This chapter has a graphic violence trigger warning, so proceed with care.
It was late at noon when Alice had the vision. The scene in her head had been short: Aro, briefly touching the hands of several humans I had seen before: the woman at the check-in register at the Wilkins Aerodrome in Alaska, a security guard at the very same small airport and a mechanic. Then, shortly after, him telling his companions: 'It seems that our wandering friends have gone to Paris'.
We were all in the living room, with my siblings safely under Bella's shield, waiting for Carlisle to show up, when her vision happened. Alice tried to brush the vision off, knowing that they could not get here in time. Vampires were fast, of course, but it would still take them at least fourteen hours to get to Paris by running, which seemed to be their preferred means of transportation when they had Demetri on hand; and by the end of those twelve hours, we would be long gone.
Our worries had been halted - even if momentarily - when we felt Carlisle approaching. I had been the first to notice, his clear thoughts making their way to me through a myriad of many others. Soon enough, his scent became noticeable as well: the sun-dried fresh linens, the warm sandalwood, wrapped up in a thin veil of incense. A sudden warmth started building its way through my bones when I realized I would see my father again. It had been too long - the last time I had gone without him for an extended period of time, I was still young and prone to making foolish mistakes.
By the time I could hear the familiar cadence of his footsteps in the hallway, I was already at the door. I was no longer keeping track of the decisions my brain was making when I opened the door to meet him in advance - seconds later, Carlisle and I were wrapped in a painfully tight embrace, just two words leaving our mouths:
"Dad."
"Son."
This was the first time in a long time I felt lucky for not being able to sleep - this way, there was no doubt that this moment was completely real, not a chance of it being a frail illusion of my tired mind. My father was here and his arms felt good and completely like home, reminding me of the bottomless nature of his love. It almost didn't feel as if months had passed without seeing him, now that I could feel the warm, comforting sandalwood of his scent surrounding me.
I had no doubt that if I could, I would have cried like a child.
At some point, I felt more arms surrounding me, joining in our embrace. I stood still, accepting this compelling reunion, taking in every detail I could: Carlisle's laugh when he felt his other kids coming to hug him, Alice's over-excited mewling, Jasper getting high on our collective relief, Bella softly uttering 'Thank God!'. For a long while, it felt as if nothing in the world could have made this moment better. We didn't move, too drunk on the solace. And for a while, peace remained the only emotion flowing through me.
"Kids, as much as I love you all, we are being a little impolite," Carlisle murmured, pulling back slightly. "Why don't you introduce me to your little friend?"
I looked over my shoulder, to see Nellie standing in the doorway, a little unsure about what she should do next. The uncertainty remained hidden in her mind though, because she smiled and took a step forward, stretching out to shake hands with Carlisle.
"Hey, man," she said. "These people advertised the hell out of you, so I'm happy to meet you."
"I could say the same," he smiled, shaking her hand. "Edward here seems to have developed a soft spot for you, from what he's been telling me."
"Yeah, I guess he's pretty all right too," the kid smirked, winking at me. "When he's not a pain in the ass."
"Tell me about it, girl," Alice chimed in and everyone started laughing.
This felt right and I would have gladly spent the rest of the day simply basking in all the glorious sentiments that this reunion had brought. But time was never kind and it waited for no one - this much we knew. So when Jasper suggested we should get going, as much as we resented the idea, we complied without complaining.
The only legal entrance to the catacombs was the one meant for tourists, that led to a very small portion of the vast network of underground tunnels. These tunnels extended for over two hundred miles, winding themselves in unexpected loops under the streets of Paris. Certain parts of them were flooded, which meant that we needed rain boots and waterproof clothes before venturing inside them - and thanks to Alice, this proved to be a non-issue.
While there was no legal way to get underground, there were unofficial entrances scattered all over Paris: manholes, sewers, metro holes. The problem was that these very entrances were also used by humans - more specifically, cataphiles. These cataphiles liked to spend impressive amounts of time underground, exploring secret passages and trying very hard to not get caught by the police; the latter task was not particularly tough, since the police only patrolled the tunnels three times a week - and today was not one of those times. Still, we had to find a way to attract the werewolf underground and trap it there without coming close to the places that were frequented by cataphiles.
