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CHAPTER FOUR ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇ ʙᴇɢᴀɴ
The peace was soon broken.
The knife that cut through the serenity came in the form of Aro's sharp words.
I so look forward to seeing the new Mrs Cullen in person.
They should have been reassuring. Bella was an immortal now. Gone were the flushes of flesh and sound of pounding blood, replaced in favour of the glass-like skin of a vampire. Her eyes were a flaming red: a sight that would have delighted the Volturi. But still, the Cullens could not help but fear them.
There was an unexpected variable now too. Renesmee, with precious blood running through her veins and an insatiable hunger for a vampire's diet. She was supposed to be impossible, and yet here she sat at the kitchen table, hands outstretched in communication, her body the size of a nine-year-old. She was the unknown the Volturi feared, and in return, the Cullens feared what they would do to her, should they find out.
As Bella set down the decadent gifted jewels in favour of picking up the letter for the third time, Edward shuffled to stand in front of her, head shaking. It was as if he could read her thoughts. Though I supposed their sort of bond left them with an ability to know each other inside and out, without the aid of intrusive gifts. It was like a synchronisation- when he moved, she moved in parallel. I knew that feeling well. Sometimes Alice felt like another part of me- a part I hadn't realised was missing.
"You're not going alone," Edward said, hand soothing down her arm.
Her eyebrows furrowed, creasing smooth lines around her piercing eyes. "They won't hurt me. They have no reason to. I'm a vampire now."
"No. Absolutely not."
"It's the only way to protect her, Edward."
When Alice's predictions of a visit from Irina finally materialised, we were not there to see it happen. Emmett had dragged Rosalie, Alice and I to his most recent favourite hunting spot, which he wished to show off. It was mid hunt, as Emmett tracked a bear, that Alice stopped mid-sprint, making us halt with apprehension. Irina had visited but did not make it far, having seen Jacob phase beside Bella and Renesmee.
When we returned to the Cullen residence, Alice's view of Irina came in glimpses and little more. For the week after Irina had fled from Forks, I could tell she was tense. Often, I found her with her eyes glazed over, eyebrows knotted, and lips downturned in a frown. She tried to hide it, but after all this time, I could read her like a book.
She was moving slowly across the living room when everyone else finally noticed her sluggish movements. Alice had spent half an hour, moving the furniture around, only to return it back to how it was when she'd started. Her hands moved as robotically as her legs, clasping around the neck of a clear vase, arms shaking as she stopped in the middle of the room, fingers tightening into fists around the glass, letting it shatter into a thousand tiny pieces on the floor.
