53
Edward wanted to take Bella home, he couldn't wait to be alone with her in their tiny cottage, however Carlisle insisted on driving them back to the main house.
{I know that Bella seems to be under control at the moment, and she has shown no sign of anything worrying, but I think we would all feel better if you stayed at the main house for a few days, if anything does go wrong we will all be on hand to help out. The cottage is more than a minute away and you know a lot can happen in a minute.}
"What?" Bella looked from father to son, the annoyed look still on her face. Edward explained as reasonably as he could, considering he didn't agree. "Why are you all so sure I'm going to go postal?" Bella asked, tears in her voice.
"Bella, honey," Esme reached over from the front passenger seat to take her hand and pat it sympathetically, "we all slip, well, except Carlisle and Rose. I remember that poor mail man who had the misfortune to come to the wrong address just after Edward left for the first time. You have not yet felt the overpowering thirst that newborn vampires usually do, but I would hate for you to suddenly kill someone just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when your thirst finally does grip you."
"Who is to say it ever will?" Bella asked, her face set in the muleish cast that she had used when Edward tried to persuade her to let him buy her a car early on in their marriage. "And I don't mean to be disrespectful Esme, but how do any of you expect to stop me?"
"She does have a point." Edward told his parent's. "So far we haven't found a single way to get through Bella's shield."
"I still feel…"
"I want to go home!" Bella interrupted Carlisle. "I want to be in my own place, not surrounded by people watching me. I want my own clothes and my own bed!"
"Do you feel tired?" Carlisle asked. Bella lowered her head and if she had still been human she would undoubtedly have blushed. Carlisle was on the wrong track, Esme and Edward both knew it. He was stuck on Bella being more human-like than any of them. Edward put his arm around her and gave her a wicked grin.
"I don't think sleep is what Bella is thinking of." He said.
"Oh… OH!" Carlisle laughed at himself. "You can still use Edward's old room you know." He told them, knowing that Eleazar and Carmen would not object to being displaced in the circumstances.
"I want to go home." Bella repeated. Carlisle looked into the rear-view mirror, Edward met his gaze and nodded. As the turning to the main house came into view his father pulled onto the road side and both parents got out of the car. Edward and Bella moved into the front and he grinned at her again as he put it into gear and sped north.
They crashed through the front door, lips locked together. Edward couldn't help being turned on by the sound of his wife growling. This time she picked him up and jumped into their bedroom, he was shocked to hear the door slam as they fell onto the bed. He paused momentarily to check that he could not hear any thoughts. How the door closed he had no idea until he looked down at his wife.
"Well, we don't want anyone to see the open door as an invitation to walk in!" she grinned. "I want some privacy." Her hands quickly shredded his shirt and then his jeans, but when he went to return the favour she stopped him. "I only have one more pair of jeans and they need washing." He remembered the blood soaked clothing he and Rose had removed after the attack and he grabbed her and kissed her powerfully as he sent a silent prayer up in thanks for her successful transformation. While he was slightly distracted Bella shimmied out of her clothes almost as quickly as he could have torn them from her body.
"We have to get you some more clothes." He grunted as her hands travelled all over his body. No longer did her touch feel like it was burning him, but he had to admit, he didn't miss that sensation at all. Not when her touch was so strong and firm. There was no need to hold back his strength any more. He pulled her to him roughly, and was delighted to feel her grip on him just as strong, her hands went to his hair and then one travelled lower until she was pressing him against her, his erection caught between their bodies was throbbing.
Her curves were solid, but not totally unyielding. He could squeeze her as much as he wished without fear of hurting her. Her scent, which had always made his throat burn, was now richer, spicier and still just as appealing, the rather chemical smell of strawberries that he had thought was just her shampoo was now rich with fruit, the chemical taint totally gone. He could not get enough of the scent and breathed deeply, taking her in and growing more excited as he recognised the old but new scent of her arousal.
Her hands moved down until he felt her grab onto his erection, a moan of sheer pleasure filled the small house, he wasn't totally sure which one of them it was making the sound.
