~ Chapter 50 ~
"I took my love and took it down.
I climbed a mountain and I turned around,
And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Till the landslide brought me down.
Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Well, I've been afraid of changing, 'cause I've built my life around you.
But time makes you bolder, even children get older,
and I'm getting older too." - Fleetwood Mac
Charlie hadn't seen the marker stone in nearly a century. Like himself, not much had changed; the engraved letters had worn a little around the edges, and overall it had a quality to it that spoke of its age. Yet for the most part, it was exactly as he remembered it, sitting by an old tree blanketed it in shade. He crouched down and cleared away some brush that had fallen on it, since no one took care of this abandoned lot anymore. He looked back for a moment, at the grassy field where his house used to be. It was a strange thing to see it so empty, as if his human life had never existed.
"This is so weird. I can't believe no one built here, it's a nice lot." Angela said from over his shoulder, she was carefully avoiding looking down the hill to where her own family home used to be.
Her family no longer owned the house. They had sold it and moved away decades ago, congregating with the rest of her extended family near the Great Lakes. The last of her siblings, a sister she had never met in person, died a few years earlier. Although it was a small comfort to know she had never hurt them physically by giving into her impulses, it had always been a sadness that she could never be a part of their lives.
Charlie's voice was somber as he replied, "I looked. This whole area's been designated historic. So no one can build here. If it were still standing, I bet we'd have a restored version of my house sitting there. Figures that it's gone."
Charlie turned back towards the memorial marker with his own name on it, and gently reached out a single hand to touch the surface closing his eyes as he did so. It was more out of curiosity than anything to try and determine what had happened to his house. The moment his cold skin touched the even colder marble a torrent of images flooded into his mind, which he forced into a chronological progression of a hundred years of days and nights.
First he saw his old friend Billy Black and his son Jacob stand over the stone with tears in their eyes. Then an image of himself when he came to chisel a memorial to his daughter into the stone; 'forever grieving'. After a few springs of winters, the abandoned house fell into disrepair and eventually it was torn down. A year after the demolition, a couple came to look at the lot and try and make a purchase only to have their hearts broken when the deal fell through.
It wasn't all negative emotions, there were numerous images of random children playing or running through the open space, and a few joyful neighborhood gatherings and barbecues. Then there was the seasons themselves, adorned with the bright flowers of spring, the awesome colors of fall, and the macabre specters of empty trees in the winter. The only real constant was Billy and Jacob and their annual visit to the stone. Six, seven, eight, nine years went by until the tenth year when Jacob came alone.
Charlie knew what was wrong before Jake could utter a single word, and he almost flinched his hand away. In the abstract he knew that his friend was gone, but to have it confirmed was heart wrenching. Yet Charlie wasn't about to shy away from this intimate moment. Jacob had come to talk with him, and he felt obligated to listen to his words. Slowly Jacob knelt fully before the stone, and rested his head against it before speaking at a whisper.
"He's gone Charlie. Just like Harry. I... I don't know what to do. He was always there for me, he was always my rock. Now I'm alone. Sue's trying to help, but she's... I don't know Charlie. I don't think I can come back here again, not after today. It's too painful. I know I'm sounding like a broken record by now, but I'm so sorry about Bella, we tried so hard to protect her. I never said it in front of dad, but I've always blamed myself. Sam tries to take the blame, but I was the one chomping at the bit to find the leech. If I hadn't been so damned cocky, if I hadn't left her alone… maybe. It's just… God, forgive me, please. I can't imagine how scared she must have been before they killed her."
He paused before continuing, his voice ragged, "I just can't keep dwelling on it. I can't keep coming back here. So, goodbye Charlie. I hope wherever you are, it's a good place. I hope you're with Bella. I hope Billy and Harry are there too. I can almost picture her grumbling trying to make Harry's fish fry over a campfire, and then all of you sitting in comfortable chairs set along the river with endless fish to catch." Jacob kissed the stone once, and then without another word he left and didn't look back.
Charlie almost stopped then, but he didn't want to miss anything else. So he resumed the accelerated pace of the images, until not even six months later another visitor came and knelt next to the stone. She was darkly clothed, but those clothes were ragged, ill-fitting, and very dirty. Her long wild hair was filthy with grit and dirt that seemed almost like intentional highlights, and it was greasy as if coated in oil. There were also leaves and a couple of twigs sticking out from the tangled mass that mostly covered her face.
All that he could make out from her features was a single eye which was a dark crimson. She reached out and touched the stone just like he was touching it, and then traced his hastily chiseled words with a trembling finger. A moment later she threw her head back and screamed, her rage and pain came across so clearly, it was almost impossible to bear. Then she finally let go and slumped forward, her hair no longer obscuring her face.
