It Will Rain

by AsHisTreasured

The silent girl in the ER knows what Carlisle is. She goes home with the Cullens, but everything is not as it appears. One Shot. Complete.

Two quick notes-

1. I'm not abandoning MAFG, it's still in my mind rattling around, I'll write it forever, probably :)

2. It's choppy. It's supposed to be.

Elizabeth

Maybe all things end like this. I remember meeting them like it was yesterday. I was offered a rare chance- to start over. The police found me walking along the freeway, I'd been walking for miles, three days, but I was thankful for every moment of it, because each step I took was another away from him. They marveled that I wasn't dressed for the winter chill, but I didn't feel it. I had walked until I couldn't walk any more, laid down to sleep, and then got up and walked again.

I didn't speak to the police, despite their many efforts. What they didn't realize is that I don't speak to anyone. Daniel beat that out of me long ago. On very rare occasions I say something that I can't communicate otherwise, but usually whatever I'm trying to say is not that important anyway. That was one of those times.

They brought me to the hospital because of all the dried blood, but most of those wounds were long healed. I think they just didn't know what else to do with me. It was all as well, really, because that's where I met Carlisle. I'd seen many vampires in Daniel's line of work, but I never imagined I'd find one in a hospital, it was a little surreal. He asked me for my name and I wrote it, just 'Elizabeth', I don't think I have a last name. He asked my age but I had no real idea. I think he wrote ten or eleven on my chart. When he started talking about foster homes and finding my family, however, I had to speak up; I told him I had no family, but I knew what he was and wanted to leave with him. He asked me a bunch of questions after that, but once I convinced him, by indicating his eyes and canines, that I knew he was a vampire, there was little more than formality left before I was on my way home with him.

He told me about his coven, a mysterious concept. I knew that Daniel didn't take vampires from covens because more than one was too difficult to control, but I knew nothing else about the pack life of those creatures. He called them his family, and although a house of seven vampires sounded intimidating, the idea of a family, of any kind, was more than worth the possibility of my pathetic life being ended as a vamp snack. It wasn't like I had anywhere else to go, how could I go back to living among the humans who could never understand my past?

I arrived at the house midday, the cloud cover obstructing the sun from dancing off the snow or my new guardian. He opened the door and I followed him in. Everything I owned was on my person, so I didn't exactly have luggage.

I met the other six vampires with only a few incidents. There were three separate discussions of if I could stay, one started by Rosalie, for fear I'd want to be changed, which I shut down quickly. I'd lived enough terror in one life without wanting another eternal existence. The second conversation happened when I met Emmett. Admittedly I hadn't been exactly prepared, but I don't know how I could have known to be. My new 'brother' looked so much like Daniel I could barely breathe. I backed away from him until I reached the wall, sinking to the floor and sobbing in fear. It wasn't exactly the impression I was hoping to make, but sometimes you can't really control things like that.

The idea that they might send me away quickly sobered me, I managed to stand again, compose myself and offer him at least a small wave to assuage his feelings. He's naturally forgiving, so he let it go. Meeting Edward was the closest call with both my life and my ability to stay at the house. It turns out I was his singer, in an unfortunate turn of events. He lunged at me and I didn't move, knowing that if he wanted me there was nothing I could do to stop him. I've had many near death experiences in my life, and a pouncing vampire headed my direction is the most common of them. I headed off that conversation by rolling up my sleeves, displaying a faction of the collection of scars, which is probably the only reason they let me stay.

The next day we talked about gifts, which was weird. It was a possibility I had never heard of, if any of the vampires I'd encountered had gifts I'd been unaware. Jasper's scared me, although that could have been because the man himself scared me. I had scars, but he had hundreds more than I, and the ability to influence me was not well received. He promised me he wouldn't use it to hurt me, but I kept my distance just in case. Edward's would have been the worst, but it turned out that it didn't work on my freaky mind, so I was safe. I didn't believe him at first, but the rest of them verified that it'd never been like that before, so after a few days I started to believe them.

For those days I hid in my room, Carlisle coming by every few hours to give me some medicine that made me able to eat without throwing it all back up. My years of partial starvation with Daniel and messed up my stomach, they told me, probably permanently.

I got used to his presence, as well as Esme's and Alice's, as they were the ones I saw most regularly. I don't know if I would have minded Rosalie's presence because it was never offered. Edward avoided me and I avoided the other two, not quite comfortable enough to be in the room with them.

I had nightmares, which I had never thought might be a problem until I moved into the house. I'd had nightmares for as long as I could remember, it didn't seem unusual, but when Esme started waking me up I finally figured out that I was basically immobilizing Jasper. I agreed to let him try to help, only while I was asleep, but the effort to maintain his gift from another room finally made me get over part of my aversion to him. After a few weeks I would get to sleep with him in the next room, and in another month I managed with him in the room. By the end of the year I could usually handle him touching my hand, the only contact he was ever permitted, as it made his gift stronger and less draining for him.

Edward gradually allowed himself closer to me until he could sit in the same room, and by the end of a few months he could act relatively normally around me, as normal as anyone could with how messed up I was. Rosalie eventually accepted that I was there to stay and her distain cooled to a mild annoyance, at least staying in the room when I entered and occasionally saying things to me.

The only one I couldn't handle, even after a few months, was Emmett. I could tell that it hurt his feelings, which was probably part of the reason for Rosalie's continued indifference toward me, but I couldn't separate him from the face in my past. We made it to able to be in the same room, and occasionally communicate from that distance, but never further.

Everyone else was able to communicate and move about the house freely, Carlisle, Esme and Alice able to touch me usually, Rosalie, Jasper and Edward occasionally, Emmett never.

After six months I had added a new gesture to my 'vocabulary', a response to Esme's mothering constant, 'I love you'. I tried it out with her first, not sure if I knew how to mean it, but wanting to. She didn't understand and I didn't explain, I hadn't spoken to any of them since Carlisle at the hospital and I didn't feel like writing it down. I added Alice next, touching two fingers to the base of her throat in response to the sentiment. After a rarely allowed hug, Carlisle was next, but none of them had figured out the meaning. A month or so short of a year, when I first did it to Jasper to thank him for helping me sleep every night; it was he who finally uncovered the meaning.

He asked me if the sign meant 'I love you', and although I wasn't sure if I was capable, that was what I was trying to communicate. Esme was overjoyed by the discovery, as were Alice and Carlisle, and even Edward was impressed. Rosalie displayed indifference, but I knew she was happy for her family. The only one upset was Emmett, although he tried not to show it. I found out later he was upset because I would never be able to 'say' it to him.

