Hello my darlings. I'm sorry for the delay. It had been a couple of crazy weeks, and I went abroad on vacation. I'm working on the next chapter, i hope to have it finished by Monday...bare with me :)

Enjoy!

TWO CENTURIES LOVE

Chapter 10: Yours, mine.

We stayed in the hotel room for the rest of the visit to Italy, only leaving at night when the need to hunt was too strong. I didn't want to leave this bed or her side for anything. We were in a mood to continue celebrating our engagement. Bella would often gaze at her engagement ring and would grin widely when she caught me watching her. But no matter how many times I asked her what was behind that grin she would not say anything. It was driving me crazy, and she knew it. She loved to drive me crazy.

However, our stay was short, we still had school to come back to, and we didn't want too many questions from any human classmate. We were very reserved and for obvious reasons we isolated ourselves, but there were still a few human humans who felt brave enough to approach us. Those were the worst ones, because they always approached with questions; trying to get us to talk about ourselves. Not that we would share anything more than monosyllabic answers.

Still, it was annoying as hell, and the best way to avoid that was not attracting unnecessary attention to ourselves. And missing school was attracting attention. Bella would frown to that and say that that was overly paranoid of us. We could pretend to be sick, and that would be completely normal. And I agreed with her, but because it's us, we tend to receive more than the average attention. She shrugged and said that she would follow whatever I wanted to do regarding school, regardless of if she agreed or not. She didn't want to create any problems.

We packed our things at the last minute and rushed to the airport. I had rented a private plane under the pretence of being Carlisle, as I was technically a minor and couldn't do it myself. It was a safer option than flying commercial with the humans. Bella said goodbye to her friends while I was packing our things. I didn't have as many close friends as she did, so I didn't have anyone to say goodbye to. She was more passionate than I was.

And speaking of passion, I didn't want Alice spoiling our news to the family, so I warned Bella not to decide anything about telling our family about our engagement. Or in any case to keep changing her decisions, so we could distract Alice. She smiled devilry and kissed me harder than it was advisable for two people who were on a highway. We could get away with a car accident, but it was better if we avoided it at all.

I showed Bella the text message I received from Alice while we were boarding the plane.

"Edward Anthony, what have you done?" She tried miserably to imitate Alice's voice. I laughed at her, and she pushed me. I hugged her to me and fastened our seat belts while the plane was getting ready to leave the airport.

However, during the flight home, I kept thinking of Alice's message, there was something that was bothering me. It had sounded as if she couldn't see anything at all. I know Alice as well as I know myself, and there was something off in her text. It wasn't worrying, but weird enough, even for Alice.

Bella sighed and rested her head on my shoulder. She sighed again and I knew she wanted to say something. I grinned at her and gave her all my attention.

"I have a question." I nodded, encouraging her to continue. "Why can't you read my mind?"

It caught me off guard. We haven't talked about it since I first told her.

"Remember when we talked about bringing to this life something that was already prominent when you were human?" She nodded. "Well, I think that perhaps you were already able to hide your thoughts from others. I mean, I never knew what you were thinking, you were always so hard to read, and that's why I was always asking that of you. Because I could kind of read people, like I knew what they were thinking without exactly hearing their minds like I do now."

She stayed silent for a few seconds. "What does that make me?" She noticed my confusion. "You're a telepath, Alice a psychic, Jasper some sort of empath, and so on…What am I?"

I resisted the urge to say 'mine' because that's not what she was asking.

"Well, the Volturi have a name for that. And they have a girl who has similar powers to yours." I started. "How much do you know about them?"

She straightened up. "Not much, actually. I was too depressed the time I came here to actually pay any attention. I know Demetri is a tracker. I know Aro reads minds by contact. I know all of them has some kind of power. But I don't know everyone or their powers."

"Well, that's good. You basically know the most dangerous ones. Except, Alec and Jane. They have opposite powers. Jane can electrocute people with her stare, and Alec can numb." She shuddered. "There's a girl that's always with Aro, according to Carlisle, who protects him."

"He needs protection?" She asked surprised.

I chuckled. "He's very powerful, so of course he has a lot of enemies. Or at least many people dislike him a lot. So, this girl, Renata, she has a shield, which so far, she can only expand it by touch. She has to be touching someone to protect them."

"So…you think I'm a shield?"

I nodded. "I believe so. We can ask a close a friend that used to be with the Volturi to confirm it if you want."

She immediately nodded. "It would be interesting to know for sure and not just a theory."

"We'll call him during the week." I kissed her cheek and rested my head on her shoulder. She had said a few times that she liked it when I did that.

…

…

…

Alice was almost bouncing when we arrived at the house. Bella mouthed "I told you" when she saw Alice waiting for us at the steps.

"What are you hiding?" She demanded nervously.

Bella smiled innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Esme approached us, hugging Bella first. "How was your trip? Did you take pictures?"

Carlisle hugged us next, and my siblings just acknowledged us with an amused smile.

"We did take pictures, Esme." Bella answered with a devious smile. I shook my head and put our luggage on the feet of the stairs. With Bella as my fiancé, we agreed that if everyone was comfortable with it, she would be moving in my room.

We'd still keep her place, as a place to retreat and regroup. Bella said that she wanted to offer her house to anyone who needed a place to regroup for any amount of time. I agreed that it was a noble gesture, and the family would surely appreciate it. With the condition that the house would be cleaned, aired, and the sheets changed after use. Neither of the other couples wanted to smell the scent of sex of the others.

"What are you hiding?" Alice pressed again. I looked at Bella and she nodded and shrugged. Coward.

"Bella and I have news." I announced.

Carlisle and Esme joined hands, looking worried; as if I was going to tell them that we were joining the Volturi and leaving the family. As if that would ever happen.

