The clamorous noise of dozens of people all crammed into a small space overtook my senses like white noise – no not white noise, more like the buzzing of a bunch of angry bees, or wasps. Yeah, definitely wasps. It didn't help that every sound was amplified and echoed back by the tiled floor and massive windows, all that metal and glass, ugh, which two bit architect thought that was a good idea? Airports. The ninth circle of hell.
"Bella!" I heard a familiar and excited voice squeal, and I jerked my head around until I saw Jess standing near the escalators, rolling suitcase firmly in hand and with an anxious looking Angela standing by her side. Before I could move Jess was already shoving her way through the throng of people, while Angela murmured hushed apologies and soft 'excuse us, pardon me's in her wake. Then, I had my arms full of a very exuberant human as Jess flung herself at me.
"It's good to see you too!" I laughed as I managed to lower Jess back to the ground.
Once I was free from Jessica's grasp Angela stepped forward to give me a much calmer hug. "Hey, Bella." she murmured warmly in my ear.
When I pulled away from Angela I was met with Jess' manic grin. "This is gonna be awesome."
XxXx
This was not a conversation I was looking forward to having, but it was one I knew I had to have. The bachelorette party was tomorrow night, and I was officially out of time. I could only hope that Alice would understand.
I found Alice in the library, flipping through a fashion magazine.
"Hey Alice, I was hoping to talk to you." I said in what I hoped was a casual tone as I moved across the room to sit beside her.
Alice closed her magazine and placed it on her lap, she turned her head to me and gave me a soft smile. "It's okay, I understand."
"What?" I asked, my brow furrowed in confusion.
Alice smiled just a little bit wider, "I'm getting a lot better at seeing around all your…" she paused for a moment and gestured vaguely to the air around my person, "Shadows." she finished with a little nod. "I know what you've come to talk about, maybe not the exact words but the general gist of it."
"So you're… okay with it?" I hedged, "You're not upset?"
"I was a little disappointed that I couldn't be your maid of honour, but then I figured you would probably renew your vows at one point or another so I'll have my chance then."
Despite Alice claiming she wasn't upset by my decision I still felt the need to explain myself. "Jess was the first friend I have ever had. The first person to even try and be my friend, I love you but I really want Jess to be standing up there with me."
Alice smiled at me fondly, her eyes soft and holding so much more age and wisdom than her otherwise youthful face portrayed. "Bella, it's okay, truly." she reassured me in a soft voice.
I gave Alice a quick hug before retreating upstairs to find Jess in the guest room she was staying in. Both Jess and Angela were in the spacious guest room, Jess was busy laying out an outfit, trying to decide between two different skirts while Angela sat on the oversized bed nearby, offering wholly unhelpful advice that somehow still sounded genuine and thoughtful when spoken in Angela's kind and faithful voice.
"I like the embroidered flowers on the denim mini skirt," Angela offered, "The colours match the top but without clashing too much." She continued as Jess nodded along thoughtfully as she raised the skirt up closer to the top in question, a cute corset type number with off the shoulder sleeves that were completely for decoration. Jess seemed on the verge of making a decision when Angela spoke again, "But the cut of the other one… what did you call it?" Angela paused for barely a second. "Knife pleated?" Jess frowned and lifted up another skirt still on a hanger, this one just as short as the first, but red tartan and pleated prettily in a way that made it look a touch shorter without looking, as Jess would call it, skanky. "Yeah that one," Angela confirmed with a quick nod of her head, "That one would look just as good and bright colours mean that if you need a sweater later in the night the whole outfit wont fall apart."
Angela caught my eye from where I was hovering in the doorway and she shot me a quick side-eyed smirk. In truth, neither of us knew all that much about fashion, and all Angela was doing was regurgitating things she had heard Jess spout off over the years – Angela being much better at it than I was given they had been friends for much longer. That being said, Angela knew what she was doing, and seemed to be enjoying tormenting our friend.
"I like the red one." I announced as I strode into the room.
Jess spun around, both skirts still in hand, "Really?" she asked, pausing for a moment to look the pleated skirt over for a moment.
"Yeah." I nodded, "Besides, Angela is right. It's probably going to get quite cold as the night goes on, you'll need a sweater." Especially with a skirt that short, is what I left unsaid, since I knew nothing would persuade Jess away from either of her options. I took a breath and kept talking, "Hey, remember how I said that because the wedding is so small we're not really doing wedding parties, and just having a Best Man and a Maid of Honour?"
"uh-huh." Jess nodded distractedly as she started hanging up her outfit for tomorrow night.
"Yeah, sure." Angela replied.
"Well, Jess… I was hoping you'd be my Maid of Honour?"
Jess paused, arm still outstretched in order to hang her clothes. Then, she dropped them with a clatter and squealed. "Oh my God! Yes!" she rushed over to me and captured me in a tight hug. "Oh my god!" Jess repeated before pulling away, "Are you sure?" she asked me, her eyes narrowed as she scrutinised my expression.
"One hundred percent." I nodded.
"I just… I thought you'd ask Alice." Jess shrugged.