We checked out of the hotel a little before sunset. Alice's visions were already getting blurry, as the inevitable meeting with the werewolf grew closer. We had to part ways for the time being - Alice and Jasper were going to l'île Saint-Germain, a small island on the Seine, right outside of Paris, that was a thirty minute drive away from the airport. Nellie had told us that the werewolf could not swim; naturally, being on an island seemed like the most sound idea for the two of them.
The urgency in the air prevented us from saying a proper 'goodbye' - but maybe it was better this way, because that would have felt like signing a death contract. No 'goodbye' meant that we would see each other again. Soon.
We headed away from the city center using the car I had rented the previous day. The trunk of the car was heavy with all the titanium plates and cordless drills that Carlisle had bought and sneaked in his baggage. Neither I, nor Carlisle, knew anything about the underground map of Paris - the only thing that could offer us a tiny bit of help was the touristic rendition of the catacombs map I had bought the night prior. The accuracy of it was highly questionable though.
And because we needed to avoid humans, I had to use my bonus hearing to get a glimpse of where most cataphiles were situated. At first, this felt like an impossible mission - there were simply too many thoughts to keep track of. Thousands of them intermingled, making so much noise that it almost sounded like static - achingly loud, verging on painful static.
But as Carlisle was driving, I had started to find a pattern in the noise - the one coming from underground had its own hallmarks attached to it: flashes of musty tunnels and complaints about various smells and leakages. I tried to focus on those as much as I could. After one hour of driving around, I had made an entire mental map of all the places that we needed to avoid. The center and north-eastern parts of Paris had to be avoided at all costs. The western part didn't seem to be completely safe either, although it was far less populated at this hour. That left us with the bottom half of the city.
Carlisle parked the car in a crammed parking lot that was close to Jardin de la Dalle d'Ivry and we got out to grab all the supplies from the trunk of the car. The titanium plates and cordless drills were stacked in two large briefcases, while the cotton balls and a dozen lighters were in a backpack. Not expecting much, we tried guiding ourselves using the map I had bought. According to the map, there were supposed to be at least five secret entrances in the area.
Nellie offered to check herself, whether these entrances lead anywhere. With her small size and large hoodie, she could be easily mistaken for a homeless person, so most people would simply shrug if they saw her slipping inside a manhole. The first three possible entrances proved to be dead ends, leading nowhere in particular other than some shallow sewage systems. I was getting ready to throw the map in the nearest trash can, but Carlisle stopped me.
"We have nothing else to go by, what do we have to lose if we check the other two?" he said.
And as usual, my father had been right. The fourth entrance proved to be successful. Beyond the pipes and the dirt, there was a staircase of sorts. We had to take turns with entering - Carlisle had followed Nellie soon after, after we made sure that no humans were passing by. Bella and I had to wait another ten minutes before we got in, as a sudden influx of passers-by stopped us in the tracks. Wasting no time, I took her in my arms and kept her there, as my eyes kept studying our surroundings, waiting for the humans to scatter.
"Are you scared?" she asked after a while.
"Are you?"
"Answering my question with another question is not very helpful."
I sighed, a little too focused on my task and on the ever-darkening sky to pay attention to whatever I was feeling. But she deserved an answer, regardless of my mood.
"I don't know, Bella," I admitted. "No. Maybe. I can't really focus on that right now. I just want to get this over with without anyone - especially you - getting hurt."
I felt her lips tracing a delicate line from my clavicle to my throat when she spoke again:
"Well, I am scared. I want to protect you from that thing."
"You want to protect me?" I made no effort to hide the bitter amusement in my tone. "I love your bravery, but please don't try anything out of the ordinary, like you did last time. It would kill me if anything happened to you again."
"Edward, I'm not stupid."
"No, you never are."
