16
Bella picked up the phone, trying to figure out who the man on the other end had been. Why did he sound so familiar? But mostly, she was trying to figure out why the man on the phone went after her parents? Why they wanted her to come home? Why? Just why?
"What did you see?" she heard herself ask, causing Alice to look right at her. "What did you see, Alice?"
"Your mom and dad," she whispered, and Jasper tightened his arms around her. "Your mom and dad . . . I'm sorry, Bella. I'm so sorry, but they're dead."
"No," she said, shaking her head and falling forward again. "No, no, they can't be."
"I saw it happening," she cried, pulling away from Jasper, who tried to stop her, and kneeling in front of Bella. She stretched her hands out to Bella. "Take my hands, Bella."
"Alice," she whimpered, shaking her head.
"Your eyes are glowing, so take my hands," she said, again, so Bella lifted her hands off the floor, placing them of top of Alice's.
Bella felt her body turn rigid, her eyes rolled upward, and she started to shake. Just as before, she saw a series of pictures inside her head: her mom tied to a wooden chair, her body black and blue, red crimson blood coming from her ears and her throat; her father sprawled out on the floor, a pool of blood beneath him. They were inside a large, dark room that was lit up with only couple lights. There weren't any windows, though there was a clock on the wall with the time eleven forty-seven and a calendar with the date August thirteenth circled in red.
Bella yanked her hands from Alice's, feeling her chest heaving as she scooted away from her, needing the space to collect her thoughts. "What's the date?"
"What?" Carlisle asked, coming up behind Alice, placing his hands on her arms, almost like a father.
"What's today's date?" Bella asked, again unable to hide the desperation on her voice. "Please, what's today's date?"
"It's the tenth of August," Rosalie said, and when she looked over at her, she found her in Emmett's arms. "Why?"
"We can still save them," Bella whispered, mostly to herself. "I can . . . I can save them."
"What are you talking about?" Edward asked, squatting next to Bella, placing his hand on the side of her face. She inhaled sharply, her eyes closing. Talk to me, sweetheart.
"There was a date," she whispered, her eyes opening and she looked right at him. "They're in a dark room, and there was a clock on the wall. And a calendar with the thirteenth circled in red. We have three days to get to them, to save them before . . . before they die." She grabbed the front of his shirt. "I have to go back, Edward. I have to save them. They can't die because of me. Please, don't let them die because I said yes!"
Edward leaned his forehead against hers. "Okay. We'll go back. All of us will go back. We will save them. All of us, together as a family."
"Thank you," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you, Edward."
"You're welcome, sweetheart," he murmured, kissing the top of her head.
"Um, sorry." At the sound of Emmett's voice, everyone looked back at him. He had shifted so that he stood in front of Rosalie and Esme, almost protectively. "What exactly are you agreeing to? We're going to do what exactly?"
Bella and Edward shared a look before they stood up. Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle followed their lead, the five of them turning to face Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, Garrett, Tanya, Kate, and Irina.
"We're going back," Carlisle said, shifting his eyes to Bella, giving her a nod. "We can't just sit back and wait for . . . wait for the Quileute to take their revenge out on Charlie and Renee."
"You think it's the wolves?" Bella asked, thinking about the familiarity of the voice.
Carlisle nodded. "They're the only ones that make sense," he said with a sigh. "I should have expected it, after we broke the treaty. They weren't just going to let us go, but I never thought they'd go after your parents, Bella. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"But they're humans," Rosalie scoffed, folding her arms in front of her. "The wolves are all about preserving the human race, right? Why would they attack and kill Charlie and Renee just because Edward changed Bella?"
Bella inhaled a sharp breath.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded," Rosalie insisted, putting her hands up in front of her. "Just saying, your mom and dad are innocent, right?"
"Are they?" Jasper asked, drawing everyone's attention to him. He shifted his eyes to Bella, frowning before he said, "They knew what they were asking when they came to Carlisle, didn't they? They were desperate to save her, to save you, Bella, but they knew that asking Carlisle to save you was putting us at risk of the wolves' wrath." He smiled weakly. "Not that you weren't worth it, Bella, but they aren't innocent, at least not in the eyes of the Quileute."
"So we just let them die?" Bella asked, frowning. "I can't do that, Jasper!"
He winced, stumbling a few steps backward.
"Sorry," she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," he winced. "I'm just not used to feeling your emotions yet. They pack quite a punch. And, of course, we don't just let them die. We'll go back, Bella. We'll go back for them, because like you," he said, quietly as he looked down at the floor, "they're worth it."
Jasper hurried out of the room, up the stairs. Bella bit the inside of her lip as she looked at Edward, raising an eyebrow. He simply smiled and winked. Jasper thought she had been worth saving, and so were her parents.
