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~EPOV~
Bella took my hand and started to back me out of Emmett's head, slowly. When I was out, I sat back on the floor against a nearby wall and the room started to sway.
That was the weirdest thing I'd ever experienced in my life and possibly the coolest.
"Are you okay? The first time can be a little harsh," Bella said. She was at my side, her cool hands stroking my forehead.
"I'm fine," I croaked.
Suddenly my mouth started filling with saliva. Oh crap, maybe I'm not so fine. I tried to scramble away from Bella but she was holding me down.
"Be still Edward, moving it will only make it worse," she said calmly.
"Bella let him go," Rosalie said, "he's going to…"
Her arms released my body just in time for me to turn my head and vomit in the corner.
"Give him a moment to adjust, Bella dear, his human mind is still trying to process what just happened," the woman said.
My vision was blurry, my head ached like a bitch and I felt like I was going to hurl again. Through the haze I saw a figure crouched over my brother. I blinked a few times, trying to clear the fog. There was an extremely well dressed woman looking in my direction and my head cleared a little bit. A warm smile stretched across her face. "Feeling better?" Her voice was so warm.
Bella's hands were cool on my forehead and I did start to feel a little better with each stoke of her fingers on my skin.
"Yes," I nodded, slowly.
The woman looked at Bella and smiled. "He's strong," she said, almost proudly.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" I asked.
I saw Bella open her mouth to speak when Emmett growled so hard and loud that the walls of the tiny cottage shook.
The woman flung herself on top of my brother as his body twisted, nearly breaking free from Rosalie. "Oh my, time to get Edward out of here, Bella."
I wanted to protest and demand that she tell me what was going on right then and there, but I still felt like someone had run me over with a freight train and couldn't give up much of a fight.
Bella picked me up in her arms. "Put your arms around me and close your eyes," she whispered.
As soon as I clamped my arms around her neck and squeezed my eyes shut I felt the cool breeze whipping past me. I hadn't even realized we were even moving until Bella told me I could look and we were standing at the back porch of the house.
"Dang, you're fast," I muttered as I tried to stand up straight but my entire body swayed and I almost went down. Bella caught me around my waist, holding me up.
"Easy," she said, bearing the majority of my weight on her tiny frame like I was nothing but a light sweater draped over her shoulders. She hoisted my body against her hip as she climbed the back step.
"Did this happen to you the first time you pulled out of someone's head?" I asked.
"Sort of," she chuckled.
The back door opened before we reached it and a young man stepped out and took my other arm. "Alice said you were coming," he said, as he and Bella put me into one of the kitchen chairs.
"I need to go talk to Alice, but Carlisle will take good care of you." She kissed the top of my head and dropped a peck on Carlisle's cheek as she was leaving.
"You look like shit man, you okay?" Jasper asked, coming into the kitchen.
"At least I look better than I feel right now," I said, shifting in the chair and trying to get more comfortable.
"Damn," Jasper said, making a face. "You want me to sit with you while the good doctor here checks you out?"
"Nah," I shook my head. "I'm good."
"Okay, I'll be upstairs if you change your mind," Jasper said before he disappeared up the stairs and the man in the nice suit, who I assumed was Carlisle, scooted his chair in front of me. He pulled a black doctor's bag up onto the table, fished out a stethoscope and gave me the once over.
When he was finished he slipped his pen light back into the inner pocket of his clearly expensive jacket.
"These should help with the headache," he said, handing me a couple of aspirin.
"Thank you, sir."
A smile spread across his face. "You and your brother are well mannered young men. That's rare in today's society." He extended his hand to me. "I'm afraid we haven't been formally introduced, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Bella's father."
I looked at Bella, in the other room talking with Alice, and then back to the man claiming to be her father. My quandary must have been evident on my face.
"Not her human father," he chuckled. "I guess you could call me her vampire father."
"How does that work, if you don't mind my asking? Did you…make her?"
He laughed and slapped the table lightly. "The vernacular is to turn someone. 'Making' sounds to Frankenstein like and monsters simple do not exist," he said with a wink.
"May I take it from here Carlisle?" Bella asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"Certainly," he said with a smile. "I believe Esme needs my help anyway. It was very nice to meet you Edward." He stopped to give Bella a kiss on the top of her head as he left us.
"Let's go upstairs, a good soak in the tub should help," she said and took my hand, gently pulling me from the chair. I wavered a little bit, but didn't fall down. "Do you need me to carry you?"
"No, I just need a second to right myself," I said with a laugh.
She just smiled and waited for me to gather my bearings. We started to walk up the stairs she fell into step behind me.
"So, either you're afraid I'm going to fall or you just really like looking at my ass," I said grinning over my shoulder, taking my eyes off of the steps ahead of me and wavered, nearly falling backward.
"I think you just answered yourself," she laughed. "Looking at your ass is just an added bonus," she said quietly and gave me a swat on my backside.
She seemed a lot calmer now than she had back in the cottage, ever since she talked to Alice.
~APOV~
Bella was running through the forest with Edward in her arms. He looked a little green around the gills.
