Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter Twelve – Healing


"Bella," I whispered in panic. I gently shook her still form in my arms. "BELLA!" I cried louder. Alice and Jasper both appeared by my side, both trying to read her emotions or future.

I'm fine, Edward, I just need to rest, Bella thought, but barely a whisper.

I sighed, my mind mentally exhausted. A few minutes later Sam and Jacob were outside the door, debating if the others should join them.

"You're safe here, unless you provoke the fight, Sam, Jacob," I said lowly, knowing that they'd be able to hear me. The door opened, and Jacob's eyes darted quickly to Bella's fragile, frail body.

"She's fine for now, just tired. She needs to rest." Alice answered Jacob's unspoken question.

"Then take her to her bed and leave," Jacob growled.

A rumble reverberated in my chest. "She can't be left alone while she sleeps," I snapped.

"Why is that, leech? Don't tell me you like to watch her?" Jacob said. His tone mirrored his revulsion.

"I don't believe that is any of your business, dog, but she can't be left alone because while she sleeps, her powers manifest around her." I didn't bother answering his last question.

"Don't use such hard words to describe what's going on, Edward. The mongrel probably doesn't understand you," Alice scoffed.

Sam and Jacob stepped closer, and Jasper stood protectively in front of Alice. "What do you mean?" Jacob asked, his face softening when Bella whimpered in her self-induced slumber.

"When she sleeps, she's unable to control her powers. At times, things move throughout the room. At first it was small items like cups, books and CDs, but a few nights ago, she sent her desk across the floor in her bedroom. She also tends to levitate, hitting the ceiling." I shrugged, running my fingers through Bella's silken hair.

"The situation between you two is far more complicated than we thought," Sam's voice interceding with my conversations with the beast.

"You should know that your pack is not our biggest problem," Jasper indicated. My head snapped to him. What the hell did he think he was doing?

"What could be a bigger problem than a pack of wolves threatening your existence?" Sam asked, curious. Jasper crouched at Sam's question. Alice placed her hand on Jasper's shoulder to help calm him.

"First of all, we have one, maybe two vampires still after Bella, though we think our family can handle that. But what you don't know is that if Bella is exposed, her powers or her knowledge of us, an army of vampires may come after her."

"Army of vampires?" Jacob and Sam said in unison.

"Yes, there is a coven of vampires that basically police all vampires to prevent exposure," I said casually. "No human is allowed to know our secrets and live. Bella has extraordinary powers while she's still human, and that would make her irresistible to them. They would not want to kill her, but rather make her one of them, so she could join their coven, making them unstoppable."

"We can't allow that to happen. But if the time comes and she needs to be changed to prevent her death, we will discuss revising the treaty with Carlisle," Sam said calmly. Jacob's eyes widened, his entire body trembling with anger. He did not agree with Sam.

"But if she does need to be changed, we will be here. If she is too powerful for you we will kill her," Sam indicated, his tone serious. I nodded. Sam turned on his heels, darting for the door. Once he'd reached the door and Jacob had not followed, he whispered his name.

"If I don't get a call from her every few days, I'll be back," Jacob growled before leaving. Sam was out in the front walkway as Jacob turned at the door to look at Bella, his eyes betraying his feelings. He longed for her. He loved her.

"Tell her I said goodbye," Jacob whispered before closing the door behind him.

"About time. It was getting awfully uncomfortable not breathing with that stench," Alice complained, opening windows. Jasper followed suit, opening windows in Bella's dining area.

"I wish there was a strong wind that could blow through the house now." Alice continued to complain as she opened the front door. Suddenly, her wish was granted as a strong gust of wind came out of nowhere, blowing throughout the house for over a minute before it quieted down.

Sorry, I just wanted her to be quiet, Bella thought, and I laughed.

Alice rolled her eyes. "She needs to warn us when she does something like that again," Alice said, taking out a piece of paper that had landed in her spiky jet black hair.

"I'm going to take her to her room then run to the class we missed to see if we can make it up somehow," I said, telling my sister as her vision indicated that the professor would understand. I rolled my eyes and lifted myself off the sofa and walked down the cream-colored hallway to her bedroom.

