A/N: Alright it's been how long since I updated this? Sorry devoted fans…I've been busy with school and horses. This is the chapter that gives the explanations from the last chapter. I know a lot of you have questions and hopefully this will answer them. No I'm sorry this chapter doesn't tell you what Katie, Nic, or the rest of the group of kids are…I'm saving that for later *evil grin*.
On to better news I have a project in my Innovations class and I chose (actually persuaded) to do this for my project. I didn't really think much of it and then I thought it might be a good idea considering I've already written six chapters, plus this means that I HAVE to finish this story no matter what. So there you go.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight. The Twilight Saga and the Twilight characters respectively belong to Stephenie Meyer.
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Learning to Breathe
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Chapter 6
Past
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I looked up from my spot on the ground to see Carlisle still contemplating on our actions. Fang was still unconscious and looked like she was still in pain from the wound on her neck.
"Sonic?" Carlisle asked the blue creature that was hovering over his knocked out friend, "How long will she be passed out?"
"I don't know. She' been fighting a lot these past couple nights plus she used up a lot of her energy when she healed me. And the venom doesn't help anything. Plus, if Stark comes back and finds Fang passed out he'll be like a kid in a candy store." His golden eyes never left Fang's unmoving body.
"We need to move her." Esme piped up, "you and her can come back to our house so you can properly rest."
Carlisle nodded in agreement, "Sonic, if you can carry Fang back to our Jeep we can take her home. Are you as fast as her?"
Sonic nodded his head and then went to lay down behind Fang's back. Edward pulled me out of the way while Emmett and Jasper situated Fang over Sonic. They gently lifted her head and torso over Sonic's back. It was a good thing that he was bigger than she was otherwise he wouldn't be able to carry her. When her legs were hanging off both sides of Sonic and her head was nestled on the back of his neck, he raised up slowly with the help of Emmett and Jasper.
He got up slowly and the movement was so fluid that it didn't even disturb Fang's spot on his back. He started walking away and I watched as his long muscular legs were moving carefully on the ground to shift his weight evenly. I could hear the soft thud of his front paws moving out in front of him while his hind ones shoved under his body to cover the tracks that his front paws left.
Edward kneeled down and gestured for me to climb up. I hugged around his neck and hoisted up on his back.
I watched as the others were starting to take off and already saw that Sonic and Fang were already gone, hidden by the darkness of the forest. Edward picked up the pace and soon trees were flying past us.
We reached the others in seconds and I saw Sonic running behind Carlisle and Esme. Fang was still perched on his back. She looked so peaceful as she rested. The forest was quiet with the darkening night. The only sounds being heard were the four-beat steps that Sonic took with his giant paws, and the sound of air running through his lungs every now and then. Edward's breathing was even and his running felt like I was floating on air. Even the slightest jump didn't bother his movement. Sonic never seemed to bounce up anymore than when his hind end had to catch up with his front end. His tail was shot out behind him trying to keep his balance. I heard that cheetah's did that with their tails when they ran and I figured that it worked the same way with him. Edward was now running next to Sonic and Fang, and Fang's head was now dripping off the side closest to us. In a way I felt sorry for her and also thankful for helping us. If she hadn't interfered, we probably wouldn't have come out of that unscathed. Unfortunately, she and Sonic didn't have such luck.
I watched as the others were following close behind us with Carlisle and Esme leading the way. Alice looked confused while Rosalie looked, well…like she needed to punch something.
We arrived at the cars in under five minutes and I slid down Edward's back. Sonic walked over to the Jeep and Emmett and Jasper walked over with him. Emmett opened up the back of his Jeep and they slowly gathered Fang off Sonic's back and into the back of the off road vehicle. The entire time, Sonic was watching closely to make sure she would be okay. He was being protective of her.
"Will you be able to keep up, Sonic?" Edward had asked him. We were walking to the front of the Jeep and he opened the passenger door for me.
Sonic came around and stopped by my door to face Edward. I saw him take a glance back when Emmett and Jasper came into view from behind the massive car. They must be done and Fang must be safely settled in.
"I'm pretty sure I can keep up." He smirked, "Just lead the way."
We all loaded up into the two cars; Emmett's Jeep and Edward's Volvo. Alice and Jasper rode with me and Edward while Rosalie and Emmett went with Carlisle and Esme.
Sonic said that he was able to keep up, but I just didn't believe it. The entire time we were driving down the road he was there next to the jeep running at around fifty miles per hour. It was amazing watching him run next to us. His back would stretch and coil with each stride. The long tail kept his balance - like I thought - when he ran. His black claws would dig into the earth to gain speed and momentum.
