Chapter 12: Blood

Nessie's POV

I stood there unable to move. Unable to think even. The gravity of what I'd just done caught up to me. Now I'd been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Or more accurately with an empty blood bag hanging out of my mouth. My grandfather didn't look angry at all. Just very surprised.

"Renesmee get out of here right now," he said. "Quickly. Go to your room and get cleaned up. I'll take care of this,"

"But-"

"Just go Nessie. I will take care of this. I'll see you in a few minutes,"

I left as quickly as I could. I wondered what my grandfather was planning on doing now. I mean how was he going to cover up the theft in the blood storage area? I'd managed to drink every last drop of blood in there. Oh God what had I done?! I'd just drank all of the blood that the hospital had! I'd not only stolen from the hospital but now because of what I had done people who actually needed blood weren't going to get it!

I jumped when I heard the door open. It was only my grandfather. "I'm so sorry grandpa. I don't know what overcame me. I'm so sorry-"

"Nessie it's okay. Don't worry about it. I've taken care of it. You're lucky that there isn't security cameras in or around the blood storage area. Although after what happened I'm sure they will install some now. I cleaned up the mess quickly. Management thinks they we were robbed but there's no video proof so you won't be suspected,"

I breathed a sigh of relief. But that didn't stop me from feeling horrible about what had happened. "Grandpa I don't know what happened. I truly don't,"

"Nessie why are you calling me grandpa?" he asked curiously.

I smiled weakly. "I remembered you. I remembered everyone. I remembered my life before I lost my memory. I know who you all are. I know what you all are. What I am. Or what I was I should say. I guess all it took was one good whack to the head,"

"You remembered what you are. I think that explains the sudden blood lust,"

"Come again?"

"When you lost your memory you became unaware of your vampire heritage. Therefore your body didn't get what it needed for the vampire side to flourish. Your human side took over as the needs from your vampire side became dormant. But now that you remembered what you are you remembered what your body needs to truly thrive at its maximum potential. That's why you felt that sudden need to consume all the blood that you could get your hands on. Your body was so starved for blood that you didn't even think twice to give into your body's cravings,"

"I am so sorry grandpa. I shouldn't have done that. I should have had better control of myself,"

"Nessie I don't expect you to have perfect control of your bloodthirst. This is all so new to you still. You're lucky it wasn't a person you drained instead of those bags,"

"A person?" I gulped nervously. "I could have done that to a person without hesitation?" The thought of me hurting anyone like that horrified me.

"We can teach you how to control yourself Ness. We can teach you how to ignore your drive to consume human blood. We can teach you how to survive solely on animal blood. It won't be easy but we'll always be there to help you,"

"Thank you grandpa," I said.

"This also means that you can't be around humans by yourself for the time being. One of us needs to be with you in case your control begins to slip. That way we can stop you from killing someone. Slip ups like that have happened in our family and we don't want you to go through the kind of pain that accompanies those accidents,"

I nodded in agreement.

"This also means that you should no longer live alone,"

"Good," I said. "Because now that I know I have a family that actually loves me I don't want to live alone anymore. I want to live with you all. I want to know what it feels like to be part of a loving family again,"

"Was your adoptive family really that bad? I know you were kidnapped but how badly were you treated?"

"Let me show you something," I said. I pressed my hand to his face and let the memories flow from my brain into his. I showed him everything that I had shown my mom earlier. All the abuse that I suffered. The lack of love. Learning that I'd been purchased. It was painful to even remember it.

It started off with the first day that my parents took me home. They were very cold and distant. They showed me my bedroom and I never saw them again for the rest of the evening. I felt scared because I didn't remember anything other than my name.

The memory skipped to the next day. The maid brought me down to eat beakfast with my new parents and the first thing they said was "Vanessa we are enrolling you in acting classes,"

"Why?" I said.

"Because you're a very pretty little girl. Casting directors like pretty little girls like you. With your looks you'll be the most popular child actress around. So you need to learn how to act," my father said sternly.

"Can't I do piano lessons instead? I love playing the piano," deep down in my young heart I knew that to be true. Even if I couldn't remember.

They laughed at me. They laughed for a long time. "Learn how to play the piano? That's the stupidest thing that I have ever heard. No. That won't make us any money. Let's make one thing clear. We brought you into our family because you have the potential to make us rich. Not by playing the piano by acting in movies and TV shows. That's the only thing we wanted you for," I went up to my room and cried.

I started attending one of the most prestigious acting schools around. Even though I didn't want to act I gave one hundred and ten percent into my acting studies and practice. It turned out that I was a natural and I quickly rose to the top of my class. After two years of intense acting lessons I landed my first role on a Disney Channel TV show when I was only seven years old.

My schedule was intense even from a young age. My days were filled with shooting schedules. It was nonstop. I remembered overhearing my dad tell my mom "Isn't it nice that with a little bit of money we can bribe people into ignoring all of the child labor laws? Who cares about the girl's so-called wellbeing anyway? She'll thank us for this when she's older," It wasn't until I was older that I learned what child labor laws were and just how badly my parents violated those laws on an almost daily basis.

The next memory that came to my mind was the first time that my father beat the crap out of me when I was nine years old. They'd always had me on a strict diet that I was to always adhere to. I hated it. I'll never forget the day that my dad caught me about to eat the Twix candy bar I'd tried to sneak behind is back.

I had just unwrapped the delicious looking candy bar when my door opened. I tried to hide the candy behind my back but it was too late. He grabbed my arm so hard and twisted it to the point where I thought he was going to break it. I screamed in pain.

"What is this?!" he roared. He threw me so hard that my face smacked into the wall. "You know that you're not allowed to eat this! Do you want to ruin your figure?! Nobody is going to want you in their movies if you start gaining weight! You little-" he grabbed me and took off his belt. He started hitting me again and again. "Dad stop!" I begged. It hurt so bad. But my dad kept hitting me with the buckle of his belt over and over again. "Please stop you're hurting me!" I cried. The pain of the metal buckle only got worse and worse. I could feel myself bleeding but he didn't stop.

That was the first but it certainly was not the last time he beat me like that. The second time he did it was because I didn't get a role he wanted me to get. He thought it was because I "didn't try hard enough and needed to be taught a lesson," the third time was simply because I expressed my desire to quit acting. He always did it with his belt. He always hit my back, my legs, and places where people couldn't see. Afterwards our maid would always attend to me and try to console me.

"Earlier I showed my mom everything that I have just showed you. That was my life,"

"I'm so sorry Nessie. You deserved so much better. What happened to you never should have happened. But I promise you this they will all pay dearly for what they did to you,"

"Mom said the same thing earlier. She said that you all had the money, power, and influence to make sure they got in trouble. But I don't know how you can prove it,"

"What your mother said is true. I know the best investigators, the best lawyers, the best judges. I know people who can and will investigate what happened to you. Money isn't an issue for our family and we will gladly pay whatever we need to in order to make sure they pay for their crimes against you. Don't you worry about that Nessie. That's a promise and I keep all of my promises,"