DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THE GOOD NIGHT
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PART 1 OF THE TWO PART FINALE: THE BRAVE
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CHARLES BLACK
Looking at Leah felt like looking at the sun.
Looking at the sun was better than looking at Leah, it didn't sting my eyes so much and I would never risk seeing the heart of its centre like I had done with Leah. What made it burn like that...? Did I want to know... of course I wanted to know; I was curious beyond my sanity. But knowing was the same as back-tracking on this thing I had given her.
I had turned into Pandora and in this Greek mythology, I had given away that exquisite box without so much as trying to open it for a little peek but that hadn't changed the story's end. As the box had been given away, so too was my interest peaked intensely... and although the end of the story had already been written before with the original Pandora...
Here I was fighting hook and nail not to be pulled into searching the box out and flinging the lid open, if not to quench this grating merciless curiosity for just a second... look past the burning of the sun's rays, see the core and then understand why it was so tempting, so desirable, a diamond... a glass of water in a desert... cognac to an alcoholic...
"Why are you staring at the sun?" Jacob asked, dropping beside me on the ground and crossing his legs like a giant over muscled kindergarten. He stared up frowning, his eyes squinting as he tried to look at the sun too. "You wondering if you are going to burn?" he nudged my side forcefully but I didn't pretend to not be stronger than him "You get it, 'cos you a vampire..."
"Funny. Part vampire in any regards" I sighed wearily, ignoring his mumbling that I was turning into Edward "And even then, I am no half-vampire"
"Half-Vampire" he breathed, all foolishness lost and a shadow falling over his eyes.
"Is it just me..."Leah said loudly, trudging up from the house "Or is Charles Edward Black avoiding me"
"I am not avoiding you!" I said quickly, rising from the sand and dusting the grains away from my pants. I looked to the light blue seas frenziedly, ignoring her form encroaching in the peripheral of my vision and obviously folding its arms and waiting on me to acknowledge her "Doesn't the sea look inviting, Jacob?"
"I thought we were all about staring at the sun and going blind today?" Jacob scoffed and I groaned.
"I think I will go and take a dive..." I began and she opened her mouth, preparing a tirade so I did the mature thing.
I sped to the sea, leaving their angered yelling as sand blew up over them in my supernatural speed.
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JACOB BLACK
"Your son is acting weird" Leah huffed. She sat next to me, reminding me distinctly of her irritating me on First Beach sometime long ago in my very near past.
"He is a hybrid thingy" I sighed, watching Charles wade in the waters waist deep, his back turned to us and shoulders slumped. "Weird is normal for him, cut him some slack. He must be worried about... Rainesme"
"You say it Ruh-Ne-smee" Leah said absently "Or Spawn. Here is an idea that I know will knock her socks off when her daddy and uncles find her..."
"What?"
"Call her Spawn" Leah grinned evilly. "Just... 'Hey, there... Spawn' will do"
"Won't she kill me?" I asked her-trying to coat my voice in humour but I was sure my eyes gave me away.
"No" Leah said with no conviction.
"Leah?"
"Yeah?"
"I am so scared" I whispered to her-unsure on whether Charles (who was already so tense about this) could here us from far off in the brightness of the beach front.
"Of Renesme?" Leah scoffed "Come on! I mean sure... she is a blood drinker now, but she doesn't know how to fight past her ballerina..."
"I mean of the imprint" I breathed and closed my eyes. "I am afraid of seeing her"
"Oh" was all she managed.
"Imprint..." my voice came out pitched "I don't know shit and yet I have already..." my heart squeezed and released violently "And then I mean, you and Charles have it perfect... you aren't shackled and bound in some kind of S and M version of love..."
"Yeah" Leah sighed smiling at the distant man standing off in the waters "I don't know how it came to be that way, but its near perfect"
"Not helping Clearwater" I frowned "This is about me and my... non-imprint, I guess"
"Oh, right" Leah cleared her throat "Uhm... just, be you?"
"Be me?" I breathed incredulously "Be me? That's all you have for me?"
"Hey, I am not Oprah!" she defended "This has never happened before, what do you want from me?"
"Some sympathy!"
"I sympathise enough, Jake!" she said sternly "I sympathise that you breaking away from her was the best thing to ever happen to you since Isabella got married. But didn't you find a way past that into being her lapdog even when she wore a wedding ring? And do you remember what happened you went right back into her grasps?"
"Uh..."
"Yeah, 'uhhh'" she shook her head comically, purposefully bulging her eyes "A bunch of Undead people emerged, a war never happened and you imprinted on something that shouldn't exist"
"So what are you saying"
"Stop fucking worrying about Bella!" she hissed "Worry about you!"
"But she isn't..."
"I am making a point here, Jacob!" she cut her hand in the air in a no-nonsense manner, her eyes wide and mouth pursed "Do not interrupt!"
"But she isn't Bella...!"
