I heard the puncture of her skin and the following tearing to the wound as the IV entered her delicate veins. Even with Carlisle's decades of experience, she flinched. Her emotions told me it was mostly from fear than any real discomfort. I smelled it then…
The delectable warm velvet liquid pooled from her veins into the tubes. Though not a drop was spilled, my throat was alight with excitement and anticipation. I lurched forward ever so slightly before catching myself. Carlisle raised his eyes to me as he switched out the collection viles.
I composed myself then, hand remaining on her slim shoulder. I crouched down beside her, holding my breath in any attempt to hold my urges...mine and mine alone...at bay. Her face rested in her palm as her mind raced away from the happenings almost bored.
"I know I was worried about Emmett making himself a juicy juice… do I have to worry about you too now?" She joked with a delicate laugh. I simply hung my head with a single laugh and shook it in the negative.
She moved the hand from under her chin to my face, raising my eyes to hers as she smiled brightly.
Her eyebrows pulled together suddenly as she took her turn to look down, "Promise me that whatever we find out...you won't let it get in the way of anything?" She murmured in attempt to keep our conversation private. Carlisle simply continued his practice, providing whatever mock comfort of privacy he could to her.
Did I promise that? Could I really accept that if the results told us something damning, that I could continue to stay in her life? If she were utterly human...utterly fragile. Could I stay? Could I keep her safe? I knew the answers...I simply refused to accept them blindly.
Looking into her eyes and seeing the worry and anxiety there, it ruined my resolve.
"I promise you Darlin'." I pushed with the last remaining air within my lungs, lowering my head gently into her lap, defeated once again by this tiny creature.
Rosalie growled in her position behind me just outside of the heavy door. I hadn't even realized her presence but should only have all but anticipated it.
"I think if we take anymore, I might loose what's left of the human in me." her words almost startled me as my head had been in her lap for some time, blocking out all sensory information in attempts of ignoring her siren song.
Carlisle agreed and patted her chin and sealed her arm with a watertight bandage. Certainly overkill but I could only fathom it was on my behalf. It did help I suppose.
Carlisle then began speaking in a rapid flurry too low for her to ever detect, "I will start the processing immediately and hope to have answers come sunrise. Will you both be staying with us tonight?"
"I do think that would be best," Esme chimed from elsewhere in the home "I could fix her some supper before you move off to bed. I know she has not eaten a lot in her time here with us." she scolded. It was obvious that she was not asking permission and needed no affirmative from either of us.
"Aren't I supposed to be the one that is pale and on the verge of passing out?" fell from Alice's beautiful mouth before she bounced her lap under my head. A delicious and distracting movement to say the least.
I unfroze the individual muscle fibers within my entire body one by one in the most controlled and slow process I could muster before raising my daring smirk in her direction.
Carlisle no longer waited for an answer. I could feel his impatience growing, medical curiosity at the forefront of his concerns. "I will be spending what is remaining of my time at home before work analyzing these samples. Hopefully before morning, we will know more." He issued in a surprisingly calm manner despite his internal conflicts.
With the wound no longer exposed, I dared an intake of air. It burned all the same but was no longer tinged with the lust of the hunt. I placed her jostled hair behind her ear and brought my lips to her blood-stained cheek.
"I am not even going to pretend to be surprised that you have a full-scale laboratory hiding in this castle if it's all the same to everyone." She huffed in our direction. A distractingly and dangerously cute notion really.
Carlisle issued his assurances of the equipment he possessed to accomplish the job and disappeared without an ounce of illusion hiding his inhuman capabilities.
"Guess that just leaves you and I…" she yawned, her eyes scrunching and her arms bending at her elbows and hiding the precious features of her face. Something inside of me fractured. The urge to protect the delicate and fragile creature in front of me betrayed my very nature. My muscles coiled in anticipation, urging me to reach for her, bring her to me, shield her from any possible harm the universe could pose against her. I resisted as her consciousness regained and she brought her beautiful almond shaped eyes to mine, both freezing and melting me at my core.
I heard Esme's clattering come to a ceasefire as she finished the last concoction of nutrients. It would certainly not be the most intricate delicacy, but it would keep her nourished and healthy. The only thing that I could bring myself to care about. Something that not even for Renesmee had I felt before. Her safety…yes…
"Before you make it to that fainting spell you mentioned, I do believe that Esme has prepared something of a meal for you. To replenish I suppose." I tried at ease and nonchalance as I dragged myself away from her. I could not yet bare it, I craved her closeness, her fire, her electricity. I reached for her then, each molecule alighting in the space between us as we drew nearer. I could feel the venom in my body absorbing this energy, recycling it as the burning sensation spread. It was not unbearable as I was used to…It was intoxicating…
Her body waivered as she rose. I urged myself not to overreact. To give her the time and moments that she had asked me for. To be human. It was silly, but it was undeniably attractive. I sneered at myself at the thought. How masochistic a train of consciousness…how ironic that the perfectly crafted monster delighted in this feebleness. How it, no I, wanted to pull it close to me and dance to inaudible music. To watch it twist and turn to its own clumsy rhythm. To observe each and every muscle group work awkwardly, but not so much as the others. No, that was clear now. The way that she regained herself…it was certainly not the same. She righted herself from the very precipice of a fall. How spellbinding.
Before the string of thoughts had completed, the electricity surged stronger than I had ever felt, the air sweeter than it had ever been before this moment. My hands were resting gently around her delicate waist, rounding out to her beautifully curved hips. My face was inches from hers. No matter the harsh angle I was bent at to her small stature, I was impressed by the restraint. The delicate nature by which I could barely feel her skin. Her breath saturating my lungs as I stared into her eyes. I resolved to hold on to this. To bathe myself in this capability. To recognize the autonomous decisions that had been made by my body without a single forethought.
