A/N: My stories are now instantly updated to my P atreon page, which is under the same name as here, as soon as I finish the chapter. I will continue to update chapters here, just at a much slower pace. I really appreciate all the support I have received here, which is will I will not stop posting here! I'm just slowing down a bit.
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Sorry about getting so serious there, but please enjoy the chapter now!
Edward ran with Bella straight back to their house. He hadn't even paused to take their jeep back, choosing to forgo the vehicle because it was likely just faster to run than to drive. Bella wished they had decided to not abandon the jeep because the ride would have been a lot less bumpy. It was like Edward had forgotten that he was carry someone that very much bruised when hit or jostled too harshly.
Within the time it took Edward to painfully slowly lower Bella back to her feet, all the Cullen's were back in the living room, apparently waiting for orders; whether it would be orders from Carlisle or Edward, Bella wasn't entirely sure. Well… she was, but she didn't want to assume and then look like an ass. She was sure she could predict exactly how this would all turn out: Rosalie would complain that the human ruined their fun again, Esme would scold her, Edward would throw a hissy fit about how his life is ending, Carlisle or Jasper would come up with some plan, then Alice would confirm if it's good or not, the family would vote on it, then Edward would make them all do whatever he wanted to do in the first place.
Bella was willing to take bets on that exact thing happening.
"Great, the human decides to make friends and now we can't have any fun." Rosalie said as she leaned against the wall, Emmett immediately leaned against the wall right next to Rosalie, showing a quiet support.
"Rosalie," Esme chided as predicted, "She didn't do anything on purpose, she was just there." Rosalie only rolled her eyes, clearly not caring about supposedly being chastised or not.
"Let's not point the blame at anyone," Carlisle said, though to Bella it still sounded like in a very off-handed sort of way, he blamed Bella as well.
"Exactly, my Bella's life is in danger, we must do something before she gets hurt." Edward said, very much sounding like he was whining.
To hide her annoyance with her so called boyfriend, Bella moved to lean against the wall; she made sure to go to the opposite wall Rosalie was at because there was no way Rosalie wouldn't be snarky if she moved next to her. She was sure if Rosalie really let loose what she thought about this whole situation, Edward would become for whiny and Bella couldn't think of anything she wanted to deal with less than a more whiny Edward.
Unfortunately, though not entirely unpredicted, Edward sat so close to her that Bella wasn't sure if he was sitting on her lap or not. Wasn't he supposed to have issues with her blood or something? Why would he be so close if he did? Stupid Edward.
"I promise we will do all we can to protect her." Carlisle assured his prized first born, Bella expected to nearly Carlisle to pledge his undying allegiance to Edward; there was no way he was really the coven leader. Or maybe coven leaders were just the oldest ones in the group, regardless of leadership abilities. Vampires were weird.
Rosalie snorted in either annoyance from being voltun-told to do something or annoyed that there was nothing actually being discussed when there were likely three hungry vampires heading towards their location to likely kill Bella. Wonderful, the Cullen's were annoyingly slow to make decisions when literal lives where on the line; or at least Bella's life on the line.
"We should get Bella out of town; perhaps someplace difficult for vampires to follow her." Jasper volunteered, looking towards his wife for confirmation.
Alice's eyes lost all focus, not seeing anything outside of her minds' eye. But after a few seconds, she was back in the present. "If she goes back to Arizona, claiming she wants to move back with her mom, Charlie won't follow and it would be easier to hide her in the sun."
That sounded like a good plan. Sun+Vampire=nothing good. The only thing Bella didn't like about the plan was leaving Charlie with little to no notice. Charlie was a good man; he tried at least. That was a lot more than Renee ever did.
"That's exactly what they would expect." Edward explained, surprising everyone but Bella… and apparently Rosalie and Emmett.
"It's also a safe decision." Carlisle said, surprisingly agreeing with someone besides Edward. "A vampire would think twice before going someplace that has so much sun. It would make it harder for someone to move around while avoiding being spotted, they would be limited in when they could do anything." Carlisle reasoned, and those were all good reasons.
Bella thought about agreeing, thought about even arguing about leaving Charlie behind and unprotected, but really, what use would be? Bella had long since figured she would have to take a back seat in her life until she was turned, if she was ever turned, as a vampire Bella would be able to force her opinions to be heard. As a human though, they already thought so little of her, she had no chance to make herself heard much less making them go with whatever she wanted. So, she would silently sit there and just mentally curse Edward and his stupidity while quietly plotting throwing him off a volcano at some point in the future.
"That isn't good enough!" Edward yelled, aggressively moving away from the wall and away from Bella, making Bella roll her eyes, matching Rosalie's eye roll. That was perhaps the first time they were in agreement about something.
"What would you suggest then?" Esme asked in a kind tone, like she had no doubt that Edward would come up with something so much better than hiding in a desert when vampires hated being in the sun.
It looked like Carlisle and Esme were hanging off his every word. Jasper and Alice looked mildly interested and partly annoyed; probably because they were so easily writing off Jasper's idea. Rosalie and Emmett weren't even looking at Edward, they looked like they couldn't care less.
