"You are not seriously wearing that - it's a joke, right?"
The anger in Alice's jingling voice was directed towards both me and Bella. She sounded seriously and majorly offended.
Bella and I had dressed in a hurry. Our lovemaking made us lose track of time completely. I was still deep inside her when I heard Alice's voice somewhere outside. With my special hearing numbed by Nell and my normal hearing overwhelmed by my wife, I had managed to be taken aback. I hid the belt with which I had silenced Bella under the bed - the last thing Alice would have wanted to see was the bite marks on her limited edition gift. We dressed rapidly, grabbing the first pieces of clothing we managed to find - which for me happened to be a pair of trekking pants and a cashmere sweater, and for Bella a pair of jeans and something that I wasn't quite sure whether it was a dress or a blouse, that hid her lovely curves in a way I didn't like.
I ignored Alice's rage and pulled her in for a close embrace.
"I've missed you, Alice," I said.
And I had truly missed my sister. Our special bond had been a source of comfort for the longest time, way before I had met Bella. The years Alice and Jasper lived in their own house, back in the '80s, had not been the happiest of my life. I had paid them as many visits as I could without Esme urging me to 'let them breathe a little'.
Things had changed after Bella became the center of my universe, because all of a sudden, I knew who I could not live without. The comfort she brought me was different from the kind of comfort Alice offered me: deeper somehow, more grounded, almost palpable.
Still, I had missed Alice - and I only became aware of how much now that I had her in my arms.
"For how much you've missed me, you'd think you would've made an effort to dress better," she mumbled at my chest.
I laughed and finally let her go. She jumped up and attacked Bella with a hug, and they both giggled with joy at the reunion. Jasper was not much of a hugger, but we shook hands and patted each other on the back, smiling.
"It's good to see you again," he said.
"Same to you, Jazz."
Lost in our 'welcome back' ritual, we barely realized that Nell had come downstairs and was now waiting in the doorway. I saw her over Jasper's shoulder, studying us with cautious eyes. She didn't seem scared, just prudent. I sighed and motioned her to join us.
"Alice, Jasper, this is Nellie. Nellie, these are my brother and sister."
Jasper bowed his head gracefully, smiling, while Alice simply went and hugged her. Nell flinched - her usual response to touches of any kind, as Bella and I had learned - but accepted the hug nonetheless.
"It's weird now, but we'll get along," my sister said, before letting her go.
I couldn't really understand why suddenly I felt so bashful about this meeting. It was not in my nature to feel that. I looked up at Jasper out of habit, trying to understand this sudden mood change - then I realized it wasn't him that was changing the emotions in the room. It was Nellie.
When she understood, she flashed Jasper a wide smile, the bashfulness in the air disappearing all of a sudden.
"Neat power, dude! I was kind of hoping my brain would pick this one over seeing the future."
"I told her she would get either power of yours," I explained.
"Well, no one gets my power," Alice said, lifting her nose up in the air in the most dramatic way she knew.
"That leaves you and me, Jazz," I said.
"What? You mean the kid can now read minds and manipulate emotions?"
"I am 15," she rolled her eyes.
"It's the way she works - she steals two gifts at a time," Bella said.
"I cannot complain," Jasper uttered. "It feels nice to not have my mood-radar on for once. You might be useful, Nell."
She shrugged, a pleased expression dominating her face. Alice went to close the door, dragging the two suitcases she had left at the doorway inside, along with three boxes wrapped in shiny golden paper, with bows on top. One of the boxes was bigger than the others, emanating the recognizable scent of expensive fabric.
"Okay, I know these days have been wild for everyone, so I bought a few little somethings."
"You call that little?" my wife said, gesturing towards the big box.
"Yes - and speaking of which, this one is yours, birthday girl."
"It's no longer my birthday," Bella complained.
"Well, I never got to celebrate it with you last year either, so feel free to suck it up!"
This made me more joyous than it should have. If I hadn't been able - and also allowed - to give Bella the birthday she deserved, at least Alice could, if only a little bit. But something on my love's face told me that she wanted anything but that.
