FEAR NOT
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EDWARD CULLEN
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"It didn't sound so bad" Jasper sighed. "He was in a village with humans. They trust him... he helps them. It seems he is no longer there though"
"He truly is doing mission work?" Rosalie folded her arms over her chest, a thousand thoughts ramming into each other in her mind; rejection and relief the two prominent ones. It was better than anything we thought it could be; he was not the same but he seemed, for the most part, still good.
"Where had he gone, prior to his arrival?" Jane frowned. "What other information did you manage to get?"
"It is just as Raul said it was. He works with the other volunteers but mostly he interacts with the young men, helping them with forest work" Jasper moved over to Alice and secured her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "It would make sense... the organisation is called 'God's People', after all"
"And they happened to have sworn to right the order of the world and have vampires eradicated or worse...!" Isabella hissed "They would have us submissive to them!"
"Mission work, love" Jasper shook his head "That was all I got, just as Raul said. But if you think that your interactions and interrogations of humans is more... effective than mine..." he pointed at his blazing golden eyes and grinned at Isabella's criminally red ones "Be my guest"
"Not to mention the fact that Jasper's gift ensures that no human will go and prattle about it and rouse Carlisle's suspicions" I sighed.
"My gift would have been more effective" Jane pouted.
"Your gift would have killed the human"
"And that's the efficiency of it" she grinned toothily. "I hate games of chance"
"I hate games period" Rosalie shuddered "Why not just... haul him out of there?"
"He would fight us and the humans would see" I whispered, remembering his true strength when he had pushed me off of him.
"We could restrain him..." Emmett broached.
"Do not delude yourself" Jane surveyed her nails "Age is not just a number with vampires. The older a vampire the more easily they burn, the more potent their venom and... if they are pushed to it, they can access the true potential of their strength. It increases in negligible amounts over decades... but when a vampire is a few centuries, those amounts can hardly be called negligible when added and released. Of course, given Carlisle's general sissy quality, I doubt he has a lot of it or that he has released it all but regardless... we have two laws; the first one cannot be risked. No humans should see"
"You said 'access'...?" I asked her.
"I haven't forgotten what I have said, Edward" she rolled her eyes.
"Elaborate!" I groaned.
"Access the true potential of their strength" she repeated slowly as though I had a mental condition. "Most century-plus vampires only access a meagre amount of it after a traumatic experience, a cruel combat... etcetera..." she rolled off bored. "Nothing to worry about really, like I said... your master is a sissy, and only two vampires have ever managed to take all of it at once"
"It is like stored energy... I think" I answered Emmett's mental curiosity. "Think of our skin as solar panels and think of time as the sun..."
"You know nothing of vampires and everything of humans" Jane sneered "How do you care to save our race when you are so in love with the enemy?"
"For a long time I did believe that we were the enemy" I said "To them and to ourselves"
"All we do is kill a few to satiate the thirst" Jane sighed "Can hardly be called an evil. After all, they breed like rabbits. Ten dead, twenty more born..."
We were moving through the trees at a constant pace, spread out loosely and forming an arc. I could see the map drawn out by Raul of where Joham's territories would be spread out. We were to straddle that line, take one more day to establish if any of Lorraine's people were near Carlisle and then we would capture him.
"How does that theory affect... hybrids?" Alice murmured.
"Theory?!" Jane spat. "Hybrids were a theory..." she trailed off. This was as agreeable as she could be. It could be possible that realising there were true enemies out there outside of petty jealousies and ignorance, realising this had united us.
"Hybrids are weak" Isabella said in a tiny voice. I looked at her and she avoided my gaze, Jasper sensing shame in her. I was angered as a few reasons to her shame came to me-reasons that were unsavoury and lacked honour-but I shut that anger off.
"Elaborate" Jane imitated my tone, grinning. She was enjoying this excursion beside herself, this was what she had been brought into this life for after all; she was at her purpose.
"They are weak" Isabella repeated. "They wouldn't be able to... store energy... in their skin like a vampire..."
"Because their skin is not layered as ours" I guessed. "They..."
"Bleed" Jane laughed, skipping in childish glee. "Their skin is layered outside like ours, but only slightly... is that right, Isabella?"
She nodded, looking at me in fear. I just realised, Edward... only now, I didn't know...
I didn't know whether I believed her or not. I looked away from her, fear for Renesme filling me... but then I thought of Jacob. I wished I could push a thought to him from where I was; protect her, please, protect them...
He would protect her, protect them both. I had no doubt about that... imprint be damned. It was strange to think that I had gotten this far where I would feel relief in knowing the treasures and sole energy of my life-my daughter and grandson-were in his care.
"Human and vampire tissue" Emmett frowned "Of course. So... male hybrids would be stronger because of their venom?"
"God's People want male hybrids, don't they Isabella?" Jane smiled. Isabella nodded tersely, her face grave; she was thinking of our daughter as I was, I had no doubt about that. She didn't know the strength the unimprinted Jacob Black contained as I did.
A part of me wanted to ease her mind, to have her think of the task at hand and our foremost agreement with Aro; this was going perfectly-it seemed there would be no confrontation with werewolves or vampires but only Carlisle...
A part of me wanted this but then I thought of her past sympathies towards me. A silly petty thing to think of but there it was; she had been most cruel, had she not?
