Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Stephenie Meyer created it all.
A/N: I've been told that Fan Fiction has been removing quite a few stories from publication for perceived violations of the rules. If for some reason I go missing, all my stories can be found over on Twilighted under the same penname.
Also, I've been asked by several individuals if I plan to finish this story. I do! My job has been incredibly busy over the past few months. It will not be abandoned.
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand,
You will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors.
All of them are alive in this moment.
Each is present in your body.
You are the continuation of each of these people.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Jasper POV
"Jazz, I'm not certain I can stand waiting for a plane," Alice said hurriedly, blurring around our cottage as she packed. Her impatience sang out at me as I watched her.
The warm tropical air that floated in through the cottage's open windows was seductive, making me want to pull her back down onto the already made bed and cuddle. I didn't have to have the sex; although certainly Alice and I lying on a bed would lead to that…it was the intimacy of cradling her tiny body that called to me at this point. But the lure of seeing Michelle and Embry was strong, and I doubted that even the promise of sex right now would dissuade my tiny wife from her course of action. At least I'd talked her out of swimming, which had been her original intention.
"Alice, humans require all nine months for gestation. She won't be birthing this child like Bella or Nessie," I told my wife calmly from where I lay on the bed, attempting to settle down her whirling emotions. "We have time."
She spun around to look at me, her golden eyes wide. "Jazz, we've probably already missed out on several months of that. I need to know. There is a lot to do. This baby is like ours…kind of like a grandbaby without the pain of having had to raise the parents."
My bark of laughter at her sincerity caused her to grin slightly, but she was off again, neatly packing my items into the bags.
"Darlin', I'm perfectly capable of packing."
She was already through with it by the time I said the words. "Done!" she announced. "Let's go."
With those words, she'd grabbed our two bags and turned to me. Only when I growled at her did she slow down. Seeing the look in my face, she rolled her eyes and set the baggage down.
"Much better." Reaching down, I pulled her and the bags into my arms.
A quick walk through the woods and we were on the speedboat headed for the mainland and the airport for our flight back home.
~FMR~
Two years prior…
"So, you know how I kinda surprised you with my little secret?" Embry muttered nervously. He was sitting with Michelle on the steps of our back porch.
"About the fact I'd fallen in love with a mutt?" Michelle retorted back with fire.
She was exactly perfect for Embry thanks to the magic of the imprinting process, and Alice and I couldn't be more pleased. It was difficult from where we hid in the woods near the tree line, waiting for him to call us in, to keep from giving ourselves away with laughter.
"Well, you have to give me a break because I was bound by the whole secrecy thing. Trying to explain everything has been…hard."
Even if I hadn't been able to feel his embarrassment, the tone of his voice would've given it away.
"Are you about to surprise me with something else…like the fact that when we have kids they'll come out with fur or something?"
Embry gaped at her teasing statement. He was torn between the lust that her suggestion brought forth and the indignity of her supposition. It was amusing to say the least, and I smirked. I'd wanted to tell her, having found her first not so long ago at the Seattle hospital, but Embry's supernatural bond with her had taken precedence.
Leaping to his feet, he finally found his tongue as he stepped down the stairs of the deck, "Um…no it's not about me…" We could hear him pacing and his anxiety was beginning to irritate me.
"Embry, seriously, it can't be more shocking than that moment you changed into a wolf in front of me. I mean, you had warned me and I hadn't really believed what you said, but seeing and believing are two totally different things. Even with Emily and Leah agreeing with you!"
My memory of him exploding into a dark grey wolf in front of her was still very vibrant. Her heart had raced what seemed a million miles a minute, and she'd turned paler than one of us at the sight of Embry in his wolf form. Alice, Edward, Bella, and I'd watched her from the tree line.
"Her mind is almost blank from the shock. It is a most unusual state," Edward had supplied, his voice clearly relaying a mix of his intrigue and amusement.
Michelle had stood between Emily and Leah, so she'd at least had some support when she'd felt faint.
Whining, Embry had crawled toward her, laying his huge snout, razor sharp teeth carefully covered, at her feet. It was the eyes that got to her. She saw his soul in them. Her shakily spoken "Embry" had carried softly, lacing through the trees, limbs, and leaves to embrace us.
But back to present day… "Embry!" She was getting nervous.
