Disclaimer:
Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight
Morgan Locklear owns a Peruvian nose flute (sounds dreadful when I attempt to play it)
Chapter Fourteen:
West of the Moon
Pink evening water in Heartwell Lake reflected Carlisle and his equine company as they camped out for the night. He had wanted to push on towards Greenville, but it was hours away and the lush countryside looked like the perfect place to watch the moon pass overhead.
Carlisle needed little by way of provisions but he purchased plenty of food and water for the road anyway. He obtained a few bags of oats for the horses, and with all the extra space in the empty carriage he could have bought dozens more.
The horses were allowed to graze on the dark rich grass and disturb the smooth surface of the lake. Carlisle sat on a nest of blankets and furs he placed just within reach of a stern oak that filtered the last shreds of sunlight into his modest camp.
He assumed that by this time his companions had arrived in New York, and that his wife was also back in the country. He laced his fingers behind his head and watched the stars appear in little clusters, enjoying the peaceful moment in an otherwise fast-paced year.
After he tethered the horses for their safety, he ate peaches from a jar along with some deer jerky. Then he took a quick look at the backs of his eyelids.
The wind picked up in the morning hours and Carlisle turned his back to it. Under the tree the horses nuzzled each other, their velvety ears touching.
By false dawn the weather was positively sour and Carlisle was considering the possibility that he could lose an hour wondering if he was ever going to fall asleep. He knew the horses were awake; they were snorting at the brisk morning and stomping the last of the clover. They seemed downright agitated.
Carlisle opened his eyes after he heard the click.
"Don't move Dr. Craven." Nicholas was pointing a shotgun at Carlisle, his curled mustache shuddering in the near constant gusts of wind. "I would prefer not to kill you at the moment, but if left with no alternative…" He allowed his prone prisoner to complete the thought.
Carlisle nodded his head slowly to communicate his understanding. Some small part of him wanted to laugh at the absurdity that he could be shot by someone who did not even know his name.
"Good work, Nicholas." Jeremy was climbing into the carriage. Carlisle instinctively flinched, but the gun was raised to his eyebrows and he settled back down.
"Your vampire friends traveled in this carriage during the day?"
Carlisle nodded.
"Hitch up the horses."
Carlisle was allowed to rise, and under trained gun prepared the animals for travel. Rebecca huffed in his face and Carlisle was so focused on his task he did not respond. She nudged him with her nose then and commanded his attention.
She huffed again.
He huffed back.
She twitched her ear and huffed again.
He huffed back. He looked into one of her bark brown eyes.
She stomped her foot as if to remind him that she had tried to warn him.
"I know," Carlisle acknowledged and saw that Nicholas was already on the bench, waiting with one of Carlisle's blankets wrapped around his shotgun.
He climbed up and cleared his throat. "Where to?"
"Where are your friends? The ones who killed Senna?" Nicholas demanded.
Carlisle cleverly answered quickly, a touch too quickly. "New York."
Nicholas rapped him hard with the wrapped gun. "Don't lie to me! Where are they?"
Carlisle sighed heavily. "Boston."
Nicholas smiled. "Drive."
Carlisle breathed a little easier. He felt like Nicholas and Jeremy had won the first round but he had won round two. They had him in their power, but he was not who they wanted.
And he would make sure that they never found who they wanted.
The group of vampires hidden among wrapped tree roots in the low but large stone chamber directly below the garden suddenly froze. The area also stretched below both wings of the theatre but the group had to stop moving the moment they heard Michael speak above them.
They were highly intelligent but deeply sheltered vampires, who even after being given their independence over a hundred years before, had remained in Michael's shade.
They communicated with their eyes as they listened to the heated exchange above them between Michael and Edward.
Boston was so big that he had to scoot forward on his behind and remained seated while the others either knelt or stooped. They stood in two groups slightly apart but close enough to see each other's expressions.
After Michael delivered his ultimatum and left, they remained still and quiet for a while. It was Emmett who finally stood up with the floor piece raised over his head.
