A/N: This is mid-Eclipse through the end of Breaking Dawn from Edward's perspective. These characters are not mine and all belong to Stephenie Meyer. This is her story and much of her dialogue wrapped in my interpretation of Edward's narration.
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Edward and Bella are now reunited in Volterra - check out Vol. 1 if you haven't yet!
Cousins (Breaking Dawn)
Everything the night had suppressed rushed upon me now like snaking vines wrapping themselves around my organs. Compressing, suffocating.
The stakes were too high.
I joined Bella in the closet, dressing quickly alongside her.
"I wish there was a way to get the information we need from Eleazar before we tell them about Nessie," I muttered, pulling on a pair of dark jeans. "Just in case."
"But he wouldn't understand the question to answer it," Bella sighed.
Without thinking, I began buttoning the back of the mauve dress Bella had just slipped on. She didn't need the help, but she didn't stop me. When I'd finished she leaned back against me for a moment, sighing. "Do you think they'll let us explain?"
"I don't know," I whispered.
While Bella pulled Nessie from bed, I grabbed a dress for her to change into when she woke - orange, her favorite color. She would need the comfort today.
Bella held Nessie close inhaling the little one's scent. I longed to do the same, to have my arms around them both. But the idea only reminded me what I was fighting for and how important it was that I got it right. I needed to focus.
I hurried to the front door, holding it open for Bella.
"Edward," Bella said tentatively.
My eyes were sharp on her face, wondering at her tone. Would she reveal something? Something about Alice? Something about the future? There was a defensiveness about her that set me further on edge.
"Will you teach me how to fight?"
I froze, surprised by her question.
My first impulse was to try to fit this in with her strange behavior, with whatever message Alice may have left her. While I really had no idea what kind of assignment, if any, Alice had given Bella, I never expected it would have anything to do with fighting.
My second thought was of the night that had just passed. Bella had been absolutely ferocious. I should have been black and blue with bruises. And I hadn't exactly been easy on her either...
It wasn't often anymore that I thought of her as breakable. But now that she was forcing me to... My gaze swept over her as I tried to assess her in the same way I would an unknown vampire, a potential threat.
She'd gained curvature in transformation, but only minimal muscle mass. Of course, her ruby eyes would alert any stranger not to underestimate her strength, but she was still so small. The top of her head barely cleared my shoulder and anyone could get their arms around her.
Her youth would signal instantly that she was the weakest link.
On top of that, I knew she would not tolerate being apart from Nessie. Anyone going for Nessie would have to go through Bella - Bella would be sure of that. Carrying Nessie, Bella would be even further disadvantaged in an already hopeless fight.
I wasn't about to dump my grim analysis on her, though. "If it comes to a fight, there won't be much any of us can do."
Calmly she asked, "Would you leave me unable to defend myself?"
I grimaced. Bella had no idea how deeply that cut - I knew that was not her intention - but she'd managed to find just the right nerve because I had done that once. Left her unable to defend herself in the face of Laurent and Victoria.
And maybe I would be leaving her again. Permanently - this time against my will. I really couldn't teach her enough to enable her to defend herself for long, but I supposed if I could give her some comfort, some sense of control...
I followed Bella's gaze to my hand on the doorknob. The entire door was shuddering under my unchecked tension. I released it, nodding. "When you put it that way... I suppose we should get to work as soon as we can."
She nodded and her body relaxed slightly as we headed slowly towards the main house.
"What would you say their biggest advantage is?" Bella asked, an eager student now. "Do they even have a weakness?"
"Alec and Jane are their greatest offense." My nerves throbbed with the ghost of Jane's assault. "Their defensive players rarely see any real action."
"Because Jane can burn you where you stand - mentally at least." She mumbled the words quickly to herself, recalling the information from her dim human memories. "What does Alec do? Didn't you once say he was even more dangerous than Jane?"
"Yes." I smiled cynically. "In a way, he is the antidote to Jane. She makes you feel the worst pain imaginable. Alec, on the other hand, makes you feel nothing. Absolutely nothing." Carlisle had experienced Alec's gift once. Like Aro, he'd been curious. "Sometimes, when the Volturi are felling kind they have Alec anesthetize someone before he is executed. If he has surrendered or pleased them in some other way."
