Chapter 39: Close to the Truth

~Edward~

The sun was just beginning to set as we reached the outskirts of Bedburg. Our travels of the past few hours had been silent as each of us thought about what we might be walking into. Bella was allowing me access to her thoughts, her mind on our babies safe at home. In her mind, my wife pondered why it was us going after this information. Why did we have to be the ones to constantly be leaving our children? Bella worried about how this was affecting them as much as I did, but we needed to find the answers because it was Bella who the wolves had initially come after. As vampires we could not physically get tired, though mentally and emotionally we could feel exhaustion. The last time I'd felt this way was when I was foolish enough to think that leaving Bella was the best way of keeping her safe. Having my wife here with me was what kept me going.

The closer we got to town, the fewer trees we passed. Bella and I walked on a long stretch of road walking by more houses and having cars drive past us. My mind was trained on the thoughts of the people. We were not that much out of place because there were other people out walking the streets, or riding bikes. The one thing I liked about Europe was that more people got out on foot.

"It's busy," Bella commented as her hand gripped mine just a little tighter.

"Everyone is heading home for the evening, or out." Bella nodded and we kept going. We were heading northeast of town where Peter Stubbe had once had a home. I'd never been to this area, and as it got darker, I was more alert than ever.

"Do you really think we'll find anything where he used to live?"

We were taking a long shot traveling here, but the research that I had done while we were at Oxford had touched on something that I hoped we could prove or dispel. "They said the belt he wore was the source of his power. It was never found when they finally cornered him." The writings I had discovered indicated that Peter had murdered many people, women and children. He believed especially by sacrificing young children and eating their hearts, he was gaining some sort of power. The mere thought that he had done that, and the fact that Bella and I had small children had not been something I had told my wife. I wanted proof before I put more on her mind, then again, it would be harder if she knew I was withholding this from her. "Bella, there was more information than what I shared."

We were in the middle of the city, so Bella led me away from the main street we were walking along, until we were in a secluded area. When she stopped and looked at me, I saw the dismay in her eyes. "What information?"

There was hurt in her eyes, and I wanted to reach out to her, but I didn't at this point because I knew she wanted answers. "You know he was accused of being a serial killer." When she nodded I continued. "It is speculated that he had a particular liking of small children. He would kill them and eat their hearts and their brains. The evidence they gathered was never conclusive as to the truth, but there was that theory."

"Why would keep that from me? It's heartless what he did, but I thought we were past this Edward, past you trying to protect me. We are a team and we don't hide things even if it is gruesome or sad."

There was sadness in her eyes as she spoke, and I looked down at the ground. "It wasn't my intent to hurt you. There is so much going on, and I know you are worried. I want to be able to keep you safe, all of you, and I feel that I'm failing in that task which shouldn't be so difficult."

Her finger under my chin caused me to raise my head looking into her amber eyes. "We are in this for better or for worse. I'm not who I was when we first met. Yes I am scared with what you told me, because we don't know why these wolves are so interested in us in particular, but that doesn't mean that I can't handle my fears. What I can't handle is not being aware of what you are thinking, so don't do that again, Edward."

I pulled her into my arms holding her as tight as I could until both of us were more composed. After being on the earth and alone for as long as I had, having someone who was my partner was still something I was adjusting to. Once we were more composed, we continued on our journey to find the answers.

When we reached the countryside again it was dark, making it possible for us to run as fast as we wanted without the risk of being seen. I'd memorized a map that I found in Oxford of the land. It wasn't long before Bella and I slowed to a walk, holding hands again as we came upon a vast field. It was overgrown with weeds and tall brush, and it was obvious that this was where we wanted to be, due to the lack of care of the land. The fields that we had passed on our way had been kept up and were in use either with crops or with farm animals.

"There is so much land here, why wouldn't someone have crops growing or houses even," Bella asked.