Her voice broke me through my internalization, "Hmm, tempting." She cooed, sending yet again the thick and viscous sensation of lust about me. I held back an incontrollable roar as she turned in my hands, removing her sweet breath from my space. She did not retract from me fully for which I was undeservedly grateful.
"My thoughts exactly" I forced through tight grinning lips as I recentered my thoughts and direction. I dared not release her, the feeling assisting in my centered manner. I fell easily into stride around her, a second nature honestly. Though she was not as small or even as fragile as she once was, it was no less easy to engulf her with my sinister presence.
I lurked over her, allowing her to mostly navigate the halls on her own. A natural survivalist really, she required little redirection at the trickiest of corners.
I turned my mind to the sounds she made as she padded through the marble corridors. I fell into rhythm with her feet's lazy patterns. Mimicking as best I could the sway of her entirely all too feminine existence.
"Still not even shocked, this house is like an architects wet dream that meets dark academia." She mumbled as she threw herself into the stool at the carefully curated, yet entirely unused kitchen island. I had not even realized we'd made it to the kitchen, but I took it as my cue to remove myself from her. To put some distance between my dark nature and her light. Back to the task at hand…
"Esme thought you might feel overwhelmed by…everything…tonight so she prepared what she could and went to help Carlisle." It was the truth. I could feel Esme's overwhelming concern lingering in the kitchen long after her departure. It took all that I had not to drown in it. I distracted myself as much as inhumanly possible by attempting to discern the nature of each dish I pushed towards her. The lumpy and unappetizing shapes that I could only guess at smelled vile really. My time away from any lunch all had served against me. Even the moments we spent together in the dining facilities for breakfast were not as unbearable as this.
"She certainly didn't have to, but I do really…really appreciate it."
I could feel the relief behind her words and the truth that expelled from her in waves. Even in her most drained state, her emotions were beyond the most enveloping and relaxing of my entire existence.
I watched her face as she picked at each plate, not noticing any hint of a grimace, but no looks of utter satisfaction either. A thought crossed my mind, that I quickly dismissed regarding that look.
"I hope it is enough. We have all had some experience in cooking for Ness, but none of us ever got very good at it I'm afraid" I tried to suppress the giddiness that radiated through me, resting my chin in my palms as I examined her every motion. I leaned as close as I could without being an undesirable distance from a feeding creature. I surveyed the shallow pores on her otherwise flawless skin. I categorized the various textures of the hairs within her eyebrows, eyelashes, and hairline. Not a single hair was out of place. I could discern the makeup that she still had on, but there was hardly any. A simple shadow within the crease of her lids, a steady-handed liner dragging the already upturned corner of her eyes even further towards her temples. I huffed silently as I registered the differences between her self now and then.
Her face pulled into a sign of disbelief and confusion, but her bell laugh reassured me it was not of discontent. "It's perfect as always. I don't require much flare in simple human things. Parties, fashion, décor…yes. Feeding myself? Not so much." Still my Alice I chuckled again to myself.
I noticed the micromovements that her muscles started to make as she collected the plates; all collating towards an action most unacceptable.
Taking a note from Carlisle's nonchalant ways, I too placed no effort in hiding my natural abilities.
I made myself as a wall between her and her very thoughts that possessed her warped impressions. "Yeah, I don't think so." I toyed with her, issuing her a playful look to soften the harsh tone of my demands.
The tempting reaction she had made it difficult to ever give her her way again. It was too enthralling to say the least.
"You're never gonna get it are you?" She complained lazily as she turned the offending objects over to my possession. They were dealt with much faster than was possibly necessary, but I craved now more than ever to be with her.
A demonic thought pondered as to how this was so easy…So natural…So…different.
I turned back to her slowly now, still playing with her and her disorientation. I bent at the knees, walking in a somewhat squatted position as I sidewinded back towards her. Stalking her…letting all of my, tendencies and gifts take hold, "That, Darlin', no. This, this is chivalry. Something I'm afraid you're just gonna have to get used to." I stated in the thickest of accents I could muster. A long time away from home still left a lasting impression in the venomous memory of my neural and muscular pathways. A solidified representation of a world long since gone, an eternal promise of its influence.
She shook her head, broken curls still bouncing side to side around her heart shaped face as she yawned again. They were coming most frequently now.
"Shall I carry you upstairs Darlin'?"
All playing aside, I still cared most about her safety and well-being. A trip up a curling set of marble and glass staircases seemed not of the best intentions tonight.
She thankfully obliged as her small arms raised slowly in the air towards me.
I moved perhaps a bit too fast with eagerness as I brought her to me. Pulling her as close as I could muster while maintaining a sense of gentleness. Her warmth enveloped me, warming every inch of my cold flesh. I held her outermost extremities as tight to me as I could, tucking them into the crevices of my body, craving her more and more. Her delicate face nuzzled into the crook of my neck for yet another time that night, and I was sent back through time to each and every time she had done so. Her mouth found the area that she had marked in her past life, and she gently issued it a kiss before her consciousness was lost. Leaving her right in the spaces that I wanted her the most. Maybe there was a God, and just perhaps he had not forsaken his most damned children.
Her heart pounded roughly in her chest for a moment before it leveled out to its most silent of states. I knew then she was no longer of this world. Her emotions followed soon after in a swirl of delicious and pleasant sensations. As I cradled her firmly and moved towards the staircase, I felt it. It hit me in abundance and with such force that I had taken a step backwards and fell to my knees with her still cradled around me and in my arms tightly. It was undeniable…unmistakable…hope.