My Beloved is Mine
I am Tia, servant to Kebi of the Egyptian Coven. Amun Khaldun, a centuries-old vampire, heard me singing in a market square in Minya and claimed me to be a servant and muse to his mate. As a cruel twist of fate, my voice died in my changing. Worthless to my master, it was a lonely, silent life of shadows until the wind carried my beloved to me.
An orphan, homeless and unloved, Benjamin Abayomi performed astounding tricks to earn a few piasters by day and slept in the allies of Cairo by night. Amun watched from the shadows as the young man held a rainbow over his dirty hand to the amazement of a street crowd. My sire knew the potential hidden in the street urchin. Amun followed him and changed him to capture his gift.
Our coven, now four strong, sheltered in the caves outside the city during Benjamin's change. By the will of the gods, I was given a wordless lullaby to sooth Benjamin as he danced in the fire. I felt the unbreakable grip on my soul of the mating bond when my beloved opened his crimson eyes and looked upon me for the first time.
He ran his cool hand down my cheek and whispered, "I heard the songs of angels."
It amazed me that he heard my song, but could only nod.
"It was you?"
Again, I nodded.
He sat up and kissed me, wrapping himself around me, and claiming me as his mate. For the first time in decades, I felt alive.
Joy filled our first years, for my beloved is the bringer of joy. We mated under the stars, and we found my touch soothed him as he struggled to control himself after his change. We would lie on the warm rocks of the desert as I sang wordless music while he made the clouds dance to my tunes. There was beauty and peace in these times.
My beloved is humble, good, and pure. Slowly he learned more and more of his ability to control the elements. Benjamin worked willingly to please his sire in the years to come, but as his power strengthened, so did Amun's covetousness for my beloved. Benjamin lived for two things: the wonder of his gift—and me. Amun grew to despise my hold on, my right to Benjamin.
The resentment came to a head in a time of intense drought. All the crops in the area were failing, and Amun wanted to extend the use of Benjamin's powers. My beloved was excited to use his gift on such a grand scale, but I feared it could bring the notice of the Volturi, a vampire old-guard whose purpose was to keep our kind hidden from the rest of Earth's society. These ancient rulers were known to be ruthless in their pursuit of power.
As Amun and Benjamin made plans to call down the rain, I lay my hand on my beloved's leg. Benjamin's attention immediately turned to me, and Amun stiffened in outrage.
I gazed deeply into my beloved's eyes and shook my head.
Benjamin frowned and I grabbed a stick to write in the sand. V-O-L-T … but it was snatched from my hand.
Amun grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. "You foolish nothing. Do not interfere with the affairs of men." He shook me like a ragdoll, but a sandstorm swirled below me, and I was lifted and carried to a mountaintop as a deluge broke loose on the desert below. In an instant, my beloved was with me. He wrapped himself around me, shaking in uncontrollable anger.
"Shhh." I ran my hand over his hair, his back, his face. It would seem that my touch could not calm him and the rains turned the desert below into a river and then a sea. I don't know what Amun and Kebi did during the deluge as the storm raged and we remained in our safe oasis of dry peace.
In time, my beloved calmed in my arms, and we mated with a quiet reverence, a cherishing of the other. In the stillness of the twilight, Benjamin lay next to me causing flowers to grow and bloom around me. I patted his chest, and his hand stilled to drop over mine. I sat up to look at him with pleading eyes.
He sighed heavily, "It's time to return, I know." His fingers wrapped around my hand and he brought my fingers to his lips. "I will never let harm come to you."
I kissed his lips. Our kisses turned into 'once more' before we dressed and made our way back to our coven. A cloud followed us down the mountain and hovered as we entered the cave where my beloved had writhed in the fire so many years ago. Amun stood as we entered, but Kebi pulled his arm, and he stiffly sank to the ground and placed his forehead on the cave's floor.
"Forgive me, young one."
Benjamin stepped forward placing himself between our sire and me. "You will never lay hands on her again, for she and I are one."
Amun raised himself. "I see that now. Again, forgive me."
I touched Benjamin's hand, and he nodded and stepped forward to help his mentor to stand.
Kebi moved around the men and hugged me for the first time in all of our years together. She nodded shyly. "You … were missed."
As we sat, the sky cleared, and the sun spread a beam across the doorway of the damp cave.
"We should hunt when the darkness falls," Kebi said. Amun looked surprised that she was still there now that Benjamin had returned. I patted her knee and nodded in agreement.
Amun looked from me to Benjamin, and the dawning of understanding spread across his countenance. A new day of shared power had come. He swallowed thickly and nodded. "Yes, we will descend the mountain at nightfall."