I smiled, "Alice is great," I agreed, "But you were my first ever friend. I want you standing up there with me."
XxXx
Rosalie was waiting for everyone in the foyer of the house. She looked stunning in dark jeans and a peach blouse. Rose smiled warmly as I led my two human friend down the stairs to meet with six vampires. Each of the female Denali vampires were already there and waiting, each just as immaculately dressed as Rose was. She was holding a small stack of slim cards in her perfectly manicured hands and she smiled as we approached.
"Fake ID's" Rosalie announced casually as she began handing out the cards to each of us. The card had my picture and birthday on it, except for the year which had been changed to make me 21. A quick glance at my friends told me they had received similar gifts.
My two friends turned to stare at me wide-eyed, Jess' mouth was opened slightly in shock. "Your dad's a cop!" Jess exclaimed in a shocked whisper.
"Retired cop." I replied, at the exact same time Rose scoffed and said,
"Who do you think got them for us?"
"That was supposed to be our secret, Rosalie." Charlie said in fond reproach as he glided into the entry way with more grace than you'd expect from a man of his size. He walked across the foyer, pausing to nudge Rose playfully who returned the gesture, and embraced me in a warm one-armed hug, "Have fun tonight, Bells." he murmured in my ear as he slipped two heavy flasks into my purse with his free hand.
"Don't worry chief!" Alice perked up as she danced over to me and looped our arms together. "She will!"
XxXx
The hunt was on. And it was serious business. This was the most important hunt of my entire life, and it would be remembered for centuries to come.
"Shots! Shots! Shots!" Jess and Bree chanted loudly and enthusiastically with a slightly more subdued Angela in the background. Alice was holding up her phone videoing gleefully as I drank back shot-glass after shot-glass of whisky spiked with the high-proof monkshood wine that Charlie had slipped me.
I slammed down the final shot-glass to the cheers of my friends and a few onlookers at the bar.
"Quick, finish your drinks, we need to keep going or the boys will catch up!" I laughed loudly, talking and gesturing wildly in order to be heard over the booming bass of the music and the clamour of dozens of people all talking at once.
"This is the strangest tradition ever!" Angela giggled as she finished her bright orange drink, pinching the decorative slice of peach from the edge of the glass she ate that as well and I made a mental note to get some food into my mortal friends before they got alcohol poisoning.
"It's fun!" Jess agreed as she dunked her long fingers into her bright blue drink in order to fish out the gummy shark at the bottom of the glass, she ate it in a single bite before drinking the entire glass in one go. "Woo!" Jess cheered. "Let's go!"
Yes. I definitely needed to feed them something more than cocktail garnishes.
Jess and Angela began to head towards the door, a delighted Bree by their side. It was a hard decision on whether to let Bree attend, but in the end I won everyone over. Bree had remarkable control for a vampire her age, what's more, I didn't want her to be left alone at home with only Esme and Carlisle for company while all the 'kids' were out having fun. Alice said she would keep an eye out, and considering just how many other vampires where coming out with us I figured Bree was as safe as she was ever going to be. By safe, I mean, safe from snapping and murdering a bunch of humans in a blood crazed rage.
Which apparently was always a risk when you were a vampire, so everyone just did everything they could to minimise the risk.
I followed my human friends outside, the car and driver still waiting for us, as I pulled up the next stop on my phone to see if they were still serving any food.
"Don't worry," Alice chirped from my side, "I've been having all the bartenders make their drinks a little weaker than normal, and the next place is a bar that's a bit quieter and is still serving food." Alice hooked her arm through mine and pulled me into the sleek back limo. "You need to eat something too, Edward will never forgive me if you pass out from hunger." she joked as the driver started the limo and pulled out onto the road.
"Do we have time?" Kate asked, her golden eyes glittering, small specks of blue were flecked throughout her irises. It seems that I wasn't the only one Charlie slipped something to. "We don't want the boys catching up, do we?"
"We should be fine." Rose waved a hand, "We've been making really good time and remember, we had a 20 minute head start."
"That's true." Kate nodded.
"I wouldn't mind something to eat." Jess spoke up as the limo came to a halt.
We all piled out of the vehicle and onto the side walk. It was almost 9pm, and we approaching the halfway point.
Alice took the lead and let our troupe into the bar, it wasn't as busy as the club we had just left, and with my ears still ringing from the pounding bass music the gentle jukebox in the bar was a welcome relief. Alice led us through the bar to a couple of high-top tables that had been pushed together. Just as we all sat down, a waitress came by with a tray full of food.
"Food for Cullen?" She asked, her eyes glancing over each of us in turn.
"Yup!" Alice chirped, "That's us!" The waitress began putting out the food.
"So we've got bacon cheese-burger sliders, warm bread-sticks, deep-friend pickles with both ranch and spicy mayo, and finally some BBQ wings." she named each dish as she placed it on the table. Each serving was quite large, and more than enough to feed our entire group, if six of them weren't vampires. As it stood, it was the perfect amount for two humans and a hungry werewolf.
"I called ahead." Alice announced proudly, "Dig in!"
