Esme [Earlier]
Esme flattened herself against the kitchen wall, glad in that moment for the stealth and stillness bestowed upon their kind. She needed neither Edward nor Jasper's gift to know that her presence was not sought in the adjoining room.
The place carried an atmosphere of mourning. Of desperation. And worse of all, acceptance. When the most experienced doctor in the world says there was nothing more to be done, people had to accept the verdict. But even as Esme stood hiding in her own home, holding her breath, she marveled at the grit the young girl showed.
Their guests cursed out vampires. All Emily did, was smile.
She cried, but even through her silent tears, she smiled. That small act, a last, desperate attempt to offer comfort to the family that stood beside her.
Esme did not intrude. She kept her eyes and ears away. Instead, she listened in to what was happening outside. The disconcerting din created by three species battling each other. Her heart felt heavy as a lead when she heard Jasper scream out at Carlisle to run. Her husband was the first one out of the clearing. The two werewolves and the three shape-shifters right on his heels. Jasper, Alice and Rosalie also bolted into the forest to bring down the pursuers. It took every bit of restraint she had not to go tearing into the forest too.
The house was undefended. Protected only by young boys wrestling massive wolves. From what she could see, Jacob and his pack had some semblance of control only because the younger wolves were already gravely injured. But as massive as these boys might be, they were restricted by their inability to use their full potential. They would not be able to fight the vampires.
Esme peered out through the window of the kitchen.
Arthur.
The man who wanted her husband dead. The man who had murdered her father-in-law in such a gruesome way and wished a similar death upon her, gentle, compassionate, Carlisle.
Carlisle, her love, who had spent the day after the battle with the newborns praying for the souls of the children they had killed. Praying for Bree's soul, the young girl they had, for a small moment, seen as a new daughter.
Arthur leaned back against the hood of the car in which he had arrived and sometimes spoke softly to the female vampire with him. Calina, he had called her. He looked far too comfortable, far too peaceful, far too at ease for a man standing in the middle of an ongoing battle. His serenity unsettled Esme. He looked like he had already won. But his victory was synonymous with Carlisle's death…
Esme put a halt to those thoughts. If staying with a telepath for eighty years had taught her anything, it was how to develop some semblance of control over her mind. She would not go into that spiral. She needed to be focused.
She looked back at the vampire. He did not look like he was about to join the battle, satisfied with the injured wolves keeping the Quileute boys occupied. From the corner of her eye, she saw a couple more boys, younger ones from Sam's pack, rush out and join the fight against the wolves.
She could have helped. She wanted to help.
But she refrained.
If she joined, Arthur, and the blonde she-vampire, Calina, hovering beside him, would also join the fight. Esme knew herself enough to know she wouldn't last against two dedicated and trained vampires.
Instead, she settled for keeping an eye on the Quileute boys outside. Limited though that they might be, the boys were powerful even in their human form. It took them a couple of tries, but once they figured out where her vampire family had injured the wolves of the third pack, they kept on hitting the same place.
The night was ripe with the pained howls. She would occasionally hear one of the boys cry out too when the younger pack managed to claw at them. But their injuries remained superficial and they healed over that quickly enough.
Esme, nonetheless, kept a sharp lookout. Her eyes darted from one boy to another, her muscles tight and ready to leap out and pull the kid inside if their injuries got severe enough.
Her senses were heightened. At least her vision and hearing was for she refrained from breathing at all. Emily had bled all over the place. It would not do her or her family any favor if Esme lost control at that moment.
Perhaps that was the reason why she spotted it when the otherwise distracted boys missed it.
Arthur did not leave his place. But Calina did.
She slinked around the clearing, darting in and out of the trees and went around the house.
Within a fraction of a second, Esme was in the living room.
"What are you doing here?" The startled Jared growled at her. "Get away!"
She ignored him, letting her ears catch the soft sound from amidst the din outside and inside the house. She spun on the spot and walked a few steps towards the back door of the house, planting herself firmly between her guests and the newer, uninvited visitor.
Calina stood at the threshold of the back door, surveying the inside. She took in a deep breath and her eyes left the damaged furnishing and instead, locked on to the group of people behind Esme.
She smiled, a brilliant white smile and almost hopped a few steps inside.
"You do have quite a buffet arranged," she spoke, and inhaled, as a human might do to exaggerate their appreciation for good-smelling food.
