{
Bella's hand dug into the refrigerator, her fingers actually crumpling the thick metal sheet like it was tin foil. I took a step back instinctively and looked at my daughter again.
She looked like Bella – albeit frightened and frantic – but she was so strong! A jolt of fear ran down my spine, instantly followed by a rush of shame. I wasn't actually afraid of my Bella, was I? Even if she was different, she wasn't like them.
I held out my hands reassuringly and took a step forward.
"It's OK," I cooed. "Bella, you don't have to be afraid." I took another step forward. And another.
My arms wrapped around my baby's shaking body slowly, and I sighed in relief that she didn't pull away. I felt the refrigerator shift as she pulled her hands away from the contorted metal and returned the embrace with a steady grip. Steady streams of tears ran down my face and dripped onto her shoulders as we held each other.
}
-Chapter 10: Animal Pudding-
Alice and I followed the thudding footsteps and cracking tree limbs ahead of us as we raced through the darkness. Emmett relished in actually being better at something; even though he was the slowest in his family of vampires, he could still out stride me easily.
It was Friday night tonight, and Charlie had given me the OK to spend the weekend with Alice and the rest of the Cullens. It felt nice, not having to worry about hurrying back to my father before he got home – it felt nice just being myself around somebody and not have them running and screaming away from me.
That's not to say those who hadn't already seen my serpent-like insides reacted without fear. No, there was plenty of shock and awe surrounding my appointment with Carlisle a couple days ago.
"Thank you for coming," Carlisle greeted me as I entered a room on the third floor, which appeared to be a fully-stocked operating room. There was a huge difference, though, from what little I remembered of the common furnishings. An enormous, transparent tent took up almost half of the room.
"Thanks for doing this," I countered. "It would be nice to know more about the infection." Carlisle nodded and motioned for me to sit down on one of the chairs inside of the tent, peeling away the opening for me to enter.
"I apologize for all this," he waved his hand around the open space from inside the plastic as he pulled out several instruments and finally sealed us inside. "But as I have no idea how infectious the disease you carry is, I felt it appropriate to err on the side of caution." I shook my head dismissively at him as I sat down.
"I'm actually relieved," I told him. "I wouldn't exactly want Forks to turn into another Phoenix. Safety first, and all that." He nodded at me and pulled out an empty syringe.
"So, first things first: a blood sample," Carlisle gently took my arm and swabbed it with a brown-colored liquid. It burned like alcohol on an open wound, and I couldn't help but grimace. "Don't worry; I have excellent control." He must have taken the face I made as discomfort with a vampire taking a blood sample, and I shook my head again.
"It's not that," I told him. "I just don't think you're going to get a blood sample from me, but you're of course welcome to try." Carlisle gave me a questioning look, but decided to continue anyway.
It turned out I was right about not getting any blood into the syringe. The needle went into my skin with relative ease, but nothing would travel through the needle's head when Carlisle pulled the plunger back. I felt the mass in my arm writhing as the pinprick of suction pulled near the crease of my elbow, but absolutely nothing emptied into the tube. Carlisle pulled the needle out of my arm and hummed to himself, his eyes glancing over several tools.
"I might have an idea to get you a sample," I told him, instantly drawing his attention to me. "Do you have a large scalpel or a saw or something?" He nodded.
"Yes, I do, but you're not thinking of cutting yourself, are you?"
"It's not that big of a deal," I nearly rolled my eyes at his concern. "But if you want the sample, you're going to need something bigger than a syringe to hold it – something like a jar or…" I cut off as Carlisle darted over to one side of the tent and held up a lidded beaker, which I nodded my assent toward. "I already showed Alice this but…it can be a little jarring at first."
"What do you mean?" the doctor asked, sitting back down with his instruments ready. I rolled up my sleeve further, hoping I could spare the t-shirt I was wearing from an untimely demise.
"Just get ready to take your sample," I sighed, realizing it was best to just show him instead of preparing him.
I flexed the muscles in my arm and my right hand dissolved and reformed quickly, spewing a multitude of tendrils onto the metallic table between Carlisle and me. The normally-composed vampire hissed and jerked back at the sight of the writhing mass, which continued to move even though I attempted to hold still. They weren't sharp – and they certainly weren't dangerous to a vampire in this state – but they were certainly intimidating.
"See?" I half laughed, half spoke in a quasi-serious tone. Carlisle tore his bugged-out eyes away from my mutated appendage and looked at me with a mixture of horror and…pity? The expression was so unexpected that I relaxed my hold for a moment, allowing the tendrils to halfway transform back into a hand, leaving me with a lava-colored, pudgy-fingered paw-hand.