"All right, these two are for you and for you," Alice said, handing me a box that looked smaller than the one Bella had received, but felt extremely heavy, and offering Nellie an even smaller box. "Now what are you waiting for? Open them!"
Without further ado, we did as told. Carefully peeling away the wrapping paper (I knew how my sister hated it when someone disrespected her efforts by tearing it away), I opened the mysterious box. When I realized what hid inside, I froze.
"I saw you going to the store and buying this at some point in the future, so I figured I might spare you the trouble," Alice offered softly.
I couldn't look her in the eyes. The box was filled with at least ten sets of climbing ropes: each had a different colour, a different thickness, a different durability. If Alice had seen me buying all these ropes, that meant she had also seen what I was going to do with them.
"Ummm… thank you," I managed.
"You're welcome!"
Jasper started laughing at my momentary self-consciousness. I expected Nellie to act all grossed out at this exchange, but when I raised my eyes from my gift, I saw her staring inside her own box.
"A phone? Are you for real?"
She was a bit scandalized, I could tell. But I didn't have to read minds or perceive emotions to know that she also felt excited.
"I figured you'll need it at some point," Alice said.
"But this is too much, I-"
"Oh, I am not playing that game," my sister interrupted her. "Haven't your folks taught you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?"
My eyes darted in Alice's direction in a second. I knew she was joking - but she didn't know what I knew about the kid's parents.
"Don't," was all I told her.
"It's fine," Nell laughed. "My folks were not the finest people, so to answer your question - no. But thank you for this! No one's ever given me a gift before. At least not in this life."
When I searched Bella's gaze, I saw her standing on the bed, rummaging silently through the contents of her gift, with a deep frown between her brows. In an instant I was next to her, my lips pressing on the top of her head.
"What have you got there, love?"
"A shop worth of clothes, it seems," she sighed, taking a pastel green button-up shirt from the box and studying it up close.
"This will look amazing against your skin," I stated, already imagining the soft delicious contrast.
"But there are so many!"
"Well," Alice started, stepping towards us. "I wouldn't have had to buy so many if someone here hadn't shredded half your wardrobe."
I could not dare argue with the truth. Between the two of us, I had surely been way more reckless than I should have been when it came to undressing. For how many times I had had to be careful with her in her human days, I had taken my time acting out my retaliation in her new life - even when it wasn't the wisest choice.
"Thank you," Bella muttered in the end, defeated. "I guess I needed some of these."
"Of course you needed them."
My wife explored the contents of the box just a few seconds more, before giving up completely and putting it aside, pulling the lid back on top. While I could not see what was inside, I could smell satin and lace, among other garments. I tried to not get carried away too much by this realization, nor by the thoughts it kicked off in my head - thoughts of Bella covered in flimsy lace and immobilized by multiple ropes to a bed, my fingers between her thighs and my member deep in her throat. My venom shooting out on her cheeks, in her hair, on her neck…
"So anyhow," Nellie began, her eyes flowing in my direction and nodding in revulsion for a fraction of a second. "What happens next?"
"There's still a few hours until the news journal begins and Elijah goes live with his new declaration on CNN," Alice sighed. "So I would say to use that time to get going with Bella's training. After all, she's the ace in our sleeves."
"You are too, darling," Jasper replied, his arm locking her in place, closer to him. For once, I was glad I couldn't hear what was going on through his head. Still, I felt bad for Nellie and all the things she had to listen to.
"I know I am, but my visions won't hide us from Demetri's radar."
"So we start now?" Bella's voice was eager and she stood up in a second. I followed her out of instinct.
"Damn right we do, sister."
We tried something a little different this time. With two powerless vampires in the room, Bella tried to get both Jasper and me under her shield. At times, I could hear again. Other times, it was Jasper who informed us he could feel our emotions again. It went back and forth between me and him, Bella's shield flowing in an unpredictable way. She could cover me more easily than she could with Jasper and I figured it was just a matter of practice - after all, she had been experimenting on me for over a week now, with positive results.
This left Alice exposed to Nellie's power a couple of times. While Nellie didn't have any visions in particular, my sister wasn't exactly a fan of not being in control of what she could see.