Esme's eyes narrowed. That could not be right.
She held no ill-will against the wolves, but with how much they had bled in her house and how much time they had spent in here, Rosalie was not exaggerating when she said the only way to get rid of the stench was to burn the place down.
There was no way the small handful of humans, also covered in wolf smell, could seem enticing or appetizing to this woman.
Was it the amount of blood pooling around Emily? Was it powering over the other smells? Esme did not risk testing that and held her breath. She did not answer the vampire either. Instead, she walked a few steps towards her. Not even half way through.
The name-calling behind her had turned to cursing and she could feel the nervous energy. The wolves were ready to turn but they held back. It was far too risky. Whether they liked it or not, they had to rely on Esme first.
And Esme? She was scared. Determined. But scared.
"Leave," she said and the vampire laughed. Before her laughter had died down even, she launched herself at the matriarch. Esme bent in a crouch and jumped too, crashing into the other woman with a deafening thunder. The momentum was in the blonde's favor, but Esme's intervention altered the trajectory enough that they crashed away from the group of humans. The floorboard shattered under the impact of their combined fall and they took down a bit of the wall too as they came to a tumbling halt just beyond the threshold of the dining room.
At least she is out of the living room, Esme thought gratefully before the woman gave an ear splitting shriek and attacked her again. This time Esme was ready and side stepped her enough to grab her from behind. Her nails dug into the woman's shoulder and she pulled her back, throwing her further into the room.
Calina was back on her feet in an instant. Esme knew better than to wait for her to attack again. Instead, she herself lunged at the woman. The vampire ducked under Esme's arm and, kicked back at the matriarch's leg.
All breath left her body and Esme crumbled to the ground. Through the sheer fabric of her tights, she could see cracks running up and down her leg. The woman bolted and Esme bit down her own cry of pain, pulling herself onto her injured leg to go after her.
She hopped, a couple of times, staggering due to the pain before she gritted her teeth and powered through.
Calina was already in the room with the humans, the Quiluete boys making a shield around the humans and the injured Leah. Emily lay amidst them. Her eyes were closed and Esme could no longer hear a heartbeat. And yet, her family stood a protective vigil over her.
One of the younger boys ran at the approaching vampire. He pulled his hand back and let it thrust forward with full force.
Unfortunately, Calina was different from the injured, inexperienced wolves outside.
Even through the din, the sound of the boy's bones cracking was audible, perhaps even to the humans behind him. Before he could even yell out, the woman grabbed him by the neck and tossed him across the room. His removal gave her the opening she needed to get past the shield the boys had created.
Esme rushed in after her.
Dead or not, she would not let her disrespect Emily that way.
But when the woman reached the humans, it was not Emily's still form she reached for. Instead, she grabbed on to Kim. With one hand firmly in the girl's hair, the vampire turned and pushed out another Quileute boy to exit the circle. Esme ducked out of the way as the huge boy sailed over her. She rushed to the corner of the room where Calina dragged Kim further away, towards the kitchen area by her hair.
Esme leapt over the kicking and thrashing girl and kicked out at the vampire's arm, shocking her into letting go of Kim. The moment Kim was free, she started scrambling away and Esme once again planted herself in the path of the vampire.
"Why are you doing this?" Calina screeched out in frustration. "We are doing everything we can to not hurt any of your children. Why are you fighting me over a human?"
Esme remained silent and took in the visibly frustrated woman.
"That girl is my singer. Let me have her and I promise none of your children will be harmed. The wolves listen to me even on the full moon." Much to her surprise, Esme heard sincerity in her voice and she stilled. Calina was telling the truth!
Could this woman really control the werewolves? She had two of them running after Carlisle instead of just going wild. Esme was skeptical but did not discard the possibility entirely. And if that was true, could she…could she really do something to protect her children? It was a barter after all.
Esme shook her head, and with that, the thought.
She was not in the crowded living room or the trashed kitchen. Instead, she was in a cemetery, watching a funeral from afar. Looking at a grieving wife and fatherless children. Crying parents. Sad friends and colleagues. A crowd of heartbroken people around a coffin. And within the coffin, a man that she had killed. It was not the first time she had slipped. But it was the first time after she had crossed her newborn months. It was the first time she found herself standing between Edward and Carlisle, watching her victim's family grieve him.
