Chapter Fourteen

Nocturnal Unveiling

Bella engulfed the etheric form of the golden eyed beauty, overcome with relief that she was no longer alone. Alice welcomed the embrace, still unsure of what to make of this experience but let herself become absorbed by the feeling of happiness that washed over her as they made contact. She felt the girl's emotions as a form of energy and the momentum of this force was so palpable it could be felt throughout her entire being. The sensation of being touched while in this sensitive dreamscape environment felt even stronger than her memory of the previous experience.

"Alice…it is you isn't it?" Bella murmured against a delicate ear. Her beautiful companion looked more like the one she knew in physical reality. It was only the strangeness of this experience that gave any room for doubt. Alice's appearance had altered slightly from earlier visitations, but there was no mistaking her perfectly sculpted face, and eyes that shone with her distinctive shade of golden amber. Apparently everything was more fluid here, appearances can be shifted and altered to a degree.

"Mmhmm…" Alice shivered at the sensation of Bella's lips and her voice felt like a light vibration entering her and trickling throughout her etheric body. She let out a moan when lips trailed kisses along her neck and marveled how all sensitive she was to the light contact. As their energies mingled together sensations now felt ten times more powerful.

Coming together in this unusual way also prompted a strange reaction with their libido. The sensitive atmosphere of this dreamscape was a paradigm of psychic and emotional energy. The power of thought held no bounds in this dimension. A single wayward thought here could lead into something that was unintended in the beginning. With their naturally strong attraction for one another it took almost no effort for the spark of sexual desire to inflame into an overwhelming passion, the urge to consummate too powerful for either to abstain.

The sounds of Alice's reaction to her kiss were as arousing for Bella here as it was in corporeal form, stirring feelings deep within her soul. Her thoughts became more sensual in nature igniting a flurry of sexual energy. She held Alice tighter against her as the intensity of her emotions threatened to consume her.

"Is this real?" Bella wondered aloud. It was a question as much to herself as it was to Alice.

Alice couldn't give her any solid answers. She never experienced anything like this before with anyone else.

"As real as anything else I imagine" she thought. She wasn't aware of speaking it aloud, but Bella heard her voice and it sounded like beautiful music to her ears. She pressed her lips against Alice's and poured all her feelings into it. It was a kiss of adoration and intense desire. Alice returned the kiss with as much passion, their emotions intermingling and growing in intensity. The kiss was more than a melding of lips, it was an expression of a powerful connection they both shared.

Their kisses became more heated and a flood of sexual energy flowed back and forth between them. Alice felt herself being enveloped by the sexual energy and thought they were about to consummate this mutual desire when she felt a sudden tenseness in Bella. The feeling of anxiety coming from her now began bleeding into her own emotions. Confused, she pulled back to look at Bella who seemed strangely unsettled by something.

Jealousy is a powerful emotion. It has the power to make one lose all sense of rational thinking and turn the most passive being into something completely alien even to one's self. Reasoned thinking is replaced by something more visceral and primitive. What begins as an unpleasant feeling can unexpectedly leap into reckless action, destroying any chance of attaining the object of one's affections.

Until recently Edward was relatively untainted by such an ugly emotion. He couldn't recall ever having experiencing it before, certainly not to this degree. And never when it centered around a particular girl. This strange emotion was arisen the moment he first heard Alice's thoughts during biology class. Gradually building momentum the closer she got to Bella until it became a powerful force erupting like Vesuvius when he pried into Alice's perceptions during her dreamscape rendezvous with Bella.

Without consciously thinking of his actions he jumped from his second story window down to the ground outside and started running. The sound of Bella's voice calling for Alice and the dream like images of their passionate union burned inside his mind. It was fueling the flames of his possessiveness towards the human girl as he sped through the forest. Jealousy was now his master and he was its enslaved beast as he plummeted forward, swiftly finding his destination before he realized where he was heading. Edward stopped just outside the house that had grown familiar to him during all those nights entering in the dead of night without invitation. Before he gave himself time to consider his actions he effortlessly leaped onto one of the extending branches of a tree nearest the bedroom window and slipped inside.