I slept on that for a few days, knowing that despite the long way we had come, he was right; it was unlikely that I would ever be able to touch him. Finally, after another month of pondering, I came up with a solution. I knew it wasn't his fault that he looked like Daniel, and I was really starting to appreciate the big oaf, even despite his resemblance. One day he was home from school first. Esme was in the kitchen and Carlisle at work, so it was only he and I in the room when he opened the door. He started to turn around; assuming I would leave if he stayed, but I stopped him with an outstretched hand. I closed the distance between us slowly, trying to control my breathing and stop my legs from shaking. I didn't see Esme appear in the kitchen door, concerned by the silence, or hear the others pull up, staying outside so as not to startle me.

I made it to within a few feet of him. We both held our breath as I took one last step and reached a trembling hand toward him. I positioned my hand carefully a few inches away from the base of his neck, two fingers, and then drew my hand back, forcing myself to look him in the eyes to see that I meant it, even if it couldn't be like I said it to everyone else.

His voice was choked up when he thanked me and told me that he loved me too, and I managed to back up until I hit my normal chair, sitting down and indicating that he should stay too. The rest of the family filtered in, turning on a movie to draw attention away from their amazement. Rosalie finally approached me that night and initiated the first conversation since I'd been there. Emmett, although still hurt, seemed much more at peace, which calmed the anxiety level of the house by a great measure.

I settled in, more or less, over the next year. My first attempt at school was disastrous, my lack of social, communication and academic skills were a devastating blow to any chances I had of going to school with the others. I clung to Alice, flinched away from everything, and had a panic attack in second hour when one of the boys in my class tried to shake my hand, not to mention having no idea what they were talking about. I hadn't been to school since before Daniel took me, which was before I really remembered. I knew how to read and write, although I have no memory of where I learned that, intuitive math, and basically nothing else.

After the panic attack I went back home and Esme took up homeschooling. It certainly drew more attention, but we hadn't left the town where I'd been found, so there was some understanding that I might not be ready for school right away.

The first move was hard for me, although Daniel and I had moved constantly. The house in Wisconsin was the first home I'd ever known, and although they promised to take me back to visit it, I still took the transition pretty hard.

Alice stayed with me in my new room for the first two days until I finally chased her off with nonverbal promises that I was alright.

Moves were easier after the first one, I figured out that it isn't the building or the furniture that matters, but the people that make it home, and those people came with me every time. The second move was to the middle of nowhere, Forks.

Edward

I never thought I'd appreciate Elizabeth's silent presence more, but the day I met Bella I nearly ran home and kissed the poor, unexpecting girl, despite the panic attack it would have caused. She was my singer, another, but the control I'd gained from living with Elizabeth for years made it easy to ignore. Alice saw us together, in the future, and I knew I'd found my mate. I'm sure it would have bothered me that she was human, but I knew we could handle a human around with Elizabeth already traveling with us. My only drawback was her safety, which may seem backwards considering the number of times we'd almost made a snack of Elizabeth between Jasper and I, but Bella was a trouble magnet, which did make me worry.

She was beautiful, with dark hair, almost as dark as Alice's, pretty close to Elizabeth's, and beautiful brown eyes. She was thin but not unattractively so, quiet but not silent, shy but not uncomfortable. I knew from the first time I set eyes on her that if she ever wanted me, she would have me. I resolved not to make the first move, knowing that she would probably be better off living her human life without me, but I didn't have to wait long. She approached me before the end of the second day, inviting me to the beach with the others. Although I obviously couldn't go, it was a great day.

While I was caught up in my own world, we all took notice the first time Elizabeth went shopping with Esme after we moved. It had been about a week and a half, Esme had gone the first time alone, and everything was going as normal. Esme sent her for apples from the produce section and a second later she was screaming. Luckily, there were no security cameras in the tiny store because Esme didn't attempt human speed running after her. She found Ellie on the floor, her hands over her head, screaming bloody murder, a terrified looking teenager from the reservation backing away from her with his hands up in surrender.

A few of the other patrons had seen it happen and swore that he didn't do anything to provoke her. Esme didn't really believe it, not truly, until she saw it happen for herself. A few weeks later they were in town to pick up Carlisle's dry cleaning and they ran into another of the men from the tribe and she responded the same way. Oddly enough, she had no reaction a month later when she ran into the young woman who went to our high school. It was startling and confusing, but as with everything, she refused to discuss it, and the only sound we heard from her that month was the screaming when she saw one of them.

Everyone puzzled over it, but no one came to a conclusion, Esme finally just deciding to keep her away from the res men as best she could.

Because of her strange regression, we gave her the option of meeting Bella when she came over, which she refused. We didn't want to lock her away like a secret, but she was hardly comfortable with the seven of us in the house, still unable to touch Emmett in any way after six years with us, so we let her decide. What we didn't expect was the level of commitment she had to not seeing or being seen. She took down every picture in the house that included her, even the family portrait over the mantle we have had redone every move to account for her aging, and stashed all of them in her room. She even took her shoes upstairs and her coats, so there was literally nothing downstairs that pointed to her existence. I tried to explain to her that I was still going to tell Bella I had another sister, but that didn't seem to faze her. As long as she didn't have to meet Bella, she didn't care what I said.

Esme suggested meeting Bella at a restaurant, but no one liked the idea of having to choke down food to cover the oddity of a party of eight with only one eating. Elizabeth shook her head when we suggested it, and she was the final veto for us to just have her over and let the poor girl hide.

We had a lovely evening, all in all, except for Rosalie's rudeness. Emmett was overjoyed to have a human in the house willing to interact with him and everyone generally had a good time. We didn't realize how late it had gotten, a series of heated board games stretching into the night, until the clock in the kitchen struck midnight.

Carlisle drove Bella home to explain to Charlie that the entire family had lost track of time and it hadn't been Bella and I alone. Charlie had let it slide and I'd gone back to my room on cloud nine, not realizing until I passed her room quite how long she'd been locked up there by herself.

The deep breathing was barely discernible from her sleeping, and only then when I was right outside her room. Jasper had been too distracted by the swirling emotions in the house to feel it. I knocked lightly and received no response, as always. I waited the normal thirty seconds to give her a chance to get decent if she wasn't and then opened the door.

