Chapter 19 Shaping of the future

"Edward?"

I shook my head and looked around. Carlisle and I were in the woods, leaving the place we called home behind. The darkness seemed to be endless and deep, and the fresh air with the smell of the forest made our heads spin.

We were running away, but our hunting trip wasn't going to be long. I didn't want to leave Bella alone in Forks. Carlisle supported my decision. He volunteered to go hunting with me, and I was very grateful for that. His quiet comprehension was all what I needed.

Carlisle was examining my expression. His anxiety filled my head.

"You're absent-minded today," he confessed. "I'm wondering what you are thinking about."

I grinned. Carlisle was trying to read my thoughts. Well…

"I'm thinking about Bella," there was no point in hiding the truth. It was obvious, actually. Bella was the center of my world again. But there was something else I was bothered about, and after glancing at Carlisle again I decided to share my concern with him.

"She had a nightmare again last night," I said, "and I have something to think about now."

"What did she dream about?" he asked aloud.

"James," I grimaced, recalling the hunter's image inside of my head. "Bella asked questions about Tanya, so I had to tell her about Alice's visions. I didn't notice the moment when I mentioned Laurent, then we both recalled James and Victoria… you know how it works."

The human mind is a big net with thousands of thin crossed threads. If you touched one, it created a wave that would shake your whole mind.

"It's not surprising, then," Carlisle was talking as a doctor now, not as a father. "Human's brain collects all information that it receives during the day, and may represent it while dreaming in different forms. But you know that too. What do you worry about?"

I took a deep breath.

"I suddenly realized that Victoria and Laurent still can be dangerous for us. They are still alive. And we allowed them to get too close... This thought is haunting me."

While living with Denali, Laurent got a chance to find out everything about us, everything about our past, our habits and our movements. He could even get the news about our future, if his meetings with Irina were frequent.

We are so vulnerable and so blind. I clenched my teeth, thinking about the time we had lost. I spent seven years, regretting the past and thinking about myself, while Bella lived there unprotected.

Oh, I see I read in Carlisle's mind, who was watching our weak points too. My idea seemed to have disappointed him. It was Carlisle who recommended Laurent to go to Alaska. Of course, Dad did it for Laurent's own good… Carlisle was too mild and kind for being self-seeking.

I sighed. I shouldn't have disappointed him. But I did. I thought I was changing, but I was so selfish again. Dad was suffering now too because of my own desire to share my trouble with him.

"We have never considered that situation," he said after a pause. I saw a bright light somewhere inside of Carlisle's mind, but couldn't decode it yet, so I had to wait for his explanations. "But you need to think about time, Edward. Seven years has passed. If Victoria or Laurent planned to do anything, they would have done it much earlier."

"I know," I answered. "But we haven't seen them for so long. Doesn't it bother you?"

I still hated the idea of leaving Bella in mortal danger. It was difficult for me to calm down.

"But they didn't come back," Dad could always find the right words to say. "We know it for sure. We didn't notice any fresh scents in the local area. Nor Victoria or Laurent had been there."

Yeah. We didn't find new scents, but what about the old ones that had already vanished?

"I still don't like it. And I keep thinking… what if it's not enough?" I asked. "What if we aren't prepared for everything? Bella is so fragile, and I don't know how to keep her from harm."

We stopped.

"You shouldn't worry about it, son," Carlisle squeezed my shoulder. "Let it go. Bella will be alright. And you can trust us. We are ready to risk our lives, protecting her. Remember that."

I nodded. Dad said everything I wanted to hear.

The hunt was fast. My primary aim was to lull my hunger and my instincts to sleep. It was the only way to stay close to Bella for the whole day. And the whole night. I didn't dare to leave her alone after that nightmare. She seemed to accept my presence without any question. That night broke something inside of us. Some invisible wall had fallen, and it was easier to make the next step toward our future.

I was trying to drink as much as I could, but didn't feel the taste of blood. I hurried.

It's not so easy, right? Carlisle asked when we were going to return home. To change?

I nodded.

"It's one of the most difficult things that I've ever done in my life", I confessed. "Do you think it's working?"

Carlisle smiled.

