All Cullen Family POVs!!

This chapter is huge!! I was debating making it two but voted for keeping it all together!

It is a really long chapter I just really couldn't break it apart.

Chapter 16: Witch Brewed

APOV

I was lying down in my bed, trying my hardest to see Bella Swan better. It bothered me that I couldn’t see her, maybe as much as it bothered Edward that he couldn’t read her. After all, I’m always helping him defend her. I gave up and focused on my brother, Edward was an easier read. He was driving fast, so she wasn’t with him… hmm I wonder if it was brought up.

“Edward? What happen? You know I can’t see her very well, did you ask her?!” I rolled over excited as I sent out the thought; I wondered what I’ll wear. I had the feeling that when Bella finally came around we were going to be friends, which I was sure of. Good thing too, we can go shopping, I can give her a makeover. Pretty girl, but pale enough that a vampire that has fed has more coloring than her.

“Are you done thinking about what you’re going to wear and about makeovers so I can give you the news? Or do you going to pick up the last batch of fashion magazines that you haven’t looked at yet?” Oops, I was thinking about clothing that I didn’t even hear his initial response. He hasn’t forgiven me since I took him shopping with Jasper to Paris.

“No I haven’t. I swear my arms were going to fall off. All that was left in the stores were the light fixtures.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I was calling you for a solid minute Alice. A solid minute of your thoughts going over shopping ideas, no thank you. Also, no shopping trips with Bella, she’s not the type.”

“I know she isn’t the type. C’mon one little trip won’t hurt? I can get her some things in blue, maybe a dress. I can see that there’s going to be a need for a blue dress.”

“She said yes by the way.”

“Really?! That is great. She’ll be here Saturday then?

“I thought you couldn’t see her.”

“I can’t, not in the ways I can see other humans. I have some weird delay reaction when it comes to her.”

“How are things going to turn out?”

I rolled my eyes into my head for the thousandth time. He’s asked this question every day since he decided to bring her over.

“Jasper is totally going to flip and try to bite her.” I felt guilty when I said that, but hey I had to have some fun somehow.

“That is so not funny Alice!” He all but yelled in my head. Oww, okay that wasn’t funny.

“I know, but seriously chill out already. Everything is going to be fine. The meeting tonight however is going to be fun. Emmett likes her; Rosalie is going to get mad at him for a whole day. Hurry up already, we’re waiting for you. I’m not missing this show for anything in the world!”

EPOV

Alice’s words were reassuring and her thoughts were downright scary. I can imagine the look of horror on Bella’s face if Alice did ever take her ‘shopping’. My adorable sister is a downright shopping monster from the pits of retail hell. I don’t care what she says, I know for a fact that Jasper and I were close to toppling over from carrying her things in Paris. I gunned the car the rest of way, I was anxious and I really wanted to get this meeting out of the way. Bella was coming over Saturday and its Wednesday today. No time like the present, she said. How right indeed.

EsPOV

I knew the minute Edward was in. I also knew he was with Bella earlier; you don’t have to be a mind reader to know that. There was an air of happiness to him that I haven’t seen there in all these years. I worried for a long time, about him being alone while we were all paired up. He didn’t show it, but I knew he felt the loneliness, that’s why he worked to focus on other things. Immortality is nice but made forever richer when spent with someone that makes you happy.

“How did it go?”

I smiled, Edward the one who is so attentive and aware has had his head in the clouds since meeting the girl. I liked this, only because I knew he was in love and I was happy for him. If it was possible for a vampire to blush he would have done so now. His kissed my forehead as he sat down next to me.

“She’s coming Saturday.”

Saturday, that gives me enough time tidy some things around the house. Should I cook something, perhaps make a small serving tray? I wonder if Alice would like to go food shopping with me.

“That’s not really necessary,” he said. “Well maybe, I don’t know what we’re planning that day.”

I nodded and patted his hand. I would do something light and prepare a meal. “Well, I’ll figure out something for Saturday Edward, do you know what time you’ll be in with –”

I stopped as out the corner of my eye I saw Emmett walk in behind Rosalie. She was still not speaking to him since he came home after school. He found his meeting of Bella to be very entertaining and was officially what he labeled ‘Team Bella’. I hoped the meeting tonight would finally calm things down.

RPOV

I didn’t want to talk to Emmett since he came home from school. It appears that the same lunacy that has engulfed Edward and Alice has taken him too. Did anyone see the threat that a human, no a witch posed to us? To our safety, to us staying in Forks? Ha and they say blondes are dumb, whatever! I saw Esme pause but I heard what she said and I bristled. Saturday, that’s all of three days away. I didn’t agree with this madness and I don’t care how upset Edward got, someone had to be the voice of reason.

“What time are you bringing her over? I don’t want to be here.”