"Anesthetic?" She frowned. "But how is that more dangerous than Jane?"
"Because he cuts off your senses altogether. No pain, but also no sight or sound or smell. Total sensory deprivation." My voice was dead. These were the kinds of horrors I wanted to protect Bella from, but there was no hiding now. I didn't know what Alice had tasked her with - she needed to know as much as possible. "You are utterly alone in the blackness. You don't even feel it when they burn you."
Bella shuddered, clutching Nessie closer.
"That would make him only equally as dangerous as Jane, in that they both can incapacitate you, make you into a helpless target. The difference between them is like the difference between Aro and me." Venom creeped into my otherwise detached voice as I said his name. "Aro hears the mind of only one person at a time. Jane can only hurt the one object of her focus. I can hear everyone at the same time."
Bella's face fell into a cold mask. "And Alec can incapacitate us all at the same time?" she asked.
"Yes. If he uses his gift against us, we will all stand blind and deaf until they get around to killing us - maybe they'll simply burn us without bothering to tear us apart first."
None of us would even know at which point we were burning if they went that route. None of us except me. My gift would allow me to watch every single person I loved die. Though, they'd probably try to take me out first for that reason. I could find my way through space, seeing myself in my enemies' thoughts. And I would. If it came to it - the end. I would do what I could for Alice.
And fucking Aro would know it. Great.
Flat, bitter, I explained just how futile learning to fight would be. "Oh, we could try to fight, but we'll be more likely to hurt one another than we would be to hurt one of them."
She was quiet and I wondered if I'd convinced her. I hated to be harsh, but if it meant we could avoid all of this fighting instruction nonsense, that was for the best.
"Do you think Alec is a very good fighter?" she finally asked. "Aside from what he can do, I mean. If he had to fight without his gift. I wonder if he's ever even tried..."
Fight without his gift...? Oh.
Bella would watch right along with me as we were all destroyed. Unlike me, she would feel it, too. From her tone, it was obvious she viewed that fact differently than I did. And she wanted to know if he was a good fighter...
I glared at her. "What are you thinking?"
She escaped my gaze, looking straight ahead. "Well, he probably can't do that to me, can he? If what he does is like Aro and Jane and you. Maybe... if he's never really had to defend himself... and I learned a few tricks - "
"He's been with the Volturi for centuries," I interjected, my entire body taut with tension. "Yes, you're surely immune to his power, but you are still a newborn, Bella. I can't make you that strong a fighter in a few weeks. I'm sure he's had training."
In truth, I wasn't sure of that at all. Both he and Jane conducted themselves with a certain confidence that made me unsure if they ever would subject themselves to a student-type role. But that didn't matter. Even if he had no skill, something that was quite unlikely, they would have the muscle on her a second.
"Maybe, maybe not," she said stubbornly. "It's the one thing I can do that no one else can. Even if I can just distract him for a while - "
"Please, Bella," I snapped. "Let's not talk about this." I didn't want that in her head. I didn't want it in mine, either. Her futile plan laid out for Aro, putting an even larger target on her.
"Be reasonable," she objected angrily.
"I will try to teach you what I can, but please don't make me think about you sacrificing yourself as a diversion..." My throat closed up under my anxiety, choking off my rapid speech.
It was just like her. It was so Bella, Jacob would have said. There was no Alice in this hideous plan Bella had brewing. None at all. Was I allowed to tell her to just focus on Alice's instructions? Could she know that I knew... that I didn't know...?
Bella nodded, her face blank, and I knew that wouldn't be the end of it. I needed Alice. I needed her watching Bella, warning me when she was about to go off the rails.
I was relieved to hear Jake's thoughts where he paced by the river. Suddenly I felt anxious to get a moment alone with him, to tell him what she was up to... the part I knew at least. But the compulsion felt misguided. He wasn't a stand-in for Alice, for one. But also, Bella was my wife. It felt... immature at best to go tattle on her to her best friend. Even if my intentions were to keep her safe.
"I have to learn everything." Bella sounded so sure, as if I'd just given a whole-hearted endorsement of her intentions. "As much as you can possibly cram into my head in the next month."
It occurred to me then that I'd married Emmett.
