"Damien!" I yelled running further into the darkness, I tried to find his scent but all I could smell was the thick burning smell of dead leaves around me and… him.
Oh, his scent was intoxicating as it whirled around in my head, I missed it, I missed the warmth, and I missed him; the overwhelming shadow of confusion fluttered through my already busy absent mind. Why did I miss him? I left him just a few short seconds ago and yet, I was dying to feel his warm arms around me again. Just to feel him pressed up to me that close just once more. For a second. But I couldn't. Not now. Not again.
Never again.
"Damien!" I yelled again the pitch of my voice scraping louder as it rattled in my throat. My eyes pricked with the tears that were threatening to spill over. I was scared. I was alone, and lost.
"Don't be such a coward!" I whispered feeling the warmth of a tear slide down my cheek. With that, I took a deep breath and sprinted further into the woods trying to catch scent of my brothers, I ran for what seemed like hours jumping through the different levels of trees, bursting with desperation and a longing fear scraped through my defence system.
Suddenly I collided with something warm and hard like stone, the sound of solid wood scraping together could only describe the impact I made with it; both of us flew backwards at the surprise and a gasp of air shot out of me.
I looked up instantly searching for the being I collided with, his black hair was unmistakable and as soon as I seen the green eyes I flung myself towards him
"D" I breathed out in relief wrapping my arms around his torso squeezing him lightly, to my surprise he hissed; his temperature spiked.
"Easy red, I kind of hurt my side" he coughed as I retracted my arms from around him realising that a warmth and wetness was spreading over my hands; I smelt it straight after I had felt it. Blood. I gasped again; shoots of shock pricked my emotions like needle pins as a dark shade of red continued to pour out of side and covered the right side of his shirt.
"Damien what happened?" I asked looking at his face, the right side of it swollen slightly and bruised on his bottom lip
"What the hell did you do?" I whispered to him, so many different questions and possibilities screamed forwards.
"That Pauls gotta keen swipe on him" he chuckled weakly his breathing coming out roughly and
"We've got to get back, Grandpa can fix you up" I told him again struggling to raise my voice louder than a whisper as shock stayed fresh in my mind.
"I don't think I can run" he hissed as I held him up by his good side. His body weight was mostly on me now as I helped him through the forest trudging forward one step at a time, I knew there was a rush, to get him to safety, but something in the back of my mind reassured me nothing else would happen, strange and odd as the feeling was, I didn't put it down to why I wasn't rushing I decided that I couldn't run with him because I knew I would hurt him. Ignoring the thoughts of those large brown eyes that made me feel secure.
"I can't get a scent" I mumbled in panic, dragging Damien along instead of helping him, the pain on his right side seemed to be getting worse and there was nothing I could do about it now; exhausted and strained, we tread on, frightened and emotionless.
"Left" Damien murmured his eyes closing now as more blood dripped out of him, I nodded ignoring the slight burn in the back of my throat as we moved forward; I cursed under my breath, being immortal had its setbacks, especially when your own brother is draining in your arms and all you can think about is soaking it up to seal the pain in your throat and quench the unmistakeable desire.
I was one of the lucky ones; self-control seemed to come naturally to me and overwhelmed every other emotion locking it down like an untamed tiger.
Damien was right; as soon as we were left I could smell everything a bit clearer; the air was free of intoxicated wolf and the sickly sweet smell of my family entered my nostrils. I could get a hint of lilac infused honey which lingered in the air.
Dad.
I grabbed hold of Damien tighter as we moved quicker, desperately, I tried to pull some of the pain out of his mind, but it was being produced at such a fast rate, so I could only numb certain areas which made him loose focus and footing.
Finally there was a break in the trees and I immediately recognised the area.
Home, I sighed in relief; they were all inside.
Safe.
But that soon vanished as I looked through the glass window of the house, onto the snarling setting in front of me; my father was growling so loudly that it made the ground beneath me vibrate; his face was violent as he started screaming at the tall dark man known as Sam. I gasped for what seemed like the seventeenth time today as all faces turned to me, through the glass I could hear several different breathing patterns speed up as they looked to us both.