"Superstitions. At his confession, Peter said he made a pact with the devil, well you recall what I shared with you. He confessed to taking the bodies to his house, and the locals believed the land was tainted." After giving my wife that information, I drew in a deep breath of air, shutting my eyes as I listened and got a feel of where we were. There was a musty scent off to the east, and after taking Bella's hand back in mine, we began to move through the weeds and brush some of which was taller than us. While walking we could hear the scurry of animals, like small field mice. For anyone who wasn't a vampire the hike through the weeds would have been treacherous, for Bella and myself it was easy to move through them without trampling too much to leave evidence that we had been here.

A few minutes later we came to a clearing. There were still a lot of weeds, but they were shorter. The musty smell was more prominent the further into the clearing we went until we were standing on hard, dirt packed ground surrounded by the weeds and brush.

"His home?" my wife asked.

"Someone lived here, but it was a long time ago." I knelt down and dusted off the ground still smelling something musty which didn't quite fit with us being in the middle of an overgrown field. Lifting my leg, I began to stomp my foot on the ground glancing at Bella as she watched with confusion marring the features of her face.

"Listen," I told her.

My wife did as I slammed my foot down again. "It sounds different there," Bella said as I walked beside her and did the same thing. Beside Bella the stomping was just on regular dirt packed ground. We both went to the other spot directly ahead of us and began to dig. With our strong fingers, prying through the dirt was easy. We dug away from one another until Bella hit something solid. "Keep digging," I told her.

I dug away until I found the same solid surface moving more dirt away until we both stood looking at some sort of wooden flooring buried beneath the earth. The wood was rotting and musty. "Move back a little."

My wife did as I asked and I knelt down balling my hands into fists before bringing them down. The wood splintered, flying all around me as my hand drove completely through it.

"What is that?"

"An entry point," I told her as I began to pull at the edge of the hole I'd just made. A second later Bella was helping me pry away the rotting wood until the hole was big enough for us to lower a flashlight down. The light revealed stone stairs spiraling down further than the light could stretch. There wasn't a sound anywhere around us, the noise from the pounding having scared away animals and insects alike.

"I don't like this," Bella admitted glancing up at me.

I shut my eyes listening again sniffing the air. The musty smell was strong coming from the entry we had found. "Do you trust me?"

My wife's eyes were on mine as her head shook. "You are not going down there without me."

Gently, I reached out and put my hand against her left cheek. "One of us needs to stay up here and it won't take me long to find out what's down there. Do you want to go and have me stay here?" Asking her that question was really hard for me, because all the years I had known Bella, I had felt it my duty to protect her.

When Bella sighed, I knew what she was going to say. "Just be careful."

"Always," I told her. We shared a brief kiss before I slid my legs into the hole, feeling my feet making contact with the stone. Bella still had my hand and I gave her's a gentle squeeze before letting go and heading down the stairs with great speed until I reached the bottom, thirty steps later. I moved the flashlight around not needing too much of it as light from the moon shown through the hole. The room I was standing in had been carved out of the limestone. There were remnants of wood along the walls. It was small so looking around was easy. I moved the light to the left and found a small notch in the wall. In a second I was there reaching inside until my hand came in contact with something that was smooth and cool.

What I found was box made out of some sort of obsidian stone.

A second later I was beside my wife handing the box to her.

"What is this?"

"Only one way to find out," I told her as I made quick work of prying off the lid. Inside was a leather bound book which was remarkably preserved for how long this box lay hidden below the earths surface.

My wife lifted the book out, handling it with great care. The pages had yellowed and were brittle, but Bella managed to open the book without hurting anything. There were drawings on the first page of wolves. The sketches were more of the face of the wolf, and the eyes were fierce as if they had something to say. The next page there was writing but most of it was smudged away. "What is this?"

I glanced at the words making out some of them, but not enough to make sense of any of it. In the middle of the book some pages had been torn away, leaving another page of sketches, only this time not of a wolf, but of a belt with an ornate buckle. Before we could say a word, there was movement coming in from the west. Bella and I got to our feet, both of us smelling that the movement was from several humans that were quite a few yards away.

We were done here and taking my wife's hand, I began to run with her, heading in a round about way back toward the city to regroup and try and figure out what would be our next move.

"Do you think they knew we were heading this way?" Bella asked

"Who, the group in that truck?"

