Chapter 9: The Aftermath
"Will she be alright Carlisle?"
"She'll be fine, after Jacob was kind enough to lend us a small amount of his blood for me to deliver a cure to her reaction. However, she will have a few scars."
"It's just lucky that she didn't see the end of the fight."
"You're right; Derryn's death will affect her deeply."
The voices sounded so close, yet they sounded so far at the same time. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking a few times to get a clear view of my surroundings.
I was lying on the daybed in my room, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett next to my bed, all looking at me concernedly.
"Are you alright Kristen?" Carlisle asked me softly, his hand on my shoulder. I noticed they were all looking sympathetic.
"Y-yes. Where's Derryn?" I asked, looking around the room for the man I loved. Alice sighed, moving slightly closer to me.
"You're not going to like this Kristen. Shortly after you lost consciousness, Derryn was forced backwards, and fell into the fire. I'm sorry but he died." She said sympathetically, looking sorrowful.
I held my breath for what felt like ages. I was in shock that Derryn was dead. I couldn't believe my ears. He was always so happy; he lived life to the fullest, never thinking that it would ever come to an end. Carlisle sighed sadly, standing up.
"Come on guys; let's give her some time to deal with the grief of losing a loved one." He said and Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett walked out of the room, Carlisle stopping in the doorway on his way out. "I'm sorry about your loss Kristen. You can have some time to yourself to think things through and deal with the loss. Come down when you're ready. And let me know if you'd like any help to deal with the loss." He said softly, before walking out and closing the door behind him.
I spent two whole months in my room, trying to get over the shock of Derryn's death. Eventually, one rainy Sunday afternoon, I decided I'd better at least talk to my family, to find out what had happened after I'd lost consciousness in the fight. I sighed, walking out of my room, stopping on the landing.
'Should I even be doing this? What if they tell me and I don't want to hear any more?' I thought to myself, and making up my mind to go downstairs and face my fear. I sighed again, walking slowly downstairs and into the living room. Carlisle and Esme were sitting at the dining table, speaking softly in undertones, while Alice sat on the couch with Jasper, watching television. The rest of the family were missing, either hunting or doing their own thing. I guessed Edward and Bella would be comforting their daughter after Jacob's death. I sighed again, walking towards the dining table. Carlisle and Esme looked up as I approached.
"Are you alright Kristen?" Esme asked me softly, looking concerned and sympathetic. "Come and sit down." She added, offering me a seat. I took it silently, breathing deeply.
"How are you coping with what happened?" Carlisle asked me.
"I'm okay. I'm still trying to come to terms with it, but I'm getting there. But there's one thing I need to know, to help me come to terms with…his death." I said. I couldn't even bring myself to say his name, knowing it would cause more pain inside me.
"What's that?" Carlisle said gently to me.
"I need to know exactly what happened after I'd lost consciousness." I said softly to them, bracing myself for the answer.
"Well, for starters, I didn't rejoin the fight, because I was busy looking after you and Jacob." Carlisle said.
"But wasn't Jacob dead?" I asked.
"No. Even vampires make mistakes, and I'd left him for dead after his heart didn't restart after my resuscitation efforts. Renesmee didn't understand why he was lying so still, and while I was looking after you, she bit him where she always bites him – on the chest. When she bit him, his heart started up again and he opened his eyes, before seeing you lying unconscious next to him. He asked me what had happened to you, and when I explained that you'd had a reaction to his blood when trying to suck out the vampire venom that was poisoning him, he offered to help me by using himself as a test dummy. I'd discovered a cure to the reaction you were having to human blood. He told me to use his blood to find a cure for your reaction. I sighed, thinking that if human blood had caused that kind of reaction in your body, the only cure would be if I gave you his blood containing vampire venom. However, it would only have worked if there was more venom than blood." He explained. "It tore me up inside to risk Jacob's death to save your life, but eventually I had no choice. Your skin was dissolving rapidly and I had to work fast. I apologised to Jacob, before biting him. I made sure that I put enough venom into his blood that when I administered it to you it would work, but I wasn't sure if I would be successful. I was taking a huge risk, but it was the only way I could think of to help you. After that, I had to use Jacob's knife to cut his skin so that I could take some of his blood, which was fast becoming irreversibly contaminated with my venom. I made you drink some, before I sucked the venom out of Jacob's blood, hoping that I'd removed enough of it that he would survive. At the moment, he's still on the brink of death, and Edward's keeping an eye on him. As with the fight, Esme knows more than I do about what happened in the fight." He finished and Esme placed her hand briefly on his shoulder, before turning to me.
