Disclaimer. All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. I only do this for fun. –B
Chapter 26
(Bella's POV)
I could feel it was too early again when I woke, and I knew I was getting the schedule of my days and nights slowly reversed. I looked next to me and noticed that Lilly must have gotten her 3-4 hours for the week and got up already. I lay in my bed and listened to the quiet voices of the three in the other room. That they were loud enough for me to hear at all was strange. I rolled till my feet touched the floor and then staggered to the living room.
The clock on the TV said it was just after two in the morning. Lilly and Jasper were sitting together on the sofa, and Alice was in the chair across from them sketching again. They didn't look up when I entered as Lilly and Jasper were too engrossed with each other and Alice in her sketches.
I crept to Alice's side to peek.
"Did you see something more?" I asked her quietly.
"Yes. Something's brought him back to the room with the VCR, but it's light now."
I watched as Alice drew a square room with dark beams across its low ceiling. The walls were paneled in wood, a little too dark, out of date. The floor had a dark carpet with a pattern in it. There was a large window against the south wall, and an opening through the west wall led to the living room. One side of that entrance was stone – a large tan stone fireplace that was open to both rooms. The focus of the room from this perspective, the TV and VCR, balanced on a too-small wooden stand, were in the southwest corner of the room. An aged sectional sofa curved around in front of the TV, a round coffee table in front of it.
"The phone goes there," I whispered pointing.
Three pairs of eternal eyes stared at me. I even managed to break through the force field that Lilly and Jasper had around each other, which was impressive from what I have observed so far.
"That's my mother's house."
Alice was already off the chair, phone in hand, dialing. I stared at the precise rendering of my mother's family room. I felt myself collapse at the opposite end of the couch from Lilly and Jasper, just staring at the sketch in my hands.
Uncharacteristically, Jasper slid closer to me as he moved Lilly's legs off of his lap. He lightly touched his hand to my shoulder, and the physical contact seemed to make his calming influence stronger. The panic stayed dull, unfocused. He's really been a big help the past few days. Lilly crawled across the couch and moved around us to sit on the arm of the sofa and put her arm around me and kissed my hair on the top of my head.
"It's going to be okay, Bella." Lilly murmured. "I promise,"
I looked up at her and I could feel my eyes brimming over with tears. "Thank you for being my best friend." I whispered.
"That's not something you have to thank me for." She said shaking her head. "You've always been there for me, even when you learned about what I was."
I gave her a watery smile and leaned back against the sofa. Alice's lips were trembling with the speed of her words, the low buzzing impossible to decipher. I couldn't concentrate.
"Bella," Alice said. I looked at her numbly.
"Bella, Edward is coming to get you. He and Emmett and Carlisle are going to take you somewhere, to hide you for a while."
"Edward is coming?" The words were like a life vest, holding my head above the flood.
"Yes, he's catching the first flight out of Seattle. We'll meet him at the airport, and you'll leave with him."
"But, my mother… he came here for my mother, Alice!" Despite Jasper, the hysteria bubbled up in my voice.
"Jasper and I will stay till she's safe." Lilly voted.
Jasper nodded his agreement, "I need to keep Lilly safe, so we can't be with the family for a while, so what better place than here where we can keep watch over your mother?"
I watched as Lilly gave him a grateful smile over my head.
"I can't win, you guys. You can't guard everyone I know forever. Don't you see what he's doing? He's not tracking me at all. He'll find someone, he'll hurt someone I love…I can't – "
"We'll watch him, Bella," Lilly continued to assure me.
"And what if you get hurt, Lilly? What if he gets you because you were watching my mother? Do you think that's okay with me? Do you think it's only my human family he can hurt me with?"
Alice looked meaningfully at Jasper. A deep, heavy fog of lethargy washed over me, and my eyes closed without my permission. My mind struggled against the fog, realizing what was happening. I forced my eyes open and stood up, stepping away from Jasper's hand.
"I don't want to go back to sleep," I snapped.
I walked to my room and shut the door, slammed it really, so I could be free to go to pieces privately. Lilly didn't follow me this time. For three and a half hours I stared at the wall, curled in a ball, rocking. My mind went around in circles, trying to come up with some way out of this nightmare. There was no escape, no reprieve. I could see only one possible end looming darkly in my future. The only question was how many other people would be hurt before I reached it.
The only solace, the only hope I had left, was knowing that I would see Edward soon. Maybe, if I could just see his face again, I would also be able to see the solution that eluded me now.
When the phone rang, I returned to the front room, a little ashamed of my behavior. I hoped I hadn't offended any of them, that they would know how grateful I was for the sacrifices they were making on my account.
