Bella McLeod
Healer
This is my first Twilight fic, and it is a femlash, featuring Bella and Rosalie as a couple. So, if you don't like, please head somewhere else.
As an introduction, you may want to read "Snape McLeod" since the Bella that trained Tobias there is the same one here, only a decade later. It's not a requirement for you to read it, especially since I try to untangle things as the story progresses. I altered the timeline to fit my needs, so… she met Snape in 1997, they parted ways in 2000 and it is now 2011, when she moves to Forks with Charlie.
Bear in mind that I do not own Twilight, nor its characters, so if you recognize any of them, THEY'RE NOT MINE. I only own the idea of making Bella Swan part of Clan McLeod.
I also not own the Highlander series, characters and concepts.
Remember to leave your reviews…
Bella McLeod
Chapter 32
Healer
When I woke I was confused. My thoughts were a little bit hazy, as if I had drunk and was not recovered yet. It took me longer than it should have to realize where I was. The room was too bland to be anything other than a hotel room. The bedside lamps, bolted to the tables, were a dead giveaway, as were the long drapes made probably from the same fabric as the bed covers.
I tried to remember how I got here, I did remember the sleek black car I had ridden on with Alice and Emmet, the glass in the windows darker than any limousine I had ridden on. All through the highway, the engine was almost silent, even when we raced across it at more than twice the legal speed.
And I remembered Alice sitting with me on the dark leather backseat. At some point during the long night, my head had ended up leaning against her neck. My closeness did not seem to bother her at all, and her cool hard skin was oddly comforting to me.
Sleep had evaded me for a while, my eyes strained open even though the night finally ended and dawn broke over a low peak somewhere probably near California. The gray light, streaking across the cloudless sky, stung my eyes, but still I couldn't close them. Too much going through my mind. I had to find a solution about the tracker, and the price on my head, and who had placed it in the first place… yet there I was, going on an endless loop. So I fought against my sleep as the sun rose higher.
I was still awake when we came through a shallow mountain pass and the sun, behind us now, reflected off the tiled rooftops of the Valley. I didn't have enough in me to be surprised that we'd made a normally three day journey in just one. I stared blackly at the wide expanse laid out in front of me.
I noticed that nothing could hide in the shadows here during day time. The bright open freeway seemed benign enough; still I felt no relief, seeing as I was still on the run. This was not the regular 'oh you died again, let's relocate you' operation. I was being hunted by the Brotherhood, the Immortals head hunters and also by a crazy Vampire.
"Which way to the airport Bella?" asked Emmet out of the blue
"Stay on this freeway." I told him automatically "I think we'll pass right by it" then my brain caught up to the request and I was confused by that "We planning to fly somewhere? That is actually kind of a good idea."
"Not for now, but it's better to be close, just in case" answered Alice smoothly
Then I guess that is when I started to fall asleep because I barely remember my arm around Alice as I got down from the car.
I looked at the digital clock on the nightstand; the red numbers claimed it was three o'clock, though it gave no indication if it was day or night. No edge of light escaped through the curtains, and the room was bright with the light from the lamps.
I rose stiffly and staggered to the window, pulling at the drapes. My room looked out on a crossroad I recognized. Nowhere near the airport. I wondered what happened for them to change plans and be for real in Las Vegas instead of their plan, still Nevada, but not what I had in mind then. Daylight was gone and all the brightness and colorfulness of the Strip made it into my room. Three in the morning then.
I looked down at myself, I was still wearing Esme's clothes and they didn't fit very well. I looked around the room then, glad to discover a duffel bag on top of the low dresser. I was on my way to find new clothes, hopefully that fit, when a tap on the door startled me.
"Can I come in?" Alice asked
"Sure" I said exhaling relieved
She walked in and looked over me cautiously "You look like you could sleep longer"
"I probably could. But I don't need it yet" I said shaking my head. She drifted silently to the curtains and closed them securely before turning back to me.