"Why don't you ask God for help?" They all looked over at Emmett's lower half as he climbed out of the enormous planter.
Edward had not been expecting a suggestion like that, and coming from Emmett, it meant Bella's salvation. She would be able to hear a message from Emmett's God voice and perhaps assist in her discovery and rescue.
That is if Emmett could forgive him.
Surprise was painted on Edward's face like clown make-up. He blinked sense into himself and swallowed hard as he regretted every decision he had ever made concerning Emmett.
As he took in a breath to say his friend's name, Edward was weakened by a shudder that shook fool earned tears from his overwhelmed eyes.
"Emmett..." He did not get far before being walloped again by emotion. He had to wait out several stinging tears on already raw cheeks. "…I know you can talk to God."
Emmett was not expecting the statement, and certainly not from someone in such an emotional state, but he answered quickly.
"I can." He nodded his head like someone had just asked if he could saddle a horse, or suture a laceration.
"Do you think you could get Him to help me?" Edward's request came out in a gush of words and water.
Emmett had never seen Edward so distraught. It was more unsettling than he would have guessed to see someone like Edward so torn down.
Emmett drew his friend to him, put an arm around his shoulder and walked out into the cool garden. They stood near the chess board while Emmett walked around the pieces and asked a few questions.
"You mean to say that you can hear when God is talking to me?"
"Yes. And so does Bella."
"Well, what does He say?"
Edward's lip trembled as he realized that he was about to explain how he had witnessed Emmett's abuse and done nothing to help. "I have heard Him tell you both wonderful and horrible things, Emmett." Edward considered a few examples. "When we were on La Touraine, we stopped Jacob from beating you in the race because of the threats we heard in your head."
Emmett reacted as if he were slapped in the face. He looked at the open garden doorway when a face appeared in it, floating on a smudged body. Lawrence had just crawled out from under their very feet and nodded to the two men before pulling the door closed. Edward could hear the concern in their minds as they followed one another down the tower stairs. He let his new guests and their thoughts mix with the surf of New York's serenade.
Emmett needed the distraction because he was so completely upturned by the truth that Edward, and indeed the entire group, must have known all along.
In that moment he was a child who had been cruelly kicked. His face softened and he soaked up moonlight with embarrassment in his eyes.
"Does Rosalie know?" It was the first question he could formulate.
"No." Edward shook his head, remembering the close call when Jacob was on the street talking to Michael while the rest of them watched from the top floor of the tower. "Neither do my parents."
"What do you want from Him?" Emmett nervously picked up the knight piece; the head of the horse was just as big as a real one and twice as heavy. He had prayed every day of his life and was merely offering Edward some friendly advice. As a result, Emmett entered into a conversation he had hoped would never take place.
"I don't know yet," Edward stated honestly. "I need to find her voice first and then we will have to devise a message to send her."
Emmett put the horse piece back down, backwards. "You can hear Bella too?"
"I can hear everyone," Edward confessed. "All the time."
Emmett opened his mouth and then closed it. "Does anyone else talk to God?"
"Of course." Edward understood what Emmett was really asking, but Emmett clarified his point.
"Does God answer anyone else?"
"No, not in that way."
Emmett looked puzzled. "In what way?"
"Prayers are answered every day," Edward answered, "but no one else has a conversation where I can hear both sides."
"Edward?" This was the question Emmett was not sure he wanted answered. "Am I insane?"
"Michael is insane," Edward replied. "You are an angel, and you will be the one who winds up saving Bella's life. I know it. Can He hear me right now? Can He talk to me?"
Emmett waited, they both did.
Nothing.
"Maybe later," Emmett said softly.
"I lied right to your face, Emmett. I should have found a way to tell you that I knew about your gift."
"But you were worried," Emmett offered. "And you always had Bella to control me."
"Please don't look at it like that."
"Why not? It's the truth, and anyway, I don't blame you." Emmett looked away. "You must have thought that I was out of my dingy."
"We were scared for you, Emmett. Sometimes God is cruel."
