A/N: Sorry it's been sso long to review! I've been so busy with school and other things, and then I went on vacation for a four-day weekend we had, and...well...forgive me:) Thanks to all my wonnnderful reviewers and the loyal ones that review almost every chapter. I love you guys!
I thought I was still delirious when, what seemed like hours later, I saw—or more like felt—Alice crouching over me.
Alice? What? Sure that I was dreaming, I reached out, almost afraid to put my hand on her lest she disappear. But then my fingers were touching her cool skin, and she was real and not going anywhere.
"Alice?" I tried to say, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. I needed water. Something. Badly.
Alice slowly shook her head, which made my own head spin from the seemingly sudden action. My reflexes were so slow right then that someone snapping their fingers or clapping their hands would have made my head hurt.
I felt cool fingers touching my head then, and my world started to collapse in on itself again. No! I couldn't let myself go; I had to talk to Alice, see her, hear her: I hadn't had any contact with her in what seemed like forever.
"I'm back," Alice whispered. "I'm back, and for good."
Those words spun through me and shook my head again, sending huge shocks of pain through it. Ah.
"Where did you go?" I rasped. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton.
Alice waved her hand. The sudden movement made my head pound again. Maybe these vampire reflexes weren't such a blessing. "That doesn't matter right now. We have to get you to Carlisle." And with that, she picked me up and slung me over her shoulder, which made my stomach clench like I was going to hurl.
Of course, that wasn't possible, even when Alice started hurtling out of the house. We ran the whole way to the Cullen's, which didn't really help my ailment, or whatever it was. I felt worse than when I would have the flu when I was human; even more drained and weak and sick.
Alice was damn lucky that I couldn't throw up all over her.
We reached in record time, though, I must admit. Carlisle was waiting for me in the living room, and to my utter delight and horror, Edward was playing piano—my song. My lullaby. I shuddered and clutched Alice, refusing to look at him. He couldn't get to me, even in my most weakened state.
I laid down on the couch, and Carlisle examined me. "You're even paler than usual, and if you had the capacity, you would be violently sick, am I correct?"
I nodded as strongly as I could, and then let my head go limp back on the pillow.
Carlisle nodded once. "You've been cursed."
"Excuse me?" I coughed up.
"Well, perhaps curse is too strong a word. You've been looked down on—brought bad luck to. You escaped your short friend very nimbly, however, he has not let you go without consequence. This is your consequence—he has brought you down so you cannot go search for him or destroy him. He is probably out creating another army."
I really did wonder how he knew so much about Capruti, but I didn't push it. "So…get rid of it?" I was unable to form sentences of more than four or five words, so I had to limit myself.
Thankfully, Carlisle understood. "To get rid of it, you must destroy the distributor of the curse—in this case, your short friend. Well, you must not destroy him, he just must be destroyed."
My eyes almost automatically slid to Edward, but I forced them back to Carlisle. "Okay."
"Well get right on that," Carlisle promised, and turned to—thank goodness—Emmett and Jasper. He looked deeply in thought with them, but I needed to get out of here. The walls were closing in and I was gasping for breath and—
I got up slowly, shakily, and tried to sneak out.
"Bella." Carlisle called, his eyes never leaving Emmett and Jasper.
I sighed exasperatedly and sat back down on the couch. The world was spinning again—I gripped the edge of the cushion until my knuckles were—would have been—white. This just threw me into a bigger frenzy, and I began to kick my legs and my arms and…and….
"Bella, wake up." The voice was so, so far away. It was coming from the end of a long tunnel. Which way should I go? Towards the voice, or the sunshine?
The voice became clearer as it repeated the phrase and I recognized it. Except…I didn't. No, I had positively never heard this voice before.
"Bella. To defeat this monster, you must look inside yourself and forgive those who you love, for their only wish is to protect you. You must find the black heart and defeat it, and you will be free once again."
And then I heard more voice, the ones I knew and loved, and they were yelling at me to wake up and they sounded hysterical—at least, the ladies' voices did.
Even Rosalie seemed slightly worried, though not as much as Esme and Alice. Alice! She was still here!
I forced my eyes open, and they were all standing there, looking over me. One face caught my gaze, but I quickly moved on and focused on Alice.
"What happened?" I muttered, but of course, they heard.
"You fell…into a trance?" Carlisle offered. "I've never seen anything like this before."
My stomach turned uneasily. Even Carlisle didn't know what was happening to me? This was bad. Really, really bad.
And then Jasper and Emmett were gone, and I had an even worse feeling; it rose inside me in bile liquid, and I was thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't allowed to throw up. Everything in me told me that it was the natural thing to do in a situation like this—but then again, I wasn't natural anymore.
And then Esme and Alice and Rosalie were gone in a whir of perfect skin and hair, and I lurched when I realized Edward and I were the only people left in the room—and probably house, though knowing Alice she might be eavesdropping. Although she might not have to, with those nifty visions of hers.
Edward was playing my lullaby. He finished the song beautifully, and then came over to me. He helped me sit up, and then he sat back down on the ground.
I held my breath, waiting for what was to come.
He knelt down on one knee, and held something out from his pocket. It was….
I knew what it was, even before he took it out. I wished my heart were there, beating erratically. I wished my face could heat up. I wished I could feel my emotions physically, and not just emotionally. But more than anything, I wished that this moment would never end.
"Yes," I whispered, before he even asked me.
He shook his head, smiling. "Let me go first," He whispered. "Bella Swan. Ever since I first met you, you've hit me like a whirlwind. At first, I wanted to eat you" here he laughed a little "and then when I got to know you, I couldn't decide which I wanted more, to keep you or to taste your blood. You surprised me incredibly by not caring that I'm a vampire, and continuing to be with me. And you kept surprising me with your emotions and acts and…everything. You're an unpredictable girl, Bells, but you're so sweet and amazing and wonderful and I love you so much. Bella Swan, will you marry me?"
The only thing I could think about at that moment was that he had said Bella every time, not Isabella, and for that I was forever grateful.
And then there was the little issue of whether I should say yes or not.
You're mad at him, one voice told me.
Why the hell did you stick yourself in eternity if you weren't going to marry him?! Another voice demanded.
On tests, I had usually found that the longer sentences in multiple choice questions were the correct ones. So, you know, I figured I should go with the longer sentence.
"Yes," I whispered. My voice was so quiet and low that he probably wouldn't have heard me if he wasn't supernatural.
"Yes!" He yelled, and threw his arms around me. I jumped into him and we both landed on the floor and he kissed me as hard as he could, and I returned it as passionately as I could, because now, finally, I didn't have to hold back.
My sickness seemed to just vanish. Edward helped me up, and we held hands and walked into the kitchen to announce the news, where apparently everyone—well, the girls and Carlisle—were waiting for us.
"You're getting married!" Alice squealed, and ran to give us both bear hugs. Rosalie just smiled/smirked a little, and Esme looked like she would be crying tears of joy.
All in all, the day could have ended worse.