"I will use my shield to hurt it, like we've discussed. You and Carlisle fight it. Nellie distracts it with fire."
"Good. There is no need for other heroics this time, okay?"
"This goes both ways, you know?" she replied.
Her lips opened to let her tongue trail the side of my neck, making me momentarily forget my next words.
"Goddamn, come here," I growled.
Without any semblance of delicacy, I took her face in my hands and crushed my lips to hers. She moaned under my attack, but responded like I knew she would: interlocking her fingers in my hair, pressing herself against me, opening her mouth to allow our tongues to meet. Memories from last night came back in a rush, an entire deluge of lust overtaking me. I grabbed Bella's hair in my fist, pulling on it as my other hand fought to bring her closer to me. It felt as if we could not get close enough, no matter how we tried.
Another growl erupted from my chest when I felt her teeth sinking in my lower lip. In response, I let the hand that was in her hair wander to her neck - once there, I grabbed it tightly, refusing to let go and making her gasp from the sudden loss of air. We kept kissing each other, tasting each other, as if that could somehow solve all the problems in the Universe. There was nothing tender in the way our lips and tongues danced together; everything was primal and raw and desperate and unashamed.
I only stopped when I realized that there were no more people around. We let go of each other, the separation hurting my last remains of sanity. Carefully, we climbed down the manhole, where Carlisle and Nellie had been patiently waiting. Down here, there were no lights. Not that we needed such a thing, of course. The air was humid and putrid, dripping noises echoing through it.
"Good, now that we're here, we need to work fast," Carlisle said. "We'll leave this entrance open, so that it can catch your scent. But we need to cover as many entrances and exits as possible after that."
"But that thing is strong as fuck, I can't see how this will stop it from escaping," Nellie pondered silently.
"Well, from Carlisle's past experiences, this particular practice can confuse the werewolf," I explained to her. "It will already be plenty uncomfortable down here, since some passages might be flooded and it cannot swim, like you've said. It might not stop it all the way, but it will certainly keep it confused long enough for us to act."
"I hope you're right," she said.
A few hours passed as we ran through the black corridors, making a mental map of the places we had seen: the narrow passages, the deep corridors, the stairways, the flooded sections. Every once in a while, we would find an entrance or an exit - that was when the cordless drills, titanium plates and titanium screws came into play. Carlisle and I tried to cover every possible crevice. We stopped miles away from the passages where I had heard humans earlier that day.
Throughout our expedition, I could not help but wonder at all the silent proofs that humans had been here, way before us. In certain areas, the walls were painted with all sorts of symbols and scenes and caricatures, making the catacombs the most unexpected underground art museum. Something that especially piqued my interest, had been a small-scale stone castle. It looked old and unkempt, but the detailed turrets and arrow slits were most certainly the work of a skilled artist.
Beyond the art that boasted a grotesque aesthetic, we also came across several random items: pieces of clothing, lost harmonicas, used condoms, forgotten spray cans, decaying food. There were not many of either of those items, the underground being far better in terms of littering than the outside world.
It was a little after ten o'clock when we finally finished our job. Sewage water had managed to get inside our boots and clothes, despite Alice's best efforts to keep us in waterproof pieces. There was only so much that waterproof materials could do when you were getting waist deep through flooded tunnels. Now all we had to do was wait - but the waiting quickly became a problem. As much as I would have appreciated having the chance to properly lay out a battle plan, this was not the time, not when the Volturi were so sure about our whereabouts. The quicker we could get to fighting, the better it would be. But for all we knew, the werewolf had other victims on its radar as well.
"Do you know how humans have their little rain dances or whatever?" Nell asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.
"Of course," Bella answered.
"I wish there was some equivalent to that in our world, so that we can summon this big dumb mutt."
"It will come eventually," my father's mind was a calm pool in preparation for the battle - quite the opposite when I compared it to the raging waves of my own.
"Not fast enough," I complained.
"I wish there was a way we could contact Alice right now," Bella said.
