Chapter 17 Abstinence

Aro's swift, floating movements carried him across the courtyard without even a backward glance at Tara and Jacob. He was sumptuously aware that he could have taken their lives, and his nostrils flared slightly at the memory of Tara's unique scent. The shape shifter had smelled significantly less appetizing.

Even more repulsive was what Tara had tried to do to him. He shuddered in crawling revulsion at the remembrance of his contact with Tara's golden skin. I take what I want from minds, no one tries to work inside mine, he thought. Now that he had a taste of her skill he had no interest. What use is it to heal? The pawns I use do not need to be whole, he thought.

Centuries of freedom from the mortal coil had twisted the impulses of Aro's mind into one objective: Power. To that end he had assembled loyal and brutal guards and harvested those with special talents. He had sanctified his quest in his mind as a noble objective of maintaining order in the vampire world. That is how it had begun, but not how it had survived. The root of all was Aro's personal interest to control.

He slid into the darkened interior of the waiting Mercedes and handed the driver the slip of paper with Carlisle's address on it. The black car moved forward and the reflection of the trees and skies bounced from its glossy surface as it slid like a black bullet down the road. Inside the casing, Aro looked forward to seeing Carlisle again. In his way, he cared for Carlisle, but Aro did not suffer competition gladly. Power was inexplicably drawn to Carlisle, and if he showed any signs of wanting to use it he would be stopped.

Closing his eyes, Aro emptied his mind with a practiced ease, controlling his thoughts in preparation for the encounter with his long lost friend. With an insidious insistence, one though crept into his mind. It was the thought that increasingly could not be denied and occupied him in varying degrees of frenzy. Aro swallowed convulsively several times and fought to control his voice. With a false and practiced slowness, he reached a slim white hand and tapped the driver on the shoulder.

"We'll need to stop and get me something to eat," he said thickly. The undercurrent of urgency in his voice was barely contained. "Quickly."

The driver shuddered and stamped his foot harder on the accelerator. Subtly, he slid his hand to his pocket and sent a text message to the waiting harvesters with the rendezvous point.

As soon as the message was received, three bound and gagged victims were loaded into a windowless van. The humans whimpered in terror, pressing up against each other in frantic desperation for a shred of human contact. In the two days they had been held in the Volturi cell, thirty others had been led out. None had returned.

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Carlisle's eyes roamed over the lovely curve of his wife's neck as she bent over the microscope. She had her hair up, but soft tendrils escaped down the back of her white laboratory coat. She paused and jotted some notes in her perfect, old fashioned script. Carlisle knew that she could retain everything in her memory, but in the interest of good scientific method, she meticulously documented all of her research so that it could be replicated.

He suppressed a smile at the memory of the reaction of the medical researchers at the university to Esme. Young and old, the Italian doctors had straightened their coats and smoothed their hair at the sight of her loveliness. Three cups of espresso and a plate of biscotti lay cold and untouched on the table near the door. The Italian doctors had finally learned that Esme would not be distracted from her research and had left her alone for the past three hours.

Her eyes were alight and she darted between the samples of Tara's blood, a control of blood and plasma, and the venom she had harvested from Carlisle. She looked at him with a sudden flash of realization.

"We don't have enough containment here," she said. "This could be contagious to humans. We have to be careful."

Carlisle felt concern at her words, but it was hard to concentrate. Even the faint whiff of the blood samples from the slides made him feel dizzy. As if sensing his craving, Esme moved to the refrigerator and took out a container of blood, placing it on the hotplate to warm it. Carlisle was shocked to see how diminished the supply was. Jane had been right, animal blood barely touched his hunger. The human blood from the hospital dulled the brushfire in his throat for a time.

"We'll get more," she murmured, glancing at him before her eyes slid quickly away.

She can barely stand to look at me, Carlisle thought. It had taken less than a day before his irises had tinged with pink, and now his once golden eyes were a deep red. It was a color he had not seen staring out of his own face in his three hundred years of existence.

"Do you think Aro will meet us here?" Esme asked abruptly, looking around the room nervously.

Carlisle gently clasped his hands around hers, noting that she felt oddly cool to his touch. "Of course he will. He knows I am here to help."

A spasm of something crossed Esme's face before she composed herself and reached up to smooth her hand over his cheek. "Aro trusts no one," she said softly.

