A/N… We're back with Bella on this one. We pick up pretty much where we left off on the last chapter. I'll let you get to it.
~oOo~
Chapter 8 – Reaching Out
And I never minded being on my own
Then something broke in me and I want to go home
To be where you are
But even closer to you, you seem so very far
And now I'm reaching out with every note I sing
And I hope it gets to you on some Pacific wind
Wraps itself around you and whispers in your ear
Tells you that I miss you and I wish that you were here
"Wish That You Were Here" by Florence + the Machine
BELLA
I turned the page of the occult book, jotting a few more things down, but I glanced over my shoulder at Edward's sleeping form. The word handsome didn't seem to cover it, but I'd always thought of him that way, and he was all things sweet and kind. That hadn't changed a bit. Just thinking about his kiss made my breath catch, because it had felt real and healing. My God, he'd felt so good beneath me. No longer a teen, but all man and strength – Edward had grown up just fine.
Between studying this strange book, the quiet house, and the rain splattering the windows, he didn't last long. I had a feeling he'd stayed awake most of the night watching over us, though he chalked it up to insomnia. Now, he and Max were stretched out completely – each one with their head on an arm of the sofa.
Once he'd nodded off, I'd slipped off the couch where we'd been cuddled together reading, and I sat down on the floor at the coffee table, using his laptop and a few sheets of paper. He'd marked some interesting things in this book, so I was jotting some notes down when Alice and Jasper stepped back in the door.
I pressed a finger to my lips when they rushed in, arms full of grocery bags. I offered to take a few things from them, and once we were in the kitchen, putting stuff away, Alice stopped me.
"How long has he been asleep?" she whispered as we put away canned goods and cereal.
"Maybe forty-five minutes. I think he stayed up all night. He said he didn't sleep much anyway," I told her, but my cousin piped up.
"He doesn't. That shit started at UW. He'd use it, though. Back then, it was studying, but eventually he'd use the time for writing, so…" He trailed off shrugging a shoulder. "Asshole put the rest of our grades to shame."
Grinning at Jasper's wry sarcasm, I nodded and focused on organizing the fridge and freezer. They'd shopped like we were staying at least the rest of the month.
"I guess we're all staying until the end of this shit," I muttered, mainly thinking out loud, but Alice heard me.
"Well, we promised, right? And Emmett and Edward seem to think we should stick together, in case they try again tonight," she said softly, nodding when I silently offered her coffee.
"I figured," I replied, pouring her a cup and myself another one. Jasper was already at the counter with one. "I know we need to go to Dad's house."
Jasper glanced at the clock, pulling out his phone. "If we do, we'd better plan on staying there the night. Ed won't care where we sleep, but I'm gonna check in with Emmett to see how he's faring at the morgue. I'll let them know what we're thinking."
Once Jasper was outside on his phone, I leaned against the counter opposite Alice and met her gaze. I couldn't quite tell if she was mad at me or hurt, but all I said was, "You can ask me anything, Ali."
She shook her head. "No, Jazz explained. I just…" She trailed off, shooting a quick glance toward the living room. "Are you two… He won't… What are you…?"
"I know." It was all I could say, and I knew what she was trying to say. At its core, she didn't want me to hurt her brother again. "We're working on some things, Alice." And before she could warn me or argue, I added, "I was in no state mentally to work on anything back then. Please understand that. Coming home or calling to pick up where things left off wouldn't have fixed anything."
"I'm sorry," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
I walked around the counter to hug her. "Don't be sorry. We'll all figure it out. I assume there's some sort of wedding to still deal with in the future."
Alice laughed softly, nodding. "Yup, and now you're in it, woman."
"Absolutely. I'm honored."
The ringtone for my mother rang from upstairs, and I rolled my eyes and sighed, saying, "Best to get this shit over with, because she'll just stalk-dial my ass. I don't know if it's Dad's death or me being back here that's set her off this time."
"Mmpf," Alice hummed, wearing a scowl.
I ran upstairs to Edward's bedroom, where my phone was charging on his nightstand.
"Yes, Mom?" I answered, digging deep to find patience and strength. Sometimes she could still get to me if I let her – or if she chose the right subject.
"Are you still in Forks?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Well, not that I owe you any explanation, but because I want to be," I replied with a touch of condescension in my tone. "I'm spending time with my friends and Jasper."
"And your job?"
"What's this, Mom? What has you so riled up about me being here? Are you afraid that all the garbage you spewed at me might be revealed, because that ship's fucking sailed."
She shut up for a second but finally muttered, "Forks is dangerous."
My brow furrowed, and suddenly something Jasper had said at Dad's funeral came back to me. He'd assumed Dad had sent me with her to protect her.