I placed her gently on the bed and covered her with her blankets. I leaned down placing a gentle kiss against her petal-soft pink lips. Bella sighed in her sleep, the corners of her mouth twitching into a small smile. I chuckled lightly and turned to leave her.

Do you have to go?

"I'll back soon, love," I assured her.

Go hunt too, we need to experiment on something tonight, but you can't be hungry.'

I went closer to her. "You need to rest…"

Save it, Edward. We need to test our limits, and tonight is as good as any other night.

"Bella," I growled in protest.

I love you. Bye.

With that, she refused to let me in her head further. I sighed in frustration and left.

Alice was right the professor said that we didn't miss much and handed me our assignment due next week.

I went deep into the forests just outside of town and quenched my thirst on a few bucks. I left and started walking back home to shower and change quickly before returning for the night to Bella's.

I was just finishing changing into a pair of jeans when I heard Alice in my head.

You need to get over here, NOW!

I ran swiftly out of my house and noticed all the lights flickering in Bella's house next door. I internally cringed; she must have started having control problems in her sleep again.

Jasper! Stop, you know you don't want to hurt her! Alice screamed in my head.

If my heart was beating, it would've stopped now. Through Alice's thoughts I could see that Bella had cut her finger on a page of a book she was reading.

Jasper was crouched in front of Alice, ready to attack Bella. My protective side toward Bella was much more powerful than the need for her blood. I ran into the house crouched in front of Bella, my eyes on Jasper.

"Alice," I growled. Alice stood between Jasper and me in hopes to stop either of us if we chose to move against the other.

"Bella, why haven't you thrown him out of the house?" I asked through clenched teeth. I tried not to breathe, but the burn was becoming unbearable.

"I can't for some reason," Bella mumbled. I heard behind me that she'd risen up from the sofa and was trying to back out of the living area toward her room.

Jasper's eyes never left his prey, a growl rumbling through his chest. Then suddenly there was a crash behind me. Alice's eyes widened as Jasper sprung toward Bella. I met him in the air and tackled him to the ground. I held him down with my entire body, gasping for unnecessary breath.

That was my undoing. Bella was bleeding more.

I turned to look at where the beautiful scent was coming from, and Bella was crouched over a broken glass vase, her entire hand bleeding. She looked at me, her eyes wide with fear, pain and doubt. She knew she was about to die.

I sprung and landed lightly on top of her. She didn't scream; she didn't fight me she just looked at me. She showed me a vision of her pale body in my arms, my eyes red and howl of pain I let out.

"Fight me, Bella." I pleaded, trying to fight the urge as the venom pooled in my mouth. A growl beside me told me Jasper and Alice were having just as much trouble as I was.

"Fight us, Bella," I pleaded again, a growl rumbling in my chest. My throat cracked from the burn and fire licking throughout my body.

Suddenly, Alice, Jasper and I were pinned against the wall. Bella stood up slowly, removing her sweater, and started to clean the blood of her arm. Jasper hissed, growling, trying to fight against the invisible restraints. Alice looked tense, but seemed more in control. I took deep breaths, letting Bella's scent invade every pore of my body. I had to get used to it. Feel the burn.

I watched as she continued cleaning, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. "Bella, tie something just above your elbow. It should help with the bleeding."

"Can I let you go yet?" Bella asked, not looking at me as she took off her belt and tightened it around her arm.

"No." I struggled saying it when my body and my thirst wanted to say yes.

Bella sighed and tried to remove a few pieces of glass that had penetrated her arm. She moved about the room, gathering a metal trash can and a burning candle. She threw in the sweater she'd used to clean her wound and set it ablaze with the candle.

Bella looked at her arm and then looked at me. Her eyes were sad and deeply troubled. "They're too deep. I need to have them taken care of." I noticed Alice stiffen beside me. Her eyes glazed over.

"Bella, you don't know if that will work," Alice pleaded, struggling against her restraints. "I can't see the end result. You can kill yourself."

"What is she going to do, Alice?" I asked, watching Bella sit on the couch, leaning back and closing her eyes.