"Kristen, after you lost consciousness, Derryn fought hard, but was forced backwards, and eventually he fell into the fire. I attempted to get him out, but I was risking falling in myself. I was so close to falling in, that Rosalie had to grab my hand and pull be back. Unfortunately, Derryn died in the fire. After Aro's death, the Volturi were outraged and Markus was killed, Jane shortly afterwards, but we managed to overcome them. The Volturi are all dead now. They were nowhere as strong as we'd given them credit for." She said softly to me and I nodded.
"Thank you for letting me know." I said to both of them.
"You're thirsty, aren't you?" Carlisle asked me. It surprised me that his eyes were black, instead of golden like they usually were. It was the same with Esme. Both hadn't hunted since the fight. I nodded at him and the three of us stood up. "Alice, Jasper, do you want to join us in a hunt?" he called out to Alice and Jasper, who were by our sides in no time flat.
"Let's go." Alice said, and I could see why Carlisle offered for them to join us. Their eyes were black as well, so obviously they hadn't hunted in ages. We ran out of the house and into the forest. The four of them ran off after their own specific animals, and I willed a deer into my arms.
'This is for you Derryn.' I thought to myself, knowing that deer were Derryn's favourite animal to hunt. 'This is to remind you that I love you, even if I won't ever see you again.'
I breathed in the scent of the deer, before biting its throat and drinking its blood. When I'd finished feeding on that deer, I willed another into my arms and drank its blood.
After another two, I was done, and I waited until Carlisle, Esme, Alice and Jasper returned.
"Are you done Kristen?" Jasper asked me, smiling slightly at me. I returned his smile as we walked back to house.
"By the way Kristen, how are you coping with…what happened?" Alice asked me kindly and I sighed.
"Getting there. It hasn't been easy, but it's getting easier. The hunt definitely helped a lot." I replied and she nodded, smiling at me.
Arriving back at the house, I sat at the table with Carlisle, who'd said that he wanted to talk to all of us.
"Alright, as you all probably know, the school semester is about to begin, and we've enrolled you at the local high school in Forks, which means that you will have to try and blend in with the humans as much as possible. In other words Jasper, do not make the boys fall in love with the other boys; and the same with the girls. Leave the humans' emotions alone." Carlisle said and we all burst out laughing. Even me, and I was still mourning Derryn's death. "Edward, try not to tap into people's private thoughts; some of those would get disturbing, wouldn't they?" he added to Edward, who grinned guiltily. "Just, in general, try to act as human as possible." He said to us and we nodded. "And this time Edward, try not to jeopardise anyone's life so that they have to go to the hospital for treatment." Carlisle said, laughing softly.
"Carlisle!" Edward said loudly to him. "That was only because Bella's idiot friend had decided to lose control of his car while Bella was in range! I had nothing to do with it, except that I saved her skin."
"I know Edward, I was joking." He laughed, but Edward glared at him. "Anyway, you'll all be starting school in approximately three months, which will help you, Kristen, to get some time to get through the remaining grief, so you can have a fresh start to the semester." He added, much more seriously.
"Alright, thank you Carlisle." I said.
"And another thing is that Kristen, because you're so used to being among vampires, you'll need to act as human as possible, which means don't use your natural vampiric speed, and because our skin will feel as cold as ice to humans, it would therefore be much more practical to not touch humans whilst you're at school. And don't worry, you'll have the other guys there to look after you and keep you in check." he said to me and I nodded.