Disclaimer: I disclaim all but my original characters, including any references to songs or movies.
Rosalie sighed from underneath the jeep, and Emmett crouched down to see. They had just gotten back from a visit to see the main branch of the family, and were on a new trip to visit the southeast. It wouldn't be terribly easy, but it was a place they hadn't been very much, and they wanted a little time away from the crowded house of the Cullens. They had invited Jasper and Alice, but new that Jasper wasn't too keen to visit the part of the country that had made him so miserable, and Alice wouldn't go without him.
Rosalie especially wanted to get away from a certain smelly pest. But as much as Rosalie hated those stupid dogs in Forks, she was seriously missing Reneesme. She looked to the side of her, where Emmett had scooted under the car to stare at her. He smiled a big goofy grin, and she scowled back at him.
"Do you miss those mutts so much, Rose?" She hissed and swatted him, and he lifted the jeep up to get out from under it. She followed him up for a better shot, while he laughed and showed off those pretty little dimples she admired so much, not that they would spare him her wrath. She pounced him, and quickly found herself in his arms, being passionately kissed.
"Mmn..." She sighed, then smiled against his lips, "I miss my niece, you big oaf, and I don't like the fact that she's grown up so much. Although, I don't mind so much how pesky Edward is making himself for the both her and that dog of hers."
Emmett laughed loudly, and it bounced around the empty rest station they were stopped at, while his movements jostled her on his chest. "That poor girl just wants to marry her doggie, and Edward still says he has to wait until she finishes college! Bella's just indulging him, too. Everybody spoiled Nessie so much as a baby that she's used to getting what she wants, but Edward's being so stubborn about this!"
Rosalie smiled at her beloved, then looked back at the jeep she'd been fixing.
"We really should have taken a different car, or gone without. It's not like we're going to be doing a lot of interaction with the general populace, and the jeep is a bit big for our needs. It's also wasn't really made to be driven on highways."
"Aw, but Rose, I wanted to go four-wheeling across the country in it. You were the one who wanted to stick to the highways." He grinned widely up at her, and she pulled her fingers up to his head and buried them in his curly hair. Then she used her grip to pull his lips to hers again, shifting her legs to straddle his waist over the pavement. He kissed her so long, that, if she breathed, she would have suffocated, but, seeing as she did not breath, her continued to kiss her for minutes. Hours maybe? She never knew anything but what he made her feel when they were alone together, and it had really been too long since they'd had a weekend away from the Cullen household.
She felt his hands travel down from her shoulders to her hips, and suddenly they were flipped, and he was hovering over her. She broke away from his mouth and took a large gasp of air. Looking past his beautiful face, she watched another car pull into the dim rest area, and saw a small family pile out of a sedan.
"Get up Emmett," She sighed, "They probably wouldn't appreciate a show." He growled, but did as she'd bid him, rolling to the balls of his feet, and pulling her upright with him. They'd stopped here in the first place because it sounded like the jeep was having a little trouble, more than likely with the speed they'd been driving it. It wasn't a sports car, which was another reason she hadn't really wanted to take it on their trip. The woman, obviously mother of a rather large (five) group of children gave them an odd look as she passed. More than likely she was wondering why they'd been necking on the pavement.
Rosalie lifted an eyebrow at the nosy woman in a fashion she was sure Edward would call arrogant, Anyone else would too. So what if she was arrogant? She was beautiful and intelligent and older than that woman, and probably her mother too. If she wanted to have full blown sex in a parking lot, that too would be none of her business. Emmett laughed, and waved at the group, who proceeded to look absolutely petrified. The father got out of the car then, and tried to stare Emmett down.
Emmett just grinned, and the poor man was quaking in his boots. The family hurried back into their car and pulled out hurriedly. Rosalie supposed they were on their way to the next station several miles down the highway. With a smirk, Emmett reached his hands back around her hips, and she glared at him in return.
"I didn't see anything too terribly wrong with the jeep," She said coldly. How could he still be in the mood after seeing that family go by? "We should get it back to the house so that I can take a closer look, though."
Emmett's face fell. She understood. Since Reneesme had been born, they hadn't taken another long honeymoon, and they were long overdue. They had been instead taking short week-long vacations, but, even then, Nessie grew so much in their absence, and it really hurt Rosalie. Especially now. The girl was almost seven, which meant she was also almost an adult. Edward and Bella had put off Bella's first college venture at Dartmouth for the sake of watching her grow up, and now it was almost time to go back.