Bella managed to cover both me and Jasper. It never lasted longer than a minute, but it was a progress. It didn't matter how many times Alice and I had told her she was doing amazing. She still felt it wasn't enough. Furthermore, she found it extremely unfair how every vampire she had met simply knew what to do with their given gift, while she had to work for it.
"Bella, that guy I've been telling you about was the same," Alice pointed out, reminding Bella once again of the vampire she had met in the '30s, who could also project his shield. "Some powers are simply earned, I guess."
"That is so unfair."
Seeing her so frustrated, it was impossible to not agree with her. I wanted it to be easier - and it was hard to comprehend why it wasn't. I didn't have much to go by, given that all the gifted vampires I had personally met never had a problem with exerting their powers. These waters were just as unknown for me as they were for her.
Eventually, we had to take a break when Alice opened the TV. It was such a cruel joke - we knew what was coming, yet we could not help but watch, just like humans with their morbid curiosity of staring at a car crash. The news journal began innocently enough: some bank robbery at KeyBank, some new storm cells forming down the Tornado Alley. We remained silent, listening, waiting for the inevitable.
When the headline about a new unexplainable small-town crime appeared on the screen, the silence grew heavier. I was barely aware of Bella's hand, suddenly weak in mine, when we saw Cochran's face on the screen. His eyes were puffy, yet oddly sunk in his head, a quiet testament of the tragedy unraveling in his soul.
"I am most positive of what I'd seen this time. The same two women… they were basically… eating from..."
"Are you suggesting an act of cannibalism, sir?"
"I am suggesting two demons have murdered… have taken my wife's life away. I don't know what they are… banshees, vampires, devils, I don't know. But they're the same as the last time."
"Did you consider the possibility of hallucinations, sir?"
"I saw it with my own eyes, ma'am."
This was not going well at all. He was saying all the right words for the Volturi to have their perfect orchestrated excuse to come after us and all the right words for him to be labeled as a complete lunatic by the humans. We were losing, he was losing. There was no way out.
"The investigators did not do enough when that poor family got killed. I spoke out and I got punished for it… I..."
The man's stuttering turned into a small wailing and he looked to his side, in what seemed to be an attempt to hide his face from the camera.
"I've got nothing left to lose now," he added, his voice trembling. "There will be more victims if we don't spread the word."
The video cut back to the news anchor, the discourse slightly alluding to the fact that Cochran's emotional state could make him invent certain scenarios to cope with his loss.
"Bella?" Alice's voice was soft, almost a whisper. "Are you okay?"
My eyes flew immediately from the screen to my wife. Her eyes were still fixated on the TV, unmoved. But the rest of her body was shaking, the tremor so delicate it would have gone unnoticed by a human. She didn't respond, she didn't blink, she didn't breathe. She just kept on quivering.
So much for all those times in the past two months when I thought she would have a breakdown and she didn't - she was having it now, right in front of us.
"Come take a walk with me," I said, securing her hand tightly in mine.
It was not an invitation. I stood up and she followed mechanically. We walked across the room, under the scrutinizing gazes of the others, and we exited through the door. She kept holding her breath as we walked down the stairs, passed by the reception, where a couple of new tourists were checking in, and got outside. This day was just as cloudy as the one before.
"Keep a steady pace until we pass that family," I whispered rapidly. "Then we turn right to circle the inn and run north."
Bella barely acknowledged my words. The noisy family in front of us stared us down as we crossed our paths. I heard them mumbling in Mandarin; the woman was trying to convince her husband that she had seen my wife in some blockbuster movie, while he was trying to convince her that she had to take a break from watching too many Hollywood productions. When they got inside, we turned around - or rather I turned around and dragged Bella after me behind the building, because she didn't seem to be too cooperating in that moment.
I didn't have to remind her to run - she did so on her own, sprinting and disappearing between the beech trees. I followed in an instant, tracking the scent she left behind. She was as fast as ever, and the small headstart had given her an advantage. It wasn't as easy to outrun her as it was with my brothers. Seeing that she wouldn't stop, I started shouting after her.
