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Into the Woods
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 38
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"Basic to the Celtic tradition is the acceptance of personal responsibility and realization that all of us constantly shape and affect the land on which we live.
Intrinsic to this notion is the Celtic interrelationship with the Otherworld and its inhabitants. The Celtic worldview is a magical one, in which everything has a physical, mental and spiritual aspect and its own proper purpose, and where our every act affects both worlds."
—Nicholas R. Mann-The Isle of Avalon.
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"Edward!" Bella screeched as he climbed up the evergreen trees before jumping over to a taller one, and moved through the forest as if he was a monkey protecting the young on its back.
He ignored her, of course, too concentrated on what was going on in the world below them. There were things she didn't see or sense on the ground, but either could he.
He could only hear them.
He knew the Wraith's had to be there since they are an omnipresent force as well as an unperceivable threat because he had sensed them before. It was a constant ebbing feeling of hostility.
Also, they left zero trace of Jane.
That fact alone was daunting.
Then there were the fairies that seemed to like to use their gifts of transparency to help make Bella disappear to protect her. But would they protect her from Edward, too? Edward didn't know and he especially didn't want to risk it. He didn't want his mate vanishing into the camouflage of nature and from him.
Then there were the wolves, aka teenage hormonal shape shifters with poisonous-to- vampires, teeth. They were quietly trotting with their noses in the air following them.
Jake had warned the pack to try not to think about anything discernable and although that would have been ideal, it's impossible to guard all thoughts without constant diligence and practice. Both something the mutts hadn't the capacity to do.
Then somewhere, lurking was Victoria.
Victoria smiled as she watched their movements with apt curiosity. Mimicking Edward's moves were just too easy but she still kept a distance from them as she was questioning the seemingly unnatural attachments between Edward and the human, Bella. She couldn't understand why the Cullen's seemed to favor and want to protect this meek female and allow her to be around them freely without draining her.
It was unnatural.
She knew this first hand.
She also didn't understand James interest in Bella.
James had tracked Victoria relentlessly when she was a human, he drained her continuously just enough to keep her alive, until the day he went too far and had to change her or let her die.
He chose to change her.
"It's not like that." Edward hissed out in a whisper only he and Victoria could hear as he watched her memories with James play out in Victoria's mind.
Victoria gave a disbelieving scoff. But she was even more curious about Edward since she felt drawn to him- like most unmated succubae often do- upon meeting him. He seemed so ethereal, so… much more than what she could see. It was as if he had a secret and she wanted to know it.
She decided then that she was going to pursue him like a cat to the bird.
Catch the human, kill her, and then devour him.
"No!" Edward yelled, hearing Victoria's thoughts as he jumped from the tree he was on to another, more closely to the ground, but it was already too late. Victoria had launched herself toward Edward with her hands out like claws and her legs crouched, aimed right at Bella.
Edward shifted, hearing her thoughts, first. Victoria flew through the air, narrowly missing Edward and Bella.
She grabbed the closest branch before twisting and pushing off the tree trunk to get more momentum before she launched herself toward the girl again.
But Edward was already sprinting on the ground, hearing the wolves as they sprinted closer and the Cullen's who were now making their way to help.
Victoria's feet hit the ground in a sprint, turning and twisting and flipping like an acrobat over the forest floor and through the trees.
The Cullen's were gaining momentum, getting closer, but not close enough!
Bella screeched and clutched tighter to Edward, her body so tired and strained from holding on to him that it was painful. She didn't know how much longer she could hold on.
"I can't hold on," she cried.
"Please, just a little longer." He said, feeling the swooping of Victoria's body right before he pushed back on the ground. A deep bite of earth was displaced as he turned away from her claws.
"Oh, how I love playing with our food," Victoria cackled. "You can't protect her forever."
Edward dived forward, narrowly missing the branches and Victoria snickered as she flipped over them, making Edward pivot and turn into another direction, toward the Cullen's.
"Oh, I am going to be sick!" Bella cried, her hands were painfully clinging to her mate, possibly bleeding as he tried to get elude Victoria.