"I want you." She pulled him totally on top of her and guided him into her. She was soaked with arousal, and her firm muscles clenched him as he pushed inside. "Is this…" she paused and looked solidly at his chest, "Does it feel bad?" she asked.
He forced her head up to meet his gaze, she was worried that her change meant he would no longer enjoy them being together? "It's not the same," he admitted, but he rushed to assure her, "It's better now."
"Better? How?" she asked.
"I can do this." He pushed forcefully into her depths, his eyes rolling back in his head in sheer bliss. The heat was gone but the rings of muscles inside her gripped him even tighter. Electricity sped over their skin, almost feeling like her shield, but this time instead of pushing him away it drew him closer, and closer until they could not have been separated by so much as a molecule of air.
"God that feels good." She groaned, he pushed inside deeper, his hips pumping faster than humanly possible, he felt the build up of his orgasm and lifted up so he could lower his hand to that special spot on her that made her groan and come apart. She threw her head back, and growled in pleasure, he silently thanked god that she had as he could hold back no longer and came himself. Just as his body was starting to calm from the electric storm of their joint orgasms, he felt her teeth at his neck. She bit down and he did not even try and stop himself this time as he bit her in exactly the same place he had to turn her. Electric flowed through them both as the fading orgasms came once more to a stunning crescendo. He actually shook with the force of the experience, he could feel her beneath him, trembling.
"What was that?" her red eyes stared at him in shock.
"I'm not sure," he panted, for some reason he felt unable to catch his breath.
"You did feel it?" she smoothed a hand through his hair to the back of his head and scratched her fingernails at the back of his neck. He shuddered, the power of their bond travelling from her fingertips straight down his spine to where they were still joined below. He gasped, as his erection swelled inside her again. It was like that time that he had come over and over, but this time it felt even more powerful. His body reacted without any input from himself as he pumped in and out, venom flooding from him into her in a continual stream.
"Please." His eyes opened and he saw the blackness of hers, as he felt her respond to the same stimulus as himself. Her nails raked his back, her legs gripped him around his waist as he once more came to the brink. Even before he could add any extra stimulation to her clit he felt the rings of muscles tighten and draw him deeper into heaven.
He collapsed on top of her and once again experienced a momentary blackout, if he was human he would have said he was totally exhausted. But that was impossible, wasn't it? Whatever it was he felt enervated and totally unable to move from where he lay on top of his wife.
"Is this OK?" he mumbled into the pillow his face was pressed against.
"Yeah." She laughed lightly, he groaned as he felt the lower muscles tighten with the laughter. "You don't need to ask remember, vampire now." He couldn't do much more than nod, he just did not have the energy. "Edward?" she sounded unsure, he raised his head and looked at her, "Do you think…"
"EDDIE!" a pounding on the cottage door almost shook the house. Edward started in shock, he realised he had not even noticed his brother approaching the house. In fact, he could not hear him even now. The thought was enough to distract him from what she was asking him and he rolled off her and put his arm over his eyes, trying to concentrate and reach into Emmett's mind.
"I can't hear him." He frowned.
"What?" Bella had rolled over when he got off her and her head was now against his shoulder, in the same position she used to sleep in when she was human.
"Emmett, I can't hear him." He told her.
"How can you not hear that?" she asked, nodding slightly to the door. The pounding was getting stronger.
"I mean I can't hear his thoughts." He laughed but then stopped as he pushed with his mind. There was nothing, not even a background hum, "I can hear him knocking." She smiled at him and suddenly the worried thoughts of his brother and sister flooded his mind.
He jumped out of bed and went to the closet to get a fresh pair of jeans. Bella too dressed as quickly as possible and they both jumped over the railings. Bella's shield dropped and allowed the people outside to enter the cottage.
"What's up?" Emmett and Rose only took a couple of steps inside and then stopped.
"Bella?"
"Yes?" she answered, obviously puzzled by the shock on their faces.
"Have you both been here all the time?" Rose asked.
"We came straight here after Mom and Dad got out of the car, yes." Edward was still trying to sort through the muddled mess in their heads. All he had so far understood properly was that Bella was in danger, but now they could see her they were not so sure.
