A/N: Okay, yes, it's been forever again. But the good news? I finished this one for NaNo this year! There are three chapters, including this one, and then this baby will be finished. So I hope you can have some patience and sit back for the ride. For a summary of the previous chapters, if it's been a while, please see Chapter 17. I don't want to inflate word count by doing another one, and it's just one chapter back.
BPOV
The next three days felt like an eternity for us all, but especially for Edward. At first, he seemed to accept Alice's vision, even find comfort in it, but eventually his belief in our success seemed to fade away to a mere wisp. He became so worried, even though I tried to reassure him that we would be fine as long as we stuck to the plan, that I felt the need to devise a distraction for us both.
"I could use a hunt," I said the evening before the impending visit. I stood from where I'd been lounging on a sofa next to Rosalie and Edward and turned my head to look at my mate from the corner of my eye. "Join me?"
This would be only our third hunt together, and I knew he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. He rose and took my hand, but before we could move Emmett also stood.
"I could use a drop or two myself," he said, stretching. I wanted to glare at my older "brother" until I saw the serious look in his normally twinkling eyes. Even without Edward's or Jasper's abilities, I guessed that he was worried about both of us going out alone, despite the fact that Demetri and Felix weren't supposed to arrive for another ten hours.
"Want to join us, Rosie?" Now I didn't know how to feel about that addition, if she agreed to come. Rosalie and I were getting along fairly well, I thought, but given how cold her initial reaction to me was, I felt like too much together time might be pushing it.
To my surprise, she joined us without a word as we headed to the door amid murmurs of good luck from around the house. I found myself grateful that Tanya, Kate, and Irina had decided to have a girls' night out on the town to destress before the upcoming confrontation. Otherwise, the group outing would have felt even more awkward because I'm sure Tanya would have found an excuse to join us as well.
"Where do you want to go?" Edward asked as we left the cabin and stepped out into the snow-covered yard. The hard-packed white surface crunched beneath our feet.
We'd explored enough outside of hunting that I felt confident in my response. "Do you remember that pack of wolves we saw about an hour away, the one living near the caribou herd? That would be best. Not too far away, so we'll be back in plenty of time."
The others nodded, and we set off without any more words between us. I reveled in the feeling of belonging, even to so small a group. The solitary years of searching for Carlisle might have been peaceful to some, especially nomads who were more volatile than I. I found them lonely, though. This was much better, footsteps echoing and surrounding mine, small smiles exchanged as we charged ahead racing each other. We didn't do the latter much, though, since Edward always won, sort of taking some of the fun out of it. Emmett teased him about that, of course.
"Damn, bro, you could at least pretend to let one of us win," he huffed, reaching out with a big hand to cuff Edward on the back of the head. He ducked out of the way, and I silently cheered for my mate's quickness even though I agreed with Emmett. Edward did take too much pride in his speed. I'd have to see if Emmett felt like plotting to take down that pride a notch or two somehow.
Edward's laugh rang through the still night air, startling several small animals into running or flying away from us. "You know you wouldn't enjoy it as much as actually beating me," he taunted, running backwards.
I joined in the fun. "Enjoy it while you can, sweetie." I didn't try to make up an ultimatum, especially because I couldn't think of any that might work right off the top of my head. Instead, I let his own imagination take over, which only worked for me anyway. I'd rarely enjoyed my shield more than when I was able to confound him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded, but I knew he wasn't too worried since he was still smiling.
I shook my head. "You'll see." And that was all I would say, despite his pleading and the laughter of the other two, until we reached an area close to the wolves' territory. Once we were close, I held my finger to my lips to silence them all.
"They're near here. Do you hear it?" I whispered so low that only my mate and siblings would hear.
The others concentrated and smiled. We broke off into pairs without any prior coordination. In a second surprise of the night, Rosalie followed me, leaving Edward to go with Emmett. I'm sure that's not what either intended, but I understood her purpose right away. This would allow us to hunt and return without any distractions. While playing a bit after eating might have been fun, none of us wanted to be absent when the Volturi arrived, not if it would mess with Alice's more peaceful vision.
Rosalie and I followed the caribou trails, leaving the wolves for the two men. My thinking was that we'd hear less complaints from them if they were able to gorge themselves on the tastier carnivores, and a glimpse of the humor in Rosalie's darkened eyes suggested she felt much the same. The caribou were ridiculously easy to find, and we drove them hard in front of us for a few moments before each making our selection. I made sure to let her go first to avoid a hunting confrontation, something that Edward had warned me could happen sometimes on our second hunt. It was more likely to happen with vegetarian vampires than traditional ones since we hunted in groups for much scarcer prey, at least when it came to creatures big enough to satisfy us.
In the end, Rosalie and I each took down two does. I didn't have a drop on me, which made me happy. Not that I was often messy but because I wanted to impress this glamorous sister I barely knew. It was a little silly, since she obviously started out our relationship disliking me. But we could spend the rest of eternity as family, and I hated family drama with a passion. That was one of my biggest problems with Tanya, in fact, other than that she wanted to take my mate away from me, for some reason rejecting the idea that we were even mates in the first place.
