Disclaimer: I own a paperclip...SHOOT... it just broke – I own a broken paperclip.
THANKS TO ALL MY ANGSTY FRUSTRATED REVIEWERS
Albnal33: Don't you remember the waiver you signed? No? Lily Turtle Inc. Is in no way responsible for any ulcers you may obtain for reading this story. Page 4, line 12.
Minimeyer: NOOOOO anything but the ninja monkeys. Here, take my wallet...On second thought...I like monkeys.
Nobodyparticular: Cherish the forest. Cherish it...
Deepcutfighter: Here ya go. You might regret your statements though.
Mattybabe: Tanya is on my hit list right now, too...at like #1.
Rockin roxy: Me neither. I cried when I wrote it. But maybe there's an...ulterior motive...hmmmmm...I've said too much.
Twilightfan9748: I like caps lock too...
Kersicca: I shall save you beloved hairdryer... Snatches it from kersicca's evil grip...hahahaha. I had a laughing spasm when you talked about Edward's volvo. TANYA WILL GET HER COMEUPANCE!!!! IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO.
Just remember, dear readers, what goes down...must come up. Close your eyes and pretend that that was in the correct order.
Chapter 7
His face brought my waterworks to a standstill, and pure, unadulterated rage took their place, filling me to the core.
He looked sad and confused. "Bella..." he started, holding his hands out in front of him, "let me explain."
I stood. "Explain what?" I screamed, "Explain how you lied, explain how you didn't come to my house because you were flirting with that...that...HER!"
His face looked shocked. I don't think that he had ever seen me this angry. At that, neither had I.
His face fell, and he walked towards me, reaching out a hand to touch my face.
I turned away, "Don't touch me," I commanded.
He flinched, a mortified expression screwing up his features.
I knew that I hadn't really seen anything, that they were just laughing and talking together, that I shouldn't be like this, but...Jeeze, it had to be HER! Jealousy was overwhelming me.
"You have absolutely nothing to worry about," I mimicked the pack of lies he told me this morning, "You call that nothing...She was practically on top of you."
He was crestfallen, "Bella, I swear..."
"Save it," I snapped viciously.
"Let me just explain!" he cried.
I looked at him with calculating eyes, "Five minutes." My tone was terse, the intensity in my eyes beat that in his to Timbuktu and back.
"Bella," he started frantically, "I honestly..." he looked around at Alice's walls, fumbling for words, "I just don't know what came over me. I...I...SHE kissed ME!" he finished – like that made it all better.
It didn't, not in any way, shape, or form.
I heard Alice clear her throat and Edward turned to look at her. "She didn't see that?"
Alice shook her head.
Edward turned pale...er. "No, wait, before you..." he started.
I walked up to him with my hand raised, ready to slap him.
I had snapped. No snapped was wrong. I'd left snapped twenty miles back in the dust, the moment 'kiss' was mentioned.
Jaw muscles clenched, I retracted my hand. I couldn't ever bring myself to do anything like that, even if it wouldn't actually hurt him.
"Bella, please..." he begged.
"Keep digging that hole deeper, Ed," I said sadistically, "You're halfway to China by now – Bring me back some lo mien."
"But, it...it...I told her to stop after it happened, and then, I don't know how I could've," his gaze was penetrating, trying to make me understand his pitiful excuses, "I'm so sorry. From the depths of my being, Bella, I...it was like it wasn't me at all, and then when I saw you..." his frantic voice trailed off. He fell to his knees, "Bella, PLEASE listen!"
His begging was undoing me, and for a moment, I almost forgave him entirely. But then I saw them laughing and kissing in my mind's eye, and I was back to angry desperation.
"Don't," I told him, holding up a hand to stop his meaningless torrent of words. "You obviously weren't that sorry about kissing her, or you wouldn't have been laughing when I walked in," I bit my lip and tried to stop the waterworks, "Just go."
The look Edward was fixing my way would stay with me for eternity...not that I had that anymore. It was hopelessness and hurt – and I was the one who put it there.
All the same, he turned and slowly exited the room.
My knees buckled and I fell to the floor the moment the door closed. The sorrow that was building up in me was too much for my human frame to handle. The excess came out through thick tears that rushed down my cheeks and onto the carpet.
I felt like I was dying, only instead of my life flashing before my eyes, memories of me and Edward were. Us in our meadow. Him playing his lullaby on the piano. The sweet things he said to me that made my heart melt.
