Path Of the Empath
The disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Twilight or to any of its characters.
Thank you for reading and for reviewing-it means the world to me!
Chapter 11-Waiting
I paced. I walked back and forth endlessly. In fact I felt like Edward. I had on multiple occasions made fun of his silly, impatient habit-but today I understood the need. If Alice was in Denali, how long before she got to Forks and called with some damn answers? When was I going to get to address the fact that my wife had even gone to Denali under the guise of shopping? Why had she felt the need to lie-no that wasn't important. Bella. Bella was the most important issue right now. What the Hell were we going to tell Edward? Hey, Edward! How've you been? We have totally missed you since you exiled yourself from our family. By the way, do you remember that girl that gave your existence a purpose-well, she is dead. Yeah, I know you told us to mind our own damn business-but we decided to stalk visions of her future anyway. Sorry. Are you going to move back home now? That sounded great. Very conducive to his sanity. I paced some more.
Emmett was sitting in the living room watching me pace for a several hours before he left the room, claiming I was making him dizzy. I heard him go upstairs to check on Rosalie. That was another thing. What was her deal? I knew she didn't feel all warm and fuzzy about Bella, or anyone for that matter. But to actually anticipate the fallout that would accompany her death? Honestly I didn't think he would last this long. He has been beyond the realm of depressed for months. The only thing that kept him alive was knowing he was doing the "right" thing for her. If she died, though, he would have no more purpose. I had seen all too well what happens to our kind when they are done existing.
A suicidal vampire is rare, but not unheard of. In my other life-my life of bloodshed and killing I had seen it. Most of the time vampires that were created for war were destroyed after they outlived their usefulness, but once in awhile one survived long enough to be affected by our life. Much like what happens to human war veterans, our kind can be affected by war. After years and decades of fighting for survival in a war they didn't really understand, sometimes they went crazy. Before Viktor, I never considered the possibility of a suicidal vampire.
Viktor was created by my companion Maria around the same time she created me. We fought together for awhile, no one was really friends then-but as far as we could be, we were friends. He hated this life from the second his heart ceased its beating. He knew he was a doomed soul, and that there was no redemption to be found for him. Being a devout Christian before his change probably intensified that part of his depression. He honestly felt that he had lost eternity in paradise with God, to an eternity of life as a bloodthirsty devil. I often tried to lighten his constant sadness and anger with my talent. I could never sustain happiness for him for long though, probably because I was still fairly new to this life myself. To this day I still felt remorse that I hadn't mastered my talent quickly enough to help Viktor. It was silly of course. Intellectually I knew there was nothing I could have done.
We had just won a major battle in Mexico, and gained control over much of the country. We were well fed, high on our power and superiority and unstoppable. Much like myself, Viktor did not share in the glory. Maybe that is what connected us. We became comrades out of a common hatred for the life we were pushed into. He dealt with his feeling much differently than I however. I felt his emotions-he was dead inside, yet he lived on. He had no purpose in this existence and since he believed he was thoroughly damned he saw no reason to continue on his path. Maybe if he thought there was a chance at redemption and heaven, he would have kept living-to regain his worthiness. One day he couldn't take the emptiness anymore and he begged us to kill him. He had already tried it himself, but you can only tear so many of your own limbs off. He was broken inside and out when he asked us to finish the job for him. I couldn't bear to do it, but there was no loyalty amongst us and he quickly found someone who was bored enough that night to do it. I sent him one last wave of emotion as he died-a wave of what I thought redemption felt like. I hope he felt it, because I will never forget what his emotions felt like that day.
Edward's feelings felt too much like Viktor's for my comfort. He was depressed, he thought he had no soul and no shot at heaven. If he didn't have Bella…
No. I couldn't think that way. He had lived for almost a century without ever considering suicide, and without Bella. He had our family, and we were strong. He wouldn't do that to Esme. I don't think he would...
The pacing continued. Still no phone call. Maybe I should get on a plane. I couldn't stand being away from Alice for this long anyway. I could fly into Seattle and have her pick me up on her way to Forks.
No. What if I did that and it caused her to be too late to stop Bella? We had to make sure she was okay. That was more important than my impatience.
What were we going to do if we did save her? Bring her here and wait for Edward to show up? Tell him what happened and that she couldn't be trusted to survive without him? Change her? He would kill each and every one of us.
What were we going to do if we didn't save her? Wait for Edward to stop by? Call him? Pretend we didn't know? He would pull it out of one of our minds eventually. We couldn't spend the rest of eternity reciting poems or translating foreign languages. He was going to find out. And it would be like Viktor.
NO. That will not happen. We would never agree to help him. Even if he wanted to try and find other vampires, I was fairly sure that our family would be able to take down any threat. We were, after all, an uncharacteristically large coven. The six of us could shred any vampire who agreed to help my stupid, stubborn, lovesick brother try to kill himself.
No. Don't think like that. It is immaterial, because Alice is going to find Bella before anything happens. We will fix this.
Edward probably wouldn't call for a few more days…It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight…
Oh shit. The Rocky theme song. That was Emmett's cell phone ringtone. Maybe it isn't Edward…
"Hey Edward! What's up brother?" Emmett sounded nervous, as he answered. Oh shit. I raced up the stairs. Maybe Edward was too self absorbed to notice Emmett's strange behavior.
"What's going on Emmett?" I heard his voice through the receiver. Oh shit.
"Nothing's going on." Good save Emmett, you idiot. I send a wave of relaxation toward him in an attempt to calm his voice and keep him from saying anything suspicious. It did relax him. He started to ramble to Edward a little, but it seemed to throw him off track. Rosalie was watching him intently. Her eyes grew darker every time she heard Edward's empty monotone voice. I felt her exasperation growing by the second. It was growing exponentially with every stupid comment Emmett made. Finally she snapped. She grabbed the phone from Emmett, and before we could stop her she was spilling the whole story about the vision of Bella's death.
"Edward, you sound like shit. It's time to start living again though because there is nothing you can do anymore. Yesterday Alice had a vision of Bella jumping off a cliff-you know to kill herself. So you see, you don't have to worry about her anymore. It's all over and you can move on. You should come home right away and go hunting with—"
He hung up on her. He didn't say one word. Emmett and I snapped to life at the same time. I grabbed the phone and he grabbed her arms.
"Rose, what the Hell was that?" I yelled at her.
"What?" She looked defensive. "He needed to let this situation go-especially if he's not going to be with her. Now he can let it go and get on with his life." She pulled her arms out of Emmett's hands angrily and folded them across her chest.
"Rosalie what makes you think he's going to just let this go? What makes you think he is going to live his life? What? All the wondrous progress he's made without her?" I bit out sarcastically.
"You are over-reacting Jasper. I have known Edward longer than you, and he will get over this and go back to the way things were." She said stubbornly.
I glared at her and hit redial. I had to talk to Edward. I had to tell him…something. It rang and rang. He was ignoring me. I left a message and then called right back again. Then again, and again after that. Then someone answered. It wasn't Edward though. It was someone with a distinct Spanish accent. It was different than the Spanish I had picked up during my time in Mexico-but I got the gist. The person had found the phone in a garbage can. In Rio.
