Welcome guys! Here we go!
EXCESSIVE CURSING, DEATH AND ITS EFFECTS (not a main character), SUICIDAL IDEATION. And just to brighten things up, NOT SO CASUAL DRUG USE WITH A SIDE DISH OF BRAINWASHING. Bon appetite!
Um, if you blink, you'll miss it: but I not so subtly hint at Alice/Jasper + Bella/Edward in this chapter a bit. Don't judge me just because I really, really want a big vampire orgy with Bella in the middle. Head canon: Nothing comes from it... but believe what you will. I just don't think you can live with the same people for almost 109 years and never think "huh? I wonder what that would be like?"
I've also made the Cullens into people that have very complicated familial relationships, in my head. What can I say?
I'm still just a fangirl.
Hey, if you have trouble with visualizing stuff, check out my deviant art: Faeshadows
Oh! aaksupertrooper, I see you, ghostie! You've been here since the beginning, too! You rock! Your feedback is great, much love!
ALSO! climbingvine mentioned that they don't like the songs, and I kind of agree with them at this point. I'm curious, what do ya'll think of them?
At first, they were a necessary crutch for me, something I needed to keep the plot in order and express what was going on. Now, they're kind of getting on my nerves. Don't get me wrong, this story is inspired by this music, but I'm wondering if I still need the lyrics, or whether I should delete them in future fics. For this one, they stay. They're all tied up in the finale. Sorry, climbingvine.
I mean, they are tied to the magicks, but I'm using them less and less... I'm conflicted. What do you think? Let me know in a review, if you please. It would be helpful.
TWO MORE CHAPTERS! It'll probably be this weekend before I get the next one posted, and then one more. Possibly an epilogue. Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go!
READ AND REVIEW!
LINKS:
DEVIANTART:
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Cloud Nine
Edward felt his eyes widen in disbelief as he opened the door. There were mortals holding guard over the compound, and his family were contained by six Fae with glowing blue eyes next to a Lamborghini that had not been there this morning.
Bella had asked Carlos to bring it by so Rosalie could borrow it, before they left Havana. It was going to be a surprise.
There were at least fifty of the dangerous-looking mortal thugs, and all of them were hypnotized: moving like puppets on strings with their eyes a consumed black, blocking off the courtyard. A young girl who had to be Mayra was standing at the center of the yard. Her eyes were electric blue, and her face was painted into a vivid skull. The glow of the eyes was familiar, and Edward knew almost before Bella did: Zydrate. Mayra was looking up at Amalure, interrupted from her reading of a battered spell book. At her feet lay a man, and Edward knew from Bella's mind that it was Carlos. He was dead.
Bella flashed to Carlos' body before he could grab her. She turned him over, checked his pulse. There was a split-second of incomprehensible grief, for what had happened and what was sure to come next. Bella knew that people were going to die, possibly a great many people. No matter what she did. She closed Carlos' eyes with her thumbs and stood, suddenly focused and fierce.
"Welcome to the party. Ya'll are late." Emmett snarked.
His focus was ripped from his family as he felt a split second of absolute despair from his lover through their new connection, a thought she could not hide. It was amazing how quickly she processed the situation. Compassion poured from her, a grief and an understanding. Edward could hear her. Every thought she had.
The Master's grimoire. I know that book. I know what it can do. Oh, Samael. Is there nothing you won't do? She's just a child.
Mayra had made a blood-sacrifice of her father and captured the Cullens for a purpose. Bella's vampires would make a very powerful sacrifice, especially with their connections to her. She had brought the mortals, overtaken their will. It was powerful dark magic.
There was only one reason someone would do all that: Mayra was going to try to Purge her, and she would surely fail.
Oh no.
The Master had sent Bella an atomic bomb.
Amalure was on her knees, speaking to her sister in a strained voice: begging her to stop, to see reason. Demetri would not have wanted things this way. Mayra was screaming back at her, some half-insane nonsense about Bella needing to die to stop the war. That it was all Bella's fault. Edward was getting very tired of hearing that, of being expected to believe it.
Bella stepped between Mayra and her sister.
"Mayra. Listen to me. You are not strong enough to do this. It won't be like the other times, like purging a mortal. You can't hold it, can't control it. Purging a Fae is almost impossible, even for me. You can't do this. It will kill everyone."
"If you require the life of your brother's killer, challenge me. Face me with honor, according to the law; like I did for him. You don't want to do this. You can't. The spell work is delicate and difficult. You will lose control, everyone will die. Listen to me. You are not yourself, right now."
Mayra was furious that Bella had pointed out her weakness.
"No. You're a liar. You're too powerful to beat on fair grounds, but I'm gifted. I'm special: Master told me so. Master showed me how to defeat you, for Demetri. He was a good man, until he met you. He cared about me, more than Carlos ever did. More than you even, Amalure. You have to understand. You're my sister, you have to understand. I can do it. The vampires will give me the power. I have to. She brings the dark with her, wherever she goes. She made him do it."
As Mayra spoke, one part of Bella's mind was processing Mayra's words, mourning her delusions and pitying her choices while still looking for weaknesses in her words.
Another thought was spared for the Fae around them, even the ones who were working for Mayra. Amalure had signaled the guards to start helping people get out quietly, and Bella mentally praised the girl, assessed how else she might be useful even as she mourned her pain.
Still another was running through the options to stop this before any more sacrifices were made, forming and discarding plans at lightning speed.
Mayra snarled and raised her hand towards Emmett, motioning the guard to bring him closer.
As options ran out, Bella added Mayra mentally to her list of regrets. It was a long list, longer than she would've liked. The Master had brainwashed Mayra, but she was no villain. She was just a child who was mad because her brother was dead.
The cast Mayra was attempting was blotchy, the power uneven and stretched too thin. She wasn't even focused properly on her victim, too high in the Glow to process reality properly.
Exasperation hit Bella. She was desperately worried, grieving that she couldn't save everyone and trying to predict how bad it would be; but behind that, she was vaguely insulted by Mayra's ignorant incompetence. Sure, the girl had talent, but she had never seen such sloppy spell work. Of course, that was the point.
Mayra would kill her family, rip her precious people from her one by one, but she would still lose control of the spell. Just as the Master intended. When Mayra lost control of the spell, the result would be disastrous, and she was running out of options that would get everyone out alive. Jesus, the trouble I find.
To some extent, she believed what Mayra was saying, that it was her fault, that she brought death with her. She was the common denominator, and she was sick of it. She expected trouble, always, and she was rarely wrong. Any day where no one died was a mark in the win column. The Cullens were in danger, again, because they dared to love her.
God, how could Edward want this connection to her? He can't have known what he was doing. The thought was almost amused.
Edward felt the surge of anger he had been waiting for finally hit him.
"You're already losing it; it's growing beyond your control. Mayra, you must stop the cast. You're going to Purge your whole line, even your sister."
Edward felt a pulse from her gold in response to his angry scarlet, and he winced in sudden knowledge of the truth that was pushing Bella to such extremes, forcing her to take a risk with his family's safety. The Master has not sent Mayra to take her life, but instead to torture her with unavoidable grief and weaken her connections to the Spellman line. Mayra was planning to sacrifice his family members in order to control the spell, but she had been lied to about the nature of a Purging. No amount of sacrifice would be enough to let her direct the spell where she wanted.
Something shimmered in the air, and the Fae guarding Emmett was holding a fireball.