"Same mother-fucking principle!" Leah snapped "And right before you got imprinted you know what happened?"
"Uh...?" I blinked stupidly and then I remembered like it was yesterday... holding her while she was crying and kissing her forehead, staring into her brown eyes. But I couldn't have been sure if that was the memory she was having too... "Uhm, I guess... okay, never mind. I get you; stop forcing things or... obsessing or something. It will lead to... disaster or... something of the sort"
"I am not saying that before I was..." she began shakily "I wasn't... but I mean, if that had happened... imagine the fucked up extra mess your 'worrying about Bella' would have created right about..."
"But it never really happened" I breathed and then coughed away the gravel in my voice.
"Thank God!" she laughed and I tried not to let that bug me at how 'grateful' she truly sounded.
"What happened before he imprinted?" Charles voice cut through the uneasy quiet and I jumped.
"Shit... you are almost as sneaky as a vampire!" I stuttered, getting up "Okay, thanks for the chat, Lee. Much appreciated"
"No problem" Leah said too loudly, getting up simultaneously and staring back at the house yearningly.
"Later!" I said walking away and Leah said something about the kitchen being a vampire's fetish and needing to ensure supper was edible for the living; she walked away in the opposite direction.
"Right" I heard Charles breath. "Back to square one with you two; secrets"
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The house was unbearably hot.
This is when you realise that the fever like body temperature that should render you dead is specifically designed for Forks. It was taking forever to get used to... and I was suddenly jealous of Blondie's 'pretend' tanning.
"Your husband is off hiding in some motel..." I breathed "And you are sunbathing"
"What would you have me do?" she removed her shades and turned completely into a Barbie-Glitter sculpture wearing a pink bikini "Walk around sulking and looking at Leah like she had a bag of treats waiting on me if I wagged my tail just right?"
"Hey, Charles is having a hard time!" I growled. You as his aunt should surely understand that!"
She put her black shades back on her face and leaned back elegantly, before snorting with just as much sugary grace "I wasn't talking about Charles"
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Wasn't talking about...
The fuck does she know! She coats her fears in shopping and a hardened beautiful exterior... what do I have to hide behind? Charles is off moping about his mother... I think... and I have to fear imprinting a second time to what has been descried to me as the most fucked up person since... Lindsay Lohan.
Not to say its Lindsay's fault entirely, but I mean... there you have it.
Leah... it's hard not looking at her if she is prancing about in a bikini and shorts. Put some goddamned clothes on and then maybe...
"What were you and Leah talking about?" Charles asked suddenly, and I jumped-flinging my bowl of fruit salad into the air where it splattered the ceiling and fell pathetically to the floor.
"Can you make some sort of noise!?" I hissed at him "Footsteps, cough... breathe!"
"I am breathing" he said stoically.
"It's like you are in stealth mode or something!"
"I am tense..." he said matter-of-factly rolling his eyes "Adrenaline and my natural..."
"Abnormal" I corrected
"Yeah, well..." he waved the back if his hand impatiently in my face. The veins were raised and much darker on his now tanned skin-almost the same shade as my own now, from walking around the island bored.
"Venom blah, blah and blah" I breathed and then looked at him seriously "Does it hurt?"
"No, not really..." he murmured "Just... takes getting used too; too strong so I can't hold anything, constantly hearing..."
"So you were eavesdropping on Leah and I?"
"Yes" he said unashamedly. "There shouldn't be anything the two of you need discussing that I can't be a part off"
"You aren't a part of our history" I snapped irritated with him and he growled low, taking a step forward, still shorter than me but definitely stronger as present. "You need to get over that, yesterday"
"You need to get over my... mum or Bella" he said and I flinched "Yesterday"
"I don't remember your mum"
"Then Bella" he snarled "Get over it"
"I am over it"
"Not from where I am standing" he grinned sadistically "It isn't just a 'switch off' thing. And that's what scared you about Nessie. That it may not be a 'switch off' thing and you'll see her and feel your whole world orbiting that one sun"
"The hell you talking about!" I growled and his face slackened, his eyes glassing a little.
"Fuck you" he finished feebly "Keep your damned secrets!"
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The narrow pavement that clung to the crumbling building was cold under her feet even though the air around her was hot and moist. Her toes rubbed curiously on the odd rough texture, scraping the much harder skin underneath her foot in an odd sensation that was both pleasant and terrifying. It alerted her that as much as she liked the feel of the ground-as much as she had gotten accustomed to it-her feet were still susceptible to the hard city concrete.
It reminded her that she wasn't at her long lost home with the soft ground and grass.
It reminded her that she was barefoot, in a wild city and standing on the hard pathway with nothing but a skimpy faded worn cotton dress that clung feebly to her thin shoulders. She was the hanger to this garment, she thought. Car headlights flashed from around the corner and she immediately forgot her idle musings and went to work.