"Well," Emmett looked around, as if there might be someone else with them in the garden. "I'm beginning to suspect that it's not God."
"Then who is it?" Edward was hopeful upon hearing Emmett's suspicion.
"I think it's the Devil."
The sun was orange and occupied the western sky as the massive ship, The City of New York, pulled up to one of the outside docks on Ellis Island. It was far too large to enter the part of the man made island.
The ship drew quite a crowd and the captain was immediately prevailed upon to sail around Manhattan before the sun set in order to show New York's citizens their namesake.
Many stayed aboard for the tour and the chance to wave at all the people reportedly gathered on the Brooklyn Bridge, but Jacob, Rosalie and Esme decided to disembark with the porter's assurance that their belongings would be gathered for them later that evening.
"I'll have plenty of time to hire a wagon for the rest of our things," Jacob stated as their sparsely attended ferry nestled into a dock on Manhattan's cheek. "They won't be back until after dark."
"Let's walk up to the theatre," Rosalie suggested. "We've been cooped up on that ship for a week and I want to stretch my legs."
Both Jacob and Esme looked shocked - even horrified. She could already imagine one of them saying that someone in her condition should not be walking. She had only suffered through one meal of their coddling and was already close to mutiny.
"How many times have we heard Papa telling preg…" She stopped herself, remembering the promise she made over lunch concerning appropriate words in public. "…women in my condition to walk as much as they could? He says it's evolution that the baby grows when we're upright, it's in all the medical journals." Rosalie had availed herself of a discarded copy of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal that very day and she knew they both saw her reading it.
"Fine by me." Jacob trusted that Rosalie knew what was good for her and rather liked the idea of taking a stroll.
"We will still get to the theatre before they can even leave to meet us." Esme smiled. "We can surprise them!"
Rosalie chuckled and shook her head. "My brother will hear us coming up Broadway."
They went up Sixth Avenue, past the Jefferson Market Courthouse and all the department stores along the Ladies Mile, which ran from 18th to 23rd Street.
Jacob bemusedly admired the ladies' restraint as they kept their feet moving and only allowed their eyes to stray on window displays. As it turned out, he also saw quite a few things any gentleman might enjoy. Regular cigar stores announced their presence with the tangy aroma of happy hobbyists loitering around their favorite tobacconist. There were also food venders nearby to quickly reclaim the air with their contribution to the evolving city steam.
They turned right when they reached Macy's department store and Herald Square, and they could all immediately see the theatre from two blocks away.
Rosalie smiled and her face was washed with sunlight as she walked in the great pale yellow streaks painted along the sidewalks of 34th Street. In that moment, Jacob fell even more in love with her.
Walking up the stone steps to the front doors of the theatre, Rosalie took in a deep breath through her nose. She had missed the smell of the always shaded stone. The round stained glass windows that sat in each of the four wooden doors to the lobby were brightly backlit by the sun treated room.
The thick grey windows sent the harmful heat rays back out into the sky but much of the light came through brilliantly. The copper flecks throughout the glass looked like champagne bubbles.
Edward was waiting for them in the second floor lounge and rose gravely to greet his mother, sister and friend.
"What's wrong, Edward?" Esme knew immediately that he was consumed by something.
"Michael took Bella."
Jacob cursed under his breath. He had just accompanied his future wife and her mother right back into harm's way and it was a big pill for him to swallow.
The news that Bella was in peril chilled his blood. "Where are they?"
"No one knows," Edward answered. "Several of his men have defected and are helping us but none of them were aware that Michael had any other place to go."
Rosalie moved close to her brother. "Have you gone out listening for her?"
"Yes, last night. I didn't hear her."
She frowned. "Would you even be able to pick her out from all the other voices?"
"I would know her voice even in a hurricane." Edward was solemn.
"And she has such a beautiful singing voice," Esme observed, mostly to herself.
Edward's eyes grew so big so fast that Jacob thought he might have been punched by an invisible fist.
"Emmett!" The excitement in Edward's voice drew out not only Emmett but several of the new group of vampires. Emmett was currently using them to help him fold playbills for the upcoming production of The Tempest.
