Long I Lay In The Ground

Chapter 6

"Edward has a series of engagements he must honor. I, of course, travel at his side, and appear with him at all public functions. We are busy and ambitious, as I am sure you have realized. Currently I am in the process of establishing connections in Europe so that he and I may travel there together, and he will be granted opportunities to perform before diverse and discerning audiences. It is certainly of interest to Edward and myself to visit Europe. But why, pray, would you want to take us there?" Jane asked coolly.

"I have plenty of connections. I can arrange for Edward to study with masters, or to continue performing. It is not precisely Edward that I am thinking of," I admitted. "I have a - compadre in Italy, a mentor. He was my maker in fact, and he has skills and knowledge unparalleled, to impart to the right protege. He is also a connoisseur of fine things, and is both eclectic and eccentric. I believe he would find you a most interesting guest, and you would find him a most engaging, generous and accommodating host."

Inclining her head, Jane gave consideration to my suggestion. She carried herself like a ballerina. Exquisite and tiny, her deportment could have been learned at the most exclusive of Swiss finishing schools. This elusive girl may not have as many stories as I did, but all of them were bound to be fascinating. Determining how to prise them from her would probably be fascinating, too.

"In three months," she murmured finally, outside the hotel she and Edward were staying in. I had to escort her to her place of accommodation, as of course it was far too late for an adolescent girl to be out on her own, even one whose head was set on her shoulders with the carriage of a bird of prey.

"You have travel documents?" I asked.

"Of course. We have everything in place, Bella. Edward and I manage very well, never doubt it. We will be in touch. May I have your cell number?"

Cell number. Al-ys had mentioned that I should acquaint myself with the communication capabilities of the modern age, and I had left it all to her. She and Jasper had departed so unexpectedly and quickly that I hadn't even acquired the cell phone she suggested, or the e-mail address.

"I must confess, I am behind in these matters," I told Jane. "They seem to me miraculous. I am still awed by radio."

Perhaps the admission endeared me to Jane. She granted me the first smile I had observed from her that I thought genuine.

"Tomorrow let me buy you a phone. Do you have a laptop? Bella, you need connectivity." Interestingly, the smile she gave me reversed our positions and made her the older and wiser and me the younger, as she imparted this vital knowledge to me. Then endearingly, her expression became impish and inclusive, and for the first time, despite my lingering horror and sorrow at what I saw as her emotional destitution, I liked her.

Of course, neither she nor I needed to retire that night for sleep, but I had already ascertained that while drinking, dancing, and sex-for-sale establishments in this city remained open for twenty-four hours and seven days a week of transactions, other enterprises did not. We couldn't go shopping, and we couldn't loiter around. And Jane had Edward to return to. I had no idea how she passed the time when he slept, but I recalled vividly and fondly what I had done while Al-ys, My Heart, slumbered in her human state of dreaming and regeneration. I simply watched her, loving every rise and fall of her chest, enthralled by every flutter of her lashes. Each breath was to me both miracle and thief. They all proclaimed her wondrous life, and they all hastened her towards expiry. I had both engendered and rendered impossible My Heart's death. Jane by now intrigued and entranced me, and I wondered just what she had in mind for her Edward's death, if she had even planned it at all. She must have. Al-ys's took me years, but it had always been a certainty.

The next morning, I met with Jane again, she so aloof and pretty in the daylight. Last night's feral and justified creature was well-hidden.

Edward accompanied her, and I could see his attempt at remaining impassive as he greeted me politely. Despite Al-ys's best efforts with my wardrobe, I had failed to conform to the standards of the day, finding them unappealing, and I was well aware I didn't look like other twenty-three year old girls. The denim trousers known as jeans were something I couldn't imagine myself ever wearing, unless I undertook some sort of occupation on a farm, and farmwork didn't figure in my plans. Neither was I interested in skirts above the knee, having so recently come from far more conservative times. Well-cut, fitted clothes were my preference, and these I had by the score. Al-ys had placed many orders with different tailors and outfitters, and I had no need to wear the same outfit twice in six months.

Today my choice had been a three-quarter sleeved, dark blue, belted dress. Edward's appraisal seemed to indicate that he found my appearance pleasing, despite the lack of flesh on display which seemed de rigeur for these times.

"Good morning," he said neutrally but politely. "So, Bella, my sister tells me we are taking you to buy some technology today. What is it you need?"

"Everything, apparently," I responded.

He hailed us a cab, and held the door as Jane and I eased ourselves into the back seat. She was no tomboy, Jane, unlike dear Al-ys, whose every movement took place with a flurry of limbs, fawn-like yet graceful.

I listened studiously in the shops, while Edward spoke easily and knowledgeably to the attendants, and in very little time I had acquired a phone, a laptop, an ipod, a digital camera, and seemingly all manner of things, yet all small enough to fit into one carrier bag.

"Perhaps you would visit me and show me how all these things work?" I asked him, careful to glance at Jane while making the request, and careful to include her in the invitation.

We all returned to my quarters, and I ordered food for him as he undertook explanations of emails, and social networks.

"This is all quite absorbing," I interrupted him after a time, "but I wish to correspond with a friend who is currently overseas. How do I go about that?"

"Do you have an email address for this friend?" he asked, and actually, I did, since Al-ys had squirreled about cleverly here and there during our weeks in this century, and had taught herself knowledge that amounted to a marvel. I replied in the affirmative.

"Well, let me set one up for you. Then you can contact him," Edward told me.

