Intrusion. (Open)

Jacob had been looking at the house with some hesitation. He wasn't forbidden to come here and he knew there would at least be some understanding if he did show up, whether it was to talk to Bella, or to
talk with Edward. The truth was, he wasn't sure he could handle seeing Bella with Edward anymore. Today had already started badly, him compulsively reading the note Edward had left him in their superficial wedding invitation which he still believed had nothing to do with Bella. She'd probably be happier eloping orsomething. She also probably hated the idea of a
wedding dress and flowers and all that but... "Wait,"
he thought. "What the hell am I thinking? Why am I
wasting time with thoughts like that!"

He inwardly scowled as he stared at the house.

He wasn't even sure they were here , or if anyone was
here. He glanced through the trees at the long area of
grass in front of the house, and there he saw a row of
expensive and, though he hated to admit it, beautiful
cars that lined the driveway. He pointed sharply and
smirked at Lilian, "You see what I mean about Vampires
and their cars?" He seemed to growl a bit but sighed
afterward. "Well, we can't all have it all, right?" He
turned to her and quietly said, "Well, I don't know
about a corvette, but I am still trying to rebuild a
car that I've been working on for some time. I sorta,
stopped for a while, I guess. Had a lot on my mind."

He had just told her that she should go up to the
house alone and talk to them. But now that he thought
about it a bit, he saw that it was both stupid and
selfish. He didn't want to go to the house because he
was concerned for his own feelings and not for those
of the girl beside him. She was garing at him now and
he didn't blame her. He smiled guiltily at her and
laughed a little. "Alright, alright. You're right. I
know these bloodsuckers better than you do, and I'm
sure they wouldn't appreciarte seeing you coming
without knowing why." He glanced out to the house
again and turned towards her.

"Okay let me explain something about these Vampires.
They don't drink human blood and they live as a
family. When I say family, I mean it. Not a coven,
like those in Italy. There is a positional Father who
is a doctor who...well...he really helped me out in a
tight spot. Then there is Esme, the mother figure. And
after those two they have their children, or rather,
vampires that were turned in their youth who pose as
their children." He shook his head and laughed a bit.
"I know, they're crazy. Eventually they will have to
move on when they outgrow their story, But for now the
family is a convincing lie. And like you, they enjoy
the fact that the sun rarely ever shines here.
Otherwise everyone would see your spectacular sparkle
show." Now Jacob was really laughing. "Sorry, No
offence, but it is sort of funny."

Jacob took a few steps forward before turning around.
He wasn't quite sure what would surprise them more:
The fact that Jacob had come to their house without
warning, or that he was towing another vampire closely
behind him. "They won't hurt you, but they don't know
you so they're probably going to have their guard up
for a while. And anyways, they're going to be pretty
upset by the smell. I can't say I'm too excited about
it either. It's already starting to burn my nose." He
laughed and turned back towards the house. "Come on,
we'll go together."

It only took a moment to get to their front door and
he smiled nervously, "Well, Here it goes." He then
knocked loudly on the door and waited for some
response.

Bella observed the Cullens as they watched T.V. She had never seen anything like it. They didn't seem to be watching the show. Their eyes were distant and empty. Appearantly, they had no interest in the show. That seemed to really surprise her because Desperate Housewives was one of Bella's favorite shows.

She leaned her head against Edward's shoulder and sighed deeply. She stared at her engagement ring. She was going to be married soon and she didn't really know how she was going to deal with it. Bella knew that Alice would be decorating her wedding and she didn't know what to expect from that. Bella told her not to spend too much money or she would never speak to Alice again. Bella gulped. After her marriage, she was going to be changed into a vampire. She was terrified of the pain to come, but she didn't want to let anyone know that. She thought about Edward's suggestion for morphine before she was bitten. Maybe that would put her mind at ease the day it would happen.

Bella's thoughts were interrupted when the doorbell rang. She frowned.

Who could that be? No one ever comes to the house, she thought.

Bella stood up and walked toward the door. She gasped when she saw Jacob. She was surprised because he never visits the Cullens. What business would he have here?

"Jake, what are you doing here?" Bella asked.

As the door opened he had hesitated only for a moment, going rigid with discomfort as the full effect of their scent flooded towards him from the house. It was true that he could take it most of the time when there was one or two of them, and even in the hills while they were watching the vampires show them their advantages over the wolves it hadn’t been that horrible, but now it was overwhelming. He knew that a large part of the hatred of the smell came from the hatred of the beings, but still, that didn’t change much of what he smelled now. The first face he saw was the rather kindly face of the “mother,” Esme. She seemed to be a very nice, patient woman. Well, she had to be patient to pose as the mother of the others. She didn’t say much but seemed to be harboring some sort of panic, or concern. Immediately he knew that Bella was there, it had been written on the woman’s face. Before the thought could leave his mind though, he heard it and smelled it. Something different from them and much better on his senses, though terrible for his aching heart.