"Hey, step back Rita-Tick! Let the big girls handle this!" Gisele yelled, sauntering into the spotlight of the car's wide blinding lights with more crude grace than Rita could ever hope of managing with her narrow hips and unheeled feet. Rita's step stuttered midway; her large eyes staring in disbelief at Gisele's already leaning form on the shiny car's rolled down driver's window. That should have been her there, she was first up on the block... she should have been talking to the hidden stranger in the car... she would have been the one to steal a fat wallet after she had worked and worked.
She didn't step back; staring just like the other five girls at the silver Mercedes and wishing it was her speaking to whatever fat ugly man sat in there. Gisele spoke for long, and soon Rita was hoping that behind the tinted windows were more men... who wanted more women... and they could all go home with something for Nico afterward. Nico had told Rita countless times-with an array of sign language that involved closed fists, open rigid hands and well aimed kicks-that if she didn't bring back his money (this was subject to whoever wanted to get into the politics of 'street business'), she would end up in a place much worse than the streets of Rio.
And at fifteen, the streets of Rio were her idea of hell as they were in their entire tourist attracting tainted glory and she wasn't about to try and find out what could be worse than hell. She didn't think death was worse than hell right now... death sounded like a never ending vacation were she could catch up with some nightmareless sleep... but again, just like with Gisele taking over her 'client'-it involved courage. She was spineless. A skinny spineless squirrel.
"Her?" Gisele said loudly in English and Rita jumped when she saw Gisele's long much suppler hand pointing insolently back towards her. "Trust me, sirs... I can handle all of you on my own" Gisele crooned, folding her hands on the rim of the window and half pursing-half pouting her lips in a manner that Rita found alluring.
What did she know of crude lust? All she knew of the wonders of sex where taught here on this street and although she possessed skill that surpassed most housewives, she had no understanding of making love with a lover...
"Fine, fine..." Gisele raised her hands to calm the hidden man "But I am telling you, any of the other girls are better. She is underfed and unhealthy" she cast Rita a disgusted look that made Rita feel like she was truly contaminating. "Get over here... Rita!"
Rita moved slowly towards the car and then Gisele gave her a pointed look. She paused and then realised she was walking as though she were approaching an electric chair. She quickly pulled up the skirt to a quarter of her thigh, just enough although she wouldn't be able to run without showing her pathetic g-string and with each step she swerved her hips right and left with exaggerated force. Her heart was in her throat, her skin was clamming up everywhere and as she reached the tinted backseat window, a scared young girl with watery mascara and palest skin blinked back at her. She ignored her reflection and stood timidly beside Gisele.
"Her name is Rita and she gives a mean blowjob, don't you Rita?" Gisele looked back at Rita and Rita thought Gisele's cheeks seemed flushed past the blush she had on, past her lovely darker olive skin. "Come over here, Rita. The nice man in here likes you" Gisele crooned and then glanced back into the dark interior of the car "She isn't very good with the English but I can tell her your... wishes"
"H-h-h..."Rita began and then gulped moving closer to Gisele's side and smelling the cheap perfume the much well off 'sister' wore. "Hello"
The first thing she saw was what appeared to be a chalk sculpture shaped like a hand propped on the steering wheel. She frowned and then realised the thing extended backwards and connected to a being. A white man with what seemed to be black hairs sprinkled beautifully over the length of the arm... but could that whitest of whites truly be one of the races of the world. It seemed like a new version-concentrated white? He seemed to glow in the shadows of the car, his skin so fragile looking in its paleness it made her think automatically he was a sickly man looking for a little pleasure before death.
Rita's active quiet questioning lasted a second as Gisele moved out of the way so she could peer inside fully and see her 'clients'. The owner of the hand and subsequently the pale arm had the most beautiful face she had ever seen. He was the most beautiful face-for man was too constricted a description. Not even a woman could compare to such beauty...
But maybe there was one, and she hadn't been able to compare really, but she was damn close to it. So close to this mans beauty they could have been brother and sister, him the elder one who had received all the more concentrated genes that rendered him beautiful past description...
"Rita" the man sang-for his voice rang in her ear in such soft whispers that she could feel her heart squeezing and falling in love with him instantly "Would you come with us?"
"Us?" Rita repeated stupidly in English.
"Us, Rita" the man said in Portuguese this time and smiled to her. She could make out bodies in the car now, but she was held hypnotically by his golden eyes and slight smile. "Would you come with us?"
"Yes" she said without thinking, not waiting a second to breathe.
"Both of us?" Gisele pushed Rita violently away from the window "That was the deal!?"
"I had to be sure which one of you I wanted" the man said in flawless Portuguese, his voice intoxicating both the young women.
"Take us both" Gisele pleaded and thought impulsively-the thought almost escaping her lips-that he could take her free of charge. Just take her... anywhere... "I want to... come... too"
"Just Rita" the back passenger door opened and a tall blonde man stepped out and when he turned to face the women their eyes widened. He was almost as beautiful as the driver but where he fell short in the beauty he made up in a sort of dangerous handsomeness. "Right..." this part the blonde man said in English, his voice trailing as though there was more to the sentence but he wasn't about to voice it out.
