Nightfall
Chapter 2: Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes—Fair to Midland
I'm surprised so many of you guys came back. Whooo-ee!
OOO
"When I told you about Demetri and Jane, I wasn't lying."
I hadn't thought he was, but I was glad he clarified.
"They found me, just like I said, but they tortured me," he continued. "Even though they could very easily just track my family, I didn't know that, and they made my death that much worse. They tortured me for information, with the combined effort of Jane's mind and Demetri's strength."
I found myself going cold at the mention of Jane. But not vampire-cold. It was a chill spreading through my very humanlike bones.
Matt shuddered, his frame sending vibrations into mine. I gripped his shoulders as the words spilled out of his mouth, the expression, the agony on his face making me go numb. "I wouldn't give in," he pushed on. "I told them no, cussed them out—anything—a thousand times. I'm surprised," he whispered, his tone growing calmer, "now that I look back."
"Why?" I dared to ask.
"Because," he answered, raising his gaze to mine, "mortals under the influence of Jane always bow to her. Always, Cara. Why do you think I was so worried when she was taking you to Aro? I thought for sure they'd pester you for details about your family, and so on. I thought they'd make you go insane."
Insane? Was the pain that bad? I mean, of course remembered it, but I never thought it could make somebody go crazy.
But as Matt stared at me, his expression dark and scared, I found that my body was frozen, and all I could do was stare back at him.
His hands rubbed my arms, trying to create some friction. He could feel the fear spreading through me. "Cara," he whispered, his brows furrowed. "Are you sure you're alright? I can tell you some other time, you know."
I gathered the strength to shake my head furiously. I wanted to hear him out. Sure, I could know everything he wanted to tell me in a moment, but I wanted to hear it from him, willingly.
"Fine," he replied with a smile. "Anyway, the point of the story is that I didn't give in. They could've tortured me for a few minutes, or a thousand days. I lost track of time. But eventually, I began to look for ways to kill myself. I'd stop breathing, in order to pass out and just be reawakened by Jane's antics. I tried bashing my head in—that didn't really work either."
"Matt!" I hissed, horrified. Was he that much of a freaking idiot?
He surveyed my expression for a moment, and then he pulled me close. "I thought they were going to kill me anyway, Cara. Torture does that to people, you know. Makes them crazy."
I nodded mutely, snuggling deeper into his broad chest. "I'm sorry," I murmured.
"Not your fault, Cara," he dismissed roughly. "You weren't even alive, kiddo."
Kiddo? I shook my head. "I meant I felt sympathy."
He ignored me, continuing on. "And then there was worse pain. I was sure I was dead already, completely gone, and that I now existed in hell—or, if it wasn't hell, it was just some sort of afterlife. I was positive that was it, until I woke up.
"I was given not an ounce of time to recover. I was told the rules and put straight to work. I didn't even know Aida had been turned until a month later, when she and I crossed paths on patrol. We couldn't even talk because we were still being closely watched. All I could do was nod my head at her, and her me.
"And then, I saw my other sibling at mealtime. Lucas strode over to me before the . . ." He looked up at me, and I nodded to tell him I understood. "Well, before we drank, he walked over and began with mild conversation. I remember I was so angry. He and I had never gotten along in brotherhood, and I was furious that he'd been dragged into the afterlife with me.
"Aida, on the other hand, I didn't mind. Sure, we were still in an era where women didn't have many rights, but that was a moot point in the Volturi. And in my life as well. Aida had always been my favorite sibling, and not just by default, either. She was always the person I talked to, and I could always trust her. But after she changed . . . I didn't know what to do.
"At first, I was horrified by the prospect that she had to go through the same torture as me. I worried at what it must have been like for her. I tried to talk to her so many times, but each moment that I stopped, I was bombarded with another job, another task. It seemed like in this new way of existing I had no time for myself."
I frowned. "You seem to have enough time now," I protested, and he smiled.
"I was getting to that," he told me. "I lost track of my years, because, to be completely honest, it's borderline ridiculous to keep a calendar around. It's not like we were planning a world invasion or a D-Day or anything."
I cracked a smile. "Eisenhower. Good brushing up on your American History."
He tried to ignore me. "You interrupt a lot," he muttered.
"I'm just getting you back for that load of shit you gave me when I was telling you my life story," I told him grudgingly. "So, get used to it."
He grinned, shaking his head. I reached up to brush the hair from his golden eyes. "Finally—I'm not sure how long ago—I was promoted. It happens after so many years of service. So, now, I get my time to myself. Does that make sense?"
"A little," I answered. "Is it like they suddenly trust you, no questions asked?"
"Yes."
"That's a load of—"
He cut me off with a short glare. "Look at it this way, Care-Bear—"
"Did you just call me Care-Bear?" I demanded.
Matt pretended not to have heard me. "—it's more along the lines of—"
"Care-Bears are creepy, Matt. They have icons on their bellies."
"—we're so scared of you—"
"I don't want to be categorized with a fuzzy, creepy bear with a fuzzy, creepy icon on its belly."
"—that we'll do whatever you please. Not to mention the fact that we're sworn to secrecy and obedience and if we disobey that swear, we're dead meat."
