Chapter 6

"Put on some party clothes and come to Whitmore. Tyler's coming over, and we are going out," Elena told me over the phone. Somehow I'd forgotten to tell her I was in Washington. It was nice to hear her voice again, even if I had only been gone a couple of days.

"You sound good."

"I am good. I had a good day. I ditched all my classes and hung out with Ric. We talked about Bonnie. I had a good cry, and, I don't know… I really feel like things are taking a turn for the better. So get your ass down here and let's have some fun," she said. Her cheerful tone told me that she had let Alaric proceed with her idea with erasing Damon from her memories.

"I'd love to go with you, but I'm actually not in Mystic Falls."

"Then where are you? Can't you just drive here?"

"I'm in Forks."

"Where the hell is Forks?"

I sighed. I did leave without telling anyone, but I had hoped Enzo would have at least told Elena of my absence. "In… Washington," I said.

"DC or the state?"

"DC obviously. Forks is one of the many cities in DC." I could practically hear Elena roll her eyes at my sarcasm. "I'm here with Stefan. I came here to find him after he disappeared."

"Then why aren't you two back yet?"

"Well-" I started. But nothing came out. I hadn't thought about it much, but I really had no idea. "We should come back soon."

—

With the Cullen family still on their hunting trip, Bella grounded, and Stefan asleep, I found myself spending the morning making breakfast with Edward. Since we'd arrived in Forks, I hadn't really gotten to talk to him much so it was nice to get to know him while preparing eggs for Stefan and me.

Small talk with him was surprisingly easy. He gave me the courtesy of pretending not to hear my thoughts and responded to what I said instead of what I was thinking, probably so I wouldn't freak out. We talked about the normal things you talk about while avoiding awkward silence; my super cute new haircut, the gloomy weather in Forks, and if I was behind the murders in Seattle. I'm not, by the way.

And then we got to talking about Bella. "Well, what do you want to know?" he asked me when I finally brought it up.

I thought for a second, "I just thought it was strange that the doppelgangers somehow always meet even if they were born in completely different places."

He agreed, "I did think it was weird that I managed to find the one girl who not only could I not read but whose blood was the first to make me seriously question my diet in years. I figured it couldn't have been a coincidence."

"So was it just love at first sight? You don't think it's strange that you might only love her because of the whole doppelganger curse?"

He shook his head. "It wasn't love at first sight. The only thought I had when I met her was ripping her throat open. Even though we weren't really welcome here because of the Quileutes, I was still drawn here and I guess that was the curse in action. But my love for Bella is no mystery to me. She's sweet and caring and she's the first woman I've met that really understands me. That couldn't have been determined thousands of years ago."

I pursed my lips. "But how do you know? Maybe it's just because of the curse that you've never had feelings for anyone else."

He laughed. "Not that I can remember much about being human, but I think I recall fancying a girl or two back in the early twentieth century. Just because I was fated to meet her doesn't mean I had no free will. Why do you care, anyway?"

I shrugged nonchalantly but secretly was glad that the curse wasn't as binding as I thought it was. "I just wanted to know. Since Bella and you are so happy together."

"I think you forget that I can hear your thoughts. That's not why."

I blushed and looked away. I really didn't want to have to discuss my feelings for Stefan with Edward; there was no one I wanted to tell. He raised an eyebrow. And… he heard that. I am going to need to work on this. I changed the subject. "Oh, so Edward. I was thinking. Do you ever wish you could go out in the sun? In public, I mean."

He thought for a second. "I guess I don't really think about it anymore. I'm so used to just staying away from everyone that disappearing on sunny days doesn't bother me. But, there are days when it's pretty inconvenient to have to stay inside on the rare days the sun exists."

Being fenced in by something as ubiquitous as sunlight can get pretty annoying. I stepped out of the light shining through the window and removed the ring from my pointer finger. "Try this," I offered. "Maybe it'll work on you, too."

Edward looked at the lapis lazuli stone curiously. He slipped it on his finger and stepped into the light shining through the window. But instead of being immune to the light like I expected, sunlight still reflected off of him in every direction. I watched the specks of light for about a half-second before I realized my skin was burning. I dropped to the floor and cried out in pain while Edward stared at me without realizing what was wrong. It was when my skin started blistering red that he jumped out of the sunlight in a flash. He handed me back the ring and I shoved it back on my hand.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline! I didn't realize you would get burnt by my… sparkles," he cried as he helped me up to my feet.

"It's okay, you didn't know-" I started. Suddenly, Stefan was by my side.

"What happened?" he growled.

"I thought that maybe he wouldn't sparkle if he used my daylight ring. I assumed that because it protected us from the sun it'd work on him too. I didn't realize that I would get burnt by the reflected light," I said. "Usually I don't start burning so fast. It's like his skin magnified it or something."

Stefan shook his head, "Of course it wouldn't work. The daylight rings only work on the person that the witch created it for. You can't borrow someone else's."

I facepalmed. "Completely forgot about that," I mumbled. "Then we could just ask Angela to make one for him then, right?"

"I don't know what the spell would be. Also, I'm pretty sure it's a complicated spell and Angela only just started using magic."

Edwards phone rang. Stefan and I focused in on their conversations when he picked up.

"Hey, Edward? A whole lot of my stuff is missing," Bella said. She didn't seem all that panicked but Edward did. He put the call on speaker.

"What's gone? Are you and Charlie alright?"

"Well, Charlie doesn't seem to have noticed someone get into the house. My pillow, that one gray sweatshirt, and maybe half of my laundry just disappeared. Charlie said he didn't do the laundry so it couldn't have been him."

"Maybe they stole them so they could use them in a locator spell," I suggested.

"Why would they need a locator spell? They know where she is. And even if they were keeping them for the future, they wouldn't need that many of her things," he countered.

Edward spoke, "Most likely they were taking them for her scent. Tracking her."

Bella seemed much more concerned now, "Tracking? Do you mean Victoria? Why would she need so much of my clothes? Including that red blouse that Alice just bought me."

"For her to need so much that she couldn't have been more discreet," Edward said. "There'd have to be a whole lot more vampires in this than just Victoria."

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