Eclipse, Chapter 5
Carys waited, stamping her feet against the evening chill. She had knocked a couple of minutes before, and she was almost entirely sure Leah would be able to hear her out there if she was home. She could definitely see her car from her bedroom window if she was up there.
The door opened before she had a chance to knock for a second time. It banged against the wall as Leah crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes, and leaned against the doorjamb to look her over.
"I did text to say I was coming...," said Carys a little awkwardly when the silence stretched. Tugging at her cardigan, she added, "And I left a message with your mum, too."
Leah's glare intensified. "Yeah. This morning. What, did you walk here?"
Carys' jaw dropped. "It's fifteen miles! How slow d'you think I am?"
"You don't want me to answer that."
"Nice."
Leah rolled her eyes, turning her head to yell over her shoulder, "I'm going out with Carys!"
"Oh! She came 'round after all?" Sue called from somewhere inside the house. "Carys!?"
Ignoring Leah's continued glare and muttered warning, Carys took a step forward and called back, "Hi, Sue!"
"Do you want your casserole dishes back? Charlie keeps forgetting to grab them for you!"
It took a moment for Carys to realise Sue meant the ones she'd used for the lasagne and pasta bake she brought over months ago - the last time she'd seen Sue and Seth - for Harry's wake. Had it really been so long? It felt as if no time had passed, and so much had at the same time.
"Oh no," she called back, shaking her head despite the walls between them, "that's okay, you can keep them if you like - unless you have no use for them?"
Sue's dubious face popped around the doorway into the kitchen.
"Are you sure?"
Leah dropped her head back and stared resolutely at the ceiling.
"Mom, she's living with the Cullens now," she ground out impatiently, "she's probably got tons!"
"I don't," Carys said, shaking her head again. She repeated the comment to Leah through her teeth when the younger woman whispered her statement again, before leaning in to the house a little and raising her voice. "It's just it's just me I'm cooking for, most days!"
Sue nodded, her dark brown eyes glowing with understanding. Carys wondered how much Charlie had told Sue about the months she spent cooking once or twice a week for him and Bella, when she'd bought the dishes in the first place. Leah knew a lot of what had happened around that time - likely far more now from Jacob, but she doubted Sue's reaction had come from her.
"If you're sure," Sue attempted again, giving her one last chance.
"I am," Carys said with a smile. "They weren't too expensive really."
And she had a couple of larger dishes - her favourites - which she'd always kept for herself, safe from risk of them ending up in such a position.
Sue smiled. "Has Leah thanked you for the clothes yet?" she asked, her gaze flickering pointedly to her daughter and back. "You really didn't have to. It... Helped a lot at a difficult time."
Leah's nostrils flared in warning a moment before she said, "Mom. If you want to have Carys over, invite her yourself!"
Winking at them both before she disappeared back into the kitchen, Sue said, "Maybe I will!"
"Really?" Carys whispered to Leah, intrigued by the response. Sue was lovely, but the Cullens were back now, and she was sure her feelings towards them hadn't changed.
Leah rolled her eyes. "Later." She raised her voice to yell, "We're going!"
The sound of pots and pans being rearranged preceded Sue's reply.
"Have fun you two! And Leah?"
"What now!?" Leah whined loudly, all but stamping her foot.
"Tell your brother to come straight home - no hanging around the older boys tonight - he has school in the morning!"
"Anything else?"
Sue answered, despite it being a rhetorical question.
"We're having fried chicken for dinner - have you asked if Carys is staying?"
"My god, this woman," Leah whispered, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Oh no, thank you, Sue," Carys called once she'd controlled her amusement enough to speak. Leah and Seth may be wolves, but Sue retained ultimate power as she always had. "Sounds delicious, but Carlisle's cooking me dinner tonight!"
Sue reappeared with a surprised look on her face, this time standing in the doorway with a tea towel in her hands.
"He cooks, does he?" she asked. "You learn something new every day... Do you know what you're having?"
