Surprise! Since I'm feeling generous today, and this is an Edward chapter, here's another chapter today!

Hope you guys are all still enjoying it!

Chapter 9

EPOV

Damn it, my throat is burning like a motherfucker. At least everything else seems to have ebbed.

"Edward, please, calm down. They're not going to hurt you." I heard the most beautiful sound in the fucking world.

I had been hearing her voice in my head while I was burning. But now? It was an utterly blissful fucking sound.

When I first opened my eyes, what I saw was the rare beauty that had been the center of my world. Except I didn't see the deep brown eyes I was so used to seeing. They were red. But still beautiful, somehow.

But when I looked at those eyes, I heard something else in my head. It wasn't my thoughts or words, but I couldn't figure out who the hell they were. So when I looked around the room, I saw six other people. One of them I thought I had seen before, but it was kind of fuzzy right now.

But at the time, I only saw them as a threat. And I had to protect Bella. So I pulled her behind me and, for some weird ass reason, I felt like an animal that was protecting it's mate. I've been extremely protective of Bella before, but this felt like… life or death to me, in my head. Like I had to protect her at all costs from any and all things, even if it was a tree limb.

This makes no damn since!

But I also saw the other men in the room, in a protective stance in front of the women as well.

Wait, are they protecting them from me?

I'm hearing all these weird things in my head. Like, someone wants to tell me something, but they're holding it back. It feels like the inner monologue of several people.

I hope he doesn't hurt Bella. He would never forgive himself. One voice came into my head, that sounded like a female's voice.

He's way too wound up. He's gonna have to calm the fuck down. That didn't sound like the first one because it was male…

Oh, Bella looks so worried. I hope she can reach him and calm him down. She'll be so upset if she can't do this herself. Another female voice came into my head, but different from the first one as well.

Edward, please remember me. Please let it connect and calm down. He's such a good doctor, and would have done so well at the children's hospital. I know I've heard that voice before. But I can't quite remember…

"Carlisle?" I said, then slapped my hand over my mouth.

Holy shit! That didn't sound like me.

I heard a beautiful, sweet laugh from behind me.

Fuck, I'd kill to hear that sound for the rest of my life.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Bella smiling up at me while she was holding onto my shirt.

"What?" I asked, forgetting the sound of my own voice, just to hear hers.

"I did the same thing when I first woke up." She laughed again.

I reached around and pulled her in front of me, into my arms. I breathed her in deeply and just reveled in it. But for some reason, I could smell her scent so much more fully now. There was a beautiful aroma about it. Freesia and something else I couldn't exactly pinpoint. It was such an amazing smell. And completely Bella.

"I missed you so fucking much, beautiful. I was so scared that I had lost you." I whispered to her.

"I know. Don't worry. We're here and we're going to be fine. Carlisle and his family have been wonderful. Please don't try to attack them. They're not going to hurt us. They saved both of us. But he does need to explain what's going on, to you. I've already had my crash-course in it, but I'll be here with you. I promise." She whispered back to me, very soothingly.

I want to listen to her voice all day long.

I could feel her shift slightly to look over my shoulder.

"Rose? What's with the look?" She asked the girl that had just stepped further around the big mountain of a man.

I turned to look at her too, but was still a little protective of Bella.

Hmmm, I wonder why the hell it feels so overpowering…

"I think you're blocking him again, Bella. I could feel it earlier, but right now… It's gone." The woman with blonde hair said with a slight northern accent.

Wait a god damn minute. That sounds just like the voice I heard earlier in my head. What the fuck is going on?

"Sorry. I don't even realize what I'm doing. We've gotta get this figured out. It's going to drive me nuts not knowing." Bella said to her.

I saw her lip twitch a little.

She's gonna start giving Alice a run for her money with being so neurotic. I heard in my head.

"Wait, who's Alice?" I asked, looking around to the two other women in the room.

A slight girl with brown, curly hair, stuck her head out from behind the blonde guy, with a huge grin on her face. "Hi Edward." She waved cheerfully at me.

Ok, she's bubbly.

"Hold up, how'd you know her name?" The shaggy haired blonde man asked.

"I heard something in my head, somehow, and her name was there… How am I hearing these things? What are they anyways? It sounds almost like…voices." I asked, just now understanding that I'm actually hearing voices that I really shouldn't be hearing.

Aw fuck, I'm going crazy now.

I could feel a panic attack coming on, but suddenly, it went away and I felt slightly calmer.

