quick recap, because i suck and haven't updated in 4 months:
during the baseball game, bella and the others find out from james that there is a nomad vampire army forming to attack the otherworld and steal last remaining danann stone. bella is the last fairy alive in the outside world. she has succeeded in finding the werewolves, the fairies long-lost allies, so now they must return to the otherworld and save it. also, fairies can produce magical fires that can kill vampires. as long as they have the danann stone, fairies are immortal and powerful, but their one weakness is iron.
stay right here, rocketeer
chapter thirteen
After I helped Bella pack her bags in one minute flat, after we convinced Charlie that this was dangerous and no, he cannot come with us, we flew/ran back to my house. I packed another duffle bag full of my clothes in about 2.5 milliseconds and was on the computer, willing it to load. I quickly opened the airlines website and booked the next flight to Dublin. Around this time, the others came back from the forest and rushed in.
Before Carlisle could open his mouth to iterate the question "Did you hear everything?" I had already answered with "There's a plane leaving in a little over an hour."
"Everyone pack a bag," Carlisle directed. "We'll run to the airport in Seattle, then fly to Dublin. We'll figure out what to do from there. Bella, can you fly to Seattle?"
"Yes." Bella, if anything, looked slightly offended.
"Can you fly there quickly?"
"Quickly enough, yes."
"I don't want her flying by herself," I said. It seemed largely unsafe.
"Well you can't carry her," Carlisle said. "It would slow you down. Driving would be slower yet."
"I'll be fine," Bella reassured. She kissed my cheek, probably forgetting that she was wearing her necklace. My cheek seared in pain and I was momentarily impaired.
"I called the Reservation," Alice said, bounding to us with the home phone. "They'll be here soon."
Around us, everything was happening in a whirl. Everyone ran in every direction, packing everything in sight into bags of deceiving proportions. Wolves came hurtling through the forest and crash-landed on the Cullen's terrace. Carlisle tried repeatedly to contact the Irish coven. In all the rush, I looked at Bella.
"You guys shouldn't go," she said. "This could be very dangerous."
"That is precisely why we need to go."
"But I'll have the werewolves. This is our battle to fight. I don't want you to get hurt."
"I'm a vampire."
"They're vampires too."
"Don't worry about us, Bella. Worry about yourself."
"I just…" A tear rolled down her eye, "I'm just flattered that you would all do this for me. I mean, I haven't known you for that long, I'm practically a stranger."
"But you're going to be staying for a long time," Alice jumped in. "And if we expect you in our future, then we need to do everything we can to keep you safe."
"But—"
"Bella, I am trained in combating vampires, as odd as that might sound," Jasper said. "You need me."
"Still, I can't—"
Emmett now came over. "You don't understand how boring life gets sometimes. There's going to be an epic vampire/werewolf/fairy showdown and you think I'm going to miss it?"
Bella laughed, but she didn't look convinced.
"We want to go," Rosalie said. She had her bag packed and over her shoulder. "Do you think any of us want to look into Edward's eyes for the next hundred years if he ever loses you? You're not exactly replaceable, Bella."
Everyone else had a bag as well. Outside, the wolves transformed back into humans and stepped through the door. Ready and eager, we all gathered around Bella.
She sighed. "Thank you. All of you."
Esme smiled. "We're all family. Families stick up for one another unconditionally."
Alice grinned. "To family." She put her hand in the middle of the circle, like we were all some junior high soccer team.
"To family," Emmett, Esme, and I said, putting out hands in as well.
With a shrug, Jacob put his hand in, followed shortly by Seth, Paul, Embry, and Quil. "To family."
Jasper added to the group. "To family." Rosalie reluctantly did the same, albeit with an exaggerated eye roll.
Sam and Carlisle, the last to join, stared at each other. Neither really wanted to commit. Carlisle still had his mind on the stone and Sam didn't trust him for that very reason. But slowly, both of them rested their hands in the growing pile. A truce, a compromise, an alliance—for now.
"To family."
Bella watched all of us, tears starting to fill her eyes. All she ever had was Renee and now that she's gone, Bella is stuck with her unintentionally absent father, never knowing the maternal side of her family back home. Maybe a family like this is all she ever needed.
"Aaaaaaand break!" Emmett roared, pushing all our hands upwards. "To Seattle!"
The werewolves cheered with Emmett while the rest of us laughed at their actions. Soon, everyone has dashed out the door, the vampires becoming blurs running through the forest, the werewolves howling and following close behind.
I picked up Bella's bag and hung it across my shoulder with my own.
"Which way is Seattle?" she asked, slightly embarssed.
