This is not the end, this is a beginning.
Baby's Breath
| break my knuckles feel them crack, I reveal nothing, both played fate |
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Bella has never been the most ambitious type of person (she crosses her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow and for a second she wonders when her life became, well, this).
"You want to take on the Volturi?" She repeats slowly, not really knowing what type of emotion she should feel right now; hesitates between stunned and annoyed (Jasper could tell her, if he wasn't busy dealing with his own emotions).
"Yep." Peter does in on purpose, pops the 'p' like some teenager chewing bubble gum in those sitcoms he likes to watch so much. Even Charlotte looks up from her book, perplexed.
"Why?" Jasper mimics her movements as he utters the words, the way his jaw slacks and his eyebrow raises (he should be used to Peter's antics by now and yet the blond man still manages to stun him, to stun them all).
"Because…" Peter starts out, theatrics and all, as if he's about to recite some Shakespeare in front of a wide audience. "Well, honestly, I've always had it in for them…"
Bella rolls her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose (it's a good thing that she isn't human because she'd feel a migraine coming on, right now).
"Hear me out." Three pairs of eyes focus on Peter (Jasper seems amused, Bella's just exhausted and Charlotte doesn't even look that surprised). "Vampires need rules, we can all agree with that. But the Volturi's laws are a load of bullshit, like the one about immortal children."
"But Jason isn't an immortal child." Charlotte says with little conviction (because the Volturis don't seem like the calm, level-headed type of people, the type that listen to reason).
"After Victoria is done with the Cullens, the Volturi will find out. About us, about our coven, about Jason and his very peculiar situation. And they'll come for us." Bella blinks. "It won't be to have tea, I can tell you that."
"You think the Volturi will try to kill us?" Bella has only heard tales, has never actually met any of them, but maybe they would come for them, maybe they would come for Jason.
"I don't think, I know it." And Peter is gifted, has the actual talent of being a know-it-all. "If we don't act first, we'll mostly likely, well, not to sound overdramatic, die."
There's silence in the room (Charlotte's book is closed in her lap, Jasper has that look in his eyes like he's calculating fast and efficiently, running through every possible scenario and, for once, Peter seems a bit solemn, less like a jokester and Bella) –
Bella has only heard tales when it comes to the Volturi (Edward had mentioned them, their rules, their ruthlessness, the way they managed the vampire world, used fear to govern).
Honestly, Bella doesn't care very much for the rulers of the underworld. None of them do, not truly anyways (if Bella could remain hidden in her little house in the desert than she would, but Victoria) –
Victoria needs to do this (if Bella wants the vixen to remain by her side for the rest of eternity, then the vixen needs this, needs revenge and the Cullens dead and Edward's head on a silver platter and Bella will deal with the consequences; she'll kill and hurt and dismember as long as it means keeping this family together).
Bella's never been the most ambitious type of person, but she'll act when needed to and she won't have some thousand-year-old vampires knock on her door and threaten her very existence (or her son's).
"So…" Bella finally says, cutting through the silence with a very sharp knife and her eyes black, hunger pooling in her insides and her fingers cracking. "What's the plan?"
Peter sends a smirk her way (and at that moment Bella knows that chaos is just around the corner, it always is when Peter has that grin).
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The Cullens are proper in a way that makes Jason want to roll his eyes and throw something hard at them, screaming that they are vampires and vampires aren't meant for this.
(he can't picture his mother running around with plates of cookies and teapots in her hands, can't imagine his father in the role of the complaisant doctor or his aunts and uncle being so, well, human).
Auntie Victoria is probably having the time of her life watching him be uncomfortable and fawned over. There's Edward's hand on his thigh and Emmett asking twenty questions per second and Esme making sure he's well feed and Rosalie glaring at him and Alice trying to red his future and failing.
"So, you're only half-vampire?" Jason nods for the umpteenth time. It's like none of them can wrap their minds around the fact (Jason would almost feel insulted, but that would mean he cares and he really doesn't).
Edward sends a smile his way (he would usually read his thoughts, but the way his eyebrows are crunched together means he's probably having trouble doing so, not that it's any surprise) –
His mother's shield is very powerful.
(Auntie Char may not have any powers of her own, but she can harvest those of others and she spends hours helping her mother, days and weeks and months and years, until it can shield all of them, all at once, against anything).
Jason thinks it's pretty cool (and he feels a tad safer with his mother around, doesn't need to guard his thoughts as much – it's tiring trying to come up with ways of keeping nosy vampires out of his head).
"And you drink blood?" Jason can't help and sighs when Dr. Cullen throws the question in his face.
"But I can also eat regular food." The thirteen-year-old answers, trying to send a smile towards the blonde vampire.
"Yes, he really likes his food." Edward adds, even if no one asked him. He sends another smile towards Jason and the boy has to control himself not to role his eyes at him.
