Chapter Five

"I don't know how they found us!" Edward yelled in the phone. He was pacing back and forth while watching Bella sleep on the couch with Luna asleep at her feet.

When they had reached a high altitude, Bella fainted and had been asleep ever since.

He was starting to worry that she hadn't had enough oxygen to the brain in such high altitudes though his father disagreed. He felt that Bella had been through so much in the past two days that her body was finally getting the rest it needed to assimilate- not to mention the added bite, tattoo and venom injection.

"Why didn't you just pee on her?" Rosalie sneered looking at the small woman lying over their couch. "It would have been just as effective."

Edward bared his teeth at the blonde woman he was forced to call his sister. She was actually his brother's mate though when she was found she was dire. She had been one of the unlucky ones that wound up in the Royce and they hadn't been kind in their scrapping.

"Whoa!" Emmett grinned. "Someone didn't consummate the pairing, I see."

Edward ignored them. For a slight second, though, he did wonder if peeing would have been effective after all. But he then realized she was being facetious.

Carlisle walked over and started doing Bella's vitals again. It was mostly because he was bored and he hadn't seen her in years. He often wondered how she faired with only Charlie with her, but Charlie turned out to be a perfect placement for Renee's baby. Charlie was a cop and well respected therefore Bella was seen as "off-limits" and he was gentle and kind but mostly because he didn't notice much. He paid no mind to the thunderous dragon above her home, or the way she glowed. He just thought she was naturally beautiful.

He also didn't know that her playmates were often fairies, though Bella had long forgotten them, Carlisle knew they still visited. He could see them buzzing around just outside the window.

He couldn't wait for her to wake up and see the world that had been long shut off from her to insure her safety. But now she could see it and love it and watch the memories come back.

"She is getting a fever, Edward." Esme said quietly, wrapping her arm around her son. "You've done so well with her so far, but the time has come to take her home."

Edward balked.

"Her new home," Esme giggled. "Of course you would think her old home but you know that is now gone."

It was true. When they got away from the restaurant they went to Bella's home trying to search for her or any way of finding her. They didn't even see the clouds roll in, or the lightning in the sky. One strike of lightning from Blitz and the house was in flames, the scrappers stuck screaming inside. Edward could have sworn he heard the rolling of laughter from the sky.

Everyone watched silently as Edward moved through the room and picked Bella up in his arms. He was as gentle as he could be, unlike when he shifted into a dragon and bound into the sky in his other form. He hoped she didn't notice that he almost dropped her a few times.

The house that he had built for them wasn't far, but he had paid attention to the rooms of the house she'd had growing up. Their house was stone and within the trees. One wall was large windows that you could easily and quickly cover by remote. There was a large greenhouse that spanned two stories, much larger than the one she had in her home. The windows were replicated easily, too, so he knew she would enjoy that. The idea was to feel at home and although they couldn't save everything inside of it, they did their best to get what they could while she was sleeping in the tree.

He hated leaving her there, but he knew she would be safe, especially after he checked on her and made it so the tree, she, and his beloved dog seemed nothing more than a misty illusion. He also felt better that the weather suited them in hindering the search, as well as having a close protector. He absently wondered if he could see the dragon energy, but he definitely felt it. Perhaps someday.

Edward quickly adjusted Bella to open the door of their house and slipped inside without waking her. He laid her on the bed in his room and moved back through the house and into the kitchen where he pulled out some stock and veggies for soup.

He hummed as he dropped the cut carrots and potatoes in the pot of simmering soup. He didn't know much what she liked, but you can't go wrong with soup. Plus it would also help her recover from the shock she was clearly under. He pulled out the bread and buttered it, and started cooking some grilled cheese sandwiches to dip into the soup if she wanted. It gave him a sense of joy doing these things for her, since he suspected she was still apprehensive from the encounter on the first night.

He felt bad about it, of course, but he couldn't blow cover and risk anything, especially not her safety. It was going to be bad enough that she would've gone missing and now he will be missing as well since he decided he wasn't going to go back either. There is and would always be other guys posing as he did since it was an effective way of finding their mates who were on their watch list. Getting to said mate was harder than it looked and for Edward, he was lucky he had Alice as a guide to help.