"We'll need to stay inside, and out of sight" she told me
"Okay" I accepted. She was right
"Thirsty?" she asked then
I shrugged "Not particularly. How about you?"
"Nothing unmanageable" she smiled "I brought some food for you. It's in the front room. Emmet actually reminded me that you have to eat a lot more frequently than we do"
"He did?" I asked surprised at the thoughtful action "Where is he?"
She took my hand and carefully led me through the door into the living room of the hotel suite. I could hear low voices coming from the TV. Emmet sat motionlessly at the desk in the corner, his eyes watching the news with no glimmer of interest.
I sat on the floor next to the coffee table, where a pizza box and a burger waited. Alice perched on the arm of the sofa and stared blankly at the TV like Emmet.
I ate slowly, watching her, turning now and then to glance at Emmet. It began to dawn on me that they were too still. Unusually still for them. They never looked away from the screen.
"What's wrong? Why did we end up in the Luxor?" I asked Alice when she looked down at me
"Nothing's wrong" her eyes were wide, honest… yet, I didn't trust them. Somehow I knew she was lying to me. "Figured even him wouldn't cause a scene or a massacre in a place with so many people. The Volturi wouldn't let it go"
"So, what do we do now?" I tried
"We wait for Carlisle to call" answered Emmet stiffly
"And should he have called by now?" I guessed. I could see that I was near the mark when Alice's eyes lifted from mine to the phone on top of the leather back and then back at me. "What does that mean?" I asked fighting to control the quiver in my voice "That he hasn't called yet?"
"It just means that they don't have anything to tell us" she answered smoothly. But her voice was too even. Emmet was suddenly beside her, closer to me.
"Bella" he said in a suspiciously soothing voice. "You have nothing to worry about. You are completely safe here"
"I know that" I told him knowing it to be truth. Point was that not everyone else was as safe as me at the moment.
"Then why are you worried?" he asked looking me in the eye
"What if something goes wrong and they get separated?" I asked him worrying over Rosalie "If because of that, something happens to her… or the rest of your family?" I gulped. "If that wild female hurts Esme thinking it's me…" my voice had lowered "How could I live with myself when it's my fault if any of you get hurt? None of you should be risking yourselves for me…"
"Bella, Bella, stop" he interrupted "You're worrying about all the wrong things. Trust us on this. None of us are in jeopardy. Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you" he said truthfully
"You would only lose me if I lose the Game. I think it would be safer for everyone just to let James catch me and then be done with it…"
"It's been a little more than half a century that Rosalie's been alone. Since I came into their lives" Interrupted me Alice, touching my check with her cold fingers. Grounding me. Making me realize this is the first time I had at least an idea of how old my Rose was "Now she's found you" she added "You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with her for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into her eyes the next hundreds of years if she loses you?"
My guilt slowly subsided to be replaced by determination. But even as it spread over me, I knew I couldn't let my guard down and had to find a way to keep them safe, from the Brothers finding about Vampires. And ways to help get rid of James.
We stayed in the room. Alice called down to the front desk and asked them to ignore our maid service for now, seeing as we would not leave the room that day. The windows stayed shut, the TV on. At regular intervals food was delivered to me. The silver phone resting untouched as the hours passed without it ringing.
As I fidgeted and paced, they simply grew more still, two statues whose eyes followed me as I moved. I occupied myself practicing some katas and trying to meditate. As the afternoon wore on, I took a shower and then went back to bed, I hoped that by myself in the dark, I could figure someway out of this whole mess. But Alice followed me casually, as if by some coincidence she had grown tired of the front room at the same time. I was beginning to wonder exactly what sort of instructions Rose had given her.
I laid across the bed, and she sat next to me, legs folded. I tried to ignore her enough to sleep, but after a few minutes I gave up.
"Alice"
"Yes?"
