CHAPTER SEVEN:
IGNORANCE IS BLISS

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BELLA'S HOUSE HAD BEEN the subject of a break and enter. It was later in the day, after everything that happened at school, and everyone had gathered in the living room to discuss the turn of events. Edward had demanded a family meeting after he caught an unknown vampire's scent in Bella's bedroom, and the two were set to arrive at any moment, along with Emmett and Jasper, who'd gone in search of the intruder. Verona was just taking a seat beside Alice when they returned.

"Who was it?" Carlisle asked. "Someone we know?"

"Just a stranger," Edward muttered, simmering with anger. "I didn't recognise his scent."

"A nomad passing through?" Esme murmured with concern in her eyes.

"Bella's father wouldn't be alive if it was someone passing through. They would've killed him or turned him into one of us," Verona shook her head, brows furrowed in thought. "It has to be someone else."

Carlisle nodded along with her, realisation hitting him. "Someone's orchestrating this."

"Victoria?" Bella frowned, her stomach twisting at the thought of the vampire who'd been after her for months. When was she going to give up?

"I would've seen her decide," Alice told her.

"Then it has to be the Volturi," Edward sighed.

Verona's eyes immediately narrowed, her head snapping towards him. Their argument from earlier was still fresh on her mind, and the fact that he was bringing up her mate's coven didn't help the matter either. Her anger was vibrant, and quickly growing the more she thought about the situation. She clenched her hands into fists, biting down on her lower lip to keep from blurting out an annoyed remark. Instead, she cursed him in her head, watching as he glowered at her out of the corner of his eye before turning back to their anxious family.

"I don't think it's them either."

Alice reached out to place a hand on Verona's arm, sensing her distress without even having to look at her. Verona accepted the touch without protest, breathing out a sigh as she looked down at her hands, allowing her tense muscles to slacken. The two of them had always been that way, able to sense when the other was feeling something; whether it be happiness or sadness or anger. They'd been best friends for over a century; they knew everything there was to know about each other, and that time around was no different.

"I've been watching their decisions too."

"So we keep looking then," Emmett shrugged, as if the answer to the issue was obvious.

"Bella's house needs to be guarded," Carlisle told them, already making plans. "We should start taking shifts to watch her."

"Another protection detail?" Rosalie scoffed as she stared at their father in annoyance.

"Rosalie," Carlisle sighed, running a hand over his face in frustration. "Bella's our family now."

"No, she's right," Bella's said, everyone turning to look at her in surprise. "You can't protect me, watch my dad, and search for the intruder."

"Victoria too," Rosalie muttered, though seemed a little put out by Bella's agreement.

"And keep yourselves fed."

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Verona sighed, arching an eyebrow at her. "We don't have a lot of options right now."

"I'm not leaving you here defenseless." Edward, as if sensing what his mate was going to say, started shaking his head in denial.

"I'm not going to let you starve," Bella retorted, glancing at each of them in turn. "I wouldn't be unprotected anyway. I'd have..."

Bella hesitated for an instant, brown eyes lowering to the floor, to where her feet were crossed at the ankles. She wasn't sure whether to continue, knowing her boyfriend wouldn't be happy with the idea she'd thought of.

"What?" Edward, once again knowing she was keeping something hidden, prompted her to speak with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Jacob," Bella muttered. "He and the pack could help me."

Verona released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. Bella's idea, while it meant working with their enemies, was rather smart. The wolves' main purpose in life was to protect the humans from vampires. Bella was a human, and she was in danger, from multiple vampires at that. It was their obligation to protect her, to work with them instead of against them. Verona couldn't believe they hadn't thought of it before.

"Bella," she grinned at her, eyes bright. "You're a genius."

Bella blinked in shock, before mumbling a quiet "thank you?" under her breath.

Edward's expression of distaste said otherwise, but Verona could already see the approval in everyone else's eyes. The wolves would give them the edge that they needed, would help share the overwhelming workload. It was time to set their differences aside and shut down the situation once and for all, not just for Bella's sake, but for theirs as well.