"Rita, please?" the man said and Rita took two steps towards the door he held open for her, Gisele grabbing her hand violently and yanking her back.
"How much you going to give her?" Gisele demanded to the driver "I should get a cut, compensation!"
"Rita, get in the car" the blonde man repeated with such sweetness that Rita felt completely trusting of him-trust she had forgotten since the moment she had been birthed. She tugged her hand free of Gisele and walked silently to the open door, staring at the handsome man for a second before disappearing into the car and from Gisele's disbelieving sight.
"Gisele..." the driver murmured, saying the name as though Gisele was the purest of lovers and caressing her anger quickly away "Tell no one of Rita"
"What the fuck..." she hissed, her accent causing the swear word to cut oddly "You think Nico is going to just listen to me when I say I let that cockroach go without receiving a quotation? She is as dumb as bricks... you lot are gong to take advantage of her! You know who Nico is? He will make your little vacation in Rio feel like you just came to hell..."
"Do not threaten me!" the drivers door opened fluidly and with no sign of getting up-the man appeared in the dim street, angry beautiful and terrifying. The street emptied immediately-as much as this was a curious event-no one was brave enough for death tonight.
He was more beautiful than she had thought. He was tall, not as tall as the blonde one still standing amused by the open door Rita had calmly entered through... but something about him suggested a sort of majesty.
Even with the violent bone chilling scowl he was wielding, Gisele had the urge to tell him he could fuck her side ways for free.
"I apologize" her breathe came out textured and cooled.
"Jazz, if you will" the man said in such annoyance Gisele lost all her previous grandiose at being the highest earner and prettiest girl on that street and felt as worthless as what she thought of Rita. She backed away, her eyes staring at the beautiful Angel before snapping to the blonde man who had taken two deliberate steps toward her.
"Gisele, if you would please..." the man drawled in a very Americanised Portuguese "Don't tell anyone about Rita. It would do us much good, thank you"
Although the words came out endearing accented Portuguese, and although he had been more polite than any client... any relative she ever had... a thrill ran down her spine and her breath knocked out of her in terrorized puffs. She stepped back, stumbling as she stared at the bright yellow eyes and friendly smile. And when she was three steps back and a car zoomed past them, its lights flashing the man's face momentarily; his eyes glowed, reflecting the light back into white pearliness around his iris.
"Don't tell Gisele" he whispered to her over the tensed thudding of her heart, stepping into the car agilely "It would be unfair of us to come back and bother you again"
"Go!" she yelled, waving her hand in a shooing motion but they had already pulled away "Take that wretch, take it! Demons! I want nothing... I won't speak of evil... I want... I want... oh God, save her. They will kill her!" she finished, her hand going to her mouth and stifling a hysteric wet sob. She looked around her and realised she was alone. The street opposite them had imperceptible life, nothing that would have had enough honour to shout out if she were being murdered right in that moment.
She turned away from the deserted scene of her own street frantically before running easily in her heels. She would go to Nico but she wouldn't tell him about Rita and the gorgeous men. For once in her life, she had encountered something more terrifying than Nico's temper and it didn't have a description outside of politely pleasant with an adorable Texas accent.
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"Huh?" she blinked in the darkness, the car gliding fluidly over the road and entering the pulsing lights of the upper side. She could feel bodies at both her sides-but was bodies really hot to describe them? It was like sitting lodged by stones statues-no heat came from them and they did not sway or accidentally brush against her... no accidents, perfectly still...
"Rita, tell me about the girl who saved you" the driver asked "The one who looks like me"
"The one..." Rita blinked stupidly, preferring to fix her eyes on the built tanned much more normal looking man in shotgun. "The girl?"
"Yes, the girl who saved you when Nico was being difficult" the driver said in a soft understanding tone "when you weren't able to bring in any money?"
"Her" Rita murmured, smiling a little. "Oh, her..."
"She looks like me, doesn't she?" the beautiful driver said "Her name is Renesme"
"Nessie" Rita said automatically "She is in charge of the upper east near the club 'Help'. She lets Nico run down here, scouting girls to take up if you pretty enough. That's what Gisele wants..." Rita blabbed, unaware of the lovely atmosphere working around her.
"What did she say?" the man in shotgun asked and Rita tensed slightly; trying to decipher the English.
"She has seen Renesme" the driver murmured and Rita realised he was driving the car fluidly in the bustling city streets-while surveying her in the rear-view mirror and casting the man in shotgun a quick glance.
"And...?" a deep voice rumbled at Rita's side and she jumped into the tall blonde man, staring at a hulking form "My Portuguese is rusty; I usually let Rose do all the talking"
"And my daughter is a pimp"
"They call them..." the muscular man murmured and the driver growled, Rita's lulling lazy feel shaken as the sound-less human but not entirely animal-reverberated to through the car.