Across time he took in her appearance, and this time he did flinch away from the stone. The image lingered though, and his vampire mind quickly compared it to the fuzzy human memories of the one person that had once mattered most to him in the entire world. It was Bella, his Bella. It was like he was staring face to face with a ghost, the daughter he thought had been lost to him forever.
He had always blamed himself for her death, not in any real way since there were obviously circumstances he couldn't have fought against, but even so in his heart he always knew he had failed her. He believed there was a sacred covenant between parent and child, and his failure was as a father. Because he couldn't protect his own child. It was a stain on his soul, one he could never expunge. Even after saving Zoey from those monsters, he felt a pang of guilt about his own flesh and blood.
Charlie couldn't quite pull himself out of his mind, a mind that could process events down to the millisecond was stalled completely in neutral. The shock made it impossible to do anything but stare into space, taking in every detail possible about the image in his head. He needed to be sure, because if there was any doubt in his mind he couldn't do what he was already planning to do.
It didn't matter that there was a group of vampires and shifters taking out covens around the world. He had one goal now, to find his daughter. Half crazed he tried to work through the chaos of his scrambled thoughts for a solution, for an explanation as to how this was possible. Jacob's words rattled around his head even as took in the truth about her vampiric appearance. That meant one thing to Charlie, someone had turned her and left her to fend for herself.
There was no other starting point, there was only one coven she had interacted with. They had to know something, more likely they were the people that took her away from him. Had they faked her death to make her one of them? No, the timing was wrong, and that didn't explain her disheveled appearance. He wasn't sure they had answers, but he had to start somewhere… The Cullens.
Angela frowned and stepped forward, reaching out to touch Charlie's arm, while simultaneously reaching out with her mind to his in an attempt to figure out what going on with his visions. The expression on his face was telling her that something was very wrong. She had only seen that kind of shock on his face once before, and it had been a matter of life and death. Then without warning he threw back his head and snarled in an echo of the same rage and pain he had just heard his own flesh and blood belt out so many years before.
A millisecond later he took off before Angela could even break through his mental wall, she knew trying to coax it out of him when he was like this was next to impossible. She wanted to follow him, but she couldn't leave Zoey, not at this point in the process. She was only a few hours away from putting in the final touches, and then Zoey could be woken up. She had spent the last few days building up a series of carefully designed walls with unique gates, meant to act as a kind of mental graduation for her bloodlust. Zoey would then pass through each one as her control became more natural. Until then, those mental walls would allow her to be herself.
So without much choice, Angela moved to the car and tried to do her best follow Charlie's mind. The chaotic path he took was generally in one direction, and after a minute she realized where he was headed. The Cullens house.
Because of his vampiric speed, Charlie moved quickly out of range, but Angela wasn't about to let him rush into an unknown situation alone. So she hit the accelerator hard, hoping that she could at least arrive somewhat close to the same time as Charlie. It took quite a bit of coaxing to remember the exact turn off to the mysterious house. She had never seen it in person, but her family would take weekly trips up to visit her grandmother who had a house nestled away about a mile North of the Cullen's property.
Every time she had passed the driveway on those long ago trips to her favorite relative, she wondered what the Cullen house looked like. Was it a castle like most of her class imagined? Or was it something more modern? Angela gritted her teeth at the loss of focus, and pressed the pedal down even more. Then the mile marker she was waiting for came up, and she kept her eyes out for the hidden driveway.
The rental car wasn't exactly made for the kind of turn she wanted to make, but the tires managed to hold onto the road as she hit the hard right. Then she had to slow down for the long winding road, forcing her to stifle a scream of frustration as the small stones that made up the driveway bounced off the undercarriage of the car. The grinding sound coming from the tires rolling over the loose rocks, mirrored her building frustration and worry until she pulled out into the expansive clearing where the house stood, where all her fears turned out to be real.
Standing alone in the middle of a nice sized plot of grass was Charlie, his face set in a steely, cold and determined expression. He didn't glance back at the car as she pulled up behind him, but he did shift his shoulders slightly when she came to stand beside him. The group of assembled vampires were definitely intimidating, but Charlie wasn't about to show any hint of weakness.
Angela had long ago realized what the Cullens must have been, which was later confirmed by Uriel who know all the gossip on the larger covens. But despite her more hazy memories from when she was alive, she was certain that none of the vampires standing outside of the house were the Cullens.
"Who is this? Your mate? Do you really think she'll be able to help?" Tanya asked with a bit of a dismissive sneer. The woman was clearly the leader of this coven, and she was definitely unhappy with the sudden appearance of another vampire. But as far as Angela could sense, she had no inclinations towards violence, at least not without provocation.
