CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
"Dad!" Edward cried as he fell into his father's arms and embraced him. Bella's own fears suddenly weren't important as she was more concerned about the grief etched in the face of the man she loved as he clung to his father. She wanted to comfort him, but she stood back and watched father and son hold each other, both needing reassurance and support and both being unable to provide any such thing. Edward was sobbing and his father was trying to placate him, but there was nothing he could do or say to calm him.
Whatever welcome Edward was expecting it wasn't this one. He had envisaged having to break the lab door down then face a loaded gun, but unexpectedly seeing his father's face for the first time since he found out he was dying was a terrible shock to him. His father had aged ten years since he last saw him. His cheeks were hollow and his face was a sickly shade, not tanned or yellow, but an unnatural hue that enhanced the shadows on his face that had not been there before. Edward knew just by looking at him that his father was desperately sick and was nearer to death than he had led him to believe.
Carlisle eventually composed himself and said, "Edward!" as cheerfully as possible. "I wasn't expecting you tonight and you've brought some friends with you. Bring them in." Carlisle stood back so they could all enter the lab.
Anthony was sitting on his stool leaning on the bench looking exhausted. He watched the emotional scene unfolding in front of him with genuine sympathy, but his eyes widened when Bella, Alice and Jasper followed Edward into the lab. He stood up from his stool and walked towards the drawer where he kept his gun and stood in front of it, as his first thought was that Edward had brought some scientists with him to either steal or destroy his research.
"Who are these people?" he snapped, waving his hands at the three intruders.
Edward stopped himself from answering back with a curt reply, but instead introduced Bella first to his father, who hugged and kissed her, then he introduced Alice and Jasper. Jasper reached out his hand to Carlisle, who took it and held it for a few seconds, then Carlisle's eyebrows went up in astonishment and a small smile spread over his face. He shook Alice's hand afterwards and said with a hint of humour, "I'm delighted to meet both of you, I'm sure we're going to have a very interesting evening."
"What do you want, Edward?" Anthony spat, now sounding very suspicious.
"First things first, uncle. I want to know why my father is here," Edward replied assertively. He wasn't in the mood to take any more shit from his uncle and was letting him know he was in the driving seat as far as this conversation was concerned. "You and I need to talk as my friends and I have information about the arm which you may find interesting, but my father doesn't need to know the details, and I don't want him involved unless it's absolutely necessary."
"You'd better talk to him now then, Edward, but you're not going to like what he has to say," Anthony replied grudgingly, but his eyes were fixed on Jasper and Alice who were protectively standing either side of Bella, and he was curious to find out who Edward's strange looking 'friends' were.
Carlisle took Edward by the arm and led him over to the doors leading out to the lake. Bella, Alice and Jasper stayed where they were to allow them an element of privacy but all of them could see that Carlisle was in pain and under a lot of strain as he took Edward's hands in his and looked at his son directly in the eyes.
"Edward, I came here tonight to say goodbye to my brother. Last night the pain was intolerable and the morphine hardly touched it. I'm now on a very strong dose just to keep myself upright and I'm not prepared to live like this any longer. You told me you were coming home early next week, and after your visit I fully intended to end my life. Now that you're here, I won't have to wait that long."
"No!" Edward cried and put his hands over his face to hide more tears that were rolling down his cheeks. "You can't do that Dad; I need you. I need you now more than ever in my whole life. Please, please, don't do it," he begged.
"Edward, the pain is intense and I can't see the point in staying alive any longer. I won't be independent for much longer and I don't want to be a burden to anybody. I'm going to visit your mother tomorrow for the last time, then that will be it for me. Tonight I want you and Anthony to sort out your differences so I can die happier."
Edward shook his head. "I don't think that's going to be possible, Dad. Can you just stay here then while I tell Anthony what we know, and then we can talk about the future?"
"Yes, I'll stay for that, and also I want to talk to Bella. I'll be leaving you in her care, so I want to know that her intentions are honorable!" He smiled as he gripped Edward's hands again. "I don't want you to see me suffer, Edward. You must understand why I'm doing this."
Edward reluctantly nodded his head. His world had fallen apart in the space of forty-eight hours, and he couldn't imagine how it was going to get any worse, unless of course the Volturi showed up and killed them all.
He wiped his face with his sleeves and walked over to Bella's side. Their eyes met and an understanding passed between them. Bella knew that he wasn't going to hold back with what he was going to say; he was going to go straight to the point and tell his uncle the truth. This wasn't the time for playing games as their lives were in danger.