Alice was talking as rapidly as ever, but what caught my attention was that, for the first time, Lilly and Jasper were not in the room. I looked at the clock – it was five-thirty in the morning.
"They're just boarding their place," Alice told me. "They'll land at nine-forty-five." Just a few more hours to keep breathing till he was here.
"Where's Lilly and Jasper?"
"They went to check out."
"They aren't staying here?"
"No, they're relocating closer to your mother's house."
My stomach twisted uneasily at her words.
But the phone rang again, distracting me. She looked surprised, but I was already walking forward, reaching hopefully for the phone.
"Hello?" Alice asked. "No, she's right here." She held the phone out to me. 'Your mother,' she mouthed.
"Hello?"
"Bella? Bella?" It was my mother's voice, in a familiar tone I had heard a thousand times in my childhood, anytime I'd gotten too close to the edge of the sidewalk, or strayed out of her sight in a crowded place. It was the sound of panic.
I sighed. I'd been expecting this, though I'd tried to make my message as unalarming as possible without lessening the urgency of it.
"Calm down, Mom," I said in my most soothing voice, walking slowly away from Alice.
I wasn't sure if I could lie as convincingly with her eyes on me. "Everything is fine, okay? Just give me a minute and I'll explain everything, I promise."
I paused; surprised that she hadn't interrupted me yet.
"Mom?"
"Be very careful not to say anything until I tell you to." The voice I heard now was as unfamiliar as it was unexpected. It was a man's tenor voice, a very pleasant, generic voice – the kind of voice that you heard in the background of luxury car commercials. He spoke very quickly.
"No, I don't need to hurt your mother, so please do exactly as I say, and she'll be fine." He paused for a minute while I listened in mute horror. "That's very good," he congratulated. "Now repeat after me, and do try to sound natural. Please say, 'No, Mom, stay where you are."
"No, Mom, stay where you are." My voice was barely more than a whisper.
"I can see this is going to be difficult." The voice was amused, still light and friendly. "Why don't you walk into another room now so your face doesn't ruin everything? There's no reason for your mother to suffer. As you're walking, please say, 'Mom, please listen to me.' Say it now."
"Mom, please listen to me," my voice pleaded. I walked very slowly to the bedroom, feeling Alice's worried stare on my back. I shut the door behind me, trying to think clearly through the terror that gripped my brain.
"There now, are you alone? Just answer yes or no."
"Yes."
"But they can still hear you, I'm sure."
"Yes."
"All right, then," the agreeable voice continued, "say, 'Mom, trust me.'"
"Mom, trust me."
"This worked out rather better than I expected. I was prepared to wait, but your mother arrived ahead of schedule. It's easier this way, isn't it? Less suspense, less anxiety for you. It's even easier for me, considering you and Lilly are in the same place."
I waited.
"Now, I want you to listen very carefully. I'm going to need you to take Lilly, and get away from your friends; do you think you can do that? Answer yes or no."
"No." How the hell was I supposed to get convince Lilly to do something like that? Not to mention, get away from Alice and Jasper. Jasper has had Lilly under lock and key since we've arrived. Even when we slept in here together, he was in the chair in the corner watching her.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think that the two of you could get away from them if your mother's life depended on it? Answer yes or no."
Somehow, there had to be a way. I remembered that we were going to the airport. I knew if I told her what was happening, that she would help me. Sky Harbor International Airport: crowded, confusingly laid out…
"Yes."
"That's better. I'm sure it won't be easy, but if I get the slightest hint that the two of you have company, well, that would be very bad for your mother," the friendly voice promised. "You must know enough about us by now to realize how quickly I would know if you guys tried to bring anyone along with you. And how little time I would need to deal with you mother if that was the case. Do you understand? Answer yes or no."
"Yes." My voice broke.
"Very good, Bella. Now this is what you have to do. I want you both to go to your mother's house. Next to the phone there will be a number. Call it, and I'll tell you where to go from there." I already knew where I would go, and where this would end. But I would follow his instructions exactly. "Can you do that? Answer yes or no."
"Yes."
"Before noon, please, Bella. I haven't got all day," he said politely.
"Where's Phil?" I asked tersely.
"Ah, be careful now, Bella. Wait until I ask you to speak, please."
I waited.
"It's important, now, that you don't make your friends suspicious when you go back to them. Tell them that your mother called, and that you talked her out of coming home for the time being. Now repeat after me, 'Thank you, Mom.' Say it now."
"Thank you, Mom." The tears were coming. I tried to fight them back.
"Say, 'I love you, Mom, I'll see you soon.' Say it now."
"I love you, Mom." My voice was thick. "I'll see you soon," I promised.
"Goodbye, Bella. I look forward to seeing you and my beautiful Lilly flower again." He hung up.