"You don't want her involved, trust me." Charlie said with an off handed nod over his right shoulder. Tanya shrugged, the indifference in her expression made it very clear that the arrival of Angela hadn't changed anything. Angela noted the speculative gazes on several of the others though.
"None of us are the ones you are looking for. There are seven of us, don't make this get physical." Tanya spit out with a hiss.
"The woman is dangerous Tanya, her power is unlike anything I've ever seen." Eleazar whispered his council quietly in Tanya's ear, he had plenty of experience at keeping his words barely audible so that it was unheard by any vampire. Of course that didn't stop Angela from reading the information right from Tanya's mind as he spoke.
"I just need information, I need to know where my daughter is." Charlie said as calmly as he could, which unfortunately wasn't quiet at all given how acute his anger was.
"I don't even know who your daughter is." Tanya answered calmly.
Angela placed a subtle hand on Charlie's shoulder, a subtle signal the two of them had long ago developed to let Charlie know that the truth was being spoken. One squeeze the truth, two squeezes would indicate a falsehood. Angela could announce in Charlie's brain that it was the truth, but that method tended to distract him too easily, unless it was a warning of danger.
The gesture also lead to the general assumption that the two of them were mates. Which was reinforced by the fact that neither of them had ever expressed interest in any one. The ambiguous sign of intimacy cut off most unwanted advances, but for the most part it was a convenient fiction that they never hurried to correct.
Charlie scowled, "That's why I want to talk to one of the Cullens. They know exactly who my daughter is."
"Well, unfortunately none of the Cullens are here." Tanya replied.
"Well tell me where to find them. I want to speak to Carlisle. He may have the information I want." Charlie replied, the intimidating scowl he had perfected years before never once faltered.
"Carlisle is gone." Tanya replied, her eyes narrowed in anger. "He disappeared two days ago."
"What do you mean he disappeared?" Charlie demanded.
"What do you think I mean?" Tanya hissed. It seemed like that was the question that pushed her past the limits of her patience. "The man I respected more than anyone else in this world watched his entire dream and family just dissolve in a flash of smoke! And now he's vanished, heading to god knows where!"
Charlie was slightly taken back by the vehemence in her voice, and was caught slightly at a loss there.
It was Angela who had seen an image in Tanya's surface thoughts who spoke up. "What does Isabella have to do with this?"
That froze everyone up, though Tanya's ire shifted from Charlie to Angela. "Isabella." She practically spat the name, "has everything to do with this. She broke apart the Cullen coven, and left Carlisle a broken shell of a man."
It was clear that Tanya was harboring a serious grudge. She snarled at Charlie. "You're welcome to her… and her coven." She made a subtle motion that looked like she was at the point of losing her composure, but rather than attack, she spun on her heels and started to stomp back into the house.
"Do you know where she is?" Charlie blurted out, the expression on his face bordering on desperation.
"Go to hell!" Tanya called out as she stormed away in a fury.
The others looked around uncertainly as Tanya stalked away. It was clear that they weren't certain whether that was some sort of dismissal, and they should follow suit as a coven, or that she was just too upset to deal with everything.
Charlie looked around at the others, expectantly. "Look, I just want to know where she is if you know."
Angela narrowed her eyes, her own anger simmering at the surface, a proud man like Charlie was practically begging these people for information about his daughter. Information they should be willing to give up.
"Either tell us where she is, or I'll take the information from you. Your choice." Angela said flatly.
They looked at each other once more before Eleazar stepped forward slightly. "I am Eleazar, our pardon for the rudeness. Tanya especially has taken the whole thing rather personally. She is normally far more even tempered. Unfortunately, it has been….a trying week. I hope you will remember that and not judge too harshly."
Eleazar smiled a little bit when he got a nod from at least Angela, "As to Isabella she's not far. I will give you two warnings though."
Angela nodded again slightly, but Charlie was doing his best not to shout at Eleazar that he didn't care about any warnings, he just wanted his daughter.
"First, her… companions are varied, including an alliance with a local pack of shifters who do not like our kind. So venture there carefully. If you find yourself in a confrontation, using her name may suspend hostilities at least temporarily." Eleazar kept his tone soft but serious, not wanting the two to march off and get themselves hurt.
Charlie looked surprised at this but nodded impatiently, but Angela gestured for Eleazar to go on.
"Secondly, she and her coven have declared war on the Volturi. So even meeting with them could be construed as siding with them and find you marked for death as well." Eleazar's warning was deadly serious.
