Chapter 20: Discovery (Part 1)
Helen regained consciousness two days later, and Rowan had never left her side. Carlisle and I took turns watching over her in case she died before she was turned, and I was watching her when I heard her heart stop, but her breathing remained strong. She opened her eyes and sat up slowly.
"Rowan?" she asked Rowan and he smiled.
"Are you alright Helen?" he asked her.
"My throat feels like it's on fire." She said.
"The thirst. Come, we need to hunt." He said and I stood up.
"I'm coming too. Just wait here for a moment, because I need to let Carlisle know where we are." I said and they nodded. I walked out of the room, just as Alice ran up to me, looking worried.
"Kristen, I can see a human dying at your hunting trip. Helen's going to kill a human! You need to lead them towards the mountain, where the humans aren't going to go." She said and I looked shocked.
"Are you sure?" I asked her and she nodded. "Crap. Alright, I'll take that on board. Thanks for letting me know." I told her and she smiled slightly.
"And I'll let Carlisle know that you've taken Rowan and Helen out hunting." She added and I nodded.
"Thanks Alice." I said, walking back into the room. "Okay guys, are you ready?" I asked them and they nodded, following me to the window. We jumped out and landed in the forest, running at top speed towards the mountains, where Alice told me we would be safe.
Just as we were running, however, the scent of human caught up to us and Helen disappeared.
"Where'd Helen go?" Rowan asked me as I looked around for her.
"I have a bad feeling about this." I said and we followed the scent of human blood that was now reaching us, to see Helen kneeling next to the corpse of a human, the human's blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth.
"Helen!" Rowan said, running to her side. "Helen, we don't attack humans! We live on the blood of animals, not that of humans." He told her and she looked down at the human's corpse still lying on the ground.
"Oops." She said. I wasn't fooled. I could tell there was no remorse about killing the human.
"Rowan, you need to get her back home before we have any more accidents." I told Rowan and he nodded, taking Helen by the hand and leading her back towards the house at a run. I sighed, looking at the corpse of the human. I'd made up my mind. I willed Carlisle next to me and he looked once at the human and instantly knew.
"She killed her, didn't she?" he asked me and I nodded, kneeling by the female human's corpse. He sighed, doing the same. "This means that we'll have to get the police on the scene. Do you have your cell phone on you?" he asked me and I nodded, taking it out of my pocket. "Good. Could you please call 911 and get the police here. And remember that while humans are around, I'm your father, so don't call me Carlisle while they're around." He smiled and I sighed, nodding.
"Should I sound panicked?" I asked him and he rolled his eyes.
"Up to you. Remember, you and I were hiking and found her lying dead here." He said and I smiled at him, dialling 911 into my phone, resolving to sound panicked that I'd found a girl dead.
"US emergency service; do you require the police, ambulance or fire fighters?" the mechanical voice asked me.
"Police." I replied shortly, breathing deeply to make it more real. I heard a ringing as I was passed to Forks Police Station.
"Hello, Forks Police, Officer Sanders speaking. How may I help you today?" the voice of a man answered the phone.
"Hi, um I was hiking with my father and we found a human lying dead in the forest." I said, trying to sound as panicked as I could.
"Human?" he asked me, sounding curious. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Carlisle sigh, placing his head in his hand, shaking his head slowly.
"Sorry I wasn't very clear. I said woman, rather than human." I added quickly, hoping he wouldn't comprehend that I actually had said human. It appeared he didn't.
"Okay, could I please have your name?" he asked me.
"Kristen Cullen." I replied.
"And how old are you Kristen?" he asked.
"Fifteen." Carlisle mouthed to me and I nodded.
"Um fifteen." I replied, trying to sound like a teenager that had just found a woman dead.
"Okay and you said that your father was there with you?" he asked me kindly, so as to calm me down.
"Yes." I told him.
"May I have your father's name?"
"Dr. Carlisle Cullen." I said.
"And where did you find the body?"
"In the forest south of Forks Hospital."
"How deep in the forest was the body?" he asked. God he asked a lot of questions.
"About twenty metres." I replied.
"Alright. And you haven't moved the body at all?"
"No." I replied shortly, still trying to sound panicked.
"Okay, I'll be sending a team down shortly. Tell your father to wait there for us. And please don't touch the body." He said.
"Okay." I replied, hanging up. I sat back down, slowing my breathing. "You know Carlisle, Alice had a vision that this would happen." I said to Carlisle. "She told me to take Rowan and Helen up to the mountains to prevent any humans being killed, but we caught the scent of her," I motioned to the human. "And Helen lost it. She disappeared from our sight, and I knew that she was off chasing a human." I explained and Carlisle nodded.