"Well fuck me dead…" I heard Bella mutter behind me.

"Uh, Bells… if you haven't noticed, you kind of already are…" Alice piped in from behind Jasper.

"Watch it, wingnut." Bella narrowed her eyes at Alice, while Alice just laughed.

What the fuck have I missed?

"Why don't we all go downstairs and talk. This is going to take some time to explain." Carlisle said, gesturing to door.

I was hesitant at first, but if they were going to hurt us, I guess they would've already done it by now. I grabbed Bella by the hand and walked downstairs with everyone else. The living room was big and spacious with lots of antiques all around.

I wrapped my arms around Bella's waist and sat her on my lap, then noticed the bulge of her stomach.

My hand went to her belly and rubbed it reverently.

"Oh my god… how long have I been out? You weren't even close to showing when…" I stopped because it was hard to piece together exactly why I was unconscious.

"Edward, son, what is the last thing that you remember from before you woke up?" Carlisle asked me.

"Umm… well it's kind of sketchy right now. But… I think we were on a date, and I remember talking about the baby…" I needed to remember this shit. So I thought about it for another minute or two, then all sorts of images started hitting me. But it didn't look like it was through my eyes. It looked like someone else was there and looking at it.

But then I started seeing images that made me remember the whole thing.

I saw us at the restaurant, dancing, me proposing, Bella telling me about the baby. Going down to the piers and walking along water, then getting in the car to go home. Us talking in the car about baby names and us laughing and smiling. Then I saw the car stalled car in the road, me trying to stop the car, but swerving and then rolling the car and hitting the tree.

Shit. I didn't even realized then that I had flipped the car.

"Oh god." I buried my face in my hands. Then pulled Bella tighter to me and just held her. "I'm so sorry, Bells. I tried to stop the car, but the roads were so wet and the brakes locked up on me… How did the baby survive? I thought you were dead. There was no way that the baby could have survived with the blood-loss and trauma."

"Edward, I came upon the accident when you and Bella were lying in the road. I made a split second decision to save you both and brought you here. If you've noticed a lot of differences since you have woken up, there is a reason for that… I had to change you both into vampires to save you." Carlisle explained.

I barked out a laugh at that. There was no way that I was a vampire, or that vampires even existed.

I looked around the room and saw that no one else was laughing at this absurd notion. Even Bella.

What?

"Are you being serious right now?" I asked, but looked at Bella for confirmation.

She looked into my eyes, her now red eyes, boring into mine for me to understand.

"Oh shit… So what does this mean exactly?" I asked, hoping someone could give me an answer that would make some sort of sense.

Carlisle went on to explain to me what we were, why he had to change us, how long I'd been unconscious, and about the 'powerful one'.

Ok, I feel like I'm going to be sick. Why can't I puke?

He then also explained that each of them had certain abilities like Alice seeing the future, Esme calming people down, Emmett feeling the environment around him, Jasper feeling people's emotions and manipulating them, Rose feeling emotions and physical aspects of other people, and Carlisle being able to move things with his mind.

That is the coolest fucking thing in the world.

Then he told me that Bella and I would also have 'gifts' since we would be the parents of the 'powerful one'.

"Is that why I can hear things in my head? It's like I can hear you guys talking, but your lips aren't moving." I asked, trying to make sense of what the hell I'm hearing.

Carlisle looked to be deep in thought for a while. I didn't want to disturb him, so I waited patiently for his insight.

Finally, he looked at me, but didn't speak.

Can you hear me right now, Edward? I heard, what sounded like his voice.

"Yes."

You can read my thoughts? Did you hear or see anything of what I was just thinking about? He thought.

"Yeah, I could hear some of it. But you were… thinking too fast and it was hard to keep up. What's this supposed to mean for me?" This is so weird, but also really… cool.

"It means you are a mind-reader. You can hear people's inner thoughts and see what goes on in their heads. It's a very powerful gift to have. I don't think I've come across one before in my five hundred years." He told me.

"Wow. So, wait a sec. Who was seeing the accident and everything from that night?" I asked. That was one thing that really confused me.

Alice looked up at me from her spot on the floor next to Jasper. She raised her hand slightly and said, "That would be me. I saw it before it happened but didn't know what to make of any of it. I had never met you or Bella, but I knew you would be a part of our lives. I saw you both like us, so when I saw that Carlisle had come upon the accident, I texted him and told him to change Bella, and bring you both here."

