Disclaimer: Written under the derivative fan works act. All rights reserved to the original creator, Stephanie Meyer.
Title: The Darkest Part of the Night
Rating: M for graphic violence, blood play, vampire feeding, sexual situations, lemons, hot steamy angsty vampire lovin', underage drinking, smoking, drug use and overall bad behavior.
Premise: Edward left Carlisle to live the vampire lifestyle but he didn't leave his family behind. They left with him, feeding off the dregs of human society. What will happen when they finally meet a certain human girl? No Vegetarians Allowed AU OOC ExB Lemons
Alternate Universe: This story uses more traditional vampire canon as opposed to Twilight sparklepires. Canon pairings eventually although Edward and company get a lot of play in this story until things settle down in later chapters (Obviously Bella won't be in the story until after she's born), pretty much OOC, ExB of course.
POV: EPOV (Edward) Edward tells this story. Any commentary from Rosalie, Alice or Bella will be posted as outtakes in a separate story.
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Author Notes:
Please note that this story is rated M for a reason, if you'd prefer not to deal with mature themes, please do not read this story.
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Chapter 7 Emmett
I had to admit, I was truly astonished by Emmett McCarty.
Carlisle had told me his own story, and I was familiar with my own reaction to becoming a vampire. I had been present through Esme's transformation and newborn phase. Rose and I had been together since she was only days old, and I knew how hard it had been for her to accept becoming a vampire.
None of us had wanted what had happened to us. I suppose Esme had the easiest time of it out of all of us. At least she seemed to adapt the easiest and come to terms with the reality of her second life the fastest. I attributed that fact to her bond with Carlisle and the fact that he had lived like this for so long. He had at least become comfortable with what he was whether or not he liked the fact.
Emmett McCarty didn't react like any of us had. He simply accepted his existence. He didn't seem upset at all. At first I thought he was in shock or denial, but I could read his thoughts, and his mind was clear and untroubled. His thought process was remarkably straight forward and he spoke his mind without reservation.
Emmett described this experience as 'being saved by an angel who brought him to God'.
Emmett rose from the sleep shortly after Rose and I did the next night. After finally waking from his painful transformation, Rosalie and I explained to Emmett that he was a vampire now. This did not upset him, however, like Rosalie and I had thought it would. He didn't want to believe us at first, but he seemed to realize instinctively that Rose wouldn't lie to him. A look in the mirror and a simple demonstration of his new abilities changed his mind. Then he was simply curious about his new life.
I stared at him incredulously as he sat on the sofa next to Rose holding her hand in his in the living room of the cabin. "So this doesn't upset you at all? You're simply willing to accept this and do whatever is required of you in this new existence?"
Emmett shrugged. "You said I died, right? I remember the bear attacking me. I knew I was a dead man."
"As good as dead, if we hadn't acted as quickly as we had, you surely would have died."
"It fits. Then I met my maker and stood before god. I answered for my sins and was cast down into the fire."
"So you think you're in hell?"
Emmett shrugged again "Hell's not so bad if you get to keep an angel with you." He turned and smiled at Rose as she sat beside him simply beaming with happiness.
Then he turned back to me. "Look Edward, I know this isn't hell. Can I do anything about this?"
"No…"
"Is complaining about it going to change anything?"
"No…"
"Then why would I put any energy into being upset about it? Why don't you just tell me what I need to know, and we can move on, alright?"
"Ok, where should we begin then?"
"Well, you gave me the basic facts. Let me ask you some questions and then you can fill in the blanks, ok?"
I nodded and then Emmett continued.
"Ok, so we're vampires. We live by drinking blood, but you said you only hunt bad guys, right? Why, is there something special about their blood?"
"No, nothing special, but if I have to kill people, I prefer to kill bad people. Perhaps I'm a hypocrite, but what I do doesn't seem quite so despicable or evil if I'm performing a service to humanity by cleaning up some of the scum that plagues the human world. I would feel truly monstrous if I fed indiscriminately and ate say young innocent school girls."
"Yeah, ok. I can see that. So you don't have to eat bad guys, but you feel better about yourself that way. Umm… will I want to drink blood? I'm not squeamish. I was raised on a farm and did a fair piece of hunting. We slaughtered our own livestock and I field dressed game, but blood? I'm supposed to drink it, raw and uncooked? You guys really do that? You're not shitting me?"
"Vampires, Emmett," Rose said gently. "It goes with the territory. It's how we survive."
"Yes, you'll want to drink blood. It's almost like a drug addiction," I added.
Images flashed through Emmett's mind of a depressed cityscape with addicts huddled in an abandoned building. I could pick out the needles and addicts huddled together cooking their drugs.
"Ah yes, you're familiar with Heroin addicts..."
He shrugged. "Ma sent me up to the city to take some things to my brothers once. I got lost and ended up in the wrong part of town."
"Blood calls to us in much the same way only much, much more powerfully. You'll be able to smell the blood in the veins of the humans around you. At first you won't even be able to resist the urge to eat them and would simply attack any human close enough to smell. With practice and some perseverance you should be able to be around humans again in six months to a year."
"How am I supposed to catch these criminals to eat them if I can't go into the city with you? From the sound of it, I'm going to want to simply grab the first person I run across and murder them. That doesn't sound too appealing to me. I like the idea of eating bad guys. Can we eat some of those Wall Street fat ass money bags that ruined the country and caused the crash? Or how about some of these self-styled railroad tycoons that are forcing us to live in poverty while they ruin our rivers and destroy the countryside?"
"I can see it's going to take some time to educate you on the realities of the economy and help you to learn to take the long view to look at things from a different perspective. You're not seeing the forest for the trees.
