A/N: as you will see in this chapter, Edward isn't everything he makes himself out to be. Also- Alice isn't able to see any more because Edward is still being highly indecisive. He keeps going back and forth struggling with himself. I also chose his little secret based on how long it takes Bella's eyes to change in breaking dawn part 2. Between Nessie's birth and Irina seeing them it was around three months. There is no info on how soon Edward's eyes turned red when he went off on his own for a bit to feed from humans so I took some liberties.

sarahplumb Thanks for the review. Wish you had signed in so I could answer you privately, but that's ok. And to you and AHealingRenaissance- Your wish, my command! ;)

Also just so you know, the only reason I gave the option for you to request this be updated immediately is because I felt last chapter was a cliffhanger and as I hate them myself as a reader, I felt bad leaving you with one, so this will probably be the only time I update back to back like this. I'll go back to once a week on Saturdays.

Chapter Thirteen

Jasper

So far the day has gone great. It's crowded, as everyone in Forks and La Push is here having taken the day off- plus there a large number of tourists-, but it's nothing we can't handle. Bella's gorged herself on all the food that's been brought and there hasn't been any sign of Edward. I know he's here, Carlisle texted me to let me know when they arrived and to remind me that we're expected on the beach in time for the fireworks. But otherwise they've stayed away, probably spending time catching up with Eleazar and the others.

We have, however, run into the pack. It's funny how they tend to hang close to each other no matter where they go. They have their alone time of course, but when they're out in crowds like this they stick pretty close. Leah surprises us all by hanging around Bella with Emily and the others. I introduce Sam to Peter, Charlotte and Garrett and have a moment of apprehension when Sam tells Peter and Charlotte they're more than likely the reason he phased.

I expected Peter to say something snide but instead he shows me just how mature he can be when he puts his mind to it and actually tells Sam he's sorry. Sam just tells him not to worry about it and they shake hands. We'll never truly be friends but at least they tolerate us more and more everyday. We soon part ways again, the smell of wet dog getting to us after a while so I'm sure our scent was beginning to bother them as well, and I take Bella to one of the game booths.

Every Fourth of July they set up a kind of carnival in La Push to go with the picnic the people of Forks set up and the fireworks both the Quileute and Forks FD's set up. I usually avoid these because as vampires our superior sight and reflexes puts us at an advantage but I can't help but see her eye the giant teddy bear with longing. Five bucks gets me five darts, but it only takes me three since I can see the marked circles behind each balloon perfectly.

When I win her that bear I can't help the pride I feel at the smile she bestows upon me as I hand it to her. She snuggles it close and takes my hand and we head off towards another activity. Before I know it the sun is setting and we have to make our way to meet up with the rest of our family. The time has finally come and the closer I get to Edward, the more I remove myself from the smiling, happy man I was moments ago to the cold, calculating soldier of my past. He will not touch her.

Peter

The closer we get to the spot Carlisle told Jasper to meet them, the more I see The Major. I can see the change immediately. He's constantly glancing around, his arm is around Bella protectively and he's pulled her as close to his body as he can get her without carrying her. Just before we get into hearing range of the others he stops and turns to us.

"Peter, at the flank. Garrett to one side. Char you and Alice take the other. Don't leave those positions, no matter what."

"Yes Sir." Not one of us will contest his commands. Not even Garrett. We're his soldiers, he commands and we follow. After his orders he turns back around and we continue to make our way to the others.

When we get there Carlisle introduces us to the Denali coven and I immediately see an issue. The one called Kate is eyeing Garrett in a way that's all too familiar to me and he's doing the same. Well shit. She's his mate! Right when we need his focus completely on the situation along comes the ultimate distraction. There's no way to stop it either. You can't stop the attraction and it's against the law to try and keep them separate. We may just have to bring her into the loop. The way she was sneering at Edward when we walked up tells me she's not too fond of him anyway.

