Whispering Woods

Chapter Thirty-Six

Esme, Charlie, and Garrett were supposed to meet them back at Bella's house, but they were more than an hour late. Bella had already called the station, only to learn her father hadn't come into work. None of them was answering their phones.

"We have no choice," Bella stated, pacing in her tiny gray kitchen. "We need to call your dad and I'll call my aunt Kate. Something is wrong."

"Agreed. Carlisle is working at the hospital, today was his first full shift." He looked up his dad's number and left a message, trying not to sound as if something was wrong. The last thing Edward wanted was to stress him out, especially if Esme was fine.

"My aunt Kate said she's still in Port A with her sisters. She's going to be a while, but she'll try reaching my uncle." Bella sat down on the chair beside Edward and rested her head on the cool tabletop.

"Do you think we should go and visit this Mike Sr. guy ourselves?" Edward hoped not. He had enough of dark, freaky shit for one day.

Bella shook her head. "Probably not a good idea." She turned to look at him, her cheek resting on the table, realizing he'd done the same thing.

He smiled, and her heart started to race again. What a stupid time for her libido to return with a vengeance. "What is happening between us?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Edward placed his hand on Bella's cheek, his thumb brushing against the softness of her skin. "I don't know, but I don't mind it."

She offered him a smile and kissed his palm. "I'm not sure how I feel about the predestined mates' kind of thing, but I do know I like being around you."

"When I'm not running away, you mean."

Bella shrugged. "I'm probably five years older than you. I couldn't blame you if you ran away."

Edward's head popped up from the table and he stared at her. "That makes no sense. How are you five years older than me?"

"I don't know. Probably the same way Garrett and my father are about a hundred years old, but don't look it at all. How no one remembers they've been here longer than most others."

"How is it you know you're technically older?" Edward turned her chair to face him, caging her knees inside his own. He cradled her face, unable to resist getting closer.

"The first five years of my memories are pretty vague and kind of foggy, typical though, but there are some that stand out. The problem is I have two memories of my fourth birthday party. Jessica, she's at both, one as a baby, and one where she's my age. Maybe it's also a part of my gift. I know I'm older, but I also know I'm not older."

"Is anything about Forks or all of this ever going to make sense?"

Bella shrugged. "Maybe the fact we have so little answers is what keeps me going back to those woods."

Edward shook his head. "Not until we talk to our parents and your uncle. It's not safe, today proved that."

"Okay, no more woods."

She agreed much too easily but Edward chose to focus on something else.

"I want to try something," Edward whispered in her ear. "Stay still." When she nodded and closed her eyes, he pressed his forehead against hers. "Think about that memory when you were a little girl and you saw my mother when she was pregnant with me."

Bella listened to Edward's soft, soothing voice for a few minutes, allowing it to lull her to a semi-conscious state, floating along and drifting toward him. "Go back to that day when you told my mother she was going to have a baby boy? Can you see it?"

"Your mother had your hair color." Bella smiled and watched as the women hummed and danced along to the music, Renee and Esme using wooden spoons as mics to sing along. She shared this with Edward and loved his sweet chuckle. "Your mom is so happy. She pulls me from the stool where I was making brownies and we started dancing. I told her something and she got scared, almost dropped me."

She pouted, her arms crossing over her chest.

"Who else is there, Bella?" Edward tenderly held Bella close, keeping track of her heart rate as he pushed his power to its limits.

Bella ignored the question, watching the others in her memories a little carefully, knowing what she saw was important. The longer she remained there, the more she'd revert to a child-like mind.

"Your mommy glows a pretty, pretty green. That means she's a healer." Bella nodded, giggling like a little girl. "Your dad is so cute and the blue magic makes his hair look messy all the time, just like your dirty penny hair."

Edward had known that at least one of them had to have come from the woods, but both?

"Oh, Uncle Carlisle! He glows blue and green and he gives the best piggyback rides. Uncle Carl!"

Edward felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, having been lost in Bella's memory. Pulling away from her left him gasping for air. The man who took him in years ago, who helped raise him, stood before him, swirling waves of blue and green surrounded his entire body.

Carlisle was one of the five young men who rode out of the woods in armored suits with no memory of who they were or the kind of magic they each wielded.

And he looked pissed.

AN: See you next week and have a lovely weekend, everyone!