"Most of the investors that were ruined in the crash were investing on margin, and couldn't cover their margin calls when the stock prices changed. They were essentially playing the market on borrowed money, and then couldn't pay up to cover their debts when the bottom dropped out of the market. They're out of the picture now for the most part. They were ruined in the crash, and the government set up rules to prevent it from happening again.
"As far as the railroads are concerned, I own considerable stock or a controlling interest in several of them, but allow my attorneys and several private management companies run the day to day affairs of operations. The railroads and the government aren't forcing anybody to live in poverty, but change takes time. Electrical plants need to be built, and then factories. A lot of people will get jobs building those plants and factories. More people will get jobs working in them. We need to build up the infrastructure in the country to create a sustainable economy."
"Sounds like somebody gettin' rich to me while the little people live in shacks and freeze in the winter and burn in the summer. Why not just give the people the money and let'em decide if they want all that?"
"Well, for one thing it takes education and management skills to turn around the crash and get people back on their feet by creating jobs. For another, there's only so much money to do things with. We need to fix the problem, not simply hand out money to solve short term hardships. That just puts a Band-Aid on the problem without addressing the root causes. In its simplest terms, should I buy you a fish so you can eat today, or should I buy you a fishing pole and then teach you how to use it so you can catch your own fish?"
"Huh, I guess it makes sense if you put it like that. So, anyhow, that still doesn't answer my question. How do I catch bad guys if I can't go into the city or be around people?"
"Rose and I will catch them for you until you're safe to be around people and you can do it yourself. It'll also help prevent you from having accidents before you can be around people."
"I don't want to be a burden… You shouldn't have to look after me…"
"I want to look after you," Rose said. "You aren't a burden. I know you'd do the same for me if our roles were reversed."
Emmett smiled at her. "I guess it isn't so bad lettin' you look after me for a while. Ok, so, you said we live at night and sleep during the day. Won't that be kinda' hard to get used to? I mean, I was kind of a night owl before, but won't I get sleepy staying up so late?"
"No, it doesn't work that way for us. You will simply wake up when the sun sets, and sleep when the sun rises. There is no 'sleepy' for us, although you may experience a few moments of lethargy before the sleep takes you. You are simply awake or asleep, at least when you are so new. After a number of years, you'll be able to resist the sleep, possibly for as many as several hours and remain somewhat active after the sunrise. It'll be several years before this is possible for you, and it makes you feel extremely weak when you attempt it.
"It is extremely important that you find a safe place to rest before you succumb to the sleep. If you become incapacitated in a place where you will be exposed to the sun while you sleep, you will die. When you are this new, you have no resistance to sunlight at all."
"But some vampires are able to walk around in the daytime, right?"
"Yes, but that takes a very long time, hundreds of years. Our maker, Carlisle…, he is capable of walking in the sun for a number of hours. He would be able to resist the sun more effectively if he shared our diet…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute! Share our diet? He doesn't drink blood? How does he survive then? There's another way?"
"Carlisle drinks only animal blood. He hunts deer, elk, sometimes lion or bear. He's been known to feed on livestock on occasion, but that's expensive, and he doesn't want to be a burden on local farmers and ranchers that rely on their stock for their livelihood. Animal sustains his life, but there are serious drawbacks."
"Like what?"
"For one thing, it does not take away the burn of the thirst." Emmett's hand flew to his throat as mentioning his thirst brought the constant burn to the forefront of his mind. "It only makes it easier to deal with. It also does not make you as strong as human blood does."
"And it's vile," Rose added. "It makes me want to puke just thinking about it. I can't believe I lived like that for six months, stalking beasts like some kind of animal. It made me sick getting close enough to smell them and sink my teeth into a furry dirty beast. Humans taste thousands of times better."
"Ok, I'll take your word for it. So how do we get away with murdering people to survive without the police hunting us down? Hasn't somebody figured out what's going on by now?"
"That's why we have to be discrete and pick our targets with care." I said. "There are rules we have to follow, and we have our share of enemies."
"Vampires have rules?"
"Yes…"
"If you have rules, then somebody has to enforce those rules, or you wouldn't follow them. So who's bad enough to make vampires follow these rules?"
"We follow the rules for several reasons, but all reasons have the same underlying compulsion - Survival. First of all, there is one rule we are required to follow. We must keep the secret of our existence from the humans. This means we cannot do things that would make them suspect we exist, like killing frequently so it becomes obvious. We must hide our existence, destroy the evidence of our kills and choose targets wisely so they don't stand out. Criminals are a good choice because often their disappearance is never even reported to the authorities. Regardless, tens of thousands of humans disappear every year. Few of the disappearances are reported, and fewer still are ever solved."
"Because of us or others like us..."
"Yes, in some cases, not all. Other humans kill many more humans than we do, but you were correct to surmise that somebody enforces the rules. There is a very powerful coven of Vampires in Italy, the Volturi. They have agents all over the world and they deal with threats to the secret of our existence swiftly and without mercy."
"The second reason we follow the rules are because of the threat posed to us by hunters."
"Hunters? Who would be stupid enough to hunt vampires? What would they do with one if they caught them?"
"Kill them. Vampire hunters are a very real threat to us. They kill us when they catch us. We kill them when we find them. It's a constant state of war with no quarter asked, and none given…"
"Kinda' like a feud? Why do they want us all dead?"
"We're vampires. We eat them. Do they need another reason? Some of them do it for vengeance, some because they were born to it, some for religious conviction. There are many motivations."
"So if they hunt you, then why don't more people know? Why does everybody think vampires are a legend or scary story?"
"Well, for one thing, if they went public and told a lot of people, we'd kill them. The Volturi don't just punish sloppy vampires for breaking the rules. They actively hunt the hunters. If they get wind of hunter activity, they react to deal with the threat and wipe out the hunters. They've been known to destroy entire families when a member is exposed as a hunter. Over the years, the hunters have learned to be just as secretive as us to hide what they are."