Edward had wanted to cancel the whole affair in light of the circumstances, but Emmett had been crushed and reminded him that Bella would have wanted the show to go on. In an effort to restore good faith, Edward agreed to continue as long as Emmett agreed to ask God for help when the time came to send Bella a signal.
That time had come.
Emmett walked into the lobby from the auditorium. He knew the Paris trio had arrived but wanted to give Edward time to greet his family alone. Lawrence, Dillon and Sam were with him.
"Emmett, can you be ready to go out with me…" Edward craned his neck to see the still fading sunlight brush the roadway below. "…in an hour?"
"Of course," Emmett replied. "What's got you so worked up?"
"I'll tell you when we get out there."
Emmett understood that Edward meant to discuss something concerning God and Bella. "You can talk about it here. I've told them all and your family should know as well."
Edward was impressed with Emmett's bravery. He nodded but countered with etiquette. "Introductions first. Mother, Rosalie, Jacob you may have seen these three men with Michael before but now they are here to help us get Bella back and I trust them. This is Lawrence, Sam and Dillon."
When the Cullens were captives in Michael's house, they rarely saw anyone but Riley and two others. As a result, they had no frightening recollections of these men and they were grateful as they welcomed the newcomers with smiles and handshakes.
Esme, as always, wanted to hug anyone she could get her arms around but Dillon gently slid his hand between her and his companions and took a step back.
"Careful ma'am," he warned. "Alligators are alligators."
Jacob took a hold of her and smiled genuinely at the cautious vampire. "You present a very good point. She will be more careful."
"I trust them," Edward repeated. He had heard the thoughts of all the men, and he knew that no matter what, they all intended to see Bella returned safely to her theatre and no harm to any of her family. "Emmett, let's meet here in one hour and be prepared to stay out the whole night."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Have you had any luck getting God to talk to you yet?"
Emmett looked down. "No."
"Well, my mother has just discovered what it is we need for Him to tell Bella." Edward was very excited. If it worked, he would have her back in his arms that very night.
Esme waved the accolade away while Emmett opened his mouth in nervous surprise. "What do you want Him to say?"
"Sing to me." Edward looked out the window.
Bella was having bad dreams. They were incomplete, but she remembered an audience screaming, a double rainbow and a pack of wolves.
Jacob's fur was brown, and according to him, even reddish in the sunlight. She knew his shape though and the animal appeared to be him.
When she woke, the other vampires were returning from their night above ground. Michael let Bella drink a small amount of blood every morning at dawn. It would perk her up and keep her awake during the day, but by evening she would be weak again and sleepy.
He did not offer her any vampire blood, knowing that it would strengthen her too much. Bella would have positively refused his anyway.
Michael stayed with her during the daytime, content with reading a few books and discussing small matters with his loyal few. They made the tunnel quite livable despite the metal rails splitting the room. Everyone was jumping over both sets with a practiced grace by the second night.
Bella counted the links in her chain, there were ten. Each was the size and weight of a small cannon. She dragged them with her when she moved out into the chamber to look down both ends clearly. They grated the ground and the tortured sound swept up the curved walls.
She was given a book to read during the day but instead she focused on sending out a mental S.O.S., hoping that Edward would hear her. She did not know how far they were from the theatre but she was smart enough to see that Michael was purposefully altering her sleeping schedule.
"Good morning." Michael smelled like coffee, he had been out earlier. "I have your breakfast." He handed Bella a large porcelain picture stein filled with rich human blood.
Bella took the mug and drank quietly. She was trying very hard to remain in control, but everyone seemed like they were settling in for a very long stay. She was not going to be able to endure much more time shivering on the floor at night and licking every bit of human blood out of the stein and off her fingers during the day because Michael gave her only a fraction of what she needed.
"Is it your intention to punish me for our time together in the library?"
Michael had not expected the question. "I am not punishing you at all."
"You are starving me." Bella spoke calmly as she held out the empty cup. "It feels like you are paying me back for being starved yourself when you turned me."
