Disclaimer- Don't own anything. Bla, Bla, Bla. You think I'd be wasting my time with fan fiction if I had Edward Cullen? All characters sadly property of Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter 2-
Answers and introductions.
Esme-
We were about twenty minutes into our journey back to our cabin. I was grateful running didn't take any real concentration; I couldn't stop staring at the baby. His mother's name was Elizabeth Masen. The identification Carlisle found on her said that she was twenty-four and married. My heart ached at the thought that we might find a father. I knew it was selfish, very selfish, but I was already in love with my baby. I couldn't think of him as anything else. Where was his father? How could the man, vampire deserve this exquisite child if he had left them? It was then that I heard the light, almost indiscernible sounds of another of our kind.
Carlisle-
I stiffened. I wasn't prepared to meet another vampire at that moment. What if this was the boy's father? My heart clenched. How would I be able to help Esme through losing another son? The panic I felt neared the level it had been when I first found Esme in the morgue. I knew how quickly and fully my wife could love. How would she recover? And the boy? Would this innocent child be raised by a human drinker? The thought of him a few years older, hunting and killing innocents like his mother, made feelings stir in me I didn't know I had.
I felt protective of his innocence, and his future. How had I developed all these hopes for him in less than two hours? I had no right to feel possessive of this baby, but strangely I already felt like he belonged to me.
Esme-
I clutched my bundle closer to me as the foot-steps came quickly closer. Carlisle's jaw was locked and he had a determined but otherwise unreadable look on his face. He pulled me closer and we waited. My body was begging me to run, but I couldn't. Carlisle squeezed my hand and gave me a small smile. It was then I realized he was scared about what would happen now too. My eyes widened as the scent of this unwanted intruder reached us in the small clearing. It was the same strange mix of human and vampire as my boy.
The same perfect balance of the tastiest meal and the sweetest perfume.
Carlisle-
A young man stepped into the clearing with us. His beauty and scent were so similar to the baby in my wife's arms but I knew immediately he was not his father. He looked like a perfected version of the Mapuche people. He could not be sire to this pale, clearly Caucasian child. As many languages as I spoke I never bothered with Mapudungun, so I greeted him quietly in Spanish. He didn't answer; his alarmed gaze went straight to my Esme's arms. "What are you doing with that baby?" He asked in perfect English. He looked up at me and I saw something register when he looked at my eyes. He looked curious.
I stayed as calm as I could considering the very, very strange afternoon I was having "Unfortunately, we found him and his mother a few hours ago. She was dead; it looked like the birth killed her." He swallowed and looked sad. But not surprised. "My name is Carlisle, this is my wife Esme." I tried to seem as nonthreatening as possible. "Could you tell us about the boy? We aren't sure just exactly what he is or if he may have family we need to find."
A hint of amusement broke through his weary expression. "Would you care to follow me back to my home? That is going to be a rather long discussion I'm afraid." He said with a small smile. I looked at Esme, for once unsure. Should we follow this unknown back to his home? Should we trust him? She looked unsure too. Picking up on this, the young man spoke.
"I am Nahuel. You are animal drinkers?" I was surprised and excited. Did he know of others? "You have nothing to fear from me" he continued. "Let us go to my home. You can meet my aunt and you can feed the baby." There was sincerity in his looks and we needed information. Esme took an unneeded breath and nodded at me. "Thank you" I said. "I guess you can lead the way then."
Esme stood up and Nahuel started an easy trot through the jungle. We followed. After a ways I could tell we were getting a little nearer civilization but still far away from the humans enough to be practical for a vampire to live. We slowed near a cabin not un-similar to the one Esme and I were staying in, but larger. My mind was filled with questions. What could he tell us? What would his aunt be?
As Nahuel walked into the open near his home and out of the shade, I nearly gasped. The sun gave him a small glow but his skin didn't throw out any rainbow like prisms, as all vampire skin did. I looked over at Esme and saw that she noticed this too. She looked down at the baby who had been very quiet for a long while and stepped in to the sun.
Esme-
Beautiful little green eyes looked up at me in awe. My son was staring at the sparkle the sun gave to my skin and I looked at the absence of little rainbows coming off him. He only had a beautiful glow to his perfect rosy skin, very different from Nahuel's beautiful dark complexion, but still the sun wouldn't expose him. I was glad; he could go anywhere and do anything he wanted. He could walk around Paris in the springtime, in the day with no worries. He wouldn't ever have to worry about accidentally exposing himself like that. He had been very quiet for over an hour and a half now. He had looked curious, pensive, sad and a thousand other emotions had played out on his perfect little face in that time. But always aware, very aware. I wondered how a baby could seem to understand so much. Back in the clearing when we were waiting for Nahuel to appear, he knew we were waiting for something and that we were afraid.