Not shocking really. I remembered the first time Bella pulled me out of someone's head. I felt like I'd gone ten round with one of those damned werewolves and still had pieces missing. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be for a human.
"Shit," I muttered under my breath.
I knew I was going to have to face the music with Bella sooner or later, but seeing the vision slapped me with the realization that it was going to be sooner rather than later.
I walked into the other room where Carlisle was getting along fabulously with Jasper and informed him that Bella was on her way and that Edward didn't look well.
"Did she…um…" Jasper stammered.
"No, he hasn't been bitten," I assured him. Yet.
I explained to him what had happened in the cottage, the best I could, about the power transfer and Bella projecting Edward. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen the vision for myself. It was incredible.
"Is that going to happen with us?" he asked.
I tried to keep the disappointment from showing on my face. "I haven't seen it," I said quietly.
Jasper's arm came around me, apparently I hadn't hidden my feelings very well.
"Yet," he whispered into my hair.
I had to smile. God, how I loved him.
Looking around his shoulder I could see Bella and Carlisle easing Edward into a kitchen chair. "Jasper, I'm going to need to talk to my sister, alone. Will you wait for me upstairs?"
"Of course, I'd wait at the ends of the earth for you." he said, brushing his lips over my forehead.
"Mary Alice Brandon Cullen," Bella growled.
I fisted my hands on my hips, she knew I hated to be called that. "Don't middle name me, Isabella Marie Masen Cullen."
"I know you know why they're here. Spill it. All of it," she seethed.
How did I explain this? How do I tell my sister that I've known about this since the moment I awoke as a vampire? That the vision of our family was the first one I'd ever had.
Esme taught me how to hide the thoughts of my vision from my sisters. With her and Carlisle's help, we kept tabs on this part of the world, waiting and searching for the three mysterious men, brothers, who were in my vision.
We were able to pin down the location of Forks, but that was it. No names, no dates, nothing other than their faces. We followed every family that had three boys, for over a century. It wasn't until I had the vision of their mother dying that we found them.
It wasn't easy to sneak off from my sisters to try to monitor the Swan boys, so Carlisle and Esme stepped up, taking a sudden interest in the home that had the family owned in a small town in Washington, a house that Esme had purchased ages ago. She told me once that she bought it because something insider her told her she had to.
So I just unloaded all of it on Bella.
"Why didn't you tell us Alice?" she asked after I was finished.
"I tried, Bell, I tried to think of different ways of telling you and Rose but every time I had made up my mind that I couldn't take all of the secrecy anymore the vision of the family, Jasper, Edward, Emmett…all of it, would disappear and you two would hate me for all eternity. I didn't have a choice." I lowered my head and squeezed my eyes shut.
I tried to look despondent, but I had already seen Bella's reaction. She wrapped her arms around me and I guess I whipped mine around her neck a fraction of a second too soon.
Bella pulled back and gave me the sideways glace. "You already knew I was going to forgive you."
"Naturally," I said as I tightened my arms around my sister, "but the real thing is so much better."
Bella laughed and squeezed me again. "I need to go check on Edward before Carlisle starts acting like a dad."
"Oh, and Bella, we need to make sure that we stick close to Edward and Jasper tonight. No going outside of the house and no wandering around inside alone. Just as a precaution."
"Precaution?" Bella asked.
I couldn't answer, I couldn't make my mouth form the words that would spell out the vision I'd seen earlier. I arched an eyebrow at my sister and she understood.
"He can't be through the change already," she whispered. "Esme said that it was happening fast, but….how…it's too soon. Esme and Carlisle's ability?"
"I can't see if it's going to work or not, it's all going to be up to Emmett when he's finished changing. Until he's made a choice, it's fuzzy." I dipped my head. I felt entirely useless at the moment. One thing I did know, I'd protect my mate. To the death if need be.
"Bella?" I called out, stopping her halfway to the kitchen. "Be careful."
She looked at me quizzically. "You too Alice."
~BPOV~
That was strange.
And more than a little scary. Alice looked scared out of her mind. What exactly did she see that she wasn't sharing with me?
I helped Edward up the stairs and into a nice hot bath. That used to help me in the early years of projecting, while I was still learning how to control everything. But then again, I was cold so the warm water was oh so soothing.
Edward was human. Maybe I should have drawn him a cool bath? His groans and sighs as he sunk down into the water reassured me that I'd made the right choice.
"Room in here for one more," he said with a wicked grin.
Oh no he didn't, I was on human watch and I was not about to be distracted by his wet, hot, tender, sexy, wet, flushed human body. Did I mention wet?
I shook the perverse thoughts out of my head. Focus Bella, I demanded of myself. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on Edward, keeping his safe.
However, if I was in the water with him…
No, stop this!
"You're body's been through a lot today Edward, not to mention I nearly scrambled your brain." I stepped into the shower and pulled out a bottle of shampoo. "Now just lay back and let me take care of you."
I knelt beside the tub and started to wash his hair.
"Mmmmm, that feels nice," he groaned as I worked the shampoo into a good lather. I had to bite my lip to keep from attacking him right then and there.
After he resurfaced from rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, he turned to look at me. God he looked magnificent wet. Little trails of water rolled off of his head and down his face. I nearly lost it when he inadvertently licked the water from his lips.