Esme, my adoptive mother which I adored gave me a very stern disapproving look. Great, she’s Team Bella too, I thought as I slumped into the seat across them. I didn’t miss the look my brother gave me.

“You should be here Rosalie,” she told me.

“I said I don’t want to be here, what if she freaks and burns the house down. Have you thought about that Esme?”

Edward growled, “Burn the house down? Are you for real?”

“Yes. How is bring a witch, that by your own statement isn’t in complete control of her powers a good idea? A witch that almost burned your brother and my husband’s hand off.”

I heard Emmett laugh hard behind me. “Burn my hand off? That’s great Rose! Seriously, I think we should be here,” he said seriously as he smiled and kissed my cheek. “I’m staying. Saturday is going to be one awesome show. Not even if there’s a new pack of Grizzlies up in the woods would I miss being here.”

I hissed at him and sighed. It’s clear that I’m outnumbered. I just didn’t get or want to understand the spell that Bella has casted over my family. Part of me is happy that Edward has found someone, but this doesn’t gloss over the danger that she poses. I turned around and went up to my room. I should be here Saturday; someone has to be the voice of reason.

EmPOV

I watched Rose all but stomp up her room like some annoyed kid. The fact that she’s a vampire made her look both ridiculous and insanely hot doing so, it made me laugh again.

“Saturday man, we have to go hunting Friday then.” I said to Edward. I’ve noticed his eating habit changed since Bella, he pigs out a day or two before he knows he’s going to be alone with her. He’s eating less now which leaves me in awe, if I smelled something as sweet as he describes her blood I would have a very hard time resisting. I still don’t know why he resists, at the worse he loses control and drains her, or he converts her.

“I want her to have her normal, human life. I don’t want her to miss out on anything.” Edward responded to the thoughts I was having.

“Only you bro. Trust you to find someone who is human and as hysterically funny as you. I totally love her, she’s amusing. Like I said, don’t worry about Rose, she’ll come around.”

EPOV

I laid my head in my hands. Upstairs I could hear Rosalie’s yelling, she was also yelling in my head. Again and again, asking me how I can be so stupid to put us all in danger. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I heard Alice upstairs with Jasper. She wasn’t worried about him trying to hurt Bella, but he wasn’t so sure. He was asking her whether he should be here, if that was a good idea.

What am I doing to my family? I asked myself. I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t like it. Well I knew what I couldn’t do, I cannot be without Bella. I know I shouldn’t, I tried and failed to stay away from her. The current discussion upstairs made me wish sometimes I couldn’t hear people’s thoughts or have vampire hearing. Trying to ignore them all, I went outside to wait for Carlisle to come home from Fork’s Hospital, he called earlier that there was going to be a meeting once he came in.

It was getting late and I wanted to go to Bella, watch the way the dim light of night played across her face as she slept. I loved watching her sleep, it calms me in a way I can’t comprehend.

JPOV

The tension in the house was suffocating; it swirled around everyone in different hues and strengths. Except for my Alice, she was giddy flittering about the room planning what to wear. While I didn’t harbor the same acute dislike for the human as Rosalie seems to hold, I did agree with her about the risks Edward was taking being with her. I still remember the fight we had the night of the accident, I mentioned that this was the best moment to remove the threat. To easily slip into her home and end her life – humans died in their sleep sometimes, no one would be the wiser. It would have been chalked up to tragic touch of fate. Edward was so enraged at the suggestion that I couldn’t contain his mood. His anger washed over me, and if it was tangible it would have crushed me. I was also thoroughly given a talking to by Alice later that night; her beautiful pixie face held noting but a scowl and a glare for me the rest of that night.

“I wish Rosalie would shut up, there are other people in this house you know. How is anyone supposed to think straight with her going on like that?” She all but growled as she held the fashion magazine in her hands.

“Not everyone is Team Bella Alice, you have to understand the caution others feel.”

“Ha, that term Team Bella has really taken off hasn’t it Jas?”

“It has because there is no other way to explain it. You, Emmett and Edward are all wishing to speed up the days to get her here. Rosalie and I are the only ones that really have any serious reservation and Esme, being who she is, isn’t taking any sides. The only one I’m not sure about is Carlisle.” I sat down next to her and took her hands, I loved my wife but I did have some reservation, as many about her as about me.

She smiled and nuzzled me, “You’re not going to hurt her and neither is she.”

I kissed the top of her head, I wondered sometimes if Edward wasn’t the only mind reader in the house. “I’ll be here then, since I know how much you’re dying to meet her. But please Alice, if you see anything, you’ll tell me?”

CPOV

I could hear everyone from miles down the road. I knew Edward was sitting outside waiting for me wanting to talk. I’ve never seen Edward so unsure of himself, of his actions. I parked and walked over to him, “Son, come in there is much we need to discuss tonight and I want things settled in our home. Go on and gather everyone in the dining room, I’ll be down shortly.

