Chapter Eleven

Edward

Carlisle had warned me against leaving Bella alive, but I couldn't bring myself to kill her. I genuinely liked the girl, she was so different from most humans. Unfortunately, she had proved to be uniquely gifted and that made her of interest to the Volturi and a possible threat to our kind. If she could shield her thoughts from me what else was she capable of? It was pointed out to me that we had a duty to protect first the family and secondly our race.

I remembered my conversation with Carlisle only too well. As soon as I responded to his invitation to join me in his study I could tell that he was exasperated with me. Somehow, he had discovered the truth.

The usual welcoming smile and chit chat were missing. Instead, he started his attack before I was even seated!

"Edward, I despair of you sometimes. We are left to our own devices because we do a very special job for the Volturi. You know that. It is our job to fit in, to live among the humans, and keep a watch out for any who could be dangerous to our kind. I made a pact with Aro centuries ago. If he allowed me my freedom to live among the humans without killing them as I wanted, I would keep my eyes open for any threats to our kind and either pass the information onto him if I thought he would be interested or destroy them."

With a sinking feeling I tried to respond, "I know, but…"

Waving away my interruption impatiently he continued.

"By leaving Bella alive with the powerful gift she has you have broken that pact and if Aro finds out we are all doomed. You and Alice may survive, Aro, values your gifts, but the rest of us would quite likely be put to death. Is that what you want? After all these years together? After all I have given you? Do I mean so little to you? Does the fate of Esme and the others not matter?"

"Of course you do, the others too, but I just couldn't do it. You knew Bella, she was gentle and she treated us like we were human even after she learned our secret. I know Aro would be angry if he found out, but why should he? You said yourself that he trusts you."

For the first time, I saw the other side of Carlisle, the vampire side. His fists were clenched and his jaw set as he regarded me.

"Yes, he does and I worked hard to gain that trust, Edward. It took me years to win and I am not going to just throw it away. I like my life among humans. I like living the way I do and I will not put all I have worked for at risk because of your sentimentality. Luckily, I anticipated you might cause me problems on this occasion and acted to put things right."

I frowned, "What do you mean?"

He studied my face closely, "Do you still have feelings for the Swan girl?"

I shook my head, although this was not strictly true.

"No. I just think she deserves to live for keeping our secret. She could easily have blurted it all out after Jasper nearly killed her, but she didn't. She blamed herself. I mean, it gave me the excuse I needed to break things off with her."

"And that's something else. Why did you intervene? It would have been better if Jasper had killed her. We could have staged a car accident and no one would be any the wiser. We could have left town as a grieving family and started over. No one in our world would have questioned her murder at his hands. If he had ever discovered the facts about Bella, Aro would have understood that. As it is, I found myself having to invent excuses just in case the subject ever came up. Aro is suspicious by nature and having him watching you because he smells a rat is not good, Edward. Not good at all."

I hesitated before speaking because I knew it would only cause more problems, but he sat waiting and I knew I had to say something.

"Jasper, yes. I've been meaning to speak to you about him."

Carlisle leaned forward listening with a frown of irritation, "Yes? What about Jasper?"

"Well, you know he insisted he had been trying to protect Bella from the rest of the family and was not attacking her himself?"

"Yes."

He sat back sighing and rolling his eyes, he'd heard this before and was ready with a reply.

"It was an obvious lie. You only have to look at his past to see that. However, it made him feel better to believe the lie and he might have still been useful to me. I feel sorry for poor Alice. She just couldn't believe he would up and leave over something so stupid as a few knowing smirks. Did he really think anyone would believe him?"

I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat, "That's just it. I didn't try to stop him because he wasn't trying to feed on Bella. Sure, for an instant the blood lust from the whole family overwhelmed him, but he controlled it."

Carlisle's eyes narrowed, "Are you trying to tell me that he didn't attack, Bella? Rubbish! And if you think this rather belated piece of information makes any difference you are mistaken. It does not. Besides, if it was the truth why have you waited until now to tell me?"

I shrugged, "I guessed it didn't make any difference, especially as he left almost immediately afterwards. Besides, as I said it gave me a good excuse to leave. There's no reason the Volturi should learn about her, not after we left. Why should they?"