"She is kind and scary!" Rita said quickly-ignoring the incomprehensible mutterings of the giant man next to her "Why you ask about her; she is dangerous, you know. She only help me once-just to keep me working okay, not because we friends or anything"
"That's not true" the Driver murmured "She... helped you because she is kind. Like you initially said"
"She is connected" Rita continued, pulling on a fantasy she had had about being like the bronze haired goddess with an impatience for spineless men. "She scouts the cities with Adonis..."
"Nahuel" the driver murmured and she tensed-and then chose to ignore the odd statement in her feeling of grandiose.
"Yeah, you see them types all the time" Rita finished, wringing her hands "You want to get into the up market; easy as one two three... but maybe, uhm... take me there? As a reference...?"
"And here I was thinking you needed saving" the driver chuckled in English and she frowned, wondering if he was making fun of her to his friends.
"That's your biggest problem, man" the Burly man snapped "You want to save everything except yourself"
"Shut up, Em, like hell I was going to let you refer to my daughter as 'Madame'"
"So we going to use her to get into this up market place?" the Tall Blonde asked.
"She isn't connected enough" the Driver breathed and Rita realised they were far from the safety of the tourist spots, somewhere dark and gritty. Her home, her and her sisters-Nico's territory. She thought about panicking, but didn't have enough patheticness in her new grand state to care for it.
"Rita" the Driver said sternly, turning around in his seat to look at her "Go and call Gisele before she gets to Nico. She is in the 'coke room' taking something to cool off"
She blinked stupidly at him-wondering how he knew to park in front of their very building, how he knew of the sifting room but then opted to remain silent. It didn't matter-she was going to be a Goddess, a Madame like the feared and fair 'Nessie'.
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"Carlisle's here" Seth murmured and Edward smiled. "Oh, you heard him long ago..."
"Yep" Edward tapped the side of his head " Thoughts tend to be louder than even car engines"
"Who has the loudest thoughts?" Seth asked.
"Jacob still holds the title" Edward replied sombrely "Not even Emmett when he is with Rose can compete with Jake's obnoxiousness"
"Hey!" Emmett breathed.
They went silent then, the similar black Mercedes pulling in front of them, the lights stinging their too sensitive eyes momentarily before they were turned off. Carlisle walked out; he was in an ivory shirt that clashed with his skin beautifully-the fabric fluttering in the warm breeze in a seductive nature that was unlike the quiet doctor. He stuck out against the backdrop of grit and seediness exquisitely-highlighting the surrounding buildings crumbling faces with his smooth planed face and showing the barely humane nature of the area, with his large pitying eyes scanning everything.
"Just get over here!" Edward hissed and Carlisle's head snapped away from surveying the window on the second floor of a far left building-a cracked window where a baby's cry was emanating from-to stare in surprise at the Mercedes with the not-human men hidden in it.
"What do you want me to do?" Carlisle asked quickly looking back at a particular large group of men nearest to them. Of course they were being watched, their cars brought that out of the people here but the moment he had stepped out-he had drawn in a few more eyes.
"There are two human girls..."
"Girls?" Carlisle gasped "I thought you said you found prostitutes?"
"The girls are prostitutes, Carlisle" Jasper drawled impatiently from the back.
"Right" Carlisle took in a hard breath, he had promised he would do and be the necessary when it was called off him-for his granddaughter, for his son.
"I need you to be a high-rolling billionaire" Edward said seriously-ignoring Carlisle's wide eyes. "You see, as present... too many of us may send alerts in the up-market sex tourist destinations. I have a suspicion that that is where the vampire lackeys tend to find their gourmet courses... where..." he paused abruptly and closed his eyes before opening them, his honey eyes turning into an white gold.
"That is where I think... I suspect..." he breathed-a sound riddled in sharp breathes indiscernible to Seth Clearwater (although the younger living immortal was watching Edward and listening with extreme keenness) "She tends to Joham's courses... or whatever 'higher vampires' are there. I am not certain what is going on there-Joham is an oddity in his views when it comes to humans, I suspect... and I he thinks he is a god, he will want to feed from the most divine. Or create from the most divinely beautiful..."
"Will they be a problem?" Carlisle asked.
"I think not" Edward murmured. "Your eyes are almost black-I they have been warned of us, the first thing they will look to is our eye colour and well, that is why I asked you not to feed"
"Hmm. Yes" Carlisle agreed.
"Go with the two girls, they will lead you to a place where there will be a pimp..." Edward murmured, picking from Gisele's thoughts as the two girls made their way back down with Nico. "This man will obviously want money but you tell him you want the best and you have more to spend. Tell him you want drugs and... Uh, a young boy too"
"A young boy for what?" Carlisle hissed.