"He's probably heating up the corpse of his latest victim," Leah grumbled.
"Actually," Carys said with a glare before she turned a smile on Sue, "I'm having pie and mash tonight!"
What she didn't add was that as Carlisle preferred baking over cooking - it was an exact science - she'd had the same the night before, and there was a good chance she'd be having pie for dinner for the next week. He'd gone overboard making pastry. Again. And the venison he'd used for this one might well have come from dubious origins - she simply hadn't wanted to ask.
"And... We're going now!" Leah announced. "Bye Mom."
"I love you, Lee-Lee," Sue sang, eyes twinkling with amusement.
Leah rolled her eyes. "Love you too."
Carys grinned at Sue and waved goodbye, stepping out of the doorway at last. For all Leah's bravado, there was no denying the genuine affection in her voice.
Without bothering to grab so much as a jumper, Leah slammed the door shut behind her and headed straight down the steps. Carys followed, lengthening her strides until she'd caught up.
Leah stared ahead, squared her shoulders, and said, "At first, I expected you'd come yesterday."
"I got back at five-Oh, crap. Before I forget."
Carys rooted around in her bag as they walked, then handed over the oversized Toblerone she'd brought back from London. Leah took it, carefully pulled the tab, unwrapped the foil, and cracked a piece off. She popped it straight into her mouth.
"You got back at five," she prompted around the mouthful of chocolate. "How come you couldn't come over then?"
"You're not going to say thank you?" Carys observed, smirking.
Leah swallowed hard and shook her head. "Not 'til I know it's not poisoned, no."
"You have way too much time on your hands if you think I'd kill you with chocolate."
And it hadn't stopped her from breaking off another piece either. That would probably be the easiest way to kill either of them, Carys thought - chocolate. Especially the stuff Carys got from England. It had more cocoa in it. Seth would be burgers. She cut herself off before she started wondering what her modus operandi would be for poisoning anyone else.
"Huh. So where were you?" Leah asked, offering Carys the bar.
She held up a hand to decline, and Leah's eyebrows lifted infinitesimally. Carys wondered if she could tell what she'd been thinking.
"No thanks. Trying to limit myself. I was in London for the weekend," Carys said. Side-stepping a mailbox as they headed for the end of the road, she added, "Then I was at work today."
Leah stopped in the middle of the road. "Wait. Cullen let you go to London on your own with a vampire after you?"
"No." Carys whirled around to face her. Of course, she would have seen him in Saturday. "I went with Esme. His sister," she explained, tilting her head when Leah hesitated and tried to place the name, "the older one who went to Cornell."
"That's what you said, anyway."
"She actually did," said Carys, turning again to continue on her way.
Leah fell into step beside her and tapped her arm with the Toblerone. Carys opened her bag, the bar disappeared, and she adjusted the cross body strap over her shoulder.
"Huh. So they shipped you both off. Smart. Jake says Bella Swan didn't know about any of it... He went to see her this morning and she had a full on panic attack when he mentioned the redhead. Apparently the bloodsuckers-"
"Vampires," Carys countered instantly.
"Bloodsuckers."
"Vampires."
"The little one calls us dogs."
Carys stumbled and caught herself. What? When had that happened? Something stirred uncomfortably in her gut.
"Not in front of me she doesn't, and I'm sorry - I'll sort that out as soon as I get home."
It was Leah's turn to be surprised. "Why?"
"Uh, it's a tad racist?" Carys offered. Utterly serious, she all but spat the word. "Think I've had enough of that for several lifetimes."
"And you think they'll listen to you?"
"Oh, I know they will," Carys hissed. "It's the benefit of... My position," she finished lamely, watching Leah out of the corner of her eye in case she'd picked up on the almost slip.
"Hmm..." Leah thought for a moment and clicked her fingers. "Fine. Leeches."
Carys sighed, crossing her arms across her chest.
"I'll take vamps if you really can't say it."
When she clearly wouldn't back down, Leah said, "Fine. The vamps lied to her to get her out of town."