I caught the end of her furiously wiping her eyes, but the salt in the air and the redness of her face made the effort futile. I reached for her, something I should have known better than to do when she was upset, and she swung her hand at me angrily, slapping my arm harmlessly. I flinched as I heard the impact of her hand on my arm, but nothing sounded actually injured. I searched her face in an attempt to discern if she was hurt, but found her eyes wide, her head shaking violently, her hands in front of her.

I spoke to her calmly, trying to draw her out of her fear of retaliation, but it was too late. Her eyes glazed, her lips moving in silent pleas that fell on deaf ears the first time she made them. She melted to the ground, scooting back away from me until her back was to the bed, and then curling further into herself. Her flashback got more violent and she began flailing wildly, her arms hitting the unforgiving metal of the footboard. I could see the bruises forming on her skin, and after calling Jasper and saying my prayers, I reached for her, trying to ignore the way she flinched away from me violently, her mouth open in a silent scream as she tried to get out of my grasp. I held her to me, her back to my chest, my right arm wrapped around both of hers, holding her wrists to her chest and my left arm under her knees, pulling them to her chest as well so she couldn't hurt herself further. She started vocally screaming then, but I let her do it, knowing that if I released her she'd only hurt herself further. Jasper arrived and put his hand on her shoulder, flooding the room with calm so pervasive it just about knocked all three of us out. She stilled and for a moment I wondered if he actually had rendered her unconscious, but then she opened her eyes, trying to move one of her wrists carefully, indicating that she was back in control of herself and would like to be released.

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was agreed early on that if she had the chance of hurting herself in one of those episodes we should restrain her, with the only exception of Emmett, which would have freaked her out worse than any amount of harm that could come to her. Knowing it was for her best, however, didn't make me like it anymore. She never seemed to blame any of us for doing it, she understood, but it didn't make the screaming and thrashing any more bearable at the time.

The crisis generally averted, I finally had the chance to ask her if anything other than our careless absence had upset her. I apologized, but it fell on deaf ears. She pointed to the middle of her desk where an untouched sandwich and bag of chips sat. I stared at it for several seconds, trying to find the problem before it hit me.

We had left her dinner made ahead of time, realizing that she'd probably miss it, but the medication she was on to aid digestion was kept in the kitchen. With seven vampires in the house, we'd all forgotten to give it to her in the excitement of Bella coming over. I got it for her right away, but she refused to take it. I handed her her whiteboard but she wouldn't 'talk', she just looked at me with those sad, betrayed eyes. No number of apologies from any of us was able to convince her to communicate that evening, and she refused to take her medication or eat. The mood struck her often to be uncommunicative, but refusing food was a new one. It turned out to be an incredibly effective measure.

Hunger was a trigger for her, having lived two thirds of her life partially starved, so the punishment was agonizing as we spent the night listening to her cry herself to sleep, only to wake screaming again. We offered her food throughout the night, but she wouldn't accept. Finally, all but Emmett spent the night in her room, Jasper at her bedside, holding her hand to keep some of the nightmares away and all of the rest of us offering our comfort and apologies when she woke, assuring her that her whole life here wasn't just a dream, her most common nightmare. Alice lay on the bed beside her, hugging her tightly when she'd allow, but letting her push away when she tried. Esme sat at the foot of her bed, while Rose hovered by the door, the usual sneer lacking much real venom. I could hear from her thoughts that she felt as terrible as the rest of us for overlooking Elizabeth's medication and getting carried away in the evening. We spoke quickly and silently while she slept, the conversation pausing every time she awoke and restarting when she fell back asleep from Jasper's influence or pure exhaustion.

I was so thankful I was the only mind reader in the room. I felt guilty for thinking about it, but my mind was drawn to a family meeting, one of Carlisle's least popular in fact. It had been about eight months after we got Lizzy and after a mishap with a paring knife I'd lunged at her, my first offense, although not my last, I am ashamed to admit. The expression in her eyes, her emotions, Emmett had hauled me away from her but she'd been more afraid of him than me. Jasper didn't tell him and I don't think he saw it, it would have crushed him, but everyone saw her expression when I went at her. It was blank. Jasper told us she felt nothing but relief.

That was the family meeting when Carlisle told us that she might never recover. None of us took that very well, unsurprisingly. We're not often bound by reality in our expectations- we're impossibly fast, strong, resistant to all disease and immortal. As being supernatural wasn't enough to expect rules to bend, we also deny our very nature, a task most vampires consider impossible, live among humans and interact as a family. We're very used to things actually being impossible, a privilege of our life experiences.

When he finally calmed all of us down, he explained what he meant. Short of changing her and giving her eternity to work it out, which she had explicitly forbidden us from doing, she might not ever get back to fully functioning. She might always flinch, might never warm up to Emmett, and might never really connect fully with another person for the rest of her life. We wouldn't have any of that, of course, but looking back on that conversation, I wondered if there is truth to his words. She has had only a few short years to try to undo years of conditioning, starvation, torture and god knows what else. After six years we still had almost no idea what she went through, much less the ability to regularly communicate with her. She had audibly spoken a total of four things to any of us in six years.

Her relief, Carlisle explained, was her reaction to the possibility of being free from the struggle to get better, the flashbacks and striving, the inordinate mental effort it took her to interact with others at all, given her past abuse, much less normally. Coupled with her many scars, he figured that a hungry vampire lunging toward her might have been a regular part of her past, not worth being upset about compared to whatever other abuse she withstood.

I felt like a terrible person for thinking about it then, when that time it was clearly our own fault, but I wondered if she'd ever be able to talk through something that hurt her feelings or even remedy a problem herself without the distress and distrust that always came in wake of an event like that.

I couldn't help but wonder what she'd do when Bella joined the family for good. In six years she hadn't fully warmed up to all of us, adding someone else seemed like gasoline to the fire, even though Bella was not exactly imposing. Beth was unpredictable in her reactions, Emmett and the res men weren't the only ones she had reacted strangely to and we rarely had much warning.

I pushed the depressing thoughts from my head when Jasper eyed me questioningly. She would get better. She had to.

When morning broke she calmly pulled her hand from Jasper, disappeared into the bathroom to change and shower, and then walked past all of us to her normal seat in the kitchen, reaching for the bread to make herself her regular breakfast, toast. We all followed her, Esme moving to prepare her something else to go with breakfast, Carlisle reaching for her medication and handing it to her with a glass of milk.

She ignored the rest of us, but ate her breakfast as normal. All of us were relieved that her awful hunger strike was over, but everyone was wondering if we'd get to talk about it any further. In the end the answer was no, and we dispersed to get ready for the day.