"What do you think they're doing?" I asked as calmly as I could muster
"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far north as possible" she explained "wait for him to get close and then turn and ambush him. So I imagine things are going well if they can't call. It means the tracker is close enough that they don't want him to overhear
"And Esme?"
"Esme and Edward were supposed to head East as long as they could keep the female behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on Charlie and wait for Duncan."
"You think she's still on their track?" I asked referring to the red headed vampire
"I think Esme might be back at Forks. She won't call if there's any chance the female will overhear. I expect they're all just being very careful"
"But you think they're really safe" I said waiting for confirmation
"Bella, how many times do we have to tell you that there's no danger to us?"
"Would you be truthful though?" I rebutted
"Yes" she said serious "I will always tell you the truth" her promise was earnest
I deliberated for a moment. "How does your venom actually work?"
My question caught her off guard. She was quiet for a while, her expression seemed ambivalent. "Rosalie doesn't want me to tell you that" she said firmly
"That's not fair. I asked you" I told her
"I know" she agreed, so I looked at her expectantly, waiting. "She'll be extremely displeased"
"It may be so, but this is between you and me then. As my friend, I am asking you to tell me" and we were friends then, somehow. Though with her power, she must have known all along.
She looked at me with her splendid, wise eyes… carefully choosing her words. "I'll tell you the mechanics of it" she said finally "What I know at least. I've never changed anyone and I've never seen it done. Plus I don't remember my own changing" I nodded waiting for her to continue "As predators, we have many weapons in our personal arsenal, much, much more than really necessary. The strength, the speed, the acute senses. Not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper, Rosalie and I, who have extra senses as well. Then, we are also physically attractive to our prey…" She smiled widely, a sad smile though "We have another superfluous weapon. We are also venomous" she said "Which I know is what you want to know… the venom starts off as incapacitating" she said surprising me with that information "It works slowly, spreading through the bloodstream, so that once bitten, our prey is in too much physical pain to escape us. Superfluous as I said. If we're already that close, the prey never escapes unless we want it to…"
"So, if the venom is left to spread before being drained?"
"It takes a few days for the transformation to be complete, depending on how much venom is in the bloodstream, how close the venom enters to the heart. As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing, changing the body as it moves through it. Eventually the heart stops and the conversion is finished. But all that time, every minute of it, a victim would be wishing for a fast death." I shivered pondering this "It's not pleasant, you see"
"Dying never is" I murmured softly
"It's also very hard to turn someone." Chimed Emmet from the doorframe
"I don't' understand"
"In a way, we are like sharks" he said
"Once we taste blood, or even smell it, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding" said Alice softly looking at Emmet, before turning back to look at me "So you see, to actually bite someone, taste the blood, it would begin a frenzy. It's difficult on both sides, the blood lust on one hand, the awful pain on the other"
"You say you don't remember being turned" I said looking at Alice who nodded "Why do you think it is?"
"I don't know" she said as Emmet approached her and side hugged her "For everyone else, the pain of transformation is the sharpest memory they have of their human life. I remember nothing of being human"
We laid silently then. The seconds ticked and I had almost forgotten their presence, so enveloped in my own thoughts. Then, without warning, Alice leaped from the bed.
"Something's changed" her voice was urgent.
"What do you see?" asked Emmet guiding her back to sit down
"I see a room. It's long and the floor is wooden. He's in the room, and he's waiting. There's gold… a gold stripe across the wall, it's a crest.
"Where is the room?" asked Emmet
"I don't know. Something is missing. Another decision that hasn't been made yet"
"How much time?"
"It's soon" said Alice almost whimpering "He'll be in that room today, or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something. And he's in the dark now"
"What is he doing" Emmet's voice was calm, methodical, as he questioned her in a practiced way. It was surprising to hear him being so serious.
"He's watching TV… no, he is actually running a video chat, in another place"
"Can you see with whom?"
"No, it's too dark"
"And the wooden floor room, what else is there?"