Edward drew a deep breath and turned to face Anthony and his father.
"Dad, Uncle, the arm Bella found belonged to a friend of Alice and Jasper. The man was called Peter, and he was the serial killer who murdered eleven innocent people in Seattle. He was also a three hundred year old Vampire."
There was a sharp intake of breath as Edward's frankness shocked everyone, even the ones in the know.
"Don't give me a load of crap, Edward. As if I'm going to believe that nonsense," Anthony spat, and put his hand on the handle of the drawer.
"I'm not expecting you to believe anything I say, uncle, as you refuse to listen to reason. Plus, you lied to my father about not carrying on with your research. But if you don't stop your experiments now, everyone in this room could be dead within days."
Carlisle was shocked at these revelations. Firstly, he had trusted his brother when he said he would stop his investigations, and he truly believed he had done so, but if what Edward was saying was true, Anthony had lied to him. More importantly though, he couldn't begin to imagine why Edward was saying that they were all in danger.
Anthony's eyes widened, then he scoffed. "This is total bullshit you're giving me, Edward. Vampires don't exist, apart from in Hollywood films and nineteenth century books. You'll be telling me next that Batman and Spiderman are real people." He laughed scornfully and slowly opened the drawer behind his back.
Alice spoke up. "Edward is speaking the truth, Professor Masen. Jasper and I are Vampires. Our bodies have the same make-up as Peter's. Jasper is only slightly younger than Peter was, and my memory goes back to the end of the nineteenth century. Even though Peter was our friend, we had to kill him because he was feeding from humans indiscriminately, which is against Vampire law. We left his arm in the forest by mistake instead of burning it. Professor Masen, you will discover how to extend human life, but all you'll be doing is turning humans into Vampires, and for doing that you will incur the wrath of others of our kind. They will kill you, and everyone associated with you."
"Alice is telling the truth," Jasper said. "Others may already be on their way here, so the sooner you can destroy your research the better. You must believe us."
Anthony's mind was computing what he had just been told. It was obvious just by looking at Alice and Jasper that they were different from normal humans. Their eyes were an unnatural color and their skin had an iridescent sheen to it, but he was still not convinced. This was just a ruse to stop him making the find of the millennium, and not only that he wanted, no, he needed the treatment for himself. Nothing or no-one was going to stop him now.
"Go ahead then," he said, and waved at the piles of papers on his bench. "Burn my research and my findings, but you can't destroy what's up here." He pointed to his head and glared at Alice and Jasper in defiance. "You'll have to kill me to stop me." As he was speaking he pulled the drawer open and grabbed hold of his gun then pointed it at Jasper who had started walking towards him. He fired and the bullet hit Jasper square in the chest, which knocked him backwards so that he fell against the wall, but he pulled himself upright and without fear walked towards the muzzle of the gun. Anthony fired again and again, but Jasper hardly flinched each time he was hit.
Jasper was getting fed up with being shot at because the bullet holes were ruining his jacket, so he leapt across the bench that was between them and in a flash was standing behind Anthony. He pulled the gun from his hand and with his iron grip, he crushed it to a powder. Anthony gasped in surprise and backed away from him as it was patently clear now that Jasper was super-human. Whether he was a Vampire or not didn't really matter. He obviously did have the same make-up as the tissue he had been examining so his body was probably indestructible.
"So it works," he thought enviously, mentally rubbing his hands with glee and imagining himself with such a body.
"You're not going to stop are you?" Edward yelled at his uncle, breaking his vision of immortality.
"No! You'll have to kill me first," he cried and laughed out loud at the shocked faces staring at him.
With that, Jasper put his hands on his neck and snapped it in one quick movement and Anthony collapsed onto the floor. He was dead within seconds.
Bella screamed, Edward groaned, and Carlisle put his head in his hands and then staggered backwards into the arms of his son.
Carlisle stared in shocked silence at the lifeless body of his brother on the floor. He didn't care about the Volturi, or Vampires, or any other supernatural beings at that moment. His brother was dead, and memories of their happy childhood and joyful adolescence came flooding back to him, then more memories of the years when they had studied and worked brilliantly together as ground-breaking scientists played out in his head. It was almost like his own life was flashing before him.
But Carlisle ruefully accepted in that moment that his brother had brought this on himself. He wasn't blaming Jasper for his actions, as Anthony had to be stopped before he brought chaos to the world and danger to his family. His brother thought he had discovered the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail, and this knowledge would bring him eternal life, but all it had brought him was an early death. He had watched the madness growing in his brother's eyes, and when he finally challenged Edward to stop him continuing his experiments, it had totally consumed him. And now he had paid the ultimate price for wanting to cheat death.