"...we should capture the male hybrid" Jane announced suddenly. She stopped just as abruptly as her thoughts had come to her, and all pleasantries and childlike excitement at our hunt gone, she growled low "We will cross into Joham's territory and get the boy. We need only two vampires to escort him back to Raul... oh, but we can't be sure if Raul will agree to keep him there while we retrieve Carlisle..."
The way her mind worked. She had been born to this purpose after all; a general.
"That isn't part of the assignment..." Alice growled.
"If the human's retrieve him, we would have given them an unnecessary advantage in their research" she said austerely "If we take him we could force Joham into an allegiance with us. Bolster our..." she looked at me in disdain and then at Rosalie before finishing her disappointed gaze with Alice "...pathetic forces"
"Joham has werewolves" Jasper murmured. "Trained ones..."
"So do we" Emmett said.
"Jacob is not a..."
"I know Jacob is not a werewolf... god, making jokes doesn't make me an idiot. I meant the other ones... from Lynn's cabin" Emmett cut Isabella.
"That's two..." I said "Dominic is a full blooded werewolf and Katherine isn't"
"Difference?" Isabella raised an eyebrow.
"Think 'Alpha' rights and 'Beta' rights" I explained "Size, control, speed..." I twirled my hand with each word. "The ones born werewolves get to be Beta's and Alpha's while those bitten are... much much weaker"
"And the polar bears?" Alice asked.
"Only Atka joined the pack, if I understand" I sighed.
"You amaze me" Jane smiled. "You've made more friends? What is this about polar bears... interesting...!"
"It is all beside the point" Isabella sighed "We should stick to the task at hand! We need to return to America. We need to return to Renesme...!"
"If the humans want Nahuel..." Rosalie snarled "Best believe they'll want Charles too!"
"But we have the... your... freaky grandson?" Jane sighed, touching her neck-a memory of Charles attacking her at the old farm arising. "We get the other hybrid and we have a collection!"
"You cannot just disembark..." I began.
"Rosalie..." Jane said sternly "You see the benefit of retrieving Joham's heir?"
Rosalie didn't answer but she didn't need to.
"I will go with two from my team" Jane said "If Rosalie has seen the benefit, maybe she will assist me" Jane smiled "Make this a... group effort and such?"
"She will go" I answered Rosalie's thoughts and raised my hand for Emmett not to voice his disagreement. "We will meet you in Raul's territory"
"Happy hunting!" Jane called.
"Don't worry, Em" I sighed "Nahuel is under no protection, I am certain. Their retrieval of him will have no objections... and if so, it would be Huilen..."
"If she was dumb enough to reunite with that prick!" Emmett spat, thumping his fist into his left hand. "If anything happens..."
"Nothing will happen" I said.
The danger was ahead of us, not from where we were coming from. The danger and all objections lay around Carlisle Cullen.
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RENESME CARLIE CULLEN
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It finally ended.
I felt no relief when I saw the cabin; it sat there, dubiously and filled with intention. Anna Erikson's car being in the drive way did not fill me with relief either. She would have been able to help me I suppose, she knew the woods; the cabin could be one of many they had littered on the lands.
But her car being there, the driver's door left swung open and the steady beep of the car's alarm; it made me want to return to the maze of trees, to the torture of the woods and the smell of secrets and malice.
I closed the car door carefully, sure to take the keys out of the ignition first.
I wished I could ignore every instinct inside of me and be completely human in that moment and not know, but there it was, I had knowledge; there was danger, I was in danger and it was bad. This was bad. I had been herded here, I was right where it wanted me and Annabelle's mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Why she has to be a busy body..." I muttered. I looked back to the trees and they grinned at me, leisurely stalking me. A cat playing with its prey...
"Bad... bad... worse" I breathed, walking up to the porch. There were no tracks in the dirt, no smells or any inkling on what the scene could possibly be. The door was open and at its entrance a trail of blood rolled through the house like a red carpet. My throat roared but when my nostrils flared to pick up the scent, it was dog.
Safely dog...
"Anna, you silly girl" I opened the door wider and stepped carefully across its threshold, skipping over the red brown smeared on the timbre.
"Mrs Erikson...?"
She was standing in the middle of the lounge wearing a black coat, her hair wild and one of her beloved Labradors dead at her feet. She twitched a little at the sound of my voice.
The place was a mess, coated in dust and old smells; all of it hung heavily over the ugly furniture. It looked nothing like the other large cabins and cottages scattered around the Erikson Mansion; this one was low budget, this one had no thought put into its decor; this one was forgotten, lonely and miserable.
But not entirely forgotten it seemed, with Anna standing peculiarly in its centre.
"Anna?" I called. She made no response. "Mrs Erikson?" I rushed to her and touched her shoulder, forcing her to face me. Her eyes were blank, a bruise spread out over the left side of her face, the eye there swollen and lip sporting a cut. She had been whacked really well or fell strategically into an awaiting smack...
For a moment, I feared that she was bleeding. The hand that held the leash was coated in dried blood and before I could control myself, my nostrils flared and she was in danger so suddenly; but the blood was all dog.
Luckily for her, I was pre-programmed to disassociate canine blood to food. The reminder of this pricked at my heart exquisitely and I remembered my smarting cheek and the murdered tear drop. It made me hate Jacob more, my misery and loneliness multiplying itself so I became just as wretched as the dead dog.
"Anna!" I shook her and she started, taking a step back from me. She took two more large steps to the right, never releasing the leash so that the dog dragged after her.
