A/N for 2019-12-29: This will be the last post on this story for 2019. I never imagined it would take so long to write or edit it, thinking it would be all wrapped up by the end of summer. Pardon me while I laugh at myself. So, thank you to you all for sticking with it. A giant thank you to Eeyorefan12, for her dedication in beta-ing this story.
Happy reading. Looking forward to hearing what you think!
~ Erin
Summer in Forks was rarely what could be called hot, but this August had become abruptly so. The regular and low cloud cover sealed in the unusual heat, making for a suddenly muggy and sticky few days and nights. While this didn't bother Edward, he knew it did Bella, and it gave him the selfish opportunity to stay physically closer to her at night. Of course, it made leaving her harder, especially when he knew he should hunt. He'd suggested buying an air conditioner, but Bella had said no. They'd soon be leaving for their home in Vancouver, and he knew it was a cost she didn't feel was warranted for so short a time.
Still, he suspected that it wasn't just the unnecessary expense that had kept her from accepting the offer. Since the memorial, he'd become aware that she'd set a series of reminders on her phone to eat and drink, sparing Edward the task of having to do so. She happily joined him on morning walks without her usual commentary about knowing how to keep active and he hadn't once felt he should remind her to put her feet up when she was relaxing on the sofa. He'd also noticed that she had started to spend more time chatting with the other Cullens, often enquiring about the activities of the absent family members. All were things that demonstrated her awareness of, and gratitude towards the family that was protecting her, as well as a desire to make the task as easy for them as possible.
Even so, the idea that Bella or the children were at all uncomfortable in their temporary home, even for a short time, was unacceptable to him. And when Emmett's thoughts suggested he thought his brother was refusing to buy an air conditioner because he liked having an excuse to hold Bella all night, Edward eyed Emmett shrewdly before inviting his brother on a trip to the hardware store.
Emmett had happily accepted, his mind anticipating fireworks between Bella and Edward upon their return.
When they got back, Bella was sitting in her favourite reading spot in front of the doors to the balcony. These stood open to capture the weak afternoon breeze. He watched her alternate between fanning herself with her magazine and reading it before walking over to kiss her in greeting. Not sure how to make his confession, he stepped back, feeling suddenly like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or how he assumed that would feel since stealing a cookie was not something that had crossed his mind in a hundred years . . . if ever.
"I bought something," he began.
Bella closed the magazine and set it in her lap. "Okay?"
"You've been so uncomfortable lately, and even though we talked about it I . . . decided to—"
"Completely ignore your wishes and buy you an air conditioner!" Emmett exclaimed as he practically burst into the room with the huge box in his arms. Then he just stood there, grinning gleefully at them both. Waiting.
And waiting.
Bella acknowledged Emmett by looking at him, and then turned back to Edward. Her face scrunched up in concentration for a moment before she spoke. "Thanks for helping, Emmett," she said politely and quietly, still looking at Edward.
Edward didn't need his mind-reading ability to sense Emmett's disappointment. With a large sigh, Emmett set down the box he was carrying before he turned and left.
"Um, thank you," Bella said to Edward. While the words were spoken sincerely, they were solemn too. Edward frowned at her troubled expression.
"Come sit with me?" she asked quietly.
He did, waiting with equal parts curiosity and concern for her to speak.
"I made a huge mistake the other day," she began. "I get that. I'm trying to get my head wrapped around how I got there, so I don't get there again." A bitter smile flickered on her face. "I suppose I can finally find some value in all that psychotherapy I thought had been for nothing."
Her words left Edward confused. He'd spoken harshly after the funeral—and he'd needed to at the time—but where this was coming from, he had no clue. Following his return from his much-needed hunt that evening, they had not talked of the event again.
Bella continued speaking. "I am trying to get my priorities in order, and I understand I have some damage to repair. I just—I don't want us to fall back into patterns that were not good for us—"
"Bella," Edward said, gently interrupting her. "I bought an air-conditioner because I didn't want you to be hot and so you can rest better at night. I'd have bought one for the children, too, if they were at all uncomfortable in their sleep, but they seem to be fine. I'm not sure what you're interpreting this to mean—" he paused, abruptly realizing she might have taken Emmett's tone-deaf sense of humour the wrong way. "You don't think I'm trying to be petty or vengeful, do you?"
