Disclaimer: Same as the rest of my story, I do not own the characters as much as I would like to have created them.


A/N: It is getting harder for me to write this so please be patient if I am taking a long time. I really want to finish this story. And yes, I know that not everything is perfect, but I just want to get you guys this story as soon as I can.



Chapter 15



So not only was I a freak of nature for Edward, thankfully, but I was for Holly as well. Strange enough with that; I didn’t mind. I laughed at the idea. But what I didn’t understand was why their powers didn’t work with me. Why was I so different? Was there something wrong with me? How did they get their powers in the first place? I had a whole new set of questions to ask.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in near silence back at the Cullen’s. After Holly’s abrupt departure we all went to their house where they thought I was safer. I didn’t think I was going to be safe anywhere, but what did I really know anymore. Alice was sitting at the dining room table with her head in her hands trying to see Holly’s next move but she couldn’t keep a lock on her since she was constantly changing her mind. Poor Alice was getting really frustrated. Jasper wouldn’t leave her side, just kept reassuring her that she was doing all she could. Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett were upstairs trying to come up with different strategies for every scenario that Holly might through our way. That left Esme and Rosalie with me and I didn’t know if they felt they needed to be with me as my guard or not.

“Uh! She is really pissing me off!” Alice yelled from the table. She got up so fast that the chair nearly fell to the floor, but Jasper was a little faster as he caught the chair two inches from the ground. Alice started to pace the room and Esme and Rosalie looked up at her with concern showing on their faces. “She won’t stop and think of one thing before she is onto another avenue.”

“Alice, dear, why don’t you come and rest for awhile. You have been at this for hours,” Esme said softly. “You are so tuned into her right now that you will see when she has made up her mind.”

“Yes, Alice. Please,” I said to her. “This is all my fault. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” I scooted over on the couch so she would have a place to sit.

Alice came over still sulking and sat down. She looked at me and said, “Bella, this is not your fault. From what Edward has been saying about her, it was only a matter of time that she came looking for him again. And because he is with you, she came sooner. The fact that he is in love with a human is killing her.”

”He’s what?” I exclaimed.

Alice just smiled at me, shrugged her shoulders and said, “He’s in love with you but he’s trying not to be so he doesn’t hurt you. Come on you had to have known.”

I was shocked into silence, so I just shook my head. Edward was in love with me? Is that possible? Could he really love me after all this time? All these years of hoping and waiting and is this really happening? My mind was in total shock.

“Alice, you should have let Edward tell her that,” chided Rosalie. “A girl deserves that.”

Alice just laughed at her and grabbed my hand. “Who knows how long it would have taken Edward to do it and my best friend here needs to be let in on what we all already know.”

“You all knew?”

It was Esme who responded in a motherly tone of voice, “Yes, we all know and I think that is making this harder for him. We know him so well and we can tell when he is happy and right now you have made him very happy.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. I needed something else to think about. I couldn’t keep thinking about Edward like this. “Jasper? Would you tell me how you came to be a vampire? Rosalie and Alice told me about them. And Esme I would like to know about yours too, if that isn’t too much to ask.”

Jasper looked between Alice and Esme. He nodded. “I can tell you, but some of it may be hard to hear. If any of it bothers you, please tell me.”

I shook my head and he started his story.

“When I was younger all I wanted to do was be a soldier. There was no higher honor in our country then. And none higher in my family. You see, I am from the south and we were a proud people. So when I became old enough to pass myself off as 18 I went to join the Confederate army. I was smart and I was a great fighter. They soon realized that I was a great asset to them so they kept promoting me until I became a Colonel. I was the youngest Colonel in the whole army. I was very proud to do my part but it was a hard time in our country and I missed my family very much. I missed a lot and sacrificed a lot to see that what we were fighting for came to be. As it turned out, it wasn’t enough in the end, but you already know that.”

“On one of my missions, I was sent to clear out little towns so that women and children were moved out of the way of the fighting. I didn’t have anyone with me. Well on one sweep, I was sure that I had got everyone out but I went back one more time, as always, to make sure that I hadn’t missed anyone or that no one was hiding anywhere. On that dark road I came across three girls dressed only in white nightdresses. They had to be cold since the night was chilly, I thought at the time. They were no more than sixteen, but they were not afraid of me as I approached them. In fact they were the opposite, they were excited to see me. I thought that they were just happy to see someone that could help them. I was wrong. They were not afraid of anyone, least of all me.”

“I heard them talking to each other as if I weren’t even there. ‘This one has promise, you will not harm him.’ ‘Maria, I want him!’ ‘I said you will not harm him, he will help us.’ I did not what I could possibly help them and why they would want to harm me. The one named Maria held her hand up to me, her eyes never straying from my face. I stared back and felt almost hypnotized so that I reached out and took it. Maria was ice cold. At that moment I realized that they were pale white and they were un-earthly in the moonlight. She noticed that she had me entranced and that is when she struck. She bit me and while she was doing that, I was screaming and I heard the other two girls laughing. I didn’t know what was happening and I didn’t know why the other two were laughing and not stopping Maria. And then the burning started. Nothing else mattered, I thought for sure that I was dying.”