Max stepped into the room, yawning widely, and behind him was Edward, who took a seat behind me on his bed. With Max's head in my lap and Edward's kisses pressed to the back of my head, I pulled my phone from my ear and turned on the speakerphone, holding my finger up for him to listen.
"Okay, Mom, I'll bite. Why is Forks dangerous?" I asked her, and Edward's eyebrows shot up.
Jasper and Alice appeared in the doorway, and I motioned for them to listen.
"I… Well, it's those woods, Isabella."
"Bella," I reminded her for umpteenth time, which she promptly ignored.
"Those woods are dangerous. I mean, just look at what happened to Rachel and your father."
My eyes narrowed dangerously at the mention of Dad, because I'd finally told her ages ago that he was an off-limits topic. "Bears, right?"
"It's not fucking bears. Those woods are evil!"
"Well, she's not wrong," Jasper barely whispered aloud, which made us all grin.
"Dad tried to talk to you about that, but you said it was bullshit," I told her, seeing if I could bait her into revealing something.
"Everything he said was bullshit, Isabella. You'd do well to remember that," she answered in a haughty tone.
"And we're done here," I sang, starting to end the call.
"You never listen to me. And you treat me so mean!"
"You're not the victim here, Mom. This shit you're doing doesn't work anymore. Please go gaslight someone else," I told her.
"Is Edward among all your friends?"
Edward's face darkened when I turned to look at him, but he looked like he was feeling particularly evil, so he simply said, "Right here, Renee. How've you been?"
Jasper grinned, covering up his laugh with his hand and squeezing his eyes closed.
"Oh! Edward, sweetie. How are you?" Her voice was sickeningly sweet and false, and we all caught on instantly.
"Well, we're kind of busy. We've got to head over to Charlie's to go through some things. We'll let you go about your day. It was nice to speak with you," he said smoothly, giving me a sexy wink as he reached over to end the call.
"Okay, talk to—" Her shocked voice was cut off when he touched my phone.
"She was going to use me to hurt you, wasn't she?" he asked me.
"Oh, yeah! You are her absolute favorite topic."
Edward sighed, shaking his head, but simply kissed my temple, whispering, "Thanks for letting me sleep."
Jasper's phone bleeped, and he glanced down. "Okay, Emmett and Rose are going to meet us at Charlie's house. He said we should probably plan to stay the night."
"Fair enough," I said with a nod.
We packed up some things for the night, grabbing a few items from the kitchen so we could cook at my dad's house. We packed up Edward's car, a fairly new SUV, loading Max into the back. I also brought all the research Edward and I had done, along with the book.
However, I wasn't prepared for the feelings of seeing my old house. I knew when Jasper picked me up at the airport that I wasn't ready to sleep here, which was why I'd asked to stay at the Cullen house. But actually pulling in the driveway, stepping out onto the grass, and opening the door to my Dad's house rocked me a little.
My eyes took in the living room and kitchen, which hadn't changed a bit. I gripped Max's vest because he was leaning into me – or maybe I was leaning on him.
"Take your time, Bella," Edward whispered, and even his emotions were right there on the surface.
"When was the last time you were here?" Alice asked gently.
"When I left," I whispered, turning to take the stairs, and Max followed right along with me.
The whole place even smelled the same – like gun oil, cinnamon, and the cleaner we'd always used. Hell, it was the same cleaner I had at my apartment in California. I inhaled deeply when I stepped into my old room.
It was exactly the same – light purple on the walls, white furniture, and my bed. My mother wouldn't let me take anything except my clothes, a few pictures, and some posters from my walls. I walked to my old window, rubbing my thumb across the marks Edward had made when he'd sneak in at night.
There was a part of me that wanted one more night curled up in that bed with Edward. Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought, and I swallowed thickly to get myself under control. My room wasn't the safe room in this house. That was the living room.
I left my bedroom but was met with utter silence in the house that used to always be filled with sports on TV or all my friends chatting with Dad or even music from Jasper's room – that was all gone. My dad wasn't watching TV, he wasn't at work at the station, and he'd never call me "baby girl" again.
I ran into all three of them when I stepped into the hall, but all I said was, "He's really gone."
My sob came out in a rush, but all three wrapped me up in a hug, which caused Max to pace circles around us. All of us were a mess, really, and Max couldn't take it. A high-pitched whine echoed up at us.
I peeled Alice off my front and stepped back in order to kneel in front of Max. He huffed and cleaned my face in a hurry.
"I'm workin' you overtime, aren't I, handsome?" I whispered to him. "You're a good boy, though."
He sat down, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, making him look like the puppy he was when I'd gotten him.
"You're doin' fine, Bells," Jasper praised, squeezing my shoulder.
"No shit," Edward muttered, running a hand over my head as he stepped into my old bedroom. "Jesus Christ," he whispered, looking back at me.
"Right?" I huffed a laugh and sniffled at the same time.
