Thank you JohnnyStormsGirl, chellekathrynnn, GuestMG, souverian, Ghostwriter71, WickedlyMinx, and Love. Fiction. 2020 for your reviews! Same goes for this chapter's reviews as the last one!
I know we've all basically read most of this stuff before in different parts of the Twilight saga, but I've always wondered how Carlisle would tell his story to the woman he loved, and... Well... It's bloody long, but not all of it is the story, and there might be a little something to sustain you to the end...
I've tried to write Jasper so he sounds Southern, and I've written it frenetically - I've toned it down from what it was before, but I hope it's okay. He's also basically described as Jackson Rathbone (only taller) because no matter how we imagine the rest, I reckon Jackson is the perfect Jasper for all of us.
Chapter 7
"I would," Carys whispered, still shocked that he'd been painted by a master. She was still trying to wrap her head around that fact when Carlisle indicated the other figures at the top of the painting, three young men, two with long dark hair and one with white, appearing as if they were casting judgement on the scene below.
"Marcus, Caius, and Aro," he explained, "the leaders of the Volturi. I lived with them for around twenty years, from 1700 to 1720."
"The Volturi? Are they another... I'm not sure what you're called... Family?"
"Coven," Carlisle corrected softly, watching her for a moment before he turned back to the painting. "The Volturi is the most powerful coven of all, having made themselves our... Lawmakers, if you will. They were born in Italy around 1400 or so BC, and they continue to reside in Volterra to this day."
"Volterra..." Carys echoed quietly.
Carlisle nodded. "The Volturi formed their coven there with their wives. Aro-" he indicated the figure in the middle again, a tall pale man with long brown hair, "-and his sister Didyme who was married to Marcus, Caius and his wife Athenodora - who is one of the oldest vampires still alive. Aro's wife is Sulpicia, he courted and changed her once their coven was established. Over time, they grew their coven, adding vampires with the strongest abilities to their ranks. Aro was, and continues to be, interested in surrounding himself with vampires with such abilites - ones who can help him to consolidate his power. Each of the founding members has their own strengths, though I think that best left for another time. In around 400AD, the Volturi began a war with the Romanian coven-"
"You mean like Dracula!?" Carys queried, wide-eyed as she squeezed Carlisle's hand. "You mean Dracula actually exists? I mean - I know Vlad the Impaler did, but-"
"The story of Dracula was based partly on the legends which have remained from the coven's existence. They were far more open at that time about what they were, and that was a large part of why the Volturi attacked them. I'm not sure if you'd have ever studied it, but there was a time when many people knew openly of our existence. It's because of covens such as the Romanian coven who lived in their castles and invited the world to view them as gods."
"That's why vampires always live in old castles in books?"
Carlisle smiled. "Yes, though at the time their castles were gleaming - some of the most beautiful places in the world, I'm told. It was there that they sat as gods... Until the Volturi changed things. They believe that what we are should be hidden from humans."
"What did they do?" Carys asked, sliding closer to Carlisle as she wrapped her free hand around his arm. She stared up at the painting, trying to reconcile the beautiful, vibrant young men above her with the horrors of war. It was always difficult for her to believe the things humans were capable of, and she imagined vampires must be capable of far worse.
"They destroyed them," he said sadly. "The war lasted roughly a hundred years, and the Volturi followed it by waging war against the Egyptian coven."
"Why?" Carys asked, clutching him closer to her. "Why would they do something like that?"
"I mentioned Aro's wish to consolidate power?" Carlisle asked her, continuing on carefully when she nodded. "He wished to become the most powerful vampire, to have the seat of power belong to his coven and to amass an army, the Volturi Guard as they're now known, whom no one could oppose. I don't mean to suggest that Caius and Marcus didn't also wish for that power, but..."
"Aro is their leader," Carys finished for him quietly.
He hummed his agreement. "There is much more I could tell you about the Volturi, but I simply wish for you to understand why I was drawn to them when we crossed paths..." He trailed off and captured her gaze as he spoke. "I was... Young, when I met them. They were so refined, so civil, so much of what I imagined vampires not to be after the ones I'd come across in London. I was enamoured by them when we first met and agreed to stay with them for a time as I studied..."
"What happened?" She asked him, imagining all sorts of things about living with them, things which chilled her blood.
"They believed there was something wrong with me. I'll grant you, many vampires still believe there's something wrong with me, with the way I choose to live... They attempted to convert me to human blood-" he paused as Carys gasped, her round eyes staring. "-they would... I'm sorry Carys, if this is too much, please tell me."