Rosalie sighed and she felt Emmett wrap his arms around her, gentle now, rather than amorous. How much she would give if only she could have been a mother, just like little Bella. Yes, little Bella, who thought she was a lion, and turned out to be of more help than they could have asked for.
But if only Rosalie could have the same joy as Bella. A child that was hers and was Emmett's. It would be perfect too, boy or girl, maybe with his dimples and curls. She slid her own arms around her husband and they stood there while she dreamed of things that would never be, and he hoped that she could be happy without.
"Nessie," whined Jacob, "We should just elope. Then we wouldn't have to get your dad's permission for anything." Reneesme whipped around to face her darling, bronze curls bouncing, and sent at him a burst of anger. The lovely thing about it all is that she no longer had to touch him to do it, though, she could tell that more than just he was upset about that. Everybody like touching her. She was their baby, their joy, their sheltered little girl. They didn't want her to grow up and were obviously stalling for time.
But all of the frustrating delays and obstacles in the world wouldn't stop her from getting the wedding she wanted. She wanted one like her Mama's, with perfect bows and ribbons and flowers. She wanted a perfect cake and beautiful music with all of her family, all of Jacob's pack, and all of the friends she'd made as a tiny toddler when the Volturi had come for her.
But most of all, she wanted her Daddy to walk her down the aisle. However, her father knew that very well, which was precisely why he could get away with prolonging her marriage to Jacob by requiring her to go to college first despite the fact that her mother hadn't been yet. (She'd used that argument before.) But of course, not everyone goes to college, she had said.
He'd gone onto a long lecture about something related to her intelligence and financial support and opportunities others didn't have and and blahdy blah blah. It was bullshit, but she let him win in order to get what she wanted in the end. Jacob had just better get used to waiting a little longer.
It was a little late this year to start applying to colleges, but she could start next year. The problem with that, was that her father wanted her to go to Dartmouth with him and her Mom. She couldn't go to college with her parents! Nessie huffed and allowed Jacob to catch up to where she had wandered in her anger. She sent him a mental pulse of everything she'd been thinking about, and he staggered a bit at the sheer amount of information.
"Oh, Nessie," he said quietly, "I hadn't realized that you felt that way about it. Why didn't you tell me? I was just getting so impatient and everything without even thinking about it. I'm sorry honey."
"I didn't want to try to force you to do things the way I wanted, and I was hoping to persuade Daddy to quit stalling us before we got this frustrated with the whole thing." Reneesme's clear, rich voice filled the space around them in the little glen they'd come upon while walking. She didn't speak often. She had no need, but, when she did talk, people around her listened intently.
"It's okay to wait if you want all that frilly crap and all those people," he said, and then, realizing his mistake, he tried to smooth it over, "I mean, I'll get the whole pack to come, and wear whatever you and Alice want me to wear, and I'll even put up with those murdering friends of your family, and uh..."
She laughed brightly at him. He was terribly awkward with words sometimes, but she loved that part of him. He had sat down on a fallen tree, and she jumped to claim her seat in his lap. It wasn't as big as it had been even a year ago, but it was still big enough, and she wouldn't be growing at all soon. She sighed happily, and grabbed his big, warm arms, pulling them around herself like a big, warm blanket. It wasn't that she was cold. She didn't really get cold, but his heat was just so comfortable!
Jacob leaned his head forward to kiss the top of hers, and then let his cheek rest there, watching the path they'd just taken. He was sure someone would come to interrupt them soon. They were all so clingy when it came to his Nessie. The two of them could hardly get a moment alone now that it really mattered to them to be alone. Right on the mark, his nose started itching, and Bella burst from the brush, landing at his feet gracefully.
She was really very graceful, too, and she never let him forget it now that she wasn't a clumsy little human. He waited for her to start yelling at him for sneaking off with Nessie, but she didn't. She looked at Nessie instead.
"Reneesme," she said, "Can't you at least try to see this our way? We wouldn't even have to have the same classes. You could go during the day while your father and I take night classes. We've only had you a little more than six years. Most children stay with their parents until they're close to twenty. We aren't being unreasonable by asking you to stay with us for another four years."
"But," Nessie said angrily, "I don't understand why it matters so much! We'll have eternity to be together, and I want to marry Jacob now."
Jacob smiled at his spoiled love. But Bella looked like her temper was about to explode.