"Two of the wolves, Embry and Collin, have come across a campsite that had been attacked by a vampire. As they both know all our scents, they assumed that it was Bella who had been there." Rose looked disgusted as Emmett told them the tale.
"I said it wasn't her!" she protested, slapping her husband's arm.
"I haven't left the cottage." Bella insisted.
"I can see that!" Emmett wiggled his eyebrows and Bella lowered her gaze, Edward was sure she would have blushed if she was capable.
"Stop embarrassing her." Rose slapped him again, this time on the back of the head. She took her phone out of her pocket and called Carlisle. "Bella and Edward are at the cottage. I told you it wasn't her!" she reported.
"I'll get hold of Tanya and she can pass the news on through Jacob. The trail leads towards Forks. We are all heading out to help hunt down whoever it is." Carlisle's voice came through the atmosphere clearly.
Edward looked at his mate, she frowned and nodded. "We will be there soon." He told his sire.
"There's no need, we have enough people." Rose told him, "Why don't the two of you go back to whatever you were doing." Emmett grinned at them both.
"We don't mind if we do. Let us know how it turns out." Bella's shield pushed the pair out through the still open door.
They were interrupted the next morning, after seemingly countless hours of making love, by Carlisle knocking on the door. Once again Edward hadn't heard him approach, but as soon as the knock sounded thoughts flooded his mind.
{Edward, I'm sorry son but this is really important.} He pulled on his jeans and a shirt and jumped down to the door and tried the handle. Bella's shield was evidently still at full strength as he could not even move the door a fraction of an inch.
"Bella?" he looked up and she was stood in the bedroom by the railings, a sexy grin on her face that made him groan and nothing but his shirt on her body.
"I remember someone saying that Rose and Emmett took almost 10 years to come out of the bedroom for anything else other than to hunt," she told him, his body reacted to the thought and he was sorely tempted to tell his father to leave.
"There's been a problem in Forks." Carlisle's voice came through the door. "We have another nomad on the loose." The door suddenly flew open and seconds later Bella appeared at his side, dressed in the same clothes as the day before.
"What happened?" she asked.
Carlisle ran his hands through his hair as he looked at them both, "I'm sorry for sending Rose and Emmett over yesterday, after your restraint with the camper we should have known, but Embry and Collin, on patrol came across a campsite, there were three bodies in it, drained." Edward grimaced at the visualisation that Carlisle gave him of the site. "It was obvious that whoever it was liked to 'play' with their food."
"What do you mean?" Bella asked.
Edward pulled her into his arms, "He means the humans were obviously tortured before they died." There was no use hiding the nature of nomads from her now. Her face, unable to pale as it had when she was human, still showed her horror at the thought.
"The wolves tracked the scent of the nomad, but when it moved into the town they called us, it wasn't worth the risk of them being seen, and they can't track in human form so we took over." Carlisle started to silently tell Edward what they had found but he stopped him.
"She will need to know, Carlisle." His father nodded. He took Bella's hand and she trembled as she looked into his face deeply.
"Who died?" she asked in a whisper.
"Karen and Bert Newton." He told her. "They were evidently closing the store sometime around 10 PM last night, they had stayed late to do a stock check and were unlucky enough to be leaving it just as the nomad got into town. We have managed to hide the bodies of the campers, they will just have to be put down as Missing Persons, however one of Charlie's deputies saw the Newton car running with both doors open in the car park before we could get to the scene and he saw the state of their bodies." It wasn't a pretty picture. Edward was glad that Bella did not have his gift, even though she was now a vampire, he saw no reason for her to see such horrors as nomads brought with them.
"Poor Mike!" Bella said, looking just as horrified as Edward expected. "Did you manage to track the nomad?" she asked, her hand squeezing Edward's so hard that he winced.
"That's the strange part." Carlisle said, frowning. "We managed to follow him, or her, to the center of town and then… nothing. No trace at all. Sam and I hoped that you," he looked at his son, "would be willing to walk through town and read the people, it was rather late at night, but there were still people around, there is a chance that someone saw something that could give us a lead, especially if they saw someone unusual in the south end of town as, as far as we can tell, the nomad stayed in the north before the disappearance."
"Didn't Alice see anything?" Edward asked.
