Chapter 22

NPOV

I had slipped into my safe place yet again. I could feel him there, warm and strong his arms enfolding me. I melted into him and breathed deeply the aroma of home.

"Jake?"

"I'm here, Love."

"We're moving again. I can feel you getting farther away."

"I'll find you, Ness, I'll always find you."

"Jake!" I felt myself being pulled from him, but I couldn't stop whatever force it was. He was fading from my senses, and I reached for him in my mind. "Jacob!"

"Ness... Don't leave me...come back!"

"Ah, there she is," Caius' voice said as his face came into focus before me. "Excellent. I am quite impressed Gustav, quite a demonstration."

I blinked my eyes trying to bring my surroundings into clearer relief. I was in a stone room with a cold floor beneath me. I could hear nothing, no sounds of water or mountain wind. It was completely quiet. Damn, no clues to location.

"Show me more, Gustav. Enhance her hunger, or more specifically, her thirst," Caius ordered.

"As you wish, my lord," said a heavily Slavic accented voice.

Suddenly, I felt a dryness in my throat. It was a burning that tingled and niggled telling me to drink. Each moment was a bit more intense than the last. At first, I thought water, yes, cool, clear water was what I needed. Then the burn intensified, and I knew that water never had a chance of quenching me. I was dryer than the Sahara, and I thought I would go mad.

"Stop, please," I begged.

"That is easy enough, Miss Cullen. All you have to do is feed," Caius stated.

"Feed?"

"Nahuel, bring Renesmee someone to drink."

"Wait...what?" I asked when his words registered.

"It has been too long since you have fed. You need to drink, Renesmee. Can you not sense that the thirst can only be quenched by blood?" his soft and seductive voice said as the burn in my throat pulsed even more tortuously.

"I do not drink human blood," I said almost as a reminder to myself.

"Ah, but you can, and you will. If for no other reason than no other nourishment will be provided for you. Embrace the vampire within, child."

I smelled them before I saw them. Nahuel was dragging in a teenage boy who looked like he was about to be sick. His eyes darted round the room, and he looked like an animal in a trap. My heart broke for him, even as his aroma assaulted my senses.

The thirst was incredible and despite myself, my mouth was watering. I swallowed the saliva in my mouth and repeated a mantra in my head "Never harm a human."

"I know you are thirsty Love, come drink," Nahuel said leading the boy to my side and forcing him to his knees before me. The boy's eyes pleaded with me, and I tried to reassure him with my own, but I knew I was helpless to assist him.

"It's time, Caius," Nahuel said.

"Greetings Cullens. I assume my dear one is focused on our little scene. We wanted you to be able to share in your loved one's new life. Gwyneth will be allowing you little glimpses, at designated times as we go on, so that you may see her become what she should have always been. We begin with diet. Gustav has increased her thirst reflex and now we shall help her feed," Caius said to the world at large.

"I do not harm humans," I said trying to breathe through my mouth so as not to be tempted by the smell of the human before me.

"Then allow me to do the honors, all you need do is partake, My Dove," Nahuel said and then sank his teeth into the flesh at the boy's throat.

Blood flowed freely from his neck and the boy screamed. I felt the tears sting my eyes, and every muscle in my body tense as I pulled myself away from the temptation. I was horrified, I wanted to help the boy, but at the same time I was fighting every instinct within me to not drink the fresh warm blood.

"I won't! You can't make me!" I screamed.

"Then you will starve," Caius stated plainly. "And Gustav will see to it that your thirst grows and grows."

I felt my heart ache within my chest and prayed I would be lost in the in-between with Jake again, but as my eyes began to close I felt my mind pulled back to the present again.

"Oh, and Celine will ensure that you may not rest. Her gift is to keep your attention where I want it. Welcome to my world, young Renesmee. The only relief you will gain is in your compliance." Caius began to laugh manically, and I knew this was going to only get worse.

JPOV

A week...it had been a week. The witch, Gwyneth, had shown us Ness three times and each time she seemed weaker and more fragile. She looked pale and tired. I knew they were not letting her rest, because I could feel it. I had felt her ripped away from me in our sacred place, and she had not returned to me.

Bella and Carlisle were watching and monitoring me round the clock. They figured my physical deterioration was mirroring Nessie's, and if that were the case, I was terrified. I could not eat, nothing stayed, and sleep was a long forgotten friend. The only rest I got was when I would phase and allow my pack members to take over my mind.

Jake, come hunting with us, maybe that will help, Embry thought.

No point, I responded

At least try, come on, Ness will skin us alive when she gets back and you look like you do.

I can't eat until she can, don't you understand, I cannot physically do it.

You have to stay strong, dude...for her.

I heard variations on this theme from all of my pack brothers, but it was pointless. The imprint knew that my life was slipping away, and I could do nothing to stop it.

Everyone was back in Forks using the Cullen's as a command center, but the truth was we were no closer to finding her. My pack and Sam's wanted to tear this Gwyneth bitch to pieces, but she was the only insight we had to Nessie's whereabouts, and although I hated the way she spoke of Caius, her ability to track him was all we had.

By week two, however, things were changing fast. Gwyneth came to the family room as she always did to project her dose of Caius for us, but the images were no longer clear. They looked like they were being broadcast on a faulty TV screen, they wavered and became snowy.

I grabbed her by her shoulders and let my wrath flow over her. "What the hell! If you have to torture us, at least let us see what's really happening!"

She slumped forward. "I cannot focus. I grow weary."

"You are withdrawing from the drug, Gwyneth, you will lose more and more of your gift without it," Alec said.

"NO!"

"Oh yes. Do you think you can amplify your thoughts to Caius?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I suggest you try and convince him of your need to rejoin him. Otherwise, you will become of no use to any of us, and we'll have no reason to let you live. It is your only hope of survival."

"I will monitor her for you," offered Jane. "If she fails to convince him or deviates from your instructions I will prevent her from betraying you."

"Dial him up," I said and I prayed this would work.