"N-no," Carys stuttered as she shook her head nervously. "Tell me."
"They would leave... Bodies... Outside my door in near-constant attempts to test my self-control." He glanced at the painting sadly as Carys continued to stare in horror. "Aro thought it was amusing to tempt me, though I'm sure Caius' fondness for inflicting pain had something to do with it as well. When I left them, they gave me this painting as a momento of our time together. Solimena enjoyed painting the Volturi as gods, and they, in turn, enjoyed being viewed as such. It's sometimes strange to think that they destroyed other covens, wiped them out almost in their entirety, simply because they wanted much of the same things."
"Where did you go?"
"Perhaps we should return to the beginning of my story?" He asked her quietly, running his free hand over her forearm. "I fear I've jumped too far ahead, and I'd like you to know me."
He pointed to another painting, one which Carys instantly recognised.
"London!" She announced excitedly, a grin transforming her face as she examined the far smaller image. "It was so beautiful back then, wasn't it-?" She broke off when she remembered who she was talking to, and blushed. "I mean, I imagine... Was it?" She added a moment later, tugging on his arm as she leaned against him with shining eyes. "Was it everything? I imagine it was incredible. You were born before Cromwell, weren't you? Tell me!"
Carlisle laughed outright at her excited interest and pressed a hand to the nape of her neck as he kissed her on the top of the head. "I should have started my entire explanation with look at my partial book collection, here's a depiction of the London of my youth, I'm a vampire, shouldn't I?" He asked indulgently, laughing again when Carys nodded solemnly.
"Probably," she agreed with a laugh of her own. "Not sure I'd have listened to the last bit if you had... But don't stall! I want to know!"
Controlling his laughter, Carlisle pressed another kiss to her, this time against her temple, and then began to speak as he drew back. "I mentioned my birth yesterday, do you remember?"
"Yes..." Carys thought back and recalled the information as she indicated with her index finger. "You were born in 1640, changed in 1663. You ran from humans so that you wouldn't take a life, and you... Ended up in a forest where you met a herd of unfortunate deer-" she grinned as Carlisle shook his head at her in amusement "-but before that, you'd tried to..." She trailed off sadly and instead of continuing, began to press small kisses to his arm, surprising him.
"Yes," he conceded when she stopped after five, "I was born in 1640 I believe, my father was a pastor as I mentioned. I wish I could remember more of my life before the change, but unfortunately it... Well, it's difficult to remember for many of us due to the pain we go through when we transform. My life was normal for the time, I suppose - what I can remember of it anyway. My mother had died in childbirth - thank you," he added when Carys murmured her apologies and clutched his arm tighter to her, "I never knew her. I wonder what my life might have been if she had... I digress. My father brought me up. I imagine you've learned about the Protestant and Catholic unrest at the time, so I don't need to go into that, but he and his friends, other pastors, were particularly interested in the supernatural. Or, rather, in seeking out and destroying the supernatural."
"They didn't burn people as witches, did they!?" Carys asked, horrified at the thought.
"Indeed... Well, not as many were burned as were killed in other ways, but yes... My father... My father hunted all kinds of the supernatural - vampires, werewolves, witches, and the like - though he rarely had the right of it. Any faint accusation would be seen as enough to warrant investigation, and as this was long before 'innocent until proved guilty', it was rare for someone to come away from it... I..." He looked sad as he recalled. "He wished for me to join him in his occupation, to take over when he was too old to continue. The obedient son I was, I did so."
"You-!" Carys wasn't sure it was possible that her eyes widened further, but they did as she gripped his stone-hard arm tighter.
He nodded sadly as he raced through his next words. "I, unlike the rest, required evidence. My compassion for human life already far exceeded the men who surrounded me, and I was often questioned for the depth and thoroughness of my investigations. I believe I was a disappointment to my father in that respect." He slowed down as Carys' grip loosened a little. "Edward likes to think that I was cleverer than the others for what I found. I discovered a group of real vampires living in the sewers of London. They concealed themselves by day and fed at night."
"But you don't hide during the day?" Carys cut in, confused by their actions.
"No," he conceded. "Part of it is that our eyes become reflections of our diet. 'Normal' vampires have red eyes, we have gold. It allows us to blend in more easily with humans."
"So... I would be able to tell the difference?"