"Exactly," She snapped back, "You'll have eternity to be with Jacob, but once you marry him, you won't be ours anymore. You'll be his, and I'll be like any other woman whose children have grown up and left her. Only I'm not even twenty-six yet. It isn't like we're barring you from seeing him while we go. Jacob's free to come and go as he pleases; we have a house down there big enough for the whole family. You know." She continued, getting louder as she went, "We could be telling you to wait until I'm old enough for my only daughter to get married, but we aren't! If you want us to see you as an adult and let you marry that big lump of brown than maybe you should stop acting like a spoiled child when you don't get your way!"
With that, Bella spun on her heel and left the way she came, and Nessie snarled after her, but stayed where she was. Bella's temper had always been a bit hot, but, after getting her fangs, it had gotten explosive. Jacob patted Nessie's hand to see if she was alright, and she sent a thought through her hands. She was guilty for upsetting her mother, but not guilty enough to apologize, and not sad or angry like he had thought she'd be.
"She says that like everything is going to change so drastically when we finally get hitched," she grumbled, "I just don't think she's right about that. Even if we get a house of our own, we'll be within a few minutes walk from both the main house and Mom's cottage, right?" Jacob rubbed Nessie's shoulder with his big hand and turned her upper body to face him.
"It isn't quite so simple," he answered quietly, "You remember I've been yours for as long as you've been alive. And you've been mine for longer than she's had you by a couple of days. She's known that she would have to give you up for a very long time, and you know they both go in your room at night just to watch you sleep, even now..." Nessie didn't answer, she was subdued, but he didn't sense that he'd really made her see any other opinion than her own. She was as stubborn as both of her parents put together. He sighed and pressed his lips to her forehead.
"We should get back," he said when she stayed silent, "I'm sure your aunt Rose has found a reason to come back from her vacation to see you." Nessie finally smiled, hopped up, and took his hand as they walked slowly back to the house.
Alice looked up at the ceiling of the Cullen house. She was having some really iffy visions as of late, and they were bothering her. She new it had something to do with the Volturi, but she couldn't understand what. She kept seeing a vision of a human with dark reddish-brown hair and steel gray eyes.
She looked sick, and in pain, and Alice couldn't figure out what it meant for them, as she didn't see her having anything to do with the Cullen's themselves. Alice sighed, and tried to put it from her mind. Jasper looked over from his seat beside her and raised an eyebrow. She looked at his heavily scarred face, and laid her hand over his own, which was also covered in the same silvery scars.
They were sitting on the fluffy white couch in the Cullen's large living room, while Carlisle and Esme were in the kitchen, dancing to soft music that Edward was playing on the piano. Of course, they should have been doing something else, but since they were all pretending to have moved out of Forks, they couldn't very well go out to town, could they?
Carlisle was having a rather difficult time adjusting to the lack of work. Everybody knew he loved working at hospitals, saving human lives, but even that was put on hold for the sake of watching Nessie grow up. And there was no way he could continue working as a doctor in Forks with how long they'd been there, and how young he still looked.
The reason Nessie and Bella stayed was for Charlie, and everyone else stayed until Nessie would stop growing. Nobody wanted to miss that. But, with her almost grown, Alice could feel the tension in the air. She sighed again, and Jasper's hand twisted to hold hers and squeezed gently. Then she got another vision of that woman in her mind. She was in an old, dungeon-like cell. There was someone else with her, a man with dark skin, and he was crying, but she looked worse. She was bruised and had casts on her left arm and right leg. They clung to one another tightly. Both looked very young, maybe Nessie's age (or at least the look of Nessie's age).
But what she saw next was what shocked her, and caused Edward to stop in the middle of Esme's song. Marcus had entered the dungeon, and he looked, dare she say, panicked?
The vision cut then, and her eyes focused to everyone's gaze. Edward was right in front of her, looking terribly confused.
"Marcus? What would Marcus have to do with some humans that doesn't involve dinner?" he asked her, and the room got crowded as Bella joined the curious group, and they all closed in on her couch.
"I don't know Edward, but he looked so odd..." Alice paused and brought up the image in her head that she had seen, "I don't know what this has to do with anything either. I haven't been trying to find him either, so this must have something to do with something I've been trying to see, but I can't make any connections." She frowned, and Edward started explaining to the rest what she'd seen, just as Jacob and Nessie walked into the room.