I had to agree - down here, there was no phone reception. The last visions she had been having, right before we parted ways, had not been too clear. They were once again blurry and interlaced with flashes of light, not quite helping us. This bad reception had frustrated her, but at least she had Jasper by her side, to calm her down.
"So Carlisle," Nellie began. "You've dealt with this stupid bullshit before, according to Edward here. How come these things still exist, if the Volturi presumably got rid of them?"
"She's a little feisty with her words, this little one, isn't she?"
"I've tried talking some sense in her, but to no avail," I responded to his amused thoughts.
"Look at him trying to talk sense in a tenenager! It becomes him."
"Well, Nellie," my father said, his mind still slowly processing this new piece of information. "You see, hunting them down was quite a laborious task. You know well that they only appear when the moon is at its fullest phase, so you could only hunt a maximum of two per night, if you were extremely lucky. Then there was the problem of identifying the territories they were roaming. At best, you could identify such a territory in advance if you were in the vicinity of a Child of the Moon one day prior to the full moon… that seemed to be the time the changes in the human body started to make themselves noticeable."
He was right, as I had learned myself. One night before coming face to face with the werewolf for the first time, I had felt its stench haunting around the tourist camp in Belaya Gora.
"This meant that you had very little to base the hunting on. You roamed certain areas, hoping that you might find something. The Volturi managed to kill most of them, but they could never track down the victims the werewolf had bitten."
"Say what?"
Nellie looked at me, then at Carlisle, confused at the sudden mention of biting.
"The werewolves feed on humans," I explained.
"I mean I figured they're not feeding on vegetables, but what's with the biting?"
"Well, when they are not… actively eating people, they bite them, to keep the mutated genes going forward," Carlisle offered. "They might not be rational beings, but they still have their species-preservation instincts within them. The problem is that this change is not as swift as a vampiric change - it takes an entire month for the wolf genes to settle in. A painful month at that..."
"Gross. I mean it's not like we're much better, but fucking hell, man…"
I couldn't help but notice Bella's silence throughout this discussion. She had been next to me all along, her hand in mine, doing an excellent job at keeping her shield around me and Carlisle. To get her attention, I squeezed her hand lightly. She looked up immediately in response and I tried to search for an explanation in her gaze, but to no avail.
"Everything all right?" I checked.
"I don't know. This waiting feels off."
"True, but what can we do?"
She shrugged, not quite relieved by my reply.
More hours passed by, time moving painfully slowly. Midnight came and went, bringing nothing along with it. At this point, I knew that the full moon was far up in the sky. Meanwhile, Bella's anxiety had reached new levels - so high that I knew Jasper would have been driven insane had he been here.
"Maybe this was not such a good idea," she murmured, pulling me to the side. "We're already losing time here and Alice had seen the Volturi making their way to Paris."
"Bella, they would get here by the break of dawn. We won't be staying that long."
"You can't know that."
"The werewolf can't keep its animal form after the sun rises."
She still didn't seem convinced, but dropped it in the end. Carlisle kept telling Nellie stories from his past, to pass the time. As time went on, she started telling him bits and pieces from her life as well: how she used to sneak in movie theaters, how she stole books from various libraries, how she spent three days hunting sea mammals in the ocean one time, just for fun. They seemed to get along, but deep down they were both focusing on every little sound around us, expecting, awaiting a sign.
And deep into the night, right when we were starting to consider the possibility that somehow, someway, somebody else might have put an end to the monster's life, the sign came - it just wasn't the sign any of us had expected.
Miles away into the tunnels, a scream broke out - a regular, human scream, that belonged to a man. We froze in place, not making any other sound. I tried picking up the trace of his thoughts, but he seemed to be a little out of my hearing zone. The screaming kept echoing through the catacombs, not once stopping, simply growing more desperate.
"I thought we had closed most entrances in the southern area, how did a human get in here?" Nell tried to make sense of what was happening.
"Carlisle, what's going on?" Bella whispered, right as I was pulling her and Nellie behind me.
"I'm not sure."
"He sounds as if he is in pain. And I can smell blood. I don't understand. Wait, it's not just blood..."