Don't worry. You have changed, but the changes need time, that's all. Stop focusing on that. In the end, as vampires, we have no borders now. Don't worry about time.

I laughed bitterly. I always worried about time. I suddenly recalled my blurred human past and my old, childish, stupid desires I had at that time. I was dreaming about becoming a soldier, but I was too young for participating in the war. And I was counting time, every day, every hour and every minute, trying to make time run faster. I was counting time, hoping for the best, perfect future, dreaming about leaving Chicago and returning home as a war hero...

Speaking of Chicago. The city must have changed now. After my reborn and starting a new life as a vampire, Carlisle and I left the city and had never visited it since then. I recalled the death certificate Bella had found in the archive. I frowned, examining its picture inside of my head. A sudden idea came to my mind. Bella found the information about me there, but what if it wasn't all what she had found? My parents were dead and I didn't have siblings as human, but we had some other relatives who lived in Chicago. It would be great to visit that city one day. Perhaps, Chicago would bring me some hope…

A ringing phone woke me up. Carlisle and I turned and glanced at my jacket. It was my phone, not Carlisle's. Alice was phoning me.

"What's happened?" I asked without hiding my horror. It couldn't be good.

"I've got some news," Alice answered, her voice weak as if she was watching the future without focusing on the conversation. "But I wanted to ask you first… What are you thinking about?"

Great. Everyone was trying to get into my head today.

"Nothing specific. What did you see?"

Alice sighed.

"Your future is changing, and I see new pictures I haven't seen yet. It changes everything, so I need to know: what are you thinking about? I need to know the course of your thoughts."

I concentrated.

"I was thinking about my past, my parents and old human dreams," I confessed. "And Chicago. I was thinking about my distant relatives who could still live there."

Alice sighed, relived. She must have combined everything in one picture.

"What did you see?" I asked when she didn't explain anything.

"We were wrong, Edward. The cities in my visions don't concern Tanya directly… Well, not exactly."

"How should I see that?"

"One city is connected to you. It's Chicago. Modern Chicago. You are going to visit it very soon."

"Am I?" I asked, unaware of it. Yeah, I was thinking about Chicago, but I didn't plan anything. It's only a thought, that's all.

"What's about the other city, then? How can it be connected to Tanya?"

"That's what I was going to tell you before I saw a vision of you visiting Chicago," Alice confessed. "We found another city, Edward. Jasper suggested examining new maps. He had the idea that the place I saw was a former suburb that became a part of the city quite recently."

"The expansion of the city," the theory sounded logical. "What is it?"

Alice paused before pronouncing the answer. I frowned. Something was, definitely, wrong. Something confused Alice, and she was hesitating, searching for the right words to answer.

"It's Seattle, Edward. The person Tanya is seeking lives on the edge of Seattle, far away from its center. That place must have joined the city a couple decades ago. That's why we haven't recognized it. Carlisle was right. Cities change its faces all the time."

"Okay," I answered. I didn't see anything special in Alice's answer. Seattle was situated nearby, but we could make a mistake and easily miss the place my sister saw in her visions. "Are you going to tell Tanya about it?"

I heard only silence, nothing more. Then Alice sighed again, and I guessed that all my questions began irritating her. Just like I was an idiot, and there was something I still couldn't see.

"Okay, I can drop you a hint. Do you know anybody who lives in that area?"

My mind was a net again, but the threads were like strings, and I was touching that strings, trying to find the right melody.

We didn't hear about any vampire living around our region. If someone settled there, we would know it due to the criminal column in newspapers. It was the easiest way to find out about a vampire. Our coven and Tanya's family in Denali were the only supporters of the vegetarian life style. The others preferred… the classical way of living.

But there was nothing special happening in Seattle. We would know about it, especially now, when we had to live there because of Bella's accident…

And then I realized what Alice was trying to tell me.

"You must be kidding," I said. Alice laughed for the first time since the beginning of our conversation.

"It's strange, I know," she confessed. "But we need to try to help Tanya as well. And we can't do it by ourselves, Edward."

I nodded, although Alice couldn't see that. Of course, we couldn't do it by ourselves. The only person we knew in Seattle was Bella's former husband, Dave, and he had no idea what the fate was preparing for him.

