EDIT: 08/15/2018 Minor editing made.

Chapter nine

Inside the car Edward started the engine and turned the heater on high. It had gotten very cold and I guessed the good weather was at an end. He pulled out through the traffic, apparently without a glance, flipping around to head toward the freeway.

"So," I said, when he didn't speak, "what's your theory?"

He sighed and his eyes narrowed, apparently thinking where to start. I waited, trying to be patient. After a minute he finally spoke, keeping his eyes firmly on the road.

"What do you know about my family, Bella?" he asked, surprising me.

"What? I thought you were going to answer my question," I protested.

"Answer me first, please."

"Well, I heard you moved here from Alaska two years ago and that Doctor Cullen adopted you and your siblings," I said quickly.

"But you know more, don't you?" he insisted, now looking at me.

"Yes."

"What do you know?" His voice was calm but I had the feeling that he was very nervous.

"I know what you are," I admitted in whisper and lowered my eyes. "I've known since the first day."

We were both quiet, staring ahead. He was driving very fast but I felt strangely safe.

"And still, you're here," he said after a while, sounding frustrated.

"Yes, because I figured that you can't be bad when you keep saving my life," I said, impatient again. "I'm still waiting for you theory."

"You're not afraid of me," he said incredulously, ignoring my impatience. "Why? I'm a monster."

"If all monsters were like you, this world would be a very happy place." I rolled my eyes.

"What makes you say that?" he was confused.

I laughed shortly but without humor, shaking my head. Maybe one day I would tell him about real monsters but I still wasn't ready and he still avoided answering my question.

"Your theory?" I urged him to finally tell me.

"I'm getting to it but you keep distracting me." He sighed but then went on. "Carlisle, our leader and father in so many ways, has been here for a very long time. He was born in London at the time when people believed in many things. One of them was the existence of magical people."

He fell quiet, glancing at me. I didn't say anything, thinking how old Carlisle could be.

"After he was changed he went to Italy and lived for a while with a family of our kind called the Volturi. They are something like a royalty to us."

"I know what they are," I whispered, remembering a picture of the three vampires that the fake professor Moody had showed us in Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson in my third year. Edward looked at me but didn't comment on my knowledge.

"There he learned that the magical people, and actually many other supernatural beings, are real. But according to a new magical law he wasn't allowed to tell anyone."

"But he was thinking about it," I said, still whispering.

"Well, he'd managed to keep it from me for a very long time. Even when we met people whose mind I couldn't read, he somehow didn't think about it." I could hear astonishment in his voice.

"So how did you find out?"

"I told him about not being able to hear your thoughts and asked if he had any idea why. His mind slipped. He forbid me to tell anyone, saying that there could be some other reason for your quiet mind. It didn't make sense to him that you'd started our high school. Magical people keep to themselves, like us."

"Says a vampire who goes to a high school," I reminded him with a grin.

"Well, I admit we are a bit unusual." He smiled at me.

"Yeah, you're right," I agreed. My mood was suddenly a lot lighter. "But tell me, what made you believe that there wasn't another reason?" My guess was that he had read Charlie's mind.

"Alice." That was all he said.

"Your sister? What does she know?"

"By now I'm pretty sure she knows everything." He was being cryptic and it annoyed me.

"What do you mean? You promised Carlisle you wouldn't -"

"I didn't tell her anything." He laughed. "You know, she has a special abillity, like me."

"She can read minds too?" I guessed.

"No. She can predict future."

I immediately thought of professor Trelawney, our eccentric Divination teacher at Hogwarts, and grimaced.

"So she looked into a crystal ball and saw me as a witch?" I scoffed.

He rolled his eyes, looking amused.

"No. Her predictions are based on someone's decision," he explained. "So when you decided to tell me, she saw it. Of course, there is a slight chance that she is preoccupied with looking into someone else's future but I wouldn't count on it. I've been the hot topic in our family the last few weeks." He rolled his eyes again, sounding slightly annoyed.

I didn't understand his last remark and I frowned, confused.

"Anyway, she's had visions that didn't make sense to her," he said quickly after seeing my expression. "She saw you in a hall that looked a lot like it was in a castle or some old stone building. You were waving a wooden stick, hitting someone or something - it was blurred - with some sort of light coming out of the stick." He stared in front of him, clearly repeating the vision in his head.

I knew exactly what the vision was about. She'd seen me fighting at Hogwarts. But of course, I'd decided to go back and fight long ago. Even though I didn't know for sure there would be a battle at Hogwarts, it was possible that it would take place somewhere else, like at the Ministry or some place I'd never been. I just always imagined Hogwarts to be the place for the battle. If there ever was a battle in the first place.

"But I still wasn't sure," he continued, bringing me back to the present. "She could have seen just some kind of a game you would be playing. I only became really suspicious after tonight's events, when I saw you put the stick into your pocket, when you were getting into my car. And then you talked about turning them into flobberworms…" He winked at me.