"Just the crest. And there is a black rack with trophies. But he does not watch the screen there, that is in the dark room. The wooden floored one is where he waits." Her eyes drifted and then focused on Emmet's face
"There's nothing else?"
She shook her head as they looked at each other
"What does it mean?" I asked. Neither of them answered for a moment.
"It means the tracker's plans have changed" said Emmet looking at me "He's made a decision that will lead him to the wooden floored room, and the dark room"
"And we don't know where those rooms are" I said softly
"No" confirmed Alice shaking her head "But we do know that he won't be in the mountains north of Washington, being hunted" she added in a bleak voice "He'll elude them"
"Should we call?" I asked. They traded a serious look, undecided themselves. And then the phone rang. Alice was across the room before I could lift my head to look at it.
"Carlisle" she breathed into it. "Yes" she said then glancing at me as she listened for a long moment "I just saw him" she described the vision she'd just seen "Whatever made him get on that plane… it was leading him to those rooms" she paused "Yes" she continued into the phone and then spoke to me "Bella?" she held the phone out toward me
"Hello?" I said as I had it against my ear
"Bella"
"Oh Rose, I was so worried" I sighed relieved to hear her voice
"I told you not to worry about anything but yourself" she said in frustration. It was so unbelievably good to hear her voice.
"Where are you?" I asked her needing to know
"We're outside of Vancouver" she answered "I'm sorry, we lost him" she added defeated "He seems suspicious of us, he's careful to stay just far enough away that Jasper can't feel his emotions. But he's gone now, it looks like he got on a plane. We think he's heading back to Forks to start over"
"I know. Alice saw that he got away"
"You don't have to worry though. He won't find anything to lead him to you" she said firmly "You just have to stay there and wait until we find him again"
"I'll be fine. Is Charlie safe? Is Esme with him?"
"Yes. The female has been in town. She went to the house, but Charlie also packed his things and left. Esme and Edward are tracking him down to make sure the female doesn't catch him first" I sighed relieved. I thank the fact that Charlie had thought about leaving too. Made sense seeing as he was my assigned Watcher until the Council assigned me a new one, therefore he had to be around wherever I was in order to keep Watching. "We are going back. If the tracker gets anywhere near Forks, we'll have him"
"I miss you" I whispered after a moment
"I know. I miss you too" she said softly "It's like you've taken half myself away with you"
"Come and get it then" I challenged
"Soon" she said firmly "I will make you safe first" her voice was hard then
"I love you Rose"
"I love you too"
"I'll be waiting. So come for me soon"
"I will. I promise"
As soon as the phone went dead, a cloud of depression began to creep over me. I turned to give the phone back to Alice and found her and Emmet bent over the table, where Alice was sketching on a piece of hotel linens. I leaned on the back of the couch, looking over her shoulder. She drew a room, long , rectangular, with a thinner square section at the back. The wooden planks that make of the floor stretched the lengthwise across the room. And then, wrapping around the walls, waist high, a long band heading to a crest. The crest Alice had seen in her vision.
"It's a dojo" I said, suddenly recognizing the familiar shapes. They looked at me, surprised
"Do you know this room?" Emmet's voice sounded calm, but there was an undercurrent of something I couldn't identify. Alice bent her head to her work, her hand flying across the drawing now, the shape of an emergency exit taking shape against the black wall next to the shelf with trophies.
"It looks like the place I used to spar with Clara. It was shaped just the same. And the crest is almost identical. I touched the fabric where said crest was drawn. Alice and Emmet were still staring at me
"Are you sure it's the same room?" Emmet asked, still calm
"No, not at all. I suppose most dojos look the same. Duncan used to own one too when I was growing up. Where he trained me. Layout tends to be usually the same. It's just the crest that looks familiar" I touched it, set exactly in the place I remember it.
"Would you have any reason to go there now?" Alice asked, breaking my reverie.
