Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Protecting Maddie

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 22:

BPOV

I never wanted to see what I was seeing now. My little girl was curled up in a truck cab, alone in the dark, scared out of her mind. I ripped off the door making her jump a little. Dammit I didn’t want to scare her. Probably should have just opened the door.

“Baby?”

“Mommy?”

“Yeah Baby girl. It’s Mommy. You are safe now. Come here.”

Maddie screamed when Peter ripped the other door off and grabbed her from the truck. He had her in his arms. He looked like I felt. Savage. Jasper and Garrett arrived followed by Alice and Char.

Alice tried to take Maddie and Peter snarled at her, making Maddie jump in his arms. I rushed over and started brushing her hair with my hand. But this wasn’t enough to calm her tonight.

“Bella you need to see this.” I heard Jasper say.

I walked around a bend and saw Bryan’s body lying on the ground. He looked so innocent. Jasper rolled him over and his head moved at an odd angle. His throat was ripped out. No blood. He never even had a chance to scream. Vampire.

I sniffed the air and found it immediately.

“All of you stay here and protect my daughter. I’m going after him.”

“Bella wait. He is gone. That scent has too much of a head start. You need to see this note I found under the boy’s body.”

I grabbed the note from Jasper, certain I wasn’t going to like what I read.

-I could have killed her. You’re welcome.-

I felt a shiver go down my spine. I was taking deep breaths I didn’t need.

“What the fuck? Who did this Jasper?”

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize the scent. Of course it’s not like we have been around any other vampires in a long time.”

“Male?”

“Maybe. Hard to tell. Could be a female I suppose. Smells wild though. No household scents from the trail. I do detect gasoline.”

“Meaning he or she came in a car.”

“Yep.”

“This was no wondering nomad. He knew Maddie belonged to me. He stalked her. He killed her date and left her stranded knowing we would come running.”

“Yep. Feels like a trap. You sense anyone near? See any gifted vampires around?”

“I looked and listened the minute we arrived. Nothing. What about you?”

“All I could feel was Maddie’s fear. You may be lying in bed with her for a while after this.” Jasper said sadly, acknowledging the obvious.

I walked back to the truck and saw Maddie curled in Peter’s arms crying. She was calming down somewhat. She always feels safe with Peter near.

I didn’t want to think about the ramifications of what this meant to her, to us. We had been found. And unlike Demetri and his team of idiots this vampire was smart. They struck and left. Threatened and left.

Think Bella. Use your damn head!

I looked towards Jasper and opened my mind to listen to his thoughts.

/Bella, we need to put the pieces together. No way somebody just stumbled on us. Not with the Volturi and the Romanians gearing up for war./

I nodded.

/What has changed? It’s simple really. The Cullens arrived and a new vampire is in town./

I nodded my head. But the Cullens wouldn’t kill. Yes they were annoying assholes who thought they knew what was best for everyone but they wouldn’t do this. Even Rose respected life.

/Not the Cullens. But they know who it is. Maybe they don’t know that they know but they know./

“I have to get Maddie calmed down. Then we go visit our new neighbors?”

Jasper nodded at me. Peter walked up.

“You and the girls take Maddie home. We will take care of this. She doesn’t need to be around for it.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Maddie whispered, her eyes finally peaking up from her hair.

“Baby we can’t have a vampire killing around here. We have to make this look like something else.” Peter told her whispering in her ear. She nodded.

“C’mon honey. Let Mommy take you home and get you cleaned up.” I took her from Peter’s arms. I’m the only one who could have taken her from Peter at that moment. AJ would be happy. Peter loved her like his own. He protected her like his own. He would take care of us. We would take care of each other.

I took off running with Alice and Char behind me. I knew what Peter had to do. I read Jasper’s mind before I took off. The tall bridge over the mountain pass. He was going to drive the truck there, put Bryan in the driver’s seat and toss it over the bridge. It broke my heart to do that to the boy but that was for the best. Better an accident than parent’s seeking justice that will never come.