I nodded. "Well, what about Bella? What's her gift?" I asked.

Carlisle was the one to speak up. "We're not exactly sure what Bella's gift is, yet. We have been trying for the past couple of days, but there is no definitive answer. She has been protecting herself somehow from either of Rose, Jasper and Alice's gifts. But she was also able to use whatever her gift is to see and feel their gifts. She was able to hear your thoughts while you were being changed, as well. So it's something we are going to have to delve into more in order to come up with an answer. She could be anything."

I looked down at Bella. "Can you hear my thoughts now, babe?"

She shook her head. "No. It took me a while to really be able to hear you. And I had to be touching you. I was focused so hard on you when it happened."

"But you're touching me now… why wouldn't it still work?" I asked.

She got that sad, defeated look in her eyes. "I don't know."

I grabbed her chin to make her look at me. "Hey, don't do that. I don't want to see your self-doubt rear its ugly head. It'll take time, beautiful."

"Edward, I feel like I'm the weird one, here. I can do certain things at one point, but at others, I'm a blank sheet to them." She gestured over to Alice, Jasper and Rose. "This 'prophecy', or whatever, says that we're supposed to have gifts that are defensive. How am I supposed to protect Olivia if I don't know what the hell I'm doing? And she's gonna be here… SOON. Alice said it would probably be right after the first snowfall. It's just the beginning of October now. Edward, I'm only about five weeks, or so, along."

"Bella, I can call one of our friends from Alaska to come down here. He can sense what gifts a vampire has. If we can't figure this out, would you rather I give him a call and see what he thinks?" Carlisle asked.

I saw Bella's eyes widen and then nod her head, emphatically. "Yeah. I'm tired of guessing. I want a definitive answer. I want to know how to use it."

Carlisle nodded and stood up. "I'll give Eleazar a call and see when he can be here at the earliest. Don't fret, Bella. Why don't you all take Edward out to hunt, so that the burning in his throat can subside."

Well damn. I had almost forgotten about it.

"I was so focused on Bella that I didn't feel it as badly. Does that happen usually?" I asked.

"Not really. It's always at the forefront of our minds when we first wake up. But you seem to be able to handle it, somewhat. Bella could as well, but once she was out in the woods, I knew it would start to take over her thoughts." A woman with caramel brown colored hair said. "I'm Esme, by the way."

I smiled at her. She seemed so much like my own mother.

I saw Carlisle exit the room. Leaving the rest of us to talk some more.

As Carlisle left the room, the muscular guy came forward and was all smiles.

"Welcome to the family, little brother!" His deep voice filled the room.

"Emmett, take it down a notch, would ya?" Jasper complained to the guy.

"What? It's not everyday we get a new brother." Emmett said, then looked to me. "How's it going, Eddie?" He stuck out his hand.

"Don't call me Eddie and I'll be just peachy." I joked, but shook his hand.

Bahaha! I love this dude already. This is gonna be awesome. He thought.

"What exactly is gonna be awesome?" I asked.

"Whoa, holy shit, dude. You heard that?" He asked with amusement and mischief in his eyes.

"Oh hell, Emmett. Don't torment the poor guy. He's just starting to adjust to what we are." Jasper said.

"No way. If he can read my thoughts, then this is going to be even better than when I got all those emo kids around you and Rose and you guys went ballistic." Emmett said while rubbing his hands together.

"Yeah and if you ever do that again, you dick, I will burn you to the ground. I don't care if you ARE my mate." Rose, the blonde chick, shot back.

I saw Alice look over at me with a small smile on her face.

Don't worry. They're always like this. You'll learn to love them, too. Jasper isn't so bad. Just protective. And Emmett is just a kid trapped in a grown man's body. Rose is the one that we all worry about. She can be a bit… much sometimes. She has already had her run-in with Bella. She thought to me.

A low growl escaped me when I saw how rude this Rose was when Bella and I were first brought here and when Bella woke up, in Alice's head.

This shit's gonna be interesting to get used to.

"Hey, calm down. Look at me." Bella said with authority in her voice.

I looked down at her again and saw the love and sincerity in her eyes. She trusted these people. I'm not sure if I totally trust them yet, but I'm willing to try.

I relaxed some, but was leery of this Rose bitch.

"I'm sorry babe. I just don't like how she treated you." I told her. She looked at me with a confused look on her face.