Michael's face darkened like a roasted marshmallow. "I had no blood…NO blood. You are living like a QUEEN compared to what I went through!" He snatched back the stein and walked back to the far end of the tunnel where he had been sleeping.
Bella watched as her tube-mates got into small but comfortable looking beds. Within the hour they were all snoring and Michael was again standing above her.
"Do you think your friends from Paris have arrived by now?"
"How should I know?"
"I bet Jacob is none too pleased to find you gone."
"Go away, Michael."
He left but his voice bounced back to her. "I hope he finds you first."
The next several days passed slowly for Edward.
He took Emmett out with him the first two nights but went out alone after that, no longer wanting to waste his friend's time.
Jasper and Alice had arrived at the theatre shortly after the group from Paris and received Esme's wrath at their decision to leave Carlisle alone.
When they had a moment alone, Emmett took Jasper aside for a word. "Edward told me that you all know about the voice in my head."
"Don't you mean God?" Jasper had known Emmett longer as a human than as a vampire. He was well aware of his spirituality.
"That's what I thought, but I'm not so sure anymore." Emmett looked down. "I haven't been able to get Him to answer me since Edward asked for help. He is going to attempt to find Bella any time now and I don't know what to tell him."
Jasper nodded. "When the time comes, just try."
It was good advice and Emmett took it.
Esme was nervous that she had not heard from Carlisle, but Alice told her that he was at least four days from Charlotte or any other town big enough to place a call to New York.
Edward went out at midnight when the new moon was enjoyed by very few and walked towards the east. He had combed most of lower Manhattan and wanted to take a run on the water to clear his head before he returned to his search pattern.
Suddenly he heard her when he sped close to Brooklyn and almost stopped right over the water.
"Bella?" he whispered as he ran up the beach and stopped. It was her.
Edward stood with Manhattan to his back and Brooklyn looming before him. The massive bridge was a dozen blocks to his left and the bay breeze pushed his shirt against his back.
He listened to Bella.
She was herself listening to something. Edward encountered this phenomenon quite often. He would hear someone's thoughts when they were actively absorbed in someone else's words. Usually, he could hear the source of the interest and it was reinterpreted almost immediately by the minds in tow, creating a mental echo.
But he could not hear who Bella was listening to, and when she did talk she was involved in fragmented conversations and varying scenarios.
Bella was dreaming.
Edward checked his timepiece; it was 4:15am. He listened to his beloved wade in and out of paper worlds and walked until her voice filled his head. He was standing in downtown Brooklyn, a bustling and dense municipality and she was somewhere within its massive and vertical landscape.
Edward was standing on Boerum Street and looked up at the streetlight that stood over him as if it were a cobra about to strike. He had found her, but Edward needed Emmett's God voice to communicate with her so he could pinpoint her location, and she had to be awake.
He immediately suspected Michael was responsible for her altered sleep pattern and had to tear himself away to tell the rest of the group what he had discovered.
"She's in Brooklyn!" Edward burst into the top room of the theatre's tower where he found Jacob and Jasper. He ran into Emmett in the library and asked him to follow. It was Emmett who made the most perplexing observation.
"But that's where Riley went. Do you think he and Michael are in this together?"
Jasper appeared to deeply consider the possibility. Edward shook his head.
"No, Michael does not know where the book is." It was all the knowledge he needed to know that the men were truly at odds, just coincidently located near one another. "Can you three come with me right now back to Atlantic Street?"
Jacob stood up. "Lead the way."
An ocean of fog had crept into Brooklyn while Edward was briefly away and lapped at the lower edges of the quiet downtown buildings.
"I guess some part of New York does eventually go to sleep," Emmett whispered before pointing to one of dozens of similar looking compartment buildings. "Riley's gang is in that one."
Edward could hear Bella dreaming about him. He was yelling at her for getting herself captured and it broke his heart. "Emmett, I need you to ask God to wake Bella up."