He does not have private jokes with Edward Cullens, he doesn't now and he never will (Jason thinks that he'd like to watch when Auntie Vic dismembers him, hopes it will be slow paced and very, very painful because everything about this is painful).
His mother really dodged a bullet with this one (his father is much better in every way, doesn't hide behind false smiles and mind reading and that perfect face).
Jason can't imagine being born into this family (if Edward had never left his mother and his father never came back that night, then Jason could have been a Cullen and he'd grown up with them – he shudders at the thought).
"Do you have any powers?" Jason blinks at Esme who smiles encouragingly at him. His hand lingers on one of the chocolate chip cookies placed on the glass table in front of him – the woman is obviously pleased to have someone who can eat (she sorts of reminds him of Auntie Char, but not enough that he feels at ease).
Aunt Charlotte can be nice and sweet, but he would never mess around with her (she has scars on her back and wears them proudly and can petrify you in place with one single look, which is probably why she can handle Uncle Peter so well).
"I can eat a burrito in two bites?" Emmett smacks his shoulder playfully and Jason hates the familiarity, hates the fact that they take to him so well (these people are the ones who abandoned his parents, that killed Auntie Vic's mate and shun Uncle Peter and Auntie Char because of their lifestyle –
Jason wonders how they would feel if they knew that the sickest and most twisted individual in his family is, well, him (Jason is a child and control, well, it's only a word to him. He can lure and trap and kill and his parents always clean up after him. He's spoiled and deadly and lethal and knows how to manipulate everyone around him).
"Would you like some more tea, dear?" Esme asks like the proper hostess she is and runs a hand through dark brown locks of hair, sending a smile his way.
"I wouldn't want to bother you…" He answers, all polite and pristine and Jason may not be any of that, but he can fake it well enough, just like Uncle Peter can fake caring about anything other than chaos.
"Aren't you just precious…" She still gets up to brew some more tea and probably find more sugar cubes because Jason uses at least ten in one cup of tea (he has a sweet tooth and favors people who like candy).
"It's so weird that I can't see your future…" And the seer looks at him through hazy golden eyes and seems to be on a totally different planet. She's been saying the same thing for the last hour.
"Alice…" Dr. Cullen starts out. "We all know your visions are subjective, maybe it's because Jason's future isn't clear right now." Oh, Jason's future is really clear – it's theirs that should feel blank (when Victoria is done with them, they won't have much of a present or a future).
Jason smiles at that thought, imagines fire and screams and pain and wonders if Auntie Vic will let him sit and watch (and maybe participate a bit because Edward's hand on his thigh is annoying, very much so).
"Aren't we done fawning over the half-breed?" Rosalie says with a pout and when Jason's eyes narrow, she doesn't even look at him in the eyes, instead runs a hand through perfect blonde hair and places a hand on her hip. "How is this any different than the human before? We all know how this will end."
There's a moment of silence (there's pain on Esme's face and Emmett seems to alter between surprise and amusement and Alice can't seem to wrap her mind over the fact that she can't read his future and Edward squeezes the skin of his leg almost painfully).
Dr. Cullen is the one who clears his throat and sends a smile, albeit an uncomfortable one, towards Jason.
"Rosalie, this is really not the time to bring up Bella…" And Jason can't help the way his ears perk up at his mother's name, can't help but want to know what she was like when she was still human.
(he's only heard stories, from his father, but Jason knows that he has a grandfather and a grandmother somewhere and that his mother never really talks about them because it's just too painful).
"It seems like the perfect time." The blonde answers back, pointing at the thirteen-year-old. "He even looks like her – tell me I'm not the only one who noticed!"
Of course, he looks like her (he may share most of his features with his father, but the nose and the hair; it's uncanny, that exact same shade of brown), he's her son.
For all her bitchiness, Jason has to admit, Rosalie is clearly the only one here who has any common sense (and just for that, he hates her a tad less, but only a bit less, not enough for him to consider pleading her case).
"So, you have a thing for brunettes?" Jason says, turning to Edward with a coy smile and batting dark, think eyelashes.
Edward grins at him, playful and bashful and charming (and maybe it's something inside of him, something that reminds him of his mother, something deep and dark and unexplainable).
Jason doesn't care what Edward sees in him as long as it means he can keep his claws sank into the vampire and make him do whatever he wants without raising any suspicions.
"Something like that…" The perpetual seventeen-year-old says with his honeyed voice and his melted gold eyes. Jason smiles when Rosalie mimics throwing up and Emmett's grin lights up his face.
Esme's face because soft again and Alice seems lost somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and Rosalie hates him and Emmett has that too happy face. Even Dr. Cullen's shoulder seem more relaxed and, just like that, Jason knows –
They won't see him coming – they won't see any of them coming.