"To fuck" Edward growled, his eyes flashing "Carlisle, there is no time... do you know how many humans have seen 'pale' and 'beautiful'? A few tens... do you know what that alerts me?" he didn't wait for his father's advice, squashing his own shame at being so formidable to the kind man "That tells me that this place is heavily guarded, especially in the night time... and it is the fucking nighttime and another thing; we are planning on infiltrating a hierarchical system of which we do not know where Nessie stands in that pyramid. I am only assuming she is somewhere at the top with Nahuel being Joham's father..."
"I have never done anything like this before" Carlisle explained softly "I will be capable of course, but let me express my displeasure freely Edward!"
"Aro and Jane?" Edward scowled "Aro and Alec?... Alec begging you for me? Don't be so naïve, Carlisle, it all stems right through the humans. It isn't the venom that corrupts the human, the human is corrupt before the venom. It only heightens. Now we have run out of time to prep you through your dismantling of morals, the girls are coming and now give the man with them three thousand dollars!"
Carlisle backed away from the car immediately and sped to the side of the building, in the shadows-a spectre unseen and disorientating two men who had been watching the white pale man from the point in which he had parked the car in their midst, to the point he had walked over to the other Mercedes and stood there. He seemed to have vanished, disintegrated from the driver's window, they thought. And before both men could point this fact out to five of their peers standing loosely by the entrance of the building Rita had rushed through to get her 'sister'-they saw him idle through the shadows into their sights from somewhere from the side.
"The fuck?" the one man nudged the other, who had been watching the scene unravel surreptitiously. Oblivious to the act that the 'men' they had been watching were all too aware of their eyes and didn't care much for their thoughts of presence. "The man... he was there?"
"What you on about, Rico?" one at man in a leather jacket growled, watching the dark Mercedes pull away from their curb and eave the navy one alone.
"The... never mind" Rico sighed, shaking his head and watching the white man idle his way towards their porch.
"Hey mister!" Leather Jacket called out to Carlisle, grinning to his peers "You lost?"
"I am waiting for someone" Carlisle said clearly, pausing a few feet off the huddled group-watching with visible apprehensiveness on his odd innocent beautiful face, watching the many little groups huddled similarly to the young men on the porch all over the road by the buildings. Gangs, he thought. Young men selling drugs and ruining their souls..
"Well, you waiting in the wrong neighbourhood" Rico laughed in Portuguese.
"No, I have the right neighbourhood" Carlisle muttered automatically in Portuguese, listening to through the many sounds around him and honing his hearing into the building-through the baby crying, the swearing, the sex and cooking meat. Through the tinkering of metal and sifting of some form of grainy fine substance-coke. He heard the tapping of his heals, he heard the rushed whispering and giggling. He prayed it was the women, he wanted to leave. He wanted to be away from the vile smells and the hard stares. His beauty was a sin here-a sin portraying the innocent dirt here.
"This is my brother's neighbourhood!" Rico snarled arrogantly, sauntering only an inch from the safety of the men appointed to watch over him by Nico. "And you, mister... are not a part of this neighbourhood... not with your white shirt and pants..."
"Those are chino's boy" snorted the Leather Jacket, nudging another one of the men. He may be Nico's brother, but he was just a kid. A troublesome kid always looking for fights because he knew he had back up... he knew he wouldn't have to swing a fist to even slap a bitch.
"What, you a homo now?" Rico growled back to the man in the leather jacket, swaggering and grinning when he received laughs-but quickly gulped when Leather Jacket's eyes flashed dangerously. "Come on, this guy here is lost. He is too clean cut..."
"I know what I came for" Carlisle breathed. "I wish no quarrel..."
Rico lunged forward, ignoring Leather Jacket's low oath for him not to do anything rash-anything unnecessary (Leather Jacket knew he would be put in the firing light for Rico's insolent, naturally-and was thus saving his own hide). But it was too late; Rico had the knife out. It glinted momentarily-in Carlisle's exponentially quicker responsiveness; he watched it in wonder rather than the fright it should have brought out in any other man. He let Rico reach him-in equal curiosity, for he had never had a man try and stab him-and the knife hit his rib with an irritating poke (although Rico had cried triumphantly as he pulled all his weight and tensed it in the one thrusting violent motion), the blade bending and then bouncing back to its original rigid form.
"Ngh!" Rico groaned retracting his arm and jabbing violently again "You don't fuck with Rico!"
"Are you crazy, boy!" Carlisle shook his head and Rico's eyes blinked slowly, he was staring at Carlisle's whitish shirt, waiting for crimson to stain it from within.
"Rico you fucker!" Leather Jacket yelled, pulling the young boy from a motionless Carlisle and shaking him hard by the shoulders. "He could be a cop or something! You think because you are in Nico's territory you can just go around jabbing white men? They are white men, not us!"
They all looked back at Carlisle; staring at the torn shirt and waiting for the blood, waiting for him to drop to the ground.
"How do you just stab someone?" Carlisle tutted instead and all their eyes widened. From across the street, the men also waited for Carlisle to drop-planning on stealing the car immediately afterwards.