It was starting to get dark out when we reached the long narrow driveway to the Cullen's mansion. I glanced at the digital clock on the radio of the Jeep. It was only seven and Charlie wasn't expecting me back until ten. I still had three more hours with Edward. That was plenty of time for him to explain everything that was going on around us. I knew he wouldn't back out of interrogation, because deep down he knew I needed these answers.
Fang was once again placed back on Sonic and he made his way up to the giant, white, mansion.
"Wow." He said as he looked up. "Roomy much?"
"Well, when you have to be cooped up on sunny days, it comes in handy." Emmett smugly replied back.
Carlisle and Esme had already made their way into the house and were turning on lights and probably clearing a spot for Fang to be placed. Edward held me close while we walked. I glanced up to him and saw that there was no emotion echoing across his face. He was deep in thought of something.
Emmett and Jasper were the main helpers and opened the door for Sonic while we followed behind. I saw that Alice had sneaked past me and was helping Esme clear a spot in the room next to the living room. Blankets were laid out to make a small make-shift bed. Alice gestured for Sonic and he walked to the blankets and went down slowly. It was amazing how Fang's being was never disrupted with all this moving.
Edward sat me on the white couch and went off when Jasper called him. Alice came and sat down next to me. Her arm wrapped around my shoulders and was trying to soothe my anxiety. I hadn't even noticed that my legs were bouncing up and down until Alice's hands were rested on top of them trying to stop the motion.
"Rosalie, go get some sheets." I heard Carlisle instruct the blonde vampire. Ever since we got to the field I had not heard one word come from her. She made her way up the stairs, the entire time grumbling something incoherent to my ears.
I looked behind me and saw that Fang was lying on the floor on her side. Her chest was heavily rising and falling and the sound of her breathing was quiet but still there. Sonic was lying on his belly, watching as the three vampires were positioning his friend so that she would be comfortable. Rosalie came back down with an armful of sheets and gave them to Carlisle who in turn set them down next to a black bag. I recognized the bag as his medical bag. I could still smell the rusty scent of blood that came off the blue creature's wound.
Edward had made his way over to me and took Alice's spot on the couch. I looked up at him and saw the worry in his eyes. I couldn't stare at them for long knowing my emotions would take me over so I glanced back to Fang.
"Edward?" I asked.
He sighed, "Yes?" I could easily tell he already knew what I was going to ask through his voice.
I had many questions but the one at the moment was the one that I could ask, "How does she know all of you?"
Everyone was starting to take their seats on the couch and I saw that Sonic was looking at us from the corner of his eye. Either he didn't trust us or he was wanting to listen to the reasoning too.
"Fang used to live with us." Carlisle had said while glancing back at our guests. "It's a long story. A story that I never thought would ever be brought up again…"
"None of us did Carlisle." Edward admitted then looked back down to me, "That's why I didn't see a need to tell you about her."
"About her?" Edward wasn't one for keeping secrets from me. Although I didn't think this was more of a secret for them…just a part of their past.
Edward looked back to Carlisle and his father nodded, "When we lived in Alaska around seven years ago, Edward, Emmett, Alice, and I were out hunting. Edward went wandering off for a while then came to us afterwards with a small blue creature in his arms. It was no bigger than a large calf and it was unconscious. We took it back to the house where we doctored it up for two days before it finally woke up. When it did wake up, it was a tough one to pin down. Emmett and Edward were the first one's to be knocked down before Jasper had got a hold of it, and that was when we learned that it could talk. She told us her name was Fang and that she was from a different…planet…" I glanced over to said creature as he continued with the story, "She told us that she had run away after a terrible accident that left her unable to be around her friends." I saw Sonic cringe and guessed that he was one of the friends that remembers this part of the story all too clearly.
"Her parents had died when she was five and lived with her friends ever since. But after that accident she came to earth and that was when Edward found her. She had no home and no where to go, so we offered her our hospitality to which she accepted. After her strength was restored she began to show us what she could do. Until that day, I had never met anyone that was able to keep up with Edward, nor someone that was just as strong as Emmett. And she was only eleven years old at the time. We also found that she was just like us when it came to blood. But for her, it made her more…" Carlisle trailed off looking for a word to describe her, "possessed, by the scent than it was to us. But back at the field it looked like she had gotten better with controlling her instincts. After a while of her staying with us, we were accounting her as a part of our family and her to us."