Perhaps she'd be interested in helping others, as well. Edward thought.

Edward did plant his car and their items inside before it went off the cliff- burning everything within it. He hoped it would suffice that they were killed in an accident and it would end at that.

There would be no one to mourn Bella, after all, with the exception of a few classmates or those she worked with at her job.

But Bella preferred to be by herself in her own space and that provided useful when planning her impromptu death.

Edward chuckled.

"What's so funny about me being dead?"

He turned towards her with a start as she pointed to her temple. "Yeah, kinda hard to sleep with all that chattering you're doing in your head."

"Sorry."

"So I am dead then?" Bella wandered around the kitchen island to peek into the pot and hummed in gratitude at the smell.

"Yes. Hungry?"

"I am starving. I feel like I haven't eaten in days."

"That's the venom, sorry."

"That's so weird to hear, you know? Sorry not sorry I bit you and made you venomous but I'm your mate and so you have to deal. Sandwich?"

"That's basically it. I am so glad to not have to explain it over and over in each detail."

"Yes you do. In detail. Start with the venomous part."

"You can also bite people and inject venom- after the coupling, of course."

"Oh, yes. That… talk about that too." Bella flushed. She had felt some intense feelings in her dream state and fully expected to wake up with him over her, but when she opened her eyes he wasn't there. She couldn't help the disappointment. She always felt invisible to other boys as a teenager and even more so when she was an adult. Edward was the first to show any interest in her body and she loved when she caught his eyes on her.

Edward swallowed, paying close attention to her thoughts. He was glad she found him attractive and wanting his attentions.

"When you're ready, I don't know when, we'll have to engage in the coupling aspect of our union. It's a little more complicated, as you can imagine, because we'll be forever linked together, like the two threads of fate intertwined to make one string. One of us goes, both of us go- it's not ideal, though most of us doesn't want to live without our mate and we'd do anything to save each other.

Bella's mind instantly went back to the red headed woman and the man trying to save her, risking Bella instead. "You would have died when I died, then?"

Edward shrugged. "I am unsure and wasn't about to find out. That's why we took you when we did. I found out they were going to raid the night you ran into the forest. Most don't run, they try to fight."

"My father told me to run and hide or I would have stayed to fight."

"It's in your nature to fight." Edward whispered. "They were betting on it. You running had them scrambling to find you. I knew where you would hide. I put that cut out into that tree."

Bella gasped. "You didn't!"

Edward nodded. "I have been working on it for months, digging it out and burning it inside so that it wouldn't completely ruin the tree. You were the only one- besides me and Luna- to be able to see it in the first place. It was enchanted."

"So you're not quite the bad guy I thought you were." She smirked.

Edward moved so fast she barely saw him move until he was right there with his hard, muscular body lined up against hers. "Oh, I could be bad," He whispered in her ear, enjoying the reaction she gave him. He wrapped his finger around a lock of her hair and gave it a little pull, loving how she moved closer, her head tilting backward and opened her mouth for his kiss.

But he didn't kiss her.

He released her hair and stepped back with a shiver.

"What was that?" She balked. It felt like a bucket of ice water covered her instantly.

"I want you to come to me." He said simply.

Her mouth popped open with an "oh," gasp which made him smile. "What if that never happens?"

Edward shrugged. "Then it never happens. You may want to try that and see where it gets you, but I think the venom will have other ideas."

"What does that even mean?"

He grabbed up her arm and touched the spot of the lone dragon. She shivered then warmed. "Feel that?" She nodded. "Me too. That's me already in your blood." He touched it again and it sent a cool chill down her back. "That's me all around you, like the wind on your skin… and under your skin." He chuckled darkly at his joke. "But this…" He rubbed a circle over the dragon's head. "Is me in your head and you in mine." He said without speaking. He touched his tattoo on her again, but circled all the way around it. She felt her heart start to race, her breathing hitch as her body started to react as if it was being touched. "This is me when I am within you, consuming you."

He then took a step back and her whole entire body reacted in protest.

"First we eat," he held two plates of soup and sandwiches which he must have made when she was recovering from his non-touch touches. "Then we link."

"I may kill you if you do that again."

"I may enjoy you trying."