On the walk back to where we started our hunt, I decided to venture a question to Rosalie. "Rose, what were your first days as a vampire like?" It was something I hadn't dared ask anyone before, but I knew that, like Carlisle, Rosalie was one of only two vampires never to have sampled the delights of human blood, and I wanted to know how her experience differed from mine.
She was quiet for so long that I almost thought she wasn't going to answer. I began to regret bringing up the subject. But finally she sighed. "Like the others Carlisle changed, I was dying when he found me. I'm not sure how much Edward has already told you." She glanced up at me now, and I answered her unspoken question.
"Not much, to be honest. I suppose he thought that you'd all like to tell me your stories yourselves. I've already heard Esme's, Alice's and Jasper's. But not yours or Emmett's."
She nodded and took another unneeded breath, obviously steadying herself. "I was a socialite in New York, not NYC but Rochester, north and west. I was engaged to a local banker's son in what was believed to be a very good match. I believed it was, anyway, and so did my parents who encouraged our relationship. What little we had." Her lips twisted up in an ironic way, and I found myself spellbound by her tale. "He was handsome, which I thought was a perfect foil for my own beauty, but other than that I knew very little about him except that he had very nice public manners. We weren't encouraged to be alone much, of course."
"One night, I was on my way home from visiting a friend. We lived in a very nice, safe neighborhood on the wealthy side of the city, so I felt it was okay to reject the offer of my friend's husband to escort me home. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had accepted…" Her voice trailed off for a moment, and I could tell she was lost in her own memories. "I encountered my fiancé and some of his friends before I reached my house. They were drunk. Let's just say that they were—less than gentlemanly."
My heart ached for her. Despite a sheltered upbringing, I had a feeling I knew what she meant. A group of guys, drunk, finding a young woman alone in the dark? That never ended well in any of the news stories.
"I'm sorry." It was all I could think to say, but it earned me a small smile, one that disappeared as she continued.
"They left me beaten and dying in an alley. Carlisle smelled the blood and found me. For reasons only he can answer, he carried me home with him. He's always said I was too pretty to let die, but sometimes I wonder. He's a doctor. He'd seen pretty girls dying before. He has since. Why choose me?"
I had no answer for that, either, so I stayed silent.
"Anyway, once I was changed, I decided to take my revenge. Yet I didn't want any chance that those monsters would end up like me. It would have given them too much power. I concentrated on perfecting my control. I had the usual newborn rage, but I used my determination to focus it, hone it. Human blood as food didn't tempt me as much as my revenge did."
"What happened?"
"I took them out, one by one, leaving my fiancé for last. He had armed guards posted around the small cabin he'd barricaded himself into as his friends died one after another. I knocked the guards unconscious and then finalized my revenge." The way she said it sent a shiver down my spine. There was heat, passion, and satisfaction, all delivered in the sweetest of tones.
But deep down, I could understand her actions. I even applauded them, at least a little. I knew Carlisle hated the thought of any intentional killing, but some people shouldn't be left alive to terrorize others again and again. Like James, the attacker who made me a vampire. I'd never been sorry for his death the way I was for the humans I fed from. Unlike them, and even unlike me, his intentions were always to harm others. He would have kept on with his games for centuries, even millennia, if he hadn't been stopped.
"Were you able to find some peace after that?"
She offered me a full grin. "I found Emmett."
"I don't know if that's the same thing."
She laughed and shook her head, her gold hair shimmering in the moonlight. "It is for me! A bear mauled him, you know. I ran him back to Carlisle. I was still far too new as a vampire to try and change him myself. But that was the first thing I'd asked of Carlisle. I knew, somehow, that I needed Emmett in my life. Something about his eyes when he looked at me."
My eyebrows rose in surprise. "Do you think the mating bond started then?"
She shrugged. "Who knows. I suppose it's possible. Anything is possible when it comes to love, they say, even love at first sight. And for a vampire, that would start the bond. I suppose you think it's shallow that I didn't know him first." Her voice turned frosty at that.
I couldn't help staring at her. Then I stopped walking and held out my hand. "Hello, Rosalie. My name is Bella the Hopeless Romantic."
The look on her face was priceless, but the smile I receive was gold. "My, my, Bella. You have depths I hadn't realized yet." She shook my outstretched hand, and then we continued on. "Does Edward know this about you? He's in line to become the world's biggest cynic, you know."
I let out a delicate snort. "Oh, I know. We've already had several discussions about my favorite books and his opinions of them."
"Oh? I didn't realize you'd been able to fit conversation into your 'alone time.'"
My eyes narrowed and I stopped again, hands on hips. "What's that supposed to mean?" I blustered.
She giggled. "Come on, Bella. We all know you two are getting hot and heavy in his room," she teased.