"It's not a him," I answered softly, longingly, and Edward was bending over my shoulder at the keyboard of the macbook - his face close to mine. At my tone he turned questioningly. I could see his pores, and though he must have shaved this morning, I could see the incipient bristles of his upper lip and his jaw, awaiting the hour later in the day when they would break the surface. I transferred my gaze to his irises, and his pupils showed the tiniest of dilations.

"Ah - you need to give yourself a name," he informed me, and I thought I detected a moment's hesitation in his voice, with a slight gruffness. No matter. "And you'll need a password that you won't forget," he continued.

What little I had in the way of memory of my distant past informed me that in those far off days I had only one name, but in modern times two names, those being a first and a last, are required for formal identification purposes. I had a while ago assumed a surname that I thought fitting. It was a single word that contained the idea of a transformation, and I had certainly been transformed. It was the name of an old creature, actually far older than I, and one that symbolized beauty. However, humans underestimated it at their peril. Snow-white and elegant, this creature was also unpredictable and could be dangerous.

"My name is Bel'aa Swan," I told him.

He created an account for me, and the password I typed carefully in was something engraved permanently on my mind, though he told me not to divulge it to him.

"Now, you can contact your friend," he said, and what he showed me seemed easier and less complicated than I'd anticipated.

One of the many advantages of vampirism is quick learning, and despite no previous experience with a keyboard, I had memorized the positions of the keys in moments, and the neural memory transmitted itself to my fingertips in the time it took to snap a photograph. With Edward there hovering I was unwilling to compose a lengthy missive to Al-ys, but I put together a few lines.

How is the world you are wandering, my Heart?

The skies that preside, the lands that abide?

How is the air that whispers across your cheek, kissing you in the gentlest of caresses as I long to do?

Is there music, is there song, is there beauty where you are?

Please tell me you are happy, for you know all I truly desire for you is happiness.

Your Jasper - is he all you wished for? Longed for?

I hope with everything there is in me that he is.

I could not bear to think of you unhappy, and to have you far from me.

You know utterly, my Heart, that if you call I will be there.

Edward showed me how to send the message, and off it went, winging across the miles to who knew where? because I had no idea where Al-ys might be.

A glance across the room showed me that Jane had become engrossed in the television, and I eased myself back a few inches from Edward.

"So - are you coming to Europe?" I asked him.

He extended his long legs out in front of himself, crossing them at the ankle, looking entirely comfortable.

"It has long been a dream of mine to visit Europe," he admitted. "Jane mentioned your offer to me this morning. Of course I am interested. I have to fulfill my contractual obligations, and then - wild horses wouldn't stop me. Apparently you know music teachers - ?"

"Yes. The very best. The sublime, the divine, elevated above all others. But Edward, they're not the sort of teachers whose names you can put on your resume."

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees now, and regarding me steadily.

"What are you saying?"

"Come outside. The view from my balcony is particularly fine."

I put a hand through his elbow and led him through the enormous glass doors which overlooked the river. If she could be bothered, Jane could hear us, but I wasn't telling him anything secret or indecorous anyway.

Once outside, Edward lit a cigarette, and their odor to me is a peculiar combination of offensive and alluring. The way he screwed his eyes up and drew his brows together as he drew on it was seductive, if unintentionally, and the way his lips encircled the filter tip was mesmerizing. He exhaled the toxic cloud, but really, with a mentor like Jane hovering over him like a helicopter, he need never have any fear of toxicity. A single shot of her venom would mean nothing could ever poison him.

"You know what I am," I said simply.

"You are what Jane is," he answered.

"I am, but I don't know how much you know about her," I replied.

The city spread below us, the river our doorstep, its many bridges criss-crossing back and forth, its inhabitants busy as ants, with fortunes being made and lost, and hearts broken and won while Edward finished his cigarette before speaking to me again.

"Not very much. However, I know absolutely nothing about you," he said.

Well, well. Had Jane fallen for the talent, the beauty, or the breathtaking confidence? Or all three?

"That doesn't matter. I confess it is Jane I have taken particular interest in, and I wish to acquaint her with an Italian friend of mine. However, should you choose to accompany us you will not go unoccupied. Whatever tradition your tastes lie in, I am sure I can find you an inspirational tutor from that period to study under."

"You mean a tutor who specializes in that period," he corrected.

"No, Edward. You've said you know what I am. I mean a tutor from that period."

He snorted, disbelievingly. "Someone two hundred and eighty years old?" he asked.

So Jane, supping from his neck or wrist, or wherever she bit him - and I refused to entertain the idea that he would allow her to take blood from him in the same place I normally bit men - hadn't told him much at all.

"Yes, Edward. I will be taking you to the City Of Life. There are some very old people there, though they look no different to you or I."

He considered this for a while, before looking to me again. "I see I shall have a few questions. Maybe you'll answer them. And meanwhile, who is your companion? Who will be traveling with us?" he enquired.

"I have no companion," I answered. "What do you mean?"

"If you're what Jane is, you must have the same requirements. Who - provides for you?"

"No-one. I hunt as and when I need to. As Jane does," I said, patiently.

"Hunt?" he asked, appearing confused.

I nodded. "You know what we are," I repeated, again.

He had been lazing with his hip against the railing, sideways on to the river down below and the rest of the city across it. Now he stood upright abruptly and strode past me.

"Jane?" his voice asked, sharply. "Jane? What does Bella mean when she says hunt?"

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