While my father was analyzing the situation at hand, I could hear the screaming growing closer - close enough that I could now hear his thoughts. But the thoughts did not help much: all I could hear was a series of French slurs, the darkness of the tunnels being too overwhelming for his human eyes.
But just as Carlisle's thoughts revealed, there was more - I just hadn't noticed it before due to the sudden, unexpected, blood-curdling screams. Beyond them, there was thudding. The thudding came in three different cadences: first, the frail beating of the man's heart; then, another heartbeat - but more violent, more powerful; and in the end, the thumping sound of running.
"It's coming," Bella gasped.
"And it's not alone," Nell inferred.
"You two, please don't get closer than necessary," I warned. "Carlisle?"
"I have your back, you have mine, son."
I nodded, waiting, ready for what would come. I could not afford a failure tonight. I owed it to Bella and my family not to.
Nothing could ever truly, fully prepare a man for a war, no matter how low or how high the stakes of it were - for when the enemy stepped in the ring, there was no cure for the rage. For the hatred. For the hunger to kill. And when my enemy showed up, I had already given up all sense and logic. All that was left of me were my instincts - and they were ready for carnage.
The Child of the Moon stopped a few feet away from us. Its human eyes glistened, full of tricks; but its horrendous mouth - now open to reveal the several rows of sharp teeth - left no trace of doubt about its true nature and intentions. I could now see the source of the screaming with my own eyes - the werewolf had dragged a man with him. Its claws were stuck inside the man's jacket collar, keeping him on his knees, his face down on the wet pavement. The smell of blood was permeating the air in a way that set my lungs on fire in an instant. I heard Bella inhaling deeply this new scent, a soft growl building inside her.
"Don't," I hissed.
"Edward, don't move until it does," Carlisle's thoughts came through a haze to me, making me aware of my crouched position.
I made an effort and didn't move, waiting. As much as I wanted to turn around to make sure that Bella was keeping her poise, I could not move my eyes from the creature in front of us. With a grunt that sounded displeased, it threw the man to the side. I expected the sudden impact between the man's head and the ground to cause him to pass out, but that didn't happen.
A second look answered the silent 'why?' in my mind: I could now see, as the man was lying down with his eyes facing up, that a deep gash bedecked his cheek. It was shaped like two crescent moons facing each other, bleeding endlessly, and I understood immediately what I was looking at: the man had been bitten by the monster. And not only had he been bitten, his transformation had begun - and it was all pain, going by the sounds that kept pouring out of this throat and out of his mind.
But I had no time to dwell on that. The beast had started to examine me, its eyes seemingly understanding the menace in my posture. There was no more time to stand back. My impulses took the reins and I launched.
At this point, I should no longer have been surprised by the sheer brawn of the beast - yet I was still shocked when I found myself tossed to the wall with brutal force. I heard the old stone cracking from the collision. It took me just a second to return to my position - during that second, Carlisle had already rushed from his place, jumping behind the werewolf and kicking its rump hard, making it whimper.
"Do you need me now?" Nellie's thoughts were a mess from the anxiety of seeing the monster again, but this one made its way to me as clear as a bell.
"Not yet," I growled, propelling myself over the werewolf from the other side.
This was good. Carlisle stood behind it, keeping its forelegs in a tight grip, while I stood in front of it. This could not be easier. I fended off its attempts to bite my face off, tilting myself over, so that I could stick my teeth in its chest. The blood that gushed in my mouth tasted bitter and wrong, so I spat it immediately, dodging the creature's teeth once again when it leaned down over me.
While Carlisle and I were battling with the beast to lock it in a helpless position, I was aware of the things happening in the background: the bitten man kept his agonizing chanting, not once stopping; Nellie was studying my every move, ready to jump in at any moment; meanwhile, I had no idea what went through Bella's head and I could not see her, but I prayed that she would keep it together, despite the smell of blood in the air.