"No!" she said. "Never." She shook her head for emphasis. "But I wouldn't blame if you'd thought that my judgement was becoming questionable, or unreliable—"
"Not at all." He spoke the words firmly. He took one of her hands in both of his. "I'm sorry. I didn't even consider that possible interpretation."
This time, Bella's smile was still small, but genuine. "No, most people wouldn't. Sorry, that habit is going to take a long time to break."
He squeezed her fingers, and she squeezed his back. "What did you mean by falling back into patterns that aren't good for us?"
She sighed. "I don't feel like I have a lot of moral high ground to argue from about . . . areas for growth, behaviour-wise."
"That sounds like something you would write on a report card." Edward teased gently, trying to lighten the moment. "It's okay. Tell me."
"I suppose it was a product of our differences in age and experience. When we were first together you could be very . . . high-handed, at times."
Yes, he had been.
She went on: "And I was very young, and didn't know how to stand up for myself. Or even that I should."
Also true. He nodded, encouraging her to go on.
She rubbed her thumb and forefinger over the ring finger of his left hand. "And when we first talked about getting married, we agreed to discuss our larger purchases. Together."
They had. He opened his mouth to say as much, but she kept talking.
"But you also promised you would protect me. And I accepted that. I also know that I've made that job a lot more difficult for you. That I've complicated things with the wolves in a way that I could have easily avoided." She swallowed, the motion of her fingers coming more quickly and less evenly. She was more than nervous. She was anxious.
He brought his hand over her twitching fingers to still them. "I doubt that either of us have made our last mistakes in our relationship." He didn't want to minimize the gravity of her rash action, but he also wanted her to keep it in perspective.
"Sorry," Bella said. He could smell her tears.
His hand travelled to cup and cool her cheek. "I did not buy an air-conditioner to make you cry."
"No, I didn't think so," Bella said, laughing and crying at the same time. She wiped her hand across her eyes. "I know that I'm still learning how to be with you in a way that's healthy. I don't need to be afraid of you controlling me. I know you've changed. I'm just getting there more slowly. Much more slowly."
Edward sighed, sliding his arm around her. "I can return the thing, you know."
"No," Bella said, her voice muffled as she turned into his chest. "I'm really hot."
It was all Edward could do to keep a straight face as several minds downstairs reacted to Bella's double-entendre. Emmett's whispered "That's what she said!" earned him a slap to the back of the head from Rosalie.
"In so very many ways, yes," Edward said, ignoring his family and nudging Bella's head up with his own for a kiss.
She giggled. "Emmett's jokes are rubbing off on you."
Edward rolled his eyes and grinned. "Emmett feels cheated. He was all ready to make pop-corn and sell tickets to the Great Air Conditioner battle."
Bella shook her head. "I'm not sorry for disappointing him."
"Me either." He turned his head, projecting his voice so Emmett would know for whom his next comment was intended. "But you were supposed to be the only one crying."
There was a distant, booming, "As if!"
As preparations for their return to Vancouver were underway, there was an increased sense of urgency in the Cullen household, but also a general feeling that they were leaving things undone. Chief among the concerns was the current situation with the Quileutes. Although there had been no contact between them since the incident at Sue's memorial, Edward knew as well as the rest of the family that Sam and the pack believed the Cullens were at fault not only for Sue's death but for not keeping their territory safe enough. Now they would be leaving again and the thought of yet another conversation with Sam over their failings was not a good one.
Although Edward still tried to take a patrol shift occasionally, his concern for Bella and the children kept him close to home more than the others. For weeks, even before what had happened, he had even been hunting nearer the house than he normally would, forcing himself to feed on whatever meager wildlife was available in the surrounding woods or simply going without more often than not. It was unsustainable, though, and he knew it. He needed to keep up his strength to be at his best for both surveillance and in the event of an attack from Victoria.
It was for that reason that he decided to join Alice and Jasper for their hunt that evening. And the moment he made the decision, Alice leaped up from her seat in the living room.
