Not as good as it use to be, but it's necessary for the story. You just have to endure my none-beta-chapter.

Also, i would like to know if there's any English-speaking person out there who'd like to be my beta.

Send me a message if you're interested.

Oh, and some advertisement, since i suck at summaries.

If you're searching for a AH, 2nd generation Cullen-story about a bum-magnet for a girl, read my story Heartbeat.

I love it, if i got to be so bold, and i would like to know what you all think.

Enjoy chapter 8 of Zenith.

Chapter 8

C minor

"Mom." Renesmee whispered after letting me go. "Why won't you like my brother?"

If vampires could go in shock, I most definitely was in one now.

This was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. This couldn't be happening.

No, I just had to calm down. Renesmee wasn't Alice, she wasn't a psychic. She wouldn't be able to predict the future, nor would she be able to have visions. The only reason why she'd have that dream was because she was longing for a brother. Like every child longs for a sibling. Renesmee was the youngest of the Cullens after all; she might be feeling a little lonely, even with Jacob taking care of her.

But I had never longed for a sibling. Well, yes, an older brother, but never seriously. I had always been fine with the world just being Renée and myself.

But Renesmee wasn't me.

As far as I knew, she could definitely want a little brother. I wanted her to have one.

And then it dawned on me. She must have overheard Edward and I before. After all, she had superhearing like the rest of us, she could as well as I hear everything through the house. She must have heard my outburst earlier. That must have started her imagination, and her mind had continued fantasising after she'd fallen asleep.

I felt bad destroying those hopes, but I had to.

"I would love your brother, Renesmee." I said, caressing her hair. "As much as I love you. But there is no way for us to have another child, my dear, you know that." Rosalie left the room at that point. I didn't blame her. "I'm sorry, but you'll never have a brother."

She blinked, but kept staring at me.

"But why did I hear dad say something about that before?" She asked. She was everything but sleepy now. But I was at least relieved that she had overheard us, so I could blame the dream on something.

I shot a glance at Edward. He didn't say a word, but did look a bit embarrassed; after all it had been his assumption.

"Dad was just teasing me. You know him, dear old dad." I nudged him. He turned to glare at me, but I pecked his lips. The look disappeared, and was replaced with a goofy grin.

"Yes, I know him." Renesmee giggled. "So I won't have any brother, right?" It sounded to me like she was double-checking, to be sure so there wouldn't be a surprise in the future.

She was my daughter after all.

"Of course not, princess." Edward kissed her forehead. "If there would be, you'd be the first to know." She smiled smugly.

"Good." She was silent for a while, but then looked at me with her best puppy-eyes.

"What, Renesmee?" I asked, my eyes narrow.

"May I sleep in your bed tonight? Jacob's snoring." Edward chuckled.

"You don't even have to ask, my love. Come, I'll carry you upstairs." He got up from the sofa, cradling her with one arm, and reaching out for my hand with the other.

I smiled gently, taking it.

Renesmee snuggled closer to Edward's chest as we walked up the stairs and into our bedroom.

He laid her down in the bed, tucking the comforter tightly around her. When we both expected her to turn around to go to sleep, she didn't, just kept staring at us with those big, brown, puppy eyes.

"Yes?" I asked, leaning over her bed where I'd just kissed her goodnight.

"May you lay with me?" She whispered, blushing. I chuckled, and lay down beside her.

"Of course, my dear."

Without a sound Edward walked around the bed, and wrapped his arms around us both. "Go back to sleep, princess." He murmured gently, pulling us closer to his chest. "You can breathe, stop being such a drama queen. You spend too much time with your aunts." He chuckled then while Renesmee giggled.

I rolled my eyes, and Renesmee's hand snaked up to my cheek.

I shook my head firmly. "No, my love, you need to sleep. Sleep." She ignored me and pressed her palm to my face.

Very peaceful and content thoughts filled my head, and if I didn't know better I'd be thinking I was about to drift to sleep. But through the experience, I could easily recognise Renesmee's thoughts amongst my own.

When her hand became limp against my skin, and started falling down my face, I turned my eyes from her sleeping face to my husband's

He had his slightly violet eyelids closed over his brilliant eyes, the content smile that had been on Renesmee's lips now on his.

They were both so beautiful, my husband and daughter, and I didn't want to move an inch in terror that I might change the picture in front of me.

Silent and still moments like this I didn't care what he thought of heaven. This was it, it could never get any better, what ever God or whoever it was sitting up there looking down on us in his ant-farm had cooked up for his paradise.

But it wasn't silent for very long.

"We better get down there." He'd only opened one eye to look at me over Renesmee's shoulder. "The only reason why Alice's isn't already up here dragging us down is that she doesn't want to wake Nessie."