"Help" I mouthed to my father whose eyes met mine and they turned soft and horrified all at once; it was an unnerving feeling as a few milliseconds later and he, Emmett and jasper were in front of us
"Emmett help me" My dad said darkly as he quickly scooped Damien up into his arms by his good side, Emmett who seemed completely focused on the bruises on Damien's face, carefully clasped his good arm in his hands as they carried him inside.
I ran a hand over my face shakily letting all the stress of the day wash over, Damien was safe; and that was all that mattered.
The impact of my hand to my face seemed to rub smeared blood onto the side of it, leaving a warm unwelcoming aroma on my skin. I cringed at the contact and looked down. The left side of my white dress was now Scarlett red, and wet with Damien's blood; almost turning a shade black as I breathed in and tore my eyes away from it.
I took a deep breath and looked up to Jasper, he seemed to be fighting an emotional battle of whether to move toward me or not, I understood why, Mom had told us about the party.
But Jasper seemed to be in so much better control, my eyes found his as they pierced back; they were golden.
Jasper moved quickly fighting inner demons to envelop me in a hug, this was the first time I had ever hugged jasper like this, he wasn't an emotional type I guess but he cared. Another over protective fool to add to the bunch.
"Thank god you're all right" he wisped to me as I felt all the emotional damage of the day fall down on me. I couldn't ignore the tears anymore, as they fought against the front line impact of today's strife.
The fear that filled me.
The agony
The wolves
Damien's Injury
Matt
Him.
"Renesmee? Renesmee look at me baby are you okay?" Rosalie seemed to blur as she flew in front of me, her voice appearing before she did. She pulled me out of jaspers arms and into hers
"I'm okay" I breathed unsteadily into her shoulder as she rocked me gently back and forwards
"It's okay sweetheart everything's going to be alright" she chanted to me as a strangled sob racked out of my body.
"Where's Matt" I whined to her looking at her face. It wasn't the expression I wanted to see, my eyes flicked to Jaspers who stared straight ahead at the ground like he was watching a murder happen in front of his eyes. But one emotion landed in both of theirs; conflict.
"What? WHAT?" I panicked shaking my body seeming to disconnect from my brain as I started to toss in her arms.
"Come on honey, let's get you inside" She told me as she pulled me into the main house. Sam was stood there his face seemed disappointed but yet it held grief and anger at the same time; he was standing in front of someone.
I smelt him before I seen him. And again in an unsettling way, the reassurance flooded over me; an unwanted feeling here.
It was the boy; Jacob, his eyes locked with mine, the same emotions danced in them as he swallowed hard trying to move forward.
I watched as Sam put a hand on Jacobs's chest and shook his head at him; again more pain filled his face and mind. It hurt to look at him, but I was angry at them more than anything else. Those creatures hurt my brothers. Whatever connection I had with this Jacob seemed to stay intact, but it hurt more to think I would choose him over my family right now.
Whatever this connection was, it had to stop right now.
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" I screamed at the both lunging forward in Rosalie's arms as she continued to drag me away.
"I HATE YOU"
Tears fell down my face and the volume of my voice cracked in the air, making my head throb.
"I think you should leave" Jaspers cold tone made you think he was glaring at them both as I heard the shuffle of footsteps before a door close. My hysterics didn't seem to stop once they left; they only seemed to get worse as Rosalie gently held me up. The pain of having made Jacob leave seemed to make my crying worse.
"Come on" she whispered as I calmed down slightly taking deep breaths we walked up to the row of rooms which were under construction by Alice; our new rooms, then I heard Damien's loud yelp and all other thoughts vanished.
"Oh shit don't touch that it hurts!" He snapped which was followed by a loud groan and a small sigh
"Of course it hurt you got swiped by a wolf D" Emmett said under his breath to him as Damien muffled another yelp. They were in my father's room with Carlisle as well.
"Damien?" I asked out loud running into the room he was stretched along the bed just laying on top of the covers flat on his back a slight glaze of sweat ran over his forehead and down his neck, Emmett was sat on the other side of him wiping his arm with what looked like a warm rag of blue cloth, Carlisle was bandaging up the wounds tightly so that it would cause Damien less time to heal. He was always the fastest to heal out of the 3 of us.