"As far as vampires being a legend or scary story, we planted a lot of those legends and rumors to throw people off and put the wrong information out there. It doesn't pay to have people know too much about our weaknesses, what we can do or how to kill us."
"Alright, I'll bite. What are our weaknesses? Obviously sunlight is the big one. We live forever and don't age, right? There's guys running around that are hundreds of years old so we gotta be pretty tough. What else is there?"
"Of course, you're correct. Our reaction to the sun is our biggest weakness. We'll burn in the sunlight if we're exposed to it. We don't burst into flames, but the degree of resistance we have to its effects depend on our age and diet. However the overt reaction to direct exposure isn't what makes it a weakness. Most of us sleep while the sun is overhead in the daylight sky. If our enemies find us while we're sleeping, we're powerless to defend ourselves. They can simply drag our bodies out into the sun or otherwise kill us in a number of fashions."
"This is why we have to be discrete. If we attract the attention of hunters, they're favorite tactic is to stalk us until they discover where we sleep, and then fall upon us during the cover of daylight to destroy us. At night, we have the advantage and can easily kill them. During the day, we're powerless to defend ourselves."
"Ok… That's a pretty serious weakness. I can see where it's important to be careful. Is there anything else to worry about?"
"Nothing that's really as serious as our reaction to sunlight. We're more durable than humans, tougher but not indestructible."
"Bullets can hurt us but they won't kill us nearly as easily as they'll kill a human. They still hurt like hell and can slow us down if we get hit enough times. Getting shot in the brain or doing enough damage to the central nervous system will incapacitate us long enough for a skilled hunter to finish us off, so it's as good as getting killed, but the bullets themselves won't kill you."
"Knives, swords, axes, any bladed weapon in general can cut us if they're sharp enough or have enough force behind them. Our skin is tougher than human flesh and is much more resistant to cuts or tears, but we can still be hurt by knives. Bladed weapons can do enough damage to kill us."
"The thing is, the physical damage isn't generally what kills us, but how we react to it. Doing enough damage to us will cause our bodies shut down to hibernate. It's how we heal from massive life threatening injuries. It's like the sleep, only it can go for days, weeks, even months while we heal. Of course, you're so hungry when you wake up, that you'll attack the first warm blooded creature you run across to feed on. The hibernation sickness is almost like a madness until you feed enough to regain control of your intelligence and higher brain functions."
"Right… I tend to avoid gittin' shot at, and somebody coming at me with a knife is gonna get my attention. So I guess the next question is what can kill us? You said bullets won't kill us, but sunlight will? What else is there? Do they have to drive a stake through our heart?"
"I suppose bullets could kill us if they got creative enough with them. Stakes can be dangerous if they know how to use them."
"Obviously the sun can kill us. Fire is the second easiest way for us to die. Our bodies burn much more easily than human bodies, due to our altered body chemistry. Humans rely on a carbon based biochemistry, while our systems operate on a primarily magnesium based biochemistry…"
"Biowhatsit…?" Ok, you lost me, Ed. Ma always said I was smart, but I never finished high school. I had to go to work and get a job to help out. What does that mean to us, and how does it let them kill us?"
"I prefer Edward, please. Our bodies react differently to certain things than humans do. We burn more easily. We react to the sunlight. We crave blood and use it to fuel our bodies. We also react chemically to certain forms of attack."
"Driving a wooden stake into our chest doesn't kill us for some kind of supernatural reason, but our bodies will react to the enzymes in certain kinds of wood and start a chemical reaction that causes our bodies to burn."
"So a stake through the heart will kill us?"
"Yes, but it's not that easy. First off, the woods that contain sufficient amounts of the correct enzyme are freshly cut evergreen softwoods, although any freshly cut green wood is dangerous. A stake cut from those woods would never be able to penetrate our skin on its own. It would shatter before it could hurt us. Of course, making a cut with a knife or sword would break the skin allowing the stake to be driven in. Driving a freshly cut evergreen stake into your chest would kill you, since you'd start to burn from the inside because of the chemical reaction."
"Ok, stakes are bad. We want to avoid them."
"Luckily most hunters don't realize why or how stakes kill us. A polished hardwood stake is about as effective as a weak brittle knife against us. Traditionally, the most effective use of stakes has been the iron stake."
"How is an iron stake an effective means of killing us? I thought you said stuff like that couldn't kill us?"
"It depends on how they use it, and what you consider killing us. Traditionally the iron stake was used to immobilize a vampire in their grave to prevent them from rising at night to prey upon the living. The hunters would drive an iron stake through their chest to keep the suspected vampire in their grave at night. Imagine having an Iron rod driven through your chest pinning you down, and then having the grave filled back in on top of you, effectively containing you so you can't get out. If you didn't hibernate from the physical damage, you'd go insane from thirst as your body slowly desiccated in the grave. It could take months or even years to die that way. Personally I'd rather burn."
Emmett and Rose both shuddered at the description. "Jesus… I'd want it over quick if it was my time… not like that…"
"I have to agree with you on that, although if somebody found you in time, you could live through it. The other means of killing us are pretty straight forward. Dismemberment is effective, although it's often used as a prelude to burning. Decapitation is effective. Separate your head from your shoulders and you're pretty much done."
"Right, so no getting chopped up into dog meat, and don't lose my head. I think I've been trying to avoid those for a few years already, so it's not much of a stretch to keep avoiding them. Are there any of these hunters around here right now? I can seriously feel that thirst you mentioned. It's getting worse…"
"Hopefully we've managed to get away from the hunters that were searching for us. I don't see how they could easily track us here, but I know you're thirsty. Rose, why don't you take Emmett for a run around the neighborhood so he can see what he's capable of now, and I'll go see if I can't find somebody for you to eat?"
