Chapter12
Finish
"From that day forward, there was no question in my mind what I was meant to do. I was meant to live, yes, but more than that; I was meant to communicate what I had seen to others. I had been sent a vision from God. A reprieve from death. You ask how I could be a priest? I ask you … how could I not?" Bella looked at him, somewhat astounded.
A vision from God? She knew how it would be considered in this modern era: a vision from the subconscious. Nothing more.
Edward grinned, picking this thought from her mind as he so frequently did.
"Is there any real difference? I woke. I moved. I spoke. Are these things not miraculous?" He paused, looked out the window, seemed to ponder for a moment. He looked back at Bella and shrugged. "People do not survive comas of that duration unfazed. There is brain damage, if not death. Yet I was fine. More than fine; I awoke with the clearest sense of purpose I was ever to feel, until the moment I first laid eyes on you.
"Ten years old, I began my studies. Three years younger than any before accepted to the clergy. Such was my fervour, so substantial my knowledge of the Bible within only a few months from when I awakened, that there was no reason to deny me.
"And oh, how my father despised it …" The words trailed off, a bitter smile at his lips.
Bella was about to speak when the howling began. She jerked around instinctively, knocking a pretty crystal ballerina off the table by her couch. It thumped into the plush oriental carpet, unhurt.
Bella stared out the window. In the reflection of the lamplight she saw Edward shake his head.
He reached down to pick up the figurine, studied it for a moment, set it back on the table. More howling, and Edward looked toward the window again, his eyes full of remorse and pity.
"What is it, Edward? I've heard it before."
"I am Carlisle's son. Rose his daughter. That? That is nothing more than a diabolical experiment. Daughter? How could she be? To say so denotes some sort of humanity, and all of that has been lost." Bella looked at him, confused.
"There's another vampire?"
"There are many others. Of Carlisle's line, though, there is only one more to tell of. One more you have not met. An attempt that should never have occurred. His arrogance …" Edward trailed off. Bella had rarely seen him truly angry, but he appeared so now. He shook his head again.
"Her name was Alice. She seems still to respond to that, so that is what we call her. Aside from the shape of her body, this is the last piece of humanity she retains. I do not know why Carlisle chose to make her.
"After Rose … how he could possibly have expected a normal fledgling, I do not know. I don't think he really did. I think he simply wanted to know what would happen.
"I took the girl from her school. I brought her to him. I did not ask any questions of Carlisle, and am not sure I would have even if I had known what he planned. Not then. Now? Who knows?
"His blood is too powerful. The curse of our line … We make few fledglings, and have a limited window in which to do it. Carlisle was nearly too old when he made me. Yet even after Rose, he gave his blood to this girl. He gave it to her very quickly, nearly drowned her in it, and it destroyed her mind. She is, in some respects, the perfect vampire. Alert, aware, incredibly fast, stronger even than Rose, who is many years her senior." Edward glanced again out the window, then back at Bella, smiling without humour.
"Alice can be counted on for three things. She loves to hunt, she loves to kill, and she loves to – as mortals so callously put it – fuck. It is appropriate terminology. There is no love involved for her."
"Another vampire with an active sex life …" Bella raised an eyebrow.
"It's an uncommon strain, even among our type, but it seems to have lain dormant in Carlisle. He himself is incapable of that mortal act of love. Yet his children, all three of us, are very much alive below the waist. These pleasures pale, of course, to that of feeding, but when mixed together appropriately …" and here he glanced at Bella, "they can be quite pleasurable indeed."
"Will I get to meet Alice?" Edward grimaced.
"Yes. At some point, I suppose, it's inevitable." Bella was contemplating Edward's description of Alice, neither speaking, when she sensed a third presence in the room.
She looked up at Edward, who closed his eyes and sighed. His expression was grim.
At the door stood Rose, and yet not Rose. She looked different, somehow. It wasn't the style of clothes, or the hairstyle. These remained the same. The set of the body, perhaps? There was darkness behind her eyes.
"Hello Rosalie," Edward said without opening his eyes.
"Edward. Come hunting with me?"
"I've already gone."
"Would it have mattered?" Edward shook his head.
"No."
"You never hunt with me." Rosalie's tone was dry, emotionless. She was only stating a fact. Edward glanced up at her.
