"Thank you kindly for the meal but I would prefer to select my own meals," I refused. The shock at my decline was evident by the murmur of whispers that filled the room, as if I just defied some Vampire rule of etiquette. Cacius looked as if his hand twitched to cuff me, but Aro's dark chuckle cut him short.
"Why of course child Heidi would be overjoyed to have some company on her rounds. But your first chore is to get the wolf girl to come around. Can you do that?" His voiced was strained as if his vocal strings had been pinched with clothes pins and his smile revealed his yellow teeth. He pet my cheek with the back of his hand, and I had to constrain myself from flinching away.
My head nodded but he waited for the correct response.
"Yes master," I answered, his domineering title leaving a vinegar-like taste on my lips. Then glancing cautiously over my shoulder, I noticed that Alec was bidding me to follow him, Demtri at his side.
Water leaked in little streams down the stone walls. We weaved down the claustrophobic catacomb-like halls, all of which seemed to be a narrow grade slope downward. I was sure we were at least fifty feet into the ground. Felix joined us at some point; Alec walked in front-Felix took up the rear. Demitri pulled me alongside him. They were almost reverent as we approached the steel door that hardly muffled the deafening yipping. I could not help but growl as Alec unlocked the door and proceeded to slide it open, the steel dragging and screeching against the stone floors. The stench was gut wrenching, the smell of road kill on a hot day.
Her yellow eyes gleamed in the dimness. I watched as she paced back and forth from one corner to another. To my left I saw the source of the odor, maggot filled meat. The smell of the room was enough to trigger my gag reflex. The threesome watched as my anger boiled over.
"Leah only eats human food; get this out of here," I screamed. The meat was removed but the smell lingered.
I could see her ribs through her glossy coat, proof that she had not eaten in weeks. Leah seemed settled by my anger; she coiled her beautiful wolf body on the cold stone, as if allowing me to fight for her. This scared me, she was not usually this subdued. She looked overly weak for a ware. Three sets of reverent eyes watched her from the door. I knelt at a distance on the floor.
"Leah, you need to shift back so you can eat," I tried but her growl drowned out my plea. She was not looking at me.
"Please Le, just a little food and then you can shift back," I reasoned. Her head she nestled on her oversized paws and she closed her yellow eyes as if going to sleep, but instead her body morph at lightning speed. Then before I realized it Leah was at my feet, unclothed. She lay motionless; it was as stagnant as I had ever seen her. Her golden tan looked exotic against the gray stone, her black hair fanned around her, her eyes looked sad almost helpless. It took me a moment to recall her state, then I immediately took measures for her modesty.
"Close your eyes. And one of you take off your shirt," I demanded glancing over my shoulder. They all had their eyes fixed on the view before them. "Now!"
In a moments time I had a cotton button-up in my hand and I was slipping Leah's lanky arms through the sleeves. I buttoned up the shirt and noticed that it hung loosely on her body. She swam in the excess fabric. Her eyes were fixed shut tightly clenched but she moaned.
"Tell me that smell is not you," she mumbled sounding pained. I could not help but smile.
"I was thinking the same about you," I admitted. I laid my head down on her shoulder and wrapped her in a hug. She immediately sat up, not being a touchy feely type of person. She slid out of my embraced and pulled away taking in my now crimson eyes.
I could see her distain but offered her no more than a shrug. I could not change who I was for her.
"Emm," she said apologetically.
I nodded to her. I understood; the vampire thing was repulsive.
"I will get use to it. Just give me a second to adjust," she assured. I scooted back giving her room to breathe. My eyes soaked up the sight of her while she did something to the same effect, neither one of us had expected to see each other again. We exchanged weak smiles.
"So what now, Emm?" she asked her eyes piercing into me. I could not help but chuckle.
"Le, I have as much influence here as you do. I don't know what is going to happen to us," I admitted my eyes sinking down in guilt. Leah's eyes were fixed and shooting death glares at a looming figure behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Alec and Demetri had left and the half naked Felix was monitoring our conversation.