"I had a bad feeling something like this would happen shortly before she regained consciousness." He explained and I nodded. "I'm actually almost regretting that we turned her. If we hadn't turned her, this wouldn't have happened."
"Yes Carlisle, but we'd also have another half-vampire child to deal with, and if she died while giving birth, Rowan probably would've killed himself." I replied and he sighed, nodding.
"You're right. This was one situation that we had two choices, both of which were completely ludicrous. One was leave the mother human and have her die in labour, which would still leave us with the child, or the other was turn her and risk the baby staying alive after our efforts to kill it. The second one was also risking the mother letting slip while hunting and killing a human like happened here." He said and I nodded once.
"But another thing was that when we caught her with the human's blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth, Rowan explained to her that as Cullens we don't attack humans, and all she said was 'oops' without any remorse in her voice." I said and Carlisle looked thoughtful.
"Hmmm…wouldn't Rowan have heard the lack of remorse in her voice, though?" he asked me.
"No, it was very subtle, but I wasn't fooled. I could hear that it didn't really matter to her that she'd killed a human." I replied and he shook his head slowly.
"So basically, if you'd tried to do anything to stop her, she would still have tried?" He said, phrasing it as a question, even though I knew he was talking half to himself.
"Exactly. It's not something we could've avoided." I replied. He looked at me, and noticed the anguish on my face.
"Don't beat yourself up about this Kristen. What happened is in the past. We need to make sure the police are aware that more people could die, but we're telling them that she was killed by an animal. We can't risk exposing our kind. We'd be sent to mental institutions if we tell them that she was killed by a vampire." He laughed humourlessly.
"But it's not like a mental institution would be able to hold a real vampire for long. Those institutions are built for humans, not our kind." I said and he nodded, a smile briefly crossing his face.
"True." He said, just as the sound of sirens wailing told us the police were on their way. "Kristen, I want you to sit near that tree. Because they told us not to touch the body, we need to pretend we don't know how she died." He said.
"But wouldn't a smart doctor, after finding a woman dead first try and revive her, before checking how she died?" I asked him as we walked towards the nearest tree and sat leaning against it.
"Not this doctor. This doctor knows that she's dead, and this doctor also knows how she died." He said and we both laughed. I needed some humour in the day after catching Helen killing a human and knowing she felt no remorse about killing the human. The sound of the sirens came nearer and they stopped as we heard car doors opening and closing and several voices. We could smell the police approaching. Some scents were more appealing than others, though none of them were at all appealing to me. "Kristen, pretend to look panicked so it looks like I'm trying to calm you down…I'm sure that's what a real father would to his daughter if she panics." He said and I nodded, beginning to hyperventilate again. Carlisle placed his hand on my shoulder, just as the police ran onto the scene. They looked once at the body, and some knelt next to it while others walked towards us.
"Good afternoon Dr. Cullen." One of them said. "I'm Officer Sanders." He said and Carlisle nodded.
"Good afternoon Officer Sanders." Carlisle replied.
"I need to ask you and your daughter a few questions, regarding the girl." Officer Sanders explained.
"Ask away." Carlisle said.
"Firstly, approximately when did you come across the body?" Sanders asked us.
"At about one thirty." Carlisle replied.
"And who found the body?"
"My daughter. She saw the body first and told me. I did what I could, but the girl was dead." Carlisle replied.
"Did you see who or what killed her when you found her?" Sanders asked me.
"No, whatever killed her was gone by the time we got there." I replied, still hyperventilating. Carlisle tightened his grip on my shoulder slightly.
"It's okay Kristen." He whispered to me.
"Alright. Dr. Cullen, after finding that the girl was in fact dead, what happened after that?" Sanders asked Carlisle.
"After discovering the girl was dead, I instructed my daughter to call 911 so we could get some police here. While she was doing that, I checked her over to see the cause of her death." Carlisle explained.
"And what was the verdict?" Sanders asked him, obviously becoming curious.
"She was killed by an animal. However, I'm not sure what type of animal it was." He replied and Sanders nodded as he and the remaining policemen walked back towards the body. I could hear their hearts speed up whenever they came near us, and I knew that their natural self-preservation instincts were warning them that we were dangerous. However, I also knew that they weren't consciously aware of the 'danger' that Carlisle and I posed to them. Carlisle still had his hand on my shoulder, his grip firm.
Eventually the policemen loaded the body into their car and drove off back to the police station.
