Clockwork

Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight; I'm just playing with it for a while.

Ch. 12: Victoria

VPOV

Never, since my human days, had the world held so much wonder. I'd known that had been a portentous meeting when I ran into the gargantuan vampire, Emmett Cullen, while I carried my changing mate away from the site of her "accident." The mammoth male led us back to his family's permanent home in the area. My mate screamed as the venom fire spread and it stopped me from dwelling on the just how nice the concept of a permanent home truly was. I hadn't started out in my second life as a nomad but James' and Laurent's trickery had forced me into becoming a wanderer.

The first thing my guide and I noticed as we neared the back of the Victorian mansion, whose entire back wall was made of glass, was two vampires that attempted to put out a wall fire with a third guarded Edward. I'd only met him once but that was enough to understand the kind of monster he truly was. Emmett directed me to place my changing mate in the first bedroom on the right on the second floor and when I returned to help the others, my gigantic benefactor had disappeared into the basement where I heard two other vampires as well as a labored breathing. I assisted the others in putting out the flames then together we all cleared up the mess while the bronze haired mind reader was restrained by a scarred blonde vampire that had obviously fought in the Southern Vampire Wars. After a while, another blonde male vampire came up from the basement and motioned for all of us to be seated.

"Bella is stable now and I will up to check on our changing guest after we take care of introductions and explanations. I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen and the others are my wife, Esme, my daughter, Alice, her mate – my son, Jasper and the one he is currently detaining is my former son, Edward. You already met my son, Emmett and my daughter, Rosalie and her mate, Bella are downstairs in the lab," he explained and I was unable to contain my shock when I heard his title. Never in my wildest fantasies after I started this new existence had I thought a vampire doctor was possible. Despite his conscious effort, I was still able to hear a slight trace of London in his voice.

"My name is Victoria Albright and, while the nature of this meeting is unusual, I am pleased to meet you," I replied formerly in my native Coventry cadence. The doctor simply arched an eyebrow at both the formality and my accent. I followed my introduction with a brief account of my time with James and Laurent along with how the three of us were associated with Edward and the sick game the three men played once a year with a random human. Of course, the sick bastard tried to deny everything but apparently Jasper, an empath, detected his deception.

The next the several minutes where filled with hostile glares and hissed that were directed toward the disgraced member of their coven. When tempers were reigned in, Carlisle flashed upstairs to check on my mate then returned and all eyes settled back on me.

"How did you get tangled up with mixed up with this James and Laurent and why didn't you just leave them," the pixie-like vampire, Alice asked before anyone else could open their mouths.

I drew in a deep but unnecessary breath then told my story, "My grandfather had been a minor Lord whose wife gave birth to two sons, Albert – the eldest and Thomas – my father. As custom dictated, my uncle was set to inherit the family title so Papa parlayed his father's influence into a successful career in the Army. He met my mother while he was stationed in India and they were married a year later. Papa retired a Major and returned to Coventry with his wife; I am the youngest of their four children.

"My Uncle Albert never married and squandered the family fortune so there was nothing left when my father inherited the title upon his death. Papa had a keen mind and wisely invested his pension along with my mother's dowry but it was two years before our family reaped the benefits. In the meantime, my siblings and I were sent off to live with various distant relations. My mother arranged for me to stay with a cousin that worked as a typist in London. Eleanor taught me the skill and eventually found me a position with H.G. Wells.

"Mr. Wells paid me well for my services and I sent most of my stipend back home to my parents. Being both a journalist and novelist, he often required my services at odd hours; I never knew what I would be working on at any given time. While returning home late one evening after transcribing some notes, I was grabbed then pulled into a waiting carriage. Unable to scream because my mouth was covered, I was at the mercy of the unknown assailant. The door of the coach was ripped off then everything became a blur and the last thing I remembered were teeth biting into my throat. After that I was lost in the fire of the change."

After a brief pause, I continued, "Three days later, I awoke to my second life and found myself in a cottage in the country then my maker, Chelsea Volturi, made her presence known. She taught me the laws and eventually became my lover when we learned that her gift did not work on me; she theorized that my own gift made me immune to hers. We were together for my newborn year and six months after before she returned to Italy. I returned to London where I fed off criminals. One night, James and Laurent found me as I was draining a pimp that liked to brutalize his girls for fun.

"Between the two men, they managed to make me believe traveling with them would be an adventure. It wasn't long after we made it to America that I learned they were just interested in my gift. When I tried to leave, they beat, bound then starved me until the thirst made me compliant. In total, I tried to escape their clutches on four times; each one ended the same way as the first. The three of us met Edward around 1928 and he joined us for a time. The three sadistic men made me sick with their hunting habits but eventually, the mind reader decided to return home but promised to meet up with us once a year for a special hunt.

"I want you to understand that I never took part in their depravity but wasn't able to stop it either. The first time I tried, they threatened to rape me and I knew that it would be horrific when they did."

Edward growled at me but his empathic brother stopped him with a wave of lethargy that knocked him out. I finished my story by talking about how the mind reader had called us to help him get to Bella. The other vampires looked at me with dark expressions and Carlisle ordered the bronze haired fiend to be dismembered until his final punishment was decided. The parts were placed in different rooms then the Cullen's told me about their diet along with their history. I was stunned with some of what they explained, especially about Bella; that was something that I needed to see before I believed it. With the conversation over for the moment, I checked on my mate – whom I learned was named Angela then made my way into the basement.

It wasn't Emmett and Rosalie building a clockwork heart that turned me into a believer but the brunette lying on a nearby table with her chest opened to reveal the machinery inside that was not something that could be denied. In spite of the gravity of the scene before me, memories of all those times spent listening to Mr. Wells and his associates discuss their visions of the future flashed before my eyes. Excitement coursed through my body as I realized the prone girl, Bella, was the living embodiment of those dreams and for the first time in decades I found myself looking forward to whatever may come with Angela by my side. Thoughts of my changing mate had me flash back the way I'd come then headed to the room she currently occupied.

Dr. Cullen had been checking her vital signs when I entered the room. He quickly finished his examination then left us alone. I paused just long enough to kiss my mate's forehead then sank into a chair before I sank into a chair and held her hand. It was going to be a long couple of days and there was no way that I would leave her side.

AN: Next Chapter – Ang and Bella wake up.