And as he took in her form, her face, and finally her sweet voice, he frowned immediately. He remembered how he was feeling quite suddenly, and was determined to seem indifferent. But it was very difficult, he had to admit. There were sets of eyes fixed on him, most of them snarling or making faces in disgust, and he knew why. He didn’t pay any of them attention except to say, “I’m not here to talk with anyone in particular,” He said this and glanced straight at Bella, “ and I’m not here to fight. This is one of your kind, another Vampire that I found walking on our territory. Obviously she means no harm to anyone, you can plainly see that.” He gestured towards the other and gave her the smallest of encouraging smiles. Surely she must have felt as awkward as he did. And he had to admit it was pretty bad. “I won’t torture you all with my presence here for very long, I just wanted her to know that there are other Blood-suck…I mean, Vampires in the area. This is your guys’ turf too, so I didn’t want her getting offed by one of you guys thinking she was another…well…you know.” Jacob glanced at the ground and back up. “To be honest I didn’t want her killed by any of the wolves either, and you know what we would have normally done to a strange vampire on our land.”

With this comment he stared straight at Rosalie, but meaning no definite threat. He hadn’t really noticed her ever, and she was just another one of them to hate. “I don’t know what you guys plan on doing. But…give her a chance to explain herself.” He turned to Lilian now and quietly said, “You see, they aren’t so bad. Maybe they can help you.” He coughed a little with their smell, but continued on. “I’ll let my Dad and the others know that she’s here. Just so that she doesn’t…Well, you get it.” He heard the spiteful comment coming out of the tall blonde girl, and smirked at her. “I didn’t do a thing to her, as you can see. And if I had you might have known it by now. You’d learn better to keep your upturned nose out of other people’s business and stop making assumptions. I hear you’re good at that, you know, assumptions.” He laughed a little to himself and continued to stare into the house.

"So if you don't mind, I'd like to stick around to make sure you all don't rip her head off or something. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a sympathizer, but I think this one might go ballistic if I leave her here with your lot." He turned to Lilian and grinned, "Can't say I blame her."

"We'll give her a chance, after all she is one of us. It's you I'm worried about. Are you going to give her an ultimatum too? Make her choose between you and us? We sure won't. Are you going to trick her, make her think she'll lose your friendship if she actually ends up liking us and wanting to stay with us? You forget, we are no strangers to your deceiving ways, DOG." Rosalie hissed. Turning away from him, she looked to the new girl.

"Please ignore what has just passed. As you can probably tell, we have some what of a history with HIM. I'm Rosalie Hale. It's a pleasure to meet you." Rosalie smiled sweetly. "I know what you're probably thinking, 'I better watch my back because this girl seems two faced.' Right? I can assure you that I am not two faced. I say what I feel and believe, I don't pause to think or hesistate. Everything I say is pure and unedited by my thought process." Rosalie took a breath then looked sheepishly to the floor. "I'm sorry. There I was going on and on about me. Please, tell us about yourself." Rose lifted her eyes to gaze at the new girl.

They had all been sitting quietly in the living room while watching television. Well, you couldn't actually call it watching television because they really found the shows on television to be rather boring. Carlisle had to admit that some of the medical shows on T.V. were interesting, but had no real information on them and the stories were always relatively the same. They had all seen the same stories over and over, him especially. he had become what he liked to call, "a night time appreciator of the arts," which often led him to theatres before films. Even now there were echoes of Shakespearian plays and themes in everything he saw, and he had been watching and hearing it for much too long.
Even so, he still may have been the only one to actually -watch- the television. He had bought it more for himself than anything, a little guilty pleasure he had. He could remember the first appearance of television and the concept had been so amazing to him. The first time he had seen a moving-picture had been just as astounding. So watching television brought back that feeling of wonder and amazement. Still, as entertaining as it was to him, his thoughts were often elsewhere. That was something that most of them shared at the moment. He knew with certainty that Edward was worrying about Bella, who he knew was afraid of the change. He also knew that Esme worried about Edward as well, and knew Bella's thoughts were also elsewhere.
So it was a rather stunning thing when he had caught the scent of wolf. He was not alarmed. the scent was actually not very vile to him as it was to the others, as he held no hatred for these creatures. He himself had once led raids on people accused of being vampires, werewolves, and witches. He had resolved never to do that again. So while the others often showed blatant disrespect to the Wolves of this place, he knew it was mostly a personal grudge that was not ended with time. He had a theory that the repulsive scent of the wolves came from the old animosity. He seemed to have realized it before anyone else. He would not interfere unless it necessary.
Carlisle could see Esme in the kitchen washing something in the sink. They all heard the knock and glanced around at each other. It was odd indeed that someone should come to their home unannounced and without warning. Carlisle knew who it was, but not the other with him. Why would Jacob Black bring a Vampire to their home? Yes, it was true that most vampires knew about their existence here and were kept out because of it, yet here another was. This troubled him only slightly. He did not think there was harm to be done here, and thought that surely something must've happened at the reservation involving this vampire that came with him. Carlisle saw Esme go rigid as the knock resounded loudly through their large home.
Bella was on her feet and already going to the door, Rosalie close behind her. He knew Rosalie had a particular distaste for the scent of Wolf, and wasn't surprised when they voiced themselves in her words to Jacob. Carlisle was at her side in moments, and glancing down at her in a gentle, yet reproachful way, he moved a little past her to the front fo the crowd, so to speak. Quietly he began.
"Miss. Please come inside and let us explain our situation here for you. You look a bit confused and an explanation seems fitting. I know you smell mortal blood, but it goes without saying that she knows about us, and is under the protection of our family, no matter what your intentions are, if any." he gave her a warm smile and gestured into the house.
"Jacob, you too. Come inside."