We were far from the inn now - far enough to not be under Nellie's influence anymore. I could hear the faint traces of thoughts coming from humans who were trekking miles away from us. That was exactly where Bella was headed, whether intentionally or not. I yelled once again after her, with no result. She jumped over small creeks of water, seemingly with no direction.
It took me longer than I would have cared to admit to catch up with her rhythm - or almost catch up. With just three feet separating me from her, I reached out to grab her waist. The movement had been so abrupt that it caught both of us off guard. She fell and I ended up on the ground as well, over her and then under her and then over her and then under her again, as our bodies rolled on the ground with speed. We only stopped when we hit a coniferous tree. Its trunk moved ever so slightly upon impact, but thanks to its girth, it didn't break.
"Where the hell were you going?" I asked.
"I just… wanted to run, I guess."
I rose up from the ground and offered her my hand, to help her get up as well.
"It's all right, Bella, let's talk."
She kept her eyes away from mine, studying the carpet of leaves at our feet.
"What happened there?"
"You've seen the news," she mumbled.
"I have. We knew it was coming though."
"Doesn't make it any better."
She leaned against the tree, allowing herself to slide down the rough bark and back to the ground. To make things even, I sat down in front of her, pulling her slightly in my lap and taking her hands in mine.
"Talk to me," I pleaded.
Bella didn't reply right away. I decided not to push and wait instead. Her eyes went back from me to the ground and then back to me, as she was finding her words.
"Okay," she murmured after a while. "Edward, that man is ruined. And he wouldn't have been if it weren't for me."
"What happened there last night is the Volturi's doing," I countered. "Not yours."
"Yes, but… it started with me. I was the first piece in this domino to fall. Butterfly effect and all that."
For a moment, I thought she would continue, but she didn't. This was usually the time she would say 'It is all right, let's just forget about it'. And the time I would remind her that burying things didn't exactly help. And the time she would distract me, in a lame attempt to cover up the real problem. And the time I would foolishly accept the distraction.
"You know what, it's-"
"It is not all right," I interrupted her, making sure to emphasize each word. "We've been here way too many times and we are running out of time, love. Look at me, please."
I took her face in my hands, lifting it so that our eyes could meet.
"Edward, I..."
"You don't want to talk about it, I understand. I can't and I will not force you. But let me hear, please."
She sighed, resting her cheek against my palm, a frown forming between her eyebrows.
"But how do I do that again?"
That was the greatest question of all. I had only heard her mind two times until that very moment. Both of those times had been when we were deeply lost in the throes of passion - the moments when Bella felt paradoxically safe and vulnerable at the same time. If this was of any indication, there was a way to open up her mind. We didn't have to make love for that to happen. Safety and vulnerability didn't go hand in hand solely with sex. Even more than that, they went hand in hand with love.
And God knew there was no limit to our love. All of a sudden, I felt relieved.
"Isabella," I murmured. "Keep looking at me."
Her lips parted ever so slightly, obeying. The golden streaks in her eyes grew thicker everyday, melting with the cherry red in an unexplainable colour, that had me transfixed. I wondered if she could appreciate their otherworldly beauty when she caught her reflection in the mirror as much as I did.
"Edward..."
"Don't force it, angel, just keep your eyes on mine," I continued, caressing her face with my hands.
She felt so warm. Still so warm, even after all of her blood had left her body. She had worried for so many times in the past that she was going to lose her charm in my eyes once her humanness would disappear. Oh, how wrong she had been!
"It's just you and me here, Bella, just you and me."
Her body relaxed little by little, as I kept talking to her, looking at her, tracing her features with my fingertips. I didn't have much of a plan other than adoring her with all the tenderness I held. I didn't know if it would take us on the right path, but I loved trying.
The usual clamour of voices in my head was something I had grown accustomed to over the years. If almost a century ago I felt that the noise was screeching and unbearable, over time I had learned to deal with it. I had discovered how to pick out the voices of my family and tune them out when needed. But this thing I was trying with my wife was still such a new, uncharted territory, that I wasn't sure how to proceed further. In an unexpected way, it made me feel young beyond my years.