"Edward! What are you thinking about?"
He could see the vision in her head at almost the same moment. The three siblings, standing frozen in the forest in a place he recognized was several miles east of the house, and listening to something . . . no, someone. Someone related in some way to Victoria.
Jasper was already on his feet, clearly reading the situation even without the benefit of seeing the vision. Edward cast a glance upstairs to where Bella and Esme were getting the children ready for bed.
"Go. I'll catch up."
Alice and Jasper headed for the door, she explaining rapidly what she had seen. Edward dashed upstairs, passing Esme as she was heading down the hall to collect the children's pajamas. He knew she had heard the conversation downstairs and he smiled his gratitude as she silently assured him that she would watch over the little family upstairs while he was gone.
The moment Bella saw him, she seemed to know what he planned to say. She paused in her reading to Meredith and Josh and he saw her swallow hard before she gave him a brave smile. "You have to go." she said. It was not a question.
"Yes, I . . . we'll be back as soon as we can."
"Man." Josh said solemnly.
He didn't have time to do or say what he wanted. Instead, he ran his hand briefly over Josh's head, then Meredith's, before he leaned down to give Bella a chaste kiss. It would have to be enough. Still, it felt as if he was tearing himself in half as he turned and left the room and then the house.
He caught up to Jasper and Alice quickly. The terrain was already familiar to the three of them, as were its sounds and smells. So when a new and alarming scent suddenly wafted downwind, they froze in place. Edward quickly spotted the similarity of their surroundings to Alice's vision The offshore wind kept them safe from being scented, but they were too close to keep moving without being heard by another of their kind.
Edward looked at Alice, wondering if she could see anything new but she shook her head, frowning in concentration. He tapped a finger to his temple to indicate that he was hearing thoughts.
And what he heard chilled him.
His instinct was to run back to his mate, plant himself at the door to their room, and snarl at any harm that might come near. But he made himself be still, listening to the things that made his innards turn to ice.
Someone had found the Cullens' scents. Now the thoughts were weaving plans to find the origins of those scents, and destroy them. One of Victoria's helpers was tantalizingly close. If they could find them and catch them—
Stay here! Jasper warned silently, picking up on Edward's emotional response
Edward's gaze snapped to his siblings, where he watched Alice's lips move noiselessly as she explained what she was seeing to Jasper. The new visions were only fragments of what Edward was hearing but at least it was something.
Jasper directed more of his thoughts at Edward. If it is one of her helpers, then we have a perfect opportunity to hear their plans, and to let them think we'll be caught unaware.
The logic of his brother's thoughts doused Edward's more feral urges. Yes, Jasper was right. Letting this creature go would be to their advantage. Reining in his conflicting desires, he remained taut and still, absorbing every thought Victoria's creature produced.
The young vampire wasn't quite a newborn, but was still new enough to this life to have the scattered thought-patterns Edward associated with them. The near-newborn's inability to focus meant that Edward received far more information than he would expect from an older, more disciplined vampire, but it came in a jumble of disjointed ideas and images that Edward would need to sort out later.
What he could make out for now made him shake his head in frustration. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't heard it himself. The man's musings seemed incredible to him, especially since Edward could see how they could be effective. He found himself stretching his focus to its limits, working to gain whatever he could.
Jasper's hand snaked out to take Alice's hand, a whisper of flesh in the noisy night air. The other mind didn't notice it, too preoccupied with scouting the area. Edward knew Jasper's gesture as one that signalled his awareness of his wife's visions. With his attention divided between all the minds present, he could see Alice's future flickers, and he understood the reasons for her distress.
Alice's thoughts were a pastiche of violent images featuring vivid red eyes, gnashing teeth and dismembering hands. Nearly all the images featured some of the Cullens' bodies in pieces, strewn over the ground sparkling in sunlight. Alice shuddered beside them.
Edward continued to listen until he felt himself straining to hear, as the young vampire's thoughts at first grew dim and then petered out to nothing. Free to speak, he opened his mouth, but Jasper's voice broke the night air first.
