Fated

Chapter 19

A/N: Thanks everyone for your patience lately. I'm feeling better but still have health issues so I'm not getting a chapter out every week. I appreciate your patience and will continue to try to get the chapters out as soon as I can.

The cafeteria at college is always noisy on Fridays. Patty and I have to raise our voices to hear each other.

"I'm telling you, Bella, there is something different about you. I just can't put my finger on it. Your face looks more colorful. Your cheeks are rosy." I give her a coy smile and lean in close to her, talking into her ear so no one else will hear.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to you yesterday. Edward and I finally had sex," I say with a hint of embarrassment in my voice.

"O.M.G!" Patty slams her hand down on the table with a loud bang. I see several students turn their heads to look in our direction. "He finally steps up to the plate! So. Let's hear all about it. How was Officer Fine Ass?"

"Patty!" I feel my face flush with embarrassment.

"Come on, Bella. You can't tell me that without giving details. I want details! When? Where?" I snicker and shake my head at Patty.

"It was great. Wednesday night at our place."

"Was he in your room the whole night? I had no idea!"

"No. He was on call and had to leave." I can't tell Patty that he was afraid to stay because sometimes his body glows with that red ember while he sleeps and didn't want Patty to see him, so he went home. I pull out my cell and look at the time. "It's almost time for class. We can talk about it later." I grab my lunch tray and stand up. Patty does the same. We walk to the trash cans to dispose of lunch.

"Are we going to O'Toole's tonight? We can talk about it then," Patty says.

"I'm sorry, Patty. I was invited to go to Alice's house with Edward tonight." I feel bad because I know Jacob is going to Alice's also and Patty will be left with neither of us to hang out with tonight, but Patty is outgoing and friendly. I'm sure she will find others to hang out with at Otoole's.

"I will just have to wait to hear the details, but don't make me wait any longer than tomorrow," Patty says as she throws her lunch in the trash and then walks off to class. I watch her walk away.

"Hello, Bella," Says a voice in my ear. I turn my head to the right and see Craig. I didn't see him walk up to me and am so startled I almost drop my tray.

"Oh, Craig. Hi. You startled me," I say as I empty my tray into the trash and place the empty tray on top of the can. Craig has an odd way of staring at me. He stares at me for too long without blinking. It's really creepy.

"I haven't seen you around much lately. I was hoping we would get more chances to talk but I never see you between or after classes," Craig says.

"I work a lot of hours so I don't normally stay around after classes nor usually take a lunch break. I'm usually studying during lunch. I'm sorry, but I have to get to class," I say and then turn to walk away. Craig grabs my right arm in his hand and holds me firmly in place. I'm shocked and annoyed and quickly turn my head back to look at him. I glance at his eyes and then his hand on my arm, my face reddening with anger. He releases my arm.

"I was hoping you would like to go for a drink tonight?"

"I have plans with my boyfriend," I spit out, annoyed and a bit angered. I walk quickly away and feel his eyes staring at the back of my head. As I go through the cafeteria door I take a glance back at Craig and he is still standing by the trash can watching me.

I'm so excited. Edward and I are on our way to Alice's tonight for a party and treasure hunt. Edward says Alice loves to put on parties and plan games. He told me it's sure to be a unique treasure hunt.

Edward pulls up to Alice's house and gets out of the car and walks around to open my door. I get out and look up at her beautiful log cabin home with so many windows in it. It's simply gorgeous both the house and the wooded setting it's in. As we walk up the path, we hear talking from around the back of the house and make our way out there. Alice spots us first and walks halfway down the path to meet us.

"Bella, Edward. I'm so glad you made it!" Alice gives me a big hug and then hugs Edward.

"I wouldn't miss it," I tell Alice. "A treasure hunt sounds like fun!"

"Oh, it is, Bella. I think you're going to have a lot of fun." Jacob spots us and in a flash, he is by my side.

"Bella!" Jacob gives me a hug and kiss on the cheek. "Edward, hey!" Jacob rushes over to Edward's side and gives him a hug.

"Jacob, buddy, let's not hug. How about a good fist bump next time?" Edward's face is sour. Alice and I laugh as Jacob's face flushes.

"Come see everyone else," Alice says as she grabs Jacob's hand in hers and they trot down the path hand in hand. "It looks like they are officially a couple," I whisper to Edward as he grabs my hand in his and we follow Alice and Jacob. I see Jacob look back at me and smile and realize it does no good to whisper around vampires.

"Bella, Edward, hello," Esme says as she walks up to us and gives us each a kiss on the cheek. Carlisle, by her side, kisses me on the check and shakes Edward's hand.