Nahuel opened the door to his home. We could smell another like him, but female. The scent was hours old. We walked in, still nervous of each other. He looked kind though, and sad I realized. Not that he was letting it show much. Men really are ridiculous when they try to pretend they have no emotions. "Please sit down and be comfortable. As I said this could all take awhile."
He was trying to be friendly and nonthreatening, I could see. I looked around at the simply furnished but comfortable home and noticed the scent of an unknown meal in the air and dishes on a drying rack. But I could smell no human. Had he-they? cooked for themselves? Did they eat human food? That reminded me that the baby still hadn't eaten anything.
Seeming to hear my thoughts Nahuel went straight to the ice box and pulled out what smelled like goats milk. He then pulled out a bottle from the cupboard. That was of course a surprise to me. Did he have a baby? He saw the surprise on my face and smiled. "Good thing my sister left this here."
"You should try to make him have some of this before you offer him blood." He said handing me the goat's milk in the bottle. My son seemed to smell the milk and perked up. I was surprised when it looked like he was trying to hold it up himself, but I held it up for him and he began to drink as the rest of us watched. Carlisle was clearly fascinated. "Thank you." I said, feeling as if someone should say something.
Carlisle spoke a moment later. "Well I guess you know what we are already, but we don't know anything about you or the baby." Nahuel nodded and moved to the living area. He sat down on a large couch and began his story. "My aunt Huilen would be the better person to begin this story, but she will be away hunting until tonight. There are some jaguars she is itching to track down." We sat down and Carlisle spoke. "You hunt animals as well, you could tell us by our eyes earlier."He said curiously. "Yes, I have recently met some other animal drinkers that were full vampire. That is how I knew what you were."
Nahuel took a breath and leaned back for a moment to look at the baby. "Have you by chance heard of the local legend of the libishomen?" I looked at Carlisle, who nodded. "A blood drinker who preys on beautiful women." He said in a neutral voice. Nahuel nodded and spoke. "That legend is based on my father, Joham." The look on his face and the tone of his voice clearly gave away some bitterness. That's when it hit me, had he and his mother been abandoned as well? Did he go through what my boy had just endured and lost his mother?
Nahuel went on. "He calls himself a scientist." He said derisively. "He is a vampire, a full vampire like yourselves. My mother was a young human named Pire. He seduced and abandoned her. She looked for him everywhere; especially after she found out she was with child. My aunt tried to help her, and then begged she would look no more. She knew the legends of blood drinkers and suspected what he was. Normal food began tasting strange to my mother, so my aunt brought her some chicken blood to drink, and she seemed healthier until the time came near to have me."
Nahuel stopped there and took a deep breath. "I can remember my time in the womb. I was happy. I adored my mother's voice, sometimes she would sing to me. I grew very attached to my aunts as well. But near the end, there just wasn't any room. I needed out, and instead of a normal human birth-"He stopped again, looking down at the floor. "I bit and tore my way out, much like I imagine this one had to."He said looking at the baby. Carlisle gave a grave nod. "So you are half-human? And your aunt took care of you?"He asked.
"Yes. Before my mother gave birth she felt unusually well. She decided to go for a hike deep in to the wood. Unable to talk her out of it, my aunt went with her. It was over very fast. My mother made my aunt swear to take care of me before she died. When she was gone and Huilen picked me up after she gave up trying to help my mother, I bit her." Carlisle looked very interested at this. "She became a vampire?" He asked.
"She became a half-breed like me. She was unconscious for a little less than a day and a half, while I sat there waiting for her."Nahuel stopped abruptly and listened to the sound of foot- steps. "That is my aunt, she can help explain."
A woman of exceptional beauty entered the home with a surprised look on her face. Like Nahuel and the baby she had a full measure of human and vampire beauty. The best of both worlds. I didn't think I could have imagined anything more physically appealing than vampires, but these hybrids were absolutely stunning.
Nahuel stood up and went to his aunt. "These people have found Edwards boy. His mother was already gone. They are animal drinkers. I am trying to explain our race to them." He said and walked her over. She looked as weary as her nephew had but not unfriendly. "Carlisle, Esme this is my aunt Huilen."Nahuel introduced us.
