Chapter Four
Bella's POV
I slowly back out of the room and bump into someone. I jump, spinning around. Edward stands there. "Bella, I heard what you said. What did you mean, who has he sent you?" I knew this was one of those times to utilize my shielded thoughts.
"Nothing," I say, pushing past him and going downstairs. I didn't want to tell him about the pen because I wasn't sure if I had really seen it or not. He follows me, however. The TV is on, the girls are watching some princess movie. They were practically born obsessed with Disney. I stop at the bottom of stairs and whip around. "Is is possible for someone to have an ability while still human?" I ask. He stops, frowning.
"What? Why?"
"Just answer me," I say, not wanting to tell him.
He shrugs. "I don't know. The only person I've ever seen exhibit any form of ability before becoming a vampire is you." I feel a lightbulb go off in my head.
"That's it," I mutter. Brandon was like me. He had an ability while still human, like I could shield my brain before I became a vampire.
"Bella, stop it, just tell me what you're thinking," Edward says.
I sigh. "I walked into Brandon's room, and I heard this weird rattling. There was just a pen, on the desk, and it was shaking. He was talking in his sleep, like I used to, and then the pen starts to float, and I'm pretty sure he was doing it." Edward stares at me, hard.
"How is that even possible?" he says. "He obviously has no idea he can do it, he hasn't been thinking about it."
"How could he not know? He can lift stuff with his mind," I say, maybe a little too loudly, because the movie pauses and I hear two sets of feet running down the hall to the stairs.
"Who can lift stuff with their mind, Grandma?" asks Luna, skidding to a stop. "I wanna see," says Racheal.
"Nothing, girls, go watch your movie," I say, pushing them back down the hall.
"Aww, but we've seen this one about a million times," whines Luna, doing that annoying thing she does where she deadweights and flops to the floor. Racheal, the copycat, does the same.
"It's Uncle Brandon that lifts stuff with his mind," she says. "Grandma's thinking about it." I gritted my teeth. Of course it just had to be my three-year-old granddaughter that could read my mind.
"You can't say anything," I say, and they both nod, but neither could really be serious. I would have to watch them closer than usual.
The next morning, I don't force the girls to eat breakfast, but make something for Brandon, watching him closely as I make scrambled eggs. "Sleep well?" I ask, putting the plate down in front of him. He shrugs.
"Yeah, I guess," he says. I sit down across from him.
"Did your dad...tell you anything about me that may have sounded, I don't know, a little strange?" I ask.
"He used to say that you were a vampire, and that was you got divorced," he said bluntly, and I almost went into shock, if that were possible.
"What?" I say, too seriously, and he gives me this look.
"It was just a joke, mom, he didn't mean it," he says. Just a joke. What exactly had happened with Chris? We had only contacted each other once in the last six years, I was just calling to say I was sorry about a year after he left, and he was acting very strange.
"I know what you are, and what you do. I will tell our son, because he has a right to know. I'm not afraid of you," he had said, then hung up. I hadn't really known what to make of it, I had never thought that he had it right. Someone must have told him. But who? The girls came running into the kitchen then, with intricate French braids in their hair and matching dresses.
"Alice did our hair and got us dresses," said Luna. She twirled in a circle. "Do you like them?" she asks.
"Of course, you look very pretty," I say. Racheal smiles, and I can't help but think Charlie would have loved to meet her. She looked a lot like me, if I were three years old and human. I was told that he moved away, thinking I was dead, and no one saw him again. Nobody really made an effort to find him, thinking there wasn't a point, because they thought I was dead. I would have liked to find him, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
I turn back to Brandon. "Can you..do anything? Anything special?" I ask, and he gives me a strange look.
"I have three double jointed fingers and can roll my tongue four times, if that's what you mean," he says, proceeding to stick his tongue out and roll it.
"Cool," says Racheal, scrambling into a seat. "Can you-" she starts, but I hear Edward say "Racheal Isabella Black, no." She looks down and mutters, "Sorry Grandpa." We had them trained to know to know when we used their full names, they were in trouble. Luna sniggers, and Racheal punches her. Luna snarls, a full fledged wolf growl, and tackles her sister. I jump up, knowing if I don't stop them, they will phase right in front of Brandon. I think this as loud as I can, because I know Racheal can hear me. I start towards them, but am too late. In an explosion of pink dresses, I've got two wolf pups biting and snarling at each other on the kitchen floor.
Brandon's eyes bug out of his head as he stares down at the supernatural as I reach out to stop one bronze-furred wolf from mutilating the chocolate brown one.