"I haven't been there in about 40 years." I shrugged
"So there's no way it could be connected to you?" Alice asked intently
"No, I don't think so. If I wanted to spar with Clara now, we would have to go to Belgium right now"
"Where was the dojo you used to go to?" asked Emmet in a casual voice
"It was around the corner from Clara's place. I used to sneak to her dojo instead of Duncan's to train when I was in my 'rebellious' fase. I had a crush on her and loved her fighting style. Different to Duncan's. That was before I knew she, or I for that matter, were Immortals. We used to walk there…" I said, my voice trailing off, I didn't miss the look they exchanged.
"Here or in Phoenix?" his voice was still casual
"Oh. Here. Well, Henderson. Yes, mostly the same as here, but she loved to make the distinction between Henderson and Las Vegas. Clara has a permanent resident here she refuses to sell. Unlike Duncan whenever we move" I said not understanding his tone. We all sat in silence, staring at the drawing. "Alice, is that phone safe?" I asked after a moment, when it hit me.
"Yes" she reassured me. "The number would just trace back to Washington"
"Then I can use it to call Clara"
"I thought she was in Belgium"
"As far as I know, she still is. But I wouldn't want her to come here soon, not while this tracker is on our tail" I was thinking about something they said about the tracker having listened to my last conversation with Charlie. About me going to Clara's. What if the redhead figured out at school about Clara being a friend of mine from Phoenix, as we pretended when she visited? And considering her residence here was the one she refused to sell, it was still under her name.
"How will you reach her?"
"She will pick up any incoming call she receives on her cell phone, which by the way I am glad I talked her into buying, and if she can't pick up in time, she regularly checks her voice mail now"
"Alice?" Emmet asked
She thought about it. "I don't think there's any way it could hurt. Just be sure you don't say where we are, of course"
I reached eagerly for the phone and dialed the familiar number. It rang four times, and then I heard my best friend's voice telling me to leave a message.
"Hey Clara" I said after the beep "It's me. Listen. I need you to do something. It's important. As soon as you get this message, call me at this number" Alice was already at my side, writing the number for me on the bottom of her picture. I read it carefully, twice. "Please don't go anywhere until you talk to me. I'm ok. There seems to be a price on my head though, so don't come looking for me. I do have to talk to you right away though. No matter how late or early you get this call, all right?" I closed my eyes and prayed with all my might that no unforeseen change of plans would bring her back before I talked to her.
I settled into the sofa, nibbling on a plate of leftover fruit, anticipating a long evening. I thought about calling Duncan, and Charlie, but I wasn't sure if I should yet. I concentrated on the news, watching out for anything unusual. Vampirism must grant endless patience. Neither Emmet nor Alice seemed to feel the need to do anything at all. For a while, Alice sketched the vague outline of the dark room from her vision, as much as she could see in the light from the TV, but when she was done, she simply sat looking at the blank walls with her unblinking eyes. Emmet too, oddly enough, seemed to have no urge to pace, or peek through the curtains, or run screaming out the door. Or even engage in idle conversation with me.
I must have fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for the phone to ring again. The touch of Alice's cold hands woke me briefly as she carried me to the bed, but I was unconscious again before my head hit the pillow.
A/N: Before anything else, I would like to point out that today (April 23rd) is my Birthday, so how about some gifts in the form of reviews?
Slowly but steadily reaching the point I wanted when I started with Snape McLeod…
No words are enough to apologize for the long delay, nor to express my gratitude to everyone who is still reading this…
Also, for everyone that has been here from the beginning, I am eternally grateful for that, I mean, almost 10 years since I published Chapter 1 for the first time. WOW!
So in lights of that, and that a few things from before do not match entirely anymore with what I want with the next few chapters (Chapter 33 is actually done… just needing some tweeking), I chose to go through each chapter and Revise and Edit it. So far, chapters 1 through 4 have been updated. Am planning to do 1 or 2 per month at least, until we catch up to these last two chapters. Also, already working on Chapter 34, so there is that too.