Choices

Chapter 19

The next day, Belle and Charlie were both really anxious to hear what Vladimir and Stephan had to say about the legend of The ONE. Esme had to tell them both, more than once, to quit pacing and go find something to do. She was afraid that they would leave track marks in her carpet from all the pacing that they did. Carlisle found it rather funny that Charlie and Belle paced the same way at the same time. He was sure that Esme was correct about the pace marks and he thought it would be interesting to see who would leave the biggest marks. Belle and Charlie truly didn't understand how similar they really were. Eventually Alice took Belle and Rosalie out shopping, and Esme took Charlie out for a walk in the woods, to show him the little cottage that the boys had built for the Romanians.

By the time both humans had returned to the house, they were both completely worn out and could no longer pace back and forth. They had both just sat on the couch when Alice went into her trace-like state and then said, "They'll be here in thirty minutes. They decided to run from the airport so they could feed before they get here. They really want to take no chances on slipping up with Belle and Charlie."

For thirty minutes everyone waited, and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Belle asked where Jake, Seth and Leah were, and was told that they had chosen to stay at Leah's cottage so they wouldn't startle the Romanians. They would come a little bit later, after Alice called and the wolves had been explained to Stephan and Vladimir.

"Oh," Alice said going into her trace once again. "It seems as though Vladimir called on Eleazar and asked that he come for this meeting as well." This surprised everyone because they had all seen Eleazar not three months ago, and he didn't say anything about Belle's potential talents.

"I guess the fight with Victoria was the only thing on his mind the last time we saw him. He surely would have said something to us about Belle's latent talents, if we weren't getting ready for battle." Carlisle said, explaining the answer to the question that was running through everyone's mind.

Emmett suddenly could hear three pairs of feet running through the woods and then up the drive. "I can hear them coming now!" He said for the benefit of the humans in the room. He then turned to Belle and put his arm around her knowing she needed to relax. "Beautiful Belle, there isn't anything for you to be worried about. I won't allow anything or anyone to hurt you, so just breathe and relax a little. I love you." He gave her a quick kiss and looked into her shocked face, he hadn't said I love you yet to her and he knew that now was the right time for her to hear it. She sighed and leaned into him relaxing a bit, and said "I love you to Em." Everyone smiled at the couple's interactions and then focused their attention on Carlisle who was already going to the front door to let the three visitors in.

"Eleazar, Vladimir, Stephan, I'm so glad that you were all able to come on such short notice. Please come in, everyone is in the living room waiting." Carlisle said while embracing each Vampire visitor as they walked in the door.

Belle and Charlie were slightly shocked at the appearance of Vladimir and Stephan. They looked so different than the Cullens and for Bella they looked different than the other human drinkers she had met. The two Romanians almost looked as if they had been sitting stagnate for a long time. Their red eyes were almost hazy and their skin looked withered and worn. It seemed strange to Belle that they would look like statues that had sat in the sun for centuries. She couldn't help but rise to great the new Vampires and stroke their skin to see what it felt like. It still felt like stone to her, but almost soft like a human's skin would be. "Such a brave human, to approach some of the oldest Vampires in the world. We only know of three others that are older than us, but they are in much better shape than we are." Vladimir said with a kind smile directed at Belle. "I see that you have noticed that we look slightly different than most other Vampires that you have probably met. There is a reason for it, let's sit down and I will explain it to you, young one."