"You didn't stab him?" Leather Jacket asked Rico, who nodded silently, staring at Carlisle like he was a ghost. "Yes, you didn't stab him or yes you did?"
"I did" Rico breathed "Twice..."
"Let me see the knife" Leather Jacket demanded. "How the fuck do you miss stabbing someone standing a half an inch from you!"
Carlisle looked up at the building, trying to pick up which conversations belonged to the two girls-the prostitutes. He was distracted; this had to be done, he knew it had to be done... but he didn't want to do it. And it was unfair, he thought. But he was being careless. He was being careless because he was afraid of the immorality of all of this... of what Renesme (sweet Renesme who had asked him to teach her CPR at one point) was exposed to.
But he only knew the half of it...
"Hey mister..."Leather Jacket called out to Carlisle who gave him a side glance. Leather Jacket was looking at the slightly bent, definitely cracked blade "You lost or something"
"I told you I am waiting for someone" Carlisle breathed.
"Nico?" Leather Jacket asked "You waiting for the boss?" he ignored the other men's snorts of how Rico was in shit if the white man was indeed waiting on his brother... after he had stabbed him, and failed.
Just then, Nico emerged with the desired Gisele and the awkward-now there was sight, an awkward hooker-Rita. "Alfonso" Nico greeted and Leather Jacket-Alfonso-nodded his head and backed out of the way, allowing Nico and the two women to pass.
"Where?" Nico asked in an impatient tone and Gisele looked at Rita irritated.
"The car was..." Rita began, but then she saw Carlisle. "Him" she said breathily, pointing a skinny finger out to him.
"Hmm" Nico breathed surveying the elegance of the man's handsomeness-but then he saw the tear in the shirt and frowned. He looked at the car just off, an almost black shiny beast and saw the keys twinkling in the man's white hands.
"Boss, Nico stabbed him..."Alfonso said in a hurry.
"He came up to me!" Rico said in a pitched voice, his eyes wide. Nico grabbed Rico's face violently, his fingers digging into his brothers already gaunt cheeks and pulling the boys head mercilessly to his-scanning every inch o the sweaty canvas that resembled his own scarred face.
"Are you high, Rico?" Nico asked softly-ignoring the quiet that had formed around him although he was surrounded by bodies.
"No" Rico lies and then blinked once, "Maybe a little..."
"Dealers don't get high on their own fucking supply, you idiot" Nico spat, pushing his brothers face away-hating the bulging pupils he had been looking into "Now, if he is stabbed, Alfonso... why is he still standing?"
"I... I ... your brother can't do nothing right" Alfonso ended and Nico sighed in agreement. If Carlisle were not a vampire who could lock his muscles and remain as still as a mountain-he might have not seemed as cool and collected as he did in front of the humans. His insides felt on fire, a thousand voices-all his own and some belonging to his love, Esme (a single one belonged to his father, and although the voice was out numbered-it was the loudest)-all these voices yelling and shouting, warring and destroying inside him. He wanted to tap his foot, but he had no need for that. He wanted to fumble his hands, but he had no need for that too. He listened to their rushed whispers with easy clarity and waited.
"Sir" Nico called "Rita says you want a favour?"
"Drugs, sex..." Carlisle breathed.
"Straight forward and well taught in my mothers tongue" Nico smiled signalling Alfonso, Rita ad Gisele follow him up to Carlisle "I like that"
"She met with my brother" Carlisle said-his tone detached, cold (it scared him).
"Yes, all of them" Nico said "You want to go to 'Help'?"
"I have an appetite" Carlisle breathed "But I have picky tastes"
"Can't be too picky if your brother thought you would favour my little tick... Rita" he poked Rita hard in the ribs and she squealed in pain. "You can blow your money here, up market... its just a fad"
"I want the best" Carlisle repeated.
"Now why come here for the best" Nico asked suspiciously "Why not just drive up to those bright lights of Up Town?" he paused and tutted "I apologise for your harassment, friend. But I really don't think you have the money. I think you looking to rip me off of my best girl"
"You just called her a tick?" Carlisle asked and Nico growled. But then Carlisle took a step forward, scowling violently and Nico and Alonso both backed away-into Gisele and Rita who stumbled back too.
"I want her" Carlisle cocked his head to Rita (who Edward had promised was not very bright but had an almost photographic memory and an obsession with her 'Bronze Haired Goddess' that they needed). "And..." Carlisle couldn't believe he was saying this "A young boy"
"Why didn't you just say so, man!" Nico laughed hoarsely-he was shaking, staring into the strange man's dark eyes had seemed like staring at Death. "I get a cut from 'Guido's'; high price venue in prestigious neighbourhood owned by this one guy I know. I get him the boys and he gets me a cut. There is whores there... oh, my..." he kissed the tips of his pressed inner fingers loudly "Exquisite! I don't know if they are as beautiful as you..."
