Chapter 32
The screams could be heard throughout the house and if the Cullen's had any neighbors, there would have been some sort of outside response.
But they didn't and there wasn't.
The Cullen's stood in shock and awe as Jasper clung to Renee, her body flush with him as he drank from her wrist.
At first it was bloodlust and then it was to remove what he could of the venom.
Finally, upon the urging of his family, he released her and she fell to the ground with a thud.
There were gasps all around the room.
"I did sense the essence of garlic in her blood," Jasper said as he smacked his lips together with a smirk and then straightened his clothes.
Charlie Swan was cowering on the floor of the Cullen dining room, trying to become invisible in a house full of vampires.
His ex-wife, Renee lay just feet away with her eyes closed and her face white.
She was lifeless.
He didn't know if she was dead, or almost dead, or undead but it wasn't as if he could check. He was too busy trying to get himself underneath the table.
"You aren't supposed to eat our dinner guests for dinner, Jasper." Esme chastised. "You were supposed to have some control."
"I was very controlled! There's not even blood on the rug!" Jasper spat. His eyes were turning a swirly bright red from his meal.
They were going to have to hide him for a while; lock him down at his house, or something.
But then, with Charlie's sense of fear radiating, the Cullen's shock, and Renee's waning life, he began to feel a bit guilty.
"Where's Bella?" Rosalie sighed, not really caring but thought that with Renee on the ground and Charlie hiding, that he was probably wondering the same thing just unable to ask.
"Oh," Esme looked around, "Maybe Edward ran off with her? He is quite overprotective of his mate, after all."
"He does seem to have some concerning domination or control issues. We may need to look into that further." Carlisle sighed before he left the room for a few moments. He came back with some medical supplies.
"Bella's fine," Alice sighed waving them off. "She's at Edward's trying to calm down after watching her mother becoming dessert. I don't know how I didn't see this coming. I saw it as Bella, but definitely not Renee. Weird!"
Carlisle picked up Renee's wrist and inspected the wound before he brought it to his mouth and licked it. The cut seemed to close right before Charlie's eyes.
Esme walked back toward the back of the house and disappeared behind the door. Moments later she returned with some linens and pillows.
Then, like in a nightmare, all vampire eyes landed on Charlie.
The man shook. "Don't eat me!" He cried.
"Most of us are vegetarians. Jasper is apparently not-at-the-moment-vegetarian, though." Alice smiled and walked toward Charlie. She bent forward and whispered, "I can see you'll get through this by just staying real still… Pretend Jasper is a T-Rex or something. Don't move too much or he'll notice you are food and I'll try to get him out of the house. M'k?"
"Oh, God!" Charlie shuddered.
Alice's eyes got hazy for a moment and she frowned, "Best be quiet, too."
Carlisle was hunched over and taking the vitals of Renee. He was frowning with his head tilted to the side. "So, Alice, what do you see about Renee?"
"A blank slate, I am afraid. I think there isn't much, if any venom in her for her to change but it's hard to tell. We could set her up with a blood transfusion maybe? I know he didn't suck her dry."
"Yeah, I agree. There's a faint heartbeat." Carlisle sighed. "And there's the whole aspect of the treaty."
Jasper scoffed. "What they don't know can't hurt them!"
"I second that!" Emmett boomed.
Alice was nodding. "They didn't know that she was even here, right?"
"But there are witnesses," Rosalie huffed, pointing a manicured finger at Charlie. "If Renee lives and she goes to go back to Florida she'll probably need to be committed… Or she'll be killed as the Volturi will certainly hear about it."
"How do you figure?" Emmett scoffed.
"Easy… Buzzwords." Rosalie sat down on the couch next to Emmett and he wrapped his arm around her.
"Rosalie is right," Alice said, "Demetri, that tracker vampire, is also an excellent hacker. He searches for buzzwords online and seeks out the source and if needed- he disposes of the breech."
"I always wondered how he did things like that! I don't have the attention span for that kind of thing. Kudos to him." Emmett said, before flicking on the TV, searching out a sports game.
"He's gotten lazy, though, so we may be okay there, too. He barely leaves the castle."
Carlisle sighed as he lifted Renee up into his arms and walked her to the hospital bed that Esme had just wheeled in. "Alice, try to search out the outcomes of Renee remaining human, dying, and also becoming a vampire."
"Emmett and I are moving away again if you're going to change her," Rosalie sneered causing everyone to look at her. "She'll be a succubus for sure and I definitely don't want to deal with her newborn stage."
Bella and Edward walked in the door and Jasper twisted and sneered at her. He snapped his jaw as Edward slowly pushed Bella behind him.
"Don't even think about it, Jasper." Edward warned, already hunching and ready to attack. "You should probably leave for home and get yourself together before I have to disarm you."
There were snickers from the Cullen's, no doubt visualizing Jasper without his arms.
Bella imagined Emmett grabbing the arms and pitching them out into the woods and make Jasper go and fetch them.
Jasper grunted but swiftly walked out the back door and started to run into the woods, quickly disappearing behind the tree line.
Esme walked over to Charlie and held out her hand to him. "Come on out Charlie, everything will be fine, now." She cooed at him. Charlie grabbed her hand and she pulled him up and onto his feet.
Charlie was a bit dazed breathing in her scent.
"Vamp," Carlisle laughed and Esme gave him a slight wink.
"So what's the master plan?" Edward sighed, watching Bella watch her mother on the gurney. There was a soft beeping sound once Carlisle hooked up the monitors.
Alice huffed, "I seeing Renee wigging out, at first, naturally. She was already afraid of Edward and now that Jasper had a nibble-"
"But will she be able to assimilate back into society with the knowledge of vampires?" Carlisle asked with a bit of frustration, "or is she going to be a liability or worse… a succubus?"
Alice hazily watched as Carlisle hooked up some of the bags of various liquids and stuck a needle into her arm to make a medicinal catheter as Esme left to change her clothes with super speed. Bella could barely tell that her mother hadn't already been wearing a nightgown.
"It's too soon to say." Alice said when her eyes refocused. "The wolves are dumb and shouldn't be a problem as they didn't know she was here in the first place, unless Charlie said she was- which he didn't. The only liabilities I can see are Bella, which is neither here or there as she'll be a vampire someday anyway, and then there's Charlie."
All eyes went to Charlie.
Charlie shrunk back until he hit the wall behind him.
"Dad?" Bella moved toward her father warily. He looked so scared. "Mom is going to be okay, alright? Either way, you know, she's alive and breathing… she's going to be okay."
Everyone watched Bella move closer as if Charlie was a rabid dog. He wasn't moving; he was just anxiously watching everything around him.
"We're not dangerous, dude." Emmett scoffed and waved the man over, "Just shake it off and come watch the game. Renee isn't going anywhere, you know. Chillax. We'll hook you up with some chips and beer, if you want."
"See? Charlie's already compartmenting this whole thing and moving on," Alice smiled. "I knew you would."
Charlie started to move and sat down next to Emmett with care, as if jostling the man would make him the next meal.
"Sorry about your ex, man. That bites…or sucks... whatever." Emmett said lightly.
"It's okay… she had it coming after everything she's done to me and Bells."
"Like Karma!" Alice grinned and then sang, "Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon- You come and go- You come and go-" as she walked out the back door after Jasper.
"Yeah, and this karma is apparently a bitch named Jasper."
Charlie and Emmett both snickered before Emmett upped the sound on the TV, washing away the sound of Renee's monitors.
A/N:
So Renee had a bit of Karma on her plate at dinner. What do we want for Renee; human or vampire or death to become her?
"Karma Chameleon," By: Culture Club