I flipped all the light switches and the house returned to darkness. I pointed in the northeast direction. "Just follow me. Think you can keep up?" I asked.
She smiled sardonically. "I'll try."
And we took off with me sprinting through the trees and her flying straight overhead.
The plane was already boarding when we stepped into the front entrance of the airport. But we made it on with time to spare. When the check-in lady "couldn't find" our "booked tickets", we just "talked" to her manager, and she let us on without any trouble. There weren't enough seats in the economy class, so Bella, Alice, Jasper and I got "promoted" to first class.
The trip there was the strangest thing. The rest of first class was occupied by this group of Irishmen returning from a business trip in Seattle. They spoke to each other with such a thick accent, I couldn't decipher a single world. It got even stranger when one man was telling what I presumed to be a joke (a-man-walks-into-a-bar jokes would seem rather fitting for Irishmen, no?) and none of his colleagues said anything, as if anticipating the punchline. Then Bella, sitting beside me, randomly blurted out a foreign word and the entire jolly Irish crew burst out in deep-bellied laughter.
"Ya speak Gaelic?" the man telling the joke asked Bella. He spoke slower this time and I could make out his words.
"Yes," Bella answered. "My mom taught me."
And then Bella got wrapped in some conversation with the Irish businessmen about who-knows-what. When trying to understand their words proved pointless, I listened to the men's thoughts instead. That turned out to be just as confusing since their thoughts wandered from cats to bananas to Disneyland to the aurora borealis.
From behind me, Alice leaned over the back of my seat. "What are they talking about?"
"I have absolutely no idea." I turned to Jasper, "So what's the strategy planned?"
"There's so much we don't know. Where is this Otherworld? Are the fairies powerful? How powerful? What about the vampires? And these questions even Bella can't answer. So, not to sound pessimistic, but I think the only plan is to kill them before they kill you."
"The fairies do this weird fire thing that can kill vampires. If we just hold the vampires back, I'm sure it will be easy," I said.
"Yeah," Jasper nodded, "I mean, how many vampires could they possibly have recruited?"
I was listening to my iPod, staring out the window at the night below. I think we were over New York City. The whole plane quieted down. Most of the passengers were asleep. Alice and Jasper were mumbling behind me. I heard Bella shift in her seat and then felt her head lean on my shoulder. Her arm snaked its way to wrap around my waist. She smiled and pretended to be asleep. I reached over and brushed the hair out of her face when I realized she was touching me and I wasn't in pain. I looked down and sure enough, she had taken off the necklace. After weeks of begging her to trust me, I think she trusts me too much now.
"I could take this," I said, reaching into her pocket where her necklace was. "Right now."
"But you won't," she muttered, keeping her eyes closed.
"Jacob could be right. This could all be an elaborate plan to steal the Danann Stone right when you're least expecting it."
"But it's not."
"I could ditch you once we get to Dublin and leave you when you need us most."
She eyes fluttered open. "But you can't."
I sighed. She had a point there. I couldn't leave her if I tried.
"You excited about going home?" I asked.
"Home," she laughed dryly, "what is home?" Is it the place you're born? Is it the place you live? Is it the place your ancestors lie?
"I think it's the place where you feel absolutely and undoubtedly safe," I said.
She clung on to me tighter. "Then my home is you."
Carlisle had finally reached the Irish coven. He had a quick phone conversation with Liam and by the time we had gotten off the plane, Liam was already waiting for us outside, along with Siobhan and Maggie.
"Carlisle!" Liam greeted. His accent was pretty thick too, although understandable, fortunately.
"So this is her?" Siobhan asked, pointing at Bella. "This is the little fairy?"
The three of them stared at Bella with interest, eyeing the necklace she wore.
"We're here to protect her and all the other fairies," I reminded.
So there really is an Otherworld, Maggie thought. I had met Maggie only once when Carlisle, Esme, and I took a little vacation to tour Europe. It was many years ago, back when our coven was just the three of us. When we visited Liam and his mate Siobhan, Maggie was just a newborn that they had recently found roaming the streets. They took her in. It was actually me who discovered Maggie's gift of being a walking lie-detector; Liam and Siobhan thought she was naturally untrusting and Maggie thought everyone was like her.
"Come, come." Liam guided all of us to three cars parked nearby. After we loaded all our bags, we piled into the cars. Bella and I sat in Maggie's car with Jacob and Seth. Let's just say the smell was quite spectacular, what with dog odor and fairy stench confined in a small hybrid vehicle. Maggie subtly lowered a window.