Keep telling yourself that Bella.

We ran inside and I took Maddie straight to her room. I tried to lay her down but she screamed.

“What baby?”

“Your room. I want to go to your room.”

“Okay sweetie. Calm down. You can go anywhere you want.”

“Don’t leave, Mom.”

“I won’t leave you until Peter gets back. Then I need to go find out who did this.”

She nodded and clutched at me like I was going away forever. I remember how scared I was when I thought James had killed Renee. Like it was all my fault. It wasn’t. But I felt like that anyway. She was going to feel that.

She will want to turn into a vampire right now. Just like I did when I realized James was after me. James and those other two. I would love to run into those two someday. I wonder if Laurent is still in Alaska. Alaska. Denali. Carlisle. Mexican coven. Survivor going to Denali. Why Denali? Something is there. I can almost grab it but it keeps slipping through my fingers.

I kept thinking about it while holding Maddie and stroking her hair. This was no coincidence. Somebody wanted to make me know they could reach out and get Maddie anytime. But if they knew who we were…

Who in their right mind would fuck with Peter and Jasper, especially with Garrett around? Someone not in their right mind.

I needed more information. Peter, Garrett and Jasper walked in after an hour had passed. Peter smelled like smoke. He had a very serious look on his face. I wasn’t surprised. Still. That’s how you know things are bad. When Peter isn’t smiling and has that look on his face like he is ready to do battle with the devil himself. I hadn’t seen it much since we have been together. But when I do see it I understand. He sat down next to Maddie and she curled into his arms.

“I have to go.” I whispered to him.

“Taking Jasper?”

“Yeah.”

Peter nodded. It’s not that he didn’t think I could handle anything. He was just in a protective mood right now and Jasper is the only one he trusts to protect me as fiercely as he would.

Jasper POV

“Jasper, Bella! Welcome.” Carlisle smiled answering the door. You would have never thought Bella beat his daughter to a pulp not long ago.

Bella and I followed him inside. She was going to be reading minds and I was going to be feelin emotions. Plus with her being a natural lie detector we would get the answers we needed. My Goddaughter was threatened tonight. Someone must burn.

“This isn’t a social call Carlisle. We need to see all of your family in the living room, now.”

Carlisle nodded, genuinely surprised by my tone. Bella looked at me and nodded. I saw her visibly relax. Neither of us really thought Carlisle would be involved. But despite what Bella says I think she has a soft spot for the Cullens not named Edward or Rose. It would have been a shame to kill them.

I walked in and saw the family sitting. Rose jumped a little behind Emmett when she saw Bella walk in. I saw Bella smirk. Glad to see that relationship hasn’t changed.

“What can we do for you Jasper? Bella?”

Bella was listening to their thoughts. I think a big part of her was too pissed to talk anyway.

“Maddie went on a date tonight.”

“Okay. That’s great and all but what does that have to do with us?” Emmett asked. I turned to look him in the eye and he shut the fuck up. Idiot.

“Her date wound up killed.”

Rose huffed. “Big surprise. What did the little psycho do to him?”

Bella roared. Rose backed up into a wall and pulled Emmett directly in front of her.

“Her date was killed by a vampire.”

Shocked. Upset. Worried. Nope. They definitely had nothing to do with this. I looked at Bella who shook her head no.

“Jasper please tell me you don’t think we had anything to do with this?”

“Directly no. Indirectly is another story. No vampires have come after us in 9 years. No vampires have ever came to Pinedale. So your family shows up and now we have a nomad leaving notes on bodies.”

“Notes?” Edward asked. I nodded and showed him the note in my mind.

“Whoever it is, they are toying with Bella. With all of you.”

I nodded. He may be a little bitch but he was smart when he wanted to be.

“Jasper…”

“Who could possibly know we are here? Who did you tell where you were going? Who knew you were coming to find us?”

