"On or off, Edward?"
He turned the key and started the Jaguar purring. It seemed a little ridiculous that we were going to drive the 2.8 miles from our driveway to Moira's up the hill, and in two cars nonetheless. We could run the distance in a minute flat. But, the weather toward dusk had migrating from drizzle to wet snow, and Alice demanded that our new clothes not be subjected to the elements so quickly. So, Edward, Bella, Alice, Jasper and I loaded into Esme's car, and the others into Carlisle's Mercedes.
"On or off what?" Edward returned as he adjusted the rearview mirror and backed out of the garage.
"You- do you want to be on or off?"
He cast her a sideways grin.
"Is there a way for you to turn me off? You always turn me on."
Jasper groaned, and I rolled my eyes. Bella just gave him a kid hit in the arm.
"Focus, darling. I mean your head. Moira's thoughts are uninterruptable for you, anyhow, but I'm sure Mathias' will be blaringly loud."
This he seemed to ponder sincerely as he turned up our drive and accelerated.
"Let's start with on," he returned as he waited for the gate to open. "Let me hear if he's still plotting against Jacob's best interest, or if he's still salivating over my daughter. If I think his thoughts are too disturbing or explicit for me to remain calm, I'll signal you to shut me down."
"Let's come up with a code word," Bella suggesting, finding an opportunity to turn this into a game.
"A codeword?" Edward grimaced. "You've been reading those spy novels during class again, haven't you?"
"Never caught once," she smiled. "High school is so much easier the second time through, and with superhuman abilities. It has to be a word that you could easily work into a conversation, but not one that you would usually say under normal circumstances."
"How about 'rutabaga'?" Alice suggested.
"How would 'rutabaga' ever come up in conversation?"Jasper queried, looking askance at Alice. Even he sometimes didn't follow her logic.
"Discussions of a vegetarian life style, of course," Alice concurred.
"Fine, rutabaga it is," Edward agreed.
Moira's house was set much closer to the road than ours, and had no gate. The reason seemed obvious; this house was much older, dating back at least a century. Frenchmen's Fork was probably nothing more than a driveway to this home before ours was built. I guessed that living five miles off the main road was far enough away to ensure privacy.
I crawled out of the car struggling against the folds of my new floor length leather skirt and teal silk blouse as I slid across the back seat. I looked like a medieval beer maiden. But, it made Alice happy, so I guess I could pull it off for one night.
I had only seen the house from the back, and could make out some of the top part of the Victorian structure over the trees when looking out my bedroom window. I had not been prepared for its size or grandeur. The main structure rose three stories, but the tower rose over the front portico another two. It must have been this I was seeing over the trees, and had assumed that the rest of the house was as diminutive in its width. The term 'mansion' seemed an understatement. This was a palace. Did only two people really live here?
I gasped, and I wasn't alone. We all seemed awe-struck by the structure, except Edward. I guessed that following the boathouse incident, he had been doing some detective work. Perhaps he had even let himself in, and explored the house. Then again, Moira was an unknown quantity, not to mention that killing Mathias in certain moods might have proved too much a temptation for him. No, he probably had just peeked in all the windows.
"Let's not gawk," Carlisle suggested, and took Esme on his left arm and me on his right, leading us up the front steps to an oak door framed on all sides with Victorian stained glass windows. Alice had gone overboard with all of our attire. Though Esme did look heartbreakingly beautiful in her new gown and Carlisle dashing in his black Armani suit, I wondered if we were being a little too formal. What if we walked in and Moira was in jeans and Mathias was in sweat pants?
"Vampires tend towards the eccentric," Edward said, reading my dilemma. "Even if they are dressed down, this won't seem so out of place to Moira."
"So you think Moira is a vampire, too?" I asked quickly as Esme reached out ring the doorbell. The echo of carillon bells rang out through the crisp air and echoed off the hillside. They must not receive many visitors, I mentally noted. We would have been able to hear this sort of clang from our house for certain.
"I don't know what she is, but I know she's something like us more than she's unlike us," he answered.
The human-paced thumping of feet passing over hardwood floors registered in my ears. Mathias! Argh. I felt like hiding, ducking to the back of our party behind Emmett so I would be the last one seen. Esme kept me stationed.
"Be brave, Nessie," she reassured me. "After all, he's just a boy."
I swallowed. Hard.
He opened the door, and his blue eyes drank me in as though I had been served on a platter for just him. I saw him shudder, and wondered if it was from the cold air rushing into the house, or from the hot breathes escaping from my mouth. We were not overdressed: he looked irresistible in a dark blue blazer, teal dress shirt and sandy brown tie. How quaint, we matched.
I swallowed harder.
Alice would get her up commence later on.
