Kayla’s POV


Life was to carry on as normal. That meant I would have to go to school and take my exams. I knew I was safe because Edward was with me and Charlie said Mitchell would be constantly on look out. Plus the wolves were helping too. So I shouldn’t be so jittery, right? But I was. Every noise scared me and any slight movement had me cowering into Edward’s protective embrace. Edward found this all amusing. Glad I made someone laugh.
The weekend I just had seemed to drag on for weeks and weeks. It felt longer than just two days. So the following week dragged on for what felt like months and months and not just the usual five days. On the Friday, I cheered with everyone else when the exams were over. I clapped and laughed when Tyler and Mike tore up their notebooks and textbooks. I hugged Jessica and Angela and promised them I would see them again. Although on the outside I was smiling and happy, on the inside I was panicking and scared. Only Edward saw this. He knew my face like the back of his hand and he could tell when something wasn’t right with me. That and the fact he could hear my terrified thoughts. I kept thinking that Loren would burst into the room with an AK-47 and bullets would fly through the air and hit me. I squeaked with fear every time that image came into my head and Edward would try his best to soothe me.
After Tyler and Mike had demolished every single school book they owned, Edward suggested that I take George for a drive. My sexy, black BMW was being used as a distraction. Leaving my bag in the garage, I sat in the driver seat with Edward in the passenger one next to me and drove. But it didn’t distract me. It only helped my nasty imagination to conjure more ways that Loren could kill me. He could steal a car and ram it into George. He could pour oil on the road so that I skidded into a tree and crashed. Every possibility ran through my mind until I had to stop driving and safely park the car before I caused the crash.
“You have to stop worrying, Kayla,” Edward said. My death playing over and over again in my mind was clearly disturbing him. “You’re not going to be shot at or thrown through a tree or blown up. Calm down.”
I hit the steering wheel of the car in anger.
“I don’t know why I’m so scared,” I told him. “I’m never like this. Never!”
Edward grabbed my hands before I could hit the wheel again.
“Stop attacking George, this isn’t his fault.” He gently placed my hands on my lap. “You are like this because you don’t know how he will attack. He has no abilities so you don’t know what his strengths are. Your subconscious is therefore bombarding you with ways in which he could attack you throughout your daily routine.”
“So I’m supposed to do nothing then?” I asked him. “I just sit on my bed and do nothing so my subconscious can’t come up with ways in which he can kill me?”
As I thought about just sitting on my bed another way Loren could get me appeared. He could smother me with my pillow, he could hit me over the head with my wardrobe, he could-
“OH FOR CHRIST SAKE!” I screamed, lashing out at the steering wheel. I hit it so hard I dented it.
Edward looked at the dent with astonishment.
“Remind me never ever to get on the wrong side of you,” he said, smiling.
“Sorry George,” I stroked the wheel softly.
Edward popped the dent back out easily.
“Be careful,” he warned me. “I might not do it next time.”
“Let’s go back,” I sighed. “I can’t drive in this state.”
I started the car and tried not to think on the way back to the Cullens.


Charlie’s POV

Kayla’s thoughts were bothering me just as much as they were bothering her. The visions of her death terrified me so much I had to talk to her. I couldn’t leave her to suffer like this. She had to know she was safe.
She was in her bedroom with Edward. I had to admit that Kayla having a vampire for a boyfriend was a good thing. He could protect her just a little bit more than I could. He was practically indestructible whereas I wasn’t. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to inherit my grandmother’s healing ability. I got the other version. I could heal other people but not myself. Kayla got it though and that’s good. I know she’ll be able to survive.
I knocked on the door, not wanting to walk in and witness something I might not want to see. Ever since that stupid marriage proposal I’d been getting nothing but Kayla in a white dress from Edward. The little vamp thought he had finally gotten Kayla but not while I was still around. As long as I lived I’d make sure that vampire didn’t get my daughter. No way was she going to get hurt. I knew what kind of friends that family had. Nomadic vampires visited them all the time, especially the young blond male, Jasper. Two vampires, male and female, visited him regularly.
“Come in!” I heard Kayla call. Her voice was shaky, like she was scared or she’d been crying.
What did that little ingrate do now?
I opened the door and marched in, determined to make him pay for hurting Kayla but as soon as my foot was in the room I stepped on something. Clothes, books, shoes, magazines lay strewn across Kayla’s floor. Kayla was frantically searching through her wardrobe, throwing even more clothes onto the floor.
“Kayla, it’s fine. It was only a bracelet,” Edward was saying standing next to the wardrobe. “It’s not the end of the world.”
“But I had it!” she cried.. “I was wearing it on Saturday and I took it off that night and put it in my jewellery box. You watched me!”
“Yes, I did watch you but honestly, it didn’t cost that much. Only a couple hundred.”
She wailed at the amount and carried on her search.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Kayla can’t find the bracelet I got her for her birthday,” Edward answered. “I’m not really bothered if she lost it but she won’t give up looking.”
“You bought me it!” she said, sniffing. “It looks really ungrateful and rude if I don’t search for it.”
“I keep telling you, I don’t care if you lost it,” Edward said, exasperatedly. “You could lose every single item I bought you, as long as you’re still here it doesn’t matter.”
“But it cost a lot of money!”
“And you mean more to me than $800.”
“$800!”
I watched them argue about the bracelet. I found it very amusing. Kayla really should listen to Edward. If he says the bracelet doesn’t mean that much to him, she should stop her search and use the time she would have spent looking on doing something productive. Like dumping Edward. But this is Kayla we’re talking about. She will continue to look for it, the stubborn girl. When the wardrobe was completely empty of its contents, she moved onto the chest of drawers, yanking them open so hard the top drawer came out completely. She tipped it over and more clothes along with some books and belts poured out. She dropped the drawer and was on her knees and hunting for the bracelet in three seconds.
It’s just a bracelet, Edward thought. Honestly, she’s treating this like Charlie just found out she was bitten. Upset, angry and panicking. It was a nice bracelet. Alice picked it out and she really knows her stuff and Rosalie liked it so it couldn’t have been that-
Edward looked at me then. His eyes, still not the golden colour I knew meant he wasn’t thirsty, were widened and looked almost frightened.
“Kayla,” he said, quietly. “Stop looking for the bracelet.”
“How many times do I need to say this?” she replied angrily, yanking another drawer out. “I am not going to stop looking until I find it.”
Kayla always did have a short temper. She got that from me. And I could feel my anger rising now. Kayla was bitten? By what? A spider? A dog? Or something much worse that she would keep it from me?
“Forget the damn bracelet!” he snarled.
Kayla dropped the drawer and she stared at Edward with a mixture of fear and confusion. She had her great-grandmother’s eyes. An intelligent, vivid, sparkling green that showed she would be a powerful Azdi.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted. “I’ll look for the damn bracelet if I want to!”
“That’s if you live through this.” He looked away from me to Kayla. His eyes were apologetic.
“Live through what?”
“You were bitten?” My voice was more angry and threatening that I had meant. I didn’t want to scare her but I couldn’t help it.
She turned slowly to look at me and her eyes were the mirror image of Edward’s a few seconds ago.
“Just a little bit,” she squeaked. A sign she was lying. She was in trouble.