"Bella should be someplace with us, where we can protect her." Edward thought out loud, talking as if Bella wasn't even there. "But that James guy, the blonde, is a tracker. It would be too easy for him to follow any one of us to get to her."
"They would also expect that." Carlisle reasoned, though Bella wasn't sure he was supporting Edwards changing plans or trying to back up Jasper. Probably the former.
"We also have to keep the town of Forks safe from them," Jasper inputted, "If they attack, we may have bigger issues on our hangs." Jasper quickly eyed Bella for just a second, just barely slow enough for her to see.
That definitely caught Bella's attention. Was there something else in Forks that was scarier than vampires? Clearly there was if Jasper thought to mention it; that also meant that they were keeping something else from her. Bella should have known the almighty Cullen's would think the fragile human wouldn't be able to handle any sort of new supernatural creatures. Bella really couldn't wait until she could be one of them and finally not have to deal with people thinking they're 'protecting her' by keeping information from her. It was annoying.
"We can send her someplace with others that can protect her, someplace with people we can trust." Alice added, clearly already have a vision about what she was thinking and from Edward's intense stare he was reading everything she was thinking and saw.
"That's an excellent idea." Edward said with a giant smile. "I should have thought of it sooner." Edward quickly chastised himself and Bella was surprised Esme or Carlisle didn't step up and say Edward had nothing to apologize for. They normally couldn't stand Edward talking bad about himself, or being so depressed. "Bella can go to Denali, and they can help keep her safe while we stay here to keep the town safe and stop those vampires."
"That's an excellent idea." Carlisle said, but everyone could hear the 'but' in that sentence. "How will Bella safely get there?"
With a huff, Rosalie rolled her eyes and both her and Emmett moved their positions leaning against the wall. Rosalie and Emmett quickly stalked towards the exit, right next to Bella. Quicker than Bella could realize, Rosalie grabbed her wrist and started to drag her out of the room behind the two.
"You are all stupid." Rosalie said, not bothering to slow her pace, even at Edward's exclamation and protests for her stop. Emmett just moved to walk behind the two ladies, keeping Edward from reaching Bella. "Emmett and I will take Bella because Emmett's the strongest and I have the fastest all-terrain vehicle. You all can figure out what to do with the nomad problem. I'm tired of listening to all of you talking in circles. The longer we stay here, the closer those nomads get to finding us and attacking. I don't know about any of you, but I'm not looking for a fight."
Rosalie pulled Bella into the garage and then pushed her into another expensive looking vehicle that definitely looked like it could handle going wherever it was they were going.
"Um, where exactly are we going?" Bella asked, actually kind of happy that she didn't have to deal with Edward anymore, as long as Rosalie and Emmett were actually able to get her out of town.
"Denali." Rosalie briskly answered as she got into the drivers' seat and Emmett sat into the passenger seat.
"Why are you two going?" Edward asked, opening the door, about to grab Bella if Rosalie hadn't moved so fast to stand in front of the opened door, shoving Edward's hand out of the way. "You don't even like Bella."
"And currently I like you even less right now." Rosalie growled out.
"We want to go so we can visit with them." Emmett said as he half got out of the car as if to have better access to defend his mate. "We haven't seen them in a while, this as good excuse as any to do so."
Edward stared hard at Emmett, obviously going through all the giant's thoughts. It took a little bit, but eventually Edward seemed to see whatever it was that he wanted.
"I see." Edward said with a hard look, his tone unnaturally serious. "Then I will entrust her safety to you two." He said before looking past Rosalie, whom hadn't moved an inch, huffed in annoyance that the blonde wouldn't move. "I'll call you later Bella, just as soon as I'm sure it's safe here. I'll make sure Charlie and everyone in town is safe, you won't have to worry about anything."
"Just please, keep Charlie safe." As harsh as it sounded, Bella would rather they protect her father over the town. Yes, she didn't want anyone in the town to get hurt, but she also didn't want Charlie hurt even more. Bella would gladly admit she was selfish and would rather someone from Forks get hurt over Charlie.
"I will." Edward said and Bella could barely stop from rolling her eyes. He was acting like it was just him doing everything and sacrificing his time to fight these nomads and their beautiful red-headed member.
Rosalie shoved Edward away from the car and closed the door before quickly getting in and starting it. "We'll call as soon as we get there." Rosalie said, even though all the doors were closed and windows were up, but Bella knew their vampire hearing would allow them all to hear what she said. She was sure even those still in the house could hear her.
"Remember she's human Rosalie." Bella heard Edward yell, clearly desperate for the blonde to pay attention to him. "She needs rest and food on a regular basis." He yelled as they left the garage.
"God, she isn't a pet you idiot." Rosalie muttered and Bella was curious what else Edward was saying since she could still see him yelling something from inside the garage.
"Well Bella, since we've got a long trip ahead of us," Emmett said as he turned around in his, clearly not caring about wearing a seat belt or the safety laws of sitting in the passenger seat properly, "Want to play eye-spy?" He asked with a giant grin. Bella couldn't decide if she was looking forward to this impromptu trip or worried that she was stuck with the vampire that disliked her most.