"I apologize, it's just…" Carlisle let out a breath and stood erect, cautiously moving closer to me much like Alice did when I showed her my claws. "I've never seen anything like this before." I nodded in understanding and subtly shifted my arm back into the mass of tendrils.
"Well, are we going to do this or what?" I asked, prompting Carlisle into action. He nodded and moved closer, lifting the scalpel and gently grasping the thicker strands of red and black to hold my arm in place. Against my will, the mass in my arm began to struggle and the tendrils flailed haphazardly, even as I gritted my teeth and willed them to be still. Smaller threads branched out from in between Carlisle's grasp, weaving between his fingers and inching over his hand. "You might want to get on with it."
Needing no more convincing, the blade came down on the ends of the tendrils and cleaved them cleanly, separating them from the rest of me. I gasped at the sharp pain that traveled through my body, my arm bucking off the table and easily breaking Carlisle's hold as I turned away and hissed at the throbbing ache. Thankfully, the damage healed over quickly and my arm shifted back into its normal, human appearance; I flexed my fingers, not seeing or feeling any permanent damage.
"Are you alright?" Carlisle's voice asked. I turned around to find him holding the sealed beaker, about a fourth of a cup of black, viscous goo sloshing around inside. He set the container inside a plastic BIOHAZARD bag and approached me quickly, taking my hand into his own and turning it over and back again, inspecting and searching for damage where none existed.
"I'm fine," I assured him. "It just hurt a bit." Carlisle huffed out a short laugh, but conceded that I was unharmed and backed off.
Somehow down the line, the truth about my physiology leaked out to Emmett, who immediately wanted to see my 'tentacles.' Alice suggested we go for a hunt instead of playing show and tell, since I was curious about how vampires hunted, and that was how the four of us ended up here, deep in the Olympic forest.
Alice and I came upon Emmett and Rosalie quickly, who had stopped at the entrance to a cave embedded in a cliff wall. The brutish vampire turned and wiggled his eyebrows at me, which I cocked an eyebrow at.
"What are you doing, Emmett?" I asked. He rubbed his palms together and grinned in what looked like excitement.
"Can't you smell it?" he asked, which I shook my head at. I didn't have the nose or ears of a vampire, after all. "There are a couple bears sleeping in there. I'm going to go wake them up, so you better get ready, Swan. Release the kraken or whatever." I scoffed at him, but he had already blurred inside the cave.
There was a distant thud that came from within the cave, followed by a louder roar of anger – presumably from one of the bears. Another thud echoed out of the mouth of the cave and suddenly a flailing bear was tossed out into the open. It rolled three times before it shook itself off and stood erect, baring its mouth wide as it let loose its displeasure at being woken up from hibernation.
The bear was much larger than I would have expected it to be – blurry pictures of sluggish black bears and polar bears at the park in Phoenix flashed through my mind, but none of them compared to this beast. It was tall and wide as it stood on its hind legs with its claws bared at its side. This had to be a grizzly.
Emmett rushed out of the cave at a slower speed than I knew he was capable of, even though it was still superhumanly fast. The bear's roar of defiance was abruptly cut off as Emmett plowed into it, knocking the air out of the bear's lungs and sending the both of them tumbling into the underbrush outside the mouth of the cave. The sound of breaking bone was followed by Emmett's booming laugh, and the ball of fur was tossed back against the side of the cliff.
I glanced at Alice, who was resting her back against a tree, and imitated her pose. Rosalie, who was across from us, seemed bored-yet-accommodating, and I had the feeling Emmett liked to show off his strength often against the animals he drank from.
My eyes refocused on the bear, which was limping, though it wouldn't back down from the fight. It raked its claws against Emmett, and had he been human his chest would have been shredded open. As it was, the only damage done was to the clothes Emmett wore – and perhaps the bear's claws, which grated against the stone-like skin of its attacker.
Emmett's pose changed almost imperceptibly, switching from playful and eager to poised and predatory. His muscles bunched in his back and a low growl rolled out of his chest, and like a cobra strike, Emmett flashed against the animal and slammed it against the rock face. His teeth found purchase in the bear's neck and he drained the animal quickly, spurts of blood spattering everywhere as the struggling eased down into nothing and the bear stilled.
