Chapter Thirteen

Sunday I was working in my garden when I sensed a drop in the weather and grinned knowing what that meant.

Alice was right there was going to be a storm and a powerful one at that. I instantly ran inside, my feet pounded up the stairs rushing into my room.

I already knew what I was going to wear, I wore it every time there was a game of baseball.  My uniform.

Getting dressed in my purple varsity sports jacket with white long sleeves and slipped on my purple matching pants and long socks, stuffing my feet into white shoes and grabbed my white bag.

Bella was sitting on my bed, petting Piper watching me. I moved over to my vanity and sat down, brushing my hair out.

We were waiting for Edward to pick us up, Quinn and Jazz had other plans so it would just be me.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this happy." She told me.

"I love a good thunderstorm." I told her smiling big. "It brings out my powers, plus baseball with the Cullen's is awesome wait until you see it."

"Speaking of which what do I tell Charlie?" She asked making me look at her.

"The truth, you got a date with Edward and I'm going along as a chaperone." I told her shrugging and heard a beep outside. "He's here, you go tell Charlie and I'll greet him at the door."

She nodded, we walked downstairs, she headed into the living room while I headed for the door and opened it with a big grin.

Edward had a smile on his face.

"I take it you're ready?" He asked knowingly.

"Are you kidding?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "I feel like it's been ages since the last time, Bella's letting Charlie know what's happening."

'Knowing Charlie, he's got his gun out on the table.. Good luck'

I gestured for him to come in and we stood there together, Bella walked over to us with a look on her face, Charlie followed.

"Chief Swan." Edward greeted. "I wanted to formally introduce myself, I'm Edward."

Edward extended his hand and Charlie took it and grunted a hello.

"I think Elena's mentioned you a few times, your parents were friends with my sister and brother in law." Charlie said glancing at me.

I nodded.

"I won't keep the girls out too late." Edward told him. "We're just going to play baseball with my family."

"Bella's going to play baseball?" Charlie asked looking surprised.

I had to suppress a grin.

"Yes, sir that's the plan." Edward said.

Charlie let out a small snort, making me grin.

"Well, good luck with that."

There was a long silence of awkwardness the feeling of introducing a boyfriend to a parent was there until I broke it.

"We should get going." I told them giving Charlie a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry, nothing'll happen while I'm there."

Once outside after Charlie reminded us about our pepper spray, we made it to Emmett's jeep and climbed in, Edward gave Bella a baseball cap to wear.

------

Getting to the open clearing where the game would be, I jumped out instantly and headed over to Emmett and Rosalie playfully shoving each other. Rosalie looked over at me and smiled while Emmett had his playful game face on.

"You ready to be beaten?" He asked making me snort. "Vampire vs witch."

"We'll see." I told him grinning.

Everyone was here.

"Glad you're here Bella." Esme said pulling Bella away from Edward. "We need an umpire."

I saw storm clouds gathering and grinned bigger.

Storms were when my powers were stronger, it always made me giddy.

"She thinks we cheat." Emmett said grinning.

"That's cause you do cheat." I told him making Esme laugh at me.

Emmett just grinned bigger.

"Call em as you see 'em Bella." Esme added.

Bella nodded.

The Cullen's separated into teams of three. Carlisle, Jasper and Rose against Edward, Emmett and Alice while I handed the honor of being pitcher.

Carlisle handed me a small black draw string bag. I grabbed it and pulled out a baseball.

"A baseball?" Bella asked raising an eyebrow at me.

"Not just any baseball." I told her with full respect. "It has magical properties, Easton Lovelace was one of Evan's great grandsons, he was kind of a nerdy kid."

It might seem silly that things as simple as a magic baseball was created or passed down but it was kind of cool too.

"And you're gonna pitch?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just watch." I retorted grinning and headed to the pitcher's mound.

My eyes flashed gold as I glanced down at the ball and the ball glowed for a second before fading activating my power and the magic.

Since Rose won against Emmett, her team was in the outfield.

With my eyes still gold I stood there for a minute  enjoying my freedom to be my witch self.