"They might not be our family, but they are someone's," Carlisle had spoken softly. And his kind, pleading words echoed even in the battle-ridden house she stood in.
They did not trade lives.
"No," she answered.
But her refusal came a second too late. Her hesitance was the last straw for the wolf behind her. With a profanity filled angry snarl, Jared phased and launched himself at the vampire. Esme was thrown to the side and the other two crashed through the kitchen wall.
"Jared no!" she screamed out. Her terror was mirrored by his brothers behind him, all yelling at him to phase back.
Esme scrambled up and rushed to the two of them. Calina was on the ground, Jared's massive form looming over her, filling almost a quarter of the kitchen. She was certain the wolf was about to rip the woman's head off.
But save for his heavy breathing, Jared was still.
Esme walked along the wall, circling the two combatants and coming to a halt near the woman's head. She was looking up, wide-eyed and terrified.
"Jared?" Kim called out from the other room.
The wolf heard her and still made no move, to attack or to retreat.
Slowly, Calina's features eased. Her lips broke into a smile and she pushed herself back on the ground, scrambling from under the wolf. Jared stood, with his teeth bared. The stance gave chills to Esme. She had seen the hatred filled, predatory look on the wolves before. It was usually accompanied by angry snarling or growling or rumbling.
Jared, however, stood silent. Unnaturally so.
She took a single step closer to him. "Jared?"
And Jared's eyes snapped up to her. The snarling returned and once again, Esme found herself, locked in terror before the massive wolf.
He ignored the blonde vampire standing to the side and looking at the specter. Instead, launched himself at her.
Esme rushed to the side, out of his way. She knew herself and the wolves better than to engage in a head-on fight with one. She glanced quickly all around her. The humans were huddled together. The front and the backyard were in mayhem with the boys fighting the third pack. She could not rush the humans upstairs either. That would endanger Renesmee.
If she fought Jared, the woman would have a free pass at Kim. If she went after the woman…well Jared would still attack her.
Her mind was running a mile a minute and she was still grappling for options. She fought off the despair that threatened to overcome her and instead, fixed her eyes on the vampire.
One problem at a time.
The woman was already turning towards the living room. The moment she turned her back, Esme attacked. She sailed over a table and landed on Calina's back, looping her forearm under her neck while her knees found footing over her shoulder and back. She pushed her knees into her back and pulled upwards with her arms. A few cracks appeared on the woman's back but her neck held.
Calina dug her nails into Esme's arm, trying to pull it away and spun. Esme pressed herself closer still, clinging on to her despite getting disbalanced by the movement. Her arm almost ached with the force with which she was pulling the neck upwards. But the woman had managed to get her fingers in between and that gave her the protection she needed from getting decapitated. Somewhere behind her, Jared growled.
She felt the heaviness in the air. She knew he was about to attack her back. She could feel the warmth of his open mouth approaching her.
Her knees pressed harder into the back, propelling the woman to spin around further so that she would be in between her and Jared.
But the impact, the pain that she expected never reached her. Jared did bound in her direction but halfway through, he was tackled down by another wolf. The two wolves snapped at each other and the humans cried out a chorus of "Paul don't."
"What are you all doing!" Esme shrieked out too.
It would only be moments before Paul also fell into the werewolf mind control. She could barely fight off one vampire, these people, with their recklessness were just adding on to the number of people she would have to fight!
But the time of coherence that Paul did have, he used that to drive Jared further away from Esme and her current opponent. Her frustrations, however, was all that the woman needed. She jerked, making Esme lose her footing. Esme still kept a tight grasp over the neck though.
The house was filled with thunderclap when the woman drove her elbow back, catching Esme right in her ribs. Esme's sides smarted with pain but she did not let go of her chokehold over the neck. This grip, she would not be able to get again.
Calina reeled backwards and slammed Esme into the counter.
Half-heated food flew everywhere and the marble and everything built within the counter shattered under the impact. Almost involuntarily, Esme inhaled. Her senses were assaulted by the pungent, sulfur smell. She stopped her breathing mid-inhale.
The shattered LPG cylinder her family used for occasional cooking filled the surrounding air and provided a momentary shield from the smell of blood she knew lingered in the air.