Once more Charlie looked like he wanted to wave the statements off completely, but Angela cut him off, her eyebrows raised. "They declared a war on the Volturi?"
Angela's disbelief seemed to inject a bit of patience and logic into Charlie and he frowned, "That… doesn't sound like Bella…"
"War on the Volturi? Why? How?" Angela demanded.
The Chicago coven had been slowly gathering resources for nearly two hundred years with the idea of eventually challenging the Volturi, but they had to build very slowly to keep under the Volturi's radar, and even still they weren't close to matching them. Of course now that the coven had been completely eradicated as far as Angela was concerned, effectively rendering that potential conflict over. The few remaining survivors were very likely going into hiding in fear for their lives.
"Any more information would be improper, because it is not my story to tell. I have given you the warnings, heed them if you wish." Eleazar shrugged lithely.
Eleazar turned and pointed, "You travel a few miles in that direction. If you travel by car, which I recommend so you at least make it obvious you're not trying to sneak up on them; you head back out the drive. Exit to the right and follow the road for about eight miles, past two bridges and watch for a dirt road. The turn off doesn't have a marking, but there's an old oak tree stump right in front of it. That's where they were the last time we contacted them."
Charlie instantly spun around and headed back to the car, Angela followed him after a moment's hesitation. Eleazar's voice followed them, "If they aren't there, then the Quileute reservation might be your next option, though your lives could easily be forfeit if you go there."
"Wait. I'll show you the way, Garrett and I need to head up there anyway." Kate drew attention to herself, and gave the strangers a mildly friendly smile. Her idea served a dual purpose, first off if this man was truly Isabella's long lost father, making friends with him would be a good idea. Secondly, It also gave Kate and Garrett the chance that they were looking for to meet up with Isabella and her group.
Angela was half tempted to check her thoughts, but resisted the impulse. While the reception hadn't exactly been pleasant, it was also unsurprising, given the fact that they had intruded on another coven's domain and immediately made demands which was a major faux paus among vampires.
"I'm pretty sure we can find our own way." Charlie said in rejection of her offer. He was somewhat surprised by request, but certainly didn't trust a group he knew anything about. Also, at the moment, Charlie didn't care about anything more than finding his daughter.
Angela frowned thoughtfully, and then poked at his mind to get his attention. "Accept the offer, if we are to remain in this area it would be useful to have allies."
Charlie shivered slightly, he had never gotten used to her mental voice but he couldn't deny the logic. He shifted uncomfortably, and debated arguing with her. But he didn't have the patience to really win that argument, and knew it would just delay things even more. He had one fixation at the moment, and nearly a century of mourning that had all but disappeared in his anger and confusion.
After a long second he responded, "Fine, I hope you have your own car though. We're full."
"I thought we could just run, it'd be faster." Kate said with a curious expression on her face. "With us as escort there shouldn't be any danger approaching the Swans."
"What did you just say?" Charlie said with an odd mix of surprise and confusion.
"Isabella's coven. They call themselves the Swans." Kate confirmed with a touch of her own confusion.
"That's... nevermind. We have a young woman who is in the middle of a transition. We would prefer not to move her more than I have to." Charlie said with a frown, it was more information then he wanted to share. Though he didn't share that the transition was technically complete at this point, that Angela was keeping her unconscious while she deliberately built the ability to control Zoey's vampiric instincts. Waking up as a newborn that was in control and lucid was something that required subtlety and painstaking patience.
"Fine by me. Garrett love, would you pull a car around?" Kate said without turning, and the tall vampire with the subtle smile nodded once in response. He was off in the next instant, and a few seconds later the garage door was opening and a car roared to life. She was utterly unsurprised that he picked one of the faster and sports-like cars from the Cullens' cavernous garage.
They had considered going and purchasing new cars, but had decided against it for the moment, waiting to see where things fell out so they could respond thoughtfully and logically. Tanya held the position that they should act with an abundance of caution. Kate hated the idea of waiting in the wings. She wanted to be a part of the conflict, and truth be told she wanted to join Isabella's impressive coven. It was a difficult thing to consider though, abandoning her coven and sisters wasn't something she could do without repercussions. Either way, this would the first time the Denali had split up since the attack from the newborn army.
The Denali's had adopted a rather paranoid method of coping with the aftermath of the attack that drove them from their home. First off they only traveled as a group, refusing to get caught isolated from one another. Second, they made all decisions by consensus that was already starting to create a wedge between them. Tanya's rigid insistence that they all follow the new rules was how Carlisle managed to slip away. When he refused to go hunting with them, they left him alone instead of leaving one of the coven behind to keep him company. At some point during the three hours they were gone he had chosen to leave.