Emmett nodded his head and closed his eyes. Edward heard the following:
God, I need You more than ever. All my life You have been there for me and now I have the chance to be there for another. I need You to give me Your strength, Your wisdom, and Your HELP. God, please talk to Bella, wake her up. Please God, wake her up.
They waited.
Nothing.
Emmett swallowed hard and considered rewording his prayer…
BELLA!
Both Edward and Emmett cried out in surprise, startling Jacob and Jasper.
BELLA, WAKE UP!
Edward listened intently for Bella. She seemed not to have heard. She was still listening to dream Edward insult her and berate her for getting herself captured.
"Try again please," Edward encouraged.
Before Emmett could translate the request, he heard the voice boom in his head.
BELLA SWAN! WAKE UP NOW!
Edward listened…No change.
Emmett was relieved that it had worked, he tried mentally to engage the voice but it stayed on task, calling to Bella every half minute or so.
They tried for ten more minutes but it never woke her up.
Jacob looked at the sky above the telephone wires. "You can't stay much longer."
Jasper nodded his head. "We're cutting it close."
Edward sighed in frustration. "What we need is that carriage."
As soon as the sun dipped far enough below the hills over Carlisle's left shoulder to make the sky above him violet, Jeremy hopped from the back of the carriage and Nicholas told him to stop.
"You did well, both of you." Jeremy walked around to Carlisle's side. "That was a very pleasant ride." He walked in front of the horses, touching their down turned noses. "I had no idea such a thing was possible." He walked to Nicholas and spoke to the man dryly. "You will be here, with him, when I return."
"Yes, sir."
Jeremy walked off into the night and Carlisle was ordered off the coach. He liked his odds of overpowering the man and taking the gun but Nicholas made no mistakes foolish enough to allow that to happen. He kept his distance and never turned his back on his captive
Before they slept, he had Carlisle stick his hands through the large carriage wheel spokes. He then tied the doctor's wrists together.
Carlisle spent an uncomfortable night wondering how he would ever get away or convince the human to leave his master, or think of an excuse to get into his doctor's bag.
Emmett had told him not to shoot any vampires with the Blunderbuss pistol he had lent him, but Carlisle spent his first night thinking that he would have no other choice.
Jeremy returned before dawn and climbed into the carriage without saying a word to either of them. Nicholas presumably had his instructions. Carlisle was untied, fed some of his own jerky and told to ready the horses for travel.
When he approached the animals, he noticed that they had foraged a nice meal for themselves despite not being given much slack on their ropes. They were quiet throughout the night but restless as the sun exposed the uppermost birds in the round treetops.
Rebecca huffed in his face and he huffed back, hoping to communicate to her that he needed her to arrange for the other man to be thrown from the carriage thereby requiring medical attention and giving him a legitimate reason to access his medical bag and the gun within.
Carlisle did not actually expect her to get the message but she did know that something was wrong. Both horses did and he could tell that they were fearful of Jeremy.
Nicholas directed him eastward with the explanation that they would be taking a more scenic route to Boston. Carlisle did as he was asked and spoke only when spoken to, which was not often.
Days spilled over Carlisle's eyes. He knew that his family in New York was probably aware that something was wrong but had no way of knowing that he was nearing Virginia Beach instead of Greenboro.
The night they reached the coast, Jeremy sat down next to him in the sand and began talking.
"By the end of the Civil War, whole platoons of blues and grays were being turned into vampires. I was from Georgia, joined up in '63. I was twenty-eight years old and wanted to be a part of something big."
He shook his head and laughed. "Boy was I ever."
"When were you turned?" Carlisle decided to encourage the dialogue.
"About a year later. We were marching to the Battle of Mobile Bay. Our commanding officer stopped the whole line and let about a hundred of them ambush us."
Nicholas was building a fire on the beach and pretending not to listen.
"They dragged our bodies into a massive cave system nearby and a day later we woke up in the Immortal Army of America. We were no longer interested in North or South. We were only interested in blood."
"Who was in charge?" Carlisle asked.
"Older vampires," came the vague reply. "They were feuding with each other and didn't want to get too close to the action, so they started turning human armies to fight their battles for them. We were expendable. We were entertainment."
