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THANKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! Sorry for the absence...vacation.
Hypergiggles: awwww, thanks, top 5? Wow! Oh, the flattery! Lol. You could print it out, put it in a fancy smancy binder (you know, the three ring ones at walmart with Jack Sparrow on them) and call it a book if you like. Oh, and, notta problem. I hope she gets her computer fixed so I can see the next chapter.
Jennifer: Chapter 30 the end? Chapter 30 the endddd?! BLASPHEMY I TELL YOU! BLASHPEMY! ATROCITY! HYPOCRISY! AN ABOMINATION! A LOATHATION! SHEER MADNESS (like me right now). But, erm, if your still reading, thanks.
Dlmadlang: I know what you mean. I read lines over and over, especially the more beautiful ones. Gosh, I love those authors who take something ordinary or kind of plain, and put it in a beautiful light...anyway, Im just rambling now. Sorry bout the SAT scores... / I wont be able to sleep at all tonight for the guilt. Nice adjective, captivating...I have a thing for them. :D
Thegirlfromamestris1912: I was lost in the remotest remote section of the rain forest for ten days and ten nights, searching for the rare brazilian polka dotted tiger! Our helicopter crashed into a flying oranguatan, and went careening out of the sky. I, tragically, was the only survivor. I survived on just Pringle crumbs and polluted water for a week, nearly getting trampled by polar bears, eaten alive by mutant, giant pirana, and stubbing my toe on a rather frightening looking tree. You can read about it in newsweek...
Minimeyer: YAY!! You're blue and underlined now!
Transfiguration: Thanks! Seriously funny: that's an oxymoron. I love it.
Supernaturalgirl: Ah, well, then I think you'll enjoy this chapter. And thanks.
Jasmine: Aw, you think Im wonderful... (blush to end all blushes)
Monkey: Quite alright my darling, I was lost in a rainforest, you can read about it in thegirlfromamestris1912's shoutout. (but really it was the beach), so I delayed a bunch.
Twilight-babes: thanks. :D
Kerssica: No joke. Carlisle's really slacking this time on his Dr. Awesomeness. Wonder if his insurance will cover it? Hmmm... I was actually thinking of sean connery when bella said "sexy old man"...or harrison ford. WHY am I attracted to older men? Why can't I help it? Ggrrrrrr, ah well, better than being attracted to way older women I always say! Lol. Death threats are useless. Im trying out this new thing. It's called being invincible!! So bring on your rocketlaunchers, bring on your Transformer (TM) slicemdicem accessories, bring on the pocketknives! They cant hurt me. MWUHAHAHA. My end is nigh...NEVER! P.S. I love you...no not you!! I was talking about the movie! You should rent it. It has sexy, old gerard butler in it. ;) and my brain wants to ask you something. Here it is... "Will you, Kerssica, marry me?" No, I didn't have anything to do with it.
Tatiana: Thanks. Hi yourself.
EllenDean: Stories without thrills are just not appealing to me. (sigh) I do believe I miss out on things because of that. BUTTTTT, thank you. Im glad you liked my description seeing as I just made it up, and its not a typical fairy one. Lol...old fart. Edward, you're an old fart. What if someone told him that? HAHAHA!! Could you imagine his expression? And there I go, getting carried away again. Thanks... Im still revelling in the applause...Im on round 2, 568.
IsabellaDreamer: Okay, and thanks.
ALRIGHT, NO TIME TO FINISH THE REVIEWER SHOUTOUTS. ILL PUT UP A SEPERATE SECTION TOMOROW AROUND 4 TO FINISH THEM STARTING WITH EDWARDXD, BUT I REALLY WANT TO POST THIS CHAPTER AND ITS LATE, AND I HAD 43 REVIEWS, SO... YEAH. THANKS FOR NOW! YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU. BUT HEY, GIRL'S GOTTA SLEEP.
NOTE: Findabhair is pronounced Fin-a-veer. Súmaire means vampire in Gaelic.
Chapter 31
"And just what do you think you are doing?" rang out Alice 's clear voice. She was dodging trees beside us, running.
"Protecting my wife," spat his blunt reply.