Only because she was so gullible that she didn't see past Edward's obvious lie, Carys thought to herself.
"Well, I had to know to warn you, didn't I?"
"So what makes you different?" Leah queried, staring at Carys as they both slowed to a stroll, turning onto a more secluded path. "Why would they tell you and not Bella Swan?"
"Um..." Carys wasn't exactly sure how to respond.
Grabbing a loose leaf from one of the bushes she passed, she examined it, twisting it through her fingers. She noticed Leah did the same - with a branch instead. Carys doubted it had been on its way out.
"Yeah?"
"I have a vested interest in the outcome?"
Her voice had lifted an octave towards the end of the sentence, and she hoped Leah hadn't taken it for what it was - her distinct inability to answer the question. Sometimes she wished she could read Edward's mind and work out why he treated Bella as he did.
"As does Swan."
"Yeah, well... I guess..." The leaf drifted from her fingers. "Carlisle knows what happens if I have to go looking for the answers...?"
"What exactly d'you mean by that?" Leah snapped, cracking the branch in two.
Carys shrugged. "Erm... I get upset, I guess?"
"And the truth?"
"It is the truth. You don't want to see me angry. I go all-" Raising her hands, Carys half-heartedly grimaced. "Okay, it's half the truth...," she admitted when Leah's eyes narrowed and she threw her branch back into the thicket. "I think Carlisle knows I can handle it after... Everything... We've agreed to be honest with each other - even if it means we argue, or-or one of us isn't happy with what the other one thinks...
"There were a few things that led to it, but... Well." Spreading her arms wide, she said, "Long story short, I fucked up and there wasn't much of a choice after that. There're tons of reasons why I would have or wouldn't have done what I did, but that's it really."
It was a relief to put it like that, no matter how cryptic the statement. Over the months since everything happened with the search for newborn vampires, she'd become so much less sure of herself - not that she could admit it at home. Carlisle might talk about it again if she wanted to, but she didn't want to rehash old wounds.
"You fucked up..." Leah's suspicion grew, her eyes narrowing to slits.
Carys sighed, running a hand over her brow as they slowed to a halt and faced each other. They'd left the closest houses behind five minutes before; there was no one to hear them, but she checked her surroundings just in case; the light had dimmed the further they'd walked under the canopy.
"You know when I was in Seattle...?"
"Yeah?"
Leaving out the part where she ran through a hoard of snarling vampires and led two would-be attackers to their deaths, Carys told Leah what she'd spent those few weeks doing; what had occupied her mind and waking hours.
She skimmed over Richard and parts of her research, focusing for the most part on how she'd found photographic proof, and how Carlisle would have taken her word for it regardless. How far from what she'd let herself believe, he'd trusted her implicitly, and she felt as if she'd let him down.
She didn't let him off completely, of course - she made sure to make that clear, whilst admitting she didn't feel entirely comfortable with all the wolves knowing certain aspects, and so she couldn't tell Leah just in case.
Though she'd openly agreed with Carys' reticence in divulging the entirety of her tale, Leah's jaw had dropped long before the end.
"Fuck. You can't honestly expect me to believe you found them, can you?"
Carys didn't answer. She didn't need to. Even if Leah didn't believe what she'd told her, it was written all over her face.
"You're... Fuck..." Leah exclaimed. "You're a human, Carys!"
Taking one last look at Leah's expression - which warred between shock and anger - Carys lowered her gaze to the ground, smiled bleakly and said:
"You sound about half as pissed as Carlisle was."
"Pissed!?" Leah yelled. "That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard. So now you've got more bloodsuckers after you!?"
Carys glanced up and shook her head. "Not so far, no. It doesn't seem like they're planning on moving anytime soon."
"They're..." Leah took a step towards her. "They're not the cause of the murder spree, are they?"
"Yeah."
"That's... Dammit." Expecting a far harsher censure to come, Carys was surprised when Leah wheeled around, dropped to her haunches, and complained: "Great. If I so much as let any of that slip, Paul and Seth'll be on me about you for weeks."