They sat in silence for a short while. The waves slinked onshore with a rustling sound then slipped back into the foamy collective. Carlisle did not prod Jeremy because he knew the burdened vampire was likely to complete the story he started on his own.
"Some of us on both sides were beginning to realize what was happening and began passing information back and forth on the battlefield."
Carlisle's mouth dropped open, which amused Jeremy.
"Whole armies eventually staged battles for our master's benefit, issuing superficial but impressive wounds while coordinating our rebellion." He looked at the still flabbergasted human and chuckled.
"It seems far-fetched doesn't it?" Jeremy asked.
"Actually," Carlisle had been forced to accept many far-fetched realities over the past year. "Not compared to the rest of the first part of the story."
Jeremy laughed loudly and Nicholas shot Carlisle a jealous look.
"We turned on our makers on April Fool's Day 1864. It was the day of the Five Forks Battle and we outnumbered our uppity masters a hundred to one. By the end of the night, there were just us newborns on the battlefield and we realized that we could wipe the whole countryside clean if we just eliminated the controlling elders of our kind."
Carlisle did not agree with the logic, but kept quiet.
"By '65 every early generation vampire was killed or sent to the bottom of the Mexican Gulf in a chained coffin. We had reclaimed the land, the caves, and most of all, stopped the fighting."
The fire had begun to crackle and Nicholas passed Carlisle some hard bread and more jerky. Jeremy sniffed it as it moved beneath his nose and scowled. "I better get some of my own dinner soon," he remarked.
Carlisle took a small bite of jerky and turned to Jeremy. "My friends were only defending themselves and you know that. You just said yourself you were a part of a movement to stop useless fighting, so why do you persist now?"
Jeremy stood up. "I've changed my mind about war," he spoke into the ocean air. "It is a necessity and if one is good at it then one should not deny his destiny."
With that he began walking south on the white beach, towards a group of people playing horseshoes. A man Carlisle did not recognize joined him on the beach and the two began speaking with their heads together. Jeremy had some last minute business to attend to before he headed up North.
Nicholas had the gun on Carlisle as soon as Jeremy left, but issued a command Carlisle was not expecting.
"Get up. You're sleeping in the carriage tonight."
Alice was crying. She had sat by the phone for days, waiting for Carlisle's belated phone call.
"We just left him," she mumbled to Edward after a vigil that lasted at least eight hours.
"He'll call." Edward tried to reassure her. "He just got unlucky with southern telephone connections."
"But you need the carriage so you can go looking for Bella."
"We'll have him put it on a train," Edward suggested with a smile, "or buy four more horses so he can race here at thirty miles an hour."
She grinned, he was being brave and she admired it. "How are your worry chickens?"
"Frantic," he answered honestly.
"How is Emmett?'
"Good. He is disappointed that Bella is not waking up, we all are, but I think he is just happy that the voice is cooperating."
"Why wouldn't it?"
"That…is a good question. And one I hope never to hear an answer to."
"Can you run down there and look for Carlisle?"
"Jasper asked that very same question when I passed him in the elevator."
"Well?"
"I'm going tonight actually. I can't do much good here until we get that carriage and my mother looks like she's getting sick with worry."
"I'll go check on her." Alice got up from the phone and Edward was pleased to achieve such quick results. He wanted Alice to occupy her own mind in other ways and she was doing just that.
He wished he was so lucky.
Edward left a full hour after sunset, knowing that with his speed, he might catch back up with the dangerous star as he ran southwest unless he gave the earth enough time to rotate away from it fully.
He spent the whole night traveling the roads around Atlanta with no luck. He was disappointed but not surprised, there were a thousand different roads to take and he could only choose one at a time.
If Bella were with him he could have flown.
The realization that his father might be in as much danger as his fiancé made Edward cold with dread.
He returned to the theatre to find his friends and family up in the top room of the tower, the Platform as Rosalie had called it. Jacob was tinkering on the square grand while they all waited for his arrival.
No one had seen him coming.
