Seth Clearwater Imprinted With Trouble

Chap. 11

Edward POV

“Great, now there’s really going to be a war,” groaned Emmett when I finished explaining the conversation between Clarianna, Carlisle, and I. Everyone took most of the story in stride, though with a bit of confusion. But with what we’ve seen in the past with Nessie, confusion was inevitable. Especially when it involved the Volturi.

I looked back at little Clarianna and saw her holding Seth’s large hand. He was still unconscious, his breathing deep and steady, but his face looked strained and exhausted. Even though I knew that he was going to be all right, I still couldn’t help but feel a wealth of guilt rise to the forefront. In my eyes, it was my fault he got hurt in the crossfire of information. I sighed almost imperceptibly.

Clarianna’s eyes flicked over to meet mine and I stiffened. I could feel that she’d been attuned to my emotions by accident; by holding Seth’s hand, she came into contact with a link concerning myself. Her incredibly well-developed mind followed the open pathway without any true thought or effort behind it. From what I could tell, she’d never tried to limit her powers because she’d needed to know everything everyone thought about her constantly. Without a doubt, she was amazingly and deceptively subtle about using her powers. Unless I concentrate very hard on the insignificant signs she inadvertently let slip, I’d never be able to tell she was using them.

I could feel her mind touch briefly on a cloud of pity for me. Strangely enough, for someone so unbelievably complex, she thought in a series of seemingly unorganized files. She thought in emotions, in colors, in pictures, in ways that made it difficult to understand precisely what she was thinking about. It was difficult to put her thoughts into words or describe them; if anything, her mind was like an internet browser. Everything was stored off in different areas of the web. But she could link things together in a series of groupings, attaching files and pictures, or even sounds and videos to a specific page. It was an infinite, astounding thing that confounded me. If I hadn’t known that she knew the most basic truths of the universe, then… well, I don’t know what I’d do.

I’ve never, not in almost an entire century of living, met anyone like her.

Clarianna let go of Seth’s hand and slid off the couch. She walked over to me and stood in front of my chair. She shyly looked to me and blinked at me, smiling softly.

“Yes?” I prodded gently, knowing that she had something to ask me. She licked her lips.

“Do you… do you, perhaps, have an Italian to English dictionary? I think I would like to learn it very much,” she said almost sheepishly. It was my turn to blink. But I could easily see how her mind ran to that. It would be pretty difficult to rely on a third party to help her communicate with others for the rest of her life. The only ones in our family that spoke Italian were Carlisle and I, after all.

I smiled back at her. “Of course. Go back to Seth. I will get it for you.” I was gone in an instant, up the stairs and opening the door to the library. I strolled over to the second bookshelf on the right. It held language books of all types, from Italian to Chinese to Hebrew. Because vampires live forever, our family believes in gathering and maintaining knowledge. I slipped a book out of its niche and was flying back down the stairs within a second. I barely even glanced at the title of the book.

I came back into the living room to see Clarianna sitting on the couch with Seth. Seth had turned over onto his side with his knees folded half way up to his chest. Clarianna sat in the little space he’d left her room, between his chest and his legs. His arm wound its way around her tiny waist and rested on her lap. She absentmindedly stroked his arm. Seth sighed in his sleep.

All I saw was a huge puppy cuddled around its master.

I snorted, trying to hold my laughter in, but it was the cold hard truth. Seth was just a really big lap dog.

Clarianna looked up at me and then glanced at Seth. A tiny smirk graced her face as she looked back up at me and laughed. She held out her hands to me and I dropped the dictionary into her palms. She flashed me another smile and said, “Thank you, Edward.”

“You’re welcome,” I said back. “If you need help, you can ask me, all right?”

I saw her nod, but she’d already opened the book, her eyes flying over the words on the page at rapid speeds, turning the pages within seconds of looking at them. I had to wonder if she’d even heard what I’d said. I laughed silently for a couple of seconds but sobered quickly when I remembered everyone else in the room.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“Well, rally the troops, obviously,” Emmett responded bluntly.

“I believe Emmett is right. If the Volturi were mistreating her and she does not wish to go back, then we should do everything we can to assist her,” Carlisle said with his normal gentle voice, a tiny frown puckering his forehead.

“She’s just a kid. A baby,” Rosalie muttered under her breath. Children were her weak spot. We all knew that she’d wanted a large family full of children as a human. But as female vampires could not have children, she had to abandon that dream. Until Bella gave birth to our Nessie. Our entire family adopted her as everyone’s child. It seems as though another has joined the ranks, I thought to myself half amused.

I looked to Alice to ask her opinion because she is always a gray area. I can never quite tell which way her opinion is going to fall on until she’s already thrown down the gauntlet. Jasper caught my look and sighed. He glanced back at his pixie-like wife and said, “She’s been looking into the future ever since we’ve learned that Clarianna is Aro’s daughter. Give her a bit more time.” I nodded. I knew that Alice would want to know how safe the family was before she took side. We all do. But we could never ignore such a blatant injustice either.

Esmee wrung her hands. “Do you think she’s hungry, Edward? Will you ask her for me? I can make something quick for her if she wants it…”

Leah smiled at Esmee. “I think Seth fed her something at our house, but knowing that idiot, he probably just gave her some canned food or something. It’d be great if you could, Esmee. You, uh… you cook really well,” she said weakly, and a bit hesitantly. I could feel her embarrassment for being so rude to someone as kind as Esmee all the time. It actually surprised Esmee that Leah said that. Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, but then she smiled warmly. If she could’ve blushed, she would’ve.

“I’ll make enough for you, Seth, and Nessie, too, Leah,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll be back in a bit!” She practically flew into the kitchen, happy to have a job to do and that Leah’d praised her for it. It probably made her day.

I’d known that Carlisle would try to help Clarianna and Seth as much as possible; that’s just the type of person he is. So would Esmee. Rosalie can’t stand the idea of a child being in trouble, and Emmett is always on Rosalie’s side. I know that Alice can fall either way and that Jasper’s main priority is to make sure Alice is safe, so I’ll leave them out of the census for the minute. I looked to Bella, my beautiful wife, and met her eyes. I felt the wafer thin, impossibly strong mental barrier shimmer slightly, making a hole large enough for me to make sense of two fragmented pictures. One was a picture of Clarianna looking up at us with her large blue eyes displaying indiscernible sadness. The other was a picture of our Nessie with the same look in her eyes, and I knew that we’d have never been able to leave her alone.

I nodded to Bella. She sent back a small smile and stroked Nessie’s hair as she tried to build another card tower in front of her mother.

Suddenly, Alice opened her eyes and sighed. She scowled and rubbed her forehead. “Well, she was telling the truth. Aro knows she’s gone already. He doesn’t quite know where she’s gone, but he suspects us again.”

“I really dislike how he seems to be getting more accurate in his assumptions lately,” I muttered, my eyes narrowing.

Alice looked up at us all. She was frowning worriedly. “Emmett?”

Emmett startled slightly. “Er—yeah?”

“It’s a little too late to ‘rally the troops’, as it were. Edward was right. They’re already on their way here.”