"Yes," he smiled, and looked behind him to check the window. He appeared disappointed as he turned back to Carys. "Unfortunately I can't show you what happens to my skin when the sun comes out. Not today, anyway, but I will. It's one of the reasons we hide ourselves during the sunnier days."
"Not because you're anaemic and have vitamin D deficiency?" Carys teased, warming up to the idea of vampires as Carlisle told her his story. There was something captivating in the way he spoke that made her want to know more and eased the worst of her anxieties.
"Interestingly no," he mocked, rolling his eyes good-naturedly at his own deception. "Nor do I have a good doctor in Seattle... No, we... Have a tendency to sparkle in the sun."
"To sparkle!?" Carys cried, releasing him as she pressed her hands to her mouth in an attempt to cover the worst of her unbidden laughter.
Carlisle grimaced and hung his head a little, but when he looked at her, his eyes remained amused.
"Here." He held a hand up for her inspection, and she took it, pulling it closer to her face as she ran her fingertips over the smooth skin. "Can you see the way our skin remains the same as yours, simply harder?" When she nodded and continued to examine him, he smiled gently. "It takes on the qualities of diamonds... Harder, I believe as diamonds are unable to pierce our skin. The change does that. It means that when we stand in direct sunlight, each part of our skin refracts the light, causing the illusion that we sparkle."
"I bet you wish you had a better word than sparkle, don't you?" Carys asked, still amused.
He nodded and sighed. "I hadn't really thought about it before, but now, yes."
Carys finally let him go and wrapped her arms around his waist. He was hesitant to return the gesture, but after a few seconds, he did so.
"Continue," she coaxed simply, drawing another chuckle from Carlisle. "You'd found real vampires."
"Yes." Carlisle's laughter abated as he picked up where he'd left off. "I gathered a crowd, armed with pitchforks and-"
"If you're going to say torches," Carys announced, pulling back, "I'm going to start wondering if this is fake again."
"It's not, I assure you. It really did happen like that."
Carys looked disbelieving for a moment before she rested her head on his shoulder again.
"So... You gathered the villagers from Shrek..."
"Townfolk - from London," he corrected with a laugh. "This is beginning to sound ridiculous, I grant you..."
"I'm sorry," she whispered when she'd controlled her answering chuckle, "I promise I won't interrupt again unless you get out the holy water."
"No holy water, I'm afraid," he told her before taking a deep breath and carrying on solemnly. "...There were a few of them that I'd seen before and catalogued, but only one emerged that night. He was ancient, I believe, and weakened by hunger. He called out to me in Latin and attempted to flee. I... I've wondered since, whether he wasn't attempting to save our lives. I'm quite sure of it in fact..." He stopped for a moment, stroking Carys' back. "I didn't realise then, of course, I only thought of his being a vampire and all that I'd been taught by my father. I chased after him, the others behind me. It was quite the testament to his age and hunger that we were able to pursue him at all. Fast as I was at twenty-three, we would never have captured him... I know that now, but I was blinded by my humanity at the time.
"His hunger won out in the end, and he fell upon us. I was the first to be bitten, but the vampire turned to defend himself against the others and I was... I was left alive and bleeding in the street, the bodies of two men drained of their blood lying not too far away. The vampire made off with a third, and the mob pursued him."
Carys hugged him tighter, unsure how to support him, how to apologise for his horrific death, the deaths of the others. More so, she wasn't sure if she had any right to apologise - or how he would react to her sympathy or empathy.
"I was well aware of what would happen to me if I was found to be infected with the venom, what my father would do to me. I could practically smell the pyre as it burned. I didn't want to die in such a way, I don't think anyone would... But the transformation had begun even as I somehow dragged myself away from the scene." He pulled away and stared into her eyes. "The transformation, the change, it's... Well, it's nothing like in books. When a human is bitten, venom passes into their bloodstream. It's a little like when a spider immobilises its prey, but far, far worse. Unlike a spider, you're not simply paralysed when bitten. The venom instead brings with it an unimaginable pain - as if fire is coursing through your veins. In my attempt to survive, I had traded one pyre for another.
"I wasn't able to scream, to writhe in agony as I still remember needing to..." He watched her carefully as she stared at him, assessing her reaction, whether he should stop. "...I concealed myself in a cellar, buried myself beneath rotting potatoes. I remained as still and silent as I could for three days until the process was complete."