"Where am I?" her voice quaked, a weak panic in it.
"Your car is outside" I said softly, moving towards her. She backed up for each inch I came closer to her so that by the time I had reached the spot she had been in... she was by the mantle over the fire place. Blood trailed across the floor. The dog's innards were exposed and lacking steam; it had been dead a while.
.
"Anna I think you drove here" I told her. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and parched mouth ajar as though she thought to scream but was not sure how to do it. "Did you kill your dog?" I asked her carefully.
She realised she was holding something, raising the leash up to eye level then her eyes followed it down until her inspection landed on the dog.
"Rover!" she cried, dropping the leash as though it burned and scrambling away from the ugly scene that had been at her feet.
"Anna..." I said slowly but she wasn't listening. She was lost in hysteria and I was jealous of it; I didn't have the luxury of that level of panic for I knew all too well what dangers the world could offer. I knew all too well what it meant to survive and surviving meant eliminating as many weaknesses as possible.
Panic, was allowed. Hysteria was for Opera.
Her terrified movements in her human clumsiness caused her to move into the trail of dog blood and she slipped; her right leg whooshed into the air, her hands flailing to her sides and left leg landing awkwardly back down...
I could see it easily; her hitting her head on the corner of the mantle, causing her to fall at an angle on the hearth; cracked skull, broken ribs and with the majesty of her misfortune there would be blood escaping from somewhere...
"Careful" I caught her mid fall. She wouldn't have seen me coming and through her fear, she knew this and it was etched on her face; a strange bemused expression pushed her initial horror away.
"How did you do that?"
"How did I save your life?" I righted her, leading her to the couch "You could have died, Anna... cracked skull or blood loss via neck wound..." I murmured, smoothing her hair "There, all better. Now, tell me, do you know how to get out of these woods?"
She looked up at me and then turned green. I scowled, annoyed intensely by this development and in three seconds she hurled on the thread-bare throw. I smelt it and it was too much; the old scents, the dead dog and this...
"I don't know where we are?!" she wiped her mouth with her sleeve, looking around the place "How did I get here?!"
This was not good. It had been bad in the forest and now it was worse; it was so pathetically worse because I could almost feel the tide of an oncoming tragedy; we would both die together, or she would go first.
"Anna..." I said slowly and she tried to maintain eye contact. It was fascinating to watch, her panic and flimsy hold on our current reality; I had seen it many a time in many a human, mostly when they were about to meet their deaths.
They would meet their deaths in my arms, in Nahuel's arms... in some vampire's arms.
The thirst flared at the memory; the danger Anna was in was doubled with that but then she rose from the couch, tripped her way towards the door, muttering how she couldn't trust Philip, how Annabelle was in danger...
I watched her for a moment; she had forgotten about the dog and was focused on a cause. I followed her slowly, perplexed by all these reactions and annoyed by them all the same; her vomiting, her fear, her sudden anger and amnesia. She was no use, if only to serve as fuel to hasten our deaths.
Maybe I should be done with her; kill two birds with one stone; a bumbling human and the thirst...
"Anna!" I called. She didn't stop, shuffling over the ground and determined to reach her car. I followed swiftly, overtaking her and blocking her entrance to the driver's side. I could feel the keys in my breast pocket but still, I felt as though she could do danger if allowed to get into the car. "Anna, what are you thinking?"
"Move, Rene" she stuttered, shaking her head from side to side, her eyes roving the area aimlessly.
"It's not safe Anna" I wanted to go back inside the cabin; I wanted to be away from the trees and away from the oncoming night-they would descend upon us, and we would be wrapped up in their darkness.
"This is a set up" Anna muttered. She looked at my face, down at her shaking hands and back to the cabin.
"I have no doubt about that" I sighed.
She paused, full awareness spread on her face and she said firmly in an even tone "Oh, Rene... this is a set up! My life has meant very little for a very long time! My daughter, oh if Philip gets his hands on my poor sad Annabelle... oh... no!"
"You said Annabelle was in danger...?" the logic of what she was saying bounced in my mind but for some reason, it blurred and tornadoed into a thousand insanities...
"My dear..." she laughed gently "Annabelle is of Noble blood. Noble blood is the most difficult to spill in Malwood. Regardless... Philip is always a danger to anyone he shows an interest with and of late, he is interested in our daughter's well being.."
"But are you not of Noble blood too...?"
"I have been at deaths door one too many times" she said "He knows me by name"
"I have died before" I said rapidly, sounding like a little girl. "He knows me intimately"
"Then you are prepared to die again" she smiled.
"I don't see why we should make it easy for them" I said through clenched teeth. She nodded, still smiling and I realised we both had reached a similar level of hysteria that saw us sane to one another, comprehending and following our rambling dialogue with ease.
We stood in front of each other for a second, my mind lost in a past were there had been so many 'thems'; a place in time when everyone had been a potential enemy, a traitor, an informer... someone who wanted to hurt me. While standing with Anna, outside a forgotten cabin in these malevolent woods, I realised that I had unwittingly returned to that past.
Paranoia; something about it was worse than hysteria. It may have been that there would still be logic in it, reason and sanity. The pack hated me, really... really hated me. Maria... oh, heavens she had her claws so firmly in Jacob's skin and if this Jacob was anything like my Jacob then she would have him. He was never one to do things in halves; love, lust or hate.