My thoughts brought forth decades of Rosalie's. The hopelessness and frustration she so often felt over his bullheadedness and weak grasp on reality.
I didn't react to Bella's declaration. I wasn't going to engage. She knew my opinion and the more opposition I gave, the more she would dig her heels in.
Maybe I did need to speak to Jacob...
Her silence was not quiet. I could almost hear it. The determined scenarios and strategies she was weaving. Her life a mere tool.
"Demetri..." Bella murmured after a minute.
"Demetri is mine," I asserted firmly, my vision going red.
She studied me with raised eyebrows. "Why?"
Alice.
My faith was still hers. She was too brave... she loved this family too much to abandon it. And she was selfless enough that she would allow us to assume her disloyal if it saved... some of us. All of us.
Quite likely she saw that the future bifurcated if she was present. She would have to die or become Aro's pet. I was not offended that she would choose life over those two options. She was practical enough that if she could see her and Jasper's presence would not help our fate, it was better to keep away. To live on.
I wanted that for her. She was so much more than a sister. She was my best friend. A part of me the way Jacob was still a part of Bella. I'd felt so lonely in this life before she joined our family.
I wouldn't let Demetri keep them always on the run. I wouldn't risk him one day finding a way to catch up with her or Jasper. They deserved peace.
Not to mention, I owed her.
"For Alice," I said when I could find my voice. It hurt so much to think of her. "It's the only thanks I can give her now for the last fifty years."
Bella took a deep breath and sighed softly.
On the other side of the river, Jacob hurtled up to us. I was surprised he'd respected the boundary with things as they were.
After carefully looking over Nessie's face for any sign of distress, Jake scrutinized Bella and I. He read our stress.
Anything new? Nothing new over here. We've been keeping up patrols. You know, just in case. Keeping a pretty wide perimeter...
He rambled on, a ball of nerves, hardly noticing I'd ignored his question. I tried to tune him out as his fears compounded my own.
Bella nodded to him absently in greeting before turning back to me. "Edward, why do you think Alice told us to ask Eleazar about the Volturi? Has he been in Italy recently or something. What could he know?"
My stomach twisted uncomfortably. What if I went about this all wrong? Closed them off before Eleazar even said a word...
I tried to shuffle the pessimistic Edward shouting in my head to the side. He never did me much good.
"Eleazar knows everything when it comes to the Volturi. I forgot you didn't know. He used to be one of them."
Bella hissed.
You're kidding, Jacob growled, a whole new level of agitated now.
Oh good. Yes, let's welcome in the spy... Leah mocked, eavesdropping on Jacob's thoughts where she ran miles away.
I smiled a little. How different Bella's upbringing was from the rest of ours. With few exceptions, the Volturi were well regarded or at least viewed fairly neutrally.
We'd made a rebel of her. How shocking.
But she had it wrong on this point, at least.
"Eleazar is a very gentle person," I assured them. "He wasn't entirely happy with the Volturi, but he respected the law and its need to be upheld. He felt he was working toward the greater good. He doesn't regret his time with them. But when he found Carmen, he found his place in this world. They are very similar people, both very compassionate for vampires..."
What? Jake asked dryly. Do they plant a tree for every deer they drain?
"They met Tanya and her sisters, and they never looked back. They are well suited to this lifestyle. If they'd never found Tanya, I imagine they would have eventually discovered a way to live without human blood on their own.
He was one of their... warriors?
"No." I worded my answer to Jake's question so Bella would not be confused. "He wasn't one of their warriors, so to speak. He had a gift they found convenient."
Meaning he's good at math? Jacob pressed, sarcastic again in his impatience.
"He has an instinctive feel for the gifts of others - the extra abilities that some vampires have. He could give Aro a general idea of what any given vampire was capable of just by being in proximity with him or her." I wondered passively if he might be able to settle whether Bella's self-control was due to preparation or a true gift.
"This was helpful when the Volturi went into battle," I continued. "He could warn them if someone in the opposing coven had a skill that might give them some trouble. That was rare; it takes quite a skill to even inconvenience the Volturi for a moment. More often, the warning would give Aro the chance to save someone who might be useful to him. Eleazar's gift works even with humans, to an extent. He has to really concentrate with humans, though, because the latent ability is so nebulous.