At first they feared he had been taken, but that possibility was quickly squashed, since he left a note with passwords to the computer, bank accounts and security codes to the house as well as a single message.
"Need space and time to think. - Carlisle." The handwriting wasn't perfect, in fact it was hastily scrawled. But everything else fit into Carlisle's emerging personality shift. He had become depressed and irrational with each passing day. Tanya had been worried about him, but reasoned giving him some time alone might actually be beneficial. Her feelings of guilt were still dominating her thoughts. She was half tempted to go and track him down, but knew the attempt would be pointless.
Eleazar watched the others get in the car, impassively. He raised his hand slightly to get their attention as Charlie and Angela were about to get into their car. "I do not know what you expect to find, but recall that whatever image you have, she is likely not a daughter you remember. Prepare yourself for someone you do not recognize."
Charlie looked up at him, and nodded once feeling a wave of concern wash over him. Ever since the moment he saw her face in his vision, he'd become single minded in his desire to find her. It was the reason he rushed to the Cullen house without considering the consequences. He hadn't truly expected her to be so close. He expected he would need to scour the Earth to find her, he had never entertained the possibility that he could find her near the place he still considered home.
He got in and turned over the engine, as Kate's car screeched past them. He threw the car into gear, and took off after the sports car with little care about traffic laws. He was well aware of Angela sitting in the seat next to him, her gaze not leaving him as they drove.
Concern filled Angela's features, but she knew that voicing those worries wouldn't be very productive. She was also was doing a good job of not letting strain show on her face. Even though she was stretched pretty much to the limit emotionally, she had to put the finishing touches on the instinct control for Zoey who was still unconscious in the backseat. It wasn't a simple job because it required constant concentration to fight against Zoey's natural state to keep her unconscious. At the same time she was keeping tabs on Charlie's overcharged emotional state, worried that he might lose control.
It wasn't an easy thing to be pulled in a half dozen directions, even for a vampire. But it was something Angela was used to. She had spent a human lifetime mastering her patience and how to multitask her mind. With something as critical as her daughter's personality at stake, she had to devote most of resources to Zoey. It made her nervous to be so torn from her gift, but at least she wasn't totally occupied by the effort. She was more than capable of handling the current situation too, but if there were any more surprises she wasn't sure if the balance she was maintaining would remain stable.
She took to watching the tail lights of the car in front of them as they shifted up and down depending on the terrain. The directions Eleazar gave were exact, and at the tree stump they turned onto a long gravel driveway, which opened up into another massive clearing. But this one wasn't filed with grass and house. A third of the space was muddy and lined with deep grooves made by large construction vehicles and trucks. Dominating the left side of the clearing was the frame of a massive house, easily four thousand square feet and three stories tall. To the right was a big tree, under which there was a single large boulder, and a series of natural wood and stone benches surrounding a bonfire sized fire pit.
Two one-ton trucks were pulled up to the left side of the skeletal house, and gathered near the end of the driveway were a couple of familiar faces. Three figures stood at the end of the driveway where the grass was still present. Two women and a man.
Charlie pulled in behind Kate and Garrett, and Angela took in the faces of these new vampires. She instantly recognized two of the figures, Rosalie Cullen and her boyfriend Emmett were easily recognizable even from her hazy human memories. They looked almost identical to what she remembered, though their usually pristine clothing was stained and muddy in places, likely from working on the house. Angela tried to remember but couldn't place the slightly older auburn haired woman with them. All of them wore cautious expressions on their faces.
Charlie and Angela were both out of the car and walking toward the three who were waiting on them, when Angela suddenly felt the presence of several other minds. "We're surrounded." She sent telepathically as a warning. Charlie immediately tensed, but any reply he was going to make was cut off as Rosalie absorbed who she was seeing and her jaw dropped involuntarily. Her expression was mirrored a moment later on the older woman's face. Angela finally recognized her as Esme, though she'd only seen her a handful of times from afar.
Emmett's expression was even less restrained, combining a dropped jaw with an "Oh, shit."
"Where's my daughter?" Charlie demanded without preamble. Coming face to face with familiar vampires from his human life was taxing his patience, which was already stretched to the breaking point.
"I… we'll get her. Hold on." Rosalie replied, her jaw snapping closed as she tried to figure out the ramifications of this sudden and very unexpected intrusion. She was well aware that Bella's emotional stability was fragile at best, had no idea how she would react to this. She put two fingers to her lips and whistled loudly in three quick bursts, in a pitch that humans would never have heard, but was very loud to vampires.
Angela suddenly closed her eyes and put her hand to her head.
