Thank you chellekathrynnn, WickedlyMinx, souverian, GuestMG (glad you liked it! It's more than a guideline really, but it's interesting you asked that second part just now...), Adela (yay!), Love. Fiction. 2020, magicbustrip, carlapaz. astroza, Guest, and paninihead for your reviews! Got a long day at work today, but I'll reply via PM when I'm home, and hopefully have the next chapter for you pretty soon.

Chapter 21

Whilst Alice and Jasper checked themselves and Bella into the hotel, Kate and Irina - as they'd introduced themselves - waited with Carys by a pillar near the elevators.

Kate - the taller of the two, who possessed long silky pale blonde hair that stretched down the length of her spine - had taken up Jasper's watch, and Irina - who Carys presumed was the younger, and whose silver-blonde hair was cropped to her chin in a blunt bob - continued to act as Carys' main distraction.

Somehow - and she couldn't be sure of the exact reason - she felt safe in their presence, more than she had since James decided to track her and Bella. Not simply with them, but because of them.

Kate, especially - who, despite having hardly said two words to her, had an air of command and strength about her that did more for Carys' nerves than her sister's kind conversation.

"I wish we could have met under different circumstances," Irina was telling her with a gentle smile. "I'm not sure how much Carlisle's told you about us, but I can assure you we'll keep you as safe as our cousins would."

"Pssh!" Kate finally spoke up, rolling her eyes at her sister as she tucked the pamphlet she'd been pretending to read into her pocket. "No, we won't," she told Carys with a faint frown, shaking her head as she ran a hand down the underside of her hair, flicking it in a way that captured the attention of half the lobby.

Irina's smile turned wry, and she half-chuckled when her sister resumed her watch. "What Kate means to say, is that we'll-"

"Protect you better than the others could dream they were capable of," Kate interrupted quickly, raising her eyebrows at Irina as if to say she'd been clear enough before. "Or at least," she turned away again. "I will. Irina's just-"

"Just... What?" Irina asked her, not trying to hide her smirk as Alice and Jasper half-carried Bella across to the elevator and they followed along, flanking Carys.

"I was going to be nice and say 'someone to talk to on the plane', but you cut across me again, so-" she looked at Carys and rolled her eyes again as she sighed, "-she's just a farmer."

Irina's jaw dropped and Alice giggled as they stepped into the elevator. "Just a farmer? You hear that Jazz!?" She shook her head and scoffed, standing beside Carys, who was interested in the nickname she'd addressed Jasper by, at the back. "Carys," she told her seriously as the doors closed, "the last time I was a farmer was a thousand years ago, and there was nothing just about it." Her hair swung, falling perfectly back into place as she turned to mock-glare at the back of her sister's head. "Please ignore Kate, she's jealous."

"Jealous?" Kate asked her, turning to look over her shoulder as if Irina was completely mad. "What would I have to be jealous of?"

"Carlisle called me to protect his mate," Irina teased with a smirk worthy of a younger sibling.

"He called Tanya, and you just ans-"

"Ladies, please!" Alice piped up, her tinkling voice putting an end to their bickering as the elevator drew to a halt. "I'm sure he only called Tanya because he couldn't get through to Kate," she finished dryly, lifting Bella less than half an inch off the ground so she could carry her quickly towards the suite whilst Irina stopped dead in her tracks and ran her tongue over her back teeth.

"I don't know why I bothered," she complained lightly, clearly amused but holding onto her position of the aggrieved sibling, catching up to the group as they filed into the suite and throwing her hands up after she shut the door behind her. "Could've said 'you know what? I can't today, I'm busy,' but noooo... I came. And all I get are insults." She threw herself melodramatically onto the sofa, raising her hands above her head when Kate attempted to sit down beside her.

Carys nearly laughed out loud at her antics.

"As much as I wish we had the time," Alice said, closing the door to what Carys assumed was the bedroom as Bella was nowhere to be seen, behind her, "I think we'll have to skip the rest of this charming conversation."

She joined Jasper, sitting on the sofa beside him as Kate settled for the arm of Irina's sofa and Carys took one of the armchairs.

"Understood," Kate said with a brief nod, her features sharpening, instantly alert. "Carlisle could only tell us Carys and Isabella were in some sort danger? And that you'd explain when we met you."

Alice's lips blurred as she spoke so quickly and quietly that Carys had no hope of hearing, filling her cousins in on the situation.

Within a couple of seconds, Irina had pushed herself up and to the edge of her seat, listening as intently as her sister.

The thought they'd drop everything to help, with such little information to go on, endeared them to her even more and earned them her undying gratitude. She only hoped they'd still be willing to help once they knew about just how much danger they were exposing themselves to.

By the time Alice finished, the sisters were both looking at Carys with matching assessing expressions on their stunningly beautiful faces.

Irina was the first to speak. "I'm sorry," she said carefully, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "If we had known the extent of the issue, we wouldn't have behaved as we just did."

"Yeah, ya would," Jasper spoke up, his voice mingling with Kate's as she said the same.

