"Of course!" Laurent exclaimed, nodding. "We certainly won't encroach on your territory. We ate just outside of Seattle, anyways," he added, laughing. I glanced at Bella, and noticed her repressing a shudder. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carlisle more effectively masking his disgust.
"We'll show you the way if you'd like to run with us," Carlisle suggested. Suddenly, I could tell that the breeze was shifting, and my attention fell off of my husband and his voice turned into a drone in the background.
"-Bella to get the Jeep." Carlisle finished as chaos was erupting. Carefully, I held my breath, and saw most of the others of our family doing the same. I saw Edward stiffen beside her, and James suddenly whipped his head around. I glanced at my husband's face, and his expression was confused. Of course. He was immune to human blood, so he would barely notice the sudden appealing scent in the air. Realization dawned on his face, which became hard.
James lurched one step forward, and Edward bared his teeth, crouching protectively in front of Bella. He snarled, more aggressively than I had ever heard from him.
"What's this?" Laurent asked in surprise. He was more gentlemanly; although he was also affected by Bella's tantalizing scent, he suppressed it to avoid offending Carlisle. Neither Edward or James even began to relax. James feinted slightly; testing Edward, I think, and Edward shifted in response.
"She's with us." Carlisle was obviously a rebuff directed towards James. Laurent mistakenly took a deep breath, and took an involuntary step forward.
"You brought a snack?" he asked, his expression incredulous. Edward snarled even louder and wilder. This was going beyond my motherly comfort zone for his aggressiveness. If he wasn't defending his girlfriend from bloodthirsty vampires, and if I hadn't done the same thing in his place, then I would seriously scold him for it.
"I said she's with us!" Carlisle's frustation was showing through. He was now speaking in the hard voice that he adopted when he was angry.
"But she's human!" Laurent exclaimed.
"Yes." Emmett replied this time, his eyes on James. He was obviously going to step in and help his brother if it came down to hand-to-hand. And if Victoria was also affected, JAser would probably step in while Carlisle and I got Bella away.
She was the more fragile one, right?
But it would seem wrong to just abandon the rest of our vampire family to deal with things on their own, even if only temporarily.
Well, I was glad that I'd never have to make the choice. After a quick glance at Emmett and all his buff, James slowly began straightening out of his crouch. I wasn't sure if anyone else did, but I immediately started to relax, if only slightly. Edward remained in front of Bella, still crouching protectively and not showing any intention of moving anytime soon.
"It appears we have a lot to learn about each other." Laurent said calmly, but his eyes still showed the shock. He was obviously trying to diffuse the hostility that had suddenly erupted.
"Indeed." I had to admit, I was impressed with my husband. He had "kept his cool", as the human teenagers say these days, throughout the whole thing.
"But we'd like to accept your invitation." Laurent's eyes flicked to Bella, then back to Carlisle. "And, of course, we will not harm the human girl. We won't hunt in your range, as I said." I glanced again at Bella. She couldn't have been more still even if she was a vampire, like us. I wondered if she was going into shock.
I also noticed how James glanced at Laurent, his irritation evident in his face, then flicked his eyes to Victoria. Carlisle stared cautiously at Laurent's face for a while before speaking.
"We'll show you the way. Jasper, Rosallie, Esme?" he asked us quietly. I glanced up, read his intentions in his eyes, and nodded. Jasper, Rosalie, and I gathered together, blocking Bella from view. Alice slipped foward to be at Bella's side, opposite from Edward. I quickly glanced around, and saw that Emmett was missing. Looking back to Carlisle, I realized that Emmett was slowly backing towards us, glaring at James.
"Let's go, Bella." Edward said in a low voice. Bella didn't move. Be gentle, Edward, don't hurt her! I warned mentally as Edward gripped her arm. To my relief, I saw his arm loosen, if only slightly. He pulled sharply, but thankfully I heard no crack of her bones. It seemed to pull Bella out of her stupor, and she stumbled slowly, even slower than normal human pace, towards to trees. Edward's impatience was obvious, probably even to Bella. Relax! My thought probably would have been convincing, if I wasn't as impatient myself. I only masked it better.
Once we were into the trees, Alice, Emmett, and Edward started into a sprint faster than ever before. Without breaking pace, Edward slung Bella over his back, and ran, faster than I had ever seen him run. Although he was by nature faster than the rest of us, he was sprinting way faster than that right now. Unlike the Edward whose wide grin automatically spread across his face when he ran, Edward was furious right now, a fury that consumed his whole self and drove him faster than he had ever run. Even with Bella on his back, all of the others trailed a good hundred meters behind him.
I turned back around, facing Carlisle and the others. Rosalie, Jasper and I walked back over to Carlisle, standing around him, me taking Emmett's place at Carlisle's side. Jasper remained on Carlisle's other side.
"Follow me." Carlisle said, his voice cool, but his irritation evident. He set off into the trees. I signaled for James, Victoria, and Laurent to go first, then brought up the rear. Right on cue, Jasper and Rosalie took the sides of the small group. Rosalie's annoyance was evident in her face. I knew what she thought of Bella, that she was an unneccessary danger brought on our family. She had always disliked Edward, and hated him even more when he introduced Bella. Or more like, Alice introduced him introducing Bella, I thought with a silent chuckle. Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to laugh out loud. What a situation.