Bella had a fangirl look on her face while the others smiled at me.

"It's time." Alice told us, making us smirk, just as a deep rumble of thunder shook the forest.

Rosalie took her place as first batter and waited for me to throw, she had a smirk on her face.

"Let's see what you got Ellie." She said teasingly.

Smirking bigger I threw the ball with a lighting fast speed; Rosalie smashed the ball with the aluminum bat making it crack like thunder and followed by actual thunder.

"OOOHHHH!" I cupped my hands over my mouth and screamed with the sounding of the thunder.  I laughed.

"Now I get why you need the thunder." Bella said. "And why Lena pitches, has to do with her powers."

The ball shot off like a meteor deep into the forest, and rocketed through the trees, Edward went after it.

"That has to be a home run." Bella added.

"Edward's very fast." Esme told her.

Rosalie darted around the bases, almost in a blur. Edward raced out of the forest with the ball and whipped it to home plate.

Esme caught it a millisecond before Rosalie slid in.

We looked at Bella.

"You're out?" She asked it came out more of a question, but Esme nodded.

Rosalie glared out her, Emmett cheered causing her to get even more mad.

"Babe come on, it's just a game" Emmett told her.

"Nice kitty." Carlisle told her trying to calm her down, and took her place, bat in hand and gave me a Carlisle grin.

Twirling the ball in my hand, I threw it, and he connected it on the first pitch and took off.

Emmett went after it, climbing a tree and snatched the ball from midair.

"My monkey man." Rosalie said proudly.

Emmett quickly threw it to Esme who tagged Carlisle out. Esme tossed it back to me and I caught it. Jasper stepped up to bat, with his award winning grin.

Something felt off suddenly and turned behind me. I could feel some strong aura and it wasn't from anyone here. Alice came to my side, I looked at her seeing a dark look come across her face and saw what she was seeing.

"Stop!" I cried loudly.

My entire body was full of fear and panic.

Everyone dropped what they were doing, running over to us.

"They were leaving, then they heard us." Alice told them.

"How many?" Carlisle asked.

"Three, I can feel their auras." I told him frowning feeling my head hurt. "They're pretty strong, dark."

I felt Jasper's eyes on me, seeing my face and placed his hand on my shoulder. I knew he was trying to help and gave him a small, pained smile but I also knew he was feeling it too.

"Let's go." Edward said placing a gentle hand on Bella's lower back and started leading her away, he reached for my hand too.

"Edward it's too late." I told him pulling my hand away before turning to Bella.

"Put your hair down." Esme told her.

Edward had pain in his eyes.

"Like that'll help." Rosalie said scoffing. "I could smell her from across the field."

I glared at her a little knowing we were in danger, and helped Bella to adjust herself, Edward helped as well making sure she was covered.

"I shouldn't have brought you here, I'm so sorry." Edward said apologetically.

Bella was completely confused while I knew what he was talking about.

'It'll be okay'

I thought, turning I reached back and grabbed Bella's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Stay very quiet." I whispered so she could hear me and reached up gripping onto my valerian necklace.

We stood together in protective mode, watching three forms emerge towards us, my eyes stared them down. One was African American with dread locks, another was a man with a blonde ponytail and the other was a red headed female, but all of their eyes were deep burgundy.

These were bad vamps.

'I recognize them... but where have I seen them' I thought to myself before connecting the pieces. 'Quinn's dreams.... they're the ones who's been causing trouble, the attacks... Jared.'

The African American seemed like the leader.

"I believe this belongs to you." He said holding up the baseball we had been using. He threw it back to us, Carlisle caught it.

"Thank you." Carlisle told him smiling politely.

"I am Laurent." He told us gesturing to the girl. "This is Victoria and James."

I glanced at all of them, ready to use my magic if I needed to, I stopped on the other man James, seeing his face, reading his mind. His head turned slightly and I was able to see his eyes.

'Edward are you hearing this?'

"I'm Carlisle and this is my family." Carlisle told them trying to keep the peace. "I'm afraid your hunting activities have caused something of a mess for us."