Not only did she keep it together, but she took us all by surprise when, with what I could only guess was a laborious effort, she extended her shield to cover the monster as well. While her power was very much invisible, the effect it had was anything but that: the werewolf cried out in pain, forming a sinister harmony with its victim, and its knees bent, ready to give in. Its muscles were trembling underneath the thick dark fur.
"Now, son," Carlisle instructed. "Reach for the heart."
I wasted no time and did as I was told - but my effort got interrupted when, with the last remains of power that it had, the creature ripped itself from Carlisle's grip and started running in the opposite direction.
"Hell, no, it's not going away," I spat my words and, before finishing the sentence, I was already running.
I could hear the rest following close behind me - and in the ever-distant background, the man kept screaming, left alone in the darkness, a mere afterthought in my head.
"We should get it to go through a flooded tunnel," Carlisle reflected.
"You're right," I said.
The only problem was: how would we get it to do such a thing on its own? Its sense of smell would naturally keep it away from its weaknesses. The werewolf might not have had an ounce of reason in its brain, but it still had its self-preservation instincts - and those very instincts prevented it from entering any of the side chambers that connected the way to the flooded parallel tunnel.
There was, however, a small chance that we could divert its track - after all, water was not its only weakness.
"Nellie, can you help me with some fireballs?" I asked, not once slowing down my running.
"Of course! I was waiting for my cue."
"Throw them right in front of the wolf. There's a halfway flooded tunnel that runs parallel and I want to get it to change direction."
"You've got it."
All too used to this task, the kid wasted no time. Three seconds later, I saw fireballs flying over my head. With her precise aim, they landed six feet in front of the werewolf, on the cold cement, slowly burning out. This seemed to have the desired effect: the werewolf got startled and made an erratic jump over the fire in front of it. Then it kept running.
"Fuck, it didn't work."
"No, keep going, kid!" I encouraged, jumping over the fireballs on the ground as I ran.
She listened to my advice, even if she didn't seem entirely convinced by its efficacy. More fireballs flew over my head, landing in front of the monster. And it didn't work - at first. Minutes later into this chase, seeing that there was no escape in sight from the fire, the werewolf finally gave in and did what I had been hoping it would: it turned left, disappearing into one of the many connecting chambers. We followed immediately.
The chamber itself was ridiculously small, but it led the way to a staircase. The staircase went even deeper underground - I could feel the scent of stale water floating in the air and I almost started laughing with joy over the fact that we had managed to bring the mutant creature down here. The walls bordering the staircase were tight even for us, which meant that it was particularly tough for the werewolf to slip through them.
I heard cracking noises before I realized what was happening.
The next second, the tight walls were no longer there. A raucous booming filled the air as they collapsed all over us. I only got to see a glimpse of the werewolf elbowing its way through the narrow space and destroying the fragile structure in the process, before getting buried under the falling ceiling.
"Bella!" my voice called out in an instant, purely out of instinct, dust and pebbles from the ruins above me getting inside my mouth. I knew she could not get hurt by this, but there was no room for reason when it came to her safety.
"She's right by my side," Carlisle's voice came over me like a blanket, comforting and warm.
"I'm right here, I'm good," she said.
I made my way out of the wreckage, spitting the dust and pebbles in my mouth, to see my father helping Bella out. My relief, however, did not last long. I realized that Bella's shield had snapped back at some point during this collapse and there were no more thoughts for me to hear. What I could hear, however, just dozens of feet away from us, were the noise of water splashing and the displeased barks of the monster.
"Nellie," I gasped, suddenly realizing that she was nowhere in sight.
"Oh, God, no," Bella seemed just as horrified as I was when our eyes met for the shortest second.
Not saying another word, all three of us started climbing further down, going deeper and deeper down this rabbit hole. We reached the flooded area in no time. Down here, the water came just a little above my knees, so trying to swim in it would have been useless. Had I had any blood left in my veins, it would have curdled at the exact moment I heard the next sound.
Beyond the far-away cries of the wounded man above, beyond the water dripping endlessly from the ceiling, beyond the thoughts I could not hear for the moment, Nellie's scream alerted me in an instant.