"Sure, Edward," Rose answered as she stood up and pulled Emmett up off the couch with her. "C'mon, Emmett, let's go for a run."
"Run…?" Emmett asked bewildered.
"You'll see. Just trust me…"
I went out the back door while Rose took Emmett outside for the first time.
"It's not dark out… Its night time, but I can see everything…! Wow… This is amazing…"
"Our eyes see differently." Rose told him. "Carlisle said it's because they're more efficient and don't need as much light. We can also see more of the light spectrum than humans do…"
"More… what…?"
"We see more… Colors I guess than humans can. Our eyes work better. You know how light is like a rainbow? Well it doesn't stop there. That's just the part humans can see. We can see heat or infrared at the low end of the spectrum, and ultraviolet light at the top end of the spectrum…"
"Ok… It's just amazing to me… It isn't like being out at night at all… But it's different than being out in the day…"
I got Madame Lee's corpse out of the wood shed and carried it to the Chevy to stuff in the trunk.
"Jesus, Edward!" Emmett exclaimed, startled when he saw what I was doing. "Is that…?"
"Rose's midnight snack. I brought her back some Chinese takeout when I went hunting last night."
"This is for real… You killed that woman…"
"We're vampires, Emmett." Rose said. "It's how we survive… She was a bad person… I don't regret killing her. The things she did make me sick…"
"How do you know she was a bad person, Rose?"
"What? Edward told me…"
"So you're trusting Edward to decide what's right and wrong for you?"
"It was a unique situation, Emmett. Rose wouldn't leave your side until you woke up, but she is adept at picking the bad apples out of a crowd now, and doesn't need me to tell her who the bad ones are. It's easy for us because I can easily confirm what she has already figured out on her own. I can pick out the hidden ones that don't stand out from the crowd because of my ability, but you don't need to be a mind reader to figure out who the bad guys are. It just takes practice and basic observation skills."
Ok… What did that woman do that's worth dying for?"
"Murder. She ran a brothel and had one of her girls murdered because she was causing trouble for her. She lured young girls and women that were down on their luck into her grasp, and then got them hooked on drugs to make then beholden to her. Then she'd turn them out as prostitutes and beat then if they didn't earn enough money each night. Shall I go on? There is more, but it upsets Rose to think about."
"No. That's enough. If that's all true, you're right, she's better off dead."
"We're not going to lie to you, Emmett. We don't enjoy killing people, but it's what we have to do to survive. If it's something we have to do, then we pick the worst ones. Go on with Rose. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Believe me when I say, anyone I bring back with me will deserve death."
Emmett nodded and I got into the Chevy sedan to leave, but I could feel he was still troubled about this.
-~*TDPotN*~-
Rose came storming into the hotel room with Emmett close on her heels.
"Rosie, C'mon… I told you I was sorry…
"Goddamn it, Emmett! You can't keep doing this! It's the third time this month! We take you hunting every week! Edward…! We need to leave again!"
"What happened Rose?" I asked as I looked up from the file I was reading.
"Emmett had another accident! Right here in town for gods sake! God, can't you control yourself? I didn't have anywhere near this much trouble getting it!"
"That isn't good. This could attract attention to us. I thought you were just going for a walk to get some air?"
"We did," Rose continued. "I thought it would be nice to get out for a while and just take a stroll in the park like a normal couple. The sun had set and it was twilight, but there were still people out and about. The next thing I know, this oaf disappears and goes bounding off into the bushes. I heard a scuffle, but it was already too late."
"I'm sorry, Rosie… I couldn't help myself… She smelled too good. It was over before I even knew what I was doing!"
"Who did he eat?" I asked.
"Some poor woman that was walking her dog in the park! He snatched her right off the walking path and dragged her into the bushes like some kind of ripper!"
"Damn it, Emmett! You can't just attack people on the street like this…!"
"I'm sorry… I'm trying… I really am… I don't know what happened. She smelled too good…"
"Alright, what did you do with the body?"
"It was still too early to simply carry it off," Rose said. "There were still people in the park. Somebody would have seen us. We hid it in the bushes until we could come back with the car."
"Ok, Rose, start packing up to leave. Emmett, you come with me, and we'll go take care of this."
Emmett followed me out of the hotel suite, and we went to go get the Chevy out of the parking garage. It was March of 1936 and Emmett had developed a decent degree of control over the last nine months. He could be around people most of the time, but Rose had better control earlier.
Everyone was different in this second life. I was of the opinion that a lot of Emmett's difficulty stemmed from his complacency about our diet. While he agreed with us that preying on criminals and human predators was the more noble path, he simply wasn't as committed to following the strict code that Rose and I set for ourselves. He didn't find anything wrong with indulging his cravings when opportunity presented itself.
These weren't necessarily conscious decisions on his part, and he honestly felt he was slipping due to a lack of control, but the lack of control was a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak. He did not achieve a greater degree of success, because he didn't set the bar high enough. He wasn't motivated to commit himself to our lifestyle the way Rose and I were, and it upset Rose. She prided herself on the fact that she had never tasted innocent blood, while in all honesty; it didn't make much of a difference to Emmett. He followed our lifestyle because it made Rose happy.
We'd had to move around a lot since Emmett joined us. He struggled to control his bloodlust and had frequent slip-ups. I had leased the hunting lodge near Clarkesville for a year, but we'd barely been able to stay there for three months before we'd been forced to leave. I'd rented another home near Columbia, and we managed to stay there for another three months before we'd gone back to living in hotels or on the road.
We got the car and drove to the park, but I knew we were too late before we got there. I could hear the commotion of minds up ahead, and saw the flashing lights of police cars as we approached the park. The coroner was already there, and I could see the body on a stretcher draped with a sheet. Somebody had discovered the body before we could get back to take it.