When Mayra lost control, it would be genocide, and her control was fading fast. Bella was desperate, already considering the merits of laying down her life.
Edward tried to be a good man for a long moment. He failed.
"Bella. Don't you dare."
He twisted his mental hold on her a little tighter, just enough that she would notice it.
She twitched and went very quiet, her face and mind both blank for a long moment. She looked at him in shock, a strange pause in her thoughts before she yielded suddenly. She slowly, finally cast aside the option where she died, for now.
She turned her focus on Mayra, choosing instead to push her hard. If she could make her understand the cost, maybe she could get her to stop. "Hush, child. If you attempt to take my brother's life, know that it will be the last thing you do."
Amalure was singing, trying to help her sister remember who she was. Tears pooled in Mayra's eyes.
"Listen to your sister. Will you leave her behind, for a spell that won't work? Will you ask me to sacrifice my precious people? Will you sacrifice yours?"
"Tell me, Mayra, why did Carlos have to die? He had committed no crime against you. He loved you. If my death is excusable because of my crime, what was his?"
"What about after, after I am dead? Will your line forgive you your crimes against them? How far will you take this? Will you kill them all? Maybe you will. Maybe you're willing to take it that far. Who will love you after, if not Amalure? When will it end? Look at her."
"It's not fair. I have to. You're bad, Master said. It will be worth it, Master said. She'll understand, Master said. Master wouldn't lie. Amalure, why don't you understand?"
Pain coursed through his lover. The Master did lie: but there was a time when she had believed as Mayra did. In another life, she was Mayra.
Edward suddenly grieved for the girl. Mayra was worth his compassion, his help if he could give it: but she was not worth Bella.
All was still for a moment, and Amalure sang of her love for her twin.
"NO. Stop it, sister. She killed him. I loved him, he was my brother, and now he's gone. I won't stop. Master said I have to. Shut UP!"
Mayra shifted her focus from Bella to Amalure for just a moment, not even a full second, striking out in a fit of temper.
Bella's eyes went wide with shock as Amalure's heart stopped beating and her magicks were pulled from her, flying from her to her sister and leaving trails of black sparks as she slumped to the ground.
Shit.
As Mayra involuntarily absorbed her sister's magicks, she fell to her knees, starting to shudder and weep. She was broken, confused and suddenly unsure. "No. No. It was supposed to be her. Not 'lure. My sister. No. She can't be the sacrifice, she can't die. She's the good one. The Queen is supposed to die."
"What have I done? I don't want it, give it back. Stop. Afiorte. End." The black sparks only flared at her command, growing wider and longer.
Double shit. The sacrifice had been made; the spell was fully formed. It was still owned by Mayra, and Bella couldn't break it from its caster without her consent. But it wasn't feeding on Mayra's power anymore, and it would seek more power to fuel itself. It would find what it was looking for in the world around it.
Bella took a step. "Please, Mayra. Let me help. You must let me take over; we have to stop the cast: Give it to me. I can help you."
"No. I don't want your help. Master was right about you. You're a monster, but I was wrong. He is too. I won't yield to you, you'll punish me. No one can help me. It's taking over. What have I done? No more. Don't, please. It hurts, but I can't let go. I'm scared, I don't want this anymore."
The girl's eyes overflowed with tears, hatred and fear on her face as she met Bella's eyes. "I can't stop it. It's too late."
"I'm sorry."
"No. Mayra, DON'T!" Grief and panic gripped Bella in icy claws. Wrong. Not fair.
But it was too late, the battle was lost. Mayra gave up, and instead of stopping the cast she threw her own magicks at it. Together the twins' auras raced to one of the flares of dark magic and pushed through it to the nothingness beyond, making it spread. Annihilation. With the death of its caster, the spell spun out of control.
The bomb went off.
The flare of magic glowed menacingly, sparking in mid-air and expanding into a dark void, an impossibly massive tear in reality. The howling wind suddenly grew to hurricane speeds, kicking dirt and debris into the air and obscuring his sight.
Bella was jerked into the air too as the vacuum of pressure pouring from the void focused on her, and she reached for him desperately. Edward threw himself after her and barely caught her forearm, struggling to keep his grip and bracing himself, digging his shoes into the dirt to keep them from being destroyed. Chains made of shadow formed around Bella's wrists and ankles, connecting back to the dark and Edward could see them, could see the memories they were made of. They should already be dead, but someone had a grip on him.
Emmett had a firm hold of his shirt, gripping him tightly with one hand and bracing their weight against a strong tree trunk with the other. His brother's hold on the tree was the only thing keeping he and his lover from being pulled into the nothingness.
Bella's nails dug into his arm and she twisted, wrapping her legs around his waist and shouting shuddering syllables into his ear as unnatural force pulled at them. She couldn't stop the growing void, but she could pause it for a moment if she gave it something to chew on. It would be costly, but it might give the others time to escape.
Aw, man. The things I do for my people. Honestly, it's ridiculous. Well, at least I can control it more than Mayra. The thought was sarcastic and amused, rueful and self-deprecating. Bella had made some powerful decision in a heartbeat, no hesitation. Edward got a bad feeling.
Golden magick flew from her in a bright burst as she threw a piece of her magicks at the void, sacrificing some of the bottomless well of power within her. It hurt impossibly when she cut it away, leaving a bleeding aura yelped as her pain tore at his mind.
Emmett's face grew panicked at the sound, pulling harder, and Edward felt a small tear form in his shirt. the tree groaned, bark snapping as it bent. Rosalie was running for them, but the roots of the tree were already pulling out of the packed earth. He searched for anything to ground them, something solid enough to brace himself against, but before he found it Bella shouted her last word and the shadowy binds jerked hard.
Silence fell and the wind abated. The chains were suddenly gone in a blinding flare of bright gold, just as the fabric of Edward's shirt gave out, tearing in a long stripe across his back and torso. Edward stumbled as the pressure released and he landed on top of Bella in the dirt. All was quiet for a long moment.
Edward had a thought. He was suddenly hit with the revelation that his life had been in danger, that if Bella died, so would he. That when she died, if they lost the war, he wouldn't have to leave her. His unrestrained joy at the thought made him start laughing, though nothing was funny about their current situation. His mirth rang throughout the frozen courtyard, loud in the silent space.
When she heard him, heard his thoughts and his laughter, Bella finally found her anger. But there was also want, and quickly-suppressed joy at the idea of him never leaving, of never having to leave her lover behind again.
She rippled with indignation as she realized he was reading her thoughts without her permission, and she smacked his arm. "You are insane. Jesus, Edward. I fell in love with a madman. I knew there was something wrong with you."
"Considering your previous romantic interests include polyamory that ended in a botched suicide pact, a psycho with a power fetish, two sadists, and an abusive drug-dealer; not to mention that I have to struggle not to kill you every time we're in the same room; I'd say you're crazier than me. Good thing I like trouble." He rolled off of her.
"Oh, I already knew I was crazy, but you've definitely got me beat. We'll agree to disagree."
Fae were taking advantage of the momentary respite, blurring to supernatural speed as they ran for cover. Some of them fell to their knees before they made it to safety, clutching their heads and screaming as brightly-colored magick was dragged from them and they fell, blank-faced, to the shaking ground.
The wind was kicking up again. Windows shattered throughout the compound, fire encompassing the collapsing buildings as an absolute darkness tore through the sky, growing with every aura it consumed.