He half stood, leaning over his desk to tower over me, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"Edward, I should kill you myself. You have put everything I have created here at risk for a stupid obsession. First, you assured me that I could rely on Jasper to do what he does best, kill humans, yet you were mistaken. Then you told me that you would deal with the situation. You told me that you had killed Bella in the woods and made it look like a wolf attack. You lied. I had to learn the truth from another. That my son had deceived me. You put me in the position of clearing up your mess before it became a disaster that threatened those I care about. I thought I could trust you, but it seems I was mistaken.

"What did you do? I mean Aro doesn't know anything about Bella and why should he ever discover the truth? He has no reason to suspect you would lie to him. As for Jasper, well, he'll slide back into his old ways soon enough and be taken out by the Volturi or another nomad. Even if Aro were to question him, he can't tell them anything."

Carlisle slammed a fist down on the desk causing a crack to zigzag across its polished surface. I had never seen him so angry before.

"You fool. What if the Romanians got to hear about Bella? I mean you blurted it out to the family in Denali and Tanya and her sisters are not exactly known for their discretion. Eleazar was Volturi for years, what if he still feels some loyalty to them? If Aro found out we had such a gift in our hands and allowed her to slip away and that the Romanians discovered her existence…."

He sat back, the anger leaving his face to be replaced by his usual serene composure, but it was an effort, that much was obvious.

"All of this is beside the point because I have done what was necessary to put right what you did not. However, there is still the matter of your conduct."

I didn't care what he intended to do about my conduct, I needed to know what he had done about Bella.

"How? What did you do, Carlisle?"

"All you need to know is that Bella Swan is dead and we are safe. Never, and I mean never, put my family at risk like that again Edward, or I will hand you over to Aro personally. Do you understand? This is your first and only warning. I will not tolerate any actions that put those I love or my life in danger. Is that understood?"

I nodded, understanding that he meant every word. I wanted to know what he had done, but as he could when he needed to, Carlisle was able to hide his thoughts from me. The only person really able to do so except, of course, for Bella.

I felt wretched as I left Carlisle's study aware of Esme's inquisitive eyes on me. She was wondering what I had done to be summoned to Carlisle's study so preemptively. He wouldn't tell her because he wouldn't want to worry her and I certainly wasn't going to. I felt bad enough as it was.

My first instinct was to return to Forks and find out what Carlisle had done, but that would be far too dangerous. Instead, I searched the internet but found nothing relating to Bella Swan directly. No obituary, nothing, so at least he hadn't had her murdered or kidnapped. There were however some hits for Chief Charles Swan and I clicked on the first to discover that his body had been discovered in the forest close to Forks. It appeared he had been the victim of a wolf or bear attack and had been found by his daughter, Bella who had also been attacked but had survived.

I closed my eyes and groaned, poor Bella, what a shocking thing to happen to her. Then I continued reading only to discover that the article was over a year old. It appeared that Charlie had died shortly after we left Forks.

Was that a coincidence? It seemed a little strange to me that Charlie who was an experienced tracker and a good shot should be taken unawares by a wild animal. So, was it a bear or a wolf? Or had he died at the hands of a person and it was made to look like an animal had done it? Or, and this was another theory, had one of the Quileute wolves gone rogue? I liked that idea best but I couldn't dismiss the suspicion that this had something to do with Carlisle.

It didn't make a lot of sense killing Charlie and leaving Bella alive unless it was a warning to her, but sometimes, just occasionally, Carlisle allowed his true vampire nature to rule him. Not often, but when he was angry, and I had made him angry with my attempts to save Bella.

I scanned through all the articles I could find looking for more about Bella and eventually found a follow up by a local newspaper. It appears that her mother had resurfaced and sent her to a private clinic for rehabilitation. There was no mention of where this clinic was and nothing else I could find referring to her.

Using a program that Emmett had written I was able to search the town records and found that Bella had never returned to Forks. At least, she didn't appear on the voting lists or census, neither did she return to her father's house which had been sold, or sign up for any utilities. So, had she gone away with her mother? Or, as Carlisle had intimated, was she dead?