I walked in after him and kissed my wife, and walked straight into our room. I thought about what I felt for her, what she felt for me. What Alice and Jasper felt for each other, what Rosalie and Emmett shared. Who were we to deny Edward the selfsame we have? What we have felt for ages while he walked besides us alone. I changed and headed downstairs, walking into the dining room with everyone waiting for me.

“I called this meeting because all of us need to talk and discuss the changes in our family. I do not see Bella’s humanity isn’t the biggest concern, we were humans once. I know that her being a witch is what makes many of you pause and I figured it was time I cleared the misconceptions and questions you may have about that.” I looked around the room and paused before starting, I sat down knowing I had a lot to say, a lot of ground to cover. The Cullen family was changing one way or another and we had to be aware and ready.

“As you know my father was an Anglican pastor, I was to follow in his footsteps. By the mid 17th century witch hunts and trials were the norm. Many women and men were convicted, and I tell you now that many of them were simple humans. The real witches, the witches that Bella Swan is descended from were seldom, if never caught. If any myth is more distorted from reality than ours is that of witches. Their truth is as difficult, if not more so than ours to sort.”

I didn’t want to give them a history lesson so I wanted to be as brief as possible. In 300 years I’ve learned that only a selected few really have any acute interest in the minute details of history.

The zeal my father and others had as they hunted down these supposed witches. How all across Europe humans hunted down their fellow man shocked me then and shocks me still. It was after I became a vampire that I knew where the real threat to real witches laid. It wasn’t the human hunters they had to fear, but the vampires that hunted them for their blood.

“If any real witches were killed during the Inquisitions in Europe, it wasn’t the human hunters but the vampires that killed them. When I joined the Volturi, they already made witches their favorite to hunt. The Volturi purposely went out and sought them, Aro in specific called witches’ blood the sweetest he ever tasted. He called the ones he drank from ‘Cantantes,’ Italian for singers because of the music he would hear in their blood as he fed from them. To this day he laments that none of them were able to control the blood lust long enough to convert a witch into a vampire. He assumed that their power would only magnify in their new state.”

I turned to Edward as I continued, “This is why I voted for you leaving when you came from school that day. I did not know how true Aro’s word was about their blood and I wanted you as removed from the danger as possible.”

“I knew it! I knew she should be killed when there was a chance. She’s a damn threat!” Rosalie exclaimed from her seat down the long time.

“Rosalie please calm down, you do nothing but aggravate a situation that is precarious enough. All of us are aware of your view on this matter, but it is out of your hands, out of all of us except Edward’s and Bella’s. Please be quiet until I’m finished.” I knew my voice was stern; she sulked for a second as she waited for me to continue.

“However, these last few weeks I’ve seen you prove Aro wrong. So I eased my initial reservations I had about your relationship with a witch. Bella is young and will only grow into her powers as she gets older. The witches the Volturi fed from were usually young; the older ones knew vampires and knew how to defend themselves. The fact that she fought off a vampire at such a young age means that she’s a lot stronger than she thinks; perhaps knowing what happened today with Emmett, she may be stronger than she is capable of maintaining. However, the fact that she controlled herself so quickly is curiousity. But alas, I’m just as interested as Aro was in witches for a very different reason. They are both myth and real, human and inhuman. Like us they walk in two words.”

Reading my old journals, some of them of when I was living with the Volturi piqued my interest in meeting Bella. I had some questions about her linage, how much magic she actually knew. If magic over time, like many responses were automatic than thought out and executed.

“As for Bella Swan, it is obvious to see that Edward feels strongly for her. I have never seen or witnessed a relationship between the two, but stranger things can and have come to pass. When she visits on Saturday, we will all be here to greet her. There is no need to be rude,” I glanced at Rosalie as I said this, “intentional or otherwise. You don’t have to stay to make small talk after introductions but she would not be made to feel uncomfortable in a Cullen home. Understood?” Alice beamed at me as everyone nodded, “I recommend we go hunting soon as close to Friday as possible in preparation to her visit.”

I looked around the room at the faces of family, Edward looked relieved. Alice was all but bouncing in her seat, Jasper sat next to her watching the many moods in the room. Rosalie’s expression was still one of disapproval; I knew I didn’t have to worry about her behavior on Saturday. Esme had her fingers laced in mine the entire time I was talking, while Emmett ran his hand up and down Rose’s back in a comforting action.

Saturday is three days away. To some it seemed forever, to others it couldn’t come quick enough. I wondered if Bella knew all the things she was stirring with her presence.

Next chapter is the kiss, yes the kiss is going to have its own chapter because I'm going to have a lot of fun with how Bella's magic reacts to kissing Edward. It will have both of their POVs during the kiss too. The discussion of Edward watching Bella sleep in her house also comes up, that's going to be fun writing too.

R&R! Thanks!

T.T