Nessie, stop ogling him. Be respectable. It wouldn't be so hard if he would just rip those eyes out of his head. Then he couldn't gaze into mine this way.
"Ren, you look… wow," is all he could say for a moment.
Wow, Mathias, speechless.
"Rutabaga!" Edward shouted. "For the love of mercy, Bella, rutabaga!"
Mathias' gaze was drawn over my shoulder to the smoldering face of my father shouting out the name of a random vegetable. It probably wasn't worth it to explain.
Well, at least it broke the tension.
"You must be Mathias," Carlisle said, taking his arm from my side and presenting his hand.
"Dr. Cullen," Mathias nodded, shaking his hand in turn and recomposing himself. He turned towards Esme, "Mrs. Cullen."
He swung the door fully open and motioned for us to enter. I drifted to the side and allowed the procession of couples to enter first. Left outside on the porch along, Mathias stepped out and offered me his arm. I looked at him confused for a moment.
"Just trying to be a gentleman, milady," he explained.
I cautiously hooked my arm around his, moving slowly, remembering Esme's warning. It had been awhile since I touched a human purposefully with benign intentions. The last one was Charlie. Mathias was pleased, though he tried to hide it miserably. His smile at receiving me on his arm brimmed from ear to ear. I wondered how many times he had imagined a scenario just like this.
"Moira apologizes for not being able to greet you properly," he announced as he closed the door behind us. "She's on a phone call, and will join us shortly."
I stretched my ears to hear her. If she were in the house, I should be able to make out her voice. Finally, I placed it, somewhere on the third floor, conversing in very hushed tones, in what I thought might be Arabic. I would have to remember later to ask Edward or Alice. Mathias pulled suggestively on my arm, leading me through the throng of my family and into the foyer. I could feel the weight of their eyes on us: what was I doing strolling along side him locked arm in arm?
"I suppose offering you something to drink seems out of place?" Mathias asked.
"Sure, but you'll have to take off the tie," Emmett chuckled. Rosalie quickly swapped him upside the head.
"Emmett," Carlisle rebuked.
"Well, how often do I get to make that kind of joke?" he defended himself. "Since Bella, who do I get to tease?"
"You'll have to forgive our son," Esme apologized as we all found seats in the armchairs of the foyer. "He sometimes lets his sense of humor get away with him."
"No offense?" Emmett asked to appease Rose and Esme.
Mathias lowered me into an armchair between Edward and Bella. "None taken. I thought it was funny, actually. And it's hardly the worst one told at my expense."
Emmett turned to Rosalie with a look of a badgered puppy. "See, he got the joke."
Rosalie just let out a sigh. There was no changing Emmett.
My eyes began to drink in the room. I had never seen so many antiques in one place. The foyer was like the reception room of some old world dynasty. I was no great lover of art, but by virtues of my study, I recognized a Ming Vase some five feet high in the corner, with a bust of Aphrodite sitting on a column next to it. The back wall was the most intriguing. There were metal crosses of some sort, some 30 of them, arranged at random, each 10-20 inches tall and 6-15 inches across, made of either metal or stone. On the left and right framing them were also two tall ornamented swords, each crescent-shaped and five feet long.
"What an impressive collection of ankhs," Esme noted, looking in the same direction as I. Everyone else turned and gazed too. "The scimitars, though… Arab?"
"That one is Ottoman, actually," Mathias answered as he pointed to the bigger and more decorative of the two. "Moira likes to keep mementos."
"But those ankhs must be hundreds of years old," Edward debated.
"We spent part of this summer in Egypt, these are mostly mementos of that dig," Mathias explained.
He was lying. And he wasn't very good at it.
"Actually, that's not entirely true."
We all turned in unison to the far side of the room to find the source of the quickly beating human heart. Moira entered, taking all attention away from the wall, her eyes as beautifully creamy jade as always. She was dressed in an embroidered cotton wrap top with Indian accents and dark pants, and walked soundlessly through the foyer with bare feet. She took the right scimitar off the wall and handed it to Jasper, who had risen to get a better look. Then we all felt obliged to gather closer and crowd around the display, looking at the curiosity.
"Some of the anks are actually from digs in Egypt, but this scimitar dates from the 1520's, and was presented to me by Suleyman the Magnificent himself," she explained. "A treasure such as this would be impossible to just stumble across. Mathias, they are a little smarter than that."
Mathias' checks stained red with embarrassment. It was nice for once to see him lacking confidence. As Jasper studied the sword in greater detail, going over it with kid gloves, Moira turned toward the rest of us.
"You must be Dr. and Mrs. Cullen," she said, holding out her hand. "I'm Moira Arrashk-Moretti."
"Please, Carlisle."
"Esme."
"Of course," Moira continued, turning towards the rest of us. "I already know Emmett and Jasper from class, as well as Ren."
