CHAPTER EIGHT.

NEBULOUS ACCORD

Carlisle allowed the suffocating silence to continue for several moments while he deliberated. We all watched as his eyes moved back and forth as though he was reading a book, going over all the facts, weighing the details. Eventually, he nodded.

Jasper's eyes lit up. I jumped back from the table in a cold fury before I noticed Edward. He was shaking his head minutely. I should have known better.

"I know you mean well, Jasper, but…" he gazed around the table at his collected family. "I would like very much for this to be a family worth protecting. The occasional accident or lapse in control is a regrettable part of what we are, but to plan the murder of a blameless bystander in cold blood is another thing altogether.

"I believe the risk she presents, whether she speaks her suspicions or not, is nothing to the greater risk. If we find reasons to make exceptions in order to protect ourselves, we negate the reason we chose this lifestyle. We risk losing the essence of who we are."

It was well stated. I would have cheered if the mood allowed, but I sufficed with a grin and sat back into my seat beside Esme.

"We would be expected to clean up our mistakes if we lived near any others of our kind," Jasper argued reasonably.

"We don't live near any others of our kind," Carlisle reminded him. "Every life is precious."

Edward sighed. "So what next? Do we move on as soon as timing allows?"

"We just got settled," Esme lamented. "I love this house."

"We don't have to decide now," Carlisle assured her. "Emmett seems very sure of the Davis girl's silence. If she remains so we can stay."

The two of them continued their discussion of the possibilities. I watched Jasper closely. He was silent but unmoved.

The worst part was that I could understand it. The warzone he had come from had called the attention of Italy and suffered the consequences of indiscretion on more than one occasion. If he thought for a second Alice might be involved in a visit from the Italian vampire governing body, the Volturi, he would do anything necessary to avoid it.

"Jasper," I said.

He met my gaze, expressionless.

"She won't pay for my mistake," I told him quietly. "I won't allow that."

"She benefits from it, then?" He asked archly. "She should have died today, Emmett. I would only seek to set that right."

I repeated myself, emphasizing each word. "I will not allow it."

He tilted his head and his mouth dropped open as though a reply stuck at the tip of his tongue. He hadn't been expecting this, hadn't imagined that I would act to stop him.

He shook his head once, coming to a decision. "I won't let Alice live in danger, even a slight danger. You don't feel about anyone the way I feel about her, Emmett, and you haven't lived through what I've lived through. You don't understand."

"I'm not arguing that, Jasper. I'm just telling you now, I won't let you hurt Delilah Davis."

We stared at each other, not glaring exactly, but measuring the opposition. I could see him sampling the mood around me, testing my determination.

"Jazz," Alice interrupted us.

He didn't break eye contact as he responded to his mate. "Don't bother telling me you can protect yourself, Alice. That isn't the point-"

"That's not what I was going to say," Alice trilled. "I was going to ask a favor."

Edward barked out a laugh and smacked the table. "I suppose we should have seen that coming," he snickered.

"What?" I looked back and forth between Alice and Edward. Jasper was just as bemused.

"I know you love me. Thanks. But I would really appreciate it if you didn't try to kill La. First of all, Emmett is serious and I don't want you two fighting. Secondly, she's my friend. At least, she's going to be."

"What." I said again.

"But… Alice…" Jasper gasped. His hands dropped from the protective cross over his chest, and he pushed back from his seat to stand halfway out of it.

My only consolation was that he was clearly as confused as I was. Before I could ask another question, probably "what," again, Alice went on.

"I'm going to love her someday, Jazz. I'll be very put out with you if you don't let her be."

"…I…" I began to speak, but Alice's tense expression finally broke into one of happy confidence.

"Ah," she sighed. "See? La isn't going to say anything. There's nothing to worry about."

The way she said the Davis girl's name. As though they were already close confidants….

"Alice," I tried again. "What does this…" I didn't know what I really wanted to ask, so I let the end drift off.

"I told you there was a change coming... I don't know, Emmett." She clenched her jaw and looked at Jasper.

"Wait!" Edward interjected. "What was that?"

"Nothing, Edward!" She glared at him.

"There's more?" I demanded. "What is it? Is it about her? Is it about La?"

"Holy shit," Edward stated. The room went silent. Edward never cursed, he found it ungentlemanly. In fact, most of the family left that sort of thing in my department.

"What is it, son?" Carlisle asked.

"Don't," Alice mumbled.

"They should know," Edward said quietly. Alice didn't argue so Edward turned back to me. "She saw La transitioning."

"WHAT?!" I jumped to my feet again, so swiftly this time my chair flew backward and fell to the floor with a resounding whack .

"It's solidifying," Alice whispered. "Every minute you're more decided. There are only two outcomes left for her now. She'll either become one of us, or she'll die."

Esme gasped, hands covering her mouth. Jasper was looking rapidly between us, still emanating disbelief. Carlisle watched impassively.

"So, what you're telling me is she's dead either way," I sneered.

"I'm sorry, Emmett…"

"No," I muttered and staggered into the table. My legs felt hollow, they wouldn't hold my weight. "No," I said again, voice even weaker. "I have to leave."

"Emmett," Edward said apologetically. "We've already been over that. If you leave, the girl will likely start talking. You have to stay and help us monitor this situation."

"I don't see you leaving, Emmett," Alice was still speaking in that apologetic voice. "I don't think you can leave, anymore."

