Chapter 100!

I would like to thank all of you who read my story and send me their reviews, giving me constant confirmation that I have chosen the right story for my first translation.

Once again I would like to thank Sandra, the author of this great story, for putting her trust in me and allowing me to translate it. I also thank my beta Julie very much for editing and improving my chapters.

And I hope you will continue to follow me for the next hundred chapters 😉 .

Verena

Chapter 100

Costume Rehearsals

Edward

On Tuesday afternoon, I picked up my kids from school after practice and drove with them to Portland. The destination was a big costume store.

The twins were excited about the party that would then be held at our house on Thursday.

They no longer had much to do with Halloween. They were too old to parade through the streets and ask for candy. In addition, neither Halloween nor the following All Saints' Day was a national holiday that closed schools and businesses. Many schools in the country granted an optional vacation day, but the renowned Thornton Academy was not one of them. (1) This contradicted the set goal of striving to gain knowledge. So, they would have only met - as every year - with their friends and watched horror movies. Now their friends would also be with us on Thursday.

Bella came straight to the store. From wherever she had been hanging out today! She had only said that she had something in mind. Without further explanation!

She was already waiting when I drove up. Leaning casually against her bike.

I grumbled inwardly.

Bella and her motorcycle. If only I knew how to drive that out of her. If I simply traded her Honda for a fancy comfortable - and above all safe - car, she'd probably chase me away. In exaggerated terms. At least that's how I hoped it would be. I was not sure that this thought was exaggerated.

Since we were neither in Saco nor at one of the children's games, no decency rules applied to us. So, I quickly got out and immediately pulled my angel tightly into my arms.

Ten hours without Bella. That was hardly bearable. Especially because I didn't know where she was. Which made my greeting all the more intense, which Bella's heart commented pleasantly. That was just one of the things I would definitely miss when she was like me one day.

"Wow ... they're asleep? At this hour?" said Bella when she saw the twins in the back seat of the BMW.

"I guess yesterday's fiasco was more exhausting than they admitted, " I remarked, and the mother of the twins looked quite educationally about it. "Don't be angry with them. Yesterday's defeat in volleyball took a lot out of them and they didn't get overly drunk," I asked her on behalf of my children.

I really didn't downplay it.

Leah's team had lost to an opponent who had seemingly never been a significant problem for them in the past. A tough battle that they narrowly lost. Afterwards, they went to friends' houses to drown their frustration about it. But they had truly not been overly intoxicated. They did call me and ask me to pick them up, but only so that the Audi wouldn't stop at the end of town. They were even still in the forest afterwards, whereby I had accompanied them - just to be on the safe side. I knew that I could trust my children when it came to alcohol consumption. The group in general was very simple in this respect. If they met somewhere privately, they drank a few beers at most, which usually never got out of hand. Except on special occasions. The wolves still fell into bed pretty quickly after that and I picked up a sleeping angel from the neighborhood. Sonya and David had invited us to dinner. It was a beautiful evening. Then when I got back later, after picking up my kids, David and Bella had also fallen asleep in the living room. She had looked so sweet with her cheeks heated by the red wine. And she had only mumbled in her sleep, so that I could hardly understand anything.

I would probably also miss that.

Wasn't it said that one should not awaken sleeping predators?

I could now confirm this. Jake gave me a huge kick when I gently brought him out of sleep.

I was probably not gentle enough!

Bella laughed vociferously while I staggered back and landed on the ground, which then also woke Leah up. She was also obviously very amused.

"What were you dreaming about?" I asked accusingly. The boy also had a power in his body, though. Even when he woke up.

"Sorry, Dad!" Jake said immediately, a little startled at himself when he was then truly awake and held out a hand to me.

I already saw the reason in his thoughts.

He was drowning and kicked his legs, perhaps not to sink.

The shock was over, and he began to laugh.

I rolled my eyes.

Nice family!

Leah and Jake had no idea what they wanted to dress up as. They were a bit overwhelmed with the diverse selection the store had to offer.

The store was large and went up several floors.

In the entrance area were the cheaper offers, which was only very poorly equipped in the scary department. In the back area and on the other floors were the real costumes. Upscale prices, but also a corresponding quality and selection. The store was one of the few existing specialists in the USA and sometimes also supplied the theater or film industry. Therefore, there was really everything here: fairy tale creatures, superheroes, period pieces, senseless, funny, abstruse, elegant, scary.

"You can completely let off steam here. Try on whatever you like," said the still young owner, who immediately made his way back to the entrance in his 'Darth Vader' costume, from where a ringing could be heard.

The employees - mostly students at this time of day - were also out and about in 'Star Wars' looks today. Stormtroopers. Jedi knights. A Yoda. Wookies. Yesterday, it must have been musketeers, as I had gathered from the thoughts of my siblings at school today. They were already here yesterday to get their costumes for Halloween night.

