Edward
So much for a fun evening of dancing and heavy petting. I was silently fuming as I retrieved my cell phone, turning my back on the werewolves. The idea that the hotel room I reserved would most likely go unused aggravated me almost as much as Billy Black's arrogance.
The first person I called was Carlisle. He needed to know about the involvement of other vampires. This was our territory and by law we had to get involved, to keep destruction at a minimum. He was silent as I spoke quickly into the phone while returning to the dance to retrieve my siblings.
"Well, this is certainly much more interesting than what I had planned for tonight." His voice was strained. "I will gather Esme and we will meet you at Charlie Swan's home."
I hung up and found Emmett and Rosalie doing a perfect tango, their range of dance taking up most of the dance floor. Rosalie was resisting her smiles, Emmett was resisting ravishing Rosalie. To top my already ire mood, I was reminded of the sultry look my mate had given my sister.
Sometimes I forgot Bella was bisexual.
I flagged Emmett down, our eyes meeting but he pretended not to see me. He wanted his dance with Rosalie to last. Buzz off for awhile.
Alice and Jasper appeared and I flinched at what they had been doing. Jasper was still fixing his bow tie while Alice fretted over the length of her skirt. "Where's Bella?" Alice asked.
"We have to go. Now."
"Oh thank Fuck!" Emmett bounced in his seat beside me as I carted my family from the prom to Bella's house. Billy Black was tailgating my Volvo and without Bella there to block, I could hear his severe animosity and misplaced anger. "I have been dying for a fight!"
As soon as Emmett and Jasper heard there were vampires about, they all but hopped in my car like two excited school children.
Rosalie was less than pleased, arms folded over her chest as she pouted out the window. Foolish dogs...foolish Bella...I dont care how pretty she is, she's nothing but trouble...
I turned in my seat as I drove. "You think Bella is pretty?"
"Watch the road!" She made to slap me but I turned just in time to avoid her hand.
Great. Was I going to have to worry about Bella and Rosalie...? No. No, it was a fool's worry. I groaned internally, chiding myself as I made myself focus on the issue at hand.
My friend, Jacob Black, was kidnapped and we needed to find him.
Carlisle and Esme were exiting the Mercedes parked across the street as I pulled in behind them. Billy Black shot past me and crudly parked half in Charlie's yard and half in his drive way. For the life of me I couldn't discern why Charlie and Billy were friends to begin with.
The boy named Quil got out slowly, looking at the bundle of vampires crossing Charlie Swan's yard mostly dressed in formal attire. He was uneasy, thinking in jumbled images and in quesy emotions.
I stopped dead in my tracks, my head whipping to stare at him as he recalled an argument between Jacob and Billy hours before where Billy had not only banned the use of magic but thrown out his wife's things.
Billy was thinking of it, too.
Quil snarled at me but it was almost feeble, a habit. He was worried for his friend, his brother. He was supposed to be with Jacob but decided to stay a bit longer with his girlfriend, Claire.
"What?" He seethed at me.
"It wasn't your fault. The witches would have found Jacob regardless and killed you in the process." I offered some comfort to him before entering Charlie Swan's home.
While the wolves had La Push and were allowed in Forks, we were not allowed in La Push. They were here first after all and it was apart of the treaty that we would share the town but they were forbidden to come on our personal property. Charlie offered his home as a treaty free gathering place seeing as how his best friend was the alpha werewolf and his potential son in law was a vampire.
The house was crowded upon entering. Billy and Harry squeezed themselves into the kitchen to speak to Charlie and I had to maneuver around Jasper and Rosalie to get to the stairs. I heard Bella in her room, throwing things.
"Love?" I called through her closed door, tapping on it. "Any luck?"
She ripped the door open and though tonight's events were not my fault, I felt guilt rush over me. Her makeup was smudged, her perfectly done hair was now forced up into a messy bun. She still wore her prom dress but the sleeves had been pushed to her elbows. She was still barefoot. A thick book was cradled in her arms, a book I had only seen a few times since she started making it.
"I need things and stuff." She brushed past me, hopping down the stairs quickly.
"What sort of things?" I called after her, following.
She ducked under Emmett's arm and stepped around Alice, who tried to get out of the way before Bella climbed the back of the couch to step into the center of the living room. She put the book down on the coffee table.
"Can you really find Jacob?" Quil had squeezed in through the doorway and now towered behind Esme, who gave him an awkward but warm smile.
"No. Yes. We'll find out." Bella exhaled loudly. "I need something or someone close to Jacob."
Billy came in, Charlie at his side. "What do you need me to do?"
"Come." Bella knelt in front of the coffee table and summoned the candles from the mantle. They zipped over the fireplace and set themselves in a triangle around her book. "When people have a strong bond, their energies sometimes match or are alike. Think if Jacob was the color blue and you spent so much time with him, you were a little blue, too. Blue enough for this spell to work."
"Okay." Billy sat in the center of the sofa.
"I need a pendelum and a map." Bella said this as if she just realized it.