"You flatter me" Carlisle murmured "But you also waste my time?"
"Yeah, man..." Nico looked back at a sulking Rico then heaved "You see, I need the ages and the prices for the young boys"
"Ages?" Carlisle tilted his head in confusion. This was not to say that he had not heard of 'Sin City' as it were, but he had stayed away from the knowledge-two different things. His nature would have seen him coming to such a desolately immoral place and adopting all its societal rejects. This was his endearing quality and his flaw, and he had to keep it in check.
"If you serious, friend" Nico whispered "Then we can talk about on the way. You are brave... but I never seen a man with money stand alone in these parts and not leave with a scratch"
"That is why..." Carlisle sighed, walking painfully human slow to his driver's end of the car, Rita and Gisele following with Nico while Alfonso signalled for the other men to go somewhere-possibly to convoy them. "That is why I am brave" Carlisle finished.
"And the brave deserve all the pleasures from the innocent" Nico grinned, opening the car door and stepping in rudely.
And too low for the corrupt and yet intelligent man to hear, Carlisle murmured "Do the Innocent deserve such bravery in sin?"
Xx~xx~xX
Her fingers ran along the wall in wonder; she liked the feel of things.
The soft velvety feel of the lush wallpaper under her fingertips was lustrous, the very satin colour raised from the black twirling parsley design decadent to her sights. She had never seen 'rich furniture'... but this was wealth. The wallpaper ended almost halfway and gave a boarder to an outstretch of wood panelling. The lights were propped on wrought iron along the wall in intervals-antique things that had a warm straw lamp shade over them that gave of a warmth and lushness to the corridor. They had passed easily enough through three points of security to get in here-and she couldn't tell, but maybe the beautiful man (who had chosen to go by the name 'Jonas') seemed edgy. He was watching everything, like he could print the images in his eyes.
Rita had recognised about five people inside-this she knew as a result always being the one to clean up on Nico's organised meetings and 'tributes' to the real bosses of Rio (or rather, the real bosses 'representatives').
One of the 'security men' had been almost as beautiful as 'Jonas' and wore dark shades. He had been speaking rapidly, in a language that sung out like Spanish but was not... he had been communicating through his phone to someone, before addressing and repeating whatever had been told to him in the phone. It took fifteen minutes-it felt like a lifetime-before the man had nodded at Jonas and told him to have his 'fill'.
"Stay here" a big man blocked their entrance and placed a fat hand on Nico's chest. Nico looked to Jonas apprehensively.
"You have your fifteen thousand, Nico" Jonas murmured. "Unless you want to watch me..."
"You don't want to watch him, amigo" the big man laughed. "Trust me"
"But I was bringing the boy..."
"Leave, Nico" Jonas commanded and Nico scowled violently-even though he was the smaller fish in the up market-he still hated being told anything. He did the telling.
"There will be another access point" the man told Jonas seriously in English "Three vampires..."
"Vampires?" Gisele asked, watching absently as Nico trudged back up the corridor and then she jumped when a door that had not been there shut behind him and forever blocked his view from her sights.
"Vamp..." Rita tried the word out and then gave up. It didn't matter, they were about to make more money than what Nico had been paid for the ten year old boy.
"Of course, the Leader of this territory" the man continued explaining to Jonas "A very secretive being... he doesn't want any slip ups, so as you are allowed as a prestigious member of the Godly race to feed in suitable conditions... no slip ups. No leaving... doggybags"
"Understood" Jonas murmured. "Through the three vampires, you say?"
"Yes..." the guard murmured and Rita realised, staring at his face-he had red eyes. she gasped and then Gisele struck her in the ribs before whispering furiously to her.
"Contacts"
The giant man smiled "Enjoy Jonas, not many make it into the Sire's personal estates..."
"I hope more make it out" Jonas smiled a small oddly hopeful smile.
Xx~xx~xX
Somewhere a few miles away, Carlisle Cullen's first family and closest friend watched the array of patrolling humans and vampires around the immense strip of the block. None of the beings here had the necessary thoughts to suggest Edward Cullen's daughter lay in there... they were not of any value.
But there was something very interesting two of the vampire guards knew off; Joham's little hidden palace of heinous narcissism was about to come under attack by the most random and inexplicable of players in these odd game. A rival territory... the two guards were spies, Edward realised. They remained silent in the car, their scents hidden and only Seth's single heartbeat giving the misinterpretation that there was a human male sitting alone in the car park.
Xx~xx~xX
AUTHORS NOTE:
Cliff hangers suck. I agree. But after penning a multitude of extra characters and an ambitious two part finale-no reviews suck more! Lol. Its not a cliff-hanger for nothing, so don't be too irritated.
Be sure to review, seriously... we have reached the near end. Good time to not go to bed, or log off and be heard.
And to the constant reader and reviewer, thank you so much. You are legendary and have inspired this beyond what you can possibly imagine with your reflections and thoughts.
Xx
tj