Old Soul

Chapter Twelve: From Bad to Worse

TW: Blood, violence, mentions of sexual assault

"Could you pace any louder?" The voice makes me jump. I gasp and turn to find Rosalie hanging onto my window sill, somehow able to climb up to and open it with me being none the wiser. She climbs into my room with a supernatural grace and fluidity that's mesmerizing.

"Are you going to quit gaping at me so I can tell you what's going on, or were you planning on looking like a goldfish for the rest of the night?" She crosses her arms over her chest. I close my mouth and take a seat on my bed, wrapping the comforter around myself. I gesture to the chair behind her, but Rosalie barely spares it a glance and continues to stand.

"Emmett's told you how you smell to him, right?" She starts. I nod. "Well, Bella smells that way to Edward. Of course, you have the same scent around other vampires, but it just isn't as strong. Like perfume. It smells the same to everyone, but one scent is more alluring to you than another. Carlisle told you all of this, right?

"What happened last night is a few nomads—how most of our kind live, were passing through the area while we were playing baseball. Don't ask, I'm sure Emmett would be more than happy to tell you about it later, or rather demonstrate. Gives him a chance to show off. Anyway, Bella was with us, watching us play. These nomads... who were not vegetarians to say the least showed up. Alice saw them passing through, a few days later, but they changed course once they heard our game. One of them, a tracker—a vampire that specializes in, in this instance, predicting his prey's moves smelled Bella." Rosalie's nose wrinkles a bit.

"Edward's protectiveness caught his eye and now he's after Bella. Edward claims Bella doesn't smell the same to the tracker as she does to him, but that she was up there in terms of potency. Edward also said the tracker is persistent and has never lost his prey before. His mate has been in Forks, sniffing around. Edward sent Bella with Alice and Jackson to Arizona, and Esme and I stayed here taking shifts to protect Charlie." I raise my hand, like I'm in a classroom.

"What?" She snaps.

"Where are Carlisle, Edward, and Emmett?"

"Trying to chase down the tracker. This is why I always say we shouldn't get involved with humans. If any of them get hurt it'll be Bella's fault... and I don't know what I'll do. The only thing I want is to protect my family, and all you humans cause is trouble. Especially Bella." Rosalie finally takes a seat and looks up at me. "I'm not going to tell you to stay away from Em. I'm the reason he's like this, it'd be hypocritical of me to demand that you let him go when I couldn't do that myself. But if you choose to be with a vampire—one as old as we are, who have no connections to their human life, you only see the glamorized version. The facades we've crafted over decades. It's going to get into your head that it's worth it to become one of us so that you can stay with Emmett forever. But you don't know everything you're giving up."

Her tone turns bitter towards the end and the wheels in my head begin to churn, putting her words and actions together.

I'm baffled. "You don't like me because you think I want to be a vampire? Or is it because you think I'm trying to steal your best friend from you?"

"Both, I guess. Mainly the former. I'd like to see you actually try the latter." She lets out a brief chuckle before sighing. "But I can't stop him. It was much easier when he just killed you before." She mutters the last bit and I let out a startled laugh.

"I hadn't even thought about it, Rosalie. I sure as hell won't be doing it next week or anything like that." I pause. "Has Emmett... mentioned that?"