Years passed, and we found balance with our sire and his mate. Benjamin continued to practice with Amun, but always with restraint. Kebi and I became friends and worked side by side in supporting our mates and making a home for them. My nights with my beloved were full of love and passion—peaceful.
It was in this state of contentment that the Cullens found our coven when they came to visit. Benjamin and I had not met many of our kind in the reclusive life we lived with Amun. We found Carlisle and his mate, Esme, fascinating. We enjoyed the endless conversations, and the couple breathed fresh air into our small coven. Carlisle was a learned man, and he and my beloved talked for hours hypothesizing over the possibilities of Benjamin's gifts for good to all of Earth's society.
My beloved glowed as we hunted on the third evening of their visit. I was thrilled that Benjamin had found a friend of our kind, a man like-minded in noble pursuits, but we returned home to the sound of Amun's raised voice.
"No, Carlisle. You have been my friend for many, many years, but you ask too much of our friendship."
Carlisle answered with a forced calm. "I know confronting the Volturi is a frightening proposition, but you need only to witness our family and testify to what you have seen. I ask nothing more of you, old friend."
"It is too much. No. You must leave."
Benjamin led me into the house and Amun moved to stand between Carlisle and Benjamin. "You must leave my house, at once," Amun repeated.
Benjamin stepped around our sire as if he were a piece of furniture. "What is your need, Carlisle?"
Esme took Carlisle's hand and led him to sit, while Benjamin took my hand and led me to sit opposite the visitors. Kebi moved to stand next to her sullen mate along the wall.
Carlisle took Esme's hand and leaned toward Benjamin. "We are a special family. We have four sets of mates."
"You mean coven," Amun muttered.
"No my friend, we are a family. My first son, Edward, was the last to find his mate, but he did." He squeezed Esme's hand with a tender smile and continued. "He found his mate in a human female."
Amun and Kebi took a step back with a gasp, but Benjamin nodded for Carlisle to continue.
"They married and conceived a child before her change."
"How can this be?" Kebi asked as she took a step toward the seated group. Amun grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
Carlisle gave a rueful smile and shrugged. "We had no idea it was possible. The pregnancy was brutal on her frail human body, and the delivery killed her."
My heart sank for the human girl that was a part of their clan, and my hand reached for Esme's.
Carlisle took a deep breath. "The story doesn't end there. We had time to study every angle of possibility during the pregnancy. Edward saved as much of his venom as he could. He delivered the baby in an emergency C-section and then forced as much of his venom into his mate as he could before she died. Her change was successful, and they are a happy, thriving family at this moment."
Benjamin slapped Carlisle's knee. "That's wonderful, Carlisle. Congratulations."
Amun stepped out of the shadows. His grim face countered the celebration of the moment. "Tell them the rest, Carlisle."
Carlisle sighed and nodded. "The baby, our granddaughter, is special. She's a half breed of human and vampire. We don't know what her future holds, but she is remarkable."
Benjamin's eyes glowed as he took my hand. "Tell us about your granddaughter."
Carlisle and Esme beamed with pride as they told of the little one who was growing at a staggering rate, how she was smart and beautiful, and how she had the gift of showing her thoughts with a touch of her tiny hand."
Benjamin was amazed. "Why do you need our help?"
Amun stepped forward. "No, he was talking with me. This has nothing—nothing to do with you."
Benjamin held up his hand to his sire. "I will hear this, Amun," he said and added, "Continue, my friend."
"A vampire who has been friends of our family for decades saw our granddaughter and assumed she was an immortal child. She has gone to the Volturi, and they are coming to investigate." Carlisle noticed me latch onto my beloved in alarm but continued. "We need others to come to meet my granddaughter and her parents, and testify to the Volturi to what they have seen."
"No, it is too much. You must leave." Amun repeated.
But my beloved is a noble man and shocked the room when he leaned forward and took Carlisle's hand. "Of course, my mate and I would love to meet such a rare creature."
"NO!" Amun shouted.
Benjamin stood and smiled sadly at our sire. "You will decide for yourself what is best for you, Amun. I will do what is right."
I stood beside my mate and squeezed his arm in agreement.
Amun shook his head in defeated disgust. "You have come to steal half of my coven from me. This is not what a friend does."
Carlisle shook his head. "I'm sorry you feel that way. I've always valued our friendship, but I must do all I can to save my family."
Benjamin stepped forward. "Amun has made sacrifices for our coven. I'm sure he would do the same if he were in your shoes. We will go in the morning." Benjamin shook Carlisle's hand as Esme hugged me.
Amun nodded his head in defeat. In the morning, he and Kebi followed us to the forests of the northwest United States in silence.
