Disclaimer: Not Mine
A/N: Thank you so much for all of you who took the time to review the last chapter. I hope you all enjoyed finding out what Tanya did to our poor Edward. I was surprised I only had two people mention me killing Jacob! If you had not guessed I am Team Edward all the way. My two year old is Team Jacob (I think it is just because she likes the wolf!)
Dalloway5906 rocked my world with the fastest turnaround in history. Plus – who else knows the correct spelling of horniness!
You will find me being a review h00r at the bottom ;)
BPOV
After our impromptu session of lovin' in the tub, Edward wrapped me in a big fluffy towel and put me to bed. I really wanted him to join me, but I knew he had to help deal with Corin. He would be able to read her thoughts and see if she really posed a danger to us. I knew there was no danger from her anymore. She was just suffering through the after-effects of what my shield did to her. In fact, it was really my fault that she had gone bat-shit crazy. If I had not used my shield on her, she would still be a powerful member of the Volturi, using her powers to torture anyone who got in Aro's way. Now, she was totally nuts, and I was not sure she would ever be able to make her way back to normal.
I could not actually sleep. Duh, vampire. But it felt really good to be able to forget what was happening for a little while. I closed my eyes and released an unnecessary breath. I thought about Edward's and my future. I detailed every place I wanted to travel over the next hundred years, starting with the places that would most be affected by time. I really wanted to see Egypt before the pyramids disintegrated. I wanted to see the Eifel Tower before some suicide bomber took it out. I wanted to travel through the canals of Venice by gondola, before the ocean swallowed it up.
I took an hour for myself before getting up and getting dressed. I was startled to see myself in the mirror. My eyes were still red, but I remembered that the animal blood would take a while to dilute the color. I wanted to fit in with the rest of my family. I was ecstatic that my bloodlust seemed to be much more subdued than anyone had thought. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with all of this drama while simultaneously trying not to kill every human that crossed my path.
I could hear the nearly silent footfalls as someone came up the steps. It was still hard to get used to my new supernatural senses. I took a deep inhale, wondering if I would be able to recognize the visitor by their scent. I had not had time to discover everyone's signature fragrances yet. I knew Edward, of course, and Emmett, but not the rest of the family. I would think Esme would smell like wallpaper paste and dirt, since her favorite pastimes were decorating and gardening. Carlisle would smell slightly chemically, from spending so much time in the hospital. Alice would be preceded by a cloud of whatever perfume was popular that day and Jasper would follow behind smelling like leather and coffee and musky sweat. Rose would smell like sex and elegance with a hint of motor oil. But those were just my guesses.
Luckily, I was able to tell who it was almost immediately. The sweet and minty goodness that always came before Emmett clouded my senses. I wondered if everyone perceived Emmett's smell the same way I did? Did he smell different to Rose or Carlisle? I would have to ask Edward about that later. That could make for some neat experiments. I moved quickly to the door and yanked it open before Emmett could knock.
"What's up kid?" Emmett joked, as he reached out to try and ruffle my hair. I was thankfully quicker than he was and ducked out of the way.
"Don't call me 'kid' Emmett." I snarked as I tried to push past him to find Edward.
"He is a little busy right now." Emmett said quietly as he took both of my hands in one of his and guided me back over to the bed. He pulled me down onto the cushy mattress and turned to look at me.
"We need to talk." He said, his face lacking its usual relaxed effervescence.
"What is going on?" I asked, instantly alert.
"Alice has had some new visions, ones she does not want to share with Edward." He said, releasing my hands and propping his elbows on his knees, relaxing his head onto his palms. He looked defeated.
"Ok, so what does this have to do with me?" I questioned, as I instinctively moved my hand up to rub soothing circles on his back. He looked like someone had just thrown out his favorite Xbox game.
"The visions were of you. Somehow this Maria chick had managed to snag you and you were working for them. Alice thinks that since Edward was nowhere to be seen, he might have been .. destroyed." He finished quietly. I was up on my feet before he had finished speaking.
"Well then we will just get out of here. Maybe we should head up to Alaska and hide out up there. If we all split up, they will never find us." I said, hysteria making my voice three times higher than it normally was.
"You see here is where it gets tricky. That might work for the rest of the family, but for you and Edward it is a no go. Maria has gotten her claws into Demetri, and he is an unparalleled tracker. He would be able to find you two anywhere in the world." He said, reaching up and grabbing me by the arm, halting my unconscious pacing.
"What are we going to do?" I whispered.
"I think you and Alice need to spend some time together brain-storming. If you can come up with a plan, she can look ahead and see if it would change the outcome. Of course, there still are the little changes that might pop up and turn everything into a giant clusterfuck, but at least we could go into things optimistic!" He said, finally giving me a small smile.
"Then get her up here. What are we waiting for?" I questioned, trying hard not to whack him across the head.
"You might be able to keep your thoughts from Edward, but Alice is not so great at that. The minute Edward hears her reciting anything in Korean, he gets all suspicious. Maybe you two should try and get outta here for a while." He suggested.
