Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 51

Chapter 51

 

     “I-I can’t see anything past the next five minutes,” Alice whispered urgently. “Nothing. Our futures all simply…disappear."

 

                       -8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

     It took a mere moment before mates were clutching mates, preparing for the worst. The males automatically stepped in front of their females, all vampires lowering themselves into defensive crouches, eyes warily scanning our surroundings from every angle.

     The level of alertness to possible danger was unreal among our family of vampires. Jasper was perhaps the most attuned to being at this level of awareness from his past in the Southern vampire wars, but everyone was on high alert as I had never seen them before.

     And I found myself instinctively behaving in precisely the same manner as the rest of my family.  A low growl rumbled from my chest as all of my senses were at the height of possible acuteness. My hearing stretched outward, my mind alert for any sound that was not natural to our usual surroundings. My breathing was quick as I used my sense of smell to locate any strange scent as my eyes scanned our locale. My sense of touch was very aware of Edward in front of me, his back moving under my fingers as he, too, sniffed the air for foreign scents.

     From the way that Edward suddenly tensed in front of me, emitting a warning hiss through tightly-clenched jaws, I had a feeling that the worst had indeed arrived.

     “They’re back,” he ground out, exchanging a significant look with Jasper and Emmett.

     “Who is back?” Carlisle questioned tersely, his glance at Edward sharp and demanding, so unlike him.

     “Who do you think?” Jasper snapped. “Shit, I can feel their thirst for revenge even from here. I can tell you that they are coming with no hint of mercy—except for one of them. But the vast majority? They plan to destroy every one of us.”

     “Every one of us, except me, you mean,” corrected Edward in a low, tight voice.

     “The wolves,” Rosalie whispered. “But why do they want to save Edward?”

     “They are trying to hide something,” Edward reported. “They suddenly divert their thoughts to thinking of their surroundings when their minds start to go a certain direction. They’re trying to concentrate only of their plan tonight and how they can’t wait to kill each of us…but spare me.”

     “To make you suffer more?” Carlisle asked bleakly. Already unbelievably tense, I somehow stiffened at Carlisle’s question.

     Did the wolves want revenge that badly on the man I love, in order to punish me for Jacob’s death?

     Or is it because Edward changed me?

     After all, I’ve learned that vampires are the mortal enemies of the Quileute shape-shifters, and the Cullens adding me—even though they barely knew me—to the stock of vampires on the Olympic Peninsula may be something that the pack would seek revenge over.

     But why Edward? After all, there was no way they could know. No one outside of our family knew that Edward was the one who changed me into Cullen…in every way.

     “I don’t know,” Edward answered, his voice scattering my thoughts. “But if any of them come after Isabella, they are going to have to kill me first, no matter what they’re trying to hide from us, from me.”