My wife nodded. On our way out of town we had passed a large group of men in a pickup. I hadn't picked up anything from their thoughts, but my mind had also been on other things, like trying to figure out a way to make things up to Bella for hiding the truth about the things Peter Stubbe had done.

"They may have been," I told her as we came to a stop two miles from where we had been at the old house site. If they had been from the city then going back through Bedburg put us at risk. "We need to stick to the countryside, which means a longer trip back to France and home."

"That belt is the one he used isn't it?"

"It may very well be the one the article referenced."

"Do you think they made up the trial as a coverup?"

"No, there are records that he was executed on the wheel. I wanted to go back in town to search that area, but the sooner we can get out out here the better." After putting the obsidian case in my backpack, Bella and I began our run, skirting around any cities that were close to Bedburg. By early morning we reached the forest where we had gone hunting, both of us feeling a little safer being away from that area.

"We need to get home," my wife said as we sat together on the mossy ground against an ancient tree.

"We will be there soon."

She shook her head. "Something doesn't feel right Edward, we should call them."

Since last night we had been busy keeping away from main roads and streets. Until now I hadn't thought of my phone. I pulled it out of my back pocket and turned it on not sure we would get much of a signal from where we were even with Jasper's settings

When my phone powered up it began to buzz and I glanced at the text message that Emmett had sent right as we were reaching Bedburg. A moment later I pulled my wife to her feet. "We need to get into town and get a flight back to England."

"What's going on?"

I turned to my wife, "They had to leave, and Lily is missing with Renesmee."

"No," Bella said grabbing my hand. We began to run as fast as we could, both of us thinking about the information we had learned about Peter, and about his liking of children. If he was still living somehow after all of this, or if there were descendents, they could be using half human half vampire children for the same reason Peter killed children. That thought alone had me moving faster and I was glad Bella could keep up. With the speeds we were running we made it back to France just as the sun was starting to shine over the horizon. Bella and I went to the warehouse and while she was changing I called Emmett's phone getting him on the second ring. "How did she get away?" I seethed.

"They were asleep. Rose and I went for a walk and Esme was cleaning the kitchen when she heard Anthony crying. By the time she got to him, they were gone. Alice wants us to meet at the Island. She thinks Lily might be taking her there."

"Why would she do that?" I asked as Bella came to my side wearing tan slacks and a blue button down silk top.

"Renesmee had a dream about the wolves, the ones who came to the house that one time. Lily was worried that her dreams were like Alice's. She kept telling us we should leave, and we thought we had gotten her to understand that it was safer being in England."

"We'll meet you there."

The moment I hung up Bella was in front of me looking at me with sorrow filled eyes, "She took her, did she take her to them?"

"Alice thinks Lily did it to protect her. We need to go love," I said.

She nodded and once I washed up we headed outside. It was gloomy threatening rain. As we made our way into the streets, I made reservations for us to get the soonest flight out praying that what Alice was saying was right, because we didn't have any leads at this point.

~Lily~

The beach was supposed to be a fun place, but Ness was sad and mad because I wasn't going to leave again. She told me her head was hurting, and I knew that the trip we took made it hurt. It was harder to travel when I had to bring someone with me. The darkness was cold and it had scared her more than I wanted it too, but we weren't safe in England. We weren't safe so close to them. They felt me when I moved us to the island, and when they can feel me they can find me, but I was too tired to try moving us again.

"I want Daddy," Renesmee sobbed resting her head in my lap while we watched TV. It was raining today.

"He'll figure out where we went," I told her rubbing my hand on her back.

"No won', you not leave him any notes." Renesmee sat up glaring at me. She was cute when she did that.

"Is your head still hurting?" When she shook it I sighed. "You need to learn to do what I do. I know the dark is scary, but you need to know how to move so that they can't get you."

"Why those wolves want me?"

If I told her that, she would get too afraid. "They are curious."

She watched me for a moment, thinking about something. "Like George in the books?"

"The monkey?" When she nodded I giggled. "Yeah sort of like that. Are you hungry?"

