To Take Back What is Mine

by vampireisthenewblack

Summary: I've come to the ancient dungeons beneath Volterra to take back what is mine. Not slash. Edward. Carlisle. Horror. AU. Flash fiction.

A/N: Written for the VampSlash Halloween Fest. Thanks to venis-envy for prereading and Dellaterra for the beta work :)

The walls drip with moisture and everything reeks of decay. There's no one down here but him and me. "Edward?" I call out, hoping he can answer.

I've come to the ancient dungeons beneath Volterra to take back what is mine.

This place wasn't built to hold humans. If the walls are thick enough, and the prisoner is weak enough, a vampire can easily be contained. Edward has been here for months. I thought he was dead, at first. But I can smell him. He's alive. "Edward?"

I follow the sound of his breathing. Short, sharp inhalations. I get closer, and I can feel him on the other side of the wall.

It's fifteen feet thick.

"I've come to get you, Edward."

More short, sharp breaths. "Carlisle? Help me."

"Are you hurt?"

"Help me, Carlisle. Please." He gasps for air.

I break the lock easily. It takes a little more time to push open the heavy stone slab that serves as a door, and all the while he struggles for breath and begs me to help him.

I'm afraid of what I might find. Some vampires are dismembered, the pieces hung far apart in order to contain them. Left that way for years, even centuries, starving. Never granted the peace of death.

Edward isn't in pieces. He's whole. He's breathtaking. My memory is perfect, yet I can almost believe it flawed because after thinking him dead and gone forever, the mere sight of him, wet and filthy, is so welcome that he is more beautiful than I remember.

He twitches. "Not whole," he whispers. His eyelids are closed, his face turned away. "Taken apart. Touch me. I see me, but I don't know if you're here."

I move close to where he stands. "I'm here, Edward. You're safe. Open your eyes."

Slowly he shakes his head. "Not safe." He touches one fingertip to his temple. "Not safe in here. Don't know what's mine." He stretches his hand out toward me. "You're not here. Can't trust what's in my mind."

I take his hand and squeeze it tightly. "I am here. Look at me, Edward."

Edward laughs and his head rolls on his neck. "Their minds—I hear the depravity in their minds. I see it. All of it. I'm infected by it and I don't know what's mine and what's theirs." His head turns toward me and he finally opens his eyelids. "They took them," he says. "I saw Alice and Bella. I watched them die and it was the last thing I saw. Then they took them. I'm not whole. Not beautiful, Carlisle. Not perfect."

I hold his face in my hands and as I stare into empty sockets a drop of venom falls from each of them. I kiss away the mockery of tears and hold him tightly to me. "You are beautiful, Edward. You're mine, and I've come to take you home."

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