"And then... You wo-woke up," Carys supplied shakily. Her feelings had nothing to do with the knowledge of what he'd become, but instead her horror at the pain he must have gone through, all alone, fighting against the agony with nowhere to turn. "You woke up as a va-vampire, and you hated it." She wrapped her arms around his statue-like form as tightly as she could as she lost the battle against her tears. "And all you-wanted to do was-"
Carlisle held Carys for long minutes as she cried until she sniffled and wiped her eyes, pulling away from him with a watery laugh.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered softly as he placed the back of a hand against her cheek to cool her hot skin.
"Don't be," Carlisle told her gently, his other arm at her waist supporting her as he stared at her lovingly.
"Please, tell me it got better? I need to know it got better for you Carlisle," Carys whimpered again, new tears threatening to fall.
Carlisle moved his hand to her other cheek as she gripped his suit jacket and nodded. "I loathed myself entirely, I tried to destroy myself as I told you yesterday, but over time I weakened - physically and mentally. It was only after the deer that I realised I didn't have to be this... This monster I believed myself to be." He lightly ran his hand over Carys' long hair. "For months I thought on what I was, what I could be, as I survived on animal blood alone. I began to realise that perhaps I didn't have to be damned. With this new understanding, I started to feel better about myself. I indulged my interests, my love of reading and learning, studying by day - consuming all the information I could. I travelled by night to avoid humans - not simply because of their blood, but because of the risk of discovery. I swam to France, and before the Volturi, I studied at several universities-"
"Wait. Stop." Carys demanded, taking a large step away from him. "You mean to tell me, you studied at European universities in the late sixteen-hundreds, and you didn't think that was important until now!?"
Carlisle laughed again, and Carys joined him, happy that the tension in the room abated in the face of her amazed reaction.
"I can imagine I'll be telling you more about this later," he grinned. "But for now, yes, and yes, it was every bit as incredible as I'm sure you think it was."
Carys sighed heavily in awe and envy. "What did you study?"
"Music, the sciences, medicine," he indulged her, "in medicine, I found my calling - my salvation if you will."
"I will," Carys agreed with a grin, drawing another from Carlisle as he took her hand again.
"Good. Well, I found medicine and I didn't look back. I studied at night, everything that I could, though I... Well, I told you before that it took me two centuries to become a doctor, but it was more that it took two centuries before I was the doctor I wished to be - before I became immune to the scent of human blood, immune to the agony others still feel in the presence of humans..."
"Oh god, should I be here?" Carys questioned worriedly.
"I assure you, you're safe, no one will harm you," Carlisle replied, repeating the words that she'd clung to earlier.
Carys shook her head. "No, I mean, you mentioned agony. Am I hurting your family by being here?"
Carlisle's eyes softened, and the hand that had been stroking her hair slid quickly to the back of her head as he leaned in and kissed her.
It took her by surprise, but it hardly took a moment before she tightened her grip on his jacket, sighing against his hard lips as she stepped closer.
His kiss was nothing like she'd imagined when she'd thought he was a human, and yet so much more than she'd expected. He slanted his lips against hers over and over again, breathing in her sighs as their kiss continued, soft yet insistent. When he eventually pulled back, he only did so after several small, soft pecks, as if he didn't truly want to end the contact.
Carys whined her refusal to let him go, a small sound in the back of her throat, and he was all too happy to return to her. They stood together for long minutes, Carys forgetting everything as his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her more firmly into his embrace, kissing her with a drugging slowness, an intensity she returned in equal measure.
When he pulled away again, he didn't move far, resting his forehead against hers, and she felt his gaze on her face in the seconds it took her to steady her breathing and finally open her eyes. When she did, she was struck by the love that shone from his and knew hers must show the same.
"So... Erm..." Carys cleared her throat and swallowed, her eyes darting to his lips. She closed her eyes again and rolled her forehead against his, letting out a small breath. "Wow..."
Carlisle grinned and nodded. "Wow..." He whispered in agreement, stealing one last peck before he drew away.
They stood smiling at each other for a while longer, the silence saying so much more than either of them could put words to in those moments, until Carys remembered his story and slid her hands over his shoulders. He seemed to realise at the same moment and raised one hand from her waist, running it gently up and down the exposed skin of her arm.
"So... After Volterra..." Carys wasn't at all surprised at the low, thready breathlessness of her voice.
"After Volterra, I..." Carlisle frowned as his eyes darted around the room. "What did I do?"
Carys grinned at the knowledge that he'd been as affected by their kiss as she had and pressed her forehead to his shoulder when he continued to question himself with a frown.