Carys smiled, a genuine if tired gesture she tried to include them all in. "You don't know how much I needed it - I didn't," she scoffed, "not until you were full flow... I just..." She leaned forward and dropped her face into her hands. "What's going to happen?" She asked, raising her head slowly, gripping her hair at her nape.

"Now, you have a choice," Alice explained quietly, pushing herself forward to mirror Irina's pose. "Once you decide where to go, I'll be able to see more." She caught Carys' eye. "How much, if any, has Carlisle told you about the Denali coven?"

"Erm..." Carys frowned and thought back to various conversations, trying to remember as much as she could, but frustrating herself at how little she could gather. "Tanya... Is the head of the family..., and... Irina," she tipped her head towards her and raised her eyebrows, "is apparently a thousand-year-old farmer... Then there's you Kate..." She narrowed her eyes a little. "And... Carmen and Ele-zar?"

"Eleazar," Kate corrected easily.

"Eleazar, sorry," Carys murmured, trying to remember anything else. "I don't... I'm sorry, I can't think, but I know he's said more..."

"That's more than enough t'get going with," Jasper reassured her with a twitch of his hand. "Now, did he tell ya what they are to us?"

She nodded quickly, she remembered that at least. "You're all cousins."

"Carlisle's more like a brother," Irina informed her with a grin.

"What-erm..." Carys sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a few moments. "What did he tell you about me?" She asked, looking up at them, hoping they knew her sigh had been from mental exhaustion rather than anything else.

"Bits and pieces," Irina told her simply, glancing at her sister in a way that told Carys he must have said a lot more than she thought able to let on.

Kate wasn't quite as tactful. "We know you're twenty-two and you moved to Forks nineteen months ago. We know Carlisle met you for the first time in November of the same year, in the Emergency Department, and that you were wearing a black pencil dress, high-heeled pumps-"

"I think she gets the point, Kate," Alice cut across her cousin, hopping up and sitting on the arm of Carys' chair. "Are you okay?" She asked gently.

Carys tried to blink back her tears. "He's going to be okay, isn't he?" She whimpered, staring up into her golden eyes. "You're all going to be okay?"

"Let's just focus on you, shall we?" Alice urged, attempting a soothing tone. "Carlisle will feel a lot better knowing you're safe. We all will."

Carys nodded tiredly and closed her eyes, resting her head against Alice's waist and wishing again that he could be with her. The distractions had removed her panic, but she had to remind herself she'd promised both of them that she'd be braver.

"Okay... What're the options?"

Kate began to speak as Alice stroked Carys' hair. "We could take you anywhere, to be honest, but I think the best option would be for you to come back to Denali-"

Carys' eyes snapped open and she pulled away with a gasp. "No! No," she refused, looking between Jasper and Alice, "Laurent's going there!" She reminded them, her heart racing.

"He won't get there for a few months," Alice explained gently, stroking her back as she had in the car with Bella. "He's waiting for Ja-"

"Alice!" Irina admonished quickly, guessing where she was going.

Alice stilled for a moment before she resumed her soothing movements. "I was going to say, he's waiting for the outcome before he risks visiting. Carys can handle it."

"The outcome he thinks, of course, being us both dead so James can bait our boyfriends," she offered with a humourless smile. "I don't know if Alice said," she informed the sisters, a dark look passing over her face as she gripped the armrest, "but he doesn't think anyone could go up against James and survive." She smiled bitterly and dropped her gaze, reaching up to flick the pearl of one of her earrings, comforted by the familiar action. "He's sure as hell not getting it," she bit out angrily.

Kate have her a mildly impressed once over. "I'd like to see him try," she announced with a smug smile. "He so much as looks at you, and he's down," she added, holding her open hand up by her shoulder and then snapping it closed. "I joked before I knew the whole of it, but the Cullens'll have him burning before long," she assured her.

Before Carys could dwell too much on what Kate meant, Alice shook her head and addressed her again.

"James wants you," she explained with a worried frown, "but not for your blood like Bella."

Carys started. "What?" She looked between them. "What else could he want me for?"

Silence fell as they all suddenly found different parts of the room incredibly interesting, not one of them meeting her eye. She wished she could somehow have heard their conversation - she had the sinking feeling she'd missed something with her human hearing.

"He wants to turn me, doesn't he?" Carys answered for them within seconds, recalling the look he'd sent her in the field - the one that had chilled her to the bone. It wasn't murderous, it was... A promise. A deadly promise she'd been too distracted to puzzle out before.

"Yes," Jasper confirmed after a few moments. "I..." He hesitated and waited for Alice's light nod before he continued. "Carys, I wonder if you've noticed anythin' strange about yerself?"

Carys stared at him for a moment before she burst out laughing - it wasn't that his question was any stranger than anything else that had happened in the last couple of days, but rather that the potential insult seemingly came out of nowhere.

Kate was the only one to smile in response - the only one who didn't stare blankly in her direction, faintly worried by her reaction.

Kate was also the only one to move.