"What did you do?" Charlie demanded immediately, stepping in front of Angela protectively.
Rosalie for her sake looked confused, "That was just the all clear…"
Charlie was about to reply when Angela gripped his arm and shook her head slightly. "No… it's okay, I wasn't ready and the whistle almost woke Zoey. It's okay, I've got her under control."
That lead to confused expression from the three Cullens, but Charlie and Angela made no move to explain as five vampires seemed to melt from the shadows of the surrounding trees. Charlie was glad for Angela's warning because he hadn't encountered a coven this large in since the the last time he dealt directly with the Caravelli family.
One of those vampires practically bounded up to Rosalie, "Mom says she and Alice will be back in just a minute, and to be careful."
Rosalie nodded slightly, one of those rare times she wasn't giving Bree her full attention, she was pondering the possibilities in front of her, and none of them seemed to end on a positive note. It was like seeing a train wreck in slow motion but not being able to do anything about it.
Angela idly recognized Jasper, and a darker haired woman that she knew she'd seen before but had never been introduced to. She hadn't recognized the girl who spoke, or the asian woman, her attention was focused on the vampire whose approach was far more guarded than any of the rest of this coven. Almost instantly she recognized Bella, but the lack of reciprocal recognition puzzled Angela completely, because she was staring at Charlie as if he were a stranger.
The two things that stood out about this vampire were her almost perfectly precise movements, which told Angela that she had spent a great deal of time in combat training, and her violet eyes. The violet eyes felt familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Then this vampire version of Bella was standing within yards of the two of them. And all she did was tilt her head in curiosity.
All of Charlie's attention was focused on the familiar face of the vampire who looked like his daughter. With her auburn hair and disconcertingly and unnaturally colored eyes. If he didn't know that vampires couldn't sleep and were therefore incapable of dreams, he could imagine he was dreaming. He looked at her face and after a second's hesitation, his amazement turned to a scowl.
His rage ignited immediately as he realized this girl was not his daughter, even though there were enough subtle similarities to fool almost anyone. It was the slight differences in the face that forced Charlie to realize that this person was an imposter. For just a moment he felt like his heart had been ripped out, then he let out a vicious snarl at the doppelganger, stepping forward as if to grab her shoulders, "You are not Bella!"
The way he said it caught Eliza off guard, "How do you know my mother?" She hadn't intended to blurt it out like that, but she was confused. The two vampires in front of her seemed very familiar but she couldn't remember where she might have seen them before, the man especially seemed important. It wasn't the first time she had been mistaken for her mother, but no one who had made that mistake had ever called her Bella. Isabella maybe, or the Assassin, or my Lady, or simply Volturi. Never Bella. That was a name only a handful of people ever dared to use.
Charlie looked stunned and confused for a second, as if his brain had a temporary fault and had to be rebooted, "Your… mother?" He had stopped moving forward though his hands still looked prepared to reach out and grab her shoulders.
Rosalie and Eliza both opened their mouths to reply but before they could, they were cut off by a sudden snarl, "Stay away from my daughter!" as a figure moving impossibly fast, even for a vampire, moved to intercept Charlie before he could reach her.
Isabella had been coming back from Forks with with Alice, after ordering more supplies for the house and getting their blood supply from the post office, when Bree warned through the link that they had visitors, two Denali, and three unknown vampires. Rather than risk anything, she and Alice rushed back, and though she hadn't sensed any panic or fear from either of her daughters, when she arrived things looked wrong as a strange vampire was reaching for her daughter.
She was very aware that Eliza could protect herself, but sometimes her instincts still welled up. Especially now when the threat of a Volturi attack was hanging over all their heads. Her own follow-up would have been a violent pushback against the vampire threatening her daughter, but all thoughts of violence came to a screeching halt when she realized who the vampire was.
Father and daughter stared at each other in shock. Neither one having ever expected to see the other again. Face to face with Bella, he could more clearly see the differences between her and the vampire that called her 'mother'. The biggest difference was in the eyes, while the other vampire's eyes were violet, Bella's were red, but not the darker crimson of his own, or of so many other vampires, no they were a brilliant ruby red. Other than the eyes, they were small things, the line of the jaw, and curve of the lips, the slope of her nose.
Conversely Bella was taking in the subtle and not so subtle changes in her father. Besides the obvious vampiric alterations to his face, he had also shaved the mustache, and his hair was now jet black, without the greying at the temples she remembered. "Dad..?"
For a microsecond, Bella was the hopeful and naive girl she had been so long ago. The happiness she had once known as real was true in her heart again, and everything was right in the world. In the next moment darkness stole those happy thoughts away, as she absorbed the truth of his red eyes and angular features. The girl who had her life stolen by a monster was back. He wasn't her father, he was a monster who looked like him. Probably an imposter sent by Aro or Joham to infiltrate her coven and destroy her.
