14

Two things happened when Bella and Edward walked into the house. First, Jasper fell off the couch, screamed as he grabbed both sides of his head in pure and utter agony. And second, and more terrifying for her at least, Bella felt her entire body became rigid as her eyes rolled backwards and she was hit with a flurry of images.

A small black haired girl, curled up in the corner of her bedroom. She was crying, her face wet with tears, a red handprint on one cheek, and a black eye on the other side. The sound of a man, older and meaner yelling, "You've got the devil in you, child. The devil. Cast him out of you, child! Save your twisted soul!"

The same girl, a little bit older, running through a heavy forest, her eyes wide, tears falling down her face, which was filled with fear and horror, and the sounds of, "Mary Alice, we're going to find you, girl!" and "We must stomp the devil from inside her," being yelled. There was feeling in the air, a foreboding that whoever was chasing the young girl would do great harm if they caught her.

As the net scene flashed, the same young girl, again just a bit older, was being dragged down a dimly lit corridor. The walls were cement and dirty, the floors grimy. There were screams and yells coming from behind the doors along the hallway, the smell was harsh and rank. The girl was wearing what looked like dark gray scrubs and a white straight jacket. Two men, both large and cruel looking, had their hands wrapped around her arms, dragging her as she screamed, "Daddy, help me! Don't let them take me away, Daddy! Please, Daddy, please! I'll be good, Daddy. Just don't let leave me here, Daddy! Daddy!"

Just as sudden as the images hit her, they dissipated, and Bella found herself falling to her knees, her mouth opening, and she screamed so loud, she heard the windows rattling. She fell forward, placed her hands on the floor, before tilting her head back and looking around, finding Carlisle and Esme with a distraught Alice in their arms while Rosalie and Emmett were kneeling next to Jasper, who was bowled over, curled up in a ball. The look of agony on his face had her struggling not to bolt out the door.

Tanya, Kate, Irina, Eleazar, Carmen, and Garrett were standing on the far side of the room, their eyes wide, their mouths open in shock, maybe even horror. However, it was Edward who drew most of her attention. He was sprawled out on the floor next to her. His eyes were closed, and of course, his chest wasn't moving. She had just reached for him when he groaned, rolled onto his side, and sat up.

"What the hell happened?" he groaned, grabbing his head.

"We don't really know," Carlisle replied, slowly as he shifted Alice into Esme's arms. He put his hands up in front of him, to caution her not to lose control of course, as he took a couple steps toward him and Bella. "We're not going to hurt you."

She, however, didn't understand why he was telling her that, until she looked down, finding her hands curled in tight fist so tight, had she been human, her fingers might have broken, and with a whimper, she asked, "What happened?"

"You tell us," Carlisle said, again taking a couple of slow steps toward her. He tilted his head to the side. "You walked into the house. You and Edward, remember?"

She nodded, quickly.

"And then what do you remember?" he pressed, stopping and kneeling next to Edward, placing his hand on his shoulder. An act of support? Or perhaps cautioning him not to get too close to the out of control newborn vampire.

"I, um, I don't know," she replied, quietly feeling everyone shift their eyes toward her. "Jasper screamed and I . . . I saw . . . I don't know what I saw, but I saw . . . something, or rather someone."

"Me," Alice bawled, falling to her knees. In an instant, Jasper was by her side, wrapping her in his protective arms. "You saw me, Bella. How could you tap into my life like that when . . . when I don't even have those memories?"

"That girl? That was . . . that was you?" Bella asked.

Alice nodded. "How'd you do it?"

"I don't know," Bella murmured, and when she shifted her eyes from each of them, she saw the fear inside them. "Stop staring at me! Please, just stop staring at me! I didn't do anything!"

"It's okay, sweetheart." Edward was by her side, wrapping his arms around her, before she could move. He cradled her against his body, holding her together. "Just tell us what you felt when . . . when you saw her."

"I don't . . ." Her eyes closed, and though she didn't need to, she felt herself take a slow breath, trying to remember the memories that belonged to Alice. "Jasper screamed, and I felt afraid, and then . . . and then anxious, and she was there. And they were cruel to her, and I . . . I wanted to help her, to take her away, but I couldn't." Bella's eyes opened and she looked at Alice, who was being held by Jasper much like Edward was holding her. "You were still human, weren't you?"

"You saw her as a human?" Carlisle asked, looking between her and Alice. "Did you see what she saw?"

"I saw it through her eyes," Alice whispered. "From her point of view."

"How, though?" Tanya asked, drawing everyone's attention to where she stood with her family and Garrett, who was watching Bella with wide eyes, though he wasn't afraid. Just intrigued, she thought. Inquisitive, even.

"She's absorbs powers from others," Eleazar said, sticking his hands out as he walked over to her. "When your eyes glow, you . . . you absorb the powers of those around you, using them against them, I think." He stopped in front of her. "Take my hands, Bella."

She shifted her eyes to Edward, who gave her a subtle nod, before she stood up and placed her hands in Eleazar's. Just like when she walked into the house, she felt her body become rigid, her eyes rolled backward, but instead of getting more images of Alice as a human girl, she felt an assortment of powers: mindreading, electrical currents, visions, emotions, and super strength.

Bella tore her hands out of Eleazar's. "Did I just . . . feel their gifts like you feel their gifts?"

The man smiled. "You did."

"How?" she exclaimed, and when she saw Jasper wince, she took a step backward. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Turning, she hurried outside, wrapping her arms around her torso, trying to get control of herself. The door to the house opened and she when she looked behind her, she saw Edward, Alice, and Carlisle walk out, leaving the others safely inside. Safely from her, from the pain she was causing Jasper.