She came towards Carys with a friendly grin, her hand outstretched as if wanting to give her a high five, but Carys thought there was something odd about it... Something she couldn't be sure of but didn't trust - in her smile. In the way she'd held her hand up before... The way she'd closed it, as if the action was in and of itself a stronger threat than her words.

Carys leaned back, her laughter cutting off as she stared warily at the vampire in front of her. When Kate continued to walk towards her and Alice did nothing to protect or reassure her, she pushed out of the armchair and backed away around the sofa Irina was occupying, despite the calm and ease Jasper sent in her direction.

Kate followed her and sped up until Carys stumbled and fell backwards onto the sofa beside Jasper, cringing into his side.

She winced when Kate darted her hand out and touched her on the wrist. "Why?" She asked, cradling her offended appendage to her chest as she rubbed away the effects of a static shock. "If that's your power - static shock - then it's bloody diabolical," she complained through a glare. "And if you're gonna say you just rubbed your feet on the carpet to snap me out of it," she added, rolling her wrist, "that's probably worse."

"Oh I can do far, far worse than that," Kate promised with a wink. "But-" she addressed the others, returning to the arm of Irina's sofa. "-I think you're right. There's definitely something."

"Something... What...?" Carys queried as her eyes widened and she stared at each of them in turn.

Jasper sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "If you agree to go up t'Denali," he told her quickly, "Eleazar, he'd know fer sure."

Carys shook her head and sat up, shrugging his arm away. "No, what do you mean? What would Eleazar know? Tell me."

She tried to ignore how similar she sounded to Edward when she demanded an answer.

Alice shared a look with Kate and Irina before she answered. "We really don't have much time, Carys, but... You know that some of us have certain talents-"

"Of course, I do, but what does that have-"

"The issue is... Well, we've noticed some things over time," she told her with a small smile. "Just before he left, Edward told me how you reacted to the Nomads yesterday, and... Well-" she appealed to Jasper with a glance. "-well, the way you are with us - with Jasper, Edward and myself, in particular, we think you might have something as well."

Carys blinked slowly. "I might... Like... I might..."

"Yes," Alice said, sighing as she grinned and nodded. "You understand," she told the woman who very much did not understand but felt as if she couldn't tell her that in the face of her obvious relief. "If you allow Kate and Irina to take you home, it could kill two birds with one stone." Irina smirked and Kate rolled her eyes as Alice continued, oblivious to what she'd said. "Eleazar would be able to give us a bit more of a definitive answer. Of course, you're human, so it'll not be as clear, but I think it's a good idea if you go."

"Does Carlisle think this too?" She asked, worrying her lip between her teeth. If he agreed with his children - thought there was something wrong with her...

"He's the one who suggested it in the first place," Alice admitted, faintly concerned once more as she clasped her hands in front of her chest and kicked her legs. "But I don't think he was thinking of it when he called Tanya, and he planned on discussing it with you in more detail than we have time for now. We really do need you to choose quickly, Carys. If- ah! Good." She glanced at the sisters with a relieved smile as soon as Carys flirted with the idea and accidentally nodded lightly. "You should be able to make the next flight."

"No, wait," Carys interjected, holding her hand up. "Is this what Edward meant when he said James was interested in me but he couldn't tell why?"

"James couldn't tell," Alice confirmed, the worried expression returning to her face. "Laurent couldn't either, but... Carys, they were surprised they couldn't. That's the problem."

Kate waited less than a heartbeat before she stood smoothly from her perch and grabbed Carys' backpack. Opening it, she removed an identical silver phone to the one Carlisle had given Alice and Esme the night before, and a small wad of cash.

"Come on," she said quickly as she stuffed the notes into a purse Irina threw her and dropped it on Carys' lap, pocketing the phone. "We can talk about it when we get there, but if we miss this one, the next flights not for hours." She shook her hair down her back and dug around in the bag for a moment, cataloguing the contents. She pulled Carys' British passport from the front pocket and slid it into her own bag. "We'll need to get you some clothes on the way."

"Alice said there was enough-"

"I lied," Alice told her quickly, pulling her to her feet as Irina and Jasper followed. "Now go."

"Bella?" Carys questioned urgently as she was half pushed, half pulled to the door.

"Will be fine with us," Jasper assured her. "You jus' focus on yerself now, Carys," he told her, squeezing her shoulder.

Carys brushed his hand away, surprised as always that he let her, and wrapped her arms around him, curling in on herself so that she could hug him round the middle without disturbing his nose too badly.

"I'm fond of ya too," he told her with a smile after Alice mimicked her gesture and Irina grabbed her hand, pulling her from the room when the elevator Kate had called opened its doors at the end of the hall. "We'll see y'all soon."

A/N: I'm just going to sit here in my imaginary spinning chair and twiddle my thumbs... Big things are coming for our lovely lass, but they might not be exactly what we think or when they happen to Bella... But I think they're big all the same, and the seeds of some have already been sown... I'm wondering if anyone's noticed any of them... Anyone remember what Eleazar's power is...?

Also, it's not my fault if Carys is a bit in love with Kate - she's the coolest person ever.