A/N: Thank you dazze1ed, brown eyed vamp, Master of the Boot, Alyannara2763, Freakk66, and thepoisonpages for the reviews, alerts, and favs! And everyone else who contributed to the 153 hits my story's had so far!
Breaking Dawn comes out in a couple days (YAYS!!), and I know that there will be a LOT of things in my story that end up different from the real story, but I'm not going to change anything in my story so that it makes sense with Breaking Dawn. I hope that you all will still read my take on the Twilight story when the real one is already finished.
Enjoy chapter 4!!
"I am Edward Cullen," I said, "and this is my wife Bella. You are right about everything, but there is one crucial detail that you have wrong. We are, in fact, vampires."
Vampire Legions
Chapter 4—Explanation
Lestat's POV
My eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed into slits. How dare these two teenagers mock me! I am the vampire, not them! They may be supernatural, but I know a vampire when I see one. I decided to voice these opinions out loud, but before I had even opened my mouth, the lovely Bella interjected,"Look, we didn't interrupt you to argue. You had your turn to talk; now it's your turn to listen." Hmm, she's a feisty one. But how did she know I was about to argue?
"We are vampires," Edward continued. "We drink blood to survive, just as you do, except our family has chosen to live off the blood of animals rather than humans. We are immortal, like you; I am 115 years old, but Bella is only 28. We have superhuman strength and speed, like you." To demonstrate this fact, Bella took off and circled the meadow three times in the amount of time it took Edward to take a breath. He wasn't kidding, I thought. She might even be as fast as me. This made me smile to myself. I was already attracted to young Bella, and the fact that her speed rivaled my own drew me to her even more. Edward continued, "Our skin is hard and heals quickly, like yours, and we can only truly die by, as you said, being reduced to ashes."
I tried again to reach into their minds with the Mind Gift, but to no avail. There was no way for me to know how much of what they were telling me was the truth, except of course for their preternatural strength and speed. Even if what Edward said was true, even if they shared all of these qualities with me, how could they still be vampires when I still had so many unanswered questions about them?
I wanted to be nearer to them. I said, "This is no way to have a conversation. May I join you in the meadow, and we can sit down and have a civilized chat? You have nothing to fear from me, my dear fascinating creatures. At least not yet."
Bella beckoned me forward. She and Edward settled onto the blanket, the same blanket on which they had been passionately embracing when I arrived, and made room for me to join them.
Bella picked up where Edward left off. "But, as you have noticed, we are very different from you. You said that you sleep in a coffin; I envy you for that, because we can't sleep." Cannot sleep? I thought. Then what do they do during the day? As if she knew what I was thinking, Bella said, "During the day we act like a normal part of society. The sun doesn't burn us, but we still have to stay out of direct sunlight. In the sun, our skin sparkles and throws rainbows in the air, just like a thousand tiny diamonds."
I broke out in maniacal laughter. "Sparkle?! You sparkle! Oh, that is rich! Young Bella and Master Edward, powerful beyond measure, similar to me in numerous ways, merely sparkle in the sunlight!" I fell onto the ground and rolled about in my hysterical fit, blood tears streaming from my eyes. I had expected so much more from these two mysterious children—they were inhumanly beautiful, almost as fast and strong as me, and I was already so drawn to both of them. Couldn't they have come up with a better story? "If you wanted me to believe that you were some form of vampire, darling, you should have told a better lie. Sparkling like diamonds, ha!" I finished up my bout of mania and pulled myself into a sitting position. I looked up at Bella and Edward, and began chuckling again. Oh, the looks on their faces! They were appalled, angry, and dejected, all while trying to keep from joining me in my laughter. I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and began dabbing at my bloodstained face. Bella, impatient to scold me for my outburst, started tapping her foot. Really? She's tapping her foot? I thought girls only did that in movies. This day just keeps getting better and better!
Edward was impatient as well, and asked curtly, "Are you quite finished?" I suppose I have been a bit rude to them, I thought. I nodded my head, hoping that I looked as apologetic as I felt. "Thank you. You don't have to believe us, but I assure you that we are telling the truth. I know that you told us the truth about your nature; please trust that we are showing you the same courtesy." Oh, Edward, such a gentleman you are! And he was right. He knew, somehow he saw into my mind and knew that I told them the complete truth about me, about my nature and my history. And I knew that I could trust him. Edward and Bella Cullen were telling me the truth. They were vampires. Strange vampires that could not sleep and—I laughed inwardly—sparkled in the sunlight, but vampires nonetheless. And as I pulled myself to my feet, I realized that I wanted to know about them, I wanted to know the similarities and differences between us, I wanted to know Edward and Bella inside and out. I looked into Edward's topaz eyes, then into Bella's that were similarly colored but flecked with red, and willed them to continue to amaze me.