"If the other option is killing her, I think I can figure it out," I spat.

"Think about it, then," she challenged. "Think about leaving."

I sank to the floor by Alice's feet. I could see what she meant. The thought of never seeing that messy mop of hair again, hearing that ridiculous snorting noise she made… it was an uncomfortable thought.

Alice and I ceased to remember the other people in the room. We were so wrapped up in our own conversation we couldn't see past each other's faces.

She crouched before me and put her hands on my shoulders. "We can't be entirely sure Jasper will continue to agree to not harm her if you leave," she whispered.

"I'm not hearing this." I knew Jasper would never do anything to hurt Alice. It wasn't possible for him to. "Why are you doing this to me?" My head fell into my hands.

I could not be protector to La Davis. It didn't make any sense for me to be.

"I love her, too," she sank from her crouched position to her knees and pulled me into a hug. "Or I will. It's not the same, but I'd really like to have her around for the chance."

"Love her, too ?" I stared at Alice incredulously.

"Oh, Emmett," she squeezed me tighter, hugging my head to her chest. "You are so blind. Can't you see where you're headed? Where you already are? It's more inevitable than the sun rising."

"No," I would deny it until the bitter end. "I'll leave. I can change the future. For her, I can."

"You can try," Alice said.

"I don't want this for her," I moaned. "It's not fair."

"Why not?" she asked. "You don't know what she wants, and you never will if you leave."

Edward cleared his throat. "She has a point, Emmett."

"Shut the fuck up, Edward."

"Love her? Do you mean the human?" Esme asked, stunned. "The girl he saved today? He's fallen in love with her?"

"So it would seem," Carlisle said mildly.

"Alice, dear?" Esme called softly down to us. "What are you seeing exactly?"

Alice continued to hug my head as she spoke. "It all depends on whether he is strong enough or not. Either he'll kill her himself," she pushed me away just enough to meet my gaze seriously. "Which would really irritate me, Emmett, not to mention what it would do to you," she wrapped a thin arm around my neck and sank the fingers of her other hand into my hair, rubbing comfortingly at my scalp. To Esme she said, "or she'll be one of us someday."

Someone gasped again; I guessed it was Esme.

"That's not going to happen!" I shouted and pushed Alice away. "Either one!"

Alice ignored me and continued to speak over my head to Esme. "It all depends," she repeated. "It will take an amazing amount of control," she mused. "More even than Carlisle has. He may be just strong enough, but it will be close. The only thing he's not strong enough to do is stay away from her. That's a lost cause."

That last declaration sucked the wind from my sails. I didn't have any more words. No one else in the room seemed to either. We all sat absolutely still in complete silence.

After several moments in the quiet Carlisle spoke, breaking the spell. "Well, this… complicates things."

"Understatement of the decade, Pops," I said and slumped backward until I lay prone on the floor.

"I suppose the plans remain the same, though," Carlisle said thoughtfully. "We'll stay, and watch. Obviously, no one will...hurt the girl."

I stiffened waiting for Jasper's response.

"No," Jasper said quietly. "I can agree to that. If Alice sees only two outcomes..."

"No!" I groaned, and rolled over on the floor, covering my head with my hands. I was behaving like a child, but I was feeling so lost. I had no idea what to do. I needed to get out of there. I popped up and looked around at the faces at the table. All of them were watching me.

Carlisle looked concerned, Alice - a bit smug, Edward was amused, Jasper wary… but worst of all was Esme's joy. How she could feel any amount of happiness right now was beyond me. I understood a mother always wants to see their children find happiness in love, but love with a human could only bring tragedy for our kind. There was nothing to be happy about in this situation.

In an instant, I spun on my heel and fled. I started running as soon as I'd cleared the dining room doorway and banged out the front door into the meadow surrounding the house. I ran in a straight line toward Seattle, dashing over the mountains, crashing through streams, and tearing trees out by their roots as I went.

Rain poured down in sheets so thick I would have been breathing water had I been breathing at all. It drenched through my clothes, water arching off my dripping fists as they swung in time with my stride. I finally stopped when I could see the light pollution of Seattle brightening the horizon in the distance.

I found a small outcropping clear of trees that offered a view of the beautiful islands twinkling with lights between the Peninsula and the mainland, but no cover from the rain. My seat on the exposed ledge left me surrounded by the falling sheets of water. I felt shut in and claustrophobic. There was no way to escape the mess I'd made of the future.

Alice had said there were two options. The first was that somehow La would become a vampire. I tried to imagine what that would look like; her graham cracker skin lustrous with the transition, eyes neon red from the human blood still coursing through her veins. She would be glorious, I was sure of it.

The problem was that there was really only one reason she could become a vampire, and that was if I turned her into one myself. If there was ever a moment where I was in the near vicinity of her naked blood, I would undoubtedly kill her. Alice's vision had to be wrong. Transition was impossible because I would never be able to resist her blood. I didn't want to take that chance, even if she wanted me to.

All this aside, who was I to decide how she lived or died? I didn't want to force her into such an impossible choice either. Risk a painful death to be with a guy she just met for eternity?

There had to be another option. Some other way of ensuring her survival.

If I could be strong enough to choose a different path, we all might get out of this without unnecessary pain. Would I be able to do it?

I would have to when the only other option meant death.