“Bella, we told… the Denali’s knew. But they wouldn’t.”

“Who was the survivor of the Volturi purge on the Mexican Coven? The one who came to Denali and said the Volturi were looking for Maddie?”

“I didn’t catch his name, Bella. I was more focused on finding you and letting you know that Maddie hadn’t been forgotten about.”

“How did a vampire from Mexico even know about the Denali’s?”

“I… don’t know. I think he was an old friend of Eleazor’s.”

“Eleazar?”

Bella looked at me.

“He is like Saffron. He can read vampire’s powers.”

“Makes sense. He would be very interested. But how would he know that Maddie and I had pow…”

Bella stopped talking. I turned to see why she stopped and noted she Bella was looking straight at Carlisle.

“You told him!”

“I may have mentioned it some years ago. I trust him. We were talking about bringing him to Pennsylvania to read Maddie before you took her.”

“You son of a bitch!” Now I was getting pissed.

“That’s why you sent Edward looking for us. You wanted your friend to read her.”

“Bella, it was only to help you. If we knew what your powers were we could help you…”

“Fuck you Carlisle! You wanted to know what my goddamn power is that bad? To put my daughter at risk?”

“Bella…”

“I have every power you can fucking imagine Carlisle! I have them all. You have until tomorrow morning to get out of here. Get far away! Or I will use every single fucking power I have to torture you until you beg to be burned!”

Holy shit Bella was radiating anger. She was also sending fear towards the Cullens.

They were very fucking afraid. Bella was making all the metal in the house rise to the ceiling. Then she dropped it with a loud crash making the Cullens jump. I saw something similar in that Carrie movie in the Seventies.

I couldn’t send calm her way. It never worked. I had to do this the old fashioned way.

“Bella, please calm down. We haven’t gotten the answers we need yet.” I spoke in a soft voice. Bella is a very loving, soft spoken woman, who could turn into one crazy bitch in a split second.

She turned her head towards me and I almost got bowled over by the emotion. “Bella, please. Maddie needs you calm.”

That turned the scary demon bitch down for a second. A couple deep breaths later and sweet rational Bella was back.

“Okay. Sorry. So a vampire escapes, supposedly, the Volturi and happens to run to Denali where the one vampire resides that we all know can read powers. Eleazar tells him about a girl who may fit the description of the girl the Volturi are looking for. He tells him that you and your family are coming to Wyoming. On a hunch he follows you and finds us. A family of vampires raising a teenage girl. He puts two and two together and can’t believe his luck. But since we don’t have the Volturi in our back yard and he didn’t try to take Maddie when he could, he must want something else, right Jasper?”

I nodded. It seems like that would have made the most sense just to take her. Of course then he would have us after him. If he worked for the Volturi he would have led them to us immediately and wouldn’t be playing games. So he doesn’t want us for the Volturi. Us. He wants us. All of us. The empath, the future seer, the warrior and the girl with all the powers in the world. No one knows what Bella can do. But they know enough to come after her based on the number of vampires who have heard of her.

I could have killed her. You’re welcome.

He wants us all and he will use Maddie’s life to control us. But if he just takes her we go crazy finding him. So he harasses her. Terrorizes her friends. Makes us negotiate with him. He wants protection and power if he can grab it. It’s a pretty indirect effective battle plan.

I looked at Bella who must have been reading my mind. She didn’t nod but she told me with her eyes she heard. And by how wide her eyes had gotten she agreed.

“You’re right Jasper.”

“Shut up Edward.”

“Jasper let us stay. If we leave you will be more vulnerable.”

“And why should we trust you Edward? Any of you. Carlisle’s mouth and curiosity has already led some vampire to us. And we are never vulnerable. There isn’t an army in the world we couldn’t destroy between the four of us. Throw in Garrett and Char and we could take over the vampire world.” I needed to remind him apparently who the fuck Peter and I were.