They both turned to look at the door, sensing the presence before it entered the room. Esme moved to step away from Carlisle, but he continued to hold her hand to his chest. Aro found them close together, hand in hand.

Even after Aro had entered the room, his face composed into a facsimile of a greeting, Carlisle did not release Esme's hand. He linked his fingers with hers and returned Aro's smile, his own more genuine.

"The prodigal son has returned home," Aro said heartily, reaching for him. Carlisle did not return the gesture. Instead, he slipped his hand behind his back. Esme silently did the same.

Aro's smile faltered slightly. "What then, old friend, you will not take my hand in greeting?" he asked, as if offended.

"Aro. It has been a long time," Carlisle said. He continued levelly, "Friends we have been, and friends may require some measure of privacy."

Aro's smile was predatory.

"An interesting choice of words for someone who has the most powerful mind reader who has ever lived at his service, as well as one who controls emotions and one who reads the future. If that is not enough, you have added another one to your ranks who creeps into the mind."

"Tara," Esme said sharply. "Have you seen her? She was with another."

"We gave them an escort from the airport. They are unharmed," Aro answered with a casual wave of his hand. "I left her and the wolf with Jane. She will not harm them."

He shot a piercing look at them and then whirled, pacing the room. Their faces were inscrutable.

"We want to see them!" Esme said sharply.

"Of course, of course," Aro replied smoothly. "We had intended to welcome you all, but you knew that didn't you?"

"As you can see, we came in response to your request for help," Carlisle answered.

"Ah yes, that. I may have been premature." He spread his cloak wide, standing before them in a mockery of a modeling pose. "As you can see, I have never felt better."

"You are looking well, Aro," Esme said smoothly. Carlisle was proud of her, her voice did not falter.

"Am I not? This renewal has come at a good time."

"Renewal? Is that what you call it?" Carlisle asked.

The look that Aro gave him was crafty. "Oh yes, dear friend, and I see you are partaking as well." His gaze took in the red of Carlisle's eyes and his eyes slid over towards the warming cup of blood. His nostrils flared slightly. "I take it you have the thirst, or did you just develop a taste for human blood?"

Carlisle felt repulsed by the self-satisfied look on Aro's face. He knew that Aro had never understood and would always fear the choice not to kill.

Aro moved a step closer to Carlisle and hissed, "It tastes sweet, doesn't it? So sweet."

Carlisle did not flinch but his mind was racing. He felt indescribably dirty and disgusting, as if the corpses that Aro had drained were pressed to his lips. He couldn't bear to turn to Esme. He didn't want her to have to look one more time into his filthy red eyes.

Aro continued to loom next to Carlisle, a sneer on his face.

Esme could not take it anymore. She let go of Carlisle's hand and stepped between the two men, her eyes snapping. "May I ask you some questions about your case?" she asked furiously. Aro's eyes flickered down towards her as if amused. He stepped back and pressed his fingers together.

"By all means," he said graciously.

Esme retrieved her notes and began asking him questions about his symptoms, his feeding level, and what he had observed of the spread of the so-called fever. After a few minutes he seemed bored.

"Jane is such a devoted servant," he stated abruptly and Esme stiffened, keeping her head carefully down as she wrote in her notebook. "Esme dear, has Carlisle ever told you the story of how I found Jane and her brother, Alec?"

Esme nodded. "He said you rescued them from being burned as witches."

Aro's face collapsed as if immensely pained by the recollection. "Yes, such a primitive time. Yet even now in this modern day, there is little understanding for those of special abilities. Did Carlisle tell you though, that is was their own mother who gave them up?"

He paused, relishing the sympathy that sprung up in Esme's eyes.

"So sad, so sad," he continued in a mournful tone. "When the ones you love disappoint you." His eyes darted to Carlisle. "We have such hopes that they will stay strong, and yet…" he trailed off, lowering his voice even further before continuing.

"The poor children were ripped from their own beds by their mother and handed into the clutches of the waiting mob. Alec cannot feel anything and Jane feels nothing but rage, and we've seen what dear Jane does with it." He shrugged. "Fortunately I was there to take them under my wing."

Carlisle could see from the vicious way that Esme was gouging her pen into paper that Aro was sorely testing her patience. He intervened.

"Aro, may we trouble you for a sample of your venom?" he asked.