Edward turned to Bella and squeezed her hand, silently telling her to continue what she was saying before my laughter interrupted. "Okay, back to the differences between our kind and your kind," she said. "Your eyes are, while completely gorgeous, mostly normal, but our eyes reflect our eating habits. My family's eyes are gold because we drink animal blood; those of our kind who drink human blood have red eyes."
"Wait," I interrupted, "did you say family? You have a family?" Bella answered, "Well, not an actual blood-related family. We're all vampires, made at different times and in different places, but we think of ourselves as a family."
"Carlisle is our father figure, since he was the first of our family and made the rest of us," Edward continued for Bella. "But he's our father in more ways than one. He is extremely compassionate and level-headed, and will do anything for his family. Esme is Carlisle's mate, and our mother. She loves all of us fiercely and unconditionally, and is only happy when we are happy. The 'children' "—and here he made quotation marks around the word "children" with his fingers—"of our family consist of Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Bella, and myself. Alice and Jasper are mates, as are Rosalie and Emmett, and I was the loner of the family until I met Bella a little over ten years ago. Even though we are all paired off in mates, we share an extremely strong familial bond. All of us will do anything to help and protect our family."
I found all of this completely fascinating. Such a large group of vampires living together like a family for so many years was unheard of! Although I shared the strongest of bonds with numerous other blood drinkers like myself—Louis, Marius, Armand, David, and Gabrielle, to name a few—we would all never be able to coexist under one roof for any long period of time. Vampires were independent, natural wanderers! Maybe only those who deny their nature by drinking the blood of animals can know the joy of such strong and plentiful connections.
"We are not connected telepathically like your kind seem to be, but some of us, like Edward, have telepathic powers," Bella continued. "Carlisle's theory is that our dominant personality trait in our human lives is amplified and enhanced in the transformation into a vampire. Some can be subtle enhancements. Emmett was physically strong as a human, so now he's a bit stronger than us other vampires. Rosalie was obstinate as a human, so now she can sometimes be…well, a complete bitch. I love her, but it's true. Other personality enhancements, like Edward's, can turn into supernatural powers. Alice can see the future, Jasper can control emotions, and I have heightened intuition." She paused for a moment, as if deciding what to say next, but started back up as if she had never stopped. "That's how I knew what you were thinking. You have put up a mental wall to keep others out of your mind, and this stops Edward from hearing word for word and seeing image for image your thoughts and feelings. My power does not depend entirely on your mind. I can't hear your exact thoughts, but I intuitively know the gist of what you are thinking. But there's still a lot I can't get to, a lot that your mind is successfully blocking."
I was stunned. This was indeed a strange species of vampire I had stumbled upon—for that must surely have been what they were, a species of vampire that was different from my own, yet similar in so many ways. They sparkled in the sun instead of being burned, but fire would still kill them. They had no Mind Gift or Fire Gift or Cloud Gift, but they had enhanced abilities that could be entirely supernatural. Seeing the future, controlling emotions, intuitively knowing anything and everything there was to know—it was all so unbelievable, yet completely truthful! So fearsome, yet so amazing!
So alluring, these two vampires were. I was almost as attracted to Edward as I was to Bella. They were both so beautiful, so pure, yet so fierce and dangerous. It was as if they were
made of all the best parts of me, and since I loved myself, how could I not love them? Even on certain levels—and I couldn't believe I was actually thinking this—they were better than me. They said that they drank the blood of animals to spare humans; was this not something that I refused to do? Yes, I hunted only the Evil Doer, those who deserved to die by my hand; but the blood of humans was so alluring, so delectable, that I could not give it up, could not save countless souls by denying myself my most selfish needs. These children—oh, but they were children in appearance only!—had so much more self-control and discipline, and such better character than I could ever hope to have. I was the Brat Prince of Darkness, a force of evil on this earth. Granted, I was a very small force of evil compared to others, but evil nonetheless. Beautiful Bella and Exquisite Edward were angels in the bodies of demons, angels who denied their own nature to save Earth's soul. Oh, all the things I could teach them about the world, about the wonders I've beheld! And they could teach me so much in return! I felt a longing, a longing so strong it rivaled my thirst for blood, to stay with these gorgeous specimens, to hold them, to talk with them, to hunt and travel and be with them. I wanted to know their family, I wanted to know their secrets, I wanted to know their history, I wanted to know them as intimately as possible.