"Let's go back inside" I whispered "And get you cleaned up"
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CARLISLE CULLEN
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What had I been afraid of before my children, before Esme...? The fear may have come when I had awoken, when my hands had risen up before my eyes, the white fingers unclenching and finding their way around my neck... clawing at the hard skin, trying to pull the flames out of my throat...
Trying to murder myself because I could feel it coiling inside me; a hidden beast, a lurking monster... and I had been afraid of it. My father had warned me of it from birth and it had found me; that fear, I was it... I was afraid of being... it...
"Being a demon?" I thought. I was what I feared, and now the question of eternity was... did I fear myself?
"...no..."he stammered.
"You are accusing me of being a demon?" I repeated, smiling at Peter. He was pale, he was afraid... not of me... although he believed, now, that I was a demon. The women around him murmured their reproach, shaking their heads in disbelief of the crazed man's words against the kind hard working beautiful priest. "The irony? Eh, John? A demon hidden beneath a priest's robes..."
"You are an angel!" one woman dared. I smiled at her and she reddened, touching her chest and smiling smugly at her peers.
"Eh?" Kilpa had almost forgotten that he had been christened with a new name. He blinked absently at me, then surveyed the frazzled Peter. "Hmm, my brother has had a very... hard time... of late"
"Very hard" I agreed gently. "Peter... John is right here. He is not dead. There was no..." I said wearily, shaking my own head in worn sympathy-a sympathy that had to prevail through these hard crazed times with the young man, as it was to the people gathered around us.
"Beast" a dark skinned man said loudly. "Beast" he repeated, scowling at Peter. "He is from the village you came from?" he asked me, hostility in his eyes. He met my gaze and that suspiciousness wavered minutely, tilting into fear before settling into something in-between; deep wariness, distrust of the highest order; this man, would be a problem later on if any vampires visited this paranoid village.
"They want to steal business" a younger man by his side snarled. Of course, my understanding of their language was good, but I reached my limits when the dialect changed into something distinctly ancient and they broke out in loud quick arguments, the elders hushing the youth and accusing Kilpa of something... something worse than losing one's mentally unstable brother.
I had not anticipated this; why would they want to keep Peter here, if he were crazed and a threat to their tourism with his horrific tales?
"... so let me take him from you then!" was all I managed to understand from Kilpa. Kilpa had risen, his face glowering and eyes angered and dangerous. The women had scurried out of the room, Peter had bowed his head and began whimpering for his dead brother...
"Gentlemen?" I raised my hands and stood up, signalling for Kilpa to back down. "Peter's words may be disturbing to the guests in your village and even to you... but they are the words of a deeply disturbed man, a man who needs to return to his family and to the care of those who love him"
"White men..." the dark skinned man shook his head. He raised his left hand, a knife in it, and rested the flat side of the blade against his temple. It was a rudely made blade, sharp and inelegant as any weapon a hunter would carry; it winked the tiniest bit in the dim light and Kilpa tensed. "You come to these lands, explore and think you know it better than we, its children?"
"He stays until we know he speaks insanity" an older man breathed.
"Could his words be anything but insanity?" I asked and received no answer save for further distrust. I had gone out of my way to shed the aura of terror I naturally carried in order to be welcomed in these parts; and although they now showed me impudence with their daringness to try and intimidate me, I doubted if I would have uncovered as much as I had without appearing harmless.
The Quileute had guarded their own secrets, even from vampires that lived across a precarious border... what more of these tribes that resided in jungles that were legendarily coiling with mysticism that not even the most ancient of immortals had uncovered.
And I was on the brink of it, was I not? It filled with me with pleasure to think this and I smiled, pushing my impatience back down.
I should have known after my experience with the Quileute that there was always more to a story than what was perceived by eyes.
The quest for this precious enigma was costing me my patience with humanity with each second, and I could feel the demon coiling in me further; it wanted to claw and strangle me; if only to kill that humanity and free it's self fully.
I could be done with it, and kill the lot of them... but there would be no survivors in the wake of my merry spree.
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RENESME CULLEN
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"This was someone's home..." I said softly. The picture had a woman in it, and in her arms was a small boy. She wasn't smiling and neither was her son... it had to be her son. I handed Anna the picture and she took it gingerly, almost in fear. She wiped the dusty glass and surveyed the wooden chipped frame before looking at it carefully.
"Yes" she whispered "Yes, of course. This is a home"
"Whose?" I asked. She was wrapped in an old blanket I had found in one of the rooms; everything was covered in dust but what was most eerie about the cabin was how it seemed that its inhabitants, whoever they were, had left abruptly or simply vanished. The beds were still made, food gone way past rotting in the fridge, pantry scarcely spotted with odd cans and packets...
"The Delongs, of course" Anna looked up at me. She had paled again, her skin pasty and forehead shining. "Rene... why I would drive from the house to this place... why I would do that is... bizarre"
"Who are the Delongs?" I asked and then shook my head, the name floating up in my mind from the vampiric memory box it had been stored, along with the wayward bit of gossip attached to it. "Matthew Delong"
"Matthew Delong" Anna moved to the couch and I handed her the cup of tea. "I have noticed how close you have become to my daughter..."
"I wouldn't call what Annabelle and I were doing as 'bonding and braiding'" I cut her with a snort.
"You are both immersed in your miseries..." Anna smiled. "It may not have been conventional but it was bonding in its own way. Well, if she did not share it with you, I will tell you anyway. She found herself alone with Matthew, in a place once... and she mistook that place as love"
"And you know that she mistook this place as love... how?"