"Have you been inside my head?" he asked.
My eyes widened. Thank God I couldn't blush otherwise I would be turning nine different shades of red.
"Um…" I started. Let's see, how do I tell him this without sounding like a complete stalker? "Not while you were awake," I said quietly. Yeah, because that makes it better.
Reluctantly, I glanced up at him, preparing myself for the worst.
That crooked grin twisted up one side of his face. "Really? See anything interesting?" His voice was thick, dripping with arousal and it made my breath catch in my chest.
"Just your dreams."
"All of my dreams?" He looked at me from under his lashes, his gaze smoldering right through me. His long index finger swirled in the water in front of him. "You didn't happen to see one involving you giving me a bath did you?" His pink tongue slid out to pull his bottom lip into his mouth.
"No," I breathed, unable to stop myself. I should stop this conversation right now before we reached the point of no return.
"Hmmm," he shrugged and leaned back against the tub. "Too bad, it was a really good one," he said quietly.
He was doing this on purpose. I wasn't going to fall for it; I needed to keep my wits about me.
"What did I do?" I heard my voice asking softly. Damn it.
"You washed me," he whispered.
Dear God, my head was starting to spin. If he had this much power over me as a human, the power he'd have as a vampire would be absolutely lethal. That thought made my brain twirl faster and if it were possible, I would have passed out.
While the thoughts of his vampire prowess swirled in my head, I absentmindedly picked up a sponge and started to wash his body. It wasn't until he started to sigh and moan that I'd realized what I was doing.
"That feels good, Bella," he purred as I made my way across his chest.
Shit, I'd completely blown past the point of no return without even realizing it.
There was no stopping now so I leaned forward as I pushed the sponge down his tight belly. I turned my head and kissed this side of his neck. "Is this how I washed you Edward?" I whispered, licking the soft skin behind his ear.
"Yeah…lower," he panted in anticipation, reaching up and sinking his wet fingers into my hair.
I slid the sponge down around his hip bone, following the natural crease of his leg and up the underside of his blazing hot erection.
"Ahhh," he sighed and let his head fall back against the edge of the tub. "Use your hand, Bella, please."
Immediately I released the sponge and curled my fingers around the base of his length, slowly dragging my hand up and over the tip.
"Jesus, just like that…oh, that feels so good," he moaned and I could see his toes curl under the water.
I pressed my lips to his neck and I could feel his pulse pounding against my mouth, his blood singing inside his veins. I gently started to suckle his skin, careful not to break it and make him bleed.
His body jolted in pleasure as I started pumping him at a nearly inhuman speed.
I could smell his release approaching and it was making me dizzy. I grabbed his chin, turning his head and arching his neck against my mouth as I increased the suction on his skin ever so slightly.
I was playing a dangerous game right now and prayed that I could maintain control.
He jerked his hips up into my hand as he came, moaning and swearing under his breath.
I stopped sucking on his neck. Running my tongue over that spot, I could feel where the blood had been pulled up just under the surface of the skin. I kissed that spot and smiled to myself because I'd marked him as mine.
He took my wrist in his hand and started to kiss my palm. "I want you to bite me, Bella," he said in between kisses moving closer to my scar.
I froze. Alice's warning to be careful made a lot more sense now.
~RPOV~
Emmett bucked beneath our bodies.
"Have you ever seen anyone change this fast?" I asked Esme. "I remember when Bella changed and it took nearly three days."
"Only once before, when I turned Carlisle," she said. "I'd seen so many changes before that time and was so surprised when he woke up so quickly. I was worried something was wrong so I went straight to the Aro. He told me that it was normal for the change to happen so fast when there is intense love and passion between true mates. The emotion charges the venom, amps it up and makes it stronger, more concentrated and speeds up the changing process."
Emmett surged again, growling so hard that I felt it in my bones. When he settled, Esme continued. She told me about Alice's visions and how they had everything planned out.
"Your father and I were going to come up next week and explain everything; we wanted to prepare you for this sudden change if it were to happen."
"But, someone got carried away," Carlisle's voice spoke behind me as he walked up and laid his weight on top of Emmett just as another jolt of strength pulsed through him. "He is very strong isn't he?" Carlisle chuckled. "We may have our hands full with this one, what do you think?" he asked Esme.
She pressed her ear to Emmett's chest and closed her eyes. "No, his heart is true."
Emmett's head thrashed and my hand slipped off of his mouth. His roar ripped through the air. The walls of the rickety old cottage nearly crumbled and the surrounding trees quaked with the force of it. Every muscle in his body clenched and his breath seized just before he went completely still.
I was panicked as I looked up at Esme, searching her mind for some sign that something was wrong, but she was looking down, smiling.
"Hello, Emmett, welcome to our family," she said.
I looked back down and saw Emmett's eyes wide open and blazing red.
Chapter End Notes:
Thank you, once again, for taking the time to read. Yes, I'm going to say it again, because your reviews are ALWAYS greatly appreciated. They are the fuel to the little crazy train that is Bizzaro Twilight! *MMMWAHHHHHHH*