"When?" Jasper whispered. With his gifts, he didn't have to ask what. He'd seen and felt enough of his wife's reactions to know it was bad.
"Soon. The leaves still look the same, and it will be sunny and cool."
"Next week," Edward muttered. He'd been following the weather out of concern for Bella. The heat was supposed to break sometime next week, when a small cold-front would move in off the pacific. "Let's go," he whispered. He needn't have said it aloud. Alice and Jasper were already turned to face home. Their run was silent and purposeful, faces grim.
Esme asked, "Did you find them?" as soon as they walked into the living room.
Edward shook his head, running upstairs to see Bella first. He'd been afraid that she would worry too much to go to bed but thankfully, he found her sound asleep, twisted up in tangled sheets which were half-on and half-off. The new air conditioner hummed away in the window where he had installed it, keeping the room nicely cool, but his girl was still a decidedly restless sleeper. He untangled a corner of the sheet and brought it up to cover her. She would kick it off soon enough, but he didn't like the pimpling gooseflesh over her arms.
Alice and Jasper were sharing what they knew downstairs, and he knew he needed to flesh out the many holes in their knowledge. There wasn't much time left tonight, either, before Emmett and Rosalie needed to leave to follow Charlie home from a visit to Seth and his family. But the woman he loved was before him, and he felt easier just being in her physical presence. He took a few extra moments to let the calm wash over him before he shook his head and forced himself to leave his mate for the second time that night. There were things to attend to, and they were equally as important, if only to assure that he would continue to have Bella in his life for as long as fate allowed.
The remainder of his vampire family sat at the dining room table, laptops closed, bodies still. Their eyes followed him to his seat.
"What did you learn?" Carlisle asked.
Edward prefaced his words with an intake of breath that he wished could soothe him. All it did was draw in the scents of those he loved, reminding him just how much rested on what he'd gathered in the woods.
"Victoria has an army of newborns, and she's sending them after us here. Sometime next week."
Carlisle was the only one who reacted by folding his hands together on the table in front of him, the human habit so well ingrained as to be near-instinctual. The rest of them wore their distress on their faces in wrinkled brows and tight jaws. Jasper had explained that there was some sort of attack coming, but an army . . .
Edward paused to finish gathering his thoughts. He needed to tell them how she'd managed to not just to accrue so many helpers, but more importantly, how she was managing them. The snippets of information he'd stolen in the forest had now coalesced in a way that he could understand it more clearly.
"We were right about the reports of the missing people in the area. She's been choosing them carefully. I'm not sure how she's getting her information on them, but they're all people with living families, and close family ties. Ties they've managed to hold onto even as newborns." He shook his head. It was so counter to everything they knew to be true about vampire culture, especially in newborns who were so strongly ruled by instinct and bloodlust that their past lives were usually quickly obscured. Everyone at this table was aware of how difficult it was to hang onto the memories and emotional connections of their former lives. It took curation to keep those bonds alive. Victoria would have had to work very hard to do this, unless she could possibly have a helper with gifts as the Volturi did, but the chances of that seemed slim.
His family's thoughts pulled him away from these speculations. They were waiting on more of his insights. "She's told them that we are a coven of vampires who are anathema to our kind. An abomination. We," and he laughed bitterly, "torture our human prey before drinking from them, as well as hunting indiscriminately, taking any human we please, regardless of the consequences." He wasn't sure how this aspect was credible even to these largely isolated newborns, but the one he'd heard certainly believed Victoria. "But the lie that really keeps them in line is that we hunt the relations of those newly turned, as a means of exerting our control."
"It's a brilliant strategy," Jasper said.
Rose's nose wrinkled in disgust.
"It is," Jasper insisted. "She's bought them on moral and emotional grounds, and the people who are most likely to discredit her are the ones she's made them hate. All they've likely known of our kind is her."
"She's told them that she chose them because they were pure of heart and knew that they would help her," Edward added. "They know we killed James, but obviously not the circumstances around his death. She has told them that she created them out of desperation. Which she did." He shook his head. "Her army of the pure-hearted."
"Are they?" Esme asked. She was worried that this was a true description, and that they would be forced to kill creatures who might otherwise be convinced to live peaceful, immortal lives.
