Beneath the book cover is an excerpt from the beginning of the story. Enjoy!!
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| Book Cover by Cassandra Lowery “On Our Way Home” by Cassandra Lowery |
Disclaimer: All elements of the Twilight books are the
intellectual property of Stephanie Meyer. This derivative work is intended for
entertainment only and is not intended for profit. I only wish to play with her
characters and in her world....
After
helping Bella into the window seat, I placed her battered school backpack in
the small compartment over our heads while Alice slid her Coach carry-on next
to it. I gently closed the compartment door before moving in from the crowded
aisle as tired tourists filed past us, toting their carry-on bags. Sliding into
the aisle seat, I gazed once again into the beautiful eyes that I had never
thought to see alight with life again.
Bella gave
me a tight smile, the same smile I had seen pass over her features only a few
times since we left Volterra hours ago.
There was
something very wrong with that smile that haunted me, mitigating the joy that
had exploded within me in that shadowed alley when I realized that I held a
living, breathing Bella in my arms, the joy that had been renewed when our
safety became a reality as Alice guided the stolen sedan past the Volterra
limits.
Thankful
for the wide first class seats that Alice had insisted upon, working her
Alice-magic in obtaining them with much sweet talking and several generous
bribes, I lifted the dividing arm between my and Bella's seats, placing my arm
around Bella's too-thin shoulders and pulling her against my chest. Now she
could sleep at last.
Ignoring
Alice's frantic whispers to Jasper on her cell from the seat behind me, I
sighed as I again noted the changes in Bella's appearance: the deep purple
circles under her eyes that denoted far more loss of sleep than could occur
during her travels to Italy and back, the drawn paleness of her face, the dull
lankness of her once-shiny hair, the loss of fifteen pounds of weight, the
unconscious shifting of her body as if she were in pain, and, most concerning
of all, the tug-of-war behind those beautiful brown eyes. Gazing into her eyes
once again as I cupped her thin face in my palm, I saw her love for me war with
uncertainty, hurt, anxiety, and, worrying me the most, fear.
What was
Bella afraid of now?
We had
walked away from Volterra alive, all three of us, which was no small miracle. I
now held her in my arms, allowing all the gratitude and love I felt for her
shine from my black eyes into her brown ones. But the battle behind her eyes
continued....
Breaking
our gaze for just a second, Bella reached up to press the attendant alert
button next to the reading light above our heads. I nodded in agreement,
planning to ask for pillows and a blanket for Bella. Her drooping eyes and slow
movements revealed her sheer exhaustion, and I couldn't wait to hold her while
she slept, a simple act that I had missed horribly over these past months and,
over the last twenty-four hours, had never thought to be blessed to experience
again....
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