CHAPTER 10
I was lost in thought and cradling the vial of my father's blood.
I held the cup closer to my nose and inhaled deeply as I tried to identify the weak odor masked by the blood. There was something familiar about it. I'd definitely smelled it before.
When I finally understood what was wrong, I threw the cup away from me, shattering it against the wall, and I turned to my parents just in time to see Father take a drink.
"Father! NO!"
I ran to him, but it was too late. He had already swallowed, and now the lethal drink was spreading through his body like a drought killing a farmer's crops. I hadn't been fast enough to warn him, and I caught him in my arms when he fell to the ground.
His blood flowed out of him—from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth—and my pained cry echoed through the castle.
"Marya, my beautiful swan ..." I clutched him tighter to me as I my tear-filled, blurry vision met his dying gaze. "Please, save as much of my blood as you can, and when my heart stops, take my body and your mother's body and hide them in the tomb I had built for our family." With weak movements, he wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. "Don't fret, my most beloved treasure. We will meet again, and we'll reunite our family."
"Father," I said with a small and shaky voice. "Who did this to us? Tell me!"
His breathing was labored and weak. "Him ..." he said. "It must have been him."
"Who?"
"A-ro ..."
Confusion muddled my mind about the name. I'd only heard it mentioned a couple of times. "The philosopher?" Father drew his last breath, but I couldn't immediately accept he was dead. "Father?" I shook his frame, but his head only lolled back and forth lifelessly. "Father!"
There was a huge crash by the front door, and I heard a terrible commotion as what sounded like a group of vampires stormed inside.
I didn't have a choice. I had to flee, but I couldn't do so in my human-like form, so I morphed until I could carry my mother and father in one arm each and dove out of the nearest window.
"Love?"
The landscape blurred underneath as I flew fast and hard until my wings could no longer hold us in the air.
"Was that what happened?"
I was pulled from my memories when Edward's fingertips touched my cheek.
I looked into his sad, ice blue eyes. "Yes," I said, and then turned back to the concoction of Unholy Water I was making. The ritual to revive my father was easy enough, but it was by sheer luck I found it when I did.
Unholy Water took one moon cycle to make, and since I didn't make a habit of carrying ingredients, it was in the nick of time to start the mixture from scratch.
That month had now passed, and the water was ready. In three weeks' time, I had to perform the ritual in Father's tomb. There were only two components missing, and it was unfortunately the two that made Edward the most reluctant.
We needed two sacrifices—one vampire and one human—and they had to be bled dry.
As I thought of it now, Edward grimaced, but he didn't say anything. He only wrapped his arms around my waist from behind as I packed the container of water into my bag.
It had been very risky to make the water in the Cullen's mansion, but the tenants of the studio had come back after a week, so I'd had no choice but to move into the house.
Fortunately, the pairs of the family often separated and entertained themselves, so they didn't even question it when Edward and I disappeared from time to time. They all explained it as a new couple who needed time to just be by themselves.
I placed my hands on top of his where they rested on my stomach. He often placed them there, waiting for any sign that would confirm or deny a pregnancy.
Even though there had been nothing yet, I was already convinced there was a child growing in me because Edward and I hadn't stopped our mating. It was impossible for true mates to just stop. The need to connect intimately was soul-deep and especially alluring after the initial mating.
"Are you coming with me?" I asked.
Edward inhaled my scent deep into his lungs. "I don't know what to tell my family, but I'm not going to let you go alone either."
I nodded. "I know you don't like lying, but it's only for a little while. When the Volturi are dead, we'll tell them everything. Except—" I stopped myself mid-sentence and wondered how I was gonna tell Edward that we needed to tread lightly with Rosalie.
"Except?"
With slight reluctance, I told him how I thought Rosalie would react if she ever found out that she could have children but only with one man who might or might not be dead, alive, or unborn.
"I think you're underestimating the love she has for Emmett," Edward said. "The way those two met and got together was something I'd never seen before. She could have easily walked away and allowed him to die, but she didn't, and from the moment his change was complete, the two have been inseparable. Much more so than Carlisle and Esme or Alice and Jasper. In fact"—he paused and his expression smoothed out as something occurred to him—"they remind me of us." He gave me a wide-eyed look. "You don't think they can be true mates?"
I shook my head. "If that were the case, they would have had a bunch of babies by now, wouldn't they?"
"But what if Rose can't? Or if Emmett's incapable?" he pushed.
"What do you mean?"
"It happens with humans all the time. Something in the reproductive system isn't fully developed, which makes conceiving very difficult, and in some cases impossible."
"Yes, but the change is supposed to heal the human body. It's a rebirth into a new life," I said, but he immediately disagreed.
"Not completely. Carlisle has done some research into it. Our venom cannot heal what's already gone, like a severed limb or a donated kidney. What if one of them misses a vital part for a pregnancy to be possible? We never knew vampires could reproduce, so it never occurred to us to examine either of them."
I was silent for a long moment as I thought it over, and then I nodded. "If you think it's safe to tell them everything, then we'll tell them everything."
He nodded. "I just don't want to exclude anyone. And Rose deserves to know the reason why she might not be able to have children."
The last thing I packed was the research I'd done in order to find the human sacrifice. Edward had argued with me that taking any human life for this cause would be unjust, but I felt infinitely better to know that the person was a descendent of those who had taken everything from me.
The man was American, and he was a very distant relative, so distant in fact that you could say there were no real blood ties left. I knew it would still hurt Aro though, and that was my main goal.
I was petty, and I was proud of it.
When everything was packed, all we could do was wait. I wanted to go right away, but Edward insisted he needed to prepare his family for our departure and come up with a plausible enough lie for us to leave so suddenly.
I knew he was right, but it didn't mean I liked it. For so long, I'd only had to care for myself, so I wasn't yet used to adapting my schedule and impulses around another person. I would have to get used to it though, and rather quickly too. Not only would my father soon be alive again, but I most likely had a child on the way as well.
Ten mere days before the ritual had to take place, the Cullen's finally said their goodbyes to us as we left for our "honeymoon". We weren't really married, but there was no easier way to explain the lie we'd told his family.
"We needed time to ourselves to really get to know each other."
We'd even allowed them to buy our plane tickets to France, which was where they thought our destination was.
Father's tomb was in one of the remote forests of our homeland, now known as Romania, and I had told Edward from the start that once we were on European soil, I wanted us to fly, which meant I would have to carry him.
He wasn't too keen on the idea, but he recognized it as the fastest and most discreet way of travel since we'd be flying so high up we'd look like birds to the human eye.
I dropped Edward off at the entrance and morphed back into my human-like shape. He looked somewhat nauseous and had to sit down with his eyes closed before he could speak.
"I have to say flying without a plane isn't my favorite transportation method," he said, which caused me to laugh.
"I guess I'm just used to it." We exchanged a look and our smiles fell. "I have to fly back for the human. Will you find a vampire on your own?"
He nodded with reluctance. "Yes, I will."
I crouched down in front of him and gave him a deep kiss. "Thank you. My father will reward you well for this."
"I don't care about any rewards," he said and looked at the ground. "I'm only doing this for your sake."
"And I love you so much for it." With those words, I once again took to the sky to find the human.