The following story is a sequel to my fanfiction called "The Maiden and The Wolf", which dealt with the pairing of Jacob/Renesmee. In that said fiction, Renesmee had encountered a Vampire called Cillian with which she had left for roughly three months before she returned to Jacob, visibly changed.

This story here, called "The Maiden and The Immortal", shall tell what happened to Renesmee when she had been away with Cillian the Vampire.

Note: For those of you who haven't read "The Maiden and The Wolf" I'd highly recommand to do so. There will be quite some references, in the first chapters in particular, I think, which will be not quite easy to understand when you haven't read the other story before.

Of course, you are also welcomed to read this story without having taken a look at its 'prequel'; it's up to you. If you, however, choose to read "The Maiden and The Wolf" first, then just go to my Profile, all of my stories, and also "The Maiden and The Wolf", are listed there. So, quite easy to find.

So, now enoy the story!

Please, please be very nice and leave me comments and/or reviews. It'd mean the world to me!


The Maiden and The Immortal

1. Into the Unknown

This is bad, this is really, really bad; that was one bloody bad idea.

For what felt like the millionth time, Renesmee Carlie Cullen, half-Vampire hybrid, tried to shut up her bad conscience which had tormented her for almost all day. Several hours had passed since she had left Jacob behind in order to follow the Vampire Cillian, yet the pain of leaving Jacob was still as unbearable as it had been when she had left his house this afternoon. She remembered full well the familiar feeling of this strange change in the air which always told her that one of the Quileute was phasing back into his wolf form; and she hadn't had to turn around to see the big wolf with the russet fur disappearing between the trees of the thick forest. The sad, desperate howl of Jacob's wolf-self had echoed through the woods and had haunted her even as they had already left Forks and the Reservation behind.

She would have never believed that leaving Jacob would be so painful. She had never left him before, not like this anyway; when her family had chosen to move on and leave Forks she had decided to remain with Jacob. Perhaps she had already unconsciously known, all those years ago, what it would feel like to leave him and thus she hadn't moved with the rest of her family. But how could she have known? When she had chosen to follow Cillian, she had, of course, expected to miss Jacob, he was, after all, the closest thing to a brother she'd ever had; yet this here felt different. The pain that rampaged through her heart, destroying it like a slowly dying flower, felt different; it didn't feel like leaving someone behind, it felt like she had left something of herself behind, a part of her own soul she hadn't been aware of and only now, that this part was taken from her, did she notice its existence.

She had tried not to think about it too much, fearing that it would only make the pain worse, yet she couldn't keep her thoughts from wandering back to Jacob's face, distorted in the pain she had caused him, again and again. As a result, her impertinent conscience had gone on and on to reprimand her for her selfish act to leave him like this. But what else could she have done? Staying wouldn't have done her any good; what had happened in the woods, what Jacob had shouted on that clearing, what his words had implied, it had destroyed something between them.

For him, all Vampires were monsters, soulless, blood-sucking, terrorising monsters, each and everyone of them, he wasn't making any differences. She knew it, she had seen in it his eyes; she had known all along how he had thought about her father, about her family, and most of all how he had thought of her mother's decision to leave life behind in order to join this coven. She had been told this story so often; it had disgusted him, he hated it, hated what they were and what they had forced him to be, chained to a life as a werewolf. Yes, hatred and repulsion was all Jacob Black had ever been able to feel for Vampires – and why should she, for any reason, be an exception to his opinion?

She was, of course, not a real Vampire, however, no matter how human she appeared, there was still a part of her that was not, in any possible way, human. She was a half-Vampire and the way Jacob thought about all Vampires might also apply to her; she just hadn't had the courage to stay and face the truth of this theory. She hadn't wanted to look into his eyes and to see all this hatred and disgust reflected in those deep, brown orbs; blimey, she had barely been able to look into his eyes when she had said good-bye, always afraid to see it flashing through his gaze.

In this situation, the arrival of Cillian was almost like a mysterious sign of fate; and hadn't it been the Vampire in the first place who had initiated this whole mess, since without him she would have never been forced to face the one thing she had been afraid of most. Jacob, her Jacob, who was looking at her with all the hatred and repulsion he always felt for everyone of her kind. Until this day she had always feared this moment to come yet she would have never believed it to be real; she had known Jacob all her life and never had he so much as reprimanded her for her non-human needs and desires, however, with the arrival of the Vampire she had been forced to see that Jacob, after all, had never really overcome his hatred for her kind.

