Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Here Comes The Bride… Sort Of

Not all of my misgivings had disappeared but my anxiousness had diminished slightly since finding the dress. It was like the dress had been a piece of the puzzle and now all the other pieces were falling into place. Jacob and I were spending more time together, if that was possible, and our loving aura wasn’t always welcome in the home. So we found ourselves running through the forest until we found a quiet spot, a tiny little alcove with its own little waterfall. It was here that we spent the time alone that we had together. It was peaceful and far enough away from everyone that we didn’t bother them. The date we had set was only a week away and all of our families were going to be there, it never ceased to amaze me just what having limitless resources could achieve, whatever problem had cropped up Alice had literally thrown money at it and they seemed to disappear; no seats on flights, money thrown problem gone, the hall we wanted to rent out, booked, money thrown problem solved, I felt guilty because of the people that this had disadvantaged but Alice drew me aside and said “Ness do you seriously think that I didn’t make other arrangements for the people who we, well I guess, shafted is the word to use? How heartless do you think I am?” I spluttered and apologised, feeling bad that I had thought that she could be so thoughtless.

The wedding was prowling closer and closer and with every passing day I felt more tense and anxious. Two days before the wedding, and a week before Christmas, I found myself alone in Jacob’s and my special spot, I was lying on the edge of the tiny pool watching the waterfall splash noisily into the surrounding stillness, rippling outward in concentric circles. I was contemplating this when I heard the sound of running feet, I sat still and sniffed the air. I recognised the scent and flopped back down into my reclining position. I lay still and waited for my hunter to find me. He broke through the underbrush to my right and I watched through half closed lids as he stalked closer. I held my breath and waited for him to reach me, my heart, ignoring my command to remain beating at a normal rate, began racing at the thought of him touching my skin. I refused to open my eyes and I achieved this until I felt the first light touches of his hand on the side of my neck. I cracked open one eye in time to see his gorgeous face blur as he leant forward and kissed my cheek softly. I felt my breathing hitch in my chest and I knew he had heard it because he chuckled and continued his gentle assault. I rolled onto my back and opened my arms welcoming him into my embrace, he smiled down into my, now open, eyes and said “Hey honey, how was your day?”

I laughed, the question was so old fashioned and I wasn’t expecting it, and said “Long, I missed you. I didn’t think you finished until later this afternoon.” He was placing small kisses along my jaw line as I was speaking but he paused and said “Ness it’s almost dusk.” His reply surprised me, I hadn’t realised that I had been laying here for as long as I had. “Oh well then I guess we better be heading home soon.” I sensed his reluctance and pulled him closer, he groaned and whispered in my ear “I better move away from you, we both agreed to not, you know, until the wedding. I already put you at risk once and I won’t do it again until... well I won’t do it again.” He sounded so sincere that I nodded in agreement; my brain was agreeing with him but apparently my body had stopped listening to me, my hands rubbed along the smooth muscles of his back, pulling him closer. I kissed his mouth and groaned when his tongue swept the seal of my lips, I opened to him and whispered his name, pin-pricks of colour burst behind my closed eyelids and the warmth we generated could probably have kept a small village warm during the dead of winter.

Afterwards we lay cuddled in each others’ embrace, I knew he regretted the fact that we hadn’t waited until the wedding but I knew that two days wasn’t going to make a big difference. My brain had realised something that I know my heart had already know for some time, I wanted to marry Jacob and be his wife and have his children. There was nothing else in the world that I wanted more. I closed my eyes and relaxed the tight hold on my thoughts that I had been exercising, I wasn’t afraid of getting married or starting a family, Jake and I had forever (literally) together and there wasn’t anyone else I wanted to spend that time with, there had never been anyone else. I heard a chuckle rumble through Jacob and I lifted my head to look questioningly at him, he saw my look and said “About time Renesmee.” Stunned I sat up straighter and said “About time for what?” He pulled my face closer to his and said “About time that you finally realise that this marriage isn’t a death sentence, it’s a celebration, and about time that you decided to tell me about your concerns.” I moved my away from his bare skin and whispered dejectedly “You’ve just seen everything that I’ve tried to hide since your Dad died, haven’t you?” He smiled sadly and said “Yeah, why didn’t you tell me you were scared? You should never feel you need to hide things from me. We are soul mates Nessie and there is no tomorrow for me without you, so promise me no more secrets. If you have a fear, tell me about it and I’ll try to help you get past it.” I nodded and said “I am excited about the wedding and I promise no more secrets from now on.” He grinned at me and pulled me closer, the spark in his eyes burnt away the last tiny feelings of hesitation that I was feeling and suddenly all I was left feeling was nervousness. I was getting married in 48 hours.