"We leave in ten minutes," Bella said, shifting her eyes between each of them. "You don't have to come with me, but they gave me a second chance to live, to really live, and I won't sit back and let them die for me."
Bella slipped out of Edward's arms and walked down the hallway to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Her arms wrapped around herself as she crumbled to the floor. If she had been human . . . Well, she would have been dead because a brain tumor was killing her, and now, the wolves were going to kill her parents, and all because they wanted her to live.
—Stay—
When she emerged from the bedroom, she found Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, Esme, and most surprisingly Garrett and Kate gathered around the front door. Each of them had changed into jeans and T-shirts, small knapsacks on their backs. Tanya and Irina were standing off the side with Eleazar and Carmen, the four clearly making the decision to stay out of the fight, so to speak.
"So, we're going to travel in two groups of five. Me, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, and Kate will be in one car," Carlisle said, putting his hands in his hips. "The rest will be the second car. We'll will stop in Olympia and run the rest of the way in. Any questions?"
"They'll be holding them on the reservation," Rosalie stated. "You know what that will mean, don't you?"
Carlisle nodded. "It means that we will have to cross into their territory, but we don't have an option, do we? We cannot leave them at the mercy of the Quileute. We made the decision to change Bella, and we will stand by that decision, even if that means taking them out to save Charlie and Renee."
"Okay," Rosalie quipped, clearly not agreeing with Carlisle's decision to follow Bella into battle.
Edward reached for Bella, and she walked over, placing her hand in his. The same tingle filled her, traveling up her arm and into her chest. We're going to make it.
"Promise?" she whispered, placing her other hand on his chest. "Do you promise?"
Edward nodded, leaning his forehead against hers. I promise, sweetheart. I promise.
Bella wanted to believe him, more than anything she wanted to believe him, but she wasn't confident. How could she be? All her parents had wanted was for her to live, and that need, that want, might cost her parents their lives? If they died, God help whoever is responsible, because Bella won't rest until they pay for even thinking about touching them.
Bella shifted her eyes back to Tanya, Irina, Eleazar, and Carmen before she followed Edward outside. While Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, and Kate climbed into one large, black SUV, the rest of them climbed into a second one, Jasper, Garrett, and Alice in the backseats while Edward drove and Bella sat in the front. She pulled her knees up to her chest, staring out the window as Edward pulled away from the large house in Denali. They wouldn't come back, that much she knew.
—Stay—
"Do you regret it?"
Bella tensed and looked over her shoulder at Garrett, who had voiced the question everyone else had been thinking, but were too scared to ask. "No."
"Even if it costs them their lives?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," she said again. "They needed me to live, and I wasn't ready to die."
"But still, we could be too late," Garrett said, tilting his head to the side. "These wolves, they might have already killed them, because you said yes."
"Not because I said yes," she disagreed. "They could have tracked us to Denali. They're stinky dogs, but they could have tracked us, couldn't they? But they chose to go after them because they asked for me to be saved. The wolves, they didn't care that I was dying. I was expendable, but my parents couldn't live in a world where I don't exist, and I can't live in a world where they pay for me to live."
"And they won't." Garrett said, shifting in his seat, propping his feet on the window. "I'm always up for a good fight. Just hope they're worth it, Swan."
"They are."
The drive from Denali, Alaska to Olympia, Washington took over twenty-four hours, shorter than expected considering they were driving at least one-hundred fifty miles per hour. While they drove, though, nobody spoke. They left the cars along a trail just outside of the city, somewhere they were sure they wouldn't be found. As they gathered together, Bella could feel the tension between them, and she wondered if it had been fair of her to ask them for help, to expect them to help. Charlie and Renee were her parents, after all, and she had been the one to say yes.
"The Quilluete land starts about a hundred and twenty miles or so, due east. We'll go to Queets from here, and them up the coast line into La Push. We don't know exactly where they are holding Charlie and Renee, and we don't know exactly how many wolves we will be facing. When we left a few months ago, there were only six, but more may have turned since. Also, we know that Billy Black and Harry Clearwater will be a factor." Carlisle paused and looked at each of them, his eyes lingering on Garrett before he added, "Remember that not everyone on the reservation is our enemy, and we need to protect them from their own kind, as much as we need to protect ourselves. Our goal should be to leave the reservation with Charlie and Renee without leaving a trail of bodies behind us." He pressed his lips together. "That said, if we must take them down, we will. Understood?"
Though Bella could tell nobody wanted in this fight, they all agreed, and followed Carlisle, Garrett, Emmett, and Jasper as they started the trip toward Queets. Bella hoped and prayed they weren't too late, but if they were, if Charlie and Renee were already dead, she would make it her mission to take each and every one of them out.
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