“I was not dying, I was becoming what you see here. A vampire, a deadly killing machine. When I came to, Maria explained to me that she had recruited me to join her army. I didn’t know what she meant but I soon found out. She was creating an army of her own, only her army was one of vampires. And from what I found out, newborn vampires were a handful. All they care about was quenching their thirst and they didn’t care who it was. And she knew somehow that I would be the one that could control them or the one that could stop them. I didn’t know how she knew that, but she was right. Now, don’t think that I can control a lot of them, but a few I can keep in line. So she recruited more to help her keep her newborn vampire army in line.”

“When they were past their one year mark and could no longer help her, it was my job to take care of that too. She made it my job to kill them. It is no easy task to kill a newborn. They are very fast and are ruled only by instinct. They don’t have any fighting skills so that is one disadvantage they have. To make it easier, I would take them one by one out into a field and would do it there. It was an awful way to live. I hated what I did, but I was good at what I did too. And as long as I stayed a necessity I was safe from being killed myself. One day I met a vampire who made me want to not kill him. He talked me into running with him and I did. He convinced me that there were other ways to live without having to do what I was doing. So I went with him and I saw the world a whole lot differently. I didn’t see hate and anger, no more violence like what I was used to. The world had calmed down.”

“I wandered a bit and then one day I was walking in the rain and decided to duck into a diner where I ran into another vampire. I hadn’t seen another vampire since I left my prison as I called it. This vampires name was Alice. And the rest is what you call history. Alice and I haven’t been apart since. And she taught me more than I knew possible. You could say that she is the reason for my being.”

Once again, I was in tears listening to his story. They all had such sad lives. I couldn’t pick one that was worse. I don’t think that I could handle Esme’s story even if she was going to tell me. I got up and went to Jasper and gave him a hug. I felt him stiffen and Alice said, “You won’t hurt her Jasper, you can hug her back if you want to.” And he did. It was so sweet; this poor boy had a hard life. It was so sad, my heart went out to him and I wished that there were something that I could do for him.

“Bella, it’s okay. I can feel you worrying about me but I am okay, I promise.” Jasper said. He lifted my chin so I could look into his face. I looked into his deep eyes for the first time and I really saw Jasper. It felt like I could feel him too. I just stared at him and I saw what he saw. I could feel what he felt and it made me feel wonder. I was in awe of him. He had gone through so much and yet here he stood. No wonder Alice loved him so much.

“Thank you for sharing Jasper. I mean it. It was a sad story but I am happy that you shared it with me. I am sorry for all you went through.”

“Thank you Bella. Now wipe those tears away.” He said and smiled. I did and noticed for the first time since he started his story that I was not alone. I had forgotten that Esme, Rosalie, and Alice were here. I blushed as I quickly looked down.

“How about we see what those boys upstairs have figured out.” Rosalie said. She got up gracefully and glided up the stairs. Not two minutes later she came down with all three of them following her. Soon the room was full with the whole Cullen family here.

“You okay Bella?” Edward asked, noticing my red-rimmed eyes and nose.

“Yes, I am fine.” I sniffed back some last remaining tears. He rubbed my arm to comfort me.

Carlisle stayed standing while everyone else found a seat. He spoke first, “We have come up with a couple of plans in case Holly comes back and starts something. Edward thinks that she will considering that Bella is so close to him and to all of us. So if she comes here, one of us will get Bella to her house and stay with her there. Rosalie, would you do that?”

Rosalie looked to me, smiled, and shook her head. “Yes, I will be happy to do that.”

“Okay, good. Thank you Rosalie. If she happens to go to the school when you all are there, which I really hope that she doesn’t think about doing, it will be a little more difficult, but you all need to leave and bring Bella with you. You will need to come here. I don’t want to put anyone at risk.”

The four of them nodded. “Now, if you happen to be anywhere else, Bella, you will always have someone with you. And I am assuming that it will be Alice or Edward who is with you. They should be able to protect you, but they will need to get you safe and fast. However I don’t think that we should just stay on the defensive. I think we need to seek her out and try and figure out what she really wants here.”

With that Alice huffed, “I have been trying to figure that out and I don’t think that she even knows what she wants, but I don’t think that she is going away anytime soon. And she isn’t going to go away willingly.”

“That is what we have been thinking as well. I think it is time that I go and meet Holly again and talk to her.”

Emmett stood up and said, “I’ll go with you.”

“So will I,” said Jasper.

”And I think I should go too,” said Esme. “I think she needs to see that we aren’t out to hurt her and a woman along may help that.”

“Okay, well then that’s settled. We will go out tonight and see if we can talk to her. Alice do you know where she is?” Carlisle asked.

