Disclaimer: I do not own anything mentioned in this story.
Summary: In a future world where vampires do not hide, Isabella Swan is a judge for a one-of-a-kind court that specializes in the punishment of "vampire misconduct." An interesting case surrounding the vampire Edward Cullen catches her attention ... and won't let it go.
"Darkness hides in different forms
see beyond shape, color, lies
and the emotional storms."
- P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast -
"That is enough!" Judge Isabella Swan announced, slamming the gavel down on the wooden podium resting in front of her. "The accused will be dismembered and burned on the twenty-eighth of May."
"But, Your Honor," the vampire convicted of killing and drinking the blood of many humans began to complain. "It is in my nature to-"
"I said that was enough! Off you go, vampire." Isabella inserted just enough force into her voice to make the creature see sense. Disgusting leeches, she thought to herself.
Two creature che rispettano il diritto--literally meaning "law-abiding creatures" and meant to describe vampires who worked for the law-made their way over to the guilty vampire, each grabbing one of its arms and escorting it out of the room.
"Good riddance," Isabella said once they had carried him outside. "One less bloodsucking parasite in this world. Only four million to go."
"And one more coming through the door in a moment," Jacob Black, who was keeping the record, added. Isabella groaned, leaning back into her heavily cushioned chair. "Did you hear? As of this year, the number is up to five million. Humans are being changed left and right."
"It's unnatural," Isabella complained, "Vampirism isn't merely another ethnicity, like some are suggesting. It's a disease. A crime, even."
"The worst thing to hit our world in centuries," Jacob declared, "was when the Volturi exposed their existence."
Just then, the next vampire was escorted in by the same two creature che rispettano il diritto. "Edward Cullen Mason. Mind reader." they identified it, "Charged with changing at least thirty human beings into immortals."
Isabella inhaled quietly. Thirty human transformations? In all of her years at the Forks Court of Vampire Misconduct, she'd never heard anything like it! And she'd never seen a criminal like Edward Cullen Mason. Tall, slim, and bronze-haired, she couldn't seem to look away. There was a softness to his face that she'd never before seen on a criminal. He had the golden eyes of a vampire with legal feeding habits, meaning he fed from animals, a practice that had been long deemed immoral and illegal for humans.
Am I calling it a he now? Isabella was surprised at her thoughts. It is not a he-only a vampire, a terrible freak of nature.
She cleared her head by quickly shaking it and extended a pale arm in front of her to where the vampire was to stand. As she did so, the seven white gold bangles she wore on her right wrist-one awarded to her for each year of service at the court-tinkled softly together as they slid down her wrist. "And you are choosing to plead...?"
"Guilty, Your Honor," the vampire materialized where she had pointed in an instant. She jumped in her seat-she'd always found the inhuman speed of vampires unsettling.
"Would you like to explain to us why you are here, then?" she asked it. Over her years at the Forks Court of Vampire Misconduct, she had learned that immortals liked sharing their life stories. And, as out of character as it was, she always enjoyed hearing them. They'd seen so many centuries, experienced so many things! It was a shame they would rather be murderers than novelists.
"I would, Your Honor," the vampire concluded. The icy beauty of a judge marveled at the velvety texture of his voice.
It was silent in the courtroom for a moment too long before Isabella realized he was waiting for her signal. She cleared her throat, "Well, go on, then, vampire."
"I am just over three hundred years old," he told the court, which consisted only of Isabella, Jacob, and the two creature che rispettano il diritto. Strangely enough, neither of the other three were as transfixed by the vampire as Isabella was. "I was changed by a man named Carlisle Cullen."
Isabella gasped again, "Carlisle Cullen? Are you referring to...?"
"The famous vampire doctor?" Edward finished dryly, "Yes, I am. He changed me when I was seventeen years old and dying of the Spanish Influenza ... that was in the early 1900s. He and I have not spoken since the first decade of this millennium. We had a ... disagreement."
"About?" Isabella prompted, leaning forward with her elbows on her podium and her chin resting in her palms. Her bangles pooled around the middle of her forearm.
