Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyer and therefore I do not own anything that has to do with her characters. I just enjoy perverting the hell out of them.

Chapter 4

"Mercedes," I said in way of greeting, staring at the old hag – and I knew that was a nasty thing to think of my ancestor, but she truly gave a bad name to necromancy... Then again, that was why I was seeking out her help.

"I was surprised to feel you reach out to me. What's this about?"

I forced myself to keep my eyes on her face, ignoring everything else. It was hardly my first time seeing an old naked person – I'd even seen her when I'd summoned her before – but there were some things I simply had no desire to look at.

"I need your help," I said softly.

"And what kind of help do you need?" She narrowed her eyes in a shrewd enough way to tell me that she probably already knew.

"My brother, my twin, has been dead for some time now. I have access to his spirit, though. The thing is, his body, the one he had when was alive, will be nothing more than bones at this point. On top of that, what's left of the body is that of a boy, and his spirit... isn't."

Her eyebrows arched practically to her receded hairline, even as her hands landed on her hips. The motion caused me to briefly glance down her withered body, seeing her wrinkly and sagging breasts, as well as the folds of shriveled skin where there used to be considerable body fat.

I barely resisted shuddering aloud as I forced my eyes back to hers.

"If his spirit is not the same age as when he died, then you've been a very naughty girl, indeed." She paused, clearly waiting on a response. But when I refused to meet her gambit, she continued, "Haven't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I barely resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest.

"Oh? But I think you do. Because if you didn't, you'd ask your parents for help. Soul attachment is dangerous and extremely dark magic." She stepped close to me.

"He's my bound other half, in every meaning of the word, I think our souls were always attached."

Mercedes didn't say anything to me for several seconds before cackling loudly – and it was a cackle, there was nothing like a laugh involved with it.

"Perhaps you're right, in the most basic of way, anyways. But it doesn't work to the depth that it would take for him to age with. That's a spirit spell. Almost no magic is darker. Of course, given you're the girl that killed your bound sibling in cold blood... Well, it's little surprise."

"That was an accident," I snarled.

"You may have convinced your parents of that – and perhaps you even believe it yourself – but you knew what you were doing. Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you knew. We both know you did."

I scowled.

Mercedes smiled – or at least gave her impression of one – and I wasn't able to stop myself from shuddering.

"So, you wish to revive him now? Realized his value, have you?"

"I love him. Of course, I want him back."

"If you love him, why'd you kill him?" she replied.

I opened my mouth to argue but then shook my head. I wasn't going to get into it with her. "Never mind. Obviously, you aren't going to help."

I raised my hand in the air to grasp enough power in my hand to make her return from whence she came, but her voice stopped me.

"Wait. You'll need a male body. But if your goal is to pass on the gene, it can't be a human body."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know your oldest human sister always finds our nature to be disturbing – how we mate with our own blood, but there's a reason we do that. We are not human. I'm sure you have suspected as much."

"I know necromancers have a mutated chromosome, if that's what you mean."

Mercedes looked at me in a way that suggested I was being dumb. "I'm talking about something that isn't quantifiable by science, foolish child. We are magical beings. And the history of necromancy dates back thousands of years, back to the days of drylic. If you want to retain his magic, continue our line, then you must find the body of something else that is magic. Humans do not have magic, though a few, like your human sister, Bree, can sense it."

"What is drylic?" I demanded. I knew the old crone had been loony, but I was starting to suspect she was crazier than I realized.

"It's magic, pure magic. Magic that was brought to this realm by others, fae and such."

"Fairies aren't real."

"Of course they are. They just don't live on this plane."

I glared at her, feeling the power that I'd used to summon her pulsing under my skin, my anger fueling my strength. It would be easy – so very easy – to use the power to rip her very soul from the ether.

And in that instant, I wanted to more than anything.

The slightest brush of energy on my shoulder made me pause long enough to take a deep breath, slowly releasing it along with the excess power running through me even as I started to realize just what I was capable of.

"Explain," I said through gritted teeth.

"As necromancers, we understand death. So you know there are seven planes for the dead. Each plane contains different spirits. And you, as powerful as you are, have access to most of those planes. It's more than I had access to in my day. But there are also seven planes of the living. One of those planes is where the drylic came from. Whether you choose to believe in fae or not, believe this, because it is absolute truth. At one point, the rifts between planes were more accessible than they are now. That brought forth the power surge which allows not only our existence but many other sentient creatures as well. Any being that already has magic running through them should be able to contain his spirit and his gift."