"Aro would have him test the people who wanted to join, to see if they had any potential. Aro was sorry to see him go." I remembered his disappointment in the spring when he'd seen how happy and settled Eleazar was in his post-Volturi life. Up until that point, he'd always assumed Eleazar would willingly return to him.
"They let him go?" Bella demanded, incredulous. "Just like that?"
My answering smile was grim. "The Volturi aren't supposed to be the villains, the way they seem to you," I explained. "They are the foundation of our peace and civilization," I said in a robotic, rehearsed manner. "Each member of the guard chooses to serve them. It's quite prestigious; they all are proud to be there, not forced to be there."
Bella's red eyes glared so fiercely at the ground I was surprised the blades of grass did not burst into flame.
My tone dripped with bitter amusement. "They're only alleged to be heinous and evil by the criminals, Bella."
I hope you have a better script for your friends coming today, Jacob complained. Jeez, snap out of it.
"We're not criminals," Bella stated defiantly.
Jacob huffed. What she said.
"They don't know that," I answered tonelessly.
"Do you really think we can make them stop and listen?" Bella asked quietly.
I glanced swiftly at her face, looking for any sign of deception. I guess this seemed like the kind of thing she might know. The type of information Alice might put in a note for her... But Bella's face looked only soft and vulnerable.
"If we find enough friends to stand beside us," I answered a beat too late. "Maybe."
Bella increased her pace and I joined her until we were both running.
Jacob trailed us. Did I miss something? Are they here?
"Tanya shouldn't be too much longer," I told him. "We need to be ready."
Nessie woke to our frenzied arranging and rearranging. Bella dressed her and, in the end, the three of them ended up situated at the table just out of view of the front door with Jacob in his human form. All four of his pack mates were near, prowling the woods, listening for any sign of trouble.
I leaned against the window wall beside them, my mind searching outward for any sign of our approaching guests.
It would have been quiet if not for Jacob's anxious, shouting thoughts. Nessie's wariness was quieter. She'd asked me what Tanya's family looked like and imagined now the vague figures entering her tiny world.
"What if they don't like me?" she whispered as the thought occurred to her.
Jacob started to reassure her, but Bella quickly interrupted him with a sharp look. I was glad she did - Bella always knew the right thing to say.
"They don't understand you, Renesmee, because they've never met anyone like you." She shifted Nessie in her lap so she could see her face better. "Getting them to understand is the problem."
Of course Bella would understand our challenge better than anyone. I felt a pang of guilt remembering her pleading at that very table for us to spare her child.
Nessie sighed, showing Bella all of her family - vampires, humans, wolves...
I don't belong... she thought only to herself, but Bella understood.
"You're special," Bella told her firmly. "That's not a bad thing."
Jacob nodded emphatically, though Nessie didn't see.
Special.
She'd always known she was special and once she'd celebrated that fact. But now...
Bella watched Nessie's replay of our pinched faces.
"This is my fault," Nessie whispered.
"No." The word was almost a groan as it left my lips because this was something new in her, but also something painfully familiar. Her father's daughter...
Bella and Jacob did not hear the desperation in my voice, both objecting to her statement in time with me. We could offer her no more comfort, hearing tires turn off the highway.
I darted to wait at the door. Nessie hid beneath Bella's hair, still ruminating on her false realization. Jacob and Bella stared at one another and I was grateful he had eyes on the two threads of my life. I could not forget the stakes for one moment.
All too soon my cousins were down the winding drive and throwing open the car doors. They were on the porch steps when I opened the front door, stepping into the doorway.
"Edward!" Tanya cried, delighted. She very politely resisted the urge to drop her eyes lower than my chin.
"Hello, Tanya," I said, forcing a small smile. "Kate, Eleazar, Carmen."
They read my mood and their responding greetings were muted in response. Eleazar instinctively scanned the woods while Kate's hands tensed into fists.
Lines puckered Tanya's brow. "Carlisle said he needed to talk to us right away. What's the problem? Trouble with the werewolves?" She thought of the tense standoff she'd overheard at the wedding, of Laurent.
Jacob held back a snort. The werewolves weren't the ones who bailed in the spring...
"No," I said curtly, very tired of their prejudice and repulsed by the warm way she remembered Laurent. "Our truce with the werewolves is stronger than ever."