"I never do."
"But you'll hunt with that perky, jabbering bitch, when she's got control of my body." Edward nodded. "And you'll hunt with this … half-mortal … thing. Someday."
"Enough, Rosalie. Watch your tongue."
"Or what? You'll hurt me? I'll let her back in while you're doing it, Edward. She won't understand. She'll cry." Bella watched all of this, fascinated and amazed by the change in the vampire girl. Even the tone of Rose's voice was different. The vampire turned to her suddenly.
"Quit staring at me, or I'll rip your eyes out with my teeth," The words were almost casual. Bella looked down at the floor, her pale face colouring slightly.
She was not afraid, exactly, but aware that vampire society seemed hierarchal, and not wanting to break any codes of conduct. She assumed it was the right thing to do. The air in the room seemed to go cold.
Edward's anger was palpable. He stood slowly, and Rosalie immediately moved backward a step, glaring, defiant
"I would no sooner do physical violence to you, Rosalie, than I would to Rose. Or Alice. Or Bella. I do not enjoy causing harm to others of my own kind. To anyone. But you will not threaten her, at all, let alone in my presence."
"Who are you to command me, brother?"
"I am not your brother, Rosalie. You are an aberration. A mistake. A product of powerful blood on an unsuspecting brain. That body belongs to Rose. You are merely a parasite that refuses to die."
Rosalie made a snarling cry of outrage and threw herself at Edward. Bella leapt off of her couch, pushing herself into the corner. She didn't want to be watching this.
Surely blood would be spilled. Yet Edward merely caught Rosalie's arms, dragged them to her sides, pulled her face up to his, locked her with his eyes.
"Does that hurt, Rosalie? Do I even need to lay a finger on you, when the truth will do so well?" Edward's voice was still calm, still collected. He seemed almost disinterested.
Rosalie had no answer to his question. Edward let her go, and she slunk back to the doorway.
"Go. Hunt." Edward's tone implied that the dismissal was beyond argument. Rosalie opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, whirled on her heel, and departed. Edward took a deep breath.
"And now you've met Rosalie. What do you think?" Bella shrugged. She returned to her couch, sat down, smiled slightly.
"I think she's a bitch." Edward laughed.
"Yes, a bitch. That's exactly what she is. Such a shame. Rose could have been an incredible vampire. I've never met another whose essential goodness was so utterly untouched by the transformation. In my darker moments, I almost believe Carlisle made her solely to attempt to destroy some of that goodness."
"She doesn't seem like his type. Neither of them do, really. I'm not sure anyone is."
It still seemed foreign to Bella, speaking of "them" when referring to a single body, but she had seen more than enough proof of Rose's dual personalities.
"No, no one truly is, but Rosalie is certainly much closer than Rose. I can't claim to fathom Carlisle, and I've served him for nearly half a century. No, Rose is not what I would have expected from Carlisle. Perhaps he saw in her the potential of Rosalie, and expected the change to bring it out completely. Perhaps it would have, if his blood was not so strong."
Howling again. Bella looked out the window into the night.
"I think I want to meet Alice," she said. "It's weird, knowing she's out there but never seeing her." Edward smiled at this, shook his head.
"No you don't." Bella raised her eyebrows, leaned forward, set her elbows on her knees – giving Edward as ample a view as her chest could provide in the process – and smiled, batting her eyelashes.
"You're not going to let me?"
"No, and if you insist on trying anyway, I will have to stop you." Bella considered this. It was unlike Edward to deny her a requested indulgence.
"Why?"
"Alice is not friendly." No elaboration. No change in Edward's expression
that might have helped to explain his unwillingness to expose Bella to this woman. Bella pressed on.
"I know what she's like. I told you about the dream. I can handle it."
"That was not a dream, Bella. Alice throws off mental images like sparks from a fire. That was very much a real event that you witnessed that night, and I can assure you she's even less pleasant in person."
"I can handle it!" Edward sighed.
"It's not your ability to handle it that I'm concerned with. It's my ability to handle Alice. She doesn't like vampires, other than Rose … or Rosalie, she doesn't seem to know the difference. She tolerates me only because it
is clear that Rose likes me. She will not set foot near Carlisle, although he is the only thing I am currently aware of that she fears."
