Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters. Any original content, however, is probably mine.
A/N: This is actually the second part to a previous story, also on this site, called Dusk. If you haven't read the original, I highly reccomend you do so before you begin reading this part, as much of it will not make sense without information in the first part. Also, just a reminder that the four main characters are real people, people that I know, and some of the content contained in later chapters may anger some people. That being said, I did try to keep the characters as close to how Stephenie Meyer wrote them, though I know I could never get them perfect. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to review with criticism or compliments.
Chapter 19 -- Answers
Sarah and Joe sat silently on the Cullen's long sofa, watching as Esme stood at the large front window and gazed out, her expression worried and set in stone. Alice, Emmett, Jasper, and Edward were all supposed to be back at the house by now, but no one had seen or heard from them since their departure earlier. As for Daisha, Jacob, and Jessica, Joe and Sarah could only imagine where they might by. For all they knew, Daisha was already in the Volturi's clutches.
Just the thought of the Volturi, however, was enough to send Sarah into a panic attack. If any of them were to attack right now, Joe and Sarah would be almost completely defenseless against them. Esme was there, and she would be able to hold them off for a small time, but she wasn't a particularly skilled fighter, and by herself against any of the Volturi, it would only be a matter of time before they finished her off and came for the two humans.
From the look on Esme's face, Joe and Sarah knew exactly what she wanted. She longed to be outside, searching for her beloved family. She needed to do something instead of standing there, completely useless. Joe and Sarah couldn't be left alone and without protection though, and taking them with her was completely out of the question, so she stayed put, dutiful and bound by her faith in her family to pull through.
"Did you guys here that?" Joe asked suddenly, his head darting in the direction of the front door.
But before his sentence was even out of his mouth, Esme had the door open and one foot was outside.
"Stay here," she warned them both. Joe and Sarah rose to their feet in confusion and fear, but Esme had already slammed the door behind her as she sped across the front yard.
"What was it?" Sarah asked. "What did you hear Joe? I didn't hear anything."
Joe ignored his friend's questions and strode to the window, gazing into the darkness of the yard. Sarah followed eagerly, and pressed her forehead against the cool glass, straining her eyes to find anything in the darkness outside. After a few minutes, their eyes managed to spot moving figures in the distance, and as they adjusted to the blackness outside, the scene playing before them caused both their jaws to drop.
Alice and Emmett could be seen walking towards the house, oblivious to their surroundings. Their pale skin contrasted harshly with the darkness all around them, and made them that much easier to distinguish in the night haze. About fifty yards away from them, Daisha was a literal blur, hurling herself towards the two Cullens at an unimaginable speed. Esme's retreating figure was running towards Daisha, trying to reach her before Daisha reached the other two. With shock, Joe and Sarah watched as Esme reached Daisha and reached out an arm to stop her, and with a crack the sounded like thunder, Daisha knocked Esme back almost to the front porch with a single blow, not missing a step.
Sarah let out a small scream and stepped back, clearly disturbed by what she had witnessed. Joe, however, remained frozen in place, unable to look away from the horrific scene. He watched as Daisha finally reached her target and collided with Emmett and Alice, sending all three of them tumbling into the ground. Joe pounded his fist against the pane and let loose an angry growl to rival Edward's. Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him, and he stood like that for several minutes, not watching out the window, just trying to calm his breathing.
He would have stood like that for years, content to never move again, if it weren't for a strange whooshing noise behind him that sounded like a small tornado had suddenly appeared and dissipated in the house behind in the span of a few seconds.
Joe and Sarah both spun around at the same time, only to be greeted by a young boy. He had dark brown hair and blood red eyes that matched his pearly skin perfectly. He was probably twelve or thirteen years old, and if it weren't for the black robes that swayed around him, Joe and Sarah wouldn't have felt paralyzed with fear at the sight of him.
"Sarah and Joe, I presume," he said in a surprisingly deep voice for such a young looking child.
Not knowing what else to do, Joe nodded. Sarah took a step back and placed herself behind Joe, wanting to put as much space between her and the intruder as she possibly could.
"My name is Alec," the boy introduced with a slight nod. He acted unbearable cocky, as if he was so sure of himself, and it drove Joe insane.
"Jane's twin," Sarah said in a shaky voice, almost a whisper. "You're a teleporter."
For the first time, Alec's smug smile faltered slightly. "You're better informed than I expected you to be."
"What's happening outside?" Joe demanded in the pause. "Why is Daisha attacking Emmett and Alice?"
"Alice was merely caught in the attack," Alec mused out loud. "The fact that she got in the way is none of our concern."