"That's it!" I reached down and grab a pile of snow, molded it into a ball, and threw it.
That started a game of chase and tag with snowballs that led us in a laughing, zigzag path back to the spot where we'd separated from our mates. We probably made an astounding sight, covered in snow and shrieking, as we came around a hill toward them. Well, I knew we did because Emmett's expression told us so as he stood there, arms crossed and jaw slack. Edward mirrored his position.
One glance at Rosalie after we stopped, and we both swooped down, gathered snow, and then ran towards the guys, pelting our snowballs for all we were worth. The war continued on, guys against girls, until the sun began to turn the horizon a rosy gold. We reluctantly called a halt to the game and ran back towards the Denali cabin.
On the way, Edward's hand slipped into mine. No longer was he trying to outrun us. Instead, we offered each other the comfort of our presence. Even Rosalie and Emmett were part of it as they ran a few steps behind. I knew they had our back in case the situation in Alice's vision turned sour. We were all aware by this point of how quick she was to point out that one decision could derail a vision.
The others waited for us in the living room of the cabin. Even Tanya, Kate, and Irina were back, although Tanya tried to hide her irritation at the sight of my hand in Edward's behind an aloof mask. I could tell by the way he winced as her eyes found him that she was imagining herself with him again, and if it wasn't for the coming visit I would have dragged her out by her hair to hash out this little issue she seemed to have. I was getting as tired of it as he was.
Esme looked at the four of us. I could see the exasperation in her eyes, and heard it in her voice as she instructed, "All right, all of you into the showers. Our guests will be arriving shortly."
Emmett let out a whoop and scooped up Rosalie, threw her over his shoulder, and ran off to their room. I glanced at Edward, feeling a little shy at the thought of what they were doing, but he gave me a grin and pulled me along behind them. I knew we wouldn't share a shower like they would, at least not yet, but the thought sent a warm glow into parts of my body I was becoming more familiar with.
Edward allowed me to use his shower first, as he had been for weeks. As the water sluiced down over my body, I wondered if he was thinking about what I looked like, trying to make a mental picture from the sounds of water droplets hitting my skin. I knew I looked fantastic. Being a vampire didn't allow for false modesty. My breasts were perky and larger than they had been before my change, my waist dipped in towards hips with a subtle curve and a firm ass. Despite that, I didn't know exactly how much he would approve of me in all my naked glory. I had an idea, of course, and we were pretty close to going all the way to finding out. But still I wondered.
The shower didn't last long enough, I decided after I shut off the water and stepped out. I grabbed a towel to dry off the stray rivulets of water running toward the ground. Once I dragged on a pair of jeans and the silk blouse Alice must have left out for me while we were hunting, all I had to do was towel-dry my hair and pull it into a ponytail.
When I passed Edward as I left the bathroom, I could tell he felt as anxious as me. The hunt had only delayed the inevitable, although I was proud that it distracted him even for a little while. He smiled at me, the corners around his eyes tight, as he grabbed his own clothes and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I amused myself while I waited for him to finish by laying on the chaise lounge in his room and trying to picture his body from the sounds of the water against it, much as I believed he had. I left his room after the water shut off, scurrying down the hall to the living room to escape the heat building inside of me. We didn't need that distraction right now, as pleasant as it could be.
Emmett and Rosalie made it back before me. The latter gave me a smile as I sat down on the couch across from her, next to Alice. I returned it as Alice grabbed my hand and gave it a supportive squeeze. It felt odd, but nice, to have sisters like this.
The thought of sisters sent my eyes to the left where Tanya, Irina, and Kate gathered talking in low voices about the men they'd met the previous night. Their conversation would have been enough to make me blush in my human days, but now I couldn't help but be fascinated, even as Tanya's eyes caught mine and she frowned. The one spot of darkness in my new family. Her refusal to let the idea of "catching" Edward go confused me. What made it even more mystifying was that she kept that unrequited lust while being willing to explore physical relationships with human men. It made no sense.
I looked away quickly and asked Esme a quiet question about the final preparations for the house. We would be ready to move in a few days. She enthusiastically detailed the kitchen of all things, one of the last rooms finished since none of us needed it to eat in anyway. Still, she explained when I made that observation, having that room leant value to the house should we ever need to sell it. We almost never sold our real estate, apparently. I loved how she included me within the family almost without thinking about it. She'd opened her arms up as a mother, and even if I still missed my human mom, I was more than happy to accept this loving substitute since I would never be able to see her again.
Edward raced into the room, his hair still damp, startling us all. "They're within my range now," he told us, his voice strained.
Eleazar stood up. "I suppose I shall get ready to greet them."
I realized while trying to write what turned out to be Chapter 19 that something was just off about the pacing, which is why it took me forever to get my head straight on it and finish this story. What I originally planned was awful, no matter how I tried to write it out. I think this does a nice job segueing into what was going to be Chapter 18 without reducing too much of the suspense. I also love the idea of Bella bonding with Rosalie as sisters.