You didn't have to tell me twice. I grabbed a fried pickle and dunked it in spicy mayo before eating it in a single bite, much to the wrinkled noses of the vampires present. I grinned slyly at them as I grabbed a slider and began to chow down.
"Right. Well I'm going to go get us some drinks." Rose declared smoothly as she stood and headed to the bar, most likely to dazzle the bartender into mixing the blood wine into her drink. I was halfway through my fourth slider, with a fried pickle in between each burger, when Rose returned with the drinks. The tray held six 'bloody Mary's' and three different fruity looking drinks.
When Rose put the tray down on the table Jess wrinkled her nose at Rose's choice of drink, "Why is it you guys only drink bloody Mary's?" she asked distastefully, "It's just spicy tomato juice. Like… cold soup." Jess wrinkled her nose again as she picked up the drink Rose had chosen for her. It was pale pink, the liquid almost see through, and it had a small cloud of cotton candy on the rim of the wide brim glass. Holding it from the delicate stem Jess took a sip and grinned childishly, "It's delicious! Here try!" Jess giggled at Angela,
"Mm-hmm" Angela hummed, "Try mine too." she replied, as the two girls switched drinks. Jess took Angela's bright green drink and took a tentative sip,
"Ooh, tangy!" Jess giggled. "What is that?"
"The bartender said it's made with a melon liqueur, Midori, I think it's called." Rose replied as she took an elegant sip of her own drink.
I laughed and shook my head at the pair as I picked up my own drink, glad that Jess had distracted herself from the vampire's choice of drink. My drink was a deep red colour, and served in a tumbler glass. Rose whispered to me that it was a cherry whisky sour but they switched the whisky with the monkshood wine. I took a sip and enjoyed the way the cherry flavoured syrup masked the more bitter notes of the wine.
"Do you think we have time for a game of pool?" Angela asked as she finished off some chicken wings.
"You play?" Kate asked as she took a drink from her glass, the flecks of blue in her amber eyes became brighter and more frequent. I took a glance at my human friends but figured they were too intoxicated to care or notice.
"Yeah!" Angela replied with uncharacteristic enthusiasm, her face wide and beaming. "The church hall has a table, I've spent every weekend and summer holidays playing pool since I could reach the table."
Rose laughed lightly, "Honey, you're not supposed to tell us that. How else are you supposed to try and hustle us?"
"Did you miss the part where she said the pool table was in a church?" Jess snorted around a fried pickle.
"Jess!" Angela squealed, shoving her playfully.
I smiled fondly at my friends. "Yeah we have time for a couple of games, we can play doubles."
I knew that we had a pack of vampires on our tails, hunting us down, following us from bar to bar, from club to club, following the trail of unpaid tabs and cryptic notes written on napkins and left haphazardly for anyone to find. I also knew that a couple of games of pool would allow them – allow Edward – to gain substantial ground in this game of cat and mouse we were playing.
It didn't matter though. Not when, and the end of the night, there was nothing I wanted more than for Edward to catch me.
XxXx
It was 1 in the morning, last I checked anyway. We were in the final club of the night, it was a dimly lit space with multi-coloured lights and lasers flashing dramatically over the fog covered dance floor. The music was loud and hypnotic and my mind felt fuzzy from the alcohol as I danced rhythmically to the beat.
I felt someone come up behind me, large hands resting on my hips as they swayed to the sensual music. I was about to elbow this guy in the ribs – as a start – before the scent of the mystery man filled my senses. A warm summers day, basil blooms and wild-flowers. Edward. I smiled as I continued to dance, and Edward stepped closer, his own body moving with the music as he pressed his chest to my back.
"I caught you." He whispered huskily against the side of my neck. I could smell the spicy tang of blood wine on his breath. Edward took a deep breath in, his nose pressed to the sweat flushed flesh of my throat, my heart skipped a beat as Edward groaned, pressing his entire frame against mine. I could feel the hard press of Edward's erection against my ass. I gasped out a soft, surprised moan, and the sound was swallowed by the reverberating music. My mind was in a fog of wine and lust, Edward's scent was all around me, inside of me, a part of me in a way I didn't think was possible. And yet, I still wanted him closer.
Still moving with the music, I twisted around, moving until my chest was pressed passionately against Edward's. I swung my arms around his neck and moved sensually against him like I had seen other women do with their dates. As I rolled my hips I could feel Edward's hard cock pressing against his sinfully tight jeans and the movement caused us both to moan breathlessly. In my heels I didn't need to reach up to whisper in Edward's ear. "I let you catch me." I pulled back with a cheeky smirk and a mischievous glint in my eye.
Edward's green flecked eyes crinkled as he smiled at me fondly, his eyes just a little bit glassy from the alcohol. "I know, my love. And I'm very grateful."
He didn't need to thank me. Not really. Because if it was Edward doing the chasing, I would always allow myself to be caught.
A/N:Sorry for such a long wait! And thank you for reading! As you all know life has been shit to me in the last 12 months, first I lost my home and everything I owned in the Feb floods last year, and now my Endometriosis is flaring up. I am on a waiting list for a surgery, but it may take up to 12 months. So until then updates will be pretty random. Thanks for sticking with me!