"Why?"
Leah looked up over her shoulder. "Seth's Seth. He'll act like you're the next Sherlock Holmes. And Paul's looking for any excuse to knock Bella off her pedestal with Jacob... Paul was the one who had the altercation with... Emmett Cullen, by the way," she added absentmindedly, waving a hand and nodding when she remembered the name.
Leah stood after a while, sighing as she walked on and drew Carys with her. They made their way along the trail in silence, each occupied by their own thoughts until Carys realised she had no idea where they were headed.
"Where're we going?"
"Figured you'd want to talk to Sam," Leah told her quietly, "to plead the Cullens' case like Carlisle did after Emmett crossed the line and... Rosalie, right? Rosalie got all territorial and nearly started a fight."
"Carlisle and Sam talked and agreed Victoria was more important than a land dispute," Carys said. "And can you really blame Rose for protecting her husband when Paul all but attacked him?"
"Uh, yeah," said Leah, making it sound as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "he was on our land."
"It was no man's land, and you know it!" Carys argued hotly.
There was no point in adding that Sam had refused to let Jasper or Emmett cross their land to catch Victoria when she disappeared into the ocean - thereby letting her get away.
"Sure," Leah bit out. "You know as well as I do, if it wasn't for... Who's the other blond? The one with the manipulation powers."
Carys stopped dead in her tracks and waited for Leah to do the same.
"You know about his power too?"
Leah blanched. "Well... Yeah... Bit hard not to when he used it to calm us all down even if Bella hadn't-" Taking note of Carys' expression, she broke off and tried again. "Yeah, we know about him, Edward, and Alice's abilities."
"Only theirs...?"
"You mean the others have powers too!?"
Apparently none that Bella thought worthy of note. Frustration grated Carys' nerves, igniting a fire in her stomach.
"Not ones like that," she ground out. "Theirs are less... Obvious, I guess."
"Carys...?" Leah held out a hand and hesitantly rubbed Carys' upper arm, the heat of her skin a pleasant relief from the cool air.
"You really think I'm here to reiterate what's already been agreed?" Carys softly asked, returning to the crux of the matter. "Or to argue over who said or did what to whom and when?"
Eyes flaring, Leah searched Carys' face.
"You're not?"
"'Course not!" Carys sighed. "I'm here for you, you dolt! Seth said you missed me."
"I know...," Leah grumbled, releasing Carys so that they could trudge on. "He wouldn't stop thinking about it last patrol. Blabbermouth."
"Is he the reason your mum's still being nice to me?"
"No..." Leah seemed unhappy with having to answer. "Let's just say it's pretty hard to hate you. She thinks you're too good of a person. Even Billy's struggling to find much bad to say these days."
Carys' jaw worked but she couldn't seem to utter a sound past the constriction in her throat. Looking away to hide the strength of her reaction from Leah, she whispered, "Thanks."
"Does your vamp know you're here?"
Carys cleared her throat and blinked hard.
"Uh, yeah," she said, "he does as it happens."
Leah exhaled sharply. "Can't imagine he was happy."
"He wasn't," Carys admitted. "Thought you might get pissed off at me for invading your space before you were ready... Which reminds me. If you're going to get angry and shift, can you do me a favour and give me a few seconds first? I'm supposed to abide by his rules."
Intrigued, Leah asked, "Which are?"
"Keep my distance if you're angry, run if you so much as shiver in my direction, and text him every couple of hours to say I'm not bleeding to death somewhere," Carys listed off on one hand.
Leah scoffed. "That's it?"
"That's it. If all goes well today, I don't think he'll be as worried next time."
Leah laughed, then gleefully asked, "What if I killed you right after you texted?"
Despite herself, Carys' lips twitched.
"He'd feel my death."
"Really?"
"It's like that when vampires find their soulmate. If I died, Carlisle would feel as if his heart was being ripped from his chest. He'd never recover from the loss... I think it would be the same for me, even as a human, but I don't fancy ever having to find out."