"My wife, Rosalie," Emmett presented. Rosalie took the hand reluctantly. It was clear to see she was still uncomfortable with the mystery of Moira. Rosalie was always the hardest to win over.
"I'm Alice, Jasper's wife," Alice presented herself. Jasper was still too engrossed with the scimitar to bother.
"A pleasure to meet you both," she smiled. She turned toward the last two members of our family.
I felt obligated to be the one to present Edward and Bella. But, how to present them? What to call them?
I decided I didn't want to hide the truth from Moira. I wanted her to know, to know me, to know all about me. I wanted her to be my friend, my confidante. I neededit. Since Edward was mentally blocked by Bella, he would not suspect that I was to reveal our family's most carefully guarded secret.
"Moira," I smiled, putting my arms behind them and gently pushing them forward. "These are Edward and Bella Cullen, my… parents."
"As I've suspected," Moira answered, shaking their hands. Bella's face was a clear combination of concern and surprise. "My dear, you don't live as long as I have and not come to recognize a few things. Besides, she has your eyes."
"My eyes?" Bella asked, automatically reaching up to her face and brushing her hand past her amber pupils.
"Well, the way I imagine your eyes must have looked…before," Moira added. "But there can be no doubt the she is her father's daughter."
I wasn't sure if Edward was upset, or shocked, or both. Moira's voice was gentle; there was no hint of an ulterior motive in her tone.
"Please, won't you all sit down? For Mathias' sake, so he doesn't feel obligated to stand about so."
Moira had a talent for being deceptively cool, but I wondered at the detached fashion that she used in addressing Mathias, almost as if he was the hired help who was waiting in the wings for instruction. She was as busy studying us as we were her; yet, she never looked directly at Mathias. He, of course, was too busy memorizing my features to note this, if it was noteworthy at all. Their relationship was untraditional. No matter what Moira was, she wasn't human. Having a human in her midst must have been the source of some struggle for her. Had she ever been tempted by his blood? It occurred to me that even the references they made to each other were indicative of this relationship, he calling her "mother", she calling him her "ward."
"Carlisle?" Esme questioned. He was staring at Moira. More specifically, he was staring at Moira's eyes. I knew the attraction.
"Amazing," he breathed. "I've never seen that shade of eye before, Dr. Arrashk."
"Of course, you must call me Moira, Carlisle. Yes, well, amber isn't so common either," Moira quipped. "I'm accustomed to vampires' eyes being crimson or black, but not amber."
"Animal blood, it stains the eyes differently," Edward answered stoically.
He was trying to judge for himself if this was an amiable occasion, or if there was reason to be aloof. Edward had gotten too in the habit of finding daggers everywhere. I'd wish he'd just relax, and let me get to know her. I had waited six weeks for a chance to ask my questions. I would get answers.
Silence. Please, somebody say something.
"Your home is very beautiful." Thank god, Esme. "Have you lived here long?"
"Thank you." Moira glanced around her, taking an admiring view of her surroundings. "Actually, I've owned it for years. I bought it from the school in 1958, when they built the new building on the other side of the lake. This was the original Bridgeport school, you see, from 1884. I used it mostly for storage of my… what was that word you used, Mathias, momentos?Mathias and I only moved in three years ago when I took a job at the school. "
"And where were you before then?" Edward asked, his voice a little edgy with suspicion.
"Well, Mathias and I lived in Cairo for a couple years, and in London before that. "
"Yeah, that wasn't a traumatic childhood move," Mathias scoffed. "From bitter cold Kensington to blazingly hot Zamalek."
"All in your best interests, my dear," said Moira, smiling at her ward. "And what of you, Esme? What brought you to the Lock?"
I felt eight pairs of eyes quickly shift to me, and just as quickly shift away, ashamed.
"It served our best interests," Edward answered cryptically on our behalf.
"Of course, it was not my intention to pry," Moira apologized, looking down at her hands, wringing them. "It's just a little peculiar to me, you see, that the second biggest coven of vampires I have even seen in my existence should move in next door, and bring a female hybrid along. I am ashamed to say, I at first thought the worse of it."
Her voice grew shaky. Was she about to cry? Her eyes did look unexpectedly wet, but I could see no tears. Bella shot daggers at Edward as a reprimand for his rudeness. Mathias for the first time pulled his eyes off me threw them to Moira. He arose from his armchair and rushed to her, leaning in front of her , squatted on the floor and cupping his hands over hers.
"We don't need to do this," he whispered lovingly to her, kissing the backs of her hands. "Your circumstances are none of their concern."