"Hey lil red" he sighed trying to crack a smile with his bruised lips. I tried to form a sentence but what was I supposed to say to him? The confusion and frustration got the best of me again as another sob built up in my throat bubbling to get out
"Hey, hey, hey" he said quickly nodding his head slightly "come here" he said a little slower patting the other side of the bed where Emmett was once sat, he was now standing while he shifted a bag from underneath the bed. I moved to go around him and slumped down on the other side of the bed
"Dad help me up a bit" Damien said holding out a hand as Edward took it and pulled him up slightly while Carlisle carefully slipped in a pillow beneath him to prop him slightly. Damien put his arm around me pulling me close to his good side as the tears fell freely.
"Do you remember when mom told us not to piss you off coz you were on your...you known, time of the month?" Damien said a small smile playing on his purple-blue lips.
"Yeah" I squeaked
"Well what did me and matt do?" he asked in a sarcastic tone
"Pissed me off" I sighed my voice raising an octave as Damien chuckled
"Exactly, we did it and boy you went insane trust me if we got through that then this is nothing" he said nudging me as lightly and as much as he could.
"Why what did she do?" Emmett asked clearly excited, he now sat at the end of the bed while Carlisle had cleaned up and left the room with a smile on his face, our father looked on with so much adoration and love in his eyes that it swam round in the air.
"Well, me and Matt had gotten this huge bucket of blue paint and we were going to paint Matts room, only while we were carrying it we slipped on the wet floor coz mom and Christine were cleaning, Lil red here was sat reading her book whining over pains or something"
"It hurt" I muttered and Damien laughed lightly
"Whatever, so anyway as you can imagine when we slipped the paint flew backwards and went all over renesmee" Emmett was now laughing hysterically while my father chuckled as well
"so by now her eyes were red and both me and matt were pinned up against the wall choking while she was throwing different objects at us as also hitting our heads off the ceiling"
"You ruined my book" I whined and he laughed before kissing my forehead
"See that hurt a lot more than some stupid wolf trust me" he reminded me as I curled up beside him, dying to ask about the one thing that was ripping me to shreds that minute
"What about Matt?" I wisped and I could feel the tension slice through the air. Damien tensed up slightly and I could hear everyone's breathing in the room become hollow.
"please don't tell me he's dead" I struggled to get the sentence out in one go without my voice breaking, but being the usual emotional fool I was, it broke in several places with each tear that followed.
"No love, it's just that, Matt got a lot more hurt than what Damien did, he's unconscious at the moment "dad said, his voice started to grow into a whisper by the end.
"Can I see him?" I mouthed back trying to stop the sobs from raking out of my body; luckily I stopped the sobs from making any noise, even though I was shaking with them.
"Of course" dad murmured to me, his face was grave, like he had seen as a crime or even committed one. It hurt to see him like this. I jumped up from Damien's side which Emmett had moved to sit down beside him as Damien closed his eyes; his face mirrored my father's exactly. Again it hurt. I moved to my father's side quickly linking my arm through his and pressing my cheek against it.
"It's alright sweetheart" he soothed me stroking the side of my face gently before walking out of the room. We walked up the separate set of stairs at the end of the row of rooms. I recognised the top floor as I knew Carlisle's office was at the very end of this floor. But before that the long corridor had several other doors opposite of each other and a large open space with another huge clean glass window.
"He's just through here" my dad wisped to me gently as we reached the second door on the left. There was an uncomfortably beeping sound, slow and rhythmic one beat every second. Matt's heartbeat. He was on a monitor? Was it that bad? Just like I had done with Damien I gulped down fresh oxygen before opening the door to the room.
It was a large perfect square shape with a few loose book cases scattered around the room and a pair of black leather couches in the corner which formed an L shape fresh lily's and roses were sat on mahogany end tables at each side of the couches and a huge beige rug sat in the middle of the room. On the other side a white pristine Hospital bed sat a few wires and monitors around it with a few folders that were stacked upon a desk at the end of the bed. Lying in it motionless was matt. His face a pale grey colour yet his cheeks still had a slight flush to them.
The beeping sound came from the monitor which was the closest thing to him and a clear wire attached to his wrist connecting them together.
Matts hair seemed swept back off his face, the suffer style brown hair lying loosely on the pillow. The new clothes Alice had got him were now covered in mud and slightly torn with blood stains on them; from what I could smell they were his own blood stains. The worst part was as I got closer the more you could see; the bruises that lay on his perfect still face.