"What are you all doing up here?"
"Waiting for you?" Jasper said. "We figured that one of us would see you running back into the city."
"I came in from the east."
All but one looked puzzled.
"He went to visit Bella before coming home," Jacob informed the group. He knew what it was like to love her fiercely and he shared Edward's fear for her safety.
"What was she dreaming of?" Alice asked softly, desperate for any news about her dear friend.
"Trains."
Carlisle appreciated hearing about Jeremy's past and, for that matter, solving the mystery of what had happened to all of Jasper's friends, but he trusted the two men even less and felt that he had to take matters into his own hands to rid the world of their attentions.
He spent the night in the carriage and found his Blunderbuss in his doctor's bag right where he had left it. He debated on whether or not to conceal the weapon in his riding jacket and decided to leave it where it was.
He buried it under his stethoscope and other various instruments so that, at first glance, the bag would appear ordinary.
The horses breathed in his concern and grew quiet, waiting for the command that would allow them to solve all his problems. He looked up at the sun as it baked the last of the high clouds into oblivion.
The dust was restless and swirled all around, even in the fields. Carlisle felt change on the wind and knew that the day had come. He still did not know what to do so he quietly searched for signs that might point him in the right direction.
The horses began twitching their ears as if their names were being called and he knew that they felt it as well. The opportunity he had been waiting for was electrifying the air.
Nicholas was impassive; Carlisle glanced at him while admiring the countryside. He smiled at the man, who responded with a sniff, making his curled mustache twitch like the horses' ears.
Tension was woven between the muffled sound of the horses footfalls clopping on the hard packed road. Ahead, the road came to a rise and Carlisle allowed the animals to pick their own pace up the gentle slope.
As they reached the high spot Carlisle's eyes widened.
He barely contained his smile as he let the horses cross the train tracks and then brought them to a sharp stop. The whip's bench was perfectly lined up with one of the iron rails and Carlisle dropped the long tasseled rod that signaled the horses to move out of reach.
Carlisle turned to Nicholas, who had raised the gun to his chest and opened his mouth wide enough to invite an owl to roost.
"Get us off of these tracks right now!" Nicholas barked.
Inside the carriage, Jeremy began screaming and bouncing around like a trapped cat. Carlisle very calmly and very slowly reached into his jacket pocket and took out a small leather pouch that hung with weight from his fingers.
"This is over a hundred dollars," he revealed to the still staring Nicholas. "You may also take the horse in front of you. I free you of your enslavement, sir. Go. Ride to your future."
Carlisle had laid all his cards on the table and patiently waited for the man to respond.
Nicholas raised the gun to Carlisle's temple. "Get us moving again or you will die in ten seconds."
Carlisle did not move. He was going to make an attempt for the gun, of course, so he could keep the carriage parked on the tracks but he knew that he had time yet. He knew Nicholas was not ready to kill.
"Go ahead and shoot." Carlisle invited the violence as if he was offering a slice of salted pear. "I'm not afraid to die."
Nicholas smiled wickedly as he lowered the gun to Carlisle's stomach. "Then I'll gut shoot you and throw you in there with him. So he can turn you into one of them."
Carlisle leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "Then you will have a vampire as an enemy."
The carriage was trembling with the agitation of its sole occupant as the two men assessed each other's poker faces.
In the distance a train whistle blew.
NOTES:
Welcome back! I'm excited to move forward with the final act of our tale.
Special thanks to Adamanta Banks and Ishouldnotbehere for their continued efforts as pre-readers. I also wish to thank my beta, RandomCran. She is my wife and my inspiration.
Please consider participating in the Fandom Fights Tsunami campaign to aid those affected by the terrible earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. I am participating as an author and have contributed a one shot. Donations are being accepted through July 1st but the compilation delivery date has been slated for May 20.
I will also be participating as an author for the upcoming Fandom for Sexual Assault Awareness fundraiser.
For more information on these events, please visit the links posted on my author's page.
See you next Saturday for Chapter Fifteen: Left of Center.
MOG