Under the Arctic Sun
A/n: This is my first Twilight fic, and I just wanted to post this before I left for my Dad's, where I can't post anything. I just wanted you guys to tell me if you're interested in the concept, and want me to continue. I love Garrett and Kate from Breaking Dawn, and I want them badly to have their own novel. Please review! Spread the Karett love! :P Becky
Chapter One: Mourning
The Arctic sun shone brightly overhead, throwing spasms of crystals bouncing across our pale skin. Dazzling. That's what we were to humans. But to us, rather, me, we were monsters. Because we had allowed Irina to die.
I was acutely aware of the pressure of Garrett's hand around my waist as we ran across the barren, snow-covered landscape, following Tanya, Carmen, and Eleazar back home to Denali, Alaska. A hitching sob constricted my throat, and I ached for tears of humanity, just so I could feel something. Just the cold. It didn't bother me, or any of us for that matter, but for once I wished it did.
So I could focus on something else for a change.
Garrett's hand tightened around my waist. A little bit too forward for my liking. I sent a warning jolt into his body, and he gasped.
"I wish you wouldn't do that," he hissed in my ear, and I fought back a triumphant smile.
"Not much of a lady killer, are you?" I asked teasingly, and then remembered his ideal choice of meal. I shifted uncomfortably, and he cleared his throat. He knew I was adverse to his life-style, and to his credit he was considering changing. For me. Ha. I felt less the lover than the Volterri of his will. His queen; his slaving commandeer. I winced, although I felt no pain. It was just an automatic reaction, brought on by my many failed attempts to be more human.
"I'm sorry," I whispered ashamedly.
"It's alright."
"No, it's not. Nothing is." Why, oh why couldn't he see that? Irina was gone, I hadn't been able to save her, or even avenge her death. Everybody got their happy ending, but what about me? What about Tanya? WE were left to mourn, to wonder where the soul of our sister was now. Garrett had never felt restricted by love, by compassion for another. He didn't understand, although, for my sake, he tried.
My heightened senses felt the crunch of snow under our rapidly moving feet, the chilly blast of wind in our faces, carrying the scents of warm-blooded prey. My throat burned in thirst. I knew my eyes to be black with desire, for food. I halted abruptly, before we neared the human villages.
I needed to eat.
"Tanya," I said softly, knowing she could hear me. "I'm going to hunt." She nodded once, and I turned left, away from the scent of humans.
Garrett suddenly sniffed the air, and froze. Clutching his arm, I dragged him along with me. "While you're with me, at least, you're vegetarian," I muttered menacingly.
"Oh really? What would you do about it if I didn't want to be a… vegetarian?" His tone wasn't so much egotistical as curious.
"I would kill you."
He chuckled. "Pretty easily, I wager."
I frowned at him. "You take me pretty lightly. Don't you remember when I kicked your butt?"
He smiled, the corners of his mouth twitching. I was suddenly very painfully distracted by the way his long blonde hair was ruffled by the wind, how strands of it fell across his forehead, into his crimson eyes. The rest tried to stay tamed in his pony tail, but the winds buffeted it around like Renesmee attacking her play things.
He noticed me staring and waggled his eyebrows. "See anything interesting, woman?" I gritted my teeth. He had the most annoying habit of calling me that.
"Just a very moronic vampire," I murmured. "One wasting his time."
Frowning, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, trying to reel me in for an embrace. I backed away. "I'm not ready, Garrett," I snapped.
Eyes burning with reluctance, he let me go. "Sorry."
"It's alright." I had a hard time wrestling with my feelings for him as well. I could only imagine how Bella, a relative new born, could harness her desire for Edward in front of a crowd. It had taken me centuries of hard work and perseverance to be so controlled.
Garrett broke the silence that ensued between us, cheerfully gesturing around us at the sparkling landscape of snow and ice. "Lead the way, my lady."
I rolled my eyes and took off at a run, speeding across the snow, my nose to the wind. I knew Garrett was behind me, and oddly felt comforted. It was nice to not be alone.
I suddenly smelled what I was hoping for. My quarry was large, and smelled of ocean brine, freezing winters, and suckled cubs. Sunlight glistened off the polar bear's fur, dancing across the few hundred yards of snow between us. I could feel the blood pulsing through her veins, the warmth my throat yearned for. A low growl escaped my throat, and I felt no thoughts of anything but blood. Warm, sticky, sweet blood. The burning in my throat increased, and it took all I had in me not to make any more noise. Not that the bear could ever outrun me. I just didn't want Garrett to see me so… animated about killing. I don't know why.
In less than a second, I was close enough to make a small leap and land on the animal's back. With a surprised grunt, she shifted beneath me. Then a furious roar echoed throughout the vicinity. I simply hissed and bit her neck. The blood flowed between my lips, and I slurped it down, a faint memory of my human life reminding me of a naughty child with bad table manners.
The polar bear slumped as I drained her life from her, and soon I was kneeling on the snow over a flattened corpse. I sighed, even hungrier for more. But there was a limit I had set myself at, and anything more than this large animal would be indulgent.
Turning, I faced Garrett with a satisfied nod. He was standing stock still, afraid to breath less he smell the strong, saccharine smell of human blood. Cautiously, I sniffed. There was no humans about, or on the freezing winds.
"You may breathe, now, Garrett." He smiled gratefully at me.
"Thank you."
"You're quite welcome. I wouldn't want to have to throw you out so soon for a mishap with a human." Despite my sadness over Irina's passing, Garrett sparked something in me I could not admit, deny, or fathom. I wondered briefly if vampires had soul mates. A memory of Bella and Edward came to mind, and I thought maybe. And with that thought came the hope.
My gaze drifted to Garrett, to see his crimson eyes watching me, unreadable. Then his mouth twitched. Waggling his brows… again, he asked, "Pretty handsome, aren't I?" A giggle escaped my lips, and I shook my finger playfully at him.
"Better get your butt in gear, sonny boy, or else I'll have to hurt you."
"I don't think I'd mind that," he said under his breath, but of course I could hear him. "Better you than anyone else."
My laughing abruptly stopped. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Why did I treat our relationship like it was so… vulnerable? Not versatile. Like it could crumble at any second, and I didn't want to get close enough to be hurt when it did.
I didn't know the answer, because right then, I didn't know myself, whether I was a monster or more human than I'd realized. All I knew was that I was hurting, and that I blamed myself.
Because out of all of us in the Denali coven, I was the strongest. I had a gift that could have saved her, even if I had died trying. But it hadn't, and I hadn't. And I wished I had. Pretty pathetic, that was me: Kate.