Like Damien, his bottom lip was cut and bruised, but it seemed to spread all over the right side of his face, the colours mixing together like a marble pattern. They seemed to change from a blue to a purple to even black and red in some places. The bruises carried on down his shoulder blade where a huge blood stain sat and down his right arm. From the scene in front of me, I guessed that Matt's entire right side had been crushed and he looked like he had been dipped in different shades of blues and purples, blacks and reds.
It wasn't fair.
I had never seen matt so human before; so fragile. All this time he spent his life protecting me, when I could have been protecting him. My own brother and here he lay mashed up like a ball of clay. Dad moved me forward and pulled an armchair up beside the bed so I could sit down at Matt's side while he stayed standing. His eyes locked on Matts face; grief etched into his expression. He swallowed hard scrunching up his face for a few seconds before smoothing out the pain that sat on it. I sunk down into the chair.
"He'll be alright; your grandfather gave him a sedative like he did with you. Hel sleep through the worst of the pain." dad murmured running his hand along Matts jawline gently so careful not to hurt him.
"Im a terrible father" I noticed his voice break in the middle of the sentence as my face flicked to him, it was only then I realised I was crying as I couldn't see him through my vision properly until I blinked and the moisture rolled down my face.
"No" I wisped shaking my head clutching to his chest now as I pulled him closer to me. Slowly he sunk down into the chair as well, moving me slightly so that I was leaning heavily into him. I felt like I was 5 again but since my father was 6 ft. 3 and I was 5 ft. 9 I guess I would always feel small around him. I curled up as best as I could lean my head against his shoulder.
"I am. Firstly, I leave your mother and miss seeing you all grow up. Second I was so blind to see that you were my children when we first met. I should have known it was so easy to see and because of that Rosalie nearly murders you for not understanding while I just stood there. Now Victoria is posing a threat to take you all away from me. I send you away for protection from the wolves and this is what happens?" My father was angry with himself now, his nostrils flared and his eyes violent as he stared at the floor trying to burn it with his eyes.
"I even promised you all I would let nothing happen to you and after a few days of being with us you have been in more danger than you have ever been in your short life. Im a monster." He finished if he was human, He would have been crying but somehow he held it together. Instantly I wrapped my arms around his neck resting my head on his collar bone. I felt the anger in him evaporate at this as he rubbed my back
"Daddy, you can't protect us from everything, I mean most of the time it's our own fault and you can't stop that. Were always going to be in the eye of danger because of what's happening with mom and I have no idea where she is. But there would be no way we would have been getting through this without you. You don't know how much we've all wanted this to happen. It's always going to be difficult but it's worth it. You're my father. One of the most important men in my life and you will always be. I understand if it's difficult for you, I mean we are a handful but these things would have happened anyway. Your kind and supportive and so overprotective it's crazy, but I love you with everything I have. You're my father and I know they both feel the same, without you there would be no us." I told him and I could hear him smile slightly
"I love you renesmee, I love you more than my own existence. You will always be my little girl no matter how much you grow up and no matter what happens" he whispered to me making more tears flood out of my eyes.
"My little girl" he wisped to me as he rubbed my back soothingly as I breathed in and out more evenly as before and with one last look at Matt I closed my eyes letting sleep consume me.
Edwards POV
Beautiful. She was just so beautiful. Even in her sleep. Just like her mother. I could feel the pride of watching her spill over me. The joy, the happiness, the love. Her breath blew softly on my collar bone the warmth was comforting to me, just to know that at least she was in perfect health. I tore my eyes away from my daughter and looked towards Matt, My poor boy. He looked so young, and so small even if he was the same height as me. I noticed him started to shift slightly his head turned to the side facing me his eyes still closed as he groaned. I shifted renesmee round so that she was half resting on me and half resting on the armchair. This made it easier for me to lean forward to him
"Matt?" I whispered dying for him to just show me some sort of sign that he was awake.
Those stupid dogs, they hurt my sons. Both of them injured. I wanted to rip them to shreds tear them into tiny pieces, how dare they threaten my children, and who did they think they were?
My poor children who had dealt with this all their lives; Running,
Always running in fear.