Thankfully this Kate breaks away from the others and moves to Garrett so he doesn't break formation. Then The Major stiffens and my attention is brought back to the situation at hand. Edward is approaching. He's all smiles until he gets closer to Bella. Then his mouth starts turning down into a frown, that has to be the realization he can't hear her thoughts. Then he stops short and holds his breath. His eyes turn pitch black and Alice and The Major move slightly to put Bella between and slightly behind themselves.

She's still visible, but it's a clear indication that he'll have to get through them to her- not that he's noticed. He's too busy convulsively swallowing the overflow of venom flooding his mouth and trying to remain still until the moment passes. Carlisle, who had come forward to introduce Eleazar to Bella, finally notices Edward isn't behind him anymore and turns questioning eyes on him.

You can see the moment Edward mentally shakes himself and regains some of his composure. His eyes are still almost black though and Carlisle notices.

"I thought you hunted before joining us son? Did you not get enough? Are all the humans bothering you? Perhaps you should go off and get some more blood in you."

"Yes, perhaps I should Carlisle. It's a pleasure to meet you Bella, I'm sorry it's being cut short. If you'll excuse me." Well that couldn't have gone more perfect if we fucking planned it! Thank god for Carlisle. Even if he didn't know just what he was doing for us.

The Major doesn't relax for a moment though and he won't, not as long as the danger is around. He may have a few moments where he relaxes a bit, moments with his mate while they're alone. But as long as Edward is around, his guard will never truly be down. Even if he's making love to Bella he'll have one ear tuned into his surroundings. That's just the way he is. It's why he was such a good fighter.

Bella

Well that went better than we planned. I'm just thankful they were right about him not wanting to try and get through them. Now maybe we can relax a bit and enjoy the show. Carmen and Eleazar seem like sweet people and I'm sure I'll really enjoy getting to know them. Kate hasn't left Garrett's side since she first set eyes on him and I think he's found the mate he's been wishing for. I'm really happy for him.

Irina and Laurent are aloof but not unfriendly. It's Tanya that bothers me. There's something about her. While she seems nice on the outside, something about her makes me feel like that's just a facade. She left soon after Edward and I couldn't help but feel relieved. When the others weren't looking she sneered at me like I was something disgusting on the sole of her shoe. We aren't going to like each other.

"Don't worry about it Bella, whatever happened with Edward a moment ago. And with Tanya. I think she's in love with him and his weird reaction to you might have her thinking you're a threat. Why she would think that when you have Jazz is beyond me, but then I can't pretend to understand women all the time," he says with a chuckle.

"So you saw it too Em?"

"I'm not just a pretty face, or the family goof. No one notices me because they underestimate me. But yeah, I saw it. Edward doesn't know it, but I also know he's been fucking her for a while now. Oh! Sorry. That was crude."

"Don't worry about it Em, I have been around Peter you know." He laughs at that and I can't help but laugh with him. The whole situation has been tense up to now and laughing with Emmett feels good.

"What's going on here?" When Edward left the others were given a nod from Jasper that it was ok to relax slightly and so he left my side for just a second to talk to Alice. Probably to see if she saw anything yet.

"Nothing cowboy, just Em and I joking around. Everything ok?"

"Of course. I was just asking Alice something. Nothing you need to know right now." Meaning she hasn't seen a thing yet.

Suddenly there's a bullhorn going off announcing the fireworks are getting ready to be set off and to turn our attention to Little James Island. We all grab a seat in the sand, Jasper pulling me down beside him where he leans back on his hands as I lean into him and the others takes seats around us. Soon the beach is filled with people sitting on the sand ready to watch the show. As the sun goes down and the almost full moon begins to rise I realize that the sky has cleared up and the stars have begun to come out.

About fifteen minutes later the first boom echoes across the ocean and the sky begins to light up with blues and reds and purples. There's even an extremely cool moment when the streamers from one rocket come down in front of the moon. The stars mixed with the fireworks makes this night so magical and I lean further into Jazz as the finale commences to fill the sky.

