The screams for Carlisle could be heard while Rosalie was still over a mile way from our house.
As if the fear and worry in the mind and the sheer panic in her voice hadn't filled me with enough dread, the sight that met Carlisle, Esme, and me when we ran out to meet her confirmed our worst fears. Rosalie's eyes were blacker than I had ever seen them and her chest was heaving as if she couldn't draw enough unneeded oxygen into her body. But the most damning of all was the blood smeared all over her normally immaculate clothes and the crumpled human in her arms with a heartbeat so faint I could barely hear it.
"Carlisle, help me," she panted, gently arranging the massive man on the forest floor. "He was attacked by a bear. His wounds, they're so bad. But I won't let him die"
Three vampire bodies sagged with relief. It was only a bear. She hadn't done this.
As Carlisle knelt and began examining the man's wounds, he cataloged him in his mind, confirming what I could see with my own eyes. He had lost over two pints of blood; his intestines were severed; one lung was punctured; his heart had been nicked. It was a fluke he was still alive.
"Rose," Carlisle whispered, "he won't even make it to the hospital. He's dying. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."
"Change him," she said quietly, stroking the unconscious man's hair. Then more fiercely, she growled, "Change him!"
"But you hate being a vampire," I spoke for the first time.
"I can't let him die. I need him," she begged.
I wanted to argue more, to ask her why she would condemn another to the life she hated, but Carlisle interrupted us. He believed her. He felt sorry for her, and he was all-too-willing to indulge his daughter in this. Esme had made him soft, a believer in love and mates and that nonsense.
"We don't have any more time to waste," he said, scooping up the future vampire. "We'll move him into the spare bedroom now; we won't be able to later. Edward, I need your help."
I held together some of the gaping flesh to slow the blood flow as we ran in sync to the house, up the stairs, and into an unused but fully decorated room. Carlisle wasted no time sinking his teeth into the stranger's neck as Rosalie recommenced stroking his hair. When Carlisle pulled away, she immediately went to this man's side, taking his hand into hers.
His eyes shot open at the pain, and he bellowed as he felt the fire invade his body, but as he sank back down, he saw Rosalie.
"You're still here," he whispered. "You're my angel, aren't you?"
"I won't leave," she promised, leaning closer to his face.
"It hurts," he moaned.
"I know. It will end, and then you'll feel as you never have before." She blew her breath onto his face, soothing him. She looked into his eyes, and in her mind, she was willing him to ignore the pain and think only of her.
"When it's over….do you disappear?"
"No. You'll be with me forever."
Her voice was filled with promises that resonated someplace inside me that I couldn't recognize. Her mind was filled with him, and his was mostly filled with pain, but his few cognizant thoughts were of her saving him in the forest. He thought she was an angel sent to be with him in his hour of need. Little did he know his hour of trial would be three days.
"I was afraid that he wouldn't still be alive when I got here," she finally said to us when she felt she had done her best to comfort him. "I was afraid to try to change him myself. I was afraid I wouldn't stop. If he would've given out on the way, I would've tried, though."
"Where did you find him?" Carlisle asked. He was worried. For a minute, I just sat back and savored the moment of him worrying about all the things I normally asked about in these situations. Was she seen? Will anybody be looking for him? What will we do with him?'
"I was southwest of here about 100 miles from here, at the edge of the mountains. We were alone. He said his name was Emmett McCarty. Nobody saw us, I promise," she said. For the first time, I saw the whole scene play out in her mind.
She had been hunting by herself after we had fought about her absurd desire to drive my new car. She was practically still a newborn! There was absolutely no way she was getting near my 1935 Auburn Speedster. I'd think about letting her in the passenger seat after this rather magnificent display of control.
Rosalie had run for awhile, at first caught up in her anger, but when the scent of a large grizzly and an equally large human had assaulted her, she had been drawn as a moth to flame. The human's other friends had run when the grizzly when it caught them off guard, but he slowed it down by throwing rocks and hitting it with a fallen branch. They had been able to escape, but his chances were eliminated when the bear began fighting back.
That's when Rosalie saw him for the first time, and instead of seeing the man fighting a losing battle with the bear, she had seen her best friend Vera's little boy. The dark curls and dimples were what kept her from running the other direction, staying detached. Someday, little Henry would grow up to look like this, and she couldn't let this lookalike just slip away from life.
When Rosalie had stepped away from a tree, the bear had been lumbering toward the prostrate Emmett, ready to take the final snap to end his life. His eyes had widened as she ran at the bear, knocking it to the side as easily as a kitten. In no mood to play, she leaped onto its back with a growl of her own and snapped its neck.
She had felt no thirst for the bear, but the burning in her throat had be excruciating from the human's scent leaking across the forest. But with little Henry in mind, she approached him, kneeling.
"What's your name?" she had asked quickly, assessing her own strength. Even then, in the back of her mind, she had known she wanted him changed, and his name would be the most devastating thing to never know.
"Emmett McCarty," he groaned. After closing his eyes and opening them again, he sighed, "My angel."
Rosalie had lifted him carefully, cradling him to her, and taken off as fast as she could.
"I had to," she said, snapping me out of her thoughts.
I didn't understand, but I could see her desire for approval, so I nodded.
