Chapter Fifty Three
Charlie
I had no idea quite what Alice meant but I was willing to try anything to help Bella so I went upstairs to sit with her, freeing Carmen and Irina to go back downstairs. They had heard the conversation and Carmen patted my arm,
"We will sort this out Charlie. You have both been attacked under our roof and we take that very seriously. Bella is sleeping at the moment but if you can get her to try drinking might help."
I nodded knowing as well as she did that it was useless but unwilling to give in to this blackmail. I walked in and shut the door very quietly not wanting to disturb her. She opened her eyes anyway and I saw they were ringed by dark shadows and her face had sunken in, the way she looked shocked me and she must have seen it on my face.
"Not such a pretty sight just now I guess dad. Where's Jasper?"
"He'll be up soon honey but there's a problem."
She tried to struggle upright but she was just too weak, whatever they had done to me was nothing to what Bella had been subjected to so I helped her sit up and propped her there with pillows. She looked at the glass of water by the bed and licked her lips but when I offered it she just shook her head,
"It will just make me feel worse and my ribs and stomach ache so much already from retching. What's the problem? Is Jasper OK?"
She was laying here very ill yet her first thought was for him, a sign of devotion if ever there was one! I took her hand and sat on the edge of the bed,
"Bella this isn't a bug or anything like that, someone is doing this to you after trying it on me first. They want Jasper to fight for them against the Volturi by blackmailing him. If he doesn't help them then they have threatened to kill you."
"No he mustn't, Jasper has fought too much in his life I don't want him to fight because of me."
"You think he's going to refuse and risk losing you honey? If you do then you don't know him very well."
She struggled to sit up straight and I put an arm around her fragile shoulders to help her seeing her glance at the tumbler of water again so I held it to her lips but with the first sip she started retching again and tears rolled down her face, losing precious fluid from her suffering body. I felt something give a little nudge in my head and I wondered if it was the gift Alice had alluded too.
She lay back against the pillows and wiped her tears away with a shaking hand.
"There has to be another way dad. Please help him."
That was Bella all over, deathly ill herself but only interested in others and I felt enraged at these Romanians, how dare they treat my daughter like this? The nudge became a blinding light inside my brain flooding it and as I watched it appeared around us wrapping us within. Bella gazed listlessly but I picked up the tumbler and held it to her parched lips.
"Its OK Bells I think you'll be all right now. Try to drink something for me please baby."
She took a sip and as it trickled down her throat she smiled weakly then took more until I was forced to take the tumbler away.
"You need to take it a little at a time. Don't worry, I won't let them stop you again."
The door opened and Esme and Carmen came in followed by a worried looking Jasper and Alice who looked more at ease.
"I told you it would work Charlie. You need to keep it up for a while though."
Esme reached out to touch Bella but the light seemed to solidify between her hand and Bella's arm stopping them from touching so I tried to lower it and it flickered dangerously.
"No Charlie don't do that, you have to keep that up so Bella can recover her strength. There's only one person who can get through, or at least I think he can."
Alice looked at Jasper who moved forward very slowly and reached out his hand to touch Bella's and his floated through the light to clasp hers.
"Bella."
His word was a sigh and she leaned against him keeping my hand in hers but I knew I'd lost my little girl forever by the look in his eyes, that boy would do anything for her, even risk death.
"Right Carmen I think we'll try Bella on some soup, just a little at first."
She nodded at Carlisle's words, he'd come back in unnoticed and smiled at me,
"Well Charlie you're more vampire like than we thought, that's quite a gift you have there."
"I think it only works on Bella though because she's his flesh and blood and he loves her."
Alice was trying to explain it to the others as they came in to see Bella, free of the terrible gift that had tormented her.
Bella
After half a mug of soup and a glass of water I felt much better but I think the closeness with Jasper did as much for me as anything. Leaning against his chest with his arm around me settled me completely although it seemed odd to have my dad the other side of the bed holding my other hand. He was talking quietly to Tanya who had come in and pulled up a chair close to him. I'm sure his need to stay by me was cramping her style but to me she seemed a little different, she didn't watch the other guys, Emmett and Edward any more, something I'd noticed about all three girls as if they were hard-wired to take notice of all men, The other thing was that when the other girls came in to see me they didn't take any notice of Charlie, as if he'd been accepted as Tanya's man. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but I was in no position to be feeling anything except relieved. I was still very tired and weak but the soup had helped and I was happy not to be throwing up any longer, it was embarrassing especially in a house full of super fit and healthy vampires! When I'd slept Jasper, who hadn't left my side I'd heard his voice in my dreams, had been busy on the phone getting his friends ready for the fight which he explained to me was inevitable although I had begged him not to take any risks on my behalf.
"Bella, I don't have any choice. I wont put you at risk and now the Romanians have approached me I have two choices. I can work with them and try to kill the Volturi or I can kill the Romanians and hope that will show my loyalty to the Volturi. If I do nothing both sides will see me as a risk and you would be the first casualty. Both sides will try to kill or capture you to force me to act for them."
"I don't want you risking your life. I can't live without you"
My voice was a whisper and I knew Charlie could still hear me but I didn't care, it was the truth and although Charlie was helping me, because he was my father and he loved me, my first concern was Jasper. I wanted to get up and help with the planning but Carlisle wouldn't allow it.
"You stay there young lady. You aren't getting up until you've eaten a solid meal and kept it down. Besides if this Dante has someone keeping an eye on things here we don't want them seeing you up and about."
Jasper backed him so I was forced to stay in bed for the rest of that day and night but at least Jasper stayed by my side and I did feel better for it.
