EPOV
"What's the matter?" I asked Carlisle. We were running through the yard and to the cottage just as soon as we heard Rose screaming.
"Get back," Jacob shouted at me. He was holding us all back, except for Carlisle who he ushered through. "There's blood, Edward! I'm sorry, but your kind should stay as far away as possible right now."
His warning split my heart in two.
"Blood?" I wondered aloud. I looked behind me to see Bella, so I knew that it wasn't from her. That only left our daughters.
"The girls," Bella cried. "Let me through!" She was shouting between Quil and Embry – the only other wolves in human form. The rest were guarding all of the entrances to the cottage. Jacob gave them a look of approval and they allowed her to go through.
"I'm sorry," Embry said to me with a sad look. "We can't take any chances."
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"They're pretty scratched up," Quil answered. "But there might be just enough blood to set someone into a frenzy, and the last thing we need tonight is a war between the vampires and wolves."
I tried to calm down and decided that I would wait for a report from Bella or Carlisle. I concentrated on hearing Carlisle's thoughts. He was rummaging through a first aid kit that we kept in the kitchen.
"I'll need more gauze," he thought. "And something stronger for stitches."
Immediately I ran toward the house to get the needed supplies.
"You're right," I yelled over my shoulder to the wolves. "It is the last thing we need. Keep everyone back. Tell them to regroup in the living room and we'll try to figure this out together."
"Will do," Embry said. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Carlisle needs medical supplies."
...
Bella's firm clutch on the girls spoke volumes of the desperation she was feeling. She wouldn't let them out of her arms as we all sat in the living room together. They each had a few lines of stitches on their left cheeks to reunite the separated skin. We all knew the marks looked to be from a strong hand, but neither of the girls would talk about what had happened to them.
"It will do no good to grill 'em any further," Jasper said. "Whatever did that to them scared 'em so bad that they ain't gonna say a word."
"Girls," Rose begged. "Please. Won't you just give us a clue?"
I could hear from Catie that she desperately wanted to give her Aunt Rosie a clue, but she kept singing "Ring Around the Rosie" in her head to keep me from hearing or seeing anything. Brook, on the other hand, was afraid that Catie would say something that would reveal a matter she'd rather keep secret.
"You don't want to keep secrets from us now, do you girls?" I asked. I sat down on the ottoman to face them as they curled into their mother's arms on the sofa. "You don't need to be afraid of us. But you might need to be afraid of whoever made those marks on your face. It is our job to protect you from all harm, but we won't know how to best do that unless you let us know what happened to you."
I saw Catie thinking of the woods, but nothing more.
Bella was crying. Esme placed her hand on Bella's shoulder to comfort her.
"Sorry I'm late," Charlie said as he burst through the front door. "What's happened?"
Jacob called him shortly after Carlisle stitched the girls up. What we all needed now was a sound strategy, and it never hurt to have Chief Swan's input on these sorts of matters. He was kept in the loop at all times, but it would take awhile to brief him on all of the things that we had learned today.
"We don't know," Bella managed to say through her weeping. "Is it something to do with the curse you spoke of, Demetrius?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'm afraid that this is quite mild compared to what you would expect from the result of that poor little girl putting that crown on her head."
"Now wait a minute," Charlie said as he put his hands in the air and squeezed his eyes together. "What damn curse are you referring to, exactly?" He did have a limit as to how much he would absorb at once. He was familiar with our world, but this sort of magic was a mystery to all of us.
"It's to do with Brook's abilities," Carlisle answered very calmly. "It's more of a condition that we are not fully aware of quite yet."
I hated discussing such serious matters in front of the girls, but they couldn't be kept out of our site any longer and we couldn't afford not to be as blunt as possible.
"What curse, daddy?" Brook's soft little worried voice was heartbreaking to hear.
"I'm afraid that when you put that wreath of flowers that Tanya gave you on your head, honey, it made it so that things might happen."
"I thought you said they were our friends," Catie blurted out hotly. "You didn't say nothing about no curse!"
"Be quiet," Brook hissed at her sister. She sunk back into Bella's side and pushed a pillow over her worried little face.
"Friends? As in more than one?" Jasper was quick to ask questions. I knew he could feel that they might crack now. "Who are these friends of yours, Catie?"
"I..." She looked to where Brook sat and I saw Brook move the pillow down and narrow her eyes at Catie.
"It's alright, darlin'," Jasper encouraged. "Look at me instead. Tell me who your new friends are."
"They're just some people that Brook took me to meet in the woods."
"Brook took you?" Rose asked. "But you never even left the..."
"I went with her outside of our bodies," she clarified quickly.
"I didn't know you could," Bella said.
"She can't," Brook shouted. "Only I can!"
"You and mommy," Catie said.
"Shut up!" Brook's jealous yelling took everyone by surprise.
"I can't..." Bella started to say, but Catie quickly interrupted her.
"You can, mommy. Maria says so." She smiled triumphantly at her mother, pleased to give her this news.
"Maria!" Alice gasped. Her eyes were wide with horror. "Maria?!"
"The one with the Spanish accent," Catie divulged.
"That's enough," Brook snapped at her sister. "You're telling them too much! Now they're not going to be our friends anymore, and it's all your fault! I hate you!"
Everyone stood staring at Brook, stunned by her sharp words.
"Brook," Bella said, trying to sound assertive but rather sounding hurt and confused, "What is the meaning of all of this?"
