EPOV
I had been driving for several hours, getting out of the state, and had soon passed through several. The scenery had changed drastically now; as we neared Phoenix, vegetation became more sparse and less green by the mile.
Bella had fallen asleep two hours ago, the little angel. She hadn't even woken up when I nearly crashed into a semi-truck after watching her for a while on the freeway. Bad idea. Now I just stole the occasional glance.
Jasper's phone rang loudly on the dashboard—but it didn't wake Bella, surprise, surprise. I looked at the caller ID, and smiled when it was someone I recognized and welcomed.
"Hey James. How'd you get the number?" I asked into the phone, putting it to my ear.
"Eddie!" James' low voice yelled quietly in my ear. I laughed. "How's my main man? How's my main moody melodramatic man?"
"I wouldn't go as far as to say melodramatic—"
"Shut it. This is my time." James cut me off. "Victoria was has been monitoring the entire thing!"
"The entire thing?"
"Yeah! I mean, what are we supposed to do when our man suddenly disappears after the murder of two suicidal teens' friend?" James asked with a sarcastic tone. "Especially when the murderer gets into a car chase with one of the suicidal teens and you both end up in the hospital! How'd you get out so soon? How'd you cover up your regeneration? How—"
"James. Listen to me." I said seriously. James went deathly quiet so I could hear his held breath. "I'm just on the freeway with Bella—Isabella Swan—on my way to the hideout. Somebody just killed Jasper, and Bella just discovered her powers."
There was a momentary pause before James chuckled. "Wow. Why do you get all the action?"
"James, this is not a laughing—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know. 'Not a laughing matter', 'this controls the fate of the magical world', blah, blah, blah. I know, I know… It's called melodrama, but you wouldn't know anybody like that, would you?"
"Ugh. What a way to get a 'Welcome Back'!" I muttered.
"Because nothing says 'welcome back' like getting your chest sawed open." James shot back. "And just to let you know, Victoria has been monitoring the hospital."
I suddenly went into a fury. "And you didn't care to oversee Bella? Her brother was murdered tonight because nobody was with them!"
"You're our priority, and you know that!" James replied curtly, ignoring the death sentence in my tone. "How are we supposed to know this Bella girl had powers and was one of the Swans? Edward, you can't expect us to know everything."
I groaned, looking at Bella momentarily before letting my eyes travel back to the road. "I'm already entering Glendale; I'll be in Phoenix in less than half an hour. Should I meet you at the—"
"The safe house. We had to keep changing locations, since you disappeared." I knew James could almost see the disapproving look on my face. "Well what were we supposed to think? You're magic—for all we knew, that murderer could've known!"
"Fine, just—fine. What's the address?"
"Just meet us at the intersection of W Mohave St. and S 9th Ave. We'll pick you up from there."
"I'll see you in a few mintues." I was taking the phone down from my ear, ready to hang up, but James said one more thing.
"Hey, it's nice to have you back."
I smiled, but didn't reply. I pressed the end button and sped up, leaving the outskirts of tall skyscrapers of downtown Phoenix behind me. I slowed down to 80 miles an hour, paying attention to the street signs.
Nice to be back, James.
JaPOV
I laughed as I got off the phone with Edward for the first time in months. I mean, hearing and seeing him on the hospital's security cameras was once thing—but on the phone was better. It was better in the way that I could hear plainly in his voice that he had gone to Hell and back to survive. That's my boy.
"Having fun with your best friend?" My Victoria asked from behind the laptop. I tossed the phone next to the laptop on the table and sat down next to her, kissing her cheek.
"Yes." I answered, cupping her neck. "And I'm ecstatic to find out he's finally bringing home a woman."
Victoria's body shook with laughter, jolting me for a second. She leaned into my chest as her euphoria died down and sighed contentedly. "Our little Eddie's growing up."
"They were just out of downtown Phoenix when I got off the phone." I said into Victoria's wild mane of striking red hair. It tickled my cheeks when I dug my face into it, and made me smile. "I'm guessing no more than a few minutes until they get here. We're meeting them at the Harrington storage yard."
