Chapter 6
Dig Two Graves
The deer stood no chance against Alice or I as individuals, but together? It was dead before it hit the forest floor.
I tore into its throat, burying my face in the hot flesh, gorging myself, working my head deeper and deeper as I drew in the life essence. I could feel the force of Alice' bite and the counter pressure of her sucking deeply in the stream and beat that fed me. I groaned in pleasure, and felt the rumble of her reply through the gore.
I slipped back, releasing my clawed hands from the beast, sliding back in a drunken stupor. I felt my broken, aching body renewed, my mind clearing. In the blood was my renewal.
Alice tossed the carcass aside and crawled to my side. Her face bloody from the bridge of her nose down. She grinned impishly, and started to lick the blood from my face with broad laps.
"Sorry Bambi" I groaned. Alice chuckled and returned to licking the blood from me. I kissed her, working my tongue against hers.
"You're a messy eater." She said, falling against me in the ferns. "Where you this messy as a human?"
"Shhhh, your harshing my fuzz buzz." I smiled, and gripped her chin, licking her clean in the same way she did me. "Is it weird that I don't find this weird?"
"Weird is relative. We basically just went out for a venison dinner. Add some candlelight and apply some heat to… Bambi there and, well, this way is just quicker s'all".
"I wondered if it would feel, you know, natural. But I get it."
"You're just a natural." She pecked my lips and fell back at my side. I looked down at the mess I had made.
"I ruined this outfit."
"Oh damn, we have to go clothes shopping. What a chore!"
I chuckled. Yeah, Alice and I were a match made in heaven. I glanced back down at the blood. Well, maybe not heaven.
We lay still, staring up at the grey blanket of sky as it slowly rolled past the trees. The ferns about us stilled. I could feel Alice's hand on mine.
"Where did you go?" I said, quietly.
"In the Irkalla?" She said, "The Asylum, in Biloxi. You?"
"Mental Health Ward. California. So… I guess the same. You were there."
"You too. But it wasn't really you, was it?"
"Yeah." I sighed, turning to curl against her side and press a kiss to her bloody cheek. She pulled me closer and rested her chin on my head.
"Are we vampires dreaming of being mad girls or mad girls dreaming of being vampires?" I said.
"In my… in that place, in Irkalla, I saw things. Remembered things." Alice sad.
"What sort of things?"
"You were right. My name was Mary Alice Brandon. After you told me of your vision, I did some research. I was from Biloxi, Mississippi. Born in 1901. You found me. Thank you."
Alice shifted to look back at the sky.
"I was a foreseer before my folks had me committed. I had a sister. The electric shock therapy broke the memories apart. That's why I couldn't remember properly.
"In the Irkalla… those memory fragments came together.
"There was a vampire hunting me, torturing me, driving me more insane than I already was. Angelus wanted that. I was his pet project."
"Angelus?"
"The vampire with the face of an Angel. A real sadistic prick with a kink for seers. His childe Drusilla was just like me. He drove her mad and turned her. He planned to do the same to me. Make her a sister."
"The old man turned you instead."
"Yes." She said. "He saved me. Angelus was furious and they fought. Drusilla freed me. Told me "off you pop, little miss Edith. Before Daddy comes back to crack your mind wide.".
This last bit she did in an English accent, it sounded to me like a Dickens character.
"Miss Edith?"
"Yeah." She chuckles. Then her face falls and she goes quiet. I stroke her cheek, marvelling as the last stains of blood soak into the white marble flesh and vanish.
"You saved me too, Alice." I said. "I had my very own Angelus in Aro."
She smiled and sighed. The clouds where darkening overhead. I could smell rain in the distance.
"Guess we have a whole lot more in common than I thought."
"Guess so."
"Hey. We got out. We found each other. That's all that matters." I say. "Well, that and clothes shopping."
Alice pulled me into a kiss.
A few hours later Carlisle had the bodies removed and Esme had cleaned up much of the carnage, if not removing the stains, then soaking enough sugar soap and vinegar into it to render the smell unappealing.