The second bear lumbered out of the cave just as Emmett finished his meal and wiped the dripping blood from his mouth with his ravaged sleeve. The newly awoken animal growled at Emmett, who was the closest to the mouth of the cave. The vampire ignored the bear's threats and gave me an expectant look, and just like that it was a competition.
'You think you can do better?' The words weren't spoken, but the message was passed along regardless. I grinned back at him in acceptance of the challenge and let my insides have free reign. My left arm contorted into the familiar spiked claw, my fingers sharpening into needle-fine points at the ends. I allowed my right arm, though, to shape shift into something I hadn't used since Phoenix.
It most resembled my blade – the business end of it was a razor-sharp, dark silver dagger, which was much larger than it probably should have been. The skin on my upper arm and shoulder started to spike and form grey-colored barbs that melded back into the common red and black of my insides along the base. I gave the new appendage an experimental flick, smirking at the boneless wave it made as it lengthened and sliced into the soft earth under my feet.
Thankfully, before we left for the hunt I had the chance to take off the clothes I had been wearing today and create my faux-clothing. Both of my inhumanly-morphed arms would have obliterated the shoulders of the shirt I had been wearing instead of changing the false material along with my flesh. I wasn't sure if the Cullens could tell the difference, or if they noticed my clothing was shifting along with my body, but if they did it wasn't so big of a secret that I would be hesitant to share.
I fell into a crouch of my own, flexing the talons on my left hand as the second bear shifted its focus to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Emmett's smug smile fall completely off of his face as a look of shock and awe replaced his confidence. I paid him no mind, though; I kept my focus on the animal I needed to consume. The bear shifted its weight onto its hind legs as it attempted to stand erect, and I took it as my cue to charge.
My hair flew back behind me as I rushed the bear like Emmett had done, my weighted arms swinging heavily as I sprinted forward. I neatly dodged the clumsy swing the bear threw at me as it roared, digging my left claw into the fuzzy stomach of the beast. Hot blood dripped down my talons as my right arm elongated and wrapped around the bear's body, digging and ripping into the thick flesh like barbed-wire where it made contact.
I was showing off a bit, I'll admit, so I didn't finish the animal off right away like I could have. Tendrils of my body mass rippled visibly in my calves as I easily lifted the bear off the ground and hurled it into the rock face like Emmett had done. The sizable animal spun through the air as my whip-like arm unraveled and he shook loose several rocks from the impact.
My bear was in much worse shape than Emmett's was from his throw, though that may have been from the multiple lacerations and stab wounds I had inflicted before I threw it. Deciding to finish it off and put the thing out of its misery, I rushed forward again and leapt into the air. My barbed-whip arm flew out toward the animal, impaling it in the spot I had ripped open with my claw.
I retracted my arm, yanking my body through the air and toward the yowling grizzly. My claw sliced its shoulder open as I gripped it tightly and the spear-end of my other arm dug deeper, exiting the bear's back and wrapping around it again, constricting it like an anaconda while the flesh shredded as if under a chainsaw.
Tendrils erupted from my body once again, converting the bear's cells and pulling them back into my body in clumps. The body broke down underneath me and the tissues ripped apart and dissolved, spilling hot blood and unusable organs around me as my limbs retracted. My eyes closed in ecstasy; I could feel the energy thrumming inside me, making me hum in appreciation of the large mass of the bear.
My hands reformed as I took a step away from the mess of bloody fur and scattered organs and tissue, the blood that covered me gradually soaking into my body and dissolving away. I looked back at the three vampires, fully prepared for the looks I knew I would be getting from them.
Alice was wide-eyed, but there didn't seem to be any fear in her expression. Emmett's face looked like it didn't know whether to be scared or excited, so it managed to shift between both. Rosalie's face was serious and set, though the trickle of fear that shined in her dark eyes was unmistakable. I rubbed the back of my neck, unsure whether or not to approach them.
"Ta-da!" I said lamely, spreading my arms out like I had finished a magic trick. And I suppose in a way I did: I made the bear disappear. Emmett let out something like a gag, though I think he was trying to laugh. He cleared his throat and stared at the chunky puddle that used to be an enormous animal.
"Dude…" Emmett trailed off. "Swan, that was amazing!" The dimpled grin finally found its way back to his face and he blurred over to me, swinging me up into one of his bear hugs – which was mildly funny, considering the meal we just shared. Rosalie hissed under her breath, but it seemed more involuntary than anything – like a fearful gasp for a human at having their significant other near such a dangerous individual.
"I thought you were going to eat it," Alice chuckled under her breath, skipping over to us as Emmett released me.