"Carlisle knows these leeches, Emm? He will come and bail us out of this shit-hole, right?"
"Le, he has been here already, when we were in Paris. But he will come back...I think..." I said in a none too convincing voice. She looked panicked.
"What do you mean you think? They would not leave us here would they? They would never leave you here!" she barked back at me. They were questions that did not have answers to, questions that plagued my own mind.
"Leah, I do not know if even Carlisle can barter for me now," I countered in a whisper. I did not wish to anger her but I could not lie.
Just as Leah was about to spout off in anger the steel door screeched across the floor. What little light filtered in on our despair was blocked by the giant shadows of Demtri and Alec. Leah however was too disturbed to acknowledge their return.
"Emm, I can't stay here! I can't! I feel as though I' drowning in quicksand. The pull home is like a magnetic force suffocating me even as I stand here; I'll not be able to be away from my brothers, from my people! It will kill me!" she screamed shaking my shoulders. She then leaned forward on her palms and let her lungs heave in short breathes. Her heart beat pattered; it was a full blown panic attack. Forgoing the personal space rule, I swooped to her side messaging her fiery shoulders in my hands.
"Leah, it's ok. You're right; they'll not leave us here. Not you, not me. Carlisle will fix it and we will be home in no time," I lied. It was music to my ears, even though it was false comfort. Leah looked up with moist mahogany eyes and nodded. She gulped down this reality like an oversized pill in a dry mouth.
"Alright you two, visiting hours are over. Both of you on your feet," barked Felix a wicked grin on his face. I attempted to mask my smile. Did this idiot really think Leah would just listen to him?
"What are you smiling about? We got the fleabag her human preservation. Now let her eat." he demanded throwing a wrapped loaf of bread at her feet. A surge of new found strength allowed Leah to rise to her feet. She stalked toward Felix and his smug smile faded. Her hand was cocked back and crashing into his stone jaw, before he even had a chance to fend her off. The sound left my ears buzzing. Felix looked unmoved, a slight twist in his head was the only indicator that she had hit her mark. Leah too looked unscratched, simply shaking off her hand. I do not know if she realized it, but she looked small in comparison; Leah Clearwater looked petite next to him.
"Eat that Asshole!" she growled between clenched teeth. Felix eyes about bulged out of his head at being challenged by her. Then he laughed, which in truth relieved me. A least he did not look as if he planned to eat her.
"You look good in my shirt brown eyes!" he said licking his pale lips.
Biting my lip I watched how Leah would respond to this change in tactics. Sure she could take a blow to the ribs, but words such as those held more threats in her mind. She looked as if she was going to vomit, but instead she hurled her inhumanly perfect left hook.
This time he did not looked humored in the least. He shoved her lean body, propelling her into the corner of the stone cell as if she were weightless. I was going to run to her side to fight him off but what felt like a metal hook caught me around the waist. I glared down at his hand and fought with all my might against him, but he pulled me and all my newborn strength into the hall. I of course managed to dent the solid steel door and crack a few stone tiles.
"How dare you," I screamed. "You can't manhandle me. He pushed her; he can fight me off but no one asked you to get involved!"
Alec secured the door behind him after he followed us out. I growled and pulled free from Demetri. Alec turned around like a torpedo.
"You needed to leave anyway, deceiving her will not help. No one is coming for you, doll face!" Alec spit at me, the endearment overly condescending.
"You are a liar!" I screamed at him. It was probably the loudest I had ever yelled in my life. He however smiled wickedly.
"Let us pretend for a moment that you are right: that your family comes to save you. You are already vowed to service." He was right; it was just as I was trying to tell Leah. I would not be going home. "... Of course one could always take your place," his voice was so smooth it was offensive. Demitri eyed him sending silent messages back and forth.
"Alec this is a conversation she should have with Master Aro not with you," Demitri warned ushering me away. But Alec followed us back up the ramping hall in the dark.
"Carlisle has been harboring delinquents for decades now," he said to my back as I marched on.
