Hello? Is anyone out there? Haha, I really think it has been two years since I updated this or any story, and I happened across this lap top that I used to write on… ah it's a long story.

I will be updating all stories in due time since my writing and I have been so kindly reunited. Enjoy.

Can't Fool the Fox

CambriaisaplacethatevenIcouldnothaveimagined. It does not seem real, this castle of glass and shadow—immersed in a valley all its own. The windows shimmer with the reflections of the countryside, morphing it into an even lovelier picture than the one that surrounds me. It takes my breath away as we come upon it, and my previous motion-sickness vanishes with its radiant beauty, its terrible seduction. Muchlikeitsyoungestowner,I muse.

Edward smiles at my childlike excitement, placing his hand affectionately around my shoulders. Out here in the middle of nowhere we are free to be what we wish—lovers, friends or enemies. We choose the most comfortable, the most natural, though there is nothing concrete to establish us as lovers.

However much I wish there were.

Thoughts of Jacob invade my mind—which is only natural when I touch upon this subject—and I cannot hide the blush of embarrassment that blooms on the apples of my cheeks. I can still hear his whispers, his promises, his breathy exclamations of pleasure. And suddenly, I wish it hadn't been Jacob that I shared that with, but Edward.

"What's wrong?"

I let my eyes slide sideways, and they land gently on his. IwishIcouldtellyou.

Instead, I smile, lie, "Nothing at all."

Edward accepts the falsity after a moment of pause, and guides me through the modern surroundings of his home. His hold on me is firm, nervous, and I wonder what he has to fear here. But then the slow truth creeps up on me—and I don't know if it's what worries him, but it has already begun to plague me.

What if his family doesn't like me? And even worse, what if they don't accept me?

I glance at Edward quickly and he reads the terror in my eyes, speedily trying to conceal his own. "Don't worry," he soothes, and I know immediately that his train of thought is the same as mine, "they'll like you just fine."

"Maybe," I allow, "but will they approve of this?" I squeeze his hand for emphasis, and our eyes lock once again.

He furrows his brow, scrunching his nose, "They'll just have to live with it, won't they? Besides, you already have Carlisle on your side, Bella. That's key."

I laugh quietly, "I guess."

The Cullens are a beautiful family—and I cannot help but stare as we all sit down to the lunch that only I will eat. Esme is a wonderful woman, a mother if I've ever seen one. She sits beside her glorious husband in quiet complacency, eyes on me in a surveying manor. I suppose she wants to know if I enjoy her cooking, and I wonder how many meals she's really made in her lifetime.

"This is delicious," I say, wiping my mouth on my napkin. Edward draws his eyes away from the conversation buzzing between himself and his siblings, giving me a half smile of appreciation. It feels like we're all acting somehow. Everyone is just a little too nice, a little too cautious. And I know it's because of my presence that they can't be their true selves.

"So Bella," and then there's Edward's brother, Emmett, who seems to have no sense of awkwardness at all, "how do you find my brother?"

I smile as Rosalie and Esme look down into their laps and Alice merely rolls her eyes, "Agreeable."

The air changes, and everyone seems to loosen up, settling into comfortable conversation—both with me and amongst each other. Edward jokes jovially with his mock siblings, and I find that I have never seen him so at ease. It is such a heavenly sight watching them all giggle and gossip as if I had peeled each and every one of them from the heavens myself.

Edward's hold on me never strays, and I am grateful when he excuses us, brushing his fingertips beneath my puffy eyes. "I think you could use some sleep."

I grow red and Esme smiles, "Feel at ease here, Bella, for now this is your home."

And as much as I would never cross such a kindly woman, I want to tell herthiscouldneverbemyhome.

I imagined Charlie as I dreamed.

I imagined him in the throws of battle, imagined his brandished, ancient pistol. His steely jaw and wizened eyes. I imagined his heart, raw with pain at the loss of his family, his country, his very reason for existing. I imagined him how it would look when news reached him of my failure, of my demise. I imagined him broken and bleeding and sobbing in silence.

I imagined Aro as well.

There was no comparison between the two. Where Charlie looked fifty times the warrior Aro was, I knew the old beast would crush my father with one flick of his wrist. Charlie would lay broken at Aro's feet. Crippled and useless in death.

Edward held me as I screamed.

My eyes shot open as my own noises awoke me from the nightmare.

"It's ok, Bella," Edward murmured, the feel of his lips on my forehead a cool refresher, "you're fine now."

I rolled over furiously, and he let me loose, my feet hitting the ground sharply. "No, I'm not. I'm not ok."

