21

The door to the bedroom opened, and Bella looked over to find Edward walk in. He had an annoyed look on his face that she wasn't sure was due to her, or to the rest of the people no doubt still trying to figure out if she was going start the apocalypse.

"Hey," she murmured, shifting her attention back to her parents. Their wounds had already begun to heal, which meant that she hadn't been too late. They would soon wake up, be vampires like her. She just wasn't sure if they would be upset with her for taking that choice from them? Had it been selfish of her to change them without giving them the choice to say yes or no? She didn't want the answer to that question, not really.

"Hey." Edward walked over to her, kneeling next to her. He placed his hand on the side of her face, and she shivered from his touch. I'm worried about you.

Bella sighed. "You and everyone else, I'm sure."

Edward scoffed. "I'm not worried about that load of bullshit Jacob was spouting. I'm worried about you, sweetheart. Just you."

She closed her eyes. "What if he's right? I do have a birthmark of a crescent moon, Edward."

"You and probably a million other humans."

"And the powers? I mean, I do have this mysterious, unknown power, right? I can absorb powers from their vampires, use then against them. Isn't that what Eleazar said?"

"It is," he said, nodding. "But that doesn't mean you're going to end all of humanity, Bella. For all we know the so-called writings Billy showed him don't even exist."

"You think Billy would lie to his own son about something like that?"

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "Seems to me the man became unhinged when your father asked for you to be changed, sweetheart. He clearly didn't take well to being betrayed by his best friend."

She nodded, shifting her eyes back to her parents. "But what about all the pictures of me inside the bunker, Edward? Some of them were taken long before Fred. They've been watching me my entire life."

"Never said they weren't creepy as shit," he quipped. "And they think we're the dangerous ones," he added with a snort. "We need to see these so-called writings for ourselves."

Bella felt her shoulders tense as she looked from him back to her mother and father. "We can't just . . . we can't just change them and leave, Edward. They're going to be scared and confused, and . . . and overwhelmed. I have to be here when they wake up, Edward, I have to!"

"Of course you do. I wasn't suggesting we leave right now, sweetheart," he said, sliding his arm around her, pulling her onto his lap. "They have a couple more days before they wake up. That gives us time to make a plan. The problem is, we can't really travel with two newborn. I mean, odds are they won't be as strong as you've been when it comes to resisting humans."

"Their blood burned my mouth," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Why would it . . . why would it burn my mouth?"

"Maybe because they're your parents?" he asked, but then added, "But the only way to know is for you to taste another human's blood, which we frown strongly on."

"Yeah, because we value human lives," she said, almost wanting to believe the words as they came out of her mouth.

"Does your mouth still hurt?"

She shook her head.

"Good, that's good." He slid his arm around her waist, his fingers curving around her hip. "You said . . . you said you love me."

Bella grinned. "I did."

"Did you mean it?"

"I did."

"When'd you realize it?"

She inhaled a sharp breath. "I've loved you since I saw you standing you standing in the rain. You were so beautiful, and I needed to be closer to you. It was the first time in four years that I felt something other than pain."

"I wish I could have saved you from those years, Bella. Held you in my arms, eased the pain."

"Me too," she admitted. "But maybe we weren't meant to meet until the very last moments of my life, Edward. Maybe this is how it was always supposed to be. Jacob was right, you know? Even before I got sick, before the seizures and headaches and pain, I . . . I never felt like I belonged with humans. They were . . . I don't know . . . odd to me. I always felt anxious and uneasy, like . . . like I was missing something." Bella looked back at her father. "I was going to leave Phoenix, you know? I was going to talk to my mom about me moving in my dad. Give her the chance to live her life, you know?"

Bella shook her head. "I thought maybe I feel more connected if I lived in Forks, you know? I enjoyed visiting my dad, and even though I was still lonely, Forks felt more like home, and I wanted to go home." She frowned. "But then I got sick. One minute I was dancing in the living room and the next, I felt . . . I felt this pain and I could feel my body begin to tremble, like deep inside me, and I heard my mom screaming for me, felt her holding me, but I couldn't . . . I couldn't make it stop, and I was so scared."

"I can't imagine how terrifying that was."

Bella tried to smile. "That was the moment my life as a human ended, Edward. I'm scared, so scared that Jacob is right, that I'm . . . that I'm going to hurt innocent people."

"Hey, that's not going to happen," he whispered, slipping his arm around her and pulling her onto his lap. "We're going to figure this out. I promise."

"I hope so," she whispered, burying her face in the side of his neck.

—Stay—

Bella and Edward stayed wrapped in each other's arms for the rest of the day, watching as Charlie and Renee slowly changed in front of them. Where Charlie lay completely and utterly still, every once in a while Renee would whimper. Bella wanted to take their suffering away, ease their transition, but she knew this was just part of the change and she had to let it happen.

It was just after midnight when they crept out of the bedroom, just needing to look at something other than the same four, white walls. When they joined the others in the living room, Bella almost laughed. Almost, but didn't because Tanya and Jacob were seated on one of the couches, wrapped in each other's arms, while Eleazar, Carmen, Irina, Kate, and Garrett were standing as far away from them as they could, grimaces on their faces.

"Where's everyone else?" Edward asked, drawing their attention to him.