As she nodded again, I got up. Suddenly I felt cold, and could hear him saying my name. I shut my eyes and held my breath making the light too bright until he wasn't in my head anymore. When I opened my eyes again Renesmee was crying.

"Come on," I told her as I picked her up and carried her into the kitchen.

"He's scary," she whispered.

Quickly I put her down on the chair I pulled away, looking at her. "You heard him?"

Ness nodded sniffing. "Do you still hear him?"

She nodded. "He mad. He not know where you go when it got bright."

That was what we didn't need, or maybe it was. "Nessie, you need to shut your eyes and think about the sun. Think about how warm it makes you feel and see it in your mind making everything as bright as you can."

For once she didn't cry and when she shut her eyes I held her hands showing her the brightness in my mind until she sighed. When we looked at each other she smiled at me. "He all gone now."

"Good, now lets get something to eat."

We went to the pantry and there was a box of cookies. They were a little bit stale but better than nothing. There wasn't much for us to drink so we settled on water. If I could get Ness to go to sleep, maybe I could get us some food, but if I left and she woke up that would be very bad. It was hard to be the oldest one without the adults around. I missed my Mom, and my Momma. Momma still loved me, even though Joham made her do bad things. She showed me how to move when we shared our minds, and that was a long time ago. It's how I was able to get away from them

"Lily, how you move us here. We didn't take a plane," Ness said.

"No we moved. There are paths that the spirits can take. No one can see them accept for us because we have this gift. You are little but if you can learn to take the paths like me, you won't ever get hurt."

Renesmee was confused, so I decided we would do this later. "Do you have to pee?"

When she nodded, I took her to the bathroom and we used it. A little bit later we were back to TV watching when something made a dinging sound. Renesmee was totally into the show we had on the TV, so I left her and began looking around until I found it. There was a cell phone plugged in a wall. When I opened it the name had Jasper Cullen. "Hello?"

"Lily?"

It was my Daddy Emmett.

"Yes," I whispered

"Oh thank God, you're safe?"

"Yes," I told him wondering how mad he was going to be.

"Good, listen you stay there okay, no more trying to take things on that you can't handle."

"I can handle a lot, and if it gets bad then we will leave. I moved a long time before they found me in the Forests in La Push."

"Lily, it's Mom." She sounded sad and that made me sad.

"I'm okay, I just didn't want them to find us. I let my guard down and he had to know. Renesmee can hear him now." The adults were doing a lot of talking, and it made me tired. Maybe going back would be easier. "How do you know where I am?"

"Alice had a feeling," Mommy told me as Nessie leaned against my left side. Just about the time she was going to sleep, her eyes opened getting really wide. It was getting cold, so I put my hand over her mouth shaking my head glad when Nessie understood.

With my mom still saying something I hung up the phone. We had to go again, to a place that might get us both hurt or even killed if we weren't careful, but there was no other way around it. Holding Nessie as close to me as I could, I let the darkness and cold surround me hearing my father laughing before he stopped. You will not get away. His loud booming voice made my head hurt, and her scream made me want to stay, but Momma told me a long time ago never to look back. With Nessie in my arms the paths opened up to me. Our bodies pulled inside away from anything that I could explain, so instinct took over and once the path was set to that one area where they could not go, Nessie and I moved there at lightning fast speeds almost like we were one instead of two, fighting to stay away from the one thing that would kill me and her if it got close enough.

AN

Alright, I hope you guys liked what you read... just to give a little history, Peter Stubbe was real and his crimes mentioned were somewhat real... he was a serial killer back in his time and he did have a thing for small children... He also was said to have made a pact with the Devil and he was killed by being put on a wheel and beheaded.. So is he alive or dead? I'm hoping to update more soon, but wanted to go on and get this out there... I lost my computer right after Thanksgiving and it took a while to be able to save up and have my friend build me a new one. Hopefully this will last me a while so no more delays.

Answers will come, and I hope you guys liked what I did with Lily. Sticking with the fact that she's been through so much like her own father trying to make her into a full fledged Vampire, there is way more to her as you can see... Soo, what did you think?

Thank you all for sticking by and thanks to those who have added me I hope this was a good read for you all..

~Ella~