"Not until it was too late. The first vision she got was of Charlie receiving a call about the Newtons, seconds before it happened. I'm sorry, but we can't think of any other way to track… him." It was reasonable to assume that the nomad was male. Strangely the vampire population was exceptionally uneven in the gender split, about 70% of their species was male, which made the Cullens and Denali even more special.
"Why are so many nomads coming into the area now?" Edward asked. "It's obvious from the Quileutes that they haven't had vampires around for years, otherwise the older generation would have changed."
"I don't know, son. Maybe it's something to do with James and Victoria? You said yourself that it was well known in the nomad community, if you can call it that, that someone was taking out vampires. Maybe they all decided to move north, where they can hide better in plain sight? Or maybe they think that we will protect them if they are close by when the hunter arrives?"
"It doesn't matter why they are here, just that they are. We have to make sure the people of Forks are safe. We will both go with you." Bella said. Edward nodded his head. He was sure that if anyone had seen something it would be at the front of their mind, the news of the deaths had now spread through the town, according to Carlisle's thoughts.
"Alice thought that was what you would say." He opened his hand, a small white box lay in his palm. "Contact lenses. They won't last long, the venom in your eyes will dissolve them in a few hours, but it's certain that you will meet people who know you in town." Bella looked at the small plastic lenses and nodded her head.
"Will you help me put them in?" she asked Edward. "I've no idea how to." He smiled, and lifted one from the box on his finger end. Bella widened her eyes and he slipped the film over the red iris. She blinked and he looked closely. The colour was nothing like as rich and deep as her natural colour, but it was probably close enough to fool the humans she would meet. He slipped the second lens into her eye, she blinked again.
"How do they feel?" he asked.
"Strange, I can see every flaw in the plastic, actually it's rather annoying." She shrugged. "Well, there's no help for it, I can't appear in town with red eyes, the difference in my appearance since the change will draw enough attention without looking like a total freak." Edward scowled at the description. She smiled slightly and put a soothing hand on his face. "But I'm your freak and you love me, I know." He grinned at her, nodded his head and kissed the palm of her hand.
"Ok, let's go." Carlisle was in his car, the engine running in a second. Bella and Edward joined him.
"I know you probably think this isn't necessary, but remember not to move too fast when we are in town, if you feel thirsty, just say and some of us will go with you to hunt while Edward stays and searches people's thoughts." Carlisle said as he pulled out onto the highway.
"I don't feel thirsty, or no more than I have all along." She said with a touch of annoyance in her voice.
"I know Bella," Carlisle said placatingly, "but though it is rare, there is always the remote possibility that one of the people in town is your singer. I'm hoping with the control you have shown so far that if anyone happens to be so unlucky that you will allow us to stop you and get you away before anyone is hurt."
"Oh, I never thought of that." Bella said, abashed. She looked down at her hands, allowing her hair to cover the sides of her face, just as she had when she was human. Edward pushed her hair back behind her ears so he could see her face.
"Don't worry, it won't happen." He told her, she gave him a sad smile. He knew what she was thinking. "After all that wouldn't be your bad luck, it would be theirs."
"Yeah, like Emily." He frowned at her. She still blamed herself, no matter what anyone else said.
The weather was ideal for their mission, just as they got to the town a slight drizzle started. There was a large gathering of people in the parking lot of Newton's Outfitters, guns of all shapes and sizes very much visible in the crowd as if they were gathering for an old time posse. Part of the lot was taped off, the car still stood where it had been found, only the bodies removed. Edward sat in Carlisle's car across the street, scanning the crowd the best he could while Charlie, in the car park, spoke to the crowd.
"We know this is a terrible incident, if anyone has ANY information, could you please see the deputies now. We want to sort this out as soon as possible!" Charlie held up his hands as several people started shouting at him at once. "Please! If you know anything, if you saw ANYTHING, or ANYONE you don't know, as I said, see either Mark or Steve!" he gestured to the two other police officers who were stood by their cars on one side. "If you don't know anything specific, please don't waste their time yet. As soon as Doc Warner gets through with the autopsy we will have some more information, the best advice I can give you folks at the moment is to stay in groups or in your homes with the doors locked." He looked over at their car, {I don't know what the hell we are going to do when the autopsy is released, I saw the state of the bodies, they were a mess. There's just no way we are going to be able to write this off as a wild animal attack, not when it was obvious that they were in their car when it happened, any animal big enough to cause that much damage wouldn't have been able to fit into it, or would have damaged the car more.} He rubbed his hands wearily over his face.