"New World!" A faintly exasperated voice yelled from somewhere else in the house, and Carys burst out laughing as Carlisle nodded slowly and let out an "Ahh."
"Thank you," he finally said, as if talking to Carys rather than giving his thanks to whichever of his sons had reminded him.
"Y're welcome," came the reply, and Carys pulled back with a frown as she registered the accent.
"Which one of your children is Southern?"
"Jasper," Carlisle informed her. "He must be back from his hunt."
"Wait... Jasper, as in..."
There was a faint knock on the door, and they turned to face it as Carlisle whispered something.
A moment later it opened to reveal a tall lean man with chin-length wavy blond hair, a pouting bottom lip, and large light golden eyes. "Ma'am," he murmured softly with a lopsided smile and nod, eliciting an awkward near-silent giggle from Carys. "I apologise fer th'intrusion ma'am, it's a pleasure t'meet you."
"Hi," Carys replied lamely, looking between Jasper and Carlisle as she tried to reconcile the fact they weren't related. Jasper looked to be somewhere in the middle of Carlisle and Rosalie. "It's lovely to know they don't have you locked away somewhere!" She joked when she got her bearings.
"Ah, no, ma'am, I'm too good at escapin' fer that!" He looked at Carlisle, his lips blurring for a moment before he turned back to her. "Well, I'll leave yer both to it then." He stepped back, nodding in each of their directions as he began to close the door. "Carl-isle, ma'am."
"Well, he's lovely-" Carys cut off with a laugh as Carlisle shook his head at her.
"You're lucky he's just told me that your emotions are all over the place, or I'd think you liked him a little too much," Carlisle deadpanned.
Carys shook her head quickly, still grinning. "No, I mean, he's very handsome, you can't deny that, but even if he wasn't too pretty for me, he's a bit too young."
Carlisle pressed his lips together to avoid laughing and stared at her. "He was nineteen when he was changed in 1863," he reminded.
"Yeah," she replied simply, shrugging, "but I don't go for teenagers, and I clearly like my men over three-hundred-" she broke off laughing again and laid her head and forearms against Carlisle's chest.
She eventually pulled back, wiping away tears, and Carlisle shook his head at her again.
"Am I ever going to get back to my story?" He asked with a smile.
"Yes! Sorry, you were at the part about the New World," she prompted, sliding back into his arms as she bit her lips together.
"Right. Well." Carlisle narrowed his eyes at her playfully before darting a kiss to her forehead. "I left the Volturi and travelled there-"
"By boat, I'm assuming?" Carys cut in, ready to ask about what it must have been like for him to travel with humans so close to him.
He surprised her by shaking his head. "It was a very long journey back then, and I couldn't be sure how I'd manage that long without hunting, let alone pretending to eat... I travelled some of the way by boat, but I swam for some of it as well. We don't need to breathe, you see, so it was easier."
Carys blinked her surprise at him. "You don't breathe... Because... You're... Fro...zen...?" She asked, turning her head to the side as she stared at him, narrowing her eyes a little.
"Exactly. Our lungs are much the same as our digestive system, though it's uncomfortable not to breathe and like every other creature with a voicebox, we require air to speak."
"Because of the resonance," Carys concluded quietly, nodding to herself. The lack of breath threw her as much as the lack of eating did, but she didn't want to show him that, not when he'd just got going again. "Okay... I'll come back to that...?"
"Good choice," he agreed. "So I arrived in America before the War of Independence."
"You lived through everything, didn't you!?" Carys asked incredulously, jumping in as he paused.
Carlisle grinned again. "Hardly everything, but most of the big events in Modern American History, yes... I was hoping to find others like me when I came here. I was sure I could find at least one vampire who'd travelled in search of me as I did for them... Unfortunately, it was a long time before I did, and that was when I changed Edward."
"Didn't you have any friends at all?" Carys questioned sadly. The thought of Carlisle being alone for so long hurt her in a way she couldn't explain.
"Yes, I made friends along the way, though almost all of them continue to drink human blood. One, Garrett, is one of my closest friends. I met him during the American Revolution after he was changed." Carlisle's expression turned thoughtful for a moment, and then an affectionate smile lit his face. "You'd like him, I think, he's incredibly curious about almost everything of interest he comes across. I'm sure if you did meet, he'd be happy to spend hours describing his past and the battles he fought in."