The next week passed with more tension than usual, she barely left her room. By the end of the week she seemed to have forgiven us, but her emotions were much darker and sadder than she had been the weeks before and we found ourselves wishing for the anger instead.

By the middle of the next week she was interacting normally, but her mood didn't lift. I made sure to spend time with Bella away from the house, not knowing how Elizabeth would respond if I brought her over again, several of the pictures featuring her having still not reappeared in the common areas of the house.

The week after that we left on a hunting trip. Rosalie and Emmett stayed back with Elizabeth, but after a major meltdown with Emmett, a misunderstanding turned viral by her mood, she had insisted that she be left alone and they had taken about all they could handle. They left her alone to get out of the house for a few hours and they came back to a silent building. The lights were off and no one was home. They checked her room to find everything in order, her jacket and her shoes the only missing articles. There was a short note on her whiteboard- 'Went out to get space. Please don't follow.'

They honored her request for about a half an hour, a steady drizzle picking up outside, but having no idea how long she'd been gone, after that they went looking for her. They followed her scent to the border, but she'd crossed into Quileute land.

They combed the border to see if she'd crossed back, but as far as they could tell she hadn't. They called Carlisle who contacted the tribal leaders, but no one had seen her. Emmett and Rosalie spent the night searching the forest, visions of a mute terrified girl running into any of the tribal men running through their minds along with gruesome images of animal attacks, car accidents, natural disasters and pretty much anything else that could have happened to her. By morning everyone was back and desperate.

Although the rain had taken away almost any chance we had of tracking her, we split off in every direction, the wolves convincing us that they'd searched their land as well. One of the newer members of the pack went missing the second day, but it barely hit our radar until Bella told me that it was Jacob who had gone missing, and Charlie was out looking day and night for him. By the third day we were desperate, having expanded our search out a hundred miles in every direction with still no sign of her. Carlisle had found a clearing ten miles out that had traces of her scent, but with the rain it was impossible to follow.

By the fourth day we'd expanded our search out to the entire state, having informed Charlie to file a missing persons report. She had been legally adopted some years back so she had identification. Her picture was sent out to every police agency in the state, but still we heard nothing. Charlie had stared at the picture for a while when Carlisle handed it to him, but he was soon back to business and no one had thought anything of it. He'd asked her birthday and they'd given him the date they'd put on her ID, having no real way of knowing her actual birthday, and he seemed to snap back to normal.

On Saturday of that week, I found her. I can't really say I regret it, but it didn't bring her any closer to being safe. The second I'd laid eyes on her my phone had started ringing like mad. In hindsight, it was almost certainly Alice trying to tell me that it was a trap, but at the time all I could see was her.

She was tied to a tree, her wrists tied to one another with a rope that wrapped around the back of the massive oak. She was bleeding from a new cut on her shoulder and looked like she hadn't eaten since we'd lost her. I should have been more aware, it had all of the obvious signs of a trap, but as a vampire it's easy to get overconfident in your ability to get out of dangerous situations. I wasn't even aware that kind of technology existed.

She was drifting in and out of consciousness, and when she saw me she just smiled her sad smile and blinked a few times. I spoke to her, approaching her slowly so she wouldn't be startled. After a few more blinks here eyes went wide. Looking back I think she'd finally realized that I was actually there. She shook her head frantically, mouthing 'no' over and over, trying to communicate that I shouldn't come closer. When I was within one step she finally spoke out loud- something she had never done with me.

"Edward, don't-" She said. I froze for a moment, overjoyed that she'd finally spoken, but unwilling to leave her alone. I ignored her plea, reaching for her wrist to untie the knot.

The second her skin came in contact with mine I felt a jolting pain. The sensation was so strong I couldn't pull away, I couldn't move at all. I heard her screaming, audibly, and knew that I was probably screaming too. I was barely aware of my body collapsing into her, the pain continuing even after I was dragged away from her. I had little sense of time, the electricity racing through my system, but when it finally subsided I found myself in a cage of sorts. I smirked, reaching for the bars arrogantly, but quickly found that the sensation from before happened whenever I touched the metal. I was trapped. I finally surveyed my surroundings, finding the missing wolf in a mirrored cage across from mine.

"Jacob?" I asked, my voice carrying easily to the young man in cutoffs a few feet away from me.

He sneered, "Observant as usual, bloodsucker."

"Do the bars do that to you as well?"

"Yes. There's no getting out, I've tried. They're always turned on until it's over and he comes in to drag us out."

"I don't understand. Where are we?"

"We've been caught, isn't that obvious? He's going to starve us in these cells until we can't move, and they he'll kill us. That psycho has some sort of bounty he's collecting on mythological creatures' heads."

"How do you know that's what he wants from us?"

"Your sister told me."

"My sister?"

"Elizabeth."

"I don't think you're right, Beth doesn't talk."

"She does when she needs to. She's been trying to sneak me her food, but he doesn't feed her enough to keep her alive, the only thing that could come from me taking her food is both of us starving."

I couldn't help but notice the dark circles under his eyes, the cut of his face, chest, and arms seemed to be hollowing slightly.

"She's terrified of men from the tribe, she had a breakdown every time she saw one when we were back in Forks. I doubt she would gather the courage to look at you, much less speak to you."

"She knew what I was, which was why she was afraid, but when I told her I'd met you, that I knew Bella, she calmed down. It's no wonder she was afraid of us, given what he does to her."

"He..?" I asked, not certain I wanted to know.

"Daniel, the maniac behind all of this. You got caught, surely you saw."

"Saw what?"

"How did you find her?"

"Tied to a tree bleeding. I don't know how he knew I was coming."

"He didn't. The trap wasn't for you specifically; it was for any of your kind. She didn't tell me it was different."

"Different from what?"

"Apparently they catch wolves a different way."

"I don't understand."

"I'm not explaining it."

"Is she here?"

"She's in the trailer across the clearing. Listen closely, you'll hear them."

I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant, but when my focus shifted to the small RV I hadn't noticed before, the question died in my throat. I fell to my knees, recognizing the sounds I was hearing, my fingers digging into nothing as the bottom of the cage held firmly. There was no sound of a struggle, but both people in the small vehicle were moaning, him in ecstasy and her in terrified agony. My fingers went to my hair, fisting it and pulling nearly to the point of dislodging parts of it. I heard his command to be silent, and the sickening sound of skin hitting skin and then the only sounds came from him.

"I don't know about vamps, but it'll probably fade as you get weaker. I can barely hear them anymore unless he takes it out of the trailer. He does sometimes, brings her out here and throws her around a bit because I made the mistake of showing him that it bothered me. I advise keeping a straight face if he doesn't already know you're connected to her."