She was in motion in the next instant, leaping forward to attack the person before her. Her feet even began to leave the ground, but she didn't make it more than a foot forward before her momentum was halted, and she was thrown backward several yards by someone who had managed to grapple her into a hold, pinning both of her arms. She couldn't quite comprehend what happened, and immediately began to struggle so that she could destroy the imposter.
The person holding her back, twisted her into the ground hard, and pinned her there. Isabella growled, and bucked against her attacker until she turned and realized it was Eliza who had stopped her. With a questioning glare full of fury she stopped struggling.
Eliza met that fury with an intense stare of her own. She knew Isabella was the slightly stronger of the two, and was glad that Alice had grabbed her mother's shoulders to help throw her down. It was an absolute that Isabella would never hurt her, so she had no fear stepping in when occasionally her mother snapped in rage. Eliza knew that part of Isabella was holding back, but even restrained somewhat, Eliza was struggling to keep her pinned.
"What the fuck? Why did you stop me?!" demanded Isabella. The shout through the connection echoed across the four minds bound within it. But it wasn't Eliza that answered.
"Because you would regret it for the rest of your existence." Alice spoke out loud, from her position kneeling next to her lover and her adopted daughter struggling on the grass. Her hands still resting on Isabella's shoulders, which she shifted to caress her face. The tender sign of affection stopped Isabella's protests and calmed her down somewhat.
Alice continued speaking softly and gently. "It's him, I remember his scent."
Eliza, once more marveling at the effect Alice had on her mother, slipped off of her to stand up. A moment later, Alice pulled a stunned Isabella to her feet slowly, her eyes intent on her lover's face.
Isabella met Alice's green eyes for several moments before looking back up at the spectators surrounding them. Most had moved to get a better vantage point, though Charlie hadn't moved a single muscle since Bella had arrived.
Isabella couldn't find a way through the anger to accept it, nor could she believe it. In fact she refused to believe it. She couldn't accept that he survived, that he was still alive after all these years. The thought of it made the beast inside her, the one that had been asleep for days, poke his head up and growl in anticipation.
"If he were a fraud, would whoever have orchestrated the deception fake me too?" Angela's voice was cautious. She was every bit as surprised as the others, only she was controlling it better, her surprise could be delayed for later. It didn't take a telepath to see how completely and totally the strain of emotional shock was affecting both Isabella and Charlie. Though she was trying to keep Charlie's emotions soothed, since he was feeling a massive combination of shock and hurt, it wasn't helping as much as she would've liked.
Angela's voice drew Isabella's attention, and once more Isabella was looking in the face of someone who she never expected to see again, another someone whose death she had been carrying around responsibility for for a century. She stared at Angela for several seconds, before her gaze slowly turned towards back to her father. Then she looked down at her hands for a moment and horror crossed her face. Horror at these two ghosts from her past seeing what she had become; the definition of one of her worst nightmares. The shock, the fear, the horror, and the confusion all began to spiral before she let out an inarticulate cry and then bolted.
She took off into the forest with a speed that she had never let herself use before. She kept going as she sprinted for in a blur through the trees, until she realized that there were three others close on her heels. She turned sharply, in a desperate attempt to distance herself from everything. She needed space, and time to understand. She needed to get away, perhaps forever. Her feet barely touched the ground as she practically flew up the closest mountain, some two hundred miles from where she started. When she reached the top, she finally stopped.
All the tumultuous emotions roiling just below the surface bubbled over, and she let go. All the hate, all the fury, all the rage came out in scream, but more than that. All her fears and insecurities came out as well. The years of hate and self recrimination for being responsible for the deaths of so many adding fuel to the fire. Everything that she kept inside came out as the truth of her imprisonment became suddenly clear. It was all a lie, told by a vicious monster.
Her cry of rage turned into an insane humorless laugh, one that refused to stop. All the things she had come to believe in that shack, during the months of endless torture, were false. Victoria failed. She hadn't killed her father, or even one of her closest friends.
And Isabella had no idea how to cope with that. Moments before when she was standing in front of her father, she realized exactly who was standing in front of her father. And in that moment she felt ashamed of herself. Ashamed of who or what she had become. The Assassin. Feared enforcer of the Volturi, and a killing machine, quite literally without peer.
Even without comment or discussion with him, Bella felt his judgement. She felt that he would be disgusted and swear her off for what she had become. She fell to her knees, and then leaned forward and rested her forehead against the snow covered rock. Nothing made sense anymore. Darkness was closing in around her once more, and there wasn't even the urge to fight or flee. She felt lost, and she had no idea how to move again.