I wanted to simultaneously both start and thrill to that last word, the one that I had been taught equated to prisons, and Hell, and all sorts of other negative places. Why then, I wondered, did I feel as if being married to Edward gave me wings? Why did his mere presence beside me fly me up to the heavens? Certainly I was soaring now, up with the birds and the stars, now just starting to peep through the hazy purple clouds, and with the silver crescent moon. Our lives were at stake, yes. I knew that very well, but it just didn't matter as long as I was with him. He was my own personal shield against fear itself.
"Didn't you hear me?" Alice asked, astonishment in her voice, and was that…disappointment also? "We need you!"
Edward never stopped running, but I could feel the corded muscles of his back tense, pulling in like an accordion. He was angry. "Bella." He said the word like it explained away everything.
"Family," Alice insisted.
I didn't need to ask what was happening. I could deduce from Edward's overprotective nature, Alice 's insistence, and the knowledge that reading minds was a perfectly good way to determine names, that Edward was leaving his family, our family, behind to fend for themselves to get me to safety.
"Stop it!" I commanded, angry now. I was sick of this. Sick of me standing in happiness' way for the people I loved. "Right now. I'm serious Edward. Turn around."
"Or what?" he challenged.
He had a point there…or did he? I saved his life after all.
"Or I'll divorce you…" I tried. My voice couldn't summon up enough conviction to pull it off successfully though.
"No," he said simply, "you wouldn't."
"It wasn't a yes or no question, Edward," I told him.
"It's out of the question, Bella."
I sighed, not because he'd defeated me, but because he was undefeatable, with me as his opponent anyway.
"They're my family, too," I said quietly, trying a different tone, a pleading one.
His steps slowed, barely, but still, they did.
I continued with this tactic. "They're your family. Our family."
Trees whipped by less frequently as his pace weakened. I continued, "If something were to happen to them…" I trailed off, unable to finish because of the emotion that statement drove into me like a stake. "It would kill me," I finished quietly. That was the brick wall that stopped him dead in his tracks. Any thought of my pain repulsed him, he hadn't been lying about that one.
He turned toward Alice. "But Bella..." he said.
She shook her head. "You can see for yourself that nothing's going to happen to her."
"Things change."
"You're going to control them, Edward. They'll do whatever you want them to."
I could see by the way his ruby-tinged eyes darted from side to side that he was racking his brain for excuses. "But the vampires..." he settled on. "I can't control them."
Alice tapped two fingers on the top of her head. "Why won't you believe what you can see? It's right there, all spelled out in black and white. As soon as you control the fairies, the vampires are out of there. Stop being stubborn! It's irritating, and we don't have time to move Bella somewhere else." It sounded like she was holding something back.
His eyes narrowed, and they peered at Alice intently for a second. "Jasper," he answered her. "I see."
If my new sister's eyes could have welled up with tears, they would have. "Please, Edward. Please!" It killed me to hear her voice break, to hear her beg for her husband's life.
"Please," I added.
Edward huffed, then turned his unusual orbs upon me. Written there, was regret and sorrow I hoped he'd never have to feel. But before I could reply, he'd turned around and started running in the opposite direction, toward the battle.
"Thank you," Alice chirped, seriousness vanished, tone back to her day-to-day pep.
Edward didn't bother replying.
"Whenever this is over," he said to me, low and dark, "we're putting you in full body armor until you're changed."
I shrugged. "Nearly getting killed: just an average day in the life of Bella Cullen."
I knew he was grinning without having to look at him.
"Bella Cullen...that's a nice name."
"I rather like it myself," I said. "It's catchy."
Deep bells pealed through the forest when Edward laughed. I glanced sideways to see Alice. She was the only other object beside Edward that wasn't blurred. Her eyes were rolling, but she smiled all the same.
The Sun was disappearing, the clock's hand ticking dusk away slowly. Everything was plum and dark green mush from my perspective. I clung to him, and smelled his sweet scent, just breathing him in. My hands clutched to the shirt on his chest, and my thighs tightened around his waist. Eyes shut tight, picturing us in a different scenario, running towards a different destination, I'd never wanted him more. Something in my stomach leapt up, writhed, and was unsettled, demanding...