He was so worried about dodging her that he didn't sense anything other than the wolves.
But suddenly, a woman was standing in the darkness of the trees, arms up and hands out. Her long fingers outstretched as if she were trying to touch something just beyond her grasp. She was a wisp of a woman, barely there, wearing long tattered rags that draped the cold, ghostly blue and greys of her body. Her face was a mask of anger and despair, with hollowed eyes and a drooping mouth. Her dark hair wafted around her body with the wind.
She drifted into the darkness as Victoria screeched out in pain.
Edward, shuddered as he heard the snapping of trees before the whelps and cries of injured wolves halted their harsh thumps over the forest ground, before they turned to run in the opposite direction.
A low tremble on the sound waves that grew louder and louder until Edward fell to the ground and Bella let go of the safety of his body to hold her own ears, with wide eyes. The keening, the decibel more audible to the wolves and vampires firstly and rising in frequency before he saw Victoria fall from the tree, keeling over in pain, just to the side of them.
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Thunder rolled through the sky as the wolves cried and whined in the distance, running away.
Bella suddenly dropped her hands from her head before she stood up.
"Bella!" Edward screamed as he watched when she started to walk forward languidly.
Her head tilted to the side, just over her shoulder as her body twisted at the waist to look at him. Her dark eyes looked vacant as she considered Edward for a brief moment before she turned forward and moved toward the darkness of the woods.
If he could cry he would have. If he could reach for her he would have, but just as quick as she had turned to him she twisted back and moved forward toward the keeling. Edward was incapacitated. He couldn't move at all without dropping his hands from over his head. So all he could do was watch as his mate left him lying there, unable to protect her.
Then he saw her again.
Within the darkness was the screaming Banshee.
The fairy woman.
The tale she told spoke of death and Edward knew if he was not already dead, her cries would have killed him.
He screamed, closing his eyes tight when the cries grew louder and louder.
Then, as if they were never there, they stopped.
The forest grew quiet.
The birds started to chirp and the breeze filtered through the trees making the leaves dance and whistle.
All was seemingly peaceful.
Edward stood up, but he knew something was wrong.
Victoria lay on the ground, her skull cracked and broken. A thin fissure around her neck was the only telling mark that showed her head was disconnected from her body.
But he couldn't be concerned because Bella was gone.
He ran to see if she was somehow, magically back at her house or the Cullen home.
She wasn't.
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The Cullen's left the house quickly when Alice saw that Bella and Edward were being pursued by James's pseudo mate, Victoria. That left James, Demetri, and Renee alone in the Cullen house. Demetri was unwilling to leave with the Cullen's and when James left soon after them, he could do nothing but vow that he would hunt him down again, soon enough.
That just made James laugh but he held back the fact that he was intimate with Demetri's mate long ago. That would be like a death sentence for James since Demetri was still a henchman for the Volturi.
Renee was quite the woman back then, James remembered. The crisp grass and flowery smell wafted off of her, reminding him of his childhood playing in the long grasses in spring. He had spent a lot of time wandering and exploring, tracking down new insects just so he could pin them and add them to his collection. He enjoyed watching the little creatures squirm as their little life force ebbed away. He used to watch it with apt attention.
But when he saw the wispy long blonde hair with the spring smell, James couldn't help but take a deep breath in; enjoying the memories her aroma gave him. He instantly wanted to pin her and watch the life drain out of her, too.
That night was clear as the toads croaked in the nearby creek. The smoky club pulsated with country music and laughter as the blonde woman gave him a shy look while she sipped at her drink.
He looked dangerous and that was something Spring- as he nicknamed Renee, seemed to want.
His hair was brown and curly, hitting his shoulders in soft waves and she commented how much she liked it as her fingers cautiously raked through it. He caught a delicious taste of the skin on her wrist as it passed by his cheek.
A few drinks and a few slow dances later he had led her out of the club and into the alleyway. He pinned her against the wall as she giggled. Her head lolled back as he pulled down her pants pushed himself deep into her, taking her hard against the wall.