Bella pushed herself to her feet. "Right. We'll argue later, if there is one. Run. Time to run. Now!" Bella jerked Edward into a sprint behind her, releasing him and shoving keys into his hand once she was sure he had his feet under him. She must have lifted them from Carlos' body. Always one step ahead, his love.
Rosalie scooped her up before Edward could, and headed towards the Lamborghini as fast as Edward had ever seen her run.
Shut Up and Drive
His other siblings rushed to follow them, clambering into the too-small convertible as Edward hurriedly shoved the key in the ignition and shifted the car into gear. Jasper's face was panicked beyond reason as he searched for Alice in the fleeing crowd, only half inside the car. Rosalie didn't even bother with the door, leaping quickly over the rear of the car and into the backseat, setting Bella down in the passenger seat and reaching for Emmett.
Carlisle and Esme were running at vampire-speed, headed towards the Hummer and entirely too close to the void. It pulled his mother off her feet for a second, but Carlisle grabbed her before she could be pulled into it, not letting her go even as they gained distance from it. Luckily, most of their mortal pursuers were being pulled off their feet: crumbling to ash and dust grotesquely as they fell into the black. He felt Bella throw the doors to the Hummer open and start the engine.
Alice was not so lucky, and she broke a man's arm when he reached for her, simultaneously dodging a fireball from one of Myra's Fae guards. The guard was immediately absorbed by the void.
He could hear sirens approaching the burning compound as the shadowy void grew more solid. The tear was pulling everything towards itself like a black hole, the ground and sky themselves crumbling into impossible nothingness. He struggled to stop himself from pulling away before Alice could get to the car: his sister had taken a moment to pick up the Master's grimoire. Jasper growled wildly as he pulled her into his lap.
"Go!"
Edward slammed on the accelerator, screaming along the dirt road towards Catemaco. The surviving spellbound thugs had rushed to their own vehicles and began to follow him, raining bullets down on the Lamborghini. Bella cursed and reached under the passenger seat, pulling out a steel box and distributing the handguns inside it to his siblings.
She waved a glowing hand at the car that had pulled up next to them and their black-eyed driver was suddenly unconscious, slumping over the steering wheel as the car skidded out of control and flipped into the path of a pursuer on a motorcycle.
He could feel her panic through the connection, her realization that the bullets could hurt him now too. Edward sent her a spike of anger at her disregard for her own safety. The only way they could hurt him was if she got shot. She pointedly did not respond, and when she spoke, her words were calm.
"Tad bit faster, Edward; the cops are catching up. You'd think they'd focus on the apocalypse in the sky; but no, that would be too easy. Damned mortals. Charlie is rolling in his grave." Bella shifted from where she had leaned over the passenger seat to monitor the menacing mass of sparking black smoke spreading towards them. "Take a left up here."
A bullet whizzed as it flew by her ear to punch through the windshield where her head had been a split-second ago. Edward couldn't stop his panicked, manic giggle. After a century of being immune to death, that bullet had almost killed him, and he didn't even mind. Everything was so much less dire now that he could follow Bella wherever she went.
"Those assholes! This is a Lamborghini. I can't believe I'm not driving." Rosalie snarled as she and Jasper began to return fire out of the back of the convertible. Sirens wailed as the police struggled to keep up.
"I can't believe I'm not shooting." Emmett grumbled good naturedly.
God, he loved his siblings. Edward couldn't keep the adrenaline-fueled grin off his face as he accelerated into the curve of paved road, headed into Catemaco at 115 mph.
He suddenly discovered that a small portion of his mind was fantasizing, wondering what could be happening with the adrenaline in his system if his siblings weren't around. Bella glanced at him out of the corner of her eye with undisguised want flushing her cheeks, looking the slightest bit disoriented through her panicked focus. She bit her lip, and Edward knew exactly what she was thinking. Wow. This was not the time for that.
Even as the thought raced through him, Edward realized he felt a little odd too, strangely distracted and too-unbothered. He responded with mental smugness and an assurance that they would get to it later, if they lived.
Well. There was a perk. He could apparently feel what she was feeling.
Jasper was looking at them like they belonged in the loony bin, and Bella refocused herself.
He made a lane change, pushing the speedometer ever upward, and Alice cried out as she slid across the backseat, clutching at the grimoire to keep from dropping it. Emmett steadied his sister with a hand on her forearm.
Indignant mischievousness reached him, slight lust: an annoyance that her thoughts were no longer private. You want this connection? Fine. Honesty is the new policy. Don't mind me.
"The grimoire! Alice, I could kiss you." Bella's face lit up as she tossed her gun to Emmett and clambered over the console, reaching for the book in Alice's hand just as Edward drifted the car into a U-turn and headed down an "up" ramp, choosing to risk the highway as his telepathy warned him of the police's efforts to block them a few miles up.
He ignored the possessiveness Bella's comment inspired with practiced ease and focused on boggling at Bella's light-hearted attraction to his favorite sister. She had been seeking to piss him off, but he couldn't help but imagine it, and he liked it, in an odd way. There would be conditions. Bella wasn't shocked at his reaction like she should've been. Wait. How long had Bella known about his previously unacknowledged attraction to Alice?
Uh, since I met you. I don't know how Jasper puts up with it. You guys are not subtle. But theirs is an odd relationship. What conditions? I'm sort of starting to like this whole mind-sharing thing.
She was laughing at him in his head, and he knew Jasper would kill him if he could read minds right now.
Speak of the Devil, Bella warned, and Jasper slid into the front seat with a snort, reaching for an abandoned clip of bullets on the dash. "Well, that's an image in my head now. Please don't. Don't you think our family's relationships are complicated enough?"
Oh god, Jasper had no idea. Bella giggled.
This was getting complicated, and fast. Edward tried to shake off the cops coming from the other direction before any of them got any bright ideas about road spikes, cursed when he had to dodge a minivan with a kid in the front seat. The kid's mom didn't even notice their brush with death, her neck craned out the driver's side window as she stared, horrified, at the darkness behind Edward.
He could just imagine the complications that would arise from being arrested with multiple illegal firearms, in a dead man's stolen car, during a high-speed chase against the surviving members of Mexico's most prominent drug cartel: one that now involved shots fired. They didn't have time for that, right now. Considering the supernatural explanation for the current events would be unlikely to be acceptable to the police, he pushed the car to go faster. Things were quite complicated enough, thank you. Damned mortals.
It was hard not to be distracted by the growing void that was crackling with emptiness in the rear-view mirror, swallowing up the stars as it got closer.
…Was it following them?
Well, never let it be said that his lover found trouble by halves.
He waited for Bella's responding indignance, but all he felt was unfocused fuzziness. It was like something else was struggling to break through but was being held back. The wound. The one Bella had made when she gave them time to escape. Suddenly, the void in the sky was the least of his worries.
When he realized Bella had been holding back her pain from him, Edward almost stopped the car so he could chew her out properly. He snarled as he fairly wrenched it out of her mental grip despite her objections, took as much of it as he could hold while driving.
Bella fumbled the book, clutching at her head with both hands and hissing. He had made her angrier, now, but he didn't care. Her pain levels were coming down. She muttered frantically as she recovered, already reaching for the grimoire in the floorboard. "Okay, ow. Don't do that. Wow. Consent is apparently a foreign concept for you today. Now is not the time for this argument, Edward."
