

"It mist be Bella, somehow she knows you are here Charlie, she's protecting you."

He stared down at the grenade then reached down and stretched out a hand to pick it up.

"How am I able to pick it up then?"

"I have no idea but maybe Bella doesn't sense it as a threat like she did Peter and Garrett. Let's see."

I walked slowly forward but at the same distance as the grenade I felt the air become thick and was unable to move any further, Bella saw all of us as a threat to her father but how she knew what was happening when she was still unconscious which was strange in itself I couldn't begin to understand. I guess we'll have to wait until she wakes up to find out if she woke up before Jasper arrived back.

Just to let you know that I will be away for three weeks from tomorrow but I will post as often as I can. Love Jules xx