Carlisle sighed and looked over to the topic our discussion. He closed his eyes as he thought about what he was going to say next. The sight almost made me ask if he was alright, "When she was twelve years old she…disappeared. We searched and tried picking up her scent, but every time we did it would lead to a dead end. A note was left in the woods where we would play baseball. It said that she was sorry that she had to leave, and she figured it was for the best. She thanked us for everything that we ever taught her and gave her. She felt like she finally found another family." Carlisle looked so sad. Her leaving them must have really affected him. I looked around to the others and saw that they all had the same expression on their features. Rosalie's wasn't as struck, but there was at least some form of grief. Esme's was the hardest. Just like everyone else they welcomed into their house - like me - she considered them a part of their family – a part of her family. I didn't dare look up to Edward to see the pained look on his face. The worst thing I could go through in life was having to see my love pained.
"You make it sound like it's not true anymore." We heard an angelic voice from behind us.
I turned my head sharply to see Fang with her hind feet collected under her and her front legs strewn out in front of her; crisscrossed. She was staring at us and listening intently. I wondered if she heard her life's story being repeated.
I grimaced when I saw her wound. It was still fresh, and still open and now had dried, blackened, blood crusted around the edges. The room started to spin again and I found myself clutching at the couch.
"Bella, close you eyes and breathe through your nose." I did as Fang told and my wooziness was slowly fading away. Thinking of peaceful things always helped too. Thinking of Edward, of my family, my friends. I hated that I always got sick at the sight of blood and I wondered exactly how others people, like doctors could deal with the stuff. I opened my eyes back up and stared at her, not daring to look at her wound again.
"Just pretend it's not there. Besides it will be gone in about an hour." she instructed me.
"That is kind of annoying." I chuckled. Now I knew how Jacob felt when Edward was rummaging in his head.
"Who's Jacob?" she asked innocently.
"One of the young werewolves, that lives in the area, and is a friend of Bella's." Alice had told her.
Fang's ears pinned back and a throaty growl rumbled from her. Obviously she had been hanging out with vampires too much. But the Cullen's had a treaty with the Quilyuete werewolves. Besides Jacob was one of my best friends, even if he might hate me for choosing Edward.
Suddenly her growling diminished, but a fierce look was still on her face, "Sorry. Had a bad encounter with a werewolf about a year ago. Sonic was the one who got the worst of it though…"
"Where is Sonic?" I asked. I didn't see him where he was a couple of minutes ago.
She smiled and turned her head behind her, "He's asleep. I'm not the only one who's been fighting these last few nights."
I looked around her and saw that Sonic was on the other side. His eyes were shut and he was breathing evenly. A soft snore disrupted the silence and Fang lightly chuckled with the rest of us.
"How are you feeling? Still weak?" Edward hadn't said much since we got home. Only keeping to himself and holding me close. It was nice to hear that his voice wasn't as torn as it was back in the field.
"I've felt better." Fang answered his question.
I watched as she began to get up and had a little difficulty. Her legs were straining to catch her weight and pull her forward. She tried bobbing her head and eventually shifted her weight forward onto her front legs. I hoped that she didn't have this much difficulty every time she got hurt.
Her long legs danced across the floor and I wondered if I truly was the only one who was a klutz. The soft thud of her paws on the floor boards were so quiet, that it made her sound like she was walking on a cloud. Her muscles rolled up under her blue fur and I saw just how much muscle she truly had now that we were in close proximity. It was unbelievable that she could be so skinny and have so much muscle.
Sonic was still lying on the ground asleep. Right now he looked like a dog sleeping by the way he was laying. His head was between his large front paws and his hind legs were curled underneath him. His tail wound around his body and rested next to his side twitching every now and then. Soft snores were escaping through his nostrils showing us that he was deep asleep.
Fang was standing over by us and I had to look up at her. Her eyes were a bright golden and shown brilliantly against her dark blue fur. They were like the stars that shone at night; so bright against the dark background. They held strength and compassion. The type of eyes that you could trust in. Her head ran as long from my fingertips to the center of my elbow. From this close I could get in every detail there was of her. Some of them were terrifying and some were amazing. Like the way her fur would give off a slightly silver hue in the light of the room. The light also glinted off a streak running from her elbow down her forearm. It was a scar but why did it look so familiar.
She followed my gaze and my thoughts down to the object of my interest at the moment, "Battle wound." I saw her smirk, "One of the many."
Edward looked at her and narrowed his eyes. He gave her that look that he always gave me when he knew I was hiding something. It always worked and I would cave in and tell him what was on my mind. I wondered if it would work with her.