But what of Alice and Jasper who were standing in front of him? Their bodies defied every scientific fact he had ever been taught. Their very existence defied nature. He desperately wanted to learn more about them but his time was running out, so he would have to hand that responsibility over to his son.
"I'm very sorry, Carlisle," Jasper said, cutting into his thoughts, "but you've no idea the danger we're all in, even now. If Anthony had carried on with his research and discovered our secrets, the implications for the world were terrifying if our existence had become common knowledge. That isn't going to happen now, but the real danger for Edward, Bella and yourself, and even for Alice and me, is if our rulers find out that this research has been taking place, or that you know of the existence of Vampires. We could still all die.
Carlisle turned to Jasper and held out his hand. "I forgive you Jasper; you only did what was right. My brother was mad; mad because he was in pain, and mad because he didn't want to grow old and die. The temptation to cheat death was too great and he lost his reason. Now you're implying his madness may have put my son and Bella's lives in danger?"
"It wasn't Anthony's fault completely, Carlisle. Neither he nor Bella and Edward should have had the arm in the first place, and that is down to Alice and myself, but you're are good man not to blame me," Jasper said. "Your son is a good man too. I've met very few humans who I could get along with but Edward is an exceptional person; you should be very proud of him."
"I am, Jasper; I certainly am."
They all set to and cleaned up Anthony's office, shredding his notebooks, wiping his computer files, and destroying absolutely everything relating to the samples. When they had finished, they placed Anthony's body half in and half out of the external door so it would look like he had tripped over the step and broken his neck. His colleagues knew how unsteady he was on his feet and that he refused to use a stick, so a fall would be a plausible cause of death, they hoped.
They all decided to stay at the beach house for the night, but also they wanted to make absolutely sure that Anthony hadn't left any notes or other evidence there, even though they were certain he hadn't left the lab since Edward brought him the samples. Edward insisted on driving Carlisle's car, as he was amazed, and a bit angry, that his father had been irresponsible enough to drive to the lab from his home considering how much morphine he was taking. He offered Alice and Jasper a ride, but they said they preferred to run and Carlisle watched in astonishment as they disappeared from view in a flash.
Within an hour they had arrived at the house on the beach. The moon was in a different position from the night when Edward had mulled over whether to break his engagement with Annabel. That night seemed like a lifetime ago to him now, but at least he knew in his heart that he had made the right decision. He was in love with Bella, and if the Volturi were in the dark and they survived, then he would fulfill his spur of the moment promise and marry her as soon as possible.
He ran around to the passenger side and helped his father out of the car, then they stood together for a moment, taking deep breaths of the salty air while gazing at the glittering sea and the white moonlight shimmering on the surface of the water. Bella carried their backpacks to the house while Carlisle leaned on his son as they made their way up the wooden steps to the deck. They heard a shout and saw Jasper and Alice strolling barefoot along the beach towards them and they waved back. Within seconds they were all on the deck, laughing with relief that the night's work was done, even though Anthony had paid the price and was lying alone and dead in his laboratory and all of them were genuinely mourning his loss.
Edward turned the key in the lock and they spilled into the house. After they kicked their sandy shoes off in the hallway they walked into the living room, but others had beaten them to it. As one, they all gasped in shock when they saw who was waiting for them, and even though Edward, Bella and Carlisle had never met these people before, no introductions were necessary.
Sitting in deep armchairs were two ageless Vampires, wearing strange, ornate clothing; their white faces cold and expressionless. Both the humans and vampires could sense the contempt radiating from these two individuals, and this struck fear in both the beating and non-beating hearts of everyone who was held by their searching gaze.
Standing by the fireplace, staring up at a beautiful landscape painting above the hearth, was an exceedingly tall and elegant Vampire. He turned towards them with a feigned smile of greeting on his face, and his red piercing eyes flashed from Bella, to Edward, to Carlisle, then back to Bella, after which he licked his lips and swallowed before speaking.
"Well, well, well, Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock, I see you've made some new friends. Would you be so kind as to introduce us?"
Alice and Jasper were rooted to the spot, then after a few moments Jasper composed himself and said,
"Carlisle, Edward and Bella, I would like you to meet Aro, Head of the Volturi."
Edward sighed as Bella thew herself into his arms. He looked into the ashen face of the tall Vampire in front of him and saw his death reflected back at him from Aro's bloody eyes.