Chapter Forty Four

Bella

I couldn't believe my eyes, Charlie was standing there large as life but with red eyes and pale skin, he was a vampire, and my mind added this up with what I already knew. I understood suddenly, Caden had bitten Charlie hoping to save his life by transforming him into a vampire and then Charlie had disappeared. Caden thought he'd failed and a bear had taken Charlie's body to feed on it. Somehow Caden's bite had been venomous enough to start the transformation but how had he gotten away from the guardians? They said all they could smell was bear scent, had they lied or had someone or something moved his body before Caden's venom had chance to start its work? I hugged Charlie tightly, so relieved and pleased to have him back but eventually he pulled back enough to look into my face smiling at my huge grin.

"Well, I haven't had a welcome as warm as that in a very long time. It's good to see you to Bella. I didn't want them to tell you about me until I was controlled enough to see you myself."

I stared at him working out the timing, he hadn't been a vampire long yet he was cool and collected, why was that?

"I can see you have a million questions, why don't we sit down and I'll tell you everything. Well, part of it is Kate's story really."

We went inside and sat down tensing as Charity toddled in stopping to look at Charlie,

"Unca Charee, Unca Charee."

She ran into his arms although both Rose and I leaped forward to stop him attacking when he sensed her human blood but Kate smiled and gestured for us to calm down.

"It's OK folks, I wouldn't have brought him here if he wasn't controlled. Charlie is one spooky newborn. I guess I should start the story at the beginning, it's really strange. I had a row with Irina and Tanya and went off on my own into the national park. I often did that if we argued and I was just wandering aimlessly, picking off animals when I was thirsty and then I smelled blood and though I don't live off human blood it did draw me in. I found Charlie laying in a pool of frozen blood with two polar bears squaring off to fight over the carcass. I was going to leave them to it when something made me go closer and I got the scent of a vampire and guardians. The vampire smell was odd and I thought I recognized it but I couldn't put a name to it, I guess it was the human blood that put me off. I knelt down to check leaving the bears to their stand off and that's when I realized that the body wasn't dead but transforming but really slowly. Whatever had happened this human was going to become a new born and something told me he was important. I don't think I understood it was the mating pull that was influencing me, not at the time anyway."

"Mating pull? You and Charlie?"

He snorted,

"Hey, I'm not quite senile just yet Bella."

I apologized grinning and she continued.

"It was the mating pull that made me get him away from the bears and hide him. I wouldn't risk bringing him home in case one of my sisters decided they were interested so I found a cave and hid in there with him. I heard guardian's voices, pissed they couldn't find the human body and didn't relax until they left. After that I decided to help the process along and bit him myself to speed it up. It was awful hearing his screams and trying to keep him well hidden, not that I thought anyone else would come looking for him, they thought he was dead. It wasn't until he came round and then finally remembered enough of his past to tell me that I realized who he was and even then I wasn't sure. I couldn't take him home until I calmed him and hunting seemed to do that, well hunting and spending time alone together."

She smiled coyly and we all laughed.

Charlie took over then,

"At first I was all mixed up, I wasn't sure who I was or where I was. I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten here but slowly, with Kate's help, it started to come together. Caden saved my life Bella. He acted quickly before they could stop him and his action saved me."

"He'll be over the moon, he's still beating himself up at the thought he failed you. We should ring and let him know."

Charlie raised a hand,

"Leave him to enjoy his trip, I'd rather thank him face to face anyhow. It was a real shock when Caden explained everything to me. Vampires and shape shifters. I wanted to kill the Quileutes when I finally remembered but Kate told me if I did that I might acquire a taste for human blood and I didn't want that. She also said I needed to learn how to fight and that came hard coming from a mere girl."

Kate smacked him on the arm and he grimaced then smiled at her tenderly and kissed her cheek. I could see how much in love they were and that made me feel even better, Charlie had a new life, a mate and I still had him in my life, a part of my family.

We talked non stop for hours filling each other in and I understood it was only the woman called Annie who had saved Charlie from being killed by the guardians. I explained what happened when Caden and Charity got back to the reservation, telling my sons story just as he had told it to us.

"What I want to know is how come you are so calm and controlled so quickly Charlie? Newborns often take years to learn self control."

He shrugged,

"I have no idea, but Eleazar thought it might have something to do with Caden's venom."

Eleazar nodded in response to my inquiring look.

"It's only a guess of course but Caden's venom which started Charlie's transformation was diluted, he's only half vampire and I wondered if that might affect the way his body reacted. It took him longer to change, Kate said over a week which is more than twice as long as normal so maybe his body had a better chance to adapt. Charlie does have a gift which also might have helped."

"A gift?"

Charlie winked,

"I was pretty pleased when Eleazar told me that I have some kind of shield. It protects my body from harm or something."

"The best way to describe it would be to say that it prevents harm from befalling Charlie's body and mind. It wasn't strong enough as a human to prevent him from being attacked by the guardians but once Caden's venom entered his system it kick started the shield and it protected his mind from a lot of the agony of the transformation and its my theory, along with Carlisle, that it's the agony of transformation that makes newborns so uncontrollable when they wake up."

"Well, whatever it is I'm mighty pleased because it meant I got to see you more quickly Bella and I can be a part of Caden's life as he grows up."

By the time Caden and the others got back I could see Charlie was ready to burst and when Charity went running out to greet him shouting "Unca Charee" I saw Caden's face darken and knew her words upset him but then he came in and saw Charlie standing there and stopped dead a if he'd seen a ghost.

"Uncle Charlie? But,but you're dead."

"Nearly, but a young man saved my life with his quick thinking and now he's never going to get shot of me."

As the truth of Charlie's words and his new state of being sank in Caden launched himself at his uncle and they stood hugging without the need for any further words.

Eleazar had some more interesting news for us too.

"I wondered about Caden when we visited the first time but I couldn't be sure, it seems reading hybrids is far more difficult than reading full vampires. I heard a few things that made me wonder, the way the children escaped the wolves in Charlie's yard, the way the bears struggled to catch and hold their escapees. Now it's clearer, Charlie isn't the only one with a gift, Caden has one too."

Caden jumped up and down whooping before asking Eleazar what it was hoping I think it might be really cool and to me it was.

"You have a gift similar to your fathers. You can't read the emotions of others well but you can reflect your own emotions magnified on others. It was your fear that unsettled the wolves, your fear for Charity and Charlie that caused the bears such problems. In fact your gift may well have saved your life and that of your uncle and your cousin."

Jasper looked at me and I could see the pride in his eyes, pride I knew was reflected in my own, our son was very special indeed.

Eleazar and Carmen had to go back after the weekend but Charlie and Kate stayed on, neither Caden nor I had the heart to say goodbye. Caden became Charlie's shadow and Charity too followed him around from time to time. Both children regarded him as family and I wasn't sure he would ever get away from us but then he and Kate told us that they had spoken to Esme and Carlisle and would be living here with us for the foreseeable future.

"Caden and Charity will be so happy Charlie, me too."

"If truth be told Bella I couldn't bear saying goodbye to you or the kids, after all you are my family, along with Kate of course."

"And doesn't she mind? After all it means being separated from her sisters."

"Actually she seems to think it's safer staying away although as I pointed out why would either of them want an old crock like me?"