"She saw two humans in a dungeon, like the one we were in for a little bit in Volterra," Bella shuddered at this, and then hissed, so he took her hand and dragged her body to his, "One was a woman she's seen in a vision before, and the other a man she hasn't. But the weird thing is that she saw Marcus come in, and he didn't look bored. He looked almost... scared." He finished, and the group started trying to figure it out individually.
"Maybe she's been focusing on what the Volturi might do to get to Nessie or us for so long that she started focusing on the Volturi themselves, and this is just a fluke?" said Carlisle, and Esme seemed to relax in his arms.
"But that doesn't answer the question of what he was doing with those humans, or why he was scared," Jasper reminded them from beside her.
"He wasn't really scared, per say," she argued, "He just looked a little panicked, that's all." It was quiet for a moment, while the Cullen clan digested the information, and Alice sighed again.
"Either way, it doesn't affect us yet, so we shouldn't get too worried about it. Those humans probably won't be alive for long anyway, so I doubt I'll see any more of them..."
He was back. He had been for some time; he had only left for a few minutes, only to return and lean against the wall opposite her and Rickie without a word. He stared, and stared, and looked like he was concentrating hard on something. I was certain that Rickie was close to pissing himself, but I couldn't look over at him, not with Marcus looking at me.
He was entrancing, that was for sure, even though I most certainly did not want to be entranced, I couldn't help staring back at him. He really was beautiful, even with the creepiness factor of bright red eyes. Even creepier, the milky film on them that he seemed perfectly capable of seeing through. The cloak he wore fluttered as he moved, pulling out a hand to brush his long, dark hair from his face. I really wanted to braid his hair in that moment, but thankfully resisted the urge to reach for him.
I had a feeling that if I did, he would reach back, and I might end up touching him again. I wasn't sure if my heart could handle the strain so soon. I sucked in a breath, and imagined I had balls to ask him a question.
"Do you mind if we try negotiating something?" I asked, and he blinked as if I'd startled him from a daydream. Oh, joy. He hadn't really been looking at me at all, and I'd been ogling him like man-meat on a spit.
He was slow to answer, but eventually he did, in that pretty Italian accent I liked so much. I was seriously beginning to wonder how long it took for Stockholm Syndrome to set in. My affection for this monster was unexpected and unhealthy.
"What is it you would like to negotiate?" he asked me. He had stepped closer, until he knelt again in front of me, though even then he was still tall enough to intimidate me. He looked curious now, and I faltered for a moment.
"Send Rickie home," I said, and he blinked again.
"No," he replied bluntly. I got angry again, and I could hear Rickie breathing heavily, but I knew he would stay quiet.
"Why the hell not?" I spat back, and he looked a little startled again. What, did he think she'd nod her head like a good dog? "You want something from me, so I suggest you give me something in return! I want Rickie to go home, and you want me to have your monster-spawn. I think I'm asking for something reasonable. Asshole."
Marcus laughed at me then, and it pissed me off even more, but then he paused after taking a breath. Letting out another chuckle, he leaned in to press his face into my shoulder, then my neck again. I held still, though I was practically shaking in my anger.
"Why do you do that, monster?" I asked him, feeling confidant that he wouldn't kill me. At least not yet... He pulled away for a moment to speak, and damn me for feeling a little abandoned.
"I am getting accustomed to your scent Luce, so that I don't try to kill you on accident," he replied. Oh. Because that made plenty of sense. Then he stuck that cold stone nose back against the side of my throat.
"It's Ms. Baker," I snapped impatiently, "And you didn't answer my first question."
"Mmn," he mumbled, this time without moving, so I could feel his lips whisper against my skin and I closed my eyes and swallowed, "He has seen us and knows us. The boy cannot be allowed to leave as he is."
"As he is?" I pressed, then I looked at the object of the conversation himself, who still stayed quiet. Rickie watch me with blurry, teary eyes for a moment, clenched his jaw and fists, then turned away as if he couldn't bear to see the scene the monster and I made. Marcus didn't speak again, so I continued my line of questioning. "What would have to happen for Rickie to get out of here safely?"
"The only way I know for you humans to be dealt with after an encounter of this kind is either death, or becoming like us." It was amazing. I knew they couldn't be human, that they were monsters, and that we wouldn't survive this vacation. But to hear it out loud just made it so real. My heart froze, and I handled the truth by growing calmer. We would die, that was a forgone conclusion. I didn't count becoming like them as living. But perhaps I could... no. I wasn't sure that I could do anything at all.