He wraps his arms around me and lays his chin on my shoulder as the last light leaves the sky and all that's left is the moon and the stars. Everyone starts clapping but no one moves to stand, content to watch the night sky lit with its natural fireworks show. Jazz and I lay back on the sand and start pointing out constellations to one another, not wishing the night to end.

Eventually though, all things must and we get up and head back to the cars to head home. He runs me home on his back just as he did to bring me to the Cullens and when we get there he strips us down and we make love the rest of the night.

Alice

So far I haven't seen anything new and this concerns me. There's only two reasons for it. Either Edward hasn't decided anything yet, or he's not deciding anything at all and is just going to act unpredictably. I'm hoping it's the former and not the latter. Tanya may be a curveball I wasn't expecting as well. She took an instant dislike to Bella. Why, I have no idea. If they're involved I'm not aware of it. But it could complicate things.

If she takes his side it could mean two of them working together instead of just Edward trying to hurt Bella, which I haven't seen yet. This is going to be a tense time from now on. I am not looking forward to it at all.

Edward

I can't believe it! Of all the rotten luck. My singer is the mate of my brother and the descendent of my sire. What do I do? The longer I have to be around her the more I'll want her blood, I'm sure that's what will happen. But what excuse can I give to stay away from her that won't have Carlisle asking questions? I have two months before the start of my, who knows how many, senior year of high school. So I have all that time to try and avoid her. He's bound to become suspicious.

I have a good thing here and I don't want it ruined by some human who happens to have blood that calls to me! I won't! But if Em's experience with his singers has told me anything I won't be able to resist her. I was barely able to contain myself just moments ago, but with Jasper and his friends there I would never have managed to even touch her. They'd have had me ripped into pieces in seconds.

Maybe I should get away, go back to Denali or something. But Bella's blood. It makes my mouth water. It smells so sweet, like honey. I know it will go down my throat as smooth as honey too. Just the thought makes me want to throw caution to the wind and take her for my own. To hell with Jasper and Carlisle. To hell with the family. Bella is mine. Mine!

But how? How do I get past the most feared vampire in our world for my prize? How do I get her alone? It would take some thought; and as I begin thinking of strategies to get to Bella I realize what I'm doing and give myself a mental slap across the face. What am I doing? This isn't me. But then this always comes to me so naturally. Stalking my prey, taking their lives. This thought causes me to drift back in time to when I was rebelling against Carlisle and had fed from humans. Thay had come to me so easily, too.

I told Carlisle the reason I came back was because I hated killing but that was a lie. I hated being alone. I couldn't do the nomadic lifestyle. I am a social creature. So I came back to Carlisle and the family and have struggled to maintain the animal diet, without anyone the wiser. I do sneak off from time to time, about once or twice a month, to feed from humans. One human isn't going to turn my eyes red. It takes months for the change to happen and a constant diet of human blood to do it, just like with animal blood.

And I never understood that. Why are animal blood drinkers living with golden eyes but human blood drinkers have red? I mean it's all blood right? Perhaps it's the animal's diet? But if that were it then why do omnivores such as bears, cause gold eyes just the same as carnivores and plant eaters like mountain lions and deer? So maybe it's the chemical make up of animal blood versus human. I mean the blood is different in some way, mainly the percentage of cell types. So that's got to be it.

Anyway, I got off track. I've been living this double life to perfection and now it's even more imperative I do so. I may be doing things Carlisle wouldn't approve of, like being fuck buddies with Tanya as well as feeding from humans- and not always just criminals-, but I still love him. He still saved my life and I still owe him something for that. Plus there's the fact that I want to remain in the family. As I said, I'm a social creature at heart and if they learned the truth about me and how I feel about some of them I probably wouldn't be welcome anymore and most other covens wouldn't take me because of my mind reading and I'm certainly not joining the Volturi.

So I'm going to have to try and fight my urges for Bella's blood. But how? I can't up my human blood intake because that would eventually become known, but I can up my animal blood intake. Instead of feeding every week or so I'll feed everyday and then every other week I'll hit Seattle or somewhere for a human.