"Yes!" Alice shouted from somewhere on the first floor. We both started laughing as we heard her freakishly loud feet stomping up the stairs. I would have thought a supernatural being that was that small would be lighter on her feet.
"Perfect Emmett! I knew we kept you around here for something other than keeping Rosalie satisfied." She exclaimed as she darted into my closet, emerging seconds later with an outfit, complete with shoes and lingerie.
"I'll take that as my sign to head out. Gotta go check on my blondie. She was kinda upset after ripping the head off of that Jane chick. Me? I thought it was really hot!" He said as he tried to covertly adjust himself through his jeans.
"Gross Em!" Alice shouted as she dropped the clothes on the bed to shield her eyes. Well, I guess that answers my question about how well endowed Emmett is. When you have to reach halfway down your thigh to readjust yourself, you are VERY well endowed!
Emmett sauntered out of the room, laughing all the way. Alice quickly threw me into the outfit she had picked out and I was surprised to find I was actually comfortable. I had no idea how she was going to explain our leaving to Edward, but I trusted that she had seen what would happen in a vision. I just needed to play along. We found Carlisle, Jasper and Edward coming up from the basement. I figured that was where they were keeping Corin until they decided what to do with her. I really felt bad for her. I was very hesitant to use my shield on anyone else until we were able to figure out exactly what it did.
Edward looked up, surprised to see me out of bed already. He quickly came to my side, wrapping me in his arms.
"I thought you would relax longer. I wanted to come and snuggle with you." He pouted.
"Bella needs to go out and test her control. We have no idea where or when Maria will strike. She did really well resisting her father and Angela, but we need to see what she will do in a big crowd. If Maria decides to attack someplace public, the last thing we need to be worrying about is if Bella is gonna go all bloodsucker on the humans." Alice said, throwing a covert wink towards Jasper.
"Excellent idea sweets. I'll go with y'all to make sure Bella does not get out of hand." Jasper said, sidling up next to Alice and throwing his arm across her shoulders. I really wanted to see him all decked out cowboy style soon.
"I'll come as well." Edward said, but was quickly stopped by Alice.
"Edward, you know as well as I do that if you are anywhere near Bella, she will not be able to concentrate on anything but trying to get into your pants." She stated.
"Come on, cut me some slack. We have been standing here for a while and I have not tried anything!" I demanded.
"Oh yeah? Where is your hand Bella?" She said, crossing her arms across her chest and stomping her foot.
My hand, what the hell is she talking about? I looked down to see that one hand was holding Edward's but my other was griping the waistband of his pants tightly, my fingers against the bare skin of his abdomen. I snatched my hand away and looked down, my phantom blush feeling like it was covering my entire body. I was surprised to hear Carlisle's quiet chuckle from behind us. We turned to see him shaking his head while trying to quiet his laughter.
"Esme was the same way for almost a year. I could not take her anywhere. The one time I tried to take her to a hospital function, she dragged me into the coat room and nearly ripped my tux off. We had to leave by jumping out of the window because her dress was ruined." He said after he finally noticed our attention.
"CARLISLE JOSEPH CULLEN!" Esme shouted from the second floor. He had the good grace to look chagrined, but gave us a smile before flying up the stairs to apologize to Esme. I really did not want to be in the house while he found some way to make it up to her.
After finally realizing that Alice was right, Edward walked us out to Jasper's big SUV, knowing that Alice would need all of the cargo space for whatever shopping she would do while we were out. He gave me a lingering kiss while making sure my seatbelt was securely fastened.
"Invincible remember?" I said as he fought with the belt.
"I know, but I still worry. Throwback from your human days, I guess." He said quietly as he finally deemed me safe and kissed me swiftly before he closed the door.
I felt actual chest pain as I watched him disappear as we drove away. How did I ever think that this would be a good idea? We had such a limited amount of time together. There was no telling how soon Maria and her army could be coming, and now with Demetri working for her there was nowhere we could escape. My hands were suddenly trapped between two smaller ones as I looked up to see the sad face of my new sister staring at me. I was sure she had been sitting in the front next to Jasper a second ago.
"I know it is hard, but there is really nothing else we can do. If we can't figure out a plan, my vision will come true. Do you want that?" She asked quietly. I could see Jasper watching us through the mirror and threw him a small smile, not really wanting him to have to dose me with his happy-times emotions.
"I get it, it is just hard." I said, not bothering to hide my angst.
"I know, believe me I know. Jasper and I were not apart for the first 2 years after we found each other. I think most of that was that the second we were together he would flood the room with horniness." She laughed. "After catching Carlisle and Esme in a sixty-nine, we decided to just keep to ourselves."
She succeeded in breaking me out of my funk with that disgustingly arousing thought and we sped quickly through the woods to the closest shopping mall.
A/N: Soooo – anyone want to see what the boys were doing with Corin in the basement? Hit that little review button and find out! I am taking my sweet little girl to her first baseball game tomorrow, so you should expect to get an email late in the afternoon. Thanks so much to my loyal few who always review, if I bribe you or not!