The Whispering Woods

Chapter Forty-Three

Bella took Edward's hand, backing away slowly and keeping her eyes on Mike and his mother.

Edward gently urged her uncle Garret away too, to put anyone in this woman's path seemed unwise. Something instinctual told him she was dangerous, and not only because others saw someone else when they looked at her.

They heard a door open behind them, but couldn't risk looking away. Edward hoped for salvation in the form of witnesses, anyone who would keep them safe. For as powerful as the woman seemed to be, she wasn't stupid to try something in front of others.

He hoped.

Mike's mother, Beatrice, smirked, no doubt sensing his fear. The malevolence in such a smile marred her otherwise perfect features. Twisted them enough to see it was another layer to hide her true face.

She's part shapeshifter, part wraith, a voice whispered in his ear. How he knew what she was, he wasn't sure. Questions would have to wait until they were safe, as if he didn't have a thousand already.

"Edward, Bella." Carlisle's firm voice broke the tension from behind them. The moment they all heard him, Mike and his mother disappeared around the corner.

Now, who's afraid.

Bella realized someone who had vital information was walking away, but she needed answers. She started toward Beatrice determined to get them. However, the whisper of her name from Edward stopped her in her tracks. His voice sounded more like a plea.

Carlisle cleared his throat, watching Bella as she joined Edward. "Your father is waiting."

She nodded, her fingers intertwining with Edward's, needing the strength that naturally emanated from him.

Carlisle opened the door wider to allow them inside. "Come on in before we draw too much attention to ourselves."

Beyond the threshold, Charlie sat on one end of a comfortable couch, laying his head back with his eyes pinched shut.

Esme held his hand, patting it in comfort as they all walked in, something neither Edward or Bella ever expected to see. The moment she saw their faces drained of color; she was on her feet in an instant. "What happened? You all look like you've seen a ghost?" Her soft hand cradled Edward's cheek, the other doing the same to Bella. "Carlisle, they're so cold."

Edward shook her off, pulling Bella toward her father. "We're fine, but we discovered something new on the way here."

"Dad?" It was hard to see him looking like death warmed over. He appeared to have aged ten years since they last saw him.

Bella sat on the coffee table in front of her father in the middle of Carlisle's swanky, new office.

One of his eyes popped open but immediately closed again. As if the light bothered him. "I'm fine, sweetheart."

She let out a grunt of annoyance. "Sure, it's every freaking day you come home in a trance and look and act more like a zombie than a human."

Edward snorted at Bella's sarcasm, though it was damn close to the truth. "It was a wasted opportunity if you ask me. We could've gotten something out of them, maybe a trip to Hawaii."

"Considering I was not under any trance, it wouldn't have happened, son." Carlisle ruffled Edward's hair, much to his annoyance.

Bella, however, looked thoughtful. "Edward is on to something. If they're susceptible to control while in a trance, then what's to say they can't give us answers, even long-buried ones? We'd need a…spell?"

Garrett put up his hands in defense. "I'm all for finding answers, but I'd prefer not to be under anyone's control to do it."

"We could explore hypnotism later, but right now, we have a more pressing issue." Carlisle gestured toward Charlie. "You were right and wrong, Bella."

She cocked an eyebrow. "It's either gone or not."

"His heart is gone, but there's—" Unsure of how to describe what he'd found, Carlisle took a moment to gather his thoughts. "There was an anomaly in radiology. It's as if there's a phantom version of it in its place. Normally, the tech would assume there's an issue and order a new test." He placed Charlie's file on the coffee table and joined Bella's father on the couch. "All other tests look normal."

"Are you saying his heart isn't there, but there's something, almost ghost image of it in its place?" Bella looked at Carlisle as if he lost his mind, though she knew from her father that he was well respected in his field.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. I had to scrub the hospital records and make sure the technician doesn't remember the strange results."

"Why would they take his heart?" Edward didn't even want to think about the fact that the man who raised him could somehow make people forget things. He hadn't missed that bit of information, but it would have to be addressed later.

"Control," Bella whispered. She met everyone's concerned gazes. "The question is: who are they trying to control? My dad, by holding his heart hostage? Me or any of us by using his heart, meaning his life, to control us?"

"I don't buy it," Edward stated, shaking his head. "None of us know what the hell is going on, but they sure seem like they do. They have more control over their gifts and know who they are and what they're capable of. We're hardly a threat without the answers we need."

"Edward's right." Garrett tugged on his dark brown hair. "Why his and not Esme's or mine? If they were trying to control any of us, our hearts would've been fair game, too."

Bella swayed as her eyes closed for a moment. "Because my mother is a queen and she's married to my father, our king." Her eyes snapped open in shock. "They're holding his heart hostage to control her."

"That would mean…" Charlie couldn't bring himself to say it, but the hope was already taking root in his phantom heart.

"She's alive."