Kate smirked. My family's pledge of loyalty to the wolves was nearly as amusing to Kate as if we had pledged our loyalty to a herd of deer.
I rolled my eyes and and she chuckled.
Tanya's eyes danced quickly between Kate and I, uncomfortable with the tension, before taking another step forward. She smiled tentatively. "Aren't you going to invite us in? Where's Carlisle?"
I braced myself for their reaction. I knew, though we were all family, that their bond with Carlisle was greatest.
"Carlisle had to leave."
Eleazar and Kate eyed me suspiciously, wondering if family discord had been the source of Carlisle's vague and urgent invitation.
Carmen and Tanya's thoughts were more generous, assuming I was distressed for the same reason as Carlisle, but they were just as alarmed.
Tanya's eyes bored into mine. "What's going on, Edward?"
"If you could give me the benefit of the doubt for just a few minutes..." I met each of their eyes, an earnest plea in mine. "I have something difficult to explain, and I'll need you to be open-minded until you understand."
What did we just walk into? Kate was scowling now.
"Is Carlisle all right?" Eleazar demanded.
"None of us is all right, Eleazar," I said, carefully grouping myself in with Carlisle.
Carmen, feeling the pain she could see on my face, stepped closer to pat me on the shoulder.
"But physically," I continued, hearing their anxiety, "Carlisle is fine." For now.
Tell us, what is disturbing you. Carmen's hand was still on my shoulder.
"Physically?" Tanya asked tensely. "What do you mean?" The others... Esme? Are they all okay? It was not hard for Tanya to think of another sort of pain. She lived with hers daily.
"I mean that my entire family is in grave danger," I clarified. "But before I explain, I ask for your promise. Listen to everything I say before you react. I am begging you to hear me out." I fought to keep the hysteria out of my voice.
Carmen watched me, waiting. This was not a hard ask for her.
The other three met each others' eyes warily.
Well, I have a horrible feeling about this, Kate thought, glum but resigned.
Eleazar stared at the back of Carmen's head, worried. The uncertainty set him on edge.
Tanya was uncomfortable, too, but as soon as she observed Kate and Eleazar's reluctant nods, she turned back to me, determined to heal the tension between our two families. "We're listening. We will hear it all before we judge."
"Thank you, Tanya," I exhaled. "We wouldn't involve you in this if we had any other choice." I stepped back into the house, pushing the door open wide, and gestured for them to join me.
My words did nothing to comfort them.
With wrinkled noses they filed into the house.
"I knew those werewolves were involved," Tanya griped, recognizing the scent from the wedding.
"Yes, and they're on our side." I raised my eyebrows, inclining my head pointedly. "Again."
Tanya pursed her lips. Sorry it's just so... strange. And Irina... she thought sympathetically of her grieving sister.
"Where's your Bella?" Carmen asked. "How is she?"
They weren't unaware that most of the complications our family had encountered over the last two years centered around Bella.
"She'll join us shortly," I assured them, closing off some of their grimmest predictions. "She's well, thank you. She's taken to immortality with amazing finesse."
Tanya pitied me, seeing the grief and panic tugging at my composure. "Tell us about the danger, Edward," she encouraged softly. "We'll listen and we'll be on your side, where we belong."
I took a deep breath, taking in again Jacob's view of my entire world sitting across the table from him, and nodded.
"I'd like you to witness for yourselves first. Listen - in the other room. What do you hear?"
They briefly registered the quiet breathing in the dining room before their attention was centered on Jacob's pulse.
The mystery of whatever I was concealing was too much for Kate. She strode forward.
"Just listen first, please."
Kate hesitated before heeding my words.
"A werewolf, I assume," Tanya said, confused and a little annoyed by game. "I can hear his heart."
"What else?" I asked, my eyes imploring them to play along just a few moments longer.
Carmen cocked her head curiously. "What is that thrumming? Is that... some kind of a bird?"
"No, but remember what you're hearing. Now, what do you smell?" And then quickly I added, hearing Kate's planned retort, "Besides the werewolf."
Eleazar caught the scent. Suddenly worried about secrecy - and in which way I might have violated it this time - he whispered, "Is there a human here?"