We found Carlisle's family to be all he claimed and so much more. They did not partake of human sustenance but chose instead to feed on the blood of animals. Two of Carlisle's family had departed for unknown reasons, and we could tell that the remaining members of the family were grieving the loss. They were a group who cared deeply for each other. Edward and Bella introduced us to their daughter. Renesmee was all Carlisle and Esme had said. She was not frozen as a child but was growing and changing every day. Benjamin was enchanted, and when she touched his face, such serenity washed over him my eyes stung with unsheddable tears.
It was a culture shock to meet such a diverse group of beings. There were covens like us, nomads who warily stayed on the edges of our association, and most amazingly there were shapeshifters from a local Indian tribe who transformed into wolves when vampire danger was present. One such shapeshifter, Jacob, was bound to little Renesmee and never very far from her side. These shapeshifters were a smelly lot, but I grew to see that they were good people and good friends to the Cullen family.
Renesmee loved to see my beloved's tricks and would engage him whenever she saw him. We would take walks and find peaceful places. While I sang my wordless tunes, Renesmee would lay her hand on Benjamin's face, and he would form the clouds into the picture she shared with him. Jacob would break the tranquil moments by shouting out the shape of the cloud, which made Renesmee laugh, and my beloved and me smile. Benjamin then used the wind to wipe his sky palette clean, and Renesmee would give him the next image.
In time there came a group conversation about the possible need not just to testify but fight the Volturi. Benjamin and I knew that we were protecting him as well as Carlisle's family. All who had gifts were in peril of being forced into service with the Volturi. Amun and Kebi again protested putting his coven in jeopardy, but my beloved is brave and honorable and stood firm. He would fight for the freedoms of others and himself.
The day of the arrival of the Volturi had come. I was thankful to find Kebi early in the morning and hugged my friend tightly in comfort and encouragement until Amun came down the stairs and pulled Kebi away as if I were a leper. Sadness filled my heart, and I returned to my mate knowing something had shifted in our coven.
I clung to my beloved and sang our silent lullaby as we walked into the large meadow with all who had gathered to support the Cullens. We made quite a rag-tag band compared to the Volturi army that filled the field across from us.
Immediately, Aro, the leader of the Volturi, began testing our group's defenses. He read Edward's mind, revealing all that had been done and said by our group. Aro met with Renesmee and found her fascinating. He then turned his attention to Irina, the betrayer of the Cullen clan. Aro sentenced Irina to death for her false witness and with glee Caius set fire to the sister of the Denali coven. Benjamin pushed me behind him as if he feared the flame could reach me. With my face buried between my beloved's shoulder blades, I witnessed the screams of anguish from the victim's sisters and Edward and others scrambling to hold them back.
Unable to get a violent reaction from his opponents, Aro began to probe the group's abilities. He sent a girl to bring pain to Edward, but Bella protected him and brought the entire group under her protection. Next, the girl's brother sent out a threatening fog. Benjamin broke the earth in a deep ravine that ran between the two armies and sent snow into the air. The boy's mist continued over the chasm but dammed at the wall of Bella's dome of protection.
At the sight of hundreds of red cloaks lined against us, Amun and Kebi had distanced themselves from the rest of our gathering. Aro seemed to sense their hesitation and preyed upon Amun's weakness to try and trap him in a web of words. When Aro had had his fill of playing with the little mouse, Amun begged to leave. My heart sank as Kebi looked for me over her shoulder as they made it to the tree line. My heart was sad for my friend, but anger toward Amun filled me until Benjamin wrapped his arm around me, pulling me to himself, and reminding me why we stood on that frozen field.
Aro allowed others of our group to testify. Just when he began making a speech to stir up his army of witnesses to attack, the missing members of Carlisle's coven appeared with friends. Alice and Jasper had found a half-breed man like Renesmee, and he testified that he had lived safely for over a hundred years. This gave Edward and Bella hope for Renesmee's future and silenced Aro's inflammatory opinions.
It was the end of the confrontation. Aro conceded the field considering it a retreat rather than a defeat, for he knew a great deal more about the abilities of different people in the opposing group—Benjamin included. I feared for my beloved but knew that whatever the future held I would be at his side, offering my song and my touch. I would stand in the fire with him—when the time came.
My beloved and I were free. Free to seek out a life of peace and perhaps service as Carlisle had found. It was what Benjamin and I had so longed for in our homeland of Egypt. This quiet corner of the world was peaceful, and the inhabitants were welcoming. Perhaps we would stay with this family and learn more before beginning our journey into a new and wide open future.
I am Tia Abayomi, mate to Benjamin Abayomi. My beloved is a son of the wind, the water, the earth, and the fire, sculpted by divine hands from an ancient magic, and I, alone, am the beating of his heart—
For my beloved is mine,
And I am his.