"I guess we should get going, then." Victoria whispered. She straightened up, instantly leaving my chest cold, and closed her laptop before putting it into her messenger bag. "You know how Edward is—on time and impeccably precise."
"And annoying." I added jokingly. Victoria laughed and stood up, taking me with her.
"Come on. We have to go meet them." She said insistently. I knew she was just as excited as me for Edward coming back, but she was happier that we were finally adding another woman to the group.
"We don't have to…" I whispered in her ear conspiratorially.
"Yes, we do." She giggled, pulling me to the door.
EPOV
Just a few minutes later, I slowed to a stop at the intersection, searching for any signs of life in the suburb area. I would have to get Bella up soon, though. That wouldn't be fun.
It must have been one in the morning by the time I got there. I could see no driving cars, no pedestrians, no signs of life except the rare glittering window or drunken teenager party. The kind Bella, even as I shuddered to think it, should be going to. She shouldn't have to be involved with all this crazy magic stuff, she shouldn't have lost her brother for this cause.
I relaxed in my seat, letting Bella have a few extra minutes of sleep before going through Victoria's chatterbox ways.
Victoria had always been like a sister to me, helping me through the process of discovering and perfecting my magic as I grew up, like James had. She was, unfortunately, my first, awkward, completely wrong and disgusting in every way, kiss. It was just… eww. Not even mentionable. But James had dared me to do it (this was before James and Victoria started dating, or else he would have pummeled me into goo), and he got a good laugh out of it anyway.
Back to Vikki. She was a chatterbox. Loved to talk. And in that, she and James fit together perfectly. I sometimes wondered how I put up with them, my two best friends talking a lot and myself… being the 'silent' type, as Victoria called it. She learned this after setting up dates for me when we were 16 and hearing the unfortunate dates' retells of the night; me glaring out the window, not making any eye contact, and only answering 'yes and no' questions. Vikki was pissed.
In my reminiscing, I completely missed a silver-gray car pulling up across from me, in the entrance of the storage yard. With my sensitive sight, I could see three blinks (one red, one blue, and one green) coming from inside the car. I needed to send an acknowledgement signal, so I quickly grabbed Jasper's phone out of the center console and flipped it open for a millisecond. The driver of the car caught the gesture and slowly did a u-turn back into the storage yard. I followed the car to a large building, parking on the opposite side of it from the other car.
"Bella?" I gently shook her in the passenger seat. She groaned and rolled over, pressing her hair against the cold window, to which action she grudgingly opened her eyes and sat up and stretched.
"Where are we?" Bella asked, her voice laced with sleepiness.
"Phoenix." I replied. "We're meeting some of my friends right now, and you need to come. I don't want you out here alone. If you want, you can go to sleep again when we're where we need to be."
Bella groaned again but reached for the door handle. I was out of the car and by her in a second, though she was still too sleepy to notice. Shyly, I put my hands on her waist to keep her from falling and guided her into the building.
JPOV
I groaned, my hands flying to my forehead. Migraine paradise there right now. It sucked. It was like a million different shards of ice pounding their way into my skull—and they were winning. I couldn't even feel my head now, it was so numb, yet hurt so bloody much.
Breathing and groaning again, I stood up, swaying slightly before regaining my balance. Think about the worst hangover you've ever had, multiply that by a hundred, and add no food so it feels like you're going to puke your guts out at the slightest movement. Then, think about that on one cell of your body. And then think about how many cells are in a body…
Point being, it hurt like Hell.
I stumbled to one of the hospital beds (I was still in Edward and Bella's hospital room) and tried to lie down when I was just a few inches away.
I fell flat on my face. I ended up on my already queasy stomach, on the floor, sprawled out under the bed.
And then I began sinking into the floor.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but at least I gave you guys a late Christmas! I've been starting some courses at MIT, and the work, no matter how little it is in quantity, certainly takes a large amount of thought and time. I swear, I'll spend hours staring at my ceiling, trying to figure out a problem, and the thing that really sucks is that I can't think about anything else in that time period! Apparently, philosophy is more deep than I thought!