Did he really think he could convince me that Nessie was some sort of criminal master mind?
"Just because Ness is different does not make her some sort of offender of the law. I don't know what Aro wants with her, but he'll not get to her through me," I hissed over my shoulder. A chuckle followed me. Demitri towed me on and Alec mocked me from behind.
"I'm not talking of the half blood. Do you really not know who I'm talking about?"
"No, I don't and frankly I do not care. Anything my family did to perturb you I'm in fervent agreement with," I retorted turning to face him. But I did not feel as confident when I saw his face. His eyes were filled with arrogance; it was as if he knew something I did not.
"They really tell you nothing, don't they? I do not really blame them. It is not something I would go around flaunting," he scoffed at me. I had to know now; I was not going to let him get away with those cryptic accusations.
"What in hells name are you talking about? All of you together, do not add up to even a fraction of what my family does. And they keep nothing from me," I defended still blind to what he was saying.
Demetri dug his heels into the ground and turned mumbling to himself.
Alec smiled an evil all knowing smile. "Are you certain of that?"
"Yes!"
"Then I suppose you know that your empath-Uncle has is responsible for siring and disposing of an army twice over-using our kind for sport. And your crazed mother made the papers with her mass killings!"
"You're lying! Carlisle would not allow it! And it is not in their nature… they would never kill humans, yet alone for sport!"
Alec smiled and shook his head, cutting in front of me he walked on as if he had the last word. I bite my lip in distain then lunged at him. I dug my fingers into his shoulder blades as if they were cat claws.
He struggled with me for several moments, attempting to free himself from me by slamming my body against the stone wall. I intern wrung my hands around his skinny neck. Demetri watched for a moment pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Enough, already! The two of you will stop," he growled pulling me off Alec's back, and throwing me to the ground.
"Sometimes I swear Alec, you're no more that a pubescent you have to go and taunt her? Could no not have kept your lips sealed for once?"
Alec scowled at the rebut and let his chest rise and fall in a mincing way before spiting a mouthful of venom at my feet and stalking off.
I looked to Demetri unsure of what to say, but he spoke before I did.
"You will have to learn not to be so impulsive. You can't be strangling every soul who offends you with their words."
"He was telling lies about my family!"
"Yes or he was telling truths! Since they are not here you cannot ask them, now can you? And if it were true, what means it to you? Would it hurt to see your family fall from that lofty pedestal you've placed them on?"
His words stung strongly of bitterness and his eyes pierced into me.
"You are nothing more than a cold-blooded beast-"
"I may be. But at least I have a grasp on reality. I'm not so naïve to believe one can exist in this life-this afterlife if you will, without accumulating some sin, without any lapses what so ever."
"What is that? A phrase that helps you cope with the blood on your hands?"
He took me by the shoulders, pressing my body against the wall. His eyes were stormy and his features intense. He brought his face close to mine as if he were about to impart a secret. But his words came out in the form of a growl.
"Emmalie Cullen you do not know of what you speak! Not all of us had the privilege of being raised by a modern day philosopher and his loyal band of followers. While you make your entrance from Sunnybrook farms-the rest of us came here from concentration camps and brothels; so do not go declaring yourself the judge of good and evil."
My mouth opened but the words did not flow forth as I would have liked. I managed to keep my cool detachment. My chin remained in that defiant tilt and my eyes narrowed, but there was no clever retort.
It was that night in my closet of a chamber that I thought on his words….their life before.
Who better than to bring into this world than those who had been slighted in life? People who had been unwanted, used and violated! Victims of Hitler's cruelty, Aro had taken it in stride. Treating the ghettos and camps as if they were some Mega- shopping center! He was a sick soul really-calculated, but sick.
Jane's twisted smile appeared in my mind and for once I caught myself feeling sad for her. What pain had she had to endure in life to come about such a talent? And Heidi, had she once been the one being preyed upon?
I knew better than to excuse acts of hatred on the behalf of one's past, but a part of me could not help it.