Of course, he hadn't titled her as the monster she was, but his words had unmistakably implied this bitter truth; all Vampires, at least for him, were monsters and since she was half a Vampire this other part in her made her a monster, too, in his eyes. With this knowledge in the back of her head, she hadn't been able to remain with Jacob, it would've stood between them like an invisible but very solid wall. She wouldn't have been able to even look at him any more without remembering his words, knowing that this other part in her made her a veritable monster in his eyes. Anger and hatred would soon have destroyed their once so deep connection; the way he thought about that part in her and in return the way she reacted to his way of thinking.

Of course, she could have stayed, trying to change his mind, trying to explain herself to him; but what would have been the use in that? She could have screamed at him that he was idiot for the way he thought, what did he know of her and of the being she was? He knew nothing. He wouldn't have been able to even try to understand how it felt to be captured between two eternally fighting souls; her Vampire side lusting for a freedom that could only be satisfied by the taste of the reddest gold, and her human side punishing her for her false desires.

What would he know of the pain of being torn apart between what you wanted and what was right; what would he ever know of her inner struggle to be good and yet knowing that she would never be good? He knew nothing of it, and he wouldn't have understood it. Leaving had been the only option for her and despite the pain it brought her to leave him she was not yet ready to regret it, she wouldn't regret it, there was nothing to regret – or was there?

"Are you thinking about the Dog-Boy again?"

Renesmee was torn out of her thoughts when she heard Cillian's words; until now he hadn't spoken at all for the whole day, he had merely led the way through more and more woods, always walking several metres in front of her, always remaining in silence, leaving her generously to her thoughts. Because of that, she was the more surprised to suddenly hear his dark, angelic voice speak such harsh words; she wasn't going to believe to have heard something like jelousy hidden under the raw tone of his question, at least not quite yet.

"Jacob. His name is Jacob.", the words left her mouth with a quite reprimanding sound, she had merely acted on impulse here, barely aware of what she said. She always hated it when someone – and usually this someone had been her own father; perhaps that was just one of this Vampire-Werewolf-natural-enemies-thing – called Jacob a dog, she just didn't like it, it annoyed her. Cillian, stunned by her angry retort spun around in one single, swift movement, and he was quick that she almost bumped right into him.

"Whatever his name is, he's still a dog." he replied just as if he hadn't heard the unnerved tone of her words; a warm, dazzling smile decorated his lips but she really wasn't in the mood to acknowledge its effect on her. Her heart was always beating this fast, right?

"That dog just happens to be my friend." she countered, using her fingers to sketch quotation marks in the air around the term, while her voiced was dripping with sarcasm. She tried to shoot a warning death glare back at him but she failed shamefully when he gave her another of these breathtaking smiles again. She slowly began to realise how her mother must have felt all the time in the presence of her father, she had heard the funniest stories of her failure to even create easiest full, meaningful sentences as long as he was smiling at her. And just like it had always happened to her mother she was usually torn out of her trance as soon as he spoke again, catching her off guard with his reply.

"A friend that sees nothing but a killer in you? Either you reconsider your definition of friendship, Little Bird, or you should start looking for better friends." he said without mercy and she immediately felt the harsh pang of pain tearing at her heart at hearing him saying this truth out loud; it made it even more real and she had to swallow hard, forcing to put herself together and not to start crying like a little sissy. To her great surprise, Cillian did not smile at her now, instead his eyes grew soft and yet angry, though she was sure this anger wasn't directed at her; it was as if he had just felt her pain and his eyes alone managed it to soothe her.

As she stared at him, a moment of complete silence passed and all the unsaid pain that had caused her leaving erupted between them; then he slowly turned to walk again, leaving her, again, with the choice to follow him – and she did. However, now she didn't walk behind him any longer but walked right next to his side, as an equal, as a companion and again she allowed her thoughts to wander off.

Of course, it would have been a bald lie to say that she had only left because of what had happened between her and Jacob, she knew it was not the only reason. Her head suggested only the slightest movement to the right when she stole an unnoticed look at the Vampire who walked at her side. She had been fascinated with him, by him, since the very first moment she had seen him; it were not so much his breathtakingly beautiful looks that had enchanted her, though she could not entirely deny that possibility, but rather this sense of freedom that appeared to radiate from him.

Everything about him, from his clothes, which were an old, worn-out jeans, a black shirt and a black leather jacket, to his bare feet, his wild, short, blonde hair, everything about him simply screamed rebellion against any possible convention, he didn't appear to yield to any laws or rules. He was the personification of freedom and she had found herself lusting to experience this freedom. Since, all her life she had been captivated by the chains of other people's expectations: her parents and her family who expected her to be the best at everything, and Jacob, Jacob who expected her to deny this other part in her.