"She got the idea from the pack. She's going to concentrate on healing herself," Alice whispered.

"Bella, you have no idea if you're even capable of doing that. Now is your chance to get to the hospital," I called out to her.

"It's too late. She's already trying, and it's working," Alice said in awe as we watched Bella's swollen ankle turning from black and blue to yellow and then to her pale skin. I watched her face scrunch up in concentration as her arm moved from her side to across her chest. Her body starting trembling as the small cuts from the shards of glass she'd removed earlier sealed themselves, leaving nothing but pink scars. But Bella's body trembled further as I felt my restraints loosen.

"Alice, take Jasper now to hunt. I'm letting you two go in a few seconds," Bella explained. Alice and Jasper nodded. The front door flung open, and Alice and Jasper's feet touched the ground for only a millisecond before they were out the door.

Bella stood up proudly from the couch as the last of the cuts sealed itself. Suddenly, her eyes widened as blood fell from her nose. One trembling hand went to her nose; seeing the blood caused her eyes to roll. She gasped, touching her temple.

"Bella, stop trying to heal your body! Please. You're over-exerting your body, and it's not handling it well." My concern for her well-being was overpowering my yearning for her blood. Her restraint against me relaxed, and I was able to go to her. I grasped her face as she fought for control over her powers.

"Bella, stop!" I pleaded, trying to reach her. Her eyes were blank and glazed over.

I'm not finished. I have to try and heal my ribs.

Her thoughts invaded my mind with a swift and loud glance into her mind. Her thoughts revolved on trying to heal her aneurysm, but she realized she couldn't do it. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her mind became lost to me again. Bella gasped for breath that she seemed to be holding.

Her eyes snapped open, and one was blood red from a popped vessel as her nose continued to flow. I stopped breathing to help with my control, but seeing her like this was driving me insane.

"I did it." Bella smiled.

"Yes, at the cost of hurting yourself. You popped a blood vessel in your eye and a few in your nose," I scolded, looking into her eyes. Bella cocked her head, reading my thoughts to see through my eyes how she looked right now. Her eyes widened. Her body trembled and the blood red from her eye cleared and the flow from her nose ceased.

"Better?" she asked, biting her lower lip, nervous of my reaction. Bella wiped her nose with some tissues before discarding it in the still – burning trash can.

"Yes. What did you manage to heal?" I asked, pulling away to look her over. Bella slowly unbuttoned her top from the bottom, exposing her torso and rib cage. She didn't go any further, thankfully. Between the scent of her blood that was still pungent in the air and seeing her body more exposed, it would undermine my control.

"Help me remove the gauze please," Bella said as she looked for a tape end. I nodded, but my eyes roamed over the exposed flesh of her abdomen. I shivered slightly, feeling her muscles tense as I touched her warm skin. I applied a little pressure to cause the tape to fall away easily.

With every piece of tape that fell away, more of her skin was exposed. The more her skin was exposed, I was able to see that she no longer bore the evidence of the plane crash on her fragile body. The black and blue bruising that I'd witnessed from Alice's thoughts when she helped Bella dress was no longer there.

"I healed my ribs and my bruising around my stomach." Bella smiled, happy that she'd been able to accomplish something like this.

"How's your ankle?" I lifted Bella up in my arms and sat her on my lap on the couch. I lifted up her bare foot and noticed no noticeable bruising or swelling.

"I can't do my head though," Bella mumbled. "I think it would be too dangerous. I don't know enough about anatomy to even attempt something like that." I nodded in agreement. "Did I scare you?" Bella asked, her eyes downcast.

I slid a finger under her chin and picked up her face so that she could look at me. "Absolutely. Don't do it again." I looked into her eyes with such intensity that she agreed.

"Sorry, I just got the idea. I thought since humans do naturally heal that I could speed up the process if I concentrated," Bella whispered, resting her head in the crook of my neck. Her warm breath was fanning over the cool skin of – a sudden rush of warmth shot through me. Control…must maintain control.

"What were you doing that caused you to cut your finger?" I asked, looking into Bella's eyes – a beautiful distraction. She blushed lightly and averted her eyes from mine.

