Chapter 11

It was like the first day that I saw him. I was mesmerized. Edwards eyes were fixated with mine, and even if I wanted to, I didn't want to take my eyes off. Of course Emmett had other plans.

"Bella!" He screamed while pulling me into one of his famous bear hugs. Only he knew that he didn't need to be gentle with me this time around. Jasper silently said my name as he hesitantly gave me a hug. I assumed he still felt guilty for attacking me on my birthday.

I took a moment to recollect myself and realized everyone was staring at me. God! Why couldn't Laurent be a dear and try to run off?

"I see Aro sent you to check up on me. Well as you can see, I am here, and my eyes are amber. I'm not going anywhere." He said looking at Irina with eyes of fascination. I remember that. I looked at Edward who was now standing at the bottom of the steps now, and wished I hadn't.

"Yeah make sure you don't. It'll kill her." I looked at Demetri, "We're done here." I didn't even bother with any pleasantries towards the Denali's, as I tried to bum rush my way to the door, but Emmett stopped me. "Move." I growled.

"No, Bella. You owe us an explanation. " Edward said behind me. I looked at him in disbelief.

"Edward, I'm sorry. .You? Where in your mind do I owe you anything?"

"But how did this happen?" At this moment, the rage that was rising up in me was taking over my body. I was furious with Edward pinching his nose and questioning me.

"What difference does it make? You can't change anything, and I wouldn't want you to."

'Demetri, wipe that smile off of your face. Now!' I thought to him when I caught him smiling at my reaction to Edward. The male population in my life was really starting to aggravate me. All it would take was one swing with the sword.

Jasper picked up his phone and listened to the other end. He might as well put it on speaker phone since every vampire could hear her. "Put Bella on the phone! Now!"

"I can hear you Alice."

"You better keep that sword where it is. If you harm Jazzy, I'll never forgive you." Her threat was real even through the phone.

"Jasper wasn't bothering me, I would have spared him. It's your brothers I'm looking at this moment."

"Well, Rose is glaring at me that I better mention to save Emmett also, so you might as well leave Edward too."

"Duly noted Alice." I heard Jasper whisper softly to Alice about the scene in the house.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Great now I was going to have to deal with everyone. At once.

"Eleazar, you knew about this? You knew she was a vampire? All of you knew?" Edward said accusingly. He looked at everybody's eyes. When his eyes fell on Kate and Tanya, he became even more outraged. "You four came to the memorial and didn't say anything."

"Edward, we were silenced. Aro threatened us." Eleazar spoke up. I looked back at him in shock. I knew I meant a lot to Aro, but was there a need to threaten Eleazar and his family?

"You could have found some way. How long have you known?" He was now standing in Eleazar's face growling. I walked over to him and grabbed his arm and flung him into his brothers. Edward composed his landing and immediately went into a defensive crouch. I was ready for him with my sword leveled close to his neck.

"What does it matter how long they knew? You left. Remember?" I heard the front door open and my peripheral saw Alice, Rosalie, and Esme gasping at the sight before them. Esme had both hands clasped to her mouth. All of them hurt me, and yet I didn't want to hurt them, most of all Esme.

I sheathed my sword and ran out the back door. I heard Felix and Demetri running after me. 'No. Stay. I just need a moment.'

I ran until I reached Mt. McKinney, and perched myself on a cliff. I closed my eyes underneath the deep blue sky. I counted backwards from a thousand and focused on the darkness of my eyelids. Soon there were figures running in my vision. I focused on the spectacle and saw that it was me running, I was being chased by Edward. I ran behind Aro, but Edward was there, begging me to come with him. Next I ran to Eleazar and when I looked around, Edward was gone. I hugged Eleazar to thank him, but when I pulled away, I was hugging Edward.

All of a sudden, my body shook, and I opened my eyes to see Edward staring at me. "How did you do it?"

Instinctively, I let out an exaggerated sigh, "Do what?"

"You were at the memorial, Bella. Or should I say Brianna? You didn't look like you, and yet you did at the same time." He was always too perceptive.

"It's not in my place to reveal that information." I replied. It really wasn't that hard to figure out that one of the two vampires with me had that for a gift. Perceptive but dense sometimes. "Why are you here Edward?"

"I needed to see you. I have to explain some things to you."

"There's absolutely nothing to explain Edward. You fell out of love, and wanted out. Well here's your out." I got up to run, but Edward's arm grabbed me by the waist.

"That. I need to explain that. I never fell out of love with you. I love you more than ever. I never planned on stopping." I looked into his eyes but I couldn't believe what he was telling me. He still loved me? He never stopped?"

"But you said. You left me. Alone. You couldn't do that if you loved someone." I mumbled.

"Bella, look at me." He pushed a strand of hair back from my face. "I could because I loved you more. I thought by leaving, I'd be the one that suffered, figuring that time would heal your wounds and your mind and heart would forget me. I believed that leaving was the only way to keep you safe. How many times have you been put in danger just by knowing me? And look at you now! You're a vampire."

I couldn't help but think he was right. "No, if you had stayed, I might have been protected by so much more. I wouldn't have survived otherwise."

"You can't know that, Bella."

"I can. Did you know Victoria contacted the Volturi to deal with your family? They were intrigued by her accusations, but disposed of her in any case. She also tried convincing Laurent to do her a favor of kidnapping me and delivering me to be tortured." There was no need to tell him that Laurent accepted. Edward would only do something drastic towards Laurent, and that would defeat the purpose of giving him a second chance. "Now if you were gone, and I wasn't turned, with everything that Victoria had planned, would I have survived that? Any of it? How were you helping me Edward?"

"At least you'd be human, Bella."

"I'd be dead. The only difference is, there'd be a body in Forks Cemetery instead of a memorial site at the high school."

"And what about Charlie? What about me? Or Angela, Jessica? You're just going to leave them with no answers."

"Trust me it's better this way." I said. I pulled his arm from around my waist, and held it to his side. I got a sense of déjà vu, only the roles were reversed.

"How?" I didn't realize that we were shouting at each other.

"Because everyone I loved was going to die, including you and your family, if I didn't go to Italy. I had no choice." I closed my eyes briefly. "I was thinking of you." I said looking up at him. I stood on my toes and kissed him on his cheek.

"Bella, don't." I saw his eyes close at the touch of my lips.

"Take care of yourself." I whispered in his ear, and ran off. 'Demetri, Felix, it's time to go. I'll wait for you at the plane.'

I arrived at the airport, by now there weren't too many people waiting for their flights, so nobody noticed the girl that mysteriously walked past security and straight onto the private plane. I accepted the sleep mask, but I didn't use it yet. I had a theory about my daydreams, and I wanted to test it out, but I wanted to wait until we were safely in the air.

After about a half hour, Demetri and Felix finally boarded the plane.

"Took ya'll long enough." I teased.

"Well we had to take the car remember? Not everyone got the chance to freak out at the sight of an ex lover." Demetri teased back.

"Shut up, D. I did not freak out." Although even as I replayed the memory in my mind, I did kind of. "I merely choose not to deal with certain things."

"Yeah okay," He was talking continually, but I tuned him out. He finally got the idea that I wasn't paying him attention and started talking to Felix. I put the sleep mask on my eyes, and let my mind drift. Time to dream.