"Goddamn it, Emmett! Please tell me you at least altered the bite mark so they question the cause of death…"
"Sorry, Edward… Rose rushed me out of the park before I could…"
"This is going to attract attention. Once the medical examiner gets a hold of the body, they're sure to take a casting of the bite wound. Did you have any dentistry examinations or corrective work done as a human?"
"A couple of times… nothing fancy. We all got annual checkups once, but we were too poor to go unless somebody had a toothache or something."
"Ok, I doubt they'll be able to link a casting to you specifically, but this will attract hunters for sure. You're going to need to start being a lot more careful, or you could get the Volturi interested in us."
"I'm sorry, Edward… I'll try harder…"
"Don't make us promises. Just do it. Come on, let's get back to the hotel and get our things. We need to get out of here and decide where we're gong to go next."
We drove back to the hotel and I parked out front so we could load our bags when we brought them downstairs. We spent a couple of minutes looking at the map, and then went down to the lobby to check out.
We got on the road driving west, and found an abandoned farm house to shelter us during the day. The windows were broken out, but the basement was secure. I parked the Chevy inside the barn, and then we huddled together under a canvas tarp in case there were any gaps in the building that might let the light in.
We were still alive when the sun set and continued driving west into Arlington. I found a hotel and rented a suite with two bedrooms, and we went up to our room to settle in. I took a shower and changed my clothes, and decided to go out and see what kind of entertainment the town offered. Rose took a bath, and Emmett was still trying to get back into her good graces when I left.
I went to the theatre to watch a movie. The latest Thin Man movie starring William Powell and Myrna Loy had just come out, and James Stewart was playing a supporting character role.
Of course the news reels played first, and the news of the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany was depressing. Germany was steadily rebuilding its military under Hitler. Almost more disturbing had been the passage of anti-Semitic laws last year. Now Germany had reoccupied the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland in direct violation of the treaty of Versailles, but still the European community did nothing. The Summer Olympic Games were being held in Berlin this year, despite the rumblings of another war looming in Europe.
I went to a night club after the movie. I drank and people watched, but none of the humans piqued my interest. The inane chatter of their minds was pedantic and boring and I had no desire to become embroiled in the pedestrian frivolities of their lives. I wasn't hunting, and I'd fed recently so there was no overwhelming urge to seek out criminals.
Truth be told, I was loathe to return to the hotel suite until just before morning. We had arrived too late to allow me to conduct business, and I knew Rose and Emmett would be busy making up, or making out as the case may be. Rose wouldn't stay mad for long, she was his mate after all, and they had fallen into the typical newly mated routine. Basically, feeding and sex, sex and feeding. If they weren't out hunting, then they were back in the hotel room fucking. All Night Long.
Truthfully, it was one of the things that had driven me away from Carlisle and Esme when they were newly mated. They did make time for other entertainments, albeit infrequently, but their evenings had become predictable, always ending the same way. At least Rose had found a way to keep Emmett occupied, and as long as they were wrapped up in each other in their bedroom, Emmett wasn't out having accidents.
Last call was at three o'clock, and I took my time making my way back to the hotel. Surprisingly, the lobby wasn't completely deserted. The door man let me in, and there was a clerk at the concierge desk. I could hear the thoughts of the staff in the lounge cleaning up after they shut down for the evening. There was a man sitting in the seating group in front of the lounge reading a paper. The concierge was thinking it was odd he was here to pick up one of the cocktail waitresses. They usually waited out back if they made a date with a customer.
I was ready to dismiss it as simply another boring night and go to the elevator when I caught the tenor of his thoughts.
It's him…! He's one of them… Don't make eye contact… They said he can read my thoughts if he looks into my eyes… Look at the paper… If he's here, then Rosalie Hale must be here too…
Filthy fucking bloodsuckers… He'll burn… Burn in the sun… Burn in hell… They'll all burn for all the people they've murdered… Simple honest preacher's wife out walking her dog… All those murders in Rochester… Filthy scum…
Gilbert will pay big for this… What she did to his brother… She ain't fucking human… Evil fucking demon spawn…
Goddamn it! He was a hunter, and had stalked us to this hotel. How many hotels did they have staked out? He hadn't been there when I went out, but then that made sense. They didn't want to catch us going out; they wanted to catch us coming in before we were going to sleep. God, how much time did we have before dawn?
I didn't react and just kept walking. I left the lobby and walked to the elevator. I checked my watch as I took the elevator up to our floor. God, it was after four am. We only had an hour or two before dawn, and we had to get out of the hotel and find a hiding place to sleep. He was making a phone call now from the lobby to call the hunters down on us. We'd be powerless against them during the day.
I ran after the elevator door closed behind me. We had to get out now, and put as much distance between this hotel and this group of hunters as we could.
I could hear Emmett and Rose making love in the other room as I flew into the suite. There was no time for propriety now. I pounded on the door of their bedroom to get their attention. The sounds slackened but didn't fully stop as a mumbled complaint came through the door.
"Emmett, Rose, Get dressed! Now! We have to leave!" I called through the door.
"Edward, we're busy! Can this wait?" Emmett yelled back indignantly as Rose giggled.
"No! It can't wait. I'm counting to five, and then I'm coming in."
"Edward! No…!"
"One… two… Three… Four…"
"Alright, we're up!" Rose cracked the door open, glaring at me through the open space.
She appeared to be wearing a robe so I pushed the door open and walked in.
"This better be good!" Emmett said. He was still naked in bed with the covers pulled up to his waist as he sat up in bed.
"Get dressed. We're leaving…"
"It's almost dawn…!" Rose exclaimed.