"Because I am her mother"
"Mothers" I scoffed, sitting opposite her and bringing the cup to my lips. I hesitated in drinking the liquid, suddenly reminded of Diane. I looked down into the cup and saw a haze of my reflection in the brown liquid. I sipped it quickly.
Which way wasn't dying? Poison, drowning or werewolves; the outside was such a darkness that my supernatural sight couldn't pierce it; supernatural to supernatural, it cancelled out. I was in the ordinary in this cursed cabin.
The tea was bitter but Anna seemed to enjoy it, pouring more from the little tea pot.
"Mothers don't always know what is best for their children" I said slowly. "With my... my son..."
"You have a son?" her eyes brightened at this "How old is he?"
I thought to tell her the truth but then the thought was squashed by that reminder of her errant panic tendencies. The mother of werewolves had broken down at the sight of her gutted Labrador. I looked at her closely and thought of my own mother, whom I couldn't trust with my own life let alone that of my son. Anna seemed so different; I wished I could have had her as a mother; constantly badgering Annabelle about exploring other hobbies outside of ducks and horses.
"With my son..." I ignored her question "I trust..." Leah, I realised. "My heart and not my mind; that which settles my heart guides me..."
"It makes sense in its own way" she smiled. "Anna has always been... difficult. She was born in the worst years of Philip and I's marriage"
"The worst years?" I smiled. "I understand that about marriages"
"You are full of mysteries, Rene" Anna smiled. "I had always known of Philip's affairs, you see. Honestly, I was concerned when you appeared in the house! He loves lovely rare beauties..." she raised the picture once more "She was lovely and rare once... Matthew Delong's mother"
"She was much older than I" Anna continued with a sigh. "I found out about her through Philip's mother and from then, I was instructed to keep the family safe. To keep the Erikson blood line safe. It is a Noble woman's duty to do that..."
"Duty is over rated"
"You are young" she laughed. "Duty is all you have, when there is nothing else"
"You... kept her here?" I said slowly, looking around the place with a new interest.
"I think I did" Anna sighed. "This cabin is far out from our property... How could you have gotten here by foot Rene?"
I didn't answer her, glancing to the sheet of black outside.
"If you came from the Erikson Manor then Malwood Forest brought you here, Rene" Anna smiled sadly. She placed the picture down and touched her cup thoughtfully "That said and revealed, this only reaffirms my fears"
"That this is a set up?"
"Yours mostly" she sighed "But I can't help but wonder..." she touched her bruised eye gingerly "If I've been reduced to nothing but a pawn in these games. What do you think, eh?"
I remained silent, the dread on my tongue so bitter... but it may have been the tea. My skin chilled besides the freely burning fire in the fireplace; it meant nothing in the face of my terror and the anonymous calamity I had run straight into.
"A pawn is easier to kill than a queen" Anna groaned "Oh, the demotion and shame of it!" she let her head fall into her hands and said " A Noble woman will do whatever it takes to protect her family"
"We have reached the end of the night" I whispered, as soft as the words were... my fear made the effort of uttering them exhausting. "I was the lamb herded to this point, not you"
"Impossible!"
"But it is possible" I fell back in my seat resignedly. When I closed my eyes, I saw Diane yet again; I saw the drum and felt the pull of my own blood leaving my body and filling that drum. I shivered, the terror screeching in my brain but I was too weak from the impact of the fear to give any other reaction save for indolent despair.
"Here I am" my voice shook "Cornered. And here you are... a wolf in sheep's clothing"
"Impossible!" Anna rose from the chair, her eyes blazing with righteous indignation, my words blasphemous to her ears and understanding of who she was morally.
"I am to kill you" I told her slowly and her eyes widened, darting left to right as though I would have left an obvious weapon in the little living room to murder her with. As though I would need a weapon...
"If you would kill me, who would be the lamb then?" she rasped.
"I am to die too, don't you see?" I told her. "Anna... you are not in control of who you are. It is apparent. The bruises on your face... the way they are laid out... you hit yourself. Your knuckles are bruised too"
There were howls around us suddenly; eerie lonely ones that grated through the smooth darkness outside. They were not wolves, of course. These lands were for the wild and tortured; werewolves surrounded the cabin. There was movement, actual earth movement and I knew, without a doubt that the woods were making their final move.
"Anna..." I looked at her closely and that bitter dread intensified into something worse.
Her eyes were blank and in her hands, she held an old dirty knife. For the life of me, I didn't know where that blade had come from.
"Anna...?" I tried again. The look of vacancy remained and it scared me. I thought to get up, I thought to get to her and shake her out of it; as I had done before when I had seen her standing peculiarly next to her dead dog but I couldn't move.
I vibrated in my seat as my speed and determination slammed back into me, and nothing. My very feet felt petrified to the ground, to the cursed soil beneath the floor...
"We know what you are!" a dozen voices spoke through Anna Erikson's mouth, the knife held against the side of her neck.
Her fingers wound around the handle of the knife firmly and held it steady, her eyes blank. "Anna don't..." I tried again but it was done in one smooth motion. I stopped breathing and closed my eyes. Anna was walking towards me, each foot fall deliberate.
"Anna don't...!" I cried feebly. Wet fingers touched my lips and when I wouldn't part them, they pushed with definite supernatural force.