"I'm sorry…I'm just trying to figure out how to say this." He paced a few more times in front of her, before he came to a stop. "Here's the thing. The Cullens and the Quileute Tribe haven't always been as close as we are now. In fact…" he paced another time "…there was a time when we hated one another."
She started laughing... incredulously.
"She doesn't believe him," Edward informed us.
I didn't know who I felt more emotion from: her or us. To think that we'd come so far that she'd never sensed or caught traces of the decades of distrust and outright hate from the wolves toward us, the "Cold Ones"…it was amazing and humbling. Alice was extremely pleased that our family's relationship had progressed to this point; only Esme would have been happier.
"No, seriously!" he protested, and she started snickering, wiping at her checks to brush away the tears her laughter had produced.
"O…K…" she snorted. "You and the Cullens are like arch enemies. Ooooh!" She wiggled her fingers sarcastically like she should be scared, widening her eyes. "Is Alice like Little Red Riding Hood? Is she afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
"She'd eat the Big Bad Wolf alive," Embry muttered, earning a chirp of amusement from the pixie beside me.
"What?" she responded.
Embry tried again, hoping to settle her down enough that she'd take him more seriously. "I'm serious, Michelle. Our tribe has hated the Cullens for many decades. Nearly a hundred years, if I remember rightly. It has only been in the last decade that we've developed a friendship of sorts. Before that…it was literally a life and death struggle."
"So were Jacob and Renesmee like a Romeo and Juliet story but with a happy ending?" Michelle said with a giggle. "I mean they must have had to hide their love for many years. The twins are what brought everyone together, right?"
Embry was digging himself in deep. I hissed slightly, and his better than human hearing picked upon it. He shook his head at Michelle, and then sat down beside her, the wood of the stairs creaking from the weight of his large frame.
He took a deep breath. "Sweetheart, when I phased in front of you, what did you originally think I was?"
"Um…rabid?" She snorted, hitting her knee in glee. However, his stern look must have finally gotten through to her. "Okay, okay…I'm sorry. I guess if you hadn't told me, I would have assumed that you were a werewolf or something…like those Underworld movies. But, you're cuter…more handsome…darker…"
From where we stood not too far from the tree line in the forest, we could see that she was waggling her eyes at him, and I felt her mischievousness saturating the air.
"Okay…we can work with that," he exhaled with a little relief. "So I take it you've seen the movies?"
"Sure! Great stuff," she giggled. "Would you save me from the vamps if they came after me? The Michael guy in those movies was pretty hot, not like you, of course…still pretty cool, though, fighting for love against the bad guys."
But then she stopped abruptly and stared at him, and the feeling I'd dreaded set in…a slow build up of fear. "What are you trying to say, Embry?"
Embry spoke quietly and evenly. "The Cullens… they are what the tribe call Cold Ones. They're vampires, Michelle."
I wanted to cry…she was afraid.
Embry took her hand in his. "Our elders made a treaty with the Cullens decades ago. They agreed to not hunt or harm humans, and as long as they kept their end of the bargain, we wouldn't destroy them. Bella was a human when Edward fell in love with her, and well after that, the story got exciting. Nessie is Bella's and Edward's daughter. God…" he rubbed his short-cropped black hair slightly "…I'm messing all this up." He grabbed her other hand and swore. Then he calmed himself down.
"Let me start from the beginning."
And so he did, explaining in fairly good detail what'd occurred with us, with the tribe, and with us as a family together. Michelle was silent throughout the narrative, only her heart beating wildly, shouting out to us; we could all sense her fear. I laced threads of calm into her, to gradually settle her down.
"Jasper and Alice…" her voice sounded almost strangled.
He smiled. "Probably two of the most dangerous vampires you'll ever meet, but that is their story to explain to you. They wanted to, you know, to tell you…"
Her gasp had me walking before I thought, remembering the young girl that had charmed my heart in the hospital. Even the words she said next didn't stop me, even though I sensed Edward's amusement before the rest of us followed after me.
"You are being ridiculous, Embry!" Michelle said fiercely, with what I sensed was a great effort to tamp down her fear and exude bravado. "Jasper is like the gentlest man I've ever met. He wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was really bothering him."