"Our apologies." Laurant spoke sounding sincere. "We didn't realize the territory had been claimed."

"Yes'" Carlisle said like he didn't believe that, but he was still acting polite. "We maintain a permanent residence."

The three looked surprised at the news.

"Really?" Laurent asked. "Well, we won't be a problem anymore, we were just passing through."

"The humans were tracking us, but we led them east." Victoria said, I could hear the tone in her voice.

"Excellent." Carlisle said forcing a smile.

"So...." Laurant trailed off. "Could you use three more players?"

We all shifted uncomfortably; Bella was nearly gripping my hand.

"Oh, come on, just one game?"

Carlisle shared a look with Edward and I who shared a look before Carlisle turned and nodded.

"Sure, why not?" He told him. "A few of us were just leaving, you can take their place. We'll bat first."

He tossed the ball over only for Victoria's hand to snap up and catch it.

"I'm the one with the wicked curve ball."

"Oh well I think we can handle that." Jasper said smirking, making us laugh.

"We'll see about that." Victoria said winking at Jasper.

Everyone started breaking up, but my eyes were still on James, as he stared at my cousin.

He eventually backed down and headed to join his group.

I slowly backed up, in front of Bella and gestured for her to go. Edward helped led her to the jeep, I followed slowly when wind breezed past and swayed Bella's hair.

Hearing James's mind as he whipped around.

"You brought a snack." He said snarling.

Acting quickly, I shoved my cousin back away from me and my hand shot out and a big bright ball of energy shot from my hand sending him flying several feet back. He landed on the ground hard.

My hair blew wildly in the wind and my eyes glowed as my entire body went into protection mode.

As fearful as I was at going head to head with a nomad vampire, I was more protective of my cousin.

That set everyone off, everyone rushed back to me. Everyone hissing and growling and glaring deadly daggers, protectively.

James got back to his feet, glaring at me. My hand was still up ready for another round. They all stared at me in shock.

A witch surrounded by vampires, protecting a human I guess it would be a strange concept.

"I think it's best if you leave." Carlisle said from his position next to me.

Laurent stared at me in shock for the longest time until he held his own hand up backing down.

"Yes, I can see the game is over." He said trying to make peace. "We'll go now, James?"

Laurant made the first move to leave, he had to place a hand on James's shoulder who Edward and I were still in a staring contest with. Finally, he backed down and pulled Victoria up with him.

The three of them made their way across the field quickly, once they were gone Carlisle put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down and I turned to them.

"We need to get Bella out of here." I told them. "Now."

"Yes go." Carlisle told us. "We'll follow you."

I didn't waste time, grabbing Bella's wrist and ran over to the jeep, dragging my cousin behind me who was fumbling with keeping up.

Edward ran ahead of us, starting up the jeep.

"Elena what's happening?" She asked panicking.

I didn't say anything just opened the jeep door and shoved her in the middle and hopped in, slamming the door shut.

"Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on?" Bella said loudly.

"James is a tracker, Bella." I told her panicking. "We saw into his mind, Daddy taught me about them, they're bad and dangerous."

"The hunt is his obsession." Edward added. "My reaction and what Ellie did sent him off."

The tires spun as Edward whipped the jeep around.

"We're a large clan of strong fighters with a witch on our side all protecting one vulnerable human." Edward asked darkly with disgust. "I just made this his most exciting game ever."

"We need to get you out of here now." I told her.

"What?" She asked whipping around to look at me. "No, we have to go home!"

"Bella no." I told her firmly, shaking my head. "The first place he'll go is to the house."

"Charlie" She shouted looking at me with surprise. "He'll hurt Charlie."

I sighed staring at her.

"Fine." I told her giving Edward a look to calm down. "But you're going to do what I tell you."

She continued looking at me while Edward drove, and I slowly started talking.

------

Reaching the house, I felt bad for having to do this but there was no other choice.

Charlie had the lights on waiting for us, it made it harder knowing what we were about to do, Edward was sitting perfectly straight checking the area.

"He's not here." Edward said making me nod.