(Awesome! Who's next?)

Hmmm... I dont know Jake...I think Bella or Carlisle or me...you decide! LOL!

<I think it's me. I only have one post! >

(All right Bella, You're next.)

Esme, it's "There" not "thier" I tell you that all the time!

I know and I do it because i'm used to it...i'll get a hang of it one day!

Bella had been watching the conversation for quite some time, entertained by the way that the Cullens were dealing with this. They didn't like the fact that a werewolf was standing at their front door, but they seemed to know what to do. The new vampire, Lilian, seemed to be very shy. Bella could understand why. Jake just decided to bring her here because he didn't want a vampire on the werewolf territory. Rosalie didn't seem to be enjoying the little visit at all. She believed that Jake had done something to her. Bella didn't believe that though. She knew that Jake had a nice side to him sometimes and he would even help out a vampire if he needed to. The girl that he brought with him looked like she just wanted to fit in somewhere. Bella looked around at her family and didn't notice an expression of anger or rejection. She smiled at Lilian.

"Hi, I'm Bella. You've probably noticed that I'm human, but that's going to change very soon," she said. "It's nice to meet you."

Bella hoped that the girl didn't dislike her like Rosalie did for being human. She just wanted to get along with everyone. She hoped that when she became a vampire that Rosalie would like her better. She seemed to recall that Rosalie said that she would like her better if she stayed human. Bella didn't like the idea because that meant that she wouldn't be able to stay with her family. Rosalie did say that she wouldn't mind thinking of Bella as a sister, but she wouldn't like the idea of it. As Bella thought about this, it just made her feel worse about entering the Cullen family. It also made her doubt that she wanted to become a vampire. Bella tried to get these thoughts out of her head, but she couldn't. Her eyes filled with tears and she quickly wiped them before anyone could see. She cleared her throat.

"Excuse me," she whispered. "I'm going to go upstairs and think for awhile." She looked at Edward. "I hope you won't mind if it's in your room." Then she looked at Lilian. "I'm sorry for my rude behavior, but I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Bella walked up the stairs and into Edward's room. She inhaled his scent and she sighed. She sat down on the bed and began to think about her future as a vampire.

Carlisle had just invited him into their house, which was new for him. He didn't really want to stay here for long. But he had dragged Lilian all the way here and it just didn't seem fair that he should leave her by herself. Jacob also didn't like the fact that Bella was here with them, as if she were already one of them. He knew that she hadn't undergone the transition yet, he could still smell her. But how long would it last? How long would she still be human? How long would she stay alive? Once she had decided on the change they would take her away until she was able to be around people without wanting to rip their throats out.

He felt his heart constrict when he imagined her like that. Just like the weak, blood-craving vampires they had defeated only a few months ago, she would be the very same way. He couldn't think about it, he shouldn't. Not here and not now. But he was already trembling. He pulled his arms to his sides and clenched his fists. Slowly it faded into a light shiver, which he felt was enough control to be around them right now. Besides, he didn't want to hurt Bella.

He had been in the house once before when Bella was having that silly Graduation party. It wasn't that different from before. The main difference was the fact that music wasn't blaring through the house and it was empty of all the students from Bella's school. The house still smelled strongly of the vampire scent, like something sugary sweet, yet had the faint backdrop of decay as all things vampiric did. Perhaps because they were in fact the undead, walking corpses with the faces of gods. He tried to breathe through his mouth instead of his nose, and that seemed to help a little bit, though when he did that he could taste the strong scent in his mouth. That wasn't much better for him.