He could only look at me, for he couldn't see into my dreams, he knew not what had scared me so.

"Edward," I whispered, "I need to go home."

Endangering Edward's family was something that was never my intention. I didn't know that my request to leave would turn into a target painted on this small branch of the family Volturi.

"Bella, it's not that we wish to keep you prisoner," Carlisle explained to me quietly, later, "but in freeing you, I sign the death certificate of my entire family. Do you understand?"

I did understand, and as I glanced around Carlisle's small study—to where Edward stood, a stony figure by the moonlit window—I felt the world closing in on me. I feared I'd always be a prisoner. Eternally. Stuck here in Never land while the world outside died, while my father's vision became just a dream, just a legend.

And even though I felt this way, I found myself saying, "I don't understand. I don't get why you're all so scared to be free."

"Bella," Edward warned me with his tone.

"No, Edward," I glanced back to Carlisle, who had sat back in his chair, eyes now hidden in shadow, "you have the power to change this, but you wont. Instead you hide here, away from Aro's immediate rule, away from the war, the problems. You're immortal, unstoppable… and yet shy as a blossom in winter."

I can see the twitch of Carlisle's lips as he leans forward again, "You don't know of what you speak, Bella."

"I know that, had I been the immortal one, I wouldn't sit idly by as my brother brought about the end of an entire people."

A growl erupted and I wasn't sure if it was Edward or Carlisle, but it was low and menacing.

"You would have me overthrow Aro? The most ancient of our race? Do you think I would be welcomed by the rest of the royal family were I to do so, Bella? Do you think they would turn face on their leader so easily and cave to my rule?" Carlisle said in an even tone, "It would only bring about another civil rebellion."

"You won't even try?" I pleaded.

"You mentioned why I was so afraid to be free, Bella. I'm not. I'm afraid to lose even one member of my small family were I to make things right."

"But it's not just about you!" I yelled, my hands breaking into seat, "it's about this place, Carlisle. After the war, could you look an Irishman in the eye and say that you did everything you could to save their people? Could you live with yourself after we are all dead? Do you think Aro will really stop at Ireland? Pretty soon the world will bow to him, and what will you do then?"

It was a long, tense moment before he spoke again, "I would fight."

"Then fight now," I whispered, "If not for me, then for everyone else."

And I laid my heart on my sleeve for him to see until he murmured, "I will."

"Edward?"

He turned black eyes on me. Perhaps he wasn't used to anyone speaking against his father figure. Perhaps he thought me rude, disrespectful. But I only thought of myself as completely right.

"Im sorry," I whispered, "but someone had to make you all see what you're sitting on."

"You thought we didn't know?" he laughed, "Bella, this will not end well."

I breathed out, exasperated, "Look, Edward, my father is so important to me, he means more than anything. I cant just let him die, not now after I've discovered what you can do. Not now, when I've found that you and your family have the power to change the course of things."

"You would have us all fight for you?" He wants so badly the answer to that.

"No, I would have you all fight for what's right, Edward, fight for your freedom."

In less than a second he is in front of me, so close I can count every single lash on his eyelid. His mouth breathes into me sweet nectar that I want only to taste. In moments, he has bewitched me, and I am putty in his grasp.

"You're playing such a dangerous game Bella," but he seems the only dangerous thing to me now.

"I only want the best… for everyone," I gasped, breathing in more of his delicious breath.

He sees the effect he has on me, and sensuously he touches his lips to mine, "Edward."

"Bella, Carlisle will fight for what's right, my family will follow him. But I…" he licks my bottom lip and my eyes slide shut, "I will only be fighting for you."

Slowly, he tilts my head back, and his devilish tongue play circles on my neck, on the pulse thrumming through my thin, pallid skin. I want to breathe, but I've forgotten how, his hands burning prints in my back. He hums his appreciation against my skin as my heart increases its rhythm.

I manage to gasp, "Why?"

"Can't you see it, silly?" His hands have slid the shoulders of my dress down, milky skin revealed to only him and the moonlight, "Bella, I love you."

His words make me dizzy with infatuation, and I want to scream that I love him too, that I want to encompass his very being, but his skin is on mine now and I have utterly lost all rationale. I sigh his name as he kisses burning trails along my flesh, down my middle towards my center. My dress puddles at my feet, and I am completely exposed.

He lays me gently down on the plush carpet, eyes roaming over my form, "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He kisses me sweetly, and as he learns every curve and inch of my body, we forget about war and family and hate.

In this moment, we know only of love..