Jacob who couldn't accept that she had the natural desires of her kind for blood; although when she had been still a toddler he had joined her on her hunting trips, in later years, it seemed, he had expected her to give up this bad habit. What did he think? That it was something you only did as a child, like wetting the bed, and when you got older you learned not to do it? The Vampire inside her was not something she could shut up so easily, it was a living, breathing part that, from time to time, held more power over her that she would love to admit. She could not stop it, even if she wanted to.

In this moment when she had seen Cillian, a Vampire almost like herself, it had been like door pushed open to another world, her inner Vampire finally freed from his chains of morals and expectations; he, in contrast to Jacob, who had subconsciously reprimanded her for her desires, fully accepted what she was and what she needed, what she wanted. His hunger was exactly like hers and everything about him, his eyes in particular, told her that he did not hesitate to satisfy his needs, nor did he feel any shame for it.

He represented a freedom she hadn't known existed, daring to do anything you wanted, neither fearing nor caring for the blames of other people or your own conscience. It had been this promise of freedom that had fascinated her, that had initiated her leaving in the first place. Even before Jacob had destroyed the deep connection between them with his words, she had already decided to leave, subconsciously she had already made this decision in the very moment Cillian had entered the clearing. It had been like a wink of destiny and who was she to defy fate?

In that moment, she had somehow magically realised that Cillian was the one thing she had been waiting to happen for her whole life; meeting him had inflamed the desire in her to learn more about this hidden world that her whole family was part of her. It had always been a world that fascinated her, a world in the shadows that her parents had kept her away from. They had always meant to protect her, but it had made her feel like an outcast, she was like a being made of two incomplete halves, she was neither completely human nor a real Vampire, she did not belong anywhere.

All her life she had tried to force herself to fit into the human world, trying to live up to her parents' expectations, trying to appear good and as human as possible in Jacob's eyes; but she had been forced to live a lie, she was not a human, not entirely anyway, and it had almost physically pained her to pretend to be something that she wasn't. Now, however, did she have the chance to enter another world and to finally be able to accept that part in her that she had always been forced to shut down.

It was as if Cillian had freed her from her invisible chains and the chances of freedom he promised were too tempting to ignore them; she allowed herself to get seduced by his idea of freedom. He made her feel, for the very first time in her life, free and complete, as if she was a complete, a real being, as if she, finally, belonged somewhere. She felt right now that she belonged with him.


"So, what are you?"

The question tore her out of her thoughts, she had admired the raw beauty of nature of the ancient forest they were currently wandering through; and thus she hadn't paid much to where her feet led her which nearly resulted in her walking right into him. Cillian, who had half turned around, was looking intensely at her, his eyes, now of a much darker shade of red, tried to read her expression as if her thoughts were written all over her face, and, considering the strong genetics she inherited from her mother, they probably were.

The matured Vampire in the shape of a young, handsome man smiled leniently at her oh so human reaction to being so suddenly torn out of her thoughts and momentarily overthrown with confusion. However, Renesmee, despite being a human by looks, still was a Vampire inside and her reflexes were – if not as quick as a Vampire's – still much quicker than any ordinary human one's; she almost immediately recovered from her first surprising moment and recalled the question he had asked.

"I'm a hybrid. A part of me is human, another part of me possesses natural features of a Vampire." she answered naturally, her feet starting to move again and she resumed to walk at his side while she began to list the various curiosities of being a half-Vampire hybrid, "Inhuman speed, strength, decent self-healing skills, sharp senses. And..."

"...and thirst?" he suggested with a small smile decorating his perfect lips and automatically she looked over to him, meeting his eyes for the merest of moments. The word thirst alone made the burning feeling in her throat become reality and she swallowed hard; to her great surprise, when she stole a glance sideways at him again, she noticed that he, too, swallowed hard by the mentioning of that fatal word and what it represented for them both. She took a deep breath before she forced her thoughts back to what she initially wanted to say and resumed her explanation of herself.

"Yes." she answered slowly, responding to his previous suggestion, however, now her voice bore a slight but noticeable shaking, "I can survive on blood just as well as human food. Though..."

"You prefer blood?" he suggested again and, just it had happened before, their eyes met; their connection, though it was still fresh and fragile, was already grounded on a level so intimate that one glance of their eyes could bear so much more meaning than a thousand spoken words. It was an uncanny experience, and although she didn't quite understand their relationship yet she was more than ready to accept it, with all possibilities and all consequences.