"You don't love me," she cried as she rolled over and pushed herself into the pillows of the sofa. "You hate me! And I hate all of you! I would rather die than stay with any of you. You all love Catie more than me and you always have! You're all terrible people!"
"It is setting in," Demetrius said. "She doesn't mean the things that she says, but she will begin to believe that these thoughts are her own. That is where the danger lies. Do you hear it? Do you hear her telling us that she would rather die? If she really believes that she is the one thinking these thoughts then she will do anything she can to end her own life. This is far more hazardous than a swift blow to the face by a stranger!"
"I know her," Jasper announced. "I know Maria." He went on to explain to the wolves, Charlie, and Demetrius about the time he spent in the South slaving away under the command of Maria. He made sure everyone understood what a dangerous predator she could be. She would not only be out for blood – she would be out to murder for the mere pleasure she found in the abominable act. "It now seems that she has made an alliance with others who are very likely just as insane as she is, and is after the most precious members of our family."
"Who else was with you in the woods," Bella pleaded to Catie. "Will you please tell mommy? Your sister's life might depend on this, darling. Please."
Catie looked at Brook who was now pulling at her own hair, threatening to rip it out. Esme ran toward Brook as she started to take a swipe at Catie's face right where the stitches delicately held her sister's skin together. She pulled Brook off of the sofa as Bella pulled Catie away just in time. The wolves were all doing their best to control their urges to phase.
"Please," Bella urged, trying to coax Catie into giving us all more information before the moment passed. "Please tell us who else was with you and Brook, and ... Maria." She had a difficult time saying the name aloud. She knew full well from Jasper's chronicles how dangerous Maria would always be and I knew she couldn't imagine such a creature having sway over our children, especially to convince them to keep secrets from us.
"V – Victoria," Catie stammered. "And two men, too. I forgot their names."
Jasper, Emmett and I all exchanged concerned looks. We'd only ever come across one Victoria, and even then she hadn't revealed her name. She hadn't realized that I could read her thoughts and the thoughts of the two that were with her.
"James and Laurent?" Emmett asked. Everyone waited eagerly to hear Catie's answer.
"Uh-huh," she confirmed, nodding her head.
"The ones we traded Marcus' head to that Christmas morning in exchange for Tanya," Jasper muttered.
Brook began to scream uncontrollably all of a sudden, and writhed against Esme's sturdy grip.
"I will need to sedate her," Carlisle said very solemnly. "I'm very sorry, but it is for her own good. She will be a danger to herself and others in the state she is in. She is clearly not herself."
"Clearly not," Demetrius agreed. "But you can't keep her mind locked away with drugs for long, Carlisle. She will eventually be fully awake in her mind. And when her body wakes she will be more violent than a wild animal backed into a corner."
"We will figure something out," I assured everyone. "But for now..."
Carlisle ran up to his office to grab the supplies. "Bring her to your old room," he whispered to me. "Not in front of everyone."
Esme helped me hold Brook's arms tightly as we carried her up the stairs. Her strength was alarming. It was as if she had become possessed by some great force. We almost couldn't keep her from flailing away from us.
When we were upstairs, Esme and I held her down on a bed as best we could, but she was so strong that she would often free her hands and begin beating on the back of her head with her fists. We did all we could to keep her fingers away from her stitches and her eyes. She was aiming to blind herself or rip her stitches out of her face. I heard Bella and Catie sobbing downstairs.
"I love you, Brook, my little sweetheart," I said as Carlisle administered the shot. I hoped the drugs would work quickly, and I wanted the last words that she heard when she was conscious to be reassuring ones. "We are all here to protect you."
"I hate you," she murmured sleepily as the drugs began to take effect. "I never want to see you again."
My heart tore to pieces at her words, and I had to remind myself over and over again that these were not really the words of my sweet little daughter. They belonged to someone else. Someone who hated me and her and all of us. Someone who would need to be found and be destroyed.
Carlisle and Esme looked at me with pity.
"It's okay," I said. "Those aren't her words."
"I know," Esme said as she rubbed my arms.
"I'm going to stay up here with her," I told them. "I'm going to watch her thoughts to make sure she doesn't go anywhere."
"Is she trying to go somewhere now?" Carlisle asked.
"No," I said. "She's completely out. How long will the drugs last?"
"It's hard to say with her," he said. "Her metabolism is very fast, to be sure. I've never had to sedate someone like her before, but that's only because, aside from Catie, there isn't anybody else I know that's like her. It might last an hour. Or, it might last five or six. I'm very sorry, Edward. I really can't be sure."
"I'll stay with you," Esme offered.
"And I'll go downstairs and head up the think tank," Carlisle said as he put away his medical supplies. "Don't worry, son. We are all going to figure this out together. We're all with you. We are all united in finding a solution and none of us are going to give up on little Brook."
"I'm so thankful for that," I said. "I'm so thankful for all of you."
Esme turned the lights down low and I took Brook in my arms. I wrapped her in a blanket and held her.
"Just like when she was a little baby," Esme said. I could see her mind running through the memories. "Time flies by so quickly, doesn't it?"
"It is something I'm afraid we're going to need a lot more of if we're going to hope to find a solution to all of this."
"There is always hope," Esme said encouragingly. "As long as people love the way that we love those two little girls, there will always be hope. Just so long as there is that sort of love in the world."