Jasper teasingly put his fingers in his ears. "I don't want to hear what you two did in there when we were all innocently asleep."
Edward grinned, his cheeks turning a light pink, but he barked a laugh when all I said was, "Yeah, 'cause you were so fucking innocent. They came over together."
Alice and Edward laughed and shrugged. Alice, though, put it all in perspective. "God, so many memories," she whispered, sighing deeply. "We really were all inseparable."
"We really were," Edward agreed, sitting on the rocking chair in the corner of my room. "When Jake sent me the key, all the memories just hit me so hard. We're all so different, but we never fought or got jealous over stupid shit. We'd bicker, but nothing major. It always felt like we were family. More so than blood sometimes."
"Yeah, and that included Jake and Rachel," I added with a nod.
"Definitely," Jasper agreed softly.
There was a knock downstairs, and Max let out a soft, "Boof."
"That'd be Emmett," Jasper said, leaving my room, and Alice followed.
Before I could do the same, Edward grabbed my hand, pulling me between his legs as he stayed seated in the chair.
"You okay?" he asked softly, toying with my fingers and finally bringing them up to press kisses to my knuckles.
I raked my fingers through his hair, smiling at this position we were in, because it was not new. Edward was always so much taller than me, so face-to-face conversations had to be with him seated. But my hands could never resist that hair.
"I'm as okay as I can be," I answered honestly. "Grief is funny that way. My therapist said I went through it over moving away from you – well, all of you, but you mostly."
"When this is over, Bella, you and I will sit down to talk. We'll work on correcting that detour you took. Okay?" he asked, smirking at my soft laugh. "Our path is still there."
"Are you talking jobs or long distance or…"
He kissed me with a soft laugh. "Yeah, sure. All of that. Just know…I can do my job anywhere," he stated, wrapping an arm around my waist and raising a deadly ass eyebrow at me.
Fighting my smile, I nodded. "Food for thought, Edward."
His gaze drifted past me, and he shook his head as his eyes turned dark and heated. That was a look I knew like the back of my hand, no matter how long it had been.
"The memories in this room, baby," he whispered in a raspy tone.
Grinning, I pulled him up from the chair. "That's a topic for later too, Edward. C'mon. It's my turn to cook, and if we're staying here tonight, then we need to make sure it's secure." On the way down the stairs, I glanced over at him. "And we need to talk about what you and I found in that book."
"Yeah, we can do that when we eat."
The guys worked around the living room, making sure Dad's weapons were all still there and functioning, while Rose and Alice helped me in the kitchen. The sofa was shifted a little, and room was made for pallets on the floor. By the time I was pulling lemon chicken and potatoes out of the oven, the boys were practically salivating at the counter.
"The fuck, Bells?" Jasper growled. "Where the hell was that when you were living here?"
"On YouTube waiting for me to find it," I said with a laugh. "Shut up and fix your plate."
"How the hell did the world survive before YouTube and fucking Google?" Emmett asked as we all filled our plates and sat down at my dad's old table.
Edward and I rolled our eyes, and I set down that big book. "They hid information in books," I teased him.
Rose cracked up. "You and I are so stopping by the diner soon."
Edward grinned, shaking his head. "Leave me out of that shit," he muttered.
I tapped the notebook I'd been keeping notes in and said, "I think there's some stuff we should talk about in here."
Before I could go on, there was a knock at the door.
"Probably Billy. I asked him to stop by," Emmett said, getting up to answer the door.
My dad's best friend looked like he'd aged twenty years when he stepped into the house. He was grayer and softer in the middle, and the sadness in his eyes was hard to witness.
"Bella," he said through a sigh.
I got up and walked into his arms, hugging him hard.
He pulled back, cupping my face. "Charlie said you'd gotten more beautiful, but I thought he was just being a proud papa. He wasn't bragging. Well, he was, but still."
Huffing a laugh, I wiped a tear away. "It's good to see you, Billy. If you're hungry, there's plenty."
He fixed himself a plate, and we made room for him at the table. Edward and I shifted everything we'd been working on to the counter.
"Before we do this," Billy said, gazing at all of us. "I just want to thank you for Jacob. He would've never wanted…"
"Yeah," we all kind of mumbled at the same time.
"I need to show you guys on Charlie's map where shit went to hell. Where they were," he told us. "They were tracking some reports of missing people and more 'animal attacks.'"
"I kinda knew where they were, but Charlie hadn't said anything came out of it," Emmett said with a frown.
"Yeah, Jake was keeping it quiet until they knew for sure. It was only a hunch they were going on," Billy countered.
"Okay, but before we do that, we need to talk about our friend in the cabin," I stated, opening my notebook.