"So where is this Otherworld?" Maggie asked as she drove hectically through the Dublin streets. The plane was 12 hours long and it was already midday.
"I don't exactly know," Bella said. "I'm hoping my fairy instincts will help me."
"And does it really work? Your stone necklace thing?"
Bella hesitated. I knew she didn't think she could trust Maggie, a vampire she had only just met.
"You better tell her the truth," I said, "Maggie has the gift of knowing when you're lying."
Maggie gave a small chuckle. Jacob and Seth both raised their eyebrows. Bella sighed. "Yes, the stone really does have the power to turn vampires back into humans. That would explain the fairies' dropping population numbers."
"Have you ever been to the Otherworld?" Maggie asked.
"No," Bella answered sadly.
By then, we had pulled up in front of a vast, old fashioned mansion on the outskirts of town. Needless to say, the Irish coven lived extravagantly. Liam and Siobhan's car had already arrived and everyone else was already inside. As Jacob, Seth, and I opened the trunk to retrieve the bags, I saw Maggie lead Bella aside.
"I used to be obsessed with fairies when I was a little girl," Maggie whispered in a soft voice. A gentle breeze blew by, contrasting Bella's dark hair with Maggie's locks of bright red hair.
"Really?" Bella asked, clearly warming up to the vampire after discovering this common ground.
"Yes, my mother used to tell me stories about the Otherworld and how humans drove the fairies and other magical creatures underground. I mean, I thought it was all make-believe and magic, but…"
Bella smiled and listened to Maggie tell memories of her mother. When she caught me staring, she winked and focused back on Maggie.
"I know we just met and you probably don't trust me," Maggie was saying as I approached, "but do you think I could come along when you visit the Otherworld? I mean, I'll fight with you guys and everything if I have to. I just really want to see it with my own eyes."
"Of course you can come," Bella nodded eagerly. "Hopefully we can find the entrance before the vampire mob gets there. I would very much like a tour of the Otherworld as well."
We dropped off all our baggage at the mansion and regrouped to talk plans. It was agreed that the sooner we locate the Otherworld, the better. We didn't want to gamble the little time we had. When Maggie told Liam and Siobhan that she wanted to come along as well, Liam and Siobhan agreed and decided to join us too. Now we were a party of sixteen, setting out to roam the hills of Ireland in hopes of finding some magical, invisible entrance that no one in the group actually knows the exact location is.
It was even more impossible than it sounds.
"This could take days," Rosalie complained. "And it's not like we can split up to look in groups because Bella is the only fairy here. And even she doesn't know what we're looking for."
"I love your optimism, Rose," I said.
We followed Bella through the hills. She flew above us in a random, zig zag pattern and I prayed she knew what she was doing. After we ventured about ten miles from the mansion, Bella stopped and descended to meet us.
"Do you see this?" she cried. Her pendant was making a whirring noise and the gem was slightly glowing red. None of us knew what it signified, but it had to be a good sign, right?
From then on, Bella experimented and flew in various directions, following wherever the whirring and glowing increased. This continued for many more miles and we all followed helplessly.
About an hour later, the whirring was getting intense and to the point of extreme annoyance. The Danann Stone was now a brilliant ruby hue. We were just walking when Sam stopped in his tracks, then Jacob, and then all the other werewolves. Their expressions showed them all in deep concentration. They were listening.
"What's going on?" Emmett whispered.
Bella now whipped down and pointed urgently at a hill in the distance. "I think I found it!"
The werewolves must have felt some instinctive pull to their original homeland, centuries ago, for they transformed into werewolves and ran towards the hill. We all followed, relieved that the agony of blindly walking was over.
The hill looked nothing out of the ordinary. Grass and flowers covered it and one rock was protruding from the side. It looked like a nice, sturdy, solid hill with no holes or entrance anywhere. It was, frankly, just a hill.
"You sure this is the right one?" Siobhan asked.
Bella and the wolves turned to look at us funny. "You mean you can't see it?"
"See what?" we vampires all asked in unison.
"The entrance," Bella said, pointing at a blank side of the hill, "it's right there."
The vampires stared at the grassy hill. I looked into the thoughts of them. Yep, they were all seeing what I was seeing: absolutely nothing.
"Here, maybe the silver bough will help." Bella waved her fingers and a pile of shiny, silver boughs materialized in her hand. She handed one out to each vampire. The second I laid my fingers on it, I watched in amazement as the side of the hill dissolved and a slightly blurry image of a cave entrance appeared.
Bella looked at the hill in excitement. "Let's go."
One by one, we stepped through the magical entrance into the Otherworld.