"We'll be in and out in fifteen." I told him.

"Do we really have to do this?" Bella asked staring at the house.

"There's no other choice Bella." I told her frowning. "I watched my parents die because of vampires like this.... I won't let my uncle suffer the same fate."

Bella frowned at me.

Edward laid a hand on my shoulder knowingly. I cleared my throat and gestured for her to walk.

"Let's go."

We headed up the stairs and walked inside, Edward followed.

Bella suddenly turned to him.

"Edward, I said leave me alone!" She shouted at him.

"Bella, don't do this." Edward told her begging. "Just think about it, please."

"Get out!" Bella continued shouting. "It's over."

She slammed the door in his face, Charlie came over to us concerned.

"Bella what happened?" He asked looking at me. "Elena?"

"I have to get out of this place." Bella told him. "Out of Forks, I'm leaving now."

We headed upstairs, Charlie followed, Bella and I split up causing him to stop in the middle of our rooms.

I closed my door and grabbed my spell book and everything magical I would need.

I looked at Piper for a second.

"I can't take you with me, sorry girl." I told her gently reaching out to pet her. "It won't be long, just until this vamp is ash."

I straightened back up and turned to the door and bit my lip for a minute, I hated breaking my uncle's heart, after everything he did for me, giving me a home.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and met Bella in the hall, coming from her room.

"I have to leave." She told me, hurting. "I'm going home."

"I'll go with you." I told her.

Together we made our way down the stairs, Charlie followed close behind.

"Bella you're mother's not even in Phoeniz." He said trying to reason with us.

"She'll come home." Bella told him. "I'll call her from the road. "

"You can't drive home now; I'll take you to the airport in the morning."

"I'll be driver her" I told him making him look at me. "It'll give Bella time to think, if we get tired we'll just pull into a motel.."

We tried to make our way to the front door, but Charlie blocked us.

"Girls I know I'm not around much, but I can change that." Charlie said nearly in tears. "We can do more things together."

I sucked in a breath hating myself for what was going to be said.

"Like watch more baseball on the flat screen?" Bella asked using full hate. "Dinner at the diner every month? Same people, same steak, same berry cobbler every night?" She shook my head. "That's you, not me."

We pulled from his grip and headed for the door.

"Bella....I just got you back." Charlie said softly, making my heart break.

"And if I don't get out now, I'm gonna be stuck here like mom did." Bella told him, wounding Charlie.

She pushed out of the house; I saw the look on his face and gave him a quick hug.

"She'll be fine uncle Charlie." I told him pulling back quickly. "She doesn't mean what she's saying, she just needs to clear her head don't worry I'll keep you updated."

I pulled from my uncle and met Bella on the steps looking like she was ready to cry. We headed for the truck.

"Let me drive." I told her taking her keys and hopped in the driver's seat and whipped out of the driveway and onto the street.

I heard something thump and turned my head seeing Edward appear on my side of the truck, scaring Bella.

"He'll forgive you." He told us, glancing at me. "Slide over."

I nodded and moved over letting him take the wheel, Bella and I changed places, so she was in the middle.

"His face..." Bella said frowning. "I said the same words my mom used when she left him."

"It's the only way he'd let us go Bells." I told her softly. "He's safe now, I put a protection field around the house."

Edward floored the gas.

"The tracker will follow us now." Edward added.

Suddenly there was another boom and a dark figure leaped onto the bed of the truck causing Bella to scream.

"It's okay Bella, it's just Emmett." I told her making her look at me. "Alice is in the car behind us, Quinn and Jazz are meeting us there."

I glanced at Edward who was keeping his eyes on the road.

"What was that? That thing on the field?" She asked staring at me crazy.

"A defense spell." I told her shrugging.

The truck went silent as we headed for the Cullen's house, we passed the diner where Mike, Jessica, Eric and Angela were hanging out, laughing and flirting.

I felt Bella grab my hand and looked over at her seeing the worried look on her face, I couldn't even smile reassuringly because I knew we were in trouble.

'Goddess please protect us,... Daddy, I need your guidance.'

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4/15/2024