They walked on in silence while Leah mulled over the news.
Finally, she said, "It sounds like the imprinting bond."
"The what?"
"Nothing, just... Carlisle sounds... Alright, I guess... Far less possessive than the other one. He wouldn't so much as let Jacob talk to Swan without him there."
"Yeah, well..."
They lapsed once more into silence. Listening to the sounds of nature surrounding them, Carys tried to work out what to say. Did she wait for Leah to be ready to move their conversation on? Did she suggest they talk about something less controversial? She didn't want to bring up the weather. Unlike Seth, Leah would laugh at her.
"It was your turn," Leah announced, seemingly out of nowhere.
Carys stared at her. "What?"
"It was your turn to come see me," Leah explained. "I went to yours last time, remember?"
Carys' heart thudded in her chest, and she tugged at her cardigan to stop herself from pressing her hands to her chest.
"You were waiting for me to come see you?"
"Yeah."
"I thought you said you hated me."
Leah sighed. "I was angry."
"I know," said Carys quietly. "You had every reason to be..."
Leah didn't answer. Instead, she drew a deep breath and glanced at Carys. "Thanks," she said gently. "For the clothes, the pizza, and the chocolate."
Carys' lips turned up at the edges. Looking down at herself, she abandoned the bottom of her cardigan before she warped the hem, and thrust her hands into the pockets. Spreading the halves wide, she said:
"It's okay. You did me a favour with them all. Except the running clothes maybe. I need to start up again if I want to shift this in the next couple of months."
"There's nothing different about you," Leah scoffed.
Carys spared her a disbelieving stare. "Says the one with rock hard abs and not an ounce of fat on her," she said, looking Leah up and down as she closed her cardigan and crossed her arms.
"I'm half-wolf at the moment," Leah reminded her. "I run hundreds of miles every day sometimes."
"I'm a human... I don't..."
"I thought this stuff didn't matter to you?" Leah asked, confused by Carys' insistence.
"Yeah, well... I think it matters more to me now." Carys realised she needed to change the subject before Leah realised the full extent of what she was suggesting - that it wasn't only the wedding that was bothering her. "Are you sure I'm going to be welcome at Emily and Sam's? Shouldn't we turn back?"
Leah waved a hand, dismissing Carys' insecurity over that issue. "Emily'll take care of him if he says anything. Anyway, I kind of want to see his face when you turn up-no, okay, fine. Stop looking at me like that. You've got nothing to worry about. Sam's more angry at Bella than he is at you right now."
Carys frowned. "Really?" she asked, surprised by the sudden change. "How come? I thought I was persona non grata around these parts?"
"It's not the Wild West, you know," Leah laughed. Sobering, she said, "You know how Sam found Bella when the Cullens left...? Yeah, well he thought she'd hate them as much as he did. He and-"
"The Elders?" Carys cut in before she could stop herself.
Leah shook her head. "The lot of them think you're crazy for getting together with a vampire - like I said last time, you're an adult. You knew what you were getting into; Bella's a kid - and she acts like one if you listen to Charlie...
"Sam thought they'd come back for you one day, but Bella was so broken, he didn't think there was a chance she'd go back to them like nothing happened."
"But she did."
"Yeah, and now we all have to listen to Jacob whining about how he was this close-" she indicated by bringing her forefinger and thumb almost to touching "-to kissing her before she ran off to bring Edward back, and Sam's angry too."
"I can understand how Sam feels..." She really could. Carys was still angry at Bella for acting as if nothing had happened over those six months - whether Edward had gone to protect her or not. "Is that what it's like being a wolf? Everyone's angry or upset except for Seth?"
"No... Just the three of us," Leah sighed, her jaw clenching and unclenching. "Sam not so much anymore... He's happy with Emily and he's got company now that the pack's growing. Jake and I're the only ones who're upset anymore. The rest of them're happy - excited, really - about it all."