She stood up in front of Embry. "You forget; I've seen them during the day, playing with the triplets, and Jasper sat by my side at the hospital for hours when I was sick! No vampire could do that. You're making me mad teasing me like this, Embry."
She was angry…furious really, and it gave my heart hope. She couldn't equate what she knew of the traditional stories and the cinematic portrayals of vampires with my family's behavior. We'd hidden our nature well. Then, when I broke through the tree line, Alice right behind me, Michelle's heart stuttered…her subconscious attempting to tell the conscious being to flee. It was almost as if I could see her tamp down on the emotions by sheer will.
"Jasper…Alice," she murmured softly, turning to glare at Embry. "He's being funny."
As chance would have it, a stray beam of sunlight hit me, my wife, Edward, and Bella as we walked toward her, causing us to sparkle brilliantly. Embry caught her as she fainted.
~FMR~
Present day…
We arrived in Forks bare hours after landing in Dallas. Alice had refused to wait on a plane, so at a speed that thrilled me, we utilized the impending night and traveled across the land, her sight allowing us to avoid the southern covens and nearby nomads. She barely slowed as she ran into the house, calling Edward and Bella's name. Demetri and Heidi slowly came downstairs, and from the careless disorder of their hair and robes, not to mention the satisfaction pouring off them, I knew what we'd disturbed. Both of their eyes were a dark burgundy; their recent... activity... meant they'd need to travel soon. I shook myself mentally and focused instead on their next words.
"Edward and Isabella left at dawn to go hunting. They intended to go to the Quileute land after that to visit Jake, Nessie, and the babies, so we didn't follow," Demetri said quickly, explaining why they hadn't accompanied my siblings.
"That's fine; I'm calling Michelle anyway…" Alice said, before blurring up the stairs to put our bags in our room.
"She'll be here later this morning," Heidi called out. "Embry knew you'd want to see them." She grinned at the two of us when we heard Alice squeak and left Demetri and I to go join her.
"Excited much?" he muttered.
"Well it is Alice…" I said softly, grinning at him. "Everything okay?" I asked wanting to make sure nothing uncalled for had happened.
"Better than can be expected." Demetri inclined his head.
"Which makes you nervous."
"Yes. The ancient one is planning something, I think. I just wished I could get a clear feel for her."
I sensed his discomfort at not being able to pin down exactly where the so-called "Mistress" was located. He had gotten her unique mental signature when she attacked us in Volterra, and had been furious at losing her in the ocean. Apparently that signature was fuzzed out for him, forcing him to wait for an opportunity to get a fix on the woman. It was a first.
It was different for him, this sense of waiting. When he'd been controlled by Aro's regime, there had been no sense of concern, only duty. It made the realization that someone would want to harm us a different position all together. Other than Felix and Heidi, his mate, he'd had no emotional ties…he did now.
We'd lived as a family for years, and each time we'd come under duress, either from Maria, James and Victoria, or the Volturi, the possible consequence had been horrifying. To lose Alice would destroy me, but it would be difficult to survive with any of my family missing. Alice's visions had led us to what I'd long desired after my change…a place of belonging…and each and every individual person was a critical component to the puzzle that formed us.
Family…
I'd had one before, when I'd run away to join the Confederate army to make a life for myself. I'd loved them; I was quite certain. I'd found another after coming here with my mate. And Michelle and Embry were as much a part of that now as my immortal siblings. As much as small Victoria and her mother; I felt an indefinable sense of connection to those two.
Demetri and I moved to the back porch, leaving the women to giggle about babies.
~FMR~
Alice's squeal of excitement had us cringing when she heard the car coming down the drive. She trembled in excitement as she stood on the front porch waiting for Embry to lead Michelle up the stairs. I wouldn't have put it past her to tear the door off the car to get to her, so I put my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. It worked only marginally, and I didn't want to use my gift. Alice had the right to be excited.
"Oh my God, she's going to be worse than you," Michelle muttered darkly, looking to my wife as she came up to the top of the front porch. But then she grinned at us and pandemonium ensued.
Alice squealed. "I have it all planned…the nursery here…and the party…and the gifts. We've gotten rid of everything from Ellie, William, and Stefanie." She said it all as if it was a shame, when really she was ecstatic to start all over. "I need you to select what you want…"
Embry watched in fascination as Alice blurred to Michelle, but then he smirked. "At least Alice is getting her started. Her mother and father called and wanted us to come visit them so that they could help, but the Pixie is much more efficient."