I smirked.

Bella kept her hands in her pockets, absolutely disinterested. She had only come along so that she wouldn't miss Jake and Leah's various costume rehearsals.

That's what she had said, but I saw the curiosity in her eyes, which grew bigger and bigger.

The twins proceeded hesitantly. They plucked at a hanger here, stroked the fabric there. Only when some Jedi Knights put 'lightsabers' in their hands and threw the corresponding robes on, the two thawed. They let themselves be carried away by the employees' posed skirmish.

That's what they always did when the customers were too bored . And they were successful with it!

"I've known it all along!" laughed Bella as I stood before her as Superman.

Of course, in heroic pose.

My angel jumped into my arms.

I was pleased that Bella still remembered the content of our first more or less real conversation. Her theories about what I really was. The day when I had given up trying to stay away from her altogether. I had not been strong enough to resist our attraction. In retrospect, I should perhaps have understood much earlier! And should never have forgotten again.

"What do you actually learn in school?" I asked a little later, when the twins stood in front of us as cowboys. "You're Native Americans! The exact opposite of this!"

"I have history with Becky! Thereby I suffer from concentration problems," Jake talked his way out of my question.

"And what excuse do you have?" I looked at Leah.

Bella also looked very interested ... under her smirk and red 'Pippi Longstocking' wig.

"I haven't had history in a year!" Leah immediately explained her lack of history knowledge.

We continued to try, in the meantime also thrilling Bella along.

Pirates. Witches and wizards. Zombies. Musketeers. School uniforms. Animals.

Bella once wore the ball gown from 'Beauty and the Beast' and had looked enchanting. I had noticed her choice and had taken the male counterpart.

A Wookie turned on the matching song for us and I danced with my angel.

Unfortunately, the wonderful moment was quickly over, while our hippie twins had watched us good-naturedly.

"Then show me what you think a real vampire should look like!" I summoned Bella however and she ran through the corridors looking for the right costume for me.

She handed it to me, and I laughed. Still, I put it on.

Black cloth trousers, with black shirt. A vest of velvet over it, which was richly, and filigree embroidered with blood-red ornaments. An equally blood-red jabot adorned with a bat brooch.

Bats! Who had thought up this nonsense?

A floor-length cape with a high stand-up collar held together with a chain. Black on the outside, of course, but with matching blood red satin on the inside.

Honestly? I felt powerful somehow. Sublime. Influential. Almost like the Volturi.

I quickly gazed in the dressing room mirror.

My eyes did not fit. They looked far too well-behaved with that rich golden tone. My smirk also appeared much too well-behaved.

So I changed my facial features and stepped out.

Jake - the ninja - and Leah - the Minion - stood by Bella, who actually startled when she lifted her gaze to me.

At last!

However, this reaction made me start smirking again and Bella's touch of genuine fear was immediately gone.

I pulled her gently into my arms and wrapped her with the wide cape. Carefully I pulled her hair, so that she put her head in the back neck and thus exposed her throat to me. I kissed over it and felt her rapid heartbeat at my mouth.

"And so this is what a real vampire looks like?" I asked in a whisper as I slowly and pleasurably worked my way up to her ear and from there continued to caress along her cheek. Until I reached her sweet lips and pressed a soulful kiss on them.

"The red eyes ... are still missing," she gasped a little for breath.

"I can nibble a little bit of you," I kissed over her throat anew, chuckling. Her heart skipped a beat. Just a beat, but I loved these physical reactions that Bella had no control over.

"You take that!" she determined after I once again reminded her to breathe.

"And what are you wearing?" I asked however immediately.

She grimaced sugar-sweetly.

Fooling around with us here was one thing. Going to a party in costume was quite another.

"I'm going as your dinner!"

Very skeptically, I raised an eyebrow.

That might suit her enough to appear entirely undisguised at her own Halloween party.

Silently, I pulled her along with me and the children followed us tensely. I already had something suitable in mind that would not contradict this statement.

"Bella, my heart. You are my angel!" I walked backwards in front of her and held her hands.

She looked up at me disparagingly.

"You refused a disguise as an angel, I know, but still you are an angel. So now when an angel sinfully gets involved with a vampire ..." I began to say.

"Sinful?" Bella interrupted me chuckling.

"After all, we're not married!" I clarified my view.

"Oh yes. We live in sin and shame together! Like in Sodom and Gomorrah!" Bella laughed.

"Maybe not quite that bad," I admitted. "So. You are an angel and you let me, a vampire, a creature of hell, into your heart and into your innocent life ..." I tried to explain myself further.

"And into my bed! You forgot," she teased me.

"Of course. May I continue now?" I asked.

She nodded ... chuckling.