"No." Tanya shook her head. "It's not human... but... closer to human than the rest of the scents here." It burned her throat mildly, but more than that it was overwhelmingly pleasant. "What is that, Edward? I don't think I've ever smelled that fragrance before."
"You most certainly have not, Tanya," I said, latching eagerly onto her words. "Please, please remember that this is something entirely new to you. Throw away your preconceived notions."
Is Carlisle... experimenting? I don't understand.
Is it Bella? Kate wondered, doubting now that she was immortal as I'd said. The scent wasn't Bella's human scent, but there was something of her in it.
"I promised you I would listen, Edward," Tanya reminded me, a little exasperated.
"All right, then." I gazed at the floor for a moment before squaring my shoulders and facing the dining room. "Bella? Bring out Renesmee, please."
What's a Renesmee?
They looked toward the back of the house, too, not knowing what to expect. Some sort of animal, perhaps...?
Bella's face was blank as she rose. Jacob quickly shoved around the table to join her.
When she appeared around the corner, my cousins did not immediately recognize what Bella held. Nessie's face was turned into Bella's chest they were distracted by her red-brown curls, trying to make it into some sort of creature.
It was half a second later that they noticed her limbs - the same moment Nessie peeked out from under the cover of Bella's hair -
There thoughts were wordless at first. Shock. Fear. Pain.
Tanya stumbled backwards, nearly falling as she tried to put distance between her and the little girl. Hissing, Kate threw her body backwards through the air. She cowered against the wall like a scared animal.
Carmen felt confusion. Betrayal. How could Carlisle allow this?
Eleazar landed in front of her. His narrowed eyes locked onto my daughter as he sank into a defensive crouch.
I put my arm around Bella protectively, my hand patting Nessie's back. She'd seen the hostility and disgust in their eyes.
Jacob was on Bella's other side, so close he was nearly touching my arm. "Oh please," he barked. Scared of a child...
Even understanding exactly how they saw her - believing her to be an immortal child - their reaction made me angry. It infuriated me that someone could look upon my family and see it as something illegitimate. Something wrong.
I calmed myself the best I could, remembering a not so distant time when I thought all was wrong, too. "You promised to listen," I said evenly.
Trembling, Tanya shouted, "Some things cannot be heard! How could you, Edward? Do you not know what this means?" You've condemned your entire family - Carlisle, Esme, Alice... and us, too. She pressed a hand frantically to her mouth.
"We have to get out of here," Kate insisted. I won't be complicit - how dare they draw us into this!
Maybe he did it for Bella. Carmen shook her head, trying to understand.
"Edward..." Eleazar had no words, just memories of his time with the Volturi and nightmarish expectations for what would come for us. And maybe him and Carmen, too.
"Wait," I said through my teeth. Nessie pressed herself closer to Bella, hearing the severity of my tone. "Remember what you hear, what you smell. Renesmee is not what you think she is."
They mistook my meaning, thinking I meant that this immortal child was somehow different. I was simply blinded by adoration of my illicit creation as so many criminals had been before me.
"There are no exceptions to this rule," Tanya hissed.
"Tanya," I said sharply, "you can hear her heartbeat! Stop and think about what that means."
Only Carmen truly listened to what I was saying. She focused on the rhythm. Her ears did not deceive her, she knew. The sound was localized precisely within the child's body.
"Her heartbeat?" she whispered, leaning forward to see around Eleazar.
I met Carmen's eyes. "She's not a full vampire child," I explained, keeping my voice low and controlled. "She is half-human."
Here we go... Kate's eyes grew huge with disbelief. How dumb do you think we are? Well, I guess we're here, so maybe he's right to doubt our intelligence...
The Volturi's not going to buy that any more than we are. Half-human, Eleazar scoffed.
Oh my God, Edward, Tanya groaned internally. They'd said you lost your mind this spring. But, really, what have you done? You should be ashamed for doing this to our family.
Only Carmen allowed herself to attempt to apply reason to my words. But how would you... How could the transformation be only partial? How could they stop the venom half way? I want to believe, but... But even if you could do that, why would you?
Not one of them considered, even mockingly, the true method of creating a half-human, half-vampire child.
Carmen's interest gave me hope. My voice was smoother as I plead my case.