I held the phone to my ear. My joints were frozen with terror – I couldn't unbend my fingers to drop it.
I knew I had to think, but my head was filled with the sound of my mother's panic. Seconds ticked by while I fought for control. Slowly, slowly, my thoughts started to break past that brick wall of pain. To plan. For I had no choices now but one: convince Lilly to leave with me and go to the mirror room to die while she is subjected to who knows what by James. I had no guarantees, nothing to give to keep my mother alive. I could only hope that James would be satisfied with winning the game, that beating Edward and Jasper would be enough, along with obtaining Lilly. Despair gripped me; there was no way to bargain, nothing I could offer or withhold that could influence him. If I tell Lilly to wait for my mother to be freed, he would just kill her and I before going after Lilly until he got her…just like me.
But maybe… Lilly's gift! Could that help us? Could she use her gift to get us out of this? At the very least, surely she could use her gift at some point on him. All she would have to do would be to look at him. I know she had been working to try to train herself so that she didn't have to look at the object or person, along with teleportation, but the best she could do was small objects, so I knew it would be too much to ask to teleport my mother out of there. Then afterwards, she could compel my mother to forget about the whole encounter. But unfortunately that is too much to ask. We will have to rely on her persuasion gift. I had no choice, but I had to try. We had to try.
I pushed the terror back as well as I could. My decision was made. It did no good to waste time agonizing over the outcome. I had to think clearly, because Alice, Jasper and Lilly were waiting for me, and talking to Lilly, and then evading the other two was absolutely essential and absolutely impossible.
I was suddenly grateful that Jasper was gone. If he had been here to feel my anguish in the last five minutes, how could I have kept them from being suspicious until I was ready for Lilly to find out? Jasper was going to hate me for this. I choked back the dread, the anxiety and tried to stifle it. I couldn't afford it now. I didn't know when he would return.
I concentrated on our escape.
(Lilly's POV)
We walked back in to the hotel room after checking out, only to find Alice in a vision as she was bent over the desk, gripping the edge with two hands. Her eyes were blank and dazed with a look of utter horror on her face. Bella was at her side and from the worried expressions on both Jasper and Bella's faces, I knew something was wrong.
"Alice!" Jasper's voice whipped, and we flitted behind her, both of us with one hand curling over hers, loosening them from their grip on the table. Across the room, the door swing shut with a low click.
"What is it?" I demanded.
She turned her face towards Jazz as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. I bit back a growl, knowing that now was not the time for my mating instincts to go awry. "Bella, Lilly" she said.
"We're right here," Bella replied.
Alice's head twisted around, her eyes locking on us as we stood side by side with worried expressions gracing our features. Her eyes and expression were still strangely blank. "I saw her dead and you being..." She trailed off as she answered our question at vampire speed, as not to worry Bella if there was a way to change it.
Jasper snarled and I watched as his eyes changed from the familiar golden hue to the pitch black of the Major.
"What did you see?" Bella asked again, but strangely, there was no question in her flat, uncaring voice. I didn't have time to dwell on it, because here she stood, completely oblivious to what was happening and the danger that she was in while in the presence of the Major.
The Major looked at her sharply. She kept her expression vacant and waited. His eyes were confused as they flickered swiftly between my face, Bella's and Alice's, feeling the mixture of emotions from the three of us.
I felt a tranquil atmosphere settle around us. I welcomed it, using it to keep my emotions disciplined, under control. I couldn't let the Major feel my fear and have it set him off and have Bella or Alice harmed because of it.
The Major grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his chest as he wrapped me in to his embrace as he kept his eyes on Alice and Bella.
"Alice?" Bella questioned again as she kept her eyes on Jasper and I, looking at us in confusion and wonder.
"Nothing, really," she answered finally, her voice remarkably calm and convincing. "Just the same room as before."
Bella turned her gaze to Alice and looked at her suspiciously but didn't call her out on the lie, or press for more details, which I found really out of character for her. She knew something and that's why she's acting so strange. I can feel it in my gut.
Alice finally looked at Bella, her expression smooth and withdrawn. "Did you want breakfast?" She asked changing the subject.
"No, I'll eat at the airport." She was very calm, too. She went to the bathroom to shower and Alice excused herself to the bedroom to wait for Bella, as to give the Major and me some time to ourselves. Honestly, that was probably the safest route for either of them with the Major on the loose.
As soon as the bedroom door clicked shut, I was dragged to the sofa and pulled down on to the Major's lap as I straddled him with one leg on each side of his waist causing my tight fitted dress to ride up.
"She's up to something." The Major drawled as he raked his hands up and down my exposed thighs.