"So. You ... angel. I ... vampire. And you also want to voluntarily let me change you and bring you into misfortune with me!"

I stood still.

I saw through the eyes of the children that the costume I had in mind was on display right behind me on a mannequin. Leah already liked it and Jake started laughing in amusement when he related my words to it.

"What happens to angels who don't behave the way they're expected to in heaven?" I asked Bella in conclusion.

"They fall ... They are banished from heaven as fallen angels," Bella considered, and I made room for her to see the exhibit.

A fallen angel. All in black.

To my amazement, she actually tried it on without any further coaxing from me.

A stormtrooper carried the mannequin into the fitting room after her, whom I reassuringly identified as a woman only on the second try. She helped her into the elaborate costume.

When she stepped out , my unnecessary breath caught.

She looked so stunning even though it was the color of mourning. The long black halter dress made of tulle played around her body. Her bosom was excitingly showcased by a built-in corset. Silver patterns were embroidered on it. Huge angel wings made of tulle and artificial feathers - also all in black - made her look stately, but also mysterious. The black halo completed the look of my perfect angel.

My perfect fallen angel.

Bella came up to me and I immediately put my arms around her.

"Mom! You look abnormally good!" remarked Jake - by now a convict.

I paused.

Abnormal? Well. Abnormally good!

"Yes, Mom! Get it!" Cinderella Leah also agreed.

"And what does the vampire say about that?" my angel asked me.

"I'll never let you ascend to heaven again!" I vowed and kissed this perfect creature who would forever own my heart.

Thus, Bella and I were done, but the children had not yet decided.

I helped Bella out of the magnificent costume in the dressing room. I slowly opened the ribbons of the corset and greeted the increasingly free graceful back of my beloved.

How much time would I take with that on Thursday when we stood in our bedroom?

But here I pulled myself together now somehow and handed Bella bit by bit her own clothes, while I also dressed again properly.

"I've got it!" we heard Leah shout enthusiastically outside the dressing room in the intermediately.

We peered past the curtain.

"Forget it!" thundered Bella and I at the same time.

She had dressed up as Eve. With nothing on her body, except for an oversized snake that snaked around her body and rather moderately covered her female attributes. In her hand she held an apple, but that did not ruin the permissiveness.

"I'm not letting you out of the house in that, and I'm not letting any boy over the age of nine in the house!" I clarified our view on that. Daniel, David's oldest son, would not be there on Thursday. However, if he was, I would have to hide Leah from him as well.

He had his own party at his boarding school that he didn't want to miss. David suspected a female reason behind it.

Leah snorted in disappointment and then moved away. In the end she got Catwoman. A black jumpsuit, over-the-knee boots with high heels, a belt, headband with little cat ears, and mask.

No less provocative, but she didn't let that change her mind. I sighed in frustration and considered whether Marcus would also come. I hoped not!

Jake finally decided on an avatar from Pandora.

We had been in the store quite a long time and my beloved humans had gotten hungry. So, we took our acquisitions to the car and walked to a diner nearby.

To be honest, I wanted to test the truth of a statement I doubted.

The diner was not large, but full of diners. In the back corner there was still a table for us.

While my family studied the menu, my eyes wandered around the restaurant.

I kept a lookout, but I did not see the person I was looking for.

A young woman with flaming red hair stood behind the counter drying glasses. A man in his thirties was taking an order to a table. Through the hatch I saw an older man in the kitchen who appeared very choleric.

Through his eyes I saw the person I had been looking for. Marcus. So, he hadn't lied when he said that he was also working, in addition to all kinds of sports activities, which is why he hardly had the opportunity to come to Saco during the week. I didn't know exactly why I had something against this young man. So far, he had given me no explicit reason to do so. It was simply that I could not yet come to a final opinion on Marcus. I was still waiting for something, but I didn't know what it was. I felt like he was hiding something from us. A trait. A dark secret. I didn't know.

Marcus came out of the kitchen, holding a plate in his hand, and was immediately scolded by the red-haired lady.

My three angels immediately turned their eyes to the scene, as did some others of the guests present, but they did not yet recognize Marcus. He had the door at his back, and it covered him.

"You're such a bastard!" the woman drooled angrily. "How dare you betray me! Me! ... Didn't I give you everything you wanted? Everything you desired? And this is how you thank me? That you get involved with this little girl and literally run after her? ... You'll never see that hussy again! Is that clear?"

"If that's what you want!" returned Marcus, walking past the fury to deliver the plate to a nearby table.

"Marcus!" Leah recognized her ... boyfriend?

She only whispered and was too shocked by this war of words.

What had I done? Well, I had my answer to the question, which he obviously withheld from us, but I was not happy with it now, when I looked at my Leah.

Her gaze stubbornly returned to the table, and she clenched her hands into fists.