His words were amusing, but I was distracted by Michelle's unconditional love, her hand brushing over my arm in greeting as she passed me, being herded by Alice into the living room.
~FMR~
Two years prior…
"Stop panicking, Embry. Her heartbeat is fine. Her vital signs are normal. We were just too much for her to accept so suddenly like that," Edward murmured, completing a thorough exam on her. He told Bella to look in Carlisle's office for some smelling salts.
Michelle was laid out on the thick cushions of one of our couches, Embry having caught her mid-faint and taken her into our house.
Watching my brother practice as a doctor was intriguing. He was as fluid in his work as Carlisle had ever been. I still felt mildly the smell of Michelle, my thirst ignited by the lure of her blood, formerly dampened by her chemotherapy treatment not so long ago. So it was with a great deal of envy that I saw him lean down and sniff at her in various locations to draw in her scent…testing to make sure that his supernatural ability couldn't detect anything further. We all worried that the cancer that had once threatened her might reappear. I'd seen Carlisle do the same around her, when he thought no one was looking.
But Edward acted as if the direct hit of mouth-watering aroma didn't even affect him…moving to lift her eyelids. "She's fine," he pronounced, standing up so that Embry could take the seat beside her. He cracked open one of the smelling salt packets that Bella had brought down and waved it in front of her nose.
Within a few seconds, she began to stir, and when her eyes slowly opened, she stared directly at Embry. Then as confusion crossed her face, she looked to see the four of us standing across the room, when we'd stepped away to give her space. We all heard her heart stutter a moment, but then a miracle occurred.
"Jasper…" she held her hand out to me in expectant greeting, and I tried not to be too pleased that she'd said my name first. Her whispered, "Alice, Edward, Bella" came afterward.
I didn't know how they'd handle it, because I ran to her, gently taking her hand in mine and bring it up to kiss the back.
~FMR~
Present day…
Bella's and Edward's arrival distracted me not much later. I couldn't put my finger on it, but he seemed preoccupied. As a rule of thumb, distraction didn't work well for Edward. He was attempting to either hide or not think about something.
"Everything okay?" I asked quickly as Bella left his side, bound for Michelle and Alice.
"Yes," he said in a tone that was almost too authoritative. It caused my eyebrow to arch, and he noticed. "Sorry…just a lot on my mind. Alice is going to want to stay, Jasper. Michelle's about four months along. There's no reason you two couldn't stay here at the house and be near them. We could Skype for anything that needs your input."
I felt uneasy with the proposition. It was too convenient, as if I was being manipulated, so I attempted to assess him…to really feel him out. Finding nothing but the frustration I'd noted earlier, I had to accept his words at face value.
He glared at me, a sharp snap of anger, when he felt me poking his emotional climate. I withdrew my gift quickly.
"It is an intriguing proposition, Edward, but are you willing to allow Aro's memories to lay at rest for the time I'm gone? I'm not comfortable with you exploring them without me available to help you."
I felt Bella's eyes on me; her attention directed at us, at the conversation and the possible consequences. I felt relief from her and knew it was her desire for him to take a break. I sensed a thread of concern from her underlying her love for her husband; however, I dismissed it as part of their bond.
He suddenly smirked at my thoughts, turning to look out the windows. "Bella has found a new technique for helping me. She insists that I take a break from the bad and add a little 'positive' to the mix."
At my inquisitive look, he explained, "She's getting me to visit some of the happier memories. I was able to give her some good images of Renee. Remember, Aro touched her."
I felt the heartfelt warmth that flooded Bella at whatever she was remembering.
Edward continued as I basked in the love flowing off his mate. "I will make you a solemn promise that I won't attempt to access anything negative. However, you know as well as I do that one of these could overtake me no matter what I do; yet, Jasper, it isn't fair for you to have to be chained to my side. You need a break from the poison." He turned to face me. "I'll speak with Demetri and Heidi about staying here with you, and possibly send Anata and Aden. With the wolves, it'll give you enough protection."
The tone he used was odd.
"Edward?"
"I don't like leaving you here without help," he went on, "And I suppose we would need to speak with Jacob, Sam, and Embry to make sure that the tribe would be okay with the continued presence…there is a whole new group of teenagers available…some with ties to Ephraim."