We said our how do you does and Nahuel caught her up. She took it from there "Yes, I was unconscious for over a day. There was no great pain as I have heard described by other vampires. All I remember is running hot and cold like I was ill, and then I woke." She said. "I'm sure you remember how strange that is. Suddenly I could hear and see and smell everything. I was so strong, so fast. Then, of course I noticed my voice and face were too different to ever return home. Nahuel could hear my heart beat and was just at my side waiting for me to wake up." She gave him a motherly look and continued. "I snuck back home at night and took everything I could. I found some goat's milk for Nahuel and some food. I didn't have anyone to explain anything to me so it was a little while before my first real hunt. I did put some chicken blood into a bottle for Nahuel. I took him away and stayed in one area for as long as I could without people noticing my lack of aging, and avoided other vampires. I wasn't aging anymore, but Nahuel grew. I didn't know what that meant. Around seventeen or eighteen he just stopped. That was over a hundred and thirty years ago."
I had to break in when she paused. "So you drink blood and eat human food and don't age once you reach maturity?" She nodded and then Carlisle jumped in. "You were able to come so close to humans so soon after your change? How did you keep from attacking them?" Nahuel smiled at that. "It's not so hard for us. Humans do smell better but it's never anything worse than a bad food craving. There isn't any terrible burn or anything like I have heard described by normal vampires. Your diet is a natural inclination for us" He finished. Carlisle brightened at that, but my mind finally clicked on something he said earlier. "Who is Edward? Is he the baby's father?"I asked, clutching him closer to me.
Nahuel couldn't hide the sadness on his face. "He was." He said simply. "Edward Masen was an animal drinker like you. He came here looking for help. He worked as an English professor at a small college in Illinois where he met his wife. She was human, it was very hard for him but he loved her. He couldn't hide what he was from Elizabeth for too long. I guess he broke down and explained it all to her. She loved him anyway. Elizabeth's father was in the final stages of an illness when they met and she didn't want to be turned right away. But they married after his death, and she became pregnant. That's why he came here. Edward was desperate for answers and followed a trail of legends to South America."
"He found me and I offered to help him and Elizabeth. He had her at a place he rented way out here and I agreed to go with him once I found my aunt. When he didn't return I went looking for him. The only thing I found was a pile of ash and the scent of two strange vampires, a man and a woman. I could tell from the smell of the ashes it was him. He had been killed. This was four days ago. I haven't found any trace of the ones that killed Edward Masen, I was looking for his wife but apparently you were the ones to find her."
Carlisle-
I had a few more questions before I was ready to leave. "So the venom of half-breeds creates other half-breeds?" Huilen answered that one. "The males create other hybrids; the females of our kind have no venom." Esme looked up "So you know others? Nahuel said something about a sister."She asked.
"Yes, I have several half sisters. The results of my father's other experiments. Most of them live nearby. Their mothers ended the same way mine did when he abandoned them. One was just married a few years ago to another of our kind whose parents are also half-breeds. They live in Florida and have a set of twin boys."He smiled. "You can have children? What would they be?" I asked excitedly. There was a great deal of tragedy in these stories and my heart went out to Nahuel, as well as his aunt and the Masens, but this was still fascinating. "Half-breeds like ourselves, if the father is a vampire or part vampire. There is no difference, except if the mothers are also half-breeds the pregnancy isn't dangerous for them as it would be for a human woman. They're durable enough to handle it." Huilen answered.
"And your senses are comparable to normal vampires?" I asked. "Yes. Well I guess our sense of smell and taste are a little different, which is why we like some human food. But they are just as strong." Nahuel explained. "Are you as fast and strong as full vampires?" Esme asked. Nahuel smiled a mischievous smile at that. "We always have blood in our systems so we are always as strong as newborns. We can't go without air indefinitely though, and we still require a small amount of sleep. Though not much by the time we are grown."
Esme-
We stayed for about another two hours discussing Nahuels family and the small coven of animal drinkers he knew. We exchanged contact information and Nahuel asked us to bring the boy for visits. He gave us his sister's family's address in Florida and we told him of our cousins in Denali. He seemed happy enough to meet us and make new friends. Neither Nahuel nor Huilen had any problems with us adopting the child; they just asked that we keep in touch. Which of course we would.
And now our son had a name. Edward Masen Cullen.
Authors Note. Thanks so much for the reviews of the first chapter guys. Hope you enjoyed chapter 2. I kind of needed this one so you guys could have some background info. As you can read, my half-breeds are a little different. I have my reasons for wanting Edward to age more like a human. One of them being to give Esme and Carlisle a little more mommy and daddy time. (Didn't anyone feel bad for Bella in breaking Dawn? Only seven years before Nessie is grown, and Jake butting in?)