Rickie, of course, did not handle the news that wasn't really news as calmly as I did. He exploded.
"What? What do you mean the only way? Why did you freaks involve us in the first place? Just let us go! I'm too frickin' young for this shit! Damnit!" He slammed his hand against the wall, and it came back bleeding. I felt, rather than saw Marcus tense up. It seemed as if he had stopped breathing all together, and a snarling noise came from his throat before he was away from me and out the door. It slammed shut tightly behind him. I felt the nagging suspicion that I was extremely lucky to have lived at that moment.
It had all been going rather well for Marcus. He was alright with her scent, she was talking to him, and he had been using the time to think about how to keep her alive. But then that bratty little boy had started to bleed, and everything was ruined. Thankfully, Marcus had just fed directly beforehand.
He felt fine now, of course. The frenzy had passed, and, when he took the time to think about it, that quiet moment before the storm hit had unclogged that piece of his brain. He could think now in ways that he hadn't been able to in... many years.
He still hadn't come up with a solution to keep Aro from deciding to get rid of his Luce, but he was certain that he no longer needed to. Aro wouldn't ever attack one that Marcus was this fond of. The bond had strengthened again in a very short amount of time. It still grew, and the scent was a tangible mixture of the two of them. Marcus had little doubt that it was too late for Aro to prevent him from loving her. He didn't. Not really. Not yet.
But he would, he knew. And Marcus was not wrong about these matters. She would love him as well, it was obvious she had already begun to want him with her. But now their was a bigger problem. He wanted to change her now. He couldn't afford her dying from childbirth. Marcus wasn't sure how Aro would react to that tidbit of information. Marcus was sure he wouldn't offer her up to another vampire, and he was sure Aro wouldn't kill her. But Aro was extremely crafty when it came to getting what he wanted, and what he really wanted was for the experimental child to be linked to them, the Volturi and not it's guard, by blood.
It was a way that Vampires simply were not capable of attaching themselves to one another. Bloodlines were non-existent, and pedigree had no meaning to them. Marcus was wrenched from his thoughts by a familiar voice.
"Marcus! Brother! What have you achieved with the girl in my absence?" Aro really didn't expect an answer, and kept walking down the hall to ascertain via touch and a little reading of Marcus's mind. So Marcus wasn't surprised when Aro was surprised when he answered.
"I have learned much brother, and you may not be pleased with the progress." Aro glided to Marcus's side and took his hand impatiently. The tingling feeling was a little sharper this time, and it stung a little. Aro's face fell in degrees, until he wore a frown on his lips and another on his forehead.
"I see," was all he said. Then he turned and went the other direction, more than likely in order to scheme a way around Marcus's decision to change her quickly and then keep her.
She would be a beautiful immortal. The only thing that kept her from being a stunning human was the slight discoloration of her skin, and the slight deformity of her bones. Her hair was vibrant, thick and in loose waves and curls of a pretty reddish and brownish mix. Her eyes would be red, and bright, and the delicate, petite form of hers would stand tall and strong like her spirit. Marcus wanted to see it, and he wanted to see her, so he turned to go to her side, when he remembered the boy, and his bleeding hand.
"Aro," he called, and in a few moments his brother returned to the hallway from wherever he had been. He was wearing a satisfied look, as though he'd solved the problem Marcus was causing by bonding with that girl. It was a bit unnerving.
"What should I do about the boy in there who is bleeding?" Marcus asked cautiously.
"Why don't you fetch the woman for now, and bring her into my office. I wish to speak with her, and leave the other in his room for now."
Marcus was suspicious, but could find no reason to refuse his brother the right to speak with his Luce, so he went to retrieve her.
As soon as the fog caused by Marcus disappeared, I grabbed Rickie's injured hand with my uninjured hand and pulled him close to inspect the wounds he'd given himself. I ripped a strip off of the bottom of my sundress. It was one of my favorites too, a pretty green dress with big, pale yellow flowers in wild patterns. Oh well. The worst part of it was really that it wasn't as easy as it was in the movies. The dress was even of a flimsy material, but it was difficult to tear, and tore in an uneven strip. But we made do. I ripped another tiny chunk to wipe the blood off of Rickie's hand. By this time I new Rickie was looking at me like he pitied me for my feeble strength.
"Do you want some help Lu," he asked in an unconvincing teasing voice. (It was unconvincing because it was so hoarse and still shaking with the force of the emotions that led to the bloody hand.)