She gripped him not out of need but because she didn't want to fall onto the dirty ground. Her mind raced with a bit fear and anxiety that something wasn't quite right with the man but there was still the sense of libation fueled lust that numbed her senses. She was barely coherent enough for self-preservation when he suddenly sucked at her neck tasting the warm, light blood as it coated down his throat. She moaned, trying to push against him as he sucked harder, but he gripped her to him to make her stand still. He reluctantly licked up and down her neck and then from the blood pooling in her clavicle to clean her, then continued his thrusting until her body undulated, lightheaded, and smarting with sharp pain with slight shudders as he sealed the wound.
She was none the wiser.
It wasn't until he took her home, hoping for another round of blood and sex before he drained her completely, that he realized she wasn't living alone. He was helping her to the door when it opened and a completely new, innocent smell wreaked havoc over his senses. Brown eyes stared up at him as Spring pushed it open and stumbled inside, leaving her daughter face to face with the stranger.
The little girl's fruity yet flowery smell reminded him of the first and only woman he had loved in his human life.
He was instantly drawn to her.
"Hello," He grinned, and laughed as the little girl shied behind the door before it swung closed in his face.
James heard the lock click a few seconds later.
"I'll be seeing you both soon." He taunted before he left.
But that was a long time ago and the Flowerchild as he used to call her, was nowhere in sight in the Cullen house.
So as James sat in a high tree watching Victoria from below, Cullen's were long gone, and he wondered what his next step would be?
Did he want Flowerchild for himself or for her blood?
He had stalked her for so long, just wanting a small breath of her scent to remember those simpler days of youth; of another brown haired brown eyed beauty with flowers in her hair.
Taking in another deep breath in, James could tell that there was just a lingering residual scent of Flowerchild that stopped at the edge of two trees.
It didn't take him long to find Victoria so very close to the wafting fragrance.
James sneered, annoyed that he was surprised to see her close to the scent. There was no doubt she would have gone after Flowerchild if she knew his interest, He just didn't know why she lay decapitated. Usually, he was so in tune with her scent that he could track her anywhere. He could probably find her deep in the ocean or even buried in an avalanche, but he had barely noticed her there.
That was curious to him, yet more confirmation she wasn't actually his mate as he had once hoped.
Victoria smelled of smoky, spiced cider. To him, she was like the warmth of Christmas morning sitting in front of a fire. It was a pleasing enough aroma to him, but James couldn't decide if he wanted that, or her, anymore.
He was growing quite tired of the woman, anyway, so it didn't really bother him that she was lying on the ground decapitated, eyes looking at him, but not. It should have, right?
He was just trying to decide if he wanted to reattach it or not.
James knew he would be stuck with Victoria if he did and he wouldn't be able to evade her for long if he tried to leave her.
His thoughts went back to Flowerchild, all grown up. He wondered where she could have gone. He decided he was going to take a closer look to where her last trace was and go from there.
He stood up, about to jump when he heard the distinct sound of the break of a twig below. He stilled, looking down but he couldn't see anything below. It was just too dark and a dark grey fog rolled in the night, even for his vampire eyes.
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"We all just can't leave her out there." Rosalie said, shocking everyone out of their stupor.
The Cullen house had been quiet when they got back; only the slight heartbeat from Renee could be heard next to the ticking of a grandfather clock, and the hum of electricity.
When they got back they noticed James was gone and Demetri had Renee locked upstairs in the bed during the "burning" stage of a vampire as he up plans to go to Alaska.
He was rather territorial over her at the moment.
Beside the fact that Bella was missing, there was the fact that the treaty was at risk. The Cullen's knew that they didn't actually break it so they didn't really expect to be forthcoming with any information about Renee. It was agreed and decided that if the tribe found out, they would go from there.
But as they all sat motionless in the living room, Edward paced unnecessarily as he explained everything that happened. Demetri, curious, stood in the doorway, blocking anyone's passing and listened.
Edward, started at the beginning with Renee and the river, how she left, afraid and pregnant. He talked about Bella's return and how they met and fell for each other, and mated.