"I'm sorry," Bella whimpered. "I don't mean to hurt him."

Alice smiled weakly. "He knows. He's just . . . sensitive to what you feel at this particular moment. Jasper isn't a stranger to the feelings of newborns. Usually, he's an asset, able to help calm them when they begin to stray out of control. You, however, have amazing control, thanks to your shield, so he's trying to figure out how to navigate his gift around you, especially when you're so . . . powerful."

"Powerful?" she asked, nodding. "I don't feel powerful."

"Tell us what you feel," Carlisle suggested, placing his hand on Alice's shoulder, almost as if he were trying to keep her away from Bella.

"I don't . . ." Bella shook her head. "I thought I wouldn't feel like this after I was changed, but I feel . . . weak and overwhelmed. I don't know how to explain it, but out of place, I suppose."

Carlisle frowned, but nodded. "We haven't help, either, have we?"

She shook her head. "You watch me, waiting for my eyes to glow, waiting for this . . . so called gift I have. Even Garrett came to see the freak. I spent three years with people who watched me all the time, who felt sorry for me, pitied the girl dying from a brain tumor. I thought . . . Well, I guess I hoped more than I thought, that saying yes, letting you change me, would . . . make me, well, normal, I guess."

Carlisle grinned. "Yes, because being vampire is entirely normal."

She laughed softly. "Never said it made sense."

"It actually makes a lot of sense, Bella. You're so new to this life, to your amazing gift, and we are making it harder for you to adjust." Carlisle placed his hand on the side of her face before turning to Edward. "You both should hunt."

Edward simply nodded before he wrapped his arm around her waist. They waited until Carlisle and Alice entered the house before they turned and ran toward their usual hunting spot. Usual like it was an everyday occurrence, and not something they only did every few days. Bella suspected they normally wouldn't hunt that often, but Edward was trying to keep her sated so she wouldn't have the urge to drain a human. The thought of human blood, though, made her . . . nauseous? Could vampires become nauseous?

After they had each taken down three caribou each, they found themselves sitting in the same tree they had just been in before Garrett stumbled upon them. Edward had his body facing hers, though she couldn't seem to look at him. She'd hurt him, when her 'gift' went off again. She hurt him, hurt Jasper, hurt Alice? And she wasn't sure how to stop hurting the people who had saved her from death.

"Your eyes aren't glowing anymore."

Bella smiled and nodded. "That's good."

"I kind of like it when they glow," he said, placing his hands on the side of her face.

"Why?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He grinned. "Because it's only happens after you kiss me."

"You kissed me the first time," she pointed out.

"Okay, that's fair."

Bella sighed. "I hurt you."

"No, you didn't," he disagreed. "You merely knocked me out."

"How?" she asked. "How'd I do it?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "I've never heard of a vampire passing out before. We entered the house, Jasper screamed and fell to his knees. You became rigid, tense, and I grabbed your arm to, I don't know, support you, but when I touched you, I felt this . . . hit of energy, I guess is the best way to explain it. It knocked me to the ground. Hard. The next thing I remember is coming to, and you were on your knees."

Bella closed her eyes for a moment before looking back at him. "I'm really scared, Edward. I didn't sign up for all of this."

He frowned. "None of us did."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know what you mean," he replied, though there was something in his words that made her wonder if he did. "When I woke up as a newborn, and I heard Carlisle's thoughts, his grief for being selfish and changing me, I . . . I thought I'd gone crazy. As a human, I'd always been a good judge of character, I suppose you might say I could read people well but hearing their thoughts, their hopes, their regrets, it's . . . Well, overwhelming isn't a strong enough word for how it felt in the beginning." He smiled weakly. "Took a while, but eventually I managed to get a bit of control, block people out when it got to be too much."

"How'd you learn to control it?" she asked. "I don't want to hurt them, Edward. Jasper can't even be in the same room with me, and Alice . . . I saw her as a human. I need to be able to control it."

He snickered yet nodded. "I, um, I . . . Don't laugh, but I meditated a lot."

She just stared at him, grinning.

"I said not to laugh!" he exclaimed, though his lips curved upward into a smile.

"I'm not laughing," she scoffed. "But meditation? Seriously?"

He pressed his lips together and nodded again. "I would sit still for hours and just try to focus on fifty voices rather than a hundred. Then twenty, fifteen, ten, and then five until finally I could focus on only one. Eventually, I managed to block out everyone for small amounts of time. An hour at most, but it gives me an hour of peace and quiet, which with Emmett is not easy to come by."

Bella smiled. "He's a bit boisterous, isn't he?"

"He is, and he's been holding back a lot," he chuckled, sliding his arm around her waist. "He likes you, doesn't want to scare you away."

"I like him, too. I like all of them, Edward, but I'd like them a lot more if they wouldn't stare at me all the time. It's . . . uncomfortable. I had enough of people staring at me when I was fragile little human, you know?"

"Okay, I will talk to them," he said, his lips twisting into a devious smirk. "On one condition."

"Oh? What condition is that?"

Edward grinned as he brought his hands up, cupping her face. "Kiss me."

Bella laughed, but leaned forward, pressing her lips against his. As usual, the moment their mouths met, she felt a tingle from her fingers to her toes, and knew, no matter how awkward and uncomfortable she was around the others, she could never leave him. She needed Edward more than she'd ever needed anything.

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