I woke bright and early the next morning, I checked the watch on my wrist, a present from Jake on my last birthday; it read just before five in the morning. I bounded down the stairs and out of my parents’ house, I knew they weren’t asleep but I knew Jacob was and I didn’t want to wake him. I took off towards Carlisle and Esme’s house; I wanted to talk to Carlisle about something that had occurred to me in the tiny hours of the morning while my parents had been hunting. I broke through the trees near their house and wasn’t at all surprised to see Carlisle waiting for me, he opened his arms and I raced into them for a quick hug. He smiled down at me and kissed my cheek softly, I asked “How did you know I was coming?” and before he could say anything I said “Alice!” he laughed and said “Yeah, she was checking something and suddenly she couldn’t see anyone, so we figured...” I laughed and said “Yeah, sorry about that. I hope it wasn’t anything too important that she was looking for, because I can come back later if you’d prefer.” He reached down and grabbed my hand and every one of my jumbled thoughts raced into his head, his eyebrows rose and his perfect brow creased before he said “I hadn’t thought about that, let’s go and see if we can find out. We had a surprise guest arrive last night.” I crinkled my forehead and gingerly sniffed the air. The scent wasn’t one that I recognised, well not in the sense that I could tell who it belonged to but I knew that I had smelt it before. Since I was already holding Carlisle hand he heard the question within my mind and said “Nahuel arrived about three hours ago, your parents are already here. If you want privacy to ask your questions then I suggest that the three of us go for a hunt and we will have relative privacy.” I knew he meant that no matter how far away we got Daddy would still know what we discussed and I said to him “That’s okay, Daddy would be the person I went to if I knew he could find out the answers, since I know that he can’t and that you can’t do it on your own I am willing to ask these things of Nahuel. Let’s go.”

We entered the house and bypassed the large living area and headed towards the kitchen. It wasn’t til we were there that I thought about what Nahuel was doing there. I got my answer as we walked through the kitchen door and every head turned in our direction, Nahuel jumped lithely to his feet and with his movement came a snarl from my father. I was puzzled and went to stand by him, I grazed his hand and he said “Ness, you remember Nahuel. He has come to ask you something.” I shook my head in confusion and said “Okay, I suppose that works out well. I have some things I need to ask him to.” My family all look amazed at that statement but I ignored them and turning to Nahuel I said “Hi, it’s been ages since we’ve seen you. How have you been?”  I felt slightly uncomfortable at the way he was staring at me and with the stretching silence came an increase in my uncomfortableness. It took Nahuel several seconds to speak and when he did his deep voice was agitated and slightly breathless. “It is a pleasure to meet you again Renesmee. As your father has indicated I have indeed come to ask you something but he said that it is too late, however I do not believe this.” I looked pointedly at him, waiting for him to continue his monologue. I wasn’t prepared for what came out of his mouth next “Renesmee, I understand that this comes as a surprise and that we haven’t seen each other in years and that we don’t know one another but we are alike and I believe that we would make a handsome couple.” I felt my mouth drop open and I just stood in shocked silence and stared at him. I forced my mouth closed and when I believed I had enough control over my brain to speak I said “What?” I closed my eyes and thought ‘way to act like a bimbo Ness, well done’. Shaking my head, I tried again “Sorry Nahuel but it sounded like you were asking me to marry you.” That was better, I thought to myself, much smarter and not as vague. I looked around at my family, waiting for them to yell surprise, and when none of them moved their gazes from either of us I turned my eyes back to Nahuel who nodded, pleased that I had gotten the gist of what he wanted, and moved towards me. I backed away as far as the kitchen would allow and when the wall stopped my retreat I started shuffling sideways, towards the door, but suddenly that exit was blocked too. It was blocked by a mountain of warm flesh that was vibrating, a loud ferocious rumble sounding from within its chest. My eyes flew up to look into Jacobs’ fierce face and I felt my heart thump loudly in the suddenly claustrophobic confines of the kitchen. I turned towards Jake and pushed my hands against his bare chest, my desperation in getting him out of the kitchen made him even more furious at Nahuel. He growled “What the hell is he doing here?” I placed myself between Jake and the snarling Halfling and said “Jake let’s go, it doesn’t matter why he’s here.” I pushed hard against his chest, only succeeding in moving myself, I wanted to get him out of the kitchen before Nahuel actually repeated his disastrous question; I hadn’t counted on Nahuel being so stubborn. His deep voice snapped across the space between us “I have come to ask Renesmee to marry me.” I sighed in frustration and dropped my head, the muscles under my palms quivered more intensely and I knew from experience just how quickly Jake could lose his temper. I closed my eyes swiftly before opening them and looking up into the face of the man I loved. With forceful determination I removed my hands from Jake’s body and turned my back toward him. I grabbed his hand so that he could hear my thoughts as I said to the being in front of me “Nahuel, I am sorry that you’ve come all this way but Jacob and I are getting married tomorrow. I love him and I could never love anyone else.” The quivering at my back subsided and I breathed a sigh of relief as Jacob calmed down. I looked directly into Nahuel’s face and continued “I am flattered and you are more than welcome to stay but please believe me when I tell you that we” I pointed between him and myself “have no chance of ever happening.”

