Chapter 11: Secret


I got worse as time went by. I couldn't hold myself up right and had to lie down. The cannula controlled my breathing to an extent, but there was nothing to be done about my other symptoms: the heartache, the light burning my eyes, the cramping in my abdomen. I was soon curled up in a fetal position, my body shaking with chills and moaning quietly from pain. Rosalie stayed close besides me, though not touching me with her freezing skin. Carlisle was the next closest, though far away as the other Cullens. None of them really knew what to do; they continued to watch me struggle, questions continuing to bubble in their minds. That gave me an idea.

I can answer some of your questions. It will distract me. I told Rosalie. She nodded after a moment, unsure. I relaxed, allowing the thoughts to overcome me momentarily before answering.

The Vercrian are a third breed of vampires, though I compare them more to monsters of hell. Rosalie relays what I say. They are interested in learning more about them, Jasper and Emmett especially.

"Why?" Jasper asked. I raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"I know why, but why are they like that?" he revised. Knowing his talent, I knew he could feel the emotions of the Vercrian they met, or the lack thereof. The loss of emotions, of positive ones anyway,….

The Vercrian can only be created by a truly evil and selfish act. Once they are transformed or 'awakened', as they call it, they lose all positive emotions. They feel nothing but malice and nefarious power. They get off on killing, on torturing. That is why their acts are so gruesome; the more macabre they are, the more powerful they become.

Again, Rosalie relayed my words. The Cullens were disturbed by what I described, not imagining such a creature. But, they also saw what it had done to those people, and to Claire.

"Why are you like this? You said 'too much time had passed' and you were dying…." Alice murmured. I couldn't look at them in the eyes when I answered.

I survive off of both human food and blood, just as the other Sanralae. However, I have not fed in a very long time, which is making me weak, just as with you when you do not feed.

"How often do you feed?" Carlisle asked, intrigued.

I need to drink at least every two or three days; when I was younger, my mother would always have blood on hand because I needed it all the time.

"When was the last time you fed? How long?" he pressed. I didn't answer at first.

The last time I fed was the day before Edward took me to the meadow.

No one knew how to respond to that, shocked and horrorstruck at the amount of time it was. Edward was staring and I met his eyes for a short moment, but he averted his eyes immediately.

"How are you alive?" Esme gasped.

I told you I am neither vampire or human. This is why I have survived. But I can only go for so long. And my current state is the result of starving myself. I can promise you it wasn't intentional, at least in the beginning. I kind of just, forgot, which sound ludicrous. But I was okay on just human food. Plus, I was supposed to act and look as human as possible, so I did. But after last September…well, it went very far down hill then. And by the time you came back, I was in too deep to get out and was too weak to hunt for myself.

They were shocked, and guilty, because their leaving did not help my eating habits. They took it in for a moment before asking another question.

"Why can't you drink from us?" Alice asked.

I am allergic to animal blood, just as humans can be allergic to peanuts or gluten. Because you drink from animals, if I were to to drink from you, your veins would be tainted with animal blood, which provides no nourishment for me. It would similar to you drinking artificial blood from the Halloween store. If you hunted humans, I could get slight relief because there would be human blood in your veins.

They nodded at my response, slightly less confused. Then they asked the one question I did not want to answer.

"You said you were neither human or vampire, but you also said you're both. How is that possible?" Carlisle asked. I sighed heavily, debating on answering.

I do not want to give you that answer. You will not like the truth.

"What do you mean?" Esme asked. I met her gazes painfully.

The truth will hurt you more, and I don't want to do that.

They pushed. "Please. We want to know," they pleaded, relentlessly. Finally, I conceded. Taking a shuddering breath, I answered slowly, begrudgingly.

