A/N: YES! Happy Tuesday everyone! I have returned with yet another chapter! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own anything...except the plot, but that's influenced by Ashley...so...I don't even think I own that fully D:
Ashley POV
Tuesday
I stared up at my ceiling blankly as I had been doing for who knows how many hours. I couldn't sleep. Not without Seth next to me, holding me, keeping me warm and protected. Ever since he started staying the night, I've become addicted to his warm skin flush with mine as I slept, to his warm eyes I met when I awoke, and his lips that greeted me. I can NOT sleep without him here.
Seth had refused to elaborate what the alarm had meant, saying that he was going to find out himself and then tell me. I took that to mean that he would be right back- that he would drop me off, go find out what was going on, and then come straight back.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
I sighed as the alarm blared in my ear. It was seven thirty…eight hours and forty five minutes since Seth dropped me off. What could be so wrong that he would make him not come over? What could have happened?
I dressed mechanically, not even sure what I put on, before heading down stairs. If anything I was sure I would see Seth at school. He wouldn't leave me to that hell by myself.
You sure? The Cullen's don't really encourage perfect attendance. Brain pointed out. I ignored him like always and made my way into the kitchen, when Mommy sat at the table with a bowl of ignored cereal in front of her. Her focus, however, was on her phone.
"You're not going to school." she said not looking up from her phone. "We're going to the Cullen's instead." She typed something in reply before setting her phone down and smiling at me. "They want to talk to us." she explained.
"About what happened last night?" I asked her, taking a seat opposite her. It was the only explanation I could think of. Mommy shrugged.
"Probably." How can she be so casual about this? Something was wrong, and she was eating Lucky Charms. "Eat and then we can go." she said, passing me the box of cereal before taking an exaggerated bite of her own. I shook my head.
"Not hungry." I can't eat knowing that something is wrong! I can't eat with all the possibilities of what it could possibly be racing through my mind! It'd probably come up immediately. Ashlyn looked up at me, and gave me a small smile.
"Don't worry." Too late for that, isn't it? "If it was something extremely bad, they would've told us immediately." she continued. Would they? If it was really bad, would they really want us to know, knowing we would most likely worry? "Now the sooner you eat, the sooner we find out." Her phone buzzed against the table.
"Who're you texting?" I asked while pouring a small bowl of cereal. She bit her lip and braced herself.
"Aaron." I stiffened. Okay, there was something seriously wrong with this picture. Aaron, my brother, my own flesh and blood, texts Mommy…but DOESN'T EVEN CALL ME! He hasn't talked to me at all since I've been here, but NO he texts Ashlyn!
"Oh." my voice sounded small, even to me. She glanced up at me.
"He thinks you're mad at him." OF COURSE I WAS MAD AT HIM! "So, he's…giving you space to cool down." …I don't need space. I need my bubba! (:D) "I've been trying to tell him that he should just man up and call you, but…" She shrugged and typed something into her phone.
"What're you guys talking about?" I was seriously out of loop here!
"Telling him how you simply refuse to eat your breakfast." she answered with a laugh. I growled softly before sticking a spoonful of magical goodness into my mouth. "He's made me his personal spy, I have to tell him just about everything. He laughed about Travis, by the way." I giggled and looked around, trying to find the pups.
Maci was sitting on the couch, watching as Pookie and Travis had a mini stare down from opposite sides of the room. I laughed loudly, making Travis break focus and look at me. The second the connection was broken Pookie sprinted and tackled my baby boy! He yelped in surprise before letting out a pathetic excuse of a growl and shoved her off of him. Pookie growl and moved to pounce again, but Travis broke out into a run, running into the kitchen and hiding behind one of the legs of my chair.
"Coward." I mumbled. Ashlyn laughed, and nodded. Travis whined from under the chair, demanding my attention.
"I'm surprised your actually allowed to keep him." Mommy pointed out as I picked up the puppy.
"Yeah, Forks is messing with everyone's heads. First they don't care about a wolf sleeping in the house, now they let me bring home a puppy with no questions asked…it's weird." To tell the truth, I wasn't thinking about Mom, Zac, and Alexis' reactions when I decided to get Travis. All I saw was an adorable puppy whom I loved on sight, and it went from there. It wasn't until we were actually in their presence that I started questioning my actions. Yet, they just walked by with a "he's so adorable" or two and that was it.
Like I said, weird.
"You done?" Mommy asked when it became apparent that I wasn't going to eat this bowl of cereal. I nodded and scratched Travis' ear. She sighed before putting her bowl in the sink. "Then let's go." she said, pulling Travis out of my arms and grabbing my hand.
"Wait! You said you were Aaron's spy…does he know about Seth?" I asked her. She shook her head immediately.
"Felt like you should be the one to explain to him that you have a boyfriend. That's a conversation I kind of don't want to be apart of." she shuddered.
"Why not?" I asked walking to my truck.
