CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EPOV

"No and what do you mean you flew?" I asked suspiciously. We were all surprised that Bella knew one of these nomads. Laurent. How does she know him though? Did he tell her he's a vampire? "Oh um, you know, flying, on an airplane" she stuttered and we could all tell she was lying. "You didn't tell them?" the one called Laurent asked.

"Wait, tell us what?" I asked. Looks like we aren't the only one keeping secrets, I heard Emmett say in his thoughts.

Stupid me, of course she wouldn't tell them that. Flew right away from me the first time I saw her- Laurent. What does he mean she flew away? Humans can't fly. But is she human? "Bella, are you human?" I asked. "What? Of course I'm human!" she said, sounding genuinely surprised and hurt.

"Then what are you?" Emmett asked. "Who cares about these questions, Could we just play baseball?" One of Laurent's friends said. I looked over at him. He was looking at Bella. Or preferably, looking at her like she was a piece of meat for devouring. I growled at him in warning. He looked at me and chuckled. "Oh this is precious" he said. "A vampire falling for a human. So precious" he said. I growled again at his thoughts. This could be my new fun game-James.

"Oh look at that, lover boys getting defensive" James sneered at me. "James" Laurent warned. "Wait wait, you guys are all vampires and what do you mean 'a vampire falling for a human'?" Bella asked. "I mean sugar, that this vampire here is your mate" James said, looking at Bella. She gasped and I turned to look at her. I saw in my peripheral vision, James inching closer to Bella and I growled lowly in warning to him.

"You mean you're my mate?" Bella asked me. I nodded my head. Please don't reject me, god I don't think I could live if she at least doesn't like me. Please don't hate me, we could even be friends if you want. "Wow, um" she said.

"You don't have to like me back, I understand if you don't like me" I said. I don't want her to say she likes me just because I like her. "I actually like you too" Bella said boldly. I looked at her and she was smiling at me. I smiled back at her hesitantly. "Ok now that's out of the way, can we play some baseball?" James asked impatiently.

"Jeez James impatient are we?" the red head who was standing at his side said. "You betcha, I really wanna score" he said and I couldn't help but think there was a double meaning in his words because when he said that, he was looking straight at Bella.

"Let's do this then.'' Emmett yelled enthusiastically, wanting to get the game started already and anxious to get the heated conversation put behind them.

Victoria was the pitcher, having the best curve ball, while Rosalie started as the batter. Half of us went to the outfield to field while Bella, Carlisle, James, Alice and I stayed to bat. Victoria pitched the ball to Rosalie who swung the bat as hard as she could. Thunder echoed off the ground and the ball flew towards the forest.

"Wow, wish I could hit that far" Bella murmured. "Well, we are vampires, we have extra strength" I said to Bella. "Lucky you guys, I don't even have that much strength" she said. "What do you mean?" I asked, looking at her. "Oh nothing" she said, not looking anyone in the eye. "Come on Bella, you know their secret, they might as well know yours" Laurent said from base one. So she does have a secret. What could it be? "Fine, you guys want to know?' she asked, looking at us all. We all nodded our heads.

"No!" Alice suddenly yelled. Our heads all turned towards her. "Get him!" she yelled, pointing to James who was now running towards Bella. "See you later's suckers!" James yelled as he picked Bella up bridal style and started running. I quickly started running after James.

I knew there wasn't a reason I liked him. "James!" Laurent called. I saw the red head Victoria start running after James. "Put me down you fucker! What do you think you're doing?" I head Bella yell. By now, I was catching up to them, but still not far enough. I didn't want to attack James for fear that I would hurt Bella.

I looked up ahead and saw that Bella was twisting her way out of James grasp. "Hold still or I'll kill you" he said. Bastard! Dare lay a hand on her and I'll rip you to pieces and throw you in a furnace! I growled. Bella didn't listen to him and Victoria started to advance towards them. Fuck! I thought as I started pushing myself faster to get towards them.

But what happened next surprised us all.

BPOV

I was sick of James looking at me all the time and now he tried to steal me away. Fucker! I transformed into a griffin now, surprising James and Victoria momentarily that I managed to get out of his grip. Secrets out now. I just hope they can accept that I turn into a giant bird.

I turned towards James and Victoria and swiped my claws at them. My claws are sharp and dangerous. They are sharper than vampire's teeth. God I'm so stupid! Why didn't I know that the Cullen's are vampires? I only know vampires with red eyes but surely I should've remembered that Laurent told me about them.

The last time I saw Laurent was some time last year. The first time I met Laurent, I was flying somewhere around France, and I just happened to be lying down in the meadow, in my human form, and he came up to me with the intention to eat me, so of course to defend myself, I changed and attacked him back. From then on, we had been friends.

James jumped at me and I swiped him with my claw again, sending him flying back, to hit into Victoria. In seconds, Edward was pulling James up by the collar of his shirt. "DO NOT THREATEN MY MATE!" Edward accentuated each word with a punch to James's face. In the mean time, Victoria had gotten back up, and was lunging at me. This is going to be so easy. I turned around and she went flying behind me. I faced her again and while she was distracted, I put my teeth around her neck and pulled. One down. I turned towards James and he was already in pieces.

A fire was by his side and Edward was throwing one of his legs in it. I spat Victoria's head into the fire and then went back and picked her lifeless body up and dumped that in the fire to burn as well. I changed back into my human self and turned to face them.

Oh shit.