"On the porch. Planning," Garrett said, giving them a look that clearly meant they knew of Edward and Bella's plans to go find Billy, to see these so called writings for themselves. Of course they knew, Bella thought, because they could them while she couldn't hear any of them if they weren't right there.

Edward nodded, and took a step toward the front door, but stopped when Bella pulled away. "Sweetheart?"

"Who killed Emily Young?"

Jacob tensed and shifted his eyes to Tanya before he stood up, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Sam."

"Why did he kill her?"

He frowned. "Emily found the bunker. Got too curious, I guess. She, um, kind of freaked out by all the pictures they had of you, said she was going to tell your dad, so Sam locked her away. He thought he could convince her to stay quiet if . . . if he told he about the writings, about how dangerous you are not that you're one of them, but she called him crazy and a psychopath, and Sam had a short temper, I guess. He shifted in front of her and that's how she got the scars on her face. Once he calmed down and changed back, she was even angrier and again threatened to turn him in for assault, and he beat her to death. That's when they decided to take your parents, to lure you back to home, I guess."

Bella shook her head. "Wow, and you say I'm the dangerous one."

"I didn't know he had her until after he killed her," Jacob insisted, stepping toward her, but she put her hands up, moving from him. "You're scared of me?"

"No," she said. "I just don't like you much right now. Who took all the pictures of me?"

Jacob pressed his lips together.

"It was your father, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "Him, Harry Clearwater, Old Ouil Ateara Sr."

"All members of the Tribal Council."

"They're scared of you, Bella. You have to understand that they thought they were doing what's right!"

"Scared of me?" she scoffed. "I was just a girl with cancer, Jake. I was too weak to wipe my own ass at the end, but they're scared of me?" She shook her head. "Where can I find them?"

"Bella," he murmured. "I . . . He's my dad."

She nodded, gesturing to the hallway where her parents lay. "He was mine, too, and Billy was best friend, and he betrayed him. Fucking betrayed him because my father wanted me to live. Just live. Not destroy the world, or end humanity like you claim I'm going to. He just wanted me to live, and Billy made the decision he was expendable. So why should I care that he's your father?"

Jacob brought his hand up to the back of his neck. "I'll take you to him, but you have to promise me that you won't hurt him. You'll listen to him, let him show you the writings, whatever you want, but you can't hurt him, Bella. He's human."

"I'm not like Sam Uley, Jake. I don't kill humans." Bella shifted her eyes to Edward, who gave her a simple nod. "Find, but we're waiting until after Charlie and Renee wake up. You'd better not fuck us over, Jake, or I will make it my mission to kill every last one of you." She shifted her eyes to Tanya. "And I'll start with you."

Tanya snarled, but Jake put his hand out to calm her. "I'm on your side, Bella."

"I hope so." Bella turned and led Edward out of the house, where they joined the rest of their family on the front porch. "Y'all heard all of that, I'm assuming?"

"We did," Carlisle admitted with a nod.

"Have you ever heard of anything like this?" she asked. "Writings like these?"

"No," he said. "This one is definitely a new one for us."

"I have," Jasper said, drawing everyone's attention to him. He tensed as he looked at Bella. "You don't know much about my life before I meet Alice, and we found Carlisle and everyone, but I . . . I spent much of early years in the south, building newborn armies."

"Newborn armies?"

Jasper nodded, his eyes darkening and Alice was immediately by his side. "See, Bella, like you, as a human I had talents. I was persuasive, I believe is the term my momma used when I talked her into allowing me to join the Confederate Army. I was a solider, determined to do my duty, and I was good at it. Moved through the ranks quickly. I'd just become a Major when I found myself standing in front of three beautiful women, who I thought needed help. Turns out, they needed me. Maria was their leader, and she changed me, turned me into a vampire and used my gift to control the newborns we created. I hated it, of course. I felt their fear, their angry, their sorrow," he whimpered, bringing his hand up to his mouth.

"After almost a century, I grew tired of that life, wanted . . . I wanted to be better, so I made a plan. I was going to leave, but before I could, Maria tried to stop me. Things got ugly, and well, I killed her. After I took her life, I found her diary. I shouldn't have taken it, I know how you girls are about your private thoughts," he added, trying to laugh to lighten the mood, but of course, it didn't help. "Inside her diary were pages upon pages upon pages of so called writings that detailed the end of the world as we knew it. Her writings were messy and incoherent, but I pieced enough of it together to figure out that Maria thought she would be able to end the world, Bella, if she created enough vampires. Like I said, she was crazy."

"So you think Billy Black is crazy, too?"

Jasper shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not. Maria let her authority over her army get to her head, and I'm ashamed to admit that I let it go on for far too long, Bella, but if someone believes something long enough, they make it happen."

"What if he's not crazy?" she asked. "What if everything Billy Black believes about me is true, Jasper?"

"Then I guess we'll find out just how much control you really have, won't we?"

Jasper gave her a look before he swopped Alice into his arms and leapt off the porch and into the woods, the sound of her laughter echoing around them. Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle, and Esme followed, off to hunt she was sure. Maybe Jasper was right. Maybe Billy Black was just a crazy old man who believed in fairy tales, but then again, vampires weren't supposed to be real, either.

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