"Hear me. Renesmee is one of a kind. I am her father. Not her creator - her biological father."
Hon, your shooting blanks, Kate retorted. Or has Carlisle not had the talk with you yet?
Tanya shook her head. It's bad enough that you brought us here to witness this, but to spit these lies at us on top of it...
Eleazar pressed his fingers to his forehead. "Edward, you can't expect us to - "
"Tell me another explanation that fits, Eleazar," I demanded. "You can feel the warmth of her body in the air. Blood runs in her veins, Eleazar. You can smell it."
Kate's eyes were glued to Nessie now, trying to refute my words, her senses...
"How?" she breathed, her forehead creased. Her body couldn't grow a child. She'd been with hundreds of men - humans, vampires...
"Bella is her biological mother," I explained slowly. "She conceived, carried, and gave birth to Renesmee while she was still human."
Kate's jaw dropped. He did not fuck a human... Not Edward of all people...
He wouldn't. Tanya blinked several times. He wouldn't while she was... Especially with no experience... How could he endanger her like that? What is wrong with him?
I did not pause, ignoring their judgmental thoughts. "It nearly killed her. I was hard-pressed to get enough venom into her heart to save her."
Carmen could imagine it, having spent so much time with her human loving sisters, but Eleazar wasn't buying it.
"I've never heard of such a thing," he said coldly.
Kate and Tanya were still stuck on my admission.
...such a hypocrite...
...always so judgy and awkward about it, like it was dirty or something. But I guess if a man does it...
I rolled my eyes. I'd been a little judgmental of their lifestyle - but I'd never voiced my opinions and I hadn't realized they'd picked up on them. Either way they were overblowing it.
"Physical relationships between vampires and humans are not common," I pointed out to Eleazar. With a grim smile I turned pointedly to Kate and Tanya. "Human survivors of such trysts are even less common. Wouldn't you agree, cousins?"
How many men had they killed perfecting their methods? They glared at me, trying not to remember. But they grudgingly saw my point. They'd never met another vampire who engaged in sexual relations with humans with the intention of keeping the human alive, let alone a male. How then, would anyone ever know that a male vampire could father a child?
Jacob swallowed back bile. Can we please change the subject?
"Come now, Eleazar." Carmen put her hand softly on his back. "Surely you can see the resemblance."
Nessie, hearing Carmen's gentle voice - almost tender - emerged tentatively from behind Bella's hair.
"Carmen - wait - don't - "
She ignored Eleazar, leaving him anxious and tongue-tied, to stand directly in front of us. Leaning down, she looked into Nessie's face.
"You seem to have your mother's eyes, but your father's face." A warmth spread through her the longer she studied the little girl.
The poor thing is so scared... Nessie blinked back at her with large pitiful eyes and Carmen's lips widened in a rich smile. Absolutely adorable...
Feeling victorious, having melted one of the stranger's hearts, Nessie smiled back.
Oh... Her dazzling smile took Carmen's breath away.
Nessie reached behind her to touch Bella. She wanted permission to share her gift.
Before I could object - the group was grappling with enough at the moment - Bella whispered timidly, "Do you mind if Renesmee tells you about it herself? She has a gift for explaining things."
Entirely consumed, Carmen asked, "Do you speak, little one?"
"Yes," Nessie trilled. Behind Carmen, my cousins flinched. "But I can show you more than I can tell you."
Kate shuddered. It's so creepy.
Nessie pressed her palm to Carmen's cheek. Carmen froze, panicked by the foreign thoughts in her head.
Glaring at Nessie, Eleazar was instantly beside Carmen, pulling at her shoulders.
"Wait," Carmen ordered breathlessly. She held Nessie's eyes, trying to orient herself to place and mind. It was starting to make sense.
I watched with Carmen. Impressed, a small smile pulled at the corners of my lips.
"What's Nessie showing her?" Jake asked impatiently. I'd been ignoring his silent complaints.
"Everything," I breathed.
A/N: Up next... what Nessie showed Carmen and Edward learns Bella is a shield. I couldn't let November pass without an update. My attention has been focused on Vol. 1 so I could get the story straight on the Volturi - I didn't want what I put here to contradict what happens in New Moon.
Thank you for reading!