Calina jabbed back again, at the same time that she really dug hard into Esme's arm. The combined pain and the momentary distraction of the breath gave the opening the other woman needed to pull Esme's arm away from around her neck.
She cackled with glee, pushing herself off the matriarch. In a moment of frustration, Esme's hand gripped Calina's leg and she pulled, hard. Calina's effort to get away from Esme added to the force and with a strangely satisfying crack, the vampire was thrown back. Her broken off foot remained in Esme's grasp.
A small victory, but Esme was happy to take it. She jumped up to her feet and tossed the foot aside. Calina stood wobbling and enraged beyond anything she had ever seen.
"Kill them!" she yelled out. "Kill them all!"
She staggered back and the house fell silent. The front and the backyards fell silent too. The abruptness of it all left Esme reeling. She could still hear some people fighting, but it was so far away, Esme doubted they would have heard the vampire yell.
A roar sounded through the night and one of the werewolves broke through the tree line of their front yard. Esme looked at the entire spectacle from the corner of her eyes. All her other senses remained trained on the woman sobbing in frustration and the two wolves facing each other off.
The werewolf bounded across, swatting away Quiluete boys like mosquitoes. In a span of mere seconds, Esme heard more than half a dozen bones breaking. The massive werewolf grabbed onto one specific wolf from the third pack and with a snarl, bit down into him. The wolf cried out in pain, thrashing in the predator's grip. But that agony lasted for only a few moments.
When the werewolf dropped the young pup to the ground with a thud, it shook itself and after a couple of attempts, stood upright.
While Esme had noted this particular wolf limping earlier, now it stood on all four legs. And when it raised itself to its full height, Esme swore on everything holy that it was larger. Much, much larger. Vampire memories were impeccable, but she could not help but doubt it. Right before her eyes she had seen a relatively tiny wolf turn into a wilder, angrier, larger creature.
A less humanoid, more animalistic form of its sire.
"At least we clean up after ourselves."
Esme spun around when the woman spoke. Far, far too smug. The confusion must have been evident on her face.
"You all know pathetic little about Children of the Moon. A werewolf, when it bites a wild wolf, turns it into an animal form of itself. Stronger, faster, and entirely at its sire's bidding. If the wild wolf is the alpha, the entire pack turns with it."
Calina supported herself against the sink counter, hopping a few steps till her hands could reach Jared's fur. She made a repulsed face at the smell but leaned heavily into Jared who stepped back a few steps to better offer her support.
She stroked the side of his neck, too short to reach his head. "Too bad they die at the end of the night though."
Esme's dead heart almost started beating, and her face throbbed.
"The pack…" Esme's breathed out.
"Will die tonight," she smiled. After a second of pause, she added in a much chirpier tone. "Don't worry, none of you will live to see it. If Arthur complains too much about unnecessary deaths, I'll have him shredded too. He'll consider it a favor anyway."
Paul paced the room, his eyes fixed on the woman and Jared too as he stepped closer to Esme.
The matriarch recoiled away. A wary hiss passed her teeth.
Paul turned to her, only momentarily and Esme stood back up straight in surprise. He shook his head and came to a halt right beside Esme. His eyes…they were still aware. He was still free from the werewolf's control.
"How?" she breathed out, not really expecting an answer. But it was offered nonetheless.
"He joined Jacob's pack," Embry spoke, for her perhaps, but he was looking at Leah, his eyes wide with hope.
Esme looked at Paul. And then at the wolves outside. The younger pack was up on its feet. The werewolf was fighting Jasper and Rosalie.
Esme was no fighter but she could look at the third pack and tell: they were something far beyond inexperienced pups. They would not be held down by broken bones or human boys.
The fight outside had stilled. The werewolf had been pushed back into the forest and her children disappeared with them.
Jacob was looking in the direction of the house. Through the glass windows, his eyes met someone from the living room.
That was their cue.
The third pack attacked.
And Jacob's pack retaliated. The boys ran, and mid air, shifted into their wolves form. The din went from none to deafening in an instant. All members of Jacob's pack except Jacob himself shifted. Leah and Embry, injured that they were, phased too.
Just as the fight restarted outside, it did in the house too.
Esme's head snapped back to her opponents the moment Jared jumped at her. Paul once again tackled him away and the wall partially separating the kitchen and the dining room gave way in its entirety.
They tumbled further away, Paul and another one of the injured wolves directing him outside, away from the vampire and the humans alike.