I felt it whenever he ran, felt his streamlined muscles contract through the smooth, granite skin, the bones of his shoulder blades moving in and out like wings. Before that moment, I'd never stopped to really feel the contours of his strong form. Now, I couldn't get enough of them. I pressed my stomach closer to his back and borrowed my face into his shoulder.
"Bella..." he started, "I don't mean to be rude but...you're making this exceedingly difficult for me. In a very, very good way, but still... If you don't...stop," the words came out awkward, "I don't think I'll...make it much farther."
Immediately, blood rushed to my cheeks in a flush to beat all flushes, and I released my death grip on him, holding him as I normally would. My gaze flashed to Alice. She was smirking, obviously trying to do a shabby job of containing her laughter. I was sure my face was a nice crimson by now.
"Excuse you," I told her, "but I never really got my wedding night, so..." I couldn't finish that statement with any threat that would remotely hurt her. As a replacement, I huffed and turned around.
She let one giggle escape. "I don't really blame you I guess. Abstinence...I mean absence makes the heart grow fonder." She giggled again.
In that moment, I could have punched her square in the face.
Edward fidgeted uncomfortably beneath me.
Then, he said something most unexpected. "You'll get your wedding night, I promise," he murmured. That something in my stomach flailed longingly. "And Alice, if you laugh, I will personally cut every credit card you own into microscopic pieces."
Ah, he'd found an applicable, successful threat. Apparently, the future told her that he was serious, for not even a snicker escaped her lips.
Soon, we came to a skidding halt at the battleground. The fairies, I noted with dismay, had forced the vampires into the woods. In front of Edward's feet, an arm, detached from an unlucky vampire's shoulder, crawled across, using its splayed fingers as rows.
Edward gracefully stepped over it and closer to the action. I was terrified to notice that the fairies were together, reformed into a solid group. The number of limbs, torsos, and decapitated heads scattered across the ground was frightening, too, not to mention appalling. Bile rose in my throat. I could tell the fairies' limbs and the vampires' apart though.
Vampires were solid, no blood stains, and most were still moving. The fairies' parts, however, were oozing some sort of pearly blue liquid, spreading out over the grass in sky-colored puddles that were vaguely reflective in the dying light.
The heads, though, those were the worst. So like humans, and so angelically beautiful. With their closed eyes, and no sunbeams to make the skin sparkle, they could've been people who I passed in the streets. Correction: super models I passed in the streets, but normal human beings all the same.
My heart broke a little for these perfect strangers lying dead and scattered across the field. Edward kept walking though, and I forced by vision to the still living part of the war.
"Get down," he commanded quietly.
Obediently, my legs and arms unwrapped themselves, and my feet landed on the ground. Edward put one arm around me and pulled me against his side. The other hand, I could see, was clenched into a fist, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
"Findabhair!" Edward's powerful voice bellowed. "Stop the attack."
As if by some spell he had cast upon them, the fairies stopped moving and advancing. They were caught in that moment, by some invisible net, and stood perfectly still. The only exception was their cascading hair, swaying in the wind like leaves would. Again, I was captivated. The only thing that kept me from running toward them was Edward's tight grip.
"Come here, Findabhair," Edward said. "Now."
The tallest of them stepped back and turned. It's glossy hair, straight and black as pitch, wrapped around its face like a whiptail. Its chest was bare and faintly glowing, the paper skin nearly transparent. Black markings covered it in places, a sword driven into a star as the centerpiece, and words I couldn't begin to pronounce down its arms. The trousers it wore were made of the same silver, shimmering material the other fairies had on, and its feet, just like the rest I now realized, were unshod. Fury was blazing hot in its oily orbs. Its jaw was clenched, and the sides of its face were pulled back like the ears of an angry animal. It walked towards us, leaning back in reluctance to do so. It strode with a gate more like floating though. Its head didn't bob up and down. Instead, it stayed at one level.
It stopped a few feet from us, and despite myself, I cowered into Edward's chest. Rage exuded from its every pore, a wrath too immense to be contained by human emotions.
"What?" he blurt out. The tone clearly showed that it was a "he". That one word, though spat, had a lilt to it and sounded like a melody in itself. These fairies really were beautiful in every way. It was my experience though, that the most beautiful creatures were also often the most evil.
"You have to take an oath," Edward replied coolly.