"So, she may not like me." Bella was unfazed. She had dealt with women who didn't like her before, had knocked out teeth when necessary.
"You do not understand, Bella. Alice is a machine; an engine of destruction. She is built to kill, and she is remarkably capable. If she decides not to tolerate you, she will attempt to kill you. Previous experience has taught me, quite harshly, that even I am not necessarily fast enough to prevent her from doing so. Carlisle's visitors were … quite upset."
Edward pressed his palms against his eyes momentarily, sighed, shrugged. The gesture was oddly human, oddly endearing. Bella smiled.
"Okay, Edward."
"Someday soon, Bella. I promise. But not out in the woods and not unless she's fed. I want her to see you through a window first or, better, a set of bars, before you come face to face."
"Would you cage her?" Edward laughed.
"I don't know if I would. I doubt that I could. Trying to force an ordinary vampire into a cage is hard enough. Alice …" He shrugged, letting the thought carry.
Bella got up, walked to the couch he sat on, and reclined against him. He traced the pink silk of her gown from shoulder to neck with a finger, placed his hand under her chin, and brought her lips to his for a small kiss. Bella sighed.
"I feel so … girly around you," she said at last, laughing at herself. Edward grinned, said nothing, traced the contour of her breast with his fingertips.
He was not looking at her, but rather at her reflection in the window, blurred and indistinct. She watched him watching her, and considered the life they might lead together.
I'm ready, she thought. Bella took a deep breath, asked what she wanted to ask.
"Finish me?" The words seemed to hang in the air for a moment before sinking, given weight by their implication.
"I would not have offered you a choice," Edward said after a moment, "had I been able to do so on the first night. I was … rather arrogant, really, in my desire. Now? Bella, you must mean it with all of your heart and soul."
How can I ever be sure? Bella thought to herself. How could anyone ever be sure?
But what was it that she was leaving behind? Drugs and prostitution, beatings, the constant humiliation heaped upon her by her desperate life. Even if she was free of the drug, now, what else did she have to go back to? There was no home, no money, no support save that which Ben and Angela might offer out of pity.
Did she want to return to a life of picking pockets, shoplifting, breaking into cars? Edward was offering her escape. She was not tempted by the money, the clothes, the fast cars, the expensive furniture. These things mattered little to Bella.
Here though was a chance for love and redemption. Everything she could possibly desire was here in this mansion, on this couch.
The blood was here, and if it held power over her now, half complete and unable truly to taste it as a vampire might, then what might it be like once the transformation was complete?
"Love and lust, passion, need … it is all things, Bella. Yet it is nothing more than another drug in the end. It is not the blood you need to accept. The blood pushes itself upon you regardless, and you will do whatever is necessary to acquire it.
"You ask me to make you a destructive force. A tornado. A fire. A flood. A thing beyond the scope of mortal comprehension, who kills at her whim, because it is her nature to do so." Still quiet, but wasn't she now simply giving Edward the chance to say his piece? She could feel the desire growing within her.
The taste of what he offered: the blood, the escape, the strength to put her past behind her, the possibility of all this and more was intoxicating. Edward's words of caution seemed weak by comparison.
"You will have to kill," Edward said. "Oh, Bella, you'd be such a vampire. Lover, fighter, mother, killer. It's all in you. I sense it. Yet I can no longer blindly force you down this path. You must lead yourself. You …" Bella put her fingers on his mouth, turned her head, locked her eyes with his.
"Edward. Finish me." He paused a moment longer, looking into her eyes as if searching for some fear she might be hiding. Bella knew that all he would find there was truth.
Indeed, Edward smiled at her, and nodded. Strong arms, lifting her, carrying her toward the bedroom. Her arms were around his neck. In this short moment, Bella bid her mortal life farewell.
Pain, anguish, hatred and despair; these were the hallmarks of this life, a dark void lit only by the occasional candle of friendship, an almost non-existent light. What chains bound her to these things?
Bella fled without moving, fled on Edward's feet, toward the bedroom and away from the darkness that had oppressed her since her first memory.
So?
Thoughts?
Reviews?
Thanks guys for the support!
Chantinique