"Dad looks exhausted." Bella said. "He has had a lot to deal with lately." Edward took her hand and squeezed it gently. She sighed, "Has anyone got any information?" she asked.
"There's a couple of guys that think they saw two strangers, they stuck in their minds because something about the way they were dressed drew their attention, from their thoughts I would say they are nomads, not many humans walk about town without shoes."
"Two of them? We only followed the scent of one of them." Carlisle protested. The front passenger door opened and Seth got in.
"Sam sent me to update you. Collin just found two sets of tracks leading from the Hole-in-the-Wall inland. He says the scent on one of the tracks matches up to the vampire we were tracking last night, the strange thing is, there is only the one scent. It looks like the other vamp is talented." Edward nodded, he had guessed that there was something wrong with the witness accounts, but he was wrong.
"So we are looking for 2 vampires, not one?" Bella asked. Seth and Edward both nodded. "Great." She scowled.
"That will explain why we lost the scent as well, it's obvious they knew we would be tracking them and the one who we cannot track must have picked up the one who we can and masked both their scents." Carlisle watched the crowd across the way begin to dissipate, getting under cover from the miserable weather. "We will have to keep a close eye on the town, we can't say if they have left the area. We need to find these nomads before anyone else is hurt."
"Jacob has organised us into three groups. One will guard the reservation, one will run a wide patrol and the third is going to circle Forks close in. We can't actually come inside in wolf form, but if we manage to get even the slightest hint of them, we will let you all know."
"At least we should be able to guard the town from them better now." Bella said. Edward looked at her, his eyebrows raised. "well, I mean there are 13 of us now. I'm assuming, of course that the Denali's will help to guard the town with us?" she asked.
"I believe so." Carlisle said. "Tanya will definitely help, and I expect Eleazar and Carmen will too. But Kate and Irina? I'm not so sure, they may just want to go back to Alaska."
"Still, it's not like we have to defend our territory the way the southern vampires do. We don't need an army of newborns to overwhelm the opposition, because there isn't any." Edward pointed out. "As we stand at the moment the eight of us are the biggest true coven in the world, and with the addition of the Denali's we rival the Volturi itself. The Volturi, without Chelsea holding them together would only be 8 in number. Not many nomads would go against our sort of number, and we have a disproportionate number of talented members too."
Carlisle nodded. The crowd in the parking lot had all left now, the rain was coming down even heavier, to human eyes the visibility was extremely poor. He turned the engine on and pulled out into the road. "Seth? What have you been assigned?" he asked.
"Jake spoke to Jasper and he's given some suggestions so I'm on patrol of the town, you can just drop me as soon as we get past the houses, I'll phase and go join the others, Jake is going to be liaison between us all, he doesn't want to leave Tanya." The boy grinned and Edward got a flash of a view of Tanya he had never hoped to see. He groaned.
"I could do without the visual Seth!" he protested.
"Can't help it man, you should be inside our heads!"
"I AM!" Edward concentrated on his father's thoughts, trying not to read the young man's mind. "I thought there weren't any secrets in our family, that is just… worse!" he said. Seth laughed and as the car slowed he opened the door and jumped out before it even stopped. He disappeared into the forest to the west of the road, and Edward was suddenly flooded with the pack mind as he changed.
They pulled up to the Cullen house and jumped out. Jasper had already split everyone into teams he thought would work best, so Emmett, Rose, Eleazar and Carmen were dispatched to guard the south of the town, Tanya, Kate and Irina (who agreed to help with the problem before deciding whether to go back to Alaska or not) guarded the west, nearest the wolves. Alice, Jasper and Esme went East, furthest from the wolves in case Alice could use her visions, leaving Edward, Carlisle and Bella to guard the North.