Yes. That should work. I'm better then Emmett after all, better than all of them really. I can do this. My willpower is stronger than his. I got this. After all. No one is better than I am at maintaining control. Plus this could be a test for me. Just to prove how much better I am than them all. Carlisle and his stupid 'all human life is valuable' bullshit. Esme acting like she's really our mother. He may never have fed from humans but she was a regular killing machine in the beginning. He had to fight her constantly to keep her from going on a killing spree.

Then Rose, murdering her fiancé and his friends for what they did to her. She didn't even feed from them. Wasteful. Em was a nightmare in the beginning, breaking houses all the time. I can't even stand to think of the number of times we had to move because of him and Jasper. Speaking of him, he's just a plain old monster. A murderer. I'm definitely better than him. I can't say anything about the new one because I haven't gotten to know her yet but her thoughts were full of shopping and shit and I think she might be a total airhead, so intellectually Carlisle is the only match for me in the family.

And what the fuck was with my inability to hear Bella's thoughts? That I did not like. Not one bit, but it's intriguing. Like a little puzzle to put together. With my decision to stay perhaps I can figure out what's keeping me from her mind. Then when I've managed to control myself and gain control of my desire for her blood I'll rub it in all their faces and laugh at how much better I am than them.

Just then I hear crashing and the the thoughts of Tanya hit me. She's jealous of Bella. What an idiot. I know she's in love with me but as if I'd lower myself to be with her. No, she's good for nothing more than a good fuck every once in a while. Speaking of which.

"Edward? Where are you?"

"Here Tanya." She comes out of the trees to my left and saunters her way towards me. I grab her hand; and before she can get a word out I crush her lips with mine. I need a good fuck to take the edge off my nerves from my encounter with Bella. She voices no objections when I rip her clothes from her body and take her hard and fast on the forest floor.

Alice

Well I didn't expect that! Granted I had no reason to know that Edward was still killing humans until now. Until his decisions tied into Bella and Jasper's future. I don't see past events after all. Now he's decided what he's going to do for now and I've seen how narcissistic he truly is. He truly thinks he's better than the others? Carlisle has never tasted human blood, hasn't even ever been tempted during the many times he's dealt with bleeding humans during his work and he's right in that all human lives have value, after all if we didn't consider that fact we would have revealed ourselves and killed them all long ago like the Romanians wanted to.

Rose was practically a newborn when she killed her fiancé and his friends for what they did to her and she didn't feed from them. She's never tasted human blood either. And they deserved to die for what they did to her. I would have killed them too. Sure Esme struggled with herself in the beginning, most vampires do. But she really only slipped a few times and not once after the first couple of years; and she's sweet and kind and has so much love for everyone. She just likes taking care of others.

Em only slipped over his own singers and if Edward thinks resisting Bella's blood is what makes him better than Em then he's delusional because if Bella wasn't Carlisle's family or Jasper's mate he'd have killed her by now. And sure he ruined a fair few houses. He was a newborn and he's huge. He struggled with his anger but now he's a big, sweet, goof and everyone loves him. Then there's me. He thinks I'm an airhead, well that suits me just fine. It'll mean he'll leave me alone and stay out of my head, just as I planned.

And Jasper. Brave, strong Jasper. He only fed when he had to. He would go weeks and weeks without feeding, up to the brink of going crazy with thirst and he'd still have the presence of mind to find a criminal, feed and hide his kill and stay out of trouble. Then when he found the Cullens he only slipped a few times and he's an empath so he's taking in the constant thirst that accompanies feeding from animals, not just from himself but the others as well and yet he's maintained his diet and hasn't slipped once since the first couple years.

So no, Edward is not better than us. He's deceptive. Carlisle may not like his choices but he would never turn Edward away because of them. He's underestimating his own sire and that is just wrong on so many levels. Plus he's narcissistic; and maybe just be plain old evil. We will soon find out.

I need to find Bella and Jasper. Tell them about this new vision but remind them that it can change at anytime. Edward is still dangerous, no matter what. And now there's the Tanya factor too. At least one good thing has happened so far, Garrett has found his mate.