His statement that the wolves would need to be included in on the decision helped to calm my growing anxiety and sense of being tricked…but the presence of it wasn't totally eliminated. I narrowed my eyes at him, but he was either telling the truth or his 'poker' face had evolved. I nodded, already knowing that Alice was dying to take up residence.
~FMR~
Time for us had seemed almost inconsequential before we met Bella. We moved from one place to another, attended high school or college, existed through one decade after another, carefully monitoring the styles of fashion in order to blend. There had been many moments of great family passion and fun, but we'd never really watched those around us and thought about the ravages of time…until we ran into one fragile human, who'd changed everything.
Now, I watched as the original pack, all except for Jacob, Seth, Leah, and Quil, aged. Quil waiting on Clair, Leah magnificently young while she waited on Gabriel. Charlie was approaching sixty; his only concession to the demands of time being some stray grey hairs handsomely placed at his temples and a few ones in his mustache. Time had been good to the wolves and Charlie, allowing them to age gracefully and at their own paces; it hadn't been so to Bella, flowing so rapidly and driven by fear as she nurtured Nessie within her. I tried to tell myself to calm, that we'd been through this before…and I attempted to remember Nessie's vibrant face instead as she carried William and Stefanie. But it was Bella's ravaged face that snuck into my fears…she'd been human…Michelle was human. Nessie was one of us…
So it was with great relief that I watched the next several months pass without incident, and spent time with Alice, Michelle and Embry…watched her grew round with their daughter…yes, Alice's visions had struck again. The pregnancy was kind to Michelle, and she had very little discomfort aside from having to change her posture for walking and sleeping as she grew big with child. Her human doctor had assured her that her cancer had yet to reappear; we all prayed that it would remain the case.
We attempted, as much as possible, to limit our contact with anyone other than the current wolves and their mates in a ploy to keep our scent from initiating the transformation of any other Quileute youth. But as the expected due date drew closer, we prepared for the invasion. So much was the anticipation of meeting the next wolf that nothing would keep the others away. The quiet solitude of the house was no more with the family's arrival, and although I could have said I missed it; I didn't. It was good to see everyone, to see them healthy and happy, and to see that Edward hadn't used his time away from me to do something stupid, which had been a concern.
Jacob, Nessie, and the twins had gone back to Volterra with Edward and Bella, so when the triplets came crashing through the door, they caught me by surprise. They'd grown! William was taller than Bella! Crashing into me, Stefanie and Ellie took me to the floor, kissing my face like butterflies, while William ran to Alice, lifting her off her feet like a tiny ragdoll. He was bold enough to do the same to Anata and Heidi, charming them. The girls looked to be about fourteen years old in human age, but William was already filling out with both height and muscle mass and his unbound black hair reaching down his shoulders, his exceptional gene pool making him look older in some ways. To Demetri and Aden, he offered his hand gallantly, cracking an infectious smile so much like his father. Picking the squealing girls up under my arms, I turned to the rest of the family, giddy with the homecoming.
I'd enjoyed the time with Michelle and Embry, but God was it good to have the whole family home.
~FMR~
"Jazz, I hate to ask, but would you drive to Seattle and just pick up the crib? I don't trust any other shipping method."
Alice had ordered the simple white furniture Michelle wanted and then ordered another identical crib. She had a vision of said bed expertly painted with pictures of wolves and the greenery around Forks, and had quickly hired an artist in Seattle to accomplish her very specific version.
Grinning, I kissed her and sent her happily running back down the stairs with a nod.
It didn't take a second for William to appear in the doorway. "May I go with you?"
He was a unique creature. He loved Ellie and Stefanie fiercely, but he was also getting to the developmental age where it just wasn't, as Emmett would say, "cool" to hang with his sisters all the time. He jumped at any opportunity to bond with the males of our family.
"Me too," Henry said, coming to the door just behind William, tugging at the young boy's long black hair.
"Who you attempting to avoid?" I asked Henry while grabbing my wallet and keys from the dresser. We'd need to take the SUV to fit the bed in properly.
"Nobody." He looked solemn for a moment. "I'd like to stop by my mother's grave."