I frowned. I didn't know he'd noticed my wand. And even after the flobberworm speech a small part of my brain had hoped that he would take it only as my attempt to distract him.

"So, am I right?" he asked.

"I'm confused," I admitted, still avoiding a direct answer. "Charlie - I mean my Dad – knows my secret. I thought you would find out by reading his thoughts."

"Um… his mind is not so easy to read either," he said, surprising me again.

"You can't read Charlie's mind?" That was a news to me. Charlie was a muggle. As far as I knew only the minds of witches and wizards were protected from the vampires' Gifts that affected human's mind.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. His mind is not as quiet as yours but I can only hear his feelings," he explained. "Like when you had the accident, I could only hear his fear, anxiety and panic. Not the exact words."

"Maybe his thoughts weren't coherent then because he was panicking?" I suggested.

"I thought so at first. But even after he calmed down I couldn't hear any words from him," he said. "It's not just Charlie, though," he added hesitantly.

"Who else?"

"Angela Weber. It's exactly the same as with Charlie."

I stared at him, trying to figure out what that could mean. Charlie is my father and I am a witch, I thought. Is it possible that his mind is partly protected, too? Not completely, like mine, but that there is still some magic in him that prevented Edward from reading his exact thoughts? But that would mean that Angela has some wizarding relatives. Or are both their minds just quiet and all of this is just a coincidence?

"Bella?" Edward's voice interrupted my thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" He sounded frustrated.

"What do you know about Angela?" I asked when I remembered her shocked expression earlier this evening. "Have you ever met her family?"

"Well, no. I know that her father is a priest but we don't go to a church so I've never really met him. And about her mother, I was only able to find out that she works as a doctor but not in Forks." He paused, his face curious. "Why?"

"What exactly was she feeling when she saw you with me?" This was important. "Does she know what you are?"

Edward frowned, glancing at me uncertainly.

"She was surprised," he said slowly, "and worried about you. She doesn't trust me… I'm not sure she knows, though she's always been avoiding us more than other people."

I turned my head to look out the window and realised that we had already crossed the boundaries of Forks. I didn't like that my time with him had passed so quickly, I still had a lot of questions and I was sure he had some for me, too.

"You still didn't really answer my question," Edward pointed out. He pulled over in front of Charlie's house. I sighed. I couldn't avoid it any longer and I didn't even want to.

"You guessed right," I mumbled, reaching for the door. I suddenly realised that I didn't want to go. I felt his eyes on me and turned back to him.

"I have to go," I said unwillingly, taking off the jacket and handing it back to him.

He just nodded and took the jacket, still watching my face. I suddenly couldn't tear my eyes off him. It took me a whole minute before I pulled myself together and finally opened the door. Then I turned back to him, remembering something.

"Will I see you tomorrow at school?"

"The good weather is over." He smiled. "And I still have a few questions for you."

I smiled back and finally stepped out of the car.

"See you tomorrow then," I said and forced myself to walk to the house. He waited till I was at the front door and then I heard his engine quietly rev. I turned to watch the silver car disappear around the corner. I realised it was very cold and quickly went inside.

Charlie called from the living room. "Bella?"

"Yeah, Dad, it's me." I walked in to see him. He was watching a baseball game.

"You're home early."

"Am I?" I was surprised.

"It's not even eight yet," he told me. "Did you girls have fun?"

"Yeah – it was lots of fun." I tried to remember all the way back to the girls' night out I had planned. "I even bought jeans."

"Are you all right?" he asked, looking at me properly.

"I'm just tired. I did a lot of walking."

"Well, maybe you should go lie down." He sounded concerned. I wondered what my face looked like.

"I'm just going to call Jessica first."

"Weren't you just with her?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes – but I left my shoppings and jacket in her car. I want to make sure she brings it tomorrow."

"Well, give her a chance to get home first."

"Right," I agreed.

I went to the kitchen and fell, exhausted, into a chair. My head was full of questions, mostly about what Edward had said about Angela. I sat there for ten minutes and then walked to the phone to call Jess. She answered the phone after three rings.

"Jessica Stanley."

"Hi Jess, it's Bella."

"Bella? You made it home?" She sounded surprised.

"Yes. Listen, I left my bag and jacket in your car – could you bring it to me tomorrow?"

"Sure. But tell me what happened!" she demanded.

I rolled my eyes. "Tomorrow."

She caught on quickly. "Oh, is your dad there?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow, then. Bye!" I could hear the impatience in her voice.

"Bye, Jess."

Half an hour later I was in my bed trying to make sense of everything I'd discovered tonight. Edward now knew that I was a witch and I didn't know what he thought about it. But he didn't look like he wanted to avoid me and that was a relief. And he'd promised to be at school tomorrow. I couldn't wait to see him again. I sighed and shifted the image of him aside in my mind, trying to focuse on another problem.

I knew I would have to find out what Angela knew about the Cullens and, more importantly, if she knew about the existence of the wizarding world. And I had absolutely no idea how to do it.