"Overprotective bear of a brother hearing that his little sister has a boyfriend…and my knowing how far you have gone…I don't want to be tempted to say something and get you in trouble and him six feet under." Good point, didn't want Seth dead. And knowing Aaron…he could probably do it…
No matter how many times I come here, I would never get over the sheer size and beauty of the Cullen's home. I mean it's so…not vampire-like. This house didn't jump out of an Anne Rice novel, as expected, there was nothing dark and dreary or even ominous about the house. It was too bright, beautiful, and…open for that.
Seth was pacing on the front porch of the mansion, Josh leaning up against the door frame, waiting for us. The second the truck came to a stop, Seth bounded down the steps, and came to my door. Once I was unbuckled, he pulled me into his warm arms and crushed me to his chest.
I sighed and breathed in his scent…eight hours was way too long. Way too long to be away from the one I loved. Way too long…way way too long. He pressed his lips into my hair. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting." he whispered before grasping my chin and pulling my lips up to meet his. The kiss was painfully short, so short I didn't even know if it counted as a kiss. He pulled away, and wrapped his arm around me before guiding me to the house.
Everyone was gathered in the dining room: Carlisle, Esme, Nessie, Jake, Josh, Mommy, and two empty chairs surrounded the table, while the rest of the Cullen's stood along the walls. Seth pulled out a chair for me beside Mommy, before sitting down to my left.
"Okay, now that everyone is here…" Carlisle started from the head of the table. "…while Josh was out running last night," I noticed Mommy stiffen beside me and throw a worried glance at Josh. "he came across something, rather…troubling." Way to explain the situation, Doc.
"What was it?" Mommy asked Josh. He looked down for a moment, and hesitated. It was I that moment of hesitation that I noticed how tense the air was. All of the vampires were stiffened, Jake's fists were clenched, Nessie had a furrow between her eyebrows, Esme's gaze was switching between Mommy and I worriedly… Seth's arm was marginally tighter around me than normal, and Josh was holding one of Mommy's hands as if it were his lifeline.
He found something bad, Brain whispered.
No, he found something dangerous. What else could put an entire room of vampires and werewolves in a state of complete stress? But what was dangerous enough for that?
Josh shuddered once before finally answering. "Blood…lots of blood-human blood…with vampire scents surrounding it." Ashlyn and I both stiffened at his words. Human blood? Vampire scents? …
Something dangerous…for us humans.
"Jake, Seth, and Jasper tracked the scents north." Edward added. "They ran to the Canadian border, before they ran east and stopped in Chicago." They went that far? I looked up at Seth, only now seeing the dark circles that symbolized a totally sleepless night.
Jasper interrupted my thoughts. "We wouldn't be so concerned, seeing as we chased them that far, if not for the fact that while we were gone Josh, Emmett, and Edward picked up a fresh scent playing along the state border. We usually don't run into our kind much, and all of the other times we have had ended in…unpleasant ways." A shudder shook through the room at whatever memories everyone were reliving. I noticed Edward hold Bella tighter, and Jake wrap his arms around Nessie.
"What's it mean?" Mommy asked softly, sounding in shock. I snuggled closer to Seth, but grabbed her free hand.
"It means that human drinking vampires are back in Washington." Rosalie snapped at her, making me and Josh growl at her-my growl sounded so much more frail than his. Rosalie ignored us and turned to Carlisle. "Haven't we learned by now what happens when you bring humans into the equation? It jeopardizes our entire family!"
"When did this become about us?" Mommy asked her, putting on a brave face though she was squeezing my hand tightly. A tense silence settled over the room, the air was so thick with stress and worry that it was almost hard to breathe. Josh squeezed his eyes shut for a second before turning to look at us.
"It became about you guys, when the blood was found only half a mile from your house."
Only a half a mile…so close. So close to my family, to Mommy, so close…It suddenly became nearly impossible to breathe. Short gasps of air came through my lips quickly, as if my lungs were trying to grasp the last fragments of air in existence before it ran out. I could feel hands on me and voices in my ears, but I couldn't comprehend them. Only a half a mile…
"Get me a paper bag, stat!" (:D) a voice ordered before cold hands replaced the warm ones that held me. I felt my body begin shaking, my muscles were trembling so hard it hurt. Only a half a mile… My chest felt tight, as if a constrictor were squeezing at my lungs. Only a half a mile… I felt the rough paper edge of a bag cover my mouth.
Only a half a mile…My chest loosened little as the gasps morphed into longer pulls. The ringing in my ears faded, and I was able to comprehend clearly what was going on around me. I blinked, and saw Emmett kneeling before me, holding the paper bag to my mouth, while Carlisle sat beside me with his fingers to my wrist. Seth was holding me on his lap, running his hands soothingly through my hair. Mommy was sitting on the other side of me, rubbing my arm worriedly.
I pulled my mouth away from the bag and took one long breath of clean air before exhaling slowly.