And here was more of Victoria's brilliance. So far as Edward had seen, they were. The man he'd heard had been a nurse as a human. In even considering his choice of prey, which his hunger had driven him to hunt for, he'd wrestled with his bloodlust, trying to reason where he would find people whose actions and station ranked them lower in his warped, moral hierarchy. Edward didn't answer Esme's question aloud but he could tell by her thoughts that his silence had done it for him. He gave her an empathetic smile.
"How many of them are there?" Emmett asked.
Alice answered this. "It's hard to say. It keeps changing, but . . . twenty?"
"And you can see them?" Esme asked. "I thought—"
"I don't know how," Alice said. "I still haven't seen her, but when we smelled him, I could suddenly see things."
"Could it be a ruse?" Carlisle asked. "Someone playing with the limitations of your vision?"
"I suppose," Alice said, looking at Jasper, squeezing his hand. Edward could hear the frustration in her thoughts, her sense that she wasn't protecting the family well enough. He briefly reflected on the burdens each of them privately carried but no one so much as Alice; when he caught her eye, she sent him a silent 'thank you' for his concern.
"I don't see how it serves them to let us see them coming, unless they aren't, and they want us prepared so they can attack on another front?" Jasper frowned.
"They've already tested the wolves," Rose said. "Or our alliance with the wolves, which is practically non-existent."
Edward's head snapped up. He'd assumed that Victoria had been torturing Bella with Sue's death, but perhaps it was more. Perhaps they were testing just how tight the ties were between them. The treaty was on the thinnest of terms. If Sue could fall through that crack, what else could? Was Victoria simply testing to see how weak they were? He asked as much.
Jasper nodded grimly. "It makes sense."
"Then we need to repair that gap and ask for the wolves' help," Carlisle said softly. He eyed Alice, who had already shared with the family the various grim versions of what she'd seen.
While the sky was beginning to lighten, it was still too early to contact Sam, and their request would need to be carefully crafted.
So it was that when the sun rose, Josh was the first human occupant to rise with it.
"Man!" he said when he found Edward standing before the windows in the family room, staring out at nothing. It was clear to Josh that he was not receiving the attention he was due and he gave Edward's arm a tentative pat.
"Sorry," Edward said to Josh. "I was just thinking about something." He was thinking about so many things. "But I see that my favorite little boy is here. How would you like some pancakes?"
Josh's delighted grin was just the thing Edward needed right then.
Bella woke before Meredith, walking slowly down the stairs towards the living room and kitchen.
"There you are," she said, greeting Edward with a kiss. She looked with affection at her son who was sitting at the table with Edward's culinary prowess in front of him, drizzled with just the right amount of maple syrup.
"Pancakes! Mom, pancakes!"
She gave Josh a quick peck on the top of his head, avoiding his sticky hands.
"Morning," Edward murmured, standing to indicate that she should take a seat at the table.
Bella's forehead crinkled. He could see in her face that he was in no way convincing her that everything was alright. "How did . . . things go?" she mouthed.
He smiled, or attempted to. "Why don't you eat something, and then I'll fill you in after."
Bella frowned. It was the face that said she didn't like being managed, especially since she'd been so good about this lately, but she obviously knew him well enough to know that there would be no point in arguing. "Okay," she said, going to the fridge and pulling out a hard-boiled egg, completely ignoring the bowl of pancake batter on the counter. She ate the egg rapidly, and then grabbed a glass of water, drinking it just as quickly. "I've eaten. What's going on?"
"Josh," Rose called from down the hall, "do you want to help me fix the jeep?"
"Help!" Josh replied, hopping up from his unfinished second pancake.
Bella didn't object to this normally objectionable behaviour, eyeing Edward warily.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked again.
As Edward came close to Bella, he drew her to the corner and the two upholstered chairs by the windows. "We caught a break in our search but It's not good news," he murmured.
"I can tell," she said. She kept a firm grip on his hand as they faced each other.
Edward explained what they'd learned, trying to balance offering the truth while keeping back the uglier details. His efforts were not as effective as he'd hoped for.