“So why don’t you?” Emmett asked.

Cause who would feed the horses was the first thought that crossed my mind.

Bella answered out loud.

“Because we don’t want to take over the world Emmett. We just want to be left alone and raise our kid.”

“We are vampires Bella. Your daughter is being raised by vampires. Her date was murdered tonight. There is no normal for us. There is no peace.”

“Not with you opening your damn mouth Carlisle. But things were going good up until now.” Bella responded.

“Okay. So we know how he found us. He probably isn’t alone but he isn’t with the Volturi. He must be set up around here somewhere. Pinedale isn’t that big.” I thought aloud.

“Let’s go home Jasper. Cullens you can stay for now. If we need you, you better come. But trust me, we won’t call unless we really need you. Keep an eye on Maddie in school. Char will be with her but Char could be outnumbered. You don’t talk to my daughter. But you better keep an eye on her.”

“Why can’t we talk to her Bella?” Emmett asked. Still looking for a little sister I guess.

“Simple. She doesn’t like you. I don’t like people bothering my girl who she doesn’t want to be bothered by. Carlisle, thanks for bringing down the drama. I have to go check on my traumatized daughter. I imagine her date’s mother will be calling soon if not the police. She is going to find out soon that her son died in a horrible car wreck. I will be lying to them saying that he dropped my daughter off early. Have a great night.”

Peter POV

“Peter he’s dead because of me.”

“No he isn’t baby. He’s dead because of an evil son of a bitch that I promise I will kill.”

“That evil son of a bitch wouldn’t have gone after him if he hadn’t been with me. He is dead because of me.”

Damn there was not going to be any stopping these tears for a long while. It broke my heart to see her cry. I needed to destroy something. But she needed me more right here. I heard Bella run in and she was by our side. Jasper was downstairs explaining everything to his wife and our extended family. Fucking Carlisle Cullen. Had to get his nose in everybody’s business. Letting Maddie go to them while Bella was turning was the dumbest mistake of my life.

“Mom we have to leave. Now.” Maddie whispered.

“What are you talking about baby? You are safe here. Didn’t you say you didn’t want to run?”

“Not from the Cullens Mom. But my friend was murdered. A vampire murdered Bryan. What if he goes after Lori next? Or Amanda?”

“Sweetie, you have to have a life. We are going to protect you and look out for your friends.”

“How Mom? Don’t you realize that right now whoever did this could be at Lori’s house right now, sucking her dry?”

“Baby, nobody is sucking Lori dry…”

“A couple hours ago you would have said the same thing about Bryan, Mom. You have to pull me out of school and change me. I have to be changed. And I have to stay away from humans. It’s not safe for them to be around us.”

“Absolutely not! You are not changing until you are at least 18 and graduate high school, Maddie!”

“Maddie listen to me. It will be okay.” I tried to calm her.

“No, it won’t Peter. You know I need to be changed. They are going to keep going after me until they can’t get to me. I need to be strong like you and Mom. Then no one will fuck with us.”

Bella was about to yell something about Maddie’s language but I shook my head at her. Maddie was a little raw around the edges right now and probably wasn’t in the mood for a comment about her language. Especially a word I have said at least 50 times tonight.

“Maddie, the vampire is here already. He knows who your friends are probably. Us leaving is just going to leave them open to attacks with no protection. Leaving them would be irresponsible. We have to stay and deal with this. It is not your fault. It is probably Carlisle Cullens fault actually.”

“What did he do?”

Shit, Bella was glaring at me.

“Carlisle and the Cullens may have inadvertently led the vampire to us.”

“I’m going to kill those bastards.” Maddie responded. I suppose I would rather have her pissed than sad. Pissed I could deal with. Pissed I understood.

“No you aren’t. Okay maybe one day, but not now. You need to keep going to school and living life. That’s what you are going to do. Keep your eyes out for anything strange. Keep close to Char. We are going to get through this like we get through everything else. And when you graduate I will turn you myself if your Mom won’t and you can get started being the baddest ass vampire in the history of vampires.”