Edward's anger abandoned him, and he sent her a mental apology. He kept the pain though, and took out his panic on the accelerator, willing the speedometer past 250. "Bella, love, there is no argument. It's my right. "
"Bella? Edward? What's wrong?" Alice was bracing Bella in her hold as Bella's heartbeat accelerated wildly. Edward reached for Bella's heartbeat, taking over its process from her subconscious. It evened to the familiar beat he knew so well.
"Um, I think the spell is killing me. Well, Mayra did something right, the nothingness is definitely drawn to me. Let's just say I'm a little more... affected... than I look. Guys, I'm not sure I can focus enough to cast, much less read. I need your help; you have to help me find the spell she used. Edward, faster. If that thing catches up with us, we're fucked."
Edward tried to push more speed out of the overworking engine, and started to get a hateful feeling that was all too familiar. "Uh-huh. When you say affected..."
"I mean that my magick is ripping itself out of my body, and that thing is going to kill me before it even gets the chance to pull me into the nothing. Now, I have no intention of dying because of a little girl's temper tantrum, especially considering your current circumstances. However, the spell she used was devised by the Master, and he is a much more formidable threat than she could ever be. Considering she completely lost control of her cast before she died, she did manage to leave us with a fairly pressing situation on our hands: Namely, the end of the world. I'll be sure to congratulate her, you know, if I'm not wiped from existence."
Bella was trying to be snarky, but she was slurring words now. She was starting to glow, golden light streaming weakly from her skin, and wisps of her magick were floating lazily into the ever-nearer void that pulsed when it absorbed them. The hand that had been flipping desperately through the thick book went suddenly slack, and Alice had to brace her more heavily as her body went limp.
"Bella?" Edward could hear the panic in his voice, and focused a moment on her, mentally. The drunken feeling that was coursing through her hit him just as he executed a sharp turn that threw two more of the cars pursuing them into the path of oncoming traffic. Well, he was the first vampire with a buzz. He'd never driven drunk before. It'd be a challenge. He took as much as he could, and then he took a little more.
Emmett took over shooting, and Alice grabbed Bella by the collar of her dress and hauled her to lay across Rosalie's lap in the backseat. Rosalie cursed loudly before she slapped her sister across the face. "Don't sleep, wake up!"
There was a long pause, the glow dimming as he took on the feeling, and finally Bella responded dreamily. " 'mokay. Thanks, Edward. I'll be mad later; we can have angry sex about it. For now, consider my permission permanent. We need to get out of the city. We have to release the spell."
Jasper growled as he fired wildly. "The spell? Fuck the stupid spell. That cat is out of the bag, Bella. Forget the world, you're talking nonsense. How do we get you back to Camp before you pass out and worse-than-die?"
"Probably not gonna be annihilated, my power is too strong for that. I could make it through the nothing."
Alice broke in. "But it will still kill you."
"It won't kill me either, don't worry."
Lie.
Goddammit, how often had Bella hidden the probability of her death from him? Her anger had ebbed, some. His anger was growing, and he growled. Bella ignored it, still talking.
"Might pass out though, so be prepared for that. We must stop the cast; the void won't stop until it consumes me and everything else. The mortal world will fade to nothing. Find the spell."
Jasper's face twisted in a snarl, but he reached into the floorboard and wrenched open the book, much to Edward's dismay. He had been hoping for something a little easier than stopping the end of the world. The magick he had cast was still new, would it hold her to him even in the nothingness that threatened to swallow them?
They had never had a real fight before, but it would seem that today was that sort of day.
"You've got to be kidding me. You want to save the world. Oh, joy. You are so fucking sneaky, you little witch. I suddenly understand why Marcos struggles with his temper around you, not that I agree with it."
"Jesus Christ, Bella. I'm sorry if it pisses you off that I'm not asking for permission to keep you alive. You didn't exactly ask for my consent before you tried to annihilate yourself. Hell, you aren't even asking for it now. If we die like this, I will never have sex withyou again." Edward was desperately trying to outrun the void, the gangsters chasing them fading to inconsequential noise, even as bullets flew past him. Would he risk her life and hopefully his own to save the humans?
"I didn't even know you yet! I shouldn't have to ask for your consent, it's my life. By the way, I wouldn't worry. I'm sure your stupid spell will hold even through the void. You've seen to that quite thoroughly, you dick. If I can't reverse your idiocy, I doubt it can. Dammit!" She suddenly shot forward to slap at his arm repeatedly with all her strength, not that she had much left. He raised an elbow so she wouldn't hit his face and kept driving. There were hopeless tears in her eyes.
"You love me too much, I'm not worth nine billion mortal lives. You don't get to make this choice for me. You aren't my Master. We are saving the humans, Edward."
The words shocked him, and he let her feel his regret. He hadn't meant to take her choice from her, it had been instinctual.
Forgiveness, and a stab of guilt and regret coursed through her too: a sudden reconsideration for the new value of her life, now that his was tied up in it: an equation rebalancing with a new variable: a constant. She couldn't break his cast, couldn't untangle his life from hers. She couldn't even bring herself to try. There was a stream of cursing in her head that would have made a sailor blush.
She couldn't make the choice for him, either. It was her priviledge to ensure his freedom of choice. She was his Queen, still, but there were some commands she had no right to give. It wasn't just her death to save the world. Thanks to his magicks, it was his too. They had to agree.
She fell back against his siblings, who all looked nonplussed at her outburst. All attention was on them, but Bella didn't notice. She was pissed.
"God, it's not enough I'm responsible for their deaths, you had to make me responsible for yours too, and now the world is ending. Guess we better stop it anyway. Our life, our choice. Fine. I can share. Are we gonna save the world, or let it end, lover?"
Death. Life. All or nothing, but they would be together either way. His choice was easy, with her beside him. Edward had never been particularly concerned with morality, and he would miss his family. But it was the right thing to do.
"Oh, what the hell. I can be the man you think I am. I'll miss them, but I don't have much to lose; all things considered. Let's try to save it: I like this reality. As long as I'll see you on the other-side." Rosalie raised her eyebrows at him as he spoke, but Edward didn't have it in him to be sorry for the words. They were true.
Love. Joy. A good man. God, he never was like the Master.
Emmett cried out in raw panic as the void shot suddenly towards them with incredible speed, swallowing up two of the cop cars. He called over his shoulder, his focus still on the last of their pursuers: an SUV with heavily tinted glass and bulletproof paneling. "Well, you guys are making tons of sense right now, you weirdos. Have you both lost your minds? Could we focus on getting the hell out of here, please? Have your argument later, whatever it's about."
"Why were all these stupid spell books handwritten a billion years ago? Have Fae never heard of a godforsaken computer? Or English? This shit is worse than text talk."
Edward swore loudly. "Let me, Jasper. Rosalie, switch." He laid down his seat and clambered awkwardly around his sister as she took the wheel, the car's path never faltering as the speedometer topped out.
Edward felt Bella's dreaminess spread to infect him as their anger waned, tried to focus through it. He felt like a balloon, or a cloud. The pain was still there, tethering him to the ground, but it was a sharp blade caressing him sweetly, hovering nearby and teasing him with death. The nothingness was calling, and on the other side, Styx. It was different than he had thought. It felt like coming home after a long day of playing mortal. The music was lovely.
"Hey. Hey, Edward, I can see music. It's pretty. Like you. You're so pretty. We should write a duet, sing back to it. I still play violin, just not 'iano. My hands don't look as pretty on the keys as yours do. Alice, yours would look nice. I promise not to kiss your sister, Edward. Or your dad. I was just teasing. Wanna play the music with me?"