Leah and Embry looked over their shoulder.
"I got her," Esme snarled her reassurance and turned to glare at the woman before her, leaving Leah and Embry to provide their help outside.
The backyard was loud. Much more so than it had been earlier. The fight earlier had been in their favor. Now it was matched if not tilted against them.
The matriarch looked at the woman who had spelled an essential death sentence on so many innocent kids today and with a rage she hadn't felt since her last human moments perhaps, she attacked.
She thought back to the dulled grief of losing her child. It had been enough to drive her off a cliff. How many mothers would feel that tomorrow morning? How many were already feeling that?
Would Esme herself be one such mother?
She growled as she jumped out at Calina. The woman was fast but held back by her missing foot. And that was all the opportunity Esme needed. She slammed the woman's head against the counter she had used for support and pulled her back up by her hair. Her nose and part of her mouth was smashed.
With a resounding and satisfying thunder, Esme kicked out at Calina's other leg, breaking this one off from mid thigh. Her screams were feeble, if she managed to get out any. Esme gave her little chance to do so.
Each injury turned the tide in Esme's favor. She would not have won against this woman if her foot had not come off earlier. But that tiny victory started the domino of victories.
Esme once again smashed her face against the remaining part of the first counter. More food packets fell down and a metal clattered.
Esme's eyes widened and she jumped back. As far back as she could without relinquishing her grip on Calina's hair. They crashed back into the living room, far too close to the humans than Esme would have preferred but she was not nitpicking. Calina with a missing foot and a missing leg was not going anywhere.
Instead, Esme stared in alarm at the clattering objects.
The kitchen lighter fell from the counter top, and almost as if in slow motion tumbled down. Esme watched it, knowing that if she did not have Calina in her grip in that moment, she could have easily run ahead and caught it before it hit the ground.
But she couldn't, so all she could do was watch as it did hit the ground. The clicker impacted against the hard ground and pressed halfway in.
And then, the blast.
Esme staggered back a step or two when the small spark created by the dropping lighter ignited the flammable gas that had already settled near the floor of the room. The fire roared upwards once, almost touching the ceiling and her heart lurched with it.
Renesmee!
But to her feeble relief, it lowered just as quickly, the fire instead spreading over the floor.
Her eyes roved all over the house and outside and Esme found herself in the same dilemma once again.
The fight outside was far too intense for the humans to survive. She did see Alice try to rush towards the house but she was tackled down by a wolf. The backyard was a similar story. Over her shoulders, she could see it was now just the humans in the room now. All wolves, phased or human, had rushed out into the fight.
The fire would spread and engulf the house. Soon!
She had to do something.
Minutes. That's all she had. She looked at the fire raging before her, engulfing the house she had so lovingly built for her family in its blazing glory.
She had to put out the fire. That was the only thing to do.
Minutes. If that's all she had, she would use it well.
With an enraged strength, she pulled up Calina by her hair, the vampire thrashing and kicking, just as Kim had in her grip not too long ago. The irony was not lost on either of the vampires in the room. But Esme had lived with far too noble a man to find joy in it. Killing might be necessary. But Esme would not betray Carlisle by smiling when she did it.
So, with eyes as dead as her heart, Esme hurled the vampire into the flames.
The fire erupted at the fodder it received and Esme turned away.
The time it would take her to get the fire extinguisher would be enough for the fire to devour its victim.
She looked for a second at the relieved, almost smiling face of the four human women before her. Three alive, one dead.
That was one too many dead. And that was the sickest thing of it all. Esme could spend eternity watching the vampire behind her burn. But it would not bring the poor child, the vivacious young woman back to life.
She looked away from her, and took in a deep breath. The blood overpowered her sense of smell and yet, she felt not an ounce of bloodlust. This was a woman before her. Not a meal.
When she looked back up at the humans, ready to bolt into the storage cabinet and back with the extinguisher, she frowned.
The relief, the smile was gone. Eyes widened, mouth agape, she once again saw it all in slow motion.
Their warning came a little too late.
Hands of fire pulled her back into a deadly embrace.
"You are dying with me, bitch," the fire whispered its deep, hoarse promise and Esme tumbled backwards.
The burning body of Calina was not mobile enough to escape the fire. But it was certainly strong enough to hold Esme down. She wrapped her burning arms around both of her, crossing over her chest so Esme's arms remained pinned to her side.