"And just where am I going to find a body of a magical being?"

"You could try starting with those that are from La Push. Whispers in the wind tell me one is even smitten with you. It would be only all too easy to stab the beast in the back."

"Never," I snarled the word, raising my hands in the air and then crossing them, using my rage to send Mercedes' spirit back to where I'd pulled it from.

I spun, leaving the graveyard behind.

…

Once I got back to my apartment, I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and centering myself as I drew on the magic that was already thrumming close to surface.

When I opened my eyes, Edward was in front of me.

"So that's it then," he said softly.

"What's it?" I suspected I knew what he was talking about, but I chose to play dumb.

"You heard what Mercedes said. It's going to take the body of something supernatural to put me in. Something as supernatural as you are. And even if you were willing to kill one of the La Push boys, I wouldn't let you. More than one of them has a mate already, and most that don't are children. And there aren't any other supernatural beings in this area. It's over."

"Mercedes is a crazy old hag... Not to mention dead. What's to even say she told the truth?"

"She's also our ancestor, and she knows necromancy in ways our parents don't. In ways you don't."

"That doesn't mean she knows everything. I have five other dead ancestors I can try."

"There's a reason you went to her, to begin with, and we both know it."

Several reasons, actually. The first being that she knew more about the craft than any of our other ancestors – at least of the ones I had access to. Second, because she wouldn't tattle on me to my parents even if she could. And of course, in third, she couldn't tell on me because I was the only one strong enough to pull her as her soul was stuck in purgatory rather than one of the other planes.

"She's wrong, though. I'm stronger than she thinks." I extended my hands toward him, palms out.

He looked between my hands and face in suspicion for several seconds, not making any other movement.

"Trust me," I murmured.

It took him several more seconds, but finally, he placed his hands on top of mine. I could feel him, the brush of air that made up his ghost, touching my skin. But it wasn't something most understood. It was why sensitive humans described things like cold spots and flutters. They were really feeling a ghost trying to reach out to them.

I closed my eyes, bringing more power to bear and focusing it on his skin and feeling his hands solidify above mine.

It took him a second realize what I was doing, but when he did, he gasped and his fingers suddenly wrapped around my hands.

"How... How are you doing this?"

I opened my eyes, looking at Edward in front of me. The last time I'd been able to see him whole, he'd been a child, lying dead in a ravine with his neck twisted at an angle that shouldn't have been possible – even with the broken neck.

But now, as long as I kept the power flowing, he was there, and as more than just a spirit.

Because now, I could physically see the hard planes of his skin; his defined cheekbones, his chiseled jaw, the soft golden-brown locks of his wavy hairs, toned muscles, a tapered waist, and so much more.

It was the man he would have become if he hadn't died so young.

"My power allows me to draw the matter of a spirit from one plane to this one. In the same way I am able to rip that matter apart if I so desire –" A fact that I'd only just fully realized tonight, when I'd felt the power rise up to allow me to do so as my ancestor had pissed me off "– and in that same way, I'm able to use my power to make you corporal."

"How'd you figure this out?"

I shrugged slightly, blinking away the dizziness that suddenly hit me. "It sort of came to me when I realized I could essentially destroy Mercedes with my gift. Or more specifically, when you stopped me. I mean, part of me has always known I had the capability to atomize the spirit... It was there even as a child. I know you felt it too, the darkness inside both of us. We were both always angry, using each other as punching bags so as to express a power that we didn't understand and weren't ready for."

"I definitely felt the power, that much is true. But you never hit me back. Well, not until..." Edward shook his head and smiled slightly. "It doesn't matter now. How long can you keep me corporal?"

He leaned his forehead against mine, and I closed my eyes, giving in to the exhaustion even as I wished the sensation would last forever. But I stepped back when the smoothness of his skin started to feel closer to air again.

"As long as I can keep my..." I shook my head as everything blurred slightly. "Keep my focus."

I could still feel his skin on mine, but my sight was shaky.

"Are you alright, Bella?" His voice was alarmed.

My legs gave out before I could answer, and I fell to the floor as Edward disappeared before my eyes.