And where was I? Trying to keep myself from going to see Bella thinking she would have had a better life. If only I had known, I missed Bella so much; the pain was almost unbearable now. And yet somehow, in small pockets, the pain seemed to subside at times after all I had 3 pieces of Bella here with me and I was determined to keep them safe until the final masterpiece herself returned. I only hoped she could learn to forgive me.
I saw Matt shift again his lips twitched before a gust of air blew out of him. He was dreaming, but it seemed distant. It was me, stood by a river side, the moonlight bouncing off the water where it rippled and the small rush of the stream filling the area around me. Everything seemed to blur again before a tall figure emerged from the other side. Jacob. Jacob black. I growled seeing red. The fire inside of me was like poison now as fresh venom entered my mouth. He looked scared yet in a slight state of pain, his eyes crazed like a man who had lost the will to live.
"Listen Edward I..." he raised his hands in defence taking a step forward. But I lunged at him before his sentence finished and I heard the familiar voice of my daughter scream out
"DADDY NO!"
Everything blurred over again as his dream cut off, yet he didn't wake up. Instead he rolled his head away from me so that he was facing the wall. Immediately I pulled renesmee closer.
Jacob black.
I held back the growl in my throat. He had a lot to explain. First his memories of Bella, human and perfect, yet she was slightly more rounded than before. Dark circles under her eyes and she looked exhausted like she hadn't slept in weeks. I knew what he was dong; He was trying to make me feel guilty about leaving her. Seeing what it done to her afterwards. Being perfectly honest I felt terrible that burning ache in my heart seemed to be shredded just by seeing her perfect face. Then Renesmee was fresh in his mind. I lost it there and then. He was sent to kill her. But ended up doing something else. The way he thought about her was enough for me to snap his neck there and then. So much love and lust was soaked up in his mind around renesmee. My renesmee. My Daughter. Mine. I felt the hiss build up in my throat along with the growl that was getting hard to keep bottled up. I tightened my arms around her, she was so young. Too young to be dating in my eyes, I had only had her as a daughter for a simple few days and yet this wolf thought he could have some sort of claim on her? Not a chance in hell. Shifting her round again I lifted her up and sat her back down in the armchair so that she curled into the fabric around her. I looked over to matt who was still sleeping.
"Matt?" I wisped again and he breathed out heavy. No luck. I ran my hand over his forehead for a few seconds, his temperature was slightly higher than normal but he wasn't as hot as he was before which was a relief. I pulled the blanket up over him slightly higher and shifted his cushions so that he looked to be in a more comfortable position. Smiling down on him once I turned on my heels and left the both of them sleeping comfortably in the room. As soon as the door was closed, a hand struck across my cheek taking the oxygen out of me. Then the small pixie was in my face shrieking
"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT YOU'RE A TERRIBLE FATHER?" Her face was in shock yet she looked hurt. The pain in my jaw seemed to grow slightly now as I rubbed it.
"Alice what was that for!" I yelled back and she hit my shoulder again with her fist.
"You! How could you even think you're a terrible father? You've made them all so happy. And all of us as well we've been given a gift Edward, 3 beautiful strong happy children and you think because of everything that's happened its all your fault?" Whoa, how long had she been listening to me?
"I know Alice…and I understand that now, but its killing me seeing them like this, one piece at a time, they always seemed to end up in the firing line. If there is something I can do to stop it then I would do it but I can't find anything to stop things happening to them without them getting hurt, I love them Alice there my children and it's hard to think that they've been through this before when I wasn't there to protect them.
"If only I would have known then I could have saved them from all of this." My breath seemed to run ahead in front of me, huffing out each word feeling the anger in me boil up. Carefully Alice wound her small arms around my chest and hugged me tight.
"It's alright Edward, I know you're scared" She wisped as I hugged her back
"Im sorry if im causing you pain Alice I really am"
"It's okay your my brother, we have a bond that can never be broken, no matter how much of an idiot you become" she giggled. I sighed and shook my head at her. Suddenly Alice's face went blank and her arms loosened from around me. She was having a vision but it was hazy, she couldn't see properly through it like something was blocking the vision. One word came to mind.
Werewolves.
I knew there was something I had to do for renesmee. As calmly and as humanly as possible. I quickly moved towards the stairs leaving Alice stood there confused.
"Edward where are you going?" she asked
"Too skin a wolf" Then I took off running.