"There's a hunter in the lobby staking out the hotel. He knows we're here. He's calling somebody named Gilbert to come for us after the sun rises. We're dead if we don't run now!"
"Shit!" Emmett exclaimed, and jumped out of bed, starting to pull on his clothes.
Rose started to rapidly dress as well, but she looked thoughtful, and then suddenly it clicked in her mind.
Gilbert… Carlisle said the lead hunter had an upstate New York accent… Oh Shit… His brother?
"What is it Rose? Who's brother?"
"Royce King. His brother was Gilbert, but he was in Europe. I only met him briefly once… He's hunting us because of what I did to Royce."
"Well, he's a dead man if we live long enough to hunt him down. Now quick, down the fire stairs and head to the garage quietly…"
"Why are we running?" Emmett asked as we left the suite. "Why don't we just snack on the asshole in the lobby? It's almost dawn, Edward!"
"Because somebody probably knows where he was going tonight and if he doesn't check in they'll come looking for him. Looking at the guest register will give them a pretty good idea which room we're in. Besides, we know he already called for backup, and I'm not going waste time we could spend running to question him."
"But…"
"We need to put distance between them and us now, and find a safe place to hole up out of the sun."
I cracked the fire door at the bottom of the stairs open and quickly scanned the alley outside. The sky in the east was lightening ominously, and I stepped out leading Emmett and Rose toward the garage.
"Get the tarps out of the trunk, and cover up in the back seat. I'll keep driving as long as I can and try to find us a place to hole up, but you two will most likely be out of it before I stop driving. If I don't wake up from the sleep, keep going tomorrow night and find us a better place to rest."
I took the second tarpline and wrapped it around myself before I slid into the driver seat. I made sure there was enough slack to pull over my head to cover me, but just gathered it around my head as a hood for now.
"Why wouldn't you wake up?" Emmett asked.
"If I get too much sun exposure, I might hibernate if I start to burn. I'll keep driving as long as I can. Then it's up to you two, tomorrow night."
Why are they hunting us, Edward? Emmett asked in his thoughts.
"You know why. Do I really need to spell it out for you?" I asked as I drove out of the garage and headed north out of town.
Just say it, Edward… I need to know…
"The woman in the park… She was a preacher's wife. Her death attracted the hunters and they started searching for us here. They got lucky."
So this is my fault… I brought them down on our heads because I couldn't control myself…
"You just need to learn to be more discrete. That's one of the reasons we hunt criminals. They're less likely to be missed, and the police don't look so hard when they turn up dead."
I drove north as long as I could, but I could feel the sun climbing toward the horizon and it would be sunrise any minute now. I turned west on the next highway the headed in that direction and just kept driving.
Rose and Emmett were silent now, and I felt the oblivion of their minds as the sleep took them. I was momentarily blinded as the sun flashed in the side mirror, and I felt my hand burn when I reached out and hastily turned it away. I adjusted the rearview mirror away and just kept driving as a lethargic malaise nearly overwhelmed me.
I was profoundly tired and I longed to let the sleep take me, but I forced myself to keep driving. We were still too close, and the hunters would begin searching the countryside, once they realized we had escaped from the hotel. I needed to put distance between us to increase the amount of ground they had to cover and the number of potential hiding places.
I passed a couple of abandoned farms, but I assumed they were too obvious and would be searched. I was weaving badly as I tried to keep driving fast, and almost accidently swerved onto a service road heading northwest.
I could feel the sun rising behind me, and enough of the light was reflecting off of the inside of the windshield to burn me. My face felt like it was on fire, and I could smell the smoke rising off of my skin as it slowly dried and cracked, exposing fissures that oozed with my bodily fluids as my body tried to repair the damage. I could take no more, and was ready to succumb to the injuries and pass out from the pain when I spied a dilapidated barn off to the side of the road ahead.
I instinctively steered toward the barn because I was staring at it. I drove off the road, careening through the roadside ditch and crashed through the wall. My foot came off the gas from the impact as I hit the side of the barn. Part of the building collapsed onto the car, partially concealing it under debris. Thankfully it covered most of the windows, blocking out the light. I had enough presence of mind to turn the key to shut off the motor and pulled the tarp over my head as the sleep took me.
-~*TDPotN*~-
PAIN…
Every inch of my exposed skin burned with agony as I roused from the sleep…
Why wasn't I hibernating? Then the wrongness hit me. My survival instinct was overriding my need for sleep as the scent of humans filled my nostrils, briefly overtaking the scent of charred flesh.
Rosalie fucking Hale… the first mind thought. We have to hurry… the sun is setting…
"There isn't enough sun left." A male human voice said in a southern accent. "It'll be dark soon, and then they'll rise…"
"Drag her out of the barn, and we'll stake her down." The New York accent said. "Once she's immobilized, we can take off her head. That's as good as the sun and she'll fry when the sun rises."
I forced my eyes to move and glance to the side. My eyeballs felt desiccated and didn't want to move at first, as though they were glued to the inside of my eyelids. It was agony to simply open my eyes and took a supreme effort of will to get them to turn in the sockets.
The debris had been cleared away from the side of the car, and the back door was open on the other side. The tarpline had been dragged out of the back seat and Emmett lay on the ground, oblivious to what was happening as the sleep maintained its hold on him. Rose was nowhere in sight.
"Hurry up, Goddamn it! We've got to get them staked down before the sun sets!"
But I knew the sun had already dropped over the horizon or I wouldn't be awake. The rapidly fading light was coming from the west and Emmett would be awake any minute.
Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream pierced the night, punctuated by the sound of a hammer ringing on steel. There was a vicious snarling interspersed with more screams as the hammer continued to ring.