He watched as Bella introduced herself to Lilian. He was glad she was so brave to a new vampire. And why shouldn't she be, Lilian was a vegitarian vampire, as they liked to call themselves. What it really meant was that they didn't feed on humans, only animals. But she was freakish in that way. She befriended werewolves and vampires without a hitch. She loved a Vampire. And even...well, she loved him too, didn't she? He sighed and watched the situation unfold. But just as he was calming down from the last struggle with the phasing, she said something that almost made his body split with the change.

'You've probably noticed that I'm human, but that's going to change very soon.'

There it was again, that suddent stopping of his heart. Why the hell would she say that in front of him. Didn't she know how it hurt him, how it effected him? Questions began to shout themselves in his mind: How long? When? Where? Why? He wasn't so sure of how long he could endure being here with them and with her. That was twice now that the Phase almost happened, and he was in such close proximity with all of them. It was given that they, the vampires, would heal. It would still hurt them though and he had no true wishes to harm them.

Then suddenly, Bella excused herself. He didn't want her to leave because as much as it pained him to be around her, it was nearly unendurable to be where she wasn't. He watched her very carefully, as he always did, and he saw a faint trace of sadness, perhaps even grief, cross her features. She was leaving because she was upset. She left quickly, asking permission to go to Edwards room where she might be alone. He moved to follow her instinctively because he wanted to talk to her so badly that he almost couldn't help himself calling out to her. But he came to his senses. He was in the Cullen house, Edwards house. His family of Blood suckers were all around. He would have abandoned Lilian to their mercy without a thought if it meant he could talk to Bella.

But would she speak to him if he followed? he hadn't spoken to her in such a long while, it just didn't seem fair that he would miss what could possibly be his best chance to talk with her face to face.

Today had turned out to be rather exciting for the family. Not only were the visited by another of their kind who followed their ways of being non-harmful to humans, but in her company was Jacob Black, a werewolf of the newly arisen wolf pack. He had been only mildly disappointed to have to stop watching television, but still, this was more important by far. he was, of course, on his guard when it came to werewolves, not because he didn't like them but because he did pose a physical threat to him and his family.

They were simply unpredictable, powerful beings, and also the natural enemy of all vampires. They were equipped with the ability and strength to dispatch even an older vampire. It was no little danger to all of them, including himself, though he believed that none of them truly understood the danger they were in, especially Rosalie with her wit. But he was fairly impressed with Jacob, and seemed to take Rosalie's comments in stride, with a few of his own responses. Jacob was right to bring this girl here. What he said was right. The wolves would have killed her on sight. Had it not been for Jacob she would have very well been dead by the evening.

Bella had come to introduce herself to the new vampire as they all had, but unfortunately, it seemed she had become upset, either by the appearance of Jacob or by the appearance of another vampire. He thought that it might have even been the fact that she had said her intentions aloud to a stranger. He knew from experience that sometimes it was very easy to talk to strangers, and mst times the exchanges turned out to be absolute truth. He understood her position when it came to her choice because of course she wished to be with Edward as she was: Young, Beautiful, and very nearly at the peak of her life. However, she would be giving up much to join their family, her life being only one thing. There were many.

Carlisle led the way into the sitting room and asked that they all be seated. He glanced at Jacob who had started after Bella, but already he had stopped, catching himself with perfect timing. He knew what Jacob wanted too. Already Jacob had nearly Phased twice, and it would not be an honest thought if he didn't admit to himself that it had been very startling. In these moments he had carefully nudged his wife and daughter behind him, careful to block them from danger. It had been a subtle movement, he didn't want anyone aware of the danger. But now they all sat down in their sitting room, Bella upstairs in Edwards room and Jacob still standing in their hall.

"Esme, if you would be so kind as to explain our situation here to Lilian. I will help when I come back." He smiled gently at her as if to say, "I must go talk to her. Take care of everyone." He knew she would understand and know what to do. He walked over to Jacob and was careful not to stand too close or to surprise him. He gently spoke in what was just below a normal whisper, "Let me talk to her, Jacob. I know you wish to do the same. But you are in no state. Your emotions are too strong and you can't control yourself completely." He nodded gently, though he thought the other wished to contest. "You are a danger to her, and to us. Please just wait." He walked past him and felt theother back away into the sitting room.

He quietly went up the stairs to Edwards room where he already knew she was. Not that he needed to be told where she was. He could find her. He came to the room and knocked twice. He didn't want to intrude, but he felt he must, as she was to become part of his family.

"Bella?"

(Rosalie, this line is genius and I love it. "He looked as if he wanted to go after Bella, to make her feel better with his beating heart and his humanoid ways. Stupid dog for having what Edward never would have again; a beating heart. "

Nice Jake.

I'm really loving this thread. We should keep adding.