Chapter Seventy Eight

Alice

Well it was all over bar the shouting so I thought it would be safe enough for us to return now and I decided I should come clean with Edward too. He'd known I was keeping something from him and although it had exasperated him I only said that I would explain when the time was right. Well the time was right, we wouldn't see Bella Swan again and the one time she could have proved a problem I'd kept him away from her.

"Come and sit down with me Edward"

I patted the seat beside me on our hotel balcony,

"When you speak to me like that I get a bad feeling Alice, what's up?"

"Nothing I just thought we might go home now"

"Home? But I've been begging you for weeks now and you kept saying not yet, not yet, like a parrot, now all of a sudden everything is different?"

"Yes it is actually and if you stop sulking I'll tell you all about it but I want payment first,"

"Payment? This is going to cost me?"

"Of course and I'd like it up front if you don't mind"

"Oh why? You've had a grand tour of Europe and a dress allowance that would cripple a small country what more do you want? And don't say that necklace you saw yesterday because the answer is no, I hated it and it would look ugly on you"

"I'd settle for a kiss and you telling me how much you love me"

Edward

I looked at Alice suspiciously, when she was being all sweetness and light you needed to watch out because the other shoe was about to fall, with devastating results usually! I knew my little angel.

"OK, I love you very much Alice"

I kissed her tenderly, it was true after all, I did love this woman even though she drove me crazy on occasion.

"Thank you"

She leaned against me as I put an arm around her and nuzzled my neck,

"Remember the girl Garrett got all hot under the collar about in Forks?"

"Yes vaguely, wasn't she the Police Chief's daughter or something?"

"Yes, Bella Swan. Well I'd seen her coming and it unsettled me."

"That's a first, unsettling my pocket-sized Amazon."

"Don't make fun of me, she did for one very good reason. Bella Swan was your singer and I'd seen the outcome of your meeting".

"My singer? You mean like the girls Emmett killed a few years back?"

"Yes her blood called to you, it was really difficult keeping you far enough away from her at the dance but I wanted to be sure. You weren't aware of your reaction to her because her scent was diluted enough by all the other humans there. You were drawn to her, I kept you on the dance floor as much as possible and we left early."

"I remember, you said you were bored."

"I lied, I was fed up of your attention being drawn to her even though you didn't notice it."

"Why didn't I read that in your thoughts?"

"Edward Cullen you know by now I only let you read what I want you to read. I learned early on in our relationship to keep my thoughts hidden, its more fun that way."

"Is that why you insisted on this extended holiday?"

"Of course. I kept you away from her until I was sure she was well away from the family. It worried me when she took an interest in Garrett, that could have been a potential problem and after she was turned he still followed her round like a puppy dog, some men just never learn!"

"You told me she'd been turned by that guy Major Jasper or whatever, I take it Garrett lost her to him?"

"Yes but it was a close thing for a while there and I could never be quite sure if she was going to turn up at the house looking for blood, or venom in our case. She was a real little hot head there, you'd have been impressed Edward."

"So what's changed? Garrett got his head ripped off or something?"

"Not quite and stop trying to guess you're ruining my flow."

I closed my mouth and put a hand over it beckoning her to go on.

"Now it's all over, she's accepted the inevitable, that Jasper is her mate and she's given up on looking for revenge."

"Just a minute, you said you couldn't see her in your visions so how do you know all this?"

"You were supposed to be listening not interrupting. I may not be able to see her but I can see our family so I got the low down from the meeting she had with them."

"Right so we can go home now because I'm not going to test her scent, decide its mouth watering and jump her for her blood?"

"Something like that, besides you are no use to me dead and that's exactly what would happen if you tried attacking her."

"Oh really? She's that powerful is she?"

"No idea, I can't see her but I can see him, or I could, its all gone fuzzy now, I guess because they've now become mates in the fullest sense. The Major, Jasper's alter ego, is about as dangerous as they come. He would rip you into tiny pieces and feed them to a furnace laughing while he did it."

I shuddered,

"Why do you have to be so graphic Alice, anyone would think you were trying to scare me."

"I am, I happen to like your head where it currently resides, on your neck and attached to your shoulders. Stay away from Bella's Swan and you'll be fine."

Alice

It had gone better than I expected, Edward could be so tiresomely old-fashioned at times. The man taking the leading role in a relationship. It had taken me a long time to mould him into the man I wanted and needed and I wasn't going to let some human or upstart newborn ruin everything because her blood smelled so yummy to my mate. Edward was happy to be going home and once there I explained things to the rest of the family to great applause from Esme and Carlisle for my actions in keeping Edward out of harms way. Rosalie as expected still thought I should have told them sooner or even let Edward kill her to get rid of her other great problem Garrett, but she was over ridden by Carlisle and I couldn't help a self-satisfied smile.

"Bella and Jasper seemed to be getting along well when we saw them"

"Yes they came here didn't they? Well they're getting along even better now I think. There might even be...well...we'll see"

It aggravated everyone when I did that and I couldn't help toying with them sometimes.

"Any way, where's Garrett these days? Not still hanging around?"

"No Alice, Garrett seems to be under the impression we disapproved of his actions with regard to Bella Swan."

"Really? Why would he think that?"

My voice was soft and innocent, just the way I'd pitched it, well I didn't want them knowing I'd told him to back off or risk losing his friendship with Carlisle, not to mention his head and probably several major organs including the one containing his brain!

Things were getting back to normal in the Cullen house which is just the way I liked it, we didn't need bad influences like Garrett or the likes of Bella Swan rocking the boat. We were a family unit again and I liked it just fine. That didn't mean there wouldn't be other crises down then line but they were for another day, for now I had my Edward, Rose had Emmett, and Carlisle and Esme were happy once more. I thought although I couldn't be entirely sure, that there might be more good news to come but we'd see on that score soon enough.