"Emmett then," Joe snapped with a shake of his head, "whatever. Why is she attacking Emmett?"
"Emmett's death will serve two purposes," Alec replied tauntingly.
"What are they?" Sarah asked, her voice gaining strength as more time passed without her being attacked.
"I suppose," Alec said with mock thought, "telling you wouldn't hurt. You'll both be dead soon anyway." Joe and Sarah both flinched at these words, unsure of what to make of them. "The first purpose of Emmett's death is to sever the ties that Daisha holds to this place. Once her lover is dead, only one person will be able to stop her from coming to us."
"Who's that?" Joe asked, hoping that the answer would be someone strong, someone capable.
"You," Alec said with a flash of his wicked grin.
Joe stood in silence for several minutes, unsure of what to think. Him? How could he stop Daisha from doing anything? Sure, they used to be best friends, but now that she was a vampire, he could hardly talk to her, let alone force her to do anything against her will.
"And the second purpose?" Sarah asked, not getting distracted by the rush of new information.
"To distract everyone, of course," was Alec's response, and he shifted his small feet to a different, more aggressive stance.
"Distract them from what?" Sarah choked out.
"This!" he shrieked and jumped towards the two of them. Joe sidestepped the young vampire, and Sarah only narrowly avoided his grasp by taking the tiniest of jumps backward.
"Sarah!" Joe yelled, realizing that he had inadvertently placed his friend in danger. In a flash, Joe snapped his arm out and grabbed Sarah's wrist, dragging her behind him as he made a made scramble for the door, knocking a small end table out of the way with his shin as he did so. He blindly ignored the pain and continued for his escape, ignoring everything around him until, with a roar of wind, Alec appeared in front of the door, his deep black cloak swirling around him.
In an attempt to keep from colliding with the boy, Joe dropped to the ground and rolled into a tangled pile with Sarah. For a second, he tried to gain his bearings on where he was and what was happening, and then he felt Alec's shoe collide forcefully with his gut, making his vision swim and his lungs empty. As he attempted to struggle to his feet, he could feel Sarah being pulled away from him, and he fought to keep hold of her. After several seconds of failed attempts to reach his feet, Joe finally brought himself up to one knee, panting and trying to focus through his bleary eyes. He could just barely make out a very pissed off looking Alec forcing a struggling Sarah to her feet.
"Joe! she screamed, begging and pleading in a raspy voice to be rescued. She tried with all her strength to break Alec's grip on her wrist, but to no avail.
Joe grunted heavily as he forced himself forward, ignoring the screaming in his lungs, trying as hard as he could to save his friend. He held out his hand, stretching to the end of his fingertips to reach her in time. With a maniacal laugh, however, a burst of wind blew Joe backward and he collided with the front door, feeling it buckle with the force he had hit it with. He had seen Sarah's hair rustle around her face from the wind, her look of fear and despair resonating in every muscle in her body, and then she had been gone, the wind whisking her away to some unknown destination, and Alec's laugh echoed in the large front room long after they had gone.
Joe laid there, his ears ringing as he slumped against the heavy oak door, his breathing ragged. Unable to face reality, he closed his eyes and forced the angry tears away, not allowing them to flow, and waited for someone to rescue them all.
Jasper and Edward stopped suddenly, unsure of what was happening as they emerged form the thick foliage of the woods surrounding their home. In the distance, they saw Daisha, Emmett, and Alice tangled in a fast moving blur as they fought, and a small lump in the lawn alerted Edward to a more immediate problem.
"Esme!" he yelled as he shot through the air, stopping by the fallen body of his mother. "Are you okay?"
She gingerly rose to her feet and leaned against Edward. Even with the obvious pain betraying her face, she remained determined to not let it show through and forced a reassuring smile for the sake of her children. In the darkness and with the pain of Daisha's last blow, her smile looked more like an eerie grimace than anything close to reassuring.
"That Daisha..." she muttered, "she's quite the fighter, isn't she?"
"She could give Emmett a run for his money," Jasper said, his gaze moving from Esme to the fighting figures a few hundred yards away.
"Where's Carlisle?" Edward asked suddenly, looking around. "He would know what to do."
"Italy," Esme said softly, her large almond eyes on the ground determinedly. "He left to make plans with Aro."
"Damn it," Edward spat, his stone cold hand balling into a fist. "Daisha..."
"What?" Jasper asked, looking at his brother with confusion.
"She thinks that Emmett had her changed into a vampire. So he could have her." The look on Edward's voice told both Jasper and Esme that whatever Daisha was thinking, it was as far from the truth as it could be. "Her thoughts are scrambled... it's hard to tell everything that happened."