I'd been so caught up in my rant about Care-Bears that I hadn't really been listening to what he was saying. The only reason he'd finished at all was because I'd had to stop—in mid-rant—to decide what my next comment was going to be.
"I never liked Care-Bears," I persisted sullenly. "They're fat, too. Do I look fat to you?" I pinched the skin of my forearm, trying to see if anything was out of the ordinary.
Matt rolled his eyes and took my hand in his. "Cara, chill."
"Did you just tell me to chill?" I wondered. "Oh, my God. What has happened to you? I demand a decent answer."
"Will you stop questioning my use of language?" he muttered, frustrated. "I'm trying to tell you a story."
"Don't!" I said sharply. "Don't do it!"
"What?"
I wagged a finger at him. "Don't you dare change the subject."
"I didn't—"
"You did."
His eyes narrowed. "I'm trying to keep us on the subject we were first on."
"That can wait," I replied, eyeing him. "I'm still demanding my answer. The sooner you tell me, the sooner you get to get back to your calendar statement."
He ran a hand over his face and groaned. "Okay, okay," he muttered. "When I went to America to look for you, I picked up a few things."
My good, giddy mood suddenly disappeared. I felt a bit bad for bringing it up. "Oh." My tone sounded wooden.
"Cara, I think you're sleep-deprived."
"I'm not," I insisted weakly. "I'm a vampire. I can't be sleep-deprived."
"You're also very human, and I think you need to take a powernap."
I glared at him. "I don't do powernaps."
"For me?"
"Why would this help you?" I challenged, and my answer was his smirk.
His very sexy smirk.
"Fine!" I exclaimed, falling down onto the pillow. "But you're wasting your own time here, buddy. I could just phase, but no. I have to resort to human behaviors and sleep."
"You'll feel better when you wake up," Matt told me, lying down beside me and wrapping a lazy arm around my waste.
I felt my energy draining, and I had a feeling Matt was right. "Yeah. Whatever," I sighed, snuggling closer to him. His arm tightened around me and I could feel the unneeded breaths making his chest rise and fall.
Needless to say, I feel asleep rather quickly.
OOO
I didn't feel better when I wake up. I blame the human race.
Why does the human mind feel the need to process anything at all? What is so confusing about life? Sure, I'd had my traumatic experiences, but they made sense to me. My entire life made complete and normal sense. I didn't need my brain to work things out. I could handle it just fine.
But, um, no.
Added to the intense cycle of my life trials—such as being an orphan, then getting adopted by werewolves, then getting turned into a vampire, and after that I got abducted by vampires, then ran away after getting sexually harassed by a blonde fiend, and then I reminisced in my childhood in sweet home Alabama, not to mention after that my best friend, Rob, was killed right in front of my eyes and then I got abducted again by the blonde fiend (Lucas) and then I broke out after an severe face off with a bunch of Newbies, aided by Maddie, Rob's sister, before I killed Lucas and went back to said lover—I had dreams.
Sure, the whole lifecycle thing sounds confusing, but when you actually live it, it's not so bad. Well, yes, actually, it was pretty bad. But it wasn't confusing, at least.
And not only did I have dreams, I decided as I woke up to see Matt was nowhere in sight. I had dreams about flowers. Flowers. After getting into several car crashes, ripping a vampire's head off, and falling in love with a somewhat pure, hot Matt, I had dreams about flowers.
Oh, the irony.
It was the same exact dream, too. Pretty flowers in meadows, dancing in the breeze. And then I find the prettiest flower, Snow White's fairest one of all, and the sky rips open.
I do not—I repeat: do not—get it.
Yeah, okay, flowers smell nice. Sure. But what is so important about them? Sure, bees like them. But why was my brain trying to make sense of my life through flowers?
And if I'm the girl with all the answers in the world, I will never understand whatever resolve comes along with that question. Never.
So, I awoke in a foul mood, because one: Matt wasn't there. And two: as I processed this fact I remembered that dream, hence my little ongoing tirade about the human mind and dreams and my entire life story.
Normally, I wouldn't give my flower dream a second thought. But this was bugging me. Why? Because it had starred in my human dreams twice in a row now. Dreams that don't repeat, I don't heed. But this one was driving me totally insane. What was my brain trying to make sense of anyway?
I had fallen back onto the bed so I could stare at the ceiling, when I heard the door open and close quickly.
That wasn't the surprising part.
What made this interesting was the fact that the smell coming from the doorway wasn't Matt.
It was Aida.
"Rise and shine!" she shouted exuberantly. "Come on, sleepy head. Let's get a move on!"
I pulled the covers over my head, trying to ignore her. She yanked them off.
I'd gone back to vampire mode, but that didn't necessarily mean I wanted to leave my bed. "What the hell are you doing here, Aida?" I demanded grumpily, sitting up.
"Taking you out."
I glanced out the window, to the large clock tower in the city. "It's three in the morning. I've only been asleep for an hour."
An hour. Why wasn't Matt here?
"Oops," Aida supplied, shrugging. "Sorry. You were already awake when I walked in."