I tasted blood.
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I didn't know any other kind of strength.
I always had to be strong for myself; I always had to be my own hero and my own rescue team. There had been that moment, when my father had saved me; when my family had found me in the middle of my shame in that club.
I hadn't recognised the strength their being there had stirred in me. It had been brief, fleeting and unnoticed and now it was but a honeyed drop on my already parched tongue. It stung to know there were such sweetness's; it hurt to know that there were other kinds of strengths like that.
The pack looked up at me from the ground and I avoided their accusing gazes.
I was crying, tears had fallen from my eyes, over my cheeks, down my chin and onto my shirt and I hadn't willed them. I was crying, tears were falling but inside I was not hurt. Inside, the pain that was there was familiar; expected, and it did not hurt.
I've been here before many a time, how dare I be shocked that I had come full circle once more.
"Death knows you intimately, you said?" Anna Erikson whispered from Philip's side. The blood seeped through the scarf tied securely around her neck, her skin pale and eyes fevered. The taste of her blood remained; the taste of the poison in it remained on my tongue too. I wiped my mouth again, for the hundredth time and when I removed my hand it trembled. Was it fear, was it shame... was it the poison?
"Anna, please...!" Angela pleaded and Anna tutted, shaking her head. "She's... she's like Annabelle to me. She is like... my daughter. You can't do this... don't let them do this!"
"It's my fault" Angela sobbed. It was a sight as wretched as any; there she was, at Anna Erikson and Philip Erikson's feet, begging for my life. Around her, the Council of Malwood stood, the Elders of these magical mean lands. I was before them, damned as I had always been. To my left, the pack was constrained by invisible forces that stopped them from phasing... and around us all were werewolves.
A sight, as wretched as any... and I were at its centre; the wretch.
No Heroes. No Prince Charming. No father and no mother.
"I told Anna...!" Angela wailed. "I thought I could trust her... I thought..."
"She is my wife" Philip smiled "Sworn to protect her family by our laws. And our laws are tangible. They run in our blood"
"Edward will forgive you" I whispered to Angela.
"Wh...?" she paused, rising from the ground. Two men immediately tensed beside her, ready to restrain her if she tried to run to me once more. "I don't care about you because of Edward, you silly girl...!" she spat. Humans and their hysteria, beautiful and befuddling... and she was human. Beautifully so. I could see it now, Edward's fixation; this was another strength and one that we immortals would never know.
Living in the moment as it was, and how could we know; we were dead for eternity.
"I care about you because I can!" she pressed her index finger to the centre of her chest.
"Feelings as precious as they are..." Philip twirled his hand "But if we can end this as quickly as possible. We have a council leader meeting next and Anna is dreadfully tired and... traumatised...? Mr Fredrick?"
"Jacob Black needs to be called out" Mr Fredrick's voice boomed. He was tall, thin and ancient. He had a mean look about him and his eyes shined with too much energy.
I closed my eyes and tried to trace the journey here. His kiss with her, my pain, the woods, her, my weakness, my strength... everything. I opened them and a shaking Jacob was kneeling in front of them.
Them. I looked around me and saw so many thems. Anyone could have hurt me... it just happened to be that werewolves really did not like vampires. It just happened to be that werewolf communities particularly did not like vampires and it just happened to be that I was half vampire.
"Doesn't matter" I muttered. "It never mattered"
"What dear?" I looked up and one of the elder's faces contorted to Aro's smug youthful face. I knew that I was not well, the poison was working in my system... Aro wasn't here and besides, Aro could barely handle sharing power with three people...
There were about ten of them who led the community but one of them had the final say, and that was the meeting that would be held after my... execution.
"Did you say you don't matter?" the fake Aro asked, except his voice was only in my head. I nodded and my vision cleared. They looked at me dubiously... the disgust and abhorrence mingled in with it.
"Jacob Black, when I met with you and told you of our conditions for you to stay in Malwood, did you agree to them?" Philip asked.
Jacob shuddered, sweat gleamed on his face and his shirt was half torn. He had probably managed to half phase against the strength of their magic. He couldn't speak, glaring hatred up at the council instead.
I knew Maria was here somewhere. Behind me maybe; I wondered what was in her head at this moment-satisfaction maybe? I could take her with me...
But she could fake being human better than I could ever hope to. What was I thinking; she was a human faking at being a vampire!
"I did tell you, Mr Black... that we would hear you out firmly if you adhered to our laws" Philip said in a disappointed voice, shaking his head. "We are a werewolf community. It is, besides the fact that I gave you this knowledge, common sense that we wouldn't want a vampire in our sanctuary. These woods..." he moved out of the large group and raised his hands at the trees "...their sole purpose is the interest of Malwood. And she..." he pointed at me "Is a natural threat to Malwood. Did you or did you not smuggle her onto our lands, Mr Black?"
"She... is... innocent!" Jacob roared before shuddering back into himself. Philip was shocked by the outburst and looked behind him to one of the women. She shrugged and he composed himself, watching Jacob's pained form in pure dislike.
"Your 'Pack' were shocked by her appearance on our property" Philip said slowly, pressing his lips. His smugness had disappeared in the wake of Jacob's outburst it seemed.
Was Jacob not supposed to be able to speak at all, although questions were being hurled at him?
"I asked them about it" Philip sighed. He now spoke to the people behind him, the people of Malwood "They do not trust her. They tolerated her because their leader had brought her with him..."