In that moment, Edward could think of nothing he wanted more. He tangled his hand with hers and opened his mouth to agree; but Emmett was looking at him oddly. What? Oh, the book. Right, his family. The world. He asked, before he pushed a little of the drunkenness back to her. He needed to focus, and she gladly took it.
Not yours anyway, lover.
It's ours, Bella. That's my heart too, now.
Even with her heartbeat under his control, it skipped a beat at the thought.
"Right. We can play that song later, let's play for our family right now. Breathe like a metronome, okay? It will help me stay on beat." Edward's reply was distracted and slightly slurred as he flipped through the grimoire that was helpfully illuminated by Bella's steadily-strengthening glow. Alice narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
It looked like it was arranged by affinity, and then by light or dark classification.
"Bella, what affinity was her spell?"
"Who's spell? No spells here, no such thing as witches." Bella opened her eyes to look at him, but her sloppy focus shifted to the void in her field of vision, and instead of panic he only felt a mild concern. With almost all the disorientation on her, her focus was shot. "Oh no! That's a big tear: someone didn't eat their Wheaties. That's bad, a bad air cloud. Purge-style. We should call the guard, tell them Mayra is breaking stuff. I like this song! Edward, play with me..."
"Okay, I'm gonna go with that being a confirmation of an air-affinity spell. What classification?"
The Master's voice suddenly shot to full volume, temporarily bringing focus with it. He had been watching for his trap to go off, watching Mayra, and when he had recognized his own spell, he immediately looked for his favorite troublemaker. Bella shot Edward a sharp spike of panic when she couldn't hold his voice back from Edward's mind.
Oh, great. The Master is all caught up. Joy, more complications. Edward, can you hear him?
No.
Liar.
"Fuck. This might be it; I have limits. We have to hurry. It's based on Purging, so probably dark class."
"Okay, so that narrows it down to a couple pages."
Oh, God forgive him, Edward was gonna kill the bastard. The things he was saying were fucking disgusting, and directly tailored to Bella's insecurities and regrets. He was playing on her desire to go to the other-side, promising her he would send her there in exchange for her magicks. God, how could anyone drip poison from their lips so sweetly?
Bella giggled at him as she took in his reaction and stretched a golden hand to trace his lips. The disorientation was coming back, and her love was too sweet for the situation: she was too grateful for his easy acceptance of her struggle with the voice, his absolute rejection of the Master's lies.
He and Destiny would have words about how she had treated his lover, even if the universe had granted him the privilege of being by her side. He had to close his eyes against the knowledge that it was too much, that Bella was running out of strength as the situation pulled in all directions. They were dying, and he was so very thankful that she wasn't alone.
"She thought she could eat me up, but she didn't have the power. Master is so angry. Incompetent fools, all of you. She's mine, bring her to me. A little girl defeats my armies. He's loud. Silly Samael, he could never see. If you want something done, do it yourself."
"You really won't go; I won't have to leave you. I don't have to stay here to be with you; we can both go. Come on, Edward. They're still waiting, I believe it. I've changed my mind, let's let the world solve its own problems. Do you want to? Let's go swimming. The water's cold, but I can probably get across. It feels like home, come with me."
For just a second, he almost did. He wanted to. The pain was screaming at him, and all of it was just too much. It wasn't fair of the universe to ask this of them. Of course, he would follow Bella. It was difficult to focus around the part of his mind that was calmly beseeching him to cross the waters: that they looked quite refreshing actually; that he would like to rest now, please. One hundred and nine years was a long time to be alive.
The Master would still live. He would kill their precious people. Bella would never forgive herself that.
He felt Bella's sadness at the thought, her hopeless despair. The void was pulling, the Master was yelling, and she was so tired. The water looked so nice, and Edward would come too. She was an echo on the shore, looking back over her shoulder, and her hand beckoned to him. She took a step towards the water, unthinkingly.
God, their family were blind, they had no idea how tied together Bella-and-Edward were.
Suddenly, his siblings were looking at him in incomprehension as Edward lost it, pushing the Master's voice back through sheer willpower. He clutched at her and drew her to sitting by his grip on her throat alone. "NO, Bella. No swimming. Our family don't have swimsuits. I swear to god, Bella. Do not get in that water."
Bella blinked away the black that had begun to leak into her eyes as her hand wrapped his wrist, rubbing her forehead with the opposite hand and enunciating every word slowly, struggling to maintain.
"Power transfer. Mayra wanted my magick."
There was a trade between them. Edward gave her pain though it killed him to do so, acknowledging its sway on him; and she gave him her disorientation, acknowledging her need to focus enough not to give up their life without realizing it.
Edward thanked God he had spent so much time in HQ's library as he flipped through the pages of the Master's grimoire, trying to decipher the odd shorthand typical of Fae writings as quickly as vampirically possible. He almost flipped past the cast they were looking for. "Here it is!"
Emmett let out a cheer as the Hummer Carlisle was driving caught up to their pursuers and sideswiped the persistent SUV following them, sending it spinning out just as Rosalie swung a hard right off the highway. "That's my dad! Right on ti - Whoa!"
Jasper flailed to grab Emmett before he could fly out of the car, losing his gun in the process. "Pay attention, brother-bear!"
"Hey! Only Bella gets to call me that!"
"Lemmesee. I can do it; I can focus a little better now. He's gone quiet. It's helpful, but not a good thing." Edward hurriedly tilted the book towards her as Alice manhandled Bella into a sitting position.
He took stock. His sister was casting a panicked look at him, but Edward found he didn't have the will to comfort her. The Master's quiet in their head felt like the eye of the storm, the breath before the world would explode. Bella was as weak as a newborn lamb, magick sparking from her fingertips as she traced the writing of the spell.
"Foolish child. This spell wouldn't even work the way she thought it would. I should've known the Master wouldn't risk it accidentally working. No wonder she lost control."
Bella shook her head as she struggled to make sense of the heavy block writing through her blurry vision, leaning heavily on Alice and Emmett. Jasper was distracted by his and Bella's argument, running through their words and replaying their emotions, and Rosalie was dodging debris and cars alike as the void tore the world apart around them. At least the shooting had stopped. The Hummer was right on their tail.
"Okay, well. Good news: I can contain the void. Bad news: my magick is freaking out, not obeying me. It's bleeding, the effect of the wound and the void. I need to do a formal cast: I need chalk. Check the glovebox, Carlos had to keep chalk in here somewhere. And you guys are all gonna have to hem me in, focus-wise, or I'll make it worse. This is gonna be weird."
"Yes, because there is nothing odd about this situation, currently. Are we saving the world with chalk?" Rosalie pressed her lips together primly, her eyes focused on the rear-view mirror: she noticed a glitter of scarlet rising from where Bella rested against him. Okay, he could deal with that later.
"Bella. This can't be a good sign." He didn't know if he was referring to the ominous silence from the Master, the scarlet rising from his skin, the crackling of the void, the sensation of water around his ankles, or the sheer complicated nature of what Bella was planning.
Bella and Edward shared a prayer: Please, God. They loved them. They were family. They were Fae, her people. Their precious people.
Jasper noticed his shimmer too, and his thoughts were wracked with sudden understanding about the by-play between him and Bella, some vague realization of their connection and what it could mean. He was drawing connections between their words and their linked emotions, their references to Styx and their strange calm. His mind was throwing questions at him.