Aro looked slightly surprised. "Your devotion to the medical sciences was always so amusing," he said indulgently, as if speaking to a spoiled pet.

"Perhaps we can find a way to help you not take fifteen lives a day," Esme said with barely contained rage. Her eyelids flickered as she controlled herself. "In addition, we do not know how this will escalate. There is no precedent for anything like this."

Aro trailed his fingers over his newly smooth skin, his white fingernails tracing delicately along the curve of his jaw. He sniffed delicately. "I would not take the cold, dead blood you have here if you offered it to me."

He sniffed a little deeper and rage, followed by amusement crossed his face. "Privacy among friends, eh?"

Aro grinned evilly. "By all means, join us!"

Edward and Bella entered the room. Edward's face was composed and controlled, but Bella's lower jaw jutted out stubbornly and she looked like she was concentrating.

Aro burst into a natural, bubbling laugh of pure indulgence.

"Beautiful Bella, stop concentrating so hard. Surely you know my gift requires me to touch you to read your mind." He shot Edward a piercing look. "A regrettable limitation."

"Aro, it is good to find you in health," Edward said, glancing over at Carlisle.

Carlisle knew that he meant it. This unknown fever that had overtaken him had terrified his family.

"I have never been better," Aro said. "This is one case where the cure is definitely better than the disease." His gaze again was drawn to the cup of blood. He gestured broadly.

"How rude of me to interrupt you meal." Aro's calculating gaze caressed Carlisle's face and then turned to Bella. She swallowed slightly and averted her eyes.

"The blood tempts, no?" Aro murmured hypnotically to Bella.

Bella's shoulders slumped and she looked ashamed.

Aro's self satisfied smile widened. "It is so pleasant to see the family returning to the natural order."

Carlisle's protective instinct flared, Edward clearly felt the same way. He stiffened and slipped his hand into Bella's. Carlisle was enraged at the sight of Aro working to control Bella, to wedge himself into the cracks of her insecurity and shame and fan the flames of the temptation. He felt a flush of heat and his head pounded. His red eyes felt like they were burning.

"My old friend Aro has helped me see something," Carlisle said, and the anger in his tone was so startling his family looked at him in surprise. "The blood I have been drinking is not for me. I will not take it anymore." As he said the words, he knew they were right.

Esme's eyes were filled with fear for him but she met his gaze directly as if she already understood his reasoning.

"We will cure this," she whispered.

Aro gazed in shock at the two, his surprise quickly giving way to disgust. He laughed shortly and directed his comment directly to Esme.

"The insufferable nobility of this man must be grating."

"Not at all," Esme said through gritted teeth.

"You won't last, Carlisle. Not even you," Aro jeered.

"I will do what is right for me," Carlisle said.

Aro gave him a searching look and then relaxed slightly.

"Ah, Carlisle, old friend. It is not in me to be angry with you. I am sure you will see reason after a time," he cajoled.

"None of us know what may come," Carlisle said.

"On the contrary, I may have a better idea of what fate may await you than you think." Aro's voice took on a hard edge of warning. "Ask Alice what the future will hold for you. You will not like what you find."

Aro turned abruptly and left the room, his cloak swirling behind him.

Esme clutched Carlisle and they stood in silence. Their intimate awareness of the other's thoughts and fears did not require words.

Carlisle looked at Edward. You understand my decision?

Edward sighed. "Of course I do, Carlisle. You are always so purely you, I expect nothing less."

Esme was accustomed to these one sided conversations and understood fully what was being discussed. "What does Aro know?" she asked.

"Aro knows much. He knows what will happen if one with the fever does not drink blood."

"What will happen?" Bella asked, rigid with anticipation as she awaited Edward's answer.

Carlisle could sense the deep grief in his son and he reached out and took Esme's hand in his own, feeling the delicate coolness of her skin as he had felt so many times before. He braced himself to be strong for her and for his family.

The pain in Edward's eyes was immeasurable.

"Death," he answered.

Esme swayed and Carlisle pulled her to his chest, holding her tight and caressing her silken curls. He pressed his eyes tightly shut and buried his face in her hair, inhaling its scent. Memories of their life together flooded his mind.

"I will love you all my life," he whispered.

Esme sobbed into his chest as he continued stroking her curls. There was no comfort he could offer.