The conversation diverted more elaborately into Bella's gift, Alice's hypotheses of it, and how Bella responded to it along with other vampire's gifts. Edward then talked about the fairies hiding her, the Wraiths, and then finally the Banshee. He talked about Bella's gifts as a human and how they imagined she would be one of the most powerful vampires ever if she was to be changed.
Edward continued, speaking about Victoria and how she seemed to crack under the keening of the Banshee.
He theorized that she was destroyed because she was a threat to Bella and they all seemed to agree.
They talked avidly about where the rest of the Cullen's were while the Banshee keened and how they never seemed to make it to where he, Bella, and Victoria were. Alice supplied that they just couldn't seem to find them. They would hear them in one direction and head that way, then here them in another, but never actually finding Edward and Bella.
They claimed that they never heard the screaming Banshee, nor did they see her.
"I plan to go back there as soon as the sun rises." Edward huffed, pulling at his hair. He was reluctant to leave the last place he saw his mate but there was simply no trace of her. There was no smell or even a heartbeat.
She was just gone.
He ran to the Cullen house as fast as he could to see if she was there.
She wasn't.
"We'll go with you of course." Esme nodded and reached her hand out to him as if to touch Edward with motherly compassion, but retracted it after a moment.
He was simply too distraught to notice the gesture.
"Well," Demetri scoffed, "You're telling me all of this is from a little verse from Renee to protect her?"
"It's more like a curse,"
Demetri shook his head with a smile, "Whatever it may be; you say she brought it here, and the fairies."
"Yes," Edward nodded, not sure where Demetri was going with this.
"Can't be all her fault. Some fault lies with all of you." He huffed as if it was obvious.
"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked, curiously, leaning forward. He loved finding out new, interesting information.
Demetri continued, "My theory in all of this is that you may exasperate anything that Renee could have brought here just by being so close by. You are supernatural beings, yourself. You're Cullen's, that's an Irish name- so you all have that Irish blood- venom- running through you all."
"Well, not all of us," Jasper piped in and Alice agreed.
"Okay," Demetri rolled his eyes. "So, Edward, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett all have Carlisle's blood- his venom since he changed all of you. That's a lot of Irish magical blood right there. Add in the fact that Ó Coileáin is the Gaelic translation of Cullen, if I remember right. I'm surprised you all didn't put it altogether before now. It's so simple."
He looked around to see very curious yet confused faces.
Finally, with a sigh Demetri continued. "Where's your sense of family history, Carlisle?" he huffed, playfully. Demetri was apt in all things historical as he had been alive for so long and chronically bored. Knowing such facts also helped in tracking vampires. Knowing their past always led him to their hiding places as most went back to where they're familiar.
"The Banshee was brought by one of you, not the human girl. It's been a long belief that the Banshee attached herself to Irish families that usually have an O or a Mc in the surname such as O'Brien or McNeill or even Ó Coileáin… which is you." He looked pointedly at Edward. "The Banshee is said to foretell a death in the family. Is it very likely to be Renee since she is dying as we speak, yes? But I am not so convinced it is her. It could very well be Bella or any of you."
Edward growled.
Demetri held up his hands, "Look, don't kill the messenger," he snickered in a way that said, as if you could. "I am just putting the history out there. It could be no one, too, just a protector, perhaps."
Demetri shrugged as he leaned back against the wall.
"This is all Renee- yourperceived matesfault!" Edward stood, fists balled up in anger. "She is the one who casted some spell or enchantment on Forks. She's the one who brought over the Pandora's Box of mythical and ghostly beings and she's the one that let them loose without thought! What's next? A troll? A dragon? Gnomes?" Edward screamed out in frustration. He paced through the living room, body shaking as he pulled at his hair.
"Oh!" Alice gasped and all eyes went to her, "Brownies." She smiled and nodded as if it explained everything. "What? They would be so cute."
"I miss brownies." Emmett signed.
"Mermaids would be better." Rosalie snorted and there was a wash of agreement, except for Edward who just seethed.
"You'd make a fuckhot mermaid, babe."
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A/N: They would make fuckhot mermaids… And they are in my story Sirens. Lol Thanks for reading and reviewing.