"Well it's about time you two got here," Says Jasper as he comes up to us. "Now we're just waiting for Emmett and Rosalie." I feel a sudden flash of cold air brush by me. Emmett and Rosalie appear in front of Jasper.

"What are you talking about, Jasper? We've been here the entire time," Rosalie teases.

"Oh good, Everyone is here. With all the problems we're having trying to stop this coven I thought it would be a good idea for us to forget about our troubles for one night and have some fun. We can talk about our plans for fighting the coven after the treasure hunt. I will explain it again because Bella and Jacob don't know how to play. You team up with a partner and each team gets a set of index cards. On each card is a riddle you must solve and the answer to the riddle is the item you must find in the forest and bring back to me. The first team to find all the correct items wins. Emmett you and Rosalie can team up, Bella you and Edward, Jacob and Jasper, and Esme and Carlisle."

Alice passes the index cards out to each team. "You have to be honorable and not look at the next index card until you have solved the riddle on the first one and located the item. You have 1 hour to get all the items and bring them back here. The first team back with all the correct items wins. You can start, now!" I see a bunch of blurs as the other couples race off into the woods. Edward stays by my side and flips over the index card with the number 1 written on it's back. The other cards he sticks in his front jacket pocket. I stand next to Edward and read the card with him.

"Nothing can see me when I use weed from my home. I may be cranky but I'm bigger than my cousin and spider-like in looks," I read out loud. Edward and I are silent for a moment, both thinking as we stroll into the woods and think about our riddle.

"Cranky reminds me of crabs, but I don't understand any of the other clues," I say.

"Crabs... Weed from my home. A crab's home is the sea. Seaweed! There's a spider crab. It looks like a spider and they camouflage themselves using seaweed. I've seen them on the bottom of the ocean wrapping themselves in seaweed to hide," Edward says.

"Than that's it!" I yell. "But, would Alice give us an item we had to go all the way to the bottom of the ocean to get?"

"That's the whole point of Alice's treasure hunts. To make them interesting and make you work to win. I can fly us to the ocean in a minute. Ready?" Edward asks. I nod and he scoops me up in his arms and before I know it, his wings are out and we are flying high in the sky. We land at the edge of the ocean and Edward sets me down along the shore.

"I will be less than a minute. The water isn't that deep here and I've been down here before and saw plenty of spider crabs. I can't breathe under water so I have to make this fast," Edward says as he starts to remove his clothes.

"Hold up. I'm playing this game too. I want to go with you to get the spider crab. I can hold my breath for one minute," I say.

"Okay. Better take off your clothes if you're coming. We don't want to spend the rest of the night wet."

I look around to make sure we're alone and take off my clothes. When I see Edward's eyes on my body my instinct is to cover myself up with my arms but I remind myself this is the man I love and trust more than anyone and I stand firmly with my head up. Edward walks up to me and puts his arm around me.

"Ready?"

"Yes," I say.

"Signal me if need to take a breath and I will have us up in a fraction of a second," Edward says and then his fire-wings emerge and he lifts me up into the air a couple feet, we fly over the water and submerge rather quickly to the bottom. Edward holds me while he guides us along the ocean floor, his wings now acting as propellers gliding us forward. I'm amazed to see the fire and lightning in his wings even underwater.

I see schools of Angelfish swimming by. Cleaner Shrimp are removing parasites from other fish quite efficiently. There are plenty of crabs also. I spot a spider crab to my left and tap Edward's arm and point to it. He guides us over to it and grabs it in his right hand and quickly shoots us up out of the water and back onto land. Edward looks stunning standing there completely naked and wet with a spider crab in his right hand. Edward sets the spider crab down for a minute and starts getting dressed and looks over to catch me staring at him and smiles. I blush and then get dressed. Edward, fully dressed now, grabs the spider crab again in his hand and holds it up.

"We got it!" I exclaim.

"Now let's take it to Alice's house so we don't have to carry it around with us to get the other things. Will you hold it while I fly us back?"

"Me? Oh no... No, I'm not holding that thing." I walk backward to get away from Edward as he teases me coming closer to me with the spider crab in his hand. I'm not looking where I'm going and trip over a log and start to fall backward. In a flash, Edward is catching me in his left arm, still holding the crab in his right. He laughs.

"I'm sorry I teased you. I can hold you in my left arm and fly and still hold the spider crab in my right hand. Let's get going. We don't have much time to get the rest of the items." Edward picks me up and we fly back to Alice to show her our spider crab.