"Emmett won't fight back," Jasper said matter of factly. "He would never hurt her."
"She'll make him fight," Esme said, rising to her fight. "Jasper, you have to get over there and do everything in your power to calm her down."
Even before her sentence was finished, Jasper was sprinting across the yard towards the fighting vampires. Edward looked at Esme with pleading eyes.
"I don't know," he replied to her thoughts.
Daisha stood over the two fallen vampires, her eyes dark and cold. Emmett looked up at her with actual fear in his eyes, and Alice quaked with an urge to attack her, to fight back.
"Emmet," Alice said out of the corner of her mouth, "remember my vision..."
"I know," he answered, "I know."
Daisha smiled at her lover, but there wasn't an ounce of love in it. "Guess who I just killed, Emmett," she taunted.
He continued to look up at her with confusion, not even moving to get to his feet.
"I'll give you a hint," she continued. "You hired him to turn me into a vampire. Ring any bells?"
"What are you --" Emmett began, but he was cut off by Jasper's voice as he ran up to join them.
"Daisha, stop!" As Jasper approached them, they all felt the change in the air around them as he brought an intense calm over them. "It's not true, Emmett didn't --"
Daisha spun around, her dark hair flying wildly through the air as her dark red eyes locked onto Jasper's gold, and she could feel the familiar connection to her victims will that she knew she wasn't supposed to use. Jasper tried in vain to look away, but he too could feel the connection between Daisha and him, and he knew it was pointless to try to break the stare.
Daisha knew she wasn't supposed to use her powers like this. Carlisle had warned against it time and time again, but she was beyond caring about that now. She was beyond caring about anything. "Shut up," she said, and Jasper could hear her words burning into him, forcing their way into his mind. He knew it was fruitless to try and disobey, but he found his mouth opening anyway. He tried to say something, anything, but no sound came out.
Daisha smiled a little at the force of her power that she had kept locked within her for so long. "You're not going to use your powers to control anyone's emotions anymore," she shot, and she could once again feel her words controlling her victim. Satisfied, Daisha finally broke the eye contact she held with Jasper and felt their connection break as the blonde vampire fell to the ground, his pleas for help never leaving his mouth.
Daisha turned slowly back around to face the other two and realized that Alice was gone, her retreating figure running to join Edward and Esme at the house. No matter. She had enough to deal with here. She looked down at Emmett and was amused to see that his eyes were glued to the ground, unwilling to look up at her.
"So," she said with a fake air of boredom. "Why did you have me turned into a monster?" Without warning, she brought her knee sharply up into Emmett's jaw, sending him sprawling back. "Are you into that sort of thing," she continued as if nothing had happened. "Turning innocent girls into dangerous beasts?" As he slowly rose to his feet once more, Daisha punched him in the gut, bringing him back down to his knees. "Why won't you fight me?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Emmett said softly, his eyes still focused on the ground. "I would never do anything to hurt you, and I will never fight you."
"Yes you will," Daisha shot with a sneer. "Look at me!"
Emmett refused even to flinch.
"I said look at me!" she screamed fiercely pushing him to the ground and driving her foot into his temple. "Fight back! Fight me! You think you're so good, you think you can just change my life around like that, you already killed me once, get up and attack me!"
"No," he whispered, knowing she could hear him perfectly. He kept his eyes focused away from her, refusing to look into hers. His rock hard body was looking past beaten, and his resolve was well worn, but he continued to refuse to hold his hand up to her. "I'll never fight you!"
Daisha knelt down and grabbed his chin in her hand and jerked his face up to hers. She placed her ice cold lips against his, and she could feel his confusion betray him as he began to kiss her back. For several minutes, they continued to kiss passionately, and for the smallest fraction of a second, Emmett wondered if she was through with torturing him. Then she yanked her face away from his and, just as she hoped, his eyes shot open and he was looking directly into hers.
Daisha smiled as she watched Emmett visibly struggle to break their eye contact, but to no avail. Even though her hand no longer held him in place, he couldn't look away, and Daisha stood slowly, holding her eyes on his.
"Now," she said, her smile gone, replaced with a scowl. Underneath though, Emmett could see fear and unknowing in her expression. "Fight me, and don't stop until one of us is dead."
A/N: I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorry that this took about 6 years to get up. What with moving into college and starting school and all this other stuff... time has been very pressed lately. :( I sincerely hope that you all don't hate me completely now, and I hope to get the last few chapters up within the next few weeks. :) I love you all!