I watched Nahuel as he nodded his head and when I knew he finally understood I re-focused all of my attention on Jake. He was still shivering, like a person who had a fever, his eyes were bright and his lips were still pulled up baring his teeth. I ignored our company in the kitchen and said “Jake do you wanna come hunt?” my voice didn’t seem to penetrate the angry fog that I could see swirling within his mind but I tried again, using every gift at my disposal, I placed one of my soft hands against his bare chest and flashed him an image of our special place. I leant up on the tips of my toes and kissed his jaw. The quivering had slowed but not stopped and the anger was fading enough for him to be able to look down at me and say “Nessie, honey don’t take this the wrong way but I think I need a little time to myself.” I was hurt, of course, but if time was what Jacob needed than that is what I’d give him. The upside of this was that Carlisle and I would be able to talk to Nahuel and I would finally get some answers.

I nodded at Jake and whispered “It’s alright Jake, go and do what you need to, I’ll be here when you get back.” He shot a livid glare at Nahuel before dropping a quick possessive kiss on my mouth and leaving the room. I felt the room exhale as if it had been waiting for a massive fight and I had diverted it. I closed my eyes and rubbed my hand over them, if I had ever had to guess what a headache felt like then I’d say this was it. The tension had left a strange thumping behind my eyes. I watched Jacob leave before turning to Nahuel, who quickly hid his look of disappointment and, I was sure, disgust, before saying “Okay we need to talk. Carlisle and I have some questions and we figured that you were the only person we knew who could answer them, so it was fortuitous that you arrived when you did.” A shadow passed over his face so quickly I thought that I might have imagined it, I shot a swift look at my father and he looked confused by whatever it was that he had just heard within Nahuel’s head, but whatever he had thought couldn’t have been bad because Daddy would have said something to us; so I ignored the strange feelings I was getting from the only other creature like me I had ever met. I pulled my mind back to the present and focused on getting the answers I needed, and said “Do you mind if we pick your brain?” he shot an incredulous look at my father and I laughed shortly before saying “I mean in a none mind reading capacity, as in I will ask you a question and maybe you can give me an answer, no-one but Carlisle will be there. Plus he has, being the smartest person I know, sorry Daddy, a thousand questions of his own to ask.” Nahuel seemed slightly more relaxed at this idea and I guess being surrounded by eight strong vampires would put anyone off talking. The rest of my family filed out of the kitchen, all of them saying various goodbyes to Nahuel; within seconds the kitchen was empty except for the three of us.

We, Nahuel and I, sat down at the table and stared awkwardly at one another. Carlisle prowled the outer perimeter, he passed my chair and I grabbed his hand. I couldn’t begin this conversation, I was to uncomfortable, how did you ask a complete stranger (one who had just asked you to marry him) whether or not something weird will happen if you have sex with another being. Carlisle laughed and said “Nahuel as you now know Renesmee is getting married, tomorrow, and the questions we have are of a rather personal nature. I have exhausted all of my research and you may be our last hope.” Nahuel sat quietly for a split-second before saying “The one who was in here earlier, the one who you are marrying?” I nodded and smiled, I opened my mouth to speak but Nahuel cut me off “He isn’t completely human, is he?” I shook my head and said “No Jacob is a...” Nahuel spoke over me again “I remember him from the fight. Shape-shifters I recall your father saying they were.” I nodded again, pleased that I didn’t have to explain Jacob and the whole werewolf thing but irritated because Nahuel was speaking over me and not waiting for me to answer the questions he was asking me, I had almost forgotten that Nahuel had been there in that field when we had faced the Volturi. Nahuel sat staring at me out of the corner of his eye but he spoke to Carlisle “What are these questions you have of me?”

I sucked in a lungful of air and swallowed hard as Carlisle said “We are curious about you and your siblings. You said that your siblings were not raised the same way that you were and that they tricked humans into mating with them, we were wondering if any of your sisters had ever had a child. We were also wondering if they had been pregnant, at the length of the pregnancy, the rate of growth of the foetus and also the delivery technique.” Carlisle paused in his questions as if he was trying to remember what else he wanted to ask but I had one question I wanted to know more than anything so I interrupted and said “I want to know if the child was human or vampire or a Halfling like us.” Nahuel closed his eyes and said “One of my sisters’ has had a pregnancy. She seduced a human man and found herself pregnant. She was pregnant for about three months and she delivered the child, well had the child removed from her. One of my other sisters’ ripped it out. A boy, a Halfling like us; He reached full growth within seven years of his birth and has more of a human diet than that of my sisters. As for any child that you may have” Nahuel finally turned to stare fully at me and his eyes bored into mine and I held my breath as I waited for him to continue and when he did my trapped breath rushed from my body. “I am certain it will be a freak like its parents. Excuse me, I am leaving.” I sat stunned and watched as he flew out of the house as if the hounds of hell were on his tail.