"Of course, this roused my suspicion further" Philip now cast his eyes on me "Especially as she did not eat. Especially as she is so beautiful and pale. These wolves come from a community such as our own; they have their own magic. Jacob Black knows that magic, and after convincing my son of his good intention-which I do believe was mostly good..." Philip pointed to the bound shapeshifters trembling on the ground "He wanted to protect his people, as we would protect each other at all costs"
"You...!" Jacob hissed but that was all he could manage.
"I get the polygamy and the girl..." Philip pointed behind me, to Maria I guessed. "but where is the attraction to that? It is imitates life, Mr black and does not give it but takes it. That... which, besides your pack's protests, you smuggles into our lands and put my son in a very precarious situation with the elders?"
"Death knows you, Rene" Anna stuttered. "You are death"
"I preferred you with amnesia!" I spat. She looked away from me, hugged herself and shook her head. "You thought they would hurt you too! You said Philip was after Annabelle... well, look! You gave it all to him!"
"Firstly, what's hers is mine and secondly...why would I hurt my wife?" Philip shook his head. The crowd behind him resounded in murmurs.
I knew this scene. I had been in it before and unlike before it was lacking that one strength. Here, on trial, I was alone.
Then, when I was a child... I had been on Jacob Black's back, my family flanking me and the wolves on our side. Then, when I was a child... Aro and all the many 'them's' had fled that strength. That honeyed strength I would never remember. I looked at Charles and smiled at him; he grimaces in his pain, tears falling from his eyes; he at least, would not have to endure the torment of forever standing alone, of being your own hero and villain... he had Leah, he had the pack... he would have everyone and he deserved them.
"The impostor witches... the true demons, my dear Annabelle...!" Philip pushed Annabelle forward and pointed at me. "They were burned at the stake in many a werewolf town!"
"Demon!" I laughed. I looked at them all and smiled; half of me was gone, past logic and dancing in insanity.
"But Philip..." a woman in a dark cloak asked "She retains their abilities; strength, speed and resistance"
"Ah, it is nothing!" Philip laughed. "As I said, Mr Black's unfortunate fixation with the creature has seen him go to great lengths to have her with him"
"Vampires are supposed to be completely... incapacitated of strength and speed on our lands" Annabelle tried.
"This is your destiny, Annabelle..." Philip said slowly "Embrace it"
"Annabelle..." I pleaded and she looked away. "Annabelle...? Don't you want to know what happened to Matthew Delong?"
Philip's eyes blazed inhumanly, his face glowed red and lips quivered. His fists clenched and his aura changed; meanness and hate. "Burn HER!" he roared.
"Wait...!" Annabelle cried.
"You have shamed your family, Annabelle" I said softly, but through the commotion I couldn't tell if she could hear. "Matthew Delong... is Philip's illegitimate son"
"I SAID FOR YOU TO BURN THE CREATURE!" Philip shuddered and I thought he would... phase. Illogical. I smiled at him and he scowled viciously at me but it was done; Annabelle stood still by her mother and father's side and the seed began to set root.
"Burn her, then" the cloaked woman raised her hand and the ground beneath my feet moved. I couldn't move for a moment and in that second, a tree erupted from behind me and ropes appeared from within its bark, strapping me to it.
"NO!" I cried, trying to free myself. "No... no... no!" I was ready for death, but I did not want to die. The tree was hard and smelt of ash.
"Kill it, Annabelle!" Philip commanded "Do not listen to it and kill it!"
"I won't!" Annabelle cried, trying to fight her father and the cloaked woman off. "I will not be a murderer!"
"You will... retrieve this family's name... after your brother brought that...!" Philip's eyes glowed dangerously "Let it pass through our woods and onto our lands! After all your atrocities and failings as an Erikson... you will do as I command and embrace your gift...!"
"I am no witch!" Annabelle cried.
"Let us be done with this noise!" another woman stepped up, raising her own hand. She only had to look at me for me to know I was about to die. I closed my eyes but the tears wouldn't stop, as though they thought they could douse the rising flames...
"Your associates have admitted to your demonism, Rene" I heard Philip say through the blistering pain and sweet meaty smell of my feet burning "And in exchange for remaining in Malwood, they have offered up your life"
"Death knows me" I stammered, waiting. "It won't be long now"
I wanted to be held, I wanted to be loved. I wanted to not have to be strong. I wanted to be. To live. To feel and not fear. To know recklessness, to admit defeat and feel victory flowing in my veins... the tenderness of a kiss, the subtle touch and shocking pain; I wanted it all and Death knew me through and through.
He would know how to care for me, he has always been the one that has wanted me regardless of my past or future; he had always accepted me.
"I am ready... for death..." it hurt, but what hurt the most was the sweet smoky smell I knew was my flesh. I think I was shrieking the words out in the flare of pain, or was I pushing the sad revelation out through my pointless gift... I could hear screams... my screams... "Although... I don't think I want to die"
Xx~xx~xX
The howl pierced through the white noise, strangled my flames; a werewolf, a bitter cry up into the night. I couldn't hear anything but the pain, oh the wretched burning of my feet; heat licking up my calves and into my veins, flowing fire in my blood...
It was a scene, as they all were; out of a nightmare, just another episode in my life.
Commotion, something was coming towards them. Annabelle was fighting her mother off, Angela was being held back by Maria; she wanted to run to me; the men were no longer concerned with her...