Bella took one of them, Jake sat down next to Leah, and I took the other fist and put an arm around her shoulders.

The lady behind the counter immediately thundered on.

"It's that simple? One word from me and you give up? Where has your fighting spirit gone?" she asked.

"You destroyed it!" cursed Marcus, standing directly in front of the woman and looked her doggedly in the eyes.

"I want to get out of here!" muttered Leah.

I nodded.

Jake immediately took the jackets off the chair as the lady continued to speak.

"You ..." the woman faltered, and I paused.

Marcus appeared amused.

"You ..." she began again.

Marcus waited patiently, but with an amused challenging gaze.

"You notorious loser!" the other waiter, who had just arrived at the counter, put her in the right way.

The woman clapped her hands against her face.

"Why the hell can't I just remember this?" she asked more to herself, taking some stapled sheets of paper from a shelf.

She was looking at the text for a theater performance!

"Actress!", I said immediately, explaining to my family. "She's going over her lines with Marcus," I looked my princess in the eyes.

Jake dropped the jackets again and sat back on the bench next to Bella. Leah smiled sheepishly.

Marcus, meanwhile, set down some empty plates, grabbed a small pad, and approached our table.

"Luckily, you still have a few days to learn your lines!" he smirked as he walked along. "Leah!" he then stated in surprise.

For a moment, they just looked at each other.

Marcus quickly recalled the minutes that had just passed and what conclusions Leah might draw from them.

"Leah. I'm sorry ..." he began and wanted to resolve the situation, but Leah rose and cut him off therewith.

They held each other's hands, but only looked at each other.

This moment seemed so strange to me, so I eavesdropped a little more closely.

Marcus wanted to greet Leah the way she deserved. But he couldn't manage to jump over his own shadow and only hesitantly tapped the freckle on Leah's cheek.

Leah, on the other hand, ran her index finger over the scar on his eyebrow, shifted her hand to his back neck, and finally pulled him toward her face. Marcus did not deny her, but followed the silent request.

Jake nudged me.

He thought for me, explaining and distracting, what Leah had said to him during their evening patrol. What this hesitation of Marcus had to mean and where he got it from.

And I couldn't help but feel sorry that Marcus had apparently grown up with quite little affection.

"So that's the new one for him. Pretty thing!" the other staff meanwhile stated.

The two waiters and the irascible man from the kitchen looked at Leah scrutinizingly.

"Marcus. Have you had a break already?" the cook asked.

"Yes," Marcus replied, downright disappointed.

"Maybe you'd better make another one!" the cook noted, and the small group immediately broke up and turned to their work.

As irascible and excitable as he looked, he actually seemed to be good-natured.

Marcus still took our order and gave recommendations.

He was surprised that I didn't order anything, but passed it over. I had to get my pallor from something. Apparently, it was from a lack of food.

He also personally retrieved our plates from the kitchen, but otherwise sat with us.

He told us that he had been working here for a long time. His bus needed gas regularly and had to be repaired little by little.

The fact that his parents somehow helped him with the financing obviously did not correspond to the pedagogical intention of those.

I generally didn't see much of his parents in his thoughts.

Well. He didn't know my gift, of course, but it seemed to me that he was deliberately withholding it from me.

But he introduced us to his colleagues. Maria, the acting student who had her first public performance next Saturday and was quite nervous about it. Chad, the son of the owner, who would take over this place one day. Thomas, the owner and cook of the diner. There was actually another kitchen help, Dylan, but he wasn't there today. Besides Maria, there were three other employees with whom he shared the evening shifts.

He had to work again on Thursday, so he wouldn't be able to come to Saco for Halloween.

Too … bad?

The food apparently tasted excellent to my family. I paid, tipped sufficiently, and we made our way to the car.

Leah stayed a moment longer.

I was able to get through that Jake would be driving home on Bella's motorcycle.

It had started to drizzle, so it was quite slippery due to all the leaves on the roads. Besides, it was really dark under the low clouds. And Bella didn't have to wantonly provoke the accidents!

But I also urged Jake to be careful as he swung briskly onto the machine.

Leah came running after some time. With a happiness beaming smile and a chocolate muffin in her hands.

Seeing Leah like this warmed my heart. Still, my mistrust of Marcus remained. Maybe I really was just as narrow-minded as Jake had accused me of being. Because it was simply about Leah. My princess. Was my selfishness so great that I didn't even want to share my daughter with anyone else? Then why didn't I have anything against Becky, who took my son away from me? ... Because that's exactly what she didn't do. Rather, Becky was like another daughter.

(1) My beta pointed out to me that this was not true. In the US, no schools anywhere give an additional day of vacation on All Saints' Day. But let's just leave it to dreams of the future; maybe it will happen someday.

Verena

Thanks for reading!