Charlie returned to the kitchen and came back, handing Billy the map of Forks to hand to Bella. She spread it out on the empty part of the coffee table. "I dont have a pendulum. We can use anything that's attached to a string and has a weight on it." She began to rifle through the drawers of the coffee table.
I sighed and carefully removed my necklace, reaching over Billy to drop it into Bella's silver ringed fingers.
Are you sure? Her eyes said it all, her mouth downturned.
I nodded. I felt naked without it.
"Is that blood?" Quil's face crumpled in disgust.
"Its my blood." Bella said proudly.
"Charlie, you're just cool with your kid giving out blood jewelry to vampires?" Billy scoffed.
Charlie answered swiftly. "It was that or her getting his name tattooed on her."
Bella winked at me despite the seriousness of the situation. She reached for Billy's hand, manipulating his fingers to grasp the chain. Then she cupped both hands over his, holding it. The diamond shaped vial full of dark red fell, swinging over the map.
Bella waited until it was absolutely still. "Dont try to move it. It'll move on its own." She told him, leaning over the book to read from it.
I didn't understand the words she said. I had never bothered to learn Latin. Bella was fluent , the words coming out so easily that they sounded like her first language.
We all waited on baited breath as she chanted, over and over again. After the fifth line, she stopped and looked at the pendlum locket. "Huh." she frowned. "This is supposed to work."
"Maybe you're not a good witch." Billy suggested.
"Maybe you're not a good father." Bella suggested. "Maybe you're not as close to Jacob as you think."
Billy's face first flashed in anger and then in a type of sad, hurt understanding. He dropped my necklace rather rudely and stood up. "Harry, why don't you give it a shot." He grumbled and moved out of the way.
Harry wouldn't look at his Alpha as he traded places with him and sat down.
Bella re did the spell, chanting in Latin while Harry held the blood locket. We watched in fascination as the locket began to sway on its own, slowly at first. Then faster, picking up speed as it swung in a circle. Bella kept chanting, her sweet voice a song.
The locket then snapped, the chain going tight as the sharp point of the locket stabbed a spot on the map.
"Okay!" Bella breathed. "Hold it." She peered down at the map and a frown marred her beautiful face. "The lumber yard?"
Charlie groaned.
"What?' Bella asked slowly.
"I...um...well." He rubbed his head. "It might make sense as to why it's at the lumber yard."
"Why?" She asked again.
He grunted. He didn't want to answer, I saw this in his face. "Because there's a doorway there."
"A doorway to what, Charlie?' Carlisle asked.
"Um...well, to anywhere." He casually picked up a short sword from the weapons rack next to the kitchen. "Various places...like my home world." He coughed that out. "Or hell."
I stared at him pointedly, everyone did. He shifted, uncomfortable under our burning gaze. He picked at something on the hilt of his sword.
"There's a...doorway to hell in Forks." Bella's voice wavered. "There's a doorway to hell in Forks? You didn't think to mention this? Ever?"
Charlie sighed and hung his head back, groaning. "Bells, I've been handling it for nearly twenty years, okay? It's not just hell . The door is like a revolving door that opens to whatever realm. It's better kept a secret."
"Bruh, where the fuck are you from?" Emmett demanded.
"Thats not important. Okay? The doors have been quiet for a few years now. I handle anything that might slip through. But Jacob being there...specifically there...is maybe not a good thing." Charlie said.
"It means...oh..." Bella stood up. "Victoria. Once she got her powers back, she was able to find that door...why?" She looked at me, alarmed. "She told me she already had James tethered. He's here, like Elizabeth is. I don't understand. Why a doorway to hell? Is she trying to pull something from it?"
Carlisle cleared his throat. We looked to him. "Firstly, I want to point out to some atheist in my family that I was right." He looked at me pointedly. "Secondly, we need a plan of attack. Alice?"
Alice bobbed up and down, shaking her head. Jasper grabbed her shoulders to keep her still. "I can't see anything. The wolves are involved so I can't see anything." She fret, wringing her hands.
"Bella, another spell?"
"It'll take longer than a tracking spell." Bella said.
I lifted my chin. "I'll go. I can pick up the thoughts of anyone who will be there. Witch or vampire. I can confirm if Jacob is alive."
"No! That's too dangerous!" Bella snapped.
"Have some faith, darling, I am a vampire." I scoffed and took my locket from here. "A mind reading one at that."
"Well...yeah...but only if I'm not with you." She argued. "What if you get hurt?"
"We'll go with him. Don't worry, Bella." Emmett clapped me on the back, nearly toppling me over the couch.
Charlie looked to Billy. "I'd rally the wolves you can spare away from the reservation, Billy. Let Edward do the recon and he can report back to the numbers."
"We need to move quick. Let me shade you there." Bella insisted.
I nodded in agreement, reaching my hands out. She intertwined our fingers, her lower lip pouting out just a bit and oh, how I wish I could bite that lip. How I wish I could sweep her away to our romantic hotel room with the hot tub and rose petals and fun sex toys I had bought just for her. How I wish I could give her the one gift that was most important.
Emmett clamped onto my shoulder, Jasper clamping onto the other one.
"In and out?" Bella was uneasy, her warm hands pinning mine.