I winced, hearing a very different sound of skin on skin and then the unknown man grunt and collapse. I forced my attention back to Jacob.

"Are you, Jacob? 'Connected to her' I mean? You don't know her."

The expression of anger and pain communicated much more than I expected to find. My eyes widened in surprise. For the first time I realized that I couldn't hear his mind.

"Why can't I hear you? I could hear your mind easily the last time we met."

"The bars probably block it. I can't transform or reach the pack mind when I'm anywhere near them."

"What is my sister to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. If we're both going to die out here I want to know."

"It's nothing."

"I don't believe you."

"Believe what you want."

My response was cut off by the door to the trailer opening. My mouth might have actually dropped open when I saw the man exit; he could have been Emmett's brother. Her reactions finally made sense to me and I felt terrible for every time we'd ever tried to acclimate the two of them. I was so distracted by the man I almost didn't notice the body he was dragging behind him. Person, I corrected in my mind. He was dragging Elizabeth by her arm. If I didn't know that she was the only other being around for miles I wouldn't have recognized her. She was naked and unconscious, her exposed back battered and bruised.

"Don't react, Edward, you'll only make things worse for her." Jacob spoke quietly, not looking at me or them.

I finally realized what was strange about the situation about the time he got to Jacob's enclosure. Her heart rate wasn't low enough to be unconscious. I focused on her breathing and it was confirmed- she was awake, she just wasn't doing anything to stop him from dragging her across the barren dirt facedown.

I forced myself to look away, my mind screaming at me to try to contact her, but Jacob's reminder echoing in my head.

"Looks like the newest arrival is up and around. How did you sleep?" He asked, tauntingly.

I ignored him, standing and turning to face away from him.

"Look at him, all tough. We'll see how long he lasts. What about you, lover boy? How you feeling? I brought her out to play with you, but I'm afraid she might not be in very good condition, what do you think?"

I heard his snarl, but forced myself to keep my posture, pacing slightly when I could remember to move so I didn't look so rigid and affected. I finally settled near a back corner of the enclosure, forcing my face to stay impassive as I turned to face the bastard and my sister. It would be suspicious not to look, I had realized, so I just prayed she'd see through it and forgive me, if she was even aware.

Her eyes were open, I soon learned, and as they met mine I saw the same mask of indifference on her face. The only difference was I wasn't exactly sure it was a mask for her.

"I'm leaving her out here for the night, but if I have a single inkling that she sneaks you this," he said, pulling a plastic bag out of his pocket with several bread crusts and a browning apple core, "she'll pay for it." He turned his attention back to me. "And you, don't you get any big ideas either. She's learned her lesson about feeding the animals." He held up her arm, displaying dozens of healed scars, more than I had any idea she had. We'd only seen a few in the years she'd been with us.

I didn't respond, the effort to school my face too great to also try to formulate words, and he walked back to the trailer at a leisurely pace, the sound of a small television turning on after the door closed.

As soon as she was sure he was gone, she dragged herself toward my cage. I averted my eyes, embarrassed to see my painfully shy and private little sister broken and naked. The scars that bastard had showed off weren't the only ones, in fact she was covered in them, her neck and shoulders in vampire bites, her chest and sides in healed claw marks, and the rest of her body too bruised to find the scars. For the first time since I could remember, her blood had no effect on me; the reality that we all might die out here forcing my mind away from its baser instincts. The blood I smelled was dripping down her inner thighs. I shivered in fury and revulsion. The man who made Beth the scared creature that she was laid less than a heartbeat away from me, safe and content, and there was nothing I could do to him.

"Lizzy, what are you doing? Please be careful."

She didn't respond, not even looking me in the eye. When she made it over to my cage I opened my mouth to stop her, but her hand on the bar seemed to have no effect on her.

Jacob must have seen my shocked expression.

"It doesn't hurt humans."

I watched as she forced her tiny body between the unforgiving cold of the metal bars, collapsing on the inside of my cage, her calves still sticking out between the bars. I can't help but assess her, my medical degree overcoming my embarrassment on her behalf. She wasn't doing well. The ten pounds we'd managed to make stay on her frame the last few years had already mostly melted away, leaving her spine, collarbone, hips and ribs clearly visible. The muscles on her arms and legs had started to deteriorate and nearly every scant store of body fat had been exhausted, her cheeks looking frighteningly hollow, her stomach concave and her thighs barely wider than her knees. With that low of body fat it was unlikely she could keep heat at all, which made the current cold much more dangerous to her.

"Hey little sis. You're going to be okay. You're freezing, Beth, come here." I took off my coat and then my shirt, her eyes snapping to me in fear. "No, no, it's okay. You're cold. I don't need any of this. I'm giving it to you, you're okay."

I hand her the shirt and she puts it on, the dark fabric covering to her knees and the sleeves falling well past her hands. She smiles at me uncertainly and I put my coat around her, endlessly grateful that I'd grabbed the human prop on the way out of the house out of habit. She sat down on my lap, her legs pulled up into my jacket to try to quell the shivering.

"I'm afraid I won't exactly be helpful in keeping you warm, sister, but I'm right here. I've got you." She put her head against my chest and cried, her tears falling like burning shards on my skin. I held her as best she'd let me, the most contact I'd ever had with her, and let her cry, knowing there was nothing else I could do to save her. When her tears subsided I reached for her tiny amount of food, offering it to her. She started to hold something out to Jacob when he cut her off.

"No, Lilly, you gotta eat that. I'm probably not going to make it and I can't have you dying too."

Her tears returned and she choked down the food slowly. I watched her fight the nausea, but in the end she kept it down without her medication.

"I'm proud of you, Beth, you did it. You've got to sleep; it's going to be okay."

She nodded, curling into a tighter ball and trying to pull as much of her face into the coat as well. I held her tight, offering what support I could. The coughing and shivering kept her up for a while, but in the end she fell asleep despite it.

"Is there a way out? Has anyone ever made it out?"

"She said no. I think she's tried feeding vampires from herself to keep them alive longer, but it's never worked."

"Alice won't be able to see what happens with you here. I don't know if they'll find us in time."

"If his sensors pick up anyone close she'll be put out as bait again. I just hope the pack doesn't find us first."

"Why?"

"I told you, I'm not explaining. Get her to tell you if you need to know. If they come I'm sure you'll see it for yourself."

"Has he been here the whole time?"