I sobbed aloud, trying to block out the thoughts with some sort of noise. It was then that I noticed that I was sobbing against something – Alice's shoulder.
"Shhhh, Bella, it'll be all right," she said, ever the optimist.
I cried harder. Of course it wouldn't be all right. There wouldn't be a wedding. There wouldn't be any more loving kisses or whispers. No more flying when he ran. It was done, finished, and with it, so was my life.
"He...kissed...her?" I managed to ask through my gasps.
Alice was quiet.
Translation: Yes.
Sobs were ripping from my throat.
"Bella, there's something strange going on," she said, "Something's not quite right."
So I noticed. I looked up at her through my tears.
"I've known Edward for forever and he would never do something like that – least of all to you," she said, and for a moment, I dared to hope that everything could be normal again.
The door creaked. I didn't even want to know who was there.
"Get out," Alice yelled, "NOW!"
She sounded like a vampire then, and the door shut quickly.
"Bella," she asked tentatively, "do you want to go home?"
Home? I didn't have one anymore. Tanya had ripped it out from under my feet.
I shook my head into her shoulder.
"Umm...okay," she said, "I guess you can sleep in my room."
Clearly, Alice wasn't too sure how to handle a heartbroken human who was crying tears all over her, at a guess, $400 designer shirt. The circles she was rubbing in my back helped some, though.
My gasping eventually stopped, and then all that remained were silent tears.
After ten minutes had passed, Alice finally spoke again, "Bella...they're having a sort of...meeting downstairs about Irina," she sounded uncomfortable, "do you want to...er...come?"
My head shot up, and I wiped the remaining moisture off my face with the back of my sleeve. A new determined look came into my eyes. "Yes," I said fiercely. I was going to do something. I didn't know what yet, but I was going to do it.
I stood and walked out.
BNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEB
Coming down the stairs, I saw the vampires congregated around the coffee table. The first thing that came to my attention was the lack of a certain one – Edward.
Tanya smiled at me like I was her best friend. Kate glared. The rest of the Cullens, even Rosalie, and Eleazar were looking at me with sad, pitying expressions. Carmen looked bored, but the strangest look of all came from Josius.
He was staring at me intensely. His eyes were – urging. I looked away, and his expression turned to disappointment. I didn't miss it.
Maybe Alice was right. Maybe there was something off.
Alice and I sat on a large futon.
I looked at Jasper, and he cringed. My emotions must have been attacking him. Sending him an apologetic smile, I mouthed "Sorry".
He shook his head and closed his eyes. Calm contentment helped dull the pain a bit.
Then, I had an idea. I glanced at Tanya and smiled evilly. He returned it and looked at her.
Suddenly, Tanya began fidgeting, a confused look on her face.
Alice looked at Carlisle, "Shouldn't we wait for Edward - you know," she looked at the Denalis, "in case this gets...out of hand."
I wondered what she'd seen. Carlisle only nodded.
Rosalie rolled her eyes, clearly bored.
We sat like that in silence for a while, till Emmett broke it, "Alice, where is he?"
"On his way back," she told them.
Back? "Back from where?" I asked.
She looked at me sheepishly, "Oregon."
I'd made him run all the way to Oregon and back. At least Tanya wasn't there.
Just then, Tanya jumped up, "Maybe I should go look for him," she suggested, using her persuasive purring tone.
"NO!" I practically shouted. "I mean no," I corrected.
"Bella's right," Jasper said, "Edward needs to be alone." He shot Tanya a glare that would melt glaciers.
Jasper turned his gaze once again upon Tanya, and she started fidgeting in her chair. She looked like a little kid who had to go use the potty...Maybe that was the emotion Jasper was torturing her with. I smiled.
Emmett crossed his arms and leaned back into the sofa cushions. "Let's do something."
"Baseball?" Rosalie suggested.
Emmett glowered. "Not stormy enough."
Jasper gave me a weird grin. "I think Bella should pick," he said.
My eyes widened. I looked like a deer in the headlights. What game could I possibly win against a bunch of super-strong vampires?
Suddenly, I was hit with an idea. The tiny Cruella Devil inside my head laughed maniacally. I was going to make a spotted fur coat out of Tanya.
"Monopoly," I said.
"I call red," Alice cried.
BNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNEBNE
It was three in the morning. My arm was sore from moving my blue piece around the gameboard.
Tension mounted as I rolled the dice. If I could only get a five.
The little white cube rolled around in slow motion. Two. Four. Six...FIVE!
Triumphantly, with a madenned look in my eyes, I claimed park place. I was laughing. No, wrong, I was in hysterics.
Alice put her hand around my shoulders. "Relax."
I'd calm down for Alice, but confetti was falling inside my head. I won! I beat Tanya! I had completey, absolutely, positively, 100 lost it...but that was okay. The look on Tanya's face was priceless.
Jasper looked at Alice, "Alice where is Edward?"
Alice shrugged, "I guess we'll have to start without him."
I shot her a nervous look, but she brushed it off. As much as I was trying to push him out of my mind, I was worried.
Carlisle began, "Now, Emmett, how is the search coming along?"
Emmett shot Jasper a nervous glance. "We think we followed a wrong trail. We think some bastard's setting us up, leading us on."
Kate snorted. "Are you saying someone kidnapped Irina?"
"I have to say," Eleazar said, "Knowing what she knows...what we all knew, well, that would make her a dangerous target. I'm guessing we wouldn't be here if they'd known that she'd told us."
I furrowed my brow, then noticed that I wasn't alone. The Cullens were confused, too.
Tanya was back to trembling again. Man, Jasper was my favorite.
Josius sighed, "We hate to put you at so much risk, but it has become necessary. There are things stronger than vampires in the world," she started. His ominous tone was ruined by his silky voice. "They...they usually keep to themselves, that is, until they are bothered."
Carlisle's expression was slightly bewildered, a new look for him. "Stronger?" he asked.
Stronger than a vampire? Carlisle worried? I wanted Edward back now.
Josius continued, "Yes...they're a group of beings known as the Malinaught. They're immortal, like us, but far older, and far more dangerous. They're the inspiration behind demons. The Malinaught love to possess people. In short, Irina bothered them. She knew where they were hiding and she was too brazen."
Vampires, werewolves, demons...Unicorns had to be around here somewhere.
Kate huffed, "You'd think after hundreds of years she would learn."
"We came..." Josius continued hestitantly, his voice walking on eggshells, "We came to bolster our numbers so to speak...once we were sure she hadn't left of her own volition."
These thoughts rattled around in my brain for a bit, before finally sinking in. When they finally did, I wished they hadn't.
There was going to be another war.
Esme spoke first. "You came to put my family in danger?" she demanded incredulously. There was a new note in her voice – anger.
"After you wouldn't give us the time of day when we asked you to help us fight Victoria?" Emmett yelled.
Tanya was still fidgeting. Kate leaned over and whispered something to her.
I looked at Alice then, and noticed that she was staring out into space again.
"What is it?" Jasper asked her.
"Edward's back," she said happily, "He's found her...or well, she found him."
I heard a crash, and heard the door being ripped off it's hinges.
Edward strolled and glared at Josius, eyes black. A redheaded goddess skipped up beside him. So, this was Irina.
Josius glared back.
All of a sudden, Edward's eyes were golden again.
Of course! Edward couldn't read his mind. He was dissapointed with me. Maybe, just maybe, Edward was forced into cheating on me.
"Josius' power is mind control!" I cried.
Everyone gave me a strange look, then turned it on Josius. "Is this true?" Carlisle asked.
Josius was the picture of innocence. "Of course not," he said, looking at them all intently.
"See, Bella, nothing to worry about," Alice chirped.
I gaped at her, then turned to glare at him. Of course they wouldn't believe me...they wouldn't believe me because HE didn't want them to. And I was the only one immune, just like with Alice's gift and Jane's.
He smiled at me menacingly. This was not good.
I was in deep water. My fiancee was kissing another woman. A war was coming up, and the only people on my side were being brainwashed.
"How did the door get broken?" Esme asked.
Only one word could describe the situation: Damnit.
TBC...tehehehehehe
A/N: How I wish I could give you more...NOT. Suffer. SUFFER...lol. jk. That's really all I have time for tonight. I honestly didn't mean for it to be this serious. More tomorrow, I promise. This is killing me, too. I cried writing this chapter. I'm really surprised my keyboard isn't fried. So I will leave you with the worst situation it was humanly possible for me to create...but hey, it wouldn't be much of a plot without a problem. How will they get out of this one? If they get out...