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Chapter Nine

Unwanted

EPOV

I had taught myself long ago to try to tune out my siblings so that it wasn't like I was eavesdropping on their conversations and I had paid great care in tuning out when Bella was with them. Her wrath for eavesdropping her conversations began before she had become immortal so I really didn't want to see how it would be once she had transformed. I always looked for danger in anything that was said. I had just taken a relaxing position on the sofa with a new book I had just gotten when Alice darted into the room. "Edward, Jasper, Bella," she exclaimed.

I went into her thoughts and pulled out the vision she was seeing. It was Bella and Jasper standing in the forest, crouching, ready for an attack. Then it was them staring in disbelief. I found Jasper's thoughts. He and Bella were on their way back to the house but I could hear their conversation. "There was another immortal in the woods," I explained. "They chased but were evaded. Neither of them recognized the smell."

As soon as I had looked into Alice's thoughts, I had gotten to my feet and sped outside of the house to find them. Alice was in tow but I wasn't going to slow down to wait for her. I needed to be by my wife's side. I was comfortable knowing that she was with Jasper, a soldier that would be hard for any other to beat, but I would not be happy into I could be by her side and know without a shadow of a doubt that she was safe.

I bounded harder than ever before to try and reach my wife. Many thoughts were running through my mind. Perhaps after all it was a good thing that our children had not come here. Renesmee still had human blood in her veins and I didn't care for her being around immortals outside of our family. No immortal had ever expressed thought in her being appetizing but I knew there was immortals out there that would do it out of pure curiosity rather than even thirst. And Masen, our son had never had to really be near a battle as his sister and I would like for it to remain that way for eternity. I came upon them just on the other side of the river. Alice arrived shortly after. She flew into Jasper's arms just as I had brought my arms tightly around Bella. "I saw you chase after her," Alice exclaimed. "My vision came just as it was happening. I wasn't watching. I didn't foresee any threat, but it was still late."

Alice normally saw things in enough time to get prepared but not today. She hadn't been paying attention but neither had I. We were comfortable in Forks and we had been the only immortals in this area for as long as any of us had known. Alice was shaking as a result of how upset she had become. Jasper sent out a wave of calm to help the situation. "There truly was no need for you to be watching, Alice. And you cant watch all the time or else you will give yourself a headache," Jasper tried. I should have told him that there was nothing he could say or do but he already knew that. Alice would not listen when she had missed something. "And you didn't miss the vision, Alice, you were just a little late. And that may be because the unwanted visitor either changed their course or we changed ours. Remember, Alice, it is subjective, dear."

Bella put her hand on Alice's back. "Its really okay," she reassured. "We chased the visitor off. We tried to catch up to the immortal but we were too late. Jasper says if it was a fight they were after, they wouldn't have run. That we scared them."

I looked to Bella and raised an eyebrow. She knew I didn't believe Jasper's take on the situation and I was almost certain that he had fed that story to my wife so that she wouldn't become worried. I looked to Jasper over the top of my sister's head with questioning eyes. Edward, Edward, I didn't know what else to say to her. She wanted to continue the chase but we know nothing of the person. The scent did disappear and I will think of the smell so that you can get a whiff as well. I could not fault my brother for protecting my wife. I would not fault him.

I relived the scene of Jasper and Bella and the unwanted visitor as Jasper called the immortal. I could smell the scent. I had been hoping that I would recognize the smell, that somewhere in the past I had crossed the immortal, that maybe it would be someone I knew and would not be of consequence. I however had not recognized the smell that had came to close for my comfort to my love. I shook my head at Jasper to let him know I didn't recognize it. Between he and I, if we couldn't recognize it as much as we had been around so many other of our kind, then it would be hard pressed that any of the others would. Carlisle, Jasper, and myself had been the only ones to have spent time alone and with other immortals, and even I had spent little time with others. Carlisle had spent most of his time alone other than us and when he was with the Volturi. Jasper had been among many immortals, however, due to the nature of his participation, not many of those immortals survived past the first year with Jasper leading the army and following Maria's demands.

"Edward," Bella addressed me. "Do you ever remember any other immortals here?"

I thought for a few moments, trying hard to remember if I had ever crossed another in the Olympic region. I shook my head once again, "I wished I could say yes and that I recognized the smell from Jasper's memory, but I don't." I stood for a moment longer looking at my wife. Something Alice had said clicked in my mind. "Alice, you called the immortal 'she'." Could you actually see the immortal and know it's a woman?"

Alice began to concentrate as she always did when trying to recall a vision or perhaps get a vision. "Absolutely," she finally answered. "The immortal is most definitely a woman. I couldn't see much other than dark hair. The hair hid the face, but I never got a direct look at her face. All I could see was Jasper and Bella going on the defensive and then the fleeing. They were not in danger."

I watched through her thoughts as Alice replayed all that she saw. "I see," I murmured. "I think its time to get back to the house. We are going to need a family meeting to discuss this. Carlisle should be home by the time we get there."