"Yeah, that's not—" I broke off and stared at her. "Wait a second. Take me out? Why?"
Before she could answer, a better question formed in my mind. "Does Matt know—"
Aida shook her head. "Nope." She sauntered over to my bed and pulled me up. "Come on, then. Upsie Daisy."
"Where are where going?" I demanded as she reached for my jacket. "Aida—"
"I want to talk to you."
"Why?"
She stopped her buzzing for a moment to stare at me. "I need your help."
I blinked. I'd been right. Helpful needed some help.
"With?" I asked.
Aida didn't answer me. Instead, she squared her shoulders and raised her chin a little. I got the extremely distinct impression that she was not only self-conscious, but also very stubborn. She didn't like the fact that she had to ask me for help.
"Are you coming?" she shot at me.
"I'd like to know what I'm getting into."
A sigh. "How about I tell you somewhere less . . . open?"
I didn't say anything.
"I promise," Aida insisted, "that I will tell you. If I tell you, the only obligation that you will have to me is not to tell anyone. Not even Matt. I'll tell him when the time's right."
I weighed my options, but before I could give her an answer, she added, "Please? I know you have that thing going on."
My eyes widened. What thing was she talking about?
"I know what you can do, Cara. And I can only—"
I reached out and yanked her down to the floor. I don't know why I did that. I think I was just looking for some hostile way to get her to shut up. "Shh!" I hissed. "I'll go, okay? Just don't say anything."
The point was, Aro and the rest of the damn Volturi knew about one of my powers, the most prominent and least useful one. They knew I could turn into a human. But Matt and Lucas were the only two who knew about me knowing things. Like, a psychic, basically. Truth be told, I had never really bought into the whole psychic deal, but now I was starting to wonder. I'd never really known things when I was human. As I'd began to turn, I'd had hunches, but it wasn't the same thing.
I hadn't asked Carlisle when I'd had the chance, so I had no idea where my bizarre power came from. Matt had a theory that it was the combination of my heritage—vampire plus human. But that didn't exactly make sense.
But, if Aro knew that I knew things, I was dead meat. Volturi bait. They'd make me swear to secrecy and all that other crap, and then they'd make me tell them things. Make me do things.
Not exactly Dream Job of the Year, right?
So I nodded to Aida and followed her out into the dark hallway. No one would mind two vampires leaving a room and heading out. It wasn't exactly an unheard-of thing. The guard of the Volturi were like a big, happy family—minus the happy and the love within a family.
Aida led me out to the forest, and while we were running, I couldn't help but ask myself, Why is she blackmailing me? She'd seemed like a pretty nice person, but then again, she had her secrets.
But when I asked myself that question, I didn't get an answer. I probably wasn't being specific enough. But before I could rephrase, Aida stopped.
"We should be safe here," she announced dramatically, glancing around. "You okay?"
"I want to know why you're blackmailing me," I replied acidly.
She raised one trim eyebrow. "I'm sorry? Blackmailing you? I'm not doing that."
"Oh, really?" I inquired. "Then what about threatening to publicize my power?"
"Excuse me? What power?"
I stared straight at her. "Don't play dumb." I'll admit. I was pissed. And when one is pissed, said one usually is less careful. "My power—knowing things?"
At first, I didn't register the look of shock on her face. She just stared at me, mouth open, eyes wide. "I beg your pardon?" she tried again to understand. "Knowing things? What on Earth are you talking about?"
It was my turned to be stunned. "Um," I managed.
"What do you mean, 'knowing things'?" She demanded. The status quo had changed.
"Um," I said again. Crap. Crap, crap, crap. What was I going to do.
"You have two powers?" Aida asked. "Are you kidding me?"
I shook my head. "I, uh—"
Her eyes lit up. "You're a psychic!"
"No," I told her, not really appreciating the irony of my day. "I'm not a psychic. Psychic is what Alice is. It's different."
And, there it was. Conformation. I'd said it without even realizing it. I was a piece of—
"Holy shit!" Aida said, and I blinked, startled to hear such language from such a young face. But then again, she was older than me. And when I was her age, I'd said the same stuff. Besides, you'd think I'd be used to it, with my werewolf of a brother who was only eleven. You should hear the mouth on that boy.
"Well," Aida continued. "This works out better than I expected."
I glared. "Hold up," I said. "This doesn't give you—"
"I wasn't blackmailing you," she interrupted. "And I don't plan on it, so you can relax. I told you, no obligations. Listen to what I have to say, and then you're free to hit the road."
We stared at each other for a long time, gazes unwavering and still. I tapped my fingers on my crossed arms, mulling my choice over. I could walk away now, and be unburdened, or I could stay and listen, no questions asked.
"Fine," I sighed finally, and I watched as her eyes illuminated. "I'll listen."
She bounded forward and gave me a brief squeeze. "Thank you!"
I pushed her away. "You better start talking," I told her foully. "If Matt sees I'm gone he's going to have a cow."
OOO
I'm back! Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Yeah. Had a moment. Well, it sure puts a smile on my face to know that you guys cared enough to come back and leave me reviews. I love you guys!
Jamie