I followed the sound, barely feeling the water as I was moving through it with speed. It didn't take me longer than three seconds to arrive, yet it still felt as if a painful eternity had passed when I finally got there. And when I arrived, I knew I was too late.
Nellie's arms were floating in the water, separated from her body, surrounded by all the lighters she had brought. She was kicking and screaming, caught in the grip of the werewolf, with no chance to escape. If there had ever been any trace of humanity left in me after my transformation, its very last remains melted right that moment. Seeing the only kid I had ever cared about hurt - a kid that had already suffered too much in her short existence - made me lose all hope of a reasonable fight. All I knew was that I had to save her, so I launched mindlessly, barely realizing that I was not alone in my attack.
With the corner of my eye, I noticed my father sinking his teeth in the monster's thigh, making it howl with pain. I took this as an opportunity to do the same with its tricep. The werewolf quivered, enough to loosen its grip on Nellie and for Bella to grab her and move her away.
"Grab her arms!" I shouted, spitting the toxic blood into the water. "She'll heal with venom."
I wasted no time as I talked, snatching the werewolf's arm and twisting it around, until I heard the bones in his shoulder cracking loudly - still not as loud as Nellie's gut-wrenching crying. I wanted nothing more than to help her right this moment. But she had Bella for now, and my wife had experienced first-hand what it meant to patch a vampire back up.
Seeing that the bones of the creature were already healing, I tried kicking it in the groin. Carlisle took advantage of this momentary distraction and twisted the other arm around, breaking it. Barks of agony echoed off the moist walls surrounding us, and I felt a pang of delight. Good, the monster was suffering. As it should. I wanted it to feel every bit of pain it had caused to those I loved, only much worse.
Through the mist of this back and forth wrestling, I felt the thoughts of Nellie and Carlisle coming back to me - at first, merely a whisper; and then clearer and clearer, as Bella's shield was molding around me.
"God, this hurts like fucking hell!"
"I can't reach its heart!"
"My lighters are all wet. And fuck, it hurts!"
"This is not enough..."
Everything was coming apart in front of my very eyes and I knew I had to do something. But each time I tried to get the upper hand, the werewolf would try to attack my father, and vice-versa. In this vicious cycle we were caught in, our only hope sprung timidly from dozens of feet away from us, where Bella was taking care of Nellie. Just like before, I was not able to see what she was doing, at least not at first. But I understood what was happening as soon as the beast started bellowing helplessly - it was, once again, under her shield.
"Don't let it escape," I growled, kicking the now-weak knees of the animal and making it kneel.
"Not a chance," Carlisle agreed. "I'll hold it down, son."
With a swift movement, Carlisle positioned himself behind the werewolf and kept its arms in his firm grip. It was no easy feat, going by his thoughts and the sheer strength of the animal, but Bella was making our mission much easier with the way her shield expanded to sheath the enemy, weakening its ability to overpower us.
Without thinking further, I grabbed the creature by its throat with my hands, trying to prevent any possible attempts of it biting me. I felt its vocal chords trembling under my palms and I pushed deeper, to block the flow of air. Let it suffer a little more. And using nothing else but my teeth, I started burrowing my way through its chest. I advanced through the fur and the skin and the muscles and the fat and the blood and the broken ribs, seeking the rhythmic pulse that hid beneath all these protective layers.
It all tasted like death: metallic and noxious and abhorrent. But I pushed through, letting the blood roll on my tongue and splatter on my face, getting closer and closer to the source of it. When my teeth grazed what felt like pulpy tissue, I knew this was the point of no return. My mouth opened wider in anticipation and I bit with all my force.
With the last remnants of air in its system, the Child of the Moon howled one final time.
There was rarely pleasure in killing any being - but when I backed down with the werewolf's heart in my teeth, I felt nothing but supreme contentment. No regret passed through me when I spat the organ into the water. This loss of life did not make me feel nostalgic in any way, shape or form.