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HIS WORDS WERE NOTHING short of enchanting to her. Verona would read the letters he sent over and over again, allowing her imagination to run wild, thinking up scenarios of what it would be like to hear his voice morph the words he'd written and finding her frozen heart cascading into pieces at the idea. At the start, being infatuated with the thought of hearing his voice and being with him in general had unsettled her. But she'd grown to rely on the thought more than she'd care to admit. Alec being her mate was terrifying, but she couldn't push him away, no matter how much she wanted to.

In her hands was one of his recent letters. Over the past week, they'd been speaking back and forth, scrawling words on pieces of paper and waiting anxiously for the other's response. The letter she was reading then had come the day prior, and thinking about it had her scrambling across her bedroom to start writing back to him. However, just as she sat down at her desk, the sound of her family conversing downstairs resonated up to her room. Verona let out a sigh, knowing her presence was needed for the discussion. So with one last longing look down at her mate's letter, she sped out of the room and appeared by the living room doorway.

"It's getting worse." In Carlisle's hand was the television remote, which went black as he switched off the news broadcast they'd been watching before she arrived. "We're going to have to do something."

"It takes more than one of our kind to cause the damage they're reporting," Jasper muttered as he continued to stare at the television screen, his dark eyes narrowing in thought. "Quite a few more. And they're undisciplined, conspicuous."

"It's newborns."

Verona shifted at her brother's voice. Edward spared her a glance from where he stood beside his mate, before he turned back to face the rest of the family. Over the past week, they'd managed to patch up their relationship to a certain extent. Edward apologising for his angry outburst had moved along the process, and Verona had graciously accepted his apology, but they were nowhere near as close as they once were. And while that hurt them a lot, they had more important things to worry about at that point in time. Maybe once everything was over, they could focus on fixing their relationship.

"What?" Bella frowned, glancing at them in confusion. "You mean new vampires?"

"In the first few months after the change," Edward nodded, gripping her hand tighter as she hummed nervously.

"That's when we're at our most uncontrollable," Jasper interjected. "Vicious, insane with thirst."

"Something to look forward to," Emmett winked, smirking as her face began to pale. Bella wasn't opposed to being turned - that much was obvious from her constant request for it happen after graduation - it was more the idea of being so ravenous and vicious that made her uncomfortable. Verona completely understood that. She'd feared the same thing when she first learned what she was. But she'd gotten used to the bloodlust with time, and after a while, the frenzy had faded into a mild ache she barely noticed anymore.

"Emmett," Verona rolled her eyes as she crossed the room, taking a seat next to him on the lounge. "Now isn't the time for jokes."

"No one's trained these newborns," Jasper continued, ignoring Emmett's annoyed pout as he looked towards their patriarch. "But this isn't random."

"Someone's creating an army," Carlisle muttered, following his son's line of thought with ease.

"An army of vampires?" Bella gasped, struggling to wrap her head around the idea.

Jasper shot her a knowing look, "And they've been created to fight someone."

"We're the only coven even close to Seattle," Edward mumbled, his eyes beginning to flare with panic.

"Regardless of why they were made," Carlisle intervened, raising a calming hand in his son's direction. "If we don't put a stop to them, the Volturi will. I'm surprised they've let it go on this long as it has."

"Well, maybe they're behind it." Verona sat up straight, her back tensing as she glanced at Edward. An uncomfortable feeling settled in her chest at the insinuation he was making, and her mind began to wander to her mate, questioning if he knew anything about the situation, if he or anyone else was planning to intervene or not.

"In Italy, I read Aro's mind." Edward's voice had her snapping out of her thoughts, instead watching him in intrigue. "He wants me and Alice to join him." He glanced at Verona then, and she raised an eyebrow as he hesitated. "He also wants Verona to be closer to her mate."

"Of course he does," she sighed, body sinking into the lounge.

"But he knows we'd never choose that as long as our family's alive."

"Well," Jasper scowled. "An army could solve that for him."

Verona bit down on her lip, her heart plummeting. What they were saying made sense, but there was something about the situation that didn't sit right with her. She just wasn't sure what.