But he was already digging through the car's storage. He finally found a piece of chalk in the ashtray and thrust it hurriedly at Bella. Carlisle and Esme followed the Lamborghini closely as Bella began to draw on the back of Jasper's seat, a rough pentagram with strange symbols on the outside. She was muttering softly, the car silent, her voice the only sound besides the purr of the engine and the howling wind.
Edward slumped, tiredness hitting him for a long moment. He had forgotten what it felt like, how strong it could be. He almost laughed. He was a vampire, and he wanted a nap.
He did his best to regulate Bella's heartbeat, but he had to give her all the pain, all the disorientation. She accepted it calmly and reassured him. She still had to rub the writing out and try again twice.
"North, East, South, West. No, wait; West is that way. Of course it's an air affinity cast, it would be the one section of symbology I missed. This is why we don't skip class, Adeline. Fuck, it needs to be a reversal, not a closing, and if I use that symbol I'll need a fire source. Damn, damn, damn. I hate formal casts. Here's hoping this works: I don't think the ancients were envisioning leather seats when they talked about proper materials."
When Bella was finished drawing, she held out a chalk covered hand to Edward expectantly, wrist up, her eyes still checking her work. He stared for a moment, took in the dark bruises already forming from the grip he'd had on her arms, the pallor of her skin from the massive amount of blood he had taken, less than an hour ago. His eyebrows flew to his hairline as he understood, and he shot her an exasperated look when she met his eyes.
"What? It's not like you're going to kill me. You can't cast a spell like this without a sacrifice, and you guys don't have blood. I could do it myself, but your teeth are sharper and I'm a little shaky. Be sure to hit a vein."
His siblings' eyes were wide as they shifted from her to him, and they held their breath.
With as dire as the situation was, it was ridiculous how very uncomfortable Edward managed to feel. He bit the base of her palm lightly anyway, tapping into a vein so the blood flowed freely. He pulled away quickly, unwilling to indulge at the moment. There was no bloodlust, just enjoyment. His killer instinct had disappeared once their death was sure to be shared. Huh.
There was no way his siblings were going to miss how easily he stopped himself. Jasper was looking at him like he was insanity incarnate, reading his sudden tiredness, his easy dismissal of Bella's blood, his general lack of panic about the impossible situation. He was gripping the dashboard tightly to hold back his bloodlust and the tide of unanswered questions. His trust held steady though, and Edward felt a twinge of guilt all his own.
"Edward, what's going on with you two?" Alice was leaning as far away from Bella's wound as she could, her irises black as pitch. Emmett's eyes narrowed at Bella as he wrapped a hand around Alice's bicep in case he had to hold her back, still holding his breath.
Edward breathed in his family's thoughts. They knew something was up, but they loved them, trusted them. His family believed the two of them would handle it. This had to work, they had to close the void, or his family would be forced to mourn both of them.
"Can't deal with that right now, lover: questions later guys. We love you too, but we have to focus on your lives right now. Oh yeah, um, Rosalie? Don't freak out, I'm just borrowing them for a minute. Keep driving, no matter what."
Bella was forcing blood to pour over the pentagram and smearing it across the symbols with her other hand. Before anyone could ask what she meant, Edward's world went fuzzy and white. He distantly felt his body go boneless, but he couldn't focus on the sensation.
Bella was not just in his head, she was in his siblings' heads too, right on the edge of their consciousness. The connection was nothing like their own and took effort. It caused pain that burned like acid, and Edward could feel Bella's magick fight against the pull of the void, the risk increasing as it reached outward to his family.
Contrastingly, pure instinct was forcing it to twist into him harder and dig sharp claws into his mind. He tried to help his brothers and sister orient themselves to Bella's mental presence, pushed at them to focus with her instead of fighting the pain they were in.
Bella cooed at her magicks gently in the Fae's strange language, coerced it into entering the void, just a little wisp. Where her golden magicks touched the void, Edward could feel the spread of ice stabbing at him, and the pain increased impossibly.
She continued to woo her magicks into spreading along the outer boundary of that darkness, to hold on through the wrong her magick felt where it connected with the void. See, aren't the vampires pretty? Don't you want to save them? Don't let them mourn us. The mortals are our friends, don't let them fall. I know it hurts, just a little more. Help me save them.
Bella collected bits of his siblings' auras with care, cast them into a rainbow-colored bridge that made a path for her magick. She was slowly knitting the tear in the fabric of the world closed with the force of her will: shaping earth and sky to reform, urging water and fire to coexist. Everything Bella was determined to do echoed through them all for a long moment: Fierce love poured from her. It was a Queen's benediction—a promise of absolute protection from the dark, no matter the cost.
Suddenly, Bella's golden presence was pulled sharply away from all of them, her magick releasing from it's painful hold on its beloved mistress. Edward panicked as his mind clutched at the empty space where she had been, as his distant ears registered the deafening lack of Bella's heartbeat. But his spell still connected them, she was still twisted up in him, and Edward would go where Bella went.
He leapt into the void even before his magick could pull him after her, desperately chasing his lover. His siblings reached for the two of them a split-second after he caught hold of Bella with his scarlet, pulling her close. They pulled them out of the void just as it closed: He could feel them, see their colors mix along the edges of Edward-and-Bella.
They were a new creature, a puzzle more complete. BellaEdward-Emmett-Jasper-Alice, somehow one but not quite whole, mourning the absence of Rosalie-Esme-Carlisle.
A flash of bright light made them blink and when he opened his eyes, he was alone in his head save for the constant twist of gold, back in the Lamborghini with the sound of screeching brakes ringing in his ears from somewhere nearby.
The void was gone like it had never been there, nothing but starry sky.
But Rosalie was panicked and pale, driving with one hand so she could shake Jasper with the other, screaming Emmett's name repeatedly. She was too distracted, didn't notice the jagged break in the overpass in front of her: an elevated bridge of highway suddenly crumbling, destroyed by the pull of the void.
Emmett pushed Bella into the floorboard as he regained movement, already shifting his grip on Alice and yelling Rose's name. She slammed on the brakes, but they were going too fast, it was too late. Edward threw his body overtop of Bella's form in the same instant that the Lamborghini careened over the edge and began the long fall into the water below.
Edward felt a pang of their shared regret: death was here. Bella knew her body could take no more, that physical injury on top of what she had already given to fight the void would be too much for her. She was going to die, and she would take Edward with her. A million thoughts ran through her head as she evaluated the result of her sacrifice, weighed it's worth and found it wanting. She had wanted to do so much more: for him, for her family, for her people. Her thoughts died off, her exhaustion too much to bear. She passed out.
Edward, however, had only one thought as the Lamborghini succumbed to gravity.
Bella.
Famous Last Words
They say your life flashes before your eyes in the instant before death. Edward had died at seventeen years old, from a virus that left him too weak to stand and the bite of a good man who was so tired of his loneliness. It had been almost a century since his death, but he remembered every detail.
That saying was bullshit.
Still, as he clutched Bella's all-too-human form to his, he took a moment to think of the life he would leave behind: Rosalie. Emmett. Jasper. Alice. Esme. Carlisle. Bella. Bella. Bella.
Now I know
That I can make you stay
But where's your heart?
But where's your heart?