She sighed heavily under his gaze. Apparently she'd rolled over.
"Look Bella, I know you have a lot of questions and I'm going to do my best to answer them." she looked down into my eyes as she promised me this. "But, I don't want to give you too much information to put you in danger."
Like I've never heard that one before.
She let out a sigh apparent, to my instinctive reply. Of course it would come down to my safety. It always came down to my safety. Because I was a human. A human that was in love with a vampire that, apparently, was a big enough safety hazard to everybody, but me.
"I know." and truly she must've because of all the things that Edward used to - and still does sometimes - keep from me, because of my safety, were now little images in my head. And, thanks to her ability she was able to watch them, like she would be watching a T.V.
"Bella…bottom line; you're in danger."
I had to chuckle , "You obviously haven't been in Edward's head long enough."
She folded her hind limbs underneath her. "What I mean is that this type of danger isn't like anything you've ever seen before. Once Stark has a job, he wont stop until it's finished. Think of him as a deadly assassin. But his weapons happen to be the ones that come naturally to him. He might not be as fast as me, but he can run for a long time. And he is very strong. Any vampire or werewolf would have trouble fighting him. He is a full breed and the only thing that can stop a full breed is another full breed. Unfortunately there are no other full breeds, and I'm only a half breed."
"What do you mean?" I tilted my head like a puppy trying to make sense of this.
Her triangle shaped ears lowered in what could only be described as shame, "My mother was a Zythian and my father was a Crolovian. Stark is a full blooded Zythian. And Zythians are fierce creatures and one of the best fighters known. It is the stupidest thing to pick a fight with one. However, Crolovians are more peaceful than the Zythians but when needed they have excellent fighting skills."
She looked at the expression on my face and smiled, "I know. It all sounds Sci-Fi and way outside the box, but believe me it's true. I'm mean not too long ago you didn't even believe that beings such as vampires and werewolves existed. So what makes aliens any different?"
I had to think her question over in my head. She was right. It was hard to tell what the Cullen's actually were until I finally figured it out and fit the pieces together. And Jacob was no different. So aliens couldn't be any different. I guess if I could believe in the mystical, I could believe in the outer worldly.
Her head moved up and down, "I've fought with him before and I know what to expect. He thinks highly of himself when he fights and assumes that nobody can put a scratch on him. Although, it looks like he is starting to loose a lot easier to those remarks.
"The information that I got from his mind wasn't too clear. He met a red haired vampire up north and she asked for his help. She gave Stark the orders to find the golden eyed vampires living in Forks, Washington. There would be a human girl with them and he was supposed to take the girl to her. And if the coven gave him any trouble, to get rid of them. All except for the bronze haired male. She wanted him alive."
Bronzed haired male? Edward. But what would another vampire not care about the rest of the Cullen's and leave him alive? And why did she want me?
"Wait, Fang do you know exactly what she looks like? I mean did Stark have a good picture of her in his mind?" the words quickly came out of my mouth and I hoped that she understood what I was asking.
She was taken back by my question, "Um…yeah. Why?"
"Are you able to show Edward the image?"
Her eyes turned to Edward, "Yes."
I watched as the two exchanged glances. They were concentrating so hard that I bet if you turned out the light a wave of electricity would be connected between their golden-toned eyes.
Edward's features started to change in to that of horror. His eyes grew wide and his lips curled up over his teeth, exposing pearl white teeth. The muscles that were around me were tightening and I knew he was trying not to squeeze me too hard. I wondered what was passing through their minds.
"Victoria." Edward finally hissed.
Every fiber of my being froze. Victoria. The name that has haunted my mind for the past few months. She was out to kill me and didn't care who got in her way. And now she has a deadly killer after me too. And apparently, by Fang's standards. Nothing was going to stop him.
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A/N: Wall-la! Alright whoever guessed that Fang and Sonic were aliens gets a cookie *goes to kitchen and starts baking*.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I tried putting as much description as possible without giving away too much info. This was fun to write and look I left one of my chapters without too much of a cliffhanger.
By the way if you've made it this far and are still looking forward to reading it…thank you. And for those of you who have decided to stop reading, well, I wouldn't blame you. This is my imagination going crazy and nobody can stop it. If I want to throw aliens in with vampires and werewolves then, by golly, I'll throw them in there.
*shifts eyes back and forth* ok I'm done ranting.
Also the Zythians and Crolovians are my own creations.
As always please read and review. I always look forward to reading new reviews.