(he really hopes Auntie Victoria lets him watch; he'll even bargain with his Christmas gift of that year and it's not like either of his parents will object).
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Perched on one of the tallest buildings in the area, Bella pauses mid thought and tilts her head to the side.
Next to her, Victoria has her hair pulled up in a messy bun, red curls spilling everywhere and with a very stylish pair of black sunglasses that cover the deep crimson of her eyes (Bella does not question where the vixen found the glasses).
"So…" The vixen asks, watching the scene unfold in the window in front of them. "How does it feel?" Bella blinks, even if she doesn't need to and wonders –
This is Edward; this is the man who she was ready to give up, well, everything for (her chastity, her love, her fidelity, her humanity). This is the vampire who left her to die in the woods without ever looking back, who discarded her as if she was nothing more than the flavour of the month.
(Bella thinks she should feel anger or pain or both, maybe sadness, maybe some sort of deep longing appeased seeing him after so many years…)
But Bella feels absolutely nothing and, even if the boy in front of her has not changed in thirteen years, it's like he's a completely different person (or maybe it's her, maybe she's the one who changed).
"Like nothing." Because her and the vixen have always been honest with each other, too much at times, even. "It's like nothing." She repeats a second time because there's emptiness in her words, as if she hasn't even spoken them before.
Victoria sends a pout her way and Bella raises an eyebrow.
"Well…" Victoria concedes, with a shrug of her slender shoulders. "You were only with him for a few months – that's nothing for a vampire." Bella knows, she knows it well.
It's just that was ready to give up everything for him (her chastity, her love, her fidelity, her humanity; God, she had been so very stupid as a human), she expects to feel, well, something.
"When all of this is over…" Bella starts out, voice soft and eyes strained on the scene in front of her; on Jason and the way Edward seems to lean over him and smiles charmingly. "You're both grounded. For a month, at least."
The vixen rolls her pretty eyes (but she isn't annoyed, no, she's focused and Bella knows that this is it, this is the moment Victoria has been waiting for, that it's almost there, that this chapter of their life is almost done with) and it seems like everything is the way it usually is, but Bella –
"Why didn't you tell me?" Bella's eyes are a tad darker now (she's a bit peckish). "I would've come with you, you know that?"
Victoria shrugs her shoulders as if this is nothing.
"Peter said I needed to leave first." And understanding dawns on Bella because Peter is a know-it-all, but it's actually his gift and if he told Victoria she needed to leave first for her plan to succeed, then she would listen. "With Jason."
"Oh." And, well, Bella feels a tad better and she hates to admit it (it's just, the vixen has been her companion for years now and she's her son's godmother and her best friend and practically a sister and Bella knows that the redhead has given up plenty to remain with her, but there's always that feeling that she'll leave one day and Bella can't, she just can't).
Bella feels a hand on her forearm and blinks up at the vixen who regards her with a mix of amusement, annoyance and, well, something else.
"We really need to do something about your abandonment issues, Bells." And the brunette's eyes narrow a bit, because she really can't deal with people leaving her, again. "And I'm not going anywhere."
There's a squeeze and Bella is fully aware that, if she were human, her bones would break under the weight – but she isn't and the touch is comforting, as if she can feel every bit of Victoria's love her for sinking deep in her skin.
"Don't think of it as an ending." And it's almost like the vixen can read her mind. "Think of it as a beginning – Peter has a plan and we'll follow through, because we always do, and no one will be left behind."
Sometimes, Bella forgets, just how much older Victoria is than her (she's childish and murderous and Bella has to clean up most of her messes, but she can be oddly wise – when she wants to be – it just doesn't happen often).
"You should act fast." Bella says, emotions wavering between amusement and anger. "If Edward continues to be this close to Jason, Jasper might kill him before you do." From the window in front, Edward's hand grazes Jason's thigh and, while anyone else would miss it, Bella catches the way her son's eyebrow twitches slightly.
"Hey, maybe he'll be your new son-in-law." Bella snorts at the vixen's words and thinks that Jasper would come up with even more disturbing ways to torture the seventeen-year-old vampire if that ever happened.
(Bella may be overly possessive of Jason, but that's nothing compared to Jasper's wrath, to his over protectiveness, and he would do it all with a calm composure and even a slight smile on his face. Bella knows and that's probably why she loves him so much. Their son is perfect in every way, a blend of them both and the fact that she can see so much of Jasper in him makes her love him even more every day).
"Like I said…" She repeats. "Take care of it before Jasper or I do something about it. It's one thing to kill someone and another to have my son molested by your future victim, especially when said victim happens to be an ex-boyfriend."
The smile Victoria sends towards her is blinding and, for a minute, Bella feels the nonexistent tension abandon her shoulders.