"Is it forever?" Carys prompted, her interest piqued by Leah's openness to discussing the details. "The change? I mean, it wasn't for your great-grandfather, was it?"
"No..." For a moment or two, it seemed as if she wasn't going to continue, but she did. "It starts with the aging and growing. We kind of stay like that until we stop phasing. The more we can control ourselves, the longer we can go without phasing - as long as there aren't any vamps around. In the end, we stop altogether...
"Any way you look at it, the change doesn't affect the guys as much as it has me. They don't have to worry about when they stop phasing or what happens after so much."
"What d'you mean?"
"They... They can still... Sam and Jared have their imprints - they're the only ones who have a... Time limit, I guess. If they want to one day age with Emily or Kim. It doesn't seem to stop any of them from... They should be able to have kids whether they've stopped phasing or not...
"Whereas, I'm... Well, let's just say I have more in common with... Fuck it. I'm going through the menopause." Staring at the ground, Leah threw the explanation down as quickly as she could manage. Glancing at Carys from under her lashes, she halted. "So it's fine for them. For me, it's the gift that keeps on giving."
Carys couldn't imagine... Could life really be so cruel to Leah? Of everything she was going through... Was it really... For that to have been forced upon her on top of all else... The similarity to Rosalie and Esme was raised and dismissed in an instant. There was no denying its existence, but for Leah it was different.
"But... Once you stop phasing... Surely?"
"I don't know... It might be for good," Leah admitted sadly. "Female wolves aren't in our histories. Sam thinks imprinting's all to do with furthering the line and stuff, so that's why it happened to him. Why he imprinted on Emily, not me - I had the wolf gene. She's the perfect human match."
Carys' blood turned to ice. Leah's tone had hardened as they reached the sore points of the conversation, but it had all but deadened by this stage.
"Now you need to tell me what imprinting is," Carys warned her, grinding her teeth together, "because right now all I can think about is how I'd like to punch Sam until his nose and eyes resemble his blackened soul."
Leah's laugh was pained in the extreme.
"Okay... You know how Sam ran off with Emily?" she asked.
Carys glared at the mere mention. They both knew she knew all about it.
"I'm vaguely aware."
"Well..." Kicking at the ground, digging a little hole in the midst of the trail, Leah said, "He imprinted on her. It's this rare thing in the legends... He didn't think it would happen," she sighed. "Basically, to cut a long story short..."
Carys waited until Leah's silence went on long enough that she couldn't handle it anymore. Crossing the small distance between them, she slowly, carefully slid her arms around Leah's waist.
Leah didn't move at first, until Carys' arms locked, and she pulled Carys against her.
"You smell like a vampire," she accused, adjusting her hold until they were both comfortable.
"You're like a hot blanket on a cold winters day," Carys joked with an exaggerated sigh of contentment.
"Ugh!" Leah tried to shove her away, but Carys chuckled and held on until she tightened her arms again. "Fine. You still want to hear this?"
Carys nodded.
"Okay... No interruptions." After Carys nodded again, she said, "To cut a long story short, imprinting is like... It's like love at first sight, only deeper... All-consuming... When Sam first phased, I helped him through it-"
"Did you-sorry."
Leah shook her head. "No, I didn't know. I never lied to you about that."
"I didn't-"
Cutting off Carys' guilty whine about how she'd not told Leah about her own knowledge she said, "Don't worry. I know you didn't know wolves were a thing anymore... Anyway. The day he saw Emily again, he imprinted. It didn't matter how much he loved me, or how many promises he was breaking, he loved her more."
Carys couldn't help her horrified gasp. "Just like that?"
"Just like that. Everything we had was over for him. That's why he hates the Cullens so much. It's not just that he was the first to phase... He..." Pulling away, Leah held Carys at arm's length and stared her eyes. "She's his soulmate. The way he sees it, they would have ended up together anyway, and this was more of a...," she searched for the word, "shove in the right direction.