Never removing its endless orbs from Edward's, the fairy sunk down to his knees in the grass. Even so, he was as tall as I was.
"Unseely promises won't do you much benefit, súmaire, as they are rarely kept," Findabhair gritted out.
I could barely grasp the meaning of the phrase through the haze that fell over me at its sonorous enchantment.
"You'll keep this one," Edward demanded. "Won't you, Findabhair?"
The fairy's face contorted at the utterance of his name. "Yes," he sang tersely. "Name it."
Edward mused a second, before holding out his and to the fairy palm forward. Shakily, clear effort put into it not to do so, Findabhair's hand rose to touch Edward's.
"Findabhair," Edward started, "You will take your army and leave." A jolt shot through Findabhair at that command. Edward continued, "You will not attack or kill another human, vampire, or... werewolf again." As the fairy quaked yet again, I looked at Edward, surprised at how he had included "werewolf" in that statement. I was sure it was for my sake. "Unless... bidden to by Carlisle Cullen, and only Carlisle Cullen. Do you swear?" That made sense. Vampires looking for an ally now knew the name and could control the fairy. Carlisle would never be even remotely tempted by that power.
Findabhair trembled violently.
Edward tried a different tactic. "Swear to it, Findabhair!"
"I swear to it. Geallaim!" The voice shook, the melody staccato now.
"Good," Edward said sharply.
The fairy rose to his feet. "Is that truly all you wish for? Truly what you most deeply desire?" A grin twisted his red lips, and Edward froze, hypnotized. "You can easily posses it with me under your control, King of the Unseely. You can have anything you want." The colors in his eyes swirled together in the blackness.
Edward didn't answer. That was worrisome. Then again, even I didn't want to speak, didn't want to interrupt this glorious harmony.
"Or you?" He turned to look down at me. "What is it you want, my dear?"
A thousand different things flashed through my head: not to be clumsy, Jacob to be my best friend again, eternity with Edward, to name a few.
"I want..." I started.
Edward cut me off. "Don't play your tricks with her," he snarled.
The fairy turned its disappointed gaze back to my husband of three days. "As you wish. I'll leave here, but you can't bar me from the rest of the world. I'll dance and work my wicked ways to and fro' upon the earth. Death isn't my delight anyway. I much prefer my victims alive." He said this so casually, with a shake of his head. "Anyway, probability binds us to see one another again. Till next time." Then, Findabhair tipped a nonexistent hat, bowed low, and disappeared into a shimmering powder along with the rest of his army.
Vaguely, I wondered if I could fly were I to step through it and think happy thoughts.
All was still and silent now. The vampires didn't even cheer in victory. They stayed stony.
"It's over," Carlisle called, coming to stand beside Alice, Edward, and I. "You may leave now."
Some left, leaving so fast that the only indicators of their exit were holes left in the ranks. Most, unfortunately, remained.
I recognized some unwelcome ones then: the Volturi. They were standing in the middle, near the front, in a large cluster. The others had left them a wide berth.
Then, with horror, I watched them approach me. Out of nowhere, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme came to stand beside me.
The seven of them stopped when they'd gotten close enough for me to hear them, but it was too close for comfort. Sharing a planet with them was too close for comfort to me.
"Bella," Aro's eerie voice called out to me. "Still human I see... and still so utterly fascinating."
I gulped. 'Hello' wasn't exactly a fitting greeting.
Alec spoke next. "Still so gloomy, Cullens? Maybe your lack of a proper diet for the past century has something to do with it. You should consider converting." He grinned and flashed his white teeth, still looking exactly the same as I remembered him. Same burgundy eyes, same spotless suit, same short, dark hair, the same murderer of the innocent...
I flinched.
"Carlisle!" Caius spoke. "We haven't had a chat in a good long while. Maybe we should...you know..." the same sickening smirk contorted his expression, "reminisce about the olden days."
"I'm fine, thank you Caius." Carlisle politely declined.
"Tsk, tsk," Caius scolded, white hair prominent even in this dim light. "You never were much fun. Was he, Jane?" He looked over at the one who could've passed for a child, and yet, the most intimidating.
"No," she said in her juvenile voice, before grinning and looking to Aro.