Esme tried to push out with her legs but the woman wrapped her good leg around Esme's.
Esme screamed. Loud.
Perhaps it was the loudest sound that had been created in the continuous cacophony of their day. Every molecule of air, every ounce of energy, every drop of venom, all molded to create the verbal protest against the agonizing burn she felt.
Thirst was not burn. The scratches and injuries she had received during the fight was not burn. Hell, even the pain of transformation was not burn.
They had used the term far too liberally.
Nothing compared to the scorching licks of the flame.
She scratched against the burning floor and before her very eyes, her fingers turned to ashes, each centimeter of skin that scorched, set every nerve in her being ablaze. Her instincts told her to run, to fight, to do anything to put the fire out. And she struggled, as hard as she could.
Esme Anne Platt Evenson chose to die.
Esme Anne Cullen fought to live.
She truly did.
Everything Esme Evenson had desired -a loving husband, happy, healthy children, a large family, loyal friends- Esme Cullen had.
Her death had given her this life. And now, death caressed her with its perverse touch once again.
Her hands burned. She thought of her children, the weeping Rosalie and distraught Emmet that she had held in her arms when, one by one, their mothers passed. Children once again left without a mother.
The fire gripped her legs and hips in its vice grip, burning away, first clothes and then flesh. She thought of her husband. Time was their kind's companion. But it was not their friend. It would not ease any wounds her demise left on her compassionate husband. He would suffer. Oh he would suffer for eternity. And she prayed, with all her might, that just like he had found an unheard solution, a miracle for their humane sustenance, he would find a way to live, and to love again.
The lethal licks of the flames traveled up to engulf her torso. The fiery noose from the floor silenced her scream, cutting it off as it torched her throat.
Her vision filled with purple smoke. And in the darkness, she found gold.
The gold of her husband's eyes, the evidence of his humanity. She saw those eyes when her own burnt scarlet. It was the first thing she saw in this life. The reassurance when he explained this life to her. The awkwardness when the two spent her first year with them dancing around their feelings for each other. The playfulness when Edward, bless his kind but frustrated soul, pushed them both towards each other and the politeness of their conversations turned into flirting. The gratification whenever they made love. The childish joy every time he opened a new journal to write in. The wonder when he saw the advancement of the medical field. The compassion when he treated his patients.
In those golden eyes, Esme saw all that was good in the world. All that humanity needed to be human.
And if those eyes were the last thing she saw while her face melted away and her body turned to ash and nothing remained of her but thick purple smoke, she would manage to find the contentment in her death.
Esme fought against the agony. She would not spend her feeble consciousness on the fire. No, she would spend it remembering those sure eyes, that kind face, those miraculous hands.
Someone called to her. She could no longer hear anything. The roar of the fire had been the last thing her ears had heard before they were consumed away.
But someone did call to her. She could hear it. With her heart and mind, if not with her ears.
She opened her eyes.
The smoke was thick, but she fought. Oh she fought so much when giving in would have been so much easier!
But she could not deny that voice. She had to see!
She used whatever muscle, whatever body she still had remaining to move her eyes, to find a sliver of light through the smoke.
After what felt like agonizing hours, she found it. A fleeting gap, that disappeared as instantly as it formed. But it showed her what she sought.
The face the voice belonged to.
Her Carlisle, her husband, rushing towards her.
His eyes terrified, his face disconsolate and his hands, far, far too late.
A/N:
So that happened...
Some of you have asked really interesting questions in the reviews and DMs about what is happening. And I had been trying to incorporate all of the information into the story. But I guess people fighting for their life usually don't worry about details all that much. I do have an explanatory chapter coming up where I will try to explain the going-ons a little. Meanwhile, if you all have any question, do ask. I will answer that, either within the story, or as a separate A/N at the end of the story.
This is the chapter I was debating the POV over. Esme's or Paul's and I almost went with the latter because it would explain the werewolf thing so much better. But the truth is, that was not the subject of the chapter and Paul is not someone who gives two shit about what happens to Esme. So, yeah, as per the majority vote, Esme it was!
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. It does better for the pace than the last two chapters and we are back into the main fight! Next up, we get back into our favorite doctor's mind!
Like always, do share your thoughts!
-ZQ