"Well, I kind of did," I shrugged. "I just didn't use my mouth to eat it." Alice opened her mouth to say something else, but Emmett interrupted her with clear excitement in his voice.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Bella, you have to eat my bear! You can do that again, right? Even if it's dead?" I leaned around Emmett's huge frame and eyed the crumpled corpse of the bear that was already cooling rapidly. I grimaced but nodded, moving over to Emmett's kill.
My foot stomped down on the bear's neck, plowing through the spine as the hundreds of tendrils wove off of me and absorbed whatever mass was available. Once I pulled away from the bloodless pile of meat, I noticed there was a considerable amount more leftover. There wasn't much blood – obviously – but there were still entire portions of a leg or arm left, though they were flayed and eaten away like acid had been poured over it.
"Now we don't even have to bury the animals we kill!" Emmett laughed. "That's fucking awesome!" I laughed with him, more at his glee than my convenience.
"Is that safe?" Rosalie asked, speaking for the first time since I attacked the bear. "What if the virus you're carrying infects whatever comes along the leftovers?" Rosalie gestured to the carnage and I frowned at the very real possibility.
"Damn," I muttered. "You might be right; I don't want to chance it until Carlisle finishes looking over my DNA."
"I got it," Emmett sighed. "I would have had to do it anyway." He bent over next to the bits of bear and started digging into the earth with his fingers, his marble hands easily lifting large portions of dirt with each pass.
We arrived back at the mansion sometime in the late morning hours, Rosalie and Emmett heading off upstairs to clean up right away, since they had a bit of fun after they were both finished hunting. Alice's attire was still immaculate, with not even a microscopic drop of blood on her – though there were several animal hairs clinging to the collar of her shirt. I followed her to the kitchen, where Esme, Edward, and Angela were cooking.
"How was the hunt?" she asked Alice as we took our seats on the breakfast bar. Angela probably could have heard the laugh Emmett let loose from up above us.
"You should have seen what Bella did to that bear, Esme!" Emmett spoke a bit quieter. "It was fucking insane!"
"Language!" Esme said in a raised voice, though her tone suggested it was a frequent back-and-forth battle in trying to keep the giant from cursing.
"It was good, Esme," Alice answered the question as the mother figure turned back to the stove. Edward looked at me with wide eyes, undoubtedly getting the bear's demise second hand from one of the three vampires who were there.
To his credit, Edward didn't react violently or try to shield Angela from me – even though that may have been because both Alice and he were sitting between her and me. Esme turned around and served Angela steaming hot pancakes with a glass of orange juice, earning a 'thanks Esme' from Edward's mate as the girl dug into her breakfast.
"Are you able to eat human food?" Alice asked me suddenly, drawing my attention from the plate of hotcakes I hadn't realized I had been staring at. I shook my head.
"No. And the only thing I can drink is water, but even that's a bit uncomfortable."
"Eww," Angela scrunched up her nose. "You're not seriously going to talk about throwing up food while I'm trying to eat, are you?" It took me a moment to realize she was joking, and I smirked at her over-acted grimace.
"I don't usually vomit if I eat something I can't digest," I continued the topic. "It just sort of diffuses out of my skin in clumps." I pursed my lips together at the pale shade of green that went across her face and made it difficult for her to swallow.
"I did not need to know that," Angela put her hand over her mouth as she finished chewing and took a large gulp of her orange juice. "Ugh." Alice giggled and pulled me away from the bar.
"Let's leave the human to eat in peace," she jested as we walked out of the room and toward the staircase. "We have to have a serious talk about how your attire can magically regenerate – and don't even pretend it didn't! I pay attention to these things, you know." I grumbled to myself as we ascended the staircase, ignoring the low moaning coming from Emmett's and Rosalie's door.
End notes: Sorry for the late-night update, even though I'm not really sorry at all. I've been playing [Prototype] again; I figured I might as well, since I was writing a crossover (in spirit, at least; not officially).
Yes, I like to base any and all character powers on realism as much as I can. A viral monster who can shape shift and absorb the mass of others through infection and absorption? Sounds acceptable. Having that character have the ability to glide through the air without wings or some telekinetic ability? Unreasonable. The gliding mechanic was put in the game to make maneuvering around NYC easier for the player, not to add to the realism. Game mechanics have no place here in story land.
Can Bella use the armor ability? I am certainly not saying no. That probably means yes (but not officially yes).
And yes, Bella is probably going to lose her shit once the results of the tests come back from Carlisle. You won't be disappointed, I am pretty sure of that.
Until we meet again...