"Edward."

"Sorry." He smiled apolitically.

"I guess we have to get down then." He nodded firmly and let me go so I could get up.

Without disturbing our daughter's sleep, we both left the bed and walked to the door.

"What does she want us for, anyway?" I asked, not really understanding what Alice wanted that couldn't wait a couple of hours. From the look on Edward's face, I could tell it wasn't bad either, so that left me with no clues.

"Oh." He said, holding the door open for me. "She just want some models for her new designs."

I groaned. "Why are you coming with then?" He surprised me by pulling me into a tight hug.

"Some of them aren't that much fabric, I would rather not miss it."

I smacked his arm softly. But whatever I could think of that Alice might have made, I wouldn't mind him seeing me in it. But I knew Alice, so there was no way out of this until she felt she was finished. And being hyperactive and with all that free time on her hands I was sure she was going overboard.

This was going to be a long night.

"Bella, you should get back up there." Alice mumbled, half a pincushion between her lips. Still she managed to pronounce every word perfectly. "Nessie's going to wake up in two minutes and forty seconds and will be very upset if you're not there when she opens her pretty eyes." She dropped her hands, taking the zipper down with them.

I quickly slipped out of the dress, and pulled on another that was lying around so I could get back to my daughter.

Edward had slipped out of the fitting room around three in the morning. I didn't blame him though, I would happily rather walk around campus naked then to be forced into one more wedding dress, bathing suit or cocktail dress.

When I told him I was sorry he had to put up with it, he just looked at me like I was crazy, and not only on the rink of being.

He said that he couldn't ever get enough of me in any of those dresses, and that he surely didn't mind. When I wasn't convince by his words, he kissed me until I gave up and Alice tugged my dress to get me into another.

But, despite what he'd said, he disappeared after a couple of hours, and I was left alone with the self-pronounced fashion goddess Alice Cullen.

Rose had been smarter than me, apparently. She and Emmett had slipped away on that road trip after all. Alice would surely not even force Rose to do the things she did to me anyway. It might be because Rose was slightly more firm and dangerous than I, and maybe because Alice had seen me as a human and hadn't really let that side go yet.

One of these days I would get back on her for all those dress-up moments.

While I slowly slipped in beside my daughter, I admitted that Alice was a talented designer after all.

All the clothes she'd made were fabulous.

Maybe I should marry Edward again, just so I can wear one of them properly. I smiled.

"Oh, please do."

"Edward!" I hissed, and turned around startled.

"Will you marry me again, love?" He grinned, blinking innocently.

"Not in a hundred years." I continued, and turned my back at him.

"Never say never my love, a hundred years is a short time." I didn't even mind answering.

Frankly, I could walk down the aisle towards him again any day; I just didn't want him to find out. I'll wait until Renesmee marries, I shuddered, Jacob, I shuddered again, before I remarry Edward.

"Mommy?" I hadn't noticed Renesmee's hand on my neck, so I winced when I heard her voice in my head.

"Yes, dear?" I answered out loud. I heard Edward breath over my shoulder. His hand came forward and brushed over Renesmee's cheek.

"What day is it today?" She asked sleepily even in her head.

"Thursday." Edward and I replied in unison.

"Am I supposed to do something today?" I shook my head.

"No, but we can do something the three of us, if you want to?"

"Yes." She nodded. "I would like that." She shifted slightly, yawned and sat up. "Is Jake awake yet?"

"No, he's not, princess." Edward said. "Get up, get ready, and your mother and I will take you out for the day." She smiled widely, and ran out the door.

I found that we had far too few days like these, when we could just spend time with our daughter, being together as a family without being interrupted by werewolves and vampires. Well, no more then Edward and I of course.

I got up from the bed, fixing the dress that I'd put on so rapidly. I then turned to my lover, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Hey." I smiled.

"Good morning." He smiled the crooked smile and bent down to kiss me.

I met his lips, sighing under his feather light touch. This wouldn't go any further than the closed mouth pecks, apparently.

He chuckled, detecting my disappointment in my sigh.

"You're making me doubt on the gender here." I grumbled against his neck.

"I want you too, Bella. But it was you who offered a family day to our daughter, and not I, so you just have to go through with it." I looked up at him, doing my best to imitate Renesmee's puppy eyes.

"Not even a quickie?"

"Not even a quickie." He answered, kissing my neck. "But we can cut class later if you want, private lesson." That sounded tempting enough. I would be able to make it to tonight, I think.

"Sounds good, I'll take you up on that."

"I'm counting on it."

We both listened to Renesmee downstairs while Edward still held me. Alice was as eager as ever in dressing her up in something she saw appropriate for the day.