"No. He caught her and used her to catch me before he even left tribal lands. He moved us after that. I'm surprised he hasn't had us move again since he caught you. Maybe the company wouldn't do it for him under such short notice."

"What if others come? How many of these cages does he have?"

"How many would he really need?"

"I guess that makes sense."

"She's shivering."

"I know."

"You need to wake her up; the coat won't be enough to keep her warm if she's not moving."

"She has to sleep sometime."

"You have to convince her to come here. I can keep her warm."

"Like hell I do. She doesn't trust you."

"She did before you came. She's slept over here before, I can't hurt her, I can't transform and it's getting harder to move. She'll be safe and you'll be right there, but you can't keep her warm and I can."

"I wouldn't do that to her."

"Wake her up and give her the option."

"Fine." I can't say I loved the idea, but he was right, she was too cold. I shook her slightly, watching her mumble soundlessly in her sleep.

"Lizzy, you're cold. Would you please go to Jacob, he can keep you warm. You don't have to, but I can't help you and you're so cold."

She looked at me blearily for a moment before slowly nodding her head. She untangled her limbs from the coat, her body beginning to shake more, and pressed herself through the bars again, managing to walk with a heavy limp over to the other cage. She offered him her arms and he lifted her to help her, sliding through the bars with some difficulty and curling into him, her eyes on me in apology and beseeching permission.

"You're okay, Beth. I want you to be warm. It doesn't hurt my feelings."

She nodded slightly to herself, pulling her legs back into the coat. Her shivers subsided quickly and she fell asleep, no sign of coughing and her breathing even.

I couldn't help but notice the expression of awe on Jacob's face when he thought I wasn't looking.

"If we're both going to die out here anyway, at least tell me what she means to you."

"Why do you care?"

"She's lived a terrible life and we're both forced to leave her here when we're gone. I want to know that she had someone for the week before I found her. That for a few days this hell was slightly better. I want to know if she ever had someone in her short life other than us, her siblings."

"I love her, Edward. Is that what you want to hear? She's so like Bella, but so different. She is so sweet, so quiet, so shy, but so incredibly brave. I fell for her before I met her. She's incredible. Is that what you wanted? I'm going to die here, Edward, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The most I'll have ever done for her is make a few beatings worse and try to offer comfort after they're done. She doesn't see me that way, I can tell. She called me Jasper one night. At best I'm just another one of you."

"I hate that it's you, but I'm so thankful she had someone."

"I know. You're different to her, you know."

"Am I? Emmett could be Daniel's brother and Jasper is associated with keeping nightmares away. I'm the only one as single as her in the house; it's not exactly a deep emotional bond."

"You're wrong. The way she talks about you is different. I wish she'd think of me that way."

"You don't know what you're talking about. Get to sleep, Jacob. Keeping yourself up won't make you live any longer. We'll figure something out. We can't just leave her here."

"A lot of choice we're going to have, but I hope for her sake that you're right."

I could see the stress on Jacob; most of a week without being fed was getting to him. He fell asleep quickly and slept restlessly.

I examined every part of the small camp I could find. Wires from both cages, as well as the trailer, led to a grill- sized box on wheels with a door the wires disappeared under. I could hear the electrical buzz, so I was pretty sure that was the power source. Everything else I tabbed during the night seemed to be useless compared to that information. If we were getting out, that was the way.

He stirred a little before sunrise, and although I didn't want to wake them, if what Jacob said was true I didn't want him to find her wearing half of my clothes, that seemed like it would raise suspicion.

"Jacob." I tried first, barely getting a response.

"Elizabeth?" I called, slightly louder. She moved a slight bit, but didn't wake.

"Lizzy, you have to wake up, Daniel is awake."

At the mention of his name she was awake, sitting bolt upright, blinking in confusion.

"Jacob said it would be better for you if he didn't know I knew you. Do you think so?"

She nodded slowly, her eyes still scanning the area for Daniel.

"He's not out of the trailer yet, but if you don't want him to know I should take back my coat before he gets out here.

She sighed, resigned, and nodded again, trying to move carefully out of Jacob's grasp. He shifted slightly in his sleep, pulling her closer. I watched them helplessly, hearing her gasp in pain as his arm tightened around her waist, the image of a terrible looking bruise on her hip dancing through my head from the night before. She squirmed again, her hand on his arm to try to push it away.

He woke with a start, moving faster than he should have been capable at his current point of malnutrition. He pushed her down, crouching over her in a defensive stance, his eyes wild, sweeping the area in disorientation.

"It was a dream. Let her up, Jacob, you're scaring her."

I force my voice to stay calm, but the oncoming panic attack would be anything but. If he didn't move very soon there was no way she was going to be able to collect herself before Daniel came looking for her. The shower was running.

His eyes dropped to the ashen girl, her eyes were shut tightly and her breathing came in terrified gasps. She was shaking her head and begging, her lips moving in silence.

He reoriented himself quickly, backing away from her and speaking softly to try to draw her out. She didn't respond, curling into herself the second he let her free.

"Elizabeth," I tried, "you're okay. You've got to get yourself together, Daniel is coming and he can't know."

Once again the name of her captor roused her. She gave Jacob slightly more berth than she had earlier, sending him a nervous glance, and half climbed half fell out of the side of his cage, limping back to mine and collapsing on the ground near it. I reached to help her but received a not so subtle reminder of the terrible electricity when I got too close, yanking my hand back instinctively.

She pulled off my coat, her shivering immediately returning, and handed it to me, putting it far enough into the enclosure that I could reach it without contacting the metal. She fingered the sleeve of my shirt a moment longer, hugging herself tightly in self preservation, but when the door started to open she quickly shed it, crawling back to the midpoint of the clearing and lying down, naked and miserable, on the ground where he'd left her. I quickly righted my clothes, surprised by how warm they were and pleased that they carried her scent, and fixed the man coming toward us with a hateful expression. He wouldn't have to know it was for abusing my sister so horribly.

I turned away from him a few moments before he entered the clearing.

"Good morning, gents!" He called out, his voice mockingly jovial. "How are you feeling this lovely day? Did she make it? I bet she was all cuddled up with the wolf, wasn't she? Turns out he wanted more than a good fuck, huh? Cause clearly she's not much good for that."

He laughed loudly at his own joke, my mind racing at his implications, trying to convince myself that Jacob would do no such thing. It was difficult, however, because I had barely met the man and had no idea what he would or would not do.