I am the offspring of the two most powerful vampires on the planet. But I have told you that I am both and neither vampire and human. This makes you wonder because two vampires naturally should produce one vampire offspring, potentially even more vampiric than its parents. However, you also know that vampires are sterile. This is only partially true. Yes, two vampires cannot have children. However, only female vampires are truly sterile. Because the female body must change drastically to accommodate a child, female vampires cannot bear children. However, male humans remain biologically the same from puberty until death. Thus, male vampires that have experienced puberty are capable of producing viable sperm.

I gave them a minute to process this; they were shocked, once again, rocked to the core as what they considered fact was bent and crushed before them. I continued after a moment.

But even still, my mother is sterile as a vampire. So one wonders how she and my father were able to reproduce…I stopped short. They watched me closely, awaiting my answer.

"Tell us," Rosalie pressed. I sighed, my breath shaky.

My parents were able to reproduce because my mother was able to become human again.

None of them moved, and I watched their reactions, Esme's and Rosalie's especially. Esme was shocked, and hopeful. Rosalie's eyes, though, were hard, stone-like, as she realized the important secret I had been keeping from her.

Let me assure you though. It wouldn't have made a difference, Rosalie, Esme. None at all.

"What do you mean, it wouldn't have made a difference?!" Rosalie hissed. She was angry, enraged this had been kept from her, a supposed way out of her vampirism.

There is no way for you to reverse your transformations. If there was, I would have told you.

"You just said your mother was able to turn herself human again!" Rosalie snarled, her black eyes on me. I could feel the rage and worked to calm the situation through my words and thoughts.

Rosalie, the whole reason I came here was for you. If I or my mother knew of a way to turn you human again, we would have told you. She knows that you want that more than anything else, Rose. You know that. But there isn't. And I didn't want to get your hopes up when I knew it was hopeless. Remember, Rosalie, remember that my mother is not the same vampire as you and Esme.

Rosalie stopped growling, but she was not happy, though she was more crestfallen than anything. She relayed what I said. I saw Esme's shoulders slump slightly and I fought tears at getting their hopes up to crush them. No one spoke for a long time. Finally, Alice asked,

"What is your name, if you said it's not Bella?" I took a deep breath, more willing to answer this question than the previous one.

My name is not Bella in that my name is not Isabella. My name comes from the language and culture of my parents, which is centuries upon centuries old. I paused.

My real name is Ila. It is derived from an old legend of our culture where two beings in another realm performed a ritual in order for all women of the world to bear children. The offspring of that ritual was named Ila. In other, younger religious texts, the name is associated with an androgyne, which is fitting because I am neither human nor vampire, but both. My nickname is Bela; it means princess. Combining Ila and Bela sounded like the American Isabella, so it worked. But I couldn't be called by my real name; it is too symbolic of who I am. But Bela, americanized to Bella, would work because I could respond to it without it giving anything away.

The Cullens took this in slowly. But they weren't given much time to react when they froze slightly, listening to something far away, and Cylis stepped forward, who had previously stayed in the background during the discussion.

"Reala, a car has turned into the driveway."


Hey everyone! Again, I know it's short but her mother will be in the next chapter!

Shoutouts: heartstrings13

VIP: sujari6, BridieM, KAT-TWILIGHT75

MVP: kgarrison3, teamwolfaltw

To kgarrison3: I gave a little more detail in regard to your comment about drinking from the Cullens. Hope that helps!

BTW, if any one has question on something that was discussed (NOT stuff yet to be revealed) but the stuff I have introduced and explained, feel free to DM or mention it in a review and I will answer you!

Also, to everyone who is mad at Edward, I'm keeping him at bay deliberately. It's all leading up to a chapter ;) Just be patient :P

Word Phonetics:

*Reala = "Ray-la" (word to describe Ila/Bela in terms of respect; such as saying "Your Highness")

*Ralae = "Ra-Lay" (word to describe the female Sanralae in terms of respect; such as saying "Your Majesty")

*The male Sanralae has one as well, which will be revealed din due time. They all have individual names since there's only three of them.

Ila = "EE-la"

Bela = "Bey-a"

LOVE YOU GUYS! You have no idea how much I love how much you like this story!

~Melinda :)