"Now, now, Jane, I don't believe that will be necessary," he said, tone still light and airy. I sighed in relief that Jane wouldn't be using her gift just yet. "I am curious," Aro continued, "as to why your little pet is still mortal."
"Things came up," Edward tersely replied.
Aro rose an eyebrow. "And have they come down again?"
Alice chirped in before Edward could say something he might regret. "You saw it, Aro. You know that she is going to be changed."
He chuckled. "So I did, but you see, I'd assumed she'd have done that sometime in the two years it's been since I last saw her. To be frank, I was looking forward to it. But now that she's not," he said the next words slowly, "I'm...disappointed."
"You'll get over it," Emmett ground out.
"Emmett!" Rosalie gasped.
I winced at the Volturi's angry reactions, but they never came. Aro chuckled instead.
"My, my, everything is so serious with the lot of you, isn't it?" he said, "I'll tell you what. Since I failed to specify a time limit last time, I'll provide one now. You have three weeks to change her." He shrugged and winked at me. "My patience is wearing thin, and what suspense!"
"No!" Edward gasped. "Please...a little longer."
Marcus looked surprised and spoke for the first time. "I could do it right now then. I warn you though, I'm starving," he lolled the last word, making it linger in the air.
"Edward, don't," Alice warned.
He stepped forward anyway. "Please," he pleaded, "What's a year to you? Just one year?"
Marcus stepped forward. "Was that a yes to my request then? Well, if you insist." He took a few more steps in my direction, and Edward stepped in front of me, arms spread out.
"One year!" Edward exclaimed. "That's all I'm begging you for!" His voice grew panicky.
Marcus strode forward faster, a smile on his lips. "You really are impatient, aren't you?"
"Three weeks, then!" Edward blurted out, but only when the approaching Volturi member was nearly upon us. "Three weeks is fine."
So I had a deadline now. I shuddered...deadline was the wrong way to word it.
Marcus frowned, and said, "Caius is right. You really are no fun," before turning on his heels and lithely walking back to join the rest of his coven.
"In three weeks, then?" Aro asked cheerily, like it was the date of a pool party.
No one said anything.
"Three weeks?" Aro asked again, and again, he was met with silence. "Edward?"
Edward had his head bowed. I could see that from my position behind him. "Three weeks," he brokenly agreed.
"How long?" Caius asked.
"Three weeks!" Edward growled.
"One more time, just so we're clear..." Caius continued. He was enjoying Edward's agony.
This time, Edward roared his answer so that it rang through the clearing. "You heard me!"
Aro turned around, and began to leave, calling back over his shoulder. "That's enough, Caius. The Cullens seem to be a bit edgy today."
Six of them pivoted and began to move through the remaining vampire army. The vampires hastily stepped out of their way to clear a path. Jane, however, didn't go with the rest of them.
She stood glaring daggers at me, most likely still trying to use her power on me to no avail.
"Jane, dear!" Aro called. She turned and joined the rest. "All of you," Aro addressed the crowd, "leave."
My lungs refused to breathe again until each and every vampire was safely out of sight. Three weeks, three weeks, three weeks...three weeks to have a heartbeat, three weeks to sleep, three weeks to eat fast food, three weeks with Charlie...
The crisis hadn't been averted after all. Edward turned then and crushed me to his strong chest. Three weeks to be warm and soft...
"I'm so, so..."
"Don't say it," I said. "Don't apologize."
I wrapped my arms around him and pressed myself against him. Just then, a wave of exhaustion hit me, probably from all the blood loss. I'd been running on all the adrenaline till then, and I wasn't quite sure how I'd stayed conscious for the last hour. I went limp against him when my knees buckled.
"What's wrong?" he asked frantically.
When I didn't respond, he figured it out. "Carlisle!" he called.
"I'm great," I said, pushing off his shoulders to stand back up. "Really, just tired."
"Hey, Bella," I heard Emmett call my name. "Can you give me a hand?"
I turned to see my bulky brother, and nearly puked. The arm that had been crawling across the ground...I knew I recognized it. It was the one Emmett was clearly missing.
He was grinning from ear to ear and waving his lost limb around in front of him like a picket sign.
"Catch her," Alice called.
I didn't understand her words, that is, I didn't understand them until I collapsed and my world went black.