"I'm good," I replied, and I was. Once the blood was cleared away for a few seconds, I could tell there were only a few shallow scratches on the side of his hand, but they bled like a bitch, so I shoved the bloody cloth against them and wrapped his hand tightly with the longer strip of sundress. Then, for good measure, I tore another piece off of my ruined dress, and used it to wipe Rickie's messy face.
"Egh," he complained, "Lucy I don't need you to do that!" Mission accomplished. I'd made him smile and distracted him from the situation.
However, he quickly sobered and asked me the question I'd been dreading most.
"Why do you let him touch you, Lu?" He sat down in front of me on the floor, as if to say he wouldn't leave until I answered. Stubborn brat.
"Well," I began, "You know how attracted to Heidi you were when we first met?" he nodded as if he understood, and I was glad he accepted it, because somehow I knew that it was much more than just that. Something about that monster made me feel so... I didn't want to think about it, much less explain it to my baby brother!
I sighed, then I started to hum, and the humming changed into singing, and I was singing 'Hide and Seek', by Imogen Heap. It was soft enough to soothe Rickie and he wrapped his big black arms around my waist and laid his cheek on the uninjured part of my lap. I looked at his hand, and it didn't seem to be bleeding through my makeshift bandages. Good.
"You know," he said, quieter than a whisper, "I don't think I really regret much at all Lucy. I think I'm gonna be alright... You don't have to worry so much about me anymore. You can ...l-let go." His voice kind of gave out toward the end.
I choked on the words I was singing and took a shuddering breath. Oh, no. How could he be comforting me? Wasn't I supposed to be protecting him? And here he was, giving up already, telling me to let him go?
"I could never let you go Cocoa-Butter. You're everything," My voice shook and squeaked, and for the first time since this whole debacle started, I let a few tears fall. But I stopped myself before the water-works really started. I swallowed, then I sniffed and wiped my eyes, "I won't give up on you because you're worth more than a thousand of me. You're going to go to college, and get a dog, and meet a nice, pretty girl who'll knock your socks off... and hopefully not take you to Italy to be slaughtered." I added with what should have been a smile, but ended up being a grimace.
I gasped for air so as not to cry again, and my ribs throbbed painfully. The meds were definitely wearing off, and I didn't have more with me. I hadn't thought to bring a purse with my prescription in it. I'd just slipped a few bills of rather large value into my bra like I usually did.
Rickie looked a little green in the face, which was hard with how dark his skin was, and I assumed that I shouldn't have used the term 'slaughtered', but I doubt 'massacred' would be any better, and I couldn't think of anything else to call it.
"Hey Lucy," he started again, "Don'cha think your study'd look nice with a stained glass window?" I chuckled, but didn't say anything, so he continued, "Not with a picture on it or anything, but like the window at that little abandoned church near the orphanage where you'd always go to avoid everybody."
"That's because they were idiots, the lot of them," I joked with him, and a few tears rolled down his cheeks again as he looked up at me. I wiped them with my thumb and waited for him to continue.
"You remember how I was always the one to find you, and you'd be sittin' right underneath the altar, lookin' up at that window," he smiled through a few more tears, "And the room would be full of colors, and you could see dust in the air and on the pews. And...and you told me that if I could climb the bricks to reach that window, I'd prolly be able to reach heaven too." I couldn't see his face anymore through my own tears, so I shut my eyes and leaned my head back.
"And you told me that if I fell from that height, I would break like glass, and you didn't want to go without me," I let out a strangled noise, but didn't say anymore. I couldn't. He'd just told me he didn't want to escape if I couldn't go too. But I was his big sister, and I couldn't let him die, I just couldn't!
"I think that would be nice though, in your study. Maybe if that building is still standing, we can take that same window. But it's too big for that room. It would fit in the parlor though, that room has higher ceilings. It doesn't have a floor above it..." He drifted off, and neither of us had anymore that we could say, so we didn't say anything at all.
Then the door opened, and my monster walked back in to ruin our moment. Rickie stood up, and backed away as much as he could. Somehow he knew he couldn't stand in front of me to protect me, and I was grateful for that insight. Marcus glanced momentarily in Rickie's direction, or, rather, in the direction of Rickie's injured hand, but then moved on to look at me. After the initial inspection, he stepped forward until he was right in front of me, and, like the other times he'd come, knelt to get a closer look at me. He grabbed my face gently in both cold, hard hands, and they felt good against my face, which had been warmed by the tears I'd shed just minutes ago.