Carys didn't respond. She wasn't sure how she felt about potentially meeting a vampire who continued to drink human blood, it... Well, it wasn't as horrifying to hear as it had been the day before, but she was still more than a little frightened at the prospect.
"And there, I believe, we come to the part you already know - where I met my children and Esme," he concluded quickly.
"What about your cousins?" Carys asked after a few seconds. "Tanya... Her... Siblings?"
"Ah," he smiled gently again. "Well to cut a long story short, because I think Alice will be along shortly if we don't rejoin everyone... Tanya, Irina, and Kate are sisters, they were created around the year 1000. I mentioned siblings because they live with Carmen and Eleazar who were created around seven hundred years later. The sisters converted to animal blood due to their affection for the human men they form relationships with, and Carmen and Eleazar joined them in their conversion."
"So... Some vampires do change...? After they've been..."
"Some do," Carlisle conceded as he stepped away and took her hand in his, drawing her towards the door. "Jasper, for example. I mentioned his upbringing was different to ours... It's his story to tell, but he spent much of his life viewing humans as a source of sustenance. His willpower develops every day." His smile deepened as he spoke of him. "I'm immensely proud of the strength he has to resist - I'm proud of all of my children, of course, but Jasper works harder than I believe they need to now. He has his motivation in Alice. She chose this life after she first saw us in her visions, and he followed her. When a vampire falls in love, it outweighs almost everything."
As Carlisle closed the door behind them and they turned towards the stairs, one question burned in Carys' mind.
"Do vampires fall in love often...?" She finally asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
She was confused by Carlisle's reaction to her question when he seemed hesitant to respond for a moment.
"No..." He told her simply, turning to face her with sadness and apology in his eyes. "When one of our kind falls in love, it's forever. I've never seen the bonds break... Marcus, for example, lost Didyme a very long time ago, yet he continues to mourn her as if it were yesterday that he suffered her loss. Carmen and Eleazar have been together for over three hundred years, though their love for each other continues as if it were newly discovered."
"Forever..." Carys whispered, her gaze dropping to their joined hands as she worried her lip between her teeth. "Have... Have you...?"
Carlisle drew her hand to his lips, holding her gaze as he kissed it gently.
And much like that day at the coffee shop the year before when Carlisle saw the love in her eyes and understood her feelings for him, Carys recognised the love that shone in his.
A new kind of fear gripped her heart before a rush of complete calm took over.
When she glanced over Carlisle's shoulder, her eyes locked with Jasper's and they shared a brief smile.
"It's time for dancing!" Esme announced, passing the now silent couple, and Carys appreciated the fact that she was clearly pretending not to have heard her heart's reaction to the news. "Edward! Piano. Carlisle, you can skip the cello this time as you need to teach Carys to waltz."
Carys smiled gently, revelling in the calm, wondering why Carlisle hadn't brought Jasper with him when he'd explained things.
"I already know the basic steps," she informed her, blushing as the room of vampires turned to stare at her in surprise. They nodded their understanding when she added, "my mum's a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing, she convinced my dad to take lessons and they showed me when I was home over the summer."
"Excellent!" Esme grinned, clasping her hands together. "Well Carlisle can help you get your bearings, and then when he switches to Rosalie, you can dance with Emmett for a bit... Then..." She looked about her, smiling sympathetically at Jasper for a moment. "Alice can take the lead in the next one. Perhaps you should take your heels off when you do?"
Carys couldn't help the affectionate grin that lit her face as she watched the family take their assigned places and Alice argued that she could accommodate their height difference.
As Carlisle took her in his arms minutes later and began to support her through the steps, correcting her many mistakes with little murmurs and encouraging comments, she began to think that maybe it wasn't as bad as she'd feared - to be head over heels in love with a vegetarian vampire.
By the time Emmett had swung her around the room a few times and finally relinquished her with a low bow to Alice, who commented on how well she was doing even when Carys accidentally trod on her little foot, she was enjoying herself enough that she didn't register that Jasper had long since stopped using his powers on her.
A/N: As it's 12:05am here, it makes it official. This marks exactly one month since I started this story! I can't believe it!
Thank you to sinxical who pointed out my mistake in mentioning Sasha instead of Kate!
GuestMG - it means a lot that you take the time to comment, so it's only right that I take the time to respond, or to give a shout-out at least! Their conversation about his being damned is one of the first things I wrote for the story, so I'm glad it comes across as it was supposed to! I love Carys, I'm glad you like her too!