I could see what they were doing through several perspectives as they drove the iron stake through Rose's chest and into the ground beneath her pinning her down to the ground like an insect or butterfly in some child's collection. Only she writhed in agony, snarling and screaming as they drove the iron deep into the ground beneath her flailing body.
"Hold down her arms…" the one with the hammer ordered. He had an iron shod wooden stake in his hand, and placed it in the center of her palm as her started to drive it through her flesh into the ground.
Emmett was starting to rouse. I saw his body stir and his chest rise as he inhaled, but they'd fall upon him next if they saw him move. I had to act and buy him time to wake fully.
Rose was still thrashing and screaming despite the stake through her chest…
One of them was picking up an axe…
I had to act now!
I forced my self to move, and reached across the car to open the passenger door.
I ignored to pain and reached up and kicked the door open.
That got their attention.
"Damn it! The crispy critter is awake!" One of them yelled as he turned to look at the car.
I launched myself at him, ignoring the agony in my limbs as I pounced on the prey…
I felt his bones snap as I drove him to the ground.
"Jesus Christ! Fucking get him!" the leader yelled.
There was a hail of gunfire, and I was hit multiple times. My fangs sunk into the prey's neck as I collapsed on top of him, but I didn't lose consciousness as I drank…
There was a feral roar behind me, and I knew I had succeeded.
Emmett was awake now. We would live or die depending his ability now…
There was a blur behind me as he leaped into the fray.
Gunfire…
Screams…
Blood…
So much blood…
Emmett ripped through the hunters like an avenging demon, rending their bodies and seizing them up as he tore at their flesh. Rose's screams enraged him and drove him to an all consuming fury as they attempted to flee. I could see glimpses of the carnage in the hunter's minds but they winked out of existence rapidly, one after another as Emmett smashed them to bloody pulp and a random array of disjointed body parts.
The prey's blood was revitalizing me as my body began to try to heal itself. I managed to turn my head to see what was happening.
The hunters were dead, and Emmett was crouching next to Rosalie, sobbing. The stake was still protruding from her chest, but she wasn't thrashing any longer as her body started to shut down to hibernate.
She's dead… My Rosie… She's dead… Those bastards killed her…!
"Pull it out…" I croaked at him.
"Edward? You're alive?" Emmett asked incredulously.
"I'll heal. The stake… Pull out the stake… She needs to feed…" I croaked at him.
Emmett stopped sobbing and his resolve stiffened. He stood beside Rose's body, and gripped the stake through her chest. His muscles bunched as he strained at the iron rod pinning her to the ground, and then it started to move. He pulled at it with his huge strength, and suddenly the stake gave way and pulled free.
Rose's body arched as though she was being draw upward by the stake, and she screamed again when it pulled free. I heard her draw in a ragged breath, and then she screamed again.
"The fire! I'm burning! Make it stop!" She was clawing that the stake in her hand now, but Emmett reached for it and easily yanked it out.
"Rosie, you're alive!" Emmett exclaimed, but she was still screaming. "Rose? What's wrong?" Emmett asked as horror crept into his voice.
I was pushing myself to my knees to go to them.
"Bring her here… I need to look… at her wound…"
Emmett picked Rose up and brought her to me, but I could smell the chemical fire before he got there. She was writhing in agony, clawing at her hand.
"It's her hand… It's burning… You need to… cut out the fire…"
"You want me to cut open her hand? It's already starting to heal…"
"No…! You have to do it… The chemical reaction… is already started… If the wound seals…, it'll burn her… from the inside out… Find a knife or the axe… Cut out the burning… you'll smell it… Cut off her hand… if you have to… It'll grow back…"
"No! I can't do that…"
"She'll die…! You have to stop… the fire… now… before it spreads…"
Emmett laid Rose on the ground beside me as he frantically searched for something to cut out the burning flesh.
"There's no time… get the axe…"
Emmett's shoulders slumped, but he picked up the axe and hurried back to where Rose lay writhing on the ground. I gripped her arm and held it down while he raised the axe.
"Are you sure…?" He asked one more time.
"Hurry… before it spreads… into her wrist…, or she'll lose the arm…"
The axe dropped and severed rose's hand below the wrist. She howled in pain and I left go of her arm, but she stopped writhing as she hugged the stump of her hand to her chest. The wound bled for a minute, but didn't even spurt and was already beginning to seal over.
I picked up the severed hand and examined the raw end where it had connected to her wrist. Good, the reaction hadn't spread that far yet. I cast it aside, and it rapidly blackened and collapsed into ash.
She was still conscious, but I could feel her mind slipping into a stupor as she prepared to sleep.
"Now, quickly…, bring one of those corpses... She has to feed… before she falls… into hibernation…, or the sleep… will linger… as she consumes… her reserves… to heal the damage…!"
Emmett nodded and grabbed the nearest body and bared its throat to Rose. She seemed to perk up and almost lazily sank her fang into its heck as she drank purely on instinct.
"Get another." I told him. He nodded and stepped away to retrieve another corpse for Rose.
She drank until it was dry and then pushed it away. She latched onto the next when Emmett presented it to her.
"Did any… get away…?" I asked.
It was getting harder to stay awake as I fought the impending sleep. I should have hibernated already from the burns, but my survival instinct had been driving me. It was fading now that the immediate danger was passed.
"No. I got all of them," Emmett said.
"Ok… Let Rose feed…. until she won't… take anymore… or you run out… of bodies…"
"Are you ok, Edward? You don't sound so good."
"No, I'm not ok… I'm half burnt… to a crisp…, and I was shot… multiple times… Rose and I are both… going to hibernate… when we sleep... That could be soon… Heal faster… if you cut out… the bullets…" I mumbled.
"Shit! What do I do, Edward?"
I tried to force myself awake. Some more blood would give me more strength, but Rose needed it more than I did.