And then something pricks at her shield, makes it waver just a tad and Bella remembers that she actually has to focus, that her son's life is on the line here (she can deal with Edward Cullen and the nothingness he leaves inside of her later).
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"I'm sorry about my family. I know they can be a bit much." Jason hums, enjoying the way cold, winter air whips at his cheeks. "We don't bring much people home." Edward adds with a smile.
"Can't imagine why." Jason answers with a slight roll of his eyes and a playful smirk on his lips.
It's started snowing and Jason knows very well that the childish joy he feels at the sight of frozen white specks of water doesn't match with his outward appearance, but he doesn't care.
He cups one of his hand, catches a few snowflakes and watches as they melt slowly (his body temperature is lower than a human's, but warmer than a vampire's and the snow melts gradually, turning into water).
"But Esme liked you very much and I'm sure Carlisle was happy you answered all of his questions." Yes, those questions he asked. Good Dr. Cullen is fascinated by Jason and he'd sat with him for almost an hour satisfying his curiosity.
"They were very nice." And they'll be even nicer dead. "Emmett was fun." Read here, annoying. "Alice is a bit weird." Jason thinks she's fucking mental. "And Rosalie, well, Rosalie is a bitch." He can find a word to sugar coat it.
Edward throws his head back and laughs, as if he hasn't heard anything this funny in over a century (and maybe that's true, because he doesn't seem like the type to laugh).
A few people turn to stare at them, but it's hurried and they move fast to find shelter from the snow. Jason would twirl and twirl if he could, if he was with his parents. Acting like a grown up is tiring and he finds that this charade has gone on for long enough, that he's desperate for the normalcy of his own family.
"I wonder what you think of me." Edward asks and it almost doesn't seem like a question. "You are brutally honest; can I have your opinion?" Jason tilts his head to the side and wonders just how much honesty the vampire wants (Jason clearly won't tell him the truth, but just how big of a lie must he come up with).
"I think…" Jason pauses and then shakes his head. "You're a narcissist and spoiled and you seem like the type of person who would throw a tantrum if you don't get what you want."
Jason sends a smile towards the vampire (he thinks that if he didn't know Edward Cullen, he would get along with him splendidly – they are very much the same personality wise, only he has true parents with actual backbones and his father may clean up his messes, but he would want to make the man angry).
Edward's expression is stunned for a second, then two. But, carefully, a slow smile spreads on his face.
"But you aren't chastising me." Jason blinks.
"Not at all. What's wrong with being a spoiled, childish, narcissist?" Jason is one and he'll probably be one until he eventually outgrows it. Edward is perpetually stuck being seventeen, it's understandable that he has that mentality forever.
"I've never met anyone like you." The vampire says with a shake of his head. Jason thinks the man won't ever meet anyone else, that he should enjoy these few moments of happiness because what follows will be pain.
They walk for a few more minutes, snow piling on the streets and Jason's eyes shining like Christmas came early (and, with the green and red and white decorations and the snow on the ground it almost feels like December 25th), Edward next to him.
They eventually reach that apartment Victoria rented for them and Jason climbs up one of the stairs; it makes him practically as tall as the other boy, and smiles.
"Well, this is me." He blinks sweetly. "Thank you for walking me home, you didn't have to do that."
"I didn't." The vampire agrees. "But I wanted to." It's so cheesy, Jason almost gags. Edward moves to grasp one of his hands and wraps it with his own and Jason thinks this is what lifetime movies are made of.
"I have to go." Edward smiles then, his other hand raising itself to tuck a strand of hair behind Jason's ear. And Jason knows, knows exactly what the vampire wants to do at that moment and, he swears, if he has to go through it he'll kill Auntie Vic himself and burn her body right next to Edward Cullen's, stupid fucking –
But Jason never gets to finish that train of thoughts. No, Edward never kisses him, which he thanks the Lord for. No, instead the door of the apartment opens quietly and, deadly and calm, his father's voice carries even through the snowy, busy streets of New York.
"Take your hands off my son, Edward." And, just like that, before Jason has to time blink, Edward's body becomes limp, Auntie Victoria ripping his head off in one quick move.
"Dad!" His father's embrace is everything it should be (the fact that Auntie Vic is smiling and holding Edward's head and kicking his body down makes it even better).
a/n: Oh my God! What is that, is that an update? And with an actual plot? Damn... Nah, I'm just kidding, I actually had all of this planned, it just took longer to write than I thought. But, here it is and I'm so happy to bring it to you. So, clearly, Act 2 is done. Act 1 being Bella pregnant and becoming a vampire and now Victoria has started her revenge, which I'm glad because she deserves it. And here, I want to thank all of you who reviewed, you are awesome and if I could give you all cookies, I could. Thanks you so much for reading, drop a review to let me know what you thought and yes, Bella and Jasper will get some alone time in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed and till next time.