She then looked to Alice for clarification, and I saw Alice mouth 'Rose' to her. Realization hit her and she looked back up at me.

"Don't worry about her. She's got her moments." She told me.

And this is supposed to make me feel better?

"God I missed you." I said, then crashed my lips to hers. Feeling her hands reach up and weave into my hair.

I think I may have missed this more.

Her kisses seemed more intense now. Her tongue, her taste, everything felt like so much more.

We heard a throat clear behind us, and we broke our kiss. We turned to see Alice and Jasper there with sheepish grins on their faces. And Emmett and Esme were trying not to laugh.

"Alright kiddies, let's get you fed so we can get some more talking in. There's still a lot for you to know, Edward. Come on, follow us." Jasper said, then he, Alice, Rosalie and Emmett turned for the door. Bella and I followed behind them, down the back stairs.

Having walked through the house, I saw how massive it was. And spacious. Lots of light colors. I also noticed tons of windows through the house. Huge floor-to-ceiling windows.

Bella never let go of my hand. The need to always touch her, in some way, was palpable, so I had no plans of letting go.

When we were out of the back door, I inhaled the air around me and it felt…wonderful. It was refreshing, but now I could also feel the burn in my throat even more. Like the fresh air brought clarity and my focus back on what I needed to do.

Bella tugged on my arm to get my attention.

I saw that Alice and Jasper were already across the large back yard. And I looked around to see nothing but lush forests, heard animals of all kinds, and smelling the fresh air of being in the middle of nowhere, it seemed. And the calming sounds from the river flowing through the trees and apparently jutting off through the yard right here, made me wish for sleep.

I wish I had a place like this. It seems so peaceful.

"Let's go, guys!" Emmett shouted as he ran through the yard with Rosalie.

Bella tugged on my arm again and started walking down the steps. We made our way across the yard and, before I knew it, we were on the other side, standing beside Alice and Jasper.

"… That was cool as fuck." I said to myself, and the others busted out laughing. But Bella's laugh was the one that I chose to listen to. I could pick that sound out of millions of people.

They all took off into the trees and Bella nodded her head in their direction telling me to follow.

We run through the woods and they explain to me what hunting is all about and the best ways to do it. I can see in Jasper's mind the ways he's hunted in the past and they seem easy enough to follow. He's also telling me about what kinds of animals are best to hunt. Big game seems to be the usual for the Cullens.

Once we stop in the middle of the woods, miles away from the house, we take in our surroundings and Bella automatically smells something to go after.

"Bells?" I whisper to her.

She motions for me to follow her, and I caught onto what she was smelling. We made our way to a large boulder overlooking a mountain range. There, standing on the edge, was a large mountain lion.

Oh it smells so damn good.

Bella backs away slowly and I took up a position in a crouch. I slowly make my way towards the mountain lion, without making a sound. And my instincts took over total control of me.

I saw the mountain lion spot me, and take off towards the woods. I chased after him, but he didn't get too far before I was wrestling him to the ground and sinking my teeth into his neck.

The taste of blood going down my throat… there were no words. It extinguished the burn to a dull ache. That, I could handle.

I remember them talking about how different animals tasted differently to each of us. But to be honest, I could live off of mountain lion for the rest of my life.

When I went back looking for Bella, I caught her scent easily and found her drinking from her own kill. Which looked to be an elk.

I guess we both got lucky.

Seeing her like that, somehow had me in awe. She was beautiful as the predator that she was right now. She was utterly perfect.

She looked up at me when she sensed me staring at her, and smiled.

God how I've missed that smile while I was asleep.

She finished up quickly and made her way over to me. But when I saw her speed up and jump at me, I quickly caught her as she wrapped her arms and legs around me and kissed me deeply.

I loved these kinds of kisses with her. So deep and passionate. It seems so much fuller and intense, now that we're vampires.

I could hear thoughts coming up behind us and automatically went on the defensive, but once I knew it was Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper, I backed off.

I'm going to have to work on not being so jumpy.

"Hey, uh guys! Eleazar's already here in town. He was in Seattle for business, so he's on his way to the house. Let's go get you guys some answers." Jasper said.

I looked at Bella and I saw excitement in her eyes. She was ready to get answers about herself.

A/N: Alrighty! What do you guys think?

Yes, Edward has his normal Mind reading ability. So no worries there.

Bella is the one that's got to get figured out.

Leave some love and I'll see y'all tomorrow!