Of course…of course. We all tended Lucy Jamieson's plot when we were in town, but there was something to be said for how Henry comported himself during his visits. He talked to her when he was there, spirit to spirit. It was then I saw the papers in his hands - letters to her. He'd burn them in the bronze brazier by the headstone, letting the ashes float up to heaven where he believed she resided. Rose's hand was all over the delicately decorated stack - the perfection of the ribbon tied around it - one mother saying thanks to the other.
"C'mon, I'd enjoy the company," I told them.
William entertained Henry and I with colorful stories of his and the girls' escapades in Italy as we drove to Seattle. Had I been capable, I'm certain my hair would have turned grey from some of the situations that Carlisle and Jacob had had to pull them out of. I found it amusing that many of the Volturi guard had been recruited to watch them. The triplets were even more inventive and prone to trouble than Nessie and Henry had been, even with Henry's ill-fated experiment with his silly toy car. Jacob and Carlisle had been forced to discipline their children a time or two when their behavior had been too much to tolerate. Fred and Brianna also figured heavily into William's stories; the two of them finally having gotten over their revulsion to William's scent.
I asked Henry what he wanted to do first, and at his direction made the stop by his mother's grave. I had a detour I wanted to make myself, but I knew we could do it on the way out of town. The overcast sky and empty graveyard allowed us to get out of the SUV in front of the plot, and as Henry knelt by his mother's grave, murmuring in a singsong cadence, William and I leaned against the vehicle. He moved to where his legs touched mine…which was a close to an affectionate gesture as I was going to get from the young pup. He was a growing boy after all. One soon to be a man.
"I can't imagine losing Mama. Do you remember yours?" he asked softly, watching Henry brush the debris from the stone with his hands.
I shrugged in response. My human memories weren't the clearest aside from an assortment of specific images.
"Yes and no, I really have more images in my head. She was pretty, and she always wore her hair up….had those tendrils that hung down. They were blonde like mine. I have this one memory of her blowing them out of her face. But, I don't remember her voice."
Henry had done exactly what I expected, lighting the messages he held, only dropping them to the brazier when the fire burned too close to his fingers. He stood elegantly, bowing his head in reverence and prayer. He remained so for at least ten minutes, but even that didn't seem uncalled for considering we weren't able to come by as often as he would like.
"Thank you," he said softly as he approached just minutes later.
My hand to his shoulder was enough to let him know how I felt. William took care of the rest, bumping into him affectionately.
Luckily the artist was home as arranged and as soon as he stopped flitting around us, I lifted the crib into the back of the SUV and secured it with blankets and bungee cords. William placated his ego by praising the thing effusively. Intricately painted with scenes of wolves, deer, the forest, and all the other creatures, except us, who went "boo" in the night, it was a masterpiece. It was beautiful; I would give him that.
"Man, that thing is amazing," William said again as we drove away. "Michelle's and Embry's baby is going to feel like she is sleeping in a story book. Lots of stories and legends hidden on it."
He turned from staring and buckled in, unwilling to risk any trouble with the law, and I took a deep breath of hybrid scent, having held my breath during the time we corresponded with the high-strung man.
"I have a stop I'd like to make as well, on the way home."
"You're going to visit Victoria and Saralynn?" Henry guessed quickly.
"Would like to if you don't have a problem with it. Alice and I stopped by a couple of months ago, but they weren't home. I just thought that since we were in the area…"
"Sure, Uncle Jasper. I've yet to meet her, but I feel like I know her after everything I've heard from you and Aunt Alice," William's voice was excited, keen on being included in the adventure.
"Do they still seem to be making it?" Henry asked.
"Yes. Alice was tickled the last time we went into the house. Saralynn is doing well, enjoying her job, living within her means, and there were a multitude of academic awards on Victoria's walls and bookshelf. There were pictures of her, particularly of her in her soccer uniform, but I'd just like to see her personally. Just imagine how jealous Alice would be!" I teased, earning a chuckle from both Henry and William. I knew Alice might catch the vision of us visiting and smiled inwardly.
We made good time and quickly came to the neighborhood where they lived. It was daytime, but the overcast day had given over to rain, so I hoped for a chance to get out of the vehicle and see her. Within just a few moments of turning off the SUV, Victoria's voice rang out clearly.
"Mama, I'm going crazy inside. I'm going to go out on the back porch to the hammock and read," she called out.