"Do you hear me yet?"
The sound penetrated my being to the very core. Even more than Bella's usual talking voice, this was a voice I could feel, deep beneath the hard layers I was made of. I could feel the low vibrations of it in an unexplainable place of my chest, caressing my consciousness and fondling my emotions, its tendrils reaching far into my body. It felt as if it was part of me - not an uninvited guest, like all the other voices.
I couldn't dare speak, not yet, too afraid I would break the spell. Instead, I nodded 'yes' and listened closely, like never before, with my eyes glued on hers.
"We really did it? Wow, so this is strange! I don't really have a filter now, do I?"
I chuckled at her rawness, this time nodding 'no'.
"You look all cocky now. You've cracked the Bella code. Terrible joke, sorry. But you're laughing, so it can't be that terrible."
There was a clarity in her voice that had not been there the previous times. A strength that I could feel reverberating within me in waves. It was all too tempting to ask questions, but I decided to just let her stream of consciousness flow freely, in whichever direction her mind would take it, and listen - after all, I had no idea how long the miracle would last.
"Funny thing, isn't it? We can still laugh, despite what's going on. I feel kind of terrible for that, to be honest. I think there should be some special punishment awaiting just for that. And I am afraid there is, but I also don't want to know what it is, if that makes sense. I can't help but wonder again and again and again what would've happened if I never went with Alice to the mall that night. We wouldn't have witnessed the accident, obviously. But would I have simply caved another day? Or would we be in Cardiff now, with you teaching Modern Languages and me waiting for you at home? Home… Our own home. We never got to have that. I wonder if we ever will."
Sadness seeped in her thoughts and that made me pull her closer to me out of pure instinct. I wanted a home of our own just as much as she did. In fact, I wanted nothing more in life than that: the certainty of having our safe space, where no one but us would get to live. It was an easy fantasy to have: coming home to my wife after a day at work. Telling her about my day and listening to her talk about hers. Taking a shower together, then making love on every possible surface of our house. Going out on a date and making love some more on our way back.
Simple things, really.
But I could not make promises that I didn't know if I could keep.
"Maybe I don't deserve that home though. Not after everything, anyway. I feel so bad for that man. He's been thrown in hell. And he'll never get back from there and it is all my fault. His life will always be this unending circle of being sure of what he had seen and being mocked for sounding crazy. How is that fair for anyone? There will never be enough proof to make him seem reasonable, even if he is right… not that I want it to be. But that is just pure torture, no soul should go through that. And all because he had witnessed me at my worst and spoke out. The good men always get punished."
As much as I hated her sorrow and wanted to chase it away with my own hands, I understood. For thinking about Elijah Cochran and what had happened to him awakened the same pain within me.
"I want justice for him, but I know that's a lost cause by now. I just don't know how to deal with this. At this point, the least I can do is provide some protection for our family, since we wouldn't be on the run if I hadn't been so impulsive."
"They understand," I murmured automatically.
She had to know that no one - maybe with the unsurprising exception of Rosalie - was blaming her. Or so I had been told.
"I know they do. I don't know how to repay them for that, actually. But I am not an impulsive mess anymore, Edward. And you might not believe me and I don't blame you one bit if you don't, but I know I wouldn't screw things up again."
I couldn't respond to this. I didn't know how.
"And it is selfish, I know, but I am a million times more worried for us. For what's going to happen. Just the thought of being separated from you is killing me. What the hell happens if the Volturi do get you in their guard? Can I just beg them to take me as well? I don't even know how that would work. All I know is I can't be without you, I love you too much, more than anyone will ever be able to comprehend."
Before I could think twice about it, my mouth found hers immediately and started moving fiercely.
"God, I'll never tire of you. I love you."
In response, I dragged her closer to my chest, my hands knotting in her hair as I did that. This was no ordinary kiss - as if I could ever have anything ordinary with her. I was starving for her taste, and with the echo of her thoughts in my mind and in my chest, I felt as if I had been administered all the psychoactive drugs ever created all at once.