Alice closed her eyes and sat perfectly still for a few moments before she said, “She is in a field just south of Forks, a mile and a half outside of the town limits.”

“Okay, that you. Shall we go now then?”

Emmett, Jasper, and Esme all shook their heads. They got up to go and Rosalie and Alice kissed their men goodbye and came back to sit with Edward and I. They were going to face a vampire who loved Edward and he sat here with me. We didn’t know what they were going to face and I was sitting here worried that something bad was going to happen.

We sat there in silence for an hour, listening to the TV drone on without any of us really hearing what was being said. We waited for some sign that the four of them were coming back. Alice was watching for them every minute. Then all of a sudden she gasped, we all looked over at her, she smiled and flew to the door. She opened it and we all stood. A few seconds later I saw them all walk slowly into the house. They had grave looks on their faces.

I felt Edward wrap his arms around me and Alice came to my side as well. Carlisle came up and looked up at me with sad eyes however it was Esme who came up to me and told me what Alice and Edward knew.

“Bella. I don’t want to tell you this but I have no choice. Holly is going to come after you. She is going to attack you, she plans on killing you.” Esme said slowly and sadly. Her head was bowed as she said it, but when she was finished she looked up into my face. She was surprised to see the look on my face.

What she told me was not a surprise to me at all. I knew that she was going to say something like that to me. I knew that Holly was going to do something like this. So I don’t know why it was a shock to everyone else.

“I figured at much,” I said. “I really don’t know why it should be a surprise, since she was and still is in love with Edward. I wouldn’t expect anything else from someone who is clearly more superior than me.”

“Bella! Don’t say that!” Alice yelled at me. “Just because you are human does not mean that you are less superior.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I meant that she has an advantage over me. Being that she is a vampire and far more powerful, I don’t really stand a chance against her so I knew it would come to this.”

“It will not come to that Bella.” Edward said confidently. “I will not let her hurt you or anyone else in this family.”

“Okay,” I said. “Then what’s the plan?”

“We are going to fight if she is going to take it that far. We just have to figure out what we are going to do with you.” Edward said.

“What do you mean? What you are going to do with me? If you are going to fight, I will fight too.”

“No, Bella, you will not fight. You are not going to be put in harms way. I will not lose you.” Edward said.

“She is coming after me. I have a say in this. She is coming after me and I will have something to do with this, Edward.”

”She is right, Edward.” Jasper said. At this I looked over in his direction in shock. I didn’t expect Jasper to side with me. Emmett I thought would side with me since he is more of a wild card, but not Jasper, he was really reserved.

“Thank you Jasper. I will be fine. And maybe she won’t expect me to be there and to fight against her so she might be thrown off guard.” I said.

“That might work. Who knows?” Emmett said.

“I know,” said Alice. “Well, I will once it gets closer to the actual time. And speaking of time, did she say when she was going to ‘attack’ Bella?”

Carlisle answered her, “She said that she is giving her a day to leave the family and then if she is not gone, she will be coming for her the following day. So we have two days.”

I sighed, not much time for me to plan my strategy but I would do my best. I would spend the time watching how vampires moved, maybe that would give me a sign of weakness to aim for. I didn’t have much hope for this but it was the best that I had for hope for. Maybe Emmett could show me some ways to defend myself if it came to that. At this I chuckled inwardly, there was no way that I would be able to defend her.

Alice must have seen what I was thinking and planning since she looked and me and rolled her eyes. “Bella, that isn’t going to work.”

“It was worth a shot though, right?” She laughed at me.

“How about we call it a night. Want to stay in my room tonight or…”

She didn’t even get it out before Edward responded for me, “No she is going to stay in my room with me. I want to keep an eye on her and make sure that she stays safe. Not that I think she will be in danger under your watch Alice, but you know.”

“I know. It’s okay. I will just spend the night watching Holly’s moves anyway.”

With that the group broke up and went their separate ways. I didn’t watch where everyone went, I just wanted to be alone for a change. I was tired of having everyone worrying over me. It was getting irritating and I was tired of being the weak link in the house. I didn’t want to be like this, I didn’t want to be helpless. I walked into Edward’s room, changed into pajamas, which were for the moment a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt, and sat on the couch.

A little bit later Edward walked in and came to sit with me. He put his arm around me and I leaned against him. I shouldn’t be upset about them all wanting to help me. Isn’t that what they have been doing since I lost my parents? I just wanted the playing field to be a little more even. A thought just popped into my head and my body stiffened. Would it really work? Would they all go for it? I would be put at risk this way? Do I dare even bring it up to them?

Edward felt me stiffen up and pulled me away just enough to look into my eyes. He looked like he was studying my soul. I blushed, naturally.

“What are you thinking?” he asked me. I didn’t know if I could tell him. What would he think of my idea? How would he react? I guess the only way to find out is to tell him of my idea.