"You guys are the first team back with your first treasure. Congratulations. I will take him back to the ocean with the others when they all arrive," Alice says as she takes the crab from Edward and places it in a bucket of water.

"Okay, let's read the next card, Edward," I say. Edward pulls the index card labeled 2 out of his pocket and reads.

"My home has the highest view in the world, but I can't see it yet. My parents are fierce and will defend me and keep me warm. Some times people wonder whether I came first. Well, birds have a high view."

"And Eagles make their nests in the highest trees! Eagles defend their babies fiercely," I say.

"So what about the last riddle some times people wonder whether I came first," Edward says and we both pause for a minute thinking. Suddenly a vision of a cloud fills my mind. In a second the cloud disperses, leaving a single egg to remain.

"An egg! It's an egg! Which came first the chicken or the egg. So... the answer is an Eagle's egg!" Edward puts his arms around me and kisses my forehead.

"We've got it. Let's go. I know there are Eagles in these trees," He says and picks me up and we soar into the sky. It's so beautiful up here flying high above the treetops, warm and safe in Edward's arms. For a minute I forget about the game and just enjoy being close to him in such a romantic setting. Staring into each other's eyes as we fly through the sky. I'm not sure what an Eagle's nest looks like so I point out any nest I see and so far Edward says they are all too small to be Eagles. Then we come around a bend in the tree line and I a see a huge nest. I point to it and we fly over to take a closer look. No Eagles are inside the nest so Edward lands onto a large branch just below the nest. I climb onto the branch as well and we lean up to peek inside the nest. As luck would have it there are three unhatched eggs in the nest.

"Edward, I don't want to take a baby from its mother. We can't take those eggs," I say, suddenly realizing what we are about to do.

"We won't. We'll only take an egg if it's unfertilized," Edward says as he picks up an egg in his hand and holds it up to the sky. The silhouette of a baby eagle shows through the egg. Edward places it back into the nest and picks up another egg and holds it up. "See that? No silhouette. This egg is not fertilized. We can take it."

"I'll hold it while you fly us back," I say and take the egg from Edward, cradling it gently in both hands. Edward scoops me up in his arms and flies us back toward Alice's house. As we begin our descent to land, we see Jasper and Jacob on the ground walking toward Alice's. They spot us in the sky and break into a run.

"Oh no, you don't," Edward says as his wings beat hard against the air, pushing us faster through the sky. I hold on tight to the egg as Edward and I race Jasper and Jacob to Alice. When Jasper is about 4 feet from Alice, Edward swoops in and lands directly in front of Jasper, cutting off his path to Alice. I quickly hand Alice the egg and smile in triumphant. Jasper is running too fast to stop and rams into Edward's back, knocking me into Alice and all four of us fall onto a pile on the ground. My egg falls from Alice's hand and cracks open on the ground. Jasper jumps up, helps Alice to stand up, and places his egg in her hand and then turns and gives Edward and me a sarcastic smile.

"That doesn't count, Jasper. Edward and Bella turned their egg in before it cracked so it still counts as turned in," Alice says.

"Fine. Then we will just have to win getting the next treasure before you," Jasper teases Edward and races off with Jacob. Edward pulls out the final card and we read it together.

"I cry but I don't make a sound. I'm thirsty and always in the ground. Deer like to have me around." I think for a moment and then start to walk slowly into the woods. Edward follows me while rereading the index card and thinking.

"What animal cries without sound? Lots of animals make nests in the ground. Rabbits, groundhogs, skunks, fox. Deer get along with many animals." Edward continues talking out loud and thinking while I walk up to a tree and run my hand along its trunk. "Maybe skunks don't make any sound when they..." I pluck an elongated leaf off of a weeping willow tree and turn around to face Edward with a smile. A smile draws across his face.

"You are smarter than all of us combined," Edward says as he walks up to me and grabs my hand. We are not far from Alice so we run, at my speed, back to her and hand in our last treasure. We look around and see no one else back yet.

"You are the first team back. You've won. Congratulations Edward and Bella! Alice walks over to a large Tupperware container she has placed on the ground and reaches inside it and pulls out two bags of Godiva Chocolates and hands a bag to each of us. "Your prizes."

"Thank you, Alice," Edward and I say at the same time.

"Do the others eat chocolate?" I ask. Alice shakes her head.

"I have other prizes if one of them would have won. You don't want to know what," Alice says. I get a chill up my spine and agree. Esme and Carlisle suddenly appear with another leaf from a willow tree. Emmett and Rosalie appear a few minutes after that but they only found two treasures and Jasper and Jacob appear with a skunk. We scream at them to get rid of it and then all laugh hard.