Alice was frowning and dying to catch a glimpse of something different in us. But Bella was hiding her hand behind my back. It was driving Alice crazy, despite Jasper's efforts to calm her or distract her.

"Your news?" Esme pressed gently.

I looked at Bella and took her left hand on mine. No scaping now. I kissed it, making a show of bringing her hand slowly to my lips so that there was a lot of attention on the ring. Rose was the first to react. Her mind was the loudest, in fact. But Emmett was the first to speak.

"You're making an honest woman out of baby sis?" He asked excitedly.

"As honest as he can be." She winked at Emmett who caught her innuendo and hugged her tightly.

We were hugged by the whole family and went for a celebratory hunt.

…

…

…

Once we were back in my room…now, our room, I caught her again staring at her ring with the same expression she had at the hotel room the night before. Curiosity got the better of me so I walked to her and leaned down by her side.

She didn't take her eyes off the ring, but I knew I still had her attention. "Are you finally going to tell me what's behind that mysterious smile?" I asked.

She shot me a look from the corner of her eye. "I have a mysterious smile?" she countered back.

"You know you do. What's going on?" She had said she love the ring, and I trusted her, so that wasn't it. "You have a mysterious smile every time you look at the ring."

She sat up and I did the same. She faced me, crossing her legs, and putting her hands on my thigh. "There's something I haven't told you."

She looked worried. I took her hands in mine, trying to convey some comfort and confidence.

"A few days after you gave me the promise ring, your mom came to my house to speak to me, alone." My heart was practically beating again as the nerves showed their ugly face. I knew my mom had been a strong opinionated woman sometimes. She had had strong beliefs and she hadn't had qualms with speaking her mind. I hoped she hadn't said anything rude to Bella. I really doubted she had, because I had the feeling my mom had loved Bella and her parents, and she'd known how happy she made me.

"What did she say?" I whispered.

"She knew you had bought me a promise ring. She had seen you at the jewellery shop when you were making the purchase but didn't want to spoil your plans by spooking you." That sounded a lot like something my mother would have done. "She noticed the ring on my finger and that's when she told me about seeing you. She made sure I had the ring because she didn't want to spoil your surprise by mistake. She welcomed me into your family and asked if I had any questions, or doubts, or if I just wanted to speak to her. I told her that for the moment I didn't have any questions, but that I appreciated her reaching out. I did ask her if she and your dad liked me for you." I raised my eyebrows surprised by that. Liked her for me? As if I would have done anything different if they had said no. "I know, I wouldn't have done anything if they didn't like me. I would have still gone on with our plans, with or without their support." I was glad to hear that, even though I knew that would have been her reaction.

"What did she say? She loved you, so I imagine she said so." I added.

She smiled brightly. "She did. Immediately, in fact. She rushed to tell me that she loved me, and that she was so glad you had found a girl so drawn to earth and who was so extremely beautiful." She batted her lashes flirtatiously, so I knew she was joking at last part. I barked out a laugh and pushed her shoulder lightly. "Ok, seriously, she said she loved me for you, and she wanted me to have something of hers that could start a new tradition."

I nodded, wondering what my mother gave her.

"She said that when the time came, this ring." She raised her left hand emphasising which ring she was talking about. "This ring was going to be mine. She was going to give it to you to give it to me at our wedding day as our ring. She said I could take your promise ring as your engagement ring, and this as my 'band'." She finished. I was stunned. My mother never told me anything about this. Of course, she fell ill shortly after, so there was basically no time to talk about weddings, especially when I fell ill next.

However, it gave some comfort to know that my mother had talked to Bella on her own accord, behind my back, to reach out to her alone, and asked her if there was anything she needed. She had gone out of her way to make sure Bella knew she was loved in my family and was welcome with open arms. It was like a piece of my mom was back.

"Are you ok?" She whispered concerned.

"Yeah, I am. I had no idea my mom had done that. But that reinforces something."

"What's that?"

"This ring has always been rightfully yours."

Her face brightened with glee and love as she leaned down to kiss me.

…

…

…

The next day we emerged earlier than we would have wanted to, as we had school to attend. I would have rather stayed in bed, celebrating my engagement. I don't care if I had been celebrating it for three days already. I would celebrate it for the rest of my life.

Bella showered quickly and dressed in equal fashion. I showered next and dressed just as quickly. I would have showered with her but we both knew if that happened, we would have never left the house. And we made a promise to Carlisle to behave. This was important for him, and for us too. We had enough attention on ourselves as it was.

Alice's mind is focused on a thousand different things regarding the wedding. She has different ideas for dresses, flowers, the ceremony, who should officiate, who would walk Bella down the aisle, etc. It's almost as if she is the bride and not the best friend of the bride. But then again, Esme's and Rose's minds were running through the same track. It made me wonder where Bella's mind was.

"What are you thinking?" I asked immediately and without connecting my mind and my mouth.

She smirked. "You took long enough to ask." She teased. "I'm thinking that I really didn't want to leave the house, that I'm nervous about Eleazar's visit, and I'm also thinking about my wedding dress and how I want it to be."

I guessed this was a good moment to be happy I couldn't read her thoughts. I knew wedding dresses were important for women and their 'tradition' of not letting the groom catch a glimpse of it before the ceremony. Bella was keen on following certain traditions, and I knew this was one of them.

"I know you'll look beautiful." I kissed her hand and freed it to park in my usual spot.

"Should I take the ring off?" She asked looking around the parking lot. If anyone caught a glimpse of it, the rumours would run high. But I planned on making her my wife soon, so it would happen either way, better rip the band aid off now.

"No. Let them talk. They'll talk soon when I make you my wife, either way. This way, they'll run out of energy by the time you're officially mine in every sense of the word."

She nodded. "Let's go then. Let's face the gossipy humans."

Was there any question that she was perfect for me?