I signed as we all began to bound. I threw Bella onto my back. I had been surprised she allowed me to do that. Jasper being fast himself did the same thing with Alice. Our mates would not normally allow such to occur as they loved running. Bella and Alice had spent hours in the forest just running with one another. Being an immortal had its benefits of never tiring and no muscle pain. Running was like breathing, you did it without thinking. This one time Alice and Bella both knew if Jasper and I carried them, we could reach our family faster than having to keep the pace of the slowest. There was no way we would not run at the pace of the slowest as it would take away our strength and our appearance as a combined group. Jasper could be pretty fast and so I matched his stride and we bounded toward home.

When we arrived at the house, Esme and Carlisle had been sitting in the living room. "Where is Rose and Em?" I asked.

Carlisle looked up from the book he was reading. Edward, you are panicked. Slow down. Carlisle looked around at all of us. Jasper had just set Alice down. I could see in his face and heard in his thoughts that he knew there was something if Alice had allowed Jasper to carry her home. "They are in the garage, Rose is tuning the cars," he answered. "Shall I call them?"

"Yes, yes, call them. We need to discuss a few things."

Esme, Bella, Jasper, Alice, and I started toward the dining room. The only time this table had been properly used eating had been when Bella was pregnant with Renesmee and for the time we had stayed after she had given birth. The wolves had eventually allowed Esme to prepare food for them and had slowly began to take those meals at the table. But now the table was going back to the use that the Cullens were use to. Family meeting. We had many of those around this same table. We had barely seated when Carlisle came into the room flanked by Rosalie and Emmett. All three of them sent questioning glances to both myself and Jasper. Once everyone had taken their place around the table, I decided to speak. "I believe Jasper needs to fill you in more so than the rest of us. But let me start by sharing my part. Alice and I were sitting downstairs earlier when she had a vision of Jasper and Bella. When she gasped, I looked into her thoughts and saw what she saw. We bounded off immediately in case they needed assistance."

I turned to Jasper and nodded. "I guess I should take over from here," he said. "But Bella could tell you the same story." Jasper looked at Bella but she motioned her hand for him to continue the story. If she spoke, she would not hear his assessment of the situation and I knew my wife wanted to hear it. "Bella and I went hunting after we arrived from school today and we had just finished and was returning home. We were making our way home when Bella smelled the immortal. We assumed our crouches, ready for war if we need be. We saw the immortal jumping around in the trees above us and then took off toward the North. Bella tried to chase her and I joined in of course. But it got away. We didn't recognize the scent."

Carlisle and Esme looked at one another and looked back at all of us. "Did the immortal speak?" Carlisle asked. "Was any verbal communication exchanged? And Jasper, what kind of emotions did it put off?"

I looked to Jasper. I could tell he was uncomfortable with the line of questioning as he had tried to downplay what he felt in the forest while Bella and Alice were present. Although they both were indestructible, Jasper wanted to take care with them. "Well, to answer your first two questions, no. There wasn't time for that. Our instincts had taken over and we were ready to defend ourselves and our home. Forks is our home. And the immortal, who Alice has seen as a woman, was startled when she saw us attack mode. Then she became scared. Then she became angry…then envious. I would assume she thinks that Bella and I are mates as we were alone in the forest."

The envious comment would have made both Jasper and Bella blush if they had been human. I could tell by Jasper's thoughts that even stating that fact was uncomfortable for him.

Emmett of course rose to the occasion. "How about that, Jazz? Would that be the first case of incestuous immortals?" he laughed. Rose hit the back of her husband's head. "Ouch, wifey."

Rosalie spoke, "Of course she would think that. Did you smell any others?"

Bella and Jasper both shook their heads. "But," Jasper began. "I don't think she was a nomad." Jasper looked at Bella as her eyes tightened. Apparently he had already spoken to my wife about this and then he brought up the memory of their conversation. I could hear the entirety. "She seemed…familiar with her surroundings. She ran knowing she could get away from us…confuse us. Her scent went all around then was gone."

Carlisle brought his hands together in front of his face and lowering his face into them. He then looked up at the family. "I see," he said. "We definitely need to be on guard from now on. I will pay close attention as will all of you. When we hunt, we need to go in pairs if not in threes. We definitely need to be close together and stay accompanied. If there is one, there may be more. We have been gone from here for many years, perhaps, Bella you could call Seth and see if the Quileutes know anything."

Bella nodded in agreement. "Well, this is our home," Emmett started. "I'll fight for it. I haven't had a good battle in awhile." Carlisle shook his head, "No, son. We need to be friendly. Do not go after the creature intent to battle. That will do us no good and could bring great risk to us. We do not know how many there are. It could be one or twenty. We must be careful."

Emmett's face fell as Carlisle insisted on taking a different approach than what he would like to do. Emmett was always fired up and ready to battle. Some day he would learn is what we had said since Carlisle turned him. As our family meeting ended, everyone began to go there separate ways. Bella and I headed to our cottage.