The sight of Bella sleeping peacefully in her bed was both reassuring and compelling for him. He had missed being able to watch her as she lay in bed oblivious to the outside world. The only sounds in the room were of her slow and steady breaths. The vampire stood at the foot of the bed and inhaled deeply, her scent drifting through his nostrils filling him with the heady fragrance of her sweet smelling blood. As if possessed by the enchanting sight of the sleeping human he drew closer than he ever dared before, not content to watch from the corner of the room. His eyes darkening with each step feeling increasingly consumed by his need to have Bella for himself.

Edward was now standing by the side of her bed and looked piteously down at her. "You shall be mine Bella" he whispered, his voice low enough not to awaken any sleeping human. Yet something subconsciously made Bella's brow furrow slightly and her head instinctively tilted away from him in her sleep.

He continued staring as if entranced but when he heard Bella moan in her sleep and the barely audible sound of Alice's name escape from her lips his face contorted into a fierce scowl. A frustrated growl reverberated deep within his chest. His body tensed as if setting itself up to pounce on the unsuspecting girl when suddenly her body gave a jerk and she turned towards him with eyes wide open and gasped in surprise. Her eyes locked onto his and he was momentarily too stunned to move. The frozen moment lasted only for a few seconds, but within that short instant of time he had to decide whether to stop the scream he knew was coming or to flee from the room. His speed and strength would undoubtedly be enough to silence her and he could easily rip into her neck before she could take another breath. There was nothing to stop him from taking the girl now. The monster had taken hold of the vampire and was urging him to consume every ounce of her blood and drain her dry. It would all be over in a matter of moments. But when he saw the look of pure shock and horror on her face, a nauseous feeling began forming in his stomach, burning like acid inside of him. This wave of nausea struck him like a repelling force, and all he could do was to turn away and dash out of her window as her scream began to pierce the air like a siren.

Bella was immersing herself with all the wonderful sensations that came from feeling so connected to Alice in the dreamscape when she suddenly felt a strange feeling pass through her. It was a slight tingling sensation, like the hairs on the back of your neck rising when you sense you are being watched. When Alice felt her sudden distress she asked, "Bella, what is it?"

Bella's couldn't answer since she didn't know the source of what was suddenly making her feel ill at ease. The sense of something dangerous lurking nearby grew with each passing moment. Before she could form an answer she felt herself being pulled back from Alice and from the place where she always felt safest, and felt the weight of physicality seep back into her consciousness. That disquieting feeling of something out of place hit her immediately, her inner alarm quickly pulling her out of sleep. When she opened her eyes and saw the figure standing next to her staring down at her she knew this was no dream. The sense of danger was too overwhelming to not be real. There was just enough light streaming from her window to make out the face of her intruder. The shock of finding Edward standing there was enough to give her a heart attack, but it was the frightening scowl on his face that filled her with dread. A cold chill ran through her entire body and she instinctively jerked back in terror. When she fully recognized the entity lurking over her as Edward her vision of him became blurry and indistinct. She felt a faint swoosh of air where he had been standing as if he suddenly flew from the room. The curtains framing her window rustled slightly from the breeze as her involuntary scream filled the silence. Less than a minute later her door burst opened and she almost cried in relief when she saw Charlie standing at her doorway.

"Bella! I heard you yelling, what is it?" he asked in alarm. He was jostled out of his sleep with hair mussed and a bewildered look in his eyes.

Her eyes darted to the window and her voice was shaky as she tried to speak. "Th-there was someone in here…then he just disappeared. I-I think…he ran out the window…"

Charlie moved briskly to the window and peered outside. Considering the time it took for him jolt up from the couch and run upstairs to her room he wasn't surprised at now seeing nothing, but he was no less concerned.