"What is it, love?" I asked, turning her face back toward me. Her thoughts were once again hidden from me, her eyes, though were a window to them.

"My mind is having a hard time coping with everything in it, and I needed a way to help… um… quiet it. So, I've been drawing," Bella said, biting her lower lip. I looked at her in question.

"I didn't know you could draw?" I stated more like a question.

"Neither did I,. Until now, that is. But it helps keep my mind from running wild. At least for now."

"What have you been drawing?" Bella's eyes widened, and the blush on her cheeks returned. She shook her head in an attempt to put a stop to the conversation. When she wouldn't divulge anything further, I became quickly irritated that she wouldn't tell me.

"Edward," Bella whined, no doubt reading my thoughts. "Don't get mad. It's just images like the one on the computer." She sighed in defeat.

Comprehension dawned on me. No wonder she was blushing. But my curiosity for more information had overcome my own embarrassment. "Are those images from a vision a dream, or something else?"

"I'm not sure. When I start to draw it almost seems…. um…. Instinctual, like it's pre-programmed in my head. Those are the images that come forth." Bella flicked her wrist and a finger, and her drawing book landed on her lap. "Some of the images are like the first one, but others are of vampires I have never seen before."

Bella flipped to the first page. There was a picture of a female vampire with untamed beauty and flaming red hair – Victoria, James's mate.

"She comes and goes, most of the time alone in the images. You can see that there is snow covering the ground, so I think it's in the winter, but I guess that depends on where this is," Bella mumbled as her thoughts showed Victoria crouching low, her lips and teeth in a snarl.

"That's Victoria, she played a game of baseball with James and the other one back in Forks. James and Victoria have a bond together. It would make sense for her to be trying to get to you, too," I growled lowly. I should've known that we'd see each other again.

Bella flipped the page to one of us sitting among the wildflowers in my meadow back near Forks. We were sitting, my skin sparkling like a handful of diamonds. "This one I think takes place next spring and is before the one I did on my computer." Bella touched the drawing with her fingertip, touching her hand in the drawing. I bit back a gasp as I saw what was on her left hand – my mother's wedding ring.

Bella looked up at me, and her eyes widened, shaking her head as she read my thoughts. She quickly turned the page to one with three cloaked tall figures. They stood tall, and before them were two smaller ones figures. The picture was mostly in various shades of black and grey, but the eyes were filled in with red. The Volturi.

"When does this take place?" I asked, looking at Bella, my mind still reeling over the fact that she was wearing my mother's engagement ring. Bella shrugged.

"It keeps changing. First, it was only the two little ones and two others, but after time it grew to seven of them and then more…" Bella trailed off.

"Do you know why they plan to come?" The "why" was just as important as the "when."

"No… they don't know about me yet, but obviously they will," Bella said before stifling a yawn.

"You're exhausted, Bella. Let's get you to bed," I whispered, lifting myself from the couch with Bella still in my arms.

"I don't want to go to sleep," Bella whispered against my neck again. I could feel her lips on my skin, sending another lick of heat throughout my body.

"Bella, you need to sleep and rest," I said, stroking her cheek before laying her on her bed. I tucked the blankets around her before climbing in beside her.

"Edward…" Bella trailed off before finishing.

"Was that really your mother's wedding ring?" Bella asked, her voice low, barely a whisper.

"Yes, you drew it perfectly. I know I haven't really thought about it around you. So, my guess is that…" I didn't want to scare her off, so I chose not to continue. I tried to recite musical compositions in my mind to avoid her reading my thoughts.

"We'll be married before I change." Bella sighed, but a smile played on her lips. I looked at her soft features; this was not what I'd been expecting to see. I thought she'd run for the hills at the thought of marriage, after the failed attempt of her parents.

Bella laughed as her eyes glazed over. She refused to let me see what she was seeing. "Bella," I growled. She shook her head, and her eyes refocused back to mine.

"Sorry, when I had realized that what the ring meant, the rest of the next few months came to me in visions." Bella's smile widened.

"What did you see?" I asked, slightly fearful of the answer.

"Our wedding night…"


AN: beta'd by lisa89, thanks. Please review.