The fog of victory surrounding my head almost made the scene in front of my eyes unfold in slow motion: Carlisle ripping the limbs of the beast, Bella grabbing the lighters from the water and trying to dry them with the sleeves of her shirt, Nellie standing up and moving her arms around with great care.
"We need to get these out of here and burn them," Carlisle said. "And the heart too. Come on."
Mechanically, I helped my father carry the broken limbs and the organ through the tunnel. I was aware that Bella and Nellie were close behind us, talking in soft murmurs and trying to find out which lighters still functioned. The euphoria of the fight started to dissipate when we climbed up the stairs, to the passage above us, where the screams of the wounded man were resonating clear as a bell.
"We need to get back and spare that man's pain," my father pondered.
I ignored this, throwing the broken limbs on the ground. This was the last step before we were truly free to go. Bella and Nellie came by my side, and out of instinct, I wrapped my arms around them, watching as they pressed on the ignition buttons of the lighters, before throwing them over the remains of the werewolf. Flames burst violently in an instant, the fumes emitting a stench so foul it would have made me throw up had I been human.
"It's gone," my wife whispered.
"To hell with it," Nellie replied.
I held them close, barely registering the fact that in the background and far away from us, the man was still screaming. But it seemed that my father was still very much aware of that:
"We need to help him now."
"There's no time," I said.
"He will change, Edward. We cannot let another monster like this out in the world."
"I agree, but it's too late."
"We can spare him a life of being a demon, son. It'll only be minutes."
"Carlisle…"
"It is the humane thing to do."
His tone was kind, but firm, not leaving much room for arguments. I did not like this, but he was, in his own way, right, as usual. I wasted no more time arguing and, together with Bella and Nell, followed his lead when he started running through the dark passage, towards the source of the sound. We found the man in no time, right where we had abandoned him when we left to chase after the werewolf.
The two crescent moon wounds on his cheek were no longer bleeding. A thin, crusty scab seemed to cover them now, but it appeared that the pain had not subsided a bit. The noises he made were incorrigible - his mind wasn't much clearer, playing on repeat the very moment he had been bitten.
"You poor, poor soul," Carlisle muttered, kneeling by the man's side.
I did the same, the profound sadness of my father overwhelming me. He was grieving for this man, even if he had never met him. He was grieving for the lost humanity - and for the fact that there was no way to get it back.
"Just hold his hand in these last moments."
I did as told and stood still as Carlisle started whispering the Lord's Prayer. Understanding the deep sorrow of his mind, I took the reins and, as soon as the prayer had been finished, broke the man's neck with one swift motion. Lost in the fire of the transformation, he had not even felt his demise. It was quick and pain-free, as opposed to what he had felt up until that point.
I expected silence to follow, once the man's pulse echoed through the catacombs one last time. Instead, I realized I was hearing more thoughts than I should have. None of them far enough away to be coming from somewhere above us. None of them in French. None of them accompanied by a heartbeat.
Bella and Nellie were already by my side when I stood up to scour the darkness ahead. Once again, I wrapped my arms around them, holding them close, where I knew they were safe. From the black nothingness, four shapeless figures emerged, their eyes red and their skin paper-like, just as in Carlisle's paintings.
"Olly, olly, oxen free!"
The voice that broke the silence was sinisterly jolly and child-like, even if it belonged to a man.
I stood frozen, gripping Bella's waist so tightly that it made her twitch from pain. Nellie remained unmoved on my other side. I felt all of my nightmares coming to life at once when I heard Carlisle speak:
"Hello, Aro."
I can't believe I'm saying this, but... we are in the endgame now, guys. Hang in there to find out how it all unfolds!
Any thoughts on this chapter - small or big, critical or positive - are welcome, as always. And if you've got any theories on what might happen next, I'd love to read them! It is my pleasure to respond to everyone :).
If you need a good dose of Edward and Bella fluff after everything that happened this chapter, you can check out the outtakes I've written for the story.
Thank you all for reading and hanging on throughout this ride, you are the best!
Stay safe and happy!