"No doubt this'll reach the papers." Carlisle said and I nodded.
"I agree. The media just can't keep their noses out of things like this." I agreed and Carlisle laughed grimly.
"Come on, we'd better get back home before Esme starts worrying." He said and we ran back home, where we were met by none other than Esme standing in the doorway of the house, hands on hips.
"Where have you two been?" she asked us sternly.
"Esme, I went hunting with Helen and Rowan, and Helen ended up killing a human, and I had to get Carlisle there so he knew. He then told me to call the police, and they took forever to finally take the body to the station." I explained and Esme visibly relaxed, before looking shocked as what I'd just said sank in.
"Wait, Helen killed a human?" she asked us and we nodded grimly.
"Yes. And according to Kristen, she felt no remorse about killing the human." Carlisle said and Esme's jaw dropped, just as Alice ran in, looking horrified.
"Did you just say that Helen felt no remorse about killing that human?" Alice asked me.
"Unfortunately yes. All she said was 'oops' and there was no hint of remorse in her voice. It was subtle, however, so Rowan was easily fooled into thinking she was sorry for killing the human." I explained and Alice shook her head.
"But if she's killing humans without remorse, she shouldn't be part of our family. We never attack humans…Carlisle; she shouldn't be with us if she's killing people. We shouldn't have anything to do with her." Esme said to her husband, who sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Esme, I know where you're coming from, but you know that I believe in second chances. I think that we see how she goes at her next hunt, but I will have to accompany her. Whoever else needs to hunt at the time can join us." He said softly to his wife.
"He's right Esme. Besides, we eventually need to get that child out of her…and we need to keep her with us until after we've done that." I agreed with Carlisle, and Esme nodded, sighing.
"Okay. I just don't think it would be wise to have her remain a part of this family." She said and Carlisle smiled slightly at her.
"I know Esme." He said and I looked at Alice. She nodded at me and we walked away to give them some privacy. I walked upstairs and into my bedroom, where Jumpy leapt at me and I caught him, hugging him gently, burying my face in his fur.
"Good boy Jumpy." I whispered and he wagged his tail slowly. Apparently he could sense my emotions, because he licked my cheek gently. I lifted my face out of his fur and smiled at him. He looked at me with those golden doggy eyes of his as though saying 'what's wrong mistress?' and I couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry Jumpy." I whispered to him and he cocked his head at me as though he understood, before jumping down from my arms. I couldn't help but laugh then. He was being so puppy-like that it was impossible to remain feeling sad when he was around.
Two weeks later, I was sitting with Alice at the back of the house, watching Jumpy, Dalmatio and Reggie chase each other around, when Carlisle appeared next to us, watching the puppies with amusement.
"They really are amusing. They make life interesting." He said, sitting next to us. I laughed then, I really couldn't help it. Life was indeed more interesting since they'd joined the family. "And I can't believe I don't even know their names yet." He laughed and I smiled. In my peripheral vision I could see Alice struggling not to laugh, but she failed and burst out laughing.
"Alice be nice." I laughed, before looking at the dogs. "Reggie!" I called out and little Reggie ran over. I lifted him into my arms, praising him as I handed him to Carlisle. He smiled as he took Reggie from me, looking carefully at him.
"So this is Reggie?" he asked me as he let Reggie go again.
"That's Reggie…" I repeated. "Dalmatio!" I called and Dalmatio came running at me, leaping into my arms. I held her gently, praising her as I handed her to Carlisle. I looked at Alice and saw that she was still laughing, and I sighed, shaking my head slowly as I looked back towards Carlisle, who was still holding Dalmatio. "That's Dalmatio." I said and he nodded as he let her join her siblings. "Jumpy! Come here, boy!" I called and Jumpy looked up, cocked his head at me, before running over, leaping into my arms. I could hear Carlisle laughing next to me. I handed Jumpy to him, smiling.
"Not as quick to respond as the others?" he asked me and I knew it was a rhetorical question. I smiled.
"It's not that, he's just a bit harder to train than the others." I explained and he nodded understandingly.
"So how is the training going, anyway?" he asked me.
"Alice trained the other two, but Jumpy's proving difficult to train. He's slowly getting there, though. Reggie and Dalmatio are now even able to ignore the scent of humans. Jumpy is still unable to ignore the human scent. Hopefully, pretty soon we won't have to lock them in my bedroom when we're not around, and they'll be able to run around." I said and he nodded.
"I see what you mean. Kristen, I think it's time we got that baby out of Helen. And in order to do that, I need your ability to put your strength into objects." He said to me and I nodded, turning to Alice.