"Yes." I nodded and Bella's Void swallowed us.
We were spat out in the empty road in front of the lumber yard. My brothers, who haven't traveled like that before, toppled over each other.
Bella looked worriedly up at me. "I'll be right back." She promised. "I'm coming right back. I have to--"
"Go." I kissed her nose and she shivered, releasing my hands and vanishing.
Jasper shoved Emmett off of him, the dirt of the road staining Emmett's white tux. I stared past them, at Forks Lumber. It was an average lumber yard, fenced in with chain link. A warehouse, a front office, stacks and stacks of various types of lumber obscuring majority view of the buildings.
It was in the middle of the night and it looked like no one was here. It was dark and most of all it was quiet.
I don't hear anything. Jasper thought warily.
Emmett made to go forward, determined but I grabbed his arm to stop him.
"If I learned anything about witches..." I bent down and picked up a rock. Then I launched it at the empty gap between gate.
The rock bounced off an invisible force, rocketing back towards us. We ducked down to avoid it as it soared over our heads.
I flit to the gates, peering into the supposedly vacant lumber yard. I strained my mind, reaching out to try and pick up anything.
Nothing.
I focused a bit more, closing my eyes, taking time...
Bella had said Victoria was a perfectionist. A good student who worked hard...luckily for me, Jacob Black was loud.His thoughts were loud, indeed but they were everywhere. Panic and fear. He was immobilized, unable to turn his head and he stared up at the night sky while someone spoke quietly near him.
"...this boy will do..." A man was speaking. "Once I've taken his body, we must hurry to open the doorway."
"Summoning takes time." Ah, Victoria. "We can't rush this. Bella is too preoccupied with her stupid dance, she won't even know he's missing."Victoria seemed to underestimate Bella's compassion.
"How lucky is it that we found a doorway to other realms in this very town and how very unlucky is it that this is a town inhabited by vampires, werewolves and a Fae hunter." James's voice was clipped, annoyed. "It isn't just Bella I fear.
""We have our own army, James." Victoria soothed him. "Revolutionist, dreamers. We're safe."
I left Jacob's mind to seek Victoria's. She would know everything. I couldn't get her mind. Why would I before and not now? Was she intentionally blocking me? Did she intentionally allow me to read her mind at the skating rink?
Back to Jacob. His head fell to the side and I got a clear image in his head of the size of the coven. I counted ten witches, including Laurent who was arguing quietly with a vampire female. Jacob recognized her as the vampire who kidnapped him.
I recognized her from Jasper's memory.
"Ooooohhhhh." I hissed through my teeth, looking apologetically at my brother who have me a baffled look. "Maria is in there."
His eyes popped open wide.
Beside Maria, there stood four more vampires. All male. They're minds were hard to pick up because of the ward. Only Jacob was easy to pick up and I wasn't sure why.
His thoughts turned pessimistic. I'm going to die, aren't I? I am. I'm totally going to die. Fuck, death by ritual sacrifice... He resigned himself to this fate. He was horrorfied by the idea of someone else taking over his body.
Were there more? I backed away from the ward, taking out my cellphone and I texted the numbers to Charlie. The day Bella recieved her prom dress, Charlie had offered to train me. Train me like he was trained. I had thought it was us bonding, him seeing me as a part of the family.
He was very quick to tell me otherwise. I told him yes, anything to protect Bella...and we never had the chance to. I have fought my own kind before and I was adept, but there was an attractiveness to me weilding a sword and Bella being impressed by me.
Bella appeared beside me and like a warm hug, everything was silent. "Any luck?" She asked.
"Yes. Besides Laurent, most of the witches are young girls." I told her quietly.
She blanched. "Fuck. Vampires?"
"Five."
"We can't spill blood." Bella pinched her lip between her thumb and forefinger.
"Edward." Jasper got my aattention. "If blood is spilled...I dont know how much help I can be." I might be a problem.
"Do all witches taste like you?" Emmett asked slowly and we both turned to look at him. He shrugged.
I texted Charlie details while Bella began to rock back and forth on the heels of her feet, breathing in deeply. While I noticed what she did (when didnt I?) I didn't realize that she was physching herself up.
"Hey, Ward?" Bella said.
"Yes?"
"I have an idea and it involves you forgiving me for this." She shook out her hands and began to bounce on her feet like a boxer.
"Forgive you for what--" I looked up at her and she vanished.
The ward around the lumber mill suddenly became visible. It was akin to a plasma globe lamp, magical golden beams licking up the sides of a transparent dome that covered the entire lumber yard. My eyes found Bella immediately as she shot through the top of the dome. Yes. The fucking top of the goddamn magic dome.
"Bella!" I roared, flitting to the gate and bouncing off of it. I watched, helplessly as Bella Swan fell to her death.
So now we know what Charlie does in his free time
I am aware of Bella's hypocrisy and yes this was intentional. Yes, Edward is now jealous of his sister. Yes, Billy is being written as the hard headed alpha male who can't emotionally connect with his son. Yes, Charlie tooooottaaally topped Harry
Please leave a review