"Stay here, I'm going to take a look outside."

"No! Don't leave me dad!" Bella cried out in distress. Charlie put his policeman's instinct aside as he rushed to Bella's side and took her in his arms to comfort her.

"It's okay Bella, I'm here" he spoke soothingly as he held her. Bella was still trembling from shock and she held onto him tightly, as if afraid to be left alone in the room again.

Moments later when her nerves seemed to have calmed somewhat he said, "I just need to go check the rest of the house and the outside perimeter and make sure whoever it was isn't still hanging around. I promise I won't be long. It'll just take a few minutes okay?"

She shook her head and her hold tightened even more. "No…I'm pretty sure they're gone."

"I think you're right, but we need to make sure. Now, just wait here while I check really quickly okay?"

Bella reluctantly relinquished her hold as he got up and quickly left the room to find his Smith & Wesson pistol. He made a quick check through the house and yard outside. He didn't want to take any chances that there was more than one person involved with the break in and his police senses were on full alert. While he was outside he began to ponder how it was possible for someone to go in and out of Bella's window without at least a ladder of some kind. The tree that stood by her window didn't have branches low enough for anyone to latch onto by themselves. He confirmed that all the ground level doors and windows were locked and became increasingly baffled by this intrusion. He wasted no time in returning to Bella's bedroom after not finding anything out of place.

Bella was still sitting upright against the backboard of her bed in a self-protective posture with her arms wrapped around her knees. She seemed less frightened but still in shock, and Charlie sat down gently next to her.

"Well whoever it was made a quick escape, so I think we're safe."

Bella nodded solemnly, she didn't expect Charlie to find anything. Her gaze was unfocused as she looked down at her lap.

"Can you tell me what he looked like?"

Bella hesitated at this. She knew who was in her room, there was no mistaking that it was Edward Cullen. The same boy who sat next to her in biology every morning at school. Though he often gave her the creeps she never imagined finding him in her room in the middle of the night while she slept. It made her shudder when she remembered the pained expression on his deathly pale face. During the few minutes when Charlie made his inspection of the house, she had time to consider how to answer this question he would no doubt ask her. His presence was hard enough to explain, the way he disappeared was just impossible. She was sure she didn't imagine it, but still there was that sliver of doubt that creeps in when one sees the impossible with their own eyes. There was no way a human could move that fast. But how could she tell this to Charlie?

"I-I'm not sure. Maybe it was a nightmare..." The last part sounded more like a question than a statement.

Charlie looked at her with a concerned expression, with a hint of doubt in his eyes. "You seemed too scared for it to be just a nightmare…"

Bella brushed the hair fallen across her face with a slightly shaking hand. "Well it happened so quickly…I mean I just woke up and thought I saw something, then it disappeared the next second so…it had to have been a nightmare…right?"

Charlie wasn't sure how to respond. It was starting to sound more like just a bad dream, and he couldn't explain how someone could have come and gone so quickly. He had made a point to check the grounds under her window and saw no signs of an intrusion. Though he knew it wasn't in the best circumstances to find any clues so he would be sure to check again in the light of day. Until then he would consider the possibility that it may just have been a nightmare. A really bad one that made his daughter scream out in terror. It was a sound he never wanted to hear again.

"I don't know honey…but if you want we can go to the kitchen and have some tea or something and we can talk about it if you want?"

Knowing that neither of them was likely to get to sleep again anytime soon, Bella agreed and eventually they made their way downstairs. They sat and drank herbal tea at the kitchen table, hoping it would help calm their nerves. Bella seemed to resist any more attempts to talk about what she might have seen or what might have been a dream, and Charlie didn't want to add any more stress by pushing too hard when she still looked so shaken up. It unnerved him and he really wanted to believe that it was just a really bad nightmare, though his instincts told him it wasn't something as simple as that. He thought about what he could do to make the house even more secure from any possible intrusions. No sense in taking any chances, he mused. Although not much more was said, they both felt safer just being in each other's company until the darkness of night lifted and gave way to the twilight of dawn.