Then Marcus stood, and then he grasped my waist and lifted me until I stood. I was a little surprised at our height difference. He was taller than I'd been thinking. Either that, or I had forgotten how short I was. I had to crane my neck to look up at him, especially since he was so close to me. I could feel the lack of body heat he had all the way from my head to the floor, and the reminder kept me from going completely gooey with his arms around me.
I gasped and yelped when, suddenly, my feet left the ground and I was in his arms.
"Wait!" cried Rickie, "Where are you going? You don't mean to- not now!" And I suddenly realized the implications and grew pale.
"No," said Marcus in that delightful voice of his, "My brother wished to speak with her, then she will return to you for a time." I sighed in relief, though I knew very well that he could be lying. With that, he swept us out the door in a disconcertingly graceful gait towards the elevator. The door to the cell swung shut behind us, and the elevator doors opened in front. Once the elevator doors closed as well, Marcus broke the silence.
"Luce," he began, and I, not knowing where the confidence came from after my recent mini-break-down, responded in my usual voice.
"Ms. Baker." he continued as if I hadn't spoken at all.
"Luce, you must understand that my brother is not as straight-forward as I am. I have grown attached to you, and I am sure you have felt the bond that is growing between us. It was an unexpected factor, and it changes things. I would ask that you not become a mother, and simply become like me. And marry me," he added at the end, as if he were chatting about lunch, and not life-changing decisions.
"Oh, well that makes sense," I said, "On Mars." Before I could really get into it with him, the elevator doors opened once again, and Marcus walked into the lobby, which was filled with monsters and made me unwilling to continue my arguments. But we passed through that room quickly, through a door, and into a hallway I didn't recognize from any of her visit earlier. At the end of this new path was another set of heavy wooden double-doors.
Marcus opened these easily with a free foot, and maneuvered us into the next room. It was nicely furnished, with big, fluffy leather chairs, one of which I was placed into carefully by my monster transportation device. The desk in front of me was a beautifully maintained antique, and the bookshelves lining the wall behind it were filled with old looking texts, and even a few scrolls.
However, between that pretty antique desk and lovely collection of books was an awful monster who made me want to dunk myself in hydrochloric acid and then jump into a tub filled with salt.
"Hello Ms. Baker!" crooned that airy, spiders-crawling-down-your-back voice of his... Aro was his name, right?
"Hello demon," I replied with just as much superficial peppiness, and a bright smile. He let the insult pass, and moved to stand in front of his desk, rather than behind it. Now that made me uncomfortable. Marcus shifted from behind me, like it made him uncomfortable too, and that just made it worse.
"I understand that you would like to negotiate," he said, and took my good hand in his without permission. I grunted, and he stood and seemed to concentrate on something. Then, after a few moments, he smiled like he had won a great victory, and I wondered if he'd just let out a really good fart. Sometimes those felt victorious, but I didn't smell anything, so I simply assumed he was insane. I know, I'm brilliant. People are always asking me to shake their hands and kiss their babies.
"Luce," Aro said.
"Ms. Baker," I corrected.
"You see, my brother Marcus has grown father fond of you," he said, as if I hadn't spoken, and, suddenly, I could see the family resemblance, "He is no longer willing to risk your health with the complications of a pregnancy. However, when all is said and done, that decision is also yours to make." he paused, for dramatic affect, perhaps? I was right when I said this guy was a nut-case, but I kept paying attention anyway.
"Luce."
"Ms. Baker."
"If you make the decision to have a child, We will send you and your friend back to your home, with Marcus and a few guards, and allow you one year before we ask that you consummate your relationship."
"Done," I said, sealing my fate. That was easy.
Howdy folks! I wrote ten pages this time, for more than one reason.
First, I had to write a bit about the Clan de Cullen to introduce them and to work through a block.
Second, I had to apologize for such a long dry spell. I'm really sorry guys. I'm a useless writer who deserves to sleep outside with the dogs. In the rain.
And third, I will be on a vacation starting tomorrow... Oops, I mean, today, and I won't be able to get any work done on this until I get back.
The block I had was how to get out of Volterra and back to The States, in case you were wondering, and I'm very glad to have sorted that out, because my brain is already months ahead in the storyline. Not that I wouldn't be open to suggestions or requests. And I am always open to anybody who wants to point out errors in my writing. :D
Goodnight, God bless, please review. Thank you for reading!