She was pure ecstasy, raw and maddening on my tongue.
"Yes, don't stop!"
Never stopping for you, Bella.
All of my defenses fell down when she pressed herself tightly against me. Everything she had, she offered: her love, her body, her soul, her mind. It was overwhelming to the extreme. Her thoughts soon turned into a long string of images of what she wanted me to do to her. I saw then something I had never seen in my life: myself, going down on her, in a memory that her mind had brought up among many others. I could see my own eyes glancing up, a look of ferocious rapacity in them, as my mouth moved hungrily between her legs.
"Bella, you're driving me crazy!" I gasped, interrupting our kiss for just a short second before resuming it.
"You've got me so wet, I am soaking already. And you're so hard between my legs. Just fuck me like this, Edward. Don't take off my clothes, don't do anything. I just need you in me."
Each word pulsated in my conscience, feeding my own need for her. There was no fighting this desire, and I found myself unzipping my trekking pants. Bella did the same with her jeans, lifting herself up a little to slide them off her hips a few inches and to pull her underwear to her side - just enough to offer me access to my own personal Heaven. When she got back down in my lap, she did so by sliding down my erection, going all the way to the base and taking no time to accommodate her tight walls to me.
"Oh, God, Edward!" her moan pirouetted in the air, graceful and sensual, meddling with her thoughts.
"You're going to break me in half one of these days with how big you are. Fuck me, please, please, please..."
With her ass in my palms, still covered in her briefs, I had no choice but to do that. We started moving together: Bella up and down above me, while I welcomed her movements with firm thrusts. As her mouth was letting out an entire concert of erratic sounds, her mind wasn't making too much sense either - but I loved the chaos I was hearing and I wished there was a way to record it.
It went back and forth from words and tantalizing profanities to images of us together, entangled in her fantasies: her bent over in my lap with me smacking the hell out of her round bottom, her tied up completely and at my mercy, her being at my complete command for a full day.
Good Lord, have mercy, what?
That last visual made my head spin: to have Bella so completely submissive to me aroused me more than it should have - maybe even more knowing that the idea came from her. I groaned in desperation, imagining all the doors that such a possibility would open for both of us, and urged her with my hands to move faster and faster, feeling her muscles contract from the friction.
I would keep her tied up to a tree and describe to her in full detail what I would like to do to her, without doing anything at all. I would have her suck me and swallow my venom again and again and again, for hours, without any pauses. I would tease her so bad she would come without my touch. And I would only get rid of her wet underwear and fuck her properly at the end of the day.
One day. Damn, one day we would do all that and more.
And as my Bella was giving her everything to me, I heard far in the distance the laughters of a few kids. They sounded young - maybe close to Nell's age, judging solely by the tone of their jingles - and they spoke Japanese. I tried tuning them out, to focus on the only mental voice that mattered. And it worked for a short while, until it didn't.
Everything happened so fast, I could barely comprehend the succession of events, but I knew that the screaming came first. A boy cried out and got cut out by a cracking sound, then the others followed suit. I could see in their minds what had just happened: eager to get to the top of a waterfall, that boy had chosen a tricky route, climbing on some slippery rocks. He had slipped seconds after making the wrong decision, falling to the ground, head first into a sharp rock. Now, beyond the undulating sounds of the waterfall, there was another sound: that of the blood sloshing slowly out of his body and onto the rock.
But more importantly, more aggravating to me than this was the fact that there was no more Bella - not in my mind, not in my lap, nor anywhere in sight.
Now hold your tomatoes, guys, it's just a little cliffhanger!
Joke aside, this update came later than usual, I know, but things have been a little crazy for me in terms of health for the past few weeks. But to make up for the delay, a new outtake for the story is set to come out this weekend - and it gets steamy.
I hope you liked this chapter! If you've got any thoughts or questions on it, I would be so very happy to respond to them.
And in case you want to see sneak peeks of future chapters, get early heads-ups regarding updates and see the visuals I make for each chapter, you are welcome to join the Facebook group of the story (the link is on my profile page).
Until next time, stay safe and happy!