Renesmee nodded slowly, confirming his suggestion, as she stared at him, her whole being completely transfixed by the intensity of his eyes and she swallowed hard again, unable to look away, unable to even breathe out of fear to destroy whatever was happening between them. His dark, red eyes were glancing at her with the most mysterious expression that sent shivers down her spine, leaving her with a good yet strange feeling of him looking down at her very soul. She felt instinctively drawn towards him, she couldn't help it; he gave her something she so desperately needed, but she wasn't yet sure whether or not she really wanted it. Nothing made sense any more.

She finally managed it, under the use of her full repertoire of willpower, to wriggle herself out of her trance and to tear her eyes away from his hypnotising glance. She blinked several times, trying to shake off the last remainders of this mysterious feeling; the way he could make her feel confused her and the power he already held over her frightened and fascinated her alike.

For a while they walked side by side in silence again; Renesmee was lost in her own thoughts again while she mused over the strange connection that grew more and more obvious between her and the mysterious Vampire. She was very well aware that Cillian was watching her silently but for the moment she ignored it, or at least she tried to; it was actually much more difficult to pretend that she was not affected by his silent looks that she would have ever thought. She wasn't exactly sure what it was but in his presence her will and power melted away like ice touched by fire.

"How exactly did you come to be? I've never met anyone quite like you."

Again the very handsome Vampire next to her managed it to disrupt her current chain of thoughts and to push her straight into a moment of utter confusion, before she blinked several times, finding her way back into reality. His question was not at all unusual, after all there was only a small number of her kind and the chances of him having encountered even one of them, even if he was, possibly, were old for a Vampire, were rather slight; it was only understandable that he desired to know more. Renesmee met his glance as she tried to recall all the details she had been told and to remember what she had experienced herself.

"My father is like you, a Vampire; he fell in love with my mother, who was still a mortal at that time. After everything I've been told, my mother conceived a child from him – "

" – that child being you, I guess?", Renesmee stared at him for a moment after he had, again, interrupted her; usually she was very ungrateful when people interrupted her but when it came to him she sort of seemed to be able to make exceptions. After what felt like half a minuted she suddenly turned away from him, her eyes squeezed shut and she swallowed hard while she tried to pull herself together; a look from him alone shouldn't make her feel like that, right?

"Exactly." she finally said, confirming his previous suggestion as she continued her explanation, "Against all odds, against every known theory that a relationship between a mortal and a Vampire wouldn't work – however, rather because of the danger and not so much because of biological obstacles as we figured out – my mother became with child. I could already understand things while I was inside my mother's womb, I knew that I was causing her pain, after all, a human is not suited to have a child like me. I was just too strong already for my mother, I couldn't help it.", at this point she made a short pause, the memory alone made her shudder. The blinding darkness that had scared her, strange voices that'd soon become familiar penetrating into her cave of flesh and warmth, and she remembered her constant fear of hurting this wonderful being in which she nested inside, this motherly being that had would give her, her life; she had been so afraid to hurt her, she had barely moved at all, knowing full well that a single stretch of her limbs would break her fragile, human bones.

"I nearly killed my mother when she gave birth to me, I remember that I broke her spine –", again she had to suppress a heavy shudder threatening to overcome her at the mere memory, "– but my father saved her; he turned her. However, it was almost too late for her."

After she had finished her little tale she let go of a loud and long sigh, a deep sound of relief; she hated thinking back at how much pain she had caused her mother – already a monster as a child, she thought but she impatiently shook her head, trying to get rid of this dark thought. Next to her, the young, handsome Vampire appeared to think about her story, possibly musing about the chances of an Immortal and a human creating such a mysterious child. When he addressed her again, after what felt like a little eternity, he seemed to talk to himself or to the world general rather than to her really.

"Half a human, half a Vampire...Who would have thought it to be possible? But nothing seems impossible when a Vampire, dead as a being as it is, can give life by simultaneously taking it.", his whispered words almost got lost in the wind's wild whistle, but she heard them anyway, following with burning interest how the eyes of the Vampire turned to slits, myriads of thoughts flashing visibly through his look. He seemed, like everyone of his kind, to be naturally opposed to the idea of a human pregnant with a Vampire's child, though she wasn't sure whether or not this resulted from his fear for the mortal or rather out of other, less, well, less human feelings. Like everyone else he appeared to be completely surprised, shocked and fascinated by the mere thought of it, probably having believed it to be impossible for a mortal to a conceive or deliver a Vampire's child.