"Alice, are you able to look after the puppies for a while?" I asked her and she nodded as Carlisle allowed Jumpy to rejoin his siblings. I followed Carlisle into the house and towards Helen, who was talking to a very grumpy Rosalie. I could hear their conversation begin to accelerate towards an argument.
"Helen?" Carlisle called to her and she looked around. "Helen, we need you to come with us for a second. We need to get that baby out of you." He told her and she nodded, standing up and walking towards us. I saw Rosalie look relieved.
"Thank you. If you hadn't come, I swear I'd have killed her." She mouthed and I smiled at her.
"Not yet you're not." I mouthed back, still smiling.
"Come on Kristen." I heard Carlisle say and I looked around and saw that both he and Helen were at the foot of the stairs, waiting for me. I was by their side in less than a second and we walked together up the stairs, where we came across Esme, who was cleaning.
"Where are you going?" she asked us curiously.
"We need to get the baby out of Helen. We shouldn't be long." Carlisle said and she nodded as we walked towards the spare room. "By the way, is it just me, or can anyone else hear a tiny heart beating rapidly?" he asked us after closing the door. I listened hard and, sure enough, I could hear a miniature heart beating rapidly.
"It's not just you Carlisle. I can hear it too. Unless we're both going insane." I said and he looked slightly relieved, before it hit us like a brick. "Oh crap." I whispered.
"I agree Kristen. Either we haven't left it long enough, or the venom wasn't strong enough." Carlisle said softly to me, and Helen looked at us curiously.
"What are you two talking about?" she asked us.
"Don't worry. We need you to lay down, so we can get this thing out of you." Carlisle told her and she nodded, laying down on the bed in the corner of the room. Carlisle grabbed a scalpel out of his work bag and handed it to me. "This is where your ability will come in handy. Normally the scalpel won't do anything to her, but your ability will give it the strength it needs." He said.
"But I don't know where to make the cut." I told him and he sighed.
"Make the cut along the centre of her stomach. Here, I'll place my finger where I want you to cut, just so long as you don't cut my finger off." He said, chuckling as he placed his finger on Helen's stomach. Putting my strength into the scalpel, I cut into her stomach, just above Carlisle's finger.
Eventually, we had the child out, but it was definitely not dead. It was as we feared. The baby was still alive. And there were two of them.
"It appears we were mistaken Kristen, in thinking the child wouldn't survive the mother being turned." Carlisle sighed.
"You're right. We'd better tell Rowan, then." I said, but he shook his head.
"Not yet. I still need to test something." He said and I nodded. I looked briefly back at Helen and saw that her stomach had healed. Carlisle seemed to have seen where I was looking. "She can go now." He told me and I nodded.
"Helen, you can go." I said and she nodded, walking out of the room and downstairs. Carlisle was holding the babies, looking at them curiously. He handed one to me, and I saw the one he handed me was a little girl.
"How did you survive, you persistent little bugger?" he muttered to the one he held, before sighing and walking to the linen cupboard and wrapping the tiny baby in a towel to prevent it freezing to death. He threw another towel to me to wrap the little girl in. "Kristen, we need to have some tests done on this one. None of the tests will kill him, but we need to test two things. First: how they survived, and second: what the venom we used to turn his mother did to him and his sibling." He said and I looked surprised.
"The baby's a boy?" I asked him and he nodded, smiling slightly.
"The baby's a boy." He repeated and I sighed. "What gender is the one you're holding?" he asked me and I smiled.
"A girl." I replied and he nodded.
"Alright. First, we need to test what the venom that turned their mother did to them." He said, handing the baby boy to me. I held him gently in my arms, and I was instantly in love. Maternal instincts were taking over my brain, and I held the children close; making sure none of their skin touched mine. I listened to the steady beating of their tiny hearts and their slow, steady breaths as they slept in my arms. I heard Carlisle come back into the room, Alice behind him, obviously curious.
"Oh my God." She breathed, looking at the babies. "How on earth did they survive that?" she asked and I sighed, smiling down at the tiny infants asleep in my arms.
"We really have no idea. But one thing's for sure…I can't let these little ones die." I replied and she smiled at the children as she took the little girl into her arms. Carlisle looked at us crooning over the children and smiled.
"Let me guess Kristen…maternal instincts?" he asked me and I looked up at him. Still smiling, I nodded. "Thought so. Okay, bring him here. Before Rowan gets back, we need to have an answer to what the venom did to them." He sighed and I approached him slowly.