This was written for the Canon Tour contest, hosted by solareclipse. It was an awesome experience! HUGE thanks to my lobster, venis-envy. She pre-read this for me, and she was amazing. As always.
"Royce was my prince. Someday, I would be queen."
Do you hear anything? Carlisle thought to Edward. Edward shook his head in response as he, Carlisle, and Esme continued to race through the shadows, darting between buildings and down alleyways as quickly and carefully as possible.
Where is she? I hope it's not too late...we need to stop her... Esme's internal distress reached Edward's mind and he moved faster through the darkness. Images of a human Rosalie, smiling and happy, flitted through Esme's mind, juxtaposed with the headlines in the recent papers and their accompanying images. Men, lying broken and bleeding. Four so far. Edward cringed as he saw it all through Esme's thoughts, and whispered, "Stop!" just as she began to think of Royce King II, the reason they were on this chase tonight.
We will forgive her, of course. But enough is enough. No more lives should be taken. Let him live in fear. Carlisle's thoughts were calm, a contrast to Esme's panic, but he clearly blamed himself. Images of how he could have prevented it all flashed through his mind—stopping her at the cabin, catching up to her now, not even changing her in the first place—until Edward let out a low growl.
"You two aren't helping," he said quietly. "If anything you're making it more difficult to search other minds. Calm down and focus."
They had been searching for Rosalie—or Royce, whoever they found first—for an hour now. The first few times she has disappeared, they had thought nothing of it. They did not smell—or sense, in Edward's case—any humans nearby, and so assumed she simply needed time alone. Rosalie was still closed off to the three of them, and had only recently begun to warm up to Esme, so it was understandable for her to want space. She was often running to just out of Edward's range of thought. These particular times, she would usually return within the hour, seemingly the same as when she had been when she'd left. Nothing had been amiss.
Until Edward had noticed a pattern when reading the morning newspaper. The first man—Robert Acker—was killed in his apartment, found later that night by a woman visiting him. The cause of death was determined to be blood loss attributed to the gashes all along his body. No bite marks, so he hadn't assumed vampires were involved. However, Edward had recognized the photo, but hadn't been able to place the face. The second man, Donald Garrison, was found dead in the street a day later from the same thing. Police decided it was an animal attack and warned everyone to be extra vigilant, no matter how strange it seemed that an animal was doing this kind of damage within the city. Edward had again recognized the face, but could not place it. The third was Raymond Gaines, and his death happened in the same way as the others the following night.
The next night, after Raymond Gaines was found, Rosalie had been sitting at the dinner table, lost in her thoughts. Esme and Carlisle were out hunting while Edward sat in the armchair in his room, silently listening to Rosalie's thoughts. He found it strange that she was focusing on the face of a man, one who Edward again recognized, but could not place. An hour later, she disappeared. The headlines in the newspaper the next day described the death of John Tilton, caused by the same 'animal attack' as the other two. This time, Edward recognized the face. He was the man Rosalie had been thinking of. He had wondered what the connection was, and it wasn't until later that night that he pieced it together. He had seen that face one other time, when he and Carlisle had neared a dying Rosalie in the streets. He was one of the men who had raped and assaulted Rosalie. The faces of the other dead men flashed in his mind and he connected the pieces. All of the men that had hurt Rosalie were now dead. All except Royce King II. All by the hand of some sort of 'animal'.
Upon making this connection, Edward had raced downstairs to confront Rosalie and demand answers, only to find that while he had been caught up in his own thoughts, he had missed her leaving the cabin. Her room had been empty, everything neat and organized as usual, nothing out of place. Having a general idea of her plan, he had found Carlisle and Esme quickly on their way back to the cabin and had explained his thought process. They had taken off quickly, following her now fading scent. Somewhere along the way they had lost the scent and they were now trying to find Royce King's estate, assuming this was the best place to look first.
Suddenly, Esme veered to the left, darting down a back alley. Carlisle took after her out of instinct to follow his mate and Edward joined them, sensing through the change in Esme's thoughts that she had caught Rosalie's scent. They wove up and down back streets, slowly working their way to the outskirts of the city until the scent eventually led them to Royce King's front door.
Esme stood at the foot of the front steps, panting even though she would never run out of breath. Edward and Carlisle moved in unison to stand beside her. Carlisle placed a hand on her shoulder in reassurance before stepping forward and walking through the unlocked front door.
Enough. Enough, was the mantra that Edward heard repeating through Carlisle's mind.
They proceeded slowly, cautiously, afraid of either finding and unintentionally surprising a lone Royce, or spooking Rosalie and putting her newborn defences up. They could smell blood, freshly spilled, and could sense no heartbeats. Edward immediate stopped breathing, his throat burning at the scent. He had only recently begun to abstain from human blood and was still tempted, unlike Carlisle. However, his rational mind knew that there were more important things to take care of this evening.
"Now you know how I felt," they heard whispered from the second floor. Carlisle took a step forward, with the sole purpose of getting to Rosalie, but Edward put a hand out to stop him. Two bodies could be seen at the top of the stairs—armed men guarding Royce, from what Edward could tell from Rosalie's chaotic thoughts upstairs.
Rosalie's mind was flashing back to earlier in the evening, when she had left the cabin and stalked through the shadows toward Royce's house. Making quick work of the so-called 'guards'. Breaking down the door. Finding Royce. Then she flashed back to reality. Through her eyes, Edward could see Royce King II's dead body, bloodied and battered. Carlisle looked questioningly at Edward, who answered quietly with a simple, "It's done."