"Don't get me started on that part. But suddenly he had someone who he didn't have to lie to like he did to me and almost everyone else. He told her everything - not that she believed him in the beginning.
"He broke up with me when he knew he couldn't fight it, and... Well, you know all of that. What you don't know is, Emily's loyalty to me - to our sisterhood - it was real after all. They got closer and closer, but she kept denying anything was going on, until eventually enough people had seen them when he went to visit her every day that she couldn't lie anymore.
"She realised what it was doing to me. She tried to break up with him, and... He got angry... He phased."
"W-what?" Carys drew away, pressing her hands to her mouth.
Leah nodded curtly and firmed her jaw. "She was too close. It wasn't a bear that injured her. It was Sam."
"And she's-she's with him!?" Carys cried.
Leah ignored the interjection, staring out into the trees. "Mom saved her and got her to the hospital in time. Sam hated himself for it afterwards. He would have done anything to make it up to her, he says. He says he was probably going to try and kill himself."
"How the... How the fuck are they together?" Carys gasped, unable to draw more than the shallowest breaths. "He mauled her!"
Leah's eyes narrowed, but there was no anger - no fight behind them. Carys gaped. She agreed with her. Leah agreed.
"She comforted him when he was at his lowest, and... Well, things kinda went from there. Do you understand now?" she asked, her shoulders slumping. "Do you get why Sam hates the Cullens? Why I hate the Cullens?
"If they hadn't come here, none of this would have happened. Sam wouldn't be a wolf, I wouldn't be a wolf, and Emily would be fine. If he's to be believed, he would still one day have wanted to leave me for her though..." The last, she muttered bitterly to herself. Standing as they were, Carys heard every word.
Nodding slowly, Carys searched for the right words. There weren't any. There wasn't so much as a spare thought in her mind. She replayed Leah's words over and over.
"We share a pack mind when we're phased," Leah went on, increasingly angrily. "I have to listen to Sam's guilt every day. He loves me; he loves her more. He hurt me; he hurt her more. He scarred us both in different ways... I can't even go to college to escape any of it. I can't help my thoughts, so half the boys hate being on patrol with me. I've lost everyone and everything."
"They didn't know it was connected to them... That this would happen..." Carys whispered, swallowing against the saliva pooling and thickening in her mouth. "I... I'm sorry, Leah, I... I..."
Leah sneered. "I'm even going to be Emily's bridesmaid."
"W-what?"
"I'm-for fucks sake, Carys, get it together."
"S-sorry," she whispered, taking a deep breath. Staring at a patch of sky that shone through the trees, she blinked back tears and shook herself to escape the tension enthusing her muscles. "I'm sorry," she said finally. "I really am."
"You think I want your pity?" Leah hissed, slowly advancing. Pausing a few inches away from Carys, she raised her chin. "I don't," she whispered, eyes shimmering, "I just need you to understand. I need someone to be on my side in all this. And I need that to be you, because as it turns out, the one good thing that came from all of this is that there's a person I might be able to rely on who knows what and who I am."
"I can't give Carlisle up," Carys said. "I know you hate him, but if you knew him..."
"I'm not asking about him," Leah growled, "I'm asking if you... If we..." Squaring her shoulders, she stared over Carys' shoulder. "I need... Do you remember when we first talked? On the deck at Sarah and Monica's? And you suggested I punch Sam?"
Carys nodded. "Now I'm definite I want to punch him," she whispered under her breath.
Leah threw her head back, giving into a peal of surprised and angry laughter. Wiping tears from her eyes, she lowered her head and, deadpanned as she said:
"You can't."
"I'm not a vampire. I wouldn't be breaking any rules if I did," Carys retorted.
"You'll hurt yourself."
"A small price to pay. What if I brought a baseball bat?"
"He'd phase."
"What if I rammed him with my car?"
"You'd do that?"
"I don't know... Would it work?"
Slinging an arm around Carys' side, Leah tugged her on to walk towards the end of the trail. "Were you serious?" she asked quietly. "That's what I really need to know. If you weren't, can you just pretend I never said anything?"