They turned to look our way, and I tapped the page. "Okay, so we know these guys have been around since the 1800s. At minimum. They also seemed to have traveled in somewhat of the same areas, which shows with the ten-year pattern Dad figured out." I opened the book to the old sketch. "We killed Laurent. We have James trapped, but that will undo itself soon. It's Victoria who's still out there, making more vampires, and she's out for revenge and to release James."
"What makes you say it'll undo itself?" Billy asked.
I turned a few pages. "Dead man's blood is a temporary fix. According to this, it only lasts so long, depending on how much we used." I held up a hand when everyone started to say something. "I know we bound him in iron and severed his head. But the fact that sun didn't kill him tells me he's ancient. Once that dead blood wears off, his head will reattach, and only the iron will hold him. Maybe."
"Eventually we'll have to go out there. Raining or not," Edward added, tapping the book. "I think if we burn James, scattering the ashes… And I don't mean just letting them blow away. I'm talking taking parts of him to different fucking oceans or deserts."
"Mmhmm," I hummed in agreement, tucking my hair behind my ear. "However, our problem is Victoria. We don't know if she's like James…or Laurent. And she's going to come for us. All of us."
"She's already tried, Bells," Jasper pointed out.
"Yeah. I know." I flipped a few more pages in the book. "Here's the scary part. They aren't the only ones out there. There are stories originating as far back as ancient Greece, Bulgaria, England, and Ireland. That Irish one was nasty. He just kept coming back."
"How'd they stop him?" Alice asked.
"He's…" Edward pulled the book closer to read it. "He was stabbed in the heart with a sword made from Yew then buried upside down, like headfirst. Finally, they planted a Hawthorn tree next to his grave before placing a boulder over him."
"Oh, so like all in a day's fucking work," Rose scoffed sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Fire sounds better."
Edward laughed. "I think so too."
"Okay, well, the difference between our vamps and those global ones?" Emmett started, waiting until we nodded. "Those other assholes don't know about us. These do."
"Exactly," Billy agreed. "So let's look at Charlie's map, because I have a feeling we'll be going on another long hike."
"I've got his keys," Jasper said, pulling a ring out of his pocket.
We all walked out to my dad's old shed, and I shook my head at the fact that it was exactly the same. Gardening stuff and tools on one side, and vamp-hunting central on the other. The map was still hanging above the workbench, and more pins had been added to it.
Billy studied the map, finally pointing to a spot. "Our friend is under lock and key here." He tapped the spot where the old cabins were. "Charlie and Jake wanted to see if maybe they were using a different cabin this time around, but they came up empty. However, this last time? They were thinking about that tunnel down in that basement."
"Yeah?" Jasper asked, stepping closer.
"Yeah, because not far from there is an old abandoned lumbermill, which used water from the Calawah River. But it also used shit underground – water pipes, dams, and I'd be willing to bet large underground room for industrial saws."
"That's where they went?" I asked, walking closer to the map.
"The last time I talked to my son, they said that they were checking out the old mill," Billy explained. "Next thing I know, Charlie was found by his cruiser, and Jake had disappeared."
"Shit," Edward hissed, gripping his hair and shaking his head. "I'd bet all I have that Jake was bitten, but the last thing he did was make sure Charlie was found. He'd already sent me the key."
"Yeah, he did that the day they left," Billy said.
"Okay, so hiking tomorrow?" Emmett asked, and we all nodded. He turned to open my dad's cabinet.
Everything was still there – bottles of holy water, wooden stakes, silver-tipped arrows, and crucifixes.
"We'll stock up tomorrow before we leave," Jasper said, turning to face us.
"I'll meet you back here in the morning," Billy said, holding up his hand when we all started to argue. "Stop, kids. Wait. I'm coming because I promised Charlie I'd help as long as I was able. And I'm safe on the reservation, so I'll see you guys in the morning," he reiterated.
The house was quiet as we cleaned up from dinner, changed into pajamas or shorts, and settled down somewhere in the living room, and by that time, the sun had set, so we were on high alert.
Max needed to go out, so I took him to the backyard, sitting down on the steps. I smiled when cigarette smoke met my nose, but I glanced over to Edward, who was sitting on the step beside me.
"I didn't want you out here by yourself," he whispered, kissing my lips.
"I'm not," I said, pointing to Max, who was trotting up to us.
Edward grinned, ruffling Max's head. "You know what I meant."
As he smoked his cigarette, I listened. The usual night noises met my ears – dogs barking, owls hooting, crickets chirping. And so far, Max wasn't reacting to anything, except the pets he was getting from Edward.
Those noises were still in full volume when we finally walked back inside, locking the door. Hopefully Victoria would leave us alone for one damn night.
~oOo~
A/N… No flashback this time, but there was a lot going on. We'll be back with Edward on the next chapter, which will be Friday.
Until next then… Mooches, Deb ;)
Songs added to the playlist:
"Wish That You Were Here" by Florence + the Machine
"Easy on Me" by No Resolve (orig by Adele)