"I know," I agreed, "she is acting way too out of character for my liking. The Bella I know wouldn't have accepted Alice's vague description of her last vision."
"Hmm…" he nodded absentmindedly as his hands glided higher this time around and pushed my tight fitted dress up over my hips, causing my lust to spike.
"Hey now, Major," I purred giving him a sexy smirk, "what do you think you're doing?"
He leaned forward and pressed his face into my neck, his lips just barely grazing his mating mark. "I think you know exactly what I'm doing," He responded and I could feel him grin against his mark, causing a euphoric tingle to sweep through my body. He growled as he felt my emotions spike and hooked his fingers under my panties and ripped them off with a quick tug.
I ran my fingers down his chest to the button of his jeans, undoing it with the flick of my wrist. I reached my hand into his jeans and found him going commando, causing me to groan as I grabbed his erect member. A growl resounded throughout the room as I began to stroke him and he met my strokes with even thrusts of his own. I felt his fingers dip into my lower lips as he continued to kiss and nip his mark on my neck. He moaned at the feel of my wetness and plunged two fingers into my core bringing about a moan of my own.
He continued to thrust his fingers in to me as I stroked his dick, occasionally running my thumb over the head and spreading the frequent drops of pre-cum. He would let out a lustful growl every time I did this, loving the vibrations it would sent through my body against his mark.
Finally, he removed his fingers and gripped my hips with both hands and lifted me up and slammed me down on to his dick, causing groans to emit from both of our lips as we reveled in the completeness of our bodies. We kept our onyx eyes locked together until I began to roll and grind my hips as he met me thrust for thrust and neared our climaxes in a steady pace. I could feel myself getting closer and closer to my release as we kissed, nipped and licked at each other in random places.
Finally, my walls began to quiver as I began my climax, causing my fangs to elongate before I sunk them directly in to my mating mark on his neck. He roared as he released inside me before sinking his own fangs in to his mating mark, bringing a stronger wave of euphoric and blissful pleasure to sweep through my entire body.
We came down from our rapturous highs, removing our mouths from each other's necks and our fangs retracted back in to our gums.
"I love you," I breathed as I collapsed on to his chest and wrapped my arms under his arms and up on to his shoulders.
"As I love you," The Major drawled before he retreated back in to the cage inside of Jasper's subconscious.
We stayed put, enjoying the after-glows of our climaxes and I could hear Bella as she left the bathroom and began to move about her room.
"Alice? What was that with Jasper out there?" She asked hesitantly.
"That wasn't Jasper, but his inner vampire that just made an appearance."
"Inner vampire?" Bella questioned.
"To understand, you would need to hear Jasper's story, and that is his to tell you, but during dangerous situations, Jasper's inner vampire, known as 'the Major' makes an appearance in order to protect his mate. It's almost like he is two different people. The difference is that the Major is very dangerous and the most feared vampire to have ever walked the earth. Only Lilly has any control over the Major." Alice explained.
"Does every vampire have an inner vampire?"
"No," Alice denied, "the only vampires that I have ever known to have one are Jasper and Lilly. Lilly's is named Lilith as Jasper's is the Major."
"Oh," Bella mused before she began to speak again, "Alice?"
"Yes?" She was wary.
"How does it work? The things that you see?" Bella's voice sounded bored, but curious and I knew that there was more to the question than what she made it seem. "Edward said it wasn't definite…that things change?"
I stood and dislocated myself from Jasper and straightened out my dress as he fixed himself up as well while we continued to listen to their conversation.
"Yes, things change…" Alice murmured, "some things are more certain than others…like the weather. People are harder. I only see the course they're on while they're on it. Once they change their minds – make a new decision, no matter how small – the whole future shifts."
"So you couldn't see James in Phoenix until he decided to come here?" She asked thoughtfully.
"Yes," she agreed, wary again.
Oh, Bella was definitely up to something. The only question was what.
A/N: There, I gave you guys another Lemon! I hope you liked the chapter! So, what do you think Bella is going to do to get Lilly to go with her to meet James? What do you think will happen when they get to the Ballet studio? Review and let me know what you think should happen!
If you have any questions of comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note!
Check out my other stories!
'Attempting to Covet'
'Dhampir'
'Far Fetched Realities'
'Mirror Image'
'Other Worldly Beauty'
'Perplexing Revelations'
'Pretexting'
'The Heart's Desire' NEW!
'The Major'
'Twilight ReVAMPed'
If you enjoyed this story so far, check out some of my other stories on my FanFiction page! Also, I am still accepting Twilight stories that involve Jasper/any female leads or Bella/selected male leads if anyone is looking for a Beta Reader. I will make exceptions on the characters depending on the plot. PM me for details!
- Bella'Xo
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