"A half a mile?" I asked no one in particular. Seth tightened his arms around me and pressed a kiss in my hair.
"No one is going to hurt you." He reassured me. "No one is going to hurt anybody in your family. No one is going to hurt Ashlyn. You are all perfectly safe." As he said that, I heard a familiar scoff and turned to look at Rosalie. She had gotten over her aversion to me during the whole imprinting fiasco, so it wasn't a surprise to her face soften slightly when we made eye contact.
"It may be a warning." she explained to me.
"That's only a theory!" Edward hissed. Rosalie ignored him.
"We think that maybe…the Volturi are ready to face us again." Volturi? Nessie looked at me from across the room.
"Remember the story I told you?" she asked me. My mind suddenly flashed to when she had taken me to her house…the picture…the story of her imprint. I nodded. "When I said that Dad tried to follow Mom…" another shudder ran through the room. "the Volturi are the ones that would've done the job. We haven't seen them since I was a few months old. They wanted to kill me," another frightened tremble resonated through the air and Bella flitted to her daughters side and began stroking her hair. "But we got past them."
"And now, we think they're giving us a warning to expect their return." Rosalie continued. "If they are, they would've scouted the area first, and no doubted would have picked up on both of your scents here."
"Wouldn't someone have noticed?" Ashlyn asked, curling her arm through mine.
"It could've happened when no one was near." Edward said. "Such as Sunday when we were in La Push and Carlisle and Esme were hunting in Canada. No one was around here for hours and rained on the way back, washing the scent away." Then wouldn't our scent have been gone before that? "You were in the house. Your scents linger in the furniture, the air, everything you touched here has your scent. Since the rain doesn't get in the house, it takes longer for the smell to dilute and become unnoticeable." Meaning they didn't have to get that close at all.
"But like Edward said, it's only a theory." Carlisle hastened to explain after a moment of silence. "It could also be just a few rouge vampires passing through and happened to have come across a hiker in that part of the woods." That seemed unlikely to me. Why would they split up, or why would one come back without the others? I saw Edward nodded his head minutely, showing that that was the exact argument that made this second choice.
"So what now?" Mommy asked quietly. I was suddenly hit with a wave of guilt. She shouldn't have been part of this. If she hadn't come here, she wouldn't be in danger now. If she hadn't come here, she would be living her life carefree and happy back in Texas with Aaron. She wouldn't have to be as afraid as she was now. She wouldn't have to be subjected to all of this horror.
She wouldn't have met Josh. Brain added, as a calm air washed away the guilt. I smiled thankfully at Jasper, who nodded in return. She wouldn't have met her soul mate if she weren't here. She wouldn't have met Kathleen or tasted her cookies. She was happy here.
I blinked and focused on the present.
"Precautions." Jake said, with an authoritative tone in his voice. He was playing the Alpha game now, and it was obvious. "No going in the woods, for a start." Obviously. He turned to Alice. "Do you think you can keep an eye on the Volturi, just in case." She groaned and mumbled incoherently before nodding. Jake nodded.
" We'll run patrols. Josh, you get La Push, since you are the only one who's there all the time." Ashlyn turned to face Josh and bit her lip, clearly not liking that. "And since Ashlyn's going to be there during the day, she's safe." Josh nodded, breathing a small sigh of relief at the thought of Mommy being safe.
"Carlisle and I can circle Forks while you all are at school." Esme offered. I didn't like it. The thought of Esme and Carlisle patrolling by themselves….what if they ran into someone? I couldn't see either of them fighting. Jake pressed his lips together, clearly thinking the same thing. "I've got enough counts of truancy it wouldn't matter if I didn't show for a few days. I'll come with you. It'll also let me keep an eye on things in La Push."
"If you're going, I'm going." Nessie interjected, looking at her husband. Jacob sighed before nodding toward her.
" And then we'll figure out night shifts later." Night shifts? Would Seth be taken away from me all night? Would I have to learn how to sleep without him? "I'd much rather not have any of ya'll in La Push…the scent may give them the impression they're welcome there. So, Jasper can assign jobs that keeps you away from the old treaty line." Jacob continued.
"So Josh is guarding La Push by himself?" Ashlyn asked. Worry was evident in her tone, making a small smug smile appear on Josh's face.
"Only during the day." Jacob answered her. "Otherwise it'd mostly be me, Seth, or even Nessie-she doesn't smell too much like a leech." So he would be taken away. For some period of time, he would gone, patrolling and possibly fighting.
"Don't worry Ashley," Edward called to me, having heard my worry. "we've done this exact thing before."
Somehow his words didn't sooth my already aching heart.
A/N: Dun Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnnnnnn! OMG have the Volturi returned? Will Ashley and Seth ever get a good nights rest? Will Kathleen's cookies appear in the next chapter! And why do I keep mentioning Aaron! Only one way to find out... REVIEW!