Bella's heart rate had risen by the time he was done. "Okay," she whispered, face pale. "So, they're coming. What's the plan?"
"We're going to ask the wolves for help." The words fell flat out of his mouth. He wasn't at all certain of the pack's cooperation.
She winced. "I'm so sorry. If I hadn't—"
He shook his head. "No. We've all made mistakes. There's no point in rehashing them." There wasn't really; he could reassure her of at least this. There was little else he could reassure her of at this moment.
She cupped his face with her hands. "You are very chivalrous in dismissing what I did, but I don't want to pretend it didn't happen, or that it wasn't a mistake. Being honest about these things gives us clarity in looking forward through this, together."
Together. Yes, they were together in this mess. He just needed a way to remove them all from it.
When Carlisle phoned Sam later that morning to ask for a meeting, the pack leader didn't answer conventionally, saying, "Were my words in some way unclear last time, or did you not figure out we didn't need to talk unless it's an emergency?"
As always, Carlisle was unflappable. "As it happens, there is something that falls into that category, but I'd rather not trust it to a phone call. Can we meet in person?"
Sam grumbled out his agreement and the details of their meeting point and time later that evening.
Edward dreaded it, moving through the day like a condemned man. He fully expected Sam to say no. After all, what incentive did they have to keep Victoria's helpers at bay? The Cullens would decimate the newborns' numbers, but the wolves could easily eliminate the remaining ones who slipped through. It could solve many of Sam's problems but only if he'd agree. As for other help, there were only the Denalis, and the hope on that front was even thinner.
With Emmett and Rose away, it was again Carlisle and Edward who went to meet the wolf pack, leaving the rest of the family (and their best strategist in Jasper) at the house. As Edward and his father moved through the forest to the reservation, Carlisle brought up the suggestion Edward had heard him ruminating on for most of the day.
I believe we need to make a decision before we speak with Sam.
Edward nodded. He could already hear where this was going.
In order for Sam to believe us, it will probably become necessary to tell him about your gift. The wolves are still unaware of it?
"They seem to be," Edward replied. "Bella believes she never said anything to Jacob about my ability—although she did tell him about Alice and Jasper."
Interesting.
Edward nodded. "I think . . . even after the pain I caused her then, she was still trying to protect me, in her own way."
It sounds that way, Carlisle agreed. And I know your talent has always given the family a strategic advantage in situations such as this one but I'm not sure Sam will be convinced of our true intentions unless we're prepared to share this information. I'd like your permission to do so.
Edward nodded. "You never have to ask, Carlisle. Of course we'll tell them if you think it will help our cause."
They arrived at the meeting place soon after. It was somewhat disconcerting that Sam had chosen to surround himself with no fewer than eight pack members—in wolf form—but they knew it to be a show of force and had no grounds to object.
"Thank you for meeting us," Carlisle said. "I'll get right to the point."
"That's a relief," Sam said sardonically.
Carlisle ignored him. Edward divided his own attention so that he could monitor the thoughts of the wolves in the clearing. So far they were of one mind, all of them feeling frustrated that Sam had ordered them to stand down for the time being.
Carlisle went on. "We have already told you about the female vampire who is carrying a grudge against our family for killing her mate and that we believe she is responsible for Sue Clearwater's death. We have learned that she is creating an army of new vampires-possibly as many as twenty of them. We have also become aware of a plan to attack our family in order to get to Bella and her children, and we have come to ask for your help."
"Become aware how?" Sam wanted to know. Edward could hear the skepticism in his thoughts.
"Edward, Alice, and Jasper came upon one of them in the woods yesterday evening." Carlisle was playing this close to the vest, Edward thought. He was still reluctant to give away any advantage his son's mind-reading could offer them in the future. But Edward could already hear the way Sam's thoughts were going and he knew the revelation was inevitable. Sam's mind was suddenly full of questions.
"Did they kill it?"
"No."
"What the hell?!" Sam snarled at Edward incredulously. "They killed Sue!"
"This one wasn't involved," Edward said calmly, then added, "He thinks we killed her."
You did. Sam didn't say it out loud, so Edward didn't respond to the cheap shot.