"I'll go toward Gatlinburg and Greystone Heights since she was at the edge of the mountains," I offered. "I'll see if anybody is missing him yet. Maybe there'll be no need to stage a death."
Carlisle nodded, then paused. "Edward, be sure to hunt while you're gone. We're going to have our hands full when he wakes up. He's….quite large."
I nodded and ran, and I had gone a mile before I realized Esme was trying catch up.
Edward, wait for me. I want to go too. I want to see where he came from. We can both help him remember later. And then some other time, I'll bring Rosalie.
Then, as I suspected, her mental worrying and assuaging began assaulting me.
I'm worried about you, Edward. You'll be alone again.
"I'll be as I have always been," I promised, not breaking from my pace. "You say it as if it's a bad thing, but nothing has changed for me. I'm satisfied."
Satisfied! Ha! You shouldn't live your life satisfied. I think you should try to find someone.
"Please don't start this again. I'm fine alone. Maybe I'll find someone someday, but it not, that's ok. I have forever, after all. And I'm only seventeen," I said the last with a laugh that came out a little more harshly than I intended.
I don't want you to be hurt when she's with him. It would be better if you had someone too.
Great. So my family would think that I was going to feel like some sort of rejected ex-boyfriend. Why couldn't they just understand that Rosalie and I would have never worked out?
"Esme, I promise I won't be hurt when they're together. That is one thing I can assure you without any doubt," I almost laughed again. It had been a struggle to like Rosalie, and it was only made worse by her thoughts. She was always so proud of herself.
Esme and I straightened ourselves when we reached the first town, Gatlinburg, and began roaming the streets. Her sharp eyes and ears looked and listened for anything out of the ordinary, and my mind scanned those of others until finally, I found what I was looking for.
We shouldn't have left him out there.
I waited for more, but none came. We kept roaming the streets, my task made more difficult by large number of visitors in town for the newly opened national park. From what I could see, Gatlinburg was just an overgrown farming community that was trying to earn a few more bucks by trying to capitalize on the out-of-towners driving through on their search for wildlife and mountain scenery.
When I finally found Emmett's home on the outskirts of town, it wasn't a cozy cabin tucked into a mountain, a symbol of man living with nature. It was a beat-down shack with a muddy front yard and sagging roof. Debris littered the area around the house. It was the epitome of Appalachian poverty.
They were all thinking of Emmett, that's how I knew this was the right place. I had expected to see a mother or a wife sobbing in a cabin, but it seemed his mother was chopping wood.
I don' t know what we'll do without him. None of the other boys are big enough yet to do the hard work around here. The girls have their hands full with the house, and they're gettin' married up faster than I can blink. And I'll have my hands full with the little one in just another month or so. If only my Lloyd hadn't gone to check on his still that night when it blew up. And now Emmett and that bear. Why didn't those boys try to help him? I don't know what we'll do.
His mother was pregnant and his father was dead.
Esme and I snuck around the property, finding three little boys tending animals near a shed. One had been crying, but all three were stoically doing their chores. They were all afraid of what would happen without Emmett around to take care of them. It seemed he had done all the heavy work around the house in addition to acting as father to the little boys. The young men hoping to court his sisters came to him for permission.
He would be missed.
As we walked away, I told Esme what I had heard, and she looked back on the hovel with sad eyes.
"I'll take care of this," she promised. Then looking at the sky, she touched my arm. "We'd better hurry so Carlisle has time to hunt as well."
We each bagged a rather unsavory deer before heading back to our house, and by the time we got there, Esme had already concocted a brilliant scheme to provided the monetary relief Emmett's family needed so badly.
Emmett's screams were easily distinguishable two miles out. This was the worst part of the change for me. Just hearing them suffer.
When his changed ended, the four of us were as prepared as we could be. We assumed the most passive postures we could in order not to threaten him, but when he darted into a sitting position, that didn't stop him from snarling as he looked around the room.
Carlisle prepared to begin the soothing speech he had used on his three previous creations, but Emmett's eyes finally landed on Rosalie.
"You're still here?"
"Yes, Emmett, I am."
When she stepped forward, he watched her as if she were performing a fascinating show. Even as a vampire, he was entranced by her. And when Carlisle finished explaining, Emmett simply nodded, his awe of Carlisle evident. Surprisingly, he hadn't forgotten all of his human life.
He's so different from my father. Clean and he speaks so well. He wouldn't leave behind a family for a whiskey still.
"Well, my throat burns. I guess I need a cat or something," Emmett said doubtfully.
Rosalie laughed throatily and I couldn't help rolling my eyes. I think we would have all blushed if we still had the ability when she spoke again.
"I think you would like something a little bit more….challenging," she purred, reaching out to run a hand appreciatively down his arm. I wanted to avert my eyes, but I couldn't.
Emmett grinned and his eyes gleamed. His thoughts were crystal clear:
Hot damn!
I was afraid of where they would go next.
Esme coughed slightly.
Carlisle cleared his throat.
Absolutely nothing good could come of this.
Note: I'm definitely discovering this family stuff is not my cup of tea. I think I almost bored myself to death, so I'm sorry if you just read that! I'm really just holding out for the Bella chapter because romantic things are much more my style.