Carys wrapped her arm around Leah's waist. "About Sam deserving an injury?"
Leah rolled her eyes and squeezed Carys' side, but her morose tone had given way to a steadier one when she asked, "I meant about... Last time we saw each other - you said I was your best friend."
"Pretty sure I said you were one of my best friends," Carys said as lightly as she could manage.
"Shut up. Were you serious?"
"Yes," Carys promised, swaying towards Leah. "Entirely. And I'm still serious now. I know we're on different sides, and it can't go on forever, but... I miss you, Leah."
"I miss you too," Leah mumbled. "I think I won the shittest life once and for all..." She stopped so suddenly that Carys tripped and she had to pull her back up. "Maybe it's time for you to tell me about Carlisle?"
"Tell you about Carlisle...?" Carys couldn't quite understand.
"Tell me the rest. The stuff you didn't say before," Leah said, growling the last word.
Gritting her teeth, she began to tremble all over.
Carys shrieked, darting for the safety of the trees. It was like a nightmare, where no matter how fast she wanted to run, her legs couldn't pump fast enough. Flattening her back against the nearest, largest tree she could find, she tried to catch her breath. Breathing as hard as she was, it was nearly impossible.
Half a minute later her blood began to slow, the roar of it quietened in her ears, and she registered the sound on the other side of the tree. It wasn't a growling or snarling, snapping or barking, it was...
Carys ducked her head out and glared.
"You were serious, weren't you?" Leah wheezed, bent at the waist as she laughed her head off. "The way you ran!" she whined. "Ha! Oh my god!"
Crossing her arms, Carys slowly made her way back to the trail, kicking at Leah's shoe until she finally stood up and swiped at the evidence of the worst of her amusement.
"Imminent death isn't funny, Leah," Carys complained. She hoped her tone sounded more annoyed than embarrassed, but she couldn't be entirely sure.
Grabbing Carys' left hand, Leah waved it about in the air between them. The sapphire and flanking diamonds glinted and shone in the waning light.
"You're getting married to a vampire!"
"That's different."
"How?" Leah asked, rolling her eyes. "'Cause he got you the biggest ring I've ever seen?" Refusing to release her just yet, Leah raised Carys' hand to better examine the stones. "How many carats is that?"
"No," Carys said, ignoring the question just as Leah ignored her attempts to tug her hand free, "because Carlisle's... He's... He's..."
Leah glanced up. Her eyes shifted and hardened. "He's what?"
Carys knew she had one chance.
"If I told you about him, you might end up... Not liking him, but not hating him quite so much at least...," Carys worried aloud. "You might even find you have more in common with him than you want to... Do you really want to risk that?"
"Yes," Leah answered simply. "Yes, I really, really do."
A/N: so, I wrote the conversation parts of this chapter first, and wouldn't you know it, needs two chapters even though this one is super long?
Thank you to: chellekathrynnn, JosieNightOwl, Adela (thank you!), ksyushangel, mariananininha, BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Doo (thank you!), souverian, Ghostwriter71, Ella (just a small sub-plot with her dad, but I think she needs closure, even if that's deciding she doesn't give a crap anymore. It's been a couple of months now, and I think if Leah is at the point of forgiving Sam and Emily, she knows how much she needs a friend by now? I hope it doesn't seem to fast), Guest (Thank you! I feel bad sometimes because it takes time away from Carlisle and Carys, but I love Carys' relationships with everyone else as well!), jhaenox, Guest (¡Hola Valeria! Pensé que usaría traducir para responder. Mi Español no es muy bueno. ¡La maravilla de traducir es que todavía podemos comunicarnos! Muchas gracias por su respuesta. Significa mucho saber que te gusta tanto esta historia. Es realmente maravilloso saber de ti. ¡Gracias más de lo que puedo decir! ¡Felices vacaciones! Con amor, Charlie), ReadLikeHermione, Love. Fiction. 2020, and LarissaValenti2613 for your reviews!