But where's your
He wondered if her regret over leaving the Master behind would haunt her, on the other-side. What would happen to their loved ones? Would his family forgive him this, leaving them behind to be with her?
And I know
There's nothing I can say
To change that part
To change that part
To change
HIs lover had given so much of herself to her people, shared so much with he and his family. Had they ever really lived, before they knew her? She had made them so much more than they had been before. She had made him into so much more. He had been incomplete before, a shadow of a man waiting for someone to wake him from an eternal dream.
So many
Bright lights that cast a shadow
But can I speak?
Well, is it hard understanding
Edward knew he was not a good man. In his experience, few people actually were. At his core, he was selfish, and there was a part of him that longed for the other-side, if for no reason other than that he would never have to share Bella with anyone else again.
I'm incomplete
A life that's so demanding
I get so weak
A love that's so demanding
I can't speak
But that wasn't quite true was it? There were those who were waiting for her, there. Those who she longed so much to see again. Edward was curious to meet them, wanted to see that joy cross his lover's face. He wondered absently if Bella could magick him up a new shirt: first impressions counted.
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay
I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
God, but she had given so much to this war. No wonder she was tired. Her physical scars alone should torment her, should drive her beyond that edge. He considered his brief belief that the scar on her arm had been a suicide attempt. Now that he knew how her royal blade had expressed, he realized he had been right the first time. There was a part of Bella that wanted to die, wanted to give up and fade away to another world.
Can you see
My eyes are shining bright?
'Cause I'm out here
On the other side
Wait. But she had felt regret. She didn't want to go like this. She wanted to do more, to stay here. A violent determination began to build in him: so many people had taken more from Bella than she would give freely, and for all his selfishness, he hated the thought.
Of a jet black
Hotel mirror
And I'm so weak
Is it hard understanding
I'm incomplete?
No. No, this wasn't right. She couldn't die like this; not even if he went with her. She would regret it.
A love that's so demanding
I get weak
It would hurt her. And Edward was so very, very tired of people hurting his Bella, of being unable to do anything about it.
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay
I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
He would not. The Master could not take this from her. Edward didn't know if he could prevent their death, but he would try. Until his last unneeded breath, he would try to do this one unselfish thing. He would give the world a gift: he would share Bella with them.
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay
I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
Edward processed pain. Physical, powerful pain, white-hot and vaguely familiar, like a memory he hadn't made yet. It was centered against his spine right between his shoulder blades.
No. Not like this. Soon, but not yet. She had given him control over her life, as he had returned the favor. That's what it was, his first spell. It wasn't a Binding, it wasn't a Choosing. It was a Giving. A sharing. Edward could share his lover with his family, with the Fae, with the world. They needed her, and so did he. He remembered the feeling that had coursed through them as Bella knitted the tear in reality closed to save the mortal world.
These bright lights have always blinded me
A queen's benediction: Absolute protection from the dark, no matter the cost. Yes, that's what it was. He couldn't give that to the world, couldn't carry the weight of it like Bella did.
These bright lights have always blinded me
But he could give that to Bella.
So, Edward made his promise, the song pouring from his lips. He would protect Bella from the dark, no matter what it cost. He would do so until the day they shared a single death, on their terms. Gladly. Absolutely.
I say
I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
'Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
'Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
'Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
The pain in his spine pushed at him, and Edward gave into it, surrendered to his new purpose. Bella would protect the Fae. He would protect Bella. He curled around her as they tumbled from the convertible, tucking her body into his to protect her from the injuries he could.
The edge of dark slate-colored metal burst into his vision suddenly, curving into his field of vision to protect Bella's back. He and Bella hit the water.
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay
I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
The sensation of drowning was flowing from her mind to his, an unconscious demand for air. He pushed his lips against hers to give her what her body demanded, to keep her alive for one more second. There was something buzzing through him, some new instinct. Edward flapped the strange mechanical wings that had just sprouted from his back once, twice, again and again until they reached the surface of the water.
It was all he could manage before Bella's pain and tiredness escaped her unconscious mind, and he could think no more. His eyes closed.
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay
I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
Distantly, so far away that it didn't matter in the slightest, Edward felt his family pull them to the shore.
Human
"Mary, mother of god." Carlisle crossed himself as he laid eyes on his first son. His children were soaking wet, but their stone skin had protected them from the effects of the crash. It took Emmett and Rosalie to pull Edward to shore, clutching onto his son's metallic wings and dragging him onto the sand.
Jasper and Alice had hold of his human daughter, who was thank god, still breathing.
They were both unconscious.
On Bella's part, that was perhaps understandable, though Carlisle knew of no physical injury to explain it. For Edward however, it was an impossibility, and Carlisle was caught up in the confusion of it for a long moment.
"Carlisle. They. I mean, I think they did something, before Mayra came. Something magickal. They were arguing about it, but it didn't make much sense. Bella's bleeding: her wrist, Edward bit her in the car." Jasper was wringing out his shirt so he could use it as a bandage on Bella's wound.
Carlisle made the choice. He rushed to his human daughter's side as Emmett chimed in, clutching to his wife and staring at his brother lying limp and unresponsive in the sand. "They were connected somehow, in their brains. I could see it when Bella had us help her with the void. Like the opposite of multiple personalities; two bodies, one person. I...I've never seen anything like it. Funny, how rare that used to be."
Bella was unconscious, possibly had a concussion, and had lost massive amounts of blood. He saw another bite mark on her neck. She needed a transfusion immediately but seemed free of injuries that would result from a car accident. He suspected his son had something to do with that.
"I saw that too. Okay, well, if we're right and they are connected somehow, then if we save Bella, Edward should be fine. Right?' Alice looked to him for the answer, but Carlisle couldn't bring himself to lie.
"I do not know that Bella can survive this. She needs blood, but there is something else. Quiet please: I need to examine her aura. Rosalie, look over Edward. Look for anything out of place."
"What? Like check his vitals? He's a vampire, Carlisle. I'd be more worried if he did have a heartbeat."
"Then I would suggest you check for one. We don't live in the world of black and white anymore, Rose. If this is somehow magick-related, we need to know everything we can."
Rosalie grumbled, but did as she was told. She began to examine Edward for injuries or unusual marks before she turned her attention to the wings he had sprouted.
"Would you call these out of place? I think so. Freaking magick. God, this is insanity. No dying, brother-of-mine. I'll be pissed for a century. You still owe me for driving the Lamborghini first. Bella got it as a surprise for me, you jerk."
"Quiet."
Carlisle focused on Bella, pulling everything he knew about auras to the front of his mind. Okay, so he had never tried any sort of aura-healing without borrowing magick from a Fae, but they had used up their supply of witches, it seemed. He would simply have to find a way to express his magicks, right now. It was urgent. For a long moment, he felt nothing, and he thought he would fail.
And then he heard it. Music. Bella was singing. He focused on the sound, and he heard Esme gasp when he opened his eyes.
I can hold my breath
I can bite my tongue
I can stay awake for days
If that's what you want
Be your number one
"Your eyes...Carlisle, your eyes are ice blue."
"Later, dear." Carlisle could see his wife, see his children in a way he never had before. Colors surrounded them: Esme a vivid pink, Emmett a green. Jasper was grey-black, like slate; and Alice was a bright white glow. Rosalie was a lovely shade of lavender.
It was breathtaking.