"Not to worry if he was rough on you, pumpkin." He cupped her chin affectionately, kneeling down to her level. "He won't last much longer anyway. Luckily for my payday, the radar picked up something else this morning. I tried hunting baitless for a couple months after I left you, which was terrible, let me tell you. Then I bought another girl, but she didn't last long. Went through three more before I gave up, none of them were tough enough to handle the job, turns out. I couldn't believe my luck when I found you again."

He had killed others. He had… bought… her? I couldn't absorb the information fast enough. She didn't respond. Didn't even move.

"Now don't be like that, Elizabeth. You know that you've got to pull your weight around here. I fed you last night, remember? You owe me. Now stand up like a good little lure and let me get you ready."

"Leave her alone you bastard."

"Is the wolf feeling feisty this evening? Why don't you come out here and stop me?"

"She's practically a kid, you sick fuck, how can you live with yourself?"

"I live quite comfortably with my pay day, even with the annoyance of keeping track of you."

"I swear, if you even think about doing that to her again-"
"Stuff the self righteous shit, dog, it clearly caught you, didn't it?"
He watched Jacob's jaw working, looking for another clue about the mysterious wolf luring.
"I was trying to get her free."
"Of course you were. The bruises on her arms were incidental, then?"
"Yes. From the electricity."
"And tell me how you changed course from six miles away. Tell me how how you tracked her from that distance, hmm? It wasn't by her arousal?"
My eyes went wide, I'm sure, so I had to turn away to feign indifference. What was he talking about?
"Maybe it was by her screaming, you bastard, did you think of that? How could you do that to another person? She was a child when you bought her!"
"Oh I remember that quite well. She was so tight, wolf, you wouldn't believe it."
I thought I was going to be sick. If that were possible I probably would have.
"You are a sick fuck. Let out of here and we'll see how big and bad you are. I haven't eaten for days, that's enough of a handicap you might have a chance."
"You'll be coming out soon enough, wolf, your time us almost up."
He walked to a shed, pulling out a collection of leather...whips? I couldn't see what they were until he moved to Beth, pulling her arm up and throwing a strap onto her shoulder.
It was an outfit, of some description, and she flinched away.
"Just looking for a reminder, wolf?"
"Don't." He managed through gritted teeth.
"Well, lover boy, we're actually hunting Draculas today, so you're in luck. I'll just leave this right here where you can jack off to it while we're gone."
He threw part of the leather over the edge of his cage, and with it hanging down I could finally see what it was. It was a bondage costume of some description, a device of some sort attached to the crotch of the outfit. I looked closer, it seemed familiar from other's thoughts. It might have been...a vibrator? Oh god.
"You think she needs clothes to survive the day? I bet she probably does after leaving her last night. Here, bitch, put this on."
He pulled a ragged white cloth out of the shed and tossed it to her. She managed to coax it over her head with shaking hands, her fingers clumsy from the cold. The fabric was revealed to be a formerly white dress with long sleeves and was nearly to the ground. The fabric didn't look thick enough to provide much warmth, but it was something. Blood and sex stained more than half of the dress and it was torn and ragged. It put him in mind of a Halloween costume of a murder victim. It was small, but it still hung from her frame pathetically, framing the sharp, unhealthy lines of her shoulders and hips.
"That should be good enough." He nodded to himself. Jacob looked away, wincing, which confused me until a saw him pull out a large hunting knife, the blade rusty and covered in blood and dirt. He grabbed her tiny arm, sawing through the fabric into her bicep a quarter of an inch, ignoring her screams of pain.
"That should about do it. This vamp might make my life easier. I'm not taking out the venom this time. These three, plus you once you start the change, will be paying for my retirement, you'll be glad to know. Four heads will more than finish off my retirement fund."
I saw her face, her pleading eyes, it was a nightmare within a nightmare. She probably wouldn't survive the change, which Daniel didn't seem to mind, but being changed was never something she'd wanted. She'd die in possibly the worst imaginable way.
I shook my head slightly. I wouldn't let it happen, I promised, although I had no idea if it was a promise I could keep.
"Well, time to get my trap set up." He locked the shed and pulled out a different key, unlocking the generator and pulling the end of a thick black cord behind him. It looked like a giant extension cord with a jumper cable at the end. He heard, although could no longer see, Daniel tie her to a tree, the cord coming with him into the woods and presumably being attached to her or something near her to provide the electricity needed to immobilize his catch. He didn't return to the camp, instead going straight to the trailer and turning on the TV.
"Even if she would survive being changed, which she wouldn't, and even if he didn't then immediately kill her, she never wanted to be one of us. I have to stop her from being changed."
"Do you have any ideas? You're not exactly mobile right now."
"If she's bitten I might be able to reopen the wound and pull the venom out."
"You mean, 'bite her and suck it out'?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"No, I'm just clarifying our terms."
"Jacob, can you stand?"
"What?"
"You were yelling at him earlier without really moving. Are you still able to stand?"
He looked away.
"I don't think so."
"I think the radiation from the cage is making me weaken faster, I imagine between that and your increased metabolism you don't have long. If she's bitten she has three days at most. I probably have a week at most, realistically, before I'm useless in any escape attempt. We have a day or two before at least one the three of us isn't leaving here. We have to do something."
"Ellie is the only one who knows how this works. We have to get her to help us."
"What about the vampire he's about to catch?"
"Alice saw what was going to happen, even though she can't see now. They didn't know my exact location so they've probably split up looking for us. If there's another of my kind here, its almost certainly one of us."
"What does that gain us?"
"Another head to strategize, an ally, instead of a liability, and an almost certainty that the others will follow. It's good news."
We sat in silence for over two hours. Jacob was drifting in and out of consciousness and Beth's harsh shivering assured me she was still alive. Jacob didn't have long and it was likely that neither did Beth. Daniel had been careless with her and now I understood why. He wasn't taking her with him; he intended to kill her too. That changed the calculation.
We were silent into an hour after midday, when I heard her breathing quicken. Because of the distance it took me a half second more to hear the footsteps. They were heavy, almost certainly male. Alice, Rosalie, and Esme all had lighter steps. That left the rare chance of another male, which was unlikely, or Carlisle, Jasper, or Emmett.
It was too loud, too careless for Jasper. The footsteps speed up. I prayed that it was Carlisle, he'd be the one most likely to keep control and listen to her, but as he made the clearing I knew it wasn't our day. The steps were Emmett.
"Emmett, don't!" I yelled, but he didn't hear me. His steps didn't slow; he didn't recognize her through the bloodlust. The sound that escaped her was half gasp, half sob. She recognized him only after he'd touched her and been caught by the field, he could tell because her heart picked up impossibly more, her breath coming in shorter and shorter bursts as she hyperventilated.
The electricity would freeze him however he had been, meaning that he was still touching her and couldn't break contact now.
I could hear the heavy, clumsy footsteps of Daniel closing the distance.
"Got you!" He called, cutting the ties holding Elizabeth to the tree. There was a fair amount of shifting I couldn't decipher before the long cord started retracting slowly, dragging Emmett along as well, if I wasn't mistaken.
Daniel and Elizabeth reappeared in the clearing. He was dragging her behind him by her arm, she was most likely in shock, as she didn't move or struggle at all.
"I am going to retire a happy man. By this time next week you'll all be cashed in and I will be rich. In fact, you, wolf, had better enjoy your evening, because you'll be ready by bright and early tomorrow morning. There is one more small detail however. The new vamp didn't lead with his teeth. This," he indicated to Elizabeth, "isn't worth anything to me human. So I'm gonna get the new vamp set up, take the scarecrow back to my bed for old times sake, and then she's coming out here and one of you two will change her."
I didn't bother telling him there was no way that was going to happen and Jacob was unconscious so he got no response. He opened Jacob's cage, fitting heavy looking irons to his wrists and ankles and dragging him out of the cage. He then maneuvered the machine to pull Emmett into the cage. He loosened the knots then closed the door, pulling off the cord and releasing him from the hold of the electricity.
"You think this shit will hold me, you-"
"It will." I interrupted, it wouldn't do us any good for him to waste his energy faster.
"Edward? Alice thought you were... gone... we didn't even think we'd find Ebby alive, we were looking for bodies at this point."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Em, but there's a good chance none of us are getting out of here alive. He has us here to kill us for some sort of bounty."
"Fascinating, you all know one another? No wonder I've had such a great catch! I'll be back, be thinking about which of you is going to change her for me."
He made it back to the trailer before Emmett stopped gaping.
"Is that-?"
"He's the one who had Beth before we found her."
"Oh my god... he looks..."
"Like an older version of you. I know. Not as much when you're right next to one another, but enough that a stranger would see it."
"No wonder she never warmed up to me."
"He wants one of us to change her."
"We can't, she'd rather die."
"He's done with her, that might be the other choice. We have to find a way to keep her alive."
"The others knew where I was, they'll find this place by tomorrow afternoon if they search all night."
"Tomorrow is too late for Jacob. He's marked for tomorrow. It might be too late for Ellie as well. He'll find a way to make us do it, I have a feeling."
"How? He can sure try."
"By threatening or hurting her. He knows we're all connected now. If he threatens you with me, don't give in. I'm not worth her life."
"Same for me. We've got to- no, oh god-"
I had to listen for it more than I had on the previous day, but I heard the ripping of fabric and the dull, heavy sound of a well placed hit, a bone fracturing, probably a rib, followed by a bitter cacophony of her screams of agony and terror, the crashing of the bed, the groaning of the weakened bone teetering on the edge of breaking, and the sounds of excitement coming from Daniel.
"Tell me that's not..."
"What do you want me to tell you? She came into the house scared of the four of us and terrified of being touched. Where do you think that came from?"
"If we make it out of here I'm never pushing her to be anywhere near me ever again."
"Hopefully we'll live long enough to worry about that. Jacob, wake up!" He didn't stir, but his chest was moving, enough of a sign of life for me.

