Disclaimer: Original characters and part of the plot belong to Stephanie Meyer

Chapter 17 – Unexpected Visitors

Bella POV

"Mom, I'm going to work!" I called out to her the next morning after breakfast as I left the house to go to the Newtons' store. Mrs Newton had been kind enough to give me a few days' leave for the funeral and Christmas but now it was time to get back to normal life. Or as normal as it could be.

On my way to the car, I took a detour around the back of the house. A brown wolf with dark grey fur around his eyes was pacing slowly around my house. He caught my sight and gave a small bark before going behind a nearby tree and returning as a human. He was at least six feet tall (though not as much as Sam), and had brown hair and eyes. He had the same muscled appearance as Sam and Jacob.

He introduced himself. "I'm Jared."

"Bella," I replied. "Though, of course, you already know."

"Quite well. Sam did share yesterday's revelations with us."

I nodded. "And… Jacob?"

"He wasn't… pleased, for the lack of a better word."

I sighed and said, "I expected it."

"Sam wanted to give this to you," he said, giving me a book. The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"Oh, yes. Thank you," I said. "Please make sure that Victoria doesn't get to my mother and stepfather."

"Of course," he said with a grim smile.

I nodded and walked back to the driveway and got into my car. Turning it on, I quickly drove to the Newtons' with my new love for fast driving.

The next few days continued the same way. I would get up in the morning, make a detour around the back of the house to check for a wolf and then drive to the Newtons'. In this way, I met all the four wolves which currently made up the Quileute wolf pack – Sam Uley, Jared Cameron, Paul Lahote and Jacob Black.

I would then come home, chat with Renée for a while, do some holiday homework, cook and have dinner, and then go to bed. Nightmares of being left and unloved still plagued me but I somehow managed to keep my screams contained so as to not frighten away the wolves or my family.

I tried to stay awake for long at night to ward off the nightmares as much as possible. In those times, I read the book which Sam had given me. He had also added a note for me with his and his fiancée Emily Young's phone numbers and house numbers.

One of those nights, I went to the attic to collect my bloodstained clothes and dispose them. The attic was full of broken furniture packaging boxes, some as old as six decades. I rummaged through them, eager to know more about my family's past.

In one of the boxes, I found some old clothing that looked like they belonged to the 19th and 20th centuries. There was also a sheet of paper and an album. The paper was yellowish and looked very old. It contained the Swan family tree, starting from the 16th century. The album contained a picture or a hand-drawn portrait of each Swan (including women marrying into the family) along with a small brief about their life that consisted of their birth date, institutions where they received education, death date and any notable contribution or awards.

There was also a small oak box. I took it out and gently opened it. Inside, kept delicately between layers of velvet and satin, was a platinum necklace. It had an oval pendant ganging from it with a drawing inside. The Swan family crest.

The crest consisted of a silver-grey swan, facing right, with its head raised towards the sky. It was swimming on a sea of Mediterranean blue colour, and was crowned with a garland made of four different flowers – freesia, rose, gladiolus and peony. Though I did not know much about flowers, I was clearly able to recognise them.

The pendant was bordered by a floral carving of rose gold. Despite it being very old, the colours were still bright enough to look like they were painted recently.

I gently took it out of the box and held it in my palm, wondering whether to put it on or not. Deciding to do so, I slowly unlocked the clasp and put the necklace round my neck, clasping it on again.

On New Year's Eve, after work, Renée and I cooked a splendid turkey, courtesy of the Blacks. Well, I coordinated Renée. And then went to my room. And then sat on my rocking chair while reading my new book.

Normal so far?

Winter in Forks was often accompanied by small gusts of wind which occurred often. I didn't take notice of this before but, ever since my talk with Sam, I kept my window open now. For obvious reasons. At night, from around midnight to 4 AM, there was no wolf guarding my house. I did the job with my cell phone beside me. It had Sam's and Jacob's numbers on speed dial.

It was almost an hour past midnight. New Year had come along with some fireworks display from the reservation. 2006.

A sudden, but quite common, gust of wind breezed through. But it was not a normal gust of wind having the wonderful scent of snow and dry leaves. It also had an incredibly sweet scent.

The scent of a vampire. More particularly, the scent of two different vampires.

Both were somewhat familiar to me. One was tulips, lilac and mildew. And the other was lavender, white musk and freshly mown grass.

Does it sound normal anymore? No, right?

I slowly closed my book and put it down on the handle of chair. Then I took my phone and stood up, and walked quietly to window. Keeping my hands on the window pane, I risked a chance and closed my eyes to take a deep breath and locate the scent. It came from the trees North-East of my window. The spot was in direct view of my chair. Someone was watching me. Someone who was not Victoria.

Every muscle of my body was now tense and coiled, and ready to react at the slightest notice. Knowing that confronting from the house was dangerous, I turned away from the window and walked downstairs and out of the backdoor, constantly breathing to make sure the scents hadn't disappeared. They hadn't.

I left my house and walked directly to the front of the group of trees where I suspected the vampires to be. I could smell the vampires slowly retreating farther and said in a calm, commanding and sharp tone, "Halt!"

The movement stopped. Everything was deathly quiet. It seemed that even the woodland animals had realised that the three of us were creatures to be feared.

"I know you are there," I said in a calm and deadly serious voice, adding a hint of menace to it despite knowing that if they attacked, I would most probably die then and there. "Do not bother hiding. Reveal yourselves right now." I punctuated each word with a pause.

A short whoosh of wind sounded before two inhumanely beautiful figures of a man and woman appeared in front of me.

And, when I looked up at the man's face, my eyes widened and I let out a gasp of surprise as I saw the one person I never expected to see again.