However, and though she had tried to forbid herself such thoughts, she knew that just because he hadn't known of the possible consequences for the woman didn't mean he had never loved a mortal in his long life span as a Vampire. Almost instantly unbidden images stole their way into her mind and poisoned it with wild thoughts and a feeling that she would have identified as jealousy. It was, of course, ridiculous to feel jealous, his past should be of no interest to her and she hardly knew him good enough to even consider feeling jealous over whatever he had done in the past, no matter if with mortal or immortal women...

Renesmee shook her head vigorously, impatiently; all of this really shouldn't concern her now, after all, she hadn't followed him because of any amorous feelings, but because she had been fascinated with the dark, hidden world he represented, because she had hoped to learn from him, to learn how to live in peace with herself and that darker, wilder side inside her. For her, he was a companion to share this new freedom and she only ever saw a mentor in him, nothing more, right? But why did her heart beat so fast when she looked into his eyes and why did it sound so much like a lie to say that she didn't feel anything for him?


"I'm tired."

It was already the darker side of twilight, the sun bathed in an ocean of red and violet colours at the horizon when she finally announced this statement. Renesmee came to a halt, crossing her fragile arms in front of a chest, just like a little child, stubbornly refusing to go on. They had been on the move for most of the day and god only knew how many miles they had passed; though as a half-Vampire hybrid she had a much better stamina, she still felt the straining feeling of exhaustion. Her feet hurt and she felt tired, really tired, and above all else she felt hungry; she really should've thought about eating something first before she left, but then again, her mind had been a bit too preoccupied at that moment to think 'Eat!'.

Cillian, as a response to her announcement, stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around to her, he eyed her with an expression of utmost fascination that made her shiver deep down to her very core. She should have been used to these kinds of looks by now; after all every Vampire she had met – she remembered the days in her childhood very well – was fascinated with her being, stunned by the impossibility of something like her and yet to see that was indeed possible. It was this moment of shock, after what felt like a thousand years to still encounter something that could surprise them, something they hadn't known existed – and it was this expression, now, that stared at her out of the Vampire's eyes.

"So, a being like you needs to sleep? Fascinating.", was everything he said as a comment, and after that silence erupted between them again. Renesmee, unsure of what to do, took his statement as a permission to rest here for the night and so she did not hesitate as her fingers went to her bag. Said bag was a dark brown, leather satchel and looked at the moment completely over-packed with a handful of clothes and a tightly rolled-in sleeping bag, which she promptly pulled out of her satchel. She was very well aware that Cillian was watching her while she prepared her sleeping bag for the night but she simply tried to ignore, though that was easier said than done. She could feel the burning eyes of the Vampire in her back but she didn't turn around, even as the prickling feeling in her neck became almost unbearable did she not turn towards him.

She had noticed more than once or twice today that his eyes were capable of doing strangely fascinating and frightening things to her world of feelings. Looking into those orbs of the reddest shine was a most dangerous thing; she could not breathe, she could not think when she looked into those eyes, everything that'd once meant the world to her became meaningless, life itself became meaningless, and she found that she would give it up, gladly even, for only moment more of staring into those eyes. She found herself getting lost to him and what he unleashed in her, though she was not yet ready to admit it to herself.

This, then, had been her first day in a new world; like the bravest heroine in the thickest books she had left her home behind, and everything belonging to it that made it home, she had left everyone behind, just in order to chase after a vision of freedom she wasn't quite sure yet whether or not it was reality. She had made the decision to follow Cillian into the Unknown; she hadn't merely left her home, she had left everything familiar behind and had set off into the wild, big world, ready (or maybe not?) to explore all the mysterious and wonders it held in store for her.

When she had finished preparing sleeping bag for the night that hardly deserved the term bed-like device, she didn't hesitate any longer and simply into the layers of warm, soft fabrics, inside the sleeping bag she curled herself up into a tiny, little ball. Sleeping like that had always giving her a sense of safety, a sense of home, even here in the wildness. For a moment she kept her eyes shut tight, hoping for the much needed sleep to take over, but then she opened them with a defeated sigh again, unable to shake off this troubling feeling of uneasiness.

"Don't be afraid, Little Bird. I'll watch over you. So, rest assured.", Cillian's voice sounded from a spot quite near, it carried a warm, soft tone that covered her in a feeling of utmost safety, just as if he had read her thoughts he spoke to soothe her fear of him leaving her alone in the night; she knew now that he would not leave her side, she knew as long as he was with her she had nothing to fear. And with this one comforting thought she finally drifted off into sleep.