Bella must have sensed my longing for her, for them, for everything, because something changed in her. Before, she was completely centered around Edward. Her movements, her actions, her facial expressions, and most likely her thoughts, all held root in her beloved. But now, although it was still obvious that Edward was the center of her life, she began reaching out towards me. Her body leaned a bit toward me, her eyes were intent on my face, her facial expressions became more confused yet more enlightened at the same time. It seemed as if she was studying me, trying to make sense of me, and failing miserably, yet loving her failure. She was being drawn to me, pulled to me, as I was pulled to France, and as surely as I was being pulled toward her now. In and around me she saw mystery, sensuality, darkness, and she found it irresistible. How did I know this? Why, because I'm the Vampire Lestat! Of course I'm mysterious, sensual, and dark, and of course pure and innocent Bella was drawn to me! She wanted to dabble in the sinful, the passionate, the mystifying—she wanted to take a walk through the Savage Garden of the world, and she knew that I was the one to take her there! Oh, how I loved being me!
Ah, but Exquisite Edward was not untrained in the ways of the world! He had taken a walk through the Savage Garden himself, and he knew what lurked within me. He looked between Bella and I for a couple seconds, and then stared at Bella as if she were about to grow a second head! Oh, the caprices of a lover's jealousy! He touched her arm, and she quickly took her longing eyes off of me and looked at Edward. She smiled at him, for him, a radiant smile that said she was his and he was hers. The pained and horrified look was wiped clean from his face, and replaced with a smile just as loving as Bella's. He took her face ever so gently between his hands and kissed her slowly and lovingly. She kissed him right back, but my preternatural senses did not miss the look of confusion in her eyes as she fleetingly glanced at me. Interesting, I thought, very interesting.
They broke the kiss and both turned to me. Bella glanced between Edward and I and said, "Well, now what?"
"We need to know more," I said. "We are undoubtedly members of two different species of vampire. Now we need to know how it started, and how our existences have stayed secret from each other. There must be someone who knows, and I have a hunch that that someone was what pulled me here, pulled me to you."
Bella gasped and looked up. "Something's coming…out of the sky? It must be another vampire like you, Lestat, because its mind, body, and smell are completely foreign to me—just like yours were, and still are. But how is it in the sky? Unless, it—" she gasped and looked at me, "—your kind can fly? Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" I shrugged and said, "All vampires of my kind share many gifts, but most only come about in old age. We all have the Mind Gift from the moment we are Born to Darkness, but only very old or very powerful vampires have the Cloud Gift. Whoever is coming must be at least as old as me, but most likely older. The only reason I have the Cloud Gift is that Akasha, the first of our kind, fell in love with me and gave me much of her blood."
Just then, a tall figure in a red velvet cloak flew into our sight. I instantly knew who this vampire was, this vampire who had been the source of the sensation that drew me here. I would know that red velvet cloak anywhere! The vampire flew into the clearing and gracefully landed immediately to my right. "Lestat!" he crowed, embracing me. "It has been too long. I am glad you decided to come here, but I am sorry that my messages to you were so cryptic. I could not afford to let you know who was calling you here. I assure you that my secrecy was necessary. Ah, and I see you have already met dear young Mr. and Mrs. Cullen! How wonderful! I am sure you have spent some time getting acquainted."
Edward cut in before the man next to me could say any more. "Who are you, and how do you know about us?" He looked as if steam would pour out of his ears at any minute.
"Your anger is rightly justified. I believe that I have much explaining to do. I am Marius de Romanus, and I have been a drinker of the Blood since the times of Ancient Rome. I know who you are because I was once friends with your father Carlisle."
My jaw dropped at the same moment as Bella's and Edward's. We were completely flabbergasted. It took us a moment to recover, and then all three of our faces became mirror images of confusion, anger, and excitement. We began talking at the same time.
"Marius—" I began.
"Carlisle—" Edward said.
"Huh?" Bella asked.
"Calm down, all of you, please," Marius pleaded. "As I said, I have a lot of explaining to do. But now it is almost dawn, and Lestat and I must find a safe place to sleep, hidden from civilization and the sun's rays. We will convene here tomorrow just after sunset, and I promise that I will tell you everything I know."
Marius grasped my hand, and together we rose into the sky. He was right: we had to find a safe place to sleep before the fast-approaching dawn. Just before we left the sight of the clearing, I looked down. Edward and Bella were watching us with confused and excited faces. Oh, how I could not wait for the next night to come!