Alice jerked herself back into her own body almost as soon as Bella disappeared from her arms. Her immediate thought was something or rather someone had scared Bella enough that she instinctively pulled out of the dreamscape. As soon as she envisioned going to see if Edward was in his room she saw that she would find it empty. This filled her with dread and an all-encompassing anger that she had let her guard down and he had obscenely taken advantage of it. She didn't need to rely on her visions to know that he did something incredibly intrusive and stupid.

"I'm going to kill him!" she burst out as she leapt from her bed. This immediately alerted the household full of vampires who never sleep.

Inquiries immediately came from various rooms in the house. She rapidly answered with minimum words in quick vampire speed as she raced out of the house. It was enough for all of them to get the picture that something bad had happened. They began to worry that whatever happened was not only bad, but potentially ruinous for all of them, and that Edward would be the cause of it.

Both Rosalie and Emmett ran after Alice. She was too quick and far enough ahead of them that they wouldn't be able to catch her, but they had to be there in case they needed to prevent her from killing Edward. The blonde vampire wouldn't blame her from making the attempt and a part of her wondered if she wouldn't rather help Alice in the task if any harm had come to Bella, knowing how much she meant to Alice. In any case they couldn't risk Alice getting hurt if a fight did break out. They also needed to prevent a scene that would expose them all as vampires to a town full of sleeping humans.

Their running pace decelerated from vampire speed to something closer to human when they found Alice standing where the woods dwindled near the main residential area of Forks. When they reached her they flanked her at both sides, all three were far enough to be hidden in the darkness but were just across from the house where Bella lived. They were still close enough to detect any disturbances coming from inside. Alice fixed her sights keenly at the house but made no movement.

After a minute of standing in silence Emmett couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"Alice what happened?"

"He's gone now." The usually light and airy voice of the elfish vampire sounded cold and steely.

"Edward? What did he do?"

The petite vampire kept her eyes on the Swan residence and shook her head in frustration, anger still showing on her face. "Just a flash of him running, no clear direction in mind…"

"Alice!" Rosalie kept her voice quiet enough for only the three of them to hear, but still sounded exasperated. "Tell us what he did! Is Bella okay?"

"She's scared but physically unharmed." Though her vision during her mad dash to Bella's house provided her with assurance that she would find her safe and unharmed, she still needed the reassurance of being close enough to confirm it with her other senses. She was able to make out the voices from inside and recognized a few words spoken by Bella.

"He went inside Bella's room again. This time she saw him before he ran out."

"Oh crap", Emmett muttered a few other expletives as he scratched the back of his head.

Rosalie studied the house with a puzzled expression. Other than every light inside the house seemingly turned on in the middle of the night nothing seemed to indicate anything out of the ordinary. Charlie's police car sat motionless in their driveway. "Then why hasn't her father sounded the alarm? Shouldn't the place be crawling with police by now?"

"He's sitting inside with her. I don't think she told him who it was, or exactly what she saw."

"Why not?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe she's confused. He probably didn't just walk out the door like an ordinary human would."

"That damned idiot!" Rosalie spat out. Now she wanted to wring Edward's head off his scrawny neck. "If she tells her father, the Chief of Police, who she saw…"

Alice turned her head sharply towards the blonde. "She wants to talk to me before she does anything like that. I don't think we need to worry about that right now."

Rosalie looked at her dubiously. She worried that Alice's feelings for the girl made it too difficult for her to be objective about what could adversely affect them all, her affection for the human possibly giving her a false sense of security. There was also the question of how Edward had gotten past Alice's radar in the first place, but she would reserve those questions for later when they returned home. For the moment the blonde vampire would give Alice the benefit of the doubt. Alice was the one with the visions, and she knew the girl better than any of them.

"I hope you're right Alice."