Until three sets of hands wrapped around her.
Her family was there. Her lover and her daughters. They were there. They'd always be there, and in that instant she realized that she would never be alone again. Even if she was thrown into the deepest hole, they would always be a part of her. That truth reached deeper than anything else she had ever experienced, straight to the heart of her darkness. She was loved. There were three people that thought she was worth loving. Until that moment, it hadn't even occurred to her that she was worthy of any kind of affection.
They said nothing, Bella could feel one of them practically wrap herself around her. She didn't even need the scent of cinnamon and lilacs to know it was Alice. Her two daughters were nearly as close and protective.
"He's alive, isn't he?" Isabella finally said out loud. Her voice was soft and vulnerable. One of the few times she had ever been truly vulnerable.
"Yeah, I'm sure of it." Alice said quietly, her face buried in Isabella's hair. "We should probably go and say hi." Alice suggested after a short pause.
"How? How do I face him? He expects me to be his daughter." Isabella sat up and gently and attempted to push everyone away. The attempt worked precisely not at all, since Alice was practically melded against her and showed no sign of letting go.
"He's probably as scared as you are. It's not every day you get to discover family. Take it from me, it can come as quite a shock." Bree said with a shy but pleased smile.
Eliza smiled widely, and resisted the urge to snicker. Bree was really diving into the family element with a zest that surprised even Eliza. She pulled her sister into a tight one-armed hug.
"Love you too sis, but let's not get shmultzy." Eliza said, then kissed the top of Bree's head tenderly. This was the first time the word family had come from Bree so effortlessly, and it made Eliza insanely happy to hear it.
Alice got up first, finally releasing her hold on Bella, but she didn't want to sever the connection, so she immediately held out her hand in an invitation that Isabella found impossible to refuse. The repeated gesture wasn't lost on Isabella either, as she took her lover's hand. Then they started back towards home.
"I do have one bone to pick with you though." Eliza said seriously as they began to walk a bit more sedately down the mountain.
"Oh?" Bella asked, an eyebrow raised in curiousity. She could feel Alice narrow her eyes slightly at Eliza, and pressed closer to her to keep her from responding. It was obvious that Alice didn't think Eliza should be pushing her mother after what had just happened. On the other hand, Bella was familiar enough with Eliza's mercurial ways to have rather different expectations.
"Yes!" Eliza nodded seriously. "How long have you been letting me win races?! You've never been that fast before! We'd have kept falling farther and farther behind if you had kept on going!"
Bella frowned a little bit and looked around and then looked a little abashed. "I… uh… I'm not even sure how long or how far from home we are." She felt Alice relax into her and even giggle a little bit.
"Oh… you know. You only ran for two or three minutes. We're only… a couple hundred miles from home." Eliza said with forced nonchalance.
"Huh." Isabella said eloquently. She honestly was surprised. by the fact.
Eliza looked mournful, "I'll never beat her in a footrace."
Bella laughed a little bit, "C'mon. Let's get back home. Rosalie is probably worried." Bella turned to lead them decisively back toward the house when she stopped and froze, looking a little embarrassed. "Uh… which way is home?"
Eliza began to snicker, and it took most of the trip back home for her to stop.
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Author's notes: HA! totally not dead!
1) Big tip of the Hat to Samantha Minuet who basically wrote this entire chapter. With me going. "oh oh. Um! YEAH! that sounds good!" and "Here's some coffee" and "Ah! You almost burnt me to a crisp! I didn't know you could breathe fire! was it something i said?"
2) First meeting right there :O Where do we go from there? WHO KNOWS?! DUN DUN DUN.
3) Yep, it's been awhile. Nope. I won't promise to update faster. Yep this story will be finished. Nope I can't tell you when or how long. I also won't apologize for how long it took for this to come out. I have classes. Which take priority. I have other interests. I'm allowed those :D I help a couple other authors on this site with their stories or ideas. (Plums, Vimesenthusiast etc)
4) Samantha Minuet's Co-Author's Note: I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, this chapter was mostly written eight months ago. *Ducks*. No, before you guys get upset it wasn't in publishable form until now. It was 7000 words, and probably only about 2000 of them are actually in this chapter. Where did the other 5000 go? Well that would be telling. Suffice it to say we're actually ahead of the game for once. No promises about updates though. I hope everyone likes the initial reactions to Charlie and Angela's arrival, and I know the next couple of chapters will be a fun ride.
5) How does the family react and recover? Well… we'll have to wait and see!
6) As always read and review.