As the toys had left with the disillusionment of childhood, a large hammock had replaced them on the back porch, covered by a new awning. At ten, I thought Victoria entirely too young to give up playing, but it would seem that her love was of reading and soccer.
"We can climb those trees without any hassle or even chance of anyone else seeing us," Henry offered.
He was pointing to a clustering of several trees, one of which was the one Alice and I marked our first trip here in warning to Fred. It was my usual retreat to observe her, and he was right, they were positioned in a way that the neighbors couldn't see. A burst of vampire speed and we could be over the fence and up them with no one the wiser.
I checked to see that no human could see us, cocking my ear and swiveling carefully. Then I nodded.
"Let's go!" William said quickly. He was feeling mischievous…which wasn't unusual for him. Henry wasn't far behind.
William somehow ended up between Henry and me, perching elegantly on a large limb. The backyard was as immaculate as the last time I'd been here; the rain drops plopping down on the small patch of emerald green grass and the immaculate flower garden. A bird feeder in the corner was obviously a well known avian paradise. At least ten separate species hopped around, fluttering their feathers in the warm shower. But the creaking of the hammock drew my attention. Moving over another foot, I was able to get a clear view of her. Honey golden hair, blue eyes, and a sweetly innocent look…she was going to break someone's heart someday. But now, she appeared more like what she'd accused us of being…an angel.
Henry stood up using the cover of the heavy foliage of the spruce before us to see her. "Man she's grown," he noted, most likely remembering the small child of the church three years ago. He whistled when she turned and he saw her face. "She reminds me of someone," he puzzled.
"Really? Alice told me the same thing last time we were here."
"Let me see," William grumbled, not tall enough yet to see over the evergreen. He leapt over me and landed on the limb just up against the tree, garnering a clearer view.
"I don't know…it's not so much that she is a dead on reminder for me, just…I don't know." Henry huffed slightly, but then I was hit with an overwhelming feeling of possession. I had felt it with my siblings and their mates before, most recently with Henry and Anna.
"Shit!"I barely forced out before turning to look beside me.
Henry, having caught on to our problem and been the victim of the same magic as I'd just remembered, already had the phone in his hand. "Jake…we got a problem."
His large frame unnaturally still, like a vampire, William's eyes were glued to the child across the yard.
Mistress POV
Watching the three males fawn over a human child, I had only one thought…foolish immortals.
I'd made forays, with my shadow cloaking me, onto the reservation of the beasts, waiting to get to the newest bride. The latest addition to their so-called "family" would be a good kill, one that would infuriate them, sow discord and confusion, make them feel despair, make them feel weak and useless and make them react unwisely.
But, I'd underestimated the young Edward. He'd thwarted my plans, placing his warrior leader with the witch seer in residence alongside the human female, her mate, and the other beasts and then surrounding him with other fighters. Edward had reacted much differently to my response in the parley letter than I had expected. I could still go after the pregnant human female…oh how sweet that kill would be…to taste her and the baby's blood, but it would be extremely difficult to accomplish given their defenses. It would require me to bring out my legion for the skirmish, and I desired to keep them secret at this time.
So the young leader had made a clever tactical move, and it angered me that I'd underestimated him.
I'd followed them to Seattle, and then to the place of the dead. I'd fed on the man they'd seen, slaking my thirst before following them through the streets.
How amazing…their infatuation with humans. The child was pretty, so very pretty. But, mine were more beautiful; I adored each and every one. I could see my stamp…my contribution to each one.
How was it that the warrior one, Major Jasper Whitlock, didn't recognize his own progeny? Because it was abundantly clear to me. He'd bedded a human female before his change and hadn't…how did humans say it…used protection. Let the warrior and his two companions leave them unguarded, which most certainly they would. I'd find evidence in the woman's house, I was certain, of their ancestry. And when I did, I'd kill the child and her mother and leave the evidence for them to find.
Thoughts? And just so you know, the next chapter is almost done. No long wait!
My utmost thanks to my betas:
To: Cold One Paul – Thank you so much for your extreme polishing of this chapter and for all your thoughts along the way, making it infinitely better. Your help on this and the next chapter were beyond generous!
To: Crmcneill – You can't even imagine how nice it is to get feedback from you across the wires, considering how busy your life is. Many, many thanks my friend.