"We need to speak with Bella about it. But the conversation is going to be very… delicate. Let's invite her to our house. We can cook dinner. Humans are geared up for the conversation when they're relaxed and having a good time."

I laughed. Carlisle frowned, examining the fast change in my mood. He still had no idea what was going on, and everything looked strange to him. I grinned and showed Carlisle to wait a bit more. Dad would be surprised when he heard the whole news.

"So… Dinner with the Cullens?" I asked.

Alice laughed.

"Dinner with the Cullens," she repeated.

A new future was shaping for us.


Daniel Blunt had quite a usual life. He was born in Chicago about fifty years ago, and he wasn't going to move away from there - Chicago was his home. Daniel had never had a thought of leaving that place. But he also had another reason for staying there, the reason he never told anyone, because it was dangerous.

Daniel had to stay in Chicago because of a red haired woman.

That day was ordinary, and the time was running at its normal speed, it was neither short nor too long. Daniel spent a day in a road café he owned. It wasn't very popular, but Daniel didn't mind – he liked the life he had now. He liked to meet new people who always had a lot of stories to tell. Daniel lived there, watching all visitors who were driving from the western road.

Daniel waved goodbye to the waitresses who were going to work at night, and went upstairs to his little apartment. He stopped working till late after one accident that happened a few years ago. No one could blame Blunt for that – the police found a man, in the forest not far from there, to be severely dead. He was found bloodless, killed by an animal no one could find. The man was Daniel's visitor who left the café a few hours before his death.

When Daniel opened the front door and went inside, he heard the sound of the ringing phone. Blunt ran to the living room, stumbling in the darkness, but the time was lost. The phone stopped ringing before Daniel picked it up, so he heard only short beeps, nothing more. Daniel frowned, checking the clock. Midnight. He felt a sudden, half-forgotten fear he had been hiding for years. Then the phone rang again, and Daniel gave a start. He knew who was phoning.

"Yes?" he asked, his voice trembling.

The voice on the phone was soft, sounding like tinkling bells, but Daniel knew that the softness was deceptive.

"I guessed who you are. I recognized your voice," he answered.

Actually, Daniel didn't remember it clearly. The woman told him not to think about her directly. It's like a radio wave, she said, and somebody could always catch his thoughts. Daniel needed to be careful, and he was. Blunt forgot the woman's features, recalling only her hair and her beauty. But he remembered the fear she had left him, because the woman called Victoria killed the café's visitor in front of Blunt and promised to do the same with Daniel if he wouldn't accept her offer. Of course, Blunt to agree on the terms, no matter how strange they were. But the terms were very simple. Daniel was the owner of the road café, he was watching all tourists driving nearby, and he was very attentive. That's all what he needed to do. Daniel needed to live his life, day after day, without leaving his café standing near the western road. He needed to monitor tourists, searching for a young brunette who was going to appear there one day. Victoria even left him a photo taken from the school archive. Daniel didn't ask anything about that. He had already guessed that asking questions was a bad idea.

The red haired woman gave him something else. She left him a phone number he needed to call after finding the girl. Daniel needed to report about the crime, she said. And Victoria promised to call one day. She would phone when the girl was going to be close. It was years ago, and Daniel hoped that the woman had changed her mind, but she didn't. Vitoria called him, reminding about the terms she had established.

"I haven't seen anybody similar to her," he said quickly.

The woman interrupted him. Daniel was listening carefully, trying to stay attentive. He needed to be attentive. He must be, or he would lie dead in the forest somewhere not far from there.

Victoria told him about an upcoming guest. Daniel turned pale.

"Are you sure about that? I haven't found her yet…"

Her confidence was so strong as if she was predicting the future. It scared Daniel to death.

"All what you need to do is to see the girl and make a phone call. It's not so hard, honey. Don't you remember the customer I killed?"

Daniel remembered that. He still saw that man in his nightmares, and he couldn't do anything with that. He imagined the darkness, the deep forest and his own pale bloodless body hidden inside of an endless night.

"I'll do everything you want," he said at last. His face glittered with sweat.

"And keep your mind shut. Don't think about me. Radio waves, remember?"

Daniel nodded. He remembered about that too.