"Make sure the car works… or take one of the hunter's cars… Destroy the evidence… Fire is good… Keep us safe until we wake… Keep heading north…"
"Edward? Edward! Edwa…"
-~*TDPotN*~-
My eyes opened and my senses flared into awareness. I was ravenously hungry and my eyes locked on the heat signature before me. I launched myself at the creature and my fangs locked onto its throat, instinctively drawn to the obvious pulse point.
I drank until the corpse was drained, and then cast it aside.
There were more of the creatures, but all that registered was a heat source and blood. They had scattered when I seized the first one. I pounced on a second and sank my teeth into its throat to feed.
Conscious thought began to return as I drained the third. I was in some kind of barn or stable. I realized the foul taste in my mouth came from some kind of animal blood. I looked at the creature grasped in my hands.
A sheep?
I had just eaten three sheep? Gross! It was absolutely sickening, but I was awake and lucid, and I felt whole again. My stomach turned and I felt as though I was going to retch as I dropped the corpse of the sheep and looked around at my surroundings. The remains of the herd was panicked and gathered at the farthest point away from me at the opposite end of the room.
Rose was lying on the floor unconscious as she hibernated. Her hand was regenerating, but it had a considerable ways to go yet. It looked skeletal and too small, but there was a hand on the end of her wrist again.
Emmett was standing by the stable door, smiling at me.
"Welcome back, Edward. You're in there, right?" Emmett asked.
"Yes, I am myself again… How long was I out?"
"Five nights. You looked whole last night but you didn't wake up…"
"I probably still had internal injuries to heal from. Rose appears to be healing nicely. She will not awaken until her hand is whole again. How is her chest wound?"
"It looks completely healed."
"Ok. Do we have a place to stay? Where are we?"
"North of Decatur, Illinois… You said to keep heading north, so I did. I was afraid to check into a hotel, and I didn't have any money to pay for one. I've been finding shelter where I could, in basements, root cellars, abandoned farms. We spent the day in a corn crib near this farm. The sun set an hour ago if you want to head into town. I remembered you said you'd need to feed when you woke up."
"Good work, Emmett. Thank you for looking out for us. I think we should be ok to head into town. Rose won't wake up for at least another week."
We drove in to Champaign and got a suite in a hotel so I could take a shower and check Rose's injuries more closely, but Emmett was correct when he said she was healing nicely.
The Chevy had been totaled when the barn collapsed on it, but Emmett had managed to find the keys to one of the hunter's cars. We ditched it after we got to Champaign and made arrangements to travel into Chicago by train. I had houses in the Chicago area I could use, and access to clothes and funds that were hidden even from my attorneys.
We holed up in a secluded property I owned near Oak Park, and Emmett and I spent our nights collecting a better assortment of prey for Rose to wake up to than a herd of sheep. The Chicago gangs would be missing a quantity of thugs and button men, but I felt it was going to a good cause.
It was another two weeks before Rose woke from the hibernation. She ripped through the motley crew of gangland thugs we had collected while in the throes of the hibernation sickness, and fed from five of them before she came to her senses.
Rose took a nice long bath after she had fed and was feeling like herself again. She took Emmett aside and they sat down and discussed everything that had happened and what had led up to it. They had a long talk and Rose explained to Emmett about how they were going to live from here on out.
First off, she told him she wouldn't stand by for indiscriminant murder by any means, and calling it an accident was just a cop out. She was willing to live the way I had taught her, and if they were going to hunt humans at all, then they were going to hunt criminals and predators.
The events of the last few weeks had been a wake up call to Emmett, and bad as this had been it was the catalyst he needed to make the decision to really follow our lifestyle. He had almost lost Rose through his own negligence and cavalier attitude towards how we lived. He became much more discrete and discerning after this, and really paid attention when we taught him how to pick targets. Rose didn't need my mind reading ability to find bad guys, and in time, Emmett didn't either.
Regardless, Rose and I were both recovered, and Emmett needed time to grow and learn. It was time to move on and I was restless to get back out on the road.
Perhaps it was my nature to want to travel because of what I was, and being semi-nomadic was related to my survival instinct, or maybe it was just wanderlust to want to see new things simply because I could and I had the means to indulge it. Regardless I was ready to leave Chicago again. I had no desire to return to Tennessee in the immediate future or travel into the south to chance becoming embroiled in the clan squabbles for territory or hunting rights amongst the southern vampire covens. There was still a lot of the country to see and I wanted to experience it first hand.
-~*TDPotN*~-
The cab stopped at the curb. I paid the fare and tipped the driver while Emmett and Rose climbed out of the back. I got out of the passenger door and stood beside them on the sidewalk looking up at the sign in front of C.H. Lang of Chicago, IL.
This was the first Harley-Davidson dealer that had opened in the United States. He had been in business since 1904, and had sold one of the first three production Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever made. The 'Bar & Shield' Harley-Davidson logo was prominent on the front of the building, painted on the glass display window and emblazoned on the door.
There were still lights on inside. I walked to the door and pulled it open to walk into the dealership.
"You still haven't explained why we're here, Edward." Emmett said, but he had a big smile on his face.
"I thought that would have been obvious to you by now, Emmett. So, tell me? Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before?"
Rose laughed and we walked inside to look at the bikes. I already had mine picked out, but I'd let Rose tell Emmett which one he liked. I hope he didn't take too long to choose. I was anxious to be out on the road and cruise into the darkest part of the night.
Author's note:
Once again, not the end. The next chapter will be up as scheduled as we jump ahead a few years and meet our next family member. This next set of chapters will deviate from the canon back story as some to the twists in this alternate universe are introduced.
I'm trying something new with this story. Anyone who reviews will receive a teaser for the next chapter, so please let me know what you think.