I was on the deck, staring down at the remaining possessions of our attackers.
Even washed, the clothes and equipment of the two who attacked us smelled strongly of blood. With some effort I managed to push down the urge to… well, to allow me to just look.
Rosalie appeared at my side in a blur.
"Emmett and I found no one else on the property. I did find a makeshift shelter that reeked of them. There where food cans, some empty, some full. I am guessing they have been here around eight days."
She stalked around behind me, looking at the equipment laid out of the floor.
"What are you doing?"
"Telling a story." I said. "What do you see?"
"Karma." She said, her lip twitching. I looked at her and grinned.
"Can't argue there. They hurt Alice. They are lucky it was Jessica who got to them before I did."
I could tell that remark impressed Rosalie, though she hid her reaction quickly.
"Okay. Tell me a story." She said.
"I am going on a hunting trip with my brother. One change of clothes. Camouflage. But food for more than a week? We take brand new crossbows tipped with a poison specifically for Vampires. But neither my brother or I pack stakes, silver blades, crosses, holy water or garlic… any of the usual vampire hunting gear. So we either don't know what we are hunting, or are stupidly confident. But the thing we do pack is a set of extremely strong restraints- ankles, wrists, collar with a connecting line. Just one. So we are here to catch, not kill. So not confident, not stupid… my boss was being careful they we didn't kill any of the vampires."
"That's quite a story." Rosalie said. "Edward said their thoughts were in German, they sounded professional, trained. One was called Hans."
"German called Hans, eh? Well, that rounds it down." I said.
"They were here for one vampire." Rosalie said, glaring at me. "I can only guess who."
"Eight days ago I wasn't a vampire."
"That leaves Alice, Edward or Carlisle."
"Because they have gifts. Aro seems to like collect gifts."
"Never by force. Always subtler means." Rosalie walked around the pile, looking carefully. She squatted by the rather sophisticated trackers and headset. "Well funded. Watcher's Council?"
"Ooh surprise twist? Turns out, The Watcher's Council work for The Volturi. And well funded? If they are, it never trickled down to me or my Watchers, that's for sure."
"A splinter group within the Volturi?"
"Maybe." I sigh and step back away from the pile, taking a breath from the incoming breeze. "How is everyone doing? Is Jessica okay?"
"She's shaken up. Edward is a bit too."
"Obviously. But what about the rest of the family?"
Rosalie gave me a curious look. Perhaps she was struggling with the concept I actually cared. I wasn't sure.
"Esme is worried we will have to relocate, she loves it here. She has been waiting a long time to come home. Emmett is angry with himself that he didn't detect them sooner. Carlisle is worrying about the politics that could be at work. He is holed up in his study."
"And you?"
"Honestly?"
"Best way to be. Don't hold back, I take it you aren't worried about hurting my feelings."
"Buffy, why the hell are you here?"
"I am Alice's." I shrug. "Simple as that."
"Why?" She said.
"Still working on that question myself. But I know everything I have done, what I am, it was for her."
"Why throw everything away? Your life. Your humanity? Your chance to be a mother and lead a normal life?"
"I was a Slayer, Rosalie. I was never going to get to have that normal life you speak of. No children, no picket fence. You know the average age a Slayer dies? I was par for course.
This way? I got to choose how I died, what my death meant. And I got to escape my calling. Start over."
Rosalie looked sad.
"I am guessing you never got that choice." I say, softly. "I am sorry."
Rosalie nodded.
"No, it is I who should apologise. I just, I understood why Jessica chose to be this. I just… I never thought about you as anything but a regular girl throwing her life away."
"Yeah, well, when Esme convinced me I was actually a regular girl, my decision would have been different. I mean it, Rosalie, it sucks you never got the choice."
"Thanks." She said. "But I got my revenge."
"I once knew a woman who told me it wasn't as good as the films make out."
"Revenge? Maybe for her. So help me, I loved every goddamn second of it."
"Well" I looked down at the gear at my feet "with any luck, I will find out for myself."