"So," Sam began,his voice heavy with sarcasm, "you expect me to believe this random leech just shared his boss' plans with you? Like, what . . . some kind of professional courtesy?"
It was time. Carlisle glanced apologetically at Edward, who nodded his agreement, before he answered Sam. "Edward heard his thoughts."
This threw Sam for a moment. "Wait . . . you can all hear each other? Like we . . . like you read each others' minds?" Edward didn't miss the near-slip.
"Not exactly." Carlisle answered him. "It's a gift only Edward has."
"That's convenient," Sam snorted. "So, you want us to back you in a fight and all of a sudden, the one who has the most to lose develops the ability to read the minds of other bloodsuckers?"
"Anyone's." Edward corrected him.
"Anyone's what?"
"I can read anyone's mind."
Sam was nearly laughing at how ridiculous he thought the idea was. "You expect me to believe this? That you have this amazing skill no other vampire has to hear what people think?"
Edward sighed. "Believe it or don't . . . but surely you are aware that such abilities exist. It's not much different than your ability to communicate with other members of your pack when you're in wolf form."
Sam stared at him, startled. "What?"
"You heard me correctly."
Sam was struggling for an explanation. "H-how do you know about that? Did Bella hear it from Jacob? Did she tell you?"
"She didn't have to," Edward said. "I can hear any of you . . . in any form."
Sam was clearly thrown. Edward had been in this situation only a handful of times in his century of life, where he had chosen to share knowledge of his gift, and he waited impatiently as Sam's mind cycled through the typical thought patterns: first, identifying his past interactions with Edward to find evidence of his claim, then rifling through those situations to determine what he might have let slip that made him or the wolves more vulnerable. Finally, he came to the conclusion Edward expected and had been hoping for-that if this was true, the Cullens had an advantage that made them infinitely more dangerous and it might be in his and the pack's best interest to cooperate with them.
But first, Sam would test his claimed ability. Edward expected nothing less.
So, you can hear me right now? Sam thought at him.
Edward resisted rolling his eyes and nodded carefully instead.
How many of you will be fighting?
"As many as we can spare," Edward told him, assuming Carlisle would glean most of the conversation from his spoken responses. "We will need to continue to watch Charlie and Bella but if we can arrange for them to be together, most of us will fight. If your pack joined us, we would have more than enough to defeat an inexperienced group."
Sam's expression became thoughtful . . . even cagey. What if we said we'd watch both Charlie and Bella for you? And her kids?
The suggestion was ludicrous to Edward, especially when he could hear the motivation behind the offer. "No! Absolutely not!"
"Edward?" Carlisle was concerned now.
"Sam is suggesting that we leave my family with some of the wolves while we fight."
Sam let out a derisive snort. "Well, one thing's for sure—I believe you now about the mind-reading thing. But, here you are, asking for our help and I make one request . . . "
"I am not handing over my fiancee and her children as ransom!" Edward spat back at him.
Carlisle, ever the peacemaker, made an attempt to calm him. "Perhaps ransom is too strong a word, Edward. If Sam is offering their help . . . "
"Ransom is exactly the correct word," Edward countered. "Isn't it, Sam?"
Sam smiled and shrugged, enjoying the feeling that he was gaining some power back. "If you Cullens want our help, we need to know that you'll keep your end of the bargain."
Less consciously, Sam was thinking about where he could stow his newest and least predictable wolves. They were too new to be safe in battle, but he seemed to think they would be safe guarding Bella. It made Edward's skin crawl.
But he could hear Carlisle's thoughts as well, now only directed at him.
We may not have the luxury of refusing help from an ally, as uncomfortable as it may seem. Son, think of Bella.
What else could he possibly be thinking of?
He nodded, his jaw tight. "We will . . . consider it." he said through his teeth.
"We're very grateful for your help," Carlisle said to Sam. "Thank you for meeting with us. We'll contact you tomorrow to discuss the next steps in preparing."
Carlisle's more urgent thoughts tugged Edward away and he followed his father into the night before his ire could undermine the tenuous help they had secured at such an unacceptable cost.
DISCLAIMER: S. Meyer owns Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.