"He's fading fast. The cages are hooked to that box, it keeps up the electricity. He's going to kill Jacob tomorrow, we have to make the move tonight while you're still strong; you won't be for long."

"What do you have in mind?"

"We need to get Jacob conscious; he's our chance right now, him and Ellie."

"Do you have a plan?"

"No, but we have to try something. She'll know, I hope."

"Edward, could we have known? Is there something else we should have done?"

"I don't know. I don't think so, but who knows?"

Elizabeth

In my last moment, it became sharply clear. I'd known for a while, but in that second I knew I couldn't die without telling him. I'd loved him for years, even though there was nothing I could do to act on it. There would never be anyone like him for me, and he belonged to someone else. I was too broken, too far gone, and somehow that brought me peace. I'd fought for so long to get to that moment, that last moment when giving up might mean something, and the moment arrived. I'd told him I had a plan, but I was certain he wouldn't approve. He had no choice, though, none of them did. If they didn't listen Jacob would die, I'd turn or die, and Daniel would move them, buying himself enough time to finish harvesting both of them. I was dead either way, it was just a question of if they'd be saved.

They always thought I didn't speak because I couldn't or had some serious aversion. I guess in a way that's true, but it's more significant that I usually have nothing worth saying. As I prepare myself to relay my plan, I realize that it'll be more than Edward has ever heard me say aloud. It seems a strange thing to dwell on, but I can't afford for there to be any miscommunication.

I whispered a silent goodbye to the rest of the family, begging Edward in my mind to reflect on that moment later and realize the message to be relayed. Daniel was watching, there was no more time.

"You have to do it." I whispered, crawling forward on my hands and knees. I settled near him, his face contorted in pain at my proximity. The bars drained him fast, I'd seen it enough times to know. It had been the equivalent of a week without feeding, and he hadn't fed recently when he'd be caught. The nearness of his singer was agonizing.

"Bite me. When he leaves for the night, you have to drain me. It's the only way out for any of us. You'll only have a few minutes, you and Em have to knock the cages over, both of you in opposite directions. It'll pull loose one of the cages. That person has to disable the other connection, grab everyone here and run like hell before Daniel can fix anything. It's the only way. He's never had two strong enough at the same time, and you won't be strong enough unless you feed. I'm dead either way, Edward. He'll shoot me now or I won't survive the change. It's the only way."

"That's not a plan, Beth." He ground out through his teeth. "A plan gets us all out."

I smile, I think, the action feeling surreal to me. "Edward, that was never the plan. I knew I wasn't leaving here. It's the only way."

"I won't."

"It won't save me. It'll only doom all of you. It's how it has to be."

"Elizabeth, no."

"Rain will make the flowers grow, Edward."

"Wha-" He didn't finish the question before I dug my fingernails into the side of my neck, erasing any shred of control he held on to. I felt his mouth on my skin, the closest I would ever feel to an intimate touch from the only man I could love. I heard enough commotion to know that he'd released me before draining me too early, and in the last few seconds before the burn consumed me, I heard his love, his desperation, his too- late understanding. I embraced it, holding it close as I moved toward the dark. I knew once I fell, I would never wake again. I was right.