I can fake a smile
I can force a laugh
I can dance and play the part
If that's what you ask
Give you all I am
And then, Carlisle turned his attention to his Fae-daughter. Hers would have been the most beautiful of them all, the most awe-inspiring, but it was marred with scars, all twisted up in massive knots that ruined the pulse of color. Black bled into it at the edges like poison under a microscope, and wherever the black touched, glittering gold flared, pushing it back again. There was also a thick ribbon of scarlet wound into it that led to where his son lay; and in Edward, Carlisle could see a twist of vivid gold. Her aura was breaking away from her, but the scarlet was anchoring it, not letting it fade away from her form. Okay. How could he help?
I can do it
I can do it
I can do it
Bella, for all her power, was still a human being. She still relied on the mechanics of her body, still required things like air and blood and food and sleep. He remembered what Josephat had said about the auras as an expression of physical health.
He looked closer, and he could see the effects of Bella pushing her body to extremes. There were aftereffects of a sacrifice: of Bella pushing her magick to use her own physical energy to knit the void together. There was also a bleeding wound in her aura, a massive cut where something had been removed, like a human without a limb.
But I'm only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
'Cause I'm only human, yeah
He pushed his vampiric intellect to piece it together quicker. Bella was human, yes. But his family were vampires. Carlisle suddenly knew what he needed to do, like an instinct.
"Esme, Children: come here. I require your assistance."
I can turn it on
Be a good machine
I can hold the weight of worlds
If that's what you need
Be your everything
"We aren't gonna go all unconscious again, are we? I'm still freaking out from the last time."
"I do not know the effects of what I am about to attempt, but I am going to attempt it anyway. If I do not, Bella will die. And it is very possible Edward will die with her." Even as he spoke the words, Carlisle knew they were true. Edward's scarlet was feeding energy to Bella's gold, and it was influencing his aura. He was starting to fade, to disconnect too.
I can do it
I can do it
I'll get through it
"Well, okay then. But if I get dirt in my hair, Bella is buying me a Lambo."
His family joined him, forming a loose circle around the unconscious couple. Carlisle bid them focus inward, on who they were and on memories with Bella and Edward. He freaked out internally, full of self-doubt for a moment; and then he set it aside and began.
But I'm only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
'Cause I'm only human, yeah
He took the light-hearted joy of Alice's memories with Bella and fed them to his fae-daughter, slowly pushing them to bolster her blood flow with the energy of excitement and laughter.
Jasper's went to blood flow too, his memories of Edward wrestling with him in the backyard providing a useful shock of adrenaline.
I'm only human
Rosalie was thinking about the moment she had awoken to her new life, her first impressions of the strange bronze-haired boy who held no attraction to her beauty. How Bella had made him complete, and how happy she was that this honorable man had a mate, after all.
Emmett was thinking of the first time he had challenged Bella to a fight, after they had come to Havana. She had sworn he was never to tell Edward, and proceeded to wipe the floor with him, much to his shock. He was so grateful for her faith in him, that he could be her soldier.
Their thankfulness replenished Bella's energy and restored her aura to health. She had been far too long without proper rest.
I'm only human
Just a little human
I can take so much
Until I've had enough
Then, Carlise reached for his wife. Bella's aura was far too disconnected from her, and the bleeding wound remained. Esme was thinking of Renee, of how it had hurt Bella when they left and how she would be hurt if Bella did the same, so soon. Too Soon.
Carlisle, himself, thought of every time he had found a companion in Bella, a listener for his thoughts and a person who valued his advice. He thought of the faith she had, the faith he shared with her. He thought of Edward and how alone he had been before he turned him, how his first son had given him the same easy forgiveness for his treachery that Bella had given him for his unfair judgement. How, of all his children, they knew him best; of how they loved him anyway, and how very much he would miss them if they left. He thought of how he would forgive them, if they chose to go to the other-side. How he would envy them, but still love them. How he would pray for his lost children every day: that they were together, somewhere, at peace.
He focused, and Bella's aura grew closer to her, the bleeding in her maicks coming to a slow stop.
'Cause I'm only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
'Cause I'm only human, yeah
For a long moment, the Cullen family poured themselves into Bella-and-Edward. A puzzle, finally whole, and the picture was crystal clear. Love: In every form.
When Bella-and-Edward opened their eyes, their family was waiting for them. BellaEdward-Carlisle-Esme-Rosalie-Emmett-Jasper-Alice breathed their first conscious breath with them, and they responded with joy, love at the sharing.
Whole. One. Family.
True Colors
When the Cullen family returned to Havana, in a much bigger hurry than they had left it, Kaedra met them. She quickly led them to the Council chamber, where the story was shared. Unfortunately for Bella, the whole story was shared.
It was quiet for a long moment, grief tearing through the air. Then, Marcos calmly got to his feet, took her hand and pulled her exhausted form to standing. He shot a nervous, half-second look at Edward, and before anyone could react, he pulled his fist back and punched his Queen in the face, right across her cheekbone.
Bella whipped her head back around to look at him in shock. "OW! What was that for?"
"Suicide, Isa? God, sometimes I just want to tie you up in the basement or something. It's not enough that everyone else wants to kill you, now you want to kill yourself. Honestly, what am I supposed to do with that?!"
Edward spoke up calmly, still seated. "I've got it covered, don't worry about it."
"Thank god for that. You're not gonna drain me dry, are you?"
Edward looked considering for a moment. Then, he smiled. He smiled her favorite grin, at Marcos. "Are you kidding? I've been dying to do that all day. I wouldn't recommend a second blow though."
"Hey! It's not like I didn't want to kick your ass a few times too, Edward. Why am I the only one getting punched? I seem to recall some words about consent, Marcos."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, I figure it'd hurt him more, if I punched you. If I punched him, all I'd do is break my hand. I'm gonna have to second the recommendation not to do it again though, Edward. I can make fireballs with my brain."
"Noted."
Bella shot a look at Kay, who shrugged. "You did sort of have it coming, babe. Besides...they're boys."
"Holla to that, sister!" Alice gave Kay a high five but shot Bella a grin.
"Now everyone, calm down. Carlisle, you must tell me more about how you and your family healed them. Don't think you're getting out of an exam, Isabella." Josephat's voice was laden with curiosity.
Bella groaned and rolled her eyes at Jasper. "Healers."
Later, she hummed as she tackled her paperwork in the attic she shared with her family.
Rosalie was flipping through a car magazine lazily, her attention half on Rockabye: who had offered to teach Alice to meditate. There had been something off about Alice's aura, and Bella was mildly concerned about it. Rockabye was a great teacher, perhaps more so because she was so young. The discrepancy was probably just a result of Alice's amnesia, but Bella wanted to be sure.
Edward had gone to sit for his exam with Josephat and Carlisle, but Bella could feel him through their connection, feel his annoyance and impatience and curiosity.
Emmett and Jasper had gone with Marcos to the training grounds, and Bella had wanted to join them, but one look from Esme told her that was an impossibility.
Esme was cooking in the Attic's kitchen, looking pleased to be useful and happy to be home. She had made Bella promise to try to sleep after dinner, regardless of whether Edward was back. With Bella's new connection to him, maybe she could sleep without him being physically near. It was worth a shot.
All my life, one page at a time
I'll show you my, my true colors
No, no, no, no, I won't apologize for the fire in my eyes
Let me show you my, my true colors, it ain't no rainbow
Bella paused in her reports as the image of Styx appeared in her head for an instant, strangely weak for once. She barely considered it before she cast it away.
It was good to be alive.