Carlisle closed his eyes slowly, muttering prayers under his breath and making a small sign of the cross.
From upstairs, they heard the rustling of fabric, then a quiet but firm, "Fuck you, Royce."
Edward could tell that Rosalie was so far unaware of their presence, too caught up in her own inner turmoil to notice. He motioned for Carlisle to proceed up the stairs, but as his foot touched down on the step, a loud creak could be heard, echoing through the silence of the house. The two men froze as they heard a snarl from the upper level. Before they could blink, Rosalie appeared directly in front of them, still-wet blood covering the wedding dress and veil that she was wearing. Had the situation not been so dire, it would have been a comical sight. The dress was torn and tattered, stained beyond belief, and the scent of blood permeated the air even more. Despite this, Rosalie's eyes were not the bright red that her kind usually had after feeding. They were black as coal and glaring unfocused at the two vampires in front of her. Edward moved into a protective stance, slightly ahead of Carlisle. Carlisle briefly wondered how Rosalie was able to withstand the aroma of the liquid before Rosalie snarled again.
She's too far gone. She's still a newborn; we should not have surprised her like this. We need to proceed carefully, Carlisle thought to Edward. Before Edward could signal that he understood, he lunged to the right. Rosalie pounced a split second later, missing him by a hair. In Rosalie's newborn mind, too caught up in her emotions and unsatiated bloodlust, Edward was a threat. With rational thought having disappeared long ago, Rosalie charged at Edward again and he once again sidestepped her. This quick dart and dodge lasted several more seconds before Edward's instincts took over and he bolted from the house. While leading a hungry newborn toward more humans was hardly a good idea, Edward had gone on the defensive, knowing that he had to lead her away from the freshly spilled blood in order for her to calm down and for him to protect himself. Luckily, Royce's estate bordered a small patch of woods, leading out of the city. Edward took off in that general direction, weaving through the trees with Rosalie hot on his heels. Edward may have been faster than the average vampire, but Rosalie was still a newborn, with all the extra speed and strength that accompanied that.
The chase continued through the woods, the moonlight blending their shadows with the trees that they sped past. The wedding dress and veil that Rosalie wore snagged on branches and caught on roots, but it did nothing to impede her progress. Even if he had not been able to hear her tumultuous thoughts, Edward would have known that she was still behind him thanks to the deep growls that she was emitting. Edward was contemplating where to lead her when he suddenly sensed a change in her thoughts. They were no longer primal and animalistic, determined to eliminate the threat. Suddenly, there was silence. He could still sense her mind, but there was nothing to read. All he could see through her eyes was the forest gloom that flew by them as they ran.
Fairly confident that they were far enough away from civilization, and that he could fight her off until Carlisle reached them if it came to that, Edward slowed his pace a fraction. In that moment, Rosalie overtook him. He braced for impact, but was left standing in surprise as Rosalie continued running. Her thoughts gave no indication that she was pursuing anything or anyone, simply blankly reflecting her surroundings. Breaking from his still and surprised stance, Edward chose to follow her. He could not sense Carlisle or Esme nearby, but knew they would be following them soon enough. Just as he began to increase his pace, the trees thinned and the woods opened to a small lake. Edward came to an abrupt halt at the sight before him.
At the shore, her stained dress brightened by the moonlight, stood Rosalie. Her long blonde hair was matted and tangled, twigs visibly caught all throughout as it swayed in the gentle breeze. The only sound that could be heard other than the quiet lapping of water against sand was something resembling sobbing. Edward took a few tentative steps toward her. He could see her shoulders shaking, her arms wrapped around herself, as if clinging to life. Vampires were not capable of crying, but it was clear that if it were possible, tears would be streaming down her face. Still slowly approaching her, Edward was finally able to put a word to Rosalie's thoughts: numb. She was still thinking of nothing other than her surroundings. If she felt him approaching, she did not give any sign.
Feeling as though she was less volatile than earlier at the King estate, Edward slowly placed his hand on her shoulder, light as a feather. Rather than turn and snarl—the newborn reaction that Edward was expecting—Rosalie gasped and sobbed harder. Slowly walking to her side, Edward was able to see that her eyes were tightly squeezed shut as if to block out the world. She began to shake and continued to gasp and sob, so Edward carefully and slowly placed his one arm around her shoulders. He was so unsure of how to react—Rosalie had never shown any type of vulnerability or weakness. While he was a compassionate man, he found it difficult to merge the cold and arrogant Rosalie with the broken woman before him. When he was met with no resistance, he moved to wrap his other arm around her, but she turned and threw herself at him. Clutching his jacket, she buried her head in his shoulder and cried as best as a vampire could.
Edward gently removed the veil from her head, letting it fall to the earth while smoothing her tangled hair down. He murmured soft reassurances until her shaking lessened. Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, Rosalie lifted her head and looked ad Edward. It was then that he noticed with shock that her eyes were a startling gold—not black, like that had been earlier and not bright red, like he had expected.
"Your eyes..." he began but trailed off, his voice sounding odd in the silence of the forest.
"I didn't want any part of them to be in me," she whispered, eyes cast downward. Edward gently lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. The vulnerability he had seen earlier was clear in her eyes, no layers of vanity or pride covering it. For the first time since coming to this city, Edward clearly saw Rosalie Lillian Hale.
"You really are something else, Sister," he said, placing a soft kiss on her forehead and pulling her closer. He held her as they waited for their parents to find them, letting her know that she was not judged and had a place with them no matter what.