"Mathias, my dear one." It seemed her heart had melted. Perhaps I had misinterpreted her before. She placed her hand tenderly on his cheek. "What of your belief in fate? Would not fate be the very cause of this odd turn of events? I will not endure in this silence any longer, seeing her every day, knowing the danger she is in and holding my tongue. I cannot stand idly by. It's only a matter of time before theyrealize the danger she is. And when they do, they will destroy them all. Look at them."
She tilted Mathias' face towards us, our expressions full of the unease of her words.
"They are good people. They are a loving family," she continued, speaking only to him. "How would I live with myself if I did not share with them what I know, and then learn later on they were destroyed because I wanted to stay hidden? How selfish of me. And here, I thought you told me Ren was your destiny? Wouldn't you want me to save her, then, even if it put my own life in danger?"
Mathias nodded. I observed a single tear streaking down his cheek.
"Moira, we do not expect you to share anything with us against your self-preservation," Carlisle advised. "We have and we will continue to respect your privacy, if that's what you desire."
"I have been ready to die for millennia, Carlisle," she stated, gathering back the determination in her voice. "But I am not dead. I survive, in some ways. Mathias believes in fate, in destiny. He believes all things line up long before we are ever born, and we ride along like fallen leaves on a stream. I have not always agreed with him, but in this case I must. Renesmee is unique- a human-vampire hybrid- afemalehuman-vampire hybrid. Few minds have memories stretching back as far as mine. They do not remember just how special such a being is. But I do. It is only a matter of time before the truth is discovered, and then they will come for her. They will come to destroy her. And fate has led her to me, so that I can defend her. Just as it led me to Mathias, so that I could keep him safe from them as well. And then, it brings them together, in the same town, the same school, the same classroom. How could I deny that?"
"Save me from whom?" I asked, feeling frightened for one of the few times in my life.
But I didn't need her to answer. I knew who the threat was. I knew it before I had ever met her, or killed a man, or watched my grandfather die in the street.
"The Volturi, my child."
Edward was on his feet and poised defensively before me almost before the words had fallen from her lips. He hissed and growled. Moira reacted by taking the same poster against Mathias, and hissing and growling back just as threateningly Her eyes began blackening over, and her skin grew pale.
The rest of us were shell shocked. We had all known that their pinging on our lives had never ceased. Still, we had lived nearly seven peaceful years since their first attempt on us. We had always suspected there would be a second.
"Edward, calm down," Bella pleaded, leaping to her feet and pulling at his arms. Emmett arose as well, and assisted her with restraining him. Jasper moved to his side, and Edward's countenance relaxed, pulling his snarl back into a lull. Moira likewise let down her guard, her eyes and skin retreating back.
"No more games, Moira, speak!" he demanded, still able to leak his anger past Jasper's coat of calm as Bella sat him back into an armchair. "What are you?"
"There is no word for what I am in the modern tongues of man," was all Moira said. "In my times, we were called anacktumai."
"But, you are vampire, too," Bella went on.
"I'm somewhat like your daughter, a hybrid of sorts," Moira answered.
I knew it.Even in this heavy moment, I couldn't help but feel a momentary justification for my pride in my prediction.
"Only... I think, she was born a hybrid," Moira returned. "This is not unheard of. Rare, but possible. What I cannot figure out is how did you survive, Bella?"
"It was very difficult," Carlisle added from behind us. "Bella nearly died. Even I did not think she would survive the transformation at first. But Edward acted quickly and with such diligence. He injected venom directly into her heart, and performed CPR until it took. Then the transformation happened very fast- less than two days."
"That's impossible; Renesmee would not have survived a venom injection at such a young age."
There was something so certain in her voice, so determined of her veracity, that Edward grew quite concerned. He suppressed any remnants of his rage and defensiveness and addressed Moira civilly.
"The injection was given right afterRenesmee was delivered," he assured her. "Why, Moira? Why would it have been impossible for her to survive?"
"Because she is a female hybrid," she answered, as though that explained it. She met our blank expressions and continued. "Ren, is your bite venomous?"
"No, deadly, but clean," I answered. I had never considered this significant. That is, no more significant than any other of my irregularities that had me walk the constant line between human and monster. Between beauty and beast.
"And has any vampire ever bitten you?" she continued.
"No, of course not."
I looked around at my family, giving them a supportive smile. I did not think that she had indicted them specifically, but I didn't want any moment of doubt to pass in their minds.
"Of course they have not, indeed, they all are still alive," she said, looking at them as well.
"I don't follow," I said confused. But I did. It just didn't make sense. It couldn't make sense.
It. Was. Impossible.
"Our blood," Moira said, placing her hand sympathetically on my shoulder," is different from either human blood or vampire venom. If the venom is the disease, we are the cure. Our blood is the anti-venom."
"Don't you see, Ren?" Mathias emerged from behind Moira, bracing my other shoulder. "You and Moira are the same. You're both anucktumai- vampire killers."