I was sorry, genuinely so. I'd like Bella and I hadn't wanted to see her a prisoner of Aro and his harpies, or dead. I guess I should have known that Carlisle would never allow her to live as a threat to his precious family. He had guessed that I had become too fond of Bella and maybe he suspected I would do something stupid so had my story checked out.

Oh well, it was out of my hands. Maybe the private clinic was in Volterra. It wouldn't have been difficult to send someone to Forks to assume the role of Bella's mother as she hadn't been seen in Forks since Bella was a baby and if Bella was as badly injured as the reports suggested she may not even be mentally alert enough to see the imposter. Even if she did, a few choice words in Bella's ear would be enough to subdue her.

Until Forks, I had never become especially interested in anyone in particular which made it easy to leave if they didn't discover our secret or kill them if they did. All this while hunting down rogue vampires and gifts for the Volturi. The latter had been more difficult since Eleazar had retired, but we sometimes heard a whisper on the grapevine or stumbled across the odd one. Life was good and although I preferred human blood I had stuck by Carlisle's diet to keep him happy. Besides, it did have its plus side. I could control myself among humans much better when I didn't view them as my next meal.

It made me wonder how Jasper Whitlock had coped on our diet for so long. Surely knowing the taste of human blood as well as he did must tempt him in the company of humans, it did me and I'd only lived as a human hunter for a few years. His history was drenched in it. I guess knowing that made it more important for me to abstain. If he could do it, then I was determined that I could too. Had he sensed my hunger when Bella cut herself? Or was it lost among the others? Did he feel superior because he had controlled not only his own thirst but that of the whole family and still had the strength to try to save her? That thought annoyed me because bottom line, he was the savage, not me.

I wasn't sure why I was still so preoccupied with Jasper Whitlock. He had only been with us a short time and hadn't exactly enamored himself to the rest of the family. He was too intense, too determined to fit in. Alice could do so much better for herself. I was even contemplating moving in on her myself. We would make a formidable team if we linked our two gifts. It was a little early, she was still carrying her bruised ego for all to see, but maybe later.

Poor Bella. Well, she had taught me a valuable lesson. Don't get too involved with a human. They didn't belong in our world and brought nothing but trouble. It was a lesson I wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry. I'd done my best, left her alive, and walked away. I was proud of myself, of my strength in doing so. My humanity was showing through. I would not let it happen again. One stern talking to by Carlisle was more than enough for me. I understood I had stepped too far over the line on this occasion and I was eager to regain my position as his favorite.

I wouldn't think about Bella again. If she was still alive and in Volterra our paths might cross one day. Carlisle was always saying he wanted to visit Italy again. If not, then she lay in an unmarked grave somewhere, but either way, it wasn't my fault.

Carlisle

Edward was becoming a bit of a liability much as I liked him. This mess with the Swan girl had put us all in danger and I was going to ensure nothing like it ever happened again. So far, the Volturi had remained silent concerning her. They didn't watch us because Aro knew he could trust me so chances were we had escaped notice on this occasion. There was no way I was going to tell Aro about Edward's true feelings unless I was forced to and I hoped I had acted swiftly enough.

Laurent had a great opportunity to kill Bella and I had paid him well enough, but then the Quileutes became involved and he died. Luckily there was nothing linking him to me. I liked things neat and tidy, no loose ends. It concerned me that I had allowed myself to believe that Edward would do the right thing. He had always been a little soft and in this case, I had closed my eyes to his stupidity. That meant cleaning up the mess he had left and although I had allowed him to believe that Bella was already dead that was far from the truth.

Bella Swan had vanished into thin air. She could be in Volterra but I doubted it. If Aro had discovered her existence and had captured her I was certain I would have heard about it. Yet last time I spoke to him Aro seemed his normal friendly self.

My cautious feelers had come up empty and I was beginning to believe that either Bella had succumbed to her injuries and been buried quietly or she was in hiding, frightened of the creatures that go bump in the night. Either way, she was not a great threat to me and mine but I would keep a wary eye out for her reemergence. I liked to keep ahead of my enemies, even pathetic human ones.