"Let's just say he did not think that vampires ... coming out, so to speak ... would be a good idea. The Volturi had been considering it for years before going through with it." That piece of information was something Isabella had never heard before. She hardly noticed it. She was too busy trying to find the bottoms of the vampire's fathomless eyes. "I, however, was in support of it. Our arguments got quite heated at times." The vampire's golden eyes focused on the judge's. Finding interest in them, he continued, "Of course, none of that is what you all want to know. What you want to know," he glanced around at the room, "is how I came to be a murderer."
Now his whole audience was captivated-he could hear it in their thoughts. Except for hers. But he didn't need to hear her thoughts to know she was listening.
"It was a simple enough idea. I'm surprised none of you have yet thought of it." he smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "I wanted a vampire army-one that would assure immortals the respect we deserve."
Isabella was broken out of her trance. "Vampires deserve nothing!" she spit at him. "We give you more than you deserve-we give you your lives! You should be grateful!"
"That is the problem with you humans. You do not realize that if even a fraction of vampires organized something against humans-something to prove who has the power-we could easily prove which group is superior. And it will not be the humans." He was leaning forward at this point, eager to be heard.
"Will not be the humans? You say it as if it's going to happen." Isabella pointed out. Although she tried to sound patronizing, she was still somewhat hypnotized by both his beauty and something else about him ... something darker...
"It will be. The vampires who escorted me in earlier mentioned that I have changed over thirty vampires. That is true-thirty-three, to be exact. They have been preparing to attack for months. It's only a matter of time before-"
He was unable to finish his sentence. The creature che rispettano il diritto ran for him, as they did for all dangerous criminals brought into the court, and dragged him to the prison section of the courthouse.
"The future has been set in motion! It will be!" Were the vampire's last words before the heavy doors shut behind him.
It was deadly silent and cold in the room for a moment.
"Jeez," Jacob finally said, his voice wavering, "What a loon."
"Yes," Isabella agreed, her voice hollow as she stared after the door to where Edward was being imprisoned, "A total loon."
She saw three more cases that day, each much more normal than Edward Cullen Mason's. She wondered things about him-why he kept the Cullen name, what he was doing, what he was thinking about, how he was feeling.
When she was left alone in the huge vampire discipline center to do paperwork and lock up, she didn't think. She just did.
Grabbing file folder after file folder, flinging each one that didn't belong to Edward Cullen Mason on the floor, she made a mess of the office. Finally, she came across it. She took the keys to the jail section of the discipline center and let herself in, following the cell numbers until she found the one that matched the number on his file.
"Edward," she whispered, peering past the vampire-proofed bars to the dark figure in the cell, "Is that you?"
After a moment, he responded, "Ah, I knew you would come for me."
She didn't ask how. Just breathed, "How can I help you?"
"Open the door," he ordered in his charming, velvety, inhuman voice. She did what he asked.
"Come here, love. Sit with me." He practically purred, motioning next to him on the cell floor. A moment later, she was beside him.
"When I saw you, I knew you'd be different," he told her in that same voice. "I confused you with one of us for a moment-inhumanly pale with a commanding presence. And, most of all, angelically beautiful. I knew you'd see things my way.
She nodded eagerly, her head like that of a rag doll.
"I'm not very happy with the death sentence I've no doubt received," he confided in her.
"Oh, I wish I could help," she said with a voice that wasn't her own, "but, you see, you admitted to changing humans in front of my court ... I can't let you go. I'm not allowed to. But, oh, I would..."
"You see, I was afraid that would be the case." he said sadly. His sorrow made her frown. Such a lovely creature should never be unhappy. "I am so sorry, Isabella."
"Me too," she muttered, although she wasn't sure what she was apologizing for.
"Goodbye," he said sweetly, his voice a child's lullaby. She remembered his long fingers wrapped around her neck. And then she remembered nothing.
The next morning, the creature che rispettano il diritto in charge of the vampires in prison checked Edward Cullen Mason's cell. It was a curious sight that sent the entire disciplinary center into an uproar.
The prisoner himself was missing, but the cell was not empty. Inside laid the body of a twenty-nine year old judge, her long reddish-brown hair spread around her head like a halo. Seven sparkling white gold bracelets were on her left side, scattered on the cement floor next to her body.
Asphyxiation was declared the cause of death. In her eyes, there was evidence that she had been the victim of a rare ability some vampires with gifts relating to the mind are reborn with-mind control.