"Where are we going to take her, love?" Edward mumbled, so she wouldn't hear downstairs. Where do you think? Any ideas? He shook his head.

"No, I think it will be fine to just take a walk trough the forest. Remember the sun, though." You're right. Maybe we should keep this all inside.

"You mean; it's not like she's never outside with Jacob." Exactly. "And you want us to do something special today?" Yes, so, inside but outside, right?

"That pretty much sums it up." He chuckled against the top of my head. I placed a kiss over his heart. Let's just take her to the concert hall.

"No, we can't do that." Why not? I pouted, knowing them both I knew they'd love it. "How will we explain the rumours that dr Cullen's daughter-in-law has a ten-year-old child with his son, when they're both 20?" Point taken. So nothing in the open, then? "We're doing a wonderful job narrowing this down, don't you think?" I didn't mind answering. Shouldn't we just ask Renesmee what she'd like to do? "That would probably be the easiest, yes."

"Renesmee, would you mind coming upstairs?" I called out loud. In seconds she appeared in the door. She wore a pretty blue dress and Alice had braided her hair.

"Yes mom?"

"What would you like to do today?" She turned to the window. She was clearly taking the weather in the calculation, she knew perfectly how to live with us creatures of the night.

"Well, it's sunny." She said matter-of-factly. "But I'd like to go out either way."

"Where do you want to go?" Edward asked and picked her up from the floor. Poor child, with a dad like that she'll be carried around forever. I mean, how many people carries their ten-year-old-child.

"Outside, in the forest." I frowned.

"Aren't you there all the time with Jake?"
"Nah." She shrugged. "We're not only in the forest, as soon I'm bored he'll take me somewhere else." Edward and I exchanged a look. Imprinting werewolves, that's all I say.

"To the forest then." I smiled and ran out through the door.

I heard Alice call "Where's the fire?" behind me, but I ignored her. I could only hear the footsteps of Edward, which meant he was still carrying Renesmee.

Hopefully she wouldn't get fragile bones from not using them often enough. But that was as likely as that I would get fragile bones. Fragile didn't exist in our world anymore.

The air was so much easier to breath out among the trees. Edward caught up with me easily, and we ran together for a couple of minutes before we came to a stop and he put Renesmee down.

We walked, Renesmee in the middle, slowly through the forest.

The sun broke through the branches over our heads, and reached down to the exposed skin. Prisms and rainbows danced over the bark.

I felt at home in the woods here, even though they weren't nearly as green as in Forks.

"Dad." Renesmee had frozen in her tracks.

"Yes?"

"Do you smell that?" I recognised the faint, very faint smell of something that made my mouth water, but that made my face grimace in disgust.

Shocked and scared I turned to my usual comforter, Edward. His expression reflected mine.

He was staring in horror at Renesmee, probably expecting her to run off any moment to find the source.

But our well-behaved daughter was still, just kept staring through the trees.

"Yes, I do."

"It's a human, isn't it?" Edward swallowed.

"Yes, it is." She looked up at him, and then at me. I hadn't moved a muscle.

"But I can't hear anything? Can you?" Neither of us could. That only meant…

"The person is dead." Edward mumbled.

"Shouldn't we go and make sure?" She whispered, turning towards the scent again. Before either of us could stop her, she was of. All we had to do was follow her.

When she stopped, she stopped fairly close to an old bar near a road.

I could here the wet thuds from the peoples hearts in there, as well as some breathing, walking and drinking.

The bar had guest any time of the day.

Renesmee was standing on the edge of a hole, a sandpit dug by nature. She stared down, still as a marble statue.

I feared what was going to look up on us when I stepped closer to the edge, but I had no other choice then to see it for myself.

Slowly, with Edward by my side, I looked down.

In the bottom, covered in mud, sand and blood lay a man. Obviously dead. Obviously drained of blood.

His eyes were staring in the distance, straight into the wall of the pit, showing of the dark spots teeth had made on his neck.

It was grotesque, watching the body laying limp a few yards bellow me. And I didn't feel any attraction to it. All the blood was gone, there was nothing left but muscles, fat and bones of the person.

And a pretty big amount of fat too.

"Renesmee. Let's go." I mumbled, before grabbing my daughters hand and pulling her away.

Who could have done this? Had Alice said anything about nomads passing by? He shook his head. Then who? Is there a threat? Should we act?

He shrugged, nodded towards Renesmee and shook his head.

Not while she heard.

I nodded in response.

The idea of another vampire hunting so close to our house, so close to us and Renesmee with her ever-beating heart, made my head spin fast with anxiety.

I'm pretty sure you all know who's the culprit.

So, who do you think?

Review.

xoxo