"It's Dominic" I read Philip's lips, he was scowling hard. "He has freed himself..."
And as the werewolves and elders concerned themselves with the impossibility of Dominic Erikson rushing through the woods towards us, as they concerned themselves with Annabelle's screams that she would not partake in my murder...
Jacob rose from the ground, blood trickling from his left nostril from his efforts and he looked at me. He looked at me, deliberately and with such passionate determination before turning his burning gaze to Annabelle and shouting, "Free her if you believe she is innocent!"
"I can't...!"
"DO IT!" he roared.
And she did. She pushed her mother away from her, finally, weaved her way through the commotion of people, raised her hands to me and I was free. Not of the flames, not of the ropes and not of the trees but of the.. the curse, that was all I could put it up to.
"Is she...?" Jacob moved towards me stiffly.
"I don't know..." Annabelle cried. She fell back into her mother's grasps when Anna had secured her once more, shushing her daughter.
There was no time, Jacob knew it and I knew it; he pushed himself forward, propelled his body towards me and caught me in the flames before pulling me off the tree and flipping me into the air.
Grab on, Bronze! His voice roared in my mind and I automatically righted myself in the air-beside the pain-and landed awkwardly onto his back. He was a wolf, and the fear and horror in Philip Erikson's eyes as we sped from them made me believe that Jacob Black was more than just a wolf.
He was, much more and Philip knew it now; he had seen the true power of an Alpha.
That's right, Bronze... he snickered and I realised he had heard the thought through my gift. No one edicts me.
He wove through the trees, and for a moment it seemed easy; until the trees fought back. They whacked at us, clawing at Jacob and trying to fling me off his back; they almost managed but instead a twig pierced Jacob's side and snapped off, twitching where it was stuck.
He didn't stop, and sped over the ground and pushed against the wall of evil until we were free of them.
Xx~xx~xX
"Jacob?"
He rose shakily from the tar road, the wolf squeezing in around his form and merging with human flesh. Wisps of blood flayed throughout the transformation, coarse russet fur billowing around into the night and a thick shimmer enveloping them. When he was done phasing and stood naked in the middle of the strange road that was sharply cut by the murderous Malwood forest, there was a small pool of his blood by his feet and thick fur drowning in it.
She managed a step towards him but stopped; her neck tensing painfully as she turned her head away and quickly stopped breathing. She wouldn't manage to hold her breath for long, she thought... then she remembered how strong her lungs had gotten after the dreadful 'tank' incident. It would hurt exquisitely but not as badly as drowning had; her lungs at least wouldn't be filled with water...
Coughing out water had been... unpleasant.
"..'m 'right" he raised his hand for her not to come closer. She could see the 'twig' protruding from his side. It had seemed like a twig when he had been in wolf form, as large as he was, all the lashing and attacks-as cruel as they had been, had seemed bearable but now... that twig looked like a sturdy branch that would soon tip Jacob Black's bearing with its weight.
She walked carefully towards him, and when he sensed this, he pivoted where he stood so that by the time she had reached him, she was facing his back.
"If I see anything I haven't seen before..." she said slowly, aware she was testing so much on her ability to hold air and withstand pain "I'll throw a diamond at it"
"It better be a big diamond" Jacob coughed out a pained laugh "'Cause I got big things, you know..."
"You would be shocked by how much I actually do know" she said without thinking. "We need to get that out and this is not the time to be shy..."
Her air ran out. She shut her mouth abruptly, and realised she would have to endure a second of horrendously torturous temptation (if Anna's blood had smelt that way to her, she would have died before the blade had finished its slicing), to carry this out. She gulped, opened her mouth and swallowed air and Jacob's rich blood; decadent pain, purring monster and pained heart-she shut her mouth and when her vision cleared, she realised she had moved a great deal away from Jacob in those seconds.
"Shy..." he muttered. He turned his head and saw that she was suddenly a few feet away from him. She was not only pale, but she was sweating and shaking... those eyes that pulled strange things from him had turned dark and dangerous.
He touched the wound, felt the bark, felt the sting and his fingers went around the thick branch "it's just the tip, quite thin. Nothing vital" he grunted.
"You don't know that!" Renesme said quickly.
"That was a prayer..." he breathed. "You can't handle..." he stammered against the pain, as he began to tug, waiting to yank it out in one go "My hot bod..." he paled, blood mingling with sweat and his face twisting in pain "And sweet... blood..."
It was out and with it a thick squirt of blood.
She caught him before he hit the ground; she had taken her shirt off in the next second and secured it against the wound.
"Stupid mutt!" she cried but he had passed out. She looked around them and then back at the wall of trees; the branches seemed to reach out to them, trying to claw them back into the depths of Malwood Forest.
She stood up and carried him in her arms. "Keep your Malwood, Philip!" she roared "...but if you harm one hair on my son...!" she shuddered, tears falling and her cheeks burning. She looked at Jacob and thought of her painful burnt legs "One hair... on... our son... I'll... we'll gut you and pull out your innards and... feed them to you!"
She turned away then and walked along the road for fifteen minutes before she remembered all the other 'them's', and moved swiftly into the wilderness with a pained Jacob Black in her arms.
Xx~xx~xX
AUTHORS NOTE:
Thank you so much for the support!
Xx
Tj.
p.s I will soon change from TJCBUNNI22 to KitKat Roar.