Bella was glaring at me but she wouldn’t put up a fight. We both had an instinct similar to a mating pull when it came to Maddie. The pull to keep her safe. The best way to do that was to turn her. I fought it when I saw Bella for the first time. Turning her into a vampire made her safe. I had to fight that urge. We have both had to fight the urge to change Maddie. She may not have a normal life but…

“Mom, I had my first real date and he got murdered.” Shit, she was crying again.

“Speaking of first real date Maddie, what were you two doing out there? I thought he was taking you to dinner?”

Bella glared at me. I guess maybe this ain’t the time to talk about it. I heard a knock at the door and immediately tensed until I heard the heartbeat. I was so focused on Maddie I didn’t hear the car pull up.

I walked downstairs while Bella began wiping Maddie’s tears. This wasn’t going to be easy.

I opened the door while Jasper, Alice, Garrett and Char went into the kitchen.

“Officer, can I help you?”

The officer was one I recognized. Frank I think he was called.

“Evening Mr. Whitlock. Uh… I got to ask you something. She hasn’t done anything wrong…”

“What is the problem, officer?”

“Is your sister in law home?”

Huh? Oh yeah sister in law.

“Yeah, she is up stairs with her m… sister getting ready for bed.”

“Oh thank God.” The officer looked like he was going to pass out in relief. I knew why.

“What’s going on sir?”

“Was she out with Bryan Thompson tonight?”

“Yes sir. He brought her home about 9:30. Why?”

“We found his truck. It drove off the bridge down the road and fell about 100 feet. It blew up on impact. His body was seat belted in but his Momma told us he had little Maddie with him. We were scared she may have been thrown… Anyway, I’m just glad she is here and not…”

“Oh my God.” I whispered. I had to act shocked. Tell you the truth this shit was so surreal it wasn’t hard to pretend.

“Yeah. You think I could talk to her? Ask her some questions? Try to figure out what happened? His body is so burned… I don’t know. Maybe if she noticed if he might have been…”

“Drinking?”

“Yes.”

Glad I got rid of that cooler in the back of his truck. His parents didn’t need to think he got into a drunk driving accident. It was going to be bad enough. God I was angry. I had to stay cool though.

“I didn’t smell any on Maddie when she came home. I tell you what. Let me go break this to her. She is going to be a mess. Why don’t you come here at 10 AM and you can come by and talk to her then?”

The officer looked relieved. I don’t think he wanted to break this to her.

“I would appreciate that, Mr. Whitlock. I have to get back to the scene. I’m real glad she is okay. Real glad. I didn’t want to have to tell another family… you know. His Momma and Daddy are a wreck… well you can understand that.”

I nodded. Nothing else needed to be said.

He left and I closed the door. The family came out of the kitchen.

“What do you want us to do Peter?” Garrett asked.

“Nothing right now. We start to look tomorrow evening. Tonight, me and my woman got to calm our little girl down somehow.”

I walked upstairs and reached our room when my cell phone buzzed. I flicked it open to see what the hell Carlisle wanted.

“Yeah?”

“Peter is Bella with you?”

“Yeah hold on. Jasper, Alice!” They were up in the room in a flash followed by Peter and Char. Alice couldn’t wait to hold Maddie. She was as shaken as we all were.

“We are all here Carlisle. What do you want?”

“I called Eleazar. The one who escaped the Mexican Coven was just in Mexico looking for a friend, not a member of the coven. He came to Denali because he had stayed with them once before and wanted to get as far away from the Volturi as possible. He mentioned the Volturi looking for the girl and Eleazar mentioned the conversation he and I had about Bella and her daughter. His name is Laurent. He left after a short time when his friend met up with him. They must have found us. His friend’s name is…”

Bella spoke up.

“Let me guess Carlisle. Her name is Victoria?”